Orlando!

I was in Orlando a few weeks back for the ASSA National - a great opportunity to spend time with friends I rarely see, see lovely dogs...and eat! I chose to hang out with some awesome people that know great food, and one particularly awesome friend found a fantastic restaurant called The Ravenous Pig.

They've got "truffle fries" on their menu, and honestly, they were the tastiest fries I've ever had. I can't really think about them, because then I might do something stupid like buy a plane ticket to Orlando...

Also on their menu is a wonderful salad made of greens, avocado, radish, pickled beets, goat cheese, pistachios, and an herb vinaigrette. My rendition was pretty yummy, though it wasn't quite the same!

I brought home some oranges (duh!) and today, made fresh squeezed orange juice. Mike enjoyed the process, too. :)

what we've been eating...

Eeep, it's been a long time since I posted anything. I've admittedly been in a bit of a funk and just haven't felt like writing :/

Okay, so here's a question. This past week, I switched up my grocery shopping a bit. Normally, Mike and I go shopping and we get what's on our list (the staples) and then kind of wander around and buy what sounds good to us. This time, I picked out recipes first - and then went shopping according to what ingredients I needed for the recipes. I spent $185. For two of us. I almost fell over at the check-out.

Do you find that it's cheaper to plan out recipes and then buy? Or the other way around?

A few things we've been eating:

Grilled Tuna, Ginger-lime Carrots, & Green Beans

Tuna steaks with a tasty marinade (see it below), simple green beans with olive oil, salt and pepper, and this awesome recipe for ginger-lime carrots. You know those glazed, really buttery carrots that are not exactly good for you? This is a lighter version, with a kick from some sriracha. A keeper for sure!

Grilled tuna marinade (from about.com)

2 tablespoons dijon honey mustard

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or white vinegar (I used my peach balsamic, actually!)

Pounded Walnut Strozzapreti & Veggies

Last night we had pounded walnut strozzapreti (recipe here) with some sauteed zucchini and grape tomatoes. The pasta was really good, despite the fact that Mike hated on me a bit for how fattening it was ;) My point of view? It's full of good-for-you fats like walnuts and olive oil. Not the type of recipe I'd make every day, but every once in a while it can't hurt!

Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Salad

My lunch a few days ago :) Fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, lots of pepper, and some olive oil with my peach balsamic vinegar. Soooo yummy.

i don't even like broccoli

...but there's one recipe for broccoli I do like, and Mike's mom introduced me to it! Broccoli is the only vegetable I don't like, but for some reason, when you roast it, I'll eat it. I don't know why. It still tastes like broccoli, looks like broccoli...yeah, I dunno.

In any case, I roasted it with the lemon olive oil I bought earlier today. OH. MY. GOODNESS. So tasty.

We also had grilled chicken which was marinated in the peach vinegar (also purchased earlier!), lemon olive oil, Dijon mustard, herbes de provence, garlic powder, salt & pepper.

And then we had dessert. We never have dessert. Today, however, I found a recipe for chocolate truffles. I had to make them, or else I would just fall over and die. Yep. They've got about 50 calories each, and are super good. It's posted after the broccoli (that way you need to look at something that's good for you, first!)...enjoy!

Roasted Broccoli

1 large bunch of broccoli

4-5 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

freshly ground pepper

3-4 garlic gloves, sliced

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spread the broccoli on a cookie sheet and toss with the olive oil. Add the salt, pepper, and garlic. Roast for 20-25 minutes - you want the broccoli to be crisp and slightly browned. When it comes out, sprinkle a little more olive oil and some lemon juice. Mike's mom always adds pine nuts, which are sooooo yummy on this, but I didn't splurge on them today :)

Weight Watcher's Vanilla Fudge Truffles (recipe from here)

2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1/2 cup(s) unsweetened cocoa

1 cup(s) powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 cup(s) low fat cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Reserve 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder on a sheet of wax paper. In a food processor or in a medium bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, blend remaining ½ cup of cocoa powder, powdered sugar, cream cheese and vanilla extract.

