Seared Cod with Spring Veggies and Lemon-Mustard Vinaigrette

Soooo....over 2 years since my last post.  In that time, I've completed my 2nd and 3rd year of med school, I've taken the first part of my national board exams (with round two coming up next month), and I have been preparing to apply for a residency in pediatrics!  By this time next year, I'll be a doctor and starting the next leg of the journey.  Crazy how time flies!

I recently got the opportunity to try Blue Apron for free for 1 week.  Blue Apron is a service that sends you all the fresh materials you need to make delicious meals, right to your door in a refrigerated and insulated box, perfectly portioned and ready to cook.  It costs $60 per week and you receive 3 different meals, each of which serve 2 people, so that means I have lunch for the next day!  I figured I'd try it out since it was free, and why not fire up the blog again?

The first recipe I made was the Seared Cod with Spring Vegetables and Lemon-Mustard Vinaigrette.  You can see below how everything is portioned out so that you use all of what you're given and there is no waste.  All you need are pans, cooking utensils, salt & pepper, and olive oil.  Everything else is provided!

Each recipe comes with a detailed card that lists the ingredients you need, nutritional information, and directions with pictures on the back.

 The first step is prep!  I chopped up the asparagus, potatoes, radishes, and lemon.  I've never cut radishes before - they were actually kind of fun to slice!

Next I blanched the asparagus by boiling them for 2 minutes and then immediately transferring them to a bowl of ice water.  I then boiled the potatoes for 10 minutes while I worked on assembling the vinaigrette.

The vinaigrette consists of the juice of a lemon, 1 tbsp dijon mustard, and 2 tbsp minced shallots, all whisked together while adding 2 tbsp olive oil.  It smelled amazing!

Next up was the cod!  I patted the cod dry and seasoned with salt and pepper while heating up some oil in a pan on medium-high heat.  After searing the fillets on one side for 3 minutes, I added some of the butter and flipped them to cook for another 2 minutes.

While the cod was cooking, I assembled the veggies!  I put the radishes, asparagus, and potatoes in a bowl and added capers and tarragon.  I then poured the vinaigrette on top and mixed it.  It looked so fresh and colorful, and smelled wonderful!

Finally it was time to eat!  The vegetables were amazing, and this recipe is something I can definitely see myself making in the future.  Quick, easy, fresh, healthy, and tasty!  The cod tasted pretty good, but it would have been better with a sauce or marinade of some kind.  But the real star of the show was the veggies!  I saved half of the veggies in the fridge for tomorrow, and I'm hoping that the flavor will get even better.

My next meal is seared steak with mashed potatoes!  We'll see how that goes!

"Skinny" Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scones

Yet another Pinterest find!  I love finding exciting and delectable recipes for things, and it's an added bonus when they're healthy or "skinnified" (made with substitutions to lower the calories).  I had been wanting to try these scones for the longest time, and I finally made them the morning after my last exam of my first year of med school, right before my parents came to pick me up.  I dropped off half of them to my sister (who shares my love of Pinterest and recipe hunting) and the rest were for my mom, but we all ended up devouring them.  I made another batch last Friday and made sure to take pictures this time!

Warm chocolate chip scones fresh out of the oven

The original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup cold buttermilk *
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp chilled butter, diced
3/4 cup chocolate chips
cooking spray
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tbsp sugar

*if you don't want to buy a full quart of buttermilk just for one batch of scones, you can make a buttermilk substitute using milk and either vinegar or lemon juice.  Just put a tablespoon of either white vinegar or lemon juice in a cup measure, and fill up the rest of the measuring cup with the milk of your choice.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes, then measure out what you need.  The lemon and vinegar adds acidity and curdles the milk slightly, which is what buttermilk is!  I made my first batch slightly healthier by using skim milk and lemon juice, but I used buttermilk when I made them at home.  I didn't notice any difference in the taste or texture, so it obviously worked! :)

Wet and dry ingredients, about to be mixed!

Preheat your oven to 375 F and spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.  Combine the wet ingredients (the first four ingredients) in a bowl and whisk it together to dissolve the sugar.  Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl.  Cut the chilled butter into the flour mixture, using a pastry cutter or a fork, until you have pea-sized pieces of butter throughout.  Mix in the chocolate chips, then add the wet ingredients and mix just until everything is combined.

