Steam is Clean

Lately it's been smelling like a sauna in my kitchen...

Weird right? It's actually not that weird. It's because I've been using my new Bamboo Steamer for cooking lately, and when this wooden basket heats up with steam, it really does kind of smell like those Bamboo saunas filled with hot air and steam.... minus the sweaty people of course.

Quite honestly, I don't know how I got along without one of these amazing things! They cook both veggies and meat so well, and it doesn't take constant stirring or checking on to make lunch. I can literally toss in my carrots and broccoli, go fold laundry or take a shower for 15 minutes, come back, and lunch is ready!

It's also very healthy for you too. Much healthier than microwaves, sauteing vegetables in oil, or even boiling vegetables in water.

Studies show that microwaving vegetables destroys a high percentage of its nutritional value, as does boiling vegetables in water. The nutrients just drain out of them! You might as well drink that water to get them back...

And of course, adding oil to vegetables adds unnecessary fat, which isn't always a bad thing. But if you're looking for a super-healthy way to get your veggies in, steaming is definitely the way to go!

Here's a great recipe I just had yesterday, and it was easy as pie to make!

Steamed Veggies with Chicken and Quinoa-Rice 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup red quinoa 
1/2 cup brown rice
5 cups water
1 thawed chicken breast
2 cups of chopped vegetables (I used baby carrots, broccoli, red pepper, mushrooms, spinach, and lentil sprouts)
Some seasonings of your choice

Steps to Make:
1. Heat 2 cups of water in a small sauce pan 
2. Pour in quinoa and rice into the water and bring to a boil
3. Reduce heat, and cover with a lid
4. Meanwhile, chop up veggies into large pieces (the larger pieces will allow the vegetables to maintain their nutrients) 
5. Heat another larger sauce pan with 3 cups of water and bring to a boil
6. Place the steamer on top of the boiling pot (if you don't have a steamer, you can use a colander with a lid over it)
7. Place the chicken on the steamer first, followed by the larger veggies, then the smaller ones (if your steamer has two layers, you can put the chicken on the bottom layer and the veggies on the top layer)
8. Allow to steam for 15 minutes, turning the chicken over halfway through
9. Sprinkle chicken and veggies with seasoning
10. Spoon rice and quinoa mixture into a bowl
11. Cut chicken into strips and mix into the same bowl
12. Top with steamed veggies
13. Enjoy!

Daniel Fast Recipe #10: Quinoa Mushroom-Stuffed Pita Pockets

Here's another mushroom recipe for Brandy! 

This is also a "Claire Creation" (aka my own recipe)

Special shout-out to Datrice for giving me some quinoa! 

Our dinner was splendid because of her generous donation to our kitchen. 

And now, without further ado...

Quinoa Mushroom-Stuffed Pita Pockets

Here is what you will need for the Pita Bread:

2 cups of whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1-2 cups of water (add more if dough looks too flour-y)

To make the Pita Bread:
1. Mix ingredients together until dough forms
2. Kneed into a ball, then place in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth
3. Set aside in the fridge for 1 hour
4. Once ready, preheat oven to 350
5. Take out the dough and divide into 4 round balls
6. Roll out into flat circles about 1/3 an inch thick (the thickness does matter here)
7. Place pita bread onto a lightly sprayed backing sheet
8. Put into the oven and make for 10-15 minuets (check on them often.... you may see them start to pillow up; that's a good thing though! It makes it easier to stuff the pita)

Here is what you will need for the Filling:

1/2 cup quinoa (red or white)

1/2 cup drained black beans

2 handfuls of spinach

1/4 of a large green pepper

1/2 of an onion

1 cup of mushrooms

Balsamic Vinegar 

Garlic powder, black pepper, salt 

To make the Filling:
1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil, add quinoa, reduce heat and simmer until water has boiled out
2. In a pan, heat a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
3. Chop onions, mushrooms, and green pepper, then add to the heated pan
4. Throw in a few handfuls of spinach and allow to saute for about 7 minuets
5. Add black beans and quinoa to the pan as well
6. Season to taste, stirring for another 5 minuets

Putting it all together:
1. Once the pita bread is done, take them out the oven and allow to cool for a few minuets
2. Cut each pita in half with a pizza cutter or a knife (if the bread it pillowed up, then you don't have to do much more than that in order to stuff it!)
3. Take a small knife and cut into the pita to create a small pocket inside (you may spoon some of the extra bread out if there is a lot inside)
4. Stuff the filling into the pita pocket with a spoon
5. Arrange on a plate and enjoy!


