Ultimate Comfort

I'm on a comfort food kick these days. This is probably partially due to me missing my mom back in Massachusetts and partially because I know I'll be back soon, so I'm making foods that remind me of home. Yesterday all I had on my mind was recreating Calabrese dishes that my nana makes. So, for dinner, while listening to Frank Sinatra and frantically peeling potatoes, I made something that is ultimate comfort food for me.


Patate e pepi al forno (potatoes and peppers in the oven)
Ingredients
- 2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 3 bell peppers, cut into strips
- Marinara sauce (I adjusted my recipe by adding 1 tbsp red pepper flakes. Calabrese cooking typically uses them in everything, so don't be shy)
- Sprinkle of vegan parmesan cheese (combine equal parts nutritional yeast and sesame seeds with a pinch of sea salt and blend until combined)
- Sprinkle of oregano
- Basil, for garnish
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Leave cubed potatoes in cool water until ready to use to reduce the starchiness.
- Put potatoes and peppers in a baking dish and toss with marinara sauce. Spread evenly on the bottom so the potatoes are mostly in one even layer, which ensures that they'll look evenly and at the same time. Sprinkle top with parmesan "cheese".
- Cook for 45-50 minutes, turning halfway through, or until potatoes are soft and dish is bubbly. Top with more marinara, "cheese" and basil. Mangia!




This is another dish that doesn't look very appetizing, but I promise it is so, so good. The sauce was spicy, the potatoes were crisp and the house smelled like an Italian trattoria. Maybe I'm just partial to it because eating it reminds me of home, but dishes like this are ultimate comfort to me. I was happy last night - eating my patate, listening to Old Blue Eyes and drinking red wine. To me, few things are better than that.

Speaking of ultimate, this morning I made the ultimate superfood SIAB using some goodies I bought yesterday



In the mix
- 1/2 frozen banana + 1/4 cup frozen raspberries + 4 ice cubes
- 1/2 cup soy milk + 1/2 cup water
- 1 handful kale
- 4 basil leaves
- 1 tbsp flax
- 1 tsp each irish moss, maca, spirulina and wheatgrass

Topped with
- 1/2 cup Cascadian Farms cinnamon crunch cereal + 1/4 cup granola
- 1 tsp chia seeds
- Sprinkle of goji berries
- Blob o' dark chocolate pb

Insane! Love the basil. :D

I see more comfort food in my future. And more wine.

Chocolate and Algae and Thai, Oh My.

I was super excited for breakfast today. In fact, it was difficult for me to wait until this morning to break into the goodies to make breakfast because I was just that excited. I can't be the only one that happens to, right? Anyway, I picked up some spirulina and dark chocolate peanut butter and knew exactly what to make with them. I've only had spirulina once, in a fresh juice, so I was looking forward to trying it a new way. The peanut butter needs no explanation - hello, chocolate and nut butter.


Today's SIAB included: 1 frozen banana, 1/2 cup soy milk & 1/2 cup water, a bunch of kale, 1/2 scoop hemp protein, 1 tbsp spirulina, 1 tbsp flax, 1 tbsp cocoa powder and a few 3-4 ice cubes. I topped it with 1/3 cup granola, flax, raspberries and the aforementioned peanut butter.

I didn't utter a word while eating. All I did was stuff my face full of chocolate and algae. The verdict? I love spirulina. It's incredibly healthy, mild tasting and turns thing a beautifully bright color.


Food porn.

Last night I dined at a popular Thai restaurant in Orlando called Sea Thai. I had heard excellent things about it and Thai is one of my favorite cuisines, so I was looking forward to trying to veganize something on the menu. Luckily, there were lots of options and the wait staff was accomodating.

To start, I had a papaya salad. It was crisp, sweet and tangy. There was a lot of dressing, which I usually don't like, but it was so light and vinegary and didn't weigh down the salad at all.



I had drunken noodles for my entree, with tofu. Luckily I asked the waitress if there was any fish or oyster sauce beforehand so that they could make it without (always ask this at Thai restaurants!). It was delicious! Hands down the best restaurant tofu I've had.



The thing I love most about this restaurant are the portions - they're made for one person, not four. I always hate being served a huge portion of food at restaurants, so it was nice to be served a normal amount and not leave feeling stuffed. The prices aren't bad either - the salad + entree came to under $15.

Now I'm off to relax, get some cardio in, and read Eat, Pray, Love which I bought last night!!

