Good-bye Pinkberry, hello frozen yogurt maker. After coming across this recipe for homemade frozen yogurt and coming to terms with the fact that way too much of our monthly food budget was being spent on a tiny cup of frozen goodness with berries mixed in, I made the trek to Bed Bath and Beyond and hauled back a frozen yogurt/ice cream maker so that we could eat more locally, literally. Since I've been working on school stuff more than usual lately, Mark's become the froyo chef around here, and he's great at it. He's made this basic recipe, strawberry frozen yogurt, a grapefruit sorbet that didn't quite pan out, and a grapefruit frozen yogurt which made good use of the aforementioned failed sorbet. And, as if that's not exciting enough, we can really take it up a notch on the homemade scale by making our own yogurt with which to make our own frozen yogurt! Since I'm already in the habit of making our yogurt, this is truly exciting. Now we just need to get ourselves some milk cows and we'll never have to leave the house again.

A popular activity around our household (apartmenthold?) lately has been to try re-working the words to the Alan Jackson hit "Livin' on Love" to a version we call "Livin' on Loans," which is exactly what we're trying NOT to do. As a budding social work student, I've assessed the situation and have determined several points of intervention, some feasible and some not (although I guess winning the lottery is especially unfeasible if we don't even buy a ticket, so who's to say it couldn't be possible if we exerted some effort?!?) In light of this, trying to cook healthy and thrifty meals has become an interest of mine. I've actually always been interested in that sort of thing, but it feels like an especially urgent endeavor now that I'm a full-time grad student and part-time worker. One thing we've done is up our consumption of non-meat complete proteins, although we haven't gone all Jonathan Safran Foer (Katy, if you read this, that's for you). We do indulge in the occasional feijoada, but when we make it, we eat ALL the leftovers for the next week, by golly, no matter what kind of toll it takes on our gastrointestinal systems. And it does, oh yes, it does. TMI, right?

Anyways, I've found several effective strategies for using up leftovers as well. One that worked particularly well this week was making a crustless quiche with a bevy of frozen veggies. Here's what I came up with:
4 eggs
3/4 C milk
2-3 cups frozen veggies, thawed by boiling (broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, peppers, etc)
1/2 onion
2-3 garlic cloves
3 pieces bacon, fried (could omit)
some grated mozzarella cheese (3/4 C-ish)
a few shakes of freshly ground pepper
a few shakes of kosher salt
a few shakes of dried rosemary
a few shakes of dried basil

Preheat oven to 350 F. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. Thaw veggies. Combine milk and eggs in until well blended. Fry bacon, cut into small pieces and add it, along with onion and garlic saute, to egg and milk mixture. Mix. Drain veggies and add. Dump in cheese, add seasonings. Pour into greased 9" pie plate and bake for 35-45 minutes. Serve with a side salad and enjoy!

There's a fine line between a sweet treat and a healthy snack. Actually, not really, but I think I've found something on the healthier end of the sweet treat continuum. These whole wheat chocolate chip cookies from Betty Crocker are fantastic. I even cut down the sugar a little, added some wheat germ, and cut the chocolate chips in half, adding about 1/2 cup of chopped pecans.

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups Gold Medal® whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

1. Heat oven to 375ºF.
2. Mix sugars, butter, vanilla and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.

You know how penicillin was invented by accident? Well, I kind of did the same thing, only instead of inventing a drug, I invented my own version of passion fruit ice cream. And this ice cream is probably more detrimental to one's health than, say, penicillin, which I think I can comfortably classify as a life-saving substance.

The recipe is a variation of the standard recipe for passion fruit mousse:

1 can sweetened condensed milk
(Use empty can to measure out):
1 can's worth of heavy cream
1 can's worth of passion fruit juice (thawed concentrate would be even better)

Combine in blender and blend until foamy. Pour into bowl and freeze until it has the consistency of ice cream.
** Since this was an accident, I've only made it once. Given the fact that I don't make a habit of keeping heavy cream or sweetened condensed milk around, I probably won't make it again for awhile BUT, when I do, I will add a can of mandarin oranges and lots of flaked coconut before freezing. Yum!**

Welcome, fall.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Savory-Kale-Cannellini-Bean-and-Potato-Soup/Detail.aspx

Maybe it's my Brazilian blood :), but I love black beans. In the winter, I love soup. When I'm making dinner on a week night, I love fast recipes. So, on this Valentine's Day, I give you a recipe that I... you guessed it...think is okay. Just kidding. I LOVE IT.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fast-and-Delicious-Black-Bean-Soup/Detail.aspx?prop31=1

I love Google. I love my cookbooks, too, but I often Google the random pantry and freezer ingredients I'm trying to rid myself of and see what recipes come up. This was the result of one such exercise and it was AWESOME.

