Big Bowl of Whole Grainy Dinner Goodness

Tonight’s dinner was inspired by a store bought frozen lunch I had today.  It had beans, whole grain orzo, dried cranberries, spinach and a little bit of cheese.  I enjoyed it quite a bit and thought I would use it as inspiration to create my own big bowl of whole grainy goodness. Even though the barley and quinoa stuck to his braces, my son thought it was delicious.  My husband also liked it a lot too.  I know my daughter would have enjoyed it, and that she would have grabbed the leftovers thrown salad dressing over top and had it cold for lunch the next day.  One thing I would have changed would have been to add in more chard.  I dug through the snow to find what chard I could from the raised beds in the garden.  I found some small leaves, only about 7 or 8, but it was enough to give it a little color and flavor.  I just wish I had more.  It’s so cool to go dig through the snow for chard in the middle of winter, but your fingers get awfully cold and you have to be careful that they don’t stick to the door knob when you try to get back into the house.  Maybe gloves would be a good idea. No gloves needed to eat it though, just a fork.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup black quinoa
• 1/2 cup bulgur
• 1/2 cup orzo
• 1/2 cup barley
• 1/2 onion diced
• 1 celery stalk diced
• chard
• 1 bag dried cranberries and spiced apple (I think they were dole)
• 1 can garbanzo beans
• 1 quart vegetable broth
• salt
• pepper
• thyme
• sage
• parsley
• 1/4 cup Carr Valley Apple Smoked Cheddar diced

Directions:

Cook the quinoa, bulgur, orzo and barley according to package directions using vegetable broth instead of water. I took turns with two different small pots on the stove.  In a separate medium size pot, pour in the rest of the vegetable broth.  Simmer the onions, and celery in a shallow amount of vegetable broth. When they start to become translucent, add in the rest of the broth, the cranberries and spiced apple, the beans and chopped up chard.  Heat up and add in the grains, and the herbs and spices.  If it seems too dry, add a little extra liquid (water) when heating. Serve in bowls and sprinkle the cubed cheese on top. 

Note: To make it vegan, leave out the cheese.

The dried fruit gives it a fruity flavor, with the smoky cheese to help balance it out.  The whole meal is delicious, and very quickly comes together.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Roasted Apple and Butternut Squash

Here’s a way the whole family will enjoy butternut squash and apple.  I used a splash of orange, plus grated the rind and ginger.  This was fabulous, fantastic, divine, delicious and good tasting.  Butternut squash is so delicious and nutritious for you and such a great autumn food to serve.  Apples go well with it, and the orange gives it sweetness without adding sugar. 

I told my son to tell me it tasted wonderful, and after he tasted, he agreed.  If you have kids that balk at squash, this is the way to serve it.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced

3 or 4 apples, peeled, cored and diced

1 orange peel – zested

1 tbs grated ginger

Olive oil for pan

Nutmeg

Directions:

I parboiled the squash so that the apple wouldn’t get mushy from baking too long.  Oil a baking dish.  Drain the butternut squash, and toss with apple in baking dish.  Grate  ginger, then zest orange and toss that with the butternut squash and apple.  I squeezed a little of the orange over top of the dish too and then lightly sprinkled nutmeg over top.  Bake at 350 until soft, but not mushy, with a little bit of firmness. Oh, this dish is heavenly good.  I think I’m bringing it to my mom for Christmas.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Gingered Carrots & Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi, kohlrabi, kohlrabi, kohlrabi, kohlrabi, kohlrabi, kohlrabi.  There’s a joke that goes – If you say the name of something 7 times it’s yours for life, and then some girl says – John, john, etc.  It doesn’t matter how many times I say kohlrabi, my mental picture doesn’t match up with that name and I go blank trying to remember. Kohlrabi is a nice crunchy vegetable, similar to a turnip, but tastes more like a cross between cabbage and turnips to me with a little bit of sweetness. My sister in law adds it to salads, or just peels and slices it up for people to chew raw.  My dish was baked, bringing out another level of flavor.

I peeled off the leaves, scraped off the skin and julienned the kohlrabi along with some carrots. I used my frozen ginger in this dish, which smells so wonderful when grating. I did all the mixing right in the baking dish, so it’s truly a one pot dish. Even though this would have served more , with my husband repeatedly dipping into the dish,  it only served 3.  It was delicious, did I say that yet?

