Vegetable & Black Rice Bowl with Coconut Green Goddess Dressing

I was reading my February issue of Martha Stewart magazine last night and saw some Asian-influenced vegetarian recipes I thought would be easy to make for lunch.

Later, ravenous after Hip Hop Class, I went to the grocery store and got the ingredients for the meals. Except, I mixed up two recipes in my head. So I decided to make a bit of a switch.

I really wanted to use the cilantro and coconut milk I had bought to make some kind of dressing or sauce. I decided to riff on a recipe I love for Greener Goddess Dressing from Fit Fork Feed since I have a bounty of avocados from our tree.

This bowl is so delicious, filling and made me feel I was being pretty healthy despite the excess use of avocado. It would also be great with a fried egg on top instead of the rest of the avocado..but how could I let that green beauty sit aside?

This recipe feeds 1 generously

Vegetable & Black Rice Bowl with Coconut Green Goddess Dressing

Ingredients

For Serving:
- Black Rice, prepared (I used some that you just heat in the microwave)
- Generous shake of TJs Everything but the bagel Seasoning

For the Vegetables:
- 1 bunch baby bok choy, washed, roughly chopped and stems and leaves separated
- 1/2 orange bell pepper, sliced
- 5oz sliced shitake mushrooms
- 1 clove garlic, smashed
- 1 t butter
- salt
- 2 T water or coconut milk

For the Coconut Green Goddess Dressing:
- 1/2 large avocado, more to taste
- 1/2 bunch cilantro, stems and leaves
- salt to taste
- 1 t ginger (fresh recommended)
- juice of 1 lime
- 1/4 - 1/2 C coconut milk
- 1 clove garlic, smashed

Directions
1. Heat butter in a medium skillet or wok. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds
2. Add bok choy stems, mushrooms, bell pepper and cook until just soft
3. Add salt, coconut milk and bok choy leaves and cook until wilted
4. Meanwhile, in a mini chopper or blender puree cilantro with 2 T coconut milk.
5. Add all other ingredients except additional coconut milk and blend. Slowly add in milk to achieve the texture you prefer.  Adding more milk or more avocado will smooth it.
6. To serve: Put rice in a bowl and mix in a little of the dressing. Top with vegetables, extra avocado, sauce and Everything seasoning.

Garlic Blistered Green Beans

Today for lunch I went to Shophouse. It's like a an Asian Chipotle (and also owned by Chipotle).  While I was eating the spicy blistered green beans, I thought, I have green beans in the fridge, maybe I can make them like this!  So tonight, along with our grilled lamb and final duchess potatoes, I blistered some green beans. They were delicious!  Luckily, they are also fast and rather healthy!  Yay green beans. These were a hit with Joey too.

Ingredients
8 oz green beans
1/2 t olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt & pepper

Directions
1. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat
2. Add green beans when oil is fragrant, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, tossing for 8-15 minutes or until blistered on some sides.
3. At the very end, add 1 clove garlic, crushed and cook 30 seconds. Immediately remove from heat and pan and place in a serving dish

Green Eggs and Beef

When we got our first dog when I was in second grade, my mom was told she had to cook a special breakfast for this dog. She did. It combined ground beef and onions maybe and eggs and it smelled really delicious in the morning. We ate cereal. This week, we had leftover lean ground beef. We decided to to use it to make dinner but to make slightly different dinners for each of us. I decided on green eggs and beef, Joey made a sandwich.

I highly recommend that you make green eggs and beef. It's delicious! You can also use whatever is in your fridge. I recommend adding more vegetables such as tomatoes, extra peppers, lots of greens. Anything you want really and you could make this without the beef if you really wanted.

Ingredients (serves 1)
1 1/2 handfuls of greens (I used a mix of kale, spinach and two other greens)
1/4 lb lean ground beef
1 egg
3 T chopped bell pepper
2 T finely diced onion
salt
pepper
hot sauce or hot peppers

Directions
1. Over medium heat, saute onion and green pepper briefly until fragrant, season with salt and pepper
2. Add beef and break up with spoon, add a dash more salt
3. Once beef is brown, add greens and let wilt
4. Add egg and break the yolk, stir together quickly and remove from heat, sprinkle with hot sauce or mix in peppers
5. Serve with fruit

Warm Brussel Sprout and Chickpea Salad

I went to a wedding last weekend and discovered that I really like brussel sprouts. Then, I went to my favorite grocery store and found they were selling brussel sprout totes which I think are awesome. If you aren't familiar, a vegetable tote is a pre-determined amount of one type of vegetable housed in a handy clear tote bag! Sounds lame? Well it's not! It's cute and it comes in it's own bag and you don't have to weigh it!

