Broccoli side

This photo has nothing to do with my recipe, but it's so cute. I want to enjoy my broccoli as much as this little hamster.

I went to a friend's pot luck party a few weeks ago and someone had sautéed broccoli that was out of this world! Since my CSA is now distributing broccoli, I went to look for a recipe. I didn't find much that didn't have some kind of cheese sauce, so I experimented with this idea.

Sautéed Broccoli

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp minced garlic

chili powder

crushed red pepper

grill seasoning, such as GrillMate

1 head broccoli

Steam broccoli first with either a steam basket over boiling water or in the microwave. After water starts to boil I let broccoli steam about 5 minutes or until broccoli is bright green and tender.

Add oil to skillet and turn stove to medium heat. Make sure oil is hot before adding broccoli or the florets will absorb too much of the oil. Sauté garlic first until golden and add broccoli. Season with chili powder, red pepper and grill seasoning. I used a grill seasoning intended for steaks, but it doesn't have any animal product so it is still vegetarian. The grill seasoning adds a lot of flavor without added oils or ingredients. Sauté broccoli until starts to brown.

I served this dish inside a vegetarian burrito and fish tacos, but you can have it on it's own. I also served it over rice pilaf for a very light dinner. This is my new favorite side dish! Plain vegetable sides are difficult for me because I want massive flavor and, of course, I want to add cheese to everything. This side dish is good because it is so flavorful and works stand-alone.

If you have other ideas for this broccoli side please post! I would love to hear ideas from you too!

Light Carrot Cake

Because of a grocery store mishap I found myself with a ton of carrots and no planned meals for them. Carrots are a rock star on the vegetable list, although I don't care for them much, so I needed to find a way to use them. Racheal Ray has a reader recipe section and recently came out with a great carrot cake recipe.

Carrot cake is not the worst cake for you, but it does have a lot of sugar and oil. This recipe substitutes the texture and juice with pineapple for a lot of the oil. The sour cream also helps to enrich this cake without having to depend on fats as much. I was able to substitute Greek yogurt for sour cream inside the cake, but the icing definitely requires real sour cream. Daisy makes a good lite sour cream.

Light Carrot Cake

2 big carrots, cleaned and shredded

1/2 cup pineapple (4oz can, drained)

1/2 cup walnuts (toasted are better but you can use raw)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream ( or 1/4 cup yogurt and 1/4 cup sour cream)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

ground cloves

ground cinnamon

ground ginger

3 tbsp butter, room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

If you are toasting your nuts, preheat oven at 400 degrees and toast nuts for 7-10 minutes. As soon as you smell them, take them out of the oven or they will burn. I skin my carrots before shredding them to get as much of the moist carrot as I can plus you get the cleaner carrot. Mix nuts with pineapple and carrot.

Mix flour, baking ingredients and spices. Recipes always underwhelm me with spices, so I don't use measurements for spices in my recipe. Average about 1/2 tsp, but I sprinkle until I get a good color in the flour mix. I don't believe you can over-spice carrot cake, but my sister has a great story about confusing 1/4 tsp of cloves for 1/4 cup of ground cloves. Those were some black cookies.

In a large mixing bowl cream sugar with 1/4 c sour cream, oil, vanilla and egg. Stir in carrot mix and then flour mixture. I made this cake in my new bunt pan for a prettier presentation, but you can also use a regular cake pan. Bake on 350 for 55 minutes. Be sure the cake is cooled before trying to get it out of the pan.

When mixing the icing, be sure that the butter is soft. The butter and sour cream (1/4 c.) will dissolve the sugar so be patient when trying to get a cream consistency. Let cake cool before pouring the icing on the cake. I kept the icing in a separate container to use later. The cake will stay moist for most of a week.

Gorgonzola Grits

There is a family tradition in my house that mostly focuses on the men: Dijon chicken and Gorgonzola grits. I was told it was a Williams-Sonoma recipe, but then I thought it was a Cooking Light recipe, but now I think it is just a Ross-family recipe. I may not be able to afford the kitchen tools, but W-S has some great recipes for those of you looking to expand your recipe base.

