Butternut Squash with Couscous and Dried Fruit

I needed to use the butternut squash that I roasted the other day.  I didn't want to make a risotto, although I think that's what I should have done as I love winter squash risotto.  Instead, I was trying to find a soup that I could make.  I ended up settling on a recipe from VegWeb.com called Butternut Squash and Couscous.  This would be my first time making couscous.

I chopped the onions and minced the garlic and ginger.  Then, I sauteed them for a few minutes and added a fruit medley.  I was going to use a craisin/raisin blend, but I had a bag of mixed fruit that I needed to use.  It contained papayas, pineapples, raisins, and bananas (which I picked out).  (In hind sight, the fruit medley would have been perfect in a rice pudding.  Go figure that occurs to me now!)

I sauteed that mixture for a bit and then I added 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon allspice, and 1 teaspoon (at least) of freshly grated nutmeg.  I sauteed that for about 30 seconds and then added 2 1/2 cups of water and the couscous.

Since my butternut squash was roasted, I didn't need to complete the step to let it simmer until tender.  I thought I'd up the spices and add a few more to give it more of a sweet and savory type of taste.  I decided I didn't want it to be a thick pasta dish, but rather a creamy soup.  So, I added a handful of garbanzo beans, 1/4 cup of SO Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer, and about 2 cups of water.  The "soup" (very thick soup) turned out too sweet, not enough savory.

I ended up putting a squirt of Sriracha in my bowl and that helped, but it was still missing something.  So, I added 1 teaspoon of red curry paste and about a teaspoon of Sriracha to the pot.  That was more like it.  It's much better now.  However, in the future, I'll leave out the fruit all together.  I'm not a fruity soup person and would have never thought to add it before reading the recipe on VegWeb. I also didn't care for the minced ginger.  If it was grated, that would have been better.  The ginger flavor was too strong when biting into a small cube of ginger.

While I won't make this soup exactly the way I did today, I will try making a butternut squash soup again.  I love winter squashes.  I'm glad I experimented as it brings me closer to finding the exact spice ingredient combination that is perfect for me.

Today, it is cloudy with a temperature in the lower 50's with a wicked wind whipping around.  I took the girls for a walk at Lake Katherine today, which is our favorite place to walk.  However, I under-dressed because I'm thinking 50's, not 30's or 40's with the wind chill.  Brrrrr!  We only walked 1 mile and then came home.  (Our norm is 2 miles.)  I guess that 1-mile walk was enough to tucker the girls out, because here they are this afternoon.

Kobe is in the dog bed, which she OWNS and has actually pushed Jordan out of when Jordan had the "nerve" to lay in it the other day.  Jordan is in the rocker/recliner, which she owns. ha!

They've been in these positions for the last hour at least.  They need to rest up because tomorrow morning, we'll be back out there walking our 2-miles and I will be dressed more appropriately!

Lake Katherine

Roasted Red Kuri Squash & Coconut Soup

I have a variety of squash at my house.  I have a spaghetti, butternut, acorn, and red kuri squash along with a pumpkin pie pumpkin at my house.  I've had these squashes for weeks.  OK, some since mid-September.  I figure it is time to start using them.  So, I threw the red kuri and butternut squashes in my roaster that doubles as a slow cooker, and slow cooked them for 8 hours today.  I knew I wanted to make soup or risotto or something with the red kuri squash as I've never had it before.

So, I put it on a plate to remove the skin.  I really wonder why I needed to remove the skin.  The skin was extremely thin and was almost as tender as the squash flesh.  I think next time I roast one of these, I'll leave the skin on it.  I've seen recipes that use it unpeeled, so that's what I will do.  It was an absolute M-E-S-S to peel the thing.

After looking at MANY recipes (and bookmarking a few of them), I decided to make Roasted Red Kuri Pumpkin & Coconut Soup.  Technically, I don't think the red kuri is a pumpkin, but it kind of looks like one.  What I can say, regardless of the title, this soup is the BOMB!  LOVE IT!

It took a bit to put it together between chopping shallots, mincing garlic, and grating ginger.  I was supposed to "crumble" a dried red pepper in with the shallots/garlic/ginger, but I discovered that my pepper wouldn't crumble.  Oh it's dried and has been sitting in a cellophane pocket for months, but it was still a little gummy. So, I chopped the CRAP out of it and added it.

 

This is my first recipe using coconut milk.  I bought a can for something (I have no clue what), and finally used it today.  When I first put the coconut milk in the soup and tasted it, I could taste the coconut strongly.  After simmering for 30 minutes, it no longer has a strong coconut taste.  While I did add the lime juice, I only added 1 tablespoon, not two.  Also, I didn't use the garnishes.  Maybe they add a ton to the soup, but I have to say, I absolutely LOVE the soup without them.