Flour your surface and your hands, and knead the dough four times.  Then place the dough on the baking sheet and form a circle 9 inches in diameter.  Cut the dough into 12 wedges.

Lightly beat the egg white and brush it over the dough.  Sprinkle the top with sugar.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, watching for the tops to turn golden brown.

While they're still hot, separate the scones from each other and place them on a cooling rack.  Enjoy the chocolatey goodness!! 

Cilantro Lime Chicken

If you are a fan of Chipotle burrito bowls (aka naked burritos), then you will LOVE this!  This is a great slowcooker meal that takes almost no time to prepare, and it made my apartment smell amazing!  Best of all, I know exactly what went into it!

Here is the original recipe.  I made it fresh, but you can prepare everything ahead of time and just freeze it in a large freezer bag, then thaw overnight and throw it in the crockpot!

Ingredients:

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Juice from 2 limes

1 bunch (pkg) fresh cilantro, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 16oz bag of frozen corn

1 16oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 red onion

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything into the crockpot and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.  I chose to prep in the morning and cook on low, but I found that 7 hours was plenty of time.  I also mixed everything around occasionally to let all of the chicken have a turn soaking up some flavor.  The lime, corn, and chicken produce quite a bit of liquid, so don't worry about the chicken getting dry.  When there was about an hour left, I shredded the chicken into large chunks.  I served it with some steamed brown rice (should have saved some cilantro and lime juice to kick up the rice!) but I'm sure this would be great with tortilla chips or however you like to eat Mexican food!  It's meant to serve 6, but I made it stretch to 8-9 servings because some of my chicken breasts were rather large!

I highly recommend this recipe!  I'm very excited about eating this throughout this hectic week of catching up on microbio! :)  Enjoy!

White Cheddar Spinach Turkey Burgers

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I also haven't tried out a new recipe since the ginger chicken last month. Immunology kinda took over my life for a while, but I'm back to cooking some healthy and delicious food!  Check out this mouth-watering burger:

It definitely tasted as good as it looked!  And by using 99% lean ground turkey, veggies, and just a bit of cheese, it's a very healthy alternative to a regular burger.  The original recipe (here) was for a chicken burger, but I had a bunch of turkey in my freezer, so I made the swap!  I tweaked some other parts of the recipe, too: the onions didn't look too good at the store, so I used a shallot instead, and left out the green onion and cayenne pepper.

Makes: 7 burgers

Ingredients:

1 pack (about 1.5 lbs) of 99% lean ground turkey

Fresh baby spinach (as much or as little as you like!)

1 large shallot, minced

1 large clove of garlic, minced

3 oz grated sharp white cheddar cheese

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp lemon juice

Bread crumbs (optional)

Parsley, salt, and pepper to taste

Mince the garlic and shallot and cook over low heat until browned and sweating (adding a little salt helps).  Add the spinach and cook until wilted.  Once the mixture is cooked, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool.  The original recipe recommends putting the mixture through a food processor, but I don't mind the larger chunks of the aromatics or full pieces of spinach (plus I don't have a food processor).  In a bowl, mix the turkey, cheese, vinegar, soy sauce, and lemon juice together.  Add the onion/garlic/spinach mixture once it's cool.  Add salt, pepper, and parsley to taste.  If the meat is sticking to your hands, add breadcrumbs until it is not sticky anymore.  I barely had to add any.  Form the mixture into 7 patties and broil for 8 minutes on each side or until cooked through.  To keep the meal healthy, serve on a whole wheat sandwich thin with some more fresh spinach!

It smelled wonderful!

I just made one burger and froze two raw patties for later, and I plan to use the rest for making meatballs, which are much more versatile and microwave-friendly for taking to school.  Should still be just as tasty! :)

Slow Cooker Ginger Chicken

I haven't posted in a while because the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind!  We got back to school on January 2, had 7 days of pathology lecture and workshops, then had our exam this past Friday!  The huge upside to having the exam on Friday is that we have a completely FREE weekend with nothing to study for!  We start Immunology tomorrow, and from what the upperclassmen say, it will be a handful. So I broke out my new Crock Pot for the first time, and I'll be eating for a week!

