In This Week’s Lunchbox: Black Bean Salad

Ingredients:
• 1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
• ¼ cup of corn (I just use frozen corn that is cooked and then cooled)
• Diced red onion (just under ¼ cup)
• Quinoa (just under ¼ cup of cooked quinoa – this is actually the quinoa I still have left from the 1 cup of dried quinoa I cooked up last week. It makes a lot when cooked and I keep it in the fridge and use it in a variety of recipes)
• Diced chiles (jalapenos, serranos, etc. whatever you have or like – I leave the amount up to you. It depends on how hot you want it)
• Lime-Olive Oil Dressing (juice ½ of a lime, add olive oil and salt and pepper, amounts will be based on your tasting preference with the oil and s/p).
• Red pepper flakes (as you like, if you like)

Basically, it’s very simply you just mix all the ingredients together and then add the dressing – slowly drizzle in and taste until it has the amount you want. I also tossed a little bit of ranch dressing dip mix (just the dry mix) in with mine. Salt and pepper to taste, if needed. It will depend on if you already put enough black and pepper in the olive oil-lime dressing.

You can eat the salad on its own or have it with tortilla chips, particularly if the salad doesn’t have a grain element.

Alterations: I recommend that you add tomatoes (chopped/diced), if you have them. I normally do, but I didn’t have any this week. Another nice addition to this salad is fresh cilantro, chopped. It makes a big difference, in a very good way. You can also omit the quinoa, if you like, or replace it with couscous or rice. Some people I’ve shared this with like to top it with shredded cheese.

Healthy Side Dish or One-Pot Meal

A quick note on my potato leek soup, I made a vegetarian/vegan version recently, which required 2 simple changes. Just sautee the onions and leeks in olive oil instead of butter and use vegetable stock or broth instead of chicken broth/stock. The recipe already avoided the use of cream.

Tonight a made a Spicy Green Bean/Kale recipe that could be used as a side dish, but I added some left over quinoa I had and it became a yummy (and healthy) one pot meal.

Also, you'll notice in my blog that the same ingredients having been popping up, that's because my cooking right now, thanks to Abundant Harvest Organics, is centered around the produce I get in the box and because I like to use what I have on hand and not waste (by throwing things out before they get used or by wasting gas on a trip to the grocery store that might be avoided by adjusting recipes and using what I have).

Tonight's recipe was my take on Giada's (Everyday Italian) recipe. Remember, my portions are scaled, roughly, for 1 (or 1 with some leftovers), which is one way my recipe differs from hers. I also removed and added a few ingredients (she had mushrooms, I do not. I have bell peppers, shallot and garlic, she did not).

Ingredients

• Olive Oil
• 1 shallot, chopped (diced)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 1/3 pounds green beans
• salt and pepper (to taste)
• white wine vinegar
• chicken or vegetable broth
• (optional) a trio of bell peppers, in strips (red, yellow and green) - I like to always have the frozen package of these from Trader Joe's on hand, It's a great addition to lots of recipes or to jarred pasta sauce (and so easy and affordable).
• 1 1/2 packets of red pepper flakes (from the pizza place - yep, that's what I had. This is obviously amateur cooking).
• 2 handfuls (I have small hands) kale rinsed, stemmed, and roughly chopped (I actually just tear my kale)
• 1/2 of a lemon (to juice)
• Parmesan cheese (to top it off)
• chives/green onion (to top it off)

Preparation

1, Warm the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. (I used enough olive oil to coat the pan)

2. Add shallots and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes.

3. Add garlic, cook for just about 1 minute, then add broth, enough to cover the pan and keep garlic from burning.

4. Add green beans (I used frozen, but fresh would obviously be better. If you only have canned, I wouldn't even bother. I like string beans, not cut beans.), salt, and pepper and cook for 2 minutes.

5. Add a dash of white wine vinegar (Giada suggests white wine, which is probably better, but I didn't have it, so I used the white wine vinegar instead, since I already had some broth in there I think it worked fine). and continue cooking until the green beans are almost tender, about 3-5 minutes.

