Quick Lunch!

I have been running late for approximately the past 4 days. I hate being late, but there is a lot going on lately and somehow, I can't seem to quite keep up! This led to yesterday... I was hungry, wanting some veggies, and without a lot of time to make an awesome lunch. A quick check of the fridge revealed that we had a lot of vegetable choices, not a lot of protein options, and a nice loaf of whole grain bread. Next I moved to the pantry, knowing that my options there for protein were either a can of tuna or beans, most likely. Luckily I found a can of white kidney beans aka white cannellini beans. Yum! These beans are creamy and firm and delicious.

So now my quick lunch begins....

Grabbed my handy dandy can opener...

And drained the fluid. I also rinsed the beans in cool running water. Let them hang out for a little bit so the excess water drains off. Feel free to nibble on a few as you get your food ready. :)

Do you know what a powerhouse cannellini beans are?? 1/2 cup of these babies has 120 calories, 10g of fiber, and 8g of protein! There are 200mg of salt, but rinsing them in cool water helps to get rid of the excess salt! Excellent source of protein and fiber, though.

I love green onions. Anyone else? I could seriously add them to almost anything. A milder flavor than the larger varieties.... and so cute and crunchy! I missed a few pictures here (remember, late and overwhelmed for the past 4 days!)... but I threw the cannellinis in a bowl, added a splash of balsamic vinegar, with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Topped with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkling of the chopped green onions.

Next.....grab some asparagus! Rinse them off and break off the ends. The end of the asparagus is very tough and not much fun to eat. Put on a little (1 tsp) olive oil and salt and pepper. Throw on your pre-heated grill [I will stretch out summer and grill using for as long as I possibly can!]

After the asparagus are browned a little bit on each side (thinking of the extra browning as added flavor!), throw them into a pan. You can totally stop after the grilling process, and I often do, but I was in the mood for a little bit of extra flavor so I improvised and came up with this next step. So, back to the pan. Before adding the asparagus, place in 1 tsp of olive oil, 1 TB of soy sauce, and a drizzle of honey. Add the asparagus and stir to coat. The honey helps the mixture to carmelize just a tad. Salty, sweet, mmm.

I skipped a few pictures.... like I said, I was hungry and soon to be running late! Next, I cut a few slices off of the bread, did a tiny drizzle of olive oil and stuck them on the grill. Flip after a few minutes.

Although a few pictures are missing, I did manage to get a final picture shot! This gorgeous meal took me less than 10 minutes. The bread and the beans came mostly prepared as they were, with me just adding a little bit of seasoning. The asparagus are thin and cooked very quickly on the grill. Tossing the asparagus in the olive oil/soy sauce/honey mixture took about 2 minutes total!
My biggest recommendation to you is to get creative in the kitchen. You can really come up with some delicious and visually appealing meals in a short amount of time. Remember, we eat with our eyes first, so take an extra moment to treat yourself to a beautifully arranged plate and you will enjoy your meal that much more!

Mary

Middle Eastern Lentil Chick Pea Soup

My girlfriend Sallie used to live just steps from a small family owned Middle Eastern takeout restaurant in Astoria, Queens. For months we were regulars because of the high quality, tasty, and spicy plates and sides. We loved the food because the spices packed a punch. Not quite in terms of heat, though we always maxed out the hot sauce addition, but the earthy spices like cumin, coriander, turmeric. What I was inspired to make most was the Lentil Chickpea Soup. It’s a soup that we both craved after temps in the 90˚s. If you can eat hot soup when it’s hot outside it must be good.

The soup is fairly easy to make, but it takes time. You could conceivably eat after cooking for an hour, though if you let it simmer for 3, 4, or 5 hours and let cool it’s spices will meld together so wonderfully.

This recipe makes 2-3 meals. I freeze in portions for later use. Recipe can easily be halved for a single meal.

Ingredients:

10 Cups of Water *

Tablespoon of “Better than Bouillon Vegetable Base”

2 Cups of diced Carrots

3/4 Cup of diced Red Onion

1 Cup of Medium Grain White Rice

1 LB. Lentils

1 Cup dried Chickpeas (soak over night)

3 pieces of garlic diced

Spices:

½ -1 teaspoon ground Pepper

½ -1 teaspoon Curry Powder

1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

1 teaspoon Turmeric

1 teaspoon Ground Coriander

1 teaspoon Ground Cumin

In an 8 quart stock pot sauté diced garlic, carrots and onions in a tablespoon of olive oil. Remove as much of Garlic/Carrots/Onions as possible and reserve for later.

Place Water, lentils, rice, vegetable base and bring to boil. Boil for 5 minutes and reduce to simmer.

After about 45 minutes on Simmer add the reserved Garlic/Carrots/Onions, Chickpeas and spices. At this time the rice and lentils will have somewhat dissolved.

Simmer for another 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld. If soup is too thick for your taste then just add some water and cook for a few more minutes.

