06.19.12_Giada's Campanelle with Spicy Mint Sauce

Phillip has been getting a lot more alone time now that I have to stay at work until a normal time while he continues to get off at 4:00pm. One day while I was stuck at work, he watched the Food Network without me (I found this somewhat surprising) and he saw Giada making this Campanelle with Spicy Mint Sauce. He found the recipe and sent it to me. It looked super simple (per usual) and sounded really good. I'm always intrigued by savory dishes that use mint since we typically associate mint with dessert. Anyway we added it to the list and decided to make it one weekday when I didn't get off right at 5:00 since it seemed so simple to make.  Basically you boil pasta and then make a sauce similar to pesto, but instead of using basil and pine nuts, you use mint and a Serrano pepper. Delicious. We'd recommend adding a little salt and pepper to help season the pasta as well. A little S&P never hurts!

As a side I decided to make some homemade garlic bread since we had leftover bread from when we made the White Bean Kale and Pesto soup. I took a few slices of crusty bread, and lathered both sides with a mixture of melted butter and garlic powder. I sprinkled some dried parsley onto both sides and then baked them in a 400º oven for about 8-10 minutes.

Giada's Campanelle with Spicy Mint Sauce

• Salt
• 1 pound campanelle pasta
• 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• 1 ¼ cups chopped fresh mint
• ½ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large serrano chile, stemmed, seeded and coarsely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes.

2. Combine the mint, cheese, oil, chile and garlic in a food processor. Blend until smooth.

3. Drain pasta and transfer to a serving bowl. Add the cheese and toss until coated.

4. Add the sauce to the pasta and toss until coated.

06.15.12_Veggie Tales' Lo Mein

Lo mein is one of my favorite dishes to order when we get Chinese carryout. Something about the endless takeout box of greasy noodles is just so good. I decided I would try to make my own Lo Mein and did a little Googling to see if I could find a recipe. Each recipe had something I didn't like or wanted to sub out so in the end I just merged several different recipes to create my own. I didn't realize it at the time but that the dish is actually vegan (except for the honey we used was not).

Like spaghetti, the name actually refers to the noodle, not the actual recipe so this dish ended up being less like Chinese restaurant Lo Mein than I had hoped for, but it definitely had good spice and tasted great. The dish was sweet but had a nice kick from the cayenne and an unexpected flavor from the curry. We had our friend McKinsey over for dinner that night and she brought over some vegetarian egg rolls as a side.

Veggie Tales' Lo Mein
Serves 5-6

• 1 package Lo Mein noodles (can sub spaghetti)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup sliced red bell peppers
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup fresh bean sprouts 
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 cup veggie stock
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 cup tamari or soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon curry powder

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook lo mein noodles according to directions on package (approximately 8 to 10 minutes).

2. While noodles are cooking, heat oil in a large wok or saute pan. Stir fry carrots, peppers, onion, ginger and garlic until tender.

3. Mix cornstarch and chicken broth in a large mixing cup or small bowl. After cornstarch has disolved, stir in honey, tamari, cayenne pepper and curry powder.  Add to vegetable mixture and cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. 

4. Remove from heat and stir in bean sprouts and add sesame oil. If you add the beans sprouts too early they will basically dissolve.

5. Finally, toss the cooked noodles with the stir fry and dinner is served!

06.13.12_White Bean Kale and Pesto Soup

I know I say this in every blog post but talk about easy. Seriously I don't know why people don't make homemade soup more often. It is so simple, tastes great,  and there are endless possibilities. I have bookmarked a lot of soups but never really got around to making them (except for the Roasted Corn Soup and Matzo Ball Soup) but when I saw this recipe for White Bean Kale and Pesto Soup I knew we had to try it sooner than later. 

Normally on Wednesdays during the summer Phillip has softball with his colleagues after work. He had asked me to come watch this week so I decided I would go ahead and make the soup the night before so that when we got home from the game, dinner would just need to be heated up. I thought this would be a good recipe to make the night before since soups and stews always seem to get better the longer they sit as the flavors marry.

