Winter Vegetable Dal

Winter Vegetable Dal

I want my kids to fail. That's right I don't want my kids to succeed at everything they try. Why? Failure is one of the most important lessons we should be imparting to our kids. Let me provide a little background to my reasoning. My son came home from school last week and informed me that everyone got a ribbon for participating in a school event. Great, so everyone wins for doing nothing. I know that sounds a little harsh, but good old fashioned competitiveness is not a bad thing. I failed a lot growing-up. I tried basketball, softball, gymnastics and I was horrible at all of them. Then I discovered swimming and I was great at it. The pleasure I got from succeeding was that much better since I knew what it was like to be horrible at something. In college I had a professor inform me that I didn't understand anything about the concept of 'national identity' and that I should avoid a degree in English. I ended up getting my BA in English Literature and wrote my master's thesis on national identity and geography. However, if I hadn't done horribly in that class I might have had a very different life. We remember the times we fail, we need those failures to become the adults we are. It seems that we are now teaching our children that failure should be avoided in order to save our children the pain. Yes failure hurts, but the success that eventually comes is that much sweeter for having the fought our way back. So yes I want my children to fail, I will comfort them from the pain and cheer them on when they find a way to succeed. It's a part of growing-up.

My family rarely eats out, less than once a month. However, we all love various ethnic foods so I try to re-create as many dishes at home as I can. Last week I tried a new Winter Vegetable Dal recipe from the January/February 2014 issue of Eating Well magazine.

Winter Vegetable Dal

 

This recipe has 18 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 35 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First, I used a bay leaf instead of curry leaves. Curry leaves are very hard to find in my area and I didn't want to have to go searching for them. I thought that I had cumin seeds in my cupboard, but wasn't able to find them when I made the recipe so I substituted ground cumin instead. I cut my potatoes small, but I still found that my dal took longer than the recipe suggest for the vegetables to fully cook, approximately 10 additional minutes.

Winter Vegetable Dal

My husband and I enjoyed this recipe. It was mild enough that my kids loved it while still being flavorful enough for adults. If you like your dishes spicier you can add a small amount of crushed red pepper. The leftovers of this dish re-heated well and it tasted great over brown rice.

For the recipe go to Winter Vegetable Dal.

Butternut Squash Tortilla Soup

Butternut Squash Tortilla Soup

I have a ton of cookbooks. The bad thing is I never really use them. That's right I am horrible about using my vast supply of cookbooks. Most of them were either gifts or belonged to my mother. I love looking through them and finding ideas, but I really if ever actually follow a recipe from one. A great deal of it has to do with the fact that I find so many recipes on the Internet. Finding a recipe in a cookbook can involve looking through an index and flipping through multiple books. Most of the time I just want to find something quickly. That's where online recipes are great, I can type in the ingredients or recipe I am thinking of and thousands of recipes appear instantly. There are a few things that I prefer with cookbooks. My mother's handwritten notes and modifications being the biggest. Both my mother and grandmother loved their cookbooks and wrote in the margins with the changes that they made. There is such a sense of history and connection to these notes that they are a big part of the reason I love my cookbook collection. An online recipe can have reviews, but it has far less tangible history linking it to the past. Plus I still love the feel and smell of books. There is something so romantic about standing in the middle of a very old library, it feels perfect to me.

During the winter I make a large number of soups and stews. I am always cold in the winter and soups does a great job of warming me up. Last week I tried a new recipe for Butternut Squash Tortilla Soup from the January 2014 issue of Southern Living magazine.

Butternut Squash Tortilla Soup

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 10 cups. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First, I make my own chicken broth. As I have stated numerous times before I prefer homemade stock since its inexpensive, lower in sodium and tastes better than store bought. Plus it is so easy to make! For the toppings I did not add chicken or tortilla chips. Instead I used cheese and served corn tortillas on the side.

The only thing I would change in this recipe would be to use a sweet or yellow onion instead of a red one. The red onion was a little strong, a sweet onion would be perfect. That aside my family liked this recipe. My husband thought it would be better with black beans instead of the squash, he isn't a fan of the current food trend of putting butternut squash in every soup recipe. The soup reheated very well the next day and made enough servings for two meals, which is always nice when following a food budget.

For the recipe go to Butternut Squash Tortilla Soup. 

