Banana almond butter yogurt and oats

Man, I ate some great food today.

For breakfast I had banana almond butter yogurt and oats (above). Incredible. Stonyfield yogurt, oats, banana, ground flax, wheat germ, cinnamon, honey and a dab of almond butter. Oh, and dried cherries because I love them. Blow my mind.

All mixed up at work. Oh I want it now. And in case I forget to mention, my breakfast always comes with a side of Green Mountain Dark Magic coffee with rice milk (used to be soy, recently switched).

Love

For lunch I decided to go home and move a little bit. I ate this massive organic honey crisp apple on the way.

Honey crisp

Tell me that’s not “fast food.” I hate that. Have you ever tried eating a frigging bean burrito while driving? Or a sloppy burger? Impossible. Eat some fruit. It’s fast and you won’t look like a dirty two-year-old when you step out of the car.

Since I picked a walk over lunch, I ate my leftover bean soup with baked tofu back at my desk later.

Bean soup and baked tofu

And that’s Ayala’s Herbal Water in lavender mint. Fantastic and refreshing.

Tonight was one of my more brilliant cook-with-frozen-veggies meals. I had cheesy hashbrowns with broccoli, spinach and tomato. Incredible.

Cheesy hashbrowns with broccoli and spinach

I had it with a sprinkling of cashews for a little extra protein.

This.was.so.good.

I can’t put into words how good this was. But wait, how is that possibly healthy? Easy. It’s not from Waffle House. I didn’t use butter. It’s not fried. I packed it with veggies. And when I say “cheesy” I mean a sprinkling of high quality parmesan.

To make it just sautee onion and garlic in a little olive oil. Add an veggies you have on hand. If you have fresh, great. If not, no big. I used frozen spinach and broccoli but fresh tomato. Whatever you’ve got. Really. Add some frozen hashbrown potatoes. You see, these aren’t bad for you at this stage. They’re just innocent little potatoes–70 calories per cup. Add a little grated cheese and that’s it.

Definitely give this a try. I think it’d be a winner with kids, boyfriends and people that generally hate healthy food.

Happy Coffee Day!

Who comes up with these days anyway? I usually just stumble upon them somewhere on Sugar Inc. How do they keep up with so many fake holidays? Besides, every day is coffee day in my house.

Regardless, I suppose I don’t take issue with the celebration of coffee. Plus, it was 54 degrees this morning so I needed some warmth.

South Carolina welcomes Fall

I do love coffee. In fact, I’ve developed a true appreciation for it since I started dating Stew and he ended my Folger’s habit. It’s not that I necessarily like Folger’s or that I even purchased it. It was just what was free in the office so I drank it.

I never really thought about it. I guess I noticed that when I went to Coffee Underground, for example, that I actually enjoyed what I was drinking rather than just mechanically pouring it down the hatch, as it were.

Then he got me a Keurig for Christmas and it was all over after that. Green Mountain Dark Magic or nothing for me. And I drink espresso now too. I actually prefer it to regular American-style coffee because of the smaller serving size and hilarious tiny cup.

So happy day. I trust the majority of you celebrated as you always do–because some 77% of Americans make it a daily habit.

Also, Stew sent me a link this morning for the 7 best coffees according to Women’s Health magazine. Why was Stew reading Women’s Health? We do not know. Note Green Mountain is on there not once, but twice. Love.

Feed me

Since I suppose some people may be curious, this is what a typical food day looks like for me.

It actually starts the night before when I’ll pack everything up. This usually entails mixing my oatmeal or yogurt toppings, setting aside fruit and granola bars and putting together a main meal. Sometimes I get lucky and I’ve got soup (easy) or all my veggies already chopped up for a salad (easy). Other times I’ve been lazy and have to do all the prep or I simply don’t have anything and have to get creative with my canned and frozen items. Whatever the case may be, I figure it’s better to do it at night than in the morning when I am inevitably grumpy.

I don’t create a weekly meal plan or shopping list. I just make sure I have a lot of the things I like on hand and (ideally) washed and prepped and I can usually come up with something quick that I’ll enjoy.

Today started with yogurt and oats. I mix my base the night before, which consists of oats, ground flax, wheat germ, dried cherries and almonds. In the morning I add my yogurt and honey and I’m all set.

Yogurt and oats

I eat Stonyfield yogurt because it’s organic and it’s good. I’ve seen a lot of people (via blogs) add their oats to yogurt the night before and let it sit in the fridge overnight so it makes a nice thick doughy concoction. I prefer the oats to stay dry so I wait until the morning.

For lunch today I had a Morningstar black bean burger on Whole Foods 12-grain bread (1 slice cut in half to make a bun because it’s big) with a fat slice of tomato, melted Cabot pepperjack cheese and mustard. On the side I had a sliced orange and watermelon.

Black bean burger

Notice all my cheese oozed out. Whoops. This was a really delicious sandwich. And I had an insane vegan cookie for dessert.

I have been battling an impending illness for a few weeks. I feel it coming on so I fight back with sleep, Vitamin C and echinacea but it keeps coming back so I may just let it run its course. So, seeing as how I’m feeling a little under the weather, I naturally gravitated toward soup.

I didn’t have anything made so I sauteed some onion and garlic in olive oil, threw in some homemade tomato sauce, added a little vegetable stock and then built on top of that with kidney beans, chickpeas, asparagus and frozen spinach. I seasoned it with cumin and a little Cholula and topped it with quinoa and the leftover baked tofu from last night.

Bean soup with baked tofu

How perfect is that? It was really surprisingly good. I thought the flavors would all fight with eachother–basil in my tomato sauce vs. cumin and leftover Chef Paul’s on the tofu–but it actually worked. Hit the spot. Still feel like crap though.

I also had a banana around 11am, an apple in the afternoon and sampled some Bare Naked granola freebies with Stew after work. Cranberry and raisin and banana nut. We liked banana nut the best. I’ll also undoubtedly eat more fruit tonight.

Speaking of Stew… He is currently at a birthday dinner at Golden Corral. Pray for his poor stomach. He’s supposed to be documenting everything for a guest post. Can’t wait for that.

You can find the meal planner above (and many more) at LobotoME.

Peanut duck

Head on over to This Peanut Looks Like a Duck to see not only peanuts, but zucchini, tomatoes, chimneys and other objects that look like ducks.

Delightful.

[via Stew]

Baked tofu and okra fries

Tonight’s dinner comes to us straight from KathEats. Kath has been raving about these baked okra fries for a while and I’d never baked tofu so I wanted to give that a try too.

Both require very little prep. For the okra just wash it, spritz with olive oil spray and season. I used Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Vegetable Magic.

Vegetable Magic

For the tofu, just drain a block, chop into cubes, spritz with olive oil spray and season. Again, I used Chef Paul for seasoning.

Place in the oven for about 20-30 minutes. I flipped my tofu halfway through so it would brown on all sides.

It came out beautifully.

Perfectly baked

I really loved the tofu. Nice and crispy with a perfect kick courtesy of Chef Paul. I also liked the okra but I kept getting poked by the little bristles on the stem so it was kind of conditioning me to fear it.

I had this with some asparagus and a piece of cheesy toast. Note the burned cheese. That means it’s just right.

Dinner

Check out Kath’s blog. It’s super addicting.

McDLT

My mom just sent me an email with the subject: “Mother of the Year.” It went a little something like this…

“While looking through a Rubbermaid container downstairs, I came across your 1st year calendar. You had your very first taste of meat at McDonald’s on March 13,1986 (bits of a Mc DLT). Therefore, I am mother of the year! Wretch, wretch!”

Hahaha. Thanks, mom.

That may have been my first but was most certainly not my last. I ate a lot of McDonald’s while trying to collect all of the Teeny Beanie Babies. I also had a serious addiction in early high school back when I could eat whatever I wanted (including things that don’t really even qualify as food, like McDonald’s) and did. If I wasn’t busy eating mozzarella sticks with a basket of fries at Coleman’s, then I was throwing down a McDonald’s #2–two cheeseburgers (no cheese), fries and a Coke.

Vomit.

And so you’re wondering, what on earth is a McDLT? A McDonald’s Lettuce and Tomato. Obviously. Those of us not born until the mid-80s unfortunately won’t remember this brilliant idea: serve the hamburger separate from the lettuce and tomato. Hot and cold. Separated.

It even had its own specialty styrofoam box.

Engineering wonder

To keep the hot items away from the cold.

Cold on one side, hot on the other

Good try. Still gross. And apparently it never caught on.

And now I give you this: Jason Alexander singing about burgers in what may be the greatest McDonald’s commercial of all time.

Pita House

I almost always take my lunch to work and eat at my desk. I like to know what I’m eating. I don’t want to spend excessive money on take out food. And I like to work through that hour so I can leave earlier and go to yoga.

Anyway, today I just couldn’t stand to sit at my desk because an alarm at the gay club across the street went off for about 30 minutes and I thought I was going to break something. Yes, I work across the street from a gay club. South Carolina’s not so conservative. Get with the times.

So I went home with the hope of getting in some physical activity and maybe a little quality cat time to calm me down. I thought about going to the gym but didn’t really want to mess with the whole, run there, run back, shower bit so I just took a walk around the neighborhood instead. It was the perfect bit of excercise, fresh air and Vitamin D I needed.

When I got back to the house my phone was ringing. My phone doesn’t ring for days on end so you can imagine my surprise. It was Stew–still at work and in desperate need of the greatest food on the Planet. Luckily, not only do we work across the street from a gay club, we also work just a few blocks from Pita House–the world’s greatest restaurant.

He offered to pick me up something. I’m not even sure why I hesitated. I think I was already committed to the lunch I brought to work. So rather than request my usual vegetarian plate–falafel, hummus, babaganoush, tabbouleh and pita bread–I went instead with a simple Mediterranean salad which I figured I could pair with my other foods.

So that’s what I had. A little Mediterranean salad with some homemade bread (even though their pita bread is perfect), asparagus and one falafel ball.

Mmm. That lunch turned out so much better than I had expected.

