Morning Glory

I have a new breakfast addiction - avocado toast. I know the rest of the free world has already discovered this but we've established I am not an early adopter (nor likely a fast follower).

Here's how I love mine:

Toasted sprouted grain bread (I will never go back to traditional sandwich bread - I love the texture and health benefits over whole wheat which are amino acids and bioavailability of vitamins/minerals)

Spread with avocado half - split in half, twist apart, slice half without pit a few times lengthwise, scoop out with spoon and spread on warm toast (save the other half face down with pit in water and/or lemon/lime juice)

Salt and pepper (I add balsamic vinegar sometimes)

Onion slices

Tomato slices

Enjoy!!!

International Flavor

I recently returned from my first week long trip in over five years. It was heaven! My friend Mrs M and I stayed with my MIL who rents a condo in Puerto Vallarta every year for a couple of months. The weather was absolutely perfect, the scenery was breathtaking, the food was delicious (PV is a foodie's delight) and the shopping (from trinkets to extravagance) was super. The condo was spacious - Mrs M and I shared a large double bed corner room with floor to ceiling sliding doors on two side for wonderful night breezes and we each had our own bathroom for privacy (we used the third bedroom for storage/dressing - so decadent!). The condo grounds were beautifully manicured with infinity lounge areas, swimming pools, hot tub (though at 80+ degrees why?) and a restaurant for table or poolside service. It was like an all-inclusive for access without the wristbands.

Sunday

Arrival

Dinner at Grand Venetian (hotel district - a few miles north of downtown PV)

Monday

Marina
Breakfast with a view
Shopping at Andrea’s jewelry shop
Thrifty ice cream

Shopping

Dinner at Barcelona Tapas *everything was good, but the Paella was amazing and the view was as good as the food!

Tuesday

Beach walk

Downtown Boardwalk El Malecon – Los Arcos, Our Lady of Guadalupe funeral

Shopping (jewelry)

Dinner at Gabby’s *tamarindo con chile margarita; old time Mexican movies on the adjacent building wall after sunset!

Wednesday

Sayulita by cab - laid back surfing community north of PV by about an hour, beautiful driveLunch at Mary’s *Sayulita taco was worth the trip alone!

Shopping (glass)

Dinner at El Palomar de los Gonzalez - former home with amazing outdoor spaces including waterfall

Thursday

Lounging poolside

Shopping (purses/jewelry)

Lunch at Oscar’s by the river 

Dinner at PiPi’s

Friday

90 min. massage - the BEST I've ever had ... and for only $36! Wish we could have gone every day!

Pina Coladas and guacamole poolside

Dinner at No Way Jose Flan was best I've ever tasted

Saturday

Downtown market (like a State Fair, Craft Fair and Farmer's Market all in one!)

Shopping & Starbucks at Marina

Dinner at Grand Venetian

To continue my international mood I made Irish Soda Bread, Irish Potato Pie, Irish Stew, and my first corned beef and cabbage the week of St. Patrick's Day. I can hardly wait for Cinco de Mayo!

 

Breakfast for Dinner

I was looking for a recipe to use up a couple of apples that will only last another day or two. A video for fried apple rings on Facebook caught my eye, but I was looking for something more virtuous. Pinterest did not disappoint. Choices were narrowed to hasselback baked apples or apple cinnamon baked oatmeal. I decided to go for the latter using craisins instead of raisins.

It's a winner! Great texture and delicious. The recipe made enough for two healthy portions of workday breakfasts (jars) as well as a treat (bowl). It would go further with smaller portion sizes. Go make some now and serve it up warm with ice cream and maple syrup. You won't be disappointed!

Life Lately

I have been drowning in school work and work work lately (plus hubby stuff). I love my job and am excited to see light at the end of the school tunnel (November thesis presentation and December graduation dates are on the calendar!), but let's face it ... I'd rather be cooking.

