Meatless Monday Treat

It was a rough weekend.

First we had a two day basketball tournament that started early both days, meaning no sleeping in for me, and then we had a party we needed to go to Saturday night that turned into the proverbial shit show:

lamborghini_aventador_lp_720_yellow-800x600 While standing around watching the rest of the party goers drinking themselves into oblivion and admiring the host’s new bright yellow half million dollar Lamborghini Aventador, the host, who’s a very tall, very large man, lost his tenuous hold on his balance and began sliding down the rear fender with only me (I’m not a big girl) between him and the hard concrete floor & wall. I did my best to break his fall without breaking myself but he ended up landing on me in a very awkward position and, in the fiasco of the fall, I threw my red wine all over the back end of his gorgeous car. In my defense, I kept him from hitting his head on the floor or the wall so there was that…LOL

Suffice it to say that I was in some pain and thus, in no mood to make dinner Sunday night. I was very glad to remember that we had a leftover pizza in the refrigerator to reheat. Tonight, due to the second day of pain being even worse, from my neck all the way down my right side, I wasn’t anxious to roll out a gourmet dinner either. Thank God my husband is pretty easy to feed.

shishito1 I can usually dress up a grilled cheese sandwich in a way to satisfy him and tonight was no different. Real butter, a loaf of sourdough, some bacon that was already cooked & chilling in the meat drawer combined with some pepper jack cheese and we had a winner. I didn’t want to just let him eat the Cheetos he favors with it, and he didn’t want any of the leftover coleslaw from the other night, so I threw together another quick side he loves:

Blistered Shishito Peppers

Heat 1 TBLS olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
Add 1 pkg of fresh Shishito peppers to the hot oil and cook, tossing them every minute or so, for 5 minutes or until the skins are blackened and blistered.
Remove from heat and serve immediately.

shishito2 Trader Joe’s sells Shishito peppers pre-bagged, you can get them at your local Asian grocery store (they are beloved in Japan), or your grocery store may have them in your produce section.

Shishito peppers are generally mild, but it seems like one in every batch will light you up! 😉

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Quick Corned Beef & Cabbage

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This is the day every year where I pull out the Crock Pot, load it with corned beef, red potatoes, chunks of carrot, onion, garlic & spices and let it spend 10 hours cooking dinner for me. But, because I made a huge trip to the grocery store and forgot some key ingredients, it looks like the slow cooker is being swapped for the new pressure cooker. I hope I don’t screw dinner up…

I’ve searched the internet for help with timing, liquid and how to keep from overcooking the vegetables and into the deep I’m diving again. Because I have added tips for keeping warm after preparing early, serving suggestions and a bonus leftover recipe, please read the recipe through before beginning your preparations.

Quick Corned Beef & Cabbage

1 – 2 to 3 pound Corned Beef Brisket (vacuum sealed in brine with spice packet)
10 to 15 Small Red Potatoes (unpeeled and whole)
1 – Yellow Onion (cut into quarters)
5 Large Carrots (peeled and cut into large chunks)
6-8 Whole Cloves Garlic (peeled)
2 TBLS Olive Oil
4 Cups Beef Broth
1 & 1/2 – 11.2 oz bottles Guinness Draught (Dark Beer)
1 Head Green Cabbage (cut into quarters)
2 TBLS Cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 Cup Cold Water

