Penne with Tempeh, Caramelized Shallots and Goat Cheese

Guys, let's talk about tempeh.  That's TEM-pay.  No, not tofu.  Even I as a vegetarian can agree that tofu isn't always the most appetizing thing.  I'm still not quite sure how soybeans turn into that.  No, this is tempeh.  Also soybean-based, but its more of a cake than a marshmallow.  You can still see the beans.  The texture is much more meat-like than you'd expect.

I was intrigued by tempeh ever since I heard about it a year or so ago.  I knew, however, that my family would not be as excited to try it out, so I waited for a night when I was home alone.  For my birthday, Alex gave me this awesome cookbook called The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes Carnivores will Devour.  Isn't that an amazing idea for a cookbook!?  The recipes all look super intriguing and delicious, including this one.   I figured, even if the tempeh is gross, you have penne, goat cheese, and caramelized shallots to make up for it!

But then the tempeh was not gross.  Far from it.  It has made me a tempeh believer.  It gets marinated in soy sauce, dijon mustard, sesame oil, minced garlic, and lime juice (doesn't that sound like a marinade that you'd eat anything in!?).  Then it gets fried.  Hello?  Delicious marinade?  Fried?  What's not to like about this tempeh?  Trust me, if you aren't a fan of the texture of tofu, this is not like that.  It's got more of a meaty bite to it.  And the flavor is incredible.  The marinade really sinks in, and gets seared into it.  I kept thinking it would make a kick-ass sandwich.  I've never even said those words together, but that's what marinated tempeh makes me do.

The final dish altogether? Totally amazing.  I even got Mark to eat it despite his balking over the tofu.  Then I brought some to work for Laura to test, and she agreed that tempeh is far better than she expected.  It reheated well and I ate all the leftovers with gusto.  All I know is that there's another package of tempeh in my refrigerator right now and I cannot wait to try it out again!

Recipe:

penne with tempeh, caramelized shallots, and goat cheese
from  The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes Carnivores will Devour by Kim O'Donnel
makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
juice of 1/2 lime
1 teaspoon hot sauce of your choice (optional)
1 8-ounce package soy tempeh, cut into 1-inch strips
vegetable oil for pan-frying
2 - 3 shallot bulbs, sliced thinly (about 1/2 cup)
a few sprigs worth of fresh thyme leaves
salt and ground black pepper
12 ounces short pasta, such as penne, rotini or ziti
3 ounces soft goat cheese
3 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped roughly

Instructions:

1) Marinate the tempeh: in a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, mustard, sesame oil, garlic, lime juice, and hot sauce (if using).  Place the tempeh in a shallow dish in a single layer and pour the marinade on top, ensuring complete coverage.  Let the tempeh sit in the marinade at room temperature for a minimum of 20 minutes, or in the fridge for up to several hours.

2) Remove the tempeh from the marinade and gently pat with paper towels to minimize splattering when frying in hot oil.  Pour the oil to a depth of 1/4 inch into a wide skillet and heat over medium heat.  The oil is hot enough when it surrounds the tempeh with bubbles.

3) Gently add the tempeh and turn with tongs or a fork, until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes.  Add more oil as necessary and allow to heat sufficiently before adding more tempeh.  Transfer the tempeh to paper towels and allow to cool slightly.  Sprinkle with salt.

4) Lower the heat and add shallots.  Add more oil if need be, but be careful, you don't want shallot mixture to be overly greasy.  Cook over medium-low heat, so they soften, sweeten and reduce but not brown, about 15 minutes.  Add the thyme and salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from heat.

5) Meanwhile, boil water for the pasta and prepare according to the package instructions. Crumble the tempeh into small pieces and add to the shallot mixture, stirring to combine.

6) In the bottom of a serving bowl, place the goat cheese.  Drain the pasta when ready (saving a few ounces of pasta water just in case the end result needs thinning) and pour into the bowl over the goat cheese.  With two wooden spoons, coat the pasta with the melting goat cheese.  Add the tempeh mixture and the parsley, stirring gently until well combined.  Garnish with Parmigiano-Reggiano, if you like.  Serve hot.

Buttery Spritz Cookies

Happy Cookie Sunday!

