I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a big sports fan.* My eyes kinda glaze over when a baseball game is on, and I can’t talk stats like my sports-fanatic husband. But, that doesn’t mean I’m not always rooting for our home team(s), and in one case, away team (go ‘Cuse!). Unless you’re even less of a sports fan than I am, you know the Pats are taking on the Giants in this year’s superbowl. Woooooo go Pats! (Sorry Dad and Renee. But not that sorry.) And I have to admit – I got SO into watching the last game that I’m even more pumped up for the Super Bowl. I don’t know what came over me, but maybe I’m unearthing my love for watching sports after all. Suddenly my newfound passion for the game got me talking to Funk about maaaaybe hosting a Super Bowl par-tay at our place. Then, like a sign from above (or from FedEx) a box of 20 avocados arrived at my door. Come Super Bowl Sunday, they’ll be ready to make a massive – and I mean MASSIVE – bowl of guac. Talk about super bowl.

The avocados came from SoCal Avocados, a company out in Cali that is family-owned. They have a fantastic website where you can mail order hand-picked avocados to your heart’s content (and your heart will be content, since they’re loaded with heart-healthy fats). They have a whole bunch of avocados to choose from, some I’ve never even heard of like Gwen and Bacon, and you can read a little bit about each one on the site. There is even an Avocado of the Month club! And get this…shipping is FREEEEE. I swear I wasn’t even asked to post about this company. I’m just so excited to share SoCalAvocados.com with you!

It wouldn’t be fair if I kept all the amazing avocadoness to myself, now would it? That’s why I’m so excited to invite you to enter to win your very own box ‘o avocados, shipped to you just in time for some Super Bowl celebrating! All you have to do is:

1) Leave a comment telling me what ingredients you use to make your guac. I’m looking for new ideas since I’ve got a lot of guacamole to make this week!

2) If you join my Facebook page, leave a second comment here letting me know.

3) If you tweet about this contest leave a third comment letting me know. (Example: Want to win a box of @SoCalAvocados from @DietitianJanel in time for Super Bowl Sunday? Enter here! {link})

That’s three chances, 20 avocados. Can I get a “Go Pats???” I’ll pick a random winner on Monday.

*I do, however, LOVE sports movies. What’s up with that? I can watch Remember the Titans, We Are Marshall or the Blind Side on repeat!   

Disclaimer: SoCal Avocados kindly sent me a box of avocados and I loved them so much, I asked to do a giveaway for my fab readers. All opinions in this post are my own.

Being that it’s the Chinese New Year, I thought I’d make a soup to fit the theme. This Dumpling Soup takes zero prep time, 15 minutes of cook time and then all you have to do is slurp and enjoy it!

Ingredients:

1 bag pre-shredded cabbage

8 cups vegetable broth

1 bag frozen dumplings – I used Trader Joe’s shrimp wontons

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

Red pepper flakes (optional)

Sliced scallions (optional)

Place all ingredients except the dumplings in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Then add the dumplings (still frozen) and heat about 5-7 minutes until the dumplings are cooked through. Top with red pepper flakes.

The original recipe in my head had sliced shiitake mushrooms, but when I opened the container we purchased, they were moldy, so I had to do without. The Trader Joe’s veggie and shrimp dumplings are staples in our freezer. I think we buy a new bag every week, but it was nice to try them in a new recipe. Have any Chinese New Year recipes to share?

I know, I know. This bowl of brown who-knows-what isn’t much to look at. But bear with me, because it tastes amazing.

This month’s Recipe ReDux theme is “Fresh Start – A New Approach to Breakfast.” So you may be wondering why I made oatmeal for breakfast, since its really nothing new. The method I used to cook it, however, is new (to me, at least!).

This winter, I’ve gotten into a pretty regular habit of making steel cut oats in my rice cooker. Seriously, what can’t that amazing kitchen tool do?I’ll mix steel cut oats in the canister with some dried fruit, nuts, cinnamon, coconut milk, and a pinch of salt and magically have perfectly cooked oats for breakfast all week. And a different combo of dried fruit and nuts completely changes the flavor each time. I’ve never successfully cooked steel cut oats before – I always wind up with an explosion in the microwave or on the stovetop. Actually, I bought this container of steel cut oats by accident. I meant to get the regular oats, but didn’t want to return the steel cut, which is how I wound up tossing them in the no-fail rice cooker. Steel cut oats are so chewy and satisfying, I’m glad I gave them another shot!

This latest batch of oats is one of my very best yet.

Ingredients:

2 cups steel cut oats

2.5 cups light coconut milk (canned)

3.5 cups water

1 package of dried diced apples from Bob’s Red Mill

A lot of cinnamon (probably close to a tablespoon – love it!)