Ignore the thyme!!!! That's for another recipe...oops!

I chose a relatively simple recipe for the first use: Gingery Chicken from the Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook by America's Test Kitchen.  I plan on eating it throughout the week with brown rice or sweet potato.  I'm off to my friend's house for dinner tonight, but I tasted this and it is quite delicious!  No knife needed, the chicken just shreds!  The prep was easy, except for grating the ginger.  Ginger is a great flavor, but grating it is such a hassle!!

I changed the recipe a bit to make it healthier.  The original recipe calls for skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts, but I used boneless skinless.  I also used olive oil instead of canola oil.

Onion, ginger, garlic

Ingredients:
5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts*
Olive oil
1/2 large onion, minced (or 1 med-small onion)
3 tbs ginger, grated
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbs sugar
3 tbs low-sodium soy sauce

*(The chicken breasts I had were huge, so I cut them in half horizontally.  This also allowed them to cook through faster.)

Season the chicken with salt and pepper.  Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet, and brown the chicken breasts.  Remove them from the pan and place them on a plate to the side.  Add the onion, ginger, and garlic to the pan and saute until the onion is translucent (this mixture smells amazing!!).  Add the flour, mixing for about a minute.  Slowly add the chicken broth while stirring, and you'll be left with a thick mixture.  Add this to the slow cooker, then stir in the sugar and soy sauce.  Place the chicken in the slow cooker, and set it on low for 4 hours.  Mix everything around every hour so that each piece of chicken has time in the sauce.  Serve!

Also, I started a little project on New Years Day - a picture a day!  I've been documenting it on a separate blog: 2013-365.  I usually try to post something interesting or unique about each day, considering much of my time is spent in class and studying, so hopefully I can keep that up!! :)

OMG CHICKEN!

Chicken is easy to make, but it gets boring quickly.  I have a ton of chicken recipes pinned on Pinterest and several packs of chicken sitting in my freezer, so I need to start actually making these recipes!  Some pinner called this "OMG chicken," but it's just a much healthier version of Hellman's Parmesan crusted chicken, using fat free plain Greek yogurt instead of the mayo.  While the chicken cooked, I made a quick veggie stir-fry with mushrooms, yellow squash, orange bell pepper, and grape tomatoes.  Yum!

Did you know that a serving of chicken is about the size of a deck of cards and weighs 3-4oz?  I usually cut chicken breasts in half (butterflying them like this, but cutting the whole way through to make 2 pieces).  I'm still left with more than a serving of chicken (4-6oz depending on the size), but it's a lot more manageable and cooks more evenly.


Here's the easy recipe for "OMG Chicken"!

Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, each butterflied in half
1/2 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Sprinkle of Italian breadcrumbs

Mix the yogurt and cheese together and slather the mixture over the chicken.  Sprinkle some breadcrumbs over the top and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  How easy was that?

Moroccan Chicken Soup

I first made this soup a couple summers ago, and since then I've made it a few times for my family.  It is easy to make (takes about 15 minutes) and is very hearty and filling.  The recipe is from the Best Simple Recipes cookbook by America's Test Kitchen, one of my first cookbooks!  It calls for garam masala, an Indian blend of spices, made up of black pepper, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and cardamom, among other spices.  Most of these spices are also abundantly used in Moroccan cooking, so I think the recipe calls for using the Indian spice in order to simplify the recipe.  I like that it's mild (I'm a wuss when it comes to spicy things) and it gives the soup a flavor very similar to what I tasted in Morocco. (see the end of this post for some of my pictures from Morocco!)

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
1 teaspoon garam masala
5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 14.5oz can of diced tomatos (we use the no salt added version)
2 15.5oz cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 zucchini, cut into half moons
1/2 cup plain couscous
1 rotisserie chicken
Salt and pepper to taste

Using a rotisserie chicken makes the whole process a lot faster, but making the chicken will work just as well.  Discard the skin and shred the chicken into bite size pieces.  You'll only need about 3 cups of chicken for the soup.