In my next Cookie Sunday installment, I bring you buttery spritz cookies.  I first used my cookie press back in December to make the pomegranate spritz cookies, and I was hooked.  You make the dough, but then there's no rolling, fussing, cutting, or hard work to get your cookies to look pretty (and we all know I struggle with that).  You simply choose your "stencil," put the dough in the press, and start clicking the trigger.  I had Mark choose the design for these buttery spritz cookies.  Thus we have these delightful little flowers.

This recipe makes a huge amount of cookies.  They looked lovely on the island all week and Mark took them to work every day.  I sent over quite a few to my mother, who was hooked on them.  They're just kind of addicting.  They're crunchy, buttery, and sweet, and small enough that it feels okay to eat multiple in one sitting.

Should you want to get real fancy, you can decorate the cookies with sprinkles, colored sugar or melted chocolate.  Depending on what you want to use, there are 2 chances to add your decor: before or after baking.  Next time I will probably add some colored sugar before I bake them just to add a little bling, but they certainly don't need it!

Recipe:

buttery spritz cookies
from Taste of Home
makes 90 cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups confectionary sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a large bowl, cream butter and confectionary sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and extracts.  Combine flour and salt.  Gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

2) Using a cookie press fitted with the disk of your choice, press dough 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.  If desired, decorate with colored sugar and sprinkles.

3) Bake 6 - 8 minutes or until set (do not brown).  Remove to wire racks to cool completely.  If desired, dip baked cookies in melted candy coating and decorate with sprinkles.  Let stand until set.

Healthy Mexican Casserole with Roasted Corn and Peppers

Sorry that my posting lately has been sporadic!  How can I be so busy?  I don't have kids and I only work one job, but lately I feel like I get home late every night and haul my exhausted self right to bed.  Two classes, lots of appointments, family parties, going out with friends... somehow I am busy and my blog posts need to elbow their way in there.

Before I post for today, can we talk about the fact that it's snowing?  A lot?  Like, I left my car in the driveway instead of the garage last night and it's totally covered?  Ugh.

Anyway back to the food.  Mark likes Mexican, so I have been trying to cook lots of it lately.  This recipe caught my eye, mainly because for some weird reason, I have two bags of corn tortillas in my fridge, and I am not sure why.  Also, it was healthy and vegetarian and sounded delicious.  Perfect storm.

Here is the weird part.  The recipe has the words "roasted corn and peppers" in it, but I am pretty sure that is a lie.  You actually roast them in a skillet on the stove with cumin and chili powder.  Yeah, I know, I am pretty sure that is called sautéing too.  My veggies were a whole lot more sautéed than pan-roasted.  Maybe that's a skill I have to work on, but to me, when you have veggies, oil, and high heat, you're sautéing (or burning to a crisp quickly if you aren't careful).  Maybe next time I will actually roast these guys in the oven so I feel like less of a fraud.

But then everything else is fabulous.  This casserole is layers of corn tortillas, the "roasted" peppers, corn, and onion, refried beans, enchilada sauce, and Mexican shredded cheese.  What's not to like?  The recipe recommends serving it with guacamole, which I didn't have but totally want to try next time.  I think it would be fabulous with sour cream or Greek yogurt as well.  Mark had third helpings of this casserole, and I ate the rest of it for lunch throughout the week.  Definitely tasty, healthy, and easy!

Recipe:

healthy Mexican casserole with roasted corn and peppers
from Pinch of Yum
serves 12

Ingredients:
2 red bell peppers
2 green bell peppers
1 jalapeño or 2 chipotle peppers
1/2 red onion
2 cups frozen corn
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
salt to taste
2 cups Mexican cheese
18 - 20 corn tortillas
1 can refried beans
2 cups red enchilada sauce

Instructions:

1) Pan roast the vegetables: dice the peppers and mince the onions.  Heat a large nonstick skillet with a little bit of oil over high heat.  Add the onion and peppers, sprinkle with chili powder and cumin, and stir.  Let the veggies rest, stir again; rest and stir until you get  anise browning on the outside of the peppers.  Remove and set aside.  Repeat the roasting process with the corn, sprinkling with chili and cumin, removing from the heat when browned and roasted on the outside.  Sprinkle with the roasted veggies with a little bit of salt and toss to coat.

2) Prep the ingredients: grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Cut the tortillas into thin strips.  Put the refried beans in a bowl and mix with a little bit or water to make them easier to spread.

