Tag: yogurt

Re-enactment

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So, Kate came over last night for my meal-of-the-year re-enactment, courtesy of the amazing leftovers I was lucky enough to snag at Tuesday night’s Electrolux ICON event. After  sharing the leftovers with my coworkers earlier in the day, I still had about 1/2 cup of risotto and a hefty segment of lamb tenderloin left … not to mention the seared tuna and molten lava cakes hanging out in my fridge. I was worried about the damage I might do if left to my own devices, so Kate popped over to relieve some of the expansion responsibility (because, oh, what a heavy burden it is).

I started us off with fancy apps:

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OK, so my seared tuna atop wasabi-infused guacamole and a white cheddar soy crisp is not exactly on level with the giant-spoon classiness I experienced Tuesday, but I think it is a close approximation … and it tasted delicious. Kate and I had two each.

Kate and I both prefer our meat closer to well-done than to rare, so I fired up the oven to give the lamb a few more minutes. While that was cooking, I worked on the risotto. Since I brought such a small amount of it home from work, I decided it needed (1) bulking and (2) healthing. I sauteed the veggie scraps I salvaged from the event (asparagus peels, mushroom stems, and spinach) with garlic and olive oil and then immersion blended them into a paste (another non-classy variation of the Chef’s method). The paste went into a pot with 1/2 cup cooked brown rice, the remaining 1/2 cup of risotto, and lots and lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

The result: enough food for two! Colorado Lamb Roast, Spring Asparagus Risotto, and Carmelized Onions:

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I think I am most excited about those onions!! Thank goodness I still have a bunch more in the fridge 😀

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Can you guess what came after dinner????

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Yes, the chocolate molten cakes!! I tried to keep presentation as true to the original as possible. Sadly, I had no gold dust on hand.

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I heated the lava cakes in their tins for about 10 minutes at 350. When they were warm, I slid a knife around the edges and inverted them onto the plates. In lieu of the magical chocolate disk, I topped each cake with a square of Newman’s Own Organics orange dark chocolate. Ohhh, yum. I daresay this chocolate actually improved the cake (which I didn’t think was possible before I took a bite!). Seriously, look at the melt-action taking place here:

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The “ice cream” was actually about 1/2 cup each of lemon curd-infused healthy cream cheese icing which I iced via the freeze-for-20-stir-freeze-for-20-stir method. It needed color for photography’s sake, so I topped it off with a blueberry sauce I made by simmering a couple tbsp of Brigitte’s homegrown frozen blueberries until the juice thickened.

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One last look at the whole package:

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As much as I could eat molten lava cake every night for the rest of my life, I am relieved that Kate helped me so that I do not have to! Expansion does have its limits, even for me 😛

In case you would like to try your hand at re-enacting this meal from scratch (something I haven’t even attempted yet!), I have created a page of Chef Steelman’s very own recipes right here!

Have you re-enacted anything (food or non-food) lately?

And have you entered my Bob’s Red Mill giveaway?

Whirligig + reviews

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Ahhhhhh, I haven’t stopped moving all day. My commenting and replying are temporarily on hiatus as I try to climb over this mountain of work. I will catch up on everything ASAP, I promise!

And by the way, every single one of the selections you’re submitting for the Bob’s Red Mill giveaway is making me drool. If only I could afford the whole line of products …. Keep those wish lists coming!

Breakfast feels like it happened about 10 years ago, but I’m pretty sure it was delicious:

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I hope you can see the striking resemblance to a black and white cookie because that’s what I was going for:

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The “white” contained 1/2 cup Healthy Cream Cheese Icing topped with unsweetened shredded coconut. The “black” contained 1 cup protein porridge mixed with 2 tbsp raw chocolate mousse, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, and 2 tbsp PB2 powder — topped with Hershey’s Kiss shavings and a hefty spoonful of extra dark cashew-almond butter:

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The cashew-almond butter is delicious, but I keep expecting it to taste like chocolate fudge (even though I’m the one who made it!) because it is SO dark.

Oh, by the way, today is April Fools Day, if you did not get the memo! I clearly hadn’t gotten it at 7am because my dad (of the no-brown-foods and almost-birthed-you-in-the-Dining-Room fame) got me with a trick for, ohh, the 27th year in a row. You’d think I would have caught on by now! This time, he emailed to tell me that something was wrong with the blog because every time he typed in the address, Kristie’s blog popped up instead! I replied that he must be mistaken and maybe he had accidentally clicked on one of her comments? It never even crossed my mind that this could be a trick. He’s so good at getting in there with something subtle and just believable enough!

picture-425Anyway, that breakfast kept me so full all morning (as it should have — holy protein plus no cardio in days!) that I didn’t even need my typical morning snack. Plus, I was racing around crazily what with my visits and work to make up from Monday. My “injury” was kind of giving me a lot of pain today — I think I overdid it with the hobnobbing around town last night plus the nonstop visits today that required loads of traversing East Harlem from end to end on foot.

