Creamy Feta Dip – another product of my Pinterest addiction…

Tags

chest freezer, chest freezers, chips, cream cheese, creamy, dip, easy, feta, feta dip, pita, vegetarian

 

Creamy feta spread on spicy falafel? Yes, please!

 

 

When life gives you a lemons, make limoncello.  (Or lemonade if you’re boring, whatever.)  Keeping that in mind, when the gods of the grocery bargains present you with a great deal, you have to snatch it up and make something delicious with it.  Something that I got a great deal on recently was some crumbled herb feta for just $1.40 per pound.  The catch? It was in a five pound bag.  So, out came my trusty food sealer and I portioned, labeled, and popped it in to the freezer.  In my experience, cream cheese, shredded cheese and crumbled firm cheeses freeze pretty well.

Lately, my fireman has been giving me grief about having (and filling up) two chest freezers.* In my efforts to reduce the contents of the freezers, I realized that I should make more of an effort to use that feta.  I was brainstorming on Pinterest and came across several recipes for feta dip.  Then I was off to the races.

*Note: on chest freezers.  I don’t want you to think that we have anything against chest freezers; in fact, I have found having a chest freezer to be a great help in keeping a grocery budget.  When you get a windfall or an amazing bargain, it really helps to have a place to keep it.  My first chest freezer is probably the most used/useful wedding gift that we got, and I was quite excited when my Dad said he didn’t have space for his one any more.  My fireman’s thought (which I totally agree with) is that if I can get everything into one freezer we can un-plug the second one and save on our energy bills.  Then, when someone in the family bags a deer or has an epic fishing trip we can plug #2 back in!*

I used my yummy feta dip in a kind of Greek-themed mezze platter dinner with flat bread, spicy falafel and tzaziki sauce.  The fireman dubbed this dinner ‘a keeper.’  This dip/spread would be wonderful in any sort of sandwich or wrap or as part of an appetizer spread with garlic toasts or pita chips.  I had half of it left over and I think I’m going to add it to some scalloped potatoes or something…

Creamy Feta Dip

Makes 2 cups and serves 4-6 – cost approx $1.86 per batch or $.37 per serving

Ingredients

• 4 oz cream cheese ($.12 – yet another great deal I have stashed up in the freezer)
• 8 oz feta ($.70)
• 2 Tbs minced parsley – any sort of herb that you like would be great
• 1/2 lemon’s juice ($.20)
• 1/4 cup olive oil ($.59)
• salt & black pepper – to taste, be sure to taste first, feta can be salty and depending on the brand you get you may note even need the salt

Pay attention now, because this one is really tricky.  Put everything in a food processor and blend it up.  Taste and adjust for seasonings.  If you like pepper, maybe garnish it with a little more fresh cracked pepper…

Crespelle di Castagne – Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…

Tags

castagne, chestnut flour, chestnuts, crepe, crepes, crespele, Italian, ricotta, roasted chestnuts, Stuffed, Tuscan, Tuscany, vegetarian

I want to wish everyone in the greater internet area happy holidays; no matter who, what or where you are there’s some sort of solstice-y reason to celebrate, right?

My awesome Mother-in-Law got me some Italian chestnuts at a specialty food shop in her neck of the woods because she figured (quite correctly) I didn’t have any real stores around here and would like them. So, I roasted them up, threw some of them into my coffee grinder to make a bit of chestnut flour and invited my in-laws over for a chestnut-y dinner. We had chestnut crepes, both savory and sweet. I’m so happy they’re both easy going and retired so they don’t mind too much driving to see us up in the mountains.  My in-laws have been so great about including me in their family traditions and celebrations, I really like sharing some of the odd traditions that I’ve collected over the years with them.

Chestnuts are roasted and sold as street food in the cities in Italy in the fall and winter. They also grow in the woods in the hillsides in Tuscany and everyone looks forward to eating chestnuts in the fall time. I learned this recipe for chestnut crepes at my internship in Guamo. The chef got some chestnut flour for his special, fall dishes and had a fun time having me guess what it was by just taste, I had no clue!  In Tuscany they also make a strange sweet and savory, fudge-like treat with chestnut flour, orange rind and rosemary. It’s an acquired taste, I assume. Let’s just say, I vastly prefer making these chestnut crepes instead.

