beet it

when you find yourself hungry and far from home, you are automatically at the mercy of the nearest food court, coffee shop, or stranger with candy. it's the worst.
there are few things i dislike as much as consuming crappy food that i was forced into buying by my own hunger.
so, how do i avoid being circumstance's pitiful sucker? i plan ahead and pack a lunch!


ok. maybe you aren't going to collect any street cred by carrying around a lunch bag with you in public. but think about how adversive you'll look sitting in that mall/park/wherever, and eating your delicious lunch in front of envious losers who got a sad bagel from tim horton's.
that makes you a f@$%-ing gangster.

yellow beets!? purple carrots!?
what does it all mean!? 

i think i kept it pretty real with a 'yellow beet, apple, goat cheese, and honeyed-walnut' salad. (also dubbed the 'throw-all-the-crap-you-have-in-your-fridge-on-top-of-some-mixed-greens' salad).


i roasted, peeled, and julienned the beet... sliced an apple... threw some walnuts and honey in a warm pan for a couple minutes... and crumbled some goat cheese.... all on a bed of mixed greens and herbs... into one of those handy-dandy little kitchen items called "tupperware".
you can also take another little container and put some home-made vinaigrette in it to dress your salad later (otherwise it gets soggs). vinaigrette: honey, dijon, lemon, balsamic, olive oil, salt, pepper

close the lid, and away we go!

*i sealed the small pot of vinaigrette to the left with 

plastic-wrap and a tight elastic band....it worked!   

better than a bagel.

word.

breaky for din

often after a night of heavy drinking, one feels they are entitled to subject their body to further abuse by way of a greasy, crappy, and affordable breakfast.
i'm all for it, but the true remedy for a hangover is actually an hour of brisk cardio activity and a bottle of gatorade. i digress.
why wait until you feel sicky to reward your body? i say; start your night-of-regrets off proper, with breakfast for dinner!!
not only will you enjoy it more now than you will tomorrow, but it's also the perfect pre-game meal containing lots of fat and carbs that will coat your tummy for later. you know, lattttter.

hello happy piggy! so glad you had a nice upbringing.

my friend LD and i had plans to hit the town, so i made organic bacon. ya it's worth the extra $.
buttered rye toast.
an egg.
and garlic hash browns from left-over roasted fingerling potatoes (see 'purps') fried in paprika.


and only half the portion you get at your local greasy spoon!
bottoms up.


* this post is dedicated to my dear brother, who just ate meat for the first time in 8 years, today.
**it's good, right?

i'd date me

have a gander at the photo below. 

if you have a mouth, it is likely salivating. 

ew, stop.

i may have majorly rolled the dice by cooking up bivalves for a date a day after being food poisoned.... 

but let me tell you, it was well worth it. 

this seafood pasta was simple and fresh, and not so hard on the eyes, either. dinner for 2, coming right up!

i'll cut to the chase:
(all the ingredients are highlighted for shopping list ease)

• in salted water, boil some whole wheat spaghettini (the size between angel hair and spaghetti) cook until al dente/not too soft. strain in a colander, replace in pot. add a bit of butter, loosely chopped fresh basil, sea salt and cracked black pepper to the pasta. set aside.
• in an oven-proof skillet, heat olive oil, add 3 cloves chopped garlic, 1 chopped chili pepper (if you like heat-leave the seeds in!), and a bit of orange zest. cook for 30 seconds.
• add cleaned and sliced calamari, and scrubbed clams & mussels (don't take any chances with foodborne pathogens-seriously) and cook for 2-3 minutes.
• add chopped flat leaf parsley, grape or cherry tomatoes, juice of half a lemon, and some white wine to the skillet and then pop it in the oven at 350°F for 15-20 minutes or until all the bivalves have opened up.
• plate pasta in a wide bowl, scoop the yum yum seafood on top and then cover the lot in a few ladle-fulls of mmm-mmm juices from the pan.

you will have no regrets.

vom-burger

i'd previously mentioned a hankering for a burger this week, and i figured i'd live a little and indulge the craving.

having picked up some extra-lean ground beef on my last shopping excursion, i fashioned me a little burger;

beef, an egg, sliced jalapeño pepper, fresh coriander, cumin powder. all tasty stuff.

i grilled the burger to (my idea of) perfection and melted a couple slices of brie cheese on that puppy. 

for the topping i fried some cooking onion and mushrooms in oil with fresh cracked black pepper, and a touch of white wine.

the bun is a tiny little sesame seed topped dinner roll. 

notice the small size of this burger. 

(eating yummy food is a-ok, you just gotta eat less of it!) 

oh, hi broccoli! sorry you were sequestered to the back of the photo.

before you pee your pants from all the suspense, i'll tell you why i called this little effer a vom-burger.
it's because i vommed a few hours after eating it.
great story, right? perhaps not. but the moral is....beware of beef.
i, for one, am no longer going to buy ground beef from sketchy 24hr grocery stores.
ew.

hello 'lova

move ova

last night i was invited to my friends' house for dinner. 

i said i'd bring dessert. 

so, there i was, all prepped to blow their minds with my 'harvest pavlova', when my effing meringue decided to collapse and break apart. with no time to create a second dessert or re-make the meringue, i put my trust in the hands of the confectionery higher-ups and hoped that it would at least still taste good.

and it did! here it is after the 3 of us had a go at it. 

the proof is in the pavlova!

