The risotto virgin

Risotto is one of those dishes that I've always been a bit intimidated by. I like either quick dishes that are just stir and go, or something that I can plop in the oven and walk away. Watch Jeopardy. Put my feet up until the reassuring oven ping.

However, on Thursday night after a storming eight mile treadmill run I had some leftover chicken and mushrooms that were begging to be used up. I was thinking of a quick mushroom stroganoff, but got a pretty lukewarm response from the boyfriend. Lord knows that no man has final say over my kitchen, but I do my best to please all the people all the time, and so I dug out the Arborio rice decided to scale the risotto mountain.

Ran into a small snag half way through cooking when I realized I didn't have enough chicken stock to complete the recipe. At this point it was do or die, so I was forced to improvise. Luckily , I remembered that I had a lot of chicken noodle soups tucked away in the cupboard, so I ran them through the sieve, and voila - a few cans later I had a sodiumy, but perfectly acceptable substitute.

A LOT of stirring later, and no butter (pat on back), we had our first household risotto:



Broke out the his and hers blue and pink bowls for the occasion. So cute!



VERY filling. Consider the risotto mountain conquered!

Movie snacks - to choc or not to choc?

You tasty little bastards.



So it turns out I have a new weakness. I've never been a real chocolate fiend, but I love, love, LOVE cookies, biscuits, desserts - anything with a crumbly, salty texture and taste. Enter the 'natural', 'healthy' Annie's cookies, which I have been guzzling like a demon.

I need to learn that just because you can buy something in Trader Joes, that is not a license to eat it in fistfuls. Or every time I go to the sink. Or in celebration of every time it's 5 minutes past the hour.

Mindful of this, I tried to neutralize a SMALL handful for a movie snack to see Where The Wild Things Are with a healthy farmers market plum.



Better a slobby, noisy snacker in the darkness than this guy.



PS. Absolutely loved Where the Wild Things Are. Deceptively simple and storybook, but gorgeous and thoughtful. Saw it in IMAX too, which was awesome.

The diet saboteur

What do you do when you're quietly munching on your salad, and your boyfriend is eating THIS in front of you?



For those of you who answered take a bite you are correct! Give yourselves a big round of applause!

Brownies and stirfy (in that order)

Last night's dinner was quick and simple. What do you do when you have buttloads of vegetables to use up and some chicken burning a whole in your fridge?

Quick and easy chicken stir fry with squash and zucchini! Light and delicious.



Served as usual with rice for the Carb Kid, and over salad for me.



Sometimes there is only room for one star in a meal. Last night, the star was dessert. NO PUDGE FUDGE BROWNIES!!



I've been DYING to try these ever since I picked up the mix at Trader Joe's. Every diet blogger I read has tried these at least once - they're low fat (only 110 cals per brownie) and super easy to make - just add vanilla low fat yoghurt and voila! I added an egg white to give them a more cakey texture.

Yummy mix going into the over. Not shown - me shamelessly licking the spoon, then licking the bowl, then calling Joe over to lick the bowl.



35 fragrant minutes later, my apartment smelled like brownies and the no pudge fun could begin!



I'm not much of a brownie expert, but these tasted damn fine to me - especially all warm and gooey straight out of the oven. Pretty fudgey and rich and minimizes the guilt factor - there's six still sitting in my kitchen and I'm not hating having them around, or averting my eyes every time I go in there. I may even have another after dinner tonight with some milk. Take THAT dessert cravings!

The Great Pumpkin!

Being a non-native, I am very easily thrilled by kitschy Americana traditions. My first trip to a pumpkin patch was definitely one of them (after 5 years in the US, how is this my first?)

First, a quick snack to fight off the temptation to munch my way through all the pumpkins like PacMan. My newest energy bar experiment went very well - very rich and chocolatey (almost makes up for the high calorie count)



Then it was off to the patch! Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!





There was even a petting zoo! The animals were a little put out when they realized we hadn't shelled out the $4 for grain to feed them. I feel your pain, buddies.





