TV and Dinners

The Rodney Dangerfield of Beans

Can we talk about something for a second?

It's just...something's been bugging me. Something SUPER SERIOUS. Something that's been keeping me up at night.

Why don't refried beans get any respect?

Chickpeas are the little miracle children of the blog world. Black beans, revered. White and kidney beans? Embraced. But refried beans feel like the bastard child (Jon Snow, what uuuuup?) of the healthy living blog community. Perhaps it's because the refried beans we've always eaten at Mexican restaurants are (deliciously) loaded with lard and cheese, making them creamy calorie bombs. Also, there's the whole "fried" thing in the name to contend with.

I'm here, however, to advocate for the refried bean. Because you know what? If prepared correctly, they're not only absolutely delicious but nutritious and versatile as well.

By now, you're probably expecting a detailed recipe on how to make amazing homemade refried beans. Yeah, not so much. As much as I would love to make the beans from scratch, I have this issue with Planning Ahead. In that I am terrible at it. And homemade beans are definitely something that require a good amount of lead time.

Just ask the bag of dried chickpeas that's been in my cupboard for three months.

So, here's my easy recipe for refried beans. Are you ready?

Step one: Buy refried beans. Fret for a moment about the BPA in the can, and then realize the BPA is just like a lazy tax. (A lazy tax that can potentially give you cancer if you're lazy enough for the rest of your life.) Vow to be less lazy.

There are two criteria I look for when buying refried beans: what's cheapest, and what has the fewest number of ingredients. This can was like 80 cents and has three ingredients: beans, canola oil and salt. Score.

Step two: Open can. Make delicious things like:

Roasted vegetable and refried bean burrito/tortilla/wrap thingies.

Roasted vegetable and refried bean taco salads.

And roasted vegetable and refried bean dip. (You might sense a theme here.)

Step three: When you run out of refried beans, go to the store and buy more.

Repeat.

(Oh, while I was out replenishing my refried bean stash? I also bought these.)

Oh boy.

It's Called Summer Squash for a Reason

You guys.

I have a lot of squash. What should I make?!?

HELP!

Out with the Old (In with the...Less Old)

My freezer has been on the fritz lately. It turned ice cream to soup (still delicious), frozen bananas for smoothies into brown, mushy blobs (not so delicious). Luckily my landlord is awesome, and he took one look inside and declared I needed an entirely new refrigerator.

Score.

I adore my apartment, but the appliances are the pits. My stove has only one decent sized burner, and it's permanently tilted. My pancakes are really special.

My fridge...well, just look at it.

The shelves are so weird. Right? I mean, look at that awkward shelf in the middle right under the meat drawer. The only thing you can put on that is, like, tortillas. Or the newspaper.

So needless to say, I was pretty psyched to get a new fridge. You know what they say about expectations? I don't, come to think of it, but I know my expectations were NOT what I came home to tonight.

OH MY GOD IT IS SO SMALL. This is the same amount of food as the picture above. Hell, it's the EXACT SAME FOOD.

(Also, it's not new. Just slightly less old.)

You see those two clear drawers in the middle, there? Those are from my old fridge, which they just kind of slapped in there because I have so much crap. I took one of them out, but I'm leaving the other one just sitting on a shelf because otherwise, where do I put all of my cheeeeese without a cheese drawer?

I'm sort of in a tizzy.

I'll get over it.

My (still awesome, despite poor taste in appliances) landlord sent me a text telling me to test out the new freezer when I got home to make sure it worked. So I bought some ice cream on the way home.

 

Two things: 1) If you like peanut butter, buy this ice cream, as it is fantastic; 2) I took this picture at eye level. I can see the top of my fridge. I am only 5'7".

This fridge is a baby fridge. I hope one day it matures into an adult fridge so I can continue to grow my condiment and nut butter collections.

I also came home and found this was left out on the counter.

I didn't really want that butter anyway.

I Might Fail at Self-Esteem, But I Win at Banana Bread

Today, my trainer kicked my ass.

(Maybe if I don't mention how I haven't posted in 11 months, no one will notice.)

