Pad Puk Gai

Otherwise known as chicken with bok choy. We got an abundance of bok choy with our CSA box late last week and wanted to use it sooner than later.

Using an app on his phone, Nate found a recipe, which was easy enough and sounded tasty. The Thai-inspired recipe used up all of our bok choy and included lots of other fresh veggies. We paired it with some leftover soba noodles we had in the freezer.

We followed the recipe pretty closely, but made a few substitutions including making a sauce because other than 1/4 teaspoon of fish sauce, there wasn't anything saucey about it. And we like sauce!

I definitely recommend this recipe and it's easy enough to make it to your taste.

,

Pad Puk Gai (Chicken with Bok Choy)

• 4 cups (or one huge bunch) bok choy, chopped
• 1 large chicken breast, cut into cubes
• 4 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 teas. fish sauce
• 1 small container mushrooms, sliced
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, cute into big cubes
• 2-3 green onions, sliced
• (we omitted the celery and MSG the recipe calls for)
• For the sauce: a couple shakes (to taste) of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, hoisin sauce, Sriracha)

In wok, heat oil until hot. Cook chicken and garlic until done (about 5-6 minutes)

Add onions and fish sauce and cook about another five minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients and cook until veggies are tender.

Whisk together sauce ingredients and pour over veggies. Add noodles, stir and cook until warm.

Serve with more Sriracha!

Quinoa Cups

You all know how much I love the food blog Iowa Girl Eats. I always enjoy her take on making not-so-healthy food healthier and using ingredients in ways I never thought possible.

Take her recipe for mini ham and cheese quinoa cups as an example. Using quinoa as a crunchy and nutty-tasting alternative to a quiche crust? Genius! And healthy! 

I've always enjoyed quinoa, but sometimes I don't know what to do with it, other than a simple side dish. This recipe is a perfect way to incorporate quinoa, a great source of fiber and protein.  

I followed Iowa Girl's recipe closely, except that I omitted the parsley just because I knew I wouldn't be able to use up an entire bunch. My cups didn't turn out nearly as nice looking as hers did, but they were still delicious and even tasted great heated up for lunch the following day.

We had way more mini cups than would fit in our mini muffin tins, so I put the rest in a shallow baking dish and baked it alongside the mini cups.

The nice thing about this recipe, too, is that it provides a good base and then you can do anything you want with it -- you make Mexican or Greek-inspired quinoa cups, vegetarian ones or super meaty ones. The possibilities are endless!

Baked Tofu Stir Fry

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I love a good homemade stir fry. You probably also know I love tofu. And, luckily, Nate is a good sport when it comes to eating tofu. He may not seek it out, but he'll always finish a plateful of tofu veggie stir fry.

We hadn't made stir fry in a long time, so we whipped up some for Sunday night's dinner. I loaded up on some good stir fry veggies at Outpost, getting a big handful of each kind. I also used some veggies we already had on hand: button mushrooms, sugar snap peas, green beans, red onion and red bell pepper.

I chopped up the veggies and stir fried them in the wok in peanut oil and jalapeno grapeseed oil until softened but still crisp.

For the tofu, I did something I've never done before, but have always wanted to try -- rather than pan frying the tofu like I usually do, I marinated it for a while and then baked it. I took a block of extra firm tofu, pressed it between two towels with books to take some of the water out and then cut it into cubes. I mixed up a marinade of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, cayenne pepper, ground black pepper and Sriracha and poured it over the tofu. I marinated it in the fridge for about an hour and then I baked it at 350 for about 45 minutes. Yum! The flavors were fantastic. I'll definitely do it again that way.

For the sauce, I got inspiration from one of my favorite food blogs, Iowa Girl Eats. Searching Kristin's recipes, I found a sweet and spicy peanut sauce. The sauce was simple and delicious, and forced me to buy a jar of chili garlic sauce. Yum!

For the sauce:

• 3 Tbs chicken broth (I'd usually use veggie broth for a veggie meal, but we just happened to have ice cube-sized amounts of chicken broth)
• 3 Tbs soy sauce
• 1.5 Tbs chili garlic sauce
• 1 Tbs peanut butter
• 1 Tbs rice vinegar
• dash of garlic powder, ground ginger, onion powder
• 4 shakes of sesame oil

Microwave broth, soy sauce, peanut butter and chili garlic sauce for about 20 seconds. Whisk until peanut butter is smooth, then add in the rest of the ingredients. Whisk to combine.

When the veggies were ready and the tofu done, we mixed everything in the wok and poured the sauce on top and mixed well. I took Kristin's idea here, too, and added an egg, with a few drops of sesame oil, to the stir fry to make it into like a fried rice dish.

It was good, but I have to say, with all those flavors, you really couldn't even taste the egg.

We served the veggies, tofu and sauce on top of steamed brown rice. All in all, it was a great meal, and I would definitely make that sauce again.

