Egyptian Edamame Stew

This dish is described as "a riff on the Egyptian classic ful medames, a highly seasoned fave bean mash" in the planner/recipe-book where I found it. It's easy to make, and light but filling; I ate it first with quinoa for dinner, and later enjoyed the leftovers with some whole wheat pita bread.

Ingredients
About 3 cups shelled edamame (meaning, beans are out of the shell)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large zucchini, diced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped mint
3 tablespoons lemon juice
(optional: original recipe called for 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, which I did not add, but you may want to try)

To make
1. Cook the edamame according to package directions: bring a pot of water to a boil and toss in the beans, for about 5 minutes if the edamame has been thawed, longer if they are still frozen.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften (~3 minutes)
3. Add zucchini and cook, covered, until onions start to brown (~another 3 minutes)
4. Add garlic, cumin, and coriander (and cayenne pepper, if using) and cook, stirring, until fragrant (~30 seconds)
5. Stir in tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until slightly reduced (~5 minutes)
6. Stir in the edamame and cook until heated through (~2 minutes)
7. Remove from heat and stir in mint and lemon juice.

Baked Sweet Potato with Garlic Green Beans & Quinoa

A vegetarian dinner omg :-0

I had a large sweet potato and a bunch of green beans that really needed to be used soon, and no meat in the house :-0 But this nearly all-plant-based dinner (there was butter involved) was tasty, filling, and pretty as well.

Baked Sweet Potato
Here I followed the instructions in the Cook's Illustrated Best Recipes cookbook, modified here for a single potato:
Scrub the potato and lightly prick with a fork.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Rub the potato with olive oil (I used the lightly flavored kind, for sauteeing).
Put the potato on a foil-lined baking sheet.
Bake until a knife tip slips easily into the center of the potato, 40-50 minutes.
Dot with butter and season with a little pepper.

During the last ten minutes or so of the potato's baking time, I prepared the quinoa and garlic green beans:

To make the quinoa: Rinse 1/3 cup of quinoa in a strainer. Put quinoa and 2/3 cup water into a saucepan, bring to boil over medium heat. Lower heat a bit and simmer until water is gone (but no longer!)

To make the beans: heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a skillet/saucepan. Add about a clove's worth of minced garlic and cook for a minute or two. Add green beans and a handful of edamame (more green, and protein!), and about a tablespoon of butter. Cook and push around till the baked potato comes out.

Probably you could skip the olive oil with the beans, and just cook the garlic in butter (I just didn't think of adding butter till after I used oil)

Classy Ramen

Between getting home from Philly and leaving again for rehearsal the other day, I had ~30 min to make and prepare dinner, with not much in the way of fresh dinner food. I did, however, have a pack of chicken-flavor Top Ramen. Every so often I get a hankering for the cheap salty goodness of ramen noodles, but to feel a little more wholesome about it I class 'em up with proteiny and vegetabley add-ins. The latest version:

1 package chicken-flavor ramen noodles
2 eggs
~ 1/2 cup of frozen edamame (unshelled)
~ 1/2 cup of leftover cooked spinach

Preparation:
Bring a few cups of water to boil in a pot.
Add ramen noodle brick. Boil for a minute or so to soften.
Crack two eggs into boiling water.
Add frozen edamame to boiling mixture.
Add spinach.
Cook for another couple of minutes.
Add contents of delicious, MSG-laden flavor packet.
Drain off half of the liquid (depending on how soupy you like your noodles).

Slurp down.

Other things I've mixed into ramen: leftover cooked chicken or pork, broccoli, seitan. Please feel free to comment with your own ideas for ramen enhancers.

Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese with Tomato Basil Soup

Sometimes when I'm working at the department I head to Karen's on Astor for lunch, and get a small half mac&cheese/half tomato-basil soup with a roll for lunch. It's cheesy and creamy and hot and delicious. Today I decided to recreate it at home.

For the mac and cheese component, I adapted a recipe I found at Culinary Cory. The main substitution was Muenster cheese for Velveeta (eeeew, Velveeta...), but I also used slightly less salt than originally called for. Here's the tweaked version I made:

Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese
3 cups Cavatappi pasta (dry)
3 Tbl. unsalted butter
8 oz. Muenster cheese, cubed
1 ¼ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 cup milk
½ cup heavy cream
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 5 minutes or until it is just under al dente. Drain and place in the slow cooker. Add the remaining ingredients to the pasta and stir until well combined. Cook on high for 2 – 3 hours stirring about every 30 minutes.

For the rest:

While the mac & cheese in its final burbly minutes of cooking, heat up some Imagine Organic Creamy Tomato Basil soup in one pan, and boil some shelled edamame in water in another.
Put a big ladleful of mac & cheese in a bowl.
Pour the hot tomato basil soup over it.
Drain the edamame, put in a separate bowl to serve on the side. Lightly salt the edamame, if you're into salt.

The result is creamy, filling comfort food perfect for a cold rainy night. And it looks pretty, too (orange-yellow next to bright green)