It was the kind of ass kicking that makes you feel powerful, because despite how hard it was, despite how much I wanted to quit...I didn't. I finished every last burpee, even if I cursed the whole time.

(If I mention it, I'm going to have to explain why I was gone for so long, and I'm not sure I know how to do that.)

Right after I did my last exercise of the day, struggling and shaking, I stood up. I was proud of myself. I am STRONG. Then it happened. I looked in the mirror. I didn't like what I saw. And, immediately, I started beating myself up mentally.

"You're so fat."

"Why can't you stop eating? You're working out so hard and ruining it with your diet."

"You are a failure."

(Hmm. These inner voices might have something to do with why I've been gone so long. I should note this for later.)

At first, I indulged these inner voices. I mentally wallowed in them. Despite all I had just accomplished, I believed them. On my drive home, it hit me.

Fuck those voices. No, really. FUCK THEM. Did those voices just work out their arms so hard they aren't going to be able to wash their hair tomorrow? No. Those voices are chilling in my brain, sipping martinis and watching season four of Breaking Bad five days early because those voices have it easy. All they have to do is hang out in my brain, festering until they see their opportunity to take me down, like Heisenberg tried to take down Tuco.

(Hey, at least I was gone for so long I could use Breaking Bad references in this post. Bright side!)

I'm done with those voices. Just as Heisenberg ultimately wasn't the one who took down Tuco, those voices aren't going to defeat me. Those voices are the things that caused me to gain this weight in the first place. Those voices aren't welcome here anymore.

(Maybe I took the Breaking Bad thing too far. JESSE PINKMAN, CALL ME. Ahem. Anyway.)

I have a broken relationship with food and my body. And I need to fix it, because this broken relationship is affecting everything else in my life. I'm not quite sure how to do it in the long run. Tonight it involved making banana bread. Not just banana bread, but the best damn banana bread I've ever made.

It seems counterintuitive, I know. Making food to solve your issues with food? But creating recipes is fun. Way more fun than assault and battery on your own emotions. So, if you're having a bad day, make this bread. Eat a piece. Don't feel guilty about it.

And then, the next day, do it again. Because this bread is delicious.

Tropical Banana Nut Bread

3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
3-4 ripe bananas
1 8oz. can crushed pineapple
1/3 c. unsweetened coconut
1/3 c. walnuts
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. coconut oil
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In mixer, combine bananas, pineapple, coconut oil and sugar until incorporated. Add egg and vanilla. Slowly stir in flour mixture until just combined - don't overmix! Stir in walnuts and coconut.

Pour mixture into greased loaf pan and sprinkle additional nuts on top of loaf, because it's pretty and we like things that are pretty. Bake 45 minutes to an hour, until a tester comes out clean. (Optional: pull loaf out halfway through cooking time and top with shredded coconut for more pretty, pretty garnish.)

Cool in pan on a wire rack. Then EAT IT.

 

Side note: does anyone else's kitchen look like this when they bake?

I am a nightmare.

Maybe It Was Memphis

If it isn't completely obvious from my lack of posts here, I haven't been cooking much the last few weeks. I've been eating just fine, but the cooking part has gone a bit by the wayside. Unfortunately this isn't going to change in the next week and a half or so, as I am going on vacation (!!!) to Los Angeles for a week. I'm hoping to do a little bit of "off-brand" blogging about my trip, and specifically about what I am eating on my trip. I actually went on a little mini-vacation this past weekend to Memphis to visit friends, so seeing as I have a lack of content I thought I'd write about it a bit. Sound good? It will, once you see the food. Trust me.

After a bit of a mishap on Saturday morning where I went 20 minutes in the wrong direction on the highway (DON'T JUDGE ME, I FIGURED IT OUT EVENTUALLY) I got to Memphis with very little trouble. Here's the thing about Memphis last weekend. It was hot. Like, killer hot. Despite the heat, we wanted to get out and sightsee a little bit. First stop: the mighty Mississippi. (I apologize in advance for the quality of some of these pics. I forgot my camera and had to use my phone.)

It was quite beautiful and peaceful. Weird me, however, couldn't do anything but think about Jeff Buckley walking in and never coming back out. Because I am a morbid freak.

I look much less sweaty than I feel.

After seeing the river, we went to watch the ducks walk at the Peabody Hotel. The ducks were cute. The 30 minute barely audible explanation of the ducks was less so. I also asked to do a quick swing by Beale Street just to check it out.

Those garbage cans smelled pretty. Spotted:

Yesssssssssssss.

On the way back to the house (for dinner!) we did a quick drive-by of Sun Studio to snap a quick pic. I am only including it because apparently we went back in time and I managed to take a picture in 1955, and I wanted to share my awesome time traveling powers.

Cool shot, daddio-s.

OK, now to the good stuff: food. My only request while in Memphis was to get some barbecue. And get barbecue we did, indeed.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present pulled pork barbecue nachos from Central BBQ, served alongside a delicious Ghost River Brown Ale. Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeee.

I was pretty excited about the nachos. I think you can tell from my strangely arched eyebrow.

Yep, pretty much killed it. These were so freaking delicious. I got them without the liquid cheese and I can't imagine they would be better with it, because they were perfect. For real. I ate that entire basket in like 3 minutes. Sooooo good.

Just when I thought our food day couldn't get any better, my lovely host Jessi suggested we get sno cones. Um, yes please!

This place is (was?) Jerry Lee Lewis' favorite place and he went there so much they named it after him. Or something. It was pretty hot out, and therefore hard to absorb the story. Apparently it is a lot of people's favorite place because we waited for 45 minutes in 100 degree heat to get a damn sno cone. The thing is...it was totally worth it.

Wow. Best. Sno cone. EVER. I got a pineapple coconut and it was truly delicious. It was so fluffy and the flavoring didn't taste artificial at all. They even had the option to add soft serve to your sno cone, which all of my friends enjoyed. I abstained, but I tasted theirs and it was heavenly. Stupid lactose.

I believe as I was eating this I said "I want to eat barbecue nachos and sno cones every weekend for the rest of my life." And you know what? I do. It was that tasty.

Later that night there were some furious games of Mad Libs and Apples to Apples. Oh, and these. (Why yes, that is a panther.)

But let us never speak of those things again.

The Perfect Summer Meal

I don't know if you've heard, but it's kind of hot outside. Not quaint hot, like "oh, maybe I should rethink my hair choice," but crazy hot, like "gather up your elderly lest they die of heat stroke." While I am a professed fan of warm climes, I have to admit. It is stupid hot in Nashville right now.

I came home from work starving and sweaty and immediately buried my face in this.

Refreshing. If not necessarily ladylike.

I have an overwhelmingly full fridge because of my abundant CSA share this week, so fresh produce was on the menu for dinner tonight, and a lot of it. I also wanted to include some protein and the first thing that came to mind was hummus, so I whipped up a batch and it turned out to be my best hummus ever. Simple - but blog-worthy - for sure.

Creamy Lemony Hummus

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
Juice of 1.5 large lemons (or 2 smaller ones)
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 heaping tablespoon tahini
1-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt & pepper to taste

Put all ingredients except olive oil in a food processor and blend until combined. While machine is on, stream in oil until you get your desired smooth and creamy consistency (mine took about 2 tablespoons, but I eyeballed it and didn't measure). Taste a few times along the way to adjust salt & pepper levels. Enjoy!

This hummus is great because the extra lemon juice really gives it a bright kick, and the cayenne gives a bit of background warmth and depth of flavor. If you like it as hot as the ridiculous weather outside, feel free to add more cayenne.

I basically made this hummus as a vehicle for the jaw-droppingly good tomatoes I got from my CSA this week, because just eating slices of tomato for dinner while standing over the sink would be sad. Not that I did that, or anything. All I will say is that there was more to this tomato than is pictured below. And now there isn't.

This tomato masterpiece was a piece of toast topped with hummus, tomatoes, salt, pepper and basil. Served with a quick cucumber salad (similar to this one) and corn on the mother-freaking cob.

Out of this world good. Let's see it all close-like.

Ridiculous.

See that gritty stuff? It's SALT. And the shiny stuff? BUTTER. Man, I am going to have happy dreams tonight.

Later on after wiping the drool off my face I watched the newest episode of Covert Affairs. I wish that show was better. I love spy stuff, I love girls who kick ass, and I love Christopher Gorham most of all (Jake 2.0!!!) but it is just not doing it for me. Oh, well, it's summer. I'll watch anything in the summer.

Other things I do in the summer? Eat my weight in watermelon. This was dessert.

Goodnight! I'm off to dream about butter. And air conditioning.

I'm Not A Vegan, But I Cook Like One

So, the month-long vegan eating adventure has come to an end. I planned on posting my big retrospective yesterday, but I was too busy eating meat (and then paying for it dearly -- I get it, vegetables, you rule and meat drools). Despite being a day late to the party I still wanted to talk a little bit about the experience because, while I didn't fully change my views on eating meat vs. not, I did gain a bit of perspective on the matter. I learned a little bit more about how my diet affects my body to boot. Bonus!

Let's do an old fashioned pro/con thing, shall we?

Vegan Pros:

• Much easier to pull off in the "real world" than I imagined. You have to do more research, but many restaurants post nutritional information online. Also, the explosion of allergies among the population actually greatly helps vegans, because allergy information always includes milk and eggs, making it easy to suss out hidden vegan dangers. Non-chain, local restaurants were very willing to work with me as well to make my meals tasty and vegan. (Vegan nachos from Calypso Cafe are almost better than the real thing!)
• I honestly felt really good about my food all month. There is something very satisfying about knowing you are always getting enough fruits and vegetables in your life.
• I discovered that I don't actually need cheese. At all. Ever since I became lactose intolerant, I've maintained a bit of a cheese habit, just in much smaller quantities because I was convinced I couldn't live without it. I made many of my normal dishes just without cheese, and they were just fine. Good, even! (Now, I can't say the same thing about ice cream. I'll always want ice cream.)

Vegan Cons:

• My hunger was completely thrown off all month. I was hungry at weird times, and full at random times when I knew it was technically "time" for a meal. I'm sure this is because I did the vegan thing "wrong," as it probably had something to do with my protein intake.
• It was uncomfortable to refuse to partake in party food at work. I didn't feel like I wanted to fully explain what I was doing, and it was just awkward. Also, I kind of wanted some cake.
• Having to worry about every little thing I put in my mouth was exhausting. So was the guilt I felt when I ate a fortune cookie without thinking and then realized it probably had egg in it. I don't like added food guilt. I get enough of that from the pound of sugar I eat a week.

Overall, I am very glad I took on the challenge and had a lot of fun coming up with creative ways to eat for the month. Do I plan on doing it permanently? No, I don't. I took on this challenge with more of an interest in the dietary aspect of being a vegan, and not the moral aspect, and I think that unless you're being a vegan for moral reasons it's a really difficult thing to keep up. I did take away a new-found respect for the practice, a different way of thinking about food, and a better way of handling my lactose intolerance, so I am grateful for that. I will also probably eat even less meat than I did before, now that I've seen how fun it is to create vegan recipes (and felt really gross after eating some chicken on Sunday, which sort of freaked me out because why is meat making me feel gross now?!?).

But today? Today I ate an egg on my salad at lunch. And some croutons of unknown origin. I didn't feel guilty about it. And it was divine.

Despite not wanting to be a permanent vegan, when looking over the amaze-craze-ness of this week's CSA haul, the first thing that came to mind was a vegan recipe. Hmm. Interesting.

Check out my loot!

WATERMELON!

Seriously.

WATERMELON!

I was so excited I almost did a little dance. (This isn't even all of my veggies, there are more hiding behind the melon and on another counter. Yay, produce!) Along with the veggies they also had some very pretty flowers.

Aren't they cute? (Also, my clock is crooked. Oops.)
 

They make me smile whenever I walk into the kitchen. Today at the pickup they had some beautiful tomatoes and absolutely gorgeous basil, so the first thing that came to mind was bruschetta. Of course, I had no bread so I improvised. I give you: bruschetta pasta!

Summertime Bruschetta Pasta

1 large tomato, seeded and diced
3 tablespoons chopped basil
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
1 clove garlic, finely minced and divided in half
1/2 - 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
~2 tablespoons olive oil
Splash balsamic vinegar
2 servings whole wheat spaghetti
Salt & pepper to taste

In a small bowl, combine tomato, basil, onion, half of the garlic, balsamic and salt and pepper. Set aside. Cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium to medium high heat. Add the other half of the garlic, crushed red pepper and some salt and pepper and saute until garlic is light brown. (Take careful steps to make sure the garlic doesn't burn, otherwise your pasta will taste like sadness. Trust.) Once the pasta is done, transfer directly into skillet using tongs so some of the pasta water remains sticking to the noodles. If you don't have tongs, you can just drain with a colander and add a splash of pasta water to the skillet. Toss the pasta in the flavored oil and then add the tomato mixture and toss for just a minute to warm. Transfer to serving dish and top with parmesan cheese and extra chopped basil (if desired, I skipped the cheese). Makes two servings.

This is good stuff. Make sure you have good tomatoes, because they make the whole dish. Mmm...tomatoes. Note: if you aren't super crazy about garlic, leave out the raw garlic in the tomato mixture, because this dish is aggressively garlicky. Don't leave it out of the oil, however, because I'm pretty sure the red pepper/garlic-infused oil is what people eat in heaven. If not, heaven sucks.

One Night, Two Recaps
Very belated links to my two Sunday night recaps. I hate Rachel, but apparently all of my readers disagree. But the voice! And the whining! And the ridiculous notion that everyone else in the house somehow wants to "come between" her and Brendon! Ugh. She is the worst.

'Big Brother 12': Hayden and Kristen fight back

'True Blood': Sookie gets closer to the truth

I'm off to eat a million Pretzel M&M's. Goodnight!

Vegan Day 28: I Don't Wanna Wait...

...for this vegan month to be over, I want some frozen yogurt right now!

I've done really well this month, not even really craving non-vegan food at all. Until a few days ago. Now burgers sound good to me, chicken fingers sound good to me, eggs sound good to me, and especially FROZEN YOGURT sounds good to me. My brain is composing little frozen yogurt sonnets while I sleep and implanting them there for me to find while I go about my daily business. That, or it's all the articles I've read in the last week about Pinkberry coming to Nashville in a few months.

I want some tart frozen yogurt. I want it now. And Sunday, glorious Sunday, it will be mine.

Other than that, I really don't have anything to say. No new recipes, as all of my meals lately have basically been cold salads made from my (incredible) CSA veggies or roasted vegetables or bagel sandwiches.

Mostly, I just wanted to post so I could share this. It is basically my favorite thing ever.

Pacey-Con with Joshua Jackson from Joshua Jackson

Pacey Witter. Sigh.

Also: here's a link to tonight's Big Brother recap. I still don't hate these people! It's a Christmas miracle!

'Big Brother 12': Andrew's master plan

Vegan Day 21: When All Else Fails, Eat a Bagel Sandwich

Tonight I had grand plans to make a fantastic dish. A dish that would capture the hearts of everyone in the blog world and vault me into food blogger superstar-dom. A dish that would get me a book deal.

I got home and got my ingredients out. You see, I'd been mentally planning this recipe in my head all day long. When I was dealing with someone annoying on the phone? In my head I was calculating flour measurements. When five different people came to my desk and needed things at the same time? I was thinking about whether or not to add onions.

I mixed the ingredients. Tasted. Adjusted. Tasted again. Things were going perfect! I WAS GOING TO BE A STAR!

Then I started cooking my masterpiece.

FAIL.

Instead, I bring you...a bagel sandwich!

I'm a little bit obsessed with bagel sandwiches right now. I've had some variation of this meal for lunch or dinner almost every day for the last week. So although I'm sad about my terrible, terrible dinner disaster, at least I got to eat a tasty replacement.

