Like our sushi bowls - but vegetarian!!

We made these, so long ago now, but it was a really good meal and certainly blog-worthy - it just took me time to get to it!

I secretly borrowed (ahem, stole) this recipe out of the magazine at my chiropractor's office and let me tell you I am so glad I did and it was so good I have no remorse.

This meal was really easy to make, really filling and satisfying and a great vegetarian, actually vegan dish. I will say though that between the sesame oil and sesame seeds it was a bit sesame-y, and if you don't do well with that much sesame (like me) you may want to cut back on some of the sesame goodness.

This recipe comes from Health.com magazine from Sept. 2010 and I've written it with my adaptations below. Thanks Dr. D for not noticing I took this page of your magazine (oh and 3 others!!, it's OK the magazine was there for 4 months!)

Rice with Edamame and Sea Greens

1 1/2 cups cooked rice (brown or white)

1 container shitake mushrooms cleaned and chopped up (you can use reconstituted dried mushrooms here)

1/2 cup dried seaweed

1/2 small onion finely chopped - we just used green onion

1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

1 T sesame oil

2 T low sodium soy sauce

1 cup shelled edamame cooked

Cook your rice, soak your mushrooms if using dried - or chop the fresh if you're going that route. Add the mushrooms, seaweed, sesame seeds, onion, soy sauce and edamame to the rice and stir to combine. Toss with soy sauce and garnish with more toasted sesame seeds.

ENJOY! it was super tasty and would really be a powerhouse of a lunch at work too!

A fresh and light soup

Great in the winter, will be wonderful in the spring and delicious in the summer and fall with that fresh cabbage from the garden.

I found this recipe for Chickpea Rice Soup with Cabbage on Post Punk Kitchen and really what prompted me to make this was how beautiful the soup looked in her bowls in the photos. It looked rich and creamy without the addition of dairy product. It looked filling and delicious and so colorful.

The soup was so hearty and satisfying. I enjoyed the addition of the rice to the soup, but the hubs felt he would have liked it without the rice. So next time, I'll make the rice on the side and we can just spoon it in to our bowls as we'd like.

Instead of boiling the rice in the soup, I made rice in the rice cooker and then scooped some cooked rice in to the finished soup. It did take a way from the creaminess a bit of the rice breaking down in the broth, but it made it hold up really well for leftovers without the rice getting pasty and mushy.

I also used a short cut and instead of shredding the cabbage I used a bag of coleslaw mix to make life easier.

Do add the fresh dill as well at the end, it really brings a wonderful flavor that brightens the dish up!

Made the recipe pretty much as is aside from what I just mentioned so just follow the link above for the recipe.

Egyptian Cooking 101

My husband and I just got back from a 24 day vacation, a Mediterranean Cruise. We visited 3 continents- Europe, Africa, Asia. We enjoyed our days exploring Spain, Morocco, Grand Canaria, Madeira, Italy, Greece, Turkey (the Asiatic part), Egypt and Malta.

Between the delicious food on the boat, of course we dined on delicious local cuisine as well in most cities. However, there were certainly areas we couldn't eat for GI safety reasons - like Morocco and Egypt- so instead we've opted for cook books to bring a taste of the cuisine home with us.

Tonight was my first foray in to our Egyptian cook book. This book has so many delicious recipes that we really just need to make every single one.

Since we splurged on so many sweets and meats while we were away, we're trying to eat as light and vegetarian right now.

Tonight's dish was a super vegan dish. We both agree this is a make again, and often. And it makes so much that I'm certainly getting plenty of leftovers for lunches!

It seemed like an odd, carb-heavy, mix to me for a meal. But the flavors were fabulous and it was incredibly filling and hearty. I did make a few alterations, which of course I'll list here.

Do make this - it's such a great intro to Egyptian food- which really seems very similar to Turkish and other African type foods.

Kushari be'adds abu gibba

aka Brown lentils with rice and macaroni

For Daqqa (Sauce)

6 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup white vinegar

salt to taste

1 teaspoon chili pepper (or 1 teaspoon Siracha, which is what we used)

2 cups tomato juice (I used 1 8oz can tomato sauce and one can of water because it's what I had on hand)

2 T oil (I used barely 1 T)

1. Crush Garlic, salt and chili pepper together (I just crushed garlic and tossed with siracha). Fry in oil until light and golden brown.

2. Add tomato juice and cook until sauce thickens and oil rises to the top. Add vinegar and bring to a boil. Then let simmer until you're ready to use it.