Ingredients:

• 1 kohlrabi – deleafed, destemmed, peeled, julienned
• 3 or 4 carrots – peeled and julienned
• 1 tsp ginger – grated
• 2 garlic cloves – minced
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine
• salt
• pepper
• parsley

Directions:

Throw all of the ingredients together in the baking dish – up to the olive oil, mix around a little. Drizzle white wine over top, sprinkle on herbs and spices,  cover with foil, bake at 375 until veggies are firm soft.

 

 

What was the name of that vegetable?  Carrot.  No the other one.  Ummm, (look at title) Kohlrabi.  Yes, that’s it.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Savory Squash Fillo Bake

I’ve been given the opportunity to sample some different types of organic (love it) fillo sheets from the Fillo Factory.  When I’m shopping I first see if there is a quality product in the organic section.  I’m thrilled that I can find fillo dough frozen that’s organic too. I used the organic spelt fillo dough for this recipe with some squash I bought at the farm stand. I’m not an expert with fillo dough.  I use it and follow the rules about keeping them moist as best I can, but sometimes they fall apart.  My fake out is to tear strips of fillo dough and layer them across the top nice and neat.  My family loved eating the crunchy top and peeling it apart.  I thought it was funny the way they pulled apart the layers.

The Fillo Factory Fillo Sheets should be defrosted and placed flat, covered with a damp towel to keep from drying out.

I used:

2 yellow acorn squash

2 delicata squash

1 green acorn squash

  Ingredients:

Squash – enough for about 3-4 cups

Olive Oil

1 Onion – diced

2 garlic – minced

Sage – nice handful of fresh sage

1/2 cup grated grana padano cheese

salt

pepper

melted butter

8 Filo Factory Fillo Dough Sheets

 

Directions:

Slice each squash in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds with a spoon and drizzle with olive oil.  Place the squash cut side down on a baking sheet, and bake until soft.  I used a silicon sheet on the pan for easier cleaning. Peel the squash, and slice into bite size cubes.  Sauté onion, garlic and sage in one tbs of oil until the onions are soft.  Place squash, onion, garlic, sage, salt, pepper and cheese in a bow. 

Work with the fillo but try to keep the sheets damp.  As you use each one, brush with melted butter. Place six of the sheets on a baking dish so that the ends stick out over the side overlapping. Fill the Filo lined baking sheets with the squash mixture and fold the ends over the top.  If you can do it all nice and neat, great.  Mine needed a little work, so I placed one sheet over top, then the next sheet I tore into wide strips, layered over top and tucked in the edges. The squash had such a nice savory flavor, not like pumpkin pie at all.  This makes about 8 servings, or more if spread out in a larger dish making a thinner layer.  It would be a great bring to the family gathering dish.  We had leftovers that were delicious reheated.  You could probably cover the top of the pan after preparing and bake right before you are ready to use it if you want to make it ahead.

 

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Purple (Cauliflower) Risotto

I made a Purple Risotto, I kid you not.  It had flecks of different color purples from dark blue purple on down to lavender.  If you have kids that love new colorful meals, this would such a cool dish for them to try.  My son, my husband and I all thought it was scrumptious, and we’d eat it again. Actually we will, because there are leftovers. 

My husband and I went to Lynd’s Fruit Farm just outside of Columbus.  We’ve been going there for apples in the fall plus other fun things.  This was the last weekend of the sale tent and we didn’t want to miss out. They have such cool things available like purple cauliflower, purple broccoli, purple Brussels sprouts – okay, not purple brussel sprouts – just green, pumpkins, gourds and apples.  While we were there, we actually got to be part of an apple tasting.  One gentleman said they were trying out a new apple and we should taste 4 different types and rate where they landed on a piece of paper.  After we placed the apples on the paper in the proper like/dislike square (it was a range), he marked where they landed, and told us the one we liked best was 1238.  There’s only one tree in the world with those apples, and they developed it.  That apple was really delicious and sweet, though he said it was a tart apple.  I hope they plant more of these trees.  As a thank you, we were able to pick out some gold rush apples to take home.  Cool!

I love the bright purple Cauliflower (no, of course I don’t have a before picture) though I’ve never used it before today.  I was really pumped to see that the color when the cauliflower didn’t disappear, but changed as I cooked.  I first boiled the cauliflower in a pot of water, so that I could use that water as the base for the risotto.  The water turned blue purple, but when poured in with the arborio rice, it turned lavender.  So all of these purples – dark blue down to light lavender are in this risotto and make it so pretty.  A few green herbs thrown really pop.  Then I strained the water out into another pot and let the cauliflower cool long enough to be able to dice it up.