In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, cook onion in ~1 tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat until translucent and lightly browned (takes about 5 minutes).  Add the garam masala and stir, cooking for another 30 seconds.  Add the broth and tomatoes and bring to a simmer.  Add the chickpeas, zucchini, and couscous, cover the pot, and cook for about 8 minutes.  Uncover, stir in about 3 cups of the chicken, and add salt and pepper to taste.  Let it simmer for a few minutes so the chicken can absorb the flavors, then serve with some crusty bread!

Morocco 

Morocco was the last port on my voyage on Semester at Sea, the study abroad program I did in the summer of 2010.  We docked in Casablanca and a group of us took a day trip to Marrakech, which was amazing!!  I had so many amazing dishes throughout the summer, but one of the best was a lamb dish with couscous, chickpeas, vegetables, and stewed dates.  Check it out:

 Soooo delicious.  I may or may not have had more than two helpings... :)

 And this is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip, in a garden in Marrakech:

Carols, Chips, and Chanting!

Like the alliteration?  So do I.

I was rather productive today!  Unfortunately not in the realm of academics, but that's what Sundays are for!!

Earlier this afternoon, my acapella group sang Christmas carols in the Pittsburgh Strip at the Pittsburgh Public Market.  I caught an early bus, and since it was such a nice day (50 degrees and sunny!), I got off about a mile early and walked to the market.  The Strip is such a happening place on weekends, full of people and shops (and wonderful smells!) so I highly enjoyed that little walk.  Finally we all met up, warmed up, and sang our little set list to the market.  People loved it!

Afterwards, I walked around the market.  It's quite small, nothing like the Central Market at home, but there were lots of little vendors selling handmade jewelry, treats, produce, and other fun things.  I sampled some maple bacon coffee, and it was surprisingly good!  Mostly maple flavored with a hint of smokiness.  A bunch of us hovered around a vendor selling different types of jams, so I sampled some, and they were delicious!  Especially the ones made with wine and beer :)  I walked around and enjoyed the colors, "appreciated" (as Dr. Schumann would say) the tempting baked goods, and went on my way home.

Once home, I had a couple hours to kill before my next engagement, so I decided to try out a recipe I had been wanting to do for a while - baked potato chips!  I had a regular potato and a sweet potato, so I tried out both.  I don't normally eat potato chips, but these were so good that I don't think I'll ever eat commercially produced chips again!

Let's all just appreciate the thinness of these slices, shall we? :)

What you need:
Potatoes
Water
Olive Oil
Good knife skills or a mandoline
Optional: Salt/Pepper/whatever you want to season them with

Preheat oven to 400F.  Slice the potatoes to desired thickness.  The thinner you cut them, the crispier they get.  I don't own a mandoline, so I just tried cutting them the thinnest I could possibly manage, which ended up being about 1/8 inch.  If you're using regular potatoes, soak them in water for about 10 minutes to release some of the starch.  Sweet potatoes don't have to be soaked.  Put all the slices in a bowl, then drizzle with olive oil and use your hands to make sure each slice has some oil on it.  No need for a lot of oil! I probably used about 1/2 tbsp over 2 potatoes, just enough to make sure each slice had seen some oil.

Lay them out on a foil-lined baking sheet in a single layer, and sprinkle with whatever spices you want.  I used a bit of salt and freshly ground pepper.  Stick them in the oven and set a timer for 12-15 minutes, depending on the size of your slices.  The smaller and thinner pieces will obviously cook faster, so you don't want those burning while the bigger ones are still cooking.  Take the tray out and remove the chips that are done, then let the larger/thicker pieces cook for another 5-8 minutes.  My large pieces took about 20 minutes total, but yours may vary.  Remove them from the baking sheet, let cool, and enjoy! (Or you can enjoy them hot, they're really good that way too!)

I'll be taking the chips to school tomorrow so some of my friends (*cough*guineapigs*cough*) can taste them and see if they're still tasty a day later.  We'll be practicing doing physical exams on each other since we have to do our first full exam on a standardized patient this week.  At the very least, the chips will let us hear bowel sounds!  (Sorry, that might have been too much info for the general public...)

