Thirty Minute Thursdays: Grilled Honey Mustard Turkey




Apparently it’s been just about a month since I posted a recipe with meat in it.  For all of you meat lovers out there, I apologize. I am weaning myself off of meat to some extent – L is terrified that I’m on my way to becoming a bona fide vegetarian and he’ll never eat homecooked meat again in his life – but I really don’t have any plans to cross over into official veggie-dom. I don’t really like labeling myself by how I eat, particularly since I’ve struggled in the past with overly stringent “rules” about “good” versus “bad” foods. When I feel like eating meat, I eat meat. When I feel like I’ve maybe had enough meat for the time being, I stop for a little bit until I get a hankering again. It’s working for me so far.

My developing flexibility (I’m working on it!) is also making my family’s life a little easier. It was easy during college to cook my own food and eliminate meat as I see fit, but my family isn’t like that. If they have a meatless dinner meal, it pretty much is guaranteed to be lasagna or something like soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. They haven’t really, truly embraced beans and they certainly aren’t up to tofu yet, so my moving back home for my internship is definitely going to involve adjusting on everyone’s parts.

My compromise is that when I cook for them, the majority of the time it will involve meat in some way (not always! We’re going to stretch their comfort zones with food, just gently). One benefit of this is that most of the Rachael Ray meals left in her cookbook involve meat, so it helps to have other people around me to help go through those remaining meals. It’s a good thing too, because a lot of them wind up tasting hands-down delicious, and it’d be a shame if I missed out on them simply because I couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm to cook a big hunk of meat for little ole’ me.

This recipe today is not-so-loosely based on one of the meat-centric recipes in her book. Originally titled Honey Mustard BBQ Chicken, I’ve tweaked it to use turkey tenderloins and a few other more convenient ingredients in the context of what my kitchen was stocked with, and I think a more appropriate new title would be Grilled Honey Mustard Turkey. I know, I know, I just turned the world upside down with that change, right?

This is a solid recipe. It claims that it serves 4, but I’d argue that it largely depends on the type of eater you are. My mom and I split half of a tenderloin, so if you’re more like us, this recipe will serve 8; my dad and L on the other hand each had their own tenderloin half, so a family more like that would only get 4 servings out of it. But this meal, it’s not really about the meat. The sauce, which makes enough to very, very generously douse each and every piece – and I mean douse – is where all of the magic happens. The sweetness from the brown sugar comes through, but it’s cut and kept in check by the cider vinegar. It worked surprisingly well in the warmth of these Spring months, but because of the ingredients used I can see it fitting just as well into an autumn menu. 

I paired the turkey with a corn and tomato scramble (pictured above) from Epicurious, making that according to the original only substituting olive oil for the butter and dill for the scallions. It was flavorful and simple, a truly classy dish. I also made a side of roasted green beans, which were equally simple and a great “guideline” recipe that I found at Mother Rimmy’s Cooking Light Done Right – a good how-to to keep in your back pocket. Plus, the beans only roast for 5-8 minutes, so it doesn’t make your kitchen a furnace – a great compromise for all of you roasted veggie lovers who don’t want to absolutely melt in your kitchens this summer. 

 

Grilled Honey Mustard Turkey
The turkey remains tender, cooked long and slow on a grill pan and blanketed with a sweet-and-sour mustard and vinegar sauce – the true star of the dish.

Yield: 4-8 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

The Ingredients
2 plus tablespoons vegetable oil
½ onion, diced
1 ¾ pounds turkey tenderloin, quartered
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon (no salt added) chicken bouillon
1 cup water
⅓ cup Dijon mustard
1-2 teaspoons honey
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon curry powder

The Method
Heat and very lightly grease a grill pan over medium. While that’s heating, place 2 tablespoons of the oil into a small saucepan and heat that as well. When the saucepan is ready, add in the onions and sauté, 3-5 minutes.

When the grill pan is hot, brush the turkey cuts with additional oil and place on the pan. Cook 10-15 minutes before turning.

While the turkey cooks on the first side, return to the sauce: add the vinegar to the onions and allow it to reduce and thicken slightly, 1-2 minutes. Stir in the brown sugar for another minute before whisking in the water, bouillon, mustard, honey, allspice, and curry powder. Bring to a gentle simmer, then lower the heat and keep warm, stirring occasionally.

Flip the turkey over and baste it liberally with the prepared sauce, covering it almost completely and letting it drip down the sides. Continue cooking the turkey another 10-15 minutes, lowering the heat if necessary to allow the turkey to cook all the way through. With around 5 minutes left, pour the remaining sauce over the turkey and into the pan, taking that pan sauce every once in a while and pouring it back over the meat. Flip once more for 2-3 minutes and, when the meat is cooked through1, transfer to a platter and top with the extra sauce from the pan.

