Sweat & Soup (But Not Together, Obviously, Because That'd Be Gross)

When it comes to life in general, I’m a big – nay, HUGE – fan of routine. I’m more productive, more driven, and just generally better at having my ish together when I’m in a routine.

When it comes to my workouts, however, that routine can sometimes dig itself into a rut.  I’ve done largely the same stuff for years: 40 minutes of cardio (some combination of elliptical/treadmill/bike) plus some lifting afterwards.  It often starts to feel really old, but when you’re on a budget and don’t want to pay for group fitness classes (me), or when you often find yourself looking like a total nincompoop in group fitness classes (me, again -- I've actually been laughed at by passers-by), you run out of options pretty quickly.

I’ve been looking for ways to jazz things up a bit, so I picked up a copy of The New Rules of Lifting for Women, and I lurve it.  It’s fantastic – the workouts are quick but still a butt-whuppin’, and I love how strong I feel after 25 minutes of lifting.  By the time I leave the gym, I’m sporting a serious case of the shakes (or, as my high school track coach used to call it, Elvis legs).  I do cardio on the days when I don’t lift, which mitigates the “please shoot me now” boredom that comes with spending 30 minutes a day on the elliptical. 

I’ve also largely shifted my gym sessions from the evenings to the morning.  (There are still mornings where that doesn’t happen, but for the most part it has held up.)  This is a HUGE surprise for me, because I’ve never been a gym morning person.  When I tried to do morning workouts before, I was always tired and in desperate need of caffeine, and I felt like my brain was crashing around in my skull whenever I tried to brave the treadmill.  (I’d run for a mile and then be totally convinced that I was giving myself brain damage.  “Bah, I’m going to wind up on life support at this rate!  Time to go back to running at night!”)  However, since I started lifting, morning gym sessions have become a gazillion times easier and less painful.  I have a cup of coffee as soon as I wake up, and then I’m all energized and ready to go.  Plus, it doesn’t hurt that I get to see views like this:

Well, I should say that I used to get to see views like that back when the sun wasn't pulling a disappearing act on us.  (I took that picture back in early September.)  I have to say: I love fall, but I miss my favorite shiny celestial orb.  Mid-winter is going to be seriously hard, friends.

The good thing, though, is that the weather is finally cooling off.  After a typically hot and humid summer in DC, this is cause for much excitement.  As soon as I saw that the weather forecast includes markedly cooler weather as we get closer to the weekend, I was all, "OMIGODCOOLWEATHERIWANTTOMAKESOUP."  Then I was all, "If memory serves, the lining of my good winter coat was ripping when I put it in storage last spring.  I should probably get that fixed."

But the key thing here, friends, is: I really love soup.  (I also have an alarmingly tangential inner monologue, but that's not the point.)

I recently made a dish for hubs that involves chicken with a tomato-oregano-artichoke sauce -- and although I didn't eat the chicken, I was diggin' the sauce like woah.  I wanted to re-create it, but as -- wait for it -- a soup.

The ensuing soup recipe is definitely Mediterranean and a wee bit Greek.  It doesn't wear a Speedo, mercifully, but it does pack a huge dose of vitamin C (and, with the imminent arrival of cold/flu season, who couldn't use more of that?).

Mediterranean Tomato Soup

1 16-ounce can crushed tomatoes
4 sprigs of fresh oregano, tied into a bouquet garnis
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon aniseed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 marinated artichoke hearts, chopped

Pour the olive oil into a stock pot.  Once it's hot, add the aniseed, minced garlic, and chopped onion.  Sautee until the onion is soft and the garlic is starting to brown.

Add the crushed tomatoes, balsamic, artichoke hearts, and bouquet garnis.  Let it simmer for 15-20 minutes.

After it simmers, it'll be ready to serve!  I served it with some Lundberg Farms Japonica rice blend and garnished it with crushed Brad's Raw Kale Chips.  (Full disclosure: I have a raging addiction to Brad's Raw Kale Chips.  Holy crap, those things are good.)

Happy eating!

And, with that, a question: what do you love most about fall?

Strawberry-Oat Bars

I have a thing for oatmeal.  I also have a thing for gooey desserts.  And yet another thing for strawberries.

