shrimp tacos.

I’m leaving on a jet(Blue) plane first thing tomorrow morning, so cue a straight week of eating my face off and watching 19+ hours of “Days of Our Lives.” It happens. I’ll try and work in the occasional lake run, but I can’t make any promises. Until then, I’d like to live off my recent accomplishments. Indulge me.

To begin with, I’ve been running every single day. I look like her, except turn the intensity waayyy down. I’m all for rock running, but I’ve been sticking to my diluted version with the treadmill and some “Lady Gaga” on Pandora. I cut out the elliptical for good, which seems a little finite considering how good it is to my knees. I’ve never been that impressed with the results, though, so for now it’s over between us. On Saturday, I ran two miles, and then I walked an entire mile by bringing the incline gradually up to 10, and then back down to one. Then, I ran two MORE miles. How serious am I? Not as serious as this girl, but I’m at least halfway there.

On the food front, I’ve been making delicious stuff lately that is just not so photogenic. I’m too honest and law abiding to superimpose one of Giada’s recipes on one of my plates, so I’ve decided to leave them out of this. One was pretty clever, though, so it’s a shame. My friend and I had brunch plans last Sunday, so I was up and doing my morning gymming when I got a text from that friend. He was all, “Can we do a cheap-ass diner instead?” which I read as “dinner,” and immediately started making my own brunch. Once I realized my mistake, I had an over easy egg just hanging out with nowhere to go. I tupperwared it and met my friend for brunch.

Later that night, I was considering making a carbonara to make use of my egg. I don’t eat bacon, I’m mostly off cheese, and the egg was already in a phase not compatible with carbonara, so I had to nix that idea. I made a pasta and my own sauce out of tomatoes, eggplant, mushrooms, onions and garlic, and at the last minute I threw the egg in there to heat it. I ended up eating it altogether, and it was pretty amazing. Seriously. Just not so pretty, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

I love a good taco, so I decided to make some shrimp tacos on Monday. I started with some pre-cooked and frozen shrimp, which I ran water over and then heated with some butter. I toasted a low-carb wrap (obvs), and then heated some black beans alongside my shrimpies. I have this delicious corn-chile salsa from TJ’s, so that became a pretty serious part of the meal. On the side, I chopped tomatoes and fresh cilantro. Not only were they delicious (roommate-approved!), but they’re so easy on the eyes. See below:

portabella mushroom & tofu burger.

I’m a couple of weeks deep in Project: Get Hot for Thanksgiving, and I’m coming away with a few lessons learned. First off, I’m not fit to give up cheese. I stayed cheese-free all last week, and then come Friday I chose a pear, brie and walnut crepe for dinner. I thought, “you’ve had your fun; that was the last time,” and then Saturday hit. I had lots of queso blanco for dinner at Caracas, and then I went to a house party during which time I gave the cheese and cracker platter quite a bit of action. So, yeah, the anti-cheese collective (me and dairy-free me, obviously) has disbanded and gone our separate ways. Secondly, I learned that I miss dancing so badly it hurts. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t listen to Jay-Z without some sidewalk hip action. It’s awkward, so I’ve decided to bring it indoors where it belongs. Tonight I’m starting a new hip hop class. It’s too soon to tell, but it just may be my favorite thing on the planet.

My exercise routine could use a little variety. I’ve been running every day, and honestly it all starts to feel a little tedious. Like, where the hell is this going? I’m not saying I’m done with it, but I’m running miles and getting nowhere. After Sunday brunch on the Upper West Side, I decided to walk all the way home. And that’s approx 9 avenues and 70+ blocks. In short, it’s a shitload. My feet were feeling it when I tried to take that motivation to the gym that night. In the name of ped preservation, dancing it is.

I stole this from google images, but it's hip hop

Although I’ve given up on giving up on cheese, I’m still trying to severely limit its presence in my diet. I decided to make a Portabella mushroom burger for dinner last night, and I held the cheese. Believe it.

I started with a Portabella mushroom and a yellow bell pepper, and I seasoned both with salt, thyme and olive oil. On the side, I cut some sweet potatoes into mini chips, and I seasoned them with salt, chili powder, cayenne pepper and olive oil. I roasted all in the toaster over at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I cut a thin piece of tofu and pan fried it in some olive oil over medium heat. It took about five minutes on each side, and then it got all goldeny brown. Delicious. I cut a ciabatta roll in half and put a little olive oil on each side, and then I toasted that for about five minutes in the Panini Press.

