From Popcorn to Polenta

In need of polenta, but fresh out? Do you perhaps have some popcorn? Throw it in a blender! At a high speed, the blender (a Vitamix fitted with a dry-grain container is ideal) will grind the popcorn to a coarse cornmeal powder--exactly what you need to make your polenta dish. A cup of ground polenta will serve at least four people once prepared. Follow this link for 'perfect polenta' of your own, courtesy of allrecipes.com. A little salt, butter, cheese and several cups of water on the boil are the basic ingredients for a creamy side dish, but certainly tailor your polenta to your taste. If you have never tasted or made polenta before, it's a must try!

A note: The polenta may take longer to cook than the suggested time and may need more water to acheive the perfect consistency, so plan accordingly.




Thanks to Karen Haggenmaker at allrecipes.com for the silky, satisfying polenta photo!

Morels and Asparagus for Pasta and Soup!

This particular platter of spaghetti was too delicious to ignore so I purchased my sumptuous morel mushrooms, steamed the asparagus, sliced the garlic, minced the shallots and further set to work! Now, the dried morels that the recipe suggests are nearly prohibitive in cost, so I bought fresh instead, and they were about a quarter of the price. I substituted some dried Polish mushrooms as well, that we had on hand, to steep into my broth and then tossed the halved morels in toward the end. I love asparagus and the meaty morels all worked together admirably to make such a delicious (and fairly easy) pasta dish with a wonderful zing from lemon juice and lemon zest. As the recipe only requires the asparagus tips, what then to do with the stems? There were also morels remaining so Baby and I devised a velvety soup that I believe ought to be served chilled for an elegant opening lunch course. Save a few snipped asparagus tips to garnish your fragrant, rich, nourishing soup!

Click here for Leah Koenig's Morel and Asparagus Spaghetti recipe, adapted from Food52.com!

Chilled Asparagus and Morel Soup
Serves 4 as an appetizer
Ingredients
8 oz asparagus stalks, steamed
A handful of fresh morels
3/4 cup cream
1 1/2 cups canned vegetable stock
1 medium shallot
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup olive oil
A few shakes of dried thyme, about 1/2 a teaspoon
A dash or two Sriracha, to taste
Grinds of salt and pepper, to taste
1 capful red wine vinegar

Method
Except for the red wine vinegar and olive oil, throw everything into a blender, preferably a Vitamix. It's that easy! Use your intuition for personal taste; perhaps you might like to add more of the gentle shallots, or amp up the Sriracha for heat. Blend for a few minutes until thoroughly combined, and while the motor is still running, drizzle the olive oil into your soup in a slow stream to emulsify. Pause briefly and then add the red wine vinegar. Pulse several times. Chill for at least two hours, beautifully garnish with your asparagus tips and do enjoy!

Disposable Meals

My dishwasher recently stopped working. He wanted more money. Ha ha. This lead to a simple equation: Dishwasher on the fritz + hating to wash dishes = devising a way to eat three meals a day without having a mess to clean up afterward. First off, I used plastic forks, knives, spoons (that I conveniently discovered unused and lurking in the cupboard from a party last year!), paper plates, and a roll of paper towels for napkins. Liquids were in disposable cups, drank from water (or beer) bottles, and boxes (such as Vita Coco not wine). Perhaps not so eco-friendly, he wrote cautiously, but dishwashers do use a lot of water anyway, so I suppose it was bit of a trade-off. But do note I used plastic ware that I already had on hand and of course there are many disposable products out that are very eco-friendly! Armed with a fully stocked and carefully thought out refrigerator and larder, please read on to see how I met the daily challenge. Use anti-bacterial, disinfecting cleaning wipes on counter tops, etc. as you go, of course.

P.S. I was able to finally schedule an appointment with the dishwasher repair man for this week! 

