Jenmenke

Road Warrior

Meatless Monday

OMG Meatless Monday Twenty Seven

Refreshing and Filling, No-Cook Summer Salad

I’m totally guessing what number Meatless Monday I am on. I haven’t written in over a week, soccer camp starts in an hour, I only have 32% battery left on my laptop and TIME’S-A-WASTING! I’ve got to get the MEAT of the post before I turn into a pumpkin.

Speaking of pumpkins… Mine are so behind that I am scared I won’t have any for Halloween. Not to mention watermelon in August…

It’s impossible for me to get to the point. You know that, right?

For the record, we have not stopped doing Meatless Mondays, I just am not up to date on them. Due to the hysterical nature of the past four weeks of my life, we have also suffered some repeats. I never know what to do for repeats. Is that cheating? I mean, I never set out to become some “Julie and Julia”  by doing something new every time, but for some reason I feel like repeats are lame. Maybe I’ll just pick one thing out of a meal for a repeat. Oh I don’t KNOW! No wonder I never get my posts written!

For this meal, I actually followed a recipe. Well *almost*. It’s called Tabbouleh with Garbanzos.

But I don’t call it Tabbouleh. Because for those who don’t know what Tabbouleh is, I feel that the name can cause one to flip the page (or click the button) too fast. Or glaze over. Or ignore it. It’s like Falafel. I sort of say, “hmmmm…” and move on. To avoid that fate, I call this recipe:

Bulgur Wheat with Garbanzos.

So there.

Tabbouleh is made with bulgur wheat. And what is bulgur wheat? It takes like yummy, nutty rice. But tabbouleh is also made with lots of chopped parsley, which I never planted this year, therefore my recipe is not really tabbouleh after all. My recipe was adapted from Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s Free Weeknight Kitchen emails that I receive each week. They are always inspirational, whether I cook them or not. Plus, I get to absorb all her knowledge and experience without having to listen to her podcast, which I never seem to have time for anymore.

We’ve had about the most humid and stinky summer that I can remember. But then, I can’t seem to remember anything any more, so that might not be saying much. Suffice to say, turning on the oven or the stove doesn’t sound like a good idea.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that we didn’t have air conditioning for a few weeks, due to that pesky lightning strike. Or did I tell you? I can’t remember… Isn’t this fun?

Never mind. the point is that you don’t need to cook ANYTHING!

Well, wait a minute. You do have to boil 2 cups of water, but you could do that in the microwave if you wanted.

Bulgur Wheat with Garbanzos

  • 2 cups bulgur wheat
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 t salt
  • ground black pepper
  • a few pinches each of cardamom, ground coriander, cumin and cayenne
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced or pressed
  • 1 tomato diced
  • 1 cucumber, peeled and diced
  • 1 small onion, diced (about 1/2 a cup or more)
  • 1 can garbanzo beans, drained
  • 1/3 – 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
  • 1/3 – 1/2 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
  • 1/2 cup (or whatever you can find that your husband didn’t weed whip) chopped fresh mint
  • 1/2 cup (or whatever you can find that hasn’t gone to seed) chopped cilantro
  • 6 large leaves of fresh basil. Don’t cut until ready to serve or it will turn black

    Put bulgur wheat in a large bowl and add 2 cups of boiling water and stir. Let stand 30 – 60 minutes. (if there is standing water after that time, drain it before proceding)

    In a small bowl add lemon juice, salt, pepper and garlic. Whisk in the oil to make an emulsion. Add the spices which of course are optional if you don’t have them. Never, I-repeat-never, make a special trip to the store.

    Add the tomato, cucumber, onion, garbanzos, toasted pine nuts, and craisins to the bulgur and stir with a fork. Add the mint and cilantro and drizzle the dressing and stir well. Before serving thinly slice the basil leaves and sprinkle over the top.

    Salad can be served room temperature or cold.

    I swear to God, even my kids liked it. I simply could not believe it. Maybe it was the heat that addled their brains?

    Meatless Monday Twenty Four

    Chipotle Style Bean Burritos

    I’m not deluding myself to think this is anything special or original. I’ve just promised to chronicle the journey and here we are, two weeks behind the calendar year (I should be on Meatless Monday Twenty Five. Twenty Six if you are counting tonight.)