Soup and cheesy bread

I’ve been thinking about my bread non-stop since I made it last night. I wanted it for breakfast but I’m so hooked on yogurt right now that I just couldn’t do it. So I controlled myself and waited for lunch.

I had a bowl of “leftover soup“, which this week involved vegetable broth, homemade tomato sauce, asparagus, quinoa, broccoli and malabar spinach. AND a big fat piece of bread drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper and covered with manchego. I toasted it under the broiler and about died waiting for it.

Manchego toast

Ooh cheesy toast… CHEESY TOAST!

Manchego!

Here’s another Marshalls Home Goods find: Manchego flatbreads imported from Spain. This was a total impulse buy and I had to rip into them immediately which would explain the interior car shots.

Manchego flatbread crackers

They didn’t change my life or anything, but they are good and actually do use real Manchego. I suppose I’d just prefer to have a big ol’ hunk of real cheese on a piece of bread. Or forget the bread. Just cheese is fine.

Good morning yogurt

So I’m on a bit of a yogurt kick as of late. In fact, I ate something similar to this concoction for not one but two meals yesterday. Dairy products–especially yogurt–usually freak me out. The more it looks like milk, the less likely I am to consume it.

I’ve just always hated milk. As a kid I had to be sure to put in a special request for juice at snack time and lunch time lest I be served a mini carton of horrible milk.

I’ve tried eating yogurt to ensure that I get enough calcium. But it’s just so… gross. Blech. Just slimy and flavorless and blah.

Then I discovered Stonyfield. This, I believe, is what yogurt should be. Thick and tangy and without weird ingredients.

Today’s mixture is Stonyfield Plain with ground flax, wheat germ, oats, almonds, dried cranberries and local honey.

There is also something to be said for local honey. It tastes completely different than the stuff I’m used to. Different in a good way.

My first successful bread!

Gather your loved ones and say your prayers for the end must certainly be near. Tonight I made a loaf of bread. A hot, crusty, dense perfect loaf of whole wheat bread. Apocalypse now.

How did I, the Anti-Baker, do it? I avoided yeast. I just can’t do it. My water is too hot and kills the yeast. My water is too cold and the yeast doesn’t react. It just never works.

So I Googled “bread recipes without yeast” and found this. It looked doable enough and I had all the ingredients on hand. But I was still scared. So I just left the window open while I played around online, popping back in every once in a while to weigh the pros and cons.

Pro: No yeast. Con: I still can’t bake. Pro: I have all the ingredients. Con: I wont follow the recipe. Etc…

I finally decided to go with it, made a grand announcement to Stew and the cats that I would be making bread and paraded off to the kitchen to begin.

The reason I succeeded tonight is because this recipe is really just insanely simple. Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Combine. Bake. Easy enough. But let me fuel my ego for a bit and pretend that this was a complicated process that required a bread master’s skill to complete.

I followed the recipe farily well. Sort of. I traded the sugar for honey and accidentally added it with the dry ingredients instead of wet. I also accidentally did 1/2 tsp of baking soda and baking powder instead of 1/2 tbsp. Whoops. I also added wheat germ and ground flax for extra goodness. Beyond that I made the call to smother the loaf with olive oil once before it went into the oven and a second time about halfway through. This brilliant idea left me with a golden brown crust. Oh and I used rice vinegar because it was all I had. OK, so I didn’t follow the recipe very well. No surprise there.

I strongly recommend giving this a try. If I can do it, anyone can.

Whole Wheat Bread

4 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp baking soda
1½ cups water
2 tsp vinegar (cider or white)

1. Mix dry ingredients.

2. Mix water and vinegar.

3. Combine wet and dry ingredients.

4. Using a knife, score the top of the bread.

5. Smother with olive oil and place in a 400-degree oven for about an hour.

Bread dough

I wrapped my loaf in foil about 45 minutes into baking so the crust wouldn’t burn while the inside finished baking.

The finished product was incredible. It is a very dense bread with a nutty flavor–almost reminds me of corn bread in a way. Stew and I both had a piece with butter (real butter), honey and a tiny bit of salt. Oh, the joy.

Beautiful golden crust

We celebrated with a tiny baby bottle of champagne that I picked up at Whole Foods for like $2.

Celebratory champagne

Yay!

Bubbly for bread

Stew was so genuinely proud of me for completing this task. I suppose he’s seen me at my worst chucking a failed blob of dough into the garbage. Never again. I can do it now.

Stew's egg sandwich

I like to make food for Stew. Mostly I just like making food, I suppose, but I find it particularly satisfying to make it for him. He certainly doesn’t need me to do it and doesn’t ever ask me to do it. So when I offer and he lets me I think it’s cute.

I got some gorgeous light blue eggs from Putney Farm last week and was excited to use them.

Eggs from Putney Farm

The pictures don’t really do it justice, but these eggs really are a lovely shade of soft pale blue.

Lovely light blue

Putney Farm chickens are free-range heritage breed birds that graze in the property’s pastures and then return at will to their coops at night where they lay the eggs. The blue eggs come from younger hens who will start laying good old white eggs as they mature.

I cooked two eggs with salt and pepper and a little Cholula hot sauce then added them to toasted 12-grain bread with melted mozzarella and a fat slice of North Carolina tomato.

Cheap. Local. Delicious (according to Stew).

Udi's Granola

The fine folks at Udi’s Granola sent me some samples of their granola that I love. They asked me which ones I’d like to try but I felt guilty even getting free stuff much less demanding which kinds I wanted so I just left it open for them to surprise me.

They went with Nuggets and Cranberry, both of which were at the top of my must-try list. Stew ripped into the nuggets immediately. They taste just like the original but are easier to eat by the handful. “Granola you can holda,” as the bag says. I love the graham cracker-y taste and big pieces of nuts. I’m not opening the cranberry until I finish off the Original I bought last week.

"Granola you can holda"

I had some with my late breakfast/lunch today. This is Stonyfield plain yogurt, oats, dried cherries, wheat germ, ground flax, almonds, honey and Udi’s Original.

Yogurt, Udi's, etc.

All mixed up.

Perfect breakfast

Smooth, crunchy, tangy, sweet, salty. Mmmm.

You can order Udi’s online or check their store locator.

Vegan no bake chocolate chip cookies

I saw these vegan no bake chocolate chip cookies in last month’s Clean Eating and haven’t been able to stop thinking about them. I just love oats. And hate baking. Perfect.

Of course, even without having to bake, this is still a cookie recipe so of course I messed it up a little. I added extra oats because I like oats. OK, fine. Adding extra broccoli to stir fry because you like broccoli is fine. Adding extra oats to no bake cookies means they won’t stick together.

So I had to play around with my dates and agave nectar to make my extra oats sticky enough to hold cookie form. I’m impossible. I’ll never be able to read a recipe and just do exactly what it says.

Clean Eating’s Vegan No Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 ¼ cup raisins (I added cranberries too)
½ cup pitted dates
2 cups whole oats (I went a little overboard)
4 tbsp. agave or honey
2 tsp. cinnamon
Pinch of salt, to taste
½ cup cacao nibs (I used carob chips)

Dates

1. Place raisins and dates in food processor and chop into small pieces.
2. Add oats, agave or honey, cinnamon and salt. Process to mix well.
3. Empty into a mixing bowl and add cacao nibs. Mix well.
4. Use a tablespoon measure to portion cookies.  Enjoy immediately or chill before serving for firmer texture.

Dates look like giant raisins.

Giant raisin

 But they are far sweeter. Kind of nauseatingly so.

Pre oat overload

Like the title implies, these “cookies” (give it up it’s not a cookie) are insanely good. I still argue you can’t call something that lacks butter, sugar and eggs a cookie. But whatever category this falls under, it is delicious. Eating a spoonful of the “batter” out of the bowl–as is customary in all baking practices–almost felt like eating real cookie dough. I swear. Maybe it’s just been a long time since I’ve done that. But unlike real cookie dough, you aren’t expected to bake this. In fact, you’re not supposed to. So there you go. No guilt for eating all the dough.

Moral of the story: Don’t hate on vegan cookies. They are delicious.

5-layer dip

Last night Stew and I went to dinner at Chicora Alley, which describes its cuisine as an island-southern fusion. It’s a really popular restaurant among the Greenville crowd. Myself excluded. I’m not going to say very good things but I realize most of it has to do with my taste preferences. Most people love this place.

I kind of hate Chicora. In fact, I got food poisoning there the day before New Year’s Eve 2008 and haven’t really been able to stomach even the thought of going back. But I had a relatively pleasant experience about 6 months ago so I was ok heading back again. As long as I don’t order what I had the night of the food poisoning, I’m usually ok. Last night’s trip was actually my idea.

When we got there we were informed by a sign on the door that they were celebrating their 6-year anniversary with all-night happy hour, free nacho bar and live music. Sounds good.

For some reason we decided to start with the 5-layer dip–beans, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, salsa. I think I assumed it would be like my mom’s. It was not. I don’t like queso at all and this was essentially just a bowl of queso topped with the other “layers.” I had a few chips and passed on the rest.

I ordered the Mideast Burger which is served open face on a toasted pita with homemade red pepper and black bean hummus and greens alongside sweet potato fries. Chicora is nice enough to offer vegetarian substitutions so I went with the black bean burger. Stew ordered a regular burger on a roasted red pepper bun.

There's a beef patty under there

When the food arrived I moved my greens aside to discover that the burger was in fact a burger. As in made out of beef. I hadn’t taken a bite yet–phew–so I let the server know to send it back. He was super apologetic and made it abundantly clear that it was a kitchen error and not his fault. Fine, fine. I will tip you.

When my second plate came out meat-free I was very disappointed to find that the black bean burger was nothing more than a frozen Morningstar patty. Don’t get me wrong, I love Morningstar black bean burgers. But I eat them often. I thought for sure Chicora would make their own. Fail.

It wasn’t all bad though. I’ll give them this… Chicora has great hummus–black bean and roasted red pepper. Their sweet potato fries are incredible. And their bread is all baked fresh daily at a bakery down the street.

