Vegetarian chili

I wouldn't have found the pictures for my vegetarian chili, if I hadn't pulled out my camera to get some better shots of my hello kitty cupcakes (next up). Thank goodness for the delight of cupcakes!

I try not to eat processed fake meat products, or TVP, too often. But there are dishes every now and then that just need a little something added. I have a couple go-to kinds of vegetarian ground round that I go for, most commonly Yves. I like the flavour and texture in these ones, and also that there do come pre-seasoned for other uses (like chili).

Things that are texture-less are bland and boring to me. Which is why whenever I make things like casseroles, chili, pastas, I always add in a whole bunch of stuff.

In this case, I had the veggie ground round, black beans, and a smattering of vegetables. Sounds delicious already!

As with anything, I always sweat the onions out before adding the rest of my mirepoix. I am a firm believer this is the best way to start cooking. Unless I'm making a paella, in which case you'll want to make a sofrito instead.

After the carrots begin to soften, I tend to throw in the rest of the fresh vegetables (in this case, just some red pepper). When I pop in the beans and ground round is usually when I'll throw in any more vegetables, in frozen or canned state.

Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes. Be sure to add chili spices to how you like them as well. In approximately 30 minutes, you can have a delicious hot meal ready to go!

Vegetarian chili 

1/2 onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 box Yves veggie chili ground round
1 can black beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn kernels, drained
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp hot pepper flakes 

1. Soften onions, celery and carrots for a few minutes over medium heat. Add red pepper and cook a couple more minutes.
2. Add spices. and stir until coated.
3. Add box of Yves ground round, black beans, tomatoes and corn kernels. Let simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Serve over a bed of rice and garnished with grated cheese.

Drunken noodles

It's a common theme here for me to start writing with "I love ___". Today is no exception.

I love noodles. Surprisingly enough though, I haven't actually had drunken noodles before.

Perhaps it's because I'm not a huge alcohol person, and the name of the dish is somewhat off-putting, but. I'd put my money on the fact that the pad Thai on the menu is always screaming my name.

I had a hankering for some Thai food, but didn't want to go out and eat something greasy, so I thought I'd make it at home.

There are many variations on how drunken noodles came to be:

• rice wine is used to make it, but there isn't any alcohol in the dish itself
• you eat it after a night of drinking and you have the munchies when you get home
• you get so drunk while eating it because you're trying to drown out the spice with alcohol
• the chef was drunk while making it
• as a cure for hangovers

I'm not sure myself what the true answer is, but I'm more inclined to think that it's a food for late night partiers, because of the common association of Asian food with after party eats.

 

I had spent a large part of the day at a friend's place recording the instrumental tracks for the next song we're laying down, but hunger was getting the best of us. Said friend was also sick, so I toned down the spice to a minimum level.

Nonetheless, it was a delicious dish and I'm glad I've gotten this one under my belt now as well.

Follow through for my recipe from the weekend, but feel free to use whatever vegetables are in your fridge (peppers, eggplant, celery, etc.).

Drunken noodles 

noodles
1 pkg broad noodles
1/2 onion, diced
2 red chilies, minced*
2 carrots, julienned
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 block extra firm tofu
2 broccoli crowns
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 cup bean sprouts

sauce
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 lime, juiced (~1 1/2 tbsp)
1.2 tsp brown sugar 

1. Soak noodles in hot water until soft. Drop in cold water.
2. Saute onion, chilies and carrot for a few minutes until soft.
3. Add shrimp. When nearly cooked, add tofu.
4. Add broccoli. After 2 minutes add mushrooms and bean sprouts.
5. Whisk together sauce ingredients. Put noodles and sauce into frying pan. Toss to coat.
6. Cook a few more minutes until sauce absorbs.
7. Serve garnished with thai basil and lime wedges.

Enjoy!

Potato wedges

I have mentioned before, my love for potatoes, so I'm always using them one way or another.