In lieu of a snack, I opened a pack of Newman’s Own Ginger Mints and maybe ate 4-5 over the course of the day. Again, they’re not sugar-free, but neither are the seven pieces of candy I usually swipe from Belkis’ candy jar on a daily basis. This seems like a healthier alternative … plus I love ginger, and these ginger mints taste like the root itself has been shaved right into the mix!

Lunch was a repeat of what I had yesterday: collard greens and baked beans from Monday and Myrna’s rice and salad from yesterday.

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The whole early childhood department at my office ate lunch together today in honor of April Fools, so I also got to try some coconut water and a big hunk of fresh coconut meat from Jessica:

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Mmm, it was tasty!

Next, I enlisted the captive audience in helping me with more product reviews. First up:

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Rosey said:

I like the chocolate on the outside, but I don’t like the caramel. And I usually like caramel.

I had to try one for myself, obviously:

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I thought it was delicious, but I tend to not be all that picky when it comes to chocolate and caramel!

Next:

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Sarah (the other one) said:

Oh, wow! This is different from Reese’s. It actually tastes like real, creamy peanut butter inside. I like it.

Sarah ran out and gave one to Erik in Environmental to try. He said:

Holy sh**!! This is amazing.

I tried one, too (obviously again):

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I second the other reviewers’ sentiments. I’m not going to judge when it comes to chocolate and peanut butter!

Finally:

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This review needs no words, as Heather and the baby are clearly in ecstasy. Just to bring the point home, Heather said:

These are good. They are a good chocolate-y dessert.

Rosey and Jessica said:

They taste like shortbread cookies with chocolate in them.

Sister Suzanne said:

I like them because they’re not too sweet.

Sarah (the other one) added:

Yes, a good snack treat.

I ate four.

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To me, they tasted like the cookie part of an Oreo. Again, not going to complain!

Immediately following lunch, I raced across el barrio for my 2pm visit. I ended up staying a little late because the mom needed help with something, so I decided to bus it back to the center to make my 3:30. I had to run to catch the bus. OWWWWW. And I was still 10 minutes for the session!

I had my “morning snack” of fruit salad (the end of it), yogurt + ricotta + lemon curd, and granola at 4:30.

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Quickly followed by an orange:

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As I mentioned earlier, I brought in the leftover risotto and lamb from last night to share with everyone at lunch, but there was still quite a bit left at the end of the day. I shot a quick email to Gina and Kate (with whom I had to break dinner plans last night for the event) to see if they’d be interested in an impromptu dinner party of leftovers. Gina couldn’t make it, but Kate was up for the re-enactment challenge which will be coming soon (as in sometime tomorrow) to a blog near you (ummm, this one).

The week is halfway done. Are you running behind, ahead, or right on schedule?

(And you know I’m going to keep reminding you about the Bob’s Red Mill giveaway in every post until Sunday!)

Live from the ice pack

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Though I probably also could have titled this post: How to double your size in five days or less. On a positive note, though, it is a (thankfully!) rare experience for me to be physically unable to engage in vigorous excerise, and I might as well enjoy the expansion by continuing to eat as I normally do (and then some) and getting an extra half hour of sleep … in theory 😀

The work day started like any other: with tropical fruit salad, lemon curd + part-skim ricotta + yogurt, and granola.

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I actually ran out of time to finish this before my 11am visit, so I saved the last two bites for lunch dessert later.

Lunch at 12:30 was a repeat of yesterday’s southern comfort in slightly smaller portions with 1/2 cup sweet collard greens, 1/2 cup baked beans, and 1/4 giant piece of cornbread:

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To supplement, I also had about 1/3 cup of Myrna’s Dominican rice and fish:

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And one cup of her salad:

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Aren’t those cabbage ribbons beautiful? Myrna brought me enough of this rice and salad for tomorrow’s lunch, too. My coworkers treat me too well!!

Also, I probably had 4-6 of these guys throughout the day:

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Loving the cinnamon mints!

When the mid-afternoon nibbles hit around 3, I had another serving of the Newman’s white cheddar soy crisps I reviewed yesterday with about 2 tbsp homemade guac:

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While the soy crisps still tasted delicious, I have to add one complaint. The bag claims to hold 3.5 one-ounce servings. I actually used a food scale (for once) to measure one ounce of these crisps … and it definitely involved about half the bag!!! While I’m delighted that so many light and puffy soy crisps can squeeze into one serving, I’m bummed that I’m only getting 2-ish servings from what is supposed to be a 3-ish servings bag! And that’s using Newman’s serving guidelines — not even my own. Hmph.

Moving on, I had to leave my internship today at 3:30 to head to a mandatory seminar on working with aging populations at Hunter. I was thrilled to find that I was passing by Butterfield Market (aka my weekly supplier of manchego cheese samples) during their Passover Menu Tasting that I’ve seen them advertising on the sidewalk for a couple of weeks. How fortuitous … especially since Passover is my favorite holiday in the world due to the food that comes with it (and probably also because I am always so freaking starving after all the seder-ing that matzo becomes the most delicious delicacy EVER)!

