Quinoa Breakfast, Mung Bean Noodle Soup Lunch & Make Your Own Sushi dinner

Savory Quinoa Breakfast

I imagine that most people feel secure if they know that there is a loaf of bread at home because with two slices of bread a hunger-sating sandwich is only a few moments away. Well, I can’t digest wheat and I try to avoid refined grains (like flour) so for me, I feel secure if I know that there is a pot of cooked grain at home. A bowl of cooked rice, quinoa or buckwheat means something yummy is minutes away!
This morning I took advantage of a pot of Quinoa that I had cooked, just because I wanted it around, last night. Quinoa is nutty, fluffy, nutritious grain (ok it’s a seed, but more on that later) and cooks up in about 20 minutes. A bowl of cooked quinoa will last me a couple of days in the fridge just begging me to include it in breakfast and lunches. This morning I chopped up some onions, carrots and cabbage. Into a pan on medium/high heat went the onions with some sesame oil. Then I crumbled some wild rice tempeh into the pan in order to add some protein and nutty goodness. Then in went the carrots to cook oh so briefly. Then I scooped in some quinoa, added some water and the cabbage, placed a lid on the whole thing and waited about one minute. I cut up a little dulse to go over the top for some nutritious saltiness and at that point Mike and I were ready to eat. But there was a moment of hesitation. Perhaps the thing to do was add a little egg to make it an extra hearty and filling breakfast. I turned back on the heat, cracked two eggs over the entire mixture and began to pull the whites away from the yolks with a wooden spoon. I used the spoon to mix in the whites and get them evenly spread out and cooked while carefully avoiding the yolks. I’m a big fan of a funny yolk. Mission accomplished. We served ourselves big piles of the vegetable/grain mixture and gently spooned an egg yolk on the top. Pure satisfaction breaking the yolk! Some extra salt and pepper made this one-pan-meal a satisfying breakfast.
RECIPE
2 cups cooked quinoa
1 onion chopped
1/2 package wild rice tempeh (or pre cooked soy beans would work well too)
3 carrots cut in match sticks
1/4 more or less cabbage cut thinly
1-2 tablespoons oil (sesame)
water as needed
salt
pepper
2 eggs (optional)
Cook onions on medium high in oil, add tempeh or beans. Add carrots, cook briefly, add quinoa, cabbage and a little water. Cover and cook for about a minute. Add eggs if desired.
Season with salt and pepper, or tamari/soysauce and pepper if desired.
You could use broccoli as well, it might require a slightly longer cooking time than the cabbage.


Mung Bean Noodle Soup

Ate lunch at home today because I took the day off from work. Nothing quite like a hot, sit-down lunch all to oneself at the dining room table with the afternoon light dappled by the fall foliage as Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” plays on vinyl. I heated some water in a small saucepot. When the water was just below boiling I added a handful of green beans and about 1/4 cup of leftover cooked garbanzo beans. Just as the green beans were taking on that bright green color I tossed in some mung bean noodles and cooked for a little less then a minute. Finally I took the pot off the heat and stirred in a big dollop of miso paste. Finally I poured the juice from a jar of kim chee into the soup to add flavor and spiciness. I helped myself to two and a half bowls full. Seems like kim chee is available in most supermarkets. It tends to be near the produce section in one of the refrigerated cases with things like tofu, marinades and dressings. Mung bean noodles are totally cool if you’ve never eaten them. Of course they’re just as cool if you have eaten them, but the point is; try them! You can find mung bean noodles in the Aisian foods section of the grocery store. The package will say “Bean thread” or “Sai Fun” or possibly both. They take almost no time to cook and they have a unique texture that, if I were four, would cause me to want to play with my food for about a half an hour before eating it.
RECIPE
3-4 cups of water
handful of green beans
1/4 cup cooked beans or cubed tofu would also work
2 bunches of bean thread (mung bean noodles)
2-4 tablespoons miso
Juice from prepared kim chee
This would also be nice with some thinly julienned carrots, nappa cabbage and garnished with thinly sliced scallions

Snack
I’m a snacker. I hate to be hungry and have almost no tolerance for, “saving my appetite.” I’m going to eat when I’m hungry and if that spoils some plan for later, well...tough. I’m cranky and often intolerable to be around when I’m hungry and don’t get to heat. So after finishing a batch of college recommendations, I was back at the pot of cooked up quinoa. I simply put about 1/2 of a cub in a bowl with some raisins and chopped up almonds. It’s just like a bowl of cereal minus the added sugar, partially hydrogenated oils, and offers to win a trip to Disneyland. My mom eats the same quinoa, raisin, and almond combination for breakfast but adds a little milk. Either way, spoon it up! It’s quick, tasty and better than a bag o’ chips.

