Easy, cheesy, veggie quiche

Quiche is a lot easier to make than I thought! I will make this again someday with bacon or something.

Frozen ready-to-bake pie crust
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1 zucchini, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large eggs
4 1/2 fluid ounces cream
1/2 cup grated swiss cheese
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 tsp dried basil
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400F

Toss vegetables in oil and bake put on a cookie sheet. Roast for 25 minutes or until slightly charred.

Reduce oven temperature to 350F

Combine cheddar and swiss cheese. Set aside 1/4 cup. Whisk eggs and cream. Whisk in 3/4 cup cheese, basil, salt and pepper to taste.

Add vegetables to pie crust and pour over the egg mixture. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. 

Bake for 35 minutes. 

Tipsy Banana Bread

The original recipe was "jacked-up" banana bread. It had bourbon in it. We didn't have any Jack Daniels, so we used rum.  You can't taste the alcohol, but it seems to make it more moist--I figure it's not drunk--just a bit tipsy. I love cold banana bread with butter, but this is tasty enough to eat plain.

3 large (or 4 smaller) ripe bananas, mashed up. Frozen bananas work great because they are already mushy.
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 beaten egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tablespoon rum
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup flour

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix butter and bananas in a big  mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla, rum, and spices. Add baking soda and salt. Lastly, mix in the flour. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a fork comes out clean.

Toasted Caprese Sandwich with Garlic Basil Mayo

I typically blog when I make a full-fledged recipe. Something fancy, that I had to go out and buy 10 specific ingredients for and involved multiple stages of preparation. Gotta be honest, not my typical night. Since this is now a general food blog and not a cooking blog, I can come clean that a typical dinner for me probably consists of something like:

• a bean and cheese burrito
• Tuna and cheese sandwich with tomato soup
• scrambled eggs and toast
• makeshift Greek chicken salad
• Trader Joe's premade pizza
• Okay...Trader Joe's premade anything...

What I'm driving at here is that few people I know have the time to cook a full-fledged recipe every night, but we still cook by piecing things together. It's not all TV dinners and frozen pizza (although the Trader Joe's version of TV dinners and frozen pizzas are pretty delish...I digress...). And the happy news is that meals that are pieced together can be pretty darn yummy! 

Earlier this week I made bruschetta so when I opened my fridge tonight, I saw that I still had some fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and cherry tomatoes, so I decided to make a caprese sandwich. Sadly, the crusty bread was all gone, so I just used boring old regular bread. I've made this before with rolls and it was even better, so if copy the recipe, I'd recommend splurging on better bread. But regular bread was fine. 

Ingredients

• Bread or rolls. It might be good on flatbread too, but I haven't tried that!
• Tomatoes. (I used cherry, which is not ideal, but I don't believe in grocery store tomatoes unless they are cherry and don't have anything growing in my garden sooooo...)
• Mozzarella cheese (fresh is best, but regular is fine)
• Fresh basil (I supposed dried basil would be fine, but fresh is so good!)
• Mayonnaise
• Garlic salt, or garlic powder and salt

Instructions (for 2 sandwiches)

1. Toast 4 slices of bread in your toaster (to keep it from getting soggy later)

2. Thinly slice up tomatoes

3. Cut off several thick slices of mozzarella

4. Combine about 2 TBSP Mayo with 4 finely chopped basil leaves (or 1 tsp dried basil) and a teaspoon of garlic salt.  (You might want to taste it and then play around with the quantities)

5. Spread the mayo on two slices of bread and set aside

6. Put the other two slices of bread on a cookie sheet and top with tomatoes and mozzarella

7. Put in the oven and broil for 5-10 minutes, just until cheese is melted. 

8. Top each sandwich with more basil leaves and a mayoed slice of bread.

Voila! 10 minutes dinner.  Forgive the sloppy mayo job in my picture below.

Being beautiful

Awesome article on "skinny bashing," referenced below. I completely agree that beauty is not about size. Really beauty, as cliche as it is, is about what's inside not what's outside. However, if we want to discuss outer beauty, we should be talking about health, not stereotypes. It's not healthy to be obese, OR ridiculously skinny. But there are beautiful, healthy men and women of all shapes and sizes. That's what matters.

