Right Place at Right Time

I'm not gadding about much these days, because Dan is ill, and I have to stay close to home.  But I did venture out to Whole Foods yesterday, and came upon a young mother in the parking lot whose two year old was locked in the car.  The mother's phone, keys and everything were also locked in.  The child  accidentally hit the remote and the car locked while the mother was getting the stroller out of the trunk.

Mother trying to get her two year old to open the door.

Fortunately I had my cell phone, and we called 911 and the fire truck arrived pretty quickly and they managed to open the car door.  All the while, the two year old was enjoying every minute of this.  She thought it was some kind of game I guess. 

Firetruck arrives!

Firemen opening the door. 

Happy Mom.

All's well that ends well!!. 

My Quick "Whole Foods Pizza"

Pizza for two using ingredients found at Whole Foods Market.

Whenever I am in need of a quick meal, I dash over to Whole Foods (very near us), grab a pack of their wonderful cornbread pizza crusts, pick up some toppings from the salad/deli bar and head back home where within 20 minutes lunch is ready.

We love these corn meal crusts from Whole Foods.

I often use basil pesto instead of tomato sauce as the base for the pizza.  When I do use tomato sauce I like to pick up a jar of Nello's Tomato Sauce available at Whole Foods. 

Nello's Sauce---the best.

Making healthy choices from their salad bar means I don't have to cut up onions, or mushrooms, or whatever for toppings and I don't have extra leftovers to remember to use before they go bad.

Black olives at Whole Foods salad bar.

Mushrooms and egg plant at Whole Foods salad bar.

In addition to black olives, mushrooms and egg plants, I chose shredded beets, shredded chicken and grated cheese.  All of these were added as toppings on the base of Nello's tomato sauce.

Nello's Tomato Sauce provides the base for the pizza.

My selection of toppings from the salad bar.

Toppings added, ready for the oven.  Bake 15 minutes at 425F.

Ready to eat.

There are so many good and healthy choices, I never make the same pizza twice.  Actually I often make two pizzas and freeze one for a future quick meal.

Cost for this pizza for two:
Crust  $3.00
1/2 jar of Nello's tomato sauce $2.85
Salad bar ingredients $5.70
Total cost $11.55

The ease of making a quick and healthy meal--Priceless 

I Am Freeking* Out

Freekeh

We have been trying new grains in our diet recently---quinoa (which is actually a seed not a grain), bulger wheat, and farro.  And yesterday in the News and Observer there was an article about an ancient grain, freekeh, with a recipe for a salad using it.  I was able to find freekeh at Whole Foods.  I like this new to us grain.  I can see that it will be a good substitute for rice in soups, salads, and others dishes.

Here's the recipe for Freekeh, chickpea salad:

1 cup freekeh
1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1 cup thinly sliced celery, plus 3 tablespoons chopped leaves
1 bunch scallions, finely chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, more to taste
1/2 teaspoon lightly toasted cumin seeds, ground, more to taste
1 garlic clove, minced or puréed (optional)
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

HEAT a medium-size heavy saucepan over medium-high heat and add freekeh. Toast in the dry pan, shaking pan or stirring, until freekeh becomes fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.

Toasting freekeh in dry pan.

 Add 2 cups water and salt and bring to a boil.

Add water and bring to boil.

REDUCE heat to low, cover and simmer 20 to 25 minutes or until water has been absorbed. Turn off heat and uncover. Place a clean dish towel over the pot and return lid. Let sit at least 10 minutes.

Remove pot from heat, add clean dishcloth and top and let sit for 10 minutes. 

Uncover and allow freekeh to cool another 10 minutes.
While freekeh is cooling chop herbs.

Parsley, mint, celery, and scallions.

COMBINE freekeh, chopped herbs, celery, scallions and chickpeas in a large bowl and toss together.

Mix freekeh, chickpeas, and herbs together.

