Recipe: Low Carb Strawberry Cheesecake Protein Bars

After I discovered that Atkins bars make my blood sugar shoot sky high, I decided that I would learn how to make my own protein bars. I wanted something that I could have on hand for easy breakfasts or meals on the go for those days when I'm completely sick of jerky, cheese crackers, & flax muffins. I found a company, Quest, that makes Strawberry Cheesecake protein bars, and I really wanted to try them, but I didn't want to pay $25 for a case of 12 bars I might not like and the closet store that sells them is over 30 miles away. So I started researching DIY protein bars -- let me tell you: there are a TON of DIY protein bar recipes out there... but NONE of them were for strawberry cheesecake bars! I found pumpkin cheesecake bars, which would probably be delicious, but I wanted strawberry, damnit.

So... I took a look at the Quest Strawberry Cheesecake bars and decided I could make my own version! Their bars start with whey protein and fiber and add in almonds, freeze dried strawberries, stevia, and flavors. I picked up a bag of freeze dried strawberries at Trader Joe's, plus a can of Designer Whey protein powder, French Vanilla. (It's actually cheaper to get the Whey Protein on amazon through subscribe and save, but I wanted to make sure I liked the stuff before ordering two cans... I do like it!)

I just started experimenting, testing as I went, and came up with a DELICIOUS strawberry cheesecake protein bar recipe! I don't have a picture for you, because, well, they aren't exactly pretty! But they taste awesome! Each bar has 150 calories, nearly 12 grams of protein, and 3 net carbs (6 total, with 3 dietary fiber). [I guess, technically, they have more carbs since they are sweetened with a touch of Erythitol, which is a sugar alcohol, but you could definitely swab that out if you are sensitive. I got a free bag recently and have been testing it out -- to my surprise, I like it!]

Moira's Low Carb Strawberry Cheesecake Protein Bars

• 3 scoops protein powder (I used Designer Whey, French Vanilla)
• 2 Tb flaxseed, crushed in coffee grinder
• 1 Tb + 1 t. slivered almonds, ground in coffee grinder 
• 2 Tb Erythitol (75% as sweet as sugar, sub sweetener as desired) 
• 1/4 cup of freeze dried strawberries, crushed 
• 1/8 c. coconut flour 
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes 
• 2 oz cream cheese, softened 
• 1/4 cup water (add as needed, YMMV) 
• 6 drops vanilla flavored liquid stevia 
• 8 drops Capella Flavoring NY cheesecake

Combine dry ingredients, minus 1 scoop protein powder.

Add softened cream cheese, liquid stevia, and flavoring drops. Stir well.

Add water and mix well. Your mixture will be sticky!

Now add in the last scoop of powder and mixture well with your hands. By the time you are done, your bars will be only slightly sticky.

Divide mixture into 6 bars. Freeze or fridge until set.

If frozen, thaw in fridge overnight or for a few hours (perhaps grab one for lunch at work?)

After chilling for an hour, wrap individually and keep in fridge for a week or so or a month or so in the freezer.

The bars are quite chewy and filling!

Serving Size: 6 bars, approximately 3 inches x 1 inch

Notes:

• If you use a different protein powder, you might find you need a different proportion of water.
• Sub in different flavored freeze dried fruits (from trader joes) for a different flavor! I plan on trying blueberry next.. yum!
• Taste your mixture before adding the final scoop of protein powder -- make any adjustments before adding in the last scoop. I wanted my bars sweet but not super sweet -- you might want more sweetness than me -- same goes for the cheesecake flavoring. 8 drops tasted perfect for me, but you might want a few more (or maybe a few less!)
• Each bar has 11 g protein & just under 3 net carbs (There are 2.8 gr dietary fiber, or 5.6 grams total carbs, not counting the sugar alcohol).

Here's a link to the recipe on SparkPeople.

Recipe: Hot & Sour Eggplant

It's been a while since I've shared a recipe here, so I thought that today I would share my current favorite dinner recipe: Hot & Sour Eggplant. This stuff is AWESOME! If I get a hankering for Chinese food, I make this recipe at home. It tastes as good as anything I can order out and it's so very easy to prepare!  With the exception of the eggplant, all of the ingredients are things that I have as staples all the time, so no difficult shopping lists either. Plus, it's vegan, how about that?

Tastes better than it looks!

Hot and Sour Eggplant

You will need:
6 long Chinese eggplants or 1 -  2 regular eggplants*
2 cups sliced bell peppers (any color) -- approximately 2 - 3 fresh or use frozen Melange A Trois from Trader Joes
1 large onion, cut in half then sliced
4 cloves garlic (optional, but delish!)
(Note: You could also use only eggplants, leaving out the peppers and onions. I like to add them in for variety, plus it tastes great!)

* I have made this with both and haven't noticed any difference in taste. I said 1-2 because it really depends on the size of the eggplants that you have available. If it's a huge eggplant, one should be fine. Smaller ones might warrant two.

For the sauce:
6 T. soy sauce (or tamari)
4 T. rice vinegar (any vinegar will do)
4 T. sugar
4 t. cornstarch
2 t. olive oil (sub vegetable oil as needed)
1 T. Wild Thymes Thai Chili Roasted Garlic dipping sauce (to taste! like it hotter? add more! I prefer slightly milder)

Almost time to buy a new jar!

