Garlic Hummus

Another recipe inspired by Caitlin. For people who don't eat a lot of meat, chickpeas and tahini are both good sources of protein, and hummus has them both.  This makes a big batch, but if you don't want a lot, you could easily make half.

Ingredients:

2 cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), 1/2 the liquid reserved

4 (large) cloves garlic

8 TBSP lemon juice

4 TBSP tahini

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp cumin

Notes:

You'll need a blender or a food processor. I've made hummus in my blender and it was fine though it doesn't get as smooth. However, my blender wasn't very happy with me for doing it, so I recommend a food processor. This is mine, which is both really old and brand new, depending on how you look at it.

(Brand new to me. Really old because in actually years, it's older than I am. But it's only been used 4 times according to my mom. It's a beast. Definitely got the job done.)

Tahini is sesame paste. It might be hard to fine. I found some at Safeway with the peanut butter. You could try a middle eastern grocery store or something if you can't find it. You can also totally make hummus without it. I don't think it tastes quite right, but some people don't like tahini anyway.

To make

Peel garlic and throw into blender or food processor (you might need to coarsely chop first, depending on your blender). Drain garbanzo beans and reserve the liquid from one can. Add chickpeas to food processor and blend with garlic. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend some more. Add the reserved bean liquid in increments until hummus reaches desired consistency. When you serve, you can garnish with some olive oil and a sprig of parsely if desired.

Serve with vegetables, crackers, pita chips, or pita!

Vegetarian Crockpot Chili

This turned out a little more tomato-y and less spicy than I wanted. If I were going to make it again, I'd use less tomato paste.  I would probaby double the jalapeno. Or use a spicier pepper. Or add more chli powder and some cayenne pepper. Or maybe tabasco. Such possibilities...

Ingredients:

1 TBSP vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped red  bell pepper
3 TBSP minced jalapeno
2 cloves garlic
1 diced tomato
1 can tomato paste
1 can kidney beans drained & rinsed
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can corn
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp black papper
Cheddar cheese for garnish

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper and garlick. Cook about 5 minutes or until tender.

Put vegetables and remaining ingredients (except cheese) into crock pot. Cook on low 4 to 5 hours.

Aimee's Buffalo Chicken Mac 'n Cheese

Now that I've made it for my family, it will become "Megan's Buffalo Chicken Mac 'n Cheese" for them.  Funny how recipes work like that. Originally, this is Anna's recipe (a food blogger that Aimee likes).

And since I basically didn't alter this recipe much at all, I will just link to the original blog. Although I will post pictures of MY finished product, which was tasty.

This is great if you like ultra-cheese, creamy, unhealthy goodness with a buffalo kick. 

http://www.sweetannas.com/2010/04/baked-buffalo-chicken-mac-and-cheese.html

 

My First Cheese Souffle

Aimee (my roommate) made cheese souffle for dinner the other night. I didn't actually eat it. I didn't actually see it. But the idea of it inspired me. All you really need is cheese, milk, and eggs. Okay and a few other things. And to be technical, I only made 1/2 of a cheese souffle and I ate the whole thing. It was THAT good. Here is the full (non half) recipe, but my slightly modified version (pretty close to the real version except that it called for cream of tartar. And who just HAS that on hand?)

Ingredients
Butter, room temperature, for greasing the souffle
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/3 cups milk, hot
4 large egg yolks
About 1 cup sharp Cheddar
5 egg whites plus 1 tablespoon water

Digression: recipies never tell you the REAL order you should do things in. They just assume you do all your prep in advance like on cooking shows and work at lightning speed once you get going. (one Rachael Ray recipe I made said that it would take 30 minutes to prep. It took me 1.5 hours. Lesson: I am NOT Rachael Ray). So I'm going to give you the instructions step-by-step exactly as I did it because there is a bit of complexity here and it worked well for me. I'm not trying to insult your intelligence; I  have just personally made too many mistakes by not reading a full recipe and then realizing halfway through that something is whack. Okay, digression over.

1. Remove butter from refrigerator to bring to room temperature
2. Preheat oven to 375
3. Mix up flour, mustard, garlic powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Separate your egg whites into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Save the yolks and put them in another bowl.
5. Beat yolks with a fork until creamy. Add water to egg whites and beat with a hand mixer until fluffy and stiff.
6. Grease an 8-inch souffle mold or casserole dish with a bit of your now-room-temperature butter. Add the grated Parmesan and roll around the mold to cover the sides. Cover with plastic wrap and place into the freezer for 5 minutes.(just keep a general eye on the time because I'M not going to tell you when to take it out)
7. Heat your milk in the microwave (1.5 minutes on high should do it). Put all of your ingredients at hand near the stove.
8. Melt 3 TBSP butter in a small sauce pan on low heat. Allow all of the water to cook out.

9. Whisk the flour mixture into the butter and cook for about 2 minutes, continuing to whisk and scraping the sides of the pan as necessary.
10. Whisk in the hot milk and turn the heat to high. Once it reaches a boil, remove from heat.
11. Whisk in the egg yolks. (keep whisking!).
12. Whisk in the cheese until smooth (yeah, whisk that sucker!)
13. Okay, STOP whisking. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites, one large spoonful at a time.
14. Awesome! Now pour the mixture into your souffle mold (did you remember to take it out of the freezer? You forgot, didn't you? Oh well, it should still work!)
15. Put it on a foil pie pan and bake for 35 minutes.

Voila! Cheese souffle! Okay, I didn't take a picture because I ate it all before I remembered. Oops.

Quinoa stuffed red bell peppers

So I've been lazy. I cook a lot, but I always forget to take pictures. And then I'm too lazy to blog about it. Mea culpa. I'm going to do better.

Thus far, I have kept my New Year's resolution to only buy organic meat--from whole foods or PCC because I trust them more. As a result I have been eating more vegetarian dishes, which has been delicious. My lovely friend Caitlin turned me on to quinoa, which is a miraculous and tasty little grain--a complete protein unto itself! Say it with me: "keen wa." Got it?

Sometime I will share the delicious garlicky quinoa salad recipe that I found. For now, I will just share what I made last night -- red bell peppers stuffed with quinoa. Healthy! Full of veggies! I slighly modified a recipe I found online because I didn't feel like buying celery or mushrooms and I couldn't find poblano peppers so I substituted a jalapeno. Really, you could make this with any number of different kinds of veggies--whatever you happen to have on hand.

Ingredients:
2 TBSP olive oil
1 medium onion
1 jalapeno pepper
1 TBSP cumin
3 cloves garlic
1 can diced tomatoes (drained, liquid reserved)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1 1/2 cups grated pepper Jack cheese
4 large red bell peppers, halved lenghwise, ribs removed.

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and jalapeno and cook about 5 minutes. Add cumin and garlic and saute 1 minute. Stir in drained tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes until most liquid has evaporated.

Stir in quinoa carrots and 1 3/4 cups water. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Add black beans and 1 cup of cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350. Pour liquid from tomatoes in bottom of baking dish.

Fill each pepper half with heaping 3/4 cup quinoa mixture and place in baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle each pepper iwth 1 TBSP of remaining cheese. Bake 15 minutes more until tops are browned. Let stand 5 minutes. Drizzle peppers with pan juices before serving.