I saw this salad on Beantown Baker and revised it just a tad but it was fantastic! If you are a vegetarian or you can't eat nuts you could omit both of those ingredients and this would still be delicious. If you had any shallots or garlic it may be a nice addition.

I used the food processor to shred the brussel sprouts and what a time saver that is! You could also use the food processor for the shallots if you used them and the mushrooms.  Don't have a food processor? Fine, cut it by hand but don't skip the recipe just because you have to do some cutting.

Warm Brussel Sprout Salad
Ingredients
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed, divided
1 t olive oil
salt
cayenne pepper
3 T butter
1lb brussel sprouts, sliced or shredded (food processor!)
8oz white mushrooms, washed and sliced (food processor!)
1/4 C pecans, chopped
1/2 tsp nutmeg
freshly ground pepper
1/2 C cooked ham or 4 slices bacon cooked and crumbled

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Drain and dry one can of chickpeas. Place on a sheet pan and roast for 15 minutes in the oven. Toss in 1 tsp olive oil, salt and a dash of cayenne pepper. Roast for an additional 15 minutes. Then turn off the open, open it up a crack and let the pan sit until you need them
3. Using your food processor, shred the brussel sprouts and slice the mushrooms
4. In a large skillet or small dutch oven, heat 2 T butter over medium heat.
5. When butter is melted, add mushrooms. Cook 5 minutes stirring occasionally
6. Add sprouts and a dash of salt and cook an additional 5 minutes, stirring. Don't worry, the sprouts will shrink.
7. Add the pecans, ham, nutmeg, raw chickpeas, and more salt and pepper to taste
8. Cook 3-4 minutes until ingredients are melded. Toss in roasted chickpeas to individual servings so they don't get soggy and serve warm.

Leek Scapes, not as asdvertised

Have you seen these at the Farmer's market lately? I was drawn to them as I picked up some tomatoes and berries at the Wednesday market in Santa Monica.  These are leek scapes.  They are not unlike garlic scapes in that they taste like leeks but not as strong.  These are the flower stalks that leek plants produce in the spring/early summer before going back to being leeks.

When I got my leek scapes they looked just like this but by the time we ate them on Friday the flower's at the top had bloomed, little bits of very onion-flavored flowers burst out in starbursts.  (where's the picture? I know, sorry). The farmer said I could cook these like I would asparagus. The internet said the same thing.  The farmer told me I can also eat the flowers.

I sauteed a bit of the flowers in some olive oil and then added 1 inch pieces of the scapes. Unfortunately, many of them were really woody and the ones that weren't tasted nothing like asparagus. I added some sugar..and they were okay-slightly sweet but I couldn't eat the whole bunch and  nothing I would pick up again.  Have you tried a vegetable you've never had before lately?

Pork Loin with Roasted Root Vegetables

Last week I bought a 2-lb pork loin roast on sale. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but it seemed like a good purchase.  Then my crazy work schedule + Easter happened. Finally tonight I was able to make the loin.  Did you know that pork loin roast takes only about 20 minutes a pound to cook? That means you get more meat for the price and can cook it almost as quickly as pork tenderloin!  This meal took me 45 minutes from start to finish and used just 1 pan and 1 cutting board and 1 knife!

*If you don't like radishes, you should try roasting them! They taste sweeter and a little bit more like a turnip. My husband who does not eat radishes ate these radishes and only noticed that their coloring was different from the potatoes but was happy to have them mixed in.

1 2-lb pork loin roast
5 carrots, chopped into large chunks
1 bunch radishes, halved*
1 C small potatoes, halved
olive oil
salt
pepper
1 clove garlic, sliced

1. Preheat oven to 450 and meanwhile prepare the vegetables
2. Salt and Pepper the pork loin all over and place fat-side down on a rimmed baking sheet. Cut slits into the top of the pork and cut slices of garlic inside
3. Toss vegetables with a little olive oil and salt. Spread veg around the pork loin but not touching it
4. Roast for 40-45 minutes until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees
5. Slice and serve with vegetable medley

Pork Chops with StirFry Vegetables

I have been getting the Everyday Food Magazine for years and have always loved it. Then when we got an iPad, I was thrilled with the extra features the ipad version promises including videos and step by step pictures.

Recently, Sara, the editor in chief has started a series of videos that come to me via email each morning.  The video series is a feature of "dinner tonight" and provides quick and easy dinners that you could make even if you were coming home from work and had to have the kids in bed by 7.

