Pressure cooker - chickpeas

 

One of the things that has got me the most excited about my pressure cooker is the idea that I can cook beans in it.  I really love beans, but hate boiling them for so long because it seems like they are too done, or not done enough, or have completely broken apart.  Don't even start me on cooking beans in a crock pot.  That sh!t doesn't work!  But lets try the pressure cooker.  I had some chickpeas in the pantry and wanted to make some hummus for the Super Bowl.  I just followed the instructions from the little booklet that came with the pressure cooker, which I think was to cook for 5-7 minutes over high pressure and then let the pressure come back down slowly.  I did soak my beans over night, but that cook time still seemed really short to me.  I used the longer time, and may have even let it go longer.  The result?  The beans were very soft and probably a little over done.  However, it make the most amazing hummus ever.  I have some more in my freezer and that I need to remember to use!

Pressure Cooker Easy Ziti With Sausage

 

So, this pressure cooker is my dad's thing.   It was only fitting that I use the pressure cooker to make him his birthday dinner.  My dad is pretty suspicious of anything I made because I used to be (and sometimes still am) a "vay-gan".  That's how he says it.  At any rate, I thought a sausage pasta dish would be something that everyone could agree on.  For the most part that is true, but James's doesn't like meat or pasta-with-sauce, so he just had more salad.  Yeah, I know.  This one came together pretty easily, but for some reason, it seemed to take a long time getting up to "high pressure".  I might have shorted the cooking time a bit, but for the most part, I think everything was cooked just right.  The result did not look so good.  Reminded me of something we used to get in the dorms, some hamburger helper wannabe.  But the taste was pretty good.  Not outstanding, but pretty good.  One major sub, I did not have any fresh bells peppers like I thought I did, so subbed some roasted peppers instead.

Chicken Kiev- Set the Table

I know this is a little late, but that is kinda how thing work for me...  So here it is, take it or leave it.  My husband and I have been watching old episodes of Mad Men.  He's really taken with it. So much so that he drank Old Fashion's over Christmas break and really wanted to try a Chicken Kiev.  So it was his idea, but somehow I ended up doing all the work...   I was working off of a Alton Brown Recipe and a Rachel Ray one:)

First you pound out the chicken.

Then you make these seasoned butter stick things to wrap in the chicken.

 You roll them up and wrap them in saran wrap.

 Coat them and fry them.

Look... so fancy with the parsley.

Pressure Cooker Parmesean Risotto

I am a huge fan of risotto.  Huge.  Love it.  I don't make it, not because I don't like the constant stirring (I never did that anyways and it always turned out fine), but I stopped eating it because it was a simple carbohydrate.  Apparently, we need more fiber.  At any rate, I found this FREE recipe from Cooks Illustrated for a risotto and I decided to make it even though I think it had no nutritional value what so ever.  Turned out to be a great Friday night meal.  Andy helped me get everything started:



Then we locked the lid into place and allowed the pressure to build:



I made the kids back up!



I think 7 minutes later, it was done!



Result was that it was pretty good.  The kids called this cheesy rice.  Again, it came together quickly and ended up being a very tasty and special Friday night meal.

This was a free recipe, so if you want it, print it out ASAP before CI takes it off the web!

February - Pressure Cooker

Ok, so this is 9 days late...sorry!  But I did tell everyone last month that this month's challenge would be using a pressure cooker.  Here's the backstory:  My dad is a huge fan of the pressure cooker.  Can you hear his slightly Alabaman accent "cook-ker"?  He has been blown across the room from one of these contraptions and he is still a fan.  I think my mom threw out his original one, but he uses his current cook-ker at least once a week when we come for dinner.  His favorite dish - Thai Style Pork Chops. 

A few years ago, he said he was going to get my sister and I a Pressure Cooker, but couldn't find one without the apparently federally mandated safety features.  I guess the new fangled ones don't let the pressure get high enough.  He was mad.  Keturah and I were, well, yeah, we were disappointed as well.

THIS Christmas he could barely contain his glee...."you are never going to guess what I got you!"  I think for half a second...."is it a pressure cooker?"  My dad glares at me.  I actually think I am wrong for a half a second, then he mutters something about me not being able to keep a secret.  Whatever.  Had the exact same reaction from my sister.  At any rate, we are the proud owners of our very own pressure cook-kers.

This challenge is to use a pressure cooker!  If you don't have one, I can't imagine they would be hard to find at a thrift store.  Get one and play along!

Our try at a sit down meal.

