Happy New Year + Blizzard Meals + Detox Days

See ya later 2013. It's be real!

I love January! Even though New England is usually buried in a few feet of snow and my weather.com likes to terrify me with scary phrases such as "Feel's like -14", I always really enjoy the first few days of the new year.  Not that 2013 was super dismal or anything, but I was glad to give it the old the heave ho. Like most people I like to make a bunch of New Year's resolutions that I don't intend to keep.  I've got a few pretty classic ones and some interesting smaller ones.  I'm hoping at least one of them sticks.  Here are a few ....

1. Learn how to load the dishwasher properly. 
2. Stop throwing lemons into the garbage disposal. 
3. Be nicer to my sister's cat. Too bad I just yelled at her with my "demon from hell" voice this morning.  
4. Get in biking shape for my biking tour of Provence in May.  I'm delaying signing up for the gym until all those other people who had the "work out" resolution fail miserably. More stationary bikes for me! 
5. Eat less pad thai.
6. Eat more kale.
7. Buy a dutch oven.
8. Buy a blender.
9. Buy some new sheets.
10. Get a laundry service.  

See? My New Year's Resolutions are ridiculously random and mostly filled with things that I need to buy to make my life better. But small steps, right? 

So as luck would have it, on January 2 Boston got a big, nasty snowstorm.  Normally, I would stock up on red wine and bad food and hibernate until some nice neighbor decided to shovel our sidewalk/deck for us. But I really wanted to start this year off right and cook something cozy yet really healthy.  I bopped on over to MindBodyGreen which is an excellent website to go to if you want to feel bad about yourself. Haha, just kidding.  It's a great website. Very healthy with tips on how to eat, love, shop, exercise, and breathe in a healthy and happy way.  When I feel like I need a healthy recipe, I always go here and so far I have not been disappointed.  I picked out a hearty Italian stew I saw a few weeks back that was tomato based and had lots of beans and spinach and superfoody flair. It also happened to be *gasp* VEGAN.  When I told my sister what we were having for dinner, she immediately freaked. Over here at Chez Dumas, we're about as far from vegan as you can get.  However, I'm a big believer in vegetables and am confident that they alone can carry a dish - especially cozy, comfy, soups.

What really won me over was the addition of tahini.  It's been awhile since I've used tahini. When I first moved to Boston and lived my with my older sister, she would make homemade hummus nearly once a week. Since then I don't think I've purchased the stuff once. It is so flippin' good.  Luckily, when I went to the grocery store prior to the nasty blizzard, there was an entire rack of tahini plunked right next to the eggs - a literal beacon of tahini. It was a sign! Anyways, what is cool about this recipe is you combine tahini with tomato sauce. At first I was like ew, that seems weird. But it actually thickened and added tremendous flavor to the soup. In that sense, it takes the place of cream or milk and is way better for you.  Normally, I don't like veggie soups because I despise veggie stock. I think it tastes like stick water, okay? But by dumping tomato sauce and tahini into the broth, it took it to a whole other level.  

While I did find this recipe on MindBodyGreen, I didn't use everything the recipe called for. The one thing about recipes from here is that sometimes they feature some weird stuff that is also impossible to find slash uber expensive. For instance, this recipe called for chia seeds. I did end up stumbling on chia seeds but once I saw their $12 price tag, I decided that we didn't need chia seeds that bad. I also left out the nutritional yeast (who needs it!) and switched out black beans for red kidneys. A few years back I went on this salt free diet and one day all I could eat for lunch was black beans. Let's just say I should  have invested in some Beano prior to black bean day.  So I guess I have a little black bean PTSD.  Maybe I'll try them again if I don't have any plans for a few days.....

So enjoy this soup - it's cozy, it's delicious, and surprise, surprise......it's VEGAN. 

Italian Superfood Stew 

Featured on MindBodyGreen - with some East of Eating adjustments. 

