Category Archives: Side Dishes

Greek Salad

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Veronica

Since this is my first blog of the week, I hope you’ll forgive me for skipping Thankful Thursday in favor of a recipe for Greek salad. I made it months ago and kept forgetting to share it, but now that the weather is heating up and cool, crunchy salads are especially appealing, I knew it was now or never.

I’ve eaten a lot of Greek salads at restaurants and they are always lettuce salads with kalamata olives, red onions, tomatoes, and feta cheese. This salad has the same elements but the lettuce is replaced with chopped peppers and cucumber. The result is a crunchy, more fulfilling salad–it really feels like you’re eating something other than air with some toppings. And it’s so delicious! My husband’s favorite salad is a Greek salad and he really went wild for this, somehow managing to eat all but the little bit I managed to grab for myself before he basically confiscated the whole bowl and started murmuring, “My preeeecious.”

It makes a wonderful side dish for a Mediterranean meal and I’ll be sharing the recipe for the chicken I served it with tomorrow.

Greek Salad

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

Dressing:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic (from a jar is fine)
2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper

Salad:
1 large cucumber, quartered lengthwise, seeds removed then chopped
1 ½ cups chopped tomatoes
12 large kalamata olives, quartered
1 cup diced green pepper
¾ cup thinly sliced red onion
3.5 oz good quality feta cheese, diced

Mix the dressing together and store at room temperature until ready to serve, preferably overnight to allow the flavors to develop. Combine salad ingredients, shake the dressing and add half of it, then gently stir everything together. Add more dressing to taste.

Recipe source: Eat Little, Eat Big

***

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Posted in Lighter Fare, Mediterranean, Salads, Side Dishes. Bookmark the permalink.

Cauliflower Colcannon

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Veronica

I’m linking this post with the GreensLove bloghop. If you are posting a recipe with any sort of greens this month, check it out and join the party!

A couple years ago I made lasagna and garlic bread for dinner on St. Patrick’s Day and happened to mention it in my Facebook status. I don’t really celebrate the holiday, so it wasn’t on my radar, but one of my Facebook friends was like, “Hey! Where’s the corned beef and cabbage???” I’d never made any sort of Irish-type food whether on St. Patrick’s Day or otherwise, and thought I just might try it the following year.

And so I purchased my first beef brisket last year. It turned out to be the worst brisket in the history of briskets. It. was. horrid. I still shudder just thinking about it. (80% fat, with a foul flavor.) But, I also made this cauliflower colcannon, which was very good and ended up being the main course rather than our side dish.

The pureed cauliflower serves as a lower-carb, more nutritious replacement for the mashed potatoes that colcannon is usually made with. I opted for kale instead of cabbage in my colcannon, but it would be good either way. This made a mighty tasty dish, and a good alternative to traditional colcannon if you are going to be eating a high-calorie dessert afterward. Kinda helps balance things out. And I’m a Libra, so I’m all about balance. Cauliflower Colcannon + 1 dozen Andes Mint Cupcakes = balance. Right? Right. Let’s do this.

Cauliflower Colcannon

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 medium head cauliflower
1 tablespoon cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided, plus more for serving
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 lightly packed cups kale, cabbage, or other greens
½ cup chopped green onions
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (1 clove)
Milk or heavy cream for thinning, if necessary

Set a stockpot of water to boil over high heat. Meanwhile, clean and cut the cauliflower into small pieces. Cook in boiling water for about 6 minutes, or until very tender. Drain the cauliflower well and pat it very dry between several layers of paper towels, not allowing it to cool.

In the bowl of a food processor, puree the hot cauliflower with the cream cheese, Parmesan, 1 tablespoon of the butter, salt, and pepper until almost smooth. Set aside.

Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons butter in a skillet and add the greens. Cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until greens have wilted and given off some of their water. Add the onions and garlic and cook one minute more. Stir in the cauliflower mixture and thin with milk or cream, if necessary. Serve hot with a pat of butter, if desired.

