Cauliflower “Dirty Rice”

For months now I’ve been seeing all of these recipes for replacing various grains with grated cauliflower.  I like these recipes because 1) I LOVE cauliflower! and 2) it’s so very healthy.

I finally decided to try one but the problem was, nothing I had saved/pinned to try had quite what I was looking for.  So, I kind of made it up.

It was super easy and super delicious!  I was going for a “rice-a-roni” flavor, but it came out more like a dirty rice.  My husband thought it tasted like Popeyes dirty rice, so that’s what I’m calling it.  In fact, he was several bites into it before he realized there was no actual rice in the dish.

I have since investigated rice-a-roni flavoring and I want to try again with different spices and herbs.  I also want to try a Mexican style rice with maybe chorizo and chili powder.  Honestly, I want to replace rice with cauliflower in just about everything.  It was that good.

And the best part, the entire dish (the whole bowl you see below) is only 300 calories!!  That is my kind of dish!

Cauliflower “Dirty Rice”
Yield 5 cups

Ingredients
1 tsp Butter
1/4 cup Chicken Stock
1 tsp Chicken Bouillon
1/2 Onion, chopped
2 Carrots, chopped
1 Bell Pepper, chopped
3/4 head Cauliflower
1 tsp Dried Parsley
1 1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp Poultry Seasoning, (or dried thyme)
1/2 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Seasoning Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper

Directions
Dissolve bouillon in stock and heat in microwave for about 30 seconds to dissolve the bouillon.  Set aside.

Melt butter in pan

Add onion, carrots, bell pepper and stock mixture to pan and cook veggies until translucent.  About 5 minutes.

Add cauliflower and cook until slightly tender - 5 more minutes

Add all the seasoning and cook for a few minutes more until everything is nicely melded.

Serve

Catch up...

I’ve gotten a bit behind on the blog.  The holidays always overwhelm me.  Here are some of the things I’ve made over the past few months....

Crispy Cauliflower With Turkey, Capers, Raisins, And Breadcrumbs
- This was adapted from this recipe
- I added ½ pound ground turkey
- I decreased the olive oil to 1-2 tablespoons
- I decreased the breadcrumbs to ¼ cup, but I think next time I will skip the breadcrumbs altogether
- I used balsamic, worcestershire, and poultry seasoning for seasoning
- I added a splash of broth and a few flavored vinegars (cider, oregano, balsamic)
- It was higher in calories than I wanted, but I think I have a few areas where I can adjust
- Really, you could add just about any herbs and seasoning to this


Winterized Greek Salad
- This was adapted from this recipe
- It was delicious!
- I wanted to use this as a weeknight salad, so I needed to get the calories down to about 100 cals per serving.  So...

- I sauteed the sprouts in chicken broth instead of oil (not as crispy, but still tasty)

- And I skipped the cheese

Pumpkin Chai cookies
- This was the recipe
- I think these would be better with a pumpkin frosting
- The cookie is good and moist but not very sweet.  It’s a little cakey, almost like a scone


We also had an Inter holiday dinner (since we weren’t here for Thanksgiving).  I pretty much followed all of these recipes exactly.
Baked Brie and Cranberry Sauce (Incredibly good and easy!  This will become a staple on my Thanksgiving table from now on)

Mushroom dressing (Also, very good.  I did use a rosemary bread for a little more flavor)

Turkey Wellington (Jamie Oliver recipe... this was very good, but so complicated to make that I think I would prefer just doing a basic turkey)

Double chocolate mint cookies (Really yummy, esp if you like chocolate and mint!)

Gingerbread Trifle (I think this was my favorite of the night!  Everything about it was perfect - a really well put together recipe from Martha Stewart)

I have started making holiday cookie bags for family and friends.  Here is what I made this year:
Peppermint Chocolate Cake Balls (Devil’s Food chocolate cake, Dark chocolate frosting, peppermint patties)


Salted caramel and chocolate chip cookies (these were ok... not my favorite - cookie was a bit dry and crunchy)


Fruitcake Cookies (This was my favorite of the three.  It’s a good recipe with a nice, soft cookie that’s not overly sweet, which I find nice in the middle of the holidays when everything is sweet)


Finally, for New Year’s Eve/Day, I made the traditional foods...
Black-Eyed Peas (Texas Caviar - black-eyed peas, yellow and green bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, red onion, lime juice, green onion, and cilantro),


Cabbage (Cabbage and Olive Salad),


and ham (Fried Spam - yes, Spam.  And it was yummy!!)

