Gnocchi With Squash And Basil

Happy Thursday! Here is a great dish for a quick Thursday dinner or a lazy Sunday lunch
I had no clue what 'gnocchi' was until I came across it in a magazine.  The recipe sounded great so I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try it.  The recipe was simple and quick.  The food was amazing!

What You Need:

1lb of Gnocchi (fresh or frozen)

3 Yellow Squash (diced)

4tbs of Olive Oil

2 Garlic Cloves (chopped)

Salt and Pepper

4oz Feta (crumbled)

1/3 cup Basil Leaves (fresh if possible)

Lets Cook:

Cook the gnocchi according to package, drain and return to pot

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet.  Cook garlic, squash, and some salt and pepper until tender

After both of those are cooked put the squash and garlic into the pot with cooked gnocchi.  Toss them together.

While hot serve with torn basil leaves and feta sprinkled on top

(this came from the Real Simple magazine recipe I used)

Overall the dish was so quick and simple which was perfect for me now that my days are filled with classes again.  I was a little hesitant about the dish since I have never had gnocchi.  Overall my roommates and I loved it! I think I would have used more garlic and less feta.  I put the feta and basil in the pot and we served from there so maybe the feta didn't get stirred in well enough with the other ingredients.  Too much feta can make a dish taste strange in my opinion.  I hope you all get a chance to make this wonderful dish.  Its a light and 'summery' type meal.

Happy munching fellow foodies!

Magazine Food Looks So Beautiful

I love (zucchini) squash.  Yellow or green, acorn or spaghetti.  I love it cooked, baked, roasted, and even as fries! When I was looking through "Real Simple" magazine I fell in love with a recipe for linguine with summer vegetables and goat cheese.  I looked at the small ingredient list and decided I had to make it.

Here is what you need:

3/4 pound of linguine

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 cups of fresh corn (from 2 ears)

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

salt and pepper

2 pints of cherry or grape tomatoes

2 small zucchini cut into thin ribbons

2 Tablespoons fresh oregano leavs

4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Lets get cooking:

Cook pasta according to package, but when you drain save 1/2 cup of water for later

Heat oven to 350 and spread walnuts out on pan to toast, tossing occasionally.  Toast until fragrant or 8-10 min

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Add the corn, garlic and salt/pepper.  Cook until the corn is tender

Add the 1/2cup water, corn , tomatoes, zucchini to the pasta.  Cook over medium heat, gently stir until the liquid is thicken and coats pasta (add more cooking water as needed).

Serve sprinkle with oregano, walnuts, and goat cheese

I was really excited about this dish, but honestly it let me down.  It ended up tasting very bland.  I added some extra pasta because we had a 4 people eating dinner instead of 3.  I think that adding the extra pasta and not compensating with more oregano and more garlic might have made this dish seem plain.  I decided not to use the goat cheese to try and keep it vegan.  The goat cheese would have helped with the flavor too.  I would like to go back and the tomatoes and goat cheese.  My poor tomato plants did not fair well in the wet summer we had so I didn't have enough to put in my recipe and I don't use tomatoes regularly so I didn't want to buy any.  I loved having the toasted walnuts! They were a great touch on the pasta.  I think I need to give this dish another try some time.  I wasn't as careful paying attention to the instructions as I should have been and I put the squash in the skillet.  That might not have made any difference but thats something else I want to go back and fix.  The picture in the magazine is so beautiful and I was let down by it :(

I hope you all can try the dish and make it work for you.  Overall I give it a poor rating because it ended up so blah... but again I think I could make improvements and make the dish more flavorful.  I am not sure it was all me though, I think this is a plain dish.  Best of love food friends!

Happy Munching!

Roasted Red Potatoes With A New Spin

Last nights fabulous dinner was made even more splendid by a new recipe I found for roasted red potatoes.

Yesterday I marinated some salmon in my favorite glaze I did a few months back.  Its simple and sweet!  Along with that I did some fried okra.  I was never really taught how to fry okra but watching my mom do it so many times when I was younger gave me a fair guess.  I took my okra, washed it, and then sliced it up.  After that I tossed it in a bag with some flour, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.  Tossed around with a little oil.  Then I tossed it in my frying pan.  I did it in small sections to ensure all my okra was cooked.  Both of those items turned out beautifully and my roommate was happy with them :)

Normally I love tossing the diced red potatoes with some oil and seasoning.  Yesterday I wanted to do the same thing, but I happened upon a new recipe while I was looking up a cooking time for the potatoes.  This recipe said that if you toss the potatoes with olive oil and white wine it gave the potatoes more flavor and added a missing piece to my normal recipe.  It is a simple, only calling for wine, garlic, oil, salt and pepper.  You cut up your potatoes, spread them on a pan, drizzle equal parts of wine and oil over them.  Then sprinkle with garlic, salt, and pepper.  I forgot my garlic when I made it but even so they turned out perfectly!  I threw in some minced basil and cilantro as a bonus.  It didn't make much of an impression on the flavor but it is always pleasant to throw in some fresh herbs!

After cooking all this wonderful food last night I looked over the blog that I used last night.  I think I will be going back to it soon.  There were a few more roasted veggie recipes on there I would love to get my hands on!  Go on and check the recipe out Roasted Red Potatoes

Lets Talk Curry

Hello foodies, bloggers, and fellow flex-a-terians
     I found a container of green curry paste while my mom and I were shopping at Earth Fare this past weekend.  We love curry and Thai food so we tossed that in our basket with our even thinking again.  Green curry gets its green color from the basil that is used in it and it is usually sweet.  Green curry also has some heat to it, its usually as hot or hotter than red curry.