All I had to do was cut up 4 carrots, dice an onion, and mince 4 cloves of garlic. After that laborious (italics=sarcasm font) prep work was complete, I put a couple of TBSP of oilve oil in a big stock pot over medium heat. I dropped in the carrots and onions and cooked them until they started to soften, about 5-8 minutes. Next, I added in the garlic, oregano, parsley, and cooked for another minute until until everything was nice and fragrant. Finally I poured in 4 cups of veggie stock, the white beans (which I had strained and rinsed), and the kale. Whole Foods had frozen kale so I opted for this so that I would be able to use as much as I wanted without worrying about left overs. So often kale is sold in those massive bags so I thought the frozen would be a better option since I didn't have a need for 2lbs of kale today, but I digress. Finally, I brought the mixture to a boil, lowered the temp and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

Normally what you would do next is remove the soup from the heat and mix in 1/2 cup of grated cheese and 1/2 cup pesto, top it off with some fresh nutmeg and you'd be all set. Since we weren't eating it until the next day I stopped here, then when we were ready to eat it the next night, I reheated the soup on the stove, and mixed in the cheese and pesto then. I used store bought pesto because I was being lazy but obviously you could use fresh and it would probably taste even better. I would have never thought of mixing pesto into a soup like that but it added that extra flavor to make the soup special. We served the soup alongside some crusty bread for dipping. Scrumptious. Here's the recipe.

White Bean Kale and Pesto Soup
From Katie at the Kitchen Door

Serves 4 to 5

• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 4 c. veggie stock
• 1 1/2 c. frozen kale (I ended up putting in almost 3 cups of frozen kale because it just didn't seem like enough/we love kale)
• 1 can cannelini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 c. pesto
• 1/2 c. grated pecorino cheese
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

1. Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium heat.  Add onion and carrot, and saute, stirring occasionally, for 5-8 minutes, or until vegetables have begun to soften.  Add garlic, oregano, and parsley, and cook 2 minutes more, stirring.
2. Add chicken broth, kale, and beans, bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes, until kale and carrots are tender.  Remove from heat and stir in pesto, cheese, and nutmeg.  Serve hot with additional grated cheese.

06.10.12_Soba Noodle and Raw Veggie Salad

For our monthly dinner party last month our friend Katie made us these Soba Noodles and Raw Veggie Salad. She told us that it was super simple and that she makes it pretty often in large batches because the leftovers are great for lunch. This weekend after a lot of time in the sun and a lot of drinking, Phillip and I were both in the mood for something light and refreshing. We thought these soba noodles would be a perfect detox dinner. As if the recipe weren't easy enough, I got super lazy and bought shredded carrots and red cabbage from the salad bar at Whole Foods to speed up the process. Seriously, this could not have been any easier.

Here's the recipe:

• 8 ounces soba noodles (we used the entire package which was 9.5oz)
• 1/2 cup tamari
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 bunch green onions (I halved this and only put it into part of the noodles since Phillip isn't a big fan) 
• 3/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
• 1/4 head of red cabbage, thinly sliced (I used about a cup, cup and half pre-shredded)
• 3 whole carrots, shredded with vegetable peeler (again I used about a cup, cup and half pre-shredded)
• 2 cups shelled edamame, steamed
• 1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds
• one lime juiced (optional) 

Cook the soba noodles in a big pot of water. They do not take long at all, usually 3-4 minutes. While the noodles cooked I whisked together the tamari, sesame oil, canola oil, rice wine vinegar and red pepper flakes. I quickly toasted the sesame seeds before I chopped the onions and red pepper since I bought everything else shredded and then when the noodles were done tossed everything together. They noodles were just as delicious as we remembered and were even better cold the next day for lunch. Definitely a great go-to easy meal when you want something super quick but super delicious.

06.08.12_Korean Bibimbap over Rice

Jonathan got a new job a month or two ago. You may have noticed a quick dip in our content around that time, but we are definitely back on track. Though his new job is a great opportunity for him, it sometimes keeps him at work late. The disparity in our schedule was very obvious on Friday, as I got off work at noon, and he left at 6 p.m. I was feeling rather daring, so I decided to take on the Korean Bibimbop.

