Black Bean Cakes

I love crab cakes, so why not a vegetarian version with black beans?  Sounds good to me!  These delicious patties were perfect with sweet potato fries for a yummy vegetarian dinner.  If I’d had any buns, I think I might have eaten these as homemade veggie burgers, yum!  Grating the sweet potatoes was incredibly annoying and tedious (it took about 10 minutes), but I think the next time I make these I’ll dice the sweet potato and then throw it in the food processor to get it shredded with a lot less work.  Adjust the amount of heat by using only one jalapeno instead of two and avoiding the jalapeno in the sauce.

Ingredients (serves 5-6):

Lime Sour Cream:

1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

3 tsp lime juice

1 small jalapeno, minced

salt to taste

Bean Cakes:

2 tbsp olive oil, divided

4 green onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 jalapenos, finely diced

1 tbsp cumin

2 (14.5 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed

salt and black pepper to taste

2 cups grated raw sweet potato (food processor…seriously, save yourself the tedium)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup bread crumbs

Directions:

1. To prepare lime sour cream, mix the sour cream, lime juice, 1 small minced jalapeno, and salt together in a small bowl. Cover, and refrigerate.

2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Cook green onions until softened, about 1 minute. Stir in garlic, 2 diced jalapenos, and cumin; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Transfer contents of skillet to a large bowl. Stir in black beans, and mash with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in sweet potatoes, egg, and bread crumbs. Divide into 10 balls (if serving by themselves) or 6 balls (if serving as burgers), and flatten into patties.

4. Set oven to broil. Lightly grease baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil. Place bean patties on baking sheet, and broil on lower rack for 8 to 10 minutes. Turn cakes over, and broil until crispy, about 3 minutes more. Serve with lime sour cream.

Sweet Potato Fries

I usually suck at making fries.  I have this problem with making them way too thin, and then they end up being fry-chips.  They don’t taste bad…they’re just weird.  My friends make fun of me for it, that’s how bad it is.  I tried to make a really conscious effort to cut these into properly big wedges, and it totally paid off, they were so delicious and not awkward at all.  They made a perfect side for black bean cakes, and for snacking on while watching the Oscars.  I basically just made up this dip, but it turned out quite well.  If you’re not going to use this dip, I’d recommend eating sweet potato fries with honey.

Ingredients (serves 4):

1 tbsp olive oil

2 yams, peeled and cut into wedges

1/2 tsp salt

5 tbsp fat-free sour cream

1 tsp mayonnaise

1/8 tsp chili powder

1/8 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp paprika

 salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the olive oil over a baking sheet.

2. Arrange the yams on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer; season with salt.

3. Bake the yams in the preheated oven until soft, about 25 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, stir the sour cream, mayonnaise, and seasoning together in a small bowl. Serve as a dip for the yams.

Vegan/Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie

The other day at school, one of the other teacher’s I work with was reading a book about becoming vegan.  After judging her a little (half the vegans I’ve met are annoying as hell about it), I started thinking about changing recipes to make them vegan (or at least vegetarian).  At that same time, I got an email update from The Scrumptious Pumpkin (a lovely food blog by someone who takes WAY better pictures than me) with a recipe for winter vegetable shepherd’s pie.  I was intrigued by this recipe a. because of the sneaky cauliflower.  I HATE the taste of cooked cauliflower, but I know it’s really good for you, so I was interested in sneaking in cauliflower where I wouldn’t be able to taste it. And b. because I got thinking about how easy it would be to transform it into a vegan/vegetarian version!

The mashed potatoes and cauliflower really are yummy, and I may try doing the combination every time I make mashed potatoes!  I used the mushrooms in this recipe to take place of the ground beef in traditional shepherd’s pie, and their flavor is really enhanced by the wine.  Fantastic.  Obviously, if you’re a meaty person and need the ground beef in this recipe, go for it and brown up a pound before you saute your vegetables.  It’ll be delicious for sure, but it’s not at all needed in this meal.  This dish takes a while to make, but most of that time is the prep.  If I’d been smart, I would have prepped the vegetables ahead of time (you know, like yesterday when I did NOTHING).  Prepping things ahead of time will cut the time in half, so I’d definitely recommend that.

Ingredients (serves 6):

3 small potatoes, chopped

1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets

3 whole cloves garlic

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese, divided (omit if you’re making this vegan, it’ll still be delicious, don’t worry)

1/4 cup chives, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 medium carrots, diced

3 medium parsnips, diced

2 c baby portabella mushrooms

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp thyme

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 c red wine

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and roast 3 cloves of garlic in foil for about 20 minutes.

2. Steam potatoes and cauliflower over a pot of boiling water until fork tender, about 10-15 minutes.  Transfer to a large bowl and mix in 3/4 c cheese, about 3/4ths of the chives, roasted garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.  Mash mixture with a potato masher (if you’re fancier than me) or fork (because I’m cheap).  Cover and set aside.

