Swai-hobo style

I learned a few things making this dish last night. 

1. Tin foil is my friend, it makes for insanely easy clean up.
2. Do not pile a bunch of vegetables on top of the fish, it impedes the cooking process!
3. I really like tin foil.

Take whatever veggies you have, I used the following
One yellow, pre cooked, potato-quartered and thinly sliced. 
One zucchini, sliced into rounds
Red onion
Mushrooms
Fresh basil
Garlic powder
Oregano
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Season the vegetables with the herbs and spices, drizzle with olive oil.  Lay the vegetables down first in the tin foil square, then plop the fish on top, close up the tin foil into a sack and pop it into an oven until the fish is cooked through.  Easy peasy!

Creamy fiesta three bean salad

Phew, it's been a rough month!  I've been cooking, we've been eating, but frankly I just was not up to sharing.  So, thanks for your patience and I hope that things will get back to a normal posting schedule now that the end of the school year stress is over.

Beans, we eat a lot of beans in our house.  I love them because they are cheap, nutritious and very filling.  I was never a big bean eater growing up, the extent of my love affair with beans stopped at the good old American can of pork n beans.  We had refried beans for our taco night, but always from a can.  Once I met my husband's mother and experienced what fresh beans were all about I was hooked.  Sometimes though, I want a cold bean side dish and that's what we had last night.

Creamy fiesta three bean salad

1 1/2 cup dried beans, assorted varieties, sorted rinsed and placed in a crock pot
water to cover by 3"
1/4 cup veganaise
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon taco seasoning mix (check the label to eliminate the nasty stuff or make your own mix)
1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro
2 cloves garlic
1/4 onion, roughly chopped
2 tomatillos, husks removed, washed and stem removed

Cover the dry beans with water and cook on low for 7-8 hours until done, but still firm.  Drain the beans and set aside, reserve the juice if desired for another use.

In a high power blender combine the veganaise through the tomatillos and blend on high until well combined.  This will make more sauce than you need for this dish, save the rest for green salad, a marinade or a dip for veggies.  Add the sauce to the beans and toss well to coat, set aside or refrigerate. 

You can add whatever other veggies to this dish you'd like.  Last night I tossed in the last little bit of my frozen corn and chopped up a roma tomato.  The time before I added diced raw zucchini.  Diced avocado would be good too.  It's limited only by what you've got on hand and need to use up.  It could even be turned into a main dish if you wanted by adding cooked chicken, shrimp or tofu, which sounds like a good alternative to dinner salads during the **hopefully** warm weather on it's way for us. 

Brussels Sprout salad

I have finally found a way to serve Brussels Sprouts that my 7 year old LIKED!  Oh happy, happy day!  I find it ironic that I even try to serve this particular vegetable to my son, I loathed them as a child.  Despised them even.  I had to choke them down-because in my house you did not tell the cook that you did not like her food, it would not end well if you did-but every single bite was pure torture.  I revisited them, out of love for my sister, at a Christmas dinner a few years back and realized that it's true, everything tastes better with bacon.  I've since enjoyed them steamed, sauteed, roasted and raw.  Paulo was not yet convinced that the little cabbages were not the enemy. 

This simple salad though may have helped him turn the corner.  While not in love with the humble cabbage he at least no longer loathes them.

Brussels Spouts, outer leaves removed, washed and thinly sliced

1 apple, cored, thinly sliced

1 pear, cored, thinly sliced

walnuts, a handful

2 tablespoons Veganaise

the juice of one lemon

Sea salt to taste

Combine the Veganaise, lemon juice and salt, mix well.  Toss the vegetables together in a large bowl, pour the dressing on and mix well to combine.  EASY!

Potato and wilted spinach salad

After a few weeks of seriously uninspired cooking I made something tonight I liked well enough to share!

Citrusy warm potato and wilted spinach salad
A Krista Kitchen Creation

3 cups baby spinach, rinsed and dried
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
6 fingerling potatoes, sliced
1/4 cup onion, thinly sliced
1/2 fennel bulb, sliced
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1 grapefruit, segmented, juice reserved
1 orange, segmented, juice reserved
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon agave
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan and saute the onion and potato slices until potatoes start to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and the fennel, cover and cook through.

