We usually make Moroccan-flavored vegetables as a side dish, and somehow it only recently occurred to us that we could turn them into an entire meal by roasting them with a chicken (yes, we will be graduating from college in three months). I’m so glad that genius finally struck though, because this is a simple and delicious weeknight meal that I would definitely repeat. It has the same healthiness as our usual chicken with onions, potatoes and carrots, but with a much more exotic flavor that we love. Slightly more upscale (and prettier colors!) for minimal additional work.

And if all that weren’t enough, this dish features some of our favorite foods: sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Simply chop them into chunks with red pepper and onion, dress, and roast with the chicken. The only slightly annoying part is that butternut squash is so darn difficult to peel — suggestions anyone?

Ingredients:
2 large onions, cut into large chunks
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 2-inch cubes
2 red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch strips
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch cubes
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp kosher salt
6 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp pepper
1 6-lb. roasting chicken

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. Combine onions, squash, sweet potatoes and peppers in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, cinnamon, sugar, 1 tbsp salt and 4 tsp cumin. Toss this mixture over the vegetables, and stir until they are coated. Sprinkle remaining 2 tsp cumin, 1 tbsp salt and pepper on the chicken. Place vegetables around the chicken (if they don’t fit, you can put some in a separate roasting pan. Cook chicken and vegetables for about 2 hours, until meat is cooked through. If you have some vegetables in a separate pan, they can probably come out after about 1 1/2 hours.

When we are feeding other people, we feel guilty making just a salad. But that’s what we wanted, so we found a dish that exists in both salad and non-salad form: the healthier taco (salad). I write “healthier” for several reasons. Firstly, we used extra-lean ground turkey instead of beef. We added lots of vegetables, and for the salad, we used only a few reduced-fat chips. Obviously, this isn’t the healthiest salad in the world, but we felt pretty good about our modifications.

We transformed the salad from a bunch of ingredients thrown together to a cohesive dish by cooking the ground turkey with seasonings and tomatoes. Additionally, we made a pico de gallo to use for our dressing, and it pulled the salad components together wonderfully.

Ingredients:
(pico de gallo)
3 plum tomatoes, seeded, chopped
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoons minced jalapeño chili
1 garlic clove, minced

(salad)
1 lb. ground turkey
1/2 can tomatoes
1/8 cup onion, chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp oil
1 head romaine lettuce, cut into salad-sizes pieces
1 can black beans
1 bell pepper, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup reduced-fat tortilla chips
cheese (optional)

Instructions:
Make pico de gallo by mixing together all of the ingredients. Heat oil in a large pan. Add turkey and cook through, add tomatoes and chili powder and cook for an additional minute or so. Divide lettuce between two plates, top lettuce with remaining ingredients and pico de gallo.

Still on a cookbook kick from our success with African peanut stew, we turned to another that we had yet to venture into, Susannah Foo Fresh Inspirations. Having eaten at Ms. Foo’s restaurant in Philly, I love how her recipes combine ingredients from different types of cuisine — they’re so unique. The dish we made called for cooking typically Italian ingredients (mushrooms, basil and tomatoes) with a Thai curry paste.

Though we could have easily found these ingredients at our local grocery store, we headed out to an enormous Asian grocery called H-Mart, out by 69th street. We are huge fans of Asian grocery stores, and this one was more than we had hoped for! In addition to a huge prepared foods section featuring enormous vats of kimchee and fresh pasta, the store offered a great variety of fresh sea food and produce. I was especially excited to find Asian sweet potatoes (sweet, but white), which I adore. We picked up some of these potatoes, baby bok choy to stir fry, and the red snapper for our dish. We picked the fish we wanted whole, and watched while they cleaned, skinned and filleted them.

The dish we made involves quite a few steps, but the presentation is great for guests and it tastes yummy. I peeled the tomatoes by first blanching them for 30 seconds then dunking them in cold water, and I recommend getting this done before cooking the fish. Additionally, the recipe we used gave instructions for making a thai curry sauce from scratch, but we modified it by just mixing curry paste with some coconut milk for a similar result. We served it with baby bok choy — which we cooked with a bit of sesame oil, then let braise with a bit of chicken broth and oyster sauce — but it will go great with tons of veggies.

Ingredients:
4 6-ounce red napper fillets, skin on
2 tbsp vodka
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
4 ounces button mushrooms, thinly sliced
4 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and quartered
1 can coconut milk
3 tbsp Thai red curry paste
1 cup fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

Instructions:
Spoon vodka, soy sauce and 1 tbsp olive oil into a large zipper bag. Place fillets in bag and refrigerate 1-2 hours, turning occasionally. Drain fillets, pat try and place on a plate. Heat remaining olive oil in a large nonstick skillet. Meanwhile, heat coconut milk, curry paste and basil in a saucepan. Once the oil is hot, add 2 fillets skin-down and sear for 2 minutes, until skin is golden. Remove and repeat with other 2 fillets, then remove. Add mushrooms to skillet and turn heat to low, cook until soft, about 2-3 minutes. Place fillets on top of mushrooms, skin-side up. Place tomatoes around fillets and pour curry sauce over fish. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, until fish just cooked through. Plate fish and vegetables.

