Green Quinoa and Turkey Atamalado

Atamalado is a way of preparing quinoa as a stew. This recipe called for turkey meat, both white and brown, but seeing as how it's February and the only turkey available to me was either a full turkey or ground turkey, I choose the latter. I think it turned out fantastic.

I started eating quinoa about twelve years ago. Yes, this is my subtle way of saying I was into quinoa before it became a "thing." I'm a quinoa hipster. I was 23 and had recently had my first ever full physical. You know the kind, the one that in addition to weighing you and the basics, you also get a full blood screen to check for any abnormalities. I was still in college and living the college life. That is to say, I was not exactly eating healthy, or really do anything healthy. When it came time for my results, my doctor said that everything looked great and it was some of the best blood work he'd ever seen. His exact words were "So keep doing whatever you're doing because it's working out great" I replied "I eat fast food and drink Starbucks daily, smoke, drink alcohol, and don't work out." I remember him sighing and saying "I normally wouldn't encourage that behavior but it seems to be working for you. But maybe cut back on the smoking and drinking and eat a vegetable every once in a while." So with that in mind, I decided to work on my diet. I didn't need a doctor to tell me my lifestyle was unhealthy but I apparently did need his judgement to motivate me to do something about it.

I went to the grocery store and started buying actual food that wasn't sandwich meat, didn't come in a can, didn't require cooking in a microwave, and didn't have "Instant" on the label. It was hard. I was in the pasta section when I saw a little turquoise box labeled "Quinoa: A Complete Source of Protein." A complete source of protein in a box? Please continue! I read the box and learned that it was an ancient grain that was regarded as a superfood. This was in the time before smartphones so I had to go by what was on the box, I couldn't Google it. Because I'm an advertisers dream and constantly fall for flashy words and packaging (and because all it required was being boiled in water) I bought a box.

And I never turned back.

I actually enjoyed quinoa and because it was so easy to make and paired well with almost everything, I ate it regularly. Then it became the most popular food on the planet and the price skyrocketed. I don't eat it as often now because I've learned how to cook other foods but I still like it a lot.

The ingredients

6 oz quinoa

2 1/4 lb turkey meat. I used 1 lb ground turkey

4 tbsps veggie oil

1 red onion, chopped. I used half.

4 cloves garlic, chopped. I used 2.

2 tomatoes, skinned, seeded, and chopped. I used one tomato and didn't skin it because that would have taken too long.

1 tsp dried oregano

4 tbsps Yellow Chili Paste. Remember, this is just yellow pepper blended with veggie oil.

4 cups veggie broth. I used 2.

3 tbsps blended cilantro, which is cilantro blended with water and then strained. It's basically cilantro water.

Brown the turkey meat and set aside. Heat oil and add the onion, tomato, and garlic. Saute until the onion has softened and add the oregano and chili paste. Season with S&P and cook until the paste has thickened. Add the turkey and pour in the broth and blended cilantro. Bring to a simmer and cook over low heat for an hour IF using turkey pieces and not ground turkey. If you're using ground turkey, add the turkey and quinoa, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Serve in bowls.

This meal was quick (my favorite!) and sooooo delicious! I've made ground turkey and quinoa before but I've always made them separately and then combined them. By boiling the quinoa with the turkey, it made the turkey soft and creamy. There was a slight lime taste and I think that's from the cilantro water. Both James and I really enjoyed this meal and I didn't give any to the girls because I was worried it would be too spicy due to the yellow pepper. I should have because it wasn't spicy at all but I'm sure they enjoyed their hot dogs and yogurt just as much as we enjoyed our dinner.

Summer Vegetable Soup

This week we are in Finland.

Kun menee sutta pakoon, tulee karhu vastaan. 

That means "When you flee from a wolf, you run into a bear" This has nothing to do with this post. I just Googled "Popular Finnish proverbs" and I liked this one. It's supposed to be mean to not give up on one situation for another. I don't get it either. 

FINLAND. The biggest deciding factor in choosing Finland was, and this was backed by some super scientific thought, that it's cold in Finland. It's currently cold in Texas. So I figured the food would be agreeable with the climate. Granted I'm currently wearing shorts in January so maybe I didn't think this one through. I rarely do.

