obsessed

Hello my name is Meredith and I’m obsessed with my juicer.

For approximately 2 years I have been lusting after juicers. I’ve seen them all over the blog world and always treated myself to a healthy juice on my trips to Whole Foods (which are rare, considering I am a grad student). For Christmas 2010 I was all set to get one and had told my mom all about it, but then reality set in and I realized there were things I needed more in my life and an extra appliance in my kitchen wasn’t it. But since then, I’ve kept my eyes out for a deal, promising myself I’d jump on a deal if I found one.

And I did! This juicer was randomly being offered as a Groupon Goods deal and I happened to have a gift certificate to Groupon (thanks, Mom!) so I ended up paying 1/4 of the retail value plus $10 in shipping. Not too shabby! I got the Juiceman JM400 Jr., which for a newbie juicer like me works perfectly fine — here’s the link on Amazon if you want to see.

The reviews led me to believe that this would be a great juicer for someone who isn’t planning on making huge batches of juice every day, more for the casual juicer than the religious detoxer. Since I’ve gotten it, I’ve made a juice about every other day and it has held up just fine.

If you are thinking of investing in a juicer, here are my basic recommendations:

• Start small, you can always upgrade your model if you want something bigger and better, but you’ll always regret spending $200 on something you found out you never used.
• To keep a juicing habit affordable, buy produce that is on sale and in season. With the 3 for $1 small apples, $1 bunches of kale, 3 for $1 lemons, and a knob of ginger root, my favorite juice costs me less than $1!
• Only buy produce you would eat otherwise. You may get sick of your beet juice and regret having a surplus of beets in your produce drawer.
• Get bang for your buck: produce like cucumbers, apples, and citrus produce a high volume of juice.
• Clean the parts as soon as you finish juicing! It takes about 5 minutes, but I let my juice sit after I make it and force myself to rinse everything off. This way, the sticky fruit juice and pulp doesn’t get crusted on everything.
• If you have a dog or other small mammal, consider feeding it the juice pulp. I feel a little wasteful throwing mine down the garbage disposal. For my all-vegetable juices, I save the pulp and throw it in pasta sauce.

I love my juicer and I love making fresh juice. My skin is looking great and I feel good knowing I’m getting in my vitamins when I sometimes might not meet my daily fruit and vegetable goals. I even love my juicer so much that I keep it near me at all times and somehow spilled acetone nail polish remover on it and it damaged the plastic coating. Go me! 

a soup I actually like

It isn’t a secret that I don’t really care for soup. I have very few recipes for soup and its very rare that I order it at a restaurant. It’s a texture thing. Aside from heavy chowders and chilis, I really only like thick, puree type soups like tomato.

Well I had been staring at a big butternut squash that I bought and was quite unsure about what to do with it since I’ve had a lot of roasted squash these days. I had a flashback to the days when I lived with Mona and Jeff, the parents of my two best friends, Harris and Jeremy — Mona used to make a butternut squash soup that was really yummy!

I had no idea what went in hers but decided to follow my instinct and just make a simple puree soup with minimal ingredients (my new favorite concept) and lots of pure, vegetable flavor.

My only complaint about this whole venture? The mess! I had to blend the soup in my blender in 3 different batches because the blender wasn’t big enough and it just caused a huge mess. But, this mess was well worth it because the soup was great! I packed it up and took a small batch over to my friend’s house for girl’s night of low cal cooking, wine, and Sex and the City!

Butternut Squash Soup (serves 8)
1-1 lb. butternut squash, peeled and roughly chopped into large chunks
1/2 medium white onion, roughly chopped
1 large, sweet apple (I used Pink Lady), peeled and roughly chopped
6 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
pepper
Prepare the squash, onion, and apple. In a stock pot, combine all of the produce and cover with 6 cups of stock. Cover and bring to a rolling boil. When the liquid is boiling, reduce the heat slightly for a more gentle boil. Allow the produce to boil for about 20 minutes. When you press on the squash with a spoon or spatula, it should be tender and easily break. When the squash is tender, remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Use an immersion blender or a standard blender and blend the soup, adding pepper to taste at this point — if using a standard blender do it in batches and put a dish towel over the lid because it will still be HOT! Combine the batches of blended, pureed soup and eat up!

a hearty fall pasta

A few weeks ago, I discovered that a local farmer is selling his preservative-free, fresh chicken sausage! There are several flavors available, but I opted for the (spicy) Italian sausage variety. After eating one of the links with some peppers and onions, I decided to throw the rest into a pasta salad.