I have never had this dish, but it took one look at the ingredient list on the wonderful blog, Queen of Quinoa, for me to know how much I'd love it- Carrots? Zucchini? Asparagus? A FRIED EGG? Yes, please, on all accounts.

We made very few modifications to this dish. We doubled all of the ingredients, and (after realizing we did not have any quinoa in the house) served it over rice instead of quinoa. My friend Meghan left work early to come over for our periodic "wine-time" - does anyone but Jonathan work until 5 on Fridays? - and ended up staying for dinner, which is why I doubled the recipe.

I started by prepping all of the vegetables. I could have used a mandolin for this, but I was content using our knife. After julienning the carrots and zucchini, I removed the ends of the snap peas and set these vegetables aside for later. Finally, I chopped the asparagus into 1" pieces and tossed them in olive oil, S&P and red pepper flakes, and laid them out on a baking sheet.

I roasted the asparagus at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes. While that was cooking, I set up the rice cooker to make four servings of rice. I threw the peas, carrots and bean sprouts into the steamer basket and let them cook above the rice.

Once the asparagus and the steamed vegetables were cooked, I sauteed the zucchini for a few minutes. I then added the asparagus, steamed vegetables and tamari to the pan, along with a couple teaspoons of Sriracha for some much needed heat. I let this cook for a minute or two.

To prepare each dish, I put the cooked rice in the bottom of each bowl and placed the vegetable mixure on top and added some scallions. For the finishing touch, I cooked three delicious sunny-side-up eggs and laid them over the vegetables. Traditionally, this dish is served with each vegetable in its own separate section of the bowl, but let's be honest- we're going to stir them all together anyway.

This was an incredible dish. It takes a lot of prep and includes many different cooking methods, but it is definitely worth it. Our guest Meghan enjoyed it, too. It's always a good sign when two midwesterners - she and I - go crazy about an asian veggie stir fry!

I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Vegetarian Blogs.

06.05.12_Spinach and Ricotta Whole Wheat Empanadas

There is a place down the street called Julia's Empanadas that is A-MAZING. They are super cheap and we love getting them late night after going out. They have two vegetarian options there, one of which is this Spinach Empanada. When trying to come up with meals for the week we remembered that we had some whole wheat dough from Whole Foods leftover from another night. I decided to try and recreate Julia's empanada, but make it a little healthier by using the whole wheat dough and baking them instead of frying. Obviously if we had fried them they would have been even more delicious, but they were still really great baked, just not as flaky and buttery as a normal empanada. They were super easy to make since I used the store bought dough. If you're feeling extra adventurous you could definitely make the dough yourself.

Spinach and Ricotta Whole Wheat Empanadas
Makes 4 empanadas

• 1/2 package of refrigerated whole wheat dough (if you want to use the full package just double the rest of the ingredients)
• TBSP olive oil
• 3/4 cup of frozen spinach
• 1/2 cup ricotta
• 1/4 grated Parmesan 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 medium onion
• Salt and pepper
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 egg (I didn't have an egg so I used a mixture of butter and milk instead of an egg wash)

1. Preheat oven to 450°.
2. Defrost the spinach and ring out the extra spinach.
3. Heat a TBSP of olive oil in a saute pan. Add the onion and cook until they begin to get translucent. Add the garlic and defrosted spinach and cook until the spinach is heated through. Set mixture aside to let cool.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan and the spinach mixture. Add in salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. Taste the mixture to adjust seasoning as necessary.
5. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until its about 1/8-1/4" thick. Use a small bowl to cut out circles of dough. Half a package should easily make 4 empanadas.
6. Scoop 2-3 TBSP of the spinach and cheese mixture onto each circle of dough. Fold the dough in half and crimp the edges of the empandas with a fork.
7. Place the empanadas on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Brush each empanada with an egg wash. Cut an X into each empanada to let steam escape while baking.
8. Bake the empanadas for about 15 minutes and then enjoy!

