not just for guacamole

Recently, a representative from Avocados from Mexico asked me if I’d like her to send me some avocados so I could try out a breakfast recipe or two.

Come again?

Yes, please. Please send me one of my most favorite fruits that I, sadly, almost never buy. Rahul is allergic to them so I got out of the habit of eating them.

I browsed the breakfast recipes and decided to try the Avocado Pineapple Smoothie since I’ve always wanted to try an avocado smoothie and never have. Most of the time, I think of avocado as solely a condiment, but you can do a lot more with it than guacamole if you think outside the box.

I decided to throw in a couple almost-too-ripe strawberries in with the mix, so the color looks a little icky, but trust me: the smoothie was great. It was incredibly creamy and nice to discover a dairy-free smoothie alternative that makes it as creamy as yogurt. A little healthy fat never hurt anyone!

Be sure to browse the website and learn more about avocados. I enjoyed educating myself on the vitamins and other health benefits of avocados and looking for some recipe inspiration. I’m also going to try an avocado face mask tonight! I’ll report back.

a philosophical question

While on the phone with my boyfriend recently, I mentioned that I was going to make blueberry muffins (Rahul’s favorite!) but was stopped in my tracks when he posed the question, “What is the difference between a cupcake and a muffin?”

My answer was fairly succinct: icing.

But then another friend suggested it was health, which I laughed off because most muffins are more unhealthy than a cupcake. Then I started debating the differences in the batters (stiff muffin batter vs more liquid cake batter). And then I gave up. So, glorious readers, here is a recipe for (healthy!) blueberry muffins to keep you busy as you contemplate this deeply important and urgent philosophical question:

What is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake?

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins (makes 9 muffins)
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used nonfat)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup fresh blueberries
In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients until well mixed. Add in the yogurt, egg, and vanilla and stir until just combined (the key to muffins is not over-mixing!). Using a spatula, gently fold in the fresh blueberries. Line a muffin pan with muffin cups and spray them gently with cooking spray. Divide the muffin batter evenly between the muffin cups — they will be full! With the oven heated to 375* bake for 14 minutes and let cool slightly before enjoying!

some like it hot

Recently, on a trip to Whole Foods, I tried an amazing smoothie. I had it after a morning run and it was refreshing, a little spicy, and (supposedly) good for my health. This delicious beverage had mango, pineapple, coconut water, and cayenne pepper and I was intrigued by the benefits of the ingredients.

The health benefits of coconut water after exercise may be a bit exaggerated, according to many sources, but it is undeniable that it does contain some beneficial nutrients, such as potassium, which is great for muscle recovery. Ever get cramps in your legs or feet? I’ve fallen victim to them since my days of swimming and I know to eat bananas and potatoes for potassium. But now I can add coconut water to that list!

But there’s one major problem: coconut water tastes like feet. I bought some a while back and popped open the can, excited to try it. It was disgusting. I poured the rest in a jar and stuck it in my fridge, unsure when I’d ever use it again. But after trying the smoothie at Whole Foods, I knew that I could mask the foot taste and still get the health benefits.

Another cool ingredient in the smoothie I had was the cayenne pepper. I love spice and cayenne pepper has some pretty good health benefits as well. It aids in digestion, helps boost your metabolism, and has a good amount of vitamin A. Cayenne pepper is also beneficial to your heart health, cholesterol, and blood triglyceride levels. Many sources, including one of my favorites, recommend sprinkling a little cayenne pepper on your food every day to get the benefits. The recommended 2 tsp is a LOT of spice and I don’t get nearly that much, but I figure something is better than nothing!

So, using the ingredients in my freezer and fridge, I concocted my own version of the Whole Foods smoothie and it was the perfect beverage to enjoy after a lovely 3 mile run this morning… cold, a little spicy, and packed with good-for-me stuff!

My Tropical Spice Smoothie (serves 1)
1 cup young coconut water
1/2 medium mango, frozen
1 banana, frozen
1/8 tsp cayenne (add more for more spice)
Combine all ingredients in a blender. Make sure the fruits are thoroughly frozen (at least frozen overnight) because this will make your smoothie incredibly creamy even though there’s no yogurt! Blend on high until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour into a glass and enjoy immediately!

honored

Today I’m honored to have my recipe for Plain Bagels featured on The Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen Blog!!

I am so flattered that my recipe was chosen and I’m also flattered to have so many new readers today! I’ll be back Monday with more food fun, but for now, go make some bagels y’all!

non muffin top muffins

Today is a “snow day”. Now, even by ridiculous Virginia snow day standards, this is a joke. Yes, Texas, the roads are a little icy, but the snow was melted and gone by 11am. But since I didn’t have to go to campus to teach, I’ve been spending my day making a blanket fort in my bed, cleaning the apartment from top to bottom, doing my taxes, and thinking about baking.

