Sunday Rituals

I have a few Sunday rituals I like to adhere to, which helps me relax after what usually turns out to be a busy weekend and allows me to prepare for the week ahead. Sometimes I get in an extra yoga class or a friendly brunch, but I always do my weekly shop Sunday morning then come home to spend time in the kitchen.

Since I'm not making any fabulous dinners this week, I thought I'd share some tips and tricks I use to help make healthy eating quick, easy, and accessible for everyone. On a side note, I did make a kick ass pot of turkey and fennel chili on Sunday night that kept me in lunches and dinners throughout the week.

During the week, I am constantly on the go. For the past 6 weeks, I've been getting in 6am yoga classes a few times a week, which means getting up extra early and having a post workout breakfast ready in addition to lunch and afternoon snack. In order to accomplish this, I make a protein smoothie the night before and pop it in the freezer, pack my lunch in its bag and leave that in the fridge, and make sure my gym bag is ready to go with my work clothes and a second set of workout gear.

It sounds like alot, I know. But I promise if you have even a spare hour once a week to prep a few things, you can do it too. Here are my Sunday standbys; do it with a mimosa in your hand and you might not even notice.

1. Hard boil 4-5 eggs. Put your eggs in a large pot of water, bring it to a boil then turn it off and let the eggs sit until you're finished with everything else. They are easy to ignore!

2. Cut up / individually bag veggies. I like to buy whole carrots and cut them up for lunch/snacks. I usually put 2 carrots per bag; sometimes I add celery, sometimes I'm real lazy and just get baby carrots. Just pre-portion everything and leave it in the fridge. And make sure to re-use your ziplocks!

3. Buy frozen fruit for smoothies or cut and freeze your own. I buy frozen berries and pineapple and greens, but I prefer to freeze my own bananas; keep extra on hand if you need to make banana ice cream one night.

4. Buy pre-cooked chicken for lunchtime salads. This is my biggest secret and best tip-I always hit up the salad bar at WFM and load up on the all natural pre cooked chicken breast they stock there. It is a bargain at $7.99/lb.
As an alternative! You can buy a whole roasted chicken from most grocery stores and pull all the meat from it and store it in a container to add to salads or whatever. If you do this, I highly recommend using the carcass to make your own chicken stock, which will keep in the freezer for months.

5. Clean your greens. You can buy the pre-washed stuff, and I do, but I always like to give it a rinse. Keep it bagged up and accessible for making salads when you don't have leftovers.

6. Buy easily transportable fruit. Especially now that we're out of berry season, apples, pears, and citrus all travel well and don't require any extra packaging, just toss it in with the rest of your lunch.

7. Buy in bulk and bag the breasts. I buy the boneless, skinless natural chicken breasts from WFM in bulk for $4.99/lb (which is a bargain for clean meat!) then I bag two breasts at a time and keep in the freezer for speedy dinners-think curries, soups, pastas, etc.

So there you have it, my Sunday ritual. I'll probably roast a few beets now that it's fall again, and I might do a few other things here and there. With a little advanced preparation, you can not only always have a healthy meal within minutes, you can travel with food you feel good about eating.

Good Luck and Good Eating!

Seared Albacore and Red Chard

So I haven't posted anything in over a week! Shame on me for being so slack; Tim's been away for almost a week and I've either had too much time on my hands or have overbooked each day since he's been gone. That being said, I haven't been cooking for him this week, just myself, which can sometimes seem like more effort than its worth, especially since he always cleans up the kitchen.

We both tend to travel for work a fair bit, so we end up making some changes to our routine to adapt; Tim eats frozen pizza and I have to do my own laundry. When I'm on my own, I can get pretty lazy and have nights where I am quite content to have an apple with peanut butter for dinner. But I digress.

Last week before he left, I whipped up this seared albacore dish with red chard. My mom makes a delicious red chard and I decided to copy her, mostly cause I was feeling inspired by the beautiful leafy green tops and bright red stalks, and also because sometimes you just need to switch it up.

