Simple, Healthy, Tasty food

Inspired by my friend Deb’s blog, I went shopping this week with budget and health in mind. Like Deb in her previous single-occupancy life, I often think nothing of going out to the store to shop for food for one meal and dropping between $40-$70. Mind you, these meals tend to be for 10+ people as Colin and I love dinner parties with friends, so it’s not that much, but I wanted to be more conscious of my day-to-day grocery spending this week. There’s a new farmer’s market, Newflower, that opened in town, and I’ve not yet made it there b/c I am in the habit of hitting the local Albertson’s ( a southern chain grocery store) for convenience. It is nearby and I know where everything is. Often times I KNOW I am going to pay more for sub par produce, but I shrug it off as the cost of convenience.

Today, however, I made the extra drive (really only 5-10 min) to check out this new market that has been claiming fresh, local produce at lower prices. I was very impressed with both the produce and meat sections as both provided really great items for sale. There were scattered items that were more pricey, but I did feel there was a large variety of stuff at a great discount. 88 cent red, yellow, orange bell peppers. $3.99/lb lamb shoulder chops.  88 cents/lb ripe plums, etc. Overall, the veggie selection was SO much better than Albertson’s in terms of variety and quality. My total bill for a very healthy helping of fresh veggies, some lamb shoulder chops, chicken thighs, and various breads, salsas, pastas, eggs came to $39 for enough food for my brother and me for a week.

I started tonight with the lamb and wanted to make a healthy, tasty meal for my roomie and my brother so we could all catch up on our weekends. I’ve never cooked lamb before, but I think starting simple is best, so below you will find a very simple, but satisfying and healthy meal that is easy to make!

Ingredients:

• 3 lamb shoulder chops, about 1/2 lb or less each
• olive oil
• garlic salt
• pepper
• herbes de provence
• 3 – 5 fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 lb green beans
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 small vidalia onion
• 1 TB butter
• 1/2 TB balsamic vinegar
• 3-5 sweet basil leaves
• 1 TB minced garlic
• some chicken broth (organic, low sodium if possible)

Steps:

1. Marinate the lamb – place the lamb chops on a plate. Swirl some olive oil on them. Dash garlic salt, pepper, herbes de provence across the chops and rub in using your fingers. Flip over and do the same on the other side. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge to marinate about 1/2 hr. Go work out or do something else productive. ;-)
2. Remove the lambchops from the fridge and let them come to room temp.
3. Slice the onions. Heat 1 TB butter in a pan and swirl around so it coats the bottom. Add the onions and a dash of salt. Stir fry til they are golden on the edges. Add balsamic vinegar and continue cooking til wilted. Keep it on low heat.
4. Prepare rest of veggies – while the onions are cooking, wash and chop off the ends of the green beans. You can also chop them in half across the length if you like more bite size manageable pieces. Slice the bell pepper. Set both aside.
5. Once onions are wilted down with a good caramelization, remove from heat and set on a plate. Deglaze the pan with some chicken broth and discard the broth and deglazed bits.
6. Bring the pan (non-stick) up to high heat and swirl around some olive oil. Add 1/2 TB minced garlic and cook quickly (about 1min). Add 2-3 lamb chops to pan. Cook about 3 min and flip over to cook another 3 – 4 min for medium lamb chops. If you poke the lamb chop after you’ve flipped it and still see blood, it’s not quite done. Give it another minute or two.  Cook these babies in batches if needed. I cooked 2 first and then 1.  The finished chops sat on a plate resting while i cooked the remaining one.
7. Deglaze the pan again with some more chicken broth if needed. Keeping heat on high, add more olive oil and garlic, then add green beans and bell peppers. Add a dash of salt, pepper and stir fry about 1 min. Add back the caramelized onions and stir fry until green beans are evenly a bright crisp green. do not overcook unless you like softer greenbeans!
8. To serve, place some of the veggie mix on a plate. Rest the lamb chop against the veggies. Slice up some fresh mint and garnish the lamb chop.

This was a great meal with lots of good flavors and healthy ingredients. Do NOT miss the mint on the lamb! It’s such a great marriage of flavors! I really prefer the fresh mint to the mint jelly I’ve often been served with lamb dishes. I event went back and chopped up more mint for my dish! My PPM was $5 (lamb) + .45 (green beans) + .88 ( bell pepper) + .75 onion + .5o mint and basil + ~ $1 negligable condiments = $8.58/3 meals = $2.86 PPM! Awesome! Thanks, Deb, for the inspiration. It was nice to see how cheap it truly is to eat well with out sacrificing too much wallet or healthiness!

