Archive | August, 2012

Corn Bread and Corn Pudding Had a Baby Named Make-Over Corn Casserole

31 Aug

We TOTALLY had a piece before we shot a photo so you could see the consistency…

Labor Day symbolizes many things.  Most commonly, it reflects the end of summer, the start of a new school year, a 3-day weekend, and the time of the year where the white shoes are supposed to get stowed away (UNSUBSCRIBE. I wait until it does not feel as summer time-ish before mine officially hibernate).  Let’s take a moment to visit why we really observe Labor Day as if you’re like me the aforementioned list of the generally attributable Labor Day thoughts come to mind first.  I try to make a point of taking even the smallest amount of time though to think of what these fantastics days off work mean across the year.  Labor Day is about paying tribute to American workers’ contributions and achievements.  It has been long been celebrated with parades, parties, and athletic events.  So take pride in being a hard-working individual of the USA and whip up/bring/eat delicious things like this Corn Casserole (a reasonable, in moderation, corn pudding meets corn bread recipe from Skinnytaste) for your celebration of Labor Day!  Be safe and have a great long weekend!

 Ingredients:

  • 8.5 oz Jiffy corn muffin mix
  • 15.25 oz can sweet yellow corn, drained
  • 14.75 oz can sweet corn cream style
  • 16 oz fat free plain Greek yogurt
  • 1/4 cup melted light butter (I used Land O’ Lakes Light Butter w/ Canola Oil)
  • 1/2 cup egg whites
  • cooking spray

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray.
  2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix with a spoon.  It’s going to be really fluffy, but that is a-okay!
  3. Pour into baking dish and bake for 55-60 minutes allowing the edges to become a nice golden brown hue. 
  4. Allow to cool before cutting into 15 pieces.  It is FANTASTIC with BBQ anything per a suggestion :)

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How To Feel Like You’re Eating Pizza in Italy

29 Aug

Starting at left clockwise: Pizza 1) Margherita: Neapolitan buffalo mozzarella, basil, and olive oil; Pizza 2) Tomato Artichoke: Garlic-roasted tomatoes, marinated artichokes, and fontina cheese; Pizza 3) Pepperoni: San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and beef pepperoni

Another Arlington food establishment adventure!  Pupatella, a Neopolitan Pizzeria and Friggitoria (a place where fried food is sold, just one of Italy’s great traditions in street food), located in the Ballston/Bluemont neighborhood of Arlington, VA is a spot Bryan is been dying to hit up for quite some time.  I’ve been the hold up, but as soon as I heard great things about it from others like Claire and Grant I was on board.  Shining gf moment?  Not really.  Good things come to those who wait though!  It was a lovely double date evening which concluded at Cold Stone so Bryan fared just fine in the end.  Speak of the devil, here’s Bryan to tell you the Italian’s take on Pupatella.  More photos follow. 
 

Bryan’s Take (He’s Italian so his opinion is totally legit here, folks):

When the word Pupatella comes to mind, it’s not the most appetizing or enticing name. But after several friends had suggested it to me and some Yelp and food porn perusing online, I knew I had to go.  The owner immigrated over from Italy, took his brick oven by boat with him, and wears a Fedora.  If that doesn’t scream good guinea food, I don’t know what does (I can say guinea because I’m Italian, you others back off!).

The margherita pizza really reminded me of my grandmother’s pizza.  She would make homemade bread and put the cheese on first followed by the marinara and basil.  Sprinkle olive oil and maybe a little garlic on top and boom.  Pizza can sometimes get so involved with gourmet flavors from buffalo chicken to bbq to meat lovers, but if you want a genuine pizza with all the flavor – a simple margherita is the way to go.

All the ingredients were fresh and the buffalo mozzarella is extra moist compared to the traditional counterpart.  He doesn’t skimp on the olive oil either, using extra virgin…a must.

If you want some pizza, Italian store and Goodys have it covered. But if you want some authentic Italian pizza with simple fresh ingredients, I highly suggest Pupatella.

The pizza oven that journeyed all the way from Italy.

The staff make all pizza with love…and in fedoras!

(left and right) Arancini with Sausage (fried risotto balls) stuffed with sausage, peas, and mozzarella. (middle) Fried Fresh Mozzarella Balls with marinara.

The inner workings of Arancini.

