Showing posts with label easy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easy. Show all posts

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Sort-of-Greek Barley Salad



It's been a long time since I've posted here - and I have my reasons, trust me, but that's neither here nor there. Right now, it's all about quick, easy, summer food, the kind you make when you and your spouse are both ravenous and you're broke and your AC is broke and it's 90 degrees out and running the oven is patent suicide. It's made even better by a side of cooling Ecuadorian-style marinated onions, an easy recipe I learned to make from my amazing past employers, who taught me all kinds of lovely cooking things which will probably end up on this blog.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Elephant Smoothie Bowl + Homemade Salted Magic Shell

Hello, friends.
This is a smoothie bowl. 

You probably already know that.

But you're about to see a lot of pictures of it, anyway.


 I used to live on peanut butter banana smoothies. Sometimes I would have them for two or three meals, which illicited some concern from my parents, as any seemingly liquid diet probably should. But, seeing as it has plenty of carbs from bananas and fat and protein from peanut butter, I maintain it's basically a perfect meal, especially when you throw in some spinach. And, it tastes like dessert. I'm not even joking, it's like ice cream.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Really Special Pancakes




Why, you may be asking, are these innocuous pancakes, which, if this photo is any indication of the overall condition of the general surroundings may have been made in squalor, special? Well, these pancakes are suitable for special people. The kind of people who don't eat refined sugar, or gluten, or animal products. And they can be made without a trip to the health food store for a package of buckwheat, or some other gluten-free flour expensive enough to have been a gift to the infant Christ. In fact, they can be made with stuff you probably already have lying around. Lucky you.



Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Creamy Chickpea Pasta


Ready for another easy, pasta-based recipe? Really, these are changing my life. This one is creamy and rich and, due to the rosemary, reminds me of my mother, with her rosemary-filled garden beds and epic rosemary-roasted potatoes, and my grammy, who gave me my first gigantic bottle of dried rosemary when I got married and moved out of state.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Funfetti Salad


You're probably thinking one of two things - "what is funfetti doing on a salad", or "oh, this poor vegan, she's been eating vegetables alone so long she thinks they're fun. And confetti-like."

  My advice to you, in either case, would be to just stop and eat this delicious salad - complete with creamy hummus dressing! - and look at a ton of pictures I took of said salad, because it's amazing and I want to remember it forever and ever. Ready?


So far, I have made this salad as a meal and as a side with two different dressings. A great addition to the toppings I already have pictured are celery and radish, by the way, but I was out so that was a no-go.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Tuscan Beans with Sage


                                   

I've been very much into convenience food lately. And by that I mean, make-ahead, can-be-carted-around-in-a-backpack-and-eaten-cold-hours-later food.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Trail Mix Cookies













    Today is all about procrastination. It is cold. The hot water pipes in my house, in their typical spirit of perverse defiance and tenacity in the face of opposition, have frozen despite being left trickling overnight. I was looking forward to a visit from some family members which was cancelled due to illness (one of the less-known hazards of going to church: tell your friends). I had taken the day off in anticipation of spending it with my visitors. Logically, I should use the day to catch up on school work.


    That’s silly talk.    
                      

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Salted Caramel Mocha Frappe: Pt I



Around the time the other half and I were jaunting around the Boston area for my aunt’s wedding, Starbucks did their thing and released their usual fall flavors: pumpkin spice and salted caramel mocha. Many factors, such as its revolting, distinctly un-vegan ingredients and the fact that the barista/snob in me generally hates the sort of individuals who come in frothing at the mouth over the flavor, abbreviating it to PSL as if pumpkin spice latte crosses some obscure threshold of tolerance is just too much of a mouthful to actually say, rabidly snapping celebratory iPhone pics of their decidedly run-of-the-mill beverages fated to be over-sentimentally hashtagged and posted and reposted to the point of exhaustion, have made me refuse to order the ever-popular pumpkin spice. This is pure pigheaded- and meanspiritedness, because I actually love it.


    My one choice when abroad, therefore, was to suck down as many salted caramel mochas as possible before returning home. This left me with such a spoilt, salted caramel lust that I actually drove to a Starbucks after leaving my job—again, at a coffee shop—to get one of said drinks. It was pathetic, and I was in my uniform still and the Starbucks and I kept exchanging knowing but confused looks. So I staged an intervention. For myself. 

And yes, I know I'm just the salty cousin of all those pumpkin spice hags.

Monday, October 6, 2014

Mom's Banana Bread



 Blogging is a unique opportunity to craft the life you want the world to see, to make everything seem as neat and hip and filtered as Taylor Swift’s Instagram account. And while that’s cool and everything, I’m not so much about that. Mostly because the effort it takes to make things seem pristine and hipster-approved seems like a lot of work to me.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Beet + Walnut Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing


I’ve been making various incarnations of this salad for almost two years now.