Source, adapted: Rachael Ray's Classic 30 Minute Meals, recipe also available at FoodNetwork.com

Notes:
1Turkey tenderloins are significantly thicker than many chicken breasts on the market. You could butterfly them to speed up the cooking time, though I found patience to be all that I needed to put this meal together in a relaxed, not too drawn out manner. Meat should register 165° on a meat thermometer (which I never use); you can also press down on the meat and it shouldn’t be soft like a pillow – it should resist your pressure slightly. You can also cut into it to make sure it’s done, but that’s a big official no-no because it releases juices, so don’t tell anyone I told you that was ok. But it is, if you’re really unsure and it makes you feel better.

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Chipotle Sweet Potato Overnight Oats: A Revelation

Alright class, did you do your homework? You know what I mean – did you make your chipotle sweet potato dip like I told you to on Monday?

…No?

Well then how are you supposed to make your chipotle sweet potato oats for tomorrow morning?!


As promised, I have for you a recipe that clearly, I am very excited about. I’ve been a fan of overnight oats for about a year now. When I first started making them, I was toying with the idea of adopting a partially raw diet, which is why I gave them a shot in the first place. What I discovered, though, was that by soaking the oats and eating them chilled, you get a natural sweetness that is lacking from conventionally prepared hot oatmeal. Plus, it’s a ridiculously easy grab-and-go breakfast option that can usually be prepped in full the night before. Even though I haven’t started “eating raw,” I’ve still kept this dish as a staple in my diet. In fact, I’m such a fan of overnight oats that the sad emotions I might otherwise feel when I reach the bottom of a peanut butter jar are completely overpowered by the excitement I now associate with empty peanut butter containers –they make delicious vessels for overnight oats. I’ve heard that if you heat the oats and then pour them into the container, it releases the peanut butter from the sides of the container, but I do just fine with my spoon and will-power, scraping down those container walls like I’m getting paid to do it.

 
Because there is peanut butter in the dip, I thought empty-peanut-butter-container-overnight-oats would be fabulous. It turns out, I was very right this time. My first attempt was a little bit bland – it was enjoyable in that clean, barely-spiced kind of way, but it was certainly not worthy of the name “ChipotleSweet Potato Overnight Oats. For my next attempt, I amped up the chipotle, used my updated (and, I think, perfected) dip recipe, and crossed my fingers for the best. The next morning, I woke up, bounced out of bed, and happily tried out my recipe – perfection! It was hot in a smoky, back-of-your-throat kind of way, cool and refreshing. The consistency was spot on, thick and substantial but not gloppy or unappealing. It was exactly what I was going for. I’m smiling now just thinking about it. Seriously, this recipe is a game changer, a winner, a keeper, a slam dunk straight out of the park home run touch down goal hole in one gold medalist in the breakfast food Olympics.

If you think I’m kidding, you haven’t tried the recipe out yet for yourself. My friends, I assure you, this is no laughing matter.



Chipotle Sweet Potato Oats
Smoky chipotle powder, cool and naturally sweet almond milk and sweet potatoes, creamy peanut butter and just a dash of cinnamon and chia seeds make this recipe one of the most unforgettable breakfast recipes you’ll ever have.

Yield: 1 serving
Prep Time: 5 minutes plus 8+ hours
Cook Time: 0 minutes

The Ingredients
½ teaspoon chipotle chili powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk1
¼ cup oats
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 “empty” peanut butter container, optional

The Method
Combine all of the ingredients in a container – preferably a leftover container of peanut butter, because it’s more fun that way – and stir well to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.2 Stir up once more before eating.

Notes:
1I used almond milk, but in other overnight oats recipes I’ve also used Greek yogurt or a combination of the two. Feel free to use whatever you have on hand or prefer! Greek yogurts will just make the consistency thicker, so you may want to consider scaling down the chia seeds or at least being prepared to thin it out with milk in the morning to best suit your taste preferences.
2I made mine at 3:00 in the afternoon and didn’t eat it until around 10am the following morning – I personally think giving it a solid 12+ hours to hang out in the fridge is ideal, but it’s not absolutely necessary, especially with the chia seeds.

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Chipotle Sweet Potato Dip



It may be the end of May, over 80 degrees outside with a humidity percent well into the 70’s, and the kind of weather for cold potato salads and chips, but for the past month and a half I have had just one food on my mind: piping hot sweet potatoes. My brain must secretly reside on the other side of the equator where this kind of craving is more seasonally appropriate. So you’ll have to forgive me and my weird-o brain, because I need to talk to you about sweet potatoes, and I need to do it not once, but twice this week. I think by the end of the week you’ll understand, and perhaps I’ll scandalously get you to buy out-of-season for these recipes, too.

What I’m really dying to tell you about is the chipotle sweet potato overnight oats that I made, because that breakfast was just about the most fantastic combination of flavors to ever grace my humble little taste buds. But I can’t tell you about that right now, because that would be getting ahead of myself. You see, the overnight oats uses a chipotle sweet potato dip, so first things first, we have to talk about this dip.

