i heart food

Omelettes: The Cure for the Common Breakfast

if you watch Mad Men, you’ll know i’m not witty. but i was clever enough to come up with this winning combination

ingredients:

• 2 eggs (1 egg + 1 egg white)
• red bell pepper
• mushroom
• spinach
• crumbled goat cheese (chevre)

Heat a pan and spray with generous[ish] amount of nonstick spray. Add chopped bell peppers, then add chopped mushrooms, then add the spinach. Cook until the spinach is wilted, the bell peppers are slightly charred, and the mushrooms are slightly browned.

Remove veggies and place in a bowl to the side. In the same pam, add eggs that have been whisked in a bowl and add to pan. Cook eggs for an omelette and once mostly cooked, add veggies and some goat cheese crumbles.

Then eat it. And the goat cheese was just perfect with the veggies. 

and I’m about to go make a salad with the same goat cheese because it’s too darn delicious

Mushroom-Artichoke Risotto w. Spinach and Feta

i had bought a tub of arborio rice a little while ago to make risotto-stuffed mushrooms and now that it’s the end of the year i am trying to use it up so i don’t waste the entire thing

with a little produce-shopping at my local cafeteria (so convenient) i made mushroom-artichoke risotto with spinach and some feta i had leftover from the fettucini i made

Risotto is really simple to make, it just takes a while. I’ve only made it that one other time and felt like I already had gotten the hang of it. So I suggest follow a strict recipe at least once and then start switching things up to make it just how you like it :)

ingredients: 

i’m not sure about the exact measurements, i just winged it 

• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1/2 cup arborio rice
• 2-3 cups vegetable broth (or any other broth)
• 2 tbsp butter
• chopped mushrooms — as few or as many as you prefer
• chopped artichoke hearts — as few or as many as you prefer
• spinach leaves — as few or as many as you prefer
• crumbled feta — as much or as little as you prefer
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Total time to cook rice: about 30-40 minutes

Heat 1 tbsp oil in pan and add rice. Add 1/2 cup broth and stir until about 3/4 is absorbed. [perhaps following the instructions on the rice is the best idea, but this is what i did]. Stir frequently on medium heat and keep adding broth by the half-cup. You may end up using more or less than suggested amount — just keep an eye on it. 

Keep stirring — the rice should nearly double in size and become thick and creamy. Add butter and stir until completely melted into risotto.

In another pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and saute mushrooms and artichoke hearts. 

Once everything is nearly done, add spinach and feta to risotto — allowing the spinach to wilt and the feta to get mixed in. Then add the sauteed mushrooms and artichoke hearts.

Serve in a bowl and add salt and pepper to taste (it needs salt, trust me) - (or add it while you’re cooking)

Hope that was about as straightforward as the inter-continental alliances during WWI! Happy Finals Week! 

i also have much better step-by-step pictures from my camera but my camera is alllllll the way at my boyfriend’s apartment (down 5 flights of stairs and about 30 ft away) - i’ll put them up later. maybe. if i survive finals

Pei-Wei or pay way too much?

This has been my favorite dinner to whip up alllll semester. It’s cheap, light, tasty, and very customizable.

• 1/4 cup dry quinoa
• 1/2 cup broccoli
• 1/4 cup chopped bell peppers
• 1/4 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1/4 cup shredded carrots
• 1/4 cup sliced onions
• 1 tsp canola oil

• 3 tbsp low-sodium teriyaki sauce
• Dash garlic salt

Or

• 2 tbps honey
• Dash ground ginger

I love the honey ginger vegetable dinner at Pei-Wei but it’s just so darn expensive to eat out on a college budget. Also, I’m never sure exactly what they put in there AND they give me way too much rice.

i just can’t wait to be back in my kitchen at home.

pretty much every night i end up in my boyfriend’s apartment cooking veggies in a pan with some teriyaki sauce, which surprisingly hasn’t gotten old yet, but i miss being able to whip up something tasty from all the fresh ingredients we have at home.

oh well… one more month. then hopefully i’ll be in an apartment next year.

but seriously, isn’t it so much easier to eat healthy in your own well-stocked kitchen 

i’ve been needing some more inspiration to stay healthy and get to the gym and stay organized and productive 

any suggestions? 

click here for my recipe for this delicious veggie sandwich and to check out my tips for a simple lunch at Team Seventeen’s health blog!

last night i was hanging out with some friends and we got hungry so i whipped up a few late-night entrees. 