For the main dish

1 cup brown lentils, rinsed and picked through

1 cup rice, uncooked

1/2 cup vermicelli (Please note I used 1 cup of Barilla broken pasta in exchange for opting out of using the 1 cup of small pasta in addition, it just seemed like too much starch)

1 cup small pasta like elbow or ditalini (again I omitted this and added the extra 1/2 cup of broken pasta)

1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed and warmed

2 large onions chopped

1/4 cup oil.

1. Slice onions and fry in oil until golden brown, then remove and set aside. Fry the pasta in the remaining hot oil until golden brown. Add 1 1/2 cups water and a little salt and bring to a boil. Add rice and continue cooking until water is absorbed and rice is fully cooked. **NOTE - This part used WAY more than 1 1/2 cups water, probably closer to 2.5 cups water and I had to keep a really close eye on it to make sure it didn't stick. I did cook it covered but kept stirring and adding water as needed. Still took about 30 minutes**

2. In another pot boil the lentils in 2 cups of water for about 40 minutes until tender then drain and rinse with water. Keep them warm.

3. In another pot, boil water and cook the small pasta until done, drain and rinse and keep warm.

4. To serve, layer in the following order: rice with vermicelli, macaroni, lentils, chickpeas, onions then the sauce.

Oh my gosh, heavenly good!! Enjoy!!!

We love ethnic flavors

Recently, the hubs and I have decided that we're done eating out at places we really have no interest in. You see, we love really diverse flavors and good food. And all too often we go out to eat or make something, because, well "It's basic, or It's American, we should like it". And we're always disappointed. So we just decided enough already. If we eat out, or cook in, we're going to eat what we like and are passionate about. Good quality food, great flavors - even if it means eating a ton of Asian, Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Vietnamese, or Italian food. It' really what we like best. So why mess around with the other stuff?!

So speaking of ethnic flavors, I made this recipe back in June from Cate's World Kitchen and WOWSA. Fabulous. I made two versions, one with chicken for the hubs and one with tofu for me. He loved hi and I loved mine. This dish was so easy and tasty but full of fresh, complex flavors that you can't resist.

And it as pretty too - so what can be better?

Do visit Cate's Blog. It's one I frequent and love! She makes some great items!

Indonesian Rice Salad

Recipe:
(adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen)

serves 4-6

2 cups brown rice - I used white
3 1/2 cups water
1 tsp turmeric

6-8 cups washed, roughly chopped spinach
1 cup thinly sliced cabbage - I used a bag of coleslaw mix
3 carrots, shredded - omitted since I used the bagged mix
3 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 block high protein tofu, diced

1/3 cup peanut butter
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp sugar or evaporated cane juice
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/3 cup warm water

2 tbsp oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced and separated into rings - I omitted this whole portion with the fried onion on top

First make the rice, by combining the water, rice and turmeric in a rice cooker or by cooking on the stove.

Once the rice is cooked, fluff with a fork.

To make the peanut dressing, combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Set aside

To make the crispy shallots, heat the oil in your smallest frying pan. When hot, add the shallots and stir occasionally until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

To assemble each salad: Put down a bed of spinach (1-1 1/2 cups). Top with about 1/2 a cup of rice. Top the rice with some cabbage, carrot, tomato, and tofu, then pour some dressing over that and sprinkle with the shallots.

** For the chicken for the hubs. I cut his chicken in to small pieces and tossed it in a skillet with some garlic, salt, turmeric and pepper. I did the same with my cubes of tofu. This way the flavors were incorporated in to the protein as well.**

Gosh this picture looks so good.

I just love the vibrant pink and green in this picture. But it's not the shrimp or steamed Brussel sprouts that I'm interested in here - even though they were delicious. It's the barley pilaf.

Completely made my the hubs, this was a delicious side dish - probably more appropriate for a fall meal, but none the less delicious and hearty.

Taken from my favorite The All New Good Housekeeping Cookbook, this is certainly one side that will need to be made again.

Mushroom-Barley Pilaf

1 cup pearl barley

2 T butter

1 medium onion, chopped

2 stalks celery chopped (we omitted)

12 oz. mushrooms sliced

1 can broth - chicken or veggie

3/4 cup water

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. dried thyme

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/4 cup fresh parsley (we omitted)

In a saucepan, toast barley over medium heat until it begins to brown - about 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

In same saucepan, melt butter, add onion and celery and cook until tender. Stir in mushrooms, cook until they are tender and liquid has evaporated. Stir in barley, broth, water, salt, thyme and pepper. Heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until barley is tender- about 30 minutes. Stir in parsley.

Creamy Ole Rice

Thank you to my friend Carrie in MN for this yummy recipe. I've had this in my google reader since September of last year and just made it the other week for the first time.

