a healthy choice (braised white beans with potatoes and vegetables)

12/14/2007 By

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You know those days after you’ve eaten nothing but crap when you just feel heavy and unpleasant? Usually they happen after a vacation or maybe just a particularly decadent weekend. This is my go-to meal for those days.

My parents recently visited, and it was four days of mostly eating out. Waffles for breakfast, pizza for lunch, a big plate of sausage and potatoes for dinner. Yikes. I may not generally be a vegetable-lover, but days like that make me crave something healthy.

And this meal is perfect for that. It has lots of tomatoes, garlic, and zucchini, plenty of beans, and just a bit of starch in the form of red potatoes.

Not only is it healthy, but it’s quick and forgiving as well. After a bit of chopping, there isn’t much to do except give the occasional stir while everything simmers together into deliciousness. At the end, the flavors of garlic and crushed red pepper permeate the sauce, the zucchini is softened but not mushy, and the beans and potatoes have soaked up the tomato-ey juices. This is one of my favorite ways to be healthy!

Braised White Beans with Tomatoes, Zucchini, and Garlic
(adapted from Vegetarian Classics, by Jeanne Lemlin)
Serves 2 (plus leftovers)

I’ve taken to drizzling a bit of extra-virgin olive oil over everything right before serving.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 (14-ounce) can ready-cut diced tomatoes
¼ cup water
1 medium boiling potato (red or Yukon gold), cut into ¼-inch dice
1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced into ¼-inch slices (the size I buy depends on how healthy I want to be)
1 (14-ounce) cans small white beans, such as Great Northern or navy, rinsed well in a strainer
¼ teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
¼ teaspoon salt

1. Heat the oil, garlic, and red pepper in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook for about 30 seconds after the garlic begins to sizzle. (It should not become at all colored). Stir in the tomatoes, water, and potatoes, and cover the pan. Cook at a lively simmer for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are almost cooked through.

2. Mix in the zucchini, beans, rosemary, and salt. Cover the pan again and cook, stirring often, 10 minutes more, or until the zucchini and potatoes are tender. At this point check the consistency of the sauce; it should be thick and soupy, not dry or watery. Add a bit of water if the mixture doesn’t have much sauce; cook it uncovered if the juices seem watery. Serve in large pasta bowls, preferably, or on plates.

Filed Under: beans, favorites, healthy, one pot meal, vegetarian, weeknight meal

belated wishes (slice-a-fancy cookies)

12/13/2007 By

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As much as I love my friends and family, I am terrible at getting gifts out to them on time. Invariably, I won’t start looking for gift ideas until after I’ve made the call (or email or text message) to wish the person a happy birthday

And that is why my good friend Sidfaiwu, whose birthday is before Thanksgiving, got Christmas cookies along with the rest of his birthday gift.

copy-of-img_0256Updated photo 12.13.08

These cookies are as much a Christmas tradition in my family as santa or the decorated tree. Although I can’t remember a Christmas without them, this is my first time making them.

The dough itself is simple – a classic cookie dough recipe where the butter and sugars are creamed together, the eggs are beaten in, and the pre-mixed dry ingredients are added. It’s in the shaping that the recipe gets interesting. The dough is divided into equal portions, colored, patted into rectangles, then stacked and cut to form cookies. This is where the recipe really shines, because it’s an easy way to make an impressive variety of shapes.

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I hope Sid enjoys these as much as I always have!

Yes, Dave and I got him a math calendar for his birthday.  We are the coolest friends ever.

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Slice a Fancy Cookies (from Family Circle)

I was working from a shorthand recipe that I’d copied in a hurry a few years ago.  This is the real version (updated from my original post), although I’ve modernized it a bit.  Apparently I made the “ribbon fancies”.  I would just call them striped, but what do I know.

Makes about 12 dozen cookies

4 cups (18 ounces) unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1¼ cups (2½ sticks) butter
1 cup (7 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
2. Beat butter with brown and granulated sugars until fluffy; beat in eggs and vanilla. Blend in flour mixture.
3. Divide evenly into 3 bowls. Flavor, shape, and decorate each variety, following recipes below.
4. Slice frozen cookie dough into 1/4-inch sections and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350º for 8-10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets to wire racks; cool completely.

Ribbon Fancies

Divide one bowl of dough into three equal portions. Tint one third red, one green and leave one plain. Roll out each section into a 9 x 3-inch rectangle between sheets of parchment (or wax) paper; chill in freezer 10 minutes; halve each rectangle lengthwise. Brush tops very lightly with milk. Lay one plain stripe, on top of that place a green, then red, than green again, and red, and then white layer on top of each other. Wrap in wax paper and freeze for several hours at least. When ready to bake, follow above directions.

Pinwheel Twirls

Divide second bowl of dough in half. Tint one half red or green; leave other half plain. Roll out each half to a 9×9-inch square between sheets of parchment paper; peel off top sheets. Lay tinted dough, paper side up, on top of plain dough. Peel off paper. Roll up doughs tightly, jelly-roll fashion. Wrap in wax paper; freeze at least several hours. When ready to bake, follow above directions.