KAYLA'S SAUTEED MUSHROOMS

We had a group over for dinner on Saturday that consisted of several carnivores and one vegetarian. This is what I invented as a meatless alternative to the shepherd's pie I served to the meat eaters. I was going to plop some mashed potatoes on it and bake it just like a shepherd's pie, but I decided against it and just served in with mashed potatoes on the side. Last night I had the leftovers tossed with pasta, so the possibilities are truly endless with this little dish :)

1 package white button mushrooms
1 1/2 stalks (?) of garlic chives
1 tablespoon of butter
a few glugs of Port
a few glugs of soy sauce
a few shakes of dried thyme

Chop the garlic chives into 1" pieces and saute in melted butter. Add mushrooms and, when starting to turn brown, add glugs of Port and soy sauce. Continue to stir, letting soy sauce and Port mostly evaporate. Add thyme, continue to saute, and serve once everything is sufficiently cooked.

Soba with Garlic Chives, Mushrooms and Bok Choy

This dish was made possible by my local Vietnamese super store, Super Cao Nguyen (or Super Caoafragelistic, as I like to call it) and the kind people who post Cooking Light recipes on their sites when CL's site is down. I substituted brown rice for the soba, but I'm sure it's delighful in its original form as well. Who knew bok choy and garlic chives were so good? One word of caution: don't chop cranberries for cranberry banana bread on the same cutting board you used for dicing garlic chives. Trust me, cranberry-garlic-chive bread will never, ever be a hit.

SPINACH ENCHILADAS

I had lots of leftover bits and pieces in the fridge, so I tried to tie them all together by inventing this recipe. It turned out well enough to post on here.

FILLING
1/4 red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 box frozen spinach, thawed
1 small can mushrooms (actually, I ate half the can while cooking, so I only added the other half:))
1/2 C frozen corn
dash of chili powder
dash of cumin
dash of sea salt

Sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil for a few minutes, then add the spinach, mushrooms and corn, sauteeing until warm. Mix in the chili powder, cumin and salt.

8-10 flour tortillas (ooh, corn tortillas would be good, too)
queso fresco, crumbled

Spray a 9 x 13 casserole dish with nonstick spray. Warm tortillas in the microwave. Fill tortillas with mix, topping the topping with queso fresco. Wrap, enchilada-style of course, and put in dish.

SAUCE
1 C sour cream (reduced fat works)
2 oz. cream cheese (reduced fat works)
a splash of milk
1/2 t. salt
black pepper

Mix ingredients in a mixer until it looks sauce-y. Pour over filled tortillas. Top with cheddar cheese and bake at 325, covered with foil for 25 minutes then uncovered for 5 more.

A blast from the past. Sometimes you just crave Japanese elementary school lunch food, you know? For those times, there's this recipe:
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/ricebowl/r/chickensoboro.htm
Super easy, few ingredients, and it brought back memories of potty humor and choosing teams for the big dodge ball game at recess.

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day today, we tried this fantastic recipe for Fish and Chips. We don't do a lot of deep frying around here, so I wasn't sure of how successful this venture would be, but everything turned out great--MUCH better than the "authentic" fish 'n' chips I experienced on Saint Patty's Day in Dublin a few years ago, though that's not saying much. At least our homemade version didn't include the whole cod's tail and scales. Mark made the chips and I took on the task of fixing the fish. We subbed tilapia for cod filets and 1/2 cup of beer for 1/2 of the milk called for, as suggested by those crazy fans on allrecipes.com All in all, a recommendable treat.

There are two things I remember vividly from my college nutrition class. One: exercise is the biggest component of the "wellness" wheel, beating out genetics and even, yes, healthy eating. Two: eating lots of fiber is essential, and breakfast is the perfect time to consume a bunch of it. Oh yeah, and I just remembered one more thing I learned: even professors of nutrition feed their kids Krispy Kremes occasionally, so don't beat yourself up about indulging occasionally (I don't).

But back to the fiber thing. I'm pretty sure this professor mentioned AT LEAST once a day that the most important meal of the day is the best time to get in as much fiber as possible. She apparently practiced what she preached, as she also liked to recommend various high-fiber cereals that helped her start her day off right.

I'd like to think that she'd be proud of me. I was searching the internet for some sort of "breakfast cookie" to take to our class at church tomorrow morning, and I came across this recipe for "Hearty Breakfast Cookies." With 1/2 a cup of wheat germ, whole wheat flour AND oats, I think we have a real breakfast winner. ALMOST as good as Krispy Kremes!

I wish we'd taken a picture. It was beautiful. Last night we made the best homemade pizza we've ever made! Its success was due to this fantastic crust recipe, (quickly kneaded to perfection by the dough hook on our Kitchen Aid mixer, with which we are still totally in love) and to the right combination of ingredients-- a melange of leftovers from the fridge including caramelized onions,  fresh spinach and mozzarella. We didn't even have tomato sauce, but it didn't matter. It was delicious!

