Category — Vegetarian

I have a little kitchen crisis every year when the weather turns nice.  I want to maximize time outside goofing off and I don’t feel inspired to cook.  Or at least I don’t want to cook complicated, heavy food.  I develop a yen for convenience food (hello, Trader Joe’s?) and a devil-may-care attitude that leads me to consider feeding my kid dinner from the ice cream truck.  But I know I need to get it together, because I feel crappy when I eat out too often, and frankly, I even find take-out to be boring after too many nights.  So as I resolved to eat more soup this winter (and sure ‘nuf, I’m souped out), I resolve to find more quick-but-delicious items for this spring and summer. 

This salad’s a start.  This is a salad that’ll make you psyched to eat salad.  It’s got a unique collection of ingredients and a tangy yogurt dressing.  It’ll all go together in 40 minutes or fewer, and it won’t mess up your kitchen too much.  I’d put this in the springtime category, though, because you need to use your oven . . . and who wants to do that when the weather gets hot?

 Baby Greens Salad With Roasted Sweet Potatoes (adapted from Everyday Food Magazine)

Preheat the oven to 450.  Toss together the potatoes, onion and oil and spread on a large rimmed baking sheet that’s been covered in foil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Roast until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

Add the beans and the walnuts to the potato mixture and toss to incorporate.  Roast about 5 more minutes, or until the beans are tender.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix together the yogurt, vinegar and garlic.  Season the dressing with salt and pepper to taste. 

Top the lettuce with the roasted veggies and drizzle with the dressing.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Do you have some protein lovers who might feel snubbed by this as a main course?  It’d pair nicely with some pre-cooked chicken sausages – choose a mild flavor – apple, cherry and apple, etc.  Or if you’re veggie, you could bake some tofu steaks alongside your potatoes and serve those alongside.

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I came home ravenous from Pilates yesterday.  But I didn’t want to start raiding the cupboards for “whatever” – I wanted a healthful lunch.  On Sunday, I found organic pea shoots at Trader Joe’s – they come in a 4 oz. clam shell container, and if you haven’t tasted these, they taste like springtime.  That’s them up there in the picture – they’re delicate, yet crunchy, and they’re a glorious green color.  What’s more, they’re super low-cal and they pack a nutritional punch, too.  Per serving, pea shoots have 7 times more vitamin C than blueberries, 8 times more folic acid than bean sprouts, and 4 times more vitamin A than tomatoes. 

I whipped up this delicious little salad in 10 minutes, and now you can, too.

Pea Shoot & Edamame Salad

Combine the pea shoots and edamame in a large bowl.  Combine the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the pea shoots/edamame mixture.  Enjoy!

Serves 1, but could easily be scaled up.

In case you’re wondering . . . that wasn’t all I had for lunch.  I also about 3/4 c. 0% Fage yogurt topped with 1/2 c. organic blueberries, 1/2 c. All-Bran cereal, and a little agave drizzled over the top . . . .

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We are in that strange nether-place called March here in the Boston area.  It’s still quite chilly, but not thatcold.  It snows, but it doesn’t really stick.  And yet if you head into a store, it’s all about SPRING!  Bright colors, light fabrics, flowers, strappy shoes . . . really, it just serves to irritate me.  I want nothing more to be there, but, sigh.  I have to wait.  Just like every other year.

When it comes to food, I also feel in-between this time of year.  I’m all set with heavy comfort food.  I’ve got my sights set on fresh, light, leafy veggies and grilled meats.  Huge salads and big cold drinks.  Hell, I’d even settle for asparagus.  But even that’s a little premature.  So right now I’m doing in-between food.  Lightened up, but not all the way. 

This chicken, pilaf and salad combo will help tide you over ’til the really good stuff comes.  Like NO snow whatsoever.  Like birds chirping in the morning and dewy grass and patio parties.  Hang on with me, we’ll get there!

Honey Mustard Chicken

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Place the chicken breasts on a large plate and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.  Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl, and spread on both sides of the chicken (some will come off on the plate, that’s OK).  Let sit for 15 minute to marinate.  Transfer the breasts to a large oven-safe baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Smear any leftover honey-mustard sauce over the top of the breasts.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until the breasts are no longer pink.

Serves 4.

Barley Pilaf (adapted from the Food Network)

Bring the broth to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Add the barley, 1 t. oil, and salt. Bring back to a boil, adjust the heat to a simmer, cover and cook until tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk the lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then gradually whisk in the oil.

Drain any excess liquid from the barley and transfer to a large bowl.  Toss with the remaining salad ingredients and the dressing.  Taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 4.

Fruity Spinach Salad

Divide the spinach amongst 4 salad plates or bowls.  Divide the oranges among the plates. In a small bowl, whisk the oil and vinegar and add salt and pepper to taste.  Dress the salads immediately before serving.

Serves 4.