In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, cumin, garlic, salt and olive oil; toss with salad. Taste and add more lemon juice if desired.

Dressing. 

Serve right away or let sit for up to 1 hour before serving.

Ready to eat. 

Yield: 6 servings.

This is a nice combination of flavors, and it is rich in protein and fiber.  I added the dressing to each individual salad and not to the whole bowl because we will have four servings left over, and I don't want the ingredients to sit in the dressing.  The dressing can be added to each serving just before it is ready to eat.  I'm glad to have found another good grain to add to our diet.   

* I don't mean freaked out.  

If you would like to learn more about freekeh check this out.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/02/03/4527286_try-freekeh-an-old-grain-getting.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Lentil Stew with Polenta

Lentil Stew with Polenta

I had some polenta in the fridge that I needed to use so I googled recipes and found this recipe from Whole Foods:

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 cup brown lentils, picked over and rinsed (I used French lentils.)
• 2 onions, sliced (I used only one large onion.)
• 1 large green bell pepper, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 (28-ounce) can plum tomatoes with juice
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red chile flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt (I omitted the salt.)
• 1 1/2 cup vegetable broth (I used low sodium chicken stock.)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup quick-cooking polenta      

I was happy to try this because it could be cooked in the slow cooker overnight and ready for lunch the next day.  

Method: 

Layer lentils, onions, bell pepper and garlic in the bottom of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker. Halve the plum tomatoes and add them to the cooker along with all their juices. Sprinkle with oregano, chile flakes and salt. Pour in broth and vinegar, cover and cook on low until lentils are very tender, about 7 hours.
Prepare the polenta according to package directions and serve with the stew.

Put rinsed lentils in bottom of slow cooker. 

Add green pepper, onions and garlic.

Add tomatoes, oregano, chile, and balsamic vinegar.  Add broth.

I cooked it overnight on low power.

Ready in the morning after cooking all night. (about 7 hours)

I cut the polenta into slices and fried it in a bit of olive oil until golden brown.

Add polenta to plate.

Ready to eat.  

Place the polenta on plate and cover with the lentil stew. I liked this because it could cook overnight and takes only a few minutes to put ingredients into crock pot.  
 
Check out this website 

Surprised!!! We Love Black Bean Spaghetti

The other day when I was reorganizing my pantry I discovered a bag of black bean spaghetti that must have been an impulse purchase of mine at Whole Foods.  I finally decided to try it, and to our surprise we really, really like it.  I cooked the whole batch al dente.  It's thin and flat a little more like fettucini than spaghetti.  Our first serving was spaghetti mixed with pesto and topped with a tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese. Served warm.

Black Bean Spaghetti.

The beauty of this spaghetti is that it is high in protein, high in fiber and has no sodium.  On top of that it tastes as good or better than ordinary semolina spaghetti.  Having no wheat, it is gluten free.  Dan suggested we make some regular spaghetti sauce and top the spaghetti with that.  I made the sauce with onions, mushrooms, tomato sauce, and ground beef.

Black bean spaghetti.  I like the contrast of color.

Add homemade spaghetti sauce.

Freshly grate some Parmesan cheese.

Ready to eat. 

We also tried the leftover spaghetti as a cold salad.  I mixed in a bit of pesto with the spaghetti and mixed in chopped fresh tomatoes.  Top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Drizzle a bit of balsamic vinegar on top.  Tasty!!!!

Black bean pasta with pesto, tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese.  Serve at room temperature. 

Try it, I think you will like it.  Available at Whole Foods and online at Amazon.

Minimizing My Pantry: Oil and Vinegar

The oils I had in my pantry before minimizing.

 Back in January, an article by Mark Bittman* in the NY Times about decluttering one's pantry caught my attention, and I've been saving it as a reference for when I reorganized the pantry which had been on my "to do" list. This week I finally got around to purging my pantry following his advice and advice of others that have blogged about the Minimalist Pantry. 