Basic Chestnut Crepes 

If you have a crepe recipe that you love and works great for you, just substitute 1/4 of the flour for chestnut flour, which you may be able to find in Italian specialty stores or you could just grind up your own toasted chestnuts in a spice/coffee grinder.

Serves 4 – both dinner and dessert, cost approx $2.02 for batch or crepe batter

I served this meal with a loaf of bread and it was enough for 4 people, cost approx $1.92 per serving.

Ingredients

• 60 grams chestnut flour ($1? I have no clue what this costs, sorry)
• 150 grams all purpose flour ($.25)
• 2 eggs ($.30)
• 400 ml milk ($.22)
• pinch salt

Whisk everything together until there are very few lumps, strain through a fine mesh strainer and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to overnight.  It’s a very thin batter.  When you’re ready to make crepes, heat a small, non-stick pan over medium heat.  Grease it however you see fit and pour in a small portion of batter.  Quickly swirl the pan around to make a thin crepe.  If this is your maiden voyage on the S.S. crepe, I might suggest watching a video or two first.  It’s not hard to do but it helps to have a good idea before you set sail…

Like so: nice, thin crepes.

Cook your crepes on both sides just to that the batter is cooked, we’re not looking for a lot of browning here.  Let cool for a minute or two and move to a plate for storage.  Make about a million more crepes.

You can go right ahead and fill these little guys or they are happy to wait in the fridge, covered tightly in plastic wrap, for up to one or two days.

Savory Crepe Filling 

Makes enough for 4 servings

• 1 cup ricotta ($.50, I freeze ricotta when it goes on super sale)
• 1 egg ($.15)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup sauteed veggies – I used mushrooms, onion and arugula ($2)

• 2 cups bechamel sauce ($.50)
• 1 cup marinara or ragu ($.50)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix up all the ingredients in the first set, and get a baking pan ready, put about half of your sauces on the bottom of the pan.  Put a scoop of filling on a crepe and roll it up gently, place in the prepared pan on top of the sauces.  Fill up all the crepes you want.  Anywhere from 12-20 crepes for 4 people, depending on how full you stuff them.  Top with remaining sauces

Bake at 375F for 20 minutes or so.

Sweet Crepe Filling

Makes 4 servings

• 1 cup ricotta cheese ($.50)
• 1 orange, segmented ($.50)
• 4 Tbs honey, divided use ($.50)
• powdered sugar – for garnish

Preheat oven to 375F.  Mix ricotta, orange slices and 3 Tbs honey.  Fill your crepes and bake 5-10 minutes.  Sprinkle over some powdered sugar and drizzle on the remaining honey.  Serve immediately, yum!

 

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Taquitos – Vegetarian Fun-Land!

Tags

baked, black bean, black beans, cream cheese, cumin, flauta, sweet potato, sweet potatoes, taquito, vegetarian

I was going to say that I’m a master of turning healthy ingredients into things that are bad for you, (which I am) but when I thought about it I realized that my baked taquito craze isn’t all that unhealthy.  So, go buck-wild!  Destroy a tray of these little suckers without the guilt associated with plowing through a tray full of fried goodies.

Now that holiday entertaining season is upon us, these are a great make ahead appetizer.  Plus, these little buggers are vegetarian too!  At larger gatherings and when I’m planning out any sort of a party menu I always try to make at least half of the appetizers vegetarian-friendly.  I made a big ol’ batch of these last night and popped some in the freezer.  Stay tuned to see how they thaw/bake.  But, I can attest that cooked ones keep well in the fridge for a day or so and reheat well in the oven.

