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Spinach Cheese Burritos and March Cookbook

So I’m already three recipes into the March cookbook, Moosewood’s Simple Suppers and as expected, I’m finding it delightful. Moosewood, for the uninitiated is a fairly famous co-op restaurant in Ithaca, NY. Basically a group of hippies came together to make awesome, tasty, whole food that is frequently vegetarian, though they do use fish here and there. The restaurant pioneered a lot of creative vegetarian cooking. Though I did not grow up vegetarian, some of our extended family is vegetarian or pescetarian and we were exposed to these recipes through them and my mom owned and sometimes cooked from the original Moosewood cookbook. When Matt and I were married, I received Moosewood New Classics from my mom’s cousin and when everything I tackled from it from it turned out awesome, I bought the original (with hand-drawn illustrations) and some others. Just a few years ago my sister gave me the latest in the series, Simple Suppers. But of course I’ve been busy and internet recipes are distracting, so this is a prime opportunity for checking out all of the whole food goodness Moosewood has to offer.

The first recipe I tried was Spinach Cheese Burritos. This little gem went from prep (including chopping) to oven in exactly 20 minutes – I timed it. The original recipe has a hot sauce that you can make in the blender, but I am such a fan of the organic salsa we buy at Costco, that I served it with that instead. I also used low-carb tortillas because that’s how we roll. This is one I dare anyone not to like. It is creamy, cheesy and delicious. The kids were a bit suspicious of the green stuff, but both ate about half their burrito which is not bad in my book!

Spinach Cheese Burritos

  • 8-10 flour tortillas
  • 3 cups monterey jack or cheddar cheese (pepper jack would be awesome here too), shredded
  • 1/3 C cream cheese (3 oz)
  • 10 oz fresh baby spinach
  • 1 bunch scallions, chopped
  • 1 T cooking oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 pinch nutmeg
  • salsa of your choice for serving

Directions

Heat oven to 350. Lightly oil a 9×13″ baking dish. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook scallions and garlic in oil for 2-3 minutes. Add in the spinach and cook until the leaves have wilted and there isn’t water left in the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat and stir in cheese and spices thoroughly, using the residual heat to melt everything together.

Place a good bit of filling on the edge of each tortilla and roll, then place in the pan seam-side down. Cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes. Serve immediately with generous quantities of salsa.

Along with this little gem, there are seven other recipes from this cookbook I’m testing out. A preview of what’s (hopefully) to come:

  1. Spinach Cheese Burritos
  2. Banana Cupcakes (we made these for Tabby’s class on Monday night – mmmmmm)
  3. Po’ Boys (had these last night – awesome!!)
  4. Winter Squash Pie
  5. Mexican Polenta Stuffed Peppers
  6. Creamy Lemon Pasta
  7. Shrimp Curry with Snow Peas
  8. Baked Tofu
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Strawberry Limeade Smoothie and Feb Cookbook Wrap-up

Well February has just about come and gone, and with it my plans to review eight recipes from The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook. I didn’t quite make all of them this go-around, but I gave it a good shot! Hopefully we’ll do a bit better next go around. The good news is that I did enjoy most of the recipes we made and I would like to try the few that we missed and maybe some more. Continue reading “Strawberry Limeade Smoothie and Feb Cookbook Wrap-up”

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Grilled Chicken Parm

Matt is a Chicken Parmesan connoisseur. It is his litmus test for any Italian restaurant. So I was a bit nervous to make this no-breading chicken parmesan from Biggest Loser. Though we all agreed there is a special place in our hearts for the yummy breaded variety of chicken parm, this was an excellent option and certainly one we can have a bit more frequently since it is easy and healthy!

I opted to serve mine over a bed of roasted spaghetti squash, the kids had the usual spaghetti, and Matt did a mixture of the two. On the side, we served steamed green beans topped with marinara – it’s a combo I hadn’t had before, but it was very tasty and of course easy. One of these days, I would like to work on perfecting a marinara sauce recipe, possibly to can in the summer when tomatoes are in season. But not today – today it was Classico bought in bulk from Costco. At least I don’t have any Italian ancestors rolling over in their graves. Just the German ones who can’t believe I hate sauerkraut and don’t drink beer. Continue reading “Grilled Chicken Parm”

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Szechuan Beef with Veggies

We tried our first recipe from February’s cookbook this month … Szechuan Beef and Broccoli which I adapted based on what we already had, namely the GIANT bag of stirfry veggies that we buy at Costco and pretty much always keep on hand. The kids already know and love them (they are BIG fans of the baby corn, water chestnuts and carrots) and it’s an easier sell than just broccoli. Tabby is probably the only kid I know who doesn’t like the tree part of the broccoli, but rather the stem. Same with asparagus.

In some ways I’m kind of bummed that I selected this recipe to try. I wish I’d read through it a bit more. It uses bottled sauce and is really really close to what we already make for our weekly stirfry night recipe, just different sauce. But it is a good recipe and it’s a good lesson to me – read these recipes before picking them for the cookbook challenge.