Other than that, though, I am not a fan.

Don’t worry, I did not cause a scene in the restaurant or stiff the server. In fact, I over tipped pretty significantly because there was nothing wrong with what he did. I hate people that make scenes in restaurants. Get over yourself and then quietly complain online like the rest of us.

Kashi Heart to Heart

Got a sample of Kashi Heart to Heart Blueberry Clusters in the mail today. It made for a nice early afternoon snack and tastes fine but it’s not really my kind of cereal. I prefer something far heartier–think nuts, dried fruit, etc.–and much less sweet than this. Not a bad cereal, just not my preferred taste.

It did turn my rice milk a delightful purple color though.

Purple milk

Don’t be fooled; this was actually a little tiny box. Here it is next to an Ayala clove, cardamom, cinnamon water for comparison.

Baby cereal or monster water?

The clove, cardamom and cinnamon herbal water is so confusing. It smells like pumpkin pie but tastes like water but then somehow has this slightly sweet after taste (without using any sugar or sweeteners). I loved it.

Black beans and rice

Lunch today was a simple but satisfying serving of black beans and rice. This isn’t real black beans and rice by any means as it hasn’t been seasoned, there was not sauteeing of onions, etc. I just took some leftover canned black beans and leftover brown rice and added some frozen organic spinach and homemade tomato sauce.

While I admit that this isn’t a gourmet version of beans and rice, it still made a quick, easy, healthy and delicious lunch. Making lunch doesn’t mean you actually have to “make” anything. It may just involve combining several things in one container. In fact, that’s often how it goes for me. But combining your own fresh and frozen ingredients is infinitely healthier than grabbing another sodium and preservative-laden microwave meal. Promise.

The mysterious yellow-orange peppers on top are death peppers that a coworker so “graciously shared” with the office. I sliced off a tiny piece of an orange one just to try it and had no reaction so I thought I’d be fine. Then I tried a green one and just about choked/cried/died. Once I recovered I tried the orange one again only to find that it was equally evil. I ended up tossing it. I washed my hands a million times but that still didn’t save me from the agony that is touching your face after handling such beasts. Awful. I was later informed it was a habanero. Great. Won’t make that mistake twice.

Ayala's Sampler Pack

Today a sampler pack arrived from Ayala’s Herbal Water (thanks!) complete with 6 flavors to try. You may remember that a few weeks ago I picked up their orange cinnamon flavor on a whim and found it to be the best flavored water I’ve had.

While most flavored waters taste more like watered down juice and are loaded with fake sweeteners and other weird things, Ayala’s just tastes like water with very subtle hints of flavor. Like lavender and mint or ginger and lemon peel, which I’m drinking now.

Ginger Lemon Peel

And they’re USDA Organic too. Ralphie approves.

Ralphie Seal of Approval

I’m not really one to buy bottled water (I use a Brita filter), and when it’s around I have a tendency to drink half and leave it sitting around. I polished off the ginger lemon peel, though, and I’m looking forward to trying the others.

Thanks to Dr. Ayala for sending me the samples.

Giving thanks

Last night I went to a nutrition seminar at the yoga studio that was nothing short of mind-blowing. Our Senior Instructor, Deborah, is also a certified Ayurveda specialist and is filled with information about food, yoga, and life in general.

Did you know that the way you think about food can affect how you metabolize it just as much as the food itself? If you are a cyclical dieter constantly losing and gaining weight, obsessing about calories and fearing your next meal, odds are you’re having a hard time losing weight and keeping it off.

You know why?

Stress. You are so stressed out about food that it is keeping you fat. Stress releases a hormone known as cortisol. When cortisol is released it heads straight to your extremities (arms and legs) to help you escape the stressful situation. This type of flight or fight response is great if you’re, say, being chased by a bear. But if you’re just sitting and eating and fretting about calories and fat grams, then you’ve produced a bunch of cortisol that ran to your extremities and is no longer focused on properly metabolizing your food.

There are lots of ways to change the way you approach your food (and I’ll share some of it later on), but one easy way is to simply acknowledge your food and give thanks for it. This doesn’t have to mean subscribing to a certain religion, thanking God or Jesus or Buddha. It could mean thanking your Mom. Or a farmer. It doesn’t have to be out loud either. Just quietly take time to pay attention and acknowledge the importance of what you are about to consume and it will help your mind process it as much as your body.

http://www.joykampia.com/

Oh, how desperately do I want to wear this masterpiece for Halloween? Unfortunately it actually is a masterpiece–as in created by a real professional artist–so it is one of a kind and goes for about $900.

Perhaps I can give the ice cream dress a try?

http://www.joykampia.com/

Wrong. Also expensive. If you have money to blow, check out Joy Kampia O’Shell’s site and all of her adorable food creations. She has 3D “fiber sculptures” of a banana split, lemon chiffon cake, sushi, a taco, pancakes and more. So cute.

Cute little bread

OK, so nothing about this is focaccia. But doesn’t it look cute? This is just Whole Foods wheat pizza dough drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with fresh rosemary. I also added a little sea salt.

I made this because I went straight from work to yoga to a nutrition workshop at the studio to making tomato sauce at home to it suddenly being 9pm. When I hit that point in the night I have a really hard time deciding what I want to eat or if I want to eat at all.

Enter the fake focaccia. I had this with a little tomato sauce, chunks of manchego and some pineapple. It looks as unappetizing as it sounds. But that’s what I wanted. So there.

Not really a meal

I also had a piece of Stew’s pizza (yes, we made another one already) and will undoubtedly eat more fruit or something later.

Quinoa, olives, almonds, parmesan

Today I had a most delicious salad for lunch that, to be perfectly honest, kind of concerned me until I tasted it. You see, I was about 2 steps from bed last night when I realized I hadn’t washed and prepared all my produce I’d picked up from the Farmer’s Market delivery service. Knowing that there was no chance I’d do it in the morning and, therefore, no chance I’d get to eat it for lunch, I sucked it up, backed away from the bed and made my lunch.

I got a beatiful bunch of Romaine lettuce so I washed and dried that and then I was stumped. No tomatoes. No carrots. What now? I threw in some left over quinoa, a handful of almonds, a few Kalamata olives and topped it off with shredded parmesan. Random much?

From there I poured a little olive oil and red wine vinegar into a baggie and set aside one Morningstar black bean burger. Uhhh, no chance this will work.

Wrong. This worked beautifully. Almonds for protein and crunch. Cheese for fat and flavor. Olives for salt. Black bean burger for warmth. And of course local lettuce was a win. The simple olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing added just the right amount of tang without over powering anything else. Loved it.

Perhaps I should pack lunch in a sleep-induced stupor more often.

Banana orange oat smoothie

Today I went straight from work to the gym to the library so somewhere in there I had to fit in a substantial snack to get me through until dinner at 8:30pm.

Enter the orange, banana, oat smoothie. Yes, oats. Delicious.

Orange Banana Oat Smoothie

Frozen banana
Orange juice
Soy milk
Flax
Oats

I used about a teaspoon of flax, 1/4 cup (or less) of oats and just eyed the OJ and soymilk.

Stew's avocado sandwich

Mornings are kind of rushed so I’ll usually pack lunch the night before. That didn’t really work out yesterday so this morning I threw some 12-grain bread, an entire block of pepper jack cheese, a tomato and a whole avocado in our little canvas lunch bag. We always take our lunch to work. I just like to know what I’m eating.

I didn’t eat at work though because I bailed pretty early on to go work from the library so I could focus. Offices kill my brain.

So Stew was left with a slew of ingredients and used them to make a very delicious sandwich. I know because I got 3 pictures of it emailed to me. This was sliced avocado and tomato on toasted 12-grain bread with melted pepper jack and a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette.

Mmm

Sounds/looks incredible. I want one tomorrow.

Quinoa stuffed peppers

The inspiration for tonight’s dinner came from Natalie’s Killer Cuisine, but I must admit I never actually looked at her recipe because I’m too lazy to look at recipes. I just started doing what made sense with the ingredients I had on hand and ended up with something fairly similar. She went with red peppers rather than green and also made a fancy shmancy avocado lime sauce that sounds amazing. I stuck with what I could handle. [PS - Natalie's site is awesome, her photos are gorgeous and her food is, in fact, killer.]

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Bell peppers, any color
Quinoa
Black beans
Tomato, chopped
Spinach (I used frozen)
Onion
Garlic
Olive oil
Hot sauce (I used Chalula)
Chile flakes
Sharp cheddar cheese (I used Cabot)
Manchego cheese

Ingredients

1. Prepare quinoa as instructed on package. It’ll always be 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water.

2. Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil. Add rinsed and drained black beans, chopped tomatoes and spinach. Let simmer.

Spicy bean mix

3. Season with hot sauce, chili flakes and salt and pepper to taste.

4. Grate in cheddar and manchego cheeses. You don’t need much (unless you want it, I suppose). I had probably a 1/4 cup total.

5. Cut off tops of peppers and clean out seeds. Stuff with combined spicy bean mix and quinoa.

6. Place in oven on 400 degrees for about 10 minutes until the peppers are tender but not mushy.

Finished product

This meal was incredible. Incredible. The top of the stuffing got a little crispy in the oven but the inside was still gooey from the cheese. The peppers were cooked but maintained a nice solid crunch. I loved it.

You may be wondering what on earth manchego is. Manchego is a hard sheep’s milk cheese from La Mancha, Spain. I grew obsessed with it during my senior study abroad in Madrid. I think the longer it’s aged the better but it also gets more expensive with age (particularly here in the States). I got one aged 6 months at Whole Foods for $12/lb. I know. Insane. In Spain you can get a massive manchego sandwich with insane amounts of cheese on a glorious crusty baguette for like $1.50.

Manchego

Anyway, worth every penny. And I only got a little sliver of it anyway. Try this cheese if you ever get a chance. It’s incredible. I ate almost nothing but manchego sandwiches for 3 months straight and that was also the first thing I ate when I went back a year later. If you can’t find it (or don’t want to), pepper jack would be a good choice (though not at all comparable).

