Strawberry, Mango and Avocado Salad

This was a surprisingly delicious salad that I made on my wedding invitation party night! I invited Anne and Caitlin over to help my sisters, Mom and I write out the hundreds of addresses and return addresses - not to mention all the stamping and envelope-licking.  They were HUGE helps and we got the job done in a short and minimally painful 3 hours.  They needed their energy before all that work, so I made dinner.  I decided to make beans and rice for dinner (just in case Dani came, I wanted to stay gluten free!) and I tried this salad out with it.

Even I had to admit that this salad sounds weird.  Avocado with strawberries?  And mango with balsamic vinegar?  And honey with cayenne pepper?  The answer to all these questions is yes.  Yes, put smooth, creamy avocado with bright, sweet strawberries.  Temper the super sweetness of mango with tangy balsamic vinegar.  Spice up honey with cayenne pepper.  And throw it all together with cilantro, lime and orange juices, and salt, and you have just the most bizarrely wonderful salad.

I think I was not alone in being shocked how great this salad was.  Even I, who love weird foods, had my doubts, but I thought it was great.  Sweet, cold, bright, and clean-tasting, it was a great addition to a beans-and-rice meal.  More shocking, though, was that everyone else loved it too.  Even my mom, and she hates weird food.  We all devoured it, even eating it on top of the rice and beans.  It's a perfect summery salad.  I know: it sounds really weird, but just go with it.

Recipe:

strawberry, mango and avocado salad
from Pink Parsley

Ingredients:
1 mango, peeled, pitted and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup chopped strawberries
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons orange juice
juice of 1/2 lime
pinch cayenne
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
1 avocado, pitted and cut into 1-inch cubes
kosher salt

Instructions:

1) In a medium bowl, whisk together the honey, vinegar, orange juice, lime juice, cayenne, salt, and cilantro.  Toss with strawberries and mango, and allow to sit for at least 15 minutes.

2) When ready to serve, gently mix in the avocado.  Season with salt to taste and serve immediately.

Microwave Coffee Cup Scramble

I have to tell you: this is an excellent recipe. I have told you before that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, but I very rarely get the chance to sit down and enjoy breakfast.  Mornings are rushed and crazy (even more so in the new house now that we have to bring Daisy to my mom's before work!) and I usually end up eating nothing or eating something like a yogurt or a Solo cup of dry cereal (that has been Mark's go to breakfast).  But not having time is not an excuse not to enjoy this ridiculously simple recipe.  It became part of my morning routine during math and science MCAS, when I knew I would need energy and wouldn't be eating until 1:00.  It is so easy, and so good!

Literally all you do is spray a mug with cooking spray, then whisk in an egg and some milk.  Microwave for 45 seconds, then stir and microwave it again for 30 more seconds.  After the first cooking, it is starting to set, but by the end of the second go, it has magically turned into perfect fluffy scrambled eggs.  Add salt, pepper and shredded cheese, and voila: you have breakfast.  Sometimes I ate it straight out of the mug; other times, I toasted some multigrain bread and ate the eggs on top of it.  Once I even made myself an egg sandwich out of it with an English muffin.  In summary, you can basically eat it however you want, and you won't be disappointed.

One last note: some days I wasn't hungry enough for 2 eggs.  One egg works just fine; it just needed a bit less cooking time.

With all the insanity of the past few weeks, I had sort of forgotten about this recipe.  I am pretty glad I just remembered about it, because I think there is a a very good chance that I will be having coffee cup scramble for breakfast tomorrow... on my last Monday of work!  Wahoo!

Recipe:

microwave coffee cup scramble
from The Incredible Edible Egg
makes 1 serving

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons shredded cheese
salt and pepper

Instructions:

1) Coat a 12-ounce microwave-safe coffee mug with cooking spray.  Add eggs and milk, beat until blended,

2) Microwave on high 45 seconds; stir.  Microwave until eggs are almost set, 30 to 45 seconds longer.

3) Top with cheese; season with salt and pepper.

Nutty Meatless Loaf

Okay so WOW I haven't posted in over a week.  I am very sorry but life does continue to be crazy.  It has definitely calmed down now that Mark and I are homeowners living in our new house!  But still... we haven't unpacked boxes, there are shower gift duplicates that need to be returned, thank you cards that need writing, the floor needs cleaning... so even when we are at home, there is no relaxing or blogging.  However, today is Friday the 13th.  It's 10:45 AM, and my students are in a rehearsal for Tuesday's spring concert.  It's a full moon, it's raining, and I am a walking zombie after this long, crazy week.  So instead of working, here is a recipe for nutty meatless loaf.  Don't knock it till you've tried it.

I know it sounds gross to have a meatless meatloaf, but this one is pretty awesome.  It was a great mix of salty and sweet, and crunchy and soft.  It is mostly made from lentils and brown rice, but flavored with everything from apricots and fresh mango to garam masala (see recipe below) and pecans.  Aren't you intrigued yet?  It all gets baked together and comes out looking more like a pie that a meatloaf, but after all, it's not a meatloaf anyway.  There are so many flavors in this dish that I was content to eat it for lunch day after day.  My mom said she liked it and it was "almost like a dessert."  There is fresh mango on top, so it is sweet, but there is also onion and celery, so it is not actually a dessert at all :)  I think you should try it out.  Give meatless loaves a chance!

Recipe:
nutty meatless loaf
from Better Homes and Gardens
makes 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups dry red or yellow lentils
2 medium carrots, shredded
3/4 cup snipped dried apricots and/or golden raisins
1 medium onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala (see below)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
3/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
1/2 cup mango chutney
1/4 cup chopped red sweet pepper
1/4 cup chopped peeled fresh mango
cilantro leaves (optional)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 deegrees.  In a medium saucepan, bring 3 cups of water and lentils to boiling; reduce heat.  Cover simmer 10 to 15 minutes or until tender.  Drain and set aside.

2) In a 10-inch skillet, cook carrots, apricots, onion, celery, garam masala, and garlic in hot oil over medium heat for 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.

3) In  a large bowl, combine eggs, cooked lentils, carrot mixture, brown rice, 2/3 cup of the nuts, half the chutney, and 1 teaspoon salt.

4) Firmly press lentil mixture into a greased 9- or 9-1/2-inch deep dish pie plate.  Bake, uncovered, 25 minutes.  In a small bowl, combine remaining chutney with sweet pepper, mango, and remaining nuts.

5) Evenly spoon chutney mixture on loaf.  Bake 10 minutes or more until chutney mixture is heated through.  Sprinkle with cilantro leaves.  let stand 15 minutes.  Cut into wedges to serve.


garam masala
from All Recipes

1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  Store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.

No Chicken Vegan Pad Thai

I am not so very good at updating the blog these days.  I'm sorry!  Things are insane - but mostly good insane.  I mean, my bachelorette weekend was last weekend, and Mark and I close on our new house in 2 days, and my shower is this weekend!  Add to that the fact that I (obviously) have a cold, and the blog has unfortunately been the last thing on my mind.

However, since I have about 15 minutes before I run off for an eye appointment, it was time to get back in business.  And I was super excited to share this recipe with the whole world.  It was a delicious pad thai, absolutely flavorful and healthy and yes, it was vegan but yet it had chicken.  What?!  How can this be!?  The answer, my friends, is called grain meat chicken.  AKA fake chicken.  AKA ficken (I totally made up this word but my family has been using it).