Choosing a cookbook for Finland was pretty easy. My three choices at Half Price were a $40 book that wasn't going to happen in any world, a $30 book that focused on Finnish country cooking which involved a lot of wild game like reindeer, and the $10 book I ended up buying. The price was right! Also, the book I ended up buying uses American measurements (in yo face metric system!) and is actually a book on Scandinavian cooking. It's titled "The Art of Scandinavian Cooking" by Nika Standen Hazelton. It was written in the mid-sixties but the recipes seem to hold up pretty well so far. There's an intro to each country, with a little synopsis of their dietary customs and traditions. It's a fun read.

The first recipe is Summer Vegetable Soup, even though it's not Summer. And people say GMOs are bad...how else would I make this recipe in January, hippies?!

The ingredients

1 quart water

1 tbsp salt

1 cup Frenched green beans. I chose fresh green beans for health reasons but if you don't love yourself, canned beans are good, too. I also cut them myself. This would have been a billion times easier if I had a food processor but I recently gave mine away because I never used it. Foiled by my generosity once again!

1 cup sliced carrots. Again, the food processor would have come in handy.

1 cup cubed peeled potatoes. I almost always cook with red potatoes. They are lower in fat than white potatoes and higher in potassium and anti-oxidants than their paler counterpart. It's just science!

1 cup fresh peas. I couldn't find fresh peas so I used frozen. I made up for it by using fresh everything else, though!

1 cup cauliflower buds

1/2 cup chopped spinach

2 to 2 tbsp flour

1 quart milk. I did not use a quart of milk, no one needs that much milk. Except for baby cows but we aren't bovine. I used about two cups, so about half a quart.

3 tbsp butter

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Bring water to a boil. Add beans, carrots, and potatoes. When they are half cooked, add peas, cauliflower, and spinach. When veggies are almost tender, make a paste of flour and a bit of milk; stir in. Then add remaining milk and simmer for ten minutes. Remove from heat and add butter and parsley.

It was forty degrees the night I made this and it.hit.the.spot. I was a little worried about it being bland but the butter and sweetness of the peas and carrots added some great flavor. It was very filling but wasn't too heavy. It probably would have turned out different had I used the full amount of milk but I feel this worked perfectly.

The three year old wouldn't touch it but the nineteen month old asked for seconds. Seriously, she has the best taste.

Spicy Chickpea and Aubergine Stew

Disclaimer: I have made this before.

I know I wanted to try new recipes but here's the deal, it was a Friday and I'm usually pretty beat by Friday evenings. I took this into consideration when meal planning so I chose this with the expectation that I would be tired and would want something quick and easy. This recipe stepped up to the plate! Specifically our dinner plates.

If you don't know, an aubergine is an eggplant. 'Aubergine' is mostly used in Europe and all those countries whose patronus is not a bald eagle. 'Merica! When reading up on the difference between the two words, I learned that there are white and green eggplants! Did you know that?! I didn't know that. So, how does that relate to the color 'eggplant'? I mean, now that I know there are different colors of eggplant, I can't use that word to describe a color. I just can't! There's no turning back, my life has been forever changed.

This recipe changed my life, y'all.

The ingredients

1 aubergine, cubed. The recipe called for three but we're a family of four, there's no need for that much food.

1 cup chickpeas, soaked overnight. I used canned chickpeas because of convenience.

4 tbsp olive oil

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 large onions, chopped. I used one because of heartburn.

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground coriander. By now you know of my hatred of coriander in herb form but as a spice, it doesn't bother me. While it has the consistency of dirt, it doesn't taste like it when it's ground up. I just felt the need to explain this.

Chopped tomatoes. The recipe called for three 14 oz cans but I like fresh tomatoes and they're supposed to be better for you and I want you to be healthy!

Salt and pepper to taste

Cooked rice

Soak the aubergines for at least thirty minutes in salt water to remove the bitterness.

Prepare the chickpeas according to the can, i.e. heat them up.

Heat the oil and add the garlic and onion and cook until soft. Add the spices and stir. Add the aubergines and stir to coat with the spices and onions. Cook for five minutes. Add the tomatoes and chickpeas, season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for twenty minutes. Serve over rice.

Told y'all it was easy!

I love this dish not just because of its simplicity but because in spite of it, it's extremely flavorful. Cumin is my favorite spice and when combined with cinnamon and coriander, it's slightly sweet. The crispness of the chickpeas is a great contrast to the sponginess of the eggplant and both offer different nuttiness. Then the tomatoes kinda bring it all together with slight tang.