Set the pressure cooker to brown setting and place the garlic cloves, onions, 1 TBLS olive oil and corned beef (fat side down) into the cooking pan. With lid open, once cooking temperature is reached, let the fat render for 10 minutes. If your fat layer is thick you can run another 10 minute brown cycle if you like. I did, but only to brown all sides of the brisket.
With about 2 minutes left in the brown cycle, add the carrots,
When browning is done, add the spice pack, 1 bottle of the beer and broth to the pan. Close and lock the top and set to cook on high for 50 minutes. My brisket was just under 3 1/2 lbs so I upped my cooking time to 55 minutes and it was incredibly tender when I transferred it to the frying pan.
If your brisket has a thick fat layer, when timer sounds set a heavy frying pan (I use a cast-iron pan) with 1 TBLS olive oil in it on the stove over medium high heat. Quick-release the pressure then unlock and open the lid of the pressure cooker.
Remove the corned beef and transfer to preheated frying pan with fat side down. Lower heat to low and allow the fat to slowly burn off. If just browning, make sure you turn your brisket to keep it from charring.
Add the potatoes to the pressure cooker set to cook for 15 minutes.
When timer sounds, release the pressure, open the pressure cooker just long enough to add the cabbage then immediately close and lock the lid.
Bring the cooker back up to pressure and then immediately release the pressure so that you can open the cooker to remove the onions, carrots and cooked cabbage (leave the garlic). Put in a bowl and cover to keep warm.
Turn the pressure cooker to the brown setting.
Remove the corned beef from the frying pan to a cutting board, cover with foil for 5 minutes to allow juices to settle and then slice/shred as desired. Cover meat to keep it warm while preparing gravy. **See Tip below if you aren’t ready to slice and serve, or have prepared the brisket more than a couple of hours before you plan to serve it.
Deglaze the pan with about 1/2 of a bottle of Guinness. Pour the broth, spices and garlic from the pressure cooker into the drippings from the frying pan. Bring juices to a boil, scraping up any brown bits and smashing the garlic, then add the cornstarch mixture.
Whisking constantly, cook 2-3 minutes until broth/drippings thicken into the consistency of gravy.
Put gravy into a small saucepan with a lid to keep it warm or make reheating later easier.

Serve slices of the corned beef on top of the cooked cabbage with potatoes, carrots and onions piled alongside. Cover with gravy if desired.

Another way my family likes it is shredded with two forks so they can pile it on rye bread with spicy mustard, Swiss cheese, onions and cabbage with the gravy soaked potatoes and carrots on the side. A buttered piece of rye bread is great for sopping up the leftover gravy!

Because my son won’t be home for St. Patty’s this year (Boo Jason!) I will slice up half of the brisket and shred the other half while it’s hot to get the most use of the leftovers.

TIP: If you are preparing this ahead of time and want to keep it warm for an hour or two before dinner (without drying it out):

Reserve about a cup of the juices from the pressure cooker
Set your Crock Pot (Slow Cooker) to “Keep Warm”
Layer in this order: Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, Cooked WHOLE Brisket, Cooked Cabbage, then pour in the reserved juices.
Cover and keep warm as long as you need to.
Remove brisket from slow cooker to cutting board, cover for 5 minutes to allow the juices to settle, then slice as directed above.
Bring the gravy back to a boil. add the juices from the slow cooker, and whisk until well combined. If gravy is too thin add another TBSP of cornstarch to a small amount of cold water and whisk in until gravy is as thick as you’d like.

If there is any leftovers that don’t become sandwiches, the corned beef makes a flavorful hash. Combine the shredded/chopped corned beef in a cast iron skillet with melted butter, some chopped bell pepper, any leftover onion and potatoes and cooked to crispy brown perfection. Add a couple of fried eggs and some sourdough toast and it’s a great Sunday brunch!

Instead of taking roughly 12 hours from start to finish using the slow cooker, this year’s St. Patty’s Day feast was ready in about an hour and a half! The pressure cooker shaved 10 1/2 hours off of the cook time and, instead of not being hungry once the cooking was done (because I didn’t have to be tortured by smelling it cook all day), I was able to enjoy this annual favorite with everyone else at dinner!

What Goes With Quinoa?

So my first foray into pressure cooking went off without me getting maimed or burned, so I guess I’ll be using my new toy again soon! I made a huge batch of quinoa that turned out light, fluffy and quite tasty. Just one problem: we aren’t big eaters of any grain at dinner time outside of rice, so I was left at a bit of a loss as to what to do with my big bowl of quinoa.

lemonchickenquinoa The cupboards, refrigerator and freezer were rather bare due to the two week vacation we had just returned from, so I was left with very few options. A lemon, Roma tomato, small avocado, a bag of frozen edamame, and 1/2 lb of frozen diced chicken breast were all I could salvage to throw together some kind of dinner hearty enough to satisfy my husband.

