Wednesday's GHI: Toaster Oven & Roasted Root Veggie Recipe

So you guys know how by now that being frugal is the name of the game for me. I try to save money wherever I can without feeling like I'm sacrificing. If it's worth the splurge, I'm all for it (I'm looking at you truffle salt), but if there's a cheaper alternative that doesn't feel like a sacrifice, you better believe I'm jumping on that.

Enter: toaster oven. When we were putting together our wedding registry, I knew that I wanted a toaster oven instead of just a regular pop-up bread toaster. At the time, I was really just thinking about the dinky little toaster oven that I grew up using (no offense Mom) that we would use to make cheesy bread as an after school snack, and I later started to use to make my decadent garlic bread recipe. It was this teeny little thing with heating elements on top and bottom, and my mom would put a piece of whole wheat bread in there with a slice of cheddar cheese, she'd cut up an apple, and voila - after-school snacks were served.

But in doing my research for our registry, I found that toaster ovens have come a very long way. And I found a model from Breville that I absolutely adore - it's their compact model, since we don't have a lot of counter space, but it's a full-feature design. The only thing it doesn't have is convection or pressure-cooking features, which I'm totally fine with. It has a bunch of settings, but the ones I use the most are toast, bake, broil, bagel, and defrost. It has two racks which can hold a lot of bread if I were to use it just for toast in the morning for a large crowd. But what it has that I love is a great bake / broil feature.

This is where we get into my frugality. It takes significantly less energy to heat up that little metal box to 350* than it does to heat up our standard-sized oven. And the energy is much more efficient - it's electricity through high efficiency heating elements vs. our gas oven. It also cooks more evenly and doesn't have as drastic of hot/cold spots as our gas oven does. So whenever I possibly can, I opt to use my toaster oven to bake rather than the conventional oven. I would say that I use the toaster oven more than 75% of the time I need to bake something. And this size oven is JUST big enough to fit a standard 12-inch frozen pizza (yes, we eat frozen pizzas every now and then... we're human too). I cook everything in there including meat and/or veggies I'm roasting, any type of broiling that needs to be done, desserts I'm baking (it's perfect to throw on just a couple of cookies, or bake up a quick cobbler to use fruit that's about to turn mushy). It fits my 8x8 glass pyrex baking dish and came with a broiling pan that I can use too. The cases where I'd opt for the regular oven instead of the toaster oven are if what I'm cooking is too big (either a roast, or anything in a 9x13 or one of my big gratin dishes), or if I need a dry heat. The gas oven provides a dryer heat because there's more circulation with the extra air that fills the big space, and the flames help it remain more dry. One example is if I'm making croutons, I'll most likely use the regular gas oven. But most of the recipes I've posted on the blog so far that were done in the oven have used the toaster oven.

The moral of the story is that I recommend a good toaster oven. You'll likely use it more than you think you will, it will simplify your time in the kitchen, and it will potentially save you money on your energy bills.

The recipe that I want to feature in my toaster oven is a Roasted Root Veggie Medley. It's super simple, but crazy healthy - tons of antioxidants, and lots of vitamins in the rich colored veggies!

Ingredients:
2 large beets - peeled and cubed
1 large sweet potato - scrubbed and cubed with peel left on
2 carrots - peeled and cut into 1-inch lengths (you can halve the lengths if they're too big), or ~1.5 cup baby carrots, halved
2 tbsp coconut oil
salt & pepper to taste

• Put the 2 tbsp of coconut oil into the bottom of your roasting pan, and put it in the oven while it's preheating to 400* and while you prep the other veggies
• After the veggies are cut and the oil is melted, toss the veggies in the pan with the oil to coat evenly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss together again
• Bake at 400* for about 45 minutes or until roasted, fork-tender, and browning on the outsides (take out the pan and mix up the veggies at least once during roasting)

Basic Risotto

One of my favorite comfort foods to make is risotto. It is delicious, gluten free, deceptively easy to make (though somewhat time-consuming), and can be very easily modified to adapt to any meal as a side dish or the main course.

