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Hybrid Falafel

How have I had no time to blog?? Things have not been particularly busy, but we’ve been doing a lot of running around and planning and even some relaxing! Plus, Santana has been a fussy fussy pup…not always wanting to eat her breakfast/dinner, sometimes giving us the pleasure of waking up to some hidden spots of vomit in the dining room and all around being a bit fussier than normal.  We have a vet appointment in a couple weeks and hopefully things get all fixed up (if there’s anything wrong to fix).  A quick recipe until I can catch up with some of my other back-logged meals!

Hybrid Falafel: the falafel of the future (said in a deep booming voice, of course)

I have made falafel at home a few different ways.  The first few times, we used a mix (on the left in the first picture below).  All you do is add a bit of water to the dry mix, let it sit for ten minutes, form into balls and fry.  It’s pretty tasty. The texture is not nearly as wonderful as freshly made falafel at some great Greek restaurant, but it was easy, fairly cheap, and the perfect amount for the two of us.  A success.

The second attempt was a baked falafel from scratch, using bulgur and chickpeas and lots of yummy spices that made a really tasty (and much healthier/fresher) version of falafel.  We used these for leftovers and even froze some for later.  I thought they were a tiny dry and wanted to work on the texture. 

This brought us to the hybrid falafel I concocted last week.  They turned out really well, and I’ll probably stick with this method from here on out, with a few adjustments in spices and mix-ins.

• 1 package dry falafel mix
• 3/4 can chickpeas, drained
• 4 small carrots (ours were super small, 1 large would do the trick), shredded
• spices and seasoning to taste (I used a little cumin, garlic powder and onion powder in my mix, but could have used some fresh chopped or grated onion instead to bump up the moisture)

1. Prepare falafel mix according to directions and let sit.
2. While it is soaking, mash chickpeas and add other ingredients.
3. Combine the two mixes into a really pretty, mushy mixture.
4. Bake!!! I think we went with 425 degrees, 10 minutes per side.

We turned these falafel into a salad with some really wonderful tomatoes, some fresh croutons made from a french baguette that was getting stale, some chopped spring onion and some toasty crisped chickpeas (tossed with some spice and baked in the toaster oven for a while). 

 

Sunday Gritty Sundae

Saturday we ate out…for every. single. meal.  It was delicious all around, but we didn’t feel so hot afterwards.  Sunday we vowed to do some good eating in.  And we did!  For dinner, we had leftover tortilla soup…this stuff was even better the second time around (largely because I could now taste it) and we both had giant bowls.  Plus we froze two double-servings for later.  Because I got the giant pack of chicken thighs on sale for just over $5, this was a super economical creation as well! Hooray!

For breakfast, we had some old-ish apples and I remembered we had quick cooking grits in the cupboard. Easy easy breakfast to the rescue:

Cinnamon Apple Grits Breakfast Sundae

• 2 servings grits
• 5-6 small apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/4 cup apple juice or cider
• 2 Tb sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

1. Combine apples, juice, sugar and cinnamon over medium heat in a small saucepan, stirring to coat.
2. Cook away, stirring frequently to avoid burning, until apples are nice and soft and the liquid has cooked down into a nice syrup.
3. If the apples get too dry and all the liquid evaporates, add more juice or cider as needed.
4. While apples are cooking, prepare grits according to package directions.  I added a tiny bit of butter at the end to add a bit of flavor and extra creaminess to the grits!
5. Top grits with apples and dig in!

I’d recommend serving with biscuits and jam (which we didn’t have) or toast or maybe even more fruit on the side.  This bowl was really filling at the time, but didn’t last us all the way until dinner.  So tasty though.  Yum!

And for some fun, here are giveaways!

• Envirosax Giveaway at Jackson’s World
• Maple PB giveaway at I Walk In This World
• Holey Donuts (!!!) at Danica’s Daily

Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup

As promised, here’s my tortilla soup, made from the taco leftovers.  This turned out crazy spicy….I thought the heat from the chicken would be dispersed a bit with the liquid in the soup, but apparently not.  I added a few extra spicy ingredients to the soup, but mostly the heat from the chicken was the main spice.  The spice was a good thing though, since I could barely taste anything with my cold.  Plus, we always eat our tortilla soup with cheese and sour cream, so the heat pairs really nicely with the cream. 

Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup

1. Sauté 1 large onion, two bell peppers (I used one yellow and one red), salt, cayenne pepper and two cloves of minced garlic in a bit of olive oil until soft.  Considering the heat of the soup, the cayenne was probably unnecessary here, but I was afraid of a bland soup!
2. Add some leftovers
• Remaining chicken thighs (remember I made an entire family pack…there was a ton left!), chopped
• Black beans, onions, garlic, chilies and corn
• 2-3 chopped fresh tomatoes (I thought I had a picture of these??)
3. …and some new stuff.
• 1 can Mexican style stewed tomatoes
• 1 can green chilies
• 1 large can chicken broth, low sodium (I used a little less than this whole can)



Before I added the chicken broth it looked like this.   

I love all the colors going on in there. Matt gave it a thumbs up!

4. Add chicken broth so it looks slightly soupier than you’ll want the end product.  It will thicken a bit.  We cooked it for several hours since we were both home all day.  You could probably get away with letting it simmer for an hour.  We had it covered for most of the cooking time…it will cook down more if you uncover.  You could also throw this in the Crockpot…although this batch made so much it wouldn’t have fit in ours.
5. While the soup is simmering away, make your tortillas!  You can buy chips and use those.  We had a big pile of corn tortillas in the freezer that I wanted to use up, so I baked them into crispy strips!  I’ve done fried strips in the past, and they are delicious, but baked is obviously healthier, and it doesn’t leave your kitchen smelling like grease.
6. Cut into strips and place in single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.  Spray the tortilla strips with cooking spray once they’re arranged on the sheet (and you could season them now if you wanted).
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Toss with a sprinkle of of salt while warm.  We made these in four batches since we had so many tortillas.  Yum!  It was hard not to snack on these 🙂
8. Serve with toppings and tortilla strips! Yuuuummm!  This made an ENORMOUS amount of soup.  We’re having leftovers this weekend and then freezing the rest for later!

