Best green beans ever

I know that I haven't written in a while, but I also haven't really been cooking. I have whipped up a couple of very simple pasta dishes and will give recipes later. I am prepping for tax season, looking for really quick dishes to make.

However, the weekend has arrived and it's time to cook again. Tonight I made green beans with lemon and garlic and brown rice and cheese croquettes.

Okay, these are the best green beans ever. I don't particularly care for green beans. It has been my experience that they are usually over cooked and have a big old piece of pork added to them for flavor. These have neither.

I started out by cooking 2 lbs of fresh green beans (with the ends trimmed) by bringing salted water to a boil and just blanching them until they were crisp tender (just a couple of minutes). When done, I drained them and put them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. They retain their beautiful green color when you do this. Later, when the croquettes were baking, I melted some butter with a bit of olive oil, sauteed 2 cloves of garlic and 1 tsp of red pepper flakes. I added the green beans, cooked for about 5 minutes stirring to coat the beans with the butter mixture. When they were done, I added the zest of one lemon and salt to taste.

Let me just say, they were delicious and HOT, HOT, HOT. Next time I think I will reduce the amount of red pepper flakes by half. But, they were still very good.

Brown rice and cheese croquettes. These were very good. It started with another adventure in grocery shopping looking for short grained brown rice. Short grained rice is stickier than it's long grain counterpart. I found the rice at a health food store where they sell it in bulk. And since it's brown rice, it's healthier since the nutrients aren't stripped away like in white rice.

Cook one cup of the rice in 2 and 1/2 cups of vegetable broth or water. The vegetable broth gives it a little bit more flavor. Bring the rice and the broth to a boil, cover and simmer 45 - 60 minutes until all of the broth is absorbed then let cool. Once it is cooled mix in  1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, one egg white and 2 tablespoons of flour (I used white flour, but the recipe calls for whole wheat flour. I don't happen to have that on hand yet). Form the rice mixture into 12 balls and press into each ball a 1/2 inch cube of mozzarella cheese. Roll the balls in bread crumbs (I used Italian style) and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cook in a preheated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes turning once half way through.

These were delicious! They were a little chewy and cheesy and just good. I will definitely be cooking these again! The croquettes are a little time consuming due to the amount of time that it takes to cook the rice but were well worth the time and effort.

This meal is definitely worth trying :)

Let's talk turkey

Let me just state for the record, I LOVE breakfast. Breakfast at breakfast time and breakfast for dinner. Eggs (only scrambled though), bacon, sausage, ham, grits, potatoes, toast, muffins, biscuits, I love them all. I don't eat them all (all of the time) but I do love them. So I wanted to break down the components of  my favorite breakfast.

Meat. My family started eating turkey bacon years ago. It's good. It's not pork of course but is a tasty breakfast meat. Then there is turkey sausage. I have not been able to find a good turkey sausage in the grocery store. So today, I made my own turkey sausage from scratch and it was not only easy but delicious!

Here's how you do it. Combine 1 lb. ground turkey, 1 clove minced garlic, 3 tbl. light brown sugar, 1 tsp. red pepper flakes, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. chopped fresh sage leaves, 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme leaves, 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper and 1/4 tsp. black pepper. Shape into patties and fry. You will need to add a little oil because they are not nearly as greasy as pork sausage. The sausage is slightly sweet and slightly spicy. It's very good.

By the way, if you use dried herbs instead of fresh, the conversion is 3 tbl fresh = 1 tsp dried.

So you you might ask, how much better is it for me?

1 ounce                           Turkey sausage                        Pork sausage
Calories                            55                                           95
Fat                                    3g                                           8g
Protein                              7g                                           5g

This is a no brainer.

Eggs. As I said, I only eat them scrambled (this includes omelets). But to add to the nutritional value, I like to chop up a little red pepper and onion and add to the eggs while they are cooking. Not only are they good this way but 1/4 cup of red pepper contains 70% of the RDV of vitamin C and 25% of the RDV of vitamin A. They are also a great source of B6 and fiber. Eggs in and of themselves are pretty good for you too. Coming in at 60 calories they provide 6g of protein as well as Vitamins D, A, riboflavin, folic acid, B6, B12 and essential amino acids. The fat and cholesterol in eggs is all in the yolks so if this is a concern, egg whites can be used instead. I personally can't eat egg whites but you could use one whole egg with one egg white and it wouldn't be so bad.