Squashy Mac & Cheese

Upon receiving the September 2011 issue of Cooking Light, I just knew I had to make the cover recipe: Creamy, Light Mac and Cheese (oh, how I love mac and cheese!).

The recipe comes from the magazine's "recipe makeover" section. In this section each month, the Cooking Light staff recreates a classic-but-not-healthy recipe, and cuts down on fat and calories. The classic mac and cheese recipe went from 908 calories and 36 grams of saturated fat in one serving to 390 calories and 6.1 grams of saturated fat.

I really love two things about this recipe: it uses cheese I might not normally use and think of for mac and cheese, and it incorporates butternut squash, which I LOVE.

I followed the recipe very closely, except for a couple of things:

• I used vegetable broth, rather than chicken broth (I don't quite understand why vegetarian recipes often call for chicken broth when you can easily use vegetable broth ...). 
• I found a type of Gruyere to use (Compte) from the West Allis Cheese and Sausage Shoppe at the Milwaukee Public Market, but I couldn't find the other two cheeses the recipe calls for. At the cheese shoppe, I asked what would be comparable to pecorino Romano cheese, and they suggested a type of cheese called lamb chop. We had some shredded Romano cheese that I used in place of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. (I put all the cheeses in the food processor so that I didn't have to grate everything. It worked really well!)

I think the recipe turned out really well, and was filling without being heavy. I would definitely make it again, and might try different cheeses--a smoky Gouda would definitely be tasty.

After reading through some comments people left at the bottom of the recipe page, I might take some advice and eat the mac and cheese without baking it. I think it would be even creamier this way.

Edamame and Steak Salad

Nate found this recipe for Edamame Salad with Crisp Steak Bits while flipping through the June 2011 issue of Cooking Light (of course he did--it says "steak" so he was drawn to it!). We had been meaning to make it for a few weeks, and finally did so early last week.

The recipe was super easy, quite and delicious. The salad was really refreshing and great one a warm, summer night.

For our first night eating it, we stuck with the recipe exactly as it's stated. The recipe says to cut the steak into "small pieces," and I would recommend doing as we did--cut them into really small bits, so you can get a taste with each bite.

We had it for leftovers a few nights later, and it was still really good--I was a bit worried it would get a little soggy, but it was just fine. We added half a chopped avocado to it when we had it for leftovers.

Baba Ghanoush (or Mashed Eggplant Dip)

I needed some kind of appetizer to take to my parents' house for a Memorial Day/Grandma's birthday cookout. I wanted something light and healthy (and--not going to lie--maybe something that would have enough leftover that I could bring home and eat during the week!), and I found this recipe for baba ghanoush in the June 2010 issue of Cooking Light. I've always wanted to try making baba ghanoush, too, so this worked out perfectly.

Baba ghanoush is an Arab dish made of grilled or roasted eggplant that is mashed and mixed with seasonings. It's often served as a dip with pita bread--which is exactly how I wanted to serve it.

This recipe was super easy (seriously, the hardest part was trying to find the right-sized eggplant!) and straightforward. The only thing I would do differently next time is either omit the mayo (kind of weird, if you ask me) or use plain Greek yogurt instead. The one thing I did differently was that instead of buying cumin seeds, I just used ground cumin. Also, lucky for me, it made a ton, so I was able to bring some home to use on sandwiches and use as a veggie dip.

I served it at my parents' house with homemade pita bread I had made earlier in the day. Yum! I could snack on this stuff every day.

Pepper-Stuffed Portabellas

I came across a recipe for Tex-Mex Stuffed Portabellas while flipping through Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health last weekend. The dish sounded delicious and easy enough for a weeknight meal, so we gave it a try.

The dish is supposed to be vegetarian--and it would be excellent as a vegetarian dish--but I had some Mexican-spiced ground turkey to use up, so I threw that on top, too. I made the "filling" for this dish the night before and reheated it, along with the turkey, before stuffing the portabellas before baking. It was a great dish and you can really do a lot of different things with it.

Tex-Mex Stuffed Portabellas (serves 4, but we halved the recipe for just 2 servings)

• 1.5 cups chopped onions


• 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed


• 2 Tbs. olive oil


• 1 canned chipotle in adobo sauce, minced (I used quite a few (maybe too many?) shakes of our chipotle powder)


• 1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped (2-2.5 cups)


• 1 teas. ground corinader


• 1 teas. ground cumin


• 1/2 teas. paprika (I used smoked paprika)


• 1/2 teas. salt


• 1/4 teas. ground black pepper


• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro


• 3 fresh plum tomatoes, seeded and finely diced (about 1 cup)


• 6 oz. Monterey Jack cheese (I used pepperjack), grated (about 2 cups)


• 4 large portabellas (4-5 in. in diameter)


• minced scallions (I skipped this step)

In a skillet on medium-high heat, cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil for a couple of minutes. Add the chipotle and bell peppers and cook for 2 minutes. Add the coriander, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until the peppers are tender but still firm. Remove from the heat. Stir in the cilantro and tomatoes and two-thirds of the cheese.

