I’ve been avoiding good food

It’s so sad for me to say but the past few months I’ve put aside my love for food to focus on the wedding. In my attempt to shape up for the big day I’ve had to put all my favorites to the side and just try to forget them all together.. I’ve done well and have managed to find healthy dishes to eat. But I’m so busy working full time, planning my wedding and helping with my sister’s wedding too! So busy in fact I’m getting quite bored of the ‘healthy’ dishes I’ve been consuming..

Some of my healthy favorites lately have been:

• My go-to-snack that is perfect for taking the edge off : avocado on wheat toast with a drizzle of olive oil and habanero garlic pepper
• Orzo with spinach, sundried tomatoes, ricotta, black olives and feta
• Rotisserie chicken with anything
• Turkey wraps with Laughing Cow Cheese Lite and sprouts and maybe Dijon mustard
• Cous cous with raisins, grilled chicken, chickpeas, grilled veggies and curry powder
• And of course fish tacos!

My mom got very creative last weekend and made up a whole new method/recipe – fish taco ‘cups’. She’ll probably be mad at me for sharing this secret but it’s pretty darn cool. I’m bummed I didn’t get a photo of the cooking process. Of course I was trying to eat these while I was getting my wedding hair trial done at home!

Fish Taco Cups!

 

To make these she bought square won ton wrappers. She lightly brushed a muffin tray with oil and gently pushed a wrapper into each hole. She baked until lightly golden and just let cool on a baking tray. I can’t remember which fish she used but she loves tilapia for fish tacos. Cod would be great too. Underneath is a spicy mango and avocado salsa (with cilantro and red onion of course) and lettuce. It’s topped with her ‘super secret sauce’! 🙂 I have a feeling it contains some sour cream, some cumin, salt, pepper, lemon juice and maybe some Cajun spice. It was so light and delicious! A great way to re-invent one of our favorites and perfect for a party too.

The wedding is nearly here and then I’ll have some free time – so hopefully lots of blogging to come soon!

xoxo

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EAT LIGHT, FEEL LIGHT?

After my over indulgent week of eating out in New York, I was excited to come home and be able to cook for myself. I had felt so bloated and weighed down by the richness of it all. So I was looking forward to healthier eating habits.

Over the past couple months (other than the occasional foodie trip), I have been trying to change my entire approach to food. It’s been a slow, gradual process, but I have a few goals I’m working on:

• Minimize the salt added to home cooked meals.
• Try to consume food made from fresh ingredients.
• Minimize my favorite, high-fat indulgences like pâté, sausages, creamy pasta sauces, anything fried.
• Add more whole grains in moderate quantities.
• Eat fruit.
• Do all of this economically.

The last point makes all of this difficult at times, but I’ve been fortunate to have my Mom on board while I’m living at home. I’m also particularly fortunate that the produce in Arizona is INSANELY cheap compared to the cities I’ve lived in (NY, LA, London). You can buy a large container of strawberries, on sale, for $1. And not just produce, meat and eggs are also much much cheaper. Sometimes chicken will be on sale for less than $1 per pound! I feel like I’m robbing these supermarkets, but there’s major competition in this region so they’re always offering deals! Aside from the large supermarket chain (Fry’s, Basha’s, Safeway), there are also gourmet or specialty stores like AJ’s, Sprouts or the more well-known Trader Joe’s (I’m very sad this isn’t in the UK by the way!). Fresh & Easy (owned by Tesco from the UK) has also been trying to break into this area, but doesn’t seem to be as popular. But since I’m a Tesco loyalist, I do love some of their products like their whole wheat pizza dough and ready-made meals.

So to meet some of my goals, I’ve been experimenting with different ingredients. Last week, I ate/cooked quinoa for the first time. This was really exciting since I’ve heard so many great things about this grain. It was strange though to cook something I had never eaten or seen in person. But, like a good girl, I googled it. 🙂 I was relieved to discover that it cooks just like rice (although I had guessed it would be more like cous cous).

So ever since I ate that Warm Farro Salad in Brooklyn (at Al Di La), I had been craaaving it. So I decided I would try to recreate it with the quinoa. I had some leftover grilled portobellos, red onion and extra arugula. Even though they weren’t the exact same ingredients as the Farro Salad, the main ingredients I had been craving were the goat cheese and the grains. So I chopped up some garlic and heated them up with the red onion and olive oil in a small pot. Then I added the quinoa and let it cook a little (as if it were risotto). Then added water and let it boil. I have to confess I struggled a little on this one. The quinoa soaked up the water SO fast, that I kept adding more and more. So from my research I knew that quinoa would expand a lot when cooked, so I wasn’t concerned when I saw how small the raw grains were. But once I started cooking it, I started to get a little worried when they didn’t really get very big. For some reason, I had this idea in my head that all the photos I had seen of quinoa looked much bigger than what I had in front of me. But when I look for more pictures now, I think mine turned out alright? Since no one in my family has ever eaten quinoa either, I didn’t have anyone to tell me. So please let me know if it looks okay!?

After it tasted like it was done, I put it aside to cool. I reheated my grilled portobellos and put to the side as well. Then I made a small portion of light red wine vinaigrette with olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, kosher salt and black pepper. Then I tossed it all together. I squeezed a little more fresh lemon juice and added the arugula. The goat cheese was added once it was served onto the plate and voila! Warm quinoa salad with grilled Portobello mushrooms, red onion, arugula and goat cheese in a red wine lemon vinaigrette! And to my delight, it turned out delicious! The warm temperature of the quinoa melted the goat cheese and allowed it to blend with each bite. The portobellos added earthiness and the arugula added a nice peppery accent. All in all a success. But next time around, I want to try the butternut squash like in the Farro Salad and I’ll probably go lighter on the red onion (they were large slices because they had been grilled). I would also like to try it with feta or home-made ricotta some time.

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