Quick Red Beans and Rice

So what's so special about beans and rice?  Beans are really good for you.  And I mean awesomely good for you.  There's no fat or cholesterol in beans.  Unlike any of the animal sources of protein.  They have a ton of fiber and protein...so they keep you full longer.  That's a definite plus for anyone who is watching their weight.  And in the U.S., who isn't?  Last but not least, they are dirt cheap.  A can of generic beans is about 50 cents.  A bag of dried beans are pennies per serving.  Dried beans are easy to rehydrate, require very little hands on time and the rehydrated beans freeze pretty well.  It does take planning, though, as it can take up to several hours.  But my favorite thing about this beans and rice dish?  It tastes fantastic.

My cost:
1) Can of red kidney beans, store brand: $0.49
2) Can of stewed tomatoes, store brand: $0.79
3) Onions, vegetable oil, dried oregano, garlic powder, brown rice: already in the pantry. 

Changes that I made:
Hardly any, really.  The original recipe calls for black beans and instant brown rice.  I had actually eaten a black bean dish for most of last week, so I wanted to change it up a bit with red beans.  Cutting edge, I know.  As for the instant brown rice, I've never eaten instant rice in my life and well, I already owned regular brown rice so I figured I wouldn't have to eat the instant stuff just yet...

One of the things I like about this recipe is that all of the sodium comes from the canned foods. (A good thing or a bad thing?  I'm not thinking about it too much.)  So, seriously, you don't need to add any more salt. Besides, the garlic, onion, and oregano provides plenty of flavor too.

The Recipe

Quick Red Beans and Rice 
(Inspired by "Quick Black Beans and Rice" at Allrecipes.com)

Serves 4

Ingredients


1 onion, chopped
1 (15 oz) can of red kidney beans, undrained
1 (14.5 oz) can of stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 cups of cooked brown rice

Directions:

Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add all of the ingredients except the rice and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for about 5 minutes, or until everything is heated through.  Serve over 1/2 cup of brown rice.

Nutrition per serving:

Calories	271
Calories from Fat	47
	% Daily Value *
Total Fat 5.3g	8 %
Saturated Fat 0.5g	2 %
Cholesterol 0mg	0 %
Sodium 552mg	22 %
** Potassium 260mg	7 %
Total Carbohydrates 47.8g	15 %
Dietary Fiber 8.8g	35 %
Protein 10g	20 %

Going Vegetarian for 40 days

Hello Gang!

It's been a long time!  My old laptop died right around Thanksgiving last year and I bought a new one a few weeks later, in the midst of Christmas Madness.  Then I went on vacation mid-January.  Now it's nearly March and I'm ready to start posting once more.  And I've gone vegetarian, temporarily!

It's the season of Lent and after much thought, I decided to give up meat (including seafood) for Lent.  I like meat, a lot.  A whole lot.  So it's a real sacrifice.  It's also decidedly Old School.  I think that after a while, it will become easy.  At this point, I'm more worried about forgetting my Lenten promise and eating meat when I'm eating out!  Anyway, Lent started a few days ago and so far, so good!

I've been looking up vegetarian recipes around Allrecipes.com and EatingWell.com.  Some sound very exciting, like "Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Pasta."  Don't you agree?  I can't wait to try it and share it with you!  I was surprised to see a lot of vegetarian recipes that are actually quite high in fat and/or sodium content.  "Vegetarian" just sounds so healthy, doesn't it?  Then again, macaroni and cheese is a meatless dish, so it's all about paying attention to the nutrition content of the dish, just like any other way of eating.

I am making an African soup and a black beans and rice dish this weekend.  I'll share those two with you tomorrow.

It's good to be back!

Cheers,
Kim

Update...

Hi Readers,
My laptop died last weekend :(.   So I no longer have a personal computer; I intend to replace it over the next 1-2 weeks but until then, no new posts.  This makes me sad, because I was very excited about sharing "Ropa Vieja in the Slow Cooker" and a super-simple salmon dish with you.  No matter, I will blog about them once I have replaced my laptop.

