Month: May 2009

Chocolate-dipped _______?

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If you guessed strawberries, you’d be right!

Featured snack recovery: Chocolate-dipped Strawberries

Earlier, I came clean about my disastrous snack failure with the pineapple cream cheese icing.

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As soon as I got home on Tuesday, I went right to work doctoring this tongue-curdler. The pineapple had liquified the mixture (maybe due to the high acidity of the pineapple?), so I dumped it all into a saucepan and mixed in my new favorite thickener, ground flax meal. I brought it to a boil so the flax could do its work, and then I attacked the bitterness with all the non-bitter things I could find — dates, maple syrup, bananas, cocoa powder, peanut butter, and more ricotta — until the nightmarish taste was completely camoflauged. I froyo’d 1/2 cup of the final product and set it up like so:

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(With cookie crumbs and cinnamon for extra excitement.)

My kitchen-sink froyo has done well for me on the dessert front this week 🙂

Coincidentally, while I’ve been enjoying my makeshift chocolate-dipped strawberries, Wife and her boyfriend Ted have been enjoying the real deal down in Georgia!

Featured Guest Snack: Wife’s Strawberries

Last weekend, Wife and Ted enjoyed a fun activity together in something called nature. I’m not quite sure what this nature thing is, but it looks very pretty. Here’s what Wife had to say:

We went strawberry picking bright and early. Wife, they are so big and beautiful and delicious! They taste like they’ve been injected with sugar! I’m going to chocolate dip some.

Wife sent along these pictures from their strawberry-picking adventure:

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And the resulting party dessert she made for a friend’s BBQ that night:

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But apparently, nobody liked them:

The strawberries were really a hit yesterday. Steve was practically crying while eating them because he thought they were so delicious!

What’s the most recent food that has brought you to tears?

Pineapple bomb

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Featured Snack Failure: Pineapple Cream Cheese Icing

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img_9192I’ve had a major food disappointment. When this Just Pineapple Powder (freeze-dried pineapples crushed into a powder with nothing added!) arrived for me from Just Tomatoes last week, the first thing that popped into my mind was pineapple cream cheese icing and how amazing it would taste slathered on a hunk of carrot cake. I never got around to making the carrot cake, but the icing simply could not wait.  I followed my own instructions for healthy cream cheese icing and then mixed half the packet of this powder into it. It tasted fine in the moment  — not as pineappley as I would have liked but nothing I would turn my nose up at. I packed a cup of it and planned to use it as a dip for my apple slices at work the next day.
When the appointed time arrived at work, I went to the fridge and excitedly lifted out what was going to be the best snack of the year. I could tell something was wrong immediately. Before I even opened the container, I could see that my icing had turned to complete liquid. I opened it to take a taste and nearly gagged as I was hit with overwhelming bitterness, not unlike my mom’s unfortunate pineapple-ricotta pie experiment last Hanukkah that I ended up repurposing into this. I should have known no good would come from the pineapple-ricotta pairing! Now my pineapple powder is gone, but if I had more, I would try mixing it with straight cream cheese. I have a feeling that would be more successful.

Anyway, all was not lost because I obviously had to find a way to re-use the pineapple cream cheese icing nastiness. I’ll save that story for another day.

img_9186With the other half of the pineapple powder packet, I had more success. I’ve already mentioned the pineapple-coconut- ginger peanut butter I made in some previous posts, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. I don’t remember exactly how I did it, but I know that the process involved my coffee bean grinder, my immersion blender, some heat treatment, lots of taste-testing, and these:

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(side note: I had a bite of this Peeled pineapple before I chopped the rest for the peanut butter and, ohhhhh my goodness, it was amazing. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to find unsweetened dried pineapple. It’s SO sweet on its own without anything else added.)

At first, I didn’t think the peanut butter was pineappley enough, but that may have been because I’d been taste-testing it all afternoon and had become immune to the flavor. In subsequent days, however, I have not noticed this problem. In fact, I can’t stop taking little tastes because the flavor of each ingredient comes through so deliciously!

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In conclusion, I wish I had more Just Pineapple Powder. It has so much potential, but I have not been able to tap it fully yet. (And be cautious when mixing with yogurt and/or ricotta!)

Featured Contributions: Wednesday

Well, you know what I had for breakfast, you know what I had for lunch, and you know that at least one of my snacks involved a variation on an item mentioned above. All that’s left to address is the contributions!

Fresh coconut from Jessica:

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I actually took a smaller piece to eat and brought this bigger one (about 2 inches by 2 inches) home for a special project that is underway as I write.

Small forkful of spicy shredded chicken from Mildred’s taco. It was too hot for her but perfect for me:

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Trouble from Nydia involving between 1/4 – 1/2 cup of mixed nuts (especially brazil nuts and hazelnuts, yummmm!) and approximately seven yogurt-covered pretzels:

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I decided that the nuts and pretzels were going to count as my dinner. Oh, and then I heard that there were leftovers from a belated cinco de mayo party in the Parent & Me group downstairs, so these slices (yes, plural) of coconut cake roll also became dinner:

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And this piece of pecan doughnut from the famous Doughnut Plant also became dinner on the drive home when Pura passed it up to Mildred and Mildred shared with me:

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(You’d have to be pretty thick in the head to turn down a Doughnut Plant doughnut. If you ever have a chance, you MUST try their tres leches doughnut. No words.)

