Quinoa & Kale Stuffed Acorn Squash

It' was BEAUTIFUL in DC today. 70, sunny, breezy…not exactly late November weather, but I’ll take it. Katie and I took advantage of the weather and went to Eastern Market for a little shopping. I came looking for earrings, and left with squash and kale. Shocking to no one, I’m sure. So, I surveyed my inventory and came up with this little recipe, while watching Miss Congeniality.

This baked acorn squash would have been fabulous with a drizzle of maple syrup, butter and a little cinnamon – but not this time.

Quinoa & Kale Stuffed Acorn Squash

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 cup vegetable broth plus 1/4 cup
1 acorn squash
1 tablespoon butter
1-2 tablespoon olive oil
large bunch kale, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
dashes of red wine vinegar
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/3 cup frozen broccoli pieces, thawed
1-2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon dried basil or tablespoon fresh
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
parmesan
bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 375. Slice acorn squash in half and scoop out seeds. Sprinkle salt, pepper and butter inside of the squash. Bake for 45 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, cook the quinoa in vegetable broth until soft, about 15 minutes. Increase temperature to 400 degrees.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet and add onion. Once soft, add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add kale and remaining vegetable broth to pan and cover. Cook for 5 minutes, then uncover and sauté until liquid has evaporated. Add red wine vinegar, broccoli, quinoa, tomato paste and spices to pan with kale and mix.  Spoon mixture into squash and top with parmesan and bread crumbs. Bake for 5-7 minutes, or until top is browned.

Butternut Squash Soup

I never make soup. But here I am, banging out two soups in two days. Maybe I’ve changed my tune. This soup happens to be for the Thanksgiving. I will be in the presence of great cooks tomorrow, so this soup had to be good to stand up to the rest of the meal. It’s velvety, subtly sweet, and comforting. I will warn you that it took a good chunk of time to peel and chop the apples, onion and squash – other than that, it’s super easy. *This recipe is adapted from the Good Housekeeping cookbook.

Butternut Squash Soup

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion
2 medium butternut squash-peeled, seeded, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
2 medium Fuji apples--peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
14 ounces Vegetable broth
1 and 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoons fresh thyme (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup half and half

In a 4-quart saucepan heat oil. Add onion and cook till tender . Stir in squash, apples, broth, water, thyme salt/pepper. Heat to boiling over high heat, reduce heat to a simmer, stirring often until squash is very tender about 25 minutes.

Spoon third of squash mixture into blender puree until smooth. Repeat with rest of soup. If you like some chunky pieces in the soup, reserve some of the soup. 

Return puree to pot. Stir in half and half and heat through, but don't boil. Makes about 9 cups.

Black Bean & Lentil Soup

I woke up Monday morning with a fever, sore throat and pounding headache…Happy Thanksgiving! But for some reason, I have not lost my appetite. Sitting at home has just given me more time to look up new recipes. I’ve had cans of black beans and lentils sitting around that needs to get used. It’s a hearty recipe that’s good for rainy days or sick days, or both like today in my case! *Recipe from Have Your Cake & Eat It Too.

Black Bean & Lentil Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
4 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup lentils
1 can black beans, rinsed, drained and partially smashed
1 lime
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
(garnish)
plain Greek yogurt
cheddar cheese

In a large pot, heat the olive oil and sauté the onion until soft. Add the chili powder, cumin, paprika, and garlic; sauté just 1 minute. Add vegetable or chicken broth and tomato paste; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add red lentils and cook until tender (about 25 minutes). Add black beans, lime juice, salt, and black pepper; cook five minutes and add water as needed to avoid soup becoming too thick. Top with garnishes.

Hot Cocoa (Coma) Cookies

I’m going to advise you to pour yourself a glass of milk before you continue reading.

Sundays have always lent themselves to baking for me. It’s a way to feel productive, while being indulgent at the same time. So these little suckers grabbed my attention on Pinterest this afternoon. (Are you as obsessed with Pinterest as I am?) There are a few things on that website that get me every time: low backed dresses, rustic cozy furniture and melting chocolate.

There is literally an entire bag of chocolate chips IN the cookies. Not to mention the chocolate pieces on top. Turns out this recipe makes 50 cookies. So, now some lucky friends are going to get a little cookie delivery tonight. *Recipe from Pip & Ebby.

Hot Cocoa Cookies

1 stick butter
12 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces semisweet chocolate (bars)
marshmallows, halved

Melt butter and chocolate in a metal bowl over a pot of boiling water, then set aside to cool for 15 minutes. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix eggs, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Pour in the cooled chocolate and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture in two batches and cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.

***During this hour, I made a healthy dinner of baked red pepper jelly salmon over a spinach salad with carrots, green apple and goat cheese.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and spread out on pan covered with parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes, then take out and top with a piece of chocolate and half a marshmallow. Then bake 3-4 more minutes.

