Vegetarian Charquicán Recipe

On Day 8 of funemployment, I mentioned that I made charquicán vegetariano for lunch and that I would be posting the recipe and pictures. Well today is Wednesday and I used to post recipes on Wednesdays…so let’s get down to business!

I am taking these measurements from a Lider Express recipe that I have, however it is all relative to your tastes. I typically throw in more zapallo than I do potatoes, even though the recipe calls for half & half.

Charquicán is typically made with beef, however in my version, I use lentils to represent the ground beef. It is a very typical Chilean dish, served mostly in the winter as it will warm you right up when the temperatures are cold.

Vegetarian Charquicán

Ingredients:

1/2 to 3/4 cup dried small brown lentils (depending on how much you like lentils)

2 tbsp EVOO

1/2 onion, diced

1-2 garlic cloves, diced

1 red bell pepper, chopped in cubes

1/2 tsp. paprika

500 grams potatoes, peeled & cubed

500 grams zapallo, peeled & cubed (zapallo is a type of pumpkin widely used in Chile, it looks like the picture here—in any case I think any orange pumpkin would do, just not canned pumpkin)

1 cup frozen peas (optional depending on how much you like or dislike peas such as Christian)

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup frozen green beans

2 carrots, chopped in small cubes

Merquén (which is a Chilean spice, you could use red pepper flakes in the US)

Oregano

Cumin

Salt & pepper

1 cup of the water used to boil the potatoes & zapallo

Parsley for garnish (optional too)

Preparation:

Boil the lentils in abundant water for approximately 20 minutes, or until done. I don’t add salt or any other seasonings. Drain and set aside once they are ready.

In a pan, add the EVOO over medium heat. Add in the onion and sautée for about 2 minutes. Add in the diced garlic and continue to sautée for 1 minute more. Finally, add in the red bell pepper along with some salt & pepper. Continue to cook until the bell pepper has softened. Once it is done, turn off the flame. This is what we will refer to as the pino, which is what it is normally called when it has meat in it for empanadas.

In a large pot, put the potatoes & zapallo to boil in enough water that all the pieces are covered within the pot. Boil over medium heat until you can stick a fork in both the potato and zapallo easily. At this point, add in the carrots, and other frozen vegetables. Boil for at least 5 minutes more so that these vegetables cook. Once they are ready, set aside 1 cup of the boiled water for future use. Drain the rest of the water. Mash the potatoes & zapallo to a chunky consistency. Add in the spices (paprika, salt & pepper, merquén, oregano, & cumin) to taste and mix in the pino. Then add in your lentils to the mixture. I added in the majority and mixed them around and then when I plated the charquicán, I sprinkled some lentils on top. You can also garnish it with parsley on top too.

Serve hot (if need be, reheat the plates in the microwave).

¡Buen provecho!

Days 10-13 of Fun Employment:

Thursday, day 10, was quite busy in the morning, but ended up more chill in the afternoon. I had another doctor appt early in the morning-at 10am which is now considered "early" in my funemployment state. They were running behind though so they didn't end up seeing me until 10:45am....good thing I had my notepad with me because I started brainstorming restaurants to add to my favorite foods page. Once I finished there, I passed by a cute little tea store in the Mall Panoramico to buy a gift for our nana, who would have her last day with us the following week. As it turns out, she had really liked a Rooibos Chai Herbal tea that my dear friend Staci had given me on my trip back home in March. So I was on the lookout for a similar type tea to give to my nana. I went to Zoe, and although I couldn't find a rooibos tea, I did find a Green Chai tea. After picking out her gift, I headed back home and got ready for lunch that was planned with some ex-coworkers. One of these ex-coworkers had left the company at the end of 2010 and I hadn't seen him since. The other two ex-coworkers were my boss and another jefa on the team when I left earlier this month. We went to Baco, which is a French restaurant in Providencia that has an awesome wine menu.

Most of the menu included something with meat, however I asked for a Spinach & Cheese Quiche (Quiche Olivia as it was called). Everyone else asked for the filete a la pimienta (peppered steak), all cooked at different points. Then JJ decided to order a bottle of red wine to go with lunch.....to which I partook more than I probably should have!

(The four of us at the end of lunch.)

After another 3 hour lunch, I arrived home with puras ganas de dormir. And so I did....I took a 3 hour nap before getting up to have another once (a typical Chilean mealtime in the early evening) with B&E (my MIL & SIL), including more pompadour cake.

Friday brought about lots of movement: I had to drop off a radio that I had sold to an ex-coworker, then I had to go sign my finiquito (the document stating I am ok with my last paycheck and terminating my employment contract, which is signed in front of a notary), and right after, I went to Zumba class at the gym. In the afternoon, I had to continue packing up the house because on Saturday morning at 9am the mover was coming to move the boxes into its truck. Christian, on the other hand, had a soccer game to go play, so I was home with Dulcinea going crazy packing boxes upon boxes upon boxes and going through a million papers. To be fair, he had done stuff earlier in the day when I was off running my errands and going to the gym, so it was only fair that he had time to go play soccer with friends. Around 7pm, I started to take a break because my back was killing me, and Dulci and I just hung out in front of the gas stove to stay warm (I’ve previously discussed Dulci’s affinity for the gas stove in a different post). Once Christian got home, we went over to my mother-in-law's apartment in Recoleta for once and to drop off Dulcinea and then went back home to sleep. We figured it would be better if Dulci stayed in the other apartment that evening so that she wouldn't be in the way during the move on Saturday morning.

