Cabbage

I am on a cabbage kick lately. I used to only think of it as:

(a) something very soft and mushy that comes with corned beef (ps I actually like it this way too!)
(b) something that gets thrown at you at the St. Patty's Day parade in New Orleans (yes, you pick it up off the ground and then cook it according to situation a)
(c) something that was in nasty, mayonnaise filled, sweet, gross coleslaw. I always hated coleslaw.

BUT.

During my travels I have seen it in many a dish, so I thought I would try to experiment a bit. I have to admit, Mr. Lovely also spurned this, as we went to a Vietnamese place and got their cabbage salad and he asked me if I could make it for him. So I did.

Mr. Lovely's Vietnamese Salad

1/2 head of cabbage, shredded
2 medium carrots, grated
Several Basil Leaves, chopped
Peanuts, ground

Sauce:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
Squirt of Sriracha (hot!) 
1 heaping tsp minced ginger (I'm lazy. I use this)
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar/honey (or more to taste)

Optional: 1 tbsp peanut butter / 1 tsp finely minced garlic / chopped broccoli

Mix everything together. Eat. Enjoy. Simple and tangy and crunchy! This will even last for a few days in the fridge without losing it's crunch. This is also really good on a fish taco instead of lettuce!

Trying to Make Teriyaki Stir Fry

Sometimes I try things and I don't have all the ingredients but it comes out just fine! This was my attempt to do teriyaki chicken, but I didn't have soy sauce, which you may know is the main ingredient in teriyaki sauce, but it ended up turning out pretty good actually.

3 - 5 baby bok choy, quartered
1/4 cabbage head, shredded
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
4 mushrooms
2 chicken breasts, diced

For not really teriyaki sauce (here is the real recipe in case you would rather make that):
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp flour (recipe calls for cornstarch)
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 minced garlic clove
1 tsp ginger

In small saucepan, put all sauce elements. Heat slowly, stirring frequently. Once sauce reaches desired thickness, take off heat (about 10 minutes). Heat large pan. Once hot, add oil of choice. Add chicken. Once chicken is browned, add veggies. Let cook for about 5 minutes, until veggies are cooked but still crisp. Add "teriyaki" sauce. Eat. Enjoy.

I admit, it may have been better with soy sauce, but it was still really good without it! It just wasn't teriyaki!

So, cabbage is not just for gross coleslaw! In fact, I even have discovered that all coleslaw is not gross! I think my next cabbage attempt will be sauerkraut! I love sauerkraut!

Do you have a favorite cabbage recipe? Do you like coleslaw? Have you ever thrown a cabbage or had one thrown at you?

Food Firsts (4)

On Sunday, Mr. Lovely and I had pizza. I made the dough (my first attempt) and it didn't even suck!

The recipe was adapted from here.

4 1/2 cups  whole wheat flour
1 3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil (optional)
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold (40°F)
Semolina flour OR cornmeal for dusting

I am not going to go into the making of the dough in detail; if you want more information, you can go to the original site. Basically, add together all the dry ingredients. Then add the oil and water and stir, using a metal spoon kept cold, or your hands, which you should keep dipping in ice water. Once the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl (about 5 mins), split it into 6 equal portions. Each portion should make about a 9 inch pizza.

I kept two portions in the fridge and put the rest in the freezer to pull out later. When you are ready to use the dough, take it out of the fridge about 2 hours beforehand. Flatten out the ball and cover loosely with a piece of saran wrap until it's time to cook. When you are ready with all your toppings, you can throw the crust or you can just roll it with a pie roller. I put cornmeal on my baking sheet and placed my crust on it, then poked holes in it with a knife to keep it from rising.  Put your toppings on and then cook on your oven's highest setting (mine is 550) for about 6-10 minutes (mine took 7).

The Topping Bar

Serve and enjoy! We had a ton of fun and this is a great idea for if you are having people over, because each person can make their own pizza with whatever they want on it!  As you can see, some people like to heap stuff on theirs and some people take a more simple approach. You can try to guess whose is whose.

Do you ever make your own crust? Or add your own toppings? What is your favorite pizza topping?

