Soba Salad with Chicken and Cabbage

Posted on by Sarah

Can we just raise a collective cheer for weeknight dinners that are fast, easy, tasty, healthy, and relatively inexpensive? My list of meals that fit all those criteria is pretty short. These last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy in my life, so finding healthy dinners I can whip up easily has taken top priority. The beginning of May is always a little extra busy in our family, since two of my kids have early May birthdays, but this year there’s been the added crunch of trying to finish up this semester’s courses toward my nutrition degree and preparing to head to the Nutrition and Health Conference in Dallas this Sunday (which I’m super excited about and plan to blog about soon!). So basically fast and easy are my best friends right now in all areas of life.

Fortunately, I happened to place this soba chicken salad on the roster of dinners for this week. As a perpetual fan of Real Simple‘s cookbooks, I’ve been working my way through this one that I got for Christmas and had been meaning to try this recipe for some time. I’m glad I finally did–it’s one of those one-dish meals that’s perfect for a weeknight when you’re slammed. With chicken for protein, noodles for starch, and cabbage and carrots for vegetables, you’re set. The sweet and sour dressing of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and ginger gives it a mild Asian flavor that even my kids enjoyed.

So sayonara for now–look for a post next week on all the cool stuff I’m expecting to learn at the Nutrition and Health Conference!

Soba Salad with Chicken and Cabbage
(Adapted from Real Simple)

Ingredients:

8 oz. soba noodles
8 small chicken tenderloins
salt and black pepper
6 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil, divided
3 Tbsp. rice vinegar
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
3 c. shredded red cabbage
1 large carrot, shredded
6 scallions, sliced

Directions:

1. Cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain and run under cold water to cool.

2. Meanwhile, season the chicken with salt and pepper to your liking.

3. Heat 3 Tbsp. of the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken until golden brown and cooked through. Cut into strips.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining 3 Tbsp. of oil, the vinegar, soy sauce, and ginger. Add the noodles, chicken, cabbage, carrot, and scallions and toss.

Serves 4.

Spinach Lasagna

Posted on by Sarah

Doncha just love the Internet? Where else can you find so many useful “true facts” about anything you desire, including your favorite foods? Like this gem about spinach:

Who knew? Little-known facts: spinach also gives you increased resistance to awkward conversations at parties, superior hopping ability at Q-Bert (arcade version only) and temporary bioluminescence. I swear it’s true; I read it on the Internet.

The obsession over connecting individual foods with highly specific health benefits can get a little excessive–especially when the marketing touts a benefit that’s totally obvious and/or off-topic. Milk with a gluten-free sticker affixed. “Apples: a naturally fat-free food!” “Cheerios: may help lower cholesterol.” (Um, since cholesterol only occurs in animal products, doesn’t any non-animal product food lower your cholesterol?) I might as well walk around wearing a sign that reads “Will not give you a skunk as a pet.” I won’t, but that’s sort of irrelevant to who I am as a person.

Incidentally, the typical association most of us have with spinach–that it’s high in iron–actually stems (pun intended) from a recording error German chemist Erich von Wolf made when analyzing the vegetable’s nutrition content. Von Wolf misplaced a decimal point, accidentally recording that spinach contained 35 milligrams of iron per serving, rather than 3.5. The error went unchecked and persisted to such a degree that amidst the creation of the super-strong cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man, studio executives suggested he should have a propensity for spinach. The rest is history: the myth of the elevated iron content of spinach persists to this day.

In reality, of course certain foods benefit particular aspects of health, and it’s not wrong to eat them with this in mind. Spinach, while not the world’s iron panacea, does contain a respectable 21% of your recommended daily iron intake in a 100 gram serving. More impressively, it’s an excellent source of Vitamin A, folate, Vitamin K, and manganese. Still, from my point of view, for most people seeking merely to eat a balanced diet, an overly fussy fixation on which foods supply which nutrients is unnecessary. Eat (healthily), drink (healthily), and be merry (healthily)… And if you happen to want to eat spinach (which you should because it’s good for you in general), why not try this delicious spinach lasagna? I’ve made it numerous times for dinner guests and plates are consistently cleaned. Though, to my knowledge, no one has gone on to breathe underwater.

