Second best

Well, I found it.  It’s not quite as good as this, but it’s very creamy and if I had my eyes closed I might think it was regular ice cream:

It’s way, way, way better than any other soy ice cream I’ve ever had, but not quite good enough to make me want to have four bowls in one night.  I consider this a solid plus.

And to continue my love affair with Trader Joe’s, I would also like to share with you my new favorite soup, which I had for dinner tonight:

It is so good.  I didn’t even know I liked split pea soup.  My mother would be very proud.  I actually bought it by mistake but I am happy I did.  I don’t even have to doctor it up, and I always add a little something to canned soup.  You know, just some salt or some extra vegetables or four large handfuls of cheese.

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Just call me The Blogger

I had a rather uneventful weekend, which was exciting because things have been a little too eventful for me lately.  A few highlights:

Possibly the last ice cream of the season (outdoors, obviously…it’s always ice cream weather inside the walls of my apartment):

After he took this picture, Chris carried on for about an hour about how “artsy” he is, and how perfect the lighting looks.  I kind of think it looks like I have man hands.

Anyway.  So that’s exciting. But even more exciting, if you can believe it, is this:

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!  Food Network magazine!!  I have been waiting for this for nearly all of my 25 years.  My boss gave it to me on Friday and I almost kissed her.  I read the whole thing in about 15 minutes and now I know all the secrets of Iron Chef.  And I do mean all.  Although if anyone else has read this, please let me know because I would like to talk about how The Chairman forces everyone to call him The Chairman off the air, too.  I find that a little weird.

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A new bean burrito

I think I may have recreated my beloved Taco Bell bean burrito.  I used to eat those burritos all the time in high school.  And I do mean “burritos.”  As in plural.  Because I’d eat two.  With some chips and nacho cheese dip.  And a Choco-taco for dessert.

It was kind of awesome.  But, I can’t do that anymore, and even if I could, I guess I wouldn’t want to.  So I had to turn to the next best thing:  Trader Joe’s Refried Black Beans with Jalapenos.

I’d never had these before, but they are really good.  Especially with the enchilada sauce I had leftover from when I made shrimp enchiladas.

This is hardly a recipe, but here it is in case you want it:

1 can refried beans

1/2 cup enchilada sauce (or salsa)

3 large mushrooms

3 cups spinach

1 green pepper

1/2 cup corn

1/4 large onion

2 cloves garlic

2 scallions

1 bunch cilantro

1 small tomato

lettuce

Cheddar cheese

salt, pepper

tortillas

Add chopped onion to pan, followed by pepper, then mushrooms, then spinach, then corn.  Salt/pepper to taste.  Add chopped garlic to another pan and cook for a minute, then add refried beans and enchilada sauce.  Once heated, add tomatoes, half of the chopped scallions and half of the chopped cilantro.  Top tortillas with a scoop of bean mixture, some of the sauteed vegetables, lettuce, cheese, and more salsa or enchilada sauce.

Chris, who recently put the kibosh on my burrito making due to a long streak of black bean burritos once or sometimes even twice a week pre-blog, even liked these and said that he’d want to eat them again.  Score.

Anyway, earlier I spent some time with my new best friend cottage cheese:

I tend to go overboard in the raisin department.  I enjoy dried fruits, if you haven’t noticed.  Plus, if I put a lot of raisins on I can leave off the honey, and I figure raisins have a bit more nutritional value.

I also had a chunk of chocolate that I discovered in the fridge this morning:

I don’t know how this little guy slipped by me for so long, but no more.

And then after the burritos (I am not being very orderly today, sorry) I had some ice cream:

This is Breyer’s, by the way.  These little tiny bowls are perfect for ice cream.  I think they probably hold half a cup.  Of course, if you pile it over the top like I do, it’s more like a cup.  But still less than I can fit in a regular bowl.  Progress.

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The mother of all zucchini

So, over the weekend, my dad gave me a few eggplants and a monster zucchini from his garden.  You can kind of see it in this picture, but it doesn’t really do it justice.  It was the size of my upper arm.  And I’ve got some biceps, damn it.

Anyway, I needed to make something with it, but it was a little too bitter to be a star.  And so when I randomly came across this recipe on Roni’s blog today, I knew it was meant to be.

