Week 87: Tofu Lettuce Wraps

Recipe courtesy of: Fat Girl in a Skinny Body

I know what you're thinking. I can hear you know:

"But, Jennifer, you guys have already made lettuce wraps. Isn't the point to make something NEW???"

This is true. Only these lettuce wraps are different because they're vegetarian. Instead of chicken, they use tofu.

Another important difference was the Peanut Satay Sauce. No lettuce wraps needed...just grab a spoon. I won't judge.

Sidenote: Does anyone else find it horribly difficult to get whole lettuce leaves off of the head that are actually good for holding all the filling? I find this to be SO hard.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS
Lettuce Wraps:
14 ounces firm tofu, drained
2 cups diced mushrooms (shitake are best, but any will do)
1 cup diced yellow onion
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 cup stir fry sauce (I used one from Trader Joe's)
1 tbsp sherry wine vinegar
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp brown sugar

1 head iceburg lettuce

Peanut Satay Sauce:
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
2 cloves garlic , minced
1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
Combine stir fry sauce, sherry, soy sauce, ginger, brown sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl; set aside.

Heat the sesame oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until almost translucent, then add the garlic and mushrooms. Cook for about 5 minutes then add crumbled tofu. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the sauce.

Cook for about 10-15 minutes until the sauce reduces to a consistency you like.

To make the satay sauce, whisk together all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve. Put out at room temperature at least 15 minutes before serving. If the sauce if too thick for you, just whisk in some water.

To serve, place desired amount of tofu mixture in lettuce leaf, spoon on peanut satay and wrap to enclose.

Week 86: Fresh Pea Ravioli with Crispy Prosciutto

This week I discovered a fun new ingredient: wonton wrappers. How amazing are these little guys? I can't wait to experiment with filling them with anything and everything!

As convenient as the wonton wrappers were, there WAS a slight problem with them falling apart a bit while they were cooking. Perhaps cooking fewer at a time would help fix this issue.

If you know (the foodie side of) me at all, you would be surprised to hear me say this, but the prosciutto is what turned this dish from "fun and yummy" to "WOW and DELICIOUS". The salt and crisp was exactly what was needed to balance out the sweetness of the peas.

This recipe came from Claire Robinson (host of 5 Ingredient Fix). I should really try more of her recipes, because I love that they don't overwhelm you with a huge list of ingredients.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS
-2 tablespoons lemon infused olive oil, plus more for drizzling (we just whisked together some olive oil and lemon juice)
-4 slices prosciutto, cut into thin strips
-12 ounces fresh whole milk ricotta
-1 1/2 cups fresh shelled English peas, plus more for garnish (we used frozen...shh...)
-Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
24 to 36 square wonton wrappers

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Heat the oil in a skillet, over medium heat. Add the prosciutto and cook until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Set aside.

Lightly oil a serving plate with some of the prosciutto crisping oil and put it in a warm oven until ready to serve.

Drain the ricotta of excess moisture in a fine mesh sieve for 10 to 15 minutes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium heat. Add the peas and blanch them until just tender, about 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the peas to an ice water bath, to shock and stop the cooking and preserve the color. Keep the pot of hot water on the stove to cook the ravioli.

Transfer the peas to a food processor and puree with the drained ricotta and salt and pepper, to taste. Put a teaspoon (or more depending on wonton size) of the pea mixture in the center of each wonton wrapper; avoid overfilling. Dampen the inside outer edges of wonton with water and fold, pinching around the borders to ensure that the ravioli is well sealed. Repeat with the remaining wonton wrappers and filling.

Bring the pot of hot water to a boil over medium heat.

Drop the ravioli, in batches, into the boiling water and cook until tender and the wrapper becomes slightly translucent, about 3 minutes. With a slotted spoon or skimmer, transfer the cooked ravioli to the lightly oiled serving plate. Drizzle with lemon infused olive oil and top with crispy prosciutto and a few peas. Serve immediately.

Week 85: Spicy Chickpea Salad

This recipe immediately caught my eye when browsing the blogs I follow because I'm usually a sucker for just about anything spicy, and I always am in the market for new, interesting salads to mix things up a little bit.

