Avocado Fries

I’m not big into fried foods. I don’t eat meat, so there goes the fried chicken and everything else I’d just rather have….unfried? But these. THESE. I think the fact that they’re made from avocado – one of the major loves of my life –  makes up for the fact that they have been deep-fried in a vat of oil. It cancels out, or something.

Anyway.

I can’t take the credit for these — my friend Aviva found the recipe online, and when she and Emma came over for dinner last night, we gave them a shot along with a totally delicious sweet potato + fig lasagna. (Jealous?)

Warning: DO NOT fry these in a wok! It gets WAY too hot! We learned the hard way, and by “hard way” I mean “started a mini fire in my kitchen when the boiling oil splashed all over the kitchen wall, floor, computer, body, iPhone and everything else within a five foot radius causing the three us to run from the kitchen shrieking “. Definitely use a dish a little more shallow. Trust me on this one.

We paired these with our favorite hot sauce, and, oil burns aside**, they came out great!

Quick Note: the batter for these contains egg. You could definitely make these vegan by frying them in something like this.

** See exhibit C.

Young Coconuts

Young thai coconuts, how do I love thee? I could write a novel. Instead, I’ll keep it to a short blog post, cool? Cool.

I first got hooked on fresh coconut water at Bonobos, the raw, vegetarian food joint in New York. I had never tasted anything so completely delicious in my entire LIFE. Now, coconut water is everywhere — Zico, VitaCoco….but, honestly? I’m not a fan. It tastes like salty cardboard (not that I’ve ever tasted cardboard butttt….) and nothing at all like real coconut water!

Anyway. Nothing does it for me like the real water, poured straight from a young coconut. I can usually depend on Organic Avenue, Liquiteria, Pure Food and Wine, Juice Generation or Bonobos for fresh, (albeit really, really expensive) coconut water and again, it tastes nothing like the stuff from the shelf. Promise.

Because I don’t love spending $9 on a 16oz bottle of the stuff, I’ve been getting my fix recently by buying the coconuts (you can find them at Whole Foods and some health food stores), slicing them at home, and enjoying a tall glass all for about 4 bucks (tip: keep the coconut in the fridge before slicing….that way it’ll be nice and cold when you’re ready to drink.)

Here we are cutting one open this morning. Note, you’ll definitely need a huge chef’s knife and someone strong to give it a few good whacks. I definitely would have sliced my hand off had I done this on my own (thanks, Bri!) After we drank the water from it, we scooped out the meat with a spoon and snacked on that. The BEST start to a Sunday morning.

Delicata Squash with Fresh Herbs

I love squash. One of my favorite (see: only) things about Winter is the abundance of different kinds of squash — acorn, butternut, spaghetti and….delicata?! I got two of these in my CSA share from last week and had NO idea what to do with them. I had never even SEEN them before. They looked like something you would decorate a Thanksgiving table with. Eat? I wasn’t too sure.

I decided to slice it, (skin on), coat in olive oil, salt and pepper and add on chopped sage and rosemary (picked fresh from my window garden!) I roasted it for about 45 minutes and the results were amazing. Buttery, sweet, filled with flavor, this is absolutely going to be my new squash of choice. If you haven’t already tried it, I encourage you go to get some and roast it up immediately.

What You Need

Two small delicata squash

two tablespoons chopped fresh herbs – I used rosemary and sage

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

What You Do:

Pre-heat oven to 375. Slice the squash in half lengthwise and using a spoon, scoop out the seeds from the center of each half. Once everything is scooped out, slice each half width-wise into 1 inch pieces. Drizzle olive oil on the squash, making sure each piece is covered and spread the pieces out on a baking sheet (first spray with cooking spray to prevent sticking!) Sprinkle chopped herbs, salt, and pepper on the squash, pop in the oven, and let roast for about 45 minutes. You’ll know the squash is done when you can easily poke with a knife. I would also recommend removing the baking sheet halfway through the baking time, giving it a good shake to loosen up any pieces that might have gotten stuck to the baking sheet, and then placing it back in the oven to finish roasting.

That’s all there is too it! Delicata squash. Do it. Now.

Cashew Oat Milk

I am so excited about this post. CASHEW MILK! Now, hold your horses. I can feel you getting grossed out and you haven’t even gotten past the first paragraph.  I know it’s hard to imagine making milk out of anything other than, well, cows, but this stuff is GOOD and easy. Trust.

I first got hooked on cashew milk thanks to BPC. Their 6th juice was my FAVORITE — it was a creamy, cinnammon-y, delicious party in my mouth. The ingredients were also pretty simple: cashews, water, cinnammon, agave, vanilla. That’s it! Not willing to wait for a cleanse to get my cashew milk fix, I took a stab at making my own and now I’m hooked. It took me a while to get the recipe exactly right — the first few times I made this sans oats and the result was a little too watery. The oats give it a creaminess that’s PERFECT.

