Loving it in Hawaii!

Traveling is normally difficult when it comes to finding food that I can eat. So imagine my delight at locating Whole Foods a few miles away from my hostel! That took care of my backpacking trip. We came back from Haleakala yesterday (which was an incredible experience and you HAVE to see if you’re ever in Maui!) and wanted to relax. So we went to Lahaina beach and walked around.

We came across a small cafe called “The Bamboo Fresh Express”. Looking at their menu, I was somewhat doubtful since a lot of combinations included cheese. Then we saw a gluten-free option- TWO of them! Either a rice wrap or a rice box (box with rice not a box made of rice!). So I asked the sweet woman who worked there- showing her my food allergy card.

Lo and behold! She was able to create a Dru-friendly Da’Green Pig wrap! A kalua cooked pig with spinach, avocado, jalapeño, honey, tomatoes, etc… It was mind blowing delicious! My husband said I looked as if I was in heaven savoring the meal. I also had a fresh fruit smoothie with pineapple, coconut and mango. YuM! What a way to reward ourselves after an intense backpacking trip!

And the woman? Also from Rhode Island! What a small world! She also commented on the food allergy card saying it really helped her figure out alternatives. Yay! It really does help me out. A lot. Takes away any potential misunderstanding and people often respond better when it’s written down as opposed to listening.

Bonus? Everything was organic and GMO-free! Sweet! A delicious wrap that’s also good for me?! I call that a win!

Then we walked over to enjoy a beautiful sunset on the beach. I’m loving it here in Hawaii. Time to get back to my vacation!

Aloha!

Spiced Blueberry sauce

It was Easter and I wanted a nice breakfast for both my husband and I. For us, that meant pancakes. But I didn’t want the usual. I bought fresh blueberries the previous day thinking I would make blueberry pancakes. Well I did, but that wasn’t it!

I pulled out a sauce pan and put in blueberries, maple syrup, nutmeg and cloves. I heated it up until it was bubbling, using a masher to mush it up. I could have stop cooking it after a few minutes but I wanted the sauce thick. I turned the heat to low and kept stirring it while flipping pancakes (I’ve never been good at that).

Breakfast was served! Instead of regular maple syrup, I poured the blueberry sauce over it. I was very sweet! I can definitely see this as a delicious topping for ice cream. Ooh!

Spiced Blueberry Sauce

1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed
1/4 cup maple syrup (I used grade A)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp clove

1.) Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan and heat to medium.
2.) When it starts bubbling, carefully mash the berries (don’t let the juice hit you!).
3.) Lower heat to simmer and keep on stirring until you reach desired consistency. I cooked for 10 minutes.
4.) Serve hot and enjoy!

I admit I didn’t think to take a picture of the finished product. I was too busy eating!!! Just a recommendation- make this for regular pancakes otherwise it will be a flavor overload. I have a favorite recipe for almond pancakes from Elana’s Pantry- her cookbook is Gluten-Free Almond Cookbook. Yum!

Do you add anything special to your pancakes?

Irish pride

Coming from an Irish family, I grew up on boiled cabbage, carrots, onions and corned beef for St. Patrick’s Day dinner. Some of us loved it. Others, not quite so much… When I started dating my husband, I decided to try something different. Irish soup. I’ve found I enjoy it so much more and it’s actually more authentic since peasants didn’t always have beef available to them. Often it was out of their price range.

So tonight, we made potato soup with a few ingredients: potatoes, onions, vegetable broth, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and fresh chives as a garnish. That’s it. Sometimes the simpler a meal is, the tastier it is! I served it with a side of spring greens drizzled with olive oil and white balsamic vinegar. YUM.

But the celebration didn’t start today for us! We went out to this whiskey bar: Barrel House American Bar in Beverly, MA. I highly recommend it! A huge whiskey selection. I chose a Scotch, Glenlivet, aged 12 years I believe. It was surprisingly nice to have the bartender serve us complimentary sparkling water and ask us on the rocks or neat? I felt like a grown up, although it was more like I was pretending to be one…..

But what truly made it a time of celebration of being Irish? Being with family. Seeing my brother,sister in law and of course my husband. That’s what made it a special St. Patrick’s Day!

Cheers!

A dessert for a runner to go bananas over!

I love sweets. LOVE them. Crave them actually. But I didn’t have any around the house. No candies, cookies or the likes. While musing on my cravings, I checked out Pinterest. I found something there that inspired me!

I used what I had in my kitchen and ended up having a DELICIOUS and nutritious snack for both my husband and I. It’s the ultimate runner’s dessert, I think.

