kbecker57

Spinach chickpea salad with tahini vinaigrette

Happy Registered Dietitian Day…be sure to hug your favorite RD today! This is a very healthy recipe that I thought was a perfect way to celebrate my holiday. You might think this is a lot of effort to put into a salad, but it sure looked purty and tasted delish. Salads deserve some time in the spotlight too.

It is also a way to show how easy it is to make homemade salad dressing. One of the ingredients in the vinaigrette is tahini, which is a paste made from sesame seeds and a key ingredient in hummus. If you’re like me, and don’t like to ask for directions (even in the grocery store), I found it in the “international” section of Shaw’s…between Greece (olives) and Spanish Rice-a-Roni.

I spy tahini

Feel free to add other salad ingredients that you like or have on hand…mushrooms leftover from a chicken quinoa soup recipe, for example. I included mushrooms, sliced avocado, and black olives.

If you want to make single portions at a time, you can prepare the vinaigrette and the chickpea mixture, then assemble an individual salad.

Tahini vinaigrette
Source: adapted from Shape magazine, June 2012
Serves: 4

Ingredients
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Pinch cayenne pepper
1/4 cup tahini
1/3 cup olive oil

Directions
1. In a small bowl, mix together garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, and cayenne pepper; let sit for 5-10 minutes.
2. Whisk in tahini and olive oil.

Purty salad

Spinach chickpea salad with tahini vinaigrette
Source: adapted from Shape magazine, June 2012
Serves: 4

Ingredients
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
1 Tbsp fresh mint, roughly chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
Black pepper to taste
5-1/2 ounces baby spinach
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
2 ounces feta, crumbled
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced

Directions
1. In a small bowl, ombine chickpeas, parsley, and mint. Season with black pepper to taste. Mix in 2 Tbsp of the tahini vinaigrette and set aside.
2. Divide spinach, carrots, onion, and other salad veggies onto four plates. Top each plate with chickpeas and crumbled feta. Lightly drizzle 2 Tbsp tahini vinaigrette over each plate; serve immediately.

Egg salad

I decided to go back to basics with a good old fashioned egg salad. Even when I haven’t had a chance to go to the grocery store, I usually have eggs and the other ingredients for this recipe on hand. It’s also quick and very easy, and having an egg slicer makes it even easier!

I like the celery and red onion because it gives it some color and crunch, but it’s also tasty without. I sometimes substitute plain Greek yogurt for half of the mayonnaise. As you can see, I usually cook four eggs at a time and halve the egg salad recipe.

When I pack this for lunch, I put the egg salad in a separate container and assemble a sandwich when I’m ready to eat so the bread doesn’t get soggy.

Boilin some eggs

Hard-cooked eggs
Source: Everyday Food
Makes: 1 dozen

Directions
Place 12 large eggs in a large saucepan; add cold water to cover by 1 inch, and bring to a rolling boil. Cover pan and remove from heat. Leat stand for 12 minutes, then drain and rinse under cool water. To store, keep eggs, unpeeled, in the refrigerator, up to 4 days.

Egg slicer magic

Egg salad
Source: Everyday Food
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients
1/2 cup light mayonnaies
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp white wine vinegar
8 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, minced
1/4 small red onion, minced
Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions
In a medium bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar until smooth. Add eggs, celery, and onion; season with salt and pepper, and mix to combine.

Open-faced sammie

Chicken quinoa soup

Runner’s World calls chicken and quinoa a “dynamic duo”…I figured I’d try out their recipe to see if I could get behind that statement. As with many soups, the base is a mirepoix (that’s basically a fancy of way of saying a mixture of celery, carrots and onion).

The original recipe calls for one pound of sliced boneless chicken thighs. I typically use boneless skinless chicken breast for everything, regardless of what is stated in the recipe. Since shopping at Whole Foods on a Sunday afternoon is survival of the fittest, I grabbed the first thing I saw, which was thighs. I’d probably go back to my yuge next time. I prefer a higher vegetable-to-meat ratio, so I did not use a whole pound.

Mise en place

Chicken quinoa soup
Source: adapted from Runner’s World (December 2012)
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients
2 tsp canola oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, sliced
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced (about half of a 10-ounce package)
2 celery stalks, sliced
4 chicken breast thighs (or 2 chicken breasts), thinly sliced
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
3/4 cup quinoa
4 sprigs thyme
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Hot sauce

Directions
1. Heat canola oil in a pot; add onion, garlic, and carrots and cook for about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, celery, and chicken and cook for another 5 minutes.
2. Add broth, water, quinoa, thyme, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 15 minutes, until quinoa is tender.
3. Top with hot sauce and enjoy!

Try it vegetarian: substitute beans or tofu for the chicken and vegetable broth for the chicken broth

Pre-broth

Dynamic soup!

Peanutty noodles

I had to do a bit of improv with this recipe because I forgot to buy carrots, and the fresh snow peas didn’t look so fresh at the grocery store. I decided instead to use a bag of “California style blend” frozen vegetables, which has broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. Carrot problem solved!