Sometimes, my bag of potatoes gets forgotten and neglected, in the dark corner of my kitchen. But it'll pop back into my mind, and I'll make it the main component of my next meal.

Such a thing happened last week, due to a lively discussion with a coworker about our shared love for French fries.

I realized I hadn't had potatoes in a while, and was also craving some fries. Rather than go the unhealthy route, I opted to make wedges at home to ease my potato-hunger pangs.

I was out of olive oil, so that was a saddening realization when I got home. I used my sunflower oil, and they turned out great, but deep in my heart, I knew that I was living an olive oil lie.

I greased up my baking sheet and loaded it with herb covered potato wedges!

Potato wedges

5 white potatoes
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil 

1. Cut potatoes into 3/4 inch wide wedges. Toss in a large bowl, sprinkle all herbs, drizzle olive oil over it, and toss to coat.
2. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake at 350F for 45 minutes. Turn over as needed, every 20 minutes or so.

Vegetarian enchiladas

I love Mexican food.

The weekend before, I tried to go to the only authentic Mexican restaurant in town, only to find that they were closed. Extremely odd for a Saturday night at 630pm, but nonetheless, I was on the other side of town without a restaurant to eat at. Needless to say I went to my favourite Indian place, which is on the neighbouring block.

Having my favourite Indian food wasn't satisfying my craving for some Mexican food, so I went with the next best thing - making my own.

I'm not a fan of burritos, but surprisingly really love enchiladas. I think it's the fact that burritos are just the equivalent of a Mexican wrap, but these enchiladas have a delicious sauce that comes with them.

I fill mine with black beans, corn, spinach, and cheese. I top it with a bechamel like tomato sauce and more cheese, then throw it in the oven to let it heat up.

So delicious! It's a must try =)

Vegetarian enchiladas (adapted from Martha Stewart)

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin, divided
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup tomato paste
3 cup vegetable broth
3 cup grated cheese (I used aged cheddar), divided
1 can black beans
1 box frozen chopped spinach
1 can corn kernels
10 corn tortillas 

1. Heat olive oil over medium. Add 1 tsp cumin, flour and tomato paste, whisking until combined. Let cook for 1 minute.
2. Slowly whisk in vegetable broth, dissolving the flour paste.
3. Let boil, reduce to a simmer and let thicken, about 5 minutes.
4. To make filling, combine 1 tsp cumin, 2 cup cheese, black beans, spinach, and corn in a bowl.
5. Top each tortilla with roughly 1/2 cup of filling, wrap tightly and place in a greased casserole dish seam side down. Continue until filling is finished.
6. Top wrapped tortillas with remaining cup of cheese, and pour sauce overtop. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, or until bubbling. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Homemade pizza

There's always been something about making dough that is frightening to me. In my mind, I know it's a simple process, but working with yeast, and the rising/waiting time, gets me in such a frenzy that I always seem to talk myself out of it..

Hence, always getting take out or eating frozen, whenever a pizza craving hits.

For dinner last week, I had one of those said cravings. Unfortunately, I was in no mood to go to the store or the nearby pizza place to get my fix. I guess it's time to get crackin' on making some dough.

I pulled out my trusty pizza dough recipe (which I have never used...) and saw that the rise time was a whopping 3 hours! Sorry Chris Bianco, that ain't happenin' tonight.

Instead, some trusty internet searching provided me with some easy shortcuts to quick rising dough. Although I enjoyed the ease in making it, I would definitely make some changes to the recipe. Nevertheless it was great to have it so I could make myself some pizza in about an hour.

I topped my pizzas with bell peppers, olives, capers, cilantro and aged cheddar. All on an olive oil base, no tomato sauce on these bad boys.

Quick pizza dough (adapted) 

2 cup flour
1 sachet (8g) instant yeast
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup warm water 

1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until a soft shaggy dough is formed.
2. Knead on a clean surface until the dough comes together, a few minutes.
3. Put the dough ball back in the bowl, cover in cling wrap and place in a warm area for 30 minutes*. The dough will double in size.
4. Punch down the dough and knead for 1 minute to help relax and stretch the glutens.
5. Roll dough out to form pizza(s). Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. 

