White Salad

OK, the last post was for a perfect Thanksgiving side dish or salad, this one is perfect for your Christmas table! First of all, the colors...white, white, white, a tiny punch of red, and maybe a bit of green if you add some parsley. Beautiful. And the flavors are so fresh and clean to balance out all the other heavy holiday fare.

You must include this salad in your holiday food rotation, or just winter lunches. It's light and crunchy - two adjectives that aren't usually used to describe winter food. I loved it. As usual, my photos are nothing compared to the original post on Not Without Salt (check out the link below for the pretty pictures!)

Winter White Salad (from Not Without Salt)

1/4 celery root, peeled and sliced thin

1 pink lady apple (leave skin on for a splash of bright red color in the salad), julienned or sliced into matchsticks

1 bulb fennel, sliced thin

1 leek, white parts only, sliced into rings

1/4 cup creme fraiche

2 teaspoons cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

a couple parsley leaves for garnish and color

Mix ingredients together and enjoy!

Thanksgiving Wild Rice Salad

I've never been a big fan of the Thanksgiving meal because it seems like all the food is just hot and mushy. My favorite things on Thanksgiving day are the lefse with butter and sugar, my grandma's cranberry sauce, and Boujolais Nouveau. I compensate for my distaste of potatoes and turkey and stuffing with extra quantities of "The Booj" as my bro Nick calls it.

However, if this salad were served at Thanksgiving I would have a new favorite side dish. Unfortunately, the crowd that gathers at my T-Day celebration isn't much receptive to anything that breaks with tradition. So, I adapted this side dish into a main course entree that I will enjoy all next week for lunch. If your Turkey Day crowd can handle it, I highly recommend omitting the chicken and adding this beautiful and tasty dish to your feast. It's got great crunch from the celery and sweetness from the craisins. The best part is that it's totally lean, no mayo at all - just yogurt or buttermilk to make the tangy and creamy lemony dressing.

Thanksgiving Wild Rice Salad (adapted from the New York Times)

1 quart water

1 cup wild rice

salt to taste

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries, chopped

1-2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped (optional - use only if serving as a main dish)

3-4 celery stalks, sliced thin

handful chopped flat leaf parsley

Bring the water to a boil, add salt to taste and wild rice. Lower heat, cover and simmer 40 minutes. Drain and toss with the other ingredients.

Dressing:

1/2 lemon, juiced and zested

2 tsp red wine vinegar

1 small garlic clove, grated on a microplane

salt and pepper to taste

6 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp buttermilk or plain yogurt (I used yogurt)

Whisk dressing ingredients together and toss with wild rice mixture. Add more salt or pepper to taste.

I assume this would go fabulously with a couple bottles of "The Booj."

NOTE: I want to let you know this is one of those salads that get BETTER after sitting in the fridge overnight. The lemon flavor intensifies and settles into the rice to make it a party on your tongue.

Spicy Black Bean Tostadas

I love fall and winter food, really. But after weeks of eating lots of leftover roasted veggies and soups, my stomach was screaming for something to wake it up. I need spice and I need it now.

This post was my inspiration for my dinner. I thought black beans and feta was such an odd combination, but it really works! I did mix it up a little bit based on what ingredients I was craving (i.e. adding chipotle peppers for SPICE!).

First, I made the slaw and let it sit for a few minutes to let the flavors meld. Then I sauteed a half an onion and added a chipotle pepper and teaspoon of the adobo sauce. I added the beans and smooshed it all together to make a yummy spicy black bean mash. Put together on a corn tortilla with fresh avocado and some feta cheese...my stomach was definitely awoken!

Spicy Black Bean Tostadas

shredded cabbage or slaw mix

1 lime, juice and zest

1 leek, white parts only

cilantro, chopped

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 chipotle pepper, chopped

1 tsp adobo sauce from chipotles

1 tsp cumin

1 can black beans, drained

corn tortillas

avocado

feta cheese

Make the slaw - mix cabbage, lime juice and zest, leek, cilantro, and salt and pepper - and let it sit for 10-15 minutes to let the flavors merge together.

Saute the onion in olive oil until soft, add the chipotle pepper and sauce, cumin, beans, and salt and pepper to heat through. Mash with a fork.

Heat corn tortillas with olive oil in skillet on one side until charred, flip over to char the other side and add a smear of beans and some crumbled feta cheese. Remove from heat, add slaw and avocado.

Spinach Artichoke Whole Wheat Penne

I actually tried to cook a Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meal. I followed the recipes almost exactly from a recent episode. She made thinly pounded chicken rolled up with asparagus and cheese served with a lemon dijon pan sauce and a pasta side dish that was supposed to taste like a healthier version of spinach/artichoke dip (it didn't).

Overall, the meal was pretty good (the best parts were the lemon dijon pan sauce and the artichokes) and it was loaded with iron, fiber, protein, and other important vitamins and minerals. If I were to make this again, I would NOT do the rollup business (I honestly felt ridiculous buying asparagus in November), and just bake the chicken breasts and make that yummy sauce to go on top. Also, I would definitely use 2 cans of artichokes and less pasta.

I have no idea if the dinner was ready in under 30 minutes, but it couldn't have been too far off. Rachael may be one of the most irritating people on the planet, but the meal was simple, healthy, pretty, and tasty. Here's how I would adapt the recipe for the pasta to my taste if I were to make it again.

Spinach Artichoke Pasta

1 bag fresh baby spinach

1 big handful toasted almonds

1 large garlic clove, minced or grated

1 shallot, diced

1/2 cup vegetable stock

2 Tbsp olive oil, salt, and pepper

2 cans quartered artichoke hearts, drained

1/2 bag or box whole wheat pasta

grated parmesan cheese

Blitz first 6 ingredients (through oil/salt/pepper) in a food processor and set aside.

