Food

Nov142012

Bisque Me! Beautiful Butternut Squash Bisque

Now, I’m no Master Soup-Maker. In fact, this is my first time cooking a soup (or bisque, rather) from scratch. And it turned out really well! I got my basis for the recipe here, but I really changed this one up. Also, apologies for the lack of postings, busy lives! We’ll get back into it, we have a lot in store for you still. Alright, get ready!

Ingredients:

Olive oil
Butter
1/2 onion
3/4 cup of diced carrots
Butternut squash
Vegetable stock
Salt/pepper to taste
Cinnamon to taste
Brown sugar to taste
Ground ginger to taste
Garlic

Alright! Semi-long list but once you have everything cut up it’s easy. And the last few are to taste, throw your own ideas in there too. Ginger, brown sugar, and cinnamon just gave that nice soothing Fall flavor. So amazing on the cold nights we’ve been getting in Boulder.

Directions:

Cut up your butternut squash (I would roast it before hand, it was NOT fun to cut raw), carrots, and onions into cubes or small pieces.

Next, put some oil and butter into a big pot. I added some garlic in there too. Watch out, the smell is divine.

Once that’s nice and hot, pop in the onions.

Once the onions are nice and tender, put in the carrots and squash. And, though I’m not explicitly saying it, throughout this I’m putting in salt, pepper, garlic pepper, cinnamon, brown sugar, etc. Do it to taste. Make it your own.

Stir it around and then pour your vegetable stock in and bring to boil. You’re going to leave these in here, boiling, until all the vegetables are nice and tender.

Alright! So your veggies and nice and tender…I hope you have a blender or food processor! Because you want to throw all that mixture into that blender or food processor and blend it until smooth. Now we have a really bad blender, and although it took some time, even ours was able to blend all these. So you can do it!

Once that’s all blended, pour back into the heated pot. Here, you can add cream into it if you want (I didn’t). I stirred in a lot of cinnamon, ground ginger, and brown sugar in at this point to get it to that flavor I wanted to. Just stir and taste until you are satisfied.

And voila! You are done! Wasn’t too hard, was it? I really really suggest it as we move into winter…it is so nice and hearty. Very warm. There might be a holiday coming up where you can use this… Let me know if you have any questions!

(BONUS KITTY PIC)

Nov062012

Get Yo Autumn On: Whole-Wheat Banana PUMPKIN Bread

Oh yes I said it…pumpkin. I’ve made tons of banana breads, but now it was time to introduce the beloved fall vegetable, pumpkin. How many times do you think I can say pumpkin in this paragraph? Anyways, this pumpkin banana bread is one, absolutely delicious, two, easy to make, and three, doesn’t leave you feeling guilty. It uses a bit of brown sugar and honey to sweeten things up, as well as the banana and pumpkin that go along with it. I found this recipe here and varied it a bit, put more cinnamon in it, more honey, typical stuff for me. Alrighty, get ready.

Ingredients:

WET
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 banana
2 tablespoons orange juice (weird)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
DRY
1.5 cups whole-wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

This is the pumpkin puree I use. You can find it…ANYWHERE right now

Okay, looks like a long list but it doesn’t take long to prepare.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 55-70 minutes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
REAL simple here. Mix all the wet ingredients together

Then, you mix in the dry ingredients like the flour, baking soda, etc. Just look up at the ingredient list above, I organized it for you (it was really hard).

Spoon it all into the buttered or oiled baking tin and place into oven!

Bake for 55-75 minutes. Test it in the middle with a fork or a toothpick to make sure it’s cooked all the way through.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we will! I’m bringing this over to my aunt’s and cousins’ to watch the Election Night coverage as we bite our fingernails. Now that I think about it, I probably baked this to subconsciously soothe myself. Don’t forget to VOTE tomorrow. Please.

BONUS KITTY PIC

Nov012012

Halloween Feast: Open WIDE

We live in an apartment complex where kids wouldn’t exactly walk up to. There’s plenty of college kids living here and some other sketchy folk, so we decided to not give out here. We decided that we (Chris, cousins, & co.) would go to my aunt’s house in a very much-more family-friendly area. It’s also big, spacious and lovely. The perfect spot for some Halloween fun.

