i heart food

California Pizza Kitchen: Vegetable Sandwich

Yummy yummy yummy. The bread, though, is a little on the unhealthy side so I’d suggest eating it open-faced or wrapping up half to go since its quite filling

But definitely a new favorite in the menu

Grilled Peach Walnut Salad

ingredients:

• 1 peach
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• honey
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• mixed salad greens (dark)
• goat cheese

Slice peach in half and place face-down on a grill until it starts to get soft. For about a minute, place walnuts on the grill and take off when you can start to smell them (make sure not to burn them). 

Mix together honey and balsamic vinegar (i did about 1.5 tbsp honey to 1/4 cup balsamic). Heat in saucepan to thicken. Add about 1/2 tbsp olive oil, stir, continue to heat for 45 seconds to a minute, then take off heat. 

In a bowl, toss greens, walnuts, crumbled goat cheese, and honey balsamic. Top with slices of grilled peach.

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

you can eat this as a taco too, i just decided to cut out some of those yummy starches and replace them with more protein and vegetables

ingredients:

• 1 lb shrimp - deveined 
• salsa of your preference
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 limes 
• 1 jalepeño - or less depending on your preference
• plain greek yogurt
• red & green cabbage - buy pre-shredded if you can
• paprika
• chili powder
• cayenne powder
• salt & pepper 
• avocado & cheese - for toppings 
• corn tortillas - or flour 
  

Thaw shrimp according to instructions and make sure all veins and tails are removed

In a bowl, marinade shrimp with olive oil, juice of 1 lime, 1 or 2 spoonfuls of salsa, and refrigerate for 15 minutes

While the shrimp is marinading, mix some greek yogurt, juice of 1/2 a lime, chopped jalepeño, and dashes of cayenne, chili powder, paprika, salt, and pepper

i have zero tolerance for spicy foods so i cut out the inside of the pepper and made sure all the seeds were out

Mix together shredded cabbage and yogurt sauce to make the cole slaw. Refrigerate slaw until ready to assemble the tacos/taco salad

you can add some salsa to the cole slaw too, if you’re feeling fiesty

Grill the shrimp - they cook/heat up fairly quickly, so a couple minutes on each side should do

In a bowl, combine cole slaw and shrimp and top with some more salsa. If desired, add slices of avocado and shredded mexican cheese blend and some slices of tortilla. Enjoy :)

i had bought two beautiful avocados and completely forgot i had them until after i devoured this. talk about tragedy 

to catch a glimpse of this dish in taco version, click here

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

But i’m not leaving! — they’ve asked me to contribute to their online blog at least until I graduate from college — which is great news and a huge opportunity for me. Thank you to everyone who has read my posts, checked out my blog, or liked my facebook page, it really means a lot

roasted red bell pepper pesto pasta

I feel really badly that whenever I am away at school my posts suffer because I don’t have a kitchen to cook in. The dorms don’t have kitchens, and it’s been really hard to find friends’ kitchens to borrow. 

If you would SO KINDLY help me out and reply to this or send something to my inbox I would love you forever!

I just want to get back to posting recipes more often that are healthy, creative, and easy to make!! 

WITH A KITCHEN: 

WITHOUT A KITCHEN:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE RESPOND!! please! :)

 inviting people over and making this the minute i get back home! 2 weeks til summer!

Makin s’mores any way I can #horriblestudyhabits (Taken with instagram)

i made this yesterday along with the orange-teriyaki tofu as part of my little challenge for myself to cook using only ingredients from the cafeteria. but i ended up using shredded coconut (and cinnamon) that i had leftover from one of my batches of granola. 

these turned out to be absolutely delicious and the coconut is a must! 

ingredients:

• 1 apple
• 1/4 cup vanilla almond milk or soy milk
• cinnamon
• shredded sweetened coconut

1. Slice the apple and bake slices at 350 for about 20-ish minutes

2. Remove from the oven and place in pan on medium heat, add milk. Cook for a couple minutes.

3. Add cinnamon and coconut, bring up the heat and try to evaporate some of the milk off. (stir constantly and watch out not to burn anything!)

4. Enjoy! (yes, it’s that easy)

Birthday breakfast!

it’s one of my best friends’ 21st birthday so we all went to her apartment this morning and set out a little yogurt bar

Complete w. vanilla bean (fat free) yogurt, cherry almond granola, shredded coconut, berries … And a tray of pastries :)

Oh and we made bellinis. All before 10 am … Not too shabby if I do say so myself

scrapin’ the bottom. i could eat this by the jar-full

unprecedented: i have never posted photos of myself that have been taken by my macbook. i think it’s awkward, but when duty calls (philosophy paper due tomorrow), i will inevitably find SOMETHING to post. 

Breakfast at Ian’s

this was actually taken a while ago but i forgot i had taken pictures on this beautiful day

it’s always nice to have eggs that aren’t from the cafeteria (aka from a carton)

and the boys helped themselves to that lovely stack of flapjacks + generous portions of nutella

i stuck with eggs, and a flapjack, and some tea… and another flapjack

my friends sarah and monica eating my s’mores balls at the bake sale  

i made another batch of s’mores balls for a bake sale for a service fraternity i’m pledging into .. which totally makes sense because these actually require zero baking. 

huge success at the bake sale. they taste like real s’mores all rolled up into a ball. ah they’re just perfect

Step 1: 

in a plastic bag, crush graham crackers to make crumbs. if you have a food processor, use that. if you’re in a college dorm room without a coveted food processor, stick with bag. they WILL rip. just use a couple. (chocolate graham crackers work well)

Step 2: 

Add marshmallow fluff or melt marshmallows to put into the crumbs. If you’re melting marshmallows, melt them in a bowl with some butter and stir. (my friends say the ones i made with real marshmallows tasted better)

Step 3:

Melt milk chocolate and add it to the bowl. (I used some leftover chocolate ganache that I had made a couple days before and that worked well too)

Step 4: 

Mix together. Use your hands and be near a sink, it will get messy! Add some canola oil and some melted butter otherwise the ‘dough’ will clump up and you won’t be able to form it into balls (see picture below)

Step 5:

After cooling the dough in the refrigerator or freezer, form into balls and roll in graham cracker crumbs. 

Step 6:

Lay on wax paper and store in the freezer 

Step 6:

Lay on wax paper and store in the freezer