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Showing posts with the label spinach

TIE Fighter Spinach & Chickpeas with Peanut Sauce

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Pros of this meal: - fast - full of healthy ingredients - tastes like heaven - made from things I have around the house - makes a good lunch OR dinner - no seriously it's delicious Cons of this meal: - i am not eating it RIGHT NOW - okay i am now, carry on ( Originally posted with a lot more hassle and ingredients, but I've since fixed it so it's easier, faster, and more likely to happen around here.  You're welcome).   TIE Fighter Spinach & Chickpeas with Peanut Sauce Ingredients 2/3 - 3/4 cup peanut butter (I eyeball this.  Don't work too hard.) 3 Tbsp honey 2 cloves garlic A few shakes red pepper flakes (and by a few I mean SET THE DISH AFLAME) 1/2 cup water 1 Tbsp lemon OR lime juice (I often don't have lime juice, so) 3 Tbsp soy sauce Some oil for the frying pan 1 lb frozen spinach 15-oz can chickpeas, drained Something to serve the spinach mix over.  I have successfully used: - soba noodles (one bundle for two serv...

Bowl full o' healthy Spicy Chickpea Salad

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In my quest to a) eat healthier and b) replicate the amazing soba salads at  Bon Me , I have stumbled upon  a delightful recipe  for spicy Moroccan-inspired chickpeas.  However, the recipe is buried under too much scrolling through words and pictures I don't need when I'm hungry , and then when I'm trying to follow the recipe, it throws up pop-ups and calls-to-action and that makes me hangry , which nobody needs. So!  Here's my version of their recipe, ad-free and prefaced with only one photo and very little text.  You're welcome. Bowl full o' healthy Spicy Chickpea Salad Ingredients 1/2 medium yellow onion, coarse-diced 2 cloves garlic, minced Spices: - 1 Tbsp chili powder - 1 Tbsp cumin - 1 tsp garam masala - 1 tsp tumeric - 1 tsp sea salt - 1/4 tsp cinnamon - 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper 28 oz tinned chickpeas, drained 28 oz tinned diced tomatoes WITH liquid 2 cups frozen spinach For the rest of the salad, I include: - Greens - Shre...

I'm Dreaming of a White Bean Soup

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A thousand years ago when I first decided to give a plant-based diet a try, I decided to be That Vegetarian and turn my nose up at things like tinned beans and frozen vegetables.  This was a mistake.  You can find that mistake  here , but you shouldn't, really.  Follow this recipe instead. (Inspired by  this recipe , changed to make it easier for me to be incredibly lazy.  True story.) OH.  And it's super good for you!  I don't usually think of lazy-molly food as being on the healthy end of the scale, but this one actually is!  Will wonders never cease.  Give it a go! I'm Dreaming of a White Bean Soup Ingredients 4-5 cloves garlic, minced 2-3 Tbsp olive oil 60 oz cannellini beans, drained 2 cups frozen spinach 2 cups milk (I use soy) 6 oz Monterrey jack cheese, shredded 4 oz Parmesan cheese 1 tsp black pepper Salt to taste 1 egg per bowl of soup you want to serve A bit more olive oil A bit of water Instructi...

Eat Your Veggies Japanese Curry

Japanese curry is one of those comfort foods that tastes and feels good all year 'round, no matter the weather or your stomach or ... anything, really.  This is my favorite way to prepare it, with plenty of vegetables and some nice scrambled eggs for texture.  Doubling the recipe is super easy, and it makes fantastic leftovers for work-nights that aren't otherwise conducive to cooking. My sense of humor's napping right now, so no jokes here.  Just good comfort food. Eat Your Veggies Japanese Curry Ingredients 1 tbsp olive oil 3-4 large carrots 3 medium yellow potatoes 2 medium onions 1 lb frozen brussels sprouts, halved 3 cups water 4.25 oz instant Japanese curry sauce (I use Golden brand) 15 oz coconut milk Dash red pepper flakes 3 cups frozen spinach 6 eggs 1 tbsp olive oil Sliced bread for toasting Instructions Heat oil in a big ol' soup pot. Cut up carrots into 1/4"-1/2" pieces. Toss them into the pot and stir them around, then...

I love you Mark Bittman Peanut Ginger Soup (with chickpeas)

An argument could be made that Mark Bittman taught me how to cook. First there's his cookbook How to Cook Everything,  which doesn't just have recipes in it, it has methods in it. For like, normal stuff -- the first thing I learnt to cook using this book was French toast. "Who would need a recipe for making French toast?" you might say, and the answer would be me. ME. I didn't know how to do it, Mark Bittman taught me how to do it, and everyone was a little bit happier because of it. Then there was his Youtube series "The Minimalist." In it, he taught me how to make really fancy-tasting meals without fancy ingredients or methods that could go awry in the blink of an eye, and that  played a large part in my confidence in my cooking skills increasing and my knowledge of cooking methods and flavor pairings increasing. I was sad when he retired until I found out that he was retiring to work in his garden, grill out, and play with his grandkids full-time....

