Category Archives: Recipes

Kitchen Crisis

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Last night I was greeted with a little surprise while doing the dishes: water gushing from under my sink. Ick. I decided that I cannot use my sink until this epic problem is resolved. This presented a small issue for dinner. I didn’t want to use the sink at all but I was hungry! I almost went to the prepared food section of Whole Foods. But then I thought, this is a challenge.

And who am I to turn down a challenge?

Thus, I produced this…

Ezekiel bread toasted, artichoke dip, spinach, radish, tomato paste, basil and goat cheese! This was DELICIOUS!

Wonderful!

I will be having this again (probably tomorrow if my sink isn’t fixed!)

After dinner I ran some errands and while I was out at Ralphs I picked up this…

Post race splurgage? Why not!?

One final note: Yesterday in my post race energy wave I did some home improvement. My mom sent me some great, cheap gold frames which I hung in my stairwell.

I cannot wait to add more! You like?

My Fridge Runneth Over

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My fridge is packed ya’ll! Tons of farmers market finds, some awesome fruit salad (thank you Danielle) and I have things from Catie’s house from over the weekend. I started to dent it tonight with…

Butternut squash in balsamic vinegar sauce (gently brown butter with pine nuts or walnuts, once the butter is brown add balsamic and cheese). This is a single serving.

Hummus and 1/2 a red pepper…

Purple potato cheese crisps. I nicked this recipe from Tina but switched it up with goat cheese and purple potatoes. I these were pretty good but I would love to try them with sweet potatoes in the future. BTW- these are baked, and oh so delicious. See we don’t have to fry things for them to be tasty.

Tonight I caught “Losing it with Jillian” and killed a run. It was an awesome run! Def made up for a lazy run on Saturday. Can’t wait for the race on Sunday!

Funky

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Hey Hey Hey,

How was your day blog world? My was funky. I was tired, had a headache and just couldn’t get motivated at work. Then my lack of motivation made me feel stressed. Deadly cycle.This might be because my workspace felt like the bayou today or because basically everyone in my workplace was slap happy. Who knows.

Tonight I did manage to make it on a run. However, I forgot to turn on my timer but I remember the songs I listened to and I didn’t end any early. So, my run was roughly 24:00 mins give or take about a min, if my math is ok. While on my run I ‘ran into’ Hiroshi. It was probably the most awkward 30 seconds of my life but whatever, awkward happens. Has this happened to anyone? Do you say hi or just run on when you see a Professor while on the road? I felt better after my run but still kinda stressed.

So I did the only logical thing… Mac & Cheese with mix ins!

Arugula, prosciutto, broccoli, and pepper. The pasta was Trader Joe’s from a box (what can I say, unmotivated) and should be noted that this is only a half portion.

Still didn’t fully kick the funk so I made brown sugar bars loosely based on Paula Deen’s recipe.

I browned 1/4 cup of butter

Combine with 1 cup brown sugar

An egg

Separately, mix 3/4 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of Saigon Cinn, some grated nutmeg…

Combine flour with brown sugar

and the finishing touch was 1 teaspoon of vanilla…

Put into a greased pan and bake at 350 for 20 mins…

and the final product will debut tomorrow I promise! I have to let it cool before cutting it up, thus everyone can be on virtual tetherhooks waiting for me to reveal the final product. I will say that the dough was delicious. Saigon Cinn is like my CAT NIP!

The moral of the story? I did feel better after baking brown sugar bars barefoot in my kitchen listening to the Temptations Pandora station. Baking cures all.

Eggplant Sandwich with Summer Salad

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This week I kept talking about wanting to cook something epic! So last night I decided to take on two new dishes: an eggplant sandwich and summer salad on the side. Of course, I look at two of my favorite magazines for inspiration:

And I have a confession: I love cooking. I put on some good music and my apron, pour a glass of wine and dance around my kitchen while prepping food. Tonight was no different. I put on old jazz standards and started on the salad out of Sunset Magazine.

The salad has heirloom tomatoes, asparagus, and avocado with a light dressing which is comprised of dijon mustard, small amount of EVO, salt, pepper, lemon juice. I subbed goat cheese for Gorgonzola.

Just cook the asparagus in some water for two mins and then combine all the ingredients in a bowl. According to Sunset magazine this recipe is around 250 calories, but I figure I saved some calories from switching Gorgonzola to goat cheese.

Wonderful! I set this aside and got cracking on the eggplant sandwich, which required a bit of an assembly line…

I cut the egg plant into slices and breaded it in the assembly line.Then I fried it (I KNOW, I KNOW!) in canola oil…

In two mins you flip…

I love fried things. I also know its bad for me but hey its canola oil and according to Real Simple its under 600 calories.

So crispy and delicious! At this point you cut up basil, heirloom tomato, and arugula. Then you put goat cheese on the eggplant and layer like a sandwich.

