FoodFitnessFreshAir

Black Beans and Plantains with Rice

May 24, 2013

It felt good to get back in the kitchen cooking. This was the first full meal I made since returning from Europe. The initial few days home consisted of gorging on fruits and vegetables, and wearing off my jet-lag with some minestrone from the freezer. Though, I admit, I also chowed down on some coconut chai vegan ice cream (shout out to Philly’s Little Baby’s Ice Cream) and some wood-fired pizza from Pizza Nomad, possibly my favorite pizza place in Philadelphia, for the moment at least.

Warm-weather months mean lots of festivals, flea markets and food truck gatherings in Philly, which is where I ate said pizza and said ice cream. Like I said in my first post home, I feel fortunate to have returned from Paris in the midst of spring. It’s easy to keep your mind from missing daily travel excursions when there’s so much going on in your own city. For instance, this past weekend and the first weekend being back, I hit up a food truck meetup, a kinetic sculpture derby, and an Italian Market festival going on in my neighborhood.

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“Cheesy” Roasted Cauliflower

May 22, 2013

Looking for a fun veggie side for your Memorial Day cookout/BBQ? I promise this one will be as addicting as the potato chips some lame-o places on your red-checkered tablecloth. It’ll be even more addicting than your mother’s potato salad, as good as I’m sure that is, and a vegan crowd-pleaser that’ll cost you just six ingredients, S&P included. Dare I say this is my favorite veggie snack? For the moment, at least.

This “Cheesy” Roasted Cauliflower takes one of those junk-food-esque routes that easily persuades vegetable-eating, without being all that junkie. Nutritional yeast, my vegan weapon of choice in dishes like pesto, acts as a nutty coating that gives the florets all the flavor they need. A dash of garlic powder, salt and pepper, and you’re ready to move onto other picnic-friendly dishes, like Watermelon and Lime Salad, and Roasted Asparagus Avocado Tartines. I’m hoping to whip up some kind of sweet strawberry treat for the bonfire I’m planning on this weekend. Although, S’mores will definitely make it onto the dessert menu too.

Whether shindigging or not this weekend, cauliflower will be hitting summer gardens sooner than not, making this a recipe you’ll want to keep in mind. No judgement if you devour 1/3 of the bowl all by yourself.

Head on over to Clean Eating mag, where you’ll find my recipe.

Euro-trip in Food

May 20, 2013

So a lot has happened in the past few months. And I’ve learned a lot in the past few months. And I’ve had an ongoing serious of wake-up calls in the past few months. And I’ve learned to relax in the past few months. And I’ve felt happier than I’ve been in awhile in the past few months. And I really don’t know what the next few months will bring. But it’s spring. And what I’ve learned is to go with the flow. And to work hard. And life will be okay. Cheers.

I recently quit my job. A job that was bringing me down in multiple ways, and upon leaving, has made me feel liberated. Don’t get me wrong. I’m still more confused than ever about life. But I’m not stressing out every 5 minutes about what to do. Instead, I’ll be here freelancing my butt off and taking some space to be creative and let the right opportunities arise.

Something I learned recently after graduating from college is that you have to figure things out for yourself. But you don’t always have to have everything figured out. Coming to terms with this has helped me a lot recently.

A month or so after leaving my job, my friend Logan told me he was visiting some friends in Paris and Brussels. Knowing my newly flexible schedule, he kindly invited me to hop on board. I figured, what the heck, why not. My thoughts: free places to stay, who knows when I’ll have this flexible schedule again, and Europe in the springtime, um, yes please. Plus, as a writer, seeing and experiencing more of the world only ever helps development. (…meaning I should probably just keep on traveling, right? Kickstarter anyone?)

I booked my plane tickets and a week later hopped on a plane to Paris. I don’t regret the decision one bit.

So enough about my life, let’s get to the trip. The route: Paris –> Brugge –> Brussels –> Paris –>Nice –>Paris. Two weeks of excursion and lots of photo-taking. Photography and traveling are the current loves of my life. And waffles from Belgium. Sadly no French boys are in that equation, yet.

I’ve included mostly food-related photos below to give you a glimpse into the trip. I’ll be posting more photos throughout the next few weeks/months of people I met and landscapes that blew me away on my Tumblr. Feel free to stop by.

Since we already got the obligatory Eiffel Tower photo out of the way, let’s get straight to the food. Starting with a gigantic chocolate Gorilla head.

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Minestrone Soup

May 16, 2013

Fifteen baguettes later, I’ve arrived home to Philly after a two week excursion in France and Belgium. There was a serious amount of baguette action on this trip. And brie, and pastries, and bottles of wine, and poorly accented bonjour’s and bon appétit’s. You can expect a food-related post on my trip soon. First, however, I need to sort through my 1,000 photos, memories and jetlag, stalk the chef I met on Facebook, and remind myself life will be okay without cute French boys on every block. I also need eat some greens and whole grains. And grab this soup from the freezer.

Wanting to clean out my refrigerator, I whipped this up just before heading to France. It was literally the perfect light and veggie-packed meal I needed before jetting off to a foodie haven of artisan cheeses and pistachio macaroons. Luckily, some soup still remains waiting for me…waiting for my detox of daily croissant consumption. I admit, the thought of saying farewell to that makes me want to cry.

Oh well. Oatmeal simmers away, energy-restoring smoothies whiz in the blender, and breakfast and life goes on — with or without pain au chocolats. On the bright side, I’ve come home to ridiculously lovely weather in the midst of my favorite season. For that, I will continue to ride my life high. Come home in the winter, on the other hand, and I’m sure this would not’ve been the case. Good thing its springtime. Cheers to that. I also stumbled home to my tax return in the mailbox yesterday afternoon. After Paris, it needn’t even be mentioned I’m cheersing to that too.

If the thought of soup and warm temps makes you want to slap me and proceed to go flag down the ice cream man, well, then bookmark this one for later. But considering it’s still May and sweat-drenching days have yet to arrive, I’m going to argue on behalf of this meal. This minestrone is certainly not a hearty, gut-warming winter stew. Rather, it’s a light soup, fit for a wide range of seasons, and packed with tons of nutrition. Given what was in my fridge the day of its creation, this also happens to be heavy on the green beans. If green beans aren’t your veggie of choice, feel free to add in a handful of spring greens or any other seasonal ingredient that might sound good to you.

Make this minestrone a meal by simply serving it with a slice of crusty bread and a side salad. That’s what I’ll be doing — baguette on the side, pretending I’m still in Paris. Au revoir.

CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE…