Chik’n Qorn Chowder

As you may know from reading my blog I generally try to stay physically fit. I enjoy running and weight lifting and eating a healthy plant-based diet. I get plenty of nutrients from my food because my workouts are pretty moderate. My husband on the other hand has been doing P90x. With a workout this extreme and his interest in building muscles he wanted to start increasing his protein and decreasing his carbs. Our meals are predominately low-fat vegan, but I was able to rustle up a delicious vegetarian chowder with lots of healthy proteins. The soup was delicious and filling and will provide some great fuel for his workouts. The base of this chowder is Quinoa, a complete protein and has plenty of lysine which is essential for tissue growth and repair. To that I added Qorn Naked Chik’n Cutlets which are made from mycoprotein, feta cheese and hard boiled cage-free eggs. Several cups of leafy greens, some garlic and cayenne pepper and you’ve got one light and delicious one-pot vegetarian meal. My husband loved it, but said next time he would add onions or leeks, mushrooms and would scramble the eggs in the boiling soup rather than topping with hard boiled (a la egg drop soup). This soup is great because you can really substitute and omit ingredients to fit what you’ve got in your pantry. No Chik’n cutlets in the freezer? Just toss in some black beans. Vegan? Leave out the cheese and eggs. Want more Southwestern? Use a fresh jalapeno and add some frozen corn. You can really work this soup in so many delicious ways that the basic recipe can keep you full and body building all winter long.

Chik’n Qorn Chowder

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper

3 tablespoons of cumin

1 tablesp0on of lime juice

salt & pepper to taste

1 bunch of cilantro, chopped (or 3 tablespoons of the gel stuff in the tube if you can’t find fresh)

1 cup of quinoa

2 Qorn Naked Chik’n Cutlets (1/2 box), chopped

3 Cups of Spinach (1 bag)

3 tablespoons of pickled jalapeno (I didn’t have any fresh on hand, but that would be delicious).

2 Tablespoons of EVOO (olive oil)

8 Cups of Water

4 eggs, hardboiled and diced

4 oz crumbled feta cheese

Get Cookin:

1. First we’ll need to cook the eggs and the Quinoa, separate but simulataneously to speed things along for a weeknight dinner). Rinse your qinoa in a fine strainer, then add to large stock pot with 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat and once boiling simmer for 10-15 minutes. The quinoa shells will pop off leaving the transulucent grains behind as they expand. Also, boil enough water to cover your eggs in a small saucepan. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook the eggs for 10-15 minutes. The eggs and the quinoa should finish up around the same time.

2. Drain the eggs and set aside to cool for peeling. Drain the quinoa and reserve the cooking water in a separate bowl. Add additional water until the cooking water measures 6 cups.

3. Heat the olive oil in the stock pot and add the garlic and jalapeno. (add leeks/onions/mushrooms now if you plan to use them). Sautee for about 30 seconds or until the garlic begins to brown. Add the chopped pieces of chik’n cutlets and continue to sautee until those begin to brown (about 5 minutes). If the mixture begins to stick add a tablespoon or two of the reserved cooking water at a time to release.

4. Add in the cumin and cayenne and the remaining reserved cooking water and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add in the quinoa and spinach and stir until the spinach is wilted, around 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped cilantro and feta cheese. Top with the diced, hard-boiled eggs, a splash of lime juice, a dash of cumin and cayenne and salt and pepper to taste.

PunchFork: Recipes made beautiful and easy

I love the internet for many reasons, but one of my very favorites is the access to an impossible number of recipes, often with user reviews and pictures so that I know that even I can do it. This has meant countless apps, blogs, feeds and searching to get just the recipes that I want. Then, along comes Punchfork, with its wide screen, full color, magazine-cover-worthy photos. So tempting, so convenient, so user-friendly. Recently I began using Pinterest to keep all of my favorites in a single location, which is engaging and attractive, but it’s not nearly as easy to capture my recipes as Punchfork. And let’s face it, I’m a sucker for good looks and on that front Punchfork can’t be beat. In the “About” section of the Punchfork web page the mission is clear:

Punchfork makes it easier to find the best new recipes from popular sites like 101 Cookbooks, The Pioneer Woman, Epicurious, Serious Eats, Food Network and The Kitchn. We use conversations on social networks to bring you high quality recipes that passionate cooks are talking about right now.

