Italian Stuffed Peppers

When I was a little girl, I was a figure skater. I would spend early mornings before school at the rink. And evenings for team practice. Saturdays I would volunteer to teach even littler kids. It was great.

I think I need to dust off my skates. Our weather warmed on Saturday afternoon resulting in freezing rain and a whole lot of melted snow. Of course when it refroze Saturday night, we got an ice rink on every surface. Like an inch of frozen solid ice on the parking lots and sidewalks. That makes walking (even in boots) difficult. Hence the need for ice skates.

These stuffed peppers are hearty and delicious for the cold weather. They may not protect you from the inevitable slipping and falling on your behind, but they will make you feel safe and warm at your kitchen table.

Italian Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients:
1/3 lb ground beef
1 medium tomato
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped peppers (red, banana, green, etc)
1 baby eggplant, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
handful of basil, roughly chopped
1/3 cup tomato juice
1/3 cup bread crumbs
handful of shredded mozzarella cheese
2 whole green bell peppers, tops removed, cored and seeded

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F.

Brown the ground beef in a pan over medium heat until no longer pink, about 4-5 minutes. Drain fat. Add the tomato, onion, chopped peppers, eggplant, and garlic. Cook until the veggies are softened, about 4-5 minutes. Add the basil and tomato juice and stir to combine. Stir in the bread crumbs. Remove from the heat.

Place the whole green peppers in a baking sheet sitting up. Fill with the beef mixture. Top with shredded cheese. Bake for 40 minutes.

Serves 2.

Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili

Boy it is getting hot out there.

Today we had a high of 22 F!! That is practically Caribbean weather, right? Well, at least relative to the high of -11 F with a windchill of -45 F on Monday. Yeah, it was really cold.

And when you are really cold, you need a chili to warm you up. Here is one of my favorites. It is a white chicken chili packed full of flavor after cooking all day in your slow cooker. The leftovers are perfect reheated or repurposed into nachos or a salad, so make the whole batch, ok?

Now I'm off to resume my comfy place on my couch with my slippers, blanket, and a mug of steaming hot cocoa. I'm not leaving until the weather warms to at least freezing.

Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili (adapted from Fix-it and Forget-it)
Ingredients:
1 lb dried great northern beans
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 1/2 cups diced bell peppers (I used a combination of red, yellow, and green)
2 jalapeno peppers, diced (I seeded one and left the other with seeds, but adjust for your desired spice)
1 medium onion, diced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
4 cups chicken broth (homemade or low sodium store-bought. If using store-bought, omit salt)
2 cups water

Directions:
The night before, rinse and pick over the northern beans. Place in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water. Let soak overnight.

The morning of, drain the beans. Place them back in the saucepan and cover again with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain the water.

Mix together the beans, chicken, peppers, onion, garlic, cumin, salt, broth and water in the crock of your slow cooker. Cook on low for 8-10 hours (or high 4-5 hours). Stir and season with additional salt and pepper as desired.

Ladle into bowls and top with shredded cheese, Greek yogurt or sour cream, or additional garnishes as desired.

Makes 8 servings.

Lasagna Soup

Oh hey there fancy pants!

I have been wearing my fancy pants for almost all of November and fancy pants apparently do not allow for blog posting. Actually, I kid, it is the job interviewing and flying all over the country that does not allow for blog posting. I do [almost] officially have a job as a professor starting Fall 2014. I'll tell you details at a later point once I dot all the i's and cross all the t's.

For now I'll just share with you a comforting fall or winter soup. I love lasagna but with an always busy schedule I rarely have the time to assemble and bake the whole casserole. This soup completely lives up to the flavors of tomato, cheese, and pasta that I crave but without the time commitment. I filled it with a little bit of ground beef and a ton of mushrooms because that is how I prefer my lasagna, but feel free to do your thing.

Lasagna Soup (adapted from Paula Deen)
Ingredients:
1/3 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 cups chicken stock (homemade or low sodium store-bought)
2 cups water
28 oz can petite diced tomatoes
15 oz can tomato sauce
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt (+ more to taste)
freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 cups broken lasagna noodles
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese, about 2 cups

Directions:
In a Dutch oven, cook the ground beef, onion, bell pepper, and garlic over medium-high heat for about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the beef is browned. Drain. Stir in the mushrooms, thyme, brown sugar, stock, water, tomatoes, tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add the broken noodles and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the parmesan cheese.

