Semi-Homemade

I went to Trader Joe’s today and tried their sample of Schezuan beef and broccoli  - it was so delicious (And I was rather hungry) so I bought a bag.

The nutrition facts were less than desirable with 430 calories a serving, 13 grams of fat, 1400 mg sodium, and sugar being one of the main ingredients. But, alas, I always like to believe in “everything in moderation”  - so I decided I could use it as part of a dinner entrée.

 

I marinated a block of extra firm tofu in

·      Trader Joe’s Low sodium Soyaki sauce (~2 tablespoons)

·      1 Tablespoon lime juice

·      sprinkle of ginger

In the microwave I cooked up

·      1 bag of frozen mixed oriental vegetables

·      4 medium carrots, chopped (I bought a 5 pound bag of carrots hence why every recipe I will be posting is likely heavy on the carrots)

After the tofu marinated for about an hour, I sautéed it in a frying pan over medium-high heat.

Next, I prepared the TJ’s Schezuan beef and broccoli, per its cooking instructions, sautéing the beef in the frying pan, and microwaving the broccoli.

I like my veggies a little bit crispier so I added those to the frying pan after microwaving as well.

 

 

I then combined all ingredients in a pan and mixed in the Schezuan sauce

I also made some brown rice on the side.  And Tada!:

 

 

The brown rice adds in a whole grain, which is a great source of fiber, and provides more vitamins and minerals.

The tofu is a good source of plant protein, is lower in fat than many animal proteins (Such as the beef) and contains phytoestrogens which have been linked (when consumed in moderation) to decreased risk of cancer.

The vegetables are a great source of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and antioxidants. They are also low in calories and a good source of fiber.

Thanksgiving Leftover Turkey Soup

Post Thanksgiving, aka Black Friday, has been a relaxing, yet semi-productive day!

Yesterday Jordan and I hit three Thanksgivings, but of course, we did not pace ourselves and only really ate at the first one.

We did, however, get some lovely leftovers. One of my best finds would have to be the turkey carcass from Jordan’s brother’s house. I was helping with clean up, and they were going to throw the bird remains away! Since no one else was interested in making soup with it, I decided to step up and offer to take it off of their hands.

As you may know, I was a vegetarian for quite some time. I am now back to my omnivorous ways, but I still try to limit my impact of animal eating by at least making use of as much as I can- hence, my compulsive need to repurpose the carcass.

So this morning I started my turkey soup making.  This is only my second attempt making a soup with a carcass- so I am sure my routine could use some refining, and from some internet sources I read, many people add in a lot more steps, but, frankly I think mine came out just fine.

Ingredients used:

·      1 Turkey carcass(I only used half of mine, and froze the rest for a later time)

·      1 Red onion

·      1 Yellow onion

·      4 ribs Celery, chopped

·      ~ 2 pounds Carrots, chopped

·      4 tiny Red potato, quartered

·      2 medium Idaho potato, chopped

·      1 Italian pepper, chopped

·      1 cup Frozen peas

·      ½ cup Frozen corn

·      2 cups dry Egg noodles

·      1 cup dry Lentils

·      5 cloves garlic, sliced

·      Thyme

·      Rosemary

·      Black pepper

·      Parsley

·      Oregano 

(As usual- I just used whatever veggies I had around- no real need for mixed colors of onions/ potatoes etc, they just happened to be hanging around) 

1.     I started by making the stock by placing the carcass in my crockpot with water, the veggies that were stuffed inside (in this case red onion, celery, and parsley). I also threw in an additional yellow onion (quartered) and a few carrots (roughly chopped).  I simmered this for a few hours. 

2.     During the interm, I chopped up some of the other veggies and threw them into the pot as I went.  I also added the spices and garlic at this time.

3.     After a few hours of simmering I removed the bones from the stock. Some of the meat had already fallen off, but I picked at the carcass and removed the rest of the meat before throwing it away. I gave the weird bits that I wasn’t quite sure what they were to Leo, who was quite appreciative. 

4.     I added the meat back into the stock.  ** This is where my methods varied from a lot of others I read, many people make the stock, strain it, cool it, remove the fat etc, and get rid of the veggies and stuff they used in the stock.. but I just kept it in there. I only had a little bit of fat on the top so I just skimmed that off in the crock pot. 

5. I then added the egg noodles and lentils.

    

6. I then continued simmering the soup on low for most of the day. I decided I wanted it to be a bit thicker of a soup, so I removed some of the large pieces of potatoes, carrots, and celery and placed them in another bowl and blenderized them with an immersion blender, then added the pureed soup back into the crock pot.

