Hot Cocoa Mix

I'm never bothering to buy hot cocoa mix again.  I make this exactly as Alton Brown's recipe dictates.  I went through the first batch inside a week, so I doubled the recipe and made it again tonight.

Ingredients

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup cocoa (Dutch-process preferred)
• 2 1/2 cups powdered milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
• Hot water

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients (except water) in a container, cover, and shake to incorporate thoroughly.

2. Fill mug half full with hot cocoa mix, add hot water, and stir.  Serve hot.

Taco Spice

This is Sameer's recipe for "taco spice," so called because we use this now instead of the little packets of taco and burrito seasonings we used to get from the grocery store.

Ingredients
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp chili powder

Chipotle Salsa

I found this recipe inside another recipe for huevos rancheros.  I had originally planned on just using ready-made jarred salsa since most of the ingredients for this aren't fresh anyway, but I'm glad I didn't.  This salsa is so much better.  It almost tastes like pico de gallo but with more flavors.  The canned chipotles in adobo are key. 

Ingredients

2 (14- to 15-ounce) cans whole tomatoes in juice

1/2 cup chopped white onion

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro plus additional for sprinkling

1 tablespoon chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo

2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Huevos-Rancheros-238099#ixzz2Coo2OjrV

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Huevos-Rancheros-238099#ixzz2Coo2OjrV

1 (28 oz.) can of whole tomatoes in juice
1/2 cup onion
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, stems removed
1 tbs canned chipotle chiles in adobo (I always just use 1.5 chipotles)
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp Kosher salt

Directions

1.  Put all ingredients in food processor and blend.

2.  Move salsa to a pot and bring to a boil on the stove.  Turn heat to medium-low and simmer for approximately 10 minutes until salsa is reduced and slightly thickened.  Serve hot or cold, with tortilla chips or poured over other things.  Doesn't matter.  

2 (14- to 15-ounce) cans whole tomatoes in juice

1/2 cup chopped white onion

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro plus additional for sprinkling

1 tablespoon chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo

2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Huevos-Rancheros-238099#ixzz2Coo2OjrV

Slow Cooker Black Beans

I make these black beans to accompany huevos rancheros, enchiladas, or pretty much anything else you might want to eat a side of black beans with.  If you want a faster version, replace the dried beans and water with a can of beans, and replace the slow cooker with a pot on your stove.  They take hours to make, but if you have a slow cooker, you can turn it on at breakfast and have the finished product ready for dinner.  They're also incredibly cheap, even by bean standards.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups dried black beans
7 cups water
1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped
2 tbs jalapeno, chopped

"Taco Spice"
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp chili powder

Directions

1. Put all ingredients into slow cooker.  Turn it on high and ignore it for about 8 hours.

Cheese & Onion Quesadillas

Sameer had an eye appointment this afternoon, so I wanted to make something quick and easy for dinner tonight.  The only time consuming parts of this recipe are the black beans and salsa that go with it, but they also keep well in the refrigerator, so they can be made in advance and the leftovers can be made into huevos rancheros in a matter of minutes.  That's how we originally ended up using them with the quesadillas, actually -- leftover beans and salsa from huevos rancheros.

Ingredients
2 large flour tortillas
1 cup (or however much you want) cheddar and pepper jack cheese, shredded
1/4 cup onion, chopped

Directions

1. Place flour tortilla in an ungreased skillet.

2. Top one half with cheese and onion.  Fold in half.

3. Heat in skillet until tortilla is lightly toasted and cheese is melted.  Turn over so both sides are lightly browned.  Serve warm with black beans and salsa (recipes to follow).

Thanksgiving 2012

How time does fly.  Simran is eating solid foods now, though only finely pureed ones, so dinner is slightly more hectic than before.  Hence my forgetting to even attempt to post recipes for the last two months.