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 cup arborio rice
• salt
• pepper
• parsley
• thyme
• 1/4 cup grana padano grated

Directions:

In a pot large enough to hold the whole head of cauliflower, boil until almost done but still firm.  Strain the water (it will be blue purple) into a second pot and place that on the stove on low heat to keep warm.  In large deep skillet heat oil, sauté onions and garlic. Pour in white wine, and stir until evaporated.   When the onions and garlic are tender but still firm, add in the arborio rice, and stir for about a minute.  Then pour in one to two cups of purple cauliflower water.  Let it soak up the water, then add more. Meanwhile mince the cauliflower head.  Add more purple water to the rice slowly, until it is just about risotto ready.  Mix in the cauliflower, throw on some salt, pepper, the herbs and add on top the grana padano. 

 

Deb, you’ve got to try this – T would love it.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Mini-Peppers stuffed with Bulgur and Mini-Yellow Squash

At the store today, they had bags of mini-peppers for sale.  It was a specialty item in the fresh produce department.  Funny thing, I’ve got mini-peppers that I picked right from my garden.  I wanted the baby-peppers (I’m sure that specialty item will be out soon) to get a little bigger, so we picked most of what was left including the mini-size.  I also had some mini-yellow squash in the garden, but I didn’t see any of those in the store.  I could own that market.  Stuffed Mini-peppers make a great side dish.  The bulgur, along with squash, some fresh herbs from the garden, topped with pine nuts and feta, had a very earthy yet nutty flavor. This side is a keeper, but if you want it as a main dish, just upsize the ingredients with a full size pepper, squash, etc. My son even loved it.

  Ingredients:

• 4 or 5 mini peppers – more if you have enough bulgur
• 1 small mini-yellow squash diced small
• 1tbs onion diced small
• 1/2 cup bulgur
• salt
• pepper
• herbs – parsley, thyme, sage – chopped
• 2 tsp pine nuts
• 2 tsp feta
• 2 cups chicken broth

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Slice the top off the pepper, clean out the pith and the seeds. Dice onions and squash into small pieces. Place one cup of water in a pot, add the bulgur.  Heat until boiling, then turn down to simmer for 15 minutes.  Take off the heat and stir the diced veggies into the bulgur, cover. Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan until they start to smell nutty and brown a little. Chop up herbs and stir in2/3rds of the herbs with the bulgur mixture.  Spoon the bulgur into the peppers and place into a glass pan or other pan, standing up.  When all of the peppers are filled and sitting in the pan, take the pine nuts, the feta and the rest of the herbs and stir together in a bowl.  Then spoon the herb/feta mixture on top of each of the peppers.  Drizzle some of the chicken broth over the peppers and pour the rest into the bottom of the pan.  Cover and cook until the peppers are almost at the consistency that you like – I like mine a little on the crunchy side.  Take the cover off and cook until it’s done. 

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Italian Sausage, Tomato & Cabbage Stew(p)

This stew is one of the best combinations for using up the veggies in your garden.  The cabbage, potatoes and tomatoes all came from the vegetable garden.  I would have had onions too, if my daughter hadn’t pulled them and thrown them into the composter with the weeds.  The garlic, onions and sweet italian sausage (bison) all came from the farm market.  The rest I had in the cabinet.  It didn’t take long to prepare and was ready as soon as the cabbage was wilted enough.  Lots of great flavor in this meal, you’ll love it.

  Ingredients:

• 1 lb sweet Italian sausage
• 1 onion sliced in half and then into slivers
• 2 cloves garlic smashed
• 8 small potatoes scrubbed and sliced in half
• 1 /3 head of cabbage rough chopped
• 2 cups whole tomatoes and juice – smooshed
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp basil
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions:

Spray a skillet with cooking spray, and cook the sausage with onions and smashed garlic.  Halve potatoes and boil in a small pot of water until al dente, not soft.  Throw rest of the ingredients in a stockpot and simmer.  After the sausage is cooked through, peel the skin off and slice into 1 inch wide pieces.  Drain potatoes.  Throw the potatoes, the sausage, garlic and onion slices into the stockpot. It’s done when the cabbage reaches the wiltiness that you like best.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Lemongrass-Basil Yellow Squash and Potatoes

