OK, my new favorite junk food I can actually eat guiltlessly on weight watchers is officially my black bean burgers topped with a melted Kraft single and barbecue sauce in a half-a-whole wheat pita pocket. Try it, really -- that Kraft cheese just makes it so junky and good, with that special processed-cheese taste, but actually also goes really well with the flavors of black beans, quinoa, and whole wheat. Who knew? Plus, Kraft singles are little and only 60 calories a slice so you get a lot of the satisfying feeling of having eaten something fast-food-esque with only a little of the consequences.
And on the side, try some sliced heirloom tomatoes, ripe yellow peach, and watermelon with salt, a good squeeze of lemon, a little olive oil, and some chopped fresh basil. YUM.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Manila Clams with Prosciutto and White Wine
I found some Manila clams at a Korean supermarket in our neighborhood and decided to try my hand at cooking clams for the first time. Manila clams are tiny and sweet - you see them on restaurant menus a lot. I followed a recipe online, but I don't remember where I got it from -- any way, the gist of it is that you cook a bit of prosciutto in the bottom of the pan until it gets crispy-ish with shallots and garlic. Then you add between 1/2 cup and a cup of white wine. I let it cook down for a little while before adding the clams. I think you don't really have to cover the pot but I did, and kept peeking and taking out the clams as they opened up so they wouldn't overcook. Finally, pour the cooking liquid into the bowl of clams, and garnish with fresh chopped herbs. With some crusty bread to mop up the juices, it's a lovely and very fast dinner. Clams only take a few minutes to cook. This could just as easily be tossed with spaghetti for a nice spaghetti alla vongole. It's a little difficult to calculate the weight watchers points for wine used in cooking -- but unless you are simmering it for at least 15 minutes it's fair to assume that it is pretty much the same as if you were drinking it. I read up on this a bit and contrary to popular belief, all of the alcohol does not cook off unless you simmer something for at least three hours. However, it reduces by 25% after 15 minutes and by 50% after 30 minutes. So if you make this and simmer it for 15 minutes before adding the clams, you can enter it into WW as if you used a couple less ounces of wine. Clams are about 3 points for 3 oz. of the edible portion. I figure the edible portion of 4 clams may equal about an ounce, these being small clams, so 3 oz. is about a dozen clams.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Homemade Black Bean Burger - 6 points per patty
What is up with stores not carrying black bean burgers anymore? Are they really a relic of the '90s? I spent a lot of happy high school and college vegetarian days scarfing down black bean burgers from Chili's and Morningstar Farms frozen black bean burgers with Trader Joe's guacamole. Ah, the good old days. I missed black bean burgers, so I decided to make some. This recipe came out very, very well. I think that actually if you double the poblano, add more chili powder, and more vital wheat gluten, they'd be perfect. At six points per patty, they're more of an investment than a three oz cold cut sandwich, but they are probably healthier and the patties are thick and satisfying. Use half a small whole wheat pita in place of a bun, and even with some cheese and barbecue sauce it's an under-ten-point meal.
Homemade Black Bean Burgers (6 large patties)
1 can black beans, drained
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp vegetarian worcestershire sauce
1 poblano pepper
1/3 cup vital wheat gluten
2/3 cup quinoa
2/3 cup panko or other breadcrumbs
4 tbsp cornmeal
1 egg
4 tbsp olive or canola oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
black pepper
Turn on your broiler to high. Very lightly coat your pobano with oil and put it in the broiler. You'll want to turn it after about 3 minutes, when the skin is blackened.
Meanwhile, bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Add 1/2 cup quinoa, cover, and turn off the heat but leave the saucepan on the burner. In about five minutes you will have fluffy quinoa. Around that time, you may be ready to take out your blackened poblano and put it in a bowl covered with saran wrap.
While the poblano is cooling, put the black beans, onions, garlic, spices, egg, worcestershire sauce, gluten, and quinoa into the food processor and puree them. It may in fact be better to just mash them, but I'll stick with what I did right now since it turned out well.
Pour the puree into a bowl. Peel and chop the poblano, and stir in the chopped poblano and bread crumbs. Now, it must be kneaded-- this is what makes gluten activate. It's a wet, sticky mixture, so I used a rice paddle to sort of fold it and press it in a kneading motion until it became firmer.
Cover a baking sheet with cornmeal. Form patties by hand and press into the cornmeal on each side to coat.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a frying pan. When hot, add three patties. Flip after few minutes, when the cornmeal on the bottom is browned. Before taking them out, throw a tbsp of soy sauce in the pan. It will sizzle up and season the burgers. Repeat with the second batch.
They are good right away, but better refrigerated overnight and then reheated. You can reheat them in a dry nonstick skillet. Top with some avocado, salsa, cheese, barbecue sauce, or whatever your soul desires.