To be le’honest, I saw the idea for black bean and sweet potato taquitos on pinterest but I developed this recipe entirely by my onesies.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Taquitos – served with cilantro lime rice, sour cream and salsa

Makes 40 – cost approx $.12 each including fixin’s

Serves 6 as entree – cost approx $1.03 per serving including fixin’s and rice

Ingredients

• 1 lb sweet potatoes, 3 medium, peeled and small dice – ($.83)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2-3 cups cooked black beans – from 1 cup/8oz dry beans, you could use canned too ($.50)
• 8 oz cream cheese ($.24)
• 1 jalapeno, minced – optional ($.25)
• 1/2 cup or 4 oz shredded jack cheese ($.50)
• salt, to taste

• 40 corn tortillas ($1.11)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon grease, divided use

• 1 cup sour cream – for dipping! ($.50)
• 1/2 cup salsa – also for dipping ($.50)

Start off by cooking the black beans if you’re starting from dry beans.  If you’ve got a busy day, a crock pot on low for 4-8 hours is a great way to get your beans cooked while you’re out and about.

Next up, cook those sweet potatoes.  Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Toss the diced sweet potatoes with some salt, a few tbs of vegetable oil and the cumin and chili powder.  Bake on a cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes.

To assemble the filling, mix up the roasted sweet potatoes, cooked and drained black beans, cream cheese, jalapeno, shredded cheese and some salt.

Now that the filling is all made up, it’s time to assemble.  (I’m holding my imaginary mijolner in an “Avengers Assemble!” sort of a moment here, but I digress…)  Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Keep a pan with a few tablespoons of vegetable oil or bacon grease over medium-low heat and prepare a little assembly station.   I go into more depth on my assembly set-up in my first taquito post if you want to read about it in a little more detail.  ( https://fullbellyfullwallet.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/pulled-pork-taquitos-im-falling-fast/ )

Go ahead with the system of briefly microwaving a few tortillas at a time, dipping one in the pan of warm grease and rolling it up with a few tablespoons of filling.  Set each taquito on a baking sheet.  If we’re being completely honest here, I used the same tray I baked the sweet potatoes on.  Why make more dishes to wash?  Bake for 20 minutes at 400 F or until golden and crisp.

They’re so cute!

Egg Salad Hedonism – a little bachelorette-night indulgence

Tags

egg salad, fresh bread, home made bread, home made mayo, lunch, paprika, pimenton, simple, vegetarian

I’m flying solo here in the mountains while my Fireman is off fighting the big and yucky (those are technical terms) King Fire.  If you’re in northern California, you probably can’t turn on the local news with out hearing about that bad boy.  Hopefully, they’ll lick it soon.

Now onward to what you came here for, the food.  When I’m just cooking for me, I like to treat myself to things that I don’t get that often, which tend to be breakfast and lunch foods.  While my hubby is around I’ll make us whatever sort of dinner food we’re craving, but we’re so busy during the day I rarely cook traditional breakfast or lunch fare!  On a quite similar note, my sweetie just said in his last phone call that one of the few perks of working the night shift on the fire is that he gets breakfast for dinner every day.  🙂

I just love egg salad, it’s one of the first things my Daddy taught me how to prepare when I was a little girl.  Now that I’m a culinary professional, I felt like I had to jazz it up a bit: home baked bread and hand whipped mayo.  Whaaaaat!?!?  Egg salad is nothing complicated but home made takes this to the next level.

Egg Salad Hedonism

Makes 3-4 sandwiches – cost approx $.88 per sandwich

Ingredients

• 6 hard boiled eggs, diced – I used a pastry cutter and it made me feel like a kitchen lifehack genius when in reality I’m just a lazy person who doesn’t own an egg slicer. ($.90)
• 1/2 cup home made or prepared mayo – I’m not the best teacher for this one, mayo and I have a ‘complicated’ relationship, I’m sure there’s lotsa good advice on the interwebs if you want to learn to make your own. ($.50)
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• pinch smoked paprika – I think this is the secret ingredient, I used a Spanish pimenton

• 1/2 loaf fresh bread – The bread recipe I use is “Pam’s Country Crust” from Southern Living Magazine, it’s a workhorse that I use for everything: monkey bread, sandwich bread, cinnamon rolls…  ($1)

Mix up everything, taste it to adjust the seasonings and smear it on your bread!  Easy money.

Fresh Herb Tagliatelle – on fresh pasta and why you should make some today!

