Brown Butter Noodles with Spring Greens

One of the blogs I follow did a series last month on meals with five ingredients, and this one stood out. I adapted the recipe to what we had around and it turned out delicious. It's definitely going to be added to our rotation!

Ingredients:
1/2 pound orecchiette noodles (half of the box)
bag of Trader Joe's spring mix
1/4 cup of toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
4 chicken tenderloins
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tsp. minced garlic

1. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Add orecchiette and cook for 8-10 minutes.
2. While the water is boiling, defrost chicken and cook. Season with salt and pepper.
3. In another pan (I used my dutch oven), brown the butter.
4. Put greens in a colander. When the noodles are done cooking, empty the water and the noodles over the colander with the greens. Move the greens and noodles to the pan with the browned butter. Add garlic, pine nuts, chicken, and salt to taste. Sprinkle with parmesan before serving.

Southwest Couscous Salad

I normally cook with quinoa, but I saw this recipe for a Southwest-inspired salad with couscous and thought I'd give couscous a try. Evan and I were both pleasantly surprised/reminded how delicious couscous is - I will have to figure out some other recipes (maybe this?).

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat couscous
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 Tbsp. butter
1 Roma tomato or (what I used) half of a can of diced and fire-roasted tomatoes
1 cup frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe's
1 red pepper, diced
1 sweet potato, diced
1 can black beans, drained
2 Tbsp. minced red onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
2 small limes, juiced
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 415 degrees. Dice sweet potato and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast for 30 minutes.
2. Into a small bowl, juice limes and add garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, 3 Tbsp. olive oil, and onion.
3. In a small saucepan, bring broth, salt, and butter to a bowl. Remove from heat. Add cup of couscous to the water and stir. Set aside.
4. Heat a little butter in a cast iron and cook roasted corn from frozen until warm.
5. Put roasted veggies, tomatoes, beans, and dressing in the saucepan with couscous. Stir everything together and add more salt as needed.

Green Minestrone Soup

Ellie made this soup when we were stuck inside due to the snow and it was so tasty! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 tsp. olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken broth
3-4 red potatoes, cut in small pieces
1 1/2 cups macaroni noodles
1 1/2 cups green beans, trimmed and cut into pieces (I used frozen French String beans from Trader Joe's)
5 oz. greens like kale, spinach, etc.
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan for serving
optional add in: ham

1. Heat 2 tsp. olive oil in saucepan or dutch oven. Add onion and celery and cook until translucent.
2. Add garlic, thyme, and bay leaf and cook for about one minute.
3. Add chicken broth, potatoes, and 3/4 tsp. salt. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Turn down to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Bring a separate pan of water to a boil and cook pasta for ten minutes.
5. Add greens, green beans, and white beans. Continue to simmer until potatoes are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve topped with parmesan cheese and, ideally, buttermilk biscuits. 

Pesto Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables

I stumbled upon this concoction when I invited Rachel and her roommate Erin over for lunch. We didn't have that much around - a green bell pepper and lone sweet potato in the veggie drawer, half of a jar of pesto in the fridge, and a jar of quinoa in the pantry - but I threw what I did have together and it turned out quite tasty! Evan and I have had it multiple times since then. 

Ingredients:

quinoa

bell pepper

one large sweet potato 

pesto

minced garlic 

optional: carrots, cauliflower, mushrooms, chicken

1. Preheat the oven to 415. While the oven is heating up, cut up veggies in small pieces (the smaller they are the faster they will roast), spread out on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Put in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes. 

2. Put two cups of water on to boil. When boiling, add in 1 1/2 cups of quinoa, reduce to a simmer, and cover. Set the timer for 15 minutes. 

3. Remove veggies from the oven and scrape off into the saucepan with the quinoa. Add about 1/2 cup or more pesto and stir. Add a small scoop of minced garlic. 

As always, this recipe makes two lunches and two dinners. 

Macaroni and Cheese Stir-Fry

Our local grocery co-op had Annie's white cheddar macaroni on sale for a dollar each, so guess what we have been eating a lot of? Macaroni stir fry! Thankfully it is delicious and quick to make.