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Posted in Lighter Fare, Side Dishes and tagged Atkins, cauliflower colcannon, healthy, kale, low carb. Bookmark the permalink.

Creamy Mashed Cauliflower

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Veronica

Someone asked me about the “mashed potatoes” I served with the Steak au Poivre yesterday, and how I kept them so white. Well, the secret is that it wasn’t mashed potatoes! Since the steak itself seemed pretty rich, I decided to keep the sides healthy and low-calorie, and served it with roasted asparagus and this creamy mashed cauliflower.

I have made mashed cauliflower before that has cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, and butter in it, but I wanted to make it a little lighter this time. There is still a bit of butter, but also an equal amount of heart-healthy olive oil, and the cauliflower gets its creaminess and mild tangy-ness from nonfat Greek yogurt, giving it a closer taste to potatoes in that it reminds me of a baked potato with sour cream…minus the potato flavor. This dish definitely won’t fool you into thinking you’re eating potatoes, but it is delicious in its own right. I actually like the taste of it even better than the higher-fat version, not to mention it’s much healthier. To prove it’s not just me and my own weird tastes that finds this dish tasty, my husband heartily approved of the creamy cauliflower, despite being an avid mashed potatoes aficionado, polishing off a generous pile of it just as fast as he did the steak!

*Note: I updated yesterday’s steak recipe because I forgot the first and most important step in cooking them (letting them rest at room temperature prior to cooking to help ensure a tender steak). If you saved the recipe or plan to make it, please revisit it and save the new instructions. Sorry for the inconvenience of my memory lapse!

Creamy Mashed Cauliflower

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 head cauliflower
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon salt
Snipped fresh chives or parsley for garnish (optional)

Separate the cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Place in a steamer basket over boiling water, cover, and steam until tender, about 15 minutes. Place in the bowl of a food processor fitted with blade attachment, add remaining ingredients, and process until smooth and creamy. Serve hot with a sprinkling of fresh chives or parsley, if desired.

*Veronica’s Note: using nonfat yogurt and milk is perfectly fine!

Recipe source: adapted from Eating Well

10 Comments

Posted in Lighter Fare, Side Dishes and tagged cauliflower, low carb, mashed potatoes, substitute. Bookmark the permalink.

My Eggland’s Best Birthday Brinner, Bacon Devilled Eggs & a Giveaway!

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Veronica

Last month, Eggland’s Best contacted me to see if I would like to participate in the “Eggland’s Best Double Dozen” in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, to help raise awareness and funding for the fight against breast cancer. To participate, I would host a brunch or brinner party using their eggs and blog about it. Well, Dennis’ Aunt Dorothy is a breast cancer survivor and so I would have agreed simply because they offered to make a $100 donation in my name to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, but they sweetened the deal even more by sending me a box of goodies, including free egg coupons, and a gift card to pay for all my ingredients! It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. :)

I decided to host a brinner party for my birthday with the money and free eggs they supplied me. I got enough coupons to give to all my guests, and to make all my egg-y dishes. Since the weather has been so nice, I decided to have an outdoor dinner and though it rained the day before, the weather behaved itself in honor of my birthday and was quite nice the day of the celebration!

The only problem was that I started dinner too late, forgetting the sun sets earlier in fall, and we ended up eating most of the meal by moonlight! Learn from my mistake, and be prepared with candles if your outdoor dinner party runs late. I have to say, though, it was a relaxing and unique experience. You will see from the photos that I had less and less daylight as they become more and more terrible. I apologize for that!

The first thing I made was poppy seed crescent rolls, which calls for four eggs. It’s a recipe I’ve been holding onto for a few years which comes from the recipe box of none other than my heroine, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Did you know she has a cookbook?

I’m sorry to report they were disappointing. Everyone said they were “good,” or “OK,” and I agreed. If I hadn’t put a lemon glaze on them, they wouldn’t have been worth eating. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t good enough to share the recipe. But they did turn out pretty!