As you have probably noticed, I haven't done much cooking lately and have really been jonsing for a homemade meal.  I decided tonight was the night and whipped up this recipe in a matter of minutes (12 total I think).  I really liked the meal.  The vegetables were gussied up just enough to make them taste a little bit different, the pork chop was flavorful and cooked perfectly.  Joey thought the texture of roasted bell peppers (from the jar) was a little strange but I liked them because I have had them before--he thought they didn't provide much in the way of texture.  If you have that same issue you could easily omit the peppers or throw in some raw ones or another quick cooking vegetable like asparagus or um...something quick cooking and colorful of your choice!

The recipe is for 4, so I reduced the quantities at the store in my head based on what we usually eat. Also if you are adding a jalepeno, I recommend looking for a small one and mincing it instead of just rounds.  Our stirfry was very spicy because the jalepenos they sell here are supersized.

Recipe & Video
For 2
Recipe reprinted here in case they take it off the website and I want to make it! (:()

2 bone-in pork chops
salt
2 T olive oil divided
1 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled with a spoon and roughly chopped
1/4 lb green beans cut into 1 inch pieces
3/4 bunch scallions, whites chopped; greens cut into one inch pieces
2 roasted peppers from a jar, chopped into medium pieces
1 jalepeno (chopped or cut into rounds, you can remove the seeds if you want)

1. Sprinkle salt on both sides of the pork chops liberally. Heat a large skillet on high for 2 minutes. Add 1 T olive oil and move the pan to get the oil all over.  Add the pork chops. Cook on high 4 minutes per side or until cooked (but for me the 4 minutes per side was perfect)
2. Meanwhile, cut up all the vegetables
3. Remove pork chops from the pan and keep warm on a plate in the microwave (don't turn it on, just leave them there)
4. In the same pan add the remaining 1 T olive oil and reduce heat to medium high.  Add beans, whites of scallions and ginger and cook until beans are crisp tender about 3 minutes.
5. Add jalepeno, scallion greens, salt to taste and bell peppers and cook about 1-2 minutes more until peppers are heated through. Serve vegetables and pork chops together.

Honey Glazed Carrots

Some people have the right vinegar for every recipe. They stock cabinets and cabinets full of every imaginable kind for just each situation. I am not one of those people. I always scoff at the price of vinegar and decide I'll just use the one I have, generally it works out for me and this was no exception.

On Wednesday I got the season's last carrots at the Farmer's market. These adorable baby carrots looked weathered and tired but were still crisp and orange. I threw them in my bag and brought them home for dinner. It was a nice variety to have carrots instead of the other vegetables I've been eating.

Since I was going to be making some thin boneless pork chops, I didn't want to oven-roast my carrots. While searching for another cooking method, I came across Martha's recipe for Honey-glazed carrots. These have my husband's stamp of approval even though I may have strayed from the recipe, especially with the vinegar part...

Original Recipe

Ingredients:

1 bunch baby carrots, tops removed, cut the big ones in half lengthwise

scant 1/4 C honey

1/2 C water

2 T cider vinegar

salt & pepper to taste

1 pat butter

1 T vegetable oil

Directions: (oh yeah, and I totally didn't follow these either, go figure).

1. Heat oil in a medium fry pan with lid over med-high heat. Add carrots and toss once cook until starting to brown, about 2 minutes.

2. Add honey, water, vinegar and salt & pepper. Cover and cook 10 minutes until crisp tender.

3. Remove lid and cook until there is barely any liquid left and it looks kind of like a syrup. Turn off the heat and stir in the butter and more S&P to taste. Cover until ready to eat!

Asparagus Grill Packets

Tonight I decided to whip up some tri-tip on the grill. To round out the meal I found some sub-par asparagus in the fridge that we had last week. I decided on a whim to make it into a grill packet and grill it in foil along with the beef. I think the result was fantastic. The asparagus was smokey and crispy in parts where the foil burned off (we had a few fires in the grill) and had a nice flavor and was cooked perfectly. I highly recommend this method. Joey says turn back now.

Asparagus Packets

Ingredients

1 large sheet foil, folded into a boat of sorts

1/2 bunch asparagus, broken in half, hard stems removed

olive oil

Lemon pepper

salt

1. Fold the foil like a boat so there are sides. Toss in asparagus, olive oil, lemon pepper and salt to taste.

2. Wrap up the asparagus so there are no holes in a packet.

3. Throw it on the grill for about 15 minutes (or less) until you think it is thoroughly cooked

4. Serve immediately

Peas & Mint

This spring, Jenny & I have been seeing articles about the combination of peas and mint absolutely everywhere. Every blog, book and newspaper we read is filled with recipes for this odd-sounding combination. So last week I made a decision, I would try it just to see.