Checkerboards

Divide third bowl of dough in half. Blend ½ square unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled, into one half; leave other half plain. Roll out each half to a 9×3-inch rectangle, chill. Cut each rectangle lengthwise into 8 strips, each 3/8-inch wide. Carefully lift a chocolate strip with a long-bladed spatula and place on a clean sheet of wax paper; lay a plain strip close to it, then repeat with a chocolate and plain strip to make a four-stripe ribbon about 1½ inches wide. Brush very lightly with milk. Build a second, third, and fourth layer, alternating plain and chocolate strips each time and brushing each layer with milk before adding the next one. Wrap in wax paper; freeze. When ready to bake, follow above directions.

Filed Under: cookies, dessert, favorites, freezer friendly, winter/holidays

to clear our sinuses (crockpot rice and beans)

11/29/2007 By

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Well, we can’t eat sandwiches every night! We also had rice two nights in a row. Not a great week for variety.

I realized recently that I only have one crockpot meal that I make regularly. That needs to change! My sister is a crockpot fiend, so I need to ask her for some good ones.

This recipe came from my brother. The first time I had it was when I visited him in Oklahoma. We drove there from Indiana, and our car broke down in Missouri, so…we ate at like 10pm or something. Incidently, while we were waiting around for the car to be fixed in Missouri, we wandered into a bar, where we met up with an older couple who had just gotten married. Cute!

copy-of-img_9807Photo updated 12/02/08

Back to food. I’ve made a few changes to the recipe. It originally called for boneless, skinless chicken thighs, but I decided they weren’t really necessary. There’s plenty of protein from the beans and rice, right? Sometimes I do add bone-in, skinless chicken thighs and then shred the meat right before serving. There’s something about shredded chicken that I just like. Also, it’s supposed to be served over spanish rice, but white rice is easier and there’s plenty of flavor in the beans. Oh, and I changed the beans from pinto to kidney. My friend from Puerto Rico makes rice and beans with kidney beans, so maybe they’re more authentic? I don’t know, I bought them on accident once and liked them better.

And! I had to use actual canned green chiles! My New Mexican green chile supply ran out, and no one resupplied me this year!

Spicy Crockpot Beans
Serves 3

2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 (4-ounce) cans green chile, diced
2 chipotle chiles from adobo sauce, minced
1 (0.85 ounce) package chicken gravy mix (I use Simply Organic)
½ teaspoon sugar
2 tomatoes, chopped, or ½ (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 cups cooked white rice

Add first five ingredients to crockpot and cook on low for 3-5 hours. Stir in tomatoes 30 minutes before serving. Serve over white rice. (If you use chicken pieces as well, add them skin side down on the bottom of the pot and cook for 6-8 hours.)

Filed Under: beans, chicken, crockpot, favorites, good as leftovers, healthy, rice, weeknight meal

Sandwich week! (tomato soup and grilled cheese)

11/27/2007 By

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Usually I’m pretty careful about planning our weekly dinners with a fair amount of diversity. This week, however, it worked out that we’re having sandwiches three nights. Yay! I love sandwiches!

Sandwich week starts out with a classic, and one of my absolute favorite, meals–tomato soup and grilled cheese. When I was a kid, I loved Campbell’s and Kraft singles. These days, I get just a bit fancier.

The soup is homemade from a Cooks Illustrated recipe. I make the recipe with just a few changes–I leave out the cream at the end because while it certainly doesn’t make the soup worse, it doesn’t make it better either, so I figure I might as well save myself the unhealthiness. I reduce the butter by one tablespoon for the same reason.

The sandwiches are simplicity itself–just slice a roll in half, pile on whatever cheese you like, and roast at 400 degrees until the cheese melts (something like 10 minutes).

I make this meal probably once a month. It’s definitely comfort food for me and Dave. One final touch–we always add just a few cooked macaroni noodles to the soup. I’ve done this since I was a kid, and now tomato soup just seems like it’s missing something when they’re not there.

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(Photo updated 3/28/08 )

Cream of Tomato Soup (from Cooks Illustrated)

Serves 6

2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes packed in juice, drained, juice reserved
1½ tablespoons brown sugar, preferably dark
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Pinch ground allspice
1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1¾ cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons brandy

1. Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place a strainer in a bowl and remove the seeds and juice of each tomato over the strainer. Place tomatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet. Rub with the brown sugar. Bake until the tomatoes are dry and just starting to brown, about 30 minutes. Let the tomatoes cool slightly, then peel them off the foil.

2. While the tomatoes roast, heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until foaming. Add the shallots, tomato paste, and allspice. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are softened, 7 to 10 minutes. Add the flour, stirring constantly, until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. Stirring constantly, gradually add the chicken broth; stir in the reserved tomato juice and the roasted tomatoes. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then cover, reduce to heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes to blend the flavors.

3. Strain the mixture into a medium bowl. Transfer the tomatoes and solids in the strainer to a blender; add enough liquid for the blender to work, then puree until desired consistency. Stir the pureed mixture and remaining strained liquid together. Stir in the brandy and serve.

Filed Under: favorites, good as leftovers, sandwiches, soup, vegetarian
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