6. Add the red pepper flakes and the kale and continue cooking until the kale has wilted, about 4 to 5 minutes.

If you want to serve it as a side, squirt lemon juice on top (from half a lemon -- don't over use) and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

To make it a one-pot meal, I added my leftover quinoa to the pot while the kale was finishing cooking, just to warm the quinoa, and added the lemon juice and parmesan cheese once I had put a serving in a bowl. I also added some chives on top.

I think this would also work on top of rice or tossed with pasta, in which case you might also want to drizzle with some olive oil at the end.

This Week's Lunchbox: No-Mayo Egg Salad Sandwich with Kale Chips

I try to pack lunch so that I am not tempted by fast food or don't end up at the after-school program getting "lunch" out of the vending machine. It's tough, though, because I don't like deli meats, hate mayo, and can't really get into pb&j that much as an adult. Plus, bringing something that needs to be heated up doesn't always work either.

As I result, found myself just taking boiled eggs with me because the protein is definitely filling or taking a can of tuna and just eating it (again, I hate mayo so tuna salad is no good). Recently, though , I found an egg salad recipe that didn't use mayo (yeah!!), but did use avocados (yeah again). I've created my own variation on it and I love it. I pack the bread and salad separate and eat it open-faced. If you have a nice, crispy romaine, put it underneath the egg salad. Even better.

Egg Salad

Ingredients

• 3 boiled eggs (I like mine soft-medium boiled, not runny but not hard)
  
• 1/2-1 avocado
  
• 1/8 cup shelled and cooked edamame
  
• 1 squirt of spicy mustard (or whichever mustard you choose)
• 1 dollop sour cream
  
• 1 small, chopped shallot (I typically don't use shallots, since I had some, I added it).
  
• Red onion (just a little bit for some bite - eyeball it)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Boil eggs (to the hardness you desire). When eggs are cool, dice them. I use an egg slicer and do it 2 ways and then break the egg apart a bit more in the mixing bowl with a butter knife.
2. Cook edamame
3. Chop edamame, onions, shallot and avocado
4. Mix together the egg and other chopped ingredients.
5. Add sour cream (I typically use 2-3 spoonfuls) and add 1 squirt mustard (I like to use spicy brown - go easy on it. I find if you add too much mustard it can overpower the other flavors)

Serve as mentioned above.

Kale Chips

• Kale (as much as you want - just tear it off the stem)
• Olive Oil
  
• Sea Salt and Pepper

It's best to just refer you to Kath Eats Real Food and The Kitchn, the two blogs I referenced and pulled from to make my Kale Chips.

Cookies! Cookies! Cookies!

You can't go wrong with cookies. Tonight I made chocolate chip & mini peanut butter cup cookies. Yum, yum, yum.

They were made using whole wheat flour and steel cut oats, so they are healthy, right?? Okay, so, I guess not, but they are delicious!!

Ingredients:

• 2 cup whole wheat flour (my cups were not quite filled to the top)
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 salt
• 1 cup butter (I actually used just under 1 cup because that's all I had and I melted the butter)
• 3/4 sugar
• 3/4 brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/4 steel cut oats
• 3/4 bag chocolate chips
• 5 oz. mini peanut butter cups

Preparation

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well.
2. In a larger bowl, combine butter (melted) and sugars. Mix well. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Gradually add flour to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Stir in oats and add chocolate chips and mini peanut butter cups.
4. Preheat oven to 350 or 375 degrees (depends on your oven - I have a small oven and did my cookies at 350 for 12 minutes and only did 6 cookies at a time).

My cookies stuck to the pan a bit because I didn't have an butter to grease the pan or parchment paper or silicone mats or anything, but part of the fun of cookies can be the melted chocolate on the pan.

This was the first time I've used whole wheat flour and I was happy with the results.

Quinoa

Quinoa is an amino acid-rich (protein) seed that has a fluffy, creamy, slightly crunchy texture and a somewhat nutty flavor when cooked. I thought it was a grain, but learned from the Whole Foods website that it is actually a relative of leafy green vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard. It is a recently rediscovered ancient "grain" once considered "the gold of the Incas." I ate a lot of quinoa in the first trimester of my pregnancy, when I was very sick and nauseous and, basically, vegan. I have 2 quinoa recipes to share today. They have some shared ingredients, which makes it easy.

