Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘cumin’

Substitution In Red Beans And Rice

Posted by terrepruitt on January 9, 2023

Sometimes I mess up my own plans. I was wanting to make Red Beans and Rice so I had my husband (he does the shopping) get four bell peppers. Some of them were for our New Year’s Eve dinner of cheese fondue, and I had planned on using one for the Red Beans and Rice. Well, our fondue was so good that I made it again and didn’t even think about needing a green bell pepper for something else and I used up all of our bell peppers. So when I went to put it in the Red Beans it was gone. Grrrr! But . . . I had some bok choy and I used that.

It was fine. The bok choy doesn’t really add any flavor like a green bell pepper would, but it was good.

So, I am just making a note for myself and letting you know that bok choy in the Red Beans and Rices works good.

Also noting: I have been using white rice and I have doubled the cumin and thyme thyme to 1 teaspoon (from 1/2).

And, yes, in case you are not familiar, I put chickpeas/garbanzo bean in my Red Beans and Rice because I don’t really like red beans/kidney beans, but I do like garbanzo beans.

 

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Mexican Chicken Salad

Posted by terrepruitt on September 11, 2017

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitWe recently went through an extremely hot spell. This is the San Francisco Bay Area, so we are not really accustomed to having EXTREMELY hot weather. Many homes in this area don’t have air conditioning. Most often when we do have hot days, we get cooler nights so it makes the hot days somewhat bearable because the night air has cooled everything down. But with this last heat wave there was no reprieve from the heat of the day at all. So it was hot and it stayed hot for days. Record breaking temperatures were recorded all over. So the idea of making dinner was really unappealing. And the idea of using anything that created heat was just unthinkable. I was trying to come up with something we could eat that wouldn’t require heat at all. The only thing I could think of was Chicken Salad. Now this was all I could think of without me having to go to the store. But I thought that was kind of average because when I make chicken salad I use mayonnaise, pickles, and garlic salt. Not just that, but that is the basic idea. But I wanted a different flavor. I was thinking I could give it a Mexican flavor and we could put it on a tortilla with a little cheese and salsa on top. Had we had avocado and sour cream that would have gone on top, too, for my hubby. So here is what I came up with.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitMexican Chicken Salad

1 can of chicken
1 can of corn
1/4 cup of chopped white onion
1/4 cup of chopped red onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cilantro
1 teaspoon cumin
Sprinkle of pepper
Half of a green bell pepper
– – – –
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons lime juice
Flour tortillas
Shredded cheese
Salsa

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit(The dashes indicate ingredients that were good on their own. They didn’t even need the rest. But it was good all together.)

Chop the bell pepper. Mix the chicken, corn, onion, garlic, garlic salt, coriander, cilantro, cumin, pepper, bell pepper vinegar, and lime juice together. Let it chill for at least an hour, to let the flavors meld together a bit.

Then spoon the mixture onto a flour tortilla and top with shredded cheese and salsa. Roll it up to eat it like a burrito.

As I said, if you have avocado and/or sour cream you could put that on top.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitAs I mentioned, these ingredients are what I had. I did not go to the store so I used dried cilantro. When I make this in the future I am going to use fresh cilantro and I think that will make a big difference flavorwise. I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants because it was just too hot. Too hot to go to the store and too hot to create heat and cook.

I like this because it is chicken salad without mayonnaise. So this means we can have chicken salad twice as often because it won’t be the same ol’ same ol’ chicken salad.

This was even better two days later when the flavors REALLY had time to settle in. So you can make it a day or so before you want to eat it.

Do you like chicken salad? What do you put in your chicken salad?