When you understand the science behind what makes risotto risotto, you'll realize how simple it is and also that you can make it with just about any type of small starch! Traditionally, risotto is made with Arborio rice. It's an Italian variety with a very high starch content which makes it ideal for this application. However you could also use regular rice, barley, quinoa (really any grain), or even orzo pasta. What makes risotto so delicious and creamy is the starch on the outside of the rice mixing with the hot broth as you stir during cooking, and it turns into a thick, creamy "sauce". So that's why Arborio rice's high starch content is helpful here; to use any of the other grains listed that don't have as high of starch content, you just need to stir more while you cook. Stirring develops the starches and basically pulls the starch off of the outside of the grain so that they can mix with the cooking liquid to form said sauce. It's also why you should not rinse your grain before you use it for risotto - you are literally rinsing off the outer layer of starch, which you want in this recipe!

Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 4 as main course, 8 as side dish

Ingredients (note that because this is a recipe of mine, everything listed below shallot is a close approximation... a little more or less of anything based on your taste preferences would be fine!)
2 cups Arborio rice
5 cups chicken broth
1 shallot, minced
2-3 cloves of garlic, pressed
1/3 dry white wine
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp + 4 tbsp butter, cut into 1-tbsp pieces
2 tbsp olive oil (plus more for finishing)
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp olive oil in the bottom of a medium sized pot 
2. In a medium sauce pan, heat the broth until simmering 
3. Mince shallot, press garlic. Add minced shallot to the hot oil and melted butter with a pinch of salt (in this case, we do not want to brown the shallot, we want to sweat it. Remember from the French Onion Soup post that salt prevents / delays browning and allows for sweating instead). Cook for ~5 minutes, or until shallot becomes translucent. Once shallot is translucent, add garlic, stir, and cook for another 60 seconds
4. Add Arborio rice and stir so that each grain of rice is coated in fat. Cook for ~5 minutes stirring occasionally to toast the rice. When it smells nutty, you're ready for liquids
5. First, add the white wine and lemon juice, and stir till absorbed. (note: if your garlic turns blueish green at this point, it's weird but perfectly normal. It's a reaction that happens when fresh garlic comes in contact with an acid like lemon juice or white wine. Embrace it!)
6. Once absorbed, add the hot chicken broth to the rice mixture one ladleful at a time, stirring after each addition. With each ladle of broth you add, stir until the rice has fully absorbed it. Once there is no remaining liquid, add another ladle of hot broth, stir until absorbed. This is the time consuming part, because it's not a recipe where you can "set it and forget it." It requires babysitting - you're stirring basically the entire time, because that's what develops the starches and turns them deliciously creamy.
7. Continue adding chicken broth one ladle at a time until rice has fully absorbed all the liquid. When you have used up ~80% of the liquid, taste the rice - you may be done! You've heated an extra cup of broth just in case you need to cook it for longer, so be sure to taste for yourself and see.
8. After all of the broth has been absorbed and the rice is cooked and tender, you're going to add a bunch of fat to finish off the risotto. This adds something called "mouthfeel" which is the textural aspect of fatty foods that make us love them so much - think melted cheese, buttered toast, etc. So add your other 4 tbsp of butter and the parmesan cheese, and stir till melted and combined. Add salt and pepper to taste.
9. After serving into individual dishes, you're going to top it with what Anne Burrell calls your "big fat finishing oil." This will be a fresh oil with a bold flavor that again adds mouthfeel and also rounds out the flavor or a dish like this one. For risotto, my favorite finishing oil is a truffle oil... incredibly delicious. If you don't have truffle oil on hand, you can use any good, fresh, Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Just give it a drizzle over the top of each serving.

This is the recipe for a truly basic risotto. Trust me, it's delicious just like this. But I rarely make it like this - I almost always have additions! My most common addition is fresh thyme - the flavors are so complimentary, and it's such a simple thing to add. Fresh thyme also goes very well with all of my other common additions I'll list below - for the sake of completeness, assume that for every addition below it also says "leaves of ~2 sprigs of fresh thyme". 