About the Thai Chili sauce: I love this stuff! When I order takeout Nim Chow from my favorite Thai place (Apsara!), I add a little of this to the peanut dipping sauce for zing. Wow! The original recipe that mine is based on called for green chile pepper and chili oil. (My version uses 4 times the sauce, so alter accordingly.) You can buy the sauce online or look for it at a specialty-type grocery store near you. I bought mine at the East Side Market Place in Providence.

Method:

Cube eggplant (no need to peel) and sprinkle heartily with salt (about 2 T.) Cover with cold water and soak for 30 minutes. Rinse very well and lay out on paper towels to drain. The salt removes some of the bitterness that eggplant can have. I don't recommend skipping this step!

Heat 4 T. vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and peppers and cook until softened. Add the garlic (minced) and cook for an additional minute before adding the eggplant. Cook until the eggplant is softened, about 10 minutes.

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.

When the eggplant is softened, stir the sauce into the skillet. Stir until the eggplant is evenly coated with sauce and the mixture has thickened, about a minute. Serve immediately.

When serving this, I usually serve it over oven-baked brown rice, which if you start it right before chopping and soaking the eggplant, will be ready at close to the same time as the eggplant mixture. Last night, I used a mixture of leftover brown rice and microwaved quinoa. Delicious!

Recipes: Stuffed Pepper Soup

This easy and delicious soup was my "intuitive soup" of the day yesterday. I had three lovely red peppers in my fridge and I knew that I wanted to use them to make soup.  I also had leftover brown rice, so I thought, "mmm, stuffed pepper soup." Stuffed peppers are good, sure, but I love stuffed pepper soup. You get the same flavors with half the work. And, actually, half the peppers, too. (Have red peppers, but don't want soup? Try my Red Pepper Jelly recipe.)

I make all of my soup in a crockpot because I like to be able to throw all the ingredients together and walk away. A few hours later, the house smells delicious and I know soup is ready to eat. I made a batch of gluten-free English muffins to go with the soup. They aren't quite the same as "regular" English muffins, but that's okay, because they are better. They are like a cross between English muffins and biscuits, and they are so, so good. I didn't have any olive oil when I made this last batch, so I used melted butter, woohoo! They are certainly not the healthiest, but they are delicious. I can't decide which ones I like better.

On to the soup...

Recipes: Intuitive Soup

Image credit: Sydney Morning Herald

Just to be upfront: this isn't actually a recipe. This is more like a general guideline for soup making. I rarely follow recipes for making soup, and if I do, it's to consult a few recipes and to pick and choose the parts that I like. I prefer to make soup in my crockpot, so that I don't have to worry about burning anything stuck to the bottom. Today, I am making a batch of soup incorporating items from my fridge that needed to be used up. 

To make intuitive soup, you will need:

a large crockpot

2 quarts of broth*

2 - 3 cups chopped veggies+

1 chicken breast (optional)

2/3 cup of rice or pasta (optional)

seasonings to taste

* If you don't have broth on hand, you can easily make your own. I often boil chicken breasts with random seasonings in a pot full of water and use the broth from that to make soup or risotto. You can use only vegetables, too. Some veggies that work well are: onions, carrots, celery (not the leaves!), mushrooms. You can also skip making broth and add extra veggies to your pot of soup for added flavor. I also like to cook a chicken breast right in the crockpot, which adds flavor, too.  

I am currently on a low-sodium diet, so most bouillon options and broths from the store are out for me. I do like Vogue veggie base though, which is a vegan vegetable broth powder available at Whole Foods and probably other places, too.

+ For vegetables use: onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, tomatoes, kale, escarole, spinach, butternut squash, potatoes, beans, or whatever you have on hand. Experiment! I like using a can of diced tomatoes or tomatoes with green chiles, depending on what taste I want. For my soup today, I added about 1.5 cups of shredded cabbage, because I had some in my fridge. I also added 5 small diced carrots and a can of tomatoes with green chiles. Sometimes I'll use salsa instead of the tomatoes. 

Adding rice or pasta is totally optional, but will result in a thicker, more filling soup. Pastas tend to disintegrate when the soup isn't eaten right away, so use pasta if you think you'll finish most of the soup within a day or two. I added 2/3 cup of brown rice to my soup today, which means it will take longer to cook, but since I start my soups early in the morning, it should be ready for dinner, no problem.

I generally wait to add seasonings until closer to eating the soup, so that the natural flavors can blend before I taste it. Seasoning you might want to add are: salt, pepper, cumin, basil, or thyme. Really, though, any seasonings will work. Use what you like and taste each time you add something. Other flavors you might want to add are: Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, or lemon, depending on the flavors of your soup.

Recipes: Low Sodium Turkey Butternut Squash Soup (Gluten Free)

This is barely a recipe, but it's quite delicious so I wanted to share. The soup came about because I had some cooked turkey breast and spinach that needed used up before it went bad. I decided soup was the perfect thing, but I was feeling kind of lazy. Luckily, I had a box of Trader Joe's Low Sodium Butternut Squash soup on hand. The low sodium soup tends to be a bit bland, so adding extra ingredients was the perfect way to perk it up. Here's what I came up with: a five-minute soup that's super delish.

Turkey Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

You need:
1 32 Fl. Oz carton of TJ's Low Sodium Butternut Squash Soup
2 cups of diced cooked turkey breast (I'm sure chicken would be fine, too)
1 can of butter beans, drained and rinsed
2 big handfuls of fresh spinach
1/4 t. ground sage
1/2 t. thyme, crumbled

Mix everything together and bring to just boiling. Serve immediately. That's it! Enjoy!

