HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!

Dinner for 12/14

Pasta with Garlic, Oil and Cauliflower Sauce

Meal: Dinner

Who made it: Mom

Tastyness: 8/10

Healthyness: 8/10

Comments: This could have used more garlic, but it's a nice easy recipe: Boil water. Add penne and cauliflower, broken into chunks. Boil until tender. Meanwhile, saute garlic, dried parsley and hot chili flakes in EVOO. Add cauliflower, saute, and the rest is history.

Dinner for 12/13

Dinner--12/13/13 (I'm a bit behind)

Vietnamese Fisherman's Stew

Meal: Dinner

Who made it: Mom

Tastyness: 10/10

Healthyness: 9/10

Comments: YUM! This stew didn't really taste Vietnamese, more like a Thai curry, but it was still amazing. I've included the recipe. Make it ASAP and feast to your heart's content.

Vietnamese Fisherman's Stew

• 
  16

Serves 4-6

• 2tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2small onions, thinly sliced
• 5cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger (from a 2-inch knob)
• 2medium carrots, peeled and cut into thin slices on the diagonal
• 2tablespoons curry powder
• 1/2teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 2teaspoons salt
• 2/3cups mirin or white wine
• 114-ounce can coconut milk
• 1 1/2pound waxy potatoes (red or Yukon Gold), peeled and cut into 11⁄2-inch pieces
• 6bunches baby bok choy, washed and trimmed (or use 1 batch regular bok choy, cut into bite-sized pieces)
• 1 1/2pound hake, catfish, cod, or tilapia or other mild white fish, cut into 8 pieces
• 2limes: 1 juiced, 1 quartered
• 1. Heat the oil in a lidded pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger; cook until soft but not browned, 8 minutes. Add the carrots and cook for another minute.
  2. Sprinkle in the curry powder and cayenne, and cook for 1 minute, or until fragrant. Add the salt and mirin, and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for 3 minutes, until slightly reduced. Pour in the coconut milk and 2 cups water, and bring to a boil.
  3. Add the potatoes, return the liquid to a boil, and then turn the heat to low and cover the pot. Simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. (You can make the stew ahead to this point.)
  4. Add the bok choy and toss to distribute. Then add the fish pieces and arrange them so they are fully covered by the liquid. Cover the pot and simmer for 4 minutes, until the fish is cooked through but not falling apart. Add the lime juice to the stew.
  5. Ladle the fish, vegetables, and broth into bowls, and garnish with the lime quarters

• FEAST, FRIENDS!!!!!

Dîner de ce soir ('Tonight's dinner" in French)

First I am posting the SPECTABULOUS (spectacular and fabulous) recipe for my Szechuan Peanut Noodles. Please remember that this is simply a guideline. Change the amounts to your taste, as I do. (I don't remember--I might have posted this before. If I have, I'm sorry.)

Szechuan Peanut Noodles

Ingredients:

1 package spaghetti

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2-1 cup water
5 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp fresh ginger, minced (or 1 tsp ground ginger)
2 tbsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
Other veggies, if you wish (cooked snow peas, broccoli, etc.)

Directions:
Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, put peanut butter in a bowl. Slo-o-owly add the water while whisking to make sure it's fully incorporated until the sauce is at your preferred consistency. Add soy sauce, vegetable oil, sesame oil, vinegar, ginger, and pepper flakes (if using) and taste, adding more of the ingredients if necessary. Drain pasta; place in bowl and toss with sauce. Add bell pepper and other veggies, if using. ENJOY!!!!

Tonight's Dinner

Potato-Leek Soup and Crispy Baked Eggplant

Meal: Dinner

Who made it: Soup was me, eggplant was Mom

Tastyness: 11/10!!

Healthyness: 8/10

Comments: I made the most DELICIOUS potato-leek soup on the PLANET. It's creamy (although I didn't even puree ity) and rich, with just the right amount of flavoring. Oh my God--I just ate three bowls and I want some more just thinking about it. My mom's crispy eggplant is the bomb. The recipe, in short, is this: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel and slice (horizontally) two eggplants. Salt and let rest for 20 minutes. Pat dry, then dip each slice in a mixture of 2 eggs and 2 tbsp milk, and then a mixture of 3/4 cup breadcrumbs, 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, hot chili flakes, and dried basil. Place on greased baking sheets, drizzle with oil and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Eat to your heart's content.

MS. FOODIE

Last Night's and Tonight's Dinners

Last Night

Canned Lentil Soup

Meal: Dinner

Who made it: Me

Tastyness: 8/10

Healthyness: 8/10

Comments: *sigh* You know, what more can I say? Canned dinners, while possibly quite good in the way of canned soup, are just pretty sad. I will try to up my game!

Tonight

Tuscan Tomato and Bread Soup

Meal: Dinner\

Who made it: Mom (Yes! I will cook when I stop being so busy...)

Tastyness: 6.5/10

Healthyness: 8/10

Comments: I am opposed to soggy bread, sadly. If I wasn't so repulsed by its texture I might have actually enjoyed this soup, because everything else about it was quite nice. It was peppery, tomato-ey, garlicky, and oily--but oily is good when it's EVOO.

MS. FOODIE

Last Night's Dinner

Bad news, peoples. The special flash drive I have to use for transferring my photos from my phone to my laptop is GONE for the time being, so until my dad finds it there will be NO photos of my meals!! Sad, huh? But when I get the flash drive I will edit all these posts and put those pics back. Hold on!

My Mom's Szechuan Peanut Noodles

Meal: Dinner

Who made it: My mom

Tastyness: 7/10

Healthyness: 8/10, maybe?

Comments: My mom decided to try a new peanut noodle recipe, with those really thin Chinese noodles and different sauce. I like the noodles a lot, but the sauce fell short slightly; my mom added all these chili flakes and lots of hot chili oil. The sauce also needed more garlic, ginger and soy sauce. I hope she lets me make it next time!