Variations:

• Butternut squash (can also use sweet potato) - cut into 1/2 inch dice and either roast, or add it to the broth as it simmers and by the time you run out of broth, your squash/sweet potatoes will be tender and ready to add too! This is one of my absolute favorite fall recipes!!
• Asparagus - cut into 1-inch spears (if you want to get fancy, cut it on a bias) - same as above, either roast or simmer in the broth (will only need about ~5 mins to simmer, so add it when you're through 3/4 of the broth. If you add it at the beginning like the squash or sweet potatoes, it'll be over-cooked)
• Mushrooms - my favorite for this recipe is cremini or Baby Bella mushrooms, though you could use any! Clean by wiping with a damp paper towel to remove the dirt (never rinse or soak mushrooms in water - they absorb a lot of the water, turn rubber, and take much longer to roast), slice, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast in the oven until shriveled and darker brown. Then toss them in with the last 1 or 2 ladles of broth. This also goes well with the asparagus too. Adjust seasoning accordingly in your risotto, because these will get very salty as they roast down, so you'll need less salt added directly to your rice
• Peas - toss in some frozen peas with the last few ladles of broth. Those would be the tastiest in my opinion, but just about any frozen veggie would be a good, healthy addition!
• Pancetta - crisp diced pancetta in a sautee pan, then add at the end. Goes well with peas or asparagus
• Italian Sausage - remove sausage from casing and brown in a sautee pan. Goes well with peas, asparagus, or mushrooms (if doing sausage, don't salt the mushrooms before you roast them - otherwise your final risotto will be too salty. I personally don't like sausage so haven't done this one, but I've seen it on menus and I'm sure it's tasty if this is your thing)
• etc. etc. etc... the possibilities are endless!! 
• Any other additions you think would be good? Share them in the comments below!

Shallots and garlic sweating in olive oil and butter, ready to add the rice

Arborio rice added, ready to add the flavoring liquids!

Here are my liquids. I usually have containers of homemade chicken broth in the freezer but I had just run out, so I used Better than Bouillon instead - not a bad substitute!! 

Adding the broth one ladleful at a time - not pictured here, small sauce pan on the left-hand burner with the broth simmering away.

 This is after about 1/2 of the broth had been added and stirred. You can see it's been absorbed, and we're ready to add more.

My finishing ingredients

La piece de resistance... truffle oil

The final product - a basic risotto. The possibilities are endless in terms of things you can add to this, but even the basic recipe is a delicious comfort food that I love to make!!

Grilled Zucchini with Minted Lime Dressing

Mike grew up eating grilled zucchini that his dad would make "Greek style" which just means with olive oil and lemon juice. His dad would slice the zucchini lengthwise into long, thick strips, then drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, grill over high heat, then toss with lemon juice and a little more olive oil. Don't get me wrong, it's delicious. But I've recently found and adapted a recipe for grilled zucchini that... dare I say... I like even better! 

The inspiration for this recipe comes from a grilled squash and prosciutto recipe from Food & Wine's website that I made for Mike's 30th birthday party this year. But like most things I try to cook, I don't have all of the ingredients, so I adapt it to use whatever I have on hand. 

I started with 3 petite zucchini from the Madison farmer's market (which is my happy place, for the record). I sliced them on a bias on the mandolin between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thickness. Then I rubbed them down with olive oil, and Mike took them outside to grill them. While he was grilling, I made the dressing.

The dressing was so simple. I took the top 6 inches of 3 mint sprigs from my garden, and did a chiffonade on the leaves. This mint form my garden grew out of scraps. Last year I needed mint and what they had in the store was "living" herbs that still had a little root bulb. I bought no more mint from the store than what I used in this recipe, and it's grown into this bush you see here! 

Then since I didn't have lime zest, I used about 1 tbsp of lime juice from a bottle that I keep in the fridge. To that I added 1-2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, and about 1 tsp of garlic paste that I had in the fridge (if you remember from my garlic post, I had to go buy a tube of the stuff to do research, and I determined that it would be best to use in raw applications like dressings. So I put those cloves back and reached for the tube instead!). Otherwise I would have run 2 cloves through the garlic press. After adding a pinch of salt and pepper and giving it a good stir, the dressing was ready to go!

