I have to admit, I have not cooked dinner in a long time.  Sad, yes, but all too true.  Even though I am the proud owner of (and infrequent contributor to) this food blog, Jeremy and I eat out far too often.  There are several reasons for this.  One is simply habit.  He must have realized when he first met me that one of the best ways to my heart is through my stomach, and so he treated me to some of the best meals I’d had in this foodie town.  While we don’t dine quite as extravagantly these days, I guess we’re used to enjoying time out on the town with no dishes to clean up later.

The second reason has to do with our having very different ideas of what constitutes an acceptable meal.  Most of my creations look suspiciously like “Health Food” to him.  And I turn my nose up at the nutritional value of many of his favorites.  And so, we go out to bars and restaurants where we can each order what we consider to be a reasonable dinner.  Yes, it’s expensive.

But I was making my favorite rice pudding the other day (I needed something to distract me from the sinful pound cake air-mailed to us by Jeremy’s mom), and I realized that the recipe was not so different from risotto.  Substitute broth, butter and cheese for the pudding’s milk and coconut oil, throw in some veggies, and voila(!), a dinner treat that I knew we could both agree on.  Ok, so the broccoli in there is pretty minimal, but you can serve some extra on the side if you care about that kind of thing.  We had it with tomato soup and it was lovely.

This dish was inspired by the Risotto Balls in Mike Isabella’s Crazy Good Italian.

Risotto with Smoked Gouda and Broccoli
serves 4

Ingredients
- 4 quarts water
- 2 Tbsp salt
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 head broccoli, florets only
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 small yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup arborio rice
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 1/4 grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 3 oz smoked gouda

Bring water, salt, and sugar to a boil in a large pot.  Add broccoli florets and blanch for 1 minute.  Drain and shock in a large bowl of ice water.  Allow to cool completely and place on a clean kitchen towel to drain.  After about 10 minutes, pulse in a food processor until very finely chopped.  Reserve 1/2 cup for the risotto, save the rest for another meal.

Heat vegetable stock over medium heat in a saucepan until it is simmering.

In another saucepan, melt 1 Tbsp butter over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add arborio rice and cook, stirring constantly, for 3-4 minutes, until rice is coated with butter.

Add broth to rice mixture 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly.  When one 1/2 cup is fully absorbed by the rice, add 1/2 cup more.  Rice will become creamy but should not be mushy.  Stir in broccoli and remove from heat.

Add remaining 1 Tbsp butter, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and smoked gouda.  Stir until cheese has melted.  Serve immediately.

I haven’t made a salad in a while.  When it’s cold and rainy outside, a plate of raw vegetables just doesn’t appeal to me.  I’m sure many of you can relate.  I think the secrets to this salad’s beauty are the sautéed mushrooms, which add some much-needed warmth, the lick-your-fingers good savory dressing, and the hearty smoked tuna, which I discovered a while back from a small company on the Oregon coast.

Good News Tuna Company

So good.

I’m even looking forward to eating the EXACT same thing for dinner tonight.  I hope you enjoy it too!

Triple Green Salad with Smoked Tuna
serves 1

6-7 crimini mushrooms, washed with stems removed and sliced
1 cup dandelion greens, washed and roughly chopped
1/2 Tbsp butter
pinch of salt
a few handfuls baby spinach
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, washed and dried
a few tablespoons of Duma Dressing (see recipe below)

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add mushrooms and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium, cover with a lid, and continue to sautee while you prepare the rest of the salad.  Check on it and stir it occasionally.

Place spinach and parsley in a large bowl.  Make dressing, pour a generous amount onto greens and toss to coat.  Place on a large dinner plate.

Add dandelion greens to mushrooms on stovetop.  Heat, covered, for about 2 minutes until beginning to wilt.  Place the mixture on top of the plated greens.

Flake about 4 oz tuna over everything.  Enjoy.

Duma Dressing
makes about 2 cups (you can keep in fresh in the refrigerator for up to 1 week)
adapted from Get It Ripe by Jae Steele

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup tamari soy sauce
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
small handful of pumpkin seeds

Place all ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender.  Blend on high for about 30 seconds until smooth.

I shared this post with this week’s Simple Lives Thursday, Pennywise Platter, Full Plate Thursday, and Keep It Real Thursday.

