april eatings.
Hello!
Whew! Another month has gone by. I feel like this year is reallllly flying by fast. I know that is SUCH a cliche thing to say. But srsly. Maybe I'm just getting old and/or dreading turning 30 (AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!) in the end of May.... But anyway. These days life is packed and sometimes I feel like I'm lucky to get even half of my to-do list done before I pass out on the couch, exhausted, 6 hours before my alarm is set to go off.
That being said, there sure has been some good food along the way. So I can't really complain! I'm working on a new post with nice pretty pictures and all that good stuff, but in the mean time I wanted to take this opportunity to take a breath- ok in.... and out.... -and check in with y'all, and oh maybe chat about what I've been munching on and Instagramming in the last month or so. So here goes. And please pardon the less than amazing smartphone pics. I do not own an iPhone 6. The secret is out.
This beautiful lil' dish is one of those foods that is so delicious that you just want to gorge yourself on it... AND it's actually healthy enough that you don't have to walk around with a shame-over consuming only kale smoothies for a week afterwards! Kind of the perfect combination, in my book. This recipe is from the oh so talented Sarah Britton of My New Roots, and can be found in her gorgeous cookbook. Also: the recipe for the tzatziki that tops this dish!
The pie of the month. I made this pie for my friend Greggy-poo's birthday. I actually dropped it off at his work the day AFTER his birthday... I had a sneaking suspicion that he might be a tiny bit hungover and possibly have a use for a pie. Really just a stab in the dark.
This pie was sort of experimental... I ran out of all-purpose flour and threw some whole wheat flour into the mix. I was patting myself on the back for how cool and healthful I was being... until I attempted to roll out the dough. So yeah. Whole wheat flour doesn't have as much gluten and thusly (not a word, just go with it) won't behave, to put it in a nutshell. I decided to do some cut-outs for the top crust as a creative way to disguise the fact that a more conventional style of top crust never would've held together. Shhhhhhh.... don't tell Greggy-poo!!
The breakfast taco!!! Oh yay. I made these breakfast tacos for me and my sweetie on a recent Saturday morning. It was an extra special occasion, because we have had fairly opposite work schedules for quite a while now... until recently! For a long time Sundays were our only mutual day off... and Sunday is a tough day, somehow all sorts of things seem to come up. Between football for him, homework for me, or family events for either/both of us, it's been really hard to find days to spend together. BUT- now we both have Saturdays off too! Woohoo!!! So anyway, to celebrate (or because I was hungry) I made these beautiful tacos. The best part is these are basically a pantry-staple dish for me. I always have tortillas, eggs, cheese, and canned beans on hand (plus hot sauce, of course), which is pretty much all you need. Plus I happened to have avocado that day which was just a bonus! It just might turn into a Saturday morning (er- afternoon) tradition. And I would be totally OK with that.
Ah yes, more breakfast. These lovely (and healthy!) Vegan Carrot Waffles come from the new Love and Lemons cookbook. I actually do not own this cookbook- I have in fact decided not to buy any cookbooks published in 2016 until 2017. I figure this will give me time to make thoughtful choices about which ones I want, maybe get a few from the library to give them a test run, avoid some of the impulse buys that can happen when a brand new book is out and getting hyped all over the internet. Plus, this way people have plenty of options when buying me gifts this year, with no fear of buying me a cookbook I already own (since my collection is a bit absurdly large at this point). Anywho, I will almost definitely eventually have to own the Love and Lemons cookbook, especially after eating these amazing waffles. It was actually my first time ever making waffles (I know, right? Weird!), and it was a smashing success if I do say so myself. I shan't be returning my boyfriend's waffle iron to him anytime soon (just between us).
MORE SMOOTHIE PICS!! That's what I imagine the people of Instagram are constantly shouting at me through the ether. So ok, ok, fine, more smoothie pics! My love affair with smoothies has abated a tad since the March smoothie-a-thon, but our relationship is still going strong. I plopped this pretty pink drink in the middle of a gorgeous platter that my girl J-Breez gave me and boom! Epic psychedelic smoothie vibes. Makes me want to throw on a flower crown and go dance in a meadow just thinking about it.
Here's something new: more breakfast! But seriously, strawberries were on sale a lot this month (yes please!) and the people of Instagram seemed to like my fruity pics! This breakfast bowl is basically an unblended-smoothie (more smoothie love!), with Greek yogurt, sliced strawbs, a lil' honey, and slivered almonds on top. Yum.
Pizza night! This month I made pizza at home for the first time! Well, I didn't make the dough- I bought it at Whole Foods- but still. It was fun. Had a bit of a rough time wrangling the dough, but it all turned out ok in the end. The toppings were inspired by a combo from a pizza in the Gjelina cookbook. I used fresh mozzarella, sliced red fresno chilies, kale raab from the farmer's market, and ground beef seasoned like the lamburgers from the Lucky Peach 101 Easy Asian Recipes cookbook. Oh and roasted garlic mmmmmm. A mish-mash of cookbook inspiration and refrigerator-contents. As is my way.
Ah, the steak pic. This is one of those funny things. I made this dinner for myself truly in the middle of the night, after a long day of homework, regular work, and more homework. And then the cooking of a very delicious meal. When everything was finally ready, I was basically starving and exhausted, BUT I really wanted to get a good picture before I dug in! I know, it's silly. But it was a gorgeous plate and I really wanted to share it. I finally got frustrated and gave up, and posted this pic even though I wasn't that stoked on how it came out. I didn't have good light, it was kinda blurry, and I was grumpy. The funny thing is that this pic quickly became my most liked post to date. Just goes to show... something. Don't be too hard on yourself, I think. I think that's the lesson I'm gonna take from it. These roasted sunchokes with parsley salsa verde from the Gjelina cookbook were unbelievably delicious, especially on top of this huge ribeye that looked like Africa. It really hit the spot. Plus, first time cooking sunchokes! So delicious.
Purple sprouting broccoli salad. I found purple sprouting broccoli at the farmer's market, and basically immediately knew I had to have it because it was purple and pretty and funky and I had never seen it before! Fun. So, I decided to give it the salad treatment as I was feeling spring-ish, I suppose. Back when I was a nanny I used to throw these little bowls of salad together for myself that I would munch on when the kids were, say, watching the Backyardigans after dinner. There would always be a simple vegetable hanging around, often steamed broccoli that I made for the kids' dinner, to go alongside their Annie's Mac n Cheese and vegetarian Chickn nuggets. I would throw some greens in a bowl, add a handful of broccoli, some raw onion, and top it with feta cheese. I would douse it all in lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and dig in. For some reason that simple, thrown together dish popped into my head when I looked at the purple stuff and I was inspired. I steamed up the sprouting broccoli, made a quick, super tart lemon dressing, and snuggled it all in with plenty of lettuce, feta, and raw onion. WOOOH! Sharp, creamy, salty, good. Like addictively good. Yumm.
Well, I guess that's it! Hope you enjoyed reading my ramblings about what I've been cooking, eating, and thinking about lately. I'll be back with more recipes soon! In the mean time, to quote Garrison Keillor: be well, do good work, and keep in touch!
Mwah!
Zoe Rose