 And as long as I had the mint and the lime juice out, I whipped up a little mojito for myself... muddled mint with sugar and lime juice, add some rum, and simple syrup, and shake with ice. Pour into a glass with some soda water, and garnish with another fresh sprig of mint... it was the perfect dinner cocktail to compliment my zucchini.

 The last challenge is that I don't keep prosciutto laying around. That would be a crime... if I have prosciutto sitting in my fridge, it will be gone within 24 hours. But part of what makes this recipe so successful is the way that each of your different taste buds has something to do! Sweet from the zucchini and mint, sour from the lime, a little bitter from the pepper, umami from the garlic, and.... salt from the prosciutto! But without prosciutto, just adding some extra salt could have worked but it would have been lacking the extra umami that you get from the cured meat. So I scanned my fridge and found that I had some feta cheese - perfect!!! So after the zucchini was beautifully grilled, I drizzled on the dressing and tossed it all together. And lastly, took some of that salty feta and crumbled it into the smallest pieces possible and let it soften slightly over the hot zucchini. For a recipe that only took me a few minutes to throw together, this came out fantastic. I look forward to making it for a grill out we're having in a few weeks! 

Parmesan Crusted White Fish

I told you guys that I have 3 seafood recipes... one Asian-inspired, one Italian inspired for Salmon, and one Italian inspired for white fish. Here's the white fish recipe!!

It's a Parmesan "Crusted" Tilapia inspired from a recipe I found on Sparkpeople.com, which is a health and wellness website. The crust is in quotes because it's not a crunchy crust with any type of breading, it's more of just a Parmesan layer. Call it what you will, it's delicious.

The ingredients for the "crust" are:

~1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp softened butter

1.5 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp celery salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

(optional) Granulated garlic to taste

1/2 - 1 lb. fillets of any white fish (tilapia, sole, flounder, trout, snapper, etc.)

1. Preheat your broiler. Put aluminum foil on a baking sheet and spray with nonstick cooking spray

2. Combine all ingredients except the fish and set aside.

3. Arrange fillets in a single layer on prepared pan. Broil a few inches from the heat for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat; flip fillets, and coat with the prepared Parmesan cheese mixture. Broil until golden and bubbly and the fish flakes easily with a fork. Avoid overcooking the fish! Use trial and error in your oven (or toaster oven in my case) - for mine, I actually do not pre-cook the fish, I just coat them with the topping and broil. But try it out for yourself and see how quickly your oven cooks it!

I hope you enjoy. Please leave your comments below!

I had some sole fillets in my freezer so that's what we used!

Starting from the top going around clockwise: Parmesan cheese, black pepper, celery salt, onion powder, dried basil, butter, mayonnaise

I top my fillets before baking. This time they were teeny fillets and I actually had to layer 2 of 3 on top of each other to get a piece of the size I wanted that would make sense to crust. If you're working with good sized fillets, follow directions above until you know how your oven cooks.

Delicious golden crust

Flowers from my overgrown sage

Chopped Challenge

So I told you guys how I'm frugal, and why I don't like to go to the grocery stores early in the week. That means that there are many Mondays and Tuesdays (and even weekends) where I have to play my own version of Chopped Challenge... I look at what random crap I have in my fridge and cupboards, and see what I can come up with.

This week, I found some shredded yellow squash that needed to get eaten, parmesan cheese, onions, garlic, eggs, a baby water melon, and cabbage. So.... I made my husband's favorite cabbage salad, and a zucchini fritatta. 

I sauteed the shredded zucchini in some olive oil with garlic and diced onions until browned. I then added my 6 beaten eggs with salt and pepper and let it cook on one side. I have a fancy shmancy fritatta pan that I got as part of a Calphalon set of pots and pans I won a few years ago in a contest. This was honestly the first time I've ever used it, and it worked like a charm!! Basically the handles interlock, and you flip the pan over to invert it so the eggs slide out of one pan and onto the other to cook on the other side. That way you don't have to flip the fritatta itself and risk breaking it.




























