Edamame, Sweet Corn and Black Bean Burrittos

David created this delicious combo several months ago, and it was ingenious. I never would have thought to put soy beans inside of a tortilla accompanied by sweet corn. It goes without saying that this is better enjoyed with fresh, sliced right off the cob, sweet corn, but during these winter months we settle for the frozen stuff. Not as refreshing, but the texture combination is still there.

We use basmati rice for these burritos. Something about the longer and slightly softer grain of the rice pairs well with a burrito, but if you want to be fancy - its also the type of rice that Chiptole uses. I threw in a small handful of cilantro and a few spritzes of lime juice to the rice after it was finished cooking - also what Chiptole does. See a trend?

The combination of edamame and black beans provide enough protein so that you really don't miss any meat. We top ours with a sprinkle of monterey jack cheese. Just a quick note on the flavors: there are no additional spices added other than cilantro and a hint of lime to the rice. All of the flavor comes from the veggies & black beans. If that is not ok with you, dump hot sauce all over - as David does. I prefer mine pretty simple, but if you wanted to spice these up a bit, you could probably stir a little bit of taco seasoning in with the black beans when they are cooking.

After David made these for us the first time, we wondered why we hadn't thought of this combination before. Delicious!

Curry-Spiced Noodles

If you don't know by now, I *very much like* Asian noodle dishes, of nearly any variety. This month in my Cooking Light Magazine, a new vegetarian curry noodle dish popped out at me. The photo was too tantalizing to pass up.

The great thing about making food at home, is that you get to control the ingredients. I'm not one for super salty or super spicy, so rather than worry about how many preservatives and days worth of salt intake that I ingested at a restaurant, I've stocked my fridge and pantry with enough ingredients to fake my way through most stir-fry and noodle dishes.

Buying ingredients like fish sauce, peanut oil, sesame oils, etc, were a bit daunting at first. I always have an inner argument regarding the cost of a certain pantry item and how much I'll *really* use it before it expires or gets lost in the shuffle. I find that now that I have certain items, I throw them in on a whim - to experiment, to add different flavors, etc. My best advice however, if you don't think you'll use it twice within a 2 month period - and the cost is a bit daunting - you can most likely leave it out or find an equal substitute.

Ok, I have already talked waaay too much about non-dinner things.

Curry Noodles:

When I first saw this recipe, the ingredient list is a bit over-whelming, to say the least: 19 items. I was really quite thrilled that I already had the majority of the non-produce items in my pantry, so there was not too much purchasing involved.

The recipe called for Udon noodles, which are a Japanese wheat noodle. I struck out finding these in Fred's when I went earlier in the week, so I decided to use the leftovers of my pasta making excursion earlier in the week -I had frozen up some fresh spaghetti noodles. They were perfect to soak up the delicious sauce.

The ingredient list:

• 8 oz of Udon noodles (I used about a 1/3 lb of spaghetti) *not pictured
  
• 4 tsp of peanut oil *not pictured
  
• 2 carrots, julienned
• 1 each, red & green bell pepper sliced thinly
• 8 oz of shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp chopped lemongrass
• 1/2 tbsp ginger
• 1 tbsp red curry paste
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 2 heaping tablespoons of minced garlic
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• dash of salt
• 3 green onions
• 1/3 cup cilantro
• 1/4 cup cashews

Whew, sounds like a lot, looks like a lot, but every ingredient plays its own staring roll. I can't imagine leaving anything out.

• Cook noodles, and keep warm.
• Saute carrots in 1/2 of the peanut oil for about 2 minutes. Add in the bell peppers and saute for another 2 minutes. Set aside.
• Saute mushrooms with the remaining peanut oil for 2 minutes. Add the lemongrass, ginger, curry paste, cumin, tumeric, garlic, water, vegetable broth, soy sauce and dash of salt. Bring this mixture up to a boil and make sure to stir it all well or some of the dry spices will stick to the mushrooms. Let the mushroom/sauce mixture simmer for a minute or 2.
• 

• Add back the carrot/bell pepper mixture and toss in the cooked noodles.
  
• Throw in the green onions, cilantro and cashews.
• Enjoy!

The homemade noodles really soaked up the sauce and flavors and held up to the veggies quite well. Definitely will whip this one up again.