3) Assemble: spread a little bit of sauce on the bottom of the pan  Layer in order: half the tortilla trips, all the beans, half of the veggies, half of the sauce, half of the cheese.  Cover with the other half of the tortilla trips, veggies, sauce and cheese.

4) Bake: cover with foil (sprayed with cooking spray) and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted.

Honey-Sweetened Spiced Banana Muffins

These pretty little gems were another installment of Muffin Monday.  I make muffins every Monday for Mark to bring to his staff meeting Tuesday mornings, since they're having a tough year in there.  I also knew most of them were finishing up their final weeks in the school's Biggest Loser Competition, so I have been looking for healthy muffin recipes.  This one piqued my interest for a few reasons.

First, it's from Kitchen Treaty, my vegetarian blogger extraordinaire who has the One Meal Two Ways category.  Second, it's made with both whole wheat and all-purpose flour, so you get the benefits from the whole wheat without them being dry and dense.  Third, there's no sugar in the recipe.  These muffins are sweetened only by a third cup of honey - and the natural sugars from the bananas.  Lastly, they're spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, so the bananas have some fun things to spice them up with.

I ended up topping some of them with walnuts because I know lots of the transition staff members are nutty (I mean that in every way possible).  I got lots of thank yous and appreciative texts, so I think they went over well at the meeting.  Healthy, lightly sweet, and tasty: what more are you looking for in a banana muffin?

Recipe:

honey-sweetened spiced banana muffins
from Kitchen Treaty
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 medium very ripe bananas
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 12 standard cup muffin tins or line with liners.

2)  In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt.

3) In a medium bowl, mash the bananas.  Stir in the butter, honey, and egg.  Mix well.  Add the milk and vanilla and mix until blended.

4) Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with a wooden spoon or spatula, mix until just incorporated.

5) Divide batter between muffin cups, about 1/3 cup batter each.  Bake until the tops spring when you touch them and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 12 minutes.

6) Muffins keep in an airtight container or zipper bag at room temperature for 3 - 4 days.  They also freeze well!

Red Lentil Soup

This soup is so much more awesome than the name implies.  Red lentil soup doesn't suggest all the flavor packed into it, with the brightness of lemon and the spice of garam masala.  It doesn't explain the presence of carrots, onions and celery (or leeks, in my case, since I was out of celery).  It doesn't speak of bay leaves or the fact that this soup has so much flavor, it doesn't even need garlic.

It just makes you think of red lentils, and if you're not like me, you may have no idea that lentils even came in red.  Red lentils are actually quite different from the more common green or brown lentils.  They are pre-split, so they cook much faster than their counterparts.  They also turn to mush, so they're perfect for soups.  They add protein, fiber, and a nice yellow color (yes, it's weird, but red lentils turn yellow when they cook).

Back to the soup itself.  The recipe is kind of like a blank canvas, because it suggests dressing it up however you want.  Top it with gremolata or Greek yogurt.  Spice it up with Italian herbs or a seasoning blend.  It also suggests the teaspoon of garam masala, which I am immensely glad that I decided to add, because I can't even slightly imagine the soup without it.  I will be posting it as a mandatory ingredient!  I know Indian food isn't for everyone, but this soup is.  It's not overly Indian-y, just super tasty, hearty, warming, quick, easy, healthy, and wonderful.

Recipe:

red lentil soup
from The Kitchnn
serves 4

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large carrot, diced
2 large ribs celery, diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus additional to taste
1 cup red lentils
4 cups water or low-sodium broth
1 whole bay leaf
2 tablespoons lemon juice from 1/2 large lemon

Instructions:

1) Ina  medium saucepan or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the carrot, celery, onion, and 1/4 teaspoon salt, stir to combine, then cover and let the vegetables sweat until the onions are soft and translucent.

2) Add the lentils, water or broth, and bay leaf.  Bring up to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and let simmer, covered, until the lentils begin to fall apart, about 20 minutes.

3) Turn off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, and add salt to taste.  Ladle into bowls and serve.  Leftovers will keep refrigerated for 5 days and reheat well.

Sopes

Behold: the sope.