Monday Misc

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I sure did. I have so much to talk about, but I am without my own computer today and I don't know about you guys, but when I am using a borrowed computer, it seems like I am much less organized. I mean, am I the only one who gets bothered by having to put my password into everything all over again? Or the history bar not auto populating when you go to check out your favorite blog? I know; it's not a big deal, but all my photos and downloads and everything are on my computer and it's just so much more convenient to use it! Now that I have rambled on about nothing for the last five minutes, lets get to it!

- I guess I am the snake woman, because yesterday during my run, I saw a snake...eating a mouse! I mean, the mouse was tail end in the snakes mouth and he was being devoured as I watched. Luckily (am I the only one who thinks this is lucky?) Mr. Lovely was biking with me and he had his big camera and he got some nice shots of the entire process. I think stuff like that is cool. If you are a vegetarian or a mouse lover, I apologize.

- I developed a bit of a cold this weekend. In order to try to alleviate it, I had one of these. I think it helped.

Pain Killer

- My little veggie plants are wilting. I haven't talked about them, because I wanted to be able to say: hey, I am growing plants and they are fabulous! But they are not. I think it's a combination of bad drainage and over watering. Or do those go hand in hand? I don't know. I started a bunch of seeds and they were doing so well...until I transplanted them and then? Saggy McSagster. Phooey. I may just have to buy whole (half grown) plants. Otherwise I won't have tomatoes until December at this rate (or never).

- Between the car breaking down and my moving, I have been without the Garmin for a couple of my runs. What I found out? My "comfortable", Garmin-less pace is around an 8:30-8:40, which is good because I am supposed to be doing my easy runs at about that pace! I don't mind running without the Garmin as far as the total run goes, but I do like having the data afterward to look at and analyze.

- Last but not least, Laura gave me the One Lovely Blog award! I am supposed to 1) Post the award logo and picture on your blog and link back to the person who nominated you. 2) Tell seven things about yourself. 3) Nominate up to 15 additional bloggers whom you think deserve the award. 4) Post a comment on the blog of each nominee to tell them they have been nominated! Since I already told you 4, here are three more little facts.

- I am 4th generation Scottish. My great, great grandparents came over via Canada. They lived near Banff (I can't remember if they lived in BC or Alberta) for a while before coming south to the US.

- I keep my fingernails very, very short. I don't bite them, but I can't stand having them as any more than a tiny sliver of white. I also do not paint them. The chipping drives me insane.

- I could eat a burrito any time of day. I love them.

- Speaking of burritos, yesterday I went for a burrito and decided to try the menudo, since they only serve it on the weekend. If you are not familiar, it's a soup made with intestine that is a very traditional Mexican dish. I have never tried it, not because the guts part grosses me out, but just because I like burritos, so I usually don't order other stuff. But I was hungry and I decided to give it a whirl. It wasn't bad, but it definitely has a distinct smell to it!

(apparently I can't count, because that was four more, but I am leaving it as is)

- As for the tags, I am going to give this award to a few lovely ladies: Lisa, Amber, Amber, Nilsa, Stephany, Robyn, Carrie, Elle, San, Suz, Vanessa and Nora. Ladies, if you already did it, great! Everyone else, if you want to participate as well, I encourage it!

Are you adventurous when it comes to trying new foods? Have you ever witnessed an animal eating another animal? If you could eat one thing only for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Food Firsts (3)

Happy Memorial Day! Did you know that yesterday was also the 75th birthday for the Golden Gate Bridge? I did not attend, but there was quite the hoopla in the city, culminating in fireworks set to music, courtesy of KFOG (a great radio station). Did you know that you can download the KFOG app and listen anytime, anywhere!? You should check it out. My favorite is the acoustical sunrise.

My computer is still broken, which means I cannot upload any photos AND I tend to save future posts as word docs, which I now cannot access. So, in lieu of an interesting and funny post, I am going to share a couple of the recipes that I made over the weekend. Both of these were adapted from this site. If you get a chance you should go over and check it out. Laura is a mother, a runner and a darn good cook! If we lived closer together I know we would be good friends and probably even running buddies, although she is a little faster than I am!


Garbanzo Brownies:

These were very good and did not taste like beans at all! I actually ate half of the batter as I was making them, so you may want to double the recipe so you can have extra for snacking while cooking!

