Oatmeal Muffins

Who had the brilliant idea to go on a vegetarian diet 8 days before leaving on a tropical, beach vacation? Oh wait....that was me. And I actually decided to stick with it while I was away. How hard could it be? Last week, I traveled to Puerto Rico for an amazing, relaxing, and fun vacation with the 5 other girls you see pictured below. To say that it was a good time would be a huge understatement. I have never been on a beach vacation before. I've never been to Mexico. I haven't set a foot in the Carribean. I've seen the sunny state of Florida before, but that is about it. I once had a trip planned to Aruba, but my leg had other plans. Before the trip, it was decided that I needed to have a revision done to the rod in my leg, causing us to cancel the Aruba plans, and somehow it just never got rescheduled. I was determined to get to Puerto Rico.

The food is amazing in Puerto Rico. It was surprisingly easy to main tin the vegetarian diet. Although I'm sure there were some meat products in the rice and beans that I ordered, and I've heard that mofongo is often sauteed in a bit of bacon fat for flavor. But, I overlook those small inconsistencies and will go with the idea that I did the best that I could. Mofongo was by far, the best thing I ate on the trip. It is actually just a fun word to say in general. Mofongo is a fried plantain dish that is made by boiling green plantains and then mashing them. It doesn't sound delicious in the description I just gave, but let me tell you, it makes for one amazing meal. The serve the mofongo in a thick, disc-like stack, and then top it with various vegetables, meats, or seafoods. My first mofongo consisted of sauteed zucchini, yellow squash, and carrots. I ate every last bit.

Coming in a close second place for food on the trip was the guava creme brulee that we had at Ropa Vieja. The custard is almost a bright purple color, which is actually surprising at first. You don't expect custard to be bright purple. But it was probably the tastiest creme brulee I have had. My goal is to re-create both dishes. I picked up a cookbook on the trip and can't wait to try some of the local Puerto Rican recipes that it contains. I've decided that when I do travel, instead of picking up trinkets and souvenirs, I will choose a cookbook from each place I travel to. It will be a great addition to my cookbook collection, and I will be able to relive the memories on the trip through the dishes that I make in my own kitchen.

I was with an active group on the trip, so there was very little time for sitting around and twiddling my thumbs - which is a good thing.

Travel Agenda:

Day 1: Snacks by the pool, a little bit of sun, dinner at Ropa Vieja

Day 2: Time by the pool, lunch at Raices, Walk around Old San Juan, tour around the local PR establishments

Day 3: Snorkeling Trip on the Catamaran in Fajardo and dinner out on the patio of the local PR happy hour

Day 4: Pool/beach and Bio Bay Luminescense Kayak Tour in Fajardo

Day 5: Rainforest Tour and time by the pool

Old San Juan was beautiful. The streets were paved with bricks and the sidewalks were much narrower than I expected. I captured a few great pictures that I hope to frame and get up on my wall in the apartment. I was surprised at how Americanized Puerto Rico was. Almost everyone spoke English. There was a Subway and a Coldstone Creamery smacked right in between local Puerto Rican restaurants by our hotel. It seemed weird to be so far away from home, yet see these places along the streets of San Juan.

The trip was absolutely wonderful. I got to spend some time with great friends doing things I had never done before. I laughed more on that trip than I ever thought I would. It definitely makes me want to travel more. I was glad to get home though. I like the daily routine, as I'm sure you all know. I missed working out, missed eating food from my own kitchen, missed Andy maybe just a little bit, and missed sleeping in my own bed.

While uploading the pictures from the trip, I pulled one of these oatmeal muffins out of the freezer to have with a pot of coffee. Yes, I said pot. I was lucky enough to have a Starbucks right in my Puerto Rico hotel, but nothing beats drinking your own coffee while sitting on the couch at home.

These muffins our courtesy of Epicurious.com. Some muffins are overly sweet, or are extremely dry and lack flavor. These are neither. With the addition of the brown sugar for deep flavor, and the frozen blueberries to help keep the muffins moist, it makes the perfect little afternoon snack. I originally made these to take to work one day, and kept a few leftover in the freezer for myself.

