Limited Time & Another Soup

Lately it's been...well...summer time...and it's been full of fun things on both the weekdays and the weekends, which means limited time to plan and cook meals. So I have been doing what I usually do, cooking one big pot of something and eating it throughout the week. I always like making soups; they are chock full of veggies and are a great way to get a nutritional meal in a relatively compact way.

I know summer is not really the time you would normally think of soups, but this soup is so good and it's made from fresh summer squash so you really can't get much fresher! I also love it because you can cut everything up the day before and just put it all together when you are ready. Also, once it's in the pot, you can "set it and forget it" for a while. It's really no work at all!

Summer Squash Soup*

1 tsp olive oil
1 1/4 cup onion, diced
3 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp jalapeno, diced (I used a diablo pepper instead)
1 1/3 cup celery
2 cups gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
dash white pepper
4 cups chicken broth
6 cups yellow summer squash
1 tsp oregano
.5 tsp turmeric
salt to taste

(PS I didn't have turmeric and it was still good)

Heat oil, add onions and saute for 5 minutes. Add garlic and jalapenos and cook for about 2 minutes. Add everything else but the turmeric and let boil for about 30 - 40 minutes, until the potatoes are soft. Add turmeric and put in blender / use immersion blender to blend everything together.

You can put half of it into a gallon freezer bag and flatten it and freeze it for later, but it also keeps pretty great in the fridge (1 week +).

*Recipe from here. 

What recipes do you turn to when you're busy? What is your favorite summer recipe?

Over and Over Again

I am currently on week 8 of training for Boston. This training schedule, like my last, I decided to (loosely) follow Hal Higdon's Advanced training program. I have already mentioned how I don't really follow it to a T, because it calls for 6 days of running per week. Sometimes it doesn't matter if you change it up during training a little bit. However, there are many that you have to do the same each time. This takes a lot of experimentation and it took me a while to figure out what did and did not work for me.

A typical training week includes:

- On weekdays, I run twice after work. Lately this has consisted of one easy day and one day of speed work. I have mentioned this before, but my intervals of choice are Yasso 800s. If you are not familiar, this is where you take your marathon goal time in hours (mine is 3:30) and you run an 800 meter interval in that many minutes. So I would have to run each 800 interval at a 7 minute mile pace. It really kicks my butt, let me tell you! I do feel that it helps a lot with overall speed. 

- On weekends I do one easy run and one long run. The long run is usually between two and three hours and I've been using it to explore the area. One of my favorite long runs is a long loop around Oakland and through Berkeley, ending with a loop around Lake Merritt before heading home.

- I always eat breakfast on long run days, usually around a half an hour before the run. I always eat the same thing, steel cut oats with fruit and Silk Almond milk. If I am traveling or at someone else's house, I have Cheerios instead. It gives me a great hearty meal before heading out and the almond milk does not give me any tummy issues (like real milk does) while I am running. I actually use Silk milk instead of regular milk in everything. I also use it to make lattes, smoothies, baked goods and other things like mac and cheese or pumpkin curry. You can find tons of great recipes on their Facebook page. I use the unsweetened kind, since it doesn't overpower whatever you are making. *

Travel breakfast

- I almost always listen to music, unless I am running with someone else. Lately, a great companion has been this Pandora station. I find that rap has a beat that makes my steps just a little bit faster.

- I try to get out onto the trails once a week, but there isn't always enough time. When I do make time for it, I really enjoy the change in scenery, the quietness, being in nature AND it's a great way to get stronger legs and to work all of your muscles, therefore hopefully keeping injuries at bay. Some of my favorite trails are in the East Bay Parks near my house but I am finding great ones all over the Bay Area!

I only have 10 more weeks of training and here's hoping that the next 10 go as well as the last 7 have!

Do you have any training tips or tricks for me? What does your typical week look like? If you are a non-runner, what is your favorite outdoor activity? 

