Vegetarian Chick'n Salad

Are you ever confused when/why vegetarians title a non-meat food item a meat title? I certainly was, however I realize since vegetarianism is still not widely popular, certain tastes and textures for food are best described with a meat title. For example I don't love this chicken salad because it tastes like chicken, however I do enjoy the chicken-like TEXTURE in the Gardein Chick'n used in this recipe. The meat titles are a matter of texture and presentation for me.

Vegetarian Chicken Salad
Source: Adapted from Food Network Magazine, September 2011 Issue
Serves 3

Ingredients
1 2-pack of Gardein Chick'n Tuscan Breasts *without the sauce*
2 stalks celery, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
1/4 onion, diced
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/2 teaspoon all seasons salt
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
pinch paprika
Freshly ground pepper
Whole Wheat Wrap
Lettuce (for topping) SS: Tomato would go well also, but I don't like tomatoes on my sandwiches

Directions
1. Combine the chick'n, celery, carrot, red onion, mayonnaise, mustard, all seasons salt, granulated farlic, paprika and 1 teaspoon pepper in a bowl. Mix until combined.
2. Serve the chick'n salad on a wrap with lettuce.

I vegetarianized this recipe, originally it was meant for 1 cup of rotisserie chicken, so feel free to adapt if you eat meat! Serve this with nuts, chips, or pickles - your favorite sandwich accompaniment. Make this vegan by substituting regular mayo with vegan mayo.

6 Weeks

Holy smokes folks! My maternity leave is up and today is my first day back at work. While I have a ton of email to catch up on, I have a ton of updates about my little bear! First, I think I missed out on one of many firsts: rolling over. I'm so upset that I missed this, and that I'm not sure whether or not I missed it. I woke up yesterday morning, and laid her down on her belly for "belly time" in the center of her playmat. I turned around for about 10 seconds to grab something from my bathroom and when I looked back at Naja, she was on her back and halfway off the mat! I was confused when I first saw her. I thought to myself: Did I put you this far away off the mat? Did I put you on your back? WTH, did you just ROLL OVER?!?!? What just happened!?!?!?

I then did what any parent would do - I put her back on her belly hoping to see this great "roll over" feat again. To my dismay, she did not roll over again, instead, she hung out on her belly, lifting her head until she was ready to do something else. Totally the pits!

Another thing - Naja is FASCINATED with my hair. She started focusing in on things (with her eyes) last week. You can tell she really is looking at you now! Well, she seems to stare look at my hair more than my face. I know this because when I move, she moves, but she's not looking at my face. She only does this with me, and it's hilarious. If I had to caption her facial expression when observing, it would be something like:

"What is that on your head? That's different...haven't seen that look on anyone else...seriously, that is SOOOO interesting..."

Naja is learning more and starting to interact more with everyone, and I'm loving the growth! It's crazy how quickly they change from week to week at this age. What an amazing thing to watch.

Banana Bread

Those of you who know me know that I like to eat tasty, healthy food. I'll also indulge myself with something delicious with little to no nutritional value on occasion also. Regardless, taste is very important to me! This banana bread is tasty and very, very nutritious - I was SHOCKED! I've made other healthy sweets that didn't make it to the blog because I didn't like it, thus I simply wouldn't suggest for anyone else to make it. However, this banana bread is packed with nutrition and taste. Give it a stab before you look at the ingredients and say "HECK NAW!"

Banana Bread
Source: Adapted from never(home)maker
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients
5 tablespoons butter, softened (or 1/3 cup Earth Balance), plus more for greasing pan
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 banana
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup almond milk
1 heaping tablespoon peanut butter
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup garbanzo beans
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 handfuls chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Then, lightly grease a bread pan. 
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and maple syrup. A couple of minutes should do.
3. Then add in the vanilla, almond milk, garbanzos, peanut butter, and banana. Mix on high with the flat beater attachment until everything is smooth - 5 to 7 minutes.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the wheat flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix until well moistened.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips.
7. Pour the mix inside.
8. Bake for 30 minutes, then check for done-ness. Then add another 10 minutes to the bake cycle and keep an eye on the bread so it doesn't over-bake.
9. Bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Say WHAT? Whole wheat flour, no sugar AND GARBANZO BEANS!?!?! Yes, yes and yes! Surprisingly the garbanzo beans only change the texture, and I really like what they did. This can easily be veganized by substiuting butter with Earth Balance.

I've made this twice since discovering it. I would suggest that you ONLY make this if you have an electric mixer...or super strong arms, but preferably the former. Additionally, I found I got the best texture with the beans using the flat beater instead of the wire one. I tried both, so trust me on this one. I'd love to hear if any of you make this, please let me know what you think!

Nurse the Baby

I decided I wanted to nurse Naja as soon as I knew I was expecting. Naturally, I thought nursing would be easy. I thought my child would latch on to my breast like it was second nature, and the milk would flow like a faucet...while some of my assumptions were accurate (ex. faucet flow), others weren't. Below are some speed bumps I ran into with nursing my baby.