Sopes are basically thick fried corn tortillas made by simply combining masa harina (a type of corn flour laced with lime) and water.  The dough is flattened and fried into a thick little cake, and then the options are endless.  You can top it with whatever you'd like.  Want to stay vegetarian?  Top it with some homemade refried beans.  Want meat?  Treat it like you'd treat any taco; may I suggest Mexican shredded beef?  Top either version with salsa, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, queso fresco... I wasn't joking when I said the options are endless.

Here are some reasons why the sopes are amazing.  First, they are gluten-free.  I was able to have Maggie over for dinner, and with everything being homemade, I could be sure they were all safe for her, including the sopes. Second, they're slightly crunchy on the outside from being fried, but they are thick enough that the middles are still soft.  Third, Rachael compared them to the Old Mill's corn fritters and, after eating them for dinner, then ate some for dessert with maple syrup!  Not gonna lie, we all did the same.

Please note: this masa harina that I speak of is not just corn flour.  It took me forever to find it at Market Basket in the Latin section, but it's there.  The difference, as I mentioned, is the lime added to the corn kernels as it is dried and treated. I suppose corn flour could work, but the taste would be different.  Just search the section with all the Goya drinks.

Sopes will definitely make another appearance in my kitchen.  Upon more sope research, I see that traditionally, they are supposed to have sides that are pinched up.  Oops.  Something to strive for next time, I suppose!  You should probably try these the next time you planned on having taco night.  Skip the taco shells and take a few extra minutes to make sopes instead.  Your family will adore you for it. They won't even mind if you make them take pictures of their sopes and tell them it's a sope photography competition.  Honestly.

Recipe:

sopes
from Yellow Bliss Road

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup masa
1 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
cooking oil
toppings

Instructions:

1) Stir the masa, salt, and water together until a dough forms.  With lightly floured hands, knead the dough for a few minutes.

2) Divide the dough into golf ball-sized portions and roll into ball shapes.

3) Press each ball lightly between your hands and use your fingers to flatten into a disc.  The dough should be between 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  Pinch the edges all around the outer edge of the disc to create a raised edge.  Keep the extra dough in the bowl covered with a wet paper towel to keep the dough from drying out.

4) Heat about 1/2 to an inch of oil in a skillet over medium heat.  You will know it's ready when a drop of water sizzles in the pan.  Place masa discs into the hot oil and cook until lightly browned, turning once.  The edges should be nice and crispy and the center should be soft.

5) Remove from oil and place on a paper-towel-lined plate.   Add toppings and serve immediately.

Slow Cooker Refried Beans

What do refried beans taste like?  Not much.  They're just sort of mushy cardboard, to put it nicely.  Not that I am bashing refried beans: I use them all the time.  But I never noticed how bland and flavorless they are... until I made my own.

As I posted yesterday, I threw a Mexican dinner party where I made sopes (next post, I promise).  The carnivores topped their sopes with Mexican shredded beef, but I wanted to make a vegetarian topping for myself, so I decided to try out making my own refried beans.  Part of the reasoning behind this, besides wanting beans for myself, is that lots of canned refried beans aren't gluten-free for Maggie (what? Why is there wheat in our beans?!).  I figured making my own would be safer for Mags, more delicious for me, and frankly wouldn't take that much work, because I found a slow cooker recipe.  Plus, I always feel extra accomplished when I cook using dried beans.  So cheap, so easy - remind me again why I rarely do it?

The dried beans boil away for 15 minutes, and that's the hardest part of this recipe, frankly.  Then you just toss them into the slow cooker with water, onion, garlic, jalapeño (it just adds flavor; these aren't spicy at all), and salt.  That's it.  Forget about it for the next 4 - 6 hours while you make Mexican shredded beef in the meantime (or, I suppose you could make whatever you want!).

When they're ready, the beans and veggies get pureed in a food processor with some of the water they cooked in and a tablespoon of the liquid from pickled jalapeños (I thought that was cool).  Voila!  Refried beans.  This was such an easy recipe, with such a good end result, that it makes me wonder why I used canned refried beans, ever.  The next time I need them, luckily, I have a nice big container of them in the freezer (apparently they freeze really well!).

Even though I made refried beans mainly for my own vegetarian option, all the carnivores tried them too.  They ended up topping their sopes with both refried beans and shredded beef, which made me happy.  Everyone agreed they're much better than the canned version.  I love when I find a good, easy DIY recipe for something we never think twice about picking up in a grocery store.  Go buy a giant bag of dried beans for pennies and try this out.  Trust me.

