So you found a 2.5 pound bag of spinach in your fridge that's about to expire....don't fret!

Whoopsies! I meant to post this yesterday through the blogger app but it just saved as a draft.

Have you ever bought a bunch of produce, and a week later realized you have exactly 1.4 days left of use out of it? If you haven't, stop being my friend. Just stop, you are too perfect. 

I REALLLLLLLY try to make an effort to eat what I have and buy what I need, but every once in a while, I get super excited at the 13 pounds of snap peas and mushrooms at costco and what can I say? I go a little overboard. 

I have a green smoothie for lunch just about every day.

This was the first thing I did when I got back from Italy. Charlie promptly responded with "sweetie if you want I can just cut the grass and you can have it for free". Whatever, I love them, and I think they taste fruity and delicious.

Anyway, this week, I may or may not have found 2.5 pound bag of spinach in my fridge. Unopened. Expiring relatively soon. Two Point Five Pounds. Is this real?

Well, I can't have enough green smoothies to finish that off, so I decided to make "sag aloo" - an Indian dish for spinach and potatoes. Except I didn't use potatoes. So I made sag. I think. Or aloo. Whichever one means spinach.

Our players:

I sauteed a small/medium onion in some olive oil and salt, added the ginger, a teaspoon of each spice, and then about a pound of the spinach in batches. I didn't measure, but it was about half the bag, or less than half the bag. A lot of spinach - use your judgement, and if you don't want to, use a pound. As I added in the spinach I stirred it to get it "wet" with the oil, and then used my immersion blender to chop it up.

Add in more spinach, and do it again.

My pound of spinach significantly shrunk down to a size I could fathom a family of 4 eating.

Funny side story about my ginger:


I buy a hand of ginger, and I chop it up like shown above, and keep it in the freezer. I mostly use it in my smoothies but sometimes add it to whatever. Well, a couple of weekends ago I was sewing a valance for upstairs at my parents' house and my mom decided to make a smoothie. Unfrotunately, she thought my ginger was bananas, and had a not-so-great experience with ginger. Was pretty funny though.

My version of "sag aloo' minus the "aloo" is great alone, with rice, topped over salmon, or even used as a "relish" for burgers.






Ingredients:
-1 chopped onion, sauteed in olive oil
-1/2 inch of minced fresh ginger
-1 pound of spinach
-1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
-1/2 teaspoon turmeric
-1 teaspoon cumin
-1 teaspoon garam masala
-1/2 teaspoon coriander

You can also add a can of chopped tomatoes to this, or some red kidney beans, or lentils. Yummmmm. You can also toss some chicken in it if you wanna please your man (well my man, who thinks no meal is complete without chicken).

Anyway, I am off to get an easy night. Charlie is finally off midnight shift and I get to watch tv in bed with him. A perfect Friday night!

Shabbat Shalom Y'all!

PS - the challah was so good tonight! Recipe soon.

Mom's spinach/strawberry salad

Craving: Mom's spinach salad, of course

My mom is such a creative cook. In Israel you have very creative ideas for vegetable dishes and salads, and salad is basically served with EVERY meal. We would always have about 4 creative veggie dishes at a table. I get so upset with pot lucks that are all pasta based. Let's get creative people! It's not too difficult to make a side dish that is nutritious, creative, and delicious.

 A typical dinner at my house growing up was a fish or chicken, a whole grain, and let's say, 3 veggie side dishes. 

These are examples of dishes we had every night for dinner:

-sauteed green beans with spicy sauce

-broiled broccoli with soy sauce

-apple cider cabbage slaw with toasted pine nuts

-watermelon, feta, and mint salad with raspberry vinaigrette

-red cabbage slaw with pineapple

-steamed sweet carrots with sesame seeds

-"waldorf" salad - aka apple, celery, walnuts, pineapple

-roasted beets with balsamic vinegar

-eggplant with tahini sauce

-sweet potatoes stuffed with roasted grapes and goat cheese, topped with honey

and many more! Please be creative with your veggies, it's not that difficult.

This weekend Charlie has some of his best friends in town visiting for a bachelor party weekend. One of his best friends, Anthony, is having a baby in August, so he wanted to do the weekend before then. I cooked up a bunch of food for them and decided to make some healthy stuff as well (and then I ate a burger myself!).

I made two salads, both of which were delicious. When you have 4 big guys and you have one burger left but you finish a salad, you know it's just that good!

I forgot to snap a picture until we had already devoured some of it, but it still looks okay:


Here is her recipe for strawberry spinach salad:

Ingredients:
-1/2 lb spinach leaves
-1/2 pint of strawberries, sliced
-1/2 cup (i just eyeballed this and used handfsuls) of candied pecans
-2 tbs sugar (you can use splenda)
-2 tbs white vinegar
-1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
-2 tsp sesame seeds
-1 tsp poppy seeds
-1/4 medium onion, grated (you can chop it finely)
-1/4 tsp paprika (optional)

Directions:
1. wash the spinach and mix with the strawberries.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients except the oil. Slowly whisk the oil in so it emulsifies.
3. Mix the dressing into the spinach/strawberry mix, and toss with the pecans.