As soon as I was out of work, I raced home with a huge list of things to bring on my mind. First, I made some of my guacamole (which I ended up having to make a second batch because people [CHRIS] ate all of it before the main dish was out). Then, I put the pumpkins in the car, the Halloween cookies, the laundry (yes we brought our laundry over), CANDY, red wine, and apple cider. Was that it? Oh yes, and the kittens! It was the first time they’ve been over to my aunt’s house since they’ve finally gotten their Rabies shots (yay!). So I shoved both of them in the cat carrier and headed over to my aunt’s house.

Once there, I found Megan (my cousin) already preparing her wild-caught fish tacos. It was a big project, but she used top-notch ingredients, even made her own aioli chipotle sauce. She battered them in panko breadcrumbs, turned out absolutely fabulous. Fred, her boyfriend, and his brother made a top notch cole-slaw that would go on top. And then my guacamole on top of that. It was amazing. Seriously. Better than any taco place can give out. Just LOOK at it.

Main show of the feast, everyone put a little something in and it turned out to be excellent

We had a lovely appetizer of bread and baked brie with a chipotle cranberry sauce (might have been pomegranate, never get it right). Again, delicious.

We put on Monsters Inc. (the most Halloween-y movie we could find) and enjoyed our dinner immensely. As soon as we were done, Chris immediately wanted to put the cookies in the oven. They’re his favorite kind of cookies. Basic sugar cookies with Halloween deco on them.

And they didn’t last too long….

By the time these were done with, we really couldn’t move. All on the couch, kitties laying peacefully across us (why didn’t I get pics of that?!), blissfully enjoying our full bellies.

And of course, the mess in the kitchen was as usual (and as should be!) after any well-prepared feast. And Ben (my other cousin) cleaned everything up, thanks Ben!

Overall, it was a great Halloween, full of food, friends, and family (what else matters, really?). The only bummer was that we only got three batches of trick or treaters. We would get so excited when the doorbell rings I think we kind of scared them off. Anyways, it was a great time.

Nymeria didn’t like her outfit as much as we did.

Happy Halloween!

Oct292012

Yes, That’s a Beautiful Pumpkin–But Don’t Throw Out the Seeds!

Yikes, what a long title. Anyways, I’m here to bring you something that could be possibly even more amazing than carving a pumpkin…its seeds. As some of my friends may know (cough LENA), I absolutely love pumpkin seeds. In fact, I love them so much I can eat a whole container of them (sorry, Esther). The flavor of it, the grittiness, the amount of protein in the middle. There’s no downside (at least for me, but Chris doesn’t like how long it can stay in his mouth).

Indeed, it’s a great protein source. Did you know that one ounce of pumpkin seeds can give you 9.35 grams of protein? Not bad! Well said, Watto. And it is so easy it’s not even funny. We carved our pumpkins with paring knives (that was the hard part) and then I gutted them. I have memories of my dad letting my brother and I draw faces on our pumpkins, he would cut it, then let me do all the dirty work of grabbing its seeds and goo. And I loved it. So of course, I was the one to do it this time. But I was not going to throw them out, oh no! I collected all the seeds from the two pumpkins and prepared them. All in all, it took about an hour. However, 40 minutes of that was cooking time. The rest is easy.

What You Need:

Raw pumpkin seeds
Melted butter (or oil)
Salt

First, set the oven to 350 degrees.

Next, get all the guts of your pumpkin(s) and place them in a strainer. This will take the most work. Have a light flow of water running over the strainer as you pick the seeds from the gunk and place the gunk in the sink.

Once you have all the seeds by themselves, place them into a small mixing bowl.

Place the melted butter into the bowl with the seeds (I used about 3/4 of a tablespoon) and mix around.

Then, shake plenty of salt into the bowl and mix again.

Spread out all the pumpkin seeds as flat as you can on a baking sheet. Then place in the oven from 20-40 minutes (depending on your oven and how many seeds you have) or until golden brown.

And that’s it! Serve and enjoy. I won’t be able to stop munching.

(Nymeria loved eating all the bits of pumpkin dropped on the floor)

Oct222012

The Most Important Meal of the Day: EAT IT!

There’s a problem in this culture. For as much as we over-eat, so many of us do not eat breakfast. What’s the deal with that?! Meals are always something to look forward to in my day. Maybe because I have a slight obsession with food. Whatever. I’m here to tell you to EAT YOUR BREAKFAST! Just eat something: oatmeal, pancakes, yogurt, trail mix, bagels, fruit, something.

Why?

