Quinoa salad

This salad is a little spicy -- though you can make it super spicy, of course -- and it's packed full of healthful ingredients. You can enjoy it as a side dish, but it also makes a very satisfying meatless main dish.

Lots of people wonder what quinoa is. It has a slightly nutty flavor, it's got more protein than other grains (although it's technically a seed), and it can be used as a substitute for rice in most dishes. Check out this NPR link for a thorough explanation.

Spicy quinoa salad (makes about 8 side servings)

3 cups cooked quinoa, chilled

3/4 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

3/4 cup cooked edamame, chilled

1 medium zucchini, steamed, diced, and chilled

1 cup cooked corn, chilled

1/4 red onion, minced

1/4 sweet potato, steamed, diced, and chilled

chipotle sauce, to taste (I use about 12-15 shakes of chipotle-flavored Tabasco)

salt and pepper, to taste

1.) Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl.

2.) Refrigerate at least 4 hours, then taste for seasonings, adjust seasoning if necessary, and toss again.

Food fact: According to a 2005 article in the UK's Daily Mail's Mail Online, eating certain spicy foods has its benefits. One major one? It can fight cancer.

"Vegetables such as broccoli and spices like red chilli pepper could be used to combat cancer, researchers have said," reads the article.

"Scientists believe the foods may have a cancer-fighting benefit by slowing or preventing the growth of cancerous tumour cells." To read the whole article, click here.

Today's question: What's your favorite spicy food?

Zucchini pancakes

Here is one of my favorite recipes from when I was little. I don't know exactly where it comes from, but I saw a Korean dish in a magazine once that was similar but had scallions.

You can serve these warm or cold, and they're even good as a sandwich with two pieces of crunchy whole-grain bread.

Zucchini pancakes (makes 10 small cakes)

2 cups shredded zucchini

1/2 a small yellow onion, shredded

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons canola oil, divided

salt and pepper, to taste

1.) Combine zucchini, onion, egg, yolk, and flour in a mixing bowl, and stir well with a fork.

2.) Heat half the oil in a medium nonstick skillet on high.

3.) Drop heaping spoonfuls -- about 1/8 cup each, I'd say -- of the batter into the oil. (Make about 5 pancakes at a time, if you can.)

4.) Cook cakes for about 3 minutes a side, or until they are a medium golden brown. As the oil gets hotter with each skilletful of cakes, this time may decrease.

5.) Transfer to a plate lined with a paper towel, and drain briefly before sprinkling with salt and pepper and keeping pancakes warm in the oven.

6.) Repeat with another round of cakes.

Oven-steamed tilapia fillets

First up: Oven-steamed tilapia. *

This recipe is incredibly versatile, so feel free to substitute with a different fish, starch, or veggie.

Two major bonuses to making these packets: They are quick to make, with very few prep dishes to clean up. Hooray!

Oven-steamed tilapia fillets (serves 4)

4 sheets of parchment, about 2 feet long each

1-2 limes, washed and sliced

1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced very thinly

4 tilapia fillets, 5-6 ounces each

1 zucchini, shredded or sliced

8 thick slices of sweet white onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper, to taste

6-8 tablespoons of sweet and spicy chile sauce, such as Mae Ploy (the generic ones taste exactly the same to me)

1.) Lay a sheet of foil on your kitchen counter. In the center, arrange one-quarter of your sweet potato slices.

2.) Top that with one-quarter of the zucchini, then garlic and onion, then the tilapia fillet.

3.) Drizzle one tablespoon (or more) of your chile sauce on the ingredients, and top with lime slices and salt and pepper.

4.) Fold the foil or parchment over the ingredients, and fold the edges to seal them in. Leave some room at the top for the steam. It should look a little like a paper lunch sack.

5.) Bake on a baking sheet at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes.

* If you love tilapia, try this tilapia chowder with fresh tarragon sometime. It's one of my new favorite dishes.

Today's food fact: Tilapia is now the fifth most popular seafood in the United States, according to the American Tilapia Association, a site hosted by the University of Arizona. But, according to a July article in Science Daily, "Farm-raised tilapia ... has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids...
"The researchers say the combination could be a potentially dangerous food source for some patients with heart disease, arthritis, asthma and other allergic and auto-immune diseases that are particularly vulnerable to an 'exaggerated inflammatory response.'"

