oopsie smoothie

welp...the no-wheat, no-caffeine, no-alcohol was nice while it lasted...

we went to a wedding last night, and i indulged in the obligatory glass (or four) of chardonnay, and this morning, feeling slightly groggy, i gave in to my iced coffee and bagel craving.

now, a mere five hours later, i feel terrible.  jittery and tired at the same time, thanks to the caffeine, gooey cream cheese and chewy bready bagel.  i am sorry, belly.

so for lunch i made a smoothie to get myself feeling better.  even though i don't have a blender (but it is on the registry!) a food processor does the trick.  half a banana, a handful of frozen blueberries, half a scoop of spiru-tein vanilla, a generous spoonful of yogurt, and some rice milk and ice cubes, blended all together did the trick.

what a pretty color, too!

best garden ever!

after the never-ending saga that went into renting a roto-tiller, we (and by "we", i mean jordan) tripled the size of our garden!  it meant sacrificing the bonfire spot, but our yard is big enough that we can find space for both!

yesterday was the first bountiful harvest of arugula.  i have never tasted arugula so yummy in my life!  the leaves are perfectly green, so delightful and peppery!

first arugula harvest

we had a couple of very disappointing experiences with grocery store arugula, coming home to find over half the leaves in the package to be wilted, slimy and sometimes black.  sorry, grocery store...we are going to do all our produce shopping in our backyard for the next few months.

so what's on the menu for this summer's garden?  basil basil basil (pesto for days!), lots of tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, arugula, eggplant (which i will not be eating because of my "allergy"), and some other things that i can't remember because jordan isn't around to ask. :)

i am so looking forward to the summer meals we will be cooking with all of our backyard veggies!

giant garden!

come on young one, your time to grow is now

BAH-zill.

killing the beast.

catch up time.

the last time i wrote was in february.  allow me to bring you up to speed, dear readers (all two of you):

i sprinted to the finish of my first year of graduate school.  i taught a course.  i applied for and landed 2 jobs that i was really hoping to be offered.  my mom got very ill.  i started seeing a therapist.  i pulled my first all-nighter since high school.  i got engaged (!!!!!!).  i missed having my best friends being by my side through all these highs and lows.  

because of all these things put together, the good and the bad, i have become a busy, cranky, slovenly beast with little desire to cook, with an insatiable appetite for gallons of coffee in the morning and even more gallons of alcohol at night.  with night classes twice a week this past semester that overlap inconveniently with the dinner hour, i found myself coming home famished and deciding to feast on take-out food and beer, instead of having to figure out what i wanted to make for dinner.  then going to the store.  then buying things.  then coming home.  then, UGH, preparing food.  you can see where this is going.  

this pattern, as i discovered as i haplessly tried to take my dehydrated, malnourished self on a run (which gradually turned into a crawl) over the weekend, must end.  and so i have come back into the kitchen, prepared with a new arsenal of recipes to explore and to share and to enjoy so that i can explore and share and enjoy my life! 

as of saturday, i have eliminated caffeine, alcohol and wheat from my diet.  all these things are my weak points, and they really are addictive.  and when all self-control is scattered to the wind because of excessive stress, abandon ye all hope and prepare to gorge thyself on 2 bags of pita chips and several glasses of wine.  

so how is it working so far?  well, i have not had alcohol in three days, and it actually has been surprising how little i miss it.  there was a time when having dinner without a glass of wine seemed uncivilized, but then i realized how uncivilized it became to have a glass before and after dinner as well.  forgoing wheat has been easy so far, also.  and i actually do feel a difference in my energy levels since eliminating it, which is unbelievable.  

the hardest thing to give up has been coffee.  whimper.  as i write this in my coffee shop of choice, the smell of freshly ground beans wafting through the air is taunting me as i begrudgingly sip my herbal tea.  i have read on the internetz about the difficulties of eliminating caffeine, and i actually am really stunned at how my addiction has evolved throughout the semester.  in three months, i went from ordering the smallest size available with the smallest coffee-to-milk ratio (1:4), to upping to size from short to extra tall, to eliminating the milk altogether and guzzling it black.  at any and all hours of the day, too, not just the morning.  who AM i?

now that the semester is officially over, i am going to take the time i need this summer to get my habits in check and blog with gusto!  here's to feeling good!  xo.  

Pest-ohhhh yeah!

sometimes, i forget how much i luuurve pesto...
and then i remember!
and then i forget how easy it is to make...
and then i remember!

and then i make it using arugula and parsley, since basil isn't in season yet, and serve it over penne with roasted tomatoes and chickpeas.

and then i congratulate myself on a meal well prepared.

and sometimes i make eggs for breakfast the next day, and have some leftover pesto on top of them.
and sometimes i take a spoon and just eat it out of the jar.  gross?  probably.  delicious?  yes.


in a food processor, throw in a few handfuls of arugula and a few handfuls of parsley.  add a roughly chopped clove of garlic, plenty of grated parmesan cheese, a handful of walnuts (or pine nuts, if you can afford them!) and the juice of a lemon.  turn on the food processor and add olive oil until it reaches the consistency you like.  salt and pepper, too.  serve with ANYTHING.