Spinach Lasagna
(Slightly adapted from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 10-oz. packages frozen chopped spinach
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried basil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
32 oz. spaghetti sauce
1 1/2 c. water
2 c. cottage cheese
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. dried parsley
1 scant tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 egg
8 oz. lasagna noodles, uncooked

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large pot over medium heat, sauté spinach, onion, oregano, basil, and garlic in the olive oil until spinach is completely thawed. Pour in spaghetti sauce and water; simmer 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix cottage cheese, mozzarella, Parmesan, parsley, salt, pepper, and egg.

3. In a 9 x 13 glass dish, layer as follows from bottom to top:

Sauce (bottom)
Noodles
Sauce
Noodles
Cheese Mixture
Sauce
Noodles
Cheese Mixture
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce (top)

(or some variation thereof that uses all your sauce and cheese mixture)

4. Cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake another 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Posted on by Sarah

Easter is almost here! Just one more day until we’ll be celebrating the resurrection of Christ by hiding eggs and digging into colorful baskets of goodies (wait, what?). I’ve always felt that Easter should be my favorite holiday. After all, spiritually speaking, as a Christian, it’s the centerpiece of my faith–Christ’s death to redeem the world followed by His triumph over the grave. Just thinking about that gets me excited. But I am, of course, a product of my culture and my generation, and Christmas has always taken the gold as Holiday #1 in my heart. Still, the older I get, the more I appreciate Easter–both its spiritual significance and its laid-backness as compared to the frenzy of Christmas.

This year, as I did during the Christmas season, I’ve been considering ways to combat the excesses of this holiday. No, it’s not as commercialized as Christmas, but it’s always nice to simplify where you can. From the non-biodegradable Easter grass that gets everywhere to the pointless junk the grocery stores want you to put in your kids’ Easter baskets, there are a lot of things our family could do without. So this year, here are a few changes I made to make our Easter just a little more moderate and eco-friendly:

  • used shredded colored printer paper instead of purchasing Easter grass. In fact, I did this last year and kept the shredded paper in the kids’ baskets in the garage. Work involved: ZERO!
  • didn’t buy anything non-consumable for my kids’ Easter baskets (just candy and egg-shaped sidewalk chalk)
  • bought my daughter’s Easter dress second-hand (for $6, thanks, Love Child!)
  • homemade one of the candies for the kids’ baskets

The homemade candies were–you guessed it–these chocolate peanut butter cups. And my kids are lucky that I only made them yesterday, because I tell you, one more day and these things would not have made it to Easter. They are absolutely decadent. So even though Easter is tomorrow, it’s not too late for the Easter bunny (aka Mom) to make a quick batch of these–for the kids or for herself!

Happy Easter!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

(Inspired by Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 11.5-oz. bag milk chocolate chips, divided
3/4 c. creamy peanut butter
1/3 c. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. crushed graham crackers
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1. Lightly grease a 12-cup mini muffin pan. (Or 2 pans–the recipe yielded 15 peanut butter cups for me.)

2. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave about 2/3 of the chocolate chips in 30-second intervals until melted. Spoon melted chocolate into mini muffin cups, filling halfway. Use the spoon or a small spatula to draw the chocolate up the sides of the muffin cups. (It helps to let the chocolate cool slightly before doing this to keep it from sliding down.) Refrigerate until firm.

3. In a medium bowl, mix together peanut butter, powdered sugar, crushed graham crackers, salt, and vanilla. Divide into chocolate cups.

4. Melt remaining chocolate and cover peanut butter mixture, spreading to the edges.

5. Refrigerate until firm. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Makes about 15 peanut butter cups.

Ready to go in Easter baskets!