which i’m going to try to replicate today because they actually were really tasty and not that unhealthy and i want to take pictures

one: stir-fry veggies with teriyaki sauce, general tsao sauce, and soy sauce, with an egg scrambled in

two: animal-style grilled cheese (mushrooms sauteed in garlic and dijon mustard & hamburger bun grilled with mozzarella cheese - top with mushrooms)

for Valentine’s Day i promised to make dinner and decided i wanted to make something special (but simple and healthy!)

this fig balsamic glaze was absolutely delicious, and the whole dinner was ready in about half an hour

Ingredients:

(note: the recipe calls for “fig balsamic vinegar” but i used a heaping tablespoon of fig spread [that is usually paired with cheese] and 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar]

6 (5 ounce) salmon fillets
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon white wine
1 tablespoon honey
1/3 cup fig balsamic vinegar
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and spray with non-stick cooking spray. 

Coat a small saucepan with non-stick cooking spray. Over medium heat, cook and stir garlic until soft, about 3 minutes. Mix in white wine, honey, balsamic vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, for about 3 minutes, or until slightly thickened. make sure you taste it before putting it on the fish! mine was a little tangy at first so i added a little bit more honey 

Arrange salmon fillets on foil-lined baking sheet. Brush fillets with fig balsamic glaze. 

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 14 minutes, or until flesh flakes easily with a fork. Brush fillets with remaining glaze, and season with salt and pepper. Use a spatula to transfer fillets to serving platter, leaving the skin behind on the foil.Garnish with parsley. 

I served the salmon over a bed of wild rice (courtesy of rice-a-roni) and served sauteed mushrooms and asparagus on the side 

my valentine’s day gift to andrew was to promise not to spend 20 minutes photographing the food. so i took two snapshots with my crappy phone camera and called it a day

Teriyaki Quinoa Stir Fry

this was such an easy recipe and i bought all of the ingredients in bulk making this the perfect go-to recipe for an easy weeknight dinner. OR i might make a lot of it and have leftovers to pop in the microwave for an even easier lunch or dinner

and quinoa is a complete protein!

- 1 cup (dry) of organic quinoa
- 1 package (227 g, 8 oz.) fresh button mushrooms, sliced
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 2 cups of broccoli florets
- 2 scallions, chopped
- 3 asparagus stalks 
- 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp terriyaki marinade
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- salt
- black pepper 
- extra virgin olive oil (or pam or canola oil)

Method
1. Cook quinoa according to directions on package making sure to rinse quinoa before cooking. 

2. In a pan, Sautee the garlic and onions with some extra virgin olive oil (i just use a generous amount of pam) until the onions are translucent. Add in the carrots and scallions and stir fry for 10 minutes.

3. Turn the heat down to medium, add in the cooked quinoa, mushrooms, broccoli, and asparagus, and stir fry for an additional 30 minutes. While stir frying, add in the cayenne pepper and terriyaki marinade. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

veggie sandwich - executing the art of stealing ingredients from the cafeteria

• toasted wheat bread
• sliced cucumbers
• sliced tomatoes
• lettuce
• (from the store: roasted red pepper hummus)

assemble and enjoy! it’s refreshing and satisfying and inspired by the sandwich  i get at my favorite coffee house in uptown dallas 

— if you’re getting bored of cafeteria food try to get creative, steal some ingredients from the salad bar and make your own meal :)

can’t wait until i’m back in the land of fresh fruits and vegetables and not everything is doused in oil

Green Machine Morning Scramble  

just for you mellofello - he had expressed his love of omelets, and this WOULD have been an omelet had the egg not stuck to the “nonstick” teflon pan

• 3 egg whites, 1 egg yolk
• chopped zucchini
• chopped green bell pepper
• chopped onion
• baby spinach
• garlic
• topped with avocado 

this was a tasty and easy way to get a breakfast packed with vitamins 

& the avocado on top adds some of those healthy fats without going overboard 

Mediterranean Vegetable Panini

i must admit, it was a little labor-intensive for just one sandwich, but it would be fantastic for a family dinner or home-cooked lunch with friends

ingredients:

• oroweat sandwich thins
• roasted red bell pepper
• garlic, herb, and roasted tomato cheese spread
• grilled red onions
• cucumber
• romaine lettuce 

since it takes about 25-30 minutes to roast the tomatoes and red peppers, i got those in the oven before doing anything else

then grilled/sauteed some sliced red onions with 1/2 teaspoon olive oil 

once the tomatoes were done in the oven, i put them in the food processor with two tablespoons of garlic and herb Boursin cheese

i strongly recommend making this in big batches because 1) it’s delicious and 2) it’s hard to make small batches of things in the food processor because sometimes the blades won’t reach

once the spread was whipped up, i assembled the sandwich and put it on our makeshift panini maker

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