So how were they, you ask?

Well, Dennis and I enjoyed them quite a lot! Dennis even took one to the studio with him to eat later tonight.

The only thing I would have changed about what I did was to take the pita bread out sooner. I left it in there for a bit too long and they got really hard and dry. They would have been much softer and easier to stuff if I had taken them out sooner. That's why I wrote in the directions to watch them closely! I also would have rolled them into thicker pieces; some of mine were too thin, which is why I specify to roll them into 1/3inch thick pieces. If you want to play it safe, do 1/2 inch!

I will definitely be making this again! The quinoa and black beans makes this meal really high in protein, and I also liked the taste of the balsamic vinegar in the filling. I may start sauteing more food with this rather than with oil!

Let me know if you have any more requests! We're almost done with the Daniel Fast, so stay strong and lean upon the Lord!

Daniel Fast Recipe #5: Spring Rolls with Peanut-Soy Dipping Sauce

Another "Claire Creation" for you this evening!

Spring Roll Ingredients:

1 package of Banh Trang spring roll skin or rice paper (I found a few brands at Jewl)

1/2 a bag of mixed salad with lettuce, cabbage, and carrots 

2 small tomatoes, diced

1/2 cucumber cut into small sticks

3 slices of onion, diced

1/4 avocado, cubed

Cinnamon, salt, and pepper

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Spring Rolls:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Chop up vegetables and places over medium heat
3. Add mixed salad, lemon juice, and a dash of salt, pepper, and cinnamon (weird, I know, but it's great!)
4. Allow veggie mix to sauté until lettuce and cabbage is wilted
5. Take out the rice paper package
6. Dip one paper in a bowl of luke-warm water and gently pat dry with a paper towel
7. Spoon the hot veggie mixture so that the veggies are in a long rectangular shape
8. Fold one long side of the rice paper over the veggies, then fold the two shorter sides in
9. Roll the mixture over so that the flap of the rice paper is facing down
10. Lay on a lightly oiled non-stick baking sheet
11. Repeat steps 6-10 with the other spring rolls until all the veggie mixture is gone (I made 6 rolls)
12. Lightly brush the tops of the roll with olive oil
13. Place in the over and bake for 10-12 minutes
14. When rolls come out, allow to cool for a while. No one likes burning their fingers on a hot spring roll!

Peanut-Soy Dipping Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup chunky peanut butter (you may use smooth just as easily)

2 tablespoons of sesame seeds or flax seeds

Sauce:
1. Heat soy sauce in a small sauce pan over medium heat
2. Add peanut butter and sesame or flax seeds and whisk together
3. Once the sauce is mixed and the peanut butter has melted, turn off heat
4. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool before serving

Ours turned out pretty well! The rice paper may be the ingredient that you have trouble finding. I found a lot of other brands that included eggs... But if you search "rice paper recipes" you might be able to find out how to make your own. I was not that adventurous on a Wednesday...

Anyway, I've been posting a lot of Mexican dishes, so I thought an Asian twist might be fun tonight.

Enjoy!

Daniel Fast Recipe #4: (Spicy) Vegetable Pasta Bake

Ask Me Questions....

I was informed that some people are having some difficulty commenting on my blog. My apologies! This is my first blogspot attempt (I usually do wordpress), so I was not aware that you had to be a gmail user if you wanted to comment.

But never fear! You can email me questions or comments! Claireflorine@gmail.com
I'll look forward to hearing from you!

Anyways....

I'm on a roll with these recipes. 

Tonight I came home from work really having know idea what to make and not wanting to spend a whole lot of time on preparing food. This is usually not the case, as I am particularly obsessive about planning ahead, but today was "data day" at school and I was busy looking at my student's test scores (AKA, not my favorite thing to do). I also had to make a meal quickly because my husband is a movie star and had a video shoot for a french commercial. (I know, he's awesome!)

So I opened up my fridge and saw pizza sauce. This jar inspired the rest:

Spicy Vegetable Pasta Bake

(Recipe serves 4)

Ingredients:

4 cups whole grain pasta (I used whole wheat rigatoni. You can use whatever kind you like, but I wouldn't use Spaghetti...)

