Zucchini and Pea Cauliflower Risotto

May 6, 2016May 5, 2016 / ktbuchs87

Zucchini and Pea Cauliflower Risotto | Life Healthfully Lived Yup. Cauliflower is back. I know you’re probably getting a little tired of seeing it featured in my dishes but you know what? You’re wrong. Cauliflower is the magical unicorn of the vegetable world and I love turning it into all sorts of things from taquitos to sauce to sweet and sour bites to mac n’ cheese. It’s awesome and you’re going to have to deal with it.

Which should be easy if you’re stuffing your face with this tasty meal. Most people tend to shy away from risotto because it takes a really long time to cook and even if you follow all the steps it somehow still tastes like you didn’t do something right. Or is it just me chomping away and still uncooked rice? Just me? Ok. Zucchini and Pea Cauliflower Risotto | Life Healthfully Lived

Moving on. If you think risotto is too fussy or you’ve never made it before then you need to try this cauliflower risotto because it is the exact opposite of fussy. It doesn’t take long to make and you don’t have to stand over the stove stirring until your arm falls off like with regular risotto. Again, just me? This risotto is still creamy and rich like regular risotto but it’s also nice and light with all the fresh spring-y vegetables.

One other note about this meal, I really think that what gave this dish the depth of flavor I was going for was the Sherry I used to deglaze the pan. I know some people don’t like to use alcohol in their cooking (to each their own) and you can use water or broth instead but I don’t think it will have the same taste. Other than that, this risotto is straight forward and will have you licking your plate clean. Still just me?

Zucchini and Pea Cauliflower Risotto

1 large head of cauliflower, riced (you can grate it for bigger pieces which I did or run it through your food processor for smaller pieces)
2 medium zucchini’s, sliced into half moons
1 cup peas, if frozen make sure they’re thawed
3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup onions, diced
2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese
1/4 cup sherry (I used this one) or other dry white wine or water/broth
1/2 cup water/broth
1/2-2/3 cup full-fat coconut milk
1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds (or pine nuts if you can shell out the small fortune a 1 oz bag costs)
zest from one lemon
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet or saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute the onions until they’re soft then add in the garlic. Season this with a little salt and pepper and cook for about 2 minutes.
Add in the riced cauliflower, adding a little more oil if needed, and season again with salt and pepper. Cook for another five minutes until cauliflower is soft and just starting to get a little brown. Sprinkle the nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese over top.
Pour in the 1/4 cup sherry and deglaze the pan. Cook and stir everything until most of the liquid as evaporated. Add the zucchini and peas and pour in the water/broth and coconut milk. Stir everything together and cook until the liquid has reduced by about half.
Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and parsley. Top with the toasted almonds and taste to adjust the salt and pepper.

Caramelized Onion and Roasted Apple Soup

November 6, 2015November 6, 2015 / ktbuchs87

Have you heard the term, “soup weather”? Not to be confused with soup-y weather, soup weather is what happens when the temperatures start to cool down, maybe it gets a little rainy and windy, perhaps it’s gray and gloomy outside. Soup weather is the kind of weather that makes you just want to sit inside, wrap yourself in a blanket, and eat some soup.

It’s awesome.

Soup weather is just another reason that I love fall. Soup is one of my favorite things to make because it is so easy, but there are so many different flavors, combinations, and even techniques that can make soup feel gourmet or rustic. I could make soup every night, and because there is such variety, I wouldn’t get bored.

While I have my favorite stand by’s (like this chickpea dumpling or slow cooker minestrone), I like to try a few new recipes each year. One soup that I have never had is French Onion soup. When I was younger, I didn’t like onions so anything with onion right in the title was out. By the time that I started to really love onions, French Onion soup really wasn’t on my radar. Then I discovered caramelized onions and I decided it was time to try my own spin on French Onion soup.

Traditionally French Onion soup has a thick layer of cheese on top that you break through and eat along with the onion soup. This soup is not going to have any cheese, but that doesn’t make it any less delicious. I decided to keep it fairly simple but added in roasted apples for a little sweet taste of fall. Overall, I was thrilled with the flavor. A little sweet and a little savory.

You can save a little time with this recipe by caramelizing the onions in your slow cooker the day before. If you do that, this soup comes together really fast and that means you can spend more time snuggling in your blanket and enjoying soup weather!