Originally I was considering making peas, mint and cream as I read that was one variation but that sounded even weirder and more likely to fail, so I just stuck to the basics.

Let me tell you, shelling peas is so not rewarding! I bought probably a half pound of peas and after shelling had enough for a very small vegetable portion for one person.

I really did keep it simple - I steamed the peas for 3 minutes in a steamer basket and added some chopped mint during the last minute of steaming.

The Result? Actually pretty good. Fresh peas are nothing like the soggy smooshy frozen peas you probably ate as a child. Fresh peas when steamed shortly have a little bit of a bite too them and a bit more of a sweeter flavor. And the mint? It takes on a whole different level of flavor--kind of like the bite of freshness one can impart from parsley. The mintyness of mint that I despise was not there, it was just fresh and springy and I would make it again.

Grilled Marinated Steak with Parmesan Asparagus

I receive the weekly newsletter from Beef It's What's for Dinner. Usually I don't find anything that really stands out to me but this time, while doing my menu planning, I thought this recipe for Grilled marinated steak and asparagus would hit the spot. Plus, I knew that asparagus has been in season at the Farmer's market.

The recipe calls for Top Round Steak which of course I couldn't find at the store so I got 2 half-pound steaks that had something about round in the title, were "for braising" according to the sticker and were about 3/4 inches thick.

The marinade was easy to whip up as I cleaned up the dishes from last night's epic fail chicken parmesan. I ended up using balsamic vinegar instead of red wine vinegar and I marinaded the meat overnight and all the way until dinner. The flavors were nice and not too overpowering and really spiced up the steaks.

The grilled parmesan asparagus was fantastic. We had the same asparagus steamed the night before without seasoning and it was totally bland. How refreshing to have it taste much better and different with just a dash of olive oil and cheese. I didn't serve this dish with orzo as it calls for but instead some sliced oranges. A perfect spring meal for this 90 degree day!

Recipe and photo here!

Pasta with Roasted Vegetables and Arugula

This month when my copy of Everyday Food graced my mailbox, I was drawn in by almost every recipe in the magazine. The cover looked like a fantastic lunch dish and I made it quickly to enjoy for the week. The problem with making lunch the night before (and cooking it) is that by the time you are done you don't really feel like tasting it, and so it is all a surprise the next day. The pasta looked great when it was all set and done and I was excited for the next day.

But, unfortunately, when I heated it up at the office I found that it was super bland. Perhaps my problem was that I am no good at "thickening the sauce" or maybe I didn't use the right olives. Either way it needed something and I had nothing.

That night, I went home and looked into my cabinet to determine what I could use to spice it up. The next morning I splashed a little rice vinegar into the mix--that did it. It gave it some flavor and made it work. The final time I ate it I added a little shredded cheese while heating it along with the vinegar--good idea! Perhaps a few cubes of cheese would be better...

Ingredients
2 pints grape tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 shallots, cut into 8ths
2 T fresh thyme leaves
2 T olive oil
salt and pepper
8 ounces pasta of your choice (I used those spirals)
1/3 cup pitted olives (I used regular green olives with pimentos because I had them)
3 cups baby arugula or spinach
3T rice vinegar
Cubed Cheese (optional)

Directions:
-Preheat Oven to 450, place tomatoes, garlic, shallots and thyme on a baking sheet. Toss with oil, salt and pepper. Roast until tomatoes burst and shallots are browned about 20-25 minutes.
-Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente, reserve 1/4 C pasta water, drain, return pasta to pot
-Peel roasted garlic and mash. Add everything to the pasta pot except arugula.
-Cook over medium high until sauce has thickened (3 minutes)
-Let cool slightly, toss with arugula and vinegar

Note: If making ahead, toss with the arugula right before serving

Roast Beef and Vegetables

I recently was browsing my Betty Crocker cookbooks for something that I could make in a short period of time but make it look like I spent all day. I came across the recipe for Roast Beef. Betty Crocker says to look at the meat chart and roast your meat until it reaches the temperature on the chart in a 400 degree oven. The recipe is literally 2 steps long and has no further information except that it is "fast" and "low fat." I had also recalled reading a recipe for Roast Beef in one of my magazines possibly last year for roast beef and learning that it only takes an hour. I couldn't believe it so I put it out of mind.

