31 posts tagged “vegetarian”
I think those Yes We Can(dy) Cupcakes worked, y'all. Obama is our president-elect! I won't subject you to my political drivel on a food blog, though. But I did want to document my thoughts on the whole thing so if you are so inclined to read said drivel, you can do so here.
So yeah, smoking stinks, right? Right. UNLESS we are talking about cheeses. Because, holy crap, smoked cheeses are good. (Yes, Kate, they are!)
As you know, smoked gouda is my favorite cheese, but I have a special place in my heart for smoked mozzarella and fontina, too. I once had a smoked mozzarella risotto with wagyu at a restaurant and this is sort of a (cheaper) twist on that because I added some thinly sliced flank steak to the top.
This was meant to be a smoked mozzarella and roasted tomato risotto, but I ran into a bit of a snafu with that. I kinda sorta *maybe* completely forgot the tomatoes were roasting in the oven. And it's possible they burnt and stuck to the pan because they were so thinly sliced. Maybe.
Thankfully, I always have a jar of sundried tomatoes around, so I chopped a couple of those up and stirred them in at the end. Crisis averted. This is a simple but great twist on a classic risotto. The smoked mozzarella just adds so much goodness.
I know I've been a horrible blogger lately and I wish I could promise I'll get better, but I won't. At least not until the year is over. We have been out of town a lot, and will continue to be out of town through the holidays. On Monday, we are actually going to Las Vegas, which is really exciting because neither of us has been. Though, like any gastronome, I am looking more forward to eating well than anything else. :) But you can still wish me luck to win millions. Or hell, even hundreds.
I'm hoping to have one last blog entry before we leave for Vegas, but I make no promises. It's not that I don't have time to make the post, it's just that I worry about what I'm making actually turning out somewhat attractively. Here is a hint: it's pancakes. Oh, wait, I guess that's the answer, not a hint. But anyway, I notoriously suck at flipping things without them falling apart or sticking or what have you. But it's been a LONG time since I've made pancakes and my skills have improved, so I think we'll be good.
Of course now that I've given so much away you'll know that if this is indeed my last post before Vegas, I have failed miserably in my pancake adventures.
Smoked Mozzarella and Sundried Tomato Risotto
Serves 2 as a side
1 Tbsp. butter
1 shallot, diced, or about 1/4 cup diced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup arborio rice
scant 1/4 cup dry white wine
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth, kept warm on the stove
1/3 cup chopped sundried tomatoes
2 oz. smoked mozzarella, shredded or cut into small pieces
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper
Heat the butter over medium heat until melted and then add the shallot and garlic. Cook until the shallot (or onion) is translucent.
Add the rice, and stir to coat it with the fat, and toast it a little. Add the wine and cook it off almost entirely.
Start adding the warm broth, a ladel at a time. Stir the risotto frequently, and once the broth is almost all absorbed, add another ladel. Continue doing this until the rice has cooked (it should still have bite to it, and should be a little runny, not like regular rice). Stir in the sundried tomatoes during your last broth addition.
Off the heat, add the mozzarella and the basil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
UPDATE: Vote for this recipe here!
A couple months ago, I received some camembert cheese from Ile de France (and you can see what I did with it here). It was delicious, so when I got asked to try another Ile de France cheese, I was on board. This time I went with goat cheese. I'd put goat cheese as one of my top 2 cheeses (the other being smoked gouda). It has a great taste, a nice tang, and a wonderful texture.
This Ile de France goat cheese is no different. It has a great tang that is not overpowering and it just melts in your mouth. The nice thing about logs of goat cheese is that when you cut pieces off to use in a recipe, you will inevitably have some crumbles that you can snack on as you cook dinner. :)
This cheese is great on its own and it's great in meals. Case in point: these savory crepes. I wanted to make something that had minimal ingredients to really showcase the cheese. I love goat cheese with mushrooms, so I went that route. I thought of making phyllo triangles or a tart but I ultimately ended on crepes because though I love crepes, I've never made them. I admit I was a little worried about tackling crepes. I am really terrible at flipping (anything) and my stove is very unlevel. But, these were so easy to make! I only had one crepe casualty and that's just because I was getting too cocky with how easily they were turning out for me, and decided to multitask.
