Vegetarian Fare

B has decided to cut out the red meat and chicken for a bit so this has given me the perfect opportunity to experiment with some vegetables.  Plus people at work keep bringing tons of veggies in for me to have.

Jumbo green peppers were on sale at Harris Teeter last week so I decided to attempt some stuffed peppers.  I have only ever made stuffed peppers with ground beef in them so I decided to try something different.  I have been using Pinterest a lot lately and used it as an inspiration for my peppers.  I went for a Mexican theme and they ended up pretty good.

Mexican Style Stuffed Peppers
3 jumbo green peppers (or 4 regular)
1 cup instant brown rice
1 can tomatoes with green chillies
1 can black beans
1 envelope of taco seasoning
pepper jack cheese
salsa-optional

Preheat oven to 400.  Cook rice per directions.  Cut peppers in half and seed them and then microwave them for about 5 minutes.  Then in a sauce pan add rice, tomatoes, black beans and taco seasoning and cook until heated.  Put peppers cut side up in a baking pan and stuff each pepper with rice mixture.  Top each pepper with a slice of pepper jack cheese.  Then cover the whole pan with foil and cook for 15 minutes.  Take the foil off and cook for 5 more minutes.

These came out pretty good.  I would have liked my peppers to be a little softer (maybe microwave them more) but B really enjoyed them.  The next day I microwaved one of the leftover peppers with some salsa and extra cheese.  It was really good.

Yesterday Harris Teeter had lemon artichoke pesto on sale so I decided to make some pasta salad out of that.

Lemon Artichoke Pasta Salad with Veggies

1/2 box of shell pasta

1 medium zucchini

1 medium yellow squash

sun dried tomatoes

Parmesan cheese

lemon artichoke pesto

Cook pasta.  Slice and seed the zucchini and squash and then blanch them for a couple minutes.  Mix pasta, squashes, chopped sun dried tomatoes, some fresh Parmesan cheese and some of the pesto.  I also added in garlic salt, pepper and some red pepper flakes.  My vegetarian sister approved this recipe.

Do you use Pinterest?

What is your favorite vegetarian dish?

Potato-less Salad...

The other night I found myself with an abundance of cauliflower.  I was going to make this broccoli/cauliflower salad but the broccolli appeared to be pretty old so I tossed it.  So I was left with cauliflower.  I decided to 'google' it up and find something I could make with cauliflower and the stuff I already had in my house.  I really wanted to make this roasted cauliflower soup but I didn't have half of those ingredients.  Then I found this recipe.  To be honest with you, I thought it sounded kind of gross but it was pretty much the only thing I had most of the ingredients to make.  So I went for it.

It's basically a potato salad but instead of using potatoes, you use cauliflower.  I had to make a few changes and substitution (took out the hard-boiled eggs, cut the mayo down, etc) and I know many of you are going to think this is really gross but I actually ended up liking it.  I would definitely use it as a potato salad subsitution at a picnic or what not.

Cauliflower Salad (adapted from here )
1 head of cauliflower (rinsed and cut in to bite sized peices)
handful of frozen peas
1/2 red onion chopped
2 dill pickle spears chopped
1/2 cup of mayo
1/4 cup mustard (any kind but I used honey mustard because I like it a little sweet)
salt and pepper

1-Boil the cauliflower for 10 minutes until it's tender
2-Mix the mustard, mayo and salt and pepper together
3-Add everything else and mix

So, this wasn't bad for a kitchen experiement (again, I know some of you will think this sounds disgusting).  And I didn't have to waste my cauliflower. 

Have you ever made something weird just to use up ingredients you had in the pantry?

Vegan Quinoa Salad

L-Fab decided that I should make some sort of salad with chickpeas in it.  So I went a head and decided to make a vegan recipe this week.  I went with my old standby vegetarian grain, quinoa.  This is similar to a salad I made before but I went ahead and took out the cheese and added some other healthy stuff.

