Comunidad Health Foods

Today is National Caviar Day, the epitome of haute-cuisine and food snobbery, so naturally I planned to write about one of the least sophisticated recipes you could possibly imagine. French Toast is what happens when old food and stinginess come together in one kitchen. Sure, you can get fancied up versions at some of the most upscale brunch venues, but deep down, you know what French Toast is. It’s stale bread made edible with some cheaper still ingredients – eggs and milk. Who would have thought that stubbornness to not waste old food could lead to such a delicious meal? 

It all started last Friday night when we pulled half a loaf of homemade challah (yes, I am holding out on the recipe – I’m still trying to tweak it to get it just right) out of the freezer from 2 weeks before, since all of this internship prep work has left little time for experiments in the kitchen. After one bite, I wrinkled my nose and shook my head – the freezer had not been kind to these slices of once-delicious, eggy bread. There was only one solution: quickly swap out the old challah for a fresher (though not homemade) loaf of bread, and transform the stale bread into French Toast for a leisurely, frugal Saturday morning breakfast the next day.

I found a quick recipe on Eliza Domestica for overnight French toast casserole, which seemed the perfect way to ensure that the challah became fully saturated with the liquid in the recipe, and changed it slightly in the hopes of making a more exotic dish. Within about five minutes I had the casserole in the fridge, ready for the next day. I dirtied 1 liquid measuring cup and about 2 measuring spoons, plus the dish that I baked the casserole in the next morning. If I ever were to have a big group of people over to stay, or for a mid-morning brunch, this is the recipe I would turn to. No questions asked.

It was supposed to be tropical: coconut-almond milk, rum extract, you know. Fancy French Toast. My mom swears she tastes the coconut, but L and I are convinced that she’s just one of those super tasters. You can’t get anything past her. To us, it just tasted like French toast. Delicious French toast, but definitely not Fancy French Toast.  L says he prefers his mom’s, but I think the fact that it came in casserole form and didn’t look like regular French toast weirded him out a little bit; I got a little upset but didn’t let it stop me from enjoying several slices. It’s not overly sweet on its own – but a drizzle of syrup or a pile of fresh fruit (try pineapple chunks and shredded coconut to bring out the tropical flavors I was going for!) is all it needs to make it complete. And once you bite into it, I don’t think you’ll care that deep down, this French toast is more frugal than fancy. 

It’s dark outside. It’s late here. Kind of. I’m tired. It’s been a long day. I know when you read this the sun will be back and you’ll be well rested, but I’m writing this now, maybe 12-20 hours before I’ll have the chance to post it, and now is dark and late. Kind of.

If I can be completely honest, my life has been exceptionally demanding lately. My day begins at 6:30 with 6-8 hours of preparatory work for my dietetic internship with the occasional 30 minute run to keep up with a 60 day fitness challenge I’ve been trying out. Emails get pushed to the side. Blog updates don’t happen. I see my precious (though not all that impressive) FoodBuzz score dwindling in my absence. I actually rented Space Jam on Netflix because by the time 7pm rolls around, that’s just about all that I have the mental capacity to absorb. You probably don’t want me writing blog posts in that frame of mind, anyway.

I can’t update every other day like I used to, but it’s not because I don’t want to or am on the verge of bowing out completely. This year is going to be a challenge for Floptimism but I hope that you’ll stick around as I muddle my way through it. Because I will muddle my way through it. After all, that’s what Floptimism’s all about, right?

So since Perseverance has me cornered, it seems only right to tell you about a recipe that also required a lot (ok, just a little, let’s not get toomelodramatic here) of perseverance to get it right. I’ve been sitting on this Feta-Radish spread (not literally) for over a year now – can you believe that? I had just moved into my “new” apartment that I’ve since moved back out of when I tried it for the first time and decided that it needed some tweaking. It took until just a few weeks ago, when my mom fortuitously came home with a bunch of radishes at the same moment that I was eyeing the tub of half-used feta cheese in the fridge, wondering what to do with itt, for me to try it again. After a few adjustments, I’m really happy with the result.