Related articles

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• Goats cheese and avocado Salad (changingcaitlyn.wordpress.com)

I think it’s been too long since I’ve posted a tasty baked item on this blog.  I’m not sure why that is.  I always seem to have some kind of homemade treat lying around the house.  Perhaps the issue is that I’m always on a mission to “health-ify” my baked goods.  I’ll adjust flours, fats, and sugar content until I end up with something I don’t have to feel too bad about eating every day.  The problem is, I often end up with something that perhaps not everyone will appreciate.  I end up with healthy-tasting cakes, brownies, cookies, etc that just can’t compete with the utterly Southern pound cake shipped to us by Jeremy’s mother.  Or if I make something AMAZING it gets eaten up and I don’t take any pictures (that was the fate of a recent lemon custard pie).

So I feel pretty proud about having gotten things together for this post.  These muffins are good enough to inhale in an afternoon, but recent New Year’s resolutions have allowed them to stick around for a few extra days to be photographed and savored.  The recipe is adapted from the gluten-free cookbook La Tartine Gourmande, which I can’t recommend highly enough.  Just as in her blog, the recipes and photos are a delicious inspiration.  Everything I have made from the book has turned out beautifully.

Last year: Danish(?) Trabak (which I have now learned is probably “Tvebakker”)

Banana, Chocolate, and Hazelnut Muffins
makes 12 muffins

1/3 cup hazelnuts, soaked and dried if possible (benefits of soaking nuts here)
2 eggs
1/2 cup xylitol (or you can use regular sugar)
8 Tbs butter, melted
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup hazelnut flour (you can make this by simply grinding about 1 cup hazelnuts)
1/2 cup white rice flour
pinch of sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 ripe bananas, mashed
3 oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Toast hazelnuts until lightly browned.  Place in a kitchen towel and roll to remove some of the skins.  Roughly chop them and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare 12 muffin cups with paper liners or cooking fat of choice.

Beat eggs and xylitol together in a large bowl.  Add melted butter and yogurt and whisk until well combined.  In a separate bowl, combine flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda, lightly mixing.  Add to the wet ingredients and stir just until mixed together.  Add banana, hazelnuts, and chocolate and stir in.

Divide the batter among the muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool and serve with a healthy pat of coconut oil or butter.

Related articles

• Gluten-Free Banana Blueberry Muffins (grainmillwagon.com)
• Mini Banana Almond Flour Muffins (cutoutandkeep.net)
• Mouth Watering Carob Muffins – No Wheat, No Gluten, No Butter, No Chocolate (lizshewan.wordpress.com)

Along with the New Year come the inevitable resolutions.  I’ve stopped making a big deal of them because I am the kind of person who seems to have a new resolution every week. But, of course, I am hoping that January will be a good time to focus on cleaning up my diet.  Like most people, I ate with abandon last month and now feel ready for a healthy change.

Luckily, I just finished a wonderful book called The Perfect Health Diet by Paul and Shou-Ching Jaminet.  It takes a Paleo-esque type of approach but seems a bit more carb-friendly than some other versions of the diet that I have seen.  It’s exquisitely researched and seems quite do-able and so I’ve decided to give their advice a go.  I’ve managed to stick to their recommendations for a whole 2 days now (sadly, this is better than I’m able to do on most diets) without feeling hungry or having overwhelming cravings for unhealthy foods.  We’ll see if this is the case in a few months.

This ragù was the first dish I prepared with the Jaminet’s principles in mind.  It has a healthy portion of veggies, organic beef, and small amounts of sardines and liverwurst for good measure.  If you don’t have those last two ingredients or feel wary of them, feel free to leave them out.  Because the Perfect Health Diet is gluten-free, I opted to serve the sauce over boiled potatoes.  Rice noodles would be another good option.  Apparently meat and potatoes are coming back into style

Nourishing Italian Ragù
adapted from Pinch and Swirl

- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
- 1 pound ground beef (I used 5% fat)
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 jar tomato sauce
- 1 can sardines in tomato sauce (about 4 oz), optional
- 1/2 cup chopped liverwurst, optional
- 1 bunch collard greens, finely chopped
- salt, to taste

- boiled potatoes, for serving
- olive oil, for serving

Saute onion, pepper, carrots and celery over medium high heat until vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes.  Add ground beef and sauté until browned.  Pour in wine and allow to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Add tomato sauce, sardines, liverwurst and collard greens to the pot.  Cover and allow to simmer for about 1 hour.

