Veggie Quinoa

Happy Tuesday!

It was a super busy day!  Complete with dog walks and TJ Maxx outings.  That's my kind of busy day.

Have you heard of quinoa?  It is said KEEN-wah. It's been pretty trendy for a little while now.  It's supposed to be good for you and packed with protein (which is good for a veggie-booty like me...I am always trying to take in as much protein as I can.  This protein usually comes from peanut butter in my case).  Anyway, this stuff has always been intriguing to me.  Whether I hear about it on some trashy E! channel show or read about it on Pinterest (hello?  Tiffany Beveridge?  Have you SEEN her "My Imaginary Well-Dressed Toddler Daughter" board?  I am seriously considering naming my daughter Chevron...)  Tonight I gave it a try.

I walked into this one TOTALLY blind.  I had no idea what kind of flavor this stuff was going to give me. I read a recipe in a recent Rachael Ray mag that gave me some guidance and this is what I came up with:

Preparing the Quinoa:
1 cup quinoa
1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
1 cup water

First, put the quinoa in a dry fry pan.  Toast it up the way you would pine nuts, just warming them through.  I have read that this is a crucial step in making the stuff taste any good at all.

Once it is toasted, put it in a stock pot with the water and stock and get it boiling, stirring occasionally.  When it hits the boiling point, reduce it to a simmer and cover...letting the lid just a bit ajar to let some steam out.  Leave it alone for about 15 minutes and then uncover.  It does what couscous does and fluffs up nicely with a fork.

At this point the stuff was pretty plain Jane.  The broth did allow it to have some flavor...nutty-esque and wheaty.  The texture is fabulous.  Here's what was happening meanwhile:

Veggies:

1/2 zucchini
1/2 yellow summer squash
2 cups arugula
1 glove garlic, minced
1 T oregano
1 tomato
salt & pepper to season
EVOO

Chop up the zucchini and squash into bite-sized pieces.  They'll go in to a fry pan that has about 1 tablespoon EVOO nice n' hot.  Sprinkle some salt (I used about 1/2 teaspoon) and pepper (same as the salt) over the veggies. 
Next add in the arugula.  I put in about a half cup at a time.  This stuff wilts beautifully and quickly.  I could have even added more than the 2 cups I used. 
I kept this on a medium/high heat for about 15 minutes.  The leaves had wilted and the vegetables were softened.  That's when I added the garlic and oregano--let that go for another 5-10 minutes.

I chopped up a big tomato and put it in my serving dish, then added the cooked quinoa, and lastly the veggies.

I quickly whipped up a vinaigrette that could not be any easier:  4 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and 3 tablespoons of EVOO and drizzled it over the dish.

Here's what turned out:

Dan took a look. I took a look.  He asked why we were having rabbit food for dinner.  I have to admit, I was nervous. I had NO CLUE how this was all going to fit together...

It..was..AWESOME!  We both loved it!  It was so flavorful with the apple cider vinaigrette and the crazy different textures of the quinoa versus the vegetables.

So. All in all, quinoa is delish.  I think this recipe could be swapped around a kajillion different ways.  It was $4.99 for a box and I only used about 1/2 box. Can't wait to try it out a different way!

Stay tuned :-)
~abra

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich with Home Fries

Hello!

So after a hot summer day of gardening, I sat down to watch my favorite Cooking Channel/Food Network shows and I got the itch to make dinner!  Now, I was pretty low on my "go-to" items so I had to get a little creative.
Here we go:

2 slices of bread ( your choice)
1 slice of sharp cheddar cheese (I've been loving the Sargento thin slices lately!)
2 pieces of turkey bacon
1 green onion, chopped
1 egg
1 t light mayo
1 t crumbled Gorgonzola
4 slices Dietz and Watson Buffalo Chicken Breast

I cooked up my turkey bacon ahead of time in a dry pan.  I also fried the egg before I started assembling.  Once those make ahead items were finished, I assembled the 'sam.  I drizzled some EVOO on to my grill pan and spent about 5ish minutes grilling it on a medium high heat.  Once it was golden and crunchy, it was ready.

Like I said, I was low on my basic items.  I had some potatoes from the weekend and I knew my thyme and rosemary were due for a trim.  So I took about 8 little golden potatoes and sliced them up to look something between fries/potato wedges.  I drizzled them with some EVOO, a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  I also added a sprinkle of Trader Joe's 21 Season Solute (one of my favorite spices!).
I chopped up about 2 sprigs of thyme and one 3 inch piece of rosemary and tossed that in with the potatoes too.  I let them cook in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes.

It wound up being a super delish, flavorful dinner!

YUM.
Til next time :-)

Double Post!