Caramelized Onion and Roasted Apple Soup

4 large onions, thinly sliced (make them in your crockpot beforehand to speed things up)
1 large granny smith apple, cubed (you can also use any other tart apple)
1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
4 1/2 cups vegetable broth or water
1 cup celery, sliced
salt and pepper

If you haven’t caramelized your onions beforehand, heat a little olive oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add in the thinly sliced onions and cook low and slow until they turn a deep brown. Make sure you keep the heat LOW, you don’t want to burn or brown the onions. This should take about 20 to 30 minutes.
While you’re caramelizing the onions, you can roast your apples. Preheat the oven to 375. Place the cubed apples in a small bowl and add the teaspoon coconut oil. Toss to coat. Sprinkle the celery salt, fennel seeds, and allspice over the apples and toss again. Spread the apples in an even layer on a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside.
In the same pot that you caramelized the onions, add the sliced celery to the onions and bring the heat up to medium-high. Saute the celery for about 7 minutes until soft. Add the roasted apples and stir to combine everything.
Add the vegetable broth or water to the pot, season with salt and pepper, and bring the whole thing to a boil. Cover and lower to a simmer. Cook the soup, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper right before serving.

Simple ingredients turned into something that tastes fancy and awesome. That’s my kind of meal!

Spinach Artichoke Lasagna

October 30, 2015October 30, 2015 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

Today is my last day of being 27 years old. 27 has been good to me, but I’m excited to see what 28 has in store. It’s weird to think that I only have two more years of being in my 20’s. I can remember the day I turned 20 and thinking, “Finally! I’m not a teenager anymore. I’m an adult and I’m important.”

While I’m important at any age, I was far from being an adult. 20 is barely not a teenager and I had so much I still needed to learn. In all honesty, I still have a lot to learn and I think that is true for any age. Except maybe 100. Once you hit 100, you can pretty much do whatever you want and your excuse is I made it this long I think I’m gonna be just fine.

I decided to make you a delicious dinner for my birthday, which now that I’m typing it out sounds backwards. You should be making me a delicious dinner for my birthday. Jeez, you’re lazy! Making me do all the work on my birthday!

You know how delicious spinach artichoke dip is? That was my inspiration for this lasagna. Instead of cheese, I used bechamel sauce and artichokes along with a layer of spinach to create a creamy and delicious filling. This meal can come together really fast if you use a jar of tomato sauce and a box of lasagna noodles. But if you want to make everything from scratch like I did, I promise you won’t regret the time you put in.

This is also one of those meals that is even better the next day and makes really great leftovers for lunches throughout the week.

See? I’m feeding you even beyond dinner. 28 is making me a giver!

Spinach Artichoke Lasagna

1 batch of my tomato sauce or a jar of your favorite store brand
1 box of gluten free lasagna noodles (I made these from Against All Grains)
3-4 cups spinach leaves
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed
1 can full-fat coconut milk
1/3 cup raw cashews
1 tsp Italian seasonings
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp celery salt
4 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste

If you are making the tomato sauce and noodles get those ready and set aside. If you’re using boxed noodles make sure they are cooked and ready to go.
To make the bechamel sauce: In a blender or food processor, grind the cashews, Italian seasonings, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp celery salt into a fine powder. Set aside.
Heat a little olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add in 2 tablespoons of the cashew powder and stir to make a paste. Cook until the cashew powder turns golden brown.
Whisk in the can of coconut milk and keep whisking to combine the paste and milk. Whisk in the nutritional yeast and salt and pepper. Keep cooking and whisking the milk until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper to your preference.
Pour the sauce into a blender and add in the drained artichoke hearts. Pulse a few times to break up the artichokes, but don’t make it completely smooth.
Now it’s time to build the lasagna. Preheat the oven to 350 and get out a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Put a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom, then a layer of noodles, a layer of artichoke sauce, a layer of spinach, and a layer of tomato sauce. Keep going until you run out of noodles and make sure you end on tomato sauce.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling. Remove from oven and uncover. Let the lasagna cool for 10 minutes before you slice and serve.

You can make this lasagna ahead of time and then just pop it in the oven at dinner time. I hope you have a Happy Halloween and a great weekend!

Hearty Vegetable Cassoulet

October 9, 2015October 9, 2015 / ktbuchs87

Cassoulet. It just sounds fancy doesn’t it? But then again, most French words sound fancy. In fact, this dish is probably as far from fancy as you can get. A cassoulet is a slow-cooked casserole that started out as a peasant meal. Basically, all the scraps of meat, bones, and vegetables were placed into a clay baking dish and cooked over low heat for a long time to make a delicious cross between a casserole and a hearty stew.

Over the years, chefs and restaurants got a hold of it and “elevated” it to make it good enough to be put on expensive menus. The truth was that not much needed to be changed to make a delicious dish because sometimes the simplest things are the tastiest.

I made this cassoulet a little different than the traditional dish because I didn’t include any meat. It is still a very rich dish that is great for the cooler nights we’ve been having. You can also add meat if you wanted or mushrooms if you wanted to keep it vegetarian but add a “meaty” component.

This dish can be made ahead of time and then just popped in the oven when it’s time for dinner. It tastes like you have spent all day cooking it, but we can just keep that our little secret! So impress your friends and family with a tasty and fancy cassoulet that is as simple as could be.