Joining a CSA has really challenged me to eat more veggies (and herbs & melons!). I love that the farm provides links to recipes every week that relate to exactly what's in that week's box. This week was arugula, parsley, kale, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, radishes, celery root (celeriac) and jester winter (aka carnival) squash.

For supper tonight we're having Sauerbraten (German-style pot roast), mashed potatoes/celeriac, roasted maple walnut squash, savoy salad with apple and walnut (and bonus radishes), and nutty cardamom bundt cake with bourbon glaze! I'll get at least two work lunches of squash + salad (and cake!) out of this as well.

And make these if you want the taste of summer to last a bit longer, they were winners with my picky family -

Veggie Tacos

Strawberry Lemonade bars

Jolly Green

The 4th of July has come and gone and we've enjoyed it as any other long weekend - laying low in my happy place, the kitchen. I've been busy the last couple of weeks  ... especially using the deliciou green vegetables from the crop share arrangement I joined this year. Strawberry Lemon Bread when the last of a box of strawberries started looking sad, Rhubarb Cake (forgot the baking powder but it still turned out great), Kale Pesto with my first weeks' CSA bounty, and Chicken Stir Fry (zucchini, kale, snap peas and broccoli from CSA). Yesterday I made mayo free Tuna Salad in Romaine boats (my secret ingredients are Italian dressing, anchovy paste and green pepper Tabasco), Kale & Bacon Frittata for quick work day breakfasts, Parsley-Cilantro Chimichurri for steaks we're grilling later this week, and Strawberries & Cream Scones with more sad strawberries (I added basil and topped with demerara sugar to send them over the top). For dinner tonight I made Roasted Broccoli with pine nuts & parmesan, and a Salad with a delicious dressing of lemon juice, half & half and olive oil.

I've busy outdoors too ... gardening. My mom came to help me landscape the backyard. Our back neighbor put up a beautiful wood fence but the area needed texture and color to provide visual interest.


There's over 40 plants back there but the hydrangeas were the largest at planting and have grown like crazy in 6 weeks.

 

 

I'm looking forward to my own radishes, lettuce and arugula.

 

And in the front ... my peonies bloomed for the first time since I planted them three years ago!

 

Tale of Two Salads

I have been on a quest for easy to prepare, great tasting 21-day fix approved meals. I scored with these three. The first two are different versions of a shrimp avocado salad and the third is a fruit salad.

Both shrimp salads have shrimp (obvs), avocado, olive oil, red onion and cilantro, but then things get interesting. I like them both equally though nothing compares to the amazing shrimp salad I had in San Diego two months ago (seemingly bottomless bowl for $8).

Zesty Lime Shrimp Salad
This one uses lime for acidity and jalapenos for spice (I use jarred). Tomatoes and cilantro are also in the mix.

Shrimp Avocado Salad 
This one uses red wine vinegar for acidity and Dijon mustard plus garlic powder for zip. Parsley is listed but I use cilantro.

Tropical Fruit Salad
I have this fruit salad almost every morning and it's delish! I think it tastes like Hawaii. Mind you I've never been to Hawaii, but this is how I imagine it tastes.

Banana - I use half in my protein shake* and the other half here
Papaya - I cut one up on Sunday, store in container and take a scoop equal to half the banana
Pineapple - I use store bought chunks (SO EASY), scoop equal to banana / papaya
Lime Juice & Zest - I zest and juice a lime on Sunday, store in container and drop about 2 tsp in
Shredded Coconut - put the lime in the coconut ...
Sliced Almonds - this puts it over the top

Shake, marinate 10-30 minutes and enjoy!

* My favorite shake recipes (chocolate of course):

• 1 scoop + 1 cup almond milk + ice + banana + honey
• 1 scoop + 1 cup almond milk + ice + banana + natural peanut butter
• 1 scoop + 1 cup almond milk + ice + maple syrup + pecans

Fix Follow Up

So how am I doing on the 21 day Fix program? Not bad if I do say so myself. My green intake is light - I definitely need more veggies - but I'm impressed with my choices. I decided to be honest and track my vices as well (damn Girl Scoot cookies!).