Tags

fettucine, fresh pasta, herb pasta, herbs, home made pasta, how to make pasta, tagliatelle, vegetarian

Hi there everyone, look at my new toy!  I saved up a little bit from each paycheck all summer and bought this bad-ass, butcher block kitchen cart!  I worked on Boos Block brand in a bakery while I was in college and really liked it; and now I really love my own butcher block island!

What I don’t love is the 80’s linoleum floor my kitchen has…

Anyway, on to the yummies.  Now that I have a nice work surface, I’m going to try to make more fresh pastas.  I just love how much better a fresh pasta tastes for those fancy times when you want to go all out and make something really amazing.  It’s got simple ingredients and is simple enough, you just have to put in a little elbow grease.  On today’s docket was a fresh herb pasta with some amazing herbs from my Daddy’s garden.

Fresh Herb Tagliatelle 

Serves 6 as a ‘primo’ appetizer portion or serves 4 as an entre portion

Cost approx $1.25 per batch

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh herbs ($0 for home grown!)
• 4 cups flour ($.45)
• 2 eggs ($.30)
• 4 Tbs olive oil ($.25)
• pinch salt

So, here’s the procedure for a fresh pasta.  (Omit the herbs for a basic, plain pasta.)  For the fresh herb part, pull the leaves off the herbs and puree them up in about 2/3 cup water.  A light puree will make a pasta with more flecks while a longer puree will make a more uniform, green pasta.  Let your heart decide.

Before you start, get all your ingredients together on a large work surface and also have a cup or two of water on hand.

Make a well in the center of the flour and crack the eggs inside, pour in the olive oil, a hearty pinch of salt and the herb puree.

Start to gently stir the goodies in the center and incorporate a little flour, while still keeping the well shape intact.

Now’s the time to get in there with you hands and start to knead.  Knead until a ball of dough starts to form.  Add water as necessary, a tablespoon or so at a time.  I find it easier to start with a drier dough and add water as needed than to add a lot of water at the beginning and add flour as needed.  You’ll know the consistency is right when a firm but kinda lumpy ball of pasta dough forms.

See, kinda lumpy…

 

This is the not-so-fun part.  Now you knead away for 15-25 minutes.  I like to knead by hand; but I’ve never tried it in a mixer so if you want to give it a go, let me know how it turns out for you!  I find that kneading by hand helps me feel in touch with my Italian heritage and gives me a little bit of an arm work-out while I watch a bit of TV.

The day we were doing pasta by hand (using this very method) in culinary school was quite a memorable one.  All the little kids, fresh from high school, were complaining about how long it took and how hard it was.  I had a nice time joking with them about how in Italy there are hundreds upon hundreds of 90-year-old grandmas doing this very thing and not complaining one little bit.  As the minutes ticked by, the kids got more and more whiny, wondering when their pasta would ever be done.  It was about then when one of my friends, who we all called X.O. (he was a military vet who was in culinary school to put a bow on his life-long love of cooking), spouted some of the best advice when it comes to kneading that I’ve ever heard.  He said “You just keep kneading it until it’s as smooth as an 18-year-old girl’s butt!”  Glancing down at the ball of pasta that the student next to him was working on, he added “That girl looks about 25, you still got some kneading to go.”  Every time I make pasta at home I think of this little exchange and how the ball of pasta starts out looking like the worst sort of cottage cheese thighs on a 45-year-old, out of shape, mother of six.  The trick is to keep working it until it looks like something you wouldn’t be ashamed of if it was your own backside.

Once you’ve had enough of kneading, wrap it up in a little plastic and let it rest on the counter top for an hour.  This lets the pasta smooth out even more and relax.

See, nice, smooth and well rested!

Next, roll out the pasta (in a pasta machine preferably, I’ve used a rolling pin before, it’s a lot of work!) into long, thin sheets.  Dust each sheet with flour so it doesn’t stick to other pasta or your work surface.  Lay a few sheets on top of each other.

Cut the pasta lengthwise, into long strips and toss with a little more flour.

Now, pat yourself on the back, because you just made fresh pasta!  From here you can freeze it or drop it in some boiling water and toss with your favorite sauce.

Cream sauce with mushrooms and bacon, yes please!