Pinch of salt

About 1/3 cup crushed walnuts

2 Tbsp pure maple syrup

Small splash of vanilla extract

This absolutely tastes like dessert for breakfast. It’s nearly 9pm as I type this and I kinda can’t wait to wake up to this for breakfast tomorrow morning. All I have to do is microwave a bowl of it and in under 2 minutes I’ll have breakfast ready to start my day off right!

Want some more breakfast inspiration? Check out what the other ReDuxers made:
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Remember when I went on that date dinner in December? Well I received some packages of pistachio and coconut rolled date “logs” when I was there and found the perfect recipe to use them: Vegetarian Times’ Date and Chickpea Tagine. Tagine (also spelled tajine) is a North African dish and this one has a perfect balance of sweet and savory. For some reason, I couldn’t find the recipe link on the Veg Times website, but saw other bloggers made the same dish, so you can check out their thoughts on it here and here.

I made some minor tweaks, so my version is here:

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp powdered ginger

½ tsp cinnamon

14 oz can diced tomatoes

¼ cup water

2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained

10 date logs, chopped (I used the pistachio rolled logs, which added a nice crunch!)

¼ cup lemon juice

2 frozen cubes of cilantro

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Sautee the onions for about 10 minutes until they’re browned. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander, ginger, and cinnamon and stir for another few minutes.

Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, and water as needed. Cook for 2-5 minutes. Mix in the dates, cilantro and lemon juice.

The dates I used were pretty mushy (since they were logs and not whole dates) so once they were hot, they started to get melty and mix well throughout the whole dish. It wound up being more like a sweet sauce in a savory dish instead of having whole date bits throughout. It was delicious!

Meanwhile, I cooked 2 cups of whole wheat pearl couscous in the rice cooker. If you like couscous, you’ll love this pearl couscous. I love the texture even better than regular teeny tiny couscous, and it’s hard to find whole wheat couscous in general (outside of Trader Joes!). I mixed the tagine with the couscous for a one-bowl meal and scooped it on top of a bed of spinach greens, which wilted slightly under the heat.

This dish has so many different flavors (sweet, savory) and textures (soft, chewy, nutty) making it an overall satisfying dish. I actually think kids might really enjoy it too, since the dates add some tasty sweetness.

When it comes to sandwiches, I’m a little picky. I am completely bored by a regular ‘ol sandwich like pb+j or a grilled veggie sandwich. But when it comes to big, bulky, piping hot pressed paninis? Show me to them. I like when sandwiches are stuffed with all sorts of fillers and grilled to perfection. So when Cuisinart sent me a brand new griddler for the most recent #kitchentool chat on twitter, (makes great paninis, pancakes, and grilled foods!) I had one thing in mind: Paninis. Better yet: Sun dried tomato tuna with pesto paninis. Yum.

If I was going to go all out and have homemade paninis, I may as well have home made bread, right? I successfully baked my second ever loaf of bread. This time, I used the Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Bread mix. It came out of the bread machine completely top heavy and absolutely bursting out of the machine! I have no idea why. Any ideas? Maybe the mix was meant for a bigger bread machine. I literally had to scrape dried bread from the inside of the machine because it got so big:

That picture doesn’t do it justice. It was like there was a balloon in the top! I was nervous it’d be under baked on the inside but it was absolutely perfect:

To make the sandwich filling, I started by making some basic basil pesto using some way-overdue basil leaves, about 1/3 cup walnuts, some olive oil and a pinch of salt. Blended a bit in the vitamix, I left it a little chunky:

Next I prepared the tuna using 2 cans of tuna packed in water, some canola oil mayo (which doesn’t use eggs), and about 4 heaping tablespoons of sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil. All mixed together:

To the panini press they went:

I layered the bread with a bit of shredded soy cheese and the tuna on one side. The basil pesto spread on the other, then pressed them together and grilled on medium:

Here they all all cozy in their toasty warm griddler for about 5 minutes.

And the final sandwich:

The verdict? Delicious! I had never put sun dried tomatoes in tuna before. Usually I’m a diced celery, green relish or even mustard kinda gal but I loved their flavor. Pesto makes a perfect sandwich spread and it’s even better when it’s freshly made. And the bread? Well you can’t beat homemade bread. I love how this mix had little bits of nuts and whole grains throughout.

What’s your favorite filling in a pressed panini?