Break off the stems of the portabellas and save them for another use or discard. Rinse the caps (gently, so they don't break--not that I broke one or anything ...), and place smooth side down in a lightly oiled baking dish large enough to hold them in a single layer. Mound each mushroom with about 1 cup of the filling. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Cover the baking dish with the foil folded lengthwise to form a little tent so the foil won't stick to the cheese.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350* for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the cheese browns, 10-15 minutes. Serve topped with scallions.

We served the mushroom caps with the bulgar and butternut squash dish I made earlier in the week. I've determined the bulgar mix is good both cold and warmed up. This was a great meal, and Nate really enjoyed it, too.

Pan-Seared Bass "All'amatriciana"

I put "all'amatriciana" in quotes because it wasn't a true sauce, but was pretty similar. The real sauce uses guanciale (or cured pork jowl), pecorino and tomatoes. The only ingredient out of those three we used was the tomato. We subbed prosciutto for the guanciale and didn't use any cheese (looking back, we really should have used some Parmesan).

But let me back up. We've had some lake bass in the freezer since Nate caught it fishing when we were up north last fall. We came across a recipe in an old Cooking Light that called for (sea) bass and this all'amatriciana sauce.

We made it for dinner Saturday night, and it turned out really well. We made a few adjustments-- mostly we used more than the recipe called for! We also decided the sauce would be really good over noodles, or maybe even polenta.

Here is the recipe. We halved the recipe, since we only had two (big!) pieces of fish, and used a little more proscuitto, onions, crushed red pepper and balsamic vinegar than the recipe called for. But that's OK--everything turned out great!

For sides, we made salads and a box of Near East curry pilaf (good stuff!).

Crockpot Poblano Pork Stew

Monday was a crockpot night, and we turned to one of our favorite cookbooks, Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes. We have a lot of meat in the basement freezer that we stopped on at the West Allis Farmer's Market this fall, so I wanted to use some of that. The recipe calls for boneless pork shoulder, but we used ground pork.

We followed the recipe fairly closely, but, of course, and some changes. Here's the recipe we followed:

Poblano Pork Stew

• 1 lb. ground pork, browned and drained
• 1.25 lb. red potatoes, cut in chunks (I'd recommend cutting on the small side)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 poblano peppers cut into 1-inch pieces (we did not seed them)
• 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped (we did not see this either)
• about 1 teas. garlic powder (we ran out of fresh, otherwise I would have used four cloves)
• 2 inches stick cinnamon
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 14.5 oz. diced tomatoes
• 1.5 cups corn
• 1 tbs. chili powder
• about 1 tbs. crushed dried parsley
• 1/4 teas. black pepper

In a crockpot, place potatoes, onions, peppers, garlic and cinnamon. Add meat.

In a bowl, combine broth, undrained tomatoes, chili powder, parsley and black pepper. Pour over all.

Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours (or on high for 4-5 hours). Discard cinnamon before eating.

We served the stew over leftover white basmati rice.

The stew had a nice kick to it with the poblano and jalapeno. It really could have used salt, though, and we added it as we ate it. It would be good with some regular salt or a good seasoning salt.

Couscous Stuffed Chicken

We hadn't made many recipes out of the January/February 2011 issue of Cooking Light, so I did some digging to find a recipe that sounded tasty. The one I settled on was Couscous-Stuffed Chicken. The recipe was pretty easy, although it took some work to flatten the chicken, stuff it and roll it up.

We changed a few things with the recipe:

-Vegetable broth rather than chicken broth, just because I had an open carton.

-Grape tomatoes rather than plum, because we always have grape tomatoes on hand for salads.

-Black olives rather than kalamata (Nate doesn't like kalamata, while I LOVE them)

-Dried parsley rather than fresh because I had it on hand.

-No oregano, as I discovered I didn't have any!

The chicken was good, although it probably could have used a bit more salt or more of a kick of flavor. I think the kalamatas would have been really good (and salty!), but alas ...

The chicken reheats well too--I just had some for dinner tonight (a few days later), it was still tasty and juicy.

We had the chicken with sauteed spinach. I just sauteed the spinach with a bit of water, some hojiblanca olive oil I got for a Christmas present, lemon juice, garlic powder and some sliced onions. It was really good, but man, that spinach shrinks when it cooks! I had a whole big bunch of it, and it was barely enough for two of us.

Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash

When I first flipped through the January/February issue of Cooking Light, the recipe for Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash really stuck out. We had a few butternut squashes to use, and this looked like a good way to use them.