Black Pepper Beef over Fresh Tomatoes & Garlic Watercress

I realized last week that I was spending way too much on everything, including groceries. This week I decided to see what I could cook w/out doing anymore grocery shopping. So far I’ve made 2 different meals already this week. Guess I forgot how much stuff i had in the freezer! Welcome to my recessionista style meal!

Things found in freezer/fridge/pantry AKA, the ingredients:

• 2 frozen petite sirloin steaks
• 1 beefsteak tomato
• 1 bunch watercress
• loads of Japanese rice
• roasted unsalted peanuts
• some soy sauce
• sugar
• black pepper
• minced garlic
• 1/2  a gigantic vidalia onion
• 1 can of coke
• Basil leaves from my basil plant!

(Loving the basil plant, btw. Great use of $6. I’ve had the plant for about 2 weeks now and am constantly picking off leaves to add the fresh basil punch to everything. So far, I have not killed it. Amazing!)

1. Thaw out the beef – this is best done in cold water or during the day in the fridge. If your steak isn’t thawed out the whole way, that’s actually good as it makes it easier to cut thin slices.

2. Slice steaks across the grain in strips, as thin as you can get them – this aids in the quick cooking and tenderness of the beef

3. Marinate meat - Place slices in a bowl, add enough soy sauce to cover the meat, 2 TB sugar, generous dashes of black pepper and stir to distribute. Then just cover the meat with some coke (about 1/3 of the can). The coke will help tenderize the meat. Let this marinate as you prepare the rest of the food.

4. Slide the tomatoes in rounds about 1/8 in thick, wash the watercress and drain.

5. Cook the onions - Slice 1/2 of the half onion (should have about 1 cup of onion when done, it was a GIGANTIC onion). heat up about 1 TB olive oil in a skillet. Add onions and a dash of salt. Reduce heat to med-low and cook onions, stirring frequently to keep from burning. Cook til translucent and just brown on the edges, about 10 min, then remove to a plate. This process allows the natural sugars of the onion to caramelize a bit.

6. Cook the meat – In the same skillet, add another TB olive oil and heat up to med-high. Add the meat with no marinade and quickly stir fry. Drain out juices as needed, the dryer the better to allow the meat to sear. Cook about 3 min stirring constantly. Add back the onions for a quick stir, then remove everything and set aside.

7. Cook the watercress – In same skillet, add a dash of olive oil and 1 TB minced garlic. Stir and cook quickly bout 30 secs, then add the water cress.  Dash about 1/2 TB soy sauce into the pan and stir quickly. Cover the pan with a lid to allow the watercress to steam cook about 1-2 min. Remove from heat and place watercress onto serving plate.

8. Quickly add the meat/onion mixture back into the hot skillet to reheat.

9. Place sliced tomatoes on top of watercress in 1 layer.

10. Dump the meat/onion mixture on top of the bed of watercress & tomatoes. This slightly cooks the tomatoes and covers them in the meaty flavors.

11. Chiffonade some basil and coarsely chop the peanuts and top off the dish. Voila, there you have it!

Serve this dish with some sticky white rice for a healthy, delicious meal with no shopping required! If you dont have watercress, you could also use spinach, baby bok choy, or any other leafy green.  Another option my mom often made was to just make a salad with romaine or red leaf lettuce, add tomatoes, pour hot meat on top. Makes for a very flavorful warm dressing’ed salad.

Lemon Pasta and the discovery of Tequila Lime Butter

Hello loves! hope you have not gone too hungry in my absence. Life has been a whirlwind of events….but all that matters is, I am here, now to share with you my latest culinary adventure!

Tonight, I had a date with my roomie, to convene in our living room/diningroom over some wine, food and good convo. How much I appreciate this downtime after seeming months of a life-prohibitive work schedule.

I wanted to make something tasty, but light, as I know roomie is not into rich, heavy meals, and I landed upon the idea of a Lemon Pasta after reading some blogs. I researched a bit and below is what I came up with, inspired by many different recipes.

To top the pasta, i picked up some shrimp and happend to see this lovely little tub labeled “Tequila Lime Butter”. How freaking delicious does that sound?? It seemed perfect for shrimp, so i took it home with me.

Ingredients

Sauce:

• zest of 2-3 lemons
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 3 Tb butter
• approx 2 tsp salt
• dash black pepper

Other

• 1 lb pasta (I used farfalle, but any kind will do)
• 1 cup thawed sweet peas
• 5-8 basil leaves – chiffonaded
• lemon zest for garnishing

Shrimp

• 8-10 medium shrimp
• 2 TB tequila lime butter
• Salt to season

1. cook dat pasta – heat up a pot full of water with some salt. add pasta when boiling and cook to al dente (about 5-7 min)

2. Zest your lemons into a bowl

I finally got a microplane grater. it is The Shit for zesting! look at that finely zested lemon zest! essential oils here we come!

