orange chicken a l’Harris… sorta

This is my best friend, Harris:

(I stole that from his Facebook, but have seen him be a yoga freak in person as well.)

Long over a year ago, he passed a recipe for his mom’s Chicken a l’Orange to me and I’ve had it on an electronic sticky note on my computer’s desktop for all this time.

I haven’t seen Harris in far too long as he’s been busy galavanting all over Europe for the past 2 years (I’m not jealous at all) and our Skype availability never seems to match up. Staring at this recipe really made me miss him!

Since I haven’t cooked in forever, or so it seemed, it finally felt like the right time to use that recipe since I couldn’t come up with anything better in my useless brain. By the time I got to the grocery store with the recipe in my hand, I decided to change it to a more Asian-inspired Orange Chicken recipe. The original recipe isn’t much different from what I did, but I merely switched out American chili sauce (like fancy ketchup) for Asian garlic chili so-spicy-it-makes-you-die sauce, added a vegetable, and used chicken chunks (appetizing) instead of whole, bone-in pieces. And I sauteed instead of baked the chicken in the sauce.

I’m by no means an authentic Asian cook. I consider myself an aficionada of Asian cooking but this is in no ways super authentic. However it did taste mighty good and satisfied an unhealthy Chinese food craving.

Orange Chicken (serves 3-4)
1.5-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6 thighs)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
salt & pepper
3 T vegetable oil
1 cup orange juice
2 T soy sauce
1-2 T garlic chili paste (spicy! be careful!)
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 T blackstrap molasses
1 red bell pepper, chopped
Cut the chicken into small pieces and set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine flour with a dash of salt and pepper. Lightly toss the chicken pieces in the flour, covering most of the exposed surfaces. Heat vegetable oil to medium high — ideally you’ll do this in a large wok but I used a Dutch oven since that’s all I had and it worked fine. When the oil is hot, it will glisten. Carefully (!!) drop the floured chicken into the oil in small batches and let it sizzle for a minute or two before stirring it and letting it brown for a few minutes longer. Remove and repeat until all chicken is brown — it will not be fully cooked at this point. Turn the heat down on your oil once the chicken is all removed. Carefully pour in the orange juice, using a spatula/other utencil to gently scrape the chicken goodness off the bottom of the pan with the help of the OJ. Add in the garlic chili paste, soy sauce, mustard, and molasses, stirring well to combine. Add in the chopped peppers, letting them simmer for a few minutes before adding the chicken back to the wok/pot/vessel. Stir everything well and bring the heat up until the mixture is at a low boil. Allow the mixture to cook, uncovered and gently boiling for 10-20 minutes or until the sauce has reduced by half. The chicken should be cooked through and the peppers soft. Serve hot with rice and broccoli, just like the Chinese restaurants!

livestrong half marathon recap

So yesterday I shed (metaphorical) blood, (real) sweat, and (copious) tears as I finished my very first half marathon.

13.1 miles later, I am still alive, really sore, and really proud.

At 6:15am, I headed to Austin’s Capitol building to meet up with my teammates from Team Asha and took some touristy pictures. Here’s my #1 cheerleader from the course… Rahul!

He came to town to visit, cheer for me, and to make me look even paler than I already am.

He took off at 6:45am to start on some mimosas with my other cheerleaders and I nervously made my way to the start line, pairing myself with some people from the Austin Fit pace group I’ve been doing long runs with. The race started at 7am and since 15,000 crazy people had to cross the start with me, it took me until about 7:15am to even run.

The first few miles were great, I was feeling strong and even saw Rahul and my friends Mary and Cliff cheering for me around mile 2.5. It was a huge boost as I saw the steady 3 mile climb up South Congress from there! The turn around to the 3 mile downhill was wonderful, as I saw another few teammates, smelled bacon from a local restaurant, and saw how I was rocking my pace nearly 30 seconds under my usual. I was cautious not to go out too hard, but I was doing okay except some nerves affecting my stomach.

I saw my cheerleading squad around mile 7 for the last time and took off the rest of the way on my own. I had only run up to 10 miles prior to the race, since I missed the 12 mile run with my group. I got to mile 10 and hit a wall, realizing I had never taken in more fuel (Shot Blocks) at mile 8 like planned, and I felt it. With a short break to chew I got reenergized and tackled some rolling hills.

