new twist

So it is no secret that I have a bit of a stuffed pepper (really any stuffed vegetable) obsession. However, lest I bore you, tonight I mixed it up!

I give you

Chinese-Style Turkey Stuffed Peppers (roughly inspired by but substantially different from this recipe, which I’m sure is delicious too)

Yes, I’ve taken to photographing food on my window ledge. College food bloggers have it bleak, guys.

Step 1: the pepper

Get your hands on one bell pepper. Cut in half, remove ribs, all that jazz, and micro for 2 and a half minutes or until it is at your desired level of softness (you won’t bake these, so this is as soft as it gets).

Step 2: aromatics:

 

Heat 1/2 tsp vegetable oil over medium heat. Add 1 minced green onion, about 1/4 tsp minced ginger, 1 clove minced garlic, and about 2 tbsp. shredded carrot.

Then get your turkey. Oh, goodness, apparently it is still rather FREEZING at the back of my REFRIGERATOR.

Anyway, add 4 ounces of ground turkey that ideally you HAVE thawed, shake on crushed red pepper flakes to taste, and brown (or, in my case, THAW, and THEN brown)

Then add 1/4 cup brown rice, cooked (1/4 cup raw equals approx 1/2 cup cooked):

And this, admittedly, not the most appetizing looking “brown sauce”

1 t. soy sauce

1 t. miso

1 T water

1 t. rice vinegar

1/2 t. Sriracha

Add sauce to turkey mixture, and saute until the sauce is more or less absorbed (but the filling is still pleasingly moist!). Then stir in 1/8 tsp sesame oil.

Makes one serving of two stuffed pepper halves.

 

Not the biggest looker ever, but QUITE tasty. And it’s nice to mix up traditional dishes with new flavors. Makes life a little more interesting.

Moreover, this recipe made me notice the *sweetness* of the red peppers in a new way. Love that!

pink and green pasta

My cooking is rapidly becoming much less inspired. Argh argh argh midterms. Yesterday I left my apartment for class. Unfortunately, I didn’t actually bring my class notebook. Or my keys. Eesh!

Thanks for all your kind thoughts about econ. It actually went pretty well, which is good, since I think (oi oi oi typed “think I since”) I studied more for econ than I have for any test, like, ever?

Next on the docket is 3 more midterms x_x. And a FINAL INTERVIEW for Teach for America (!). Then a “break”, ahh. Then jury duty agh.

But anyway, let’s return to a simpler time, earlier this week, when I made pretty pasta for dinner.

Cute colors, no?

Penne with Canadian Bacon, Peas, and Caramelized Onions

3 slices Canadian bacon (I used Trader Joe’s brand)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 of a sweet onion, sliced

2 oz. whole wheat penne

1/2 cup frozen peas (no need to thaw)

Heat a skillet on medium. Put in your Canadian bacon, and heat until browned and slightly crisped. Set aside.

Then add olive oil to the same pan, heat, and add sweet onions. At this point you want to put the water on for your pasta- it’ll time out beautifully. Give the onions a healthy dose of pepper (and salt if you wish- I didn’t because I thought the bacon gave enough) and cook on medium or medium low (depending on how crazy your stove is) so they brown slowly and gently, stirring occasionally.

Cook pasta to al dente.

When there are 2 minutes left on the pasta cook time, return the bacon and add the peas to your onion pan, and increase heat to medium high. Stir often. When pasta is done, add directly to the skillet, with a bit of pasta water (I did this by the simple virtue of not having a slotted spoon and using my ladle to scoop out pasta!). Toss everything together until water has evaporated and peas are cooked through.

 

Caramelized onions= bliss. Simple, heartly, comforting, and nutritionally balanced.

razzle dazzle

I had a bowl of AWESOME for breakfast this morning.

I knew brekkers would involve the other raspberry muffin, but I decided I wanted some crunch in there too. Enter a free sample:

Nice to get all those vitamins in, since it’s midterm week and I can’t guarantee all my meals will be exactly balanced.

Plus, pomegranate’s so hot right now!

So this was plain yogurt base+ total+ raspberry muffin+ last of the raspberries+ almonds

The mix of textures, flavors, sweetness, tang- it all rocked my socks. This was a SUPERB breakfast.

And now I’m going to study econ til I die. Because econ is fighting me to the death, and winning.

Me and price elasticity just… don’t work.

lazy borscht

Dinner was pretty in pink!

     

What produces this gorgey color?

My new bestest pals, beets! I included them in my roasting bonanza the other day, and produced a ludicrously delicious and easy soup.

Pretty in Pink Beet Bisque

4 beets, wrapped in foil and roasted until tender (depends on size of beets, etc, but it’s awhile- 40 min?)

Then get ‘em in quarters or so and throw ‘em in a blender along with:

1/2 an onion, also wrapped in foil and roasted

and

1 and 1/4 cups of your choice of milk, plus salt and pepper to taste. That’s it! Makes 2 one cup servings (my second serving’s in the freezer)

I will say that I’m glad that I made this a few days ago, because letting it hang in my fridge for awhile let the flavors intensify and the texture become UNBELIEVABLY VELVETY.

A hard boiled egg makes a rawther lovely topping. So cool how the beet infuses everything with that luscious color.

I had the soup cold today due to ridiculously better weather- we had snow two days ago and today I was in a tshirt. Madness! However, I’m excited to try it hot, too!