Bear in mind that you can use any leafy green here you wish-rainbow chard, spinach, baby bok choy, whatever you have on hand or whatever your favorite green is. I also happened to use albacore because not only was it fresh and beautiful, but it was also on sale.

Seared Albacore with Red Chard

1 bunch red chard, leaves ribboned and stems diced

1/2 yellow onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, diced

2 portions albacore, I used a 4oz and 7oz piece

Olive Oil

1 orange, zested

Salt, Pepper

*Grapefruit balsamic vinegar

Prepare the marinade for your fish: rinse fish and pat dry and place in a shallow bowl with 1tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, and about 1tbsp of orange zest. Let sit while you prep your chard.

Heat a deep skillet over medium high heat. Add a little olive oil to the pan and sautee your onions for 3-4 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and the chard stalks and sautee another 2-3 minutes, then add the leaves and let them wilt. Turn off the heat and let sit until ready to plate.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat and add a little olive oil. Cut your orange in half and squeeze some juice over the fish just before you place it in your skillet, seasoned side down. Season the top side with salt, pepper and orange zest while the bottom browns. Flip after 3-4 minutes; you should see the fish turn from translucent to opaque as it cooks. Sear for another 3-4 minutes, but don't cook  your tuna all the way through as it tends to get tough.

Add your wilted chard to a plate or bowl, and top with a dash of salt and freshly ground pepper. I drizzled mine with a fabulous grapefruit balsamic vinegar, but you can use the other half of your orange to dress the chard otherwise. Top with the albacore, another squeeze of orange and crack of pepper, and you're ready to eat.

Enjoy!

Roasted Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup with Turkey and Leeks

Fall has finally come to Texas, and maybe even a bit earlier than usual. Either way, I am very much enjoying a reprieve from the heat and humidity we've endured for the last several months. Maybe that's why I am so excited for fall this year, or it could be my love of gourds, root veggies, and earthy spices. I used to be such a summertime girl, but now the idea of scarves and spices has me totally stoked.

I may have mentioned this before, but I also love soup. Like really love soup. We didn't have a particularly soup friendly winter last year, so I'm hoping for an extended fall and a reasonable winter. Note that a reasonable winter in my mind means nothing below 45 degrees F; nowhere in Texas has coat checks and we tend to use our heat in the winter the same was as we use our AC all other times of year.

I had a little bit of extra time on the weekend, and decided to make a roasted carrot and sweet potato soup, inspired by one of my trips to Scotland earlier in the year.

The soup I ate was served with a healthy drizzle of sage oil and a fried sage leaf, which really complements the flavors of the carrot and sweet potato. I used a sage seasoning in this version, but cannot recommend fresh sage and a sage oil enough here; I was really missing it.

I roasted the carrots and sweet potatoes with onions, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary and dried sage, and tossed everything in olive oil to roast (aka ignore) while I prepped lunch for the week. You'll want to make sure your veggies are roughly the same size so that they cook at the same rate.

When they were fork tender, I pulled them out and popped them in a dutch oven with some melting leeks and chicken stock to simmer further. You can use vegetable broth here if you'd like to make this soup vegetarian/vegan as well. When everything was good and soupy and soft, I pulled out my immersion blender (one of my favorite Christmas presents...seriously) and pureed until smooth. I topped ours off with some italian turkey sausage from WFM and a few extra caramelized leeks. It was awesome for a cool fall evening, and delicious leftover for lunch the next day!

Roasted Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup with Turkey and Leeks

2 Italian Turkey sausages, casings removed

1 leek, white parts sliced

1/2 onion, sliced

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

4 carrots, cut into rounds

2 cloves garlic, crushed

4c chicken or vegetable stock

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1tsp sage, dried or fresh

Olive oil, salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 400F and peel and chop your veggies. Toss carrots, sweet potato, onion, rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper, and sage with 1tbsp of olive oil, and spread on a foil lined baking sheet. Roast in oven until fork tender, about 35 minutes.

In a dutch oven over medium heat, add 1/2tbsp oilve oil and half your sliced leeks. Let soften for a few minutes, then add your roasted veggies and stock. Let everything simmer and soften together and let the flavor of the veggies infuse the broth. Once soft, use an immersion blender to process until smooth. You can also use a regular blender here if you don't have an immersion blender.