The first time I made it, I followed the recipe darn close to a T. I used unsweetened and unflavored almond milk instead of vanilla coconut milk, because I’m really not into the whole coconut craze and the store was plum out of vanilla almond milk. I meant to add a little drop of vanilla extract, but as things tend to go in my kitchen, that just didn’t happen. I also used two small sweet potatoes (I’m talking just about the tiniest little yams – oh, that’s another thing, sweet potatoes apparently don’t exist where I’m from – I’ve ever seen) instead of 1 sweet potato. In the end, the dip was good. The chipotle powder was a little demure and the honey gave it a sweetness that I didn’t think it needed when you’re already dealing with a sweetpotatoyam. I also wasn’t satisfied with the “1 sweet potato” measurement in the original recipe. I don’t know about you, but at my grocery stores, sweet potatoes can range in size from modest potato length to absolute colossal monstrosities. I genuinely cannot tell you what an “average” sweet potato would look like. So, because I like you guys and want you to have consistent and out-of-this-world results, I forcedmyself to make this recipe again, only this time, I put the Floptimism spin on things.

Below is the recipe that I came up with, and I have to tell you, it’s truly wonderful. It’s sweet and creamy with a nice kick that will make you blink twice but won’t knock you flat off your feet. It’s easy and fast to make once you take care of cooking the sweet potato, which I baked while something else was in the oven about 2 days before I made the dip itself. This batch stretched for about 3 healthy servings for me, though you may be able to eek out a few more at a party. I’ve used it as a regular dip with apple slices and homemade cinnamon tortilla chips (brush a tortilla with oil, sprinkle with cinnamon, cut into wedges and toast until crisp; if you use a generous serving of oil they’re to die for but shh!); you could use it as a sandwich/wrap spread, mix it with yogurt or almond milk and top with oats or your favorite cereal, you name it. You could also swap out the milk for some yogurt for a thicker, potentially more condiment-like product. You guys, this is so much more than a dip. 

 

Chipotle Sweet Potato Dip
Healthy, creamy, slightly spicy, and versatile in how it can be used: this dip has it all. Try not to eat it all at once, I dare you.

Yield: 2 cups
Prep Time: 33 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour

The Ingredients
1 14 ounce sweet potato/yam
2 tablespoons (all-natural, creamy) peanut butter
¼ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
2 teaspoons chipotle powder
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

The Method
Pierce the skin of the sweet potato and bake in an oven preheated to 350° Fahrenheit until soft. Remove the peel and set aside.1,2,3 Cool the flesh of the sweet potato, approximately 30 minutes. Add the cooled potato along with all of the other ingredients into a food processor and mix until well pureed and smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings before transferring to a covered container and refrigerating until needed.

Source, adapted: Breakfast to Bed

Notes:
1If you can manage, the original recipe says that removing the skin immediately after baking will allow the flesh to slip right out. Letting it cool first will make the process a little trickier and you’ll probably either wind up with a hacked-to-pieces peel or bits of flesh clinging persistently to the skin. If you choose to peel it immediately, please just be careful – hot sweet potatoes are no joke!
2I love potato skins, so any recipe that tells me to do away with it naturally makes me a little sad. After peeling my potato, I saved the skin for later. Letting it toast/broil a little bit before using it gets rid of the sogginess and replaces it with a crisp product that’s perfect for stuffing with any number of things – salad, egg scrambles, other dips and veggies, you name it. Waste not, want not!
3Last but not least, seriously consider doing this step ahead of time. Between baking and cooling, it turns this easy dip into a more time-consuming recipe. By coordinating the baking with another recipe that uses the oven earlier in the week, you can whip this dip up when you need it in a flash.


So now that you know how to make this dip, I expect each and every one of you to have a batch of it ready by Wednesday, when I’ll be back with the best overnight oats recipe ever – using a healthy dose of this dip as its base! Oh, and please also find time between now and then to enjoy a wonderful, sunny Memorial Day!

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Frosted Peanut Butter Covered Grapes


 
There are few foods that I actively dislike, but of the flavors that rub me the wrong way, a great deal of them involve “fake” flavors – chemicals added to candies and other processed foods to mimic a real, natural fruit or ingredient. Banana runts and laffy taffies do not taste like banana; cherry water ice turns out to be such a poor substitute for the fresh fruit that it deterred me from even trying a real cherry for the first 21 years of my life; and then there’s grape. I know there are people out there who like grape-flavored things – I know this because L is one of them. I, however, am definitely not one of them. The idea of a synthetically flavored grape treat completely turns me off, and I blame it mostly on the grape-flavored cough syrup I had to take as a kid. All grape-flavored foods (aside from fresh grapes, of course) remind me of that horrible, horrible medicine, and I’m immediately transported back to my childhood, having to choose between an obnoxious, persistent cough and the taste of that medicine.

Naturally, then, when I saw that tomorrow is National Grape Popsicle Day, I was none too enthused. If ever grape popsicles came in a variety pack as a kid, they were always, always, always left over in the end, shunned and untouched. Now, I’m even less inclined to choose that flavor than I was back then. Still, I enjoy being festive, and it just so happens that although I do not have a grape popsicle to share with you, I have something even better but still pretty similar: frozen grapes.

I know, I know – this isn’t really a recipe or even a new idea. People have been freezing grapes for a long time now. But what if I told you these were peanut butter covered frozen grapes?