I also made:
Beer and Cheddar Bread (and yes it is THAT good!!  wow - this was so yummy!!)



And Snow Pudding (this seemed like the perfect winter dessert and it was - light and snow like and perfectly sweet)

Sunday Dinners: Pork Loin with mustard, roasted cauliflower, peach tart

This is the start of several posts.  I got a bit behind because, well, life is busy.  So this dinner was made quite a while ago, but I still wanted to capture my thoughts.

This was a quick, ‘let’s make something for dinner’ meal.  It actually started with the peaches because I had a bunch from the Harry and David box we got.  Then, we had just watched a ‘Giada at Home’ episode where she made this pork loin and put it on a sandwich, but I thought it would be good by itself.  And since cauliflower is in season, I thought the balsamic roasted cauliflower would be a good side.

This was the recipe we used for the pork.  I followed the recipe exactly, but instead of putting it on bread, we just carved it and spooned the mustard sauce on top.  It was fantastic!  The pork loin came out tender and juicy and the mustard sauce is a perfect flavor complement.

I’ve been holding onto the cauliflower recipe for a little while waiting for the fall.  I actually have several cauliflower recipes I want to try.  This one was really easy and tasty.  However I hate chopping up cauliflower!  It gets everywhere!  I find teeny, tiny, little, white pieces for days afterwards.  If anyone has tips on how to chop it without that happening, please share.  The only thing I changed was I used chopped oregano and thyme instead of marjoram.

Finally I made the peach galette.  The hardest part about this recipe was finding a pie crust recipe that i liked.  I’m not afraid of making pie crust, but I wanted something interesting.  I found this one from Four and Twenty Blackbirds in Brooklyn and it sounded delicious.  And it was!  I will definitely use this as my go to pie dough from now on.  It was perfectly flaky and doughy underneath.  And the cider adds this subtle layer of tartness that makes the crust just slightly more interesting that your normal pie crust.

Here is the total recipe..

Peach Galette
(Filling adapted from Seduction Meals)
Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
½ Tbsp Sugar
½ tsp Salt
1 stick Unsalted Butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1 cup Cold Water
⅛ cup Cider Vinegar
3-4 Peaches, cut in ¼ inch wedges
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, cut into small cubes
1 Egg Yolk
1 Tbsp Raw Sugar


For Crust:
Combine 1 cup cold water, ⅛ cup cider vinegar and ice

Add dry ingredients to food processor and pulse 3 times.  Add chopped, cold butter and pulse 5 times until the dough resembles a coarse meal.
Slowly add the ice water and vinegar mixture (8-10 tbsp) until the dough just comes together - being careful not to overwork. Aim to create a marbleized effect, so that the butter is still visible.
Wrap in plastic and shape into round disc.  Chill 1 hour or more before use.

Remove dough from fridge and roll disc of crust out to fit about a 10-12 inch diameter, about ⅛ to ¼ inch thick.  Place back in fridge till ready to use.

Meanwhile...
Place sliced peaches in a bowl and add 2 tbsp of sugar and toss.

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Gently lift crust and place this onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment.

Starting about 1 ½ inches from the edge, place peach slices on the dough from the outside to the center.  Dot butter throughout.  Fold over the edge of the dough, overlapping the fruit.

Whisk the egg yolk and brush this mixture over the rim of the galette. Sprinkle the raw sugar over the galette and the rim.

Bake until browned, about 20 - 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes. Loosen the edges and center with a spatula. Lift the parchment to a cooling rack and carefully slide off onto the cooling rack or platter.

Turkey Chili

Each fall we have a chili cook-off at work.  Last year I came up with what I termed an “Italian Chili” - bacon, ground pork, italian sausage, chili beans, tomatoes, italian spices, and some other yummy ingredients.  Our team didn’t win, but I was pretty happy with my recipe and have since made it a couple of times.  However, I know it’s not low-cal, so I recently decided to adjust it to make it a little more healthy.  I started out by sauteing the onions and garlic in water because I didn’t need the extra oil.  I took out the bacon and changed the meat to ground turkey thigh.  I also decreased the amount of meat a bit.  I used Azuki Beans because that’s what I had on hand and I ended up loving the flavor they added to the dish - they are meaty and taste a bit like a pinto bean which I think worked well with the Italian flavors.  I ended up with something that is about 220 cals per serving and I really love the flavor!  It’s perfect for fall - warm and cozy and rich.  I like to turn mine into a frito pie, but I think it would be good by itself, as a sandwich, or to use with lettuce wraps.

