Thursday, May 25, 2006

Recipes, Please

OK, kids. Everyone should put a recipe in the comments - something you like to make. (It doesn't have to be at all fancy.) I'll put something in there soon myself.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

My favorite snack is

1 grated apple mixed with grated carrot and a tablespoon of grated fresh ginger. To get fancier: add a scoop of vanilla yogurt and a dusting of grated nutmeg.

It's easy to have fresh grated ginger on hand -- peel and grate a whole bunch and then put it all in a jar. Cover with dry sherry -- it keeps forever in the fridge.

And I cheat and buy the carrots already grated - they're wonderful in soup.
And they keep a long time in the bag.

Leigh

Anonymous said...

Oh, and since I'm avoiding work -- here's another one that's good

Drain and chop one glass jar of mango slices.

Saute a small onion in a bit of olive oil or water. Add the mango slices and one small can of petite diced tomatos. Add a bag of Neils Mushroom flavored vege meat balls. Simmer with 1/2 cup chopped dates until the meatballs are hot.

Serve on brown rice or as a soup.

Leigh

Tam said...

OK, here is mine. Easy tostadas:

Chop up half of an onion, or a whole onion, and cook it in some olive oil in a skillet. (I use about 1 tsp of olive oil, but you can use more if you like.)

Drain and rinse a can of black or pinto beans and add them to the pan. Use a potato masher to mash the beans. You may need to add a bit of water to get everything to the right texture.

Season the bean mixture with chili powder or a packet of taco seasoning. Crushed red pepper is good if you like spicy.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 or so and put in 4 or 5 corn tortillas on a baking sheet. In about 5 minutes, they'll be crispy. (Look for them to just start getting brown.)

Top the tortillas with the mashed beans. Add shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes, salsa, and/or lettuce if you have those things available.

This takes about 15 minutes and makes enough food for two people (or one person if you like to eat a lot of tostadas).

Anonymous said...

I've been trying to think of something that I like to make that qualifies as a recipe and I already gave you my spaghetti recipe, so the obvious remaining answer is pancakes. Too complicated to fit your cooking philosophy, except for the part where they save pretty well.

I spent a long time looking for a good pancake recipe that didn't taste like biscuits turned into pancakes but instead were light, fluffy, and yummy enough to eat with just butter. Sally, these also don't absorb all the syrup in the universe. Even Robin likes these.

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

2 ripe mashed bananas
1 egg
1/2 cup yogurt (I use fat-free)
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
3 T vegetable oil
1 cup flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Mash bananas in large bowl. Add egg, yogurt, milk, vanilla, and oil and mix.

Measure flour and drop it in a mound in the same bowl. Measure the other dry ingredients and add them to the top of the mound. Mix the dry ingredients together as best you can without getting the fork wet. (This is so you don't get all the baking soda in one pocket or something.) Then mix it all together.

Add the chocolate chips and mix.

Spray a nonstick pan with a thin layer of oil and heat over moderate heat (or heat a greased nonstick electric griddle to 325 degrees). Pan or griddle is ready when a drop of water sprinkled on it sizzles.

Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to spoon batter into the pan. When the edges start to dry and bubbles appear, flip the pancake over. When the other side is golden-brown, too, remove from pan.

Serve warm with your favorite toppings.

**

For plain pancakes, leave out the bananas and chocolate chips and add 1/4 cup of milk.

I make a double batch. They do tend to stick together when you save them in the fridge, but otherwise they work. I used to use two pans so it would go more quickly; now I use Robin's electric griddle.

These pancakes are good whether you cook them just barely enough not to be raw or whether they end up a very dark brown. I've also tried all kinds of substitutions successfully. In fact the recipe above is full of substitutions from the original recipe, but this is easier and healthier. So it's a nice flexible recipe.

Anonymous said...

Okay, this one is much quicker.

Eggs and Sausage

1 link of Morningstar Farms vegetarian sausage
1 egg
1 tsp milk
sharp cheese

Take the sausage link out of the freezer and microwave it for 30 seconds. Meanwhile, spray a small nonstick pan with a thin layer of oil.

Cut the sausage into tiny pieces and let the pieces fall into the pan. Put the pan on the stove over low heat. Meanwhile, break and egg and mix it with a little milk.

By now the pan will probably be making sizzling noises. Stir the sausage around and pour in the egg mixture. Part of the egg will cook instantly. Push that part away from the edges.

While the rest is cooking, pull out the cheese and give it about three passes against the cheese grater so the cheese lands on the plate. Stir the eggs so they finish cooking. Then set them on top of the cheese so you get some cheese on every bite. (You could sprinkle the cheese on top, but that uses an extra dish or takes extra time. You could mix it up in the pan, but then it's harder to taste such a small quantity.)

Pour a small glass of juice and now you have a nice snack or small meal.