Day 12 brought about a very early start—up at 7am to finish preparing everything so that when the moving truck arrived at 9:30am all we had to do was take it all out to the truck. The original moving truck that my mother-in-law had booked was under the environmental driving restriction on Saturday and obviously couldn’t drive….so she found us a different guy all within minutes and basically the process was only delayed from 9am to 9:30am—time that we certainly needed. Once the truck came, with my sister-in-law in tow, the four of us (truck driver, Christian, Erica & me) started making various trips to get everything into the truck. Then Christian went with the moving truck and I drove our car to the apartment in Recoleta that my MIL owns. The reason we needed a moving truck in the first place is that our old bed, the dining room table (which belongs to Bernarda), and some other items needed to be moved to this apartment in Recoleta (in addition to our 6 or 7 suitcases filled with stuff as well as all of our food and other kitchen stuff that we haven't sold). It is a tiny one-bedroom which is perfect for when B&E need to come to Santiago to go to the doctor at La Universidad de Chile. We, however, ended up still have a ton of stuff despite our garage sale….and so the poor little apartment was stuffed full by the end of the move. We even filled up the previously empty storage unit. The move ended around 10:30 or 11am which is quite quick in reality. After that, we organized as much as we could with 4 adults and 1 dog in the apartment—which is to say that we basically put everything we didn’t need in the storage unit and stacked up everything else we did need in the bedroom & living room.

Next on the agenda was making some lunch. Bernarda had gone to La Vega (since we are a mere 3 blocks from it) in the morning to buy the items necessary for some chop suey. While we were moving and organizing, she was slicing and dicing all the vegetables to be cooked. Christian had to go run an errand before lunch and so he stopped to get some chicken for the carnivorous version of the chop suey. Once he got back, we feasted and it was delicious! Chop suey is seriously such an easy dish to put together. All the work is in chopping up the veggies, but cooking it all (especially without chicken) takes mere minutes! After lunch, we started to organize anything else that we could. I put the towels and sheets on a shelf that B&E had cleared out for us in the closet. We started to put away the kitchen items which were in several boxes.

In the evening, we wanted to treat B&E to a nice dinner out as a way to show our appreciation for all of their help and willingness. We decided to go to El Caramaño, which is our favorite Chilean-food restaurant (as you can see here).

It is located in Bellavista (a barrio within Santiago), on the street called Purísima.

It has all of the typical Chilean dishes, which are always delicious and relatively inexpensive for a Santiago restaurant.

(Me & Chris)

(Bernarda & Erica)

We started off with their yummy homemade bread & sopaipillas with pebre and Christian, Bernarda & Erica enjoyed some machas a la parmesana as well (I didn't get a pic of the machas, but here is one & a recipe if you want to check them out).

We ordered a 1.5 liter jug of borgoña to drink, which is red wine mixed with strawberries and sugar. I absolutely love El Caramaño’s borgoña and had about 3 glasses of it….and still wanted more which is probably why I don't have a picture of it--I drank it too quickly! Hahahaha!

For our main dishes we had the following:

Christian & Bernarda—Pastel de Jaiba, which is like a crab casserole dish basically filled with crab meat, onion, garlic, bead crumbs, butter, paprika, oregano and parmesan cheese (here is a recipe if you are interested).

Erica—Pollo al Trauco y Papas Fritas, which is a special chicken dish, but I don’t remember exactly what they cooked her chicken with. She had some French fries as a side dish.

Me—Ensalada Gran Caramaño y Papas Salteadas, which was a huge salad with red lettuce, watercress (P.S. I freaking love these in salads), sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, and olives (which I proceeded to take out since I don't like olives-except for the green ones with the pimiento center). I threw on some balsamic vinegar and a bit of EVOO and mmmmm down the pipes it went! I had some sautéed potatoes as a side dish.

At the end of dinner, El Caramaño treated us to a bajativo on the house. Bajativos are digestifs in English, which are small shots of alcohol typically taken after a meal to aid in digestion. Christian had mint, I had amaretto and B&E had chamomile.

After such a nice meal, all we could do was come home and go to bed. We were all exhausted and having our bellies full just made us even sleepier. But not before a quick group picture:

Sunday, day 13, was a very simple day. Christian took B&E and Dulci back to Viña in the old car so that the car could be left there while we are using the parking space at the Recoleta apartment. I stayed home and worked on organizing, downsizing clothes, repacking suitcases, etc. We decided to send Dulci out to Viña with B&E for several reasons: 1. this apartment is super small and with all of our stuff it was already too small for 2 adults, let alone a dog too; 2. she has more room to run around in Viña as my in-laws’ apartment is much bigger; 3. we had too many errands to do which would have meant leaving her alone at home for very long stretches of time so either we would have been rushed in our errands or she would have suffered; and 4. she won’t ever be left alone in Viña because even if B&E have to leave, Papi Lucho (my FIL) is always home to be with her. It has been kind of weird not to have her around, but I know she is better off in Viña, being spoiled by the grandparents and tía. And to be honest, it has been a nice break just being with Christian alone. I’ll have to keep that in mind when we have a human kid, hopefully my Mom will like spoiling both human & dog children as much as Bernarda does! Hahaha!

Weekly Recipe Round-up August 18th

How are we already in the third week of August? Is anyone else surprised by this? Time is flying by waaaaayyy too quickly. Although since it is winter, I don't mind spring and summer coming early by any means.

Here are the recipes I've got for you this week:

• Chana Masala: When I first made Chana Masala, I used this recipe. Christian and I really liked the flavors of this dish and neither of us had ever had it before. This time around I used inspiration from that first recipe I found, plus this recipe too. In the end I served the Chana Masala with brown rice. I suggest making this recipe the day before you eat it as it gets even better when the spices can sit overnight! If you are looking for turmeric, try La Chakra on Mariano Sanchez Fontecilla (hint: it is called cúrcuma in Spanish). That is where I found mine!

