Gourmet Mushroom Flatbread Pizza

Want to impress someone? This will get the job done! My mouth is still watering every time I think of this mushroom-y goodness! I served it with a basic Caesar salad on the side. This might be my masterpiece...

What you will need...

• One large flat bread crust (I used one that was more like naan).
• 1 cup of mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
• 4 or 5 mini portabella mushrooms
• 1/2 large white onion, finely diced
• 1/2 apple, finely diced
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped kale 
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic 
• 1 teaspoon of dried basil
• 2 Tbsp. mayo
• Olive oil
• Trader Joes black truffle flavored olive oil ($5)

What to do...

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F 
• Begin dicing the onions, apples and mushrooms.
• In a pan, caramelize onions with apple and one mushroom
• In a small bowl whisk together olive oil, garlic and basil and brush the mixture onto the crust
• Add a handful of mozzarella cheese to the crust
• Top pizza with diced mushrooms, kale and caramelized onions. 
• Top with a small handful each of parmesan cheese, chopped green onions and more mozzarella cheese.
• Finally, in a small bowl mix mayonnaise, black truffle oil and garlic and drizzle mixture of the pizza
• Bake for 12-14 minutes, remove from oven and garnish with remaining paremesan and green onions and serve! 

You will not be disappointed, my friends. 

Easy, Delicious Vegetarian "Chicken" Salad

Guys. Have you ever had tempeh? I order it frequently off vegan/vegetarian menus but I finally had the pleasure of cooking with it! This vegetarian chicken salad blew my mind! Its my new favorite thing so here it is!

What you will need...

• 1 8 oz. package of organic 3 grain tempeh (Trader Joes $2) or your favorite tempeh
• 1 cup of diced onion
• 1 small crisp apple, diced
• 1/2 cup of diced red pepper
• 1/2 cup of diced bread and butter pickles (plus a splash of the pickle juice)
• 1/2 cup of very small grapes (Trader Joes, $3) 
• Mayo (recipe easily made vegan with veganaise)
• dashes of sea salt, black pepper, cumin, dried parsley, dried chives 

This is what you do...

• To season the tofu
• add 1 cup of water to a sauce pan with parsley, sea salt, cumin and chives
• break tempeh into a few smaller pieces
• let simmer, covered for 10 minutes and let the water boil off (like with rice!)
• while that is cooking dice up onion, apple, pepper and pickles
• add in a little extra pickle juice, sea salt and grapes
• dice up the seasoned tempeh and add to the mixture and put in the refrigerator to cool. 
• Once cool add about three spoonfuls of mayo and combine well. 

This recipe took about 15 minutes and I have this yummy, healthy lunch to last the whole week! I served it in a pita pocket with greens. 

Enjoy! 

Enchilada Quinoa

Do you ever just want to make a huge batch of something delicious and then live off it for a whole week? I did last night when I made this spicy, cheesy, satisfying quinoa dish!

*Update: leftovers for lunch were EVEN BETTER*

This is what you will need...

• 1 cup of uncooked quinoa
• 2 cups of vegetable/chicken stock
• 2 cups of frozen roasted corn (Trader Joes)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 small onion
• desired number of slices of jalapeno peppers
• 10 grape tomatoes
• 1 avocado
• 1 cup of finely chopped romaine lettuce 
• 1 cup of shredded pepper jack cheese
• 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 tsp of cumin
• 2 tsp of chili powder
• 1 cup of enchilada sauce 
• 1 bunch of chopped cilantro leaves
• 2 large lime wedges
• salt and pepper to taste
• dollop of sour cream!
• optional: 1 can of black beans and/or 2 cups of cooked, diced chicken (or neither if you are a vegetarian and your boyfriend is a beanaphobe)

This is what you do...

• Preheat oven to 400 and mist a baking dish with cooking spray
• Cook quinoa according to directions on package in vegetable stock (alternatively, sea salt, dried parsley, dried chives.)
• In a large mixing bowl combine, quinoa, enchilada sauce corn, pepper, onion, jalapeno, 5 diced grape tomatoes, 1/2 cup of pepper jack, 1/2 cup of mozzarella, cumin, chili powder, cilantro, salt and pepper and juice of 1 lime wedge.
• Once well combined, pour mixture into baking dish and top with the remaining cheese. 
• Bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese bubbles.
• Garnish with diced avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream and lime wedge.

Easy easy easy!!

This recipe was largely adapted from a similar website here.

Healthy Salmon Burgers in 15 Minutes or Less (for $5 or Less)

Until now, canned fish freaked me out big time (tuna included)... Desperate to cook salmon burgers, with few dollars to spare I took a leap of faith and purchased Trader Joes canned salmon. Fearing the worst, I peeled open the can,  and to my delight found the fish to be not smelly, salty mush but large chunks of seemingly fresh salmon- no gross smell detected! I drained the excess water and got to work on my burgers. 

What you need...