MONDAY

Iced Coffee every morning with milk, no sugar; rinsed out the glass, stirred with disposable straw
Breakfast: Fruit smoothie with kale every morning made in Vitamix (or blender) and poured into disposable plastic cup; read here and here for my recipes; rinsed out Vitamix, sometimes power-washed Vitamix on high with a little dishwashing liquid and about a cup of water—cleans perfectly, just rinse out bubbles

Lunch: My tuna with elbow noodles on pita and sprouts went in sandwich bag to office; serves four resulting in leftovers. Individual Fage peach yogurt snack, disposable spoon. Communal Ghiradelli chocolate squares from office.

DAMAGE: 1-a pot to wash that elbow noodles were boiled in; 2-a strainer; 3-a big bowl holding leftovers to later wash

Dinner: I went out for Cuban food at Cuba!

TUESDAY

Iced Coffee

Breakfast Smoothie

Lunch: All went in sandwich bag to office: Leftover tuna from Monday with pita and sprouts. Slice of co-workers birthday cake on office paper plate and plastic fork

Dinner: Left over grilled salmon with coconut rice and black beans from Cuba! Frozen chocolate covered banana from freezer.

WEDNESDAY

Iced Coffee

Breakfast Smoothie

Lunch: Leftover tuna from Monday on pita with sprouts, with hummus straight from the plastic container, with chips for dipping; individual cup applesauce with plastic spoon

Dinner: My Pete-tatouille found here. I sauteed onions and garlic in a pan, stirred with a spatula. Foil went over a cookie sheet and vegetables were roasted and added to pan—foil thrown out and cookie sheet stored away.

DAMAGE: 1-pan to be cleaned later as leftovers were wrapped, remained, and refrigerated; 2- spatula

THURSDAY

Iced Coffee

Breakfast Smoothie

Lunch: Worked from home. Sandwich with peanut butter banana and honey on Pullman’s loaf bread (keep in the freezer but quickly thawed on countertop), Almond “Milk” Smoothie and Nutri Grain apple cinnamon bar

Dinner: Leftover Pete-tatouille with Uncle Ben’s boil-in-a bag rice—no strainer needed, kitchen shears to cut open bag, rinsed! Pita with hummus, tahini, sprouts as a snack later

DAMAGE: 1-hand-washed ice coffee glass; 2-pot used to boil rice; 3-knife

FRIDAY

Iced Coffee

Breakfast Smoothie

Lunch: Worked from home. Pre-packaged egg salad on Pullman’s loaf bread with sprouts; chips; individual cup applesauce with plastic spoon

Dinner: Taco Night! Lightly toasted taco shells on foil—could even use foil for another use! Browned meat in pan, drained, stirred in seasoning mix with spatula, topped with salsa packet and shredded reduced fat Monterey Jack cheese

DAMAGE: 1-pan; 2-strainer; 3-spatula

SATURDAY

Iced Coffee

Breakfast Smoothie

Lunch: Leftover taco beef on over easy egg, topped with low-fat Monterey Jack cheese, low-fat sour cream, crumbled taco shells and chopped scallions (cutting board easily rinsed)

Dinner: Two ears roasted corn on the cob, in the oven on foil-wrapped cookie sheet, quickly devoured; fresh-made purchased lobster ravioli in porcini broth, leftovers put in sealable plastic bag

DAMAGE: 1-pan for egg; 2-spatula for egg; 3-knife for scallions; 4-iced coffee glass pot to simmer broth, then reserved in disposable cup once cooled—I used same pot to cook ravioli

SUNDAY

Iced Coffee

Breakfast Smoothie

Lunch: Part of a can of cheese soup with skim milk over broccoli, rinse microveable dish used for broccoli; frozen chocolate banana

Dinner: Leftover ravioli, reheat in rinsed microveable dish used for broccoli; oven-roasted zucchini and squash (on foil of course), drizzed with olive oil and served with low-fat sour cream, roasted pepper, parsley and chive sauce made with Vitamix—power-washed Vitamix on high with a little dishwashing liquid and about a cup of water—cleans perfectly, just rinse out bubbles

DAMAGE: 1-small pan for soup; 2-microvable dish for broccoli and later ravioli; 3-vessel for herbed sour sauce with roasted pepper, to be washed at a later time.

Whew! Not bad!

Thanks to thisnext.com for the snap! 

Smoothies Gone Bananas!