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Roast Pumpkin Soup, My Way

Posted by terrepruitt on December 12, 2016

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitOh, it has been too long since I posted on Monday.  Just so much to think about right now it is difficult to focus on what to write for a blog post.  I was busy with another project today so I was barely thinking about dinner much less a blog post.  I had a sugar pie pumpkin that needed to be used.  Normally with sugar pie pumpkins I make Pumpkin For Dinner but I didn’t feel like making that.  I don’t know why.  I LOVE that.  But I just didn’t want to make it.  So I thought I would make pumpkin soup.  I have never make pumpkin soup before.  I was certain there was a recipe online I could use.  But when it came time to make dinner I didn’t feel like looking at a bunch of recipes to figure out which one to make.  Or which ones I could use to make soup so I just made up something.  For me . . . it was too bitter, but my husband loved it.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitPumpkin Soup

1 sugar pie pumpkin
olive oil
garlic salt
1/2 large onion
32 ounces veggie broth
1 pumpkin beer
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
sprinkle of pepper
sprinkle of nutmeg
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of water

Preheat the oven to 450° F.  Wash the pumpkin, then cut it up in quarters.  Removing all the seeds.  Rub the pumpkin with olive oil and sprinkle both sides of each quarter with garlic salt.  Then place the pumpkin – outside up – on a parchment paper lined baking pan.  Then bake it for 30 minutes.  Take the pumpkin out of the oven and turn each piece over, bake it for about 20 minutes more.  This is where you have to decide if it is done in 20 minutes or needs more time in the oven.  Use a fork, if needed, mine was kinda brown.  It might have been more than 20 minutes.

While the pumpkin is roasting.  Heat up some olive oil in your stock pot or soup pan.  Chop the onion.  Then cook the onion.  Then add the broth.  Then add the beer.  Add the salt and all of the spices.  Just let it barely boil.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitWhen the pumpkin is done roasting put it in your super blender (or perhaps you have an immersion blender*) and blend it until you have a pumpkin puree.

Add the pumpkin puree to the liquid in the soup pot.  Stir until incorporated.  Then serve.

*with the immersion blender add the pumpkin to the liquid then blend until smooth

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitSo, I didn’t have anything to serve this with.  I think I would have put some creme fraiche on top or some cheese.  But I wasn’t sure.  Strangely I didn’t taste it before I served it.  As I said, I have a lot of things on my mind and I was doing three other things while I was cooking, so dinner was super late in the evening, and when I first tried to taste it, it was too hot.  I didn’t try again.  But it was ok.

My husband really liked it.  He said it had a finish that tasted like Taco Bell’s Hot Sauce.  Can’t say I am happy about that exactly, but then again, it allowed him to like the soup, so ok.  But to me, it was too bitter.

So, help me out.  Why was it bitter?  Is cardamom bitter?  Is cumin?  Would cutting back on either of those help with the bitter?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Meat Topped Polenta Rounds

Posted by terrepruitt on November 14, 2015

So I had an idea to make another dinner with polenta but it was kinda like the last thing I made with polenta, but I was hoping it would be different enough I could add it to the list of things to make.  But it actually turned out to be almost exactly like the Turkey And Polenta Bake I had made.  The polenta I buy is in a tube, like a roll of sausage,  But it is hard, not mushy.  I was still thinking I could roll it out so that I could put the rolled out rounds of polenta in muffin pans then fill ’em.  But the polenta did not flatten when I tried to roll it out, it just started breaking up.  So, I ended up just putting the sliced rounds in the bottom of the muffin cups.

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Meat Topped Polenta RoundsDance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique

Olive oil
1 leek
9 mushrooms
1 tsp garlic
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom
3/4 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp thyme
1 tube of polenta
1 lb beef
2 cups shredded cheese
(green onions and sour cream)

Chop the leek and slice the mushrooms, then cook the leek for a few minutes in the olive oil over medium heat.  Then add the sliced mushrooms to the pan, add half the garlic and half the salt – reserving the rest for later (when you add the meat).  Continue to cook and stir, then add the rest of the spices.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia TechniqueWhile the mushrooms and leek are cooking, preheat the oven to 425° F.  Then slice the polenta.  I sliced mine so I would have enough to fit into both my pans.  One isn’t even a muffin pan. Grease the muffin pan.  Then put a polenta round into each muffin well.  Brush some olive oil on each round.  Bake the polenta for 15 to 20 minutes.  Check on them.  I wanted mine to have cooked to where the edges were getting crispy.

