What have I been eating?
I just kind of wanted to share a few recipes and discuss the downfalls of a few others. For 2015, I wanted to try to eat better. Can't say I'm eating entirely clean and fresh - but at least making a conscious effort to avoid processed carbs and processed foods. A step in the right direction was switching to peanut butter powder.
Recommended by a co-worker, you can purchase it at amazon for a greatly cheaper price then the local health food store, like Whole foods. While a regular 2 TBS of peanut butter is around 200 cal, this powder, once hydrated, only have 45 cal and taste great. The recipe is two scoops powder to one scoop water. I like it more consistency-wise then the old jar kind which is much oilier. The back of it also have some adorable suggestions, like use grape juice instead of water to get a more peanut butter and jelly taste to your spread! Since C has been on me to consume more protein, this has been a yummy addition to my snack options. I did find this thoughtful and negative review of PB2 where the writer is a strong supporter of Almond Butter - so I will look into that option as well!
Their website has a lot of creative recipes, but we did try on that was pure yucky. The back of the label suggested mixing the powder with greek yogurt for a peanut mouse. DON'T! Maybe if I have vanilla flavored it would have been better, but the plain was way too bitter and needed a lot of sugar to be added to chock down the thick "dessert."
I also I always like pointing out a foolproof fast meal in our house is steamed asian BBQ buns.
We work weird hours, so if we need a meal and are exhausted, its just to easy to saute up veggies and steam some buns. Maybe one day I'll try to make them from scratch from home, but making dough always feels so intimidating!
For New Years morning, my handsome man made crepes. I can't think of a better way to start the new year. I don't have a recipe to share unfortunately. He literally just mikes milk, flour and 3 eggs together until the mixture feels right and then cooks the most delicious, silky and delicate crepes.
I fried up bananas in bacon fat and once they were cooked through, I add a little honey water to sweeten them a touch more and add a syrupy liquid. Also cooked up some frozen blueberries with an 1/8 cup water and 1/8 cup sugar. With some heavy cream added to the berry liquid, you can see I had the most tasty berry and cream crepe. We also had maple syrup, lemon and sugar and jams. We go big and decadent on crepe mornings.
I wanted to make a big dinner for new years day. I felt it would set a precedent for the rest of the year to follow in. I decided to try and tackle fish cakes and BEETS!
So from Cuisine Magazine (Jan 2015 issue) I followed their instruction on the beet salad. You need to make this a day early or the morning of so that they flavors combine effectively. I really enjoyed preparing beets. Although they stain and bleed everywhere, I couldn't help but smile, like I was carving little wooden hearts. I really liked their beet salad recipe and would make it again.
The beets I bought had a lot of greens attached and it felt a shame to throw them out so I googled if the greens were edible and came across this simple recipe. I actually at dinner realized that I liked both the greens and root mixed together in a pleasant warm and cold, complimentary taste pairing. IT kind of reminded me of a mother/child recipe (like eggs and chicken), but in a greener kinda way. I ended up storing both together in tupperware and warming them together the next day for leftovers which was equally yummy.
The fish cakes were also easy to prepare and delicious. They remind me of a zucchini fritters dish I make (although the zucchini fritters were more creamy due to the cheese <3). But C always wants more fish in our diet so I think he was very happy with the meal!Also for more veggie (the boys didn't eat much of the beets and greens) I made a corn with a chili butter (also Cuisine Magazine Jan 2015 issue). I still hope to make the herb salad later in the year when it gets a little warmer and I have better selection to fresh herbs.
C kept telling me that the chili lime butter reminded him of a jalapeno corn casserole I made for Thanksgiving, so he was thrilled. He's been more and more into spicier food in the past year to my own delight.
So for all the effort, I wish it had a prettier display, but that was our New Year Dinner!
For dessert, I had also made a lemoncello centered dessert. You know those Pintrest fails where they showed the professional picture and then the homemade version? That's how I felt about this dessert. In the magazine it is beautiful and I love lemon and fruit desserts, in execution -it tasted horrible and wasn't as pretty (the later is probably my fault).
