SMOOTHIE!

So very happy I have an immersion blender!


Basic Smoothie

handful of frozen blueberries
1/3 cup or 1/2 cup yogurt. Maybe more, I haven't actually measured it.
10-12 frozen strawberries
a splash of orange juice
1 banana, chopped up.

Blend. Enjoy.




Anyone have any other smoothie recipes? Or suggestions? I'm especially interested in green smoothies with spinach or something.

Scrambled Eggs done right

Now that I'm jobless, I've gotten in the habit of eating brunch instead of breakfast and lunch. It feels so nice to relax and read or work in the morning and then leisurely make a large breakfast/brunch. Usually I eat over easy eggs on toast and have been making fried potatoes to go alone with it. And coffee of course. And orange juice. If I had some strawberries or other fruit I'd be eating that too.

BUT this post isn't about over-easy eggs and their runny goodness. It's about scrambled eggs. For the past few years-basically ever since I fell in love with runny yolky eggs-I've considered scrambled eggs for kids. Really though, it's because it's so hard to find good scrambled eggs! This includes when I make them for myself, often too scrambled, too flat and brown and at times even crunchy. uhg.

Smitten Kitchen is basically my all-time favorite food blog. I've adapted more than one of her recipes. I stumbled upon a post she made about scrambled eggs and found out she had the same problems with people overcooking scrambled eggs. She listed how she cooks her eggs with detailed photos to boot. You'd think (at least I did) that scrambled eggs would be the easiest most fool proof way of cooking eggs, but yesterday I made eggs the way she suggested it and it made SUCH A BIG DIFFERENCE!

They were so fluffy and light and wonderful! Best scrambled eggs I've ever had! I was also lucky that I had some leftover goat cheese from a pizza I made last week and was able to make some goat cheese toast to go with it. WONDERFUL!

Check out how to make these life changing eggs HERE!

Garlic Butter Mushroom Pasta w/Kale, Cherry Tomatoes

Yesterday I randomly bought a small batch of mushrooms. I've never cooked with mushrooms before but have been ordering and eating them more at restaurants and wanted to try my hand at it. My parents never served mushrooms to me while I was younger-well, I can't really say that. They probably did but I was too busy eating my blue-box-mac'n'cheese to notice. Thank goodness I grew out of that and will gladly eat/try/enjoy any food set in front of me. Except horseradish. And shrimp. And maybe kiwi, but I haven't had a kiwi in maybe 15 years (if ever).

Garlic Butter Roasted Mushroom Pasta With Kale and Cherry Tomatoes

I should note that this recipe is adapted from the stunning Smitten Kitchen. Check it out!

8 oz mushrooms- I used white mushrooms but button mushrooms would work just as nice, or any variety for that matter. You could also probably increase the amount of mushrooms if you really like mushrooms.
4 cloves of garlic (or more!)
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
salt and pepper and any herbs you want.
1 teaspoon lemon juice
a few cherry tomatoes, I used about 7 or 8, halved
a handful of kale, chopped loosely
Parmesan or Romano cheese.


Preheat oven to 450. Mix the mushrooms, onion, garlic, and olive oil together. Mix in a dash of salt and pepper. Place in a baking dish and cube three tablespoons of butter and place it over the mushrooms. Bake, making sure to stir every once in awhile, for 15-20 minutes or whenever the mushrooms are brown and soft. Once finished add the teaspoon of lemon juice and any fresh herbs you'd like. In a frying pan, heat up some butter or oil and lightly fry over low heat the cherry tomatoes and kale. Once kale is fully wilted and cherry tomatoes are slightly bursting from their skin, mix with cooked pasta and the mushroom/onion mixture. make sure the get all the juice from the mushrooms onto the pasta, it creates a light flavored sauce.
Top with some grated cheese.

Woo! Dinner! Fancy!

Latte

I just made my second latte from home ever. Thus proving I never have to leave the apartment. Ever. I can get all the necessities living home alone! Food! Tasty espresso delicacies! Human interaction!

Well. Not that. I haven't seen a human face in two days.


Anyways, all you need are the right tools for your own wonderful caffeinated experience. I got an espresso maker for christmas a few years ago in hopes that it'd cut down the money I spend on going out. Sadly, the milk frother that came with it was a pain in the butt and worked really poorly (not to mention was obscenely loud). I never bothered in buying a separate milk frother since then (I was too concerned that it wouldn't work) and have used my espresso maker in making americanos when I really needed to stay awake.

Then I got this baby for christmas.


So now I can make lattes that taste as fresh and I wouldn't know a difference between the ones I make and the ones I used to buy. It is a little more laborious. But the-small amount of- work that goes into making it makes it taste all the better. I'd recommend anyone who likes going out for coffee to invest in some tools to make it from home.