• 1 small can of Trader Joes Alaskan Pink Salmon, drained
• 1 15 oz. can of white beans
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 large handful of kale, chopped small
• 2 heaping table spoons of whole wheat flour
• 1 large egg
• desired spices (salt, pepper, maybe a little cumin) 
• oil/cooking spray

What to do...

• In a large bowl mash white beans (or puree them if your boyfriend gets freaked out by the texture of beans and the sight of one single, whole bean will cause him to turn white and panic)
• Combine salmon, onions, kale, egg, flour, spices, adding more flour if desired to make the mixture stick.
• With clean hands, form mixture into patties about the size of your palm. 
• Cook on frying pan with heated oil, turning to brown on each side on Medium High.
• Reduce heat and cover to "bake" patty making sure the inside is cooked and not mushy. 
• Serve on bun or bed of lettuce with homemade thousand island dressing
• Thoroughly mix equal parts mayonnaise and ketchup
• stir in finely diced bread and butter pickles 

This recipe yielded 3 excessively large patties. In the future I plan to use the mixture to form at least 4 patties and I might even go for the large can next time. The overall cost of this meal is probably less than $5! 

Cranberry Banana Oat Muffins

I have since experimented a bit with these muffins, attempting to make them a bit healthier and I must say these came out EVEN BETTER!  I thought you might enjoy trying another batch! I have italicized the changes from the previous muffin recipe ...

What you will need...

• 1 1/2 cup of flour (I used whole wheat flour)
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt 
• 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp of nutmeg
• 1 cup of oats
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar 
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 heaping tablespoon of pumpkin puree 
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup of canola oil
• 1 cup of fresh cranberries

What to do...

• Preheat the oven to 350F 
• spray bottom of muffin tin with cooking spray or line with muffin wrappers
• mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and oats in a large bowl
• In another bowl, thoroughly mix oil, pumpkin, bananas, brown sugar and egg
• Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients
• fold in the cranberries
• spoon into muffin tin
• bake for 25 minutes

 

Noodle Bowl in Under 10 Minutes

Get out your chopsticks! 

This is the simplest recipe and its I love it hot or cold, as long as its drizzled with sriracha (my true weakness). 

 

What you will need...

• Noodles (Soba, Udon, Ramen, Rice) Pictured are soba noodles, but ramen are my favorite)
• 1/2 cup of frozen, shelled edamame
• 1/4 cup of shredded carrots  
• 1 large button mushroom
• 1 chopped green onion
• 1 egg
• crushed cashews

 

For the dressing:

• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp of sriracha (and more for drizzling, optional) 
• 2 Tbsp of olive oil 
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp of ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp of cilantro 
•  1/8 cup of finely diced onion 

What to do...

• In a sauce pan boil your desired noodles
• Start on the sauce by whisking together soy sauce, sriracha, olive oil, sugar, ginger, cilantro and onion. 
• When the noodles are done, remove from heat, throw in the frozen edamame, shredded carrots, and mushroom and cover. 
• Once the edamame is thawed, drain the noodles and vegetables and toss in the dressing. 
• Top with an egg (crack egg onto a skillet, add 2 Tbs of water and immediately cover, leave undisturbed until egg is white and yolk is still runny.)
• Put into a bowl and garnish with crushed cashews, green onion and of course, sriracha.

 

 

 

 Just a tip: I have found, when I buy herbs so much of it goes to waste. Particularly when I buy cilantro, I hardly put a dent in the huge quantity I end up with and end up throwing the rest out. A good way to prevent waste is to freeze the herbs in olive oil in an ice tray. However, if you are like me and you lack the motivation to freeze your herbs as well as the freezer space to keep hundreds of herb cubes, you might be interested in trying these. Its not quite as good as the fresh stuff and it goes against my normal rule of thumb of using as few processed ingredients as possible but at least it isn't as wasteful! Plus I always have them onhand so I don't have to run out whenever I need fresh herbs or ginger. I really enjoy using these pastes in dressings and dipping sauces especially because they save you the hassle of finely chopping up these flavors manually. I found these in the refrigerated produce section with other herbs in Kroger. 

And one more tip, at Trader Joes "broken" cashews costs almost $2 less than regular, intact cashews!

 

Banana Oat Dark Chocolate Muffins

I have started to experiment with baking! This is my first successful attempt...
I'm working on tweaking this recipe into something a little bit more nutritious but for now enjoy these slightly healthy, extremely satisfying muffins for breakfast or dessert!

What you will need...

• 1 1/2 cup of flour (I used whole wheat flour)
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt 
• 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp of nutmeg
• 1/2 cup of oats
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar 
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup of butter, melted 
• 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips  

What to do...

• Preheat the oven to 350F 
• spray bottom of muffin tin with cooking spray or line with muffin wrappers
• mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and oats in a large bowl
• In another bowl, thoroughly mix butter, bananas, brown sugar and egg
• Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients
• fold in chocolate chips (I didn't have chocolate chips so I put 1/2 bar of dark chocolate in a Ziploc bag and smashed it with a hammer ???)
• spoon into muffin tin
• bake for 25 minutes
  

 Enjoy!!