40 Minute Vegetarian Butternut Squash Posole

Butternut Squash Posole

I would love a weekend just to relax. It never seems to happen in my household. With two very active boys, grocery shopping and household needs my weekends seem to be more hectic than weekdays. Mondays end up being the day I recover from my weekend and start the craziness of my normal weekday routine.

The weekend also seems to be the time that my kids start acting a little crazy. They are decent during the week, but come Friday night everything goes south. By Saturday they are sick of each other and want their space. Last weekend my husband and I tried to enjoy a rare Saturday night out, which ended with a wild Sunday morning. Plus my youngest managed to shut his finger in a hotel door and his finger was more than a little swollen and purple. I'm hoping as they get older that things start to settle down.

Since it's winter squash season I have been using a lot of butternut and acorn squash in recipes. I love butternut squash since it's versatile and adds great flavor to dishes. Last week I tried a new recipe for Butternut Squash Posole from the September 2013 issue of the Food Network Magazine.

Butternut Squash Posole Food Network Magazine September 2013 

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. First my grocery store can be hit or miss with the types of peppers that they carry. There were no poblanos the week I made this recipe, so I substituted an Aneheim pepper since they were available. I bought regular tomato puree, not no salt added, I just added less salt to the recipe. Topping the posole with avocado is a necessary step. It takes the soup from being average to delicious. I really recommend adding it as a topping.

With 9 grams of protein per serving this is a nice vegetarian dinner recipe. My two kids fell in love with this recipe. They ate almost all 4 servings by themselves. I liked that it was easy to put together, while having enough flavor to satisfy everyone in my family. The only change I would make would be to buy 2 avocados since 1 is not enough for 4 servings.

For the recipe go to Butternut Squash Posole.

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40 Minute Vegetarian Butternut Squash Posole

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

Easy vegetarian soup recipe. Kid friendly and easy to prep.

Preparation Time: 0h, 30m

Total Time: 0h, 40m

Yield: Serves 4

Turkey, Squash and Black Bean Chili

There were very few foods that my dad could cook growing-up. He would make great fried potatoes, bacon and best of all chili. Everything else he burned or didn't even try to make. There was one time that my dad managed to completely burn boxed macaroni. He forgot that the macaroni was cooking and the water went dry. It was not delicious. However, he could make great chili. I never understood how everything else he made was so bad, when his chili was so great. Since my dad made chili so well I never really made chili when I was younger. I did have a great recipe for vegetarian chili, but since I married a big meat eater I haven't made it in years. After a couple years of marriage I decided that I needed to start cooking more chili since it is so hearty and can make multiple meals. Fast forward to ten years of marriage and I cook chili once or twice a month in the winter. It is one of my favorite winter time meals, it is warm and filling. Yesterday I made a new recipe for Turkey, Squash and Black Bean Chili from the January issue of All You magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 34 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few modifications to the recipe. First, I have been making an effort to make everything I can from scratch. For this reason I made my black beans from scratch in the Crock-pot. I also grind my own turkey. It is cheaper and the texture is so much better. I saved the leftover butternut squash to make squash bread and it was delicious. The recipe cooks the chili on low for 10 minutes. I chose to cook the chili on medium for 10 minutes in order for it to fully thicken. Finally, I was out of regular chili powder so I used ancho chili powder instead. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My whole family was really happy with this recipe. Normally I make beef chili since it tends to come out more tender and flavorful. This turkey chili was delicious and my husband even commented about how good it was since he normally doesn't like turkey chili. Do not use low-fat ground turkey. Very low-fat turkey will dry out and not have the same flavor as turkey with higher fat content.

For the recipe go to Turkey, Squash and Black Bean Chili.