These grits are very fancy and almost take the Southern out of grits, but they are worth sharing because I think they are good enough to stand alone or match with other vegetarian dishes since they are so flavorful. Cooking Light also has a goat cheese grits recipe for those of you stinky-cheese lovers like me.

Gorgonzola Grits

4-5 packets of instant grits, butter flavor

1 bullion cube, chicken or vegetable

4 oz gorgonzola cheese (about half the carton)

4-5 green onions, whites and greens separated

1/3 cup sour cream (don't substitute Greek yogurt)

coarse salt and pepper

Cook grits according to package instructions but add bullion cube to water being used. Stir in cheese, sour cream and white onions until smooth. Season with salt (very little since cheese will supplement a lot of the salt) and pepper. Let grits sit for a bit until set. Serve grits with green chives for garnish.

I usually serve this with chicken, but you can also make it a filling side for a brunch or substitute for creamy polenta or potatoes for a richer side dish. Please post some more ideas. I love this side and want to use it for more vegetarian meals.

UPDATE: another foodie has posted a recipe for fried green tomatoes over cheesy grits. She used goat cheese but I think either of these recipes would go great with fried tomatoes. Check our her blog - she has some great recipes and even better photos of her meals.

Southern Tomato Pie

Sorry to those of you who are getting a repeat of this recipe. I meant to post this at a later date i.e. today.

This is the only Paula Deen recipe I have ever made, but it is a big hit. To be honest, I've never had a bite of it myself, but I constantly bring it to pot luck dinners and it is a big talk among guests, so I trust their judgment. Just be sure to bring more than - one pie feeds about six people.

I am not going to even try to play this off as a healthy, vegetarian side dish. However, there are some things you can do to cut back on the amount of calories you add to this party favor.

Tomato Pie

2-3 large tomatoes
1 bunch fresh basil leaves
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 refrigerated pie shell, such as Pillsbury
1 cup grated white cheese
1 cup grated cheddar
1 cup lite mayonnaise, such as Kraft Olive Oil or Smart Balance (NOT Miracle Whip)
coarse salt and pepper

I highly recommend buying your tomatoes at your local farmer's market or getting them from your garden. This recipe does not do well with tough, white tomatoes. You do want to seed your tomatoes, although I didn't skin them as the recipe recommends. Cut off about one inch of the bottom of your tomato and take a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds. If you are using several tomatoes-on-the-vine or Romas you can just squeeze and work the seeds out with your hand.

Roll out your pie dough into a 9-inch pie pan. I have used the frozen pie dish for this recipe, but it doesn't work as well. Stab dough with a fork and bake for 8 minutes at 350 degrees.

When choosing mayonnaise, do not assume that low fat means "just as acceptable". I will promote Kraft products all day, but you cannot cook with Miracle Whip. I'm not even sure what it is. Duke's makes a great mayonnaise, but I cannot justify the calories. You can make your own from Martha or a lite recipe, but I haven't tried that yet. As soon as we get our chickens and have more eggs than we know what to do with I will let you know how the mayonnaise turns out. The best reduced-fat mayonnaise I have cooked with is Kraft's Mayo with Olive Oil with half the fat and calories but all the 'body' of full-fat mayo.

When choosing your cheese, you can have a lot of power over cutting back calories. Nurtrition Action found that low-fat Cobot and low-fat Sorrento are the best low-fat cheese that still include nutrition. For this recipe I used 75% less-fat Cobot white cheddar and Sorrento low-fat mild cheddar. Paula Deen's recipe calls for mozzarella, which Sorrento makes in low-fat as well. Amounts will vary, apparently. In my kitchen laboratory 8 oz is one cup. But when you buy the shredded cheese packages, 8 oz is two cups. I start with one cup mayonnaise and mix cheese until well blended, no more than 16 oz total. Season with coarse salt and pepper and let sit.

Layer slices of tomato into the bottom of the baked pie crust. After each layer spread basil leaves and green onions over tomato before adding another layer. I could only put two full layers into the pie dish before it started to get too full, but you may have a lot more room if you are using smaller tomatoes. If you feel your basil is not being spread enough across the pie, use some dried basil. I forgot the green onions the last time I made this, which didn't seem to make a difference in taste. I love onions, but if you are without don't feel the need to make an extra trip to the market to buy them.