Lemon Chicken with Avocado & Tomato Quinoa

1 1/2 Cups Cooked Quinoa (See yesterday’s post)
1 Small Roma Tomato (diced)
1 Small Ripe Avocado (diced)
1 Cup Frozen Shelled Edamame (Soybeans) Cooked
Juice of 1 Large Lemon
2 Tbls Olive Oil
1/2 Lb Fresh Diced Chicken Breast
1 tsp Minced Garlic
1/8 tsp Dried Dill
1/8 tsp +/- Arrowroot (to thicken the sauce)
Pinch Cayenne Pepper
Freshly Ground Salt & Pepper

Juice the lemon, stir in the arrowroot and set aside. In a medium frying pan, heat 2 TBLS olive oil and the minced garlic over medium-high heat. Add the diced chicken, season with freshly ground sea salt and pepper, and brown for about 2 minutes per side. Add the edamame, dill, cayenne pepper and lemon juice mixture to the pan and continue cooking about 3 minutes until edamame and chicken are done and sauce is well incorporated.

Spoon about 1/2 Cup of the cooked quinoa and about 1/3 of the chicken mixture into a bowl. Top with the diced avocado and tomatoes and add more ground pepper to taste.

Light enough for my post-vacation diet yet hearty enough that 2 bowls satisfied my husband’s appetite. Win-Win!

A New Kitchen Toy

pressurecooker It seems I am always getting some kind of new kitchen gadget. Something as small as a new pair of nesting measuring cups can make my day. So imagine the glee I felt today when I opened the box from Amazon containing my new T-Fal 6 Quart Pressure Cooker!

To be honest, traditional pressure cookers have always scared me a bit. I watched my grandma and mother-in-law fearlessly use them with ease and skill, but the unpredictable nature of the steam behind the pressure made me steer away from any recipes that even mentioned the need for pressure cooking.

After seeing more and more positive media about the joys of cooking in “no time” using the new electric pressure cookers with pre-programmed settings for as many as 25 different foods, the ability to steam, cook, simmer, an even slow cook in one compact unit, I took the plunge and ordered one for myself.

I also bought the two top rated pressure cooker cook books I could find on Amazon.com so I’d be ready to prepare a gourmet meal upon my return from vacation this week. So what was my pressure cooker’s virginity breaking first meal? I chickened out of doing anything that I might result in me wasting a lot of ingredients and made a big batch of Quinoa!

Combine:

1 3/4 Cups Quinoa
2 1/2 Cups Chicken Broth (If I don’t have any canned broth on hand, I make my broth using 3 cups water boiled with 3 Wyler’s Herbed Chicken Bouillon Cubes)
Pinch of Freshly Ground Sea Salt
1 TBLS Butter

Put pressure cooking pan/bowl back into the machine and secure the lid as per your instructions. Turn your pressure cooker on and, if you have a setting for rice, select the rice setting and hit start. If you do not have a rice setting, you can manually set your machine to cook for 9 minutes on medium then hit start and let the machine get warmed up to do its job.

When cooking has finished, follow your machine’s instructions for releasing steam/ returning to normal pressure before opening the lid. My machine tells me to press the steam release button on the handle and wait until no more steam is escaping before turning the handle and opening the lid.

quinoa Remove the quinoa to a bowl and fluff to separate the grains. If you aren’t eating all of the quinoa prepared, store in a sealed container and refrigerate to eat throughout the week. Quinoa is fun because you can eat it as a side dish plain/with cheese/ or with vegetables, add some veggies to it as a salad, or add meat/chicken/fish/shellfish as a light main dish.

Fit Fat Tuesday Feast

I love the comfort foods of winter but, because California gets a very short spell of cool weather, that means that I can’t just eat what I want and hide under sweatshirts and big sweaters…UG! Case in point: last week we had some of our lowest temperatures for late January/early February and this week it’s been in the high 80’s and low 90’s. I am going to be back in spring clothes before too long, so I have to stick to my diet plan.

Just because I’m watching what I eat doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy Fat Tuesday, right? By re-working one of my favorite Mardi Gras delights, I can (and did!) Laissez les bon temps roulez.

Let the Good Times Roll “California Style” Jambalaya

1 – 12 oz Chub Jimmy Dean Reduced Fat Premium Pork Sausage
2/3 pound Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Diced
12 oz – Raw (Peeled, Deveined & Tails Removed) Shrimp
6 oz – Aidell’s Cajun Style Andouille Sausage
1 – 14.5 oz Diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes
2 Pkgs – Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice Natural Whole Grain Brown Rice (90 Second Microwave Packages)
1 Red Bell Pepper – Chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper – Chopped
1 Bunch Green Onions
2 TBLS Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic (Peeled & Minced)
2 TBLS Zatarain’s Cajun Spice Blend
Cayenne Pepper, Black Pepper To Taste

In a heavy duty skillet, preheated over medium-high heat, add 1 TBLS olive oil, the garlic, chopped onions, and chopped bell peppers. Cook while stirring about 5 minutes.