* I put my dough in the oven with a bowl of boiling water sitting underneath.

Spaghetti avocado

There always seems to be an avocado or two sitting in the crisper of my fridge, that I don't know what to do with. It sits, patiently, waiting for me to gaze upon it at meal time and think "hey! I know what I'll do with you!", thus fulfilling it's journey in life.

Sadly, that is not always the case, and oftentimes, avocados lay wasted in my fridge or fruit bowl.

I try. I really do. But I always overestimate how much I actually enjoy avocados.

I'm hardly the person to site there and eat an avocado like so many others proclaim they love to do. In fact, I'm hardly one to sit there and eat half of one without starting to feel my gag reflex coming on.

It saddens me. How much I try to love avocados, but they just don't seem to love me back.

I decided tried something new this time around, and actually went out and bought avocados specifically for this occasion. Unlike typical, when I buy avocados and force myself into using them in ways I eventually don't like.

My love of pasta reaches far and wide, and I thought I would incorporate avocados into them. Instead of making an alfredo sauce, which upsets my digestive track oh so terribly, I thought I'd make an avocado sauce instead.

I made a variation on my shrimp alfredo, with a different sauce.

Avocados and tomatoes also go together like bread and butter, so I threw those in the mix too.

I made a simple sauce, of a ripe avocado, juice of a lemon, and some of the reserve pasta water, pureed in my handy food processor to make a nice smooth sauce. It will look and feel a little goopy in the processor, but it'll work out to a nice thick and rich sauce in the end.

Throw in some shrimp, squid rings, and tomatoes to the mix for an avocado filled dinner.

Avocado Sauce 

1 avocado
1 lemon, juiced
salt
1/3 - 1/2 cup reserve pasta water 

1. Add the avocado, lemon juice and salt to the food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Through the feed tube, add pasta water until sauce is desired thickness.
3. Pour over al dente cooked pasta, and serve.

Black bean casserole

I'll admit. Being a vegetarian can be hard. Sometimes, I find myself lacking imagination and motivation to come up with dinner ideas. Those are the days when I'm likely to pop a B12 just to make sure I'm staying on top of things.

Contrary to somewhat popular belief, being a vegetarian doesn't mean that all I eat are vegetables. We need to obtain our protein from some source, typically from beans, eggs, and alternative grains. Luckily for me though, I am not a full fledged vegetarian, but actually am what is called a "pescetarian".

The inclusion of fish and shellfish in my diet is helpful for maintaining my B12 levels, which at one point had dipped to a low enough level for my doctor to ever so not-subtly suggest the addition of vitamin supplements in my diet.

Eating as a vegetarian can be great. It opens up so many other options people don't normally thinking about, like using beans as the main protein of the meal. 

I did just that for dinner a couple weeks ago, with my black bean casserole. Taking a simple beef/fish casserole dish, and making it vegetarian by the replacement of meat products with beans.

I didn't have much in my fridge since it was the end of the week. I grabbed some sticks of celery and carrot, the leftover of my bell pepper and onion, and the remains of my pint of grape tomatoes. I also cooked up some fresh rice for this.

Just dice everything up, mix it all together, and layer it in a casserole dish. Because I'm a cheese-aholic, I always top things with a generous heaping of cheese.

If your casserole is a little low on the vegetable side, or even if it's not, serve it with a side salad and a nice tall glass of cold beer!

Black Bean Casserole 

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 jalapeno, finely minced
2 cups rice, cooked
3 cups block cheese, grated 

1. Cook rice. Let cool until warm.
2. Mix beans, vegetables, rice and 1 cup of cheese together in a casserole dish.
3. Top with remaining 2 cups of cheese.
4. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

Curry lentil soup

I love having my friends over for dinner. Not only are they great company, it gives me an awesome opportunity to try new dishes. They're always polite and say it's good, but I know that they'll also tell me when I shouldn't make something again. =]

A couple weekends ago, I tried out a curry lentil soup. I loosely adapted it from a slow cooker sweet potato soup I gleaned off the Food Network.