Preheat the broiler. Ladle whatever soup you are going to eat into ovenproof crocks/bowls. Sprinkle each with about 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Broil about 6-inches from the heat for about 3-4 minutes until melted, browned and bubbly.

Serves 6-8.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Rain, rain, go away... We've had enough of you already.

Oh wait, those aren't the words. Ah, well. You should make this tuna casserole. It is my go-to warm tuna recipe. It's from Cooking Light so that means it is practically healthy, right?

Tuna Noodle Casserole (adapted from Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2010)
Ingredients:
4 oz egg noodles
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup diced carrots
1 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups milk (I used 1%)
2 oz neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese)
1 tbsp dijon mustard
dash of salt and pepper
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
5 oz can tuna in water, drained

Directions:
Preheat broiler. Coat a baking dish with cooking spray.

Cook the noodles according to the package without the salt and butter. Drain.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots and cook about 6 minutes until tender. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute while stirring. Gradually whisk in the milk, cook for 5 minutes until thickened. Add the cream cheese, mustard, salt and pepper and cook until the cheese is melted, about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the noodles, peas, half of the parmesan cheese, and tuna. Pour into the prepared baking dish. Top with the additional parmesan. Broil for 3-5 minutes until golden and bubbly.

Serves 3-4.

Creamy Tomato and Artichoke Soup

When my parents were visiting, my mom left me all of her magazines that she has read during the car trip. I love my traditional cooking magazines but I do enjoy perusing her Midwest Living, LHJ, and Woman's Day because they can surprise me with an intriguing recipe here or there. Case and point -- Creamy Tomato and Artichoke Soup from LHJ.

I know we've talked tomato soup and grilled cheese before. However, I've focused on the grilled cheese part because I have nothing against a can of Campbell's tomato soup. Open it up, mix it with a little milk and water, heat, and you're ready to go.

But if you've got a little extra time, you should definitely be making this tomato and artichoke soup. It is nice and creamy because of the milk and half and half, but it has a little extra tang from the artichokes. There is more texture to the soup because of onions and artichokes.

Really, it doesn't take too much more time than opening the can. You should do it!

Creamy Tomato and Artichoke Soup (adapted from Ladies Home Journal March 2013)
Ingredients:
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions (both green and white parts)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 tbsp flour
1 cup vegetable broth (homemade or low sodium)
1 cup milk
5 oz artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped
16 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup half and half

Directions:
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, green onion (save some of the green parts for serving), and garlic and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and flour and stir about 1 minute to heat through. Stir in the broth, milk, artichokes, salt and crushed tomatoes. Bring to simmer (do not boil in order to avoid scalding the milk). Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft. Add the half and half.

Serve garnished with additional green onions... and accompanied with a grilled cheese! 

Serves 3-4.

Beef and Black Bean Chili (Slow Cooker)

Seriously busy time in my life right now, y'all! Hence the lack of posts. Luckily, I've been able to make some yummy food that I cannot wait to share with you; unfortunately, I haven't had time to type up the recipes, come up with witty stories, and post them.

So here's a post-- very bare bones in terms of an introduction but yummy food nonetheless. This is an alternative to your "normal" chili that I would certainly suggest if you are a black bean lover. The beans and meat soak up a lot of the liquid so be prepared for a thick chili. Perfect for a cold windy day... especially since it will be cooking all day in the crockpot!

Beef and Black Bean Chili (adapted from Martha Stewart)
Ingredients:
1/3 lb top loin steak, cut into 1/4 inch pieces (or beef stew meat would work as well)
1 1/2 cups tomato juice (low or no sodium)
2 cups water
1 cup dried black beans, rinsed
1/2 large red onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp kosher salt (more or less to taste)
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
sour cream, for serving

Directions:
Combine the steak, tomato juice, water, black beans, onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper in your slow cooker. Cook on low for 8-9 hours (or high for 5-6 hours). Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.

Serve garnished with sour cream.

Serves 3-4.

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

Brrr it's cold in here.
There must be some Torros in the atmosphere.
O E O E O.
Ice ice ice.