Birds and the Greens

Good morning! I desperately tried to stay awake until 3:30AM to watch the episode of I Love Lucy where she tries to bring cheese from Europe on a plane by passing it off as a baby, but alas, I passed out on the couch by midnight in true grandma fashion.

I kicked my week off fabulously with a 20-minute Morning Flow sequence from Yoga Download. I love that sequence because it's mostly focused on backbends, so it stretches out my back and gives me a boost of morning energy.

Then it got even better when this was brought into my life:


The only thing better than scooping out the remains of nut butters in OIAJ is buying a new jar of nut butter to replace the empty one. Since I don't typically buy more than one kind at a time, I like to try a new kind every time I run out. Sunbutter was next on the list, and man, this stuff is delicious! It has an amazing rich, roasted taste that is very distinct and unlike any other nut butter I've tried. I love it!

It went perfectly in this mornings SIAB:




In the mix:
- 1 frozen banana
- 8 pitted cherries
- 1 handful kale
- 1/2 cup each water & coconut milk
- 1-1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp rice protein
- 1 tbsp flax


Topped with:
- 1/3 cup granola
- 1/2 tbsp flax
- SUNBUTTER!

The SIAB went perfectly in my new bowl:




I picked up a couple plastic bowls from Target for $1.99(!) each so that I would always have cute bowls when I'm not at home. I know it sounds crazy, but I don't like when I'm over someone's house and they have ugly dinnerware! This blog has made me so strange.

(Mostly) Wordless Monday

I wish every Monday (or any day) could be spent like this.





















And this morning:


Almond Joy SIAB
In the mix:
- 1 banana
- 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup water
- 1 handful kale
- 1/2 scoop hemp protein
- 1 tbsp flax
- 1 heaping tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 4 ice cubes


Topped with:
- Granola (of course)
- Chopped almonds
- Unsweetened coconut
- Coconut oil shell!!


I promise it tastes like chocolate despite it being green. Honest!

Coconutty

After yesterday's dinner featured a green smoothie, I was craving nothing but a SIAB. In fact, I think I dreamt about it a little. I came up with this combination somewhere in the depths of my foodie slumber, and it's definitely my best to date.


In the mix
- 1 banana
- 2 frozen strawberries
- 1 handful kale
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 tbsp flax
- 1 tbsp each rice + hemp protein powder
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Topped with
- 1/3 cup Nature's Path hemp granola
- Shredded coconut
- Coconut oil shell!! Try it out, it's awesome. I promise it's not weird biting into crunchy bits of oil.




It's like magic! Rich, healthy fat filled, crunchy magic.

I'm positively nutty over coconut.

Must Control My Love for Chocolate

My friends tell me I'm nuts for spending $2.69 on my beloved Endangered Species chocolate, which is quite expensive considering you can buy a Hershey Bar for under $1.00 in some places. Well, I value my overpriced chocolate because it tastes delicious and part of my money goes toward said endangered animals. Basically, aside from nut butters, chocolate is probably my top food love. Well, I think my love has spiraled out of control when I purchased this baby at The Wine Bar the other night:


Looks innocent enough, right? Just your basic chocolate bar. Well, sort of. This is sea salt nib by Eclipse Chocolat. The girl working the register told me it tastes like a chocolate covered pretzel. Well, it didn't really, but I digress. This chocolate bar cost just under $8.00. Eight dollars. On chocolate. The Wine Bar is sneaky because they tempt me with exotic treats and don't put prices on them, so I grabbed the bar and told her to ring it up without even bothering to ask the price. I almost had a heart attack when she announced the total.


So, how does $8.00 chocolate taste? Well, it's super yum. The sea salt flavor is subtle and contrasts nicely with the chocolate. There are big chunks of candied cacao nibs which taste lovely but hurt the roof of my mouth. The chocolate itself is rich and melty, but not as dark as I'd like (50%, I'm more a 70%+ kinda gal). All in all, it was definitely awesome chocolate, but I think I'll stick to my Endangered Species. That is, unless I decide to try Eclipse's sweet basil mint. No, Krystina, fight the urge.

In other news, this morning I tried out a new SIAB!

Cashew coconut SIAB
In the mix:
- 1 frozen banana
- 1 big handful kale
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 1 tbsp hemp protein
- 1/2 tbsp ground flax


Topped with:
- Nature's Path hemp plus granola (delish)
- 1/2 tbsp flax
- 1 tbsp coconut
- Blob o' cashew butta

Unfortunately the coconut flavor didn't come out as much as I'd like and the cashew butta was kind of lost in the mix (I like to scoop out hunks of nut butta in my bowl) but I bet it'll set up more in the fridge. Mmm, breakfast.

