Category: Recipes

Who would have thought that I would find a recipe for fried chicken and onions while sitting at a restaurant waiting for breakfast to be served? That’s exactly what happened and I am glad it did as this recipe is really really delicious. You must try it! I halved the recipe for two reasons: 1) I didn’t want leftovers because 2) there were only two who would be eating and I didn’t want us to overeat (we’re not very good at eating leftovers).

Ingredients:

• 5 chicken legs or thighs
• 1/2 large yellow onion, sliced into rings
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
• Salt (to taste)
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Vegetable oil

1. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, onion, buttermilk, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne and salt
2. Cover bowl and set aside for at least 30 minutes
3. In a paper bag (or bowl) combine the flour, black pepper and a dash of onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne and salt (the small amounts of the powders are not included in the ingredients)
4. In a large heavy skillet (I used our electric skillet), heat the oil over medium high heat until very hot. (On the electric skillet I set it at 350 degrees fahrenheit). The oil should be deep enough to cover the chicken halfway
5. Drain the chicken and onion rings then add them to the flour mixture until they are coated
6. Transfer the chicken to the skillet but make sure you don’t overcrowd it
7. Fry turning occasionally for 10 minutes on one side
8. Turn to fry the other side of the chicken for an additional 10 minutes and add the onion rings at this time
9. Fry until the chicken is golden brown and fully cooked.
10. Drain the chicken and onion rings on a wire rack or paper towels

Exceptions from the original recipe:

• I did not sprinkle parsley on the chicken once it cooked as I decided not to bother purchasing a bunch of parsley only to use a little bit
• I fried the chicken 10 minutes on each side instead of the 10-14 minutes per side as I find that chicken sometimes overcooks the longer you fry/bake it and then it’s tough

It’s not every day that I find a recipe that has the nutritional information but this one did so here it is:

• Serves 5 (only if you each have one piece of chicken)
• 300 calories per serving
• 4 grams carbs
• 30 grams protein
• 17 grams fat
• 105 mg cholesterol
• 100 mg sodium
• 0 grams fiber

I served this with garlic mashed potatoes and a blueberry melon salad. Enjoy!

This recipe was found in the Parade “Sunday Dinner” section dated July 1, 2012 and was perfected by the singer, Norah Jones.

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I enjoy barley. From “regular” barley to barley cereal, it has a taste that has always appealed to me.  This salad is really good IF you like barley. If you’ve never had it before then I would try the recipe and see what you think. Barley has a “smooth” texture in your mouth after its cooked.

Ingredients (for the salad)

• 1 cup barley
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted
• 1 pear, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/4 cup raisins, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes
• 1 bunch parsley, chopped
• 3 cups vegetable bouillon

Directions

1. Cook the barley in 3 cups vegetable bouillon until the barley is soft.
2. When the barley is cooked (about 1/2 hour), drain the excess liquid and place the barley in a bowl.
3. Cool the barley in the refrigerator.
4. Place the raisins in a small bowl and cover with boiling water.
5. Chop the walnuts and toast them in a dry frying pan, stirring constantly to keep from burning. (The alternative is to toast them in the oven for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees.)
6. Finely chop the leafy parts of the parsley.
7. Mix the ingredients for the dressing and season it to your taste with salt and pepper.
8. Remove the barley from the refrigerator.
9. Mix in the walnuts.
10. Drain the excess water from the raisins and add them to the salad.
11. Mix in the parsley and stir the dressing over the top a little at a time and taste it until you like the consistency.
12. Peel the pear and slice it then chop the slices into small pieces.
13. Add the pear pieces to the salad and mix.
14. Serve the salad cooled, but at room temperature.

That’s it! I made this salad for two but it easily feeds 4 and possibly 6 if you have it as a side to another dish.  Yum!

This recipe is courtesy of vegalicious.org.