Back to the mushrooms.  Cook the mushrooms until they are almost done – you decide how done you want them – then add the meat to the pan.  Cook the meat a bit, then add the rest of the garlic and salt.  Cook the meat until it is pretty much done, but don’t overcook it because it has to be in the oven a bit still.

Once the meat is cooked to your satisfaction, put a tiny bit of cheese on the polenta, then fill the muffin cups (on top of the polenta) with the meat veggie mixture.  Top each meat filled cup with cheese, then bake for 10 to 20 minutes.

After the cheese is melted and everything is cooked to your satisfaction, just pop the meat topped polenta rounds onto a plate to serve.  (I forgot to take a picture of this part.)

You can top them with sour cream and green onions.  I forgot to buy one (sour cream) and I forgot to use the other (green onions).

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This was good, but it was not what I had planned and it was so much like my other dish I almost didn’t post about it.  I liked it better though because the polenta was “crispy” and that is what I had wanted in the other recipe.  This one was also good because it was different flavors than “taco flavor”.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia TechniqueMy plan – aside from rolling out the polenta, was to use corn and peppers, but we received two leeks in our produce box and I need to start using the produce right away, so I decided to use the leek instead.  I didn’t think there would be enough room in the muffins cups to hold meat, mushrooms, leek, corn, and peppers.  Perhaps next time I’ll do the corn and peppers sans leeks.

My plan was also to start cooking earlier and take pictures of every thing, ingredients, and each step, but I started late and was on the phone while I was cooking so I almost forgot about the pictures.

So what would you put on your polenta rounds?

 

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Brisket In A CrockPot

Posted by terrepruitt on October 29, 2013

I have a friend who buys a grass-fed cow for beef by offering portions to her friends.  So my husband and I purchased a portion.  The meat is really amazing.  If you have read any of my meat posts you know that I prefer to douse my meat in marinades and seasonings.  Well, with this beef I don’t do that normally because the grass-fed flavor of the meat is good.  When I picked up my meat my friend gave me a few choices about some of the cuts.  I know nothing about cuts of meat.  I based my selection on this cut being one or two servings and that cut being three to four.  Of course I chose the value.  Plus a couple of the selections were new-to-me cuts.  So I was excited at the prospect of learning how to cook different cuts of meat.  Well, as I said, I was excited at the prospect.  I haven’t had as much time since I picked up the meat.  I have not spent time learning how to cook both the different cuts AND the way this meat cooks. So I have been cooking the ground beef — A LOT.  I make burgers often.  Used to be I couldn’t get my hubby to want to eat a burger that I handmade, now he LOVES them.  The beef is spectacular!  Anyway . . . I finally have to get to cooking the meat in my freezer so my first attempt — BRISKET.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaOn Facebook I asked my friend what to do and she said, “Brisket: crockpot, red wine, bay leaves, onions. Can add bell pepper, tomato sauce too. Cook. FYI: I say crockpot because I’m guessing you have one. I don’t use them, so I couldn’t fathom how much time. Brisket is one of my faves. Remember what I said: look up how to cook grass fed. Because this cow was so lean, look up veal. Not the same product, but the cooking is the same.”

I am really not a fan of brisket, unless my friend cooks it.  I had one she made once and I was so amazed.  But as she said, she doesn’t use a crock pot, but I did.

I don’t like cooked bell pepper that much so I nixed that idea and I am also not a fan of tomato sauce so I decided against that.  What I did was I looked up crockpot brisket and found a bunch of recipes.  I looked at the ingredients I liked from each one and decided I would put them together and see what I get.

