Recipes

Breakfast Smoothies

During my time eating by the slow-carb diet, every morning I ate the same thing. I’d briefly sauté a handful of broccoli and run around doing my makeup and getting dressed while it sizzled in the background. Then, I’d add a spoon of cottage cheese and 2 beaten eggs or some egg whites, depending on my mood. It was yummy, but sometimes I struggled with the egg whites being extremely watery and sort of gross. I also had issues with my frying pans getting egg-crusted and impossible to clean.

A couple weeks ago, I developed a new breakfast system that I want to share! For me, smoothies are perfect: I can prepare them when I’m still half asleep, I can quickly clean up the immersion blender, and, let’s be real here – they’re delicious.

The key here is the immersion blender. Last summer, I tried to do fruit smoothies, but using the regular blender ended up being too noisy, not to mention messy and ineffective. I bought my immersion blender cheaply at the grocery store, it’s by President’s Choice’s Everyday Essentials brand (I can’t find it online). It comes with a plastic cup which is very easy to clean, I use it for my morning smoothie every day.

Here are the loose “recipes” I’ve been using lately, depending on what I have in my kitchen.

#1: blend small handful of spinach with soy milk until smooth. Add 2-3 tbsp Greek yogurt, handful of frozen mixed berries, one banana (broken up), and about 1/4 cup of orange juice. Blend!

#2: blend small handful of spinach with some fruit juice until smooth. Add 2-3 tbsp Greek yogurt, handful frozen raspberries, 2 tbsp fruit sorbet, and a little more juice. Blend!

As you can see, the second is a little less filling. I’m planning to experiment with different types of smoothies in the coming weeks, so I’d love to hear your suggestions. I buy about one bag of frozen berries per week, alternating between mixed berries and raspberries. They cost about $6 at my grocery store. I always buy the same kind of Greek yogurt, because it’s totally delicious and full of protein. And just in case any of you are skeptical about the spinach: don’t be. It’s impossible to taste, or to feel texturally.

So please: any smoothie recipes?

Asparagus Tart

Sometimes, I’ll want to make a recipe. Take this asparagus gruyere tart from Cupcakes and Cashmere via Martha Stewart, for example. I wanted to make it! It looked good! Alas, I got all “gruyere is so damn expensive” at the grocery store, and didn’t get it. I’m not sure if I expected gruyere to magically appear in my fridge or something, but I was like “it’ll all work out, and whatever!” And it did. But it is definitely not Martha Stewart’s recipe.

Sometimes, when I want to make a recipe and don’t have the ingredients, I just Google the ingredients that I think would work together well, just to see if they’re a thing. And you know what? They’re usually a thing! Almost everything is a thing. No pun intended. So this time, when I googled “asparagus + red onion + goat cheese tart”, I got this. Wonderful.

The way I made this tart: Preheat the oven to 350. Unroll a sheet of frozen (but thawed) puff pastry, score a 1 inch border around the edges and poke fork holes in the center of the square. Bake for about 15 minutes.

 Slice a red onion thinly, and sauté in some oil with salt and pepper until translucent and soft. Then add 1-2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar, and approximately 1 tbsp brown sugar, cook until the vinegar is absorbed. Meanwhile, boil the asparagus in salted water until tender-crisp; drain and rinse with cold water.

Spread the caramelized onions evenly onto the pastry square. Layer the asparagus and goat cheese (or ricotta, but I didn’t have any) on top. Bake for about 5 minutes at 350. Enjoy!

Funfetti Cake!

Ain’t it just the cutest cake you ever did see? And guess what – this cake is famous. That’s right. Famous. You see, I tweeted a photo of it, with the caption “this cake is for the party”, which is the name of a book written by the great Sarah Selecky, who also has an awesome blog and sends out writing prompts every day. She’s real cool. Anyway, this happened:

Spoiler alert: I haven’t read the book, but I did borrow it from the library once. It’s weird that I feel guilty about that. I’ve always loved the title, though.

So the party cake is a famous cake. It was also a pretty cake. And perhaps most importantly, a yummy cake. I don’t know if you remember the Betty Crocker cake mix that made white cake with coloured spots inside it? Well, this is the grown-up homemade version of confetti cake mix. Funfetti, as it’s lovingly referred to in the blogosphere, has been exploding lately. (See what I mean?) So my first cake of the season, for my cutest friend, had to be a cute funfetti cake.

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Funfetti Cake!Read More »

Honey Cornbread Muffins

We’re having a drop-dead gorgeous day today. The weather is spectacular. It’s the first time in months that I’ve enjoyed my quasi-daily walk outdoors – in fact, Monday’s walk so brutal I considered turning back after less than a block. I spent much of my time outside just revelling in the warm (ish) breeze, really just enjoying every second of it. It’s amazing what weather and sunshine can do for my psyche. Best medicine. If you’ve been cooped up all day, RUN, don’t walk to your nearest exit and get out into that beautiful fresh air.

Now to business. Muffin business. Does that sound risqué? No? Okay, I guess it’s just me then. Maybe it’s because I’ve eaten approximately 4 of them in less than 24 hours (sorry I’m not sorry), so I know that they really are risqué, and sinfully good. I used a heaping teaspoon of coarse sea salt, and it was the best idea I’ve had all week. I used the full amount of sugar and honey. I’ve been spreading them with butter, and dipping them in cheese-strewn minestrone soup. I also ate one for breakfast. I also ate one as a snack. Such is the blessing and the curse of living alone.

I first spotted these on Elise’s blog, and when I felt like baking something quickly last night they were the perfect recipe to make. I haven’t baked since I was home over reading week, and I actually got a little tingle of happiness when I pulled out my brightly coloured bowls and old wooden spoons. I can’t explain my love for baking. It runs in my family.

These muffins are really delicious. The sugar and salt probably help with that a lot, but their texture is really nice as well. I remember growing up our cornbread would always be crumbly (and I like it that way too!) but in the muffin form it holds up pretty well.

The original recipe is here.

PS. I’m not counting this toward my 2012 bread goal, because it doesn’t use yeast.

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