The rest of dinner included one of these:

I had raspberries that were starting to MOLD! EEK! Crisis intervention was obviously necessary, in the form of muffins.

Use up the Raspberries Muffins (makes 2 muffins- yeah yeah I’m cooking for one)

1/4 c oats

2 T boiling water

1/4 c flour (I used all purpose- what I had)

1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1/8 t salt

2 T yogurt (I used plain nonfat)

2 T milk

1/2 T oil

1 T sugar (I used turbinado)

1/8 t. orange zest

1 T almonds, rough chopped

approx 3 T fresh raspberries, halved

Pour hot water over oats. Stir, and let soften.

Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt). Combine wet ingredients (yogurt through sugar- sugar’s considered a wet ingredient because it dissolves). Make a well in dry, add wet. Stir in oatmeal, zest, almonds, and fruit. Bake at 350 for approximately 20 minutes.

Thoughts: not bad. Could’ve been sweeter. Should’ve increased or omitted almonds (couldn’t really taste ‘em).

I had my muffin with some crudités.

Ended up adding some PB to the carrots. I swear, finding the world of food blogs has SERIOUSLY expanded my views on peanut butter.

pearfection

Sandwich. of. Champions.

Preheat broiler. Put thinly sliced pear (I used 1/2 for 2 slices of bread) on broiler pan lightly greased with cooking spray. Broil. In the meantime, spread two slices of bread with a wedge of laughing cow. When pears are brown on top, flip over and put on top of bread. Broil just a few seconds longer (just to crisp up bread edges, warm up cheese) and serve.

Perhaps you’ve heard I’m fond of caramelization?

  

I love cooked pears. It takes me back to my wonderful grandmother’s absolutely life alteringly delicious pear almond tart.

Since this was a (classy twist on) grilled cheese, I paired with the last of my tomato soup, as well as the other half of the pear, simply raw! It’s like the fancy restaurants: “pear two ways”.

More awesome autumn fruit. Perhaps you’ve heard I have the best roommate ever?

There are no words. Delicious is inadequate.

But there is an online accessible recipe! Enjoy.

caramelized

While a raw food diet includes many things I love (salad!) it omits many things that are too essential to my happiness. Generally, they can be summarized in one word, the title of this post.

One caramelization, via stovetop:

Astra's tangy stovetop baba ghanoush.

    

Oh. Em. Gee.

I slightly adjusted her original recipe with the following alterations to make it for 1 (the general consensus is that when you’re scaling back a recipe, it’s good to scale back strong seasoning flavors since they can be overwhelming on a smaller scale. This combo was SPOT ON!):

- 1 small/medium eggplant instead of 2 large

- 1/2 smallish onion

- 1.5 T olive oil

- 1.5 T honey

- 1.5 T honey

- just shy of 1/2 t. cumin

I also didn’t bother to puree it, since I don’t have a food processor and my blender doesn’t have a place to vent steam (and seriously it was so soft and tender anyway I kind of liked the luscious eggplant lumps!)

This recipe is a KNOCKOUT. Thank you so much for posting it, Astra!

I had half of it for lunch today, with the suggested accompaniment of whole wheat crackers (Akmak represent!). Food porn ahead:

So luscious! The sweet/tang/smoke balance created from the honey/balsamic/cumin was so deliciously complex. It actually alternately reminded me of Chinese and Indian dishes I’ve had with eggplant. I’m so excited I have leftovers!

For a well rounded lunch, I had fruit and yogurt. Yum!

More caramelization:

  

I have a brussels sprouts TREE! I have been making lots and lots of these bad boys- my general formula is 3 cups sprouts, halved or the huge ones quartered+ 2 t. olive oil+ salt and pepper in a 450* oven for 20 minutes, shaking every 5 minutes. SO GOOD!

I roasted the elements of my dinner earlier in the day, and then nuked ‘em for dinner after my night class. Corn roasted in the cob, chicken breast in a foil packet with lemon, olive oil, s+p and rosemary. Wholesome and tasty!

   

I’m telling you, the secret of brussels is to practically burn ‘em!

pneumonia prevention

So, in a move that I may regret when I wake up with fluid in my lungs tomorrow morning, this morning I went on the 2009 annual Walk for Autism, a fundraiser that benefits autism research.

I am a big fan of autism research. However, those of you who may be living in, uh… the eastern United States, really, may have noticed the weather has not been so great lately. Suffice it to say, that when I got home, my favorite boots looked like this:

 

And I was cold and wet and shivery (though, on the bright side, laden with swag!):

After the longest, hottest shower I think I have ever taken, I made what may be the heartiest meal I’ve ever made.

I don’t totally know what to call this, since at the walk I had a piece of pizza and salad… but it was 9:30 in the morning… and this was at 1:30… but contained oatmeal… but tasted sweet. Dessert for breakfast for lunch?

Hella Hearty Stick-To-Your-Ribs Warming Squash Oats

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup water (raisins soak up liquid plus I wanted to slow absorption so everything would meld together)

packet o’ raisins from above swag

1/2 a delicata squash, roasted at 350 til tender (it cooked while I was showering!) and scooped out

1 tsp brown sugar

cinnamon

almonds on top for garnish (I went ahead and toasted them, since the oven was on anyway

Cook everything together on medium, and then low after it bubbles, heat. Stir. Cook for a long time until thick and luscious and filling and unbelievably comforting and satisfying.

Look how CREAMY it got!