Then I got to mile 11.8 and wanted to cry. I suppose this is the race organizer’s fun little way to torture us all? It was awful. You saw it coming and dreaded it the whole way and climbed something like 8 stories in .15 of a mile. I walked up part of it and felt really out of breath at the end of it. I tried to pull it together but ended up having to walk up another short hill at 12.6… so close to the end!

I finally did manage to pull it together and rounded the corner towards the finish line. I was slightly ahead of pace so I wasn’t expecting friends to be there and I just gave it my last bit of energy. I cried and threw my arms up as I ran the last .05 miles to the finish. I have been dreaming about doing a half for 3 years and had finally completed it!

I felt momentarily like I couldn’t catch my breath but after chugging some water and getting my medal, things got better. I found Rahul, who is the most amazing person I could ever ask to be with, and he was so proud of me that it made me even prouder of what I had accomplished. We reunited with friends, had a mimosa, and then I stuffed my face with bacon and eggs and all was right with the world.

So there it is. My first 13.1 in 2:26:41. I couldn’t be happier. Well, maybe I would be happier if I wasn’t hobbling like an old lady right now.

obsessed

Hello my name is Meredith and I’m obsessed with my juicer.

For approximately 2 years I have been lusting after juicers. I’ve seen them all over the blog world and always treated myself to a healthy juice on my trips to Whole Foods (which are rare, considering I am a grad student). For Christmas 2010 I was all set to get one and had told my mom all about it, but then reality set in and I realized there were things I needed more in my life and an extra appliance in my kitchen wasn’t it. But since then, I’ve kept my eyes out for a deal, promising myself I’d jump on a deal if I found one.

And I did! This juicer was randomly being offered as a Groupon Goods deal and I happened to have a gift certificate to Groupon (thanks, Mom!) so I ended up paying 1/4 of the retail value plus $10 in shipping. Not too shabby! I got the Juiceman JM400 Jr., which for a newbie juicer like me works perfectly fine — here’s the link on Amazon if you want to see.

The reviews led me to believe that this would be a great juicer for someone who isn’t planning on making huge batches of juice every day, more for the casual juicer than the religious detoxer. Since I’ve gotten it, I’ve made a juice about every other day and it has held up just fine.

If you are thinking of investing in a juicer, here are my basic recommendations:

• Start small, you can always upgrade your model if you want something bigger and better, but you’ll always regret spending $200 on something you found out you never used.
• To keep a juicing habit affordable, buy produce that is on sale and in season. With the 3 for $1 small apples, $1 bunches of kale, 3 for $1 lemons, and a knob of ginger root, my favorite juice costs me less than $1!
• Only buy produce you would eat otherwise. You may get sick of your beet juice and regret having a surplus of beets in your produce drawer.
• Get bang for your buck: produce like cucumbers, apples, and citrus produce a high volume of juice.
• Clean the parts as soon as you finish juicing! It takes about 5 minutes, but I let my juice sit after I make it and force myself to rinse everything off. This way, the sticky fruit juice and pulp doesn’t get crusted on everything.
• If you have a dog or other small mammal, consider feeding it the juice pulp. I feel a little wasteful throwing mine down the garbage disposal. For my all-vegetable juices, I save the pulp and throw it in pasta sauce.

I love my juicer and I love making fresh juice. My skin is looking great and I feel good knowing I’m getting in my vitamins when I sometimes might not meet my daily fruit and vegetable goals. I even love my juicer so much that I keep it near me at all times and somehow spilled acetone nail polish remover on it and it damaged the plastic coating. Go me! 

a most perfect Thanksgiving

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to all!

Tuesday I flew out to DC to spend my Thanksgiving break with Rahul. After several hours stuck in traffic, he finally got to the airport and whisked me away and since then, I’ve been deeply involved in cooking preparations, folding his laundry, and planning our (failed) Black Friday plan of attack.

We had a Living Social deal for Whole Foods and spent way too much money on a Thanksgiving feast for 2 people, but it was so much fun to cook Thanksgiving for him! If you read me regularly, you’ll know that Rahul is from India, so I made several un-PC jokes about pilgrims and Indians.