This dip is so refreshing. It oozes lemon and tang. It’s creamy. It has a little bite from the almost-bitter radish slices. It feels indulgent, and maybe it even is a little bit depending on how big of a serving you give yourself, but you’ll relish every last bite. It’s a nice appetizer, but what it’s really perfect for is that afternoon lunch on a day that’s so hot and so humid you can barely think of making anything to eat at all. Whip this up in 3 minutes flat and spread it over a cracker or tortilla – something that adds a hint of garlic is a really nice touch – pour yourself a glass of cool water or iced tea, and you’ll have a couple minutes of what must be close to heaven. 

This spread is very flavorful, so a little can go a long way. It pairs well with crackers and pita, but would likely be equally as nice with fresh vegetables for an added crunch.

Most of Rachael Ray’s recipes are fuss-free. They’re straight-up, straight-forward, and downright simple. Mostly. I like this about her recipes. Sometimes, I like putting on heirs and pretending I’m some gourmet chef who owns half a dozen Zagat-rated, 5 star restaurants peppering the entire globe. Like when I decided to make that ridiculously elaborate graduation cake. But a lot of times, it’s just nice to get in the kitchen, throw around some pots, pans, and ingredients, and come out with something perfectly edible though perhaps not all that photogenic.

I was a little surprised, then, when I encountered this recipe in Rachael Ray’s cookbook – couscous and vegetable stacks seemed entirely too fussy amidst the burgers, “sammies,” “stoups” and semi-homemade (oh wait, that’s another FoodNetwork show…) desserts. As good as the dish sounded, it took a while for me to get up the motivation to attempt it.

Rachael Ray’s approach to the stacking process is cumbersome, and antiquated as it tells you to use metal cans with their tops and bottoms removed. Cans aren’t made that way anymore – the bottoms don’t come off. Believe me, I tried. And tried. And handed the can to my mom to try some more. Don’t bother. Really, it’s way more involved than it needs to be. In the final throes of cooking, as I became more and more desperate to get food on the plate and into my belly, I did the biggest hack job of stacking I could think of – I just threw it on the plate. Almost, very nearly, quite literally. And you know what?

It worked. Beautifully.

So take that, Mr. Fussy Veggie Stack. This is how we do things Floptimism style.

Also à la Floptimism, I changed a bunch of the ingredients. It tasted fantastic. I also paired it with some chicken (for the parents) and a nice chickpea and almond salad (for all of us, but really, mostly for me).

This vegetarian dish is light, healthy, and bursting with summer-ness. That is, it would, if it were possible for a food to burst of a season. It is mildly labor intensive, but a lot easier to put together than the original and overall very doable. Enjoy!

PHEW! Is anyone still with me? I wouldn’t be surprised if after the ghostly behavior I’ve exhibited toward this blog for the past week, a few people here or there lost faith in me. I haven’t lost interest or stopped cooking or been eaten alive by a giant jelly fish on the shores of the Atlantic ocean.  My vacation was, however, fuller and more time-constrained than I had anticipated, and so even with ample internet connection (and a week of safely avoiding killer jelly fish), I struggled to log on for updates. Every morning I woke up at 7am and quite literally did not finish my summer preparatory work for my dietetic internship until 2-4pm. Every. Single. Day. I hope you aren’t offended that with the approximate 4.5 remaining hours of daylight I chose the beach and boardwalk over blogging.

But now I’m back, and although I still have ridiculously demanding course work and case studies, I at least don’t have the beach and boardwalk shops to distract me. I’m even prepared to formally apologize for being so lame this week, and by apologize formally, I mean share a recipe for a really delicious brownie-muffin-cupcake-I-don’t-care-what-you-call-it-nutella-dessert. And it’s almost good for you, too! If you believe the Nutella commercials, then it’s definitely good for you. But in the real world, it’s just almost healthy, because nowhere but in an alternate universe could Nutella be considered anything but a jar of glorified, spreadable fudge. It is delicious, though, isn’t it?