Yikes! I haven't posted since November?! Holy cow. Well, it has been a big year: getting a new job as a first year teacher, planning a wedding, getting married, buying a new house...to name a few.  But I am ready to commit to my blog!  Hurrah!

As I mentioned, I am a new wife and homeowner.  This means that I am constantly making meals and projects for the house! We moved into a cute 3 bedroom ranch with a full, unfinished basement. We have been here a month and a half and it has been transformed!  Before I move onto home projects...let me share with you what was for dinner:


iPhone picture....blurry. Bleh.  Anywho...
I made a copy cat version of Panera's Chopped Chicken Cobb Salad with Avocado, right along with P's herbed vinaigrette.  Here the ingredients for the salad:

1 bag lettuce (choose what you like! I kept it simple with Romaine)
2 tomatoes off the vine
3 hard boiled eggs
5 grilled chicken tenders (salt and peppered before hittin' the grill)
2 strips of turkey bacon *
1/2 avocado
a generous heap of Gogonzola

All of this gets mixed and happily tossed in a bowl.
About the asterisk... I use turkey bacon because I don't eat "real" bacon. Feel free to sub!

Now for the vinaigrette.
Seriously, I have made this salad a dozen times.  I've used poppyseed dressing, creamy asiago ceasar, Italian.... NOTHING compares to the amazingness that is this vinaigrette.  AND this was my first ever vinaigrette AAAAND it was super easy! Here we go:


1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 small glove of garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons of tarragon
1 1/2 teaspoons of oregano
1 teaspoon of dried basil (or 1 1/2 of fresh)
1 pinch salt
1 pinch pepper
3/4-1 cup extra virgin olive oil.

The herbs need to be chopped real fine, as they will be eaten raw in the salad.  Big chunks of herbs will be a bit too shocking for your eaters! Then as you whisk (time to multitask!) slowly pour in your olive oil.  Keep up a rapid whisk to get things blended.

I made the dressing in advance and kept in the fridge for a few hours. The dressing should keep for a week.  And don't limit it to your salads!  I can't wait to pour some of it on a Panini this week!

I don't expect my posts to always get this lengthy...but I guess since this is a double post it gets a free pass...

I've been working on our master bathroom (yes, "master"...it's a tiny bath but it is connected to our bedroom and therefore dubbed "master bathroom"). I should have taken before pictures.  Someday, I will learn.  But it was this hideous light purple-almost-gray color with light cedar-y looking trim.  It was clash-city.  I couldn't stand even being in there!  But I revamped it over the past 48 hours and here is the result:






Striping the wall really was not the hard part.  I just used my trusty measuring tape and marked off each section at 12 inches.  The wall was already gray, so I just made sure that the tape was falling into the gray section, rather than the section that was to be yellow.  Meaning, I drew my leveled line and made sure that EACH section was 12 inches.  The tape accounts for some of those inches in the gray sections.  Got it? Good!

However, if you were to ask me if I will ever stripe a wall again...I would probably say no.  It looks great, don't get me wrong...but it was a hassle.  The hassle part was all on me, too.  If there was one piece of beginner DIY advice I could give it would be this: STIR THE PAINT! Holy cow.  You can't see it here...but I neglected to stir my gallon on paint before rolling on the yellow.  I thought, "Meh, I just got this paint this afternoon.  The guy put it in that shakey contraption...it's still fine!"  It was not fine. What I got was this super thick, cakey paint on the first roll.  Panicked, I gave up for the night.

The next day, I managed to sand down most of the--what I am calling--"texture."  I STIRRED THE PAINT and rolled on a second coat.  It's not perfect...but I'm learning!

So there we are!  I am about to go weed and water my new garden.  This is also a new venture for me.  Pictures to come!

Broccoli Cheese Soup

So, I think I've mentioned that I watch ALOT of FoodNetwork. A. lot. I'm pretty dedicated, too.  I follow Giada like a lost puppy with Ina Garten coming in a close second.  My perfect Saturday morning is waking up early to watch their new episodes.

Recently, I found a NEW FN Chef to follow: Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.  Not only is she a great cook, but she is also quirky and creative.  Love it!  Plus, she started off as a blogger!  It's a match made in heaven.

This evening I made her Broccoli Cheese Soup.  Now, when ever I look up a recipe online, I ALWAYS read the reviews.  They are often incredibly helpful.  The reviews for Ree's soup were, sadly, not overwhelmingly good.  Also, she used quite a bit of fatty ingredients (NOT judging here--but I'll cut the calories where I can). So I added 4 of my own twists to what she has done.