I simmer the soup down to a somewhat pasty constancy, which is an additional

1-2 hours. Until it looks like the picture above.

Serve in soup dish with splash of olive oil, hot sauce, dash of oregano, and toasted pita.

Carnitas

Here are some pictures that I took early this year when I was living in Indiana still. It's a great, easy recipe...figured since I already had the pictures I might as well share them with you! :)

Carnitas are delicious and really quite easy. You purchase a pork butt roast, brown it, and stick it in a crock pot all day and wait for magic to occur! Let me walk you through it...

Buy your meat. Season liberally on all sides with salt and pepper.

Heat up your skillet/pan. The hotter the better. We are looking to brown the meat as quickly as possible. We are not trying to cook the meat through - that's what the crock pot is for!

Place your well-seasoned meat in the pan. If you don't hear intense sizzling as soon as the meat makes contact, it's not hot enough.

Brown the meat on all sides. Mmmm. Resist the urge to pick off a particularly well-browned piece!

Transfer your meat to the waiting crock pot. Add in one bottle of beer. Whatever you prefer. Seems to me like a mexican beer lends itself rather well to carnitas...but really, whatever you have on hand will work perfectly. For those of you concerned about alcohol, all of the alcohol will cook out over the long cooking process. Then you're left with just the wonderful flavor from the beer.

Put the lid on. Set the crock pot to low. Now walk away. Seriously. For 6-8 hours. Go to work. Get a manicure. Get a haircut. Wrap Christmas presents if you're organized like that.

Now that 8 glorious hours have passed....remove the lid. Be sure not to take off the lid earlier than this to get a sneak peak. The built up steam inside of the crock pot is what helps the cooking process. Everytime this escapes you need to add on an extra 30 minutes of cooktime. Just wait, trust me!

Stick a fork in the meat...

And it should just fall off the bone.....and perhaps, directly into your mouth. You do need to be sure its safe for others to eat before serving, right?

This makes an easy weeknight meal. Hard to beat a 4 ingredient main course. Also, works really well for parties, because you just double the amount of meat and add in another bottle of beer. Easy math. Shred the meat and place in tacos. Carnitas burritos? Yum. Tostada with beans, carnitas, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado...mmm.

Enjoy!

Mary

Jalapeno Poppers with a Twist!

Our backyard garden has been doing really well this summer. One of the crops that we have had an abundance of is jalapenos. We love spicy food so we had no problem adding jalapenos to salsa and some of our other favorite recipes. However, we had so many that my mom and I just knew that we needed to find a dish where the jalapenos could be the star.

Enter jalapeno poppers.

These aren't just any jalapeno poppers, though. The primary difference is they are not overflowing with cheese or fried.

Let's take a look at how these were made.

Grab a bunch of jalapenos and cut them in half. I think that I used 12 jalapenos, giving me 24 halves.

The hottest parts of the jalapeno are the seeds and the white membrane inside. Use a spoon and scrape this out. If you're feeling wimpy, you can put gloves on. If you're brave and use no gloves, just make sure to aggressively wash your hands before you even think of touching your eyes. Trust me on this one.

Here's a shot in the middle of the de-seeding process.

When I was making this I should have taken more pictures, but I was hungry and excited and got a little distracted. Turn your BBQ on to heat up. While it is heating, grab some goat cheese and prosciutto. Take a spoonful of goat cheese and place it inside the jalapeno half. Then, take a slice of prosciutto and wrap it around the goat cheese stuffed jala-jala-peno. Use can use a toothpick to secure. I did on some, but then got tired of the extra step.

Continue with all of your halves. You can do all the cheese, then all of the prosciutto, or you can go cheese, meat, cheese, meat. Whatever makes you happy!

Place these little babies on the grill, cheese side up. Let them brown and carmelize a little bit. Flip over for about a minute. You don't want your cheese to melt right out of the half.

Finished product:
Verdict: Yum. Double yum.

The creamy goat cheese and the salty (nitrate-free) meat really balance well with the heat from the pepper. If (and when) I make this again, I will use a little bit less goat cheese. Maybe 1-2 teaspoons per half.

Remember, people - moderation for life. It's okay to have a goat cheese-filled, meat-wrapped jalapeno every once in a while. And you can afford to have a few if it's grilled and not fried! :)

Mary

Chimichurri

The best description that I have ever heard in regards to Chimichurri sauce was that the steak it was placed on tasted like it had been dragged through the garden. That's exactly what the sauce is....a garden medley of herbs that come together to make a fresh and fabulous topping for a nice grilled steak.

The recipe that I used is as follows:

1 bunch flat leaf parsley

8 cloves minced garlic

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil [you don't need this much!! add a little, and add more if its needed]

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

juice of 1 lemon wedge

1 tablespoon diced red onion

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pulse parsley in processor to chop.

