off the vegan wagon..sorta kinda

Ok...so I've been doing really well with giving up the seafood in the name of bringing down my cholesterol. However a gal cannot survive on veggies alone. I've been drinking the soymilk in my coffee. No cheese. No eggs. Gave up the half n half. Even though if it was legal I'd pour it on everything. Maybe even bathe in it. But I've been doing well off the dairy. Until tonight. I'm looking in the fridge and my mom bought cozy shack rice pudding. Love it. I have never made rice pudding ever. So I decided to do it in the slow cooker. (For the lazy cook of course) I'm planning on taking a serving for myself..putting some on the side for my mom and taking the rest to work for the ladies. Of course in my mind this is my plan. If its so good I sit in front of the pot and shkoff it all, well that's another story. Or it could come out terrible. I've got another slow cooker with some spinich going on a low and slow heat. I'm sharing my recipe for the rice pudding and will let you know in the morning how it went 3/4 cup long grain white rice 2 cups 1% milk 1 cup water 3/4 cup sugar A sprinkle of cinnamon Pinch of salt 1/2 cup of dried cranberries 3 whole cardomom pods 4 whole cloves a pinch of mace. cook on low overnight. So I'm posting my before pic...and tomorrow ill post what I wake up to. Hope your inspired once again to use that slow cooker.
Off for now!

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its a fish free day

So I just ran into a vegetarian friend of mine...and obviously he's been reading my posts...so of course the first thing out of his mouth is "stop eating fish..there's no need for it"
Well he's absolutely right. I checked my cholesterol this month and it was a bit high. the thing that I've been doing different is eating a lot of shrimp (its surprisingly low in points on weight watchers) and salmon. So I made the decision to go as vegan-ish as I possibly can. I'm cutting out the fish and the dairy products. Today I used soy milk in my coffee and I did my own riff on a chickpea masala. Very vegan. The first thing I did was put all of my spices in a bowl. About a teaspoon of each. Cumin, turmeric, yellow curry powder and a pinch of cayanne. I also had an indian spice mixture that had whole cardomom, peppercorns and corriander in it..I put a tsp of that in the bowl as well. I heated up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a shallow pan and when it was really hot I threw the spices in and watched them bloom...after about a minute I threw in a whole chopped onion and sauteed them for about 5 minutes. Then, I threw in a can of drained rinsed chic peas and a tbs of tomato paste and cooked it down for another 5 minutes. I added a dash of louisiana hot sauce at the end and served it with rice. It came out really good. The first picture is of the onions cooking and the second is of the finished product. So I hope your inspired to maybe make your next meal a meat free experience. Off for now my friends!!

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its Chana Saag....Allison style!

Hello, all my faithful followers. Its time to break out the crock pot again. Indian style. I love indian food and when I go to an indian restaurant I always get two things. Chana masala and saag paneer. So I'm combining the two together (chick peas and spinich) with some traditional indian spices and slow cooking it over night. I'm going to take you through my recipe. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients
3 tbs canola oil
2 tbs tomato paste
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 a large onion, chopped fine
1 can of chick peas drained and rinsed
1 tbs chopped garlic
1/2 jalepeno finely chopped
1 inch chunk of fresh ginger sliced
2 packages of chopped spinich thawed and drained
1 tbs yellow curry powder
1 tbs turmeric
1/2 tsp corriander
A pinch of red chile pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 pinch of mace
8 medium sized mushrooms. Left whole.

The first thiong I did was saute my onions for about 5 minutes. Then I added my garlic and ginger and sauteed for another 3-4 minutes. I added my tomato past to the onion mixture along with my spices. I added everything to my slow cooker. I added my chick peas,spinich and jalapenos and mixed it all together with the tomato sauce. I put the mushrooms on top and set to low for about 6 hours.
Serve over rice or with chapatis. Your choice. This recipe that I created came out consistancy wise a bit different from what's served at the restaurant. But the flavors were there. I'm thinking I might have had too much liquid in the crock pot. I added some water before I turned it on because I'm always paranoid of things burning or sticking due to lack of moisture. I think maybe next time I'll rely on the moisture in the veggies and hopefully it will come out a bit thicker. Well I hope your inspired to go indian style in your slow cooker!
Off for now!

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Happy Passover peeps!

