Eating Healthier

One of my college roommates, Erica (Lehigh graduate student/master seamstress) and I were gchatting last week about wanting to eat healthier. She and Greg (her boyfriend) have been making a conscious effort recently to eat better, influenced by all the yummy things Erica has been growing in their garden this season. I sent her a few recipes yesterday, including this one, which I decided to make as an ode to her (and to eat well!).

Chickpea Stew for Erica

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup diced onion (I used the rest of a spring onion bought at the farmer's market Saturday, but yellow or white works just as well)
1 cup diced carrot (I used baby carrots, because that's what we had in the fridge)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, minced (I may have used a little more than one ... hey, some like it hot)
1 1/2 cups cubed peeled potato (the recipe calls for Yukon gold, I had one red and one ... regular brown skin? potato, so I used those)
2 teaspoons ground cumin (This is really a guideline, its more like "to taste" - meaning more)
1 teaspoon chili powder (see above note about the cumin)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric (again, see above)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cans (30ish ounces) diced tomatoes, or fresh if they're in season
1 can (16 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 cups (16 ounces) vegetable broth (or chicken broth)
3 cups brown rice or whole wheat couscous

To Do:

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, garlic, carrot, and jalapeño to the pan, saute until tender. Stir in potato and the next seven ingredients (through the broth). Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat, allowing the stew to simmer for about 15 minutes until the potato is tender. Serve over the rice/couscous.


This stew yields a lot of food! (Roughly 6 generous portions!) Both Amanda and I packed some for lunch today.

Happy Eating!

-Robin-

Contents of the Fridge Dinner

I was trying to get dinner together this evening before Amanda got home from work (and we still have two house guests to feed as well). So I emptied the contents of our fridge and freezer into a pot and this is what I came up with:

Tempeh and Veggie Stir Fry

1 package of multi grain tempeh
2 tablespoons red curry powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large spring onion
1 broccoli crown
1/2 diced zucchini
2/3 cup frozen snow peas
3 cups Trader Joes Frozen Biryani Mix (yellow rice, red peppers, peas, raisins, apples, onions)
Salt and pepper to taste

To Do:

Cube the tempeh and place it in a plastic Ziploc bag. Add the red curry powder into the Ziploc bag, seal the bag, and shake it so that the curry marinates the tempeh.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Chop the garlic and spring onion, add them to the pot. Cook until soft. Add the broccoli, snow peas, and zucchini and cook until tender.

Dump the contents of the Ziploc bag (the tempeh and any loose curry powder) into the pot and heat. Add the Biryani Mix last, since it only needs to cook for a few minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste and serve (to your very hungry roommate and friends!)

Yeah I made Amanda eat all of this.

Up close of my plate- delicious.

Happy Eating!

-Robin-

Hungry Hungry Hiker Apple Crisp

There are two Appalachian Trail hikers currently enjoying some rest and relaxation at my apartment in DC. To amuse myself (and keep up there 4,000 calorie a day diet) I've been doing a lot of baking. This apple crisp is probably the most delicious things I've made for them.

Hungry Hungry Hiker Apple Crisp

5 apples (because that's how many I had on my counter)
1/3 cup almonds, halved (or use already chopped)
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1/3 stick margarine (or butter if you're not vegan)

To Do:

Peel the apples and cut them into slices. Line them around a baking pan in a spiral pattern, overlapping if necessary to fit them all in.

In a microwave safe separate bowl, mix the almonds, oats, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and margarine. Heat for about a minute until the margarine is melted. Stir.

Pour the oat mixture over the apples in the baking dish.

Bake on 350 degrees for 25 minutes until soft and delicious. Serve warm.

Uncooked, although it looked similar cooked.

Sarah really likes my cooking. A lot.

Happy Eating!

-Robin-

Pink Pancakes are for Girls

Amanda and I are entertaining our first house guests this weekend!

Our good friend Lauren and her hiking partner Sarah are in town, taking a break from hiking the entire Appalachian Trail! They started Easter Sunday in Georgia and plan to finish the 2,200ish mile trek in early October in Maine. They just crossed the 1,000 mile marker, so they decided to come spend the weekend with us in DC. And we're VERY happy to have them.

Here's what I've learned about hikers: they eat A LOT. Something like 4,000 calories a day.

They also don't get a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, so they accompanied us to the farmer's market Saturday morning. Lauren picked up a huge pint of fresh local strawberries and we decided to make strawberry pancakes (we all know I LOVE pancakes).

This is my standard vegan pancake recipe, which I doubled on account of the hungry hikers in my apartment:

Vegan Strawberry Pancakes

1 1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons margarine or vegetable oil (whichever you have on hand will work)
1 cup water
1 pint strawberries (washed, and diced)

To Do:

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
Add the diced strawberries, juice and all (to make them fun and pink).
Spray a frying pan and cook about 1/3 cup of batter at a time.

The batter gets thicker the more you mix it, so be careful unless you like thick cakey pancakes.

Yeah, they're pretty cute and very pink.
The inside deliciousness.
Clearly, we made a lot. Doubling the recipe makes around 14 or so pretty thick pancakes.

Notes:

Obviously, this is a very basic recipe. It could be jazzed up a number of ways:

Use milk/soy milk instead of water.

Use different berries instead of strawberries.

Add spices to make it sweeter or savory, this would work to make a vegetable pancake for dinner as well. (Actually, that's a good idea, I may try that!)

As always, use this recipe as a template and be creative! Post comments, we want you to share what you've made!

Happy Eating!

-Robin-

Quick Tex-Mex Dinner

Good news: my apartment now has Internet! So expect more frequent updates.

