France day 23: Heart tomatoes and eggs

Like I said wrote in yesterday's post, today was my turn to cook something from home. Since i'm not quite sure my host family would appreciate poutine and beavertails for dinner, I opted to cook something Chinese instead of Canadian.

One of my favorite dishes from home is a very common Chinese dish with tomatoes and eggs. My mother knows that I like it a lot so she cooks it quite often at home, but I on the other hand, have never attempted to cook it myself. After requesting a recipe from my dear mother, I was ready, sort of.

The say that you need good ingredients to cook a good dish. So since I'm working with farm fresh eggs and locally grown coeur de boeuf (beef heart) tomatoes, it definitely wouldn't be the ingredients' fault if this didn't turn out.

Thankfully it did and all three of my dinner guest enjoyed it immensely. No leftovers!

Tomatoes and Eggs

Adapted from My mother

Serves: 4

• 6 eggs
• Salt/pepper/oil
• 3 large tomatoes
• 1.5 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tsp corn starch + 1/4 cup water

Suggested: cooked rice

1. Oil and preheat pan
2. Scramble all eggs and season with salt and pepper
3. Cook eggs and break up large pieces and remove from pan
4. Leave skin intact and slice tomatoes (I had 16 slices/tomato)
5. Add tomatoes to hot pan along with sugar and ketchup and cook until plenty of juice is released into the pan
6. Add back the scrambled eggs and stir to combine
7. Mix the corn starch and water and add to tomatoes, STIR constantly (this will help thicken the sauce)
8. Don't worry if the sauce still looks too watery, it thickens up as it cools
9. Serve over rice

Better Burgers and Fries

High-fructose corn syrup, monosodium-glutamate. . . Doesn't sound like a tasty burger and fries meal to me. The problem is, that's exactly what's in the burger combo you'd find at your local drive-thru. Even with these frankenstein ingredients, your meal rarely looks are great as it does in the ad.

Why settle for something that comes on a paper-lined questionably clean plastic tray when you can have something so much better?



At school I get to eat whatever I want but now that i'm back home for the summer, compromises must be made. After all, I do have to share the dinner table with my meat-atarian younger sister. Luckily, I got them to agree to 'Meatless Monday's', one day a week when we'll have a completely meatless supper. Here's how week 1 went:

Better Burgers and Fries
Yield: 7-8 burgers

Burger patties:

• 3/4 cup canned chickpeas
• ~ 1 cup cookied quinoa (cooked from 1/2 cup dry quinoa)
• 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper

1. Preset oven to 350F
2. Slightly mash chickpeas in a large bowl
3. Add remaining ingredients, salt and pepper to taste, mix well
4. form into patties and bake until slightly browned, ~15 minutes
5. serve on toasted buns

Fries:

Adapted from Baked Butternut Squash Fries

• 1 large sweet potato
• vegetable oil
• salt
• garlic powder

1. Preset oven to 400F
2. Clean and peel sweet potato
3. cut into fry shaped pieces
4. In a large bowl, drizzle fries with oil and toss to mix well, sprinkle with salt and garlic powder
5. Bake on a cooking rack until crisp ~15 minutes

Creamy garlic sauce:

• 3/4 Greek yogurt
• 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped finely

1. Mix yogurt and garlic well and serve with burgers and fries

Quinoa-Chickpea Enchiladas

Today a nice lady named Kate walked down an aisle, maybe you're an early riser and saw it happen?

I know this is strange but, I like to walk down aisles too, the grocery store type of aisle. What most see as a chore I like to see as a hobby. I mean, what's not to like? Every product you pass by is a possible inspiration for a dish and a new experiment. And if there's free samples, well that's just icing on the cake isn't it?

Sadly, there are currently two huge barriers preventing me from walking among well-stocked shelves:

1. I'm moving out tomorrow and my baggage allowance doesn't allow me to bring all my darling ingredients (You don't find food darling? Well you should.)
2. I have final exams hanging over my head and should be spending my time among another type of shelf, book shelves.

At least my current demise has forced me to get a bit creative with what's left in my cupboards. Here's what my Mexican food craving lead me to couple nights ago.

Vegetarian Quinoa-Chickpea Enchiladas

Inspired by Vegetarian Black Bean Enchiladas

Yield: 8 enchiladas

• 3/4 cup canned chickpeas
• 1.5 cups cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup (or more) vegetables of your choice
• 2 tablespoons taco seasoning (try to find a low sodium kind)
• 1/2 cup water (I just used the chickpea 'juice' from the can)
• 8 tortillas
• ~1/2 cup salsa
• shredded cheese

1. Preset oven to 350F
2. Cook cooked quinoa, chickpeas, taco seasoning, water and 1 heaping tablespoon salsa on stovetop
3. Spoon 1/8 of the mixture onto tortilla and roll
4. Spread some salsa on the bottom of a baking tray, place enchiladas, top with more salsa and sprinkle with shredded cheese.
5. Bake until cheese is melted and slightly browned (~10 minutes)

Pesto Quinoa

I've been spoiled. Spoiled by chocolate chip cookies, humongous ice cream sundaes, and homemade Italian food, but mostly, by The Food Network channel.

