Kira's Veggie Fried Rice

Joe was on-call Monday night, so I had been trying to figure out what I was going to eat for dinner when I remembered that I had some leftover brown rice from our tofu dinner the night before and a whole bunch of vegetables that I could add to it. This is the perfect way to use up bits and pieces of vegetables from another dish and make it into something new.

Almost any sort of vegetables that you have on hand can work and you can adjust the soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, garlic, and ginger to taste or add other ingredients altogether. I wasn't terribly concerned about authenticity. I haven't entered it into a recipe calculator, but I imagine this is pretty healthy with the brown rice and all of the vegetables. The amount of oil could conceivably be reduced even further.

This was such an easy and flavorful meal that I can't believe I hadn't tried something similar before. I was able to get home from work and have dinner on the table within 20 minutes with minimal preparation. Casual Kitchen has a great blog post on How To Use Leftover Ingredients and the different incarnations they can take. Check it out!

Kira's Veggie Fried Rice
serves 1 with a leftover lunch portion

Ingredients
2 tsp peanut oil
3 tsp fresh ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups brown rice, cooked and cooled
3 scallions, chopped
4 cups spinach, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 egg, scrambled
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp Thai chili garlic sauce

Directions

Heat oil on high heat in a large skillet or wok. Add garlic and ginger and stir until browned.

Turn the heat down to medium-high and add rice and vegetables, stirring until spinach is wilted and vegetables are cooked, about 5 minutes.

Make a well in the center of the rice mixture and pour the egg into the well. Let it sit for one minute and then mix into the rice until cooked.

Add soy sauce and Thai chili garlic sauce and stir until mixed thoroughly.

Serve immediately.

Tofu with Peanut-Ginger Sauce

After my success with the Ground Pork with Spicy Peanut Noodles, I knew anything with similar ingredients would be a big hit with Joe and me, plus I still had a large part of a knob of fresh ginger that I love working with because it smells so good. Still aiming for our one vegetarian night a week, I decided to try a recipe with tofu.

Personally, I've always liked tofu, mostly because the first time I had it was in Whole Foods' Pesto Tofu. Joe, however, is iffy about tofu because he's had bad experiences with how other people have prepared it. This was actually my first time to prepare anything with tofu at home.

Not surprisingly, we really liked this dish, and I plan on cooking with tofu more frequently.

I am also submitting this entry to August's Tasty Tools Event featuring whisks, held by Joelen over at Joelen's Culinary Adventures. You probably recognize the name since she comments here frequently, and I recently made a delicious tilapia recipe adapted from her.


Tofu with Peanut-Ginger Sauce
adapted from Eating Well

Ingredients

5 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons smooth natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (see Ingredient note) or white vinegar
2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 teaspoon Thai chili garlic sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
14 ounces extra-firm tofu, preferably water-packed
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups baby spinach
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
4 scallions, sliced

Instructions

To prepare sauce: Whisk water, peanut butter, rice vinegar (or white vinegar), soy sauce, honey, ginger, chili garlic sauce, and garlic in a small bowl.





To prepare tofu: Drain and rinse tofu; pat dry. Slice the block crosswise into eight 1/2-inch-thick slabs. Coarsely crumble each slice into smaller, uneven pieces.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add tofu and cook in a single layer, without stirring, until the pieces begin to turn golden brown on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Then gently stir and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until all sides are golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes more.

Add spinach, mushrooms, scallions and the peanut sauce and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are just cooked, 1 to 2 minutes more.

Yield: 4 servings (Note: Between the two of us, we polished this off.)

I served this on a bed of brown rice.

Canoe Picnic Menu

My parents, Joe, and I signed up to go on a canoe trip through my parents' church that occurred this past Saturday. We met in Kingston Springs, TN (after breakfast at Loveless Cafe) to canoe down the Harpeth River. Being the cook in the family, I was assigned the task of coming up with a picnic lunch that hopefully would not end up at the bottom of the river after a tipped canoe. Sandwiches would've been easy, but I wanted to do something a little different, so I made two salads. We also brought fruit salad, a loaf of French bread that I made in the breadmaker, smoked gouda, smoked turkey, and the last of the oatmeal raisin cookies.


These were the leftovers.

Tuscan Couscous Salad (from Bridget at The Way the Cookie Crumbles)

1 ½ cups couscous
½ teaspoon turmeric
2 cups boiling water
½ cup pine nuts
1 (15-ounce) can small white beans such as navy or Great Northern, rinsed well and drained
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
¾ cup shredded fresh basil
1 small red onion, slivered

The dressing:
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
⅓ cup lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt
Generous seasoning freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1. Place the couscous and turmeric in a large bowl and mix. Pour on the boiling water, stir, and immediately cover the bowl with a large plate. Let sit for 10 minutes. Remove the cover and fluff the couscous with a fork. Let cool.

