Sweet Potato Kugel

This is a Jewish dish that I discovered (and tweaked) this past November. It's a delicious and healthy meal that I personally enjoy eating cold in the days afterwards. I suggest being liberal with the cinnamon. Enjoy!

SWEET POTATO KUGEL

5 lbs. sweet potatoes (about 8 cups)

2 apples (I use cameo apples, but any crisp apple is good)

6 eggs

1 cup raisins (You could also use dates. Just chop them and skip soaking.)

½ cup orange juice (or the juice of one orange)

½ cup walnuts, crushed to small pieces

½ cup pecan halves

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

¾ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon cloves

butter for greasing (I've used Pam before and it works just fine)

1) Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9x12 cake pan with butter.

2) In a small bowl, soak the raisins in orange juice, adding water so the raisins are covered. (You can speed up the plumping by microwaving for 30-45 seconds.)

3) Peel the sweet potatoes. Using a grater blade on a food processor or a box grater, grate them. Put the grated sweet potatoes in a large mixing bowl.

4) Beat the eggs (The fluffier they are, the fluffier your kugel). Mix into sweet potatoes.

5) Grate the apples, add to the sweet tater & egg mixture.

6) Stir in the salt and spices.

7) Add the raisins and soaking liquids. Stir.

8) Pour/scoop mixture into your cake pan, smoothing flat.

9) Sprinkle with pecans and walnuts, pressing them a little into the kugel.

10) Bake 45 minutes or so, until the edges are a little browned and the top gets golden. Let it cool a bit, then cut into 24 pieces, but know that everyone will probably want more than one.

Calculations

TOTAL: 3936 calories, 111g fat, 93.1g fiber, $10.59

PER SERVING (TOTAL/24): 164 calories, 4.6g fat, 3.9g fiber, $0.44

PER (LARGER) SERVING (TOTAL/12): 328 calories, 9.3g fat, 7.8g fiber, $0.88

Twice-baked Potatoes

I put the vegetarian (vegan?) and low-fat labels on it, because you can take out the bacon, add a little salt, and have no negative effects. But, since I'm a carnivore, there's bacon. :-P

Twice-baked Potatoes
Yield: 2 servings

1 Big honkin' baking potato
2 Strips bacon
2 1/2 Tablespoons pesto
2 Handfuls of fresh spinach, rinsed

Bake the potato on a 1 hr. at 425 F (220 C) on a baking sheet. Fry bacon and drain on a paper towel in a small bowl. Crumble them. When the potato is done, take it out and cut it in half lengthwise. Scoop out the meat into a medium-sized bowl and add the pesto and bacon. Stir until it is just brought together. Roughly chop spinach into smallish pieces and mix with the potato. Put the mixture evenly in the two potato skins. It won't look like it will fit, but it will (spinach shrinks). Put it back on the tray and bake in the oven for 30 min.

You can throw a handful of shredded Parmesan cheese in it if you so desire.

Instant Tomato Sauce

There are NO exact measurements in this, it was truly "this is what we have and I need tomato sauce" It was really good and easy to make.

- Sun-Dried Pesto - 2tbs to 3tbs
- Can of fire-roasted tomatoes (15.5 ounces)
- Handful of black olives
- Fresh garlic (as much as you want)
- Oregano and Crushed Red Pepper (to taste)
- Roasted Red peppers

Toss it in a saucepan, put a cover on it, and wait till it thins. It's incredibly good and easy to make...and pretty low-fat.

Italian Minestrone Soup

This is by far the best and most filling soup I've had in a long time, and I'm a soup fan. We almost always have a pot of homemade soup in the fridge and I'm thinking this one will quickly become the favorite. It's a very thick soup - we added a can of tomato soup - and we also (of course!) used vegetable broth instead of beef broth. It's absolutely perfect with homemade bread...and that's a filling dinner. It's also four points per serving, so it's also points friendly. Yay.

Ingredients:
1 med. onion, chopped
1/4 c. celery leaves, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil
1 c. chopped carrot
1 c. chopped celery
1 (28 oz.) can tomatoes with liquid
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
2 c. beef stock or broth
1 c. red wine
1 zucchini, sliced
1 1/2 c. chopped cabbage
1 (14-16 oz.) can white beans or pinto or kidney beans
1 c. elbow macaroni
Water or V-8 juice
Pepper
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. oregano

Instructions:
Saute onion, garlic and celery leaves in olive oil until
onions are clear, 5 to 10 minutes. Add chopped carrots,
celery, tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef stock, wine, bay
leaves, oregano and pepper. Simmer until carrots are
tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Add zucchini and cabbage and
simmer until they are tender. You may need to add 1 to 2
cups more water or V-8 juice to get desired consistency.
Add beans and macaroni and cook until tender. Serve with
Parmesan cheese. You can vary this recipe with other beans,
vegetables or rice.

We didn't use Parmesan cheese.

Vegetarian Paella

This was unbelievably delicious, even if the rice didn't cook quite through. I recommend using minute rice or cooking the rice half-way beforehand. Also, unless you're made of money, use tumeric instead of saffron. I'm still amazed that a teaspoon of something could cost $7.

Recipe, as always, from Vegetariantimes.com

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 to 3 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 2-inch-long strips
• 1 medium green bell pepper, cut into 2-inch-long strips
• 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes
• 15-oz. can vegetable broth
• 2 cups uncooked quick-cooking brown rice
• 1 tsp. saffron threads, dissolved in small amount of hot water
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 14-oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tsp. salt

Instructions:

1. In large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Set aside half the red pepper strips for garnish. Add all remaining pepper strips to onion mixture and cook, stirring often, 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes (with liquid), broth, rice, saffron mixture, thyme and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 10 minutes.
3. Stir in artichoke hearts, peas, half the parsley and salt. Season with freshly ground pepper to taste and add a little water to moisten if needed. Cook, stirring, just until heated through, about 5 minutes.
4. Transfer paella to large, shallow serving dish and garnish with circle of reserved red pepper strips. Sprinkle with remaining parsley and serve hot.

