Oaty Goodness

I love Whole Foods.  I currently do not live anywhere remotely close to one, and I miss the organic superstore dearly.  Thanks to the wonderful world wide web, however, I still have access to their culinary genius through their website.  Every recipe from www.wholefoodsmarket.com I have tried has turned out amazing.  Including this one.

I have recently joined the homemade hummus bandwagon.  But the tahini that sits in my fridge looks lonely.  It goes so many days between batches, I know my tahini just wants some kitchen lovin'.  Having the same consistency as any other nut butter, I began thinking . . . surely I can bake with this food.  Doing a quick search on www.foodily.com, I was swiftly led to my well trusted Whole Foods site.

I love making my own oat flour using old-fashioned oats and a food processor, which this recipe advised.  See above, mixed with whole wheat flour and other dry ingredients.

For tahini virgins, I took this opportunity to give it a photo op.  Looks like peanut butter, tastes like sesame seeds!

Tahini blended with other wet ingredients.  Here is the one change I made, using half peach syrup (happened to have some, so why not) and half honey.  Using local honey can help decrease outdoor allergy symptoms.  Some natural medicine with my cookies?  Yes, please.

Okay, I made one other change: chocolate chip addition.  Now the cookies are no longer vegan.  But I can't live without chocolate, and vegan chocolate is not within driving distance for me.  So Hershey's Dark Chocolate will have to do for now.

 
The final result: semi-vegan tahini oat cookies.  For those of you who are scared by the strange words "tahini" and "vegan," the final result was simply scrumptious.

Only Time Will Tell

Whenever we know we are leaving town for the weekend, Wednesday and Thursday become last-ditch attempts at utilizing as much produce we have compiled as possible.  There are two reasons for this.

1. I hate wasting money.  Wasted food = Wasted money.
2. I will not be eating quite as healthy over the weekend.  The more fruits and veggies I pack in before I leave, the less guilty I feel about my indulgent dining choices later.  

So when I see three tomatoes and three beautiful red peppers sitting in the crisper drawer, my culinary wheels in my head started turning . . . I had been craving simple spaghetti with red sauce, and the thought of layers upon layers of red vegetables was beginning to sound delish.  For once in my life I wasn't starving, so I decided to roast the tomatoes and red peppers.  I threw a garlic clove in the oven too, to give the red some company.  I forgot to take a picture of the gorgeous browning that occurred on their skins, but I did take a picture of the aftermath of the cutting board after skin removal and chopping/slicing.

Takeaway Lesson: using a cutting board with an around-the-edge moat is most helpful when cutting juicy vegetables.

Slight side note: I was using fairly expensive ground chuck.  I am attempting to only purchase meat that is organically or otherwise humanely raised, which adds higher numbers on that price tag.  My point in telling you this fact is that I had to do this sauce right.  A bad sauce would have meant wasting that quality beef, which would have ended in a grumpy chef.

After browning and draining the meat, with a very high-tech method I learned from my mother. .  .

. . . I threw about 1/3C red wine (keeping with our red theme) in the pan to deglaze.  In then went 1/2 small can of tomato paste.  I have discovered over the years that mixing tomato paste on a medium-high heat with a small amount of liquid helps break the paste down slightly, allowing it to mix better with incoming larger amounts of liquids.

After the tomato paste was successfully mixed with the reducing wine, approximately 1 tablespoon of italian seasoning and 2 teaspoons tarragon (I heart tarragon) were added.  A minute or so of letting those all marry, two cans of tomato sauce, chopped roasted tomatoes, sliced roasted red bell peppers and the cooked hamburger all invaded the pot.  Some salt and a LOT of pepper (I also heart pepper), and it was time to wait . . .

The secret to a good pasta sauce is letting it simmer.  How long, you ask?  My rule is let the sauce cook for as long as you can wait to eat without passing out.  Tonight, 30 minutes did the trick.

I loved the way the red peppers were sliced to resemble the shape of the spaghetti.  I wish I would have sliced them thinner, the dish would have been easier to eat, but you live and learn.  The sauce was the perfect temperature to melt the parmesan cheese on top, so when you twirled up a bite the melted cheese twirled too.  Yum.

Coming Home to the Smell of Love

I give my husband a hard time about not helping cook.  I will, however, admit that I typically do not give him the opportunity.  My personality in the kitchen tends to be a little . . . controlling, I suppose you could say.  We have a stereotypical wife/husband routine: I cook, he does dishes.

This particular day, I call my husband after a ten and a half hour day to say I'm beginning my 30 minute drive home.  The entire time I am praying that I will come home to something, anything, to be on the table for dinner.  Even frozen pizza would have thrilled me.

When I walked in the door, this is what I smelled:

Okay, I am aware you cannot smell it, but trust me, the house smelled wonderful.  The dish tasted as good as it looked (and smelled).  Knowing me too well, the pasta was surrounded by veggies in various forms: tomato sauce, salsa, celery, green pepper.  And don't forget the hot sauce.  Just enough for a good kick, but not overwhelming so that I'm wiping my nose every 5 seconds.  Mmm.

And cheese bread.  May not look fancy, but no one can go wrong with cheese on bread.  And for dessert . . .

He even toasted the almonds.  And we may have had a plastic container casualty in the attempt to melt the chocolate . . . but well worth the loss.  I <3 U too!