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Cut up veggies, starting with the ones you're roasting (I like carrots) and then the ones you're stir frying (I like broccoli, mushrooms, and onion).
3. Put a pot of water on to boil.
4. Put the carrots in the oven and stir fry the others in a cast iron with a bit of olive oil.
5. When the water is boiling, add two boxes worth of shell noodles and cook for 10 minutes. Add the two cheese packets, a bit of milk, and 3 Tbsp. of butter. Stir until the cheese sauce is mixed in and add the veggies on top. This makes four servings.

Easy Pizza Dough

I usually like to plan meals ahead of time, but with the snow days we have had to get creative with what we have around. I found this quick pizza dough (15 minutes!) online and have made it multiple times since. It isn't quite as flavorful as dough that you let sit overnight, but with some garlic powder and chili flakes it is pretty darn good.

Crust:
1 package active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp.)
1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1 tsp. sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. chili pepper flakes

Preheat the oven to 425. Mix warm water, yeast, and sugar in a bowl. Let rest for 10 minutes or until frothy. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and stir into a ball. Let rest for 5 minutes. Add a bit of olive oil and corn meal to the bottom of a baking sheet and stretch the dough out. It should make enough to fill the baking sheet.

Toppings: (the best variation we've made)
pesto
diced tomatoes
sautéed mushrooms and onions
minced garlic
chopped kalamata and/or spanish olives
sauteed greens (spinach, kale)
sausage
feta

Red Lentil and Apricot Soup

Since it's getting darker so much earlier, I'm having a hard time getting enough light for these pictures so they are so blurry! Oh well. You get the idea.
Evan and I first had this soup at a young adults potluck dinner with people from our church. It was unlike any soup I'd had an I quickly got the recipe. It was quick to make and so satisfying.
Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots
1 1/2 cups dried split red lentils, well rinsed
5 cups chicken/vegetable stock
1 28 can of plum tomatoes, diced
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary or thyme
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
Directions:
1. Saute onion, garlic, and apricots in olive oil until onions are soft and browned - about 12 minutes. I did this step earlier in the day and stored in the fridge for later.
2. In a saucepan, pour in stock and lentils and bring to a boil uncovered. Once boiling, cover the pan and reduce to low. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until lentils are cooked. Add onion mixture, plum tomatoes, seasonings, and lemon juice. Simmer together for a few more minutes.

Autumn Salad with Butternut Squash and Cranberries

I just discovered that Trader Joes has a recipe section on their website! In searching through the recipes, I found a delicious looking autumn salad. It was nice to get the fall flavors on a salad since I keep finding myself making soups and heavier dishes now.
This was super fast and easy to make.
1. Cut up half of a small butternut squash into little chunks. Saute in a cast iron pan with coconut oil until soft. Season with cinnamon, a pinch of nutmet, salt, and a little bit of brown sugar.
2. When the squash is done, remove from the pan and add a can of chickpeas. Cook in coconut oil and season with curry powder, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Chop up a red pepper.
4. Top spinach with the squash, chickpeas, almonds, goat cheese, and dried cranberries. For the dressing, I mixed together balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and a pinch of blue agave syrup for sweetness.

Roasted Vegetable and Goat Cheese Paninis

I discovered that you can roast veggies in the crockpot! This has changed so much.
Veggies: cut in thin slices, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and oregano. Set in crockpot on low for 8-10 hours (this also works on the faster settings)
2 zucchini
2-3 bell peppers
2 sweet potatoes

On sourdough bread, spread goat cheese on one half and pesto on the other. Pile on the roasted vegetables and stick it all in the panini press. Delicious!