Homemade Black Bean Burgers (6 large patties)
1 can black beans, drained
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp vegetarian worcestershire sauce
1 poblano pepper
1/3 cup vital wheat gluten
2/3 cup quinoa
2/3 cup panko or other breadcrumbs
4 tbsp cornmeal
1 egg
4 tbsp olive or canola oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
black pepper
Turn on your broiler to high. Very lightly coat your pobano with oil and put it in the broiler. You'll want to turn it after about 3 minutes, when the skin is blackened.
Meanwhile, bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Add 1/2 cup quinoa, cover, and turn off the heat but leave the saucepan on the burner. In about five minutes you will have fluffy quinoa. Around that time, you may be ready to take out your blackened poblano and put it in a bowl covered with saran wrap.
While the poblano is cooling, put the black beans, onions, garlic, spices, egg, worcestershire sauce, gluten, and quinoa into the food processor and puree them. It may in fact be better to just mash them, but I'll stick with what I did right now since it turned out well.
Pour the puree into a bowl. Peel and chop the poblano, and stir in the chopped poblano and bread crumbs. Now, it must be kneaded-- this is what makes gluten activate. It's a wet, sticky mixture, so I used a rice paddle to sort of fold it and press it in a kneading motion until it became firmer.
Cover a baking sheet with cornmeal. Form patties by hand and press into the cornmeal on each side to coat.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a frying pan. When hot, add three patties. Flip after few minutes, when the cornmeal on the bottom is browned. Before taking them out, throw a tbsp of soy sauce in the pan. It will sizzle up and season the burgers. Repeat with the second batch.
They are good right away, but better refrigerated overnight and then reheated. You can reheat them in a dry nonstick skillet. Top with some avocado, salsa, cheese, barbecue sauce, or whatever your soul desires.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Morrocon Vegetable Stew with Bacon - 4 weight watchers points per serving
I just made a rather delicious impromptu dinner out of leftover vegetables. I had some thick-cut applewood smoked bacon, so I cut up half a slice into smaller chunks and started it cooking in the pot. Then, I added 1 cup chopped kabocha squash, 1/2 cup chopped red onion, 2 chopped garlic cloves, and 1 tsp chopped ginger and sauteed them for a few minutes. I added a pinch of cumin, about a tsp of curry powder and a tsp of cinnamon, and sauteed a minute more. I added a cup of vegetarian chicken-flavor broth, a few diced drig figs, ground black pepper, a half-cup cooked brown rice, and about 1 1/2 or 2 cups chopped fresh spinach. Then I covered the pot and let it simmer for ten minutes. Throw in some fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lemon juice at the end. It is really tasty! You can make it two servings for 4 points each, or a full meal for 8 points. I had never had the combination of Morroccan spices and bacon before - probably because pork is not eaten much in that part of the world for religious reasons-- but it is really tasty. I was thinking about how bacon and maple syrup go together on the way home and I started thinking about cinnamon and bacon. They really go together well.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Changes: The Farmer's Market, and Weight Watchers
Wow, it has been far too long since we have posted. But it's not because we haven't been cooking. Over the past two months, I've started following Weight Watchers, and have lost over 13 pounds so far. With Weight Watchers, you can eat as many vegetables as you want and as much fruit as you want. Everything else has point values, and you get a certain number of points per day. I've discovered that it's kind of hard to use the vegetables we've been getting in our CSA for this. It's far easier to have the kind of vegetables around that you can just toss in with eggs in the morning or with some whole wheat pasta for dinner, and summer farmer's markets have those in abundance. Plus, I'm relying on fruit to fill me up, and all we were getting in the CSA was one box of strawberries a week. Meanwhile, bing cherries, pluots, nectarines, peaches are overflowing at the market. So we decided to reduce the CSA to once every two weeks and spend more time at the farmer's market instead.
Being on WW has definitely changed the way I cook. I'm going for cheeses that have more punchy flavor in smaller amounts, and using way less grains. I'm also eating a lot more salad and a lot more fruit than ever.
Here are a few of the things I've learned so far:
1. Soba noodles seem to expand more when cooked than regular pasta- I have no idea why, but they come in handy 2 oz. packets and somehow, two of those packets (4 oz.) fills out a stir fry to make it into four servings. Which means only 1 oz. of noodles per serving -- yet it still feels like a noodle dish.
2. Feta cheese gives you a lot of flavor without a lot of points.
3. Olives, hot peppers, and all varieties of pickles are a great way to add flavor to a sandwich without using cheese or mayo or pesto.
4. Buying medium whole wheat pitas and cutting them in half is a good way to cut down on the points in a sandwich. A half pita stuffed with filling is just as satisfying as a sandwich with two pieces of sandwich bread.
