Italian Broccoli Pasta

I'm not really sure if the roots of this recipe are truly Italian.  I do know that the original recipe was from a family with Italian roots.  I have to say, this is one of the world's simplest recipe and I especially love that there's really no right way to make it; it's all personal preference.

Italian Broccoli Pasta

~1 lb pasta (I used 13.5 oz whole wheat penne)
~1 lb broccoli, chopped into bite sized pieces (depends on how much you like broccoli; we love it)
~1/2 head of red/purple cabbage
1/2-1lb sausage (again, it depends on how much you like meat)
1/3-1/2 cup olive oil
5-8 cloves of garlic, minced (we are garlic lovers)
1-2 t. red pepper flakes (how spicy do you like your food?)
salt and ground black pepper to taste
parmesan cheese to taste (if you want it)

1. Bring the water to a boil, cook pasta.
2. Steam the cabbage and broccoli until it's as tender as you like it.  I like mine with a little crunch, rather than just mush (the noodles are already mushy, we need some variety!).
3. Brown and crumble the sausage. Drain the grease. (I think chicken would also be yummy in this dish)
4. Put the oil in a sauce pan or frying pan, add the garlic and red pepper, cook on low for about 10 minutes.  (note: do NOT heat the oil first and then add the garlic, or the garlic will fry and burn.)  You can use a colander/sieve to separate the oil from the garlic/red pepper after this, or just leave together (which I usually do, to avoid having another dish to wash).  Basically, you're just making garlic/red pepper infused olive oil.
5. Combine the above ingredients.  Top with some freshly grated parmesan cheese (we've had it both ways, and of course it tastes better with it, but it's also fine without).

 
This isn't an especially flavorful dish, but it's a simple, fun, colorful, and inoffensive dish to make (unless you've got a vegetable hater in the family).  As Jesse put it, "You know, this isn't one of my favorite meals, but I can't stop eating it!"

Jesse also said that it looked like a fake, plastic-y dish because the broccoli and cabbage were so bright and colorful.  Isn't it sad when we think only food colorings make things colorful?  Fruits and vegetables are so beautiful.  The cabbage wasn't in the original recipe.  I added that because a) we had it and needed to use it and b) I love to eat colorful foods!

fluffy pancakes

Yesterday morning I made up a recipe for some fluffy pancakes.  Jesse really enjoyed them.  I love that they aren't heavy like whole wheat pancakes usually are, yet they are filling and flavorful.

3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup white flour
2 t. aluminum free baking powder
5 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
2 eggs, separated
1 1/4 cup milk

1.  In a medium sized bowl, mix the dry ingredients together.
2. In a separate bowl (glass or metal, NOT plastic), beat the eggs whites on medium speed until fluffy and firm peaks form.
3. Beat the yolks with the milk, add to the dry ingredients and mix.
4. Gently fold in the egg whites into the flour/milk mixture, being careful not to over mix.
5. Use 1/2 c. measuring cup, pour batter into a heated frying pan.  Cook over medium-low heat on a nonstick pan (if you have a good quality pan, you won't need to oil the pan), flipping when the edges begin to look dry and firm and bubbles begin to form.

(optional) Healthier add in ideas. After pouring the batter into the pan, sprinkle in some chopped nuts, berries (chopped strawberries or whole blueberries are good), or chopped apple.  You could also put the fruits on after they've been cooked. Another option is some pure maple syrup or sugar-free jam spread over the cooked pancakes. Be creative!

cream of veggie soup

I invented a new recipe today. I didn't take any pictures since I wasn't sure how the recipe would turn out.  Maybe I'll take a photo later. I was needing to use up some of my veggies, since they were starting to go bad. 

So I threw this together:

cream of veggie soup

3 potatoes, cleaned and chopped
3/4 cup chopped broccoli
1 1/2 cups chopped cauliflower
2ish cups vegetable broth
3ish cups beef broth (I used 3 cups water and 2 bouillon cubes)
1 T oil
3/4 cup purple cabbage, roughly chopped
2 leeks, sliced and rinsed
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
6 white mushrooms, roughly chopped
1/4-1/2 t. dry thyme
3/4 t. dry basil
3/4 t. dry parsley
1/4 cup milk (optional)
sausage, browned and crumbled (optional)
grated cheese (optional)

1.  Put the potatoes, cauliflower, and broccoli in a stock pot with the beef and vegetable broth and turn heat on medium.
2.  Meanwhile, in a saute pan saute the leeks and garlic in the oil until the leeks are getting limp.  Then add the mushrooms and cabbage and cover for 1-2 minutes, until the cabbage is wilted.
3.  Add leek mixture to the stock pot, bring to boil.  Cook until the potatoes are tender.  Add the thyme, basil, and parsley.  Remove from heat. 
4.  Blend soup until creamy (if using a stand blender, you'll have to work in batches, filling the blender only about half way)
5.  Add milk (I used goat milk, and only because the soup was looking a little thick). 
6.  Fold in cheese (I used about 2-3 ounces of a Parmesan and Irish cheddar mixture) and sausage.

I was a little worried about how it would taste because the color (muddy green) didn't look that appetizing.  It sure did taste yummy though.

****edit****

Here's some photos.

warm your bones.

The last two days, I've made soup. . . the two days that have been above 50 degrees.  Figures.

Today's was cream-less Toscana soup.  I think I might like it better this way.  It's lighter and more refreshing.

I used...
4 potatoes
3-4 cups of chicken broth/vegetable broth (I used a combination)
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3-1/2 cup yellow onion
Italian Sausage (however much you like)
Kale (again, however much you like. I used 1-2 cups)

It's yummy.  Boil the potatoes in the broth until they're soft.  Boiling them in the broth makes the potatoes taste delicious by themselves.  Saute the onion and garlic together, add it to the boiled potatoes.  Brown the sausage, add it to the potatoes, remove from heat.  Chop the kale into bite sized pieces, add it to the soup, and put lid on for about 5 minutes, until the kale is tender (but not mushy!)

It's pretty quick and easy to make. . . Jesse took a shower in the time I made the soup, anyhow.

do you see a person looking over a child in the steam?

Anyway, tonight I'm broadcasting the basketball games.  It's fun.  It will be interesting, as we're on our own tonight.  The cheerleaders are also sponsoring "80's night" so I'm supposed to dress up.  The thing is, I don't have any 80's clothes.  Also. . . I hate the 80's.  That decade is so overdone.  Can't we be more creative than that?  Even the 70's would be better!  My favorite would be the 40's or 50's... not that I have clothes from those decades either.  But I'm serious.  Organizations need to stop with the 80's thing, because it's not cool anymore... assuming it ever was.

I can see a bird here, I think.

Almond Milk

I think I've been inspired!  Making almond milk was fun!  Now I want to try making cashew milk/rice milk/sunflower seed milk.  It would be nice if the sunflower seed milk turned out, because that would be the cheapest to make.  Someday soon I'll try it.

 

 Step one: soak 1 cup of almonds in water overnight (I soaked mine for about 12 hours)

Step two: strain and rinse the almonds.

Step three: put almonds in blender

Step four: add two cups of water to the almonds.

Step five: blend for about a minute.

Step six: strain (ideally, using a cheesecloth, but I don't have one so I made do with what I had)

Step seven: place almond pulp back in blender, add two more cups of water, and repeat steps five and six.

Step eight: consume almond milk!

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I like the taste of the almond milk with cereal and to cook with, but I don't like it plain.  Maybe I would like it more if I diluted it.  However, I also think dairy milk is gross to drink on its lonesome (unless it's chocolate milk!).

Also, some people suggested adding some vanilla extract and a pinch of salt to enhance it.

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I dried out the leftover almond pulp in the oven, ground into a fine powder with my awesome new "spice" mill (coffee grinder), and turned it into an almond flour, of sorts.  Then I made biscuits with it, using equal parts white flour, whole wheat flour, and almond flour.  Next time I'll try without white flour, but I just wanted to get a feel for what would happen.  Instead of dairy milk, I used leftover coconut cream (from when I made curry) and almond milk.