I got the hashbrown casserole and two spinach-ricotta quiches in the oven and while they were baking, I shot some pics of my birthday “cake,” a Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte, which I topped with good-quality raspberry preserves because I adore the combination of dark chocolate and raspberries.

I’ve made this once before for Dennis’ birthday long before I was blogging, and I’m happy I finally made it again so I could take pics and share the recipe. It is just outstanding. Creamy, melt-in-your mouth rich chocolate, the texture lightened with whipped eggs (6 of them, which is why I chose this for my brinner–because I could use so many of the Eggland’s Best eggs in it!) and butter. And those are the only ingredients! This is for the serious chocolate lover. It’s like eating a slice of chocolate truffle or mousse.

I did a fall tablescape because of the time of year, and I saw this cornucopia and had to have it in honor of my blog’s name. :)

After shooting this, we added two more chairs, just in case you counted the plates and were wondering why the chairs didn’t add up. :)

And in honor of my blog’s Thankful Thursdays feature, I just had to have this pumpkin too!

I am thankful that breast cancer does not run in my family, and that my husband’s aunt survived it with flying colors! She seems even healthier now than before the cancer and she is an inspiration.

While we were waiting on the food to finish baking, my nephew, Owen, and I posed for some silly photos with the plush egg that Eggland’s Best sent me. Someone please warn me if those are gang signs he’s making! lol It’s so funny because his mama used to do the same crazy things with her hands in photos that he does now.

By the time the quiche was done, the sun was nearly set so the following photos are awful! Here is the spinach-ricotta quiche,which I wasn’t overly impressed with anyway so I don’t regret not having great photos to blog the recipe with.

The hashbrown casserole (à la Cracker Barrel) was another story! This was my favorite dish of the evening. It’s been a long time since I’ve had it at Cracker Barrel, so I’m not sure how close this was in taste but without comparing the two, I thought this was incredible. So creamy and cheesy. Oh, yums. Thankfully there was a tiny bit leftover so I was able to snap a picture at home the next morning in better light for when I share the recipe!

I don’t know if I’ve ever shared a picture of Owen’s mama, my sister, Lacey, so here she is for the curious, digging into her food:

I didn’t bring the veggies out until later, so here is a picture of my plate before they were added. You can see I also have meatballs on my plate, and they’re the same ones I bring to almost any party. I have the recipe here. The cups, though not filled yet, later housed iced coffee with sweet cream, which I made by combining a can of sweetened condensed milk with a cup of heavy cream. Yums.

I finally took off my apron so you can see my shirt. I wore my hot pink tank top underneath an Aerosmith (who just happens to have a song called “Pink!”) net shirt in honor of breast cancer awareness month and the purpose of the party.

The crazy thing is that I wore this exact same shirt on my birthday last year for my 80s themed party! This is me and my sisters at my party last year (Lacey is in the middle-she was a redhead last year-and Danielle on the right):

Here is the only photo which hints that we ate vegetables! I just nuked some Green Giant steamers and we poured them out onto our plates. We couldn’t see anything anyway, and we were kind of like barbarians in the dark, as you can see from the devastation of the table. LOL!

After all these photo shenanigans, I realized I forgot to serve the bacon devilled eggs! I ran in and brought them out and forced everyone to take them, despite their full stomachs. Although I was sure these would be the winning dish of the evening, I guess devilled eggs are either a love ’em or hate ’em thing, even if they have bacon in them. I love devilled eggs and along with the others present who did too, I loved these! The bacon and cheese really made the filling good enough to eat with a spoon as a meal. :) I took this photo of the leftovers in better light:

Bacon Devilled Eggs

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

10 eggs
1 cup mayonnaise (I used homemade Miracle Whip)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (I used regular)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I used 1)
8 slices bacon, fried crispy and crumbled into tiny pieces (um…I used a lot more :) )
1 cup cheddar cheese, finely shredded
Salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce to taste
Smoked paprika for topping

Hard boil the eggs and cool completely. Once cooled, peel them, then slice in half, placing the yolks in the bowl of a food processor. Plate the egg whites on a serving platter. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar to the egg yolks, and process until smooth. Add the bacon and cheese and process until combined. Season to taste.

