Monday, October 28, 2013

Apple Teeth

I actually have to credit my daughter, Elena, for this recipe.  This is one of those halloween recipes that you always see posted around this time of year.  It's fun and easy to make - most importantly, the kids love it!!  We used the honey crisp apples to do this recipe, it would actually look better with regular red apples.  But, the honey crisp apples are so good!!  In this recipe we just use regular peanut butter.  Some people people mix the peanut butter with brown sugar, but honestly, this works just as well.


Slicing the Apples


Spreading the Peanut Butter on the Apples


 Arrange the Marshmallows on the Apples

The Final Plating


Apple Teeth



Ingredients:

1 large Honey Crisp Apple

Small bag of mini marshmallows

1/2 cup Peanut Butter


Directions:

1.  Cut the apples into slices.

2.  Spread the peanut butter onto one side of the apple slice.

3.  Place marshmallows along the peanut buttered side of the apples - arrange them so it looks like teeth.

4.  Place another peanut buttered slice apple onto the top of the marshmallow.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Julio's Rice

Julio was our dog of 17 years.  He was always kind of picky with what he ate, so we used to try to get creative with his food.  Julio got to the point where he would only pick at his dog food and he wasn't eating full meals.  He had been to the vet a couple of times and we knew that at 17, he was definitely getting pretty old for a dog.

I went home one night and decided to make Julio dinner.  I would make him chicken and rice.  I mixed the chicken and rice and added some vegetables.  I took it over to Julio the next day and he loved it.  He had two big helpings - keep in mind, Julio was a Maltese and weighed less than 10 pounds.  So, I continued to make him food.  One day I noticed that Julio's food was starting to disappear at an alarming rate.  I then found out that my father was taking some of Julio's food for lunch.  It was then brought to my attention that my wife was taking some of the food also.  To this day, I still don't know how much of the food actually went to Julio.  When I found out that Julio wasn't the only one eating this food, I decided to make some for my family as well.

This is a very versatile recipe and can be converted to vegetarian or vegan very easily.  I try to use a lean meat - For Julio, I was using hamburger or ground chicken, but for the family I used buffalo meat or ground turkey.  You can also substitute the chicken stock with vegetable stock and leave out the meat to make this a vegan/vegetarian dish.  Just an FYI - the Maggi Seasoning used it suitable for vegan diets!!


Let the vegetables cook until soft in the water
 (you can also use stock, but it's not necessary).


 I used ground buffalo for this recipe, but you can 
use chicken, turkey, hamburger, or nothing at all.


Add the Maggi Seasoning when the buffalo is finished cooking.


The mixture may be a little loose, but don't worry - once 
the rice is added it will come together nicely. 


The Final Plating





Julio's Rice

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 Cup Rice
  • 2 Cups Chicken Stock
  • 1 Cup Water
  • 1lb Ground Buffalo Meat
  • 1 Cup Frozen Peas
  • 2 Medium Carrots (diced)
  • 2 Small Potatoes (diced)
  • 1 Onion (Diced)
  • 1 Tbs. Garlic (minced)
  • 3 TBS. Maggi Seasoning (add more if needed)

DIRECTIONS

  • 1
    Make the rice - use 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of chicken stock instead of water. Cook as directed.
  • 2
    Saute onions and garlic for about 5 minutes.
  • 3
    Add peas, carrots, potatoes, and about a cup of water. Cook until potatoes and carrots start to soften up.
  • 4
    Add ground buffalo meat and cook until meat is browned. You will still notice some water in the pan when you add the buffalo meat, this is fine. Even if the mixture is a little loose, it will tighten up when you add the rice.  Add the 3 TBS of Maggi Seasoning.  You can add more if you want - adjust it to your taste.
  • 5
    Once the mixture is finished, fold in the cooked rice.




Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Red Lentils

This was actually my first time making lentils.  We really enjoyed them and will definitely have them again.  This dish is high in protein and very low in fat.  When put together it makes a kind of stew consistency which is perfect for this time of year.  Naan is perfect with this dish.  If you don't have naan, you can substitute tortillas.

Obviously this dish can be turned vegan by substituting vegetable stock, but my father recommended using Polish Kielbasa in this recipe - which I think is genius!!!  This would be a perfect addition to the lentils.  But, since we're trying to keep things low-fat and semi-vegan here - there will be no Polish Kielbasa in the listed recipe ;)


Lentils are done soaking and ready to add



Saute the onion, tomatoes, and garlic



Add the stock and bring to a boil



40 Minutes later



The Final Plating


Red Lentils


Ingredients


1 Cup Masoor Red Lentils (Split)
2 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Onion (diced)
2 ts. Garlic
1 15oz. Can Diced Tomatoes
1ts. Cumin
1/2 ts. Tumeric
1/2 ts. Paprika
1/8 Cup Cilantro
Season salt to taste


Directions


1.  Cover lentils with water for 2 hours.  Drain.

2.  Saute onions and garlic until translucent.

3.  Add tomatoes, stock, lentils and bring to boil

4.  Reduce heat, add cumin, turmeric, paprika and season salt

5.  Simmer for 35-40 minutes.


Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Mushroom Stroganoff

Beef stroganoff is my wife's favorite dish.  So, it was a little daunting to try and make this dish into a low fat vegetarian dish.  I used mushrooms instead of beef.  This worked to a degree, but my wife still says she missed the beef.  I would probably recommend using soy crumbles if you want the texture of the meat.  But, honestly, I didn't miss it at all.

Another thing I have been doing lately is figuring out a way to have these recipes easily translate into a vegan dish if that's what you prefer.  This one would be a little tricky, but can be done.  There are plenty of vegan beef soup bases out there.  Take your pick, I'm sure most of them are really good.  The egg noodles would be the tricky part.  I haven't seen too many vegan egg noodles.  So, you could substitute noodles for rice or use a wheat based pasta.  I would probably use rice.

Cooking the mushrooms



Adding the slurry and letting the sauce thicken



The vegan sour cream that I used



Sour cream has been added



The final plating




Mushroom Stroganoff



Ingredients

2 Onions (sliced)
3-4 Cups Fresh Mushrooms (sliced)
4 Cups Beef Stock (you can use bouillon)
1 Cup Water
3 Tbs. Unbleached Flour
4 Tbs. Vegan Sour Cream
1 Pkg. Egg Noodles


Directions

1.  Saute the onions until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Season the onions and then add the mushrooms.

2.  Saute the mushrooms until they have cooked down, about 5-7 minutes.   Season the mushrooms.

3.  Add the stock and simmer for about 20 minutes.

4.  While the mushroom mixture is simmering, make a slurry by mixing the water and flour in a separate bowl.  Make sure that all of the flour has been dissolved.

5.  Add the slurry to the mixture.  Once the mixture comes to a slow boil, this is how thick the mixture will be.  If you want it thicker, add a little more flour to another slurry mix.

6.  Remove from heat and mix in the sour cream.

7.  Serve over egg noodles, rice, wheat pasta, whatever.