    We’ve eaten those meals, mind you. I just haven’t written about them. And WHY haven’t I written about them? Because I forgot to take any pictures. Maybe I’ll throw up a post about the walleye fish fry. (that sounds sick: to “throw-up” a post. But I actually quite like it, so I’m leaving it.) The fish was amazing. I just gobbled it all down and realized too late, the error of my ways.

    This is the meal we ate a week ago today. On a busy soccer night. After a string of days eating out. Fried junk food type places. Well, not really junk food, but regular eat-out food: reuben, fries, burgers, yuck-o. No, not yuck-o. Yummy. But yuck-o when you look back on it.

    So it was with wearisome predictability that Dave demanded (no, not demanded. but that’s what it seemed like to me when he asked “what are you making for dinner?” that’s a demand in a passive-aggressive way, isn’t it?) a meal at home.

    Good Lord, like I should know what we are having for dinner! And a Meatless Monday dinner, no less.

    So it was to be:

    Bean Burritos with Fresh Salsa, Cotija and Cilantro-Lime Rice.

    For the Cilantro Lime Rice:

    Make according to directions, but also add the juice of one lime and 2 teaspoons each of cumin and salt (for 2 ricer-cooker size cups of uncooked rice). After the rice has cooked, immediately fluff and stir in 1/2 cup chopped cilantro.

    For the Fresh Salsa:

    Chop a large (or a couple small) good tomatoes. (I still had the one from that dead vine a week before). Finely chop about 1 small onion, more or less to taste. Chop 1/2 cup cilantro. Stir together with the juice of 1/2 lime, salt, pepper, a few dashes of hot sauce. A chopped avocado takes it to perfection. I just didn’t happen to have one. A dash of chili powder can be good, too. I didn’t add that this time though.

    For the Beans:

    Open a can of Kuners Southwestern Black Beans with Cumin and Chili spices. Add some cheese and microwave till hot.

    For the Cotija:

    Crumble.

    Chop some lettuce and assemble burritos.

    Try to talk your two kids into trying some fresh salsa.

    No? Then I’ll eat it all. Thank you very much.

    And while I’m at it, I will have one of these:

    Honest to Pete, don’t the makers of Corona (aka Coronita) know their beer looks like insipid pee? Yuck! I chose the Coors Light, the color camouflaged by the brown bottle. But isn’t that Coronita cute?

    Meatless Monday Twenty Something

    I’m too lazy to go look what number it is.

    I just replied to about a months worth of comments. I’ve been so buried here in soccer land I can’t even tell you. But here’s the great thing: it’s almost over! Yes, I do feel a little bad about saying that, but never-the-less, I am happy about it. I am also happy that my kids’ teams have each had 2 wins this year. Never-to-before in all the years of soccer have we won games. No, I’m not kidding about that. We are farm kids playing the big league, affluent suburbs. So any win is a huge win. So that part has been fun. Reffing, rain, rescheduling games, rice-paddy fields, coaching dramas… that stuff? Not so much… ENOUGH!

    I think it’s Meatless Monday Twenty Four? Anyway, who cares. Just know that this one contains shrimp. Because even though there are some die-hards out there who don’t consider shrimp meatless, I, in fact, do.

    Let me just ask this before going any further: Is it only me, or are enchiladas a real pain in the pooper? So many tedious little steps…

    BUT FOR THE GLORY OF THE TASTE I WILL TAKE ON THE TEDIOUS!

    These are fabulouso!

    Shrimp & Cotija Enchiladas with Salsa Verde

    (serves 5, with two enchiladas each) (why 5? Because that’s what fit in the pan) (please, please, please don’t think any of these measurements are holy. Use what you have. Substitute what you don’t.)