Bread. Biscuits are bad for you. Period. Toast or english muffins not quite as bad especially if you use whole grain breads. I like rye toast. Rye bread is a whole grain bread and has more fiber and less sugar than white bread.

I wish I had a nice picture of my most delicious breakfast but the batteries in my camera died (no doubt from leaving it on for two days) and I didn't have any spares.

There will be no more blogs this weekend. I am stuffed and probably will only have a little pasta and a salad made with raw spinach, pears, walnuts and gorgonzola cheese with a little raspberry vinaigrette for dinner.

I hope you found this useful and will try the sausage. Let me know what you think!

Something a little more exotic

Tonight I decided to try cooking with tofu. Tofu is soybean curd and by itself really doesn't have any flavor but it takes on the flavor of what it is cooked with. I made a recipe called Carrot and Tofu Scramble, which in its introduction says that even people who dislike tofu like this dish. Win, win.

First you have to grate a pound of carrots which, unless you have a food processor, is an arduous task. I am sure that I will be finding carrot gratings for a while now. Drain and crumble 1 pound of extra firm tofu. Cook grated carrots in 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The carrots start to caramelize a bit.

This is what the crumbled tofu looks like. I know, not that appetizing, but don't judge yet.

After 15 minutes, add the tofu and cook an additional 5 minutes. At this point, the tofu starts looking like scrambled eggs. Add 1/3 cup soy sauce and 1/3 cup sesame seeds and cook for one more minute. Stir in 1 teaspoon of dark sesame oil and serve over rice.

Voila, the finished product. This dish was very good. I was pleasantly surprised. The tofu took on the flavor of the soy sauce and the sesame seeds added crunch to the dish. It serves 4 but once again, I think you could serve six with a green vegetable or small salad. It has 203 calories without the rice. I used brown rice but you could use which ever kind you prefer. It also has 12g protein and 4g fiber.

I have read that soy helps with the symptoms that women of a certain age get. Here is my contribution to soy intake. While it is a fat, like avocado's it is unsaturated fat and not quite so bad for you. By the way, I think that it's terribly unfair for vegetables to contain fat. It's just not right.

Now for desert......

Normally, I don't make deserts because it is usually a sweet that I don't need and I am usually full from the meal itself but since it is the weekend, and I had time, I went for it.

This is a Thai dish that was super easy to make and delicious! This serves 4 but you may be tempted to make it serve only two. :)

In a dry pan, toast 1/4 cup of sesame seeds. Keep an eye on them as they burn quickly. Toasting brings out the nutty flavor of the sesame seeds.

Slice 4 bananas diagonally and squeeze the juice of two limes (or 4 tablespoons of lime juice) over them and set aside.

Boil over a low even heat, 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water until it reaches 235 degrees. You will need a candy thermometer for this. Dip the bananas in the sugar mixture and put on a piece of wax paper that has been buttered. Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and serve right away.

Awesome good and coming in at 222 calories per serving.

I am feeling pretty good that I finally cooked with tofu. I'm not sure that it will be a regular addition to my diet but is good for a change once in a while.

I hope you decide to try it!

Adventures in grocery shopping

With my new found interest in vegetarian cooking I have run into a whole new adventure in the grocery store. Where do you find these ingredients? Went grocery shopping tonight and here are a few of my observations.

Tofu - found in the produce section. Tofu is soybean curd so I guess this makes sense. Along with the plain tofu were tofu sausages, tofu noodles, and of course, tofurky (I didn't buy any of those)

Gandules - also known as pigeon peas, these are not in the canned vegetable section but in the ethnic aisle or as I like to refer to it, the Goya aisle.

Tahini - this is a sesame paste. I know I spent at least 5 minutes on the "ethnic foods" aisle and could not find it. After checking with the grocery manager, I found it on the ethnic foods aisle in the jewish section. Who knew?

Sofrito and sazon - the Goya aisle. Sofrito is a tomato, pepper, onion, cilantro cooking base and sazon is....
I don't know exactly but it goes in Arroz con gandules.

So I"m wondering, why is the spanish/ jewish/ english/ german/ asian food in the ethnic aisle but not the pasta/ spaghetti sauce?

No cooking for tonight, plenty of leftovers from last night.

Next experiment....tofu.

