Mexican-American Celebration: Handmade corn tortillas

Did you think you would see me again until graduating my master's program? I wasn't sure myself. But embracing the local culture during summer I session has helped get me back on the keyboard. 

For our community engagement course this summer, we had cultural competency as a learning objective. We are put into 3-4 person groups to give a presentation on different racial or ethnic groups in the US and have the option of making a food or beverage from that culture.

Because my group got Latino/Hispanics to study up on, our classmate graciously offered to teach my group how to make corn tortillas from masa, warm water and an optional bit of salt (she says about 1/2 tablespoon per 2 cups of masa). But she also says in that culture, people don't measure they just do it by experience and feel!

They tasted really sublime fresh (crispy outside and fluffy inside) and we used either a heavy book or rolling pin to flatten the dough rather than a tortilla press.

HAND-MADE CORN TORTILLAS

Supplies:

Large gallon zip-lock bags (said to work better than plastic wrap)

scissors

large mixing bowl

heat-ok container to hold warm water (not boiling to save your hands that will be mixing)

cast-iron griddle is best, but in a pinch can use coated frying pan or one of those pancake griddles. 

rolling pin or heavy books (finally you can use those textbooks that just sit around)

Ingredients:

• Masa-finely ground corn flour (this is different from cornmeal)-the masa bag says 2 cups makes 19 tortillas...it really depends how big you make them. The larger they are the more likely they are to curl when cooking and you must press them down with a tool or if on the cheap using a clean towel folded up (to protect your hand).
• Salt (optional)
• Cheese of your choice (optional, we tried Queso Fresco a mild white firm cheese, my friend says the vivid orange Muenster cheese is also popular as a snack with tortilla) or other toppings you enjoy...salsa, avocados, butter, beans...or your carnivore delights. 

0. Before anything else, preheat your griddle or pan over medium heat.

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1. Take your ziplock bag. Cut along the zipper side and its 2 connecting sides, leave the bottom seam of the plastic bag intact. This will be your non-stick surface for pressing/rolling the tortillas.

2. Put your masa into the large bowl. Add your salt if desired. 

3. Add splashes of the warm water at a time, mixing with your CLEAN hands in between water additions. Keep mixing until you get a play-doh like consistency. The dough is not very sticky and easily holds it's shape. If you accidentally add more water, sprinkle some more masa in there. It's a forgiving recipe and my tortilla guru told me you cannot overwork corn tortillas.

4. Roll some balls. Experiment to see what size you want-we made some slightly bigger than golf balls and some that yielded closer to a 5" tortilla). If the dough gets cracks, add a little more water and massage it in. 

5. Place a dough ball on the plastic bag, fold the plastic over and then you can smush using a book or roll using a rolling pin/stick. Use that forearm strength! Make your desired thickness...again your preference.

6. Flip your dough from the plastic onto the griddle/pan. Let the tortilla steam and cook 2-3 minutes each side (or until you can easily flip it to the other side. Cast iron is more likely to give you some charred edges and little black flecks if that is what you enjoy.

7. Remove the tortilla from the pan and let cool just a few moments before you savor with your favorite cheese, avocados, beans or salsa. 

I think the leftovers taste the best if reheated in a toaster oven.

I worked towards one of my goals to reach out to new social groups this summer. I went out on a sunset hike  with a meetup.com group. One person named Jessica and I started talking about food. I had purchased some edible cactus (called Nopales, apparently San Diego has it too but I guess I never went to the right markets) at the Las Cruces farmers market with a classmate---Finally went after being here a year----and wanted ideas of how to cook it. I ended up making a salsa. I'll share it with you next post but it really pretty much is a salsa with adding cactus in place of half of the tomatoes. I'll also try to remember to take pictures of the tart Jamaica tea and share that too. Until next time food lovers!

Have you gone on any physical geographical or food market/restaurant adventures this summer? Please share your latest discovery (positive or negative)  

2 summer vegetarian dishes with one sauce: Rich Roasted eggplant and Lentil-Kale Delight

The original recipe (which I cannot remember if I found on Pinterest or online, can't figure out my phone's browsing history, arg!) dressing is for eggplants plus bell peppers, if you're just doing eggplants probably only need 2-3 tbsp of dressing. But I found it also works nicely on other veggies or I think could make a great lettuce salad dressing too. 