Preheat a large heavy duty stock pot or stew pan over medium high heat. Add 1 TBLS olive oil and the pork sausage to the pan. Break up with a wooden spoon and cook until nearly done, Add the diced chicken, sprinkle with the Cajun Spice, and continue cooking until chicken is nearly cooked through (4-5 minutes). Slice the sausage into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices and add to the pan. Cut each peeled, deveined, tailed shrimp in half and add to the other meats in the pan. Cook about 2 minutes.

Tear the packages to vent and microwave the Uncle Ben’s rice packets for 90 seconds each on high.

Add the sautéed vegetables to the cooked meat. Stir in the canned tomatoes and bring all to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and add the two packages of rice to the pan.

Stir to combine. Add 1 TBLS ground black pepper and about 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper.

Serve with hot sauce of your choice, and, if you’re like me and love it California Style, add 1/4 of an avocado to the top of your bowl of steaming jambalaya.

Are you on Facebook? You might be interested in the things I may not devote an entire blog post to: recipes, food facts, nutritional information, photos and other things that make my mouth water. I may not write a blog post every day, but there are daily updates to my This Girl Loves To Eat community at: https://www.facebook.com/ThisGirlLovesHerFood

It’s A Comfort Food Kind Of Day

dietfoodjuliachild

I try to balance being somewhat diet conscious with being creative in the kitchen like I did with the dinner I made last night: Bacon & Roasted Cauliflower Chowder. It was hearty, satisfying, and had a lot of flavor, but, with the exception of the fat & sodium from the bacon, was super healthy! I even kept my husband from his requested bread/bagel chips/ crackers alongside by baking up some thin crispy sweet potato chips while the soup was cooking. I satisfied his need for something starchy but didn’t add unnecessary carbs or calories! Win-Win!

That said, I have been known (alright, it happens a lot) to totally justify throwing all thoughts of the diet out the window when I eat at restaurants and indulge in luscious dishes I am not quite skilled enough (or brave enough) to try to re-create at home.

It’s hardest of all to be diet conscious when I’m feeling tired, stressed or sick and just want comforting, basic, no frills food like my Mom, Grandma and Alabama Aunts used to make.

Today is one of those comfort days. I have been battling bronchitis for more than 3 weeks and all I wanted was a no hassle simple bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. I dug through the cupboards and found a variety of options:

Gluten Free Oats (on hand for my gluten intolerant girlfriend);
Whole Rolled Oats (unopened and I don’t even remember buying them);
Quaker Quick 1 Minute Oats in the Cardboard Cylinder (for making cookies);
Quaker Old Fashioned Oats; and
A single microwave packet of Nutrisystem Oats ( my husband’s) YUCK and NO THANKS!

I have no interest in the over-processed, artificially sweetened and flavored, chopped into dust oats from a skinny envelope! I wasn’t in the mood for the time involved in cooking the whole rolled oats, skipped the cookie & gluten free ingredients and that left me only one viable option:

oatmeal The stomach filling, hunger suppressing, creamy goodness and comfort of the white haired man on the round cardboard package of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats!

I had always assumed that the pre-packaged diet foods that come in those expensive, very restrictive diets was healthy. Boy was I in for a surprise! Have you ever looked at the back of one of those boxes of instant oatmeal in the envelope?

For 150 Calories, in a package of Maple Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal, you also get:

35.4 g Carbs (3 g Fiber)
7 g Sugar
1.5 g Fat
4 g Protein
140 mg Sodium

In order to make their oatmeal, you have to prepare it with 1/2 cup of fat free milk which adds an additional:

40 Calories (190 Calories total)
65 mg Sodium (205 mg Sodium total)
6 g Carbs (41.4 g Carbs total)
6 g Sugar (13 g Sugar total)
4 g Protein (A bonus for 8 g Protein total)

Compare that to what you get from a bigger (what they call “Heart Healthy” on the label) portion (still only 150 Calories) of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats that you spice up yourself with about 1/8 tsp Real Vanilla Extract and 1/4 tsp Cinnamon:

27.6 g Carbs (4 g Fiber)
1 g Sugar
3 g Fat
5 g Protein
0 mg Sodium

By taking 1 more minute in the microwave or a whole 3 more minutes to prepare in a pan on the stove you do lose the 3 extra g of Protein that using milk in the prep of the packaged oats adds, but you add 1 g of additional filling Fiber and save yourself from ingesting:

40 additional calories (that can be spent towards a glass of wine later)
205 mg Sodium
12 g Sugar

The preparation is really simple.

