Mexican Stuffing...? (Thanksgiving leftover casserole)

(Aplogies for lack of pictures, didn't realize I would blog this one until after dinner!)

I had: 3/4 box of broth, half bag of stuffing bread, a large amount of broken tortilla chips at bottom of bag, and half of a butternut squash.  My mom had also sent me home with a can of creamed corn and a jar of roasted red peppers. Usually always have canned black beans on stock which would be an easy protein.

My original thought was to use the bread and broth since it would go bad first, however, making normal stuffing after Thanksgiving was way to boring!  Plus I didn't have all the ingredients for that.  But "stuffing" using bread and broken tortilla chips sounded like fun!  Both will soak up liquid and become soft and yummy.
Thinking of my other ingredients, it became clear this was going to be a dump and bake casserole!

Instead of sauteeing a mirepoix like normal stuffing, I sauteed chopped butternut squash and onion.  I added salt, pepper, sage and cumin towards end.

In the meantime, get a large bowl and start dumping ingredients!  Bread, chips, creamed corn, (rinsed) black beans, chopped peppers, some grated cheese, broth, and as much other liquid as needed.  This can all be broth if you have enough, otherwise water, milk, wine, etc will also work.  Add more seasonings.  I added more sage, cumin, salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. As always, get creative or use what you like. 

Cover and bake at 350-375 until hot throughout, then uncover and sprinkle grated cheese on top.  Bake until melted.

"Big bite."  Henry approved.

Turnip Potato "Stoup"

(Sorry for the delay, technical difficulties....)
My vegetable of choice at the grocery store was organic turnips.  I love turnips and it seemed like time.

They sat in my refrigerator for a few days until I had formed my plan of action.  I realized that I did not want to roast their tender and subtle flavor.  I felt that moist heat would serve them best.  I also had a half bag of organic potatoes in my pantry and after the pumpkin sauce, I also had a half container of vegetable broth.  This signaled only one thing: Turnip Potato "Stoup" (thank you Rachel Ray).
As for protein?  With soups like these, its easy to throw in a handful of quinoa toward the end and call it a meal.  Quinoa is one of very few vegetarian sources of 'complete protein' and is quite easy to cook.  As always, choose your protein of choice, or just enjoy a lower protein meal!

Soups are very easy and when you know the blueprint you are then free to make any kind of soup you can imagine.  1. Saute 2. Add liquid  3. simmer until done.  (Please note, sometimes soups can be done even easier with just boiling, or canned vegetables and a blender)

1. I started with the standard french 'mirepoix.'  A saute of onion, celery, and carrots with enough olive oil to cover entire bottom of pot.  This can become technical with exact ratio's etc.  But like usual, I like to keep it simple and use however much I want or have, omitting or adding as wished.  I also added half of the garlic I chopped.

After this has time to 'get happy' (thank you Emeril Lagasse) and has started to soften, add the chopped potatoes and turnips.  I add salt, pepper, and my hardy herbs and spices now so they have a chance to open their flavor in a saute before adding liquid. Because I think garlic's flavor can get cooked out sometimes, I waited and added the rest of it now so there would be less total cooking time.
The somewhat sharp horseradish flavor of turnip made me think of pickling which made me think of dill and then dill seed.  Perfect!  I had just dried and stored a jar of dill seeds last weekend and was wondering how I would use them.  They have a slight caraway flavor and I thought it would be tasty.  At the end I would add dried dill weed and fresh parsley.

You can get creative here potatoes, and probably turnips too, are very open to many flavors.  I'm sure thyme, rosemary, basil, sage would also be good.  You could also go Eastern and try Indian spices like curry powder, turmeric, cumin, etc.  Go with what you have and/or feel like.

2. Once everything is starting to get soft and stick to the bottom nice and good, add your liquid.  This can be stock or even plain water.  I usually use a mixture of both since store bought broths tend to have almost too much flavor/salt for my taste.  Add enough to cover everything in the pot and turn up the heat a bit.

Quinoa takes approximately 15 minutes to cook.  So I estimated when that would be (pretty soon after adding the liquid) and threw in 2 decent handfuls.

3.  Once its boiling, turn down the heat to a simmer and sit back until everything is tender and delicious.  Now you can add even more layers of flavor.  I added a little bit more dill seed so that some would taste 'fresher' than the first batch.  Also added chopped fresh parsley.  I waited until nearly done before adding dill since it is a much more fragile herb.  Again, use flavors you feel like.