In a small bowl, combine the reserved citrus juice with the vinegar, salt, cayenne and agave, whisk well and add in the remaining tablespoon of oil.

Add the sauce to the pan and simmer until liquid is reduced and potatoes are fully cooked.

Toss the spinach with the tomatoes and zucchini, add the hot potato mixture and combine well, allowing the spinach to wilt slightly.  Serve topped with segmented citrus fruit.  Enjoy!

Shredded carrot and zucchini salad

A super easy shredded salad, very light and spring like!

 
 

It's been a very busy week but I'm finally going to get around to posting a few things we enjoyed on Easter Sunday.  This was the salad I made to go with our salmon dinner.  I wanted something light, and easy.  I always wanted to find a way to get my kid to eat the zucchini which he'll do when it's shredded, he's not crazy about slices but he doesn't really realize what he's eating when it's shredded!

Shredded carrot and zucchini salad

2 large carrots, peeled and shredded
1 zucchini, shredded
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon veganaise
sea salt to taste

Combine the above in a medium sized bowl, mix well to combine.  Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. 

Sweet potato and green pea curry

I keep revisiting curries in the hope that my son and husband will grow to love them as much as I do.  I've yet to find the magic recipe that makes them both go Mmmm!  So if you have a tried and true curry, please tell me what it is!!  This one turned out a little too thick for my preferences but I enjoyed the flavors and textures and was a quick, easy, weeknight meatless meal.

In the meantime we dined on sweet potato and green pea curry last week.

1 sweet potato, scrubbed, peeled and diced

1 cup green pea, frozen is fine

Mushrooms, assorted types, diced

1/4 red onion, finely diced

1 can of coconut milk

1 1/2 teaspoons Thai Kitchen red curry paste

sea salt to taste

Cilantro

Raw cashews

Rice, cooked

Olive oil

Heat olive oil in a pan and add the onions, saute until soft, add the mushroom and potato to the pan.  Add in the red curry paste and coconut milk, simmer until warm and the potato is soft.  Add the green peas and cook until heated through.  Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. 

Serve over rice, we used a combination of brown and black rice, top with cilantro and cashews.



Pineapple Jicama salsa

A light and refreshing side just in time for the return of warm weather!

Pineapple Jicama salsa

A Krista kitchen creation

1/2 jicama, skin removed and diced

1/4 pineapple, cored, skin removed and cubed

1 serrano chile, seeds removed if desired, and thinly sliced

1/4 cup cilantro, diced

Juice of one lemon

sea salt to taste

Combine the above in a large bowl, mixing well to distribute the lemon juice.  Season with sea salt to taste and enjoy! 

While this was great for dinner that night it was almost better the next day, the flavors blended together wonderfully.  I served this as a side dish for bean tacos but this would on top of grilled fish for a light summer dinner.

Lemon basil cashew cream

I'm on a cashew cream kick.  I make no apologies for it, if you haven't tried it, you must, it is just that good!

Lemon basil cashew cream
A Krista kitchen creation

1 cup cashews, soaked overnight, drained and rinsed
4 tablespoons olive oil
4-6 tablespoons water
zest and juice of one lemon
1/4 cup fresh basil
sea salt to taste

Process all in a high powered blender and enjoy.

On this meal it was used to top a very simple dinner of brown rice with a mixture of beans cooked in the crock pot.  I love my crock pot too...almost as much as I love cashew cream.

Spicy cashew cream

Oh I heart cashews!  Big puffy heart as some of my darling friends would say.  Alas with braces the actual crunching of cashews is forbidden.  Enter...cashew cream! 

The culinary goddess that is Susan Powers over at Rawmazing posted a delightful looking salad topped with a Cayenne cashew cream, I knew I had to try it.  As an added bonus, I already had everything I needed on hand, love it when that happens!

To see the full recipe and drool a little over her photography click here.

