Tag: tasty

Show me your mussels..

Sometimes I crack myself up with the headlines for these posts. But enough random food blogger banter let’s get down to business.  The dish below is a favorite at our house for a couple of reasons. It’s healthy, uses one pot, cooks in 20 minutes and will cost you under $10.00, and uses only 10 ingredients. That alone should be enough to get any weeknight cook excited for what’s coming next. It utilizes frozen precooked mussels in a tomato sauce. We purchase ours at Aldi’s and at less than $3.00 for a 1lb box how can you go wrong.

Bloody Mary Mussels

  1. 1/2 tbs olive oil
  2. 3 ribs of celery finely diced
  3. 1 whole onion finely diced
  4. 1/2 tsp each of sea salt and cracked black pepper
  5. 3 large cloves of garlic minced
  6. 16.9z can of fire-roasted tomatoes with the juice
  7. 1.5 tbs of horseradish
  8. 1 TBS of Worchester sauce
  9. 1.5 tsp cayenne hot sauce
  10. 2lbs of precooked mussels in sauce thawed

In a large heavy-bottomed dutch oven heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the diced celery and onions and cook for 3 minutes or until they start to soften and go a little translucent. Add the minced garlic and the salt and pepper and cook for another 2-3 minutes. lower the heat to medium and add the entire can of diced tomatoes with the liquid along with the horseradish, Worcester, and hot sauce and allow the sauce to reduce for at least 5-6 minutes (Depending on your tastebuds feel free to add more or less of the hot sauce and horseradish) Add the mussels with the sauce to the pan and bring the heat back to medium-high, cover with the lid and allow to cook for another 4-5 minutes or until mussels are heated through and the shells have opened up. I usually give the mussels a stir once or twice during the cooking process to make sure everything is cooking evenly.

If your feeling fancy garnish with leaves of celery and scallions and you’re ready to eat. We usually eat this over pasta or with some crusty artisan bread. The sauce is really the star of this dish and you’re going to want to make sure you scoop up every bite.

If you are going to use fresh mussels add about a 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce to the recipe and add it when you put in the other wet ingredients. The key with cooking mussels or any other shellfish like clams and oysters is they are ready once the shells open. If a mussel or clam doesn’t open during the cooking process don’t eat it, it very well could make you sick.

So dinners on the table in under 20 minutes and when you finish up all you have are the plates and probably two pans to clean up, what could be better than that? The only thing I can think of is if someone else does the dishes.

W.W.G.D.W.L aka What would grandma do with leftovers??

It’s never a great time to waste food but our current world situation makes it even more important to maximize the food we purchase or grow. The USDA estimates there is a 31% food loss at the retail level which equals out to 133 billion pounds or $161 billion dollars that we pitch right into trash every year. I had to bust out the big calculator to figure out the math on this one so here it goes, that equals out to just over $250.00 for every single person in America.

https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs

I’m not sure about you but the thought of throwing out a thousand dollars for my family of four makes me sick to my stomach. And on top of that the man hours, and natural resources that went into that head of cabbage is far to valuable to end up in a landfill.

While were on the topic of spending cabbage and saving it at the same time I’d like to offer up my westernized version of kimchi. I use regular ole green cabbage instead of Napa cabbage as its way less expensive and opt out of the room temperature fermentation phase.

My version of kimchi

  • Quarter of a large green cabbage cored and sliced thin
  • 1 TBS of sea salt
  • 3-4 cloves of grated garlic
  • 1 tbs fresh grated ginger
  • 1/4 TBS Fish Sauce – Not mandatory but it makes a huge difference.
  • 1 TBS granulated sugar
  • 1-2 Dry chili De Arbol
  • 1 1/2 to 2 TBS Sambal
  • 3-4 scallions finely sliced
  • 1 TBS Sesame Seeds.
  • 1 TBS Granulated Garlic

In a large mixing bowl add the cabbage and the sea salt. With your clean hands massage the cabbage for a few minutes and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, the goal here is to break down the cabbage a little bit.

In no particular order you can add all of the remaining ingredients and give it a couple of good stirs to incorporate all the ingredients.

I would practice caution when adding the fish sauce to this recipe as a little bit goes a really long way. A lot of supermarket chains now sell fish sauce but if you can’t find it there check out your towns local Asian market for this but be prepared to walk out with a lot of stuff you never thought existed. Also don’t get out of control with the heat level from the chili’s either, as this ages it will pick up a lot more heat.