At the end you can also choose to add a splash of cream to make this a 'creamy' soup or keep it vegan.  Another choice is to blend or not to blend?   I always appreciate some texture to soups but like the thickness blending offers.  So I usually use my immersion blender and blend half of the soup.  This basically creates a thicker base for the 'stoup.'  You can also use a blender if you don't have an immersion, and blend as much or little as you like!

I blend about half of the soup.

 Delicious, hearty, and healthy!

Pumpkin Cream Sauce with Pasta

Yes, I know, 2 winter squash and pasta recipes in a row!  Will get diversity next time, but trust me, this one is worth the monotony!  And great for a pre-'trick-or-treat' meal!

I'm always looking for savory pumpkin recipes so that I can use up the leftover can of pumpkin after making pumpkin cookies, scones, or pancakes this time of year.  Some of you might remember my very first meal on here and total blunder with the 'pumpkin encrusted tempeh' from last year!  yuck... So I was really excited when I saw a pumpkin pasta recipe on the back of my Kroger whole wheat penne.  I personally don't like following recipes (feels too restrictive and complicated and less creative in my opinion, but to each their own!), but they are great for getting ideas!  I just perused the recipe and got the 'gist' of it.
It was basically a pumpkin cream sauce with cheese, sausage and pasta added.  I can make that my own, and if Kroger thinks it's good, it must be good!

Of course this meant I had to make pumpkin cookies first!  Which made for a perfectly pumpkin day since we were going to carve ours when Cody got home.  :)

To start dinner get the pot of water for pasta going and the pan ready to saute onions and garlic.  I used a small white onion and about 3-4 cloves of garlic.  Add your choice of protein (or not.  Pasta has decent amount on own).  I was just going to use tofu, but the fake vegetarian sausage was on sale right next to it and I thought I would splurge!  I don't usually like to eat a lot of processed meat alternatives but this one actually didn't have any isolated soy protein, just gluten (main protein in wheat, barley, and rye) and tofu.  I am okay with an onslaught of gluten in my body once in a while!  Saute with some olive oil or coconut oil until onions are tender.

Then add some broth of your choice--maybe 2 cups or so, and the pumpkin.  I just used what was left of the can I had for the cookies, maybe 1 cup.  The recipe called for 12 oz I believe, just make as pumpkin-y as you like!  This is when you should add the spices and any vegetables you want.  I liked Kroger's idea of cinnamon and red pepper flakes.  I added a sprinkling of those and a dash of nutmeg.  I love nutmeg to add a subtle sweet/spicy depth to savory dishes, especially when winter squash is involved.  I also added some frozen peas.

Let this simmer for a while and reduce.  Towards the end add a splash of cream and let simmer a few more minutes.  If you wanted this sauce cheesy, add your choice of grated cheese now. 

Can someone tell me why sometimes my pictures are sideways?? Looks right side up when I upload.. I don't understand

 When pasta is done, add it right to the sauce pan.  Season with salt and pepper as needed.  We sprinkled some grated Parmesan on ours.  Seriously delicious!

Farmhouse Gourmet: Homemade pasta with butternut squash tomato sauce

Saturday night at the Thompson's house turned into a gourmet event!  But have no fear, like all my meals, still inexpensive and simple.  I promise!
We had a few of our last tomatoes and a small butternut squash that wasn't going to keep well.  I was thinking something simple for dinner like spaghetti and since it wasdecided to make a sauce with the tomatoes and squash. And, ever since my revelation with the ease and delicous-ness of homemade pasta this past summer, I knew this sauce, and our bellies, deserved this heartiest of noodle.
Start with the squash since it takes longest to cook.  I like to cut the top off from the round bottom before I cut away the skin.  Makes it a little easier and gives it a flat surface to put on cutting board (sorry for lack of pictures, didn't think to post until after!).  Cut the squash into small cubes, the smaller, the faster it will cook.  Get those sauteing on medium heat with olive oil.  While that is cooking, dice up a whole onion and your herbs of choice including a few cloves of garlic.  I was thinking that hardier herbs (sage and rosemary) are good with winter squash and Italian herbs (oregano and basil) since it is pasta sauce. 
Let the squash saute for several minutes and then cover it for a few more minutes to give it a head start before adding the onion, garlic, and herbs (wait to add basil until end since it is more delicate).  Let the onion get a head start before adding the chopped tomatoes.  Deglaze (add liquid to saute pan to remove stuck and delicious food from bottom) with balsamic vinegar or sherry or anything you desire.  Tomatoes will also deglaze with their juice.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