While looking through my family cookbook, I realized that I’ve never made a muffin recipe on here. And that has to change.

So here is a classic muffin recipe from my childhood that is perfect for baking a few muffins at a time. The batter keeps really well in the fridge (air-tight container!) for up to 6 weeks and my mom always used it to make a few fresh muffins before we’d leave for school. Plus, it is a fairly healthy muffin to help in the fight against muffin tops everywhere.

No 3-day weekend is complete without muffins.

Refrigerator Raisin Bran Muffins (makes 12 muffins)
1/2 cup regular raisin bran cereal
1 1/4 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 egg, beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil (can sub apple sauce if you have it on hand!)
In a large bowl, combine cereal, flour, sugar, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, and oil. Mix well. Add to bran mixture and stir until just moist. Use immediately or store in refrigerator for up to 6 weeks (buttermilk helps preserve the batter, as well as a cold fridge and a tight seal on your container). To bake, fill greased muffin cups about 2/3 full and bake at 400* for 15-20 minutes.

how do you like them apples?

“Yeah? Well, I got her number. How do you like them apples?”

^name that movie and you earn my eternal praise for excellent taste in movies.

Side note: I wrote this recipe in NOVEMBER. It is finally surfacing after all this time. You can even see my unpainted table. And icing.

Well, I randomly came into possession of a giant basket of apples (long story) and I wanted to bake with them. But I’ve already made an apple pie and didn’t have enough vegetable oil for my family’s apple cake…. Then I remembered that always lately I’ve been craving warm, gooey, icing-covered cinnamon buns, and thus was born a semi-healthy cinnamon bun.

The theory behind cinnamon rolls are easy enough. You make a dough, roll it out, make a filling, roll it up, slice, and bake. I can do that.

And I can also snap blurry photos of said cinnamon buns while watching Family Guy on Netflix. It’s part of my charm.

And I can eat them.

Oh, can I eat them.

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Buns (makes 8 large buns)
Dough:
3/4 cup milk
2 T butter, softened
2 cups all purpose flour (plus extra for dusting)
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 package yeast
2 T white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
1 egg
Filling:
1 T cinnamon
3 T butter, softened
1 apple, peeled and diced small
2 T brown sugar
In a small sauce pan, heat the milk until bubbling, remove from heat, and mix in 2 T butter until it melts. Let cool slightly and add the yeast to let it foam. In a mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, sugar, and salt, mixing well. Mix in the water, egg, and milk mixture to the flour. Then add the remaining all purpose flour, mixing with your hands. When dough has come together, turn it onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Cover and let rise momentarily while preparing the filling. In a small bowl, combine 3 T butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and the diced apples. Roll out the dough in a flat, rectangular shape so it is thin but not too thin (about 1/4 inch thick). Spoon the filling mixture onto the dough, stopping about 1 inch from each edge. Beginning on one of the shorter sides of the rectangle, roll the dough up so it forms a log. Cut the log into 8 rolls, discarding the ends with no filling. Place in a buttered baking dish and cover with a towel, allowing the dough to rise 30-45 minutes. Bake in an oven heated to 375* for 20 minutes. Allow to cool and then top with your favorite icing (I made a simple heavy cream, butter & powdered sugar icing). *The raw rolls freeze remarkably well!

my absolute favorite baked good

This is big. There’s no going back from statements like this. Claiming something as my absolute favorite baked good is like asking a musician for a favorite song or band. But seriously, this is my definitive favorite thing that has come out of an oven ever in the history of ovens. For 22 years (or for however long I’ve been eating them) I have loved bagels.

Harris, my best friend, calls me an honorary Jew because, among other reasons, I am obsessed with bagels. In fact, when I told him that I had made bagels from scratch his actual response was, “Stop it you’re so Jewish.” (You can check Facebook if you don’t believe me.)

I just love bagels. LOVE THEM. I don’t discriminate: I love all flavors, all shmears. I will go out of my way to find a good bagel (like walking 20 blocks in NYC looking for just the right one). They take me back to my competitive swimming years when we’d eat them at swim meets. My gym even gives them out for free on the 1st Tuesday of the month. I dream of bagels.

But since moving to Texas, I’ve been sorely disappointed in the bagels. They say bagels from New York are the best (and they are) but it is as if anywhere off the East Coast cannot make a good bagel. Except for chains like Panera and Einstein’s, I have yet to find a passable bagel here in Austin. I don’t think they boil the bagels here. They’re like circular lumps of dry bread.

I searched the Internet far and wide for ideas and recipes and came up with my own, a minimalist type of recipe so all that you taste is the goodness of the bagel. Nothing fancy here, just chewy bagel goodness. And they’re even vegan so I can serve them to Bess when she visits this weekend!

