I tricked ya "rice"

It was Friday night, a perfect night for a low key dinner party with friends. I mean what else is there to do in Portland than to eat delicious food, drink wine and watch multiple episodes of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia?" Did I mention it was just Friday, a day when nothing in this city is going on.....noooo, I don't feel guilty about staying in and snuggling up on the couch with my homies. Okay, what I feel most guilty about is letting netflix do all the work by auto-playing the next episode of a great TV series. Boom! one right after the other they play without ever lifting a finger to make it happen. Modern technology is the reason why we watched so many episodes, immobilized on the couch. But we had fun and laughed together, that's what matters.

Samantha and I set the dinner menu for the night, which included pan-seared rosemary dijon garlic chicken, a sauteed onion cauliflower "rice," and a big spring salad. The dessert menu (of course us ladies need dessert) was an apple, raspberry, blackberry fruit crisp with a chai glaze drizzle. You should be drooling because yeah it was pretty deeeelish. Us ladies (with powered noses and pantyhose...) even had a second helping. 

Had we not scarfed it all down, I could have taken and uploaded pictures. But we did, and so I can't share. There's always next time since I will be making the "rice" again for sure. See the trick to the rice (the 'I tricked ya rice') is that it is all made from cauliflower! You heard right, cauliflower. When you chop up raw cauliflower and pulse it in a food processor it has a similar appearance as rice. Trick or treat....I'd say a definite treat! And now think about adding the raw cauliflower chunks to seasoned and sauteed onions and garlic, cook for a few more minutes and you have a heavenly dish right in your own kitchen. Basically that's all there is to it. You start by sauteing onions with any spices you want and while that's cooking you can gently pulse the raw cauliflower. Add the cauliflower to the cooked onions, cook a few more minutes, add more spices if you want or a little broth to moisten and it's done. I bet peas and carrots would be a great addition to for a little more texture. Even toasted nuts for a crunch, I'm such a texture seeker. 

Our ingredients: cauliflower, onions, olive oil, garlic, vegetable broth, chicken seasoning, red pepper flakes, black pepper.

My inspiration and base recipe came for the 'rice' dish came from this link: 

http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2010/01/recipe-for-cauliflower-rice-with-fried.html

Navratan Kurma

Indian food has made it's way into my mind again recently. I have been missing the flavor of a good Indian dish. I used to go to an Indian restaurant in Folsom, CA called The India House and fell in love with the chicken tikka masala, much to my lactose intolerant stomach's dislike. They had other delicious food as well, including, well everything there was actually delicious. Anyway, I found this recipe and decided to try it because 1) the pictures captured my interest. 2) it is loaded with veggies. 3) it did not use cream like my favorite tikka masala. 4) it looked do-able and easy enough. 5) I like the woman's blog who supplied this recipe.

Here is the link to the actual recipe, I made some very slight modifications.
http://www.holycowvegan.net/2008/09/navratan-kurma.html

The ingredient's list at first was overwhelming; I panicked when seeing it for the first time. But after reading through it I calmed and found that it was mostly the spices that made the list so long.

 I started my Indian journey by letting 1/2 cup of cashew soak in water for at least 30 minutes. Then I started boiling the carrots, broccoli and sweet potatoes in water (they have different 'done' times so I could not boil all at the same exact time). I just boiled each until soft.

Next, I sauteed ginger and garlic in a skillet until soft and browned and started adding the list of spices to coat the onion mixture. After 1 minute I added the tomatoes and tumeric to the mix and watched until the tomatoes started breaking down. Next I added cottage cheese and stirred to incorporate for 2-3 minutes. I added the salt and then the cooked veggies. This is another recipe where you can just use what you have on hand in terms of veggies. I used about 4 cups of mixed veggies including all the favorites: sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, green beans, onions, zucchini, and tomatoes.

After several minutes or so on lower heat the mixture will thicken and get to be like a gravy that coats the veggies. In the meantime you can strain the cashews and add the soaked nuts to a food processor and blend until it becomes a paste. You then add this cashew nut paste to the veggie gravy deliciousness and stir in. Serve it up and ENJOY! I added a few squirts of braggs and siracha to mine after serving as always because I love the nutty heat this combo provides.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cashews (soaked and ground into a paste)

4 cup chopped veggies (cooked til tender)

2 Tbsp minced/chopped garlic
2 Tbsp minced/chopped ginger
1 medium onion chopped
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp poppyseeds
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp red pepper flakes


1/2 tsp tumeric
2 tomatoes

3/4 cup cottage cheese
salt to taste

Rosemary walnut raisin crisps

There is one night during the week that I have a love-hate relationship with. It may seem odd but here's why.. I love this day because I'm off of work, can plan events with friends and finally start my weekend. Whoo hoo! But, I also hate this day because I am wide awake all by myself well into the wee hours of the night when most 'normal' people are asleep. This leaves me trying to keep busy and find ways to entertain myself, something that I could never do as a kid. I was notorious for saying "Mom I'm bored. What should I do?" Luckily as an adult I've learned a few more skills and know that I can easily entertain myself for hours and hours in the kitchen, without ever realizing how much time has actually passed. Imagine if I had that Easy Bake Oven as a kid, I could have learned this about myself long long ago and not had to ask others if they'd want to "play a puzzle with me." But now, after ditching the puzzles, I can easily get lost in the kitchen creating my own recipes and trying out other's recipes that I find on healthy blog sites. I geek out by searching the internet for new recipes because I love playing around with the ingredients, wondering how they will come together and I love being the only taste tester in the kitchen. Add a little more honey, have a taste. Mix in the rosemary, have a taste. Stir a few more times, have another taste. Preheat the oven, better have another taste before it goes in. You get the point here. In the past I typically turned to 'ohsheglows.com' and 'chocolatecoveredkatie,' two different blogs that feature vegan/vegetarian recipes, but for this creation I found a random blogger and modified the recipe (because I never have all the right ingredients). 

       

So on Wednesday, alone in my kitchen at 12 pm midnight I set out to make these rosemary walnut raisin crisps. They were better than I could have imagined; they were delicious. And now shamefully I will admit that 4 days later they are almost all gone. Think melba toasts, but thinner, more flavorful, possibly healthier, resembling nothing like a cardboard product, and whalllah you have a tasty treat.

 

My ingredients: whole wheat pastry flour, walnuts, plain greek yogurt, water, raisins, honey, baking soda, salt, lemon juice, rosemary, lemon zest.