Even more interesting is the explanation behind how the site is powered. They use some social media wizardry to serve you up the most popular recipes from blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

These real-time updates capture the images and cooking instructions and post them on the site where users can save, by clicking a little red heart, and share by email, posting to StumbleUpon, Tweet, or even capture your own link for embedding into your personal blog and other sites. I love, love, love this concept. While I may occasionally continue to “pin” recipes that I find interesting, I’m likely to do my real searching no Punchfork.

Are you using Punchfork? If so, share your opinions in the comments below.

Spring Cleaning Time Again: DIY Natural All-Purpose Cleaner Recipes

This weekend is spring cleaning time again around my house.  As you may have read in previous posts I try to use inexpensive, effective and natural cleaners wherever possible. I swear by vinegar for cleaning counter tops, stainless steel and cutting boards, but when it comes to all purpose cleaners for bathrooms, floors, etc. I have a new recipe:

All-Purpose Cleaner

1/2 Gallon of Water

2 tsp Borax

1/2 C vinegar

As for everything in the bathroom, when in doubt, just use borax. It’s abrasive and natural and leaves everything clean, shiny and fresh. I sprinkle some around inside my toilet and let it sit while I clean, then I just use my little scrubby brush and voila! It’s clean and fresh! Essentially, some mixture of vinegar, borax and water can clean anything in your house. If you have stains and you need some abrasive, just add the borax.  For dusting, cleaning wood floors and furniture polish though I recommend buying. I use Method’s Wood for Good because it removes scratches and leaves everything smelling almondy and rich,  but there are lots of healhty and natural options out there. You can even use a bit of olive oil and lemon juice to make a good wood cleaner/polisher if you want. I don’t have to use it enough to be concerned about the economic impact of my wood cleaner because I use mostly all-purpose cleaner around my home. What about you? What natural and/or DIY cleaners do you use around your home? Do you have any great recipes to share? If so, leave them in the comments below.  Happy Cleaning!

The ‘Buch is in the Bottle!

Good news! As a follow-up to my previous post “The ‘Buch is On!” I can say that it appears to have been a successful experiment. I finally had a thin, white, filmy pancake looking SCOBY grow on top of my tea brew. It looked like kombucha, it smelled like kombucha, so I called it done. I removed the new SCOBY that grew on top and placed it into a glass jar with a cup of the kombucha to sit while I brewed, sweetened and cooled a new gallon tea. Once the tea cooled to room temperature, I plopped in the SCOBY and juice and recovered my jar with cheesecloth, a rubber band and returned it to it’s special place to await another fermentation cycle. The completed batch I bottled in four growler’s that I had set aside after my last visit to the Pub Dog.  The to-go bottles from Pub Dog are the perfect size if you want to make mutliple flavors or share your batch with friends. To each bottle I added a bit of pureed peaches and lightly capped. I’ve left them out to complete a second fermentation over the next few days to allow the flavors to marry and to make my sweet nectar a bit fizzy. I’ll post the results of the taste test once I crack it open for drinking this weekend.

Heavy Metal Vegan Cooking: Rock out with Seitan!

As you may know from reading my blog my mother is a Vegan. She made the switch a few years ago in response to high cholesterol. Rather than take medication daily, she decided to alter her diet and lifestyle. I’ve always dabbled in healthy eating, mixing in both vegan and vegetarian cuisine, but claiming neither fully. While I do only cook vegetarian dishes, and most of those are vegan, I’m not as strict about what I eat when I’m not at home. Most of the time I don’t eat meat, but occasionally I do, and for now I’m o.k. with that. Now, onto the important bit of this post. My vegan mom invited me over for manicotti the other night, which were delicious by the way, and afterward shared a new cooking show that she found on Youtube. The show is named Heavy Metal Vegan Cooking and it’s pretty awesome. The videos feature Tim Hogarth cooking up a delicious vegan meal, as you would expect to see in any normal cooking show, but he adds a dash of hilarity and lots of metal. He weaves comedic plot lines into his food preparation and it’s all set to the heavy metal music you know and love. Artists like Pantera, Slayer and Megadeth are featured in episodes such as Seitan with Satan and Crowbar Cookies. For more information, videos and recipes from the Heavy Metal Vegan Kitchen, check out the website.