Here's the line up:
3 C. reduced sodium chicken broth
3 C. 2% Milk
2 C. Half & Half (I used the reduced fat kind. Judge me.)
1/3 C. flour
1 stick of butter
1/2 of one big onion
3 broccoli crowns
2 potatoes
1/2 bag of matchstick carrots
1 clove of garlic
1 T chopped thyme
1 t Kosher salt
1 T pepper
pinch of nutmeg
2 bags of reduced fat cheddar cheese


I just tried to upload my pictures of the process onto Scrom...guess what?  They were accidentally deleted.  Sigh. Technology.  Another instance of having to use your imagination.

First thing's first: I melted the stick of butter and added the diced onion, garlic and thyme.  I love chopping veggies.  I could make someone a very dedicated sous chef.

Once those were soft/translucent, I added in the flour, whisking the whole time. Next, came the 3 cups of milk, 3 cups of broth, and 2 cups of half and half.  Ree uses 4 cups of whole milk...but I read it made it very, well, milky.  Which is not what I think when I think broccoli cheddar soup.  Chicken broth has sommore flavor...so I opted to half the milk.

Next I added in the 3 crowns of broccoli, which I chopped into bite sized pieces, along with the potatoes (also bite-sized) and half the bag of carrots.  Ree doesn't use potatoes or carrots..but I can't imagine broccoli cheddar soup without those little pieces of carrots! The pot is getting full by now...so add in that pinch of nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Next, just let it do it's thing, covered on low heat, for about 30 minutes.  Add in ALL of the cheese next.  I had a softball sized round of gouda on hand, so I tossed half of that in, too.

Stir, stir, stir.  It looks a little separated and chunky...just keep stirring! At this point, I mashed it a little with my potato masher (my husband and I like big chunks of broccoli).
I kept it on low heat for another 10 minutes just to let it thicken.

And here is the finished product! (Technology won't hold me down!)  As my mom always says, it will be even better the next day, due to all of the meshing of lingering flavors.

Soon, I will be sharing my Brie mashed potatoes that I am bringing to our Thanksgiving dinner table.  It is absolutely to die for!

~abra

Yellow Zucchini Soup

As promised!

I do have some bad news though...I don't have any pictures of this one so you'll have to use your imagination.  The soup being as fabulous as it was, was a TOTAL accident.

 

I was at my local farmer's market carrying around a HUGE (it was honestly like, a foot and a half long!) Yellow Zucchini.  (It only cost me 50 cents and I didn't even use the whole thing!)  A man spotted me carrying it and said, "That'll make an excellent soup." Challenge: accepted.

 

So I got to work.  Here's what you need:

 

-One yellow zucchini

-4 big potatoes

-1 yellow onion

-2 T basil

-1 T Italian seasoning

-1/4 c. marscarpone cheese (sour cream, if your grocery store STILL isn't carrying this great stuff!)

-3 c. chicken broth

-2 c. water

-salt & pepper

-Asiago cheese wedge

 

Roux:

-3 T flour

-3 T butter

-roughly 1/2 - 3/4 c. milk

 

And here's what you'll do:

In a BIG pot, start heating up all of the chicken broth and water.

 

Give your zucchini a rough dice.  Cut it into a-little-bit-bigger-than-bite-sized pieces.  I used about 2/3 of my zucchini.  You can use the whole thing if you'd like!

Also, peel and quarter your onions and potatoes.

All the veggies into the pot.

 

Next, chop the basil and add it and the Italian seasoning in.  A good tablespoon of salt and half tablespoon of pepper should be added for flavor.

 

Now, cover your pot and let it sit on a low heat for 3 hours.

 

After 3 hours, you'll add in your marscarpone.  At this point, I also blended my soup.  I have one of these fancy guys:

This is called an Immersion Hand Blender.  I call it a juuusher because that's what it seems to do. :-)

Blend your soup so that there are no big chunks.

 

Next step is the roux.

 

In a medium saucepan, add your butter and flour.  Stir/mix continuously until it looks paste-like.  Now, slowly pour in milk.  Like I said in the ingredients, it will probably be 1/2 cup to 1 cup.  The consistency you are looking for is that of a cream sauce: thick but smooth.

Add the roux to the soup and give it a good stir.

 

Let the soup sit for another 2 hours (this can go longer or shorter...but my mom has ALWAYS told me that the longer a soup sits, the better it is).

 

Next is the best part.  Cube up the asiago and dump in as much or as little as you want.  It slowly melts in the soup and causes some great chewy, cheesey bites (my sister and I like to call these 'cheese surprises' :-) )

 

That's it!  The soup should be extremely velvety and delish.

This soup made so much, I sent some over to my parents/sister and Dan's parents and we still had lots left over!!

 

You gotta try this one... it is such a delicious yet light comfort food!

 

Chicken Cobb Salad

 

Hello!! It has been a minute since my last post...but I have been SUPER busy starting a new school year (my FIRST "real" year, by the way, as a third grade teacher :-) ) and finishing up planning our wedding (October 13..woop woop!!) but it doesn't mean I haven't been cooking.  I just need to catch up with my blog.  Only so many hours in the day. Le sigh.