Today is December 1, and that means it's World AIDS Day, a day to bring awareness to HIV and AIDS.  (Pittsburgh)Red, the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, Pitt's graduate school association, and many more organizations came together tonight for a rally and march down Forbes Ave.  There was a rally at Carnegie Mellon with several speakers, including Pittsburgh's mayor, then everyone marched down Forbes Ave with candles to Pitt's campus, where there was free food, free HIV testing, and a bunch of organizations (PittMed LGBTPAM, Planned Parenthood, Rainbow Alliance, ONE, etc) tabling with information.  I had volunteered to help out on Pitt's side with food, so I was unable to take part in the march, but it was amazing seeing the 100+ participants walking down Forbes.  The music and food brought in a lot of people that were just passing by, so I thought it was really successful!

Healthy Appetizers for your Nomming Pleasure!

Today was an excellent day!  Slept in until 10, attended a laparoscopic surgery skills workshop (starting to get more and more interested in surgery!), taught some high schoolers about how the heart works while walking them through a dissection of a sheep heart, and caught up on the lectures that I missed this morning!  I'm still trying to figure out my groove, but this seemed to work out well.  Sleeping in is always a plus!

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I would post about my Thanksgiving recipes.  2/3 of the things I made came from recipes I found on Pinterest!  (of course!)

Unfortunately we didn't take pictures of the stuffing (what were we thinking?! we always document!) but I made a basic, but delicious, sourdough stuffing that my sister had previously made.  You can find the recipe here.  We left out the mushrooms (and the 2 tbsp of butter that would have been used to cook them) because my brother is allergic to mushrooms.  But with my sister's mushroom gravy on top, it was perfection!  One serving made just enough for 7 adults and 2 kiddos.

Now on to what we DID document, because recipes aren't complete without drool-worthy pictures!

Low-Fat Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Everyone loves spinach-artichoke dip, right?  Too bad that restaurants make it with so much oil and cream and cheese (and cream cheese) that the nutrition info is downright scary!  This recipe uses fat-free Greek yogurt, low-fat cream cheese, and very little Parmesan cheese, but tastes every bit as good as the restaurant stuff!  

 Original recipe here.  I tweaked it just a bit.

Ingredients:
Olive oil or regular cooking spray (PAM)
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic (or more if you like garlic)
9 oz fresh or frozen spinach
12 oz artichoke hearts
8 oz low-fat cream cheese
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
3 tbsp low-fat Parmesan cheese, grated
1 tbsp chives
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
12" round bread loaf

Dice onion and mince garlic.  Spray cooking spray on a nonstick or cast iron pan and add onion.  Saute onion until translucent and add garlic.  Saute mixture for about a minute, then add spinach.  If using frozen spinach, be sure to squeeze out any excess liquid before adding it to the pan and cooking for about 2 minutes.  If using fresh spinach, cook until it is just wilted.  Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.

If you're going to be serving the dip right away, preheat the oven to 350F.  If you have a food processer, use that for the following steps.  We just had a small mini-prep processer so we had to do a couple batches.  Put the artichoke hearts and the cooled spinach-onion-garlic mixture into the food processor and chop until you reach desired consistency (some people like chunky dip!).  Add the cream cheese and Greek yogurt, and whirl together.  This can also just be done in a bowl.  Add the cheese, chives, and pepper, and mix.

Hollow out your bread and spoon the mixture in.  Don't throw away the bread innards!  Chop them up and place them on a baking sheet along with the bread bowl and bake for 20 minutes.  The mixture can also be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge until you're ready to add it to the bread and bake.  Time to enjoy!

Roasted Honey-Lime Shrimp...or not?

I love shrimp!  It's probably my favorite seafood, and it's always delicious.  I found this recipe and just had to try it!  Except technically, I haven't actually tried it, because...I forgot to add the honey to the marinade.  I realized it the second we were taking them out of the oven.  The upside is that they still tasted amazing!  So I guess there are two recipes in this...leave out the honey for some tangy Lime Shrimp!

Original recipe here.  The recipe serves 2 people with 1/2 pound of large shrimp.  We had 7 adults and 2 kids, so we quadrupled the shrimp and used more garlic, but kept everything else pretty much the same.  There was no need to quadruple the olive oil or lime juice - there was plenty of marinade to go around, and the shrimp was definitely not lacking in lime flavor!