    • about 40 uncooked medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
    • 1 t cornstarch
    • 1 t cumin (for marinade)
    • 1 t chili powder
    • 1 pinch ground coriander
    • 1 T sesame oil (yes, this is odd for a mexican dish, but trust me on this)
    • 1 cup — more or less — of salsa verde (I had canned from garden, but also use store bought)
    • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
    • 1 cup chopped cilantro, divided
    • 1 cup chopped green onions divided
    • 1/2 red onion sliced thinly, then cut into quarter rounds
    • 1/2 cup chopped green pepper or poblano.
    • 1 small hot pepper, chopped, use amount to taste
    • 2 T chopped fresh oregano or 1 T dried
    • 1 t cumin (for cooking)
    • 10 corn tortillas (freshly bought, non refrigerated is best)
    • 6 oz crumbled Cotija cheese (about 1/2 a block of it)
    • sour cream, chopped tomatoes, lettuce & avocado for garnish

    Preheat oven to 35o.

    In a shallow dish combine shrimp with corn starch, cumin, chili powder, coriander & sesame oil. Set aside for 30 minutes to an hour. (mix it up. I hadn’t yet in this photo)

    In a shallow dish (pie plate, which I transferred to after this photo was taken), combine the salsa verde with the yogurt, most of the green onions and 1/2 cup of the cilantro.

    In a large saute pan, heat about 2 T of oil. When hot, add the onions and saute for about 2 minutes until softened. Then add the peppers (both hot and mild), oregano and cumin. Cook over medium heat until fragrant and softened, about 4 minutes. Add the shrimp and any accumulated juices to pan and cook, stirring constantly, until shrimp just turn pink. Don’t cook any further than that.

    *optional: I hate to leave any flavors lying around, only to be washed down the sink. If you are using a cast iron pan like I did, you might have some crusted on deliciousness after cooking the shrimp. Add about 1/4 c water to pan and scrape up browned bits until pan is clean. Add this to the salsa verde.

    For the tortillas: this is a constant torment for me. Enchilada recipes ask you to do various things with corn tortillas as a first step to assembling enchiladas. Some say to fry briefly in oil, then to coat with your sauce. Some say to heat briefly in a damp towel in either the microwave or the oven. I don’t know if it is the tortillas we have around here or what, but those processes are both a pain in the butt, and disastrous for me. The tortillas get too soft and fall apart. I have found that if I use the corn tortillas available in on the shelf and not the refrigerator section of the grocery store, and I haven’t refrigerated them for weeks, I don’t have to do anything to them. If, however, I only have refrigerated tortillas in the house, I will grudgingly perform the fry-in-oil step first because otherwise they are too hard and will crack as you roll them.

    With that said, do what you need to do in order to be able to roll your tortillas without them cracking.

    In a 9×13 pan, spread a thin layer of your salsa verde sauce over the bottom. Take a tortilla and dip both sides into the salsa verde mixture. Then, place 4 shrimp and some of the onion/pepper mix onto the center of a tortilla, top with about 1T of cotija and roll up. Place in pan seam side down. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas.

    Top with remaining sauce and any extra shrimp, onions and cheese you have. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

    Remove from oven and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cilantro and green onions, then serve with bowls of sour cream, chopped lettuce, chopped tomatoes, avocados and any other delicious condiment you can think of.

    Swoon over your own brilliance.

    Check off one more Meatless Monday.

    Will the Real Jennie Menke Please Stand Up

    Now GET TO WORK!

    This is an entry to myself. It is born of unmotivated, sloth-like behavior.

    It is raining.

    It has been raining for — I haven’t kept track — nine days? It certainly has not been sunny in at least seven days, that I am certain of. We have received over 6 inches of rain. My garden is growing mushrooms instead of vegetables and fruit. I am growing mushrooms.

    It is dank.

    I should be working. Because I am broke. (Thanks all you bright-eyed graduates.) That’s quite a gig you got going: your parents pay for school, then all your parents friends pay for your social life.

    I was going to write about the Meatless Monday side dish that never was. But I’m not even motivated to do that. But I will! I will!

    Right after I go have another latte…

    I’m back. I’m here to tell you about my cooking failures. I will tell it like it is. I suppose I always tell it like it is, but sometimes I suppress information when I deem it might reflect on me in a negative light.

    Take Meatless Monday Twenty Three, for example. The one I haven’t written about yet. We had it, oh yes, indeed. I took pictures of part of it. Then I ran out of time and never finished it. I intended to finish making it and sort of infer that it all went together. I wouldn’t have lied, mind you, I just wouldn’t have told the whole truth that they were spread out a few days.