This first recipe will be the best if you can bbq your eggplants in a metal basket to avoid heating up your house, but you can use your oven also. 

Both recipes are eaten cold and are therefore considered by me to be wonderful on a hot, El Paso summer day. 

I will always first remember kale as a decoration in the salad bars that we would use at the dining hall. At the end of the night we would collect them in buckets to be used another day if they weren't wilting yet. Now they are such a trendy food. 

See the little serving of eggplant above the sammie?

Recipe #1 Rich Roasted Eggplant Salad 

Ingredients: 

• 2 Italian egg plants (the big bulbous ones, rather than Japanese or other Asian varieties that are longer. Probably fine to use them but just increase the quantity). Makes about 4 servings. 

Dressing for eggplants (or Lentil and Kale salad)

• ¾ cup of vinegar
• Cumin 1 tbsp
• Salt 1.5 tsp
• Pepper 1 tsp
• 5 roasted garlic cloves-(cooked with the eggplant)

Optional: Toasted nuts. I did about ¾ cup toasted pecans (toast 5 minutes on 300F or on a pan over low). Let cool then break into small pieces to sprinkle on eggplant just before serving

1. Tuck in the garlic cloves whole with the roasted cubed (about ½” pieces) eggplant tossed in olive oil (about 2-3 tsp) in baking dish in a single layer at 400 for 30-40 minutes stirring every 10 until very tender and pieces shrunk to about 1/3 of their original size.

2. Pull out the garlic cloves when soft enough to be easily pierced by a fork. Place dressing ingredients in a blender. Whizzzzzle around until smooth. 

3. Toss with dressing (again try it with just 2-3 tbsp and see how it tastes) and stick in fridge for at least 1 hour to let flavors marinate. Save the rest of your dressing for another meal. Add nuts to each person's serving if you think there will be leftovers so nuts remain crispy. 

Could probably make this more hearty by adding some kind of a bean for protein. Chickpeas perhaps? I went nicely with Liz's tomato-white bean-basil soup (dairy free) and grilled cheese (yay bread maker to have myself a gluten free version).

Recipe #2 Lentil and Kale Delight: 

It will still heat up your kitchen since a pot is boiling 40 minutes.

Allow yourself 40-50 minutes to cook the lentils. It makes enough for about 6 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of dried brown lentils (rinsed and sorted for any stones)
• 1 bundle of kale (any kind, I used the curly version)-rinsed and cutting off the leafy part from the stem. Curly kale steam is very tough usually, you may save it for making a soup stock or compost it. 
• 2 tsp coconut or olive oil

1. Put lentils in a medium pot covered with water (about 3/4 full). If you have a lid with a steam hole, use it. If not just check the beans more often.

2. Drain lentils once they are tender enough (about 40-50 minutes). Check about every 10 minutes to see if more water needs to be added.

3. Prepare the kale by tossing it with 2 tsp of olive or coconut oil and 1 tbsp of lemon juice.

El Paso, TX Eats

Sampling quite the variety of goods that this city has to offer during our house/apartment scouting trip and after being here 2 months for school. Should you have the "fortune" to visit this dusty but relatively large town neighboring Juarez, here are some of my findings of places to eat.

West side of town

The paper came in hand for my juicy turkey burger

 We can't get enough t-rex jokes.

1. Independent Burger-5001 N. Mesa free range meats, fish, and vegetarian selections. And gluten-free buns. Also a build your own Italian soda bar-will have to try this next time. Just what we needed to fuel an all day housing search. Tradition to have burgers once when we're on travel! A classmate has shared that they have $5 Thursday burgers with fries at 8pm. Get there early!

If you don't feel like the rootbeer float at Independent Burger, head across the plaza for gelato. Pistachio rose flavored was a first for me!

2. Koi Japanese Fusion-5860 N. Mesa. Felt so swanky sitting in a polished wooden booth that faced the bar and the horrendously boring Pacquel v. Mayweather fight. I remember a time when I would watch Monday night fights with Dad on TV. But we were happy just to sit after a full day of driving back and forth across town (8:30 am-6:30pm), the poor waiter had no other customers so he checked on us frequently. Dave thought he sounded like (and sort of resembled) the actor who played Spider Man (that Garfield guy) Delicious New York roll and sunomono salad (above) = cucumber with some other seafood. I think Dave was satisfied with his usual nigiri salmon and yellow tail. I wouldn't say the cheese cake is something you MUST go for (I had to try avoid eating the crumbs too)-but they do give you two slices for one order!

3. Ripe Eatery- 910 E. Redd Road. Hooray for shady patio eating and dog friendly. It's actually seeming like EP is very dog friendly (saw nights to take the furry one to the Chihuahua's baseball stadium, a bar downtown that allows dogs during one happy hour a week, several markets that are friendly to dogs). The portions are ENORMOUS. Share with a friend if you tend to avoid leftovers. Dad couldn't finish his fish and chips (and my Dad can eat a surprising amount), even Dave's chicken Caesar was left with leaves in the bowl. You can make the oink face at me as I finished my Portobello Mushroom Rockafeller (almond red pepper pesto! Yummmmm, can I just get a huge tub of that to take home and freeze?) that included two mushroom caps on polenta.

4. Tara Thai Kitchen-2606 N. Mesa St. I came for dinner this summer with classmates after a friendly table tennis game at the rec center. The food was really tasty and I was happy with my level of medium spice, albeit for a vegetarian dish I was a little floored by the $15 price tag, even for dinner (compared to San Diego standards, supply and demand I suppose). Perhaps their lunch prices are more what I'm used to. Portions are at least large though, my party had leftovers. Only other trouble was their air conditioning doesn't work very well, it was stuffy. I'm wondering if it uses swamp cooling.

Central side of town (just east of the Franklin mountains, a local told me, we're still considered central NOT east)

1. Cattle Baron's Steak and Seafood-1700 Airway Blvd. Honestly went here because we were tired on our first night in from San Diego's flight. Their $9.99 salad bar for a gluten-free, veggie-lovin' person was fabulous. Four different desserts I could have (puddings and mousse), and many prepared and plain fixins for the leafy greens. If you enjoy Soup Plantation, you'd like this place too. They did have at least one other location in El Paso.

2. Cuauhtemoc Cafe-6840 Montana Avenue. We needed something close to the airport. I had to call to get hours (get ready to use your Spanish, I surprised Dave "A que hora de operacion?"....no idea if that even makes grammatical sense but had to try again with "Que es las horas abierto?" Hooray high school skills. Will definitely need to brush up going to grad school here) since they didn't have a website. The waitress did speak English, just not the person who answered the phone. Sadly their beans were not vegetarian but I opted for the cheese enchiladas. I savored the salsa, but felt the sauce on the main dish needed some extra zip. So salsa saved the day. Portions were generous.

3. Korea House- 4601 Hondo Pass Rd. Craving spicyness on your lips to last until bedtime? Look no further! Large array of the sides and a good sized helping on the main dishes. I ordered a spicy squid, which the waitress assured me was not made with any kind of flour. The sauteed onion and squash in the squid paired so nicely. I would have shared this dish with another person if I knew the serving size, but the guys were set on having their beef anyway. They had a few kinds of fish I had never heard of, so next time I will be more adventurous. I think they did also have some tofu dishes but I didn't get to ask if they were vegetarian.

4. Kabob House- 7500 N Gateway Blvd. The Yelp reviews cautioned you need to just look for a gas station because it is not presently obvious that a Persian gem lies inside the walls. The owner/chef would like to have something scrolling on the sign outside soon. He actually shared with us that it used to be a Subway but that went terribly awry (very odd business model) but he didn't give up and converted it. I wouldn't say you want to come here if you want a romantic night out. The ding, ding! of the gas station door constantly could spoil the mood. Then again we arrived just when a large tour bus did. Make sure to ask the owner which items can be vegetarian since the description may not be clear. I also had the disadvantage of not being very familiar with Persian dishes. But the man was really gracious and quickly made me a tasty cilantro-bean-lime stew free of beef.  It inspires me to make a mushroom based one in the near future. I hope next time the pistachio ice cream is in stock.

