Oof. One week in and classes are already in full swing (and with four grad level classes, full swing means homework due Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights). Nevertheless, I am back in the kitchen almost every night, even if it does mean that I don’t start cooking until 9:15 most nights of the week. Of course, those nights when I don’t quite make it into the kitchen are usually filled with pizza and beer, so I need to be especially careful to eat healthy the other six nights. And, as everyone knows, pizza always tastes better if you have been subsiding on soups and salads).

With that in mind, I made a delightfully light (and totally filling) arugula salad for dinner the other night. White beans and wild rice provide enough protein that it doesn’t feel like rabbit food, while a light Dijon vinaigrette gives it an elegant flavor.

Arugula Salad with White Beans and Wild Rice 

(Serves two)

• One box baby Arugula  (5oz)
• ½ cup dried or one can Cannelloni Beans
• ½ cup Wild Rice
• 1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. Olive Oil
• ¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard
• ¼ tsp. each Dried Basil and Garlic Powder
• Salt and Pepper to taste

If using dried cannelloni beans, soak for 8-12 hours and then cook for  ~45 minutes in simmering water (enough to cover the beans by one inch) or until a bean can be easily smooshed between your fingers without feeling grainy. Drain and allow to cool completely. Add salt about 40 minutes add a pinch of salt to the water. If using canned beans, they do not need to be cooked, just drained and rinsed.

Simmer the wild rice for 45 minutes in a tightly sealed pot or until rice is tender. Use a 2:1 water to rice ratio. Allow to cool completely before use.

In a cup, combine oil, vinegar, mustard, basil and garlic in a small bowl (I used a measuring cup, fill the balsamic to the ¼ cup mark, then use the oil to fill to the ⅓ cup mark) and whisk with a fork (or whisk if that floats your boat) until all ingredients are well combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.

Combine dressing, drained beans, rice and arugula in a large bowl and toss to combine. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Hey all. As you may have noticed I have flown under the radar this past semester. Apparently, when you are directing a greatly abridged version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

while acting in a mainstage production of Murdered to Death (not, of course, to be confused with the hit movie Murder by Death with Peter Sellers)

and taking a full credit load all during the same semester, you have very little time to cook, much less to create new and exciting recipes for you all to enjoy. But after a holiday break of friends and family loudly wondering when I was going to blog once more, I made myself a new year’s resolution. Now, as I sit here on this lazy Sunday evening, with a pot of French onion soup simmering away, baguettes baking in the oven and a glass of cheap white wine in my hand, I am finally ready to act. From next week on, I will supply you with at least one exciting recipe a week. Who knows? I may even get around to finishing Legume Week. The world is a crazy place.

Whelp…it looks like I chose the exact wrong week to experiment with beans. My wonderful boyfriend just graduated from college which means I have been running around like  a chicken with my head cut off the last couple days. So, sorry about that and Legume Week will start up again on Sunday.

When I first moved into my apartment (and out of dorms!) my sophmore year, I was thrilled to finally have a kitchen. So, of course, I started looking for recipes. The first thing that I ever learned to make by heart was Salsified Chicken, which I affectionately dubbed my “White Trash Casserole” because, well, if you make it you’ll see why. (When you take off the lid you are confronted with a sheet of lumpy melted cheese. Less than appetizing…)

It was cheap, tasty and I was even able to trick myself into thinking that it was not horrible for me. There was only one problem. From the flavor to the texture, the entire thing was completely homogenous. Every bite tasted the same. Don’t get me wrong, the taste was quite good, but it was boring. The reason? Everything gets cooked together in eachothers juices. There is no room for individual flavors (or any texture other than “mushy”) to develop. Paula Dean would be proud.

I decided to challenge that. Using the same basic ingredients (chicken, rice, beans, tomato, cheese and onion-yes, I know that the beans aren’t in the origonal recipe. A girl’s not allowed to be creative?) but cooking them seperately and combining them at the end resulted in an interesting, multi flavored, multi textured culinary experience. Since I didn’t want to completely lose the gastronomical tie between the flavors, I decided to insert lemon as a unifying ingredient.

Black and white makes it a better picture, right?

 For White Trash Casserole:

• 1lb Chicken Breast cut into bite sized pieces
• 1/2 container Chicken Broth
• A Splash of Orange Juice
• One small container Salsa
• 2 Cups of Instant Rice
• 1/2 Bag of Shredded Cheese
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

Cook the chicken in a pan. Add Broth, Juice and Salsa. Bring to a boil. Mix in Rice, salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Sprinkle Cheese over top. Let sit until rice is cooked and cheese is melted.

You can see why it was easy to memorize…

For Something a Little Tastier:

• 1 Cup uncooked long grain white rice
• 1 Cup dry black beans
• 1 Lemon
• Lemon Juice
• Lemon Pepper
• 1 lb Chicken Breast, cut into bite sized pieces
• Salt and Pepper to Taste
• Feta Cheese as desired
• 4 Tomatoes
• 1 Med. Onion

Combine chicken, rice, beans and sauce (recipes below) in a pot. Sprinkle Feta on top and serve.

For Beans:

Soak beans overnight or bring to a boil in two cups of water for three minutes and let soak for 1 hour. Rinse beans thoroughly. Cover with water and bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let cook until beans are tender (about one hour) then add lemon juice to taste.

For Chicken:

Place chicken in a shallow bowl and just cover with lemon juice. Let marinate for 1/2 hour to overnight. Thoroughly dry the chicken with a paper towel and dry rub with salt and pepper. Cook in a dry pan until just browned. Set aside.

For Rice:

Combine rice with two cups of water and 1tbs zest from the lemon. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring water to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 20 minutes and remove from heat until all water is absorbed.

For Sauce:

Roughly chop tomatoes and onion. Place in food processor with lemon-pepper. Process until blended. Pour mixture into sauce pot and bring to a simmer. let cook until onion begins to turn sweet, about 15 minutes.

Go ahead and try both. What did you think? What kind of technique changes have you made to enhance your food?

Hey gang. Clearly I haven’t been posting much of late. This is mostly due to a large variety of work related stress reasons and my complete lack of energy or desire to do anything but watch Family Guy when I get home from work, much less come up with new and exciting recipes to take pictures of and tell you lovely people about.

That is all about to change. You see, something else that I haven’t been doing while not blogging was eating healthily. And so, starting today, I will be doing 8 straight weeks of Weight Watchers points counting.

For those of you who don’t understand how Weight Watchers works, every food (except for most fruits and vegetables) has an assigned point value based upon its calories, fiber, carbs and protein content (ex. a slice of bread is 2 points, a cup of sweet and sour chicken is 12). Every day, I have 29 points to “spend” plus 7 buffer points that add up over the week. The idea is that the only way to not starve on this system is to eat well (and avoiding those 6 point doughnuts).

Naturally, I will be logging my suffering for posterity (and you charming folks). 

Have you ever done WW or another dieting system? Got any advice? Encouragement? Validation about how I don’t really need to lose weight? Validation that, yeah, it’s probably a good thing? Comment!

Alright! After three months of despondantly wilting away, Engineer Food is back! And this means new meals, new videos, new (better) pictures and (drumroll please) real engineer style recipes! So stay tuned, its gonna be a wild ride