Meatless Monday

Happy Valentine's Day! What did you do on this national day devoted love? I had the opportunity to learn about breast cancer and endometrial cancer, participate in a human chain to honor humanism in medicine, talk to a sweet old lady about how to reduce her risks for falls, do a male GU exam, and stick my finger into a prostate model. What an eventful day. What I learned: 1) Breast cancer is very confusing. 2) Humanism in medicine is a great thing, (especially since Dr. Rhee was part of our chain). I wish more people would work with the patient in a humanistic manner rather than just trying to fight the disease.  3) Old people are really cute. 4) GU exams on old men are not very fun ("now please turn your head and cough for me"). 5) After sticking my finger into a plastic model of a gigantic butt, I do not feel in any way prepared to do my first prostate exam. And I learned I have very short fingers.

Like I wrote yesterday, JC and I are celebrating Valentine's Day tomorrow. I decided to cook a nice pasta meal for the two of us tonight. For the past couple months we have been getting a lot of spinach in our CSA baskets. Every week we have made some variation of lamb saag, but we have yet to make it just right. I don't know what it is about Indian food restaurants, but they have some secret ingredient to make their saag taste so delicious. Our saag just doesn't live up. If you have a delicious saag recipe, please let me know, I would love to try it out.

Rather than another batch of botched saag, I decided to try to make a spinach ravioli. My favorite food is Japanese (noodles, sushi, tempura...) and coming in a close second is pasta. I know it is not a healthy obsession, so I have been limiting my intake, but I love pasta. I found a recipe for a really easy spinach ravioli filling and used wonton skins for the pasta. I would love to make my own pasta, but I just don't have the patience, so wonton skins is the second best thing. In my previous posts, I have always stressed the importance of getting really good quality wonton skins. In the case of ravioli, it really doesn't matter what kind of wonton skins you get. You're simply going to boil them and whatever you get will turn out fine.

Now on to Meatless Monday. What is Meatless Monday you ask? It is an initiative by the Mondays Campaign in association with Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health to reduce meat consumption to help in overall health. I totally agree with the campaign. In general, Americans do not have a healthy diet and that may be attributed to the amount of unhealthy meat products we consume and the lack of healthy veggies. It's easy to make one night a week to be a veggie night, it can really open up your eating options and have you try something new and different. Rather than a salad with bacon, try garbanzo beans. Instead of a chicken enchilada, try a melty cheese one with green chiles. It's really easy. In the same light, not all vegetarian options are extremely healthy either--ie: broccoli smothered in cheddar cheese, cheese pizza, french fries, etc. You need to use your own judgment. Now, I am not a vegetarian by any means and I have nothing against vegetarians. To be honest, I probably am a vegetarian more days of the week than I am a meat eater, but that is solely based on taste preferences. Today I had a salad with chicken and picked out all of the meat and just ate the lettuce--only because I don't like chicken that much. If I order a pasta dish with meat, more often than not, I will pick out the meat and just eat the pasta and veggies. Don't get me wrong, I do love a great steak every once and a while, but overall, I am not a huge meat eater. In no way am I advocating for you to be a vegetarian or not, just make healthy choices in your diet.

Today I had a Meatless Monday, not really intentionally though, it just happened that way. I had a greek yogurt with fruit for breakfast, salad (with chicken picked out) and a side of cottage cheese with fruit, a red velvet cupcake, a chocolate raspberry cupcake, spinach raviolis, and coconut cheesecake for dessert. It might not have been the healthiest diet for today, but it's a holiday that revolves around sweets and treats. Moreover, it was a completely Meatless Monday.

These raviolis turned out bomb-dot-com. The filling was just perfect and the wonton skins added just the right touch. I didn't have a sauce for these, so I simply drizzled a little truffle oil on top with a sprinkle of cheese and they were amazing. These were so easy to make and turned out just great.

Spinach Ravioli
adapted from Cook Your Dream

• 1 bunch of fresh spinach (you could substitute frozen if you want)
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 c. ricotta
• 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 c. shredded parmeasan
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
• Salt and pepper
• 1 package wonton skins
• 1 egg, beaten

Heat oil in a pan, add the garlic and saute for a minute. Add the spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes just until wilted. Transfer it to a bowl and let cool slightly. Roughly chop the spinach. In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta, lemon pepper, nutmeg, cheeses and spinach, add salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble the raviolis by placing about 1-2 Tbsp of filling onto one wonton skin. Brush the edges with the egg wash and lay another wonton skin on top. Make sure the edges are sealed well and try to push out all of the air bubbles. 

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Reduce the heat and gently cook the ravioli in batches for 1-2 minutes. Remove from the water, drain and keep warm. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkled with cheese.

