Harvest Month- Bulgur Salad

Here's the second recipe I tried out for Harvest Month here at Small Time Cooks. Bulgur was the next grain I was interested in trying out, but I wasn't sure what kind of recipe I should go with. Naturally, I turned to my stand-by source, Everyday Food. I found this recipe for Bulgur Salad and decided it would probably be a pleasant side for some grilled fish. And it was pleasant enough. It wasn't really standout, but it was good. I might make it again, but I think I'll probably find another recipe to try out for the rest of the bulgur in my pantry. I'll be having the leftover salad for lunch, sprinkled with some feta. Cause feta makes everything better, right? That's the other thing- even though I halved this recipe for 4, I still had a lot of salad. Not sure what their idea of a serving size is for this, I know I had at least a cup at dinner.

Bulgur Salad
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4














5 1/4 ounces dried bulgur (1 cup)
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 cup (packed) chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper

• In a large bowl, pour 1 cup boiling water over the bulgur. Cover with plastic wrap; let stand until water is absorbed, about 30 minutes.
• Add cucumber, onion, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; toss to combine. Serve warm, cold, or at room temperature. (To chill, cool, then refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 day.)

My notes: I'm sure my cuke and onion weren't chopped/diced small enough, but I tend to be lazy when it comes to dishes where size won't affect a cooking time. And I didn't peel my cucumber, because I hate to turn down and opportunity for more fiber.

Harvest Month- Greek-Style Quinoa Burgers

I have had very little experience in cooking with the great variety of grains available for your pantry shelves. So a few weeks ago, while thinking about the next challenge I might present to myself once my self-imposed grocery budget was lifted, I thought that the fall season would be the perfect time to try out some of these different grains. Fall, harvest, grains- you get it. So, my goal for the month of November is to try one recipe a week that utilizes a grain that I have never cooked with before. And with that in mind I went searching for my first recipe while meal planning this weekend. I rather quickly found this recipe, which is from Martha Stewart's wholeliving . I recently had a more or less failed attempt at making baked falafel, so this recipe seemed like a good challenge in a slightly similar vein. And I had a much more successful attempt with this one. These came out so deliciously! They were also very easy to make and despite my concern that the burgers would not stay together through cooking I had no problems once I chilled them as the recipe suggested. Highly recommend these as a very filling vegetarian meal option. Quinoa is the member of the grain group with the highest amount of protein, so combined with the beans and an egg you definitely don't feel like you've missed out on anything during your meatless meal.

Greek-Style Quinoa Burgers
Recipe from Martha Stewart's wholeliving; Serves 4














1/2 cup rinsed quinoa
1 medium carrot, cut in large chunks
6 scallions, thinly sliced
15 oz. great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Coarse salt
Ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 pitas (each 6 inches)
1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced diagonally

• In a small saucepan, bring 3/4 cup water to a boil; add quinoa, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook until liquid is absorbed, 12 to 14 minutes; set aside.
• In a food processor, pulse carrot until finely chopped. Add cooked quinoa, half the scallions, beans, breadcrumbs, egg, cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; pulse until combined but still slightly chunky.
• Form mixture into four 3/4-inch-thick paties (dip hands in water to prevent sticking). If too soft, refrigerate 10 minutes to firm. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium; cook burgers until browned and cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes per side.
• Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, and the remaining scallions; season with salt and pepper. Serve burgers in pita topped with cucumber and yogurt sauce.

My notes: I served this with a hastily thrown together greek salad, using some of the cucumber, a 1/4 of a red onion I had in the fridge, two seeded tomatoes, juice of half a lemon, drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of feta. Oh boy, I love Greek salad- even a hasty one! The tart dressing and salad, and salty feta were good compliments to the slightly spicy burgers. Wetting your hands when forming the patties and refrigerating them are both key, in my opinion, to getting these burgers ready for the pan. I definitely look forward to making these again.

The Incredible Shrinking Grocery Budget- 3rd Week

Well, here it is- the last grocery week of the month for us. And this week we managed to keep the bill under $50 fairly easily. Even after two stores we hit total at $40.84. Although I realized I'll probably need to pick up some cat food sometime this week, so that will inch up a bit. We still have a little food leftover from the baby shower I hosted this weekend and once again a recipe carry-over from the week before. But I'm realizing that that meal might be put on hold again due to a change in plans for our upcoming weekend. Hmmmm. Anyway, in making this week's menu I relied on the rest of the Rosemary bread in the freezer, as well as some frozen bolognese sauce. This week also has two meals that use eggs, as I've been letting the eggs I buy go to waste lately and want to make sure I use up what I had to buy for some baby shower recipes. Relying on using up what we had and meals that use cheaper ingredients, some of which were on sale, I was able to plan a meal that I had to buy practically every ingredient for- the stuffed peppers. The most expensive ingredient for this recipe was the corn meal, which was a 5 pound bag and will last long beyond this one dinner. The rest of our shopping was comprised of our usual produce purchases, cereal, and Josh's favorite fig cookies. So, what are we eating this week?

