Assassin Force Academy: Lightsaber Power Cell

[Phantos]

Phantos Recipe #1: Sausage Sweet Potato Omlette

Makes 6 portions.

Ingredients:

1lb Ground Pork

2 medium sweet potatoes

8 eggs (scrambled)

1 lb Ground Pork

1/4 tsp Fennel

1 tsp Garlic

1 tsp Paprika

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

1/2 tsp Sage

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Instructions:

• Mix Spices
• Add spices to ground pork. Mix well until uniform color
• Dice sweet potato to ~1/4 inch cubes. This doesn't have to be pretty. You just want small-ish pieces.
• Brown sausage in skillet
• Add sweet potato to sausage and mix. Cook until the sweet potato is soft enough to easily cut with your cooking instrument.
• Add eggs. Stir/mix continuously.
• Cook until the it no longer looks wet
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: Add a little bit of hot sauce

Review:This is my go to breakfast item. I make a large skillet of it on Sunday and take it to work for breakfast throughout the week. It is very simple, but a serving (approx 1 US cup) is filling enough to last you to lunch. I usually add a little bit of hot sauce to mine to spice it up, but that's totally optional. The sweetness of the potato compliments the savory spices in the sausage very well and I've never eaten this and wished I hadn't.

[Phantos]

Phantos Recipe #2: Avocado BLT Egg Salad (adapted from Stupid Easy Paleo)

Makes 2-3 portions.

Ingredients:

1 avocado

6 hard-boiled eggs

1/2 cup chopped scallions

3/4 cup grape tomatoes sliced in half

4 bacon strips, cooked until crispy

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: Smoked Tobasco hot sauce

Instructions:

• Hard boil your eggs. Once done, peel and put into mixing bowl.
• While the eggs are cooking, cook your bacon until crispy using your preferred method.
• Add avocado to eggs. Mash until combined. (I bought a potato masher just for this recipe.)
• Crumble bacon into mixture. Add scallions and tomatoes. Mix well.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: Add a few dashes of hot sauce

Review: When I first found this recipe, I was a little skeptical. I like all of the ingredients, but wasn't sure how they'd combine. Once I made it, I wrote it down and added it to my recipe book. It is really good. I've experimented with it a little, adding more spice with pinches of cayenne pepper sometimes, but honestly it doesn't really need it. I've never had the ground garlic that the original recipe calls for, but it doesn't sound terrible. I usually eat this right out of a bowl, but I think it'd be good as a filling for lettuce wraps. I've also tried it as a sandwich with portobello mushroom caps as bread replacements, but the mushrooms were a little big to eat comfortably.

[Phantos]

Phantos Recipe #3: Pineapple Coconut Thai Curry (adapted from Our Own Nerd Fitness Chef)

Makes 7-8 portions.

Ingredients:

1lb of meat (I used chicken breast)

1 small yellow onion – diced

2 cloves garlic – minced

1 tbsp minced or grated fresh ginger

Filler veggies of your choice (This is what I used)

2 Bell peppers of your choice

6 mushrooms - cut into eights

1 head of broccoli - cut into bite sized florets

2 carrots - peeled and cut into medallions

2 cans full-fat coconut milk

1.5 cups chicken stock

1 can of crushed pineapple

3 tbsp Thai red curry paste

1.5 tbsp Coconut Oil for cooking

Instructions:

• Dice your onion, peel and mince your garlic cloves
• Peel and mince your ginger. (I don't have a grater, so I minced. This is a pain.)
• Wash and chop your other vegetables
• Slice meat into thin strips (Helps it cook better
• Open cans, measure out other ingredients.
• Heat up your skillet
• Add 1 tbsp of coconut oil to the warm skillet to melt.
• Once melted, add your meat and cook until just cooked through. Remove meat and set aside
• Add remaining oil to pan. Once melted, add curry paste and mix. CAREFUL: my pan was too hot and the oil/curry mixture started to splatter.
• Add in onions, garlic, and ginger. Cook until onions are translucent and veges are coated in curry mixture.
• Add chopped veges and pineapple to pan. Cook until soft-ish
• Return meat to pan and mix well
• Add chicken stock and coconut milk to pan. Bring to simmering boil for a couple minutes.
• Voilà! Pineapple coconut Thai curry.

