Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

And now I want more. As much as I love my  banana frozen yogurt , I've been cutting back on dairy and I wanted to see if I could create a dairy-free version. Having been underwhelmed with substituting various non-dairy yogurts, I scoured the internet and consolidated my newfound knowledge into this experiment. And it was perfect. Well, actually, it melts too fast. But other than that, it's perfect. The Recipe (serves 4): 4 bananas, peeled and frozen (optionally in halves or chunks to make blending easier) 2 tb almond butter 1 tb almond milk, plus more if needed 1 tsp vanilla extract pinch sea salt 1 tsp honey, optional depending on how ripe the bananas are chocolate chips, cherries, or other mix-ins, optional Blend all ingredients in food processor. Add more almond milk if necessary to get things moving, but it's best to keep it as thick as possible. The Verdict: Overall grade: A+ Overall reason: So so good, and legitimately healt

Can you spot the purple rice? I've been cooking my way through the excellent blog  Pinch of Yum , and yet again, it's led us to a super delicious and healthy dinner. I might need to turn my blog into a Pinch of Yum fan site. This sweet and sour sauce tastes just like I wanted it to... a fresher version of the sweet and sour sauce you'd get at a Chinese restaurant. And who needs fried fish? I mean, I guess now that I think about it, fried fish here would have been kind of amazing. But I'll stop thinking about it, because this pan-seared version was great too. I'm excited to keep making this with vegetables from the garden throughout the summer. All I grew in tonight's version was the kale, but my zucchini and bell peppers will be here soon enough. Update: Sometimes you cook for people and they do unintended things with the leftovers. My dad put his leftover fish on a pumpernickel bagel. He claimed this was a good idea. The Recip

Charred cheese! Unintended and wonderful. Jess and I often get joint cravings for a few specific things: sushi, ice cream, and the jalapeño poppers at  Cafe 440 . Today was our first effort at re-creating the poppers, and I must say, it was a success. They were at least as good as the restaurant version. Maybe better, because I like our turkey bacon better than their prosciutto.  Their sauce is listed in the menu as "mango-lime coulis." So I took out the mini food processor and blended up a mango with lime juice, garlic, honey, and salt. I imagine they cook the sauce down and/or strain it, because theirs is smooth, but ours tasted great. We think it would be good on smoked-salmon sushi, too. About to become sauce. Some important things unless you enjoy pain: 1) Wear gloves while working with the jalapeños. 2) Be thorough about removing the ribs and seeds from the jalapeños, and also rinse the insides to remove any hiding seeds and mouth-burning residu

The closest I've gotten to meatloaf in about 23 years. I don't think I've figured out the best way to serve this yet, but it has definite potential. I found the recipe  here  and was curious. Having now made and eaten it, I'm still curious. I was expecting something that would fulfill the function of a main dish, and would be good served with mashed potatoes. Like meat loaf. Instead, the taste and texture were an awful lot like Thanksgiving stuffing. And while I have certainly eaten stuffing with mashed potatoes as a meal before, it doesn't feel totally meal-like. Next time I think I'll serve it on the side, accompanying a protein. But it's sweet, which I think limits what it would go well with. And then there's the fact that it's a loaf, so it wouldn't fit seamlessly on a plate with, say, a piece of chicken on top. Perhaps I could make it more like stuffing, not as a loaf... perhaps without the glaze? That said, it was tasty, it'

I should use sesame seeds more often. With a package of tempeh in the refrigerator and some leftover  ridiculously delicious dressing , I decided to make some sort of crunchy tempeh fingers for dipping. These worked great and they were super easy. I was afraid that the lack of seasoning would leave them too bland, but the touch of salt and the sesame seeds were just enough flavor, while keeping them neutral for sauce. We ate these with a healthy portion of  avocado salad . I recommend this pairing. The Recipe: 8 oz tempeh, sliced into strips 1 egg 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 c panko 1/8 c sesame seeds Beat egg in a shallow bowl. Mix in salt. In a separate shallow bowl, combine panko with sesame seeds. Dip tempeh slices in egg, then panko/seed mixture, and place on greased baking sheet. Spray the coated tempeh with baking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then flip and bake another 8 minutes. The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: Eas

A light coating of mushed avocado makes everything better. Two incredibly delicious salads in a row. I'm ready for summer. This one came from a friend who brought it to a potluck. My first reaction was puzzlement at the discovery of each component. The avocado was obvious, and combining it with peppers was intriguing but also apparent. But then I took a bite... is that a pear? There's pear in this salad, and it belongs perfectly. And what's this completely different texture in the next bite? Fresh mozzarella? No, it couldn't be. But oh yes, it was. The contrast of flavors and textures makes this salad addicting... I could eat a very large portion of it in one sitting. I made it for dinner with a side of tempeh, and it was perfect. The Recipe: 2 red/yellow/orange bell peppers, chopped 2 green-skinned pears, chopped 2 avocados, chopped 2 egg-sized balls of fresh mozzarella, shredded 1 tb fresh parsley, chopped 1-2 lemons, juiced 2 tb olive oil salt and

Heavenly. This is my favorite salad. I make it a lot. I've been eating it since 2014, and I am not yet over how amazingly delicious this dressing is. I get SUPER excited when I unscrew the Magic Bullet container and taste it. This dressing is an important part of my life. I got it from  this recipe  from my favorite blog, Pinch of Yum. I have made no changes to the dressing, and seriously, I never will. I've made various modifications to the actual salad ingredients, depending on what I have; see suggestions below. Another sign that this is an amazing salad? The first time I made it, I included feta cheese as recommended in the  original recipe . But I didn't actually finish all of the cheese from my bowl, and I have left it out since then. A salad that is NOT improved by cheese? That's one special salad. The Recipe: Dressing: 3 tb almond butter 1 tb olive oil juice and pulp of 1/2 of an orange 3 tb water 1 tb stone-ground mustard 1/2 tsp honey 1/2

Smell the sesame oil. For fried rice, I pretty much follow  Emeril's recipe . My only modifications are generally leaving out the ham and adjusting the vegetables to whatever I have in the house. It has really great flavor - sesame oil and ginger come through, and I have a knack for overdoing it on the garlic, so the garlic flavor tends to be predominant as well. I love the complexity of flavor that this recipe has, without being too salty or greasy like take-out fried rice. I had a helper today. He cooked the eggs and the shrimp, and then he took over the final mixing process because I wasn't getting the clumps of plain rice broken up to his liking. Showing me how it's done. The Recipe: 1 tb canola oil 1 tb sesame oil 5 cloves garlic, minced 2 tb fresh ginger, grated 4 green onions, chopped 1 tsp red pepper flakes 1 onion, chopped 2 c cabbage, chopped 2 ribs celery, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 1/2 lb shrimp, sprinkled with cajun

There's feta cheese hiding in the upper right corner, in case you didn't notice. A few years ago, I was inspired by that part in "Eat, Pray, Love" when she's eating an Italian meal that just has separate components on a plate together... I remember that there was asparagus, and I think there was a hard-boiled egg, and I can't remember what else she had. But that idea of just putting several good things on a plate without necessarily integrating them has stuck with me, and it kind of guided this meal. My plate consisted of: grilled chicken, grilled zucchini, slices of feta, hummus, arugula from the garden, and grilled pita. Jess's plate also had a lamb patty. If one liked olives, that would probably be good here. We ended up wrapping some up some bites in pita and eating some bites on their own. It was delicious and felt like a very leisurely way to dine on a warm, sunny day. Jess's lamb. We're pretty proud of our growing skil