Here is what I used.  I actually thought to write it down BEFORE I prepared it.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaCrockpot Brisket

About 3 pounds of brisket
-4 or 5 cloves of garlic, minced
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1 tsp salt
-1/8 tsp pepper   (1/4 tsp)
-1/2 tsp dry (powdered) mustard   (3/4 tsp)
-1/2 tsp cumin    (3/4 tsp)
-1/2 tsp thyme
-1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce  (1 1/2 tbsp)

-3/4 of an onion, chopped
-1 tbsp of sherry
-1 bottle of beer
-1 cup water
-1 tsp Better than Bouillon

Mix all the dry ingredients including the Worcestershire sauce together in a bowl, then rub it on the meat.  Cover all of the meat.  Put some of the onions on the bottom of the pot.  Place the meat in the pot on top of the onions.  Put the rest of the onions on top of the meat.  Then pour in the sherry, beer, and broth (I had mixed the water with the Better than Bouillon).

Sprinkle more cumin on top.

Set it on low and cook it for 5 hours.  (I will cook it for less next time.)

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaWhen I looked up brisket I saw times from 6 to 9 hours.  So I had been planning on cooking it for 5 hours.  But then I looked up veal and it said 7 to 9 hours.  So I set one timer for 7 hours and another for 5.  At 5 hours I checked on it and it seemed done so I turned off the crockpot.  I will cook if for less next time because, as you know, it keeps cooking even after you turn off the heat.  I will also remove the crock pot from the heat next time.

The meat actually came out moist and fine.  But I would like it a little less cooked.

My husband loves meat, especially beef, so he loved it.  He kept making yummy noises.  And I actually observed him eat the meat except for one piece. Then he eat everything else then the last piece of his meat.  He saved it for last.  He wanted to savor the last bits.  As I have said before, I am blessed because he likes pretty much anything, but he loved this.

The amounts in parenthesis are the amounts that I am going to use next time.  I want a little more flavor.  But I am happy with my first cooking of brisket.  And now you know what?  Yup, my favorite . . . . leftovers!

Are you a brisket fan?  Do you have a brisket recipe?  How do you cook brisket?

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Hummus With Sweet Potato

Posted by terrepruitt on August 24, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga

I have mentioned before that I have fantastic Nia students.  Well, I also have fabulous students in my gentle yoga class.  When I posted about green beans being the only beans I like, except garbanzo beans in a couple of recipes, one of my students commented asking if I liked hummus.  Turns out she just made some with sweet potato.  I asked if she wanted to guest post or give me the recipe so that I could post it.  Just as I say about recipes she used the original recipe as a guide and made it her own.  She gave me kinda what she did (pictured). In addition to bringing me the recipe she actually brought me some hummus.  In a little baggie!  So cute.  So sweet of her.  It was a perfect addition to our dinner that night because I hadn’t really planned a well-rounded meal since I spent a good portion of the day at the vet’s office with my cat.  You know that all medications have side effects and one of hers had a big one so we are now on a different plan on how to handle her issue in order to deal with the issue that came up as a side effect.  I had my very first Thursday morning Nia class that will be Thursdays at 8:30 am the same day.  So being at the vet for hours then coming home and having to get some stuff done before having to leave for Gentle Yoga didn’t leave me time to think about dinner in detail.  So having the sweet potato hummus to serve with a raw bell pepper helped a lot.  And it was delicious.  I modified it only by roasting the sweet potatoes and adding more water.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaHummus With Sweet Potato:

Ingredients (pictured)

1 cup peeled and chopped up roasted sweet potato* (I measured it AFTER I roasted it)
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup Tahini
7 garlic cloves, roasted (or raw)**
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup water (not pictured)

Peel and chop a sweet potato.  Roast it in the oven (at about 450° F with garlic salt and olive oil).  Until it is cooked to your liking.***

Put all ingredients in the blender or food processor and pulse until smooth.****  You can start with less water than 1/4 cup and add as you see fit.*****

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Recipe notes

*I measured the sweet potato AFTER I roasted it

**I used roasted garlic

***I roasted the sweet potato less than I would have if I were eating it

****I don’t have a food processor, I used my blender and I had to scrape and pulse quite a lot.  I did not drizzle with oil or sprinkle with paprika.