Lentil Shepherd’s Pie – The Lentil Adventure Lingers Awkwardly…

Tags

ideas for leftover mashes potatoes, lentils, mashed potatoes, one dish meal, one pot wonder, vegetarian

My fireman is such a good sport about this whole food-blog business.  He puts up with me standing on a chair at the dinner table to get a good picture.  He uses his phone’s flashlight app to better light my pictures while I’m standing on said chair.  He fishes out the right colored plate that I asked for for the particular meal.  He eats the same meal a few times in the same week if I’ve become fixated on getting a recipe ‘just right.’  He eats lentils week after week if I’ve become fixed on a particular ingredient, like I have been recently.  (Don’t feel too bad for him, I’m also currently experiencing an home made ice cream fixation.)  He nicely answers all my little questions like: How is the texture?  What would make this better?  Does it need more salt?

As we were eating this vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie I asked him “Does this taste almost like meat?” and then he laughed at me and said “No, but it’s very good as it’s own thing.”  For a little while I thought he was trying to make me feel better about a recipe that just wasn’t there yet, but then he took seconds, and then thirds.  I had made myself a little, personal-size portion, he ended up eating part of mine that I couldn’t finish and almost this whole pan!

This recipe isn’t going to fool your family if you try to pass it off as a dish with meat, but it’s pretty darn tasty and quite filling to boot.  It’s hearty, warm and quite vegetarian.  Creamy and potato-y on top and thick and stewy on the bottom!  It would be a good potluck or side dish if you have a mixed crowd of meat eaters and vegetarians.  Also, if you used a dutch oven it would be a one-pot-wonder sort of a dish.  Plus, it can be made ahead (or even frozen!) and cooked when you’re ready to eat.

Now, I wanna talk about mashed potatoes for a sec.  (I called for leftover mashed potatoes in this recipe, but fresh ones would do just fine too.)  In the last year or so I’ve started to always make a huge pot of mashed potatoes; it seems to me like it takes only a tad more effort to prepare and mash up a double batch of potatoes than a single batch and there’s so much you can do with the leftovers!  If I’m not planning to make a second dish with them, like a Shepherd’s Pie, I like to freeze up little 1 or 2 cup portions to use in other dishes.  Mashed potatoes are great to thicken up soups, stews or chowders or you can make potato rolls.

Lentil Shepherd’s Pie

Serves 4 – cost approx $.98 per serving

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb dry lentils, cooked – makes 2-3 cups when all cooked up ($.50)
• 2 Tbs butter
• 1 onion, small dice ($.50)
• 3 ribs celery, small dice ($.11)
• 3 carrots, small dice ($.10)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• 3 oz or 1/2 small can of tomato paste ($.25)
• 1/4 cup A.P. flour
• 3 Tbs Worcestershire sauce – or soy sauce if you’re going vegetarian for realsies
• 2 cups stock, any kind, I used vegetable stock
• 1 cup frozen peas  ($.19)
• 1/4 fresh herbs, minced – I used thyme, sage and parsley ($.25)
• 3-5 cups leftover mashed potatoes ($1.50)
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese ($.25)

Preheat your oven to 375 F.

Begin by melting the butter in a large oven proof pot.  (If you don’t have one, make the lentil mix in a large saute pan and transfer to a casserole dish.)  Saute up the onion, celery, carrot and garlic over medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until the veggies are cooked through.  Season with salt and black pepper.  Add in the tomato paste and flour and cook for 5 minutes while stirring frequently to brown the paste and cook out the raw taste in the flour.  Next, add in the Worcestershire sauce then the stock.  Bring the mixture up to a simmer and be sure to scrape the browned goodies off the bottom.  Add in the cooked lentils and herbs and let simmer for 5 minutes or so.  Taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary.

Now, top your lovely lentil filling with a nice layer of mashed potatoes and sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the top.

so cute…

Pop it in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the top of the mashed potatoes is slightly browned.

Lentil Veggie Burgers – The Lentil Adventure Boldly Goes…

Tags

burger, lentil burger, lentils, slider, vegetarian, veggie burger

It’s not often that my first tries at a new recipe go really well, but I have hope for this one!  I used another pound of lentils from my box to make up some lentil veggie burger patties and they were pretty darn good.  They’re still not absolutely perfect, but they’ll do for now and I can feel the potential residing in their little, lentil-filled, hearts.