Recipe:

slow cooker refried beans
from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
makes 8 cups refried beans

Ingredients:
1 pound dry pinto beans (I used kidney), rinsed, stones and shriveled beans removed
1 teaspoon salt
1 medium white or yellow onion, peeled and cut into large chunks
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 jalapeño, seeded and membranes removed, chopped
1 tablespoon white vinegar, or same amount of liquid from a jar of jalapeños or banana peppers
salt to taste

Instructions:

1) Place the rinsed beans in a medium or large saucepan and cover with water by at least an inch.  Bring the beans and water to a boil and cover, cooking for 15 minutes (be aware that the beans will expand as they absorb water and cook, so make sure your pan isn't overly full to begin with or else you'll have an overflow problem; it's safest to start with a larger pot).

2) Remove from the heat and drain the beans.  Place the beans in the slow cooker and cover with about 2 inches of water.  Add the salt, onion, garlic, and jalapeño.  Cover and cook on high for 4 - 6 hours, or on low for 8 - 10 hours.

3) When the beans are tender, ladle out 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the cooking liquid and reserve.  Drain the beans and veggies in a colander until most of the liquid is gone but there are still a few drops (you don't want the beans bone dry).

4) Place the beans and veggies and 1 tablespoon vinegar or jarred pepper liquid in a food processor or blender.  If you need to do this in batches, make sure to split the vinegar among your batches).

5) Depending on how well you drained the beans, add about 1/4 cup liquid, more if needed, and process until the desired texture is reached.  Add more liquid if needed.  Taste beans and add additional salt if needed.

6) To freeze, let the beans cool and spoon the in 1 - 2 cup amounts into freezer Ziploc bags.  Press them flat, remove as much air as possible, and seal.

Mexican Shredded Beef

I hope you're in the mood for Mexican this week, because my next 3 recipes were what I made for a Mexican dinner party I threw the last weekend of February break!  And I'll just preface it all by saying that everyone - Rachael, Alex, Sam, Susie and Maggie - loved everything, so be excited.

Yes, I actually made meat for this dinner party.  Mexican shredded beef, to be exact.  It's a chuck roast that gets browned in a Dutch oven; then it takes a break while the onion, carrot, garlic, poblano, and jalapeño peppers get sautéed in the same pan.  Add in some tomatoes, and then everything roasts together for 2 hours, spiced with cumin, bay leaves, oregano, fresh thyme, and cilantro. By the time you take it out, the meat is falling apart and the vegetables and broth have turned into a flavorful stock.  Hopefully you believe that good things are worth waiting for, because it's not yet time to eat.

Once the meat is shredded, it then gets cooked one more time on the stove, mixed with some of the stock it cooked in, salsa, and more spices like chili and garlic powder.  By then, the carnivores in the house will be salivating, so luckily, it's time to eat at that point.

The options for this beef are pretty endless.  I used them as a topping for sopes, which you;ll hear about later this week.  I also used the leftovers to make two batches of fairly amazing nachos that were inhaled by Mark and my family (see picture below).  I can imagine them in tacos, enchiladas, burritos... wherever your heart desires Mexican shredded beef.  Yes, it takes a while, but the carnivore all agreed that it was worth it.

Recipe:

Mexican shredded beef
from Fill Your Belly
serves 8

Ingredients:
3 pounds chuck roast, cut into 4 large chunks
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
7 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 poblanos, 1 seeded, stemmed and roughly chopped, 1 roasted, skinned, seeded and chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and roughly chopped
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 1/2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano, divided (I could only find regular)
1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons ground cumin, divided
2 bay leaves
1 small bunch cilantro
7 sprigs fresh thyme
1 cup condenses beef broth
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup medium chunky salsa
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions:

1)  Salt and pepper the meat.  Add 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat and brown the meat on all sides, about 12 minutes.

2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Remove the meat to a plate and add the onion, carrot, garlic, the unfrosted poblano, and jalapeño to the pot. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes to soften.  Add the tomatoes, 2 teaspoons dried oregano, 1 tablespoon cumin, bay leaves, 1 bunch cilantro (reserving 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro), thyme, beef broth, and chicken stock.  Stir to combine, then add the beef back in.  Bring to a boil, then cover and cook in oven for 2 hours.

