sara's test kitchen

I LOVE International travel. Well, no, not really.

I love the fact that Air France feeds me 4 times on 1 flight.

I love the fact that I can watch ANY movie I want, from Pretty Woman to The Blind Side.

And I love the fact that I can TRY to speak in another language (ahem, French).

The cons: Losing a ton of sleep! They are 6 hours ahead of the US, that’s a lot of hours.

But these views more than make up for it!!:

A Carnival in the center of Strausborgh, France; Serving up sweets!!

Notre Dame Cathedral in Strausborgh, France

I only needed to dip into my ‘homemade’ food stash on the flight over once (for breakfast) and while in the hotel room.

I also read two books, 1 on the way over and 1 on the way back; Food Matters by Mark Bittman and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Two really good books that OPENED my EYES while I was over in France. Such good timing to read these and then see their philosophies used in practice in another country.

~I ate like a maniac while traveling. I honestly ate 6 times a day, not restricting myself. SO I feel as if they may be onto something. I am going to be incorporating their practices (and some other French practices) more and more into my daily eats. WHOLE, REAL, LOCAL food eaten and enjoyed.

Right now I will leave you with my most memorable dish, a.k.a. Heaven.

~Sara

p.s. Title is from Weezy’s Misunderstood.

I’m off to France today for work. Woop Woop!

It’s such a tease…. visiting such a beautiful country and having to be on work duty 24/7. At least I’ll be able to eat and drink all day!!

The flight over is sooo long. I’ve scoured all bloggies to see what you recommend for plane rides. I got some great ideas from Averie, Kristen, and The Kitchn.

I froze a batch of Averie’s No Bake Vegan PB Choco chip Protein Bars and I’m taking a few for the plane ride over. I also packed some Justin’s PB packets, a turkey & hummus sandwich, Lara bars, baby carrots and apples.  I’m not too sure about international agricultural laws, but I may have to dump some of the veggies. Mer.

Can’t wait to show you all of my eats over in the land of cheese and wine !!   And maybe even some of the sites :)

Ciao for now!

-Sara

Ahhh… It was raining and pouring in Beantown these past few days. Hard core. Which wouldn’t normally be a problem, except for the fact that all of the rain melted ALL of the snow that was also on the ground.

All events led to the Perfect Storm….

This is my basement:

This is my basement on drugs:

And the garage…..

I swear there is a floor under the 3 inches of water. So sad.

Water is not my friend. Meezy and I spent 24 complete  hours getting rid of the water. Every muscle aches. I swear brooming should be a boot camp workout.

And to be cliche……

Industrial brooms to push water: $25

World’s most powerful wet vac: $100

Ripping up EVERY last piece of carpet in a 24′x19′ room…

**P.R.I.C.E.L.E.S.S.**

 There was some nasty, ugly tile under all of the carpet. Doesn’t it look like an old-school gym floor!?!?

It’s been such a longgggg weekend.

The positive is that we get to re-design the basement!! Meezy thinks it’s going to be a “Man Cave”…. Lol. Silly guy.

I want the walls to be a light/medium brown, ie:

With a dark brown rug or dark brown hard wood floors and white trim. Any thoughts/ color combos I should check out? We’re up for options, nothing is set; no furniture, no wall paint, (*cough*) no floor. It’s all just a blank canvas waiting to be beautified.

Wow, how my attitude has changed since Thursday night when we first found the water. I was on the verge of tears a few times. But, no more. I gotta terminate the hate spread the positive.  No need to get upset about all the money that did NOT need to go into this project… Me worrying about that is not going to get us anywhere. Right? Right.

Enjoy life, chicas.

:)

I took place in Janetha’s secret bloggie valentine and was soo excited when a package landed on my doorsteps this week. I felt it was necessary to wait until it was actually Valentine’s day to open it, though. Ever do that on Holidays? Guilt takes over…

As soon as the clock hit midnight last night, my paws were all over the goodies.

Meezy may be my true Valentine, but Carolyn just won herself a close 2nd place.

I recently bought WF’s Grapefruit shampoo and have been eyeballing the conditioner and body bar…. home run Carolyn, home run.

Of course she sent me some chocolate as well, hiding under the bar of soap. No V-day would be complete without it!

And the most delicious chocolate chip cookies EVER! with oatmeal, so they’re healthy….

The choco chip cookies were so delicious! I cracked the box open again this morning, I just couldn’t resist! I had the brown sugar cookies + some hazelnut coffee for breakfast this morning. YuM!

