Grape leaves are SO EASY.

A couple nights ago I had gone shopping and I found some pickled grape leaves at the super store in the ethnic food section. My intentions were to create some! There's this very decent restaurant in downtown GR that sells sandwiches and platters for reasonable prices and you get your bang for your buck. They kind of inspired me to make stuffed grape leaves myself.

The recipe is simple, it is the process that is tedious and sometimes even vexing. If you're using pickled leaves, it was suggested (in the recipe I found online) to rinse my leaves, then pour boiling water over them to let them sit for 10 minutes at least. After doing so, the rest of the process is similar to making burritos...with leaves. Easy right?

The stuffing as you can see in the amazing picture, was UNCOOKED basmati rice, herbs and aromatics. Regular and green onions, parsley, mint, a small drop of sambal pepper paste (the recipe called for 1/4 chili pepper but had none on hand). Then one cup of rice, S&P, a little bit of oil and voila! The stuffing has been made!

It calls for a relatively large saucepan to simmer the bundles in. Having rolled them to resemble cigars, (the hardest part really) the online recipe also stated that you should line the pan with excess leaves. A barrier to separate the heat I am thinking, don't want to scorch anything. They are then drizzled with more olive oil, and then just topped off with boiling water and set to simmer for 45 minutes. Be sure to press them down with a plate or blanketed weight of some kind.

The flavors are very subtle, and they need to cool down a bit for sure before you can consume them. the next time I make them, I will add more salt and pepper than I thought would be necessary, and maybe some tofu crumbles. Perhaps browning the onion before mixing it into the stuffing. Tomato? Bread crumbs? Olives?! So many possibilities. So good!

 

Enjoy!

P.s. the reheat-re-eat value is pretty decent as well, warm is better than piping hot though! The rice may be a little chewier than when fresh, but if you add more water during the cooking process, that might be a variable. And they make great additions to things like soups, curries, etc. Go wild!

Boil 'em, mash 'em, put 'em in a stew.

POTATOES.

They are delicious and mildly nutritious. Actually, they aren't that nutritious at all! The potato famine, as I once thought, was not about a lack of potatoes. The potato famine happened because ALL the peoples had to eat WAS potatoes. And not surprisingly, that = death.

BUT, today we're just eating some potatoes, not for months on end.

Roasted potato fries!

It's actually pretty simple.

1. Turn your oven on to about 400-425 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Cut your potatoes in wedges.

3. Create your seasoning! I like to do different spice combinations. Most of the time though, it's salt, pepper, garlic powder, and perhaps a curry paste. All of that mixed in some veggie oil and then slathered all over the wedges. My mom would use a packet of onion soup mix (Which is what I have done today...sort of).

4. Into the oven for....30-45-50 minutes dependin on how crispy you want them to be (also be sure to turn them over if you prefer two-sided crispiness).

5. Consume the crap out of them.

Hey, don't take my word for it. Take their word for it.

If you readers out there are SUPER INTERESTED in what you eat, I stumbled across this nifty website. Check it out ya'll.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/

You can find most foods and ascertain their worthiness in your belly!

Mmmm protein.

Today I worked until 5:30pm. I got home at around 5:35ishpm. Dinner is done and I'm sitting down to eat and write this entry at 6:02pm. This is an easy-peasy concoction. (It also helps that my room mate made some quinoa yesterday.) :D

This is a SUPER -Vegetarian dish. I only chose to use butter (because butter tastes better), you can skip that dairy and it'll become 100% vegan. Woooo.

So, what I had in my fridge today was a lime, half of a red bell pepper, 1 lb of firm tofu, Sriracha sauce (or Rooster sauce),  some broccoli, and some pre-cooked quinoa. In my pantry I had some peanut butter, and some 'liquid aminos' a.k.a. soy sauce.

1. Saute bell pepper and broccoli wi' da budda.

2. Cube up the tofu to desired bite-size pieces.

3. Combine about 1-2 tbsp of the peanut butter with the hot sauce according to your tastes and then add about a relatively large splash of the aminos. Stir together until it gets mixed thoroughly.

4. Add the tofu to the pan along with the sauce.

5. Add your quinoa to the pan, or reheat it and put however much you have/want into your bowl.

6. Top quinoa with tasty food, garnish with some lime juice (it's gooood).

Tofu is a complete protein made out of coagulated soy bean protein. The varying densities (that you can buy at the sto') refer to how much water is pressed out before consuming.

Quinoa is an ancient grain that's coming back to the lime-light. It looks a little weird when it's cooked because of the curly-doobies, but it's pretty much delicious in any kind of application. You can replace rice with quinoa in any meal. There are lots of fun things you can do with it. IT'S ALSO A GREAT SOURCE OF PROTEIN.

Ta da! ::om nom nom::