3) After 2 hours, remove the pot to the stovetop and let the meat cool in the stock for 1 hour (I waited 30 minutes).  After it is cool, remove the meat and shred.  Reserve 2 cups of the liquid for later.

4) In a large pan, add the beef, salsa, roasted poblano, chili powder, 2 teaspoons cumin, garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon oregano, 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro, and 2 cups cooking liquid.  Stir to combine and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes or until most of the juices have evaporated.  Serve however you'd like!

Caramel Oatmeal Cookies

My new thing, in my attempt to be without a doubt the most amazing wife on the planet, is to bake a batch of cookies every Sunday for Mark to eat throughout the week.  He's big on cookies, usually crappy store-bought ones.  I thought I could make this part of me weekly routine, and then he has a sweet treat every Sunday and plenty of cookies to pack in his lunch for the week.  Plus, I keep them in the gorgeous cake stand my mom got me for my bridal shower (see picture below).  It makes the whole kitchen look more homey!

These cookies were the first in my Sunday Cookie Night routine (so far I have kept it up for 3 weeks straight, so be ready for more cookie recipes, as well as my Monday Muffin routine...).  I had bought a bag of caramel bits months ago.  I swear back in the fall, every baked good recipe I looked at called for caramel bits.  Then I bought some and couldn't think of a thing to do with them.  They've been eying me from the baking cabinet for months.  Finally when my genius Sunday Cookie Night idea happened, and I hadn't planned anything or shopped accordingly, I decided to find a way to use them. Voila: caramel oatmeal cookies.

These cookies are soft and chewy.  They are full of oatmeal and studded with caramel bits.  They're sweet and buttery and frankly every single cookie was devoured by the time the next Sunday Cookie Night recipe came around!

The caramel did annoy me when it came time to pull the cookies off the baking sheets.  Be careful at this point; the caramel tended to stick to the pan and rip out half your cookie if you weren't careful.  And if you have too many left at the end of the week, the caramel bits will then rip out your teeth.  But frankly, you won't have many cookies left because these were wildly popular.

Recipe:

caramel oatmeal cookies
from Six Sisters Stuff
makes 5 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups quick or old-fashion oats, uncooked
1 package Kraft Caramel Bits

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

3) In a large bowl, cream together butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.

4) Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Fold in oats and caramel bits.

5) Drop by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.  Cook for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Chana Masala

Over Christmas vacation, my family, Mark and I went to the Cheesecake Factory.  Mark and I got to the mall first, and knowing there was an hour wait, we grabbed  quick snack at the food court to tide us over until dinner.  I got a samosa, and Mark ordered chana masala.  Again, he's secretly a vegetarian but he won't admit it.  Chana masala is a chickpea curry.  It's spicy, wildly flavorful, gluten-free, vegetarian, and awesome.  Mark never asks for anything specific for dinner (that drives me nuts), but after eating his chana masala, he said, "make this for dinner at home sometime."  Before we had walked out of the food court, I had pinned two recipes and added the ingredients mentally to my grocery list.

I ended up not getting a chance to try it out until February vacation, and I chose a different recipe than the ones I pinned due to some ingredients I wasn't able to find (mango powder? Cumin seeds?).  This recipe was easy, perfect, and so insanely delicious that I cannot recommend it enough.  Do you need an idea for Meatless Monday?  Do you want to serve a hearty, filling, healthy chickpea curry over some white rice and have your house smell like Asia?  Well, I do.

And let's talk about the spices.  Besides garlic, fresh cilantro and lemon juice, there is cumin, coriander, ginger, turmeric, and garam masala.  The recipe calls for cayenne pepper, which I didn't have, so I threw in some crushed red pepper (Mark likes spice).  Can you imagine the explosion of flavors in this dish!?  All those flavors meld together into the most incredible mixture.

In fact, Mark loved this so much that, besides the one bowl I ate, he devoured the whole entire pot.  Like, no leftovers.  This recipe serves 4, so he ate 3 people's servings all by himself.  I think it's safe to say that he liked it!  This recipe will be making an appearance again.  Maybe I'd better double it next time.