I don't watch TV at school except when on a treadmill. So when I'm asked "Hey, have you seen that commercial where..." or "Have you seen that trailer for that movie that looks so good?", no I really haven't. And though it's mostly a good thing that I do more productive things when there's no TV around, it also means that I'm entirely deprived from inspiration from the Food Network. 

When I was over at my cousin's all of last week, I watched it like there was no tomorrow, trying to make up for months of deprivation. I watched as Bobby Flay made Baked Alaska, as Toy Story 3 cakes failed, as Guy Fieri tailgated, as restaurants were made-over and also as Chef-at-home Michael Smith demonstrated a food combination that looked so good I wanted to fly to his home in PEI to have some right away.

Peanut butter and chocolate may be good, and tomatoes and cheese appetite-inducing, but nothing compares to quinoa and pesto.  I've actually eaten it for two out of my last three meals. Michael Smith made a much more elaborate version involving toasted quinoa and almond pesto, but my simplified college kid version is along the same lines.

Pesto Quinoa

Inspired by Quinoa Pilaf with Mint, Goat Cheese, Almond Pesto

• 1 to 1.5 cups cooked quinoa (instructions) (I added in some mixed vegetables while it was cooking)
• 1.5 tablespoons pesto (I like this)

1. Mix and serve

Apple-Dijon Salad

I've been good, like Santa's nice list good. I've been drinking Green Monsters, eating oatmeal for breakfast and not indulging in junk too too often. Since I also have a nice 17-day break between my exams this year, I'm spending some of my break with my cousins. The weather cooperated nicely with my arrival, because it appears that it was officially the start of BBQ season. Oh how I've craved charred food on those -20C nights this past winter. Last night, dinner included a burger the size of my face. I told myself, I deserve this, I've been a very good girl lately.

Meat, portobello, cheese, Canadian bacon. Enough said.

My aunt served the magnificent thing with a side of delicious salad. I promise it was impressive indeed, but I sort of got distracted by the burger and didn't snap a few nice pictures before we polished it off. I'll make sure to when I try making this at home sometime soon.

Apple-Dijon Salad
Serves: 4-6

• 1 head iceberg lettuce, washed and dried, broken into smaller pieces
• 1 cup cheese, cubed (My aunt used cheddar but I think Swiss or Emental would be delicious)
• 2-3 granny smith apples, peeled and chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• Honey-Dijon dressing (We used this, but I'd love to try this recipe)

1. Toss and serve

Pizza Margherita

Thankfully my cell phone's back to normal now and woke me up in time for my 8:30 spin class. Actually I set it to ring before the sun rose so I could get in some school work time to make for all the procrastinating I've been doing recently. That's right, I was up before the sun rose on a Saturday morning!

Actually it's for the better since I've realized that I need to eat breakfast at least 90 minutes before an intense workout so I won't get an upset stomach. In case you're in need of encouragement to get up early, oatmeal with a spoonful of cocoa and peanut butter does a great job.

After getting my butt kicked by a stationary bike, it was off to the library for a group project meeting. Not before I had my morning coffee and a delicious Luna Bar of course. I was feeling adventurous and very liberally sprinkled my coffee with cinnamon, it was amazing, I'm drinking all my coffee with copious amounts of cinnamon from now on. Did you know that it's supposed to help regulate your blood sugar levels?

I meant to make a short trip to the grocery store afterwards but got distracted and the trip ended up taking three hours. I tried to keep it healthy by snacking on almonds and walnuts but I was definitely famished by the time I got home. I had been craving Pizza Margherita since I was at the store and picked up some fresh basil, so glad I did. This was so delicious I ate the whole pizza in one sitting.

I like my pizza with really thin crust and a whole wheat pita does a great job at being super quick and a good source of proteins and complex carbs. Two things that are very necessary after a long workout.

Buon Appetito,
CollegeBakerGirl

Pizza Margherita
With help from Pizza Margherita
Yield: 1-2 servings

• 1 pita (I like Byblos Whole Wheat)
• 1/4 cup pizza sauce
• 1/4 cup mozzarella
• Handful of fresh basil, stems removed

1. Preset oven to 450F
2. Cover pita with sauce and mozzarella
3. Bake until cheese is melted and 'crust' is crispy (~10min)
4. Sprinkle with fresh basil and serve

Meatball Calzadilla

Last year my vegetarian roommate AG got me to try a veggie burger. All my life I had scoffed at the 'fake' meat I had seen in grocery stores and on restaurant menus, thinking that it was gross. But I like to think of myself as someone who's pretty adventurous with food, so I gave it a try. It. . .was. . . freaking delicious! I now eat veggie burgers even when given the choice of a meat patty, much to the confusion of a waitress recently who had to clarify, that yes, I did indeed want a veggie burger with bacon.

This had me realise that meals didn't have to centre around a meat dish, that meat needn't be the centrepiece of an entree, or even necessary. Now I eat a mostly vegetarian diet to the dismay of my mother who still carries the aforementioned paradigm. She tells me all the time that I'm going to be anaemic if I don't eat more meat. Guess what? My hemoglobin levels were at the very adequate level of 133g/L last time I donated blood, so there.