My Favorite App: Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything”

Earlier this summer I finally upgraded my ancient cell phone after it finally stopped charging and couldn’t be repaired. As you may know from previous posts I jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, and I’m glad that I did. I’ve found a lot of really useful, fun and entertaining apps, but my current favorite is Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything” app.

But wait…,”Who’s Mark Bittman?” you may be asking. Well, Mark Bittman is a reknowned cook and writer. He’s a columnist for The New York Times, jounalist and an author of many great cookbooks including:

Mark Bittman’s Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times: Featuring 350 recipes from the author of HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING and THE BEST RECIPES IN THE WORLD

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food

and

The Food Matters Cookbook: 500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living

In fact, his book, How to Cook Everything, Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Foodsells on Amazon for over $20, but now you can download the App for $4.99. I can tell you that it’s a real bargain. I love that it’s on my phone, so I have it anytime that I need it. Some of my favorite features include the Bittman’s picks, which lists his favorite recipes. These include: Top 100 Vegetarian Recipes, Top 100 Make-Ahead Recipes and the Top 100 Fast Recipes; all of which are super useful for meal planning. You can then select your favorite recipe and with the push of a button add it directly to your calendar. You can plan recipes for a week or a month, or for that next party you have coming up during the holidays. If you didn’t plan your meal in advance and you just want to work with items you have laying around in the pantry or fridge you can use the search option. You can search by ingredient, cooking technique, flavor or recipe types (fast, make-ahead, vegetarian or essential). One of my favorite tools withint he app is the groceries feature. You can add right from the recipes or type in your own selections. It lets you organize by aisle so that you don’t have to go back and forth over the recipe to find everything at the store. You can even email your shopping list in case you have another family member who can stop and pick things up for you. Last, but no least is the ability to favorite your recipes. Best yet, you don’t have to carry around a printed book or pages or recipes from the internet. This frugal and environmentally friendly app gives you access to over 2,000 recipes and you’ll never have to waste paper printing a recipe in this easy to read format. Everything is in one convenient place (your iphone), which you were going to have to carry around anyway. This app has revolutionized weeknight cooking for me and I wanted to share my thoughts on what a great tool this is for any cook. Enjoy!

Pizza Party Leftovers + Polenta = Yummy!

So, if you decide to use my earlier posted pizza recipe for your next pizza party, you are likely to have a few leftovers.  If you take those leftovers and mix them with prepared polenta, you can end up with something really, really tasty.  Here’s what to do:

Use a pre-cooked roll of polenta and thinly slice little rounds. Next, lightly oil the bottom of a deep dish or glass pan (I used an 11×13 lasgna pan for mine). Place a layer of the polenta rounds down first. Next, cover with sauce. Pizza sauce is great, but if you don’t have enough leftover there are two alternatives. You can use spaghetti sauce in a jar or make your own sauce quickly. In a bowl mix (2) 16oz cans of tomato sauce with (2) 6 oz cans of tomato paste. To the mixture add dry Italian Seasoning or thyme, rosemary, marjoram and garlic. Fresh works easily well.  Mix in salt and pepper to taste and pour half over your polenta slices.

*If you want to get really fancy, here’s how I made my sauce.  In a large saucepan I added a tablespoon of olive oil and warmed. I then added 1 clove of chopped garlic, a chopped onion, and about a pint of sliced cremini mushrooms. I sauteed until everybody was soft, but not mushy (about 5 minutes) and then added the two cans of tomato sauce and two cans of paste.  I stirred on medium heat until bubbly and then poured over my polenta and sprinkled dry Italian Seasoning over top.

Next, layer on your leftover toppings. I used vegetarian pepperoni, green peppers, black olives and shredded mozzarella cheese. Cover with another layer of polenta slices, then more sauce and top with fresh mozzarella cheese. (Shredded works fine too). Cover the pan with aluminum foil and broil on low setting for about 30 minutes to ensure that the polenta is warmed all of the way through. Take the foil off and kick the broiler up to high and cook for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is browned and bubbly. Allow to cool and then scoop a heaping pile into a bowl and enjoy. This is the best and easiest way that I have found to use the last of my pizza leftovers and the family loved it.

