Chinese Dumpling Pasta (gf)

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Hi, all!! We’ve had all kind of things going on lately- workouts, races, friends in town, trees falling on our cars, beautiful nephews being born, parties to plan, and so on and so forth.* The [happy] chaos had led to lots of cereal for dinner and very few blog posts (okay, NO blog posts), but I actually had time to cook last night! Real food involving vegetables, protein, and grains- and none of it came from the ready-made Whole Foods bar. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Good wives go there all the time. At least that’s what I hear. You know, on the streets.

in all its tasty glory

I have mentioned this in a previous post, but I often crave Asian foods- Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese are favorites. I’d made this dish before and it’s just what it sounds like: a pasta dish that tastes like steamed dumplings. BIG flavors, and quite tasty. It really hit the spot. Here’s what I came up with:

CHINESE DUMPLING PASTA

Adapted from Fitness Magazine

Ingredients:

  • 1- 1 1/4  lb lean ground pork (you can use turkey or chicken if you’d like)
  • 1 10-oz bag ready-to-eat shredded carrots
  • 1 bunch scallions, sliced
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 8-10 tbsp hoisin sauce (sounds like a lot, but it isn’t; made with soy sauce, which contains gluten- substitues accepted for true gf)
  • 1/2 lb-1 lb shiitake mushroom caps, sliced (rehydrated, then sliced, if purchased dry) 
  • 1 pkg Tinkyada brown rice pasta, or pasta of your choice

Directions:

In a large stockpot, cook your chosen pasta according to package directions. On a recent experimental gluten-free kick, I tried the Tinkyada brown rice pasta, and loved it. I was inspired to go gluten-free in an effort to resolve some long-standing stomach issues, by some of the ideas behind the Wheat Belly craze, and by the endorsement of Heather Wurtele, a professional triathlete I admire (I’m a nerd, I know). Side note: Heather and her husband Trevor (also a pro triathlete) live in a tiny RV and drive all over North America racing and training. That sounds like such a great lifestyle to me, so streamlined and focused!

adorable

She’s very positive (check out their fantastic blog here) and she’s a fellow tall girl, which inspires me because she’s been very successful in a field of shorter, compact, fast little women who often seem to have a natural advantage in the sport. I met her in New Orleans and she had a big smile on her face all day, despite having taken a very violent and very public tumble off of her bike. She got right back up, placed 2nd (her hubby won the men’s division that day), and went out on Bourbon that afternoon, bandages and all. Her attitude completely won me over- she’s my fave. Oh- drain pasta and set aside.

good eats

While the pasta is cooking and as you’re perusing the Wurtele’s blog, heat the sesame oil in a large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the sliced shiitakes, the garlic, and the ginger. Cook for three minutes, until the mushrooms are soft and the kitchen smells amazing. Add the pork [turkey, chicken], and cook for another three minutes, breaking up and stirring to cook evenly. Drain at this point if there is a lot of fat coming off of the pork. Add the hoisin sauce and pasta water, cook another 3 minutes, then add the entire bag of shredded carrots and cook until the pork [turkey, chicken] is completely cooked through and the carrots have cooked down a bit (you will know this when you see it).

mushrooms, garlic, ginger

Place the drained pasta back in the large pasta pot and top with meat and veggies, then with scallions. Toss furiously! But don’t break up the pasta. That’s all! Serve with Sriracha (Cruse ketchup) and more hoisin, for those who’d like it. Quite a yummy and complete meal, and this will make a LOT for leftovers. Enjoy!

all together now

*

Quickie: Chicken Avocado Omelette, or: “One Way To Use Grilled Leftovers” (gf)

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Today’s breakfast was fast, easy, healthy, and used leftovers! Fast, easy, healthy are pretty much the qualities I look for in cooking a perfect meal, and I was able to use some extra grilled chicken from earlier in the week. Be still my thrifty, beating heart. Here’s an idea for how to use those summer leftovers of your own- don’t forget that steak would work well, too!