Yum!!! This is what my plate looked like last night:

This was a great meal! I love summer veggies and I love goat cheese. The eggplant sandwich was good! I love the crispiness of the eggplant and the freshness of the heirlooms and the bite of the arugula.

Truly an epic dinner, right? It was delicious.

In other news I went on my hilly run (4.1 miles) I only ran about 3.75 and I timed by run on my ipod. Today I ran 3.1 miles in 25:40 mins! Whoo Hoo! Bring it on July 11th!

Training Day

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This week marks that start of my formal running training. Actually, I’m not doing much different than I usually do. Running 4.1 miles at least 3 times a week with yoga in between runs and triceps dips and light weight training on my “off days”. I want to also introduce some interval training. I had my first run yesterday and it was great. I think that knowing I was going to run a race made me more motivated. I was running with purpose. However, my left hip didn’t like it too much. I really have to up my stretching before and after runs.

Tonight I did power yoga which was intense. I sweat a lot and the  6 pm class was packed. The guy next to me was sweating before class started and was rocking a yoga headband. That’s a deal breaker. As I said, class was intense and sweaty and I expect to be majorly sore tomorrow.

After yoga I caught up with a taco truck I saw on my way into yoga. How awesome that it was still there, right? I was kinda thinking about it all through class. I know, I have a sick obsession with food trucks. I ate a taco so quickly that I didn’t get a picture. When I got home I knew I should eat something else so I had this piece of Ezekiel bread with hummus, arugula, and sun dried tomatoes.

Yum. Delicious.

This was so good! Definitely going to have this again soon.

And one more thing before I go. Last Sunday my balcony was infiltrated by a squirrel.  Izzy took this invasion very personally. She became fixated.

I have since removed the pumpkin but she remains obsessed. Literally, she has been stalking the screen and staring at the place where the pumpkin was for hours. Poor thing. Goodnight, bloggies!

Barefoot Mac and Cheese

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As a first day of work present to myself I prepared mac and cheese. I have a well documented love of cheese and pasta! The both together is always amazing. I used a recipe from Barefoot Contessa but I altered it. I used her Lobster Mac and Cheese recipe as a base, but at the end when you add lobster I added veggies instead. I also used some Barefoot tips and tricks with varying degrees of success. Obviously I started by boiling brown pasta. I utilized Barefoot Tip #1: add olive oil to the pasta water so the pasta doesn’t stick.

This was a successful experiment! None of my pasta stuck which means that this is a success. While the pasta was boiling I took gruyere and cheddar and cut them up. Instead of the arm workout of grating cheese I attempted to use Barfoot tip #2: putting the cheese in the food processor to cut it. Ummm, not so successful:

the picture of fail

I think it was because of the consistency of the cheese. Maybe it was too mushy? Well, moving on. I heated a 1/4 pint of milk in a sauce pan while I melted a 1/4 cup of butter in another pan with a little bit of flour.

butter mixture

the milk pan

and then we combine! This, according to Ina, is a traditional white sauce. I kept the heat on low and added nutmeg (which I ground with my Microplane, a product I love), pepper, salt, and the cheese. Then I mix and let melt.

This is where we separate from Ina and add our favorite things. I added tomato, broccoli, and leeks. Note: tonight I made this again and instead I used sundried tomato, leeks, arugula, and thyme!

Mix it up and put it in an oven safe container, cook at 350 for 30-35 mins. Barefoot suggests adding a breadcrumb crumble but I bypassed this.

Yum! I only ate about 1/2 of the pasta and saved the rest for a later time. What can I say, I was full!

This recipe is for sure a keeper. Barefoot never does me wrong.

Creamy Fettuccine with Leeks, Corn and Arugula

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Now that classes and finals are over I’ve really been able to get into my cooking! Tonight I tried a recipe from my new Real Simple. I love Real Simple, I know that might questionably age me about 10 years, but there are so many great tips and they always have good recipes that aren’t too complicated or too time consuming. It’s a great resource. So tonight I made Creamy Fettuccine with Leeks, Corn and Arugula.

First, I boiled the pasta. I used some flat leftover pasta that I happened to have. I suppose this calls for fettuccine but whatevs.

Tip: when I cook pasta I always boil the water and then prep the ingredients when the pasta is cooking. Then, after I finished cooking the pasta I drain it and use the same pot of the sauce. Thus, I only have one pot to clean when I’m done and I am more in control cutting my ingredients and don’t feel rushed about adding them.

While I cooked the pasta I chopped leeks.

Chopped garlic and measured out corn. I also measured out the liquids for the sauce. The recipe calls for a combo of white wine and heavy cream.

Generally, I like to keep a red and a white wine on hand. I also don’t buy “cooking” wines. I like to keep the wine selection simple and fairly inexpensive (hi Trader Joe’s!) I like red wine so I generally use what ever I have around the house, but I am not as fond of white wine for drinking purposes. I just have a dry wine on hand for situations like today where I’m making a sauce.

As you can see, the recipe doesn’t call for much. It calls for slightly less heavy cream.