Naturally, the perfect storm of all these things would be an ooey gooey dessert bar involving oats and strawberries.  I'd been shopping at the Whole Foods in my old 'hood (it's a gazillion times bigger and more well-stocked than the Whole Foods in my new 'hood, which has the dubious distinction of being one of the smallest stores in the country while also being one of the busiest...ergo, the perpetual shitshow that plagues my local WF), and I stumbled across some Bob's Red Mill GF Oat Flour.

My mind, it went a reelin'.

I suddenly had approximately 8 bajillion ideas for what to do with said GF oat flour.  GF granola bars!  Fruity oat squares!  OMFG!

Happily, there was a recipe for raspberry oatmeal bars on the back of the packaging.  I modified it a bit and changed the raspberries to strawberries, and whipped up some strawberry oat bars for a friend's baby shower.

These are inspired by and based largely upon Bob's Red Mill Raspberry Oatmeal Bars, which was apparently adapted from 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes by Carol Fenster.  So, this is an adaptation of the adaptation.  (The original, I'm told, should be available at http://1000glutenfreerecipes.com/.)  My adaptation substitutes brown sugar for white sugar, omits the lemon zest, substitutes strawberry jam for raspberry jam, and incorporates fresh strawberries.

1/2 cup Earth Balance
2 teaspoons, divided, of vanilla extract
1 cup GF oats
1 cup GF oat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cup strawberry jam
2/3 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

Step one: preheat oven to 375, Pam/grease the hell out of an 8x8 inch pan (or use parchment paper, which was my approach), and melt thy Earth Balance!

Step 2: Combine the melted earth balance with 1 teaspoon of the vanilla.  Stir in all the other ingredients except the jam and the berries.

I'm always tempted to hum "Hail to the Chief" whenever I bust out the Kitchen Aid.

Step 3: Mix together the jam and the berries (one could say that the ingredients, after being mixed together, are jammin'?  Bah, sorry, that was terrible.  I should warn you, dear reader, that I'm prone to making some truly heinous puns).  Stir in remaining teaspoon of vanilla.

Step 4:  Press the oat mixture firmly on the bottom of the pan.  Layer the berry-jam mixture on top, and bake for 25 minutes.  Cool the bars in a pan for 30 minutes before serving.  And by "serving," I mean "reveling in the ooey-gooey sweet deliciousness."

Nutty, Garlicky, Multi-Grain GF Bread

There are times when I find myself feeling pretty mopey.  (In a lot of these cases, I look at the calendar and am like, "Ohhhhh, this is raging PMS."  Fun!)  When the blues strike, I go straight for my coping mechanisms: exercise, cooking, and carbs.

I would probably die if I went on the Atkins Diet.

Happily, though, I wouldn't touch that particular regimen with a ten-foot pole -- so when I started feeling mopey, I decided it was time to bake some bread.

The back story on this bread idea is that when I was 16, we moved from Colorado to Williamsport, PA.  Williamsport is a small town in the middle of north-central Pennsylvania, and it's...well, let's just say it's fairly isolated.  When I was living there, the only really good store in town was the Wegmans -- but holy crap, was it ever fantastic.  I loved shopping there because there was so much phenomenal food.  One of the many selections of deliciousness offered there was a garlic bread with cloves of garlic baked in, and OMFG.  It was sublime, and I wanted to try to re-create it.

Garlic and rosemary, reporting for duty.

Now, that said, I didn't have much hope for this bread.  First, gluten-free baking projects tend to be difficult.  Secondly, I was kind of freelancing it by adding a few things to the recipe -- and generally speaking, when I add things to an existing recipe it ends badly.  So I tossed things into the mixer, convinced that an epic fail was on the horizon.

There was no hope.  Sigh.

Except there was hope: after about 30 minutes in the oven, it started smelling gooooooood.  I perked up a bit.  After an hour, I started thinking I might have a winner on my hands.

When I pulled it out of the oven, it looked good (like legit bread!).  And it smelled delicious.  I broke off a small piece while it was cooling, and it was really, really yummy.  The sunflower seeds, flax, and almond flour make it fabulously nutty -- and the chunks of garlic created a savory, buttery taste to boot.  This packs a ton of protein and healthy fats, as well as a good amount of iron.  Woohoo!

