Category: Recipes

Pea Soup

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I had a craving for pea soup, but I don’t love ham or its relatives. I found the best recipe for ham-free pea soup here. Yum!

I followed Ina’s recipe as is, minus the crispy ham on top. I’m sure bacon or pancetta would be great on top, too–but it doesn’t need it. Make sure to use a decent extra virgin olive oil, one that’s actually made from olives and has a greenish tint. My grocery store favorite is California Olive Ranch (no, they’re not paying me to say so!) There are generally coupons for it every few months in the paper, too.

Prego update: I’m 25 weeks pregnant with the surrogate twins. I had an ultrasound a few days ago and both boys were doing flips. I don’t know how they have room in there since I look as if I’m full term. It’s going to get interesting as the weeks progress; I already get out of breath from walking up my stairs! Yikes.

I’ve gained an ungodly amount of weight but I’m eating pretty well. Today is leftover pea soup and grassfed sirloin day. I might even throw in a baked yam. It’s normal to gain a ton with twins, it’s just hard for me as someone who has struggled with my weight for so long. I’m excited to get healthy again after the twins are born. I’m a weirdo, right? I should probably be enjoying my “license to eat” a bit more.

Chipotle Black Beans

I confess: I haven’t made beans from scratch since I was a teenager. I never, ever think to buy dried beans while I’m at the grocery store. Recently I’ve been on a mission to eat more budget-friendly, while maintaining a healthy, organic-when-possible diet. Dried beans = a lot of filling food for very little money. With a few cheapo ingredients you can make an exceptional meal!

1 16-ounce bag dried black beans
2-3 tablespoons kosher salt (halve if using table salt)
2 bay leaves (optional but add a nice flavor)
2 teaspoons adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers
1 tablespoon kosher salt (halve if using table salt)

Dump beans onto a sheet pan and pick over for stones. I always thought that was an urban legend, and of course I had a small white stone in this bag.

Pour beans into a big bowl.

Dissolve 2-3 tablespoons kosher salt into water.

Pour over beans and refrigerate overnight. If you’re in a time crunch, you can just rinse the beans and triple (yes triple) the cooking time.

When you’re ready to cook your beans:

Rinse and drain beans.

Dice one onion and sauté over medium heat in a tablespoon of oil in a 4-quart saucepan.

Mince or grate 3 or 4 cloves of garlic.

When onion is softened, after 4-5 minutes, add garlic and cook for about a minute.

Pour in beans and enough water to cover by an inch.

Put in a bay leaf or two if you have them. You could also add cilantro in this step if you don’t think it tastes like poison.

Bring to a boil (may need to turn up heat).

Turn down heat to simmer then cover and leave it alone for an hour.

Add a tablespoon or so of kosher salt and a few teaspoons of adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers (I finally find these in my grocery store after years of searching, Goya brand in the international foods aisle). Next batch, I’m going spicier and dicing a few peppers, and adding more adobo, but two teaspoons gave it a nice, mild spice.

Stir then return to a simmer and cover for another hour.

Taste, add more salt and more adobo if desired. I suggest simmering ten minutes or so if you add more adobo, to cook the adobo and meld the flavor into the beans. If the beans are still hard or “al dente,” they need to cook longer. I suggest slightly increasing your heat, then check the beans every ten to twenty minutes.

Serve over rice, with salsa, or eat them straight–you really can’t go wrong!

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Best iPhone Cooking App

A few weeks ago, someone on Twitter asked everyone what their favorite iPhone apps are. I replied immediately with my answer: Cook’s Illustrated. I’ve been an iPhone junkie for three years or so, and it’s the only paid app I own. There’s a free version that has some sample recipes, so download it and try out a few recipes before you buy a subscription.

This is not a low carb app, but it’s certainly low carb friendly as there are plenty of amazing meat recipes. The slow-roasted beef is the absolute best roast beef I’ve ever had in my life. Generally, every recipe is the “best recipe,” as they test exhaustively until they find the perfect recipe.