2. Place the pine nuts and unpeeled garlic cloves in a small skillet and toast over medium heat, tossing often, until golden, about 5 minutes. Watch them carefully because they can easily burn. Let the pine nuts cool, then mix them into the couscous along with the beans, tomatoes, basil, and red onion.

3. Mince the garlic. Place the dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously. Pour over the couscous mixture and toss well. Let marinate at least 30 minutes before serving. Cover and chill if longer than 30 minutes. Serve at room temperature.

Notes: This makes a lot of salad. We'll be eating leftovers for a while, not that I mind at all.

Corn and Black Bean Salad (adapted from Allrecipes)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (less if you don't like it quite as spicy as we do)
  
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (8.75 ounce) can sweet corn, drained
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped

Directions

In a small bowl, mix together balsamic vinegar, oil, salt, sugar, black pepper, cumin, and chili powder.

In a medium bowl, stir together black beans, corn, and bell pepper. Toss with vinegar and oil dressing, and garnish with cilantro. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.

Notes: This would also be good with some chopped red onion.

Overall, the picnic was a big hit!

Walnut-Encrusted Tilapia with Steamed Broccoli and Red Potatoes

Eating more seafood is something that's always on my nutritional to-do list, but it never seems to happen. I really like seafood, but it's usually more expensive than other proteins and sometimes difficult and time-consuming to prepare, like in the case of cooking and shelling shrimp. Last week I was in the grocery store and saw a 3 lb bag of tilapia for $9.99. I was sold. These turned out to be some good-looking tilapia fillets too. I've had some that were so puny, you needed two per serving to make a real meal.

Fortunately, I also stumbled upon a delicious-looking recipe courtesy of Joelen. I changed it up a little and subbed walnuts, which I had on hand from the Lentil Walnut Burgers, for her macadamia nuts.

This turned out really well, and it wasn't too hard to throw together for a nice Friday night dinner. I served it with steamed broccoli and red potatoes tossed with olive oil and parsley. Joe particularly liked the crunch of the Panko breadcrumbs, and I liked how the nuttiness of the walnuts complimented the mild fish.

Walnut-Encrusted Tilapia
adapted from Joelen's Nutty Tilapia

Ingredients:
- 4 frozen tilapia fillets
- 1-2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1/2 cup crushed walnuts (I put some in a plastic bag and crushed it with a rolling pin.)
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
- salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
In a small bowl, whisk eggs with water for egg wash.
In a shallow baking pan, combine the nuts, breadcrumbs, salt & pepper.
Dip each tilapia fillet in the eggwash and dredge in the nut/breadcrumb mixture until fully coated.
Plate coated fish on a plate and chill for 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Place coated fish on a light greased baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.

Indian Spiced Chicken Burgers

It's been an Indian-inspired burger-type week in our house, but they're so easy to prepare in the morning and then fry them up as soon as I get home. I can have dinner on the table within 20 minutes of walking through the door, and that's crucial with our schedules.

This recipe is another one courtesy of Liz at Liz's Cooking Blog. Joe and I both liked this one a lot. I tweaked the recipe a little bit since I only had a pound of meat, and we like spicier food. I tend to err on the side of food being over-spiced rather than bland. The cardinal sin of our dinner table is bland food.

I got my ginger when we were at the Nashville Farmers Market, and we stopped into an Indian-owned international market. It was like heaven for me, all the spices and lentils and massive jars of ghee and tahini. They had knobs of ginger in a giant cardboard box on the floor, and I snatched one up knowing that this recipe called for fresh ginger.

While I was frying up these burgers, they almost smelled like breakfast sausage. Joe even remarked, "You always make the house smell so good." The flavor starts off heavy on the ginger and then segues into the heat of the cayenne pepper. The cumin yogurt sauce is just enough to cool off the tongue with its creaminess but still keep you interested.

I served this with a sliced tomato.

Indian Spiced Chicken Burgers (adapted from Liz who adapted it from Everyday Food)

Ingredients

1 pound ground chicken
3 tablespoons of minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (doubled from the original recipe)
Coarse salt
fresh ground pepper
4 whole wheat pita halves
1 cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced on the diagonal (optional)
fresh cilantro

Cumin Yogurt Sauce:

1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

In a medium bowl, combine the chicken, scallions, ginger, lemon juice, paprika, cumin, and cayenne. Add salt and pepper to taste; mix well. Set aside for at least 10 or up to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine ingredients for cumin-yogurt sauce.

Make 4 patties, and grill or fry for 2-3 minutes per side or until done.

Put one pita half on each plate. Place one patty on each, as well as cucumber (if used), a few sprigs of cilantro and the cumin-yogurt sauce and serve.