• Lentil Tacos: I got the idea for this from this recipe, but I didn’t actually follow this recipe. I have made snobby joes (a version of sloppy joes but with lentils instead of ground beef) and so when I saw this recipe, I thought it’d be fun to try. Christian wanted ground beef so he made his meat as usual, adding in the taco spices. I boiled the lentils, and then drained them when they were done. I added some EVOO to a pan, threw in the lentils and stirred them so they could get covered with the oil. Then I added in the same taco spices and coated the lentils. We ended up having simple tacos that night—the meat/lentils, lettuce mix and guacamole in flour tortillas. Man, these were sooo good! It is pretty cool that you can substitute lentils for meat in some dishes and you really can’t tell a difference. I will definitely be making this again.

• Lentil Spaghetti Sauce: Well, we certainly had a week full of lentils. After having successfully made the snobby joes and lentil tacos, I figured this would be the same. I made the sauce using the bags of Italian tomato sauce from the grocery store, adding in garlic and spices as well as zucchini. I’d have to say it only turned out más o menos (so-so). Christian did not like it and I couldn’t decide if I did or not. Sometimes you couldn’t tell a difference in the flavor as normal spaghetti, but sometimes you could and those were the moments in which I did not like it. So I’d say it is a toss up as to whether or not I’ll make this again.

• Aloo Palak (Spinach with Potatoes): The author of this recipe states that it isn’t the most traditional Aloo Palak, but honestly for us it didn’t make a difference because we’ve never had an “authentic” version before. For some reason, I was intrigued by this recipe and decided to make it for lunch. I followed the recipe as is. She doesn’t list turmeric on the ingredient list, but in the instructions she does, so make sure you have some on hand. Both Chris and I loved the recipe, but we served it by itself and I think next time I will serve it with something on the side.

• Healthy Carrot Cake Power Scuffins: These are to die for! OMG! So good! I followed Angela’s recipe pretty closely, except for the maple syrup I used the imitation pancake syrup that we have. Unfortunately maple syrup is hard to find here and really really expensive, so I had to go with the Good Value brand of pancake syrup. I know, it is disappointing, especially since this syrup has high glucose corn syrup, but it is what it is. Next time I might substitute honey for the syrup and see how they come out. If you are looking for the spelt flour, check out Organisk in Providencia. That is where I picked mine up. I also stirred the coconut slice into the batter instead of sprinkling it on top. These got a big thumbs up from both me and the hubs. I took two to work to let some of my co-workers try and they all loved them too! Way to go Angela, thanks for posting such a delish recipe! I snapped some pictures of how mine came out (the picture above is of the scuffins too!):

I tried to just eat 1....but it proved to be impossible!

Here is seven of the eight scuffins that survived until the photo shoot!

¡Buen Provecho!

Weekly Recipe Round-Up August 11th

Two weeks ago, I posted a links to several recipes that I have made as well as our review of them (likes, dislikes, changes to recipe, etc.) I want to try and keep up with posting this information for several reasons:

1. You, the reader, can learn about new recipes and give them a try.
2. For those readers who live in Chile, you can not only learn about new recipes, but how to adapt them for the ingredients that we are able to get in Chile.
3. It makes for good documentation in case I forget whether or not we liked a certain recipe, or what changes I made, etc.

Maybe the recipe round-ups will be weekly, maybe every two weeks. But I’ll try my best to keep up with it! For now, I’ll leave you with a few of the recipes that I have made in the past two weeks (there are too many for 1 post).

• Vegetarian Paella: I posted the link to this recipe and the changes I made in this post, but since we hadn’t technically eaten it, I thought I’d elaborate a bit more. The paella was really good. The flavors intensified overnight and both Christian and I like it. I felt it needed a bit more though. Maybe chicken on the side (although that defeats the purpose of being vegetarian), or some beans or something else. The next time I made it, I might add in some other vegetables or perhaps add chickpeas and see what it gives the recipe.

• Quick Black Bean Soup: My friend, Kathy, who I studied abroad with in 2006 gave me this recipe. I think she made it for a party once and I really liked it and asked her to send it to me. That was 4 years ago and I just now made this recipe! The recipe states that it makes 4-6 servings, however for some reason we only got 3 servings out of it. I don’t have a link for it since I don’t know where she got it from, but I put the recipe at the bottom of this post with my changes in parenthesis. I will definitely make some version of this soup again, but I think I will tweak the recipe a bit.

• Butternut Squash & Fried Sage Pasta: When I came across this recipe, I thought “oh what a unique way to use butternut squash”. I kept imagining that this dish must have great flavors, even though I had no idea what sage tastes like. When I went to the grocery store last Saturday to buy the sage, it was nowhere to be found. Thanks Lider Express! I decided that it probably wouldn’t make a huge difference and plus we didn’t have anything else to eat. So I set out to make it. I followed the directions as they are (minus the sage) and the only change I made was to use some gluten-free pasta (rice based) instead of typical pasta. Why? Cuz we had it on hand and it was already open. I had eaten this pasta before and didn’t have any issues with it, but in this dish it was all wrong. Everything about this dish was wrong and neither Christian nor I could eat it. I was sad to throw away the butternut squash, but really there was no saving it. It had been mixed with the strange pasta and everything was contaminated. We aren’t sure if the sweetness of the butternut aided in making this a bad dish, but we won’t be making this again. It got filed under “Thumbs Down Recipes”.