Vegan Quinoa Salad-
1 cup quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth or water
2 roasted red peppers (I used the jarred kind)
cherry tomatoes (a handful)
1 medium sized cucumber
1 can chickpeas (or less, probably less)
1/2 of a medium sized red onion
4 teaspoon olive oil
4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 of a lemon
4 teaspoons honey mustard (I used Maille, I love that stuff)
2 teaspoons minced garlic

1-Cook the quinoa according to directions in the broth or water.  (My quinoa said to use 2 parts liquid to 1 part quinoa and to put them both in the pan at the same time and bring up to a boil.  Then turn down to a simmer, cover, and wait for the liquid to evaporate which was about 15 minutes)
2-Chop up all the veggies (ie-quarter or halve the tomatoes, chop the cucumber, red pepper and onion into small pieces) while you are waiting for the quinoa to cook.
3-Mix the olive oil, vinegar, juice from the lemon, honey mustard and garlic to make a dressing.
4-Then mix your quinoa, veggies, chick peas, and dressing together.

I chilled mine for about an hour before serving.  The only change I would make would be less chick peas.  Apparently I do not like chick peas that much.  I mean some are ok but a whole can was too much for me.  As far as the dressing goes, I just mixed the ingredients until I liked how it tastes.  If you don't like it sweet you can use regular mustard or change the ingredients based on your taste preferences.

OK, so this has to be healthy, right?
Do you ever make vegan dishes?
Does cheese really make everything better or is some stuff ok without it?

OMG and who is super excited for the LIVE 30 Rock episode tonight and the return of Jan on The Office?  I am!

MuckLuck-Another Dish Made with Vegetables (and some Meat too)

Apparently it's Vegetable Week here at Making Stuff is Fun.....  While perusing an issue of Southern Living (thanks mom) I found this recipe for Maque Choux.  According to wikipedia that is pronounced Mock Shoe or MuckLuck as B calls it.  Either way.  I thought it would be great to make since Farmer Gene gave me a bunch of okra and I have never really cooked fresh okra before.

I made a few changes to the recipe so here is my version.

Maque Choux with Shrimp (aka Muckluck)
2 links of Spicy Andouille Sausage (about 1/3 lb)-diced
1/2 medium sized onion-chopped

2 cloves garlic-minced
a little green bell pepper (it was all I had)-chopped
1 cup fresh tomatoes-seeded and diced
1 cup cut fresh okra-sliced in to small pieces
2 cups frozen corn
1/2 pound shrimp peeled and deveined (I always buy easy peel)
cumin
chili powder
lime juice
salt and pepper

1-Brown the sausage a little and then add the onion, garlic and pepper and saute until the veggies are tender
2-Add in the rest of the vegetables and cook until everything is hot (I think okra might take the longest) about 10-15 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.
3-While the veggies are cooking put cumin, chili powder and lime juice on shrimp and saute in a pan until they are cooked
4-Top the vegetable mixture with a few shrimp and enjoy!

I thought this was a really good dish especially with fresh vegetables in the summer.  Next time I'll make it with fresh corn too!  OK I think I'm veged out for a bit. 

Happy Thursday!  It's almost the weekend.  We can do this.

Dinner Last Night-Chicken Sausage Cajun Tortellini

OK I have decided to do a new series of blogs entitled Dinner Last Night where I talk about easy dinners I put together with things I normally have around the house.  Here's the first one.

I had really been wanting some pasta for a few days.  I had a bag of frozen tortellini in the freezer as well as a few other things I normally have, frozen peppers, canned tomatoes, chicken broth.  So I decided to make a pasta dish out of this.  I went to the store and bought some chicken sausage and invented this Cajun Sausage and Pepper Tortellini.  I served it with a Cesar Salad (aka lettuce, croutons and cesar salad dressing).

