Tag: Dinner

Carb-a-licious!

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Hi everyone!  Happy Saturday!

I woke up this morning still full from last night!  That African food was dense!  After a Green Monster and some internet perusing, I headed to the gym where I ended up doing 4 miles on the treadmill.  My knees felt fine, probably because I did a run/walk combo (run 2 mins/walk 1 min).

I came home to try something new:

Barley!

I’ve realized that complex carbs keep me full for longer.  The past two days I’ve come home ravenous after a basically complex carb free lunch!  So I’m going to try to incorporate whole grains and other complex carbohydrates into my lunches to see if that helps keep me from wanting to gnaw my arms off around 4:30pm.

I made a delicious stir fry with a bit of coconut oil, garlic, zucchini, bok choy, scallions and Kikkoman Ponzu. On top of that, I added a chopped up Spicy Chik’n Patty and helping of barley!

Delicious!  Very filling!  Finished off the meal with two cuties and huge cup of green tea!

I basically did nothing today… I went to TJ Maxx to return the fantastic red heels that didn’t fit 😦 and to Target to pick up some cleaning essentials.

Later in the evening, I decided I wanted a labor intensive dinner, because reading wasn’t looking that good…

Pizza!  Using this dough recipe from Eating Well.

Toppings includes: sauce, a layer of finely chopped spinach, fresh mozzarella, chopped artichoke hearts, and grated romano cheese.

Artichokes make everything delicious!  What are your favorite homemade pizza toppings?


I also ventured and made Chocolate Chia Pudding…

Sad to say this is the first bloggie recipe that I did not like.  I threw it away 😦  Oh well!  Can’t love them all!

Since today was full of slacking, tomorrow is a study day.  Dreading it already.  The Oscars are on tomorrow!  I can’t wait to see the dresses on the Red Carpet!

Have a fantastic night!!

African Recipe Semi-Fail but Still Delicious

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Yesterday my schedule got all turned around!  I intended to go to class then work for an hour, go to an another class and stay on campus to study til 4 then come home a cook.  However, the second class that is usually at 12:20 got moved to 3:00 and went almost til 5:00!  I still managed to get a lot done in between but I was not prepared to stay on campus til past 5!

Anyway, when we last spoke, I was soaking black eyed peas…

Here’s why:  Rhoda, my friend who pops up around here all the time, is moving to Africa!  She threw a Rhoda is going to Africa party, where we all made recipes from her future home, Burkina Faso!

So I made Savory Bean Cakes! Not the healthiest but these could definitely be made healthier while still tasting delicious!

Burkinese Savory Bean Cakes

adapted from Savoury Beancakes

200g dried black eyed peas (I actually ended up using about 220g… not a big deal)
1 carrot, chopped
1/3 onion, chopped
salt to taste
1 egg, beaten
oil for frying

Cook and peel the black eyed peas.  Allow to cool.


Put all ingredients in the food processor and process until smooth.

At this point, I would allow your dough to cool.  I think this is where mine went wrong.  Form them into ball and flatten, essentially into patties.

Fry for about 10 minutes.

I guess I should also say that I’ve never fried anything before, so I don’t really know how to.  I think of myself as a pretty able cook for the most part but when it comes to frying… oh jeez!

Some were burn (oil too hot).  Some broke apart (should have let the dough cool… I think).

But they tasted great!  Beany and delicious!

Even though they weren’t fabulous looking, I took them to Rhoda’s for our Rhoda is going to Africa celebration.

There was a ton of tasty Burkinese food! Check out the spread:

Rhoda made this DELICIOUS Stew!

Served with cous cous

This stuff was dense!  I was full the entire night! (My two helping of dessert probably had something to do with that too!)

She also made a millet porridge for us to try!  I thought it was tasty!  Rhoda was apprehensive but she’s going to be eating it a lot in the next couple years apparently!

Julie made the same recipe as me!  Coincidence!  Guess there aren’t too many recipes from Burkina Faso out there.  She made hers with black beans.  They were delicious!  Amazing how two different beans can taste so different!

