Monday, June 21, 2010

Corn, Black Bean and Edamame Salad

Ingredients for Salad
1 can of black beans, rinsed
8 oz frozen, shelled edamame
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels(I like Giant brand, super sweet white corn)
1/2 cup of raw almonds, chopped or sliced
1/2 orange sweet bell pepper, chopped finely
2 scallions, sliced
1 tsp salt

Ingredients for Dressing
2 oz Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried shallots or one chopped fresh shallot
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp Mural of Flavor spice from Penzeys Spices (These spices can be mail ordered or bought from the Penzeys Spices stores.)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3-4 oz Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions:

Add enough water to a saucepan to cover edamame and toss in a tsp of salt. Heat until the water is boiling. Add edamame and lower heat. Boil for 5-7 minutes, according to package directions. Drain when done and allow to cool.
Meanwhile, to a large bowl add all of the other salad ingredients and mix well. Add edamame to salad and mix in.

In a small bowll, add all of the ingredients except the oil. Whisk these ingredients well, and then slowly whisk in the oil. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well. Serve immediately or chill and serve cold later.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Whole Wheat Couscous Salad

Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked whole wheat couscous
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
3 small, seedless cucumbers, peeled and chopped
1 and 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese

Dressing Ingredients:
4 oz cider vinegar
2 oz olive oil
2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tblsp orange juice

Directions:
Put uncooked couscous in large a bowl. Heat chicken broth to boiling and then pour broth over couscous. Cover the bowl of couscous with a plate and let sit for 5 minutes. Then, use a fork to fluff couscous.
Meanwhile, chop the vegetables into small pieces. Add the vegetables to the couscous.
Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing, then pour over salad.
Add the feta cheese.

Serve immediately, or chill and serve later.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Brown Rice with Chicken Sausage and Cannelini Beans

Ingredients:
1 chopped leak
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Mozzarella and Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausages (Member's Mark brand from Sam's Club
1 bag Success Brown Rice
1 16 oz can of cannelini beans
1 tblsp olive oil
1 16 oz can chicken broth
4 cups baby spinach leaves

Directions"
Combine one cup of chicken broth with 1 quart of water in a large saucepan, and add an unopened bag of Success Brown Rice. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 8-10 minutes. While the rice is cooking, saute leeks in olive oil in a dutch oven over medium-low heat, about 3 minutes or until soft. Cut sausages into 1/2 inch slices and add to the pan until warm, along with the minced garlic, about 2 minutes. Next, add the cannelini beans to the sausage and leeks and the remainder of the can of chicken broth. Simmer about 2 minutes. Add the baby spinach to the mix, and cover the dutch oven while simmering over low heat, stirring occasionally until the spinach is wilted.
Drain the cooked rice, and pour the rice into the dutch oven, mixing it well into the all the simmering ingredients. Turn off heat, and serve.

This recipe, if divided into 3 servings of 2 and 1/3 cups each, will have 468 calories, or if you divide it into 4 smaller servings of 1.75 cups each, will have 351 calories.

Variation: My husband says that this is good, but a little dry, so if you want a creamy, moister version of this dish, make and add the following sauce to your rice:
1 can cream of mushroom soup, a splash of brandy, a sprinkle of tarragon, about a 1 tsp of grated parmesan cheese, enough water to thin the sauce (about 1/3 cup), and I added a tblsp of my homemade roasted garlic salad dressing to the sauce, which is great on fresh baby arugula as a side dish anyway, and well worth making to have on hand. If there is any interest in the recipe for the dressing, I will add it.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Seasoned Brown Rice with Vegetables

Have you ever checked out the nutrition label on a box of seasoned rice from the grocery store aisle? Here is an example: Rice A Roni Spanish Rice has this in one serving: 260 calories (60 of those from fat) 1030 mg of Sodium (OMG!), and 3g of sugar. There are no whole grains in the box. You can do much better with delicious taste. I dare you to compare.
By the way, I don't really like brown rice, but I like this.