Black Bean Burgers

Tonight I made black bean burgers. Rule #1 - NEVER, EVER, EVER think that these "burgers" or any other vegi burger are a substitute for a big, juicy hamburger. The only substitute for a big, juicy hamburger is a big, juicy cheeseburger. Rule #2 - Judge these "burgers" on their own merit.
These black bean burgers are not only yummy and easy to make but are loaded with nutrients. One burger has about 14 grams of protein and about the same amount of fiber ( beans, beans....) and while they have about 300 calories they are all good calories.
I use a recipe that I got from the food network. They are pretty spicy on their own and if you add the sauce that the recipe calls for they are VERY spicy. I prefer to skip the sauce and use mayo instead but that's just a personal preference.
Here's where you can find the recipe - http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aaron-mccargo-jr/deluxe-black-bean-burger-recipe/index.html
So, the recipe calls for cilantro in both the burgers and the sauce. I never can find fresh cilantro in the grocery store so I use this instead.

You use it just like you would use fresh chopped cilantro. By the way, this is good in black beans and rice too. The burger mix is sticky ( they don't stick to your hands so much if your hands are damp) and a little difficult to get into the pan but once you start frying them and they get a little bit of a crust they are very easy. The recipe also calls for roasted red pepper to put on the burger once it's cooked. Where do you find those in the grocery store? FYI at Publix they are in the condiment aisle. And yes, now I have them in my fridge. I am slowly but surely accumulating an interesting array of ingredients in my fridge and pantry (smoked paprika and szechuan sauce are a couple of examples of those interesting items).
I also made oven "fried" sweet potatoes. These are easy. Slice sweet potatoes very thin, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and pop them in a 375 degree oven until they are tender. I turn the broiler on when they are done to get them a little bit crispy. I haven't figured out a way to get them really crispy without actually frying them. (By the way, burning sweet potatoes smell like roasted marshmallows). They definitely cooled down the hot of the black bean burgers.
And here is it is.

Doesn't that look yummy? Another delicious meal without meat.

First recipe out of "Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook"

Today I made my first recipe out of the vegi cookbook and started with what looked to be easy and with ingredients that I knew I would like. I will move on to more "exotic" fare later. So I started out with a spanish tortilla (not to be confused with corn tortillas). A spanish tortilla is made of potato, onions and eggs and it more of an omelet.
I started with 2 lbs. of potatoes and a large onion which I steamed. Lesson number 1. My steamer is too small for 2 lbs of potatoes so the process took way longer than it should. I ended up having to steam them in two batches. Will do this in the future. Once the vegies were steamed, I folded in 6 beaten eggs and salt and pepper. Dump this into a non stick skillet with a little oil and cook until browned on the bottom. Now for the challenging part, turning it over. The cookbook suggested sliding it on to a plate and then turning it over into the pan. I could see this wasn't going to work without making a big mess. Solution: slide out on to a plate, cover with another plate, flip and slid it back into the pan. Cook until brown on the other side and serve.
Now for the taste test. It was pretty good but a little bland. Needed more salt and something else. I think I might try some cayenne pepper or maybe some chopped red pepper. This recipe is supposed to serve four but they were HUGE servings. And each serving was less than 300 calories! YES! I think if you added a couple of slices of tomato on the side or a bit of fruit you could easily stretch this to six servings.
All in all, first vegie recipe a success!
And here it is. Isn't it lovely.

So why go vegetarian ( or semi-vegetarian in my case, maybe as time goes on I will make the switch)? As I said in my first posting it is mostly a health issue but here is the result of a comprehensive survey in Vegetarian Times.
46%      Health reasons
18%      Not sure (?)
15%      Animal Welfare (leaning toward that - suggested reading "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer)
12%      Influence of family and friends
5%        Ethical reasons
4%        Environment (really works with animal welfare)
Just thought you'd like to know.

Cooking with Genni - my mission statement

In the interest of my health and weight I have decided to change up my cooking and work from a couple of cookbooks that have been gathering dust in my kitchen. One is a Weight Watcher's cookbook and the other a vegetarian cookbook. Something like Julie and Julia but with less calories (less butter and sugar) and absolutely no aspic, ducks or liver. Of course, I have no cooking muse like Julia Child so will just be winging it. I'm also doing this in order to talk (brag) about my cooking without boring my children, friends and co-workers to death with my endless talk of the meals that I have prepared. So, if you are bored to tears reading this, you can always close it. I'm sure there are times that my loved ones wish they could do that with me :)
I hope that in doing this that I will inspire myself and maybe others to eat more healthy while learning about new vegetables and exciting ways to cook them.
I reserve the right to throw in personal antidotes about my struggle with weight issues, excercise issues and other miscellaneous stuff.