Transfer to a small Ziploc bag and snip off the corner to use as a piping bag. Squeeze filling into each egg white half. you will have a lot of filling so be generous with it. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Sprinkle with paprika just before serving.

Recipe source: Cairns Manor

OK, now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. As the title of this post suggests, I have a giveaway for you! Eggland’s Best is offering to award one of my readers with a prize pack which includes:

2 Free EB Dozen coupons (Any variety- classic, cage-free, or organic)
1 Free EB Hard Cooked and Peeled variety coupon
4 EB ramekins
1 EB apron
1 EB whisk
1 EB spatula
1 EB egg timer
1 EB eco bag
1 EB plush egg

If you would like to enter to win, leave an inspiring comment below, or share how you contribute to raising awareness or funding for breast cancer.

For additional entries you can do one or all of the following, and be sure to leave a separate comment for each, letting me know you did (or already do) it.

Like Veronica’s Cornucopia on Facebook
Like Eggland’s Best on Facebook
Subscribe to Veronica’s Cornucopia by email or RSS feed (email subscription box is in upper right corner)
Sign up to send at least one piece of mail this week for The Postcard Project (you must add your name on the spreadsheet for this entry to count)

Drawing will end Friday at 11:59 PM, and winner will be announced Saturday along with the winner for this week’s Postcard Project prize. Good luck!

Update: This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Britany!

43 Comments

Posted in Life, Side Dishes and tagged bacon devilled eggs, birthday brinner, Breast cancer, chocolate, Chocolate truffle, double dozen, eggland's best, laura ingalls wilder, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, recipe, Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Bookmark the permalink.

Chicken Noodles

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Veronica

Back in July, my friend, Teri, came over for a pie crust lesson and we made four different pies with four kinds of crust (single, single pre-baked, double, and double lattice-top). Then in August, I went to her place and she taught me to cook some simple homestyle meals–the kind my hubby was raised on and that seem to be a foreign language to me. My brain goes “fish stew, curried caulifower, red beans and rice, shrimp scampi,” and his brain goes, “steak, pot roast, fried chicken, chicken pot pie.” Our brainwaves needed to be synched up and Teri was up to the challenge of teaching me how to cook like the Midwestern housewife I am. Except I’m not a housewife, really, since I work, but you get the point.

We made several of her family’s favorite meals and she taught me to make chicken noodles almost as an afterthought without a recipe. The only chicken noodles I’ve ever had are those at our family reunion every year brought by someone I’m not even sure I’m related to, and I was excited to learn how to make them because they are one of the dishes I enjoy most each year. I just LOVE me some egg noodles. Something about their texture…I adore it. Thick with some bite to them and they soak up all the yummy flavor of whatever you cook them in, in this case, chicken!

As the title indicates, there isn’t much to this recipe. Pretty much just chicken and noodles cooked in broth! I did add (too much) turmeric because I wanted to give them a yellow tint but I went overboard, as you can see. The above picture are the leftovers from the batch Teri and I made, with no turmeric added, and the other ones are mine, which I added 1/2 teaspoon to, so I’d recommend just a pinch at a time if you want yours to have a little extra color. I also added thyme to mine because I love the flavor of thyme with chicken, but if you want classic chicken noodles, just stick with the recipe and don’t go rogue like I did.

This is a very simple recipe and even the noodles go pretty fast. If you want to go a slower and more flavorful route, you can boil an entire chicken, which will also give you your own homemade broth.