*****I will use the “bean water” next time.  (I forgot that I needed water at all otherwise I would have saved the bean water to use.)

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As you can see there are two different colored spreads in the picture.  I think we might have used different colored sweet potatoes because I can’t imagine a sprinkle of paprika or her + of cumin would change the color that much.  Can you?

Either way they both were delicious.  Hers was more sweet.  Again not sure if it is because of different potatoes or not.  Could be the roasting.

Either way . . . this recipe is just a guide.  A place to start.  Something to look at to say, “Ok, someone has put sweet potato in a hummus and they thought it was good, now what can I do to make it my own?”

Right?  So . . . . go make it and report back!  🙂

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Beef, Beans, Mushrooms, Zucchini, And Cheesy Tortillas

Posted by terrepruitt on April 9, 2013

My cat has been on a “bland diet” of beef and sweet potatoes.  I keep thinking “today is the day” — meaning, today will be the last day, but until “things” have gotten back to normal I am not comfortable putting her back on her cat food.  Part of the prescription of the bland diet was “very lean” beef.  So I am feeding my cat lean beef.  One day I was about to cook two dinners.  One for my cat and one for my hubby and I.  Then I realized I could just cook one.  So I put away what I had originally planned for my hubby and I and just cooked up some beef for us too.  As I was cooking the meat I was thinking of what veggies I had in my fridge . . . yeah, my door note does not always get updated.  Of course I couldn’t remember but when I opened the door I spotted the mushrooms . . . cool, I decided to put the meat on/in tiny tortillas with some mushrooms and cheese.  Then, I decided that in addition to mushrooms I would add some garbanzo beans.  As I was putting something in the fridge I spotted the zucchini and I decided to grate some of that into our mushrooms.  I was making this dinner up as I was cooking it!  (I can do that when I don’t have a Nia class.)

I have to cook the cat’s meat without flavoring, so I figured I would just salt the meat after and put some raw onions on it.  I figured that would be enough flavor.  But then I took hers out to prepare it and I left ours in the pan and I added cumin and garlic salt.  I am starting to add cumin to different things now.  Ever since I used it in my adjusted version of Bobby Deen’s Red Beans and Rice recipe.  It was not a spice I was accustomed to cooking with.  I like it.

We ended up with a pretty tasty dinner, I think.  I think the raw onions on the topping it all off really gave it the perfect finishing touch.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaBeef, Beans, Mushrooms, Zucchini, And Cheesy Tortillas

small wedge of onion, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
four shakes of garlic salt
half of a zucchini, grated
four shakes of garlic salt
1 can of garbanzo beans
four shakes of garlic salt
1/4 of a pound beef
four shakes of cumin
four shakes of garlic salt
10 small thin slices of cheese
five tiny corn tortillas

Heat the oil and onion (save some for garnish), then put the mushrooms in, add garlic salt.  Cook them until they are almost done, then put the grated zucchini in, add garlic salt.  Cook until it looks done almost done, then add the beans and the garlic salt. In a different pan, cook the beef with the cumin and garlic salt.

When the mushroom mixture and beef are almost done, heat the tortillas, melt the cheese on the tortillas.  Spoon the beef onto four of the cheesy tortilla, then spoon the mushroom bean mixture.  Top with raw onions.  (One tortilla was meatless!)

I had to cook the meat separate because of my cat, but if I were just making this for us I would cook the mushrooms first . . . I like my mushrooms caramelized, then I would add the beef . . . and I would use more so that it would work for all five tortillas.  I would add the cumin to the meat.  Then I would add the zucchini, then the beans.  I don’t like the beans to get to cooked so I add them last.  With each ingredient I would add garlic salt.

I have an electric grill/panini press I used for the tortillas.  I grilled them.