The fastest way is to prepare it in the microwave. In a microwave safe cereal bowl, I measure 3/4 Cup Quaker Old Fashioned Oats and stir in 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon. I then add 1/2 cups water and 1/8 tsp Vanilla stirring all until it’s well combined. I cook the oatmeal on high power for two minutes then give the mixture a stir to test the consistency. My microwave is 10 years old, so I play it safe to avoid the dreaded boil over. I add 2 more cycles of 30 seconds on high, stirring in between, and end up with a creamy, but not dense and pasty bowl of hearty oatmeal.

I wish I could convince my husband that it really is easy to do, and can even be pre-packaged in a zip bag to take to work, so that he would stop buying and eating the Nutrisystem meals that bring so much unnecessary sodium and so many preservatives into his system, but that’s a fight for another day.

Today I am just going to sit here and enjoy my healthy, hearty, and oh so comforting, bowl of steaming hot oatmeal.

My Family Demanded Meat For Dinner

I tried to slip my planned Meatless Monday dinner menu past my husband and son as they left for work this morning and was met with a groan. When your child (whether he’s a grown ass man or not) whines like he’s being starved, Mom caves.

My Ralph’s Fresh Fare (AKA Kroeger’s) is too expensive to shop at for every day groceries, but I can’t pass up their meat department. It is head and shoulders above my local Albertson’s in quality, selection of available cuts of meat and variety of wild caught fish. They frequently have meat specials so I stock up and load the freezer when I can. I headed to the garage, dug through the icy depths and came across a perfectly trimmed, vacuum packaged Flat Iron steak.

I still had a couple of ripe avocados off my tree, a couple of jalapenos that needed to be used up, 3 green onions nearing their toss time, and 1/2 a lemon that was destined for freshening the garbage disposal if I didn’t use it soon. I had already tossed the wilted cilantro, so no Chimichurri. The basil in the drawer was well beyond it’s crispy best, so no Pesto. But, have no fear, with some pepper, olive oil and garlic salt a sauce was beginning to take shape in my head.

Pan Fried Flat Iron Steak with Spicy Avocado Sauce and Asparagus Risotto

Add about 2 TBLS Olive Oil to a 10″ skillet and heat over medium-high heat until oil is hot but not smoking. Liberally season a 2 LB Flat Iron Steak (trimmed of all visible fat) with Pepper and Garlic Salt and place in pan. Sear each side until browned (about 5 minutes per side) lower heat to medium-low and cook another 5 to 8 minutes per side for medium rare; 8 to 10 minutes per side for medium; 10 to 12 minutes per side for Medium-Well to Well. Time is estimated – adjust based on thickness of your meat.

While the steak is cooking prepare the sauce. In my Vitamix container I combined 1 and 1/2 ripe avocados, 1 large seeded jalapeno, 3 cleaned green onions, 2 TBLS Olive Oil and juice from 1/2 of a small ripe lemon. Process until it becomes a smooth, medium-thick sauce. Add garlic salt and pepper to taste and set sauce aside.

When steak reaches desired degree of doneness, leave in pan and remove from the heat to seal in the juices before slicing.

I found a bag of Trader Joe’s Asparagus Risotto in the freezer so I stir fried it in a dry non-stick skillet for about 8 minutes, then divided it among the three plates.

After thinly slicing the steak across the grain at an angle and resting it atop the risotto, I spooned a generous amount of the avocado sauce onto the meat and served it to my salivating family.

Dinner took about 30 minutes from stove top to plate and the cavemen in my household were satisfied & stuffed.

Are you on Facebook? You might be interested in the things I may not devote an entire blog post to: recipes, food facts, nutritional information, photos and other things that make my mouth water. If so, visit my This Girl Loves To Eat community at: https://www.facebook.com/ThisGirlLovesHerFood

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