06.04.12_Oven Parmesan and Pea Risotto

Ok, so the coloration of this picture is terrible. I'm not sure what happened. But trust me, it was delicious. Anyway, several months ago I saw an episode of Barefoot Contessa where she made "risotto" in the oven. I had been waiting to make it because I did not have pots that were oven-safe. Now that I have my new Calphalon pots though it was time to try this recipe out! We invited our vegetarian friends, Eric and Horia, over for dinner so I thought this would be a perfect recipe to try.

Technically speaking it was not a risotto since risotto actually refers to a cooking technique. Regardless, the end product came out creamy and delicious like a real risotto but was so much easier. Literally there is no way to mess this one up and no one would ever know you cheated. All I had to do was put 1.5 cups of arborio rice and 4 cups of stock (the recipe called for chicken but I subbed veggie for obvious reasons) while the oven was preheating to 350°. The pot went into the oven for 45 minutes until almost all of the stock was absorbed. I then mixed in 1/2 cup of white wine, another cup of stock, 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp of black pepper.  I'm sure Ina would have been disgusted by the wine I used since it wasn't a goooood white wine but Whole Food's Three Wishes Chardonnay did the trick for us. I stirred everything together for 2-3 minutes then added a cup of frozen peas and stirred until they were defrosted.

After plating I added a little extra cheese and fresh cracked black pepper before serving. Eric and Horia brought a baguette and a bottle of wine and it made for a perfect meal! I was really surprised how good it was and how insanely easy it was. If you have been afraid to make a classic risotto definitely give this one a try. I think I'll be using this technique from now on just because it was so easy and then I can add in whatever I want. Maybe I'll make Butternut Squash Risotto again this way...

05.29.12_Dal Palak

It has been a while since we made an Indian dish so when I came across a recipe for "Very Simple Dal Palak" which is vegan, I thought it would be a good one to try out. The original recipe said it made 8 cups which seemed like way too much so I decided to half the recipe. And I'm really glad I did because we still had more than enough for two dinners and two lunches. I am continually surprised by how easy these Indian dishes are. They are always super simple, they just use spices that you might not normally have on hand. The only unsual spice this recipe called for was Garam Masala, which I had from when we made the Paneer Tikka Masala, otherwise the ingredients were very straight forward. Here's the recipe cut in half:

• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 1 packages (about 8 ounces) mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 1 medium-sized red or white potatoes, cubed
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoons coriander
• 1/2 Tablespoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoons red chili powder
• 1 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 5 ounce bunch of spinach (or more if desired)
• 1/2 cup lentils (the recipe called for red but I had black on hand and used those instead)
• 1/2 cups of water or broth
• 1 Tablespoons salt
• 2 scallions, chopped

For my birthday my parents got me new Calphalon pots and pans so I was super excited to use them for the first time making this recipe. In a large soup pot, I sauteed the onion and mushrooms in some olive oil. While those were browning, I diced the potato then added it to the pot. After a couple of minutes and the edges of the potato started to become translucent, I made a well in the middle of the pot and added the garlic, ginger, and all the spices. I stirred everything together before adding in the tomatoes (and their juices), the lentis, and the spinach. I tossed everything together so that all the spinach would start to wilt. Finally, I added the water and brought to a boil, before reducing the heat and simmering for about 45 minutes. At the very end I tossed in the chopped scallions, reserving a few for garnish. 

We served the Dal Palak over a bed of rice with some store bought naan on the side. The apartment smelt so good while this was cooking and the end result was super delicious. I think this would actually be a great recipe to try and cook in a slow cooker because it seems like the type of dish that would only get better the longer it cooked. Definitely a good recipe to try if you want to try a very easy Indian dish that doesn't hit you over the head with a ton of spices.

