New Year's Pantry Challenge, Small Bites offer Big Flavor, Day 12

Today's Menu:

Breakfast:
Meyer Lemon & Cranberry Scones with Lemon whipped cream
Fruit Smoothie

Lunch:
Leftover Chicken Curry Masala
Leftover Wheat Berry Salad
Kids: Grilled cheese sandwiches
Hard-boiled eggs
Sliced apples

Snacks:
Tangerines
Raisins
Spiced Popcorn

Dinner:
Red Lentil & Squash Soup
Sourdough Toast with Salmon Salad

Today I surveyed my cupboards and refrigerator hunting for something unique. Now that we're nearing the end of the second week without grocery shopping for wants or cravings I find myself digging deep for that spirit of creativity and challenge. Why do a Pantry Challenge if I'm not willing to press in when the shelves look bare?

Ok, I should clarify, nothing around here looks bare. Who am I kidding? Isn't that the lesson of this kind of "grocery shopping fast." We in America live in complete abundance every day. And even when I deprive myself a little. Even when I discipline myself not to give in to convenience and excess I'm still really sitting right here in the middle of it. I've got grocery stores and restaurants and fast food havens practically in my backyard. The farmer's markets in California's Central Valley are pregnant with ripe fruits and vegetables and it's January for crying out loud. We truly live in the land of plenty.

My lesson for today's Pantry Challenge is remembering the beauty of small bites. The Spanish have it down; they serve up delectable small bites aka "tapas" all the time. I *love* tapas. I love the idea of a small, artful plate before me. I adore the idea of eating slowly, contemplating each bite. When I was a swinging single girl I had room for small bites. I could afford the time. Now I'm a busy mama constantly fighting the clock, the incessant requests, the turned-up noses, the thrown-down food, the dietary needs of others. I seldom get a chance to breathe between bites. Today I'm reminded that if we stop to savor, we can find beauty in quality over quantity.

I found this Lemon-Cranberry Scone recipe and tweaked it with my kids in mind. I found a bag of cranberries from Thanksgiving. (Seriously, they were still good!) I dug out some lemons shared from a neighbor's tree. Meilani and I got out a small flower cookie cutter and had fun making something simple look sweet and fancy. The babies devoured them. (Ok, they licked the lemon whipped cream off and asked for more.) We all were surprised at the beauty in simple ingredients - butter, organic sugar, whole wheat flour, meyer lemons.

Cranberry-Lemon Scones with Lemon Whipped Cream

Ingredients:
-2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (from about 3 lemons; preferably Meyer)
-1 teaspoon lemon juice
-2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
-1/3 cup organic raw sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries
-1 tablespoon baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon sea salt
-1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
-1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped coarse
-1 large egg
-1 large egg yolk
-1 cup organic heavy cream

Lemon Whipped Cream:
-1 tablespoon lemon juice
-1 cup organic heavy cream
-1 tablespoon honey or agave syrup or organic sugar

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Chop cranberries and zest lemons. Reserve zested lemon for juice later.
3. In a large bowl add flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add eggs and lemon juice.
5. Cut butter into cubes and add to mixture. Stir in cranberres and lemon zest.
6. Use a pastry blender or fork to mix until dough comes together.  Gather in a ball.
7. Dust a cutting board with flour. Press the ball into a 9" round. Use a small cookie cutter or glass to cut out mini scones.
8. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or foil.
9. Bake approximately 15 minutes or until lightly browned on top.
10. Meanwhile, beat cream, adding agave syrup and lemon juice. When soft peaks form, stop beating.
11. Remove scones from oven. Cool on a plate and serve with a small bowl of the lemon cream for dipping.

Cooking Club enjoys ethnic food lesson from Ethiopian friends

Our Cooking Club celebrated the arrival of our friend Stacie's adopted son from Ethiopia with an Ethiopian Cooking lesson. Stacie's friends, Emebet and Desta, who are from Ethiopia, came over to teach us some traditional dishes. In the photo, Desta (far left) with daughter (in red) pose next to Stacie, Nathanael, me, Cori, Mary (holding Samuel) and Emebet is front and center showing off our "raw materials" before the cooking began.

Emebet and Desta first showed us how to make a garlic-ginger mixture that is used in the majority of Ethiopian dishes. They make this in large quantities so it is fresh and ready for cooking.

**To make ginger-garlic spice mixture: Cut tops off two heads of garlic. Separate cloves and peel. Chop cloves finely. Peel ginger, slice and chop finely. Add garlic and ginger together with 2 tablespoons sea salt. Use rolling pin to smash garlic and ginger together. (Used as a fresh spice for all types of Ethiopian cooking.)