1. Quinoa Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is a Mediterranean dish typically made with parsley, tomatoes, cucumbers and bulgur (and sometimes onion and additional herbs), olive oil and lemon juice. I love to make it with quinoa instead of bulgur (and have made it with cilantro instead of parsley, giving it a tex-mex twist).

Ingredients

• Parsley (1 cup, chopped)
• Quinoa (1 cup - I actually only used around 1/4 cup in this recipe and saved the rest for my other recipe)
  
• Red Onion (I used a bit 1/4 of a large red onion chopped)
  
• 1/2 Cucumber, Chopped
  
• 1 Small Shallot, Chopped
• Lemon Juice (fresh squeezed)
• Olive Oil
• Crumbled Goat Cheese (as garnish)
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

Preparation

1. Chop Parsley, Onion, Shallot (shallot is optional, but since I had some, I used it)
2. Cook Quinoa (per package instructions) - I cook mine in my rice cooker
3. Juice 2 lemons (some of this juice is used in other recipe)
4. Mix all ingredients together, adding lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste - garnished with crumbled goat cheese

2. Quinoa Salad with Roasted Veggies and Chickpeas (this is a variation on Martha Stewart's Couscous Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Chickpeas, which I found in Everyday Food)

Ingredients

• 1 carrot (sliced for roasting)
• 1 small head cauliflower (chopped for roasting)
  
• 1/2-3/4 tsp. cumin (depending your preference)
• olive oil
• sea salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup quinoa (the half leftover from the quinoa tabbouleh)
• fresh lemon juice (from two lemons - leftover from previous recipe)
• herb salad mix (from Trader Joe's)

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 450. Place carrots and cauliflower on a baking sheet, toss with cumin, salt, pepper and olive oil and roast for 20-30 minutes (rotating halfway through). I drizzled with olive oil, so I don't have an exact measurement. (I also added a dash of garlic-onion spice mix that I had to the vegetables before roasting)
2. Cook quinoa (in accordance with box instructions or in a rice cooker, which I prefer because I am terrible at cook rice or quinoa on the stove)
3. Make dressing with lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and pepper (to taste - you can also add lemon zest and/or vinegar if you want) and toss with salad mix (Martha suggested arugula - I used the mix I had)
4. In a bowl, combine veggies and quinoa and serve over salad mix (you can also add some of the dressing directly to the quinoa/veggie mix if you want).

The instructions are as the salad was intended. I ended up having this meal with friends and we put plum tomatoes and goat cheese on the salad and used the lemon-olive oil dressing. We chose to have the quinoa with roasted veggies on the side. It was great lunch.

Potatoes

I am not a foodie. I don't know that much about food, but I am learning and love reading recipes and experimenting in the kitchen.

Recently, I signed up for Abundant Harvest Organics, a weekly locally farmed, organic produce program. Every week , I get a small box of in-season, organic produce. This has encouraged me, as I had hoped, to cook more and eat better and to experiment (finding new recipes etc.).

So, I've decided to write a blog where I share my love of food and cooking. The last two batches of produce I've gotten included potatoes, so that is the subject of today's posting and compilation of recipes. Hopefully, I'll be able to include photos of dishes next time, though they certainly aren't always very pretty, but usually they taste pretty good. I typically start with a recipe and then adjust it and go from there.

My top potato recipes of the week are: potato leek soup (sans cream), Nicoise salad (a major favorite of mine) and a home fries with gooey egg breakfast concoction I came up with this morning (feel free to give this item a better name). Most of the time I'm cooking for one since I'm really into veggies and the hubbie is really into meat.

1. Potato Leek Soup - I've never cooked with leeks before, but since they came in my box and since I had potatoes, potato leek soup was an obvious choice, but I didn't want to make a version that was saturated with cream and a lot of fat, so I found a recipe online and made adjustments. Here was the result:

Ingredients:

• 4 Tbsp. butter
• 3/4 1 large yellow onion chopped
• 1 leek, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 Russett potatoes (about 2 lbs. total), peeled and chopped
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste
  

Preparation:

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add onions, leeks, and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is a bit creamy looking, about 10 minutes (adjust heat so mixture cooks but doesn't start to brown).
2. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add potatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a steady simmer and cook until potatoes are very tender to the bite, about 20 minutes.
3. Purée soup in a blender.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste

That's it! Simple and delicious. (The original recipe suggested adding milk, rather than cream, but I didn't even do that and I didn't miss it). I discovered 2 things -- I love leeks!! (I was munching on it raw as I cooked) and I love soups (something I've discovered through making soups at home -- what I don't like is canned soup, but I love making soups myself from fresh ingredients).