Nutty, Garlicky, Multi-Grain "All Is Not Lost" Bread:

1 package Bob's Red Mill Hearty Whole Grain bread mix (including the yeast packet, which should be added to 1 3/4 cups warm water)
1/2 cup finely ground almond flour
1/2 cup olive oil
10 cloves of garlic, peeled and added whole into the batter
1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
3 eggs (or, for vegan friends, flax egg or Ener-G Egg Replacer)
1 tablespoon Italian herbs
1/4 cup flax seeds

You can then follow the directions on the back of the package:  add the yeast packet in the bread mix to warm water, per the instructions on the packaging.  Once the yeast is bubbly/frothy, add all the ingredients into a mixer and mix until completely combined.  Pour the batter into a 9x5 bread pan, and cover it with plastic wrap.  Set it somewhere warm, and let it rise for about 40 minutes.  Then back at 375 for 60-70 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 205.  (I had to bake mine for 70 minutes, probably because of the extra ingredients I added to the batter.)  Let cool.

Serve with Earth Balance (or the topping of your choice), and enjoy!

Almond Mocha = LURVE

I love pretty much anything almond flavored, and I love love love almonds themselves.  (I'm terrified that when hubs and I have kids, they'll have nut allergies that will prohibit the presence of almonds in my home.  Noooooo!)

My Dad also got me hooked on mochas.  When I was in college an in desperate need of something to keep me awake, Dad was the one suggesting I take the plunge and start drinking coffee, and he suggested delicious, velvety, chocolatey mochas.  And holy crap, am I ever glad he did.  They're ridiculously good.

When I was working my first job after college, I decided to combine my two favorite coffee drinks -- mochas and almond soy lattes -- into a delicious concoction.  Since getting my beloved espresso machine, the almond mocha has made a comeback, big time.  I may hate getting up in the morning, but I love getting my hands on a hot almond mocha.

Dear espresso machine, Mommy loves you. Besos, Lillian

I make mine with espresso, but this could easily be done with drip coffee too.  Plus, it's insanely easy to make:

Heat a mug full of chocolate soy milk (I use Silk Light).  Once it's hot, combine it with espresso and 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract.  (If you're doing this with drip coffee, I'd recommend using the soy milk as the creamer and adding a smudge less almond extract.)

Stir, sip, and lurve!

Wild Rice Pilaf With Carrots, Chickpeas, and Dill

I'm not sure if anyone else is like this, but I find that an embarrassing percentage of my best dishes are kind of thrown together at the last second.  They're also largely inspired by whatever I happen to have in the pantry/fridge, so they're put together totally on the fly.  My husband, by contrast, is methodical: he looks through cookbooks on the weekend, determines what dishes he plans to cook, and makes his grocery list accordingly.  I, on the other hand, am more like a discombobulated tornado: I'll frantically look around the kitchen while thinking "Crap, I'm so hungry!  Oh, I have a few random ingredients?  I guess they'll go together..."  (*Throws said random ingredients into pan and hopes for the best*)

(20 minutes later)  "OMG, they do go together!"

I then do a happy dance around the kitchen.  It's the little things, folks.

This was one of those recipes.  It was one of those nights when I'd worked late, I was tired as hell, and I needed to whip something up quickly.  I'd had wild rice pilaf a gazillion times before, and I love cooked carrots with dill -- so I decided on a whim to combine them.  I added chickpeas for some protein (a side note on chickpeas: I effing adore these things), and I was quite pleasantly surprised by the result.

Wild Rice Pilaf With Carrots, Chickpeas, and Dill

1 cup cooked wild rice (I like Lunberg Japonica blend)
1 cup baby carrots
1/2 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Dried onion to taste
Dill to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Steam and cook the carrots until tender.  While they're cooking (and assuming the rice is already cooked), add the olive oil to a heavy-bottomed pan.  Once it's hot, add the chickpeas and onion flakes, and saute until crispy and lightly browned.  Add the rice and combine the mixtures; once the rice and garbanzos are all mixed together and hot, remove from heat and add the carrots.  Top with dill, salt, and pepper.