Since I only used about half the goat cheese in this recipe, I was also able to use it in this farro bake, and one of our staple meals - chicken with goat cheese & sundried tomato sauce. All were delicious. Thanks, Ile de France!
Savory Mushroom and Goat Cheese Crepes with Balsamic Reduction
Makes about 12 filled crepes
Rosemary Crepes
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup AP flour
3 eggs
pinch of salt
a few grinds of pepper
1 cup milk (I used skim)
2 Tbsp. butter, melted and cooled
1 Tbsp. fresh chopped rosemary
additional oil or butter for greasing the pan (may or may not be necessary)
Put all the crepe ingredients together in a blender and pulse to combine. Pour the mixture into a bowl (this will make it easier to get the batter into the pan later), cover & refrigerate for one hour.
Heat an 8" nonstick pan or crepe pan over medium heat. I just used a little olive oil spray in my pan to make sure the crepes didn't stick but since there is melted butter in the batter you may not even need it.
Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to make your crepes. Fill the measuring cup about 3/4 of the way with batter and then add the batter to the pan. Tilt the pan around so the batter fully covers the bottom in a thin layer. Cook for about a minute and then once set, flip. Cook for another 40 seconds or so.
Mushroom and Goat Cheese Filling
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 shallot, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 lbs. assorted mushrooms (cremini, oyster, shiitake, etc.)
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
1/3 cup dry white wine or sherry
5.5 oz. Isle de France goat cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the butter and oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the shallot, sauteing until translucent. Stir in the mushrooms, garlic and thyme. Reduce heat to low. Cook over low heat until the mushrooms have released their moisture, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Increase the heat to medium/medium high and add the wine. Deglaze the bottom of the pan and let the wine cook off until nearly all is evaporated. Season to taste. Off the heat, stir in the goat cheese. Add the filling to the crepes, roll them up, and place them seam side down (alternatively you could just spoon the mushroom mixture into the crepes and crumble goat cheese on top instead of stirring it in).
Balsamic Reduction
1 cup good quality aged balsamic vinegar
1 sprig rosemary
Bring the balsamic vinegar and rosemary to a slight boil over medium heat. Continue to boil lightly until the mixture has thickened, reduced, and become syrupy. Drizzle over filled crepes.
Leftover tourlou tourlou? Make a frittata.
Tom was working late the other day and his work provided dinner for him, so I was on my own. I was too lazy to make a full meal, so I took the last of the tourlou tourlou, added 2 beaten eggs and a splash of milk and made a mini frittata. Then I sprinkled it with some feta cheese and stuck it under the broiler. A delicious Greek twist on this Italian classic.
Also, this is not particularly related to this post, but I thought I would share anyway, seeing as my commentary about the frittata was a little shortish and, well, dull (not that I am promising riveting commentary below). I love Greek yogurt. I think it's one of the best things on the planet. It's so tart and creamy. It's just unmatched by any other yogurt. Even the fat free variety is totally indulgent. But the thing about it is, it's expensive. And with prices on pretty much everything continuing to rise, I can't always justify buying the yogurt that costs 3 times as much as the other yogurt.
So, I've been trying to alternate between Greek and regular. Now, I normally only strain yogurt if I am making something like tzatziki but I decided to strain my plain yogurt this time because the texture of regular fat free yogurt when you are used to Greek is more than a little offputting. And by offputting, I mean, pretty nasty.
So I strained the yogurt overnight (that's a strainer lined with a cheesecloth, over a bowl)...
and the next morning, this is what I found in the bowl.
Ick. No wonder I can't get behind this stuff. Mind you, this was after I already poured off the liquid at the top and had already eaten a serving earlier in the day. Anyway now that it's strained, it's much better. It's still not Greek yogurt, but it's better than the runny tasteless mess I had the day before.