Imagine your favorite childhood peanut butter and jelly sandwich – I’m sure it was grape, right? As we get older we tend to branch out to more exotic jams and even fresh fruits – strawberry preserves, sliced banana, triple berry jam. But at least for me, the traditional, quintessential PB&J involves globs of Welch’s grape jelly, gelatinous and not a speck of real fruit in sight. Now take that sugar and calorie bomb sandwich and strip it of its bread (a distracter from the real flavor combination beauty at work, anyway), replace that dark purple jelly with a real grape, and turn the temperature down several notches. What are you left with? A chilly, peanut-butter encased grape that’s perfect for the warmer weather and absolutely reminiscent of your inner-child’s favorite sandwich.

It’s still not really a recipe, but it is delicious and I thought it deserved more than a link to Flickr from my Twitter account. And it’s so easy to make that you, too, can have a frozen grape-flavored treat to snack on tomorrow, even if you, like me, shun those artificial grape products. 

  

Peanut Butter Frozen Grapes
This recipe will bring you back to your childhood, cool you down on a hot day, and make you seriously question why anyone would ever want to eat just plain grapes.

Yield: Infinite1
Prep Time: Variable
Chill Time: 2-3 hours

The Ingredients
fresh grapes
all-natural creamy peanut butter2

The Method
Wash and dry the grapes. As they dry, line as many baking sheets as you need with wax paper and clear out areas in your freezer.

Using a fork, drop the grapes one at a time into the peanut butter to coat completely, pull out with the same fork, and let some of the excess peanut butter drip back into the container (or bowl if you choose not to work right from the jar) before placing on the waxed paper.3

Place in the freezer for at least 2 hours, then roll the wax paper similar to a sushi roll so that all grapes are separated by wax. Transfer the wax paper to a freezer-safe container or Ziploc bag and return to the freezer until ready to snack.

Source: Floptimism Original

Notes:
1Make as many as you’d like, but for a reference, 15 grapes is about 1 serving of fruit.
2Use all-natural peanut butter for its consistency – it’s much more of a liquid than standard peanut butter (you can practically pour it from the jar), which makes it easier to coat and dip. If you use regular, you may need to warm it to thin it out a little, but I haven’t tried this and can’t attest to the results.
3In line with using the more liquid all-natural peanut butter, some of it will also roll off of the grape and pool onto the wax paper. Because of this, you’ll want to work quickly and possibly in smaller batches than you’d normally do. You could also place a cooling rack over a sheet of wax paper and let some of the excess peanut butter drip off before freezing – I wanted to experiment with this before writing this post but my family ate all of our grapes before I got a chance. Personally, I just worked quickly and enjoyed the little pool of semi-frozen peanut butter, but it’s not as aesthetically pleasing. You could also try to peel the extra blob off post-freezing.

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Thirty Minute Thursdays: Pure & Simple Broccoli & Red Pepper Saute



I crave vegetables. Yes, I also crave chocolate and macaroni and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (not all together) like other normal people, but I really do get cravings for large servings of vegetables. Everyone around me thinks I’m totally nuts. There are some nights for dinner when I’m perfectly content with a mountain of lightly sautéed mixed veggies. It usually comes after a prolonged period of eating meat more frequently than I usually prefer.

When I crave vegetables, I don’t crave casseroles where cheese and noodles drown out the glory of the various plant foods I also add in. When I crave vegetables, I crave vegetables. I want spinach that tastes like spinach, mushrooms that taste like mushrooms, and sweet potatoes that haven’t been deep fried into oblivion. I do get separate cravings for that last food, but that’s a different story altogether.

The recipe that I have for you today delivers on the vegetables. In fact, it’s so purely vegetable-y that it almost doesn’t feel like a recipe at all. Could something so simple possibly be worthy of its own post? In this case, absolutely. Its simplicity is what makes it work. There’s no sugar-coating this one, no beating around the bush – this recipe produces a side dish that tastes like broccoli and red peppers, straight up. No fancy sauces, no crazy spices that you’ve never heard of before, and no gosh-darn cheese to make you forget the vegetables are there. If you like broccoli and red peppers, you will like this dish. If you’re dying for a simple, refreshing recipe as the days seem to get hotter and hotter, you will like this dish.

If the only way you like your vegetables is pureed into tomato sauce or cut into matchsticks and deep fried so you can pretend they don’t exist, you will not like this dish. I’m sorry. I’ll be sure to write about something for you folks later on. But for now, I’m all about veggie love, and I hope you are, too.

  
One Year Ago: Hummus Chicken Salad

Broccoli & Red Pepper Saute
This recipe celebrates the delicious flavors naturally found in broccoli and red peppers, as they are cooked just minimally and as simply as possible to keep the side dish as purely simple as possible.

Yield: 2-4 servings1
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
(printable recipe)

The Ingredients
1 pound broccoli florets
4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 red bell pepper, quartered lengthwise, seeded and thinly sliced
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

The Method
Add 1-inch of water to a skillet over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. Place the broccoli florets into the pan and cover, allowing to simmer for approximately 3 minutes. Promptly drain the broccoli and set aside. Return the skillet to the burner and drizzle the olive oil into it to heat. Add the sliced peppers and sauté for 2-3 minutes before stirring the broccoli back in. Toss until the vegetables are combined, season with pepper, and serve.