I'll admit.  We never set the table.  Since we moved up to DC for only a year, I brought absolutely no serving pieces with me.  Plus, I always make double portions of meals, so if I set it all out in front of me, I would easily eat double portions of everything.  (More than I already do.)

Regardless, we had a friend coming up to visit and I spent the morning making a Sri Lankan meal. 

From the top left clockwise, steamed basmati rice,  seeni sambol (Sri Lankan salty, spicy, fishy, sweet and sour condiment of the gods), pol sambol (a close second choice of condiment- coconut and onion based and very spicy), pineapple curry, and appa (otherwise know as hoppers), a fermented rice and coconut milk crepe with an egg steamed on top.   

And the whole spread in its glory.  And like I promised, we ate every last crumb.  We've made hoppers before and they might be my favorite meal on earth, but the pineapple curry was surprisingly good too.  I'm not usually a fan of hot fruit, but the combination of the pineapple with onions and spices was amazing.  It's going on my list of regulars.

Sunday 3 - limping it in...

For this dinner, again, so busy.  I marinated some flank steak, made some cranberry-orange Brussels sprouts, and some potatoes....totally didn't take a picture.  Didn't set the table, nothing, but I did make dessert.



Now, I am not the world's best food photographer (hey, I gotta eat!), but this was good.  I used the recipe from "French Kids Eat Everything" for chocolate mousse.  They talk about it in the book that this was an easy recipe.  And yes, it was very easy!  I put it together in about 20 minutes and then it chilled until dinner.  It was very good!  The kids liked it!



Truth be hold, it was a little rich for Andy, but James and I cleaned our bowls!



Look at Mark eating raw eggs.  Shhh...don't tell!



One more week...not sure I am going to make it!

Sunday 2 - Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

This Sunday we kept it a little lower key. 



No guests, just us.  Ate in the kitchen.  I am not going to lie, this isn't easy.  James has choir until 5:30, plus just regular weekend stuff.  It is hard to make a nice dinner.  While setting the table, I gave James the job of making the centerpiece and helping me pick glasses, etc.  He enjoyed it. 

The meal was from a Deliciously Organic meal plan.  It was butterflied chicken....which I have never done.  Very simple, but a good sunday dinner with asparagus and a baked potato. 

But we promised two courses, so here is dessert.  Strawberry Shortcake!  Also from Deliciously Organic!

Sunday 1

Posting on my blogger ap, while watching twilight breaking dawn part 1, we will see how this goes. X

Had a Sunday dinner last week: Beef stew, salad, and cookies for dessert. We even invited someone over, but he was born in 1990, so I am not sure that counts. The stew was good, but I have posted it before.

The salad, boring, but again, 1990 and plus James wanted salad?

The only new different thing was the cookies. I used a chocolate dough recipe that I then used to make ninja cookies that the kids decorated! I got the recipe from my new smitten kitchen cookbook. Everyone liked them!

January 2013 Challenge - Set the table!

Alrighty, going to try to get back into this and see how it goes.  Sometimes I need a challenge and I hope that someone else out there joins me.  A few months ago, I read the book "French Kids Eat Everything" in hopes of getting some ideas to help my kids eat more of a variety of foods.  I have one pretty good eater...who won't eat pizza... and one very stubborn eater (I'm not going to call him picky, he is just stubborn).  He will eat pizza.  This book was interesting in pointing out some of the differences between our cultures, but honestly, its not really earth shattering.  The one controversial rule was no snacking.  The French apparently do not allow snacking AT ALL.  No snacks!  Ruin your dinner.  Well, except for that little one at 4pm but that has a fancy name of aperitif so it is OK.  (as an aside I have tried not giving snacks and don't really find that it works).

The other thing with the French is when they eat, they eat.  They eat with all their senses including their eyes.  The book talked about they make a big deal about every aspect of dinner.  They set the table.  When I set the table for dinner, I may...but not always...brush the crumbs off from breakfast.  So, for this challenge, I want to feed the eyes as well as the stomach.  I want to set the table.  I am going to try to make a pretty nice Sunday dinner through out the month of January where we eat on our nice china, in the dinning room with more then one course.  Please join me.

Also, just a heads up, the February challenge is going to be using pressure cookers so if you don't have one...get one!

Eggplant pesto (a little late for last month's challenge)

It's very judgmental of me, but I generally try to avoid blogs with names like "FatFreeVegan.com."  We only occasionally eat meat and often our meals our vegan, but something about a blog name like that makes also think that the recipes are also taste free.