I wish I took notice of the type of ficken that I picked up at Wegman's, but I didn't.  I just know that it came in an orange-ish bag and they are in the freezer section (and in fact have to remain frozen).  I also know that this ficken was so darn realistic that it made me almost not like it (the texture of chicken freaks me out).  I sort of neglected to mention that it wasn't real chicken; Nick was smart enough to know that I didn't suddenly start feeding them all real meat, and called me out on it right away - but that didn't stop him from eating three helpings of pad thai, ficken and all!!!  And my mom didn't know it was fake chicken until I told her.  Then she claimed she knew it wasn't "very flavorful chicken" but I have a feeling she had no idea whatsoever :)  Unfortunately, Mark refused to even try it.  Sometimes he is oh so good about trying new things, and other times he just puts the brakes right on.  So I have no comment from Mark.  But everyone else was very surprised at just how realistic this grain meat chicken was.  It had the texture of cooked chicken - how, I have no idea.  When it's defrosting, it is pretty slimy, but as soon as you heat it up, it transforms into ficken.  I can't explain how, but it's magical.

I haven't been able to find this fake chicken in regular grocery stores, but I really hope I do, because I think this is a pretty exciting way to make everyone (minus Mark) excited for dinner!

Now, the bad news..... the recipe that I used to make this delicious no chicken pad thai has disappeared.  It used to be on a website called produceonparade.com.  I have searched and searched for this vegan blog, but it's gone.  And no amateur bloggers took it upon themselves to post the recipe, unfortunately.  So I don't have it for you.  But I am going to try to find it to update this post, because everyone has to try this recipe.  For now, just consider the post to be a review of grain-meat chicken :)

Bean and Cheese Burritos

My life has been so insane over the past two months, and will only continue to get more insane.  Some of it is good insanity - I'm buying a house and I am getting married.  Some of if is terrible insanity - such as the ridiculous corrupt joke that my school district has become.  I definitely try to escape into the kitchen, but I don't get in there enough.  In fact, I am out of flour right now, and I don't even remember when I used the last scoop.  That is so unlike me.  And this recipe, for today's blog post?  It was from the Cinco de Mayo.  That's how far behind I am.  Arghhhh.  Anyway, the good news is that we close on our new home next Thursday, so at least some things will be calmer after that.  Plus the kitchen is awesome and I can't wait to get in there and cook.

The other good news: these bean and cheese burritos were delicious.  You know it's a good recipe when my whole family eats it, and when friends are over (semi picky friends, might I add) and they devour it too.  I obviously left out the pickled jalapeños, but even I have to admit that I was intrigued by a recipe that not only calls for pickled vegetables, but the pickle juice as well!  I was pretty famous for drinking dill pickle juice in high school.  Yup.  But anyway, I left out the pickled jalapeños and their juice from these burritos; they were flavorful enough with pinto beans, green chiles, cheddar cheese, salsa, cilantro, cumin and chili powder.

I did change a couple things about the beans. I decided not to mash them.  I like some texture to my burritos, so I left the pinto beans intact.  Otherwise, I think they'd be too mushy inside.  And lastly, I thought it was kind of gross that the recipe called for the cans of beans not to be drained.  I think we all know what precisely causes... ahem.... stomach issues when you eat beans.  I was not about to let that happen on my watch!!!  Drain away.  Rinse, even.

In any case, there ended up only being one burrito left after dinner.  I was happy that they were so popular even among my carnivores.  They were a great Cinco de Mayo meal, but since I am almost a month late posting that, I'd say it would make a good meal for any time :)

Recipe:

bean and cheese burritos
from Pink Parsley

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 - 2 tablespoons pickled jalapeños (depending on spice tolerance)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper
2 15-ounce cans pinto beans, undrained (I drained mine!!!)
1 - 2 tablespoons pickling liquid from jalapeños
4 ounce can green chiles, drained
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 cups shredded cheese (preferably a mixture of cheddar and pepperjack)
12 6-inch flour tortillas
1 cup fresh tomato, diced
2 - 3 scallions, diced

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and lightly spray a 9x13 dish with cooking spray.