• Black Bean Brownies: Yes, you read that right—brownies with black beans. See the beans covered in honey and cacao? I saw this recipe a while back and have wanted to make them for a long time, so last Sunday was the day. I had to use old fashioned black beans since canned ones don’t exist here in Chile, and I think I measured out about 1.5 cups. I used ripe bananas and honey instead of the agave nectar. The first time I made them I did add the additional sugar, however with the honey and ripe bananas, it was too sweet. I topped them with sliced coconut too! These brownies came out really fudge like and only got more fudgy and “wet” as the week went on. Don’t get me wrong, they had great flavor and I really liked them, but they needed more oats to dry up a bit of the moisture. Here are some pictures of the first set:
  I told Christian they were just brownies and he ate one. Then I told him what was in them! Hahaha. He liked them anyway and was surprised that you couldn’t taste the black beans. This past Friday I was invited to a friend’s house for girls’ night and I decided to take another batch of these brownies with me to see what they thought about them (again, not telling anyone what was in them until they had tried them). While everyone agreed that these healthy brownies don’t taste like your Betty Crocker childhood brownies, they all liked this “brownie” on its own. The second time around I increased the recipe a bit and changed the amount of oats, hoping they would come out more cake-like than fudge-like. I used 2 cups of black beans, 4 bananas, 1/3 cup of honey, about 1 TBSP of sugar, double the unsweetened cocoa, cinnamon and vanilla extract. I also started off putting in 1/2 cup of the oats and then increased it another 1/4 to 1/2 cup because they still seemed so wet. In the end, they baked quickly (whereas the first time around it took longer for them to cook) and while they were drier (but not too dry) they were dense. So you most definitely only needed to cut them into small squares to serve. I recommend trying this recipe and I will keep making them because while they may not have a “typical” brownie flavor, I bet heated up with vanilla ice cream, they would still be amazing!

• Lighter Sesame Chicken: As indicated in the recipe, I made brown rice (arroz integral) to go with the dish, which takes longer than white rice to cook. So if you do the same thing, make sure to plan ahead. I found out a few weeks ago that the ratio on the back of the brown rice bag is off. They say 1 cup of rice to 2.5 cups of water. That is only if you want soupy rice. We make 1.25 cups of rice to 2 cups of water and it turned out perfectly. So keep that in mind. Back to this recipe—it was awesome! We both really liked the flavors and lightness of it. The changes I made were to not cook the chicken in the egg and cornstarch. Instead, we just cut up the chicken, added a bit of sesame oil to the wok and cooked it with salt and pepper. Once it was done, I added in the sauce and the green onions (instead of scallions). I’d say cooking the chicken like this made the dish even lighter than it was intended. In the end, I plated it up with the broccoli and rice and the husband loved it (I did too)! Next time I will make more sauce as we felt adding more sauce over the broccoli and rice made everything even better!

Quick Black Bean Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, rinsed and drained (I used old fashioned cooked black beans)
• 14 oz. can chicken broth
• 15 oz. can corn, drained (I used frozen corn)
• 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with herbs (I used cut up fresh tomatoes without the seeds.)
• 2 bay leaves (didn’t use b/c I don’t have it)
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil leaves
• 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. cumin

Preparation: Cook onion in oil in a large soup pot. Open one can of beans, mash the beans using a fork, and scoop out of the can into the pot, along with the can of whole beans, drained corn, chicken broth, and stir in seasonings. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer the soup for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove bay leaves and serve.

¡Buen provecho!

Weekly Recipe Round-up

Since venturing into this eating whole foods vs. processed foods change of lifestyle, I have started cooking up a storm and trying out a ton of new recipes. I mean, I don't follow a zillion Food/Recipe blogs for nothing. :) Actually a lot of the Fitness/Personal Balance blogs also post recipes too that are delicious. So I am going to start sharing the recipes I make and which ones are good or bad in case you too would like to try some new stuff!

Before jumping into the recipes I made this weekend/for the up-coming week, I'd like to revisit the ones I mentioned I'd be making in this blog post and let you know how they came out, if I'd make them again, etc.:

• Curry Chopsui a la Heather: Delicious! I was a little nervous when making the coconut milk sauce because mixed with the spices, it seemed waaaayyy too strong. But once I put it on the veggies, it magically became perfect. I didn't use any meat by accident because we didn't have any chicken on hand. I served it with rice noodles instead of rice and I loved it as it was (veggies no más), however Chris definitely wanted chicken. He loved it too though, he as asked me several times to make it again and the only reason I haven't is because I need to pick up more coconut milk.
• Chicken with Artichokes and Angel Hair: I was super pumped about this recipe because, hello artichokes are delish, but unfortunately this recipe did not live up to its expectations. It wasn't terrible, it just seemed too greasy or something. Maybe that was thanks to breading the chicken? I don't know, but I won't be making this again.
• Indian Lentil Soup: I first made this with green lentils because I didn't have any red ones. It was super yummy and tasted even better the next day. I have now learned to make lentil soups one day ahead because they are a million times better the next day! I definitely plan to remake this recipe.

Now for the recipes that I made this weekend:

• Spicy Butternut Squash Soup: Amazing soup! First time I blended a soup to make it creamy after cooking it and you definitely can't skip that step. Just make sure to only fill up your blender 1/3 or 1/2 of the way so you don't burn yourself when blending. The changes I made to the recipe were: no rosemary, no bay leaves, no chili, no celery. I used chili powder from the States and doubled up on it since I didn't use a chili pepper. I used a mix of chicken and veggie stock (from bouillon cubes). I also added some black beans that I had frozen to give it a protein boost. Those got blended too. And the perfect side dish is homemade garlic bread! Oh and I didn't use the whole butternut squash, but about 3/4 of it. I froze the rest. The hubs loved it too! Here's a pic he shot:

• Red Lentils for 2: I doubled this recipe which is why it is "for two" instead of "for one" as the actual title of it. I served it with palta (avocado) on top and made it a day ahead of when we actually ate it. So yummy. You can get red lentils at Organisk. Even though I think the owner of the store is an a-hole (he is always rude to us for absolutely no reason), I still shop there because it is close to my house and has a ton of variety that you can't find elsewhere. Christian gave this a thumbs-up too.
• Curry Chickpea Burgers: I love Angela's recipes, but I can't normally make a lot of them because some special products that she uses are just not available in Chile. So I was super excited when I knew I could make this. Christian at them on a hamburger bun with gringo mustard. I ate mine alone, on the side of my Red Lentils for 2. I will definitely be making more of these and probably freezing some for a quick protein when I don't have other stuff in the house.
• Vegetarian Paella: Technically we haven't eaten this yet since I made it for lunch tomorrow and Tuesday along with the chickpea burgers, but I did steal a bite or two away to try it and yum yum!!! The changes I made to this recipe were: no green bell pepper (ew still hate these) and I halved the rice (arroz integral that is not quick cooking) and the veggie broth (I used 1 cup). Since the rice wasn't quick cooking, this recipe took about 45 minutes to cook up, and even reducing the veggie broth, it was moist. But not soupy. I am super excited about eating this mañana and am pretty sure I'll be making it again.

I must say, I don't do all this cooking alone. Christian has really stepped up to the plate to help me with what I need since it is a lot of work to cook this much. He normally helps me out with chopping up vegetables. He also does the dishes when I ask him (most of the time). And if we have any recipes with meat, he is the one to cut it up and cook it. I may mix the seasonings, but I really don't like dealing with raw meat. In fact, I haven't even really liked cooked meat that much lately which is why you see all these vegetarian recipes!

If you end up making any of these recipes, let me know how they come out!! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

And just for the heck of it, I'll leave you with a picture of my baby that I took on Saturday afternoon. She was in her camita (bed) next to the estufa (heater) keeping warm.

Great Reads Page

Not sure if you noticed, but I took off the blog links that I like which used to be to the right under my blog post archives and instead, published them on the link above titled "Great Reads".

I just got done updating it and just wanted to give you a brief overview:

• Chile Expat Blogs: blogs of other expats living in Chie
• Other Interesting Blogs: blogs of other people I know and/or enjoy reading
• Fitness/Personal Balance Blogs: blogs related to fitness, exercise, personal balance, being healthy, etc.
• Foodie/Recipe Blogs: blogs that post recipes that I enjoy
• Personal/Professional Development Blogs: blogs that discuss personal & professional development such as personal finances, etc.
• Stores About Dulcinea: links to all the blog posts I wrote at Who's Your Dachshund
• Dulcinea's Favorite Blogs: blogs of dachshund's that Dulci likes to keep up with

I included the stories about Dulcinea as a quick reference since I am no longer blogging at WYD. I honestly don't have the time to keep up with the commitment required and it would be irresponsible of me to keep going forward knowing that I couldn't meet the time requirement. I had a great time blogging over there and wish I could keep going. But things have changed, I have other responsibilities to take care of right now and focus on and I had to make the decision. So that probably means that Dulcinea will get featured here more often, if I get around to blogging about her. I have plenty to tell, it is just a matter of sitting down and documenting it. Kind of like with everything else I want to blog about. I have a list of a ton of topics to write about, and sometimes on my way to work I even craft the post in my head.....but somehow, it just never makes it to the blog.

Anywho, enough babbling. If you want to check out some other great blogs, check out my Great Reads page.

Green Monster Me!!!

I made a decision this weekend: I was ready to try a Green Monster and thus I needed to by spinach. When I was cleaning it on Sunday night in preparation for Monday evening, my husband and mother-in-law innocently asked me if I was going to make a salad with it. Little did they know the answer that was coming to them: "No, I am going to make a smoothie!" Everyone in the room was baffled...

I was waiting for the work day on Monday to end just so I could get home and try this new concoction out. In went the flax seed, spinach, small banana, 1/2 a pear, 1 kiwi, some blueberries, some pomegranate, 1/2 scoop of vanilla protein powder, 1 container natural yogurt and some fat-free milk.

The blender had a hard time at first trying to blend the spinach. I read somewhere online that it was better to put the spinach at the bottom so that the heavier ingredients weighted it down when blending. But my machine needed some milk and heavier items to get it going before it could suck down all that spinach.

But alas, it finally finished and the Chilean Green Monster was ready. I took Angela's advice and served it in the fanciest glasses we have (newly acquired wine glasses from the Cousiño Macul vineyard since the old ones broke in the earthquake). At first, I just served one glass for me, but then Christian said he wanted to try it too. So two wine glasses filled with the Green Monster. I made him try it first and lo and behold, he liked it! Holy cow....is he trying to give me a heart attack before I even get to try mine?!?!!??!

Bottoms up......

Delicious!

Thanks Angela for the inspiration to make a Green Monster. When I came across your blog a few months ago, I thought the GMs were strange and they did not sound appetizing at all. But now, now I understand. Can't wait until my next GM!!!!

All About Food

Lately I have had a new obsession with food...but in a good way. I am enjoying being in the kitchen and cooking up new and delicious meals as well as eating less processed foods. In fact, last weekend when my fave cousin was visiting (recap to come hopefully this weekend), I didn't do so well with the processed foods thing. You know how it goes when someone is visiting, you do things you don’t normally do and eat out and the whole works. Anyway, one of the nights we were in Viña, we had a BBQ/Mexican food night and we started out by eating chips and guac. The bad thing was that I started eating potato chips--for the first time in like over a month--and then I had a choripan (minus the pan—for those of you who haven’t been to Chile, a choripan is like a bratwurst-sausage type food that is eating in a bread bun similar to a hot dog bun but much better. I ate mine without the bread). As soon as I ate it, I felt immediately sick. Like so nauseous that I had to go lie down in the other room and not participate in the fun karaoke that ensued after eating the fajitas that Christian made. Just the smell of the food being cooked was making me so sick I had to go outside for a bit and then just went to lie down and sleep away the pain. It was horrible. No one else got sick, so it wasn’t like my food was bad—and it happened literally after I ate it so not like food poisoning either. So, yea, don't think I'll be eating choripans for a while. But back to the fun stuff....

