Just Put it in the (corn) Tortilla

I hesitate at saying that we made veggie burgers for dinner last night, because although they were incredibly good, they were not something you would necessarily want to stick between two pieces of bread. The softer texture resembled more of a veggie meatloaf (which I may try making in the future). But they ended up being perfect just by themselves or as we discovered later on in the night, amazing on a crispy corn tortilla.


Sweet Potato and Black Bean Veggie Burgers (or alternatively, Veggie Burger Tostadas)
3 Medium sweet potatoes, peeled, baked and cut into cubes
2 cans of black beans, mashed
1/2 large yellow onion, diced
2 tsp garlic
1/3-1/2 cup of cooked brown rice
1 Tbsp Pensey's southwest seasoning
1 1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1/4 cup breadcrumbs, toasted.
1 egg white
olive oil

Instructions:
1. Peel sweet potatoes, cut into cubes, sprinkle with a little salt and olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Roast in oven at 350F for 25-30 minutes (or until tender).
2. Drain and rinse beans and place then in a bowl to mash.
3. Saute onion and garlic until lightly browned. Add to bowl of beans.
4. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and mash together (this won't look pretty, but it is delicious).
5. Form into patties (diameter of your choice) and about 1/2" thick. Heat a cast-iron skillet to high heat and cook the burgers for 2 minutes on each side. Should make about 10 burgers.

*If desired, serve on a corn tortilla, baked in the oven at 350F for 7 minutes.

Lessons Learned:
1. This is actually our second time making these burgers. We adapted the original recipe to include the egg white and bread crumbs and left out a few ingredients that we thought didn't work as well. Until recently I was pretty much a "stick exactly to the recipe" kind of cook while Jamie is much more adventurous (not always successfully so). Goes to show that sometimes adaptations can be better than the original.
2. While it didn't work well in a bun, Veggie burger tostadas are fantastic.

Costco Love

When I was in high school my dad discovered Costco. At least once a week he would bring home a case of wine and a "present" for my mom. This is how we ended up with an extra set of everything you would (or wouldn't) want including two steamcleaners, an oversized dog bed, and a hideously large jewelery box. Have you seen the Modern Family episode where Cam introduces Mitchell to Costco? That pretty much summed up our life.

I have recently come to the realization that Jamie and I have a bit of a Costco problem as well. Except ours revolves more around food. Jamie and I take weekly "dates" to Costco where we go around eating all of the samples and then split soft-serve frozen yogurt or pizza. We don't have much of a social life in Pittsburgh.

But besides just being a cheap (and super romantic) place to have lunch, we also find it a great place to pick up some really healthy food for a pretty low price. Many people cite high costs as one of the reasons they avoid purchasing fresh fruits/vegetables or healthier foods in general. As long as you are able to get through all of the produce you buy, I think Costco is a great way to save money on these items.

Our weekly/biweekly purchases usually include:
-Red peppers
-Fruit (some combination of the following): Pink lady apples, bananas, mangos, grapes, blueberries
-Sweet potatoes!!
-Onions
-Whole wheat tortillas (I highly recommend these, they are delicious and only 100 calories).
-Greek yogurt
-Skim milk
-Almond butter (it is SO inexpensive here)
-Healthy Choice Fudge Bars (ok, so not really "healthy" but they are really good).

Every 2-3 months we purchase:
-Frozen Chicken (probably purchase this about every 3 months)
-Quinoa
-Canned tomatoes
-Agave
-Oatmeal
-Frozen strawberries/Blueberries (for smoothies)

Our newest Costco love is the seafood department. We've purchased some amazing salmon and tuna steaks for much less than what they are selling them for at the grocery store.

So what's the take away from this long, rambling post? If you are at all interested in incorporating more healthy foods into your diet, I think Costco is a great place to start.

Sweet Potato Fries

I don't consider myself to be a picky eater, but for some reason I've never been much of a potato fan. Yes, I do like the occasional plate of french fries and mashed potatoes (without lumps), but I'll pass on most potato dishes.

That is until I discovered sweet potatoes.

Last summer we started receiving sweet potatoes in our CSA share. I wasn't too sure what to do with them at first, but a little internet searching introduced me to baked sweet potato fries. I've been hooked ever since. Not only do they taste incredible, but they are a nutritional gold mine. There was a period of about a month where we made these every night. Now that we have a food processor, they are even easier to make.