05.23.12_Raw Vegan Wraps

Ok so I'm not going to lie. When people stereotypically think about what vegans eat, I would say this meal falls into that category. While it was tasty and the first meal I've made that involved essentially zero cooking, it felt like we were eating vegan considering it was raw vegetables. Delicious. But raw. If we were to go vegan I feel like this type of meal would be the exception, considering we have made a ton of meals that were either vegan, or could easily be made vegan, that were much more involved and did not feel like a vegan meal (i.e. Coq-au-vin-less Coq au Vin, Braised Coconut Spinach and Chickpeas, etc). That being said, I still recommend trying them. I think they would make a great quick and easy lunch for sure.

The only "cooking" involved in this recipe was making a pecan paste. I took 1 cup of raw pecans, a TBSP of tamari, and a tsp of cumin and olive oil and blended them together in my Cuisinart. That's it. Then I sliced up a red pepper and avocado and it was time to construct the wraps. The recipe I found called for using collard greens as the wrap but we decided to use tortillas since I'm not a huge fan of collards. I spread the pecan paste onto the tortillas, then topped with sprouts, the red pepper, and avocado, then squeeze some fresh lime juice over top. That's it. I did bake some sweet potato fries so we would have a side, but again, that was hardly "cooking."

05.07.12_Homemade Samoas

The Braised Coconut Spinach and Chickpeas we made last week called for shredded coconut as a garnish. I forgot to tell Phillip that it should be unsweeted so when he came home from the store with a big bag of sweetened coconut, we decided we'd be doing some baking in the near future. While recovering from Cinco de Mayo, Phillip found this recipe for homemade Somoas, my favorite Girl Scout Cookie, so we decided baking would be a good way to spend the day.

The whole process took a while so it was a good thing we did it on a lazy Sunday with no plans. The trickiest part was spreading the caramel and coconut mixture onto each cookie...super sticky. They came out delicious though. They did not taste exactly like real Samoas but they definitely did the trick and satisfied my cravings. One recipe we found suggested using store bought shortbread cookies to save time. I think I would do this if I were to make them again to speed up the process a bit, but we wanted to make them from scratch for our first attempt. I never bake so I do not have cookie cutters. It was fun being resourceful and finding different things to cut the cookies out with. We ended up using a small tupperware for the cookies themselves and then a metal Slurpee straw I had from college to make the smaller circle on the inside. They didn't end up quite as pretty as we had hoped but whatever, they tasted good!

05.02.12_Avocado Mac and Cheese

Avocado. Mac and Cheese. Um...yes. I found this recipe yesterday and decided I had to have it immediately. We had already talked about being lazy and having boxed mac and cheese for dinner so this went along with the plans, but clearly made it way more exciting.  When I made the recipe I found that there was too much sauce and not enough noodles and I LOVE avocado (it's in my top five favorite foods) so I bought an additional avocado to make sure there were plenty of chunks of avocado running through the mac and cheese when it was finished!

My slightly modified recipe calls for:

• 10-12 ounces dry elbow macaroni
  
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 avocados (2 for the sauce, 1 for garnish)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  
• Salt and pepper, to taste
  
• 2 tablespoons butter
  
• 2 tablespoons flour
  
• 1 cup milk
  
• 2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese (you could use any cheese really) 

While the water for the pasta was cooking, I added the 2 avocados, garlic, lime juice, cilantro, and S&P into a food processor. I gave this a whirl until it all came together and was nice and smooth. I tasted the mixture to see if it needed any more seasoning then set aside. Once the pasta was al dente, I drained and set aside to make the cheese sauce. I melted the butter in the same pot I boiled the pasta, then whisked in equal parts of flour to make the roux. After the butter and flour were combined, I slowly added in the milk, stirring for a few minutes until the sauce started to thicken. Finally, I added in the cheese and stirred it all together until it was melty and delicious. In a large bowl, I combined the pasta and avocado mixture until it was all combined, then poured the cheese sauce over and stirred again. Finally, I tossed in the last avocado which I had cubed. I served the Avocado Mac and Cheese in cute ramekins and topped with a fresh sprig of cilantro.