Since I definitely needed more food (because eating is fun and not because I was hungry, obviously), I stopped in for “a little bit of everything, please.” Butterfield did not hold back:

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That plate included (in no particular order) gefilte fish, beef brisket, boneless chicken with apricot glaze, zucchini “linguine” with fresh herbs (YUM!), apple matzoh kugel (the BEST of the plate’s contents … but still no better than Aunt Sherye makes it), caulifower kugel with toasted pecans, and a non-Passover Ritz cracker with pate.

That could have been dinner, but why stop?? Especially when I had a fun dinner trick up my sleeve ….

To be continued!

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?

Reminders:

1. Enter my Bob’s Red Mill giveaway!

2. Do you want to win the chocolate-covered vegan in a box? I know I do …

The heat is on

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Wow, sleeping until 6 is such a luxury! I hope I don’t get too used to it 😛

Heat story #1: I woke up and sat on a heating pad for 10 minutes. Then, I tied the heating pad to the top of my right thigh with a belt and dove into Gentle Hatha Yoga #1. I’m still feeling the pain, but it’s definitely getting better!

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Breakfast this morning was a second incarnation of protein porridge. I was craving a more “old-fashioned” flavor combo this time, so last night I mixed 1 cup of the porridge with 1 tbsp molasses, 2 tbsp raisins, cinnamon, and a crushed clove.

Heat story #2: This morning, the “oats” (just kidding, since there are no oats in here!) went in the oven (covered) for 30 minutes at 375.

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Heat story #3: While the porridge was in the oven, I tried to straighten my hair with the iron to address some of the style damage Supercuts did yesterday during the balding session. Since there was not much for the iron to grasp, this heat story was not as successful as the previous two.

Heat story #4: My apartment felt really warm, and I realized the heat was up to 70! I turned it off.

So back to the food. I layered the heated porridge over 1/2 cup Greek yogurt + part-skim ricotta blend and topped it with vanilla-almond granola, crumbled graham sticks, unsweetened coconut, and an extra little circle of raisins:

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Are you hot or cold?

Remember to enter my Bob’s Red Mill giveaway!

And check out this week’s BSI hosted by Ruth at Plentiful Plants. She’s doing avocado!!!!

Goldilocks (or Rosylocks?)

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Well, I got up this morning at 6:30 with every intention of going to work, but things did not work so well movement-wise when I got out of bed … so back to sitting on the ice pack it is. Better safe than sorry!

Breakfast was installment number one of the whole grain and bean protein porridge (hence the goldilocks reference) I made yesterday. After I put all my toppings on, there was only this little teeny slip of porridge peeking through:

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I’m a fan of how this porridge worked out, so here’s the process. In my crockpot, I whisked 2 eggs and a dash of salt into 3 cups of whey left from Greek yogurt. I poured in 1 cup of dry chickpeas, covered the pot, and set it on high for one hour. After the first hour, I stirred in 1/2 cup quinoa and 1/2 cup millet and turned the heat down to low. Another hour later, I mixed in 1/2 cup lentils and let the whole thing continue to cook on low, adding water as necessary (I probably added 3-4 more cups over this time) until the chickpeas were semi-tender, maybe three more hours. (If you’re passionate about having your chickpeas be well-done and mushy, you might want to cook them fully separately before adding them to the crockpot.)

Once I could chew a chickpea without breaking my teeth, I set my immersion blender on the mix and whirred it until things got nice and creamy. Then, I toasted 1/2 cup wheat germ in a dry skillet and stirred that into the mix, too. This made about 6 cups of porridge. I didn’t add fruits or seasonings because I wanted to leave my options open for how to use this as the week goes on.

I was curious about the nutrition on this porridge since I’ve never really made anything like it. Per 1 cup serving: 384 calories, 6 grams fat, 71 grams carbs (12 grams dietary fiber, 2 grams sugar), 22 grams protein. The carbs seem sort of high (that might just be because I’m used to hearing about carbs from the diabetic members of my family), but I love the protein!

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To make this morning’s breakfast, I mixed 1 cup of the porridge in an ovensafe dish with 1/2 banana (some chopped, some mashed), 1/2 chopped apple, 1 tsp homemade extra-dark-roasted cashew-almond butter, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. I covered the dish and baked at 375 for 30 minutes.

When the porridge came out of the oven, I put it in my pretty dish and topped it with chopped strawberries, 1/2 cup yogurt + PB2 sauce, and my granola and trail mix blend.

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With my ever-present soymilky tea!

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It also may be worth mentioning that I had about 1/4 cup of this porridge last night in the form of crockpot scrapings mixed with homemade chocolate mousse and graham crumbs …YUMMMMM:

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Now I’m hanging out with my ice pack, the Today Show, and some homework … and waiting for my doctor to call me back, which hopefully happens sooner rather than later.

Who are you waiting to hear from today?

Some fun giveaways:

  1. Fashion and food at Strawberry Shortstuff
  2. A book and a bar at Simply Fabulous