Inspired: Red (Hong Yi)

Hong Yi, a Malaysian artist who goes by the nickname "Red", describes herself as an artist-architect who "likes to paint, but not with a paintbrush." Instead, she uses all sorts of found materials to create imaginative portraits and whimsical scenes. Her work has gained much acclaim recently on the Internet, in part due to her ability to capture well-known figures in creative and evocative mediums. She currently resides in Shanghai and works for an Australian architectural firm. Her most recent project, "31 Days of Creativity with Food," consisted of a daily art piece constructed solely from food on the backdrop of a white plate. These are few of my favorite pieces from her work:

Cucumber Landscape (made from one cucumber)

All You Need Is Love (cherry tomatoes, nori, soy sauce)

Giant Squid Attack! (squid and squid ink)

"The Wave" (nori, long grain rice)

Portrait of Jay Chou, in coffee

The making of the Jay Chou portrait

Go check out the rest of Red's work on her website (it's totally worth it!)

Plus she runs a great blog!

Gift Guide: Tasty

Cooking and I get along quite well (much more so than the dishes and I). I love experimenting and playing around with different flavors and foods and ways of cooking to see what I can come up with. As such, I get quite excited about kitchen stuff, and I had lots of fun putting this collection together. Here are some of my favorite kitchen and food finds around the web:

1. Hedgehog Measuring Cups, $36 2. Mini Ramekins, $3 each*  3. Deep Sea Diver Tea Infuser, $15  

4. Kebaya Mug, $12  5. Olive Wood Cheese Board, $24  6. Latte Bowls, $30
*I have a bunch of these and I LOVE them!

7. Adesso Carafe, $55 8. Bourbon Sugar Set, $40  9. Lindeman's Framboise Belgian Lambic, $5 

10. El Vergel Coffee, $13  11. Chemex Coffee Maker, $35-43 12. Foxy Tea Cozy, $16

13. Gourmet Salts, $18 14. DIY Mushroom Garden, $20 15. Williams and Sonoma Hot Chocolate, $20 

16. Roasted Garlic Olive Oil, $19 17. International Spice Blends, $15 18. Mango Key Lime Salsa, $15

19. Minimalist Nesting Bowls, $70 20. Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, $20 21. Cast Iron Tea Pot, $70 

22. Sprouted Kitchen Cookbook, $15  23. Creamer and Sugar Bowl, $34 24. Rain Cloud Linen Tea Towel, $17

Simple Supper: Guacamole Egg Cups

This is one of my favorite weeknight suppers- it's a super-simple vegetarian, gluten-free meal that's actually quite packed with protein and fiber. Plus it uses one of my favorite foods- Avocados!

Guacamole Egg Cups

serves two

Ingredients:

2 medium avocados

1-2 tomatoes

juice from half a lime

Garlic powder

Chili powder

Salt

Pepper

[optional] peppers of your choice

[optional] small purple onion

4 eggs

Sriracha or salsa of your choice

1. Dice the tomatoes into small cubes. (Do the same with any desired peppers and/or onion). Cut the avocados in half and scoop out the flesh, being careful to keep the outer rinds intact. 

2. Mash the avocados in a medium size bowl until only small chunks remain. Mix in the lime juice along with all the spices to taste. Add in the diced tomatoes (and onions and peppers). 

3. Scoop the avocado back into the rinds, dividing them evenly between the four rinds.

4. Poach the eggs. I'm pretty lazy and unsophisticated in my poaching technique, but this guide from Smitten Kitchen is great for anyone who's not so familiar with poaching.

5. Dry the poached eggs on a paper towel before placing one on top of each of your cups

6. Top each cup with Sriracha or salsa 

Eat and enjoy!

Photos and Recipe by Kara Haberstock

Supper: Quinoa Burgers with Spicy Pesto, Flatbread, and Baked Sweet Potato

Supper Level: Simple but Tasty (about 45 minute prep time)

This was Nate's favorite vegetarian meal yet, which isn't that surprising considering how protein-packed quinoa is. (Fun Fact for the Day: Quinoa is not a grain but rather a chenopod- related to spinach and beets) Anyways, according to Nate, this was the first meal I've made where he wasn't missing meat. I thought it was pretty delicious myself- and very filling. Quinoa is a major staple of my diet already, but this was a fun new way to cook it. And it's really pretty simple.

To make the Quinoa patties, I combined two different recipes. This recipe from Seven Spoons for Quinoa Patties looked pretty good, but required bread crumbs, which I did not have on hand and aren't particularly gluten-free (though you could make your own from gluten-free bread). This recipe from Roost for Lentil Cakes is one I've had bookmarked for quite a while, and it is gluten-free. So I thought I could split the difference and come up with something in the middle- and it worked!