Tourlou tourlou is a funny name for a seriously tasty dish. The tou is pronounced like "too" (not like tour). Can you roll your Rs? I sure hope so because my high school Spanish teacher claimed that if you couldn't roll your Rs, you were a mutant. She was a special lady. But if you have issues with R-rolling, it's more authentic sounding to make a D sound. So it's like toodloo toodloo. Got it? You are most welcome for your Greek Lesson of the Day (:::Elly cues "The More You Know" backdrop. "Da da da daaaaa!":::)
Moving on, tourlou tourlou is basically a medley of vegetables roasted over a long period of time. It's essentially the same thing as briam, which you may have seen on the menu at your local Greek place. The vegetables vary frequently, but I would argue that potatoes and zucchini are usually staples. You can use anything I've used, plus green beans, okra...whatever you want. Except cauliflower. Don't use cauliflower because cauliflower is the debil. :P
So, big deal right? Roasted vegetables. Been there, done that. Not like this you haven't. By roasting the vegetables for a really long time, all of their natural sweetness comes out and makes this dish super delicious. So delicious, in fact, that my husband told me when he was reheating his leftovers at work, a virtual stranger stuck his face in front of the microwave to see what smelled so good.
This main dish is especially popular during times when Greeks don't eat meat, but it can also be a side dish for some type of protein. We ate this with some Greek-seasoned chicken breast. As I mentioned, the vegetables can vary as can the herbs. I've used dill and parsley in mine. There is something I just love about dill with certain vegetables, and especially with anything tomato-based.
(Mysteriously absent from photo: garlic)
Tourlou Tourlou
Serves 6-8 as a side
1 eggplant, sliced into about 1/2" slices (peeled or unpeeled, your call)
2 large zucchini, sliced
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 large yellow or vidalia onion, cut in half and then sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 lbs. potatoes, peeled and sliced or cut into chunks
1 green bell pepper, sliced or cut into 1" bites
1/2 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
fresh dill..oh, about 3T or so?
1/2 cup olive oil (you could probably get away with 1/3 but since everything else here is so healthy, it's ok to splurge)
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 375. Toss all the vegetables, salt (use a healthy amount, it's a lot of vegetables!) and pepper, and the herbs with the olive oil in a large pan. Mix the crushed tomatoes with 1/2 cup of water and then pour the mixture over the whole pan.
It will look something like this:
Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 1.5 hours. Then it will look something like this. Oh sure, it's not the prettiest thing, but who cares? It tastes awesome.
Nutritional Information for 1/8 of the casserole: Calories: 231 / Fat: 13.9g / Saturated Fat: 1.9g / Carbs: 25.7g / Fiber: 5.5g / Protein: 4.3g
Here's another meal we had...oh, about a week ago...that I'm just now getting around to blogging. I had never made pan-fried polenta at home, so I decided to give it a shot. I just can't seem to remember to set the polenta up early enough, so making this on a weekend worked well for me (but of course you can also make the polenta the night before). Rather than the standard parmesan, I decided to make my polenta with some myzithra--a very popular Greek cheese that also happens to be one of my favorites. Of course can substitute any kind of cheese you'd like, if you don't keep myzithra in your fridge like me. :)
Now, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but the husband and I love mushrooms. I think half my produce budget is dedicated to fungus. I decided to go out on a limb here and make a mushroom ragout. The limb was not so much the mushrooms or the ragout, but the lack of meat in a dinner. What can I say? We eat a lot of (lean) meat, but I've been thinking lately about trying to cut down on a bit. Mushrooms are nice and meaty in texture so it's a great way to do so.
This was a nice, comforting dish that tasted great. My only issue was that I meant to dredge the polenta wedges in a little flour--both for a better crust and to make sure they stayed together well--and I totally forgot. They still turned out great; though, just maybe not as pretty.
This meal serves 2.