What I Ate Wednesday: The London Edition

Right now I'm in London (!!!!) for a conference, and HOLY CRAP THIS PLACE IS AWESOME.  I freaking love it here.  The city is gorgeous, the people are friendly, and the fact that I'm in a country known for its dry humor makes me immensely happy.  I've been doing lots of touristy things in my free time, so I've visited Westminster Abbey, gone to Harrod's, walked around Buckingham Palace, and strolled through some gorgeous public gardens.

I'd also be lying if I said I'm not secretly (well, ok, clearly this is no longer a secret) hoping I'll run into John Cleese so I can tell him how much I worship Monty Python.  When I imagine this scene, he's so taken by the fact that I included a quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail in my wedding program that he invites me to join him for tea.  We then sit around at a cafe eating GF crumpets and being sarcastic, and it's glorious.

All this running around London and hoping for a run-in with Mr. Cleese means I've also worked up quite an appetite.  I am, in a word, starving.

Aaaand that brings me to: What I Ate Wednesday!  I've really gotten addicted to this lovely food party, hosted by Jenn of Peas and Crayons, and I love seeing what other people have cooked, eaten, and enjoyed.


 

London is known for its good restaurants (I'm not talking about fish and chips, although it's known for that too).  While I've been touristing (have I mention that I often make words up?) around, I've had delicious potato-leek soup at Pret a Manger and a warming, yummy coconut-vegetable-tofu soup (yasai itame) at Wagamama.  I'm also pretty damn impressed with London's commitment to fresh-squeezed juice: everywhere I've gone, there have been some delicious, completely fresh fruit juices on the menu.

Me like.

By way of happy coincidence, one of my dear friends from DC is also in London on her way to Africa -- where she'll be spending the next year.  She happened to have a 24 hour layover during my time in town, so we decided that it was crucial for us to get together one last time to see her off in style.  We met up for dinner, and decided a Bellini would be a good way to commemorate her last night in a first-world country until April when she returns for R&R:

I then followed up on my cocktail with a HUGE platter of chicken curry (side note: although I'm mostly vegetarian, the key word is mostly -- I do eat chicken from time to time :)).

We then said a wistful goodbye -- insert sad face here, because I'm really going to miss her.  However, getting to see her made an already awesome trip even more so!

Now I'm off to pack for my return flight tomorrow night.  One of my key tasks will be making an almond butter sandwich on GF bread, since the airline I'm flying with declined my request to order a GF meal.  (Boo and hiss!  It'll be a looooong flight with very little to eat -- I guess I'll just have to drink a lot of water and apologize profusely to the poor soul in the aisle seat who'll have to let me out to visit the ladies room 20 times in 7 hours?)  With no utensils and days-old bread, this should be a challenge...wish me luck!

Variations On a Theme: Recovery Smoothies

A few weeks ago, I began combining my usual cardio routine with a lot of strength training.  I'd done strength training once a few years ago, and I loved it -- but I wasn't sure how to do it properly without the help of a professional.  After all, a girl does herself no favors when she accidentally drops a dumbbell on her foot.

I discovered, however -- thanks to Running with Spoons -- the fabulous book The New Rules of Lifting for Women.  After checking it out on Amazon, I knew I wanted to dive headfirst into reading it and getting my strength training on.  Dive in I did, and I loooove it.  It's a butt-whuppin', but it's completely worth it.  The shaky Elvis legs, the twinge of muscles rebuilding themselves after being pushed to their outer limits: it's all awesome.  (Disclaimer: my two addictions in life are exercise and caffeine, so I'm biased.) 

The authors of TNROLFW recommend having protein shakes to recover on lifting days.  I've never particularly liked protein shakes -- they tend to be chalky, and they require, like, a Dumpster full of sweetner to be palatable -- but now that I've found a protein mix that I really like, me and protein shakes are on like Donkey Kong.

In creating these shakes, I decided to take inspiration from Angela Liddon's Green Monster Movement by adding greens into the mix.  (Because really, who couldn't use more greens in their life?)  The original incarnation of my Green Monster/recovery shake is thus:

2 cups fresh spinach

1 frozen banana

2 tablespoons Vega Vanilla Almondilla protein powder

1 cup frozen peaches and mango

1 cup almond milk

1 cup water (you may need more or less, depending on your tastes -- basically, use the water to get the smoothie to be whatever consistency you like best)

1 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

1 tablespoon agave nectar (or the sweetener of your choice)

After blending for approximately 60-90 seconds, you get a gorgeous, bright green shake.