Cajun Chicken Sausage and Pepper Tortellini (3-4 servings)

2 Chicken Sausages-Sweet Pepper Flavored

Package Frozen Tortellini

1 cup Frozen Pepper Blend (red, yellow, green)

1/2 small white onion

Cajun Seasoning

Garlic Salt

Red Pepper Flakes

1/2 Can Petite Diced Tomatoes

1/2 cup chicken broth

I cooked all the veggies (except the tomatoes) together with some garlic salt and cajun seasoning.  Then I added in the Sausage.  These are precooked so they don't take too long to heat up.  I added in the tomatoes and simmered that for a bit.  Then I added in some chicken broth in small increments to make it more saucy and less just chunky.  I threw in some red pepper flakes for good measure.  While you are making the sauce cook the tortellini or whatever pasat you want or have.  Once the sauce was thickened I mixed it all together with the Tortellini.  And there you have it, a pretty easy week night meal.

What's you favorite pasta recipe?

Danger! Garlic Overload.

So my husband goes out of town a few times a month for work and when he goes out I like to experiment with food. So the other night I decided to try to make some garlic salad dressing because I had some that was really good at a party I went to. I think I may have slightly overdone it with the garlic but it was still pretty good. Tangy. Maybe a little too tangy. But still. Tangy. So if you are brave and if you are home alone you might want to try this. You will probably smell like garlic for hours though so seriously wait until your husband, boyfriend, roommate or special friend goes out of town. If you live alone, you are good to go. Garlic is good for you, right?

Super Garlicky Salad Dressing (makes about 4 servings)

1 clove garlic

1 squirt mustard

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

a little salt

Wisk it all together and toss with your favorite Salad ingredients.

I also decided that for some reason radishes would be amazing in a salad. They were ok. I think I like them better when they are sliced super thin. The mushrooms and peas were good on the salad though. Frozen peas are my friend. I like to add them into all sorts of stuff. Regular Salad, Pasta Salad, Curry Dishes, Pastas, etc.

So do you like to get crazy when your roommate/boyfriend/husband is out of town?

What do you do?

How do you feel about garlic? Radishes?

Valentine's Day Dinner Part 2....Where's the Beef? and of course Dessert

When I initially told my husband that I was going to attempt a gourmet Valentine's Dinner I asked him for some suggestions. He basically just responded by saying, "Steak." I guess that's what all the fellows like. But there are lots of steak options out there so my search began. My Dad (who is also a fellow) claims that Costco has the best NY strips steaks out there. So I requested that he pick up some for me on his next trip (as I do not have a Costco membership). So he did. And these steaks were huge. And quite nice looking. I have learned that my husband likes a pretty simple steak. Something where the flavor of the steak shines through. Not too much marinating or sauces or what not. So I decided to grill them and then make a compound butter to top them with. I found this awesome butter recipe by Emeril.

How I Grilled My Gigantor Valentine's Steaks
1-I sat the steaks out to get to room temperature. The cooking shows always say to do that.
2-I put a bunch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper and a little bit of olive oil on each side and pressed the salt and pepper into the meat.

3-I preheated my grill pan to the highest heat.
4-Then I grilled them. For about 9 minutes. I seared both sides for a few seconds and then kept cooking it on one side at high heat for about 4 minutes. Then I flipped it and lowered the heat to about medium for the rest of the time. They actually turned out pretty well. I usually over or under cook steaks but these were medium to medium rare. Pink in the middle. Crispy on the outside. (They may look a little black but I think that's just the crust b/c they tasted good and not burned) Add some compound butter to the top and you are good to go.

These were the best steaks I have ever made. Normally I leave steak grilling to someone else. But I really pulled through this time.

I always like to have something green on my plate to make it look pretty so I stole 8 asparaguses (probably not how you pluralize that) from my mom and roasted them with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And then my mom told me that a lovely roasted tomato always makes a nice looking plate. So I stole two of those and put some Italian Seasoning and Parmesan cheese on them and roasted them for like 10 minutes. All in all a lovely looking plate.

