FoodFash

FoodFash is a food and travel blog based in Austin, TX.

Postal Birthday Cakes

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Poppyseed Angel Food Cake

After flipping through the pages of a multitude of cookbooks for cakes to send out for Ariel, Val, and my gramma’s birthdays, I spotted a poppyseed angel food cake.  Angel food cake?  Everyone loves angel food cake!  I hoped that this recipe would be enough for three mini loaves as I got to carefully cracking the eggs.

Brown Eggs

I used the angel food cake recipe from In The Sweet Kitchen, which called for 1-1/2 cups egg whites (about 10 to 12 eggs).  Other than making a big ol’ pot of scrambled eggs for a group, I had never cracked this many eggs for a recipe.  I certainly had never separated this many whites from yolks.  Tedious, I tell ya!

Angel Food Cake Batter

I frothed and fluffed an entire mixer bowl of egg whites and anxiously awaited stiff peaks.  And then it was time for the second best part of this recipe, folding in the sugar and cake flour with my hands.  There’s something so therapeutic about hands-in-batter, hands-in-dough, hands-in-meatloaf, hands-in-anything.

Mailed Birthday Cake

And then the first best part of this recipe came into play – it made enough for three mini loaves and one regular sized loaf for yours truly.  I sampled some of the extra loaf and was so happy with how delicious the cake turned out.  I seriously want to make angel food cake all day errr-day.  This cake (without poppyseeds) and this frosting, everyday.  Yum!!

I carefully wrapped each loaf in plastic wrap and packed tightly with some paper stuffing.  I filled out cards with happy notes and sealed everything up.  And when I dropped each package down the mail chute, I closed my eyes for a moment, wishing I could be present for these birthdays and birthday hugs.  And when my eyes opened, I felt happiness in knowing that these packages will undoubtably relay that feeling.

Happy 30th, 29th, and 71st birthdays!  I love you and miss you tons!

A FoodFash Best

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I had no idea how much goodness I was getting myself into tonight.  I had some leftover dip ingredients and frozen salmon fillets and thought “why not?”.  If you follow me on Instagram, surely you could sense my hesitation when I posted this picture.  But boy was I wrong!

FoodFash Salmon Cakes (yields 1 – 425 calorie serving)

6 oz. salmon fillet, thawed

1/2 small avocado (the 99 cent size)

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup fresh parsley

2 green onions, chopped

salt to taste

nonfat plain Greek yogurt for garnish

In a food processor, puree avocado, lemon juice, and half of the salmon fillet.  Add the onions, parsley, salt, and remaining salmon and pulse a few times until all of the ingredients are mixed, but the salmon is still chunky (see below).

Heat frying pan over medium heat.  Spray with olive oil (or a high heat oil may work better).  Remove all of the salmon mix and form into a patty with your hands.  Cook patty for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, flipping gently so the salmon cake stays in tact.  If a small piece breaks off, gently form back together with the spatula.  Dollop with Greek yogurt and serve.

I’m going to try my hardest to use a word other than wow to explain what was going through my mind as I ate every last bite.  The tartness of the lemon, the slight texture of the chunk salmon, the crunch of the green onion, the coolness of the Greek yogurt…  It all came together more perfectly than I ever could have imagined.  And the avocado?  The avocado just did it’s little glue-like thing in the background.

A Rapid Do-Over

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Yeah… Not really the happiest of campers when I pulled coupon-attached noodles out of the fridge today.  And the thing is, I don’t care so much about this 50 cents.  This 50 cents wouldn’t be frustrating if I didn’t pull coupon-attached X out of the fridge 99% of the time I buy something with a coupon attached.

I wonder if I totaled all missed coupon opportunities over the years, if I’d have enough for something like… these boots that I want oh so very badly!

I bet I would.  I also bet that I knew recreating my souped up soup was going to be a huge fail before I even started.  You see, shirataki noodles are pretty gross. They are entirely too slimy and tasteless for soup.  Depending on kale and miso to liven up slimy and tasteless wasn’t my finest idea.

I strained, rinsed, and topped with jarred marinara.  Do over!

The noodles were MUCH better with the flavor of the sauce and the crunch of the kale.  I ate the entire bowl and could barely tell I was eating funky 25-calorie-per-serving-noodles.

Have you ever tried shirataki noodles?  What are your thoughts on these slimy, low-cal critters?