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CHICKEN AVOCADO OMELETTES

Ingredients:

  • 4-5 eggs
  • 1 leftover chicken breast, heated and cubed
  • Half an avocado, sliced
  • Pico de gallo
  • Shredded cheese of your choice

Directions:
Whisk 2-3 eggs for the first omelette. Pour into heated omelette pan. Cook until edges are firm, then lift edges with a spatula to allow runny egg to flow under and cook. Sprinkle with cheese as desired, and add half the cubed chicken. Fold in half. Cook for a minute more, then slide onto a plate, garnishing with avocado and pico de gallo. Repeat and serve. Delicioso!

As we ate this morning, the possible moral dilemma of eating chicken and eggs at the same time came up. Is it wrong? The chicken, the egg? Together? Like a really delicious punch line to the classic joke? We didn’t decide. Probably out of guilt, since we had polished off both chicken and egg. I can say that if it is wrong [and topped with buttery avocado] I don’t want to be right. Enjoy!

BIG Summer Steak Salad with Easy Balsamic Vinaigrette (gf)

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It’s HOT in Saint Louis. Close to 100 degrees hot, and actually entering triple-digits tomorrow. The heat has forced us outside (ironically), to grill quick meals and then run inside and eat them like hungry vampires in the safety of our cool, dark home.

yowza

I had a simple but phenomenal steak salad at Over/Under on Wash Ave last week, and began craving steak salad as soon as I’d polished off the last bite. We had a pretty active and busy weekend, and making a grilled steak salad at home seemed to fit the healthy, fast, craving-satisfaction bill. And I’ll be the first to admit that I’m one to eat and repeat (and repeat, and repeat) when I stumble across a meal that particularly hits the spot.

you look beautiful when you’re undressed

BIG SUMMER STEAK SALAD

For the salad. Ingredients:

  • 1 container Organic Girl Supergreens! or other bagged salad greens
  • 1- 1 1/2 lbs skirt steak
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp canola oil
  • sprinkling of sugar
  • 1 red onion
  • 1 container NatureSweet Cherubs grape tomatoes- you can leave these whole
  • 1 cucumber, cut into chunks or slices (I like chunks)
  • 1 avocado, sliced
  • a handful of cilantro, washed and roughly chopped

Directions:

Preheat your grill to a medium-high setting. At room temperature, combine the canola oil, sugar, and soy, and spread over both sides of the flank steak. Let this sit and marinate while the grill heats up. Once hot, grill to desired doneness- I find that cheaper cuts like flank steak do well when cooked rare-to- medium rare, and always cut on the bias. Anyway, grill to your desired doneness (turning once) and let rest while you assemble the salad and dressing.

While the meat is resting, assemble the (prewashed!) greens in a pretty bowl. Slice the red onion, cut the cucumber, slice the avocado, and assemble all of those, along with the tomatoes, on top of your greens. Lovely!! If you’re a vegetarian, eat now!

delicious sans-steak

Meat eater or not, it’s time to make the dressing:

EASY BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

For the dressing. Ingredients:

  • 1/4 c balsamic vinegar
  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 tsp coarse ground mustard
  • large pinch salt
  • generous grinding of black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried parsley

Mix all ingredients except olive oil together in a small mixing bowl. Let sit for five minutes. Go feed the cat or pour yourself a glass of wine while this is sitting. When your wine has been poured, whisk in the olive oil in a slow, steady stream, emulsifying it into the dressing. This is a delicious salad topper, and can be kept for days at room temperature. Yay! You’ve saved yourself a step for tomorrow’s dinner!

whisk it good

Slice the rested flank steak across the grain, at a bias, the best you can. You’ll need a sharp knife for this, and a serrated knife may pull at the delicate graining of the meat. The point of cutting this way is to tenderize the steak- cutting on the bias, against the grain actually makes sliced meat more tender and palatable. Message!

Now- grab your favorite BIG Salad Bowl, assemble greens, top with veggies, then with avocado and steak. Serve!! Enjoy your summery meal!!

dinner is served

Quick Marinara Sauce For A Crowd, or “What To Do With Four Pints of Grape Tomatoes” (v, gf)

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We had a party* this weekend!!!!!! First we’ve had in, oh, about three years, so I bought way too many groceries to make the food I had on the menu. What was on the menu? Burgers, brats, BBQ chicken, all of the necessary burger fixins, chips, dips, potato salad with cabbage and sesame oil, avocado and corn tomato salad, baked beans and 534845321564 cookies and cupcakes (none of which I baked).