- 1 can garbanzo beans, drained
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup flax
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 3 tbsp nut butter 
- 3.5 oz 80% (or 70 or 60) dark chocolate bar (I like this one)
- 1 tsp vanilla

Split the chocolate bar in half. Melt half of the chocolate and chop the other half into small pieces (you can also use chocolate chips). Add the melted part to the rest of the ingredients and blend all ingredients  thoroughly in a food processor. I had to also add a little bit of water to the mix to make it a bit more creamy. You don't want it too thin though!

Spread the mix in a greased 9x9 baking pan. Top with remaining chocolate (chips/chunks). Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350. The brownies come out dark and moist and for me, just sweet enough. If you have a sweet tooth, you may want to follow Laura's recipe more closely, as it calls for 2 tbsp of maple syrup as well. I cut mine into 16 pieces and they came out to a little less than 100 calories each.

Apple Oat Cookies:

These don't use any flour either and are very fun and nutty. In fact, I may have eaten them for breakfast a time or two. Laura's original recipe called for carrots, rolled oats and oat bran, but I had flax, no carrots, and steel cut oats. They turned out fine.

- 3 ripe bananas, smashed
- 1 cup steel cut (or rolled) oats
- 1 cup flax meal
- 1 apple, shredded
- pinch cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (or equivalent)
- 1/2 cup raisins (or dried fruit)
- 1/2 cup chopped almonds
- 1/2 cup applesauce (I cut up one apple and stewed it in a pan with 1/4 cup water and a dash of cinnamon)

Mix all ingredients together and place in spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350. I found it helped to kind of smash the cookies down a little so they are flat. That way the middle gets thoroughly cooked. Otherwise a few in my first batch were a little moist on the inside. Also, they don't rise/spread, so you can pack them in on the cookie sheet. This recipe made about 40 small cookies.

I hope you are all enjoying your day off! Tomorrow, I have big news to share!

Have you ever tried bean brownies? Are you off of work today? What fun things did you do this weekend?

A Fun Addiction

I am going to be totally honest with you; I have a food addiction. I love buying food. I also love to cook, but I often cook larger portions than what I can eat, then I feel like I have to eat it, because god forbid any of it go to waste...but I want to cook something different, so I need more space... So I am constantly buying food, making food, giving food away and eating food in an effort to have room in the fridge (and freezer) to fit new food. Just like books, I like to have a stockpile of ingredients on hand, JUST IN CASE. I mean, what if I run out!? I would die without enough food or books! And by enough, I mean stacks and shelves and boxes (and fridges and pantries)...

So, just like my book challenge, from time to time instead of buying new things, I go through the cupboard and play the "make something out of what you have" game. It's kind of like Top Chef. In some episodes, they get a mystery box and have to make something out of what's in the box. Of course, they have the entire Top Chef pantry to work with as well. Well, mine is no Kenmore Kitchen, but I make do.

This makes it so I don't waste food. And it's fun. The only twist is that it usually either involves a lot of veggies that are about to spoil, or no veggies, since I use them up pretty quickly normally. This week was a no veggies week. This week what I had on hand was:

- 12 - 20 oz Beer (I had a friend's 32 oz beer that was half full in the fridge. I'm not sure why)
- 1 Serrano (left over from White Bean Chicken Chili)
- 2 Bratwurst (freezer)
- 1 cup Cheese (almost to it's "throw away by" date) 
- 1 cup Beet Greens (I cut them off the beets and didn't know what to do with them)

I paired these items with a few pantry staples:

- 2 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Flour
- 1.5 cup Quinoa Pasta
- 1 yellow Onion
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
- 2 tbsp Spicy Brown Mustard

To make: Beer Bratwurst Mac N Cheese

First, put the brats and the beer in a pot. Cook until done (about 20 minutes to be safe). Also, start a pot of water to boil. Once boiling, add pasta and cook until done (about 10 minutes). Drain.

While the brats and pasta are cooking, sweat the onions, garlic and beet greens in the butter, then add the flour, stirring to make a paste. Add milk, Serrano (minced, with seeds removed if you don't want it too hot) and mustard; stir. Remove the brats from the beer and add 1 cup of beer to the sauce mixture. Once stirred in, add cheese.

Cut bratwurst and add to mixture. Stir. Add drained pasta. Stir again! Whew. That's a lot of stirring, huh? Now you are done. If you like, you can put the mixture into a casserole, top with cheese and bake for about 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Or you can just eat right away, which is what I did this time (I usually bake mine. I like the crispy cheese top. But I was hungry).