5. Lucky Cafe-3831 Alameda Ave. Came here by mistake meaning to go check out Good Luck Cafe just a few building down. Bright gecko green exterior, you can't miss it. Also open 24 hours. Late night study break? I loved that they had vegetarian refried beans with the breakfast menu and a man providing acoustic guitar and singing. Just the right amount of spicy salsa. They did have chilaquiles which my old-coworkers seem to really enjoy, so I'll have to try that next time. Got your standard coffee, nothing special, not too strong, and smooth.

6. Kiki's- 2719 N. Piedras. A classmate recommended this place, and at least 16 of us came over during prime lunch hour on a weekday after our first grad school exam. We waited half an hour to sit all together, not bad for having no reservation in such a small place. Fantastic green sauce enchiladas and vegetarian beans! My classmates note that the margaritas are made with white wine as they only carry beer and wines at present. Small parking lot, try carpooling...or it's near residences so plenty of parking with a short walk.

7. Chun Ju Korean 3901 Broaddus Ave. Chosen based on Yelp reviews. I braved trying a new dish, "belt fish" which was very bony (and I was warned) and took great effort to eat. It was just lightly seasoned if at all, not what you want to pick if you're looking for a spicy dish. My classmate who is Korean says there is a trick to getting the meat off easily but she failed to show it to me at the time! The sides were wonderful and they offered to refill them. I think overall everyone was happy, though the expert said that they just had very basic dishes (comparing to LA). I'm pretty limited in what I eat anyway, so I am ok with smaller menus as long as it's done right.

PLACES RECOMMENDED TO ME that I have yet to try:
Chopes-Hatch, NM. Enormous portions.
State Line BBQ-I checked, they don't appear to serve free range, but there is fish! We did go to hear their free summer series concerts on a Wednesday night.

Cattleman's Ranch-also have animals to go see and movie sets. Seafood is available.

Orange is the New Pasta Sauce (or dip)-Vegetarian and Music in El Paso

Yes, I do watch the show OITNB on Netflix. It has been one of my means of study breaks along with taking yoga and doing work outs at the Rec Center at school, and attempting to do some scrapbooking/weeding through old magazines.

I also thought it would be appropriate to do something orange given my school colors. And, a 5 lb bag of carrots from Costco might have something to do with this week's recipe (did some roasting, and chopping for spring rolls and vermicelli salad too.) Honestly, I need to get with it and try the co-op CSA basket here to get a better variety (and cheaper organic options). The Bountiful Baskets , where you make a weekly monetary contribution (no contracts) and every once and a while go early to help them pack baskets. There are add ons, but they seem to be in large quantities (e.g. 11 lbs of pineapple!), I'll need to recruit a classmate to split something like that with. Depending on the number of items/how long the produce lasts, this could be comparable to what I paid in San Diego in the $25-28 range for one person.

I found a recipe from the New York Times (Linguine with Creamy Carrot and Cheese Sauce), which I made only slight modifications to, using a goat cheese for ricotta, no sour cream, and of course some gluten-free pasta. The author asks, "who says pasta sauce can only be red?" With how thick it came out, I might liken it to pesto. Perhaps that's because I used goat cheese instead of ricotta.It makes a good dip for chips or a solid crunchy veg..maybe radish, jicama, celery. My classmate thought it was a cheddar based dip at first glance.

Before mixin'

Stirred up, with herbs and added roasted fennel (about half a cup, cooked)

Makes about 4-6 servings.

INGREDIENTS:
12 oz of baby carrots or regular carrots cut into small rounds (1/4")
1/2 cup of soft cheese, such as goat
2 oz of Italian blend shredded cheese (or hard cheese)
8 oz dried pasta
1/2 cup of unflavored coconut milk (or milk alternative)

Optional: fresh herbs, roasted fennel bulb (sliced 1/4" tossed in oil and roasted 20 min at 400 F)

Supplies: 2 medium pots, 1 blender or food processor

1. Get water boiling in the 2 pots covering with lids, one for pasta and one for carrots.

2. Can work on assembling the other ingredients in the blender or food processor.

3. Cook pasta as directed, and carrots at least 5 minutes or until fork tender.

4. Place cooked, drained carrots into the blender. You can retain some of the water in case you want a thinner sauce (add a tablespoon or two at a time.) Blend until uniform.