Recipes: Ginger Tea Healing Remedy

image credit: http://lilithsapothecary.wordpress.com/tag/recipe/

I had a terrible head cold this past week. It started with a mild headache on Sunday and turned into a full-blown nasal-clogging, sinus headache cold by Monday. It was tough making it through my classes on Monday and Tuesday, particularly, but by Thursday, I was feeling much better. During my cold, I drank a lot of ginger tea. If you haven't drank ginger tea while you were sick, you really should try it the next time you feel a cold coming on. It's very easy to make and inexpensive.

Moira's Ginger Tea Healing Remedy
1/2 inch piece of fresh gingerroot (buy extra, because you'll probably want more than one cup during your cold)
1 or 2 wedges of fresh lemon
1 T. honey
1 tea bag (green tea, optional)

First, peel the ginger with a spoon. This might sound weird, but the skin is very soft. If you rub the side of a spoon it will come off very easily. Grate or chop the ginger very fine. Pour 1 cup of hot water over the ginger and allow to steep for a few minutes. (If you are using a tea bag, add it now). Squeeze lemon juice into the cup. Stir in honey to taste. Honey, ginger, and lemon all have healing properties, so combining them all together increases their potency. I never add tea to my ginger tea, but Nick doesn't like ginger very much, so I make his with tea to take away the super "gingery" ness of the drink. If you like ginger, add more to taste!

You could alternately make a huge batch of this and head up individual servings as needed. Stay well!

Recipes: Best French Onion Soup (Vegetarian / Vegan)

I love French Onion Soup. LOVE it. When I took a trip to San Diego many years ago, my friend and I went on a quest to find the best French Onion Soup in the city. We even tried French Onion Soup in Tiajuana (Sopa de Cebollas, I believe). So I'm something of an expert, and I'm picky. Not just any French Onion Soup will do. It has to have just the right combination of flavors to really hit the mark. This recipe resulted in the BEST French Onion Soup I've ever had; my boyfriend agrees. The flavors are just right, and when topped with day-old French bread and thin slices of Gruyere cheese, this soup is a sure winner.

A note, before you decide to get started: Don't rush the onion caramelization process. If you can't let the onions cook for the full time (2 1/2 - 3 hours), make something else. It's not like you have to stand over a hot stove for three hours using my method, but you do have to be able to let the onions cook properly, or your soup won't come out as great. If you are hungry, make something else for dinner. This soup is best started around lunchtime in order to have an AMAZING dinner experience. Save this recipe for a day when you have some free time. If you are going to be home all day cleaning one day, that would be a great time to make this soup. Allow about 4 hours from start to finish, which sounds like a lot, but trust me, this soup is worth it.

You will need:

5 large sweet onions, about 4 - 5 pounds.
1 T. salt
1 T. salt
fresh cracked black pepper
balsamic vinegar, about 2 T.
olive oil, about 1/4 cup
1/4 cup butter (use margarine for your vegan version)
3 T. all-purpose flour
2 t. thyme
1 t. basil
1 bay leaf
1/2 t. mustard powder
2 T. soy sauce
1/2 cup wine (I used Trader Joe's J.W. Morris 2007 California Gewurztraminer, but any red or white would be fine)
1/4 t. liquid smoke
7 cup vegetable broth (I used Better Than Buillion vegetable flavor, but use your favorite)
Gruyere cheese, to serve. I got about 1/4 pound, which serves four
[If you have making a vegan version, see the Vegan Gruyere Cheese recipe below)

Large 12 inch cooking pan, oven-proof
Large crock pot (mine is probably 3 quarts?)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove outer skin on onions, cut off top and bottom. Cut onions in half, then slice. You don't have to have uniform pieces. I make my pieces no bigger than about 1/2 inch thick. Break apart pieces with your hands so you have separate slices and chunks. Add all onion pieces to your large cooking pan. Cut 1/2 butter (or margarine) into small chunks and divide over the onions. Add pan to oven and wander away.

You will need to stir (with tongs, if you have 'em, for best results) about every 30 minutes for the next two hours or so. You want the onions to reach a nice golden color and be soft. You don't have to be super particular. Just try to remember in 30 minutes to stir, but it's no big deal if you leave it a little longer.

After 1 hour, splash with olive oil, about 1/4 cup, but you don't have to be precise.

After about 2 hours, your onions should be looking pretty cooked and smelling good. Add 1 T. salt and 1 T. sugar and stir. Cook for 30 more minutes. Now your onions should look light yellow or brown and getting the delicious golden appearance so important for this soup.

Splash the onions with balsamic vinegar, about 2 T, and sprinkle black pepper generously over the onions. Stir. Cook for 15 more minutes.

Now add 3 T. flour, stir, and cook for 15 more minutes. (Note, if you like caramelized onions as a pizza topping, pick out some onions before you add the flour and refrigerate for up to two weeks until it's pizza night. Yum!).

Now it's finally time to actually make the soup. Plug in your crockpot and turn the heat to high. Add all the onions and any juices to the crockpot. You can deglaze the pan with the wine, if you'd like. I didn't bother, but you certainly can. Add the thyme, basil, mustard powder, soy sauce, and wine to the crockpot. Stir and although to cook for about 5 - 10 minutes. (A note on the thyme: some people might find 2 t. of thyme to be too overpowering. We found it delicious, but you might want to start with 1 t. then add more to taste.)