Dinner
Mike and I attempted to ride our bicycles across the country this summer. We made it from Seattle, over the Cascade Mountains and into Montana. Then Mike fell and broke his ankle and we were destined for a three day trip to Maine on a train. But during those first 700 miles I was a little neurotic about keeping up a somewhat healthy diet. Before disembarking we stopped at a health food store outside of Seattle and I purchased four packages of toasted nori sea vegetable. I had no idea if I would be able to find sea vegetables in North Dakota! I are a little of it along the way, but after the first huge pass I took off the front panniers from my bag and sent all unnecessary items home. Including the nori. And so the nori was sent to my mother here in Bangor to await our return. Then it sat in her garage until we found an apartment. And then it sat in the pantry of our new apartment until today. The inspiration to make sushi rolls finally hit. Tonight was “make your own sushi” night at the Alcott/Flannery household. This is a fun meal, extremely satisfying and, unfortunately involves a lot of little dishes that will need to be cleaned.
The key is the sweet brown rice. It looks like short grain brown rice, but it’s a little more bulbous and cooks up nice and sticky just as sushi rice should. Like other grains the rice requires two parts water to one part rice. Place rice and water on high heat until it boils and then reduce to a simmer until water is just about gone. Remove from heat and add a generous amount of brown rice vinegar. Sticky, sweet and tangy. Perfect.
For fillings it is important to have contrasting textures. Tonight I pan-fried some portabella mushrooms that I had on hand and then dressed them with a few drops of toasted sesame oil after they were cooked. Shitake mushrooms are even better. But one of the great things about make your own sushi night is that you have an opportunity to cook up the random vegetables that are in your fridge. Next I peeled and cut lengthwise a cucumber. I scooped out the seeds with a spoon and then cut long thin strips. Then came a rather dangerous task. Not that removing the skin from a raw acorn squash has to be quite so daring. I suppose if I took better care of my knives I wouldn’t risk losing a finger every time I cut up a squash. But I am an imperfect woman. An imperfect woman who loves squash. So I cubed the squash, placed it in a steam basket and set the pot to boil on high. When the squash was soft I mashed it with a table spoon of rice syrup and a little salt. The last item I prepared was an arame sea vegetable salad. I followed the normal routine of soaking for five minutes and cooking on high for about 10 minutes. This time, however, I minced some fresh ginger and added it to the cooking arame. Then once the arame was done cooking, I drained it and instead of the usual rice syrup/rice vinegar/toasted sesame oil dressing, I squeezed a lemon over the top and added about a tablespoon of olive oil. I tossed the sea vegetable salad and then placed it in the freezer for the 5-10 minutes before we sat down to eat. I also prepared some adzuki beans that wound up with some garlic in a food mill. The idea was to have a tasty bean spread to try out in the rolls. Nice idea. The follow through, however, wasn’t so great. The beans belonged in a tortilla and they felt out of place among the clean and simple tastes that make sushi so appetizing
So, not counting the beans, we had two crisp things: the arame salad and the cucumbers, and two softer, denser items: the squash and the mushrooms. This meal would have benefited from some thinly sliced carrots for one more crunchy option and perhaps some avocado for an additional soft, richly textured item. Even so, this was a fun meal. Having the chance to make up combinations and vary amounts is really fun and it’s also nice to be able to make rolls for each other. We love to have this meal with friends because everyone gets to get in on the act of preparation. Keep a bowl of water handy for the knife that is used to cut the rolls. You’ll also need water to wet the top and bottom of the nori so the roll holds together. You can include cooked shrimp or sushi quality fish as well for this meal. A crisp green salad and miso soup are also excellent additions to this meal. You don’t have to eat raw fish to enjoy sushi!!