The Best Brownies Ever. I made these for Mark's birthday a few months ago. They induced a sugar rush of almost illegal proportions, so we learned to eat them in small portions. You've been warned!
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Fudge_Brownies

I love oatmeal in most every form except for plain. No matter how much butter, maple syrup, brown sugar, milk, honey, or chocolate syrup (just kidding, but I'm not above thinking that's a good idea) I pile on, a bowl of mushy oatmeal doesn't sit well with me. But oatmeal is so filling and very nutritious, so I've been on the hunt for a way to eat it without having to...eat it. In its purest form, at least.
This week, I succeeded in finding two delicious ways to consume oatmeal for breakfast (of course, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are my most favorite way of all, but I can't justify having those for breakfast...regularly). The first is an oatmeal quick bread that is dense and chewy and really easy to make. The second is baked oatmeal, which I didn't even know existed until I ran across this recipe. The only change I'd make to this one is to substitute apple sauce for oil (not my brilliant idea, I saw it done in another recipe), but that will have to wait until we get back to the States. If apple sauce exists in Japan, I have no idea where it is.
Well, there you have it. Two good oatmeal recipes to help you use up that huge box sitting on top of your refrigerator. Or is that just me?

Each new year ushers in new resolutions. We recently had dinner with two friends who are undertaking the ever-popular diet resolution. We offered to supply dessert; they declined our offer in an effort to maintain their new dietary lifestyle. So I searched for a "healthy" dessert option that we could all enjoy, guilt-free.
Not to my surprise, the Mennonites came through on this one. This my version of "Healthy Bananas," adapted from this cookbook (which I HIGHLY recommend).

1 banana per person
butter/margarine
orange juice
honey
cinammon
raisins

Lightly butter a pie plate and place the peeled bananas in it. Drizzle the bananas with honey and orange juice, then dust them with cinnamon. Sprinkle raisins on the bananas and in the pie plate (pour a little OJ over the raisins--they'll soak it up). Bake at 325 or 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Compared to our main blog, this one's been a bit neglected. That's about to change! Fall and the beginning of winter have presented us with opportunities to try out some new recipes, and we've found some real winners. I, for one, like getting recipe recommendations from other people. So I'll try my best to put good recipe karma out there.
Our first contestant hails from the site of News Channel 34 in Binghamton, NY. Nothing special about Binghamton, necessarily--it just came up when I Googled "risotto soup." Risotto is one of my favorite foods. The faculty sponsors from our year in Heidelberg first introduced us to real risotto (Dr. Love's risotto became quite famous in our house). This was my first experiement, however, with risotto soup. Mark had caught a cold, it was cold outside, and I didn't want to go to the grocery story to pick up any ingredients. So this was as close as I could get to the chicken soup that the doctor ordered--minus the chicken and plus the spinach and rice. Mark's sniffles are a little better, so it must have done the trick.

Fresh Spinach and Risotto Soup

Ingredients
1 1/2 lb.fresh spinach, rinsed and chopped
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
1 c. risotto rice
5 c. vegetable stock, low sodium*
1/4 c. grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
freshly ground pepper to taste
red pepper flakes

Directions
Heat oil in large saucepan and gently cook the onion and garlic until softened. Stir in rice until well coated, then pour in stock. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for ten minutes. Add the spinach and season to taste with ground black pepper and red pepper flakes. Cook for 5-7 minutes more, until the rice is tender. Adjust seasoning as needed. Serve with grated cheese.

*I used chicken stock

We set up this blog awhile ago, but we haven't posted anything yet. Well, that's about to change! Originally Mark's brainchild, this blog is supposed to document our adventures in cooking food from around the world. While living in Japan, we've been exposed to all kinds of new and interesting food, both Japanese and non. We've acquired several cookbooks full of global recipes, so we hope to share those and how they've worked out.
Also, I've started looking into the idea of seasonal eating, an issue that was first brought to my attention by (my favorite) Christian author, Lauren Winner. Lauren sets up a theological foundation for eating seasonally in her book Mudhouse Sabbath, but I've been hearing more about the political and economic dimensions of this issue and the issue of eating locally lately; that's mostly because of all of the energy that goes into producing, packaging and shipping the food we consume, especially produce that's out-of season.
Now, this doesn't mean we're ready to give up eating tomatoes in the winter, and I still want to enjoy imported Italian gnocchi and Brasilian soda and American pretzels (all of which are readily available at my favorite liquor/imports store Yamaya). But I do think we have a duty to be informed about our everyday choices, and it's becoming harder to believe that my small actions don't affect the rest of the global community.
If anyone else is interested in this topic, here are some good sites I've come across. If you know about my admiration of the Mennonites, you won't be surprised to find a few Mennonite resources here (they were saying this stuff in the 60's and 70's, way before it became trendy). If anyone who happens upon this post has some insight to share, I'd love to hear it!
http://www.100milediet.org/
http://simplyinseason.blogspot.com/
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0324-21.htm