My fireman helped me taste-test this recipe as I was tweaking the spices and adjusting the seasonings and he gives this one his manly-man seal of approval.

Don’t get me wrong, the man would rather have a porterhouse, but seeing as we’re saving money, there’s gonna be a few more meatless Mondays than steak dinners around here.  That being said, he liked the both the taste and texture of this veggie burger and said it was one of the best veggie patties he’s ever had.  Homemade Sriracha aioli didn’t hurt though.  I’ve found that putting some pizzazz into a side or sauce that I know he’ll really like (and I’ll like too!) goes a long way to make a vegetarian meal into more of something special and less of a sacrifice.

Plus, homemade mayo/aioli is THE proverbial shit.  If you need any further inspiration to making your own mayo, check out this article from a way cooler blogger than me:  http://foodisthebestshitever.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/how-to-make-mayonnaise-with-the-mayonnaise-nazi/

Lentil Veggie Burgers – Slider patties on potato rolls with Sriracha aoili and Honey Lime Slaw

Serves 6-8 – cost approx $.26 per serving!  About $1 per serving with sides and fixin’s

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats or oat flour ($.15)
• 1 lb cooked lentils – should be cooked through but not mushy ($1 in most discount grocery stores)
• 3 large or 4 small eggs ($.42)
• garlic salt, to taste
• 4-6 Tbs soy sauce or Worchestershire sauce – I used equal portions of each, but stick to soy if you’re wanting to go strictly vegetarian because Worry Sauce has anchovies in it…
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• pinch paprika

Break out your food processor and first pulse up the oats until it’s mostly flour-like.  It’s ok if there’s still some larger pieces.  Dump the oats out into a large bowl.  Next, put in the lentils and pulse them a few times, without mixing.  You’re looking for the bottom to get almost fully pureed but for there to still be some larger pieces on the top; this lends to a good, meat-like texture.  Scrape the lentils in with the oats.

Add all the remaining ingredients and stir until homogeneous.  Make a little taster bite and saute up about a tablespoon of the mix to see if the seasonings are to your liking.  Wet your hands and form up some patties.  This batch will make about two dozen sliders or a dozen full size veggie patties.  You can freeze the patties for later too!  I tested out a batch and they went straight from the freezer to the griddle perfectly.

It helps to roughly divide the patties in the bowl before digging your paws in, like so:

These burger patties can get cooked up on a griddle, like so:

I do not recommend you put them on a outdoor grill (trust me, I know from experience) but they can most certainly be put on a grill pan for a more traditional burger-look, like so:

Or probably you could bake these little guys too…

Here’s the sides that I served my little sliders with for a total meal cost of about $1 per serving, seriously, my sides cost way more than my main protein!  Let’s hear it for lentils!

How could you not love something so colorful!?!

• Potato rolls ($.50 for a homemade dozen)
• Honey Lime Slaw – a really simple slaw, it’s just 1/4 cabbage shredded up, a few shredded carrots, 1/2 bunch cilantro, salt to taste, a drizzle of honey and half a lime ($1)
• Sriracha Aioli – stir in Sriracha hot sauce, a squirt of lemon juice, a minced garlic clove and some minced parsley into a cup of (preferrably homemade) mayo.  ($.50)
• 1 sliced avocado ($.50)
• Oven fries ($.50)

Mediterranean Lentil Salad/Stuffed Peppers – The Lentil Adventure Endures

Tags

feta, lentil salad, lentils, low carb, low fat, Mediterranean, stuffed pepper, stuffed vegetable, vegetarian

I love when things surprise you by being a lot better than you thought they would be!  It’s moments like that which make me think that maybe my soul isn’t totally dead and corrupted by cynicism.  I hope that if I ever get to the stage where nothing is a happy surprise to me, that someone reminds me to just go try more new things…

Anyway, onto the point: the food!  I had an idea for a lentil and barley/tabbouleh/farro salad that sounded okay, but this one really turned out fantastic and got even tastier when stuffed inside some roasty peppers.  A true vegetarian delight!  My best-est friend in the whole wide world is a vegetarian, and I need to remember to make her this next time she visits.  After I was done being pleased with myself at making such a tasty dinner, I realized that it was a very low carb and low fat meal to boot.

