Tag Archives: husband friendly

Tex Mex Tempeh and Rice Bake

28 Feb

You may have noticed that I don’t each much soy.  I haven’t come to a peace with all the conflicting soy research, so I find it easier just to avoid it.  Conflict averse – that’s me!

However, and you knew that was coming, I think some soy products are healthier than others.  Tempeh is one of those.  Tempeh is made from fermented whole soy beans.  The soybeans are fermented and pressed into a cake.  Fermentation reduces the phytic acid which allows for much better absorption of nutrients in the soybean.

You can find tempeh at most large grocery stores, generally in the produce section by the tofu, wonton wraps and other soy products like soy meat and cheeses.  I’d choose organic if available, as organic soybeans are non-gmo, which I think is particularly important for soy.

Tex Mex Tempeh and Rice Bake

This recipe is husband approved.  I modified the recipe from a beef and rice casserole that I used to make and was very pleased at how it turned out.  Make sure to cook your rice before you start the rest of the dish.  This dish could easily be made vegan by using a non-honey sweetener and non-dairy cheese.

Ingredients

  • 1 package tempeh, grated with a cheese grater into crumbles.
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 3 Tbsp chopped cilantro (to taste)
  • 1 teaspoons honey
  • 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles (Muir Glenn has a good fire-roasted version), undrained
  • 3 cups cooked brown rice
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup sliced green onions
  • 2-3 Tbsp water, as needed
  • shredded cheese for topping

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 375°.
  2. Cook first 3 ingredients in a large skillet over medium-high heat until onion and peppers are tender. Add water and next 5 ingredients (water through tomatoes); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Uncover and simmer an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat; set aside.
  3. Combine the rice, sour cream, sliced green onions, and water in a bowl. Spoon rice mixture into a 9-inch baking dish. Top with beef mixture; sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Let stand a bit before serving.

Black Bean Soup with Caramelized Onions

24 Jan

I love black bean soup.  It’s pretty easy to prepare, it’s great as leftovers, it’s a blank slate for toppings and, as a bonus, it’s  quite healthy.  Black beans are a good source of fiber and protein (like most beans), but they are also the antioxidant superstar in the bean family.  What’s not to love?

I like to cook a big batch of black beans every couple of weeks.  I soak overnight, rinse and drain and then put in the crockpot with filtered water and kombu to cook.  The kombu does wonders for making the beans, well, less musical?  Who am I kidding?  I have a three year old little boy who loves to giggle about toots and f*rts.  Thankfully when cooking beans with kombu, there is much less to giggle about.

After the beans are cooked, I usually freeze half in mason jars.  The texture of the thawed beans is a little off for dishes that feature beans eaten straight out of the can, but is perfectly fine in soups and casseroles where the beans will be cooked again.  Like this one.

Black Bean Soup with Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1 red pepper, sliced
  • 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
  • 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 cup plain tomato sauce or puree
  • 2 cups vegetable broth (or water)
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp dried chipotle chili powder

Directions:
  1. Heat grapeseed oil in a pan over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium low. Add onions and cook slowly until browned, stirring occasionally.  This should take about 20 minutes.  (My pan is really small)
  2. Remove onions from pan and increase heat to medium-high. Add peppers and garlic and saute for 4-5 minutes, or until soft.
  3. Add onions, peppers, garlic and all remaining ingredients to a large pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  At this point you can serve as is or puree.  I like using my hand-held immersion blender and blending the majority of the soup.
  4. Remove from heat and serve.  Great topped with chopped cilantro and avocado.

Oven Baked Lentils and Brown Rice

7 Nov

Alternative Title in Honor of Minnesota: Lentil and Brown Rice Hot Dish

I’ve been making this recipe for a few years now and thought I’d share it.

