Corn Salad? Also, OKRA

I'm not sure what to call this random combination of vegetables, so I have dubbed it "corn salad." It's part of the continuing series of "these barely qualify as recipes" recipes that I've been producing lately. I'm still wary of hard-core baking and cooking, and the incident little add-on calories, since I don't want to have any rebound weight gain this week. With time, however, I am certain that my intrepid nature shall return!

In the meantime, more 2-second recipes.

Corn Salad

Ingredients:
1 single-serve bag (92 g) Birds Eye Steamfresh Singles Super Sweet Corn (or one serving of any corn)
3 oz cucumber (just under 1/4 of a normal sized cucumber)
2 Tbsp (aka 1/8 cup) medium salsa

Directions:
1. Heat corn according to directions on package.
2. Dice cucumber into corn-sized pieces.
3. Combine corn, cucumber, and salsa in bowl.

(One bowl = 2 vegetable servings)

This is the kind of recipe that seems like normal people would either:
a) prefer cold, or
b) not prefer at all.
But I like it, because I will eat anything, and I like it warm, because it's winter, and I get cold easily. So warm food makes me happy. Also, I find that combining the hot corn with the cold cucumber and salsa made for something new and different, and when the temperatures reached equilibrium, the dish was at a perfect "slightly warm" state.


The other "not-recipe" that I wanted to post is one that I first tried back in November or so. It's for roasted okra, and I found it at Fatfree Vegan Kitchen, which is an amazing food blog. The recipe doesn't even really need to be altered at all; it's just that great.

Roasted Okra

Ingredients:
Small, whole okra (however much you want)
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive oil PAM/cooking spray

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees; spray baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Put okra on baking dish, season to taste, and lightly spray once more.
3. Bake until okra is brown on all sides (about 15 minutes), flipping every 5 minutes.
4. Serve hot.

Today, I made them without anything (le gasp!), just sticking them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and throwing them in the oven as-is. I used frozen okra, so I tacked on an extra five minutes, and they tasted really great. After a week of experimenting with different cooking methods, it seems to me that baking is the only way to really keep the sliminess of okra at bay.

Spaghetti Squash New Mexican

I'm not really cooking these days, but that's no reason not to share my existing wealth of recipes, right? This one, which I modified ever so slightly from this recipe at Karina's Kitchen: Recipes from a Gluten-Free Goddess, is one of my favorites EVER. It's so good. Sorry, recipe not valid for haters of spaghetti squash.

Spaghetti Squash New Mexican

Ingredients:
For roasting squash:

1/2 large spaghetti squash (Recipe originally calls for one whole medium spaghetti squash, halved)

salt and pepper

olive oil spray

cumin

chili powder

For vegetables:

olive oil spray

1 medium red onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 ears (equivalent -- I probably used about 1 to 1.5 cups or so) frozen corn

1/2 green pepper

cumin

chili powder

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved/quartered

1 14-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 lime (juice)

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Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Place squash cut side up in roasting pan.

3. Season with salt and pepper, olive oil spray, cumin, and chili powder.

4. Add two inches of water to the pan to help keep the squash from sticking.

5. Roast for about 40-50 minutes, until the squash is fork-tender. Half way through roasting pour a little bit of water on the squash to keep it moist.

6. Heat skillet on stove; spray with olive oil.

7. Add the onion, garlic, corn kernels, green pepper, and spices; stir for five minutes until the onion has softened.

8. After removing squash from oven, lower oven temperature to 350 degrees. When the squash is cool, scrape spaghetti strands into a large mixing bowl.

9. Season with more salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder. Toss well. Add the skillet mixture, tomatoes, and black beans. Combine. Cut and squeeze the lime juice all over the mixture and toss lightly.

10. Pour the mixture into a casserole style baking dish. Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven until heated through - about 20 to 25 minutes. (Original recipe also says: "If you'd rather do it up in a skillet, add the squash to the skillet mixture and stir in the remaining ingredients. Cover and gently heat through over medium heat - roughly five to ten minutes.") I prefer baking it because, although it takes longer, I don't have to actually pay attention or do anything. Plus I usually just use the same dish I roasted the squash in, so it saves on cleanup.

Can also add:
Sprinkle of minced garlic before roasting squash
Two whole roasted green chiles, mild or spicy, seeded, chopped
Grated zest of lime as well as juice
Sprinkle of fresh chopped cilantro and some lime wedges for garnish

Add/Edit Notes

Servings: a ton. Probably at least 8. Plus you have half a spaghetti squash left over to use for something.

I love this dish. It makes me sad that the only person who reads this blog doesn't like spaghetti squash.

Discovery!