Liz made a tasty mango chutney to complement it all!  I believe she used this recipe.

My plate (definitely had seconds…)

Dessert were Sara’s brownies with fruit and hazelnuts!  Delicious! And Anna’s apple crisp (which I’m bummed I forgot to take a picture of!)

Sooo good! It was really fun to try out these new recipes!  Even if some of them didn’t turn out as expected… Are you a fan of trying to make things you’ve never heard of or do you prefer to have a point of reference (i.e. you’ve eaten it before) when you make something?

After dinner, we headed to a party at Sara’s house.  I danced it up a bit (Beyonce came on and you better believe I was all over it), but pooped out at about 12:30am.

Today is another sunny day!  Any fun weekend plans?

Have a great day!!!!

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

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Today was a surprisingly good day!  Despite the fact that my headache never went away, I managed to get a lot of reading done and have a great class (we talked about land titling and home ownership which for some reason I think is a really interesting topic).

I got home this evening slightly hungry but excited to make this dish.  As usual, I found this recipe for Eggplant Parmesan a LOOOONG time ago, bookmarked it and decided to make it now.

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

adapted from Eggs on Sunday’s Eggplant Parmesan
1 eggplant, sliced
1 egg
1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 can of diced tomatoes (plain or Italian seasoned works too)
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/2 tbsp olive oil
Cayenne to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp)
1 cup ricotta
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
1 tbsp fresh chopped basil (more if you’d like)
A few slices of fresh mozzarella

I’ve never really cooked eggplant, so this was a first for me.  My sister’s friend once told me to put a lot of salt on eggplant and let it sit for a while then rinse it and pat dry, but I wasn’t really sure what that meant.  This recipe confirmed…

Heavily salt the sliced eggplant on both sides, let stand for 15-20 minutes.  Then rinse and pat dry.  It doesn’t yield salty eggplant, just reduced the water content, which apparently tastes better?

After you’ve salted, rinsed and dried your eggplant you need to bread it.  Put one egg (beaten) in a shallow bowl.  In another bowl, combine bread crumbs italian seasoning and parmesan cheese.

Dip each slice into the egg then into the bread crumb mixture and place on a greased baking sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, flip and baked for another 15 minutes.

In the meantime, make your sauce.  Heat the oil, add the onions, garlic and cayenne and cook for about 5 minutes.  Then add the can of diced tomatoes and cook for about 15-20 minutes until liquid has reduced and sauce is thick. In the meantime, combine the ricotta, basil and parmesan in a bowl, set aside.

When the eggplant is ready and your sauce is reduced, you are ready to assemble it all!

Pour 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of a baking dish.

Next do a layer of eggplant slices.

Then spread on all the ricotta mixture.

Then the next 1/3 of your sauce and the rest of the eggplant slices.

Finish off with the remaining sauce and the mozzarella.  I went kind of light on the cheese since I figured the huge amounts of ricotta was plenty of cheese!

Bake at 425 for about 15-20 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!  Makes 4 good sized servings!  I wish I had a broiler because bubbly burnt cheese is delicious!  If you make this I would suggest putting it under the broiler for a few minutes for crispy goodness!

DELICIOUS!

Perfect ending to my day!  I love the crispiness of the eggplant without the oiliness of typical fried eggplant parmesan!

Are you an eggplant fan?

Tonight, I really want to catch up on Lost since I didn’t get to watch it last night!  I’m also considering making some granola bars for good afternoon snacks to have on hand.  What are your relaxation plans for the evening??

Have a great night!

Moose It Up

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If I go to Moosewood enough will I turn into a moose?

Probably  not but the fella and I went again tonight.

We started with a salad.  I got the spinach-basil house dressing, while the lovely fella got the feta garlic dressing.   I still like the lemon tahini best.

He also got an Ithaca Apricot Wheat Ale.  I tried it, pretty tasty! Very fruity!  I don’t like beer too much but I would definitely order one of those sometime!