Add remaining ingredients and blend.

Separate sauce into equal parts.

Use half of the sauce for basting, and use the other half for table service.

Grab yourself a tri tip roast...mmm!

Follow the recipe and make up your chimichurri...

Smear it all over your tri tip roast.

Throw it on the grill. You want to do about 20 minutes on each side...slow and low is the key here. If you want to get fancy, once the first side has been down for a few minutes (5 or so), turn the piece (with the same side down) and rotate it 90 degrees and cook for another 5 minutes...this will give the cross hatch marks.

After 10 minutes, flip the meat. 5 minutes into this side turn 90 degrees again. Make sure you check for doneness... although this cut of meat thrives at medium, so don't be scared to take it off a little earlier than you usually would!

Here's the finished product:

Serve with some more chimichurri on top and enjoy!! And guess what, this makes fabulous leftovers the next day... I took a few of the slices and stuck them on the grill to warm them up. Topped with chimichurri, a few slices of home grown tomatoes, and a side of homemade guacamole. I have to say it might have been better the second day!!!

Make the most of the last days of summer and grill some tri tip this weekend!

Mary

Pizza on the BBQ

One of the things that I missed most while I was living in Indiana was being able to barbeque outside... I absolutely love grilling, it is one of the quintessential summer activities for me. What's great about southern CA is that this awesome cooking option can be done year round! We have grilled several times a week throughout August, and decided to grill pizza out on the bbq. We did this once before with cousin David on a trip to Aruba last summer and it was great!

We bought whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joe's - it is in the refrigerated section. You can also call up your local pizza store and ask if they sell dough...many do. Bring the dough home, flour a surface, and roll out your dough. Sometimes we do one piece with all of the dough, other times we divide it into 1/4s for more of a single serve pizza feel. Whatever you prefer! If you have the equipment, grab your pizza peel. This is an instrument that allows the pizza to slide right off of it and into the oven or onto the grill. We placed some cornmeal on it before placing the rolled out dough to prevent sticking.

Put oil on a paper towel and rub it on the grill slats. Slide your pizza on to the grill - medium heat.

Allow the 'down' side to firm up, and even brown a little. When this happens, flip it over and get your toppings ready! You can add anything you want....traditional cheese, pepperoni, veggie, bbq chicken, thai pizza, etc! Go crazy and get creative. The bottom of the crust will cook and brown as the cheese and toppings on top warm and start to melt. Check both sides of the pizza to know when it's time to remove it.

Grab your pizza peel and gently slide it underneath the surface of the pizza and remove it from the grill once the bottom is lightly browned and the cheese is melted on top. Yum!

Use your pizza peel to slide the pizza onto the cutting board. Grab your pizza cutter and slice up. We often times will top the finished pizza with a bunch of arugula and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Enjoy :)

For you pizza lovers, this is a great option to take out or chain pizza. Nothing against them at all, but with homemade pizza you control exactly what is going into your body.

Just to show you all that this blog is named moderation for life, for a very good reason... here's a picture of a homemade dessert that I baked and thoroughly enjoyed eating! Moderation is the key - I don't eat sweets like this every day, but when I do, I am not afraid to indulge and enjoy.

Can't believe Labor Day has come and gone...2011 is flying by!

Mary

Been a little busy...

Yikes! Between moving home from Indiana and the rest of summer just zipping by...somehow it's been over a month since my last update!! So sorry to all of you for not keeping up with this. Mom and I are grateful to cousin David for providing a post in our absence. Hopefully the three of us will be much better at posting on a regular basis!

Will show you a few things that my mom and I have made since we've been reunited and able to cook together! :)

This is an AWESOME product from Costco.... Village Harvest's Whole Grain Creations. It has a medley of wheatberries, barley, quinoa, cranberries and almonds. You microwave 3/4 cup for 45 seconds and it's ready to eat!!

Here's the label: 220 calories in 3/4 cup, 4g of fat, 4g of fiber, and 5g of protein. Delish and a great option!

We made this grain, sauteed spinach with garlic, and added adobe shrimp to the plate. So yummy! For the shrimp, we combined adobo chilis with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Tossed the shrimp in the sauce and cook in a pan.

We served this meal with a side of tomatoes, onions and green beans...marinated with a little bit of balsamic vinegar and red pepper flakes!

Will share one more picture for now....my mom and I went to the cafe in Nordstrom's for lunch one day in between the kids games at Junior Olympics this summer. I had a fabulous lunch...and I actually almost missed this item on the menu!! It was pan seared salmon with rustic roasted veggies. Olive oil, salt and pepper were the only seasonings used and it was wonderful. Loved the big pieces of veggies and the salmon was awesome...crispy outside from the pan being so hot, and cooked to perfection inside.

Hopefully once Derek and Alaina head back to school, I can convince my mom to rejoin the blogging world, I know you all miss her wonderful insights!

Mary