Perhaps you've read about my recent love affair with smoothies in my Wango La Mango Tango post. Well gentle readers, here are a four tempties involving bananas that I could not resist passing along to you! I highly recommend using a Vitamix but your most high-powered blender will certainly do too. Go bananas!

Cheeky Chia Monkey
Ingredients
1 banana
1 cup or so Vita Coco
2 fronds of leafy kale
1 heaping TB chia seeds
Ice 

Method
Pour your ingredients over ice and put in Vitamix and blend, my friend. Prepare to go ape with all the antioxidants!

Pearrific!
Ingredients
5.3 oz Chobani pear yogurt, or plain yogurt with a chopped up pear
1 banana
1 cup Peach & Mango Vita Coco
4 oz Mott's applesauce cup
Ice

Method
Throw a handful or so of ice in your device of choice (I find six cubes is good).
Add remaining ingredients and blend on high. Coolly elegant!

Amazing Almond "Milk" 
Ingredients
1 cup or more almonds
7 or 8 dates, to sweeten the deal
1 heaping TB chia seeds
2 cups water or more, to your preferred thickness.
Pinch of pink Himalayan rocky salt
Ice

Method
Add all of your ingredients in your Vitamix or blender, and let it get nice and smooth before serving. Also refrigerates nicely and goes great alongside a peanut butter and banana sandwich with a little honey on a pita!

Watermelon Slide
Ingredients
Fistful of cubed watermelon
1 cup or so Vita Coco
1 banana
Fronds of leafy kale, to your liking
1 heaping TB chia seeds
Heavy splash of Naked Mighty Mango juice smoothie
4 oz Mott's applesauce cup

Method
You know the drill by now. Blend away! Also try to find new (at least to me) Mott's Granny Smith applesauce cups and the apple/pear combo too.

Thanks to onemoremonkey.com for the fabulous image!

Wango La Tango Mango Smoothie

My Vitamix and I have become rather refreshing friends this summer while I sipped smoothies. Although I haven't quite figured out my ideal vegetable mix--I've kibitzed with kale, cabbage, yellow beets and lemon combos--I'm quite taken with this fruity fix that I created!

Wango La Tango
Ingredients
1 banana
1/4 sweet, ripe honeydew melon, scooped out (pour in the melon juice too!)
1/2 cucumber, peeled and seeded
1 cup Vita Coco coconut water
1 cup Naked Mighty Mango juice
Plenty of ice, at least six cubes

Method
Put ice in mixer or blender first, probably. Throw in all the rest and press play.

Do enjoy!

Everything But The...Vitamix!

Behold the Vitamix! As proud parents of our newly acquired blender, we absolutely love it. If you're always in the kitchen, this little baby is worth the investment. As the box attests, it is "the brand chosen by leading chefs worldwide" but as the kindly folks at the French Culinary Institute have told me personally, this is the machine to use. It's all somewhat overwhelming and I am still in awe of its sheer power and versatility. Recently a recipe called for corn meal, which we didn't have, but after throwing a few handfuls of popcorn kernels into the Vitamix, we soon did!

Among other things, the Vitamix makes salad dressings in a snap, frozen cocktails which we look forward to in summer, silken, creamy fondues and smoothies-to-go. The Vitamix also functions at such a high speed (2 horse power) that soups are not only readily made, they are finished fully cooked and steaming hot as well.

Here's a soup we made to comfort us this winter, just for starters!

Butternut Squash Soup
Serves 6

Sautee one chopped onion in two tbsps olive until softened and translucent, about 10 minutes. Set aside. Roast at least two pounds of peeled, cleaned squash cut into one-inch cubes, coated with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt, pepper and nutmeg in oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until soft. Remove from oven and put squash, onion mixture, a can or package of roasted chestnuts, zest of half an orange and two sage leaves, 1/4 tsp. of freshly grated nutmeg in the Vitamix. Cover with vegetable stock by two inches. Puree, gradually turning speed to high for roughly five minutes, until steam is rising from blender. Season with more salt and pepper to taste, stir in a swirl of 2% Greek-style yogurt (about 6 oz.) or perhaps sour cream and serve!