Mexican Salad

Many months ago, I went to Cafe 118 for yet another perfectly deletable meal. I ordered the taco salad, which was full of so many flavors and textures that my mouth went into overdrive. I took a bite. I moaned. I took another bite. And moaned.

Oh did I moan.

After proclaiming it to be the best salad ever, I vowed to make it at home.

And I didn't.

Dehydrated tortillas? Cashew sour cream? I'd love to. My wallet? Not so much.



So, after reading a post on Andie's blog, I decided I had to make a Mexican salad. A simple one, full of my aromatic frijoles, fresh, vibrant vegetables, guacamole as smooth as butter, and one of my favorite herbs, the misunderstood cilantro.



It's easy. So easy you've probably seen it before. So easy you probably don't think it's worthy of a blog post. But I do, and that's all that matters, isn't it?


Mexican salad
Ingredients
- 1 head romaine, chopped
- 2/3 cup black beans
- 1 large corn cob, grilled* and kernels removed
- 1 cup pico de gallo
- 1/2 cup guacamole**
- 2-4T plain Greek yogurt, or sour cream

* To grill corn, just coat with a little olive oil and place on direct heat, turning every few minutes, until lightly charred.

* My guacamole varies almost every time I make it. For this, I mashed one avocado and combined it with the juice of 1/2 a lime, 1/2t each cumin, onion powder & garlic powder, 1/4t cayenne, and some sea salt. I like mine super smooth.

Instructions
- Combine all ingredients and serve chilled.

Serves 2

Pico de gallo
Ingredients
- 1lb roma tomatoes, chopped
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 1 small jalapeno, minced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Combine ingredients and chill for at least an hour.

Kale Salad with Citrus, Mint, and Feta

Good news: I can eat again. Even though I didn't think it would ever happened, my throat is perfect and I'm healthy again. Of course, the first thing I thought to care about was food.

When I wracked my brain for what exactly to eat, I came up short on life's little delicacies.

Pizza? No.

Chocolate? Not a chance.

Lemon poppy muffins? Absolutely not.

You sure about that chocolate? Don't tease me.

You see, for over a week, I ate poorly. Poor in nutrition and poor in amount. My diet consisted of every soft carb I could force down my near closed throat. Oh, and milkshakes. And ice cream. So, where did this leave me?

Vegetable hungry. So very vegetable hungry. All I could think about was the crunch of a carrot, starchy sweet summer corn, and raw kale.



Well, those were all I could think about aside from s'mores, of which I ate many. Something about completely charred marshmallows makes me irrevocably happy.



Anyway, back to this salad. It's easy to toss together, inexpensive, and full of fresh, clean flavors. Chewy kale, bright citrus, and beautifully salty feta cheese combine to make a perfect lunch or side dish. It's simple, it's healthy, and it quelled my vegetable hunger.


Kale salad with citrus, mint and feta
Ingredients
- 1/2lb curly kale, chopped
- 1 grapefruit, segmented
- 1/4 cup feta cheese crumbles
- 1/4 cup fresh mint, torn
- 2T sesame seeds
- 1T olive oil
- Juice of 1 lime
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Combine kale with olive oil, lime juice, and salt. Massage with your fingers for a few minutes, or until kale begins to soften and slightly wilt. Toss together remaining ingredients, season to taste, and let sit at room temperature until ready to serve.

Serves 2

Five Minute Recipe: Black Bean Avocado Quesadilla

One of my favorite products are Trader Joe's brown rice tortillas. They're much chewier and filling than regular tortillas, and they're also huge. Win/Win.

However, they make horrible wraps. Or I'm a horrible wrapper. Either way, every time I try to make a wrap or a burrito, it splits and ends up with me throwing them frisbee-style across the room, salsa decorating the walls like a very strange crime scene, made stranger by me licking it off said walls.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

So, I got to thinking. A quesadilla is an easy way to eat one of these finicky tortillas without having to bend them too much beyond their comfort zone. The black bean avocado idea came into fruition after I had a slice of pizza at Amherst's famous Antonio's a couple months ago; they're known for massive slices of some of the most creative pizza ideas I've ever seen, including black bean quesadilla. Picture a crispy, thin crust topped with mashed black beans, thin avocado slices, crispy tortilla chip crumbles, a thick drizzle of sour cream, and chunks of salty feta.