Pan-Fried Polenta with Myzithra
1/2 Tbsp. butter
2 cloves garlic
1 small sprig thyme (leaves only)
1 1/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
.5 cups milk
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup myzithra cheese
flour for dredging (optional)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper
In a medium sized sauce pan, melt the butter and then add the garlic and thyme, cooking until the garlic is fragrant. Add the chicken broth and milk and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and slowly start to add the corn meal, whisking constantly. Continue cooking the cornmeal over low heat, whisking, until thickened for about 5 minutes. Take the polenta off the heat, and stir in the myzithra (or romano or parmesan or whatever you want). Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Pour the mixture into a small baking dish (I lined mine with foil for easy removal/clean up). Refrigerate until firm, a few hours or overnight.
Cut the polenta into slices or wedges. If desired, dredge in flour. Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet and once hot, add the polenta to the skillet, browning on both sides.
Mushroom Ragout
1 Tbsp. butter
1 large shallot, diced, or about 1/4 cup diced onions
2 sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 lb. wild/assorted mushrooms (I used cremini, shiitake and yellow oyster)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup wine (I like marsala or red with beef broth, dry white for chicken or veg..it's really your call)
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1/2 cup broth (any kind you want)
salt and pepper
Heat the butter over medium heat and add the shallot and thyme, cooking until the shallots are just translucent. Stir in the mushrooms, bay and garlic. Cook for about a minute or two, and then put a lid on the pot and reduce heat to low. Cook over low heat until the mushrooms have released most of their moisture and have browned, about 20-30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Add the wine and bay leaf. Increase the heat and cook until the wine has evaporated almot completely. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for about a minute before adding in the broth. Continue to simmer until the mixture has thickened to the consistency you want. Season to taste.
To know me is to know I love cheese. In fact, my friend Renea sent me this mug a while back and it pretty much sums up my daily life:
So, when I got an email regarding sampling Ile de France cheese, I was all over it. I had my choice between camembert, brie, and goat. Now, even though goat is my favorite of the bunch, I decided to go with the camembert because it's a cheese I don't really eat all that often and, come to think of it, I don't think I have ever bought.
Camembert is a very mild cheese and it has some nuttiness to it. I would say it is similar to brie in taste and texture (though it has some more punch than brie). It's creamy and, while it's probably "better" to just eat it at room temperature and not necessarily cook with it, there are few things I like better than a nice, melty cheese. Mmm. So, I decided to use it in one uncooked application and 2 cooked dishes (and, of course, I ate some on its own).
This Ile de France camembert was delicious! It's got a fabulous texture and just enough flavor that it lends itself to many pairings, but can stand on its own, too. I'm hoping to order some of the goat cheese next!
Now, onto the dishes!
First, I used it in a porcini risotto. I think the slight nutiness of the cheese pairs well with the earthiness of the mushrooms. Plus, I will take any chance I get to make risotto since we don't eat it all that often. This was so good that I think I may make it again next week!
Porcini and Camembert Risotto
Serves 2 as a main dish
1 (1.5 oz.) package dried porcini mushrooms
1.25 cups boiling water
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 large shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup arborio rice
2 sprigs thyme
1/3 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth, kept warm on the stove
2 oz. Camembert
1 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper
Place the porcini mushrooms in a bowl and then add the boiling water. Allow the porcinis to reconstitute for about 15 minutes. Strain them, reserving the water you used, and chop the mushrooms.
Heat a large, heavy bottomed pan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Once shimmering, add the shallot and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds before stirring in the rice, chopped porcini, and thyme. Stir the mixture so that the rice is coated with the oil and begins to toast slightly.
Add the wine and deglaze, allowing nearly all the wine to evaporate. A ladle or so at a time, add the porcini liquid and the broth, alternately, stirring continuously and allowing the rice to absorb most of the liquid before adding the next ladle.
Continue adding the porcini liquid and broth a ladle or so at a time, stirring, until the rice is cooked al dente. It should still be slightly firm to the bite, and it should be a little "loose." You're not looking for a rice type dish that has absorbed ALL its liquid. There should be some liquid still in the pan.
