Mango & Tomato

5/14/10

Eating in Madrid and Toledo

It's hard to believe that on this day last month I was getting ready for my first trip to Spain: Madrid! I came back with wonderful memories, a few souvenirs, and a few extra pounds due to all the food and sangria consumed during my vacation.

Below are some of the photographs of food I took during 5 days in Madrid.

I already blogged about my first meal in Spain: churros con chocolat.Below is a photo of one of my first tapas in Madrid: roasted green peppers in salt. They were amazing: smoky, slightly crispy, salty, and oh so addictive!

On our second day in Madrid, we went to a little Middle Eastern place for lunch: I wasn't planning on having tapas the entire 5 days. Unlike Anna, I'm a Diet Pepsi girl. Alas, all that was available was Light Coke. But what a cute slogan!

This was an awesome lunch: lamb, fries and a salad.

Another non-Spanish meal was a very long and relaxing lunch we had at an Italian restaurant while waiting for the rain to end. And why not start with a glass of red wine? I'm not a red wine lover, but Anna and Radha prefer it, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I actually liked it quite a bit!

We then shared tomato/mozzarella/basil salad, 2 pizzas and tiramisu!

Here's a little treat/snack we bought while on our way to Park Retario: macarons! This was the first time Radha has tried macarons. She chose the "violet" one and said it tasted blue :) I chose pistachio one, and Anna chose a raspberry one.

To be honest with you, I pretty much planned our entire trip: which museums we'll visit, which parks, botanical gardens, etc. When it came to choosing restaurants, I was exhausted. That led to quite a few mini "fights" about where to eat. Finally, I decided we should just play rock/paper/scissors, and the winner of the game will have 10 minutes to decide where we'll be eating. When it came Radha's time to choose, she chose a close-by Irish pub. I had a fabulous lamb stew with potatoes and carrots. The only thing missing was a chunky Italian bread to dunk in the broth.

And of course, we had plenty of ham!!!!

At a flamenco show we went to see we were served olives (!!!), seen in the back of the photograph below and ordered a fabulous flan (check out the pile of whipped cream that came with it!).

We also took a trip to Toledo. For lunch we ordered a 3 course pre fix meal. Anna's appetizer was the Russian Salad. It wasn't the exact version of the Russian potato salad that I've made before because it had tuna. But it was still great!

And for the last dinner in Spain we went to a Cuban restaurant where we had amazing ropa vieja, sweet plantains (pictured below) and a few other dishes which I can't remember because of a rather strong mojito I had that night. After that dinner we all went back to our apartment to pack for our morning flight, and then while Radha went to bed, Anna and I went back to this restaurant for a great night of salsa! It's not vacation unless the Berman sisters go out salsa dancing at least once :)

What are some of YOUR favorite food vacation memories?

5/12/10

Carb-free Herb-y Vegetarian Lasagna

Before I tell you about this recipe, please keep in mind the photos were taken at 10 pm...so I know they are not perfect...

One more important note: I realize that this is technically not a carb-free recipe, as it contains black beans. But those carbs are good for you, right? Plus, you'll be getting quite a bit of fiber and protein. So in this case, carb-free refers to lack of pasta.
ok

In January, I joined a gym and hired a personal trainer. One of his rules for me is to avoid carbs after 6 pm five days a week. It's a hard rule to follow because I love potatoes, pasta and rice, but I've been doing pretty well so far (not that my scale or clothes have noticed it).

I came up with this recipe as a way to have lasagna without consuming noodles. The vegetarian part came accidentally: I just did not have any ground beef or chicken in my refrigerator.

Ingredients
1 cup parsley
2 garlic cloves
24 ounce cottage cheese (I used 2%)
1 egg
4 zucchini, thinly sliced
15.25 ounce can black beans, rinsed, drained
1 teaspoon olive oil
6 ounces fresh spinach
2 dashes red pepper flakes
28 ounce crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. In a food processor chop parsley and garlic.

3. Add cottage cheese and puree (if you want to buy Ricotta, you can skip this step).

4. Add an egg and puree till everything is incorporated.

5. Meanwhile, bake sliced zucchini for about 15 minutes, just to soften them up. Alternatively, if you have an outside grill, you can grill your zucchini slices.

6. In a medium skillet heat olive oil. Add spinach and red pepper flakes and saute till the spinach wilts (the photo below is of "before").

7. In an 8x8 Pyrex dish make the following layers:
crushed tomatoes
zucchini
cottage cheese mixture
black beans
crushed tomatoes
zucchini
cottage cheese mixture
spinach
crushed tomatoes
cottage cheese mixture
Parmesan

8. Bake for 45 minutes (it's best to set your Pyrex on a cookie sheet in case there is some spillage...it also makes it easier to take out the dish from the oven).

Let the lasagna stand for at least 15 minutes before cutting into it.