Italian Turkey Chili
Servings: 4-8 (I had 8 servings)

Ingredients:
¼ cup Water
1 Onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves Garlic, chopped (1 ½ tablespoons)
2 Tbsp Paprika
2 Bay Leaf
1 ½ tsp Dried Oregano
½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 ¼ tsp Salt
½ tsp Pepper
1 pound Ground Turkey Thigh
1 cup Water
1 can Beans, undrained
1 can Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes (Low Sodium), undrained
4 Tbsp Fine Cornmeal, or masa harina
2 Tbsp Cider Vinegar, or other vinegar

Directions:
Add ¼ cup of water to dutch oven and heat on high.  Once hot, add onion and cook for 3-4 mins.  Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add paprika, bay leaf, oregano, cayenne, salt, pepper, and ground turkey. Cook, stirring occasionally, and breaking up the meat with the side of the spoon, until the turkey is cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Stir in water, beans, tomatoes, cornmeal, and vinegar, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid thickens and flavors blend, about 45 minutes. It may be necessary to add a little water to thin the chili. Serve hot, garnished with desired toppings.

An Indoor Picnic

The past 2 weeks I’ve taken a bit of a break on the blog because it’s been all Olympics!  I love them.  Plus I had a wonderful time last weekend hanging out with one of the best women on the planet.

A couple of weeks ago though, we had my cousin and her fiance over to hang out, watch Olympics and eat yummy food.  I went a little crazy and offered them 3 “menus” to choose from (I’ll write more about that in another post) and they chose the “Indoor Picnic” menu.  
The original menu was:
Appetizer: Charcuterie
Main: Buffalo Turkey Burgers
Side: Potato Salad
Dessert: Ice Cream Sandwiches

They decided the Oreo Brownies from one of the other menus sounded more appealing, so I made those instead of the ice cream sandwiches.

We started with the charcuterie.  I was kind of glad they picked this menu because this appetizer required no cooking.  We went to Antonelli’s and got a couple of British cheeses (a nod to the Olympics) and some salami and a couple of types of pepperoni.  I bought olives and cornichons, but of course forgot to put them out.  But it was ok because everything was delicious and we had plenty of food.

The buffalo turkey burgers came from this recipe.  We used ground turkey thigh meat because it’s higher in fat and when I made the patties I replaced ½ the pepper with paprika.  I love paprika and thought it would work really well in this recipe.  It’s too hot to cook outside though so we made them inside on the grill pan.  Instead of cooking them in aluminum foil, we cooked them almost all the way and then finished by basting them with the hot sauce and butter mixture then topped them off with provolone cheese.

For condiments I made caramelized onions - just a tbsp butter, tbsp olive oil, and 2 thinly sliced onions in a pan over medium/high heat for about an hour; blue cheese salad dressing to use instead of mayo; pickles made with hops; lettuce and tomato.

Verdict: I love these burgers!  They were juicy and all the herbs and spices added to the ground turkey made it very flavorful.  I would baste it a bit longer to get more of the “buffalo” flavor and reserve some of the butter and hot sauce mixture for a condiment.  I plan on trying the ground turkey thigh meat for other burgers though because this was the best burger I have tried since adding meat back into my diet.

For sides we had some chips and a somewhat less traditional potato salad.  I went the vinegar route instead of mayo for the dressing.  This Martha Stewart recipe caught my eye because I love cornichons and capers.  The only thing I changed is I used all yellow fingerling potatoes because I wanted to keep the color light.  And I forgot the parsley.  But overall it was a very tasty potato salad.  I really prefer the vinaigrette to mayo - the sourness and saltiness of the vinegar and the pickles goes so well with the butteriness of the potato.  And the various textures make it fun to eat as well.

Then there was dessert.  Wow - am I glad they switched to the Oreo brownies.  The initial recipe I had called for 2 cups of sugar and I thought that was way too much, so I went on a search for what seemed like a good brownie recipe and then figured I’d just add the oreos.  I ended up with this one.  But then I decided I wanted to make them more interesting.  I have this recipe for homemade oreo cookies, so I made a batch of the “cream” from that recipe and used it as icing.  Then covered the whole thing with oreos.  These were seriously yummy brownies.  Uber decadent - but worth every calorie.  I usually have pretty decent willpower - I can eat one of something and then bring it to work to share or only eat one piece per night - but I struggled with these.  They were a bit too high in calories for an evening dessert (although not as bad as you would think), but I hated to bring them to work because I wanted them all!  I would like to try the brownie recipe by itself and with other additions - peanut butter cups, butterfingers (would be good for Halloween), and peppermint patties (as in the original recipe).  And the icing may become my “go to” icing for everything including cakes.  It was delicious and had a consistency I really loved.