Garden Fresh Salad

We have to brag just a bit - this salad contains 90% home-grown veggies.  Green leaf lettuce, spinach, cucumber, and a neighbor gave us a couple of his tomatoes. I tried to sneak in a few posts - hoping that no one will notice that we haven't posted since August - eeks!  This salad was crafted back in September - with the bouty of our little garden.  Who would have thought that all 30 lettuce & spinach seeds that I planted would actually all grow?  Thus - resulting in quite a few salads like the one pictured above.

I would beg to differ that nothing tastes more satisfying than fresh, from the yard vegetables.  In our attempt to lighten up the dinner plate a little bit a salad was a refreshing change to a heavy meal.  This salad was packed full of spinach, green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, a handful of croutons and a splash of Annie's Organic Balsamic Vingarette. Annie's dressings are unfortunately a dollar or so more than regular dressings - but the short list of ingredients that I actually recognize is well worth the price. 

I can't wait until next summer and the variety of veggies we will have - we'll hopefully have an abundance of veggies that aren't just lettuce & spinach :)

Mushroom & Spinach Quesadilla

Sauteed mushrooms - tons of spinach, gooey jack cheese, inside a toasted tortilla - pretty much heaven - if you like mushrooms and spinach.

We have a quesadilla maker, which every now and then we need an excuse to drag it out of the cupboard. There is something comforting about a bit of "junk food" every now and then.  In an attempt to eat some symbolance of nutrition - I sauted up a few sliced mushrooms with a hearty spoonful of minced garlic.  Layered between a large handful of spinach - the combination of mushrooms and jack cheese was tasty gooey. 

Definately not the healthiest of meals - but this probably isn't too terrible in the calorie department sans cheese.

Vegetable Lasagna

I realized a very sad fact yesterday - I don't think I had used my oven in over 3 weeks.  For me - this is a shockingly long time.  And so, in honor of my neglected oven, I decided to whip up a meal that managed to use nearly every inch of my tiny counter space, cook-top and food processor - veggie lasagna.

I find that lasagna is one of those foods that makes you work for its delicious flavors - so many assembly items! But this one was worth it.
I used this Recipe but then changed it up a bit

The layers:
 - Whole wheat noodles (I typically use the whole box, because I like a sturdy lasagna)
 - Ricotta mixture

• 15 oz carton of low-fat ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs
• a few teaspoons each of Italian seasoning & parsley

 - Vegetable layer

• 12 oz of fresh spinach
• 1 crown of broccoli
• 3 carrots
• Handful of mushrooms

 - Cheese - I gave low-fat mozzarella a try. I couldn't tell a taste difference.

This recipe made a very full 8x13" pan full of oozing layers - I think it weighed at least 3 lbs.

I'll eat my servings of vegetables like this any day :)

Tons of: Vegetable Stifry

Yup, another vegetarian meal was on the menu for last night.  No - we haven't switched to a vegetarian diet, but grocery shopping is a bit more satisfying when 85% of the cart comes from the produce section and I hardly even ventured into the dreaded center aisles.

This stirfry utilized some yakisoba noodles we had on hand, even though they were masked by the copious amounts of vegetables I threw in.  This baby made a giant wok full of stirfry - our fridge is screaming at us to eat leftovers.

In this stirfry we've got (in order of cook time)

• 1 zucchini, sliced & quartered
• 1 bunch of bok choy, just the leaves sliced
• 1 head of cabbage, quartered then sliced nice and thin (coleslaw style)
• 5 or so mushrooms, sliced
• 2 carrots, thin ribbons from using the vegetable peeler
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 package of yakisoba noodles

Cooking the vegetables created enough moisture in the wok that only a minimal amount of sauce was necessary.

Sauce:

• a few tablespoons of lime juice
• few dashes of rice vinegar
• quite a few dashes of red pepper flakes
• few dashes of soy sauce
• 1/4 cup or so of teriyaki sauce

Like I mentioned before - this made tons!  Looking forward to leftovers as lunch, plus another dinner later on. YUM :)

Hearty (Almost) Vegetarian Chili

Nothing like an end to a workday with a hearty, comforting bowl of homemade chili & some cornbread. 
* I say almost vegetarian because we used Worcestershire sauce, which apparently is made from fish - you learn something new everyday.

