Kira Cooks

Asparagus Spears with Puff Pastry

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
- 20 asparagus spears
- 1 sheet puff pastry (defrosted ~40 mins)
- Powdered cheese (parmesan or other)
- Salt
- Olive oil or olive oil spray

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with foil and spray with nonstick spray/olive oil spray.
2. Wash asparagus spears and break off hard bottoms.
3. Unfold puff pastry sheet on cutting board; cut into twenty 10”-long strips ~1/4” wide.
4. Wrap each asparagus spear with puff pastry in a spiral, sealing together at each end. Place on cookie sheet.
5. Brush or spray spears with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and powdered cheese. Bake for ~18 minutes.

5/25/12

1 week ago 21 notes View high resolution

Raw jicama “fries”~

This was my first time eating jicama. :) It’s a little sweet and (like you’ll find other people saying online) tastes like a mix between water chestnuts and apples.

I used this recipe: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/rawfoodsrecipes/r/jicamafries.htm

To make it a little healthier, I used olive oil spray instead of what the recipe calls for. They’re not bad, but the sweetness of the jicama is throwing me off a little. I’d be interested to try that seasoning mix on water chestnuts, though!

4/15/12

1 month ago 5 notes View high resolution

Roasted broccoli and sweet potato with miso dressing!

(Adapted from this recipe—I substituted honey for the agave and added sweet potato.)

Ingredients:
- 2 broccoli crowns, cut into bite size pieces
- 3 very small sweet potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
- 2 tbsp miso paste
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp water
- Sesame seeds for topping

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 and spray nonstick pan with cooking spray.
2. Lay broccoli and sweet potato flat on pan and roast for 20-22 minutes, flipping about halfway through.
3. Mix together all other ingredients (except sesame seeds) with a whisk; coat roasted veggies in sauce and serve sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Yummy! Mine made about 3 servings at 125 calories each. :)

4/2/12

2 months ago 3 notes View high resolution

Yummy French toast~ :D My late-night dinner tonight!

Ingredients:
- 2 slices multigrain bread (I get mine from an awesome bakery in Saugerties, NY)
- 1 large egg
- About 2 tsp or 1 tbsp milk (I used 1%)
- Splash of vanilla extract
- Cinnamon

Directions:
1. Heat a skillet on medium and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Beat egg and then mix in milk, vanilla and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
3. Coat bread in egg mixture on both sides; add to skillet and sprinkle more cinnamon on top. Cook on both sides until browned. Top with maple syrup and, if you want, blackberries! :)

3/8/12

2 months ago 2 notes View high resolution

Red quinoa and Japanese sweet potato!

I usually make this with short-grain white rice, but decided to try it with quinoa today. I’m guessing you could probably make it with whatever grain of your choice, assuming it cooks for about the same time as rice (and in the same way). Mine actually turned out a teeny bit undercooked, but it’s still very yummy!

Ingredients (for one small serving):
- 1/4 cup dry red quinoa
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp mirin
- 1/2 small Japanese sweet potato, peeled and cut into little cubes

Add all ingredients to rice cooker, turn it on and wait. :) You can probably cook this on the stove just fine if you don’t have a rice cooker; just follow normal cooking directions for quinoa/rice!

One small serving is about 240 calories total.

2/22/12

3 months ago 5 notes View high resolution

Veggie and shrimp stir-fry!

This is my healthy lunch today. :) I made a BIG batch for just myself, but it’s still only ~220 calories. Only unhealthy(ish) part is the stuff I cooked it in!

Veggies/shrimp I used (feel free to use whatever you like!):

Savoy cabbage (about 3/4 of a cup, chopped)
Baby carrots (about 1/2 cup, cut in half both ways)
Sugar snap peas (about 10 pods, cut in half)
Yellow onion (about 1/4 cup, cut in bite size strips)
Brown mushrooms (4 of them cut in quarters)
Baby cut corn (from a can, maybe 1/4 cup)
Broccoli (1 small crown, stalk cut off and head cut into small pieces)
Shrimp (8 smallish sized shrimp)

Stir fry sauce:

Little bit of water (maybe a few tbsp)
Last of my white cooking wine (2 tbsp)
Soy sauce (1-2 tsp)
Splash of mirin
Peanut satay sauce (1 tbsp, added last)

Directions:

1. Chop up all your veggies!
2. Heat a large frying pan on medium and add water/white wine/soy sauce/mirin (you can tweak this to whatever you like to use).
3. Add veggies (NOT SHRIMP).
4. Cook veggies covered for a few minutes, then stir, then repeat.
5. Uncover veggies and add shrimp in the middle of the pan so it’s touching the skillet.
6. Cook shrimp for a minute or so and then flip; add peanut satay sauce to veggie mix.
7. Stir everything together again and cook for a minute more, then serve. :)

Like I said: delicious and healthy!
220 cals for the whole thing, but you could easily get full on half of this.

2-10-12

3 months ago 4 notes View high resolution

Vegan strawberry pancakes

I found myself making these this morning because I wanted pancakes but I had: A) No eggs, and B) No regular milk.

What I did have was vanilla rice milk and the power of google to help me edit a recipe I found.

