Time To Lighten Up For Spring!

I thought the day would never come when I would feel spoiled by good weather!  Well, today is not one of those days but the past couple of weeks have been quite nice.  A nice dramatic shift in the weather gets me fired up for a dramatic shift in food.  We've had some 70 and 80 degree days which of course is perfect for grilling, salads and cold dishes.  I recently tried out a Citrus Rice Salad that was quite good.  I'm always looking for new tasty ways to eat brown rice because I'm just not nuts about plain o'll brown rice.  This would make a lovely dish to pass at a cookout, all fresh and springy.  This recipe is by Giada DeLaurentis.

Start by cooking your brown rice in some chicken stock.  This is always my preferred way to cook brown rice.

While the rice is cooking, toast up some sliced almonds.  I like to do mine in the toaster oven.  Keep an eye on them though, you don't want to burn them.

Also while the rice is cooking (you've got about 40 min, brown rice takes a while) make a nice vinaigrette in the blender.  This is made with fresh lemon juice, fresh OJ, soy sauce, honey, cumin, and olive oil.

When the rice is done, fluff with a fork and transfer to a serving dish. Now you're ready to fancy it up.

You'll need some zest from the lemon and the orange that you use to make the dressing.

You need to slice up some scallions.

Chop up some fresh flat leaf parsley.

And add it all to the brown rice.  This just screams spring don't you think?

Give it a good mix and toss with the dressing and toasted almonds (reserving a few for garnish).

I served this with grilled chicken and steamed broccoli.  The next day I had it for lunch with my grilled chicken shredded and mixed into to it which was really good.  You can serve this warm or at room temp. This would go great with grilled fish too.

Citrus Rice Salad with Chicken (salad by Giada DeLaurentis)

Rice Salad:

1/2 cup sliced almonds

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups brown rice, rinsed

3/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 medium orange, zested

1 lemon, zested

1 cup thinly sliced green onions

Vinaigrette:

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (or place on a tray in the toaster oven at 250 for 4-5 min). Arrange the almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 5 to 6 minutes until lightly golden. Cool completely, about 15 minutes

In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken stock, salt and oil to a boil over medium-high heat Stir in the rice. Cover the saucepan, reduce the heat, and simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender, about 40 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Using a fork, fluff the rice and place in a large serving bowl. Add the parsley, orange zest, half of the lemon zest, green onions, and 1/4 cup of the almonds. Toss well.

In a blender, combine the olive oil, orange juice, lemon juice, soy sauce, honey, and cumin. Blend until smooth. with salt and pepper, to taste. Pour the vinaigrette over the rice mixture and stir well. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with the remaining lemon zest and almonds.

Bits and Pieces

“Give a child a meal; you have fed him for today. Teach a child to choose Real Food; and you have nourished him for a lifetime.” – Kim Gerber, Out of the Box Food

I have to say, that I'm really glad that the obesity problem in this country is getting so much attention.  People are talking about it, some are even acting on it (baby steps I suppose) but at least it has become a topic of discussion.  There are many points of view, some that make more sense to me more than others but I think there are three main culprits to be aware of.  We don't move enough, we eat too much and processed foods are definitely adding to the problem.  I think we need to take some responsibility for ourselves and for our kids and get moving, watch our portion sizes and eat real food. The purpose of this blog was to share recipes that I have found and tested out so that people would be encouraged to feed their families real food.  Hopefully it's worked on at least one or two people so far!  Today I thought I'd share a couple of tips to make those homemade meals easier, better and maybe even more frequent.

Anyone who has been reading along knows what a big herb fan I am.  Fresh herbs can really make a  meal.  If you have a garden, flower box or even a flower pot you can grow enough basil to keep you going for a while.  They often sell it in the grocery store as a whole plant.  Just plop it in some dirt and water it once in a while.

If you don't want to deal with caring for herb plants, I have a couple of suggestions for dealing with the leftovers that you bought. Many times a recipe will call for a few tablespoons or a 1/4 cup of fresh basil or cilantro or what have you.  If you're not one to use fresh herbs several times a week, you don't need to let them go to waste.

My first choice would be pesto of course.  Throw what you have in the blender or food processor with a few cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil to thin it out (see earlier posts with specific recipes for pesto) and that is it.  You can even freeze it for later use.

Use the pesto to dress up some turkey burgers or whip up a quick pasta prima vera.  Saute a few veggies (whatever is on hand) and add the pesto and a little chicken broth to the pan to thin it out, delish.  I do want to comment on chicken broth though.  I noticed that one of the store brands we were buying has MSG in it.

There is a reason no one has (or should have) this in their spice rack anymore.  It's not good for you.  There are plenty of brands that don't have MSG so just take a look before you buy.

The next best thing to do with those herbs that you don't want to let wither away in the back of the fridge, is to make herb butter.  What a quick and tasty way to snazz up your salt potatoes this summer.  Just soften a stick of butter by letting it come to room temp.

Chop your herbs really small and fold them into the butter.

Put the herb butter on a piece of parchment or wax paper.

Roll it into a nice little log, sushi style.

Fold up the ends, pop it in a bag and throw it in the freezer.  Don't forget its in there though!

As long as we're onto freezing things, here are two more tips.  When you use that one tablespoon of tomato paste for a recipe and you don't know what to do with the rest...freeze it.  Whoever thought of this was brilliant.  I have never used a whole can of tomato paste in one (month) day.  I freeze it in tablespoon size portions so it perfect to grab just what you need.

Ever go berry picking?  It's hard to stop and then you end up with way more berries than you can eat before they go bad.  Then you try to give them to the neighbors, only to find that they went berry picking too.  The always thinking Nelsy, took a whole mess of these berries and froze them on a cookie sheet and then put them into bags in the freezer.  Guess who is now working on the last of last summer's strawberries (perfect for smoothies!) just in time to go pick some more.  I'm all out of bits and pieces to pass along for today, go eat some real food already!