We just used green peppers, as red were twice the price. :-)

Spinach, Tomatoes and Chickpeas

I'm a big lover of "frying pan" dishes - dishes where you just dump various items into a frying pan with olive oil and garlic, then simmer. They're particularly good when you haven't a lot in your kitchen and you really want food. (We never have prepared foods in the ho use)

This one turned out quite good, so I thought I'd share it.

Ingredients:

• Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans - A cup to a cup and a half. You can use a can (15.5 ounces is the normal amount in the US).
• Spinach - Four or five handfuls, six if you have small hands. This isn't an exact measurement, but keep in mind that spinach shrinks when it's cooked. It may look like a huge amount when you place it in fresh, but it will quickly change. If you want to measure then use four cups.
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 1 Can (15.5 ounces) of diced tomatoes.
• three or four garlic cloves
• 3 tsp. of oregano or curry, if you prefer that
  

Instructions:

• Heat olive oil in large frying pan, add in garlic. Simmer until garlic is fragrant.
  
• Add in the tomatoes and garbanzo beans (if you're using raw make sure they're cooked first), then the spinach.
• Stir well, sautée for 10 minutes or until spinach is wilted throughly.

It's very good and filling, plus you can't get get simpler than this.

Hoppin' John

I made this because we had left-over brown rice and left-over black-eyed peas. It's amazingly good, with a few alterations. I also mixed in left-over tofu, because it was there and going bad. And I'm posting it because so far, ya'll like your meat. :-D

Ingredients:

• 2 cups quick-cooking brown rice - whatever rice you have laying around. We had long grained brown rice already cooked.
  
• 16- to 20-oz. can black-eyed peas - I used dried beans that I had already cooked. Except for canned tomatoes I avoid canned foods.
  
• 1 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 medium clove garlic, minced
• 3 medium tomatoes, chopped - alas, they're not in seasons. We substituted fire-roasted with garlic. Much better.
  
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil or 1 Tbs. dried - we didn't have any and skipped it
  
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp. dried

Instructions:

1. Cook rice according to package directions. Meanwhile, drain black-eyed peas, reserving liquid. Rinse peas under cold running water and set aside.
2. In large pot or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 12 minutes. Add garlic, and cook, stirring often, until onions are golden, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in tomatoes, basil, thyme and 1/4 cup water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tomatoes have softened, about 5 minutes.
4. Stir in rice, tofu* and black-eyed peas until well combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until flavors have blended, 5 minutes. If necessary, add a little reserved liquid from peas as needed to keep mixture somewhat moist. Serve hot.

*If you're using tofu, cube it and fry it in a bit of olive oil, then toss it in. Or crumble it if you want.

Notes: I used a wok frying pan, I did not bother waiting the entire 12 minutes, and instead of using the water I used the tomato juice. It was delicious, and the pictures are below. I served it with sweet potatoes (cubed and boiled with a bit of molasses) for a perfect southern dinner.

Hot Pot

This scrumptious winter dish is one of my mother’s specialties, and I only hope that someday I can make it as well as she does! It’s a rich meaty casserole topped with lightly crisped potato slices. Perfect for the end of a cold day, and much healthier than its rich taste would suggest.

Serves 6 people

Prep time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 2h 55 mins

Ingredients:

400g shin beef (gravy beef)
400g lamb cutlets
4-6 tomatoes, sliced thickly
2 onions cut into rings (we use brown onions)
4 carrots, sliced into rounds
6 potatoes
1 teaspoon (5 mL) each of oregano, thyme and sweet basil
A few tablespoons of plain flour for browning
A little oil or margarine for browning
1 tablespoon cornflour (US: cornstarch)
Good stock (broth), enough to cover all ingredients in the pot. A good low-salt liquid stock from the supermarket is fine, but we usually use stock or gravy left over from a previous meal and frozen for future use, which makes for a much more flavoursome meal. If you’re using store-bought, I suggest a mixture of varieties – beef, vegetable and chicken stock together. You can also throw in other liquids such as left over drinking juice, juice from tinned fruits, and red wine, to add to the flavour.

Method:

1. Cut beef into 2-3cm (1 inch) cubes, and coat in plain flour.

2. Heat margarine or oil in the base of a large saucepan, add beef and stir quickly until browned.

3. Add lamb, tomatoes, onions, carrots and herbs to the beef in the saucepan, add just enough stock to cover, and simmer on the hotplate for 2 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 100 C / 210 F.

5. Remove the meat and vegetables from the stock with a slotted spoon, retaining the stock in the saucepan. Place meat and vegetables in an open-topped oven-proof dish (such as a pie dish). Place in oven and proceed immediately to next step.

6. Peel potatoes and cut into thick, round slices. Place potatoes in the stock in the saucepan, and boil for 15 mins. Remove potatoes from stock and reserve stock in saucepan.

7. Remove dish from oven and pile or layer the boiled potatoes on top of meat and vegetables. Pour in as much of the stock as will fit without overflowing the dish. Reserve remaining stock.

8. Place dish back in the oven, increase heat to 180 C / 350 F and cook for 40 minutes. Watch potatoes carefully in last 10 minutes to prevent burning.

9. Just before the dish is ready, reheat the stock remaining in the saucepan to use as gravy. You can thicken the gravy by using a tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in half a cup of water, and poured into the boiling stock while stirring briskly.

10. Serve immediately. We usually have this with some boiled or steamed vegetables such as peas, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, silverbeet etc.