The Lighter Side of Stuffed French Toast

Hi! Well I went home from work today due to, what I'm pretty sure was exhaustion-induced nausea. I have quite a history with sleeping issues, I'm a chronic tosser and turner and have a very difficult time "shutting off my brain" so I can get some rest. This week has been especially bad and I think my body is just kind of off-kilter. It doesn't happen often that it actually causes nausea, but this is not the first. Anyone have any good sleep suggestions? I've tried many and I'm willing to however many it takes to find something that works for me!

Anyways, I have had a crazy/hectic month and haven't had much time for blogging (sorry!), so I thought I'd take advantage of the afternoon and do some B-in-B (Blogging in Bed!).

A couple of weeks ago, I made a REALLY DELICIOUS breakfast! I had been craving french toast! This was so simple and took me maybe 10 min to make.

Strawberry-Vanilla Stuffed French Toast

• Heat skillet to medium-high heat.
• In a shallow dish, mix 1 egg, splash of vanilla soymilk, sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar, and a small splash of vanilla . (sorry for lack of accuracy!)

• Separate 1 sandwich thin dip each piece in the egg mixture before placing in the skillet.
• Flip until desired browness.

• "Stuff" with ~1/3 cup vanilla greek yogurt.
• Top with sliced strawberries (preferably orgranic, look at the color!!).
• I also used some maple syrup!

This was sooo tasty! Plus, this version of stuffed french toast is more lower in fat (didn't use butter, heavy cream, or even a whole egg), higher in protein (go greek yogurt!), and richer in nutrients from the whole grains and organic berries than any version I have seen in a restaurant!

The one issue I had though is that it lacked the staying power that I typically acheive with an egg white sandwich or oatmeal. I was hungry for a mid-morning snack a whole hour earlier than normal. Next time if I make this, I may drizzle some almond butter over it and even add some granola for a crunchy topping. That should hopefully do the trick!

Portion-Controlled Indulgence

Hello there! So I was wandering around Whole Foods today, doing a little shopping and also tasting pretty much every sample they had available :/ I tried these tortilla chips that I loved, by Donkey. They were one of the best store bought tortilla chips I have tried, so obviously I had to get them. I decided to have chips and dip for lunch :)

Easy Bean and Avocado Dip (serves 1-2)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 avocado
• 1/3 cup black beans
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• pinch of salt
• lime juice, ~1/6 of a lime (small wedge)

In a small bowl, mash all ingredients with a fork until your desired texture. Super quick and easy!

Look at the beautiful avocado:

Before the mash:

After the mash:

Served up with some chips and salsa:

I forgot to take a picture, but I also had some strawberries!

If you are looking for a delicious, cheap organic salsa, I highly recommend the 365 brand from Whole Foods:

So tortilla chips aren't the healthiest of foods, but I love them so I indulge in moderation. For example, today I used my small, salad plate to serve up my lunch so I wouldn't overdo it. When it comes to chips or other similar snack foods, it's best to serve yourself on a small plate or small bowl, then put the bag away! It's dangerous for most people to just snack right out of the bag. You never know how much you end up eating and chances are you will have way more than if you served yourself on a plate or bowl. This goes for baskets of chips or bread at restaurants, take a serving and put it on your plate, then eat from there.

It's hard to tell from the pictures I take, but I rarely use my dinner plates at home. I always use the salad-sized plates and small bowls whenever possible. I thought I'd show pictures of the size comparison of my plates and bowls, so you can see the comparison. This is a great way to control portion sizes!

Here's a bowl I use a lot:

Side view:

Well it's really nice out here in Chicago so I'm going to go on an early-evening run!

Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit...

I've been on a bean kick this week! Recently I've decided to be a little more conscious of the protein in my diet. I've realized there have been too many days of falling short in this area. I'm not a Dietitian who preaches perfection, but it was becoming too much of a trend so I decided to do put some effort into increasing this shortcoming. Sometimes it can be difficult for us vegetarians! Fortunately, besides the meats, there are a lot of nutritious, protein-packed options out there! My protein options from this week's grocery trip were: black beans, chickpeas, eggs, cottage cheese, and greek yogurt. I feel the need to note that I would not normally have bought this "Weight Watchers" wheat pita (quite the list of preservatives), but Jewel has such a poor selection and I needed my pita fix!

So here are a couple of my bean dishes, since using beans is relatively new to me. They just started to grow on me, just a texture thing!

A Breakfast Veggie Scramble

In the mix:

• 1 egg + 1 egg white
• Red and green bell pepper
• 1/4 cup black beans, canned (drained)
• Sprinkle of mozzarella
• 1/3 of an avocado

I start cooking the bell pepper and beans in the pan for a couple minutes before pouring the eggs into the pan. Once the egg and veggie mixture is cooked, I top it with the cheese and avocado.

