Summer's Over Tostadas

Had to - just had to come up with a new recipe for the blog. (And oh, by the way - you're getting four with this post tonight!!) It's been weeks since I last gave you a mindful dose of cookin'. I was reading the article about Jennifer Aniston's cooks who made this super-yummy looking tostada and salad meal. I was really inspired to use kale in my tostadas, as I am always looking for new ways to get my kids to eat greens. What follows is my rendition, which is why I can name it. Please let me know if you make it, and tell me what you think.

By the way - many weeks ago, I asked for your recipes to put into a menu plan. I haven't forgotten, still have what you sent, and welcome more additions. This project asks for more time than I was able to give it this summer to complete it, but I'm almost done with a 2-week trial for your perusal. Feel free to send me more ideas!

Summer's Over Tostadas

Preheat over to 400 degrees F. Brush olive oil over one side of 18 corn tortillas. Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes on a cookie sheet (I had to do mine in batches) or until browned. You may want to turn them over, but you will not need to brush more oil on. Remove from over and let sit.

Topping:

2 cans black beans

3 scallions, minced

2 T feta cheese (optional)

1/2 C chopped greens (I used swiss chard because that is what I had on hand. You could use chard, kale, bok choy, or other leafy green)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 C monterey jack cheese, shredded

Put all ingredients except monterey jack cheese in a large bowl to mix. Spread 2T bean mix over each baked tortilla. Put back in over and bake until cheese melts and bean mixture is hot.

Top with salsa verde, guacamole, sour cream. Serve with Enchanted Salad.

Salsa Verde

12 tomatillos, husked and chopped

4 scallions, minced

1 large handful cilantro, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3T Apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

1 jalapeno pepper, minced (optional)

To make this salsa the easy way, put everything in the food processor and pulse until somewhat chopped and uniform in texture to your taste. Refrigerate after using. Makes about 1 cup. Use to top tostadas.

Enchanted Salad

3 Cups various salad greens, torn into bite-sized pieces (I used Organic microgreens)

1 red pepper, chopped

1 avocado, cut into small slices

1 blood orange, peeled, cut into large chunks

Mix all ingredients, putting avocado and orange pieces on top (they look pretty there!).

Dress with Cumin Dressing, below

Cumin dressing

1/4 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 C Apple Cider Vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

1 T cumin

Mix all ingredients and pour over salad. So good. So, so good. Mmmmmm.

Ambrosia Delight

(in honor of my mother)

Fill a large drinking glass (16oz) with ice. Pour in 1/2 cup both pineapple and guava juice. Fill the glass with Seltzer (or Sprite) and mix with a spoon.

* Double check that the juice you use for this drink is only juice - no sugar, additives, etc. Sometimes the guava nectar is only fruit and gives the drink a nice, smooth texture. Ah yes, 'Ambrosia', my mother would say.

Food Bill Reducing Tips Thursday

Cook for two. Not for two people (though that's just fine), but for two meals. This post is about stretching your food dollar farther by planning meals in order to make more out of simple ingredients. Take my food shopping this week, for example. I bought 2 chicken breasts, and a pound of salmon (my husband only eats fish, not chicken. I also bought brown rice, bell peppers, a package of beans (on sale - yay!) onions and potatoes.

On Monday, I cooked both the chicken breasts. I took one and shredded it for enchiladas, making one pan chicken and one pan cheese for the hubby. With the other chicken breast, I cubed it and put it in the fridge to be used on Wednesday. Tuesday, I cooked the salmon steaks - 1/2 to be used broiled for dinner, with roasted potatoes and salad, and the other half to be used in a lunch salad for my husband (2 lunches worth). On Wednesday, I put the cubed cooked chicken in a stir-fry with rice, bell peppers and a few other veggies hanging around - carrots, broccoli and celery. I kept some of the stir-fry aside without chicken for the hubby. I again had enough left over for a couple of lunches. For tonight (Thursday), I am using the rest of the potatoes, bell peppers and beans for a mexican dish called Chilaquiles (looove this dish), which also uses tortillas (I cheat and use tortilla chips), cheese, milk and sour cream. I will post the recipe soon. I don't know if I will have any leftovers as my kids devour this every time I make it.