This week is Thanksgiving, and Simran and I just did our weekly grocery shopping this morning.  Since it's just the three of us this year, I'm keeping it simple and -- as always -- making most of the meal in advance.  Here is what's on the menu:

Breaded Seitan Strips with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
These are essentially like vegetarian chicken tenders.  I think I've posted them on here before in the form of breaded seitan steaks.  The difference is the size.  I have strips of seitans in my freezer right now, but not entire steaks of them, so we're having seitan strips.  They taste a little better that way too since you have more surface area for breading and seasoning.  The honey mustard dipping sauce recipe is new (to me, anyway).

White House Whipped Sweet Potatoes
This is a recipe from the Obama White House kitchen.  It's one Simran can try too.

Green Bean Casserole
I make this for every holiday and devour all the leftovers.  It's one of my all-time favorites.

Cranberry Waldorf Salad
I've made this for every major holiday since 2004, I think.  It's sweet and pleasant to eat, but mostly healthy too.

Bread
I'm not sure what kind of bread I'll make.  I have more than one good roll recipe, sweet crescent rolls I like to make for holidays, and baguettes that I've been making every week for awhile now.  All of them are pretty simple-yet-time-consuming, so I'll probably just ask Sameer what he prefers.  I like using the leftover rolls to make hot sandwiches out of other leftovers. 

Pumpkin Pie
I'm not sure if I've ever made pumpkin pie before, but I like it, it looks really easy, and Sameer wants some to eat for breakfast while we watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV.  I went through several potential recipes, but this one seems like the most reliable one to get started with.  I'll make my own crust and fresh whipped cream to go with it.

Meal Planning

I have actually been meal planning and cooking, and even cooking some things that aren't on this site yet, but Simran's demand on my time lately has made posting daily something I just don't do.  I'm in the process of getting her to sleep in her swing beside me for a nap as I make my grocery list.  Here is what I'm planning on making this week:

Chilaquiles Casserole
I've made this many times and already posted it on here.  I'm making it because I have leftover corn tortillas, a zucchini, and frozen corn I want to use up.  I also have some pre-shredded Mexican cheese blend that needs to be used and will save me from having to shred cheese.

Stuffed Peppers
Our neighbor has been bringing us lots of bell peppers (in varying stages of green and red) and roma tomatoes from his garden.  I'm using most of the bell peppers we currently have to make stuffed peppers, which taste good with any color peppers.  I also have some leftover tomato sauce and shredded Mexican cheese blend to use up that will go nicely in this dish.

Pasta Salad
My mother used to make this simple pasta salad recipe that I've amended slightly to include vegetarian chik'n strips instead of turkey, whole wheat rotini instead of tri-color, and one of my favorite salad dressings.

Pesto Pizza with Fontina and Roma Tomatoes
I'm going to use some of the roma tomatoes from our neighbor's garden in this pizza.  I also have a ready-made pizza dough in the refrigerator that I need to use that works well with this recipe.  I'll brown some extra vegetarian chik'n strips when I make the pasta salad so I can chop up the leftovers and use them on this pizza too.

Spicy Vegetable Curry
I'm making this dish this week because I have carrots, a potato, and frozen peas I want to use up.  I can also use leftover rice from this dish in my stuffed peppers if I make them on a later day.  I like being able to use leftovers in other dishes rather than make things like rice over and over again.

This is only five meals for seven days.  However we have eggs and things to make breakfast food, I'm getting marinara sauce so we could have spaghetti in a pinch, and we always keep a frozen pizza on hand for days when we just run out of time to make dinner before I need to put Simran to bed.  I'm currently in the process of using up pretty much everything in my freezer because something syrupy -- frozen blueberries, it looks like -- got loose and leaked all over everything, and it will be easier to wipe the freezer down in its entirety when there are there no longer syrup-soaked packages in it.  Which means there are some other frozen meal possibilities in there that would be good to use up too, mostly vegetarian burgers and sausages.  I had no idea how many bags of frozen peas I had hiding in there.  There are three.