Source, adapted: Rachael Ray's Classic 30 Minute Meals

Notes:
1This all depends on how much of a veggie-lover you are and what else you plan to serve with this dish. The original recipe says that it’s 4 servings, but I can see myself at times eating more than my share.

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Chickpea & Asparagus Quinoa Salad



Last week was quite an experience for me. For L’s senior week – the week between finals and graduation where most people go to the beach and drink themselves silly – we chose to return to campus for a relaxing few days. The first half of the week, we holed ourselves up in his room and did a whole lot of nothing much. The second half, one of his suitemates and his girlfriend came up, and we did a few touristy things, took walks, played Frisbee golf, and got more sunburnt than I care to admit. It was a nice week, but there’s one part of it that posed a bit of a challenge: no dining hall options. All food venues on campus closed down and L’s meal plan expired along with his last final, so we were left to fend for ourselves in the jungle of unwashed pots and pans and stained countertops that is the communal kitchen in his dorm. He has a full-size refrigerator, a sink, and a microwave in his suite, but there’s only one central oven for the full dorm building and let me tell you – it’s skeevy. Majorly skeevy. But it was either brave the communal kitchen or starve/live off of PB&J for 3 square meals a day for a full week (or I guess order take out constantly, but this goes back to all 4 of us being poor college students). Skeevy kitchen it was.

A few good meals did come out of these less-than-ideal circumstances, though tweaking the end result was necessary on most occasions and I learned the absolute importance of tasting meals as you go, particularly when the only measuring utensil you have is a plastic 1.5C liquid measuring cup. When I made the dressing for this particular chickpea & asparagus quinoa salad (originally a brown rice salad), I was very heavy-handed with the peanut butter (very surprising, I’m sure) and a little shy with the lemon.  I added more lemon to the leftovers for lunch the next day and was significantly more satisfied with that, as the original attempt was a little heavy from the imbalanced ingredients. I also think this would be better with tahini (what the original called for) or even almond butter (to complement the almonds in the dish), but the peanut butter was successful enough that I can assure you it will work with whatever nut butter you have on hand. You could even forgo the nut butter altogether and make it more of a vinaigrette by substituting sesame oil. I found the original to be a little on the bland side, so I added salt, pepper, and a little cinnamon, which really perked the dish right up. I also added a handful of spinach the next day to bulk up the veggie content, and I really liked it that way. L really liked it the first night (he didn’t have any of the leftovers), but found it so filling (without meat! Crazy!) that he couldn’t even finish his portion of it.

 

Chickpea & Asparagus Quinoa Salad
This dish is simple vegetarian fare at its best: clean but refreshing flavors, filling, and yet still light enough for the warmer weather that’s descending upon us. 

Yield: 3-4 servings
Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes1
Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

The Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
15 ounces chickpeas, drained and rinsed if canned
3 garlic cloves, divided & minced
¾ large onion, diced
½ bunch asparagus, ends trimmed
2 cups cooked and chilled quinoa
3 tablespoons nut butter2
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 ½ tablespoons hot water
salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
cinnamon, to taste
6 tablespoons toasted almonds3

The Method
Heat ½ tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the chickpeas. Cook, allowing them to pop as they heat up, until they start turning golden. (Be careful, as some may pop so exuberantly as to escape the skillet!) Add in 2 cloves’ worth of minced garlic and continue cooking until the chickpeas become crispy. Transfer to a dish or plate and return the skillet to the heat. Add the onions and, if necessary, a little more oil. Cook until they, too, become golden, 4-5 minutes. Cut the asparagus spears into 1-inch slices and stir those into the onions and cook until they begin to soften slightly, just a few minutes. Transfer the asparagus-onion mixture to the same dish or plate as the chickpeas.

Add another drizzle of oil, if necessary, to the pan and stir in the quinoa. Allow it to warm and stir it occasionally so that each seed is allowed the chance to brown a little. Return the chickpea-vegetable mixture to the pan and toss it to incorporate all of the ingredients and warm it through.

Meanwhile, prepare the dressing: combine the nut butter, lemon juice, 1 ½ tablespoons of oil, the hot water, and 1 clove’s worth of minced garlic in a lidded container. Close the light tightly and shake to emulsify. Remove the lid and pour over the quinoa mixture on the stovetop. Stir to distribute and season with a little salt, pepper, and a dash of cinnamon if desired, then transfer to either one serving dish or divide into equal portions and garnish with the almonds to serve.

Source, adapted: Dinner with Julie

Notes:
1This is an estimation based on the need for precooked and chilled quinoa; if you make it earlier in the week or utilize leftovers, your prep time should only be about 5 minutes.
2The original called for tahini and I used peanut butter, but I think almond butter would be even more fabulous than either of them.
3The original called for sliced almonds but I only had a scant tablespoon or so, so I used those and made up for the rest by coarsely chopping whole roasted almonds. Use whatever you have available – it’ll work, I promise!



