Burrito Bowls

This recipe is healthy.  Vegetarian, could even be vegan depending on the toppings.  It gives you a ton of food for very little effort, a perfect make ahead lunch for the work week.  It's cheap, heck this is straight up rice and beans. 

 

And it is delicious.

Ingredients

(Recipe adapted from Woman's Day)

For the salad:

• 2 cups cooked brown rice (from ¾ cup uncooked brown rice)
• 1 can black beans
• ¼ cup chopped shallots or red onion
• ½ cup cilantro
• 2 cups grape tomatoes
• romaine lettuce

For the dressing:

• 3 tablespoons lime juice (from 2 limes)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• salt and pepper

Add-ins:

• Avocado
• Sour cream
• Cheese
• Salsa

Method

Begin by cooking the rice according to your favorite method, which for me is the microwave.  Fluff with a fork and set aside.

Drain and rinse the beans.  Now I like things spicy, so I like to add in a little ghost pepper sauce, but this is totally optional.

Slice into a shallot or onion...

...and dice finely.

Halve the tomatoes.

Slice the cilantro into fine pieces.

Juice the limes.

Mix the lime juice, olive oil, cumin, and salt and pepper together for the dressing.

Now throw everything together.  First beans into rice...

Then the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and dressing.  Mix well.

Line a salad bowl with romaine.

Top with a hearty serving of the rice and beans, and you will be faced with something that is far too healthy to eat.  So add in some fun stuff to remind you not to take life too seriously.  I like a sprinkling of cheese and avocado.

And eat it up.

Teriyaki Tofu Bowls

Picking up from where we left off last time, the end of the 10 week grad school marathon of this summer is in sight.  With a few days left to go, it's time for part 2 of our series on portable/no reheating/minimal refrigeration dinners.  Rice noodles, crisp veggies, and succulent tofu bites in teriyaki sauce fit the bill perfectly.

Ingredients
(Recipe adapted from Veggie Belly)
Yield: 3 servings

• Tofu and Teriyaki Sauce:
• 16 oz extra firm tofu
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon ginger
• Rice Noodles
• 3 oz rice noodles
• ½ cup carrots
• ½ cup cucumber
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• ½ teaspoon dried chili flakes 

Method

Drain tofu and cut into 1" slices.

 Half the slices.

Cover the tofu slices with a triple layer of paper towels on each side.

Place a cutting board on top and weigh the tofu down with whatever assorted canned goods you may have on hand.  The goal is not to smush the tofu, just to add a little weight to drain it.  Walk away for about 20 minutes, during which time the tofu will get try and the paper towels will get wet.

This is the first year I planted cucumbers and it will not be the last.  Garden fresh is the way to go.

Slice the carrot and cucumber into thin slices.

Pan fry the tofu.  Heat a layer of oil (not much, maybe 2 tablespoons?) on medium until the skillet gets fairly hot.  Fry for a few minutes on both sides until brown and crispy.  Work in batches according to your skillet size, topping off the oil as needed.

Place on paper towels to drain.

Meanwhile, assemble the sauce ingredients.

Heat the sauce to boiling and let simmer for a few minutes.  Remove from heat.

Place the tofu in a small bowl and pour in the sauce.

Add the rice noodles to hot water and let sit for a minute or two until they soften.

Drain them.

Toss in the sesame oil, rice vinegar, and red pepper flakes.

Assemble the bowls.  There will be a lot of teriyaki sauce left over.  Add a few spoonfuls to each dish and discard the rest.

And sit back and enjoy the zen.

Spicy Peanut Noodles

Summer 2013 will live in memory as the summer I decided to take 12 graduate credit hours and lost my mind.  Not the least of my problems is the issue of meals.  My degree program is ranked 34th nationally but does not include a student microwave.  I went in search of portable cold dinners, things that are on the light side, safe to be away from the refrigerator for a few hours, and of course, utterly delicious. 

Spicy peanut noodles are a wonderful thing.  They are good hot, they are good cold, and they are good at all temperatures in between. I've chosen an all veggie version to cope with my lack of refrigeration, but chicken or especially shrimp would be a great addition to the awesomeness.