Oh yes.



Back to the quesadilla. It takes literally five minutes to make, is positively crispy, creamy, and slightly smokey, and tastes perfect dunked into my new love: salsa verde, which I could drink through a straw.


Black bean avocado quesadilla
Ingredients
- 1 tortilla, brown rice or otherwise
- 1/3 cup (vegan) refried black beans, or slightly mashed black beans
- 1/2 avocado, thinly sliced
- 3-4 slices of tomato
- 1/2t cumin + scant 1/4t cayenne
- 1T nutritional yeast*
- Fresh cilantro, torn

Instructions
- Warm tortilla in the microwave to make it more pliable. Spread toppings on one half of the tortilla, then flip the other side over.
- Heat a skillet to medium and toast on both sides, until golden brown. Using a pot, tea kettle, brick, or some other heavy household item to create a makeshift (re: cheap) press, if desired.

Serves 1

* Feel free to add vegan cheese (Daiya pepperjack would be awesome), organic cheese, sour cream, etc.

Whirled Peas...Hummus?

I know, hummus is supposed to be made with chickpeas, but listen to me for a second. I woke up this morning and wanted to make baba ghanoush only to discover that my eggplant was mushy. I actually contemplated roasting it anyway, thinking that cooking it at a high temperature would kill any bacteria (I know, I know) but my rationality beckoned me to throw it away. So then I figured I'd make hummus, but I just wasn't in a chickpea kind of mood. So I tried thinking of a new way I could spin an old favorite. Many ideas later (including mushrooms) I remembered there were peas in the freezer. So I got to work, and created something pretty tasty.


Whirled peas hummus
Ingredients
- 3 cups frozen peas, thawed
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 basil leaves, torn
- 1 tbsp parsley
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Throw everything into a food processor and...whirl...until smooth. Chill until serving.




I know this isn't very hummus like, but I want it to be hummus so that's just what it's going to be. It's sweet, herbaceous and has a color that instantly put a smile on my face. Why eat a bowl of beige chickpea hummus when you can have a beautifully bright green spread that tastes great on veggies and pita and my fingers? The answer is obvious.

Now I'm going to sip some tea, watch the (original) Iron Chef, and begin concocting my next Desserts for Moi endeavor. Ciao!

Blog announcement: Organically Me has a new look! I was up until 1AM working on it and I'm quite happy. More pages to come as well.

Chickpea of the Sea

My mom will probably laugh at the fact that this recipe includes a laundry list of things I used to hate, which replicates a dish that I used to hate. Needless to say, my tastes have changed, especially since switching to veganism. So today I wanted to try making something that never appealed to me and see if I liked it. Live dangerously, folks, live dangerously.


Mock tuna salad
Ingredients
- 1 15oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1 rib celery, diced
- 1 dill pickle, diced
- 1/2 small yellow onion, diced
- 1 tbsp nori or dulse flakes
- 3 tbsp unsweetened plain soyogurt (Wildwood)
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- Old Bay, to taste
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Mash chickpeas roughly using a fork or potato masher. Alternatively, add them to a food processor and pulse until desired consistency is reached.
- Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Chill until serve.


The verdict? So good! It tastes very similar to tuna salad because of the nori and Old Bay and all of the flavors worked super well together. I've used chickpeas to make "chicken" salad before, but I prefer this! It's inexpensive, easy to make and tasty.

I had mine on a deliciously doughy pita with romaine and tomato. Perfetto.


Be back later with a (hopefully) successful veggie burger recipe! Happy Tuesday. :D

Braised Cabbage

I finally figured out a way to use some of the two heads of cabbage in the fridge. Unfortunately, this only used 1/2 of one, but luckily it was delicious and gave me incentive to find ways to cook more. Braising is typically a cooking method saved for cooler months when the weather is dreary and people want hot, slow cooked food. However, I don't exactly cook weather appropriately (e.g. the many soups I've made in the past few weeks) and I'm really looking forward to autumn, so braising was perfectly appropriate for me.


