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Monday, December 30, 2013

Long Time No Eat

You don't even want to know where I have been lately.... picture it.... waist deep in school work, projects, trying to figure out unknown bacteria, writing journal critiques, raising a virtual child, making a presentation on fasting and starvation, and tests, lots and lots of tests. Fun right. On top of that I got a job at a gym. "Oh fun!" one would think, think again. Closing shift kicks butt (not in a good way) 11pm nights waking up at 6:30 (ok more like rolling out of bed by 6:45 to have only 15 minutes to get out the door). That has been my life for the past two/three months. School all day, work all night, trying to get life done in between (as best as I could), didn't really leave me much time to cook, let alone eat.

Lately I have been eating lots and lots of baby kale with veggies on top, fruit, left over baked potatoes from my family, such gourmet food. I did make one dish I kept meaning to post because it came out great but never got around to typing out a post, but now I will!! YAY!! Along with my Thanksgiving eats.

I took a day off from work to celebrate my bday with my love. He had gotten me tickets to see Hillsong United when they were at the Prudential Center in early November. I made us dinner. Some things I used were precooked, frozen stuff made by yours truely. Roasted garden eggplant, tomato sauce, and roasted spaghetti squash. I made my parsley and arugula pesto again and put it all together.

Eggplant Spaghetti Squash Parmesan


2 roasted eggplants (roasted with my usual seasonings:onion, oregano, coriander, s&p)
1 large spaghetti squash (roasted cut side down, deseeded)
Tomato sauce
Pesto (parsley and aruguala pine nut pesto)
Cheese (I used Sargento reduced fat 4 cheese Italian blend)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the spaghetti squash with some of the cheese mixture, along with onion powder and some oregano.

Put some tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan a 9x9 inch pan.

Place the squash down in there and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Top the squash with the pesto

then the eggplant some tomato sauce, more eggplant more sauce then cheese.
Finish baking for 20 to 30 minutes or until the cheese gets all nice and brown.

Enjoy!!

For Turkey Day I made a delish salad with roasted sweet potatoes, pomegranate seeds (my new love, don't know why it took me so long to try them), toasted pecans, kale and arugula, and some home made dressing.

The dressing was raw cinnahoney, olive oil, lemon juice, coriander, and some salt and pepper. I mixed it in the jar cause there was only a little honey left.
such pretty greens

It was all really good together. I had made the salad for a Friendsgiving I went to with the boys friends.
cinnamon and acorn squash=heaven

Then I ate the left over salad with half of a roasted acorn squash topped with cinnamon for actual Turkey Day.

Some other yummy things I have been making lately are pumpkin flat bread pizzas. I tried this really delicious cheese made from almonds that I got one other time and used in my Mediterranean salad. The cheese melted really nicely. I topped the pumpkin flat bread (which is just canned pumpkin with some spices [I like using my premixed blends like vindaloo or berbere] whole wheat white flour and baking powder) once with some of the cheese, spinach and arugula wilted, ripe pears and pomegranate seeds.

Then another time I roasted some carrots with the berbere mix and spinach with the almond cheese (that was a spice combo).
such spicy carrots

Another day I had roasted squash blend (kabocha squash and butternut) with purple sweet potatoes, with roasted cashews and pomegranate seeds with parsley. I loved this combo- pomegranate with parsley.

I didn't make anything really special for Christmas or Christmas Eve and don't plan on making anything for New Years. My New Years resolution is to get back to blogging though. This past summer and semester were jammed packed with busyness and I can't wait to slow down a bit so I can get back to things I love.

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and that this new year will be a memorable one.
<3
Thanks for sticking with me through my journey of food and life, it means a lot to me.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Tis Fall

And you know what that means...PUMPKIN CRAZY!!!

Which is pretty much normal here at Debby Eats.

I have two new pumpkin things to share with you and a little something green too.

First the pumpkin. We know I love baking bread, so I tried making a carrot pumpkin yeast bread. It came out really really good. (I was about to put a link in here so I wouldn't have to type up a recipe cause I'm lazy like that but I looked back at my posts and realized I never put the recipe up in the first place, sad face, so I didn't take step by step pictures.)