If we plan for several meals at once, we can stretch the grocery dollar considerably. When I was in Vietnam recently, I learned that dishes with meat/fish do not have to focus entirely on the meat. You can have just as wonderful a meal with the bulk of the dish as vegetables and carbs, with meat (if you eat it) as just a small part. This definitely makes the meat budget stretch, and forces you to come up with new ways to try other dishes.

What have you been doing to reduce your grocery bill lately? Share your tips in the comments section.

Cookin' Out!

I have been away in California for my niece's graduation.  What a wonderful time I had.  It is so good to reconnect with family, especially over such a great celebration.

We had a good ol' fashioned Bar-B-Que while I was there this past week, with my nephew making some pretty awesome hamburgers.  We also had the discussion of whether to call it a BBQ or cookout.  In the east, we call it a cookout, and I guess I became accustomed to the word as it seemed natural to me, but my family got a kick out of it - "Cookout?", they asked.  Ah well, semantics.

Chris' Amazing Hamburgers

My nephew, Chris, begins making the hamburgers by mixing the meat up with a few simple spices - salt and pepper, or whatever you have on hand.  He takes a patty-sized amount of the meat and rolls it into a ball, depresses the center and adds a large cube of cheese.  After closing the ball, he pats it into a patty and cooks it on the grill.  Serve with your favorite toppings, relishes, etc.

To that, we added grilled eggplant that my friend, Fiona and her son, Campbell, recently taught me to make.

End of the School Year Eggplant

Slice one eggplant about 1/2" thin, skin on.  Layer the pieces in a colander, sprinkle liberally with salt and let sit for 1/2 hour (with something underneath to catch the water).  Rinse well and pat dry.

Heat grill to medium/medium high.

Mix 1 Tbs chopped garlic with 1/2 C olive oil.  Before placing the eggplant pieces on the grill, brush each piece with the garlic/olive oil mixture.  Grill on one side until grill marks form and eggplant is beginning to be soft.  You may need to brush with more olive oil to keep the eggplant soft.  Turn the eggplant and brush with the oil.  Continue to grill until soft.

Sprinkle all pieces with salt or seasoned salt once grilled.

Whatever you call it, cooking outdoors brings an altogether smoky and adventurous flavor to food.  I am looking forward to sharing more grilling stories and recipes with you this summer.  Having just picked up the Cook's Illustrated guide to grilling, I expect to have many more grilling experiences coming up.  Stay tuned!

Jeweled Pasta

Another night I didn't feel like cooking.  I've been eating more 'raw', fresh food lately, and honestly, I've been cleansing... um... just a bit much, so eating wasn't top on my to do list tonight.  However, I do have a family, and they do need to eat, so off to the kitchen to create a new dish to please everyone.

What I ended up with was something I call Jeweled Pasta.  I have been drinking as much kale and chard as my little taste buds will allow (in the form of green drinks), so I thought tonight I would do a bit of sauteing instead.  What came about was truly inspiration!

Jeweled Pasta

1 package pasta, any shape (I used gluten-free rotini)

1 bunch organic kale, cut in bite-sized pieces

4 leaves chard, cut in bite-sized pieces

1/2 tomato, sliced in 1" pieces

10 garlic cloves, sliced

olive oil

salt and fresh pepper to taste

This one's pretty easy:

Cook pasta according to package directions and drain.

Saute the garlic in the olive oil over medium to low heat.  The higher the heat, the more the chance of scorching the garlic, making it bitter.  Once the garlic turns lightly translucent, add the greens, stirring often.  As the greens begin to turn bright green, add the tomato, cover and take off the heat.  You do not want to overcook the greens - let them stay bright green.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and add more olive oil if necessary.  Pour greens over pasta and serve with freshly shaved parmesan cheese, if you like.  Tasty!

I think we don't eat enough greens, typically, in our very SAD diet.  It's a shame, since greens hold the highest count of calcium in the plant world.  You also get plenty of vitamin K which is tough to get elsewhere.  Folic acid - a brain fuel chemical is available in greens as well.  And they're just beautiful as they grow, don't you think?  All that beauty AND brains too!  