This was very good.  I will be making this again.  But since we rarely have ground beef (we are only eating it because the cat is!) I will use our regular ground turkey.

I like cooking with cumin!

I know I don’t come up with very inventive stuff, but we like it and sometimes all you need is an IDEA of what to cook for dinner.  Maybe this will help you.

What do you think?  Any ideas on what you might add?

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Dinner Desperation

Posted by terrepruitt on March 2, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaFor those of you that cook dinner every night you might understand what I am about to say, “Cooking dinner is difficult.”  Ok, more accurately coming up with ideas of what to cook for dinner is difficult.  I actually have it very easy because my husband would be fine eating the same thing all week then switching to something else the next week.  As long as it was not a vegetarian dish three days in a row.  But I am not happy with that.  As you know if you have read any of my posts about food, I love left overs because they keep me from having to cook or at least keep me from having to start from scratch.  The other night I was really at a loss as to what to prepare for dinner.  It was a Wednesday so I really should have been thinking in terms of cooking for Wednesday so that I could have enough left over for Thursday when I have a late Nia class.  But I couldn’t think “two nights” I just wanted to get through the one night and use the portion of a piece of chicken I had from the night before.  I came up with something that I didn’t even think about being enough for leftovers but it was.  It carried us through two nights.  Asparagus, beans, rice, and chicken.

Another thing you might know about me if you have a read a few of my posts, I LOVE asparagus.  I mean, love, love, love, love.  Once I was asked what food I would want to have given to me free every day and I said asparagus.  But even though I love it, I won’t buy it when it is $8.99 a pound.  I don’t even like to buy it when it is $4.99 a pound.  I might buy it when it is $2.99 a pound, but I like the $1.99 range.  But knowing how much I love it my hubby bought me some recently.  I didn’t ask how much it was.  I just had five pounds of asparagus to eat.  🙂

I often use three servings of meat to make four servings of dinner.  Usually my husband has a serving and I have a good portion of one.  The next night I will use the third serving along with my smaller portion to make another meal.  Well on this night I was using just my left over portion because we had only cooked two servings the night before.  So to me it would be a vegetarian-ish dish.  As it would have way more veggies than meat.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaSo here is my “recipe”

Asparagus, beans, rice, and chicken

—1 tablespoon olive oil
—1/2 of an onion, chopped
—asparagus (2.25 pounds) chopped
—2 teaspoons minced garlic
—1 3/4 cup cooked rice
—2 tablespoons of butter
—3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
—1 15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed
—3/4th of a LARGE chicken breast, cooked and chopped
—Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
—Garlic Salt, to taste

Heat the olive oil and the chopped onion.  Add the asparagus.  Cook only slightly (because the rice takes a while to heat up).  Sprinkle garlic over asparagus.  Stirring it and allowing it to cook.  Add the rice breaking it up and letting it get soft.  Use the butter to help the rice get moist (might need to use a bit of liquid too).  And the cumin.  When the rice is soft, add the can of garbanzo beans.  Then add the chopped up chicken.  Add pepper and garlic salt to taste.

Since asparagus doesn’t take that long to cook and everything else is ok to eat as is, it is really the rice that needs the most amount of time.  If you are using freshly cooked rice then this would take minutes.  As a note the chicken I used had been seasoned when cooked the night before so that is something to keep in mind when flavoring your dish.

For me it is the beans and the cumin that is “new”.  I have done dishes like this before using other meat.  I think this would also be good with left over pork.

I was thinking of the Red Beans and Rice recipe when I did this, using the beans and the cumin.

We liked it.  What do you think?  Sound easy?  Sound like something you would like?