This one was made with chia seeds - hence the black things floating about.

My second take on this involves berries.  It uses the same recipe as above, but uses 1 1/2 cups of frozen blueberries and blackberries in place of the peach/mango blend.  Because the end result is purple, the first time I made this I started singing the song "One Eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eater" in my head...yes, I'm insane. 

I tend to slurp these down so quickly I wind up with repeated brain freezes (more evidence of my insanity), but they help my body recover after an intense lifting session -- and they're delicious to boot.

WIAW: The Uber-Caffienated Rosh Hashanah Edition

Time for another round of What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW)!  WIAW, the ballerest potluck on the interwebz, is hosted by the lovely Jenn of Peas & Crayons.

I woke up this morning with only one cogent thought: COFFEE.  I slept terribly last night; for whatever reason, my brain likes to save all the nightmares it can come up with and then wallop me over the course of one night.  When I go to bed, I'm all cozy and happy...until a few hours later, when I wake up freaking terrified, clinging to the comforter for dear life, and wondering if my heart is going to beat itself right out of my chest.  Since last night was one of those nights (it's super fun, let me tell you!), I slept in fits and starts until about  5 -- which, conveniently, was 90 minutes before the alarm when off.

Bah.

So, once it was clear that there was no time left for rest, I had to get my butt to the coffee maker, stat.  

Dear coffee: You complete me.  Lurve, Lillian

I started off with my beloved almond mocha latte:

Lite chocolate soymilk + espresso + almond extract
= a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

I knew that since I was sleep deprived like woah, protein would be key to me surviving the day -- so I added some eggs to my life.  (For the record, I looooove eggs.)
I also packed up a lunch that I hoped would keep me from dragging my butt too much: Amy's GF bean burrito, romaine lettuce, Greek yogurt, blueberries, and an apple.

Ah-ah-ah-ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive...

I wound up making it through the day just fine -- it was actually the sort of day where I came home feeling all accomplished and like I might actually have my ish together.  I answered a ton of emails and got everything organized and prepared for a trip I'm taking for work next week, which makes me inordinately happy.  I feel a gazillion times better about life when I can get on the plane feeling calm and collected, not all OMGI'MTOTALLYFORGETTINGIMPORTANTSTUFFWHEREISMYPASSPORTHOLYCRAPWHEREDOIGOWHENILEAVETHEAIRPORTHOWMUCHDOESACABCOSTDIDIPACKMYPHONECHARGER?!
No good can come of travel panic, my friends, so I try to avoid it at all costs.
Once I came home, though, I was a tired cowgirl.  I really just wanted to watch TV, but I forced myself to put in some time on the elliptical (this endeavor was aided significantly by the fact that Untold Stories of the ER was on...that show is like crack for Lillians).  Once hubs was home, I cooked up his favorite Mediterranean chicken dish while making pasta for myself.  Hoping to amp up the protein count in this dish just a bit, I added lentils to the noodles while they cooked.
I also made caramelized onions and garlic croutons -- the latter are basically happy, crispy, and totally GF slices of sauteed garlic, and they're delish.
To make the garlic and onion mix, thinly slice as much garlic as your heart desires:

My little heart, it seems, desires a ludicrous amount of garlic.

Add it to a hot pan with 3 TBS olive oil and sliced onion:

Did you know that onions, while sauteeing, release moisture?  This is apparently
referred to as onions sweating, which sounds about as appealing as
dirty gym socks that belong to a 13-year-old boy.  Unlike the socks, however,
after the onions schvitz, they get all golden brown and sweet.

Cook until they're browned and caramelized:

See?  Nothing like adolescent dirty gym socks!

Drain the pasta and lentil mix, steam some spinach, add marinara sauce to taste (I highly recommend the recipes presented by Karla at Karla's Veggie Noms), and top with the onions and garlic.
Et...voila!  A pasta dish that packs plenty of protein, healthy fats, vitamins A and C, and all the health-promoting benefits of garlic!

For dessert, in honor of tonight being Rosh Hashanah, we had the traditional apples and honey to symbolize a sweet an happy new year.  L'shana tova v'metukah!

