February 15, 2010

pork and bean stew

We had this for dinner tonight. We ate on this pot for a while originally and then we finished off the frozen portion tonight. We’re getting rid of all the frozen stuff in the freezer in preparation for meat-free Lent. Nathan LOVES this one. So do I.

Start with olive oil in a pot. Add some cubed pork. (I doubled it so I had to do this in two stages.)

Season with salt and pepper or – my favorite – Montreal Steak Seasoning.

When brown, remove the pork from the pot

and cover.

Add a little more olive oil to the pan

Add chopped onion

and a few big carrots chopped up. Let them cook until they start to get soft.

Drain and rinse 4 cans of cannellini beans.

Combine some of the beans

with some chicken broth

and mash with a tater masher. This thickens the soup. You could also use an immersion blender, but I think this is fun.

Smush smush smush!

Add the remaining beans to the pot

and chicken broth

and then add the thickening smushed beans.

Add the pork back into the soup.

Chop up some fresh rosemary and add to the pot.

Don’t skip this. Just take my word for it. A tablespoon. Or two (since I doubled).

And let it all cook a few minutes to combine.

This soup is so good! Stick-to-your-ribs. Yummm.

pork and bean stew

3 tbsp olive oil, divided
12 oz. pork loin, cubed
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced carrot
1 tbsp minced garlic
4 cups chicken broth, divided
2 cans cannellini beans
1 tbsp minced fresh rosemary
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Brown pork. Remove to a plate and cover.

Heat remaining oil in the same pot. Soften onion, carrot, and garlic. Add 1/2 cup broth, scraping any brown bits.

Mash 1/2 can beans and 1 cup broth with a potato masher. Add to the pot. Add the rest of the beans, broth, and rosemary. Cook until carrots are soft, 20-25 minutes. Return pork and any juices to the pot. Add vinegar and serve.

Serves 4:

Nutritional info: 354 calories; 8g fat; 9g fiber; 32g protein.

February 10, 2010

02.10.10

Via and a carrot muffin. I have been so pleased with how well these freeze.

Lunch: Leftover chicken salad. And pita chips. Crumbles, actually.

Snack: My office roommate brought me a chocolate-covered strawberry.

Dinner: fage and yogurt. It’s just what I wanted.

February 10, 2010

souffle omelette

I love bison. I was very excited to find breakfast sausage. I browned it all, but used about 1/3 for this omlette.

you will also need

6 egg whites

and 3 egg yolks.

some shredded cheddar

and a can of diced tomatoes, drained really well

Alright. Here we go.

You take your trusty mixer and you whip the egg whites until they get all nice and fluffy. This takes longer than usual if you can only find one beater that fits your mixer. I don’t even know. Maybe it’s the universe telling me I really need/deserve a KitchenAid mixer. Maybe?

When they get nice and fluffy, add in the yolks with a few drops of Tabasco.

Now you’ll want to fold these in so you don’t lose the beautiful fluff you’ve gotten from the whites.

Coat your skillet with cooking spray and put in half the egg mixture. Let it cook 3 minutes or so until the bottom gets firm. Like the bottom of a pancake before you flip it. Check it with a spatula. When it’s ready to be folded, add the sausage, cheese, and tomatoes. Then fold it over.

This is actually a very impressive flip for me. I don’t know why it didn’t stay this way. Let it cook about 2 more minutes here. Then flip it and let it cook another 2 minutes or so.

Serve with avocado. And it tastes better than it looks. Honestly.

soufflé omelette

6 egg whites
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp tobasco sauce
salt and pepper
1/3 pound bulk sausage (calories figured with bison)
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup shredded white cheddar

Brown sausage in a skillet. Place in bowl and wipe out skillet with a paper towel.

Using a hand mixer on whigh speed, beat egg whites in a bowl until whites triple and volume, 3-5 minutes. Add tobasco to egg yolks and fold into egg whites, being careful not to deflate egg whites.

Coat nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and heat over medium-high. Cook without stirring until bottom of egg mixture is firm. Spoon half of sausage, tomatoes, and cheddar on top of omelette and folc over. Cook 2 more minutes on each side.

Serves 2.

Nutritional information: 354 calories; 16g fat; 1g fiber; 44g protein.

February 9, 2010

02.09.10

Breakfast: Via (that I thought was in the picture?) and fage+ choc chip granola

Lunch: black bean soup and crackers

Dinner: Chicken salad sandwich and pita chips

Dessert: cantaloupe with vanilla gelato and syrup made by reducing a cup of balsamic vinegar and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Yummm.

Looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!

February 9, 2010

blueberry balsamic chicken

blueberry balsamic chicken

2 boneless chicken breasts
1 tbsp olive oil, divided
salt and pepper
1 minced shallot
1/2 cup chicken broth, divided
3/4 cup frozen blueberries
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Heat 2 tsp oil in a sautee pan. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Sautee chicken on both sides until chicken is cooked through. Transfer to a plate and cover.

Sautee shallot in pan with remaining oil. Deglaze the pan with the half the chicken broth, cooking until liquid is nearly evaporated. Add blueberries, and cook 2 minutes. Add broth, veingar, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and pepper flakes. Crush with a potato masher and simmer 3 minutes.

Plate chicken and top with blueberry sauce.

Serves 2.
Nutritional info: 247 calories; 8g fat; 1g fiber; 19g protein.

February 8, 2010

02.08.10

We start off nice and focused. Typical Via.

Followed by Fage + blueberries at work. I didn’t really like this, but I ate it.

