From my crappy kitchen

The Times likes brown rice, you should too

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:35:47 -0500

The Times likes brown rice, you should too

This is my new crappy kitchen. The heat doesn’t work in my...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:42:00 -0500

This is my new crappy kitchen. The heat doesn’t work in my apartment, and I just learned how to use the oven last week. But there is a lovely gas stove, and I’m within walking distance to campus.

Shrimp scampi

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:57:20 -0500

Another crowd-of-one pleasing dish. I had to prove that I can turn frozen seafood into a delectable dish, and I think I won. This is my play on traditional shrimp scampi

Paprika shrimp scampi with linguini (2 servings)
1/2 pound of frozen, uncooked shrimp, devained (or fresh if you have the option!)
2 tbsps butter (don’t skimp on scampi)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tbsp paprika
2 tsps dried basil
2 tbsps freshly ground pepper
pepper to taste

Half a package of linguini or angel hair pasta
1/4 cup parmesan
1 tbsp olive oil
more pepper to taste

Start by thawing the shrimp in a collander. Run cold water over the shrimp (hot will cook the shrimp). Once they are thawed, remove the shells. You can leave the tails on, but I like to remove them so it’s easier to eat with the pasta. Saute the butter until it’s melted and add the garlic. Once the garlic is fragrant, stir in the paprika, basil and pepper. Then coat the shrimp in the paprika butter and saute for about two to three minutes on each side until the shrimp is pink and cooked all the way thru.

Cook the pasta according to package instructions and toss with pepper, olive oil and parmesan. Serve the scampi in a bed of pasta and garnish with extra parmesan and basil. Enjoy! (Goes best with white wine).

Creamy sun-dried tomato gnocchi

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:57:13 -0500

I whipped up this dish for a romantic dinner in. I used wheat potato gnocchi and store-bought tomato sauce, but it still turned out great.

Potato gnocchi with sun-dried tomato sauce (2 servings)
1 package wheat potato gnocchi (or original depending on your preferences)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, chopped
1 cup tomato pasta sauce
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup grated parmesan, plus extra for garnish
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Cook the gnocchi according to package instructions. They only take a couple minutes to cook. (I over-cooked mine.) Saute the garlic in olive oil until fragrant and add the sun-dried tomatoes. Saute for three to five minutes and add tomato sauce. Once the sauce simmers, add the gnocchi and then the cheese. Serve with extra parmesan.

As always, my boyfriend Michael was extremely impressed that I pulled together a random meal in less than 30 minutes.

Cooking With A Kay

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:43:03 -0400

Cooking With A Kay:

This summer, I am interning at the Grand Island Independent in Grand Island, Neb. Cooking With A Kay is my weekly food column. Check in out at theindependent.com.

Flatbread pizza

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:41:13 -0400

So, I have this cooking philosophy. Women put effort into mixing and matching their outfits, so they don’t have to buy a completely different outfit for each day while still keeping their wardrobe unique and interesting from day to day. I apply the same concept to food. This recipe is a great example how one week’s food can be rearranged into many different meals. This week I made veggie wraps, and tonight I’m turning in the left-over vegetables to flatbread pizzas. (Check out my California vegetable wrap recipe. I pretty much use all the same ingredients plus tomato sauce, parmesan and oregano.)

1 flatbread (I used a sun-dried tomato flatbread)
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic
1/2 cup spinach
1 roma tomato
1/4 cup sliced bell peppers
1/2 cup portobello mushroom
1 tsp oregano
2 tbsp fat free cream cheese
1/2 cup cheese (I used cheddar, but any shredded cheese would work.)
1/4 cup parmesan

Saute garlic in olive oil. Once fragrant, add mushrooms and cook until soft and a little browned. Add tomato and saute until garlic is softened. Add tomato sauce, spinach and oregano. Cook until the spinach is wilted. Spread the cream cheese onto the flat bread, top w/ the sauce and veggie mixture and sprinkle w/ parmesan and cheese. Bake at 400 degrees until the cheese in melted and the crust is crispy. Not the healthiest recipe with all the cheese, but delicious and perfect for pizza and beer night.

