Awesome Noshin'

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Cuban Black Beans and Brown Rice

*For some reason, I'm unable to upload pictures from my computer, the browse box isn't coming up. I will add the images when I can figure out what's wrong. In the meantime, all of these recipes, along with the corresponding photo, are being posted to my Beachbody coach "like" page: www.facebook.com/bondgrlfit. I apologize for any inconvenience.*

Once upon a time, I worked at a Latin restaurant, and we served Cuban black beans with rice, and served the same beans with the liquid as a soup drizzled with lime juice and sour cream. It was sooo good, I ate it every evening before my shift! With rice, this is a complete protein, and is full of protein and fiber, so really filling! You can do the same thing we did at the restaurant, scoop the beans out with a slotted spoon and serve it over rice like I did this evening, or ladel it out and serve as a soup! If you aren't vegan, I love to add a small dollop (About 1/2 a tablespoon) of low fat sour cream (Don't buy fat free, they pack that version full of chemicals and stabilizers to give it flavor and texture. I'll take a little fat), lime juice, cilantro, and diced tomato! This makes a TON of beans, roughly 8 cups! I reserved 4 cups of the beans to use later this week for black bean burgers, and divided the remaining beans into one cup servings!

Here is how I made it:
Olive oil cooking spray
1 yellow onion, diced medium
2 celery stalks, diced medium
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
26 oz bag black bean soup mix, seasoning packet discarded or saved for later use, soaked overnight
1 dried bay leaf
1 small bunch cilantro, stems and leaves seperated, stems tied with kitchen twine
3/4 cup brown rice
1 roma tomato
1 lime cut into wedges
sour cream

In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, saute onion, celery, and garlic and cook until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Add carrots and cumin and saute until fragrant, about a minute.

Add black beans, 8 cups of water, bay leaf, and cilantro stems, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer, tilt lid, and cook until beans are tender and liquid is slightly reduced, 1 1/2 to 2 hours (I like mine still a bit firm, so I stay with 1 1/2 hours, if you like soft beans, aim for 2). Taste for seatoning and season with salt and pepper, if desired. Remove bay leaf and cilantro stems.

Meanwhile, cook rice with 2 cups water, bring to a boil and reduce until tender, 30-45 minutes.

Serve beans over rice, or omit rice and serve as a soup! If you'd like, serve topped with tomato, cilantro leaves, sour cream, and lime wedges to squeeze over top!

Baked Tilapia, Broccoli with Cheese Sauce, Steamed Asparagus, and Rice!

Husband made dinner the night before last, and even made a pretty presentation! Our son doesn't care for asparagus, so I made some steamed broccoli with cheese sauce so he would eat his freaking vegges! He loves broccoli, won't touch aspara...gus! My husband found this awesome Uncle Ben's 90 second rice blend of wild rice, red rice, and black rice, so all whole grains! I don't usually like buying them, since they're flavored and more expensive, but he wanted them! This didn't have MSG in it, which I was adament about checking for since it swells my sinuses. It was really yummy, so I'm going to go pick up the wild, red, and brown rice blend I saw the other day which was just the rice! The asparagus was frozen, we just popped it in a microwavable container, laid the top over at an angle and nuked for 5 minutes. Simple. The cheese sauce makes more than you really need, but it's delicious on other stuff, too, or folded into a warmed corn tortilla and eaten as a quesadilla. That's what I did with the extra! :)

How Man made the fish:
5 Tilapia fillets
Mrs Dash Italian Medly
flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Season fish with the herb blend and sprinkle a little flour over (It gave the fish a little crunchy topping, I would have spritzed some olive oil spray over the top to brown it.). Bake for 10 minutes, flipping halfway through.

For the broccoli:
2 crowns of broccoli, crowns cut off
1/2 cup evaporated skim milk
1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/8 tsp worchesterchire
1/8 tsp hot sauce

In a steamer basket over boiling water, steam broccoli about 5 minutes until fork tender.

In a small saucepan, whisk together milk and starch, bring to a boil while stirring often. Once it has reached a boil, remove from heat and stir in cheese, hot sauce, and worchestershire until cheese is melted and completely mixed with the milk. Season with salt and pepper, if desired, and drizzle over broccoli!