I also had some of my favorite fall produce lying around… butternut squash and asparagus! I roasted the squash with some olive oil and just steamed the asparagus.

Fun fact about that vegetable steamer basket: that is the very same steamer basket I used to pretend was a UFO during bath time as a small child. I was way too cool to handle back in the early 90′s.

After heating the sauce and (pre-cooked) sausage, I tossed it all together for a super hearty, healthy pasta! I ate the leftovers for days and it was still as delicious each time!

Rigatoni with Sausage and Squash (serves 4-6)
3 links Italian chicken sausage (3/4 lb.)
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into small chunks
1-2 T olive oil
salt & pepper
20 spears asparagus, cut into thirds
3/4 lb. (dried) rigatoni pasta
1 1/2-2 cups pasta sauce (your favorite variety)
Peel and cut the butternut squash. Place on a baking sheet and coat with olive oil, salt, and pepper, tossing to make sure every piece is covered. Roast for 35-40 minutes in an oven heated to 400*, stirring once halfway through. Remove from oven and put into a large mixing bowl. While the squash is roasting, cut the asparagus and steam it so it retains just a touch of crispness (5-6 minutes). Put the asparagus into the same mixing bowl in which you put the squash. If sausage is uncooked, boil until cooked through. Slice sausage links into bite-sized rounds and put in bowl with asparagus and roasted squash. Cook and drain the pasta, tossing it in with the vegetables and sausage while still hot. Heat up your favorite pasta sauce and pour over the mixture in the bowl, mixing thoroughly. Serve immediately or cool and reheat when ready to serve!

idiot sauce

I promise you “idiot sauce” is not some cool new word all the kids are using, like “awesomesauce”. Idiot sauce is exactly what it sounds like, as you’ll soon find out.

In my recent quest to make leftover-worthy dishes to pack for lunch, I have been eyeing a basic recipe for vegan (read: dairy-free) stuffed shells that has been floating around food blogs for quite some time. I love pasta but making a big dish of stuffed shells is probably not the smartest idea if I’m the only one eating them. So I glanced over the basics, restocked my nutritional yeast in the bulk bins, and hastily grabbed a package of tofu, still unsure of tofu in my pasta.

Enter: the idiot.

Stupid me was too busy texting Rahul and didn’t even pay attention. I bought the soft kind rather than the extra firm type that the recipe actually calls for. Soft tofu, for those of you who don’t know, is just one hair short of being pure liquid (silken tofu). I realized this after I boiled the manicotti for the baked pasta. I realized this after blending everything together and winding up with a liquid rather than a ricotta-like texture. This is not stuff-worthy. This is a liquid.

I trudged on.

I was a little skeptical, but I dipped my finger into my basil-laden sauce and was floored. This stuff was good. No, great. I could not stop tasting it. In order to not waste the pasta I had already made, I ended up layering the sauce, noodles, sauce, and marinara and baking that baby in the oven for 20 minutes. It was delicious, but the real star was the sauce. This was the best accidental grocery store purchase in history.

I used about 2/3 of it in the baked pasta (which provided me 3 meals!) and saved the rest in a jar in my fridge. I’ve since dipped into it as a spread on a veggie sandwich and I’m planning on tossing it with some fettuccini pretty soon. This is like a basil heavy alfreddo sauce in taste and texture — but you’d never know it was vegan! 

For the tofu-wary readers out there, I challenge you to make this! Tofu is not as scary as you think and nutritional yeast is more and more common in grocery stores these days. I didn’t do this on purpose, but you definitely should.