In my recent quest to cut down on sneaky little extra calories and get back to the basics, I have stumbled upon something wonderful: Savory Chicken and salsa. Since I'm in Healthy Solutions, I used the salsa as my vegetable serving, but if it's allowed as a condiment for Decision Free, then I highly recommend this.

Savory Salsa-y Chicken with Rice

Ingredients:
1 Savory Chicken with Rice entree
1/4 to 1/2 cup salsa (I used mild, which gave it just the right amount of zip, but for an adventure, try medium, ooh!)
raw, chopped up onion -- optional (I had about 1 gram left over to use up, so I displaced some of the salsa with it)

Directions:
1. Heat salsa (combined with onion, if using) in microwave until hot.
2. Heat entree in microwave for 1 minute.
3. Combine in bowl (cut chicken into bite-sized pieces if desired); olé!

BONUS TREAT: Fudgecicle!

This is probably really obvious and not that exciting, but it's an easy treat.

1. Make the HMR 70+ chocolate pudding as directed (or even with a bit more water, but not too much, or it'll be slushy).
2. Put it back into the packet, roll it up, and freeze it.
3. A few hours later, come back, peel back the wrapping, and voila, fudgy bar!

You can also put it into some type of cup-like device with a popcicle stick or plastic spoon for a more traditional treat. And naturally, try it with whatever flavor mix-ins or fruit you like, and/or with vanilla 70+ too. Yum yum!

Potatoes: Two Ways

It's been a while since I've cooked anything, and even longer since I've posted any recipes. We've been trying to use up canned and frozen vegetables lately, so I haven't bought a lot of fresh produce, hence a lack of cooking and experimentation. The last thing I did involved red potatoes, and didn't turn out particularly excellent. The key is in boiling the potatoes first, I think.

Garlic Sautéed Potatoes (Stovetop):

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Ingredients:

8 small red potatoes

salt and pepper

cooking spray

thyme

1 tsp garlic, finely chopped

2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

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Directions:

1. Scrub the potatoes and place in a saucepan. Cover with water and add salt.

2. Bring to a boil and simmer 20 minutes, or until tender.

3. Drain, when cool enough to handle cut into pieces.

4. Place the potatoes in sprayed, heated pan with salt and pepper.

5. Shake the pan a bit to keep the potato chunks separated. Add thyme, and continue to flip potatoes occasionally.

6. When crusty and brown, add the garlic. Add the parsley and serve immediately.

The potatoes on the stovetop taste really great when boiled first, but only okay when not. I made them based on this recipe. They'd also taste really great with rosemary, or any seasonings you like. Last week I tried them with chopped green onion, which was pretty good.

As for the oven version, in theory they should have turned out fine, but they came up a little short -- they took way too long to cook through, so maybe boiling first would help here too. Either way, they were somewhat less than satisfactory, so I'll just post what I did for reference.

Oven-roasted Balsamic Potatoes:

Ingredients:
6 small red potatoes
1/2 large onion
2 tsp roasted garlic (pre-minced, refrigerated stuff)
2 tbsp rosemary
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar
olive oil spray

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray Pyrex baking dish with olive oil cooking spray.
2. Chop potatoes and onion; put in baking dish.
3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic, and balsamic vinegar (generously, if you like balsamic vinegar).
4. Bake until potatoes are cooked through -- this ended up taking about an hour for me, which made the balsamic vinegar get a little gummy.

If I try this recipe again and have more success, I'll post what I did differently.

Potato Chips!

Allison, this one's for you. Something to dip in your salsa!

Oven Potato Chips

Ingredients:
1 small/medium potato
cooking spray
salt/pepper/whatever seasonings you'd like

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spray baking sheet lightly with cooking spray.
3. Slice potato thinly (depending on how thick you like your chips). I used my handy spiral slicer, and they came out super thin.
4. Arrange in one layer on baking sheet, spray lightly with cooking spray again, and season with salt, pepper, and/or desired seasonings.
5. Bake for 10 minutes, flip (sprinkle on a bit more salt if desired), and bake for 5 more minutes.

Servings: 1 vegetable

I think they're phenomenal on their own, but they're also a good option if you're tired of eating salsa with a spoon.

NOTE: I'm going to try baking them at a lower temperature (375 degrees) for a longer amount of time next time. I think they would come out better -- these were just a bit too crispy for my liking, although that may have been because they were so thin.

HMR Chicken Creole Soup

Our homework assignment for this week was to try an entree + chicken soup combo. This isn't really a recipe, but after adding the spices, I kind of liked it (it was bland before), so I'd like to record it for later. Plus, it's super easy, and uses only HMR products (Decision-Free friendly).