If you’re giving these as a gift, instruct them to microwave the cookies 10 seconds before eating for best results.

In other news, I just saw a commercial for the NOW 40 CD. I remember purchasing the original NOW…I’m feeling incredibly old all of the sudden.

Roasted Garlic Mac & Cheese

Thanksgiving used to be one large meal eaten at my grandma’s house in southern California with my family. This year, I’m having multiple Thanksgiving meals on the opposite coast, one pot-luck style dinner at the home of 4 guy friends plus their 30 closest friends, the other at my used-to-be coworker’s uncles house in Maryland. I’m very thankful  to be included in each of these festive gatherings, but it’s funny how times have changed!

The best part of this change is that I am now responsible for making some of the food for these smorgasbord meals. I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the traditional Thanksgiving food staples. They’re not bad – and oh, will I eat them – but they aren’t exceptionally exciting to me. How many casseroles can one meal sustain? So, when asked to make a little something for the pot-luck-Thanksgiving-keg-party last night, I tried a more original recipe. *Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats.

Roasted Garlic Mac & Cheese

1 head garlic
1 tsp. olive oil
16 oz. dry pasta
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
10 oz. white cheddar cheese, shredded
4 oz. crumbled garlic and herb boursin cheese, divided
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
Snipped chives, for garnish (optional)

To roast the garlic, preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Remove most of the outer paper skins from the head of garlic, leaving it intact.  Slice off the top portion of the head so that all of the cloves are exposed at the top, but the head is still intact.  Rub with a bit of olive oil.  Place the head of garlic on a piece of foil and loosely fold the foil up around the head of garlic to create a foil packet.  Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until the cloves are easily squeezed from the skins (be sure to let cool before handling!)  Squeeze all of the garlic out of the skins and smash with a fork to make a paste.

Increase the oven temperature to 400˚ F.  Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Cook the pasta until about 2 minutes shy of al dente according to the package directions.  Drain in a colander.  Return the pasta to the pot and set aside.  Meanwhile in a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat.  Whisk in the flour and the roasted garlic paste and cook, stirring constantly, until light golden, about 2 minutes.  Whisk in the milk and cayenne.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce comes to a low boil and thickens noticeably.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cheddar and about 3 ounces of the boursin.  Whisk until the cheese is completely melted.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the sauce over the drained pasta and add parsley, toss to coat well.  Transfer to a lightly greased 2 quart baking dish and top with the remaining boursin.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the top is browned and the cheese is bubbling.  Let cool at least 5-10 minutes before serving. 

Fall Feast, part deux

Enough pumpkin recipes? Never enough! 

This was one of those recipes I'd starred a while ago, just waiting for the right opportunity to make it. Book club is the perfect time to fulfill many of my cooking wishlist items. And a fall feast theme, no less! You can pretty much wing this recipe as long as you taste as you go, you can't really mess it up. 

As for the rest of the feast, we had Trader Joe's butternut squash soup, toasted bread, TJ’s sweet potato pecan bites…and finally, TJ’s pumpkin soufflés.

Spiced Pumpkin Dip

1 Fage 0% fat yogurt cup (6 ounces)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch pumpkin pie spice

Stir all together. Serve with apple slices (ideally Honey Crisp).

Chicken Sausage & Pumpkin Baked Pasta

In this house, we are all about pumpkin. Tonight I found a way to sneak pumpkin into my pasta, while Quin had pumpkin chocolate chip bread baking in the oven AND we split a Pumpkinhead beer as we cooked. Hat-trick o’ pumpkin! 

We gave our little kitchen a work out this evening.

I <3 making up recipes. You definitely have to be willing to fail once in a while, but luckily this was not one of those times.

Chicken Sausage & Pumpkin Baked Pasta

1/2 pound whole wheat pasta
1 spicy Italian chicken sausage, fully cooked, chopped
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1-2 ounces mozzarella cheese
dashes of nutmeg and paprika
salt and pepper
grated Parmesan
parsley

Preheat oven to 350. Boil pasta until al dente. Make a roux in a large skillet by melting butter then whisk in flour. Slowly pour in milk while whisking and keep whisking until thickened. Turn down heat to low and add cottage cheese, pumpkin, spices and mozzarella. Add in chicken sausage and cooked noodles. Pour into baking dish and top with Parmesan. Bake for 15 minutes. Top with parsley. 

Yumm pumpkin chocolate chip bread with a little plain yogurt and almond milk

Lemon Sardine Pasta

Don't be scared. 

Sardines get a bad name (I think because they're associated with anchovies which have their own stigma) but these little oily fishes are so freaking good for you. They have a bazillion grams of B12, Omega 3, vitamin D, etc. This is actually my first time cooking with sardines, but I had to get over my fear of the decapitated little fish because they're cheap and flavorful. We topped the finished product with a little marinara, and the combination of it all was very tasty.This recipe is a good baby step introduction to sardines, so see what you think. 