So Greek week is over. I wish I would have paid attention to the title of the cookbook because had I done so, I probably wouldn't have used it. There are a few Greek recipes but most of the ones in the book and about half of the ones I prepared are Mediterranean, not specifically Greek, For instance, this recipe is Lebanese. Many of the Greek recipes in the book involved fish and, um, it's January in Texas. Not a lot of access to fresh fish right now. I'll look at ingredients more when choosing future cuisines and keep access to those ingredients in mind.

With that being said, we're going to Finland this week! Yes, Finland eats a good amount of fish. I'll be visiting the fish market tomorrow.

Cheers!

Chicken and Apricot Filo Pie

I enjoyed making this meal for two reasons: 1. I like making meat pies and 2. I proved to myself that I kinda know what I'm talking about in the kitchen. Being right is probably my favorite state of existence! I'm an only child...

This was pretty easy to make and like the Chicken with Lemons and Olives, I think it would be a good meal to make to impress people but with very little effort. I say this considering that I took a shortcut, had I followed the recipe exactly, I might be singing a different tune.

The ingredients

1/2 cup bulgur wheat. I used the quick cook kind that cooks in 10 minutes but the recipe called for the same amount of cooking so maybe I just bought into marketing. Well played, Central Market.

6 tbsp butter

1 onion, chopped

1 lb minced chicken. I used ground chicken. 

1/4 cup ready-to-eat dried apricots, finely chopped. I don't know the difference between ready-to-eat dried apricots and just regular dried apricots...Also, I ended up buying Turkish dried apricots because that's all my store had; they were $14.59/lb. Thankfully I didn't need a lot. When browsing at another grocery store, they had dried apricots for $3.99/lb so maybe look for non-Turkish dried apricots.

1/4 cup blanched almonds, chopped. I had a small bag of sliced almonds so I used that just to get rid of them.

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1 tbsp snipped fresh chives. I forgot to buy this, oops.

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley. I used dried parsley flakes because that's what I had. When using dried herbs in a recipe that calls for fresh, use double the amount.

6 large sheets of filo pastry. I couldn't find filo pastry at my grocery store so I used puffed pastry sheets. 

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and prepare the bulgur wheat by putting it in a bowl of boiling water and let it soak for 5-10 minutes. The quick cook option said to boil water and add the wheat, letting it sit for 10 minutes. Same thing to me.

Melt 2 tbsp butter in a pan and fry the onion and chicken. Stir in the apricots, almonds, and wheat and cook for two minutes. Remove from the heat and add spices, yogurt, chives, and parsley. The filling looks, um, boring. I mean, I wasn't expecting to look at this filling and it blow my mind but, I don't know, I was underwhelmed. 

The next few instructions are from the book in case you want to use filo. 

Melt the remaining butter. Unroll the filo and cut into 10 inch rounds. Keep the rounds covered with a damp cloth to prevent drying. Line a 9 inch flan tin with three of the rounds, brushing each with butter. Spoon in the mixture, cover with three more pastry rounds, and brush with butter. Crumple the remaining rounds and place them on top of the pie, brush with remaining butter. Bake for thirty minutes.

So since I didn't have filo, I used puffed pastry. I've used puffed pastry a few times before and I had an inkling that it was going to cause my pie to blow up. Foreshadowing! I rolled out each sheet a bit to minimize the amount of puffiness. I laid one sheet on a buttered pie dish, filled it with the filling, and covered it with another sheet and then rolled the edges in. I could have trimmed them but I was hoping for extra puffiness. 

Thirty minutes later this came out of my oven. I literally laughed out loud when I saw it. James saw it first because he turned off the oven and he said "Yeah, I saw it and thought, she's going to be worried" but I wasn't because I fully expected this to happen. So yeah, puffed pastry gets puffed.

Here's a shot of a slice on my daughter's cool Darth Vader plate. Neither of the girls were interested in the filling but they did eat the crust. 

I felt it was a little dry but James liked it. I expected it to be tastier due to the apricots but they didn't really enhance the flavor at all. I think the yogurt contributed to it being dry so if I do make this again, I might add a little chicken stock. It was still fun to make and again, I ended up being right, and being right always taste better than dry meat pie. 

Chicken with Lemons and Olives

When planning this week's menu, I got most excited about this meal because it involved cooking a whole chicken. There is just something really satisfying about cooking a big 'ol bird, which is probably why I get super excited about Thanksgiving!

This would be a good meal to make if you're having people over for dinner or for someone you've just started dating because for some reason, people get super impressed when you roast a bird. Also, this recipe is incredibly easy but it doesn't look like it because of the roasting a whole bird and because you're using ingredients people don't normally use. Unless you're Greek, then you probably use these ingredients fairly often. Don't make this for Greek people if you're trying to impress them. They'll probably be like "This was the first meal I made when I was eight" and womp womp.