In a skillet over medium heat, sautee the remaining leeks in 1/2tbsp olive oil until starting to caramelize. Push to one side and add the turkey sausage, breaking up large chunks as they form.

Ladle soup into bowls and top with turkey and caramelised leeks and fresh ground pepper.

Breakfast for Me. And You.

I realize I haven't posted many dinners this week; I just completed a 3 day raw food cleanse AND traveled for work which meant Tim got alot of grilled cheese and frozen pizza. Which I think actually made him pretty happy, but it's not anything I really need to put out in the blogosphere. 

The raw food cleanse was good, although I definitely noticed my desire for protein sources and unfortunately raw meat was off the menu. As my friend K says, "Juice is not food." Smoothies, however, are!

I have been having a protein smoothie for breakfast every (work) morning for a few months now, and I have gone through several different iterations and flavor combinations. While I gave up the egg white protein for a few days for my cleanse, I still continued to enjoy a smoothie for breakfast. 

Ah smoothies. They take about 3 minutes to make, are easily transportable, and the flavor combinations are endless. They can be adapted to moods, seasons, or whatever you happen to have in the fridge/freezer. When I go to early morning yoga practices, I make one the night before and put it in the freezer so that it can melt at the same time as me; then I can eat it with a spoon at the office. They're especially great in the summertime when it's a zillion degrees outside, but can basically be enjoyed year round in Texas. 

This week I've been enjoying banana-mocha smoothies, which I'm sharing today for the crossfitters. I find this flavor combination  kindof helps give you your chocolate fix without adding any sugar, as the bananas are plenty sweet. You also get some good fats from the almond butter and a dose of omegas from the flaxseed meal. You can add a scoop of protein powder too if you'd like; I'm using the Vitol brand Vanilla Ice Cream flavor, which is great and not too sweet, it blends really well with everything. 

Banana Mocha Smoothie

1 banana, fresh or frozen

1tbsp almond butter

1tbsp Navitas raw Cacao Powder 

1tbsp flax seed meal

1/2c almond milk, or milk of your choice (homemade pictured)

1 shot espresso (optional)

1 scoop protein powder of your choice (optional)

Ice, as needed

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. When you get the vortex in your blender, you'll know you've got an even consistency. 

Enjoy!

Pan Seared Sword and Curry Roasted Butternut Squash

Even though I generally do something a little special for Sunday dinner, I was really tired this weekend so I was pretty lazy on Sunday. Sure I went to the market and prepped some food for the week, but I also watched like 6 episodes of Arrested Development and made Tim buy me conditioner. It was that kind of Sunday.

Nevertheless! It's almost fall here in Texas! And by almost fall I mean it's 87 degrees outside with a breeze. Actually, we had a really nice week last week and it got me excited for gourds.

I picked up a small butternut squash at the market, I really think it was just over a pound, it was pretty cute. They also had swordfish steaks on sale. Usually I don't favor sword; its a large game fish and can get bruised in the fight to land one, and because of their large size they tend to have higher levels of mercury. However, the steaks looked lovely and fresh and the seafood guys were quite impressed when I asked for 12oz and proceeded to hand-select a steak weighing in at 0.76lbs. You do the math.

Swordfish is a really steak-y fish; it's thick and meaty and holds up really well on the grill as well. I pan seared these steaks as we were having some technical difficulties with our Weber, but they tasted really good.

Curry Roasted Butternut Squash

serves two

1 small butternut squash

1/2 yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1tbsp olive oil

2tsp curry powder

1tsp garam masala

salt, pepper

Note: You'll want to start this a good 25 minutes before you're ready to start cooking the sword.

Preheat oven to 400F. Peel, seed, and dice your squash into 2" cubes. This is a very rough estimate; mostly just make sure they are all about the same size. Add all ingredients to a bowl and toss to combine.

Spread on a parchment or foil lined baking sheet and cook for 20 minutes or until fork tender.