This recipe requires three burners on your stove, which I find a little hard to manage all at once. To make it a little less overwhelming, I made the sauce while cooking the pasta, then tossed the cooked pasta with the sauce to prevent the noodles from sticking together. After that I sauteed the chicken, shrimp, and vegetables. I used two chicken breasts and about a half-pound of shrimp.

Getting my ingredients ready

Peanutty noodles
Source: Cooking Light, January 2006
Serves: 10

Ingredients
2 carrots, peeled
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp chili garlic sauce
Cooking spray
2 tsp canola oil
1 bell pepper, cut into strips
1 pound snow peas, trimmed
1 pound linguine, cooked according to package directions
Chicken breast, cut into strips
Shrimp
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions
1. Shave the carrots lengthwise into thin strips and set aside.
2. Heat 1 tsp sesame oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the ginger and minced garlic; saute about 1 minute. Add chicken broth, peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and chili garlic sauce. Remove from heat and keep warm.
3. Heat 2 tsp canola oil in a large skillet coated with cooking spray. Add chicken, shrimp, bell peppers, and snow peas. Saute until cooked.
4. Combine carrots, peanut butter sauce, veggies, and pasta. Toss well. Sprinkle with cilantro and enjoy!

Pot o’ peanutty noodles

Bowl o’ peanutty noodles

Classy chicken

I think this recipe is the first meal a friend of mine (my roommate at the time) cooked for a new beau. The relationship didn’t last, but the recipe has withstood the test of time.

Getting my ingredients ready

I have master plans to make another recipe with chicken and peppers (stay tuned), so I used half of a red pepper and half of a yellow pepper for this one. I also used three chicken breasts, cut in half because they were so big. The cooking time for the chicken will depend on how thick the chicken is; mine were pretty thin so they took a little less time. I also like this recipe because it is practically required to drink wine while you cook, since there’s wine in the recipe…but only 1/2 cup, so we wouldn’t want good wine to go to waste.

Classy chicken
Source: allrecipes.com (2002)
Serves: 4

Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 boneless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 bell pepper, cut into slices
5 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp dill weed
1/3 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt

Directions
1. Place the flour into a shallow dish. Season chicken with salt and pepper, and then coat in flour. Shake off excess. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken breasts on each side, about 3 minutes per side.
2. Pour the chicken broth and white wine into the skillet, and scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the mustard. Cover and cook for a few minutes until chicken is ‘spring’ but not cooked through. Add the peppers and sun-dried tomatoes, then season with garlic and dill week. Cover, and cook until vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked through, about 5-10 minutes.
3. Remove the chicken to a platter, and remove the pan from heat. Stir sour cream into the pan liquid. If most of the liquid has evaporated, stir in a bit more broth or wine. Season with salt to taste, and serve chicken with sauce and vegetables from the pan.
4. Serve with pasta or rice and enjoy!

Classy in a pan

Classy with pasta

Roasted butternut squash soup

I braved the grocery store pre-Nemo just to get the ingredients for this soup. My storm essentials list consisted of butternut squash and cream cheese. This is the first time I used frozen butternut squash…and I did some advanced math to figure out 6 cups was about 2 bags of frozen, cubed butternut squash.

The original recipe called for cooking the butternut squash in the broth mixture at a simmer for about 20 minutes, but I like the added flavor from roasting it. If using fresh butternut squash, the roasting part would probably take about 45 minutes. It also called for a half-stick of butter, but I thought that was a little excessive and decided to use olive oil instead.

The cream cheese gives it a thick, creamy texture without using actual cream and the cayenne pepper gives it a little kick. This can also be made vegetarian by using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

Mise en place

Roasted butternut squash soup
Source: adapted from allrecipes.com
Serves: 6

Ingredients
6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 (8-ounce) package reduced fat cream cheese

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Toss butternut squash with 2 Tbsp olive oil and spread on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until cooked through (about 15 minutes with frozen butternut squash).
2. In a large saucepan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and saute onions and garlic until soft. Add roasted squash, broth, marjoram, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil.
3. Puree squash and cream cheese in a blendr or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

Yummy soup

Nemo cookies

Poor Bianca

I was going a little stir crazy thanks to Nemo (aka ~30 inches of snow), a snowed-in car, a travel ban, and non-running MBTA.

So I decided it to bake cookies…warm and delicious right out of the oven, they were perfect for a cold, snowy day. I *might* have had cookies for breakfast. Don’t judge…it’s a snow day, anything goes!

Chocolate chip pecan cookies
Source: adapted from Martha Stewart cookies
Makes about 3 dozen

Just add milk

Mixing up the cookie dough

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp coarse salt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together flour and baking soda in a medium bowl. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs; mix well until blended, about 1 minute. Mix in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.

2. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges turn golden but centers are still soft, 10-12 minutes.

3. Let cool on sheets on wire racks for 2 minutes. Transfer cookes to wire racks and let cool completely. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week.

Chinese New Year potluck

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a potluck, and it was great to get together to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Gung hay fat choy! Thanks to Kim and Rob for hosting and challenging us to create some delicious Chinese-inspired dishes.