HMR Chicken Creole Soup

Ingredients:

1 packet HMR chicken soup mix

1 HMR chicken creole entree

6 oz water (3/4 cup)

dash salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika

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Directions:

1. Pour six ounces hot (not boiling) water into 12-oz mug. Add in soup mix and whisk the heck out of it. I find that just stirring it with a fork or spoon leaves it grainy and chunky.

2. Heat entree in microwave for one minute.

3. Add entree into mug gradually; season until desired spiciness.

In other words, prepare the soup and entree as instructed, combine them, and add the spices. So easy.

Yes We Can!

Because canned vegetables are just the way I roll.

I got the basis for this from a recipe on allrecipes.com, and then completely changed the stuffing to accommodate for:
1) HMR Healthy Solutions patients
2) My laziness

I achieved the first by removing the olive oil and cheeses, and the second by replacing everything else with canned vegetables that I had on hand. Which is my cue to tell you that you can make this with whatever you think sounds good. I'd like to try it with eggplant sometime, as the original recipe calls for, but I haven't bought one in a while. Maybe someday...

Lazy Man's Vegetable-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Ingredients:
For mushrooms:

1 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

2 large portobello mushrooms, stems removed

For stuffing:

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can artichoke hearts, chopped

1 can spinach

1 jar roasted red peppers (optional)

garlic to taste
basil and oregano (or use an Italian seasoning mix) to taste

a sprinkle of garlic & cheese popcorn seasoning

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Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; spray Pyrex baking dish with PAM olive oil spray.

2. In a small bowl, stir the balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, and onion powder together until blended. Put the mushrooms into a large Ziploc bag with the vinegar mixture, seal bag, and turn gently to coat mushrooms evenly with marinade. Place in refrigerator for 1 hour.

3. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in tomatoes, artichokes, spinach, and peppers. Add garlic, basil, and oregano; heat until warmed through.

4. Remove mushrooms from marinade, shaking off excess. If you don't like wasting things, put the marinade back in the fridge to use for other cooking.

5. Place mushrooms top side down in baking dish, and fill each with one cup of the vegetable mixture. Optionally, sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic & cheese popcorn seasoning over the top.

6. Bake until the mushrooms are warm, about 10-15 minutes.

Servings: 2 (2 vegetables per serving), plus about 2 cups or so of leftover stuffing. You can double the mushrooms (they refrigerate and reheat well, in my opinion), use the stuffing with an entree or something (I like it mixed with the Mushroom Risotto or on the Lasagna), or just eat it plain! Or do whatever you want with it. Really.

Go Green Balsamic Risotto

This one's not anything special, just something I threw together to use up things I had in my fridge. I named it "Go Green," not because it's especially environmentally friendly (always recycle, friends!), but because I used green peppers and green onions. Which is kind of a weird combination, I suppose. I should probably make a disclaimer right now that I will eat anything, so some of my combinations are odd.

Go Green Balsamic Risotto

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Ingredients:

1 green pepper

2 green onions

minced roasted garlic (about 1 clove of regular garlic is fine too -- I used the jarred stuff.)

1/8-1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (I'm not sure exactly how much; I just had some left over from a marinade)

HMR Mushroom Risotto entree

salt & pepper to taste

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Directions:

1. Chop pepper and green onion.

2. Saute with roasted garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.

3. When vinegar starts boiling, add in entree and stir until heated through.
4. Eat it and think about the environment.

HMR Pumpkin Spice Bread

I'm starting a blog for ease of recipe sharing (I use the term "recipe" loosely, as a lot of my experiments barely qualify as recipes), but since I'm not sure if anyone's ever going to really read this, I don't know exactly how I ought to write it. So I'll just start putting up recipes.

I thought I'd post this one first, since I recently got a request for it. Which means there must be at least one person out there who'd like to see it, right? :)

(Note: I do a lot of my baking lately using an 8-loaf mini-loaf pan. I don't think they're that hard to find, but you can make the batter into muffins too -- just don't bake them for quite so long. Also, my oven is pretty weak, so you might not want to bake them for quite so long anyway. I'll record cooking time ranges starting five minutes shorter.)

HMR Pumpkin Spice Bread

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Ingredients:

3 packets HMR multi-grain cereal

3 scoops HMR 120 vanilla shake mix (500/800 probably work fine too)

1.5 cups Splenda

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup water

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup natural/no sugar added applesauce (optional)

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Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray mini-loaf pan with cooking spray.

2. Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl, then stir in remaining ingredients.

3. Pour into six mini-loaves and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Easy Peasy! Most of my cooking directions are like this. It's on account of how lazy I am.

Add/Edit Notes

Servings: 6 (each loaf has 1 meal replacement and less than 1/4 cup fruit/vegetable)