Do you have a favorite way to fix them?  Please share it here for everyone to learn how to add these highly nutritious foods into our diets.

Mmmm. What shall we call it?

I love it when I make something up and it tastes good too!  I was at a loss tonight when looking through the cupboards for what to cook.  I had a package of gluten-free bread mix, some beans, chicken chili, coconut milk, and many greens leftover from Saturday when I cooked a Vietnamese dinner.  I also found 2 pieces of organic pepperoni, which had been a full package until my husband and oldest son attacked it.  I found cheese, olives and mushrooms, and I always have onions.  So I made a rolled up pizza-like thing that tasted amazing.  What shall we call it?  My guys said 'delicious'.

MindfulMama's Delicious

1 package gluten free bread mix, or any other bread mix, or 1 recipe for bread/pizza, prepared as usual.

2 C shredded cheese - mozzarella, monterey jack or other mild cheese

2 C assorted ingredients - I used sauteed onions and mushrooms, pepperoni and sliced black olives

Olive oil

Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Whichever bread recipe or product you use, make it according to individual directions, then spread it out on a cookie sheet which has been covered with parchment paper.  Bake in 375 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Take the dough out of the oven, spread the entire top with toppings - cheese last.  Using the parchment paper to assist, begin to roll the dough up, encasing the toppings, beginning with the short end.  I was only able to make one full fold.  If you have less toppings or more dough, you could probably go a bit further than one turn.  Make sure you do not fold the parchment paper inside!  You can either keep the paper on the pan to continue cooking, or pull it out.  Keeping it on the pan will ease cleanup after, though.  So after folding the filled dough, put the opening side down on the pan and cover the top with olive oil and parmesan cheese.  Pop it back in the oven for around 10 minutes - or until browned.

Let sit out of the oven for about 5 minutes, then slice and serve.  Mmmmmm delicious.

Enchilada Suprema...Yummm!

My niece is going to be a fabulous cook. She and I made enchiladas recently, and she proved to have just the right amount of instincts to make an incredible meal. She came in to help me, and though I doubt she thought she would, ended up completing the meal with me. It’s not that the typical enchilada dish is tricky, or demands extreme focus. It’s more that the meal was made with love and curiosity – emotions I feel get passed on in the food we make, then eat. This is why we need to step away from dinner preparation when we are overtired and angry. Who wants to eat angry food?? (If you haven’t yet, check out the film ‘Like Water for Chocolate’). 

The enchiladas were filled with broccoli, spinach, onions and cheese. It seems, you can’t go wrong with what savory ingredients you put inside. With the right seasonings, just about anything would be great. Try these and let me know what you think – remember several weeks ago, I wrote about imitating restaurant food at home? Well, consider this recipe the ‘north of the border’ equivalent of a Mexican classic. And the cost? Just mere pennies on the dollar for restaurant-quality food, with no hidden ingredients.

Enchilada Suprema

12 corn tortillas
Salsa for brushing
Oil or butter for pan

Broccoli, steamed and chopped
1 bag washed Spinach, or 1 fresh bunch washed well
1 Cup Onion, chopped
2 Cups Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded
2 Cups Enchilada Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste



Heat small frying pan over low heat. Brush one tortilla with salsa, then heat in pan. Do not leave too long as it will begin to fall apart – just leave long enough to become pliable. Follow this direction for all 12 tortillas. Separately, sauté the onion in olive oil until translucent. Add spinach and continue sautéing until spinach is limp. Set aside. Mix spinach and onion mixture with broccoli. Season to taste with Salt and Pepper.

To Fill: Spread ½ Cup Enchilada Sauce in bottom of casserole dish. Lay out one warmed tortilla on your work surface. Spread ¼ Cup vegetable mixture down the center of the tortilla. Sprinkle a small handful of shredded cheese on top of the vegetables. Roll the tortilla up, from one end to the other, and place, seam down in a casserole dish. Continue with the remaining tortillas and filling. When complete, pour the remaining Enchilada Sauce over the rolled tortillas. Sprinkle the remaining Cheese on top of the Sauce.

