Celebrating Pi Day with the Best Pie Ever

March 14th aka 3/14 aka 3.14 aka Pi! There are so many new national days. National Pancake Day was earlier this week, although it feels as though we have a few of those every single year. Pi Day is one of those amazing “holidays” that you don’t get off work, but you still can celebrate by justifying the consumption of tons of pie. Pies are underrated and grossly under-appreciated. We typically, especially here in the United States, think of Apple Pie because it is All-American, but is apple pie even close to the best pie?

Nov222018

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Banana Bread

You guessed it. MORE PUMPKIN. Winter isn’t here yet, so that means it’s still pumpkin’s spotlight! I had extra pumpkin leftover from those whole wheat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies so I searched for another healthy-ish recipe. I found the perfect one at Well Plated for Whole Wheat Pumpkin Banana Bread. I also had two very ripe bananas just asking to be baked. And guess what, it was a natural pairing. This is a great recipe if you want to contribute something healthy to the Thanksgiving table. It’s fall-like because it has pumpkin and is sure to be a popular dessert!

This recipe uses little sugar, not much butter–I was surprised by how healthy it was. I changed a few things from the original recipes (such as taking out the nuts), but it still ended up great. The thing that makes this recipe take a little longer is that for best results, you should wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight! And beware, the texture is very pumpkin-y just in case you’re not into that.

Oct262018

Fit’s Go-To Healthy Lunch: Salad Kit + Tuna

If you see us on social media, you often see us going big when we eat. Sure, we definitely enjoy dining out and eating big, but most of our meals are pretty dang healthy. That’s how we can afford to eat whole pizzas or all-you-can-eat sushi! Fit works from home which means she typically has the pantry at her disposal. This can mean glory or disaster. Luckily, we keep a pretty clean pantry (ignore the sour candy that Fit stashed behind the electric beater), so there’s not many “bad” options to fall for. Still, she tries to decide what she’s going to eat for lunch at the beginning of the day, or better yet–at the beginning of the week.

On most days, you can find Fit in the kitchen (usually on a phone call or meeting), assembling her lunch. Yeah, I said assembling because she plays it smart. Fit’s go-to healthy lunch is half of a salad kit and a can of tuna. It takes under five minutes to whip up, even when she puts some flair into it! Salad kits are a blessing. Sure, they may not be quite as cost-effective as a huge tub of spinach and some carrots, but they have variety and make a healthy lunch delicious and easy. Making salads from scratch can be somewhat tedious with all the chopping. She usually waits until they’re on sale for like $2.99 and then buys a bunch for the week. And because she has a “baby belly,” she only needs half of one per lunch.

Sep182018

Guilt-Free Vegetarian Lasagna

Lasagna. Thick noodles, layers of cheese, sauce, more layers of cheese. Comes with a side of steaming hot guilt. Oh, did I ruin it? Sorry. Yeah. Typical lasagna is heavy, full of lots of cheese, meat, and white starches. Hey, that’s totally fine in moderation, I’m all for it. However! I have discovered (thank you, American Heritage Cooking) a wonderful guilt-free whole-wheat vegetarian lasagna. Before you turn your nose up, IT TASTES GOOD. It tastes good by my standards, it tastes good by HUNGRY’S standards. That’s when you know it’s good. He takes his cheesy pastas seriously and I kid you not when I would catch him continually digging into the dish of lasagna heaven. I could eat this lasagna without feeling like a ball of cheese after who needed to be rolled to bed. I ate it, I felt great, and then I ate it the next night.

Aside from the healthiness, I was worried about the difficulty. I don’t think I had ever made lasagna before on my own. But really, the hardest part was chopping up the vegetables! So yeah, not too bad. It’s just layers. Layers of the best stuff of life. So yeah, let’s dig in.

Jul302018

Honey Spiced Cookies

Does it bother me that maybe there should be a hyphen in the title? Kinda. But I actually purposefully left it out to keep it vague and free. Anyhow. I bring you Honey Spiced Cookies based on the Honey Biscuits recipe from A Feast of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones cookbook for those of you who *scoff* didn’t read the books). This is an incredible cookbook! I can’t recommend enough. It’s all based on foods that George RR Martin wrote into the books, and it splits the recipes into the different regions of Westeros. I’ve made several recipes from this cookbook such as applecakes and bread (both recipes serving the faithful Night’s Watch at the Wall). This recipe comes from the South from Lord Caswell’s kitchen.