I have started trying to plan on a weekly, if not monthly, basis our lunches and weekend meals with the hopes that we will use more of our pantry items and get to try different foods. Plus cooking at home is better and cheaper than eating out. I seriously have a google spreadsheet for each month and a list of recipes I want to try and I match them up based on what we have going on, what food we have, etc. I also send all the recipes I get through the various food blogs I follow to a special email address. Then I sort them with the labels in gmail into which food category they are—breakfast, sweets, drinks, main dishes, side dishes, salads, soups, etc. It is like my virtual cookbook!

For breakfast, we normally have a meal replacement shake, although twice now I have made protein pancakes (using a mix of Angela & Gina’s recipes) topped with cut-up apple, almond butter with milk and a tiny bit of syrup--heavenly!

Lunch is really the big meal of the day for us because in the evenings we like to do something small and quick--a fruit smoothie with protein powder, chia seeds & flax seeds, or perhaps eggs in a tortilla or pan con palta (bread with sliced avocado). Simple, low calorie meals that don’t take a long time to make. I hope to continue this tradition in the States, but I know it is hard because we eat reverse there. I do think that in general big breakfast and lunches are the way to go and just have a very light dinner or snack in the evening, unless for some reason you are very active in the evening in which case you would have to eat sufficient enough calories to keep your body fueled.

Some of the recent meals I have made that are:

• Chana Masala---first time making Indian food! It was better the second day so I will now make this a day in advance of eating it. I put it over couscous which helps us eat up the ton of couscous I have in the pantry. For some reason, I just am not that into couscous anymore so I like to eat it with strongly-flavored foods so I don’t notice it.
• Minestrone soup—I used a mix of recipes to this and since it is supposed to be made with seasonal veggies, I just used what I had on hand: carrots, butternut squash, potatoes, tomatoes, peas and onion with black & white beans.
• Butternut squash & black bean soup—I use a cream of veggie or cream of chicken soup and just add cooked black beans and boiled butternut squash & potatoes (until they are softened). This is a rich and yummy dish.
• Chicken noodle soup--using my mom's recipe
• Quinoa and Black Bean Bake with Mozz. and Avocado—I made this super spicy and the avocado helps mitigate the spice. I also just used shredded parmesan since real mozzarella is hard to come by here.

I am totally on a soup kick with this cold weather. I want to eat soup like 24/7. Never before in my life have I been so into soup. And I can't get enough new soup recipes to try. I want to try something with leeks in it. I have never had a leek...ever...that I am even aware of......but from the recipes I have seen they look like they are yummy and I hope to try one soon. They are called "puerros" in Spanish. Kind of a weird word, but whatev.

This weekend, I am hoping to try out some curry chopsui a la Heather, Chicken with Artichokes and Angel Hair, Spicy hummus for a weekday snack, and Indian Lentil Soup for lunch on Monday & Tuesday. I’ve never had lentis either—to my knowledge—so I’m excited about trying this soup!

During the work week, I have two snacks throughout the day. In the mornings, I normally eat some sort of granola or the healthiest edible cereal I can find. Or maybe a bit of nut mix (almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds). In the afternoons, I normally eat a fruit snack. My FAVE this week has been apple with almond butter.....seriously, my small $10 jar of almond butter is disappearing faster than you can say almond butter. I bought it at Organisk, the organic market close to my house. I used to not like almond butter, in fact, trying to eat a spoonful makes me feel like I can't swallow and that is why I never liked it. But with apple you can't tell it is so sticky and with a bit of milk in the microwave it makes the perfect pancake topping too. I am hoping to experiment in making some of my own, but first I want to try homemade peanut butter....I have non-salted toasted peanuts waiting for me at home.

Basically Sunday afternoons are spent in the kitchen preparing lunch for Monday & Tuesday. Our housekeeper normally cooks us lunch on Wed. so I only have to make sure we have ingredients for something and then Wed. nights I try to make lunch for Thursday & Friday. Those meals definitely have to be simple and quick. On Sunday afternoons I have more time to experiment with new food.

Man, all this planning makes me excited for grocery shopping tomorrow!

White Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting Recipes

I thought it would be good to post the recipes I used to make the cupcakes that came out amazingly! I have included the small tweaks that I had to make in order for the recipe to work in Chile. Don't forget to be exact in your measurements at least for the cake mix. Baking always requires exact measurements whereas cooking is more forgiving.

Basic White Cake (from here)

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 cups sifted* cake flour**
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon baking powder (polvo de hornear)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
6 egg whites

*Make sure you sift your flour before you measure the 3 cups to be used. I don't actually own a sifter but I have some small strainers and used that for make-shift sifting.

**I have no idea if cake flour exists in Chile and I wasn't very interested in starting a search for it so I looked online and found out that you can use all-purpose flour to do the job. However, the ratio is not 1:1 which is where you have to be careful. I used harina sin polvos de hornear (all purpose flour w/o baking powder) since the recipe calls for you to add extra. In any case, the ratio that I found online for substituting cake flour for all purpose is: 1 cup minus 2 TBL all purpose flour = 1 cup cake flour. Did you get that? All purpose flour has more gluten than cake flour and if you use a direct substitution you will get a hard cake. So for every cup of cake flour that a recipe calls for, you should take 1 cup of all purpose flour and take out 2 tablespoons of the all-purpose flour. Again, I did this after I had "sifted" the flour.