2) In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat, and add the onion.  Cook, stirring often, until softened and translucent, 5 - 6 minutes.  Add the jalapeños, chili powder, cumin, and salt and pepper, and cook an additional 1 - 2 minutes.

3) Pour the undrained beans into the skillet with the diced green chiles and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and add the pickling liquid and the salsa, and cook until thickened.  Using a potato masher or a wide spoon, mash beans (if desired) to achieve a consistency similar to refried beans.  Stir in the cilantro, taste, and adjust seasonings.  Add half the cheese and stir to melt.

4) Carefully add a scant 1/3 cup of filling to each tortilla, and roll up (you may lose some of the filling, but that's okay.  Just work carefully and do the best you can).  Line the rolled burritos in the prepared dish, and top with the remaining cheese.

5) Cover with foil and bake 15 minutes, then remove foil and continue to cook 5 - 10 minutes longer, until the cheese is melted.  Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes.  Top with scallions and tomato and serve with sour cream and salsa.

Ravioli with Goat Cheese and Spinach Filling

Yes, folks, another homemade ravioli recipe!  And this one is a little different for a few reasons.  I have made shrimp and chive ravioli (not a good idea), three cheese ravioli, and spinach and ricotta ravioli.  All were made from semolina flour, like traditional ravioli, and they were rolled out using my pasta roller that Kaz gave me for Christmas a few years ago.  This recipe intrigued me for a few reasons: first, that it is made with regular flour, and second, that it is rolled out by hand rather than using a pasta roller machine.  I wanted to try it to see if raviolis could be satisfactorily made with "regular cook's materials."  Can you use regular flour?  Can you just use a rolling pin to roll it out?  And obviously anything filled with goat cheese is A-okay by me!

The pasta dough recipe calls for just flour, hot water, an egg, and salt.  It was very easy to make it.  It has to sit for an hour, but other than that it was quick to throw together.  Then the filling was just spinach, goat cheese, parmesan, a pinch of nutmeg, and salt and pepper.  I will confess due to a guilty conscience that I ended up having too much filling left after I used all the pasta, and I spread it on pieces of toast and devoured it (see picture below).  There.  I feel better now.

The pasta rolling experience was quite a workout.  It is a lot more work to roll with a rolling pin many, many times, than to run sheets of dough through a roller machine with a crank a few times.  But again, I wanted to just prove that it was possible to do it with laymen's tools!  I was sweaty and tired by the time I had semi-thin sheets of pasta (they were definitely not as thin as when I used the roller), but it certainly was possible to do it.  I did use my trusty old ravioli mold to fill the raviolis with that amazing goat cheesy filling!

The raviolis get boiled for 5 minutes, and then you're done!  Then I had to deal with the sauce.  The recipe recommends a mushroom and parmesan cream sauce, and I had even bought all the ingredients for this.  But (and this is the second or third time this has happened) after all the work it takes to make ravioli, I was too tired to work on making anything else.  I confess again to using just a jar of tomato sauce!

The end result was of course amazing.  There was no way any pasta stuffed with goat cheese would be bad.  Kenzie and my mom both said they actually preferred the raviolis a little bit thicker (thanks, rolling pin!) and they loved the filling.  I happily ate the leftovers for lunch during the week and they stayed delicious and reheated well.  This would be a great recipe to try if you are interested in trying to make your own pasta without the benefit of a pasta roller or semolina flour.  Yes, it is possible :)




Recipe:

ravioli with goat cheese and spinach filling
from Julia's Album
makes 12 - 18 raviolis

Ingredients:
for ravioli dough:
1 1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
for ravioli filling:
1/3 cup cooked spinach (or 1/2 bunch raw spinach to be cooked)
2 ounces goat cheese
1/3 parmesan cheese, grated
nutmeg
salt and pepper

Instructions:

1) Mix flour with salt.

2) Stir water with egg until well mixed.