I’d also like to point out that this little devil was growing inside one of my peppers. Yes, inside. Like an alien nucleus or something.

Alien pepper

The moral of this (long) story is: make these peppers. You will love them. And try manchego.

Semi-homemade pizza

Yesterday Stew and I picked up some ready-made wheat pizza dough at Whole Foods with big plans to use it for mini pizzas and calzones. You see, I loathe bread products. Not to eat, don’t be silly. When it comes to eating, bread is probably my favorite thing to consume. But as far as making food… I hate bread. I can’t do it. Part of it stems from not being able to follow a recipe to save my life and part of it comes from having absolutely no patience when things go wrong. I have stormed over to the trash can with a wad of gooey dough many a time.

So this ready-made business was a good thing for me. I do plan to conquer bread products one day, but for now this will do.

Simply roll out the dough on a floured surface.

Roll out dough

Of course I don’t have a rolling pin. Who do you think I am? I used my hands. There are some not so delightful pictures of me doing this fresh out of the shower with a towel on my head but I will spare you.

Once we had the dough to our desired size we added homemade tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella balls, fresh basil, oregano and a drizzle of olive oil.

Top with the good stuff

Just before putting the pizza in the oven I thought it might be a good idea to spray down the foil. Nah, the bottom is floured. Surely won’t be a problem. Of course it was a problem. It was me and a bread product. It’s always a problem. After about 30 minutes in the oven and another 15 cooling, Stew was finally able to pry it apart.

Pizza perfection

I had planned to eat cereal for dinner (lame) but Stew insisted I share it with him. Lucky for me because this pizza was perfect. 100% perfect. I don’t know what they’re doing with that Whole Foods dough but it is perfectly chewy and crisp at the same time. We already knew the tomato sauce would be great and the first time buying fresh mozzarella was a major win.

We’ll be doing this often.

Nutmeg

Did you know that nutmeg in large quantities can double as a narcotic? Yeah. Large quantities like 2 tablespoons.

I learned this last night while watching Food Network Unwrapped. The Food Network Librarian (gimme that job) mentioned it as one of the stranger things he once had to research for a recipe.

As it turns out, nutmeg does in fact have narcotic effects when consumed in dosages usually exceeding 1 tablespoon. Those that have tried do not recommend more than 3. The Truth Tree has a detailed account of a nutmeg trip and apparently it is none too pleasant. Symptoms reported were flu-like–including nausea and fever–along with mild paranoia, inability to sleep, cottonmouth, red eyes and, oh, forgetting to breathe.

“The nutmeg high more strongly resembled flu than a marijuana high as others have claimed. I felt no pleasant sensations from this drug whatsoever.” – Ron Savori

I absolutely do not recommend trying this at home. Just thought you might like to know not to accidentally drug your friends and loved ones when baking.

Udi's Granola

Your search is over for the world’s best granola. OK, so maybe I haven’t tried granolas all over the world, but this is most certainly the best I have ever had… by far.

Udi’s Granola comes to us from the Baron family, founders of a Denver-based collection of bakeries and cafes as well as catering operations and, of course, granola. Father Udi Baron grew up on a farm in Israel and is now incorporating the importance of natural, great tasting foods he remembers from childhood into his companies today.

I found several bags of Udi’s at TJ Maxx. I almost bought them all but decided to go with original first and then buy more if I liked it. As it turns out, I love it. It is the best granola I’ve ever had. Super crunchy, not too sweet, great indgredients. It almost tastes like graham crackers but better.

Udi's Original

You can order online at about $6 per bag. I think the sampler pack is a good option so that you can try 6 different flavors.

Ayala's Herbal Water

I found this interesting orange cinnamon herbal water at TJ Maxx, which is my favorite place to buy unique, hard to find food products that I probably wouldn’t buy at full price. The flavor sounded a little strange to me, but this bottle cost me a whopping $0.79 so there was little risk.

No weird stuff, no calories

It is made from purified water, organic extracts of orange peel and flowers, and organic extracts of cinnamon bark. It has a light refreshing orange essence and slight twinge of cinnamon. I really like it a lot and find it to be far superior to any other flavored water I’ve ever had.

Ayala’s Herbal Water is available in 6 different flavors and 12-packs go for $24 online. But since TJ Maxx still has several bottles on the shelves for $0.79, I’ll be heading back there before making any full price purchases.

Organic Consumers Association

The Organic Consumers Association has a great GreenPeople Directory that will allow you to search by zip code for farmers co-ops, grocery stores, boutiques and other businesses selling or supporting organic products.

I actually found a very convenient online farmer’s market for my area where I can log in, view pictures of products, read grower profiles and place orders to be delivered to a pickup spot of my choice.

How great is that? I love going to the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings, but some days I just can’t make it and that’s when this site will come in handy. I just ordered local organic eggs, fresh herbs, greens, eggplant, okra and more. My delivery comes in on Tuesday and I can’t wait to pick it up.

Leftover Soup

Today I needed to get rid of an odd assortment of small quantities of food: asparagus, red potatoes, celery, onion. Solution: soup.

Soup is the simplest thing in the world to make. And you don’t have to make a lot or let it simmer all day or use fancy ingredients. Just sautee some garlic, onion and celery in olive oil. Toss in any vegetables you have on hand. Add broth and some tomato paste/sauce. And you’ve got a meal.

Mine went a little something like this:

Leftover Soup

Onion
Celery
Garlic
Olive oil
Red potatoes
Asparagus
Spinach
Tomato sauce (homemade)
Vegetable broth
Quinoa
Parmesan cheese
Cumin

1. Sautee onion, garlic and celery in olive oil. Add potatoes to brown followed by all other vegetables but spinach. Leave for a few minutes.

2. Add tomato sauce, vegetable broth and quinoa (already prepared).

3. Add spinach and let it cook down. Season with cumin and grated parmesan cheese.

This was perfect. So perfect. The celery was crunchy, the potatoes were hearty and the cumin added nice dimension to the broth.

This whole thing took me 15 minutes max AND I got to clear out the fridge.

For dessert I had a sliced apple (from the orchard) with peanut butter, honey and cinnamon.

Dessert

Go Raw Ginger Snaps

I picked up these Go Raw ginger snaps last week out of curiosity. I’m sure that people on raw diets float around life in a blissful health-induced high, but it is not for me.

I love eating raw food–fruits, vegetables, nuts (although I guess they’re usually roasted)–but a fully raw diet is damn near impossible to keep up with. You can’t even have canned vegetables because they are heated above the acceptable temperature during the canning process.

As for these “cookies”… they have a very interesting taste that I really quite enjoy. They are made from coconut, sesame seeds, dates and ginger and, therefore, are not cookies. Cookies have flour and butter and eggs. These are… I don’t know what these are.

I really do like that taste–though it takes some getting used to–but you just can’t call it a cookie. Call it… jerky? Raw vegan jerky.

I’d buy their other products out of curiosity but they are quite expensive so it won’t happen often.

Cardoon

Apparently Mario Batali loves this obscure member of the thistle family and says it has a “very sexy flavor.” That makes me a little uncomfortable.

Uncomfortable

But now I want to know what it is and what you do with it.

Apparently the cardoon is closely related to the artichoke but is much more difficult to find in the States. The stalks resemble celery and it has a large purple flower which is also edible.

Cardoon stalks

Fun fact: Cardoons are also an excellent source of vegetarian rennet used in cheese production. The non-vegetarian equivalent are enzymes produced in mammalian stomachs. Ack. I’ll take the cardoon cheese, please.

Copyright Learning ZoneXpress

Stew was playing at a church camp earlier this summer and brought me back some flyers from the cafeteria about healthy eating. I think that everyone needs to see this particular one about portion sizes.

You’ve all heard it–meat the size of a deck of cards, pasta the size of an ice cream scoop, fruit the size of a tennis ball, cheese the size of 2 dominoes. These are the everyday object equivalents used to help our fat, gluttonous society visualize how little food we should be eating. They don’t seem to be working.

So take a nice look at this picture [I am hoping that taking a picture of copyrighted material to distribute for educational purposes is not going to get me arrested by the library police] and think before you eat something in its entirety just because it was served to you.

Super foods

The following list was compiled by the Mayo Clinic highlighting 10 of the healthiest foods that everyone should (and can) include in their diets. Foods on the list had to meet 3 of 5 criteria:

- great source of fiber, minerals and other nutrients

- high in phytonutrients

- assists in reducing heart disease and other illnesses

- low caloric density

- readily available

I like the “readily available” criterion. I’m sick of hearing people whine about how difficult and expensive it is to eat healthy food. You can find these guys just about anywhere.

We should all be eating:

1. Almonds – for fiber, riboflavin, magnesium, iron and calcium (they actually have the most calcium of all nuts)

2. Apples – for pectin and vitamin C

3. Blueberries – for phytonutrients and a low-calorie source of fiber

4. Broccoli – for calcium, potassium, folate, fiber and phytonutrients

5. Red beans – for a low-calorie source of protein

6. Salmon – for omega-3 fatty acids

7. Spinach – for vitamins A, B and C as well as magnesium

8. Sweet potatoes – for a fat-free, low-calorie source of beta carotene

9. Vegetable juice – for an easy way to include vegetables in your diet (if you’re thinking V8, I don’t like this–watch out for sodium)

10. Wheat germ – for a concentrated source of niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin E, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, iron and zinc

I love everything (except salmon) on this list. I also think that vegetable juice is a cop out if you run straight for V8. Pick something else that’s not loaded with sodium, please. Carrot juice is a good choice.

Gross

In an effort to maintain the epic gross that is the Sweet Tater front page right now, I have decided to post this horrifying Meat Baby photo sent to me by my boss who suggested I might like to have it for lunch today. I would like to get back at him by sending an alarming photo of a large green salad but I feel the effect would not be the same.

Please note the bacon diaper.