Add liquid smoke (use a careful hand with this stuff!) and broth. If you don't have liquid smoke, you could certainly skip it and still have yummy soup, but it's cheap (about $2.50), found near the BBQ sauces, and adds a lovely smoky flavor that makes this soup more reminiscent of the meat-broth versions.

Allow to cook until the soup is hot, about 30 minutes to 1 hour. (Use hot broth if you want the soup to heat up faster.) You can add slightly less or slightly more broth to taste. In fact, I added 7 cups off broth, then after we both had dinner, I added 3 cups more to fill the pot, since I felt there were plenty of onions to stretch the soup a bit. Tastes just as good today. In fact, this soup tastes better the second day, so definitely prepare the full batch. I hear it freezes well, too, but I haven't tried that yet.

To serve:

Slice day old French bread into rounds. Heat a non-stick frying pan to high. Without adding any oil, add bread and lightly toast on each side. You just want to remove extra moisture from the bread. Slice Gruyere cheese into thin slices -- you could grate it, too, if you'd rather.

Looking for a vegan version? Try this:

Vegan Gruyere Cheese

You'll need:

1 cup water
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp flour
4 tsp arrowroot (or cornstarch, if that's what you have handy)
1 1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Pour into a small pan and cook over medium high heat for about 5 minutes or until thick. Spread this cheese on your French bread rounds.

Broiling:

Preheat your broiler. Before preparing your soup, make sure your soup bowls or crocks will fit under the broiler -- I was going to use a toaster oven, but they wouldn't fit so I had to use the oven's broiler. Taking a second now to make sure might save you annoyance later.

Ladle soup into bowls. Add bread flat across the top of the bowl. Add cheese. Broil for a few minutes until the cheese is nice and bubbly. Serve with a glass of wine (see above) and enjoy. Oh la la!

Recipes: Vegetarian Enchiladas and Perfect Spanish Rice

My boyfriend loves cheese enchiladas, but I hate the pure fat content of a dinner that is basically corn and cheese, plus a little red enchilada sauce. I wanted to beef up the veggie content and decrease the fat without having enchiladas that tasted bland or boring. I also wanted to create a meal that was as filling as it was delicious so that one day's dinner could feed two tonight and four tomorrow night, when we'll have company. So I whipped up a batch of Spanish rice to accompany the enchiladas. Yum! The dinner was delicious and disappeared quickly from our plates. Try it, and let me know what you think!

You'll need:

For the enchiladas --

1 bottle Trader Joe's enchilada sauce (you could substitute your own choice, but I loved TJ's brand)
1 bag shredded cheese (about 2 cups) - use cheddar or a Mexican blend
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black olives, drained and cut in half
1 large white onion, diced - reserve 1/4 cup for the rice recipe (follows)
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup fat-free ricotta cheese
1 8 oz. package tempeh, crumbled
1 t. ground cumin
1/4 cup salsa
1 cup water
3 cloves garlic, or 1 t. Trader Joe's crushed garlic
2 T. olive oil
1 egg
corn tortillas, about 2 dozen

For the rice --
1 cup white rice
1 cup salsa
1 pinch saffron, about 6 strands (optional, but gives a great color!)
2 cups vegetable broth
1. T olive oil
1/4 cup diced white onion (reserved from above)
3 cloves garlic, or 1 t. Trader Joe's crushed garlic

You'll also need:

wooden spoon, for stirring veggies as they cook
large frying pan
small saucepan, with cover
large bowl
11 x 13 glass baking dish
aluminum foil to cover

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In frying pan, heat 2 T. oil and saute onions until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and diced peppers. Cook for a few more minutes until soft. Add the crumbled tempeh and cumin, stir well and cook until warmed through. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

In large bowl, mix beans, olives, tempeh mixture, 1 large handful of shredded cheese, egg, and ricotta cheese.

To assemble enchiladas:

Set up an assembly line like this:

1st - wipe out frying pan and heat over medium high flame.
2nd - large clean plate, stack of tortillas
3rd - bowl of enchilada filling
4th - small bowl with rest of cheese, less 1/2 cup reserved for topping
5th - glass baking dish

In the baking dish, add salsa, 1/2 cup of water, and about 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce. Mix this around a little, but it doesn't have to be perfectly stirred up. You just wanted a little liquid all around the bottom.

Heat corn tortillas, one at a time, for 5 seconds on each side. Add to plate (you can use tongs, but i just used my hands to grab 'em quickly from pan.). Add small amount of filling, about 1/4 cup, and a small sprinkle of cheese, about 1 T. Roll gently and place seam side down in the dish.

Repeat until the dish is full. You might have extra filling (I did). Save this for a future batch of enchiladas, just make sure to cook it within a few days because of the egg. Once cooked, the enchiladas will keep well in your fridge for another week. Freeze them for quick dinners later!

Pour about half a bottle of sauce over the enchiladas, doing your best to cover them well. Use the back of a spoon to spread the sauce around a bit. Add about 3/4 cup of water to the bottle of sauce, shake well, and pour the liquid all over the enchiladas. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top, cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes until the cheese is bubbly.

For the rice, heat saucepan over medium high heat and cook onion in oil until soft. Add garlic and rice, stir and cook for about 2 minutes, until the rice is lightly browned. Add the broth, salsa, and saffron to the pot. Cover and bring to a bowl. When the rice is boiling, turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and keep covered until ready to eat.

