Red Lentil, Chickpea, and Tomato Soup

I am so glad that I finally have a night to myself so I can make a relatively meat-free meal (easily made vegetarian by using veggie broth). Just so you know, this is a good one!  I pretty much love any red lentil soup, but I know a soup is really great when I find myself licking up the "oops" splatters on my bowls before taking pictures of the food instead of wiping them off with a towel.  I almost whipped up a batch of naan to go with this, but I didn't want to waste any time waiting for the dough to rise when I could be inhaling this. Rating 9/10.

Ingredients
Recipe adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen

• 1 yellow onion- diced
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper if you want it spicy (more to taste) OR 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp sea salt
• pepper to taste
• 1 cup of red lentils
• 2 cans of chickpeas- drained and rinsed
• 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 1 28 oz can of fire-roasted tomatoes- preferably diced

Heat up the olive oil in a pan and saute the onion until softened- around 5 minutes.
Add the smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, minced garlic, thyme, sea salt, and pepper to the pan and continue to cook until the spices become fragrant- about 2 minutes.
Combine the onion and spice mixture with the red lentils, chickpeas, and chicken broth in a dutch oven.
Bring the soup to a boil, and then lower the heat to low.
Cover and simmer for up to 45 minutes (it doesn't take this long for the lentils to soften, but I managed to let it simmer for this long).
Stir in the fire-roasted tomatoes and continue to cook until the tomatoes are heated through.
Optional- puree half of the soup and then recombine with the remaining soup to create a creamier texture.
Season with additional salt or pepper.
Serve with an optional dollop of Greek yogurt.

Check out Kalyn's Kitchen for crockpot instructions!

Thin Crust Pizza

I haven't posted anything in a super long time.  I promise that I have a good excuse... I went home for spring break!  I just realized that every single spring break of my college career has been spent out at my mom's hobby farm shoveling freshly-thawed horse poo like there is no tomorrow.  This trip was no exception, no sunny beaches for me.  However, the trip was worth every wheelbarrow full of poo because I managed to get a great deal on a wedding dress!

Now I just need to maintain my weight over the next 15 months.  This might be a problem... Why?  I love me some pizza.  A little too much.  I eat it probably once a week.  I have no self control when it comes to pizza. I often find myself craving a thin crust pizza that is sturdy enough to eat without a knife and fork (unlike Neapolitan pizza, which I also crave all of the time).  Even though it is more substantial than my Neapolitan dough, I still find myself chucking margherita toppings on the crust like my life depends on it.  I am so boring, or maybe just easily pleased.   I am officially doomed to become a chubster and not fit into my gorgeous dress.  Dough rating 9/10.

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from How to Cook a Wolf

• One 1/4-ounce package active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoon honey
• 1 cup warm water

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the yeast, honey, and water in a small bowl.
Combine the flour, salt, and olive oil in a stand mixer bowl with the paddle attachment.
Mix the yeast mixture into mixer bowl once it has developed a considerable layer of froth.
Combine thoroughly, and then switch the paddle attachment out for a dough hook.
With the dough hook attached, knead the dough for 5 minutes.

Once the dough has formed into an elasticy ball, divide it into 4 even balls.
Place the dough balls in a large bowl and cover for 30 minutes.
If you are going to be cooking the pizza right away, preheat the oven to 500 degrees with a pizza stone placed inside of it.
Roll out the dough to desired thickness once it has doubled in size.  Dust flour on the dough to prevent it from sticking to your roller.  I used my new pasta roller to roll the dough out superbly thin (hence the rectangle shape)!
Cover a pizza peel with cornmeal and prepare the pizza with desired toppings on it. If you are using finely shredded cheese you might want to wait to put your cheese on the pizza until it has been cooking for about two minutes to prevent it from turning into a burnt mess.
Slide the pizza off onto the pizza stone and bake for around 4-7 minutes, or until the crust is crisp and the cheese is golden.