Note 2: This dish was effing delicious. To the point where not only was I super impressed with my skills at ignoring food in the oven, but was also really happy with the flavors that came through. I will make this again, and probably in several other iterations.

Pan Seared Swordfish

serves two

12oz Swordfish steak, rinsed and patted dry

1/2tsp Garam Masala

1/2tsp Paprika

Salt, Pepper

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat with a dash of olive oil. Season one side of the sword and place seasoned side down in the pan. Season the exposed side while the underside cooks. You should be able to see the fish change in color as it cooks-it will go from opaque to milky white. However, much like a steak, you don't want to overcook the sword. Depending on the thickness, it should take anywhere from 4-6 minutes per side.

Once the sword is cooked, divide between plates and serve with the roasted squash and a green salad. The one pictured is baby spinach, baby arugula, and snow pea sprouts with a drizzle of oilve oil and some white balsamic.

Meatballs!

Paleo Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

Like most sane people, I really like pasta. Being the health conscious nutcase that I am, however, I generally avoid it like the plague, and even more so now with the WLC. Lucky for me, I think the part I love most about pasta is the sauce; I love the warm tomato-ness and the herbs and the fact that its somewhere between soup and solid food.

I've been modifiying my pasta dishes to either use zucchini noodles or cauliflower while Tim still gets the whole wheat spaghetti he loves so much. It works, and it really doesn't take that much extra time to prepare two different bases.

This weekend, I decided to get ambitious and make meatballs. I usually am not much of a red meat eater, but you can really only eat so much poultry and fish before someone (cough cough, Tim) starts balking. So in an effort to compromise, I decided to use half ground chicken breast and half ground beef for these meatballs. You could very easily do a mixture of pork and beef here, as well as ground chicken thigh, really the possibilities are endless. I chose to use chicken breast and 95% lean ground grass fed beef simply because these were some good lean protein options.

To the meat mixture, I added an egg and some grated zucchini to up the veg factor, along with the usual bevvy of herbs and spices-salt, pepper, garlic, oregano. I also really felt like some chopped up mushrooms would have helped give the flavor just an extra oomph, but I'll try that next time.

You can bake these meatballs in the oven, sear them in the pan, or simmer them in a tomato sauce. I chose the latter, knowing that the juices from the sauce would be absorbed into the meatballs which would impart both flavor and moisture.

One more thing to note, I made these on a Sunday and promptly froze them, knowing full well I had an easy dinner waiting at home for one of those hectic days we all tend to have.

Beef and Chicken Meatballs
serves two, plus leftovers

1/2lb ground chicken breast
1/2lb 95% lean ground beef, grass fed if possible
1 egg
1/2c grated zucchini
2 cloves garlic, diced
2tsp oregano
1tsp red pepper flakes
salt, pepper

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix everything together with your hands. Or a spoon if you're not into that sort of thing.

Roll into equal sized balls and place on parchment-lined baking tray. I ended up with 14 meatballs, meaning that each meatball was a little more than 1oz of meat, if you're watching your calories or macronutrients. Cook as below, or freeze until ready to cook.

Meatballs; just ignore the Tito's in the background

Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

1/2 yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1tbsp olive oil

1c sliced mushrooms of  your liking, I used baby bella mushrooms

2c Pomi strained tomatoes

2tsp oregano

1tsp red pepper flakes

salt, pepper

Heat oil in a deep skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and the garlic, and soften for 3-4 minutes. Add the oregano and salt and pepper at this point. Add the mushrooms and let soften a few more minutes, then add the strained tomato (ps you can use any brand you want, I just like Pomi  because it comes in a carton and is just tomato).

Bring the sauce up to a simmer, then add your meatballs and let cook. While your meatballs are cooking, you can boil up your cauliflower and pasta (if someone is eating real pasta).

NOTE: I always cook my cauliflower/zuchhini noodles before I cook the pasta so that the starches from the pasta that end up in the water don't transfer to my veggies.

Turn the meatballs over at about the 4 minute mark, and let simmer for another 4-5 minutes. The longer they cook, the more flavor they will have, but this is also a dinner that is ready pretty quickly, which makes it perfect for a weeknight.