Cafe 118

Last night I went on a dinner date to Cafe 118 in Winter Park, FL, which features "Living Cuisine". Everything they serve is organic, mostly local, and raw. They also have a great sounding juice and smoothie bar in addition to innovative entrees and desserts.

One of my quirks is that I always check out menus ahead of time and pick out what I think I want. Well, when I first looked at this menu, one item jumped out to me: beet ravioli. So, without hesitation, that is just what I ordered.


Beet ravioli with macadamia nut ricotta and a pear wine sauce.


The salad had a lovely light dressing that I couldn't quite identify.

This was DELICIOUS. I've only ever had golden beets so I was hesitant to try their red relatives, but I loved every single bite of these babies. I loved them so much that I was scraping my plate with the fork to get every last bite. It was light, slightly sweet and fruity, and the macadamia nut cheese was DIVINE.


My date's entree was vegetable lasagna with sundried tomatoes, herb pesto and macadamia nut ricotta.

Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of this or a picture of the beautiful pesto on the other side of the plate. I tried a bite which was mostly comprised of said pesto and it was also delicious. The pesto had amazing flavor and the dish was robust.

Then came my favorite part, dessert. I couldn't decide between s'mores or ice cream, so we got both.


S'mores and cacao mint ice cream


The "marshmallow" is actually made from the marshmallow root!

Approximately one millisecond after taking my first bite of this I repeated "Oh my God" about ten times. It was incredible! I've been craving a s'more for the longest time and this fulfilled that craving and then some. The flavor was spot on and once again, I was scraping the plate with my fork. I would drive an hour to come here and get this dessert every day if I could.


I don't know how they did it (should have asked) but this tastes better than any mint chocolate chip ice cream I've ever had. It was creamy, minty, and...chocolatey. The chocolate chunks were surprisingly soft and chewy, but I actually liked that. I want to go back and try all of the other flavors (hello, cherry chocolate chip and banana almond butter cup!). I want to go here and order every dessert on the menu and just engorge myself. Actually, I'd probably love just about anything they serve. This was hands down the best restaurant meal I've had in a long time, if not ever.


I also liked my dress for the evening.

This morning I woke up and made another SIAB with hemp protein powder my date brought me. Yes, most guys bring flowers, maybe some chocolate, but my dates bring me protein powder. I love it.



In the mix:
- 1 handful kale
- 1 frozen nanner
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 tbsp hemp protein powder
- 1/2 tbsp ground flax
- 1/2 tsp vanilla

Toppings:
- 1/3 cup granola
- 1/2 tbsp flax
- Blob 'o almond butta

One word to describe everything in this post: deeeelicious (minus the dress, that's inedible).

New Breakfast Alert!

Last night I stared at my three overripe bananas with some sadness. I knew they wouldn't last three days, but I also knew I couldn't go one day without my beloved. So, while I was lying in bed I remembered something awesome I saw in the blog world: Kath's SIAB (Smoothie in a Bowl). I've had bad experiences with green smoothies before (e.g. exploding all over the kitchen, overly chewy kale, etc) so I was apprehensive to get back on the saddle. But, you know how that old saying goes. So get back on, I did.



In the mix
- 1 frozen banana
- 3 large kale leaves
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/2 tbsp ground flax

Here's the interesting part. I sadly don't have a blender down in Florida, so I assumed I couldn't make smoothies. WRONG! For some reason the food processor here can make better smoothies than I've ever had from a blender, and it's just a simple Black & Decker. Here's how:

- Plop the banana in and act like you're going to make banana soft serve. Once the banana forms the "nanner ball" and comes together, stop.
- Add the kale and half the almond milk. Turn it on and process, baby, process. This will take a minute or two.
- When the mixture begins to reach the desired consistency, slowly pour in the remaining almond milk through the feed chute. Add the flax at the end and pulse to combine.


The end result was a creamy, thick and delicious smoothie. No kale chewing necessary and no additional sweetener because my nanners are just that ripe. I popped the bowl into the freezer so it would be nice and cold and it was molto bene!

Toppings
- 1/3 cup apple pom granola
- 1 tbsp flax
- 1 almond butter blob


This guy kinda looks like Animal, no?



Dare I say that I like this breakfast more than my yogurt bowls? I hate to admit it, but right now they're at least tied. This completely exceeded my expectations. Sometimes it IS easy being green.

Okey dokey Kermit, I think I'm going to try running outside today. I might pass out from the heat or get lost since I don't know the area well, but by golly I must try.