It is not:

  • fancy
  • gourmet
  • particularly photogenic
It is:
  • simple
  • easy
  • cheap
  • comforting
  • kid-friendly
I’m particularly drawn to the cheap part right now.  As the holidays hit and money starts to flow out the door, I always feel the need to tighten up the grocery budget a bit.  I think lentils, beans, rice and other grains will be on frequent rotation in our kitchen.  I may also have to ban myself from Whole Foods.  Anyone else feeling the budget pinch?
Oven Baked Lentil and Brown Rice Casserole
  • 3 cups vegetable broth or water (or combination of both)
  • 3/4 cup uncooked lentils, rinsed and sorted
  • 1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
  • 3/4 cup diced onion
  • 1/2 cup chopped carrots
  • 1/2 cup chopped celery
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 tsp italian seasoning
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • Optional: bay leaf + salt if using water instead of broth, rosemary, basil, any herbs to your liking
  1. Preheat oven to 325F
  2. Mix all ingredients in a 2 qt baking dish.
  3. Cover with lid or foil and bake for about an hour, or until most of the liquid is absorbed.
  4. That’s all.  See – so easy!
It’s good topped with crushed red pepper, nutritional yeast, parmesan cheese and/or gomasio.  I usually serve it with some bread for a simple but filling and tasty dinner.

Kid Friendly Tostada Dinner*

27 Oct

1. Assemble the Fixings

Brown Rice, Pinto Beans, Salsa, Tostado Shells, Cheese, Avocado, Lettuce and Pureed Pintos (as my little ones much prefer refried bean style than whole beans)

- other topping ideas: fresh tomatoes, green onions, olives, black beans

2. Let the kids assemble

Do you see any produce on his plate?  Me neither….

She got extra points for the avocados and lettuce. Ignore the paint on her shirt.

3. Eat!

*warning: keep your broom handy, the kids will drop as much food as they eat

Hatch Green Chile, Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Tortilla Bake

3 Oct

It was Hatch Chile season a few weeks ago (see the Smart Kitchen’s witty writeup) and I was seduced by the smell of freshly roasting chilies outside of the grocery store and picked up a still warm bag of roasted chilies.  We had company that weekend, so the bag got tossed in the fridge and I remembered them 3 days later.  I pondered what to make and came up with this tortilla bake.  It was really good, but not too kid friendly (at least to my spice-averse munchkins) due to the heat.

It is a bit time intensive.  I prepared it in shifts and you could easily make the components the day before.

Green Salsa

First, make a green salsa.  Or buy one.  I won’t tell, heck, I won’t even know.

If you want to make one, I used  this Tyler Florence recipe for the green salsa portion and followed it exactly. Since I made no changes, I’m not posting the recipe.  I think Tyler Florence has more money than me and I don’t want any lawsuits for copyright infringement.  First the tomatillos, onion and jalapeno are boiled together.

Before

After

The cooked tomatillos, onions and jalapenos were blended with cilantro and lime juice to make over 4 cups of salsa.  I saved 2.5 cups for future use.

Red Lentil, Hatch Chile and Sweet Potato Filling

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 2 Tbsp grapeseed or olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1.5 tsp cumin
  • 0.5 tsp chili powder
  • 1 1/4 c diced yellow squash
  • 1 1/2 c cubed sweet potatoes
  • 1 c red lentils, rinsed and sorted
  • 2 c water (or veggie broth)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • 1 c chopped, peeled roasted green chilies (I used Roasted Hatch Chilies)
  • 1 c cilantro (less if you aren’t addicted to cilantro like I am)

Directions:

1. Heat oil over medium heat and add onions.  Cook slowly until browned.

2.  Increase heat to medium high.  Add garlic, cumin and chili powder and saute for about 1 minute to slightly toast the spices.

3.  Add the yellow squash and saute 2 minutes.

4. Add the rinsed lentils and sweet potatoes, along with the water or broth.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered for 15-20 minutes or until lentils and sweet potatoes are tender.

5.  Turn off heat and stir in cilantro and the roasted chilies.  Remove from heat.

Corn Tortilla Layer

I tried a similar recipe a month or so ago and used corn tortillas straight out of the package.  They ended up a little soggy in the final product (both the filling and salsa are pretty liquid-y), so I used this technique for this recipe.  Baking the tortillas dries them out a little and allows them to maintain some texture in the final dish.

Ingredients:

  • 8-10 small corn tortillas
  • Cooking Spray

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2.  Cut tortillas into eights.  Arrange on a greased cookie sheet and spray lightly with cooking spray.
  3. Bake 8-10 minutes, turning once, or until slightly crispy.

Once you’ve got your three components prepared, the recipe gets pretty easy.