Remove the pan from heat and stir in the camembert and the butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper if necessary and serve immediately (as if you could wait!).
Next, I made a simple salad. This is an endive salad with toasted walnuts, room-temp camembert, sliced apples (use your favorite kind) and cider vinaigrette. I like my dressings more acid-y than most, so I do equal parts apple cider vinegar & olive oil. (I also added pressed garlic and salt and pepper, of course.) As you know, I am working on having the love for fruits with savory dishes and this one won me over. Delicious! To let the apples absorb the flavor, and to keep them from browning, add the sliced apples to the dressing as you prep the rest of the salad.
And, finally, I made some camembert and maple bacon cups because the only thing better than cheese is cheese and bacon. For this I just chopped and cooked some bacon. I mixed just a tiny bit of maple syrup into the cooked/drained bacon and filled pre-made phyllo cups with that and the camembert. Easy and delicious!
I saw this recipe for zucchini rice gratin a couple weeks ago and it sounded so good. How can you go wrong with roasted vegetables, cheese, and rice? Answer: you can't.
I'm always looking for new sides and if they do double-duty (starch and veg), even better. I stayed pretty true to the recipe, but cut the amount of oil. I felt like 6.5 Tbsp. was just unecessary so I basically ended up using less than 1/3 of the oil and it was still great and tasty. I modified a few other ingredients slightly, and the process a little, too, to make for a little less pots/cleanup.
The eggs make this really creamy and also set really well. If I weren't so excited to eat it, I might have actually been able to remove something that resembled more of a slice than a pile of rice and vegetables. :) Tom and I both loved this. The roasted vegetables are so flavorful and the rice is full of creamy, cheesy goodness.
This claims to serve 4-6 but I would definitely lean toward 4. Six would be pushing it. I made this in a round 2 qt. casserole but as you can see I should have used a shallower pan. I think a deep dish pie plate would be a perfect size for something like this. It's also a little time-consuming for a side, but in my opinion, it's worth it, especially since most of the time is inactive.
I served this with a simply seasoned pan-fried pork chop. Gourmet says you can eat this as a main course, and I would tend to agree. I did have the leftovers (and only the leftovers) for lunch the next day. But, if I were serving this as a vegetarian main, I'd probably increase both the amount of rice and maybe add some roasted eggplant.
Zucchini Rice Gratin
adapted from Gourmet
Serves 4 as a side
2 large zucchinis, sliced
2 Roma tomatoes, sliced
2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
1 onion, cut in half and then sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup uncooked rice
2/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 large eggs
1/2 cup pecorino romano, divided
2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 450. In a large bowl, toss the sliced zucchini with 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Place the slices on a baking sheet. Then, in the same bowl (why not?), toss the sliced tomatoes with 1 tsp. olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast the zucchini on the upper rack in the oven for about 20 minutes and the tomatoes on the lower rack for 10 minutes. Flip them once during roasting. Leave the oven on.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tsp. olive oil in a saucepan. Add the onions and some salt and cook over low heat for a couple minutes before adding the minced garlic. Cover and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes until the onions are soft and slightly caramelized.
Add the rice to the onion mixture and stir a few times. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat until the rice is cooked.
Beat your 2 eggs lightly (hey, why not use the same bowl as before?) and then add the rice. Be sure the rice has cooled slightly so you don't get scrambled eggs. Stir in 1/4 cup of the romano, 1.5 tsp. oil, and the thyme. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Place half the rice mixture in a shallow baking dish or pie pan. Place half of the roasted zucchini over the rice. Top with the remaining rice and then finish off with the remaning zuchini, the roasted tomatoes, and the remaining parmesan cheese. Bake until set and cheese has melted, about 20 minutes.
Nutritional Information Per Serving: Calories: 248 / Fat: 13g / Saturated Fat: 4g / Carbs: 22g / Fiber: 2.8g / Protein: 11g
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am not terribly big on fruit in my dinners. I like salty-sweet combos but something about cooked fruit, especially, turns me off. But, I'm trying to ease my way into more dishes that incorporate fruit and I've been successful a few times so far. I'm still not a pork and cinnamon apples kinda gal, but who knows? Maybe one day I will be.