I would have made her recipe, because they are always awesome, but we don’t eat turkey, so I had to do a little brainstorming on my own.  I came up with this:

1 large zucchini

2 medium tomatoes

2 cloves garlic

1/4 of an onion, white or yellow

2 T fresh oregano

1/3 of a medium eggplant

5 small sun-dried tomatoes

1/2 of a red pepper

3 T seasoned bread crumbs

2 T parmesan cheese

1 ounce goat cheese

salt and pepper

Slice the zucchini lengthwise once, as shown, and then carefully scoop out the seeds to make a deep indentation.  Salt and lay upside down on a towel to drain.

Chop the onion, pepper, eggplant, and tomatoes; add onion to a pan and when cooked through, add eggplant and pepper, then tomatoes.  Continue to cook for 5 – 10 minutes, then add the garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and oregano.  Thicken with about half of the parmesan and breadcrumbs and season with salt and pepper.

Fill a casserole dish with about 1/2 inch of water, and put the zucchini in on top.  Spoon the tomato/eggplant mixture into the zucchini, sprinkling a little of the goat cheese in each half.  Top with the rest of the parmesan and bread crumbs and bake, covered, for about 20 minutes.  Uncover and bake for 15 – 20 more, until the bread crumbs are crispy and you can stick a fork in the zucchini.

Don’t they look good?  They were surprisingly filling, too.  I was a little worried because they don’t have a ton of protein or fat, so I made some couscous to go with it, but we didn’t really need it.

Here’s my plate:

I was going to have a little couscous, too, but I got full.  I did, however, eat the filling out of another piece that was leftover.  Every single vegetable in this was grown by my parents, with the exception of the onion and garlic, and it was too good to waste!

After we took Jack out for a walk, I had room for a little ice cream, not surprisingly:

I am sad to inform you that Edy’s is a terrible liar.  There is no way in hell there are 12 servings in that carton.  I’m not buying it.  Although I admit that it probably doesn’t help that I occasionally pick out a few peanut butter cups during the day.

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Jack’s birthday extravaganza

Chris was off work today, so I took him to my gym this morning since his is closer to his office than our apartment.  He has recently taken up boxing (not with other people, just a bag…I enjoy teeth on my men) so I put on some gloves and hit the gym’s bag with him.  It was awesome and a crazy good workout.  I might have to do it more often. The gym has these little pink gloves that are really cute as long as you don’t think about all the sweaty hands that have been in them before yours.

Anyway, after I finished up work this afternoon, we took the pup to Prospect Park’s dog beach for a birthday swim.  He had a lot of fun splashing around and stealing another dog’s tennis ball and terrorizing children.  On the way home, we stopped to get the best ice cream ever:

You have to share this ice cream.  It is physically impossible to eat an entire cone on your own.  I learned this the hard way a few months ago.

We also picked up a special treat for Jack:

Isn’t that cute?  Apparently dogs can eat carob and whatever else this thing is made out of.  They had donuts and cannoli too, but he wanted what we were having.

He enjoyed his birthday splurge while wearing his birthday hat:

Sorry.  I had to.

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I love Reese’s

I made the mistake of letting Chris go to the store alone tonight to buy some ice cream.  I’m pretty flexible when it comes to ice cream, as long as it’s not too crazy.  This is because I like to eat it basically every night, and I can’t be pounding some Ben and Jerry’s on a daily basis.  Although, just so you know, I would very much like to.  Oatmeal Cookie, please.

Anyway, this is what he came out with:

These are so good.  And so bad.  They are so good and so bad.  I forced myself to only eat half of one. Actually, it didn’t take too much effort.  They’re a little much, even for me.  But that’s the other half in the left corner there, all wrapped up to greet me tomorrow.  I can’t wait.

Other than that, it was a rather boring day. I did, however, get my passport picture taken, and it’s just too funny not to share:

Seriously.  Do I not look like I was just arrested on drug charges?

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Behind

Yikes, sorry!  Big day yesterday.  I was a little backed-up with work in the afternoon and then last night I got a new cell phone to replace the blackberry that Jack attempted to eat last week.  So I’ve been busy setting it up and trying to find a ring tone that doesn’t make me want to throw it across the room and playing no less than 45 games of Jawbreaker.