Phew! It is a hectic week over here in the Funk household. I have something scheduled every night this week and Funk finished up an intense week-long MBA class before we jet off to Colorado to visit friends of the long weekend. So I knew dinners would have to be easy this week, and planned ahead for a few. For tonight’s dinner, I was fully prepared to toast a veggie burger and pair it with some sides, but when I got home a little after 8pm, I was in the mood for something with a little more finesse. In a matter of seconds, I pulled the following 5 ingredients from our cabinets and fridge:

Mixed dark leafy greens

Jar of sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil

Whole wheat couscous

Can of white kidney beans

Smoked sea salt

Red pepper flakes optional

I scooped a few heaping tablespoons of the tomatoes in their oil into a skillet and turned on the heat. After a minute or so, I added a few large handfuls of greens to the pan and a splash of water so they’d start to wilt. Then I rinsed the can of beans and added it to the mix. Meanwhile, I cooked a cup of whole wheat couscous in the microwave (without it exploding, for once) for 3 minutes. By the time the couscous was done, the greens were done. I sprinkled on some smoked sea salt and red pepper flakes and voila! Dinner was done.

A filling, 5-ingredient meal made in minutes. Stick this one in your back pocket for a future crazy-busy day’s dinner.

My mom gave me a recipe for Ellie Krieger’s Autumn Vegetable Curry, and I love veggie curry almost as much as I love Ellie Krieger. Wait, does that make me sound stalker-ish and weird? Don’t answer that. But Ellie is a Food Network TV star and dietitian, which is basically my life goal, so I really look up to her and admire her (and yes, got giddy when I met her…twice!).

The recipe has been tacked to my fridge for a few months now, and I finally got around to it. Wish it didn’t take me so long to make – it was tasty! So tasty that I even had a few bites of it cold at 6am the day after I made it. Yum! I made some major edits in the way I prepared it. Ellie used a method that would have me standing over the stove for a lot longer than I like to be standing over stoves.

I put my faith in my rice cooker and took the stove entirely out of the equation. I also swapped the sweet potatoes she used for brown basmati rice. Here is my version of Ellie’s Autumn Vegetable Curry:

Sauce:

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, peeled

1 ½” nub of ginger, peeled

1 ½ tsp curry powder

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 Tbsp grapeseed (or canola or olive) oil

2 Tbsp tomato paste

3 cups brown basmati rice

4 cups vegetable broth

2 cups light coconut milk

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Salt and pepper to taste

1 head of cauliflower, broken into 1 1/2” florets

3 large carrots, peeled and cut into rounds

½ pint cherry tomatoes

2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1 15-ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

5 cups dark leafy green mix (I used the collard/kale/mustard green mix from Trader Joes)

Garnish with parsley or cilantro

I know it looks like a lot of ingredients, but if you’re using a rice cooker or crock pot, this will take no time to prep.

Place all sauce ingredients in a food processor or Vitamix and process to combine until it’s basically a puree. A spicy, oniony puree.

In your rice cooker canister, add all other ingredients except the lime juice and leafy greens. Just drop ‘em in. Mix in the sauce and stir to combine. Set your rice cooker and walk away for about 2 hours. Ta da! It cooks perfectly. I’ve never used a slow cooker, but my guess is that you can add all ingredients except the rice and cook that separately. Except I’m not sure how that’d work with the liquid (veg broth and coconut milk). Anyone want to try and report back? You could also do the whole thing stovetop like the recipe calls for.

Now mix in your leafy greens, about a handful at a time. They’ll wilt from the heat of the rice mixture. Squeeze on some lime juice. Add salt to taste, and garnish with cilantro or parsley.

Yes, I said it. The *D* word: Detox. Gah! Let it be known that I’m totally against any form of trendy diet detox (restricting food, cleanses, liquid diets and other extreme measures). Our lungs, kidneys and liver are the body’s major detoxification system and work far better than any kooky crash diet. I believe if we’re eating as much of a nutritious diet as possible – one that is chock full of veggies, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, plenty of water and lean protein – there is absolutely no need to “detox.”

A few extra candy canes or glasses of champagne around the holidays aren’t going to necessitate any juice fast; all it takes to get right back on track is to fill your plate with those nutritious foods that our body needs to function at it’s finest. And this soup is loaded with those foods that are just what the dietitian ordered after a few weeks of holiday treats, celebratory cocktails, and dinners out. The best part about it is that you can modify the recipe each time you make it using different beans, herbs and spices, or veggies, and it’ll still be delicious and nutritious.

Ingredients:

6 cups vegetable broth

8oz tomato sauce

1/2 bag frozen mixed veggies

1 box frozen sugar snap peas

About 20 mini cooked shrimp leftover from our New Year’s appetizer

1 can black beans, rinsed

1 can white beans, rinsed

4 fresh basil leaves, ripped into tiny pieces

a few shakes of dried thyme

a few shakes of dried oregano

a squirt or two of hot sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Optional: cooked/leftover whole grains like brown rice, couscous, quinoa, pasta, etc.