Moderation never tasted so sweet

Whenever I am on my way to any sort of festival, I mentally prepare myself for the impending greasy delicious temptations I am headed towards.  I always teach and personally follow the tried and true philosophy of everything in moderation . . . if I know I'm going to be eating not so well, I try and make up for my bad behavior with good behavior at another meal that day.  This weekend, when my husband and I went back for our second day at the Show Me Music & Arts Festival in Springfield, I already knew what foods were there and all of the saturated fats I was up against.  Naturally, therefore, I fix a vegan meal for lunch before we headed out!

This was only the second time I had cooked quinoa.  The first time it ended slightly bland, so I knew I really needed to pump up the flavors.  One of my chef friends told me he likes to make a tabouleh with quinoa, so his advice inspired this impromptu recipe.  As the quinoa cooked, I cut up a variety of veggies that had been laying in my veggie drawer, begging to be used.  Some fresh lime juice, leftover dijon vinaigrette and leftover chimichuri (inspired by the Ellie Krieger live food demo I from the first day!) all seemed like they could bring some good flavor to the dish.

To make the dish cool in a hurry (90 degree weather does not inspire hot bowls of food), I rinsed the quinoa off with cold water after it finished cooking.  I was nervous as to how the grain would handle the rinsing, as again I am not overly familiar with cooking quinoa . . . but the result was perfect.  Toss with juice/vinaigrette/chimichuri combo, veggies, and we were good to go!  Healthy, packed with whole grain protein and veggie vitamins, and even flavorful thanks to my dressings.  Lovely to look at as well, with a carnival of colors from the veggies and delightful curly strings from the quinoa.  Delish.

After all that lovely description of my vegan meal, I bet you just want to know what I joyfully clogged my arteries with at the festival.  Italian ice, deep fried taco and funnel cake.  And don't forget the deep fried Snickers I had the first day.  Yep!

The Last Horrah on Mardi Gras

The Squeeze Inn. The Squeezeburger. It all began in California. Someone had the genius idea to load up a burger with a large amount of shredded cheese. So much cheese that it spills over and the edges of this cheese skirt are grilled.

It may have begun in California, but the owners decided to move to - you guessed it - Stockton, MO. Which means that I can now enjoy this cheesy, meaty goodness that is the Squeezeburger. I can even walk if my car breaks down, it's that close. I am not the biggest meat eater, but this burger could convert a vegetarian. So good.

Seeing as how yesterday was Mardi Gras, and I actually am going vegetarian for lent, there was no better time to try this burger for the first time. In fact, I was specifically saving my first Squeezeburger experience for Mardi Gras. You can safely bet large sums of money that my second Squeezeburger experience will be the day after Easter (they're not open on Sundays).

This burger is so immense, the chef sticks a toothpick in the center to hold it together. From a larger-than-life bun, to the 1/3 pound of 100% angus beef, to the likely 1/2 pound of melted cheese, to the lettuce, tomato and onion, that toothpick is key to aiding the Squeezeburger-eating experience. When served, we were given a long list of instructions in how to best eat the burger . . . I quickly responded that there was no way I could remember all of those steps. My server simply replied that the most important thing to remember is to keep my thumb on the bottom of the toothpick in order to prevent poking my chin. Apparently many a bloody chin have resulted from this burger. How many burgers can you say you've eaten that carried an actual physical danger?

I am proud to say that I passed the Squeezeburger eating experience without injury. Except to my waistline, of course. But even as a proud dietitian, I will say that any layers of fat I may have developed from the Squeezeburger experience were worth every single greasy bite.

Sandwich Bread

Sandwich bread. Go to the store, half of an entire aisle is devoted to the American staple. So many varieties, so little time. Speaking of little time, do not start reading ingredient labels - you could be at the store an entire day, tediously typing in your smart phone, looking up explanations and pronunciations of sandwich bread ingredients. With so many unheard of ingredients, no wonder everyone buys their bread instead of making it. Where could I even find sodium stearoyl lactylate?

Alas, my friends, all you really need to make sandwich bread are things you likely already have in your pantry. Flour. Yeast. Milk. Honey. Salt. Water. Vegetable oil. Yes, that is all you need, even if you are sans bread machine. No sodium stearoyl lactylate required.

Every time I make my bread, it turns out better than the time before. There is something about the time spent kneading the dough that is therapeutic and relaxing. My heart always skips a beat or two, however, until I actually see the dough rising. Nothing is more disappointing than kneading your hands off to then discover inactivated yeast, or, *gasp*, dead yeast. After all of it's time spent rising, the recipe I use (from the CIA Baking at Home), instructs on an odd folding pattern that has often resulted in creating large holes in the center of my loaves.

Except for this time.

As I said, my bread always turns out better than the time before. Which makes me even more excited to bake sandwich bread, and all of it's glorious simpleness, all over again . . .

You can only imagine my excitement when I sliced into my first loaf and . . . perfection!

Close up. Why? Why not!

Guinness Chocolate Cake with Bailey's Buttercream

I will keep this post short and sweet. Mainly because all I can do is think about this cake and how much I want to go into the fridge and finish it. I don't even like Guinness, but apparently I will fall in love with anything involving chocolate.

My husband was definitely a lucky man on Valentine's Day.

Guinness and sugar, patiently waiting to combine with melted butter and chocolate.

Little brown spots = whole wheat goodness

Egg whites - whip it good. Darkish color is due to an entire tablespoon of vanilla extract. Expensive, but worth every penny.

After 40 long minutes, it finally emerges from the oven. I never thought I would have enough self control to actually not attempt to cut some out for "quality control."

Completed cake with Bailey's Buttercream (not the same icing recipe as you will find on the link). I was a little short on decorating time . . .

but definitely do NOT judge a book by it's cover.