Tag Archives: quick cooking

Gingered Carrot Soup

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Inspired by my zucchini soup experiments a few weeks ago, I decided to try something a little different.  As I walked through the produce isle at the grocery store, I picked up a bag of peeled baby carrots which I like to snack on during the week.  I looked down and saw a 2 lb bag of large carrots and it hit me… Carrot Soup!!  Not only was it insanely easy to make, its very good and, of course, nutritious.
Ingredients: 
  • 2 lb bag of carrots peeled and diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic peeled and smashed
  • vegetable or chicken broth
  • water
  • ¼ tsp ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 oz softened cheese.
Directions:
  1. Place diced carrots in soup pot along with garlic cloves just cover tops of carrots with broth.
  2. Bring to low simmer and cook covered until carrots are soft.
  3. As broth evaporates during the cooking process, continue to replace evaporated broth only to cover carrots.
  4. Once cooked, take immersion blender and blend carrots in the pot.
  5. Add water to create desired thickness.  I added approximately 1 cup to mine.
  6. Add cheese and spices and blend again.
Voila!  Delish!
I was so proud of the way it turned out that I called my mother and asked her to come over for a taste.  The following is the dialogue from that lovely conversation:
Mom: Ooh, spicy. Very good, but don’t eat too much of this. (as she puts another spoonful in her mouth)

Me: Why? It’s healthy. 

Mom: (pointing to my face) It’s going to make you turn orange!
Me: (shaking my head and smirking)
Mom: (smiling now but trying to be serious) Fine! Don’t listen to your mother.

Garbanzo Turkey Chili

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Here’s a quick-fix meal I prepared a big pot of for myself this past Sunday.  I have been packing myself leftovers of it for lunch this week.  It’s high in protein, low in fat and super delicious and easy to make. Things like this make it easy to continue to eat healthy despite not getting home until past 8:30pm most nights.  🙂
Ingredients:
  • 1 lb of ground turkey. You can use either 94% lean/ 6% fat blend or ground turkey breast which is 99% lean/ 1% fat.  The turkey breast will be good but dryer.
  • ½ onion chopped, 2 cloves of garlic minced
  • ½ cup of diced carrots
  • ½ cup of diced sweet peppers (optional)
  • 1, 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes ( I used a “zesty jalapeno” blend)
  • 1, 15.5 oz can of garbanzos drained and rinsed, 1+ cups of chicken broth
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ¼ tsp. garlic powder
  • ¼ tsp. smoked paprika
  • 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper.
Directions:
  1. In large skillet, heat up 2 tbsps of olive oil.
  2. Saute onions, garlic, carrots and peppers until tender.
  3. Throw in ground turkey and break apart with spoon as it cooks.
  4. Once all the meat is broken apart and cooking, add bay leaf, can of garbanzos and can of diced tomatoes.
  5. Add chicken broth to moisten mixture and to keep ingredients submerged in sauce.
  6. Simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes to allow seasoning to marry.

Enjoy alone or with some brown rice or tortilla chips! 🙂

April 29th: Tortilla Espanola!

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tortilla

Today I’m grateful for the opportunity to cook for someone and enjoy a lovely meal…In Spain a “tortilla” is an omelette, not a flat bread you stuff with beans and rice.  😉 A tortilla espanola is the most traditional and basic of these omelettes which are traditionally served as “tapas” or appetizers.  I make tortillas as my main dish on days that I don’t feel like making meat but want a non-soy source of protein.  Its delicious, easy, quick and impressive looking.

Here’s how I made mine!

Ingredients:

 

 

tortilla 3

  • olive oil
  • 8 eggs beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper
  • 1 large red potato or 1 average sized Idaho potato
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion sliced

Directions:

  1. Slice potato into small pieces and boil in water until tender
  2. in a deep frying pan, sautee sliced onions until translucent
  3. toss in cooked potatoes and lower heat to simmer
  4. pour in eggs and cover.
  5. Cook over low heat covered until bottom of omelette is golden.
  6. Flip and cook on other side until just done.
  7. Enjoy!!