Apparently in 2008 it was voted the best brewery in New York state?  Hmm…

Before leaving the house, I looked at the menu (as it changes daily) so by the time I got there I already knew what I wanted.  Sadly, when we were seated the waiter let us know that the Eggplant, Red Pepper and Spinach Curry was already gone!  Sooo sad!  So instead I got the Mole de Olla (A traditional Cuernavacan “kettle” stew of potatoes, corn, green beans, zucchini and yellow squash simmered with a spicy red guajillo chile mole; served with vegan cornbread and topped with Monterey Jack cheese.”

Sounds and looks tasty right?  It wasn’t.  It was cold and bland.  I actually ended up eating about five bites before the lovely fella ate the rest.

His on the other hand (Red White and Green Lasagna: Layers of lasagna noodles, roasted zucchini, Italian cheeses and spinach  baked in a tomato-wine sauce) was delicious!  I probably ate more of his than he did.

I was really disappointed in my dish but didn’t send it back.  For some reason, I can never bring myself to do that. How you send things back at restaurants if you are not pleased? Is it rude to do so?  Do restaurants appreciate honesty?

Oh well.  I still ate plenty and had a nice time.

The evening wouldn’t have been complete without dessert: Vegan Apple-Blackberry Crumble

Delicious.

Enough said.

I’m dying to buy one of their cookbooks!  I think I’m going to buy one (or two so I can get free shipping) on Amazon.  Any suggestions from Moosewood Cookbook owners??

The lovely fella is leaving tomorrow, and I’m pretty bummed about that but what’s a girl to do?

Anyway, have a great night!

Just a Taste

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Happy Saturday all!

On Wednesday when I picked the fella up from the airport, he mentioned he really wanted tapas.  So tonight, we went to a wonderful tapas restaurant here in Ithaca called Just a Taste.

We started with a wine flight.  I got the light red flight and he got the Spanish flight.

His was better than mine 🙂

We ordered 5 tapas (well really 6 but one never arrived)

Tortilla Espanola

Garlicky greens with blue cheese and walnuts

Goat cheese flatbread

Potatoes with Chipotle Aioli

Grilled Mahi Mahi

Everything was amazing!  The exception was the Mahi Mahi, which I didn’t care for.  The lovely fella ended up eating all of it!  It was too fishy for my taste!

If you’re in the Ithaca area, I highly recommend this place!  It was very tasty!  The lovely fella gives it an 8.6/10.  Pretty high rating!

Now we’re off to my neighbor’s birthday party!  I see more wine in my future.  Have a great night!!

Snowy Dinner Party

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Yesterday, when I went to class, I stepped out of my apartment building and was basically knee deep in snow!

None of the sidewalks had been plowed or shoveled!  Getting to class was nuts!  But in the end I made it!  After two classes and a mixer, I headed home to start making dinner for a few friends.  I had two dishes planned.

One I saw on the Food Network while working out at the gym a few months ago.  The second from the NY Times.

First Dish: Veronica’s Vegetarian Meatloaf with Checca Sauce:

This was a hit!  It’s actually supposed to be made in a loaf pan but I made it in a 9×13 baking dish because I would have had to make multiple loaves.  It was very tasty!  I think it was a favorite here last night! As usual I made a few changes, instead of spinach I used beet green from the beets in the next recipe.  It was a great way to make use of something that usually gets thrown away!  And it tasted delicious!  I will definitely be making this again!  Maybe for Christmas this year?

Second dish: Marinated Giant White Beans and Beets

I thought this was really good!  As usual I made some changes.  I only had half a pound of lima beans since I used the other half to make Ginormous beans earlier this week so instead I added half a pound of chickpeas.  According to the lovely fella and another guest, it mixed very well with the vegetarian meat loaf.  This wasn’t hard to make but it was sort of time intensive.

All this goodness was enjoyed with Rhoda‘s homemade bread!

Sooooo good!  Soft and delicious!