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
	9-Mar	10-Mar	11-Mar	12-Mar	13-Mar
Containers p/day	5	3	5	4	1
Workout	-	-	Dance	Upper Fix	PiYo
Breakfast	1/2 shake coffee fruit salad coconut	shake coffee fruit salad coconut	shake coffee fruit salad (2) coconut	shake coffee banana	shake coffee fruit salad coconut
Snack	nuts	nuts	nuts banana	yogurt granola
Lunch	chicken veggie medley (3) eggs sesame seeds	chicken raspberries eggs	peppers hummmus cauliflower	cukes hummus cauliflower
Snack	3 clems	2 clems	2 clems	skinny pop raspberries
Dinner	chicken (2) rice (2)	nuggets chicken fries	turkey corn tomatoes blk beans	sweet potatoes chicken rice
Snack	-	-	-	prunes
L	1 pc Dove choc			cookies + 1 pc Dove choc

I plan to walk the dog this weekend since summer arrived early in the arctic and I have a date with my treadmill every Sunday while watching one of my new fave shows - Madam Secretary.

One will not go hungry on this program - I ate so much on Wednesday that I thought I would explode (and no cheats that day!). Here's the color code breakdown for my daily calorie intake based on current weight:

5	1 ¼ cup	Veggies
3	1 ¼ cup	Fruits
5	¾ cup	Proteins
4	½ cup	Carbs
1	¼ cup	Nuts, cheese, avocado, hummus
1	2 Tb	Seeds
5 t		Oils/Butters

Sharing is Caring

Soups tend to be my go-to supper to ward off the arctic chill. My family raves about my Taco Soup (adapted from Penzeys) so here you are:

Brown 1 lb ground beef or turkey then sprinkle in 1-3 tsp taco seasoning to taste (I use half packet and save the other half for next time). Add 1 can black beans, 1 can corn kernels, 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 jar salsa with desired heat level (mild for my peoples' wimpy palettes). I add water and beef bouillon, or prepared beef stock if on hand, to give desired soup consistency. Simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with cheese, sour cream and chips. Delicious and "soup"er easy! You could add chiles or other veggies too. This van also be made vegetarian without meat, double or triple the beans and vegetable stock.

If you're not watching House of Cards, drop everything NOW and watch it! Season 3 starts in less than a month.

I recently returned from a trip to San Diego / Coronado, California and loved every second of the beach, sun, history, beach, fresh seafood, beautiful sunsets and the beach.

Day 1 - arrival, lunch, sunset at The Del and the best shrimp cocktail I've ever had at Miguel's outdoor dining patio
Day 2 - whale / dolphin watching (I saw both!), exciting history lessons (second largest Navy base in U.S.) from former CIA operative (a spy!), saw the USS Midway (retired), the USS Ronald Reagan (active and docked while undergoing refurbish) and Navy Seals going out for sea exercises, chased the sunset down "The Strand" and dinner at Imperial Beach
Day 3 - Historic Balboa Park (I climbed the California Tower which was only open due to 100 year anniversary of Panama Canal opening), a massage and steak dinner
Day 4 - Enlightening presentation by THE Richard Dreyfuss on the importance of American Civics in elementary education (he has an official initiative), lunch in La Jolla, quality beach time, and dinner at the oldest restaurant in Old Town
Day 5 - 2 hour beach walk, tour of Point Loma, fish tacos at the pier and departure

You should totally go!

Creative Juices

If idle hands are the devil's work, then I am a saint! We all know that isn't true, but suffice to say I've been busy.

I made more cookies - PB Blossoms, Pecan Teacakes, Pistachio-Cranberry Sugar and Candy Cane Mint Blossoms. The Mint Blossoms were fussy - add the Kiss too soon and they melted A LOT, too late and they didn't stick. I found with both type of Blossoms that a great hack is Betty Crocker cookie mix - super easy and tastes great. I will never make dough from scratch for these again.