Pair it with some wheat toast and/or some fruit, and viola! Great, balanced breakfast!

Chickpea and Avocado Mash

I read this recipe on Carrots N Cake and was so excited I had just bought the main ingredients to this recipe. I didn't have pesto, so I changed this recipe a little bit!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup chickpeas, drained
• parmesan, not sure how much this was, but just a touch!
• 1-2 basil leaves, torn
• sprinkle of garlic powder
• salt + pepper
• 1/3 avocado

I made this for lunch so the night before I put everything besides the avocado in a small tupperware bowl and put it in my lunch bag.

Then the next day, I added the avocado and mashed away. I stuffed it in a half pita with tomato slices.

I had 1/2 cup cottage cheese and some grapes with this lovely sandwich.

This was so simple and I think can be done in a variety of ways! I'm thinking of switching the chickpeas for black beans, and cilantro for the basil...yummm.

Lessons learned from my attempt at chickpea patties...

OK so these didn't go as planned, but I put so much effort into documenting this process I thought I'd write about it anyways! They tasted awesome, but did not successfully stay in the patty form. Basically, I made a chickpea crumble! I'll throw in my perceived mistakes along the way.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chickpeas, drained
• 2 basil leaves, torn
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• crushed red pepper flakes
• salt+pepper
• flour
• olive oil

Blend all ingredients, except flour and olive oil, while heating a skillet with olive oil on med-high heat. *This was one of my mistakes. I needed to blend longer to release more moisture in the patties would stick together, but I apparently thought it looked pretty to coarsely chop the mixture! My sister suggested actually adding a little bit of water, which has worked for her bean burgers in the past.

Form into two large patties or 4 smaller patties (maybe would've been better if I did the smaller?)

Then lightly coat with flour before placing the patties in the skillet. I patted off the excess flour!

Cook on each side for 3-4 minutes on each side.

The flipping made my patties into a crumble!

But no worries, I stuffed it into a pita and used the rest in my salad the next day (which was amazing!) I'll try again because they tasted awesome!

I may try black bean patties soon so I'll let you know how that goes!

Portabella Double Down

The KFC-inspired dish was soo tasty, you know their new sandwich with the two pieces of fried chicken as the bun of the sandwich, bleh. The idea is basically to have the innards of the sandwich become the "outards." This is actually the first time I've ever bought portabella mushrooms to make at home. I've actual made a very huge taste revolution the past year or two with mushrooms. I used to hate them! But slowly I let them in my life, doing things like not picking them off a pizza or if they came with a meal, stopping myself from saying "hold the mushrooms." Now I love mushrooms! It's so strange, but I'm very happy about this:)

So the instructions are pretty simple: marinate the mushrooms for 15 min, cook on stove or grill (4-5 min on each side), and fill in with toppings.

Here's my marinade (make in plastic bag):

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 big pinch of salt
• 4-5 grinds of black pepper
• pinch of crushed red pepper
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 T balsamic vinegar

Put the two portabellas (with stem and ribs removed) in the plastic bag of marinade and let sit for 15 min. I heated my pan of medium heat in the meantime.

I cooked my mushrooms on the inside first so that when it's ready to flip I could melt my cheese on the inside part. To flatten it I put a plate with a can of soup over it to flatten it:)

After 4-5 min, just flip to the other side and cook for another 4-5 min. This looks charred, but it's just carmelization-turned out really dark in the photo:

Add the cheese now. I had this baked garlic cheese on hand so I used that, but mozzarella, goat, or feta would've been awesome!

Then I added tomato and basil, but really you could just add whatever you usually add to a sandwich/burger. I was also thinking about doing tomato, lettuce, and spinach.

Another view...

Aerial view...

I paired mine with some roasted asparagus with garlic and parmesan.

All I Can Remember is the Potatoes

I was trying to think of title for my dinner tonight, but I could barely think of anything other than the potatoes I made.  I used two more items I received from Irv & Shelley's Fresh Picks produce box that I won in the raffle last week. 

The two Fresh Picks items were: asparagus and yukon gold potatoes.

 

I decided to pair them with some salmon I had the freezer. I'm going to do this kind of backwards, here's the final pic:

 I just baked the salmon, pretty much just like I how I do my asparagus... olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper! But I also added a little garlic powder, as well. The salmon was just OK. I feel like I've had better frozen salmon before :( 

Of course the veggies, stole the show!  Like I said before, I love roasting asparagus with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some grated parmesan.  It's simple and sooo delicious.  It tasted great!