I searched “Chinese new year” on Allrecipes and I decided to make Chinese lion’s head soup for a few reasons 1) I’m obsessed with soup, 2) I loved the name, and that it does not contain real lion, and 3) it didn’t seem too complicated. Turns out you can’t really go wrong with a pork, cabbage, ginger combination…it was the base for my soup as well as Kendrin’s pork dumplings.

Homemade dumplings

We had a pretty delicious spread, including chicken in foil, hot and sour soup, Chinese chicken salad, longevity noodles, peanut noodles, and a beautiful cake from Eldo Cake House.

Chicken in foil

Delicious cake

Chinese lion’s head soup
Source: Allrecipes.com
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients
1 pound ground pork
1 egg
1 Tbsp cornstarch
4 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger root
1/2 tsp salt
2 green onions, chopped and divided
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 head Napa cabbage, cored and cut into chunks
2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups water, or as needed
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Directions
1. Mix the ground pork, egg, cornstarch 2 teaspoons of sesame oil, ginger, salt, and half of the chopped green onions together in a bowl. Use your hands to mix until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Use a spoon to form the meat mixture into 1-inch balls. Set aside.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or large pot over high heat. When the oil is hot, fry the cabbage, stirring constantly, until cabbage begins to wilt, 2-3 minutes. Pour in the broth, water, and soy sauce. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium.
3. Drop meatballs into the boiling soup. When the last ball has been added, cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste, and adjust salt before serving. Garnish with remaining green onions and 2 teaspoons of sesame oil.

Prepping the lion’s head

Cheers to the Year of the Serpent! May your fortunes be better than some of the ones we received…

Fortune cookies from Long Island

January RC – Hops n Scotch

We kicked off our eighth year of RC at Hops n Scotch, the former home of Finale in Coolidge Corner. They aim to “satisfy people’s hunger for life’s simple pleasures” and have more than 80 varietals of beer (including 40 taps) and more than 100 scotch, whiskeys, and bourbons. I tried a Mayflower porter and then switched to wine (a nice big glass of Picket Fence pinot noir from the Russian River Valley).

Since I can never pick just one, my three favorite appetizers were the house made beer bread (griddled Allagash White beer bread with house pimento cheese), the black eyed pea hummus served with house made potato chips, and the pecan stuffed dates wrapped with bacon. I also liked the seared scallops with cilantro lime pesto. The hush puppies were kind of dry, and I could have lived without them.

Beer bread

Never turn down a hot date

For my entree, I ordered the beer braised short ribs with mashed potatoes and green beans. It was not amazing, mostly because it was so salty. In the words of Julie Spanos, “it’s weird that the green beans are saltier than the French fries.” I might have had a little plate envy for the grilled cheese. It’s made on Texas toast and comes with cheddar cheese or pimento cheese (ask for both!), onion jam, carrot soup, and house made chips.

Grilled cheese and carrot soup

Other entrees ordered were the grilled chicken club sandwich (minus the club), the catfish po’boy, beef stew, and shrimp etouffee. For dessert, it was a unanimous decision to go with the homemade brownie.

A fun and yummy pick, Mitch…welcome (officially) to the club!

The damage
$44 per person

The rundown
Hops n Scotch
1306 Beacon Street, Brookline

Macaroni and cheese

With temperatures in the single digits this week, I have been craving comfort food…and nothing says comfort more than mac ‘n’ cheese. There are so many ways to make macaroni and cheese, not even counting the powdered cheese varieties. This is an easy and fairly healthy stovetop verson that I like because after cooking the pasta and cauliflower, you can pretty much just mix everything else together. I inadvertently made it a bit healthier when I discovered I did not have enough butter (the December cookie marathon wiped out my butter supply) and had to substitute olive oil (2 Tbsp). Though perhaps that was a trade-off nutritionally with the regular (full-fat) sour cream I used.

I really like the original version with the cauliflower and peas, but this time I “borrowed” the idea to add shrimp. The cafe at my office does to-go dinners (very convenient), and shrimp mac ‘n’ cheese is the Tuesday night dinner this month.

Getting my ingredients ready

Macaroni and cheese
Serves: 4-6
Source: Shape magazine, February 2002

Ingredients
8 ounces uncooked whole wheat pasta (pick your favorite noodle)
8 ounces light sour cream
2 1/2 Tbsp butter or margarine
2 Tbsp dry bread crumbs
1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1 head cauliflower, chopped and cooked
8 ounces shrimp, cooked (optional)

Directions
1. Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Let macaroni cool for 1-2 minutes, then stir in sour cream; set aside.
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Transfer 1/2 Tbsp of the butter to a small bowl and add bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Mix with a fork until mixture is crumbly; set aside.
3. Add cheddar cheese and mustard to remaining 2 Tbsp butter. Set pan over medium heat and cook 2 minutes, until cheese melts, stirring constantly. Add sour cream-macaroni mixture, peas, and cauliflower and cook 1 minute to heat through, stirring constantly. Transfer mixture to individual plates and top with bread crumb mixture.

Lunches this week!