Banana-Almond sandwich

1 banana
Almond butter
1 TBSP chia seeds
Cinnamon

1.) Slice the banana in pairs.
2.) Spread almond butter on half of the banana slices.
3.) Sprinkle cinnamon over them. Do the same with chia seeds.
4.) Cover with the remaining banana slices.
5.) Freeze on a plate or tray for 2 hours.
6.) Serve cold.

All ingredients have a remarkable nutritional value, even more so for runners. I can’t wait to make more after my barefoot runs in the summertime! It’s dessert without the junk. Yum!

My Chi-Chickpea Carrot Salad

My week was planned out, food wise. Except for lunch. I bought two cans of chickpeas but I had no idea what I’ll do with it. Plain garbanzo beans, maybe? With salt and pepper. Then I realized I had carrots…. Currants…. Spices…. To make the story short, my creative juice got flowing and I now have a tasty lunch waiting for me tomorrow! I snuck in a bite, of course.

Here it is!

Chi-Chickpea Carrot Salad

2 TBSP olive oil
3 carrots, minced
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 cup currants
1TBSP chia seeds
1/4 cup lemon juice (or lime juice)
1 TBSP apple cider vinegar
2 cans chickpea, rinsed
1/2 cup pecans, roasted, crushed
1 tsp salt (I used Himalayan pink salt)

1.) Heat up a large pan with olive oil. Sauté onions and carrots for 5 minutes, until softened.

2.) Stir in garlic, cook for 1 minute. Add spices, currants, chia seeds, apple cider vinegar and lemon juice. Stir until everything is coated in spices.

3.) Add chickpeas, stir. Add pecans and salt.

4.) Season to taste. Serve warm with greens on the side.

5.) Enjoy!!!!!

Delicious! Both my husband are splitting it for lunch this week. Yum!!! I love it when I’m able to come up with something tasty while using what I have. Even more so that chia is in it- some people add sesame seeds to their stir fry, stews and the likes. Why not chia? All the nutrients and none of the allergens (I’m allergic to sesame). Works for me!!!

What do you usually do for lunch?

Stuck in a blizzard: did you stock up?

Alex and I agreed that we had enough to tide us over for the storm. Now we don’t have extra meat in the freezer or anything like that- in fact were now a meatless apartment. But after doing a quick inventory, we agreed that we had enough. The only downside it’s not a feast that includes fruit salad or jalapeño poppers. But we do have food!

Let’s see…. We had kale leftover from last night (braised with garlic and ginger yum!) and beans (Alex had the leftover red pepper sauce mixed with red kidney beans and avocado while I had chickpeas cooked in chili oil) for lunch.

Baked sunflower seed cookies this morning with what we had on hand. We typically have seeds, nuts and flour on hand- all gluten-free of course!

Supper will be…. Pasta with tomato sauce and spice that we decide to add in. Depends on our mood later on. Fortunately we’re already stocked up with hard cider!!!

What about breakfast tomorrow you say? I’ll probably open up my flour bin and try to figure out which pancakes we can make along with slices of apples and orange juice. We both have milk (I have unsweetened almond milk while he had lactose free milk) for our coffee. Then lunch probably will be leftovers. There’s also brown rice tortillas to make cheese quesadillas with or faux garlic bread.

Know what? Even though my fridge doesn’t look stocked up, I think we’re good to roll!

Got leftovers but not enough? Recreate a new meal!

Last night my husband made spaghetti with a DELICIOUS sauce. It was red, but it has absolutely no trace of tomatoes! It was a red pepper sauce. The recipe can be found on: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Red-Pepper-Sauce-4658

Instead of hot sauce (which we ran out of and I didn’t realize it when planning meals for the week, OOPS!), my husband used a bit of water with chili powder. He threw an onion, two red peppers, ginger, water and the spice in a sauce pan to cook it a bit. Then he poured it all into a blender and mixed it up.

A tomato-less red sauce made with red peppers and ginger!

It was scrumptious! Packed with flavor- the ginger added a kick to it. Immediately I wondered how it would taste if I roasted the red peppers first and used paprika or chipotle powder instead of chili for a smoky taste.

We ate all of the pasta. It was so good, satisfying my cravings for carbs yet it was entirely different than your standard tomato sauce. I mean I love comfort food but I wanted something a bit different last night.

So… we have no pasta left but some of the sauce left. Looking at my kitchen, it hit me. I told him, “Don’t worry about it. When we have our leftovers, I’ll just mix it up with red kidney beans and avocado for dinner.” Now this sauce is a multipurpose sauce!

I love it when I can recreate an entirely different meal using leftovers. It adds variety to our meals with half the work!

What’s your favorite leftover to reuse and how do you do it?