Big MacChicken

Kind of like the KFC Double Down sandwich but somehow infinitely worse, the Big MacChicken comes to us from the guys over at Grocery Eats. No, you are not mistaken. That is a Big Mac and a McChicken sandwiched between two more McChickens.

I don’t even have anything to say about this. I’ll let the taste tester’s words tell it like it is:

“Fast forward 35 minutes and I’m presently at my work desk and miserable.  Thoughts of running to the restroom to vomit are racing through my head.  I have a conference call in 20 minutes and I don’t know if I can make it.   Fuck.  Is it really my stomach that is aching or am I psychologically telling myself to vomit.  All I know is that my mind is telling me that the sandwich was absolutely delicious but my body is rejecting it.”

"Thank you little fucker"

A feisty waiter at Cactus Joe’s in Halixfax, England got even with a toddler that had caused trouble at her table by adding a special line item to the child’s parents’ receipt: “Thanks little fucker”.

This server no longer has a job. But hey, she showed that 2-year-old who’s boss.

Yogurt with the works

So I really wanted oatmeal this morning but my oats are at work and I really didn’t want to go to the office because I have so much to get done. Sound counterintuitive? It’s not. Fluorescent lights fry my brain. Plus, I’m easily driven mad by the dead silence interrupted only by the clicky-clicky of keyboards.

So I’ll be at home, the library and assorted coffee houses from now until forever or I get my work done. Whichever comes first.

Anyway, since my oats are camped out in my desk drawer at the office, I went instead for a little Stoneyfield yogurt I had left over from the zucchini muffins last week. See, I don’t really eat yogurt. Dairy products freak me out and make me feel queasy. But somehow Stoneyfield does not. Hooray for that.

I topped it with Grape nuts, whole almonds, flax, wheat germ, honey and cinnamon.

Please pardon the unbecoming photo and lame Tupperware container. My bowls were dirty.

Weasel approved. Ralphie too, but she’s hard to get a picture of in low light.

Weasel Seal of Approval

Coffee Underground

Stew and I used to put in excessive overtime at work as an excuse to spend time with each other. “Hey, uh, I have a ton to do… Do you want to get coffee tonight and work with me?”

Yeah OR… “Do you want to be my boyfriend?”

He figured it out. It worked.

Anyway, we used to put in all that extra time to see each other. Now we put in that extra time because we literally can’t squeeze our workloads into a 40-hour work week. Gross. I know.

The office away from office of choice is Coffee Underground–or the least annoying coffee house in the world. No pretentious coffee weirdos here. Just really damn good coffee and insane food. Insane.

Personal favorites: strawberry cake, Thai tofu wrap, whole wheat pancakes, chai latte with gingerbread biscotti, hummus, carrot muffin, black bean wrap, cranberry cookies, cheddar biscuit… I need a whole post for this. Until then, here is our breakfast from Saturday morning:

Yogurt parfait, banana and coffee with soy milk for me.

Mine

Cheddar biscuit with eggs, tomato and cheddar for Stew.

Stew's

And now let’s take another look at Stew’s Fat Tire… it’s next to a pint glass for comparison. Can you believe that?!

Giant beer

I’m lying. That’s not even close to a pint. But the beer is 22 oz, which is big.

Back to work.

Apple juice vs. Alzheimer's?

A study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that animal subjects given apple juice were able to complete mazes more quickly. They also produced less betaamyloid which apparently contributes to plaque formations found in the brains Alzheimer’s patients.

Apple juice also prevents the decline of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine which affects memory function.

I haven’t found any studies on humans, but according to this WebMD article about a previous apple juice/Alzheimer’s study, the mice were consuming the human equivalent of 2 glasses of apple juice a day.

I don’t think we can say that drinking two glasses of apple juice a day will guarantee an Alzheimer’s-free life. Plus, fruit juices can be alarmingly high in added sugars. So read labels and don’t expect a magical cure-all.

Cooking affects antioxidant levels

Did you know your vegetables can lose their health value as you cook them?

Different cooking methods affect antioxidant levels in vegetables in different ways. According to a study in the Journal of Food Science, the two best ways to maintain the antioxidant integrity of your vegetables are griddling (cooking on a flat metal surface without oils) and microwaving. Two methods contributing to the highest loss of antioxidants were boiling and pressure cooking.

Green beans, beets and garlic maintained their integrity after almost all cooking methods. And get this… Celery and carrots were actually found to increase their antioxidant levels after all methods of cooking.

Source: The study was conducted by researchers at University of Murcia and Complutense University in Spain and I read about it in Clean Eating magazine.

How many would you take?

 The New York Times had an article a few weeks ago about a University of British Columbia study analyzing the effects of another person’s size on your eating habits.

In the study, female university students were offered M&Ms while watching a video clip. To test the effects of social snacking, they had a 5’2″, 105-lb, size 0-wearing decoy snacking nearby. The catch? At times she was wearing a 180-lb, size 16 fat suit.

Girls that saw the skinny decoy load up her bowl with 108 grams of M&Ms took an average 2.62 oz of candies. However, girls that snacked alongside the “heavy” decoy took only 2.05 oz of candies.

Apparently eating near obese snackers instills an innate fear of weight gain that prompts us to eat less. But when a skinny girl eats a lot, we figure it can’t be all that bad since she can eat it and still wear a size 0.

But it gets even better (worse?)… If you see an overweight person eating a salad, you don’t assume you also need a salad. You assume they need it to lose weight but you’re not like that. Wow.

Gala and Golden Delicious

On our way up to Asheville for the best food Stew has ever eaten in his life, we stopped at Sky Top Orchard to pick some apples. We were too late in the season for honeycrisp so we went with gala and golden delicious. There is absolutely nothing like picking your own apples and eating them straight off the tree. I’m sure you’re not supposed to do this but I ate at least 3 right there in the orchard. Sorryyy.

My mom always took us apple picking when we were little. It was just one of our Fall traditions and since this is by far my favorite season, I was like a kid in… an apple orchard.

Apples!

Stew was also excited and approved this year’s harvest.

Stew approved

He also went to extreme lengths to get the high up apples I demanded.

Get that apple

We ended up with a small basket equivalent to 1 peck for just $9. Ohhh, too bad we neglected to bring cash and they only accept cash (or check) and Stew had to drive back down the mountain to an ATM while I guarded our apples.

When Stew got back with money in hand, we got our apples, apple butter, apple fudge and pumpkin butter. I also insisted that Stew try an apple doughnut since he hasn’t ever had one. These came hot out of the fryer and were then dipped in a mix of cinnamon and sugar. Mmmm, incredible.

Apple doughnut

And let’s not forget the apple fudge… which was less like fudge and more like really, really sweet frosting filled with apple chunks and topped with cinnamon. Mmm.

Apple fudge

This was a fun anniversary day. Let’s have another one.

Happy anniversary apple

Asparagus, quinoa and potatoes

After a weekend filled with excessive food consumption–thanks, Trattoria Giorgio and Sunny Point Cafe–I was feeling a little sluggish and in desperate need of a light, fresh meal.

Enter quinoa, asparagus and baby red potatoes. Quinoa (keen-wah) is a South American grain harvested for its grain-like seeds and sometimes leaves as well. It is picking up speed in the North American market and can now be found in most grocery stores near the rice and other grains. Quinoa has a rich nutty aroma and flavor and, in my opinion, requires little seasoning. And the best part? Quinoa is a complete protein, a characteristic not usually found outside meat products. Edamame is the other non-meat full protein. Win for the vegetarians.

Quinoa

So the quinoa was a smart choice. The potatoes are Ruby Gold and claim to be of the ”no butter required” sort because they are so naturally creamy. This was true so I simply boiled them and added a drizzle of olive oil. Also good. And then asparagus is asparagus. I blanched it and added a bit of salt. I was eating those babies like candy waiting for everything else to cook.

Asparagus

This was a perfect meal and was exactly what I needed after eating such rich food two days in a row.

Light lunch

Sunny Point in Asheville, NC

Pay close attention because I am about to speak about food in what appears to be such extreme hyperbole that you aren’t going to believe a single word I say. But I promise you, I speak the truth.

Sunny Point Cafe in Asheville, NC will serve you some of the best food you have ever eaten in your life.

Don’t believe me? Ask Stew.

“This is the best food I have ever eaten in my life.” – Stew

Best food ever

Need it again? “No seriously. This is the best food I have ever eaten in my life.”

Proof

So what’s with the hype? Where were we? What were we doing there? And, most importantly, what were we eating?

We were in Asheville rounding out a perfect first anniversary day of apple picking with a perfect first anniversary dinner. Since Stew planned last night’s dinner at Trattoria Giorgio, I was in charge of today’s meal. I picked Sunny Point Cafe because I checked the menu online and it slapped me in the face and demanded that I come give it a try.

We started with the appetizer special of the day: chickpea patties. I know what you’re thinking… falafel. Wrong. This was nothing like falafel. Not even close. I know because I know falafel and because that was my next plate at Sunny Point. These chickpea patties were lighter and creamier and were atop a pool of a mysterious tomato sauce that blew my mind. I think the best way to describe it would be mashed potato cakes but with chickpeas. The crumbled feta gave just the right touch of salt. Mmm. Strange. Perfect.

Chickpea patties

Despite having started the meal with chickpea patties, I simply cannot say no to falafel–fried chickpea balls. And since Sunny Point offers a falafel wrap, my meal was decided for me before I even got there. I can’t say that this is the best falafel I have ever eaten, but it has entered the top 3 (1. Pita House, 2. Maoz, 3. Sunny Point). But the pita bread… Holy hell, the pita bread. This was without a doubt in my mind the absolute best pita bread I have ever eaten in my life. It may just be the best bread period. Oh my. Chewy, doughy but somehow light. Ooh, and it had those little burn marks from the grill. Kill me.

Falafel wrap

Stew had the Firefly Enchiladas and they apparently changed his life. They are described as “a colorful mix of seasonal vegetables and tofu chorizo rolled in flour tortillas, topped with a creamy salsa verde and melted cheese and served with spiced right bamboo rice and cumin garlic black beans.” But he describes it simply as: perfect.