Once the mushroom and peppers were ready, I removed them from the oven and built my sandwich. I looove seedy mustard, so I put lots of stone ground mustard on one side along with my ever-present arugula. The other side housed my tofu, the shroom and the pepper. I served it alongside my chip shaped roasted potatoes. It was enormous and delicious, and the sweet pepper contrasted really well with the savory pepper and mushroom. See below:

portabella mushroom and tofu burger alongside sweet potato chips

 

Belgian endive salad with rosemary roasted almonds.

When it comes down to it, I’m fancy. I love arugula, I wore 4-inch heels at summer camp, and I used hats as a statement piece for the better part of the ’90s. Granted, it was prime Blossom-era, but I continued the trend long after the bandwagon hat wearers dropped off. The only argument against me being fancy is my bourgeois love for Urban Outfitters, and that’s unshakable.

It was only a matter of time before I introduced endives to my kitchen, and that time is now. Few foods scream “class” like these mini-cabbages, and so I had to have them:

Belgian endives

In the interest of Thanksgiving gluttony, I’ve decided to cut a few things out of my life. Since Monday (2 days strong!) I’ve cut cheese loose, and I’m seriously scaling back on the carbs. I’m one of those people who eats about 9,000 varieties of vegetables daily, but I always feel the need to throw some kind of useless carb into the mix. The end result is tacking on useless pounds to my life, and I’m over it like Entourage.

Also, I’m working out extra hard. I know I always claim to be stepping it up, but this time it’s legit. I’ve been running every day, whereas before it was mayyybe 2-3 times a week and only when accompanied by some Giada or a little Ina (read: weekends). This is not to say that the cybex and ski-machine thing are dead to me, but the treadmill is my new favorite toy. I’m really into inclines and resistance, so if I feel like just running a mile I’ll increase the incline each 10th of a mile until I get to 10. Believe me now?

With all this in mind, I decided to prepare my endives healthily. I love themes. I chopped off the ends, and then I cut them horizontally. I sauteed them in a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and then cooked them on medium heat for about 3-5 minutes a side. I bought the most amazing almonds from TJ’s that are roasted with rosemary, and so midway through the cooking I threw a few of those in. I also added a fair amount of dried thyme, and the juice from one lemon (note to self: Giada squeezes through her hand for a reason..I ate like 5 seeds), and then I simmered all together for about three minutes. Once they were all familial and whatnot, I slid it all onto a plate and drizzled the whole mix with some white wine vinegar. It was pretty great, and fancy as hell. See below:

warm endive salad with rosemary roasted almonds

pumpkin polenta soup/squash polenta soup.

Winter squashes terrify me, but in an exciting way. I like to circle them slowly, taking it all in, and then I start the no holds barred grab-assing, if you will. Last weekend involved me, the farmer’s market, like 19 varieties of squash, and that scenario I just recounted. I chose three different kinds and stepped up to the cashier forcing a familiar, almost bored expression. The farmer would have believed I knew my shit if I hadn’t tried to buy the decorative autumn corn to eat:

That destroyed my credibility pretty fast. I took my squashes home with very little clue how I’d enjoy them. I started my gourd discovery in a small way, by using the leftover pumpkin from the prior week. I decided to make a soup I may or may not be stealing from Rachel Ray. I’m pretty sure I added my own touch where the spices are concerned, though, so I feel comfortable taking credit.

I started by cutting the pumpkin into chunks and throwing them in the food processor with two peeled and chopped carrots. I then added a third of a tube of cooked polenta, which is the ultimate poor man’s food. I added some spices in the way of nutmeg, cinnamon and chili powder, and I added about 3/4 cup of water to the processor. I pulsed them all together until they got nice and pasty.

Meanwhile, I cut a shallot, some spinach, a little cumin, and a can of black beans, and I heated them all in a skillet with some extra virgin olive oil. The goal of that was wilty spinach and soft shallots, and I think I accomplished it.