Review: I was very excited when I saw this recipe. I adore Asian food and it's one of the harder things that I've had to give up to eat healthier. So, I decided I was going to try this recipe. Verdict? Absolutely delicious. The coconut milk makes a very smooth creamy sauce. The pineapple adds a fruity taste to the dish without overpowering the curry or the natural flavors of the vegetables. If I'm honest, I probably won't use bell peppers again. I'm not real crazy about them to begin with, I'd rather have more broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, or even some sweet potato chunks in there instead. But the dish is delicious even with them included. I have been eating it just as a soup, but I could definitely see this over cauli-rice or regular rice. I'll definitely be making this again and experimenting with the protein (I think shrimp would be really good) and vegetables.

[Suzaqu]

It could use a little something, IMO, and if you figure out what that something is, I'd be highly interested!

That recipe sounds good and easy! I'll have to try it!

If you don't mind me jumping in, I heard some TV chef saying once that most people don't add acid to food, and it's what a lot of recipes need. I've started doing it when I'm experimenting and it really does help. Have you though about adding cider/rice wine/balsamic vinegar or maybe lime/lemon juice?

[Phantos]

Phantos Recipe #4: Homemade Instant Noodle cup (adapted from The Kitchn)

Makes 1 portions (or you can multiply the

Ingredients:

1 tbsp miso paste (or other soup base)

3oz of protein (I used shredded slow-cooked pork shoulder)

Dried/Frozen veges of your choice (This is what I used)

* dried shitake mushrooms (a decent handful)

Noodles of your choice (This is what I used)

* ~4oz Shirataki noodles (not the Tofu shirataki)

Fresh vegetables of your choice (This is what I used)

* Sliced scallions

Mason Jar or other heat-proof container

Instructions:

Each step is its own "layer" in your container.

• Add 1 tbsp of your soup base to the bottom of your jar.
• Add ~3oz of your protein choice. Make sure it gets into the soup base.
• Add your dried or frozen veges.
• Add your noodles.
• Add your fresh vegetables.

When ready to eat, fill with boiling water and let sit for 2 minutes. Then stir well with chopsticks (makes it easier to stir in the soup base).

Review: As I've mentioned before, I adore Asian food, especially noodle dishes. I saw this recipe and was delighted that I could potentially still enjoy one of my favorite foods. I recommend you read the article as this recipe is just my first foray into this experiment and you could do a lot of different things. I used shirataki noodles since they are made from yam starch and thus fit the paleo diet. This version of the recipe didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Miso is a very strong flavor That I thought I liked better than I do, apparently. It also didn't play well with the flavors in the pork I used. While the shitake mushrooms re-hydrated fine, they ended up soggy and unpalatable texture wise. Next time, I will probably try something like curry paste and chicken so as to not confuse flavors. Some frozen vegetables and more than just sliced scallions for the fresh veges will probably make a much better meal than what I ended up with here.

[Jonesy]

I'm currently in the process of making this one. Apparently my oven isn't heating up so I had to roast the Spaghetti Squash the long way, crock pot.

CARAMELIZED ONION SPAGHETTI SQUASH

INGREDIENTS

• 1 2-3 lb. spaghetti squash
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 yellow onions, peeled and sliced into longer strips if possible
• 1½ cup mushrooms
• 1 cup kale (I used mixed greens because I don't like kale)
• ¼ tsp rosemary (fresh or dried would work too)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: Parmesan cheese*

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350°. Slice squash in half, remove seeds and place on baking sheet. Brush 2 tbsp olive oil on both sides of the squash (1 tbsp per half) and then place face down in the oven. (I put the squash in the crock pot on high for 4 hours)
• While squash is roasting, melt butter and last 2 tbsp oil over medium-high in a large skillet.
• Add onions to skillet, stirring occasionally. After 5 minutes, add mushrooms.
• After approximately 10 minutes, the onions should start to caramelize. If they look like they're burning at all, add an extra tablespoon of oil.
• Add kale (I added mixed greens) to skillet and continue to stir everything together until onions turn a nice golden brown color.
• After 25 minutes, remove squash from oven and allow 10 or so minutes for it to cool off.
• Once slightly cooler, use a fork to remove "spaghetti" from squash and place in a skillet; add rosemary, salt and pepper and stir everything together.
• Add Parmesan cheese if you wish and enjoy!