A tagine is traditionally a Moroccan dish, named for the pot in which it is cooked. Tagines are slow-cooked stews braised at low temperatures resulting in tender meat and aromatic vegetables and sauce.

The recipe was really easy and pretty quick. The hardest part is peeling and cutting the butternut squash. We followed the recipe exactly except that we used veggie brother rather than chicken broth (just because it's what we had). I didn't use fresh cilantro, either--I didn't want to buy a huge bunch of it for only 1/4 cup. The recipe says it's four servings, but it turned into 5 for us (it's usually the other way around! We usually eat a four-serving meal in one sitting!). The squash cooked a lot faster than I thought it would--within 10 minutes the squash was pretty soft and after the 15 minutes, the squash was kind of mushy. But it was still very tasty!

We also made the scallion couscous that was at the end of the recipe. Here's what we did for that:

Bring 3/4 cup fat-free lower-sodium chicken (we used veggie) broth and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Gradually stir in 1 cup uncooked couscous. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork. Stir in 1/3 cup chopped green onions. (I love couscous--it's so easy, quick and good for you.)

Restaurant Review: Cafe Manna

A few months ago, I bought a Groupon for Cafe Manna, an all-vegetarian restaurant in Brookfield. I had been for dinner a few times before and have always had great experiences. The Groupon expired at the end of the month, so Nate and I went for dinner last Saturday. I knew he'd like it, but thought he might be just a bit apprehensive with it being an all-vegetarian restaurant.

We made a reservation through Open Table (which I had never done before--it worked out great!) for 7:30. It's good we did--it was a full house and there was another party of two waiting when we got there.

We weren't hungry enough for an appetizer, but we nibbled on the pita chips and some kind of dip (it tasted like hummus, but maybe make with walnuts?), which was really good.

It took us a while to figure out what we wanted--everything looked so good! I finally settled on the roasted vegetable crustada--a flaky pastry shell filled with seasonal roasted vegetables in a silky herbed sauce. It was topped with crispy onions and sat on top of a roasted red pepper coulis. It was almost like a pot pie, but without a top and a flakier, thinner shell. it was fantastic.

Nate settled on the Caribbean potato cakes--savory and sweet, lightly spiced cakes made of vegetables, sweet potatoes and Yukon gold potatoes. They were served with a tomato mint chutney and drizzled with spinach and avocado coulis. They were excellent. They really did have a spice to them, and even just a few bites was very filling.

Both of the meals were so huge and hearty that we took half the dishes home. Cafe Manna is really a great place--it's all sustainable, with recycled and compostable to-go boxes and bags. The wine they serve is organic and they have only local beer (Lakefront and Capital).

The meal was great as usual, and I'll know we'll be back to try other menu options. Our waitress was pretty good, although it took her a while to come back to get our order and for her to clear our plates and box up our food.

"Light" Lasagna

I'd been craving a baked pasta dish and wanted something easy to prepare on Sunday to have Monday night. I found this lasagna recipe in our Favorite Brand Name Light Cooking book.

The recipe seemed easy enough and fairly different from other lasagna recipes. I have to give Nate all the credit for this--he spent about an hour putting it together Sunday night, as I was laying on the couch with back pain. He even took all the pictures!

Here's the recipe:

"Light Lasagna"

-1 teas. olive oil

-2 cloves garlic, minced

-2 cans (14 oz. each) no-salt-added Italian-style tomatoes, undrained (we didn't use the no-salt kind)

-1/2 teas. dried Italian seasoning (we used a mix of oregano and basil)

-8 oz. lean ground beef (we used about 12 oz. ground turkey)

-1 large onion, chopped

-8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced

-2 zucchini, shredded

-8 oz. uncooked lasagna noodles

-1 cup 1% low-fat cottage cheese

-1 cup nonfat ricotta cheese (I used low-fat)

-1 cup (4 oz.) shredded mozzarella

-2 egg whites

-2 tbs. Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic. Cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes and seasoning; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 20 to 25 minutes or until sauce thickens.

Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add beef and onion; cook and stir until beef is browned and onion is tender. Drain. Stir in mushrooms and zucchini; cook and stir 5 to 10 minutes or until tender.

Cook noodles according to package directions, omitting salt. Drain. Rinse under cold water; drain well. Combine cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and egg whites in medium bowl.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13x9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place layer of noodles in bottom of pan. Spread half of beef mixture over noodles. top with half of cheese mixture and noodles. Repeat layering process, ending with noodles. Pour tomato mixture over noodles. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover; bake 30 minutes. Uncover, bake 10 to 15 minutes or until heated through. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. (Makes 8 servings)

The lasagna was pretty tasty and a nice change from the super heavy and cheesy lasagna I'm used to. It was a bit watery, though--I'm not sure if that was from the zucchini or what. But all in all, it was quite good!