After cooked through, we cut it up and sprinkled it with parmesan. For being made out of randomness in my fridge, it was quite delicious!

Mike's favorite cabbage salad is just shredded cabbage, red wine vinegar, olive oil, a crazy amount of garlic, and salt. That's it. I don't measure, so do not judge me for the following 3 sentences. For 1/2 head of cabbage (which makes a ton of salad, to be fair... he eats a ton of salad though), I probably use 4-5 smashed garlic cloves, and 5-6 counts of red wine vinegar (in the spouted bottles), similar amount of EVOO, and some hefty pinches of salt. This is how I measure guys... I promise that for future posts I'll actually measure things for you and will include real recipes. Well, I can't promise that I'll measure everything, but I'll definitely include more real recipes. The cabbage salad is a tough one to quantify, because it's totally trial and error. Start with a little of each dressing ingredient, toss it, taste it, decide what it needs more of, repeat until yummy. It's an extremely filling side dish for very little calories. No pic this time, sorry.

We also had a baby watermelon hanging around, so we cut that up and had it for dessert. It was an all around healthy, delicious, and very frugal meal.

What are some of your quick go-to meals when you're running low on groceries?

Me & Wheat

My Love/Hate Relationship with Wheat, and Why You Should Care

In April 2012 we were visiting our aunt and uncle in California. We ate and drank to our heart's content each day and each night, and had an absolute blast. Aunt Diane, a fellow health-nut, started to notice something... after a few of our meals, I complained of a stomach ache. 

I have suffered from frequent stomach aches for as long as I can remember. I bought Pepto-Bismol from Sam's club a few times a year... I kept some in my desk at work, in my purse, in my car, and on each floor of my house. I had it in pill form so I could bring it with when I travel for work, since the Sam's sized bottles are obviously more than 3 oz. 

I thought I just had a "sensitive stomach," but I never could figure out what triggered it. Maybe it was IBS, maybe something else. All I know is that stomach pain was a part of my life. And when I say pain, I mean pain... sharp, shooting pain all over my abdomen. Sometimes it woke me up at night it hurt so much. I asked my doctor about it at my physical in January 2012, and she goes "It could be a dietary thing. Do you know how to run a controlled experiment?" "Yes." "Ok, so do that. Testing one variable at a time, cut something out of your diet for a couple of months and see how it makes you feel. Start with Dairy or Wheat, then move on to soy, eggs, onions/garlic. No need to report back to me, just see what makes you feel better. If nothing helps, let me know and we'll start looking into if it's something more serious." I love that she trusted me and wasn't going to make me pay her several more office visit fees to tell me something I could figure out myself. Cheers, doc!

But I didn't do anything. All of the things she mentioned (except soy) are in some of my favorite foods. I don't know what my life would be like without Cheese. Hello, I went to the University of Wisconsin!!! And my favorite way to eat cheese is melted on something bread-based. Pokey sticks, grilled cheese, mac n cheese, brie en croute... I'm drooling now. And if you've ever eaten anything I've cooked, you know that I could not survive if I couldn't have garlic. It goes into EVERYTHING I make!! So I was in denial. I didn't want to think about my life without any of those foods, so I hunkered down and bought more of the pink stuff. 

Drooling. Right now. Ugh.

Now back to our trip to CA. Aunt Diane heard me complain about my stomach hurting for the 3rd time, and she noticed a trend. Burger for lunch, stomach ache that night. Pizza for dinner, stomach ache the next morning. Panini with extra with bread at the table for lunch, stomach ache and intense headache that night. Pork chops, risotto, and salad for dinner... felt like a champ. So she mentioned what she had noticed. She asked if I ever considered that I might have a gluten sensitivity. I said no (see paragraph above re: denial and love of various cheesy breads).

Fast forward to the Clean Eating & Fitness Challenges I participated in during the summer of 2013 (see "About Me" for the rundown). Each meal was basically lean protein and veggies of some sort. I can't even articulate how fantastic I felt. I had more energy, no headaches, I was more regular (sorry for TMI, but it's true), and miraculously... no stomach aches. I attributed this to the overall better diet, the Shakeology I was drinking, and the daily fitness, all of which definitely contributed to me feeling like a million bucks.

