What To Do With Israeli Couscous--Part 1

Well, the real question is, what CAN'T you do with Israeli Couscous!  It is such a versatile and delicious side dish, salad, or vegan entree.  Tonight we are having a wonderful and easy Israeli Couscous with roasted peanuts that I found on the blog Veggie Belly as a side dish for a roasted chicken and green baby spinach salad.   I changed the spice a little because I have found if you make a favorite spicy dish a little on the mild side for the first time kids try it, and then turn up the heat a little each subsequent time, then before long your picky eater is gobbling up a dish they never would have considered before.

Israeli Couscous with Roasted Peanuts

Couscous:
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup israeli couscous or pearl couscous, uncooked
Everything Else:
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
a few curry leaves, optional
2 green or dried red chillies (or according to taste), chopped.
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, crushed lightly
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
salt
Heat oil in a large non stick skillet. Add couscous. Stir the couscous on low heat till it turns color and becomes light brown. Add 2 cups water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover the skillet and simmer till all the water is absorbed, 5-7 minutes. Couscous should not be mushy.
While, couscous is cooking, take a wok, heat the oil and add cumin seeds. When they start to sizzle, add the curry leaves, and green or red chillies and cook for about 15 seconds. Add the cooked israeli couscous, peanuts, lemon juice and salt. Stir well. Turn off heat. Adjust lemon juice according to taste. Add cilantro. Serve warm.

It's Only Thursday Blueberry Poundcake

It's Thursday, it feels like it should be Friday, and my daughter comes home from preschool in the mood to "cook something."  She is my daughter.

I took out my copy of A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, which is my favorite memoir/recipe book ever, and knowing that we had a big carton of fresh blueberries took out her Blueberry-Raspberry Pound Cake recipe.  We only used blueberries, which we tossed the berries in confectioners sugar instead of flour, and creme de cassis instead of kirsch, but it was a fun afternoon with my youngest child, tossing around flour and butter and eventually getting a cake in the oven that smelled fabulous, and tasted even better tonight after dinner.

The recipe calls for a bundt pan, which I have used many times to make my Mother-In-Law's recipe for Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake.  It's a family favorite.  My daughter, Julia, immediately started recalling the last ten times we ate the chocolate cake.  I kept reminding her, between fishing around for the egg shell she had thrown in, that we weren't making chocolate cake this time, but instead a very good pound cake with blueberries.  When we put it in the oven and I turned on the oven light for her to take a peek she took a big inhalation of cake fumes and exclaimed, "I can't wait to see it turn into chocolate!"

Needless to say, at dessert tonight, no one even mentioned the Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake.

Ingredients:2 cups plus 8 Tbsp. cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
1 2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) unsalted butter, diced, at room temperature
2 Tbsp. kirsch
1 cup blueberries, rinsed and dried well
1 cup raspberries, rinsed and dried well


1. Set an oven rack to the middle position, and preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Butter a standard-sized 9-cup bundt pan and dust it with flour, shaking out any excess. (If your pan in nonstick, you can get away with a simple coating of cooking spray, no flour needed.)
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 cups plus 6 tablespoons flour, the baking powder and salt.
4. In the bowl of a food processor, blend eggs and sugar until thick and pale yellow, about 1 minute. Add butter and kirsch, and blend until the mixture is fluffy, about 1 minute, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl. If the mixture looks curdled, don’t worry. Add dry ingredients and process just to combine. Do not over mix. The batter should be thick and very smooth.
5. In a large bowl, toss berries with the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour. Pour batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly across the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the cake’s center comes out clean, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.
6. Transfer cake to a rack, and cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Carefully invert the cake out of the pan onto the rack, and cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Grilled Ratatouille

We are wishing for summer here.  We are even just wishing for spring.  It's been too cold for too long and we felt like donning our bathing suits and laying out in the yard today because it was 46 degrees.  Okay, so I used to do that when it got to be 46 degrees in Kansas when I was a kid, but now I am an adult, and instead I decide to grill!

One of our favorite veggie meals in the summer is grilled ratatouille.  So today, in honor of 46 degrees, we fired up the grill and made grilled ratatouille.  It's easy, it tastes great, and everyone eats it.  What's not to like about that?

So, it took a little longer to grill, and the only fresh herb that I have right now is a sad little basil plant that keeps begging to be eaten.  Dinner was a smash.  In the summer we have grilled chicken with the ratatouille, but tonight warm homemade ciabatta, fresh mozzarella, and some grated parmigiana regianno.  Also, I usually grill my onions also, but I was out of sweet onions and had a new trader joe's product to try, Grilled Glazed Balsamic Sweet Onions, that did the trick. 
Now, I used to think that EVERYONE at the table had to eat EVERYTHING to be a dinner time success.  But now I realize that some kids are going to like some things more than others, and that's okay with me.  My son will eat a lot more grilled zucchini, and less fresh mozzarella, and my daughter will eat more grilled red pepper than any of us, and as long as everyone eats a lot on their plate, and tries a bit of everything I am happy.  No one ever turns down my home made ciabatta, but that is for another post.