It was a delicious and overindulgent day, and I wound up with four pints of leftover grape tomatoes from the avocado salad…. What in the heck do you make for a two-person household using that many tomatoes? A friend suggested I make a marinara sauce (my first instinct was tomato soup), so I did, thinking I’ll freeze some later. This recipe begins with the usual disclaimer that I was short on time, so I had to improvise my way through the slow-cooking I would have preferred for the sauce. Cue the food processor…..

the innumerable tomatoes mock me

QUICK MARINARA SAUCE FOR A CROWD

Ingredients:

  • 4 pints of grape or cherry tomatoes, preferably sitting on your counter ripening for two days, challenging you to a “you can’t cook me” face-off
  • 3-4 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 very large onions, chopped
  • 5+ cloves garlic, or 3 tsp garlic paste
  • 1 1/2 tbsp  dried Italian seasoning (small palmful)
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 2-3 tsp kosher salt (you may prefer more, I try to limit salt)
  • 1 tsp cracked black pepper
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 cup water or pasta water, if you’re simultaneously cooking pasta and you like a thinner sauce

Directions:

Heat a heavy-bottomed stock pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil to the hot pot, and swirl to coat. Add onion, garlic, and spices, and cook for 5-7 minutes. Add the washed tomatoes and water, if using, cooking for about ten minutes, or until the tomatoes start to break down from the heat and salt. Add balsamic at this point, and stir. Cover, and cook for 10-15 minutes more, or however long you have.

Remove from heat and uncover, letting the sauce cool for about ten minutes before processing in batches. The benefit of quick-cooking a sauce like this is that it’s light and fresh at the end, which is nice in the spring and versatile. I plan to freeze it in muffin cups and use the fairly neutral sauce in future pastas and soups. I also thought that a quickly browned pound of ground beef or turkey could easily turn into a spaghetti dinner with two or three servings of the sauce, tossed in at the end of cooking time to melt and meld, then be served over pasta.  This sauce is also a great way to use sale tomatoes!

If I’d had more time (Always. Always “if I’d had more time…”), I would have roasted the tomatoes and onions together in a large roasting dish with olive oil before transferring to a stock pot to simmer, and then puree. The flavor would have been richer, but that will be a delicious way to try this sauce in the fall. Enjoy!

Sauteed with cooked ground beef- this was the next day’s lunch. YUM

Some more ideas:

  1. omit balsamic, stir in creme fraiche, or chunks of neufchatel
  2. stir in ribbons of fresh basil after pureeing
  3. stir in Kalamata olives and feta cheese before pureeing, serve over fish
  4. add zucchini or spinach for a nutritional boost
  5. use a head of roasted garlic in place of fresh cloves (DEFINITELY trying this!)

*

White Bean Chicken Chili with Spoonbread

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Dave made a request recently for chili. Since it’s, you know, May (and hot outside), traditional beef and bean red chili seemed way, way too heavy. Thinking of an alternative that would still have protein, be filling, fast, and relatively low-carb, BAM! It hit me! White chicken chili! I’d never eaten it, let alone made it, but I figured that if I stuck with tex-mex flavors, I’d be fine. And it turned out really well! In our house, if you top hot, spicy food with avocado, it will be well-received, so I tried my best with a recipe and threw a bunch of the creamy, green stuff on top. Instant hit.

chicken chili nom-noms

And because it was so healthy, I had to counteract at least some of the nutritional benefits with a side of my fast spoonbread- essentially Jiffy corn muffin mix with canned and creamed corn (recipe below).  It is tasty! And goes well with so much, especially soups and chilis. Here goes:

WHITE BEAN CHICKEN CHILI

Ingredients:

  • 1 package ground white meat chicken
  • 2-3 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 cans white beans, rinsed and drained*
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 jalepeño pepper, seeded and finely diced
  • 1 bunch cilantro- leaves minced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced, or one tsp garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp chicken base
  • 1-2 tbsp cumin
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 tbsp coriander
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 2 cups water
  • diced avocado, sour cream, hot sauce to serve

