Crunchy Risotto and an All-American Breakfast

I was all excited for the green vegetable risotto I made one night last week. I got home from work and hurried to get it on the stove. Forty minutes of stirring later, all the chicken broth is finally absorbed and the chicken in done. I didn't taste it while it was cooking, so I sat down and ate a spoonful for the first time. And wow, after that hard 40 minutes of stirring the dang risotto still wasn't done! ARG. My boyfriend didn't finish his. And you know what, I dog gone it finished mine. At the end of dinner, he was like "did you really eat all that?" I replied, "Yeah I stirred it for 40 minutes, you bet I'm going to eat it all!" But I couldn't bring myself to eat it for lunch the next day at work...... I think I messed up in a few places. First, the toasting at the beginning always throws me off. So I think I burnt the rice instead which would made it not absorb as much water. Secondly, I did not use white wine as the first liquid. Maybe that gets the absorption going. So I don't know. But I won't be making risotto for awhile. And I served the risotto with chicken breast I just baked and with lemon juice and pepper.

Meanwhile, on a good note. I made a super All-American Breakfast this weekend. I was really proud of myself and my boyfriend was super happy! Yum!

Emerald Green Risotto
Makes 4 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 cup Arborio rice
1 stalk celery, diced
1/3 cup dry white wine
4 cups boiling chicken stock
1 cup broccoli florets
3/4 cup sugar snap peas, halved
1 cup thinly sliced zucchini
1 cup fresh green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
1. Heat olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onion begins to turn golden brown at the edges, about 2 minutes.
3. Pour in the rice, and stir until the rice is coated in oil and has started to toast, 3 to 4 minutes. (Careful!)
4. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the celery and white wine.
5. Cook and stir until the wine has mostly evaporated, then stir in one third of the boiling chicken stock; continue stirring until incorporated.
6. Repeat this process twice more, stirring constantly.7. Stirring in the broth should take 15 to 20 minutes in all.

8. Add the broccoli, peas, zucchini, and green beans during the last 7 minutes of cooking, and cook until tender. All American Breakfast of hash browns, bacon, eggs and fruit!

Blueberry Pancakes

Big blog day. I'm behind and have been making lots of new things so I need to catch up. I'm making something new tonight too but I'll write about it tomorrow. So I've made this pancakes a bunch of times. Mostly during the summer. I haven't had them for awhile and I got kind of sick of eggs for breakfast on the weekend. So I made these this morning. And I showed my boyfriend how to make them so he can now! Since breakfast is his thing. But these are pretty good for being gluten free. Kind of dense but in a puffy way. I would recommend. I almost freaked out when I couldn't find a new bag at Whole Foods today, but it was hiding luckily :) Also, this is a good mix because it is dairy free. Many GF pancake mixes have dairy already in them. This one you add your own milk.

Gluten Free Pancakes
(makes 4 pancakes- 3 inches across)

1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pancake Mix (directions on the bag and I'll write them here) Available at Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage and the like.
1 Egg
3/4 cup milk (any kind is fine. I use almond.)
1 TBS. vegetable oil (don't use olive oil, it gives it a nasty, non-breakfast taste)
Fruit to put in (blueberries, strawberries, bananas, apples, dried fruit)
Butter
Syrup

1. Whisk all the pancake ingredients together.
2. Warm up a small fry pan (non stick) on the stove. Medium setting.
3. Pour a tiny tiny bit of oil on the pan.
4. Pour batter into the pan. Spread out to edges of the pan.
5. Place fruit in baking batter.
6. Keep checking pancake, flip after about 5 minutes.
7. Finish making all the the pancakes.
8. Serve with butter, syrup or make own fruit syrup by boiling sugar and fruit in a pan on the stove. (That's what I did with the blueberries)

Weekend Breakfast

mmmmm I love having the time on the weekend to make a yummy breakfast. I usually make the same thing, eggs, toast and fruit. Sometimes I make pancakes but that's more time intensive. Listen to NPR and drink some tea or coffee, a great way to start the day. Lately it's been warm enough to take walks to the park too. So that's an great healthy way to start the day too. But not today because it's snowing. Here's my breakfast:

2 Free Range Eggs
2 pieces of Udi's GF Bread (with Earth Balance Vegan Butter and Jelly)
Fruit (berries, grapefruit, pineapple, and/or melon)
Egg Condiments (avocado, hummus, pepper, salsa, green chiles, sauteed onions)
Coffee or Tea

Meals for the week.

So I've been doing this for awhile, making food on Sundays for the rest of the week, because I am way to busy to cook but still want cooked food. Usually I don't make anything epic, because I'm not a rich college student. But apparently people are impressed I take the time to do this so I'll start posting my weekly fixings.