Here’s my plate:

After dinner, we trudged through the snow to see an improv show, which was pretty funny.  Very entertaining.  Then the lovely fella and I watched The Hangover, which I thought was REALLY funny.  I feel like everyone in the world had seen The Hangover except me.  Have you seen it?

This morning, it’s still snowing 😦  Not sure what the plan is but either way it should be fun!

Have a beautiful day!

Also… Go over to Mara’s Blog and vote for my olive penguins to win the Cute Food Saturday contest!

GINORMOUS Bean Chipotle Extravaganza!

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Hi friends!

I hope you’ve all have a great day!  Mine has been busy and sadly not very productive but oh well!  As I mentioned before, I’m trying to have more complete, balanced meals.  Today was a success!

Oats for breakfast, sandwich and soup for lunch, cantaloupe for a snack and dinner…

Just plain delicious!  I found this recipe on 101 Cookbooks a long time ago and bookmarked it for future making. I finally got around to doing so.  Of course I tweeked the recipe (quite a bit actually) but it still turned out delicious!

Ginormous Bean Chipotles Extravaganza

adapted from 101 Cookbooks Giant Chipotle White Beans

1/2 lb dried lima beans, cooked in salty water
1 tbsp olive oil
few dashes of cayenne, more for more heat
salt
1 tsp chopped garlic
14oz can of diced tomatoes (I only had whole tomatoes so I chopped them up myself, works fine)
2 tsp dried oregano (more if you use fresh)
1 tbsp of adobo from a can of chipotle peppers
1-2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1-2 handfuls of kale, chopped
1-2oz crumbled feta (or other crumbly cheese like cotija… which apparently doesn’t exist in Upstate NY…)

Heat the oil (about medium heat) in a pot, add the garlic and the cayenne, cook for about a minute.  Add tomatoes, salt and oregano.  Cook for a few minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the cooked beans and adobo sauce.  Stir in the kale and cilantro.  Transfer to a baking dish, bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!

I had mine with red quinoa!

and a huge salad!

You should definitely try this recipe!  It was soooo good!  If you’re one of those people who hates lima beans (don’t get this by the way) you can probably use any other bean, maybe cannellini?  That being said, I thought the lima beans were the perfect bean for this dish!  So big and “meaty”!  Delicious!!

I seriously loved this flavor combo!  Chipotle, feta and cilantro!  What could be better!?!

Try it!  I bet following the original recipe would be even more delicious!  She makes a cilantro pesto that I was just too lazy to make 🙂 Hence I just stirred in some chopped cilantro…

This is also a great make-ahead dish!  I actually prepared it all on Sunday, and today I just stuck it in the oven while my quinoa cooked.  Healthy and Delicious dinner in 15 minutes!  Voila!

Anyway, now I’m off to read before Lost!!  Anyone else as obsessed as I am?!?

Have a fantastic night!!

Lent

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Thank you all for your very sweet comments on my post earlier!  I really appreciate the support!

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.  The past few days, and today in particular, I’ve read about a lot of people “giving something up for Lent.”  Most of these things included things like chocolate, baked goods, pastries, candy, etc. I’ve commented about this on a few blogs and thought I should write my own post on this.

Now, I am no hard core Catholic.  I did First Communion, but I don’t go to church and I’m not observing Lent.

I’m not entirely sure what I believe but I do have respect for religion.

I’m a little irked that so many people are taking a sacred 40 day period in anticipation of the resurrection of Christ and turning it into an excuse to diet.  Lent is supposed to be about sacrifice and redemption, not a guilt trip into putting down that cookie so you’ll look better at the end of 40 days.

What about the rest of the Lenten requirements: not sinning, abstaining from meat on Ash Wednesday and on Fridays…?

Obviously, bloggers don’t post their entire lives on their blogs so some may be very religious/spiritual.  I don’t mean to judge, but I’m a little concerned that this is a serious sacrifice for some while it is merely a tool for others.

*Stepping Off Soapbox now*

What are your thoughts on “giving up” things for Lent? Am I being a little unreasonable?