*Fig vinegar is my new love.  I found mine at Whole Foods, and it is fruity, tangy, and delicious on salads.  Tomorrow I’ll share with you the salad I’ve been eating over and over again since I found this stuff!

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I know the blog’s been lean on posts lately.  Last week was “vacation” week, and then this Tuesday night L. came down with a high fever and stomach thing that threw us under the bus.  Those of you with kids know how this works . . . you lose entire days of your life tending to these poor kids.  When you can finally leave the building, it’s like being re-born, and then there is just so much to do to catch up . . . .

But enough whining.  I did cook for myself while this was going on.  A mama’s gotta keep her strength up, right?  For whatever reason, last weekend I was craving sweet mango chutney, so I was cruising the Indian foods section at Whole Foods.  While I was there, I couldn’t resist buying a 2 lb. bag of dried, split desi chickpeas, (Chana Dal); split chickpeas with the skin removed. They’re pretty and yellow and small.  They caught my eye as a legume I hadn’t yet tried, and their small size lead me to believe they’d be quick to cook.  They are, and I am hooked.

First off, though, let’s talk about the health benefits of chickpeas . . . so if you make this easy recipe, you’ll feel even better about yourself as you munch. Chickpeas are a good source of fiber, which has cholesterol-lowering benefits.  Their high fiber content also prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly, so they’re an especially good choice for folks with diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycemia. And when combined with whole grains like rice, chickpeas provide virtually fat-free high-quality protein.  They’re cheap, too.  Really, no downside to these puppies – so eat up!

Easy Chana Dal

Rinse and pick over the dal.  Place the dal in a bowl and cover with cool water.  Let soak for 2 hours.  Drain and rinse the dal again and place it into a medium saucepan with 3 c. of water.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cover. Simmer for approximately 20 minutes, or until the dal is tender.  Remove from heat and drain. (Note:  you could soak & drain the dal the night before and keep the dal in the fridge to cook the next night if you want to speed this up.  You can also cook your dal in the pressure cooker – I don’t have one!)

Meanwhile, sauté the onion in the olive oil until translucent.  Set aside.

Place the dal in a large bowl.  Add the sautéed onions, garam masala, salt and pepper and mix.  Serve over rice with chutney to taste.

Serves 4.

Now – if I hadn’t been freaked that I was getting a stomach virus, I would’ve added a bunch of steamed baby spinach to this mix.  I’d steam a 5-6 oz. box of the stuff (maybe more, if you’re a spinach lover like me) and season it with salt and pepper.  I’d add it to the dal mix, and probably up the garam masala because of the added spinach.  Taste it and see what you think.  Other steamed, chopped greens would be tasty too, I’m sure.  If you fool around with this, let us know what you did and how it turned out in the comments below!

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I’m happily carving out time for cooking this week, despite my hairy schedule.  I’ve always found cooking to be relaxing, and I have to say it’s nice to have a warm, “real” meal at the end of a long day.

My quest for flavorful slow-cooker meals continues . . . today’s recipe is an adaptation of a Better Homes & Gardens recipe I found at a great site, Fatfree Vegan Recipes.  I have de-veganized it and added some fat to it, but the option for a hearty vegan stew is there.  Veggie or not, take just 30 minutes to chop up your ingredients and throw them into your Crock-pot, then belly-up for a warm bowl of nutritious and flavorful goodness.

Slow-Cooker Spiced Butternut Squash and Lentil Stew

Rinse and drain lentils. Place lentils, squash, onion, carrot, celery, curry and garlic in the slow-cooker. Pour the broth over the top.  Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 4-4 ½ hours. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve in bowls, topped with either a drizzle of olive oil or a dollop of Greek yogurt, if desired.

Serves 4.

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For a while now I’ve been telling you guys to avoid canned foods because of BPA.  And I know that many of you rely on beans as a source of quick and healthy fiber and protein in your diets.  And I also know that Eden Organic brand is, right now, the only brand of canned beans that doesn’t use BPA in the liner.  So . . . how ’bout avoiding the issue altogether, while saving time and money?  Cook your own!?  I think that home-cooked beans taste worlds better than canned.

But I can hear you now . . . it takes time to cook beans yourself!  You’re here reading Semi-Sweet ’cause you don’t have loads of time.  I understand – most beans will take 1 to 1 1/2 hours to cook until tender.  But maybe this handy-dandy primer will help?  I’m also including instructions on how to freeze your own beans – so you could do up a big batch on, say, a weekend or weeknight when you’re hanging around the house (the cook time is largely unattended time) so you can eat some that week and freeze some for the future.  Do this a few weeks in a row, varying your bean selection, and voila!  You have a store of beans in your freezer that’ll rival anything you’ve had in your larder.   [Read more →]

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Happy Monday, friends – hope you all had a great weekend!  We’re busy busy busy over here at Chez Semi-Sweet.  The perfect storm of school events, Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year, writing deadlines, oh yeah, and D. out of town, again = mama is over-freakin’-loaded.  It’s all I can do to keep everyone in clean undies, let alone develop ravishing recipes.