What better way to include fruit in a dish than with Jamaican jerk shrimp we had last week? Island food often has fruit flavors fused into everything from the main course to the dessert. I decided that pineapples would complement the meal nicely and, as a bonus, pineapples are one of my favorite fruits. I thought the pineapples, spice, and black beans went nicely with this rice side, and paired well with the shrimp. The pineapples definitely don't stay as sweet as they would be if you were eating them alone, even with the addition of the brown sugar. But, I like that because it's more of a mellow sweetness than an overpowering acidic taste. I think I can add this to the fruit-in-a-dish success pile.
Now, the problem with not using a recipe and then not updating your blog for a few days after the meal is that you tend to forget what actually went into the dish. So, in other words, I make no guarantees that these are the exact ingredients and amounts that I used on that fateful fruity day, but they are close enough and of course you can play around with the ingredients and amounts to your liking.
Pineapple and Black Bean Rice
Serves 2
2 tsp. canola or olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup long grain white rice
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup black beans
1/3 cup diced pineapple, and a couple Tbsp. pineapple juice
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. brown sugar
1 lime, juiced
Heat the oil in a saucepan until shimmering and then saute the onion until translucent. Stir in the garlic, just until fragrant, and then add the rice, stirring it to coat it in the oil and toast it up a bit.
Add the water, black beans, pineapples and juice, cloves, chili powder and brown sugar and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until rice is cooked. Off the heat, stir in the lime juice.
Nutritional Information: Calories: 152.5 / Fat: 4.9g / Carbs: 24g / Fiber: 3.7g / Protein: 3.6g
Or, a fancy schmancy Greek way of saying spinach-'n-rice. In Greek, "spanaki" is spinach and "rizi" is rice. I hope you're paying attention to some of the Greek tidbits you're learning from my blog because you never know when you may need them. Maybe your next Cranium question is going to ask what a spanakophobe is, and of course you're going to know right away that, obviously, it's someone who fears spinach.
[Okay, I just did about 20 seconds of googling and was not able to confirm that a person who is scared of spinach is called a spanakophobe or anything remotely close to that. So let's not use that example, but it could come into play somewhere, I promise. Maybe not with spanakophobe or rizophile, but some time.]
At any rate, spanakorizo is a very common Greek side dish. The flavors are very typical of other Greek dishes and they taste great when combined. The bonus is that this can double as your vegetable and your starch side. Normally, I am not one to do that (veggies are important and most veggies incorporated into starches tend to be in very small quantities), but here I am giving you the go ahead. About 1.5-2 lbs. of spinach are put into this rice, and the amount of rice you eat is actually less than the serving (how often can you say that about a starch?) but don't worry, the portion is still plenty.
Traditionally, spanakorizo has quite a bit more olive oil to start, but I like to make a healthier version. I suppose using brown rice would make it even healthier but for some things, even I just say no to brown rice. Some Greeks add tomato paste or fresh tomatoes to their spanakorizo but I am not one of them. I don't believe that there's anything wrong with that, but I like the combo of the dill, spinach and lemon as it stands.
In case you're wondering, we had this with a very Greek-flavored pork tenderloin that I quick marinated in fresh lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and oregano and then seared and roasted.
Spanakorizo
Serves 4
1.5 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2/3 cup long grain white rice
1-1/3 cup water
Juice of 1 large lemon
2 bunches or about 1.5-2 lbs. fresh spinach, chopped (and remove any stems that don't seem very tender)
1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped (or about 1 T dried)
salt and pepper
In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil. Once heated, add the onions and saute until tender. Add the rice and stir to coat it in the olive oil, "toasting" it for a minute or two. Add the water and lemon juice and bring to a boil.
Add the spinach, dill and some salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture down to a simmer. Cover tightly and simmer about 15 minutes or until rice is cooked.