(ps- i get all my ingredients from the local co-op.  you should too!)

as if you need another reason to stop eating fast food...

here you go.

so gross.

addicted: #2

trader joe's organic strawberry probiotic yogurt

as i get closer to my quarter century birthday, i am really trying to be on the defensive and take control of my health as much as i can.  preventative healthcare is crucial, and diet is a huge factor.  colon health, as old-ladyish as it sounds, is important and has been kind of a buzz topic for me lately.  with a family history of colon cancer and other gastrointestinal woes, it is important for me to take care of myself as much as i can now.

i started hearing a lot of good things about probiotic yogurt, but i was not sure how down and dirty i would want to get in terms of experimenting.  i haven't always been a huge yogurt fan, either.  something about the texture just skeeves me.  but i wanted to see what all the probiotic fuss was about, so during a trader joe's run a couple of months ago, i picked up a four-pack of the organic strawberry probiotic yogurt.  they come in a four pack in itsy-bitsy little cups, perfect for me since too much yogurt in one serving turns me off.  i sprinkled mine with a little granola, mixed it up and was totally surprised!  i wasn't sure if the extra addition of the probiotics would alter the taste at all (in a bad way), but it was actually the least yogurty-tasting yogurt i've ever tried!  i loved it, and i could notice the digestive benefits within a day or two (and i'll leave it at that...)

since they only come in a 4-pack, and we only bought one, we ran out rather quickly. the nearest tj's to us is a good 40 minute trek, so i picked up some dannon activia instead at the local grocery store.  i wasn't as happy with the activia as i was with the trader joe's yogurt.  for one thing, i think for dairy especially, organic really makes a difference.  activia is not organic, and there were considerably more artificial-looking ingredients on the label (not counting the sciencey-sounding names of the probiotics in the yogurt, which were comparable in both brands).  the taste of activia was good, but the effects were not noticeable at all.  so...lesson learned: next time i go to tj's i am stocking up big time on their yogurt!

homemade spinach ravioli

for our first christmas together a few years ago, jordan gave me a beautiful, authentic fire-engine red pasta maker.  we have gotten a lot of good use out of it, but i never remember to document the hours-long event that is making a homemade pasta dinner. a pasta maker is a great investment...you can really tell the difference between pasta from a box and pasta from scratch.  if you put the time in, you will see that it is worth it.

each time we have made pasta, we have always used either the spaghetti or linguine settings.  this time, we wanted to make homemade ravioli instead.  the results were magnificent, and now i'll share the process with you all!

making the dough is not as hard as you think...you just need semolina flour, salt, a little water, some olive oil and a couple of eggs (the best recipes are the simplest ones!)  we always use semolina flour from bob's red mill because it has the best recipe for pasta dough that we've tried.

combine 1 1/2 cups of semolina and 1/2 tsp salt and place on a flat, clean, dry surface.  make a well in the center of the flour and add 2 beaten eggs, 2 tbsp of water and 2 tbsp of olive oil to the well.  using a fork, gently begin to incorporate the flour into the well, starting around the edge of the well and making your way out.  once the dry and wet ingredients are incorporated, begin to knead the dough.

continue to knead for about 10 minutes or so, until the dough is elastic.  then set the dough aside after wrapping in saran wrap.  let rest for 20 minutes.  while the dough is resting, get to work on the ravioli filling.  we used frozen chopped spinach, cooked and drained well, combined with ricotta, garlic and salt.  easy and delicious.  combine to taste, and set aside.

once the dough is ready, roll it out flat and cut in half to begin to process through the pasta maker.

now comes the fun part!  first, roll each half of the dough through the widest setting on the pasta maker 10 times.  between each turn, sprinkle the dough with a little bit of flour, fold in thirds, then pass through with the open side facing downwards.

uno...

due...

tre!

once each half has been through 10 times, roll each half through again, changing the setting each roll from the widest to the thinnest.  (usually for cut pasta, we stop at the narrowest setting before cutting into the noodles.  however, since we were making ravioli, we wanted the dough to be a little thicker to be able to withstand the filling.  if you're in doubt, consult the instructions on your pasta maker.)

 since we didn't have a ravioli cutter (they do exist, however!) we used its bigger, more hulky cousin, a pizza wheel, to cut the dough into rectangles.

we put a little dab of the ricotta mixture in the center of each rectangle, then placed another rectangle on top.  using a fork we gently pressed the edges together to seal.

bring a very large pot of salted water to a gentle boil.  drop in about 5 ravioli at a time, and cook for less than a minute (they will float to the top when they're finished).  

look how precious they are!

 i was so pleased with how this little italian dinner came out.  we served ours with sauteed halved baby portobello mushrooms with red sauce, but i think it would be great with just a little drizzle of oil and some cheese on top too!

mangia!