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (I have no idea how to measure this in an oven heated by actual flames, so I put it at a low-medium heat. Better to have less heat than more so you don't get burned cupcake bottoms, even if it takes a bit longer).

Grease and flour 2-9 inch cake pans (I used cupcake pans and put liners in them.).

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar (Anyone in Chile, this means use your elbow grease to cream the two.). Mix in vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine cake flour, baking powder and salt with a wire whisk. Add flour mixture [to creamed butter & sugar] alternately with milk until all combined.

In a clean, dry bowl beat egg whites until stiff but not dry (this will tire our your arm for sure!). With a rubber spatula, add a scoop of egg whites to cake batter. Then fold in the rest. Carefully, divide batter between pans (or scoop into the cupcake pans).

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes (my cupcakes took approx. 10 minutes to cook). Test with toothpick for doneness. Cool cakes in pans on rack for 15 minutes. Remove to racks to cool completely.


Cream Cheese Frosting (don't remember where I got this, sorry)

Ingredients:
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
6 Tbsp. butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
Dash salt
2-4 Tbsp. light cream (I mixed regular cream with some 2% milk, or leche semi-descremada)
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond extract (this was my addition)
Food coloring if desired (also my addition)

Preparation:
In large bowl, combine cream cheese and butter and beat until light and fluffy. Alternately add powdered sugar and light cream, beating until desired spreading consistency. Beat in salt and vanilla and use to frost cake. (I separated the frosting into three parts and added food coloring to make pretty pink, blue and green cupcakes.)
Enjoy!!!

~Tyffanie

Recipe: Red Pepper Hummus with Toasted Pita Triangles

After seeing dried garbanzo beans at the grocery store, and impulsively buying them, I had wanted to make hummus. See, here in Chile, it is quite rare to find hummus. You will not find it in the grocery store and I have only seen it in one vegetarian restaurant. I, of course, ordered it the last time I went to that restaurant, and was somewhat disappointed with the lack of flavor. It seems they only mashed up the garbanzo beans and forgot to put in any flavors. So when I was looking for recipes to try my hand at making hummus (for the first time), I knew I wanted one with lots and lots of flavor. I turned to my trusty friend, FoodNetwork, and found Red Pepper Hummus with Toasted Pita Triangles recipe. I had to add a bit to the recipe for the fact that you can’t buy canned chickpeas and I didn’t know where to get tahini, but other than that it was pretty easy to make this recipe in Chile!

Red Pepper Hummus with Toasted Pita Triangles (edited for life in Chile)

4 whole-wheat pita pockets, cut into triangles
Cooking spray
Garlic salt
1 cup dried chickpeas (ie. garbanzo beans)
1 cup sauteed red peppers
1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste, recipe included below)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 to 4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves (I personally didn’t use this.)

The day before you want to make the hummus, make sure to put 1 cup of dried chickpeas in LOTS of water to soak overnight. After around 8 hours of soaking, boil them until tender. The more tender they are, the easier it will be to blend them.

To make the tahini, you need 2 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds, 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil (I used olive oil), 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup tepid water. I would perhaps double or triple this recipe because it was hard to blend this all together in the 1-2-3 since it was a small amount. First, toast the sesame seeds until golden brown. Let cool off.

You need to put the sesame seeds in a blender or food processor and grind until smooth.

Then add the oil and salt. Process until combined. Add the water very slowly, with the motor running if possible, and blend until smooth. If you can’t add the water with the motor running, just add bits at a time and keep processing until smooth. Mine turned out a bit runny and not as much of a “paste”, but really, it is the flavor that is important here. One interesting thing that I learned about sesame seeds is that they turn rancid quickly so it is important to store them away from light & heat. According to one website that I found, putting your sesame seeds in the fridge will allow them to stay good for up to 3 months. Now that you have your tahini, here is the rest of the hummus recipe:

Cut up and sauté the red peppers in a pan. It is not necessary to put oil or spray or anything, just sauté them up for a bit. Rinse the chickpeas and mix with the red peppers, tahini, garlic, cumin, and lemon juice in a bowl. Place a portion of the mix in a 1-2-3 (the original recipe said blender, but the blenders in Chile are weak and don’t work that well—I found that although the 1-2-3 works much better even though you have to blend a little bit at a time). Blend until smooth, remove the mixture and put in a separate bowl. Continue with the mix until all has been processed. Mix the hummus together to make sure all the flavors and ingredients are distributed evenly. Season to taste with salt and black pepper and top with parsley, if using it. The hummus turns this beautiful, bright orange color thanks to the red peppers.

To make the pita triangles, preheat the oven or electric oven to 400 degrees F. Cut up the pita bread into triangles and place on the baking sheet that corresponds to your oven (I used our electric oven and it worked like a charm). Spray the surface of the triangles with cooking spray. Season the tops with garlic salt. Bake 6 to 8 minutes until golden brown and crisp.

Yay! Now you’re ready to eat your hummus and homemade pita chips!

Recipe: Vegetable Stir-Fry with Egg Noodles

I made a modified version of this recipe (on Sunday) that I got out of a healthy-food cookbook that I bought at Barnes & Noble hace algunos años (a few years ago). I don’t remember what the book was called and I only have pictures of the recipes that I liked (this was my last-minute-way of bringing good recipes with me to Chile without actually bringing the whole book—I didn’t have space in my suitcases!). Well the recipe is modified of course because I couldn’t find all of the necessary ingredients, but it turned out well so have fun with it. I’ll post the actual recipe and then in parenthesis, I’ll put my changes or comments just as I’ve done in previous recipes.