I served mine with simple roasted asparagus and whole wheat baguette… and red wine of course!!

 

Chicken Fajita Salad

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taco salad

Check out what I made from yesterday’s left-overs.  I made chicken fajitas last night and decided that, for lunch, I didn’t want to eat the left-overs wrapped in a tortilla.  Instead, I placed the meat and veggies over lettuce and tomato, used salsa as the dressing and voila!  A healthy, low-fat and super nutritious lunch was served.

Here’s how I made yesterday’s fajitas.

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb chicken tenderloins cut into cubes
  • 1/2 large onion sliced
  • 1 green bell pepper sliced
  • 1 orange, yellow or red bell pepper sliced
  • garlic powder
  • cumin
  • Sazon Goya Complete Latin Seasoning Mix with Saffron
  • cayenne pepper
  • olive oil

Suggested garnish ingredients:

  • 2% milk cheese (Mexican blend)
  • low fat sour cream
  • salsa
  • guacamole
  • shredded lettuce
  • diced tomato
  • whole wheat soft tortillas

Directions:

  1. heat a drizzle of olive oil in large skillet and toss onions and peppers along with desired amount of seasoning until veggies are slightly tender and are a bit charred.
  2. transfer to a plate
  3. using same skillet, heat up another drizzle of oil and cook the cubed chicken tenderloins with desired amount of seasoning
  4. throw both veggies and chicken together in skillet and heat through

Serve family style.  Let everyone fill their whole wheat tortillas as they wish with chicken/veggie mixture and garnishes.

 

Kinda-Cuban Chicken Soup

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I’ve been craving some chicken soup for a little while and today I jumped at the chance to make myself a big ol’ pot of it!  I love all types of chicken soups.  I adore chicken matzo ball soup, traditional american chicken soup with noodles, chicken tortilla soup… but my favorite of all-time has GOT to be my momma’s recipe for Cuban chicken soup.

The reason I have called it “kinda-Cuban” chicken soup in this article is because I omitted the noodles (broken up spaghetti noodles) that are traditionally included in the soup but I can’t stand.  Secondly, I forgot to buy corn which is actually one of my favorite parts of the soup. It was a real bummer to realize this when I got back from the grocery store but the soup turned out pretty good regardless.  I’ll include them in the recipe but I’ll admit to having had a brain fart when I made it for myself this evening.

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Ingredients:

  • 3-4 stalks of celery
  • 3-4 carrots or 1 small bag of baby carrots
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 medium calabaza pumpkin  (if you can’t find this at your grocery store, use butternut squash like I did today because its not in season)
  • 2 medium pieces of Malanga (this is a traditional Caribbean root vegetable similar to a potato but A LOT more dense.  It can be found in most grocery stores but, if you ABSOLUTELY MUST substitute it, use potatoes.  I’m warning you though…. it just won’t be the same)
  • 2 cobs of corn quartered
  • 2 pounds of skinless dark meat chicken.  (trim off the extra fat)
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 envelope of Sazon Goya complete seasoning mix with saffron
  • 2 chicken bouillon cubes

Cuban chicken soup is traditionally enjoyed with a squeeze of lime juice and a side of greasy white rice…. (Cubans are not known to be healthy eaters.)

Or, you can enjoy it my way and enjoy it with a healthy squeeze of lime juice and a few dashes of tabasco sauce! 🙂  Either way, it MUST have a squeeze of lime juice.  It brings out all the flavors and takes the soup to a whole new level of yumminess.

Enjoy!!  What are YOUR favorite types of chicken soup recipes?!  I’d love for you to share!

Ginger Butternut Squash

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pumpkin soup 1

On my way to the grocery store this afternoon, I called my friend Magaly to see how she was doing.  True to her energetic and endearingly quirky way of being, she went into some random tangent about a topic that was completely unrelated but interesting none the less… “How do you make squash soup?  I tried to make it the other day and it was grainy and awful!”