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Banana Cocoa Refrigerator Oatmeal (Overnight Greek Yogurt Oatmeal)

27 Aug

My sincerest apologies in advance as I can’t offer the final product picture of this Banana Cocoa Refrigerator Oatmeal.  What’s my excuse? Well, I ate it at 6 am before my flight to Florida on Thursday.  When I say I ate before my flight, I mean that I literally was eating in the cab to the airport.  I had shorted myself on time before the cab came (typical) and had to throw the oatmeal into a solo cup for the ride to Reagan National Airport.  #failboat.

In any case, you can visit the site for the recipe here and see what it looks like in the end!  This is the recipe my friend Emily had recommended.  I like that there are several flavor recipes, but ultimately I’m not sure I preferred the greek yogurt to no greek yogurt style.  This may be because the cocoa was particularly overpowering to me.  I will try some of the other flavor suggestions like Mango Almond and Raspberry Vanilla to really make a fair assessment :) Nonetheless, thanks Emily for passing on the recipe which was certainly just as easy to make as the other overnight oats recipe I featured recently.  This serves one and I made two of them.  Each servings comes in at about 245 calories/5g fat/10g fiber/13g protein (give or take since I used FF greek yogurt and almond milk which are slight modifications from the recipe).

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup uncooked oats
  • 1/3 cup skim milk  (I went with almond milk)
  • 1/4 cup fat free Greek yogurt
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons dried chia seeds
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon honey, optional (or substitute any preferred sweetener)
  • 1/4 cup diced ripe banana, or enough to fill jar (approx. half of a small banana)

Directions:

  1. In a 1 cup jar or tupperware container, add oats, milk, yogurt, chia seeds, cocoa powder and honey.   
  2. Put lid on jar and shake until well combined.
  3. Remove lid, add bananas and stir. Return lid to jar/tupperware and refrigerate overnight.                                                
  4. Eat chilled.

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Red, White, and Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

24 Aug

I needed a great red, white, and blue dessert for the 4th of July (yup I know we are heading into September soon!) and I came upon this recipe from Recipe Girl.  I know it took a while to get this up on here, but I wanted to be sure to share so you all can make while berries are still in season and don’t cost an arm and a leg.  I was excited for the lemon twist in the recipe thinking that would make these even more summer-y.  I would not make without the lemon entirely, but I will cut the lemon in half moving forward.  I had hoped for a lemon hint and it turned out to be a little more pronounced than that.  Still awesome nonetheless!  I categorized this is as saint meal because it is quite reasonable and low in fat in moderation.  Recipe Girl notes that it serves 16 and each serving comes in at about 200 calories/11 g fat (6.5 g saturated).  Perhaps consider preparing this for Labor Day BBQs coming.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) butter, melted
  • 1 1/2 packages (12 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup skim milk
  • 2 TBSP cornstarch
  • 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice (you may want to use just 1 TBSP- your call!)
  • zest of one lemon (again, your call on including this)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup fresh raspberries (more or less, as desired)
  • 3/4 cup fresh blueberries (more or less, as desired)
  • nonstick spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch pan with aluminum foil. Spray lightly with cooking spray.

2. In a small bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press mixture firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan.

3. In a food processor (or with an electric mixer) blend cream cheese, eggs, milk, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and lemon zest just until smooth. Do not over-beat.

4. Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the crumb crust. Scatter raspberries and blueberries on top.

5. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until touch to center feels slightly firm and set.

6. Cool completely before cutting. Use foil to lift cheesecake out of pan and onto a cutting board. Use a thin, sharp knife to cut into clean-looking bars (wiping blade clean with a paper towel between cuts). Refrigerate until ready to serve.

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If I Had to Pick a Favorite Food…

22 Aug

…it’d be Vietnamese!  I’ve had some friends and followers ask what foods I love most.  It is tough tough tough to choose the top favorite, but when it comes down to it my head goes to Vietnamese.  I think this is for two reasons: 1) it’s just amazingly delicious and 2) my family and I used to go out for it a lot when I was growing up so it’s tied to memories as well.  In fact, my mom went into labor with my brother there in January of 1996…a few hours before the blizzard of ’96 snowed in the metro DC area.  They had to spend a number of additional days at the hospital because they were literally snowed in!  Our Vietnamese spot is called Saigon Cafe in Sterling, VA.

The photo above features Grilled Beef with Rice Noodle (grilled beef, carrots, cucumber, crushed peanuts, rice noodles, and fish sauce) and Spicy Saigon Vegetables.  Below is a pic of Vietnamese Spring Rolls (rice paper wrapping, rice noodles, pork, and shrimp) with peanut dipping sauce.  Some other favorites (not pictured) are Fried Spring Rolls and Chicken with Sweet Basil.  I always think of Vietnamese as lighter, fresher asian food as compared to Chinese.  If you haven’t tried before, pleaseeeeee do!