Hatch Green Chile, Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Tortilla Bake

Ingredients:

  • 8-10 corn tortillas, baked as described above
  • 1.5 cups green salsa
  • 2 cups Red Lentil, Sweet Potato and Hatch Chile filling
  • 1/2 c shredded cheese
Directions:
  1. Place a layer of 1/3 of the corn tortillas, followed by 1/3 of the green salsa and 1/3 of the filling.

2. Repeat two more times, ending with chile filling on top.

3. Top with cheese.

4. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until cheese starts to brown and casserole starts to bubble a bit.

Dinner is served!

As a bonus, you’ll have leftover green salsa and chile, sweet potato filling.  I froze the filling to use in a future dinner and we’ve been enjoying the salsa with chips and atop dinners.

Roasted Vegetable and Orzo Salad

1 Sep

This recipe came together on Sunday night as I was perusing the fridge and pantry for something to make for lunch the next day. Fridge: red peppers, zucchini, pine nuts, basil. Pantry: onion, orzo, seasonings

It turned out really tasty and the husband asked me to make it again sometime. You could make it healthier with whole wheat orzo.

Roasted Vegetable and Orzo Salad (makes about 4 cups)

  • 1 zucchini, sliced and quartered
  • 1 medium onion cut into thick chunks
  • 1 red pepper cut into 1in squares
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 c dry orzo (about 2 c cooked)
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp Ume plum vinegar (optional)
  • 1 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped
  • 2 Tbsp pine nuts
1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Toss vegetables and garlic with 2 Tbsp olive oil and salt/pepper to taste. Place on a greased cookie sheet or shallow pan. Roast for 30 -40 minutes, until nice and browned. Stir a couple of times during the roasting.
3. While vegetables are roasting, cook orzo according to package directions. Rinse and drain.
4. Combine cooled roasted vegetables, cooked orzo and olive oil, vinegar(s), basil and pine nuts.
5. Salad is best served at room temperature and is even better the second day. Also good atop greens (like this)

Monday Night Buddha Bowls

22 Aug

First, I need to let you know that I cried in the school parking lot this morning after dropping off my way-to-little-to-be-in-kindergaren-but-really-she’s-almost-six daughter.  I’m not one that cries easily, but watching her be simultaneously brave, nervous and excited while walking into a class room, finding her own locker and then her own chair while wearing clothes that she chose, hair she fixed herself and shiny white sneaker was enough to make the tears come.  Sigh.

Okay, back to food.  Food isn’t making me cry today…

I’ve blogged before about our Buddha Bowl dinners inspired by Kris Carr’s Buddha Bowls in Crazy Sexy Diet.  They’ve become a weekly meal in my little lively kitchen.  Every Monday I pull out the rice cooker and chop up whatever veggies I have on hand.  My ‘recipe,’ if you will, is something like this:

Grain:

Brown Rice or Quinoa

Vegetables- any combination of the following:

  • celery
  • carrots
  • broccoli
  • red peppers
  • onions
  • green beans (my kids prefer them roasted)
  • mushrooms
  • kale, sliced finely
  • spinach, sliced
  • zucchini
Sauces/Seasoning (one or more of the following):
  • Toasted Sesame Oil
  • Liquid Aminos
  • Namu Shoyu (or soy sauce)
  • Gomasio
  • Chopped peanuts and/or cashews

Lately the husband and I make a big stir-fry with the vegetables and then stir in a couple of beaten eggs and the rice to make a fried rice of sorts.

My kindergartener (sniff sniff) makes her plate.

The husband or I make up my still-at-home little guy’s plate.  He doesn’t eat as many vegetables as his sister, so we have to add a few other things to his plate.  In the picture below he has a yogurt and a nut-based ‘dough ball’ from this recipe at Oh She Glows.

I used to make a big pot of veggie soup every Monday in efforts to detox a little from the typical heavier-than-normal eating from the weekend and use up some of the produce in the fridge, but with the unrelenting summer here, soup is a little too warming to eat now.  The Buddha Bowls have served the same purpose – lots of produce, clean ingredients and a night of the week where I don’t have to wonder what’s for dinner.

Tonight, even though it’s Monday and that should mean Buddha Bowl night, we are having a special dinner (chosen by the school girl herself) to celebrate the first day of school.  I’m hoping to blog about her special day of food for this week’s What I Ate Wednesday.