The ingredients

3 - 3.5 lb chicken. I didn't include the chicken in the picture because of chicken juices and hello? Salmonella is a real thing, y'all, and I didn't want it poisoning my counter top. I named her Mary because I'm crazy.

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground tumeric

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 inch piece of root ginger, grated. As I was about to grate my ginger, I remembered I got rid of my grater last month because the handle broke so instead of grating the ginger, I minced the shit out of it. This is what ginger root looks like when you've minced the shit out of it.

2.5 cups of chicken stock. So remember how in the last post I said I like the Kitchen Basics brand a lot? Well I prefer Better Than Boullion. Yes it's full of MSG and it's not organic or GMO free or artisanal but it taste good and I like that it's not as diluted as other stocks. But Kitchen Basics is a good alternative, it really is!

2 preserved lemons or limes, or fresh lemons cut into wedges. A few months ago I was going to make some preserved lemons (basically lemons in salt water that are allowed to ferment) but I ended up using the jar to hold the lemons to make kombucha and I was too lazy to go out and buy another jar. I didn't end up making them and when I read this recipe, I regretted not going out and buying that stupid jar. My laziness does me in, again!

1/2 cup pitted brown olives. I used a combination of brown and black olives because, oddly, the three year old LOVES black olives and I wanted to increase the chances of her eating this.

1 tbsp honey

4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander. What is with the Greeks and coriander????

Salt and ground pepper to taste

Coriander sprigs to garnish (WWWWWWTTTTTTFFFFF?!)

Coriander is seriously the worst. I bet all the evil dictators of the world just love coriander.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix the cinnamon, tumeric, salt, and pepper in a bowl and rub it all over the chicken.

Heal the oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken on all sides until golden; then transfer the chicken to an oven proof dish. I fried my chicken in my cast iron skillet. If you don't have a cast iron skillet, I can't even talk to you.

But really, if you're serious about cooking, you should own one. They're extremely versatile, good for pan frying or baking or defending your home in case you have an intruder, and they're relatively inexpensive. There are also health benefits as it leaches iron into your food. I'm borderline anemic so any time I make red meat on my skillet, I'm all "I AM THE STRONGEST PERSON ALIVE!" And then I try to lift the skillet over my head and I fail because I have zero upper body strength.

I used a Dutch oven to cook my chicken. Again, a very helpful and versatile kitchen tool. I've used it to make stews, roasts, I've even baked bread in it. Both my cast iron skillet and Dutch oven are by Lodge. You can find them on Amazon for under $100 and they last forever!

Add the sliced onion to the pan and fry for three minutes. Add the ginger and stock and bring to a boil. Pour over the chicken, cover with a lid, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

During this 30 minute break you can relax, start an episode of Making a Murderer, OR, you can do what I did and finish some laundry, work on a blog post, and hide from your kids. You do you!

Remove the chicken from the oven and add the lemons, olives, and honey. Bake, uncovered, for another 45 minutes.

You can continue to relax and finish your episode during this time OR, and I'm sure you'll choose my option, finish your blog post and try to out step your husband in your FitBit Workweek Warrior Challenge.

Also during this time I made a Simple Cooked Salad of a chopped green pepper, quartered tomatoes, half a seeded cucumber sliced, and chopped onion. I put all the veggies in my skillet and simmered in some water for a few minutes. When the veggies were done, I drained them and poured a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, and minced garlic on top.

And then the chicken was done!

Y'all, Mary looks so good, right?! I let her rest for a few minutes because that's the polite thing to do to any roasted meat and she'd had a rough hour and a quarter being roasted.

Then I cut her and shredded all the meat. Sorry Mary. The meat and skin just fell off and I hear that's a good thing.

Mary was delicious! I don't even like chicken skin but I literally gobbled that thing up. Didn't even care how gross I looked. It was extremely savory but juuuuust a little sweet, I'm thinking that was the honey. Dur. The meat was really juicy, even the breast, and was even better when eaten with the olives.

The salad was gross, the end. Don't make that salad or maybe make it but don't boil the veggies.

The three year old did NOT like the olives but she did eat all the chicken. The one and half year old had none of it and instead ate some nut mix I bought at Costco. The husband loved it and there was nothing left for the dogs.

