Cauliflower Steak

My mother and I are on a vegetarian kick right now, and we are loving it! It surprised us both that we aren’t missing meat, the only thing we do miss is being able to eat more at restaurants. It seems like our only options are Caesar Salad hold the chicken or pasta with sauce of some sort. And as much as I love those two options, they aren’t the healthiest. The other day a friend took us to this restaurant that’s all vegetarian. WooHoo! I had a cauliflower steak and it was delicious. (Disclaimer: I love cauliflower, I think one month, my roommate thought I lived on just Bird’s Eye steamfresh Garlic Cauliflower) AMAZING actually. It was so good, the next night, mom and I came home and tried to make it. Our results are pretty darn good if we do say so ourselves.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

1 Jar of marinara type sauce (heavy veggies kind)

1 package of tofu crumbles

Olive Oil

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 f degrees. Peel leaves off of the cauliflower, but leave the stem intact. On a cutting board, slice cauliflower into large one inch sections. (it should look like the inside of  a brain) You should be able to get about two to three good sections and then have left over pieces. They all taste the same anyways so do not agonize over perfection.

2) Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place cauliflower steaks in skillet and brown about 5 minutes per side. (You may have to do it in two batches)

3) Place cauliflower gently on cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Then turn oven down to 350 degrees, and bake an additional 15 minutes.

4) After turning the oven to 350 degrees, place a small pot over medium heat on the stove. Pour in tofu crumbles and as much marinara sauce as you like. Personally I like my a little saucy, lol. Heat through.

 

5) Once cauliflower is done, remove from oven and place it on plates. Then pour the sauce over the cauliflower. And enjoy!

Butternut Squash

So I love butternut squash, whether it be in soup or ravioli. My roommate Lotti found this recipe and I have been hooked from the first bite. Beware though the chopping and peeling a squash takes some effort. I recommend it for a day when you need to work out some energy!

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter
  
• 1 large onion, diced
  
• 2 1/4 pounds butternut squash
  
• 1 cup chopped pecans
  
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place pecans on an ungreased baking sheet. Toast at 350 degrees F  for 5 to 8 minutes.
   
2. Peel the squash, and remove the seeds. Cut into 1/2 inch cubes. There will be about 6 cups squash. THIS TAKES EFFORT. Best to cut the squash in half first, and work on each section separately.
   
3. Melt butter  in a heavy large skillet over low heat. Add onion and saute until very tender, about 15 minutes. Add squash and toss to coat. Cover. Cook until squash is tender but still holds it shape, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. .
   
4. Stir in half of the pecans and half of the parsley. Transfer mixture to bowl. Sprinkle with remaining pecans and parsley.
5. Enjoy!

Weekly Wonderings: January 4th, 2012

Wow, I already find it weird to write 2012 on things, it will probably take me a month or two to get used to it. Anyways, I want to have more dinner parties this year, I love them. I love dinner party games. I love candles. I love food. I love friends. AND you can make them themed. I love a good theme. Anyways, for my future dinner parties, I’ve been searching around on pinterest for ideas. Here’s my inspiration so far:

What about you? Got any plans for the new year? Does anyone else love dinner parties as much as me or is this just another case of me being an old lady??

 

P.S. You can find all my pins HERE

Marsala Chicken

        

        Remember when I made those yummy breadsticks? They were part of a simple but delicious meal. I am in LOVE with this chicken recipe, I even made it for my grandparents, which is daunting because they are both really really good cooks. My grandmother is Italian and my grandfather is Spanish, so growing up there was always a ton of good food to eat at Sunday family dinners. Thus, when I went over to their house a few weeks ago, I said I would make them dinner as a treat, I knew I had to pull out my best recipe. My grandfather even told me that though he doesn’t like chicken, he really like the chicken in this recipe! Yay! We spent the evening watching “Downton Abbey”,  which if you haven’t watched it, go right now to netflix and watch it! It is the best show ever! And they are coming out with a second season! Woot! OKAY, but now to the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 4 Chicken Breasts
• 4 Celery ribs 
• 8 Carrots
• 1 Onion
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 1/4 cups Marsala Wine
• 1/2 cup Pine Nuts
• 1/2 cup Golden Raisons

Directions:

1) Use my handy cutting board tip to cut up everything.  Then heat oil in a pan over medium high heat. Once hot, cook the chicken in the pan until golden brown on each side.

2) Reduce heat to low and add celery, carrots and onion. Cook for five minutes or until it begins to soften. Then add Marsala wine and cover to simmer for 30 minutes.

3) Remove from heat and stir in Pine nuts and Golden Raisons.

4) Enjoy! I like it over rice and with these bread sticks!

What’s your favorite easy chicken recipe?