Here are a few pictures of the end result. I was surprised how much meat was actually in the soup considering it was only what was on half of a turkey carcass- and what was going to be thrown away! 

What are you making with your Thanksgiving left overs?? 

October-Cake

 One inspired evening (after a bottle of wine or so) Jordan and I devised the name for a dessert named Octobercake!

After coming up with the name, we then proceeded to develop the ingredient list:

(Note: Jordan wrote. My spelling is minimally better.)

The next morning I woke up with the urge to create said Octobercake, which required coming up with a slightly more defined recipe.

So the plan became that we would make an oatmeal/ gingersnap cookie crust, with a layer of pumpkin pie and a layer of pumpkin cake and then possibly top it with some sort of frosting.

I would like to pre-cursor that this is NOT a healthy recipe. I tried to make some healthy substitutions, and in theory since pumpkin is a vegetable, you are getting in a veggie, but nonetheless this is definitely a “sometimes” food :P

We began with a gingersnap cookie crust:

To make the gingersnap cookies I used:

·      1 stick butter, unsalted

·      1/2 cup white sugar

·      1/3 cup brown sugar

·      1 egg (or ¼ cup egg substitute)

·      ¼ cup molassess

·      2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

o   (all purpose flour is fine too—I keep the whole wheat on my counter so it is the easier option for me)

·      ½ teaspoon baking powder

·      1/2 tablespoon ground ginger

·      1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·      1/8 teaspoon salt

1.     Pre-heat oven to 325*

2.     In a medium to large bowl: Cream together slightly softened butter and sugars.

3.     Add egg and molasses and mix.

4.     In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, spices and salt.

5.     Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix.

6.     Roll dough into balls and place on a greased or lined cookie sheet.

7.     Bake in pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes.

Since I made the cookies with the intention of smashing them up to make pie crust, I just made a few large cookies. Feel free to make them whatever size you want.

Pie Crust:

·      1.5 cups smashed gingersnap cookies.

·      ½ cup plain, dry oatmeal

·      4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

·      1 teaspoon cinnamon

·      Pie tin

1.     Either using the gingersnap cookies you just made, or store bought ones, crush them up using a food processor or squishing them with a blunt object.

I personally added mine into a food processor, which I discovered did not work, so I proceeded to crush them with the end of my immersion blender – because when I tried to use that as a blender, it turns out the cookie bits just get stuck inside of it.

2.     Add oatmeal, cinnamon and melted butter. Continue the swishing together process until combined.

3.     Once the crumbs are relatively evenly crumby and moist, spread crumbs over the pie tin. (You may wish to spray with a nonstick spray first, I did not do this, and it stuck.) Using your hands (Wash them first!) spread the crumbs out evenly along the bottom and the edges of the tin. Voila!

Alternatively to this step, you could just use a premade graham cracker crust pie, but the gingersnap really does add something!

Then for the pumpkin pie layer:

·      1 large can plain pumpkin, or 2 cups of pureed, baked sugar pumpkin

·      1- 12 oz can unsweetened evaporated fat free milk

·      ½ cup brown sugar

·      ¼ cup white sugar

·      2 eggs (or ½ cup egg substitute)

·      1 tablespoon cinnamon

·      1 teaspoon ginger

·      ½ teaspoon nutmeg

·      ¼ teaspoon cloves

1.     Preheat oven to 425*

2.     In a large bowl mix sugars, spices and eggs.

3.     Add in pumpkin and evaporated milk and mix.

4.     Pour into pie crust you made (or bought). Fill only about half way.

5.     Begin baking in oven for 30 minutes.

6.     Start making your pumpkin cake batter!

Pumpkin Cake layer

·      ¾ cup sugar

·      ½ cup applesauce

·      2 eggs (or ½ cup egg substitute)

·      1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (again, all purpose can be used instead)

·      1 teaspoon baking soda

·      ½ teaspoon baking powder

·      1 teaspoon cinnamon

·      ½ teaspoon ground ginger

·      1 cup pumpkin (OR I justed used ~1 cup of the left over pumpkin pie mix from above!)

1.     Check on your pumpkin pie layer, after about 30-45 minutes the top should look relatively “set”. If the crust starts to burn, cover it with tin foil.

2.     Once the pumpkin pie layer is semi-firm, pour the cake layer on top of it, filling up the pie tin.

3.     Turn oven down to 350*

4.     Bake Octobercake for about 40 minutes at 350*, or until cake layer is cooked through (you can do the toothpick test for this.)