*FitFluential LLC compensated me for this Campaign. All opinions are my own.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Many people get stressed out with all the extra work that the holidays bring. Not only do you have to do your regular day to day things, but throw in grocery shopping, having a kitchen or house full of people and having to get up early and plan and cook everything so that it hopefully comes out of the oven all at the same time, and you can easily have a meltdown on your hands.

Personally, I love to cook and like we have talked about in some of the previous What’s For Dinner posts, planning ahead is key. It’s hard when you only have four burners and one tiny oven, but it can be done, and it can be fun.

For several years, I was a vegetarian, so I left the cooking of the turkey up to the carnivores. My favorite thing was the sides. Now, I love cooking and eating turkey, but my favorites remain the same. I could eat side dishes all day. Oh wait, I DO eat side dishes all day. However, this can be traumatic on my waistline! So there are a couple of things that I do in order to not feel the post dinner food coma and accompanying guilt.

First, I sign up for a Turkey Trot! I know, it’s sometimes hard to fit in in, but you can put the turkey in the oven and then go off and run. It takes less than an hour for most and you end up feeling invigorated afterward! The other thing I do is that I try to cut down on my butter and sugar intake by doing a few subs to my favorite recipes.

One of my favorite side dishes is sweet potatoes! However, the general recipe is loaded with butter and sugar. Personally I like the taste of the potato and don’t need to cover it up with sugar, so I just go Au natural. Also, I love the flavors of fall, so why not work with what’s available?

Cinnamon Apple Sweet Potatoes

3 Large Sweet Potatoes (or Yams)

1-2 Large Apples

1 cup pecans

4 Tbsp Brummel and Brown spread

2 Tbsp cinnamon

½ -1 cup Craisins

1 tsp salt (or more to taste)

Dice up the apples and sweet potatoes and put them in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss together thoroughly. Put mixture in 9 x 13 baking dish or on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about an hour, stirring occasionally (3 – 4 times). Remove and enjoy! The apples give it a bit of sweetness without the added sugar.

__________

Another dish I love to make is dessert. One of my favorite recipes is for these pumpkin spice muffins. If you sub part of the sugar with splenda and use Brummel and Brown rather than butter, you have a muffin you can sink your teeth into without feeling the Turkey Day bloat. 

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

1 cup Flour

¼ cup Splenda

¼ cup Sugar (or you can use ½ cup sugar only)

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Cinnamon

½  tsp Nutmeg

½  tsp Salt

4 Tbsp Brummel and Brown spread, cut into pieces

1 -1 ¼ cup Pumpkin Puree

½  cup Evaporated Milk

1 Egg

2 tsp Vanilla

½  cup craisins (or raisins)

2 Tbsp Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

¼  tsp Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tins.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in spread with two knives or your fingers until it is fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins. Fold gently until mixture is just combined.

Use a ¼ cup measure to fill 12 muffin tins with batter. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg mixture over the top of each unbaked muffin. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes before taking out of the tin. If you are like me, you will not listen to this advice and you will take one “ugly” one out for a sample right away. Somebody has to do it. 

Thank you to Good to Know & Unilever Spreads for being a sponsor. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Who is the Thanksgiving chef in your family? What is your favorite dish to eat? What is your favorite Thanksgiving recipe?

An Apple a Day Monday: V

Last year, through the month of November, I did a Fall cooking series called An Apple a Day Monday. I was lucky to have an available and very productive apple tree nearby last year, which facilitated dishes like Apple Bundt Cake, Apple Crisp, Apple Cider and Apple Bran Flax Muffins. This year I am not as lucky to have the apples, but have been experimenting with some other items instead.

This weekend, my Mom was in town and we had a great time exploring the area and shopping and eating! On Saturday night, Broski came over with the lady friend and they all had a chance to try my Screamin' Hot Habanero Sauce that I made out of the peppers that they gave me. Remember the one that gets rid of your socks? They both loved it and wanted the recipe (Mom is not as fond of hot stuff), so I decided to share it with you too, in case you feel like making some of your own. I got my peppers from the garden, but they are pretty cheap at the market, especially if you have a Latino market nearby. They always have the best peppers!

