Tapenade

Okay, the truth is the only thing that makes this a tapenade are the olives. It lacks capers and anchovies... but I just didn't know what else to call it. I promise it's good- I have several people who will vouch. I served it with crackers and ate the leftovers in sandwiches... think this, some hummus, some lettuce, tomatoes, grilled bell pepper, good bread, etc.

Ingredients:  


1/2 a medium onion chopped up
2 cloves of garlic pushed through the garlic press.
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup chopped olives (I used 1/2 black and 1/2 green) 
1-2 medium green tomatoes chopped up
Rosemary
Oregano
Crushed Red pepper
Olive oil

1. Heat up 1 tbsp olive oil, throw in the onion first, then a minute later the garlic. Keep the heat on medium.
2. Once the onions start to soften, put in the celery, rosemary, oregano and crushed red pepper.
3. 2-3 minutes later add the mushrooms and cook/stir until they soften up.
4. Last put in the olives and tomatoes.
5. Cook until the tomatoes have softened up.
6. Drizzle on a tsp of olive oil once everything has cooled down.

Fun article

An article about a class on the science behind why things happen in the kitchen. Fun!
 
Check it out!


And here's a link to one of a video of one of the classes! Yay!

Video

Grapefruit!

I hate grapefruit. I've tried to pretend for years that I don't mind it or that I kinda like it... but it's lead to nothing good. Anyway, I ended up with a bunch of them last week and tried to pawn them off on my sister when she came to visit. Turns out, she hates them too. So, we made pancakes and stared at the grapefruits with disgust until it struck me: here I have a hot vegan butter coated pan what's the worse that could happen if I throw some grapefruit and sugar on it. So I did.... and it was wonderful (minus the whole smoke alarm going off thing). All I did was peel and chop up a grapefruit and then toss the pieces on the hot butter coated pan with maybe a tablespoon of sugar sprinkled on top. I let them brown and turned them over so each side got some heat. It was lovely- the sugar and grapefruit juice hardened into this sweet caramel-y coat and really played well with the tang of the grapefruit. YUM!

QUINOA QUINOA QUINOA!!

I LOVE QUINOA!

Not the cold stuff you find in salads! NO! I'm talking about warm goey happy quinoa!
So, I set out to make a salad with quinoa but left the quinoa on the stove too long and ended up with a something way to mushy to mix into a salad. Woops! So instead I sauteed up some stuff and mixed it into the quinoa along with a little bit of this and a little bit of that... it ended up being SUPER TASTY! This from the girl who hasn't made quinoa for nearly 5 years after one bad experience!

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
3 cups water
1 tsp grated ginger
1 clove garlic
2 cups chopped mushrooms of your choice
1 cup grape tomatoes
1/2 a white onion all chopped up
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp crushed red pepper
3-4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (If you're using the regular kind start w/2 and taste before you add any more)
Optional: 2-3tbsps crushed peanuts, 1/2 an avocado sliced with some lime juice squirted on top, a few tbsps chopped cilantro.

Directions:
1. Wash off the quinoa then soak it in water for 5 minutes and rinse.
2. While your quinoa is soaking, bring the 3c of water to a boil. Do NOT add salt. (You don't want to add salt to anything you're adding soy sauce too, it's just too much!)
3. Add the rinsed quinoa to the boiling water and bring the mixture back up to a boil. Then let it simmer with a lid for 20 minutes.
4. Next turn off the heat and let the quinoa sit peacefully for another 15 minutes or so.
5. While your quinoa is getting ready heat up the olive oil and brown the onion, once it starts to brown add in your garlic, crushed red pepper and ginger, next your mushrooms and finally the tomatoes.
6. Once the quinoa is ready mix the mushroom mixture and quinoa together.
7. Add soy sauce in 1 tbsp at a time, tasting as you go to make sure it doesn't taste too salty.

So, I like eating this either with avocado, crushed peanuts and cilantro sprinkled on top or with some soy yogurt.

And despite, my previous hatred of cold quinoa I've also had it cold mixed into a salad. It was better than I expected but I still prefer it warm.

Another Easy Salad Dressing

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1/3 of a slightly mushy large pear (Mine was a bosc pear but I'm sure a bartlett would work as well)
1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1 small clove garlic roasted (I put mine in the toaster oven for a few minutes but I'm sure throwing it in a small pan would get the job done too)
Salt & Fresh ground black pepper to taste
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp onion powder

Directions:
Put everything in your food processor/magic bullet type apparatus and blend until you have a smooth mixture.

Itty Bitty Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 white onion chopped up
1 clove garlic minced
1-2 white mushrooms minced up
1 cup spinach chopped up
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 cup black beans cooked or from a can
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried taragon (If you don't have this don't worry... but, it's a REALLY nice addition to your stash of herb so keep it in mind next time you go to the grocery store!)
16 mini-bell peppers - with the tops cut off, seeds taken out and a lengthwise slit made in them.
Salt to taste

Directions:
** Pre-Heat Oven to 400 degrees **
1. Heat up the olive oil
2. Throw in the onions and garlic and cook until the onions get translucent.
3. Add in the mushrooms and red pepper and cook until the mushrooms start to soften
4. Next put in the spinach and cook it down until it's all wilty
5. Now throw in the beans and herbs.
6. Once the mixture has cooked off most of its liquid stir in your rice.
7. Fill up the bell peppers with the mixture and line them up on a cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 15 minutes, until the sides of the peppers are soft and wrinkled.