Seriously ice ice ice; today has a windchill of -7. NEGATIVE SEVEN. I almost froze off my toes, fingers, nose, and ears walking into work from my car today. And I was wearing a scarf, hat and mittens. Yeah. Brrrrr cold. It is days like today that I miss North Carolina winters. I long for lows in the 20-30s and varied elevations that can block some of the wind.

Days like today also make me want hot, steaming soup. Good thing I made this chicken noodle soup last week so I had leftovers to warm up for lunch today. It helped warm my core (although my extremities are still feeling phantom breezes).

The best thing about this recipe is that it is quality comfort food. Not only is the weather in full winter force, but many people have been succumbing to the flu. This will remedy both those things. I know when you are sick you have no desire to be cooking anything, but this is perfect because even your significant other with no kitchen experience can whip it up in a heart beat. I used leftover chicken thighs from a recipe I was testing for a fellow blogger last week. You could certainly use a precooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. Or just quickly boil a few chicken breasts and throw those in. To make it even more simple for your loved one to wait on you, they could pick up prediced onion, carrots and celery.

Do it! Your body will thank you.

Chicken Noodle Soup (adapted from a recipe card from Kroger)
Ingredients:
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1 tbsp flour
4 cups vegetable stock (homemade) or low sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
1/4 tsp salt, more to taste
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper, more to taste
3 tbsp pearled barley
1 1/2 cups chopped, cooked chicken thighs and/or breasts
3 oz whole wheat spaghetti noodles, broken in half
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Directions:
Heat oil in a large pot oven medium high heat. Add onion, carrot and celery and saute for about 3 minutes. Stir in the flour and mix to coat. Whisk in broth and water. Add salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the barley, bring back to a boil, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the barley is tender. Add the chicken and noodles. Bring back to a boil and cook 8-10 minutes until noodles are cooked completely and chicken is hot. Stir in parsley. Taste and add additional salt and pepper, as desired.

Serves 4-6.

Sirloin Tip Roast

Let's talk New Years resolutions. Are you a "I'm going to work out everyday" person? Or did you decide you were going to avoid fast food and eat more salads? Do you want to lose 10 pounds? Did you resolve to make your bed every morning? Or maybe look for a new job? Finish your education?

Me? I'm not a huge resolution person. BUT I do have desires for 2013. They include publishing a number of papers, taking a preparing future faculty course, and applying for jobs this coming fall. Wow. Lots to do for my career.

I also decided it would be fun to add some goals for the blog. I'm planning on checking more things off on that bucket list. AND I'm starting this new series; I'm calling it "Science Sundays". Here I will explain some aspect of science behind food, cooking and baking. Then, of course, I'll have a recipe to highlight what I'm talking about. I'm not promising a Science Sunday every week but I'll shoot for at least a few each month. This will be fun for those of you who care to learn a little bit about science and it will be fun for me to bring my two loves together.

So let's get started!

I'm kicking off the first few weeks of Science Sunday talking about the major food molecules that we need to consume on a daily basis. First up is protein! As we all probably know, protein is a characteristic of food from animals such as milk, eggs, meat and fish. Additionally, we can find protein in a variety of beans and nuts. The basic building blocks of proteins are amino acids; which are linked end to end via amide bonds.

The sequence of the amino acid side chains is important, but the overall 3D shape of the protein is important to whether or not we can eat it and contributes to the flavor. When a protein is in a natural state, it is globular and there are interactions between individual amino acids that are not directly connected to one another. When we cook the protein, the internal bonds are broken and the shape is changed in a process we call denaturation. Visualize it like this-- say you had a long piece of string. If you randomly ball up that piece of string, you have the "natural" state of the protein. Now throw that ball up in the air and the string unravels. You have just cooked your protein and denatured it. Most proteins can be denatured at temperatures around 104 F (or 40 C). However, we don't need heat to denature proteins; we can use other things like salt, acid, base, alcohol, and stretching motion (like whisking). Once the natural state of the proteins are denatured, they don't just stop there, new bonds are formed as they continue to cook.

So let's denature some proteins. We made this sirloin tip roast for Christmas Eve dinner. It seems like a perfect example of cooking proteins. So enjoy the amino acids as you do some chemistry in the kitchen!