Oatmeal Muffins

adapted from Epicurious.com

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2 1/3 cup quick cooking oats (I used 2 cups regular oats, and 1 cup steel cut, as that is what I had)

1 cup flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons natural oat bran (I used ground flax seeds since I had them)

2 tablespoons wheat germ

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup boiling water

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen)

Preheat oven to 375. Spray muffin cups with nonstick spray. You could use 8 large muffin cups or 12 smaller ones. I used the smaller variety.

Whisk oats and next 9 ingredients in large bowl. Add buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla. Whisk to blend. Stir in 1/3 cup boiling water and let stand 5 minutes. Fold in blueberries. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups.

Bake muffins until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 28 minutes for large muffins and 20 minutes for smaller ones. Cool 10 minutes. Turn muffins onto rack. Cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Baked Potato Soup

I'm not sure how this happened, but I am entering week 3 of maintaining a vegetarian diet. 3 weeks.....and I've made no mention of it in this food blog of mine. I could probably blame a small little girls trip to Puerto Rico for getting in the way of blogging for the last 2 weeks, as things have just been a bit busier. A bit busier, vegetarian style of course. More to come on the trip to PR in the next post. And in addition to the trip, I had a few recipes in the hopper that I wanted to get posted before the vegetarian thing kicked in. Even now, I'm thinking to myself, when in the world did I make this potato soup that I'm going to be blogging about today?

So, the idea of going vegetarian. It started towards the end of last year when I wanted to see if it was possible for me to even be a vegetarian for an extended period of time. There is not one specific reason as to why I am doing this. And what makes it even more fun, is that Andy is totally on board with the idea too. Going vegetarian with someone you eat meals with on a semi-regular basis, makes it much easier. I had kind of put the vegetarian idea to the back of my mind, until Snowlapoalooza hit Chicago. Andy and I were watching an episode of Oprah - well, more like I was watching, and Andy was trying his best not to pay too close of attention - and she had her staff maintain a vegan diet for 1 week. After seeing the ease in making substitutions for daily food choices, and hearing how that staff felt better after doing this small diet change, I thought why not give it a whirl. Andy agreed. We weren't going to go all in and do the vegan thing, but 2 weeks of being vegetarian was definitely possible. In my mind, I can't quite give up eggs as I eat them quite often, and the idea of putting soy milk on cereal, just doesn't sit well with me yet.

I'm not going to be a full time vegetarian. I like meat too much. Seared tuna is by far my favorite dish to have at home or out in a restaurant. Now granted, some vegetarians are pescatarians, and only eat fish, but in my mind for the purpose of this project, I'm going all in. I don't have a strong belief either way as to whether or not being vegetarian allows you to eat fish or not. In my mind, it is whatever you feel comfortable with, and if you want to eat meat, fine. If you just want to eat fish, that is fine too. And if you want to be vegan, go right ahead.

Even though I don't eat hamburgers and steak on a weekly basis, I'm never opposed to enjoying a nice piece of red meat. I don't much care for chicken and I can be pretty indifferent about pork. Meat isn't a highlighted item in most of my weekday meals, so the idea of going vegetarian, is not that far off. Since cooking with Andy in the kitchen though, I do believe my meat intake has risen just a bit. I think I've made more beef roasts, beef stews, steaks, and pork dishes than in my previous 4 years of cooking for myself. But like I said, I don't have a big preference to either option.

The one thing I do miss about the meat eating lifestyle, is the ease of running into the store, grabbing a protein from the meat counter, pick up some vegetables, making some quinoa, and calling it a meal. It is a routine that is predictable, quick, healthy, and easily satisfying as a weeknight meal. Go-to vegetarian meals are not easily at the tips of my fingers. I'm spending a little bit of time paging through recipes, looking up different ways to bring protein into a main dish, and making it as flavorful as possible.

In week 1, I went directly to the vegetarian source - Heidi Swanson - and her 101 Cookbooks blog. Heidi is vegetarian, and has a plethora of recipes to choose from. I bookmarked about 30 of them, printed them off, and slowly started reading them aloud to Andy so that we could decide which ones were going to be up first for getting made. You don't have to ask me twice, to spend a Saturday morning browsing through recipes and doing some meal planning. Heidi didn't let me down.