This recipe is a baller cold salad for those hot summer months and a great filling for any vegetable you want to stuff.

Mediterranean Lentil Salad

Serves 4-6 – cost approx $.72 per serving

Ingredients

• 1 lb lentils ($1 in most stores)
• 1 cup pearl barley ($.29)
• bay leaf

• 6 oz crumbled feta ($.99)
• 2 ribs celery ($.31)
• 1/2 bunch parsley, minced ($.25)
• 1/2 bunch green onions, minced ($.25)
• 1 lemon, juice and zest ($.25)
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp cumin
• pinch nutmeg
• salt, to taste
• crushed red pepper, to taste or optional
• 2-3 Tbs olive oil

To make the lentil salad, start by combining the lentils, barley and bay leaf in a pot with enough water to cover and simmer until fully cooked and tender, about 20-30 minutes.  Drain in a colander and rinse under cool water, remove the bay leaf.

Combine the cooled lentils and barley with all the remaining ingredients, taste to adjust the seasonings.  Now you have an amazing, vegetarian lentil salad that’s wonderful cold or at room temperature.

You could add any other finely chopped vegetables that you like/have in the fridge/need to get rid of (such as onions, mushrooms, carrots, hot or sweet peppers…) to this dish too!

Lentil Stuffed Vegetables

Cost approx $2 per serving

• 2-3 peppers/zucchini/eggplant/mushrooms per person

Preheat the oven to 375F.  To prepare whatever veggies you’re going to stuff hollow them out and cut a thin slice off the bottom and sit them flat on a baking sheet.   Finely dice any usable scrap from the veggies and add it to the salad.  Stuff the little suckers to the gills then pop into the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender but not mushy.

Caribbean Lentil Stew with Jasmine Rice and Roti – The Lentil Adventure Continues!

Tags

caribbean, lentil, stew, vegetarian

As I stare at that huge box of lentils, I have challenged myself to make at least one lentil dish every week.  Hopefully, if I keep it up the lentils will be gone by the end of the year…  Seriously, there’s so many!

This one was a winner, my fireman liked it and my lovely Mother In Law really liked the leftovers he brought over during a visit.  I thought it was quite tasty for that matter too.  I love the exciting flavors of Caribbean food that came from the mixing of African, Indian and European cooking styles using American ingredients.  It’s also quite convenient that most of the spices necessary for creating some magical Caribbean flavors are probably already in your pantry.  (If not they’re in your regular grocery store) Also, serving this lentil stew with rice and flatbread really stretched out a little bag of lentils into a big meal with tons of leftovers.

Caribbean Lentil Stew– served with jasmine rice and roti (whole wheat flatbreads)

Serves 6-8 – cost approx $.53 per serving per serving, including sides

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs vegetable oil
• 3-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbs ginger, minced
• 1 small onion, small dice ($.37)
• 2 carrots, small dice ($.10)
• 1/2 bell pepper, small dice ($.50)

• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp corriander
• cayenne pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp garam masala or 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1 inch cinnamon stick or 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cloves
• 1 bay leaf

• 1 lb lentils, soaked in cold water ($1 in most stores)
• 6-8 cups vegetable stock
• cornstarch (optional)
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, minced ($.25)

Heat the vegetable oil over medium heat in a large pot.  Saute the garlic and ginger 30 seconds or until wonderfully fragrant.  Add in the onion, carrot and bell pepper and saute another 3-5 minutes.  Add in all the spices (all the ingredients in the second set and saute 1 minute.  Heating the spices helps to bring out all their wonderful flavors!

Add in the lentils and cover with enough vegetable stock to just cover the lentils.  Simmer for 30 minutes or until the lentils are fully cooked, you may have to add more stock if it starts cooking down too much.  If you want it more soupy (and boy would it make a yummy soup!) you can add more stock, if you want a thicker stew you can thicken it up with a little cornstarch slurry, the power is all in your hands.

