Chocolate and Hazelnuts and Bananas...oh my!

These are just a few of my favorite things:





I love this homemade "Nutella" on top of bananas. I think hazelnuts and chocolate are a divine combination. I first tried Nutella when I was a junior studying abroad in Europe. My uncle Luigi (I kid you not) had stocked up on the sweet treat a few months before when my kid brother had come to visit.

Nutella on crusty bread is a favorite of many bambini d'Italia.

And apparently 20-year-old foreign exchange students too!



Unfortunately, Nutella, like most commercial nut-butters contains a few ingredients that I am not so crazy about. Nutella contains a LOT of sugar, a LOT of modified oils and not a lot of hazelnuts (only about 13%).


So I searched the Internet for a healthy(but yummy),homemade recipe and found a great one at: Su Good Sweets. This recipe contains more nuts, less sugar and more real cocoa than the Nutella you can buy at the market. I used organic brown sugar in place of powdered sugar and it turned out great. I also used just a tablespoon of canola oil instead of the 1/4 cup of oil called for in the original recipe.

This is a truly, delicious, alternative to peanut butter and you can adjust the sweetness to your liking.

Walrus loves the roasted hazelnuts that fall to the floor when I'm rubbing the skins off.

Lucky dog.

This spread is great on pancakes, waffles, toast, in sandwiches and it is brilliant partnered with bananas.


mmm mmmm mmm.


Nutella Advert:



pretty slick.

Spinach Power Salad!

Okay, after a beer and chocolate post I thought it would be appropriate to post a healthy vitamin packed recipe. It isn't quite salad season, but who cares? It's the Chinese New Year and temple food (as Ms. Lawson likes to call it) is called for. Here goes:

Super Spinach Power Salad
serves one

Baby Spinach - 1-2 cups
Napa Cabbage - 1/2 cup cupped
Romaine - 1/2 cup chopped
Roma Tomato -1 chopped
Onion- 1/4 small red diced
Olive oil/brown rice vinegar (just a teaspoon or so of each) with salt and pepper to taste

Chickpea Fritters (Mark Bittman's falafel recipe again!- chickpeas, onion, garlic, parsley, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, lemon juice, baking powder)


Take that Dr. Oz!

I had this with a yummy soy-blueberry-banana smoothie. I'm on vitamin overload right now. Ready to do anything :)

Check out my buns!

How obnoxious can I get?









These buns came out a lot better than I had expected. I'm finding many ways to use my original naan bread recipe and I have yet to find something this miracle dough can't do!

I follow the basic dough recipe. Then I shape the buns into 2 inch balls and then flatten them on a cookie sheet. I let them rise for another 30 minutes, then bake them at 350 for 30 minutes. Brush them with a milk or egg wash for the last 10 minutes of baking and sprinkle with sea salt or sesame seeds.

Delish and nutrish!

(That's an Amy's Bistro Burger making its appearance yet again.)

Beverage: An Oregon Pinot Noir or an Oregon Pale Ale.

Music: What goes better with burgers than good old 50's rock and roll? Heck, it's the 50th anniversary of "Great Balls of Fire" - so why not a little Jerry Lee Lewis?

Crunchy-Granola Lady

January is the the health food/health club industry's biggest month. I decided to throw them a curve.

I quit the gym and made my own granola, thank you.

Scandalous!

My little way of socking-it to the man.




Actually it was about time I quit the gym. We had belonged to one of the big national chains and our local club had been bought by another chain more than a year ago. The closest gym from the same chain was up in Portland - 110 miles north of us! A bit of a drive I'd say. I've got my tennie-runners and miles of trails up here anyhoo.


The granola is yet another example of how hippie-dippie I've become since moving to Eugene. Peer pressure I'm sure.

J had a bowl this morning with Oregon blueberries, honey and yogurt from Nancy's and a spoonful of flax seeds on top.

Heaven.

Simple Hippie-Dippie Granola:

4 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup of whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup dried fruit
1/2 cup of nuts
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup of apple or orange juice
1/4 cup of canola oil
teaspoon of cinnamon
zest of one orange


Mix dry ingredients together. Then add wet and coat. Spread onto a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Bake for 45-50 minutes in a 325 degree oven. Check and mix the granola around every 15 minutes or so.

Let cool and then enjoy!

Beverage: Hemp Milk!