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A New Recipe To Love – Red Beans and Rice

Posted by terrepruitt on January 15, 2013

For two weeks we didn’t have a working stove or oven.  The oven started beeping one night.  We turned off the circuit breaker and it stopped beeping.  I used it the following night.  But then the day following that it started beeping again.  It beeped and displayed a code.  The code indicated a part was broken.  My husband concluded via internet research and taking the control panel off the appliance that he could order it and replace it himself.  Part of the reason it took two weeks to get fixed was that there was a holiday and a weekend in there.  The part being shipped was delayed because of the Holiday.  By the time we got the part and he was able to put it in, it was the weekend.  The part didn’t clear the error.  Then there were issues in securing a repairman. For those of you that know how much I love my roasted vegetables you might understand having no oven was really difficult for me.  Roasted veggies are not only yummy, but so easy to make.  A few minutes prep then in the oven until they are done leaving you time to do other things.  That is why I love my oven.  During the two weeks we ate take out.  We ordered Chinese Food, which for us equates to a few nights of Chinese Food.  I also used my toaster oven, my electric skillet, my crock pot, and my Cuisinart Grill.  So it was not as if I had no way to cook, it just put a cramp in my cooking a bit.  On the nights I have a Nia class I like to put our dinner in the oven and have it turn on about the time that class is over.  Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaBy the time I get home whatever is cooking is either done or on its way to being done.  Without that I had to come home and start cooking.  But alas I have a stove and oven again.  YAY!  I missed them.  While I was not being able to use my stove and oven I tortured myself by looking at a cooking magazine.  As soon as my stove was fixed I decided to try a new recipe.

The recipe is from Bobby Deen.  I got it out of the Food Network Magazine.   The name of the recipe is Monday-Night Red Beans and Rice and is on the Food Network website.

Not your typical Red Beans and Rice recipe. I made some adjustments, of course!  I am posting it here as I did made it.  I am calling it something different too!

Sausage, Beans, and Rice

Ingredients:

—Three turns of the pan Olive oil
—3/4 medium onion, finely chopped
—8 turkey sausage patties
—1 large green bell pepper, finely chopped
—2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
—1 15 1/2-ounce can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
—1 15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed
—1/2 cup chicken broth
—1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
—1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
—1 bay leaf
—Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
—Salt, to taste
—Cooked brown rice
—Chopped scallions, for serving

Directions

Cook the onion in the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the sausage, chopping it up and separating it as it cooks.  Stirring it and moving it around as necessary.  Cook until almost cooked through.  Add the garlic.  Mix the garlic into the onions and meat.  Cook for about 1 minute.  Add the beans, chicken broth, cumin, thyme, bay leaf, green pepper, salt to taste, and pepper to taste.  Stir the ingredients until it is all mixed well.  Reduce heat and cover.  Let cook about 10 minutes.

Serve the mixture over rice.  Top with the scallions.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaThis was so good.  I used my beloved 14 inch pan that I missed for two whole weeks.  Once the beans were added my stirring was gentle as I didn’t want to end up with smashed beans, but I also wanted to make sure the spices were distributed and the bay leaf touched a lot of the ingredients.  So I stirred a lot, but not vigorously.

My typical spices consist of garlic and onions.  I didn’t even have cumin.  I had to buy it with the sausage and onion.  Yeah, I was out of onion.  I have a stock of kidney beans and garbanzo bean.  I have them both for the bean salad I like.  Plus I love to roast the garbanzos.

I actually DID put pepper in this while I was cooking it.  For those of you that know me (either in person or through my blog) you know I don’t like pepper/spicy hot, but the pepper my friend gave me (SMOKED PEPPER) I can handle a little bit of.  So I put a little in the pan while I was cooking.  When I served it to my husband I put a lot of pepper on his.  While he was eating it he kept saying he was surprised I could eat it.  He thought it was too hot for me.  I had him taste mine . . . . which had NO extra pepper and he said the flavor was a little different.  So maybe the pepper brings out a different flavor.

Either way, we both loved it and I can see this becoming one of those meals I cook often.  I can see experiments with different sausages and no meat at all.

I can also see me cooking more with cumin.

Do you like red kidney beans?  Do you like garbanzo beans?  Doesn’t this sound tasty?

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