Smoothie (so good it's) Criminal

I accidentally became a vegetarian in May 2014, and where there've been many benefits to that, the best, I think, is that I eat breakfast every single morning now. Never before had I done that, ever , and now I get all cranky if I don't get to have breakfast. This breakfast, specifically. (For the record, I ate 320 of these in 2015 and 323 of these in 2016 and as of today, the 19th day in the Year of Our Lord 2017, I've eaten 19. I really, really  like this smoothie.) We have the ingredients written down on a sticky note in the kitchen because making breakfast while half-asleep is just not okay most mornings, but at request I'm putting it here. I'm not picky about my protein powders, so long as they're not wicked high in cholesterol or sugar. I tend to like vanilla the least and chocolate the best and strawberry's okay or whatever, nothing to write home about. Really it's all about the banana and oat flavor, for me, because mmm bananas and oats. ...

Mr. Moochick's Accidentally Vegan Veggie Soup

I've been accidentally making quite a lot of vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, low-fat, low/no-cholesterol dishes lately, which is interesting because a) I'm not a vegan, b) I'm not even trying  to make dishes that fit any of the above categories, and c) all of these dishes are wicked  tasty, which is not something one generally associates with vegan-gluten-free-soy-free-low-fat-nice-to-your-cholesterol cooking. I mean, I guess there wouldn't be any vegans if vegan food tasted bad or boring or whatever, but still, considering how devastatingly deep my love of cheese and eggs goes, I've been pleasantly surprised to learn that my twin vices aren't actually needed in every dish I eat. That said, whenever I take this soup to work for lunch, I find that I heat it up and expect it to be boring. Like, every single day. Even though I ate it the day before and loved it. I still  expect to dislike it the following day. I suspect this means that I am a) biased, b) indoctri...

Taco Tuesday on Tatooine (Dagobah edition)

Jabba is not invited. Neither are the stormtroopers. They were mean to Beru and Owen, and that's not permitted. Taco Tuesday on Tatooine (Dagobah edition) Ingredients Taco Seasoning 1/2 tsp onion salt 1 tsp chili powder Dash cayenne pepper (to taste) 1/4 tsp dried oregano 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp dried cumin Taco Filling 1 1/2 cups frozen spinach 4 eggs 1 tbsp olive oil 1ish cup shredded cheese And some sort of taco filling delivery mechanism - tortillas, hard shells, whatever you like Instructions - Combine all ingredients for the taco seasoning. If you don't feel like doing that and want to use a packet of seasoning instead, that's fine - the premade stuff's just way too salty for my tastes. - In a small mixing bowl, microwave the spinach for 2-3 minutes. - Add the eggs. - Add the taco seasoning. - Whisk with a fork until it's all nice and combined. - In a small frying pan, heat the olive oil...

Dagobah Swamp Scrambled Eggs

I'm going to just hazard the guess that Yoda's not a bad cook and Luke's just not used to food made from plants. Not tropical plants, anyway. Think about it: The boy grew up on Tatooine, where the only plants I'm assuming he had access to were of the succulent variety (think cacti), and then he hung out with Han for a while on the Falcon  where they probably ate rations (think Clif bars, but somehow even less palatable and minus the type of physical exertion that makes them taste like mana from heaven), and then he was on Hoth where I'm trying not to think too hard about what they ate (tauntaun steaks anyone?). So of course a good veggie-heavy soup would smell weird to him. I love leafy greens, and even I  think spinach-based foods smell weird sometimes. He's also just kind of a brat and has really awful manners, Jedi or not. I blame the Galactic Empire for killing his foster parents when Luke was only 19. Have you met 19-year-olds? They're the worst . S...

Potbelly Shroom 'n Cheese Omnomnomeletts

Being vegetarian at Thanksgiving is trickier than I'd thought it would be. My first Thanksgiving not eating meat, I was hungry after the big meal, which led to me pouting for a solid year. My second Thanksgiving not eating meat (this Thanksgiving), I ate so much I was actually concerned that I'd throw up after the meal because Aunt Linda recognized my plight and decided to be her usual awesome self about addressing it. One of the dishes she made for me was roasted portobello mushrooms. Now, I had never eaten a portobello mushroom before and was wary, but these things were AMAZING. They had an almost meaty flavor to them, which led me to think about turning mushrooms into a meat substitute, which led me to thinking about making a steak 'n cheese out of mushrooms, which led to quite a lot of steak 'n cheese happening in my house after we got home from visiting family. The filling is now how I like it, so it's the same if you're going to make a sub or an omelet...