    But I never actually finished the side dish. It’s still sitting in my refrigerator. I don’t even know when I made it. I have to go to Aperture to see when the photos were taken. Hang on a sec…

    6/2/2010. It is now 6/11/2010 6/14/10. That was nine twelve days ago. It’s still in my fridge. I was still planning on finishing it. I’m coming to grips with the fact that I’m going to have to give it to my chickens. But I’m not quite there yet. I’m still not quite there yet. Yesterday, Dave deemed it chicken-fare. He took it out there without even taking a picture for this post. (I swear it still smelled just fine.) The nerve! Then, making matters even worse, when questioned about it, he had this to say:

    Me: “Did you give it to the chicks?”

    Dave: “What do you mean?”

    Me: “I wanted to give it to the chicks and not the rooster… (silence) You know, did you put it in the new coop?… (silence) The small coop. The one with the fence your dad made… (silence) DAVE! Come ON! Did you give it to the rooster or the chicks? It’s a simple question!”

    Dave: “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

    Me: (raising voice) “HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT? The rooster is in the OLD coop. The one in the big fenced in area! The chicks are in the NEW coop. They are still SEPARATED!”

    Dave: “New coop, old coop. I don’t know what you are talking about.”

    Charlie: (can’t restrain himself any longer listening to two idiots) “Dad. The playhouse is the new coop. The old coop is inside the big fence with the electric wire around it.”

    Dave: “Oooooh. Why didn’t you just say that?”

    Jennie: (has lost all control. Is screaming now.) “We’ve had chickens in this set up for YEARS. How can you not know there is a new coop and an old coop?”

    Dave: “I hate the chickens. I don’t pay attention.”

    Jennie: … speechless. Because, he’s right. And since that almost never happens, she wisely decides to be quiet. Which also almost never happens.

    (about 60 seconds pass)

    Dave: “Do you want a beer?”

    Jennie: “Sure!”

    So it goes.

    It (the side dish) was Israeli Cous Cous with Kale. I planned to make a cold salad with vinaigrette (I had NO idea vinaigrette was spelled that way. Absolutely no idea… I was spelling it vinegarette. That’s your spelling-lesson-betterment for the day)

    I got my new rice cooker for mothers day and have been wanting to stretch myself beyond the norm and use it to its full potential. I did it all in the rice cooker:

    When it was done, it looked like this:

    No wonder we gave it to the chickens.

    Meatless Monday Twenty Two!

    From a Box!

    This is, without a doubt, my lamest effort to date. But if I didn’t post it, with full disclosure, then I wouldn’t be being honest. We eat this chili mix all the time. And, I LOVE IT!

    Unfortunately, it isn’t always available. The mix is from Tastefully Simple, which a good friend of mine sells. There aren’t many things along the lines of boxed food that I like, but when this stuff is available, I buy a whole case of it.

    No, I’m not kidding.

    As you can see, there are only four left. We don’t eat it much in the summer, so that should hold us over just fine — assuming, of course, that Tastefully Simple brings it back again next fall. They are in the annoying habit of “discontinuing” it and the bringing it back “by popular demand!”

    I cross my fingers every year that I will hear from Karen saying “It’s back! How many do you want?” It’s like having my own personal shopper.

    Since you can’t get it, I suppose it’s silly to be talking it up so large, but maybe you could find it on Craig’s List? Or ebay? Once, when I was working at our local food shelves — seriously, I’m not kidding — I unpacked a lone box of this mix. I about FELL OVER. Yes, of course I took it. And then I replaced it with TWO boxes of powdered milk that I bought and donated, which assuaged my guilt somewhat. Powdered milk is like liquid gold to the food shelves — very expensive and rarely donated. But I still feel guilty, having cheated someone out of White Chili heaven.

    We usually — no surprise here — add chicken to it. For Meatless Monday, however, we abstained. I added only a can of white beans

    And lots of condiments from the garden and fridge: cilantro, green onions,

    Cotija Cheese,

    Honestly, it took more time to get all the condiments ready than to make the damn chili. Seriously!