So for the challenge, I found one of the first pins I posted on Pinterest and whipped up some eggplant pesto.

I feel like I should also get points because I made pasta and I really don't like pasta that much.  The pesto turned out to be pretty good.  There was no oil, but the roasted eggplant made and excellent binder.  The could-be bland pesto was helped along with almonds, sun dried tomatoes, and garlic (quantities of which i doubled) and the real winner- a generous helping of nutritional yeast.  Add some tomatoes and it might a nice little vegan meal- though I wouldn't object to some grated Parmesan on top.

KALE...who knew?

I never thought I would like greens so much.  My parents always made turnip green, but they cooked them and I really don't care for cooked greens...even steamed.  Turns out I like them raw pretty well.  Especially Kale.

I love kale.  I really enjoy it with lemon vinaigrette.  Here I have it with onions, feta and toasted almonds...

The Fresh 20, week 2

So, last week, I followed The Fresh 20 vegetarian meal plan.  I was pleasantly surprised that their meals did not have an abundance of cheese.  For this week, I decided to try a combination of the classic (meat (but organic) and gluten free meal plan.  First up, Chicken Tortilla Soup:



Man, organic chicken is expensive.  However, this was one I was able to make up before hand, and then just serve for dinner. 

Audible:  Added a roll.

Day 2:  Turkey meatballs - Not pictured. 

It is really too bad I didn't take a picture.  I think this was one of the best meals.  I made up the meatballs before hand.  It also called for a nice gravy.  I served it with roasted brussell sprouts and mashed potatoes.

Audible:  I baked the meatballs instead of saute.  They would have fallen apart!

Day 3:  The one vegetarian meal.  Tosadas.  I know, what is a tostada?  It is like a taco on a really big tortilla chip.  You lay out all the options:



And then top at will:



The kids are always excited about something like this, but end up putting a few beans and cheese on it.  Eh.  I might do this again. 

Audible:  I added spanish quinoa.

Day 4:  Steamed tilapia over winter greens and tomato couscous



I did two things to trick my kids into eating this meal.  One, I can't stand steamed greens.  I had every intention of making the recipe as written and then when it came down to it...I just couldn't.  YUCK.  So, I had a kale-off.  I made kale the way I like (kale chips) and then kale the way my husband likes (saute).  Both kids were actually really excited about trying both and giving their opinion.  The result?  "I like Mommy's.  No, Daddy's!"  Ok, then it came out that they didn't like either, but they did try it.  The other thing is that I told my kids that this fish was "meat" and I might even said it was "chicken"  Oops.  James ate the whole thing and Andy was eating it, when I let the cat out that it was actually fish.  They thought it was funny and kept eating, but I am not sure if they would eat it again.

Fairly large audible:  Not only did I switch the greens,but instead of steaming the fish, I coated it in cornmeal and oven fried.  Glad I did.

Result of this week.  I learned two things:  My family did not really eat the meat meals much better than the vegetarian ones and these recipes are super super bland.  Have they not heard of cilantro?  All in all, I can see myself buying a meal plan from this company, but I want to check out some other options first.  Also, my CSA was on a break, but they are back, so I have all these peppers to deal with again...

The Fresh 20 - Week 1

So, like I said.  All of a sudden, meal plans started sounding like a great idea.  However, I have all these "rules" about food and how would I know which meal plan would be best.  Turns out, most meal plans, although fairly inexpensive, really wanted me to to make a commitment, and I wasn't ready to do that.  Finally, I found on The Fresh 20 a couple of sample plans and I am going to report on the vegetarian (not vegan) one.  I was able to get a shopping list and was in and out of the grocery store in 30 minutes.  I spent $100 which included normal weekly needs like milk, etc.  Here was my menu for the week:

Day 1 - Lemon Thyme Potato Pancakes, Brussel Sprouts, Apple Sauce, Greek Yogurt.



This was a lot of food, but it did come together pretty quickly.  Per the instructions, I made the mashed potatoes ahead of time, and went ahead and did the apple sauce as well.  Mark and I liked it pretty well, James did ok, Andy picked per usual. 

Audible:  Roasted the Brussel Sprouts, added cinnamon and a bit of honey to the apple sauce, I had some flavored greek yogurt so I used that instead.  Turns out my kids hate greek yogurt...

Day 2 - Braised Parsnips with Golden Raisen Walnut Couscous.



