Apple Cider Chicken

Finally, apple season! Loves the apples. In fact, apples are in the running for ... theme of fall! Other candidates include the color orange, cinnamon, and locally-grown gourds. Election results expected by early next week.

Tonight, apple chicken. Sort of in honor of Rosh Hashanah, but mostly because we found some beautifully fresh apples at the farmer's market on campus.

We started looking for apple-stuffed chicken recipes online, but most of them looked really cheesy and unappetizing. When in doubt, Google, so we looked up "healthy apple chicken," and found this recipe for apple cider chicken on Eat Well. It looked sort of grandmothery, but we took the risk.

In only 30 minutes, we created a really wonderful and comforting meal. It definitely tasted old-fashioned, but it wasn't heavy or fattening. The recipe was designed to be light, and we cut even more calories by nixing the sour cream and searing the chicken in a light cooking spray instead of oil. Try it on a cool fall evening, we certainly will be doing it again.

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/apple_cider_chicken.html

Last Tomato Salad

September.

New classes, new activities, new harvest produce. No more homeworkless evenings, no more grilled vegetable salads (mostly because no more grill), no more lazy mint limeade.

Of course, I can't wait for fall foods -- caramel apples particularly. But walking through the farmer's market this morning, nostalgia struck for the days of summer vegetables. Thus, we have the season's last tomato salad, an homage to all of the tomato salads of the past few months. You tasted really, really good.

Ingredients:
2 large yellow tomatoes, chopped into bite-size pieces
6 Roma tomatoes, chopped into bite-size pieces
1/4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup basil, chopped
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
lettuce

Instructions:
Mix the chopped tomatoes together, add the olive oil, balsamic, and basil, then add the seasonings to taste. Toss together and serve over lettuce.

Healthiest Lasagna

Yesterday, Alex was craving lasagna. We'd been talking about making one, but I've dropped red meat, and neither of were drawn to the idea of consuming pounds of ricotta cheese. (Correction: Reading this over my shoulder, Alex says: I was drawn to the idea of eating pounds of ricotta, I love ricotta). Regardless, it was going to be healthy. Enter vegan lasagna.

We'd each had vegetable lasagna before, but a recipe we found on Healthy Living NYC called for a tofu pesto instead of cheese, and replaced regular pasta with whole wheat pasta. We were intrigued, and decided to take up the challenge.

Admittedly, it was more of a challenge than we expected. This meal took over three hours to prepare. There are a lot of steps, and a lot of components. Yet the results were completely worth it. The tofu pesto tasted so good! We kept eating it plain, and it definitely provided the same texture as the cheese would have. And even though the recipe is already low-calories, we cut some more oil by steaming the spinach instead of sauteeing it. Even Alex, lasagna snob and vegan skeptic, admitted that it tasted not only like real lasagna, but delicious in its own right. Phew.

Check out the recipe here: http://www.healthylivingnyc.com/food/recipe/16

Sweet Potato Fries

The general rule is that we don't recycle recipes. It forces us to try new ingredients and methods, and there is something thrilling about not knowing how a meal will turn out. As we love to say: "It could be good, it could be sick."

That said, sweet potato fries are the exception to the rule. We make them year-round, for groups and for ourselves, for dinner and for snack. They have enough flavor to stand alone, but swiping them through ketchup is also delicious. I found these sweet potatoes at an on-campus farmer's market, and couldn't resist.

Ingredients:
4 sweet potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil (I like less, but depending on the potato size, you could add a touch more)
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400. Slice the sweet potatoes into fry-shaped wedges. Basically, cut the potato in half lengthwise and then do it again to each half. Then cut these pieces into strips. Put them in a bowl, and add all of the other ingredients. Mix it all together. Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and roast them in the oven for about 25-30 minutes, until they are soft yet slightly crispy.

Note: The measurements of the spices can be adjusted to taste.

Orzo with everything

Much to our surprise, people started asking us when we would start posting again. So Kate, Ryan, Chris Perez -- this is for you. We officially become seniors in two days (!), but the opportunity to procrastinate on work should lend itself well to a semester of blogging delicious food. Woot, we're back.

Orzo with everything is perfect to cook for crowds or pot luck events. It is tastes very gourmet but isn't overly heavy. And the colors are pretty for any season. Alex whipped together a batch for my neighborhood's block party this afternoon. It's easy, just a lot of chopping. Don't burn the pine nuts.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups orzo
1/3 cup packed sun dried tomatoes
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vineagar
1/4 cup packed kalamata olives
1 cup finely chopped radicchio
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 large garlic cloves pinced

Instructions
Cook the orzo like you would cook pasta, and put it in a large bowl. Chop the sun-dried tomatoes and olives, and add them to the bowl with oil and vinegar. Let it stand until cool, and then add chopped radicchio and basil, bine nuts, cheese and garlic. Season it.