Cooking for the world's hungriest man, while losing weight

Bakin' faux bacon bits.

Mmm...shittake bacon. I first heard about this wonder from a coworker who attended The Natural Gourmet Institute. She said if you take some shittake mushrooms, slice them thin and toss them in olive oil with a little salt and pepper and then roast them at 450 till they are crispy they taste just like bacon. Well after reading up on this a little bit on the interwebs I found a lot of people marinate their shrooms first in soy sauce or nama shoyu with a hint of oil tossed in. You gotta be careful of the cooking time as these will go from kinda slimy to perfect to burnt in no time. I didn't know  how long they would take so I started with 10 mins and then just checked every five. If you have an oven window all the better! I read somewhere that you lose at least 25 degrees of heat everytime you open your oven. 

It seemed like a shame to heat up the oven for 15-20 mins worth of cooking especially since I had a beautiful head of cauliflower from the farmers market just begging to be used. The solution? Chop the cauliflower into small florets, put them on a sheet pan and drizzle them lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and put in the oven while marinating the already chopped mushrooms. Give the mushrooms about 10 mins to marinate and drain the liquid. Put these babies on another sheet pan and put in the oven (this could be a good time to toss your cauliflower as well.) 

While these were in the oven I started a small pot of boiling water and mad a batch of long grain and wild rice. Once everything was done mix everything together in a large bowl. The saltiness of the mushrooms is intense and the sweet roasted flavour of the cauliflower helps to temper it, and they both break up the otherwise monotonous texture of the rice.  

All in all its a quick, easy, and warming fall meal. 

Come for the dead, stay for the bread.

Every year around 10/31 I make a very special bread. Pan del muerto, its called, or bread of the dead. Its a soft loaf of sweetened bread, flavoured with anise seeds and orange. I absolutely love this bread and I eat it for breakfast and dessert from 10/31-11/2. This is the only time of the year that I will make it. Being a bit of a traditionalist I can't seem to stray from the original recipe that I've been doing for over 8 years now.
I found a copy of it on www.globalgourmet.com :
Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
5 to 5-1/2 cups flour
2 packages dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon whole anise seed
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
In a saucepan over medium flame, heat the butter, milk and water until very warm but not boiling.

Meanwhile, measure out 1-1/2 cups flour and set the rest aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the 1-1/2 cups flour, yeast, salt, anise seed and sugar. Beat in the warm liquid until well combined. Add the eggs and beat in another 1 cup of flour. Continue adding more flour until dough is soft but not sticky. Knead on lightly floured board for ten minutes until smooth and elastic.

Lightly grease a bowl and place dough in it, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1-1/2 hours. Punch the dough down and shape into loaves resembling skulls, skeletons or round loaves with "bones" placed ornamentally around the top. Let these loaves rise for 1 hour.

Bake in a preheated 350 F degree oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and paint on glaze.

Glaze

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then apply to bread with a pastry brush.
If desired, sprinkle on colored sugar while glaze is still damp.

Dia de los burritos!
Yesterday (Nov 1st) was the main day of the Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead. In order to celebrate I decided to make a Mexi-inspired dinner out of last weeks farmers market purchase and whatever I had in my pantry. Heres what I came up with.
2 TBSP oil
1 large yellow onion diced
1 yellow bell pepper diced
1 jalapeño seeded, cored, and diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2C dark beer (I used the Negra Modelo I was drinking)
1/2 15oz can diced tomatos in juice
1 large sweet potato diced
1 TBSP brown sugar
1C veg stock
liberal sprinkling of Mex oregano
1 TBSP ground ancho chili pepper
1/2 15oz can black beens
2 cups chopped bitter greens
tortilla shells

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large walled pan heat up the oil on medium heat. Add the onion, jalapeno and bell pepper. Cook till soft and caramelized. Once the pieces start to stick on the bottom of the pan pour in the beer and stir fast to deglaze the pan. Then add the tomatos, sweet potato, brown sugar, spices, veggie stock and cover. Let simmer for 7-10 mins until the sweet potato is tender but not mushy. While this is simmering chop your bitter greens. Remove the cover and add the beans and greens. Take heat up to high and stir frequently until the liquid cooks down.
Once thickened take out the tortilla shells, and put a line of the veg mix off center of the shell. Roll up and put into a small casserole dish. Reserve about 1C of filling, use the rest to fill up tortillas. Take the remaining cup and put it on top of the burritos, bake for about 10-15 mins, or until the shells are crisped up a bit. If you want you can serve this topped with some cheese or green onions. Sour cream really makes this.

I liked the filling but think that it would work better in a quesadilla form. Also Mr. Hungry thought it was tasty but said it tasted like premade baked beans crossed with BBQ sauce. Which is ok but not what I was going for.

Bread and butter is my bread and butter. So are croissants, cookies, muffins, ice cream, cakes, etc. I work in pastry. As you could guess this doesn't make weight loss any easier. Today while discussing this blog with my chef he asked, "Do you guys both have a specific goal or amount you want to lose?"
"Not really," I said.
"Yeah, whys that?"
"Well, I guess if I look at it as a goal then this feels short term, and more like a 'diet.' If it feels temporary then its going to feel like a chore. Really I'd just like to be healthier and make a shift in my lifestyle, not aspire to a number." I had never really put that thought into words but it feels good to be able to go back and read that. Its grounding.
I'm working on getting my digital camera up and running so that I can post pictures of the food I'll be cooking starting Sun night. Taking Friday and Saturday off as I will be in DC for an event.

My boyfriend and I are funny, smart, damn sexy, hardworking professionals with little free time. Unfortunately we're also fat and broke. One day we realized that spending over $25 a day on eating out/ordering in was doing no good for our bank accounts or waistlines. The solution? Cook more, order less!
That's all well and good but how do you feed the worlds hungriest man (seriously, I've had to chase him away repeatedly from undressed cooked pasta) and help him (and myself) lose weight and not break the bank?
I decided that this problem would need a plan of attack.
So here goes!
1.) Cook 5 nights a week.
2.) All meals must be filling, vegetarian, and of course delicious.
3.) Minimal use of speciality, hard to find, or pricey ingredients.
4.) Each recipe can't be too big of a task to handle after a full day of work, or can be made in stages throughout the week.