Chicken Noodles

Printable recipe
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2 (32 oz.) cartons chicken broth (8 cups)
4 chicken bouillon cubes
3 lbs. skinless, boneless chicken breasts
6 eggs
¼ cup cold water
2 teaspoons salt
4-5 cups all-purpose flour

Pour the chicken broth into a stockpot. Add the bouillon cubes and the chicken breasts and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tender and no longer pink in the middle, 5-10 minutes. Turn off heat & remove chicken from broth onto a plate to cool.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, water, and salt. Stir in enough flour to form a stiff dough. Flour a surface to roll the dough out on and pull off small chunks of dough at a time (about 1/6 of the dough) with floured hands to roll thin. Use plenty of flour on the outside, adding more as you roll so it doesn’t stick to the surface or rolling pin. Use a rotary mincer or pizza cutter to cut the noodles and separate them onto a plate.

You’ll have about 6 batches of noodles this size. It’s important to do them in batches instead of all at once to prevent them from clumping together when adding them to the broth.

After you’ve cut your first batch of noodles, turn the heat back on your broth to bring it to a boil. While waiting on that, shred the cooled chicken your fingers or two forks. When you’re done shredding the chicken, the broth should be boiling. Reduce heat to medium and sprinkle the noodles over the top, stirring to keep them separated.

Continue pulling off chunks of dough, rolling them out, separating the noodles and adding them to the simmering broth as you finish each batch. Once all the noodles are in, stir in the chicken and heat through before serving. The only broth remaining, which will not be much, will be thickened from the flour on the noodles, which is what you want, but you can add more broth if there’s not enough liquid to finish all the noodles. The noodles will thicken even more upon standing.

*Veronica’s Note: you can add a little turmeric to give the noodles more color, not more than ¼ teaspoon.

*Disclaimer: this post contains an affiliate link and I will earn a commission if you choose to purchase the herb mincer I linked to. :)

21 Comments

Posted in Main Dishes, My Favorites, Side Dishes and tagged comfort food, egg noodles, homemade chicken noodles, homestyle, old-fashioned, simple. Bookmark the permalink.

Creamed Corn

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Veronica

Until I married Dennis, I defined creamed corn as that uber-sweet yuck that comes in a can. My first Thanksgiving with my in-laws, however, brought to light the real stuff that puts the canned goop to shame. My sister-in-law, Joan, is in charge of the creamed corn in the Miller family, and she brings it to every single family gathering we have, for which my husband is eternally rejoicing and thankful.

It’s a Miller-family staple, and one of Dennis’ favorite foods. At Thanksgiving, the creamed corn is just as important to him as the turkey. Although I’ve brought it to my own family reunion before, I rarely make it at home (I prefer to indulge in desserts rather than side dishes), so he is super excited to pile it on his plate at every holiday gathering. He got lucky recently, however, because I decided to make it in lieu of the usual mashed potatoes to go with our meatloaf.

Creamed corn the Miller way (OK, I know lots of you already make it this way, but to me, it will always be the Miller way) is buttery, creamy, has just a bit of tang to offset the sweet corn, and is crazy delicious. It’s homestyle comfort food at it’s finest! If you want to do it up completely Miller-style for a big gathering, triple the corn, double the other ingredients, and throw it in a crockpot to heat all day, stirring to combine everything once it’s hot, until it’s time to eat.

Creamed Corn

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 bag frozen sweet yellow corn
1 (8-oz) package cream cheese
1 stick salted butter*

Melt the cream cheese and butter together in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once they are melted and pretty smooth, stir in the corn. Continue cooking, stirring every few minutes, until heated through. Serve hot.

*If using unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon salt to the recipe.

**The above recipe is the long-loved and family-approved version, but I tried adding 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder to the latest batch since Teri adds it to hers, and Dennis loved it. He doesn’t like sweet in his savory foods and usually adds extra salt to combat the corn’s sweetness, but he didn’t have to do that with the addition of garlic powder. I like this corn either way, so it’s up to you.