Vegan Basil Cream Sauce (aka, Idiot Sauce)
1 package (16 oz) soft tofu, drained
10-15 fresh basil leaves
1 T nutritional yeast
1 T olive oil
pinch salt & pepper
Open and drain tofu. In a blender or food processor, combine all ingredients, blending until creamy and uniform (about 1 minute). Keep in the refrigerator until ready for use, or toss it immediately with hot pasta! Use alone or mix with marinara for a creamy pink sauce!

a barbecue staple

Now, where I’m from a “barbecue” doesn’t necessarily mean the meat. A barbecue, as I was raised to call it, is what some of y’all folks call a “cookout“.

Whatever you call it, there are some staple foods that appear at the typical barbecue, including my grandma’s deviled eggs and some form of potato salad. Potato salad happens to be one of my very favorite foods to eat at a barbecue or in any other circumstance. And I especially like the kinds that aren’t totally doused in a creamy mayonnaise sauce. A little mayo goes a long way.

One of the best potato salads I’ve ever eaten was made by my Aunt Josette and I remember it well because it was the very first time I ever ate fennel. Because of all the summer barbecues being talked about in the universe, I started to reminisce about this delicious fennel and potato salad and I ventured to create my own version.

If you are a fennel virgin, let me enlighten you about this delicious plant vegetable thing. (What exactly is fennel?)

Fennel tastes like licorice in a crunchy, fresh way. Still following me? You’re going to have to trust me. To some, it tastes really strong on its own so putting it in something like potato salad is a great way to experience the flavor but not overwhelm your palate (big word for “taste buds”). When you cut the fronds off the bulb, cut the bulb in half and remove the “core”, then chop/dice roughly like you would an onion. Do your best. Also, save the fronds because you can cut up the herby part and use it for seasoning.

The crunch of the fennel is so perfect with the softness of the potato and since the dressing is light you can taste everything without feeling overwhelmed by mayonnaise. Make this for your next barbecue. Or with my Black Olive & Goat Cheese Turkey Burgers as we did!

Potato and Fennel Salad (serves 4)
2 lbs small red potatoes, washed
1 bulb fennel, fronds removed
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 T dijon mustard
1 T olive oil
juice of 1 small lemon (or 1/2 medium lemon)
rosemary, chopped
fennel greens, chopped
salt & pepper
Bring the potatoes to a boil over high heat, then reduce to simmer for 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and place a dish towel over them, allowing them to steam for another 15 minutes. Set aside to cool. Once cool, slice each potato into fourths and set aside. Remove the fronds from the fennel bulb but don’t discard. Slice the fennel bulb in half and remove the core. Continue to slice the bulb into small pieces and set them aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Chop fresh rosemary and the greens from the fennel fronds. In a large bowl, combine potatoes, fennel, herbs, and the mayonnaise mixture, folding gently so as not to mash up the potato pieces. Allow to chill for at least an hour and serve cold.

a date night dinner

As you may have noticed in my post about these delicious brownies, I have a gentleman friend in my life. Being the good girlfriend that I am I decided to make him sit down and relax after a busy day at work so I could cook him dinner.

Also, I needed blog material. Two birds, one stone y’all.

So I thought I would make a romantic, impressive French dish, Coq au Vin (“Rooster with Wine”). This dish is almost like a stew with a thick red wine sauce. I made it once before for a crowd but this time I decided to make it a bit smaller and lighter, but equally delicious. The traditional recipes serve 4-6, so I worked to change it to a perfect date night dinner for two.

This is a great dish to prepare ahead of time so you can wipe the onion skins and excess flour off your clothes before going over to impress your significant other with your effortless cooking. (I did all the prep work at my place and took it over to his when it was ready for the oven)

But even though this is a lighter version of a classic, men will still love it because bacon and bacon fat are involved. Y’all would disappoint me if you didn’t have a jar of extra bacon fat in your fridge. You do, right? Right.