Healthy Burger Substitutes

I always assumed that swiss chard had an offensive taste.  Do you know what is rich in beta-carotene and potassium, is a killer source of fiber, vitamins C, E, K, and is apparently essential for bone formation?  The same culprit.  Anyway, this week when I was grocery shopping I decided that Swiss Chard looked like a hardy contender to replace my hamburger buns.  Know what?  It wasn't that terrible.  I am now saving up my pennies (I think that I have about 52 by now) to buy a hardcore blender so that I can make green smoothies with swiss chard and other green leafies.

Since my first burger substitute is probably not going to make you run to the store to satisfy your need for green, here is a tasty AND HEALTHY burger substitute.  Ground buffalo!  Nom nom!

Anyway, this isn't a legit recipe.  I meant for it to serve as a eating PSA, since practically every omnivore loves hamburgers, and buns= not paleo-friendly.  If you are interested, here is how I assembled my super healthy burger

Swiss Chard (or kale, romaine lettuce, etc.)
Sliced red onion
Spinach
A slice of Montery jack cheese (or other cheese)
A sprinkle of shredded sharp cheddar cheese (optional, use any other kind of cheese)
Ground buffalo patties
salt
pepper

Season the patties with salt and pepper.
Grill or grill-pan fry the burgers and onion slices.
After you flip the burger slap a slab of cheese on your burger and continue cooking.  Place a lid over the burger to coax the cheese into melting faster.
Serve each patty on a leaf of Swiss Chard.
Top with MORE shredded cheddar cheese, spinach, and any other toppings that you love.

Haitian Chicken

I'm back!  Going home for my mom's wedding combined with Alex being in poor health has led to me not cooking.  I finally made a meal tonight, and the void that has been consuming me for the past week has been partially patched.  I need to make some more homemade Larabars before I'll be fully repaired.

Does anyone else think of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless when they read/hear the word Haitian?  Anyway, this recipe was really really good.  And easy!  I didn't have to buy ANYTHING for this meal besides the chicken, so if you have a well-stocked pantry/spice rack you probably won't need to buy anything anything either.  I actually bought a whole chicken for this meal.  How intimidating!  Quartering the chicken turned out to be a messy operation, and I'm pretty sure that my whole kitchen is now extremely contaminated since all that I had to clean it on hand was Windex.  Note for future self- buy a boning knife.

Aside from the gore and excessive fluids, working with a whole chicken was kind of fun.  I've  never actually had a chicken leg before, so tonight I finally got to find out what all the fuss is about (num num!!). 

I served this meal over a bed of spinach and "caulirice" (see note at bottom).  Alex and my amiga liked the broth so much that they thought that this made a better soup than served as a salad, and mixed the spinach and raw caulirice in with the chicken broth.  The flavor of this dish was novel to all of us and the chicken came out extremely tender, and was a hit with Al, my amiga Kelly, and me.  Rating 8/10.

Ingredients
Adapted from New York Cookbook

1 whole chicken- quartered
4 cups of chicken broth
1 tsp of white wine vinegar (substitute with lemon juice to keep it paleo)
1 onion- sliced
4 cloves of garlic- minced
1/2 tsp minced fresh chile OR 1/2 tsp dried red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp sea salt
6 whole cloves
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup of broccoli florets
1 cup of cauliflower florets
1 cup diced carrots (I forgot add these because I always manage to leave something out, but it was still great!)

Combine everything except for the broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots into a large ovenproof casserole/Dutch oven.
Heat on the stove top over medium heat until boiling.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cover the casserole, lower the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
Place the casserole in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
Stir in the vegetables, recover the casserole, and continue to bake for 20 minutes.
Adjust the salt and pepper to taste.
Serve over rice or caulirice, OR serve in a bowl with plenty of the chicken broth.


"Caulirice"
Alex told me about using cauliflower as a substitute for rice.  Not only is this healthier for you, but it is paleo-friendly!  Also- you don't need to time the rice so it comes out at the same time as your meal.  Double score.

Ingredients
1 head of cauliflower

Break the cauliflower into florets.
Fit a food processor with the grating blade.
Drop the cauliflower into the feed tube and press down with the feed tube presser-downer.
1 head of lettuce should provide enough "caulirice" for 4-6 people.

