roasted root veggies with goat cheese

One of my favorite compliments I've ever gotten was:
Well, you made it, so I tried it! This is yummy! What's in it?

Then I go on to list an assortment of root vegetables that many people have never tried topped with goat cheese which apparently sounds a little sketchy, but it comes together in a way that is tasty and warm and filling.

Sweet potatoes: everyone's had these before, right? Usually at Thanksgiving and sickly sweet, topped with marshmallows. [not my fave] I love the natural sweetness of the sweet potato with the subtle spice of a little red pepper. You can even find them in a variety of colors. Rutabaga: it looks like a large round dirt ball at the grocery. YUM. Just try it! Turnip: this always reminds me of a giant radish...at least in looks. Parsnip: this looks like a white carrot at the grocery store. The textures of all the different vegetables is delightful.

Of course, when asked for the recipe I basically just shrugged and said "roast some veggies and top it with goat cheese." BOOM. Done.

Apparently that wasn't detailed enough, so I attempted to measure things. Feel free to use this as a jumping of place and to just dice and drizzle and sprinkle the ingredients. Then roast them off in a hot oven. Dump them in a 9x13 pan. Sprinkle the roasted veggies with goat cheese and pop it back into the oven until it browns a bit.

If you want more details, they're below. (-:

Gratuitous picture because I love my Pyrex.

At this point, wash your hands well and toss everything until all the pieces of veggies are coated in the seasonings. Then spread them on a couple of sheet pans so they have enough room to breathe. If you overcrowd any veggie you're trying to roast, they end up steaming rather than roasting. You can get color on them, but it takes so much longer.

Sweet delicious roasted root vegetables. Get in mah belly.

Roasted Root Vegetables with Goat Cheese
Preheat your oven to 425*

-Parsnips
-Turnip
-Rutabaga
-Sweet Potatoes
-1 medium Onion
You can really use any root veggie you want, I recommend peeling and dicing them up into small enough pieces that you can get 2-3 on a fork at a time. The melding of flavors will make you happy. Promise.

-1/3 cup Olive Oil
-3 tsp Salt
-1 tsp Pepper
-1 tsp Garlic Powder
-1 tsp Onion Powder
-1 tsp Cumin
-1/4 tsp Ground Red Pepper (optional)
In another container, combine the above. My normal roasting method is to spread the veggies on my sheet pan and then drizzle them with olive oil, sprinkle on the seasonings, and toss them directly on the pan to coat them. Either method will work!

-Goat Cheese! (either crumbles or a log)
In your preheated oven, place the pans in to start the roasting process. After 10-15 minutes give them a stir. In another 15-20 minutes your veggies should be tender to a fork with some beautiful golden edges. At this point dump them in a 9x13 pan and top it with a container of goat cheese (or a crumbled log). Place the 9x13 back in the oven under the broiler and keep a close eye until the goat cheese starts to turn brown.

I recently started a compost pile because I make so much compostable trash. Does anyone compost? Tips? Tricks?

avocado chickpea salad

In my quest to eat one vegan meal a day [I mentioned it in passing in my GYST: Food/Diet post] I'm trying new recipes and this one came up. 

I'm in love with it after putting one tiny bite in my mouth. Holy cow.

The original was from Two Peas & Their Pod, but of course I changed a few things. I'm not a big bread eater, so I nixed the whole "sandwich" thing. Instead I made the chickpea [do you say "garbanzo" or "chickpea"?] and avocado mixture and plopped it on a bed of baby greens. Today I ate it with a couple of Wasa crackers for some crunch.

Let's talk about avocados. A few years ago my friends, Jess & Jake told me their trick to always having perfectly ripe avocados. Now I shall share it with you: buy the rock-hard avocados a few days before you're going to want to use them and let those babies sit out on your counter until they're ripe. Once they've ripened you can either a) eat them or b) put them in your refrigerator for up to a week. That last part is my own little addendum. These avocados have been ready since last Thursday and they're still *perfect* because the refrigeration stopped the ripening process and they didn't get beaten against anything to give them bruises after they ripened.