Here’s my edited version~

Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup white flour
- 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup vanilla rice milk
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 large strawberries, cut into little pieces

Directions:
1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl (mix together) and wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
2. Add wet ingredients and strawberries to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly (batter may be a little lumpy, but that’s okay—just make sure it’s thick enough (you can add flour if you have to)).
3. Pour a little less than 1/4 cup of batter onto heated skillet at a time. Flip when brown on the bottom.

When I made these, I ended up with 6 small pancakes, at 58 calories each. :)

1/26/12

4 months ago 10 notes View high resolution

Zaru soba with homemade tsuyu dipping sauce

The first bite of this made me REALLY miss Japan. I used to get this a lot at the dining halls on campus when I was studying abroad. It’s pretty simple—cold soba noodles with yummy dipping sauce.

Ingredients:

- 1 bundle soba noodles (I used Koyo brand organic soba)
For sauce:
- 1/2 cup dashi soup stock (I use instant stock powder + water; you can also use water and boil it for a few minutes with some kelp and bonito flakes, then drain)
- 1/8 cup soy sauce
- 1/8 cup mirin
- Sprinkle of cut toasted nori (optional), or sliced scallions

Directions:

1. Boil water for dashi and add dashi powder or kelp + bonito flakes. Boil for a couple minutes, then drain if using kelp/bonito.
2. Mix in soy sauce and mirin; refrigerate mixture till cold.
3. Cook soba noodles according to package directions.
4. Drain noodles in colander with thin openings, and wash thoroughly with very cold water (use your hands!).
5. Serve noodles on a plate with optional garnish; dipping sauce on the side in a small bowl. Enjoy!

1/25/12

4 months ago 13 notes View high resolution

Meringue Cookies!

These are yummy, light, crunchy and can be made with stuff that you probably already have in your pantry. :) Plus they’re fairly low-cal!

Adapted from this recipe. Go here for tips on proper techniques for making these—they’re simple but a lot can go wrong! (Ex. Don’t bake them on a humid day; don’t try and bake them faster than the recipe says, or they’ll dry out; etc.)

Ingredients:

- 3 egg whites (if ANY yolk gets mixed in, you need to throw it out and start over!)
- 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place waxed paper on a nonstick baking sheet.
2. Separate egg whites from yolks. Add egg whites, vanilla and lemon juice to metal or glass bowl of electric mixer (make sure there’s no oil or fat residue on the bowl from previous use; this could cause the egg whites to not get airy).
3. Beat egg white mixture on high (8/10) till it starts to get frothy and expand a little.
4. Gradually add powdered sugar while egg whites are beating; scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
5. Continue beating mixture for anywhere from 10-20 minutes, until it is an even, shiny white and starts to form stiff peaks. If your mixture is runny, beat it more! (I used this time to do the extra dishes from measuring the egg whites and sugar!)
6. When mixture is glossy white and holds its shape fairly well (almost like dense whipped cream), spoon into pastry bag or zip lock bag with hole cut in the end.
7. Pipe small mounds of mixture onto waxed paper on baking sheet; don’t be afraid to put them a little close together, as they don’t really expand while baking. This recipe will make between 30-35 small cookies as pictured.
8. Bake for 2 hours, then turn the oven heat off and let sit in the oven until completely cooled (30-60 minutes). You HAVE to bake these at a low temp for a long time so that they’ll dry out and won’t be mushy and raw on the inside!

My batch made 33 cookies, which meant they were 27 calories apiece. :) It’s about 900 cals for the entire batch, so if you want to make bigger or smaller cookies, just divide that by how many you make to find out the calorie count!

1/22/12

4 months ago 6 notes View high resolution

Homemade (hot!) bubble milk tea (boba/tapioca pearl tea)

Ingredients:
- Hot tea, whatever kind you like, brewed strong
- Cooked & sweetened tapioca pearls (I use these and just follow the directions on the bag, then cover in sugar syrup for a while)
- Honey or additional sugar syrup, to taste
- Sweetened condensed milk, to taste (I used low fat, and maybe 2 tsp per cup?)

Put everything in a mug or glass with a thick straw and enjoy. :)

1/9/12

4 months ago 18 notes View high resolution

Quinoa with chicken sausage, asparagus & onion (HEALTHY & low calorie!)

Ingredients:

- Vegetable oil spray (or olive oil, or whatever you want to use)
- 1/2 chicken sausage link (I used Al Fresco Buffalo Style)
- 9 small/medium asparagus spears, cut into 1” pieces (ends snapped off)
- ~1/4 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup cooked plain quinoa (I made it in my rice cooker and saved the leftovers!)
- Salt, pepper, any other spices you want (I used Montreal chicken seasoning)

1. Cook quinoa on stovetop or rice cooker (I used a 1:2 ratio of rinsed quinoa to water in my rice cooker).

2. Spray small frying pan with oil and preheat on medium.

3. Add raw chicken sausage, cooking on all sides so the outside is cooked through.

4. Add chopped asparagus and onion; spray with more cooking oil if necessary.

5. Cut sausage into pieces so that the inside can cook through; add salt/pepper/spices.

6. Add in 1/2 cup cooked quinoa and stir so everything mixes together well; serve.

Makes 1 serving, but this recipe can easily be multiplied by just adding more of everything to your liking.

1 serving = Approx. 170 calories :)

12/30/11

5 months ago 17 notes View high resolution

Kira Cooks

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