Firefly enchiladas

It’s truly a crime against food to call this plate “enchiladas” since the traditional Mexican food has been so bastardized by restaurants in America that hearing the word likely makes you picture a nondescript gelatinous blob of cheese wrapped in tortilla and covered in red Campbell’s soup-like sauce. That is not what this was. Obviously. I only weaseled away one bite of it because I didn’t want to interrupt Stew’s moment and I was too busy gnawing on pita bread made by Jesus Himself.

We watched them bring out a tray of desserts to show another table and I gawked shamelessly. Straight up stood there and stared at their table while the waitress went through the options–tiramisu, chocolate molten cake, buttermilk cheesecake… need I go on? We were too full and had to pass. But we’ll be back. Don’t you worry.

You know the coolest part about Sunny Point? They have an organic garden in the backyard. Yeah, we didn’t realize this until we were on our way out. But the food we ate came out of the frigging organic garden in the backyard. What kind of restaurant even has a backyard? This one. Best restaurant on Earth.

Trattoria Giorgio

Stew and I celebrate our one-year anniversary tomorrow so we started early with dinner tonight at Trattoria Giorgio. Though I’ve lived in Greenville for 6 years now and pass this adorable restaurant daily, I’ve never actually eaten here. Stew and I stop and gawk at the menu every time we pass and admire the quaint little urban garden patio next door. Still, we never stop. Part of this has to do with it always being fully booked. (They only have 10 tables.) And part of it has to do with the fact that it looks to be a place for rich old people.

And while Stew and I were the youngest people there by about 50 years, we were not treated with any contempt by our very delightful server who happened to also be celebrating his 15th anniversary today. It is also not a place for rich people. I suppose if you really did it up with a bottle of wine ($40-$75), appetizer ($10-$15), salad ($8), dinner ($16-$30+) and dessert ($8), then, yes, you would rack up quite a bill.

We both started with a glass of wine and the complimentary bread and olive oil. I swear to you, I would take shots of this olive oil. It was like nothing I’ve ever had. Real olive oil. Then we shared the Caprese salad which, though delicious, was still nothing like the mozzerella I ate in Italy. Let’s not be snooty, though. This was wonderful.

Caprese appetizer

I thought about asking the server to have the chef make any surprise vegetarian pasta. I do this every once in a while in restaurants when I can’t decide what to get or when vegetarian entrees aren’t available and it always turns out beautifully. I think they like the freedom to do anything. But tonight I was distracted by the spinach walnut ravioli. Shut up. I’ll take it. I requested a tomato sauce in place of the standard cream sauce because I just can’t stomach that.

Spinach walnut ravioli

Photos cannot do this pasta justice. I’ll just say I was eating the sauce with a spoon like a soup. That good.

Stew had farfalle with salmon and peas in a light pink sauce. Beautiful. I had a bite of fish-less pasta but it tasted suspiciously like ham or bacon. Stew loved it though. And his made a nicer photo than mine.

Bowtie pasta with salmon and peas

A dinner like this deserves to end with an exquisite espresso, and that’s just what we had. It was like drinking chocolate.

I go back and forth between not believing a year has passed because it’s gone so quickly and feeling like 10 years has passed because it seems like we’ve been together forever. I suppose those are both nice feelings to have.

Spud Fudge

Stew and I were watching Food Network recently (as we tend to do, uh, daily) and we caught the Unwrapped: Potatoes episode. The highlight? Sandee’s Candies Spud Fudge. That’s right. Fudge made with potatoes.

And I’m going to go ahead and call it a health food* since the potatoes are used to replace 1/3 of the sugar that would normally be used. Win!

8oz Spud Fudge

Of course I went straight to the computer to order some taters but the Food Network fame sent so much traffic to the site that I could barely even get it to load. When I was finally able to get an order in, I went with the 8 oz Spud and another little 1.5 oz Spud.

Imagine my surprise and delight when my package arrived within 3 days later with Spuds still in tact despite the late summer heat AND an extra collection of fudge bites AND a personal note from Sandee herself. How great is that?

Extra treats from Sandee

 I’ll be really disappointed if I hear she sends these to everyone…

Note from Sandee

Each Spud comes with a pat of yellow “butter” and is wrapped in foil for that authentic baked potato look. I went one step further and had mine delivered in burlap sacks as well. Adorable.

Authentic

And the taste? Fantastic. Smooth, rich, not overly sweet. Potato after taste? Nope. You’d never know they were there except for the lighter consistency.

Stew approved

Next step: Sweet potato Spud Fudge! Ah, we can dream…

Sweet tater spud fudge?

*This is obviously not a health food. Don’t be ridiculous. You may have 1 piece.

For the love of God, please stop buying those little packets of instant oatmeal. They are a waste of money and are full of crap. You can have a more nutritious, better tasting, cheaper instant oatmeal free of additives and excessive sugar if you just do it yourself.

A canister of quick cooking oats costs somewhere around $2.50 and has 13 servings. A box of instant Quaker oatmeal packets goes for around $4 and has just 10 servings. And because these little packets are so terribly unsatisfying, they even have instructions for preparing them two at a time. So consider that to only be 5 servings if you actually like to eat substantial food.

So take your cheaper oats and then add nuts, dried fruit, cinnamon and anything else that moves you. You can make a bunch of baggies to have on hand just like the store bought kind. Then when the mood strikes, simply add 1/2 cup of boiling water and some honey.

Today I had oatmeal with almonds, cranberries, raisins, cinnamon, flax and honey. It was fantastic. I realize that adding all of these other ingredients will up your cost per bowl, but I have them around the house anyway so I consider them “free”.

Breakfast

Stuffed eggplant

Since I had just made my first batch of homemade tomato sauce, I wanted to put it to good use. Luckily for me, one of Foodbuzz‘s Top 9 features today was berenjenas rellenas de arroz, or eggplants stuffed with rice.

Shut up. Ah, sweet fortune. I studied abroad in Spain senior year and my home stay ”madre” Sofia would make us something very similar to this delightful recipe. I must also say that the blog where this recipe originated is incredible and includes recipes for everything I miss about Spain. It’s called A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa and is maintained by Diana, of both Spanish and Mexican descent. Can you imagine the food they must eat in her house?

See Diana’s recipe for eggplants stuffed with rice and let me know if you want to go to Spain any time soon.

You may notice mine look nothing like hers. This is likely due to a number of factors, including but not limited to: I didn’t use bread crumbs, I added cheese, I’ve never cooked an eggplant like this, I am not a chef nor will I ever pretend to be.

Homemade tomato sauce

This first attempt at homemade tomato sauce is brought to you by RouxBe, the online cooking school.

I heard through the grapevine (ie. one of the RouxBe producers) that this tomato sauce is “life altering”. How could I pass on that? This was also the first RouxBe tutorial I watched so I saw it fitting to make it the first one I actually put into practice in the kitchen.

All it takes is onion, olive oil, garlic, canned whole tomatoes, tomato paste and basil (not required). Sautee the onion and garlic in the olive oil. Add tomato paste. Deseed whole tomatoes then add those and all juice from the can. Top it off with some fresh basil.

RouxBe’s recipe calls for 4 cans of tomatoes. I only had 1 so I quartered everything. I was still left with a very sizeable pan filled with fantastic, simple tomato sauce.

Try to ignore the fact that I didn’t get all of my seeds out [Confession: I dont have a strainer] and head over to RouxBe to find out why seeds in tomato sauce is a no-no…

RouxBe.com

I recently signed up for a free 30-day trial on RouxBe, a new online cooking school with video tutorials.

They’ve got all your basics–knife skills, stocks, pasta, sauces, rice, etc. Each tutorial starts with objectives to learn and also lists any prerequisites you should watch first. That is followed by a beautiful, simple step-by-step video detailing the process. Once you’re done they give you some recipes for practice and finally a quiz to see how well you paid attention.

So far I’ve been through all the stock videos (eye opening for a vegetarian–ewww gelatin!), a chocolate tasting tutorial and how to make tomato sauce. I am determined to watch them all before my trial is up. I’m kidding. I’m actually planning to buy the lifetime membership for $200, 10% of which will be donated to the UN’s World Food Program. Win, win, win. 

After talking with one of the RouxBe producers about the “life altering” tomato sauce, I just had to give it a try.

Pair that with a FoodbBuzz Top 9 feature today of berenjenas rellenas de arroz (eggplants stuffed with rice) and bam, dinner!

Perhaps you are unaware of this whole online foodie subculture. Well, now you know. If you’re even the slightest bit interested in food–whether eating or cooking–hop on the bandwagon and log in to these sites. They are great cheap/free resources for any skill level. Not to mention, they introduce you to a plethora of new recipes and restaurants to try.

I’m excited to see where RouxBe goes from here. I think it is a great idea off to a strong start. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Baked sweet tater fries

In honor of Sweet Tater’s first month in existence, I felt it fitting to celebrate with sweet potatoes in some form. And since the purest and most delicious form a sweet tater can take is baked, I went that route.

Allow me to wow you with these easy, effortless, wholesome, healthy, you’d-never-know-they-weren’t-fried baked sweet potato fries.

Baked Sweet Tater Fries

2 sweet taters
Olive oil
Salt

1. Start by peeling and chopping your taters. If you’re fancy and have a special fry chopper then use that. If you’re slumming it like me, cut each individual fry with tender loving care using your favorite knife.

Raw sweet taters

2. Place sweet taters on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. [Note: Go easy on it. Drowning these babies in olive oil then placing them in the oven is essentially just like shallow pan frying]

Arrange fries

3. Salt–I also seasoned mine with a little cumin, paprika and black pepper. But I kind of regret it. It’s great–don’t get me wrong. It would just be perfect simply salted.

4. Place in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour. Check on them about halfway through and flip so all sides get crispy.

Yum!

Handi lunch buffet

In India, “handi” is a round, thick-bottomed clay pot used for cooking curries. In Greenville, Handi is an exquisite Indian restaurant on Main Street. If Stew loves anything more than me, it is most certainly the lunch buffet at Handi. I guess it would technically be anything from Handi, but the lunch buffet is best because you can have it all for $7.95.