Grilled Ratatouille

• zucchini, sliced longways
• eggplant (sliced, salted and drained for a few hours prior to cooking)
• red pepper, sliced and cleaned
• yellow squash, sliced longways
• tomatoes, cut in half
• onions, peeled and cut in wedges or circles

Spray veg with pam (olive oil pam is great!).  Heat grill to 350, grill veg with zucchini on the top rack for 4-5 minutes each side.  Don't worry if it gets a little scorched, it will taste good.  Place in large bowl with fresh herbs, like a handful of fresh torn basil or fresh marjoram leaves, and cut with knives until in bite sized pieces with 1 tbsp olive oil and 1-2 tsp aged balsamic vinegar.  Enjoy hot or cold, as a main entree or antipasto.  YUM! 

Blondies

Nothing helps a kid work up the courage to try a new food, like chili, like a pan of blondies cooling on the counter of the kitchen.  I'm not advocating bribery, I'm just sayin'.

Blondies

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 10 tbsp butter (there, I said it, I did name my daughter after Julia Child)
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 c. chocolate chips
• 3/4 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter and flour 13x9x2 baking pan.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt and soda in bowl.  Melt butter over low heat, remove from heat and add sugar, whisking to blend.  Whisk in eggs and vanilla.  Gradually stir in dry mix.  Spread in prepared pan.  Sprinkle with chips and pecans.  Bake 30 minutes until tester comes out with moist crumbs attached.

Chili For A Cold Night

It's the Midwesterner in me, when it gets super cold outside, I think of making chili.  I've also been easing my kids into full-on chili since we have started camping a lot and bringing chili along to heat up on the fire is a lot easier than the "gourmet" camping meals that I've attempted this year.  But we'll get into that when camping season starts!

I also convert almost any chili, soup, or stew recipe into a slow cooker recipe because I just believe that smelling that wonderful dinner aroma when you walk in after school or work really gets you in the mood for eating a good dinner.  So tonight it was chili mac with a little shredded sharp cheddar and it was a success!  It helped that I had some blondies cooling on the counter for dessert--I'm not beyond a little bribery to get my kids to try things for the first time, but there wasn't any bribery involved tonight. 

The great thing about chili is that every family has a different recipe.  This is the one that works for us, but if we didn't have ground beef, ground turkey or chicken would work, and vegetarian is even better!  I made a recipe once that had peanuts substituted for meat, and after they cooked all day they really did have the texture and protein of a meat.  My daughter is allergic to corn and soy, but you could also add roasted corn, polenta, or corn meal to thicken it.

Down Home Chili

• 1 lb lean ground turkey (or lean ground beef, ground chicken or chicken breasts)
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 28 oz fire roasted diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel, or Trader Joe's)
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tbsp lime juice

Brown meat with onions and garlic, drain, add to slow cooker.  Add the rest of the ingredient and mix.  Cook on low in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours, serve over your favorite pasta--elbow macaroni is always good--with grated sharp cheddar to top, and cilantro to garnish.

Celebrate Monday--Best Banana Bread Ever!

My kids have an "early release" on Mondays, to give the teachers more prep time.  As a result, a lot of our family baking is done on Monday afternoon.  I have to believe that most kids love getting their little hands a little dirty with flour and munching on a few extra chocolate chips that dropped innocently on the counter.  Besides filling the house with a wonderful smell, and giving us a little time to talk and bake on Monday, baking at this time gives us lunch box treats for the rest of the week.

Since we just couldn't consume the pile of bananas that I bought last week, it was easy to decide what our baking project would be today--the "BEST BANANA BREAD EVER!" my kids have dubbed it.  It comes from one of my favorite books ever, A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, also author of one of my favorite blogs, Orangette.  I've always loved banana bread, but this recipe almost changed my life, it is THAT good. 

I've used the crystallized ginger in the recipe many times, even though I hate trying to finely chop it.  Today I got lazy and threw in some minced fresh ginger instead.  It tastes as great as ever, but we love ginger around here.  The crystallized ginger is definitely less spicy--take your pick.

Banana Bread with Chocolate and Ginger

• 6 tbsp (3 oz) unsalted butter
• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3 large ripe bananas)
• 1/4 cup well stirred whole milk plain yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat to 350 degrees F.  Grease a standard 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a small bowl microwave butter until just melted.   Cool slightly.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.  Add chocolate chips and ginger and whisk well to combine.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl (have you run out of bowls yet?) lightly beat eggs.  Add mashed banana, yogurt, butter and vanilla and stir  to mix well.  Pour banana mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir gently with rubber spatula, scraping down the sides as needed until just combined.  Do not over mix.  The batter will be thick and a little lumpy but there will be no unincorporated flour.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top.

Bake until loaf is a deep shade of golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean--50 minutes to one hour.  cool in loaf pan for 5 minutes and then tip onto rack and cool completely before slicing.  I dare you to try.  It's so good hot!