Diversion #1: I really missed my morning sweet and the day was DRAGGING, so I had this at 10:30.

Lunch was as planned: leftover black bean soup. I ate about 2:00. Because I knew dinner would be late because Kent is a lawyer and works late and stuff.

The three of us split a total of 8 rolls of sushi. Most only had 4 pieces.

Crunch and Munch. (My new favorite)

Fire Scallop.

the Lexington Roll

and Philadelphia roll.

I have no idea how many I ate. I could have stopped a plate or two early, but seriously? They were flying at us on a conveyor belt! I’d like to see you stop!

And then I got distracted again after grocery shopping. Nate and I split a candy bar. And it was good.

The key word for tomorrow? Focus.

February 8, 2010

“ini” pasta

Most of last week’s recipes came from CuisineAtHome’s Lite edition. It was just a general suggestion for me. I tend to go all rogue on recipes. It just feels better that way.

Set a pot of water boiling for the pasta.

And put a few sloshes of olive oil in a pan for everything else.

When the water is ready, but in about half a pound of pasta. I like this little hat style. I don’t know how to pronounce it, so I’m not gonna bother typing it out either.

Take a can of cannellini beans. Rinse them and drain them. Then dump ‘em in the skillet.

Not really sure why. Didn’t do anything for me. That’s what I get for following directions.

Then add a can of diced tomatoes, mostly drained.

and a tsp of garlic

and a tiny little bit of red pepper flakes.

When there is 4 minutes left on the pasta, throw in some broccolini. I love this stuff.

It looks like Christmas on my stove!

When the pasta is done, drain it (and the broccolini) and add to the pasta.

I added some chicken broth so it wouldn’t be dry the next day.

Top with some shaved parmesan and your tummy will be hap-py!

pasta with broccolini

6 oz. orecchiette pasta
6 stems broccolini, trimmed
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 (28oz) can diced tomatoes, mostly drained
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
4 tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions. Add broccolini during the last 4 minutes of cooking. Drain and set both aside.

Heat oil in medium skillet. Heat over medium-high. Toast the beans, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, garlic, chicken broth. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

Simmer mixture, covered, for 5 minutes. Stir in pasta and greens. Add a little more chicken broth if needed to moisten. Top with cheese.

Serves 4.

Nutritional information: 393 calories; 9g fat; 7g fiber; 16g protein.

February 7, 2010

02.07.10

Breakfast: It looks ugly, but I make omlettes about like I do pancakes: ugly but tasty. This is a souffle omelette (recipe to come) and avocado.

Lunch: um, yeah. So we found some stuff at the Co-Op called fioco. And holy cow, it’s good. Especially melted with brie. And eaten with pita chips.

Snack: so little gelato left, it was taking up real estate in the freezer. Nate and I split this.

Dinner: yum yum black bean soup. And 8 crackers.

Dessert: Nate went to Liquor Barn for milk. He brought back an orange-dark chocolate bar. I ate this much.

So I’m gonna make a conscious effort to make my food pics more pretty. Sometimes they look haphazardly thrown together. I’m gonna be better.

Here’s to a good food week!

February 7, 2010

black bean soup

This soup could very easily be made on the stovetop, but I decided that I didn’t want to clean the kitchen again after I cleaned it for breakfast. So everything went in the crockpot. It ended up cooking to just about mush and was the consistency of Hormel Chili from a can. Fan-freaking-tastic.

Take a big can of diced tomatoes and put them in a crockpot.

Drain and rinse 3 cans of black beans. Throw them in the crockpot too.

Then go to town with an immersion blender. Or, as Dad calls it, a boat motor.

Drain and rinse 1 more can of black beans and add them to the pot.

Add some browned breakfast sausage. This was local bison sausage, so I knew it was lower fat and where it came from.

A bag of frozen butternut squash

and about 2 cups of beef broth. Stir it all up. Set it on low.

Now we need some umph. Melt some butter in a skillet. I like butter. I’m not apologetic. And this is gonna make 8 servings, so it won’t make that much difference anyway.

Add a big shallot, diced

2 tablespoons of minced garlic

and a can of diced green chiles, mostly drained

let everything get soft, then add to the pot.

I let mine cook for about 6 hours on low. It didn’t have to cook that long.

and then topped with some shredded white cheddar and with a few crackers as backup…

Black bean soup

4 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (28 oz) can diced tomotoes
2/3 lb. bulk sausage (calories figured with bison)
2 cups butternut squash (frozen is okay)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup minced shallots
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 (10oz) can diced chiles, mostly drained
2 cups beef broth
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chipotle chile powder
1 tsp chili powder
2 tbsp fresh lime juice

Add 3 cans black beans and tomatoes to a crockpot. Puree with an immersion blender. Add remaining can of black beans, 1 cup beef broth, and butternut squash. Turn crockpot on low.

Add olive oil to a skillet. Soften shallot, garlic, and chiles. When soft, add to crockpot. Add chile powder, chili powder, paprika, and salt and pepper to taste.

Cook 4-5 hours on low. This can also be made on stovetop.

Serves 8.

Nutritional information: 370 calories; 6.4g fat; 16g fiber; 27.5g protein.

February 6, 2010

sushi!

You usually get play-by-plays of recipes, but I thought this restaurant deserved one!

Welcome to School! They may have a really cool conveyor belt, but they don’t have a website.

We split this plate.

The “big roll”.

My absolute favorite: spicy scallop.

The Lexington Roll.

Philadelphia roll.

White and pink tuna roll.

equals bliss. Yummmm.