My initial impression was that the salad had good flavor, but wasn't anything extraordinary. The good news is, that the leftovers for lunch the next day were noticeably more delicious. Maybe the flavors just needed time to hang out a while longer and become better friends.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS
2 (15-ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1/2 to 1 whole jalapeno, deseeded and finely diced
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/3 cup roasted, salted almonds
1 ripe avocado, diced into chunks
small handful flat leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, smashed and coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
heaping 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1 teaspoon agave
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt to taste
2 cups clean baby spinach leaves, coursely chopped

DIRECTIONS
Start by making the dressing. In a medium bowl, with a fork, mash together garlic and salt until it forms a paste. Blend in the mustard, agave, red wine vinegar, and red pepper flakes. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until mixture is thick and emulsified. Add salt and pepper to taste.

In a large bowl, toss together chickpeas, onion, jalapeno, lemon zest and juice, nuts avocado and parsley. Toss the dressing into the chickpea mixture and blend well. Add the cleaned spinach leaves just before serving. Serve immediately or store in a container in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Week 84: Buffalo Chicken Risotto

You know what one of the classiest foods you can make is? Risotto. It just SOUNDS fancy, doesn’t it? Especially if you kind of trill the “r” at the beginning. I also think it’s fancy because it takes so much work (in the form of constant stirring for about 45 minutes) to make. It’s a food that’s only for those who have the luxury of standing at the stove for ridiculous amounts of time. That being said, it wasn’t difficult work, just time-consuming.

The beauty of this dish lies in its irony. Risotto is fancy, and buffalo chicken is the quintessential “bar” food. Combine the two, and you have a elegantly hip, delicious lunch.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 ½ STARS

INGREDIENTS
4 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
¾ cup hot sauce (such as Frank’s)
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½ cup minced celery
½ cup minced onion
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup dry Arborio rice
½ cup lager beer, hot
2 cups chopped cooked chicken (we used a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken)
Chopped celery for garnish
Blue cheese crumbles for garnish (I used feta because I’m not a big blue cheese fan)

DIRECTIONS
For the brodo, simmer broth, hot sauce, honey, and Worcestershire in a saucepan over medium heat.

For the risotto, sweat minced celery and onion in butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat until slightly softened, 3-5 minutes. Stir in rice and sauté until each grain is coated in butter.

Deglaze the pan with beer and stir until completely absorbed, 1-2 minutes. Add brodo to the pan in ½ cup increments; simmer and stir frequently until each addition is almost completely absorbed before adding the next, about 45 minutes total. Stir in chicken and heat through.

Garnish each serving of risotto with chopped celery and blue cheese crumbles.

Week 83: Spinach Feta Turkey Burgers

My dear Meester sent me this recipe. Said that they looked like my style. Nobody knows you like your sisters!

These were both healthy and flavorful. I concluded that they wouldn't suffice if I were having a serious BURGER craving, but for those times when I don't absolutely NEED red meat, these would do the job. We ate them on sandwich-thin buns with red onion, fresh spinach, and dijon mustard. We doubled the recipe so we could have plenty leftover for lunches this week, and we even froze a few each for later.

I really liked how these were pretty easy to make, as there were few ingredients, and you simply mix them all together. The most difficult part would be going back and forth between making the patties and cooking them since your hands get really gunky. I was glad to have Abby there so she could do all the patty-flipping.

Would you judge me if I told you that the brown crispies on the bottom of the cooking pan and on the spatula were one of the best parts of this meal? Yes? Then I totally didn't scavenge every single last one before I did the dishes. Nope...

Year of Yum Rating: 4 1/2 STARS


INGREDIENTS
1 lb ground turkey
1 egg, slightly beaten
5 oz frozen spinach (about half of a box), defrosted
3/4 cup feta cheese
1 tsp salt + pinch of pepper

DIRECTIONS
Heat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet at medium to medium-high. Mix together all ingredients with your hands and form four medium sized patties. Cook patties in a skillet for about 6 minutes per side, or until meat is completely cooked. Serve on toasted buns with extra feta, hot sauce, sliced onion, lettuce, and mustard.

Week 82: Power Frittata

I don't know if I'm the way my pants have been fitting me lately is just very motivating, or if it's the warmer weather we've been getting glimpses of that has put me in the mood, but I have been wanting to eat all of the veggies that I can lately. I was excited when Abby told me she had chosen for us to make this week, because a frittata is a GREAT and YUMMY way to get more veggies into a meal. We adapted the recipe we found on a blog by adding/nixing/replacing some of the add-in ingredients to fit our likes and dislikes. The original recipe calls for asparagus. Abs says she doesn't like asparagus, but it is now on my to-do list to prepare some asparagus on the GRILL for her and see if she can still resist it...

I was also excited to have a great use for my iron skillet, as we could use it on the stovetop, and then put it directly into the oven to finish cooking the frittata.