Skinny bashing and fat bashing reflect our society's unhealthy, appearance-based, value system. And I think that women perpetuate this MORE than men do. So let's quit it. Stop worrying about ideal sizes and instead enjoy food and exercise for the sake of being healthy, not being skinny. 

http://girliegirlarmy.com/lifestyle/20120120/the-problem-with-skinny-bashing/

The new and the old

I love food--I find it endlessly fun and interesting. For a while now, I've been toying with the idea of creating a blog that explores life and the world through the lens of food and dining. So--I did it! I migrated my old cooking blog into this one to create an even more extensive dining experience.
Here you will find:

• Recipes
• Restaurant reviews
• Links and useful articles
• Discussion about food, health, and fitness
• Occasional boring commentary about what I ate today
• Anything else I feel like throwing your way

Philosophy of Food: I believe that in food, in health, and in life, all things are good in moderation. I'll eat anything, but I also believe in healthy eating and living. I am hoping the explore these ideas more and further develop my food philosophy, hopefully with lots of great input and discussion from you!

Blueberry Almond Streusel Muffins

Aimee and  I  made a HUGE batch  of these muffins for a church brunch this weekend, and also made several loaves of banana bread (recipe coming soon). We quadrupled this recipe. I don't recommend it unless you are really cooking for a crowd. Quadrupled, it made about 60 muffins! We used frozen blueberries and it turned our muffins blue, which was kinda pretty,  but kinda weird.  It would be better with fresh blueberries, and actually you could use any kind of berry you want. Enjoy.

Streusel
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
Muffins
2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups fresh berries

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. 


Mix the streusel ingredients until crumbly.  I washed my hands and used my fingers, since it was easier to mix in the butter that way. Set aside. 
 
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.)  In another bowl, whisk  the wet ingredients (eggs, buttermilk, almond extract and melted butter).

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon until just mixed and moistened.  Don't overmix, the mixture is supposed to be lumpy. Gently mix in the berries.


Line your muffin tin with paper muffin liners and fill about 3/4 full with batter  Top with the streusel topping. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick or fork comes out clean. 

Garlic and More Garlic Cold Quinoa Salad

As the name of this recipe suggests, it is very garlicky -- so if you don't like garlic, I suggest you don't bother with this recipe. I happen to looooove garlic, so it works for me quite well! Cold quinoa salads are great because you can throw in whatever vegetables you have on hand (I've made this with broccoli and red onion before). You could also use different types of cheese. The original recipe called for goat cheese, but I always have sharp cheddar, so I just used that and it was good.

Rant on grocery store tomatoes: I've decided that it's pretty much not worth buying tomatoes at the grocery store unless you buy cherry or grape. Unless maybe you have a really fancy grocery store with especially good tomatoes, in which case, buy a big tomato and chop it up for this recipe. If you grow your own or have access to a farmer's market, even better! Okay, end rant on grocery store tomatoes.

This makes about 4 servings--more, if you're making it as a small side dish. I like to make a big batch and have it for lunch several days during the week.

(Sidenote on the dressing: The original recipe called for 1/2 a cup balsamic vinegar, but that is just a lot of vinegar, so I use less. You may need to tweak some of the amounts on the dressing depending on how big your salad ends up being (if you add vegetables) and how strong you want the flavors. I suggest pouring on part of the dressing, tasting it, and then pouring on more if you want more flavor. Balsamic vinegar plus a ton of garlic gives it quite a kick.)

Salad

½ tsp crushed red pepper

1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed

2 cups vegetable broth (to cook quinoa--can use 2 cups water instead)

2/3 cup spinach leaves, chopped

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

3/4 cup cubed sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

Dressing

2 heads of roasted garlic

2 T olive oil (for roasting garlic)

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1T Dijon mustard

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/3 cup olive oil

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Remove the papery part of the garlic and cut top off the head.  Break into separate cloves.  Toss with olive oil and wrap in foil, and bake for one hour.  Cool and squeeze out garlic pulp. Mash with a fork. 
2. Bring vegetable broth to a boil.  Add quinoa and crushed red pepper and boil for 15 minutes.  Drain in a fine colander and put in refrigerator to cool.
3. While quinoa is cooking, combine spinach, tomato, and cheeses in a large bowl.  Toss gently.
4. Make dressing by combining vinegar, mustard, garlic and roasted garlic in a bowl. Mix well with a fork.  Add in olive oil in a fine stream.
5. When quinoa is cool, add to the spinach and cheese mixture.  Add dressing and toss.