One last note: the original website also offers a recipe for homemade garlic naan.  I would so love to try making this Indian flatbread, but I didn't have time this night to make anything with yeast.  Next time though?  Definitely.  I can only imagine how great the chana masala would be scooped onto naan... mmmm.

Recipe:

chana masala
from Mustard and Sage

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
water
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish
3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2 15-ounce cans, drained and rinsed)

Instructions:

1) Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until caramelized, stirring occasionally.

2) Reduce heat to low.  Add garlic, cumin, coriander, ginger, turmeric, garam masala, cayenne, and salt, and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant and toasty, about 30 seconds.  Add 1/4 cup water, stir, and cook until water has completely evaporated.

3) Add tomatoes and their juice.  Raise heat to medium and bring to a gentle boil.  Adjust heat to maintain a simmer, and add cilantro leaves.  Stirring occasionally, cook until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.

4) Add chickpeas, stir, and cook over low heat for 5 minutes.  Add 2 tablespoons water and cook for 5 minutes.  Add another 2 tablespoons water and cook until absorbed.  This process of adding and cooking off water helps concentrate the sauce's flavor and makes the chickpeas more tender.  taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.  Garnish with cilantro leaves.  Serve with rice and naan.

Stuffed Poblanos

Remember when I told you to expect more recipes with poblano peppers?  That begins here and now. In case you forgot from two whole posts ago, I recently realized poblano peppers are not insanely spicy (at all), so I vowed to give them more of a shot.  Thus I bring you stuffed poblano peppers!

These poblanos are cut in half and stuffed with a vegetarian, gluten-free filling of black beans and cornmeal, flavored with onion, garlic, cumin, cilantro and pepperjack cheese.  Are you drooling yet?  Then there's the sauce, which you whip up in .07 seconds in a food processor, using canned whole tomatoes, onions, garlic and a jalapeño (there's the spice I promised Mark!).  I'm not one for spicy foods, but even I loved this sauce.  I made sure to scoop plenty of it on top of my pepper, because although it had a kick, it was tasty.

The stuffed peppers bake under a lovely blanket of more cheese, and once you take them out of the oven, they're so pretty,you almost don't want to eat them.  Almost.  But then you and your husband devour almost all of them for dinner, and then for lunch, and then you even give some to your gluten-free cousin, who also devours them.... which reminds me, Susie and Maggie, you guys have my baking dish! :)

Anyway, if you're craving Mexican, this is probably what you should make.  Sure, go ahead and add meat if you feel the need, but I don't think you will.

Recipe:

stuffed poblanos
from Pink Parsley
serves 4

Ingredients:
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes in juice
1 jalapeño chile, ribs and seeds removed, minced
2 small or 1 large onion, chopped, divided
3 garlic cloves, 2 crushed, 1 minced
kosher salt and black pepper
1 19-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 - 3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1 cup shredded pepperjack cheese
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 cup water or broth
4 poblano peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs and seeds removed

Instructions:

1) Combine the tomatoes, jalapeño, 1 onion, and 2 cloves of garlic in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.  Process until smooth, and season with salt and pepper.  Pour into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish, spreading to cover evenly.

2) In a medium bowl, combine the beans, cornmeal, 1/2 cup cheese, remaining onion, garlic, cumin, cilantro, and water.  Stir to combine, and season with salt and pepper.

3) Evenly divide the stuffing among the peppers, and lay in a single layer in the baking dish.  Top with remaining cheese, and cover with aluminum foil.

4) Bake 45 minutes, or until poblanos are tender.  Remove foil and bake an additional 10 - 15 minutes, or until cheese is browned.  Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving.

Blueberry Muffins

The quest continues.  You've heard about it before, and you'll hear about it again.  These muffins were good, but they weren't The Ones either.

They were soft, fluffy and full of blueberries, just sweet enough to count as muffins but delicious enough to feel like a dessert.  I made them at my mom's one day to thank my family for being insanely amazing and wonderful.  I think muffins are a good trade for support, love and daily doggy daycare!

One word of warning: they turned into rocks by the next morning.  These are best eaten the day you bake them.  Otherwise they may or may not be given to mice as treats.  True story.