There was also a GIANT mango from Myrna to thank me for proofreading her paper (next to 1/2 cup for perspective):

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I did not eat it tonight, but I diced it and gnawed all the extra flesh off of the skin as I did so!

Have you had any snack failures recently? Where you able to rescue them?

Holes and suction cups

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Featured Lunch: Huevos Expan-cheros

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Perhaps you remember last Friday (or perhaps you don’t) when Nydia brought a ton of food to work that her mom had made:

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Nydia is Puerto Rican (as in, she was born in Puerto Rico, and her mom is from there, too), so I can only imagine that this beans, pork, and rice brilliance is some sort of secret Puerto Rican delicacy. It might be better than chocolate cake?

Anyway, starting this past weekend and continuing through my lunches this week, I’ve been milking Nydia’s leftovers by parceling them out into this pile of perfection:

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My “huevos expan-cheros” (if you’re lost with this name, I am very cleverly making a play on huevos rancheros) include one beaten egg fried in a tsp of canola, wrapped around a hefty handful of arugula, and topped with 1/2 cup of Nydia’s mom’s rice, beans, and pork (I mixed them all together), a drizzle of plain yogurt, and 1/8 sliced avocado:

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It’s pretty much safe to assume that every day around 12:15 this week, I have been (and will continue to be) closing my eyes in ecstasy with every. single. bite.

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Featured Contributions: Tuesday

Tuesday, like most days in my office, was full of fun little contributions that kept me on my toes all day long.

Avocado slice and salad extras from Nydia and Jessica’s salad:

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Salad extras from Mildred and Myrna’s salad:

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Because everyone ordered salads for lunch, Mildred decided it would be a good idea to supplement with glazed donut holes:

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I did not have a salad for lunch (I had huevos expancheros, of course), but I still decided it would be a good idea to supplement with three donut holes.

Inginia also appeared with some leftover lunch items of absolutely staggering flavor complexity. I was full so I had little tastes, almost passed out from delight, and then brought the rest home to use for dinner. Here’s 1/2 cup peppery salmon noodles:

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And the most beautiful non-dessert contribution ever, Inginia’s homemade ceviche! I managed to sneak about a cup of this home with me, and I devoured it over a bed of arugula and 1/2 cup couscous-lentil mix from the restaurant last Thursday.

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This ceviche rivaled even the ceviche I had in Peru, the ceviche (or so they claim) capitol of the world, and it looked like a rainbow to boot.

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See the little baby suction cup? Awwwww … Mara, can this qualify for Cute Food Saturday?

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SweetiePie from Just Sweet Enough gave me this sweeeeeet award, and I’m tickled pink purple because I think her blog is super, too! Go check it out, especially since she recently baked something called Derby Day Brownies that made me go weak in the knees … while I was sitting down. Also, I hereby pass this blog award onto to anyone who is still reading my blog despite the sporadic posting and nonstop talk of stress. Please go right ahead and post this badge on your site immediately! I love reading everything you write, and I find it one of the best ways to de-stress. Muchas gracias!

When was the last time you had a donut hole (aka munchkin!)? Also, how frustrated do you get when suction cups do not stay stuck where you put them?

Stress-blanking

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This past weekend amidst all the studying (or perhaps because of all the studying), I realized I had somewhere close to a million food items that needed my attention. You may (or may not) recall that I left dinner at Quercy last Thursday night with half a loaf of sourdough bread. I could have eaten the whole thing in one sitting without batting an eyelash, but I didn’t want to do that. I needed to instead incorporate it into a portion-controlled meal (meal = group of foods eaten together with satisfaction potential) that still let me enjoy the bread. And what is the best possible use for day-old bread??

Bread pudding, of course!

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Featured Breakfast: Leftover Banana Bread Pudding

Ingredients (and sources)

– 3 cups cubed bread, not packed (obviously, I used my sourdough from Quercy)

– 3 eggs, beaten (Eggland’s Best, of course)

– 3 cups liquid (I used 1 cup unsweetened soymilk and 2 cups water)

– 1/2 cup oat bran for a nutritional boost (I used Bob’s Red Mill)

– shakes of nutmeg and cinnamon, to taste (from cabinet)

– 3 sliced bananas, separated (I used Holiday Inn breakfast buffet bananas)

img_9161– 1/3 cup-ish raisins (I used Just Tomatoes raisins.)

About these raisins from Just Tomatoes. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the package because I was unaware that raisins could be so plump and juicy. Just Tomatoes raisin on the left;  SunMaid raisin on the right.

Note: You’ll notice I did not use any sweetener. I find that the bananas and the raisins make it sweet enough. If you think you need sweetener, obviously add it however you like.