I now plan on baking 50 dozen bagels (of various flavors) and eating my way out of my apartment. I’ll see you when I get out of my bagel coma.

Plain Bagels (makes 6 bagels)
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 T sugar
2/3 cup warm water + extra
1/2 T vegetable oil
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
In the bottom of your mixer bowl, combine 2/3 cup water, sugar, and yeast and let the yeast develop for about 5 minutes. Add in flour, vegetable oil, and salt and mix with a dough hook (or by hand) until the dough is elastic and tough. You may need to add in a bit of extra water, but do it little by little. Let the dough sit and rise in a warm place for  20-30 minutes. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead. Cut into 6 equal pieces. Roll each individual piece into a “snake” long enough to wrap around your palm. Dip each end of the dough in water and press together in your palm, forming a circle. Place the formed bagels on a floured board and allow to rise another 20-30 minutes. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a heavy-bottomed pot. When the water is gently boiling, place 2-3 bagels into the water for 1 minute and then flip to boil on the other side for another minute. Remove the bagels, place them on paper towels to take off excess moisture, then place on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining bagels. Bake in the oven on 425* for 18 minutes, turning them over after 10 minutes. Enjoy!

FoodBuzz 24×24: A Very Virginia Thanksgiving

Virginia is a pretty great place. And as much as I love Texas, I also love my home state and I am full of pride that I come from the state that made such significant contributions to the world as several presidents, me, Pocahontas, and bacon.

So naturally I’m feeling a bit homesick for the Commonwealth during the holidays. Thanksgiving has been rough the past 2 years because of my father’s death. To make it even harder, I’ve just moved 1300 miles away from my mom! Today also happens to be my big brother Hunter’s 24th birthday, but he’s in a far away place, serving our country as a soldier and stationed just below the North Korean border. (Yes, the country that is currently threatening war and has missiles in range of my brother’s barracks. I’m getting an ulcer.)

So this Thanksgiving had to be special. It just had to be. And thanks to huge amounts of butter, bacon, and FoodBuzz’s 24×24 feature, it was.

Cast of Characters:

• Mary: dear friend who moved to Austin at the same time as me; we’re practically neighbors & she’s frequently mentioned on here.
• Sarah: Mary’s older sister and another old friend; she flew out from Georgia to be with us! She loves goat cheese & long walks with dogs.
• Alex: Cousin of Sarah and Mary; delivery-boy of Mary’s long-awaited furniture; bringer of 96 bottles of East Coast beer and Chesapeake Bay oysters.
• Emily: Alex’s girlfriend and master potato smasher; lover of heavy cream.
• Todd: Brother of Alex and supporter of A&M (booo!); famous for cracking open a PBR at 8:34am the day after Thanksgiving.
• Becky: Sister of Alex & Todd; dog walking extraordinaire and enjoys motorboats;
• Zack: Husband of Becky and instigator of several “That’s what she said” jokes.

Appetizers:

• Hot Virginia Dip
• Creamy Oyster Stew
• Virginia peanuts

Main course:

• Virginia cured honey ham
• Country Biscuits
• Brussels Sprouts with Radicchio and Bacon
• Cheddar Bacon Twice Baked Potatoes
• roasted acorn squash

Liquid Libations:

• Too much beer
• Too much wine
• My uncle’s champagne, Hennequin Père et Fils

Salad course:

• Mixed greens, shredded carrot, onion, Virginia peanuts, and tomato
• Hot Bacon Dressing

Dessert (aka, breakfast on Friday):

• Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust with a candle for my brother’s birthday!

It may not have been a typical Thanksgiving — we didn’t even have turkey! But it was amazing anyways. We ate on mismatched plates, most of the time we sat on the floor, I caught the oven on fire on Wednesday from an incident involving butter, there’s a cup of rendered bacon fat sitting in my fridge, we fell asleep on my living room floor before we got to the cheesecake, and we drank far too much.

But for me it was picture perfect. We had the food I grew up on and it reminded me of Virginia. We had my dad’s favorite side-dish: Bacon Cheddar Twice Baked Potatoes. We had my Uncle Bruno’s champagne, Hennequin Père et Fils, which makes me go weak at the knees and start telling dirty jokes every time. We had my brother’s birthday cake for breakfast Friday morning, Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust. We had laughs so hard my stomach hurt, great moments of family and friends, only a few moments of utter panic, and a wonderful day together. My tongue is a little burnt from the Creamy Oyster Stew, my head hurts from the wine, and my kitchen is a wreck. But I wouldn’t trade yesterday for any traditional Thanksgiving. Thank you for everyone who shared this day and this experience with me — who knew I’d be able to cook a 4 course Thanksgiving for 8 and not panic the whole time?

