Crunchy Granola

I just finished reading Mark's book Food Matters and in it, he talks about the importance of eating enough grains. From there I decided to make my own granola to have as a breakfast staple and an easy snack throughout the day.

THIS IS SO GOOD! I'm eating it right now as I type! I usually think granola is too sweet and I am not the biggest fan of raisins so making my own, I got to decide how sweet to make it (using honey instead of sugar) and avoided raisins!

Here's what I put in mine (many variations are listed in the book, but I just bought what looked good): oats, shaved coconut, almonds, walnuts, cinnamon, honey, salt, craisins, and dried cherries.

I wish this picture came with smell:

HTCEV p. 573
HTCE p.821-22

Danielle

• I'm 25 and live with two college students in a house with 11 people total - we're all friends and eat together frequently. I usually make an entire recipe and it's gone before we can have leftovers.
• I have been with my boyfriend for 4.5 years. He's a vegetarian and enjoys eating whatever I make. :)
• I stopped eating meat sometime in April after watching a disturbing documentary. Sometimes I'll have meat if there's no other option or if I'm really craving it, but for now I consider myself a less-meatarian (like Mark!) who eats fish and other seafood. I just like to eat more vegetables and grains to have a smaller impact on the planet.
• Eating vegetarian has made me love so many foods that I always hated before including: broccoli, artichokes, spinach, peppers, and asparagus.
• I occasionally bring lunch to work but I mostly snack throughout the workday (5-2pm) and cook for dinner.
• I mostly shop at Whole Foods and the local market.
• Bridgette got me this cook book for my birthday. Even though I didn't really cook meat before, it's made being vegetarian and cooking for myself so much easier!!

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

This was the first time I've ever made mac'n'cheese not out of a box, and like many other thing I've made in this cookbook, I don't see going back again! The recipe labels this as "make ahead" but I did step 4 (making the sauce) while the noodles were boiling, cutting the time by 15 minutes or so. I used shells - although any pasta will do - and whole milk. I also put this in a deep corning ware dish because I don't have a 9X13 right now and everything baked just fine. After it came out I just mixed it up so that the breadcrumbs were coating all of the parts.

The only critique I have of this was that it was VERY hard to pour the milk into the butter/flour mixture while whisking and control the amount that pours out. I would recommend putting the milk into a dish to pour it in to or having a companion help you out with that step.

HTCEV p. 460
HTCE p.508
Full Recipe 

Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice

One of the first things I made with this cookbook, these tomatoes are a great side dish to almost any meal!

For this I used half mozzarella and half monterey jack, a little extra garlic and I actually only had three tomatoes to spare. So I did the whole recipe, and then we ate the extra filling as a side dish the next day.

I would be eager to try any of the variations listed: Red Peppers, Zucchini and Acorn Squash stuffed with different grains and cheeses.

HTCEV p. 398
HTCE has a "Tomatoes Stuffed with Sausage and Rice" p. 369
Full Recipe (of the meat version)

Potato "Nik" Variation: Latkes (Potato Pancakes)

I love Latkes! They are so easy to make and a great way to eat potatoes! Not that there's anything wrong with all of the other ways to eat potatoes, this one is just a little different.

The recipe was good although I would suggest adding some carrots into the mix as a good way to add a vegetable to the meal. Chives or green onions would be another good addition. I served these the traditional way: with sour cream and applesauce (the top two garnishes Mark lists with the recipe).

HTCEV p. 349-350
HTCE p. 345 (This is not Potato "Nik", but Potato Rösti with a Latke variation)
Full Recipe

Basic Wild Rice Variation: Wild Rice with Chestnuts

This is one I tried for Thanksgiving and it was a total flop! It was fun to roast the chestnuts and get them out of their shells (something I'd never done before) but the rice didn't cook all the way. Maybe I should have tried the easier way to cook rice, but I was going for fancy. This one called for vegetable stock instead of water and told me to check the rice mid-way through cooking. Now I may be one of those people who never cooks rice on the stove, but I know you're not supposed to lift the lid! So I lifted, the rice wasn't done, wasn't hot enough, I added more broth and boiled it too much so the bottom burt and I had already added the chestnuts so they turned to mush.

It was good so I would probably want to try again, but I may just use my rice cooker this time. :)

HTCEV p. 567
HTCE p. 494

Fruit-and-nut or Vegetable-and-Nut Bread Variation: Pumpkin Ginger Bread with Hazelnuts

For Thanksgiving I made the Pumpkin Ginger Bread with Hazelnuts variation of this recipe. It should really be called a "cake" and not a "bread" but it was so incredible! I am not a giant fan of nuts inside breads and desserts, but the hazelnuts were flavorful and a good addition to the bread.

I used orange juice as the juice in the recipe and it worked well. For this one, you also use the pumpkin raw, which was a little challenging to grate but not too difficult.

The only critique I had of this variation was I wished for more ginger but I'll just remember to do that next time. Overall this was a nice bread to accent a wintery meal.

HTCEV p.291-292
HTCE p. 843
Full Recipe (without this variation)

Stir-Fried Vegetables

One night I found myself needing to empty the fridge of some extra vegetables before they went bad. What better way to use them all than to stir fry them all together!! Vegetables shown: spinach, carrots, onion, broccoli, yellow squash, zucchini, red bell pepper, and mushrooms. This is one of the most colorful dishes I have ever made! I just used Mark's advice and cooked the harder things first and added the softer things at the end. I started with the sesame oil, instead of at the end as the recipe suggests, but finished the dish with soy sauce and white rice.

I like my vegetables a little crunchy, so I didn't let them cook as long as I could have, but If you're using frozen or fewer crunchy vegetables, you could adjust the time as needed.

7 Seasonings or Crunchy Bits to Add to Stir-Fried Vegetables:

Here I added some walnuts because that was what I had. What a great idea! They added just a little bit of flavor and yet another pleasant crunch.

HTCE p. 241
HTCEV p.242-243

Tomato Soup Variation: Wintertime Tomato Soup

After stocking my pantry with most of what Mark suggested in the beginning of the book, I found myself coming home on a cold day desperately looking in my pantry for soup. The opening line in the recipe referring to the deep dark days of January were very appropriate, as was the soup! Hearty and flavorful, this is definitely one I will reach for again on another cold day.

For the recipe, I used the dried tomatoes and the canned and although the dried were pricey, they were well worth it! The dried tomatoes really enhance the flavors of the soup and make you forget you're eating canned tomatoes - something I'm usually not a fan of. Although I planned on using the leftovers in the Elegant variation - which puts your chunky soup into a blender and adds cream - every night the smell of the original had me coming back for more! This is definitely a hearty soup you could add beans or meat to if you needed some more protein.

HTCE p. 130
HTCEV p.113-114