It's a great addition to any dish and I like it because it doesn't taste of vinegar; it mostly just tastes of pepper /  heat! And a little dab'll do ya! The problem with my cooking sometimes is that I just toss stuff in, so you may need to tweak this a little to make it to YOUR liking, just like I did. The recipe was inspired by this.

Screamin' Hot Habanero Sauce

2 cups of hot peppers (I used Serrano and Habanero)
1 tbsp salt
1 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup vinegar (I used Champagne, but you could use red wine, apple cider or white vinegar)
1 tsp garlic salt

First, cut the stems off the peppers. I put gloves on to do this just in case. I would hate to touch my eye afterward or something silly like that. Then blanch them in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Remove them and run them under cold water (see how to blanch here).

Place them in a blender with the remaining ingredients. Blend. Voila. Now you have sauce. This will keep in the fridge for about a year. A spoon full in any dish gives your dish a nice kick, or you can do like we do, and just spoon it on your meal, one plate at a time!

The original recipe suggested removing the seeds, but I did not. If you want it to not be as hot, you may want to remove the seeds. If you want it more vinegary, you may want to add more than I did, but I prefer it not as vinegary.

Do you like spicy things? What dish do you use peppers in? Have you ever made your own hot sauce? 

Squash Galore

Firstly, I want to say GOOD LUCK to everyone racing this weekend! There are a bunch of people doing the RW Half! Go get 'em! Also, a big fingers crossed, for Lisa, who is trying for a sub 4 marathon today! To everyone else, I hope your feet are swift and you end the race with a smile on your face. As you read this, I am currently running Broski's first  half marathon with him!!!

Once again, my "meal planning" consists of making a big pot of this and a big pan of that and eating it throughout the week. This week, the challenge was to use acorn squash, but since the email regarding the challenge came after I had already gone grocery shopping, I improvised. This week's big pot meal?

Butternut Squash Veggie Chili.

The good thing about this is that even though it doesn't have any meat*, the squash gives it some oomph, so it feels really hearty and good. Like I said in my first meal planning post, it's good to have staples on hand, since this week my challenge to myself was to NOT go grocery shopping, since there are quite a few things in the fridge that did not get used up as fast as I wanted last week. So, out came the staples and into the pot they went.

As always, I make enough so that a few can go in the freezer for lunches, and a few cups can go in the fridge for this week's meals. This recipe made about 10 cups of chili. 

Butternut Squash Veggie Chili

1 yellow onion, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
2 yellow peppers (fresh from the garden!)
4-5 garlic cloves, diced

1/2 butternut squash, cubed
2 cups of dried kidney beans
6 cups of water
1 packet of veggie stock
1 thai chili pepper, sliced in half

1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp fennel
1 tbsp Italian seasoning

In frying pan with a little bit of olive oil, sweat the onions. Add the celery, yellow peppers and garlic and cook for another 5-10 minutes*. Put cooked veggies and remaining ingredients in a slow cooker and cook for 8-10 hours on low. OR you can put them in a pot and cook for roughly 5 hours to achieve the same effect.

*You could also add ground hamburger to the frying pan if you wanted a meat version. 

_____

In order to get ready for the week ahead, I also baked some butternut squash in the oven. This will be added to either oatmeal in the morning, paired with yogurt for a fun dessert or used as a side dish for other meals during the week. I also cleaned out the freezer and found some chicken, so I cooked up a bunch of that to use during the week as well. That being said, here are this week's dinners.

Monday: Butternut Chili, Cabbage Salad (an old standby)
Tuesday: Chinese Chicken Salad (cabbage salad with chicken, nuts & Craisins)
Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas
Thursday: Roasted Chicken and Potatoes
Friday: Butternut Chili, Brussels sprouts
Saturday: Chicken Salad and Butternut Squash
Sunday: Dinner out / Left overs

What is your meal plan for the week?  What's your favorite way to use winter squash?