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Posted in Side Dishes, Slow-Cooker/Crockpot and tagged butter, cream cheese, creamed corn, crockpot. Bookmark the permalink.

Black Bean and Sweet Corn Quinoa Salad

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Veronica

Last week, I shared the Fudge Babies recipe, divulging how late I was in jumping on the raw dessert train. Well, raw desserts aren’t the only thing I was incredibly slow to catch on to. Until this week, I also had not tried quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), despite seeing it on nearly every blog I frequent! I’ve been saving recipes for years, finally bought some over a month ago, and finally, finally, made something with it this week.

Quinoa is gluten-free and while it’s not a grain (it’s a seed), it is often used in place of rice and is cooked the same way. Although I’ve now enjoyed it, I still can’t tell you if I like quinoa or not, because I couldn’t identify its flavor apart from everything else in this salad. The salad itself was stupendous, so I guess if I didn’t like quinoa, I wouldn’t have liked the salad as much.

It has a pleasant Mexican flavor profile, and while carbohydrate-heavy, it is also fiber and protein-rich. It is so delicious that I am a bit ashamed to admit I couldn’t even wait to sit down and eat it from a bowl like a civilized human being. As soon as it was done, I took a taste and then stood over the pan, shoveling it into my mouth with the ginormous serving spoon. In my defense, I was stressed, approaching a certain time of month, very hungry, and found this salad to be irresistible. The perfect storm of coincidences to bring out the barbarian in me.

Black Bean and Sweet Corn Quinoa Salad

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1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup frozen sweet yellow corn
2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

In a medium pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. When shimmering and hot, add the onions and saute for 4-5 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic and stir for a minute or two until the garlic is fragrant, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the quinoa and cover with broth. Stir in cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes (or until all the liquid is absorbed). Stir in the frozen corn and black beans. Cover and let the pot sit off the heat until the corn and beans are heated through, about 5-6 minutes. Stir in the cilantro. Serve warm or chilled – it is delicious both ways!

Serves 4 as a main dish, serves 6-8 as a side

Per serving (1/4 of recipe): 417 calories; 7 g fat; 72 g carbohydrates; 17 g fiber; 20 g protein; 10 Points Plus

Recipe source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

16 Comments

Posted in Lighter Fare, Meatless, Salads, Side Dishes, Vegetarian & Vegan and tagged black bean, healthy, quinoa, salad, sweet corn, vegan. Bookmark the permalink.

Dilly Cucumber Salad

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Veronica

I remember as a little girl, whenever my Grandma Millner would visit, our refrigerator would smell faintly of onions and vinegar because she’d always have a big bowl of cucumber salad stashed in there. Back then, I remember eating it without complaint, but I wasn’t all that impressed with it. I think I may use more sugar than her, because I’m practically addicted to the recipe I use now, and you all know how much I like my sugar!

This is a wonderfully cold, crisp, sweet, and briny salad to serve during the warmer months, and a great addition to a potluck or barbecue. It reminds me of a better and fresher version of bread and butter pickles, though not quite as sweet. This makes a huge bowl so feel free to cut the recipe down if you don’t think you’ll need this much. Enjoy!

Dilly Cucumber Salad

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4 cucumbers
1 large white onion
¼ cup finely diced red bell pepper
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon dried dill
2 teaspoons salt

Wash cucumbers well (I get them wet and rub a little dish soap over them to get help get the wax off, then rinse them very well with warm water). Cut cucumbers in half, then lay flat side down and slice; place slices in a very large bowl. Next, cut the onion in half lengthwise. Place halves flat-side down, cut in half again lengthwise, then slice very thin width-wise; add to the cucumbers. Measure in remaining ingredients, stir well, and refrigerate overnight before serving. Stir once or twice if you can. The salt will cause water to come out of the veggies and by morning, the liquid will be filled up to the level of the veggies. Serve cold with a slotted spoon.

Serves 16.