Finally, I also made a large batch of tea with lemonade.  Nothing fancy, but I wanted to use my new beverage jar and I thought it was a good picnic drink.  Using my Maw Maw’s tea method, I brewed 6 bags of Lipton the night before - brought it to a boil and then turned it off and let it sit, covered, overnight on the stove.  I know it sounds crazy, but it results in some yummy tea.  Normally, in the morning, I would heat it back up, add a lot of sugar and mix it with more water.  But this time I mixed it with a store bought lemonade that already had sugar and then added some lemon slices for garnish.  I found it very refreshing and I do love my beverage jar!

A weeknight dinner

Last week I decided to try this recipe for Sweet Tea Brined Chicken.  My husband and I love sweet tea, so this recipe really attracted me.  I only wanted to make 2 breasts, so I cut the recipe in half.  I used 2 large, bone-in, chicken breasts, rosemary, lemons and a sweet onion.  The recipe is for cooking on an outdoor grill, but all we have is a small charcoal one and we didn’t want to mess with that on a weeknight.  I decided to let it brine overnight, sear it on the stovetop and then bake it in a foil pouch to retain moisture.  I like this method A LOT!  I will likely start doing this from now on for my weeknight chicken dinners rather than grilling (re: other post regarding trouble with grilled chicken).  It was easy and clean up was a breeze and I didn’t have to stand over the stove.  There are a couple of things I would do differently with this particular recipe though:
1) Just use boneless, skinless breasts.  I didn’t find the bone-in breasts made a big difference to flavor and they are a pain to eat.  Maybe if I did something with the bones, but I haven’t gotten into stock making yet, so I would prefer not to have the waste.
2) Stronger tea.  The tea flavor really came through in the taste, which I have to say actually surprised me.  But I think I want it to be even stronger.  I may even try honey instead of brown sugar.  And possibly different tea types.

I also made a Panzanella salad and a Blueberry Buttermilk Pie.  The salad is one I have made before and definitely one of my favorites.  I had some leftover artisan bread in the freezer and a few slices of that defrosted and toasted made the perfect croutons.  Also, I have recently been using this vinegar from Williams Sonoma and it is amazing!!  Seriously the best cider vinegar I have ever had.  This is one of my own recipes - after looking at many different panzanella recipes, I picked ingredients I liked and came up with my own.  I have included it below.

Italian Panzanella Salad

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Dressing:

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper

1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped

Salad:

3 cups artisan bread, cubed

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

1 tsp fresh oregano

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1 english cucumber, cubed or halved and sliced

1/2 medium red onion, diced fine

1 tbsp chives, chopped fine

4 ounces provolone cheese, diced

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

Directions: 

In a bowl, whisk together vinegar and oil and oregano; season with salt and pepper.

Cube bread, toss with oil, salt, pepper and oregano.  Toast in 350 oven for 10 mins.

Combine tomatoes, cucumber, onion, and chives. Add bread.  Add vinaigrette.  Toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, and up to 8 hours. Just before serving, stir in cheese and basil.

The pie was sort of a toss in at the last minute - I wanted to make a dessert and I just happened to have all of the ingredients needed for this pie.  I did not make the crust, I used the Pillsbury roll out crust that I had in the freezer.  I do plan on eventually making my own pie crust dough to freeze, but I currently have 2 boxes of the pillsbury dough and I want to use that first.  I also replaced the white sugar with honey.  We liked the pie, but it was a bit tart.  That could be because I used the honey as sweetener, but I think if I made this again I would just add a wee bit more honey rather than switching to white sugar.  But the texture both right out of the oven and after refrigeration was great.  Hot - it was creamy and gooey and the blueberries just popped.  Cold - it had the texture of flan - creamy and custardy.  It was super easy to make too and I think could be a good base for just about any fruit.

4th of July cake

Last weekend I decided to try this idea I had for a 4th of July cake.  A few months ago I found this recipe.  It looked so delicious.  And I instantly thought it would make a great 4th of July cake if I did one layer in red and another in blue.  After reading the recipe I could tell it was an angel food-like cake.  I’m not a huge fan of angel food.  I want to be, but it just doesn’t do anything for me.  I think it’s a texture thing.  But I chose to stick with the basic recipe.