The end result?  The biscuits were amazing!  They were not huge and poofy like canned biscuits, but they were very light and practically disintegrated/melted in my mouth.  Scrumptious.  Next time I think I'll try experimenting with replacing the fats with something else, maybe applesauce.

Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls

I recently made some delicious (unhealthy) pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls.  Jesse loved them.

The original recipe's vegan, but I don't have vegan ingredients lying around.

Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Buns

1/4 cup warm water

1 package fast-acting active dry yeast

2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1 /4 cup Whole Wheat White Flour (I just used regular whole wheat)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup warmed almond milk (I used dairy milk)
1 tablespoon melted Earth Balance buttery spread (I used dairy butter)

1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed meal + 6 Tbsp water (equals 1 egg) (I used an egg)
3/4 cup pumpkin puree, either fresh or canned
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons Earth Balance Buttery spread, softened (again, I used dairy butter)

1)  In a large bowl, stir yeast, white whole wheat flour flour, 1 cup of all purpose flour and pumpkin pie spice, sugar, and salt together.

2)  In separate bowl, pumpkin, butter, almond milk and flaxseed meal mixture together.  Pour into dry ingredients and stir until well blended.  Turn out onto counter coated with some of the remaining flour.  Knead the remaining flour into the dough until it is used up and you have a smooth, elastic dough.

3)  Put dough into a bowl coated with cooking spray and lightly spray the top of the dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise.  Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

4)  Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, chopped walnuts and raisins in a small bowl, set aside. Transfer the risen dough to a work surface, and pat or roll it into a 16" x 12" rectangle. Spread softened butter over dough and then sprinkle with the sugar mixture.

5)  Roll the dough into a log the long way.  Next, using what I call my "dental floss trick", cut the rolls into even slices (I got 9 rolls).  The dental floss trick uses a long string of unwaxed, unflavored dental floss.  You slide it under the roll dough and bring it up and across like you are going to start to tie a shoe.  Then you pull each side to slice the roll dough. Place slices in a greased 8 inch squar baking pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Cover with plastic wrap (not tightly) and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

Pre-raised

Baked

6)  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until they turn golden brown across the center.

7)  Remove from oven and let cool about 15 minutes.  Drizzle with your favorite confectioners frosting.

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Jesse's only complaint was that it need ten times more frosting... and it definitely did not.

His rating on a scale of -5 through 5 is a 4.5

Lentil Soup

On Thursday I made Roasted Pepper Red Lentil Soup.

ROASTED PEPPER AND RED LENTIL SOUP
Ingredients
2 red peppers *
200 g red lentils (about 3/4 a cup)
500 ml vegetable stock (about 2 cups)
red wine vinegar
1 onion
olive oil
Parmesan cheese
parsley/coriander **
2 bay leaves
tablespoon red pesto ***
salt and pepper
Method:
Halve and seed each pepper and grill under a hot grill until the skin starts to blister and blacken.  Remove, pop them into a ziploc bag and let them sweat for about 10 minutes.  You should then be able to pull the skin off easily.

 

Sauté the chopped onion in some olive oil until translucent, add the vegetable stock, lentils and the two bay leaves and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the lentils are tender. Add the peppers and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Allow the soup to cool, remove the bay leaves and puree with a wand mixer until smooth and creamy. You can also press it through a fine sieve if you want it smoother, but I liked the fact that the soup had some texture.
Check for seasoning, add salt and pepper as needed and add some red wine vinegar for a little tartness.   (You can also add  a tablespoon of red pesto for flavour.)
Serve with shaved Parmesan and decorate with some parsley or coriander leaves.

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* I used a red bell pepper and a yellow bell pepper, because that's what was available.  I thought it tasted fine.

** I didn't use either, but I think some fresh cilantro would've been really yummy in it.

*** I couldn't find red pesto, so I just used the regular green basil pesto.

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On a scale of -5 through 5, Jesse gave it a 4.