The salad I usually keep very simple: this is actually the most toppings I’ve ever added—the beets and walnuts stand alone, flavor-wise, so if you don’t have any other vegetables on hand, don’t worry.




The dressing I’ve also altered: sometimes I do a simple olive oil and vinegar vinaigrette, often I use Dijon mustard instead of regular, but this time it was the old yellow because I am out of Dijon.


However you spin it, its almost impossible to go wrong as long as you have the foundation of this salad: greens + canned beets + walnuts + dressing.



Beet + Walnut Salad

Serves one as a meal, or two as a side salad

2 cups chopped greens
½ can (or so) beets      
1/8 cup walnuts  
    
Other suggested toppings:
¼ green pepper
½ onion, sautéed in olive oil
2 small radishes, sliced

To assemble:

Prepare toppings, and arrange on lettuce as desired. If you are making ahead of time, do not add nuts until ready to serve, as they will get soggy, and don’t add the sautéed onions until they’re cooled or the lettuce will wilt.
Dress and serve.

Honey Mustard Dressing

2 tbsp mustard of choice
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
1 tsp olive oil (optional)
Salt, pepper, and onion powder to taste


Whisk ingredients together. Adjust seasonings as needed.


Thursday, September 11, 2014

Pomona Green Juice






 I’m having a bit of a green moment, obsessed with this particular shade.

I’m also having a bit of a trying-to-be-healthier moment. Or I was, the morning I made this juice. Which, by the way, I plan on drinking for or adding to my breakfast for the remainder of this week.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Peanut Butter and Jelly Smoothie

This Thirsty Thursday, I'm taking a step away from my usual coffee beverages to bring you a quirky smoothie. Yes. Quirky. 

It's like Zooey Deschanel in a cup.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

End-of-Summer Greek Pasta Salad

 It’s happening: the end of summer is approaching. We had a week of chilly mornings and evening here at the beach—basically just enough to get everyone unpacking their sweaters and reawaken unwelcome memories of pumpkin spice madness and Uggs—followed quickly by two weeks of muggy days with temps reaching into the upper 90s. I’m not complaining though, these last throes of summer have found me kayaking on river and sea, getting my money’s worth out of my swimsuit, and stuffing my face with this delicious salad.


Thursday, July 31, 2014

Mint syrup + iced coffee



    I’ve been extremely busy the past few weeks, moving to a new apartment, trying to settle in, finishing up my summer class, working, and running countless errands, but there is always time for coffee. Always.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Gingersnap Cold Press: thirsty + throwback Thursday


    Ready for things to get weirdly nostalgic and stuff?

   Okay, well first off, this rather innocuous-looking picture is almost all of what you will need to make this drink, which is, not surprisingly, both coffee and cold.

    This recipe was inspired by two things I thought I would never miss: Minnesota and my mom.
  
  I believe in most cases to miss something, you have to love it. I didn’t think I loved Minnesota, and maybe I don't, but once a place is a backdrop for  happy times and experiences the memories and the place become intertwined, and to desire one is to want the other as well. Or maybe I just don’t want to give Minnesota the satisfaction or the credit she deserves as a charming State.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Iced Chai


   I'm about to share with you a fairly straightforward recipe for something delicious. An iced chai tea.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Summer Rolls + Curry Peanut Dipping Sauce [vegan]


At the risk of being too twee, I present to you the perfect recipe to celebrate this beautifully progressing summer: summer rolls. I’ve been obsessed with these since my grandparents began making them, following instructions provided by some Laotian friends who we knew back from the days when we all lived in New York State. And, in a charming turn of events, they are really a great hot weather food—filling, but not heavy, a breeze to make, and, bonus, there is no heat involved in cooking them. They can even be made ahead of time and kept covered in the fridge.


Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Canola Oil Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies [vegan]


    Even after cutting out dairy, baking didn’t become really tricky until the first time I ran out of coconut oil.

   I prefer to use coconut oil in most cases, and did so often even before I stopped eating dairy. But I always had butter to fall back on in emergencies, and the first time I found myself with no coconut oil and no prospect of getting any in the near future I felt rather hurt—one of the bigger perks of being an adult is never being denied access to cookies, and being robbed of this right felt like a betrayal by the universe in general.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Grapefruit Fizz


   As warmer weather creeps in, I have found myself obsessed with this drink.

   It’s simple—only two ingredients—and takes less than five minutes to make. It’s a very rewarding beverage, the effort expended to make it minimal and the results uniformly delicious. (Trust me, as someone who has gone through two bags of grapefruit in as many weeks: I know).