This buffet is a force to be reckoned with. Plate after plate of hot, fresh authentic food. Had I been smart enough to bring a pen and paper, I’d be able to tell you what I actually ate. But it doesn’t matter because we’ll be back next week I’m sure. Just know it is incredible and worth a visit. Multiple times.

The naan is perfect. The dal is insane. And the chana masala will smack you in the face with love. Don’t worry, they have chicken and lamb dishes too. And you get to round it all out with a mystery dessert like mango custard or fresh fruit.

One time in the midst of inhaling my buffet samplings, I also inhaled a small, skinny death pepper that should only be used for flavoring sauces and then removed before serving. This thing was lethal. And I ate it–stem and all. I thought that was my end of days right then and there. The worst part was the it was one of my first bites and I couldn’t taste any of my other selections.

Now I’m a little more careful with my Handi consumption so that I can enjoy each and every bite.

Come see them at 18 N Main Street but do not dawdle in front of me in the buffet line.

Goodbye watermelon

Watermelon is one of those fruits I avoid buying because it’s enormous, difficult to carry to the car and requires a good bit of time to prep. How lazy am I?

I occasionally buy those grocery store fruit salads knowing damn well that they are overpriced and that they were created as way to use up fruit that is just about to go bad and still make money off of it. I’m on to you, food industry.

Anyway, my laziness usually gets the better of me and I go for the fruit salad. Not this time, though. And never again. With summer coming to a close I felt the need to hold onto it for dear life by snagging my first and last whole watermelon of the season. How sad is that?

I paid $5 for what was probably an 8 to 10-pound watermelon. The beast yielded about 20 cups of watermelon chunks. I usually pay $6-7 for a measley 4-5 cups of slimy, almost-expired watermelon, pineapple, strawberries and like 3 grapes. Never again.

I had two of these 8-cup mixing bowls overflowing with watermelon plus another tupperware container for breakfast PLUS I had to finally just throw some away PLUS I probably ate 30 chunks while cutting.

Endless watermelon

It did probably take me about 30 minutes to get the entire thing cut up. But it was worth it. Plus, Stew got a nice action shot of me waving around an 8-inch knife.

Extreme watermelon cutting

And I got some lovely shots of Stew with a big watermelon smile…

:D

…and making a big watermelon mess.

Extreme watermelon eating

Love rice

Last night Stew and I went to Thai Sky simply because we had a coupon for free spring rolls, I demanded rice and vegetables, and Lemongrass was closed.

Free spring rolls

The restaurant describes itself as an “exotic Thai-French sushi bar” which makes absolutely no sense at all. There is no French food on the menu.

I had the mixed vegetables with tofu and steamed rice and made what was likely a failed attempt at requesting a sauce that was not made of oysters, fish, chicken or any other meat. Stew assured me they understood the request. I will believe him.

Hopefully not oyster sauce

Thai Sky is not the best Thai restaurant I’ve ever been to, but it is most certainly the best (only?) Thai-French sushi bar I’ve ever been to. My vegetables were really good, not too terribly greasy and maintained their crunchy integrity. The tofu was lightly fried unlike the painfully crunchy dagger tofu I find some places (Thaicoon).

The booths were uncomfortable, the food was above average and the service was prompt and friendly. Not the best but most certainly not the worst. Plus, I find the strip mall hole-in-the-wall thing to be quite endearing. And they made my rice into a heart. Enough said.

Larb

You’ve probaby seen a number of “larb” dishes on menus at various Thai restaurants. If you’re like me, you giggle every single time and say,”What is larb?”

Because I’ve seen different larb options like chicken larb, tofu larb, etc., I assume it is a cooking style rather than an actual food. According to Wikipedia’s questionable reference-less write up on it, larb is the unoffocial national dish of Laos. The meat salad (which could be made of chicken, beef, fish, duck, turkey, pork or even tofu) is flavored with fish sauce and fresh lime and served with sticky rice. It is also popular in northern Thailand which would explain why I see it so often in Thai restaurants.

Oatmeal with fresh fruit

My friend Sandwich (yeah, that’s what I call her) was in town this past weekend from NYC. Naturally, this means we went to brunch on Sunday since that is apparently what I do when my friends visit.

I really don’t even like brunch–or breakfast for that matter. My standard morning consists of some sort of fresh fruit and a cup of coffee with a splash of soy milk. A few hours into the morning I’ll have a granola bar or some other sort of carb to keep me going until lunch.

Breakfast-centric outings are kind of stressful for me because I’m never quite sure what to get. MaryBeth’s at McBee Station was our weekly brunch spot back when I had friends in town. I usually lucked out in not getting everyone gathered and ready to go until around noon. At that point it was appropriate for me to order lunch foods which I find far superior to breakfast foods.

On this recent visit to MaryBeth’s we were too early for tomato basil soup so I went with steel cut oats with cream and sugar. I ordered a fruit salad to round it out.

As I’ve probably mentioned, I’m not a fan of dairy products so I skipped the cream. But I did mix in my strawberries and blueberries with a sprinkle of brown sugar. Quite good.

The whole spread

To me, this was a lot of food to eat at the start of the day so I didn’t eat again until dinner. Eat when you’re hungry, not when the clock says you should.

Homemade granola bars

Raise your hand if you’re sick of spending money on granola bars. If you get a good one you can literally see and read all of the ingredients. Mix it all together. Slice it into bars. Bam, granola bars. Easy, right?

Wrong. This one was a bit of a headache for me. But that’s really only because the waxed paper melted/stuck to large portions of my granola. This left me irate–hunched over the treat with an 8-inch knife trying to saw off delicate layers of waxy gross.

It worked. And as it turns out, these bars are incredible.

I found the recipe on Joyful Abode but tweaked it a little by forgetting things or switching to things I like better. I used almonds and cashews instead of peanuts, added some peanut butter and totally forgot the salt. Oops.

For ingredients and instructions, check out Joyful Abode’s homemade granola bar recipe.

For my take on it, keep reading…

Cranberry Almond Cashew Granola Bars

1. Place oats and nuts on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven for about 10 minutes.

2. Melt sugar, honey, peanut butter and vanilla in a skillet over low heat.

3. Combine sugar mixture and toasted grains. Add dried fruits.

4. Press granola mixture into a wax paper-lined baking dish. Press down on waxed paper to get the mixture to your desired bar thickness.

5. Let cool then slice into bars using a very sharp knife. If you somehow manage to melt your waxed paper onto the bars, don’t freak out and start huffing and puffing. Just slice off the compromised layers. They’ll be fine.

These were excellent, though a little sweet for my taste. I realize now that this may be because I forgot the salt. I also think you could significantly reduce the amount of honey and sugar used. Play around with it. There are endless nut and fruit combinations that would work nicely with this base.

Granola brick

Zucchini bread muffins

As a kid, summers to me were lightning bugs, night games, sunburns (oops), bass fishing, book reading, freezer pops, sprinklers and (if we were lucky) bunny nests in the yard. It was also when my mom’s garden would boom. I remember lettuce, strawberries, red potatoes, green beans, herbs and zucchini.

Back then I wasn’t quite the veggie eater that I am today so zucchini as a vegetable was not among my favorite foods. Luckily for me my mom would use them to make zucchini bread–sweet, soft, dense, perfect zucchini bread. I suppose you could make a savory zucchini bread and that’s probably what most people think when they hear it, but this one and the one from my childhood are both sweet breads.

Yesterday at the farmer’s market a ran across a monster of a zucchini and decided it was time for me to finally try my hand a zucchini bread.

I browsed through about a half dozen foodie blogs and finally settled on a great recipe from The Kitchen Sink. Yes I absolutely used someone else’s recipe. Are you insane? You can’t fake baking the way you can cooking. Trust me. I’ve tried.

Being the fake home cook that I am, I also don’t have proper cookware–including a bread pan. So my zucchini bread became zucchini muffins. Works for me.

These muffins are light both in texture and fat as they call for yogurt rather than butter.

For ingredients and all the details, check out The Kitchen Sink’s zucchini-flaxseed bread recipe.

Or follow my convoluted play-by-play at recreating their masterpiece:

Sweet Zucchini Muffins

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup ground flaxseed (whoops, I forgot this)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)
1 cup plain yogurt
2 eggs
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
Cooking spray
3 tablespoons whole pecans, toasted (Oh and I didn’t toast mine…)

1. Whisk together all dry ingredients (up to nutmeg).

Dry ingredients

2. Drain the water out of your zucchini by pressing it between paper towels.

Drained zucchini

3. Mix together wet ingredients (yogurt, egg, oil and vanilla). Add the zucchini.

Wet ingredients

4. Combine wet and dry mixtures and add chopped nuts.

Combine wet and dry

5. Pour mixture into greased muffin tin or a bread pan. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350.

Top with a whole pecan

Yesterday I spent the day in meetings down in Florida. It’s the first time I’ve ever done a one-day down and back flight for a meeting and I must say it’s quite exhausting. It was also my first time traveling long distance in a tiny plane. I took one quick trip from Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas in high school and the second plane filled with my friends only made it halfway and had to turn around to make an emergency landing back in Florida and try again. They did make it the second time but I’ve been mildly traumatized since then.

My boss and Captain Charlie

Anyway, this flight was great and if I had the money to do so I would never fly commercial again.  Look how comfortable this is…

Leg room

It would be out of line for me to talk about where I was or what I was doing so I’ll just talk about the food…

I took a banana and a Kashi granola bar to eat on the 2-hour flight. This got me through the meeting and on to lunch where I had a massive chopped salad with broccoli, zucchini, squash, tomatoes and romaine. I had a fruit salad for dessert. Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures because it looks pretty odd at a business lunch.

We made a stop near Charleston on the way back up to drop my boss off. That was a great route because we flew alongside the coast and got some lovely views of the low country islands.