Vegetarian Buffalo Chicken Sandwhich

I made this tasty buffalo chicken sandwhich for lunch twice in the past month and wanted to share the recipe. It’s quick and easy and a big hit with the family. Note that it is vegetarian, not vegan and does include dairy. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:

1 bun or 2 slices of bread

1 or 2 MorningStar Farms® Chik Patties® Original (they come in little packs of 2 and I found 2 is just the right amount to fill me up)

1/4 cup of buffalo wing marinade or sauce (I used the Safeway brand marinade that I found in the salad dressing aisle)

1/8 cup of low-fat blue cheese dressing

How to slap it together:

I recommend using the toaster oven to heat your patties if you have one available. If not the microwave works just fine in a pinch, just don’t overcook them. (I cooked both patties, wrapped in paper towels in my microwave at work for 2 minutes and they turned out perfect.) Smear a little buffalo wing sauce on the bottom and top buns. Stack 1 patty and slather a layer of the blue cheese dressing. Stack the second patty and top with the bun. I kept the reaminder of the sauce and put it in a dipping bowl and dipped as I ate. This combination kept the patties moist and flavorful with a little kick. It took less than 5 minutes to make my lunch and it tasted as good as any buffalo chicken sandwhich I’ve ever had in pub, but it was delicious and relatively healthy. Enjoy!

Extend Your Dinner with a Quick, One-Pot Miso Soup

I was whipping up a quick dinner, baked tofu with soba noodles and bok choy, when we had an unexpected guest for dinner. My noodle dish is only really big enough for the three of us, despite the fact that it says serves four. So, I whipped up a quick post of miso soup to help stretch the meal. Everyone was full, and I even had one serving of noodles and soup left for today’s lunch…yum.  Here’s how to do it:

Ingredients:

Scallions – 3 thinly sliced (white parts only)

Shallots – 2 large, thinly sliced

Napa Cabbage – 1 head  or other asian greens (I used only 4 leaves from this head of cabbage for another recipe, so this was just some leftovers in my fridge)

Vegetable Broth – 4 cups

Miso Paste – 1-2 Tbsps (more or less depending on how salty you like it. you can use any kind of miso paste red, yellow or white. I used yellow)

Tamari/Soy Sauce – 1 Tbsp

Olive oil – 1 Tbsp

Tempeh or Tofu  – optional (I used Lightlife Ginger Teriyaki flavored Tempehtations because I had some on hand that needed to be cooked)

How to do it:

In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. Add the shallots and sautee until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the scallions and cabbage and sautee until softened, another 1-2 minutes. Add 4 cups of broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, then add miso and tamari/soy sauce and the tofu or tempeh if using, then cover. Simmer for another 10 minutes to allow the flavors to marry. Tell everyone how you just threw together some leftovers in the fridge and soak in the compliments.

Forbidden Rice or Why I Have Blackish-Purple Teeth Today

While my family hasn’t gone fully vegan or even vegetarian yet, we do eat that way most of the time. As a result, we have begun to incorporate new and interesting ingredients to keep things fun, new and flavorful. I’ll be blogging about ingredients that are new to my cooking repertoire, the nutritional information and examples of how I’ve used them just in case inquiring minds want to know. 

First up….Forbidden Rice!

I stumbled upon Forbidden Rice at my local whole foods and picked up a bag because, hey who doesn’t to try black rice?!? It’s actually a very dark purple color, not black and if you make it in a rice cooker it will spew dark puple steam all over your countertop (yikes!). The good news is that it wipes up easily and doesn’t leave any permanent stains. The manufacturer’s website says:

Legend tells us that this ancient grain was once eaten exclusively by the Emperors. Today, this medium-size Chinese black rice can be enjoyed everyday and is prized for its delicious nutty taste, soft texture, and beautiful rich deep purple color. High in nutritional and medicinal value, Forbidden Rice® is rich in iron and considered a blood tonifier. Unlike other black rice from Asia, it is not glutinous or rough and cooks in only 30 minutes to produce a superior flavor, texture, and color.

The website also lists nutritional information and links to recipes. I have used the rice as an alternative base to my vegetable stir fry. It has a different texture and flavor than plain, white rice, but I think that’s a good thing. It definately adds visual appeal to your dish, but remember it will add a purple hue to your entire mouth as well. It looks a bit as if I’ve just had a grape nehi or a puple gobstopper for lunch.

As far as nutritional value goes, it is on a scale of goodness better than glutinous white rice, but not as good as medium-grain brown rice and should be considered moderately inflammatory. If you have GI issues, you may consider limiting the amount of rice you eat. However, for everyone else, rice has no saturated fat, cholesterol and is low sodium and is a good source of manganese.

Enjoy!