 

I also made those blasted Strawberry Christmas Tree Brownie Bites Sassy saw on Pinterest. Note Sassy was not involved ... strep throat last weekend so banned from the kitchen, studying for finals this week with a lovely disposition this week. The concept was simple - bake mini brownie bites, hull strawberries and "glue" upside down to brownies with frosting, then frost with star tip to look like a fir tree. I found a great hack here as well, Betty Crocker Cupcake Frosting in a can with assorted tips!

The first one ended up looking like a landscape bush vs. a Christmas Tree. I found the right technique was to twirl the brownie around while applying even pressure to the frosting, working my way up to the top. Small strawberries were required for this project so there were a lot of left over brownies - these were frosted with twirl technique and look darn cute as well.

 

In non-Betty related news, I also made Paperwhites in Mason Jars for coworker gifts. I'm calling this a huge success - simple, sweet and cheap. Wonder how many odd looks I'll get for carrying flowers in a wine bottle box into the office tomorrow?

Foodie 4th

We had a family and fun filled relaxing long weekend with lots of food - restaurant, homemade and pot luck.

I made festive cupcakes -


I also made this amazing salad. Only I used spinach instead of arugula and pecans instead of almonds because that's what I had on hand. I also had some chopped tomatoes so they went in, along with leftover chopped rotisserie chicken. That's how I roll.

 

And no pic but I made another summer "tian" which is a fancy term for layered veggies, herbs and cheese (I add breadcrumbs too). Don't let the fancy name scare you off - make this, you won't regret it! 

Comfort stew

I have to share one of my favorite recipes of the moment ... Tuscan Chicken Stew. This is comfort food at it's best - hearty, flavorful and looks great. I'd serve it to guests in a heartbeat. It all started when I came across spices in a bubble pack at the grocery store for about $1 - McCormick's Recipe Inspirations. I love cooking with spices and have quite a few at my disposal, but don't want to spend money for only one recipe. This caught my eye and I thought I might have everything on hand but wanted to buy it for the recipe. I also love that it's an Italian dish without pasta as hubby doesn't like pasta so it can be challenging to connect with my roots through cooking. It turns out I do have all the spices on hand so it's become a frequent go-to. The recipe calls for spinach but I substituted with kale the first time I made it as that's what I had on hand. I used spinach tonight and it was just as good, though I think I like the kale a bit better. I used wine the first time but used water tonight as I didn't have a bottle open and it seemed silly to open one just for this - I definitely like the depth that wine gives but water didn't detract from the tastiness at all. This could easily be made vegetarian by omitting the chicken and would cut down on the prep time as well. I took a picture but it did not do it justice - I won't be winning any awards for photo journalism in the near future.

Busy baker

I have been in my happy place the last two weekends ... baking. First I was inspired by this post to make something special for one of my valentines (Hi Mom!). These turned out delicious but next time I'll make them much smaller ... they were about 2" in diameter and so addictive you couldn't just stop at one or two. Before I knew it they were gone! It didn't help that Abbie the wonder dog had a nice big snack while I turned my back for three minutes gee whiz, a girl can't even go to the bathroom around here without having to lock up the goods ... she was literally in the doghouse.

Yesterday I whipped up vanilla cupcakes with Nutella frosting for Sassy and then because I had a whole bunch of frosting leftover I made vanilla macarons.

 I have been trying to perfect the macaron for over a year now and finally achieved success! I would feel incredibly accomplished except I know this could be fleeting ... macarons are notoriously temperamental. While I was at it I made a batch of cranberry pistachio biscotti. A certain someone has dropped some not so subtle hints that they needed restocking. And finally I made hubby a special treat with this recipe for copycat Shamrock Shake... fantastic!