CONFESSION: the lasagna looked and smelled awesome! However, once I cut into it, there was a lot of liquid. I guess this could be due to the high water content of spinach and zucchini? What are your thoughts?

Still, I managed to take a few decent photos. And what matters the most, is that this is relatively healthy dish that tastes good.

This is just me playing around with the f stop on my camera to blur the background (a red vase, a bowl of lemons and a chair).

Do you have any suggestions for making this lasagna less watery? What are your favorite carb-free meals?

5/10/10

Holler for Challah Bread Pudding

I might have mentioned a few times that I'm Jewish, but don't follow Kosher laws and mostly enjoy the cultural aspects of Judaism as opposed to religious ones. One such aspect is challah. I absolutely love challah bread and have baked it several times: plain, with cranberries and orange zest and with Nutella. I've also made Challah French Toast and baked challah casserole with apples.

This past Friday, I decided to buy a loaf of challah at an outside market right by Union Station. At $3/loaf, this was a great deal. Unfortunately, the challah tasted on the stale-ish side. What to do? Make challah bread pudding of course!

Like many of the recipes I invent and post on this blog, this one includes the ingredients I had on hand. I combined a few things together and crossed my fingers that I'll like the final result. This is as much of living on an edge as I can handle ;)

Holler for Challah Bread Pudding

Ingredients

PAM spray
5 eggs
1/8 cup real maple syrup
2 teaspoon vanilla (I used the one I made at home)
3/4 cup half & half
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup dried cherries
1 challah loaf cut into 1 inch cubes

Directions

1. Spray a 12 inch muffin tin with PAM.

2. In a bowl whisk together eggs, maple syrup, vanilla and half & half.

3. Fold in chocolate chips, cherries and challah cubes. I found that using my hands was the best technique for it.

4. Fill each muffin cup with the mixture. Again, using my hands was the easiest way to do this as I was able to make sure that each mini bread pudding had an even amount of chocolate chips and cherries.

5. Cover the muffin tin with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. [If you wanted to, you could also bake it right away...the flavors just would not have time to mingle together.]

6. Preheat the oven to 375F and bake the challah bread pudding for 30 minutes.

7. Serve warm out of the oven with a drizzle of maple syrup.

Note: I had a really hard time removing each mini challah bread pudding from the muffin tin. Perhaps it would have been better to use butter instead of PAM.

This is a great make ahead brunch/breakfast dish. It took about 10 minutes to put it together: I'm sure you have 10 minutes!

Of course you can change this recipe by omitting chocolate chips (but why would you?), switching up dried cherries for cranberries or raisins and adding other flavors such as citrus zest or almond extract.

After baking these mini challah bread puddings, my apartment smelled sweet for hours!

5/8/10

What Healthy Foods are you Craving?

Earlier this week I asked my Twitter followers the following question: What healthy foods are you craving right now?

For me, it was watermelon. Below are some of the responses I received. (Yes, I realize none of the photographs really go with any of the answers, but those are the things I had on hand to photograph...and they are fresh and healthy.)

http://twitter.com/jennettinger Grapefruit. all. the. time.

http://twitter.com/floridagirlindc Clementines, strawberries, avocado

http://twitter.com/carriesita Caprese salad. Or spinach with garlic. Or clementines. yummm.

http://twitter.com/heylovedc avocado! Although now you've got me wanting watermelon too :)

http://twitter.com/umamigirl Love that question. Lobster, oysters, avocado with lemon, sometimes a big salad.

http://twitter.com/MichelleNoVaMag I'm craving a mango.

http://twitter.com/HealthyDelish I would kill for a peach

http://twitter.com/Kay819 I'm with you on the watermelon- I could easily eat a 1/4 of one in one sitting, haha

http://twitter.com/urbanbohemian I could go for some grapes and baby carrots right about now.

http://twitter.com/Shaw_Girl Strawberries!!!

http://twitter.com/bookbloom Strawberries. Especially this time of year.

http://twitter.com/SallySummerson Hummus, Smoothies/Fruit or Yogurt.

http://twitter.com/ElyssaK I often crave sauteed spinach w/garlic. Roasted veggies: esp. brussel sprouts and cauliflower. I love veggies!

What about you? What healthy foods are you craving at this moment? And if you are not following me on Twitter, you are missing out :) Sign up here.

PS For those of you who are reading this on Sunday, Happy Mother's Day!

5/6/10

Cold Black Bean Soup

It's getting hot in here, so ......... You know how the rest of the song goes.

When it gets hot, I tend to spend less time in the kitchen cooking, unless I'm testing recipes for Robyn Webb. Instead, I try to come up with quick, delicious and cooling recipes that will be filling, but not heavy, and would not increase the temperature in my little studio apartment.

Here's just such a recipe: Cold Black Bean Soup.

