The London Eye

Breakfast for Dinner

Eggs are awesome. They’re filling, full of protein and unbelievably easy to make. I eat them almost every day with two pieces of wheat toast, no butter. But I normally have them for breakfast or early lunch. 

Tonight I decided to mix it up. Before I made the trip back to Pittsburgh last week my mom gave me pounds of vegetables. Carrots, zucchini, squash, asparagus. In my Pinterest travels, I’ve stumbled upon many recipes combining asparagus and eggs. I’m not as excited about asparagus as Harry is but I figured I’d give it a try. However all the recipes I found call for poached eggs. 

Problem. Poached eggs scare me a little. 

Not sure I’m up to the task yet so I made them over easy like I always do. And ta-da! A wonderful single serving dinner… 

To make the asparagus: 

Cut asparagus into 5” strips (I used probably 5 or 6 pieces). Chop 1 garlic clove. Put both garlic and asparagus in small baking dish or baking sheet. Lightly pour olive oil over top, add fresh ground pepper. Broil for 2-3 minutes for flavorful al dente veggies! 

While broiling make your eggs then place over top the asparagus once cooked. Sprinkle crushed red pepper flakes for added heat, cut open the yolk and enjoy! 

Marinate your Chicken

I’m so sad. I made what were supposed to be wonderful strawberry banana muffins yesterday. I even took pictures with my camera instead of my iphone. But then Harry took a bite of them and gave me this face. “Strawberry banana is a weird flavor for bread…” he said. 

Fail. They were so pretty too. 

Note: They really aren’t bad, but he was right. It was strange tasting that wonderful combo in bread-like form. I found the recipe here if you want to try them anyway! 

In hopes to make a wonderful dinner instead, I threw together a marinade for the chicken breasts I was defrosting. I put them in the fridge around 3 (the longer you marinate them the better) but then it quickly became 9 pm and we still hadn’t eaten. I asked Harry if he wanted dinner and he said, “Pizza?” .. SO we walked up Centre and got pizza. 

Fail #2. 

I decided to make the chicken for lunch today. 

Seriously might be the best chicken I’ve ever made. I don’t even have any pictures. I ate it too quickly. 

Balsamic Mustard Chicken Marinade 

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinaigrette
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tbsp spicy brown mustard 

Instead of using 2 chicken breasts, I cut one really large one in 2 pieces. Feel free to cut into smaller strips depending on size. After trimming off any excess fat, season the chicken with salt and pepper.

In a large ziploc bag combine your marinade ingredients and mix lightly. Place the 2 (or more) chicken breasts into the bag and massage with the marinade (making sure the pieces are completely covered). Let sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour - the longer the better. Mine sat overnight but that was due to our last minute decision to get pizza. 

To cook: drizzle olive oil in a medium sized pan on medium heat. Place chicken breasts in the pan and lightly brown both sides. Then place a lid on the pan (feel free to turn to medium low heat if the oil is getting too hot) and let chicken sizzle for 16-20 minutes, flipping the pieces over half way through. Depending on the size of the pieces, make sure fully cooked before serving. 

Enjoy with your favorite veggie! 

Wait.. and chinese food.

But really. 

Chinese food is easily dairy free and full of delicious flavors like soy sauce, ginger, and garlic. All of which I could seriously consume everyday. 

A few weeks back Harry and I made a sweet and sour chicken recipe I stumbled upon on pinterest. On an asian ingredient kick I started pinning more and more recipes full of soy sauce, garlic, lime juice, and cilantro. Whether it was with chicken, tilapia or ground turkey.. I wanted it. 

Eventually I found a recipe for Asian Turkey Meatballs with a Lime Sesame Dipping Sauce (again on skinnytaste - seriously. it’s a permanent tab on my safari) that I was eager to try.

I think ground turkey is an often overlooked protein. It’s so easy to make and with the right ingredients can be delicious. And according to Gina, creator of skinnytaste, 3 of these meatballs = 230 calories. How can you go wrong!? 