Any of you sending off your babes to school today?  

Southwest Eggrolls

28 Jun

I saw this recipe over on Sarah’s blog (Sarah Learns) and immediately bookmarked it.  I am always on the lookout for new ways to serve black beans.  You remember that shrimp farmer from Forest Gump?

Bubba: Anyway, like I was sayin’, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that’s about it. 

That’s me with black beans.  Black bean tacos, black bean burritos, sweet potato-black bean empanadas, black bean dip, black bean tostados, black bean quesadillas, and now, black bean egg rolls!

Southwest Egg Rolls

  • 1 (15 oz) can black bean (rinsed and drained) or 2 cup cooked black beans
  • 1/2 c cilantro, diced
  • 1/2 cup shredded mexican cheese blend (can omit to make vegan)
  • 1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies
  • 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
  • 1/2 c frozen corn, thawed
  • 1/2 c diced red peppers
  • 1 tsp each chili powder, cumin, garlic powder
  • salt to taste
  • 1 package (20-count) egg roll wrappers *(I accidentally bought won-ton wrappers, so mine were ‘bite-sized’)
  • cooking spray
*won-ton and egg roll wrappers can be found in the produce section, usually by the tofu and sprouts.
1. Preheat oven to 425 and spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Mix all ingredients.
3. Place about 2 Tbsp filling onto wrappers (more if using bigger wrappers).  See Sarah’s blog for step by step photo instructions as to how to fill and wrap.
4.  Place filled rolls onto the cooking sheet and spray again with cooking spray.
5. Bake for about 10 minutes, flipping the rolls about halfway through.  Will need to bake longer if you use egg roll sized wrappers.
6. Serve with guacamole and salsa.

Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus (aka Husband Friendly Hummus)

26 Jun

This is the first hummus that I’ve been able to get my husband to eat.  While I think that chickpeas are one of nature’s perfect foods, he isn’t so star-struck by the humble garbanzo bean.  He does like these Chickpea Veggie Burgers, but, up to now, that is the only chickpea dish I’ve been able to make that he happily eats.

I modified this recipe from Peas and Thank You and found it to be my first husband-pleasing hummus.  As a double endorsement, my father in law, who is most certainly not a chickpea eater, ate about half the bowl of this dip before asking what it was.  Upon learning it was hummus, he raised his eyebrows, shrugged and went back to eating.  My mother-in-law and I secretly high-fived behind his back.  The two of us are all about tricking our men into eating chickpeas.

Pardon the less than stellar photo.  Don’t let it deter you from making this dish…..

Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus

  • 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas (or one 14 oz. can of chickpeas, drained, rinsed)
  • 1/4 -1/2 c. water (or liquid reserved from can, if using canned)
  • 1 medium jalapeño, seeded, cored and chopped
  • 2 T. fresh lime juice
  • 2 Tbsp tahini
  • 1 t garlic powder
  • salt to taste
  • 1/2 -3/4 c. cilantro (I went with a heaping 3/4 c, but I am a bit obsessed with cilantro)
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.  Add more water if needed to reach desired consistency.
Cilantro – are you a fan?  I used to despise it, but now I eat it almost daily.  I juice it, put it on my salads, in my hummus, on tacos and sandwiches.  

Summer Reruns – Veggie Udon Noodles

3 Jun

Just like all the non-reality shows, I’m heading into rerun mode these days.  I’m starting a Repeater Recipe series that will both introduce some of my ‘older’ (my 1 year blog anniversary is coming up soon) recipes to my new readers and show which recipes tend to make the monthly rotation in my kitchen.

Repeater Recipe #1 – Veggie Udon Noodles

First Air Date: 12/23/2010 Veggie Udon Noodles

This recipe isn’t mine, but we have it around once a month.  It’s easy, quick and calls for ingredients I always have on hand.  For the kids, I serve the noodles and veggies with no sauce.

This week’s dish had celery, carrots, orange bell peppers, spinach and mushrooms and was topped with gomasio (which my little guy eats by the handful).

Happy Friday.  Any exciting plans?  We are headed to a wedding on Saturday and I’m very excited to get dressed up, spend an evening with friends, dance with my husband and celebrate a new marriage.

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