-Rosemary French Toast w/ mushrooms & onions and salad
-Polenta-stuffed Poblanos w/ spicy black beans & tomatoes and salad
-Baked Eggs w/ mushrooms, onion & croutons and salad
-Bolognese Pie and salad

Think I'll postpone the manicotti (again). Josh and I decided that we haven't had enough together time lately so we plan to order pizza Friday night and get crumbs in the bed while we watch movies. :)

The Incredible Shrinking Grocery Budget- 2nd Week

This week, once you take into account the body wash, wrist brace, and salad & sushi we grabbed for lunch, we only spent $50.87. This week's menu is built around leftover ingredients from the previous week's meals. I will use up the rest of the tortillas and cheese from our Spinach Quesadillas by making Zucchini Quesadillas this time. And I'll be trying out a new recipe to use up the rest of the spaghetti sauce that I originally bought for the Meatballs & Spaghetti dinner. The rest of the week's meals were decided on what I had in the pantry. I also took advantage of a couple of sales this week to stock up on some things. I bought 3 cans of tomato soup for $1.80, a favorite of mine and also an ingredient in my beef stew which I will no doubt be making soon as the weather turns cooler. And we bought nearly 2 dozen BIG apples, which were on sale for .99 cents a pound. Now we won't have to buy any apples next week! Salad ingredients, fruit, and pantry staples fill out the rest of the grocery purchases. So, between what we already had and this week's purchases we'll be having the following this week:

-Hamburgers w/ chili-roasted sweet potato wedges and salad (carry-over from last week)
-Zucchini quesadillas w/ black bean soup and salad
-Broccoli & cheese stuffed manicotti and salad
-Minestrone and salad
-Frozen pizza (very busy day prepping for baby shower this weekend)

The Incredible Shrinking Grocery Budget

Well, well, well..... here I am. Again, taking forever to get around to posting something. And not even a recipe post at that. We are tightening our belts lately due to lots of unexpected and, to be perfectly honest a couple of unnecessary (but fun), expenses. This month we have a goal of keeping our weekly grocery bill under $50 to help offset some of this spending. We both take our breakfast and lunch on workdays, so that makes it a bit more of a challenge. However, the freezer is well stocked so I don't have to buy meat, and it's not quite time yet for holiday baking, making it a perfect time to cut back on the grocery budget. With that in mind I made the following menu for the week:

-Baked Potatoes & Salad
-Spinach Quesadillas w/ Black Beans & Salad
-Rosemary Meatballs w/ Pasta & Salad
-Steamed Veggies w/ Brown Rice & Salad
-Grilled Cheese & Chicken Noodle Soup
-Hamburgers & Chili-Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges

I already had the meatballs, ground beef, pasta, rice, sourdough bread, and cheese so none of those things had to be purchased. Working with what we had helped a lot- we spent $40 and some change this week. How much do you typically spend on your groceries? Have you come up with any new ways for keeping your food bill down?

L'il Smoky the Cheese Ball

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Josh has been out of town, I was planning our housewarming, we're about to go on vacation, yada yada yada. You know how it goes. But speaking of our housewarming I wanted to share a recipe that I made for it. I was just looking to do a general snack smorgasborg, so the menu went something like- assorted cheeses, pepperoni, assorted crackers, baguette slices, pita wedges, two types of hummus, assorted crudites, ranch dip, Ruffles, tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, cold pesto pasta salad, pretzel nibs, mixed nuts, flavored potato chips, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and some cupcakes from Stephanie. The one new recipe I decided to try out for the party was Amy Sedaris's cheese ball, L'il Smoky. I loved the kitsch factor of a cheese ball, and I loved the quirkiness of it being an Amy Sedaris recipe. I did have to encourage people at first to give it a try, our generation not really having a large exposure to cheese balls. But once people gave it a shot it turned out to be the hit of the party. There was just a tiny little nub of cheese and nuts left at the end of the night. I'll definitely make this recipe again for future entertaining.

Amy Sedaris's L'il Smoky Cheese Ball















2 8 oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups shredded smoked Gouda, room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tbsp. milk, cream, or half-and-half
2 tsp. A-l steak sauce
2 cups crushed walnuts or pecans
crackers for serving

• Place Gouda, cream cheese, butter, milk, and steak sauce in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment; mix until well combined. Transfer mixture to refrigerator; let chill overnight.
• Roll cheese mixture into a ball. Place nuts in a shallow dish. Roll cheese ball in nuts to fully coat. Serve with crackers. If preparing in advance remove ball from refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.

My notes: I made a half-size ball and it worked out well for our party of about 25-30 people. I served it surrounded by Wheat Thins, but it was just as good with the other crackers options on the table. The smoked Gouda and steak sauce combine to give it a great flavor. One of our vegetarian friends remarked that it tasted almost meaty, and I assured her that it was due to the cheese/sauce combo. No meat involved!

P.S. If you click the recipe title link you can watch a hilarious video of Amy on Martha Stewart making this cheese ball!

Photo via Martha Stewart

Black Bean Confetti Salsa

Things have been very busy around these parts lately. Josh has been doing a lot of traveling on weekends and in the next two weeks we'll be having friends over to see the house for the first time and then going on vacation. New recipes have been trumped by finishing up projects, cleaning, and eating some of the reserves in the freezer. Last weekend though we managed to get away from all the chores for a Labor Day potluck. I decided to make use of the still reasonably priced summer produce and take Deb's Black Bean Confetti Salad, although I always eat it scooped up on tortilla chips so I call it a salsa. It's easy, colorful, delicious and can please just about any party-goer, be they carnivores, veggies, or vegans.

Black Bean Confetti Salsa
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen














2 15 ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 bell peppers, a mix of colors, small dice
1 medium white onion, small dice
Juice from one lime
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/8 teaspoon cayenne

• Mix beans, bell peppers and white onion in a large bowl. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk remaining ingredients into a vinaigrette. Pour over the bean mixture, toss it well and adjust seasonings to taste. Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

My notes: This makes quite a bit. In fact, I ate it for lunch the rest of the week. Next time I think I'll halve the recipe and use the extra bell pepper for our lunch salads. But it's really good, and a nice break from heavy dishes that typically turn up at a potluck.