Ingredients
(Adapted from The 15-Minute Vegetarian Gourmet)

• ⅓ cup peanut butter
• ½ cup vegetable or chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• Red pepper flakes to taste
• Sriracha sauce to taste
• 8 oz pasta, such as linguine
• 4 cups chopped vegetables

Method

Chop up a bunch of your favorite vegetables into bite sized pieces.  That's "a bunch" of broccoli, two carrots, and half a red pepper, resulting in four cups of raw vegetables.

Lightly steam anything that needs it.  I didn't steam the red pepper, since the heat from the broc, carrots, and pasta is all that it needs to cook.  And if you're not familiar with the concept of steaming, it's a fancy way of saying to put the veggies in a covered bowl and run them through the fresh vegetable setting on your microwave.  Err on the side of under cooking, especially if you plan on eating the leftovers.

Cook the pasta.  I broke all of the noodles in half for ease of eating.

Dice the garlic.

Prepare the sauce.  I greased the measuring cup with cooking spray so that the peanut butter would just slide out instead of having to work for it.

Whisk all of the sauce ingredients together, adding red pepper flakes and a splash of Sriracha.

 Toss the cooked noodles with the steamed veggies.

Add sauce.

Toss the sauce to coat the pasta and veggies.

Package in serving containers for the long nights away from home that lie ahead.

 And console yourself that this too shall pass.

Salmon with Mashed Butternut Squash

I spent the past few weeks trying to decide what to do with the two tiny butternut squash from this year's garden.  Then I heard about butternut smash...same idea as mashed potatoes.  Recipe calls for two pounds of squash, and my little guys came in at one pound 13 ounces.

But what to eat with squash mash?  I'm not much of a meal planner, living mostly off one dish meals like pizza.  What makes a proper meal anyway?  Finally it dawned on me that I had salmon in the freezer.  Add some frozen veggies and a glass of wine, and I'd be set.  So after a long day's work, I headed home to make an adult meal.

Ingredients for Butternut Smash

(Heavily adapted from Devin Alexander's The Most Decadent Diet Ever!)

• 2 pounds butternut squash (or 1 ½ pounds if peeled)
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage
• 1 small clove garlic
• Salt and pepper
• Oil for spraying

Ingredients for Dijon Salmon

• 2 salmon fillets, 4 oz each
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• Oil for spraying

 Method

Start by preheating the oven to 400°.  Slice the squash lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. (NOTE: the original recipe, like many butternut squash recipes, instructs you to peel and cube the raw squash!!!  Only do this if you have unlimited time, don't mind ruining your knife, and have a high tolerance for frustration.)

Place the squash on a foil lined baking sheet (skip the foil if you are not lazy and feel like scrubbing the pan) and spray lightly with oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake for 40 minutes, until soft.

Get the rest of the squash ingredients ready, which in my case is why the recipe is "heavily adapted".  The original calls for basil and Parmesan.  Well, after the first frost of the year, I have no basil left, so I substituted sage.  And darned if I wasn't fresh out of Parmesan and in no mood to make an extra trip to the store. In any case, deal with your specific ingredient substitutions and measure out the two tablespoons of milk and two teaspoons of butter.  Slice the sage, dice the garlic clove.

 Meanwhile, get started on the salmon.  Mix 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 tablespoon mustard.  The resulting mixture will be very thick.

Pat the salmon fillets with paper towels to dry, and spray lightly with oil.

Meanwhile, back to the squash.  Test with a fork for appropriate softness and pull out of the oven when ready.  Immediately turn on the broiler for the salmon.  Set the squash aside on a plate to cool for a minute.

Set the salmon on the foil lined baking sheet.

Spread the mustard mixture over the salmon.  Tuck them into the broiler for 10 minutes.

 Now back to the squash.  Microwave the milk and butter for 30 seconds.  Mix together and add the sage and garlic.  Peel the skin off the squash--it will slide right off--and chop into coarse pieces.

Use a mixer or potato masher to mash the squash into the butter mixture.  While you're at it, throw some frozen veggies into the micro to round out the meal.

By this time, the salmon will be ready.  Test by poking with a fork; they're ready when the poke makes the fish flake apart.

As I sat down to eat, I thought about a conversation I had with my neighbors this summer about the squash.  They wanted to know if it was worthwhile to grow them.  I said no because they take up a lot of garden space and have a low yield.  Just two tiny squash for all the trouble.

 Never mind that it was a hot summer and I didn't exactly, um, water them.

 But I have to take that back.  The little devils are cute.

 And tasty.