In the end, we picked out an excellent small, fat pumpkin. Joe and I both approved.





BE READY PUMPKIN!!!!! TONIGHT WE CARVE OUT YOUR GUTS FOR OUR AMUSEMENT!!! MUHAHAHAHA!!!!

Urban warrior

Today I listened to a This American Life podcast while shopping at my local farmers market. I'm so middle class!

Today's haul:



Including some fat, delicious sweet potatoes for the latkes I intend to make later this week:



Some strawberries and grapes to feed the insatiable breakfast monster:





And some squash and tomatoes which I'm going to mix up tonight with some chicken for a healthy stir fry (check out my beloved plums peeping out too):





Polished off the rest of yesterday's stew for lunch, and now we're off to the pumpkin patch! So excited!

The comfort (gravy) train rumbles on

Yesterday was one of the first truly chilly days of the season (well, chilly for Southern California). The winds were pretty intense, and drivers were slipping about all over the roads.

It was a great day to be tucked up inside watching Red Dwarf dvds with Joe and the cat. It was also a great day for stew.

I had some leftover beef cubes, and with a little research decided to pay homage to Julia Child with a quick and easy version of bouef boeurginon, but with marsala wine for a little added kick, and cutting down signficantly on the four hour cooking time.

Here it is simmering away and looking autumnal. I threw in some mushrooms and some diced carrots and onions, along with a chopped potato on Joe's request (cue plaintive cry, 'it's not stew without potato!')



My helping with a little piece of bread



Joe's helping with lots o' bread



The stew was thick, rich and very filling. It very nearly cured the dessert craving, although I ended up having a Jello low fat pudding AND a handful of Joe's chocolate popcorn, because, well sometimes I am an unknowable enigma.

Bon appetit Julia!

Comfort food

This blog is truly not intended to be too much of a personal project, at least not intentionally so. I've written personal blogs before, and always wanted to have a tighter focus. I'm self-contained by nature, and feel uncomfortable with too much blah blah me blah blah talk.

However, I don't think it breaks the rules to say that I have a lot on my mind at the moment. With work and personal worries aplenty flooding my thoughts today, I needed the ultimate comfort food.

Hence, it was grilled cheese day in Santa Monica.

This is a combo I've been dying to try since I brought home fresh deli carved chicken.

A thin spread of raspberry preserves



Add the righteous turkey and a few slice of brie (YUM!!!!)



Then about a quarter of a sliced farmer's market apple



Give it a whirl in the George Forman



And you have yourself some ooey gooey goodness. Eaten with my usual salad, and the rest of the apple. Fresh and delicious. The tastes blend just right, and it was the best lunch I've had all week!



One of the things I love about food is the concentration and satisfaction of putting something together and enjoying it. I used to avoid cooking because I hated the process of fussing over ingredients and pots and pans. I thought it was easier to have it all put together for me - now I can't stand the idea of not having a say in what I eat. I literally went to sleep planning this sandwich last night, and while that may seem sad to some, it really helped lighten my mood.

Every day, I love cooking a little more.

Things to do in a blackout

1) Curse SoCal Edison.

2) Light candles.

3) Take romantic candelight photos



4) Take romantic half head candlelight photos of self



5) Try to blind each other with flashlight



6) Take flashlight 'spotlight' photos of boyfriend



7) Thank the lord that you've already cooked and eaten your meal for the evening.



8) Realize how dependent you are on electricity, and slope off to the gym with a handful of cookies, you sadsack,

FINIT

Meals for one

Joe had plans last night to meet up with a friend at Denny's (Denny's? Seriously?), and I decided to use my rare meal for one status to indulge in one of my favorite things



Granted, I took the lazy route and bought frozen, but still a treat. Delicious chewy little bastards.

Decided to prepare a super simple meal (I have some grander plans for the rest of the packet a little later this week).