Cauliflower Pancakes

      
      I finally did it! I accomplished one thing off my weekly wonderings recipes list! Yay for being proactive. So let me just say these things were SO yummy. Mom and I made them for lunch and we fought over the last one (we ended up splitting it). They were quite easy to make and definitely worth the try. 
 

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower
2 large eggs
½ cup cheddar cheese
½ cup panko (from in the ethnic section of the grocery store)
½ tsp. cayenne pepper (more of less to taste)
½ salt
1 tbsp. olive oil

Directions:

1. Cut cauliflower into florets (chop off the stem) and boil it in water for about ten minutes.
   
2. Mash the cauliflower. Mix in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients except the olive oil.
   
3. Heat the oil over a skillet on medium. Make patties out of the cauliflower mixture, flatten and place in heated skillet.
   
4. Cook about 3 minutes per side until golden brown.
   
5. Serve and enjoy !
   

Adopted from this

Have you ever made Cauliflower Pancakes? What's your fall list of recipes? Do you have a list? Am I just a crazy list maker? 

Martha Stewart Sunday: Easy Chicken dinner

          On the Martha Stewart website there is a whole slideshow devoted to easy chicken dinners. As a college gal, I think eating chicken is a necessity because of how cheap it is to buy (even better are the frozen kinds, because you can just take out one at a time) and how versatile it is, chicken can be cooked thousands of different ways. Martha just did 101 easy chicken dinners so think of how many more there are out in the World Wide Web. I did not have a lot of time to make dinner, nor a bunch of ingredients on hand so I went with one that looked fairly simple. Chicken, white wine, parsley and flour. Done. Okay also a few other ingredients but you get the point. It turned out delicious, and was easy. The most important thing is to keep a careful eye on the reduction as it reduces fast and once it burns there is no going back! (Not that that has ever happened to me……….)
So I cooked pasta and broccoli and PRESTO meal. 

Anyways, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 8 thin chicken cutlets (1 1/2 pounds total)
  
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
  
• 2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
  
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley or mint (or a combination) (chop before starting chicken, makes your life much easier!)
  

 

Directions:

• Place flour in a shallow dish. Season chicken with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. In a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Working in batches, cook chicken until browned, 1 to 3 minutes per side, adding more oil to skillet as needed. Transfer chicken to a plate and tent with foil. (Yeah, I just placed flour on a cutting board, worked just as well)
  

 

• Pour wine into pan with chicken juices still there and boil until liquid , once it reduces to half then add chicken and turn to coat. Remove pan from heat and swirl in butter and herbs. Season with salt and pepper. 

 

What's your favorite chicken dish?


 

Martha Stewart Sunday: How to Roast a Chicken

     For me, roasted chickens have always come in one form: ready made from my grocery store. Yet roasted meats have been served since ancient times but now we use an oven instead of an open pit fire (well those of us, who make them). This week I attempted the daunting task of roasting my own chicken with Martha Stewart's Cooking School. (Cue dramatic music)

Here are Martha's tips for roasting a chicken:

• Conundrum of heat: low heat doesn't give nice crispy outside, high heat dries out the moist inside
  
• Check the temperature ¾ of the time, then again every 5 to 10 minutes (there is no returning from a burnt chicken!)
  
• Meat will continue to cook once removed from the oven, for another 10 to 15 degrees. (don't worry, most recipes take this into account)
  
• You will have to stick your hand up the chicken's butt (Okay, that is actually my forewarning)
  

Equipment:

Roasting Pan

Roasting Rack or Veggies (I used onions, potatoes and carrots)

Twine

Ingredients:

1 Whole Chicken

1 Lemon (cut into ¼ inch rounds)

4 sprigs of thyme

3 Garlic Cloves (crushed)

2 tablespoons of butter (softened at room temp)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Remove giblets and liver from cavity to discard (luckily mine weren't there). Let rest at room temperature for one hour then trim excess fat.
   
2. Rinse chicken under cold water (inside and out) then dry THOROUGHLY (including the inside, yes that means sticking your hand up it. )
   
3. Season the inside (Martha uses the word "cavity" but I am not that refined) with salt and pepper. Then stick the thyme, garlic cloves and lemon slices up the chicken cavity.
   
4. Rub skin with the butter. (Honestly, it's better to mush up the butter in your fingers into little parts to help rub it on)
   
5. Use twine to tie the legs together. (Martha refers to this as trussing) ((Also, I did not have twine, so I used two wooden skewers to attach the drumsticks)
   
6. Season generously with salt and pepper.
   
7. Place in roasting pan with rack or over vegetables and roast for 50 to 55 minutes with an instant read thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh (no bone!).
   
8. Let it rest 10 minutes before you serve it.