REVIEW : It tasted sort of bland until I added salt, a lot more salt than I wanted. It looks super disgusting and only tastes OK.

[Jonesy]

Sweet Potato and Zucchini Fritters

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (or vegan butter)
• 2 tbsp Coconut Oil
• 1 large egg (or egg replacer or flax egg)
• 2 teaspoons chipotle seasoning (I didn't have this so I used Chili & Cayenne pepper )
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (or almond, oat, or a gluten-free flour blend)
• about 3 cups coarsely grated sweet potato (1 medium to large sweet potato, peeled and grated - I didn't peel mine, I like the skin)
• about 2 cups coarsely grated zucchini (1 large or 2 small zucchini - I forgot the zucchini so I used summer squash)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F and line two baking trays with Silpats, parchment paper, or aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray; set aside. I highly recommend lining your baking trays because the fritters will stick badly if you don’t.
2. In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power. To the melted butter, add the egg and beat with a fork to combine. Add the chipotle seasoning, salt, pepper, and stir to combine. Add the flour and stir to combine. Add the sweet potato, zucchini, and toss to combine. Mixture will be loose and a bit soggy. Using a 1/2-cup measure, form fritters by transferring one heaping half-cup of vegetable mixture from mixing bowl directly to baking trays. I mounded the mixture into loosely packed circular shapes on the baking trays. I baked 4 fritters on one tray, and 3 on the other tray.
3. Bake fritters for 10 minutes at 375F and if fritters have “leaked†or released any liquids, either from the zucchini releasing water, or the butter-egg mixture, just “push†the liquid back into a fritter using a spatula.
4. Lower oven temperature to 350F and bake for about 15 minutes. Carefully flip fritters over (they will be soft and delicate; I used two spatulas to scoop-and-flip without breaking them) and bake for about 15 more minutes, or until browned. Fritters will be browned but soft upon removal from oven. Allow them to cool and firm up on the baking trays for at least 10 minutes before moving or serving them.
5. Serve fritters with Spicy Honey Mustard (gluten-free and to keep vegan, use agave in place of the honey) or a favorite mustard, ketchup, hot sauce, sour cream, salsa, or other favorite condiment. Fritters will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the refrigerator. They can be wrapped individually in plasticwap and make for handy lunchbox food.

 

I've made this before with the instructions above and they turned out great. Since my oven is not working I had to adapt these to stove top. In a large skillet, heat over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. Do the first part of step #2 but drop 2 fritters into the pan. I usually reduce heat to low-medium and let them fry in the coconut oil for a few mins or until the bottom is a golden. Flip and repeat. 

 

I like eating these with a salad and will be having them for dinner this week!

[Nightshadow]

3) Brown ground beef with some salt and a generous heap of herbs/spices. (I found an unlabeled herb mix that smelled pretty good, probably oregano & friends.)

I would like Oregano & Friends to be an animated show, please.

[Darth Yoga]

It could use a little something, IMO, and if you figure out what that something is, I'd be highly interested!

 

Alas, someone else got to the cabbage before me.

[Maeghaan]

For our Super Bowl party, I made two recipes. The first is easy (and so damn good!)

 

Guacamole

3 ripe avocados

1 roma tomato

1/2 a small yellow sweet onion

1 jalapeno

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 t salt

1-2 T lime juice

Instructions: Peel and mash the avocados in your bowl. Cut the roma tomato, onion, and jalapeno at a very small dice (or bigger, if you prefer chunkier guac). Mince your garlic. Add all your veggies, salt, and lime juice to the mashed avocado and stir well. Try not to eat it all in one sitting. If you manage to restrain yourself, don't be scared of it if your guac develops a brownish/greyish tinge from oxidation; I promise it will still taste fine!