Date Night Coq au Vin (serves 2)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 slices bacon
1 T olive oil or bacon grease
2 cups mushroom caps, halved
12 small pearl onions, peeled
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 T tomato paste
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 T rosemary
1 tsp dried parsley
salt & pepper
2 cups egg noodles, cooked
In a bowl, combine flour with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Toss chicken breasts in the flour and set aside. Chop bacon into small pieces (hint: this is easiest done if the bacon has been in the freezer for about an hour). In a heavy bottomed or cast iron skillet, fry the bacon until crispy. Remove bacon pieces with a slotted spoon and set aside; leave the grease in the skillet. Add 1 T bacon grease or a drizzle of olive oil so the skillet is not dry. Place floured chicken into the hot skillet and allow it to brown on both sides (3-4 minutes/side). When the chicken is browned, remove from skillet and set in the bottom of a cooking dish. To the skillet, add the red wine and chicken stock to deglaze the skillet. Stir in tomato paste, garlic, parsley, and rosemary. Place the mushroom caps, pearl onions, and the cooked bacon in the skillet and stir well. Allow the mixture to reduce for a few minutes where it will become more sauce-like. After about 5 minutes, pour everything on top of the chicken in the baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. With the oven set to 375*, bake covered for 35 minutes, remove the foil, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. In the last 10 minutes of baking, boil some egg noodles, drain them, and set them aside. When the chicken is ready, serve over the hot egg noodles, spooning extra sauce from the dish.

old school

Today we’re going old school and making a dish from my youth. I was just hired as a swim coach & swim lesson instructor for the summer and it is making me nostalgic for the old days of swim team and swim meets. I started swimming on swim teams at age 5 and continued for the next 11 years. I still swim recreationally and it is a big part of my life.

Well back in the day, we had a standard pasta salad at swim meets. Our moms would make up big batches to sell at the concession stand and pack in our cooler to eat all weekend. I began thinking of this pasta as “swim team pasta” and this week I was having major cravings for said pasta.

It is a super easy, tasty, pasta salad that is best served cold. Feel free to add or subtract any ingredients you don’t like! Traditionally this was made with rotini (cork screw) pasta, but I was feeling the farfalle (bow tie) variety. Just pick your favorite Italian dressing and go buck wild.

This is especially good to have on hand during the hot summertime when no one wants to do a lot of cooking!

Swim Team Pasta Salad (serves 4-6)
10 oz (dried) farfalle or rotini pasta
1 medium cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 pint grape tomatoes
2/3 cups sliced black olives, drained
1 cup pepperoni (I used turkey), sliced in half
1/3-1/2 cup Italian dressing, divided
2 T grated parmesan cheese
Cook and drain pasta, then set aside to cool. Peel and slice the cucumber, then slice the pepperoni. In a large bowl, combine the sliced pepperoni, the cucumber chunks, the grape tomatoes, and the drained black olives. Mix in the drained pasta. Mix in about 1/4- 1/3 cup of the Italian dressing, combining well. Taste for seasoning and desired amount of sauce, and add in the remaining dressing to your taste. Finally, sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and mix. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Serve chilled.

this will make me eat salads

Chances are if you’ve ever met me in person and eaten with me, you’ll know a few things about my eating habits. You may know that I only like salads and sandwiches when other people make them for me. Weird, right? I know, I know. But I seriously can’t get myself to like them when I make them at home. There’s something so much better about a salad made by a restaurant or a sandwich packed for me by a family member.

However, I have discovered the magic antidote to this problem and it comes in the surprising form of red onions, a food I have enthusiastically avoided for all of my life. Not only do all onions make me cry, but the red ones are extra pungent and I hate the taste.

But upon moving to Austin and discovering my favorite place to eat, loiter, and make eyes at cute boys (Austin Java) I also discovered their pickled red onions which come standard on the house salad.

These are divine. Delicious. I cannot get enough of them. Perhaps it is because I like pickles a lot and love that vinegary, almost sweet taste of a pickled anything? All I know is that I usually steal them from my dining companion or annoyingly ask the waiters for extras to put on sandwiches and more on my salad. You know, just in case someone needs to smell my breath later.

Back at my apartment, I have endeavored to make them for myself and test whether or not I could stomach a homemade salad or even a sandwich. I am happy to report that both the sandwich above and an unpictured salad were quite delicious and I think I’ve found a cure to my aversion!