And now you have an October Cake! 

It is particularily good served with either: vanilla ice cream, light whipped topping or a cream cheese frosting.

I tried this cream cheese frosting on it (I honestly prefer just the ice cream on it though. )

·      1 cup light cream cheese

·      1 tablespoon vanilla extract

·      4 tablespoons butter

·      ~2 cups confectioners sugar

1.     add all ingredients into a bowl and blend with mixer (or shear arm power!) You may need more confectioner’s sugar.

2.     Add to cooled cake. 

Life update

Much has occurred since I have actually ‘written’:

As on July 15^th:

I am officially a Registered Dietitian (RD)!

July 31^st:

I am engaged to be married

Mid August:

Got laid off from one of my jobs.

August 30^th:

I have a Masters Degree in nutrition.

September 1^st:

Moved from Cambridge to Gloucester.

So, I am now officially:  Jamie L Doherty, MS RD LDN -- Unfortunately despite all of those cool letters I finally have after my name, I have not had to opportunity to use any of them.  I have been getting rather depressed lately, namely due to the job search.  I have applied to literally hundreds of jobs, had a few interviews, and gotten a lot of rejection and “thanks, but no thanks” emails.

I am thankful to still have my job at MGH as a diet technician, however, since I have spent the last 6 years getting all of those credentials, I would really LOVE to use them.

Yesterday I was temped to write a long whiny post regarding my woes, however, no one wants to read that- even me! So I will chalk it up to:

·      Woe is me

·      Blah blah blah—the economy.

·      Catch 22- no one hired you without experience but you cannot get experience without being hired… but Wait a minute! What about my years of school, internships and diet technician/ nutrition assistant positions?? Those are not experience??

Anyway… that is my story morning glory.  Hoping to see more of you, dearest blogspot page J

For now, I at least have Leo to keep me company on the couch. 

Jamie and Leo- signing out!

Strawberry Rhubarb Ice Cream

Last week from my CSA with Enterprise Farms, I got a bunch of rhubarb. Honestly, All I have ever known rhubarb for was strawberry rhubarb pie. I posted on twitter for any recommendations on what to do with this stalk-y tart vegetable. Kerry from Kerry Cooks told me about her Rhubarb Chutney While I got suggestions for jams, and soups, and of course pie. I ultimately went with Amanda, from the The Kitchen Misfit 's idea for ice cream.

I have haven't made ice cream, since about the age of 7 or 8 when my sister had a barbie ice cream maker, which shockingly didn't work terribly well. But I decided to give it a go.

I used this recipe from myrecipes.com as a base recipe and then adjusted to try to make it a bit more nutritionally sound/ my taste.


Ingredients:
2.5 cups low fat milk
1 cup fat free half and half
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
3 packets truvia
1 bunch fresh rhubarb (chopped, about 2-3 cups)
2-3 cups strawberries (I used half fresh/ half frozen)
3/4 cup red wine (*** in retrospect, possibly too much)

1.  Combine milk and half and half over medium-high heat until bubbles form around the edge. Do not boil. 
2.  In a large bowl combine 1/2 cup sugar and egg yolks, and stir until pale yellow.
3. Slowly pour in about half of hot milk mixture and stir constantly. 
4. Pour egg/ milk mixture into pan with the rest of the milk mixture and heat until it reaches 160* F, stirring constantly. 
5. Place pan into an ice bath, until custard cools, stirring occasionally.  
6. In a sauce pan combine wine, rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and tuvia. heat and bring to a boil until rhubarb is tender and liquid is syrupy. 

7. Remove from heat. Wait 10 minutes to cool, then add strawberry rhubarb mixture to custard mixture and stir. (*** In retrospect, cooling the mixture more would have been better, such as refrigerating over night)



8. Place mixture into the freezer, and stir occasionally.








The results : Pretty good for my first ice cream attempt. The taste was very good. It was really sweet (which I like) you could likely cut down on the sugar/ sweetener a bit.

The texture was a bit off, and there were a lot of ice crystals. If I let the ice cream melt in my mouth it has a very smooth texture, but when eating it like normal the ice crystals were rather pervasive.

I found this serious eats article about tips for homemade ice cream making - which likely would have been useful before hand. - So my ice crystals could have been from making the recipe low fat, not chilling it fast enough, and adding too much alcohol. So, if you choose to make it, those are some aspects to consider. 

Overall though, pretty happy with my use of rhubarb!