Every day, I walk past our glorious cookbook shelf and feel very guilty. I just counted: We have 23 cookbooks, and 11 of them have never been used. Until today, 12. Actually, I should probably say that we’ve never used recipes from them, because all of them have been read, studied, and salivated over. Today I pulled out one of my lazy-afternoon favorites, Mark Bittman’s The Best Recipes in the World, and decided to put it to its intended use.

Because it looked too delicious to resist, we chose a recipe for North African Peanut stew. We ended up adapting it a lot, but the book was open while we were cooking so it counts as proper use. Our primary modification was the addition of vegetables, and I think you could even add more if you want. We fed this to everyone who passed through the kitchen this evening (more people than one might think), plus some invited guests, and there was a strong consensus on the side of delicious. Served over rice, this dish is sweet and savory, filling and unique.

Ingredients (makes a lot, maybe 8 servings):
6 chicken breasts
3 tbsp canola oil
2 onions
6 carrots
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
3/4 tsp cayenne, or more to taste
3 cups chopped tomato, fresh or canned
1 bag frozen peas
6 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp corn starch (optional)
peanuts (optional for garnish)

Instructions:
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large pan, add chicken and cook until browned, about 4 minutes on each side. Set aside. In a large pot, heat the remaining tbsp oil in a large pot. Add onion, ginger and carrots, and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in cayenne, tomatoes, and peas, until the tomatoes have softened, about 5 minutes. Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes, and add to the pot. Add 4 cups stock, and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and tender, about 10 minutes. Whisk or blend together remaining chicken stock with peanut butter, and whisk into the pot mixture. Cook for another 30 minutes or so. Taste, adjust seasonings, and serve, with optional peanuts on top.

Holy mother of muffins, we’ve truly outdone ourselves. I’d call them gems, but they are more like diamonds — big, beautiful, shining diamond muffins. I’m so proud!

So sometimes clothing designers do this thing where they name pieces after people who inspire them, like “Emily dress” or “Sara tee,” and I thought why not do the same for food. These are Jacqui muffins, inspired my roommate. Since a “Jacqui dress” would be high-fashion but classic, with tons of awesome elements that come together perfectly, I tried to achieve the same composition in this muffin. Besides, Jacqui loves to order muffins at overpriced coffee shops, especially when they come in pretty wrappings like the ones we used. But if you feel awk calling a muffin after someone you don’t know, you could just call these Everything muffins, because it is essentially what they are. And when Everything is assembled with careful proportion, it’s a wonderful thing.

I started out with a modified batter (I made it half whole wheat) from our carrot cake muffins, and added from there, adjusting the wet ingredients to compensate. I threw in anything that I thought would taste good, including nuts, seeds, oats, raisins and orange zest. The result was a super intense, moist, scrumptious muffin that is perfect for anytime. Have fun baking them for the red-headed Canadian Whartonite roomie in your life.

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp orange zest
3/4 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely shopped
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup golden raisins
2 cups raw carrot, grated
1 large apple, peeled and grated

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350, line muffin pan with cups. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in orange zest, walnuts, coconut, rolled oats, raisins and pumpkin seeds. In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs, and whisk in vanilla and oil. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Add carrot and apple, and mix. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake until an inserted knife comes out clean. For normal-sized muffins, this should be about 20 minutes, but cooking time will vary.

Sometimes, we have great excuses for not posting for a while, but today we do not. Our parents were here this weekend, if that counts. I had a paper due today, though admittedly it didn’t take that much time. Well, as always, we have a classically Als recipe to ease us back into the blogs.

It’s not the most beautiful soup in the pot — but here’s a quick and simply delightful mushroom barley. We modified some classic recipes to create something that is do-able in about an hour, but still retains the wholesome, homey flavor that we love. The shitakes and soy sauce lend an interesting note, and complement the other ingredients without overwhelming. Served alongside olive-rosemary dinner rolls, this was more than we ever expected from such a basic recipe.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
5 carrots, sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
3/4 lb. button mushrooms, sliced
1 cup dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in 2 cups of hot water (do not discard water)
1 onion, sliced
6 cups chicken broth
1 cup barley
salt and pepper
soy sauce
parmesan cheese to garnish

Instructions:
Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onions, carrots and button mushrooms to pot, and saute until soft. Add barley and saute for five minutes. Add shitake mushrooms, chicken broth, and 1 cup of water from the soaking mushrooms. Bring to boil, then turn down to simmer for 45 minutes. Add a splash of soy sauce if you like, serve and garnish with cheese.