Lime Cayenne Sauce

http://www.rawmazing.com/

Lime Cayenne Sauce

• 1/2 cup cashews, soaked overnight, drained and rinsed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon agave or raw honey
• 1/2 lime, juice from (I used a lemon)
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Himalayan salt and pepper to taste (I used the sea salt I keep on hand)

1. Place all ingredients in high speed blender. Blend until smooth

Not only is this a delightful topping to a salad it is also a fabulous raw veggie dip and as a sandwich spread.  The possibilities are endless!

Chile adzuki beans and rice

Beans and rice are a perfect, vegetarian, dinner.  High in protein and good carbs it is filling and nutritious and as an added bonus-cheap!  Add a side of sauteed swiss chard and you're getting even more bang for your nutritional buck.

Chile adzuki beans and rice with greens

One cup adzuki beans, sorted, rinsed

One cup brown rice

Greens of your choice

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 serrano chile, sliced

2 cloves garlic

1 handful cilantro leaves

Place the beans in a pressure cooker and cover with 2-3" of water.  Bring the pressure cooker up to full pressure and cook for 10 minutes.  Do a quick release and drain the beans to a bowl, season with salt and set aside.

Cook the brown rice according to directions.

In a blender combine the oil, vinegar, chile, garlic and cilantro, blend until smooth, taste and add salt if desired.

Heat olive oil in a large pan, add the rinsed greens and saute until done.

Top the rice with the beans and chile sauce, serve with the sauteed greens.

Juice monster

I've created a monster, a juice fiend if you will.  He asks for it, he begs for it, he says no to OJ and only wants this juice. 

And frankly, I am ok with that......



Paulo's green juice

1 Romaine heart, stem removed
1 apple, washed and cored
1 lemon, yellow peel removed, pith remains

Process through the juicer in the order above, if desired, add a small bit of agave to sweeten the deal. 

Seriously, this is Paulo's favorite morning drink.  I started giving it to him about six weeks ago to try to up his green quota, he drank it, but he didn't love it.  After a couple of weeks he started asking for it and now, if I run short of time or run out of an ingredient, I get the look...you know the look, the one that says Mom, I'm so disappointed in you!  I love that he loves his green juice. 

Maple Brussels Sprouts and Rutabaga

I'm always looking for different ways to eat Brussels Sprouts.  It's one of those vegetables that I despised as a child.  Really, really hated!  As an adult I tried them again and found that they weren't as terrible as they used to be.  Now, I actually like them.  I think though one of my favorite ways is the raw Brussels sprout salad, but this was good too.  The maple is not overpowering but you can definitely taste it.  Rene loved it, Paulo....well he tried it.  Sometimes that's as far as we get!

Maple Brussels Sprouts with rutabaga and walnuts
Brussels Sprouts trimmed and halved
2 rutabaga, peeled and diced
1 shallot, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
2 tablespoons dry cranberry
2 tablespoons walnuts
1 tablespoon earth balance butter spread

Steam the Brussels sprouts until fork tender.  Boil the rutabaga in salted water for around 10 minutes, also until tender.

Heat the butter in a saute pan, add the shallot and saute until soft.  Add the steamed Brussels sprouts and rutabaga.  Drizzle on the syrup and toss with the dry cranberry and walnuts, stir well to combine.  Simmer for 2-3 minutes, serve hot.

Tofu stir fry

We've been making up for our culinary sins this week, eating tons of fruits and veggies and good whole grains-I'm hopeful that will absolve me from the dozens of gingerbread cookies I've eaten.  And the fudge, don't forget the chocolate fudge....how could we forget the fudge?!  I know I won't soon forget it...

To shock our systems back into health I whipped up a veggie and tofu stir fry this week with brown rice.  Served with steamed bok choy I felt very, very healthy and could almost forget about all the dark, festive, beer I've been drinking!

The inspiration for this stir fry sauce was found here on The Food Rules Cooking blog I like to read.  Someday I will try her actual recipe for the Phad Thai, it looks amazing!