Transfer the kimchi mix to a container that has an air tight lid and be sure to pack the container very tightly with the cabbage mix. Think 15lbs of stuff in a 10lb bag for this step. Pour over the remaining liquid and seal it up. Let it sit in the fridge for at least 1-2 days before eating.

I love to eat this just as it is or mix it into recipes like salmon cakes or fried rice for a huge flavor boost that wont add a ton of calories.

So lets all do our part this year and save the produce from the darkest recesses of our fridges and turn leftovers into the shining star of a dish. Our taste-buds, wallets and grandma’s will be so impressed with us.

Veggies!! Its whats for dinner.

It drives me crazy when you’re looking for dinner ideas on the interwebs and you see something that looks good and then it turns into this… It all started one summer day when I was at the farmers market and I saw the most amazing free range, organic heirloom tomato, blah blah blah so on and so forth. Five page later your not sure if you are reading a novel or a recipe.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. To start with I’m not a chef or a dietitian but I am very passionate about cooking and putting a healthy meal on the table for my family. With that being said taste as you go and if you think it needs a little more of one thing and a little less of another feel free to get creative. This dish is well suited to adding and omitting veggies that you have on hand. For instance I had a half bag of frozen cubed butternut squash hanging out in the freezer, so in it went.

Roasted Eggplant and Veggie “Lasagna“

2 large or 4 small eggplants

3 yellow squash, 3 zucchini, 2 medium red onions.

1tbs olive oil

2 cans 16oz tomato pulp, preferably something that is already seasoned with garlic and basil (Crushed tomatoes can also work.)

1 can fire roasted tomatoes, drain off the liquid

5 cloves of garlic minced

2tbs garlic powder

2tbs italian seasoning

1 tbs fennel seeds

1/2 bag of frozen butternut squash

1 brick of frozen spinach

9z* of whole wheat pasta in your favorite shape. * dry measurement, before cooking

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup almonds

optional items

1/2 cup of goat cheese

1/4 fresh shredded Parmesan cheese

step one. With a paring knife prick the skin on the eggplants a few times and place on a baking sheet in the oven at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes depending on size. you are looking for them to have a tight skin but soft and tender on the inside. You can step up your game on this and cook them on your grill, just set them on the grate away from indirect heat. transfer to a large mixing bowl and cover with a plate or film wrap and allow to steam until cool.

step two. dice your yellow squash, zucchini and slice the onions into bite sized pieces. over a medium high heat add the olive oil and the veggies and saute the veggies for 7-10 minutes or until tender and lightly browned, keep the veggies moving pretty consistently. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 minute. lower the heat to medium low and add the two cans of tomato pulp, 1 can of diced tomatoes, (liquid drained off) frozen spinach and the butternut squash. cook on the stove top for at least ten minutes or until the sauce begins to thicken. Once cooled take the skin off of your eggplants and transfer the “meat” to the sauce. Add the Italian seasoning, garlic powder and fennel seeds and cook for a few more minutes.

While the sauce is cooking bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta to about 75% fully cooked and drain off the liquid. I’ve used penne, cavatapi and rustichine aka mini lasagna noodles in past iterations of this dish and they have all come out great.

assembly. In a 13×9 oven proof casserole add a few spoonfuls of the veggie mixture. top that with half of your cooked pasta. If your cool with dairy this is where I would sprinkle on the goat cheese, vegan cheese is cool here as well if you wish. The next layers are as follows, Tomato veggie mixture, pasta, and then the remaining tomato veggie mixture. From here you can transfer directly to the oven and bake or for better results let it hang out for a couple of hours or overnight to let all the flavors enhance.

Before baking take the 1/2 cup of almonds and crush them, you can use a food processor for this but I prefer the hammer method. Put the almonds in a bag wrap it in a towel and go to town releasing some of the days pent up aggression. Mix the crushed almonds and panko together in a bowl.

Place in the center of a preheated 375 degree oven and bake until bubbling and heated through. cooking time will vary on the initial starting temp of your lasagna but should be anywhere from 20-40 minutes to cook through. Half way through the cooking process sprinkle over the panko and almond mixture. In the last few minutes of baking you can add the shredded Parmesan cheese and give it enough time to melt. For best plate presentation allow to sit out for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving. Ideally this would be served with some kind of spring mix or kale salad with lots of fruits, veggies, seeds and nuts for added flavor and texture.

Is this veggie lasagna as good as Nona Maria’s classic meat and cheese laden lasagna? I think they are pretty close, but one things for certain you cold eat 2-3 times the potion size and probably still come out ahead when it comes to calories consumed.