Veggie fajitas

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:04:34 -0400

1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp mined garlic
1 cup bell pepper (any color) sliced thinly
1 roma tomato
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp taco seasoning
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tortilla
taco sauce or salsa

Saute garlic in olive oil until fragrant and add bell peppers. Saute until pepper are browned and add tomatoes. One the tomatoes are soft and add the tomato paste and taco seasoning. Cook until sauce and veggies are browned, and deglaze the pan with lime juice and. Serve in a wheat tortilla w/ taco sauce or your favorite salsa. (See my roasted tomato salsa recipe. It’s great w/ these fajitas.)

Lincoln veggie Mex guru cooks local, fresh

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 02:02:00 -0400

This is an article I wrote for a reporting class about a local business owner. He also happens to make some of the best vegetarian Mexican food. My favorites: chili relleno and sweet potato quesadilla. Made fresh with mostly local ingredients.

Jose “Pepe” Fierro doesn’t have a body like Charles Atlas.

But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t tried.

At 14, Fierro was the smallest kid in the neighborhood reading comics with Charles Atlas advertisements in the back. He wanted a bodybuilde’rs body, so he made his own dumbbells using Foldgers cans, cement and broomsticks.

He doesn’t have the muscled build of a body-builder — he gave that up more than 20 years ago — but he retained the dedication to nutrition, trading meaty meals for vegetarianism.

At 46, Fierro owns and runs one of Lincoln’s few vegetarian restaurants, Pepe’s Vegetarian Bistro. He specializes in vegetarian and vegan options for traditional Mexican food and buys his produce from local farmers.

At Pepe’s he substitutes beef in tacos and pork in Cuban sandwiches for seitan — a meat substitute made of wheat gluten.

“People have come in here and walked out after seeing the menu,” Fierro said.

But that doesn’t discourage Fierro. He said he often hears forks scraping plates from the kitchen and rarely sees plates with food left. And Pepe’s more than 1,400 Facebook fans probably don’t hurt.

“I don’t need to hear a compliment to know that (the customers) are happy,” Fierro said.

Fierro opened Pepe’s in July 2008. But he didn’t make much profit until he was featured in the Ground Zero section of the Lincoln Journal Star. After that article, he was swamped from 11 a.m. until 9 .m. for a week straight and, without any full-time employees, he had to rely on family to help out. His mother rode 30 hours on a Greyhound bus from Abilene to help him in the restaurant.

The restaurant is located above the Against the Wall art gallery. There aren’t menus on the tables, and Fierro only accepts cash or check. None of the tables match and are the product of Dumpster dives and thrift store shopping. On every table, there are homemade silverware holders made of bike gears and different books. One table has a book about eco farming; another has a book of poetry.

And the walls are crowded with art — Fierro said art shows are his weakness. But there also are posters for local events. One has a statistic about buying local businesses and farmers, and the positive effect it has on the local economy. Another advertises an event educating Lincolnites on raising chickens in their backyards for fresh eggs.

Another poster has the manifesto for Schy’s Pies for Peace. Schyler Plad Lindekugel bakes her pies in Pepe’s kitchen. She started a year ago, and said Fierro is the reason for her success. He connected her with local businesses that now sell her pies. Since then, she’s given $350, totaling 10 percent of her profits, to local charities.

“He honestly has one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever seen,” she said. “Our community would be really lost without him, I think.”

Fierro gives back, because the he feels that Lincoln community helped him first. He moved to Lincoln eight years ago for a job that didn’t pan out. He ended up living out of his car at first, and many people in the community helped him get back on his feet.

When decided to give his restaurant dream a try, Against the Wall owner John O’Hare gave him Pepe’s current space with rent for three months. The lease started in April 2008, and by July, Pepe’s was open for business.

But before opening the restaurant, Fierro had no formal cooking experience. He graduated high school and joined the food industry. He worked as a waiter for 25 years, most recently at Lincoln’s El Sitio. Now, not only does Fierro own Pepe’s, but he also acts as a host, cashier, cook and waiter. And everyone calls him Pepe.

“With most restaurants you go in and you don’t know the owner or the cook,” Fierro said. “It’s a nice little connection.”

Pepe’s staples are cucumber lemonade, black bean tacos, sweet potato quesadillas, chile rellenos and the Cuban sandwich with seitan.