5. Serve the pasta with 2-3 large spoonfuls of sauce.

A fresh herb on top is a nice touch. I used basil from my classmate, Elizabeth.

At least so far in the summer, El Paso offers a lot of free music events! Hooray! We visited Stateline BBQ on Weds night to hear Chuco Soul Project for some funky beats (including a flute and the weird keyboard instrument that is blown into...a "melodica" ...in May my sister showed me the comedian Miranda Sings using it in her video for Bruno Mars, Uptown Funk.) On a Thursday, we headed to McKellington Canyon for some salsa by Sabrosoora-makes me wish I remembered more Spanish. The leader spoke to the audience in between songs and made jokes, that everyone around us laughed about.  Really entertaining that they paired with a local dance studio to provide some visuals-though one of the singers looked like he was having a fun time. Also made me want to learn a partnered dance again.

QUESTION FOOD RELATED: What do you like to buy in large quantities?

QUESTION NON-FOOD:  Do you have a favorite local band from your current or past place of living? 

Two Easy Spaghetti Sauce Based Meals: Lentil/Sweet potato and 1-pan Garlic-spinach Tilapia

Hi readers,

The last few months have been a blur in taking three prerequisite courses plus a 1 unit-martial arts...then dropping one course, but replacing it with packing and rental hunting. I'm excited to finally be reporting to you live in El Paso, TX. The first few days dear Amazing Dad was here to help us get situated and we tried out a few restaurants which I will post about next time. My new kitchen leaves much to be desired for counter space and sink space (dishwasher not currently functional too). We've been here for a week and I haven't felt motivated to cook because of the space.  However, Dave helped by mounting a bookshelf on the wall with L-brackets to free up counter space and finding shelf dividers while I was at orientation. Oh, by the way, I am in El Paso because I start graduate school for occupational therapy next week. Let the 33 month countdown begin. Let the healthy cooking continue as a full-time student.

I managed to make something more than pasta and Costco's madras (I think) lentils in a pouch last night! While at my folk's house in April, I spied n' tried a recipe in a magazine (maybe Family Circle) that made use of spaghetti sauce. Although we're coming up to summer sun-ripened non-green house tomatoes and as much as we try to watch our sodium, I think most people run into a very hectic situation where short-cuts are needed in cooking (no time for picking,washing and dicing.)  See recipe #2 for my recollection of the magazine recipe since I forgot to take a photo of the article or write down the exact measurements. Also I have a giant bag of peas from Costco, so I changed the veggie.  Recipe #1 is something I came up with to take with me to campus when I had my crock-warmer this spring.

If you do have time or are lucky enough to grow your own tomatoes, here's the simple pasta sauce recipe I like to make from Art Smith's cookbook.

Recipe #1 Lentils and Sweet Potatoes: All you need are green lentils, sweet potato and spaghetti sauce. You can buy some premade items to help speed this up (see notes within the instructions). This isn't so much labor intensive as just planning ahead on your lentils and sweet potatoes.

4 Servings

1 cup green lentils
4 sweet potatoes
1-2 cups of spaghetti sauce

Preheat your oven to 400 F and get water boiling in a medium sauce pan

1. Once water is boiling, then add lentils. Bring to simmer and cook for 40-45 minutes. When lentils are tender to eat, drain. (Alternatively, you could also cook the lentils in your crock pot if you have to leave for school or work and want things to be ready sooner-I did lentils on low heat for about 3 hours. **shortcut** Or some stores sell precooked lentils in the refrigerated section-Trader Joe's often has it. I'm really bummed El Paso doesn't have a Trader Joe's...where can I get my cheap coconut milk ice cream, unsulfured/unsugared dried mangoes and honey-chocolate mints now?!)