This recipe will easily feed six to eight hungry adults. If you have leftovers, pack small servings for office lunches during the week and make your co-workers jealous. Enjoy!

Recipes: Crockpot Vegan Mulligatawny Indian Soup

The history of mulligatawny is hard to trace back to one definitive source. Legend has it that British soliders in India ordered their servants to prepare soup for them and mulligatawny (meaning "pepper water") was the result. The soldiers brought the recipe back to England, where it took on a life of its on.

No two mulligatawny recipes are ever the same, but generally the soup includes a chicken base, shredded meat, fruit, vegetables, cream, Indian spices, and, of course, curry. In this vegan crockpot recipe, I've kept the flavors as best I could by substituting winter squash and tempeh for the meat and coconut powder for the cream. Note that when you are making this soup, you will want to adjust the spices to your taste level. I don't like my food very hot-spicy, but if you do, you might want to kick up the seasonings a notch.

Like all curries, the flavor of this soup improves with time, so don't be afraid to prepare it several days in advance. Also, don't be afraid to swap out ingredients: replace cranberries with raisins, butternut squash with acorn squash, lime juice with lemon, etc.

Vegan Mulligatawny Soup Recipe
for the Crockpot or Slow Cooker

You'll need the following ingredients:

1 cup roasted & smashed butternut squash*
1 cup roasted and smashed pumpkin*
8 oz 5-grain tempeh, cubed
3/4 c. chopped carrots
1 medium apple, peeled, cored, & diced
1 15 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 T. crushed/chopped dried tomatos
3 T. diced fresh green onions
1/4 c. dried cranberries
1 t. fresh lime juice
1 T. garam masala
1 t. mild curry powder
1 t. tumeric
3 cups vegetable broth
4 T. coconut powder (from your local Asian market)
1 t. smoked salt
1 t. cumin
1/4 t. ginger powder
dash cayenne pepper

In a large crockpot or slow cooker, put squash(es) and tempeh in bottom of crockpot. Add apple, carrots, canned & dried tomatoes, onions, and cranberries. Add lime juice, spices, coconut powder, and broth. Stir to mix spices into the broth. Cover and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours. The soup is ready to serve as soon as it get hots, but cooking longer will allow flavors to blend. Serve over a scoop of cooked rice.

* I cut my squashes in half, removed the seeds and innards, and roasted cut side down in a 400 degree F oven until they were tender, about an hour and a half. Don't throw away those seeds: both butternut squash and pumpkins seeds can be rinsed and toasted for a delicious snack!

Recipes: Crockpot Cuban Ropa Vieja Stew

The first time I had Ropa Vieja was at a Cuban restaurant called Cuban Revolution in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. I ordered the Ropa Vieja because it was, well, the cheapest thing on the menu, and I was, like always, broke. Plus, it was a chilly October day and I knew a nice bowl of soup would fill me up and leave me warm. The Ropa Vieja was so delicious, especially for a menu item that included a description with the words "old clothes", and I've never forgotten how yummy it was. A few months later, I ordered the dish again, but it just wasn't as good as the first time! (I guess nothing ever is, eh?)

This weekend, I had a hankering for Ropa Vieja, and I decided that instead of taking a trip to Providence and dealing with trying to find a place to park, I'd make my own version and hope for the best. The stew took 4 hours to cook in my crockpot, so it's not a fast recipe, but it was so delicious that everyone eating dinner last night cleaned their plates. My boyfriend had seconds and might have gone for a third if he'd had room in his stomach and we didn't have to leave for our moonlight maze and hayride. I don't cook with meat very often, but when I do, I want a delicious dish that's worth the expense that meat usually entails. This dish was fantastic and I know I will make it again and again.

Moira's Ropa Vieja, Slow Cooker Recipe
Serves 6 - 8, maybe more

You'll need:

1 T. vegetable oil
2 lbs beef flank steak* see note below
1 cup chopped celery ribs
1 small sweet onion, cut into thick chunks
1 15 oz can diced tomato
1.5 cups beef broth
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 green bell pepper, seeded & cut into thick chunks
1 red bell pepper, seeded / thick chunks
8 cloves garlic
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 Tb. cumin
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
1 T. olive oil
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 t. smoked salt

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet and brown the steak over medium-heat for 4 minutes on each side. You aren't cooking the meat through, just getting a nice brown color on each side.

Layer the celery and onion on the bottom of the crockpot. Add the beef. You might need to cut the meat in half in order to make it fit. Pour in the broth, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes. Add the bell peppers, whole garlic cloves, tomato paste, cumin, cayenne pepper, smoked salt, olive oil, and vinegar. Stir to blend spices. Cover and cook on high heat for 4 hours. After 4 hours, remove the meat and place on a plate. Allow to cool for five minutes. Using two forks, shred the meat. Placed the shredded meat back into the slow cooker. Serve immediately or reduce heat to low until ready to serve. You might want to taste the dish and add extra salt or seasoning as needed. The seasonings were perfect for us, but if you want a spicier dish, you might need to add extra cumin and cayenne pepper.

We served this with a dish called Venezuelan Rice & Beans (this recipe, minus the scrambled eggs) & twice-fried plantains (basically, cut a green plantain into thick chunks, about 2 inches, fry in vegetable oil for 3 minutes on each side, until golden. Remove from heat, smash flat, and fry again for 1 minute on each side.) Put a scoop or two of the rice on the plate, add a spoonful of beans, drained, on one side, and a scoop of Ropa Vieja on the other side. Serve with a few plantain slices. So, so good! I'll be eating the leftovers for lunch...