Butternut Squash and Tomato Posole

My blog readers are probably getting tired of me expressing my love of butternut squash, but I am going to do it again. I love butternut squash and fall cooking in general. As I have stated before the flavors of fall are comforting and delicious when the weather gets cold. Butternut squash to me is one of the staples of fall cooking. It is extremely versatile and can be used in pastas, soups, stews, chili and baked goods. It is also a great way to hide vegetables for kids in muffins and breads. Stew is a staple in my house during the fall and winter. I am always cold once the weather gets cooler so I make a lot of hot stews and soups in order to stay warm. When I first started cooking stews for my family we all fell in love with posole. It is a satisfying and delicious dinner and I make it frequently. Last week I tried a new recipe for Butternut Squash and Tomato Posole from Eating Well magazine, which looked like a great new vegetarian posole recipe.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes a total of 45 minutes, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 5 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I normally buy whole butternut squash, but my store was out so I bought already cut butternut squash. The recipe suggests breaking up the tomatoes by hand, I find this messy. The method I always use is to place the tomatoes in a Ziploc bag, squeeze out the air and then crush the tomatoes by hand in the bag. Much less messy and an easy clean-up. I let my posole cook slightly longer than the recipe suggested. At 30 minutes the squash was more firm than I like. Make sure to fully rinse your canned beans. If the beans are under rinsed they will have a metallic taste, which is unappetizing. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

With 10 grams of fat and 9 grams of protein this is a satisfying meal without being high in fat. The fresh avocado and cilantro on top gives the posole a nice well-rounded flavor. I will say that this recipe isn't overly spicy so if you like spicier posole I would suggest adding a small amount of cayenne. This recipe in addition to being healthy is also inexpensive, costing less than two dollars a serving.

For the recipe go to Butternut Squash and Tomato Posole.

Autumn Root Vegetable Chili

I have made so many sweet potatoes dishes in the last month. This is my favorite time of the year and sweet potatoes are one of my favorite fall foods. I was fortunate enough to receive a substantial amount of yams and sweet potatoes from a friend's garden. I think in total I ended up with over 20 pounds of vegetables. Thanks to this bounty of fall harvest I was able to prepare a large amount of my Thanksgiving dishes without having to spend much of anything at the grocery store. Even before I was given all the free garden goodness I had already been making a ton of sweet potato recipes. One of my favorite ways to utilize sweet potatoes is to use them in chili. My whole family loves chili and sweet potatoes give it an additional flavor and is full of vitamins. Recently I tried a new recipe for Autumn Root Vegetable Chili from the November issue of Family Circle magazine which looked like the perfect fall vegetarian meal.

This recipe has 15 ingredients. It takes 33 minutes of cooking time, 25 minutes of prep and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. This recipe is a little bit prep intensive. Since the majority of ingredients are vegetables there is a lot of peeling and cutting. One way I save time on prep is to cut all the vegetables either in the morning or on the night before. That way I only have a half an hour of cooking at dinner time. The recipe suggests a cooking time of 25 minutes. However, I felt that the sweet potatoes weren't as soft as I wanted them after that amount of cooking time, so I cooked the chili an additional 10-15 minutes. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I love the color on this dish. It would be a great meal to serve to guests since on the plate it looks very fall like. The flavor was mild enough that my two kids liked it, while well rounded enough that my husband and I enjoyed it. If you prefer spicier chili I would recommend increasing the chili powder to up to a teaspoon. I always adjust the amounts of spices to suit my family's needs.

For the recipe go to Autumn Root Vegetable Chili. (registration required)

Squash and Lentil Stew

This has been a long day. Not for the reasons you might think. Don't get me wrong, I love the excitement of election day, but this year it has taken a back seat to the rest of my day. This afternoon my two boys were in the kitchen together. I should have known right there that something was wrong. When my two boys are being quite together something is brewing. I walk in and my youngest son is partially bald and surrounded by his cut hair. You guessed it, my oldest son had given his baby brother a haircut. Now on most boys this wouldn't be a huge deal, but my son had very long beautiful hair. He has always loved his hair long and cried as soon as he realized it was gone. Of course I was trying to figure out what my oldest son's reasoning was. When he finally told me I had to try not to laugh. Apparently my youngest son had been saying 'potty' words and my oldest decided that he needed to be punished...by cutting off all his hair. Gotta love kids! So tonight's blog post goes back a couple of weeks to a great stew recipe I tried. Last month I tried a new recipe for Squash and Lentil Stew from the October issue of Family Circle magazine, which looked perfect for fall.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 56 minutes of cooking time and 20 minutes of prep and makes 6 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I have never seen French green lentils locally, so I used brown lentils instead. Instead of store bought chicken stock I used homemade. I don't salt my homemade stock, but instead salt the stew itself once it's finished. For the carrots I used baby carrots. I find baby carrots easier to deal with, especially since they are already peeled. I let my onion, celery and carrot mixture cook longer than the suggested 5 minutes by the recipe. Instead I allowed the mixture to fully soften. Make sure to fully salt the stew once it has completed cooking. Even with store bought stock this recipe will need a good amount of salt. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

With 8 grams of fat and 17 grams of protein this recipe is a great low-fat meal. My two boys really liked the butternut squash and ate all of it in their servings. I liked that this stew is full of vegetables and beans and has a great flavor. I would suggest letting the stew cook slightly longer than the 40 minutes suggested in the recipe. I think it would allow the lentils to be even more tender and the flavors to fully incorporate. Overall, a great fall recipe.