(If you’d like any of the recipes seen above, leave a comment below and I’ll feature them in the upcoming weeks!)

an ode to cocoa puffs

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about my love for corn tortillas, despite the fact that there are “healthier” options available? Well I’m a firm believer in not making compromises and not apologizing, so here it is: I don’t apologize for loving Cocoa Puffs.

Generic, knock-off, HFCS-free Cocoa Spheres

At least I go for the all natural stuff, right? Right.

As a kid we didn’t have a ton of sugary cereals in the house, but my brother and I did like the occasional bowl of chocolate, sugar-coma inducing cereal for breakfast. And with the generic kind I got at a health food store, this comes with only 10g sugar in a serving. Not terrible.

And when you’re jonesing for chocolate (daily) these are a good way to have a substantial snack and satisfy your sweet tooth. They’re sweet but not too sweet, make you feel like a kid again, and turn the milk into chocolate milk as if by some crazy cereal alchemy magic. I tell you, a bowl of Cocoa Puffs (ahem, “Cocoa Spheres”) is a little bowl of heaven.

So next time you’re in the cereal aisle, don’t feel guilty for wanting the kids stuff. Every so often, there’s no harm in picking up a box of the classics, it is a fun way to shake things up for you AND kill a chocolate craving. Hint: this makes a wonderful mid-afternoon snack or dessert. Just sayin’.

why I don’t drink coffee

My mommy has left me all alone in Austin She says I’m ready to be on my own and I know she’s anxious to get home to see her husband… BUT I don’t want her to leave me!!! I dropped her off at the crack of dawn this morning at the airport, sobbed the whole way back to my apartment, and then pulled it together to get back on track with my half marathon training — I found an incredible hike/bike trail all around Lady Bird Lake here in Austin. It wasn’t my prettiest run, as I broke into random sobs and sweated in the 83* heat (at 7am?!). But, I did it!

But, let’s get back to that whole “crack of dawn” thing. I know a lot of people would have fumbled with the coffee maker or dragged themselves to the nearest Starbucks, but I’m just not a coffee person!

There was a time at the end of high school and the beginning of college where I drank coffee because it was trendy. Cafés and coffee shops were popular and my friends and I would go to study and drink coffee. I even had dates at coffee shops! But these days, I rarely get a coffee-based drink. I stick to tea and the occasional soy latte. But why don’t I normally drink coffee or espresso?

1. The taste. I think it tastes awful. And if millions of people find it necessary to add mass amounts of artery clogging cream and processed, crappy sugar to it to make it taste good, it probably isn’t worth my time. I love the smell, hate the taste.

2. Caffeine! I know, I know: DECAF. But if the purpose of coffee is to drink that nasty tasting drink to wake you up, what is the point of decaf? Plus, caffeine really affects me. I get serious jitters and will stay up for hours after a cup of coffee or a latte! The occasionally diet soda or cup of caffeinated tea affects me, but not nearly as much as a cup of coffee.

3. Politics. Let’s be honest, a lot of coffee is not fairly traded and it isn’t fair to the farmers and field workers who work so hard and still live in poverty. If I limit my coffee intake, I am limiting my participation in that industry.

4. Coffee is a natural laxative! Coffee affects the magnesium in your body which helps to absorb important nutrients from your food. So if you have a big cup of coffee with that healthy, balanced breakfast, you’re doing yourself a disservice! Coffee rushes food out of your digestive tract too quickly and the nutrients aren’t totally absorbed.

5. Pesticides are gross. Icky, icky pesticides! I know they exist in other produce and organic is expensive, so if I can limit my intake of pesticides in one area, coffee is an easy way to do it. I’ve heard that coffee tends to have a larger concentration of pesticides than a lot of other foods!

6. Addictions aren’t healthy! With the exception of maybe chocolate and freshly baked bread, you shouldn’t ever be addicted to a food! Coffee is like a drug and people become dependent on it. For instance, I know a lot of people who say they physically cannot wake up without coffee and crave it all the time. Maybe you should get more sleep and ween yourself off the java? If you’re dependent on a food/beverage like that, you have a problem.

So what do I drink? I tend to not like hot drinks at all, but I do like a good cup of tea. I try to find natural, herbal, decaf tea. Yes, I do sometimes drink caffeinated tea (like the pitcher of iced tea in my fridge) but it doesn’t affect me the same way as coffee and, from what I’ve heard and my own intuition, tea seems a lot more benign than coffee. I’ve yet to actually need tea and I certainly don’t depend on it to wake me up.

A cup of green tea & a yogurt bowl (Greek yogurt, a peach, naturally sweetened granola)

So where do you stand? Coffee addict? Occasional latte (like me!)? Or do you avoid it all together? Why? Athletes: does coffee affect performance?