Next we got to work on chopping all the vegetables and making our various dishes. This spiced red lentil dish quickly heated up the kitchen with its rich aroma. The Ethiopians use a spice mix called "berbere," which gives this lentil dish its complex flavor and spicy kick.

Split Red Lentils (Key Wot)


Ingredients:
2 red onions
5 tablespoons berbere (Ethiopian chili powder)
2 teaspoons salt (to taste)
1 can tomato paste
2 tablespoons ginger-garlic mixture**
2 1/2 cups red lentils
2 fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cardamom

1. Finely chop red onions.

2. Put large pot over high heat with 1 1/2 cup olive oil to coat red onions. Sauté until very tender.

3. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons salt over red onions. Stir onions as they cook to soften.

4. Stir frequently but keep pot covered in between.

5. Reduce heat to medium.

6. Add berbere spice to pot.

7. Add 1 tablespoon of ginger-garlic spice mixture (prepared ahead of time) to pot. Stir in. You want it to be emulsified.

8. Cook approximately 5 minutes.

9. Add one can tomato paste to pot and stir vigorously to blend in. This will look like a tomato-onion paste.

10. Add ¾ cup water to pot with lentils. Cook 5 minutes until water simmers off.

11. Add 3-4 cups water to pot with lentils.

12. Add additional ½ cup of water at a time to see how the consistency looks & lentils are soft. Lentils will continue to absorb water. (You want watery split pea soup.)

13. Add additional heaping tablespoon of ginger-garlic mixture to pot. Stir in 1 teaspoon cumin and 1 teaspoon ground cardamom.

**See recipe above. Used as a fresh spice for all types of Ethiopian cooking.

 This yellow split pea dish is inexpensive to make and very flavorful. Turmeric is added to the peas to give it a spiced flavor and deepen the color. Turmeric is supposed to be good for combatting Alzheimer's Disease and has many other healing qualities.

Alicha (Ater Keke)

Ingredients:

1 white onion

4 teaspoons sea salt

2 cups yellow split peas

1 teaspoon turmeric


Directions:

1. Boil 2 cups yellow split peas with 6 cups water until water is fully absorbed. Set aside.

2. Heat 6 cups of water in a kettle or pot.

3. Meanwhile, peel and slice 1 large white onion.

4. Put large pot on medium-high heat with ½ cup olive oil to coat white onions.

5. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons salt over onions.

6. Cover pot and continue to stir frequently.

7. Reduce heat to medium.

8. Add 1 ¼ teaspoon turmeric to the pot.

9. Add cooked yellow split peas to the pot.

10. Add 5 cups hot water from kettle.

11. Add 1 heaping tablespoon garlic-ginger spice mixture* to pot & blend in. Add additional two teaspoons of salt to dish (to taste).

12. Add additional teaspoon of garlic-ginger to mixture (to taste). **(Recipe above.)

This yummy vegetable dish called Gomen is made a variety of ways. Emebet explained that she likes hers plain without a lot of other spices but some Ethiopians add turmeric, which gives it a bright yellow color.

Gomen (Cabbage)


Ingredients:

1 large head green cabbage

1 large white onion

2 red potatoes

8 carrots

4 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon garlic-ginger

*1 whole jalapeno (don’t open, put in whole pepper for flavor and remove after cooking) or ¾ green pepper, coarsely chopped (remove after cooking)



1. Chop onions and saute in large pot with 2 tabespoons olive oil. Sprinkle 1-2 teaspoon salt over onions.

2. Meanwhile, peel off outer layers of cabbage. Wash leaves. Coarsely chop whole cabbage head.

3. Peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes.

4. Peel carrots, quarter them lengthwise then cut into 2-inch wedges.
5. Add chopped cabbage to pot with one cup water and cover.

6. Add potatoes when cabbage is wilted and stir together. Cover pot.

7. Stirring frequently, cover pot, then turn down to medium heat.

8. Add carrots to pot. Cook 10 minutes.

9. Add heaping tablespoon of garlic-ginger mixture** (Recipe above.) to pot.

10. Reduce heat to low and keep covered. Cook additional 10 minutes.

 

After our meal was cooked, we served it up on Ethiopian bread called "injera," which is like a giant pancake/crepe. These were made homemade by a woman in Fresno. It's a 3-day process to make the bread so we bought it from her. Ethiopian food is then eaten with the hands and scooped up with the injera bread. We added a fresh fruit salad to cool some of the flavors. 