I heated about 4 cups of vegetable stock with about a a tablespoon of butter in a giant pot, and then I dropped the whole pasty pumpkin-polenta-carrot mix inside. Once I stirred for 5-10 minutes, everything was incorporated. I served the soup with the bean and spinach mix on top, and it was so filling and delicious. See below for Rachel’s and my love child:

The soup lasted three nights of so, and for round two I tried it with this fancy looking squash:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I prepared it pretty similarly, with two chopped carrots, a third tube of polenta, and plenty of seasonings. I’m not sure if this squash is, like, a non-ripened pumpkin in drag, but it didn’t have much flavor on its own. I was forced to pick up the slack by adding brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in larger amounts. I also pulsed it all with water, and then I added the whole mix to the heated veggie stock and butter.

I took a page from the Giada school by adding a little triple cream brie to the top ($1.99, thanks cheese shop), so the end result was much more dessert-y and sweet than the previous soup. If I had foresight of any kind, I would have swapped the pumpkin with the draggy squash in the two different recipes. It was pretty great anyways, though:

black bean and pumpkin burger and cumin fries.

I’m getting into a phase in which I’m, like, herb-obsessed. For a while I strayed away from all things stemmy, mostly because I was born sans-green thumb and they make me feel morally inferior. I know “morally” is a stretch, because I can’t recall the last time I saw basil give back to the community, and I don’t think that’s even expected of the greater herb population. In any event, it took me years to discover salt and pepper, and so naturally basil, thyme and rosemary took longer to pique my interest.

Though I can get away with the casual purchase of fresh basil or cilantro, I scare too easily to step out of that comfort zone. In the name of penny pinching and unspoiled herbs, I’ve decided to start small with the dried herbs at my disposal.

I bought these adorable mini pumpkins at TJ’s to break the seal:

baby pumpkins

Cue the six month obsession. For my first pumpkin-fueled recipe of the season, I decided to make black bean and pumpkin burgers with oven baked fries. Though I looked up a few recipes for inspiration, the end result was original(ish).

It started easy, with a can of black beans which I rinsed and drained and tossed in a food processor. DONE. Then came the pumpkin cutting, which, though I was armed with a super sharp knife (I have battle scars), was pretty damn unpleasant. Pumpkins, like, don’t want you inside. Luckily I’m stubborn, so I stuck with it until I separated all the innards (minus the seedy parts) from both mini-pumpkins. After that 20 minute ordeal, I added the pumpkins to the processor as well. I diced a red pepper for the mix, and then added about a teaspoon of chili powder, maybe 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, salt, pepper, one egg and a couple cups of bread crumbs. I blended until they were sculpt-worthy, and got to pan frying.

I heated a few tbsp of vegetable oil in a pan over medium-high heat and formed my mix into patties. Each patty took about 4-5 minutes on each side until they got black-ish, so on the side I started on my fries.

I had a few fingerlings left from my reduction, so I cut them into fry-like spears and tossed them in olive oil. I added some salt, pepper, and some cumin, which rarely gets any action from me. I haven’t been able to figure out why, though, because it’s no stranger to Indian and Mexican cuisines, and I enjoy both very much. I tossed them all in the toaster oven at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes. If I had foresight, I would have made them during my pumpkin gutting. Foresight is not my forte.

I toasted a kaiser roll and served one patty on it, not realizing how the monstrous roll would dwarf my hard work and make it look insignificant. I added some amazing deli mustard to the top along with a handful of arugula, and served it all alongside my fries. It was SO good, and for once I have proof. My roommate had one and backed up my claim! And it was pretty, too. See below:

black bean and veggie burger, cumin spiced fries

roasted potatoes and veggies.

Exciting things are on tap. First off, autumn has officially hit NYC and it’s all about Gator football and winter squashes, both of which I can’t get enough of these days. Also, pumpkins are back! Welcome home, my lovelies. I missed them so. Finally, I’m getting back in the workout mindset after months of going through the motions. Maybe I haven’t mentioned it, but I’ve been all drag ass-y lately. I skipped the gym twice last week. WHO AM I?!?

