Taco…Wednesday?
Everyone knows I only eat meat about once a week. I like meat, for me it’s just too expensive to buy a lot of. Most of the time, my once a week meat is eaten out, or delivered. Last week I got sushi and it was SO GOOD. This week, I had a chicken breast left over from the last time I made chicken, and decided to cook it with some veggies. It ended up being tacos because I just had my giant tortilla shells from the vegan burritos I made last week.
Protein is important for a lot of things, weight loss, muscle growth, ect. I hadn’t lost any weight in the past week and I think it was a mixture of not eating enough, and not getting enough protein. I ordered a thing of plant based protein that should be here today, but in the meantime I decided to eat the chicken. Human health is a tricky thing, it shouldn’t be, but it is. We need a good balance of a lot of things, or our bodies won’t work correctly. You can live very well on a plant based diet, but you just have to make sure that you’re getting everything that your body needs.
While I’m not a huge fan of using supplements in place of getting nutrients naturally, sometimes it’s ok. That’s why I’m going to try adding the plant based protein powder. If it doesn’t work, or if I have weird side effects, I’ll stop. When Rocky and I were together, he gave me some vitamin D tablets to help with the winter blues, but they didn’t help, so I stopped. I really do believe that the best way to get everything you need is from the food you eat. That’s why I like to eat all the veggies I do. I had a Dr once say that your body only uses what you need, then you pee the rest out. It makes sense, our bodies do know what they’re doing.
Now, back to the food. Once again this is a very simple recipe, and if you want to cut the carbs you can just eat it without the tortilla. The important part about cooking chicken is to make sure that you don’t overcook it so it gets dry. That means lower heat and patience.
Here’s what to get from the store:
Chicken Breast
Asparagus
Zucchini
Black Beans
Chickpeas
Tortilla
Cheddar cheese
Guyere
Giant Chicken and Veggie Taco
1 chicken breast, cubed
4 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 zucchini, diced
5 spears asparagus, diced
1/4 cup chick peans
1/4 cup black beans
Salt, pepper, paprika
Lemon Juice
Tortillas
Cheddar
Guyere
Spinach
- In a saute pan, saute the chicken until almost cooked.
- Add the garlic, veggies, with seasonings until the asparagus is bright green.
- Add the beans and the lemon juice, just a splash.
- Serve in a tortilla with the spinach and cheeses, top with sriracha if you like.
Super simple. I honestly don’t even like writing recipes for something so simple, but I do understand that some people need more instruction with cooking because they’re new at that, and I’m totally fine with that.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Beans, Beans the Magical Fruit
The more you eat them, the more you toot!
There are two things I eat pretty much every day; beans and spinach. And while they make me a little gassy (sorry coworkers, cast members and directing crew) I love them so much. My spinach salad is super easy to make and it has all the nutrients you could ever want from a plant based diet.
That being said, only eating that salad can get a little boring. Some time last week I had this idea for a burrito with beans and…? While at Aldi on Sunday, I grabbed some zucchni, and the vegan burrito was born, kind of. I can’t really call it a burrito because not only would it not close, it’s not spiced with Mexican spices. So it’s a mix between a burrito and a wrap.
I’m not actually going to write a recipe for this, because I feel it’s almost like writing a recipe for a sandwich. All I did was saute the veggies (zucchini, asparagus, and beans with some garlic) and put it in a tortilla with some seasoned brown rice (salt, pepper, and cilantro) and that BBQ sauce I made for that chicken last week. Super easy.
In my defense, I probably put too much filling in the burrito for it to close, but it was super delicious non the less.
We just ended week 4 of rehearsals for my show, previews start April 14, I’m stoked. I love this cast and the director and I get along really well. This is the first non burlesque show I’ve done in a while, and I”m glad I’m back. I’ve missed it so much.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Green with Envy
You know what’s great about cooking? You don’t really need a recipe, as long as you know the basic flavor you want, you don’t need much else. You know what’s great about vegan cooking? It’s super easy. Why? It’s mostly vegetables, grains, nuts and beans. You don’t have to worry about cooking a meat, and if things aren’t 100% cooked, they may not kill you.
I hadn’t been sure about what to cook next for a while, and I asked the Facebook world. One of my good friends suggested curry. I’ve made curry many times, but I hadn’t made green curry yet. The last time I had curry I had a Thai Green curry with zucchini and tofu and thought it would be easy to replicate. I was right, while it wasn’t as spicy as the one I had at the restaurant, it was still favorable.
The nice thing about curries is that they can be vegan, full of vegetables and overly delicious. While they can take some time, they are very easy. This green curry is very easy, full of protein and will make you wonder why you ever ordered delivery from that Thai place again.