1/4 cup wheat free soy sauce
2 limes, juiced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Sesame oil
Extra firm tofu, drained and cubed
Assorted veggies (stir fry is an outstanding way to empty out the crispers) I used julienned carrots, sugar peas, steamed broccoli and mushrooms
Brown rice, preferably cooked over the weekend to save time
Cilantro
Toasted cashews

Combine the soy sauce with the lemon juice and brown sugar and set aside.

Heat the sesame oil in a pan and saute the tofu, add the veggies and rice, pour in the sauce, stir to heat through, taste, add salt if needed.  Add in the toasted cashews and top with the cilantro.

Serve with steamed bok choy drizzled with rice vinegar.

Sauteed spicy kale

2010, the year I met, and fell in love with, kale.  I really had no idea I would love it as much as I do!  I love it in my green juices, I love it baked, blended and sauteed.  Here we have a spicy kale saute.  I added a little serrano chile for a hint of heat.

One bunch of kale, cleaned, deribbed and sliced thin
1/4 onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 serrano chile, deseeded (or partially deseeded as the taste buds may be)
cilantro
the juice of one lemon
olive oil
sea salt

Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the onion and the serrano, cook until softened and translucent, add the garlic and continue to saute for a minute.  Add the kale to the pan, wet, and stir well, season with sea salt and cover with a lid.  Remove lid and stir after a few minutes, squeeze the lemon juice into the pan and mix well.  Serve hot.

Creamy roasted potato soup

This dish met two of my New Year's resolutions, to make soup and to use what I buy.  I had an assortment of potatoes in my pantry and I didn't want them to go to waste so I decided I would experiment with a creamy roasted potato soup.

• 2 sweet potatoes, scrubbed and diced
• assorted fingerling potatoes, scrubbed and diced
• 1/2 red onion, sliced
• 5 cloves garlic, smashed
• basil
• 2 cups plain rice milk
• 2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 1/4 cup coconut cream (chill a can of coconut milk in the refrigerator then open and scoop out the cream that separates to the top)
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Lay the above on a roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt.  Roast at 350 F until soft.  Transfer to a large pot and add the rice milk and 1 cup of the broth.  Bring to a simmer and blend with an immersion blender until smooth.  Add in the remaining cup of broth and the coconut cream and season with salt and pepper. Serve with a spinach salad.

Spinach and butternut squash salad

I've had a big butternut squash staring at me, accusingly, on my counter for a while now.  I bought it on a whim, not sure what I was actually going to do with it.  It sat, forlorn, in my kitchen...until Sunday night.  One of my New Year's resolutions is to use what I buy, seems simple enough, but we waste a lot of food in this country.  Depending on who you ask, it's estimated that we throw out between 14-40% of the food we buy!  That's a lot of money being tossed out in Thursday's garbage pick up, and that's a lot of food wasted when so many are going hungry.  So last night I made good on my promise to myself about using what I buy and cooked the squash.

Spinach and squash salad

• 1 butternut squash, cubed and steamed lightly (I used 1/2 of it and saved the other 1/2 for later)
• 2 big handfuls of baby spinach
• 1 cup grape tomatoes
• 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar

Steam the squash until fork tender and keep warm. 

Mix together the vinegar, oil and sugar. 

Put the spinach in a large serving dish, add the tomatoes and pine nuts, add in the squash and drizzle with the dressing, I used roughly 1/2 of my dressing, I didn't want the greens to drown.  Serve immediately.

Black eyed pea salad

Apparently if you want luck in the new year you need to eat Black Eyed Peas on New Year's Day.  I've heard this superstition for years but had never eaten black eyed peas, not on New Years Day or any other day.  Until yesterday.  They were good!  Will they bring me luck?  Only time will tell but when they did bring was a very filling, light, healthy salad that was the perfect start to 2011.

In an effort to avoid cans and BPA lining I cooked my black eyed peas in my pressure cooker for about 25 minutes-at full steam.  To be honest I think that was too much time, next time I'll go shorter, maybe 18 minutes or so and then release the steam to check them. 

Black Eyed Pea Salad
Down Home with the Neelys

• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
• 1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 jalapeno, finely chopped (I removed most of the seeds)
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onions (omitted because I forgot to buy them)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup unseasoned rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 (15 oz) cans black eyed peas, drained (used about 2 1/2 cups of uncooked black eyed peas)

Combine the first six ingredients in a bowl.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the vinegar through the salt and pepper.

Toss all together and marinate up to 8 hours in the refrigerator (mine marinated over night). 

Stir before serving and hope you get lucky!

Basil quinoa and red beans

I love basil.  Seriously I could eat it plain off the plant.  I love the smell too, I often stick my nose in the leaves and inhale....bliss.  I wanted some sort of pesto vehicle last night so I made this basil vinaigrette quinoa with red beans and vegetables.  You will need:

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and cooked
• 1 cup red beans, rinsed, boiled, rinsed again and then simmered on the stove until tender (you can also use your crock pot but for some reason I wanted to torture myself with the stove top method yesterday.)
• 1 cup frozen corn, cooked according to directions and allowed to cool
• 1 zucchini, thinly sliced, raw
• cherry tomatoes, quartered
• balsamic vinegar
• sea salt
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic
• basil, lots and lots of basil

When the beans are close to being done add balsamic vinegar and sea salt to taste.  I added about 1 tablespoon-eyeballing it-and a pinch or two of salt.  Not too much though because you will use salt in the vinaigrette.

Combine the cooked quinoa and red beans in a large serving dish.  Add in the vegetables and mix well. 

In a blender combine the oil through the basil and salt to taste and blend well until combined.

Pour the vinaigrette onto the quinoa and beans and toss well to coat.  Serve warm.  Refrigerate the left overs and enjoy as a cold lunch the next day....like I'm doing, right now.  I love basil....

Raw brussels sprout coleslaw

• Brussels Sprouts, stem removed and thinly sliced
• Granny Smith apple, cored and thinly sliced
• Veganaise
• Juice of one lemon
• White wine vinegar
• Olive oil
• Sea salt

Combine the sprouts and apple in a bowl and set aside.  In a small bowl stir together the veganaise (or mayo) and the lemon, whisk well to combine.  The amount of the veganaise is variable depending on how creamy you like your coleslaw, I used about 2 tablespoons.  Coat the cut sprouts and apple with the veganaise and stir well to combine.  Add sea salt to taste and set aside.  Prior to serving, drizzle with vinegar and olive oil and retoss.

Holiday side dishes

I didn't take pictures of these two dishes, I was too busy eating them!  As a child I loathed Brussels sprouts.  As an adult I came to realize that I hated them so much because my Mother murdered them.  They ended up stinky mushy lumps that I was forced to eat.  A few years ago, out of love for my older sister, I tried them again.  I sauteed them with bacon-doesn't bacon make everything better?  This year, since I'm a pseudo vegetarian I wanted to minimize the flesh at the table to the bird and started looking for a sprout recipe that did not involve piggy.

Enter the wonderful chefs at The Whole Life Nutition Kitchen!  In all the hoopla leading up to Thanksgiving they were kind enough to post a recipe for sauteed Brussels spouts with shallots and cranberries.  It also included one of my all time favorite things, silvered almonds.  This was a really quick and easy dish, I prepped the sprouts, sliced the shallots and measured the almonds and cranberries before everyone arrived and then prepared the dish while the turkey was resting.  It was delicious, I will definitely be making it again and I may not wait until next Thanksgiving to do it!

The other new side dish I made last week was a roasted yam dish I found on the For the Love of Cooking blog.  This one also involves cranberries, very festive addition this time of year, and called for pecans.  I didn't have pecans on hand so I subbed in walnuts and almost poisoned my cousin, sorry Leslie, I didn't know you were allergic to walnuts!  A major plus on this dish was the do ahead factor, the yams were peeled and diced well in advance, the walnuts and cranberries measured out and ready to be poured on top of the yams when it was time.  I didn't have to monitor the dish much so I was able to relax and chat with family as they arrived and generally relax. 

My only complaint about the two dishes...I didn't make enough of them!  I will certainly remedy that error next year! 

That's the last installment of Thanksgiving at casa de Rodriguez.  We're on to holiday baking now as I experiment with making fudge diary free.  Wish me luck!