What You Need:

• 1 1/12cup raw cashews
• 3 cups filtered water
• 1 tbsp agave
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1  tsp cinnamon
• nut milk bag (or fine mesh strainer)

What You Do:

• Fill a jar up with cashews, cover with water, and seal. Let sit for at least 8 hours, overnight is preferred.
• Drain the cashews and rinse well.
• Place the oats into a food processor and pulse to a fine powder. Set aside.
• Put the cashews in a food processor or blender, add 3 cups of water, add the oats and blend, blend, blend away (you want to pulverize the cashews as much as humanly possible.)
• Next, place a nut milk bag (or fine mesh strainer/cheesecloth) over a jar and pour your cashew mixture in. Be sure to squeeze the bag when you’re done to get all the last liquid bits out of the leftover cashew mush.
• Finally, add in the cinnamon and agave. Seal the bottle and give it a good shake. All done! Use it in cereal, to bake, or to dip cookies in!

Next up – almond milk!

 

Homemade Blueberry Jam

I’ve been on a blueberry kick the past few weeks. Blame it on the farmer’s markets, but I suddenly want to take advantage of the fact that everywhere you turn there are fresh, sweet, blueberries waiting to be baked/cooked/jammed. Last Sunday, I made the blueberry pie that beats all other blueberry pies, and then, inspired by my friend Sarah’s most recent post, tried my hand at making jam. It was really, really easy, yielded a TON of jam (see: for the rest of ever), and is delicious! Brian helped himself to five (yes, five) slices of toast this morning topped with the jam and Earth Balance.

Before settling on one recipe, I Googled around and found that most recipes are all fairly similar: crushed fruits + lemon juice + some quantity of sugar + pectin. The sugar content of most of them was high (2 cups!), so I cut it down by half as the blueberries I had on hand were already pretty sweet. Here’s what I did.

What You Need:

4 cups, rinsed blueberries

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons pectin

2 teaspoons calcium water (this comes in the box with the pectin, along with instructions on how to make the calcium water.)

What You Do:

Add the blueberries to a large pot. Crush them with a fork, or, if you want to be fancy, use a drinking class to crush everything up (which is what I did).  Add the lemon juice, calcium water, stir, and bring to a boil.

In a small separate bowl, add the sugar and pectin. Mix well.

Once the berry mixture is boiling, add in the sugar/pectin mix, and mix well for 1-2 minutes making sure all the pectin gets dissolved. Let stand for another minute, then remove from heat. Pour into clean jars, leave a little room at the top, and then seal tightly. Let sit on the counter for 12 hours (don’t open it!) then refrigerate. Sit back, relax, and revel in the fact that you are now a jam maker, you.

Homemade Naan

One of my favorite things about going out for Indian food is the Naan bread.  Granted, I usually eat so much of it that by the time the food comes around I want to die, but, come on! The stuff is slathered in garlic, how can you not want to eat it all?

I decided to take a stab at making my own, and lo and behold it was really easy! It requires minimal ingredients, and cooks super quickly. Most Naan recipes require time to let the dough rise, but this is a speedier version. Read on!

What You Need:

• 1 cup bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 2/3 cup water
• extra flour for rolling

What You Do:

• Mix the bread flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add the water, stir and knead the bread for a few minutes.
• Once the dough is smooth, divide into four balls.
• Roll the balls out into 5-6 inch in diameter discs.
• Spray your frying pan with olive oil, and place over low heat. Place one of the discs onto the pan, cook until golden.
• Flip, cook until golden again.
• Remove, devour.

The end.  If you’re in the mood for garlic naan, you can mince 2 cloves of garlic and add it to the frying pan with your cooking spray (maybe even add a tbsp of actual olive olive to the pan, in addition to the cooking spray.) Once the naan is golden on both sides, pour the remaining garlic from the pan straight onto the naan. You can NEVER get enough garlic. No such thing.

Overnight Oats

Have we discussed my love affair with oatmeal, yet? No? Well. Ever since I was little, I’m talking little little, I’ve been eating oatmeal for breakfast. I remember (and my Mom can attest to this), waking up, walking into the kitchen, and every single morning, there would be a bowl of oatmeal, covered, waiting for me on the stove. If it wasn’t? Forget about  it. Crying, raging, hysterical fit. Yes, I was a girl obsessed.

Years later, I’m still as committed to oatmeal. For the first 2 years I was in the working world, I ate oatmeal at my desk every morning. Without fail. It was the only thing that kept me full! This past year I discovered adding in different nut butters, peanut butter being my favorite. It’s amazing what one little scoop will do. Full for HOURS.