The worst part about my fail, though? I used all of my first CSA corn of the season. Booooooo. I knew I should have put one cob aside for eating plain.

Pop quiz: did you know that pesticide-free corn is riddled with caterpillars? Yeah. I didn't know that until I went to go select my corn at my CSA pickup and the first ear I pulled back the husk on waved at me. Hello, Mr. Caterpillar! (No, he did not say 'ello. Or hello. He just glared at me for disturbing his delicious cob snack.) (Name that reference!)

I may have shrieked a bit and dropped it (like it's hot). Luckily the woman next to me did the same thing so I didn't feel so crazy.

Also? I bought these yesterday.

Rachel Might Be Overthinking It
Once again, a Big Brother recap for your enjoyment. Britney and Monet are some catty ladies, huh?

'Big Brother 12': Matt's genius plan

Goodnight!

Vegan Day 18: Winter in July

I have had such a lovely past few days of vegan eats. Nothing fancy, just a lot of tasty, healthy food. A friend of mine (who obviously isn't following my blog, for shame) asked me today if I was still hanging in with the vegan eating challenge, and I was happy to be able to easily say yes. I was thinking about my diet yesterday and, honestly, I am not eating all that differently than I normally do. OK, my desserts have been drastically cut down but that is a good thing as I am a bit of a sugar fiend. So far, the only thing I am truly missing is eggs. I want an egg really, really bad. There must be something nutritionally in an egg that my body is craving. Cholesterol? Omega 3's? I'm not sure, but I should probably find a way to get what I am missing so my cravings stop!

I was hanging out with Nea and Pablo on Friday night and we were talking about our CSA (we belong to the same one) and how, now that the harvest is fully coming in, we have a ton of veggies left over at the end of the week. Pablo, because he is a cooking genius, said they have been putting all of their remaining veggies into a crock pot meal every Sunday and enjoying it very much. Such a good idea, huh? Well, I don't have a crock pot but I do have a SOUP pot...so soup it was!

Anyone who has been reading my blogs for a while know I have a bit of an obsession with homemade soup in the winter months. I never make it in the summer, but there's a first time for everything, right? My goal was to use up a bunch of veggies, and use them up I did! Everything but the beets got their turn.

"Everything but the Beets" Vegetable and White Bean Soup

~3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 red potatoes, diced
1 medium squash, diced
1 leek, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup green beans
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon spice blend (I used Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute)
salt & pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook for 1-2 minutes, then add garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add carrots and leeks, season with a bit of salt and pepper, and cook for another few minutes. Next add the potatoes and let cook for a minute or two, and finally add the squash. Next add crushed red pepper, spice blend and tomato paste and make sure it is well combined with the veggie mixture. Dump in beans, tomatoes and vegetable stock and bring up to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until potatoes are tender (about 30 minutes) and season to taste. Add green beans about 10 minutes before serving to avoid overcooking. Garnish with chopped basil and parsley and (vegan) parmesan cheese if desired. Makes 4 servings.

The soup was great. This is the first time I've added tomato paste to a soup, and I really should do it more often because it adds a nice depth of flavor. The potatoes and beans give the soup some body as well, which is quite pleasant.

On the side, I attempted some vegan cornbread using this award-winning recipe. This was less successful. The texture was perfect, but it wasn't nearly sweet enough for me. Next time I would double the sugar. Also, this might have had something to do with me using white corn meal instead of yellow. Does anyone know anything about corn meal? I didn't even notice I'd gotten white until I got home. Is there a big taste difference? I assume most cornbread uses yellow because of the color. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Two Different Kind of Freaks
Sundays are killer, both for entertainment and my sanity as I blog about two different shows. I sure do like both Big Brother and True Blood, but my fingers are tired. Here are links to tonight's recaps:

'Big Brother 12': Rachel makes her nominations

'True Blood': Vikings, vamps and weres, oh my!

Now I shalll eat coconut milk ice cream and go to sleep. Tomorrow, a new batch of CSA veggies. I hear there is going to be corrrrrrrrrrn!