Tag Archives: spinach

Brainfreeeze

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Hello, hello loves.

Oh my, so much has gone on in the world since the last post.

Aside from the obvious, I’m finishing up the semester *yikes* and it’s been craziness!<— this pales in comparison to recent events, obviously

Yesterday, after writing…by hand…for an hour and a half for a media final – my brain was mush. My dinner reflected that, and was soooo not worthy of blogging.

…not that I could have formed full sentences anyway. haha

After a good night’s sleep – I’m all refreshed!

Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have control over the heat in my apartment (and I’m assuming this is true for the whole building). Well…I mean, it’s May – and the heat is still coming on in the morning, mid-afternoon AND night even though it is between 65 & 75 degrees depending on the day.

HEAT.WAVE. (in my studio).

Smoothie to the rescue.

A combination of fresh spinach, frozen, pitted cherries, frozen pineapple, Truvia and coconut extract made for an awesome pick-me-up!

Frozen cherries will be a staple in my freezer from now on.

Well worth the brain freeze.

  • What’re your frozen fruit staples?

Pesto Pizza

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Ahh – so a lovely rule of thumb when you go on vacation is clean out your fridge!! After all, nothing is more pleasant than returning from the trip of a lifetime to sour milk and rotten produce.

With a vacation looming for me – don’t worry, I’ll let you in on it soon enough! If you’ve been a blog reader for a while now, you might be able to guess based on past vacations – I’ve been doing my best to use up the most perishable of items in my fridge….

Greens are one of those lil’ items. Spinach goes bad in the blink of an eye – one moment, the bag is full of lush, beautiful leaves…the next a slimy mess.

In an effort to save the greens, I decided that a makeshift spinach pesto needed to be a part of my life!

Enter: 1 clove of garlic, a palmful of walnuts that have graced the bottom shelf of my fridge for a bit too long now, a dash of hot red pepper, and enough spinach for me. I didn’t make a huge batch. Oh, and I didn’t have parmesan so that didn’t make it in there – though it’d be wonderful!

Annihilate those ingredients prior to drizzling in just enough oil to bring it together.

Final Product: Garlicy. Green. Glorious.

I probably ended up with about 1/3 to a little less than a 1/2 cup of pesto.

Now came the question of what to do with it?!

The remnants of a wheel of Trader Joe’s goat cheese brie was calling to me from my fridge, and a ball of pizza whole wheat dough had been thawing in there, too.

Time for pesto pizza!!

Rolled the dough out as thin as I could get it, and docked it with a fork and then par-baked it to try and stave off sogginess.

I then smeared on a generous amount of the pesto, and dotted it with about an ounce of brie – yes, rind and all. I love it.

Then back into the oven it went.

Awesome.

Seriously.

A great combination of the crunchy crust, the melted brie, and the garlicy pesto.

Oh, I will make this again in a heartbeat…or once my fridge is restocked post-vacation. Until then, the remainder of this pesto is tucked away in my freezer…we’ll see how it does! :)

Mix ‘n Match

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Brrr – it’s a brisk one out there today…it’s 25 right now, but the wind is blowing like crazy! Spring needs to get it in gear and get here…pronto!

Though it’s freezing out (technically, below…), naturally, the only thing on my mind is a smoothie. My poor blender has been getting quite the workout over the last couple of weeks – that brick red smoothie started it all!

So when my raspberries ran out – I decided to change it up. After all, I have enough frozen fruit in my freezer to last me a while…and going out and buying *more* just because I liked this particular smoothie just didn’t make sense.

Time to mix it up.

Most of the players stayed the same – plain lowfat yogurt, POM juice, spinach, mango chunks, cranberries – and the new addition – blueberries (a theme this week?). Plus, the addition of Truvia and some coconut extract….honestly, the coconut extract is the best part! It makes me feel like I’m on vacation – just find one of those little drink umbrellas for me and I’d be set!

My lil’ blender – okay, so it’s not little – far from it!, but it’s definitely no Vitamix – blended its little heart out (with the help of some added water), and left me with another fantastic smoothie!

So much goodness in one glass.

Plus, it was thick – no watery smoothies over here. Oh, and it’s an awesome deep purple, too – prettttty.

  • What are some of your favorite fruity combos??

Been There

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Baked Green Rice.

Been there. Done that.

I know, I know – I’ve done a post (or more…) before on this recipe that my mom has for Baked Green Rice. You know what though? I never did it justice…I don’t think I even ever posted the actual recipe for it.

Today changes that.

I came to my mom’s this weekend with one thing in mind: I wasn’t leaving until baked green rice was made and devoured.

Both these things were (easily and eagerly) accomplished.

This rice casserole is one of the easiest things ever – plus, not to mention that it’s full of room for add-ins and tweaks – like different veggies, meats or cheeses. Plus, the leftovers are spectacular…and that’s the important thing for a “party of one” like myself!

This recipe was handed to my mom from a friend who had seen it published, at some point in the Boston Globe. It says that it serves 6…but honestly, for me, it’s more like 12. They would be six HUGE servings.

Ingredients:

  • 4.25 Cups of Water
  • Salt, to taste
  • 2 Cups – long grain rice, rinsed (I’d love to do this with all sorts of grains)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups milk (I use fat free)
  • 1 box of frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and drained thoroughly
  • 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped (I love onion so I kept the pieces bigger)
  • 1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
  • 1 cup part-skim mozzarella (this is my mother’s addition)
  • Black pepper, to taste (our addition)
  • Red pepper flakes, to taste (our addition)

1. Set oven to 325 degrees. Oil an 8×12 inch baking dish.

2. In saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add salt, to taste. Cook rice for about 40 minutes or until tender.

3. In a large boil, beat together eggs and milk; add spinach, onion, garlic (for the record, we precooked the onion and garlic in this recipe) mozzarella, half of the Parmesan and the rice. Season to desired level.

4. Spread evenly into the baking dish, sprinkle the top with the remaining mozzarella and sprinkle black pepper and red pepper flakes over the top.

5. Bake the dish 45-60 minutes until custard is set and the top is brown.

Dig. In.

 

One thing you have to know about me is that I absolutely love food. Obsessed might be the better word for it. I love it so much that I blog about it on regular, often daily, basis. Whether it’s a Michelin-rated restaurant or a taco truck, I want to try it. I love talking about food, blogging about food and photographing food. It’s a passion of mine that has translated into new opportunities, skills and relationships.

Don’t Judge

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Now, they say: Don’t judge a book by its cover….

In this case it’s more like: Don’t judge a smoothie by its color.

Ew, that rhymed. Regardless….

For some reason, I’ve been craving a smoothie/green monster like nobody’s business lately. Yeah, I’m crazy. I mean seriously…in the last week we’ve had – what? – 3 big snow storms? This doesn’t add up.

I think my mind is just rebelling against the cold weather – Spring needs to get here now!!

So this morning, I got up and blended my little heart out (and probably woke my building up in the process…monster-making is not the quietest of morning activities…).

This was my result:

Wait, wait, wait! Don’t judge it yet! Under that reddish-brown, brick-like color was a really, REALLY tasty smoothie!!

No. Really.

This is how it all started:


Beautiful, fresh tones of red, orange, yellow and green…

Composed of spinach, Greek yogurt, frozen mangoes, strawberries, peaches, raspberries and cranberries (quite the concoction!), some Truvia, some coconut extract, water and 2oz of POM Wonderful juice… this was the perfect blend of fruity sweetness and tartness. This will be made again…regardless of its less-than-aesthetically-pleasing appearance.

After all, it’s what is inside that counts!

 

  • What’ve you made that tastes fantastic, but doesn’t necessarily look the greatest?!