5. When making a salad put the dressing in the bottom of the bowl and then use your hands to mix the salad greens with it like the do on Chopped. You need much less dressing that way, and your salad is more appropriately lightly dressed.
6. Fat-free and lowfat cheese may give you a little bulk but they don't give you much flavor.
7. Having cherries and grapes around makes it easy to fill up a bowl with fruit instead of nuts or chips for snacking during Law and Order marathons.
8. Frozen bananas take of the edge off of ice cream cravings, especially with some chocolate syrup.
9. It's hard to fit pizza into Weight Watchers -- but making your own in the toaster on whole wheat pita is yummy and satisfying. Kale makes a remarkably good topping on these- it gets a nice texture with some time in the toaster.
10. After two months without a cheeseburger, it has gotten easier...but I still want one.
This week, we went to the farmer's market and got heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, crimini mushrooms, green & orange bell peppers, onions, peaches, nectarines, cherries, pluots, zucchini, Chinese eggplant, celery, sweet basil, and fresh thyme. At the grocery store we picked up feta cheese, parmesan, fresh mozzarella pearls, and a very flavorful, nutty hard cheese called une kaas. Here are my two best recipes of the week so far:
Greek Salad (3 servings, 5 points each)
Gretchen lived in Athens for six months and she said this tasted exactly how it is supposed to taste. Apparently real Greek salad does not have lettuce. This one's good for Weight Watchers because feta cheese is low in points, and you end up with less than an ounce of cheese and only 1 tbsp of olive oil per serving. I had this with a small piece of breaded, pan-fried fish last night for a low-points dinner.
1 heirloom tomato, diced
1 small green pepper or 1/2 a regular green pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, diced
8 small olives, sliced
1/4 a red onion or 1/2 a small red onion, chopped or sliced
2 oz. feta cheese, diced
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp + 1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 pinch dried oregano
salt and black pepper
In a bowl, whisk together olive oil and red wine vinegar with oregano and salt and pepper. Toss with vegetables & olives.
Catalan-Style Tomato Toasts-- These are good for WW because you shave the cheese on a mandolin. If you have a strongly flavored cheese, a little goes a long way. I used 1/2 oz of une kaas for this amount of tomato slices.
1 heirloom tomato
1 clove garlic
a few sprigs fresh thyme
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper
shaved cheese -- une kaas, parmesan, manchego, etc.
Pita or baugette
Slice tomato. Removed leaves from thyme springs. Slice garlic ultra-thin. Sprinkle salt and pepper and a drop of olive oil on each tomato. Stack tomato slices with fresh thyme and garlic slices between each tomato. Let marinate for awhile. I put them in the fridge overnight to have for lunch the next day, but they could probably just sit out for 15 or 20 minutes too.
Toast your bread of choice. Top with tomato-thyme-garlic slices and shavings of cheese.
Being on WW has definitely changed the way I cook. I'm going for cheeses that have more punchy flavor in smaller amounts, and using way less grains. I'm also eating a lot more salad and a lot more fruit than ever.
Here are a few of the things I've learned so far:
1. Soba noodles seem to expand more when cooked than regular pasta- I have no idea why, but they come in handy 2 oz. packets and somehow, two of those packets (4 oz.) fills out a stir fry to make it into four servings. Which means only 1 oz. of noodles per serving -- yet it still feels like a noodle dish.
2. Feta cheese gives you a lot of flavor without a lot of points.
3. Olives, hot peppers, and all varieties of pickles are a great way to add flavor to a sandwich without using cheese or mayo or pesto.
4. Buying medium whole wheat pitas and cutting them in half is a good way to cut down on the points in a sandwich. A half pita stuffed with filling is just as satisfying as a sandwich with two pieces of sandwich bread.
5. When making a salad put the dressing in the bottom of the bowl and then use your hands to mix the salad greens with it like the do on Chopped. You need much less dressing that way, and your salad is more appropriately lightly dressed.
6. Fat-free and lowfat cheese may give you a little bulk but they don't give you much flavor.
7. Having cherries and grapes around makes it easy to fill up a bowl with fruit instead of nuts or chips for snacking during Law and Order marathons.
8. Frozen bananas take of the edge off of ice cream cravings, especially with some chocolate syrup.
9. It's hard to fit pizza into Weight Watchers -- but making your own in the toaster on whole wheat pita is yummy and satisfying. Kale makes a remarkably good topping on these- it gets a nice texture with some time in the toaster.