Bullets & Links

What I'm loving:

• My treadmill ... I do 30-60 minutes a day with a break here and there for commitments/laziness. This is major for me. I even broke out in a jog ... twice ... on two separate occasions. Who would have ever thought?! Yay me and since today is Tuesday I'm counting this as my first Take It Off Tuesdays post of the year because this is my blog and I can do what I want here (within reason of course)
• A smart, sexy man who loves his wife and kids, isn't afraid to show it and knows how to use curse words to emphasize a good point
• Only 15 days until the XXII Olympics ... where's the torch? 
• I made homemade caramel sauce and feel like I conquered Mt Everest ... how beautiful are my apple crostatas with salted caramel?! They taste even better than they look if you can believe it.

What I'm not loving:

• Cancer ... my friend's mom has it, two of my friends have it and it sucks. Big time.
• Food waste ... this is provocative and I am on a mission to be more conscientious. On that note, I used leftover half & half singles and sugar packets from a recent catered office event for the crusts of my crostatas above ... I sort of feel like my great-grandma who took sugar, creamer and jelly from restaurants

Leftovers

What do you do with leftovers from the Christmas Eve veggie platter and the last four clementines? Make a feast that's what! This is what was for supper tonight:

Flank steak - simple marinade with lime juice, S&P
Roasted potatoes with onions and red/green peppers
Roasted sweet potatoes
Brussels sprout salad - shaved sprouts, shallots, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, Dijon, S&P
Cauliflower with almonds, raisins and capers 
Clementine & Almond Cake

The cauliflower recipe was a whim and though a lot of steps the outcome was delicious.

The cake recipe was in the new cookbook, Jerusalem, I received from my sister-in-law for Christmas. An absolute winner! I've seen a similar cake from my original girl crush, Nigella Lawson, so will have to make hers and compare as I believe the recipes are slightly different. I had both fine almond flour and a grittier almond meal on hand and really liked the texture of the two mixed together. Next I'll be roasting leftover grape tomatoes for a "naked" tomato sauce.

And because I love to cook then eat what I make I have a lot of leftover jiggly body bits. So ... the newest member of our family is a NordicTrack treadmill. I'm bribing paying Chunky to set it up before the end of New Year's Day so I can start the New Year out right. Another leftover to be resurrected in the new year is Take it Off Tuesdays. Stay tuned!

Potayto Potahdo

Pinterest has been taunting me with sweet potato recipes for months ... everything from pies to fries to casseroles. I wasn't sure if I could / should commit as none of my people like sweet potatoes. Oh bother Then I happened upon a bin with two kinds of sweet potatoes as well as yams during a recent grocery run. I hemmed and hawed for quite some time ... should I or shouldn't I? Which do I buy? The only kind I've eaten in a Thanksgiving dish were orange ... which of these were orange inside? Does it matter? I've heard what we call sweet potatoes here in the U.S. are actually yams. OMG I was so confused!!! So I bought one of all three intending to do an experiment much like this. A few days passed and I got consumed appropriately for once by grad school studies. Then I saw this recipe on one of my favorite food porn sites during an ahem inappropriate break. Even though it had marshmallow frosting I loathe anything marshmallow I knew I had to make it. So I baked the three similarly sized whatever-they-ares and peeled them to find one had bright orange flesh, another a bit darker ("rusty" if you will) and the third was beige. Of course I didn't label them so don't know which is which. I discarded the beige version since I had enough of the orange stuff for the recipe. I even made the marshmallow frosting. And it was so worth it ... awesome sauce! Even Hubby and Chunky liked it  ... though they only ate initially because they thought it was pumpkin ;) There are no photos because I was too excited to serve and then it was gone. I will definitely make again and perhaps next time get out a trusty Sharpie for the great experiment. Or not.