 

Spicy Spicy Grilled Chicken Tacos

I’m home sick today because my head is so congested it feels like it might explode.  The congestion has turned me into a completely nonsensical wreck, so here’s last night’s dinner.  Homemade tacos are one of my favorite comfort foods.  As long as I can remember, we always had the box that came with shells, seasoning and sauce and we just used ground beef to make some really satisfying tacos.  We also included green olives in our toppings, which Matt will have none of.   At home,we grabbed a taco shell and filled it with our own meat and toppings, but my grandma fills the tortillas with meat and cheese and heats them in the oven…this leads to less giantly heaping, over-filled tacos that my mom and I tend to create. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with some other taco types, and thinking about leftovers and the extra space we have in our freezer right now, I went with something I could turn into soup the next day. 

Spicy Spicy Grilled Chicken Tacos

• 1 large, family-size pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you can go with breasts or really any kind of meat you want, but I find that the thighs have so much more flavor and work well in this kind of preparation)
• Spice Mix (I used equal parts cumin, cayenne pepper, paprika, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder)
• Hot Sauce (Big S Farms Tennessee Lightning hot sauce)
• 1 medium onion
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 large can black beans (Drain about half of the liquid off the beans)
• 1 can sweet corn
• 1 can diced green chilies
• flour tortillas
• Your favorite taco toppings (we used red leaf lettuce, shredded cheese, chopped onions, tomatoes, taco sauce, sour cream and Big S Farms Hot salsa)

1. Rub chicken with spice mix and coat with hot sauce.  I did all of this in a big ziploc bag to try and keep the mess to a minimum (it didn’t work).  Let that sit for 20-30 minutes in the fridge.
2. While the meat rests, heat a tiny bit of oil in a small pot and sauté onion and garlic just until soft.  Add beans, corn, and chilies and heat on low while you cook, stirring every once in a while to keep from burning or sticking.
3. Grill, roast or pan sear chicken until cooked through.  We used our stovetop grill pan and it worked pretty well. If it had gotten a tiny bit hotter, I would have had better grill marks, but the chicken still turned out great.  Be sure not to crowd the pan you’re using, since the chicken and its marinade will let off quite a bit of liquid.  You don’t want to boil the chicken.  If you’re grilling, the chicken under a brick method is pretty wonderful.  I used a big heavy skillet with the bottom covered in foil to achieve a similar effect.  (this chicken was INSANELY spicy, but once it was topped with the other yummy stuff and wrapped in a tortilla, it was perfect! Matt loved them so much he had 3 huge tacos!!)
4. While chicken cooks, prep vegetables (chop, dice, shred, etc.) and heat tortillas.     We heated the tortillas quickly on a hot pan, flipping a couple times until warm.  You can also microwave in a damp towel or heat in the oven.  Whatever you prefer.  Matt got these great thick, handmade tortillas from across the street that were wonderful for the huge amount of stuff we put on them!
5. When chicken is cooked through, let it rest on a plate for a few minutes, then chop and serve!
6. Top flour tortilla with chicken, black beans and toppings and prepare to make a huge mess!

    

What to do with all this apple butter??

A quick morning treat that we had along with a ham, cheese, onion and red pepper scramble to give us the energy for a little hike with friends today!

Apple Cinnamon Sweet Rolls

• 1 tube crescent roll sheet (Pillsbury makes crescent roll dough that isn’t cut into triangles because they realized that people like me like to use crescent rolls for EVERYTHING!).  You could also use actual cinnamon roll dough if you were inclined to make such a thing
• 2 heaping tablespoons of apple butter
• 3 Tb AP flour
• 3 Tb brown sugar
• 2 Tb butter
• 1/2 Tb cinnamon
• 1 cup sifted powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 Tb orange juice or milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Unroll crescent roll dough and spread with apple butter (try to leave a little space at the top of the sheet where your roll will end.
3. Mix flour, brown sugar and cinnamon and cut in cold butter until crumbly.  Spread this on top of the apple butter.
4. Roll either lengthwise or widthwise, depending on how many/how big you want your rolls. 
5. Slice into even rolls and place in ungreased pan (I used a glass pie plate).
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes…keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.
7. While they’re baking, mix powdered sugar, vanilla and juice/milk.  Add more liquid if necessary.
8. Let the rolls cool just a bit before adding glaze.

Sweet and yummy! A great morning treat! The glaze sort of soaked into the rolls a bit while I made the eggs. 

We’re headed out for a mini-hike with our friend Nicki and Santana’s good friend Bonnie.  When I say “good friend”, I mean Bonnie and Santana have had 2 play dates at our apartment.  Once, Bonnie threw up.  Once, Santana peed on the floor.  Neither time did they try to play with each other.  GREAT friends.  I am interested to see them on neutral territory today.  Santana thinks she is too human for other dogs.  If she wasn’t so adorable and sweet, this would be a problem. 

Bonnie inherited Santana’s pink jacket, since it actually fits her.

 

Santana was skeptical…

Very very skeptical.

We’ll see how they do today and maybe get some adorable pictures of puppies possibly becoming friends???