Saute a bit of fresh garlic with some olive oil in the bottom of a big soup pot.  Let it sizzle for just a few minutes, then add:

• 3 cups of water
• 2 cans diced tomaotes - juice and all
• 1 can each, drained & rinsed: garbanzo beans, black beans, cannelloni beans
• variety of spices to taste: chili powder, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, pepper, salt, dashes of Worcestershire sauce

In a small bowl whisk together 3/4 cups of water with 1 small can of tomato paste and then pour into the chili.
I let the chili simmer for about 15 minutes while the cornbread muffins cooked away.  Gotta love Jiffy cornbread muffins - can't beat the .79 for enough mix to make 6 tasty muffins. 

Overall, this meal clocked in not too shabby - rib sticking enough for David, with lots of healthy proteins - and tons for leftovers!

Thai Noodle Salad

As we all know by now - Thai frequents our kitchen often.  Instead of typical Phad-Thai, I wanted to make something a little fresher and a bit lighter.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pkg Thai Rice Noodles
• Head of Broccoli - cut into florets
• Mango - cubed
• Large carrot - shredded
• 2 green onions
• Handful of bean sprouts
• Handful of peanuts - crushed
• Lime juice
• Tablespoon of peanut butter
• Rice Vinegar
• Fish Sauce
• Dash of Sriracha (aka Rooster Hot Sauce)
• Sesame Oil

I apologize for the lack of measurement of ingredients - but I kinda made this one up as I went along.

Bring a pot of water to boil, then take off the heat and dump in the rice noodles. Let the noodles soak and get happy for about 10 minutes, and throw in the broccoli during the last 5 minutes or so.  This gives you enough time to prep the remaining ingredients. 

I like to prep my carrots by thinly peeling them with a vegetable peeler.  It gives a great thin piece of carrot.

Mix together the carrot, mango cubes, green onion, bean sprouts & peanuts in a small bowl.

In another small dish, whisk together peanut butter, few tablespoons of lime juice, dash of fish sauce, dash of sesame oil, teaspoon or so of rice vinegar, and just a dash of the hot sauce.  Stir this into the drained broccoli noodle mixture.

Serve the veggie salad on top of a bed of the warm noodles & broccoli. 

This was a refreshing dish that had a great blend of flavors & textures and was 100% vegetarian! 

Gnocchi with Spinach & Zucchini

I've been in a bit of a food rut lately.  I haven't really been too adventurous with our meals lately - so it was time to try something a little different.  We are a fan of gnocchi and its so easy to cook - so I just expanded a bit on how we've had it in the past.

• 1 pkg of gnocchi
• 10 oz bag of spinach
• 2 small zucchini
• 2 oz of Gouda (found in the specialty cheese section - I usually buy the smallest quantity I can find - so its not too expensive)

While the gnocchi cooks, saute sliced zucchini chunks until slightly crisp & browned - about 4 minutes.
Add a spoonful of garlic, then add spinach and cover for a few minutes until it all wilts.
Reduce heat and stir in 1/4 cup of milk and the 2oz of shredded Gouda, and stir in the gnocchi.

The flavor of the Gouda really added a different twist to this pretty simple dish.  The flavors didn't really lend themselves to hot sauce - so not sure this had the zing that David typically likes in his food - but I was happy to try something new.

Ravioli with Tomato Sauce

Within the Vranizan household - we are a fan of quick, easy and tasteful meals.  Tonight's dinner was super easy with the taste of fresh ingredients.

• Start out with a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a pan, heat and then toss in a few slices of finely chopped salami with a tablespoon or so of minced garlic.  Cook til a bit crisp.  
• Drain a can of whole plum tomatoes, but reserve the juice. Crush the tomatoes in the pan and cook until they are almost on the dry side - this took about 5 minutes.  
• I then poured in the reserved sauce from the can of tomatoes, a few leaves of torn fresh basil, a pinch of sugar, pinch of salt and 3/4 cup of water. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

While I was making the sauce, I boiled up a pot of water and cooked 1 1/2 packages of cheese ravioli (we like the refrigerated kind, it tastes fresher).  We wanted to use spinach ravioli, but the store was sold out, but the cheese was a good flavor. I overcooked the pasta just a bit, so it got all stuck together, but other than that, it tasted ok.

Served up the ravioli with some garnish of more torn basil and lots of freshly graded Parmesan.  We had some leftover garlic bread, so this went well.  Overall a very simple meal, but using chunks of the crushed tomatoes and the fresh basil gave a great taste.

