Sesame Ginger Dressing over a Cabbage, Carrot, and Edamame Salad

Tonight for dinner we are having vegetable potstickers.  I have made homemade potstickers for previous meals but didn't feel up to the task for this evening.  Instead, I just bought Chung's Vegetable Potstickers from Publix.  I went simple and easy. And although this post is entitled "Sesame Ginger Dressing over a Cabbage, Carrot, and Edamame Salad," for the salad I actually just used a bag of precut coleslaw mix I had leftover in the fridge and one cup of frozen shelled edamame which I cooked according to the package directions.  Easy again! This salad sounds fancy when all the ingredients are written out but in reality it is really, really not. However, it is really, really good!  Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

If you are like me, I often don't know what sides to put with any Asian meal I am attempting to make.  Rice seems to be the go-to side option for these meals, however, I didn't want to make that tonight.  I wanted something a little lighter.  It is getting warm out.  The sun is up later and later in the day.  I wanted a salad.  So with that desire, I decided to put together a sesame ginger dressing to be thrown over cabbage, carrots, and edamame. (Please again, see the note above if this sounds fancy. It is not.)

Although we are eating later this evening, I wanted to give the cabbage time to marinate (can you say that about a vegetable?) in the dressing before serving.  I just tried the salad again (it has been sitting about two hours now) and this is a very light but flavorful dressing.  I am excited to see how it goes with the vegetable potstickers which can sometimes be a little heavier.  I am planning on pan frying the potstickers in a little bit of olive oil to enhance their crispiness and flavor.  I will let you know how everything goes together!

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Sesame Ginger Dressing
(makes about 3/4 cup of dressing)

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons ginger powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons sugar

Begin by pouring the rice wine vinegar in a measuring cup or bowl.  Add the ginger and garlic.  Mix well with a fork or whisk.  (I found a fork works better.)  Add soy sauce and sugar and mix until the sugar is dissolved.  Add sesame seeds and sesame oil and mix.  Pour the dressing over the salad.  Let salad sit for at least one hour before serving.  Stir before serving and sprinkle with sesame seeds, chopped peanuts, fried wonton strips, or any remaining edamame. Enjoy!

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Couscous Spectacular

When I think of couscous, I immediately think of roasted red pepper.  I am not quite sure why I associate those two ingredients because I don't actually have a ton of experience with either of them but especially with regular, small couscous.  My heart belongs to the larger, Israeli whole wheat couscous which I use in as many recipes as possible.  As I have mentioned in a previous post, on Sunday we had a church potluck after the service.  The Mint Chocolate Chip Bars were one of the items I took.  The other item was a couscous salad with roasted red peppers, spinach, toasted walnuts, parmesan, and feta cheese. 

Even with my lack of couscous experience, I thought making a cold salad would be a nice addition to the church potluck.  Because of my association between couscous and roasted red peppers, I decided to use those two ingredients as the building blocks.  Below you will find the recipe I came up with.  It actually turned out really nice.  We had about three servings leftover after the potluck.  I just took it home, added more chopped spinach, and found myself with three couscous spinach salads for lunch on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Quite a nice deal.  I hope you enjoy!

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Spinach, Walnut, and Roasted Red Pepper Couscous

1 box of couscous (whichever flavor you like best)

1/2 cup of whole walnuts (or 1/4 cup of pine nuts), toasted and chopped

1/2 of a 12oz jar of roasted red peppers, cut into small pieces

2 cups fresh, chopped spinach

2 oz reduced fat feta cheese

1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place walnuts on a cookie sheet and cook for about 5-10 minutes, or until slightly browned.  Once cooled, chop the walnuts with a nut chopper and set aside. 

Follow the directions on the couscous box on how to best prepare the couscous.  

While couscous is in process, cut the roasted red peppers into small little pieces. Set to the side.  Chop the spinach into bite-sized pieces and set to the side.

Once couscous has completed cooking and has cooled for 10-15 minutes, add the spinach and the roasted red peppers into the couscous.  Mix well.  Add the walnuts, feta, and parmesan.  Mix well.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve slightly cooled or around room temperature.  This recipe takes about 30 minutes to make and serves between 5-7 people as a side dish.

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Pearled Barley with Roasted Onions and Butternut Squash

Warning!  If you are doing any sort of food cleansing fast, please avoid looking at the pictures and recipe linked below.  Another warning!  These photos do not do this meal justice.

This was the experience Matt had today at school when warming up his leftovers for lunch.  He said a couple of his coworkers are doing a cleansing fast and when they saw him warming up this dish, they basically started asking him all sorts of questions about it.  When he described the dish by saying "roasted butternut squash, roasted onions, and pearled barley topped with goat cheese," it is hard to blame them for drooling.  