Vegan Alfredo Pasta

THIS ALFREDO IS SO GOOD. Evan thought it was by far the best vegan imitation I have made. It really tastes like the real thing without any of the heavy cream that I thought was required to make a good cream sauce.
Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 heaping Tbsp. garlic
4 Tbsp. arrowroot powder or flour
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
4-6 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 cup vegan parmesan cheese (1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup raw cashews, 1/4 tsp. garlic powder, pinch of salt, blended)

Directions:
1. In a saucepan, heat oil until hot. Add garlic. Quickly stir in arrowroot powder or flour and cook for one minute.
2. Add almond milk 1/4 cup at a time, stirring to avoid clumps. Cook for 2 minutes.
3. Transfer to blender and add nutritional yeast (I did 4 heaping Tbsp.), salt, pepper, garlic powder, and vegan parmesan.
We cooked up some peas, broccoli, and mushrooms (carrots would have been good too) and added that to our noodles.

This recipe was taken from Minimalist Baker

Ramen

I kept seeing pictures of ramen floating around on Facebook and my favorite cooking blogs, so I figured I would try it out myself. It was a bit difficult to find all of the ingredients (I should have gone to an Asian grocery story but I just went by Trader Joes and Whole Foods) but it turned out yummy still.
1. Preheat oven to 400. Slice carrots and mushrooms, coat with olive oil and garlic, and roast until soft - about 30 minutes.
2. Slice tofu and coat with cornmeal, salt, and pepper (I tossed mine in a large Ziploc bag). Set aside.
3. Finely chop one medium yellow onion, one piece of ginger, and four cloves of garlic. Simmer in sesame oil until soft. Add 6 cups of vegetable stock, 4 packages of miso flavored ramen (mine were from Whole Foods), 2 Tbsp. liquid aminos/soy sauce, and one Tbsp. umami paste, and simmer for 10-15 minutes until noodles are soft. Add extra seasonings to the broth to taste. Add roasted veggies.
3. In a hot cast iron, add about 2 Tbsp. of sesame oil and pan fry tofu until firm.
4. Saute some kale or other desired toppings.

VEGAN QUESO NACHOS

Slice eggplant into 1/4"-1/2" slices and drizzle with olive oil and salt. On a baking sheet, broil for 4-5 minutes (until browned) on each side. Remove from oven and cover with foil to steam. After a few minutes, remove the skin from the eggplant and put in a blender with 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 5 Tbsp. nutritional yeast, 1 scoop of salsa (optional), 1 Tbsp. cumin, 1 tsp. chili powder, 1 tsp. minced garlic, and a can of Rotel or green chilis. For more spice add smoked paprika. Blend together. If too runny, put in a saucepan with cornstarch until it thickens.
We topped corn chips with black beans, sauteed peppers and onions, and tomatillo salsa.
This made quite a bit of queso - enough for two dinners and two lunches - so next time I'd need to brainstorm a better way to use the leftovers.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

1 large head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 medium yellow onion, cut in chunks
2 leeks, cut into small chunks
2 small/medium sweet potatoes, cut into small chunks

Drizzle veggies with olive oil and salt and roast (mine fit onto two baking sheets) for roughly an hour at 400.

3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
4 Tbsp. butter (could be left out)
1/2 cup coconut almond milk
salt and pepper to taste

When veggies are almost done (starting to get brown and caramelized), heat two cups vegetable stock with 4 tbsp. of butter in a saucepan. In a cast iron, caramelize red onion in olive oil.
Remove veggies from oven. Put one sheet of veggies into blender (I used my Nutribullet but if you had a bigger blender just do it all at once) and add one cup of veggie stock and one clove of minced garlic. Pour mixture into saucepan. Put the second sheet of veggies into the blender with half cup veggie stock and half cup coconut/almond milk (use less if using cream). Pour mixture into saucepan and stir together until blended. Top with caramelized onion! The recipe I adapted this from suggested toasted croutons and steamed kale - I'm planning to try that next time!

This recipe is super fast to put together once the veggies are roasted, so I'm looking for a way to speed up the roasting process. I'd like to try roasting veggies in the crockpot so dinner would be much faster to put together when we come home from work.

Lentil Sloppy Joes

Bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce to a simmer for 18 minutes or until tender. Discard remaining liquid:
1 1/4 cup green lentils
2 1/2 cups water

Chop and saute in cast iron with olive oil: 
1/2 yellow onion
1 green bell pepper
2 cloves minced garlic

Add lentils to cast iron and stir in:
1 1/2 cup marinara sauce (I used one from Trader Joes)
1 can diced tomatoes
3 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

Serve on hamburger buns! Recipe adapted from here.