Quinoa Burgers (adapted from Roost and Seven Spoons)

(makes 12 small patties, approximate prep time: 35 minutes)

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked quinoa*

1 tbs butter or oil (I use coconut oil)

1 leek, chopped into thin half-moons

1 quarter of an onion, chopped finely

2 cloves of garlic, minced (or two tsp garlic powder, if you're out of garlic like me)

2 eggs

1/2 cup of grated cheese**

Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 350.

2. Cook your quinoa (if you haven't already- this recipe totally works with leftover quinoa). 

3. Chop your veggies. Heat the butter/oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the leeks and onion to the skillet and saute until barely translucent. Add your garlic and cook for an extra minute or two (be careful not to let it burn). [If you're lazy like me and using garlic powder, don't put the powder in the pan- wait until you start mixing everything together.]

4. Put it all together! Put your quinoa in a medium-large mixing bowl and add in the leeks, onion, and garlic [or garlic powder]. Add your cheese and the eggs. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix together until well combined.

5. Grease a baking sheet. Scoop out a 1/4-1/3 of a cup (depending on how big you want your patties) of the quinoa mix using a measuring cup and press it onto the baking sheet to make a patty. 

6. Bake patties for 25 minutes in the oven until just golden brown. Let cool slightly before handling. 

 *Cooking Quinoa: I buy my quinoa at Trader Joe's and just follow the directions on the package- it's super easy. But, for those without a Trader Joe's nearby, you can also buy quinoa in bulk at Whole Foods for about the same price. To cook it in the microwave, add 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa in a microwave-safe dish and microwave on high (covered) for 4 minutes. Stop and stir. Microwave for 2 more minutes on high, then let stand for a couple minutes before fluffing it with a fork. Done! (6 minutes- told you it was easy!)

**Cheese: I used a mix of a parmesan-gouda melange and some goat's milk cheddar, which was delicious, but you could use just about any mix of hard cheese. You can add more than a 1/2 cup if you like; I just tend to go easy on the dairy.

Alternative Option: This would make an awesome quinoa salad- just leave out the eggs!
(Or fry the eggs and stick them on top)

I think I've mentioned before that I can be kinda lazy when I cook, and this recipe is one of those pretty obvious manifestations of this. I bought my pesto from Safeway and just spiced it up a bit. But if you want to make your own, I recommend this Basil Pesto recipe from Roost.

Spicy Pesto 

(makes just less than a cup of sauce, approximate prep time: 3 minutes)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of Pesto

2 oz. Chevre (goat cheese)

1/4 cup of Greek Yogurt

Sriracha Sauce

Mix the pesto, Chevre, and greek yogurt together and add Sriracha to taste. Done! 

Alternative Option: Instead of mixing the Sriracha into the pesto, just add a drizzle to straight to the burger

Flatbread

I used this recipe for yogurt flatbread from Love and Lemons. It's super easy, gluten-free, and delicious. I didn't have any spelt flour so I used brown rice flour instead and it turned out fine. The dough, however, is a little bit tricky to work with (it's really, really sticky). I ended up using a drop-in-the-pan-then-flatten method instead of actually rolling out the dough. As a result, my flatbread wasn't quite 5-inches in diameter, but it was still very tasty! (P.S. I highly recommend doubling the recipe, just in case you lose a little bit of dough due to stickiness.)

The Assembled Burger
(The flatbread is delicious!!!)

Baked Sweet Potato

(serves two, approximate prep time: 12 minutes)

This is also the lazy way to bake a sweet potato, but it works!

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato

Maple Syrup

Salt and Pepper

Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Allspice

1. Wash the sweet potato. Prick all over with a fork (or stab, if you like). Wrap in paper towel.

2. Microwave on high for eight minutes.

3. Remove from microwave and chop into 1-inch chunks. While chopping, the potato skin should slide of very easily. Discard skin. 

4. Mash potato chunks in a small bowl. Add maple syrup, salt pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice to taste. Done!

To round it all out, I'd recommend adding a nice spinach salad with some Balsamic vinegar, but I was fresh out of spinach (and too lazy to run to the grocery store). But either way, it was pretty delicious supper. 

It looks so tiny here, but after 2 burgers each + the potato, both of us were stuffed!

Oh, and if you're looking for more gluten-free recipes, Love and Lemons and Roost are both awesome places to find some!

Simple Suppers: Eggs!

I helped Nate move into a new apartment (that we may be sharing in 5 months) this weekend, and moving is hard work! Hence, all we wanted was quick and easy food. So here are our lazy, simple dinners from this weekend, both featuring eggs as the primary protein.

[Full Disclosure: I refuse to limit eggs to breakfast food. In fact, I probably eat more eggs for lunch and dinner than I do for breakfast. They're a quick, easy, and tasty way to add protein!]