Braised cabbage with cauliflower rice
Ingredients
- 1/2 head savoy cabbage, cut into 4 wedges
- 1 cup vegetable stock or water
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar + more for drizzling
- Dried thyme, to taste
- 2 bay leaves
- Cracked pepper (and salt if using salt free stock or water)

- 2 cups cauliflower florets
- 1 tbsp Vegan parmesan cheese
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Wash and core the cabbage and divide into four wedges. Set aside.
- In an 8x8 or 9x13 casserole dish, add stock, thyme and bay leaves. Set cabbage wedges on top, drizzle with red wine vinegar and cracked pepper. Cover tightly in foil and bake for an hour, turning halfway through.

- While the cabbage braises, prepare the "rice":
- Cut florets in small pieces and add to a food processor along with seasoning and "cheese". Pulse until it has the consistency of white rice.
- Just before cabbage is done, heat "rice" in a sauce pan on medium heat until warm. Plate and serve cabbage over top with a drizzle of vinegar.




This was lovely and would probably be even better on a cool November evening, snuggled up in a blanket and a glass of merlot. However, it worked well for a ridiculously hot August afternoon while guzzling a big glass of water after a sweaty power walk. The cabbage was completely infused with the broth and practically fell apart at the touch of a fork.

The cauliflower rice wasn't used for any low-carb reasons; I needed to use some up before it went bad and it doesn't hurt that cauliflower rice is tasty. If you'd prefer real rice, then by all means use that instead. Lord knows I love my carbs.

Viva Italia

I'm on a roll, or in this case, a tomato. After hitting the gym for a sweaty cardio session, did I want something light and refreshing to cool me down? No. I wanted something hot, Italian and stick to your ribs good. The best thing about this dish is that it literally includes four ingredients, which create their own sauce. The end result is something so flavorful and hearty that it can only be considered comfort food.


Fagioli all’Uccelletto (Cannellini beans in tomatoes)
Ingredients
- 1 15oz can cannellini beans + bean liquid
- 2 medium vine tomatoes, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Fresh basil
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Chop tomatoes and crush them with your hands a bit to release more liquid.
- Add tomatoes, torn basil and garlic to a non-stick pan. Cook on medium-high for 15-20 minutes or until tomatoes are completely soft and break apart to the touch.
- Add beans + bean liquid and stir (note: I use no salt added beans so I can control the salt in my dishes). Cook for about 5 more minutes, making sure beans still retain their shape. You're looking for the sauce to thicken a bit but for the beans to just warm through. Finish with more torn basil and fresh cracked pepper.


See? Simple. The way food should be.



If I had my way I'd serve it with a giant piece of crusty bread, but alas, I had a side salad with spinach, radicchio, broccoli and balsamic. More nutritious? Yes, but bread it is not.

Miami in Pictures: The Food, Part Two

Saturday + Sunday

For lunch on Saturday, I ate at Life Food Gourmet, a raw restaurant in downtown Miami. I had the burger, which consisted of nut and seed patty, ketchup, mustard, nacho "cheese" and veggies on a flax bun. I also had a cacao shake on the side. It was all wonderful, but the service left little to be desired.



Dinner, as stated in the last post, was also at TiramesU.

On Sunday after waking up hungover late, I decided I wanted a traditional Sunday brunch. I made reservations at Blue Door at the Delano Hotel and ended up having a lovely experience at a breathtaking hotel.



Brunch started out with this:


A blueberry bellini that, though delicious, was probably not worth $15. I also had an unpictured mimosa.


Slow cooked steel cut oats (cooked in water) with candied walnuts and cranberries and the most delicious grapefruit I've had, bruleed with raw sugar.

Dinner was spent at Sushi Samba, a Japanese, Peruvian and Brazlian fusion restaurant. The waitress said they were tapas style, but the dishes were definitely bigger than traditional tapas. I went a little overboard with ordering and ended up with more than I expected, but it was all fantastic. My meal there was probably the most flavorful that I had in my entire stay.


Started with a recommendation by the waitress, watermelon mojitos. These were the second best mojitos I've ever had.


Edamame with sea salt and lime.


Tofu with Japanese eggplant, daikon and crispy asparagus.