My girl Carolyn doesn’t have a site, but I’d like to send her a BIG shout out and say “Thank You!”. The package really made my V-day that much more special. Any time you need a guinea pig to test your cookies, let me know :) I’m only a state away….

I then went on to make a breakfast #2, packed with eggs…..

Egg beater omelet stuffed with ground sweet turkey sausage and fat-free feta cheeese :)

+ a side of cadbury egg.

My dad also gave me a V-day present yesterday. I’m still his sweetest Valentine… awww. Love you, Gimpsy.

May I introduce you to….. ‘Snowflake’

Meezy and I have a night full of watching old cheesy movies and filling our bellies with Mediterranean food. It shows how much he loves me solely by the fact that he is willing to eat ‘crazy’ Mediterranean food for dinner…. MWAH.

Have a fun filled day ladies, no matter what the plans. I have no shame in pimping/loaning out my single brother for the evening….

Sorry Bobby….

~

The title was a shout back to those little innocent Mickey Mouse Club days. Ah, before NSYNC  *swoon*, before Xtina wore chaps and grinded in a wresting ring, and before Britney attacked people with umbrellas and shaved her head. Bad decisions really DO get to follow celebrities forever…

But, that’s not what I meant by Mickey, unfortunately. No, my dears, we have been invaded.

For the past few months Mickey and his gang of mouse friends have joined us in or humble abode… apparently they can live no matter what, they don’t leave! I hide all of the food (in my belly and in the cabinets!) and they still survive! Unreal. We can’t find where they come from, but there is always a LOVELY trail of mouse poopy for me to clean up each morning. Ah, the perks of being a home owner :)

What the heck am I rambling for, oh yea, our little visitor the other night. I was on the couch reading some blogs and out of the corner of my eye pops a little gray head out form under the couch. I think I let out the loudest scream our neighborhood has heard….LISTEN, those things might be small, but they are HELL-A fast and creepy!! They brought over the plague!! I’m not messing with them…..

So it crawled up the screen door that leads to the porch….

Can you see him in the top left corner… EWwww!!

Meezy came to my rescue!! He placed a shoebox over Mickey and then slid one of my flexible cutting boards under Mickey and ‘popped’ him into the box. OMG! They were the most intense 15 minutes of my week! And now Mickey is going to be let loose behind Wal*Mart. I lost a cutting board to the battle, but it was worth it in order to get Mickey out of the house and into a trash pile, where he can feast and poop all he wants!

:)

Onto food…. I tried Oats in a Jar (OIAJ) that I have seen every-which-where. Welllll… with 1 exception. It may or may not have been a plastic jar. But it’s from WF, so it should be sturdy and healthy plastic, right!?

Thrown in before microwaving: 1/3 cup quick oats, 1/2 cup almond milk, ~1/2 cup hot water.

Post microwaving: 1 tsp pumpkin butter + plastic extracts (yummy)

Verdict on WF plastic jars:

Plastic is Sturdy: C-

Plastic is Healthy enough to eat: (hopefully) A+

This sole jar of PB converted me into a ‘crunchy’ PB lover. I can no longer say anything negative about those big honkin’ chunks of peanuts. They are loved <3.

…::F.U.B.A.R::…
(urban dictionary, this is staying PG-13)

Wow. Holy plastic deformation, Batman!

So this bad breakfast had to be remedied by an amazing lunch…

2 eggs, 1 egg white, ground turkey, asparagus, basil, garlic, ketchup, and 1 LC wedgie shmeared on the wrap.

All wrapped up and de-voured within minutes. It was amazing going down, but it didn’t hold me over very long… MER. Maybe I needed more veggies stuffed in there.

Still having a rumbly belly my hands started wandering….

Oh, what is this? Only the best trail mix I have EVER eaten. WH needs to stop producing it. I bought a bag 3 days ago and this is the damage thus far. (1/4 bag left… oops)

Those ingredients “a’int nothing to mess with”.

Oh, the combinations!!

I think that is the ‘worst’ part about trail mix, the plethora of combos. If that bag is opened, it ain’t getting closed until all possible combos are tasted personally by me. Rough job.

Then later I got bit by the chocolate bug again. WHAT? V-day is coming up, I have to prepare myself for unrivaled chocolate consumption by building up my stamina 1 day at a time….. reasonable… right!?! right!?

Crazy flavor, it was delicious. I love rose petals in anything! They make the chocolate taste a lot lighter, if that sounds possible… I also love how they split the bar into ’stix’ instead of ’squares’… creative.