Soy Sauce Chicken (Chinese Noodle Soup/Vietnamese Pho?)

Yesterday I tried another new recipe that I found on userealbutter.

Soy Sauce Chicken
4-6 chicken drums (organic is preferable) (I used 4)
4-5 stalks green onions, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
8 slices ginger root, peeled
2-3 whole star anise
2/3 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
enough water to cover the chicken
 
1)  Place all ingredients in a pan with a tight lid (or use a crockpot). Bring to boil and then reduce to a simmer so that when you cover the pot, the liquid will not boil over. Simmer for 2 hours.

2)  I like to remove the bone and skin from the chicken and serve the meat with the broth over Chinese noodles with bok choy, napa cabbage, or spinach for a Chinese noodle soup.

I didn't have the ingredients for step 2, so instead... I removed the meat from the bone/skin/fat.  I let the broth cool and the fat congeal and skimmed off the fat and and also removed the chunks of ginger and anise (the anise is a HAVE to - it wouldn't be the same without it.  I found it in the Mexican aisle at Wal-mart.  It was about $1 for 20 or so anise stars)  Then I sauteed the few Chinese-type ingredients I had (celery, snowpeas, mushrooms, and two more green onions) until they were slightly cooked, but still crunchy.  I put the vegetables and meat back in the broth and served with some rice noodles I purchased at the Asian market.

The verdict?  It was delicious.  It actually wasn't salty at all (I thought it would be with all the soy sauce), but I also didn't drink the broth, I just ate what was inside of it.  It had flavor, it was fresh tasting, and the chicken was super tender and not bland like most boiled chicken is.

I will admit though, that it smelled a little gross while it was cooking (you'll understand what I mean if you make it).  I thought I was going to hate it. But... thankfully, its smell and taste were completely different.

On a scale of -5 through 5, Jesse said it was between at 3 and a 4.  I'm guessing that's a 3.5.

If Jesse liked it that much and he doesn't usually like Oriental food, you know it must be good. ;-)

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Oh.  I also made cookies on Monday.  They were scrumptious.

Creamy Potato Leek Soup

I made a delicious soup I found on cooksister.com.  It was scrumptious.  Oh, and did I mention it was easy?

Creamy Potato Leek Soup

2 large potatoes, diced (I used 5 smallish red potatoes)
2 large leeks, thinly sliced (make sure you rinse them well in a colander, as they're pretty dirty)
1 clove garlic, crushed (I used 4 cloves)
2-3 cups chicken stock (I used about 3 1/2, you just want enough to cover the potatoes, plus a little to make up for evaporation loss)
100 ml cream or milk (I used about 2/3 a cup half and half)
1 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Method:
1) Heat about 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan.  Add the garlic and the sliced leeks, reserving about 4 Tbsp of leek slices for the garnish.  Add the potato cubes and sautee until the leeks begin to colour.

2) Add 2-3 cups of chicken stock (depending on how thick you like your soup) and bring to a simmer.  Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes until the potato cubes are soft enough to mash.
Remove from the heat, mash with a potato masher to break up the largest chunks, then add the milk or cream and blend with a wand blender until smooth enough for your liking.  (I just used a regular blender and poured it back into the pot when I was finished).

3) Add the dried thyme, check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.  If the soup is too thick, add a little more water.  Return to low heat.

4)  Devour.

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We started a rating system, -5 thru 5, 0 being neutral.

Jesse's rating: 3.

Butter

Awhile ago I was making my own butter.  It tasted really yummy.  I liked that is tasted fresher and that I could control how much salt was in it.

 First, you have to shake cream for a really, really, really long time, until it looks like this.  You could have super toned arm muscles if you did this frequently, I'm sure.  Who doesn't want to have nice arms?

Then you have to separate the buttermilk from the butter.

Isn't it such a cute little ball?

 Next, you get to squish it and play with it under cold water so you get rid of any excess buttermilk... otherwise the butter will spoil quickly.

This is my favorite part... it's so squishy and you can make so many cool shapes out of the soft butter.

The finished product!