3. Meanwhile, saute onions, garlic, carrots, and parsnips in olive oil for about 5 minutes.  Add mushrooms and salt and pepper to taste; continue cooking for 2-3 more minutes.

4. Add tomato paste, oregano, thyme, cinnamon, and wine.  Simmer for 5-10 minutes, until sauce reduces and thickens.

5. Pour mushroom mixture evenly over the bottom of a casserole dish and top with potato and cauliflower mixture.  Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top and broil for 5-10 minutes or until the top of the potatoes have browned.

The final product out of the oven

Yum!

Parmesan and Herb Pita Chips

I’ve basically made it my mission to recreate all the different flavors of pita chips you can buy in the store.  It’s so easy to make regular pita chips, why not flavored ones as well?  A few weeks ago I made cinnamon sugar pita chips, and when pita’s were on sale again last week I decided that one of the packs I bought would turn into Parmesan and herb chips.  Yum!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 package of pitas

Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese, and salt to taste

 

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Combine olive oil and garlic in a small bowl, set aside.

3. Cut pitas into eighths and arrange on a baking sheet.

4. Brush olive oil and garlic mixture over both sides of pitas, sprinkle with Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese, and salt.  Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Latin Chicken

Goodness, I really do love my slow cooker.  Prepped everything for this meal the night before: threw it in the slow cooker, popped it in fridge, and then I went to bed.  In the morning, I just took it out, plugged it in (and actually turned it on this time!), and my dinner was on its way to being done!  I was a bit scared everything would overcook while we were at school (9 hours is a long time), but when we came home the house smelled AMAZING and everything was cooked perfectly.  Honestly, I think that’s the best thing about a slow cooker.  Not that it does all the work for you, because frankly I don’t mind doing the work, but the amazing smell you get to come home to.  If you’ve been making dinner in your slow cooker all day, the smell just hits you like a ton of bricks when you walk in and WOW does it always smell fantastic.

I always just have chicken breasts in the fridge, so I used those for this dish, but thighs or legs would work really well for this recipe as well.  Serve over rice, OR try serving as a filling for soft or hard tacos, yum.

Ingredients (serves 8):

2 lbs chicken (breasts cut into chunks, thighs, or legs)

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 (14.5 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (14.5 oz) can corn, drained

1 onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 c chicken brock

2 c salsa

1/2 c cilantro, loosely packed

1 tbsp cumin

1 tsp allspice

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a slow cooker.  Cook on low for at least 4 hours.

Garlic Parmesan Baked Chicken

Perfect for an Italian-inspired dinner party or just a weeknight dinner at home (mine was a slight combination of the two, Ali came over to hang out tonight!), this baked chicken turns out juicy and delicious.  The breading makes you feel like you’re eating something delicious and fattening, but using olive oil to coat and baking this chicken in the oven makes it pretty healthy overall!  Serve with a side of pasta and tomato sauce.

Sorry there’s not a picture, we gobbled it up so fast there wasn’t time to take a picture!

Ingredients (serves 4):

2 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

2/3 c bread crumbs

1/2 c Parmesan cheese

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

pepper to taste

4 chicken breasts

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a baking dish.

2. Combine olive oil and garlic on a plate.  On a separate plate, combine breadcrumbs, cheese, basil, oregano, and pepper.

3. Dip chicken breasts in olive oil mixture, transfer to the other plate and coat with breadcrumb mixture.  Arrange chicken on baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink in the middle.

Cilantro Hummus

Giant Eagle (PA-based grocery store chain we have in NE Ohio) has this fabulous hummus quartet that my sister bought for our Christmas appetizer party.  The odd, baby green hummus, was cilantro hummus.  At first, this struck me as strange, simply because I’ve never had cilantro hummus before, but it was really good.  I like that section of the quartet better than all the others actually (regular, garlic, and red pepper).  I’ve got quite a bit of cilantro in my fridge that needed to be used up, so I thought I’d try my hand at re-creating it.  Well, it’s not as the same pastel green (something tells me they used dyes to achieve that…), but otherwise this hummus is really delicious and not a bad knock-off.

Ingredients:

1 (14.5 oz) can chickpeas

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp salt

pepper

dash paprika

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp olive oil

 

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and  blend until smooth.

Roasted-Red Pepper Tortellini Soup

When I initially saw the original incarnation of this recipe in one of my allrecipes emails, I was a bit skeptical.  Not that it didn’t sound delicious, I’m a big fan of roasted red peppers, and who doesn’t like tortellini?  But I don’t think I’ve ever had red peppers as a soup.  Plus, the picture looked really dark red, almost like a borscht.  Now, I actually had borscht when I was in Poland.  It’s pretty good, but does not look appetizing at all.  The reviews for the recipe were great though, so I decided to take a risk and put it on the menu for this week.  Wow, Am I glad I did!  The red peppers were really sweet and my food processor made the soup itself sooo creamy and delicious (and easy, god I love my food processor)!  And tortellini is always a win.  Katie was a big fan too, I think she’s half tempted to write my mom a thank you card for getting me this food processor, it has really added to our culinary adventures!