This recipe serves 4!

Monday, January 7, 2013

Pasta with Broccoli Pesto and White Beans

We decided to go vegetarian for January, and this was our first veggie meal for the month! It was sooo yummy! In the past, I have used vegetarian recipes as side dishes, so you could cut this in half to make side dish portions, or make the whole recipe if you like bigger sides! All three of us are on high protein diets, my husband and I for building muscle, my son to boost his brain power, so my criteria for all of this month's meals was that they must have a minimum of 20g of protein, which also means the only cook books I used for inspiration are ones that included nutrition information for all recipes (Which I really wish all cookbooks and magazines would do). I plan to input my version of all of these recipes into a recipe calculator so I can post the nutritional information for the changes I make.

How to make it!
4 cups broccoli, cut into 1 inch pieces (Two large heads, floretts and stems)
6 oz short cut pasta, I used rotini
5 teaspoons veggie or chicken stock
1/8 cup freshly shredded parmesan
1 teaspoon lemon zest plus 1 Tbsp juice
1/2 cup packed fresh parsley
1 small clove garlic
1 can cannellini (Great Northern) beans, or 3/4 cup dry beans

If using dry beans, rinse, cover with water and soak overnight in the fridge. Rinse and drain, add to a pot and cover with water and cook according to the directions on the bag, drain and rinse and set aside. Or, drain and rinse canned beans.

In a pot of boiling salted water, cook broccoli until tender and bright green, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove broccoli to a food processor, return water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 2 cups cooking liquid and drain pasta and return to pot.

Meanwhile, to broccoli in food processor, add stock, parmesan, lemon zest and juice, parsley, and garlic. Puree until smooth, scraping down sides as needed. Return to pot with pasta, stir to coat, and add reserved water as needed to make a creamy sauce (I needed it all). Stir in beans and heat over medium until warmed through. Season to taste with salt and pepper (Taste before salting, the cheese and pasta water will add a good bit of saltiness). Serve and sprinkle with additional cheese, if desired (And I desire!) and enjoy immensley! Serve with a salad, I dressed mine with a little lemon juice!

This recipe serves 4

Spinach and Mushroom Smothered Chicken

Chicken with Chive Sauce and Broccoli Mashed Potatoes

*For some reason, I'm unable to upload pictures from my computer, the browse box isn't coming up. I will add the images when I can figure out what's wrong. In the meantime, all of these recipes, along with the corresponding photo, are being posted to my Beachbody coach "like" page: www.facebook.com/bondgrlfit. I apologize for any inconvenience.*

I had a lot of chives and mushrooms leftover from Christmas (I still need to post those meals!) that needed to be used up, so I decided to use them up with this recipe! I love mushrooms, so I tend to purposely buy too much so I have an excuse to throw them in to other recipes! Another thing I really love is broccoli cheddar soup, and I wanted to get my son to actually eat his mashed potatoes this time, so I knew adding broccoli and cheddar in to them would get the job done!

Here's what's up!
2 chicken legs
1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp minced chives
1 T whole wheat flour
2 T chicken broth
1 cup evaporated skim milk
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

In a large skillet, brown legs over medium-high heat for 3 minutes on each side, shove gently into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until cooked through and juices run clear when pierced with a knife. Remove from pan and let rest while you make the sauce.

In the same skillet, sprayed with cooking spray, cook mushrooms and chives for 2 minutes. Stir in flour and cook for a minute or two to cook out the floury flavor, and gradually wisk in the broth until blended. Whisk in the milk and nutmeg, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook and stir for 3-5 minutes until thickened. If it doesn't thicken as much as you like, make a slurry with a tablespoon of water and cornstarch, temper it with a little of the sauce, and gradually drizzle in to the remaining sauce while constantly whisking so it doesn't clump. Taste for seasoning, and salt and pepper to taste.