3) In a bowl, combine flour and egg-water mixture together and mix until well incorporated.  Knead the dough until well-textured and firm.  The dough should not be too wet or too sticky.  It should only stick to itself, but not to your hands.  It should not be too dry either.  Make the dough into a ball or disk, and wrap with plastic wrap.  Let the dough stand for 1 hour at room temperature before using.  This allows the gluten to work.

4) Meanwhile, make the filling.  Cook spinach until wilted and all liquid is gone.  It is very important that all liquid is evaporated.  Chop spinach.

5) Soften goat cheese by heating it up in microwave oven for about 5 - 10 seconds.  Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl: chopped spinach, goat cheese, and parmesan cheese.  Add a little bit of nutmeg to taste, and salt and pepper as well.  Set aside.  Your filling should not be runny; it needs to be firm.  You can refrigerate it to firm it up.

6)  Assemble ravioli: unwrap ravioli dough from plastic, and divide it in 2 equal parts.  Roll out each part of pasta dough very thinly on a floured surface.  Make sure to flour the upper portion of pasta dough and the roller to avoid sticking.  Lift the rolled dough several times during rolling to make sure it isn;t sticking, and flour working surface with more flour if necessary.

7) Flour the ravioli mold.  After you have rolled the 2 portions of dough very thinly, place first layer of dough on the ravioli mold so that it covers all 12 holes.

8) Place a small portion of ravioli filling into each indentation, making sure not to overfill.  The filling should be at the same level or lower as the flat part of the mold.  Place the second layer of pasta dough on top of filled ravioli.

9) Using a rolling pin, roll across the mold and along the edges to separate the ravioli.  By now you should have extra dough hanging off the outside 4 edges of the mold.  Carefully separate it.  Continue rolling the pin along the inside edge of the raviolis to separate them from one another.

10) Flip ravioli mold to release ravioli.  Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Boil ravioli for 5 minutes and drain.  Serve immediately, or place them on a plate of baking sheet in the freezer to freeze.  After they are frozen, place them in a plastic bag and keep frozen until needed.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bites

This was the last of the three types of energy bites that I served at the Team Tony breakfast along with the regular ones and the carrot cake ones.  They're the little brown ones in the middle.

Among the three energy bites (what I called my trio of bites), these were my favorite (and a few other people's faves as well!).  They don't really taste like any of their separate ingredients (I made sure not to tell most people there were dates in them, for instance) but the final result is a delicious blend of bright flavors.  Poppy seeds and lemon zest and juice bring to mind lemon poppy seed muffins, with the added flavors of sunflower seeds, walnuts, and coconut.  Doesn't that sound great?

One change I made was the outside coating.  The recipe called to roll the balls in more coconut, but I found that none of it stuck, so I stopped trying after the first ball.  Feel free to try if you'd like, but I am leaving it out of my instructions.

Everything gets tossed into the food processor - even the dates, which are mostly just there to hold everything together.  The ending result was what I believe were the best of the energy bites.  They are bright, sweet, a tiny bit salty, filling, and healthy at the same time.  I ate the few remaining bites for breakfast the next couple days; they were perfectly portable and easily brought to work.  With the protein from the nuts and seeds, they were a great quick breakfast option!


Recipe:

lemon poppy seed bites
from Dishing Up the Dirt
serves 12 balls (I made mine smaller so I got more out of them)

Ingredients:
1 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds (I could only find salted, and they worked fine; I left out the sea salt)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup medjool dates, about 10-12, pitted and roughly chopped
1 -2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (start with less and add more if necessary)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
pinch of fine sea salt

Instructions:

1) In a food processor, blend the walnuts, sunflower seeds, and coconut to a coarse meal.

2) Add the dates, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla extract, pinch of salt, and poppy seeds.  Process until the mixture forms a rough dough that can easily hold together when pinched between your fingers.

3) Taste test and add more lemon juice if necessary.

4) Roll into small (1 to 1 1/2-inch) balls.

5) Store in an airtight container in the fridge.