For the recipe go to Squash and Lentil Stew. (registration required)

Everyday Food Pork Kebabs with Roasted Squash and Sauteed Greens

The last couple of months have been a constant struggle with my two boys over eating their vegetables. There are a few veggies that they will eat a ton of and others that they will pick around at and refuse to eat more than a bite. Luckily, they are great about eating carrots and salad, but I don't want to limit them to only a few vegetables. My food philosophy with my kids is to put the food in front of them and not pressure them to try it until they're ready. A big part of this effort involves only having healthy snacks in the house and including fruit and vegetables at every meal. I was pleased when I was looking through the January/February issue of Everyday Food Magazine and noticed a recipe for Pork Kebabs with Roasted Squash and Sauteed Greens, which looked full of vegetables and promised 31 grams of protein per serving.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active, and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no modifications or substitutions to the ingredients. Make sure to remove all the excess fat and silver skin before preparing the kebabs or the taste will not be as good. Additionally, watch the butternut squash and turn them during the baking time or they will begin to burn. I found that my arugula took slightly longer than the three minutes suggested by the recipe to completely wilt. Also make sure to salt the greens or they will lack flavor.

My two boys loved these kebabs. They were very popular with all members of my household and were very kid friendly. I liked that this recipe included vegetable sides, so there were no other dishes that had to be served along with it. Having everything included in one recipe saved me time and money and the arugula was a nice change of pace from my family's normal vegetable routine. Overall, a recipe that I would make again in the future and a great way to expose kids to a larger variety of foods.

For the recipe go to Pork Kebabs with Roasted Squash and Sauteed Greens.

Food and Wine Pasta with Roasted Squash, Sausage and Pecans

Pasta recipes always grab my attention. I read through a ton of magazines every month looking for new recipes to try. I glance over any recipe with impossible to find ingredients or a flavor that I know that someone in my family refuses to eat. Then I look through the remaining and pull out all the recipes for my recipe file (which funny story is now in an old suitcase). I have a ton of pasta recipes in my pile of magazine recipes to try in the future. I can always be guaranteed that my children will at least try a pasta recipe, which is more than I can say for other recipes. I normally make pasta at least once a week, so I try to vary the vegetables and meats that I use. The February issue of Food and Wine Magazine had a recipe for Pasta with Roasted Squash, Sausage and Pecans, which looked easy and a perfect way to use winter squash.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 50 minutes to prepare and cook, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I did find that my sage didn't work exactly as the recipe stated. When I added my sage to the butter, it only got partially crisp, which was fine since it was for flavor and none of us would have actually eaten the sage leaves. Be careful when roasting the butternut squash or it will burn. I stirred my squash twice during the cooking time to prevent sticking and burning. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The flavor on this dish is mild. The only flavor comes from the sage and the butternut squash. It is a good basic, pasta dish, but it would benefit from either using hot Italian sausage or adding red pepper flakes. My two boys liked the mild flavor and ate their entire serving. My husband and I added red pepper flakes, which we both thought added a nice flavor to the dish.

For the recipe go to Pasta with Roasted Squash, Sausage and Pecans.

Taste of Home Seeded Butternut Squash Bread

I have been on a bread kick lately. Approximately five years back my mother-in-law gave me her old bread machine. I used it like crazy until I broke it after about a year of use. Instead of buying another one I taught myself to make my own bread from scratch. I quickly learned that kneading and baking bread can be very therapeutic and relaxing. Now I make bread at least twice a week and will never go back to buying store bought bread again. Since I make bread so frequently I am always looking for new recipes to try. The December/January 2012 issue of Taste of Home magazine had a recipe for Seeded Butternut Squash Bread which looked delicious and different than the usual bread I make.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of preparation plus rising and 20 minutes of baking and makes 18 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I chose to use pepitas since they are now readily available in my area and everyone in my family loves the taste. The dough is very sticky and it is tempting to add more flour, but refrain, it ends up fine with the amount of ingredients specified. I did find that my bread took longer to bake in the oven than the suggest 18-23 minutes, I would guess approximately 30 minutes total. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I loved the butternut squash in this bread. It gives the recipe a sweet undertone without having to add a lot of sugar. My husband thought that the bread was a little too sweet for his tastes. After sitting in the fridge overnight this bread made a great breakfast with melted butter than both my boys and I enjoyed. This recipe would be a great side for a brunch with eggs or other breakfast foods. I will definitely add this to my Easter brunch menu.