My Thanksgiving feast last year was for 8 people and very busy so making a simple turkey breast (with this recipe — I definitely recommend it!!) and traditional sides was really enjoyable. And the DC weather was so great that we went for a run pre-cooking and ended up taking our stuff outside for a picnic.

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving as well! I am currently spending my last couple days in DC soaking up the vacation bliss — semester finals are coming up and I’m trying to not think of them. I’ll be back next week with some kind of food. If I ever find room in my stomach again.

happy Veteran’s Day!

Happy Veteran’s Day to all those who have served and are currently serving our country! 

Today is particularly bittersweet to me as my own brother, Hunter, is a soldier! He’s deploying to Afghanistan in a matter of weeks so I am taking a quick trip home to Virginia this weekend to send him off right! We’re doing this the Southern way: too much food, beer, and crazy relatives.

Fun fact: this picture was taken in May 2010…. which was also the last time I saw him! I cannot believe I’ve gone a year and a half without seeing him! 

Have a great weekend!

old school tacos

When I was growing up, about once a week we had Taco Night, and it was one of my favorite nights of the week.

My mom would buy a packet of taco seasoning from the grocery store that she mixed with ground beef. My brother and I were in charge of preparing the condiments, so we would pull out all the bowls in the cabinet and fill them with shredded cheddar cheese, iceberg lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. We always had soft taco shells (for my brother, Hunter) and hard taco shells for me!

Now, as an adult, I tend to go to the grocery store and buy random things without meals in mind. As I stared at the ground turkey I had in the refrigerator, visions of Taco Night swam in my head and I knew I had to find a way to make my own taco meat!

Now, in essence, this isn’t a difficult dish and hardly a “recipe”, but simply because it took me straight back to childhood I had to share it with y’all. It was delicious with whole wheat tortillas in tacos and even better the next day as a healthy taco salad!

Taco Night Turkey (serves 4)
1 lb lean (93/7) ground turkey
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 T chili powder
1/2 T cumin
1 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp cayenne (add more or less for spice)
salt & pepper
In a skillet, combine raw turkey and onions over medium heat. Stir occasionally, browning the meat and cooking the onions. When the turkey is almost fully browned, after about 5-7 minutes, stir in the spices, adding salt & pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly and reduce the heat to medium-low, mincing the meat into small crumbles as you stir. When the meat is fully browned, about 10 minutes total after starting, and the spices are uniformly mixed. Serve hot in tacos or cold in a taco salad!

mmmm sammies

Before you get to the food, let me just say: Happy Halloween!! 

**

I have a thing about sammies (or, to use the lay term, “sandwiches”). I hate making them at home because they’re always disappointing, but I am almost always craving one. Why is it that Thundercloud makes a better turkey sandwich than I do? And as far as gyros and pitas go, I stink.

Over the weekend I was watching an embarrassing amount of Comedy Central and there were several commercials for a nasty-looking Taco Bell flatbread sandwich thing. And I knew I wanted one. But not from Taco Bell, obviously. I do not wish that intestinal pain on anyone.

But I endeavored to make a delicious sandwich for myself, inspired by the flatbread and inspired by the fish in my freezer that needed eating. I started by cutting Bobby Flay’s Flatbread recipe in half and baking that up. It tasted great, but it was kind of dense. I think my yeast didn’t develop enough.

Then, I thawed the fish and channeled my inner Mediterranean (non-existant) and came up with a super delicious, healthful marinade to bake the fish in and threw together some other ingredients to put on the sandwich.

The result was a super messy yet super yummy sammie that I will be recreating soon!

Tilapia Flatbread Sandwich (serves 2)
2 pieces flatbread (store-bought or homemade)
2 filets tilapia, thawed
2 T tomato sauce
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp oregano
2-3 T plain yogurt
1/4 small onion, grated (use a microplane!)
salt & pepper
In a baking dish, season fish with olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard seed, and oregano. Cover fish filets on both sides with spices and spread tomato sauce on top. Bake at 375* for 10 minutes and allow to cool slightly. While fish is cooling, mix together yogurt and grated onion and spread on flatbread. Top the sandwich with any veggies you want (I used some leftover steamed asparagus — awesome). Place fish on top of spread and any veggies and fold the bread over. Enjoy!

my fall favorites

I suppose it is “fall” now, being that we have had weather consistently in the high 80′s for the past week.