But he also experiments and invests different recipes, and some succeed better than others. Once he made an Elvis quesadilla with black beans and plantains — as a tribute to Elvis Presley’s love for banana splits — but he only sold two. One customer only ate half the meal, but the other raved about the dish on Facebook.

“You can’t satisfy everyone,” Fierro said.

Lindekugel, who in addition to Schy’s Pies works at Open Harvest, said everyone she talks to about Pepe’s raves about Pepe’s food, but also about Fierro. She said his connection with customers makes their experience at Pepe’s even better.

“I think it makes a really big different that he is the owner, the chef and he puts the food on the table,” she said.

And almost everything Fierro puts on the table is from local farms. He wants to keep his carbon footprint small. He does this through buying local produce that doesn’t have to be shipped across country.

But buying local also helps sustain the local economy.

“You can’t fix the national economy before you fix your own,” he said.

But Pepe’s business model doesn’t work for everyone, Fierro said. With the higher cost of local produce, Fierro’s profit margin is slim. He said he barely breaks even and is often in the negative during slow winter months. But during the summer, business picks up, and Fierro goes to the Havelock farmer’s market just behind the restaurant for his produce.

Even with these drawbacks, Fierro doesn’t plan on changing.

“I’m not here to get rich,” Fierro said. “I’m here to be happy.”

He also encourages other local businesses to buy from local farmers, but said if they want to make a profit, they probably won’t change. But he still encourages other restaurant owners to at least buy their tomatoes from local farmers.

Fierro also doesn’t plan on expanding in that he said there will never be two Pepe’s. But he would like to have a bigger restaurant, so he could employ more people and keep more money in the local economy.

Currently, he only has a few employees. But he refers to them as co-workers, because he said “couldn’t do this without them.” Mostly they are volunteers who help out when they can. Mistie Diaz, Fierro niece, is one such worker.

Diaz moved to Lincoln with her three children before Pepe’s opened, and lived with Fierro in his one-bedroom apartment. He helped her get a job, and now she said her financial situation is good.

“He’s done a lot for us and a lot for the community,” she said.

Pepe’s is open Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. When he isn’t at the restaurant, he eats at local restaurants and coffee shops — he avoids cooking on his days off — and restores bikes. At the restaurant, he trades discounts for bike parts.

“It’s his willingness to support anybody. Every time you see him he has a smile on his face.” Lindekugel said.

Parmesan-garlic smashed potatoes

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:24:44 -0400

1 potato, cubed
1/2 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp thyme
2 tbsp cup skim milk
1 tbsp parmesan
1 tsp cream cheese

Saute garlic in olive oil until fragrant and add potatoes. Saute until the potatoes are slightly browned and add water, enough to cover the potatoes. Boil until the potatoes are tender. Mash with a fork too a choppy consistency, and mix in milk, cream cheese, thyme and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.

Peanut butter honey granola

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 10:00:07 -0400

This is my favorite recipe for weekend baking. It’s simple, quick and absolutely delicious. It’s also a great alternative to buying processed granola bars and cereal. It’s also super versatile. You can substitute in your favorite grains and nuts. This recipe has great nutrients, but the peanut butter makes it kind of heavy in calories. My mom and I are absolutely obsessed w/ this recipe. I make it for her every time I’m home, and it rarely lasst long enough for me to take any back to school w/ me.

4 cups oatmeal
2 cups wheat bran
1 1/2 cups unsalted, roasted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup ground flax seed
3 cups peanut butter
1 cup honey
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Start by melting peanut butter and honey. (Look for natural peanut butters w/o added sugar and salt. You can use crunchy or smooth based on your tastes.) Mix grains and nuts together w/ the cinnamon. (I usually mix in in my 9x13 baking dish, but that gets messy.) Add the honey and peanut butter and mix everything together. It should be mixed enough to stick together. (Taste for sweetness. You might have to add more honey based on how sweet you like your granola.) Pat into a glass baking dish and bake at about 325 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. Wait until the granola is completely cooled before trying to cut or it will fall apart.