Serve over potatoes or noodles with a healthy drizzle of olive oil over everything.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to sit here and tell you to deprive yourself of all the sweetness that the holiday season brings.  I am the worst (THE WORST!) at staying away from tempting goodies.  For me, the best solution is to load up on healthy foods when I can so that I’m simply not that hungry when I’m faced with items that don’t fit into my healthy eating plan.  Yeah, I’ll still eat them, but I’ll have smaller portions.

This soup, with its nourishing veggies and umami-filled broth is a good way to step back from the holiday fray…so you’ll be even more ready to fully enjoy that holiday meal.  I used bonito flakes in the broth for a more authentic miso flavor.  You can find them at a well-stocked asian grocery store, but feel free to substitute low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth (the miso and soy sauce will add plenty of their own saltiness at the end).

Miso Soup with Vegetables
makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 cups shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
- 1 Tbs grated fresh ginger
- 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 6 cups water
- 2 cups lightly packed bonito flakes
- 3 carrots, halved and sliced
- 2 heads baby bok choy, thinly sliced
- 1 block medium-firm tofu, cut into small cubes
- 3 Tbs miso paste
- soy sauce, to taste

1. Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat.  Add mushrooms and sauté until softened and fragrant, about 5 minutes.  Add ginger and garlic, cook 1 minute longer.

2. Add water.  Place bonito flakes in a mesh container (I used a nut-milk bag) and immerse in the water to steep.  You just want to be able to remove the flakes once they’ve imparted their flavor.  Add carrots and white sections of bok choy and simmer for 15 minutes.

3. Lower heat and remove bonito flakes.  Add leafy sections of bok choy and stir until wilted.  Add tofu.

4. Ladle some broth into a bowl and add miso paste.  Stir until miso has dissolved and return to stock pot.  Taste and add soy sauce, if desired.

You guys, sh*t is gettin’ real over here.  How real?  Well, my gorgeous diploma for my B.S. in Nursing came in the mail yesterday, my NCLEX (that’s the nursing licensure exam) is 2 weeks away, and I had my first job interview this week!  I have been losing myself in daydreams about how much I want this job.  It’s a resource position, which means I would get to fill in for other nurses on vacation, sick days, or family leave, and it’s at one of the best hospitals in the state.  I’ll be hearing back next week and am excited/terrified!

In the meantime, I’ve been truly enjoying my unemployed-cation.  I have time to cook most of my meals at home, have been going on long walks with my dog, and I’m catching up on Homeland just in time for Season 2.

Even if you are working a 9-to-5, this power lunch bowl would be an easy and energy-boosting work take-a-long.  Just sauté your ingredients over the weekend (make enough for several days to save time), cook some rice, and you’ll have an envy-inducing lunch on Monday.  The protein from the turkey and the fiber from the brown rice will keep you satisfied for hours.  Which is also a plus for a homebody like me whose kitchen is only steps away.

Turkey, Veggie, and Brown Rice Bowls
makes 2 servings

- 1/2 cup brown rice, cooked
- 1/2 lb ground turkey
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cayenne powder
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 red or orange bell pepper, diced
- salt, to taste
- 1/2 avocado sliced

Cook turkey and spices in a large skillet over medium-high heat until beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.  Add tomatoes, peppers, and about a pinch of salt.  Cook for another 7-10 minutes until peppers are tender.  Serve over 1/4 cup warm rice topped with 1/4 avocado.

Do any of you have the same problem?  Have you done anything about it?

Ok, enough with randomness.  On to food!

I made these sloppy joes for my vegetarian boyfriend and we both loved them.  The chipotle peppers and barbecue sauce added a lovely, smoky flavor and the combination of black beans and edamame kept the filling from being too heavy.  I promised Jeremy that I would start repeating some of his favorite recipes (I’m guilty of never doing the same thing twice…possibly a manifestation of internet-induced attention deficit?) and this one is going in the regular rotation.  Enjoy it with seasonal veggies or oven-fries.

Find the recipe here at Vegetarian Times online.  The only change I made was not to bother with low-fat barbecue sauce or cheese.

While I’m at it, I might as well link to another comfort food recipe I’ve been loving this week.  The BEST rice pudding from Gilt Taste.  Don’t do like I did and decide that the 1/4 cup rice to 3 cups milk ratio is wrong.  It’s right.  Next time, I will trust them completely.  :)

* I added this post to this week’s Fresh Bites Friday.

Even for breakfast.