10. After two months without a cheeseburger, it has gotten easier...but I still want one.
This week, we went to the farmer's market and got heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, crimini mushrooms, green & orange bell peppers, onions, peaches, nectarines, cherries, pluots, zucchini, Chinese eggplant, celery, sweet basil, and fresh thyme. At the grocery store we picked up feta cheese, parmesan, fresh mozzarella pearls, and a very flavorful, nutty hard cheese called une kaas. Here are my two best recipes of the week so far:
Greek Salad (3 servings, 5 points each)
Gretchen lived in Athens for six months and she said this tasted exactly how it is supposed to taste. Apparently real Greek salad does not have lettuce. This one's good for Weight Watchers because feta cheese is low in points, and you end up with less than an ounce of cheese and only 1 tbsp of olive oil per serving. I had this with a small piece of breaded, pan-fried fish last night for a low-points dinner.
1 heirloom tomato, diced
1 small green pepper or 1/2 a regular green pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, diced
8 small olives, sliced
1/4 a red onion or 1/2 a small red onion, chopped or sliced
2 oz. feta cheese, diced
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp + 1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 pinch dried oregano
salt and black pepper
In a bowl, whisk together olive oil and red wine vinegar with oregano and salt and pepper. Toss with vegetables & olives.
Catalan-Style Tomato Toasts-- These are good for WW because you shave the cheese on a mandolin. If you have a strongly flavored cheese, a little goes a long way. I used 1/2 oz of une kaas for this amount of tomato slices.
1 heirloom tomato
1 clove garlic
a few sprigs fresh thyme
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper
shaved cheese -- une kaas, parmesan, manchego, etc.
Pita or baugette
Slice tomato. Removed leaves from thyme springs. Slice garlic ultra-thin. Sprinkle salt and pepper and a drop of olive oil on each tomato. Stack tomato slices with fresh thyme and garlic slices between each tomato. Let marinate for awhile. I put them in the fridge overnight to have for lunch the next day, but they could probably just sit out for 15 or 20 minutes too.
Toast your bread of choice. Top with tomato-thyme-garlic slices and shavings of cheese.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Deliciousness Alert
Okay, so I just had the braised lamb for lunch. Forget what I said about too much chipotle, I wouldn't change a thing about this recipe, except perhaps adding more balsamic-soaked raisins. After sitting for a day, the flavors really came together well. The lamb is rich with a lot of red chile flavor and the balsamic raisins are a nice sweet and sour element.
Check out my recipe entry on food52.com: http://www.food52.com/recipes/12375_chipotle_braised_lamb_tacos_with_olives_and_balsamic_soaked_raisins
If you like it, write me a nice comment :)
Check out my recipe entry on food52.com: http://www.food52.com/recipes/12375_chipotle_braised_lamb_tacos_with_olives_and_balsamic_soaked_raisins
If you like it, write me a nice comment :)
Braised Lamb Tacos with Mediterranean Salsa
I created this recipe to enter this week's contest on food52.com -- your best street food. When I have cooked with achiote paste before I've just bought it already prepared from a Mexican grocery store. This time, I could only get ground annato seed, so I made my own, with tasty results. I've made a version of this dish before, but I think this one came out better- though I'd tone down the chipotle a little next time. But, I can honestly say I would be happy to get this out of the window of a taco truck, which is my highest praise for tacos. I'd suggest having these with a salad and a crisp cold beer.
Make 8 Tacos
Braised Lamb Tacos:
2 tablespoons ground annato seed
1 tablespoon orange or tangerine juice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon tequila
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon adobo sauce from canned chipotles
1 pound lamb stew meat, in 2 inch pieces
2 chipotles in adobo
3 cups vegetable broth
1 onion, chopped
3 bay leaves
sour cream
6 corn tortillas
Mediterranean Salsa:
1 tablespoon italian parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh mint, chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped white onion
2 tablespoons scallion
1/4 cup green olives, chopped
1 tablespoon raisins
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
juice of 1/2 a juicy lime
1 tablespoon sundried tomato
1 teaspoon olive or canola oil
1.Mix together first 13 ingredients to form a paste. Rub into lamb and marinate overnight, or for about eight hours. Ask a question about this step.
2.Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and sear lamb meat. Ask a question about this step.
3.In a food processor, blend vegetable broth with chipotles. Add liquid to lamb, and add bay leaves. Ask a question about this step.
4.Bring to a boil, then cover and cook on low heat for an hour. Ask a question about this step.
5.Remove cover and cook another thirty minutes or so, until liquid reduces to a sauce and lamb is very tender. Ask a question about this step.
6.Shred lamb into sauce with a fork. Ask a question about this step.
7.While lamb is cooking, put raisins and balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan. Heat, then reduce to low and simmer until balsamic is reduced by at least half and raisin are plumped. Ask a question about this step.
8.Mince raisins mix together with other salsa ingredients. Ask a question about this step.
9.Heat each corn tortilla in a frying pan with a tiny bit of oil, and top with a couple of good spoonfuls of meat, a good spoonful of salsa, and a dollop of sour cream
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