Unfortunately this also means that I'm slightly at a loss on what to do with meat. Nonna hooked me up with some delicious homemade meatballs and the only thing that came to mind was your standard spaghetti and meatballs. I needed some inspiration.

Allrecipes gave me 1000's of recipes for meatballs, but not really any with meatballs, so I kept looking. Luckily I haphazardly came across a recipe on the Trader Joe's site and put my own spin on them to create: The Calzadilla.

What is a Calzadilla you ask? Sort of like a calzone, quesadilla, pita sandwich sort of thing. Duh.

Inspired by Classic Meatball Subs

Meatball Calzadilla

Yield: 1 serving

• 1 pita bread (pocket-style)
• 2-3 meatballs, cooked and heated
• Marinara sauce
• 1/5 green pepper, julienned
• 1/4 red onion, sliced thinly
• 2 tablespoons shredded mozzarella

1. Saute green pepper and onion in a bit of oil until fragrant and add marinara
2. Push to one side and place pita on pan, cover half of it with the vegetables
3. Add meatballs and squish them slightly
4. Sprinkle with cheese and fold over the other half of the pita
5. Allow both sides to brown

Arugula: a love affair

On a dark rainy Seattle night, my family was on the prowl for a restaurant we had looked up earlier. Our GPS was uncooperative and sent us to a neighbourhood high up on a hill. Though the homes were gorgeous there, none were restaurants. We were hungry and finally gave up and settled on a restaurant that looked good from the outside.

I don't remember the name of the restaurant, or where it was. The menu had few items, all of them pricey. I went with the salmon that was topped with an arugula salad. An there I fell in love. . . with arugula. It's fresh yet earthy spiciness drew me in, and so ended my days of eating boring romaine and bitter radicchio. I vowed to buy it by the truckload during our next trip to the grocery store.

Sadly I polished off my latest box last night. It was paired with delicious cannelloni compliments of nonna which I realised I had yet to photograph. To my delight, I even grabbed one of the side-of-pan burnt edge pieces. Like burnt corner lasagna and corner slices of cake, it's always the best.

Once again, I was so distracted by the arugula I finished off 3/4 of the bowl before I remembered the cheesy delicious pasta right beside it. It seems almost silly to post up a recipe for a salad since there's really no wrong way to make one but here's the recipe for the arugula salad I made last night. You'll have to ask nonna about the cannelloni.

Arugula salad
Yield: 1 salad

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• plenty of pepper
• 3 cups arugula
• 1/2 tomato
• small handful craisins

1. Whisk the first 4 ingredients together until well blended
2. Toss with remaining ingredients
3. Serve immediately

Creamy Avocado Pasta

We have the best adorable little grocery store on our campus. They sell more varieties of hummus than a big box store and the bread comes from a local bakery and is hea-ven-ly. I often walk through it just for fun when I have time to kill and felt compelled to buy an avocado last week.

I didn't have any specific plan in mind for it, but I like to let the food itself lead me to meal ideas. I actually purposely picked the one that was the least ripe so that I would have plenty of time to think up an avocado recipe. But eventually it was getting soft and I was running out of time. But low and behold I found this interesting recipe that saved my precious green fruit from the garbage. It's from a blog that I've been reading religiously called ohsheglows and I couldn't wait to try it.

I'm planning on running the Scotiabank half-marathon in Vancouver this June so I've been working hard on increasing the distance on my long run so I can eventually make it 13.1 miles. It's been really challenging so far but I really like having a goal to work towards. Today I ran 6 miles, almost halfway to 13.1, yay! Obviously I was in need of an amazing dinner to refuel (especially since the smoothie shop at the gym that claims to close at 7:30 decided to close early :( ) and this definitely did not disappoint.

The avocado is so creamy that it makes you think you're eating some junky pasta filled with cream, but instead you're getting loads of heart-healthy fats and over 10 grams of protein (yay). In other words, Angela at ohsheglows is a total genius and made my night. I will definitely be adding this to my 'rotation' of easy and healthy dinners. I made a few changes and  increased the yield to 3 servings, there was a lot (aka lunch tomorrow!).

Bon Appetit,

CollegeBakerGirl

Creamy Avocado Pasta

Yield: 3 servings

• 1/2 box pasta (I used catelli whole wheat spaghettini)
• 3/4 avocado
• 1.5 tablespoons lemon juice (or juice of half a lemon)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1 tomato (diced)
• 1/2 cup cauliflower (chopped)
• pepper (to taste)

1. Set water to boil. Meanwhile, drizzle your peeled and smashed garlic with a little oil and roast in oven until fragrant.
2. Cook pasta until al dente, add cauliflower in the few last minutes of cooking to blanch.
3. In a food processor (I used my magic bullet), blend garlic, oil and lemon juice until smooth. Add avocado and salt and puree.
4. Drain pasta and toss in avocado mixture
5. Serve with plenty of pepper and topped with diced raw tomatoes.

*Note: Apparently this doesn't reheat well because of the avocado, but it does seem like it would be delicious cold. I'll keep you posted

1 serving:

375 calories | 10.6g protein | 16.6g fat (mostly healthy fats!)