3.  Make dat Sauce – in a saucepan on med-low heat, cook butter & cream until melted. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, salt. add more lemon or salt to taste. Turn off heat and keep warm.

4. Drain pasta when finished. Return to pot. Add the lemon sauce, chiffonaded basil, salt & pepper to taste. Stir to distribute. Add sweet peas and stir again. Keep warm

5. Cook the shrimp. Heat a pan on med-hi and add butter. As it is starting to brown, add the shrimp. Cook about 2 min a side, flipping in between. Season with salt/pepper.Shrimp should be just turning opaque when done. remove from heat.

6. Get ready to eat! Add some pasta on a plate, top with some shrimpies, garnish with more chiffonaded basil. Serve with some wine/bread and celebrate your victory over this meal!

 

The lemon past had just the right amount of lemon tartness, mellowed out by a touch of creame. I had some fresh parmesan that would have done quite well with this dish, but i totally forgot to add it! And we really did not even need extra cheese.

The tequila lime butter was fantastic. Imparted just a touch of flavor without overwhelming in salt or fat. Definite recommended “splurge” at 2.99 for a small tub.

 

Enjoy the cooking and eating!

Kim

Orange Ginger Beer Pork

I’ve got a rough few weeks of work ahead of me, so i wanted to take some time today to unwind and cook. This dish combines a few things I was thinking about – Caramelized Pork, as ya’ll probably know, is one of my faves, so I borrowed some of the cooking techniques from there (quick sear of meat, and then stewing in carbonated beverage to tenderize). I also had a meal the other day with some seared tuna served with a salad with cut pieces of orange. it was soo fresh! So i decided to experiment a little with something a lil orange-y, spicy, tender. Check it out!

Ingredients:

- 2 lbs pork – I used about 6 boneless country style ribs
- 3 inch long piece of ginger
- 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 orange
- 2 TB black pepper
- 1 TB paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 4 cups OJ
- 1 TB olive oil
- just under 1 bottle of beer

- veggies – i used corn, soy beans, baby bok choy. green peas, zucchini could also work well.

1. Chop up all your ginger, cilantro, oranges. remember to peel the ginger ( you can just cut off the skin using the knife like i did), then matchstick and chop it up like this:

The oranges, just make sure you remove the skin surrounding the juicy parts. I also just cut these off with a knife. Super fast.

2. In a large bowl, combine the chopped ginger, cilantro, orange, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder, salt.

Look at all those awesome colors!

3. Then add the OJ, soy sauce, olive oil and 1/2 a bottle of beer and whisk! The best part about using 1/2 of a bottle of beer?

Getting to drink some more while cooking! yeah! (notice, it is a lil difficult to drink beer, cook, and operate a camera at the same time. fair warning.)

Good ol budweiser seems to work well here. Check out that crazy marinade!

3. Then, cut up your meat into 1 inch cube chunks like this:

Remove any parts that are too fatty, but leaving some fat is fine. Helps with the tenderness!

4. Place the meat in the marinade and let site for at least 1 hr to let all that orangey goodness soak into your meat.

5. After the marinating time, Heat up a large pot with some olive oil to very hot, nearly smoking. Carefully pull out the pieces of meat, letting them drain off the excess liquid before tossing them into the pot. You are trying to sear the meat here to lock in the flavor and juiciness. Do this in batches as needed, depending on how big your pot is. You do not want too much liquid to build up in the bottom of your pot or you will not get a good sear like below:

You can see a bit of the caramelization on the meat’s brown edges. YUM!

6. Add all the meat back in the pot, and pour the marinade over top. Pour the rest of beer bottle in if you havne’t finished it (like me. it’s only monday!)

HEre is the pot just starting to come back to boil. Cover the pot and lower the heat to medium and let it cook for about 30 min. Check the taste of the sauce. Add more OJ if it is too salty (as mine was at first). Cover and cook on medium low for at least another 15 min. You will see the sauce getting thicker and the meat getting more tender.

7. Now add in your veggies. They will only need a quick heat up. I overcooked my bok choy a lil b/c i got distracted, but i just tossed in my corn, soy beans, and chopped baby bok choy and turned up the heat for about 3 min.

Serve this over rice, pasta, couscous…or if you want to be super healthy, a fresh salad with spinach and cucumbers. Also garnisch with some slices of orange!