While everything is simmering in the pan, get started on the noodle dough.  A few months ago, I would have been intimidated by this but I promise it is easier and tastier than you think!  There are many recipes out there but I appreciate 'The Pioneer Woman's' recipe on her blog the best.  She breaks the recipe down to 2 eggs per 1 cup of flour so you can make as little or much as you like.  Plus she makes it without a pasta machine however, you can do either way.  Tonight, I decided to try cutting with a knife like Ree instead of using our little pasta maker.  The noodles were extremely fat!  Which is fine, roll it to your liking.
Get a pot of water boiling and add basil to the sauce if you haven't already.  Keep stirring and letting the sauce simmer.
I used 2 cups of flour and 4 eggs, mixing by hand then kneading a little bit on a floured cutting board and rolling it as thin as I could.  Cut the noodles however you want!  Then drop them in the salted boiling water.  They don't take long to cook, rule of thumb is they are done when float to top.  Take them out of the pot with a slotted spoon and add right to your pan of sauce.  Season with salt, pepper, and/or cayenne pepper to taste.  Serve with salad (trust me with noodles like these, you don't need bread!).  Sit down with your loved ones, a candle, and a glass of wine-- Enjoy!

Leftover Pasta Tuna Salad

Post Market Day dinner yesterday consisted of a simple garden zucchini and onion saute with butter, olive oil, and herbs over whole wheat pasta.  I made too much pasta for the amount of saute.  So I wanted tonight's dinner to clear some room in the fridge and use up the pasta.  A can of tuna and our garden would do the trick!

Tuna pasta salad.  I think of it as tuna salad with lots of veggies and pasta--mayo dressing with vinegar for some tang. We had tomatoes and cucumbers that needed eaten and lots of onions from farmers market trades.  Chopped those up and threw into the bowl of pasta and tuna along with the last of our carrots and fresh dill.  You can truly add any vegetable you have or like it doesn't matter.  We had just finished a jar of our 'refrigerator pickles' and the brine had become so garlicy, spicy, and delicious!  I couldn't bare to think of tossing it so I chopped up the garlic and used some of the brine as my vinegar.  A couple dollops of mayo, pinch of salt, pepper.
Cody brought in our very last head of lettuce and I topped it with the tuna salad.  Delicious!

Garden Harvest Pasta Primavera

We are lucky enough to have an over-abundance of kale!  (Seriously, anyone in the area who wants some, please stop by).  We also started harvesting zucchini and I had carrots left in the fridge.  There was half of a box of pasta and lots of lentils in the pantry.  Low on pasta sauce so I thought immediately of pasta primavera with a butter/olive oil/garlic sauce.
Wash and cut all vegetables using what you have in your garden or fridge.  I chopped up the kale, some zucchini, a yellow squash from a neighbors garden, and a few of our carrots.  I am not one to worry about cutting in a consistent size, because I don't mind if things cook differently.  I am a terrible French chef...

 Boil the pasta water and add lentils first, let them go for a few minutes before adding the pasta.  Then let the pasta cook for a couple minutes before adding all the vegetables.  I left some of the kale leaves out to add at end since they really don't need much time.
Since I think boiling onion and garlic eliminates their flavor, I chopped them up with the herbs and added at the end.  I chose fresh basil and dill but you can use any fresh or dried herb you like.
I also added a dab of butter and splash of extra virgin olive oil with some salt and pepper.  Delicious, fresh, and healthy!  Serve with a lemon slice for added flavor and nutrition (the vitamin C in the lemon will help you absorb more iron in the lentils).

Connie and Kale!

It was a perfect day:  Connie was here!  We ran at the park, we picked some kale from the garden, we made stir fry and cocktails...pretty sure doesn't get much better!

We definitely had fresh kale, but I was pretty low on other produce.  Pulled out some old carrots that were still good, onion and garlic of course.  And that was all we needed.

I chopped the carrots and kale.  Connie cut the onions into bigger pieces and I really liked it that way.  Seemed to enhance it's flavor and sweetness.  She also used rice vinegar along with soy sauce and the taste was out of this world!  I mean, we love stir fry's over here any way it falls on our plate, but this was especially tasty...

Stir fry usually means higher heat for a shorter time.  Turn off the heat at any point and call it ready when the vegetables are the way you like them.  Use olive oil, coconut oil, canola it doesn't matter.  If you wanted extra protein add some tempeh, tofu, or meat.  We just put ours over brown rice.  Delicious.