Is there another name for yellow squash?  I only know it as yellow squash, but it’s so tasty I think it deserves a nicer name.  Since it’s major harvest and put up time, soccer season, football and band season, I find my dinners are rather lackluster and repetitive.  I have lots of stuff, but my inspiration is waning as I think about my days and evenings ahead.  Last night though, I had my Yellow Squash and Potatoes out, trying to decide what to do and then it hit me – Lemon Grass and Basil are just sitting in the herb beds waiting to be used.  Well not so much the basil since the Japanese beetles have been munching away at it, but I’ve flicked them into the soapy water bath.  Best way to take care of those things is with a bowl of soapy water.  I do tend to use a lot of the same ingredients over and over, because they come from our garden.  I keep expecting my son to say – No Not Chard AGAIN!!! and run off screaming into the night, but so far he hasn’t.

Anyway, this tasty side dish was divine with our steak last night. I peeled off the outer leaves of the lemon grass, then bent the stem back and forth a little to release the really good stuff before chopping up the white bottom part of the stem.  Not easy to do while fending off four legged lemon grass thieves.  The cats weren’t the only ones in on it either.  I found a big pile in the living room left behind by the dog, who is always eager to join in on the fun.  The basil, I tore the leaves off the stem and chopped into nice thin pieces. mmmm.  If I would have picked the yellow squash a couple of days earlier, it would have been 1/3 to 1/2 smaller than it was.  Smaller seeds would have been nice, but this was still very tasty.

 

Ingredients:

• 4 stalks lemon grass – prepared as suggested above
• big bunch of basil – chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 6 – 7 medium potatoes – scrubbed of all the dirt from the garden
• 1/2 extra large yellow squash that should have been picked earlier
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper

Directions:

Brush oil on to the bottom of a casserole dish.  Slice up potatoes and Squash, spread evenly around the dish.  Sprinkle on garlic, basil, lemon grass, salt and pepper.  Drizzle with a little more oil and stir to coat.  Bake at 400 for about 1/2 hour – basically it’s done when the potatoes are soft.  There was a nice lemony basil taste especially on the squash.  Next time I think I might use lemon basil – that would be cool.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Yams & Chard

I had Yams I wanted to use before they went bad, and Chard out in the garden starting to take over and go to seed.  So I put together a dish using both.  My lovely daughter took one look and said – “What are we frikken vegans?  Where’s the meat?”  Sorry guys, this is a meatless meal, but it turned out very delicious.  I like maple syrup, but didn’t want it overly sweet, so I used Maple Syrup wine instead.  My daughter even admitted it was good, and didn’t bother getting herself a meat sandwich. Lots of great vitamins and nutrition in this meal.

Ingredients:

• 3 yams peeled and cubed
• 2 big handfuls of chard
• Olive Oil
• 2 shallots
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt
• pepper
• 1/8 tsp dried ginger
• couple of splashes of Maple Syrup Wine

Directions:

Rinse and tear up chard.  Combine chard and yams in steamer and steam for about 10 minutes.  Heat up oil in large pan.  Saute shallots and garlic until soft. Dump in yams and chard plus seasonings. Heat up a little and serve.  It was pretty darn good.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Green Barley & Kale Gratin

Since I have plenty of Kale, I search for different recipes to try out.  I followed the recipe on this one, thinking, okay, we’ll try it and see.  It looked kind of on the funky side to me with the bright green, but it was very good tasting. My daughter said it reminded her of pumpkin pie. 
This recipe was also from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  This book is one of my favorite resources.  I’m not a vegetarian, but it offers ways of cooking meatless meals that appeal to me.  I actually have a first edition book that I bought twelve years ago and still use today.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup pearl barley rinsed
• Salt and freshly milled pepper
• 1 large bunch kale, about 1 1/4 pounds stems entirely removed
• 2 tbs butter
• 3 tbs flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk or basic vegetable stock
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1/2 cup grated gruyere or provolone

Directions:

In a saucepan, add the barley to 1 quart boiling water with 1/2 tsp salt  and simmer uncovered until tender, about 30 minutes.  Drain, then puree with 1/4 cup of the cooking water until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan, whisk in the flour, then add the milk.  Cook stirring constantly over medium heat, until thick.  Season with allspice, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Combine all of the ingredients, check the seasoning and transfer to a lightly baking dish or ramekins. 

Bake until lightly browned on top (that was difficult to tell) about 30 minutes.  If you’ve used ramekins, run a knife around the edges, then unmold them by giving them a sharp rap on the counter.  Present them browned side up.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Next Page »