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Stuffed Red Bell Peppers

20 Aug

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Growing up I was not a fan of peppers or onions.  When my Momma would make stuffed peppers for the fam, she prepared mine sans pepper and onion.  Basically I was eating the ground meat and seasoning.  The best part was that she made my little meatloaf concoction into the shape of a heart.  I will never forget that!  Now my taste has matured at least a little- I still am not a huge onion fan. I now like peppers though so I thought I’d try this for the first time all out.  There are many renditions of stuffed peppers, but I liked this one from Yummly as I had most of the ingredients already and it seemed easy to follow.  I hope you like it!  It is good for 2 and lunch left-overs.

Ingredients:

  • 4 medium- large sized red bell peppers
  • 2 TBSP olive oil
  • 2 cups onion, chopped (went with Vidalia because I can handle the sweet)
  • 6 TBSP fresh parsley, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3/4 cup brown rice, cooked and cooled
  • 1 TBSP paprika
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • 2 1/2 cups canned tomato sauce
  • 1 1/4 lean ground turkey or beef
  • 1 egg

Directions:

  1. Cut off the top 1/2 inch of pepper, set asides tops, and scoop out the seeds and cavities.  Remove stems from the top of peppers and throw away.  Finely chop the remaining parts of the pepper tops.
  2. In a large skillet, heat up olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions, parsley, garlic, and chopped pepper pieces. Sauté until onions soften- around 8 minutes. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in rice, paprika, salt, pepper, and allspice. Cool 10 minutes. Mix in 1/2 cup tomato sauce, then turkey (or beef) and egg.
  3. Fill pepper cavities with raw turkey (or beef) mixture. Stand filled peppers in single layer in heavy large pot. Pour remaining 2 cups tomato sauce around peppers. Bring sauce to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pot and simmer 20 minutes.
  4. Spoon some sauce over each pepper. Cover and cook until peppers are tender and filling is cooked through and firm- around 20 minutes.

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Dusting Off The Running Shoes

17 Aug

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These beauties have not been getting much love lately.  By lately, I mean since around late April.  As mentioned before, I am a fair weather runner.  This exceptionally steamy summer coupled with my disdain for long runs on a treadmill and my newfound love for spin meant falling off on the running front.  Time to get back in the game though so I’m ready to go on October 21st for the Army ten miler in DC.

I love Hal Higdon’s training programs which you can find online.  He offers novice, intermediate, and advanced training programs to suit your intensity level as well as several distance options.  I’ll be using the 15k novice plan for this race.  That is actually 9.3 miles but I’ll just add a little more distance to my last long training runs to be adequately prepared.

I’m excited to have a training buddy in my friend Emily.  We’ve planned to run Tuesday and Thursday mornings until it cools off.  She wont be running this race but enjoys getting some work outs in in the morning.  Claire was able to lock-in a bib too so I imagine we’ll get some runs in as well!  Unfortunately, Heather, my college bestie, was not so lucky but she will be training up in Jerz and running it anyway.  Go Heather! 

This week saw a few get back in running condition jogs from me.  Nothing to celebrate over just a couple 2 and 3 milers but per an inspiring quote I stumbled on this week I found some baby steps and am taking them.  Happy weekend to all!   

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Skinny Overnight Oats

16 Aug

My friend, Emily, raved to me about overnight oatmeal made with greek yogurt.  I’ll still need to grab that recipe (achem send to me Ms. O’Hare ;) achem).  I’m giving this recipe a try first which is a little backwards since it was inspired by a dislike for overnight oatmeal with greek yogurt citing the tangy flavor not doing it for some people.  I’ll make my mind up, but I’m optimistic that I’ll like both!  I’m going to do a little something even more different here.  I have prepared the Skinny Overnight Oats from the Skinnytaste recipe arsenal with minor modifications (I used agave instead of liquid vanilla stevia).  I have no idea what it is going to taste like and this post will go out to you likely as I’m cracking it open.  I’m telling you how I prepared it and showing you a peek at what it looked like the night before (above).  I’ll report back with a photo of the final product and my feeling on the taste, texture, and likelihood of it being a do-over.  The ingredients serve one and as you can see I doubled it since B wants to give it a try as well.  Here goes!

