Edamame, Bean, and Cheese Salad

Here's another delicious, different lunch recipe.  I have now found a fridge AND a microwave (success), but this one keeps great at room temp for a while.

It has really nice texture and flavor differences between the creamy cannellini beans, firm edamame and salty asiago cheese.  Plus, the dressing is just a little olive oil and lemon juice, with rosemary and parsley.

You can make a big bowl on Sunday, portion into lunch containers, and grab-and-go all week long.  It's a really healthy option too!  Fiber, protein, healthy fat and flavor.  What else can I possibly do for you?

Edamame, Bean and Cheese Salad
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups shelled edamame
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 15 oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
5 oz Asiago cheese, cut into chunks
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp salt and pepper
Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Toss all into a large bowl and stir!  Refrigerate, but can be served at room temperature.

Weekend in Review

How is it Sunday night?  When weekend actually mean something (not going to school/work), they have a funny way of flying by.  I object.

Homemade ginger ale...delish!

We had a lovely weekend, and I thought I'd share the highlights with you.  We went for dinner last night at a Chinese-ish restaurant near Michigan Ave called Big Bowl.  Random searching on yelp.com did us well.  

Summer roll appetizer

I'm going to have a room full of these someday

Shrimp and scallops plus some delicious broth

We then had a family movie night and watched Transformers 3.  Can anyone spot the dog in the picture?  She looks super comfortable, doesn't she?  Excellent movie, by the way.  The part that takes place in Chicago is way cool to see, since I live by most of the buildings they showed.  One of our friends said that our apartment complex is flashed for a second...I didn't spot it.

Today I went to Sam's Club in a particularly seedy part of town.  Whoops...guess I'll be driving to the one in Evanston from now on.  Big city living, I guess.  

What to read, what to read....Rachael wins

Finished off the weekend with a yummy pork roast and ironing.  Ugh, ironing.  I'm abysmal at it.  I'm still a little wrinkly, but I just keep telling myself that makes me approachable...right?

Did you have a nice weekend?  I hope you did.  Peter has most of the week off, so he will be assuming the head chef role.  I promised him I'd post what he makes :)  Bear with us.

Back to peds in the morning,

Amy

Pumpkin Pie Pancakes

This morning, we didn't have to be at the hospital, school, or clinic.  What a glorious thing!  We leisurely enjoyed some coffee, and I whipped up a batch of these Pumpkin Pie Pancakes.  Yum.  What is with this time of year and pumpkin flavored things?  I bought pumpkin spice coffee creamer today too.  It's a sickness.

I used complete pancake mix (like I normally do) because I think they rise nicer and are fluffier than if I make them from scratch (plus it's easy).  Then I added in some pumpkin puree (leftover from my pumpkin spice latte adventure), pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon, vanilla, and water.  Then cook like normal!

The end result isn't too pumpkin-like, so if you're not a huge fan, give these a try anyway.  Plus the pumpkin adds some fiber (love it).

Pumpkin Pie Pancakes
Makes 6 small pancakes, 2 servings
1 cup complete pancake mix
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Splash of vanilla extract
Enough water to make a batter (not too runny, not too thick)
Butter, shortening or cooking spray to grease pan

Combine all ingredients.  Slowly add water, stirring, until batter forms.  Heat a large skillet over medium heat and grease.  Drop 1/6 of the batter (a few spoonfuls), making 3 pancakes at a time to prevent overcrowding.  Flip when bottom is lightly browned.  Cook a few minutes on the other side.  Serve with a little maple syrup.  Fall breakfast heaven.

Fill-in-the-Blank Casserole

In my two blissful weeks on the peds unit, I've learned that the answer to almost any question is, "It depends..."  How much formula should an infant eat per day?  "It depends....plus they should be breast feeding."  What's the most common cause of growth retardation?  "It depends...how old are they?"  What's making this kid wheeze?  "It depends...what's going on in their home?"