Here’s what to get from the store:
Thai Green Chili Paste
Coconut Milk
Bamboo Shoots
Zucchini
Corn
Red Chili Paste
Jasmine Rice
Onion
Tofu
Button Mushrooms
Green Curry with Tofu and Vegetables
2 small zucchini, diced
1 cob of corn, corn removed
1/2 onion, diced
5 button mushrooms, diced
5 cloves garlic, smashed
1 can coconut milk
3 tbsp green chili paste
1/2 block tofu, cubed
1 can bamboo shoots
1 tsp red chili paste
Salt, pepper, tumeric
1 cup cooked Jasmine rice
- In a saute pan, saute the onion and garlic until fragrant. Add the mushroom, zucchini and corn. Saute until almost cooked through, adding salt, pepper and turmeric.
- Add the tofu and saute until the tofu is slightly browned.
- Pour the coconut milk in along with the green and red pastes and stir. Add the bamboo shoots and taste to adjust seasonings.
- Serve over cooked Jasmine rice.
I’ve been doing some cardio before my yoga, and today I discovered that I’ve been doing burpees wrong. I did them right today, and man, not only do my legs hurt, so do my arms! I’m really happy with how much more in shape I’m in. The problem is that I had a cold and the end of last week, nothing huge, just a little congestion and lack of appetite. The congestion is starting to go away but my appetite isn’t really coming back. I’m a little confused, I know my metabolism hasn’t slowed down, and I don’t have any other symptoms. I’m not worried, I know my appetite will come back, I just don’t want to go back to just eating once a day like I used to. It’s not good for you, humans need to eat more than that to keep their bodies going. The important part about that is that the right foods need to be eaten, not just bad stuff. But, eat the bad stuff to, just eat your salad first.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Is that corn?
One day at work, one of my coworkers came up to me and said “Hey, call David over here and ask him, is this corn?” Ever since then, we’ve been throwing bad corn puns back and forth at each other. They’re awful and I love it.
Because of that, I’ve been thinking about corn recipes recently. Ok, I actually had a cold or something over the weekend and I wanted a squash soup, but it’s only about 1000 degrees outside so soup was a no go. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to make while walking around Aldi and saw some great zucchini right next to some corn cobs and decided to do a warm salad. I really just wanted something simple, I was starving after my excersice and that seemed like the easiest and healthiest thing to make.
This recipe is very easy, and it’s 100% vegan. It barely takes any time at all and it will fill you up.
Here’s what to get from the store:
Zucchini
Corn on the cob
Broccoli
Asparagus
Quiona
Black Beans
Tomato
Kale
Roasted Veggie and Quiona Salad
1 zucchini, sliced
1 cob of corn, with the corn taken off
5 florets of fresh broccoli6-10 pieces of asparagus, depending on size, diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 cup cooked quiona
1 Roma tomato, diced
1/2 cup diced kale
Salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika
- On a cookie sheet with sides or a 9 x 10 pan, place the zucchini, corn (an easy way to cut it off the cob is to place an upside down bowl in another bowl and cut down the sides), broccoli, asparagus and broccoli. Cover it all in a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt, pepper, cayenne and paprika. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, stirring about half way through.
- When the veggies are done roasting, place them in a saute pan with the quinoa and black beans. Saute with more seasoning until the beans are warm. Remove from heat and add the kale to wilt it. Serve topped with a diced Roma tomato.
I’ve been here for a little over a month, and I haven’t really hung out with as many people as I thought I was going to. So I’ve been spending a lot more time at home than I thought. It’s not ideal, but I’m dealing with it. Making friends when you’re an adult is hard.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Zoodles Pt. Toodles!
Now, since I try to stay away from processed foods and most meats, I need to get a little creative on how I get some of my vitamins. Something I try to eat almost every day is spinach, black beans, and avocado. I normally have a salad with those things, but even though I love that salad, I don’t want to get bored eating the same thing every day.
I had bought 2 zucchini when I made my last batch of Zoodles, so, I thought, “Why not make another?” But, I used all the tomatoes on the last one, so what kind of sauce? I’ve seen avocado pastas before, and decided to give it a try. Mulling it over before I went to sleep, I decided I had to use black beans and coconut oil in it as well. (Don’t ask me why) .
This sauce sounds weird, trust me, I get it. HOWEVER, it tastes AWESOME. Something I forgot to do was get some of the water out of the zucchini, so everything was a little loose, but besides that, flavors were on point.
Zoodles with peppers, tomatoes and an avocado black bean sauce
Here’s what to get from the store:
Zucchini
Black Beans
Avocado
Coconut oil
Yellow Pepper
Lemon Juice
Roma Tomato
Black Bean Avocado Sauce for Zoodles
1/2 avocado
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp black beans
1/4 cup coconut oil (give or take)
Splash of lemon juice
Salt, pepper, tumeric, curry powder, cumnin, paprika
- Put everything in a blender and blend together. Taste for seasoning and adjust.