Once your bases are cooked, toss in a bowl and top with the meatballs and sauce. You can garnish with extra red pepper flakes and pepper, and some fresh basil or parsley goes nice here as well. I had some lovely farmers market cherry tomatoes that I used up here too. Tim got parmesan of course.

 Enjoy!

After a brief hiatus...

And we're back. We had quite a busy August, and I seriously slacked off. I was also having doubts about the blog, but I've come back with a vengeance-and a new plan.

After spending the first and last weeks of August traveling and vacationing, lets just say we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. The whole vacation month ended with a boozy wedding in a castle in Scotland. I'm pretty sure we drank enough to drown a small horse, and needless to say I was ready to get back into the routine.

I started the beginning of September with a program at my yoga studio, Baron Baptiste's 40 Days to a Personal Revolution. And with that, I've been practicing yoga 6 days a week. Not wanting to be an underacheiver, I also registered for the Whole Life Challenge through my crossfit box. With these two challenges underway, I'm back on a good exercise regimen supported by a super clean eating program. Lucky for Tim, he gets to participate from the sidelines.

I am feeling the need to help support my fellow WLC'ers, so for the next 7.5 weeks I'll be sharing dinner recipes, Sunday prep ideas, and things that I'm eating to give them another resource. Tim, of course, will be mostly exempt, although he's happily eaten WLC compliant dinners 3 nights in a row.

Caucaisan Asian Shrimp Salad

Shrimp:
1lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 stalk lemongrass, crushed and sliced
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
Salt, Pepper

Salad:
4c baby spinach or baby arugula (any green will do here)
1 tomato; I used a yellow heirloom
1 avocado
3 green onions, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2c cilantro, chopped
2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 lime
Salt, Pepper

Place the shrimp with the lemongrass, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil in a bowl and toss to coat. Let marinate for a few minutes, or cover and place in your fridge until ready to use.

Prep your salad, because the shrimp cook quickly. Wash and dry your greens and divide between two plates or bowls. Slice tomato and avocado and divide between plates. Toss in chopped cilantro, and top with sesame oil and squeeze of lime.

Heat a saute pan over medium heat and lightly lubricate with olive oil or extra sesame oil. Add the shrimp with all of the marinade to the pan with the green onion pieces and cook for about 5-6 minutes, depending on size. They will be pink and firm when they are cooked through.

Pile shrimp on top of salad, hit with another squeeze of lime juice, and serve.

Dinner Cheat: Salmon Kebabs with Pesto Quinoa Salad

I don't know how the weekend flew by as impossibly fast as it did, but here it is Monday morning all over again. While the weeks have been whizzing by this year as well, I am especially excited for this week-it is EXTRA short because we are leaving for Honolulu on Thursday morning, hazzah! We are long overdue for a holiday.

That being said, between the nonstop weekend and the fact that we are about to be gone for 10 days, I didn't go too overboard or stock up too much at the shops during my weekly run, although I did buy a zillion pounds of greens. We'll be heavily salad based for the next few days, even though I should probably be doing a juice cleanse; somehow that didn't seem sustainable for crossfit.

I went through a phase in the winter where I would make a little more elaborate Sunday dinners since I had the time and it was colder out. Now that it is a zillion degrees and sunny, we've been taking advantage of our drinking pool and had some friends over to enjoy a lazy Sunday; unfortunately Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell couldn't make it. Regardless, this was a pretty lazy dinner.

I bought pre-made salmon kebabs from WFM, which were actually really good value for money at $6.99/each. I whipped up a quick batch of pesto quinoa (grains! for the first time in a long time!) and a dijon vinaigrette for the salad and we were off!

For the salmon kebabs, they really only needed a few minutes on the grill, maybe 7 tops. This was fresh atlantic salmon and the fat content is a little higher, making it more forgiving on the grill. Put them on after you've started your quinoa, since you can kindof ignore it while it bubbles away.

Once you've got your quinoa and your kebabs on, you can make your salad dressing too and throw together your salad. I used mixed greens, golden cherry tomatoes, bell pepper, and toasted almonds in mine, but throw in what you like and what you have around. Honestly you could easily do this meal during the week as well; it came together in about 30 minutes.