In honor of change, I decided to cook with potatoes. It’s so rare for me to buy and/or cook with potatoes, although I’m not trying to spit in my Eastern European heritage’s face. To be fair, I tried to keep them on hand in college, but their whole “cool, dry” storage instructions pretty much guaranteed I’d have rotten Russets in my cabinet for weeks before I found the source of the smell. Also, they’re heavy, and I have to lug my groceries several blocks. 

I bought a bunch of Fingerling potatoes at the farmer’s market, though, and I got the kind of excited that I usually reserve for $0.99 cheese. Not only are they lightweight, but they’re way easy to clean. Who needs a dirt coated Russet? Very few people. Fingerlings are the way to go for those who loathe long meal preps and shoulder strain.

In keeping with change, I decided to buy carrots to add in the mix. I’m so wild and adventurous. I also bought my regulation grape tomatoes, and then I decided to – wait for it – roast it all. I came thisclose to getting out of that comfort zone. 

I’ve always wanted to reduce something, so I started with some balsamic vinegar and honey. I added a tablespoon of honey to 1/4 cup vinegar and brought both to a boil on the stove top. It got all bubbly and delicious:

mama's first reduction

 

I brought the mix down and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I chopped the Fingerlings and cut the carrots into matchsticks. I also diced a shallot and left the tomatoes whole. I tossed all in some olive oil and roasted it in a 450 degree oven for 20 minutes. 

Since it was my first reduction, I started preparing it too early in the process. The timing was a little off, and the potatoes were still softening while the reduction was, like, halfway out the door and ready to go. I let it sit on low heat for a little and tried to trick it into thinking it wasn’t quite done, but the reduction saw through me. As a result, it turned out a little too thick and molasses-like. I drizzled it atop my veggies, but within two minutes it was solid like candy. I kind of loved it anyways. See below:

 

roasted potatoes and veggies in a balsamic honey reduction

stuffed tomatoes and breakfast tacos.

So I’ve been a little MIA as of late, and it’s not because I’ve been eating bland food and staying dry. Actually, I’ve been spicing it up daily and sweating profusely, but my computer decided to have un-resolvable issues and has prevented me from documenting my life away. I’ll try and condense anything notable from the past few weeks, but I’m kind of a talker so it’s a feat. Bear with me, por favor.

To begin with, I’ve fallen for the farmer’s market in my hood. Honestly, I think about it during the week and find any excuse to bring it up in daily conversation. It all started with these beautiful Beefsteak tomatoes I found a couple of weeks back:

beefsteaks

I mean, that’s hot. I love TJ’s and all, but they never have tomatoes of this caliber. I’ve been wanting to make stuffed tomatoes since they were popular, so I started gathering some ingredients. Actually, I don’t think they’ve peaked quite yet. Their time will come.  

I started with basmati rice, which smells amaaazing while it cooks. I’m thinking of bottling and selling it as perfume, or maybe a home fragrance because that seems more socially acceptable for some reason. While that simmered, I pan fried a little diced eggplant in olive oil, cumin and curry powder.

The rice was done in about 30 minutes, so I mixed in the eggplant. I cut off the tops of my beefsteaks, and then gutted them completely. I filled both tomatoes with the rice and eggplant mix, and then topped them with breadcrumbs and some Manchego cheese.  

The original plan was to throw them both in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until they got all soft and…wanton? I’ve been looking for any excuse to use that word since Jude Law said it in “Hamlet” this past weekend, but you’d be surprised in how few conversations it makes sense. Therefore, the tomatoes were wanton, or they would have been if my oven was working. It wasn’t, so I turned to plan B: toaster oven. My beefsteaks proved too large for the mini-oven, so I last resort grilled them on the panini press. Weird but delicious. Behold the final result:

stuffed tomatoes with basmati rice & curried eggplant, topped with bread crumbs and Manchego cheese

As far as the sweaty stuff goes, I got a free personal training session last week at my gym, which was kind of awesome/painful. My main lesson learned was that I loathe squat thrusts, although the name alone tells my quads they’re not interested. I told the trainer I pretty much do 20 minutes of cardio each time I gym it, and he suggested I up it to 30-45 at least twice a week. I get bored when doing one activity for such a long period of time, so I’m forced to distract myself. I did the elliptical for 45 minutes today while watching the Food Network. Typical.

