What's Cookin'?

The other day, I was incredibly bored at work so I began perusing through the cooking magazines that we have for sale. I came across an interesting looking recipe for chicken salad sandwiches (which I modified a teeny bit). Perhaps you are taken aback that it was a recipe for chicken salad since I am a pescatarian after all. Well I haven't fallen off of the bandwagon completely, but I do have my reasons (and a very good one at that).  

Rio De Janeiro Chicken Salad

Shredded Chicken

Plain Yogurt

Minced Yellow Onion

Minced Celery

Lime Juice

Salt and Pepper

Mix all of this in a bowl.

In another bowl add:

Shredded Carrots

Cilantro

a little bit of Olive Oil

Lime Juice

Salt and Pepper

Toast two pieces of whole grain bread, put on a piece of lettuce, chicken salad, and carrot relish. Enjoy!

Iced Tea

Yesterday was so deceptively summer-like, I decided I need to make some iced tea and fast, before the late afternoon chill set in. The only problem was that I didn't have any ice cubes made and how can you have iced tea without ice cubes? I remedied the situation and 3 short hours later I had my ice cubes and iced tea.

This passion fruit tea has such an intoxicating scent, makes you think it's the middle of June out in the tropics.

This is my magical faux Mason jar mug, drinking out of it makes me feel like I've gone back in time to the good 'ol summertime of the American south in the 1940's and that I've just come back from a country fair. Whenever I drink out of it I just imagine I'm sipping fresh squeezed lemonade through a red and white striped paper straw. And the lemonade is garnished with a sprig of mint. Corny I know.

Enough daydreaming, back to the iced tea....

Eight passion fruit tea bags, 1/8- 1/4 C. sugar, 4 cups boiling water for 4 minutes. Remove tea bags and enjoy.

Oh, and don't forget the ice! (I did mention I was a pescatarian, right?)

I decided to have a fun little feature where I post what I've eaten. Here is the first one:

I made this meal for my honey, right before he left for work. It was super fast and easy peasy.

Potato Leek Soup

1 Onion Diced

2 Leeks, cleaned and chopped

3 potatoes, peeled and diced

4 cups vegetable stock

Simmer all 10-15 minutes until tender

Blend this with 8 oz. soft tofu

and

8 oz. low fat cream cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

I modified this recipe a bit based on what was in my fridge. We are on a budget you know and can't frivolously go running to the market (plus I am way too tempted to pick up more than what I need when I go to the grocery store). I didn't have any leeks, so I guess this is potato leek-less soup. I didn't have the tofu and the idea of putting a whole block of cream cheese in my soup weirded me out, I used about 4 oz. This soup was quite yummy with salad, it would have been good with some rolls of some sort but alas, my oven is broken. Oh, maintenance man...

Breakfast

I got the recipe for this nutritious smoothie from my sister, she is the yoga instructor of  Super Yoga Palace in Dallas, TX.

Super Yoga Palace Smoothie

1 Banana

A handful of spinach

Frozen pineapple chucks

Frozen strawberries

A splash of orange juice

Blend and enjoy.

Mmmm, breakfast! (Don't the green color scare you, these are so yummy and you can't even taste the spinach!)

Steamed Lemon Pudding

The other night I was in the mood for a lemon flavored dessert, it seemed the perfect thing to eat on a hot summer day. I found this scrumptious recipe on www.nymag.com  (via google) and made a few modifications to it; the lemon pudding turned out wonderfully. The pudding also called for a berry compote which was perfect since there were two pints of berries in the fridge just waiting to be eaten. I made the desserts in my little Fire King ramekins that I bought at the market a month ago, and I am glad to say that they held up to the test and did not crack in the oven.