- Saute your zoodles with 2 cloves garlic and red onion, add diced Roma tomatoes, spinach and yellow pepper. Add the sauce and stir.
- Serve garnished with siracha and more black beans.
I am LOVING this weather we’re having up here. My window is open and Christmas is in 12 days. It doesn’t happen here very often and it makes me so much happier. Sure, it’s raining and we don’t have sun, but I’m not shivering.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Odles of Zoodles!
I’m out of puns right now, so on to rhyming!
To say that my parent’s garden over produced may be an understatement. Their broccoli plants kept producing until the first snow and the tomatoes …well…I’m sure my parents could eat tomatoes for a year and be fine. So, there is no need to say they’ve been giving a lot of it away.
I came away Saturday with a gallon bag each of frozen tomatoes and broccoli. To freeze fresh vegetables, you have to cook them for a bit. So what my mom did is blanch them before freezing them. The broccoli is essentially cooked, so you can eat it right after it thaws if you want. Since the tomatoes are also cooked, using them for salads and sandwiches is out, but they would be great for sauces and soups. Since I already did a tomato soup, I decided to do a pasta sauce.
I didn’t want to just do pasta sauce over normal old noodles. I have seen spirilizers a bunch of times, and thought maybe I’d try that out, and zucchini sounded like a good vegetable to use. I’m actually really impressed; while the zoodles don’t taste exactly like pasta, they do have the same texture and hold up very well to a pasta sauce.
This recipe is probably the most healthy I’ve ever done (and it’s SUPER EASY) not only is it vegetarian, it’s vegan, mostly organic and it’s heart healthy. From top to finish, it took me just under an hour to make.
Zoodles with organic broccoli and a spicy marinara
Here’s what to get from the store: (if you don’t have tomatoes and broccoli like me)
Zucchini
Broccoli
Tomatoes
Fresh Basil
Shallots
Sprilizer
Zoodles with Spicy Marinara
1 Zucchini
6 cloves garlic, smashed and diced
1 gallon frozen, cooked tomatoes (or canned plum tomatoes)
1 shallot, chopped
Handful blanched broccoli
Fresh Basil
Dry white wine
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt, pepper, red pepper flake, parsley
- Saute the shallot and 3 of the garlic cloves in a pan with olive oil. Add a splash of dry white wine and balsamic vinegar. Let reduce.
- Add the tomatoes,basil and other spices to the garlic and onions, stir and let simmer on the stove.
- Take your zucchini and use the spirlizer to cut out pasta like pieces. (It’s easy, works like a screw).
- Saute the broccoli with the rest of the garlic, salt and pepper. Add the zucchini with a little more oil, and saute a little more. It will cook quickly.
- Add the sauce to the zucchini and mix.
- Serve topped with more fresh basil and avocado.
Everyone needs something that makes them completely confident in who they are. Yoga is that thing for me. Ever since I started practicing, I have become more in shape, more confident in myself, and *slightly* less clumsy. I’ve noticed I’ve attracted a different caliber of men, I have way more energy, even when I’m said, I’m not sad for long. Heck, I finally for the first time in my life have a butt. I never thought I would make it this far, but I have and I am so proud of myself.
No such thing as a mistake
If you’ve known me for a while, you know I love the show Chopped. Something that happens a lot on that show is that people have to change their dish in the middle of cooking because something didn’t work. That happened to me today; I was originally going to make zucchini rolls with sweet potato and ricotta filling. However, when I started to roll everything together, I realized that I had cut the zucchini a little to thickly to keep it rolled, so I switched gears, and I love the result quite a bit. Sure, it doesn’t look as cool as I wanted it to, but the flavors are all still there.
This recipe does have quite a few steps and took me about an hour and a half to make. BUT I now have food for the next few days that delicious, healthy and will warm up pretty easily. If you wanted to substitute jarred sauce instead of homemade you can, but I’ve never really liked jarred sauce.
Here’s what to get from the store: (assuming you have garlic, onion, scallions and spices)
Zucchini
Sweet potato
Riccotta
Crushed tomatoes
Zucchini and sweet potato “lasagna”
For the sauce:
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1 scallion, diced
Fresh basil, chopped
Splash dry white wine
Salt, pepper, chili flakes, cayenne, sugar
1 large can crushed tomatoes
For the lasagna
2 zucchini, sliced long ways
1 sweet potato, cut into strips
Riccotta
Siracha
Salt, pepper, curry powder
Shredded mozz and Parmesan cheese
- Start your sauce: saute the garlic and onion in olive oil until fragrant. Throw a pinch of sugar and stir. Add about a 1/4 cup of white wine and reduce about half, adding the spices right near the end. Add the tomatoes and simmer for about 15 minutes, while you work on the lasagna.
