Feast or Famine

I'm either blogging up a storm or not at all for months on end. That's kind of how I roll in real life too...I'm currently trying to lose a few pounds, which of course makes me OBSESSED with food. The more I have to diet, the more compulsive I become in finding the very best recipes and freshest ingredients and how much of something I can eat for the most amount of food...well, you get the idea.

I've been stalking this blog Can You Stay for Dinner? for a few weeks and recently read her 400 calorie salad ideas. I loved the thought of throwing all your leftovers into a salad (in an organized fashion). Today for lunch I made myself a super yummy salad with lettuce (duh...), onions, black beans, corn, tortilla crisps, and light ranch. I understand this isn't exactly a salad revolution or anything but it was slightly more out of the box for me than my normal.

http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/2011/12/14/how-to-make-a-delicious-400-calorie-salad/

Tonight for dinner, I made gazpacho. Our friend, Nate, used to make this often but we live 5000 miles away from him and for some reason I've had a mega craving for it lately. CRH isn't supposed to eat a lot of tomato stuff right now, so I had put it off for a little bit but I decided today was the day. I just blended it all (I may have slightly over-blended...live and learn) and gave Eve a taste. She spit it out, so that's my measure that it's yummy goodness and the best part is that it's only 39 calories...yes, 39. I'm having it with a grilled cheese.

Here's the recipe from Allrecipes!

Prep Time:
20 Min

Ready In:
2 Hrs 20 Min

Servings (Help)

USMetricCalculate

Original Recipe Yield 10 servings

Ingredients

• 4 cups tomato juice
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, minced
• 1 cucumber, chopped
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a blender or food processor, combine tomato juice, onion, bell pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, green onions, garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, tarragon, basil, parsley, sugar, salt, and pepper. Blend until well-combined but still slightly chunky. Chill at least 2 hours before serving.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 39 | Total Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 0mg

Blue Potato Burrito

We have a new market around the corner called Waialua Fresh. It's like an indoor farmer's market only better! They are my new favorite place and I visit as often as possible. I'm also stalking, I mean following, them on Facebook and one day this week they posted a picture of blue potatoes. I've never heard of, much less eaten, a blue potato. Purple, red, gold...yes. Blue...never before. So, of course I had to have them!

Last night, I was feeling lazy and went to get a pizza at our new local pizzeria, Jerry's. While they made our dinner, I felt compelled to run across the parking lot to grab up some of those potatoes. This morning, CRH whipped up this yummy blue potato breakfast burrito with a side of blue potato home fries. It was pure yummy goodness! I can't tell you what all was in it because I didn't make it but the burrito had the potatoes, eggs, cheese, veggie sausage and the home fries had the potatoes, sweet peppers, onions, garlic, and cayenne. OMG, delicious! Isn't it a pretty plate?

Follow Through...Not So Much

If you know me at all, you know that I really suck at following through with stuff. This did not prove untrue in my recent foray into being vegetarian. Truthfully, I never made it past pescetarian and honestly, I just can't give up fish. I super, triple, over the top love seafood. Anyway, I went home for Thanksgiving and fell off the wagon...badly. I started eating any and all meat in mass quantities and realized that I'd missed it. And then, I started feeling badly about it again and remembered how gross it is and now I'm back onto select meat. In an attempt to remove as much meat as possible from the dinner diet, I have asked some friends for recipes and just purchased Mark Bitman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian book. It should arrive Monday or Tuesday!

In the interim, my childhood (and current!) friend Sara, who doesn't just dabble in being a vegetarian but actually IS one gave me the most amazing recipe that I'm going to share with you good people now (because she said I could). Her mother has been a vegetarian for a long time and in the 80s had a cookbook with this recipe in it. Sara has apparently loved it since then and makes it for her family. I made it last night and we all agreed that it has officially made it into the menu rotation around here. (Well, the adults agreed...Eve ate something less nutritional.)

I have no idea what to call this...Adzuki Yumminess seems appropriate.

Put 2Tbsp of olive oil in a large-ish pan on the stove. Dice a medium onion, dice a medium potato, and slice a medium zucchini and cook in the oil for 3-4 minutes. Then add a cup of adzuki beans. I used drained can, but you can use dried ones that you have soaked. I'm not the patient. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add 1 1/4 cup of good veggie stock (I made mine using a recipe on all recipes...my first stock ever!) and 2 whole cloves (to be removed later). Then add in 3Tbsp of tomato paste, 3Tbsp of red wine, and 3Tbsp of cognac (a mini bottle is more than enough) and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered for 20-30 minutes until thickened. I simmered for about 30 and then CRH decided he wanted crescent rolls with it, so it continued to simmer while those cooked. Season to taste with salt and pepper!!

This was FANTASTIC!! Thank you for the recipe, Sara!