The stickiest, most flavorful coconut rice I've ever eaten.


Creamy, sweet plantains.


Avocado roll, vegetable samba roll, cucumber roll. The vegetable samba was my favorite; it was filled with an array of veggies and came with a peanut dipping sauce.

I know this seems like A LOT of food, but rest assured it was all shared.

Well folks, this about wraps up my Miami adventures. To say I had fun is an understatement, and to say I want to go back is the 100% truth.

Cookies and Dal

Why is it always nicer to wake up when you know you have a delicious breakfast waiting for you in the fridge? This morning I couldn't wait to get up and finish my yoga session so I could give into this delicious breakfast cookie:


1/2 cup oats, 1 tbsp rice protein, 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tbsp dark chocolate pb, 1/8 cup soy milk, raspberries and gojis topped with banana and a cocoa dusting (I seriously love doing this).



I also love making food presentations look nice. Even though I'm spending time making food look pretty that is just for me, it's nice to treat myself to something that both taste and looks good. Why should we just throw stuff on a plate and eat it? I am important to myself and I deserve to take a little extra time to make things a bit special.

For lunch I decided to make red lentil dal, which is one of the dishes I planned to make last night. It was super simple to make; most time was spent waiting for the lentils to cook.


Red lentil dal
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup red lentils, rinsed and picked through
- 1 1/2 cups water or vegetable stock
- 2 tsp coconut oil
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 1 tsp ginger, grated
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 finger hot chili, de-seeded and minced
- 2 tsp homemade curry powder (or whatever you have on hand)
- 2 tsp tomato paste
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp parsley or cilantro, some reserved for garnish
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Add coconut oil to a skillet on medium/medium-high heat. Add aromatics and saute until translucent and softened.
- Once translucent, add curry powder and stir constantly to combine. Once combined, add lentils and vegetable stock (or water). Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until most of the water is absorbed and lentils are tender. Serve hot and garnish with chopped tomato and extra herbs if desired.


I had mine with carrots, kiwi and half of the most best pita I've ever had (from the Winter Park farmers market).


The texture and heat of this dish was spot on, but unfortunately it was too salty for my tastes. I think next time I'll either use water instead of stock, or use salt-free stock. It wasn't overwhelmingly salty, but I tend to like my food on the less salty side. That aside, this dish was easy, fast and deliciously heart warming. Dare I say it was dal-icious? I know, I know.

Tampa Meet-Up

Yesterday I went to Tampa for a blogger meet-up at Trang Viet, a Vietnamese restaurant with a separate veg*n menu! Seriously folks, there were so many options that we all took 20 minutes just to narrow down what we wanted. But the most important thing was the company, which was great! I'm so glad Sammi put this together because it was awesome to finally meet bloggers face to face. We ended up spending hours at the restaurant just talking and getting to know each other; I met some cool people and had a good time.


Bloggers included Sammi, Trinity and Blake, and Lindsey plus some friends! It was a big group, which made it even more fun.

Unfortunately the food was just OK. I had high hopes for the restaurant because it came so highly recommended, but the best thing I ate was my appetizer: winter spring rolls. They were the only "season" spring roll that didn't have faux meat in them, so I chose them based on freshness. They were delicious and I liked the addition of jicama.



For my entree I debated between papaya salad and ginger "beef". I wish I went with the salad because the "beef" wasn't very good. It was lukewarm and didn't have much flavor. I asked for veggies instead of rice, which is a good tip if you don't want the huge mound of rice Asian restaurants usually serve with meals.



I wanted chocolate rum "cheese"cake for dessert but they were out, so I went with carrot cake instead. The icing was good, but the cake was unremarkable. It tasted kind of undercooked and it wasn't spicy enough.



Even though the food was mediocre, it was great to have my first meet-up, make new friends and enjoy a nice afternoon in Tampa. Plus, the restaurant staff was super sweet and accommodating. Thanks again, Sammi! Now it's time to pump some iron! :)

Blue Springs

Today I went to Blue Springs State Park in Orange City, FL for some sunshine, swimming and relaxation.








Tempeh, jam, dijon and basil.


I didn't see any alligators, but I got quite chummy with a large fish.









Goodnight :)