- Saute the sweet potatoes until browned on both sides and set aside on a paper towel to drain.
- Slice the zucchini long ways either with a mandolin (it’s sharp, I cut myself) or your knife and set aside.
- Mix the ricotta with the siarcha and curry powder, taste to adjust.
- In an 8 x 8 square pan, layer the zucchini on the bottom, top with ricotta, then with sweet potato. You can do 2 layers like this. Pour half of the sauce on top and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Add the rest of the sauce and top with remaining cheeses and bake for another 15 minutes. Serve on a bed of spinach.
One of the things I’ve always wanted to change about myself was my butt…or lack of one. I was somehow the chunky girl with no butt in high school and now I’m the skinny girl with a huge chest and…kind of a butt? Finally though, after doing yoga for 6 days a week since February, I FINALLY have developed a little one. It’s not a big deal to anyone but me, but I think it’s pretty cool.
Results take a while, and from someone who wants instant results, being patient actually worked out pretty well.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Now…what do I do with this?
Many times I’ll go to the store and buy a fruit or veggie, get it home and think “Wait, why did I buy this?” This week it was zucchini. I just remember being super excited for zucchini…but that was it. I had vague ideas of making crispy zucchini sticks with a dip, but I didn’t get anything to make the dip and I didn’t feel like going to the store again.
For Thanksgiving I had made a roasted butternut squash that was a big hit, so I figured, why not do that with zucchini? This recipe is very simple and would make either a good side dish or a main meal, like I’m using it for.
Here’s what to get from the store:
Zucchini
Asparagus
Panko
Mozzerella Cheese, shredded
Kale
Baked Zucchini and Asparagus
4 zucchini
1/2 bunch asparagus
salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, tumeric, curry powder1 cup panko
1/4 cup mozzarella
3 cloves garlic, smashed and chooped
Kale
- Use your mandolin or a knife to cut the zucchini into 1/4 in slices. Cut the asparagus into quarters, discarding the woody ends. Toss in salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika and olive oil until evenly coated. Put into oiled 8 x 8 baking pan.
- Make the topping: mix panko, mozzrella, kale (shredded) and garlic with the seasonings and olive oil until the panko starts to slightly stick together. Add to the top of the zucchini mixture.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until the topping has browned.
This recipe is very light but will fill you up at the same time. It has a tiny bit of spice, but it can be adjusted by leaving out the tumeric and curry powder, if you like.
Make sure to make this recipe your own, add some different spices to change the flavor a little, have fun with it! Half of the joy of cooking is the experimentation with flavors. This will also help your creative juices get going and may lead to other awesome tasting things!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Fritters!
I haven’t been able to cook for a few weeks; we’re terribly understaffed at work so I’ve been working over time. Food for me has been quick snacks or frozen pizza (I know, I know, where did the healthy food go??). Well, Tuesday was my birthday and I was hoping to cook something on Wednesday on my day off, but a 60 oz margarita happened on Tuesday so Wednesday didn’t really happen. Today at work all I could think about was a sweet potato that I knew I had at home. Originally I wanted to make a hash, but as the day went on I decided I wanted to make fritters. Why? I have no idea, I’ve never made fritters before, but hey, why not. My first 2 fritters didn’t hold together because I made them way to large and didn’t have enough panko, but I fixed the mixture for the second few that I made. This recipe makes enough for quite a few, so feel free to scale back the amount, I have a lot of mixture in the fridge for tomorrow.
I already posted the basics of the recipe on Facebook for my sister, but here’s the full (ish) one!
Sweet Potato and Zucchini Fritters
1 sweet potato
2 zucchini
2 carrots
4 Cloves Garlic
3 eggs
1 small box Panko
2 cups shredded Parmesean Cheese
Salt, pepper, dill, paprika, fresh oregno, basil
Siracha Yogurt sauce (recipe below)
- Shred the potato, zucchini and carrots in the food processor with the cheese grater attachment (or use a hand cheese grater). Add the garlic right at the end.
- Turn the mixture into a bowl and add the remaining ingredients, mixing to incorporate. Form small balls and fry in a cast iron skillet, browning on both sides. Serve with a side of dill quiona and top with Siracha Yogurt sauce.
Siracha Yogurt Sauce
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
1 -2 tablespoons Siracha
Salt, pepper and paprika to taste
- Mix all in a bowl, taste and adjust to level of spice.
Ramblings of the Culinary Addicted 