Theme Galore! (aaaaaand back in action I hope!)

Dear readers,

If you're seeing this, I applaud your loyalty to my humble and neglected blog. I have been consumed entirely by work and my post-work fatigue. But that is a pretty lame excuse, and who ISN'T tired after work? Really Swati, try again! But I am back here, hoping that this won't be another crying wolf situation and slowly get this blog back on its feet again! The great news though, despite my lack of visible updates, is that I have still been cooking up a storm! My energy level has purely failed in the visible updating/blogging department. Thanks to my boyfriend who has also been participating in the cooking process, we have been doing theme weeks! I will start with recipes from our "Bowl Themed Dinner" where all our foods were in edible bowls! Warning this is quite long, but only cause we made three things :)

Open Faced Samosa

Ingredients:

• 1 can of Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough
• 2-3 medium red potatoes- diced
• 1 small onion- diced
• 1/2 cup of frozen peas
• 2 tsp of garam masala (or curry powder)
• 2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of cumin powder
• 1 tsp of chili powder
• 1 tsp of turmeric powder

Directions:

1. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet/shallow pan and heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Add the onion and cook until translucent.
3. Add the potatoes, peas and all the seasonings & salt to the onion.
4. Mix well and add 1/4 cup of water and cover with the heat on medium-high for about 4-5 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
5. While the filling is cooking, prepare the shells by unrolling the dough from the can. While the dough comes with 8 perforated triangles, we want 4 rectangles. Just press the perforations between two triangles and separate from the rest to create a rectangle.
6. Use the backside of a medium sized non-stick muffin pan (turn the pan over so you're using the protrusions not the craters), place a rectangle of the dough on one of the corner protrusions and shape it gently around the protrusion so it forms the same shape (an upside-down bowl essentially).
7. Repeat this with the other 3 rectangles and use the corner protrusions so they have room to expand without sticking to each other in the oven.
8. Place the pan (still upside-down) in the oven for 12-15 minutes.
9. Remove the dough bowls from the pan gently and place about 2-3 tablespoons of the potato filling in each.
10. Serve while warm! (Also, while this concept may seem odd, you basically eat it like a savory tart ;-))

Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

• 2 Red Bell Peppers with the tops cut off (we used green, but I think red would be better if you can get your hands on em!)
• 1 medium onion- finely chopped
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 cloves garlic- minced
• 1 large tomato- diced and drained
• 1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3/4 cup quinoa
• 1 3/4 cup of water
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (we used a four cheese blend)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
3. Cooking the onion until translucent.
4. Add the garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the tomato and cook until liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes or so.
6. Add the quinoa, the 1 3/4 cup of water, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until quinoa is tender.
8. Add 1 cup of the cheese and the black beans to the quinoa, mix well and remove from heat.
9. Fill each bell pepper to the top with the quinoa mixture and place them in a baking dish covered with foil.
10. Bake for 40 minutes.
11. After removing the baking dish from the oven, sprinkle the additional cheese on the top and serve warm!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cup w/Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 package of CHEWY break n' bake cookies
• 1 pint of Vanilla Bean ice cream

Directions:

1. Follow the directions on the back of the break n' bake cookies for baking temperature and timing.  This varies with each brand.
2. Similar to the samosa, you will be using the back of a medium sized muffin pan.
3. Lightly grease the muffin protrusions depending on the number of cookie bowl/cups you wish to bake (we just made two).
4. Take about 2-3 cookies worth of dough for each bowl, roll them together in your hand and flatten to the size of your palm.
5. Take the flattened dough, place it on one of the muffin pan protrusions and shape the dough around the protrusion to form the shape of the cup.
6. Once you've completed forming all the cups, place the pan in the same upside down manner in the oven for the time stated on the cookie package.
7. After the cookies have baked to the time (or are golden brown), remove the pan and let it cool out for about 6-10 minutes.
8. Gently remove each cookie cup/bowl, they can be extremely fragile.
9. Place a scoop of the vanilla bean ice cream in the cookie cup and serve!