I will save this recipe for the future because it was super easy to make and "OMG" good! And also, I want to impress all my non-Greek friends.

Green Lentil Soup

This week we are visiting Greece!

Home of feta cheese, super cool mythology, and, um, that village with the blue tiled roofs...I clearly do not know much about Greece. Gosh Melissa, learn a book! Oh wait! I know something else: Melissa is Greek for honeybee.

So anyway, we are visiting Greece. Why did I choose Greece? Because it was the first cookbook I pulled out of my cookbook drawer. Actually, it was the second but the first one I pulled out was about New Orleans and last time I checked, New Orleans is not a country. Sorry NOLA. The cookbook I'm using this week is "Taste of Greece: Irresistible Dishes of the Sun-Soaked Eastern Mediterranean" by Joanna Farrow and Jacqueline Clarke.

As you can tell from the pic, I paid a whopping $3.98 for it at Half Price Books so it's definitely legit. I've had this book for years and have made a few things from it but this week I'm trying recipes I haven't made before.

Which is why we are making Green Lentil Soup. I was going to make a chicken pie but I forgot to thaw out the chicken and the pastry. Also, I took my kids to Chuck e Cheese (where a kid can be a kid! And parents wonder why they thought procreating was a good idea!) for two hours and I was tired and wanted something easy.

The ingredients

1 cup green lentils. I always soak my beans before I use them. If I can remember, I'll soak them overnight but if not (which happens a lot) I try to do two to three hours beforehand. Supposedly it helps with nutrient absorption but I think it mostly cuts down cooking time. 

5 tbsp olive oil

3 onions, finely chopped. I used one onion because I didn't want a lot of heartburn. Getting older is so cool.

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced. According to Martha Stewart, goddess of everything (maybe not financial planning), you should crush garlic cloves before cutting them because crushing them releases oils, which makes your dishes more flavorful. I'm not one to argue with Martha Stewart (the lady breeds Chow Chows) so I crushed my garlic AND THEN thinly sliced it.

2 tsp cumin seeds, crushed. I just used ground cumin cause, same thing, right?

1/4 tsp ground tumeric

2.5 cups chicken or veggie stock. I used chicken. I like the Kitchen Basics brand a lot. It's moderately priced and I think Emeril said it's the best stock that he didn't make himself. Which I find odd since he had his own brand of stock...whatevs, I use Kitchen Basics. BAM!

Salt and ground pepper to taste

2 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander. I didn't use this because do you know what coriander is? It's cilantro. Do you know what cilantro is? It's the devil. I don't like the devil so no cilantro. 

There are no bananas in this recipe, I just forgot to clean my counter before taking the pic.

Now to cooking!

I should also mention that I didn't use exact measurements. I cook enough to know what a teaspoon or half a tablespoon looks like so I don't bother measuring unless I'm baking. #humblebrag

Put the lentils in cold water and boil , rapidly, for ten minutes and then drain. They should look like this when done. 

Heat the oil in a pan and fry two of the onions with the garlic, cumin, and tumeric for three minutes. By the way, your kitchen will smell amazing from the fried onions! Someone should make it into an air freshener. I would buy so many of those things. I'd also probably always be hungry.

Add the lentils, stock, and 2.5 cups of water. Hey! The water wasn't in the ingredient list! Oh wells, it happens. Bring to a boil, reduce, cover, and simmer for thirty minutes. If you soaked the lentils, you won't need the full thirty. 

The recipe says to fry the third onion until golden. You'll use this and the coriander as a topping. 

When the lentils are done, mash them slightly to make it pulpy. Nothing says "delicious" like the word pulpy. #needsaneditor

Season the pulpy soup with salt and pepper and if you hate yourself, garnish with the onion and coriander. No judgement. (There is a TON of judgement)

I didn't mash my lentils as much as the picture because one of my kids was screaming at me while I was mashing them and I didn't get to finish. Overall, it came out good. I mean, it's lentil soup, nothing fancy there. The recipe said to serve with warm bread but I didn't have warm bread so I served it with some super fancy Ritz crackers. I just Googled "the history of Ritz crackers" and they are not Greek, they originated in Philly.  I'm sure if the Greeks could have, they would have invented Ritz crackers but they were probably too busy creating a democratic government. They totally missed out.

Everyone loved it except the three year old. She took one look and said "It yuck" and just ate the crackers. She didn't throw it on the ground so that was great. The dogs ate up whatever the one and half year old dropped on the ground and they seemed to like it, too. Success!