Dill Broccoli Salad

Posted by amanda in broccoli, budget, dill, easy, feta, quick, recipe, salad, vegetarian

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C and I have just come back from a helluva long weekend at an amazing cottage on Leslie Lake. While we were there we revisited some favorite recipes from last year's cottage adventures, and mixed up some new ones. Because it was gonna be hot as heck, I focused on salads this year, making one coleslaw, and one pasta salad. M and I had prepared pretty awesomely for the cottage, but came back to empty pantries at home, so tonight I mixed together some leftover ingredients from the first two, and came up with something pretty tasty for a hot summer's night.

You're gonna need:
1 bag (roughly 5 cups) of broccoli, julienned (I had a bag of PC broccoli slaw in the fridge)
Half an onion, chopped
1/4 of a cucumber, sliced in cookies and quartered
1/4 fresh dill, chopped
PC Artichoke and asiago salad dressing (or anything creamy and cool)
a small handful of feta cheese, crumbled
tons of freshly cracked black pepper

Mix it all together and eat your heart out! Delicious with cheese pizza.

Sparkling Summer Salad: Or, How I learned to stop slicing and love the mandolin,

Posted by amanda in apple, budget, celery, cilantro, cucumber, healthy, lemon, quick, recipe, salad, summer, vegan, vegetable, vegetarian

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I get a terrible feeling when I come to the end of a recipe I have all the ingredients for (ish) only to read the final instruction: crockpot-ing, immersion blending, dutch oven-ing...or any number of other final touches for which I don't have the right kitchen tool (yet!). So, having recently acquired a very handy mandolin from the previous owners of my new house (when someone leaves something in a cupboard still in the box, that's a housewarming gift right?), I've spent the better part of the afternoon julienning everything slice-able in my fridge (which is more than you'd think! Skinny cheese sticks anyone? Strawberry stick-men? Long long banana slices? No?).

The very tasty outcome of this little experiment is a pretty awesome summer salad: it's crunchy, tart, filling, and refreshing, and above all, easy (especially if you have a mandolin or any other kind of slicing tool).

You're gonna want:
A large bowl
A little bowl
A mandolin (you lucky duck)

In your big bowl toss together:

3 stalks of celery, sliced thick
half a cucumber, julienned
2 large carrots, peeled and julienned
2 granny smith (or other tart) apples, julienned [to do this, cut the apple into 4 sides, then attempt to slice - I kept the peels on)
l large handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

In your small bowl mix:
1/2 cup lemon juice
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (optional)
1 tbsp sugar (also optional - i wanted my dressing a little sweeter than lemony)
large grain salt to taste (I used a citrus chili salt mix and it was perfect)
cracked black pepper to taste

Drizzle the dressing over your salad mix and stir around until well distributed. Cover and keep in the fridge for an hour to let the flavours combine if you have the time, or serve fresh immediately!

Cottage Component 1: Picnic-Perfect Summer Salad

Posted by amanda in budget, celery, cucumber, dill, dressing, easy, feta, healthy, onion, pasta, pasta salad, pepper, quick, recipe, salad, spinach, tomato, vegetarian, yellow pepper

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It's summer tiiiimmmme and the cooking is eeeeaasy here at Stute-kitchen :) Team Stute has returned from a fantastic weekend away at a cottage with good friends, gorgeous weather, and GREAT food. Combining our forces we came up with a delicious cottage-time lunch: pasta salad and barbecued skewers. Fresh ingredients and a new spin on these old classics takes traditional summer food to a new level of goodness.

You're gonna need:

• Roughly 2 generous cups of uncooked shell (conchiglie) pasta
• One yellow pepper, seeded and cut into slim chunks (or however you like your pepper in a salad), if you go really chunky, use 2 peppers
• Half a cucumber, sliced into half circles
• 2-3 stalks of celery, diced roughly
• 1 pint (usually a container) of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 of a sweet onion (though any kind would likely do, this salad gets more onion-y the longer it exists, so choose wisely), finely chopped
• 3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
• 3-5 generous handfuls of baby spinach (mixed greens will do in a pinch, but they don't keep as long once the dressing is mixed in).