I will be getting other chocolate creations soon… (right Meezy!?). My wish list for V-day includes plenty of chocolate, hopefully the man of my life will listen to my pleas :)

~

As in it has been sooo long since I have posted anything. I think there was just a time out needed for me to see what/where I was going with this thing. I’m still unsure, but I guess it will work itself out. I don’t have to take a hiatus in order to find direction….

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately:

1. I was on a smoothie kick, no ’staches though :) next time, fo’ sho.

Up close for the ‘oink’ ‘oink’ glass…. CVS has the oddest $1 finds ever.

2. I tried making puppy treats from scratch. Obviously they had to be shaped like stars for my baby girl.

Recipe here. Peanut butter was necessary. Tia and my parents dogs (3 of ‘em) love PB (must run in the family…)

My baby and my parents dogs loved these treats! They would all individually hide their bones around the house. The recipe made about 50 bones.

3. I was inspired to kick up my oatmeal…

Exhibit A. Oatmeal ‘infused’ with a chocolate VitaTop.

Microwave 1/3c oatmeal with 1/3 cup water. Then add vitatop and milk and microwave again until creamy.

Exhibit B. Oatmeal with Trail Mix… TJ’s Sweet & Savory Mix is OUT of this World!!

It may have been a PMS week…. chocolate for breakfast lunch and dinner is how I rolled for the entire week. :)

4. I tried crazy new things from Whole Foods…

Divine Grape is AMAZING!! Too bad I then went back to work and researched what ‘Kombucha’ is… Oh no…. I couldn’t finish the rest of the bottle. I hope I forget what is in it so I can drink it again. Anyone else skeeved out by drinking fungus? merrrr….

AND!!!! AND!!!! I found a NEW flavor of Chobani, Strawberry Banana. AHHHhhhh! It is so delicious. It’s 2% fat, so it’s pretty creamy and heavy, but well worth the full belly afterward. I saw a raspberry flavor on someone’s blog recently… I love the new flavors that they are coming out with!

With my initials on it to keep the office folk from stealing my snacks.

Peeps should know how hangry I get when I miss my meals :)

I have seen so many delicious crock-pot recipes popping up all over the blogosphere now that the cold months are here and I want to jump on the bandwagon. The only problem is that I am terrified of burning my house down in the process… I don’t trust it, I guess. Which is ridiculous… I’ll leave the dishwasher or washer/dryer on when I’m not home, but a slow cooker? Nope. Too dangerous. Anyone share my fear? I think it reminds me of Phoebe leaving the curling iron on… or was it Rachel? Ah, it doesn’t matter cute firemen in their little outfits ensued.

So, I weighed the options… burn down house versus warm food, ready when I get home…. Warm food won. It wins every time :)

So, behold, my first away-from-home slow cooked meal. Chili.

I kind of made the recipe up as I went along. And added more stuff at the end for additional flavor.

Into the pot went:

• 1 lb ground turkey; browned
• 2 15 oz cans peeled tomatoes
• 2 15 oz cans beans, drained and rinsed; I chose black and dark red kidney
• 3 cups of chicken stock
• 1 cup celery
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1/4 cup crushed red peppers
• Cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper

All into the pot on LOW for 6 hours. Then it magically went into ‘warm’ mode… ah, the wonders of technology. I tasted it when I got home and it was still pretty bland, so I threw in an entire jar of salsa… it’s all I had on hand and it beats pasta sauce. It came out amazingly well!

And with dinner… a few vitamins and minerals….

When I was at Whole Foods the other day, I found the most AMAZING thing ever!! Stoneyfield has come out with a line of sweet greek yogurts.  As if the others weren’t delicious enough already. The new flavors: Caramel and Chocolate, with pretty decent stats:

And the packaging:

Of course it’s been opened! I’m blaming it on Meezy, however. If this man swallowed greek yogurt, it has got to be good.

That’s his “You’re cooking what!?” face, which is what I see whenever I cook a vegetable that is not broccolis…..

I’ll have to take an action shot next time I dip in. Look for it on shelves!!

*

First – oatmeal cookies with Pumpkin yogurt in natural light… so purty.

Loose recipe: 1 cup oats, 1/2 cup choco chips, 1/4 cup walnuts, 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut (I had to use sweetened), 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup oil, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp salt.

Mix all together, form into balls. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes.

Now on to more important things… like, the title.

I have a big fault -  I read magazines WAY too fast. I skim them over, look at the pretty pictures, don’t read every word. And then, I just so happen to miss what turns out to be very important info and/or delicious recipes. Either way, bad.