Well, boys and girls, let me talk a little about metabolism. You want a good, high metabolism. Why? Because the higher your metabolism, the faster your food is digested and nutrients absorbed. It means your body works faster and better. You see a lot of people with high metabolisms are usually thin, even though they seem to eat a normal (or more) amount. It’s either genetics or they know how and when to eat.

Structure of adenosine triphosphate, a central intermediate in energy metabolism (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you don’t eat breakfast, (just literally breaking your fast) your metabolism won’t wake up. For it to boot up and start trying to make you have less fat, you need to give it something to start on. Otherwise it’s going to be very slow. And when you do finally eat lunch (which is usually bigger than breakfast), your metabolism will be slowed down at that point and you won’t absorb nutrients or digest as quickly.

We like to go big on breakfast when we can. This is (not necessarily our typical) our ideal breakfast: whole-wheat Kodiak pancakes (or waffles), eggs, whole wheat toast with jam, Morningstar Sausage Links, and a big fruit salad. Sounds like a lot? You can bet our metabolism is going to be booted up from the start? And yes, I usually can’t finish everything so Chris gets to clean my plate.

Not in the mood for a big breakfast? When I don’t have a lot of time before work and Chris is still asleep, I’ll usually make oatmeal, or greek yogurt with fruit and nuts, or an egg on toast, etc. Those all have plenty of protein and carbs for me to last until lunch or snack time.

Whatever you do, just eat something. Even if it’s just an apple as you run out the door. I promise, it’s worth it and your body will thank you.

BONUS KITTY PIC

Oct112012

Save Money and Devour Nutrients: the Grown-Up Lunch Box

For a little while now I’ve wanted lunch boxes like this:

Or this

Anyways, putting my lunchbox fantasies aside, I wanted to let you know how easy it is to save money at the very same time you are devouring nutrients and getting good calories. Another healthy article? I know, I know, I’m sorry! But it’s really easy, again, like I was saying before. Then, I was talking about general meals and putting little effort into making them healthy (not hard). But now, I’m talking about bringing your lunch to work.

Are you one to usually buy lunch? Let’s stop that. No need to waste money, and especially to waste it on bad food. It’s so important to know what is in the food you are eating. Preparing your own meals is the perfect way to do that. Don’t have time in the morning to pack a lunch? Do it the night before. I promise it won’t get bad. Making this effort could really save your eating from junk food to health food. Again, go to the market and get the veggies and fruits on sale, meaning they are in season. There are so many things you can do that take 5-10 minutes. Let me show you some lunches I pack.

Here we have a guacamole, spinach, tomato, and morning star chicken sandwich. Healthy ingredients, protein, veggies, and grain right for you. Whole-Wheat bread. Easy. Took Chris about 5 minutes to make for me. I ate this with an orange and some yogurt-covered raisins.

This is my most frequent lunch meal. We have a huge thing of organic spinach in the fridge and we use it for almost every meal. I chop up whatever vegetables we have (this one has red pepper, cucumber, avocado, and tomato) and throw some morning star protein in as well. I use my cousin’s wonderful Balsamic Nectar and throw in a little oil too. Don’t feel full from salads? I always do from mine. Add protein to it or a healthy fat like avocado. Eat an orange or an apple with it.

Here’s another good example of a usual meal including other things that accompany my main dish (salad or sandwich or leftovers). I always add a fruit and usually some kind of carb (here is my Grandma’s featured trail mix!). That sandwich is spinach, hummus, morning star, and tomato. I have a big thing of water that I keep by me at all times to constantly drink up.

And here’s an example of other foods that accompany my salad or sandwich. I don’t know why that apple looks so freakishly large, bad camera angle maybe. I will usually have the apple and raisins with my main lunch meal, and then eat the Clif bar a few hours later. I can’t eat much at one time, but I get hungry quickly so I usually eat every three hours if possible.

So there you have it. Examples of easy, simple, quick-to-make lunches to bring with you every day, no matter where you work. You don’t even need to refrigerate it. Just try it one day. You’ll find it very rewarding, I promise, and you’ll want to do it every day. You’re making yourself a nutrient-packed meal that will make your coworkers feel bad about themselves.

Tell me what lunches you bring to work! Enjoy 🙂

Oct092012

Eating Healthy Really Isn’t Too Hard

America has an obesity rating of 34.4%.