The mac and cheese was super creamy and delicious. I was really glad I added in the extra pasta because I really liked the ratio of sauce to pasta with the additional serving or two of pasta. We had plenty of leftovers that I am excited to eat for lunch! So good.

04.30.12_Braised Coconut Spinach and Chickpeas

April went by so fast! With Phillip's parents visiting and his birthday, we had little time for cooking let alone blog posts. Now that it is somehow May (how did this happen?!) things seem to be slowing down a little bit and we've been able to start cooking a bit more again. I had found this recipe for Braised Coconut Spinach and Chickpeas with lemon a couple of weeks ago and added it to our never-ending list of recipes to try. I let Phillip chose what to have for dinner on Monday and he chose this.

The recipe called for:

• 2 teaspoons oil
• 1 small yellow onion
• 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (we left these out for Phillip)
• 1 large lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 dash of red pepper flakes
• 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
• 1 pound baby spinach
• 14-ounce can coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• Sweet potatoes (2-4 depending on how many people you are serving)

This recipe was served over baked sweet potatoes so to start, we preheated the oven to 400°. We pierced the potatoes with a fork and then popped them in the oven for about an hour. While the potatoes cooked we prepared the topping! Phillip actually helped me with a lot of the prep work for this and I will say his mincing skills have improved drastically! After we had the onion, garlic, ginger, and lemon zest ready, I heated oil in my biggest pot over medium-high heat. I then added the onions and let them sweat for a few minutes. Next, I added the garlic, ginger, lemon zest, and red pepper flakes. This cooked for a few minutes before I tossed in the chickpeas to let them cook a bit and get coated with the mixture.

Then, I started adding the spinach. I am still surprised every time by how much spinach wilts. A lb of fresh spinach looks like a TON but after it all cooks down it is much more manageable. It cook a couple of minutes to get all the spinach into the pot and wilted. I was stirring pretty regularly to make sure the garlic and onion weren't burning on the bottom of the pan. Once the spinach had wilted, I added the coconut milk, fresh lemon juice, and salt. This got brought to a simmer then I lowered the heat and let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes. Then we were ready to eat. We scooped the spinach chickpea mixture oven the sweat potatoes and I topped them with some cilantro. These were super delicious. We realized after we were eating that this was a vegan dish which was a nice surprise. Serving the mixture over the sweet potato was a great idea and adds nice texture since the spinach and chickpeas don't have much. Definitely try this one out!

04.10.12_Beer and Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

A while back Caitlin had me and Phillip over for dinner. She had made a vegan Mac and Cheese that had butternut squash in it and it was super delicious. In my daily perusing of the food blogs, I came across a recipe for Beer and Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese. It sounded like Caitlin's version, except it had real cheese instead of vegan, and added beer. Sounded like a win win to me. The original recipe used two whole boxes of pasta and seeing as I was only cooking for the two of us, I decided to half the recipe.

After cutting the recipe in half, it called for:

• 1 box elbow macaroni
• 1 lb butternut squash (peeled and diced)
• 1/2 bottle wheat beer
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Pecorino Romano cheese (we subbed a Four Cheese Blend we already had)
• 1/2 tablespoon butter (I actually omitted this)
• Pinch of nutmeg (my addition)
• 1/8 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1/8 cup grated parmesan cheese

When we went shopping, Safeway didn't have any whole butternut squash. They did, however, have the already peeled and diced butternut squash. I was really bummed that the store did all the work for me since, as you may recall, I LOVE peeling butternut squash (where's the sarcasm font when you need it?). To start, I cooked the macaroni, then drained and set aside. In the same large pot I cooked the pasta, I added the diced butternut squash, milk, beer, garlic, bay leaf, and S&P. I brought the mixture to a boil, then lowered the heat and simmered for about 25 minutes until the squash was soft. I removed the bay leaf, then used my handy immersion blender to puree the squash until it was nice and smooth. I mixed in the cheeses and the Greek yogurt, grated in some fresh nutmeg, then folded in the macaroni. After it was all combined, I poured the mac and cheese into a baking dish I had sprayed with non-stick spray, then topped with the Parm and panko. Then it was into a 375° oven for 30 minutes.