Now on to Dessert......

My husband is not super interested in chocolate. I mean he likes it and all but it's not his fave. But you know what is one of his favorite foods? Bread. All kinds. Any kinds. So then all the sudden it hit me. I have to make him BREAD PUDDING for dessert. It's perfect. It's not chocolate and it's made of his favorite food and it's a dessert. I found a million recipes and wanted to do something crazy and complex with a nice sauce but instead I went for the easiest, yet highest rated one I could find on All Recipes.com. I added a mix of dried berries instead of just raisons but I followed the rest of the recipe. My Husband ate 4 of the six servings. So I guess he liked that too. So, Overall.....Worth it.

And seriously, I'm still pretty tired from making all this. Last night for dinner we had frozen pizza.

Email From My Mom aka How to Roast Brussels Sprouts and a Bonus Recipe (family secret)....

Email exchange between my mom and I this week....

me-
please send me detailed instructions on how to make the brussels sprouts your made at christmas.thanx.

mom-
Look for fresh-looking b.s. Cut off the ends and pull off any yucky looking leaves so that you are left with a gorgeous, green sprout. Wash that off, then cut the sprouts in half. Season with a fine-quality olive oil, salt and pepper. I like to use sea salt or Kosher (the same) and cracked pepper. I especially like the Monini Fruttato O.O., but it is expensive-only buy when on sale. This week, the Colavita Fruttato(which I have never before seen in Fruttato) is an extraordinary buy at HT. $6 off the regular price. Keeping my fingers crossed that it is as good as Monini. Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 min.-whenever you think they are browning a bit and done. I also add a little Balsamic or lemon juice or both during the cooking process. These are tasty morsels and packed with nutrional goodness. Love,Mom

mom again-
P.S. that little browning brings out the nutty flavor and goodness of the sprout.

OK, so lets roast some brussels sprouts. Oh and what's up with them being called BrusselS sprouts? I did not know about that S on the end until a couple of months ago. Too many s's if you ask me.

Fun Facts about BrusselS Sprouts stolen from wikipedia-Brussels sprouts belong to the same family that includes cabbage, collard greens, broccoli, kale, and kohlrabi: they are cruciferous. They contain good amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fibre. Moreover, they are believed to protect against colon cancer, due to their containing sinigrin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_sprout

So I essentially just followed her instructions above........

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Bag of fresh Brussels Sprouts from Harris Teeter
Sea Salt
Pepper (I wanted the kind you grind but we were out of it so I just used regular pepper)
Olive Oil (my good kind from Italy, thanks Mandy!-she hates being called that by the way)
Balsamic Vinegar

So I pretty much did what she said. I cut the ends off and halved all the brussels sprouts, then washed them. Then I lined a pizza pan (I'm not sure why I used that) with foil and put the sprouts, 1 tablespoon oil, a handful of salt and some pepper on it and mixed it around with my hands. Then I baked them for 35 minutes at 400 degrees. At the halfway point I drizzled some Balsamic Vinegar over them.

The Brussels sprouts browned nicely and tasted good. I think they might not even have needed balsamic. But I like it. Some of the leaves fell off and got crispy. Those were actually quite tasty. So overall I enjoyed these and my husband gave them a "mmmmmmmm Brussels sprouts" as soon as he was finished downing them.

And now for a bonus recipe. I made baby hamburgers to go with the sprouts. When I was little and my dad would go out of town, I would always request baby hamburgers from my mom. For some reason I guess he did not find them appealling. For years I thought they were a complex hamburger recipe served in a delicate tomato sauce. Then one day when I was older I asked for the recipe. Only 2 ingredients. Hamburger meat and a can of tomato soup. Make mini hamburger patties. Then cook them in a skillet over the stove and once they are cooked, add a can of tomato soup. Simmer for a few minutes and you're done. Delish and a great compliment to roasted brussels sprouts.