Supper 1: Breakfast Burritos

Breakfast Burritos with Avocado, Red Onion, and Feta
Serves 3

Ingredients:
2 ripe Avocados
Half of a Lime
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Chili Powder
Salt and Pepper

Half of a Red Onion
Butter or Oil
6 Eggs
2 oz. Feta Cheese

Tortillas- The one pictured above is NOT gluten-free; however, I like Trader Joe's Brown Rice tortillas as a gluten-free option
(Optional) Sriracha Sauce, salsa, or other hot sauce of choice

1) Cut and mash the avocados into a paste (chunky or smooth according to your preference). Add in the juice from the half lime and add garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Set aside.

2) Chop red onion into small strips. Saute over medium heat in butter/oil until slightly translucent and brown on the edges.

3) Scramble the eggs in a large skillet and season to taste. [Tip: Using chopsticks creates really nice curds!]

4) Warm tortillas in skillet, one at a time. I used the same skillet I used to saute the onions. Just let each tortillas sit in the pan over medium heat for a couple seconds on each side.

5) Crumble feta in a small dish and set all the ingredients out! I let everyone assemble their own burrito because the process is pretty simple: Spread avocado mash on a warm tortilla, top with scrambled eggs, sauteed onion, feta cheese, and hot sauce. We used Sriracha sauce, but any salsa is tasty!

Done! This whole process should take no more than fifteen minutes-- perfect for the end of a long day.








Supper 2: Veggie Hash



Sweet Potato Hash
[Note: you can add just about any veggie to this hash and it will still be delicious. Recommended ingredients include bell peppers, asparagus, and brussel sprouts.]

Ingredients:
1 large Sweet Potato, chopped into small cubes
5 small Red Potatoes, chopped into small cubes
Half of a Yellow Onion, chopped
2 large carrots or about a dozen baby carrots, chopped
Oil of choice
Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper
2 eggs
Cheese of choice (I used goat's milk brie, but Fontina or Gruyere are also very tasty)

1) Chop potatoes and carrots.

2) Toss chopped potatoes and carrots in oil and season to taste (I usually just put a few good shakes of each spice in and toss until everything is well-coated). Add potatoes and carrots to large skillet over medium-high heat and cook until barely tender. This takes awhile- at least 20-25 minutes. Just check back every few minutes to turn them with a spatula.

3) Chop onion and set aside. Grate or chop cheese.

4) Once potatoes are barely tender when poked with a fork, add in the onions and stir. Cook for 5-10 more minutes until onions are translucent. Once the onions are cooked, add in the cheese and stir until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and divide onto two plates.

5) While the potato-onion-carrot mix is cooking, heat a small skillet to fry your eggs in. Fry eggs according to preference and place on top of the potato-onion-carrot mix on each plate

Done!
This recipe takes a bit longer than the breakfast burritos, but it's super easy and low maintenance. Perfect to cook while talking with friends.

Cooking Creatively

I have finally accepted that I am becoming one of those crazy-diet people. Not in the crash-diets, only-eat-cabbage-and-protein-shakes, scarily-unhealthy diets way, but in the I-can't-believe-you-don't-eat-that, how-do-you-survive kind of way.

Crazy-diet people used to scare me. Vegetarian- you mean you don't eat meat? Ever??? Vegan- no cheese? Gluten-free- I would DIE without bread!

But this crazy-diet-ness just slipped into my life slowly and quietly.

I discovered in high school that I have a dairy allergy. Feeling really terrible after every meal is not normal-- surprise! Soy milk (now rice milk) became my best friend as I begin to cut much of the dairy out of my diet. (Didn't completely cut out the mac'n'cheese though-- that stuff is delicious.)

In college I decided to try a raw food fast one fall. And I felt so good that I didn't bother to put meat back in my diet. My skin cleared up. I had more energy. And so I became a loose vegetarian (I cheat with sushi, and out of courtesy I will eat anything served to me at someone's house. After all, I do it for health benefits and not for any moral conviction, so I can be flexible.)

Now, I'm marrying someone with Crohn's. And after doing some research and talking a bit, Nate and I have decided to go gluten-free. The health benefits for Crohn's seem to definitely outweigh any inconvenience. 

So at this point I like to embrace the title of "free-etarian" bestowed on me by a dear friend. I'm a soon-to-be gluten-free almost-vegetarian who eats occasional fish, goat's milk products, some hard cheeses, and eggs for the protein. But as flexible as I am, I'm pretty sure I fall solidly in the crazy-diet category. However, my body is much happier now, so I'm pretty sure it's all worth it.