Cover your sliced tomatoes with the mayo-cheese spread. Bake for 30 minutes. Turn oven to broil and keep an eye on your pie until the cheese starts to brown, within 3 minutes. Do not eat this pie alone; you must have company to help you.

Vegetable Pad Thai (Quick Meal)

This is a recipe I found in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. I was actually somewhat disappointed in the description of "vegetable" which only consists of three scallions. So we had to fix that.

Continuing my excitement over my CSA vegetables, I picked up a pound of pak choi, which is a kind of baby bok choy with more leafy greens and less stalk. They could be related, but I am not sure. I also picked up some summer onions, which look like over-sized green onions. The ones I picked up even came in red onion. So cute. So this was my first real CSA dinner.

Vegetable Pad Thai

8 oz (half a box) of linguine pasta or flat rice noodles

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 bunch spring onions (more or less depending on the size)

1 tsp garlic or one minced garlic clove

1 pint whole mushrooms

2 eggs, beaten

1 lb bok choy or pak choi (about 2), lightly chopped

cilantro

cashews or peanuts, roasted and salted

Wisk together brown sugar, lime juice and soy sauce and let sit. Boil pasta or noodles until aldente. Drain and keep covered to retain moisture and heat.

Heat oil in skillet and add garlic and onions. I used six spring onions and about 4 scallions I had leftover in the fridge. I had a good bunch of onions. Trader Joes sells huge scallions so you can get a lot of onion from those too. The State Farmer's Market sells big spring onions as well.

Stem and half the mushrooms. A trick a friend told me was to keep the mushrooms rather big so they have a meatier texture to them. Add mushrooms to pan and sauté. Once vegetables look soft add beaten eggs and slowly stir until eggs are almost set, maybe 30 seconds. Remove vegetables from pan and keep in a bowl. Add another tsp of oil to pan and add leafy bok choy to pan. I did not chop very deep into the root so I had just the tender leaves. Sauté until vegetables are reduced to 1/3 original size. Add bok choy to vegetable bowl.

Add warm pasta to pan and pour soy sauce mix over pasta, mixing well. Make sure pasta is coated with sauce and add vegetables back to pan. Mix thoroughly but remove from heat quickly. Leaving the meal on stove top too long will dry out the pasta. Serve with roasted nuts and cilantro. I don't keep peanuts in the house (one of the few nuts/legumes I don't keep in stock), but I did have cashews, which I think matched the meal better.

I have seen versions of pad thai with chicken and shrimp. You can also garnish with chives from your green onions, but I think that is a tad too much onion for me. I thought the mushrooms and the eggs gave this meal a meaty taste. I was really surprised how much I liked it. I only made it because pak choi was with my CSA and it looked like it would be a good add-in.

Not to mention how fast this meal takes. I was rushing to cook for some company coming in and it was done in 15-20 minutes. The pasta took the longest at 9 minutes. Everything else sautés fast and then you just mix.

Yummy Fish Tacos

YEA! I got my cholesterol results back and I am finally under 200. My good cholesterol rose two points, and I dropped from 162 to 107 in bad cholesterol without prescription pills! Thank you yummy vegetarian meals.

If any of you are vegans, you are probably not going to appreciate my "vegetarian" fish tacos. But these little tacos have so much filling, you don't need the fish to enjoy. I also recently found a friend's "pure vegetarian" blog for those of you who are hard-core veggies.

Fish tacos was a foreign concept to me five years ago. And when I say "foreign" I mean Californian, where I had my first taste at seafood Mexican. Since then I have been very attracted to this dish. Cheesecake Factory (several locations), Black Cat Burrito (Boone) and Cafe Capistrano (Raleigh) are the best restaurant fish tacos I have had to date. But these tender tacos are easy enough to make at home.

I first made fish tacos from Martha's Stewart's recipe. I have since made a few adjustments based on the other taco experiences I have had.

