60-degree “Winter” in New England Food

Posted on December 16, 2011 by admin

It’s been so warm here and then quickly got cold. I wasn’t about to be thankful for global warming or join the bandwagon of ladies I hear in the gym locker room who are thankful they aren’t shoveling. Do they know they live in New England? It snows here. Here we are, mid December and it’s just now getting cold. It’s been too hot for real winter food! Anywho, moving on…

I rarely make interesting salads so you wouldn’t have seen them. Lettuce is my least favorite part of a salad. Give me the fun stuff! At age 7 my sis horrified my aunt by saying she only liked salad for the dressing. It’s the heavy stuff at the salad bar that makes it good. Sorry for my poor choice of plate color!

Well, I have an interesting salad for you! I love chopped salads because then you get some fun stuff in each bite. I saw this salad on Pinterest, obviously 😉 It was on a blog called Espresso and Cream but I’ve seen variations all over the place.Autumn Chopped salad (single serving)

Ingredients:

1 head of Romaine lettuce
½ English cucumber
1 cup grape tomatoes
¼ red onion
½ cup crumbled feta
2 strips of bacon (or omit making this vegetarian)
½ pear
¼ cup balsamic vinager
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp spicy brown mustard

Directions:

While bacon is cooking, chop all the veggies.

Whisk vinegar, oil, and mustard (or shake in a jar).

Toss well and enjoy!

Seriously, I know you don’t need instructions. I think sometimes it’s easier to make your shopping list for this one if it’s written down!

The original has dried cranberries but I was thinking I wanted more savory and the pear was my sweet bit. Goat cheese could easily replace feta but I prefer feta. I didn’t put chicken in but some recipes do.

Chopping everything takes the longest when prepping this but it is worth it. I chose English cucumber because you can eat the peel without the bitterness and the have fewer seeds so it doesn’t make salad as soggy as regular cukes. I also always chose grape tomatoes because I like their sweetness and they stay fresher longer. They also are never as disappointingly mealy.

break it down now:

Autumn Chopped Salad

(serves 4 as sides/starter or 2 for an entree)
1 head of romaine: $1.50
½ cucumber: $0.94
8 oz. grape tomatoes: $1.49
¼ of a red onion: $0.32
4 oz. feta: $2.24
2 strips of bacon: $0.32
½ of a pear: $0.29
total = $7.10/4 servings = $1.77 per serving as 4 side/starter salads or $3.55 for 2 lighter main entree salads (neither includes dressing costs)

Super Sweet Potato Streusel

Posted on December 10, 2011 by admin

I’m sure you’ve been wondering about my fall potluck sweet potato dish that I referenced what feels like forever ago. I made a small batch using just 1 sweet potato but my recipe would feed about 8 as a side dish. I hope to make it for one of my holidays meals coming up.

All the butter in this makes it so good…Paula Deen would approve. Personally, I wouldn’t scrimp on the quantitiy but I’m sure butter/margarine substitutes would work just fine. I figured I’d use actual butter since there were so few ingredients.

Ingredients:

3 sweet potatoes, peeled & boiled
1 & ½ sticks of unsalted butter, separated, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tbs flour
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or nutmeg, ginger, and allspice)
1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or almonds

Directions

Boil peeled potatoes until cooked all the way through.

Mix sugars, flour, pumpkin pie spice, and 1 stick of butter until crumbly.

Puree potatoes with ½ stick of butter until no lumps remain.
Roast nuts in a skillet on medium for about 5 minutes and add to crumb topping mix.

Transfer potato puree into a baking dish.
Top with streusel crumbly topping and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden and crisp.

This was awesome! It felt like baking and it still came out great! This sweet potato dish feels like it could be dessert, but that’s kind of the norm with sweet potatoes.

I made a lot of topping because I like the texture combinations but making less would lighten this one up. I loved how rich and sweet it was. The topping gets too powdery if the butter is melted or too warm. You’re going for hunk o chunks of butter.

Mmmm. So easy and it traveled well! I reheated the leftovers after the potluck and had it for lunch another day.

Are you watching your pennies this spend-happy-season? Here’s the breakdown:

Sweet Potato Streusel Costs:

3 sweet potatoes: $2.37
1 & ½ sticks of unsalted butter: $1.50
1 cup brown sugar: $0.32
1 cup white sugar: $0.65
2 tbs flour
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or nutmeg, ginger, and allspice)
1 cup chopped walnuts, peacans, or almonds: $3.99
total = $8.83 / 8 servings =$1.10 per person as a side dish

Butternut Squash Goes Layered

Posted on December 8, 2011 by admin

Ohh. So. Good.

I ate this at bookclub one night and was so impressed. I wanted to make it immediately. Martha sure knows what she’s doing. This is a great recipe and cooks so much faster than regular Italian lasagna.

Butternut Squash Lasagna (adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash, roasted
16 oz ricotta cheese
½ cup cream cheese
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup Parmesan cheese grated
1 cup chicken (or vegetable) stock
½ box lasagna noodles

Directions:

Roast butternut squash with olive oil, salt, and pepper for about 30 minutes at 425 degrees.