The app also has the extensive product reviews that Cook’s Illustrated Magazine prides itself on. Which is the best Greek yogurt? What’s the best brand of frozen peas? I find these really helpful when I find a coupon for a brand I don’t usually buy. I pop on the app, look up the product, and see if the brand is worth buying.

Do you have a favorite cooking app?

Spinach, Feta, and Sun-Dried Tomato Mini-Frittatas

This is in my top 10 best things I’ve ever made, not to mention extremely easy!  I was hungry for eggs, feta, and sun-dried tomatoes, but didn’t feel like a plain old omelet.  I’ve recently seen a lot of recipes for ham, bacon, and/or toast-lined baked eggs made in cupcake tins, so I was inspired to throw this together and see what happened.  I didn’t have ham, bacon, or toast, so instead of whole eggs I thought I’d whip up a frittata-style mixture, as I thought that would help hold it together in the muffin pan.  I was right!

You’ll need:

  • 8 eggs
  • 4 egg whites, or a scant half cup of Egg Beaters
  • 1 10-ounce package of frozen cut spinach, thawed
  • 1 cup of crumbled feta
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup of oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
  • Hot sauce to taste (optional)
  1. Whisk eggs, egg whites, salt, pepper, and hot sauce in a large bowl until combined and frothy.
  2. Stir in spinach, feta, and tomatoes.
  3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  4. Butter a 12-muffin tin, or two six-muffin tins.  Alternatively, you can use a bit of olive oil to lightly coat the cups.
  5. Pour mixture into the prepared muffin tin(s). Try to make them equal, and try to leave about a half-inch of room at the top as these should expand a little.  I used a liquid measuring cup with a pouring spout to do this.
  6. Bake for 20-28 minutes, until the tops are just barely starting to brown and the eggs look set (see picture above–the top is shiny but not wet).
  7. Let cool for 15-20 minutes.
  8. Remove from pan (I used a small spatula to go around each mini-frittata and they all just popped right out).
  9. Enjoy!  The picture below is the cut half of a mini-frittata.  I had already scarfed the other half…

Eggs and Bacon

Is there anything better than eggs and bacon?

This is eggs and bacon the way I like them: extra crispy bacon and runny-yolked eggs.

For the bacon, the oven is clearly the way to go.  It’s so easy, and you can’t really mess it up unless you burn the bacon…which I like.  Set your oven at 350 degrees, lay your bacon strips on a sheet pan, and throw it in the oven for 12-20 minutes depending on how thick your bacon is.  I would check at 12 minutes just to see how it’s going.  Say hi.  I actually talk to my bacon a bit and coax it along into perfection.  I have a crush on bacon.

For the eggs, you want a preheated pan, a little olive oil or butter (or both! go wild), and as many eggs as you’d like.  Crack the eggs into a little bowl and dig out all the shell you got in there while you’re heating the pan on medium, or medium-low if your range runs hot.  After about 5 minutes, check to make sure your pan is hot.  Don’t burn yourself!  Just quickly tap the side of the pan to check.

Put the oil/butter into the hot pan and swirl it around.  Slide the eggs in there, carefully if you like the yolk runny, and cover with a lid or plate.  This helps the egg cook on both sides.  After one minute, check on your eggs.  If they’re still liquid-y, re-cover and let cook for another minute.  Once they look almost done, as in no runny white, you can carefully flip them and turn off the heat.  Let it sit for 30 seconds or so to solidify the egg white while keeping the yolk runny. Don’t be afraid to check on it obsessively like I did when I was first making eggs this way.  Just lift a corner with a spatula to see if the white is cooked to your liking.  When it’s ready, add salt and pepper if you’d like and enjoy!

If you really preheated your pan, this should be a very quick operation.  If you find it’s taking forever, your heat may be a little too low.  If it’s loudly popping and sizzling for more than a few seconds after you put the eggs in the pan, your heat is too high–turn it down to low or medium-low.  You’ll get the hang of it!  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, comment below, whatever you’d like.