Citrus Couscous (or Quinoa) with Chickpeas

If you are cooking Mediterranean food and are looking for a side dish, you have certainly found it. The mint, lemon, fennel and olives give it that distinctive savor. Now I know many people shy away from fennel because a) they do not know how to cook with it and b) the potent licorice taste of raw fennel deters them from trying it. Personally, I do not like licorice but I really enjoyed cooking with fennel in this recipe. I saw a picture of couscous with chickpeas and fennel and decided to write a recipe with it, finally ridding my own fallacy of this leafy veggie. I was pleasantly surprised. Once fennel is cooked, its flavor becomes very mild. It has a mellow sweet taste to it and adds a unique aroma. So if you have yet to cook with fennel, I suggest you begin with this dish.

This recipe is great with quinoa or couscous; it really just depends on which you are looking to cook. If you have a wheat or gluten intolerance, use quinoa. I used quinoa in the pictures below.

Serves 2-4

-1 cup of couscous, cook following instructions on the back- Healthier choice: use whole wheat couscous or quinoa
-1 teaspoon Better than Bullion (or any bullion you have) Optional: i like to cook quinoa and couscous in flavored water because it is the only time to really flavor the grains inside and out. If you do not have it then don't sweat it. 
-2 tablespoons olive oil
-1 large fennel bulb, cut into 1/4-inch thick wedges
-1/2 small red onion, sliced If you only have white onion, that with suffice
-1 garlic clove, minced
-Juice of ½ lemon
-1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
-About 10 Kalamata olives, rinsed, halved and pitted
-1/2 teaspoon dried, ground mint leaves
-1/2 teaspon ground cumin 

-Handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half I just added this last minute. If was a nice touch but is optional 
-Zest of ½ lemon
-1 tablespoon orange juice
Salt and white pepper to taste

When cooking the couscous, according to package instructions, add better than bullion to the water.

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium flame. Add fennel and onion Cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic. Cook for another 5 minutes or until tender and caramelized. Add lemon juice, chickpeas, olives mint and cumin to pan and stir to combine. Reduce heat to medium and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

When the couscous is just about ready, add orange juice and lemon zest. Fluff with a fork and allow it to sit until finished cooking. Add salt and pepper.

Transfer to a serving plate and add chickpea fennel mixture on top.

Caramelized Onions and Bacon Brussel Sprouts

I made this dish on Thanksgiving. The bacon is optional. In my original recipe I did not include it but my sister insisted on her brussel sprouts having bacon. I wanted to please everyone on Thanksgiving and, hey, every dish is better with a little bacon in it. In the picture below you see that I combined the bacon with the caramelized onions before cooking them separately. Don’t do that. I could not get the bacon crispy enough without burning the onions. Otherwise, enjoy!

Serves 4 as a side dish

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-1 onion, cut into slices  

-1/2 teaspoon sugar

-1/2 teaspoon salt- note: salt speeds up the caramelization process

-5 slices of thick bacon, sliced into ½ peices Healthier choice: do not include bacon

-1 (10 ounce) bag brussel sprouts

-1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

-1/2 cup dried cranberries

-1/2 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds

Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium/ large pan heat olive oil over medium flame. Add onions and cook for about ten minutes. Add sugar and salt to the pan. Cook for about 35 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The onions should be golden brown in color and fairly caramelized. Transfer onions onto a plate. Add bacon to the pan and cook until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer bacon onto a plate with a paper towel. Remove oil from pan but do not wash. If you would like, carefully blot the pan with a paper towel to remove excess oil. We do not want to wash the pan because the bits of onion and bacon with add flavor to the dish.

Meanwhile, boil a pot of water and prepare a bowl of ice water. Once boiling, add spouts and cook for 5 minutes.  Drain sprouts and immediately transfer them into the ice water. This will shock the sprouts to stop the cooking process and keep their green color.

Add onions and bacon back into the pan. Add vinegar. Cook for about 30 seconds. Add sprouts, cranberry and pumpkin seeds. Stir and cook for another 5-10 minutes, depending on how well you like your sprouts cooked. I personally like them fairly crunchy. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Pumpkin Pie Muffins

I am not much of a baker. Throwing recipes together by sight and taste is what makes cooking enjoyable for me. When I am forced to time, measure and mix ingredients together in a certain order, I become impatient and often times stray from the recipe which, in a many cases, has turned out to be a disaster and in very few cases turned into a masterpiece.