 

 

 

The second was my addition of a keto-friendly sweet so I wouldn't be too tempted by the other stuff there. The main recipe is here: Keto Roll Cake. I modified it a bit (because I never have coconut milk, and I don't like sour cream in the filling). And, I made a couple variations: Default (chocolate with vanilla filling), Mint (chocolate with mint filling), Vanilla (vanilla cake with vanilla filling), and berry (vanilla cake with berry filling). I'll list the Berry one, as it turned out to be my favorite:

 

Berry Keto-roll cake

Cake: 

1C Almond Flour

4T melted butter

3 eggs

1/4 C Psyllium husk powder

1/4 C Vanilla Protein Powder

1/4 C Sour Cream

1/4 C Erythritol

1t vanilla

1t baking powder

1-4 T almond milk, if it needs to have more moisture (but mine was fine this weekend without)

Cake Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all your dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, and mix together. Add your wet to your dry, mixing well (I'm rarely all that careful about orders of addition, just make sure your butter isn't scalding hot when you add it). Put a silpat or sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and flatten your dough out to cover the surface evenly. Cook at 350F for 11-14 minutes. Let cool a bit (but not too much, it's easier to roll if it's a touch warm still)

 

For the filling:

8oz cream cheese, room temperature 

8oz butter, softened

1/4 C heavy cream

1/4 C Erythritol 

1/4 t liquid Stevia

1t vanilla

1-2 teaspoons cherry extract

1-2 teaspoons raspberry flavoring syrup

Instructions: Mix everything until well incorporated. Spread evenly on the surface of the slightly warm cake. Using the silpat or parchment paper, roll the cake tightly together. Eagerly eat the filling that squeezes out of the roll. Cut into pieces (10-12), and eat the rough ends immediately because you can. Refrigerate for storage. Eat extras for breakfast for the next week because they are keto diet friendly and I can.

[Grayspeed]

Vegetarian Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• 1 Pack Quorn "chicken" peices
• 1 pouch Sticky Plum sauce (too lazy to make my own sauce)
• 1 pack flat rice noodles
• 1/2 tin coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons chinese 5 spice
• Epic assortment of vegetables: Baby corn, shredded carrot, red pepper, sugar snap peas, bamboo shoots, kale
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Method:

Fry Quorn in a little oil until golden, add coconut milk and 5 spice. In a saucepan add boiling water to noodles and leave on medium/low heat. After 5 minutes or so coconut milk should have reduced slightly and thickened up, add veg and stir through. Drain noodles, return to pan and mix in sauce and sesame seeds on low heat. Plate (bowl) up and enjoy. 

[starsapart]

This almost feels like cheating because it was SO simple, but I definitely got my veggies in yesterday!

 

Veggie-ful Lemongrass Curry

 

Ingredients:

• ~10oz chicken breast (one large breast)
• 1 large zucchini
• 1 large yellow squash
• half ehad of broccoli
• half ehad of cauliflower
• 2 large carrots
• 1/2 can coconut milk
• 1 tbsp curry powder of choice (I used a lemongrass green curry)
• 2 tbsp oil (olive or coconut, make your own choices)

 

Instructions:

1. Put half your oil in a big wok and toss cubed chicken into it.  Cook until seared (does not need to be cooked through)
2. Add in choopped veggies (yes allllllllll of them), mix
3. Add in coconut milk, bring to a simmer
4. Make curry paste by mixing curry powder and oil in equal proportion, add to your wok and mix to incorporate
5. Simmer for 20+ minutes.  The longer it simmers, the more the sauce will thicken.  YOU ARE DONE

Makes 2 biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig servings.  My first time with this particular brand of coconut milk and it came out a bit runny - it could have used more time to reduce but I was HUNGRY.  May try less coconut milk next time as veggies do add moisture.  And yes, you can use frozen veggies just as easily - they'll cook through in the sauce one way or another.  Tasty, simple, chock full of veggie goodness.  What could be better?

 

Honestly, realizing I could make curry paste/sauce at home on my own rocked my world last year.  Can be eaten as-is or poured over rice, noodles, cauliflower rice (more veggies, amirite?).