Ingredients: 

  • 1/4 cup oats
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/4 medium banana, sliced
  • 1/2 TBSP chia seeds
  • 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1/2 TBSP maple agave syrup
  • pinch cinnamon

Directions: 

Place all ingredients in a tupperware container (at least the capacity of a cereal bowl), cover, shake, and throw in the fridge overnight.  Add your crunch poison in the AM- be that a TBSP chopped nuts, granola, or whatever strikes your fancy.

To be continued…

Update:

As you can see the oatmeal really thickened up across the night which I think is largely thanks to the chia seeds since they expand in liquid.  The flavor was bomb.com particularly that pinch of cinnamon.  I added a little more agave, but only about a teaspoon.  I chose crumbled pecans for my added crunch.  This is certainly a do-over since it was delicious and very convenient.  I’m still psyched to try the overnight oats with greek yogurt though.  My lovely friend Emily already sent me the recipe per the first part of this post.  Stay tuned!

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Hiking the Billy Goat Trail (Section A)

15 Aug

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A few months ago, Bryan and I took a Monday off to spend the day together in celebration of dating for 6 years.  To celebrate, we started with a big chocolate chip pancake breakfast including eggs and bacon at McLean Family Restaurant.  This is a spot I frequented in high school.  Oh the memories!  To leverage that party-o-carbs, we followed breakfast with a great 4 mile hike on the Maryland side of Great Falls.  We chose Section A of the Billy Goat Trail.

The hike offered more than an easy trail walk with a variety of rock scrambles and climbs up slightly intimidating rock faces.  It was certainly a good work out and reasonably strenuous, but I felt adequately prepared after the Old Rag hike in late May.  In general, Section A is known as the most strenuous compared to Sections B and C.  It was also a pretty warm day at around 90 degrees with decently high humidity.  The company, scenery, and the little ponds made it so worth it (see the slideshow above).  Bryan was particularly excited with the number of turtles we saw.  I suggested a turtle and snake sighting count since the reviews of the trail encouraged keeping eyes peeled for little creatures in the various small pools and ponds.  The hope was for as many turtles as possible and preferably 0 snake sightings.  In the end we came upon 17 turtles- yes 17!- and 1 snake.  ICK! It was one of those side slithering ones too.  *shudder*

The trail was easy to follow with clearly marked blue blazes on trees or rocks along the way.  The trail was a loop that ended with a towpath following alongside a pond.  That is where we saw the majority of our turtles.  There were small turtles, medium ones, and even those big mean snapping turtles.  They were frightening from a distance truthfully!  All in all, a lovely little hike.  I’d do it again and perhaps add Sections B or C to the day as well.

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Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Frittata

13 Aug

I’ve always known eggs are a top notch breakfast choice for that perfect combo of good fat and protein.  My trouble is that I don’t LOVE eggs.  I can learn to though assuming I can make them interesting.  I don’t mind the occasional hard boiled egg accompanying the rest of my breakfast or a banging omelet.  I’m really trying though.  Last week, I had 2 hard boiled eggs and a broccoli and reduced-fat cheddar frittata.  That is huge for me!  Quick lesson for those who don’t know exactly what frittatas are.   Frittatas are simply baked omelets.  You cook the eggs long enough for the bottom to settle/ come to a golden brown and then skip the flip.  Instead, you stick the pan right in the oven and broil for about 3 minutes more.  My inspiration for the Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Frittata  actually came from something a character in the Bourne Ultimatum ordered in a scene staged at breakfast.  Watching that movie (and the other two in the Bourne saga) prepared me the Bourne Legacy and gave me this delicious breakfast idea.  I halved this recipe since I was making for just two.

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp dry oregano
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp black pepper
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  • 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
  • 1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled

Directions:

  1. Position rack in the upper most rack of the oven and preheat the broiler.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, oregano, salt,  and pepper.
  3. Heat olive oil in a large, nonstick frying pan over a medium heat.  Add bell pepper once hot and saute for 1 minute.
  4. Add egg mixture over the red pepper ensuring your red pepper is evenly distributed for the final frittata product.
  5. Lift edges of frittata to allow uncooked egg to flow underneath.  In 2-3 minutes, egg should be a golden brown underneath.
  6. Dot goat cheese evenly and put your frittata (in the pan) into the oven for about 3 additional minutes.  You can leave the oven cracked open.

7. Remove from oven with a hot mitt and let stand for 3 final minutes before serving.

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