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Baked Spinach & Eggs: The New Face of Comfort Food



Comfort food. You think of lots of butter and heavy cream, right? Biscuits and gravy, chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese – meals you guilt yourself about eating but that make you feel warm and safe when you do. I’m convinced that it doesn’t have to be that way. I love comfort food, yet I really hate heavy foods that feel like a ton of bricks settled in the pit of your stomach by the time you reach the bottom of the bowl. Lighter foods can still be comforting, can still evoke that warm and safe feeling so traditionally associated with those heavier meals. No guilt required (not that I think you should guilt yourself about anyfood decision – make your food choice mindfully, and enjoy whatever that choice may be; if you can’t eat it shamelessly, it isn’t worth it, if you ask me).

This dish – baked spinach with eggs – was loosely adapted from the Smitten Kitchen, and by loosely, I mean I changed very little about it aside from cracking an egg into the dish during the last few minutes of cooking. I also swapped all of the butter for olive oil and used whole wheat, homemade bread crumbs, not that there’s really anything wrong with a little bit of butter here or there; I just didn’t have any on hand, and was curious to see if the olive oil would be successful. I do, however, have serious issues with store-bought bread crumbs, when homemade are so much healthier and ridiculously easy to make. But I’m no doppelganger hanging out on your shoulder while you cook, so don’t let that guilt settle in if you like and happen o keep store bought crumbs in stock – remember what I just said about guilt? Yeah, it’s lame. If you like shake-n-bake, use it as proudly as I use my food-processed whole grain bread butts. (But if you haven’t tried making your own, I highly recommend it.)

 
But alas, I digress. This dish is so much more than olive oil and bread crumbs. The spinach is light and not soggy or greasy or slimy the way that some cooked spinach dishes can become – it tastes about as fresh as cooked spinach can possibly taste. The smoked cheddar cheese gives off this poser-bacon flavor and the eggs really come in with a protein/nutrition 1-2 punch. And did I mention it’s low-carb? Well, low-carb unless you choose to pair it with a warm, fresh loaf of bread – which is absolutely a fantastic decision, though I didn’t do that. Even without any herbs and spices, this is seriously one of the best recipes I’ve made in a long time, and I’ll be the first to admit that I use my seasonings (except salt) with a heavy hand. And comfort food? Folks, you have not tasted comfort food until you’ve tasted this baked spinach and egg dish. Forget your Aunt’s famous pot pie or your husband’s great-grandma’s secret recipe for biscuits. This is the new face of comfort food: healthy instead of heavy, without sacrificing any of the warmth and happiness that comes with taking that first bite. And then the second. And then the third. And then…

By the way, do not be intimidated by this recipe. It looks long, but it goes very smoothly and is very intuitive. If you need to, take a deep breath (I know I did!), and give it a shot, because it’s not a difficult recipe and the pay-off is absolutely incredible in the end.



Baked Spinach with Eggs
This dish proves that comfort food doesn’t have to weigh you down and tempt you with that pesky feeling of guilt. It is light yet unquestionably filling and satisfying, and packed with a whole heck of a lot of nutrients. If you’re not comforted when you eat this dish, I want emails.

Yield: 6 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

The Ingredients
3 pounds fresh spinach
3 ½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 cup stock
¾ cup grated smoked cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons whole grain, homemade bread crumbs
6 eggs

The Method
Preheat the oven to 375° Fahrenheit and lightly grease a 1-quart baking dish; set aside.

Wash the spinach and, without drying, place in a large pot set over high heat. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until all of the spinach has wilted, 2-4 minutes. Transfer the cooked spinach to a colander and pour a bowl of very cold water over it to shock it and stop the cooking. Working in batches, gently squeeze the spinach by hand to drain as much water as possible. Coarsely chop the spinach and set aside momentarily.1

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the pot you just used for the spinach and lower the heat to moderately high. Add the spinach, cooking 2-3 minutes to remove any moisture you weren’t able to squeeze out by hand. When the spinach starts to stick to the pan, it’s ready.

Lower the heat and sprinkle the spinach with the flour, stirring for 2 minutes before adding in the stock. Scrape the bottom of the pan for stuck spinach. Bring the mixture to a simmer briefly, 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Stir 1 cup of the cheese into the spinach and transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. In a separate, smaller bowl, mix the remaining cheese and olive oil with the breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the top of the spinach.2 Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes before removing to crack the eggs over the top of the spinach (try to distribute them evenly, dividing the baking dish into 6 “portions”) and return to the oven to continue cooking the egg. For a runny egg, cook for 15 minutes; for a more solid baked egg, cook for 20 minutes.

Notes:
1This can be done up to a day in advance and stored, covered, in the refrigerator until needed.
2The recipe can be followed up to this point (full assembly of dish) ahead of time, covered and refrigerated until needed. Simply resume cooking instructions from this point 30 minutes before serving.


