Vegetarian Burrito Filling

Often times when I'm looking for a quick lunch or dinner, I turn to burritos.  They are filling, require minimal prep, and basically clean up after themselves.  But lets face it; plain bean filling can get boring. Spicing up the ingredients with some corn, zucchini, and an onion makes a huge difference, and squeezes in bit more nutritional value.  I initially came up with a variation on this filling while making vegetarian enchiladas, but it is really versatile.  Eat up any extra with tortilla chips as a dip!

I filled out my burrito with mixed organic salad greens, a fresh tomato, Salsa Lisa, a spoonful of greek yogurt (a fantastic sour cream stand-in) and melted cheese.  For a beverage, I'm drinking mango juice.

Vegetarian Burrito Filling

I usually go for canned black beans that are southwestern or jalapeno spiced - if you can't find those, however, add some cumin and a couple finely chopped hot peppers and you'll be good to go!  Reserve about a 1/4 cup of sauce from the canned beans when you drain them to keep the mixture lightly saucy.

Ingredients

2 T vegetable oil

1 medium sized zucchini, diced

1 small onion, diced

1 C canned corn, drained

1 can black beans, (mostly) drained

1 t chili powder

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 C shredded cheese

Chop up the zucchini, onion, and garlic while your pan and oil heat up.  Saute the vegetables until the first bits of onion begin to go translucent, then add in the garlic, corn, beans, and chili powder.  Heat until it simmers, then turn off the heat and stir in the cheese until it is fully incorporated.  Warm up a tortilla, get your additional ingredients ready, and then roll up your meal!  

Cream of Corn-Potato-Mushroom-Chicken Soup

Bet ya can't guess the ingredients, huh?

The temperature around these parts has been seriously cold the past few days (-12 today?!) and it is supposed to stay that way till the end of the week.  Knowing that, a big pot of soup sounded like it would hit the spot.

Winterized Chicken Soup

In this batch I used whole chicken breasts and chopped them up, but if you have leftover chicken or any other poultry, feel free!  I like to add the tiniest bit of body to my soup, and in this recipe used corn starch... If you prefer, you can do this with a roux or skip the step entirely.

Makes about two quarts.

Ingredients

2 T cooking oil

2 small onions, diced

3 potatoes, cubed

3/4 C carrots, chopped

5-7 mushrooms, quartered

1 t dried rosemary, crushed

2 large chicken breasts

2 T Better than Bouillon chicken base (or equivalent)

4 C hot water

3/4 C canned corn

1 C half and half

1 t corn starch

loose handful of fresh basil

salt and pepper to taste

Chop up the onions, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms and saute them over medium heat in the oil.  Add in the rosemary when the first onions turn translucent, and follow a minute later with the diced chicken.  Continue sauteing until the chicken looks primarily opaque.  After that, add in the hot water and bouillon base and bring the pot to a boil.  Introduce the corn to the soup and simmer covered for half an hour.  Dissolve the corn starch in a 1/4 cup of cool water, add it to the soup, and hold at a boil for one minute.  Stir in some basil and salt and pepper to taste before sitting down at the table.

Spicy Thai Peanut Curry

Finals are officially over for this one! So happy to put that stress behind me.  Right before every finals week (or extra busy week in general) I cook up a big batch of something so I don't over-schedule my time and neglect my stomach.  This time around, I decided to make a Thai-style curry with stir fried vegetables and a spicy peanut curry sauce.  The basics of this dish were learned canoeing (if you can believe that!) but it is a great dish even when you are indoors when made with fresh ingredients.

Since I made this intending to eat it for quite a few days, the amounts of ingredients listed will make a dish about big enough to feed four with a little left over.  To be honest, the ingredients are also very flexible.  Any veggie you've ever seen in a stir fry will work for this.  If you feel like adding some protein, chicken is a simple addition.

Word to the wise - green tea goes well with this, and is shown to improve your concentration! Great preparation for post-meal studying.

 

just a quick shot of the ingredients - the Del Monte pineapple chunks were vetoed in-process

Spicy Thai Peanut Curry

If you are cooking for mild eaters; limit the amount of curry paste you add, and add in about a 1/2 cup of peanut butter (chunky gives a lovely crunch) to stretch the spiciness of the bottled peanut sauce.  If you love the feel the burn, just pile on the curry and sauce and consider adding a red thai chile.  Making 2 cups of (uncooked) rice is plenty.

Serves 4+

Ingredients
1 small onion
8-10 white mushrooms, quartered
2 small bell peppers, any color
1 T ginger, finely chopped
2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 C snow peas, spines peeled

1 can coconut milk
1 T red curry paste
1/2 C spicy peanut sauce
1 T vinegar
2 T brown sugar
salt to taste

Start off by sauteing the onion, mushrooms, bell peppers, and ginger  in the oil on medium-high heat.  Throw in the snow peas once the onions begin to turn, and in the time it takes to locate your can opener for the coconut milk, the vegetables will be ready for sauce.  Add in the coconut milk, curry paste, and peanut sauce and stir until blended.  Taste and decide if you want to modify the spiciness.  Add the vinegar and brown sugar, bring up to simmer, and get your rice ready on a plate!

Polenta Primavera with Olives

Here goes the first post! Wowie.

For a long time the best olive pasta sauce around was a Barilla gem called, quite simply, 'Green and Black Olive Sauce.'  Unfortunately, it seemed to disappear from grocery stores about two years ago and my pantry has since been without it.  A quick Google search recently confirmed my fear that the product was discontinued.

At Target the other day, though, I overheard a snipet of good news from another shopper - a Giada De Laurentiis pasta sauce with olives was good!  I marched right over and grabbed a bottle off the shelf.
This was my first experience with the line, which is a Target-only brand by a (previously unheard of to me) Food Network star.  The bottle tells me she has a warm personality, if that means anything.  It turns out, at the very least, that she does make a mean olive marinara.  It is a bit saltier than the Barilla one, but otherwise a good replacement that I am excited to have found.

Polenta Primavera with Olives

I added two fresh tomatoes to the mix to counteract a little bit of the salt in the bottled pasta sauce.  If the saltiness suits you, skip that ingredient.  Also, for this dinner I used a pre-made polenta you can find in most grocery stores. If you have the time and ingredients to make the polenta from scratch, though, I definitely recommend that.

Serves 3

Ingredients

1 small onion

2 small bell peppers, any colors

6-9 white mushrooms, quartered

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 medium sized tomatoes

handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped

1/2 jar olive marinara sauce (Giada's or otherwise)

2 T olive oil

parmesan to grate at table

polenta (one pre-made tube, or a homemade version chilled and cut into wedges)

1 T butter

First saute the onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms until the onions go transparent.  Add in the garlic and diced tomatoes and cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.  Pour in the olive sauce and the basil, reserving a bit of the herb for garnish.  Move sauce to the back burner on low heat until it reaches a simmer.

Move on to the polenta, slicing the refrigerated tube into 3/4 inch rounds.  Heat up a saute pan and the butter, then add the polenta.  Fry the polenta until each side is crisp and tan.  Try to only flip each round once.

Plate with the polenta on bottom and a bit of parmesan and basil on top, and enjoy!