here's what i did:
meringue- egg whites and sugar (basically) there are plenty of recipes on the www. i made this meringue with white and brown sugar to make the flavour malty and the colour darker. for pavlovas you want to cook the meringue so that the outside is crisp and the inside is a soft marshmallow-y texture.
whipped cream- it's whipping cream that's been whipped with some sugar- duh
salty brittle- i cooked up some chopped almonds, cashews, and dried apricots in butter, sugar and course salt and then spooned the mixture on some parchment paper to cool and harden. *you can see it broken into bits on top of the whipped cream.
i like the combo of salty with sweet, but it's an option. if the nuts were salted i probably would not have added more salt.
fresh blackberries and golden raspberries on top.


done like...dessert!

the after gym'wich

sometimes i get sooo hungry. not like 'dying of hunger'-hungry, but like 'the glycogen stores in my body have been depleted, and i'm dizzy'-hungry. this usually happens after i hit the gym.
i hate being this hungry, because it often results in poor food choices. like last night, when i ravenously devoured a pizza bun whilst walking up and down the grocery store aisles in my hunger-stupor.

nom nom nom nom mmmm

orangy-red refined-flour greasyness. grossy.


so today on my way home from the gym i planned my attack on hunger before i even set foot in the kitchen.
"open-faced tuna sandwich with sprouts, open-faced tuna sandwich with sprouts, open-faced....pigeon!"


this sandy took like, 5 minutes to make including toasting the bread and opening the tuna can... and it was leagues above a pizza bun.

• rye bread (double-toasted all the way)
• tuna (with a bit of light mayo, capers, and black pepper)
• onion sprouts (they make alfalfa taste like a mouthful of hair)
• tomato slices

i scarfed this little 'wich up in 6 giant bites.

eeeaaassssyy.

oh, crêpe

when it's cold out, (october to may), and i want to see friends, i prefer to invite people over to my place than to dress myself and leave the house. call me lazy, i dare you.

anyway, the easiest way to get people to come over is to promise them a home-cooked treat! if your friends trust your cooking, the visit is in the bag.

having invited a friend for lunch today, i was at a loss about what to serve. i haven't done groceries in a little while and i didn't have much 'stuff' to work with. then i thought of that tempting, crowd-pleasing smell that crêperies bank on to get you in their doors and 'hazzzah! CRÊPES!!'
[in luring your friends over, don't be scared to use some smell-tactics!]

thanks for coming over!
- your cheimaphobic friend

crêpes are easy, they're pancakes without baking powder, so stop freaking out.

i made a basic batter (white flour, eggs, whipping cream, salt) and added lemon zest to make it better.
better batter.
you can fill these sweet or savoury-
any style.

here are the dessert-stuffed crêpes: filled and topped with a warm and sticky, homemade blueberry-butterscoth sauce.

it was effing good.

not a hamburger

today i had a craving for a big, fat, juicy, medium-done hamburger.
but then i remembered that i went for dim sum this morning and probably filled my daily quota for saturated animal fats well before noon.
i also remembered the brick of firm tofu sitting idly in my fridge and the half-used bag of spinach just days away from rotting, and i thought;
'i'll save you, unpopular foods! - hamburger tomorrow'.

definitely not a hamburger

i didn't time how long dinner took to make, but i only got home 40 minutes ago and am finished eating and already writing this with photos snapped and errrrthing, so my guess is, not a long time.


i cooked up some quinoa (keen-wa) in a rice cooker with garlic and a bit of olive oil, cubed and fried the firm tofu in a bit of canola oil and soy sauce, wilted the spinach and then added a bit of sesame oil (hey, they're all healthy oils!) and then added a chopped tomato for colour and ground flax seed for omega 3. wooop.

purps!

today people showed solidarity with the LGBT community by wearing purple shirts. 

because i'm a big fan of the LGBT community, (and of one-up-man-ship), 

not only did i wear purple today, but i ate purple too. 

say what you will, but i think these carrots are so amazing they could potentially eradicate homophobia!

ps. i didn't dye them! here's a link about purple carrots...

kinda interesting!! http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/maroon.html

"oh purple carrots,
i don't even mind you staining my cutting board"

here's what i made for din:

oven-roasted purple carrots and fingerling potatoes -with olive oil, garlic, and sea salt

steamed asparagus -with lemon juice and more sea salt

left-over turkey breast from thanksgiving (i think/hope that's the last of it) -with cranberry sauce (also from thanksgiving)

cooking time was 20 minutes. seriously. (preparation time was 0.8 seconds to peel a carrot and cut the potatoes in half). and while it helps that the turkey and cran sauce were leftovers, it wouldn't take very long to cook a turkey or chicken breast either.

tasty, healthy, colourful, and socially aware, NBD!

not bad for 20 minutes, right?

hi there!

  a poem  


sometimes food can feel like such a pesky chore,

peeling, cutting, cooking; preparation galore!

recipes call for this and that ingredient,

and make the culinary exercise seem less than expedient.

if what you're after is a quick and easy meal,

before you run off for your McFix; i'll make this appeal:

preparing food for oneself needn't be laborious,

with a little nuance in the kitchen it can turn out to be quite GLORIOUS!!

here you'll find ideas and some honest, healthful, tips,

in no time you'll be eating well and smackin' your lips.

no need to be a chef, nor 'gourmand' nor 'foodie',

these posts and pics will hopefully get you in the mood-y,

what a proud moment! you'll feel like such a winner,

when you can pat yourself on the back and say "i made me this dinner!"