Fish Tacos

1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1/4 small red cabbage, thinly shredded
1 lb tilapia or other firm fish (I find tilapia on better sales than most other fish)

1 jalapeno, cut in half

2 tsp olive oil

1 can refried beans or homemade beans

1 box Spanish rice (optional)

6 inch corn or whole wheat toritillas

favorite salsa (tropical varieties taste best e.g. peach or pineapple)

Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Mix sour cream, lime juice and spices together and let sit. Slowly add sour cream mix to cabbage until you have a consistency you like, but don't drown your food. Cut tilapia in half long ways. Heat refried beans in a small pot with 1/4 cup of water or make your own. Make boxed rice according to package instructions. Add oil to hot pan and add jap pepper. Push pepper around to get pan flavored with the spice. Add fish to pan and sear, turning once, until fish is done. Depending on the thickness of the fish, this will not take very long.

Steam tortillas in a damp hand towl for one minute. Layer tortilla with beans, fish, rice (if using) and slaw. Top with salsa and pepitas. You might learn now that 6 inch tortilla is not going to hold a lot of these fillers, so be sparing.

This taco recipe also goes well with cut pork chops and shredded chicken.

Mother's Day Brunch

It's the North Carolina primary. Don't forget to vote today!

I actually made this on Easter Sunday, but it was so amazing I had to share for those wonderful adult children who want to make their mothers a fabulous, meatless breakfast.

Martha Stewart's Spinach and Gruyere Quiche

I have not yet picked up my deep dish pie plate, so I normally have to reduce the contents of my quiche. I used only 1/2 red onion - you can probably still use three shallots, but I already had a red onion. I used one bag of spinach - I am not sure what a bunch is unless I'm at the Farmer's market. I only bought 4 oz of cheese instead of 8 oz, but since I reduced so much of my ingredients it worked out better. I only used six (6) eggs and 1.5 cup of half-n-half (organic, of course).

I do not make pie crust. Some people have this fabulous way of making the most desirable pie crust. I am not that person. I buy Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust and it tastes the same as all others I could make. I have also been known to buy the frozen deep dish pie crusts if I do need more. It's all the same to me. You will not be able to buy low fat pie crusts, so don't even try. You can reduce your calories by what you put in it instead.

A few tips here:

When wilting your spinach, do about 1/2 the bag at a time. When the spinach is wilted, lift the pan and tilt away from you so that the liquid falls to the other side. Take a spoon and pull the spinach towards the edge of the pan closest to you, draining the liquid. Then just spill the spinach onto a cutting board. It doesn't waste paper towels. Pour out the liquid before moving to the second half of the bag. Chop spinach after wilted.

You want to saute all your vegetables and let them cool in the bowl before adding the eggs. I hate when I add eggs to hot foods and it cooks the egg. Not pretty presentation. Add the half-n-half first to cool the vegies before whisking in your eggs. I like my whole eggs, but for those of us (myself included) who need to be more conscious of cholesterol, substitute egg whites for a few of the eggs. You will not get as firm a quiche using egg whites, so I suggest only substituting two eggs.

Fruit Skewers

This is not much of a recipe, but its a beautiful presentation. Take your favorite colorful fruits; I used strawberries, green grapes, pineapple and kiwi. Buy a few days before to make sure that all fruit is ripe. Prep fruits e.g. wash and haul strawberries, skin kiwi, etc.

Take wood or metal skewers (ask your grilling partner to borrow some or buy the wooden ones for cheap at your grocery). Just be careful that you do not buy "seasoned" skewers. Most likely they are not flavored with seasonings that complement fruit. Layer different color fruits together to create a rainbow pattern. I alternated green fruits with red strawberries and yellow pineapple.

Other Sides

I made Martha's Angel Biscuits with black strap molasses. Beware, the biscuits take 2 hours to chill so make them in advance. I would also suggest a yummy chicken sausage for our meat eaters. Trader Joes has an awesome selection. Martha also suggests a nice bibb lettuce salad for my super-healthy readers. I couldn't get my food audience to go along with that, but maybe mama will. I hope your mother feels special today!