And, because our bodies are amazing things, I've found that our tastes can change quite dramatically over time. My favorite foods are now mushrooms, avocados, spinach, sweet potatoes, peaches, strawberries, bananas, chevre, and peanut butter. Probably in that order. My six-year-old self would be disgusted. But the healthier food I eat, the more healthy food I crave. As sugar has slowly been cut from my usual foods, I find myself wanting less and less of it. And it's gotten to the point that any meat besides a little fish makes me sick (it's something about not producing the proper enzymes to break down those sorts of proteins any more).

And I've also learned so much more about cooking. I would say I've always been a pretty good cook, but forcing myself out of the routine cuisine I grew up with has forced me to be much more daring and think outside the box. The result has been pretty fantastic so far. I mean, there are recipes I try where the general consensus is that such a thing should never ever be cooked again. But I've learned so much more about flavors and how to combine unexpected ingredients while cooking with fresh, in-season ingredients in a way that's not full of fats and sugars. My body is quite happy for all of this. It does take a bit more time and preparation, but I get more efficient as I go. And I can't wait to keep experimenting-- it's going to be good!

And since Nate and a few other friends have gotten on me to actually write down the recipes for what I make (I don't generally measure things when I cook), for the next few months I'm going to try to post at least one recipe a week. Some of them will be my renditions of recipes I've found around the Internet, and some of them will be my own creations. All of them will be gluten free, vegetarian, relatively healthy, and fairly easy to make (I'm lazy). So come back on Tuesdays for some healthy, easy food!

Supper: Baked Pasta with Roasted Peach Salad

Monday's supper was one of my first experimentations with going gluten-free. After doing some research, we've decided that going gluten-free could provide some worthwhile benefits for Nate's health. And supper turned out delicious (and healthy)!

I used this recipe for Baked Rigatoni with Brussel Sprouts, Figs, and Bleu Cheese, while making my own modifications.

Baked Fusili with Brussel Sprouts, Dates, and Gorgonzola
Ingredients
2 Tbs. olive oil or butter
8 ounces brown rice fusili (found at Trader Joe's)
1 pound Brussels sprouts, roughly chopped
4 ounces Gorgonzola or other bleu cheese, crumbled
1 cup medjool dates, chopped (I had some trouble finding figs, but dates are tasty!)
Salt
Black pepper
1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts, for garnish

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 400°.  Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it.
2. Add the pasta and cook it according to the directions (about 6-7 minutes)- be careful! Rice pasta is very easy to overcook. Drain, reserving some of the cooking water.
3. While the pasta is cooking, saute Brussel sprouts in medium skillet with a little bit of oil or butter. Add some garlic or onion powder if desired.   
4. Return pasta to pot and add the Brussel sprouts. Stir in the bleu cheese, figs, the 2 Tbs. oil, and a splash of the cooking water. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss, and taste and adjust the seasoning. Turn the pasta mixture into the prepared pan.
5. Bake, checking once or twice and adding a bit more of the cooking water if the pasta looks too dry, until the mixture is bubbling, about 20 minutes. Garnish with chopped walnuts and serve.

Recipe originally adapted from Mark Bittman's Food Matters Cookbook.
 

Roasted Peach Salad with Sweet Balsamic Dressing
(entirely my own creation)

Ingredients:

1 Peach
1 Tbs brown sugar

Several handfuls of Spinach

1 oz. Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
2 Tbs chopped toasted walnuts

Slice peach into about 12 slices and toss with brown sugar. Roast in oven safe pan at 400 for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Arrange spinach on each plate. Top with peach slices and crumbled Gorgonzola. Drizzles with dressing and serve.

Dressing:

2 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar

2 tsp Agave syrup or honey

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried basil

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine in small dish and mix well.

Hope you enjoy!


All photos by Kara Haberstock, all rights reserved

Recipe Roundup: A Five Minute Easy-peasy Treat (Orange-Coconut Yogurt Brulee)

The other day I made this super easy breakfast treat and it was delicious! I adapted this recipe from this brilliant post on Not Without Salt (an amazing food blog). All you need is a few simple ingredients:

Pin It

Orange-Coconut Yogurt Brulee

Ingredients:

Round Orange Slices
Greek Yogurt (as desired, enough to cover oranges- I prefer the plain stuff)
Coconut flakes (preferably toasted)
Granulated sugar

Place the orange slices in the bottom of a shallow dish or ramekin (four-inch ramkeins work great!). Sprinkle with some coconut flakes (if desired). Top with an even layer of greek yogurt. Top yogurt with a thin even coat of sugar. Now, if you have a brulee torch, use it to get that nice crust. If you're a poor college student like me, preheat your broiler. Once it's nice and hot, place your dish/ramekins in there for about 2-3 minutes until the sugar carmelizes on top to make that nice brulee crust. Don't leave them in there for too long. Take them out, top with more coconut flakes, and let them cool before enjoying your tasty treat!


I wish I had pictures for you, but I got so excited that I forgot to snap a few when they were done...oops!

Pin It