 

Aaanyway.  Since we are SO close to our wedding, we've been trying to eat light.  Also, I have just discovered some awesome local farmer's markets and have been trying to take advantage of them while I can!! Honestly, I don't know what I ever did without Farmer Markets!!

 

So. Salad. I love Panera Bread's Chopped Chicken Cobb salad so this is kind of a copy cat of that one.  Here's whatcha need:

 

 

-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin (about 1 inch thick)

-1 ripe avocado

-1 tomato

-1 bag of lettuce

-Gorgonzola (pre-packaged are cheaper than the big wedge!)

-3 hard boiled eggs

-Kraft Light Ceasar/Italian Dressing

 

The first thing I did was hard boil the eggs.  Holy cow. It took FOREVER! But I think this step is worth it.  They really add to the salad.

 

I cooked the chicken next.  I drizzled my grill pan with some (garlic-infused) EVOO.  Regular EVOO will work just fine!  I salt and peppered my chicken liberally on both sides and got them grilling.  When I saw that they were cooked through (no pink) I removed them and let them "rest" on my cutting board, under foil, for about 5 minutes before slicing them into bite sized chunks.  I put it in the fridge to bring the temp down for about 10-15 minutes.

 

Letting meat rest is something I learned for all of my extensive Food Network watching.  Let me just say, it really keeps your meat JUICY!! It seems like a step worth skipping but I will tell you, it's not.

 

The rest is all assembly.  I dumped out the bag of lettuce, chopped up the tomato and avocado and sprinkled some Gorgonzola on top.  When the chicken and egg were ready to go, I topped the salad with that.

 

I drizzled some of the Kraft Light Ceasar/Italian dressing and tossed it all together.  I added some freshly ground black pepper to taste and that's it!

 

It was SO good!! ANNNND filling.  I turn my nose up at salads often...but this really got me full.  The creamy avocado mixed with the bite of the Gorgonzola was to die!

 

Some things I MIGHT do next time:

-Add some crumbled turkey bacon (My fiance, Dan opted against this one.  He was sure the chicken and egg would be enough.  We didn't miss it...but coulda been a nice touch)

-Add some toasted walnuts.  I love walnuts on just about everything...but they were just too expensive for my budget today.

-Next time, I might add some craisins for chewy sweetness.

 

Of course, feel free to use whatever dressing you want!  I thought the Light Ceasar/Italian was a perfect fit.  You definitely want something lighter since the salad is so hearty.

 

That's it!! Try it out and tell me whatcha think.

 

 

Soon, I will be posting an AWESOME recipe for yellow zucchini soup.  Seriously, you will dream about the stuff.

 

Til next time

~Abra

Under 200 Calorie Breakfast!

Ok, so I am totally NOT the girl to ever skip breakfast (or any meal for that matter).  I usually buy the English muffin breakfast sandwiches by SmartOnes.  They are delish and keep me full til lunchtime.  They are about 260 calories and can get pretty expensive.  So, I thought to myself, 'There is NO reason why I can't make these myself...healthier AND cheaper.' I did--and they were super easy!

Aunt Millie's 100% Whole Wheat English Muffins are what I used.  They are 100 calories a pop and come in boxes of 6!

 I always use these cheese squares.  They are only 45 measley calories per slice and they actually have flavor!  I have used Kraft before...but they just don't seem to taste like, well, anything. Weight Watchers are the way to go. 

So here's what I did:
I happen to have a silicon muffin top 'pan' (seen below).  I thought it would be the perfect place to make little baked eggs.
I whipped up four (yes, only four for 6 rounds! Can you feel your wallet getting thicker?!) eggs in a bowl.  I added about a tablespoon of 1% milk, salt, pepper, and some parsley.
I used that mixture and poured it into the lightly greased little silicon cups (four eggs for six rounds is PLENTY).
I baked them in the oven at 400 degrees until the eggs were no longer wiggly--about 12 minutes.

 NOTE!  BEFORE you fill your silicon cups, PUT THE PAN ON SOMETHING STURDY! Otherwise, the egg mixture runs all over the place (found this out the hard way). I would recommend using a cookie sheet under your silicon pan.

Ta Da! SO easy!! I wrapped them up in some plastic wrap and froze them for the week. I calculated everything and it comes out to...wait for it...192 calories per sandwich! Take that, SmartOnes.

The best part about these is their versitility.  Next time I will use different spices (I love basil and/or oregano in my eggs) and maybe use some veggies.

I am also BIG into the Laughing Cow cheese wedges--so I might use those instead next time, too.

Happy Cooking!