These honey spiced cookies are warm, soft, and wonderfully potent with spices like pumpkin and ginger. The recipe takes under fifteen minutes and does not have a long ingredient list (honestly, if it’s too complicated, I don’t even want to make it). This recipe is probably best suited for warmer months due to its fall/winter-like spices, but I made this in a California heat wave (90 degrees F, ya’ll), and we still finished all of them in 1.5 sittings between the two of us. I mean, who says no to cookies based on the season?! Get real.

Jun022018

The Best Food in Ireland

Wow, what a way to highlight the seafood available in Ireland. It is an island, after all.

Americans have a less than favorable perception of food from Northern and Eastern Europe. That includes Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Norway and every other nation in between. Greece, France, Spain and Italy are given much more love when it comes to highlighting their cuisine in the US, but is that a fair assumption for us to make.

During our recent trip to Iceland, Ireland and Northern Ireland (the UK, technically) we finally had the opportunity to more fairly judge the quality of their food. As a whole, it wasn’t anywhere near as flavorful as Chinese or Mexican food, but it wasn’t terribly bland and it certainly wasn’t lacking in freshness.

May292018

Easy Chickpea Curry

Watch out, another “Indian” recipe! This time from Martha Stewart (ha!). Though nobody would venture to say Martha Stewart is Indian, I also think nobody would say she’s a poor cook. She’s legendary. I’ve wanted to involve more chickpeas in my diet for a while, but laziness prevented me from actually looking up recipes and finding ways to use them. Sure, I could use them in salads, but what about cooked recipes? I did a quick search and came up with Martha Stewart’s EASY chickpea curry. Like really easy. Like just throw spices and cook chickpeas together easy.

I altered Martha’s recipe into my own easy chickpea curry that would fit my needs and–more importantly–my ingredients. This recipe is a great whip-up-at-home-quickly-after-work dish when you don’t have a lot of time but would like to have something tasty and nutritious. I felt great about eating it! And curry is a heavy word for this dish, it’s really just stewing chickpeas in spices and liquid. Let’s get cooking.

Apr032018

D’s Dubai Sauce

Obviously, when we say that we’re only going to eat at restaurants once a week that are “on our list” we don’t fully expect that to happen. As a result, when we might go out for a business lunch with a third party, we’ll lean towards places we haven’t been because we love discovering new spots. That led me to D’s Dubai Sauce.

I’m not completely sold on D’s Dubai Sauce, but intrigued enough by my first experience to be willing to try it again. We live a few blocks away, so it’s convenient, but growing up in the NYC area created higher standards based on the stand at 53rd and 6th. Still, they don’t claim to be just “chicken and rice” so let’s talk about what they do well.

They really do excel when it comes to flavor development, especially in their sauces. Their white sauce has this very unexpected tang to it which breaks through the overwhelming richness. The green sauce is even brighter with significant heat from the jalapeno and lots of acidity. I didn’t brave the extremely hot red sauce this time around.

Mar152018

Jitlada: LA Restaurant Review

What foodie in LA hasn’t heard of Jitlada? Whether you read Jonathan Gold’s 101 best restaurant list every year or watched his movie City of Gold, watched Chef Jazz compete on Food Network, or have taken a tour of Thai Town with Jet Tila himself, you’re sure to know about Jitlada! When we were making the list, it was one of the first we mentioned… a top priority for all of the reasons above and then some!

Mar012018

Casablanca: LA Restaurant Review

Disclaimer: This was NOT on our original list, but it should’ve been! Why? When I first arrived in LA to visit Fit’s family, on the way home from the airport, I remember her mum pointing this place out and saying, “they have the best tortillas ever.” I’ve heard that dozens of times over the years and we finally had the chance to try them out! (Fit went here from time to time while growing up.)

Next up in our Must-Visit LA Restaurants of 2018 project is Casablanca! So, a little more background before we talk food at Casablanca… our friends were in town and were nice enough to let us know! When we asked where they wanted to eat, one said that her brother recommended this spot since they were staying in Venice. I was thrilled to finally have the chance to test out Casablanca’s tortillas and I was NOT disappointed.

Even though we strolled in right around the start of peak dinner hours, they were already nearly full, but we were seated immediately. It is a very interesting spot: imagine a Hollywood-inspired building from a past century that transported you to Morocco and served you Mexican food. While it probably belongs closer to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it fits in Venice very well. It’s been around forever. Warmth builds in the tight dining room with what feels like a low ceiling, especially when you notice the tortillas being made a few feet away and realize that the piano is behind played behind your back. This place has a lot of character.