Delicious Food Week & Healthy(er) Beef Stew

I am officially dubbing the fourth week of January 2012, Delicious Food Week.  I have been eating so much amazing food it is ridiculous.  It all started on Saturday when I headed out to Brighton Beach for Ukranian Food at Cafe Glechik.

In all honesty, I could not tell you what any of those things were, but they were delicious.  My grad school classmates (aka some pretty awesome women who I adore) and I had a slew of appetizers, split several entrees family style and got dessert!  (Did you know pierogis came in a dessert variety?)  I won't tell you just how affordable it was, but I HIGHLY recommend this place.
 
On Sunday, the Giants were gunning for the NFC Championship so I naturally went to dinner at the home of my favorite Giants fans.  I TOTALLY forgot to take pictures of the food, but we had a straight up delicious home cooked meal of chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, sauteed carrots and salad.  You can imagine that, right?

Since I indulged all weekend, I'm trying to integrate some delicious into my healthy weekdays.  Toast with peanut butter, sliced apple and cinnamon?  That makes the cut!

 

Also on the list of delicious goodness: BEEF STEW!  I know, I know, it doesn't sound very healthy, but here's why it is.  

1) I used naturally lean beef from Trader Joe's

2) I used vegan vegetable stock with sea salt (the sodium on this stuff is WAY lower than typical stock & is chock full of delicious herbs

3) I folded in a tablespoon of flax seed meal for some extra omega 3s

4) I added collard greens and kale!

Juiced up/Scaled Down Beef Stew (a made up recipe from yours truly)

Ingredients

1.5 lbs lean beef cubed

1 tbsp olive oil

1 white onion sliced or diced

2 cubes low sodium vegetable stock

4 cups of water

3 potatoes cubed to desired size (I cut em pretty big since you want them to stew a long time)

5 large carrots cubed to desired size

2 tbsp flaxseed meal

1 tbsp flour

3 cups of tough greens (any variety will do)

Brown meat in the pot with olive oil, once lightly browned on all sides add onion, simmer on LOW for 10 minutes.  Add water and vegetable stock cubes (or 4 cups of low sodium vegetable stock), cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add potatoes and simmer for 1 hour on LOW.  Add carrots and simmer on LOW for another hour.  Mix flour with a little bit of water and add to pot, stir until it is completely dissolved.  Stir in tough greens, cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes. 

You don't have to follow my instructions exactly, basically if you put everything in a pot and cook it covered on the lowest possible heat for as long as you can wait, it will turn out delicious.  It isn't exactly a salad in terms of nutrition/calories, but it's a pretty delicious way to get some things that are good for you!

Happy eating :)

Just call me a foodie (aka I've been playing pretend)

So, I'm going to be really honest with ya'll.  I LOVE FOOD.  I really truly do, but I'm definitely not a foodie.  I often go out looking for swiss chard and come back with collard greens or bok choy.  I don't usually go to organic locally sourced resturants (although I very much enjoy them when I do), and I'm not averse to swinging by Subway when I'm short on time and refrigerator resources.  I buy most of my groceries at one supermarket because it's easier than going to several different spots, and to me, spaghetti with canned sauce and some shaved parmesan totally counts as cooking dinner.  Suffice it to say, I am a casual food lover and healthy eater.

That said, I'm trying to expand my cooking abilities and have decided that given my ethical standing on a number of issues, that I'm going to try to buy local as much as possible.  This weekend I was basically chained to my computer since I had a LOT of schoolwork to do.  Since I spent so much time in the apartment I decided to try some new recipes.

On Saturday I gave Women's Health Magazine's Creamy Pumpkin Peanut soup a shot.  While this is probably obvious to every other person on the planet, it never occurred to me that you can make creamy soup in the blender!

Since I didn't make this one up, and followed the recipe very carefully, it turned out fantastic.  It's a little unusual, since you've got pumpkin and peanut and a little zip in there, but it TOTALLY works and is super filling.  Sweeeet.

Sunday was the most boring homework filled day ever, except it started with a BLT.

Made on fresh multi grain bread from a bakery in my adorable neighborhood.

However, now that I knew I could make broth soup into creamy soup just by putting it in the blender, I had to try something else!  I took a look at the goodies I got at the farmer's market last week and decided to make Aubrie's version of creamy tortilla soup (If you know me, you're cringing right now, it can't end well, right?)

Well guess what kids, it worked!  It needed a little salt and spice when it was done, but on the whole, it's kind of delicious.

Aubrie's Made Up Tortilla Soup recipe

1) Simmer one onion and 2 tbsps of vegetable oil until golden
2) Add diced tomatoes, chopped peppers (I used a red, a yellow and a green), simmer for 20 minutes
3) Stir in tsp of medium chili powder, tsp of cumin, two mashed cloves of garlic and one jalapeno chopped and de-seeded, simmer 5 more minutes
4) Add 2 cups of chicken broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes
5) Pour half into the blender and blend until smooth (don't fill the blender more than halfway full..... you will make a mess.  I know.  Pour into a bigger pot and then do the other half :)
6) Add corn (I shaved mine off of boiled cobs as opposed to using canned or frozen, but anything would work.
7) Add shaved chicken (about 2 cups... this should be cooked already, you can bake or griddle or roast, just cut it into little peices or shave it before it goes in the soup.  Salt and spice (with hot sauce of your choosing) to taste
8) Cook on medium for 5-10 minutes and serve!

If you make it and it's awful, I apologize for making up bootleg recipes and sharing them.