As a side note, the turmeric gives the rice a lovely yellow color, and is said to have anti-inflammatory benefits, for a very low cost compared to most spices (I got .34lb of turmeric in the bulk section of Whole Foods for only $2.29.


Ingredients:
1 large bag of Success Boil-in-Bag Brown Rice or substitute 1.5 cups of Brown Rice.
1 small onion
1 medium red bell pepper
1 small yellow squash
1 tsp salt for the water to cook the rice in.

For Seasoning: Combine
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/8 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp ground turmeric
1/8 tsp Hungarian paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fine ground orange peel ( I used dried)
1 tblsp olive oil

(Hint: I combine all of the spices ahead of time and store in a zip-lock bag in my spice cabinet until I am ready to use it.)

Directions:
First, dice the onion, red pepper, and squash into small pieces. Pour olive oil into large saute pan and saute on medium heat until soft.

Next, while vegetables are cooking,prepare rice according to directions. The Success Rice only takes about 10 minutes after the water comes to a boil. If you use brown rice that has not been parboiled, it will take much longer. I add a tsp of salt to the cooking water for the rice.

While the rice is cooking, combine all the spices. Pour them over the vegetables and mix them well. When the vegetables are soft, turn the heat down to the lowest setting to keep them warm.

When the rice is finished cooking, add it to the vegetables and spices and mix everything together well in the pan.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and serve.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Wheat Berry Salad with Apples, Raisins and Pistachios

This one is inspired by a recent Cooking Light recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked wheat berries (hard winter wheat)
1/2 tsp salt
3 tblsp shelled pistachios, chopped
2 tblsp olive oil
2 tblsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/2 gala apple, chopped into small pieces
1/3 cup feta cheese crumbles

Directions:
Soak wheat berries in water overnight. The next day, pour off water and add fresh water to pot, enough to cover berries plus 2 extra inches above berries. Bring to a boil, then cover pot. Lower heat to simmer berries for 45 minutes.

While berries cook, combine oil, lemon juice, honey, coriander, ginger and salt to make dressing. Measure raisins, feta cheese and chop apple and pistachios.

When berries have finished cooking, drain off water and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Add dressing and other ingredients and toss well.

Eat at room temperature.

Wheat berries can be found in the bulk section of Whole Foods Market, among other places.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Southeast Asian Sauted Shrimp and Asparagus

Ingredients for 3 servings:
Large raw peeled shrimp, tail removed- about 21
1 1/2 tblsp olive oil
1/2 tblsp butter
Asparagus cut into 1 inch pieces, about 1 cup
Sweet red bell pepper, finely chopped, 1/4 cup
1 tsp lemongrass paste
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Directions:
Put oil, butter,lemongrass paste, red pepper flakes, garlic and ginger into a large nonstick skillet and turn heat to medium. Add asparagus and sweet red bell pepper to pan. Saute for 1 minute. Push vegetables to one side of skillet, and place shrimp into pan. Turn the shrimp over after about 2 minutes and saute for another 1-2 minutes on the other side. Mix vegetables and shrimp in the pan and transfer the mix to a bowl. Serve immediately.

This amount will serve as a main dish but will require side dishes to fill out the meal. If this is the only dish served, increase the portions of the shrimp and vegetables.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Lloyd's Favorite Spinach Salad

The quantities of each ingredient are a matter of personal taste and you can just "eyeball it".

Ingredients:
Baby Spinach leaves
Crumbles of Feta Cheese
Walnut halves (a handful, give or take)
Fresh Blueberries
Red, yellow or orange sweet bell peppers, chopped
Chopped tomatoes, any kind, but I used "pineapple" heirloom tomatoes
Red onion, thinly sliced

* Optional; If desired, add pieces of pulled rotisserie chicken
* Note: in the autumn the blueberries can get expensive. You can substitute thinly sliced apple in place of the blueberries and it is just as good.

Lloyd loves this salad tossed with Rasberry-Walnut dressing and I like it with Sesame-ginger dressing. The dressing choice is yours!

This salad can be a main course or a side course.