I would, however, like to have some sweets in my blog. I may be far from a dessert chef, but I am an expert on eating sweets thanks to the influence of my former roommates. Abbey, a fabulous baker, used any occasion to make her spectacular desserts, which inevitably, always ended up in our house. Aubrey, a fabulous eater with an incredible sweet tooth, used any occasion as an excuse to eat those desserts in record time and not feel guilty about it. After three years of living with these two, I acquired quite the sweet tooth.

I also wanted to incorporate some sweets in this blog because desserts are a major vehicle to eating more healthy. This sounds ridiculous, I know, but many people cannot live without sweets and why do so if this is your means of indulging? Instead, there are several easy tricks to turning a dessert semi healthy or- I should rephrase- less unhealthy.

I got this recipe from the blog The Baker Chick. Whenever I post dessert recipes, I have either used a recipe, which I will cite, and added healthier substitutions or I will start with a recipe or two as a base and adjust them to be healthier or tastier.

I made these cupcakes for work the other day. I give props to The Baker Chick. These are delicious. Enjoy!

Recipe by The Baker Chick Blog

Makes 12

-2/3 cup all purpose flour

-1/4 tsp baking powder

-1/4 tsp baking soda

-1/4 tsp salt

-2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

-1 15-oz can pumpkin puree

-1/2 cup sugar Healthier Choice: 1 tablespoon of Stevia powder

-1/4 cup brown sugar

-2 large eggs

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-3/4 cup half and half Healthier Choice: use Evaporated Skim Milk

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper or silicone liners. *If using paper liners, evenly coat them with cooking spray. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.

In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and half and half until well combined. 

Add in dry ingredients and whisk until no streaks of flour remain and batter is smooth.

Distribute batter evenly in the muffin tin. (they should be about 3/4 of the way full.)

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan. (They will sink as they are cooling.)

Chill cupcakes before serving. Top with whipped cream (or a small dab of cream cheese frosting) and a candy corn on top.

Two Spaghetti Squash Recipes

With Thanksgiving just days away, I thought some fall dishes are in order. Below I have posted two variations of spaghetti squash. 

Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Herbs

-1 spaghetti squash, cut in half (lengthwise), seeds removed

-1/3 cup of parmesan

-1/4 cup of fresh parsley, roughly chopped

-1/4 cup of fresh basil, roughly chopped

-1/2 tablespoon of good olive oil  

-2 tablespoons of butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Rub squash with olive oil and a pinch of salt. Place squash in a baking dish cut side down. Bake for 45 minutes, until squash is tender.

Remove the squash and allow it to cool for about 10-15 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, use a spoon to discard the seeds and meat surrounding it. Using a fork, pull the strands of squash away from the peel and put into a bowl.

In a skillet add butter and oil. Heat for a minute, allowing the butter to melt and add herbs and Parmesan. Cook for about 2 minutes until the herbs have wilted and pour mixture into the bowl with the squash. Add salt and pepper to taste (be careful with salt. Parmesan is a very salt cheese). Mix together and serve.

Healthier Choice:

Exclude butter- the olive oil will add plenty of good flavor

Spaghetti Squash with Nuts

-1 spaghetti squash, cut in half (lengthwise), seeds removed

-1/3cup of sliced almonds

-3 scallions, thinly sliced note: use only the light green and white part

-1 teaspoon of honey

-1/2 teaspoon of cumin

-2 tablespoons of lemon

-2 tablespoons of olive oil

-1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika (this will add great color and a light smoky flavor)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Rub squash with olive oil and a pinch of salt. Place squash in a baking dish cut side down. Bake for 45 minutes, until squash is tender.

Spread almonds on a baking sheet. Once you remove squash from the oven, pop the almonds in and bake until golden brown.

Remove the squash and allow it to cool for about 10-15 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, use a spoon to discard the seeds and meat surrounding it. Using a fork, pull the strands of squash away from the peel and put into a bowl.

Gently mix in the remaining ingredients