Anyway, food.  We’re here for food.  I meant to post this yesterday morning, but Monday night I had a Skinny Cow chocolate ice cream cone after the pizza:

Go ahead and times this by two because I had another one last night.  These things are pretty awesome.  Unfortunately, they only come four to a box, which is kind of sad.

Earlier yesterday afternoon, I finished up the cantaloupe:

And also had some chocolate:

Probably not the best snack, but whatever.  It’s what I wanted and I was in a hurry.

We had sandwiches for dinner because I was knee deep in instruction manuals and the only thing Chris really knows how to make is his “special red sauce.”  As in, jarred tomato sauce and pasta.  We don’t have any tomato sauce, which is quite limiting when it comes to this recipe.

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Extra energy

So I ate this Z Bar while I was waiting for the bus this morning:

I very rarely eat before going to the gym, just because I’m not usually hungry that early.  But this morning I was starving for some reason, so I grabbed this on my way out the door, and I now think that there may be something to this pre-workout snack business.  Because let me tell you, I was a star in spinning.

Okay.  Not a star.  But I was really motivated and pedaling extra fast and I cranked up the resistance a bit more than I normally can and I may or may not have belted out a few bars of a Miley Cyrus song by mistake.

All that singing had me extra hungry this afternoon.

Peaches:

When I was done eating them, there was all this glorious peach juice in the bottom of the bowl.  Normally I’d just drink it out of the bowl because, hello, I’m by myself, but today I got the bright idea to mix some plain yogurt into it:

It was fabulous.  I actually had another bowl after this.  My yogurt somehow got this weird layer of liquid on the top and I’m not sure if that’s supposed to happen or if it’s still safe to eat, but I poured it off and what is left is very thick and tasty like Greek yogurt.  Except approximately $3.50 cheaper.

Anyway, I also had a vegan jerky with my lunch that I suppose I should fess up to since it technically wasn’t supposed to be part of my lunch.  I didn’t take a picture of it.

Then for dinner I made crab cakes, asparagus and salad:

I haven’t made these crab cakes in a while and I think I lost my skills.  They totally fell apart.  Chris basically had one big crab cake scramble.  I gave myself the better-looking ones because I take pictures.

Finally, for dessert, I had an Edy’s bar:

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Tempeh!

I always feel like I should shout that word for some reason, possibly because it is so tasty.  Especially if you marinate it the way Heidi Swanson tells you to:

This is her maple grilled tempeh.  Except it’s not grilled because I’m not allowed to use my grill pan.

On the side, we had Trader Joe’s brown rice medley, with broccoli, mushrooms, spinach and green beans.  I could not eat all of this.  I wanted to, and I tried really hard, but it was not happening.  I think the grain factor was a little out of control.

Luckily, I got a second wind a bit later because we have these guys:

I’ll tell you a little something about these.  When you get down to the last inch or so of the cone, it is FULL OF SOLID CHOCOLATE.

Yes.  This requires all caps.  It is that good.  In fact, I always give Chris a sad face and a couple of elbows so he gives me his final inch, too.

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New best friend

No, I did not zest these vegetables.  But I might try.  I am obsessed with zest.  Do you understand what lemon zest does to pasta?  It’s remarkable, really.  I’ve had this little zester for a few years, but never used it until recently.  I kind of thought it was broken. But check out the product of my newly-found zesting skills:

Put lemon zest on your pasta.  I’m serious.  You will come back and thank me.  Unless you do it while simultaneously using tomato sauce.  I just don’t know about that.

Anyway, we had spinach and ricotta ravioli from Trader Joe’s, and a ton of vegetables to use up, so I put them together with the zest and a little olive oil, garlic and parmesan cheese:

The only problem is that the pack of ravioli, which supposedly serves two and a half people, is weak as hell.  There are like nine pieces in there and since I’m a generous girlfriend and because I don’t like to listen to Chris moan about how hungry he is less than an hour after I slaved over a hot stove for thirty whole minutes, I always give him six.  Which leaves me with three.  Which leaves me hungry.  Which leads to this:

Not always, but tonight it did.  We shared.  I mostly had the ice cream sandwich, but if you ever see one of these Reese’s ice cream bars, I suggest you buy it.  It is amazing.  It is also full of high fructose corn syrup, but everything in moderation, right?

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