2 cups pizza sauce or canned tomato sauce

1/2 cup salsa*

4 slices of jalapeno, finely chopped*

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 bell pepper, finely chopped

4 mushrooms, sliced

2 tablespoons or lime or lemon juice

Cumin, salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Cooking spray or olive oil

*NOTE: You may choose to leave out the jalapeno and salsa if you would rather not have a spicy dish. (In which case, if would be called just "Vegetable Pasta Bake") I realize not everyone is as big on the spice as Dennis and I are. Also, you may add 1 cup black beans in with the sautéed veggies and sauce if you are looking to add more protein to the meal.

Here's what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil, then drop in the pasta
3. Heat a small amount of cooking spray or olive oil on a medium sized skillet
4. Chop up the vegetables of choice and add them into the skillet
5. Cook veggies for 3 minutes, stirring often, then season
6. Add the pizza sauce, salsa (if you want it spicy), and lemon/lime juice
7. Stir on low heat and wait until the pasta is tender
8. Lightly spray a baking pan with cooking spray or coat lightly with olive oil
9. Add one layer of drained pasta to the pan
10. Spoon out half of the sauce and veggie mixture on top of the pasta
11. Season with garlic
12. Add another layer of drained pasta so that the pasta is all gone
13. Spoon out the last half of the sauce and veggie mix and top with garlic or salt and pepper
14. Place in the oven for 30 minutes
15. Once dish is done, take out and serve with a big ole' serving spoon! Yum!

So How Was It?

The dish was pretty good! I enjoyed the spice, and the change up (we haven't had pasta in a tick). I think that baking the dish gave it more structure than if it were just sauce spooned over the wet pasta. However, I couldn't help thinking that it would be better with some cheddar-jack... I guess this the point where we should set our minds on God. In the absence of what our flesh enjoys (in the case, cheese) we must turn to the Lord and recognize that all of our earthly possessions belong to Him and we are to sacrifice all of it if it means we can grow just a little bit closer to Him.

We can live without cheese! We can live without meat! We can suffer in our eating for Christ (although the meal really wasn't as bad as all that...).

I No picture tonight! Again, we were in such a rush because of Dennis's film that I forgot to sign onto Instagram! You can blame the talented actor-man... ;-)


Just another "Claire Creation" brought to you by....well, Claire (duh!) 

Goodnight!

Daniel Fast Recipe #3: Stuffed Pepper-Boats and Masa Flowers

Okay. Honestly, this the recipe I am most excited to share with you. Why you ask? Not because it was the best (although now, come to think of it, it may be...), but because I created it all myself!

Yes! This is a genuine Claire Creation! But before I get too proud, I want to thank the Lord for blessing me with this sudden creativity in cooking. I never knew God had this talent in mind for me and I am so blessed to be able to give it back to Him.

I thought all through dinner about what to call this recipe, and I decided on the above (and below) ...

Stuffed Pepper-Boats and Masa Flowers

Here are the Stuffed Pepper-Boats:

And here are the Masa Flowers:

(...can you tell I like Instragram?)

Here is what you will need and how you will make them*:

NOTE* This recipe is for 2 people, so if you need to make it for 4, double the recipe! If it's just you eating, well, then you'll have leftovers for tomorrow. Who doesn't love that?

Ingredients for the Stuffed Pepper-Boats*:

1 large bell pepper

1/2 cup of brown rice

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of soy sauce (Ethlyn, you can just leave this ingredient out and it will still taste good!)

2 tablespoons of salsa

2 slices of a small onion, chopped finely

2 mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

2 large handfuls of spinach

A few shakes of garlic powder, cumin, salt, black pepper, and cilantro (to taste)

Some olive oil

NOTE* If you do not care for any of the vegetables or seasonings called for, feel free to leave them out. It won't hurt my feelings, I promise. You can also use barley , couscous, white rice, or wild rice instead of the brown rice. Honestly, I bought parsley when I meant to buy cilantro (silly!), so mine did not include cilantro.)