Steamed Lemon Pudding With Berry Compote

Pudding
Softened butter for ramekins
3/4 cup granulated sugar plus additional for ramekins
1 cup buttermilk (I did not have buttermilk; I substituted plain yogurt)
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest of 2 lemons, finely chopped (I used zest of one lemon)

Berry Compote
2 cups blueberries
2 cups raspberries (I used strawberries)
1/4 cup sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Pudding
Grease the insides of eight 4-ounce ramekins with butter and coat with granulated sugar. Combine in a mixing bowl the buttermilk, lemon juice, and the egg yolks. Mix the flour, remaining sugar, salt, and lemon zest in another bowl. Whip the egg whites in a third bowl until soft peaks form. Whisk the dry ingredients with the buttermilk mixture, and fold in the egg whites gently, a third at a time. Ladle the batter into the prepared ramekins, filling them almost to the top. Place the puddings in a roasting pan, and pour warm water around them until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover with foil, and bake for 18 minutes or until puddings begin to rise slightly. Remove the foil, rotate the pan front-to-back, and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until pudding is golden and springs back when touched.

Compote
While the pudding is baking, place the blueberries in a saucepan with the sugar and cook over medium heat until berries just start to burst. Remove from heat and fold in raspberries. Serve puddings at room temperature, or reheat in a warm-water bath before inverting onto plates and surrounding with compote.

The recipe says that it yields four, but I was able to fill five ramekins.

I will definitely be making this recipe again, they were good the next day too; cold out of the fridge.

Rosemary and Potato Pizza

The other day while driving back from work, I concocted a recipe for a rosemary potato pizza with goat cheese and caramelized onions, and to my delight it turned out delicious! Some people might think that potatoes on pizza is a little strange, but trust me it is wonderful!

Rosemary Potato Pizza

4 8'' Boboli Whole Wheat Pizza Crusts
4 oz. Goat Cheese
3 Red Potatoes
2 tsp. Rosemary
1 Large Red Onion
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Scrub potatoes, cut into 1/4'' slices, lightly coat with olive oil and toss with one teaspoon of dried rosemary. Place potato slices on cookie sheet and bake until tender, about fifteen minutes, flip slices once during baking. Drizzle olive oil in a pan and slice red onions into rings; cook over medium heat until soft. Spread 1 oz. of goat cheese on each pizza crust. Sprinkle remaining rosemary equally on four pizza crusts. Top pizzas with potatoes and onions. Bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Serves four.

I put fresh rosemary on the pizzas, in addition to the dried. Next time I want to try to make my own pizza crust, but I was pleased with the way it turned out on the Boboli crusts.

Summertime Lemonade

These past few weeks I have found myself patronizing the local library quite a bit, using the online library catalog to request items from neighboring county libraries. I checked out a Martha Stewart DVD full of summertime ideas, one of which was a recipe for homemade lemonade. Dearest d. and I made a large pitcher of lemonade to accompany our homemade sweet potato fries. Mmmm, yum!

Summertime Lemonade (from Martha Stewart)

Makes about 2 quarts

1 cup sugar syrup (recipe follows)

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about six large lemons)

 In a large pitcher, combine 2 quarts cold water, sugar syrup, and lemon juice. Add ice, and serve in tall glasses.

Sugar Syrup
Makes 1 cup

2/3 cup sugar
4 two-inch strips lemon rind (yellow part only)

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, 1/2 cup water, and lemon rind. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, and cool.

Banana Coconut Muffins

Yesterday was such a dreary day that I decided to bake some scrumptious coconut banana muffins and have a cup of tea. The muffins are the best when eaten right out of the oven , but be careful, they are addicting!









Banana Coconut Muffins
1 1/4 C. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
3 mashed bananas
1/2 C. butter (melted)
2/3 C. sugar
1 egg
1/2 t. vanilla
3/4 C. coconut



Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and 1/2 cup coconut in a large bowl until combined well, then fold in flour mixture until flour is just moistened. Divide batter into muffin tins and sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup coconut on top. Bake 25 minutes at 375 degrees. Yields 12

Bagel Bonanza

I recently left a job where the bagels flowed like milk and honey, and I could partake of one any time that I wished. Since my departure I find myself occasionally pining away for delicious everything bagels. I recently came across a bagel post at the angry chicken which used this fabulous recipe. They turned out wonderful, I do think that I will make my bagels from now on.