These six weeks of classes, I'm eating on the go out of plastic containers more often than not, so I've been trying to prepare foods that can travel with me. I don't particularly like to eat out at the fast, cheap places [I definitely like to eat out at the expensive, sit-down places] on a daily basis. This is one of my made-for-the-week meals. You could totally cut this in half really easily. 

Avocado Chickpea Salad

-2 cans (15oz) Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans, drained

-2 Avocados

-Lime Juice (fresh is better of course, but I used about 2 Tbsp of a prepared lime juice)

-Cilantro

-1 tsp Salt

-1 tsp Onion Powder

-1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

Smash the chickpeas, avocados, and lime juice together. Chop the cilantro and add the spices and mix it. Give it a taste and see if you need more of anything. (-: 

Tam's Monster Cookies

Back when I was a resident director living with the college students [you know, because I wasn't a college student at the time] I held a "Cookies with Amy" party weekly where we'd eat cookies and watch a movie or TV show or play a game. This was two part, 1. I was seducing these "grown-up" 18-year-olds to come and socialize with me thus building relationships and 2. I wanted to bake and not eat everything. I'm not sure which was the deciding factor, but they both stand equally important in my memory.

At times certain students would come to me to ask for a special cookie because their birthday was coming up or they were hungry for it or it was one their mom made. This is a mom recipe. Tam's daughter and son were both at MC when I was there, and they were counselors when I worked at camp as well.

The original recipe was for the camp batch I think. It makes enough cookies that you could drown in dough. Not that I would ever complain of such a thing because the dough is totes delicious.

This is just a basic peanut butter oatmeal cookie, make ridiculous by a plethora of candy.

A plethora.

I didn't grow up eating monster cookies. WHY, Mom, whyyyyyy? My SIL is the Monster Cookie Queen and brought them into my life on a regular basis via the younger brother. I don't have her recipe, but I suspect it is similar to this one.

Tam's Monster Cookies

-1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter

-1 cup Sugar
-1 cup Brown Sugar, packed

-1 1/2 cups Peanut Butter (the non-natural kind. I like generic PB for baking, strange but true.)

-3 Eggs

-1 tsp Vanilla (I used Vanilla Bean Paste which is why it looks all dark and weird)

-2 tsp Baking Soda

-4 1/2 cups Quick-cooking Oats

-1 1/2 cups m&m's

-3/4 cup Reese's Pieces 

-3/4 cup Chocolate Chips
**If you look at the recipe card, you'll notice I left out the Corn Syrup. I didn't have any on hand, but I didn't find that it made any difference in the final cookies. These aren't healthy in any way, shape, or form, but I believe they are gluten free if you purchase GF oats. I didn't check all the candy, but I think you could accommodate a gluten intolerance easily with this recipe. (-: 

If you're mixing by hand get ready for a forearm workout. Cream the butter, sugars, and peanut butter. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine the oats and baking soda. Mix in the oats with the wet mixture then add the candy. Drop by rounded scoop [the original directions say to make 2" balls and flatten them slightly] onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes or until sliiiiiiiightly brown [these cookies don't get very brown, but you want to make sure they're actually cooked and not just warm dough]. This makes about 3 dozen cookies and doubles easily for a huge crowd!

Have I told y'all about my love for baked m&m's? What is it about baking those little chocolate treats that makes them 100000% tastier than they were in original form? SO.GOOD.

Corn Salad

I'm moving everything from the cooking closet [my other blog that has been inactive for over a year] over here to MN365. I'm decluttering. Hope it's not too annoying! (-:

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This is from Summer 2012.

I'm home in Kansas and we've had corn out the wazoo this week! Therefore, I made a salad.