Eat plain or with skim milk. The only ingredients really required for this recipe are oatmeal, peanut butter and honey. You can substitute the other grains and nuts for whatever you have on hand or prefer. I often finely ground pecans, walnuts or almonds for the recipe. Wheat germ and oat bran are also great in this recipe. You can throw whatever you like in here and just adjust the amount of peanut butter you use accordingly. Enjoy.

Beans and rice experiment

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:59:36 -0400

I have never cooked black beans before, so this was kind of a hit, but more likely miss type of recipe. I looked up various recipes and watched a couple of black bean cooking demonstrations.

I started last night by soaking 1/2 cup of black or turtle beans in about 1 and 1/2 cups of water. This helps reduce the total cook time, but some places I looked still put the total cooking time around 3 hours. I don’t have time for that, so I’m trying my own way.

I start by sauteing garlic and tomatoes in olive oil and add the beans. Season w/ cumin, onion powder and oregano. Cover and simmer until the beans and tender. Once they begin to tender (probably after 30-40 minutes.) Add instant brown rice and cook until the beans and rice are cooked (about 15 minutes). This is a healthy and easy recipe. It doesn’t take much prep work, but cooking takes a while.

California Veggie Wraps

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:39:19 -0400

Happy lunch! Next week, I will be in L.A. visiting my amazing friend Alaa for spring break. So in tribute, I’m spending my week these flavorful, healthy and fresh wraps. Enjoy.

1 tbsp spreadable low fat cream cheese
1/4 cup sliced sweet bell pepper (I used red and orange bell peppers.)
a couple slices of portobello mushroom
1/2 roma tomato, diced
1/4 cup spinach
1/8 cup sprouts
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 wrap (I used a roasted red pepper flatbread.)

Spread the cream cheese on the entire flat bread, layer with the vegetables in the middle and sprinkle the cheese evenly. Roll up the wrap and slice in half. (You also can add avocado to make a true california wrap.)

flatbread: 90 calories (I used Flatout flatbread.)
cheddar cheese: 110 calories (I used sharp cheddar.)
fat free cream cheese: 15 calories
veggies: about 20 calories

Total: 250 calories

I usually make my lunches the night before, but with all the juicy veggies, the flat bread gets soggy. They are best made fresh. I cut up four times the veggies and stored in Tupperware, so I can whip up one of these quickly before class. I’m also packing yogurt and granola and strawberries for a healthy, low calorie lunch.

Love the blog and the recipes! I will check back next week after I get back from SLC to get a list...

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:40:00 -0400

Love the blog and the recipes! I will check back next week after I get back from SLC to get a list and try out a few of the recipes. Thanks for feeding my son! :0)

Thanks, Karen!

Roasted potatoes with thyme

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:24:40 -0400

It’s a comfort food type of night, and crunchy fried potatoes with lots of butter and salt were always my favorite when I was young. This is my healthy spin. I roast these simple potatoes instead of frying them in a pan.

one medium potato (any kind, I used russet)
1/2 tablespoon thyme
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
tin foil

Cut the potato into one inch cubes. (You don’t need to peal the potatoes, but make sure to scrub them carefully and cut off any brown spots.) Put the potatoes in tin foil and season with thyme and drizzle with oil. Wrap the tin foil around the potatoes, and bake at 425 degrees. Bake for 35-40 minutes and season with salt and pepper. Nom nom. One potato has 128 calories, so this is a great side dish or light meal.

Chunky roasted tomato salsa

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:14:51 -0400

I love salsa, but I never find the right brand. So in my salsa craving stupor, I made my own with the my favorite salsa ingredients: tomatoes, garlic and serrano peppers. I don’t like oniony tasting salsa, so I left them out, but you can feel free to add them.

10 roma tomatoes
4 serrano peppers
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon pepper

Chop the tomatoes and mince the peppers. Then evenly spread the tomatoes onto a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. Roast at 425 degrees for 30-40 minutes until the tomatoes are slightly charred and well cooked. Serve with fajitas, chips (my favorite are lime tortillas), tacos or quesadillas. Enjoy. (To save time, you can fourth the tomatoes and roast. Then use a food processor to coarsely chop the tomatoes and peppers.)