 We were all stuffed by the end of this fabulous vegetarian feast!

Dorina's Curried Chicken Salad Sandwiches

I recently checked a cookbook out of the library called Raising the Salad Bar by Catherine Walthers. It's a whole book of inventive salads - and not just leafy greens with stuff added on top but also creative pasta salads, chicken salads and even whole grain salads. It's a great find for foodies like me who love to shop at local farmer's markets and incorporate lots of fresh veggies in everyday fare. I was especially drawn to the Curried Chicken Salad recipe but since I didn't have half the ingredients at home I decided to make up my own. This can be used for traditional sandwiches or put in wonton cups or small crostini toasts for a fancy appetizer. This salad is not spicy hot but is very flavorful.

Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
2 teaspoons curry powder (I use the Frontier Indian Curry powder, which is a salt-free, all-natural blend)
1 small zucchini, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons scallions, chopped
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
1/4 cup dried craberries
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

1. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Boil in 1 cup water for approximately 20 minutes until cooked through. Set aside to cool.
2. In a large bowl, combine all the other ingredients and blend.
3. Finely chop the chicken and add in with vegetable mixture.
4. Spread chicken salad on bread for sandwiches.

January-February Menu Planner

Each week we will offer new ideas for planning a healthful dinner menu for your family. You can always return here for an archive of menus to browse through at your leisure. The newest line-up will be on the sidebar at the right and the notes from the last week will be here on a post. We will include one-dish meals, Farmer's market features and ethnic foods for the adventurers. We will also include links to recipes we find and notes on where to buy ingredients. Feel free to steal our ideas & e-mail us with questions about recipes or feedback at dorinakailani@yahoo.com.

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 24-March 1

sun
Spinach Spanokopitas
Baby Greens salad with pomegranate seeds & goat cheese
Garlic Italian Bread
Chicken Marsala with cheesy whole wheat shells

mon
Squash-topped cottage pies

tues
Spinach salad with strawberries & red onions
Chicken tortellini alfredo with red peppers & butternut squash
Mocha Chocolate Cake

wed
Lamb-lentil stew
Quinoa

thurs
Flat bread pizzas
Broccoli salad

fri
Maple Glazed Walnuts
Caesar Salad
Butternut squash lasagna
Turkey-beef meatballs
Rasberry-chocolate bread pudding

sat
Luscious Leftovers*

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 17-23

sun
minestrone soup (I love Giada's recipe minus the pancetta. You could substitute some turkey bacon for that meaty flavor if you're trying to avoid pork.)
Honey cornbread
Dark chocolate Lava cakes

mon
Feta lamb pita pocket sandwiches
Hummus dip
Cucumber-tomato salad

tues
Indian Tandoori-grilled chicken
Garlic Naan (purchased from Trader Joe's or a local Indian market)
Spinach-chickpea curry
Basmati Rice with Dried apricots and craisins(a long grain rice available at most grocery stores)
Yogurt Raitha (Meilani calls this "dip" or "deep" in her speak. It's a great yogurt sauce for cooling the spicy Indian flavors. Chop up some cucumbers or tomatoes and add it to plain yogurt for a quick version.)

wed
Crockpot lentil-turkey chili (I added some ground turkey to this lentil soup recipe and did it up in the crockpot.)
Whole wheat sourdough bread (They sell this in Fresno at Le Boulangerie in Fig Garden. Stop by between 5 to 6 p.m. and all the day's bread is half off. It's a steal!)

thurs
Tortellini with sun-dried tomato sauce
Roasted butternut squash
Baby greens salad with blood oranges & goat cheese

fri
Spinach & Artichoke Chicken pizza

sat
COOKING CLUB - Food 4 Red Hot Lovers
Chile Relleno appetizers
Kung Pao Chicken
Brown Jasmine Rice
Sauteed Bok Choy
Chili Brownies


WEEK OF FEBRUARY 10-16

sun
Crockpot beef stew
with potatoes, carrots & onions
Whole Wheat rolls

mon
Dorina's Tortilla Soup
served with blue corn tortilla chips, salsa, cilantro and sour cream
Mixed organic green salad with black beans, olives and cotija cheese

tues
Stuffed eggplant with quinoa, kidney beans, peppers & mozarella cheese

wed
African babootie
Brown Rice


thurs -Happy Valentines Day!
Filet mignon with gorgonzola cheese sauce
Italian mushroom risotto
Roasted orange cauliflower
Coconut chocolate chip cupcakes

fri
Cori's Kicked-up Chicken salad sandwiches
Chocolate Pizza

sat
Dorina's Mahi Mahi Green Enchiladas
Costa rican gallo pinto (beans & rice)