For the broccoli mashed potatoes:

2 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 pound broccoli, chopped (4 cups)
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup evaporated skim milk
salt and pepper to taste

Cover the potatoes with water and bring to a boil. Add broccoli to a steamer basket and set above the potatoes and water, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Check broccoli with a fork to make sure they are fork tender, and remove to a food processor. Drain potatoes and add back to the hot pot, burner turned off. Pulse the broccoli with a little milk until finely chopped. Add to the potatoes and mash with a potato masher, adding milk as needed. When completely mashed, stir in cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

This recipe serves 4

Vegetable and Tofu Pad Thai

*For some reason, I'm unable to upload pictures from my computer, the browse box isn't coming up. I will add the images when I can figure out what's wrong. In the meantime, all of these recipes, along with the corresponding photo, are being posted to my Beachbody coach "like" page: www.facebook.com/bondgrlfit. I apologize for any inconvenience.*

I love Asian food, particularly Thai and Vietnamese, because their dishes tend to use my favorite ingredients, cilantro, lime, fish sauce, and Siracha! If you're vegan, you can substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce. My husband has never liked me cooking with tofu, and he really liked this! Even my son grabbed some of the seared tofu off my cutting board and ran off with it, singing it's praises! I did change up this recipe just a little bit to lower the fat and boost the protein by using less oil to cook the eggs, veggies, and tofu in, and by using four egg whites instead of two whole eggs. I meant to use wide rice noodles, but forgot to buy them, so I used whole wheat spaghetti, instead. I would have used fetucchini if I'd had it on hand, however.

Here's what I did!
14 oz firm tofu, drained and blotted dry
8oz dried wide, flat rice noodles (Or whole wheat fetucchini or spaghetti)
1/4 cup lime juice (3 normal limes or 1 1/2 of the monster limes I got last week!), plus wedges for serving
3 Tbsp fish sauce (or soy sauce)
1 Tbsp Siracha chili sauce
1 Tbsp packed dark brown sugar
vegetable oil cooking spray
4 egg whites lightly beaten
2 medium carrots, peeled and shredded
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 green onions, white and green parts seperated and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp roasted peanuts, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Wrap tofu in a double layer of paper towels and set in a bowl. Top with another bowl and a heavy can or two to press out liquid. Let sit 30 minutes, blot again, cut in half widthwise, then slice thinly along the short side, blot again.

If using rice noodles, soak according to package directions, or cook whole wheat pasta according to package directions.

In a small bowl, combine lime juice, fish or soy sauce, Siracha, and brown sugar. Set aside to let the flavors marry.

In a large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray, cook eggs, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan and cook until set, 1 minute, transfer to a cutting board, lightly roll up, and slice into thin strips (Or, if you fail at this like I did, just scramble the eggs!). Clean out the pan if any egg stuck, re-spray with oil, and cook tofu until golden brown on both sides and crisp, about 7 minutes, flipping halfway through. Transfer to cutting board. I sliced each piece in half, as well, just to make it more fork friendly.

Add carrots, garlic, and scallion whites to skillet and cook until softenend, about 3-5 minutes. Add sauce and bring to a simmer. Add noodles and cook, tossing frequently for about a minute, then toss in eggs and tofu to combine.

Serve topped with scallion greens, cilantro, and chopped peanuts, with lime wedges on the side.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Make Your Own Wild Rice Blend!

Here's something that irks me (One of a laundry list of things I find irksome, I should say), I could not find a wild rice mix that wasn't seasoned anywhere, in any of the three stores I tried! It used to exist, I've seen it before! Every freaking box of wild rice mix was blended with white rice and herbs, seasonings, MSG (Which I'm mildly allergic to, and avoid at all costs.), food dyes, and other delicious chemicals I don't want to feed my family. Even if I didn't mind being mummified at 26, the problem still existed that I needed it for my wild rice stuffing for Christmas and wanted to season it myself, not have Uncle Ben do it for me. Where's the fun in that?

What I did find was a box of just wild rice, so I made my own mix! Wild rice really isn't that good on it's own, so you want to have it with another rice. For the one cup I need for the stuffing I'm making for Christmas, I used 3/4 cup brown rice and 1/4 cup wild! When I figured out the cost, it also came out to be cheaper than if I had bought a box of the stuff made with white rice and seasoned with MSG and a ton of salt! The finished product was awesome, by the way! I'll post that in a bit!