Pumpkin Pie Steel-Cut Oats

This mess has been our weather report for almost two weeks now - humid, rainy, cloudy, and generally gross.  It's an amalgamation of my least favorite weather patterns, and it basically moved in and made itself comfortable.

When the weather (or, well, just about anything) gets me down, I get cooking.  There's something inherently comforting about being in my kitchen preparing something I can enjoy and/or scarf down.  In the rare moment when I'm really honest with myself, I realize that I really enjoy domesticity -- I love nesting, I love cooking, and I love making my home feel like a giant bear hug.  Whenever I think about this, my love of all things domestic is quickly countered by the little voice in my head that screeches "No!  You're supposed to love your career more than you love homemaker-y things!"  But still, there are times when nesting makes me ridiculously happy.

Rainy days are, more often than not, one of those times.  During the entire month of August, I'd flinch when I heard the word "fall" -- fall is by far my favorite season, but summer went by ridiculously quickly this year.  I think that the wedding made things move at light speed -- I spent June and July scrambling to prepare for it, and then suddenly July 30 was upon us.  We came back from our mini-honeymoon (mini-moon?) in the Rockies a week later, and whoosh, suddenly it was Labor Day.

For the last month, I was all, "I'm so not ready for summer to end" and "Shorter days are going kill me" and "Wah, wah, wah."  Happily, though, as soon as September arrived...I was ready.  I had four discernible thoughts:

1)  PUMPKIN!
2)  SOUPS AND STEWS!
3)  I AM *SO* OVER THE HUMIDITY!
4)  I LOVE SWEATERS!  (I love lamp!)

Yesterday, I decided it was time to break into my stockpile of canned pumpkin.  My mother-in-law, who just happens to be awesome, sent me a ton of canned pumpkin when we had a regional shortage last year.  The pumpkin shortage was heinous.  It was only by the grace of my MIL's generosity that I survived, and now I stock pumpkin like the Soviets stocked nukes during the Cold War.

I decided to combine it with my other love, oatmeal.  Angela over at Oh She Glows recently did a post on steel cut oats (AKA pinheads, or as I tend to call them affectionately, steelies...maybe steely pinheads is a good combination?) -- she also has an amazing recipe for pumpkin pie oats, so I decided to combine the two.

I cooked 1/2 cup GF steely pinheads, added 1/4 cup pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice to taste, and brown sugar.  I would've added almond milk, had I not found it frozen solid in the back of the fridge.  (Boo and hiss!)  Even without the almond milk, though, it was still delish -- comforting, totally laden with pumpkin-y goodness, and enough to keep my mind off the sodden, mosquito-infested mess outdoors.

Guiltless Tortilla Pizza

Back in my glutinous days, I loved me some pizza.  I went without it for over two years -- that is, until I met Brandon (AKA: Hubs).  Brandon is a phenomenal cook.  When we started dating, he made all manner of delicious gluten-free food, but GF lasagne and pizza are his forte.  And hot damn, they're delicious.

The only problem, though, is that I have no willpower whatsoever when faced with pizza made from scratch.  Whenever he makes it, I know that I'm ingesting 80 million calories in one sitting -- but I just.  Can't.  Stop.  Myself.  I'll eat the pizza until I'm sporting a huge Buddha belly and I have to change into elastic waistband pants to accommodate my stomach.

Soon after we started dating and almost immediately after I started housing all this delicious pizza, I realized that my thighs were expanding faster than the universe.  My butt was starting to look like it could be its own sovereign nation.  This was a problem.

The solution, obviously, was to cut back on the pizza (which I did) -- but those pizza cravings just wouldn't go away.  Then, I started seeing variations on tortilla pizza around the blogosphere and in a couple of health food magazines.  What a freaking brilliant idea!  I had to try this for myself, and oy, am I ever glad I did -- to whoever originally thought of these things: mad props.

My tortilla pizza is a GF version (duh) and fairly traditional: I use a GF rice tortilla, marinara sauce, spinach, and some Parmesan cheese.  

This, as it turns out, is a perfect use for GF tortillas - while they're the perfect size for making wraps, I find that they crumble faster than a mud hut on the San Andreas fault line.  The pizza allows it to stay flat -- and it gets it all nice and crispy, which is quite fantastic.