Sirloin Tip Roast (adapted from food.com)
Ingredients:
Sirloin tip roast (5 to 8 lbs-- ours was 7.3 lb)
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup water
1/2 cup red wine (we used Pinot Noir)
Dijon mustard
0.75 oz package au jus mix

1 1/2 tbsp dried minced onion
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp dried tarragon
salt and pepper, to taste
Extra virgin olive oil
Water and cornstarch, for making gravy

Directions:
Let the roast set at room temperature for 1 hour prior to cooking. Mix together the au jus mix, minced onion, garlic, basil, rosemary and tarragon. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Rinse and pay dry with a paper towel. Generously rub salt and pepper on all sides of the roast.

Cover the bottom of a large pan with olive oil. Heat over medium high heat until very hot. Place the roast in the hot pan (being very careful because the oil is hot!) and sear on all sides until nicely brown and some of the fat has been rendered. It should take 5-8 minutes.

Place the roast on wire rack sitting in a roasting pan. Poke 15-20 slits into the roast (enough for the garlic cloves) using a sharp knife. Push the slices of garlic into the slits. Pour the water and wine over the top of the roast. Generously brush the roast with Dijon mustard. Season the roast with salt and pepper again. Then sprinkle the mixed seasonings evenly over all of it, rubbing in slightly.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours until roast is a little bit less than you desire (if you want medium, remove from oven when medium rare). Make sure you use a meat thermometer pushed into the center of the roast to determine the temperature. Remove from the oven and tent with aluminum foil. Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes to continue to cook.

Pour all of the juices into a small saucepan, add a water until you get to the amount you need for the gravy and bring to a boil. Dissolve cornstarch in cold water and add to pan. Stir until thickened. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Carve roast and serve with gravy.

Sweet Potato and Peanut Tomato Soup

You guys, can you believe that it is one week until Christmas?!?!

I am definitely in the holiday spirit! I've found a Christmas station on the radio (which is a hard thing to do when you're celebrating your first holiday season in a new city), I've done a bit of baking and packaged up treats to give to my co-workers (you'll see that recipe tomorrow!) and my shopping is almost all done. I have even already wrapped most of my presents (this is the beauty of not having to fly home). Now I'm just counting the hours until I'm on vacay. ;)

The weather has finally reached winter temperatures and that has gotten me in the mood for comfort food in the form of soup. This past weekend I made this delicious creamy soup. Spoiler alert- it contains no cream! Which means that it is a LOT healthier than most cream-based soups. Instead, it is the combination of the pureed sweet potato and the peanut butter that gives that creamy feel. The flavor is reminiscent of tomato soup with an extra kick from the chilies and of course the peanut taste is prominent as well. It is almost like a Thai-inspired tomato soup. It tasted great the first day but may have been even better after flavors had time to meld in the fridge and I reheated it for lunch the next day.

Note that I used homemade vegetable broth (that contains no salt) and no salt added tomato juice. This allowed me to adjust the seasoning as I desired (and avoid excess sodium). Even if you purchase low-sodium broth and juice, you will certainly not need to add an entire tsp of salt. Make sure to taste and season!

Sweet Potato and Peanut Tomato Soup (adapted from Eating Well)
Ingredients:
3 medium sweet potatoes
1 tbsp peanut oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
3 cups tomato juice, no salt added
4 oz can chopped green chilies
1 tsp ground all-spice
2 cups vegetable broth (homemade or store bought)
1/2 cup smooth natural peanut butter
1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste
chopped peanuts, for garnish
chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Directions:
Rinse and wash the sweet potatoes. Prick them with a fork multiple times. Place them in a microwave safe container and microwave on high for 7-10 minutes until soft and cooked. Allow to cool.

Meanwhile, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for another 1 minute. Add the ginger, tomato juice, chilies and all-spice. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

After potatoes have cooled, peel them and chop into bite sized pieces. Add half of the chopped potato to the pot. Combine the remaining half with the vegetable broth and peanut butter in a food processor. Pulse until smooth. Mix into the pot on the heat. Add the salt and pepper, tasting and adding additional if you desire. Simmer for at least 5 minutes to heat through (you can keep it on the heat for longer if you want).

Serve garnished with chopped peanuts and fresh parsley.

Serves 4-5.