Vegetable Stir-Fry with Egg Noodles

Preparation time: 20 minutes (I think it really depends on how fast you are to cut up all the veggies, I happen to be a slow cutter)
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 4

• 7 oz (200 g) dried egg noodles (I used whole-wheat pasta, couldn’t find egg noodles here)
• 2 tsp. canola oil
• 8 scallions (spring onions), cut into 1 in. lengths (I used 2 entire green onions)
• 1.25” x 1.25” piece of fresh ginger, julienned (couldn’t find ginger, so I did without it)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 7 oz (200g) Swiss brown mushrooms, quartered (I used normal white button mushrooms)
• 1 red pepper, seeded & thinly sliced
• 1 zucchini, cut on the diagonal into 1/2 in slices
• 1 carrot, sliced on the diagonal
• 10.5 oz. broccoli, cut into small florets
• 10.5 oz Chinese cabbage, shredded (definitely couldn’t find this...so I did without it)
• 2 tbs. hoisin sauce (couldn’t find this, but my search isn’t over yet; to bring the spicy aspect into the recipe, I put in some merken)
• 4 tbs. sake or dry sherry (didn’t have either so I mixed a bit of white wine with red wine)
• 1 handful cilantro leaves, plus extra to serve
• 10.5 oz packet of firm tofu, drained and cut into cubes (couldn’t buy tofu on Sunday, so I cooked some chicken beforehand to use in the recipe)

Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. Add the noodles and cook until tender, following the package’s directions. Drain.

Heat a wok over a high heat, add the canola oil and swirl to coat. Add the scallions and ginger and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the garlic and mushrooms and cook for 1 minute.

Add the red pepper, zucchini, carrot and broccoli to the wok and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes. Add 1-2 tablespoons water to help steam through, if necessary. Add the cabbage, hoisin sauce and sake and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes, or until cabbage has wilted and all the ingredients are well combined. (I also threw in the chicken at this point so that it could heat up again.)

Toss through the tofu, noodles, and cilantro until well coated in the sauce and serve immediately.

Nutrition per serving:
Calories—411
Fat—10.4g
Carbs—47g
Protein—23g

Recipe: Warm & Nutty Cinnamon Quinoa from 101 Cookbooks

I found this recipe on 101 Cookbooks under the “quinoa” section. I love quinoa because you can use it in a variety of dishes, it easily replaces rice & noodles and it is a full protein. The best thing about finding this recipe is that I could actually make it here in Chile, along with a few modifications.

I made this recipe on Sunday evening and took advantage of using it as a dessert and breakfast yesterday morning! I will put up the original recipe and put my modifications in parenthesis to the side.

Warm & Nutty Cinnamon Quinoa

“... Also, a few notes and tips from the book: low-fat soy milk may replace the low fat milk, blueberries may replace the blackberries, dark honey may replace the agave nectar, and walnuts may replace the pecans.” (Don’t forget to watch the milk carefully when you boil it and then cover it because it has a tendency to rise quickly. I actually left the lid slightly ajar to ening...after it happened the first time.)

• 1 cup organic 1% low fat milk (lecha descremada en Chile)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup organic quinoa*
• 2 cups fresh blackberries, organic preferred (I used frozen berries that I bought in the supermarket)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted**
• 4 teaspoons organic agave nectar, such as Madhava brand (I used Karo pancake syrup, because we happen to have it in our house, but you could also just use honey as mentioned above or throw in a packet of Splenda in the water-milk mixture.)

Combine milk, water and quinoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. (Remember, be careful here with the milk rising!) Turn off heat; let stand covered 5 minutes. (Since I was using frozen berries, I stirred them into the quinoa right when I turned off the heat and was going to let it stand for 5 min.) Stir in blackberries and cinnamon; transfer to four bowls and top with pecans. Drizzle 1 teaspoon agave nectar over each serving.

Serves 4.

*Rinse the quinoa in warm water before using it. This helps to remove the outer coating which tends to be bitter.

**While the quinoa cooks, roast the pecans in a 350F degree toaster oven for 5 to 6 minutes or in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

Recipe: Perfect Popcorn by SimplyRecipes

Christian made me the perfect popcorn on Sunday night, following the awesome recipe from Elise Bauer. Just as a preparer’s note, I would use an old pan to make the popcorn just in case it doesn’t go as planned...you don’t want to burn a new pan! Here goes the recipe tal cual as it is published on SimpleRecipes, with my comments italicized and white:

Perfect Popcorn Recipe
Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp canola, peanut or grapeseed oil (high smoke point oil)
• 1/3 cup of high quality popcorn kernels
• 1 3-quart covered saucepan
• 2 Tbsp or more (to taste) of butter
• Salt to taste

Method:
1. Heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan on medium high heat.

2. Put 3 or 4 popcorn kernels into the oil and cover the pan.

3. When the kernels pop, add the rest of the 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels in an even layer. Cover, remove from heat and count 30 seconds. (Count out loud; it's fun to do with kids.) This method first heats the oil to the right temperature, then waiting 30 seconds brings all of the other kernels to a near-popping temperature so that when they are put back on the heat, they all pop at about the same time.

4. Return the pan to the heat. The popcorn should begin popping soon, and all at once. Once the popping starts in earnest, gently shake the pan by moving it back and forth over the burner. Try to keep the lid slightly ajar to let the steam from the popcorn release (the popcorn will be drier and crisper). Once the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, remove the lid, and dump the popcorn immediately into a wide bowl.
With this technique, nearly all of the kernels pop (I counted 4 unpopped kernels in my last batch), and nothing burns. (I had between 10-14 kernels in the batch made by Christian)

5. If you are adding butter, you can easily melt it by placing the butter in the now empty, but hot pan.

6. Salt to taste.

Makes 2 quarts, a nice amount for two people, or for one hungry one.