Nutritional Information Per Serving: Calories: 205 / Fat: 6g / Carbs: 33g / Fiber: 4.5g / Protein: 7.3g
As I mentioned, there are so many great blogging events going on right now and sadly, I haven't had the chance to participate in as many as I would like. Thankfully, though, Barbara at Winos and Foodies extended the deadline for this year's Taste of Yellow, so I was able to sneak a submission in tonight before going out of town tomorrow. If you haven't already participated in LiveSTRONG Taste of Yellow 2008, definitely try to!
I picked up some yellow squash the other day, and sort of decided what I was going to do with it about 5 minutes before cooking it. The filling consists of ingredients I always have around, and that I love in combination with one another. Plus, I think it makes for something quite pretty!
Taste of Yellow is to show your support of LiveSTRONG Day 2008, which is May 13. Cancer. It's one of those things that I feel affects nearly everyone in some way, unfortunately. It hit me the hardest as a freshman in high school when my grandfather was diagnosed with colon cancer.
I lived with my grandparents from when I was 3 years old until I was 10 years old. They were obviously like a second set of parents to me. My yiayia (grandma) and pappou (grandpa) took me on their biannual vacations, gave me my first job as a "hostess" at their restaurant, and, well, made me talk to anyone who called because they couldn't speak good English :) Speaking of poor English, one of my earliest memories is of my pappou yelling at my preschool teacher. See, when I started preschool I was armed with a very small set of English words as I spoke Greek to my whole family. I was also armed with quite a temper and stubbornness (some things never change). One day, we were supposed to be napping in cots. I was not used to taking naps in the afternoon and I tried to let my teacher know that. The teacher, increasingly frustrated with me, eventually dragged my cot (and me) out to the hallway and made me sit there for the rest of the afternoon. When my pappou came to pick me up and saw me crying in the hallway, he was absolutely furious. You can imagine the the screaming in incredibly broken English that ensued.
I was alway close with both my grandparents, but my pappou and I shared a special bond. I was the typical spoiled only grandchild, but it was so much more than that. We always had a good time together, and he loved me more than anyone. I'd stay up waiting for him to come home from the restaurant and practically every night, like clockwork, he would eat a steak and drink some ouzo. So now you know where I get my adoration for both steak and ouzo :)
When my pappou was diagnosed with cancer, it was obviously a scary thing for me but more than anything, I assumed he would pull through it. My grandpa was tough. He was a big guy. He came from Greece on a boat and became successful in the States. He raised me in addition to raising three of his own children. Cancer? He could beat cancer! Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Watching someone you love so much get weaker, get thinner and just get sicker as the cancer spread is something I hope I never have to go through again. My pappou lost his battle with cancer in 1995. It was devastating. And, it's still devastating. I still think about him all of the time, and I often wish he were here to share so many things with me. On our wedding day, Tom and I wore the "stefana" (crowns prevalent during an Orthodox ceremony) that my yiayia and pappou wore on their wedding day in 1959. It was a way for him to be there with me on my special day, and I know that he is still "here" for me on other special days. Or maybe on a day that doesn't even seem that special...watching over me, wondering why I am eating chicken and drinking wine when I could be having a piece of steak with a shot of ouzo instead.
Mediterranean Squash Boats
2 yellow squash
a little olive oil
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
2 Tbsp. pine nuts, toasted
1 large clove garlic, finely minced or pressed
2 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
drizzle of balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
fresh parsley or additional basil for topping (optional)
Preheat the oven to 375.
Wash and scrub the squash, and then cut lengthwise. Scoop out the "meat" of the squash, chop it, and put it in a bowl. To the bowl, add the sundried tomatoes, basil, pine nuts, garlic and salt and pepper to taste.
Brush the outside of the squash with a little olive oil (or spray with a Misto) and sprinkle the insides lightly with salt and pepper. Fill the zucchini with the mixture from the bowl. Drizzle each piece with a little balsamic vinegar. Top with the crumbled goat cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes or until zucchini is tender and cheese is warm.