Ingredients:

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp honey (apparently optional!)

juice of one small lime

zest of one small lime

2 cloves garlic (or more!)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Combine the marinade in a large plastic bag.  Add the shrimp and let it marinate in the fridge for 30-60 minutes (don't do much longer, because the acid in the lime will start to cook the shrimp).  You can cook them in a pan, but it would have taken forever to do that with 2 lbs of shrimp, so we roasted them and it was super quick and easy (and easy cleanup!).  Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a pan with foil and spread the shrimp out in one layer.  Roast for about 8-10 minutes, watching them closely near the end to see when they turn pink.  Serve and enjoy!

UPDATE:  I've made this shrimp two more times, both times with the honey, and it's really good!

And just to close it out, here's a pic of our turkey.  Nom!!!

Study break munchies

Original Recipe: Baked Spiced Chickpeas

I have a minor obsession with Pinterest, mainly the food & drink category.  My board of "Recipes I Want to Try" is nearing 50 pins, so I should probably start working on actually trying them instead of just drooling over their pictures!

I chose to make the baked spiced chickpeas because I've been looking for a healthy, nutritious snack food to satisfy the munchies I get when I study.  I NEED something crunchy (I think I get that from my mom and her need for something crunchy on long car rides!)  Carrots and apples only go so far, and I usually crave something salty/savory anyway.  These take very little time to make, and not only do they taste great, they have a lot of protein and fiber!

I linked to the original recipe at the top of the post, but I made a slight alteration in the recipe by leaving out the cayenne pepper and using less sugar and oil.  I also only used 1 can of beans, because I've only used my oven twice and I wanted a backup can in case I burned these!

Ingredients:
2 cans chickpeas
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp spice mix

Spice mix:
1 tsp sugar
1-1/2 tsp ground cumin
1-1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt

Drying the chickpeas

Ready to be baked to a crisp!!

Looking toasty and delicious!

Rinse the chickpeas and lay them out on a towel to dry, and make the spice mix while they are drying.  Set the oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and non-stick spray.  In a small bowl, mix the chickpeas, olive oil, and 3 tsp of the spice mix (save the rest of the mix for use later - it smells amazing!!).  Put them in the oven for 40-60 minutes, or until they are firm and crunchy!  I set a timer for 20 minute intervals and mixed them around a bit each time.  It took 40 minutes in my oven, but different ovens may vary!  I used the skins turning black as my cue to take them out.  They will get crunchier as they cool.

Enjoy!

Refrigerator Oatmeal

I like to sleep.  I'm one of those people who rolls out of bed with JUST enough time to get ready and run out the door.  It was great last year when it took me a whopping 5 minutes to walk to my first class, but now that I have to walk a couple blocks and wait for the bus to take me to school, so I find myself having to wake up over an hour before class starts (I know, I know...the horror!!).  Since I try to maximize on sleep, I would always just grab a breakfast bar and run out the door, only to be starving an hour later.  I needed a filling meal that I could grab and go!

Over the summer I discovered this refrigerator oatmeal (also called summer porridge, muesli) from the blog The Yummy Life.  It's AMAZING.  The author concocted recipes using different fruits, and the results are nutritious, delicious, and more than enough to get me from 8am to lunch.

The author just came out with 8 new recipes, so I went out to buy some ingredients to make the "Cherry Garcia" oatmeal.  It did not disappoint!

All the fixings for a delicious and nutritious breakfast!!

 What you need:

• 1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/4 cup fat free Greek yogurt (the black cherry works perfectly with this one!)
• 1/3 cup fat free milk
• 1-1/2 tsp dried chia seed (or flax seed)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Lots of cherries, quartered
• Dark chocolate - use as much as you desire, I used half a serving of Hershey's Special Dark (about 1/6 of a big bar) and it was more than enough chocolate!

Look at all those cherries!

 Throw everything but the cherries into a mason jar or other sealable, portable container.  Mix with a spoon, then add the cherries.  I like to stuff it with fruit so it almost fills up the whole jar.

All mixed, ready for the fridge!

