Green Smoothies Yum!

One cup spinach, 1.5 cups of soymilk with vanilla flavor, 1 teaspoon of flaxseed, 1/4 cup of OJ, and 1/2 a banana. Mix it up in the blender, and enjoy!

Taste @ Eatsie Boys

So, wanting to try a new eating experience for lunchtime and decided that I'd try the Eatsie Boys food truck in the parking lot. It was hard for me to choose from their menu. So I went with the Da Bomb (a marinated Vietnamese style sandwich with chicken, roasted jalapenos, cucumber, carrots, and cilantro). I liked it. It had a little bit of a kick. I liked how I could stop inside Agora. I grabbed a sparkling water and was able to sit on the patio.

It was a nice way to chill out during the day. Relax, eat good food, and work on my writing for bit. The Vietnamese sandwich's chicken was nicely spiced, the carrots were tasting, and the green hot sauce was very delish.

Definitely stop by for a new way of dining. All the food that the Eatsie Boys prepare is fresh and local, too.

Taste @ Jeannine's Bistro

I don't come here often, but when I do visit, the moules frites are delicious and the service is always polite and helpful. Compared to the wimpy and uninspired moules mariniere I had in Paris last month, Jeannine's are much, much better. (Sometimes, everything in Texas is bigger and better.)

Last weekend, I shared the salade au roquefort and the large order of the moules mariniere with the frites. This is definitely enough food for two people! The mussels are plump and have a savory soup stock with onions and celery. And, I like the mustard/mayonaise dipping sauce that come with the french fries. My boyfriend had the Kwak amber beer. It's very delicious and is served in this very interesting shaped glass. (It will remind you of high school chemistry lab!) I paired my mussels with a nice sweet and refreshing Riesling wine.

We had such an enjoyable meal we decided to splurge and share the pistachio ice cream for dessert. It was served in this huge goblet and had a separate container of chocolate sauce! It was so indulgent and delicious.

It was a nice casual meal and from the looks of the other smiling patrons there that night, good meals were had by all.

(photo courtesy of happykatie - flickr)

Tasteful Memory : Girl Scout Cookies

What is it about Girl Scout cookies that I love? First off, as a former Girl Scout myself, I feel a bond with these current scouts peddling their cookies outside of Kroger. I remember putting on my uniform (with a green beret) and walking around knocking on doors for cookies. I also remember earning my badge for selling 100 boxes. Thanks to the help of my mother who helped sell them at her work.

After doing TWO workouts yesterday (one was hot yoga and one was a three-mile run), I just felt spent and worn out. I put on my nightgown and decided to put two lemon chalet creme cookies on a small plate and poured myself a glass of milk. Yum, carbs, dairy and protein. I slowly ate my two cookies and enjoyed each bite.

It made for a great post-workout snack, and it was a nice reward for a physically demanding day. :)

January Foodie Projects

So, we just finished a lovely three day weekend of relaxing and bliss. On Monday, I was inspired by comfy foods. So, I decided to make some King Ranch Chicken and bake some cupcakes. On cold and wet days, there is just something so luxurious about preparing a nice casserole.
A warm and fresh casserole reminds me of potlucks growing up. My parents didn't make these at all, but I did enjoy eating them when my friends' mother baked them. My all-time favorite is the king ranch!

King Ranch Chicken is like a lasagna style chicken enchilada, and it is oh so tasty! It consists of corn tortillas dipped in broth, chicken breast broken up into pieces, cheese, and a creamy mixture of chicken broth, cream of mushroom soup, and rotel tomoatoes. You know that a KRC is done when you see the brown cheese and the crispiness of the corn tortillas. I prepped mine in a big pan, and I left it in the oven on low heat while Jacob and I went to yoga class. When we returned, the apartment smelled delicious. We ate ours with a nice side salad with blueberries and spinach. Sooooo yummmy! And, the nice thing about casseroles is that they can be shared. So, Jacob and I now have leftovers for the next few days. Hooray!

I prefer to use the classic King Ranch Chicken recipe. It is so simple and easy to make! If you want to go fancy, here is a recipe you can experiment with in the kitchen.

Later in the evening, I wanted to bake cupcakes. After being robbed at Sprinkles, I've decided that old school cupcakes are still the best! Duncan Hines all the way, baby. I made devil's food chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate frosting. And, inspired by a cupcake my co-worker made, I added crushed Reese's peanut butter cups on them. They were a huge hit with the beau, and I brough the rest to work today. It's always nice to ease into the work week with treats.

I'll have to experiment some more since I'll be hosting a cupcakes and crafts party soon!

Truffle Class -- Mmmm lots and lots of chocolate

Last night at Central Market Cooking School, I attended a Truffle Making Class. At first I scoffed at the $70 price for the class, but I feel that I got my money's worth from it since the price of 12 truffles can cost about $25 - $60! Luckily, we each got a handsome tin of about 65 truffles made with quality dark chocolate from the grocery store below and ganache for us to make a few more!

The class made the process seem a lot easier because there were no double broilers involved. There are special chemical qualities involved in chocolate that make it difficult to handle at times. First of all, we were told NOT to use chocolate chips. There is a particular chemical in chocolate chips that hold their shape and are difficult to melt because of it. The chips also do not have enough cocoa butter in them. So when they melt, the texture is lumpy. When making truffles, we were told to use baking squares of bittersweet chocolate like El Rey from Venezuela. At Central Market, you can actually state the dollar amount you want to spend and sample the chocolates. Mmmm! Since the heated heavy cream was used to melt the chocolate, it was a much easier process.

Truffles also take time. We were told to keep our ganache chilled for 2-3 hours! Luckily, the chefs made our ganaches ahead of time. Each chocolate and combination of ingredients are different. And, depending on how shallow your pan is or how the more ingredients that have to bond, the longer the substance will take to solidify! Different structures disrupt the crystal lattice structure thus slowing down the bonding process. Man, why wasn't chemistry class this much fun?

The chefs taught us to work with cold ganache. She just grabbed a small spoon, rolled the chocolate into a ball, and covered the ball with either coconuts, peanuts, hazelnuts or cocoa. The use of gloves is recommended since it makes things much easier and having another person with you makes it more fun too! I also enjoyed the combinations that they provided us: plain chocolate, chocolate with hazelnut, chocolate with caramel and salt, white chocolate,lime and coconut, and chocolate and banana. It seems like you can play with a lot of different mixes. So, it will be interesting what I end up with when I make some more!

I really hope that I can get to more cooking classes next year. And, what's great about cooking is that it becomes the gift that will keep on giving- to be shared with the beau, family, friends, and co-workers!

J'adore arborio rice!

My latest foodie project was resurrecting the aparagus risotto recipe I played with last summer. Hannah and I were in charge of Wednesday dinner two weeks ago. We decided to do an Italian theme. She offered to make one meat and one veggie lasagna. Jeff, our friend who just recently returned from South America, made Brazilian Cheese Puffs. And, I brought over a super easy salad and risotto to complement the meal.

The salad is very easy to make. The secret is putting in ingredients that people love. I used green leaf lettuce, yellow sweet cherry tomatoes, parmasean cheese, marinated artichokes, and avocados. The asparagus risotto recipe is based off of the Working Class Foodies segment they released last summer.

We had a bit of a snafu on the evening of our event! Hannah was running late on the lasagnas. So, people were snacking on the cheese puffs and we started a first course of salad, risotto, and these beef tonque tacos from Thuan's. By the time we finished this course, Hannah arrived with the main course. Overall, it was a tasty group dinner.