* Note: Ropa Vieja is traditionally prepared with flank steak, but since, I wasn't able to find flank steak, even after visiting two grocery stores, I used London Broil. I believe that it's cut from the same part of the cow, but it's a thicker cut. At the Price Rite near me, London Broil was $5 a pound.

This recipe make enough to feed a crowd! We had plenty of leftovers, so I froze a 2-person portion and put the rest in the fridge. Note: the frozen Ropa was just as good as the original!

This is my own original recipe. I adapted it from several different sources and descriptions of Ropa Vieja. Feel free to make this for all of your friends and family, but please do not republish this recipe online or in print without my permission.

Recipes: Tahini BBQ Kale Chips

If you know me, you probably already know that I am OBSESSED with kale chips.  For months now I've been making several batches of kale chips a week and experimenting with different types of kale and different flavors for the chips. Every week, I pick up a bunch or two of kale at the local farmer's market. I've completely stopped buying potato chips and other snack foods. Kale is where it's at! Yum! My newest favorite flavor is Tahini BBQ kale chips (see the recipe below), but I wanted to share some tips before I get to the recipes.

I knew that you could make kale chips in a food dehydrator, but I haven't really experimented much with that because fifteen minutes in the oven is way faster than overnight in the food dehydrator. Plus, any time I've had leftover kale chips, which ain't often, they've turned soggy and wilted overnight. I've tried storing them in a sealed container and uncovered on the countertop, and it didn't matter, they were gross the next day. Until now...

You wanna know the trick to storing kale chips? Keep them cold! I keep them in a snap-top plastic container in the refrigerator. Perfection. I don't know if they keep longer than a day, because none of mine have made it that long, but I can tell you that they are just as crunchy and delicious the next day when refrigerated overnight. Hurray!

Next tip? I have discovered that kale chips made in the food dehydrator taste way better than those done in the oven! Big surprise! I still recommend the oven method if you want a quick snack, but if you are planning ahead, the dehydrator is the way to go. My dehydrator is a Snackmaster Express, which has a temperature dial on the top. I dry the kale chips spread out in a single layer (usually 3 or 4 trays) for 1 hours at 135 degrees F, then 2 - 3 hours at 115 degrees F. The kale chips don't seem to shrink as much and don't turn brown. They are crazy good.

Here are two kale chips recipes for you to try. Please note that all measurements are approximations, since I never measure, just eyeball it. You should start with 1/2 bunch (approximately 3 large leaves of curly kale) with the center stems removed. Rip the leaves into 2 inch pieces. (Note: any type of kale works for kale chips. I like the curly because it holds the flavor best, but in terms of taste, they all taste the same to me.)

In a large bowl, add the ingredients (below) and mix to coat with your hands. You could use a spoon, I guess, but it's best if you get in there and mix it with your hands. You'll be able to feel when all the leaves are coated. I usually use one hand to mix and hold the bowl steady with the other. This way, too, I have a clean hand to turn on the faucet when I'm finished. Once you've added your ingredients, either follow the food dehydrator instructions above or spread out in a single layer on two baking pans (sprayed with cooking spray if not non-stick) and bake at 400 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes. Remove from the oven when the kale starts to brown. Burnt kale chips = not nearly as yummy as unburnt ones.

Traditional Kale Chips

1 T. olive oil

1 T. apple cider vinegar

1 t. sea salt

1/8 cup nutritional yeast (no nooch? try parmesan cheese... yum!)

Tahini BBQ Kale Chips

1/4 c tahini

1/4 c. BBQ sauce (I used a smoky Kansas-style)

1 T. apple cider vinegar

1 t. smoked salt

1 t. sesame oil

I don't pre-mix the ingredients. I just throw the ripped kale pieces in a big bowl and put the ingredients on top. They get mixed will I moosh everything around with my hand. So, so good.

Enjoy!

Recipes: Pizza For Breakfast

Have I ever mentioned how much I love pizza? It's the perfect food: completely versatile and easily adaptable to practically any ingredient you can throw at it. There are sweet pizzas and savory pizzas, carnivore pizzas and veggie pizzas. And the thing about pizza is that even bad pizza isn't usually all that bad. It might not be your favorite pizza and you'll never order it again, but, hey, it's pizza!

I woke up crazy early this Sunday morning, so I decided I'd make a cold basil-spinach pasta salad to serve as quick lunches this week, since I know I'll be busy with classes starting tomorrow afternoon. The recipe called for bacon, so I decided to throw the rest of the package in the oven and use the extra for breakfast. There wasn't really enough bacon to make omelets or anything so I looked in the fridge to see what else could work for breakfast. I had a pizza crust, and since I love cold pizza for breakfast, why not hot?

I found a Breakfast Pizza recipe on Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn. I had everything I needed on hand, but I knew I wanted to add some pesto, since I have tons of it on hand! Here's how I made my delicious breakfast pizza.

You'll need:

1 pre-made pizza crust

2 T. basil pesto

4 T. spaghetti sauce

handful fresh spinach

handful fresh basil

8 oz. fat-free ricotta cheese

4 slices bacon, cooked, chopped

4 eggs

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, place in on the lowest oven rack while the oven preheats. No pizza stone? No worries, just use a pizza tray or cookie sheet.