I am also back to my to rummaging-through-cabinets to find food ways. For dinner the other night, I created a Tex-Mex dish for Amanda and myself out of found foodstuffs in our kitchen.

It also wound up being gluten-free (in case Emily is reading this!)

Spicy Tex-Mex Filling

1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 can black beans
2 tomatoes, diced (we had some left from the farmers market, so I chopped them up and threw them in. It also helped defuse some of the spiciness of the canned tomatoes.)
1 ripe avocado, diced (left over from a trip to Aldi's discount grocery store near my grandparent's house).
2 tablespoons lemon juice (to help keep the avocado pieces from browning)
Salt, pepper, and TONS of dried cilantro (because Amanda likes cilantro)
Package of corn tortillas

To Do:

I dumped the cans of tomatoes and beans into a big mixing bowl.
Then I chopped up the tomatoes and the avocado and added them to the mixing bowl.
I added the lemon juice over the avocado and the salt, pepper, and cilantro.
I heated the filling in a pot on the stove; at the same time I toasted the corn tortillas in a skillet.

Our dining room table, quasi-set for dinner.

Notes:

This could VERY easily be modified with whatever you have on hand/whatever your favorite Tex-Mex flavors are.

This would make a great taco filling.

I'm sure there's a cheesy-gooey recipe that could be made from this as well.

Please change it around and post your findings!

Happy Eating!

-Robin-

What else are you doing at 8 am Saturday morning?

It's summer (okay, almost ...) and summer means farmers markets. I just settled into my new apartment in Del Ray, just a few blocks from the farmers market on Mt. Vernon Avenue. It's a small market, similar to the Oakland farmers market near Pitt's campus. Even though there are only a handful of stalls, it's really crowded every Saturday from 8 am - Noon. Everyone in the neighborhood is out- wearing khakis, pushing strollers, walking dogs, and picking up locally grown produce.

Two weeks ago, I bought a beautiful head of butter lettuce (which I made into salads all week) as well as a pint of fresh cherries from one stall, and a half-pint of strawberries from another (I ate the strawberries as soon as I got home for breakfast). I also struck up a conversation, about Italy with the woman selling mushrooms. I bought way too many baby bellas from her.

While I munched on the cherries all week, rinsed and cold from the fridge, I thought I should do something of merit with my delicious find.

So I called Ben. Ben (amazing man/great friend/total foodie/world traveler/MBA student) suggested I bake something delicious with them. Normally, Biz is the baker of this partnership, but I thought I'd try my hand at putting things in my new oven and seeing how they turn out.

Besides, there's reason to celebrate: Amanda just moved across the country and into our apartment. So I halved and pitted the cherries and dug out a recipe worthy of sharing with all of you. Originally, this is the "Vegan Berry Shortcake" recipe from the City Bakery (88 Charlotte Street, Asheville, NC 28801). The City Bakery is a favorite place of the women in my family (this recipe was passed along from the Bakery to my late grandmother Margaret Kelleher to my mother nearly a decade ago and then to me). The copy of the recipe I have has notes and scribbles on it from both my mother and stepfather (who mistook it for a scrap piece of paper and wrote something on the backside of it).

Cherry Shortbread

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup soy milk

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup water

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 pint cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Sifting isn't necessary unless you're a perfectionist.

Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly incorporate into the bowl of dry ingredients.

Add the cherries into the batter, mix slightly.

Pour batter into a loaf pan or small baking pan (I used an 8 x 8). I also greased it lightly so it would come out easier, but that's not necessary.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes. (Although my oven seemed to take a bit longer.)

Notes:
You can really use any berry for this recipe.

Making an additional topping (rather than or in addition to my lazy recipe of just dumping the cherry halves into the batter) of berries and sugar would be delicious. Or even sprinkling a few on top after you've pour the batter into the pan to make it look festive would work.

You can obviously adjust this recipe for dairy and egg eaters, anything you have in your fridge in those regards would work as well.

Feel free to change and try this recipe! Post comments on what worked well for you for everyone to read and share.

Happy Eating!

-Robin-

Yes, my family drove to NYC to buy cookies

So there's this bakery in NYC which has the best cookies I have ever tasted. My sister and I discovered them last summer when she was there for co-op with Theory (a fashion design thing) and I was visiting her to hang out. The store is called Levain Bakery. This is their website: http://www.levainbakery.com/. They are located at 167 West 74th Street (go W74th and Columbus). If you are in New York and like cookies at all, go there. It is delicious.

I was in Philly last week for the Drexel University fashion show, mainly to see my sister's senior collection. (She tied for best accessories - after all she did make all of her own jewelry, which is fantastic and which I direly want to steal from her). The show was on a Wednesday (don't ask me why), and my mom and I were staying at Sarah's apartment until the weekend, so we decided to head up to New York on Friday. We may say we went to window shop, to go to Soho, or just to hang-out. These were all secondary. We went for the cookies.

(I have no idea who these men are.)

Best cookies ever.

Driving back from Philly, we stopped by King of Prussia Mall and had lunch at Zodiac, the restaurant in Neiman Marcus. Not many people know about this place - it's hidden in an expensive department store but is a tasty and reasonably-priced restaurant. Plus, they give you chicken broth and popovers with strawberry butter to start. I was a little disappointed with my entree this time (a mixed greens salad topped with lamb, roasted tomatoes, asparagus, and olive oil); it just wasn't that exciting. Good, but not wowing with flavor. The food is usually much better.

half-eaten popover with strawberry butter

salad with lamb and roasted tomatoes

~*'Biz'*~