Technorati Tags: Pork,ginger,orange,beer,stew

The orange flavor turned out really well. It’s subtle, but very pervasively fragrant in the meat. I think this will taste even better manana after i take it out of the fridge and reheat it!

Enjoy!

Pineapple Curry Beef

Lord it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. It’s been a whirlwind of work and prepping for vacation, and vacationing, and recovering…but, I”M BACK BABIES!

well, sort of. I didn’t have much in my fridge b/c of laziness with grocery shopping, but I was able to cobble together a pretty tasty meal and a new (to me) way of marinating meat.

Key takeaway here is that made a paste to marinate the meat instead of my usual more liquid marinades.

Ingredients:

• 1 block firm tofu
• 1/4 lb beef (eye of round or petite sirloins are good)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1/2 can pineapple chunks
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• 2 green onions
• 3 TB olive oil
• 1 TB sea salt
• 1 TB minced garlic
• 3 TB curry powder

1. Cut
- Tofu into slices
- bell pepper into large dice
- mince lemongrass stalk
- fine chop on green onion
- mince garlic if using fresh garlic
- beef into thin slices

2. Prepare the marinade paste: In a bowl, combine lemongrass, garlic, green onions, olive oil, salt, black pepper, and curry powder. Mix and smash around til evenly distributed.

3. Marinate yo meats! Add your sliced beef into the bowl and mix around til evenly coated. Let it sit for at least 20 min.

4. While the meat is marinating, prepare tofu as instructed here: http://cookieloveseating.blogspot.com/2008/09/inspiration-reaches-across-states.html Set aside on plate when done

5. In same pan on high, add more olive oil and some minced garlic. Cook about 1 min til getting golden. Add the marinated meat and stir to cook about 2 min. Then add the diced bell pepper, tofu, pineapple and continue to stir fry for about 3 min. Taste and add more salt/pepper according to what you like. Add corn stir another minute. Turn off heat and you are ready to feast!

Pretty easy right? The tofu rocks at picking up all the delish flavor. I was surprised to find that I did not need to add any additional liquid to get the flavors distributed, so the paste method gets a thumbs up from Cookie! Serve some of this goodness over sticky white rice for best results :-)

First, Tiramisu Cupcakes. Next, the World.

Last weekend my man decide to make his most awesome spaghetti and meatballs. I have always thought spaghetti and meatballs was boring and blah until I had his. They are melt in your mouth delicious! Anyway, the dinner crew decide we’d all go italian, with stuffed mushrooms, caprese salad, etc. My contribution, I decided, would be Tiramisu Cupcakes! I had no idea how to even start, since baking’s need for preciseness goes against my cooking style—so to Google I go!

After reading a few recipes, I settled on this one: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/TIRAMISU-CUPCAKES-BY-CUPCAKE-CULTURE-1272254 Because it just sounded so delicious and not too hard.

It took me about 2.5 hrs in between bouts of watching America’s Next Top model on YouTube to finish these babies, and they are TOTALLY worth it for a Sunday afternoon.  Lots of great flavors and textures and I fell in love with mascarpone cheese all over again. I could eat that shit by the cup-full. Thank god my fridge does not come with a mascarpone dispenser. I’d have to say good bye to my waist line for good!

Anyway, I’m going to repeat the recipe here. You have 3 parts: Cupcake, Glaze, and Icing. WOO HOO!

Cupcakes:
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Tiramisu Glaze: (prepare when cupcakes have cooled)
1 cup espresso
1/4 cup Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate syrup
2 oz Kahlua
1/2 oz Myers Dark Rum or Brandy
1/3 cup sugar

Icing:
2 packages 8 oz Mascarpone Cheese
1 1 lb Box Confectioners sugar
1 Vanilla Bean finely chopped in mini food processor or 1 tbs pure vanilla extract (un why are vanilla beans so expensive?? F That $10 a bean price tag. The vanilla extract was great)
1/2 cup heavy cream
pinch sea salt

Garnish : Cocoa Powder and 24 chocolate covered espresso beans and/or chocolate shavings

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 - 12 cup muffin pans with muffin paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in your next to largest mixing bowl. Set aside.

3.In your largest bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated.

You better believe i stuck my finger in there and “tested” the batter. For safety measures only. I swear. mmmmmmmMMM. I think it’s safe…better check again, just to make sure…

4. Drop ice cream scoops full of batter in each lined muffin spot. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 24 minutes, or until tops spring back. Let cool about 10-15 min. Then remove cupcakes from pan and let cool while you are doing all the other stuff.