What goes in today's recipe?  It depends.  It really does.  What do you have?  What veggies are looking kinda crappy that need to be turned into a nice dinner?  What type of protein do you have in the back of your freezer that you kinda forgot about?  And any combination would probably be great.

This is a real nutmeg: just grate it on a microplane.

The sauce is a homemade cheese sauce...kinda.  You use a bit of butter, flour and milk to make a roux (thick white sauce), then flavor that and stir in any kind of cheese you have.  Not hard to make, but you need to WHISK!!  There will be a time where you'll be like, "this is soooo lumpy!  it's not going to work.  gross".  But keep whisking, it will be ok.

Enough for another meal AND lunch tomorrow!!

Fill-in-the-Blank Casserole
1 Tbsp olive oil
Total of 3 cups of vegetables:  I used 1 small onion, mushrooms, shredded carrots, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes
1 package cooked chicken sausage (or any other protein)
1/2 package egg noodles (or any noodle or grain)
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
3/4 cup shredded cheese
Pinch nutmeg
Salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste
1/2 Tbsp dried Italian herb mix
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large skillet, soften vegetables until tender.  When softened, remove from pan and add in chicken sausage (or whatever meat you have on hand).  Cook until warmed through and browned slightly.  Add vegetables back into pan, and season to taste.

Meanwhile, cook noodles until just under-done (6-7 minutes for noodles that usually take 8-10 minutes to cook).  Drain noodles.  In empty pot over low heat, melt butter and add flour.  Cook 1 minute.  While whisking, add milk and cook until thickened (keep whisking!).  Add in nutmeg, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and herb mix.  Stir in cheese until melted.  Add noodles and veggies/meat mixture, stir well.  Pour into 2 quart baking dish, top with bread crumbs, and bake until warmed through and the top is crusty and golden, about 20 minutes.

Operation Vanilla Extract, Part 1

This weekend, I bought 3 1.75 liter bottles of vodka, and used them all.  Uncharacteristic, you say?  You'd be right.  Although I got some really funny looks at the grocery store (who are they to judge?) I made 24 jars of vanilla extract.  Yep that's right, homemade vanilla extract.

Vanilla extract is ridiculously expensive.  $7 for a very tiny bottle....ugh.  I was so excited when I came across this idea on Pinterest.  All you need is some cheap vodka and vanilla beans.

But vanilla beans are super duper expensive too, right?  Wrong!  I found a site, Beanilla.com, which somehow is selling a pound of Tahitian vanilla bean pods for $48.  That is like, a massive amount of vanilla beans.  You won't use them all for your vanilla extract project...try them in custards, ice cream bases, cookies....the little seeds (insides of the beans you scrape out) will change your life!

All you do is find yourself some tightly sealing jars and add 3 split vanilla beans per 1 cup vodka, cover, and shake.  Store in a dark, dry place for 2 months, shaking occasionally.

It will turn super dark and vanilla-y...I'll show you in a month or so.

You could also use bourbon or rum, but I thought I'd go for a less flavored liquor on my first try.  I bought 3 bottles of vodka...probably more than I'd buy in my whole life.  And yes, there is a heavy percent of alcohol in your grocery store-vanilla extract.  It's not a big deal and is ok for kids/pregnant people because you are adding a teaspoon to a huge bowl of cookie dough (ie, we're not going to drink it straight over ice).  Same rules, same measurements as the store bought stuff.

Look how the color changed after just 24 hours!

I'm making enough for everyone on my Christmas list (think you might be lucky enough to get one?  :)  I'll post again about how it's going...maybe we'll make some FANTASTIC ice cream or cookies at the end of this adventure.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

This past week, I had rhinitis, rhinorrhea, myalgia, and pharyngitis: aka, the common cold, caused by viruses like adenovirus, rhinovirus, coronavirus...it's hard to say which one but it doesn't matter.  It is getting to be that time of year, so I thought a chicken soup recipe would be appropriate.  Some of my dear friends came for dinner on Saturday, and instead of making something fancy and time consuming, I thought I'd make something comforting and time consuming.  Enter a steaming bowl of symptom improvement.