Thank goodness we split this recipe in half. It made a ton (though I am very happy to have leftovers). As if this recipe weren't easy enough already, I actually had made this in advance and kept it in the fridge. Then when we were ready to eat all I had to do was preheat the oven and pop it in. I ended up turning on the broiler for the last 5 minutes to get it nice and brown on top. The mac and cheese was so good and I could really taste the squash and the beer. I served it with a side salad of mixed greens, dried cranberries, and cashews topped with a homemade lemon vinaigrette and a shaving of Gruyere cheese. Delish.

04.05.12_Coq-au-Vin-Less Coq au Vin

So this recipe does not contain chicken or wine, thus the name Coq-au-Vin-Less Coq au Vin name. However having made the real deal a couple of weeks ago, I see why the blog where I found this recipe still called it Coq au Vin. It had very similar flavors and ingredients, even with the two primary ones obviously missing. However, not having the chicken and the wine (which is often not vegan believe it or not) made it extremely easy to convert to a vegan recipe since Caitlin was coming over for dinner. The recipe called for:

• 1 eggplant, cubed
• salt
• 3 oz tempeh bacon, cut into small strips (we used Lightlife's Smart Bacon)
• 1 block extra firm tofu, pressed and patted dry, cubed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 10 oz frozen pearl onions (we used fresh)
• 1 lb cremini mushrooms, minced or food processed into tiny pieces
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 2 bay leaves
• several sprigs fresh thyme
• several sprigs fresh parsley (I used dried)
• 8 oz green beans
• 1 tbsp butter (we omitted for Caitlin)
• 1 cup polenta
• 4 cups water

This recipe had a fair amount of prep but luckily Caitlin and I have a long history of cooking together and it was nice to have her in the kitchen with me helping like the good ol' days. One new thing for me was having to buy fresh pearl onions. The recipe called for frozen but after going to both Safeway and Whole Foods and having no luck, I managed to find a bag of fresh ones. I looked up how to peel them online, hoping to find an easy way. All you have to do is bring a pot of water to a boil, drop in the onions and let them cook for about 2 minutes. Then after cooking put them into an ice bath. Finally cut off the root end and the skins come right off. Still a lot more work than buying a frozen box but good to know for the future if you are in dire of need of pearl onions!

Another prep item was the eggplant. Caitlin diced the it while I pressed the tofu. We put the diced eggplant into a colander, salted, and let sit for 20 minutes or so to draw out the excess liquid and to make it less bitter. While the eggplant sat and the tofu was being pressed, we both cleaned the mushrooms. Maybe there is a better way of doing this, but cleaning mushrooms takes forever, especailly when you have a 1lb of cremini to clean. Finally it was time to start cooking. I put some oil into a pan and sauteed the diced tempeh bacon for a few minutes. Next, I added the tofu, seasoned with S&P, then sauteed for another 5-6 minutes. After the tofu started to brown, I added the diced eggplant, the onions, and the mushrooms which I had pulsed in the food processor to a very fine dice (its easier to hide them from Phillip when they are tiny). About 5 minutes after adding the rest of the veggies, I grated in 6 cloves of garlic. This mixture sautes for a total of 15 minutes (10 minutes after you add the garlic).

Finally, I added 2 cups of veggie stock, a cup of tomato sauce, the green beans, 2 bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme, and the parsley into the pot. Lower the heat so that the sauce is just bubbling. This simmers for a good 20 minutes or so until it has reduced and thickened. We served the Coq-au-Vin-Less Coq au Vin over polenta and Phillip and I topped it off with some grated Parmesan cheese. We were all pleasantly surprised with the flavor of the dish. Our only complaint was that there was a lot of the same texture, which you know is usually an issue for me. Luckily the fresh green beans and the pearl onions provided a nice crunch as needed. This recipe was not difficult but definitely takes a lot of time to get everything ready since you are working with so much fresh produce that needs to be handled before cooked.