I added all ingredients at once into my big soup caldron and brought it to a boil. That’s it!

Funk microwaved a bowl of whole wheat couscous so I also added a scoop of that into my bowl. This soup had all the necessary parts to make up a super satisfying, healthy meal in a bowl: veggies, protein (beans, shrimp) and whole grains. I have to say, I think homemade soup is one of my favorite parts about winter. And since winter lasts about looooong 8 months in Boston, I see a lot of variations of this soup in the near future!

What’s your favorite homemade soup recipe?

Happy New Year!!! While 2011 was incredibly good to me, I’m feeling especially excited for 2012. I have a feeling it’s going to be a huge year and can’t wait to see what’s to come in the next 12 months. I hope you and yours had a nice New Years, however you decided to ring it in. Funk and I were lucky enough to celebrate with great friends as we bid adieu to 2011. We enjoyed some great food and drinks (including this amazing apple sangria that my friend Pam made) and I made Eating Well’s Caramelized Onion and Shrimp Bruschetta. Even though I made some minor modifications, it was delicious! I love anything that has a sweet and savory combo, and the currants and capers were a surprisingly perfect pair.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup golden raisins – I used currants
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 4 cups chopped yellow onions
• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 24 thin slices baguette, toasted – I used large whole grain crackers
• 24 peeled and deveined cooked shrimp, (26-30 per pound)

For specific preparation instructions, click here.

Step 1: Sautee onions for a loooooong time so they go from this:

To this:

Then add currants, capers, salt and pepper.

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

These were a big hit! My only recommendation is to top the crackers (or toasted baguette) right before serving. Otherwise, they’ll get a bit soggy from the moisture in the onions. I’m tucking this recipe away into my “insanely good appetizer recipe file” to make for future parties. Usually I’m the gal who brings cut up veggies and hummus, but not any more after making this recipe!   

Wishing you and yours a ver happy and healthy New Year!

A while back, someone from Ruth’s Foods contacted me asking if I’d like to try their Chia Goodness products. I’ve been incorporating chia seeds into my diet pretty regularly in the past year, especially in smoothies, and as an egg replacer, so I was eager to try them. (1 Tbsp chia seeds soaked in 3 Tbsp warm water for a few minutes makes a wonderfully gooey, vegan egg replacer.)

(source)

Chia seeds, yep just like the ones in a chia pet (but don’t eat those), are nutritional power houses. They’re high in omega 3, calcium, fiber, protein, and are a good source of iron and other minerals. And they have virtually no taste, so they can be used in a variety of recipes.

Thes Ruth’s Foods Chia Goodness packs I received are marketed as breakfast cereals and it states on their website:

The ingredients are completely raw – just stir in milk or water, hot or cold, and wait a few minutes for it to thicken, giving it the comfort quality of oatmeal.

I was intrigued, but skeptical about eating the seeds the same way I would oatmeal. When chia seeds soak up water, they go from looking like a poppy seed to becoming a jelly-like little ball (kind of like fish eggs on sushi). I don’t mind the texture combined in my smoothies, but knew I wouldn’t like eating it by the spoonful right out of the bowl. Ruth’s Chia Goodness packs contain ingredients besides chia seeds, like shelled hempseed (great source of protein), and other seeds, dried fruits, and/or nuts, giving them more flavor and texture than just plain ‘ol chia seeds. So instead of eating them as my breakfast, I incorporated them in my breakfast.

A few days a week, I make a soy yogurt parfait for breakfast, layering frozen mixed berries that I defrost with soy yogurt and Uncle Sam honey almond cereal. I started sprinkling a tablespoon of Chia Goodness into the mix and loved it! The Apple Almond Cinnamon variety is my favorite. I love the little dried bits of apples and the sweet cinnamon sugar combo. I also received the chocolate flavor, which has little cocoa nibs and date pieces, giving it a nice chocolatey chew. I’ve also been making a sort of pudding with that chia blend that I have for dessert occasionally. In a small glass bowl, I microwave about ½ cup frozen blueberries, then add in a splash of almond milk, tablespoon of chocolate Ghia Goodness, and a few dark chocolate chips. It’s the perfect sweet dessert that’s also high in fiber, omega 3s, and antioxidants.

I’m enjoying trying out these chia packs in a variety of ways. Have you ever tried chia? How do you eat them?

Looks like this is going to be my last post of 2011! Wishing you and yours a very happy and healthy New Year!!!

Disclaimer: I was not paid to review Chia Goodness but received samples to try. All opinions are, as always, my own.