2. While, waiting for the lentil's water to boil, put the sweet potatoes brushed with a high heat oil (olive oil or avocado oil for example) and wrapped in foil or parchment paper into the oven at 400F for 20-30 minutes until you can easily pierce with a fork. **short cut** substitute sweet potatoes with the precut butternut squash that you can steam in the microwave or simmer on your stove top**

3. Heat the spaghetti sauce on low heat last when you have about 10 minutes left on the other items (or microwave), serve the split open sweet potato and lentils with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sauce

Recipe #2 1-Pan Spinach and Garlic Tilapia

3-4 servings

1 lb spinach (rinsed, washed several times to remove dirt)
4 garlic cloves-minced
1-2 cups spaghetti sauce
3 zucchini cut into 1/4" circles or 3 cups of snap peas (or other non-leafy veggie that cooks in about 5 minutes)
1 lb of white fish such as tilapia or catfish
1 tbsp olive oil

If desired start a pot of rice or begin boiling water to cook quinoa or another grain to go with this saucy dish while you do the preparations.

1. Heat large sauce pan on medium heat. Add olive oil. Let heat a few minutes. Add minced garlic. Cook until the garlic starts to turn golden.

2. Add spinach to pan. May need to do half at a time. Let wilt. Then put spinach into a bowl/serving dish.

3. Now use the same pan to add the fish to. Add enough spaghetti sauce to cover fish. Add your zucchini or snap peas. Let cook on medium for 10 minutes. Turn the fish over after the first five minutes. Check your fish after 10 minutes to see that it is cooked (flakes easily). I used a thin fish, something like halibut or cod could take longer.

Serve over your favorite grain.

What's your favorite restaurant with live music? Or what kind of music do you like to listen to when you cook?

Pumpkin Eater! Vegetarian entree of Quinoa-coconut balls in a pumpkin sauce

I admit, this is belated...haven't even made it around to summarizing my year.  If you enjoy a sausage flavor, but you eat vegetarian always or even just meatless Mondays, try this combination of herbs in these non-meat-balls.

I thought it would be fun to make pumpkin pies during the holidays using fresh pumpkin. But plans changed and dessert was no longer needed. That meant trying out a few pumpkin recipes since I meant to have enough to make two pies it made about five different dishes, 1) a bread from the Decadent Gluten Free Vegan baking cookbook by Cara Reed (I also really enjoyed trying the scones, herbed biscuits-mine didn't rise though, and the chocolate-cinnamon snickerdoodles) 2) an Afghan stew 3) a pumpkin-chickpea stew from Better Homes and Gardens and 4) another recipe adapted from Better Homes and Garden's Cheesey Bean and Rice Bites with Pumpkin-Sage Sauce and 5) pumpkin pie filling-for whatever reason it tasted too salty to me, maybe using coconut milk or coconut sugar, or using fresh pumpkin didn't fit the bill.

 I was a fan of the BHG dish (#4). I made some changes based on what I had on hand:
(if fresh pumpkin is not available, butternut squash should be!)

Ingredients-
1 cup cooked lentils
2 cups cooked quinoa
1.25 cups of nutritional yeast
1 egg lightly beaten
2 tbsp fresh herbs chopped (I used thyme, sage and rosemary)
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp olive oil
15 oz of cooked pumpkin (I sliced pumpkin into 3-4" wedges after de-seeding, covered in a baking dish with foil, baking at 400 F for 45min-1 hour or until flesh can be pierced easily with a fork. remove from oven and let cool 20 minutes until you can handle it and scoop out the flesh)
1 1/3 cup veggie stock or broth
1/4 tsp salt

1. In a large bowl mix together the lentils, quinoa, 1 tbsp herbs, nutritional yeast, coconut flakes and the egg. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

2.  After about 40 minutes of the hour, preheat the oven to 450 (or however much time your oven needs to preheat). After 1 hour of refrigeration, roll the mixture into about 16 balls.

3. Place on a greased baking sheet or parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes until browned.

4. While the quinoa-coconut balls are baking, make the pumpkin sauce. Heat a medium saucepan on medium heat with 1 tsp of olive oil.

5. Add the onion and garlic. Saute for 3-5 minutes until the onion is tender. Add the pumpkin (if using fresh pumpkin may need to mash it to make it smoother or place in a blender with 1/4 cup of water), broth, salt and the remaining herbs. 