[Darth Yoga]

Today I baked something completely devoid of vegetables, and not at all qualifying for this challenge. But delicious. Someone had made a pile of tiny little sausage patties, and I noticed I had half a box of corn muffin mix that I'd been meaning to use up. So I made up the cornbread mix according to box directions, but I put a cooked sausage patty into each cup of a muffin tin, covered by the mix. (I should have put some of the mix under the sausages also, to thoroughly embed the sausage.)

 

So good. So fatty. So carby. I don't really eat straight-up sweets, but I love sweet-savory-fatty stuff like this.

(Cornbread in New England is nothing like Southern cornbread. It has as much white flour and sugar as it does cornmeal, so basically cornmeal poundcake.)

 

I did eat it with broccoli!

[dancezwithkittehz]

Dancezwithkittehz Recipe #2,  Pan Seared Steaks w/ zucchini in pan sauce

One of my current favorite things is cooking some meat and then cooking a veggie in leavings/leftover oil from said meat. NOM

Ingredients:

Steaks (1 inch thick or slightly thicker)

sea salt/ some kind of course salt

butter

zuchinni

optional extra spices to throw on zuchinni (I used some paprika because nom)



1. You need to let the steaks rest for at least an hour and get not super cold -- ideally even an hour and a half or two hours would be even better for the salt tenderizing to work. Take steaks out of wrapping and place on a plate.  Coat each side with the course salt and let it rest. (I think it's at least a TBSP per steak but will vary depending on size...There's a lengthy article on salt tenderizing that can give you more specific numbers.) As they rest the surface of the steak starts to  look super wet and you can no longer see the salt granules as well, and the meat will look a deeper red. As long as you wait until there is water on the surface of the whole steak that should be long enough.

2. Rinse salt off steaks (and salt you needed on it has absorbed magically into the steak and you don't want a ton of salt on this. BLEGH.)

3.Return steak to plate and dry off with paper towel (or something you will immediately wash in hot water or something because MEAT JUICE WHEE.)

4. Heat a stainless steel or cast iron pan (something not  non-stick!) on medium heat for 5 min.

5. Put a pat of butter/ about a tbsp of butter in pan, spread around QUICKLY and immediately put one of your steaks in the pan. This needs to be fast so you don’t burn the butter.

6. Cook on first side to desired doneness…there is some guess work here depending on the size of the steak and thickness. For a smaller 8 oz steak I would probably start with 3 min to 3 min 30 seconds per side for medium to medium rare-ish. (When i flip it to the second side I will toss in another pat of butter.) You can always put the steak back on the heat if it is underdone but you can’t uncook something that you overcooked!

7. Put the steak you cooked on a plate to rest for at least 5 min before you eat it (you can tent it with aluminum foil to keep it warm while you cook the second/additional steaks. If you are doing multiple steaks I recommend wiping out the pan a bit with a damp paper towel being careful NOT to burn yourself and make sure you let the pan reheat to HOT for proper searing before starting the next steak etc.)

8. When you are done cooking your last steak DO NOT WIPE OUT PAN! This will make your delicious zucchini!

9. Depending on your pan you may need to deglaze to get the cooked on meat tastiness off the pan (my stainless pan this is definitely a must.) Throw a few TBSP of water in the pan and toss around quickly to get the meat juices off the pan. Toss in sliced zucchini. Salt zucchini lightly and dust with any optional spices etc. Cook until desired done-ness. (I like to get each side a little browned but not cook until actually mushy because EWW.)
…..annnd EAT ALL THE THINGS

 

Review: SO NOM. NOM NOM NOM. Delicious.

[dancezwithkittehz]

Dancezwithkittehz Recipe #3, Goat Cheese & Kale Quiches

 

I didn't make this one up myself. It was a slightly modified version of one of my Blue Apron recipes.

 

Recipe can be found here:

https://www.blueapron.com/recipes/goat-cheese-kale-quiches-with-butter-lettuce-chive-salad

 

Changes I made:

1. I did not make the butter lettuce chive salad to go with it (saving that for a day when I hadn't already eaten a bunch of salad.) Thus I also skipped the parts where you chop up the lemon and shallot etc. If you just want to make the quiches don't get the butter lettuce, lemon, chives or shallot.