Post-trainer time, I returned to my farmer’s market to reward myself. I have a lady hard-on for tomatoes these days (ha, gross), so I picked up a few non-traditional varieties including one orange and one green. I don’t know names. I then went through the hot pepper section and bought at least one of every variety, save the habaneros because I once had a habanero-to-the-eyes incident that I still haven’t fully recovered from. Anyways, my tomato and pepper situation looked like this:

local tomatoes and peppers

I decided to make black bean and tomato tacos to begin with. I started with a can of black beans, which I drained and rinsed, and then tossed in a pan to warm. I toasted habanero-lime tortillas into taco shapes, and threw a little hot jack cheese up in there. I cut half an orange and half a green tomato, and half a serrano chile pepper. I mixed them all together as a makeshift salsa with some lime juice, salt and pepper. 

I threw the beans in with the toasted tacos, and then topped each with the salsa. They were delicious and fed me for three meals last week, but I much preferred the looks of the breakfast taco I created on Saturday with the remnants.

The preparation was completely the same, although I didn’t use any cheese and scrambled an egg with a little butter. To recap, it was a habanero lime tortilla filled with scrambled egg, black beans, and green and orange tomato salsa. SO amazing. See below:

 

breakfast taco with scrambled egg, black beans, and mixed tomato salsa with serrano chile pepper

seared Ahi tuna and roasted potatoes.

Last weekend, I hoovered in a few thousand excess calories in Florida. I got off the plane, and my dad was all, “Want some homemade bread? Nine pieces, did you say? Here, have some butter. I just made some cheesy vegetable and potato dish if you’re interested. Save room for dessert!” I returned to NYC all food coma-ed out, and proceeded to double up on the gymming to even out my life.

In my dad’s defense, everything was relatively healthy that weekend. After a day of barbecuing at a family friend’s house, my mom and I wanted a little something for dinner. He made these adorable eggs in baskets:

my dad's eggs in baskets

I, like, licked my plate and then had a bigass bowl of ice cream. I have no portion control in swing states. Ahem, Texas.

In between bites I DID manage to run the lake that I love so. Also, I got to swim for probably the second time this year, and that’s my favorite exercise in life. Any sport in which I can impersonate the Little Mermaid (stop judging me) AND do handstands is pretty much ideal to me.

Speaking of fish (worst segue ever), I made some Ahi tuna last week that turned out kind of gorgeous. I’m not sure if this is necessarily encouraged by the FDA, but I defrosted a frozen fillet and then seared it. I didn’t get violently ill afterward, so that’s a success as far as I’m concerned.

I coated the fillet in lemon juice and olive oil, and my beloved threesome of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. I seared it in a pan for about a minute and a half on each side, until it looked like this:

seared Ahi tuna

Meanwhile, I bought this mix of potatoes at TJ’s, that included but were not limited to Yukon Gold, red potatoes and new potatoes. Unless red potatoes and new potatoes are one in the same? I honestly don’t know, and I’m MUCH too lazy to look into this, so just play along, please.

I chopped them into cubes, and then tossed them in some olive oil and dried herbs. I used rosemary, thyme and basil, and then I added salt and pepper. But of course. They went in my toaster oven at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, and they came out totally tender and ready to go.

I chopped about half of my fillet and served it on top of some arugula, and then I dressed it with that champagne pear vinaigrette. It has Gorgonzola cheese in the dressing, which I’m usually opposed to. It really got along with my other flavors, though, so I was pretty into it. Anyways, see below:

seared Ahi tuna on arugula, herb roasted potatoes

bruschetta and bok choy.

So many exciting things are happening, like, right this minute. First off, manchego cheese is going for $4/lb at the cheese shop, which is so dirt cheap that it’s basically insulting. Luckily, it takes a lot to offend me. Second, it’s been extra overcast outside, so I was able to run two miles straight around my track at 2 p.m. today. Also, I just found out that Nightman is becoming a legit musical! How much do I want to see Denis pay the troll toll so he can get in the boy’s hole? SO much.