Per serving: 52 calories; 0 g fat; 293 mg sodium; 145 mg potassium; 13.1 g carbohydrates; 1 g fiber; 10 g sugar; 1 g protein; 1 Point Plus

Recipe by Veronica Miller

17 Comments

Posted in Salads, Side Dishes, Vegetarian & Vegan and tagged barbecue, cucumber salad, dill, dilly, Memorial day, recipe, red pepper, summer. Bookmark the permalink.

Restaurant-Style Tabouli

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Veronica

Hummus and tabouli are my favorite sides to serve with Lebanese fare. Not only are they simple to make, but crazy delicious! My Mom’s tabouli consists predominantly of bulgar wheat, and most recipes I’ve found are the same, but I noticed when I ordered it at restaurants, it was mostly parsley with a tiny bit of bulgar in it. Not only is this lower in calories (bonus!), but I actually prefer the taste. The parsley and lemon make for a very refreshing salad! Here’s my version of restaurant-style tabouli.

Restaurant-Style Tabouli

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Printable recipe with link

3 bunches parsley, chopped
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup fine bulgar wheat
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, cover, and let sit overnight before serving. There is no need to cook the bulgar, as it will absorb moisture from the salad and become tender in a few hours.

Makes 6 servings. Per serving: 76 calories; 3 g fat; 12 g carbohydrates; 3.5 g fiber; 3 g protein

Recipe by Veronica Miller

I used red onions in the first picture, and white onions in this one. You can also use green onions, if you prefer.

On a personal note: I’m leaving to visit friends in Texas so this is the last recipe I’ll be posting for a while. I know I’m not a regular poster anyway, so you guys won’t even miss me! Nevertheless, I will return later next week with some sweets & savories for you. You’re in for a few treats! :)

12 Comments

Posted in Mediterranean, Salads, Side Dishes, Vegetarian & Vegan and tagged bulgar wheat, diet-friendly, easy, fast, Lebanese, low calorie, mediterranean, salad, tabouli, vegan. Bookmark the permalink.

Fancy Applesauce & A Giveaway!

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Veronica

~This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Amanda, the lucky winner!

There is a shop in Wichita called The Spice Merchant that, until recently, I had never ventured into. Now that I have, I’m slightly dismayed that it took me so long, but I’m very happy that I now have access to premium spices & products that I have been trying to find for years! I snapped up some Vietnamese cinnamon that was so fragrant, it almost smelled hot like cinnamon oil. I added whole nutmegs to my basket, saffron, vanilla beans, smoked paprika, fenugreek…I couldn’t stop marveling at all the things they had that I previously could only find online.

When I got home, I got to work making applesauce with 6 pounds of the apples a friend gave me from her tree. I decided I had to add some of my newly purchased spices and the end result was the best applesauce I’ve ever had! I usually despise applesauce except as an ingredient in baked goods, but I found this fancy stuff so tasty that I’m actually eating the last of it as I type this post–all six pounds gone!

*Moment of silence to observe the dearly departed fancy applesauce.*

To celebrate my first blogoversary, I purchased more of the same ingredients I used in the applesauce to give away to you! If you like to bake, these will come in really handy this holiday season.

To enter to win 2 ounces of Vietnamese cinnamon, 4 Tahitian Papua New Guinea vanilla beans, and 8 whole nutmegs, simply leave a comment on this post. I will draw a winner from the comments using Random.org on Black Friday.

Fancy Applesauce

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

6 pounds apples
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons Vietnamese cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 vanilla bean
1 cup apple cider
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Peel, core and slice the apples. Put in an extra-large bowl. In a small bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla bean and stir into the sugar mixture. Pour over the apples and mix until coated. Dump into a 6-quart crockpot. Combine the apple cider and lemon juice and pour over the apples. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours; mash with a potato masher (will be chunky—to make smooth use a blender) and add additional sugar and spices to taste.

Recipe by Veronica Miller

Linked with Around My Family Table for BSI: vanilla