Ingredients

Sweet Potato

1 TBSP oil

Cajun Seasoning*

Pinch of Cayenne

*Note: We've also used Penzey's Southwest seasoning, smoked paprika, salt,

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Peel potato and slice about 1/4 inch (or julienne slice if you have more patience/better knife skills that I do). We have also used the food processor to do this.

3. Place into a bowl, add oil and seasonings. Mix with wooden spoons.

4. Place on a baking sheet and put them in the oven. After about 15 minutes (or when the top starts to brown), flip and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

5. Enjoy with ketchup and/or BBQ sauce.

Tuna Three Ways

Tuna is something that I predictably order every time it's on the menu at a restaurant but have always been scared of making at home. So when we impulsively brought home a package of fresh tuna steaks from our weekly Costco date, I was a little apprehensive about actually preparing it.

Turns out, tuna is ridiculously easy to make. We put together a little experiment with the three tuna steaks that we purchased, seasoning each one with a different Penzey's spice (Southwest Seasoning, Chicken Taco, and Cajun), and cooking two on a cast iron griddle (for pancakes) and the other on an stainless steal skillet. We both took on the big chef role (this only worked because we each got our own steak, otherwise, two big chefs in our kitchen is disastrous).

Ingredients

Tuna steaks

Vegetable Oil
Seasonings

Instructions

1. Dry the tuna with a paper towel to soak up the excess moisture.

2. Coat them with a bit of vegetable oil (just to help the seasoning stick).

3. Cover with preferred seasoning (you can use black pepper, Penzey's chicken taco, whatever you like).

4. Cook on high heat for 30 seconds. Turn down heat (to medium) and cook for an additional 1.5 to 2 minutes. Flip and cook other side for an additional 1.5 (for rare) to 3 minutes (medium-rare). Cook a little longer if steaks are thicker than 1. 5 inches or if you would like them closer to medium done.

Results:


I felt like the chicken taco seasoning was the clear winner of the three. It had the right spicy/salty balance that didn't overpower the tuna. Cajun turned out to be a bit too spicy, and although southwest was good, it didn't live up to the chicken taco.

As far as the two different pans, I felt that the stainless steal griddle got a better sear and a slightly crispier exterior (which I preferred). Even though we cooked all the steaks for the same amount of time, the stainless steal cooked them more thoroughly and closer to medium than medium-rare.

Lessons learned:

1. Fish is not as scary to cook as I think it is.

2. Although we made this plain, a fruity salsa or side dish would have been a nice addition. Tonight, I think we'll have a salad and some sweet potato fries with the leftovers.

A Night at the Museum

Most of this blog will be devoted to food, but as young professionals living in a new city, I also wanted to share some of our discoveries of cheap, fun things to do.

Pittsburgh has been looking a lot like this lately:


We needed a bit of indoor entertainment to make us forget the dreary weather. So when I learned that the Carnegie Museum of Natural History is free to the public from 3:30-8pm on Thursdays in March, I jumped at the opportunity to go (it's usually $15 for adults).


The Smithsonian Natural History Museum in DC is probably my all time favorite museum (plus it's free all the time), so Carnegie's version had a lot to live up to. I was pleasantly surprised with how extensive the exhibits were. We spent about an hour looking through all the crystals, and another hour with the dinosaurs. It must have been pretty nice to have been the richest man in America. When Andrew Carnegie caught wind of a dinosaur excavation in Wyoming, he not only paid to bring the remains to his museum, but he had the dinosaur (Diplodocus carnegii) named after him as well. Does anyone want to buy me a dinosaur?

Before we left, we walked through the Hall of Architecture, which is an absolutely gorgeous room with casts of ancient buildings from all over Europe. We both highly recommend it!

If you live in Pittsburgh or are visiting Pittsburgh, the museum is definitely worth checking out (especially if you have kids or still feel like a kid). We really want to go back another day this month to visit the art museum which is next door and also free Thursday evenings in March.

Some pictures from the exhibits:


Jamie with Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur


Angry Dinosaur Fish (he was from Kansas, too!)



Birds terrify me, so I didn't love the idea of figuring out what type of bird I would be. Turns out, I would be a Hawk, Jamie would be an owl. Thank you Carnegie Natural History Museum for clearing that up. Now can I please stop thinking about birds?

Cookies are for Sharing

I love to bake, but there is little self-control when it comes to baked goods in the Big Chef/Little Chef household. Therefore, we try to limit baking to times when we can share the delicious products with others. Yesterday was the perfect opportunity. I had the day off of work for "Spring Holiday" (hey, I'll take it), and we had plans with a group of grad students in Jamie's program that evening. I decided to make one of my favorite cookie recipes, Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with dried cherries and walnuts.