Pumpkin Carrot Whole Grain Bread

1 cup 10 grain mix (I use Bob's Redmill mix)
1/2 teaspoon each- ginger, allspice, nutmeg, salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon honey (I used my raw cinnahoney)
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup raisins
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 cup grated carrots
2-3 cups whole wheat white flour

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Mix the 10 grain mix with the spices and honey and the boiling water. Let it sit for a little to cool down. Sprinkle with the yeast and then mix it in. Let it sit to activate the yeast for about 5 minutes.
Add in the pumpkin, raisins, and carrots.
Start to add in the flour. Once you can't stir the flour in any more, take it out of the bowl and start to kneed the flour in. Kneed until the dough isn't sticky.
Now you can shape it how ever you want, rolls, a round bread or two loaves like I did.
Put the dough on a parchment lined pan, cover, and let it sit for about 40 to 50 minutes.
Bake it for about an hour or until the bottom of the bread sounds hollow when tapped.

I've been eating it with Cinnamon Molasses Cashew Butter my parents bought me when we where in Williamsburg (I must say the best nut butter ever) and


topped with pears or apples.

Next pumpkin thing I have for you is hummus.

Pumpkin Hummus

1 can chick peas, rinsed
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 tablespoon tahini
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander and nutmeg
salt and pepper about 1/4 teaspoon each
2 tablespoon fresh parsley

Put everything in the food processor and let it go until it is smooth.

(I added the parsley in last and mixed that so it doesn't get too fine.)

Lastly something green. I wanted to use up all the last of the parsley from my garden so this is what I came up with:

Parsley Arugula Pesto


1/2 bag of fresh arugula
about 2 bunches of parsley
8oz toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon each
optional 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

I started by pulsing the arugula in the food processor,

then added the parsley, oil, and pine nuts and just let it go. Then I added in the salt and pepper (to taste).

I did add the nutritional yeast to give it a "cheesy" flavor. But you could add in some Parmesan cheese if you like.


Use this as you would any pesto. It has a really nice fresh "green" taste.

Enjoy!! <3

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Birthday Cake

My best friend just got to celebrate that joyous time of the year where at this stage in life we see it as a time to drink it up and party that we are yet another year older. Haha not really but kind of true. (What I would do to have a pinata at my birthday party again.)

I tried to make her a gluten free birthday cake. It came out ok for a gluten free cake. I know there are places that could have done a way better job then I did, but honestly the only reason I really wanted to make it was to try out a special frosting recipe. I made a banana cake with chocolate fudge frosting. I'll give you the frosting recipe first because that was my favorite part of the cake, then the cake recipe, that don't get me wrong it tasted good just texture wise it was gluten free.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

4 baby avocados (yes you are seeing this correctly!!)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup cacao powder

Put everything in a mixer or food processor (I would go with the food processor, I tried the mixer and it was a tad lumpy). Blend it up. You could just eat it right out of the bowl, or eat it like pudding (cause this is how people make raw chocolate vegan pudding), or frost a cake or cupcakes with it. Yum!

Gluten Free Banana Cake

7 really ripe bananas
1/2 cup  vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon flaxseed meal
1 tablespoon chia seeds
6 tablespoons water
3 cups all purpose gluten free flour mix
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup milk (use soy, almond, or any milk of your choice)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, spray two round cake pans with nonstick spray and then line the bottom with wax paper.
Mix the flaxseed meal and chia seeds with the water.
Mash the bananas.

Add in the flax eggs, the oil, and the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, bp, bs, and salt together.

Add the vinegar to the wet mixture.

Slowly add the dry ingredients in three parts.

Once almost mixed in add in some of the milk. You will repeat this two more times until all the flour and all the milk are used up.

Place into the two pans evenly. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, turning the pans half way during the bake time.

Test to see if they are done by inserting a tooth pick in the center and it comes out clean. Allow them to cool on a rack, once they can come out, take them out of the pan and cool on the rack that way.

Add frosting in the middle or jam or any filling you wish. I went with a superfruit jam.

Then frost.

Cake!

Gotta love good old Trader Joe's!!

Also I just wanted to share my strange but delicious meal with you.
Kale, mango, figs, roasted beets, roasted  golden beets and parsnips with the spice blend I told you about last posting (I froze small batches or the veggies I roasted), and tamari almonds.

Until we meet again with a new dish.