Love is in the Air

 It's that time of the year again. Red and pink are popping up everywhere. Hearts, lips, and the L-word are on everything. JC and I have decided to go to Maynard's Market for dinner, I've never been but have heard great things. We have also decided to celebrate the holiday on February 15th. Call me frugal (I am a "Starving Medical Student" after all), but the day after the big holiday, there are always lots of leftover flowers, candies, and other goodies that stores desperately want to get rid of. It might be a lame idea, and this is the first year we are doing it, but it might become our tradition in the future. Even Kuma was in the Valentine's Day spirit with his new cupcake toy:

As much as I love a holiday that gives me an official reason to have a romantic date night with my love, the thing I enjoy most about this holiday is an excuse to get crafty and bake cute treats. I have a hobby of making cards for holidays (I have a slight obsession with ribbon, stickers, stamps, sparkles...). I have a craft  box for every major holiday, a ribbon box, a colored paper box, a stamp supply box, and even a box devoted just to adhesive supplies (Glue Dots are one of the best inventions ever). Here are some of the cards I created this year:

I always make red velvet cupcakes every year. My standard recipe is by Paula Deen, but this year I decided to try something different. Paula's recipe is absolutely delicious and create soft, bright red cupcakes. I was tired of using nearly an entire bottle of red food coloring on a batch up cupcakes, so I tried a little shortcut. Gimme Some Oven posted a great recipe using a box of red velvet cake mix with a few spruced up ingredients. She compared a traditional made-from-scratch recipe with her shortcut recipe and decided they came out equally delicious. I'm always up for high results with less effort--maybe my nucleus accumbens still hasn't completely developed. This recipe looked just perfect and indeed it turned out great. To make things even better, I found that Pillsbury now makes frosting in a whipped cream can. This way you can easily pipe the frosting out and make beautifully decorated cupcakes. Genius!

The frosting tastes just like the stuff that comes out of the jar. I love to make my own cream cheese frosting, I always use Paula's recipe. It is super delish, but sometimes you want something super easy. These cupcakes took about an hour to make, including baking, cooling, and decorating. They are super yummy, very festive, and are pretty darn close to tasting like you made them from scratch!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
from Gimme Some Oven

• 1 (18.25 oz.) box red velvet cake mix
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 4 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 baking cups with paper liners.

Add the first three ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until moistened, about 30 seconds.  Add eggs one at a time, until the batter is well-mixed. Increase speed to high and beat until thick, 2 minutes longer.

Pour or scoop the batter into the paper liners until they are 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cupcakes cool on a wire rack.

Once cool, frost with cream cheese frosting and decorate with sprinkles.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Today has been one of the coldest days in Tucson I can remember. I ride my bike to school everyday and it was torture this morning. I could feel the icy air piercing straight through my jeans and my nose felt like it was about to crack off. I need to invest in a good pair of gloves because I thought I might have frostbite from my 3 minute ride to school. Not happy about this weather Tucson! Let's go back to mid-70s and sunshiny warm days!

The dog has not been a happy camper recently. He licked his back paw raw and so we put on neosporin on the sore and covered it with some gauze and an ace bandage. He looks depressed. Not to mention he threw up three times last night--most likely because his heartworm medication upset his stomach. He managed to throw up once on the carpet, once on the couch, and lastly just narrowly missing the bed (instead hitting some of JC's dirty clothes on the floor). Poor guy. He's feeling much better today, but his leg is still bandaged up.

JC has a final coming up, so we have been doing some quick and easy dinners recently. We had some dill from CSA last week, and one of my favorite pairing is with salmon. Salmon is a great fish because it is packed with lots of omega-3s (both DHA and EPA) and vitamin D. I prefer to buy wild salmon as opposed to farmed. It is much more environmentally friendly and sustainable. It's a little more expensive, but I think worth it.

I paired this salmon with a really easy turnip couscous dish I make on a regular basis. I love Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend. I always have extra bags on hand in my pantry. It is a great mix of Israeli couscous, orzo, garbanzo beans, and red quinoa. The different grains cook perfectly together and create a great texture. Plus it only takes 10 minutes to prepare. To give it a little oomph, I like to saute some chopped turnips to mix in--not to mention we get them nearly every week from the CSA. They have a sweet flavor and give another bit of crunch to the mix.

Dinner took about 30 minutes to prepare, the majority of that dedicated to chopping the turnips. I cooked the salmon on my Griddler (best Christmas present ever!) and it turned out just perfectly. The perfect portion size and wonderfully filling for a blistering chilly night.

Dill Salmon with Turnip Grains

• 1/2 bag Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend
• 2 c. chicken broth (the directions on the Harvest Grains bag says to use 1 3/4 c. but I like to increase it to 2 c.)
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 medium sized turnips, peeled and chopped into small cubes
• 2 4-oz fillets of salmon
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 2 Tbsp chopped dill
• Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper

Cook the Harvest Grains Blend according to directions on package using 1/2 bag of grains, 2 c. chicken broth, and 1 Tbsp of butter. Cook for 10 minutes covered. Meanwhile, add 1 Tbsp butter to a saute pan and add the garlic and saute until fragrant. Add the chopped turnips and cook until soft and slightly translucent. Season with salt and pepper and mix the turnips with the finished grains (or you can serve them side-by-side). Preheat your Griddler to sear. Salt and pepper the fish. Squeeze lemon juice on each piece and sprinkle with dill. Cook for 4 minutes.