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 3-9

sun
Dorina's Rainbow Vegetarian Lasagna
with butternut squash and purple kale
Garlic Bread

mon
Maple-glazed Salmon
Zucchini "no crab" Cakes
Roasted potatoes with parmesan cheese

tues
Chicken Sausage Jambalaya
Brown Rice

wed
Thai chicken & Coconut Soup
Leftover Brown Rice

thurs
Turkey & Bacon Chowder
Whole Wheat Rolls

fri
Caesar Salad
Spinach-stuffed Manicotti Shells
Topped with Marinara Sauce
Herbed Foccocia Bread

sat
Roasted Acorn Squash and Gorgonzola Pizza
Baby Greens salad with sliced pears and walnuts
Whole Wheat Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

WEEK OF JANUARY 27 - FEBRUARY 2

sun
Dorina's Italian Chicken Sausage & Kale Soup (I've been reading lots of great stuff about kale and it's health benefits so I decided to make a soup that used this unique in-season veggie.)
Split pea dip & Trader Joe's Everything crackers (We have this dip and crackers on hand every day of the week. It's a great snack for kids while they are waiting for dinner or after an trip to the park when they're ravenous.)

mon
Tilapia with Purple Potato Crust and Chive Oil (I saw Giada making this one on her Food Network show and I wanted to lick the screen. So yummy, especially coupled with this adult mac & cheese.)
Gouda & Spinach Mac & Cheese

tues
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken (Whip up an easy marinade with one part honey to one part low-sodium soy sauce.)
Brown Jasmine Rice
Sauteed Bok Choy

wed
Spinach salad with dried cranberries, walnuts and goat cheese
Cumin, Honey and Mint-marinated Lamb Chops
Whole Wheat Couscous (available at Trader Joe's and other local groceries)

thurs
Whole wheat penne pasta with pesto sauce (I grow basil in my yard and freeze it for a quick pesto sauce during the cold days of winter. Fresh basil is also available at our local farmer's market or at Trader Joe's this time of year.)
Sauteed peppers & zucchini
Garlic Cheese Bread

fri
Asian Chicken salad

sat
Grilled Turkey Burgers (Why not try ground turkey for your next burger extravaganza. The taste is a little lighter and turkey is much healthier than most beef.)
Grilled Zucchini Spears with Goddess Dressing (I pretty much invent stuff to put my Goddess Dressing on. It's a mix of ranch with hummus taste because of the tahini. Just love it!)
Blue Corn Tortilla chips and Double Roasted salsa (Find these healthy munchies at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.)


WEEK OF JANUARY 20 - 26
sun
Dorina's chili pizazz (See recipes in previous post)
Cornbread

mon
Roasted salmon with grapefruit shallot sauce (Looking for ways to use those grapefruits in your your yard or from your neighbors? This winner recipe is from Food Network's Ellie Krieger. It's a wonderful melding of light flavors with a spicy kick, depending on how much red pepper you add.)
Brussel sprouts with pistachios (I have never eaten brussel sprouts before and I'm definitely converted after trying this recipe in the Green Issue of Bon Appetit magazine. I'm wondering why this vegetable has such a stigma. They're great!)

tues
Garlic chicken quinoa stir fry (I found this recipe on the back of the quinoa box from Trader Joe's. This grain originally from the Incas in Peru is packed with flavor and protein.)
with peppers

wed
Grilled mahi mahi
Sweet potatoes with cranberries & walnuts
Sauteed Broccolini (A fabulous find at the Vineyard Farmer's Market in Fresno)
Harvest Blend pilaf (Find it at Trader Joe's)

thurs
Baby greens salad with cucumbers, red onion and mandarin oranges
Butternut squash lasagna (This recipe is to die for - although I did ditch the cookies??)
Whole wheat herb bread

fri
Make-your-own beef burritos
Brown Mexican rice
Whole grain tortilla chips & Guacamole

sat
Chicken Tikka masala (I am a sucker for tikka masala; I always order it when we go out to Indian food. Found this in one of my Ethnic Cookbooks and just had to try it.)
Naan (We get ours from Trader Joe's or a local Indian grocery store.)
Spinach & garbanzo curry (I looked this recipe up on Epicurious while the chicken was cooking and made it right away. It's a snap!)