Taste your wonderful stew and add salt to taste.  Garnish with cilantro and yum it up with rice and or some hot flatbreads!

Take Out – Fake Out Chow Mein! Nom nom nom.

Tags

chow mein, healthy, low fat, take out, vegetarian, versatile

Happy New Year internet friends!  The holidays were a blur up here in the mountains, but a happy blur.  I think.  The fancy restaurant where I work is extremely busy for both Christmas and New Years, so the holidays were a whirlwind of overtime and exhaustion, with a peppering of friends and family and not the drunken debauchery you all feared.

As it is a new year, I bet some of you have a resolution or two?  Not me, I’m perfect lazy.  If your resolutions involve saving money or eating better, this chow mein recipe is well worth taking a look at.  It tastes like that wonderful stuff you get for take out from your favorite round-eye Chinese restaurant but it’s made from all healthy, low cost ingredients and is low in fat!

I also love how this recipe is so versatile!  I made a version last week with pork, and this one in the pictures used shredded leftover Thanksgiving turkey that I defrosted.  You could just as easily use tofu or other vegetarian protein source.  Plus, a mountain of vegetables go into this dish!

Another factor that could be changed is the noodles; if you were looking to cut back on carbohydrates (Nerd Reference: we should all be wary of wheat and wheat by-products. Thank you NightVale Community Radio!) there are a plethora of alternative noodle choices available in Asian markets, some made with sweet potatoes or mung beans.  On with the cookery!

Take out-Fake Out Chow Mein

Serves 3-4 – cost approx $1.36 per serving

Ingredients

• 1 12 oz package of Chow Mein wheat noodles ($1.69)

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• 2 cups shredded, cooked meat – you could use anything!  I used turkey, but you could use any leftovers you have, chicken, beef or pork. ($.63)
• 2 Tbs soy sauce

-or-

• 8 oz thinly sliced meat or vegetarian option – this is what I did with pork last week.
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 2 Tbs soy sauce

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• 1 onion, thinly sliced ($.22)
• 2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced ($.35)
• 2 ribs celery, thinly sliced ($.37)
• 1/2 bell pepper, thinly sliced ($.50)
• 1/4 head cabbage, thinly sliced ($.50)
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced, divided use ($.25)
• 3 -5 cloves garlic, minced

• vegetable oil
• soy sauce, to taste
• 1 Tbs – 4 Tbs Sambal Oelek – or whatever you favorite Asian hot sauce or chili paste is. Use as much or as little as you like, you dirty, spice-loving, masochist you!

Delicious, delicious heat…

• 2 Tbs cornstarch
• 1 cup stock – match this to your protein source, chicken with chicken, tofu with vegetable stock, you get the idea…
• sesame oil, to taste

So, to get started, put on a pot of water to boil and cook the noodles.  Drain them and toss with a drizzle of oil to keep them from sticking.

While the noodles are cooking is a great time to chop all your vegetables and get everything ready.

Always do good prep when cooking Chinese food!  I wasn’t lying, it’s am veritable mountain of vegetables!

This recipe starts with cooking the protein.  If you’re using leftover shredded meat, toss it with the soy sauce mentioned in the top little set of ingredients.  If you’re starting with uncooked meat of tofu, toss it with the other ingredients in the lower little set for a quick marinade.  Heat up a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil in a wok or large non-stick saute pan and saute up whatever sort of protein you chose for a minute or two.  Remove and set aside.

Add to the wok or saute pan the onion, carrot, celery and bell pepper.  Saute for 5 minutes, adding a pinch of salt for good measure.  Next, add in the cabbage, half of the scallions and the garlic.  Saute 2 minutes.  Add back the reserved meat or tofu and the noodles.  Saute 3-5 minutes and season with the Sambal Olek chili paste and soy sauce, which will help to develop a little color on the noodles.  Mix together the cornstarch and stock and add to the pan, making a quick sauce.  Bring to a simmer then remove from the heat.  Finish with a happy drizzle of sesame oil and garnish with the reserved scallions.  So good, and it tastes like a slippery, greasy indulgence with all the flavor and a lot less of the calories!