Music: Here you go kids:

Soups for the Sick!

J gave me that nasty cold he had. Time for soup.

The first soup is a Chickpea Noodle Soup from Veganomicon

I ordered this book just before our trip down south and I am so glad I did. This recipe was a winner. The soup is mellow and filling and I added spinach at the very end to bump up the vitamin count. I must say that I am feeling quite a bit better this morning.

The split pea soup is a pretty basic recipe. I added brown rice and left-over potatoes (both Yukon gold and sweet). It is a carb-and-protein-heavy bowl of pure comfort.

Drink: Hot herbal tea with lemon and honey.

Listening to: Cowboy Junkies, Black Eyed Man

What is good food?

This is something I've been thinking about quite a bit lately. Obviously there is no one answer to this question and that perhaps makes it an interesting question to really delve into as a personal exploration.

I suppose for me, good food is food that we enjoy making and sharing with people we care about. I really love simple food, that does not have a lot of ingredients, but those few ingredients are fresh and delicious and (this is cliche) warm.

That's probably how I would put it.

I will always associate pasta with warmth and home. Even more so now that I am preparer of the food at my home. Pasta is a loving food.


And spaghetti is my favorite pasta, hands down.

1 box of whole wheat spaghetti
10 oz of cooked white beans
16 oz or so of chopped tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic chopped fine
oregano
3-4 chopped kalamata olives
salt and pepper
grated Parmesan (optional)

Great with a Columbia River Valley(OR/WA) Riesling or a Willamette Valley(OR) Pinot Gris.

Whole Wheat Pizza

It's snowing outside. But inside it's as warm as an Italian summer afternoon. Thanks to this pizza.

This is a bare bones pizza. The dough is my basic flat bread dough (my whole wheat naan bread dough). I baked the crust for 6 minutes in a 410 degree oven and then pulled it out and topped it with some chopped tomatoes, oregano, salt and some freshly shaved Parmesan cheese. I popped it back in the oven for another 5 minutes to melt the cheese and get a brown crust.

Yum.

*Pair with your favorite pale ale and a crisp salad.

Blueberry Bliss In January!

I had some lovely wild Oregon blueberries in the ice-box. I made a crumble of oats, Earth Balance butter and brown sugar for the crust. Then I topped it with 10 oz. of these beauties and a yogurt/brown sugar topping.

Baked it at 350 for about 40 minutes and then we dug in. This is an adaptation of Moosewood's Blueberry Yogurt Pie from, Sundays At Moosewood Restaurant.

Summer in January.

Pair with a cup of tea.

A Tale of Three Veggie Burgers

Ahh, holiday travel:
900 miles down and 900 miles back along the beautiful Oregon and California Coast; a beautiful, wet, windy and cold coast indeed.

And despite the awesome Redwood Forest, the rolling vineyards of Sonoma and the majestic, rocky coastline of Southern Oregon, I alas, could only think of the vast desert of fast-food neon that we encountered both up and down one of the purtiest places on Earth.

Every couple of months we make this trek and we're rewarded on both ends (My Mom and J's Mom are both amazing cooks). But the 16+ hours in between are brutal on both our booties and our stomachs.

What are we going to eat?

Sure, we packed the car with healthy snacks like fruit and nuts and some of my mom's homemade energy bars. But we still needed some proper FOOD at some point.

Well, lucky for us we decided to make our first stop at the Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka, Ca. They have quite a few options for the non-meat eaters out there. J and I both chose their "Humboldt Green Party" burger. Which is basically a Garden Burger on a whole wheat bun with lettuce, tomatoes, red onions and a sliced dill pickle. Fries or a salad come as a side and they don't put mayo (or any condiment for that matter) on the burger. Instead the kind waitress brought out a selection of condiments to our table so we could dress our patty exactly as we liked.

It was quite good.

We both got the fries and I had a "Downtown Brown Ale." Delish!

J had a nice cup of joe (as he was driving that leg).

And we're off!


Three hundred or so miles later and a nice overnight stop north of San Francisco, we pull into a Burger King.

?!!!!?Burger King!!?

Yep.

I had heard that they are the only major chain in the U.S. that offers a veggie burger as an option at every location. So we had to check it out. It took a bit of convincing to get Jason to even pull into the parking lot (neither one of us has eaten at a Burger King in over a decade). But he indulged me and we checked out the options.