Asparagus!

So, for years now I've been a little scared of asparagus. I had a few bad experiences with it and swore it off. Finally, I decided to take a chance and buy some earlier this week and I am really happy! I can't believe it took me so long! Eeek!

Ingredients:
1 bunch of asparagus with the bottom 2-3 inches chopped off. (I know I hate wasting veggies too but the bottom part is just too tough and not yummy. Trust me.)
1/4 cup of chopped spring onions
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup fresh squeezed OJ
Salt to taste
Fresh ground pepper to taste
2 tsps olive oil
1 cup grape tomatoes

Directions:
1. Steam up the asparagus until they turn a brighter green than they already are. Circa 15 minutes
2. While your asparagus is steaming throw some pepper, salt and the baslamic vinegar in a small sauce pan over low heat.
3. In a separate pan heat up 1 tsp of the olive oil. When it's nice and hot throw in the spring onions.
4. Once the onions start to brown add in your tomatoes and continue cooking until they're a smidge brown too.
5. Next put the steamed asparagus in with the onions and tomatoes and cook them for about 3 minutes on high heat.
6. While the tomatoes and asparagus are cooking add the OJ and last tsp of olive oil to the balsamic vinegar and stir.
7. Serve the asparagus with a few spoonfuls of the vinegar mixture over each serving.

Super Easy Vinaigrette

I can't believe it's taken me so long to put this up here. I've been averse to salad dressing for years because I decided that salad dressing was either filled with fat or a ton of weird ingredients/chemicals that didn't belong in my body... well here's the answer to that dilemma!

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons fresh squeezed OJ
3 tablespoons good balsamic vinegar
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Salt to taste

Directions:
1. Stir everything together.
2. Enjoy!

That gives you enough for two people.

Fancy Shmancy Swiss Chard

Ingredients:
1 to 1.5 bunches of swiss chard cleaned and roughly chopped up
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic chopped up super fine
1/2 a purple onion chopped up
1/2 cup chopped dried figs
1/2 cup walnuts
3/4 cup grape tomatoes
Salt
Ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Boil up some salty water in a big pot
2. Once the water is boiling throw in your swiss chard and leave in for barely 2 minutes, just until they start to wilt.
3. Drain the water, rinse the chard in cold water and dry.
4. In a pan heat up the olive oil on medium high, throw in the garlic and onion and cook till the onions are soft and tender.
5. Add the walnuts and figs in next. Cook until the walnuts start to brown a little.
6. Add in the tomatoes and cook them until they start to brown.
7. Lower the heat and stir in your chard and black pepper.
8. Salt to taste

Wonton Wrappers!

So I don't have a recipe to post... but felt I needed to share a recent discovery: WONTON WRAPPERS!

Wonton wrappers are little square bits of dough are wonderful and usually vegan! They're in the freezer section of your grocery store. Go look for them. Now!!

I recently got together with a friend and we made Sweet Potato Ravioli with them! Craziness! I know! Wonton wrappers = ravioli! Who knew? Anyway - if your interested google yourself up a recipe until I perfect mine. We made a red sauce as well as a "butter" sage sauce to go with the ravioli. They both worked well. YUM!

The next experiment will be making wontons! I'll keep you posted.

Here's an interesting list of ideas in the mean time:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/442133

Check it out!

Mexican Rice

So, in case you're wondering for New Years Eve I made almost every recipe on this blog! The Mexican Beans, the tortilla bowls and the fancy squash! Pretty much the only new thing I did was this rice!
I did learn that you can cook brown rice in a rice cooker with just a little bit more water than you would use for white rice! Thanks roomie for sharing your rice cooker!

2 1/1 cups of cooked brown rice (It was 2 1/2 cups when it was dry I don't know how many cups it was once it was cooked.)
1 small can (8oz? 6oz? I'm not sure but it's a little can) of Goya Salsa Picante
1/4 cup of pureed cilantro
1 lime's worth of juice
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped purple onion
1 cup chopped bell peppers (pick any two colors you want I used red and green)
3/4 cup chopped tomatoes
Red pepper to taste
Salt to taste
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

1. Heat up the olive oil
2. Throw in the onions and celery and cook on high until they start to brown
3. Next the bell peppers
4. Once the peppers start to soften up and stir in the rice
5. Add in your spices, salsa picante, cilantro paste, salt and tomatoes
6. Stir everything up really well and keep the heat on medium until the tomatoes start to get wilty.
7. Add in your lime juice


I served this in the tortilla bowls with salad and even used some as a replacement for the filling in the fancy squash. Both went over well. I'm also sure it would be fine as a side dish. Also, if you want some protein in there I wouldn't hesitate to throw in a can of black beans! Or if you wanted it more spicy throw in some chopped jalapenos around when you put in the bell peppers. Yum!