Vegetable curry

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:28:00 -0500

I cooked for my roommates and friend tonight and nearly took off my left middle finger. Thank you nail for saving my finger tip. Note to self: be careful when cutting raw potatoes. This recipe makes enough for four.

1 tablespoon olive oil (maybe more)
1 tablespoon garlic
1 red bell pepper cut into bite size pieces
1 package button mushrooms
4 tomatoes
4 tablespoons curry powder
1 small can of tomato paste
4-5 potatoes (depending on size, I used 5.), cut into cubes
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes to taste
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (depending on consistency, keep more on hand)
a couple handfuls of spinach
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute garlic in olive oil. Add peppers and mushrooms and saute until browned. Then add tomatoes and saute until brown (wow redundant). Once the tomatoes are cooked, add the paste and cook slightly before adding the curry powder and red pepper flakes. Once the paste is kind of melted (I don’t know how else to phrase it.) add the lemon juice and then add the potatoes and brown slightly. Once the potatoes have cooked in the sauce for about 5 minutes, add the stock. Simmer for about 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are fully cooked. Add the spinach, salt and pepper when the potatoes are tender. Serve with rice (about 1/4 cup of uncooked rice per person) once the spinach is wilted. Feel free to doctor this recipe with any vegetables you enjoy including cauliflower, peas and eggplant.

By the way, I got lots of compliments tonight!

This is my roommate, Paige, holding the potato curry I specially made for her, because she’s allergic to peppers and doesn’t like mushrooms.

I like the recipes on your blog. I cook a lot of indian and pakistani food as it is my culture. I would love to share some with you as it seems you enjoy it very much! You will just need to find a spice store and then you are all set for some south asian cooking!

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:44:44 -0500

That would be great, tabzyf! I go to this really great mom and pap Indian spice shop, but haven’t had the time to experiment with different spices. Instead I’ve been taking the easy way out with curry powder mixes. Shameful, I know. But I’m going to India this summer for two weeks, and would love to try some more authentic recipes.

Potato curry

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 20:26:06 -0500

Did I mention how much I love curry? I rarely cook with potatoes, but this week, I’m posting all vegetarian recipes, so I thought I should finally try making potato curry.

Here is what I tried:

1 medium russet potatoes cut into cubes
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 chopped roma tomato
1/2 tablespoon curry powder
3/4 cup vegetable stock (I promised vegetarian!)
salt and pepper to taste

Start by sauteing garlic in olive oil, and then add chopped tomatoes. Once the veggies are cooked, add curry powder and sauté for a few minutes. Then add the potatoes and cook until some of the cubes are browned then add the stock and simmer for about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with brown rice.

Russet potatoes are about 120 calories each, but they are great nutrition wise. They are very low in saturated fat and sugar, have no cholesterol, are high in potassium and vitamins B6 and C. I used low fat vegetable stock with has 15 calories per cup, so overall this meal is about about 180 calories not counting the rice.

Walnut, craison, feta, spinach and balsamic salad

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:33:00 -0500

I named all the ingredients in the title, because they all equally make this salad. This is my lunch this week! 260 calories!

2 handfuls spinach
1/4 cup craisins
1/8 cup feta
1/8 cup toasted walnuts (Toast walnut pieces at 350 degrees for about 5-7 minutes or until fragrant. I made 1 cup so I could make four salads this week.)
about 2 tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette (You can use any vinaigrette and even make your own. I use Maple Grove Farms of Vermont sugar-free balsamic vinaigrette, because it’s sugar-free and low in calories.)

Calories:

2 cups spinach = about 15 calories
1/4 cup craisins = 100 calories
1/8 cup feta = 45 calories
1/8 cup toasted walnuts = 100 calorie
My balsamic vinaigrette has zero calories!

I pair this salad with Greek vanilla honey yogurt and granola, baby carrots and clementines. Greek yogurt is my new favorite. It’s creamy and delicious and only 100 calories each.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:25:00 -0500

140 calories a cookie

3/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts

Mix oatmeal, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, beat butter, add sugar, eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Add dry ingredients and beat until well combined. Mix in chips (I used semi-sweet) and walnuts (or any other kind of nut). Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes.

This recipe makes about 24 cookies, but I doubled it, so I could make enough for a class and for my roommates.