I want to give you recipes and ideas that will make you realize, “Oh, eating healthy isn’t that hard!” and “wow, this tastes good!” I don’t want you to resort to fast food or processed junk (although In ‘n Out is always okay and so are Wendy’s Frosty’s). And it’s really not expensive! I would be considered poor right now and we have great home cooked meals almost every night. Here’s a few rules to live by:

1. Buy the produce on sale at the supermarket–it’s probably the ones in season. Seeing a multitude of apples and squash on sale? For really nice prices? Buy them. It’s almost like they’re yelling at us to eat what’s in season and get in with the cycle of the earth.

2. Stick to fruits and veggies. These are almost always going to be the most nutrition to value ratio every time and once again, in-season ones will not be pricey.

3. Get grains you cook yourself. Don’t get the pre-packaged stuff like ramen (though we may or may not have that in the house due to Chris’ obsession)–get the most fiber-filled rice you can at Costco for $20. What a deal.

Anyhow, above wasn’t my primary point for this post. I have an easy little-work recipe good for dinner or whenever you’d like. As most of you know we’re a weird breed of vegetarian/pescatarian so the only meat it contains is mushrooms. Which of course isn’t an actual meat. Let me spit the recipe at ya:

Ingredients

5 small white mushrooms
1 red pepper
4 potatoes
Whatever seasoning you’d like

Short list, right? Let’s move on to directions.

Directions

First and foremost, get the potatoes washed and cut into quarters. Then plop them in a pot full of water and set on high. We want these bad boys to boil!
Next, you’ll have some time. It takes around 15-20 min for the taters to boil
So we’ll move onto the veggies. Cut the mushrooms and red pepper into small slices. Grind some pepper and salt over them and whatever other seasoning you’d like.
When the potatoes are close to being boiled (say after 10 minutes), let’s cook the veggies. I sauteed them in white wine, soy sauce, and garlic (YUM). I also put some rosemary and garlic pepper in too.
Keep an eye on it and stir. Make sure to taste, they won’t take too long to cook, but you want all that moisture to soak in. Especially into the mushrooms
Drain those potatoes and put them back in the pot. Put half a teaspoon of butter in, a little soy sauce, and some garlic pepper in and mix around.
Serve and enjoy!

It was super juicy and flavorful–my favorite. Didn’t last long. And was a very cheap meal, didn’t even breach $7. Cheers!

Sep302012

Whole-Wheat Oat Banana Cookies: Get a Padlock Ready

I’m pretty upset I didn’t take a picture of the banana I used. It was bad. Like really really bad. Like not even brown and black, but a gray-black color, desperately begging to be used. So instead of the normal banana bread route, I wanted to make cookies (Chris was all in favor of this, for some reason, I think he might like cookies?). And I definitely ~~wanted~~ needed to use that banana. So I found a recipe from another blog and always…altered it! And for the padlock comment? Let’s just say…Chris may have substituted one of his meals with these, but…more on that later.

There is no reason to feel guilty about eating these cookies, barely any butter or sugar, with lots of oats to keep your fiber count happy! Let’s take a look at the ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cup oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup regular sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 banana
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips

It may seem like a long list, but it goes by very quickly. I think this whole process (including cooking) maybe took 20 minutes max. Pretty nice, and I find cooking/baking relaxing and cheerful anyhow. Okay, let’s get started! Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter up baking pan.

Instructions:

First, in a medium bowl (please note: this will not be your final mixing bowl, I don’t know how many times I’ve short-sightedly followed a recipe thinking it was going to be the main mixing bowl), get your dry ingredients ready. Mix together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Next, in your large mixing bowl (this is it, folks! This is the bowl that everything will end up in!), we will combine the butter and the two sugars. Whisk that puppy up.
Then, we’ll put the egg, vanilla extract, and (MASHED) banana into the mixture. Good to use a whisk.
In comes the dry ingredients, rudely interrupting the wet-ingredient get-together. Slowly pour in the medium bowl ingredients into the large bowl (flour, etc. –> sugar, egg, butter, etc.). Mix that up.

Now, for the (almost) final step! Fold the chocolate chips into your mixture, make sure they’re evenly spread out so one cookie doesn’t greedily get them all.

Take gobs of the beautiful cookie dough (again, I ate too much of it and afterwards could not eat enough of my Mexican dinner twenty minutes later) and place upon your greased up baking sheet.

Set timer for 10-12 minutes. Mine took 12 minutes because I always make HUGE cookies. And voila! You’re done.