For week 1, I made Butternut Squash Risotto, Eggs Polenta and Marinara, Orzo Salad with Broccoli and Asparagus, Almost Cheeseless Pasta Casserole, and Quinoa and Kale Stir Fry with Chickpeas. After week 1, I learned Heidi Swanson might be a bit too healthy and earthy in some of her dishes. I thought everything was delicious and tasty, but I think Andy thought it was a bit too far to the extreme of being vegetarian. Lots of different ingredients, and lots and lots of vegetables, which sometimes tasted outside the realm of normal food that one might be used to.

Mid-way through week 1.....

Me: So, are you missing meat yet?

Andy: Well, not really. I guess I just haven't anything that I've really liked yet.

Me: Hmmmm....

I had some work to do. In week 2, I went with a few different dishes. Cabbage and Bean Soup was a big hit and the Quinoa Stir Fry with asparagus, red peppers, yellow squash and broccoli was well received. My goal is to make the vegetarian meals in my head instead of going straight off of a recipe. I know what ingredients I like, so I just need to find ways to bring in a little protein to the dish. Up next is an asparagus and potato fritatta and sweet potato/black bean tacos. I think I am getting the hang of this.

I don't miss the meat and I like the challenge of making vegetarian dishes in the kitchen. Andy swears his workouts have been going better since going vegetarian. So the consensus is to continue on with the vegetarian diet for awhile. We haven't set an end date yet, but will more play it by ear.

The soup I'm posting about today, can easily be made as a vegetarian recipe. When I made it originally, I used chicken broth, but you could easily substitute vegetable stock here. I subscribe to Smitten Kitchen's blog feed and get email updates when Deb updates her blog. Smitten Kitchen is by far my favorite food blog to read, and I salivate over just about everything she makes. This post came through my email inbox, and I believe I was at the store the next day getting the ingredients to put this one together.

I'm not usually a fan of potato soups in general, because they usually contain more cream and fat than you would ever think possible. No soup is worth a calorie count that large. I never order that soup at a restaurant or even make it for that matter. This recipe is completely different. If you look at the ingredient list, the only thing slightly unhealthy here, is a 1/3 cup of sour cream. I used reduced fat. The flavor here comes from caramelizing the leeks with the potatoes, and then letting them simmer together in a bit of broth.

The potatoes start to break down. When you put your boat motor, or immersion blender, into the soup to puree all of the ingredients, you have a thick delicious soup, without a bit of fat. The sour cream does add just a touch of flavor, so I would definitely add it. This soup is over the top amazing. It tastes like you are heating a baked potato, and the hint of roasted garlic and leeks, just makes it the perfect one-pot meal. And a vegetarian one too.

Baked Potato Soup

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

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1 head garlic

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 medium leeks, white and light green parts, halved lengthwise, washed, and chopped small

5 to 6 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth (I used 5 cups; add the extra cup after pureeing if you'd like a thinner soup)

2 bay leaves

salt

3 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/3 cup sour cream

black pepper

Toppings: optional

Minced chives, or scallions

Bacon bits

Sour cream

Grated cheddar

Rinse the head of garlic to remove any outside grit. Cut the top third off the head and peel any loose papery skins off the bottom two-thirds. Instead of discarding the top third, pop out a bunch of the garlic clove tips and mince them.

In a large, heavy pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the leeks and cook them until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook another minute. Add the larger part of the garlic head (whole, not chopped), broth, bay leaves, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Reduce heat and simmer until garlic is very tender when pierced with tip of knife, 30 to 40 minutes. Add potatoes and continue to simmer, partially covered, until potatoes are tender, about 150 to 20 minutes.

Discard bay leaves. Remove garlic heads. Squeeze garlic head at root end until cloves slip out of their skins. Using a fork, mash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste and add it back to the soup.

Add the sour cream to soup and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Adjust seasonings, adding more salt and pepper to taste. Using immersion blender, process soup until chunky-creamy, leaving lots of potato texture intact. Serve with toppings if you like...

