I miss my kitchen.

I am one of the 1.7 million PSE&G customers that lost power during hurricane Sandy. As I write this at 1:30 pm on Saturday, November 3rd, I am one of the remaining PSE&G customers that has not had power restored to my home. For me, this means that since approximately 6:00 pm the night of the storm, I have had no electricity, heat, or functioning stove/oven.

I'm sure there are people who have had it far worse than myself while dealing with the aftermath of the storm. I consider myself fortunate to still have my home intact and all of my belongings with me. My mom and brother in Jersey City are also safe with power completely restored and no flooding in their building.

That being said, I have not been enjoying living life as a temporary drifter. I have been waking up to go to the mall for breakfast (thank you to the crews at Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks for dealing with my uncaffeinated attitude), then I hang around my gym to work out and use their electricity/hot water, followed by hanging out at the mall/working at my retail job. I've been eating at DD and Starbucks for breakfast, then eating a foot long sub from Subway for lunch and dinner.

Yesterday I cleaned out my fridge. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate to waste food, so to throw out all the fruit and veggies that I just bought last week bothered me so much. I didn't throw it all out, though...I found a bell pepper and some broccoli that still looked good, so at least I can put those to good use when I can cook again.

With tonight's real feel low of 23 degrees, I am unsure of what to do if my heat is not turned back on in time. I hesitate to go to Jersey City because of the gas shortage. I feel at a loss.

Any of you compelled to make a monetary donation for hurricane relief, please contact the American Red Cross. To donate goods, contact any fire department in Monmouth County.

Recipe: Red Curry Eggplant, Kale, and Tofu

This is probably one of the easiest curry recipes I've ever made. I used my electric wok, but it could easily be made in a large frying pan or saucepan.

Ingredients:
2 Tbs Thai red curry paste (I prefer Thai Kitchen)
1 Tbs sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1 package extra firm tofu, cubed
1 8oz eggplant, cut into 1 inch thick chunks
1 shallot, minced
1 lb kale, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup light coconut milk

Directions:
whisk together curry paste, sugar, garlic and 2 Tbs water in a small bowl. set aside.
heat oil in wok or pan over medium-high heat. add tofu and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
add eggplant and shallot, then cook for another 5 minutes, or until eggplant is browned. stir in curry mixture and cook for 1 minute, or until tofu and vegetables are fully coated.
add kale and cook 1-2 minutes or until leaves are wilted. stir in coconut milk at 1.5 cups water, then season with sea salt, if desired.
reduce heat to medium-low, then cover pan or wok. simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until eggplant is tender.

serve over brown rice

Recipe: Chickpea and Spinach Stew

One of my favorite tapas dishes is spinach with chickpeas. I love it because while the dish itself is so simple, the flavors are intense and complex. That being said, short of eating a large version of the tapas dish, it is difficult to make a meal out of it. This stew was the perfect solution!

I forgot to stock up on vegetable broth (pun intended) when I made this, so I used what little I had and combined it with water. The original recipe also called for pear tomatoes, but I used roma instead.

ingredients:
8 cups vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp paprika (I chose to use smoked paprika to add a little flavor)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 pinches saffron threads
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 roma tomatoes, stemmed and diced
2 cans garbanzo beans
1/2 cup golden raisins

instructions:
1. place vegetable broth in a stockpot over high heat. add the garlic, paprika, cumin, saffron, and cloves. cover and bring to a boil
2. place a medium sized skillet on medium0high heat and add the olive oil. stir in the shallots and tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes. set aside.
3. When the broth has come to a boil add the spinach and cook until it wilts, about 1-2 minutes.
4. place the beans in a colander and rinse/drain thoroughly. stir into the soup along with the shallots and tomatoes and raisins. continue to cook over medium-high heat for three minutes.
Serves 6

No, Really...I'm Back

I know, I know, it' been a while. But I really am back this time. And I'm doing these things differently this time.

After much reflection, I realized that the way I ate when I started this blog was unhealthy. I was so driven to look healthy that I sacrificed my eating habits in the process. But I was losing weight while staying in the healthy part of my BMI, so it never occrred to me that I wasn't eating correctly. Unfortunately, after hitting my weight loss goal, my weight spiked back up.

Since the summer of 2010, I've put on a total of twenty pounds. Now I want to take it off and keep it off...the right way.

I recently started seeing a nutrition major at my university. She told me that I wasn't making it to 1200 calories every day and too much of what I was eating were empty calories. Plain and simple, I needed to make positive changes to my lifestyle.