I woke up one day wanting to making blueberry muffins. Ever have one of those days where you just have an urge for a particular food? It doesn’t happen very often to me, well, unless it’s chocolate. (laughing)

But, I had a problem. I had no eggs. I looked high and low in all of my recipe books and couldn’t find one recipe that did not include eggs. So, I started a search on the internet and found a good recipe. The muffins came out light and “soft.”

Ingredients

• 2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup frozen blueberries, unthawed

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit for 15 minutes
2. Lightly grease a muffin tin
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt
4. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, milk, oil, lemon juice and vinegar then mix this all together
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir until it’s just combined — don’t over-stir or the muffins will come out tough instead of soft
6. Gently fold in the blueberries
7. Fill the muffin tin about 2/3 full of the batter
8. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 20 minutes but ovens vary so check after 15 minutes and make the necessary adjustments)
9. When done, remove from the oven, let the muffins cool for about 5 minutes then move the muffins to a rack to cool

• Instead of using 2 lemons, I used already made lemon juice I bought at the store
• I used vegetable oil instead of canola oil
• I used apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar
• I halved the recipe and it came out fine (the recipe above is for 12 muffins)

This recipe (I hear) can also be made with rice or soy milk if you want the recipe to be vegan.  Enjoy!

At first I thought this recipe might not taste good due to its combination of ingredients but I was wrong. The cranberries give it a nice sweet taste while the nuts make it crunchy which made it very palatable . Another good recipe from the book 1000 Vegan Recipes.

Ingredients

• 5 cups basmati rice, cooked and cooled
• 1 cup frozen baby peas, thawed
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
• 1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
• 4 dates, finely chopped
• 2 green onions, finely minced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup cranberry juice
• 1.5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. In a large bowl, combine the rice, walnuts, cranberries, dates and green onions
2. In a small bowl, combine the cranberry juice, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sugar
3. Pour the liquid mixture over the rice mixture a little at a time until it has the right consistency and taste for you
4. Season with the salt and pepper
5. Set the mixture aside for 30 minutes before serving to marinate the rice with the seasoning

That’s it! Pretty easy and tasty. I did make some changes to the original recipe as follows:

• I used 5 cups of white rice instead of a combination of wild rice and basmati rice
• I used dates instead of figs
• I did not use all of the seasoning as I thought it would come out too liquidy

I liked this entree at room temperature which is what they recommend. Since we had leftovers, I had refrigerated the leftovers and microwaved them and they tasted fine a little warmer than room temperature. So — try it both ways to your liking. This is also simple enough to make ahead of time and then add the dressing right before you’re ready to serve it.

Enjoy!

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I learned a new way to make garlic bread although I didn’t follow all of the instructions from the recipe but adjusted it to the ingredients I had at home.

It was quick, easy, delicious and the recipe can be adjusted to your own palette preferences without much effort.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese, at room temperature
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 loaf of French bread, sliced

This is another wonderful dish from the 1000 Vegan Recipes cookbook that I’m hoping to try many recipes from. It is very tasteful but you do have to like olives — which I do! Even as leftovers the next day, it warmed up very well. The olives gave my palette a burst of flavor in my mouth.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon (or less if you don’t like it too spicy) crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• Salt and pepper (to your taste)
• 3/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
• 1/4 cup green olives, pitted and halved
• 3 tablespoons capers
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh or dried parsley
• 1 pound linguine

1.  In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat
2. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes then cook through for about 30 seconds
3. Stir in both cans of the tomatoes, the oregano and basil
4. Add salt and pepper (to your taste)
5. Bring the sauce to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes stirring occasionally
6. Add the olives, capers and parsley then cover and keep warm
7. In a large pot, boil salted water and cook the linguine according to package instructions
8. Once the linguine is cooked, put it in a bowl, pour the sauce over it and toss it gently to combine it all

Quinoa? What is quinoa? After buying a large bag of it (I like to try new things) I had better find out, eh?