Dressing: Whisk together...

1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 heaping  tbsps Red Wine Vinegar
1 clove of garlic, minced
Ground Black Pepper to taste

Topper:

Roughly 1.5 cups of light feta cheese -though really, add as much or a little as you like - , rinsed, dried, and crumbled (my new technique is to rinse the block from the brine, and then squeeze the liquid out in my fist, over the sink - this dries and crumbles simultaneously, then you can just brush your hands off in the salad)

To assemble:

1. Cook the pasta (roughly 8-10 minutes to get it al dente), rinse in cold water, and set aside.

2. Combine all your veggies, except the spinach, in a large bowl, using your hands to mix gently, being
sure to distribute the dill.

3. Add pasta to veggies, again, stirring with hands.

4. Add spinach by handful, assessing how much or how little you will want personally. Mix with hands (this avoids breaking the pasta shells)

5. Pour dressing over pasta and veggies (if you don't like getting oily, use a utensil here, but I swear, hands is the way to go)

6. Chill.
7. Crumble feta into salad before serving. Mix.

This makes roughly 10 servings, depending on the appetites in the room. Be sure to wait 20 minutes or so before hitting the lake!!!
-A

Summer-Friendly Light Veggie Dip and an easy fresh lunch

Posted by amanda in budget, cottage cheese, dill, dip, easy, healthy, quick, recipe, vegetarian, yogurt

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With local temperatures closing in on 40 after the humidex, the only appliance I want to use in my kitchen is the food processor. Likewise, this deep heat has me opting for effortless and cooling snacks like veggies and dip. Unfortunately, most store bought dips are full of lots of strange chemical compounds which, though delicious, probably shouldn't hang out in our bellies in too-large quantities. Luckily however, making your own veggie dip is easy, faster than going to the store, and ultimately probably even cheaper than the 4$ you'll shell out on something containing words you can't pronounce.

This dip is best if given time to sit in the fridge overnight. It's great on potatoes, (AND, I hear, steak) and probably on lots of other things. Right now I'm eating a bowl of baby spinach with a dollop of it: maybe it's the heat, but it's pretty delicious on just about everything.

In a food processor combine:
equal parts low-fat cottage cheese and plain yogurt (fat content of your choice - I'm on a full-fat low-sugar yogurt kick and am loving it)
as much washed and chopped fresh dill as you like (for a total of 1.5 cups of cc and yogurt, I used 3 tbsp)
a few dashes of onion powder or garlic powder or both, or none, to taste
crack some pepper in there and whip it up until combined!

Chill overnight.


Another great use for this dip is in a super quick satisfying cold veggie snack:

mix one generous dollop of dip into about half a cup of veggie ground round (meatless ground beef)
pour mixture on bed of fresh baby spinach, combine
EAT!

How to turn "no food" into a comfort food dinner

Posted by amanda in beans, easy, healthy, quick, recipe, spinach, vegetarian, yogurt

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Well the end of the semester is upon me. That boatload of essays and tests, not to mention the planning of our upcoming trip to Amsterdam in May, has really taken a cut from my buying-food-dressing-it-up-and-eating-it-time. Not to mention that the playoffs started last night, and for reasons I still don't understand, this means I will be glued to the set for a few hours most nights, already shirking my other responsibilities, not to mention my belly.

So, out of a despair-inertia-hunger cocktail, last night, I put the three things in my kitchen together to make a surprisingly not embarrassing dinner, an iron and protein packed staple that may have made its way into my heart for good.