I started off with a fine dice of all my ingredients - potatoes, carrots, celery, onion. I grated a thumb size piece of ginger and sprinkled garam masala on top.

Next up, dried lentils! I had a mix of green and brown lentils sitting in my jar, so I used both for variety.

I let them mingle in the crock pot while I got my stock. I used vegetable broth, but feel free to use whatever broth you have on hand - beef, chicken, mushroom, etc.

I stuck the crockpot on high, because I didn't start this until the afternoon. By the time dinner time rolled around, my house was smelling absolutely divine, and the stock has reduced to a dark and delicious hue. I topped it off with some water and let it simmer some more while I made my curry lemon mix.

Top it off with some cilantro, and you have an easy and hearty soup dinner!

Curry Lentil Soup 

4 potatoes, peeled and diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
3 stalks of celery, chopped into 1 cm pieces
1 onion, diced
3/4 cup lentils, dried
2" ginger, grated
1 tsp + 1 tsp garam masala
salt
8 cup stock (or water)
1 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lemon, juiced
fresh cilantro for serving 

1. Cook potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, lentils, ginger, 1 tsp garam masala, salt, and 6 cup stock on high for 4 hours in a crockpot.
2. After 4 hours, thin soup with remaining stock if desired.
3. In a small saucepan, cook butter, garlic and 1 tsp garam masala until toasted (1 minute). Stir mixture into the soup.
4. Serve with cilantro, lemon wedges and French bread.

Baked potato - a variation!

I am an avid Pinterest peruser, but I'm not one to go pinning everything and trying out all the recipes.

I have, however, noticed as of late the large amount of repinning of this "new" style of baking a potato.

As a potato lover (I did my M.Sc. on it! =]), I thought I'd give it a try.

It's a really simple process. Just scrub your potatoes clean and slice them almost all the way through, so it's like you have chips, but still all connected at the base.

I just did 2 potatoes as a random test of how well this recipe works.

Drizzle olive oil and seasonings over it and bake it for 45 min at 425F. I used my trusty cold press extra virgin olive oil and regular garlic powder on a greased baking sheet.

45 minutes later, voilà!

It was a cute inventive way to make potatoes more presentable, but I'm not sure how great of a way to bake potatoes.

My potatoes were starting to burn on the ends because of the small "slices", and the ones in the middle were only just barely cooked.

It was also hard to get the pieces to spread apart from each other to get the oil and seasonings in all the crevices, as you can tell from the initial photo.

Creative way to present potatoes, but I'm not sure I would do them again. Or at least not at such a high temperature and possibly with smaller potatoes.

Shrove Tuesday pancakes

I hope everyone had a great Shrove Tuesday and is having a wonderful Ash Wednesday! Normally, I don't bother with making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, but thought I'd give it a whirl this year.

Instead of typical buttermilk pancakes, I thought I'd go with something a little heartier. Makes sense, since I was having pancakes for dinner (clearly not a typical occurrence in my household...).

Before I go on, I will preface this with a warning of why I don't make pancakes and why you probably won't see pancakes featured here in the future. Anyone who knows me, and who eats at my house, will undoubtedly know that I am notoriously not-good at making pancakes. I'm not sure what it is about it, or perhaps the fact that I have an electric stove, that I just can't find the sweet spot and get soft sponge-y pancakes. I've always left it up to others to make sure pancakes actually make it onto people's plates. Usually it's a "fend for yourself" strategy if you're at my house earlier enough for pancakes. There has only been one time (other than this post) that I have managed to get servable pancakes on the table, and for that, I was in no state to be taking photos.

