Short and Sweet and Souper

When i'm on my way home from work, absolutely starving, the only thing that keeps me from driving right past my apartment to Rubio's or omg Native Foods (at least most of the time) is knowing that I have so many delicious things waiting in my fridge to combine into an amazing new creation!  The best thing for one of these occasions is usually something short and sweet, so i'll keep this post just that!

Short and Sweet Squash Soup

Ingredients:

Butternut Squash (Mine came in cubes from a bag from Trader Joe's)

1 to 1.5 cups soy milk

Small bunch of parsley leaves

3 or 4 fresh sage leaves

1 tablespoon chopped shallot

Salt and pepper to taste

Smoked paprika for sprinkling (If you haven't tried it before, you simply must!)

Soup:

• Steam the squash according the TJ's bag. Leftover baked squash also works well. No time to bake squash when you're already hungry!
• Add squash cubes, parsley, sage, shallot, salt, and pepper to magic bullet cup.
• Blend for about 25 seconds until smooth.
• Pour into a bowl and garnish with extra sage and smoked paprika.

For some crunch and added gourmet-ocity, make some garlic toasts for dipping:

Garlic Toasts:

• Slice a few diagonals off of a baguette.
• Brush with olive oil.
• Put under the broiler for about 1 minute. Keep checking on it until toasted.
• Once cool to touch, rub half a garlic clove on the toasts.

Enjoy your soup about 10 minutes after you started making it! I had it with some leftover risotto :)

Bon appetit!

Lazy Breakfast for Dinner

Sometimes, after a long week full of overscheduled patients, schoolwork, and lack of sleep, cooking something spectacular sounds particularly UNspectacular.

And that's where Breakfast for Dinner comes in!

Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorite dinners.  I remember when I was growing up, my mom (and gourmet-goddess-cooking-inspiration-extraordinaire) would make breakfast for dinner once in awhile and it always felt like a special occasion!

For a brief, dark period of time as a college sophomore without a meal plan, I pretty much ate (burnt or undercooked) scrambled eggs every night, except for a brief foray into a creation I like to call "sauteed salad with marinara previously opened yet not refrigerated" so breakfast for dinner wasn't quite so novel...

But now, it's still my favorite easy, quick, comfort food dinner :)

Sometimes, it's pancakes, sometimes it's oatmeal, sometimes it's a bagel with all the fixings, but tonight, it was:

The Supereasy Magic Bullet Omelet

Not much to look at, but SUPER yummy!  Someday i'll master the art of the perfectly fluffy, round omelet, but until then, i'll enjoy mine slightly lumpy :)

Crack 2 eggs into the magic bullet cup

Add some veggies or herbs (I was short on veggies so I used fresh garlic and sage)

Blend it up

Pour into pan heated with oil (I used coconut. In a spray can. From Trader Joe's. AMAZING!)

Use your spatula to pull the edges in, and turn the pan so the egg fills in the gaps.

Cover with a pot lid for a minute or so.

Flip the omelet 

(Flip carefully. But don't be too hard on yourself if you break it. It's still going to taste delicious!)

Cook until the other side starts to brown.

Put some shredded cheese (or soy cheese for my lactose intolerant amigos)

Put the lid back on the pan until the cheese melts.

Fold the omelet over.

Eat it!

I like to eat it with a little tabasco sauce.

...and maybe a glass of wine...

it's ok because it's dinner (wait, I thought you said it was breakfast...)

and it's friday!

Happy Weekend!

Stay tuned for Matt's Amazing Exciting Belated Birthday Dinner soon!

Espinicas con Garbanzos!

I just have to say, before I say anything else...

THIS WAS SO GOOD!

I got the recipe from, once again, the amaaazing Deb from Smitten Kitchen.

You can click on the link to see it.

I made a few little changes...
I didn't buy enough spinach so I used some of the mixed greens I bought for the fennel salad.
I used sourdough bread (From the bread pitcher!) instead of sandwich bread because it was all I had.
And then when it was ready, I ate it with a little leftover piece of fried sourdough. YUM!

It was DELICIOUS!

The smoked paprika was a perfect touch!

This would make AMAZING appetizers!  You could serve them on little toasts with a sprinkle of smoked paprika and the entire tray would be gone in 5 seconds!

This was also a really quick recipe to make!  You can make all of it in one pot plus the magic bullet so it's easy to clean up after too.  I was starving when I left work and was about to forgo the recipe for a Rubio's burrito but after reading through, I realized the recipe was simpler than it looked.  It probably took 20 minutes from garbanzo can opener to bon appetit.

I was actually a little sad when I finished my plate... I think i'm off to get seconds!

P.S.  I discovered some great new cooking music today. I heard about FreshlyGround on NPR on my way home from work. They're kind of like No Doubt from the 90s but they're from Africa and sound like nothing else!