5. While cupcakes are cooking, combine heavy cream, and mascarpone cheese in a large bowl and mix on low speed. Add vanilla and salt. Then slowly add confectioners sugar, allowing each sugar addition to thoroughly mix with the cheese mixture until all of the confectioner's sugar is gone. Put icing into a piping bag. If you don’t have a piping bag, put it in a ziploc bag and snip off a corner when you are ready to frost.

soo smooth and creamy! yum! Also feel free to test this stuff. Can never be too sure…

6. Prepare the glaze by melting the sugar into the hot espresso in a large mixing bowl with a whisk (by hand) Then add syrup, kahlua, and rum/brandy.  (I did not have syrup, so I melted some ghiradelli chocolate in a double boiler till it was nice a melty. Worked great!)

7. Take a straw or kabob stick and poke a small hole in the top of each cupcake. With a spoon, ladle some of the glaze into the hole. Then I like to dip the top of each cupcake into the glaze to ensure that it is evenly covered with the glaze. It shouldn't be soggy - just covered enough that the cupcake looks light brown. This gets messy, so I’d do all the pouring/dipping and place the cupcake on a plate/tray that you are not going to use to serve the cupcakes.

oh lord.

8. Pipe the icing onto each cupcake. Lightly dust cupcakes with cocoa powder and top with espresso beans/ chocolate shavings.

Oh yeah, baby. Lined up like little soldiers waiting to march into my belly!

The texture of this cupcake batter is a kind of lighter, dryer, grainier. But It works for this cupcake bc of the glaze that soaks into the cupcake. Probably would be overkill if this were a very dense cakey cupcake. So Thumbs up to inventive rebirth of tiramisu!

Enjoy!

Eggplant rolls with some shit!

I was clanging around the kitchen today after work, long workout, grocery store hit & run. My brother asked me what I was making and I answered, “Eggplant rolls with some shit!”  So..that is the name of this recipe!

I was reading recipes and saw some eggplant rolls with cheese, but I wanted a healthier, but meatier version. I really liked the results and hope you will too. This is a flavorful dish packed with all sorts of good things for you!

 

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized eggplant
• 1/2 lb ground lean turkey
• handful (5-6) baby bella mushrooms
• 1/2 apple
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup almonds
• 2 cups spinach
• 1 roasted red pepper
• 1 c diced tomatoes
• 2 c pasta sauce of your choice (this is my lazy, what is in the pantry option. feel free to use your own homemade goodness)
• chives
• 1/2 TB liquid smoke
• 1 TB garlic salt
• 1 TB black pepper
• 1/2 TB Worchester
• 1/2 TB balsamic vinegar
• 3 TB sugar
• 1 TB dried sweet basil
• 2 TB dried chopped onions

1. Heat oven to 350
2. slice the eggplant vertically into long ovals about 1/4 inch thick
3. 
4. Spray a foil lined pan, salt, pepper, & olive oil both sides of each eggplant slice and place on pan. Bake at 350 about 15 min til you see the slices getting slightly brown on edges. Then remove from oven.
5. While those are baking, wilt the spinach in a pan with just a dash of olive oil. Stir til evenly wilted and remove from heat.
6. Dice mushrooms, apple, red pepper. Chop almonds. Set all aside.
7. In a bowl, combine turkey, dried chopped onions, dried sweet basil, liquid smoke, garlic salt, pepper, worchestire, balsamic vinegar.
8. Heat 1 swirl olive oil in a sauce pan. Add mushrooms, pine nuts, almonds and cook about 3 min til mushrooms start shrinking. Add apple and cook another minute.
9. Add meat to pan and stir, cooking til all pink is gone. Add more olive oil as needed.
10. Once meat is browned, add roasted red peppers, diced tomatoes, pasta sauce, sugar and heat to cook another 7-10 min. Turn off heat
11. 
12. Assemble the rolls. Lay down 1 chive, 1 eggplant slice. Top with some wilted spinach, about 1/4 cup meat sauce mixture. Roll up edges of eggplant to form a roll. Tie with the chive and place in a baking dish. Repeat til finished. Cover all rolls with remaining meat sauce
13. 
14. Pop it in the oven at 350 still for about 15 min to finish. Let sit about 10 min before serving so it doesn’t fall all over the place.

Love the slight smoky flavor in this dish. Remember, it is easy to overdo the liquid smoke, so be careful! Lots of textures to tickle your palate. Love how “meaty” the eggplant is, roasted like this.

Cheese would most definitely be a delish addition, but is not necessary, and omitting it keeps it super healthy!

Enjoy!

Approx Nutrition per serving:

Calories: 280
Fat: 10
Sat Fat: 2 g
Cholesterol: 23 mg
Carbs: 31
Protein: 19
Fiber: 8 g