  Lemon Sardine Pasta

8 ounces whole-wheat fettuccine
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (see Tip), preferably whole-wheat
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 3- to 4-ounce cans boneless, skinless sardines, preferably in tomato sauce, flaked (mine had bones and skin – you can’t tell the difference)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
Dollop of marinara sauce (optional, but made it great)

(I cut the recipe in half since Quin and I were the only eaters) 

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes or according to package directions. Drain.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant and sizzling but not brown, about 20 seconds. Transfer the garlic and oil to a large bowl.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in the pan over medium heat. Add breadcrumbs and cook, stirring, until crispy and golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Whisk lemon juice, pepper and salt into the garlic oil. Add the pasta to the bowl along with sardines, parsley and Parmesan. Gently stir to combine. Serve sprinkled with the breadcrumbs.

--

Naturally, had to have something sweet after dinner so I made do with what I had at hand. Banana, pumpkin butter, chocolate chips, peanut butter, plain yogurt. I microwaved everything besides the yogurt for about 45 seconds. Topped it with yogurt.

Ahhhmazing!

Baked Salmon & Warm Goat Cheese Salad

Hope everyone had a lovely Tuesday. I was feeling a bit eager to get through the work day because of all the things to look forward to when I got home. A good work out, my painting, a delicious dinner, a new episode of Glee. So much to do, so little time!

I've long been a fan of Ina Garten's Warm Goat Cheese Salad with the breaded and fried goat cheese rounds. To make it a meal, I flaked a salmon fillet that I baked with salt, pepper, cayenne and lemon juice and put it on top of the salad. Dressed it up with a Dijon vinaigrette. 

On the side, I had homemade hummus and sweet potato chips I baked last night. Having a mandolin comes in handy! I just thinly sliced a sweet potato, drizzled the slices with olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika, then baked them at 450 for 20 minutes. 

Baked Salmon & Warm Goat Cheese Salad

     1 salmon fillet
     salt and pepper
     cayenne
     squeeze of lemon

     2 slices of goat cheese
     1 egg white
     bread crumbs
     olive oil

     spinach
     cucumber
     sugar snap peas
     carrot, ribbons
     avocado slices

     2 tablespoon olive oil
     1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
     1 teaspoon cider vinegar
     1 clove garlic, minced
     1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
     squeeze lemon juice
     salt and pepper
     (fresh dill would be great in this too)

Sprinkle salmon with juice, salt, pepper and cayenne. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large skillet heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Coat goat cheese slices with egg white and bread crumbs. Fry on each side for about 2 minutes, until bread crumbs are brown. Assemble and dress salad.

Healthy Living

I turned a page a few weeks ago to focus on what’s best for me. I kicked this off with a whole house cleaning. Since I’ve started running a lot more – with the plan to do an 8K in December. Seeing friends and branching out. Playing music loudly. Starting a new painting for my room. And now, eating healthfully. Though I consider myself a pretty healthy eater, my weakness is sugar. The three candy bowls at work don’t help. At all. So I’ve decided to kick that addiction, and have desserts when they’re actually worth it.

After a trip to Target and A.C. Moore, I threw everything but the kitchen sink into my salad. Spinach, sliced apple, sugar snap peas, red onion, cucumber, avocado, craisins, and feta topped with homemade vinaigrette. Carrots and celery with sunflower seed butter on the side.

As for the painting, I’m recreating Monet’s Water Lilies.

For dinner, I made a batch of hummus. It’s cheaper than buying it and it makes a ton.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

1 16 ounce can garbanzo beans
Juice from one small lemon
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
3-4 large chunks roasted red peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil

Combine all ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor. Turn food processor on and stream in olive oil through the spout, blend until creamy. Taste to make sure it doesn’t need anything!

The hummus and veggie sticks accompanied the main dish, quinoa with vegetables and fried tofu in balsamic vinaigrette.

Red Quinoa with Tofu & Vegetables in Balsamic Dressing

1 cup red quinoa
2 ounces firm tofu, cubed
Garlic salt
Cayenne pepper
Basil flakes
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large carrot, grated to ribbons
Handful sugar snap peas, quartered
1/2 cucumber, sliced
Feta cheese
Balsamic vinaigrette
Salt and pepper
Avocado slices (if you happen to have it around)

In a small pot, add quinoa and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer for 15 minutes, or until water is absorbed.

In a skillet, heat olive oil and add tofu. Fry for 4-5 minutes, dusting with the garlic salt, cayenne pepper, basil flakes. salt and pepper to taste. Combine all the chopped vegetables, tofu and cooked quinoa in a bowl. Add feta and drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette. If it needs more punch, add a little balsamic vinegar. Top with avocado.

YUM.

Being self centered can actually feel pretty damn good.