Breakfast of Champions

Sprouted grain bread, reduced fat organic cream cheese, wild smoked salmon, red onion, scrambled eggs and oscietra caviar

After a refreshing loop around the park, this was a just reward on this fall-like day and a great way to utilize some leftover caviar.

Thank God For Ina!

Wild Salmon Tartare

Mediterranean Salad

Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Parsley Dressing

This weekend was supposed to be filled with fun and revelry with friends as we tried to clasp on to the bittersweet end of summer on Fire Island, but alas the gargantuous amount of schoolwork bound me down to my desk. To lighten up my mood, I called on my "good friend" The Barefoot Contessa, to shake me out of my disappointment. I was feeling a little fried, so I simply followed her guidance and created 3 light and healthful dishes that put me back on track.

All of these dishes appear in Barefoot’s book How Easy Is That? and, true to her words, everything was extremely simple, unfussy, and tasted great. The only addition I would make is to prepare some garlicky, cumin accented whole wheat pita chips to go with the Mediterranean salad.

The salmon tartar gained a lovely tang from two types of mustards, capers, lime juice, and dill, the Mediterranean salad offered a cooling crunch, and the garlic roasted cauliflower got an upgrade with the addition of a lemony parsley dressing to finish.

To my buds frolicking on FI, have a great time…I’ll be immersed in leftovers, study guides, and an itching feeling for sand in my toes. 

Farro Study Break

Whole faro with sun dried tomato anchovy pesto, broccoli, peas, boston lettuce, red onion with an apple rhubarb spritzer

Let the studying beginning…..but I couldn’t continue without refueling with my favorite grain…FARRO!

Farro is a whole grain and contains, fiber, protein, and iron and when paired with legumes create a complete protein. 

I can not seem to get enough of these nutty chewy Italian morsels!

Not Your Muddah's Casserole

On my most recent venture to the Union Square Farmer’s Market, I found myself constantly fighting to focus on procuring useful ingredients. I get so distracted by the beauty and bounty of fresh produce, that I loose track of what I need to aquire for my next meal. That day was definitely one of those occasions. I arrived home with a plethora of gorgeous fresh and somewhat unique produce and I wanted to delineate a little from my normal grilled corn or zucchini and tomato salad. To step out of my comfort zone, I flipped through my handy Moosewood cookbook and found an intriguing recipe for carrot and mushroom "loaf", which was perfect since I had snagged a bunch of carrots and a bag of cremini mushrooms. I also gathered some sweet potato greens, pimento padrao peppers, and what is a trip to the summer green market without corn, tomatoes and fuzy peaches.

Moosewood calls this dish a loaf, but it is more along the lines of a casserole. The recipe called for superior breadcrumbs and for that I made my own with sprouted grain bread that I toasted and then pulsed in the food processor.

Recipe (with my augmentations): Serves 6 (freezes well and also reheats great! Who doesn’t like leftovers?)

2 cups minced onion

1 tbs. Earth Balance Spread

1 lb mushrooms, chopped

1 1/2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp basil

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp dill

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 carrots, grated (6 cups)

2 cups superb bread crumbs (made from sprouted grain bread)

1 cup grated cheddar (low fat cheese)

2 eggs, beaten

Black pepper

Black sesame seeds and chopped chives for garnish (up for interpretation)

Preheat oven to 350°

1)    Lightly spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with canola oil cooking spray

2)    Sauté onions in melted Earth Balance in a heated pan for about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, salt, herbs, and garlic and sauté for 10 more minutes.

3)    In a bowl, combine carrots, breadcrumbs, cheese, eggs, and pepper. Add the sautéed mixture and combine well. Spread into the prepared pan and top with sesame seeds (or your desired choice of topping). Cover with foil.

4)    Bake for 30 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered.

5)    Finish with chopped chives.

This dish was very filling and tasty…it even looked a lot better than I thought it would. This could easily be a main dish or a side and keeps well. The casserole was a complete meal. It had protein from the cheese, sprouted bread, and eggs, complex carbohydrates from the bread and vegetables from the carrots and mushrooms.

Mushroom are versatile meaty little morsels and are one of the lone plant sources of Vitamin D. They also contain selenium and potassium.

I had never heard of or tried sweet potato greens and was quite intrigued when I came across them. I removed most of the stem and simply sautéed them with garlic and olive oil in order to properly taste the dark greens. They turned out to be pretty "meaty" for greens and were a heavier denser more fragrant version of kale. For the peppers, I simply seared them in a very hot pan with garlic and olive oil until they blackened slightly. Finally, since I couldn't leave the market without corn and tomatoes, I made a simple composed salad with blanched corn, heirloom tomatoes, burpless cucumber, red onion, purple peppers, radishes, basil and a spicy garlic lime dressing (garlic, lime juice, olive oil, Melinda’s hot sauce, cilantro, salt and pepper).  

Au Revior summer…you will be missed! I am hesitantly looking forward to an intense semester and the start of my Dietetic Internship at NYU…. wish me luck!

As a side note…LOOK! I found a guinea pig in Henry’s crate.