Black Bean Tacos

I don't like buying tortillas because I can never ever use them up before all 10000 of them go bad.  I can usually use up half of the tortillas before they go bad, but I've vowed to now use them all up!  Enter this nummy meal.  It's the third meal that I've managed to make within the past week using the same bag of tortillas, and I'm ALMOST OUT- HOORAY!  It's also a great way to use up a bit of veggies, and some feta cheese (another thing that always goes bad here).  This is quick, satisfying, and completely vegetarian (I didn't need to feed the meat eater tonight).  Rating 8/10.

Note- I made them with canned black beans and they weren't as good as the version with home baked black beans.

Ingredients
15 oz of black beans- canned or home prepared
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 red onion- diced
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
6 inch corn tortillas (substitute with romaine lettuce leaves/other greens to keep it paleo)
Red cabbage- thinly sliced
Spinach
Feta cheese

Combine the beans, cumin, garlic, and red onion in a pot and heat until cooked through.
Season the beans with salt and pepper.
Heat up 1 tsp of olive oil a pan over medium heat.
Place a corn tortilla in the pan and cook until browned on one side- about one minute.
Flip the tortilla and place the bean mixture along the middle and continue cooking until the other side is golden.
Top with red cabbage, spinach, and feta cheese

Banana Bread Larabar

I love Larabars, but they are super expensive.  I was motivated to make my own when one of the blogs that I follow posted a whole bunch of different homemade versions of Larabars.  I figured that I could save myself a few bucks in the end if I started making my own, and I love love love the banana bread bars so I whipped up this version first.  The ingredients?  3 simple ones that you might already have lying around in your kitchen.  Rating 8/10.

Substitute raisins for the dates if you have diabetes!  I think that Dole is the best brand of raisin for this job, as they are much more moist than many other raisin brands (it has also won the award for Best Taste from Chefs Best since 2005). 

Ingredients

1 cup of almonds
1 cup of dates- chopped and seeded (or Dole raisins)
1/2 - 1 cup of banana chips (I tried making my own, and after a few hours in the oven the bananas were still mushy but it turned out fine)

Grind the almonds in a food processor and set aside in a bowl.
Place the dates and banana chips in the food processor and give them a spin until well-blended.
Hand mix the almonds and date/banana mixture together.
Scoop out a desired portion size, place on saran wrap and mold into a bar.
Refrigerate and grab one when you are on the go!
Makes about 4-8 serving sizes (depending on how hungry you are!)

Ants on Turf

This is my brain child.  I'm so proud!  I was dunking some celery into a brand new vat of peanut butter, and simultaneously thinking about how my bland rice cakes could benefit from a thick coat of PB.  Then I thought about how combining all of that with some raisins would be pretty satisfying.  Ants on a log meets boring rice cakes!  It's pretty nummy, easy, and healthy.  I've lost my marbles and can't find the raisins that I JUST bought, but dried cranberries worked just well.  If you like ants on a log and don't want to eat too much celery in order to be satisfied, you'll probably liked this.

Necessary ingredients
Rice cakes
Peanut butter
Celery
Raisins or dried cranberries

The procedure is simple.
Slather peanut butter on the rice cake.
Thinly slice the celery and arrange it on top of the rice cake.
Sprinkle raisins or dried cranberries on top.

Orange Chicken

I love Chinese food.  I didn't know this until I actually went to China.  I then realized that the problem with the Chinese food that I had before was that it wasn't authentic.  Did you know that there aren't even fortune cookies in China?  No one really knows where fortune cookies originated, but they are based off of a Japanese cookie.  Anyway... I never actually pictured myself cooking Chinese food, but I saw this on a blog and it looked too good to pass up.  Is this dish authentic Chinese?  I am not sure, I've never had orange chicken before.  What I can say that it is GOOD, especially with brown rice. 7.5/10.