At this point I drained the pasta and started the sauce. I put in a dollop of EVO in the pan and put in the leeks and garlic. After the leeks and garlic are tender (like 3 mins) I added the wine and the corn.

Yum! Mix it in and let the wine reduce! Then add heavy cream, cheese, salt, and pepper.

The thing about cheese: I think Ralph’s over charges for cheese. I’m sorry, I don’t have $10.00 to pay for perorino I’m only going to use once. I cannot wait til I can afford it normally. And also, why do they have to charge so much when Trader’s charges less? There must be a reasonable explanation for it, like quality. I don’t care though, I just want a single serving of expensive cheese. How hard does that have to be? Instead I used this which only cost me $2.38. It was a more than adequate replacement.

And then I folded in a handful of arugula. It looked like this when I was done:

Delish! It was so nice to put on the apron and chill with some dinner. Another cool thing about Real Simple? They publish calorie counts. This meal had 596 calories, which is right around where I like to be for dinner. See, you can have fettuccine with not too many calories, its all about portion control.

Tomorrow my little brother, David, is coming to LA so there will be some fun updates.

Boredom Sets In…

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So, day 5 of vacation and boredom is setting in. I could feel it this morning when I just wanted to lay on the couch and not get dressed but I forced myself up and out on a 4 mile run. Post yoga running is a whole new world! No pain in my hips or knees. Then I came home to see Iz just hanging out in her favorite perch:

Oh, hi Izzzzz!

Then I had lunch: small salad with arugula, chopped walnuts, orange flavored dried cranberries, brie and balsamic vin. I supplemented my lunch with apple sauce and edamame.  I made sure to eat immediately when I returned from my run and drank a ton of water:

Yum! Then I did a variety of things in the afternoon, which included buying a pair of size 28 skinny jeans from jcrew! This is UNPRECEDENTED! I pretty much hit puberty and became an 8, but a 28 in jcrew translates to a 6. This might be too early to call it but I feel good. Also, I am feeling healthy which is the most important thing.

So I arrived home triumphantly and made a healthy dinner which I’d been dying to try for a long time: eggplant and tomato towers. I preheated the oven to 350 and cut eggplant and tomato into slices. Then I added salt, pepper, and EVO to each side of the slices and roasted for 20 mins.

Then after 20 mins you add cheese and stack em! The recipe calls for mozzarella but I forgot to buy it so I used the left over cheddar with garlic and apple flavor. It was a decent replacement (although would have been SO GOOD with alternating levels of buffalo motzo and basil on top, now that I consider it!) After 20 mins you add the cheese and stack it and cook until the cheese is melted and browned (10-20 mins, make sure to keep an eye on it). Unfortch, my stack kinda fell down while cooking. Eh, you can’t win them all. It still turned out well and was totally delicious and healthy.

It turned out really well! I can’t wait to try with motzo and basil, but this was a great dish and so healthy. I love eating a healthy dinner and feeling good at the end of the day especially after a long run. I need to make sure that I am structuring my time this week which means healthy eating and exercise. I have just a few more days before the little bro arrives in LA so I better enjoy my alone time!

In Control

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“There are two ways to live life. One is stressed-out, the other isn’t. One hurts, one doesn’t. Look, if you’re having a nightmare, don’t you want to wake up?” -Eckart Tolle

Um, yes I would like to pick the second one please! Since yesterday was essentially a family/social/small amount of work day, today became the first “real” day of reading period. Reading period in law school lasts for two + weeks. This is wonderful, since my entire grade is dependent on one exam which is curved against a bunch of truly brilliant people. Obviously this is also a recipe for stress. The theme of the entire last semester was “clinging on for dear life”. This semester the theme is “I have the power to make choices”. We are all in control. I can choose to go on my run, eat well, set a realistic study schedule, and manage my stress. I am in control. That is what I intend to do this semester.

Along the lines of eating well…Last night for dinner I had a multi grain rice pilaf with roasted Brussels sprouts! I never liked/tried Brussels sprouts before but I figured that there was no way I wouldn’t like them roasted. Everything is better when slathered with EVO, salt and pepper, right? Naturally. Plus, its probably the healthiest thing I’d had in a while (because we have to balance out all my treats). And now for another gratuitous shot of my dinner.

After dinner a (very) small group of section 3 people went to the Gaslite, in Santa Monica. They are known for having karaoke every night. Of course there was an eclectic group of regulars hanging out and rocking out. Hardcore. I also observed some new dance moves for the next time I dance with a mic stand.

The only down fall was that there was no tonic at the bar. What is a g&t loving preppy to do?

There was a girl in a North Face, pearls + she had a martini. I felt like I was back in the North Shore, but I opted away from the martini. I love me a martini but I had a review session today and it is finals. Time to show restraint! I was really glad I went out last night. It mellowed me out and reminded me that fun and finals CAN coexist, despite all other indications. Lets hope I can keep this mellow zen up until May 6th around 5 pm. Whose with me?