I expected this to taste good, but honestly I was surprised at just how flavorful it was since we didn't add ANY seasonings, spices, or additional salt. We ate our frittatas topped with a healthy dollop of light sour cream. Leftovers were just as delicious!

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS




INGREDIENTS
5 whole eggs, beaten
2 oz feta cheese
1 cup broccoli, chopped
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
5 large kalamata olives, sliced
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 leek, sliced and rinsed well

DIRECTIONS
Saute chopped broccoli and onion in olive oil in an iron skillet until slightly soft. Add the remaining ingredients. Cover with a plate, and cook on medium-low for about 8 minutes. Remove from the stove, and broil on low for 2-3 minutes until the top of the frittata looks set and slightly golden-brown. Allow to cool before slicing and serving.

Week 81: Spinach-Feta Hummus and Naan Bread

Both of these are recipes that I found at separate times on different cooking blogs. I just thought that hot, carb-y naan bread would be delicious dipped in cool, salty hummus.

Were those adjectives enticing enough? How about I tell you that you just need to make both of these things. Trust me. You won't be sorry.

The hummus was hands-down the best that I've ever made. I don't doubt that the feta had everything to do with it, but I convinced myself that it was healthy because of the spinach. I could eat this stuff with a spoon.

The naan bread was one of those recipes that I will definitely make again, but will be exploring how to make it better. I really liked the minced garlic in the bread, but in the future might incorporate some in to the dough rather than just putting it on top before I cook it. Also, the recipe tells you to cook the other side of the bread over an open flame (like a gas stove), which I didn't have, so I cooked both sides in the pan. Abby and I talked about how this might be yummy cooked on the grill. This easy dough would also be good for making individual pizzas.

Year of Yum Rating: 5 STARS (for the hummus) and 3 1/2 STARS (for the naan bread)

HUMMUS INGREDIENTS
•30 ounces, weight garbanzo beans drained
•1-½ cup fresh spinach
•8 ounces, weight feta cheese
•⅓ cups olive oil
•5 tablespoons lemon juice
•4 tablespoons tahini
•2 tablespoons red pepper flakes (We thought that SURELY this must be a mistake because it seemed like so much. We ended up only adding about ONE tablespoon. In retrospect, two tablespoons might not have been too much because our finished product wasn't spicy at all.)
•2 cloves garlic, peeled
•2 teaspoons salt

HUMMUS DIRECTIONS
Combine the garbanzo beans, spinach, olive oil, lemon juice and tahini in a large food processor. Pulse until combined. Add the feta, red pepper flakes, garlic and salt. Pulse until combined. Taste and add salt or more red pepper flakes if desired.

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NAAN INGREDIENTS
•2 cups all-purpose flour or wheat flour
•¾ teaspoons baking powder
•½ teaspoons baking soda
•½ teaspoons sugar
•¼ teaspoons salt
•½ cups warm milk
•½ cups Yogurt
•½ tablespoons oil, as needed
•Additional optional herbs and seasonings to flavor the naan (see note below)

NAAN DIRECTIONS
Note: The ingredient list includes the ingredients for the dough. You can flavor your naan with all kinds of herbs. I made cumin naan, garlic naan, butter naan, and some topped with cilantro.

Mix all the dry ingredients together and make a well of flour.

Mix milk and yogurt together and pour half of it into the well and slowly combine it together.

I don’t think there’s an exact amount of liquid that should be added to the exact amount of flour to make a perfect dough. So what I do is continue adding liquid slowly and combining it all together slowly until a soft dough is made. The dough should be soft enough for you to be able to dig your finger into it without applying any pressure. If dough sticks to your hand too much, then use little bit of oil on your hands and then punch into the dough.

Cover with a damp cloth and let it sit in a warm place for at least 2 hours.

After a few hours, dust your working board, take out the dough and knead it for about 2-3 minutes. Divide the dough into smaller balls (in this case you should get about 8 balls to make naans).

Dust the board again and flatten the balls to make bread that is a little thick and elongated.

Now sprinkle one side of the bread with your desired flavor. I made cumin, minced garlic, chopped cilantro and some simple butter naans.

Brush the other side with water.

Heat a thick-bottomed skillet or a wok or any heavy-bottomed pan with a lid. Once it is nicely hot, place the naan wet side down (it will stick) and cover it with a lid.

Let it cook for about 30 seconds or until you see bubbles on it. Now cook the other side of the naan over a direct flame on the burner with the help of tongs. When you see some charred brown spots then you know that the naan is done.