And again, no pictures- I'm lazy people, get over it!

We truly enjoyed it with, well with whatever it is we had with it - I can't even remember now.

But I'm really posting this recipe for Sour Cream Rice because I enjoyed the leftovers so much for lunches! Listen to what I did and don't ewwww at it yet.

I took a cup of cut up romaine and some grape tomatoes in one container. In another container I took a half cup of beans and 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup of this rice. I heated the rice and beans at the office and then popped on my salad for lunch and it was SO filling, hearty and tasty! No dressing, nothing else, beans, rice, lettuce and tomato - so good. So good infact I'm going to try and re-create the concept with a lean cuisine rice dish - I'm sure it won't be as good.

Thanks again Carrie - it was tasty good!

Mexican Sour Cream Rice

• 1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
• 1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1 cup reduced fat sour cream
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chile peppers
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
• 1 (8.75 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
• salt and ground black pepper to taste

In a large pot, bring the rice and chicken broth to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 1-1/2 quart casserole dish.

In the pot with the cooked rice, mix the sour cream, green chile peppers, 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese, corn, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the prepared casserole dish, and top with remaining cheese.

Bake uncovered 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until cheese is bubbly and lightly browned.

**NOTE** to speed the process, I steamed my rice in the rice cooker in the AM while I was on the treadmill - Popped it in a tupperware before I left for work and then used that cold rice when I came home mixed with everything else. I did use reduce fat on the sour cream and cheese as well and still came out just fine.

I want to go back to Chicago...

So I can become best friends with one of my favorite Chicago bloggers and eat her most glorious cooking!

I first "met" Joelen on the What's Cooking page on the Nest... she was even my secret Santa one year and sent me some beautiful Asian dishes, spices and Chicago candies. We've been admiring one another's blogs for a couple years now. But let me just say, I would KILL to be as creative, inventive and adventurous in the kitchen as she is!

She made these two recipes the other week and I immediately added them to my reader to make.

So we had dinner a la Jolene on Sunday night here.

Let me tell you, the chicken, did not disappoint and the rice - HEAVENLY!!!

I mean her recipes are so good I even went out at 8 pm at night on Saturday night to get more curry powder so I could get the chicken swimming in the wonderful marinade overnight.

I changed NOTHING with either recipe - so you can visit her blog to see the recipes - but you should visit Joelen's Culinary Adventures daily!

Ginger & Cilantro Lime Rice

Lemon Curry Chicken

Galumpkis - Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

I've been wanting to make these for an age in a half. If they are on a menu, I order them. My mother made them growing up. I just love stuffed cabbage.

But a few things have always precluded me from making this yummy dish: 1. time 2. a descent recipe.

So finally I decided to combine many aspects of a few different recipes to come up with my own version that was light, healthy and tasty and cooked the way I wanted it - in the oven with sauce - not in a crock pot, not simmered on the stove or steamed.

I got 19 cabbage rolls out of my head of cabbage - yours may vary. I intended on making only 12, but I had a lot of meat mixture left, so I just went until I was out of the meat mixture. My last ones are really tiny and I baked them in a smaller pyrex dish because my large one was filled.

So here's my recipe for Galumpkis

1 good sized head of cabbage
2 jars of pasta sauce - 6 cups
2 cups cooked brown rice

1 pound ground turkey

2 medium carrots diced finely

2 onions diced finely

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 Egg beaten

PAM

dried oregano and parsley

pepper to taste

Buy a good sized head of cabbage. Cut the core out and pop in a big stock pot of boiling water. Let soak until the outer leaves start to get tender enough that they peel off. Remove with tongs and place in a colander to drain. Remove the remaining vein/core from each leaf.

Make your rice ahead of time and set 2 cups in a bowl. Add in 1/2 cup of the marina sauce.

In a skillet, lightly saute the onion, carrots and garlic with some Pam. Add this to the rice mixture. Toss in some pepper, dried parsley (1 T) and oregano (1 T). Also add a splash of red wine here if you'd like or wine vinegar.

When your cabbage leaves are dried off and ready to go. Add in the turkey to the rice mixture and mix well. Then add in the egg and blend well.

Place some of the sauce in the bottom of your pan. Lay a leaf out and place 1/4 cup of the meat/rice mixture - give or take - on one end of the leaf. Roll the sides in and then the top and roll it up to a tight little package and place in the baking dish. Repeat, and repeat and repeat!

Cover with sauce and bake in the oven at 350 for an hour to an hour and 10 minutes. They should be firm to the touch when done.