If you look at the bakers note, it suggest adding more of the lemoncello if you like the alcohol. DON'T! Its a very strong suggestion to add 1/2 cup to begin with. The strong alcohol taste ultimately rendered this dessert inedible. I would make it again with the modification on the lemoncello to just be a lemon juice or something and I think it would be quiet yummy, but the lemon liqueur was just too much at least for my taste buds and those of my family. On new years night, me and the boyfriend and housemate tried it and they didn't like it. So I tried again the next night to push it onto my mom and siblings at family game night. After one bite the room went silent before returning into hysterical laughter at how bad it was. I was the only one on both nights that stomached my piece down.
The one good part of the recipe was I made my own meringue nest. Which was surprisingly easy and tasty. I used this recipe and would happily make it again!
The next morning it was my turn to make breakfast and I did a greek yogurt parfait recommended by Cuisine mag (Jan 2015).
It was a hit and we have made it a few more mornings since. The household consensus is that the cool yogurt paired with the warm quinoa and warm berry sauce is just the best. I also cheated and just bought the Nature's Path Flax Plus Granola instead of making my own.
My version isn't as cute, but will do!
Last thing, at family game night my sister made a chicken soup topped with avocado. It was so delicious. I'm always looking for an excuse to eat avocado, since I don't like it plain and this was just what I was craving!
Their website has a lot of creative recipes, but we did try on that was pure yucky. The back of the label suggested mixing the powder with greek yogurt for a peanut mouse. DON'T! Maybe if I have vanilla flavored it would have been better, but the plain was way too bitter and needed a lot of sugar to be added to chock down the thick "dessert."
I also I always like pointing out a foolproof fast meal in our house is steamed asian BBQ buns.
For New Years morning, my handsome man made crepes. I can't think of a better way to start the new year. I don't have a recipe to share unfortunately. He literally just mikes milk, flour and 3 eggs together until the mixture feels right and then cooks the most delicious, silky and delicate crepes.
I wanted to make a big dinner for new years day. I felt it would set a precedent for the rest of the year to follow in. I decided to try and tackle fish cakes and BEETS!
So from Cuisine Magazine (Jan 2015 issue) I followed their instruction on the beet salad. You need to make this a day early or the morning of so that they flavors combine effectively. I really enjoyed preparing beets. Although they stain and bleed everywhere, I couldn't help but smile, like I was carving little wooden hearts. I really liked their beet salad recipe and would make it again.
The fish cakes were also easy to prepare and delicious. They remind me of a zucchini fritters dish I make (although the zucchini fritters were more creamy due to the cheese <3). But C always wants more fish in our diet so I think he was very happy with the meal!Also for more veggie (the boys didn't eat much of the beets and greens) I made a corn with a chili butter (also Cuisine Magazine Jan 2015 issue). I still hope to make the herb salad later in the year when it gets a little warmer and I have better selection to fresh herbs.
For dessert, I had also made a lemoncello centered dessert. You know those Pintrest fails where they showed the professional picture and then the homemade version? That's how I felt about this dessert. In the magazine it is beautiful and I love lemon and fruit desserts, in execution -it tasted horrible and wasn't as pretty (the later is probably my fault).
The one good part of the recipe was I made my own meringue nest. Which was surprisingly easy and tasty. I used this recipe and would happily make it again!
The next morning it was my turn to make breakfast and I did a greek yogurt parfait recommended by Cuisine mag (Jan 2015).
It was a hit and we have made it a few more mornings since. The household consensus is that the cool yogurt paired with the warm quinoa and warm berry sauce is just the best. I also cheated and just bought the Nature's Path Flax Plus Granola instead of making my own.
My version isn't as cute, but will do!
Last thing, at family game night my sister made a chicken soup topped with avocado. It was so delicious. I'm always looking for an excuse to eat avocado, since I don't like it plain and this was just what I was craving!
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