Superbowl Sunday--Healthy Snacks

There are so many ways to serve Superbowl snacks that are healthy and yummy, without all the added salt and fat.  One of our favorite football munchies is homemade hummus, whole wheat pitas and kalamata olives.

The recipe is really easy and varies from family to family depending on what you love.  We always go heavy on the lemon, garlic and cumin, and hardly ever put in olive oil at all because our texture is so smooth from putting in so much lemon juice!  Try it and season it to your own families taste.

Blend (with food processor or blender):
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed
1/2 cup of Tahini (sesame paste)
The juice of two lemons (or more!)
2 cloves garlic, minced (or more!)
1 tsp ground cumin (or more!)
salt to taste
olive oil or water to create the texture you want if you don't love it lemony.

Serve with warm whole wheat pita and olives.

Vodka "Cream" Sauce a la Murray

With the right tools in the kitchen you can make your favorite family foods a lot healthier, and no one will even notice!  My stick blender is my favorite tool in the kitchen and when you are making soups or sauces a stick blender is the best ingredient since good old cream.  I have been able to eliminate cream from most of our "cream" dishes, like this beautiful and so rich and tasty Vodka Cream pasta sauce by whipping the sauce into submission with my trusty stick blender.  It is able to emulsify just a bit of extra virgin olive oil into tasting positively creamy, and with a fraction of the calories.

Pasta with Vodka "Cream" Sauce

• Whole wheat pasta of your choice (we love Barilla Plus!)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion or 2-3 shallots
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (or more to your taste)
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 cup vodka
• 1/4 cup fat free chicken broth
• 14.5 oz can San Marzano crushed or diced tomatoes

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Heat oil, add onion, saute 4 minutes.  Add crushed red pepper and garlic, cook 1 more minute.  Add vodka, bring to boil and reduce heat.  Simmer 3 minutes or until reduced by half.  Stir in broth and tomatoes, bring to boil.  Reduce heat, simmer 8 minutes, remove from heat and blend with stick blender.  Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, season to taste if necessary.  Garnish with parma reggiano and/or fresh basil. 

Roasted Chicken

Our family loves a roasted chicken.  We have it once a week and why not?  It is inexpensive, easy to prepare, tastes great, reheats well for lunch the next day, and is a different meal each week when you pair it with different sides.

I have to admit, even though it's easy, we've had our share of mistakes.  You can under cook it, season it wrong for your family's tastes, or cook it to a crisp, but once you have it down it is a snap.  A whole roaster chicken is usually far less than a package of 3-4 boneless chicken breasts--it is usually about $5.  So make some mistakes!  And then, you will have a full proof meal that your family will always feel is nourishing and fulfilling.

Tonight we had it with a mix of green beans, cauliflower, peas, romanesco, and a little garlic butter sauce, and roasted polenta slices. 

Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken, cleaned, legs trussed with kitchen twine

kosher salt

ground sage

ground or fresh thyme

a few tablespoons of butter or olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Use kosher salt to generously salt the cavity.  Add sage, thyme, and any other desired herbs.  You can add onion and/or lemon to the cavity but you will have to add about 30 minutes to the cooking time.  Rub the outside skin with butter and lightly season with salt.  Cook about 90-115 minutes until instant read thermometer reads 180 in the breast.

And it's the weekend, right?  Oh, wait, it is only Thursday!?  You've got to be kidding me!  Well, I served a cocktail like we were kicking off the weekend and it was delicious!  My husband and I enjoyed a new concoction--a HONEY SIDECAR!  The perfect drink when you want to pretend it is the weekend.

Honey Sidecar

1 oz Cointreau

2 oz American Honey bourbon

1 oz sour mix

Shake with ice and serve up in a martini glass.  YUM!

Coconut and Chicken Curry Soup

Nine months of the year we grill almost every night.  It is a healthy, tasty and quick way to prepare meats, veggies, flat breads, and even dessert!  So on these cold, dark days of winter my family eats much differently than the rest of the year.  This time of year my slow cooker becomes my best friend, and we eat soup, soups, and more soups.  Soup is the best way for us to warm our bones, and feel satiated on cold evenings.

I transformed this recipe from Cooking for Seven to suit our needs and tastes and it has become one of our cold weather favorites.  EVERYONE gobbles it down, and if there is any left it reheats the next day beautifully for lunch.  That is IF there is any left.  There rarely is.  You could prepare it the way Cooking for Seven does, but I love smelling it in the slow cooker all day.  It fills the house with the smell of WARMTH!

Coconut and Chicken Curry Soup

• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 of a large onion, chopped fine
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 1/2 cups fat free chicken broth
• 1 can (14 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk (I use light)
• 2 teaspoon curry powder
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (or a little more to taste)
• 1 small green bell pepper, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus extra for garnish
• 1/2 cup unsweetened chipped coconut
• 2 cups freshly cooked jasmine rice

Add the first seven ingredients to the slow cooker.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours. 

In the last hour of cooking open it up and shred the chicken.  Add the sliced green pepper. 

Serve spooned over jasmine rice and garnish with the cilantro and chipped coconut on top.  Heaven!
Makes approximately 6 servings