Tomato Basil Quinoa

The recipe I’d like to showcase today is another healthy side dish. Often, I focus more on the main course, but this time I have a great, healthy, hearty, and delicious side dish for you! I like making quinoa because it’s a whole grain that’s as tasty as couscous, but healthier and so versatile!

2c dry quinoa, prepare as directed: rinse, put into 2.5c boiling water, turn heat down to low and simmer 12 minutes, turn off heat and wait 5 mins, then fluff.

Add 2- 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes, drained
1-2 tbs fresh rosemary, chopped fine (or snipped with scissors as I do)
2 tbs fresh basil, chiffoned

Mix well and serve while hot.

You’ll notice my grilled tilapia with lemon butter sauce in the background of the photo, but that’s a different post!

Itadakimasu!

Homemade Pasta Sauce

I realize I haven’t posted in a while, and I must apologize with one of my favorite meals: spaghetti. Although I didn’t make the pasta from scratch (and really, who has the time?), the sauce I can claim as purely my own. The recipe I cannot claim to have been handed down for generations in my family, no; I created the recipe myself with the knowledge I have of ingredients and favors. And although I have nary a drop of Italian blood within me, I think this sauce (yes, sauce, as there is not a tad of meat to be found within) can compete with any Italian Nonna’s.

Unfortunately, I will not be divulging the whole recipe here, for it will be in my forthcoming cookbook. Basically, we have tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and some herbs in this one.

Itadakimasu!

Stuffed Zucchini

What do you do with a zucchini the size of a small baby?

You stuff it, of course!

I took red and green peppers, onion, eggplant, the inside of the Zucchini, tomatoes and fresh herbs from the garden, and mixed them with ground beef and browned it. Then I used some herbed stuffing to bind it, and some crushed tomatoes for added taste. After baking the empty Zucchini, I stuffed and baked them again.

They were delicious and my picky eater approved! Although, I just gave her the stuffing, not the zucchini.

Tomato & Goat Cheese Tart

With all the excitement of the new herbs in the kitchen, I decided to make a tomato and goat cheese tart. It’s something I had eaten at a French restaurant once before, although their tart had Gruyere cheese on it. For this recipe, I nixed the extra cheese and also made the tart crust all whole wheat flour, resulting in a darker colored crust, but one that has a nutritional content I can live with. Sort of.

Any pastry is going to have a lot of butter, and this is no exception, as I opted to use butter in place of vegetable shortening. Knowing that, I make sure to serve this baby with a large salad and try not to devour the whole thing!

Ingredients:
2 sticks plus 2 tbs butter
1 tsp pepper
3 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c cold water
2 tbs herbs de Provence
2 beefsteak tomatoes, sliced thin, seeded
Salt
Ground nutmeg
Olive oil
Goat cheese
Basil, chiffoned

First, make sure your butter is cold. This makes for flaky crusts. Mix flour, herbs, pepper and water. Cut in butter using a pastry cutter. Failing that, you can always dive in with your hands and mix manually until the butter and flour crumbles. Mix until all ingredients combine into a dough. Chill for 30 minutes.

After chilling, cut into four pieces and roll out to 1/8 in.

Then place in tart pan. This recipe will make four tart crusts. Prick with a fork.

Use baking weights or dried beans to weigh the crust down, or failing those, use a pot lid!

Bake at 375* for ten minutes. Remove the lid, beans or weights and bake twelve more. Let cool slightly and top with tomatoes arranged circularly, overlapping slightly, goat cheese, and basil to taste. Sprinkle with nutmeg and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for 40 minutes. When done, top with additional basil.

Here’s what the beauty looks like!

Itadakimasu!

Excitement in my kitchen

When I visited Disney World two weeks ago, I spent a lot of time shopping in Epcot. It was as if I had stepped into an international bazaar. One of the things I picked up was this little beauty:

A little ceramic canister full of herbs from Provence, France. Getting home, I was so excited to use them. Why, you ask? Because I have never had the opportunity to do so! I have never seen these herbs in my area. They are a mixture of herbs you can find at any grocery, including thyme and fennel, but have one extra beautiful ingredient: lavender flowers. I don’t know, maybe it’s not so special. Maybe people use lavender in their cooking all the time. But I don’t.

Maybe all this specialness is me getting giddy and worked up over a clay pot of herbs I’ve never used in my cooking before. Or, maybe there truly is something special in this pot of herbs. If you ever have the opportunity to buy some, I say seize that opportunity! Are Herbs de Provence really all that special? You decide.

Lime Shrimp & Avocado Endive Boats

I know I’ve made a shrimp & avocado salad before, but I’ve tweaked the recipe yet again and added something new. Since I had more endive in the fridge, I thought making these little stuffed boats would be great, and I wasn’t disappointed! It’s a great, quick, and easy lunch for a hot summer day.

6oz cooked, chopped shrimp
2 limes, juiced, plus the zest of one
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 a red onion, diced small
1 avocado, diced small
1/2 beefsteak tomato, cubed, seeded
1 Endive, trimmed
Salt and pepper
Fresh chopped cilantro

Mix oil, lime juice, zest, and a pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl. Combine with onion and let sit 5 mins. Combine shrimp, avocado, tomato and onion mixture. Add as much chopped cilantro as you would like. Stuff endive leaves with the mixture and enjoy!

Itadakimasu!

Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps

For tonight’s dinner, we’re still on the healthy eating bandwagon with Thai lettuce wraps. I’ve made a similar recipe and photographed it before, but, unfortunately, those photos are on my droid, which has prematurely kicked the bucket. So this new recipe includes a few changes to my old one, which you will notice whenever I am able to resurrect the memory card long enough to extract the photos. For now, the new recipe:

1 tbs olive oil
1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic (I use the jar kind)
1/2 a green pepper
1c roughly chopped mushrooms
1/2- 1 c snipped green onion tops
1/4c chopped peanuts
2 chicken breasts, chopped very small- I use shears for this– see my post on the most useful tool in the kitchen for more on this.
2c bean sprouts
The zest of one lime
1 tbs fresh grated ginger
2 tbs mirin (rice cooking wine)
A drizzle of sesame oil
Chiffoned cilantro to garnish
Large romaine leaves, washed, dried, and ends trimmed.

Heat oil in skillet, add garlic, pepper and mushrooms five mins. Add chicken and cook most of the way through. Add onions, peanuts, bean sprouts, lime zest, ginger, mirin, and drizzle with sesame oil. Toss and cook until sprouts are translucent. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Fill lettuce with mixture and top with cilantro. I presented mine on a bed of vermicelli drizzled with soy sauce. Enjoy!

Itadakimasu!