Drop cream cheese mixture by rounded teaspoons into reserved cocoa powder, making 24 truffles; roll into balls, and refrigerate until firm, about 1 to 2 hours. Yields 1 truffle per serving.

lunch!

It's the little things in life. I just found white peach balsamic vinegar and lemon olive oil at our grocery store. It may have made my day.

I came home and made a deeeeelicious salad: spinach, beets, walnuts, blue cheese, and a simple oil and vinegar dressing made with my two tasty finds.

comfort food

I don't remember the last time I made a dinner that lacked something green. I feel kind of guilty about it. Every once in a while, though... you gotta have some comfort food.

These honey-ginger chicken fingers were inspired from this recipe at Tasty Kitchen and I've been waiting to try this potato recipe from one of my favorite websites, Noble Pig. They're salt and vinegar potatoes with rosemary - definitely a recipe I was anxious to try! The chicken fingers were hands down some of the best I've had. I made a honey mustard mayo dip to go with it. Definitely something I'll make again!

I'm so, so, so bored. I'm ready to be (gasp!) back to work, and doing my normal things. Unfortunately, I know my body isn't ready. I'm still overdoing it some days - yesterday, for example. And then I wake up feeling like I'm 80. Not good times. I do think that I'm going to head to the gym today (No one freak out, okay?) and walk on the treadmill.

To keep me entertained, here are some recipes I want to try in the near future:

(Healthy) 5 Minute Chunky Monkey Ice Cream

[from Smithfield]

Creamy Mints

[from Kitchen Trial and Error]

Meyer Lemon Mousse

[from All Day I Dream About Food]

Fleur de Sel and Caramel

[from Food and Paper]

Aw, crap. Are you sensing a pattern here?

summer is here :)

A few yummy things I've been eating lately...

Tomato & mozzarella sandwiches

...with lots of freshly ground black pepper :)

Strawberry Spritzer

5-6 ripe strawberries

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 lemon, juiced

splash of white grape juice

sparkling water

Muddle the strawberries and add the rest of the ingredients...mmmm!

I found this link today: 101 Simple Salads for the Season - there are so many great ideas here. I want to try tons of them!

my first (successful!) attempt at ribs

I had to run to the store today to get stamps and a few other essentials, and I can't help but wander around a bit when I'm at our grocery store. It's a wonderful place to waste money and time. They had baby back ribs on sale today, which kind of intimidated me...but I went for it! I also grabbed a bottle of Fisher & Weiser's Original Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce, which Mike and I noticed the last time we went grocery shopping. It was a little pricey so we decided against it...though I notice that when I go to the store myself, I end up with a lot of the other items that have also been placed in this category.

I came home and researched the best method to make ribs for approximately an hour. One of the good things about being off of work due to this surgery is that I can do things like dedicate an hour to finding the best way to cook ribs.

I am by no means a rib expert, but here's what I came up with:

1 whole rack pork baby back ribs

1 cup brown sugar

5 tablespoons Morton & Bassett Cajun Spice blend, though you can use any combination of spices that you'd like

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon onion powder

1. If the ribs have that gross membrane on one side, remove it.

2. Prepare the dry rub by combining the brown sugar, cajun spice blend, salt, and onion powder. Rub the mixture all over the ribs, pressing down a bit to make sure it sticks. I cooked these ribs on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet, so at this point you can stick them on the rack (put down some foil on the cookie sheet to keep it clean) - cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two.

3. After they marinate, let the ribs sit at room temperature for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.

4. Remove the foil from the cookie sheet and fill it with about 1/4 inch water. Cover tightly with foil, and bake for about two hours.

5. We then moved the ribs to the grill and grilled them with some of the raspberry chipotle sauce, which was reeeeeeeally tasty.

I've been wanting to try this ribboned asparagus salad from smitten kitchen for so long, and I thought tonight would be a good time to try it. The cold, crunchy salad was great with the ribs, and the simple dressing is right up my alley.

We were stuffed :) definitely a yummy dinner!