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 9×13 baking dish.
  2. Spread bread cubes out in the dish.
  3. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs and liquid.
  4. Stir oat bran and spices into wet mix.
  5. Gently stir in two of the sliced bananas and all of the raisins.
  6. Pour this mixture evenly over the bread cubes in the baking dish.
  7. Arrange the slices of the third banana neatly over the top.
  8. Baked covered (you can use foil) for 20 minutes.
  9. Remove cover, and bake 20 minutes more until “pudding” is firm. If you like things crispy on top (like I do), broil for an additional 5 minutes.

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I sliced my bread pudding into seven pieces because that’s what seemed to fit.

My serving preference:

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One slice of warm bread pudding on a bed of 1/2 cup yogurt/ricotta/Pb2 with a chopped Hershey’s Kiss on top and a tsp of homemade pineapple-coconut-ginger peanut butter:

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Or froyo the yogurt/ricotta/PB2 and have it on the side 🙂

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I’ve been waking up every morning with visions of this dessertforbreakfast in my head, and it’s literally the only thing that has been pulling me out of bed. Well, that and the news ticker of things to do that’s also scrolling through my head.

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Featured Contributions: Monday

Of course, a day would not be complete without giving credit to those whose food helped power me through. This is obviously not an exhaustive list of all I ate — just the pleasant food surprises I encountered yesterday!

Tropical fruit salad (papaya, mango, pineapple, kiwi, watermelon, honeydew) from Myrna:

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Wrinkly grapes I found and co-opted for myself in the work fridge:

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Baby carrots from Jessica:

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Class dinner: leftover lunch chicken that Mildred and Myrna gave me at work, an entire chopped cucumber and an entire pint of tomatoes (first a whole bag of arugula, and now this!) that I picked up from the grocery store (I stress-produce-shopped yesterday, too), and manchego cheese samples from the gourmet deli

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Post-photo, I mixed it all together salad-style. I don’t think I actually intended to eat the entire pint of tomatoes when I bought them, but these things happen.

Are you more likely to (1) stress-cook, (2) stress-eat, (3) stress-shop, or (4) stress-sleep?


Sources

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Well, one paper down!!! I still have two more to get done before I can breathe for real — one due on the 11th in honor of my 27th 17th birthday and one due on the 14th — but the worst is behind me. The hardest and most tedious part of the whole paper was compiling the bibliography. APA format has made an enemy for life.

Here’s something that made me laugh amidst all the stress:

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In honor of finishing paper #1, I present you with a food bibliography of the weekend’s highlights in Expansion-format. Expansion-format does not require exact times and locations, nor does it require total inclusion of all consumed (which would be impossible, given the sheer quantity). For example, I do not need to provide you with photographic evidence of how I stress-ate through an entire bag of arugula like it was popcorn (concerning, but not particularly damaging) or through my freezer stash of Dancing Deer cookies like I found them on the black market (also concerning and decidedly less healthy) among other things.

Saturday’s breakfast: French Toast

Sources: grainy & seedy slice of bread discovered abandoned (possibly by Jennifer) on the conference room table at work last Monday; egg from Eggland’s Best event; banana from Holiday Inn breakfast buffet last Sunday mashed with PB2 from Kath

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Saturday’s free treat: Tangomonium frozen yogurt with Ghirardelli dark chocolate bits

Sources: Bleecker St. location of Red Mango; Kate’s tip-off about “free tangomonium with one topping” day [Note: Using my finely tuned dessert translation skills, I decided that tangomonium = tangerine, mango, lemon. I was a fan.]

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Saturday’s leftovers: Couscous chicken merguez from Thursday night

Sources: Quercy restaurant in Carroll Gardens, my leftovers, Kareen’s leftovers, Just Veggies from Just Tomatoes

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Saturday’s second (pictured; 20th if we were to count unpictured) treat: UliMana raw Chia Moon Drop

Sources: UliMana, maker of the most delicious rawbutyouwoudln’tevenknowit chocolate truffles in the world; Elisabeth at Jogger’s Life who blogged about these treats and made me need some of my own.

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Sunday’s snack: Apples and pretzels with homemade pineapple-coconut-ginger peanut butter

Sources: spelt pretzels from Newman’s Own Organics; green apple from Physique 57’s waiting area; red apple from work meeting last week; peanuts from Trader Joe’s, dried pineapple rings from Peeled; magic pineapple powder from Just Tomatoes [note: the powder was out of control pineappley (aka delicious) straight, but it got kind of hidden in the peanut butter, even though I used half of the package. I was disappointed.]; ginger from my cabinet; coconut from my fridge.

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Also, congrats to Heather for winning the previous post’s leave-multiple-comments challenge. Heather put the pedal to the medal and left not two, not three, but five comments (plus one more that she accidentally left on another post)!

My blogging format over the next couple of weeks is probably going to be spotty and inconsistent as I scramble to get everything done by May 14. I expect to be back soon, however, with some featured meals [I’m completely phrase/format-stealing from Vani here. She knows what she’s doing!] for the week along with a run down of surprise foods that make an appearance.

What are your featured meals this week?