Anywhoo... I opted to go with some cinnamon oat pancakes, that sounded like it would really hit the spot. I found the recipe in one of my old Canadian Living issues, and it looks simple enough.

My friends were over, so I had to make sure the pancakes were foolproof. And they were! So great in fact, that I didn't even have to throw out the obligatory guinea-pig-first-pancake!

Cinnamon Oat Pancakes (adapted from Canadian Living, January 2003) 

1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
salt
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 egg
1 1/2 - 2 cup almond milk
3 tbsp oil 

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, oats).
2. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (egg, 1 1/2 cup milk and oil).
3. Add the wet to the dry, stir until just combined.
4. Cook 1/3 cup of batter at a time on a well oiled medium heat skillet (or flat top griddle). 

* I found that as you let the this sit longer, the oats started to soak up the milk, causing the batter to thicken. Continue to add almond milk as needed to keep the consistency of the batter, up to another 1/2 cup milk.

Macaroni and cheese

I am a huge HUGE fan of macaroni and cheese. There's something oh so comforting about a warm bowl of these delicious cheesy noodles that just calls out to me.

Whenever I make mac n cheese, I always do it from scratch. With a cheesy bechamel sauce that I bake the living daylights out of until it's golden perfection.

However.

In recent times, I have been introduced to the President's Choice white cheddar macaroni and cheese packages, and they have changed my life.

It was before Christmas, when I had a junk food and Wii night, which included said macaroni and cheese packs. I must point out again though, how it was a junk food night, and I wasn't going to spend an hour making my mac n cheese when we were at the grocery store buying things like potato chips, popcorn and dip.

And in all honesty, for those of you who've tried it, you know. Who am I to argue?

To add a bit of variety to it, I added medium egg noodles to the plain macaroni for a bigger pot of pasta. To ensure there was enough cheese to go around, I used more milk in the sauce, and compensated with a generous handful of grated aged yellow cheddar, my trusted cheese of choice.

The result? It wasn't as white cheddar-y as the box, but it was still oh so delicious. It actually is pretty hard to go wrong with mac n cheese.

I topped it off with more grated cheddar and let it slowly melt in. Oh! It's making me hungry right now!

Deviled eggs

I have a confession.

I've never had a deviled egg before. Ever.

I know, right? Jeez..

Since it was a potluck for my birthday, I decided to make deviled eggs. I have potlucks at my house all the time, and I'm usually roped into making the main dish. That's fine and dandy with me (I also made a main at my birthday too), but I really wanted to try my hand at making deviled eggs.

I found a easy recipe for classic deviled eggs on the Food Network and used that as a guideline for mine.

I used my large stockpot to boil 9 eggs. I didn't want to crowd them in my medium saucepan, for fear they would knock and crack, causing egg white spillage. Make as many eggs as you want.

A little trick I learned to boil eggs without them cracking? Put the eggs in the water and then turn the stove on. That way you don't dunk them in while the water is boiling, potentially causing cracking when they're dropped in the water.

Once the water reached a boil, I left it to simmer for a couple minutes before turning the heat off and letting the eggs sit for 15 minutes. Then run them under cold water for a few minutes.

Slice them in half and dump the egg yolks into a bowl with mayonnaise, vinegar, yellow mustard, and some salt.

I fancied them up a bit by piping them with a pastry bag fitted with a Wilton 2D open star decorating tip. Sprinkle a bit of smoked Spanish paprika on them, and voilà!

I was quite happy with how these turned out, especially since I had never even tasted one before. I got pretty good reviews from my friends, and the disappeared before some people had even arrived!

Classic Deviled Eggs (adapted from Food Network)

9 eggs
1/3 cup mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip)
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp yellow mustard
salt
smoked Spanish paprika, for garnish 

1. Boil eggs for 1 minute, let simmer for another minute before removing from heat and letting sit for 15 minutes. Run eggs under cold water until cool enough to touch.
2. Peel eggs under water. Wipe dry with a paper towel and slice in half lengthwise.
3. Remove yolks and place in a bowl with mayonnaise, vinegar, yellow mustard and salt. Mash together until smooth and combined.
4. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a Wilton 2D tip, pipe filling into each egg white half.
5. Sprinkle with paprika and serve on a decorative plate.