Spread the pesto on the crust. Add the sauce. Layer the spinach and basil around the crust until it's covered. Keep the spinach / basil in a single layer. Add small dollops around ricotta cheese on top of the spinach / basil layer. Sprinkle the bacon on top of the cheese.  Put the pizza in the oven, then crack the eggs carefully on top of the crust, staying away from the very edge, but keeping them evenly distributed around the pizza. Cook until the egg yolks are just set, about 7 minutes.

Sprinkle with smoked salt and black pepper to serve. You could add parmesan cheese, too, if you wanted. Enjoy!

Recipes: Zucchini & Tomato Ricotta Custard Tart

Farmer's Market Vegetable Tart

I’m sure you could use whatever veggies you have on hand, but ever since I saw Carole Ann’s post about her Squash Tart & Tomato Jam over on Connect the Dots Crafts, I’ve had a hankering for a zucchini tart. I made the tomato jam (see the recipe at Homesick Texan) over the weekend with farmer’s market tomatoes, so today I finally made my tart. I ended up liking it better on its on that with the jam, but c'est la vie!

You’ll need:
1 refrigerated pie crust (or make your own, if you’re feeling daring)

1 small-medium zucchini

1/2 small onion (I used white, but whatever you have will be fine)

1/4 pint cherry tomatoes, halved (if you have romas, use those, about 4 or 5, sliced)

1 t. minced garlic (or 3 cloves)

1 T. unsalted butter (optional, use olive oil or similar if you don’t have butter)

15 oz. container of ricotta cheese

3 T. sour cream

3 eggs

1 t. honey

1 T. brown mustard

cracked black pepper

salt (I used Hawaiian red, but whatever you have will be fine)

Start by slicing the zucchini into thin rounds. Sliver the onion finely. Chop the cherry tomatoes in half. Combine all in a skillet over medium heat with the butter and cook until nicely browned and softened. Add garlic and a light sprinkle of salt and cook for two more minutes, until fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Lightly cooking your vegetable before baking your tart takes away some of the moisture, which means that you don't end up with a soggy crust bottom!

In a large bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, sour cream, eggs, honey, and cracked pepper. I really like pepper so I gave it a generous dose, but if you aren’t sure, just a couple cracks from your pepper grinder will be fine. Don’t overdose on the honey! Just a smidge adds a real delicate sweetness to your ricotta custard. (If you wanted a dessert tart, however, honey is the way to go... just maybe use apples instead of the tomatoes, hey?)

The eggs help the ricotta bind into a custard. You could stir in 2 T. of your favorite hard cheese at this point as well.

In a 9-inch glass pie pan, roll out the pastry dough. You could roll the dough into a 14 inch circle (slightly larger than the 12-inch one you started with), but it’s really not essential, unless you want to make a really nice looking rustic crust around the edge. I didn’t bother because I was in a rush to get dinner in the oven.

Spread a thin layer of the mustard along the bottom of the pie crust. This is kind of a “secret” ingredient and adds a really nice flavor. You could skip it if you hate mustard with no ill results.

Hate mustard? Pesto would make a delicious substitute here.

Spread the ricotta mixture into the pie crust. Top with the cooked veggies. There’s no need to make ‘em look all fancy like I did for the photograph, of course, just spread ‘em around evenly if you want and it will be fine. It’s the taste that counts, right? You could sprinkle some shredded hard cheese on top if you wanted before baking (parmesan would be great), but my boyfriend doesn’t like parmesan, so I skipped it. 

To make this "rustic" crust, I just folded over the excess pastry and pinched it randomly to form a slight lip.

Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour, checking after 50 minutes. You want a nice golden crust on your tart before removing it from the oven, and the custard should be set (i.e. not liquidy).  Serve with a nice dollop of tomato jam and make yummy noises. If for some reason you are interrupted in the middle of baking by the National Grid guy inspected a possible gas leak, don't panic. Just leave the oven door closed when the oven is disconnected and add 5 minutes to your cooking time. 

Tell me this doesn't look delicious! Nick and I both ate two servings!

Variations:

Use green & red peppers instead of the tomato & zucchini blend here.

Any type of mushroom would be excellent with this recipe, either add it with the t&z, or alone.

Any summer squash could stand in with the zucchini: yellow or pattypan squash would work great.

Leave out the tomatoes if you don’t have any & use extra squash or add mushrooms.

Add seasonings in with the ricotta cheese, like italian seasoning and basil for an Italian feel, dill for a nice side to go with your choice of fill, or cumin for a Mexican flair, depending on the taste sensation you want.

Use half ricotta and half goat cheese for a truly decadent vegetable tart.

Recipes: Basic Kale Chips & Oven-Roasted Corn

Sometimes, I just don't feel like cooking, so I end up eating stuff that's bad for me because it's easy and fast. So I've been working lately to build up a repertoire of delicious, fast, and easy dishes. Here's are two of my all-time favorites:

First, kale chips. OMG, do I love kale chips. My sister, Fiona, introduced me to Kale chips, and I have to admit, they didn't sound that great, but if my sister was raving about them, I figured I ought to at least give them a try. The first time I made them, I wasn't that impressed. For one thing, they were way too salty, which, I found out later, came from a typo in the original recipe that I used. Ugh. All, they were kind of, well, weird, but I decided to try them again, and I've finally come up with a "recipe" that's really yummy.