This week I made Quinoa Granola for breakfast (figured I should be eating something more nutritious than rice bread to start my day off,) Pizza (for lunches) and an adoption of the lasagna I made for Valentines Day. I looked through 2 of my cookbooks to get ideas and the granola recipe reminded me of the quinoa flakes I had. I miss granola so much. I can't be crunchy anymore because I can't even EAT granola! (haha get it?!) I made pizza because it was something different to eat for lunch. And the pasta because I use to love pasta but haven't really ever bought the GF kind.

The granola turned out pretty well. I might have cooked it for too long because it's kind of dry and with not much flavor. But that's kind of how quinoa is.... I think the quinoa flakes are just so small and thin that they don't work as well as oats. Sad day. Probably won't buy them again, they're just kind a lame and not a good enough replacement. The pizza I have made tons of times before and somehow almost every time the dough turns out different. Either doesn't rise, really dry or really sticky, too salty. Maybe my measuring is just bad. The pasta is really good and definitly hits the pasta craving.

Quinoa Granola
From Gluten-Free Quick & Easy by Carol Fenster

Dry Ingredients
2 C quinoa flakes
1 C unsweetened coconut flakes
1 C sliced almonds
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt, if want

Liquid Ingredients
1/4 C honey
1/4 C very hot water
1/4 C canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with partchment paper.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Mix all the liquid ingredients in a seperate bowl until honey is dissolved.
5. Combine dry and liquid ingredients.
6. Place on baking sheet in a thin layer.
7. Bake for 15 minutes, mix, 15 more minutes, mix, 15 more more minutes and mix.
8. Remove from oven and cool for 20 minutes.
8. Store in refidgerator for up to 2 weeks.

Inside Out Manicotti Pasta Bake
From The Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook by Leslie Hammond and Lynne Marie Rominger

16 oz bag of Tinkyada Elbow Pasta (by the far the best, don't even try any other)
2 eggs
1 recipe of Tofu Ricotta (See Below; same I made in the lasugua)
2 C fresh spinach
1 27 once jar of marinara sauce

1. Cook pasta as directed on package.
2. In a large bowl mix together eggs and ricotta.
3. In greased cassarole dish (11x14) layer a bit of sauce, noodles, cheese mixture and spinach. Repeat until all ingredients are gone. Leave a little bit of sauce to pour on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. (I covered the dish with foil for a majority of the baking)

PS- I doesn't stay together when you take it out of the pan because there is nothing that holds it together. You can add vegan cheese I just don't really like that stuff. You could also add beef and it would be super yummy.

Tofu Ricotta
1 package firm tofu, rinsed and drained
1/4 C packed, shredded fresh basil
1/4 C chopped parsley
2 TBS finely chopped red onion
2 TBS fresh thyme leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

1. Combine all ingredients into a food processor or blender.
2. Blend until slightly crumbly.

Pizza

2 C rice flour
3/4 C potato startch
1/4 C tapioca flour
1 tsp xanthum gum
2 tsp yeast
1 C and 2TBS very warm water
4 tsp sugar
dash of salt
2 TBS olive oil
Toppings (I do some combo of tofu, pineapple, onions, green chiles, green peppers)
8 once can of tomato sauce (just enough!)

1. Mix the water and yeast together. Stir and let sit until dissolved.
2. Mix rice flour, potato startch, tapicoa flour, xanthum gum, sugar together in large bowl.
3. Pour olive oil and yeast/water into dry ingredients. Mix.
4. Let sit for 30-45 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
6. Spread out pizza on baking sheet as thin/thick as you want.
7. Bake for 15 minutes.
8. Take crust out and put sauce, cheese, toppings on it. Bake for another 15 mintues. Enjoy!

Is anything too healthy?

My doctor told me that I needed to diversify the grains that eat. Because I was eating rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She suggested breakfast as an way to add them in. Quinoa and amaranth were top on her recommendation list. I saw this recipe on the Closet Cooking Blog, that I love by the way. Is this guy single?! Really. But the recipe, yes, it was for quinoa with yogurt and fruit. I was so excited for a new way to eat quinoa. But it does kind of taste funny and all the salads I make with it for dinner kind of taste the same. So I figured I could do that and then just mix in some ammerath and we'd have a monster combo. Plus, I don't have to buy cereal anymore. Which is really expensive, not very good and not that healthy for you(?!). Sticking to whole foods, yes! So here's what I put in it:

1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup cooked amaranth
soy yogurt
fruit (I used pineapple and coconut flakes for a tropical theme, usually I'm the berry type)
nuts (I used slivered almonds)

(There is left over grains for more mornings or a group of people)

It was pretty delis. I wasn't very sweet though. That's why I like berries. So maybe I'll just sprinkle some sugar on top tomorrow morning ;-)