For two meal-sized servings, in all of 5-6 minutes, you will need;

• 1 can chili-style beans (Heinz) - however, it is my firm belief that kidney beans with a little seasoning of your choice would cut it too, or even white beans fried in garlic, though that would more closely resemble an earlier post.
• a few generous handfuls (4-5) of fresh spinach, prefereably baby, cleaned 
• A dollop of cold, plain yogurt. My favorite is Astro's balkan style.
• optional garlic for frying (may be more relevant if you don't have the seasoned beans already)
• Enough olive oil to go once around your pan.
• Above mentioned frying pan/skillet

Go for it:

• Heat the olive oil in your skillet, at medium heat.
• Toss in your beans (rinsed and seasones, unless you are using the chili style beans); heat until almost sizzling. Try not to mush them too much.
• Lay a thick layer of fresh spinach over the hot beans.
• Allow the spinach to wilt enough to turn it over, into the bean mix so it's under some hot beans.
• Repeat with a new layer of spinach, twice, or until all your spinach is used up.
• Remove from the heat. I like to leave my last batch of spinach more still a bit fresh, to vary the texture.
• Split your total into 2 servings. If you are saving one for another day, let it cool before sticking it in the refrigerator, though I do recommend putting it in tupperware speedily so the beans don't get stuck to your pan. That serving can be microwaved later, or tossed back into a skillet to heat. Serve what you are eating in a bowl.
• Drop a large dollop of plain yogurt into the middle of your beans; salt the yogurt slightly if you like.

No need to let cool, because the yogurt will do this for you.

And voila! Iron, protein, probiotics, calcium, and innumerable other health necessities, in a really hearty couch-worthy dinner (just make sure you don't spill any!)

A Sweet Crunchy Creamy Broccoli Salad

Posted by amanda in easy, healthy, quick, recipe, salad, side, vegetarian

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Speaking of the brassica family (weren't we?), broccoli is another hearty green you may have run out of ways to love. Never fear. My mom makes an excellent variation of this salad that involves sliced grapes and a more homemade dressing, so I'll post that as soon as I can get her on the horn, but for the time being, this is a reduced and speedier version of her salad.

You'll need

• 1 large head of brocolli, florets snapped or sliced off into small pieces and and with sections of the stalk sliced into disks
• 1/4 red onion, chopped up very small
• small handful sliced almonds (i like the ones that are chunky rather than flat)
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries (ideally not artificially flavored) - for a superfood variation, try dried goji berries!

poppyseed dressing of your choosing (recipe to come, thanks to mom)

Put all dry ingredients in a bowl, broccoli at the bottom. Pour on about 2tbsp dressing to start with, and stir it all with a wooden spoon. Add dressing to combined ingredients until your desired creaminess versus chunkiness is achieved. Serve cold. Makes 4 servings give or take. Refrigerate.





photos courtesy of thepetitfour.com and vegetarian-nutrition

Avocado and Turkey Quesadilla

Posted by CK in quesadilla, quick, recipe, turkey, vegetarian

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Sometimes my roommates and I don't have alot of time to cook, yet we still need something filling and nutritious. As such, we tried a variation of a recipe we found on SOS Cuisine, which turned out fantastic and fulfilled our hunger needs.  

What you'll need (yields 2 Quesadillas):

• 1 green pepper
• 1 avocado
• 4 tortillas (small size)
• 1 onion
• Turkey cold cuts (*optional if you want to make it a vegetarian recipe)
• cheese (whichever one you like, we used Mozarella cheese)
• 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1. Preheat your oven at 350 degrees.
2. Cut your pepper and your onion and sauté them in a skillet until the peppers start to darken just a little bit. (Note that you could also oven-roast your peppers instead)
3. Place 2 tortillas on a non-stick oven pan.
4. layer half your turkey, onion, pepper, and avocado on one tortilla and layer the rest on your second tortilla.
5. Cut your cheese into thin strips (or grate your cheese, whichever one you prefer) and top your vegetables.
6. Cover up the layers with a tortilla and put in the oven for 2 minutes on each side. Make sure to put another pan over your tortillas so that they dont flip up!
7. Take out and enjoy!

You can add any vegetables you like and make this recipe your own! :) Imagine this with some mushrooms and asparagus! yummy!

-CK