Once it's all mixed, put it in the fridge and let it sit at least overnight so the oatmeal and chia seeds can soften.  It will be ready by morning, and you'll be enjoying Cherry Garcia for breakfast!  Once I'm out of cherries, I'll experiment with the other recipes.  I'm looking forward to the mocha and the pineapple coconut.  Out of the old flavors, I have made the Mango, Banana Chocolate, and Raspberry Vanilla, and I recommend them all!

A note about the chia seeds - they're not a necessity (I made my first batch of oatmeal without them) but I think they add a nice texture, plus they're nutritious.  You can apparently use flax seeds as an alternative, or leave them out.  If you do leave them out, be sure to use less liquid, as the chia seeds absorb some of the liquid.

Enjoy!

Italian dinner

Yesterday, I made dinner for Father's Day. On the menu:
Appetizer: Avocado bruschetta and kalamata olive bruschetta on toasted French baguette.
Main course: Lean turkey meatballs, portabella mushrooms, and yellow squash with homemade marinara sauce over whole wheat pasta and sauteed green beans.
My mom supplied the dessert: Raspberry, lemon, and pineapple passionfruit sorbet.

I recently stumbled across a food blog run by two 3rd year medical students called Braised Anatomy. Both the bruschetta and marinara sauce came from this blog, but I'll reproduce the recipes here with my minor alterations. Definitely check out their blog for more great recipes!

Bruschetta [Adapted from Braised Anatomy]

Avocado bruschetta and kalamata olive bruschetta

I was only making dinner for 3 people, so I had to reduce the original recipe.  We also didn't have mint, which was called for in the original.  The bruschettas are exactly the same except for the avocado or olive option.  A double of this recipe (1 of each kind of bruschetta) is enough for 3 people to have 4 pieces of bread + bruschetta each.

• 1/2 avocado, diced OR 1 cup kalamata olives, diced
• 1 cup plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup minced fresh basil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Mix it all together and let it sit in the fridge for a while so everything soaks up the flavors.  Serve on toasted French baguette!

Marinara Sauce [Also adapted from Braised Anatomy]

Simple marinara sauce

This sauce is extremely simple and so delicious!  Definitely going to be using this from now on instead of stuff from a jar or just plain diced tomatoes.

• 4, 14.5-oz cans of diced tomatoes with no salt added
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 5-7 cloves of garlic, minced (we love garlic!!)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• ~1/4 cup minced basil
• palmful of dried oregano
• pepper to taste

In a dutch oven or saucepan, heat the oil and saute the garlic on medium-high heat.  Add the rest of the ingredients, stir, and bring to a boil.  Then reduce the heat to low or warm and simmer for 30+ minutes (I think we had it simmering for about 45 minutes).  Freeze any excess for later use!

Lean Turkey Meatballs

Raw meatballs ready to be browned!

These are my own recipe, and I usually just eyeball the spices and ingredients depending on what I have and who I'm cooking for.  Since I was cooking for my parents, I left out the crushed red pepper flakes that I usually add, but I really didn't miss them!  These meatballs are super healthy (much leaner than beef) and come out juicy and flavorful despite lack of fat.

• 21-oz package of the leanest possible ground turkey breast (99% fat free)
• 1 large egg
• 1 slice of bread (I used FiberOne 100% whole wheat bread, but use whatever you have on hand)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• splash of skim milk
• about a palmful of dried oregano, a palmful of fresh basil, several grates of black peppercorn, and a pinch of salt - vary these amounts or add other spices depending on your taste!

Crumble the bread and mix everything together.  If it is too sticky (probably will be), add some milk.  This recipe will make exactly 12 meatballs if you use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to measure them.  Bring a pan with olive oil to medium heat.  The minuscule fat content of the meatballs causes them to annoyingly stick to a stainless steel pan, so if you're not using a non-stick pan, use a lot of oil or be prepared to scrape turkey bits off the bottom.  Once the meatballs are browned on all sides, add the marinara sauce and whatever veggies you want - we did mushrooms and yellow squash.  Cover and simmer on low or warm until the meatballs are cooked (start making your pasta!).

Top it all off with some grated parmesan cheese!  My favorite!

Hope that was a good first post, here's to many more!