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Thirty Minute Thursdays: Easy Mexican Tortizzas



Today’s Thirty Minute Thursday might be an interesting one. Not only am I camped out on L’s campus for his senior week, but my trusty, battered-and-stained Rachael Ray cookbook is hiding in one of the many boxes taking up residence in my living room, waiting to be unpacked from the move back home. I managed to find one archived recipe – this quesadilla pizza – that I tweaked so significantly that I luckily can write about it without Rachael’s original recipe in front of me. Mostly. I hope. However, I don’t have my notes on how, exactly, this meal tasted. We’re going to have to go off of memory and so I warn you now – you may be getting a lot of adjectives like “good,” “delicious,” and “tasty.” I know they mean nothing. I’ll try my best. But believe me when I tell you, no matter what I write next, this recipe was definitely good, delicious, and tasty.

The original recipe is intriguing in that it actually takes a traditional cheese quesadilla and tops it with pizza-like toppings. I try to use cheese as an accent more than a main component of a meal, plus I wasn’t interested in eating two full, large tortillas in addition to all of the cheese and toppings I had in mind, so I ditched this technique. Nonetheless, it conjured up images of a Mexican-inspired, still-infinitely-healthier-than-your-typical stuffed crust pizza, and I thought that was pretty cool. So if you want, instead of using one flat tortilla as the crust, you can make a full-on cheese quesadilla – melted cheese between two grilled tortillas – and then plop the toppings over that. You could also do all of that and then slice the pizza in half to yield 2 servings, and make the entire meal a little more substantial by pairing it with a light salad.

I would encourage you, whether you make it as a “stuffed crust” quesadilla pizza or just a regular tortilla pizza (or “tortizza” as I like to call it), to think of this recipe as a suggestion. Take your very favorite taco or quesadilla ingredients and incorporate them into this meal. Use what you have, what you like. Add beans, grilled chicken, or steak; use guacamole as a pizza “sauce” instead of the salsa; dollop it with plain greek yogurt to garnish. I want to show you the method behind making a really good “tortizza,” so don’t get bogged down by the ingredients that I happened to have on hand that week. This is all about personalization. Enjoy!



Personal Mexican Tortizzas
This recipe features a thin, whole grain tortilla baked until crisp, with versatile and Mexican-inspired toppings that turn it into a festive, easy version of homemade pizza.

Yield: 1 serving
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

The Ingredients
¼ onion, sliced
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ bell pepper, sliced
1 (whole grain) tortilla
3 tablespoons favorite salsa
⅓ cup spinach
1 tablespoon favorite cheese

The Method
Place the oil and the onion in a pan over medium heat and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften and begin to brown, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and bell pepper and continue to cook until the pepper, too, has softened and developed a slight char on the edges.

Meanwhile, place the tortilla on a lightly greased baking sheet1 and spread the salsa evenly over it, leaving approximately ½-inch border along the perimeter clear. Top with the sautéed vegetables and spinach, and sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top. Place in an oven set to 350° Fahrenheit and bake until the cheese has melted and the outer edges of the tortilla have crisped and turn golden-brown, approximately 10 minutes.2


Source, inspiration: Rachael Ray's Classic 30 Minute Meals

Notes:
1Because I only needed 1 serving, I used the baking sheet for the toaster oven and avoided the need for preheating the full oven. However, if you’re making this for multiple people, use a regular baking sheet and be sure to leave time while the vegetables are cooking for the oven to preheat.
2Note that this will not crisp the entire tortilla – the inner parts covered by the topping will remain soft. If you’d like a fully crisp tortilla crust, pre-bake and add the toppings to warm for the final 5 minutes. However, I have not experimented with the exact timing so be sure to keep an eye on it while it cooks.

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Have it Both Ways: Savory Peanut Butter Dip or Spread



Lately, I’ve been shying away from actual recipes and increasingly drawn to taking inventory of my kitchen and figuring out what combinations of foods could produce something edible. Before moving out on Saturday, I had been getting a lot of satisfaction out of taking the odds and ends ingredients and foods from my apartment that I was trying to use up, and turning them into something interesting. Some of my attempts were admittedly better than others, but one of my favorites was this peanut butter spread/dip. I tend to pair my peanut butter with sweeter foods – fruit, yogurt, and chocolate more than anything else – but every once in a while I like throwing my taste buds a curveball and tying in some more savory flavors to a peanut butter meal, which is exactly what I did for this spread. I made it two ways – first as an actual spread and the second time bulked up with some yogurt to make more of a dip, and both were equally delicious. The spread is perfect for sandwiches, pancakes, or vegetables; the dip is much creamier – vaguely reminiscent of a sour cream & onion dip – and would be fantastic with some fresh vegetables like broccoli or carrots. You may even want to toss it in some pasta with vegetables if you’re feeling particularly wacky. I’ve included both alternatives below, but only have a photograph of the dip. 

 

Savory Peanut Butter Spread or Dip
This recipe packs some seriously intense ingredients, but together, they blend into one savory, healthy and downright delicious dip or spread. Serve it with your favorite vegetables or crackers at your next party, and you won’t be sorry.