So, we’re hangin’ in with some old stand-bys and some non-recipes.  What’s a non-recipe?  Fage 0% with dried sweet cherries, sunflower seeds and Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Butter.  That’s a non-recipe.  Or cottage cheese with cracked pepper mixed in and an orange on the side.  Or a packet of flaked salmon with a little light mayo, curry powder and a sprinkle of salt and a grapefruit.  You get the drift.

But Friday, D. came home and I wanted a cooked meal.  You remember this frittata from a week or so ago?  It was good, but I wanted to amp it up.  This version, also with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes but with the cheese switched up and the addition of onions has been judged by D. to be “the best one ever” – I hope you’ll agree!

Two Cheese Spinach & Sun-dried Tomato Frittata  

Preheat the broiler to medium-high.

Put the sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl and cover them with boiling water – let stand for 10 minutes to soften, drain, and chop coarsely.

Fill a microwave-safe bowl with as much spinach as you can, cover (preferably with a glass lid and not plastic wrap!) and microwave for 1-2 minutes ’til the spinach is wilted.  Repeat with another batch of spinach.  Squeeze excess water out of the spinach, chop it coarsely, and set aside.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat and add approximately 2 T. of olive oil.  Add the the onion and saute until soft and translucent.  Remove the cooked onions from the pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg substitute/eggs, a dollop of milk, the Parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper.  Add the sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and onions and stir. 

Heat another tablespoon of oil in your skillet over medium heat.  Add the egg mixture and cook, gently lifting the edges so that the runny egg on top can make it to the bottom and cook.  When the egg is fairly well set, but still damp on the top, crumble the goat cheese evenly over the top.  Place the pan under the broiler and broil until puffed, brown and bubbly and set – approximately 5 minutes or fewer.  Remove from the oven, let stand for 5 minutes, slice and eat!

Serves 2 heartily, 4 smaller portions, or 1 with leftovers for lunch the next day.  Would be nice with a tossed salad (more veggies, more veggies!) and a crusty loaf of bread on the side.

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I am, once again, faced with the issue of what to eat when the hubs is out of town.  I’m cooking for one, because as most of you know, my darling daughter does not eat most of what I prepare and blog about here.  Yes, a travesty, but also proof that it’s not necessarily modeling and exposure that gets a kid to strike out into new food frontiers.  Sometimes your kid is just a nuggets/pasta/plain tofu/pb&j homebody and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.  That’s where I’m at.

So anyway.  Hubs gone, don’t want yogurt and cereal for dinner every night, so what to do?  Enter my buddy, the frittata.  You remember, I love the frittata, right?  It is one of those pull it out of your you-know-what moves that makes you look like a culinary superstar, even though you had NO earthly notion what you were making 30 minutes prior.  It’s genius. 

Wednesday night’s was delicious, and made entirely from stuff lolling around in my fridge and pantry.  Sort of a deconstructed lasagna frittata, only I didn’t add any leftover noodles, which you could do, if you had some and you were feelin’ extra fancy.  Though I’m not sure how I feel about pasta in my frittata.  I leave that to your discretion.

This is great cold or warmed up the next day for lunch, which is what I did with the second half.  And as always, if you’re not an Eggbeater/Nulaid/pasteurized egg white kinda person, by all means, use real, whole eggs in this.  It’ll be that much more luscious.

Deconstructed Lasagna Frittata

Preheat the broiler to medium-high.

Put the sundried tomatoes in a bowl and cover them with boiling water – let stand for 10 minutes to soften, drain, and chop coarsely.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat and add approximately 2 T. of olive oil.  Add the spinach in batches, tossing it to wilt as you go.  Meanwhile, add the garlic to the pan too, and toss it in with the spinach.  When the spinach is wilted, remove it from the pan.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg substitute/eggs, a dollop of milk, the ricotta and some salt and pepper.  Add the sundried tomatoes and the spinach and stir. 

Heat another tablespoon of oil in your skillet over medium heat (maybe less, depending on how your pan looks).  Add the egg mixture and cook, gently lifting the edges so that the runny egg on top can make it to the bottom and cook.  When the egg is fairly well set, but still damp on the top, sprinkle the shredded cheese on top and grind more pepper all over the top.  Place the pan under the broiler and broil until brown and bubbly and set – 5 minutes or fewer.  Remove from the oven, slice and eat!

Serves 2 heartily, 4 smaller portions, or 1 with leftovers for lunch the next day.  Would be nice with a tossed salad (more veggies, more veggies!) and a crusty loaf of bread on the side.

And if you’re interested in more egg-based meal ideas, here’s a recent thread from Chowhound, jam-packed with ideas and inspiration.

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