College Student Cooking {Thai}

Dear Kate,

While I was out shopping this week, I browsed the aisles for some healthy, college friendly products.  I am thrilled that you are broadening your horizons with international foods and taking a liking to them.  There is a brand that is found mostly in health food stores like Sprouts called Tasty Bites.  Their products are mainly Indian and Thai flavors and they use real ingredients, no salt, MSG, preservatives, colors, ect.  Take a look sometime and try some of the products out.

The line I recommend is the simmer sauce.  With these, you use your own brown rice and fresh vegetables for incredibly frugal and nourishing meals.  A 7 oz pouch of simmer sauce is $1.69, the package says it serves 2, but I can easily stretch it to 3 or even 4 servings with vegetables.  There were 5 different sauce recipes available including; Pad Thai, Satay Partay, Good Korma, Tikka Masala and Rogan Josh.

Here is a recipe I have come up with, using what I have on hand.  You might just use 2 or 3 vegetables, or throw in a scrambled egg or chicken even. Broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, asparagus, green beans, celery would all work good here.  You would most likely leave out the cilantro and look forward to having a refrigerator bigger than a nightstand one day.

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 small red bell pepper, diced
2 carrots, sliced
1 cup snow peas, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 pouch Satay Partay
1/2 cup water
3 green onions, finely sliced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 cups cooked rice noodles

Heat oil in pot, add pepper, carrots and snow peas.  Cook 7 minutes, until carrots are just tender.  Add salt, sauce, 1/2 cup water and noodles.  Simmer for 2 minutes. If the sauce has gotten too thick, add more water.  Mix in onions and cilantro, chopped peanuts would be nice too.  If you want to replace the noodles with rice, cook rice separately and serve up vegetables with sauce over the rice.

Links; Monday Mania, Happy Homemaker Monday, Menu Plan Monday

Bok Choy Lentil Pita Sandwiches

In our area there is a co-op called Bountiful Baskets that is wonderful.  I participate every other week when an organic basket is offered.  They really do a great job overall, offering high quality and a pleasing variety. Anyone who is working to up their fruit and vegetable intake, look for a like program in your area.  It really forces you to try new things and find new loves.

Once in a while I have to be super creative, like the week I got 8 bunches of bok choy! But there was good that came out of it.  I like the uniqueness of this meal.  I think it is so important to give thought to eating raw foods at every meal.  This is where the vital enzymes come to aid digestion and help you feel really good.  I have never sprouted lentils before, but would like to try that sometime here.  I did soak them in an acidic medium for 12 hours before cooking, which is better for digestion as well.

2 cups cooked lentils

1 cup purslane or bean sprouts

1 cup thinly sliced bok choy

1carrot peeled, and cut into strips

1 ripe mango peeled and diced

⅓ cup apricot jam

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

¼ cup cider vinegar

½ teaspoon curry powder
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Sprouted Pita Bread 

Combine the lentils, purslane, bok choy, carrot, and mango in a mixing bowl.  In a small bowl, combine the apricot jam, ginger, vinegar, curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the sauce over the filling, and toss gently to coat all the ingredients.  Scoop filling into pitas and serve.

links; Menu Plan Monday, Tuesday Twister, Tempt My Tummy, Whole Foods for the Holidays

Lemon Chicken

Chinese restaurants give me the willies. I get sick just smelling the food. I have learned to stay away. Their low quality ingredients combined with the fact that their oil is used and reused over and over again until even their highly flavored, MSG laden sauces can no longer cover up the rancid flavor.

Did you know that grocery stores used to sell straight MSG? Now that the majority of the public knows that it is harmful it is hidden in common products and companies hope people don’t read labels and if they do at least they are not able to understand what they read.

The whole concept of chicken and vegetables with (brown) rice is a good one though, so we recreate.