Lunch Time

If you haven't already, go here and see how taking stock is critical to easy meal planning! 

Next comes the meal planning. This week (and many), the plan went like this:

1. Shopping. Stock up on the things that are missing from this list. Usually this means going to buy a bunch of vegetables and fruits and sometimes a few of the staples. 

2. Planning. Depending on what is fresh, on sale and available, the weekly plan is made.

I know, this may be backwards. Shop THEN plan? To this I say, YES. I always have my staples so I have pretty much done the "planning" already. All I need to do after shopping is decide what I want to cook. 

Today I am going to only talk about the lunch planning portion. Each week, after seeing what the haul is for the week, I make a big batch of ___ (fill in the blank with a bean dish here). I also cut up all of my vegetables to go along with my meals. This usually means cutting cabbage or broccoli for salads, and cutting carrots and celery for snacks.

Cabbage Salad

This week, we had several vegetables left over from last week. This is normal. I always do a little bit of "overbuying" in order to have a quick snack or to anticipate extra hunger! But fear not, it does not go to waste!

Needing to be used up from last week: Red, yellow and orange bell peppers. Carrots. Serrano peppers.
Add to that from on hand items: Onion, Garlic, Garbanzo beans, Curry powder, Diced tomatoes, corn.
Put in Crock Pot for 8 hours and you get: Garbanzo Stew (recipe below)!

Garbanzo Stew

This was put into 8 one cup containers.. 6 of them go into the freezer and two go into the fridge. I like to put 6 in the freezer, so that way I will always have a variety to choose from. I usually eat 3-4 of them for lunch and then I have some from last week as well as having fresh veggies on hand so I am not always eating the same thing over and over.

Freezer mini meals

Remaining peppers were added to quinoa, basil and lemon to make a quinoa salad, which will be used as lunches as well. The I pair each one up with a various salad and lots and lots of fruit. I usually bring one or two pieces of fruit as well as some loose fruit, cut melon, grapes or berries. So this weeks lunches will look like this:

Veggies for quinoa salad

Monday: Garbanzo Stew, cabbage salad, fruit

Tuesday: Turkey Chili (last week's big pot meal), broccoli salad, fruit

Wednesday: Quinoa Salad, beet salad, fruit

Thursday: Garbanzo Stew, broccoli salad, fruit

Friday: Chicken Curry and Rice (week before last's big pot meal), cabbage salad, fruit

Saturday: Party food (@ my uncle's memorial)

Sunday: Clam House with Mom, Dad and Grandma for a  post race meal!

Garbanzo Stew: 

2 cups dry garbanzos
2 carrots, chopped
1 each red, yellow, orange bell peppers, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
2 Serrano peppers, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 can of yellow corn
5 cups of water

1 tbsp Curry powder
1 tbsp salt
2 packets of Trader Joe's concentrated chicken stock

Mix everything together. Leave in crock pot on low for 8 hours. 

How do you do to use up older veggies before they go bad? What do you eat for lunch every day?

Check out Jill and Laura's sites for more meal planning tips! 

Taking Stock

Before you go grocery shopping each week, you have to first take stock of what you have on hand. From there you can decide what you are going to cook for the week and what you need to buy at the grocery store. For me, what is on sale or what is fresh that week at the store often determines what I make.

There are certain things you just always have in your pantry. There are other things that you buy once a month and others that you buy every week. There's a way to go about it in an organized manner; sometimes I manage to do it better than other times.

