What I've been Cooking
Mar. 22nd, 2008 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichiganI had this for lunch.
I bought some asparagus Friday and was looking for a simple recipe to jazz it up a bit. I found, in my Moosewood Cookbook, a recipe that called for steaming asparagus stalks, then drizzling them with a mix of equal parts melted butter and balsamic vinegar, and finally sprinkling roasted pine nuts over them. I just happened to have a few pine nuts left from having made pesto a while ago, so I had all the ingredients. I served it along with a salad of mix of greens dressed with reduced-fat cottage cheese and a little drizzle of honey mustard dressing, and tossed some of the pine nuts onto the salad, too. There was also fruit salad and sparkling water on the side. The fruit salad was left over from the day before, so the pears were turning just a little brown around the edges, but it was still quite good. The fruit salad ingredients included Bartlett pear, red grapes, kiwi slices, and sections of tangerine. So good!
J. doesn't care for asparagus, so that was ALL MINE. I've got about an equal amount of asparagus left, and I need to find another recipe for that since I used up all my pine nuts.
Other things I've cooked or baked lately include:
-Potato and black bean enchiladas. These turned out really well. J. generally likes my enchiladas, but he really raved about these. They had an interesting texture in addition to all the flavors. I have started to use cans of diced tomatoes (sometimes pre-seasoned) as the base for my enchilada sauce. It is, in no way, authentic. I can and have made enchiladas more the traditional way (in a pepper- or mole-based sauce, with no cheese and just a squiggle of cream on top) but we like the 'merican version with tomato and cheese a whole lot. The filling was a mix of organic refried black beans and Mexican-spiced mashed potatoes stuffed into whole wheat tortillas. I left the potatoes a bit lumpy, and that gave the finished product a really nice texture.
-Another day, I took some leftover crockpot chili out of the freezer, thawed that, and served it with grilled cheese sandwiches.
-Friday morning, I made soy sausage and pepper omelets with this really good sharp Wisconsin cheddar that J. bought at Whole Foods. There's a white Australian cheddar we get there that I adore, so I wasn't sure the Wisconsin measured up, but the more I've sampled it, the more I like it. I served the omelets with a side of potato chunks that I seasoned and baked in the toaster oven.
-One day last week for lunch, I made a winner of a side salad that included mixed greens, slices of pear, and slivers of that sharp Wisconsin cheddar, along with some reduced-fat fruity viniagrette.
-For breakfast today, I had lavender oatmeal. It's not really a recipe nor cooking per se, but I get a kick out of preparing my oatmeal this way. I thaw out some frozen blackberries, dump a packet of instant oatmeal over it, and then pour half a cup of hot-but-not-quite-boiled milk over it. When you mix it together, the berries give it a lovely light purple color. And, it's delicious.
-Yesterday, I did a food experiment by making and freezing my own breakfast sandwiches. Morningstar Farms used to make these frozen English muffin, egg, cheese, and soy sausage breakfast sandwiches that I adore, but I haven't been able to find them in any store for over a year. So, I bought the ingredients, and made four of them myself, wrapped them up in saran wrap, and stored them in the freezer. I'll take one out and try it for breakfast some time next week and see how it survives the freezing and microwaving process. I have high hopes for this. If it turns out well, I will do big batches of these and freeze them again. It's nice to have "convenience food" that you've prepared yourself, so you know exactly what ingredients have gone into it and don't have to worry about strange chemicals and preservatives.
I bought some asparagus Friday and was looking for a simple recipe to jazz it up a bit. I found, in my Moosewood Cookbook, a recipe that called for steaming asparagus stalks, then drizzling them with a mix of equal parts melted butter and balsamic vinegar, and finally sprinkling roasted pine nuts over them. I just happened to have a few pine nuts left from having made pesto a while ago, so I had all the ingredients. I served it along with a salad of mix of greens dressed with reduced-fat cottage cheese and a little drizzle of honey mustard dressing, and tossed some of the pine nuts onto the salad, too. There was also fruit salad and sparkling water on the side. The fruit salad was left over from the day before, so the pears were turning just a little brown around the edges, but it was still quite good. The fruit salad ingredients included Bartlett pear, red grapes, kiwi slices, and sections of tangerine. So good!
J. doesn't care for asparagus, so that was ALL MINE. I've got about an equal amount of asparagus left, and I need to find another recipe for that since I used up all my pine nuts.
Other things I've cooked or baked lately include:
-Potato and black bean enchiladas. These turned out really well. J. generally likes my enchiladas, but he really raved about these. They had an interesting texture in addition to all the flavors. I have started to use cans of diced tomatoes (sometimes pre-seasoned) as the base for my enchilada sauce. It is, in no way, authentic. I can and have made enchiladas more the traditional way (in a pepper- or mole-based sauce, with no cheese and just a squiggle of cream on top) but we like the 'merican version with tomato and cheese a whole lot. The filling was a mix of organic refried black beans and Mexican-spiced mashed potatoes stuffed into whole wheat tortillas. I left the potatoes a bit lumpy, and that gave the finished product a really nice texture.
-Another day, I took some leftover crockpot chili out of the freezer, thawed that, and served it with grilled cheese sandwiches.
-Friday morning, I made soy sausage and pepper omelets with this really good sharp Wisconsin cheddar that J. bought at Whole Foods. There's a white Australian cheddar we get there that I adore, so I wasn't sure the Wisconsin measured up, but the more I've sampled it, the more I like it. I served the omelets with a side of potato chunks that I seasoned and baked in the toaster oven.
-One day last week for lunch, I made a winner of a side salad that included mixed greens, slices of pear, and slivers of that sharp Wisconsin cheddar, along with some reduced-fat fruity viniagrette.
-For breakfast today, I had lavender oatmeal. It's not really a recipe nor cooking per se, but I get a kick out of preparing my oatmeal this way. I thaw out some frozen blackberries, dump a packet of instant oatmeal over it, and then pour half a cup of hot-but-not-quite-boiled milk over it. When you mix it together, the berries give it a lovely light purple color. And, it's delicious.
-Yesterday, I did a food experiment by making and freezing my own breakfast sandwiches. Morningstar Farms used to make these frozen English muffin, egg, cheese, and soy sausage breakfast sandwiches that I adore, but I haven't been able to find them in any store for over a year. So, I bought the ingredients, and made four of them myself, wrapped them up in saran wrap, and stored them in the freezer. I'll take one out and try it for breakfast some time next week and see how it survives the freezing and microwaving process. I have high hopes for this. If it turns out well, I will do big batches of these and freeze them again. It's nice to have "convenience food" that you've prepared yourself, so you know exactly what ingredients have gone into it and don't have to worry about strange chemicals and preservatives.