Ingredients for the Masa Flowers:

1 cup of Corn Masa flour (do you know how I named these things now?)*

1 cup of water

2 tablespoons of salt

A few spoonfuls of tomato sauce

About 1/3rd of a zucchini

1 small sweet red pepper*

Some olive oil

NOTE* If you do not have Masa flour, you can use corn meal, wheat flour, or regular flour. Instead of a sweet pepper, you can use a few slices of a regular pepper, or sometimes you can buy roasted red peppers in a glass jar. Any of these other options will work.

Since these both go together, I will tell you step by step what I did to make both of them to be done at the same time. Here it goes:

1. Preheat oven to 425

2. Measure the corn masa flour, water, and salt into a mixing bowl and sir. The dough will be really easy to kneed, but it won't feel like regular flour dough; it doesn't stay together as well.

3. Roll the corn dough into 6 little balls with your hands (remember, this serves 2, so 3 for each!)

4. Set dough aside 

5. Boil 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan, add 1/2 cup rice into the boiling water. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer until water is gone.

6. While rice is cooking, gut a large bell pepper so that the seeds and stem are gone. Cut the pepper in half the long way.

7. Chop the mushrooms and onion.

8. Mix the salsa, black beans, and spinach into said bowl along with the mushrooms and onion.

9. Take a zucchini and use a peeler to shave off curricular pieces. The pieces will be very thin-- almost transparent. 

10. Slice the red sweet pepper into long, thin strips

11. Don't forget about the rice! It's probably done by now, so go turn off the heat and let it sit.

12. Get a baking sheet (I actually used my nonstick pizza pan), and spray it lightly with cooking spray. Place the peppers onto the sheet so that the outside of the pepper is on the bottom (they should look like little pepper-boats!)

13. Season the pepper-boats with your favorite seasonings (I used garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin)

14. Grab the little masa balls you made and flatten between your hands, then arrange all 6 on the pan along with the peppers. Put a spoonful of tomato sauce on each and spread around to cover most of the dough. Season them the same as the peppers.

15. Dress the Masa Flowers with the zucchini shavings and sliced sweet peppers. Top with cilantro (or in my case... parsley)

16. Drizzle some olive oil over the peppers and the Masa Flowers and put in the oven.

17. Heat up a skillet on the stove and spray with cooking spray. Once heated, dump the bowl you set aside containing the salsa, black beans, spinach, mushrooms, and onion so that the ingredients are cooking in the skillet.

18. Also dump the cooked rice into the skillet and add the lemon juice, seasonings, and soy sauce (optional)

19. Stir so that all ingredients are heated and cooked throughly. Reduce heat.

20. Take the pan out of the oven. Spoon the rice-bean-salsa-veggie mixture into the pepper-boats so that they are heaping, but not overflowing. You may have some rice mixture left over, which you can serve on the side (or eat before hand as an appetizer like Dennis and I did...).

21. Once the pepper-boats are full, place the pan back into the oven.

22. Now, they have to stay in there for a while longer, so here's where I usually do the dishes, put things away, set the table, and clean up. By the time I'm done, the food is usually about done. (The peppers and masa flowers should cook for about 30 minuets, including the time before you stuffed the pepper-boats, so start timing as soon as you put them in the first time).

23. When the time arrives, take the tray out of the oven, and arrange the food artfully onto 2 plates.

24. Enjoy your wonderful dinner! 

Now, I know that is a lot of steps, but I wanted to be as detailed as possible with how I did it. The timing element of cooking dinner can be tricky, and since these two things bake at the same time, I wanted to show you how to do both, and provide the timing, even for the clean up!

Here is a picture of the final product!

But really Claire, how good were they really?

Okay, so I know this is my first recipe that I created myself, but at the risk of bragging about my cooking, I'm going to go ahead and say this was one of the best dinners I've made so far. No joke! Dennis actually asked me where I bought the rice from because he thought it was one of those uncle ben boxed and pre-seasoned rice mixes! The Masa Flowers were really good too! They were almost like little pizza appetizers with a Mexican feel to them. I honestly don't think I would change anything about the way I made them tonight (except perhaps try adding some cheese in the mix when the Daniel Fast is over for you guys)! 

If you do make them, please let me know what you thought of them! I promise you won't hurt my ego if you don't like them as much as I do! (While it is true that I have been known to occasionally have strange tastes, you'll be comforted to know that Dennis really enjoyed them as well :-)

Have a great night everyone! Let me know how you're doing and if you have any requests!