In the meanwhile, I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving!.  I just came from a Thanksgiving feast and I am ready to roll myself home!

See you again in a week or two...

Kim

Chicken Quesadillas

On the whole, these quesadillas are not bad.  They are not my favorite, though.  There's not quite enough chicken and a little too much onion.   These quesadillas are finished in the oven and perhaps I let them go for too long in the oven, because I normally love a lot of onion.  However, the sugars in the onion caramelized during the oven cooking and so these quesadillas had a sweet-savory flavor.  As I've mentioned previously, I don't really like that taste mixture.

My Changes

1) I could not find 10" whole wheat tortillas, so I went with the 8" versions.  The original recipe calls for regular flour tortillas.  Whole wheat tortillas give a bit more fiber and they taste great, so I always buy them instead.

2) Perhaps the filling is supposed to be on the skimpy side as the original recipe calls for 10 tortillas.  There was no way I was going to be able to spread this filling out that far.  I barely made it to 7 tortillas. 

3) The original calls for a Cheddar-Monterey Jack cheese blend.  I already had shredded chedder in the freezer, so I used that instead.

4) The original recipe instructs you to cut the chicken into strips, cook it, then keep it in the pan as you cook the onions.  I was worried that the there wasn't going to be enough chicken breast (and I was right, see my note above); I was also worried that the chicken breast would turn out a bit dry.  So I poached the chicken over medium heat and then removed it from the pan and chopped it.  I then cooked the onions separately and added the chicken back into the pan once the onions were done.

 

4) The onion were supposed to be cooked until translucent; however, I wanted my onions a bit crunchy for some added texture.  So I cooked them until they were just wilted.

Of course, they ended up soft anyway, because the quesadillas spent ten minutes in the oven, to finish cooking.  Oh well!

The Recipe (from Allrecipes.com, with modifications)

Ingredients

• 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, sliced into strips
• 2 tablespoons salsa
• 7 (8 inch) whole- wheat flour tortillas
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Pour about an inch of water into a large skillet.  Place the chicken breast in the water.  Heat the skillet and its contents over medium heat.  Cover and cook until the chicken is just done (about 5-10 minutes) Remove them from the pan and chop them.  
   
3. Add the onions to the pan and fry (stirring constantly) until they are just wilted.  Add the salsa  and chopped chicken; mix well.  Turn off the heat. 
   
4. Fill half of 1 tortilla with the chicken mixture and cheese, then fold the tortilla over the full half. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling. Arrange the quesadillas on a cookie sheet.
5. Bake the quesadillas in the preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven until the cheese has melted (about 5-10 minutes). Cut the quesadillas into fours.  They are best when served immediately.  

 
Cost:

Mission 8" Tortillas: $3.29 for 10.

I already had the remaining ingredients in my kitchen.

Conclusion:

The color on these quesadillas are not so appealing.  I think that the next time I made them, I pan-fry them in a dry pan (i.e. a non-stick pan without oil).  That will give them a nice brown color.  It will also keep the onions from caramelizing and keep them crunchy.  I'm sure that these will be great with red bell pepper and garlic added in!

I noticed that my version has more a bit more sodium than I like (I try to keep it under 600mg per serving).  I think it's because I didn't stretch out the filling to 10 tortillas...

Nutrition Per Serving:

Calories		326.3
Total Fat		16.0 g
	Saturated Fat	8.1 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.5 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	3.6 g
Cholesterol		59.2 mg
Sodium		675.4 mg
Potassium		157.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate		26.1 g
	Dietary Fiber	4.4 g
	Sugars	1.0 g
Protein		21.4 g

Slow Cooker: Macaroni and Cheese

I love macaroni and cheese.  I grew up on the blue box version, Kraft's Macaroni and Cheese.  I have had gourmet macaroni and cheese, with Gruyere, Parmesan, and at least two other cheeses in a cream sauce over macaroni.  In my recipe box, there are about 6 recipes for macaroni and cheese.  Imagine my delight when I discovered a healthy recipe for macaroni and cheese in my slow cooker cookbook, "Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly: Healthy, Low-Fat Recipes For Your Slow Cooker" by Phyllis Pellman Good.