Margarita Omnomnomelettes

I've re-discovered omelettes recently, and I'm not really sure why I'm liking them so well these days. Maybe because there's no meat in them now, unlike I did back when I first learnt to make omelettes, and meat tends to smell like a wet dog, to me? Dunno. Regardless, we're eating omelettes at least three times a week, these days, and I think I might be in love. This recipe came about thanks to my parents and their trip to Italy ... oh heavens, it's been two years now, where did time go? Anywho, they went to Italy, discovered margarita pizzas, my dad made some for me when I visited, and then I promptly didn't make them for myself because failure. Until now. First time I made this meal, I'd come home late from a long day at work, eaten an irresponsible number of leftover birthday baked goods, indulged in an irresponsible number of mimosas (which is two, I am such a lightweight), and then opted for pacing around the house to get 5k extra steps on my ...

Thai Peanut Zucchini Noodles with Tofu

(This recipe requires a veggie spiralizer , but you're cool so you probably already own one.) (Also, cake. See below.) I left work at 8:00 pm last night, a Friday night, because everything is stupid sometimes, and of course, because I had Cheese Hug Bake with Zucchini and Quinoa for my lunch, I ate at like 11:30 am (I have very little willpower around that stuff, just ... GIMME), so by 8 pm, I was HUNGRY. I was also biking my sorry ass home at that point, which - when you're hungry and tired and braindead from a long day of getting the office ready for your one-week vacation - is just pretty terrible. We'd taken a detour to the grocery to buy some zucchini because, in addition to being tired, hungry, and braindead, I was also SICK, and thought that a nice chili ramen with courgettes might make my throat hurt a little less, at least. So by the time we were rounding the corner for the almost-final stretch of the ride home, I was tired, hungry, braindead, sick, and annoy...

Greens 'n Beans 'n Eggs 'n Toast

You know how there are some nights where you're just like "f*ck everything, I don't want to cook," but the very thought  of ordering out makes you writhe with unbearable guilt? Yeah, that was today. In my defense , I had to drive today. Like, for over an hour and a half, total. And I had to talk to people. People who aren't students. And that stresses me out . Ordering pizza stresses me out, too, so I decided to not do that. Instead, I looked at this recipe  sideways for a couple of minutes, then came downstairs (I'd been upstairs looking at imgur and buzzfeed and trying not to order pizza while also avoiding having a bath because driving is scary and Castle Overlord is safe) and made a bastard version that tasted really, really good and had the side-benefit of being really good for us. That's just the best. And I get to bike tomorrow. That's even better. Greens 'n Beans 'n Eggs 'n Toast Ingredients 1 small yellow onion (or half a...

Tofu Triangles in Thai-style Peanut Sauce with Quinoa

Vegans and gluten-free folk get a pretty bad reputation. I merrily contribute to that horrid reputation, only partially because I am, in fact, a horrid person. Mostly, though, it's because vegan food can be so, so bad. Low in good flavors, high in bad flavors, does weird things to your digestive system, doesn't make you feel full, etc. I'm struggling to believe that this recipe is both vegan and gluten-free (for all that I made it and KNOW it is both of these things) because it is so, so not what I normally associate with the word "vegan." It's flavorful, has great textures, it left me feeling full (even after a 23-mile bike-ride), and it wasn't overly expensive or a pain in the ass to make. Qualify that: I made this meal in under an hour while half asleep and not trying to rush. Didn't eat it fresh, packaged it up, microwaved it to heat it up after said bike-ride. AND IT'S STILL AMAZING AND DELICIOUS. That's some skill, there. Mad props. O...

I don't like quinoa either Quinoa Black Bean Stew

All right, let's be honest about quinoa: it's that weird, grainy thing that only weirdos who skulk around Whole Foods like to eat. It smells weird when you rinse it, like a pissed-off ladybug. It probably writes  emo poetry when you're not looking. I drop my voice on the T when I talk about cooking quinoa because I don't want strangers in Cambridge to think I'm that guy . That's right: quinoa is weird enough that I don't want citizens of the People's Republic of Cambridge to know I eat it sometimes . I'm therefore appropriately embarrassed to post my take on  this recipe , but damn everything to Dorchester it's tasty and needs to be shared. It needs to be shared . It can be made vegan  but that's another word I don't use except with great derision, so just swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth and, uh, probably don't serve it with a side of steak. Which is a thing. That we did. And it was delicious . EDIT: Top this with a...