When I finally got home I was exhausted. Those little planes are loud and they get hot as you descend for landing. All I really wanted to do was hop on the orange bike, park myself at an outdoor cafe table and blog. I wasn’t very hungry so I got a Mediterranean sampler plate with hummus, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, red pepper tapenade, chevre and focaccia toast. Perfect.

Unfortunately, I picked the table next to a roach the size of Weasel and under an obnoxious bubble machine that pounded me relentlessly with a rainstorm of liquid goo. My computer is still sticky.

ThinkFruit bars

It’s no secret that I love Publix. It’s the best grocery store in America. Before they built one basically in my backyard, I used to drive miles to get to one because the only other downtown grocery store is a shady Bi-Lo. I recently moved to the other end of town closer to the Bi-Lo. I still drive, walk or bike past this more convenient store to get to my beloved Publix.

This morning, however, I just needed toilet paper so I figured stopping at Bi-Lo wouldn’t be the end of the world. This store is a joke. Dingy, dirty, no selection. They have, however, made a sad attempt at creating a “health foods” section which consists of one shelf filled with trail mix, granola bars and some gluten free items. I found these ThinkFruit bars there and decided to give them a try.

I got Noni Apple for me because my grandmother swears by the super powers of noni juice and has been trying to convince all of us to drink it for years.

I got Cashew Acai for Stew because I love him and wanted to try another flavor.

They were actually both very satisfying. The ingredients are simple and–at least from what is listed–contain no crap. The absolute best part, though, is the ridiculous description on the back of each bar signed by “Lizanne – CEO, mother of 2 and former model.” Haha, ok. Katie – Person, mother of 2 cats, never a model.

This is the only time I have ever seen these bars, so good job Bi-Lo. You did something right.

For a while Stew and I had a Saturday morning orange juice ritual that involved juicing a bag of oranges then watching Down Home with the Neely’s on Food Network. This tradition died out when I started going to yoga on Saturday mornings. Today we reinstated it but had to watch Ask Aida instead. Lame.

One $4 bag of oranges will get you two pints (those are pint glasses, right?) of OJ. Far cheaper than what you would pay for that much freshly squeezed juice in a restaurant.

Banana ice cream - 1 ingredient

When your boyfriend’s at a bachelor party, your friends all live in big cool cities and your cats refuse to hold a conversation with you, there are few things left to do but sit on the couch, watch Alton Brown be brilliant and eat ice cream.

Ah yes, but I don’t really do that whole unhealthy thing, right? No problem.

If you’ve got bananas, a freezer and a food processor, you’ve got healthy, cheap, easy ice cream. Assuming you keep frozen bananas on hand at all times, then you’ve got ice cream now. If you don’t, you have to wait like 12 hours. That’ll teach you.

Yes, the one ingredient in 1-ingredient ice cream is frozen bananas. That’s it. Drop 3 or four (chopped) in a food processor and go to town.

Then feel free to top it with a little honey, cereal, nuts or dried fruit. Mmm. I went with honey, cinnamon and a sprinkle of Grape Nuts.

And now I’m off for a date with Alton.

I usually do my grocery shopping on Sundays and never really have a problem getting through to the end of the week. This week, however, I decided to buy a big fancy desk instead of buying food. A few days later, rather than give in and buy at least a few groceries, I instead decided to decorate my living room. One large decorative mirror, two silver lamps, two candle holders, a rug and three refinished pieces of old furniture later, I still don’t have any food.

We’ve been getting by on minestrone soup, hummus sandwiches, cereal and black bean burgers. But even most of that has run out.

So tonight with another piece of freshly painted furniture drying on the lawn, I set out to make myself a real dinner using only what I could find in the kitchen.

Luckily for me, my coworker Shannon brought in tomatoes from her garden and I snagged two. I always have dry pasta on hand and my carrots, celery and onion from I don’t even know when were holding up fine. Add to that some canned navy beans, frozen spinach and dried herbs and you’ve got yourself a pretty nice little meal.

So if you ever find yourself buying furniture instead of food, rest assured you can still get by with this…

End of the Week Pasta

Carrots, 2 grated
Celery, 1 stalk chopped
Onion
Tomato
Garlic
Olive oil
Oregano
Basil
Navy beans, 1 can rinsed and drained
Frozen spinach
Cheese of your choosing; I used feta
Dried pasta

Whatever you can find

1. Prepare the pasta. I’m not telling you how to do this.

2. Sautee onion, garlic and celery in olive oil. If using dried herbs, crush them with your fingers and sprinkle into the hot oil to release the flavor. If you have fresh herbs, you’re lucky. Save them until the very end.

3. Add carrot, tomato and beans. Microwave 1/2 a box of frozen spinach and add that to the sauce pan as well.

4. Let the whole thing simmer for a few minutes. Taste and then add salt or pepper if you need it.

5. Add the sauce to the pasta. Top with a little grated cheese. I used feta.

There you have it–a fresh, sort-of-free, healthy meal. No grocery shopping required.

Who says you can’t play with your food? If you can’t get your kids to eat try making meal time a game with Food Face plates. Each plate features a goofy bald head that kids can decorate with their food. Spaghetti hair. Mashed potato beard. The possibilities are endless.

Question. If I don’t have kids and am not technically a kid myself, can I still buy these? Find them at NeatOrama.

If you’re more into making your kids totally annoying, go for the Zing! catapult spoons.

Photo from www.time.com

A hotel in Taiwan is creating Dalai Lama-inspired latte foam portraits in honor of the religious leader’s visit to the city.

Watch the baristas at the Garden Villa Hotel turn coffee into art here.

Holy gross. Some poor guy in Orlando was enjoying a backyard barbecue with his family when he opened a can of Diet Pepsi, took a sip and started gagging.

Why?

It wasn’t until poison control had been called and the can passed off to the FDA for testing that Fred DeNegri learned he had taken a swig of a decomposing, Pepsi-marinaded frog or toad. Ack.

That’s right. The heavy lump of what his wife described as “pink linguini” that poured out of the can after vigorous shaking was in fact determined to be a frog/toad.

The FDA completed a thorough investigation of the Pepsi bottling plant in Orlando and found no problems. They have yet to determine how or when the frog got inside the can.

Pepsi remains unfazed and has yet to apologize to the family.

Read the whole story at CNN.com.

Darrell Lea mango liquorice

Marshall’s got me again with the impulse buys. I swear the whole TJX empire has it in for me. In a good way. In the past year they’ve all built this maze of winding goodie-stocked shelves leading up to the cashier. I think I buy something every single time.

Cute coffee mugs and water bottles. Monogrammed notebooks. Fancy stationery. And snacks, delicious snacks.

Last week I snagged some Snacktrition cashews. Today I couldn’t pass up this Darrell Lea Soft Eating Mango Liquorice.

Holy hell, these little nuggets are good. The Australian treat is soft, chewy and not overly sweet. Mmm. Nothing like the waxy red (or black) stuff we all know and hate here in the States.

Delicious. Highly recommended. And just $2.50 at Marshall’s.

Can we please stop pretending that all women go nuts at the sight of chocolate? I went to a women’s expo this past weekend and I swear to you every single booth was trying to draw traffic in with a basket of free chocolate. Need a gynecologist? Have some chocolate! Roof repair? Chocolate! Ridiculous.

Anyway, chocolate + flowers seems to be the go to for guys when they need something for their girlfriends. Stew knows me better than that.

For my birthday I got an outrageous fruit display from Edible Arrangements complete with a pineapple-carved 1985 sign. Awesome. I think he intended it as a joke but I seriously loved it.

Last night, for no real reason at all, I got flowers and a little fruit salad. Aw, he’s cute.

Here’s an easy way to save some calories you won’t even notice are gone. Hollow out the center of your breads, bagels, etc. I use this method more for functional purposes of stuffing in more filling without spilling, but it also serves to cut down on your overall caloric intake.

Give it a try. You won’t notice. And considering 1 bagel = 5 slices of bread, I think you can stand to toss out some of it.

Real cheese on real bread

Please, oh please, stopped eating grilled “cheese” on Wonder “bread”. It’s gross. It’s not real food. I have always hated American cheese. Even as a kid I demanded sharp cheddar grilled cheese or nothing, and I refused to try cheeseburgers.

For the simple pleasure of a true grilled cheese made for people over the age of 3, try using a super sharp cheddar and multigrain baguette.

Cut the baguette to your desired sandwich length, slice in half to make two sides and then flip it inside out. Yes, so that the part you grill is the soft inside. Brush the soft inside (now outside) of the bread with olive oil or olive oil spray then season with whatever moves you–salt and pepper is fine.

Sandwich your cheese between the crust side of the bread ends and hit the griddle. Smash it down with a spatula to smoosh the bread down to a more manageable eating size and get the cheese heated up.

You may find that the bread is so thick and the cheese so real that it simply won’t melt. No big. Pop it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds before you grill to get the cheese going.

Grilled cheese all grown up

This sandwich is perfect–and I mean perfect–dunked in a bowl of minestrone soup. Mmmm, is it fall yet?

Hippy ice cream makers Ben & Jerry’s will be releasing a pro gay marraige ice cream appropriately named Hubby Hubby. The vanilla malt ice cream is dotted with fudge-covered, peanut butter-filled pretzels and swirled with peanut butter and fudge. The package shows a happy gay couple wedding cake topper at the end of–what else?–a rainbow.

Ben & Jerry aren’t shy about sharing their political views with the world. Last year they released a pro Obama Yes Pecan! ice cream in support of the then presidential candidate.

I take no issue with Ben & Jerry’s exercising their American rights. What is this–Free speech? Freedom of the press? I don’t know. But I’m not so sure it will accomplish what it is they’re going for. Then again, who knows? Obama did win, after all.

Ever wanted to let someone know what you really thought of their cooking? Well, at my house you can. Just head to the fridge and fill out my new cooking report card.

Unnecessary? Yes. But at $2 on clearance at TJ Maxx, I saw it as a low risk worthless purchase.

Rate things like burn avoidance, healthiness, creative fridge-contents use and repeat meal avoidance.