The Ingredients:

1) 2 1/2 cups of fat-free or 2% milk

2) 1 egg, beaten

3) 1 tsp salt

4) dash of pepper

5) 3 cups of low-fat cheddar cheese,shredded

6) 8oz of macaroni, cooked al dente

Directions:

1) Combine all ingredients except macaroni in slow cooker.

2) Cook on high for 1 hour.

3) Add macaroni.  Cook on low 4 more hours.

The Cost:

Kroger Brand Elbow Noodles, 1 lb: $0.88.

I already had the milk, egg, salt, pepper, and cheese in my kitchen. 

Changes That I Made:

1) Obviously, I used vanilla soy milk instead of cow's milk.  I am lactose intolerant and therefore cannot drink cow's milk (or eat ice cream, it's tragic).  Fortunately, I have no problems with cheese.  I used to drink Lactose Free skim milk and thumb my nose at soy milk because it tastes funny.  My change of heart occurred when I went on a weekly food budget and noticed that soy milk is about $0.50 cents cheaper than the lactose free version.  Those pennies add up!  It took me two weeks to make the transition (mostly by mixing the two together) and now I love vanilla soymilk. As you can see, I buy the store brand.

2) This is not actually a change but more of a cook's note: the shredded cheddar looks a little weird because I forget to set it out to thaw before I prepped the ingredients.  "No matter," I thought, "it's going in to the slow cooker anyway.  It will melt." My assumption was correct, thankfully!

3) I would have used whole wheat macaroni pasta, but alas, the store did not have any that day.  It would have boosted the fiber content of the dish.  

4) I thought four more hours of cook time was extreme; after all, everything was already cooked by the time the macaroni was added.  In addition, I have had the previous experience of cooking pastas or rice too long in a slow cooker---it turns into mush.  Inedible, not to say disgusting.  I decided just another hour of cooking on high would do the trick and it was perfect.  The finished product is pictured above--don't you agree it looks great?  That extra hour really has nothing to do with cooking the already-cooked ingredients.  It lets the sauce thicken very nicely, almost showcasing the noodles, and inviting you to dig into it with a big spoon.  I couldn't resist the temptation--I had three spoonfuls right then.  Quality assurance, you understand.

Another Cook's Note

I've made macaroni and cheese on the stove-top and I noticed that there's no flour.  Instead, there's an egg.  I thought about it a bit and realized that the egg is used in place of flour as the binding and thickening agent.  When made on the stove-top, milk and butter are heated together.  When the butter is melted, you stir in the flour, and continue stirring constantly.  The gluten in the flour expands, absorbing the liquid, and  thickens the liquid, forming the base of the sauce, called a roux.  You can actually see the transformation occur; I always think it's neat.  Chemistry in action.  Being that this sauce is transformed in the slow-cooker (i.e. no stirring), mixing the egg into the liquid and the sloooow cooking process allows the egg proteins to solidify into a delicate web, catching the milk into thousands (perhaps millions?) of little pockets, thereby making the sauce.  I don't know if this hypothesis is correct but based on my memory of college chemistry, it sounds about right.

In Conclusion

This is good macaroni and cheese, on par with any basic home-made mac n' cheese and a step above the blue box.  I brought it to work for lunch and my co-workers would come into my office exclaiming, "What smells so good?!" The taste--well, I couldn't tell it was a healthy version.  For those who need a few more (healthy) calories, I ate this with raw cut up veggies on the side to help fill me up.

Enjoy!

Nutrition Per Serving (6 servings, about 1/2 cup each)

Calories: 170 (40 calories from fat)

Fat: 4.5 g

Sodium: 400mg

Carbohydrates: 15g

Protein: 17g