If any of my med student friends are reading this, skip this paragraph (you'll laugh at me).  While at the hospital this week, I looked on some fancy evidence-based journal sites just to see if there would be any statistically significant findings about chicken soup and shortening the duration of colds....I didn't find much of anything.  There was some popular media findings that chicken itself might slow up neutrophils (the white blood cell that can cause lots of mucus production=less snot), contributing to relief of symptoms, and of course it usually contains veggies (good for the immune system), and it's broth based=increases fluid volume, always good for headaches...so I guess we made a weak case for it's utility as a medical treatment.  In case you needed justification to enjoy a nice bowl of soup, there you go.

This recipe is based from my grandma's, with just a few minor adjustments.  I added a bouquet garni, which is a bundle of herbs tied together with some kitchen twine.  This adds flavor to the broth without adding a bunch of prickly herbs.  Also, I added 2 cloves of garlic that were just smushed and de-skinned, to give a garlicky flavor without having large chunks to bite into.

I totally forgot to get a pic in a real bowl, so yes, that's gladware.

Chicken Noodle Soup
1-32 oz box chicken broth
6 cups water
1 Tbsp chicken bullion powder
1 lb chicken breasts (either skin-on, bone-in, or boneless skinless)
5-6 large carrots, sliced
1 small onion, diced
4 stalks celery, sliced
3/4 cup fresh green beans, trimmed and cut in half
2 garlic cloves, smashed, skins removed (whole)
1 sprig rosemary, 4-5 sprigs thyme, and 10 stems of parsley, tied together with kitchen twine
1/2 bag No Yolk Egg Noodles

In a large stock pot, combine broth, water, bullion, carrots, onion, celery, chicken, garlic, and herb bundle.  Bring to a boil, then simmer until chicken is done (depends on size, whether bone is in, etc.  just watch it).  Remove chicken, garlic cloves, and herb bundle, add green beans, and continue to cook veggies until tender.  Shred chicken into large strips, and keep out of pot.  10 minutes before serving, add noodles* and chicken.  Ladle into a large bowl, curl up with a box of kleenex and a good movie, and feel better!

*Per my grandma's recommendation, you can cook just the amount of noodles you need for your number of servings separately, and cook up fresh noodles to add to the soup as you reheat it during the week.  I added noodles into my pot because I was serving it for guests, and I knew I'd eat it fast :)

Chocolate Eclair Torte

This is a great family recipe, courtesy of my mom.  It's healthy-ish (you can use sugar free- and low-fat varieties of products and it still tastes great, and hey, it's not a huge piece of cake), easy to make, and it actually gets better and better as it sits in the refrigerator.  This one will be a keeper, I promise!

The recipe below is for a 9x13 pan, great for company.  But when I'm making it just for Peter and I as a treat on the weekend, I usually just cut the recipe in half and use an 8x8 pan.  That's close enough :)

Chocolate Eclair Torte
4 small boxes sugar free vanilla pudding
3 1/2 cups milk
8 oz Light Cool Whip
1 box graham crackers

Whisk together pudding mix and milk (will be very thick).  Gently fold in Cool Whip.  Line the bottom of a 9x13 pan with graham crackers, breaking as needed to fill in the spaces.  Top with half of pudding mixture.  Add another layer of graham crackers, rest of pudding, and finally top with graham crackers.  (So, graham-pudding-graham-pudding-graham).  Spread chocolate topping (below) over graham crackers evenly and refrigerate until set.

Chocolate Topping:
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 Tbsp corn syrup
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4-6 Tbsp milk

In a medium sized bowl, melt chocolate in microwave (don't overheat!  go slow).  Stir in corn syrup, vanilla, and powdered sugar.  Slowly add milk, stirring vigorously, until a frosting consistency.  Keep stirring, it will de-lump.