While I was cooking this was happening. Have you seen the sunset [and sunrise] in Kansas? BEST SKIES EVER. I view it as Kansas' claim to fame.
Not basketball.
Not wheat.
Not sunflowers.
Not tornados.
SKY.

I've been kind of into salads this summer and I could get into grilled corn, except I don't have a grill, so I'll grill when I can.

This is one that's been on my mind since last summer when Sarah made it for a barbecue months and month ago. Seriously. Except I don't remember any of the details she just said: corn, avocado, cilantro and lime.

I said, "Tomato would be good in that."

My mouth said, "Yes!"

So I did it.

Sarah found the original recipe in Martha Stewart Magazine, but I couldn't find it on the interwebs so I made it up and wrote it down. Now, I will share it with you.

Dressing: LIME a touch of oil and spices. It's all about the lime though.

Corn Salad

• 5-6 ears of corn
• 2 small tomatoes
• 2 avocados
• 2 limes
• cilantro
• oil of choice [Olive or a mild vegetable oil]
• salt-n-pepper
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• hot sauce of choice [Frank's has my heart]

Clean your ears of corn and grill it until slightly charred. Let cool and cut the kernels off the cob with a sharp knife. Chop your avocados [spritz with half a lime so they don't get brown], dice those tomatoes, and snip that cilantro. Combine with the corn and put in a bowl. In a small jar, juice the remaining 1 1/2 limes, add 2 Tbsp oil, 1 tsp salt, pepper to taste, 1/4 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, and around 10 shakes [more or less] of your favorite hot sauce. Shake and pour over the corn mixture. Toss gently.

I prefer this salad at room temperature, but it will keep for 24 hours in the fridge if you can't finish it off in one sitting. (-:

ENJOY!

Beets, Blue Cheese, and Chickpea Salad

I'm moving everything from the cooking closet [my other blog that has been inactive for over a year] over here to MN365. I'm decluttering. Hope it's not too annoying! (-:

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I don't know if I was extra hungry for lunch today [by "today" I mean sometime in March 2012] or if this was just THE BEST SALAD EVER, but you need to make this salad. ASAP.

Methinks, tomorrow sounds like a good time.
(-:

Also, I want "methinks" to be revived. Mostly because methinks, "methinks" is so funny. Who says that?!?!

Generally, I'm pretty sure that salads I make at home are crappy. Why are they crappy? Because I like to put too much on them. There's so much going on I can't distinguish anything in my mouth. No bueno. I need to plan more frequently because when I have a plan I can exercise some topping-control.

This salad is basically three toppings, dressing and your lettuce. KISS it: Keep It Simple Stupid. I learned that at basketball camp in 6th grade.

OK, the chickpeas (aka garbanzos) are spicy, salty, crunchy texture on this salad and they take about 30 minutes of cooking time.

I loosely followed the directions from Steamy Kitchen's Crispy Roasted Chickpeas. The "loosely" means I didn't read through everything and I salted and seasoned my chickpeas before I baked them, and I didn't bake them quite long enough because I was impatient. As Steamy Kitchen recommends, use whatever seasoning you like, I had a jar of Italian Dressing Base which was my seasoning choice (and a very good choice!) when I roasted my garbanzos.

These are so yummy and nutty when they're crunchy (or even slightly crunchy). If you don't love chickpeas straight from the can, I would recommend trying this, it totally changes them.

How do you feel about beets? It seems to me that they're a love-'em/hate-'em kind of thing. I am the former. BIG TIME. I LOVE BEETS. Oh, how I love them. The color! The texture! The flavor! I should write a song about it, if I wrote songs. Which I don't.

These are beets my grandma pickled from last summer. Prizes for helping watch her dog while she and my grandpa were in Florida. I will always take fresh, canned or frozen vegetables for payment. Would anyone like to barter?

The dressing:

It's all about proportions. Just mix the amount of each ingredient (mustard, brown sugar, spices, a pinch of salt, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil) you like in a jar and shake it up.