Crab Quiche

Posted on by Sarah

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook? Mac and cheese? Scrambled eggs? BLTs? Weird as it may sound, one of the first things I ever learned to cook was quiche. Growing up, it was a dinner dish my mom frequently made–a deviation from her ’80s Illinoisan repertoire of baked chicken, spaghetti, and meatloaf. To this day, I’m not sure how this traditional French fare infiltrated her Midwestern meal planning, but I am the beneficiary of its presence there. From early on in my marriage when I first started cooking, I had an index card with her recipe for a chicken-spinach-mushroom variety on it and used it often. In the last ten years, I’ve expanded from there. To date, I’ve tried…

  • broccoli quiche
  • quiche lorraine
  • bacon-asparagus quiche
  • tomato-mozzarella-basil quiche
  • ham and parsley quiche
  • crab quiche
  • and probably other less successful versions I don’t remember.

Basically, if you have a pie crust, eggs, and cheese, you can whip up a quiche. Add what you like, take out what you like–easy dinner, boom! Or easy lunch. Or easy breakfast. Or easy brunch. For this crab quiche, you quite likely have all the ingredients except the crab (unless you’re one of those crab stockpilers you see on reality TV: “Coming this June to TLC…Crab Hoarders of Maricopa County.”) If you’re a crab hoarder, you’re gonna LOVE this one. And even if you’re not a crab hoarder, give it a try. With its mild crab taste, it’s a great way to work some omega 3-rich seafood into your diet even if you’re not crazy about seafood.

Crab Quiche
(Slightly adapted from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1/2 c. mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
dash hot sauce
1/2 c. milk
6 oz. lump crab meat (drained, if from a can)
1 1/4 c. your choice of shredded cheese (I’d recommend a Swiss or a cheddar blend)
1/2 c. chopped green onions
1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, beat together mayonnaise, flour, eggs, garlic powder, hot sauce, and milk until thoroughly combined. Stir in crab, cheese, and onion. Pour into pie shell.

3. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Maple Orange Creamsicle Granita

Posted on by Sarah

As I’ve mentioned before, when it’s citrus season in Arizona, there’s no escaping the hordes of oranges, lemons, and grapefruit that go rolling through the streets like the eleventh plague of Egypt (but, you know, the good kind of plague). This past week, I once again found myself in possession of a superabundance of oranges.

I’ll tell you why.

As a nutrition student, I’ve made it my project to volunteer for a local nonprofit called Save the Family by participating in their sack lunch program. Once a month, I make 15-20 sack lunches for the attendees of their many programs (GED classes, career training, etc.). It’s a great way to volunteer from home on my own time. Plus, it has to do with food! (And if you live in the Phoenix area, I encourage you to get involved!) For the month of March, my Meetup group with the longest name in Meetup.com history–the East Valley Catholic Stay-at-Home Moms–was looking for something to do for our semiannual service project. We ended up settling on providing 50 sack lunches for Save the Family, with each mom supplying one item to go in the lunches. As it turned out, one of the ladies got a friend with an orange tree to donate oranges….lots and lots of oranges. Even after packing the 50 sack lunches AND having my husband take a bag of oranges to give away at work, I still had a dozen oranges squeaking around in the fruit crisper in my fridge. What to do, what to do?

Here’s what to do! Make orange granita with an unusual twist. This is one of the few recipes I’ve found that actually uses up more than a single orange at a time. It knocked out six of those bad boys. Yessssssss! From the first time I made granita, I’ve been a fan–it’s such a fun, versatile (not to mention low calorie) dessert. This version combines tangy orange juice with a maple-cinnamon cream for a sophisticated version of the Creamsicle. (There is such a thing, right?) All in all a unique, refreshing warm weather treat for those of us who are experiencing Citrus March Madness (and 97 degree days in April).

Maple Orange Creamsicle Granita

(Adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

2 c. fresh-squeezed orange juice (from about 5 large oranges)
5 Tbsp. maple syrup, divided
1/2 c. Greek yogurt
Dash cinnamon
1 large orange, peel and pith removed and flesh divided into segments

Directions:

1. Stir 2 Tbsp. of maple syrup into orange juice. Transfer to a shallow 1.5 quart dish. Freeze 2 hours, stirring and scraping with a fork every 30 minutes.

2. When ready to serve, combine yogurt, remaining 3 Tbsp. maple syrup, and cinnamon and divide between four bowls or small Mason jars. Using a fork, scrape granita into flaky crystals and place on top of yogurt mixture. Top with orange segments.

Serves 4.