Following my nutritionist's meal plan, I'm not only eating better, but I'm exercising differently, too. When I'm not taking a fitnes class, I was just doing thirty minutes on the treadmill and two sets of ab work. I'm now doubling my time on the treadmill, spending several minutes doing floorwork between thirty minute sets on the treadmill/bike.

Since making all of these changes, I have managed to drop eight pounds. Though through all this weight gain and loss I have stayed within my healthy BMI range, I am living proof that BMI is not the most accurate way to measure whether or not a person is overweight. My tiny frame shows gain and loss this dramatic in an obvious way, and I was tired of having a gut.

No, this blog is not going to become a weight loss blog. I want to continue to focus on healthy eating, but in a way that emphasizes eating the right way. I won't just feature a recipe, but I'll also include the vegetables to eat on the side.

If anyone has feedback on these changes, please share it!

Recipe: Couscous with chickpeas and fresh vegetables

Now that my summer classes are over, I have a lot of free time on my hands. This can only mean one thing as far as I'm concerned...more time to cook for myself! I decided to put my box of whole wheat couscous to work. The original recipe calls for cucumber, but mine went bad so I just omitted it. I'll still include it in the recipe, though, since I'm sure it's good with the addition.

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup uncooked couscous
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
2 roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced
1/4 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
garlic powder to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Bring water to boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in couscous, and remove from heat. Cover, and let stand about 5 minutes, until liquid has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork.
2. In a large bowl, mix couscous and garbanzo beans. Toss in tomatoes and cucumbers. Stir olive oil and vinegar into the mixture. Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper

My New Favorite Gadget

This is a bench scraper. I was first introduced to this amazing tool by Carole Walter during her baking class. She used it for everything.

Bench scrapers can be used in the following ways:
1. level off dry goods when measuring them

2. making slits in dough

3. transferring delicate dough/flipping said dough over

4. cleaning the flour off your workspace during and after kneading dough

Bench scrapers are fantastic tools and far from expensive-I bought a large one for myself for $7.

Off topic, but I recognize that I should have preceeded my last post with an explanation for my hiatus. Well, here are the reasons:
1. grad school sucks. no, really. I have no life now because of my classes. I'm registering for my summer and fall classes soon, so I'm hoping for an easier schedule before I lose my life to student teaching.

2. work. I'm still working twenty hours a week at my retail job, which sucks away my free time during the weekend.

3. vacation. I just got home about a week ago from a ten day trip to Israel. It was amazing and I cannot wait to go back.

An Homage to my Vacation

Exactly a week ago, I returned from a trip to Israel. It was absolutely incredible-an experience I will never forget. In honor of the ten days I spent there, I will share my ten reasons why I love not only Israeli food, but middle eastern food in general.

1. chickpeas
Or for that matter, food made from chickpeas-hummus and falafel, to be exact. I still dream about my first Israeli falafel. It was perfect...crispy, but still moist on the inside and seasoned to perfection.

2. the spices
As a vegetarian, it is all too easy to fall into a routine of bland, unseasoned vegetables. That is not a problem with middle eastern food. The food is spiced to perfection, in that it doesn't sacrifice flavor in the process.

3. legumes
Vegetarians sometimes claim it's hard to find good sources of protein. That is not a problem in this area. Quite honestly, I've never seen so many different uses of legumes outside of Indian food.

4. iced coffee
Some may not consider this a food, but they have clearly never tried Israeli iced coffee. It is nothing like the American version, where it is brewed, cooled, and served on ice. Israeli iced coffee tastes almost like a milkshake.

5. Bamba
Popular Israeli snack food. It was first described to me as cheetos with peanut butter in the middle. There is one flavor that tastes like that, but there are a wide variety of flavors to choose from, ranging from chocolate bamba to barbeque bamba.

6. the tomatoes
I don't know why, but the tomatoes I ate in Israel were almost in a world of their own. They tasted as if they were picked the morning before I ate them.

7. pop rock chocolate
self-explanatory.

8. mango sauce
I discovered this on one of our last days in a shwarma restaurant outside of tel aviv. Everyone had their own way of describing how it tasted, but we all loved it.

9. Bagels
Let me tell you something about Israeli bagels: they are amazing. You can buy them off a food cart, where you are also given a small cup of spices to dip the bread in. It is absolutely amazing.

10. hummus
I ate it so often it deserves to be mentioned twice.