Soft Dinner Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon dry active yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Place the yeast and warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl, if mixing by hand), stir to combine, and let it sit until dissolved. Place the milk, egg, oil, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Add this to the yeast mixture and stir until combined. Add all the flour and stir until it forms a shaggy dough. Knead on low speed or by hand against the counter until smooth but slightly tacky (it should spring back when poked), 8 to 10 minutes. Cover the bowl and let it rise in a warm spot until doubled in size (should take about 1 hour).

Divide the dough into 12 pieces. To shape into rolls, tuck the edges underneath like you're making a little pouch and then roll the dough/pouch between your palms or against the counter (if the dough is sticking, you can put some flour down on the counter) until round.

Line a 9x13-inch baking dish with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. Arrange the rolls inside the baking dish so that they are spaced a little apart. Let the rolls rise until they look fluffy and fill the pan, 30 to 40 minutes. At the end of the rising time, heat the oven to 375°F.

Brush the rolls with butter. Melt the butter and brush it over the risen dinner rolls. This helps the tops brown and keeps the crust soft. Bake the rolls on a middle rack until golden-brown, 15 to 18 minutes. 

Creamy Broccoli Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion (roughly diced but you’ll be blending it so doesn’t really matter how you cut it)

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth (or Better than Bouillon)

1/3 cup rolled oats

1 ½ pounds broccoli (don’t be a hero – just buy some frozen broccoli and it’s already cut up for you plus so cheap)

Directions

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onion, and cook until softened (about 5 minutes). Stir in broth, 1 cup water, oats, and broccoli. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer until broccoli is tender (around 10 minutes). Either blend the soup in a blender or use an immersion blender and blend it right there in the pot until it’s creamy. Add some shredded cheddar if you want more of a broccoli cheddar situation but it’s delicious on its own too even if it’s another secretly vegan soup.

Instant Pot White Chicken Chili

Ingredients

1 ½ to 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or breasts)

1 large yellow onion, diced 

2 4-ounce cans diced green chili peppers (you can usually only find these in mild so don’t worry about them making it spicy)

3 cloves garlic, minced 

2 teaspoons cumin 

2 teaspoons salt 

½ teaspoon coriander 

½ teaspoon dried oregano 

4 cups chicken stock (or I prefer Better than Bouillon - it's delicious and I don't have to cart gallons of stock up 3 flights of stairs every week)

1 13.5-ounce can cannellini or navy beans (drained and rinsed)

1 cup frozen corn 

Adding any of this as you serve it will be delicious: shredded monterey jack cheese, lime juice, sour cream, hot sauce, avocado

Directions

Combine the chicken, onions, green chili peppers, garlic, cumin, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, coriander, oregano in Instant Pot or slow cooker. Stir to make sure the spices coat everything and pour the chicken stock over top (should cover the chicken and vegetables by an inch or so). 

Instant pot: Include the corn and beans in with the chicken and everything else and cook it all together on the meat/chili setting on high pressure for 20 minutes. It will warm up, cook 20 minutes and once it finishes, let it naturally depressurize 10 minutes afterwards before releasing the pressure.

Slow cooker: If you’re using the slow cooker, cook for 4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. (It's fine to cook for 8 hours on low, if you’re going to be gone all day - chicken just gets more and more tender and starts to fall apart but you're going to shred it anyway). About 30 minutes before the end of cooking, remove the lid of the slow cooker and add the beans and corn, and then cook for the remaining time. 

Once it’s done, take the chicken out and shred it into large, bite-sized pieces with two forks. Eat it as it is or add any of the delicious things I included above to make it even tastier.

Creamy Curry Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to serve

2 medium white onions, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to season

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 large head of cauliflower (about 2 pounds), trimmed and cut into florets

4 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (or I like better than bouillon...well, better) 

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin

1 cup coconut milk

Directions

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook the onions with ¼ teaspoon salt until they’re soft and translucent (8-9 minutes). Reduce heat to low, add garlic, and cook for 2 more minutes. Add cauliflower, broth, coriander, turmeric, cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer until cauliflower is soft (maybe 15 minutes or so). Purée the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender right in the pot until it’s smooth. Stir in the coconut milk. This secretly vegan soup is light, so easy to make, and delicious! It tastes almost like a potato curry soup so you'd barely know you were eating such a healthy veggie soup.