Today's question: What do you think are the four most popular seafoods consumed in the United States?

Southwestern "lasagna"

As I mentioned in my last post, this dish was created for my daughter Alice's first birthday dinner. I was sticking to foods she has eaten, but instead of cutting up little bites of individual ingredients, I wanted to do something more fun -- and more adult-worthy.


You can tell by this blog how much I love food. I also love the whole family culture that surrounds it. What could be more fun than preparing and enjoying a dinner with my husband and little girl? (I know that will change in the teenage years, so I'll take these moments while I can. All of a sudden, I am grateful that my mom can't post comments here; I have a feeling she'd walk us down the memory lane of my difficult teenager days...)


This mild "lasagna" should be served with a couple spicy sides. I'll be serving it with guacamole and salsa.


Southwestern "lasagna" (makes 8 servings)


1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced about 1/8-inch thick


2 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8-inch thick


16 ounces of cottage cheese


1 large can (19.5 ounces) of black beans, drained and rinsed


2 tablespoons butter, melted


6 ounces mild cheddar, shredded


about 8 whole wheat tortillas (8-inch ones -- I think El Milagro makes the best kind for this; they are soft and pliable)


1.) Toss the sweet potato and zucchini slices with the melted butter, and bake on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. They should be tender but not brown or crispy. Cool.


2.) Place 2 to 3 tortillas on the bottom of a 9x13-inch non-stick pan. You will have to break them into pieces to cover the bottom of the pan completely. They don't have to remain whole.


3.) Put the black beans and the cottage cheese in a food processor, and puree until smooth.


4.) Spread about a cup of the bean-cottage cheese mixture over the first layer of tortillas. Top with half the vegetable mix.




5.) Repeat the layering until ingredients are gone. Mine has two layers of cheese and veggies. Add a third layer of tortillas on top, and cover with the shredded cheese.

6.) Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Cool for about 20 minutes before cutting.

Coming up: The angel cake I made for Alice. My first ever. Let's hope it's delish!

Today's food fact: Did you know that avocadoes have about 250 calories per fruit, plus 5 grams of protein, and about 23 grams of fat? While that sounds like a lot of calories and fat, avocadoes are actually one of the best foods you can eat. They are packed with vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, which may help prevent chronic diseases. They also contain carotenoid lutein, which may help keep your eyes healthy, and beta-sitosterol, which may help your cholesterol levels. (Source: www.avocado.org)

Savory zucchini muffins

These are delicious! And they were easy to make, which is always a plus.

My mom created this recipe the other day by replacing the sugar in a sweet zucchini bread recipe with garlic, salt, and pepper. She says it's a great substitute for sandwiches when serving soup.

If you're not a garlic fan, I think this would work really well with a little chopped onion instead. I also think the recipe can easily be adapted to make carrot-rosemary muffins, or others with your favorite vegetables.

Serve these warm with soup or salad.

Savory zucchini muffins (makes about 10 muffins)

2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 squash)
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 egg
1 egg white
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese (I only had grated parm)
1/2 teaspoon salt
generous dash of cracked black pepper

1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1.) Mix first 8 ingredients -- through the pepper -- in a mixing bowl.

2.) In a separate bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients.

3.) Combine the two mixtures, and stir with a fork.

4.) Pour (or scoop, if the batter is thick) into muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Cool for about 20 minutes before serving.

Tofu teriyaki with vegetables

Money-wise, it's worth buying a bottle of your favorite teriyaki sauce if you don't plan on cooking much else that's Japanese.

But why not spring for the four ingredients and impress all your friends when you tell them your sauce is homemade?

All you need is soy sauce, mirin, sake, and extra-fine sugar. I'm sure regular sugar will work, too, because you heat it to make it melt, but you can easily find extra-fine sugar in Asian supermarkets.

Another nice thing about making this sauce is that you can control how sweet it is. I like things sweet, but even I know there's nothing worse than something that's too sweet -- all desserts aside, of course.

I loved the way this turned out with tofu, although my tofu didn't get quite as browned as I expected under the broiler. You can also use this sauce for chicken, beef, or salmon.

Follow the directions from this post about how to prepare a block of water-packed tofu, but don't cut it lengthwise. Cut it into cubes. One block of tofu will serve 4.