I was talking to a new friend of mine and when I told him I was a vegetarian he was slightly surprized and then said "ohhh that's why you have such a weird cooking style" lol
So for me I guess that's a compliment. So in honor of my new special friend I've decided to share this passover recipe for Matzah Brei. My mother made this all the time during passover when I was a kid. Its basically fried matzah. Its so simple. Its matzah that's been softened slightly in hot water mixed with eggs. It can be done fritata style or scrambled. I always. Make it fritata style. You can add other things to it if you want. Veggies..or anything else you can think of. There are dozens of recipes for matzah brei. You can leave it plain and eat it with apple sauce or jelly. It all depends on your taste. You can make it savory or sweet. I always make mine savory and eat it with apple sauce. My mother asked me what I wanted to eat for passover. So I made this ahead of time. While their eating their brisket..ill be warming this up in the oven. Good meatless eats
Here is my simple recipe. Hope you enjoy

8 peices of matzah. Broken into bite size pieces. Covered with water and soaked for five minutes. Or until soft and then drained.
6 eggs. Mixed really well
1/2 cup of milk. (Skim or whatever you have on hand is fine)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
A tbs of canola oil

After the matzah has been soaked and drained combine the milk and eggs together. Pour eggs over the matzah and combine. Add salt and pepper. Heat up the oil in a large frying pan and add when its hot. I like to cover the first side while it cooks. I find it cooks faster and more even. Make sure its a medium to low flame. When the bottom is slightly golden its time to flip. I do this by putting a large plate on the matzah and holding it in place while I turn it over. I then slide it back into the pan so the other side cooks. When its golden your done. Best served warm for breakfast..or dinner or whenever else you want to have it.
Hope you're inspired this passover!!

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Did you ever think?

Hello all my beautiful foodies out there. My first order of buisness is about a restaurant I pass by quite a bit, Scarpettas. Scott Conant is the owner. I was quite surprised to see that his restaurant got a B rating. As cocky and pretentious as he is, he should be ahamed of himself. I just needed to get that off my chest before I get to the good eats of the day. Thanks for letting me share :) Did you ever just start grabbing stuff to make a marinade or a sauce and really didn't know whether it would turn out good or not. If your adventurous you do those things and hope for the best. Which is what I did today. I was at one of my favorite markets..the chelsea market in the meat packing district. I went into the lobster company. They really do have the best seafood. The scallops are real. Not the fake ones they try to pass off. And they have so many different kinds of shrimp, and fish...yummy yum yum. I was a strict vegetarian for a while but a year or so ago I started eating seafood. I'm what you call a fallen vegetarian. But I'm alright with it! I eat a lot of shrimp and I was really excited to see they had the Langostines. Head on shrimp. I've never had those before and I've heard they're so good. I must admit seeing the shrimp with the head on and those wiggly little antennas was a bit shocking at first, but I didn't come all this way to chicken out now. They're a bit pricey at 20.95 a lb. They also had the blue head on shrimp for 17.95 a lb. I asked what the difference was besides a few dollars in price. The man behind the counter said the blue ones are a bit sweeter so I bought those.
Now the inspiration for my sauce. I love louisiana hotsauce but I wasn't in the mood to be overwhelmed. I wanted them to have some kick but still be mellow. I carefully deveined my shrimp but still left the shell and heads intact. Cooking the shrimp with the shells on will keep them super yummy. I patted my shrimp dry and spinkle with a little salt. I poured on 3 generous splashes of my Orange Blosson honey balsamic vinegar. Probably about a 1/4 cup. Then over that I poured on my louisiana hot sauce. About the same amount. I added a whole bunch of garlic that I ran through a garlic press. About 6 large cloves. I put the lid on the container and shook them up to really coat those shrimp. I let them sit in the fridge for about and hour. I chose to saute them in a combination of olive oil and butter. Butter for flavor...and olive oil to raise the smoking point. If you're going to saute in butter you don't want it to burn so its recommended to add some oil to it. When the oil was really hot I added the shrimp the pan and covered them. I cooked them for about 8-10 minutes.
I have the to tell you..I never thought I would say this out loud. Lol...but I loved ripping the heads off those those babies and sucking the juice out of them!! OMG..double OMG...so feaking good!!
So I highly recommend getting the head on shrimp. And the sauce...the combination of the hotsauce and tasty vinegar was super yummy. Just the right amount of heat. This will definately be added to my special ocassion repertoire for sure
So I hope your inspired to go outside of your comfort zone and try this recipe. Off for now honeybees and bears!

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