Combine ricotta, cream cheese, egg yolk, and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese.

Mix squash and chicken stock over medium low heat.
To assemble lasagna: spread noodles on the bottom of a 9×9 baking pan; top with ricotta mixture and some cheese; layer more noodles; top with butternut squash mixture. Repeat laying noodles then ricotta and cheese, then noodles, then squash and repeating until all the layers are used. Sprinkle some cheese on top.

Bake 30 minutes at 375.

Mr. J LOVED this. I tried not to hype it up too much since that can end in disapointment but this was really great. I roasted the squash the night before to save some time too.

I tried to be really careful not to overcook the noodles. I was afraid everything would be too mushy so I also tried to leave some lumps with the squash.

I spread a little pre-made alfredo sauce on the bottom which was a nice touch. I did however forget to put the mozzarella and Parmesan until it was almost too late. I scooched a few layers up and snuck it in there. I thought it was more important to get the cheese in there than for the layers to look perfect.

Umm let’s discuss how amazing the cream cheese mixed with ricotta is. YUM. Sooo good and I can’t believe I’ve never thought about it before! It’s a must-try!

I nixed the sage because I just wanted fewer ingredients in my dreaded grocery shopping trip. My friend put in some basil instead and we thought that was really nice…lighter than sage.

The lasagna was filling and really good. I ate it reheated for lunch a few days and continued to love it. I should attempt some more meat-less meals more often. Shhh! Don’t tell Mr. J 😉

Let’s do a little cost breakdown I’m so into right now!

Butternut Squash Lasagna (serves 6-9)
1 butternut squash: $1.89
16 oz. ricotta: $1.99
4 oz. cream cheese: $0.62
1 egg yolk: $1.24
16 oz. mozarella: $3.59
4 oz. Parmesan cheese: $1.98
8 oz. chicken stock: $0.11 ($2.99 jar/25 cubes=11 cents per cube/cup)
8 oz. lasanga noodles: $1.00
total cost = $12.42/9 servings = $1.38 per serving

Even cutting larger pieces (6 instead of 9) comes to $2.07 per serving!

Four Leaf Clover

Posted on August 22, 2011 by admin

I’m lucky to work in the heart of downtown Boston with more lunch restaurants around than I know what to do with. I rarely take advantage of them. One hot hot hot day my office had plants to rendez-vous with our sister office at the Dewey Square Farmer’s Market for lunch.

It was so hot hot hot that I’m surprised I could remember what I ate (or how good it was)! Clover was a welcome relief from the mind-numbing heat. They worked the crowed and kept it moving. I was so impressed with the ordering process via iphone and the options. Check out how many of them there were working inside the truck! Wow!

I didn’t check out twitter that morning to see what they were serving but was pleasantly surprised and was too hot to ponder. I quickly chose the chickpea fritter sandwich.

It was really good, though I’m not sure what made it different than falafel. It had great flavor. The chickpea fritters were soft with a light crunch on the outside and a surprisingly fluffy center. The sandwich was on an oversized pita with carrot and cabbage slaw.

Somebody got rosemary fries. It was such a lovely flavor added to really great quality fries.
clover_fries_290_200
Their food is so good and I really need to eat at Clover more often. Do you watch Great American Food Truck Race? It’s awesome and a truck from Boston, called Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, is on!

Veg Burg

Posted on August 15, 2011 by admin

I scoped out a whole bunch of veggie burger recipes but ended up just including whatever I remembered when I grocery shopped. These were good, but could have used more crunch. I love when I have control over my burger since I’m not a red-meat-eater and have fewer choices.

Ingredients:

1 cup oatmeal
½ can black beans
1 eggplant, grated
1 cup panko
3 green onions, chopped
1 cup yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbs soy sauce
1 egg
salt & pepper

Directions:

Blend oatmeal until it becomes like a flour

Drain and blend the black beans in a food processer
Saute onion and garlic until translucent

Combine beans, onion, garlic, shredded eggplant, green onions, soy sauce, egg, and S&P in a bowl and stir to combine.

Form into patties and bake at 375 degrees for 10 min before flipping and baking another 10.

I packed these for lunch this week and served it on a light English muffin (toasted) with cheddar and spinach on the burger. I liked these a lot. I think the eggplant and beans made it really sizeable and filling.

I think next time I’d add in some nuts or sunflower seeds. I think another grain might have been good. Barley? Rice? I’ll keep that in mind next time.

I baked instead of frying or grilling since they’re not known to stay together well. I froze extras and think they’ll be a great find in the freezer once I’ve forgotten them at a time when I feel like there’s nothing for dinner.

Since you know, or have noticed, that I rarely bake so it may surprise you that I have a muffin top pan. I have never made muffins in it but love it for things like this! I use it all the time for anything patty shaped! Crab cakes, burgers, zucchini fritters…you name it. It is super handy. Once I have a kitchen with space, I’m sure I’ll bake more.