After defrosting, seasoned with loads of salt and pepper:



Then pan fried until yummy with cherry tomatoes, lots of garlic and a splash of white wine. Served with salad and drizzled with balsamic vinegar.



Truly delicious. Joe is not a big scallop fan, and I have missed these little guys. Next time, I may flex my Asian cooking skills and make pot stickers, but this shows that sometimes simple can be the best.

The Recessionista

The best part about cooking a creative dinner is reusing the leftovers the next day. It makes me a) responsible and thrifty and b) in line for a nice slice of dinner deja vu instead of my usual salad.

The pork and mushroom were delicious cold for a big badass sandwich. Add in a little salad (with my favourite new ingredient, raspberries) and one of the leftover sweet potato skins, and it was a very filling lunch. I enjoyed it with a big cold glass of water and yesterday's episode of Mad Men.



After a round of the 30 Day Shred this morning, I headed to the gym a little early for my kickboxing class this afternoon and knocked out a quick 3 mile run and 30 minutes on the elliptical.

Time for a quick snack..



Then it was time to punch and kick imaginary bad guys in class. I don't tend to do too many group activities, with the exception of long runs with the LA Leggers, I'm a bit of a solitary creature when I'm working out, and prefer to sweat and gasp in private - but the class is an amazing workout. If I'm feeling tired or have overrun my miles for the week, I'll sometimes phone it in, but this week I made an effort and kept on my toes for the full hour. I still don't enjoy being in a crowded, sweaty room full of people, but it's definitely a boost to my weekly workout.

Came back tired and gross and dove into half a banana which Joe had left for me. Onwards to dinner!

Gourmet night

When I went to bed last night, I vowed to stay there until I until a) hunger drove me out or b) the bed burst into flames.

Woke up at 10 in the middle of a confusing dream where I was re-enrolling at Oxford and moving back in with my roommate - at nearly 30. I forced myself to think calmer, happier thoughts and napped until midday, when cereal cravings forced me out.

After a quick lunch of scrambled eggs and a sprinkle of garlic chives, I made a quick trip to the gym for a 5 mile recovery run - not strictly needed after the 16 miler yesterday, but it felt great. I love running when it's easy and fluid like today. I felt like I could easily have run another 5 miles, but wanted to be careful and allow myself to recover. It's easy days like today that make me feel like an athlete. They almost make up for the painful, stumbly days when I'm forcing myself through it.

When I got home, it was time to try out a couple of recipes I've been excited about all week.

A few days ago, I added a brand new ingredient to the usual roster - pork tenderloin! Here it is nude. Try and avoid thinking about penises.

I was following the Napa Valley stuffed pork tenderloin recipe from one of my favorite new food blogs, with a few modifications, including rubbing with mustard before putting it in the oven.

Stuffed pre-oven:

Couldn't find any toothpicks to pin it together, so used fancypants wooden skewers. They worked great!

While the tenderloin cooked, I got busy on a yummy mushroom sauce to go with it. I mixed in some white and oyster mushrooms, and sauteed them with onion, wine, garlic and flour to thicken. Delicious!

Pre-wine:

Post-wine:

35 minutes later and the tenderloin was ready.

Carved

Continuing to pay homage to my sweet potato carby craving, I made sizzling sweet potato skins on the side (but forgot to take any photos of the process). This involved twice baking the potatoes - once to soften, scooping out the insides, blending with buttermilk and cinamon/paprika, then baking again for 15 minutes. We had them with sour cream and green onions.

The complete masterpiece:

This was my first truly ambitious meal in a few weeks (I've been sticking to some tried and tested recipes for a while) and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Not sure of the calorie count here (not completely sure that I want to know), but given that I didn't use any butter or oil (substituted with PAM), it didn't feel too sinful.

If I make it again, I may substitute plain potatoes for the sweet - it felt like the tastes clashed a little - but it was a great, truly satisfying meal that succeeded in quieting the marathon appetite for a whole night. No snack needed. Miracle!