But the following week when my diet went into a tailspin, I realized what the missing piece was. I had a tough week at work and stress-ate like crazy, and I felt like crap every night. I realized then that the biggest thing that had changed about my diet was re-introducing refined flour. I had a lot of sandwiches, pasta, pizza, cheese and crackers, etc... When I realized this, I decided to finally take my doctor's advice and do that experiment. So I cut out wheat flour for a few weeks, and it worked. I felt fantastic. Even when I wasn't eating particularly "healthy" foods, I still felt great because in my opinion, it was the wheat that was causing me problems. 

There is a lot of controversy on this issue right now, so here is my take on it and also some background. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and some other grains. When developed, it becomes elastic. That's why you knead bread and pasta dough, to develop the gluten which gives these things their structure. That's why you don't want to over-beat biscuit dough or cake batter because you want the gluten to be relaxed, otherwise if it over-develops it will make your baked goods tough. 

People with Celiac disease have a severe intolerance to Gluten of any kind. It's an autoimmune disease which is triggered when gluten is consumed, and it damages the lining of the small intestine to the point where their body cannot absorb the nutrients necessary for survival. It is a really serious condition and people with Celiac need to be meticulous about ensuring their diet is 100% gluten free. If a friend has it, don't be surprised when they grill the server about the risk of cross-contamination due to preparation techniques used in the kitchen. They need to do this to stay healthy!! 

Then there are people with Gluten "sensitivities," which can vary in severity. Some people have reactions that are so serious that it makes them be as vigilant as someone with celiac about avoiding it. Then there is me. We know what my symptoms are... I get tummy aches. I also get headaches, fatigue, bloating, and some other unnamed GI issues. BUT, it's not life or death. So I am usually wheat free, but certainly not all the time. I just need to be prepared for the consequences.

I've read Wheat Belly. It's intense. I don't necessarily subscribe to that level of intensity for everyone, though I agree with some of its points about the fact that just replacing wheat with "gluten-free alternatives" is probably even less healthy for you than just eating whatever you were going to eat with wheat in the first place. This is because these gluten free alternatives are made from various other starches that are even more processed than wheat. I've read articles that say that people with a non-celiac sensitivity are actually reacting to the fibrous part of wheat, not the protein part of wheat (meaning the gluten alone isn't the issue, it's just actual wheat that causes problems) - this is the category that I believe I fall into. I've also recently read an article from "I F-ing Love Science" that says that non-celiac sensitivity is bogus. That any health benefits you feel from not eating wheat are actually attributed to eating a generally healthier and less processed diet that automatically occurs when you cut out wheat. That's probably a fair point.

But here's what this all has to do with you... eat what makes you feel good, don't eat what doesn't, and ignore the haters. I don't care that a website has potentially debunked non-celiac wheat sensitivity. I've never officially been diagnosed with anything, but I know that I feel fantastic when I don't eat wheat and I feel crummy when I do. I don't care if people think I'm just jumping on the latest nutritional band-wagon (I also love kale, so there is that). I just know what I need to cut out of my diet to feel my best, and you should absolutely discover this for yourself. Whether it's a certain type of food, not eating at a particular time of day, eating a few big meals or lots of little meals... do whatever makes you feel good. 

And you know what sometimes makes me feel good? A fantastic spaghetti carbonara (I'll post a recipe soon). So once in a while, when I'm prepared for the calories and the consequences, I'm going to bust out the Pepto-Bismol for old time's sake and enjoy my all-time favorite pasta dish. The difference is that now I'm in control. I no longer am a victim to random attacks of abdominal pain. I stopped buying Pepto-Bismol in bulk. And when I do eat wheat, you better believe it's something delicious, and the consequences are worth it to me every once in a while. So, suck it haters.

Update: Just found this interesting read that corroborates what I've written above about my sensitivity being wheat-based and not gluten-based. 

So, what are your diet quirks? What makes you feel crappy, what makes you feel great? Share below!