The verdict? YUM! Note that the sauce will be a bit brown, depending on what kind of beer you use. My beer was a brown ale. Also, note, this DOES taste like beer! So if you don't like beer, you may want to either use a lighter beer, less beer or no beer. 

Do you ever play "clean the pantry" and come up with something great? Do you prefer your mac n cheese baked or straight from the pot? What should I do with the rest of the beet greens?

Food Firsts (2)

You may remember that one of the things on my to do list is to try a new recipe each month. This actually ended up turning into one new recipe a week on average. They are not anything special; they are just an attempt at trying something NEW, not fancy. And it's fun!  Now if I can just get myself to try a new activity each month as well... Here are three of my favorite breakfast recipes from the last few months.

1. Breakfast Quinoa (adapted from this recipe): I love quinoa and was excited to find that I could eat it for breakfast! One of my favorite ways to eat it is to cook it as mentioned below and then add fresh fruit, a few nuts and some almond milk for a yummy and fast breakfast!

Ingredients
2 cups almond milk
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 tablespoon honey
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup craisins or raisins

Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Add quinoa, and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, until three-quarters of the milk has been absorbed, about 15 minutes.Stir in remaining ingredients. Cook, covered, until almost all the milk has been absorbed, about 8 minutes.

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2. Overnight Oats (adapted from this recipe): I liked these because you can make them the night before and then just grab and go in the morning. They also make a great gift for a basket. The recipient just has to add milk and leave in the fridge and they are all set. Easy! 

1/3 cup steel cut oats 

1 cup almond milk

1/4 cup nuts

1/4 cup raisins or craisins

1/4 cup shredded coconut

2 tsp brown sugar or honey (or to taste; you may want a little more)

Mix all ingredients together in a jar or lidded Tupperware.  Stir well. Leave in fridge overnight. In the morning, stir and enjoy! They are a little chewy but very good! (**I eat this as two servings) 

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3. Homemade Granola (recipe adapted from here): This recipe is kind of an estimate, as I like to throw in a bit of this and a bit of that and sweeten to taste, which for me is not very sweet. So, you can use this as a guideline and add what you want! This makes about 6 cups. Each half cup serving is about 220 calories. 

4 cups oats

2 tbsp flax

¼ cup sunflower seeds

½ cup almonds

2 tbsp honey

3 tbsp oil

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 tbsp brown sugar

½ cup unsweet coconut

Mix all ingredients together and spread on a cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes at 325. Take out and stir around. Bake for another 5-10 minutes. Stir again. Bake for another 5-10 minutes. Oats should be golden brown. Let cool and store in airtight container. It should last a couple of weeks on the shelf.

For more recipes I am thinking of trying, or to find me on pinterest, go HERE.

Have you tried any of these? Have you made any new recipes lately? What do you normally eat for breakfast?

WIAW (4) & White Bean Chicken Chili

What I noticed when I looked back on my last month of posts, is that April must be bean month over here. First, there was Stone Soup, then Hummus and now, White Bean Chicken Chili. I guess it goes without saying that I eat a lot of beans? (so much so that Lisa sent me this recipe, which I will be trying soon!) I do eat a lot of beans, because they are cheap and easy, last a while, you can make a big pot of them, they are good and they are an excellent source of protein. Since I eat little meat, I use beans as my main protein source.

I have made chili before and subbed chicken instead of beef, but this time I wanted to also ditch the tomatoes and see how it went. The results are in; it was fabulous. So here is the recipe. Note, I often toss in a "little of this, little of that" so try this, and if it needs something, feel free to throw a little of your spice to the mix!

White Bean Chicken Chili 

Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 Yellow Onion, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp flour
- 4 cups chicken/veggie stock
- 12-16 oz chicken breast, cubed
- 2 cups dry beans -- I used Navy (1 1/2 cups) & Black Eyed Peas (1/2 cup) (Soak these for a couple of hours or overnight)
- 1/2 cup lentils  -- I used red ones (just for fun!)
- 1 Serrano pepper (the green one about the size of your index finger), minced
- 1 can or frozen bag of corn

A pinch or two each:
- cumin
- oregano
- fennel
- red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper

Put olive oil in pan. Sweat onions, celery and carrots for about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and chicken. Cook until chicken is done, about 10 minutes. Add flour, stir until mixture thickens, about 3-5 minutes. Add chicken stock.