I gave her a quick recap on how I usually make the soup then felt instantly inspired to make and eat some myself tonight!  There are very few ingredients, it contains barely any fat and it is completely vegetarian.  Although I finished making the soup way after I had eaten my steelhead trout dinner, I filled a mug and had treated myself to some on the couch while watching tv.  I also packed myself some for lunch tomorrow.  Yum!!

Ingredients:

  • 2, 12 oz packages of frozen cooked squash
  • 3-4 carrots
  • 3-4 stalks of celery
  • 1/2 large onion or 1 small
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 vegetable bouillon cube
  • 1/2 tsp each of garlic powder, ginger and cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp (or more if you like spice) red cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  • (1 tbsp sugar is optional)

Directions:

The ginger and cayenne give this one a real kick.  Enjoy!

February 19th: Dinner for One

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trout dinner 2

 

Small victory today!  I must share that I am proud of myself for deciding not to just open up a can of garbanzo beans or tuna for dinner.  Although I cook well and have posted several healthy recipes, I must admit that I get tired and lazy sometimes after work and have been known to fix myself quick and healthy, but completely unceremonious things for dinner when I’m feeding only myself.

Today after my run, I stretched, grabbed my keys and purse then headed over to the grocery store all stinky and sweaty before I had any time to get lazy about it.  I bought myself a bunch of veggies and a piece of steelhead trout!  This delicious dinner is the result.

I simply broiled the trout the same way I prepared the salmon from my previous article (see Yumminess page) then made some sugar snap peas and farro as my sides!  Sugar snap peas recipe to follow.

I must say that preparing dinners like these for myself makes me feel like a rockstar…  Its tastier and healthier than eating out! 🙂

February 4th: Dinner and a Movie

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salmon dinner

Today I am grateful for someone to cook dinner for.  I’m pretty good about preparing myself a big pot of something over the weekend and eating it several nights in a row or fixing myself something quick and healthy on the fly after work.  What I DON’T do, however, is make myself any animal proteins when I eat alone.  (unless it comes out of a can, lol)

I acknowledge that this is silly and stupid.  Buying myself a small steak or my own fillet of fish at the grocery store is completely normal and would be a very beneficial to me but… I just don’t do it.  There is something ceremonial about making and eating a more formal meal like that.  I usually reserve that for times when I cook for someone which I LOVE to do.

In my house growing up, dinner was sacred.  No answering phones, no watching TV and no reading at the table.   We took some time to enjoy the meal my mother had lovingly prepared and talk about our day, laugh and enjoy each other’s company.  Thats what dinner is all about… eating something special and enjoying someone’s company while eating it.  On the menu tonight was salmon, broiled broccoli and white rice.  Here’s how I did it…

Salmon:

Ingredients: 

  • Salmon fillet (not steaks)  I find that salmon steaks are more bone and skin than you bargained for.  Figure 6-10 oz of salmon filet per person you are serving.  Trust me, you’ll eat it.
  • Lime or lemon juice (use fresh!! don’t destroy the awesomeness of the fish by dousing it with that GARBAGE they sell in the little lemon-shaped plastic containers)
  • sea salt
  • fresh ground pepper
  • cayenne
  • Optional additions: Onion powder and garlic powder

Instructions:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
  2. line sheet tray with foil
  3. rinse your filet of fish and pat the skin dry as much as possible and lay it skin side down directly on the foil.  This will assure that the skin will stick to the foil and easily slide off the fish.  (don’t have your fish monger take the skin off before hand.  It makes it juicy while cooking.  You just don’t want to eat it because its extra fishy tasting.)
  4. squeeze lime or lemon juice on flesh of fish
  5. season to taste
  6. Place fish in center rack of oven and check after 10 minutes.  Cook to desired temperature.  I like mine cooked through but some enjoy it a little rare in the center.

Broccoli:

Ingredients:

  • broccoli florets
  • olive oil
  • sea salt
  • fresh cracked pepper
  • cayenne (do you see a pattern here?)

Instructions:

  1. Line sheet tray with foil
  2. wash and trim florets to desired size
  3. drizzle with oil
  4. season
  5. roast at 400 degrees (below the fish i the same oven) and shake the tray frequently to make sure that all sides get crunchy.