Here is the link to the original recipe from 101cookbooks.com: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/farro-and-roasted-butternut-squash-recipe.html  

As you will see from the link, the original recipe calls for farro instead of barley.  Because I didn't have any farro but I did have some leftover pearled barley, I just did some ingredient swapping.  From what I can tell farro and barley are often used as substitutions for each other.  And man, let me tell you, this dish turned out nutty delicious!  Barley has a very nutty texture and taste which compliments the butternut squash so well.  Topped this dish with goat cheese and you've got yourself a little slice of heaven.  I have already told my mother that this is going to be a perfect recipe to compliment our Thanksgiving dinner.  It is a little different from the a more traditional rice and/or butternut squash dishes out there but definitely a winner!  

Starving on a Sunday Afternoon

Sometimes when I get really hungry, I get really mean and angry.  I have heard many people call this feeling "hangry." As a counselor, I am endorsing this feeling.  Sometimes you do get angry because you are just so, so hungry!  This emotion makes sense to me.

Yesterday after church I could feel "hangry" coming on in full force.  Maybe it was because of the time change but when we got home, I was ravenous.  As I sat in silence on the way home from church (I was trying to avoid letting the hangry out), I began planning what my lunch was going to look like.  I knew we had spinach (as always), some parmesan cheese, butter (praise Jesus!), and whole wheat Israeli couscous.  Although I knew it might take about 20 minutes to make, I decided to experiment with these ingredients in order to satisfy my desire for a hearty lunch.

Below is the end result of my experimenting.  It turned out to be a great success!  In case you care, this meal was 7 Weight Watcher points.  That is an ideal amount for one of my lunches.  It was also the perfect serving size.  Matt had eaten a late breakfast so he was not interested in my couscous concoction.  The serving size below is just right for one person.  Add a piece of fruit and you got yourself a meal!  If you try it, I hope you enjoy.

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Whole Wheat Couscous with Spinach and Parmesan
(makes a 1 cup serving for 1 person)

1/2 cup whole wheat Israeli couscous
1 cup chicken broth
3 big handfuls of spinach
1/2 tablespoon butter
shake of red pepper flakes
1 pinch of salt
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Bring chicken broth to a boil.  Add couscous, stir one time, and lower heat to a simmer.  Cook for approximately 15-20 minutes or until couscous is cooked through.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large pan.  Add spinach to pan.  Sprinkle spinach with the salt and red pepper flakes.  Cook until spinach is wilted, stirring occasionally.  Take off heat and set aside.

When couscous is cooked, add spinach and stir.  Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

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Nice Looking Bean Dip

On Friday night, Matt and I were supposed to go to a Halloween/Fancy party at some church friends' house.  We didn't end up going because Matt has been fighting off his fall allergies.  About 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave, he started sneezing, sneezing, sneezing.  Because we knew our friends' had three cats (which Matt happens to be allergic to), we figured going over to their house when he was already sneezing would not be a good idea.  So we stayed home and watched "Arrested Development."  I drank wine and he drank some beer.  Clearly even with the sneezing, the night was not a bust. 

But before the sneezing attack of November 2012 began, I made some bean dip to take to the party.  I didn't quite know what I was doing in making this bean dip.  I was inspired by a bean/avocado dip my friend Holly's husband makes every time we go to Hilton Head and by a dip my aunt makes called "Red Neck Caviar."  Unfortunately, I did not have time to look up either of these recipes so I decided to be creative and just try something new.  I think this dip turned out pretty good.  I will be honest though, I am slightly biased because I love all things bean.  And I loved the way this dip looked!  I thought the colors of the beans, corn, and cilantro looked so pretty together.  I don't know if you should base your review of a dip on how it looks but this one is very nice looking.  And it was tasty!

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Nice Looking Bean Dip (again, this is a working title)

1 can black beans

1 can corn

1 can kidney beans

1 package of italian seasoning

shake of pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

pinch of cayanne pepper

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons of cilantro, chopped

Combine black beans, corn, and kidney beans in a large bowl. Stir. Add italian seasoning, pepper, garlic powder, cayanne pepper, olive oil, red wine vinegar and stir.  Chop cilantro and add to bean mixture.  Chill for about an hour before serving.

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PS- Because we didn't end up going to the party and because the bean dip wouldn't be eaten before going bad, I rinsed off the seasoning and plan to use the beans and corn Monday in a chili.  We will see how that goes. Wish me luck!