For the recipe go to Seeded Butternut Squash Bread.

Family Circle Root Vegetable Gratin

I have a slight obsession with root vegetables, I absolutely love them. The fall/winter season is one of my favorite times of the year since root vegetables are so easy to find and there are numerous new recipes to try. My two boys are just beginning to appreciate and eat parsnips and turnips, so I have been looking for more ways to incorporate them into my family's diet. Hence, the McDonald's plate in the photo. As I was looking through the November issue of Family Circle magazine I ran across a recipe for Root Vegetable Gratin, which looked delicious and a great way to use root vegetables.

This recipe has 16 ingredients. It takes two hours of prep and cooking time and makes six servings. The prep on this recipe took me slightly longer than the 25 minutes suggested, I find that it takes me a while to prep butternut squash. I was easily able to find all the ingredients at my local grocery store and didn't have to make any modifications to ingredients. I found that even after sitting for 10 minutes the gratin was still not completely thickened. After sitting overnight in the fridge the thickness was much better than when I first served the recipe. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys were big fans of this recipe. Root vegetables are always a hit in my household and this recipe was no exception. The recipe states that it makes 6 servings, but I found that it made more like 8-10 when served as a side dish. I would suggest allowing the gratin to sit longer than 10 minutes in order for it to fully set. Overall, a great fall dish.

For the recipe go to Root Vegetable Gratin.

Better Homes and Gardens Butternut Squash Bake

To say that pasta is a popular dish in my household would be an understatement. My two boys absolutely adore any dish containing pasta, and oftentimes will only eat the pasta, picking around the vegetables and other ingredients. Since pasta is a such a popular item in my household, I try to incorporated as many vegetables as I can for taste and variety. Recently Better Homes and Gardens magazine had a special insert with a recipe for Butternut Squash Bake, which looked perfect for the fall season.

This recipe has 12 ingredients and takes approximately 30 minutes to prepare and 40 minutes to roast and bake. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I did find that I could only find giant butternut squash, so I used the squash for two recipes, this dish and butternut squash chili. The panko was easy to find, so I used it instead of plain soft bread crumbs. I followed the remainder of the recipe as stated.

Butternut squash is one of my favorite winter squash, so finding a pasta recipe incorporating it excited me. I found the dish to be a little on the sweet side, I recommend adding crushed red pepper to accent the flavor. This addition would balance the flavors well. This recipe is a great way to use winter squash currently available at local farmers markets.

For the recipe go to Butternut Squash Bake.

All You Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chili

I absolutely love fall. The weather gets cooler (but not too cold), the leaves turn and best of all fall baking and cooking season begins. There is something about the smells of cinnamon, all-spice and nutmeg that I find comforting and reminiscent of childhood. My mother used to cook tons during the fall season and the smells bring back great memories of the family meals my mother would prepare. The other fall cooking tradition I love is using my crockpot. My crockpot gets a lot of use making stews and chili during the colder months. One of my favorite ingredients to use in chili is butternut squash, so I was pleased the September issue of All You magazine had a recipe for Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chili. 

This recipe has 14 ingredients. The prep time is approximately 20 minutes and then 6 hours of cooking in the crockpot. The ingredients are all basic and I was easily able to find all of them at my local grocery store. To save money I used dried black beans instead of canned, 4 cans of black beans is a lot more expensive than buying them dry and preparing. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written. 

The weather in our area has turned cold the last week and this chili was perfect. My two boys ate out all the beans and refused to eat the butternut squash, but that is usual behavior for them. I appreciated that all the work is done in the crockpot, saving me time right before dinner. My husband took the leftovers to work and said that they re-heated well. Overall, a great crockpot recipe for the cooler months ahead. 

For the recipe go to Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chili.