Cover with foil, and bake at 350 degrees F until warmed through, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven when bubbly and let sit for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with additional Enchilada Sauce, and Sour Cream, if desired.

Try other fillings:

Smoked mozzarella with black beans and apple
Butternut squash, roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and cinnamon
Potato, red bean and queso fresco (Mexican cheese)
Ricotta, pesto and mozzarella
Sweet potato, black bean and onion
Chicken, parsley, arugula and monterey jack
Pulled pork, onion and apple

With any of these fillings, you may have to adjust your Sauce choice accordingly. You may not want the tomato-y sauce for anything with apple, for example, but you may choose to make a white sauce or butter sauce instead. What other fillings can you come up with??

East Asian Trout

Last night, I made something I had never made before.  I was making breaded pork for myself and my boys, but my husband, the almost completely vegetarian, was going to have fish.  I think baking it with lemon and dill (the way he does it) can get boring (though I suppose I should not judge as I don't eat it and he likes it this way), so I decided to make something new.  As I often do when improvising in the kitchen, I looked around at what I had in the pantry.  I decided that lemons and limes with onions would do.  Then I thought it would be interesting to throw in some coconut cream on top.  It was really a guess, as I can't stand the taste of fish.  But it sounded good.  I leave for Vietnam in a few days, and I think some part of me must be thinking about the cuisine I will find when I get there.  But when all was said and done, my husband devoured it.  So here is the recipe for you to enjoy:

http://sportfishing.mynovascotia.net/fishpics/trout.gif

East Asian Trout

1 lb boneless trout, rinsed and patted dry

Olive Oil

1 lemon, sliced

1 lime, sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced

1/2 can coconut cream (coconut milk is fine)

Salt to taste

Cut the trout to fit your baking pan.  Drizzle olive oil all over the fish.  Layer lemon, lime and onion slices over the fish.  Pour the coconut cream over everything and cover with foil or lid.  Place in 400 degree oven until fish flakes easily.  Season with salt to taste.

And the Winner is...CHILI!

So our dear friends came for dinner, and as you may recall from yesterday's post, I was planning on preparing pizza and fejoada.   However, we ate the pizza last night, so I had to come up with a new plan.  I was so intent on sticking to my challenge of not going to the market, but using what we had in the cupboard, that I had to do some quick thinking.  I found 3 lbs of dry beans, a zucchini, onions, potatoes, 3 tomatoes and garlic.  Sounds like chili to me!!  And the best part of it is that I was able to make more than enough for 9 people on less than $5!  With the chili, we had salad (made by our friends), all sorts of accompaniments for the chili and homemade tortillas.  I have recently discovered the wonders of masa flour.  With it, you can make all sorts of delicious foods: tamales, tortillas, and pupusas just to name a few.  I was able to figure out the balance between water, salt and flour just by using my hands - no measuring!- and had a blast mixing, forming and cooking tortillas.  I had always wanted one of those cool tortilla presses to make my corn tortillas evenly flat and round.  I fooled myself to thinking that I couldn't make tortillas, even though I loved them so much at my favorite Mexican restaurant, because I needed a tortilla press.  I have to have one.  Anyone who loves tortillas as much as me needs to have a press.  Anyone.  But I never got one.  I am the lonely cook without a press.  No homemade tortillas for me.  I could never really justify the cost.

But I figured it out tonight!  I improvised a tortilla press out of 2 plates to make a fine and dandy contraption, and wow, it was fantastic!  Pictures will come soon.  For now, we have tortillas and chili to last us through the snow storm tomorrow, after having a truly lovely evening with our friends. Yippee!

As a side note, I didn't want to go by the market, but I did.  At the last minute, I got nervous about not having enough milk or sour cream for the dinner (and huge snow storm about to hit), and purchased ice cream for dessert (which we didn't even use, but will tomorrow).  I was so good - kept it under $20, bringing my weekly total of groceries to $180 + $45 for Boston Organics = $225. Not bad since I'm bringing it down from around $300/400 (and probably more).