Icebreaker

We had clients in from Florida for a meeting the other day and one of my coworkers led us in an icebreaker exercise. He listed four desserts on a white board:

Cake

Cookies

Ice Cream

Pie

We were to go around and rank them in order of preference. I thought it was going to be totally lame, but it turned out to be fun (shows you what I know) and super revealing. Of course someone had to bring up brownies and someone else pudding ... really?!. My preferred order would have been as listed above - I LOVE cake. However I've been on a biscotti (cookie category) and pie kick lately. I made about a hundred peach crostatas this summer (pie category) and have recently turned my attention to the seasonal fave pumpkin. I especially like switching up the seasoning / spices in my pumpkin pie (bourbon, maple syrup or cardamom anyone?). I was going to switch up my crostata with plums but then they were out of season and when I found them at Costco they were too good to use any other way than au naturel ... I just couldn't bear to share them with any other ingredient or another person for that matter. Then I was going to make the crostata with apples when hubby and I got into a discussion about regular vs. "dutch" thanks to some TV commercial from who-knows-where. I guess what makes it dutch is a streusel topping instead of another pastry crust (thank you Wikipedia!). This suits me fine as I am NOT a crust fan. I found this recipe and there is simply no mincing words, we are sold. It is absolutely delicious and I do believe pie may have jumped to 2nd place honors in my book.

How would you rank the four desserts?

Time is on my side

I am loving the extra hour daylight savings afforded me today. I forgot to set the clocks back so woke up at 6:00am which is "regular" time (now 5:00). That means I got 6 hours of sleep straight and extra sleep time following our morning ritual. I'm pretty sure I doubled my effectiveness the entire day :)

The month of October totally flew by, I can't believe it's November with Thanksgiving less than 4 weeks away. On the down side that means we're closer to snow - yuck! On the up side that means we're closer to the greatest event on earth ... the Olympics! Only 95 days!!! I saw an article on official Winter 2014 apparel - glad to hear it will be made in the USA this time around.


In closing I am totally obsessed with making my own applesauce. This recipe from The Pioneer Woman is amazing. I flavor mine with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, a little maple syrup and bourbon, no butter. 3 lbs of apples (half recipe) makes 3 cups of applesauce. Delicious! Anyone who likes applesauce should try it. I bet this could be done in the slow cooker too ... hmm.

Perfect Late Summer Dinner

Paninis with turkey, peppers and cheese, roasted sweet corn, veggie casserole and peach crostata. I want to try the crostata with plums next ... I can't get enough of peaches or plums right now. 

I used eggplant instead of potatoes for the casserole (or "tian" as the original recipe calls it) ... this is amazing!

Berry Good

We all know I love sweets, but somehow cobbler has never been on my hit list. While I lived in the south - Texas is the south, right? - for a few years, I never picked up a hankering for cooking southern food. Not sure if cobbler is a southern thing or not, but that's what I've associated it with. All that has recently changed - first this cake and now this cobbler. Oh my griddles, it's amazing! I ripped the recipe out of a People magazine I bought for a read on my recent trip to Sconny and have made it three, four times already. I use any kind of berry on hand that's looking a little overripe. My extra special twist is to add a few sliced almonds in the berry mix. Next time I make it - now? - I'm going to use almond meal instead of flour. I bet it will rock my world.

Here I go again

I have a long history of procrastination (see any post with "grad school" label) and I'm living up to my own expectations again. I took Friday off from work so I could really dig in and get most of my Ethical Leadership research paper done. This is Sunday and I'm maybe 50% done. Really?! It's due this Friday by Noon. Today is going to be a productive day though, I can feel it.

While I should be focused on my paper, I have been processing in the back of my brain what to do with a cruddy looking crate of strawberries in the fridge. This time of year is challenging for berries ... they taste great, but are only fresh for about two days after bringing home. Conversely, the berries available in winter stay fresh forever, yet have no taste. I came across this recipe for Strawberry Basil Tart and it seems to be a perfect way to use the strawberries as well as the abundance of tiny leaf basil growing in my herb container.

Wish me luck - with the paper and tart!