1/2 cup corn starch
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, whisk with 1 teaspoon water
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 chicken breasts, cubed
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
juice and zest of 1 lemon
½ cup pineapple juice
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
¼ teaspoon pepper

Combine cornstarch, cayenne and salt. Heat oil to medium-high. Coat chicken with cornstarch/spice mixture, then egg. place in oil and brown on each side. Combine vinegar, lemon juice and zest, pineapple juice*, honey, soy sauce and pepper. Pour mixture over chicken. Partially cover and let simmer on low for 10 minutes, until liquid thickens into a sauce. Serve over rice and don’t forget the steamed veggies. I keep mine on the side because I don not like them all saucy, but if you want to stir fry them and add them to chicken at the end, just up the sauce mixture by 50 percent.

*Since we don’t use a lot of pineapple juice, but I like to keep it on hand for sauces and dressings, I buy it in the frozen concentrate form and just scoop out a tablespoon at a time and add ½ cup water.

Salmon and Green Bean Pasta

Waiting for tomatoes to grow is torture, they take so long. Green beans become the perfect buffer in this gardening lull, right now these are flourishing. I love a good and fresh bean. When you look for them in the store they should be firm, air pockets mean they are over matured and will be tough. Also look for dull, crisp beans with taunt skin, wrinkles means the beans are old which makes them rubbery. If there are no acceptable beans to be found, peas are a nice alternative, but you will want to use a different shaped pasta (like elbow or rotini) to keep the peas from all migrating to the bottom of your bowl.


8 ounces pound whole wheat linguine
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces salmon
1 pound green beans, cut in half
½ teaspoon salt
1 inch ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, pressed
6 green onions, sliced
¼ cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1-2 dashes cayenne pepper
½ cup cilantro, chopped


Cook pasta al dente. Heat oil in large pan on medium high heat, place fish skin side up in pan. Spread green beans around the fish, cover. After 3 minutes flip the fish, stir the beans, cover and reduce heat to low for 3 more minutes. Remove fish from pan, raise heat to medium and cook the garlic, ginger and onions for one minute. Mix together soy sauce, honey, lemon juice and cayenne. Add mixture to pan, combine with pasta and cilantro. Remove the skin and break up the fish with a fork, then mix in with pasta.

links; Whole Foods for the Holidays

Deer Chop Stir Fry

Hmmm. Let's start with my views on meat. I am against vegetarianism. I do wish I could call myself vegetarian because I LOVE the word, makes me think of vegetables and I am all for those, lots and lots! But the exclusion of meat in ones diet, which is sadly what comes to mind when we hear the word, is not something I am for. I do catch some of the main points. I feel the industries of raising animals for food has a lot of room for improvement to say the least. I would love to be able to afford free range, grass fed, organic meat for all my fleshy recipes. Because I do feel the antibiotics, hormones, feed and conditions are producing a sub par product. For these reasons I minimize meat in my meals.

Now deer. My dad brought me these chops and loin from his last hunt. Like most Americans, we rarely veer from the common chicken, beef and pork (occasional bison and lamb). I really wanted to like this meat, it is free range and feeds on the abundant lush grasses in Iowa. Last night I cooked it in a stir fry (at least I could eat the vegetables if the meat was revolting) over a bed of japonica (a fancy black Japanese rice) and brown rice mixture (that's why the rice is purple). Survey says...A+! I was amazed at how much I loved it. Jarom and the kids too. In fact there was less than a serving of leftovers and Jarom ate it already for lunch today. He was even talking about putting in for a hunting license. I am hoping to get some more soon. Thanks Dad. BTW my Dad also grows a zillion tomatoes each summer. Often I am lucky enough to get some precious jars he cans himself. Amazing, no?

Recipe notes: This is the first time I made this recipe, so I have some changes I would make for next time. I would use less hot sauce, the kids complained. I would add broccoli and substitute green onions for the sweet onions

10 oz. deer steak/sirloin steak

Marinade

2 tablespoons ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups sliced carrots
1/4 sweet onion, cut in a large dice
1/2 yellow pepper, cut in large dice
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons cold water

Cut meat into thin strips, then make the marinade with the next 7 ingredients, mix. Marinade meat for 1 hour. Heat the second amount of oil in wok until hot, stir fry vegetables until slightly tender, add the beef with the marinade, stir fry until meat is no longer pink, about 2 minutes. Mix the cornstarch with water, then stir into the wok with the veggies& beef. Serve over rice.