These are perfect alongside some local grass-fed goat sausages.  I made enough for a few days and then breakfast was just a few microwave buttons away.

Cumin Roasted Sweet Potatoes
serves 3-4
adapted from September 2012′s Vegetarian Times 

Ingredients
- 3 small sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp paprika

Preheat oven to 425F.  Toss all ingredient in a large baking dish until vegetables are well coated.  Roast for about 45 minutes, until fork-tender, stirring halfway through.

Related articles

• southern sweet potato hash and a giveaway (justcooknyc.com)
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I added this post to this week’s Full Plate Thursday, Thriving on Thursdays, Whole Foods Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Allergy Free Wednesday, Fat Tuesday, Hearth and Soul Hop, Cast Party Wednesday, Gluten Free Wednesday, Traditional Tuesday, and Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.

The view from outside our hotel.

The San Juan islands are amazing.

On the ferry to Orcas.

Even Dan got to enjoy his favorite activity.

I’ve been catching up on sleep, reinstating some self-care (hello exercise and yoga!), and working through the process of getting my nursing license and looking for jobs.  I tend to shy away from instability and uncertainty and so I’m sure these next few months of battling it out in a tough job market and seeing what turns up will be a real learning process for me.  The up-side of unemployment?  I have time to cook.  :)

Yay cast-iron!

My mom gave me a cast-iron skillet as a graduation gift and a used it for the first time with this simple sauté of crookneck squash, red onions, spinach, and goat cheese.  It was a delicious side dish and the perfect answer to the end-of-summer’s glut of squash.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

How do you deal with change?  Do you welcome it or dread it? 

Summer Squash Sauté with Goat Cheese
makes 6 servings
inspired by Happyolks taco version

Ingredients
– 1 tsp olive oil
– 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
– 3 crookneck squash, cubed
– 1 tsp red wine vinegar
– 1 tsp dijon mustard
– a few handfuls of spinach
– 2 oz goat cheese

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until softened, about 4 minutes.  Add squash, increase heat to medium-high, and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Stir in red wine vinegar and mustard until well incorporated.  Add spinach and stir for another minute, just until wilting.  Remove pan from heat and crumble goat cheese over vegetables.  Toss a few times and serve warm.

* I shared this post with this week’s Superfood Sunday and Seasonal Celebration Sunday.

Because of the recent temperatures and my unfortunate lack of air-conditioning, I’ve been focusing on creating meals that require little, if any, cooking, baking, or boiling.  While this one does not completely fit that mold, it comes pretty close and the leftovers kept me happy for days.  I even ate a few servings for breakfast with a fried egg on top.

This recipe was inspired by a similar one from Whipped.  I changed the ingredients based on what I had in my kitchen and I omitted the mozzarella because…well, I was dealing with the discovery that I now have cellulite on my thighs.  I really recommend taking an extra few minutes to make the pickled cherry tomatoes.  They provide amazing little bursts of flavor and are easy to make.

Summer Vegetable Salad with Quinoa and Pickled Cherry Tomatoes
makes 8 servings
adapted from Whipped

Ingredients
- 1/2 cup quinoa
- 1/4 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 cup diced zucchini (about 1/2 large)
- 1 ear corn, kernel removed
- 1 cup frozen shelled edamame, thawed
- 2 handfuls spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 cup pickled tomatoes (see recipe below)
- 1 Tbsp fresh oregano, finely chopped
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- salt, to taste

Start by pickling the cherry tomatoes.  They will need at least an hour for the flavors to come together.

In a large bowl, toss vegetables together.  Drizzle with oil and vinegar and toss again.  Finish with a sprinkle of salt.

Pickled Cherry Tomatoes
adapted from Plate to Plate

Ingredients
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup water
- 4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sugar
- a pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 garlic cloves, gently crushed
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes

Mix vinegar, water, salt, and sugar together until salt and sugar are dissolved. Mix the halved tomatoes, garlic, and red pepper flakes.  Pack gently into a glass jar and pour vinegar mixture over until covered.  Replace the lid, give it a few good shakes, and leave it at room temperature for 1-3 hours.

Store in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Related articles

• Roasted Cherry Tomatoes (i.e. Crack), Chickpea and Farro Salad with a Blueberry Tart (leeksoup.wordpress.com)
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• 10 Killer Quinoa Salads (eatdrinkbetter.com)

* I shared this link with this week’s Fat Tuesday and Traditional Tuesday.