Ingredients
Recipe adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen
Originally from America's Test Kitchen

• 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 3-4 oranges)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest- I recommend doing this while the orange is still unpeeled
• 6 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (I used light, and missed out on the rich and deep color)
• 3 cloves garlic- minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger- grated
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts- cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoon cold water
• 8 small whole dried red chiles- optional
• 8 thin strips orange peel
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or canola)
• Green onion- optional

Combine the chicken broth, orange juice, orange juice, vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, and cayenne pepper.
Marinate the chicken with 3/4 cup of the prepared marinade for one hour.
After one hour heat the remaining marinade to a boil in a over high heat.
Stir the cornstarch and water together, and add to the the pan.
Reduce the heat and stir until thick (about one minute).  Add in the orange peel strips and the dried red chilis.  Set aside.
Heat up the oil over medium-high heat and add in the chicken and saute until cooked through.
Reheat the sauce and then toss the chicken in it.
Serve over rice.
Top with optional green onion garnish.

Beef Bulgogi

Don't ask me how to pronounce that.  I should probably ask my Korean tutee one of these days...  Romanization of foreign languages (and English too) makes me wish that we used the international phonetic alphabet, and then learning the IPA last semester would have been worth it.  Anyway, this is a lip-smacking version of one of the first meals that I made when I first inched my way into the world of recipes about a year ago.  I have the original recipe that I used posted in one of my early posts, but I added way too many veggies to that dish.  The addition of pear nectar was unexpected, and really made this dish stand out.  Try it when prime sirloin goes on sale!  Rating 8/10.

 

 Ingredients

Adapted from What's Cookin, Chicago?

• 1.5 lb prime sirloin, or another quality cut
• 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 2 cloves garlic- minced
• .5 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup pear nectar (can be found in a can in the ethnic/hispanic aisle)
• 1 carrot- julienned (I did this with a peeler)
• 1 green onion- chopped 
• 1 green pepper- sliced into thin wedges
• 1/2 red onion- sliced into wedges
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• prepared rice

Remove fat from the prime sirloin and discard.

Combine all of the liquids with the spices/seasonings.

Place the meat in a bag and marinate with the above marinade overnight (or for at least 3 hours).

Start cooking your rice ahead of time.

Prepare the veggies.

Cut up the meat into thin bite-sized pieces.  Reserve about a cup of the marinade.

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat until shimmering.

Add the meat to the wok and cook until browned.  

Add the vegetables and reserved marinade and cook until tender.

Serve over rice, spoon the sauce over rice if desired.

Top with additional sesame seeds.

Consume.  Give thanks for awesome flavors.

Hot Chocolate and a Giveaway

One of those things that I never ever thought about making before was homemade hot chocolate.  It is so simple to just tear open a hot chocolate packet, dump it in a mug full of milk, and nuke it.  Buying Dutch-processed hot chocolate was one of those weak buy-everything-Penzey's-has-to-offer moment. Even though I can't stop thinking about fresh and spring-appropriate food, I have been drinking hot chocolate like my life depends on it.  This is a nummy, simple, and super quick recipe to get your hot chocolate on!  Rating 8/10.

Ingredients
1 cup milk
2 tbsp dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 tbsp turbinado sugar
A dash or two of vanilla extract

Vigorously whisk together the milk, cocoa, and sugar in a pot until all of the ingredients are thoroughly blended.
Heat over medium heat until the hot chocolate reaches desired temperature.

Serves 1, multiply to get desired amount of servings

Now, here's the good part of this post!

$40 CSN Giveaway- Closed

For those of you who are involved in the food blog world, you're probably already familiar with the CSN giveaways.  CSN has one main website where you can shop, but it also has separate online "stores" where you can shop for more specific things, such as flat panel TV stands.  There is something for everyone on CSN's collection of sites! 

ANYWAY...
Giveaway rules
To qualify for this giveaway you must

• be a follower of my blog.  Just click that button up there on the right sidebar that says follow!  
• Be a citizen of the US or Canada (CSN doesn't ship outside of North America)

Once that is taken care of you have four chances to win, post a separate comment for each on this post.

• Leave a comment telling me what springtime dish you are most looking forward to cooking
• Let me know what you would buy from CSN if you win
• Check out some flat panel TV stands from CSN's respective TV stand site and let me know which one suits your fancy
• Link this promotion in a tweet 

Giveaway ends on March 4th. 
I will randomly select a comment using a random number generator. 

Make sure that I have access to your email so I can notify you if you win!