Quinoa is sometimes considered a grain but it is actually a seed. It has a slightly nutty flavor and can be prepared like rice or barley. The texture is soft — almost like couscous. A nutritionist I know called it “the perfect food” and says it is filled with vitamins, proteins, amino acids, minerals, and fiber. It also contains the essential omega-3 fatty acids which provides benefits to the heart. Sounds pretty close to a perfect food, eh?

I like the texture of quinoa — it feels soft in my mouth and doesn’t taste heavy in my belly.

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups quinoa, well rinsed
• Salt
• 1 1/2 cups cooked or 1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 4 ripe plum tomatoes, chopped but not too small
• 1/2 cup minced red onion
• 1/2 cup basil
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Add the water to a large saucepan and bring it to a boil over high heat
2. Add the quinoa, salt the water and return to a boil
3. When it’s simmering, reduce the heat, cover the saucepan and allow the quinoa to cook through (until the water is absorbed) for about 20 minutes
4. Once cooked, transfer the quinoa to a large bowl
5. Add the black beans, tomatoes, onion, basil then stir it all together
6. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, vinegar, salt (to your taste) and pepper — this will be the dressing
7. Pour 1/2 of the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Taste and see if the flavor is right for you
8. Continue adding the dressing until you feel comfortable with the taste and the consistency, ie, not too oily tasting

Serves approximately 10 as a side dish.

The recipe is from the cookbook I received as a gift, 1000 Vegan Recipes.

I made the following changes to the original recipe:

• Used basil instead of parsley
• Use red wine vinegar instead of sherry vinegar

The recipe says it feeds 4 but you have to eat a LOT of this salad for it to feed four. I used it as a side dish so had lots left over. I covered the leftovers with plastic and the next day the salad still tasted fine. However, like other salads I’ve made that have a dressing, my preference would be make the salad and add the dressing a few minutes before you’re ready to serve it. I find it tastes fresher that way.

Another very good recipe from my new cookbook.

 

 

At first glance, the name of this recipe sounded a little odd to me but since I have lots of red lentils (that I bought very inexpensively, by the way) I decided to try it. One of my goals this year is to try more vegan recipes from the cookbook, 1000 Vegan Recipes, that I was given for Christmas.

What a wonderful surprise this soup turned out to be! It was delicious. I had my doubts in the beginning because when I added the can of crushed tomatoes the soup looked red and tasted too much like tomatoes. But the longer it cooked, the more the sweet butternut flavors came through.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon mild curry powder
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can unsalted crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup red lentils, picked over, rinsed and drained
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup water
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 cups finely chopped stemmed red Swiss chard

1. In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the onion, squash and garlic then cover and cook until the vegetables are softened, 10-15 minutes.
3. Stir in the ginger and curry powder.
4. Add the tomatoes, lentils, broth, water, and the salt and pepper to taste.
5. Bring the soup to a boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until the lentils and vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes.
6. Stir occasionally.
7. About 15 minutes before serving, stir in the chard.
8. Adjust the seasonings if necessary and then serve.

I made the following changes to this recipe to suit my family’s taste:

• First, instead of chopping the onion (which means they’d be larger) I diced it since one of my son’s doesn’t like onions. This helps the onion to cook more thoroughly so the soup doesn’t taste too much like onion.
• Second,I used 2 cloves of garlic instead of one.
• Third, I used only 1/2 teaspoon curry powder instead of the 1 tablespoon that the original recipe calls for. The original recipe also says you can use hot curry powder but since we don’t like a strong curry flavor I toned it down.
• Fourth, I used 4 cups of broth and one cup of water instead of 5 cups of broth. In the past, I have found that when I use too much broth the soup tastes more like the broth than anything else. I wanted to make sure that the other flavors were enhanced.

Really and truly, this was a great tasting soup. I served it with a pear, pecan, blue cheese salad and Naan bread. I wasn’t trying to have a vegan meal — just try a new vegan recipe. I hardly noticed that this soup had red lentils in it.

This soup is now on my favorites list. If you try it, please let me know how you like it and what other variations you try.

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