My new thing is overnight oats. Touted all over the blogosphere, I had been meaning to try them, but for one reason or another, never got around to it. Enter my former co worker Sophie  who started bringing them in to work for breakfast.  Never one to be out oated, I started making them and now I’m hooked! They’re easy, adaptable, filling and…different! Plus, when it’s 90 degrees outside, cold oatmeal makes so much more sense than hot. Duh.

The recipe is simple: 1/2 cup uncooked rolled/old fashioned oats, 1/2 cup (or more) of milk (I use almond), and then add ins of your choice. I usually go with some sort of combination consisting of uncooked oats + fruit + nut butter + spice. Past combinations include:

• Blueberries, cinnamon, almond butter
• Sliced bananas, almond slices, peanut butter
• Flax, blueberries, peanut butter

etc, etc. The night before I plan on eating them, I put all of the above into a glass jar (usually an old peanut butter or jelly jar), close it, and let it sit in the fridge over night. The next morning, they’re ready to be eaten!

Enjoy!

Italy in Photos

Food photos, I mean. (You didn’t actually think we went sightseeing or anything, did you?)

Brian and I went to Italy in April. We were there for a week and, well, we ate a LOT. A lot of cheese, wine, bread, pizza, and coffee. In fact, I didn’t consume a SINGLE green the entire week, which is pretty rare for me. Not even a side dish! Anyway, my body paid me back, because by the end I was sick, and I NEVER get sick (knock on….coffee table.) Brian made a funny analogy, and compared my body (the insides, people) to a Ferrari. Runs smooth about 99% of the time, but if a tiny thing goes wrong, the whole thing shuts down. Oops. I was definitely shut down by the end of the trip, and in fact, as SOON as I got home did a 2 day cleanse to restore my body back to what it was pre Italy. Phew. Definitely did the trick. Anyway, enough complaining! The food was incredible. These are all pretty self explanatory, so enjoy!

Grilled Vegetable Panini

A few months ago, I got a package in the mail from my grandma. In it? A panini maker. What I would MAKE with this panini maker was a total mystery to me. Had I ever told her I even liked paninis? I couldn’t even remember the last time I HAD a panini. Well, a few months later (and a bunch of sandwiches later) I can confidently say I LOVE MY PANINI MAKER. 

This one was pretty simple – roasted vegetables, avocado, pesto, bread.

I used mushrooms, red pepper, asparagus, sliced them up and roasted them in the oven with salt, pepper and olive oil. Put the sandwich together with slices of avocado, spread of pesto, put it on the panini maker for about 5 minutes, and voila. The best part about the panini maker is that it flattens the sandwich keeping it neat (you know what I’m talking about — no veggies spilling out from the backend every time you take a bite). Thanks Grams! You (apparently) know me better than I know myself.

Juice!

For the past few months, I’ve been toting in bottles of green juice to work to enjoy deskside before the chaos of my work day begins. Subsequently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about said green juice. Namely — Is it good? (Yes!), Where did you get it? (Chateau Stephanie), Why? (Because it’s like, really good?!) So, I’ve decided to dedicate this post to my elixir of choice – green juice!

After months of biting the bullet and spending $9 a pop for my juice fix, I took the plunge and invested in my own juicer . The results have been AWESOME. At first, I went crazy juicing everything in sight– strawberry orange , mint cantaloupe, grapefruit orange, all greens, pineapple orange apple, etc.  Now I don’t play around with it AS much, but I am pretty consistent about one in particular: the green stuff.  The recipe is pretty simple, and I don’t  use exact measurements, but the below yields about 16 ounces, or enough to fill up a standard clear plastic bottle. Here’s how I make it:

• 2 small green apples, quartered
• big handful of spinach
• half a cucumber
• a few leaves of romaine
• half a lemon, peeled
• a few stalks of celery (celery isn’t my favorite, so I so easy on it.)

Juice the above, and that’s it! You can switch it up depending on what you have:  replace the apple with pear, add some ginger, try some kale (I always have a hard time juicing kale, though). Once everything is juiced, I pour it into a clear plastic bottle, take it to work with me, pop it in the freezer for about 30 minutes to get it nice and chilly, and then guzzle it down. A few notes if you decide to make your own:

• Wash all the fruit!
• When everything is juiced, bottle it immediately. The longer the juice is exposed to air, the quicker it oxidizes (see: turns brown aka gross).
• On that same note, if pouring into a bottle, fill it up as high as possible so that no air is in the bottle. I’m talking the very very VERY top, and seal it tight.
• Best served cold.

Also, if anyone is wondering, this is boyfriend approved. Brian doesn’t drink it as much as I do, but when he does, he enjoys it!