Ingredients (serves 3):

1 (16 oz) jar roasted red peppers, drained

1 clove garlic, minced

1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth (sub veggie broth to make this vegetarian)

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

salt and pepper to taste

1 (9 oz) package cheese tortellini

2 tbsp heavy cream

 

Directions:

1.  Add red peppers and garlic to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

2. Add red pepper mixture, chicken broth, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper to a saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to a boil.  Add tortellini and continue to cook for 8-10 minutes until pasta is al dente.  Add heavy cream and cook, stirring, for another minute.

Parmesan Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

I was planning on making this (hopefully) delicious Latin Chicken with sweet potatoes and black beans in my slow cooker today.  But…I used the rest of the rice yesterday making curry.  Alas, it’ll have to wait until we get a chance to go to the store.  Sooo, instead, today was basically a random-stuff-in-the-fridge pasta.  The best kind of pasta?  Perhaps.  Definitely always an adventure.  I decided to go with a cream sauce made with the rest of the heavy cream, a half bottle of sun-dried tomatoes, random leftover asparagus and green onions that definitely needed to be eaten like now.  It turned out quite delicious, actually.  Very rich and creamy, definitely not the most diet friendly pasta…whatever I went on a run before I made dinner, so that makes it ok, right?  If you’re not at all concerned about the calorie count, add a few slices of crumbled bacon…that would REALLY make this fabulous.

The only adjustment I’d make, was that the asparagus was really superfluous.  The creaminess of the sauce and the strong flavor of the sun-dried tomatoes really over-powered them.  Oh well, they had to be eaten anyway.  Instead, I’d suggest adding sliced mushrooms.  If I’d had any in the fridge, I definitely would have used those as well, I’m going to put them in the recipe here, because I’d definitely including them the next time I make this recipe.  You could easily make this pasta vegetarian by omitting the chicken.  The flavors are great and the dish as a whole would be just fine without it.

Ingredients (serves 4):

2 tbsp olive oil

1 chicken breast, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 small onion, diced

1/2 c mushrooms, sliced

1 c heavy cream

1/4 c white wine

1/4 c Parmesan cheese

1 cube chicken bouillon

1/2 c sun-dried tomatoes

4 green onions, sliced

1/4 tsp paprika

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz pasta

Directions:

1. Saute chicken in olive oil over medium heat.  After 2-3 minutes, add garlic, onions and mushrooms and saute until onions become translucent.

2. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions

3. Reduce heat to low and stir in cream, wine, cheese, b0uillon, sun-dried tomatoes, green onions, paprika, salt, and pepper.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.  Adjust spices to taste.

Curried Butternut Squash and Pear Soup

Oh. My. God.  So good.  My dear friend Elizabeth made this soup for her family over the Christmas holidays.  When she told me about it, I begged for the recipe and have been wanting to try it out ever since!  I made a few changes to the original recipe and to Elizabeth’s version, but the essence is the same.  Wow, it is truly fantastic.  I served with some warm spiced naan, delicious.  The squash and pear flavors really go well together, though you can substitute the pears for crisp apples in a pinch.  While this definitely sounds ridiculously fancy (normally I’d skip over a recipe with a name like this as too much hassle), it really didn’t take long to make!  Plus, now that I have my handy-dandy emulsion blender, it was actually really easy!  Also, I absolutely must admit that after my experiments this year I am completely converted to being a fan of butternut (and really any) squash!

The leftovers of this soup are fantastic as well, they make a great curry!  I sauteed some diced chicken and onions with curry and ginger and then added the leftover soup and a can of chickpeas.  I simmered the mixture until it was warmed through and served over rice.  Fab.

Ingredients (serves 8):

3 tbsp olive oil

1 (2lb) butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 in chunks

2 firm pears, cored and cut into 1 in chunks

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp ginger

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups chicken broth (substitute vegetable broth or water if you’re making it vegetarian/vegan)

1/2 c heavy cream OR 1 can light coconut milk

Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees.

2. Toss squash and pears in olive oil and roast in preheated oven until soft, about 20-30 minutes.

3. Heat 1 tsp olive oil and stir in the onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Cook and stir until the onion is soft. Pour the broth and roasted squash and pears into the pot, and bring to a boil. Simmer until the pears and squash are very soft, about 20 minutes.

4. Using an immersion blender or food processor/blender (in batches), puree until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, stir in the cream or coconut milk, and reheat. Add additional spices to taste.