Penne with Capers Olives and Tomatoes

Yes, David does cook occasionally! Tonight I made some delicious pasta, and here is how:

• Boil some water, throw the Penne in, cook for about 10-12 minutes for ALA DENTE

While that is going on:

• Toss some olive oil in a pan and heat at medium-high
• Add a couple shakes of crushed red pepper (lots of shakes if you're awesome like me), and finely chopped GARLIC (also lots if you want to be 2x awesome like me)
• Add a 2 tablespoons capers, about three cups of chopped tomatoes (I quartered grape-tomatoes), and about a cup of chopped olives (we chose kalameda because they are the best)
• Reduce heat and simmer all that for about 8 minutes
• Add pasta and stir her up a bit to get it all mixed. Let sit for about a minute.
• Top with Parmesan and fresh chopped basil

Very easy, very filling, full of flavor, I could go on and on and on about this pasta! But I won't.

Roasted Vegetable Pasta

We begin the post with an honesty check: On a day where I've been counting the hours between dayquil doses (we've both come down with a head cold), and with the busy season upon me (aka many more working hours), my temptation to simply eat a bowl of cereal for dinner is incredibly high.  And I must admit, that the only reason for my cooking myself something for dinner tonight (David is visiting family, I'm at home due to sickness), is so that the blog will go on, and perhaps my health.

And so, tonight's fare: A heart healthy combo of vegetables with some hearty pasta.

Roasted Vegetables:

1 portobello mushroom (leftover from a package & used throughout the week)
4 roma tomaotes, sliced in chunks
1 red onion, sliced (cleared up my sinuses)
1 head of broccoli (not called for in the recipe, but we had it, so I threw it in)
toss with a bit of olive oil, season with salt & pepper
Roast in 475 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, stopping about halfway through to toss

Toss it all with some bowtie pasta, sprinkle with a little of freshly grated parmesan, and I managed to make myself the perfect alternative to a bowl of cereal.

Vegetable Fried Rice

Dinner tonight was simple, another meal with semi-Asian flair.  Fried rice is one of those meals that is pretty hard to mess up, because it takes no time at all and no skill required. (I am very much a fan of these)

Ingredients:

2 pouches of Uncle Ben' Ready Rice Brown Rice, cooked (can you tell I like these things)

1 bag of frozen stir-fry veggies

1 cup of frozen shelled edamame

2 eggs

touch of sesame oil

teaspoon or so of minced garlic (we always have a jar of this stuff in the fridge - saves time on chopping)

crushed red pepper

soy sauce

green onions

Defrost the veggies & edamame in the microwave.  Scramble the egg in a non-stick pan, then set aside. In the same pan, heat the oil with the garlic & red pepper (i only used a dash or two, but be liberal if you like the spicy) Stir in the veggies & rice, cook until heated (only about 2 minutes), stir in the egg & soy sauce to taste. Top with the green onions, and you've got a fried rice.  Not too glamorous, but a hearty meal with lots of heart healthy veggies.

Southwestern Rice and Veggie Cakes wih Spicy Tricolor Pepper Stir-Fry

After an ordeal for both of us trying to get home through Portland snow we were ready for something hearty.  David's journey took him 3 hours to get from Wilsonville to his parent's house - due to closed off-ramps and blocked roads from stalled cars. It took me 4 hours to get home from Vancouver due to bridge blockage and tunnel closures.  Needless to say - we were both frustrated, tired and hungry and ready for something fast.

We've made this recipe in the past and enjoyed it - quick, easy and very filling.

I think from start to finish it took us 15 minutes.

Rice cakes:

2 pouches of Uncle Ben's microwavable Santa Fe flavored ready rice, cooked for 90 seconds in the package

1 cup of bread crumbs

3 egg whites, lightly beaten (the recipe called for 4 egg whites, but after separating 3 eggs, it looked like enough)

3/4 cup reduced fat mexican blend cheese

(the recipe called for a light sour cream mixture as a topping, but we skipped that due to distaste by both of us)

The rice cakes just went into a non-stick pan just to brown them up a little bit.

Veggies: 

1 each: red, yellow, green pepper cooked with a bit of oil, garlic and red pepper flakes.

Overall - a very tasty dinner that was super fast.