3/4 of a medium onion, diced

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups veggie stock

1 package of mushrooms, sliced

3 cups spinach

1 can of white beans

1 can of red kidney beans

2 cups tomato sauce 

1/4 tahini butter

a few fresh basil leaves, shredded

a few dashes of Italian seasoning

salt and pepper 

1. Add 1T of olive oil to soup pan. Once hot, add onions and garlic.  Saute over medium heat till fragrant and onions are transparent, about 5 minutes.

2. Add mushrooms and continue to saute for 2 minutes. 

3. Add broth and increase heat to medium high.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Add spinach, beans, and basil and continue to simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes. 

4. In a separate bowl combine tomato sauce, tahini, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper.  Pour into soup pot, stir, and cover. 

5. Continue cooking over high heat with cover on for 3 minutes.  Take the cover off and stir every minute or so.  Then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool before serving.  Yummy!

Post Disco Chili

This weekend we had a disco themed party at our apartment. In the course of a few hours we took our cozy little 3 bedroom apartment and turned it into the likes of Studio 54! We had Tang, we had polyester, and we had Earth, Wind and Fire! Being the foodie that I am, I thought no decade party would be complete without quintessential 70’s party food. I had hoped to do fondue, but I envisioned that turning into a fire hazard pretty quick (especially with all the polyester!) so I opted for something a little less flammable. I quickly realized that buying food for a 70s party was pretty damn depressing. The only thing I bought that wasn’t processed or artificial in some way were oranges; and those only went into the punch that was made from powdered orange juice! Spray cheese was invented in the 1970s, so that make the cut. It turns out that spray cheese barely tastes like cheese and never had to be refrigerated. Hmmmm… suspicious. I did make a French Onion Dip from scratch (hooray) and pigs and a blanket for both the meat-eaters and vegetarians. We also had disco cupcakes, cheese-wurst (haha, don’t ask) and various crudités. To sum up, 1970s foods are terrifying and I was glad to be back in 2011 where at the stroke of midnight everything became organic and less carcinogenic!

I ended up sleeping till about noon on Sunday, or in decade terminology---1985. I drank so much vodka infused Tang the night before that I was up till the wee hours watching old episodes of Fat Albert on Netflix instant watch. That stuff is no joke; astronauts drink it! So anyways, I thought chili would be perfect for a Sunday meal. It’s a great one pot meal and since I spent most of my paycheck on spray cheeese and Tang, I thought a week-long leftover would work out nicely. Chili is also great because once you know how to make a basic recipe, you can customize it to your liking. If you feel like adding kidney instead of pinto beans, or using turkey instead of ground beef, it’s easy to swap ingredients out. I call this particular recipe Christmas Chili because of the festive green and red color combo. As I look at it bubbling away, I just want to bust out my collection of Nat King Cole Christmas tunes……only 9 months to go!

Christmas Chili

Olive oil

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2 pounds of ground beef or bison, turkey, chicken…whatever*

2 T chili powder or to your liking

1 t paprika

1 t oregano

1 cup of beef broth

1 can of beans, drained 2 cans of diced tomatoes with juice

Optional---one roasted jalapeño, seeds removed and diced

*If you use ground beef, stick to the 85/15 or 90/10 meat to fat ratio. I once made the mistake of using 75/25, and I had a really unappetizing layer of grease that I had to skim off. Ick.

Heat 1 to 2 T of olive oil in a soup pot over medium high heat.

Add onions and garlic and sauté for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add diced bell pepper and sauté another 2 minutes. Add ground beef and break apart with spoon. When meat is crumbled, add chili powder, paprika, and oregano and cook meat until no longer pink, about 5 minutes or so.

Add beans, broth and 2 cans of tomatoes and bring chili to a boil. Turn heat down to a simmer and let cook for another 30 to 40 minutes. You want the liquid to be reduced and the flavors to mesh together.

Serve with cheese, sour cream and crushed tortilla chips. For added heat, I like to add a roasted jalapeño. Simply place the pepper under your broiler for a few minutes until is blackens. Remove and wait till it cools and then peel off outer blackened layer. Cut in half, remove seeds and stem (unless you want A LOT OF HEAT), and chop finely. Add to chili as the last step.