There are several versions of these cookies on the internet. I actually made a much healthier version a while back from a health and fitness magazine, but couldn't find the link yesterday. Since I have always gotten rave reviews with the Cooks Illustrated version of this recipe, I decided to ignore the butter content and just go with what I know works.

I hit up Trader Joes (TJ's) in the morning to pick up the ingredients I needed for the recipe. If you have a TJ's near you, I definitely recommend it for dried fruit, nuts and chocolate (so much cheaper than other grocery stores!).

Note: To get the "chocolate chip" sized chunks, I had to place the chocolate in a plastic bag and hit it with the edge of a mallet. I'm sure our neighbors loved all the noise.

Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with dried cherries and walnuts (you can substitute any dried fruit/nut)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups of rolled oats, old fashions

1 cup of toasted walnuts, chopped

1 cup of dried tart cherries, chopped coarse

4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate (I used TJ's 72% dark Belgium chocolate)

12 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar (I actually only used 1 cup and they turned out just fine)

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
   

2. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a second bowl, combine oats, pecans, cherries, and chocolate.

3. If you are lucky enough to have a standing mixer, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until no sugar lumps remain, about 1 minute. (Otherwise, if you're like me and lacking this miraculous device, you'll have to do this one by hand). Add egg and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Gradually add in oat/nut mixture.

4. Roll dough into balls about 1-1 1/2 inch in diameter; stagger on each baking sheet. Press down to flatten out dough to about 1 inch thickness
   

5. Cover baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake 12 minutes, until edges are brown and middle looks a bit underbaked.
   

The cookies turned out great (as always). The original recipe called for pretty large cookies, but I made them closer to 3 inches in diameter. They taste almost like granola bars (granola bars that my mom would have never sent me to school with). We had a great time last night hanging out with Jamie's grad student friends, but the best part was watching one of the German grad students, who claims to "hate" american cookies, gobble down at least 4 of these things.

Lessons Learned:
1. Even when we bring cookies to a friend's house, Jamie still manages to eat more than his fair share. I would have probably been in the same situation, but I already ate my fair share of cookie dough =)
2. I really want a Kitchen aid stand mixer. This is the #1 reason why I would like to get married someday. I wish I were kidding about this.
3. The recipe calls for much larger cookies (about 4-5 inches in diameter cooked). I found those to be a bit too big the last time I made them, so tried smaller cookies (2-3 inches in diameter) this time. Something in the middle would probably work best (you'll have to cook this a bit longer if you make larger cookies).

In other news, Jamie promised that he would blog about his sweet potato/black bean burger creation, so hopefully you'll see his first blog post coming up soon.

Laura

Pretty Pretty Quinoa

Quinoa is amazing.

We first tried it this summer as a mechanism for dealing with the loads of vegetables we were receiving in our CSA. Lesson #1 for tonight: Sauteed vegetables+ quinoa= an excellent, nutritious meal. Big chef Jamie usually adds a fair amount of cheese which makes it a little more excellent but perhaps a bit less nutritious.


Our favorite go to quinoa recipes are:
Fitness Magazine's Greek Quinoa with Avocados

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn squash- we usually use walnuts and raisins to make a variation of the recipe found here.

But since it's already 7pm and we still want to get to the gym tonight, I thought some type of quinoa salad using the ingredients we have on hand would make an easy and delicious dinner. The meal took about 20 minutes to put together. I (Laura) will once again be playing the role of Big Chef tonight.

Quick note: I've been told that you should rinse or toast the quinoa before cooking it to get rid of the bitter taste. Usually when I try rinsing it, half ends up in the sink, so tonight I tried toasting it for a minute before adding the water.

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup water
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 diced red pepper
1/2 cup shredded fresh spinach
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions
Cook quinoa according to package directions. In a pan lightly saute red pepper and onions, add garlic and cook for 1 minute longer. Stir together quinoa, tomatoes, spinach, garlic, red pepper and onion. Mix in lemon juice, oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with feta.

Lessons learned:
1. Quinoa really is the key to a successful "everything I see" approach to cooking. That is, when I am too lazy to go to the store, and have a random assortment of vegetables to get through, I can rely on quinoa to make a comprehensive meal.
2. I feel better after eating a lighter quinoa meal than I did after half a pan of enchiladas.

Alright, it's gym time.

Laura