Add artichokes to a non-stick skillet with a little olive oil and heat through and start to brown.

Cook whole wheat pasta according to package directions. Save a cup of the cooking liquid before draining. Mix pesto with reserved cooking liquid, add pasta, artichokes, and cheese. Mix together and serve with baked chicken breasts topped with lemon dijon pan sauce.

Lemon Dijon pan sauce

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp flour

1/2 - 3/4 cup vegetable stock

1 tsp dijon mustard

lemon zest and juice

Melt butter in skillet, add flour and cook 2 minutes. Add stock and mustard and whisk to get rid of lumps and thicken. Remove from heat and add lemon zest and juice. Serve over chicken or fish.

Olive Oil Granola

I wasn't going to post this recipe or photo because I've already shown you a granola recipe before - that one was chocolate granola that ends up in big chunks. It's crunchy and super delicious.

But this granola is totally different. It doesn't clump together but ends up spoonable, like cereal. And it has such a deep, rich flavor from the olive oil...it's addicting for sure. The recipe originally appeared in the New York Times this summer and ALL the blogs were making it. Well, now I'm firmly on the bandwagon and this is my new go-to granola recipe. The only thing I would change next time is reducing the amount of brown sugar - I think it could handle a little less sweetness.

Olive Oil Granola

3 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 cup nuts, any kind (I used peanuts, raw almonds, and marcona almonds)

1 cup seeds (I used pumpkin and sunflower seeds)

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

3/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup brown sugar (or less to taste)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom

3/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries

Mix all ingredients - except cranberries - together and spread on sheet pans. Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove from oven and add cranberries.

Serve with yogurt, berries, ice cream, milk, or on its own!

UPDATED 2/4/12:  Wow, it's been a few years since I first tried this recipe but I still make this granola once or twice a month, it's really that good.  However, now I reduce the brown sugar to 1/4 cup, and the maple syrup to 1/2 cup.  I've also swapped the olive oil for melted coconut oil with excellent results!

Winter Hippie Chow

As you've probably figured out if you read this blog, I don't really have an original thought in my head. Everything I do or make is ripped off from someone else. Hey, at least I usually try to give credit when I do this!

The reason I'm telling you this is because I love the idea of Hippie Chow, and I stole it from the blog Bread and Honey (it's a great post that I recommend reading for your entertainment). I did a mexi-version of Hippie Chow this summer and tonight I turned it into a winter version. You can make Hippie Chow however you want to! Substitute bread, pasta, or rice for the quinoa and ANY veggies that tickle your fancy. Top it with meat, eggs, beans, or other proteins and you have a SLAM DUNK dinner that's quick and yummy and healthy!

I had a bunch of farmer's market veggies in my fridge and I didn't want them to go bad since I was leaving for NYC. So the night before I left, I threw all the veggies on a couple sheet pans and roasted them with olive oil, salt and pepper until they were soft. Here's what I had: carrots, green beans, a sweet potato, beets, and portobello mushrooms.

This is such a great GREEN and LEAN TIP to avoid having to throw away your old produce: If you have veggies just starting to get old, roast them and freeze them! You can then use them later in soups, pasta, frittatas, pizzas, or on their own.

So tonight I put those pre-roasted veggies on top of some cooked quinoa (I always keep some cooked quinoa in my fridge now!), topped with a poached egg and garnished with chopped parsley and grated parmesan cheese. It was groovy, man.

Hippie Chow

grains (quinoa, rice, pasta, bread, etc)

veggies

protein (meat, eggs, beans)

Cook the ingredients, mix together, light some incense, and eat sitting on your floor barefoot listening to Jack Johnson or Bob Marley tunes.

Chicken Noodle Soup for Sick/Lazy People

The New York trip was fabulous...until I got slammed with a horrible cold the night before flying home. I knew something wasn't right when I couldn't enjoy my free drinks at the art event! I mean, c'mon - free tequila?

That night and during the entire flight home, I was pretty miserable with sore throat, itchy ears, headache, and even painful eyeballs. I blame my pain on either being trapped in an airplane with germy people or coming into contact with the 8 million people that live on the tiny island of Manhattan.

Regardless, I'm just happy it's not the flu and so I turned to a cliche - chicken noodle soup - to make me feel better. This is such a simple recipe and if you are one of those people who thinks soup comes from a can...then this is a great starter recipe for you. It's the first soup I ever made from scratch and it really does have healing powers!

The reason I call it soup for lazy people is because I did take a few shortcuts. One, I used a carton of broth (instead of making my own stock), and I used a low-sodium rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. It was kind of disgusting to remove all the skin and remove the meat - but less gross than dealing with raw chicken. Real, free-range, and organic chicken breasts would of course be better in here, but hey, I'm sick and lazy!

Chicken Noodle Soup

1/2 yellow onion, diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

3 ribs celery, diced

salt and pepper and any herbs or seasonings

2 cartons (4 cups each) chicken broth or stock

Diced chicken

1 cup egg noodles

chopped parsley and grated parmesan cheese for garnish

In a soup pot, heat olive oil and add onion, carrot, and celery, salt, pepper, and herbs (I used dried bay leaves and thyme). Cook about 5-8 minutes or until veggies are soft.

Add broth or stock and chicken, bring to a boil. Add noodles and lower heat to medium. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes or until noodles are soft (or until chicken is cooked if using raw chicken). Serve with chopped parsley and parmesan cheese.