FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Filled Up Fillo

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One of the Healthy Living Summit swag bag items I had the pleasure of stuffing was the package of mini fillo shells.   From the second I unpacked the first box, I couldn’t wait to use them.  And as I tossed a box in each bag I contemplated the perfect fillo filling.

Well the perfect fillo filling other than the obvious nuts and honey combo that’s responsible for one of my all time fav desserts, baklava.  Once visions of sweetness passed, the first savory ingredient that came to mind was spinach.

I went to the market with every intention of finally recreating Emily of Daily Garnish’s spinach and artichoke dip, but for reasons having nothing to do with her recipe (like Rollin’ Oats doesn’t have canned artichokes?) my plan morphed into something different.

FoodFash Fillo Cups

12 mini fillo shells

1/2 bag of frozen, chopped spinach

1/2 zucchini, shredded

1-1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

2/3 cup dairy free cheddar

1 egg, beaten

salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Thaw frozen spinach in the microwave for about one minute (do not add water).  Add shredded zucchini, garlic, “cheese” and salt to the bowl of spinach and stir.  In a small bowl, beat the egg and then mix with the bowl of veggies.  Fill each fillo cup as full as you can with veggies, place on a cookie sheet, and bake for 20 minutes or until the egg is fully cooked.  Let them cool for a few minutes before serving.

There’s nothing like having a crunchy, gooey, bite sized, party-like, veggie filled dinner on a Tuesday – yum, yum, yum!!

Ugly Blueberry Biscuit Muffins

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Discovering the abundance of frozen fruit in my freezer gave me a hankering for some fruity bread-like breakfast.  And since I’ve already posted about banana pancakes, blueberry pancakes didn’t seem all that interesting. Blueberry biscuits, however, sounded perfect.

I modified the biscuit recipe on the back of the pancake mix A LOT, enough to call it my own I’d say (but that’s a touchy blogger subject).  I also reduced the recipe by a third, because we all know what happens when you have leftover baked goods…

FoodFash Ugly Blueberry Biscuit Muffins

2/3 Cup Gluten-Free Pancake Mix

1/4 Cup Almond Milk

2 Tablespoons Earth Balance

1 Egg

1/3-1/2 Cup Frozen Blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the pancake mix, almond milk, Earth Balance, and egg together with a fork, making sure the Earth Balance is cut in evenly with the other ingredients.  Fold in the FROZEN blueberries.  Spoon batter into three muffin cups and place on a baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes or until biscuit tops are golden brown.

Jam-less, the biscuits lacked the fruity sweetness I was looking for.  But when I added a dollop of strawberry jam, they were A-mazing!  I can’t wait to experiment with other berry varieties or maybe even… Chocolate!

A Big Time Saturday

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Oh what a week!  I spent most of my spare time snuggling with the ice pack pictured below and, although my Saturday is bound to have some ice pack time, there are also a few solid tasks on my to-do list.  Most, not so fun, but what can you do.  I’ll focus on the fun stuff.

I cleaned out my freezer (not fun) and discovered a gold mine of frozen fruit that I used to make a killer breakfast smoothie (fun).  I’m usually a green smoothie gal, but this morning I put the kale back in the fridge and treated myself with sweetness.

1/2 Cup Almond Milk

1 Frozen Banana

1/2 Cup Frozen Blueberries

1/2 Cup Frozen Mango

1/2 Cup Frozen Raspberries

1 Acai Smoothie Pack, unsweetened

NO SUGAR!!!

My late night Amazon book order arrived last week, which I’m pretty pumped about.  I’ve been SO frustrated with clothing stores lately that I decided, rather than complain, I need to be proactive in this predicament.  Being a “free form” seamstress (meaning I don’t know how to use patterns), worked out well for Halloween costumes, but I’m ready to de-raw my talent!

Which means I need to find my step ladder and take my sewing machine down from the highest possible storage spot in my kitchen.  Apparently, I don’t iron much either…

Oh and then there’s the mini Nordstrom display on my dining room table!  I’m in desperate need of Tory Burch replacements (so cute, but kill my toes) and all of these bad boys were severely discounted during the Nordstrom Half Yearly Sale.

I’m borderlining ridiculous here because I think I may keep them all even though I fully intended on returning one or two pairs.  The problem is I don’t love any of them and they are all comfortable and equally as OK.  And OK is the best I’ve experienced since I retired my Torys.  Decisions, decisions.

Resolution #Fail

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So… I’ve officially broken all but one of my New Year’s resolutions.  My 365 Project lasted only a few weeks.  I try to make the most of Tampa, but I can’t stop longing for LA.  I just couldn’t help myself in the dairy department when faced with sea salted caramel brownies at the Taste of South Tampa.  And then meat…  I hadn’t had a single non-seafood meat craving until I went to Animal (THE carnivorous hip spot in LA) and sampled all sorts of animal.  It was at that point that I downward spiraled.  It’s a darn good thing I’ve been keeping good company!!!

On my last day in LA, Hansell grilled a feast complete with feta filled risotto, meat skewers, and grilled glazed donuts toped with melty ice cream.  Even I’m not crazy person enough to turn down that degree of temptation.  I gorged.

GORGED.

Upon my return home, I immediately reverted back to my non-dairy veggie state. Relief!  Relief that was totally destroyed when car accident Friday happened.  I nursed my neck-ache with champagne, fume blanc, and real cheese pizza.  Oh and I had real cheese pizza in LA.  I had fallen so far off the wagon.

But it gets worse…  When I drove home from St. Pete on Saturday, I lost complete control.  To avoid completely grossing you out, let’s just leave it at… I ate both Taco Bell and McDonalds on Saturday.  Are the WTFs flying yet?!

Even after all of this, I had zero intention of being a perma-meat eater again. But I’m not one to deny myself a little bit of out of control (OK a lot a bit of out of control).  I decided to give myself a proper send off  to veggie-ville by visiting an ultimate favorite of mine, the bar at Bern’s Steakhouse.  I ate the whole shebang: french onion soup, salad, baked potato with sour cream, chateaubriand, onion straws, and veggies.  Leftovers?  Ha!  Not at all.

The moral of this gluttonous story is…  My body is so far out of whack that I’m happily returning to non-dairy, veggie Kristin.  I stocked up on my pre-LA guilty pleasure spring rolls (which seem a lot less guilty now) and stir fried some marinated tofu and green beans for dinner.