2. Nicoise salad - a typical Nicoise salad consists of tuna, green beans, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, onion, capers, and potatoes with a vinaigrette. I love this salad, but rarely have all of the exact ingredients around and really try to focus on cooking with what I have, so based on what I had, I made a wonderful (and beautiful) Nicoise salad for dinner last night. Since it wasn't recipe based and I'm going off memory, I will estimate with amounts.

Ingredients:

• a handful of torn romaine lettuce (kudos to abundant harvest, the romaine was beautiful and delicious)
• a handful of organic herb salad from Trader Joe's
• 5-7 small fingerling potatoes
• 2 soft-boiled eggs
• a handful of green beans
• white wine vinegar
• brown or dijon or spicy mustard (depending on your preference)
• olive oil
• 1 can solid white albacore tuna
  

Preparation

1. Boil eggs and potatoes (I did it together in one pot to save on dirty dishes and just took the eggs out a bit earlier than the potatoes. I put my eggs in ice cold water because I prefer my eggs to be soft or medium-boiled, not hard boiled)
2. Sautee green beans in sesame oil with salt and pepper
3. Toss salad in vinaigrette (whichever you choose), I made a small amount quickly just for this salad with a dash of white wine vinegar, olive oil and one squirt of mustard
4. Put it all together - I like to put the lettuce on the bottom, of course, with the tuna (drained) on top and the green beans, egg and potatoes around the edges. I think it looks beautiful and tastes great.

3. Potato and Gooey Egg Breakfast Concoction - Like many of you, I love breakfast and this morning I was feeling rather adventurous. So, I put together a not-so-pretty, but extremely delicious (to me, anyway) breakfast mess using the organic potatoes, onion and shallots from my box.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs (over easy -- well that was my intent)
  
• 1 potato (if it is large, 2 if they are not) - any type you like for breakfast potatoes
• 2 shallots
• onion (in this case the onion that was leftover from when I made my soup, probably 1/4 of a large yellow onion)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• tri-colored peppers (frozen) from Trader Joe's
• salt, pepper, creole seasoning (creole seasoning is optional - I love making breakfast potatoes with creole seasoning)
  
• olive oil
• butter (a pat)
• A handful of torn spinach
  

Preparation

1. Chop potatoes (you can do strips or chunks, whichever you prefer -- I felt like strips this morning). Season with creole, salt and pepper (to taste)
2. Chop onion, shallots and garlic
3. Pan fry potatoes in a drizzle of olive oil and pat of butter
4. Once potatoes start to get about half-way done (see, I'm definitely an amateur), add onion, shallots and garlic and continue to sautee
5. After a few more minutes (as onions start to become translucent), add peppers (fresh would be great, but I had frozen)
6. At the end (when potatoes and onion mix is about done), add spinach (I did this to add some iron, calcium and additional protein to the mix and because I love spinach and had just picked up the fresh, organic spinach this morning in my produce box)
7. Once spinach is cooked - add additional seasonings to taste and remove from pan (to plate)
8. Add a bit more oil and butter to the pan (just a small pat) and cook the eggs (over-easy) -- mine didn't quite work this morning and using a separate pan might have worked better, but I have a 3 month old and no dishwasher, so for me less dishes is better). My goal was to just have some nice runny eggs to put over top of the potatoes and that I did accomplish.
9. Put eggs on top and enjoy!

I know this last recipe sounds like a bit of a mess, but it was an experiment that I enjoyed making and eating. Delish.

I'm looking forward to dinner tonight, which will not include potatoes, but will be a delicious grilled shrimp fettuccine alfredo, which my husband will eat (and will help cook). I'll make a caesar salad to go with it.

Tomorrow is all about Quinoa - check back in for Quinoa Tabbouleh, Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Quinoa on top and maybe some Quinoa muffins, we'll see.