The Burger King veggie burger is a Morning Star patty sandwiched between two basic Burger King buns with tomato, lettuce and pickles. We ordered both of ours with onions and no mayo (the mayo alone adds nearly 16 grams of saturated fat to your meal!)

It was a ho-hum experience. Not bad. But not great.

The buns are a bit soft and the patty had an overwhelming carrot taste.

But, it was good to know that a veggie (although not vegan) option exists out there in fast-food land.


6 days later,(after many a delicious meal at my in-laws) we began our return trip home to Oregon. Our first food stop was at an old hangout of ours in Valencia, CA: The Habit

We ordered two Veggie Burgers with a side of fries and waited in anticipation.

Ten minutes later our burgers arrived.

WOW! Toasted whole-wheat buns, a perfectly grilled Garden Burger patty, an inch thick layer of super green, fresh, romaine lettuce, ripe tomato slices, cucumbers, red onions, and alfalfa sprouts!

It was a salad in a sandwich and it was a knockout.

Now, if only they had more locations en route to Oregon.

We returned to Lost Coast on the last leg of our trip for another Humboldt Green Party burger and were pleased that it tasted just as good as on the way down.

We made it to my folks later that night and enjoyed a warm bowl of vegetable soup.

So as a recap here's how I rank the three burgers:

1. The Habit's Veggie Burger
2. Lost Coast Brewery's "Green Party" Burger
3. Burger King's Veggie Burger.


I look forward to finding more veggie travel options on our next trip down. But in the meantime I'm back to cooking my own food!

I Heart Christmas (muffins)

Look!! There's a heart shape on the plate with the muffin.

Coincidence?

These muffins are an adaptation of Nigella Lawson's Christmas morning muffins. I substituted whole wheat flour for the regular flour and I used raisins instead of dried cranberries.

J loves these.

Stir-Fry tofu with vegetables and fried brown rice

tofu
green peppers
brown basmati rice
onions
carrots
garlic
ginger
tamari
grean peas

Eat Your Veggies! (and Happy Birthday Mom!)

So we ate, (gasp), just veggies tonight!

But they were incredibly filling. I didn't miss a thing.

Delicata squash, mushrooms and spinach, brussel sprouts, and roasted potatoes.

mmmmmmm...




Walrus loves brussel sprouts!

Tofu Marsala with Zucchini

Okay, so eating tofu and veggies is becoming a bit of a habit here. But, the thing is we're saving a ton of money AND it happens to taste pretty good too.

I've turned to legumes and beans and tofu lately because we're in the middle of recording a new record which happens to take up a lot of time - without (yet) yielding the big dough (figuratively) and literally.


But, I really can't complain because the food has been delicious.


This meal is from last night. I got the Tofu Marsala recipe from http://www.veganmenu.blogspot.com - These folks know how to use their veggies.

I did alter the flour a bit- I used brown rice flour(instead of wheat flour) to coat the tofu and it was SO delicious with a perfect light crust. I need to pick up some more of that fine flour.

The zucchini were simply cooked with a bit of oil and garlic.

yum, yum!

4 bucks tops for the entire meal.

Rawk on.

Green Goodness Pasta

A twist on the usual pesto pasta dish.

As usual -I made it healthier with more vitamins/minerals than the usual fare.

I love whole wheat pasta and I love incorporating walnuts into the pesto in place of pine nuts.

The broccoli tastes great with the pesto and adds a great texture to the dish.

This serves about 3-4.

Have with a green salad ( of course!)


You'll need:
1 pack of whole wheat spaghetti
1 pack of frozen broccoli
Grated cheese for serving

Pesto:
1/4 cup Walnuts
2 cups basil leaves
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
3 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup of olive oil
pinch of salt


1. Put on a pot of water for the pasta - cook pasta as you prep the pesto. Add pack of frozen chopped broccoli to the pasta water for the last 4 minutes of cooking.
2. Chop the garlic in the food processor
3. Scrap down the sides of the processor and then add walnuts to the processor and chop.
5. Add Basil and cheese - repeat.
6. Slowly add oil - and blend until smooth but not watery.
7. Spoon pesto into the serving bowl and add about 1/3 cup of the hot pasta water to the pesto - blend.
8. Pour cooked pasta and broccoli into the pesto and blend with thongs.
9. Serve with grated cheese!

yum