Good:

So when I was cleaning up my magazine pile, I skimmed through Clean Eating and found a recipe for clean fudge. Yes, oxymoron, right? But no, it’s real. I hope you saw this coming, it was necessary…

I didn’t have the correct ingredients on hand, so I improvised. Here is my altered recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Carob Chips
• 1/4 cup coconut butter (coconut oil in the solid state *snort*)
• 1/3 cup real maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Put the chips and coconut butter in a microwave safe dish, microwave in 15 second intervals, mixing every 15 seconds, until melted and completely mixed together. Mix in the maple syrup and vanilla until well combined. Then refrigerate (or not) until firm.

This is re-Freakin-diculous. It tastes exactly like fudge. Nummy.

Here’s my other beautiful eats that simply cannot compare, but I’ll show them anyways.

Eggs Habanero:

Seriously filling.

Simmer a jar of salsa and a can of rinsed black beans in a skillet. Make little wells and add the eggs. Simmer until egg yolks are firm. With plain chobani on the side for mixing in.

Baked Apple:

Seriously NOT filling.

Stuffed with almond butter, dried cranberries, and oats. Topped with plain chobani mixed with honey and lemon juice.

Baked Mashed Parsnips and Potatoes:

Seriously odd.

I don’t know how I feel about it yet. I added milk, salt, and pepper but it still felt like it was missing something. So, I added ricotta cheese and put it under the broiler. Tasted a little better… still gotta look for a better recipe. Maybe add some LC wedgies next time?

I also feel the need to Biotch about the freezing cold temps we’ve had in New England the past few months days

These are my knuckles. Cracking open under these lovely sub-zero, non-humid conditions. When sweat floats like a butterfly down my hand it stings like a bee.

What really works for chapped skin?

This post is going to be filled with so many twss’s that I canNOT even begin to point them all out. Read at your own risk kiddies!

Meezy loves cookie dough. Not playing.

It’s like the Miller Light commercials when the girl asks her boy if his Miller bottle and her were both thrown off of a cliff, which one would he save?

I think Meezy would have to choose long and hard between me and cookie dough… and the sad part is, I wouldn’t blame him, that stuff is the ‘ish.

So… when I saw this recipe, I knew they had to be made. Stat.

Here’s the mixing in progress. (All compiled in my new xmas present from the boy himself… smart man to buy me a device to make him cookie dough 24/7!)

The beauty of these balls (twss) is that they are egg-less, so I don’t have to worry about being poisoned  :)  And they still taste delicious.

The bad part about these balls is that they are highly addictive. Lauren even suggests dipping the balls into more chocolate for heightened enjoyment. Hell yes, I’m game.

Killer. Good.

SO this had to be balanced out at dinner time. Roasted veggies were made with some sweet potato fries.

Mixed wif red pepper, carrots, b.sprouts, fennel, and onions. Topped with balsamic, olive oil, salt, and thyme. 425F for ~40 mins.

It was my first time EVER cooking fennel. I’m not a big licorice fan, and by the smell of it, I was not thinking positively. But I tried it raw and it wasn’t too bad, so I decided to roast it and see what happened. Verdict:  It turned out pretty good. A little strong tasting, but sweeter than a lot of other vegetables. I will definitely cook with it again, maybe in a soup next time….

I also whipped up some oatmeal cookies from the sweet ass new book Clean Food. I’ll post them tomorrow, I have to experiment with them first… eat them with yogurt, ice cream, milk, ginger cookies, etc and see what htey taste best with.

All in the interest of science :)

I just got finished watching some of The Wire… best series ever. It’s addictive, and it’s got me thinking about stashes. Not drug stashes… even though I may be HIGHLY addicted to many of these items…more like cupboard stashes.

Front and center: pumpkin butter :), chicken sausages (for my parents), bars, hommus, pizza sauce (!), pb filled pretzels (!!!) and trail mix. Oh my.

I also tried me some sesame covered almonds for the first time. Mediocre. And some Edamame chips, which are DE-Li-Cious dipped in aforementioned hommus.

I wanted to post my favorite recipes from the past few days.

1. Lunch yesterday: Chicken Salad

Chunks o’ chicken, arugula, red grapes, 1/2 cup plain chobani, and 2 Tbsp BBQ sauce.

2. Dinner tonight: Pizza!

Arnold thins with ricotta shmeared all on top, then chicken strips placed delicately on top followed by… more freakin cheese :) Then melted under the broiler until toasty and gooey !

Ah… it’s tough to eat. I also tried me some faux cookie dough ice cream tonight. No pictures… that mofo moved faster than Snookie doing cartwheels on the dance floor  (yes, bad Jersey Shore reference. Sorry…)

I love trying new concoctions :)