Joey did the grocery shopping this week and suggested we do one of those one-bag weeks that they feature in Food Everyday. one of Martha Stewart's magazine. The idea is that you buy only a couple of ingredients and rely on staples and then make something one day and use the leftovers to make something different another day. Joey thought it would fun for us to make roast beef and then French Dip Sandwiches later. I thought that sounded like a great idea!

My favorite place to look for recipes is Martha Stewart's website. It turns out, all her recipes aren't crazy-hard, but are actually made for the home cook. This dish was so quick and easy! I got home from work around 5:30pm. The most time consuming part was peeling all the shallots, but if you wanted you could do those in advance. Then I cut up some carrots and potatoes and threw it all in the oven. It really did take about 15 minutes to prep and about 50 minutes to cook. That may sound long to you, except if you think about what you might have done instead of cooking--in the long run you would probably save time and money. If instead, Joey and I decided to go out for dinner. The whole affair, if we went to a sit down restaurant would probably take more than an hour and be much more expensive.

Roast Beef with Vegetables
1 1/2 pounds eye-of-round beef roast, tied (mine came tied)
1 1/2 pounds small red new potatoes halved or 3-4 medium sized yellow potatoes quartered
5 carrots, cut into chunks about the same size as the potatoes
1 lb shallots, peeled and halved
2 T olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
1. Cut potatoes, shallots and carrots. Place them on a jellyroll pan with edges and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.
2. Move vegetables to the short edges of pan and place the roast in the middle. Rub the roast in the oil on the pan. Salt and Pepper generously.
3. Place the pan in the middle of the oven and roast for 40-50 minutes until a thermometer entered in the thickest part of the meat registers 130 for medium rare. (mine took about 50 minutes and then ended up being 135 which was actually still pretty rare).
4. Slice and serve with vegetables

Monday Afternoon Snack

Today I am hosting my parents and decided to do a little fun cooking since I was working from home anyway and surprise them with something delicious. I decided that there must be an afternoon snack, and it couldn't just be crackers!

I have been really wanting to try this white bean hummus and I thought that was just the ticket. To go along with it, I made my own tortilla chips (pita would work too but I happened to have a lot of tortillas), and a vegetable mix. Everything was delicious and worked quiet well together, it was such a quick and easy snack to make I'd do it ever day after school..er work.

White Bean Hummus
3 T olive oil
3 T fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper
paprika (optional)

Directions:
1. Whir oil, beans and lemon juice in food processor until just pureed. Salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with paprika if desired.

Fresh Tortilla Chips
torillas
olive oil
salt
cumin (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cut tortillas into desired chip size
3. Toss with about 1-1/2 T olive oil and salt to taste
4. Bake 10 minutes or until crisp

Vegetable Mix
assorted fresh vegetables such as bell peppers, jalapeno, tomatoes, cucumbers
Kosher salt or other coarse salt
Fresh lemon juice

Directions:
1. Cut vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
2. Toss with lemon juice and salt. Let stand 30 minutes until flavors mix.

Broiled eggplant with crumbled feta

After using up my zuchinni and eggplant from the farm on a ratatouille dish that I threw together (literally), I wanted more! Today we went to the Farmer's Market and I bought some. This easy eggplant recipe was a hit with my family - it is pretty and delicious:

eggplant
olive oil
oregano
crumbled feta

Slice unpeeled eggplant into 1/4 inch slices. Place the slices on a paper towel and salt them. Let them drain for a half an hour. Transfer them to a baking pan and put olive oil on each side of the eggplant and sprinkle with oregano. Broil the eggplant and turn until it is tender. Add crumbled feta and broil again until the feta starts to brown.

Sauteed Corn

My husband and I aren't good with leftovers. By the time we remember that we have them--or have the urge to eat them again, they are usually bad. Tonight, after boiling up some ears of corn we had the inevitable leftover pieces. Instead of letting them go to waste, I decided to saute them up and eat the corn as a side for my office lunches.

If you grew up with braces--you know how to cut corn from the cob. Stand the corn on the flat end (this my require you to break the cob in half). Using a sharp knife, cut closest to the narrow part of the kernals (toward the core) as possible avoiding the actual core. Cutting the kernels just in half will lose valuable sweetness from within the kernels.

Ingredients:
Leftover sweet corn, removed from cob
Chives
Salt
1 T Butter

In a small frying pan, heat 1 T salted butter over high heat. Add corn and break up with a spatula into smaller kernel families. Add chives and salt to taste. Saute 5 minutes until fragrant. Serve immediately or store in individual containers for easy snacking.