Stay tuned for tonight's dinner...

MS. FOODIE

My Pitiful Apology

It's sad how many of these I've had to give, huh? Unfortunately, I haven't been able to cook much lately, so this next set of posts might be a bit boring. Tonight, for example. Gone are the organized shopping lists, the meal plans, the neatness. In fact, I have no idea what tonight’s dinner might be. I'm a busy girl. I guess we're all human, right? You can't expect me to be perfect? Great. I'm going to use that as my excuse the next time I forget to post for a long, long time.

Okay. Are we all good?

I guess not—I mean, I’m quite sorry I never posted on Thanksgiving (Thanksgivikkah for me, actually). But it wasn't very interesting for me anyway, since I was sick and I’m a vegetarian.

Alright. See you tonight for my (possibly quite horrible) dinner.

My Next Restaurant Dinner--10/26/13

Just got back from NY. I'm posting about last night's dinner and later I'll post about tonight's. So last night we went to a Mexican restaurant, and at first I thought it was just plain cheesy--loud, vaguely Spanish music, sombreros, the whole nine yards. But then I saw the running fountain in the middle of the restaurant, the fancy chandeliers, and the extremely yummy-looking menu. When we sat down, we also noticed that every few minutes, the waiters and waitresses would start clapping and shaking maracas in front of a table, apparently in honor of peoples' birthdays. The birthday person also received a gigantic, brightly colored straw sombrero. Not even kidding. Oh, and the food was pretty good, too.

Meal: Dinner

Who made it: La Fiesta Mexican restaurant

Tastyness: 8/10

Healthyness: 6/10

Comments: I got the El Vegetariano plate (it is impossible to say the names of some restaurant foods without sounding ridiculous--Indian, for example), which was two spinach enchiladas, rice, and beans. It was pretty good at first, but the enchiladas had way too much cheese and the meal started to get heavy near the end. Pretty good though, all in all.

My Dinner 10/27

Tortellini with Pesto Sauce
Meal: Dinner
Who made it: Mom, although it hardly counts when the tortellini was frozen and the pesto was premade
Tastyness: 8/10
Healthyness: 8/10
Comments: I don't know. I'm tired. It's tortellini. What more is there to say?

MS. FOODIE

My Absence of Posts--Sorry

My apologies! I'm currently in NY so I haven't been able to post, but yesterday I went out to the most wonderful restaurant. It had sushi and Thai food, a strange combination, but OMG, it was delicious. I got golden triangles (little pastry things with potatoes, carrots and peas--kind of like Thai samosas) and a massaman curry (it's a yellow curry with peanuts, carrots, celery, snow peas, potatoes, onions, and many other veggies). And my mom got seaweed salad, so of course I had to try some. :) The restaurant was super fancy and beautiful, too. Did I mention that I ate it all with chopsticks? I'm really good at using them.

Meal: Dinner

Who made it: This restaurant

Tastyness: 10/10

Healthyness: 9/10

Comments: Oh, well I guess I just gave them! But here's a fun fact about Thai food: did you know that it's the ethnic food that makes you smell the nicest? The ingredients like lemongrass and lime just produce nice bodily smells. I wonder about the garlic, though? :)

 

MS. FOODIE

Russian Style Crepes

Meal: Breakfast

Who made it: Mom (I took these photos with my iPod)

Tastyness:10/10

Healthyness: 5/10

Comments: Just ate a few!

Ingredients:

2 cups of milk

4 eggs

4 1/2 tablespoons of sugar

6 tablespoons of canola oil

7 1/2 tablespoons of flour

1. Mix everything until the mixture is equal everywhere (the longer you mix the better; no chunks).

2. Take a VERY smooth, non-stick frying pan and pour in 1/2 teaspoon of canola oil (NOT part of the 6 tablespoons!) and spread across pan with paper towel, removing excess oil (DO NOT do this before each ledge of the mixture!!! only just this once!!!!!!).

3. Heat the frying pan to medium-high temp..

4. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes.

5. Pour a ladle of the mixture into the pan and spread by tilting the pan (make sure to work quickly because the mixture stops spreading in a few seconds).

6. Fry until bottom side is golden-brown (about 1 minute) and flip it.

7. Fry this side for about 20 seconds and remove from frying pan.

8. Can be served plain, with maple syrup, nutella, honey, sugar, whatever you like!

-Edita

My Canned Dinner

Internet pic--like mine except for the tomatoes and orange cheese

Canned Soup with Canned Tuna (Tuna Melts)

Meal: Dinner

Who made it: Moi

Tastyness: 8/10

Healthyness: 7/10

Comments: Simple pleasures. Canned soup+tuna melts=deliciousness with a slight feeling of regret for my laziness. Who cares. That's what is so amazing about the 21st century--YOU CAN EAT WITHOUT COOKING!!!!! Couch potatoes unite!!

MS. FOODIE

Гренки

Russian Style French Toast

Meal: Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner

Who made it: Mom (I took this photo with my iPod)

Tastyness: 10/10

Healthyness: 7/10

Comments: I LOVE these things! I'm actually eating this while posting! Literally the same plate! 

Ingredients:

1 egg

20 milliliters of milk

1/8 teaspoon of salt

Canola oil

2 bagels or 4 slices of bread

1. Pour canola oil into frying pan.

2. Heat the pan to medium-high temp.

3. Whisk egg, milk, and salt with a form until your mixture is a yellow, foamy, liquid (not a lot of foam!).

4. Cut bagels in half (skip this step if using bread slices).

5. Soak bread/bagels in your mixture.

6. Fry each side of bagels/bread for about a minute each side.

7. Remove from pan and enjoy!

-Edita