2. In step 3 for making the filling I used half n half instead of the 2 tablespoons of water

 

Verdict:

 

THESE WERE DELICIOUS. Also a huge portion/ quite a few calories per quiche but I just made sure to eat these on days when I was in recovery mode and needed to eat all the things anyway. I think if I were to make these in the future I might make 4 smaller quiches instead of the 2 big ones...but then again with my usual training schedule this portion size really wasn't a problem for me! I might also think of taking out some of the ricotta and adding 1-2 more eggs, and increasing the amount of goat cheese because I like super flavorful cheeses.

[Anim07734]

I like to keep things simple, otherwise I'll just get fast food.

 

Health-Conscious Bachelor Chow

 

3c frozen California mix (carrots, broccoli, & cauliflower)

1can tuna, drained

salt and pepper to taste

cheese!  (I prefer sharp cheddar)

 

Dump the California mix into a microwave safe bowl and cover loosely; microwave ~5min, until fully steamed.  Add tuna, salt, and pepper; stir.  Add grated cheese.  Consume.

 

 

This is one of my easiest "recipes" and a go-to when I'm ready to collapse after a good crossfit session.  It's surprisingly tasty, takes less than 10min to make, and doesn't require much standing.  Veggies can be upped to 4c (microwave for 7-8min), if you want more food, without changing the taste much.

[ixaera]

ixaera recipe #4:

 

mustard dressing green beans

heavily modified from http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/dijon-green-beans

 

more simple stuff from me~

 

Ingredients

trimmed fresh green beans!

1 tbsp mustard (dijon preferred, but I rarely have that on hand)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar (I won't lie, I subbed white wine vinegar tonight and it was still tasty)

salt

pepper

 

directions

bring water to a boil and add green beans

if you want to get even fancier, add a little chicken base better than bouillon and some salt or butter or whatever you like

boil 10ish minutes (to preferred crispiness, I like mine a little snappier)

 

while beans are boiling, mix oil, vinegar, salt, mustard, and pepper in a small bowl and whisk (look, I just used a spoon, we're not proud here)

 

drain beans & place in dish

drizzle mixture over beans and toss to coat

 

eat!

 

review:

Delicious. I love green beans and the tangy mustard flavor spiced it up just right. It went quite well with the chicken I marinated in pretty much the same mixture only without the oil. 

It probably would have been nicer with the red onions (I didn't have any), tomato (didn't have that either), and the dijon (nope), and the red wine vinegar (I never have that), but it was absolutely lovely as it was.

[SnowOwl]

Black Bean Burgers with Sweet Potato Rounds

 

Black Bean Burgers (from Cook’s Ilustrated)

 

2 15-oz cans black beans, rinsed

2 eggs

2T flour

4 scallions, minced

3T minced cilantro

2 garlic minced

1t cumin

1t hot sauce

1/2t coriander

1/4t salt

1/4t pepper

1/2c crushed tortilla chips

8t veg oil

5 burger buns

toppings of your choice (tomato, mushrooms, lettuce, etc.)

1. Line baking sheet with paper towels and spread out beans to dry fro 15 min.
2. Whisk eggs and flour together, stir in scallions, cilantro, garlic, cumin, hot sauce, coriander, salt and pepper.
3. Finely grind chips in food processor, add beans and pulse until roughly broken down and transfer to bowl of egg mixture. Mix well, cover and refrigerate 1 hour (or up to 24 hours)
4. Divide into 5 portions, flatten into 4†patties - well packed together.
5. Cook in oil about 5 minutes each side or until browned.

This was good and we all enjoyed them, but probably not good enough for the effort involved. None of us thought we would make them again.

 

Sweet Potato Rounds (for 4 people)

1. Slice two sweet potatoes into rounds, a little less than a 1/4†thick.
2. Place into a plastic bag.
3. Pour a few tablespoons of oil into the bag and shake until all rounds are greased (add more oil as needed)
4. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper (in the bag) and shake until each round has sprinkles of pepper on it.
5. Spread rounds out on a baking sheet in a single layer and cover with foil.
6. Bake at 475F for 10 minutes, uncover and bake another 10 minutes, flip them and bake another 10 minutes.