Ingredients
2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 large can of diced tomatoes (with juices)
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon toasted cumin seeds
2 cloves garlic
1 roasted chipotle pepper, seeds removed
1 cup liquid (water or vegetable broth or chicken broth)
salt & pepper

toppings
sour cream
fresh tomatoes
avocado
cilantro

Directions
1. In a food processor puree all of the soup ingredients. Chill.
2. Serve the soup topped with sour cream, halved cherry tomatoes, cubes of avocado and fresh cilantro.

You can eliminate some of the liquid from the soup and make it into a dip.

For other cold soup ideas check out Melon & Mango cold soup, Gazpacho, Pureed Beet Soup and Russian Cold Beet Soup with Cucumbers and Buttermilk.

What are your favorite cold soups? What do you cook when the weather gets hot?

5/4/10

$10 To Go Lunch @ Oya with Quinn

My original plan was to post a recipe for Black Bean soup today, but unfortunately I forgot my scribbles at home.

Luckily, last night I uploaded photos from my lunch at Oya with Quinn. (Read her post here)

Here's how this lunch came about: a few weeks ago I received an email from Oya advertising their new $10 to go lunch. I decided to try it out and invited Quinn, who unfortunately is leaving her job in DC and starting a new and exciting job in Baltimore).

I absolutely love the decor in Oya. Check out a few photos I snapped while waiting for our food to be prepared and packaged in white paper bags.

(look closely and you'll see my reflection in the mirror)

Here's the menu we had to pick from: choice of
Sushi or Entrée Salad or Sandwich
and Artisan Chips and choice of Sweet
$10 plus tax

SUSHI
includes seaweed salad & edamame and choice of sweet
choice of:
Spicy Crunchy Shrimp
Crispy Tuna
Rock N Roll

ENTRÉE SALADS & SANDWICHES
includes Artisan Chips and choice of sweet
choice of:
Apple, Endive and Grape Salad
Mai Thai Salad
Chicken Caesar Salad
Tomato and Grilled Bread Salad
Garden Sliders
Smoked Turkey and Brie Sandwich
Pulled Short Rib Sandwich
Teriyaki Salmon Sliders

SWEETS
choice of:
Banana Bread Pudding
Carrot Ginger Bars
Fresh Fruit & Granola Parfait

Both Quinn and I chose Pulled Short Rib Sandwiches. I opted for fresh fruit & granola parfait, while Quinn chose carrot ginger bar.

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to choose edamame or a seaweed salad instead of chips. I think Oya should rethink that policy :)

Since this was a to go lunch and the weather was hot and humid, I suggested we eat our sandwiches at the National Portrait Art Gallery, just a few steps away.

Also, the $10 + tax lunch did not include a beverage. I should have brought a bottle of water with me...instead I spent $3.59 on a bottle of pomegranate tea at the museum's cafe shop. Insane, right?

The sandwich was awesome. The ~~pork~~ beef was tender, flavorful and there was plenty of it. The only other component of the sandwich was cheese. I would not have said no to a few slices of tomatoes and lettuce, and maybe a pickle on the side, but it wasn't necessary. The bun seemed to be freshly baked and withstood the pork without turning soggy.

At first I was tempted to leave half of the sandwich for a late afternoon snack, but that did not happen.

My dessert was refreshing and on a healthy side. I especially liked pistachios and mandarin slices.

I'll definitely go back to Oya and try a few other items of their $10 to go menu.

5/2/10

Cooking from random ingredients: Butternut Squash Bake

I have different ways of coming up with recipes. Sometimes I get inspired by a meal out, or an ingredient on sale at my grocery store, or another blogger's post. This time, I had a butternut squash that was sitting on my kitchen counter for at least 3 weeks and a bunch of leftover ingredients from freelancing for Robyn Webb.

Plus, I now have two adorable mini turquoise Le Creuset pots! That's how Butternut Squash Bake came around.

Ingredients
1 butternut squash
olive oil
1 small sweet potato, peeled, boiled (or you can also roast it)
5 garlic cloves, roasted
3 jalapeno peppers, roasted, seeds removed, chopped finely
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons half & half
salt & pepper
more cheese for topping

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Cut the squash into 4 pieces, scoop out the seeds. Drizzle the inside of the squash with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for about an hour.

before

after

2. Cut off the top of the garlic bulb, drizzle with a bit of oil and wrap in aluminum foil. Also bake for about an hour.

3. Wash the jalapeno peppers, bake for about an hour.

4. Mash all ingredients together other than jalapeno peppers. Add finely chopped jalapeno peppers.

5. Add the mixture into greased mini Le Creuset pots (or bake in one dish). Top with a bit more of Parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes.

before

after

This is a perfect good-carb side full of fiber and vitamin A. You can actually eat it both cold or hot.

If eating cold, feel free to add fresh herbs and chopped tomatoes.

What have you all been cooking this weekend?

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