So for the padlock comment expanded…while I was working at the assisted living home yesterday, Chris ate five cookies (and they are BIG). Choosing to eat cookies instead of a real lunch. So, baker, wherever you are, keep a close eye on these cookies, they are sure to disappear rather quickly…

Sep262012

Restaurant Review: Conor O’Reilly’s? O’Neils?

This Sunday, after feeling sick with a sore throat and congestion but still trying to do chores all day, I went to pick up Alana at work. After a shift that started at 6:30 a.m., you could imagine how tired and hungry she was. While at the grocery store picking up some staples (not actual metal staples, but staple foods), we were not looking forward to our scheduled 6-8 o’clock workout at the BRC (Boulder Rock Club). I commented that I would much rather have fish and chips than work out… and Alana agreed. So, we googled “best fish and chips in Boulder” and the results were pretty clear. Conor O’Neils. Even though its Yelp page made it look more like a bar that was mostly popular with the college kids, we decided that the menu, which boasted a $12 fish and chips (so cheap!) was worth a try.

We drove and walked there and boy were we surprised. It’s tucked in right in Downtown Boulder, on 13th between Pearl and Walnut. It was MUCH bigger than I imagined it would be, based off pictures and reviews. There was the bar as we entered and then there was a “dining room”… and another… and another… and another. Seriously, this place had tons of seating and not all the rooms had huge tv’s, some really seemed that they were there for dining. Since it was post-happy hour Sunday night, and post-football games (I assume), it was pretty empty. We sat in the back, in one of the many beautifully decorated rooms. The decor reminds me of a mixture between the Shire and a fishing restaurant… and a log cabin. Very interesting at the least, not to mention the unique tree in the middle of the restaurant covered in warm-lighted Christmas lights.

Skipping some steps, we got the spinach dip for an appetizer, I got fish and chips, Alana got the Boulder Salad and a side of pub chips. For dessert, I got the Brownie and Bailey’s, and Alana got the strawberry rhubarb cobbler.

The spinach dip was good, and a decent value for the serving size. Would only serve 2 though. The fish and chips were WELL WORTH 12 dollars. My fish was slightly under-cooked, and I had to get my own malt vinegar, but the pub chips were top notch and required no condiments. Alana’s salad was blah… very bland, nothing special. Wouldn’t recommend it.

Alana’s bland salad

Same with the cobbler, too much sweetness killed what we ordered it for… the bitterness of the rhubarb (Alana’s mom makes the BEST rhubarb pie, hands down). My brownie dessert was ridiculously amazing and I have wanted another every night since then. No, seriously, I bring it up at least every six hours a day. Worth every penny. So I would obviously say go and get the fish and chips and Brownies and Bailey’s. We didn’t drink that night so nothing for that. However, their selection looked vast enough, especially if you’re in the mood for whiskey. The bill was reasonable and the service good enough to garner our usual 20 percent tip. (My water was always nearly full.)

My Brownie and Bailey’s…I want more

Now the real treat. Sunday nights at 8 p.m., there is some form of an Irish cultural event, I believe. We got to see and hear, in the room we chose to dine in, luckily, a little Irish jam group? Now it was very traditional with strings, percussion, raw vocals and all the tunes were pure and classic, but they kind of just threw everything together in a very relaxed way. It was lovely with the exception of one string that was always a little off key.

Attempted creeper shot at the Irish group playing awesome tunes

I would completely recommend this place for a nice dinner for a small party on a Sunday night, especially a date for a new or old couple, like ourselves. For a new couple, there are lots of conversation starters that might help spur some conversation and it’s not too fancy or too casual/boring.

Decor: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Food: 3/5
Value: 4/5
Overall: 3/5 (Good!)

Sep202012

Eating Kale: Fear the Bitterness No Longer

Most people turn up their noses when it comes to kale (unless it’s kale chips, which are great), including Chris and my dad. I don’t blame them, really, it is a pretty bitter vegetable if you don’t cook it right. It’s a very dark green green, and, if you have experience cooking (or…eating), you know that dark greens can often be a bit bitter. But, kale was on sale at the grocery, and I had never really cooked it before, so I picked up a HUGE bunch (it actually took 5 minutes and two of us to get it into the bag).

Kale, still planted

It sat in the fridge for a few days as I was unsure what to do with it, and I knew Chris was even more unsure and not looking forward to it. Then, one day for dinner, I got out the kale. I was on a mission. This was going to be cooked and it was going to LIKE IT! My planned dish was pasta with kale.

Spoiler: It turned out great.