My dad always peels everything, I don’t peel my veggies so we tried one potato peeled and the other we left the peel on. There was not a noticeable difference other than the unpeeled one was slightly chewier if you really paid attention. I wouldn’t bother peeling. These were great we all liked them, even my husband who isn’t a big sweet potato fan was happy.

[Xygnis]

Xygnis Recipe 3

 

Seitan Portobello Stew

 

From here http://wellvegan.com/recipes/seitan-portobello-beef-stew though I strongly suspect they borrowed it from Post Punk Kitchen... This recipe is awesome, very filling for not too many calories. I make it with home-made seitan as I can't find any decent shop bought stuff.

 

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 (8 oz.) package seitan, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 large onion, quartered and thickly sliced
• 1 large portobello mushroom, cleaned, stem removed and diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 medium carrot, peeled, sliced on a bias, 1/2 inch thick
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. sweet paprika
• Fresh black pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 lbs. potatoes (any type), peeled, cut in 1 1/2 inch chunks
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste

 

Instructions

1. Preheat a 4 quart pot over medium high heat. Sauté seitan and set aside.
2. Sauté onions, mushrooms and a pinch of salt in oil until until translucent, 4 to 7 minutes. Add garlic, for about a minute, until fragrant.
3. Add carrots, wine, rosemary (crushed in your fingers), thyme (crushed in your fingers), paprika, fresh black pepper and salt and bring to a boil. The liquid should reduce in about 3 minutes.
4. Add vegetable broth, cover and bring to a boil. Now add the potatoes, lower heat and bring to a simmer. Let the potatoes cook just until fork tender, about 15 minutes.
5. In a measuring cup, mix the flour into the water with a fork until no lumps are left. Slowly add the broth/flour to the pot, mixing well. Mix in the tomato paste. Let thicken for 5 minutes or so. Add the seitan and continue to cook. In about 5 more minutes it should be perfectly thick but still smooth.

Again, I'm afraid I had scoffed this down before I had manage to take a picture - it  really s delicious though, and one of my favourite meals. Because I am lazy I tend to buy miniature baby potatoes which means I dont need to peel them, and dont need to chop most of them...

[Darth Yoga]

Recipe #5: Balsamic Baked Chicken and Carrots

(Another episode featuring Oregano & Friends)

 

2 lg chicken breasts

1lb carrots, chopped

olive oil

salt & herbs (same mystery mix as before)

 

We're leaving for a road trip, and my plan had actually been to get a bunch of skinless chicken breasts to cook and cut into chunks, to add to various other cold dishes to eat on the road. But I didn't specify, and my partner came home with a pack of 2 split chicken breasts (bone in, skin-on). So I slathered them in a mix of oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and herbs, and baked them. They looked lonely on the pan, so I chopped up some carrots (slathered in the same oil/etc mix). Baked at 350F for maybe 30 minutes.

 

Because chicken skin is delicious and just doesn't reheat well, I was forced to eat the skin (as well as the tiny bits of meat on the bones as an evening snack. The rest was cubed up and portioned out for three meals for the road.

 

 

Review - Chicken was moist and delicious, but could have been cooked a tad longer and/or at higher heat to get crispy skin. (Meat was just barely cooked. Not pink, but still a litCarrots were not cooked through so the larger chunks were stuck in the microwave for a few minutes. 

[Lightning]

Made this up for a Super Bowl party and thought I'd share...

 

Eggplant Tapenade

 

1 cup of chopped eggplant

1/3 cup chunky tomato/spaghetti sauce

3 green olives (chopped)

olive oil

lemon juice

 

First you have to salt the eggplant and let the cubes sit on a paper towel.  After 20 minutes the cubes should be releasing water and the paper towel will help soak it up. If you skip this step the eggplant will be bitter.

 

Drizzle some olive oil in a small sauce pot.  Put on the stove at medium heat then toss in the eggplant.  Cook until it starts to get a little soft then add the olives and tomato sauce.  Cook for another couple of minutes then turn off the heat and cover the pot. I let it sit for 10 minutes so eveyrthing would steam.  

 

Remove from the stove.  And a tsp of lemon juice to the mixture and blend with a hand blender.  Don't puree, you want it chunky but easy to scoop with a cracker.  Add more lemon juice if you desire.  That's it! 