1. WTH - my child is slightly jaundice, won't wake up, and I'm having problems with her latching! When Naja was firstborn, the nurse tested her for jaundice, but found her to be negative for it. Naja was EXTREMELY sleepy during the first week. The child would not wake up! One week later her doctor informed me that she probably was slightly jaundice. One way to tell if a newborn is jaundice, is to observe the skin and check if it's slightly yellow. While the nurse did check her for it, I guess she missed the yellow on my baby's brown skin. Anyway, because she was jaundice, she was sleepy and didn't wake up often. Since she didn't wake up, she didn't eat much. Therefore, she lost a lot of weight in the hospital (more than normal). Finally, since she barely had any food in her system, she didn't have the energy to latch on (take my breast). Thus, I was waking a sleepy, but hungry baby every two hours,  feeding her my milk through a syringe with my finger, and pumping afterwards to make sure I had some milk for the next feeding AND to protect my milk supply. I was a VERY TIRED mommy the first week! Thankfully, Naja took a liking to my breast when she was 4 days old, and all of the above issues resolved themselves shortly after!
2. So nursing hurts, and Lanolin will be your BFF. My nipples were very sore the first 2-3 weeks of nursing. The best analogy I can provide is one of musicians who play string instruments. When I started playing the guitar, my fingers would become very sore and start to callous because my fingertips weren't accustomed to the strain applied from the strings. However, after some time, my fingers toughened up, and I no longer had calluses. Well, the same ideology applies with nursing. I apply Lanolin after every feeding session, and it helps a lot!
3. I'm a working mom, but I still want to give my baby my milk. As a working mom, choosing to nurse my child puts a couple more tasks on my list of things to do. For starters, I need a pump, and pumps are expensive. The good portable ones cost about $250. Thankfully, a family friend gave me her pump, so I simply purchased new accessories. Second, you're going to need some time out of the work day to pump. My lactation specialist suggested pumping when baby would normally eat - for me that's every three hours. I'll let you know how this goes when I return to work.

Those were my nursing speed bumps. I hope this helps gives inquiring minds a heads up. All in all, I can say that nursing is very rewarding. I feel like it has strengthened the bond between Naja and me, and I know it's best for her health.

Curried Rice and Quinoa Pilaf with Pistachios and Prunes

This is just a little something I put together for a quick meal a couple of weeks ago. Note that I could not find cooked lentils, so the meal took much longer since I had to cook them. However, I definitely think this can be finished in under 30 minutes if you buy the pre-cooked ones.

I know some of you may read this title and think, "Wow, that sounds like a lot!" It is a lot, but the flavors mesh fairly nicely. The curry adds a nice savory flavor, paired with the sweet prune flavor, and the pistachios add another nice salty flavor. I'm sure you could also substitute prunes with mango. I've already proven that curry and mango pair nicely together!

Curried Rice and Quinoa Pilaf with Pistachios and Prunes
Source: Adapted from Vegetarian Times, September 2011 Issue
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped (~1 cup)
1/2 cup basmati rice
1/4 cup red quinoa SS: I just used regular quinoa, the red quinoa has the same flavor, however the color makes the dish more appealing I suppose
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup cooked lentils
1/2 cup finely chopped pitted prunes
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios

Directions
1. Heat oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and saute 2 to 3 minutes, or until translucent. Add rice and quinoa, and cook until rice beings to turn opaque. Add curry powder, and cook 30 seconds. Stir in 1 1/2 cups water, add bay leaf, season with salt, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 15 to 18 minutes, or until grains are tender.
2. Remove from heat, and stir in lentils. Cover, and let stand 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Fold in prunes and pistachios.

This dish would be a nice side dish alongside any main protein (Ex. chicken or salmon). I would suggest a rosemary-olive oil rub on whatever protein you chose. I ate mine with a side salad.

She's Alive

Dress, hat - Urban; Shoes - Target; Earrings - Frank & Myrrh; Watch - Fossil

Date: Saturday, August 20, 2011

Hey everyone, I haven't posted any pictures of myself in forever. I know that's extremely vain, but this blog is part-style, so vanity is kind of a part of the whole deal. I will have A LOT of updates some time soon. For now, this outfit was worn for a family fun night. BONUS - two of my line sisters came to visit me, I love those girls :)

Zucchini Fritters

Have you all noticed that I like zucchini? I've made 2 types of zucchini cakes here and here, a zucchini lasagna, and a zucchini roll-up appetizer, just to name a handful. Yep, it's definitely a veggie that I like to cook with. Ironically, I don't like this vegetable raw, however I love it's taste in all of these recipes! These cakes had a surprisingly lovely creamy taste (courtesy of the ricotta), and a refreshing subtle lemon taste. All in all - these are great snacks, and I'm sure you could make a meal out of them, but you would definitely need something else to accompany them!

Zucchini Fritters
Source: Food & Wine Magazine, August 2011 Issue
Makes about 15 fritters *Could make more or less depending on the size

Ingredients
3 medium zucchini, coarsely shredded
2 garlic cloves
4 large scallions
3/4 cup ricotta
2 large eggs
3 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1 cup all purpose flour
Olive oil for frying
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions
1. In a large bowl, combine the zucchini, garlic, scallions, ricotta, eggs, lemon zest and 1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Stir well, then stir in the flour just until incorporated.

2. Line a large baking sheet (or a plate, or colander) with paper towels. In a large skillet, heat 1/4 inch of olive oil until shimmering. Working in batches, add 2-tablespoon mounds of the zucchini batter to the hot oil, spreading them to form 3-inch fritters. Fry over moderately high heat, turning once, until browned and crisp, about 3 minutes. Drain the fritters on the paper towels and serve right away.