July 8, 2010 – Foodologie

Yesterday was another blazing hot day (and today will probably be the same).

As promised, I got up at 5:55am and got my workout out of the way before it started to get hot. I think my early morning work out when it was still a reasonable temperature (70 degrees by 6:00am) made me underestimate the heat. I did 2 things today I probably shouldn’t have done in this temperature.

1. I thought it was cool enough to bake.

Surprisingly, my apartment was fairly cool. Sadly, my creation didn’t turn out that great. I thought I would make Peanut Butter Banana Blondies, but really they just turned out to be like Peanut Butter Banana Bread. Not bad, but not what I had in mind and definitely not worth the calories. I hate wasting food but most of them went in the trash.

Usually I give my baked goods away, but if it’s not good enough then I won’t give it away. Is that terrible?

2. I made risotto for dinner with my roommate.

Delicious but stirring this thing for 20 minutes over a medium/high flame while my apartment was almost 90 degrees was probably a bad idea. Please make this on a cool day if you (like me) do not have air conditioning in your house! But if it’s below 70F (or you can make your house that cool), then by all means make it ASAP!

Vegetable Goat Cheese Risotto

4 cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion (or two small), thinly sliced
2 tsp minced garlic
1 cup arborio rice
1 cup peas, frozen
1 tomato, seeded and diced
4 oz goat cheese
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil (plus more for garnish)

Bring broth to a boil, turn flame on occasionally to keep warm until ready to be used.

In a pot or deep sauce pan, heat oil, add onions, garlic and arborio rice. Cook for about 5 minutes or until rice is golden brown, about 5-10 minutes. Add broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly until it is all absorbed, about 20 minutes. Lastly, stir in peas, cheese, tomato and basil and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Top with extra basil and serve! Serves 4-6.