So delicious, in fact, that these incredibly simple 3-4 ingredient muffin-cupcakes (I hesitate to call them muffins for fear of insinuating that they are proper Monday-Friday breakfast food) are equally, incredibly, magnificently delicious, too. They actually aren’t as overly decadent as the Nutella in them would have you believe – their flavor is subtle, with this low-key chocolate flavor permeating it. They used to be called brownies, as in, by the blogger who originally came up with the recipe. They are not brownies, they are light and fluffy muffins, but that’s ok, because a Nutella brownie-muffin by any other name does, in fact, taste as yummy.

I really shouldn’t post the recipe here because I didn’t change a darn thing except for doubling it to get 28 muffins (of very varying and not at all uniform sizes, oops), and forgetting the nuts, because if I didn’t forget at least one ingredient while baking then I wouldn’t be me. At least this time it was only a sprinkling of nuts. So anyway, the point of this was to say that you should click on over to A Thought for Food because she has the recipe, the beautiful, beautiful recipe, and it really is worth the extra click over to a different site. Enjoy!

P.S. these were really good crumbled over that Nutella FroYo I told you about a little while ago. Just sayin’….

P.P.S. Did you know that today is Chocolate & Almonds day? That’s kind of like chocolate & hazelnuts, which is kind of like what this recipe is all about. Would you look at that!

Are you in need of a last minute side dish for the 4^th? If so, I have the perfect recipe for you (really, even if you don’t need a recipe for tomorrow, I still think you’ll like this Thursday, Friday, or sometime next week). Asparagus is one of my favorite warmer weather vegetables, and what better way to celebrate summer than adding fresh tomatoes and a little bit of cheese to make it a truly memorable side dish?

I’ve tweaked the recipe a little – lightly sautéing the asparagus to get a little char on all sides (you could also grill them; I just haven’t yet conquered my oh-my-god-I’m-a-girl-I-can’t-possibly-use-the-grill phobia – maybe next year), using mozzarella instead of feta (though the latter would add a nice tang to the dish – really, use whatever cheese you love most and it will probably be fantastic), and taking great care in straining out some of the excess liquid to perfect the package. What you get is a side dish that is simple (not bland!) and delicious. The tomato-cheese topping would be equally good in other ways – I added some to my jalapeno chicken sausage sandwich and it was spot. On. I’ve also made the entire dish with an omelet, but grilled chicken or burgers would be great pairings, too.

 

On Thursday I mentioned that Lauren at Nutrisavvynominated me for the Versatile Blogger award, and that I’d be back this weekend with more about it. Yesterday was off-the-charts insanity – on the way to the beach L’s car overheated (though we didn’t know that was the problem at the time), in an area where AT&T towers happened to be down. Luckily, a truly kind couple pulled over (and mercifully had Verizon), so after close to an hour standing in hot-and-humid weather on the side of the expressway, we were back on our way. By the time we arrived at the beach house and I finished my homework (it really never ends), I couldn’t bring myself to face you wonderful people. I just needed some chill time.

Now, though, I need to give this post its due. First, thank you so, so much to Lauren! I’m very honored/excited/smiling to have received this award, and if this is the first time you’re hearing of Lauren and her blog, you should head over there to read her entries asap. Her posts about nutrition are engaging and her recipes make you want to run to the kitchen right then and there. She also has fantastic commentaries on Facebook.

 Here are the stipulations of the award:

So, here goes! It’s not often that I speak too much about myself on this blog, but here are 7 random facts about myself:

So now that you know a little bit about me, it’s time for me to acknowledge some of the incredible food bloggers who I look up to in one way or another, and who I think capture the essence of versatile blogging:

These blogs have all inspired me in some way or another, and I believe are all versatile in their blogging. Even the ones with a niche – a very specific focus – find a way to keep things new and exciting. If you aren’t familiar with any of them, I highly recommend that you check them out. If you do, you’ll be pleasantly greeted by stunning photographs, witty commentary and insight, and downright irresistible recipes and food ideas.

I’ll be back later in the week with an actual recipe, but for now – there’s an ocean, a bathing suit and a huge expanse of clear skies, all calling my name. Enjoy your day, your week, your holiday celebrations – and I will see you again soon!