Oh, and it's fast -- like, uber-fast -- so it makes for a delicious and guilt-free dinner when you're pressed for time.

WAIW: The "I want the rain to STOP" edition

I appear to have accidentally moved to Seattle, because it's been raining here for days.  I'd be lying if I said it wasn't driving me nuts (and really, at least if I actually lived in Seattle I'd be able to hang out with my best friend).  I once read a "You Know You're From Colorado If..." article, and one of the bullet points was that you start getting all mopey and cranky if it rains for more than a day.

I can confirm that this is true.

Being raised in the land of 300 days of sunshine a year does NOT prepare a girl for life on the East Coast.  Sigh.  So, with that, we'll call this edition of What I Ate Wednesday the "Rain, rain, go away" installment. :)  Rain aside, though, I'm glad to be getting back to WIAW -- it's a fabulous pot-luck in cyberspace, hosted by the lovely Jenn from Peas & Crayons.

5:45 a.m.:  Grumbling and kvetching as I rolled out of bed, I stumbled to the kitchen and plugged in my favorite new appliance: the espresso maker.  OMFG, this thing is awesome!  I brewed a double shot of the good stuff and made myself an almond-mocha latte (my favorite coffee drink ever): light chocolate soy milk, espresso, a smudge of amaretto syrup, and almond extract.  It's delish like woah.

After a workout that left me with a serious case of Elvis legs (hello, muscle exhaustion!), I made myself a recovery shake (or, because I'm a Middle East wonk, I occasionally like to call them recovery sheikhs).  These shakes, made with spinach, a frozen peach, a frozen banana, almond milk, and Vega Vanilla Almondilla protein powder, can only be described as baller.  Shakes containing spinach shouldn't be so damn good, but this one totally is.

After scurrying off to the office, I was in meetings all morning long -- which meant that by the time I returned to my desk...I had the hunger.  I had it something fierce.  I busted out a Southwest vegetable stew that I made over the weekend (recipe forthcoming in a later post!) and inhaled it.  

I then had to stay late at work, which meant...I had the hunger when I got home, too.  By the time I got back, though, I had no desire whatsoever to cook.  Well, I should revise that: I felt like cooking, but the idea of cleaning anything was enough to leave me sitting in fetal position in the corner, crying and begging for my mother.  Wanting to avoid such a fate, I went with my old standby: Thai food!

Drunken noodles with vegetables = happiness in a styrofoam box

Now it's off to bed, which, particularly when the weather is gross, is something I get really stoked about.  Is it lame that I find myself thinking "Man, I can't wait to sleep!  Sleeping is awesome!"? :)

Randomly Inspired Quinoa-Millet Pilaf With Black Beans and Vegetables

There are times when I find inspiration in the strangest places. (No, seriously, it's bizarre.  Remember the song "'Things That Make You Go 'Hmmm'"? There are times when that's the story of my life.) Take tonight, for example: I have that scratchy throat/congested feeling that usually serves as the warning for an impending cold, so I had, like, zero desire to cook anything complicated.  (I think that easy meals might be a recurring theme here, no?  For the record, I really do spend most evenings being a lazy mofo.)   I was also out of soy milk for my morning coffee, so I schlepped to Whole Foods in search of some provisions.

While there, I saw a Santa Fe-style quinoa, millet, and black bean pilaf mix.  Now, I love me some quinoa and black beans, and I freaking adore pretty much anything that qualifies as being Santa Fe-style.  (The more black beans and corn you can put into salsa, the better.)  Suddenly, amidst the brain fog, an idea!  I grabbed some frozen Southwest mix vegetables and some roasted pumpkin seeds, and I scurried home.

However, I also forgot to buy the damn soy milk.  Insert long chain of expletives here.  Oy.

After kicking myself for, y'know, forgetting to buy the one thing I really needed to get, I got to work on dinner.  I put the pilaf mix in the rice cooker and sauteed some of the peppers and onions.

And then, another idea!  Tomatoes!  This would be great with tomatoes!  Happily, there was a can of fire-roasted tomatoes in the pantry, so I added a few tablespoons to the mix.

And then: Spinach!  This would be great with some spinach!  Some quick refrigerator reconnaissance revealed that we still had some fresh spinach (hubs and I go through that stuff like water), so into the pan it went.