Recipe:

blueberry muffins
from Sally's Baking Addiction
makes 15-16 standard muffins or 30 mini muffins

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs, room temperature preferred
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk or milk
1/2 canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 fresh or frozen blueberries
coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray your muffin tin of choice with non-stick spray or line with muffin liners.  Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, gently toss together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.  Mix until all dry ingredients are combined -  a 20 second toss to disperse everything together.  Set aside.

3) In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until combined.  mix in milk, oil, and vanilla.  Mixture will be pale and yellow.  Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix everything together by hand.  Avoid over mixing.  Gently mix until all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and no big pockets of flour remain.  The batter will be very thick and somewhat lumpy.  Fold in the blueberries.

4) Pour batter into prepared muffin tins, filling all the way to the top.  Top with a sprinkle of course sugar if preferred.  Bake for 5 minutes at 425 degrees, then reduce oven temperature to 375 and continue to bake for 13 - 14 minutes until tops are lightly golden and centers appear set.  For mini muffins, bake at 375 the whole time for 11 - 12 minutes.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan.

Slow Cooker Quinoa White Chili with Roasted Poblanos

I've lately become a fan of poblano peppers.  I always thought they were insanely spicy for no real reason, but they aren't.  In fact, when I made this chili, I was worried the whole time it was slow cooking that I wasn't going to want to eat it because it would be too spicy.

Everything else sounded great: quinoa for protein, not to mention cannellini beans, plus exciting spices like cloves, oregano and smoked paprika.  No tomatoes here: this is a white chili, with onions and green peppers, and of course, the roasted poblanos.

When it was done, I made other people taste test it first to make sure it wasn't crazy spicy - and it wasn't.  At all.  Poblanos get a bad rap, but don't worry: I am here to share them with you (be ready for more poblano recipes in the next few weeks!).  It was delicious!  It had a great flavor from the surprising addition of not-your-average-chili-spices and was filling and hearty without needing meat. I made this for Kenzie's birthday along with the buffalo chicken meatballs  so that there would be something for me to eat, but even though that was my thinking, lots of people were pleasantly surprised by this chili.  I think you would be too.

I apologize for being a bad blogger lately.  Life is insane.  Between taking 2 CAGS courses plus the SEI course, and life, and work, and feeling like I have an appointment every single night, I'm busy.  But that is no excuse, so I'm working on it :)

Recipe:

slow cooker quinoa white chili with roasted poblanos
from Oh My Veggies
makes 6 - 8 servings

Ingredients:
2 medium poblano peppers
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, diced (about 2 cups)
1 medium green pepper, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 teaspoons)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
4 cups cooked cannellini beans (2 15-ounces cans, drained)
3/4 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed under cold water and drained
5 - 6 dashes Tabasco sauce (optional)
fresh lime wedges and other toppings such as sour cream, shredded cheese, cilantro, etc.

Instructions:

1) First, roast your poblanos.  Turn the oven on to the high broil setting and move the rack to about one-third of the way from the top of the oven.  Wash and dry whole peppers and place on a cookie sheet.  Place in the oven and broil for 2 - 3 minutes, until the tops are blackened, then turn carefully with tongs and continue broiling until most sides are blistered and blackened.  But watch carefully - ovens can vary greatly, so keep a close eye on the peppers and remove them if the start to smoke more than just a little.

2) Remove the blackened peppers from the oven and carefully tent a large pier of foil over the top.  This helps the peppers to "sweat" and will make the skin easier to peel off when it's time.

3) While the poblanos are cooling assemble the rest of the chili.  Heat the olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat.  Add the diced onions and green peppers.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 5 - 6 minutes.

4) Add the garlic, oregano, cumin, smoked paprika, cloves, and salt.  Cook, stirring, for none minutes.

5) Add a cup or so of broth and stir to make sure all the bits of flavor are scraped up into the broth.  Carefully pour into the slow cooker along with the remaining vegetable broth, cannellini beans, quinoa, and Tabasco if using.

6) Carefully peel the skin off the poblanos and remove the stem.  Remove the seeds for a milder chili; keep them for a hotter chili.  Finely dice and add to the Crock Pot.  Stir gently to mix all of the ingredients together.

7) Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours or high for 3 - 4 hours until the quinoa is tender and the chili is relatively thick.  Taste and add additional salt and pepper to taste.

8) Scoop into bowls and squeeze a lime wedge over each serving.  Garnish with additional toppings if desired.