So tonight I decided to look up a recipe for curry paste and cook it up!  First I stir fried the left over squash and onion from my lasagna last night.  I fried them with some garlic and sesame oil.   Then I cooked some brown rice to serve the curry on.

 I looked at a few different recipes and I cooked up my own hybrid version.  That always doesn't go well but this time it was great!  I used 4 tablespoons of my curry paste, 15oz of coconut creme (I used that instead of coconut milk), 1/4 cup of basil leaves chopped, some agave nectar, and 1 cup of vegetable stock.  Mix all those up and bring to a boil, then let the mixture simmer for 15min.  After that you can add what ever you already cooked to go with the curry.  I added my veggies and let simmer for another 5 min.  Serve over rice and enjoy!

Overall wonderful!! I didn't get my curry to rice ratio correct and ended up with too much sweet curry for my rice.  I highly suggest looking into making some your self!

Happy munching :)

Veggie Lasagna

Hello all!
I know that lasagna might not sound so wonderful to everyone but I have never made it before and I knew it could be something that I take to work with me this coming week.

I didnt look up a recipe I just looked at the recipe on the back of the noodle box and did my own thing.  I used a vegan lasagna noodle I found that claimed it was 'oven ready'.  I cut up half a yellow squash and half an onion. Those went into each layer of the lasagna.  To do the sauce I used a jar of plain tomato sauce and added some of my own spices.  To the sauce I added basil (fresh from my basil plant!!), onion powder, and minced garlic (add them to taste or buy a pre-flavored sauce).  My version of the recipe was not completely vegan, I did add ricotta cheese to mine.

When my sauce was mixed and the veggie were cut I layered the noodles, cheese, sauce, and veggies.  I dont have a large baking dish so my lasagna was made in a dish that was the length and width of a single lasagna noodle.  I thought that was a great personal size!  When I got down to my last four noodles I was at the top of my pan so I layered them up the last of my cheese and sauce.  This would have been a wonderful plan had I not been a little short on my sauce.  So my top noodles ended up crunchy and not well cooked.  Between my top noodles and the onion I ended up putting my lasagna back in the oven for 15 more min.  Originally I baked it on 350 for 25 min.  So it really needs 40ish min depending on your dish depth.

Overall I could count it as a success! Not the best thing in the world but it was good!

Hope you all enjoy! Happy munching and Happy Monday!

Chili Teriyaki Sauce... Sorta

Watching the cooking channel with my dad is always been something I love.  One night we were enjoying our favorite channel and a show came on about all the different recipes for noodles.  The host of the show was at a food festival going from tent to tent cooking all the fun versions of tradition ramen being made.  There were all these really fun ones with tahini paste and peanut butter.  All of them sounded so good but one in particular caught my attention.  It was a recipe for chili teriyaki ramen.  My tastebuds always draw me to something spicy and smokey so of course I was inspired!

After some research and internet browsing I found something that I though would work.  Chili Teriyaki Sauce (this is the link to the site where I found it) was a total hit!  I made it for my sister and my self.  Believe it or not that picky eater really enjoyed it!  I didn't use the actual chili sauce that it called for but next time I will.  The sauce that it calls for has a more common name that most of you would know 'Sriracha'.  It is put on sushi, noodles, and rice or left as a condiment option at chinese buffets.

As far as the recipe went, I thought it was a hit.  Instead of adding the sriracha I used some red chili powder we had in the kitchen. I also threw in some chives and smoked paprika to add some smoky flavor and the chives keep it light and bright. I did the typical college thing and used just plain .45 cent ramen that most college kids live on.  I would love to try this again with tradition ramen noodles, not cheap dehydrated ones.

p.s. That site was really easy to use, and it has a portion resize button! I loved that site and I want to use it again soon.

Happy Munching and enjoy :)

Its Grilling Time In Tennessee!

Hello All!!!!

First I know that I ask for patience a lot... I want to ask just one more time (and for some forgiveness too)!  My family and boyfriend think that my summer is done backwards.  I am busy during the school year but nothing like my summers.  My summers are supposed to be relaxing but I have been home and slept in my bed a grand total of 3 weeks since May. Wow! Its awesome though because I have had so many wonderful chances to travel and experience all kinds of vegan and non-vegan food!

Secondly I would like to say sorry, I really hope that I never take such a long absence from cooking and blogging ever again.  Also funny story, I locked my self out of my account! I was inactive for so many weeks that I was logged out automatically and then kept trying the wrong username/password combo too many times! Guess that was karma for eating all the junk food I had on my trips!

Now lets get down to the good stuff! Grilling, seasoning, and veggies... OH MY!

Shrimp and Corn Packets were on the menu for my family on July 4th.  In my experience with veggies and the different way they can be fixed, hands down grilling is my favorite!  Nothing sounds better to me than some grilled onion or grilled pineapple (not a veggie I know but go with it)!!  When dad prepared this he followed the recipe and we loved it.  Our family loved it so much that we turned around and did just veggie packets this way a few days later.  Of course this recipe is not set in stone either which is something I love!  It can be so versatile!  You could do it with just veggies, or some other fish selection if you want.  For those who eat meat chicken or pork could be added (but make sure they are properly cooked).  Don't like corn? Well nix the corn and add green beans instead.  This is a simple quick recipe that we have fallen in love with.
I would suggest for those who like a little heat to add some chipotle sauce that I keep talking about, it went so well with the sweet corn!

Overall a great meal.  I would suggest adding a few more veggies, I was dying to have some more grilled peppers after the meal.  I would also suggest a little more garlic but that is what would please my tastebuds, some of you might despise garlic.

Keep the blog close I have  few more recipes to catch up on, so many more post will go up this week! Dont forget to sign up with your e-mail so the blog is sent right to you, or follow the blog if you would like :)

Happy munching almost vegan friends