I took everything out of the pantry and put it on the bed in the guest bedroom (we're not expecting guests this week).  Then I started categorizing everything and in this post I will discuss oils and vinegars.

I had seven different vinegars, most of which had been used perhaps once for a special recipe.  My vinegars were tarragon, apple cider (2 bottles), champagne wine, rice, red wine, white vinegar and balsamic (2 bottles).

The seven different kinds of vinegar in my pantry before purging. 

Bittman* suggests two vinegars: balsamic and sherry vinegar.  I use balsamic a lot so naturally I saved it, and I kept the champagne wine vinegar as a substitute for the sherry vinegar.  But I have put sherry vinegar on my grocery list.  A good balsamic vinegar is Trader Joe’s Gold Quality Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.  The remaining vinegars I gave to Wayne, Bea's husband, who cooks a lot of special dishes.  We do keep a large bottle of white vinegar to use as a cleaning product, but this is kept with cleaning supplies.  That's all we ever use to mop our hardwood floors. 

Balsamic vinegar.

White vinegar for cleaning.

The oils in my pantry.

The oils were more numerous---nine. I had extra virgin olive, canola (3 bottles), sesame, coconut, roasted walnut, roasted hazel nut, roasted pistachio, black truffle olive oil, and peanut.  The roasted oils were in a set---a Christmas gift.  I'm keeping extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), the truffle flavored olive oil (great for drizzling on mashed potatoes),canola for cooking, and the three roasted oils.  After I have pared this down by use, I will keep only EVOO and canola on a regular basis.  When buying olive oil, make certain it was pressed in the last 18 months---freshness is important.   I will refrain from buying flavored oils that I am likely to use only once in a recipe.  

Kirkland's (Costco brand) Toscano is our favorite olive oil.

This is great for drizzling on mashed potatoes in place of butter.  Tastier and healthier.

Flavored oils, a gift from a friend.

My oil and vinegar shelf now looks minimal. 

Stay tuned to see how I pare down other ingredients in the pantry.

* Check out Mark Bittman's article here.

A Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

Cottage pie. 

I was going to make my usual Shepherd's Pie this morning but had no ground lamb so I decided to substitute black beans for the lamb in the recipe.  This should actually be called a cottage pie, because a true Shepherd's Pie must have lamb.

No salt added black beans.

I like the salt free black beans that I get at Whole Foods that come in a carton.

Saute onions.

Add black beans. 

First you saute a small diced onion in olive oil until soft. Add the black beans that have been drained.  In Shepherd's Pie at this point I would add HP Sauce to the meat, but I substituted tomato sauce which I added to the beans and onion.  Mix all of these and place in the bottom of a greased casserole dish.

Add tomato sauce to beans and onions. 

Bean mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish.

Cook 2 cups of peas and carrots (I use frozen ones) in the microwave for 4 to 5 minutes.  Drain and add on top of the bean mixture.

Frozen peas and carrots

Second layer of peas and carrots.

Frost with mashed potatoes.  This is a good way to use leftover mashed potatoes.  I used ready-packaged, mashed Yukon potatoes to which I added 1/2 cup of sour cream and 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk as I heated the potatoes to a consistency good for spreading on top of the pie. Spread to the edges to seal.

Mashed Yukon potatoes.

Top crust of mashed potatoes.

I added some grated Italian cheese to increase the protein content of the pie, since I was not using meat.  Bake in a 400 F oven until brown on top and bubbly around the edges, about 40 to 45 minutes.  

Italian cheese blend.

Top with shredded cheese.

This pie could be made with any leftover veggies as the second layer, and if you don't have ground meat then use black beans, kidney beans or pinto beans as your first layer.

Out of the oven.

Add mixed greens and you have a one-dish meal. 

You can have lunch or supper made in just a short time with whatever you have on hand, and it is a healthful and delicious one-dish meal.  Serve with mixed greens on the side.