Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Sweet Potato Fries and Peanut Butter Cups


Katja eating melted chocolate

Sweet Potato Fries: Okay, I'll admit that they aren't really sweet potato 'fries.' They are more of the healthy variety, I like to think. What we did was we cut the sweet potato (yes, we only used one and it was more than enough) into thin slices, put them on a non-stick cooking sheet and coated them very liberally with olive oil. Then, we sprinkled on them an assortment of spices. It was very sporadic sprinkling, let me tell you, which made it all the more interesting. Because it wasn't even at all, you got a different flavor each time. Awesome. I believe I even dumped a bunch of cayenne pepper onto three or four poor and delicious sweet potato slices when Katja wasn't looking. The surprise was awesome.

I ate them later with my leftover pizza, and offered a few to George to be nice. He turned them down. I saved a couple in the fridge and went to fetch them for a snack and they were gone. I believe I swore when I saw the empty plate except for the orange. Yes, the bland orange. That was actually the food I meant for him to take, but he chose the wrong one.

Peanut Butter Cups: This required essentially no cooking! Just a little melting, but that can be done in a microwave if you're gross and lazy. We just melted dark (vegan) chocolate in a pan, this time spreading the product evenly in cupcake holders. Leaving an opening, we put them in the fridge to cool. Once cooled, we put a heaping dollop of organic peanut butter. Please don't disgrace the recipe with skippy's or something with more than two ingredients tops. After that, we spread the remaining melted chocolate on the pb cups and put them in the fridge for a couple minutes.

They melted in our fingers.

VARIATIONS: After, I became way too excited with the endless possibilities at hand.
1) PB&J Cups
2) PB&Banana Cups
3) PB&Honey Cups*
4) PB&Pumpkin Butter Cups
5) PB&Lemon Curd Cups
6) PB & Apple Cups (or another fruit variety. Blueberry would be awesome. Also in jam...)
7) Almond Butter & any of the above
8) Macademia/Hazelnut/Cashew Butter & any of the above cups
9) Go Lindt-out and put nutella inside.....and PB
*And think of the endless possibilities here! PB & Star Thistle Honey, PB & Lavender Honey, PB & Pumpkin honey (mmmm)...I mean, the list goes on.




Close-up shot!






Pizza Day!



A couple days ago, Zoe and I made vegan pizza with pesto, lemon garlic tofu, portobello mushroom and some fresh orange pepper. I still have leftovers and it's awesome. We didn't have a lot of time, so we just bought some pre-made whole wheat dough from Berkeley Bowl West for $1.30. Very simple: no oil or spices.
BEFORE:
AFTER:



Lemon Pie Failure

currently eating: organic white corn tortilla chips and garlic fresh salsa and the vegan pizza Zoe & I made.


I've been craving a vegan lemon tart/pie/bar lately. I thought it would be cute if I made mini pies in cupcake holders. And if I made them healthy, because I'm on a healthy spree. Well, yea...I improvised. I used a few different flours, brown rice syrup for the dough which tasted mediocre at best, and honey for the lemon filling with the wrong flour. Honey was a bad idea, let me tell you. I never thought I would say that before. On one of them I put a bottom layer of chocolate and bananas, which was a great idea except that the lemon aftertaste and honey sucked. Luckily, my cooking week has been a relative sucess, so this was my only real failure. So, let's just call today a "learning experience."


Tuesday, February 2, 2010

My Favorite Food

Before the pix start rolling in, I've decided to compile a few lists about me and my food. Let's begin with favorites.

Dessert:
Bread Pudding
Fudge
Chocolate*
Coffee Bread
Mango Sticky Rice (my favorite dessert dish by far)
Macarons

Breakfast:
Oatmeal
Whole Wheat Pancakes
Yogurt with bananas or blueberries and granola. Specifically maple syrup yogurt

Lunch:
Grilled cheese sandwich*
Salad*
Quesadillas
Burritos

Dinner:
my mommy's rice dish

Snacks:
Cheez-its* (been eating them since I as four)
Cashews
Walnuts
Peanut Butter
Almond Butter
One of the above butters on toast with honey.
Almonds
Honey*

Fruits:
Dates
Apples
Bananas: It's always been a dream of mine to pick a ripe banana off of a banana tree.
Avocados
Blueberries

Vegetables:
Carrots
Yams*

Fungus:
Mushrooms of all kinds

*denotes an obsession

This is subject to change.