Shrimp alfredo

My friends have the tendency to like to show up at my house for dinners. That I make.

I don't mind too much. I enjoy it when my friends are over. We chat, play video games, watch movies, and hang out in general.

A couple weekends ago in particular, it was a gorgeous and abnormally warm day. We reached a high of 12C and it was so balmy, I was inclined to go for a walk, even after my morning run. I called my friend up, and we hit the dusty trail. We decided to walk to our other friend's house (the one I ran with in the morning).

We hung out for a couple hours, goofing around with the guitars, youtube videos and a general discussion for the evening plans. It was decided, we would go to the mall to look for Mario Party and extra Wii controllers, pick up some stuff for dinner, and we would head to my house to eat and hang.

I made shrimp alfredo for dinner. Since we were salad-less, I added broccoli and carrots to the pasta, and made some three cheese crab puffs for a side.

I'm not one for alfredo sauces, because of my lactose intolerance, but had an odd hankering for a creamy sauce. Also, a need to use all the 35% cream that's sitting in my fridge.

Dinner turned out delicious. My friends played video games, and we watched Django as well. All in all, a pretty good Saturday night.

Alfredo Sauce

1/4 cup butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 1/2 cup parmesan 

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add cream and simmer until it reaches a boil.
2. Add garlic and cheese, whisking until melted and smooth.
3. Pour over pasta and serve.

Barbari bread

The department I work in on campus has a lot of international people. Many of them are from Iran, as is one of my coworkers.

When we have lunches, she often brings barbari bread, and shares it with me as well.

For those who aren't sure what barbari bread is, it's a popular Iranian flatbread often served with a cheese similar to feta.

I've always found barbari bread very interesting, because of how it rips straight, as if the proteins have aligned themselves, for a perfect rip every time.

A few weeks ago, I told my coworker that I was going to try to make it on the weekend. Unfortunately, I never got around to making it, and I let her know it on that following Monday. Funny enough, her and a friend has gone into the city that weekend and picked up the fresh dough from the Iranian store for me. So I brought that home and baked the dough.

Although it was nice of them to buy me the dough, I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do with it. Bread requires rising time, and I wasn't sure if the pre-made dough had already gone through the rising stage or not.

I did a bit of research on baking temperatures and times, and decided to go with 375F for 25 minutes.

The pre-made dough was actually two balls (that melded into one big dough ball in my backpack). I separated them and made two pieces of bread on my sprayed cookie sheet.

I punched the dough down and stretched it out to fill the pan. After, I ran my fingers vertically along the bread to form the straight edge ridges that the bread seemingly perfectly rips along. With a sprinkle of sesame seeds on top, I popped those into the oven.

I forgot to get a before and after pictures of both of my flatbreads, so I pieced together a before of one and an after of the other.

I'm going to try to make the barbari bread again, because I want to try to make the dough myself. The issue with the pre-made dough was that I wasn't sure what stage the dough was at, and it didn't turn out quite the way I thought.

Although it wasn't quite the same as the bread my coworker brings in for lunch, it was still good to eat. I cut a few pieces out (as they didn't rip along the lines), and had them with my chickpea curry.

Broiled lobster

I love lobster.

For New Year's Eve, I decided to splurge a little, grab a bag of lobster tails, and make that for dinner.

I haven't made lobster tails before, but I have made lobster. I didn't think it'd be any different, but thought I would broil them rather do a simply boil. 

After cutting the inside of the tails lengthwise, I cracked the tails slightly to allow seasonings. Butter, salt and paprika. Sounds delicious already! The bad boys are ready after 5-10 minutes under the broiler.

I made some couscous and a light salad to go with them. Scrumptious!

I hoep everyone had a great New Year's Eve