These potatoes were new for me.  I received two small and 1 large yukon gold potatoes in my delivery.  For this recipe I used the two small ones.  I cut them into ~1/4 inch round slices, then topped them with a good pour of olive oil, 1/2 finely chopped shallot, and 2 cloves finely chopped garlic, plus salt and pepper.  Then I just spread them on the baking sheet and baked them for 20 min on 425, then flipped them and baked for 10 min at 375 with the salmon and aspargus.  

Prepped and ready to cook: 

All cooking together:  

Oh man were these potatoes gooood!  I will definitely be making these again! So flavorful and such a nice texture.  I love the creaminess of yukon golds, and then the way these were baked there was a nice crispy outside.  So perfect, you must try this!

Well I have some more dishes planned using my Fresh Picks produce and I can't wait to share them :) 

A Special Delivery

Last week at the Chicago Dietetic Assocation's monthly meeting, I entered a raffle for Irv & Shelly's Fresh Picks, a local organic delivery service.  Guess what!?! I won!  After reading more about their service on their website, I was super stoked!  Fresh Picks delivers a wide-variety of  local organic produce, meat, eggs, and dairy from sustainable farmers that they know and trust, which I love!  Makes me feel good about eating this food!

The raffle prize was a Fresh Picks Box.  Here's the description from their website: 

What is a Fresh Picks Box? 
The Fresh Picks Box is filled with the best local in-season produce of the week, and can be customized according to your individual needs and preferences. You choose the size and frequency and can add additional items to get the healthy foods you need.

Here are some pictures of my lovely produce:

Look how big the bag was !

This is what I received:  spinach, ramps, sorrel, nettles, watercress, asparagus, crimini mushrooms, potatoes, and maybe parsley.   It looks like parsley but it's not on my list that came with it.  I have to admit, that I had to look up ramps, nettles, and sorrel!  I'm super excited to use all these ingredients, especially the ones that are new to me.  

Thanks Irv & Shelley's Fresh Picks!! This was a great prize to win!  

Well onto my first dish with using my ingredients!

Whole Wheat Rigatoni with Ramps, Crimini Mushrooms, and Goat Cheese Sauce

I googled ramps recipes and came across a recipe on a blog called: A Good Appetite. I made some modifications, but followed the basics of this recipe. 

First I want to show you the picture of my ramps: 

Apparently, they are wild leeks.  They were so great in this dish. I used them all in this dish so I'm hoping I can find some more! I know they have a short season. 

Ingredients:

• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 3-4 oz of goat cheese (eyeballed a little less than half of an 8 oz pkg)
• 1/2 lb of whole wheat rigatoni (~4 cups)
• olive oil
• 6-7 ramps (cut the leaf part off, tear into lg pieces and set aside; chop the rest-bulb and stems into small pieces)
• 1-2 cups spinach
• 5-6 crimini mushrooms
• salt and pepper 
• parmesan

Directions: 

First make the sauce, so it's ready. I did this while my pasta water was boiling. 

1. In a small pot, combine the garlic and half and half and bring to a simmer (med heat).
2.  Let it simmer for a couple minutes to let it reduce a bit. 
3. Whisk in the goat cheese until its melted and smoothly combined.  
4. Set aside. (I took it off the heat and covered)

Now the veggies and pasta!

1. Heat a large skillet with a "once around the pot" of olive oil, on med-low heat. 
2. Add the pasta to the boiling water, then start the veggies right after so they are ready together. 
3. Add the ramps and mushrooms to the large skillet.
4. Once the mushrooms are tender, add the ramp leaves and toss until covered with oil and start to wilt slightly (takes about a min). 
5. Add the spinach to the skillet.  
6. Before you drain the pasta, set aside some of the water for the sauce. Then drain the pasta. 
7. Pour the pasta over the veggies and add the goat cheese sauce.  If it thickened too much, add some of the pasta water to thin it out. 
8. Top with grated parmesan!

The finished dish: 

My bowl: 

Hillary came over for dinner and we both loved this dish!  I'm so excited for my leftovers I'll be having for lunch tomorrow:) I got to use 3 ingredients from my produce delivery (mushrooms, ramps, and spinach) and I loved them!  I would say my first experience cooking with ramps was a definite success.  

 

Because They Are Sooo Pretty

Morning!  I had to snap a picture of my pretty, pretty raspberries that I had with Vanilla Chobani and vanilla almond granola.  They tasted as good as they look!  I'm pretty happy about berries becoming cheaper because their season is starting. 

I won a raffle last week and I'm getting my special delivery today!  Stay tuned to see what it is!