 

Recipe was a little salty for my taste so next time I will try using canned tomatoes without salt and adding my own spices.  But, others may like it as is, especially if you are putting on toast or something without salt.

[idealistinfire]

Recipe 1: Homemade Vegetable Stock (does this even count?)

5 gallons water

1 gallon vegetable scraps. This version had roughly

-4% red onion

-1% shallot

-1% tomato stems, ends and seeds

-15% carrot skins and ends

-2% bok choose pieces

-11% mushroom pieces (fancy kind)

-2% sweet potato peelings and ends

-3% turnip peelings and ends

-1% purple potato peelings

-1% red pepper pieces

-2% orange pepper pieces

-3% yellow pepper pieces

-4% broccoli

-3% celery

-1% cauliflower

Handful of parsley (fresh)

Handful of garlic pieces and skins

5 sprigs of tyne

2 liberal pinches cayenne pepper

2 liberal pinches rosemary

1 healthy squirter lemon juice

Bring to a boil for 30 minutes, reduce heat to simmer and let cook 3 hours. Cool, drain and add to your favorite recipes needing stock

Review: 5 of 5 stars

This obviously had a strong onion and mushroom flavor, which I love. But overall, it had a strong vegetable flavor, which is usually for my vegetable broths, but it wouldn't overpower a dish when used. I did try it after it had been simmering for an hour and it was okay but not good. The extra cook time really helped bring out the flavors and turned it to a lovely pale brown color. Can't wait to try this in something!

[starsapart]

Today I baked something completely devoid of vegetables, and not at all qualifying for this challenge. But delicious. Someone had made a pile of tiny little sausage patties, and I noticed I had half a box of corn muffin mix that I'd been meaning to use up. So I made up the cornbread mix according to box directions, but I put a cooked sausage patty into each cup of a muffin tin, covered by the mix. (I should have put some of the mix under the sausages also, to thoroughly embed the sausage.)

 

So good. So fatty. So carby. I don't really eat straight-up sweets, but I love sweet-savory-fatty stuff like this.

(Cornbread in New England is nothing like Southern cornbread. It has as much white flour and sugar as it does cornmeal, so basically cornmeal poundcake.)

 

I did eat it with broccoli!

 

LOL!  Sounds tasty, though it doesn't count for the mini.

 

Recipe 1: Homemade Vegetable Stock (does this even count?)

 

Of course!  You made a thing from multiple ingredients!  And used way more than one veggie, at that.

[mediaguy99]

Recipe:  My standard morning smoothie!

 

4oz Orange Juice

4oz H20

two fistfuls of baby spinach

two handfuls of frozen mixed raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries

Optional additions:  One Emergen-C packet, one scoop of protein powder.

 

Makes 16 oz.

 

Review:  Absolutely delicious.  This is a recipe that I developed over a few months, and it works.  It doesn't give me heartburn (OJ often does), and it keeps me filled for at least three hours in the morning.  I usually have it with some small portion of meat, often some kind of sausage (preferably nitrate-free).

[Suzaqu]

Suzaqu Recipe #2: Avocado cucumber salad

Once again from Smitten Kitchen

 

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side

 

1 seedless cucumber (they’re pretty large), washed and chopped into chunks

2 thin or 1 regular scallion, thinly sliced

1 large avocado, pitted and diced

2 tablespoons mayonnaise (greek yogurt would work well in this, I just didn’t have any)

Juice of half a lime, plus more to taste (1.5 tbsp ish)

Salt

Pepper 

Hot sauce (I used Sriracha) to taste (2tsp ish)

Chopped cilantro to garnish

 

Combine cucumber, scallions and avocado in a bowl. Whisk together mayo, lime and seasonings, adjusting levels to taste. Drizzle salad with dressing and garnish with cilantro or parsley. I'd recommend putting salt and pepper on the veggies as well, because it gets diluted once the dressing is spread over all the veggies.

 

If you coat the salad in the dressing, it keeps well for a few days.

 

Review: I love this! I’ve made it before several times, and it’s definitely obsessively good. I’ve been known to eat a whole batch over the course of a day. The spice of the hot sauce works really well against the creaminess of the avocado and the crisp freshness of the cucumber.