6. Heat until bubbling, then laddle into bowls to serve with the quinoa-coconut balls.

***************BONUS Easy recipe with Quinoa and Butternut squash-held up great when I had no fridge during jury duty last week! Allow 30 minutes for roasting, plus about 10 minutes of prep time if the squash is whole.****************************************************************

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 butternut squash (remove seeds and cut into 1 inch cubes)-or use pre-bought I'd say it's about 3 cubs for one squash
4 tbsp pre-made or homemade pesto  (scroll to the bottom of the entry, and leave off the last two ingredients-the pasta and tomatoes...or try this other recipe using carrot top greens)-both are vegan


1. Preheat the oven to 400F. If using the whole squash, cut in half and remove the seeds (can spread out to dry and toast for a few minutes at 300F with a touch of olive oil or coconut oil to eat as a snack later-waste not my friends!) Cut the squash into the 1" pieces. 

2. Toss the squash with 2 tsp olive oil. Spread onto a baking dish, roast for 30 minutes

3. While the squash cooks, Heat half a medium pot of water to boil for the quinoa. Add the quinoa when boiling, then reduce heat to medium. Let cook 10 minutes or until quinoa has the little curls come off and are tender. 

4. Drain the water from the quinoa and add pesto to the quinoa, mixing evenly. Once the butternut squash is done, add to the quinoa and mix. 

5. From experience, eating it cold or room temperature is fine. Tell me if you try it hot. 


What did you do when you last bought too much of an ingredient or in bulk?
Non-food question: What is something you'd like to start doing everyday in February?

Crisp Kale and Tomato Salad

You might imagine quitting a full time job would give me some more time to play and really dig into new recipes, alas, that time gets filled with trying to figure out the timing for applying for health coverage, drafting statements of purpose and figuring out how to order transcripts from 3 different schools and doing a job-hunt like search weekly to find places to volunteer under a registered therapist!

So what I meant by all that is that I feel it's time to get reenergized and I'd like to have company doing it.  I'm curious to know what makes food fun for you? Might it be seeing the reactions of your family or friends trying your meal? It is a certain texture? Ambiance? Other things?

This week to get a whoopie and smile out of food, I went to making kale extra crispy and wanted to keep up the energizing, light feeling after a spin class, so I kept this recipe vegan. The roasting takes time but the amount of frenzy/work the chef needs to do is small.

I made the roasted veggies and tomato sauce ahead of time  (40 minutes roasting) so I was only waiting the 20 minutes for the kale to bake. The best taste is if you make the kale right before you want to eat.

You'll need:

a toaster or regular oven
bowl or tupperware with lid to toss about 2-3 cups of rinse or chopped kale
small sauce pan
soup sized bowl to serve in
and the bullet-ed ingredients (makes 1 serving)


A. To roast-Start here since it takes the longest

• Olive oil, *avocado oil or some oil that can withstand roasting temperatures
• 1 cup finely diced roasting veggies (Fresh and Easy now carries a mix of sweet potato, squash and beets pre chopped a 1/4" or smaller)-roast in a single layer for 40 minutes at 400F, until the beets can be pierced with a fork
• 2-3 cups of the kale tossed in one tsp of the oil-roast in a single layer for 20 minutes at 300F, check to see the temperature is ok such that your kale isn't burning black. 

*If you're from San Diego, get thee to a farmer's market (Little Italy or La Jolla has carried it) to try avocado oil with key lime, it's made in Vista, CA. My friend Tony introduced me to this stuff and it is addicting.

B. To cook on stove in the small sauce pan

• 1 tomato cut into 1/2" pieces
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 tsp of the olive or avocado oil

Heat the oil in the sauce pan for a few minutes over medium. Add the chopped garlic for 30 seconds. Then add tomatoes to cook 1 minute. 

C. Putting it all together now:
Mix the roast veggies and crispy kale in a large soup bowl with

• 2/3 cup of cooked chickpeas-make ahead or use canned
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp coconut aminos (or soy sauce if your diet allows)
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
• optional crushed red pepper flakes

D. Munch, munch, munch your colorful vibrant meal.

E. Find an activity you can smile about today-perhaps catch up with a friend in person/by phone or teach each other something new, getting your sweat on in a favorite exercise activity, or checking off something that has been sitting on your to do list. 

What signature dish are you making for your holiday gatherings?

Coming next: I bought a gigantic pumpkin, now what?