Oven-Roasted Kale Chips

Preheat your oven to 350 d. F.

1 bunch fresh kale, any kind will work, but I like the curly kind

Tear the kale off the stems and into smallish pieces, maybe 1 - 2 inches big? They will shrink a lot when you cook them, so don't be afraid to keep 'em on the larger side. Put the kale pieces into a large bowl or pot.

1 T. olive oil

1/2 t. vinegar (any kind, I've used balsamic and white)

Drizzle the oil and vinegar over the torn kale. I'll confess: I never measure, so use more or less as needed. Use your hands to get in there and smear the kale with the oil and vinegar. Try to make sure that every leaf is covered. You'll be able to feel when it's all mixed right.

Lightly spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray. (Not necessary if you have non-stick pans, but I don't). Spread the kale mixture evenly all over the pan. It really doesn't matter if the leaves overlap a bit.

1/2 t. salt

1/8 cup nutritional yeast

Sprinkle the tray of kale with salt and nooch (nutritional yeast) to taste. If you don't have nooch, it's totally optional, but it really makes the chips taste awesome. You can buy nutritional yeast in the bulk foods section at most Whole Foods. It's about $8 a pound, but you only need a small amount. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven, turn with a spatula or tongs, and return to the oven for 8 - 10 more minutes. Depending on your oven, you might want to start checking the tray after 15 minutes. The kale will shrivel up and when you touch it, it will be crunchy. You want to stop cooking when most of the kale is crunchy, being careful not to let it burn or turn too brown. I tend to have some non-crunchy pieces, but I think they taste delicious and don't worry about it too much.

Here are some additional recipes for flavoring your kale chips. I haven't tried any of these yet, but I definitely will sometime soon. These all call for dehydrating the chips instead of doing them in the oven, but I'm going to stick with the oven method, just add the new flavors.

Smokey BBQ Kale Chips & Tomato Tahini Kale Chips.

I'm totally eating a bowl of kale chips as I write this entry. Yum-um!

Another favorite of mine is oven-roasted corn. Since the oven was already hot from today's batch of kale chips, I decided to make corn to go with dinner tonight. Oven-roasted corn is probably the easiest recipe ever.

You need:

Fresh ears of corn, enough to serve whoever's coming for dinner

(Okay, I know it's winter, so corn might not be the best -- save this for the summer!)

Oh, yeah, that's it.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the fresh corn husks in the oven, directly on the rack. There's absolutely no need to pre-husk the corn or remove the silks before cooking. Just chuck 'em right in the oven, wander away for 30 minutes (perhaps to work on your blog, like I'm doing), and go back to the most succulent, mouth-watering corn you've ever had. No need for butter. No need for anything. Just peel back the husk to use as a handle, remove the silks, and eat. Oh my gawd.

(If you really must put something on your corn, check out this recipe to Mexican Street Corn from America's Test Kitchen. It is amazingly good. I saw it on the show and had to try it the next day for dinner. Wow!)

Recipes: For the Love of (Vegan) Cheese

I'm intrigued with vegan eating, and lately I'm interested in raw food, but if there's one thing that I missed when I was experimenting with eating vegan full-time, it was cheese. I know it's not the best thing for me to eat, especially in excess, but I love the creamy, dreamy yum of cheese. The imitation cheeses that I've tried have been pretty nasty overall, so I just went without. Until I started reading a cookbook (The Conscious Cook) that included a recipe for cashew cheese, I had to try it, especially since I had all of the "important" ingredients on hand. I had to soak 2 cups of cashews overnight, blend them with a probiotic water mix, sit the mixture in a warm place overnight, and when I woke up, I had cheese. Sorta.

When I first tried the mixture, I thought it was okay, but nothing great. Then I added the seasonings, and wow! Now it's this delicious creamy goodness that I had to force myself to put in the fridge so I didn't keep eating spoonfuls of it. Delicious. For dinner, I'm already planning stuffed shells... if the cheese lasts that long.

Here are some other vegan cheese and related recipes that I want to try:

Raw Vegan Cheese

This looks like it has a creamy texture very similar to my favorite goat cheese. Wheat berries are an ingredient I've never experimented with before, but I know I can get them in the bulk bins at the Whole Foods near me.

Truffled Cashew Cheese

This sounds heavenly! This site also details the general process for making cashew cheese as well.

Cashew Cheddar Cheese

This blog entry includes details on how to make some delicious-looking vegan nachos. This would be a good alternative for anyone who doesn't like nutritional yeast "cheese" sauce or wants to mix it up a bit. Agar flakes can be purchased at a specialty grocery store, like Whole Foods, near the Asian foods.

Smoky Vegan Lasagna

Nick loves lasagna, so maybe he'd be willing to try the cashew cheese if I layered it in a lasagna? I tried to get him to try to the cashew cheese this morning, but he refused, saying it scared me. No worries. More for me. :)

The Other Side Dip

In this middle of this article, there's a dip recipe that sounds pretty good. I'm already thinking of all the different dips I could make using the cashew cheese as a base. Mmm....

Flat Bread Crackers

Here are some raw flat bread crackers to go with all that cheese you'll be whipping up after reading this entry. All you need are a few ingredients and a dehydrator. I haven't tried these yet, but I'm sure I will.

Raw Food Recipes

A huge list of raw vegan recipes, from cheese to dips to burgers. Sounds good to me!

If you've tried any of these recipes or you have any to share, please let me know!