This soup is a keeper and will be a repeat in my house.  There is a link in the comments for the blog entry for this soup for a butternut squash soup.  It's called Spicy Butternut Squash, Apple and Coconut Milk Soup.  Since I already have a roasted butternut squash, I'm thinking this is my next soup.  Although, this soup uses far less coconut milk, which is a good thing.  I could probably get away with using 1/2 cup of almond milk.  I'll keep you posted. :)

Thunderstorm Blues

It's been raining in Chicago for the past decade.  OK, not the past decade, only the past 5 years or so it seems.  I heard recently that this April may be the cloudiest on record.  It's been crazy.  It's rained every day for the past week, at least, and will rain again tomorrow.  Everything is starting to turn green and flowers are starting to bloom, but all of these clouds and rain are damn depressing.

On top of the rain, it's my week to work late.  That means that I am working until at least 6 PM or 7 PM depending on how much of the staff wants to work overtime.  Monday and Tuesday, I worked until 6 PM.  Tonight, I worked until 7 PM.  One of the best things about my late week is that I can accomplish a bit more during the morning before I go to work.

Yesterday morning, I made Butternut Tofu Stuffed Shells.  I knew I would be working until 6 PM and wouldn't get home until at least 7 PM.  The Bulls game started at about 7:10 PM.  There was no way that I wanted to be cooking out in the kitchen when the game was on.  I love the playoffs and am particularly happy about the Bulls being in them.

I had roasted a butternut squash over the weekend specifically to make the shells.  I mixed it with the tofu, lemon juice, and spices.  While I was combining the tofu mixture, I cooked the shells and rinsed them in cool water.  Then, I just left them in the colander until it was time to stuff them.

I read all of the reviews on VegWeb.com for the shells recipe.  I decided to dice two links of Tofurky Italian Sausage made with Sun Dried Tomatoes and brown it in a tablespoon of olive oil.

I added it to the tofu mixture before stuffing the shells.  I ended up making 24 shells.  The recipe calls for 16 to 20 shells.  I only had 24 in the box, so I cooked all of them.  I think my butternut squash may have been a little bigger and the sausage gave the filling a little more volume.  I used about a jar and a half of sauce (32 oz. total).  After all of the shells were stuffed, I put the casserole in the fridge until it was time to bake it.  I kept 18 shells at home and took 6 shells to work in a small pyrex dish and baked them at work for lunch.

My son put the casserole in the oven at about 6:15 PM, which gave me time to stop and buy some bread to go with it.  I got home at about 6:55 PM and the meal was ready to eat at about 7:10 PM.  It was perfect timing.  I didn't tell my sons that it was vegan shells and they couldn't tell the difference.  At some point, I will tell them, but it's nice that my sons liked it and ate it the same as they would have if it had been filled with fat laden dairy.

This morning, I wanted something for breakfast, but I didn't want anything I had in the house.  I had enough high fiber bread with peanut butter, enough oatmeal, enough high fiber cereal, and enough steel cut oats.  I had 4 ripe bananas that I needed to use, so I pulled out a few vegan cookbooks and went searching for a recipe.  I ended up choosing Lower Fat Banana Bread from Veganomicon. 

One of the ingredients in the recipe is molasses.  I have only recently started baking with molasses.  As you can see from the picture above, the wet ingredients were a dark chocolate brown from the molasses.  I did make one alteration, which was that I added cinnamon flavored applesauce instead of regular applesauce.  It added a tad more cinnamon flavor and a tad more sweetness since it was sweetened applesauce.  I had regular unsweetened applesauce, but the recipe only needed half of an individual portion of applesauce and I didn't feel like eating unsweetened.  :::grin:::

The batter wasn't quite as dark once the dry ingredients were incorporated into the wet.  I used a whisk to mix the wet ingredients and then used a wooden spoon to stir the flour mixture into the molasses/banana mixture.  I was careful not to over mix the batter.  Instead of making bread or 12 regular sized muffins, I made 6 jumbo muffins.  My sons prefer the bigger "deli" sized muffins, so I usually make them.

I sprinkled some large decorator sugar on the muffins before baking.  I think it's made by Wilton.  It took me a long time to find it.  It was another request by my older son so my homemade muffins would be more like deli muffins, which always come with the large sugar sprinkles.  The muffins turned out fabulous!  The sugar sprinkles added just the right amount of sweet.  This recipe rocks.  I love the flavor the molasses added to the muffin.  This was the perfect morning breakfast for me today.  It was a perfect match to my cuppa joe.  This is definitely a repeat recipe!