Friends Are Coming for Dinner...A Challenge!

Our wonderful friends are coming to dinner tomorrow night. I am so excited as we are also expecting several inches of snow as well, so it surely will be a magical night. I do have a dilemma, though: Being that I did not plan to have guests (additional 5 people) back when I did the grocery shopping this week, I did not purchase extra supplies for the big dinner. So I have decided that even though I am not completely prepared, I will challenge myself to come up with a tasty and fun meal for 9 people without grocery shopping.

“Why”, you may ask, “aren’t you going to the store to buy good food for these wonderful friends for dinner?” Well, all I can say is that in the recent past, I have been known to grocery shop, with or without a list, with every intention to ‘just get a few things’ for situations just like this and end up spending $80. Easily. And I could go back and do it again the next day. Whenever I had the whim of something tickling my gastronomical fancy, I would hop to the store and purchase much more than I ever needed. My pattern has cost me an exorbitant amount of money over the years, more than I ever budgeted for. It was the ‘sneaky’ money that crept away from my pocket without much thought. And at the end of the week, it accounted for much wasted, slimy foodstuffs.

So what if I play a little game and assume I have everything I need in the pantry to make a wonderful dinner for 9? My husband and I did this on Christmas when we discovered that we needed to bring a dish to the family meal. Instead of going to the store on Christmas Eve, battling the crowds and getting more frustrated, we chose to root around and create a dish with what we had on hand. We ended up with beautiful stuffed peppers, filled with chipotle sauced beans and rice. We had just received several red, green and yellow peppers from our organic delivery service, Boston Organics, and I could prepare the entire dish completely without having to shop at all. Lovely.

What will I make? Looks like mushroom and cheese pizza for the kids, and black bean fejoida with brown rice for the adults. Fejoida is a Brazilian dish, typically full of sausage and other meats. The one I make has black beans simmered for hours in sage and other great spices. Being that my husband is a vegetarian, I leave the meat out. It comes to the table accompanied by mandarin oranges (which I do not have, but I do have blood oranges), onions (which I have a zillion of) and cheese (good there). Since I have so many onions, another thought is to make onion soup for the adults. I have a box of gluten free cake mix (yuck, a box – but actually I find the boxed gluten free mixes to be a bit better than what I could do from scratch), and I think I have ice cream. I have popcorn for a snack/appetizer which I can pop and mix with curry powder and butter for a treat.

What to Eat When You Want to Go Out

Old habits really do die hard.

I came home late tonight after a really full day, hoping I could think of something quick for dinner. No, actually, I was hoping my husband would suggest we 'go out' for dinner. This is typically easier said than done as we deal with food allergies in my house, so finding safe places to eat is a bit tricky. More than tricky. Most often, we go out thinking we can find something good to eat that will meet our allergic needs, and come home with a bellyache. But we keep trying, somehow thinking that the next chef will truly understand what it means to be gluten intolerant.

Oh how I longed for a ride in the car to our closest Mexican restaurant, just to enjoy some enchiladas and chips and salsa. But no, my husband had not suggested it, and I really need to stick to my pledge. So I became determined to work out what this all means.

When I was young, I lived for eating out. I used to plead with my mother, and at other times, my grandmother to go out 'just tonight. PLEEEEZE?' And I'm not too proud to say I told my grandmother that 'It's Tuesday. We always go to Taco Bell on Tuesday'. This, of course, was not true. But somehow the quest for eating out was one for celebration. And as I got older, eating out became reward, social life and status all in one. But the point of this post is not about eating out so much as it's about what to do when you usually go out to eat when tired and starving, but have made a pledge to eat in instead.

So how did we move beyond my urges to feed my eating out frenzy? My DH helped me figure out what we had in the fridge and made a spectacular dinner! It was so tasty - 

Potato-Cheese Quesadillas

corn tortillas

cheddar cheese, shredded

sauteed potatoes and onions in olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Broil until cheese is melted and all is heated through, top with salsa, sour cream and hot peppers.

Oh my. Much better than driving through icy roads to spend $60 minimum on dinner at the Mexican restaurant.