Pesto Quinoa Salad

3/4c quinoa, rinsed

2tbsp pesto

1/2 bell pepper, any color, diced

fresh parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the quinoa to remove the saponins, which tend to make the grain a bit bitter. You can toast the quinoa in a dry pan before you start to cook them, if you like but I skipped this step.

Add the quinoa to a saucepan and add 1.5c water (the ratio for water to quinoa is 2:1 for future reference) cover, and bring to a boil. Give a quick stir once the grains are boiling, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally as you want the quinoa to be fluffy.

Once cooked, toss with pesto, bell pepper, parsley, and salt and pepper.

Basic Dijon Vinaigrette

Inspired by Jane

2tbsp dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, minced

1tbsp honey

2tbsp red wine vinegar

1tbsp black cherry balsamic vinegar

2 to 3tbsp good olive oil

1tsp fresh or dried dill

freshly ground black pepper.

Combine all ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously. This dressing is nice and tart from the vinegar but is mellowed out slightly by the honey and dijon. If it's too tart, add more oil, but I prefer to go easy on that condiment and always consider what you'll be dressing.

Spinach, Mushroom, and Roasted Red Pepper Frittata

This has been kindof a weird week for us for some reason; maybe because the excitement of my birthday was building up last week and the fact that we’re off to Hawaii next week hasn’t really sunk in yet. Whatever the reason, I’m very much looking forward to the weekend, even though it is a short one.

Tim was kind enough to remind me on Sunday that he had a work dinner the following night, which basically meant I was free to eat leftovers and yogurt for dinner after coming home from crossfit, score. Maybe I should have posted Tuesday night’s shrimp tacos, and the cake totally stole the spotlight from the quick sesame chicken I whipped up that will soon come into heavy rotation at our place. I’ll be sure to share that one when I’ve got a pretty picture to post.

Thursday nights are usually a bit of a crapshoot for us; sometimes it means we get to start our weekends early thanks to our work schedule, sometimes we go out, sometimes I grab prepared foods from WFM, sometimes I work with what I got.

In the fridge, we had 5 eggs, a carton of egg whites, some leftover mushrooms and some bell peppers. There’s more stuff in there too, but I wasn’t really planning on using the cranberry jalapeno jelly. I knew there was some spinach in the freezer too; sounds like frittata night to me.

I love the simplicity and versatility of the frittata. It can be savory, it can be eggy, you can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Sometimes when I get my shizz together, I make one for  the week as a pre-workout snack; they pack really well. It also takes all of 20 minutes to make, start to finish, IF you have veggies to chop.

The first time I made a real frittata was under the supervision of this recipe from Cooking Light for  a smoked trout and asparagus frittata. It was so delicious, filling, simple, and loaded with good for you fish, greens, and eggs. I remember thinking this would be a great base to manipulate to anything I had in the fridge.

I encourage you to do the same-take this base recipe and run with it. Go for goat cheese and peppers, if you’re into that sort of thing. Wild mushrooms and gruyere with fresh herbs would be spectacular. Be creative and resourceful and use whatever is in your fridge or pantry.

Lastly, this particular frittata weighs in at 564 calories….for the whole frittata! If you’re a boy, that’s probably a decent sized dinner. If you’re me, one serving (a fourth of the dish) reaches for 150 calories while still packing a decent 12g of protein. So split the frittata with your better half, toss up a quick salad, and drizzle with a bit of pesto and a grate of fresh parmesan and enjoy a quick healthy meal.

Spinach, Mushroom, and Roasted Red Pepper Frittata
adapted from Cooking Light

First things first, roast your pepper. Place the pepper on a foil lined baking sheet or pan directly under the broiler in your oven. If you’re lucky enough to have a gas stove, you can also do this directly on the burner; it will char much faster this way and you can keep an eye on it.