I’m two weeks strong with the post-work gymming, and this is a total estimation but I’m guessing I’ve burned 500 extra calories each day since. In the interest of jump starting the results, I had bruschetta and salad for dinner most nights this week. I bought heirloom tomatoes at TJ’s because I’m trendy and used this delicious rye bread that was basically the only non-babka item at the Russian store across the street. My roommate bought a basil plant, so I used a few leaves and chopped it up with the tomatoes. I added olive oil, salt and pepper, mixed it together, and served it atop the toasted rye. I served it alongside a spinach salad with nectarines and shaved manchego. I dressed it with olive oil and lemon juice. It was amaaazing and much too easy to prepare:

spinach, nectarine and manchego salad, heirloom tomato bruschetta

I wanted to make something new for dinner tonight, so I bought me some bok choy. I’ve never cooked with it before, but I sure do love to stare at it every time I’m in the grocery. This time I decided to stop playing games and took it home with me. Life is much too short to wonder what could have been.

I also bought some tofu and this spicy peanut vinaigrette that TJ’s designed with me in mind. I came home and made my own recipe for the first time in a long time. I chopped a clove of garlic and some fresh ginger, and sauteed them in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. I cubed half a package of extra firm tofu and tossed it into the oil mix. While that browned up all nicely, I added about 1/4 cup of honey. I chopped the bok choy on the side, minus the bottom third,  and tossed it in with the tofu. A few minutes on the stove top, and my bok choy wilted into submission:

virginal bok choy

Meanwhile, I re-heated some of the basmati rice I’d originally prepared for my okra. I poured a generous amount of spicy peanut vinaigrette on the whole mix, and salted and peppered it up. I served the tofu and bok choy stir fry atop the rice, and it was really tasty. It’s possible I was too liberal with the ginger, because it kind of burned the nostrils and there’s no way my peanut vinaigrette would do that to me. It was the best way I’ve ever prepared the tofu, though, and I credit my last minute choice to involve honey in making it all crunchy and delicious. It was a great original Asian/Indian fusion recipe. See below:

tofu and bok choy atop basmati rice with spicy peanut vinaigrette

curried okra.

I apologize if my writing is a little off today, but my muscles are being SO needy. They think that, since I subjected them to a weekend of outdoor running, they’re allotted a period of self pity and mouring. And that’s really not the way things go around here. I may have run two miles on both Saturday and Sunday, (which is the equivalent of 8 treadmill miles for those who don’t know the conversion rates), but they were still expected to perform during my after-work gymming. This is not to say they fell short of expectations, but I could do without the constant threat of strain.

Since I pushed myself on the sweaty side, I had no choice but to make something amazing last night so as not to be neglectful to the spicy side. I’ve been wanting to try something new, but inspiration hasn’t really struck lately. Luckily, one of my roommates just threw a bunch of okra in my lap. Well, not literally..that would be weird…but she went out of town leaving me with strict instructions to make use of her okra before it went bad. I’m no fan of rotten okra, so I took her suggestion to make the curried okra recipe off epicurious and RAN with it.

I’ve never made okra before, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t given it much of a chance since I had some fried at Picadilly in the second grade. Seventeen years is a substantial waiting period, so I decided to go for it last night:

okra

The recipe started with some chopped onion, garlic, chopped fresh ginger, vegetable oil and curry powder. I sauteed that all in a big skillet, and then added some drained and rinsed chickpeas and a can of whole peeled tomatoes.

Weirdly enough, the recipe called for whole okra and instructed me to just “trim” them. I would assume they wanted me to take the stems off, but the recipe asked for them to remain in place. I left them intact like a good little sheep, but I trimmed the bottoms off. I have no clue if that was the right thing to do.

Once the tomato chickpea mixture simmered for a few minutes, I threw the okra on top and covered the skillet. They looked like this:

the curried okras are cooking

When all was said and done, the okras took about 10 minutes to get soft but not totally limp. I served the whole mix atop some Basmati rice, and it was pretty great. My second acquaintance with okra was a pleasant one. Who knew?

My dad warned me that okra get slimy once you cook them, and it weirds most out. Hence the frying, a la Picadilly. Apparently I’m not most people, because I kind of loved it and hardly noticed the slime. It’s possible I’m talking out of my ass, but I’m thinking the acid from the tomatoes counteracted the okra slime? That’s my ass’s guess, for whatever it’s worth.

Anyways, see below for the final product:

curried okra with chickpeas and tomatoes