Pantry Staples (Buy in bulk a few times a year and/or always have on hand)

*  Baking goods: Flour, Sugar, cocoa powder, splenda, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, chocolate chips

*  Oatmeal, raisins, flax seed, chia seeds

*  Dried items: Pasta, Rice, Dried Beans, Coffee

*   Canned items: Tomato Paste, chicken stock, canned tomatoes, coconut milk, evaporated milk

*  Spices, salt, pepper, peanut butter, honey, olive oil, vegetable oil, rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, champagne vinegar

Fridge Staples:

* Mustard, ginger, shriracha, mayonaise, ranch dressing

* Almond butter, miso paste, tahini, sweet chili sauce, almond milk

Freezer Staples:

* Veggies: Frozen corn, edamame

* Meat: Chicken pieces, frozen shrimp

* Stuff I made in the past: pizza dough, sauces, muffins and mini meals (which will be talked about in more detail in a future meal planning post),

Monthly Buys:

* Steel cut oats, nuts, dried fruit,

* Yellow onions, potatoes, winter squash, Serrano or other peppers, garlic

* Coffee

Weekly Buys:

* Fresh fruit, vegetables

* Creamer, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese

Pioneer Woman's stock list.

Some of the items I bought this week: butternut squash, cantaloupe, celery, red cabbage, pumpkin, mango, plums, peaches, apples, pears, Brussels sprouts, chicken breasts (0.99/lb!!).

Every week I make a big batch of something and freeze several portions for weekly meals, as well as making things like salad fixings in advance so I can just grab and go during the week. I am going to talk about that more next week, but for now, I will leave you with one of my favorite easy meals that you can use in several different ways.

Crock Pot Whole Chicken

I know, a whole chicken is a little scary. However, recently they were .99 cents a pound and so I picked up a nice one (about 5 lbs) for a steal (you do the math).

(1) Buy a whole chicken.

(2) Once you get the chicken home, take the gizzards out of the inside and feed them to the cat.

(3) Mix together your favorite spices. I used salt, pepper, a bit of red pepper flakes and Old Bay seasoning. Rub them all over the chicken, both inside and out. Make sure you get the armpits and all the other orifices.

(4) Cut up an onion. Place it in the bottom of the crock. Put the spice rubbed chicken on top of it. 

(5) Set it on low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours. When it's done, the juices should run clear and the arm should easily pull off the chicken. Yes, in my world, chickens have arms.

(6) Take the chicken out of the crock. ** Now comes the fun part!** Leave everything else in the crock. Remove the skin from the chicken. Throw it back in the crock. Remove all the chicken from the bones. Throw the bones back in the crock. Throw the bone carcass back in the pot.

(7) Put the chicken meat aside. Fill the crock up with water and leave it overnight, or for about 8 hours on low. The next day, strain the liquid into quart jars/containers. You now have stock!

So. To recap. You now have... three to five meals worth of chicken (depending on your family size) plus about 12 cups of stock (in my case)! All for around $5.00!

Happy meal planning! Go check out Jill and Laura's sites for this week's What's For Dinner linkup!

Do you have a cheap, go-to meal that you use over and over? Do you like to cook? Do you plan out your meals or just fly by the seat of your pants?

Chocolate Zucchini

I like to bake. I don't always follow directions.  I recently had some extra zucchinis from the garden and I was feeling like something chocolatey but not too sweet, so I found a recipe for these Oil Free Zucchini Muffins. But of course, I like to add stuff and delete stuff and mess things up a bit. The recipe was adapted from here. It specifically said not to use whole wheat flour.

But I wanted to.

(PS she did say you could use whole wheat pastry flour if you want to, but that you shouldn't use regular whole wheat flour.) I also use Splenda® rather than sugar most of the time, but you can use agave syrup or maple syrup or sugar if you like. Also, in the end, she was right, the whole wheat flour made the batter a little gummy, so I added a bit of applesauce just for fun.

Oil-Free Chocolate Zucchini Walnut Muffins

Yield: 20 - 24 muffins

Ingredients:

1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water)
2 cups zucchini
1 cup almond milk (or regular milk)
2 tsp  lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat (pastry) flour (or all-purpose)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Splenda^® (or sugar)
1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup walnuts, chopped
*optional: 
3 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 - 1 cup applesauce (depending on moisture level. I added this at the end)

- Mix flax and water together and set aside to thicken. Mix almond milk and lemon together and set aside to curdle.

