Cheesy Amaranth

I usually eat from the fridge and countertop: meat, fish, eggs, tofu, fresh fruit and vegetables. One of my food-related goals in the new year is to cook more from the pantry, both to save money and to use up the bags of random grains that have followed me home from the local hippie grocer in idealistic moments ("oooh, spelt flour, I'm sure I can do something interesting with that!")

To that end, I decided to cook up some amaranth today. I started with no particular recipe in mind; I didn't add additional ingredients as the seeds cooked, because I wanted to get a sense of the taste and texture of the unadorned cooked grain first. I kind of expected it to be similar in texture to quinoa or cous cous, but instead ended up with a chewy, gooey mass of grain more like polenta or grits. A perfect medium for cheese!

So the upshot of the very simple recipe below is: cook a load of amaranth (might as well; you can store the rest for later use), and mix some of it with melted cheese. Result: a dense tasty bowl of concentrated protein and fiber and fat, mmmm.

Ingredients
1 cup amaranth seeds
cheese with personality (I used a garlic, onion, and chive cheddar)

To Make
1. Put amaranth seeds and 3 cups of water in a pot. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, until the amaranth reaches a chewy consistency. Note: The amaranth package told me to cook it for 35 minutes, but mine seemed to be done in just over 15. Maybe I just ate undercooked amaranth, but it seemed fine to me.

2. Crumble a 2 inch cube of your cheese in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium for a minute or two to melt the cheese.

3. Stir about 3/4 cup of the cooked amaranth into the cheese, mixing well. Use more or less amaranth depending on how cheesy you want it to be. Put the rest of the cooked amaranth in an air-tight container and store in the fridge for later use.

Potato, Leek, & Bacon soup

Another easy soup. Pretty tasty.

Ingredients

~6 streaky bacon rashers

~2 leeks, dark green parts removed

~3 potatoes

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk

pepper

To Make

1. Cut the bacon rashers into 2 inch pieces using kitchen shears.

2. In a medium-sized stock pot, fry the bacon pieces to somewhat under desired doneness.

3. While bacon is cooking, prepare the vegetables:

Peel the potatoes and cut them up into 1 inch cubes.

Thinly slice the white parts of the leeks.

4. Add the leeks and potatoes to the pot. Cook for a few minutes until they have softened a bit, stirring occasionally.

5. Add the broth, stir, cover. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

6. Use a potato masher to mush up the potatoes, if they haven't mostly disintegrated on their own.

7. Stir in the milk.

8. Ladle into bowl, add pepper to taste. Enjoy with crusty bread.

Cheddar and Apple Sandwich

Ingredients:
sharp cheddar cheese, sliced
granny smith apple, sliced
dijon or whole-grain mustard
good chewy whole-grain bread (I always make this with the Bread Alone WW Sourdough)

Assemble for a tart 'n' tangy meat-free sandwich

Red Lentil Soup

Made this last night for dinner. I'm on a bit of a lentil kick lately, mostly because I've got loads of them in my cupboard that I want to use up (among other dried goods - stay tuned for a recipe incorporating barley in the near future!) I slightly modified the recipe found here. I like this one because I happened to have almost all the components sitting in my cupboard or fridge already - just needed to pop out and buy an onion.

Ingredients:
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 3/4 cups split red lentils
7 1/2 cups water
a chicken bouillon packet
salt and pepper
1 tsp cumin
~2 tablespoons lemon juice (from a bottle, cuz I had some in the fridge)

To make:
1. Put the onion bits, lentils, water, bouillon, and a little salt and pepper in a large pot. Simmer 1/2 hour, or until the lentils have disintegrated.
2. Stir in cumin and lemon juice and adjust seasoning to taste.

As usual, I ate this with a couple slices of whole wheat sourdough toast. And there's loads of it, so I'll be eating it for lunch all week.

Brown Lentil Soup w/Rosemary

This easy, inexpensive soup is perfect for lunch, and smells really good as it cooks.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
1 cup of dried brown lentils, rinsed
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried rosemary (or 1 tbs. minced fresh rosemary)
1 tsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Preparation:
1. Cut up the veggies. Chop up the onion, thinly slice the carrots and celery.
2. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.
3. Add the veggies to the pot, heating for a few minutes (and stirring often) until softened a bit.
4. Add 4 cups of water, plus the lentils, the bay leaf, the rosemary, and the red wine vinegar. Bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for ~ a half hour, until lentils are tender.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Discard bay leaf.

Enjoy with crusty bread or toast.

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.

Gourmet Triscuit Pizzas

We were hungry for a quick lunch and had some strange odds and ends in the fridge, which resulted in these amazing little pizzas:

(sized to serve 2 for a light lunch and fit on our toaster oven pan)

20 original Triscuits
20 pepperoni slices
10 sun-dried tomato slices cut in half
about 1/2 cup of feta
about 1/4 cup tomato sauce
handful of grated parmesan cheese

First, I lined the toaster oven pan with aluminum foil and then Triscuits. Then on each Triscuit I put a pepperoni slice, half a sun-dried tomato piece, a teaspoon of tomato sauce and a bit of feta. Finally, I sprinkled the whole tray with parmesan cheese and put it in the toaster oven on toast for about 5 minutes (until the first tips get brown).

These were so good! I think they would make a delicious and easy party snack. I wish I had taken a picture for you before we devoured them.

We make about a million variations on the Triscuit pizza, different sauces and cheeses, veggies and meat. It is almost impossible to go wrong. If you like them, Triscuits are the best because they bake without burning and don't get soggy when sauced.

First Lunch of the Blog

two slices of Bread Alone whole wheat sourdough toast, drizzled w/ extra-virgin olive oil
smoked sardines packed in olive oil (from Trader Joe's)
a cut-up persimmon
a couple squares of dark chocolate


Sardines are one of my favorite foods lately. They're cheap ($1-$2 per can) and full of healthy fat (esp. if you get them in olive oil), protein, and calcium (from those crunchy little bones). And since they're small fish near the bottom of the food chain you don't have to worry so much about mercury. And they are tasty! Well, if you like fish.