 

Szechuan Beef with Veggies

adapted from The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook

Ingredients

  • frozen veggies in as large a quantity as you like (we use about 2 cups per person minimum) – onions, broccoli spears, snow peas, baby corn, carrots (smaller pieces), water chestnuts all stirfry well and I’m sure fresh would be good too
  • 4 oz steak per person, cut into thin strips or bite-sized chunks; we opt for leaner meats
  • stirfry sauce of your choice for the kids or spice scaredy cats
  • Sezchuan sauce for spice lovers
  • a small amount of cooked rice to serve alongside
  • 1 tsp olive oil or cooking spray

Directions

To make this SUPER quickly, I pre-cook the veggies somewhat. If they’re frozen, I microwave them until they’re about half defrosted. If they’re fresh, it’s less necessary, but you can still steam them in the microwave a bit. I pour off the excess water as well to speed it up. While the veggies are getting defrosted, spray a big skillet with cooking spray or use some olive oil. Heat over med-high heat. Once the veggies are done, throw them in the skillet and hear it sizzle. Keep them moving as they cook. It doesn’t take long.

When the veggies are cooked, set them aside and make sure your pan is nice and hot and add a little more oil/spray if needed. Place the steak in the pan in a single layer. Cook, stirring around a bit until all browned, about 2 minutes. Don’t over cook it or you will be rewarded with tough beef. Ick.

Return the veggies to the pan and warm everything a bit. If everyone likes the same amount of sauce, add your sauce and stir it up. This is easiest to do in the skillet, but if not, put everything into individual bowls and add the sauce there. Not too much sauce! You can always add more.

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Chicken Minestrone

Well the month and our experiment with The Zone is almost up as is my whirlwind tour of Zone Meals in Seconds cookbook. It’s been … interesting. I’ve done well on The Zone, losing about 9 lbs, which for a month is pretty good (and technically, I still have ’til Friday for my four weeks to be up, and I’ll be Zoned until then). I can’t say it’s something I feel like I could live with permanently. I like a bit more wiggle room in my life … I like food, good food, way too much to be this restricted, but I think it put me back on track with what I know to be healthy and reinforced some good lessons. Lean meat, healthy vegetables, less starches, little sugar, good fats.

The cookbook itself was a meh. Let’s say a 4 out of 10. This book had two kinds of recipes … one was real recipes as we think of them, the other, just thrown together ingredients. They were both a mix of awesome and blech! with a few meh … thrown in there. My samplings:

  1. Tex Mex meatloaf – seriously tasty; I’ve recommended this to a few people and it was very well received
  2. Salmon Tagine – loved the spinach, but the Salmon was just so-so
  3. Apple Spice Oatmeal – protein powder completely screwed up the texture; edible, but not yummy
  4. Moroccan chicken stew – ICK. Way too much of the cream of soup.
  5. Zoned Apple Muffins – These were good, but not great. Not a ton of flavor/taste.
  6. Mexican chicken chili – not so much a recipe, just a list of things to throw together in a bowl; pretty tasty though
  7. Blueberry and banana creme freeze – pretty tasty, even liked the sour cream in here – may post this one later.
  8. Chicken Minestrone – quite good!

Anyhow, more about Chicken Minestrone. This is one of those recipe that I don’t even really consider to be a recipe because there’s just not much to it. Just a couple of raw ingredients, the rest from cans or the freezer section, but I know a lot of people struggle with even this and it could be a gateway recipe, so I will post it. It really is tasty and super healthy. This makes 4 4-block meals (a TON of soup)

Ingredients

  • 3 cups of cubed frozen chicken
  • 1 10 oz package cut green beans
  • 1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 qt low sodium chicken broth/stock
  • 1 jar marinara sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2-3 zucchini quartered and sliced
  • 3 T EVOO
  • dried oregano and basil

Directions

Heat the EVOO in a dutch oven. While the oil is heating, cook the green beans to about 75% done in the microwave. Add the chicken, garlic, zucchini, green beans and herbs to the dutch oven and cook until all are warmed through and fragrant. Add the kidney beans, broth and marinara. Stir to combine and bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

 

I really enjoyed experimenting with this cookbook this month. It’s not one that I expect to turn to often but it gave me a couple good new recipes. Next month will be The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook.

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Apple Chips

This “recipe” is so simple I hesitate to even post it, but these are my kids new favorite snack and they are healthy, cheap and contain only one ingredient, so I thought I should share.

Ingredients

  • 4-5 medium apples apples, thinly sliced

Directions

I will give two methods for doing this. We have a dehydrator so we used that, but you can also use your oven. The prep, however, is the same. You’ll need to slice your apples very thinly … 1/8 inch or less, I’d guess. I’m sure someone can do this by hand, but I’m not that person, so I use a mandolin. They’re not too expensive and they’re super useful for many things as they slice in many thickness and grate as well. I do not bother to core them since the seeds come out as you slice thinly.

