Play Pool!

What a way to spend a Sunday morning!

Following the directions from the Hello, Cupcake! cookbook, I turned plain vanilla cupcakes into these pool balls. Fun to make and fun to serve.

Weekend Cooking: Lentil Seitan Sloppy Joes

Although we're trying, weekly Vegetarian Night (should I call it Meatless Monday?) has not become a tradition. I've experimented with several tofu, bean, and pasta recipes, but my husband prefers a more traditional dinner. This week, we finally hit on a winner.

Margaret got Kim Barnouin's Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook for Christmas and immediately requested the Lentil Seitan Sloppy Joes. Huh, seitan? What is it and how do you pronounce it? After learning seitan is actually wheat gluten, I dragged my feet another month before discovering it readily available at the local Wegmans. The real surprise came when my husband declared them better than "regular" sloppy joes.

LENTIL SEITAN SLOPPY JOES
(from Skinny Bitch)

1 1/2 cups (360ml) water
1/2 cup (170g) dried lentils, rinsed
1 Tablespoon safflower oil
1/3 cup (55g) minced onion
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 cup (85g) seitan, finely chopped
1 (6 ounce/170g) can tomato paste
1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons tamari
1/4 cup (60ml) ketchup
6 whole wheat burger buns
1 avocado, sliced
pickles, sliced for garnish

In a medium saucepan, heat the water over high heat. Once the water is boiling, add the lentils. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes.  In a separate saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat and saute the onion, bell pepper, and carrot until tender, about 10 minutes.  Add in the seitan.  Add the tomato paste to a blender or the work bowl of a food processor and puree.

In a medium bowl, mix together the tomato puree, mustard, vinegar, tamari, and ketchup. Then add the tomato mixture to the pan of vegetables. Combine thoroughly. Drain the lentils, but save the cooking liquid in case it's needed. Add the lentils to the pan of vegetables and simmer 5 minutes. If the mixture seems dry, add some of the cooking liquid.

Toast the burger buns. Serve the mixture on the toasted buns with  avocado slices and sliced pickles.

This is my March submission for The Foodie Challenge: Whip Up Something New.  Elise is collecting links for this month's recipes.

Weekend Cooking, hosted at Beth Fish Reads, is open to anyone with a food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button, head over to Beth Fish Reads, and link up anytime over the weekend.

Fun Cookie Cutters

Give a sick loved one a fruit basket? Nah.

How about a plate full of mini fruit-shaped sugar cookies?

There we go.

Weekend Cooking: Easy and Decadent No-Knead Wheat Bread

After returning from Denmark, I've been craving freshly baked bread. I knew I'd be able to find a healthy and easy recipe on vegweb.com. Sure enough, after searching through the bread category, I discovered this recipe for Easy and Decadent No-Knead Wheat Bread.

This bread has a harder crust, but the inside is soft. The only thing I would change is the sugar. It calls for 1/3 cup of sugar, but I think I'll try 1/4 next time.

With only six ingredients and no kneading required, this is a great go-to recipe. And it's vegan!

Weekend Cooking, hosted at Beth Fish Reads, is open to anyone with a food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button, head over to Beth Fish Reads, and link up anytime over the weekend.

Danish Food

During February break, I embarked on a journey to Denmark with my school as part of a cultural exchange program. Seventeen American students were placed with Danish hosts, all of whom attend the same academy. Most students stayed at their host family's home, but a few boys crashed at the academy with their hosts (who are boarders).

The entire week was absolutely incredible: the people, the food, the architecture, everything. I'll tell you, I'm falling in love with Europe! My host family was so kind, and the Danish students were so much fun. My week in Denmark was one of the best weeks, if not the best week, of my life.

Above are various desserts from my time in Denmark. I enjoyed all of them in Copenhagen, except for the one in the first picture, which I had in the town where I stayed. I split the buttery scone, the lemon-coconut cupcake, and the apple pastry with my best friend during our free time in the city. The chocolate and the dessert in the first picture were all mine. Hey, when in Denmark!

Like Germany, the bread there was delicious. Greatly inspired, I've been baking quite a bit of bread since I've returned. That said, bread recipes are on the way!

The Foodie Challenge: Stuffed Flank Steak

February is winding down, and it's time to submit my recipe for The Foodie Challenge. This project, the brain child of Joanna and Trish, asks participants to try at least one new recipe per month and blog about it.  February links are being collected on Trish's blog.

My crock-pot has been getting quite a workout this winter, especially since purchasing Stephanie O'Dea's Make It Fast, Cook It Slow cookbook. This was one of the first cookbooks I borrowed from the library for a test run. After the maximum two renewals, it clearly deserved a spot in my permanent collection.

FLANK STEAK STUFFED WITH APPLE, FETA, AND ALMONDS

The Ingredients:
3 pounds flank steak
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 green apple, diced (no need to peel)
1/3 cup raw almonds, chopped

The Directions:
Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the flank steak in a plastic ziplock bag with honey and soy sauce and marinate overnight.

In the morning, combine the feta cheese, garlic, green apple, and chopped almonds in a mixing bowl.

Pour the flank steak and marinade into the stonewear. Remove the meat from the marinade and put it on a cutting board. Put a handful or two of of the cheese filling in the middle of the flank, and roll it up.

Return the meat to the crock, seam-side down. If you'd like to secure the meat with twine or skewers, go for it.

Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, or on high for about 4 hours. Slice carefully, and serve. If the meat unrolls a bit, you can stick it back together with toothpicks to present nicely. Or don't worry about it - it's just going to get eaten anyway. If you are left with extra garlic, feta, apple, and almond mixture, it makes a great salad topping.

My notes:
This needs to marinate OVERNIGHT, so be sure to start the evening before. I somehow missed that fact the morning I was planning to serve it - we had it the following night instead.

There was way too much stuffing for my 2 pound flank steak, but the author was right. The leftovers were outstanding on a salad!

We had no flank steak leftovers. I can't tell you the last time this much meat was consumed in one meal.

Food photography is hard... this actually looked much better than the photo suggests.

Did you try a new recipe this month? Stop by Trish's blog and link up.

Weekend Cooking: Saturday Soup

Winter weekends are made for soup. This week's offering comes from Wegmans, my favorite grocery store. I've been making this spinach lentil soup for years.

Spinach Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon Italian Classics Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 jar (16 oz.) Food You Feel Good About Salsa
• 1 1/4 cup dry lentils, rinsed
• 6 cups water
• 1 pkg (10 oz.) fresh spinach, stemmed

Directions:
1. Heat oil in soup pot on LOW.  Add onion and carrots; cook, covered, on low for 5 minutes.

2. Add salsa, lentils, spinach, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to LOW and simmer, covered, for 30 to 40 minutes until lentils are tender.

My notes:

• I used organic green lentils.
• Instead of 6 cups water, I used 4 cups chicken broth and 2 cups water. (Margaret would have preferred vegetable broth or just water)  
• I also waited until the last 10 - 15 minutes to add the spinach.

Visiting Wegmans website this morning, I noticed the recipe has been updated to include matchstick carrots and Goya red lentils. The new recipe can be found here.  Matchstick carrots would make the soup seem even heartier, and I'm willing to give red lentils a chance, too. I wonder if they have a different taste...

Weekend Cooking, hosted at Beth Fish Reads, is open to anyone with a food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button, head over to Beth Fish Reads, and link up anytime over the weekend.