Enjoy!!!…  Follow it up with a nice bottle of wine and a movie and you’ve got yourself a nice little evening if you ask me 🙂

Healthy and Fast Weeknight Meal #1: Gazpacho

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Yummy and fresh

Yummy and fresh

I used to make the excuse that I was too tired to cook dinner after work waaaayyyyy too frequently. Unless I snuck over to my mom’s house and mooched a home-cooked meal from her, my excuses usually led to either too many calories (half a box of mac and cheese one night, the other half the next) or too few calories (a bag of low-fat microwave popcorn and a can of Coke Zero). Either way, the choices were horrible and the food tasted like crap… which, coincidentally, was how they made me feel.

The truth is, I was always the one that helped my mom prepare meals growing up and am usually her designated sous chef for holidays and family gatherings so, there was really no excuse for me not to have known how to feed myself a little better. Despite whatever culinary skills I may delude myself into believing I possess, however, you actually need very little (if any) skills in the kitchen to prepare some basic and healthy meals during the week. Trust me, your body will thank you and I bet you’ll save a lot of money as well. Take-out and prepared foods at the supermarkets are REALLY expensive and often not that healthy.

Monday afternoon, I received an email from my boyfriend with this link, along with the following message: “I’ve been craving gazpacho for a while. Would you make this for me, please?”

Spanish vegetable soup for dinner on the first day back to school and after a SERIOUSLY SWEATY hot yoga class?… I was up for the challenge!

Now, I may not be a lot of things, but one thing I am certain that I AM is practical. Practicality comes in handy when you need to get a task done quickly and efficiently. Weeknight Cooking Tip #1: The first thing you should always do when making a new recipe for the first time is analyze how you could simplify it without taking away its nutritional value or flavor.

If you open the link to the recipe, you’ll see that it calls for 2 lbs of fresh tomatoes. Can you imagine having to slice and dice 2 lbs of fresh tomatoes and adding water to get them to the right consistency?!… not to mention having to worry if they were sweet, unripe or mealy when you got them from the produce isle? In the words of Sweet Brown, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” Instead, I used whole, canned San Marzano plum tomatoes in their own juice. These can be bought in 1 lb cans and have a sweet flavor and the perfect texture.

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Everything else was easy. I just dumped it into the same bowl and blended it! Notice I said “bowl” and not “blender.” Weeknight Cooking Tip #2: Invest in an emersion blender (hand-held stick blender). It will be the best $45 investment you ever make for your kitchen and you will be eternally grateful to me for having given you the brilliant idea. It will save you so much time and mess that you’ll be more willing to make recipes that used to make your kitchen sink look like a war-zone. I use mine to blend my pumpkin soup right in the soup pot, sauces on the stove, smoothies in plastic cups and even salsas in their serving dishes.

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From prep to finish, I think the whole meal took me about 15 minutes to make. And voila! We had a pretty healthy and delicious dinner on the table.

The recipe suggests adding either basil or cilantro as a topping to the soup. Cilantro is DEFINITELY the way to go here because it pairs better with the chipotle, if you ask me. Some people have a bizarre aversion to cilantro, however, so do what tastes best to you…

How about the protein, you ask? Well, some gazpacho varieties are traditionally garnished with chopped hard boiled eggs. We always have a carton of eggs at home so I boiled a few of these up and served them along side the soup. If you are vegetarian/ vegan, however, it would be just as tasty with some sauteed extra-firm tofu cubes floating on top (maybe dust them with a little onion powder, garlic powder and cumin)!

Weeknight Cooking Tip #3: Make enough for left-overs! Guess what the best thing about this meal is?!… We had it for dinner today too, which meant NEITHER of us had to cook 😉

Do you have any go-to weeknight meals?
Is there a web site you love to go to for to search for recipes?
Any great cooking short-cuts you’d like to share?
Any great gadgets YOU think are must-haves for they kitchen?
Please share! As always, I love hearing from you.