Oven: Heat oven to 225 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with silpats or parchment paper. You can also use cooling racks if you have some that are big enough to span cookie sheets. Place the apples on the cookie sheets. You can put them right next to each other, but don’t overlap. They will shrink some as they dry. Bake for an hour and flip if you aren’t using the cooling racks. Then bake another hour.

Dehydrator: Line all dehydrator racks with apples. You can really get them close together since they shrink as they dry. Turn dryer on. They will be pretty darn good after 2 hours, but we like to go closer to 4 to get them real crispy and since you’re not monopolizing the oven forever, you can.

There are all kinds of recipes on the net for these that add sugar (or splenda or maple syrup or honey), but I personally think the apples have all the sugar you need, especially after it’s concentrated when they dry and shrink a bit. I would like to try sprinkling a little nutmeg or cinnamon on these, but really, they are incredibly good as-is. We have been going through a batch a day easily. Luckily apples are 77c/lb right now!

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Mango, Black Bean and Quinoa Salad

Summer is a hard time for me cooking wise. I don’t want the heavier comfort foods I am crazy about in the winter. It’s too hot. And we also take advantage of the longer days and get up to all kinds of things and have later, more casual dinners. So I’m up for anything that’s cool and light and super easy to make and have around. This recipe (well a recipe similar to this) was in my Google Reader for a while before I tried it but when I did I was an instant fan. I traded out vinegar for lime juice (I love anything with lime in it) and nixed the cilantro, but of course you can put these back in for a slightly different flavor.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked quinoa
  • 1 cup finely diced red pepper
  • 1-2 mangoes finely diced
  • 1 can black beans rinsed and drained
  • 2 T lightly flavored oil (sunflower oil was what we had)
  • juice of two limes
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • salt and pepper
  • cilantro, chopped (optional)
  • scallions, chopped (optional)

Directions

Combine lime juice, oil, cumin and S&P in a small bowl. Whisk until well combined. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and toss with dressing. I think this is best served chilled. We first ate it with Garlic Lime Chicken and I imagine it would be a great thing to take to any picnic or to have with burgers as well. Tomorrow I’m having it with Tortilla Encrusted Tilapia from Costco. mmmmm

Nutritional Info (1 cup)

Calories 150; Sodium 59 mg; Total Fat 6g; Potassium 31 mg; Saturated 0g; Total Carbs 35g; Protein 6g


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Salmon Rice Bowls

When we lived in Nashville, we frequented a little place off of Division St., right near Vanderbilt called Ken’s Sushi. It’s definitely not the fanciest place but it has good pretty cheap eats and my favorite Japanese entree I’ve ever had, Sakegohan. It’s a rice bowl with seaweed and salmon and some sauce. I’ve never seen it anywhere else and so I have only get to have the super yummy salmon bowl when we got back to Nashville and managed to make it to Ken’s.

So when I saw the salmon rice bowl idea featured on Dinner a Love Story, I was more than a little intrigued. So we tried it out – well our own version anyway – and while it isn’t EXACTLY a Sakegohan, it’s darn good – a keeper.

Continue reading “Salmon Rice Bowls”

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Hula Pizza

The folks at my house are big pizza fans (I know it’s rare to find an American who isn’t). We’re completely happy with the garden variety mushroom and pepperoni variety (we frequently order it from down the block), but we also like something a bit different. We’ve put lots of different things on pizzas including buffalo chicken, shrimp scampi and various “Mexican” combinations. I don’t think we’ve had a loser yet. Surely this wasn’t it! This pizza, adapted from a Devin Alexander recipe I saw in the Biggest Loser Family cookbook, combines slightly disparate but always yummy ingredients into something really tasty and unexpected. It was a hit with the whole family. Matt and I ate it in its entirety.Tabby (who normally loves pineapple) ate all of the chicken and handed Ben her pineapple.  Ben picked off and ate all pineapple, including Tabby’s and then licked off all the cheese. #facepalm

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Continue reading “Hula Pizza”

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Butternut Squash Pasta

from:

Ingredients
green beans
butter
dill (fresh or dried)
salt & pepper

Directions
Cook your green beans until done. I like to steam them in skillet with just a little water if fresh, or nuke them if they're frozen, of course. While still hot, add the butter and mix it in so it melts. You do not need much butter. A tablespoon gives an entire pound of green beans a very nice flavor. Then season with dill and salt and pepper.

from: adapted from Dinner a Love Story

Ingredients
1 package egg noodles (we like no yolk)
1 large butternut squash, peeled and diced in 1/2″ or 2 packages prepped frozen winter squash
1 large onion
rosemary leaves
2 T butter
salt and pepper
parmesan

Directions
Heat oven to 425. Peel onion and cut into large dice. On a rimmed baking sheet, place squash and onion in one layer, distributing evenly. Season with salt and pepper and rosemary leaves. Bake for 20-30 minutes until squash and onions are nicely roasted.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook egg noodles according to package directions. Once noodles are done, drain and return to pot. Add butter and then combine with roasted squash and onions. Season with more S&P if necessary.

Serve topped with grated Parmesan.