- Mix all dry ingredients together.

- Mix all wet ingredients, including flax egg and almond milk together, then add in chocolate chips and nuts. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry.

- Put 1/4 cup of batter into each section of a greased muffin tin using a 1/4 measuring cup.

- Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees. Muffins are done when toothpick comes out clean. Cool on cooling rack in the tin before taking them out of the tin and letting them cool completely.

- Try not to eat three of them right away like I did.

- Take them to work and give them away before you eat all 24 of them. 

- Get strange looks when you use the word "chocolate" and the word "zucchini" in the same sentence.

Now, since I am on the subject of recipes and food, I want to talk about something exciting coming up. My friends Jill and Laura are starting a new feature called What's for Dinner, which is a weekly collection of posts (and a link up) about menu planning. It's purpose is to encourage each other and to hold each other accountable as we purposefully plan out regular, weekly meal menus. These posts will be on Sundays and I am looking forward to participating, because I love planning out my weekly meals, but can always use tips from those more experienced and better at it than I am.

So, if you feel like doing a post about YOUR meal plan, or you want to post a recipe or get recipe ideas for fall, or if you want to check out how other people are organizing their eating, how they have time to do it with a busy schedule, or how they stay healthy with so many other things going on, sign up, or just go and check up their link up on Sundays!

Where do you get your recipe inspiration? Do you plan out your meals for the week in advance? What is your favorite kind of muffin?

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?

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?

When Life Hands You Lemons

Lately, my lemon tree has been full. I have plenty of lemons. Life has given me lots of lemons.

I mean this both literally and figuratively.

Figuratively, and I have talked about this before, the job situation is getting a little out of hand. Usually, my job is temporary, and I am used to that. Like I said, I am similar to a freelancer. I work several months of of the year, and during that time, I have to save up for the dry months. However, generally there is a good mix of "wet" and "dry" months, and so I can not only make ends meet pretty easily, but I also keep from going completely crazy with boredom or a lack of productivity.

Right now, I am in a drought. I am California;  I need rain or my crops are going to die.

Luckily, this means I have free time to do what I have always wanted to do. I can learn French; I can knit a sweater; I can go see the Grand Canyon. However, this also means I need to keep saving up, because who knows when that rainy day will come. So I am improvising. The local library has a Spanish conversation class once a month in the evenings. I signed up. I have a long list of books on my To Read list. I am getting to know my neighborhood and the surrounding running trails. I am cooking. I love to cook and often don't make time for it. I am spending time with friends and family. It's good, in a way.

I ALSO actually have a lemon tree. And it has a boatload of lemons. I could make lemonade, but instead, I make hummus!! Have you ever made your own hummus? It's so easy!

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked garbanzo beans
1/4 - 1/2 cup bean water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 - 4 lemons, juiced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp tahini
salt to taste

In food processor, mix all ingredients and blend until smooth. You want the hummus to be a little bit on the thinner side, as it will thicken a little in the fridge once everything melds together. Start off with the oil and lemon juice, then add 1/4 cup water and see how it looks/tastes before adding the other 1/4 cup of water. When I say bean water, I mean the juice in the can, or if you cook your beans from dry, whatever water is in the cook pot.

Note, if you don't have tahini, it will still taste good, but I do like it better with the tahini. You should be able to find it at Trader Joes, or Whole Foods, although I bought mine at Safeway.

So, I am off to use my lemons of life! Any suggestions, literally or figuratively?

Have you ever made your own hummus? Have you ever been in a life drought and not known when the rains would come?

WIAW (3) & Stone Soup

Do you remember the book Stone Soup? If you haven't read it, the premise is that a bunch of travelers, who have only a large pot, arrive in a village and ask for food. The villagers state that they do not have any to spare. However, as time goes by, each villager adds their small item (veggies, spices, herbs) to the boiling pot of water with a stone in it, and it eventually becomes soup. In the end, everyone shares the soup.