So, here is one of the good things about this meal plan:  You try foods you normally would not make!  I have never made parsnips and I usually don't use walnuts.  However, this was a meal where you realize, oh, this is why I don't use these foods...nobody likes them!  I knew that they were parsnips, but I guess everyone else though they were potaotes and were horrified when they ate one.  They are pretty spicy.  The walnuts were ok., but eh.  No one really liked this.

Audible:  I followed the directions on the recipe for the couscous and should have followed the one on the package.

Day 3 - Mushroom Pasta with Side Salad.



I was really looking forward to this because not only does it use mushrooms, it also made a creamy white bean sauce to coat the pasta.  Just sounded cool.  Not so much.  With the mushrooms, it wasn't so bad, but alone, it just taste bland...and beany.  I thought it was ok.  Mark did not like it.  James and Andy had plain pasta.

Audible:  I used cremini's instead of portabellos.

Day 4 - Vegetarian Chili and Fuji Apples



This one was nice because I made the whole thing the night before.  I also made cornbread muffins as a bonus.  It was definitely a vegetarian chili in the fact that it had lots of veggies in it!  Pretty good.  Mark and I liked it, the kids picked at it.

Audible:  Doubled all spices and I still felt it was a little bland.

Day 5 - Portobello Pizza Blanco



This recipe used a portobello mushroom in place of the crust of a pizza.  Then you made a spinach/white bean puree and put it on top, then ricotta mixed with oregano, then tomatoes.  I liked it, but Mark did not.  I made the kids regular pizza.

Audible:  I added basil and garlic to my puree AFTER dinner.  I ate it on crackers.  Wish I had done that before.

All in all, I was happy with this week.  There were definitely more misses than hits, and I felt most of the meals were pretty bland.  But it was an opportunity to try some new things and it did take some stress off.  I hope to do this again this week with another free plan. 

September Challenge - Never Say Never

First of all, ignore the last post.  It was an accident.

Second of all, I know it is not quite September yet.  I am giving everyone who won't post extra time.  AND, I have already started this challenge, so let's go!  What have you said that you would NEVER do?  Buy cupcakes from the grocery store, cook with spam, eat cole slaw?  This challenge is for you to do what you said you would NEVER do.

Case and point:  I can't remember when I first heard of meal plans.  I think I got my dad a cook book with meal plans, which was good for him, but I don't need that!  Fast forward a couple of years.  I am busy, my CSA is taking a break, and my 100 days of real food blog keeps mentioning new sponsors who are meal plan companies, and I am dismissing and judging. I mean really!  (#whitepeopleproblems) (who does that?) (#amItoooldtousehastags?)  Last week, all of a sudden it hit me that it might be kind of nice if someone just told me what to make, and then I made it.  So I will be posting a week in the life of a meal plan.

Happy cooking!

Crunchy Quinoa Salad

I know, I'm not a huge fan of quinoa either, but I keep buying it cause everyone else I know keep telling me that is good for you. I decided to try this recipe from my blog crush, the lively kitchen. Have to say, it was pretty good! The crunch really adds a lot and it was strangely additive. I will definitely make again!

It's official...

I'm taking a break.  I will leave the site up for now because I apparently haven't printed out recipes in like 5 year...I just keep them on here!

Orange Glazed Tempeh

This recipe is another one from Color Me Vegan.  (I renewed it AGAIN!!)  I really liked the flavor of this one and it came together quickly and was on the table in less that 45 minutes.    I served it with a grain mixture from Trader Joe's and some steamed carrots to give it some extra orange color.

I did some search but did not come up with the recipe.  Let me know if you want me to type it in!

Summer on a Plate

I know, it's still "technically" still Spring, but here in Texas, we have been hitting the mid-nineties (and a few unfortunate souls out in Hill Country have actually seen triple digits already).  This was a perfect meal for a hot, humid evening.  I guess this meal doesn't exactly fit this month's challenge since none of the ingredients have a "color" name, but the result was so colorful that I had to take a picture and share.  My husband was a little skeptical of the Strawberry Roasted Chickpea Salad with Cinnamon Dijon Vinaigrette, but he was pleasantly surprised by the cinnamon vinaigrette.  The kids weren't as adventurous and went with a bottled raspberry vinaigrette.  I served it with oven-roasted corn and ciabatta rolls.

Being more specific

My sister asked me to be more specific regarding this months challenge.  How about this....use ingredient with a color in the title:  blueberries, blackberries, collard greens, red onions, yellow cornmeal, white peaches, etc, etc, etc. OR if something you make just has a nice color, please share!