Here’s the thing... my biggest issue with baking is that I’m super impatient.  And this was my downfall with this recipe.  I needed to split the recipe.  I was able to split the dry ingredients - no problem.  The next step was to whip 11 egg whites and add the food coloring to that.  So I had to split the egg whites in half in order to get the 2 colors.  In hindsight I should’ve just split them before whipping, but noooo.  I thought I would just whip them to soft peaks and then split them.  This did not work.  I should’ve at least weighed the halves, but I was too impatient.  So, the red half did not get enough egg whites.

I added blueberries to the blue half and chopped strawberries to the red half and I iced it with the whipped mascarpone frosting that I used on my strawberry birthday cake.  The blue half did taste pretty good - so if you like angel food cake, I would highly recommend the recipe.  But the red half was rubbery and yucky.  The best part about the cake was the look.  I did love the way it came out visually and I like the idea of doing this for other holidays, with other color combinations.  But I would have to use a more traditional cake method because angel food is not for me.

Sunday Cooking - Chicken, Pancakes, and Egg Salad

I started this blog in order to make notes about recipes I try and to record other general food thoughts.  However, I find myself not wanting to post unless I have a photo and that is just silly.  Because I made things this weekend that I need to make note of, but after a week of taking A LOT of photos at a work event, I couldn’t bring myself to take any pics.  So here are my notes...

Marinated chicken breasts (based on Food Network recipe)

I make these and then freeze them and just heat them up for dinner every once in awhile.

- 2 tbsp cider vinegar
- ½ tsp each of dried oregano, herbs de provence, dried parsley, dried rosemary
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt and white pepper
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, each about 6 ounces

Mix it all together and marinate chicken for 8+ hours then grill.

Notes:
I still have trouble grilling chicken.  It seems to take much longer than the recipes suggest to cook through.  I know the pan got too hot, and I’ll adjust that next time, however then the chicken will just take longer.  I’m not sure how to fix this issue...  and I hear different things - cook until juices run clear or cook until the internal temp is 165.  Well, by the time the internal temp gets to 165, there are no juices left!  So what is correct??  Am I being too cautious?  Any tips are welcome.

The marinade however was super yummy and easy.  I would add just a little lemon or lime next time.  I may even try one of my flavored balsamics.


Melt in your mouth pancakes

I really have been craving pancakes lately.  But I want super soft, melt in your mouth pancakes and no recipe I’ve ever tried gives me that.  So, I searched again.  And again, every pancake recipe claims to be “melt in your mouth”, but they are the same ingredients and same technique that I’ve tried before with blah results.  Then I found this one from bobanahalf.com.  I found it fascinating that he used club soda and thought, I’ll give this a shot!  It seemed easy enough.

I will say, they were delicious!!  And I definitely feel I have found my go to pancake recipe.  They just sort of dissolved in your mouth and they tasted so buttery, even though there is no butter.  In fact, they are only 87 calories a pancake!!

Notes:
Next time I will make the full recipe - the recipe makes 18 pancakes and I simply did not want to stand there and make 18 pancakes, so I scaled it to 6 which was not a lot of batter.  And because of that, I made the pancakes very small because I wanted to get 6 servings out of it.  They were a bit pathetic, but still tasty.

I also think the batter needs to be a little more liquid.  I only added a splash of milk at the end and I think it needed a bit more.  It probably would’ve been easier for me to get my 6 pancakes if the batter had not been so thick.

And again, my pan got too hot.  I need to watch that, I’m pretty bad about it.
 

Egg Salad

I had some “extra” eggs and wanted to use them up so I threw together a quick egg salad.  I decided to try the baking soda trick I’ve been seeing around the internet - add a teaspoon of baking soda to the water to help with the peeling later.  It actually worked quite well.  They were pretty easy to peel.

- 5 hard boiled eggs
- 1 pickled, diced finely
- 2 tablespoons pickle juice
- 1 teaspoon mayo (I used Vegenaise)
- 2 teaspoons greek yogurt
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon fennel salt (I got this from Williams Sonoma recently... it’s delicious! I couldn’t find a link to it though)
- ½ teaspoon paprika

Boil eggs, then split them, putting the yolks in a bowl.  Mash up the yolks.  Dice the whites (finely) and mix them with the yolks.  Add the remaining ingredients, stirring after each addition.  Chill.  Serve on toasts or with crackers or fresh veggies.  It’s a bit chunky, so it would be nice in a celery rib or endive leaf.

Notes:
I like the chunkiness, but I think I would like to try dicing the whites more finely next time, or whiz everything up in food processor to make it more blended.

I would like to add celery and maybe try celery salt instead of the fennel since I think the celery flavor would be really good in here.

Add more pickles.  :)