Tag: Vegetarian

Chipotle Homefries

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Hellooooo!  Today was another busy day!  My work day plan is working out pretty well.  I got home around 6:00pm and was ready for something quick and easy.

Last week, I baked a few potatoes to eat throughout the week.  Tonight I ended up using them.  The theme was Mexican Breakfast, because I had a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce that needed to be used leftover from my Ginormous Chipotle Beans Extravaganza.  Here’s my creation:

Chipotle Homefries

2 potatoes, baked (or cooked in the microwave) and chopped into large chunks
1-2 tsp adobo sauce, from can of peppers
1 chipotle pepper finely chopped, optional or less if you want it less spicy
1/2 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix around to coat.  Add some oil (I used about a tsp of coconut oil) to a pan and heat.  Add the potatoes turning every few minutes and cook on medium/high heat til heated and crispy.

Serve with sour cream (or Greek Yogurt like I did) and eggs.

These were picante but delicious and much healthier than any homefries you would get at a restaurant! I bet these would be even better if you let them marinate in the stuff before stir frying.

Perfect meal enjoyed in front of the laptop, catching up on Lost!

I’ve been behind on the blog reading but hopefully I’ll catch up soon!  Hope you’re all having a great week!  It’s half way done!  Have a great night!!

Best Salad Ever

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This morning, I did something I haven’t done in a LOOOOONNNGGG time…

Updated my ipod!

Check out the sweet new playlist:

This made my 3 mile treadmill jaunt AMAZING!  I wanted to keep going but had to leave to get ready for class!

New music always gets me excited about a work out.  My current obsession is Jay Sean’s “Do You Remember”
What’s your favorite work out song(s)??

As promised… Here is the Best Salad Ever!

That’s it!!  Just kidding….

Chop up some romaine.  If you’re eating at home, put it in a large bowl.  If you’re taking it to go, cool whip containers work… great conversation starter too!

Add your desired veggie toppings: cucumbers, carrot ribbons and artichoke hearts (ideally this would have tomatoes and bell peppers but I’m out of those)

Add your protein:  1 chopped up string cheese and 1 chopped up veggie patty

And finally… the best part… Barley!!

Remember my obsession with Annie’s Buttermilk Dressing?? I found a homemade replacement!  Prepare to be amazed…

Creamy Lemon Tahini Dressing

adapted from Culinate’s Lemon-Tahini Dressing

2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp water
juice of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic, minced
3/4 cup greek yogurt (any fat should work, I used nonfat)
dash of cumin
few shakes of paprika
few shakes of cayenne
sea salt to taste

Combine all the ingredients and be prepared for deliciousness!  Play around with the spices til you find what tastes best to you!

I pack mine in an old garlic container.  No need for fancy tupperware here!

I almost wouldn’t call this a salad!  It’s just intense and delicious!

Well I’m off to class!  Have a fantastic day!  Eat a salad! They’re delicious! What’s the best salad you’ve ever had?

Vegan Coconut Cardamom Oatmeal Cookies

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If you recall, one of the girls in the discussion section I TA for is a vegan.  She presented today (I’m having them all do presentations so they all talk.  The point is for them to practice Spanish after all…).  So I thought I should make a vegan treat in her honor.

Vegan Coconut Cardamom Oatmeal Cookies

adapted from Chewy Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup Earthbalance (vegan non-butter) (if non-vegan, just use butter)
1/2 cup (heaping) of sugar
1/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened (if non-vegan use 1 egg)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp cardamom

Cream together the “butter” and sugar.  Add the applesauce and vanilla.  Then the rest of the ingredients.  Chill in the freezer while you wash dishes and pre-heat the oven.  Roll into tablespoon size balls and place on a greased baking sheet.  Leave A LOT of space between the cookies, they flatten and expand when they bake.  Bake 10-12 minutes.

These turned out REALLY flat.  I would almost venture to say they were a fail but they tasted so darn good!  Next time, I would say freeze the dough and bake to see if that helps.  Or maybe add more baking powder?  Any other suggestions?

You’re not going to believe these but I forgot to give them to my class!  Oh well, I gave them to my next class (not one where I TA, just where I am student).  I think I had mixed reviews… I guess a lot of people don’t really eat cardamom that often?

Oh well!  I liked them! I am a little sweeted out for a while though… then again Pi day is in less than a week 🙂

In other news…

Holey moley today has been the busiest day ever!  I’m applying for an internship, have a ton of reading to do, supposedly a quiz tomorrow and have a presentation on Wednesday!  Tons to do!  For lunch today I had the MOST AMAZING SALAD EVER!  I’m planning on having it again tomorrow so I’ll share the recipe tomorrow 🙂

Until then, have a great night!

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

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I hate letting food go to waste.  Yesterday’s zucchini was starting to mold and the bok choy was turning yellow but I still used them.

I have a sizable container of ricotta leftover from my Eggplant Parmesan.  I don’t want it to go bad, so I’m trying to figure out ways to incorporate it.  On Friday, I spread some on my sandwich… delicious.  Today, I thought… pancakes… It’s Sunday, why not?  Thus…

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

adapted from Bobby Flay’s Recipe

1/3 cup, heaping of whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cardamom powder, optional
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of ricotta
1/3 cup milk
zest + juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp agave
coconut oil

Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another bowl.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to combine.

Add some coconut oil to a skillet/griddle/pan, melt on low heat.  Add 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake, cover with a lid/foil.  Once you see the pancakes get “holey” on one side, flip them over and cook for a few more minutes (maybe 2).  These pancakes are pretty delicate so low heat is essential.  These are the varying degrees of heat I used… low is best 🙂

I got 8 pancakes out of this recipe.  I immediately froze 4 to be reheated in the toaster oven on a rainy day!