I did put this recipe, as it is, for 19 leaves in to the recipe builder on Spark People and these have 138 calories each. So a few for dinner is more than acceptable.

ENJOY! It's worth every bite - but make it on a weekend, it's a time consuming process - an hour to bake and about an hour to prep.

Such a perfect fall meal...

I made this a couple of weeks ago and it really was the most perfect fall meal. I can imagine it would be wonderful in the depths of winter as well.

I've had this recipe on my computer for - gosh over a year now I think - but I've never gotten to making it until now.

I didn't have borlotti beans, but I decided to use these beans the hubs and I bought dried at Federal Hill at one of the Italian markets. Lupini beans. I soaked the beans, and cooked the bean and cooked them some more and they would NOT get tender. Finally I bit in to one and it was the worst tasting most bitter thing I've ever had. I figured OK they aren't done enough. I cooked some more - the hubs tried one later and he agreed, the worst beans we've ever had.

So I hopped on the laptop and researched a bit and found out that lupini beans do have a bitter taste and you can't get rid of that. CRAP! I just spent a whole day soaking and cooking these beans for this meal I had such wonderful hopes for.

The beans got tossed - there was NO WAY we could have ever eaten them. Thank God for my stash of canellini beans in the pantry!!

So if you can't find borlotti beans for this recipe - use a nice soft, buttery white bean, it will be great. This meal was wonderful!! Even despite the hassle of the bad beans!

The recipe came from Apartment Therapy, The Kitchn and can be found here.

I made everything as is and just tossed in the canned beans near the end to heat through - I used two cans of canellini beans.

The Perfect Fall Risotto

Hello my name is Steph & I have an addiction.

I love bacon

I love pumpkin

I love risotto

I mean I love, adore, would marry bacon, pumpkin and risotto - all individually. But mix them together and heaven help me I've found my soul mate and it's on my plate!

I made this a few weeks ago and I can't wait to make it again already.

I didn't follow a recipe to make this but just kinda winged it. And I must say it was FAB!

It was a great way to use up a gallon bag of cut up pumpkin in my deep freeze and a great way to use my ever faithful strips of bacon that I freeze in to sets of 4.

Pumpkin & Bacon Risotto

Heat oven to 400 and place diced pieces of pumpkin in a roasting pan. Toss with olive oil, salt, and nutmeg and pepper.

In a saucepan, heat 1 large can of chicken stock along with about a quarter cup of sherry or white wine.

In a large skillet, cook 4 slices of bacon and remove from pan when crispy brown and set aside to drain. Go ahead and chop them up and set them aside to stir in later. Using about a T of the remaining bacon grease, saute 1 cup of risotto rice and 1 onion diced, and a couple of cloves of minced garlic.

When the rice starts to get browned, start adding the stock in by ladle full and stir constantly. Keep adding liquid in batches and stirring until the rice is cooked.

Once the rice is done, add in your cooked diced pumpkin. It will break down a bit and that's more than fine. You can use canned pumpkin too if that's easier for you.

Season to taste- salt, pepper, nutmeg.

Top your risotto with bacon pieces (you can also stir it in if you'd like)

Now unlike most people, I did not add cheese to this risotto recipe, the pumpkin is rich and creamy enough - as is the bacon - that you don't need it!

A Trip to the Islands for Dinner

I made this recipe a while back and it was really such a good, flavorful dinner. I was a little disappointed that the rice didn't have more coconut flavor, but next time I'll just add more coconut than water - easy fix.

This idea for this dinner came from a recipe from Kill The Gluten Blog - some great recipes, for the gluten free or gluten eaters.

I did make a few adjustments, such as instead of frying the chicken and using rice flour, I baked them and used panko - still crispy and tasty! I'm posting as I made the meal

Coconut Rice.

In the rice cooker, place 1 1/2 cups rice and rinse the rice. Add in 1 1/2 cup water and 1 1/2 cups coconut milk. Cover and let cook. Again, next time I will use probably 2 cups coconut milk instead. Top with green onion.

Pineapple Chicken

coat chicken tenders in panko crumbs and place on a baking pan and bake in the oven until browned and done. I did season the chicken some salt, pepper and ginger powder.

In a saucepan, combine 1 cup water, 1/3 cup honey, 1/3 cup soy sauce, 2 T lime juice and 2 T coconut milk. Let simmer until it reduces by about half and gets a little thick. Plate the chicken and rice and serve with the sauce. Top with pineapple chunks - drained (I forgot this part).

Such a flavorful, easy and tasty dinner. Will certainly make again - next time I may eggwash the chicken strips instead for a bit more crunch.