Stuffed Peppers

6 green peppers

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1 can black beans

1 can refried beans

1 heaping tsp. cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

3 Tbsp. lime juice

½ cup roasted tomatillo salsa

½ cup pico de gallo

½ cup corn salsa from Trader Joes

¼ cup water

Crockpot OR at 400 for 45 minutes in a pan with a little water in the bottom and foil covering pan. Saves pretty well so this could be used for three meals for two people.

Sesame Noodle Stir fry & Noodle Trick

Noodle Stir fry
2 large heads broccoli, cut in small pieces
10 mushrooms
Stir fry broccoli with toasted sesame oil and garlic. Saute mushrooms. In wok, stir fry spaghetti noodles in toasted sesame oil, sriracha, and Island Soyaki (from Trader Joes).

Zucchini and Yum Sauce 
2 zucchini (although I should have cooked 3-4!) cut in wedges and stir fried with salt and pepper.
Mix together...
1/3 cup mayo
1 Tbsp. Sriracha
1 tsp. rice vinegar
1 tsp. agave syrup
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
sprinkle of salt and pepper

FOR PERFECT SPAGHETTI NOODLES...

Place dry spaghetti noodles in a large saute pan, cover with cold water, add salt, and bring to a boil uncovered. Turn off the heat, cover it, and let it stand for 15 minutes. Drain and you have super tasty noodles!

Chickpea Caesar Wraps

I used this caesar dressing recipe but cut the recipe in half. At Trader Joes on Sunday I picked out a package of their Middle Eastern flatbread which was the perfect texture and thickness for the wraps. After warming the flatbread in a pan, we topped it with some lightly steamed kale, red leaf lettuce, spiced chickpeas (with turmeric, black pepper, smoked paprika, garlic salt and oregano), and caesar dressing! We made it in under a half an hour - a record time considering how long I've been taking to make dinner lately.

1/2 cup soaked raw cashews
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 clove garlic
1/2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. capers
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper

Vegan Caesar Salad

This caesar dressing is SO good.
1 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight (I forgot this step but it turned out fine)
1/2 cup water
4 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
4 tsp. capers
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste

...just blend everything together for a delicious Caesar dressing. We put this on a mixture of romaine lettuce and lightly cooked kale and topped it with spiced chickpeas (chickpeas sprinkled with turmeric, pepper, oregano, dill, and smoked paprika in a cast iron pan with a bit of oil) and vegan parmesan. It was surprisingly filling!

Recipe from here

Eggplant 'Parmesan'

Eggplant, cut in 1/2 inch slices
Egg Mixture:
1 egg (or flax egg) with a bit of water to thin
Flour: 
about 1/3 cup flour with salt and pepper
Coating: 
1 cup panko bread crumbs

Vegan parmesan:
3/4 cup raw cashews
3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
heaping 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. salt

Dip each eggplant slice in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take slices out in batches and cook in cast iron with 1 Tbsp. olive oil to brown and crisp (this is really important!). Sprinkle with vegan parmesan and oregano.

Serve on top of spaghetti noodles and marinara. Sprinkle with more parmesan since you don't have to feel guilty about this stuff.

Vegan Chili

1 can drained corn

1 can black beans

1 can kidney or chili beans

1 small can vegetarian baked beans

1 28 oz can chopped tomatoes with juice

1 can Rotel (or just do a can of chilis)

1 medium onion, diced

2 chopped green bell peppers

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

2 Tbsp. chili powder

1 Tbsp. cumin

1 can water

Mix everything together in a crockpot and put on low for 8 hours. Even better served with Trader Joes Corn Cake Bread.

Thursdays are our hectic days - I have class all afternoon and evening, Evan works all day and then has catechism class in the evening - and we miss each other for dinner. I'm trying to get better at crockpot meals since that seems to be the best solution!