I think this story is supposed to teach children to share, and that together they will have something wonderful. However, I don't want to dwell on that. What I like is that they just throw whatever any passing stranger happens to have handy right into the pot. One of my favorite things to make is soup, and although once in a blue moon I follow a recipe, generally I just throw whatever I have right into the pot. And Voila, I have stone soup. Sometimes it's vegetarian, sometimes it's not, and sometimes it has rice, or barley or quinoa. It almost always has beans. It is a cheap and easy way to have meals throughout the week. I usually make a big pot on Sunday and eat it for several days.

Today's stone soup recipe is just a guideline. If you have the ingredients, great. If not, you can substitute any bean, rice, pasta or meat you want. The key is the base. I usually do the base the same way and then where it goes from there is a surprise to everyone. (I apologize in advance for the crappy iPhone photos this week)

Stone Soup

Ingredients for base:
1 tbsp (roughly) olive oil (or any oil you like, or butter)
1 yellow onion, diced (Want an easy way to dice an onion? Go HERE)
2 or 3 or infinity number of garlic cloves, minced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced

Ingredients for soup: 
- 2 cups (dry) mixed beans
- 4 cups (you may need more) water or chicken stock**
- 1 can of corn

Optional: 
- 1 cup cooked or uncooked quinoa/barley/rice/pasta
- 1 large chicken breast, diced or shredded (or more, or a sausage..)
- Any other veggies you have on hand. Watch out for broccoli though; it tends to overpower the others.

A few notes before we start: If you are using beans, I usually soak them overnight, or if you don't have the time or you decide to make this late, you can use hot water and soak for about 2 hours, OR don't soak them at all; you will just have to cook everything a little longer. You can also used canned beans if you prefer. Today I used dried mixed beans, which you can buy pre-packaged. It usually consists of pinto, kidney, black, white, navy, black eyed peas, lentils, and green and yellow split peas). If you are using canned beans, I would use 2-4 cans, depending on how much soup, or how many different types of beans you want.

For the water part, I usually use the bean soaking water and add a little more. You want all the ingredients to be covered with about an inch or two of extra liquid. It will cook down. If you are using canned beans, go ahead and just dump the entire can into the pot, juice and all (if you are using black beans beware, they make the water kind of grey).  You still may need to add more water. **I am currently using Trader Joes Savory Broth Chicken Flavor which comes in a concentrated liquid form. It also comes in veggie. Or you can use a few bullion cubes if you like. The sky's the limit. Most of them are 1 packet to 1 cup of water, so add accordingly. If you use liquid chicken broth, just use that in place of water.

Directions: 

- In a large soup pot, sweat the onion, carrots and celery for about 5 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for another 5 minutes, until the onions become translucent. (a quick how to on sweating veggies)

- Add the chicken (I am usually lazy and want to "set it and forget it" so I add everything all at once. You could also add the chicken near the end, once the beans are done).

- Add the beans, corn and stock/water.

- Cook for about 3-5 hours. 

- If you are adding uncooked quinoa or other grains, add them about 30- 45 minutes before the soup is done.

You could also just dump everything in a crock pot in the morning and it would be done by dinner time! So there you have it, stone soup!

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This week's What I Ate Wednesday is the traveling alone version. When I am traveling alone, I tend to eat more healthy than if I am with someone else. Maybe because I don't go out to eat as much? Here is one of my travel meal days from Washington DC! Thanks to Jenn for hosting!

 Breakfast: Single serving cereal, Single serving milk, Banana

Lunch: Chipotle Chicken Bowl 

Dinner: 3x yogurt with strawberries / Peanut Butter Lara Bar

Snacks: 2x Apple

I ate a lot of that yogurt because I bought the big size and then was about to leave, so I decided to just finish it off for dinner (along with a lara bar). And you thought I ate weird stuff... Pshaw.

What weird thing do you eat when you are alone? Do you have a "go to" one pot meal that you throw together all the time?

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?