Hearty Vegetable Cassoulet

1 tsp olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp marjoram
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 cup dry red wine (I used a malbec, but you can use whatever you have on hand)
1 cup carrots, peeled and diced into rounds
3/4 cup celery, sliced
1 can diced tomatoes (I used fire-roasted)
1 tbsp molasses (you could use maple syrup too)
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 and heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add in the onions, garlic, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes
Add the 1/2 cup wine and bring to a slow simmer. Cover the dish and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cover and stir in the vegetables and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add in the rest of the ingredients and return to a simmer.
Taste and adjust the salt and pepper to your taste. Transfer the whole things to a 9 x 13 casserole dish and cover with aluminum foil. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes.

See? It really is a simple meal. After cooking in the oven for 45 minutes, you’re left with a meal that is stick to your ribs good and is loaded with good for you vegetables and legumes. If you want to do this meal with meat, I would use chunks of beef because they will handle the long cook time well. Just make sure to brown them before adding them into the dish.

Oh, and Adam wants me to make sure to tell you to serve this with bread. But then again he wants me to serve bread with every meal…

Have a great Friday everyone and I will see you on Monday!

Arepas with Chipotle Sausage Crumbles & Cilantro Sauce

September 25, 2015January 22, 2016 / ktbuchs87

The day is here my friends. I’m finally putting up the recipe for the delicious arepas that I have been making. Don’t know what an arepa is? Think of it as the Colombian version of a sandwich, kind of like a pita. It’s a bun made out of pre-cooked corn meal and then sliced halfway through and stuffed with tasty fillings. Arepas are eaten for any meal depending on what you fill them with. The filling can be as simple as cheese to as elaborate as what I created because I love all the things.

I started obsessing over arepas after I saw them on some Food Network show, I can’t remember which one. They looked delicious and I was intrigued by how simple it looked to make them. Then Juli over at PaleOMG started posting pictures of the arepas she would get from a food truck in her city. They looked amazing and I was so jealous that she could get these delicacies out of a truck.

Finally after mooning over arepas for months, I decided to see what it would take to actually make them. There are plenty of recipes for them and they really are easy to make. You just need the right flour. It has to be pre-cooked corn flour or these won’t turn out. If you have a large Latin section at your grocery store or better yet an actual Latin grocery store, you can probably find this flour pretty easy. If you can’t you can get it from Amazon and it is fairly inexpensive.

For the filling, I decided to make sausage crumbles out of oatmeal. Hang with me on this one. I saw this idea on a blog awhile ago and while I was skeptical, I gave it a try. It totally had the taste and texture of sausage crumbles. It’s the spices you use that really make a difference. I used the same method from the blog and just changed up the seasonings. I also included a cilantro sauce that I made by just switching the basil with cilantro from my dressing recipe.

It might look like this will take forever to make, but it all comes together pretty easily. So if you want to get in on the awesomeness that is arepas, try out my version!

For the Arepas:

2 cups pre-cooked corn meal sometimes called harina de maiz (I used this brand)
2 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp salt

Measure out the water and pour into a large bowl with the coconut oil. Set aside. Mix together the cornmeal and salt.
Slowly add the cornmeal and salt to the water, using your hand to combine the two and keep lumps from forming. Once all the cornmeal is in the water, keep using your hands and mix everything together well. It will seem like you have too much water and that the dough is too runny. Don’t worry it will thicken up.
Place a damp paper towel over the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.
After the 10 minutes is up, remove the paper towel and portion out the dough into about 6 to 8 balls. Roll each portion into a ball and then slightly flatten it out so it roughly resembles a hockey puck. You don’t want them too small and thick because you will be cutting these and stuffing them.
Heat a large skillet, no oil, over medium heat and cook each side of the arepas for about 2 minutes to seal the dough. Place them back on the baking sheet after you’re done. Once you have sealed all the arepas, place them in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. They are done when you can tap them and it sounds hollow inside.
Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes before you slice them. When you’re ready to fill them, slice only halfway through so it forms a little pocket. Stuff them and then your face!

For the Chipotle Sausage Crumbles:

1/2 cup steel cut oats
1 cup water
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 to 2 tsp chipotle powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
juice of half a lime

Add oats, water, and tomato paste in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, lower to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
Uncover the oats and add in all the seasonings and lime juice. Mix to combine and cook for another 5 minutes. You want most of the water to cook out so you are left with a very thick mixture that resembles cooked ground meat.
Alternatively, if you want to use ground beef, turkey, or chicken you can cook it as usual and just use the seasonings listed here to flavor it.

For the Cilantro Sauce:

I just used my basil dressing and substituted cilantro in for the basil.

Yes, it looks like a lot for one meal but once you get the hang of it, it gets a lot easier. You can fill the arepas with whatever you want. Along with the chipotle sausage crumbles, I spread some guacamole on the arepas and made a corn and tomato salsa. You can also try shredded pork, refried beans, rice, or sauteed vegetables. Seriously, give this recipe a try and I promise you won’t regret it!