Asian Turkey Meatballs (recipe makes 12 meatballs, 4 servings) 

• 1 lb lean ground turkey 
• 1/4 cup panko crumbs
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp ginger (definitely the best part to these meatballs)
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil 

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl (with a spoon or hands). Shape 1/4 cup meatballs and place on a (greased) baking sheet (I didn’t measure and came out with 11 meatballs instead of 12, whoops). Bake 15 minutes. 

For added flavor make a dipping sauce to pour over the meatballs once cooked. Mix together: 4 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil, 2 tsp fresh lime juice (1 lime squeezed), 2 tbsp water, and 1 scallion. Save in a bowl for when the meatballs are ready to be served.

(took this with my iphone.. the food really isn’t this yellow, I promise) 

Adapting from the old sweet and sour chicken recipe we made a few weeks ago, I decided to make fried rice to serve under the meatballs. 

Homemade fried rice

• 1 1/2 cups cooked rice (we boiled some white rice before making this)
• 1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil 
• 1 cup mixed peas and carrots (either frozen or freshly chopped)
• 1 or 2 scallions
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped 
• 2 tbsp soy sauce 
• 1 egg, slightly beaten 

On medium high heat, heat the sesame oil in a wok or large skillet. Add the peas, carrots, scallions and garlic. Stir fry until tender. Push the veggies aside and pour in the egg (we did all of this in a wok). Scramble the egg as you normally would for breakfast. Reduce heat to medium/low. Add the rice and soy sauce and blend everything together until thoroughly heated! 

To finish I placed the meatballs on the rice and poured the sauce overtop! Seriously so good. 

If I could.. I’d eat cookies everyday.

Last week we had a potluck. I made a wonderful mango/avocado salsa I found on skinnytaste.com (I seriously live on this blog). I was going to make buffalo chicken tacos (which I made the next day) but the oven was overwhelmed with the making of fried chicken. 

Later in the night though when the oven was free, a few friends and I decided to try and make nutella cookies. They sounded too easy to be true, so we figured why not. However, at the time, I didn’t know there was a difference between whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour (there is apparently) so they were kind of dry : ( 

After this failed attempt and still craving cookies, I scoured pinterest and other blogs for recipes that I couldn’t mess up. Feeling adventurous I researched dairy free chocolate chip cookie recipes.

Boy am I glad I did. 

I attempted to make dairy free cookies before. Using applesauce instead of butter or oil. Taking out the milk altogether. They were good, yes. But they tasted healthy and dairy free. I didn’t mind them but you could tell my boyfriend and his roommates were a little skeptical. I therefore wanted cookies that tasted like the buttery chewy cookies you dipped in milk as a kid. But without needing my lactaid pills. 

These cookies were seriously awesome. As the title itself proclaims… they might just be the World’s Most Delicious Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies. While I haven’t tried to make any other vegan cookies before, I may be jumping to conclusions pretty quickly. But, goodness they were good. 

(Almost) Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies 

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (I’m going to try whole wheat next time)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch (I’ve read this makes a huge difference in comparison to using baking powder!) 
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar (all natural -figured I’d give it a try) 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup Earth’s Balance Vegan “Buttery” Spread 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened almond milk 
• 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (vegan chocolate is more expensive - used regular semisweet chocolate- don’t tell) 

Preheat the oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix together flour, baking soda, cornstarch, brown sugar, and turbinado sugar in a bowl. Add vegan butter and almond milk. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop cookies onto the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. They may not look done in comparison to other cookies but they set once you take them out and are marvelously chewy! (Recipe makes 15 cookies)

Enjoy!

Summertime

A lot has happened since I last posted. I graduated from college, was accepted into graduate school, and moved in with my boyfriend and his roommates for the summer. I also have two brand new baby cousins and was lucky enough to watch my best friend get engaged. (pictures posted later). 

Because I’m only in Pittsburgh for the summer, I found it impossible to get a job that would hire me for 2 months. So! To occupy my time I’ve decided to take up my mother’s passion. A passion I never understood and seemingly never inherited. 

Cooking. 

So just for my own amusement I’ve decided to turn this photo blog into a temporary cooking blog. Really just so at the end of the summer I can see how I spent the last few months before venturing off into the real world. 

Enjoy.