On to food…

I try not to eat frozen food too often, but I like to keep a frozen meal in the freezer for those days when I just absolutely don’t feel like cooking.

Today was one of those days.

Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake (image from kashi.com)

Oh goodness.  If you haven’t tried this, you should.  It’s AMAZING! Slightly spicy and has a great texture.  Also, if you love plantains and sweet potatoes, this entree is for you!

It was the perfect dinner after a loooong day!

Off to do more reading.  Have a great night!

Sticky Rice!

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Hi all!  I hope you had a fabulous day!  My day definitely turned around.  I was sort of feeling blue today mostly because my knees have been hurting like crazy (NEED NEW RUNNING SHOES ASAP).

But as I mentioned earlier, I had plans for a fun evening out!

The evening began at the Big Red Barn for $1 beers, but really $3 boxed wine for me, because I’m classy

I may have had two glasses…

By 8:00pm we got kicked out of the BRB… planners know how to party… or something

So we headed to Liz’s where we ordered take out!

Thai food from Sticky Rice!

Sure glad they can take advantage of social media…

Food was plentiful!

Purple rice! Have you ever tried it?? Not sure how purple it actually looks in the picture, but it tasted similar to white rice but with a lightly crunchier texture.  Delicious!

I didn’t get an entree (since I had been a Snacky McSnackerson all afternoon) but I got an order of Sticky Rice with Mango to share with someone.

It came with purple rice and was oooh soo soo good!  Creamy, sweet and delicious!  Have you ever had mango sticky rice?  If you haven’t… try it asap!

After dinner, as we walked home, the roommate and I discussed going to Wegman’s so naturally we did since I needed baking supplies for my next project (coming soon!).

On the way home from the Wegster, Christina (the roommate) was eating a coconut popsicle/bar she had just gotten.  What happens when you eat a frozen treat in 20 degree weather?

It sticks to you.  Remember A Christmas Story?

Poor roommate!

Anyway, I’m pooped, and I have sooooo much TV/Movie stuff to catch up on… Mad Men, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty… I also have Fargo to see and a documentary called The Garden that is a watch instantly on Netflix!  Thank goodness it’s the weekend! Watch any good TV lately?

Hope your night was as delicious as mine!  Have a good one!

Taste the Rainbow

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Happy Tuesday!!

Did you all hear about Michelle Obama’s Campaign Against Childhood Obesity?

What do you think of this new Let’s Move campaign?

I had some colorful eats today and luckily they DID NOT include any of this:

For lunch, I had a DELICIOUS, COLORFUL and HUGE salad!

Isn’t it bright?! Lettuce, Cucumbers, Tomato, Carrot Ribbons and a sliced up string cheese with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar as dressing.  Along with a Morningstar Sausage Patty taco, which you’ve seen so here’s part of the tortilla process:

I would die without a gas stove!

After my scrumptious lunch, I went to class then I worked on Econ and Methods problem sets with people.  Ugh I need to learn to be more patient!

Then the highlight of the evening.. Dinner was pretty much the epitome of a fake and delicious makeover!

You know chicken parmesan? Served as such…

Forget that!  Mine was a million times better!

Boca Spicy Chik’n Patty topped with marinara sauce and cottage cheese (soo good!  If you’ve never mixed marinara and cottage cheese… go try it now! Creamy and delicious!), served with a side of spaghetti squash and broccoli, then sprinkled with some grated pecorino romano for good measure.

A dinner entree of Chicken Parmigiana at Macaroni Grill will set you back 1650 calories, 98g of fat and 2500mg of sodium!  Isn’t that nuts!

My version had a grand total of 405 calories and 12g of fat!  Much better and just as tasty and voluminous! Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of pasta (maybe because I didn’t grow up eating it?) but I understand that a lot of people do like it.  A serving of pasta still would make this a million times healthier than a restaurant version!

What’s your favorite at home dish makeover?

Ahhh Lost is on in a little over half an hour!  I have to read now so I can then glue myself to the TV!

Have a fabulous night!!