5 eggs

1/3 c egg whites

1 bell pepper, roasted

1c frozen spinach or 2c fresh spinach

¾c baby portabella mushrooms

½ onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic

While your pepper is roasting, put a cast iron or oven proof skillet on medium high heat and add a bit of olive oil to prevent sticking. Slice your onion and garlic cloves and add to pan. While those are sautéing, crack your eggs and add the egg whites, and whisk well to blend and increase the fluff factor. Salt and pepper the eggs, I also added some dried oregano but if you’re working with fresh herbs add them here too.

Once your onions are soft and slightly browned, add the mushrooms and sauté for another 2-3 minutes, until they have released their juices and are slightly browned. Add the spinach and let thaw/wilt.

Pull your pepper from the oven and wrap loosely in the foil to let sit and steam for a minute or two, then run under the sink to remove the skin and seeds. Slice lengthwise. Add egg mixture to skillet, top with peppers. Let frittata cook stovetop for 2-3 minutes, just until the edges start to set.

Turn the oven down to 400F, and place the frittata in the oven for about 8 minutes. While the frittata is in the oven,  you can whip up a mixed green salad to serve with. Pull the frittata from the oven; the middle should be firm but springy. Slice into 8 wedges and serve with salad. I topped Tim’s with a healthy drizzle of pesto and snowdrift of parmesan.

Chocolate Layer Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream: The Remix

Last year for Tim's birthday, I sent him to work with a cake to share with his project team; I think it was a vanilla pound cake with raspberry filling and buttercream but it was a long time ago and I've had many cocktails between now and then, so I can't be sure.  

Tim has since asked me to make other baked goodies for his project team, which I am happy to do, because a number 1) I love to bake, and b number 2), its much better for me and my pants if I can bake something and then give it away.

Last night, at Tim's request, I baked a birthday cake for his lovely admin, J. When birthdays are involved, I have a go-to chocolate cake recipe that always delights and is super easy, courtesy of Ina Garten. I've done this cake many times; following her combination of chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream exactly; serving it plain with a dusting of powdered sugar; a quick infusion of grand marnier into the frosting. They have all worked.

Last night, however, as I was making the cake, all I could smell was oil. All I could taste was oil. I started to wonder if maybe I had carelessly used the wrong size measuring cup because surely vegetable oil can't go rancid? It can. And it did. I couldn't serve this disaster to J for her birthday! I had to start over.

I managed to come across this recipe from the food network site for a One Bowl Chocolate Cake. At 11pm, this sounded like the best case scenario-one bowl, baked in 30 minutes and then I can go to bed? Perfect. The buttercream was already ready (and delicious, I might add) so I went for it.

The batter had a wonderful consistency and fantastic cocoa smell; the cakes covered up the oily stench of the previous failures wonderfully. I pulled these babies out of the oven 2 minutes early to let them cool overnight while I crashed upstairs.

Lesson learned: much like a car, your cooking oils too need to be changed!

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

adapted from Jamie Deen

2c flour

2c sugar

1c high quality unsweetened cocoa powder (I used ghiradelli)

2tsp baking soda

1 1/4tsp baking powder

1tsp kosher salt

1c buttermilk

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/2c warm water

3 eggs

2tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease two 8" or 9" round cake pans; if you want to get fancy and put in a sheet of parchment at the bottom, it makes removal super easy.

Sift flour and add the remaining dry ingredients to the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment and mix on low speed until combined. Turn the mixer up a notch and add your eggs, one at a time, then the rest of the remaining wet ingredients. Whisk until well blended; your batter will be nice and thick.

Divide batter evenly among your two cake pans; tap the bottom the cake pan on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake for 28-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean-mine were perfect after 28 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Level cakes so that they are even, then frost generously with a spatula and top with sliced strawberries or other fruit.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream

Courtesy of Yossy at Apt2B

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1 lb sifted confectioners sugar

1 vanilla bean, scraped

1T vanilla extract

large pinch of salt

Cream butter in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment until smooth. Add the sugar and salt and beat on high until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla bean and extract, then slowly blend until all elements are well incorporated. 

*This buttercream will keep in the fridge for a week at least, but it will need to be room temp to spread without destroying your cake.