FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

All Wrapped Up

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I knew the mom and I would be restauranted out by the end of her visit, so when I dropped her off at her conference this morning I asked what she wanted me to make for dinner.  She simply responded “black bean hummus”.

Black bean hummus for dinner?  How about black bean hummus wraps filled to the max with uber fresh veggies for dinner?  Yeah, that’s more like it.

While roasting an entire package of cherry tomatoes, I pulled out the veggies and a cutting board and got to work.  I shredded the carrots, chopped up the cucumber, and pulled two new-to-me veggies out of their containers:  zesty sprouts and mache rosettes.

I layered a pita with black bean hummus and veggies and rolled it up, Pita Pit style.  So guiltless, so good!  And I bet these would keep well in the fridge overnight for lunch the next day.  I shall keep you posted.

Nanner Pudding

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Nanner pudding is quite possibly my earliest memory of food obsession.  I can vividly remember my three year-old self sneaking into the fridge, removing plastic wrap, and dipping my little sneaky fingers into the dessert bowl.  I loved the sweetness of homemade vanilla pudding, the mushiness of the Nilla wafers, and how both flavors were tied together with nanner goodness.

So when I asked my friend Dickie what he wanted for his birthday dessert and he responded banana pudding…  It was on!

I whipped out a classic vanilla pudding recipe and got to work.  I forgot how much stirring was involved in the pudding process, but thankfully Instagram was there to keep me company.  It was techie baker multi-tasking at its finest.

And other than the 10 or so minutes that it took to pull the pudding together, the only other work required was slicing ripe bananas and opening a brand new box of Nilla wafers.  Oh and layering, a little bit of layering.

As I poured half of the warm vanilla pudding over the first nanner Nilla layer, I couldn’t help but think why nanner pudding doesn’t happen more often.  It’s light, cool, and simple – perfect for any and every summertime affair.

PB Chocolate & Avo Mousse

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Anyone, especially a blogger, can get sucked in the related posts trap.  You click and click and, before you know it, hours have passed.  Unfortunately, this isn’t as fun of a game for me as it used to be.  A hacker wiped my site last November and I still have hundreds of photos missing.  Big.  Bummer.

But I will spin this back to a positive note by telling you I have found the silver lining.  Looking at pictureless post after pictureless post gives me a perfect excuse to recreate old recipes and create new photos with a better lens.  And I’ll embrace any excuse to use this lens!

FoodFash PB Chocolate Avo Mousse (yields 3 servings)

1 ripe avocado

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons peanut butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Blend all of the ingredients until the mousse is as smooth as possible (I blended a few more cycles after the picture above).  Refrigerate for about 30 minutes and enjoy!

It’s amazing how an avocado can mimic a mousse-y texture.  The peanut butter and cocoa powder give a rich flavor and almost completely mask any trace of avocado flavor.  And even though I can still taste a hint of veg, this is the perfect 3PM-I-need-chocolate treat.

Quinoa Stuffed Grape Leaves

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I’m not even going to proceed with caution when telling you that I think rice is a total waste.  Rice bores me to death.  Rice is the reason why it’s taken me so darn long to make dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) at home.  Making a dish that centers itself around a main ingredient of rice just seems painful.  

Quinoa, now quinoa isn’t boring at all.  It kicks rice’s butt when it comes to protein, fiber, and overall vitamin content.  And quinoa is so darn cute.  Perhaps the bird measuring cup is clouding my cuteness judgement, but for reals, if rice then why not quinoa?

I began scoping out dolmas recipes to get a general idea of process and ingredients, but ended up jotting down the list on the side of my favorite Whole Foods dolmas.  I winged it and it totally worked.

FoodFash Quinoa Dolmas

Stuffing:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 yellow onion, chopped

1/3 cup mint leaves, chopped

2 tablespoons dried dill

juice of 1 lemon

1 cup quinoa, uncooked

salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper to taste

Grape Leaves:

12 to 20 jarred grape leaves, thoroughly rinsed

2 tablespoons olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

2 cups of water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Over medium heat, lightly brown garlic in olive oil.  Add onions and cook until translucent.  Add remaining stuffing ingredients and stir together until thoroughly mixed.

Layer the bottom of a dutch oven with leftover grape leaves.  Place the stuffed grape leaves in the dutch oven like tetris.  You’ll want them really close together so that they don’t move.  You can place a second layer of grape leaves on top of the first.  Pour water, lemon juice, and olive oil over the grape leaves and immediately cover the grape leaves with something oven-safe and heavy that will prevent them from floating to the top (I used 4 ramekins).  Cover and bake for 45 to 60 minutes.  Eat right away or refrigerate overnight for cool dolmas.

So… quinoa stuffed grape leaves should happen all time!  The amount of lemon tang that the grape leaves soak up is unreal and amazing.  And the stuffing was so good that it would be completely worth it to make on its own if you didn’t have time for the whole grape leaf shebang.      In that case, you would cook the quinoa first and add it to the rest of the stuffing towards the end.

After preparing this recipe, I feel as though I should be able to add another notch to my pseudo-chef belt – go me!