After adding garlic, cumin, and salt, the sautee mix was ready to go.  I piled it on the newly-cooked pilaf and topped it with some pumpkin seeds and avocado.

And then, I sat my butt on the couch.  Thus commences the vegging out and doing nothing.

Yes, I'm totally watching Gene Simmons Family Jewels.  It rocks my world.

WIAW: The Newlywed Edition

The last time I did a WIAW post, I was in the final countdown to leaving for my wedding and honeymoon -- and oy gevault, was I ever busy.  It was kind of absurd.

The frenetic pace paid off, though: the wedding was fantastic, I had an awesome time, the honeymoon was fabulous, and I'm now back in DC getting to know all our new and fabulous kitchen appliances.

Let me explain why I'm waxing poetic about hardware: while some women say they've been planning their weddings since they were little girls, I'm not among them.  Instead, I've been planning my registry.  Starting when I was about 20, I realized how much I love to cook.  Throughout my 20s, I stumbled across all manner of kitchen gadgetry that I knew I'd use, but totally couldn't afford to buy for myself.

What's a girl to do when she knows she'd get good mileage out of a badass food processor, but she'd have to give up, y'know, actual food in order to afford that food processor?  She makes a mental list for her future wedding registry.  And she adds to it.  Some women clip out magazine pictures and make a concept board for their eventual weddings, but not I, my friends.  Not I.  I just drooled excessively over every Williams-Sonoma catalog I ever laid eyes upon.

So now that I have so many new and wonderful kitchen gadgets, I intend to use the everliving sh*t out of them.  Some feature prominently in this week's WIAW -- hosted by the ever-lovely Jenn from Peas and Crayons, this gig is the best pot-luck on the Interwebz.



I was up bright and early in order to take my newly-minted husband to the airport (boooo!).  A mere 10 days after the wedding, he's being sent overseas for work.  (*Shakes fist at The Man for this grievous act of husband thievery.*)  Thankfully he'll only be gone for a few days, but still.  Phneh.  Not a fan.

Anyways, I and my trusty caffeine addiction turned to our favorite new and uber-fabulous member of the kitchen family: the espresso machine.  Sweet Jesus, I friggin' love this thing.

Youuuu are so beauuutifullll, to meeeeeeee...

Hubs and I left for the airport shortly thereafter, and by the time I got back, I was starving.  I would've shanked a malnourished Somalian for some food.  Thankfully it didn't come to that (clearly), but I was surprised to find that my usual breakfast of Greek yogurt and fruit just didn't float my boat.  I abandoned that plan for a smoothie:

This can only be described as a ludicrous volume of frozen strawberries,
banana, and mango blended with almond milk and agave.

I headed for work, where I soon dove into my snack of pistachios and green tea.

Because I'm lame, I always get really excited about the arrival of lunchtime.  Like, I should probably be embarrassed by how I excited I get.  I sit there at my desk, forcing myself to wait until noon, and then make a frantic dash to the microwave to cook my GF burrito (which I then eat with 2 cups of baby greens).

Good folks of Amy's Organics: thank you, thank you, thank you for creating these.
I lurve them.

The Greek yogurt and fruit made their triumphant return as an afternoon snack, as did an apple (it got left out of the photoshoot, and I'm sure the core is in the trash and crying as I type this).

After getting home and getting my sweat on at the gym, I was stoked to try out some new ingredients I found at the grocery store this weekend: Thai stir-fry oil and dried Thai basil.  I have an undying love of Thai food, so I was giddy when I brought these home.  Combine that with our brand-new wok that was begging to be broken in, and...Thai stir-fry it was!

Thai Stir Fry
3/4 C Pre-cooked brown rice
1 Packet frozen veggies (I used snow peas, carrots, and broccoli)
1-2 Tablespoons stir fry oil (peanut oil also works well here)
1/2 package tofu
Seasonings: you can use peanut sauce, tamari sauce, sweet and sour -- whatever strikes your fancy!

Cube the tofu and brown it in the wok

Once it starts to brown, add the veggies and rice and combine until everything is cooked through and hot.

Add seasoning/sauce to taste (I used San-J GF peanut sauce, and it's fantasic), serve, and dig in!