Yield: 1 serving (approximately 2 tablespoons spread, ⅓ cup dip)
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes

The Ingredients (Spread)
4 teaspoons (natural) peanut butter
2 teaspoons unsweetened (vanilla) almond milk
¾ - 1 teaspoon lite soy sauce
¼ teaspoon horseradish

The Ingredients (Dip)
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons plain greek yogurt
½ tablespoon chia seeds
4 teaspoons (natural) peanut butter
½ teaspoon lite soy sauce
¼ teaspoon horseradish

The Method
Regardless of whether you want more of a thick spread or a thinner, creamier dip, whisk all of the appropriate ingredients together and refrigerate until needed. Due to the chia seeds in the dip version, this will especially benefit from some chill time before serving.

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Sunrise Daiquiri Smoothie





Today is the first day of the rest of my life. For such a cliché moment, it doesn’t feel all that dramatic. I even feel pretty silly just typing that phrase. Yesterday’s graduation was a whirlwind of chaos, dehydration, disappointment, sunburn, and (despite it all) delicious food. Maybe how it all played out should have only been expected, given that they were asking a group of 3,000 22-year-olds to sit in the middle of a football field in 80 degree weather in black gowns and heavy hoods as they read each of those 3,000 names and honors aloud – in addition to many drawn-out speeches. Admittedly, it was a poorly executed ceremony. It took 2 solid hours just to award the degrees. Still, I can’t muster up pride in association with my fellow graduates, and I don’t think the poorly run ceremony is any excuse for their behavior – out of 3,000, a scant 100 of us remained by the very end (yes, they just got up and walked out as soon as they were handed their diploma holders), and I can’t even begin to estimate how few were still fully clothed in their graduate regalia as they recessed out of the stadium. Yes, it was hot and long and miserable, but this is your graduation for pete’s sake! For all of the “Pomp and Circumstance” surrounding what was supposed to be The Big Day…I felt oddly like I was back in kindergarten. I guess things don’t really change, huh?


Regardless, today still feels somewhat special. I’m not a college student anymore. I have a diploma (well, I have a diploma cover – the diploma will be mailed in a few months). To commemorate this special new path unfolding in my proverbial and cheesy journey, I thought it appropriate to tell you about this absolutely delicious Sunrise Daiquiri Smoothie (you know, like the Sunrise Smoothie, the sun is also rising in a new chapter of my life! I know, I know, I’m beyond corny. I can’t help it). It’s non-alcoholic, but I tried to mimic the flavors of a fruity cocktail in it to add an edge to the otherwise sweet flavors.

And let me tell you, this is one seriously tasty smoothie! It’s citrusy, the perfect temperature and consistency, and all around a great choice for the morning to perk you up and get you ready for the day. There are only 2 things that would make this smoothie even more-out-of-this-world: first, a VitaMix to totally pulverize the coconut flakes, which in my blender remained a little chunkier than I would have liked; second, a layered effect making first an orange and then a strawberry smoothie in the finished glass to produce a gorgeously marbled effect that would really remind you of a true sunrise. Another example of how the Martha Stewart gene is somewhat lacking in my DNA. I do have a goal this summer to work on my presentation/plating/photography skills, though, so maybe you’ll start seeing cutesy things like swirled smoothies in the near future. For now, the smoothie is just plain old pink, and it’s in just a plain old glass, photographed against a plain old wooden desk backdrop, but I like it. A lot. And I hope you do, too.


One Year Ago: Chicken & Egg Soup

Sunrise Daiquiri Smoothie
This (virgin!) morning beverage is alive with fruity and citrusy flavors, with just the slightest edgy undertone from the rum extract and a silent-but-deadly-nutritious component masked by all of the deliciousness of the other ingredients. No protein powder required.

Yield: 1 serving
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes

The Ingredients
1 tablespoon shredded coconut
¾ cup frozen strawberries
1 container Orange Vanilla Chobani Champions
½ banana, chunked
½ cup unsweetened almond milk
scant ¼ teaspoon rum extract1
1 tablespoons ground flax meal
zest of ½ small orange

The Method
Combine all of the ingredients in a well-powered blender, starting with the coconut and strawberries to give them the most contact with the blade (as these will be the most challenging to puree completely). Blend until you reach the desired consistency and transfer contents to a glass.

Notes:
1I don’t have a measuring spoon for ⅛ teaspoon, so I just tried to get as close as I could to that small measurement using the ¼ teaspoon. I didn’t find it to be overpowering in the slightest, though, so even if you do have that small of a measurement you might still want to just use the larger one and not fill it all the way up. I aimed for half-way, of course, but ¾ full is probably closer to what I actually achieved.



I also want to wish everyone who is celebrating a very happy Mother’s Day! I hope you have some wonderful food-filled plans set for the rest of the day. I won’t be cooking (probably a good call – after the hectic events of the past week between moving out and graduation, I’m pooped!), but I will be going out to eat with L’s family and then hopefully stopping by my grandparent’s house tonight to see them and other family members who couldn’t make it to graduation yesterday. It should be a good day!

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