My teriyaki sauce recipe comes from Emi Kazuko.

Teriyaki sauce (serves 4)

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons mirin

3 tablespoons sake

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons extra-fine sugar

1.) Heat all ingredients -- except the 2 teaspoons of sugar -- in a sauce pan over medium heat. When the sugar is melted, let the sauce cool for an hour. (I let it cool on the stove for a half hour, then about 15 minutes in the fridge.)

2.) Marinate cubes of tofu in the sauce in the refrigerator for a half-hour, at least.

3.) Remove from fridge. Take the tofu out of the sauce and put it on broiler pan. Reserve the sauce. If you plan to use bamboo skewers, soak the skewers for 20 minutes in warm water first.

4.) Prepare and cook your side veggies (recipe follows). Keep warm as your broil the tofu.

5.) Preheat the broiler. Place the tofu under the broiler, and cook, about 4 minutes. Flip and cook on other side for another 4 minutes.

6.) While the tofu is cooking, reheat the sauce with the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar.

7.) Arrange the veggies and tofu on a serving platter and drizzle the sauce on top. Serve with a side of short-grain brown rice.

Roasted veggies for tofu teriyaki (serves 4)

1 red pepper, seeded and chopped

1 yellow onion, sliced

1 sweet potato, sliced

1/2 zucchini, sliced

about 1/2 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Toss vegetables with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and spread on roasting pan. Roast at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes. Stir/flip once, halfway through cooking.

Quinoa-stuffed zucchini

Tonight my husband and I are having quinoa-stuffed zucchini. I expected to make the fish, but I had to order it -- fresh trout, woo-hoo! -- from a supermarket. (It arrives Thursday.) So I decided to make something using up things I had in my fridge and on my kitchen counter from the Bloomington Community Farmers' Market.

Now, I'll admit it, I'm a by-the-book recipe gal. I'm not a very intuitive cook. It's only after I try a recipe exactly as it's written that I tweak it the next time. For me to decide to make something original means I need to find a little inspiration. I looked to one of my favorite cookbooks, The Wellness Kitchen, and specifically to its rice pilaf creator chart. The charts in this cookbook allow you to pick and choose ingredients, but they still guide you through the steps of making something. (There are charts for soups, poultry in parchment packets, and more.)

I replaced the rice with quinoa, a favorite grain of mine, and using round zucchini from the Farmers' Market, I made the following dish. It turned out pretty damn good!















Quinoa-stuffed zucchini

1 cup uncooked quinoa

2 cups water

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon powdered, low-sodium vegetable stock

3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1/2 yellow or white onion, finely chopped

1 small carrot, grated

1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped

2 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted (walnuts would work, too)

1 teaspoon rubbed sage

salt and black pepper

4 round zucchini squash, about 8-10 ounces each

1-1/2 tablespoons Madras curry

two pinches of turbinado sugar (white or brown sugar will do)

a generous handful of golden raisins

plain, lowfat yogurt (or soy yogurt)

1.) Put the quinoa, water, bay leaf and veggie powder in a pot; cover and bring to a boil. It should take about 15 minutes for the quinoa to cook.

2.) In a separate small pan, cook the onion, red pepper, and carrot in a teaspoon of oil. About halfway through the quinoa cooking time, you can add the mixture of onion, red pepper, and carrot to the quinoa, along with the almonds, the sage and salt and pepper to taste.

3.) Slice the tops off the squash, and scoop out the zucchini meat. (I discard the watery, seedy parts in such a dish; I find they make it too watery. I use just the firm parts.) Put the zucchini with a teaspoon of oil, the curry powder and the sprinkle of sugar in the same small pan you used for the other vegetables. Cover, and cook for about five minutes over medium heat.

4.) Add the zucchini mixture to the quinoa. Add the raisins now, too. Stir, then cover the pot, but take it off the heat.

5.) Rub a little oil on the outside of the zucchini rounds. Fill them with the quinoa mixture. (You will probably have some quinoa left to serve on the side.*) Put their tops back on, and bake in a 350-degree oven -- I like to use a clay pot for this -- for about 30 minutes. The zucchini are done when they are tender but not mushy.

Serve with plain, lowfat yogurt or soy yogurt on the side.

* Don't know what to do with the leftover quinoa filling? See my recipe for quinoa patties.