Lemon and Dried Blueberry Scones

We are almost into mid-February and I feel as if I'm finally getting back into my weekly routine. Yes.

• Going to physical therapy twice a week. In the past 3 weeks, I've increased my range of motion by 12 degrees. 12 degrees may seem like a small feat to you, but 12 degrees brings me that much closer to my original range of motion number. I'm scheduled for another 6 weeks, but hope to be done with PT by the end of March. I'd call that progress. With the buckets of snow that have been falling from the sky, and the subzero temperatures lately, I want to cancel just about every appointment, but have done my best to resist that temptation.
• Working from home on Wednesdays. I feel like I can double my productivity on Wednesdays, easily cleaning out my inbox at work and crossing multiple projects off of my to-do list for the week.
• Pasta on Fridays. We haven't had a normal Friday night pasta dinner in the past couple of weeks, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our boring Friday nights are on the horizon. 2 weeks ago we spent Friday night out in Lake Zurich having dinner with Mom and Dad at D&J Bistro, which just might be my favorite restaurant to have dinner at. And last Friday night, we celebrated Anne's 30th birthday by having dinner at one sixtyblue. If you haven't been to that restaurant yet, I would highly recommend it for a special occasion meal.
• Saturday morning workouts. I do doubles on Saturday morning, which consists of spinning and yoga. I love waking up early, getting to the gym, and spending the morning working out and doing something for myself. Andy does his 120 minutes of biking - yes 120 minutes - while I basically just fluff around at the gym. Coffee is immediately after - a stop at Dunkin Donuts for Andy and a stop at Starbucks for me.
• Church on Sundays. We've been alternating Sundays at St. Vincent DePaul church and Fourth Presbyterian church. It seems that everytime we go to church at DePaul, we sit in front of parents with young children. Now mind you, there aren't many kids at church at all, yet we always seem to sit right behind them. And no offense to my friends with young children, but next time, I'm picking the seating location.
• Brunch after church. Nothing says Sunday morning like poached eggs and an English muffin. John's Place after church at DePaul and brunch at home after Fourth. Either way works for me.
• Blogging twice a week. I feel like I'm back in the groove. I like blogging. I like getting things out there. I like having someplace to document what is going on in my kitchen and what is happening in my life.
• Sweatpants 7 days a week. I swear, that once the weather gets nice, I'm going to be in for a big shock when I can't come home and put on my sweatpants, hooded sweatshirt, and slippers. I can't get home soon enough to get those comfy clothes on. As the weather warms up, nights of curling up on the couch in my sweatpants will be come less of a normal routine.

All in all, you could say I'm a creature of habit, and someone that just loves the weekly routine. There's not a Saturday or Sunday that goes by when I don't say out loud "don't you just love the normal Saturday/Sunday routine?".

It's been awhile since I made scones. I sometimes forget how much I like them. I made a big batch and had enough to take into work and had a couple leftover to store in the freezer for a later date. Another routine that I haven't quite gotten back into yet is my Made for Monday routine. We'll see if that event ever makes it out of retirement.

There are lots of scone recipes to choose from when surfing the internet. Epicurious alone has enough recipes to take up my entire inbox. I bookmarked about 10 of them and had a hard time choosing which ones to make. These scones won out not only for their stellar reviews, but for the use of dried blueberries. I've never baked with dried blueberries before, so I thought it made for an interesting recipe try. I didn't check at the local Jewel or Dominick's to see if they carried dried blueberries, but Whole Foods did have them in their bulk bins. They were out of meyer lemons that day though, so I didn't make the recipe exactly as is, but I just swapped out a regular lemon instead.

I love the dark color that these scones get from being in the oven. They don't come out overly sweet or oily - which is exactly what I was looking for. They hold up in the freezer, and as usual, go perfect with the daily cup of coffee. Give these a try.

Lemon and Dried Blueberry Scones

adapted from Epicurious.com

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3 cups flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 cups dried wild blueberries
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 400. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl. Using fingertips, rub in chilled butter until pieces are size of small peas. Add dried blueberries and toss to coat. Mix 1 cup buttermilk and grated lemon peel into dry ingredients and stir until dough begins to form. Some of the flour will not be incorporated.

Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and gather together. Knead dough briefly, about 5 turns. Divide dough in half . Form each dough half into ball and flatten into 1 inch thick disk. Cut each disk into 6 wedges.

Transfer scones to prepared baking sheet. Bake until scones are golden brown, about 22 minutes.

Pappa al Pomodoro - Tuscan Tomato Soup

20.2 inches of snow in an 18 hour period of time. That is quite a "feet". Phrases have been thrown out there like: Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse, Snowlapalooza, Blizzaster, Snowprah Winfrey, and snOMG. No matter what you call it, the snow in this area was gangbusters. I was giddy just thinking about the possibilities of being snowed in. I was glued to the tv, watching minute by minute weather updates, listening as if they were going to tell me something I didn't already know. I was on blizzard watch - and so was the rest of the city.

The thoughts of the snowstorm left me unable to sleep on Monday night. Mind you, I live within walking distance of just about anything I would need, have indoor parking, and had the ability to work from home the past 2 days. Without those things, I might not have been that excited. I stocked up on just about every single item the grocery store had to offer me yesterday morning. The lines at the grocery store were crazy. I've never seen a store that busy at 8am. Between the avocados for guacamole, the pork roast that could feed 6 easily, the apples to make homemade applesauce, the gallon of chocolate milk, and the containers of fresh fruit, I was really prepared to take on just about anything. Ok, and there might have been a bottle of wine in there as well. And just as Dad always taught me, my Jeep was stocked with a full tank of gas just in case.

I didn't venture out of my apartment, as I'm still working on being steady while upright without natural disasters going on around me. I was able to live vicariously through my 11th story high rise window that looks out on the downtown loop area and also gives me a glimpse of Lakeshore Drive and Lake Michigan. As the blizzard approached, Andy and I hunkered down and played games of Scrabble on the iPad and then a few intense games of Jenga, taking occasional breaks to gaze out the window at what was unfolding in the streets below. I won't go into who won and who lost those games.

These were two of my favorite pictures I saw posted from friends on Facebook. The one on the left is from Gina who got a shot of an abandoned bus on the street. The second is one from Mike who got a glimpse of the cars stranded and buried on Lakeshore Drive.

Lunch, on this snowy and freezing day, was this tomato soup - Pappa al Pomodoro. I didn't make it fresh today, but instead had it on hand in the freezer. The recipe comes from Ina Garten's "Back to Basics" book. I got the book for Christmas and intend to make just about every recipe in it. Did I mention that I love Ina Garten and just about everything she makes? Granted, she has a heavy hand when it comes to using butter, and adds a cup or so more of sugar than I usually would, but she really has foolproof dishes.

In addition to cooking from a brand new cookbook, I also got a chance to use my new stainless steel mixing bowls that I got for Christmas. Mixing bowls have been on my list for almost 3 years now as an item I needed to upgrade in my kitchen, and I think I got some good ones. The narrow, plastic ones just didn't seem to cut it.

This soup is really, really good. I've been a huge fan of the Tomato Chickpea Soup from Orangette, in past years, and I must say, I believe this is better. It is a smooth, thick soup, yet doesn't have the added touch of lots of cream. With the use of the immersion blender, it really comes together quite easily. The most time consuming part of this recipe comes when you have to tear the little pieces of bread from the ciabatta loaf, and that in itself, doesn't even take that long.

This is a great soup for lunch, and would be even better with a nice grilled cheese sandwich. Ina did not disappoint at my first go-round with her new book.

Tuscan Tomato Soup

adapted from Ina Garten's "Back to Basics"
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1/2 cup olive oil

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 fennel bulb, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups ciabatta bread torn, crusts removed

2 28 oz cans whole peeled tomatoes

1/2 cup red wine

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup chopped basil

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and fennel. Cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another minute. Add the bread pieces and let cook with the vegetables for 5 minutes. Add the red wine, canned tomatoes, chicken broth, basil, salt and pepper. Simmer partially covered for 45 minutes. Use an immersion blender to make the soup to the consistency you like. I like my tomato soup really smooth, so I went full out.