The Rhythm is Gonna Get Cha..

One of my besties came in town last weekend (and brace yourself, another one's coming this weekend) ... and in honor we decided to catch up over a couple bottles of wine. Snacks.... obviously... were in order. Have I discussed Paula Deen's secret VEGAN recipe? The queen of butter and fried things accidentally made something healthy. It had to have been an accident, and what a delicous and healthy one that it was. She has an amazing black bean salsa recipe that includes the following:

• tomatoes
• black beans
• corn
• avocado
• onion
• cilantro
• red wine vinegar
• lime juice

ridiculously easy and heaven on a stick. I make big batches of this and eat it all week long (with fish, with cream cheese as a queso, in quesadillas, tex mex breakfast scramble...the options are endless).

I made a BIG 'ole batch to take to a Hog Roast the next day too. It was hit.. mostly because i was spreading rumors of how good it was. Also I made Zesty Cook's (food blogger extraordinaire) super easy greek dip. It basically included the following:

• cream cheese (like you could go wrong after that)
• feta
• NF plain yogurt
• dill
• tomatoes
• olives
• green onions

it was also supposed to have cucumbers but i forgot to add them to my grocery list..... so..... you know how that goes. Anyway with warm pita bread it was heaven.

Amy grabbed triscuits, some sort of summer sausagy thing and a delicous new kind of herbed cheese that for the life of me i can't remember it's name. This was the kind of gourmet lunchable that pseudo adults like us just LOVE.

Emily made fried green beans. She used some seasoned flour and fried them. With ranch they were SO good.

After mucho catching up and killing a few bottles of wine we got ready (this all went down just after work on friday, necessitating quick snacks and brief wardrobe changes). While we listened to some serious MJ hits and decided to be 'man in the mirror'

Which lead to this....

Which lead to a suggestion (I think emily gets the credit for this).. for pulling out a pair of white knit gloves from an OLD winter stash of warm things. It made it out with us for dance party madness. In recapping the evening the next morning on the phone with my mother she asked what others thought of us. Truthfully...... not sure. We actually just walked to bar area, proceeded to dance out in the open (where there's a DJ but no cover, etc.) and then go home. We actually had little interaction with others (minus friends of ours that were nearby and met up/hung out/dance partied too)

HIL.AR.I.OUS.

Lots of moonwalking happened too... I'm just saying.

Awesome.

the vegetables of my labor

Ba-Ba-Ba....Ba-Ba-ganoush (to be sung to the tune of ba-ba-bomb-Iran by John McCain) ... so I just watched the debates (LOVE being home this evening) and had two friends surprise me by dropping by. Con: my apartment looked like a category 3 storm had come through due to the crazy houseguest and school schedule I've had since it was cleaned last week. Seriously, I had articles of clothing draped over absolutely everything and every shoe I own (which let's not kid ourselves, is a substantial number) was in clusters making making bridges to nowhere all over the place. Con: my attention was divided and wasn't able to get the adequate shout-at-the-TV action I was hoping for (..or for which i was hoping.., sorry dad). Pro: recipe tasters. woohoo.

I tried my hand at a little BaBaGanoush this evening. I have only used eggplant in lasagna (which was delicous) but knowing it is a versatile veggie, and because I love making hummus so much I have been meaning to make this dip forever. First of all, one eggplant was not nearly enough. Although they are amazons in the world of vegetables, by the time you peel them and remove the pulp, there is virtually nothing left. Note to self: next time get multiple eggplants.

Also because I was anticipating a larger final product, I decided to forgo the mini food processor (my love) and attempt to repair my cracked blender. No need to tell me how ridiculously GHET-TO the following image is:

What would Martha say? Duct tape... it's a very good thing.

Good thing it didn't become unglued because i'm pretty sure that anything you find at home depot shouldn't be touching your food. The verdict? I sort of thought it tasted like mashed potatoes, is that weird? My buddy thought so too, so maybe it's not just me. I used a lot of garlic and possibly it was the parsley... but anyway, yummy and not nearly as delicious with carrots as it was with little home-made tortilla strips (more on that in a second). The picture below is about a cup and a half of dip... Cue disappointing trumpet sound effects (still tasty though, which is I suppose the point).
BaBaGanoush:

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 glove garlic, minced;
  1/4 teaspoon salt
  1.5 teaspooon ground parsley
  2 tablespoons tahini
  2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Bake eggplant (poke holes in the skin first) at 450 for 20 minutes. When it has cooled, peel, remove pulp and process with the other ingredients.
  

In honor of kickball being cancelled (I've never been so excited for rain) I decided to use my first real evening at home to try not only a new app but a new yummy soup as well. Once again, I stole the recipe, but made my own additions and alterations so I feel like I can claim it. Tonight was Chicken Tortilla Soup. I ommitted all things that could've been s to the picy because I'm a wimp, but it was still yummy and flavorful... AND.. it had a favorite healthy food ingredient of mine, quinoa (pronounced keen-wa. However since i've never actually heard any one 'say' it, i will continue to say it like it sounds).

TA- DA! deeeee-lish. I used the skinny gourmet creation. I'm stoked to be having this as a leftover. Also my recipe testers loved it. Not that with me hovering over them writhing my hands together in anticipation they would give me anything but rave reviews (me = not an accomplished enough cook to take criticism)... but I'll still take it as success.


The list of ingredients is for ever long (just use the hyperlink, you know you want to)

• carrots
• onions
• zucchini
• garlic cloves
• chicken
• chicken stock
• corn (i ran out, which has never happened, probably because i never think i need to buy any so i haven't in forever... but more corn would've been delicous
• diced tomatoes
• sweet peppers
• cilantro
• chili pepper spice
• cumin
• oregano
• quinoa

So for the tortilla strips I just sliced whole wheat wraps and put them under the broiler for a few minutes. Super easy and delicous, I'm pretty sure I could make pita-ish chips like this too. (i sprayed them with olive oil and dusted them with salt... yes... dusted)

For lunch today I had a wrap (with a handful of almonds) that had sweet potato, spinach and black beans. The combo of black beans and sweet potato is the bomb.com.

After the weekend of eating whatever and using semi-frozen things while running around for school, it felt AH-MA-ZING to be having fresh things that came out of my refrigerator/kitchen. I felt better. The sun was shinging, the birds were singing and I was all kinds of healthy with no mystery ingredients. nice.