    I remembered pepitas at the last minute, so they aren’t pictured here.

    To make the chili, you open two foil packets, dump them in a pan with 6 cups of water and bring to a boil. It’s ready 10 minutes later.

    I serve it up with lots of white rice. Then eat the leftovers for about three days. I suppose I should be on the lookout for a true-blue white chili recipe, but honestly, isn’t it nice to have an option like this to have dinner on the table in 15 minutes? I rate it right up there with my Aroy-D Green Curry. Mmmmm.

    Meatless Monday Twenty One!

    Three Cheese Griller with Veggie Salad

    This was a surprise Meatless Monday, because I didn’t even know I was doing it until I was almost done.

    Dave is out of town, kids are going three different ways. I’m on day four of refinishing my kitchen table in mid ninety degree heat… End of May = crazy times.

    Yesterday, inbetween coats of polyurethane, and knowing we were heading out of town for the weekend, I took stock of the “crisper.” Really. What a silly name for a drawer that seems create slime more than it “crisps.” It is always with great trepidation that I dig to the back recess of the “crisper.” You just never know what you’re gonna find.

    I was amazed to find some mighty fine looking produce in there!

    You see, Dave has been doing a lot of the grocery shopping the last couple months. I’m not sure why. I actually think he might like it. Is that even possible? I quite simply could never walk into another grocery store and be happy. Give me a cow, a garden and a freezer. I’d rather make something from scratch than get in the car and go to the damn grocery store.

    But you already knew that about me, didn’t you?

    While I love the fact that Dave is doing a lot of the shoppping, it is also very dangerous from a “crisper” perspective. When I shop, I know what’s in there and I try to use it. I don’t like to waste things. Well, except celery which seems to enjoy turning to jelly in my “crisper.” I really enjoy wasting celery.

    So it was with shock and awe that I found a beautiful package of haricots verts. You know the ones? They cost like six bucks or something! What the Hell? Doesn’t anyone tell that guy if he’s gonna shop for me he has to act like a MISER?

    Actually, he did just say to me the other day, “As long as I’m doing the shopping, you don’t get to complain.” I can’t even remember what it was that he was referring to*, but add the beautiful package of haricots to my list of complaints. Money doesn’t grow on trees, you know!

    Beans don’t keep forever, so I thought I better cook ‘em up and use them. Along with a nice little head of broccoli he bought.

    And, yes, I also cooked some of that beetle-infested God-forsaken asparagus.

    Then I ran out of time and threw it all in the fridge. I forgot about it until tonight. With Dave out of town, two soccer practices and a choir concert, I had to come up with something to eat fast.

    So I whipped up some of the salad dressing I made for the Keeping Up with the Beans, last summer:

    • ~ 1/4 c balsamic
    • ~ 1 t dijon mustard
    • ~ 1 t honey
    • salt and pepper
    • wisk in enough olive oil to make a medium thick emulsion (mine was about 1/8 c)

    Then add whatever it is you are trying to get rid of. For me it was wrinkly grape tomatoes…

    I also added some garbanzo beans and toasted pine nuts. Wished I had cucumbers. Thought about craisins.

    I wanted to call that dinner and be done. But I’m not stupid. I know my kids would faint if that’s what I served them. So I cut up the rest of a loaf of ciabatta that was getting hard:

    And grated three kinds of cheese

    And cooked it on my new griddle set-up (revamped my Thermador cooktop. Very cool. More on that another time.).

    I wished I had some butternut squash that a commenter recommended for adding to grilled cheese a while back, but sadly I did not. Still. The sammies were a hit.

    That left approximately four minutes to eat before having to leave for the first of the evening’s activities.

    Now, I’m off to eat the rest of the salad. It’s my birthday today, so I’m just sitting here waiting for good things to happen.

    * I remember what he said I couldn’t complain about now. It was those stupid boxes from Costco. He’s too lazy to use the big bags I bought for that purpose. So he puts everything in the huge corrugated  boxes they have available, then throws them in the recycle area for me to collapse on recycling day! Which was today! And why I suddenly remembered. Funny how that happens…