I do prefer a mustard that looks like this rather than one that's bright yellow:

I used the same seasoning mix as I used for the roasted chickpeas because I didn't want the flavors to compete. I also made this right after I stuck the chickpeas in the oven so it would have time to dissolve the sugar and salt and rehydrate some of the herbs.

Assemble the salad in a bowl. Butter lettuce is my preference. I like equal parts chickpeas and beets and as much blue cheese as I can get in there. A light drizzle of dressing and BAM! It's eating time.

For me this is an entree salad, but if you're a meat lover some grilled steak would be delicious on this or next to it. Blue cheese and beets just beg for a beef accompaniment. Unless you don't eat beef, then they need nothing.

Soft Polenta with Mushrooms and Spinach

I'm moving everything from the cooking closet [my other blog that has been inactive for over a year] over here to MN365. I'm decluttering. Hope it's not too annoying! (-:

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I'm on a mushroom kick right now.

A mushroom walks into a bar.
The bartender says, "We don't serve mushrooms."
The mushroom says "But I'm a fun guy!"
buh-dum-dum

I love those little fun-guys with all my heart. (-:

This is another easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy recipe. Freals. [Yes, I'm trying to make "freals" happen.]

The ingredients:

Polenta: I could only find instant, so that's what I used. It's a 4:1::water:polenta ratio. If you understand that, you are my people. If you've never had polenta, think of cornbread without the bread or grits with an Italian name. The latter is probably more accurate, at least according to Mario Batali on The Chew. Hank and I watch The Chew every day from 1:00-1:30. Yes, we only watch half so I can get to work in time. (-:

Besides the polenta, you'll need spinach, mushrooms, garlic, onion and feta. Not pictured: olive oil. You should just let this sit by your stove because you can't go wrong with olive oil.

Prep, prep, prep: my 'shrooms came pre-washed/pre-sliced; I diced my onion; I took the stems off my spinach because I'm picky like that [remember your spinach will shrink dramatically, so load up!]; and then I got to cooking.

This is a two pan meal. Follow the directions on your package of polenta. They're usually the same in my experience. First grab a pot to boil water in, I made one [large] serving of polenta. Put one cup of water in your pot and bring to a boil. Once the water boils: remove from the heat, add salt to taste and then while you're constantly whisking add 1/4 cup of polenta slowly. Keep stirring! It will thicken. You must stir so it doesn't get lumpy!

[not pictured: boiling pot of water, you can visualize this]

While you're water's heating up...

In a small skillet heat your olive oil. Add the onions [I will admit to cooking my onions to death because I only like them COMPLETELY COOKED], once the onions are soft add the garlic and the mushrooms. Cook until your mushrooms are as cooked as you like them, for me it's a little wilty but still with some texture. Last add your spinach and season with a little salt and pepper.

If you're feeling frisky, you can put a splash [1-2 tablespoons] of sherry or balsamic vinegar once the spinach is almost done.

Once all of the spinach ingredients are in the pan, I turn off the heat and finish the polenta. The residual heat will finish the spinach.

Put the polenta in a bowl, add the spinach and mushrooms and top with a [hearty] sprinkle of feta. If you need some red color in there, I think a small layer of marinara [straight from the jar in my neck of the woods] under the spinach and mushrooms would be divine.

Soft Polenta with Mushrooms and Spinach
based on a recipe from Real Simple that I'm remembering from a few years ago

-Polenta
Follow the directions on the package for preparation, with mine I used 1 cup of water to 1/4 cup polenta.

-1 small Onion, diced
-1 clove Garlic, minced
-1 cup Mushrooms, sliced
-1-2 cups raw Spinach, stems removed
-Feta
In a small skillet [or a large skillet for more servings], saute your onion in olive oil. Add the garlic and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are browned slightly. Place the spinach in your pan and stir. The spinach will wilt quickly, remove the pan from heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Place the polenta in your bowl, top with mushrooms and spinach and feta.

Enjoy!