I topped my pancakes with some extra lemon zest, shredded coconut and a mixture of greek yogurt and maple syrup (1/4 cup yogurt + 1 tbsp real maple syrup).  DELICIOUS!

O.M.G.

Make these.  Now!

While I say the cardamom is optional on there (Bobby Flay used nutmeg but I thought lemon and cardamom sounded great together), it really makes the recipe that much better.  Cardamom is one of those underused spices in the US that is just amazing in my opinion.  Best ice cream I ever had was Cardamom Ice Cream at Ici in Berkeley. I might venture to say that cardamom is my favorite spice…

Now I’m stuffed and ready to conquer my pile of reading and methods problem set!

Any suggestions on what else to do with my ricotta?

See you next time for Sunday baking!  I’m making a vegan treat tonight!

Have a great Sunday!!

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!!

SUNSHINE

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Today was a good day!  For a few reason:

1. I went to the gym and ran (along with a 30 minute elliptical date with Oprah’s O Magazine)!  After 2 weeks off from running to let my knees rest from excruciating pain, I ran 1 mile today!  Pain free!  I’m starting slow again to prevent any other form of injury!

2.  We had SUNSHINE!!!! It was amazing!! I hadn’t seen the sun in weeks!  (No joke!)  I walked to class with a smile on my face!  Great start to the day!

3.  Finished all my reading for this week and tomorrow I’m getting ahead and starting on next week’s!  Woo!  This work day plan is working well so far!

4. Delicious lunch! Left over eggplant parmesan under the broccoli, along with fruit and veggies.  Not photographed is a homemade granola bar!

5.  Grocery Store: Green Star Coop and Wegman’s! Bought the usual spinach, carrots, etc.  But also picked up a few new goodies to try:

Coconut oil!  I’ve heard about all the health benefits and today I broke down and bought some!  I can’t wait to try it!  I hope it helps clear up my dry skin on my face!!

Wheat Berries, Barley and more Chia seeds!

New Almond Butter that was on sale!  I can’t wait to try this brand!  I hope it’s good!  I’m pretty particular about my almond butter!

6.  Recipe for tomorrow is in the works!  Here’s a sneak peek!

Black eyed peas soakin’ over night…

Now I’m off to finish up a movie and hit the hay!  I hope tomorrow has sunshine too!!  Have a great night!!

Lastly, don’t forget to go over to Mara‘s blog and vote for my penguin olives for the Cute Food Saturday Cuteiversary contest!!

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!

Stressless March

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This morning I woke up with a terrible headache and a sore throat.  Instead of moping around about it, I decided a trip to the gym would help make me feel better.  The whole time the lovely fella was here the past week, I only went to the gym twice.  Not a huge deal, but it was nice to go back.

Upon returning and the sore throat still going strong, I thought a green monster would be a good cold prevention device.

Breakfast: Green Monster with 3/4 banana+ 2 handfuls of spinach + 5 frozen strawberries + 2 ice cubes + cold water, toast + Naturally Nutty + 1/4 banana and coffee.

Delicious.  The only downside to Naturally Nutty is that it doesn’t really melt or spread that easily.  Most nut butters melt on oatmeal or hot toast, this really doesn’t.  Oh well.  Still delicious!

So I’ve decided to make March less stressful than February. Why March?  The last week of March is Spring Break, which should be the ultimate relaxation, but I also don’t want to get myself so frazzled in the time leading up to Spring Break that I’m too exhausted to enjoy it.  So I’m instating a 9-5 work day for myself.

Here’s the idea: since I’m a student, I lack a strict schedule.  I have classes at different times at on different days, and I’m sort of just all over the place.  So for this month (and beyond?) I’m testing out a “work day.”  I’ll leave the house and go to my 10:00am class then stay on campus until 5 or 6 or even 7 pm, 5 days a week.  In between classes, instead of coming home claiming to get reading done while actually fooling around on the internet, I will go to the library or computer lab to get things done, as I tend to be more productive there. That should give me ample time to get everything done.  Then I can come home and have minimal work to do.

This will take a little more planning with regard to meals but it’s totally do-able.  My hope is that with this schedule, I’ll be more productive and therefore less stressed.  I want home to be a place of relaxation, not frustration which leads to overeating.

So today is day one!

Lunch is packed (extra vitamin C since I feel a cold coming on!):

Cucumber slices and carrot sticks with hummus for dipping, sliced kiwi and a cutie!

A sweet potato baked earlier this week and a veggie patty.

All together, ready to go!

See you tonight!  (I’m hoping to finally get around to make an eggplant dish I bought ingredients for about a week ago! They’re starting to go bad!!)

Have a fantastic Wednesday!  2 days til Friday!

P.S. Don’t forget to go to Mara‘s blog and vote for my penguin olives for the Cuteiversary Contest!

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!

I’m Nutty!

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First, Happy March!

Second, Happy Birthday to my brother and my grandma!

On to food….

Naturally Nutty Cinnamon Vanilla Sunflower Butter arrived today!

I got 2 HUGE jars for $7.00 + free shipping through Kath’s Open Sky deal!

So far I’ve tried it on an apple and on my finger.

Can’t wait to try it tomorrow on my oats!

Have you tried this stuff?!?  Soooo good!  I really want to try the other flavors but I haven’t seen it in stores at all.

Ahh I’m a nut butter fiend!

Lastly, Don’t forget to vote my for olive penguins on Mara‘s blog (just on the side bar, click me and vote, no need to comment!) for the Cuteiversary Contest!

Lovely fella is leaving tomorrow 😦  Trying to enjoy the last bit of time we have together for a while… he wants to go to Moosewood… I’ll keep you posted!

Have a great night!