Soon I will invite people over and make lattes for them and become the most popular kid on the block.
The End.

Black Bean Cakes two ways.

SO! Happy new year!!

One of the things I will be trying this year is to eat out less and eat at home more. There is such a sense of accomplishment when I finish cooking a meal, and I almost always feel better after eating because I know what goes into it (even if I'm digesting cookies with 2 sticks of butter in them, at least I know it's in there).

I've decided to go ahead and start up this blog again. Because I refuse to let it die. And because it may help me in sticking with my goal if I can show off my tasty food to others.

Last night Evan and I were hanging out and made Black Bean patties from his Everyday Food Cookbook. We had them plain, with just a little big of yogurt-dill dipping sauce, but they'd also make great veggie burgers.

Black Bean Cakes (pretty much they are like patties)

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon cumin
4 scallions
6 garlic cloves
1 sweet potato, skinned and shredded
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 jalepeno pepper, diced with no seeds
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and peper

You'll be broiling these in the oven instead of frying so this ends up being a pretty healthy dish. First, in a skillet fry up the garlic and scallions with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Then add the Jalepino and the cumin and fry it all together for a few minutes. Put the black beans in a bowl and then add the cooked garlic,scallions,ect. Mash it up with a fork, you want about a quarter of the beans in there to be left whole. Fold in sweet potato. Add the egg and then the bread crumbs and season with salt and pepper.

On a baking tray, brush out the other tablespoon of oil. Form patties and place on the sheet. Broil these for about 8-10 minutes (my oven was NOT working last night so I had to cook mine for...oh...40 minutes. It never got hotter than 300...). Flip the patties and cook for another 2-3 minutes until it's brown and a little crispy. BAM! DONE!

Yogurt-Dill Sauce
Some yogurt, some lemon juice, some dill. BADDA BAM!

Since I had leftovers I made a tasty brunch. Re-heat the patties, fry an egg and put it on time, and garnish with a few scallions and salt and pepper. I think this would be awesome with a little hot sauce or ketchup, but I don't own any.

WOW!

It's been TOO long my friends, just too, too long!



Here are a few of my current food obsessions:

Crispy Crunchy Tofu
This is a pretty awesome way to prepare tofu. It can either be made with some curry sauce and veggies and served with rice for a big meal or just eaten on it's own.

-Tofu, get the firm or extra firm kind. Drain the tofu then press it which is easy to do. Simply cut it and lay it on a cutting board with paper towels under and on top of it. Lay another cutting board on top of the tofu and place a pot full of water on it. After about 10 or 15 minutes the extra water should be drained from the tofu.
-2 Egg whites
-Corn starch
-Panko Crumbs
-Oil for frying

Okay. Take the tofu and dip it into corn starch. Then dip it into egg white. Then dip it into panko (I add salt and pepper to it). Once all the tofu is breaded, heat up some oil in a pan. The oil should be about half an inch thick. Fry tofu until crispy! BAM!


Super Easy Dal (aka red lentils) and Rice




-1/2 cup red lentils (or dal!)
-1 1/2 cup veggie broth (or a combination of broth and water)
-1/2 tea Turmeric
-1/2 tea Cumin
-1 tomato
-1 onion
-3 garlic cloves
-oil

In a pot, boil lentils with 1 cup of broth and the turmeric. In a frying pan, fry the garlic and onions with some oil. Once the onions become clear and wilty, add cumin and the tomato (including all the tomato juice). Add all of that into the lentils along with 1/2 cup more broth/water. You might want to add more liquid if it looks too dry. Simmer that for awhile until it gets to a consistency you like. You can eat this on its own, or with pita, or mix it up with rice (my fav). Also this recipe is really easy to tweak and change. I've added chili powder, coriander, garam masala, cinnamon, cilantro, ect. Play around!

Sometimes cooking days are just what you need!

Anna and I had a cooking day yesterday in which we made lentil soup, sushi and some blackberry pie. Here are the pictures to prove it: it was fun, cheap and exhausting. I enjoyed it a lot!

Everything turned out great! We eat some sushi, and lentil soup for a late lunch while we let the pie cool. I am now addicted to eating the pie, and really want to much them more often, they're relatively easy and fun to create.


Twas Anna's first time making sushi, and it was darn good! Smoked salmon, fake crab and tuna salad make for some yummy stuff to eat! And making the ingredients isn't really that laboursome, it only sounds that why when you try and explain it.

The soup took the longest to cook, I've never cooked with lentils before, them and the potatos we put into the soup were the culprits for why it took so long to finished. And now, some pictures as proof!