Add remaining ingredients. Cook for about 2 hours, until beans are soft. Mixture should be slightly thick. Mine turned out Pretty. Darn. Spicy. I used the packets of red pepper flakes you get from a pizza place. 4 of them. But I like spice so it's all good. You may want to skip that part (and the Serrano) if you don't like things spicy! (idea for this recipe taken from here) **Makes approximately ten 3/4 cup servings. Each serving = 220 calories.

And now, What I ate Wednesday, hosted by Jenn at Peas and Crayons. 

 Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ pumpkin & sesame seeds & strawberries / coffee x 3 / gummy vitamins

 Lunch: Quinoa pasta with broccoli, mushrooms and green beans

Snack: coconut water / brownie bite / orange / chocolate treat / celery w/ hummus / apple (not pictured)

 Dinner: White Bean Chicken Chili / beets / cottage cheese (straight from the tub; yes, that's how I roll) 

As you can see, I eat a lot of snacks! I guess I like single servings of...a little bit of everything! I don't normally eat that much chocolate, but since I made those brownie bites, I have to keep making sure they still taste good, right? I am totally giving them away tomorrow. For real. I have no self control!

Also, I added a RECIPE page so that everything will be in one place. It's just a baby right now, but given time, it will grow. Check it out if you feel like beans. Or baking.

What did you have for breakfast today? Do you eat a lot of snacks? What is your favorite bean?

WIAW (2) & Food Firsts (1)

I have a few different lists of goals. I have  a life list, which I have not put online, but it's been there for a while and I am slowly chipping things off and probably more rapidly adding things to it. It is a work in progress.

I also have a Project 52 list, which I made because of Karen's suggesting it. I also have not put this one online, as a lot of the things on my list are private, things I want to do for me. BUT. One of my goals for myself recently was to try a new recipe once a month. I have been pinning recipes, as well as just going and buying stuff and throwing it together on my own accord. I love doing that; it's like an experiment or a game. You win if it tastes good. You try again if it doesn't.

I have blown my goal out of the water. So far, I have probably made a new recipe at least once a week. Here is one I made recently that I liked! They are not too sweet, which I like, but if you have a sweet tooth, you may want to add a little sugar. Also, I will probably add more cinnamon next time! These make a great breakfast muffin or a nutritious snack. They have approximately 100 calories per muffin.

Low-fat Apple Oatmeal Muffins

Prep Time: 10 minutes / Cook Time: 20 minutes / Total Time: 30 minutes (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

2 cups apple, peeled and shredded

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup quick oats

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup fat-free milk (I used unsweetened Almond milk)

2 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup plain fat-free yogurt

2 egg whites (I used one whole egg)

1. Combine wet and dry ingredients separately. 

2. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir. 

3. Put batter into lined or greased muffin tin. **NOTE: I used papers, and the muffins got stuck to the paper, so I ended up eating half muffin, half paper. I would suggest a greased tin or better papers than the ones I have! Darn it Martha!

I only filled mine about half full, since I would rather have more smaller muffins rather than less bigger ones. The recipe suggests 12 muffins, but I made 24 (obviously, if you only make 12, they will have approximately 200 calories per muffin instead!)

4. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. 

5. Eat three two one (see, I am glad I made them smaller!)

For more recipes I am thinking of trying, or to find me on Pinterest, go HERE. Also, since it is Wednesday, here's WIAW, part deux, hosted by Jenn at Peas and Crayons.

Breakfast: 

Steel Cut Oats with Apple / Pumpkin Seed / Sunflower Seed / Almond Milk

Spinach & Egg Muffin with Yellow Bell Pepper

Gummy Vitamins (yum)

Lunch/Dinner:

Mixed Bean Soup

Corned Beef

Chicken Breast

Snacks:

2 Apple Oat muffins

Strawberries with Cottage Cheese

Carrots and Hummus

Greenish Drink (Almond milk / Spinach / Frozen Peaches / Flax seed)

What I learned? I did not eat very much green stuff on this day! Also, I use the little light blue bowl a lot. Also, I need to work on my food photography. Katrina, over at Capture Your 365, suggests reading this article for some food photo tips.

Do you try new recipes often? Do you have a new favorite? Are you good at taking food photos?