Spicy Pickled Red Onions (makes a heaping cup)
1 large red onion, peeled and sliced thinly
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
3 T sugar
1 bay leaf
1 pinch red pepper flakes (more or less depending on your preference!)
1 tsp salt
1 T whole black pepper corns
Peel and slice the onion as thinly as you can without your eyes bursting into tears (hint: light a candle near your cutting board!). In a sauce pan, mix the remaining ingredients together and bring them to a boil. Place the onion slices in the boiling mixture and immediately turn the heat down to low, allowing to simmer for a minute or 2. Remove from heat and let sit in liquid, cooling completely (about 30 minutes). When cooled, transfer liquid & onions into an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.

it must be the change in seasons

I’ve headed to San Antonio for Spring Break with… Mama!!! I’m meeting her out there for 3 days of Tex Mex and remembering the Alamo. Then we’re headed to Fredericksburg in the heart of Hill Country for wine tasting, German food, and a quaint b&b for another 3 days. Be sure to check in for snaps of our adventures along the way. But in the mean time, please enjoy a simple, light, Tex Mex-inspired, vegetarian dish to try this weekend!

Spring makes me want to eat more vegetables. While I still love me some good, old-fashioned comfort food, the change from winter to spring makes me want to take long walks, shop at farmer’s markets, and eat food that comes in pretty colors.

I saw these pretty little things at Whole Foods and I knew exactly what I had to do to them. I had to gut them and stuff them for some delicious stuffed peppers.

Stuffed peppers are such a simple dish to make and you can make them as healthy (or not) as you want them to be! My friend Mary is giving up meat for Lent, so I came up with this vegetarian recipe with her in mind (and for my vegan readers, you can eliminate or substitute the cheese for vegan cheese!)

When you slice off the top of the peppers to remove the seeds, be sure to remove all the seeds — they give a really unpleasant, bitter taste to any dish!

I accidentally bought the tomato paste with roasted garlic and my life has been forever changed. Make this mistake.

Stuffed Peppers (serves 1-2)
2 whole bell peppers (red and orange are my favorites!)
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
2 T tomato paste
1/2 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup canned corn, drained and rinsed
1 wedge Laughing Cow Chipotle cheese (trust me)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chili powder
Slice the top of the bell peppers off and remove the seeds. Keep the tops of the peppers for later. In a mixing bowl, combine tomato paste, rice, corn, beans, spices, and the wedge of Laughing Cow cheese.  When thoroughly mixed, put half of the mixture into one of the emptied peppers. Repeat to fill the other pepper. Replace the tops of the peppers, to keep the stuffing moist, and place on a baking dish. Bake the peppers at 400* for 20 minutes and enjoy!

can Ramen noodles be fancy?

Yes, America. Those $0.15 noodles can indeed be turned into something fancy with the help of just a few other ingredients.

I’ve been eating this salad for years now and I love it. It is crispy, tangy, colorful, and quite delicious. It takes a few seconds to throw together and can be eaten immediately or kept in the fridge and nibbled at over a few days. And you don’t even have to boil the noodles!

I love to pack this in lunches or take to potlucks. I bet it would be divine as a side dish to some Asian-glazed salmon or spare ribs….

Oh Lord, now I’m drooling. And going to the grocery store.

Oriental Noodle Salad (serves 6-8)
1 (12 oz) bag rainbow slaw (mix of cabbage, carrot, and broccoli slaw)
1 package Ramen noodles, pork flavored (or vegetarian!)
2/3 cup roasted unsalted pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Remove the flavor packet from the Ramen noodle package and set aside. Crunch dry noodles up into small pieces. In a large mixing bowl, combine the crushed, dried Ramen noodles with the slaw and pumpkin seeds. In a measuring cup, combine olive oil, vinegar, and the flavor packet from the Ramen noodles. Stir well. Pour about half of the oil and vinegar mixture over the slaw mixture and stir. Add the rest of the dressing to taste (you don’t want it too soggy — I used about 3/4 of the dressing). Toss well and serve.