Directions:

Heat a large stock pot over medium heat. When hot, add your olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion, peppers (all three kinds), and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the chicken and all spices.

peppers, onion, and garlic cooking away

Cook, stirring, until the chicken is broken up well and is no longer pink. This will take another 5-7 minutes. Add the canned beans- and here’s the thing about canned beans- *you can either drain and rinse them to cut salt content or just dump them in. I drained mine but then added a tablespoon of chicken base, so was I really cutting salt? Probably not by much. I do prefer the flavor of the chicken base to the boring, super salty-msg-like flavor of canned beans. But this is up to you. Are you a drainer or a dumper? That sounds kind of weird, doesn’t it?

all done!

Anyway, add water, and you can add by the half cup, depending on how soupy you like your chili. Add the chicken base or bouillon here, and bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer about ten minutes. You’re all done! Stir in the cilantro and serve, with avocado, sour cream, hot sauce, and….

FAST SPOONBREAD

Ingredients:

  • 2 packages Jiffy corn muffin mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 2/3 cups milk
  • 1 can sweet corn, drained
  • 1 can creamed corn

Directions:

SO EASY! Love recipes that start with those words! Mix everything well (the batter will be lumpy, which is okay). Let rise for a few minutes as you preheat the oven to 400. Grease a baking dish- an 8×8 pyrex should be the right size (I like using a white Corning Ware casserole dish for presentation points). Bake for about 45 minutes. You want this to be a very moist bread- not uncooked but very soft. The sweetness and moisture of the corn and creamed corn really make this a delicious bread, and it’s forgiving- another 10-15 minutes in the oven wouldn’t hurt it at all. Serve.

*This post has been categorized as gluten-free; Jiffy mix isn’t 100% gf, so homemade cornbread would be the best bet if you need to be a stickler.

Broiled Honey Salmon with Lemon-Dill Tzatziki Sauce (pes, gf)

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Having lived without a grill for the past two and a half years, I’ve come to enjoy broiling salmon almost as much as grilling it. I hope to post my favorite grilled salmon recipe here soon, complete with a great rub for fish- as soon as I figure out how to use the grill at our new place.

Image

This is simple and delicious. The sauce is tangy and fresh and compliments the fish perfectly, without adding a bunch of additional empty calories.

BROILED HONEY SALMON WITH LEMON-DILL TZATZIKI SAUCE

Ingredients:

  • a fresh salmon plank piece to feed two (about 8 inches long and 4-5 inches wide, 1-2 inches thick)
  • olive oil (about two tsps)
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 large lemon
  • 3/4 of a small to medium cucumber, in small dice
  • 4 tbsp fresh dill 
  • 8 oz fat free Greek yogurt Read More

The Perfect Cup of (Decaf) Afternoon Tea

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This tea, with a splash of soy milk. And since it contains no caffeine, you can drink cup after cup and still feel great about it. It certainly is calming, and lemon-jasmine? Yes, please. And thank you. And nice hat.

You should try it. That is all.

Breakfast Smoothie & Detoxifying “Green Drank” (v, gf)

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Recently, a reader asked why I have posted only one true breakfast recipe. The answer is, I usually blend a protein smoothie for myself and throw it in a blender bottle in the morning- it’s a fast, portable meal that keeps me full for hours, and the protein is timed well after morning workouts. Posting variations of the same smoothie would be boring, but I thought I’d share the basics.

My favorite combo is:

PB & CHOCOLATE BANANA SMOOTHIE

  • 2-3 scoops chocolate protein powder (your choice- whey, soy, both, other)
  • 1 banana, cut into chunks
  • 1 tbsp natural peanut butter
  • water (1 1/2- 2 cups)

Directions: blend all ingredients well, for about 2 minutes in a food processor. Pour and serve.

But this morning, I made:

VANILLA-BLUEBERRY FLAX SMOOTHIE

  • 2 scoops vanilla protein powder (whey or vegan)
  • 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
  • 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
  • 2 cups water Read More