Roasted Acorn Squash Risotto

OK, I'll admit, it seems a little late in the season to be fixing acorn squash, but it came in my veggie box at the beginning of the month and I need to use it. I'm not a fan of acorn squash, but I decided it was time to try it again, so I ordered it.  I also have a butternut squash I roasted today to make a bisque, but that will be for a later post.  So, I went in search of a great recipe for the acorn squash and I found Roasted Acorn Squash Risotto on VegWeb.com.  Even a non-acorn squash fan can appreciate this risotto recipe.  It is excellent!

First, I roasted the acorn squash along with my butternut squash.  I peeled it after it had roasted and cut it up, or rather made it into portions as it was rather soft.  

I am not sure what vegetarian sausage links would be, especially to have 8 of them, so I used two Tofurky Italian Sausage made with sun dried tomato and basil.  I diced them into 1/2" slices and then cut each slice into 4 pieces.  Next, I sauteed the sausage until it was brown.

I didn't have any sherry, so I used a Fine Tawny Victoria that I had, which is a sweet Port wine.  (VERY tasty, too, I might add!!!)  I figured it was close to sherry.  I don't drink sherry, so I don't really know.

I microwaved the broth (I used water and no salt added veggie bouillon cubes) so it was very hot.  I ended up using 4½ cups of hot broth water to make the risotto so it would be creamy, with just a hint of firmness to the rice.  After standing at the stove stirring for an eternity, my risotto was done.  I added a bit of red cayenne pepper and some more curry powder and a generous sprinkling of fresh ground black pepper.  This risotto ROCKS!!!  There are a few reviews on VegWeb that state the risotto needs more salt.  I didn't add salt when I was cooking this and I didn't add salt to my dish.  It was plenty salty for me, but I stopped cooking with a lot of salt years ago.

This is the first time I've made risotto and I consider it to be a success!  I will definitely be making this dish again.  While it's a pain to have to stand at the stove and stir the rice constantly when adding the water a cup at a time, it's definitely worth it.  This is an excellent dish!

Chickpea Cutlets, Brown & Wild Rice, and Butternut Squash

I skipped lunch today (bad, I know).  But, I was busy at work, so I only had high fiber oatmeal, and a couple of cups of Joe. That was it.  I wanted something good for dinner.  Dinner is a mix of several things.  I bought some Roasted Butternut Squash with Grapes and Sage at Whole Foods and need to eat that.  But, it's a side portion, not a meal.  I threw a mixture of different brown rices in my rice cooker.  But, that still didn't make a meal.  So, I pulled out my vegan cookbooks and began searching.  

Lucky me, I found a recipe in the second cookbook I grabbed ... Veganomicon.  One of the pictures in the middle of the book caught my eye.  It was Chickpea Cutlets.  Of course, the picture has them being served with gravy, but I don't know which one since it doesn't say by the recipe.  BUT, the steps to make the cutlets and the baking time was good for a Monday night, so I began.

OK, I cooked a 1 pound bag of dried chickpeas yesterday and made a wonderful Chipolte Chickpea Dip from the Fat Free Vegan website that looked like hummus.  It is excellent.  I will be taking the rest of that into work tomorrow to share with my BFF for lunch.  That still left me with 3 cups (at least) of cooked chickpeas.  Think I left any out to use this week?  NO, Silly!  Why would I do that?  Nope, I froze them all.  So, I grabbed a can of chickpeas from the pantry shelf and rinsed them well.  I measured out a cup for the Chickpea Cutlets and then I tossed the rest to my dogs, one chickpea at a time for a snack.  (All three of my dogs love them!)

The cutlets were really easy to pull together and form into patties.  The ingredients are all basic ingredients that I had in my kitchen.  (I LOVE those kind of recipes!)  I decided to bake mine over frying them.  Although, I may like them better fried, and I'll try that at another time.  However, when I flipped the cutlets over on the baking sheet, the bottom side had browned nicely and looked crispy.  YUM!

The rice was done well before the cutlets, but the beauty is, I cooked it in my rice cooker, so it will stay piping hot on the "Keep Warm" setting forever without scorching the rice.  Plus, I could feed the girls (my 3 dogs) a healthy portion of brown rice for dinner.  :)

How was the dinner?  It was good.  I ended up putting coarse ground Dijon mustard on the cutlet, and that was a perfect match.  I either need to make the Mustard Gravy in Veganomicon or the Mushroom Gravy.  Also, I do think I'd like these pan fried much better.  Instead of making the 4" by 6", I'd rather they be a little thicker and smaller so they are less dry.  All in all, not bad for my first try.  I'm glad I made them.  Chickpeas are my favorite bean, so I will definitely make these again with some slight alterations.