And fall makes me think of comforting foods, prepared lovingly by my family. I was looking through some old pictures and was reminded of these foods.

So here are my 3 favorite fall foods… plus bagels because I just love them so much.

First up: My Aunt Nell’s Classic Apple Pie

Next, we have Hot Virginia Dip. Oh how I long for it…

Now for my Mama’s (Famous) Mac n Cheese (and my most popular recipe ever!)…

And now for the bagels… Oh the bagels!

Feed some friends this weekend! Happy cooking!

my new comfort food

Indian food now, clearly, reminds me of my beloved. One of the first dishes Rahul made for me — which clearly solidified him as Grade A Boyfriend Material — was chicken tikka masala, the national favorite food of Britain and, of course, a staple from his homeland.

I know of the spice packets to choose from at the local Indian grocer where I now go on occasion, but I also know the basics of how to make the dish myself without the pre-measured, perfect spices.

CTM has become my new favorite comfort food and the way I make it isn’t terribly unhealthy! You can easily find the required ingredients and if you don’t want to invest in the jars of the spices, you can find them in the bulk bins at your grocery store. I recommend eating this with a piece of naan and some basmati rice.

Majorly comforting and guilt free. Namaste!

Chicken Tikka Masala (makes 5-6 servings)
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, sliced in chunks
1 cup plain non-fat yogurt
1/2 cup water
1-15 oz. can cushed tomato
1/2 small white onion, sliced thinly
1 T vegetable oil
1 T garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
1/2-1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
salt & pepper
Slice the chicken into large chunks, removing any excess skin. Place in a bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper, yogurt, and water, stirring until the chicken is fully coated. Set aside and let marinate for 30 minutes – 1 hour. When the chicken is ready, slice the onions thinly. In a deep wok or Dutch oven (it’s what I use!), heat the vegetable oil and stir in the onions, cooking until slightly tender. Pour in the canned tomato and the spices, stirring well. When everything is mixed, add in the chicken including all yogurt in the bowl. Stir and cover, reducing heat to medium-low. Let the mixture simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to help the dairy in the sauce not break. After simmering for 30 minutes, serve hot over basmati rice. If it is too spicy, top with more plain yogurt and some cilantro if you have it on hand!

we run so they can read

I am sure many people are familiar with the concept of running races to raise money. I think Relay for Life is one of the biggest fund-raising efforts that uses running/walking as their platform. You may also be familiar with Team in Training that trains people to run half and full marathons to raise money for leukemia and lymphoma research.

But did you know that you can run a race to help end illiteracy in India? That’s right. And guess who is running it? This girl.

(Can you spot the lone white girl?)

I’ll be running the Livestrong Austin (Half) Marathon in February of 2012, a feat that sounds laughable to me at the moment as I’m grossly out of running shape. The elliptical in the air-conditioned gym and I have become fast friends this 105*+ summer. But I’m strapping on the running shoes and questioning my decision every day as I train with Austin Fit to run for Team Asha.

While no one charity is better than another, I happen to be running for this cause because it is very dear to my heart. For starters, I am in graduate school for a degree in literature… something not easily attainable for children who don’t have access to quality education. Literacy is something I’ve taken for granted my whole life, having grown up in suburbia with a great school system.

And as for why Asha and not another children’s charity… well there’s a man I’m in love with and he is from India. It seems pretty logical to me. I want to help other people from the country that provided Rahul with the educational foundation to come to America, continue his education, get a job in Austin, and meet and fall in love with me.

I don’t yet have my fundraising page up, but when I do, I will certainly post it for y’all. I know that the economic climate is not favorable right now, but if you can find it in your heart to donate even $5, that would help tremendously. Think about it: for the price of 2 coffees at Starbucks, you can help me raise money so millions of children can read. 

Thank you all for your continued support — I look forward to training and running for the kids of India and for all of you!