Harissa Chicken Bowl

I thought it was about time we revived the old blog again! I made some delicious chicken last night so had to share.  It was basically a shredded chicken bowl and you can throw in any toppings you want in there – chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, and I’ve also added tzatziki sauce, any other yogurt sauce, and hummus at various times depending on what I have.

Harissa sauce -- you can find this in a jar at the grocery store or make your own.

Ingredients to make it on your own:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, peeled

12 ounce jar roasted peppers in water, drained

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon coriander

½ teaspoon sweet paprika

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how spicy you like it). This sauce without the red pepper flakes is not spicy in the slightest (I promise!) so I often make it without the red pepper flakes and just have people add hot sauce at the end.

I just sauteed the garlic in oil (didn't even chop or mince it since it's being blended anyway) until it was golden and fragrant then threw it (garlic and the oil it was cooking in) into the blender with the rest of the ingredients and blended everything until it was smooth. I often make a double batch of the sauce and then freeze half of it so I can use it another time. 

Chicken:

1 – 1 ½ pounds chicken (thighs or breast)

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon garlic powder

For the chicken, I seasoned some chicken thighs with the cumin and garlic powder and then put them into the pressure cooker and covered them in the harissa sauce. I cooked them in the instant pot on high pressure for 20 minutes or you can cook on high in the slow cooker for 4 hours (or low for more like 6-8 hours). Either way, when it’s finished, just shred the chicken and it's done.

I serve it over rice or quinoa with chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, and some sort of tzatziki sauce or even just Greek yogurt with a little lemon juice, dill, salt and pepper. 

Stir fried mushrooms and tofu

Apparently I had been afraid to post tofu recipes on here due to the fact that some of us out there think tofu is strange or gross. I have now gotten over this hurdle because let's face it, I do cook tofu and in reality this blog is just my personal online recipe collector. So there you have it - it's settled. I can cook and blog about tofu whenever I want. I was trying to avoid it thinking no one would notice that I've secretly converted this into a vegetarian blog when Kurt wasn't looking.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced

2 teaspoons Thai chili sauce (I actually used some of Kurt’s secret hot sauce but more like ½ teaspoon)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon sesame oil

3 tablespoons canola oil

1 (14 ounce) package extra firm tofu, drained and cut into cubes (I wrap it in a towel and put a bowl or something heavy-ish on the top to squeeze the liquid out)

2 cups sliced shitake mushrooms (or any other kind would work too)

1 cup any other good stir fry veggies - bok choy, broccoli, sugar snap peas, red/green peppers (I didn't have any others at the time so had to stick with tofu and mushrooms)

Directions

Whisk together cornstarch and 1 tsp water in bowl. Whisk in soy sauce, ginger, chili sauce, garlic and sesame oil.

Heat 1 T canola oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Stir-fry tofu for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown on both sides. Transfer to plate.

Add 1 T canola oil to pan and stir-fry mushrooms 2 minutes or until tender. Return tofu to pan and stir in soy sauce mixture. Stir-fry 1 minute until hot.

Brussels sprouts & pecans

I just whipped up some kind of amazing brussels sprouts while talking to Kurt about turning this blog into a real website where we could do cool things, which he has PROMISED he's going to do so I'm challenging him to do it before April 1. Go!

Ingredients
1 T oil--I used sesame oil because I just really wanted the flavor of it and figured it wouldn't really matter because I wasn't frying them or anything, but you could use vegetable, olive or any oil really
1 cup chopped brussels sprouts (I'll admit sometimes when I'm lazy I buy a bag of them already chopped from Trader Joe's - embarrassing, I know, especially while being on the phone with Kurt who's talking about how he needs to take the final step from buying canned tomatoes to canning his own, but it makes them so easy and quick to make)
handful of chopped pecans

Directions
Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add the pecans and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted, 2 to 4 minutes. Add the brussels sprouts, ¼ - ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Cook, tossing occasionally, until just tender, 3 to 4 minutes.

Weird that the ingredients and my rambling explanations are longer than the directions for this recipe.