Enjoy!


Sidenote: do you have an ingredient that you always seem to buy, and then one day you find you have 4 open versions of it? One day my mom and I found like 4 bottles of white vinegar in her house!

Well, yesterday my mom went to fresh and easy and asked if I needed anything and I told her hamburger meat (for the guys...and me), and candied walnuts. Well after I made the salad, I went to put the walnuts in the pantry and found three packets! Woops. Katy is over and I just had her take a picture, in front of my finished wreaths!




Questions:
1. What creative foods will you challenge yourself to make this week?
2. Is there a food you always tend to overbuy?

Spinach Smoothie with ginger and lime and other things I did on Wednesday

Cravings: An overall healthy day, plus a donut :-)

Yesterday I woke up and had a spinach smoothie. It was delicious! I added fresh ginger and a squeeze of lime, which I did not picture in the ingredients. Next time I will add a handful of fresh parsley or mint (whatever I have on hand, but I had neither).
Ingredients:

2 handfuls of spinach
1 can of pineapple chunks in juice (pour the whole thing in)
1.5 cups of no sugar added vanilla almond milk
1 cup of frozen strawberries
1 tbs chia seeds
half an orange pepper
1heaping tablespoon of greek yogurt

I blended all of it and then added the ginger and squeeze of lime:

Roughly peeled and sliced ginger.

Squeezed the lime in.

Re-blended. Poured into a cup. Put the rest in the fridge for later!

Yum..... (excuse the extremely tired/puffy eyes and no make up, I woke up with a massive headache).

After I made the smoothie I was in a cooking/healthy mood so I decided to do some cooking. Charlie said that he had been craving pasta since I made the beet gnocchi, so I whipped up a big pot of tricolor spirals with tons of vegetables and chicken.

Recipe coming soon.

I also started a batch of sweet potato gnocchi, but I decided to refrigerate it before rolling it and cutting it. Recipe and pictures when it's complete.

I also made a batch of brussel sprouts that are seriously the best thing I've ever had. My mom came over for a moment and couldn't stop eating them, and Katy came over and liked them, and she doesn't even like brussel sprouts!

I'll post the recipe later today.

After lots of cooking, I went to the gym with my friend Haley. I did a short cardio workout and then bodypump. Bodypump is my favorite class. I try to do it 2-3 times a week, although I had been slacking and hadn't been in a few weeks. Haley and I are both sore today. But I love it!

I realized I hadn't gotten an oil change or anything checked on my car in far too long, so I called the mechanic and he told me I could drop my car off in the evening. My dad then met me and drove me home. I was going to drop him off and take his car to go to a DG alumni event at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art but by the time we left the mechanic it was 7, and the event started at 7, and I would have been at least 45 minutes late. 

My dad suggested we go to the farmer's market on Rampart and Vegas drive. I see it every Wednesday and can you believe I haven't gotten? I was in Heaven! My dad definitely got irritated that I was taking so long and waited in the car. I did get him to snap a picture first:

I bought yummy strawberries, amazing apricots, some white peaches, parsley (for my smoothie, and some fish I have in the fridge), and beet hummus. The beet hummus is slightly sweet and delicious.

Speaking of apricots, my sister and I would eat them constantly when we were little, when we would visit Israel for the summers. Every time we had one (and I am talking at least one or two a day), we would open it first in half and check for worms. For some reason, we believed that worms often lived in apricots. I guess this was before pesticides if we were that paranoid about worms!!!

After the farmer's market my friend from the DG alumni group texted me that they were having snacks and drinks at FIX at Bellagio after the gallery, so I took my dad's car after all and joined them. I had a glass of red wine, and then we ordered fresh donuts and I am SO glad I had one - it was definitely worth it!

We had two for the table :-)

It was so good to see some of my friends that I hadn't seen in a while. I am actually meeting up with my friend Jodi who was there to work on a red/white/blue wreath for Memorial Day!

I dropped my dad's car off at my parent's house and Katy picked me up. We stopped at the store and I bought HUGE avocados and made more chocolate/berry avocado pudding. This batch is definitely the best so far! It's also really filling.

avoca

Recipes and other fun stuff to come!

Rest of the weekend part 2: Smoothies, Winco, and Cooking!

Cravings: Healthy smoothies, homemade wreaths, bulk foods, and cooking!
Fact: Did you know that you can toss in spinach or kale to most smoothies and not even taste it? You can also add in herbs like parsley or mint that give it a great flavor. Adding a touch of citrus like lime, or even grating up some ginger into it gives it that touch of oomph it may be missing!

On Saturday morning Katy came over for a walk. I decided to make a spinach smoothie drink. I used two big handfulls of fresh spinach, one can of pineapple chunks with the juice, half of a yellow pepper, half of an avocado (I was out of bananas and wanted some creaminess), about 1/4 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and a dash of agave nectar, and a squeeze of fresh lime.

Yes I realize my shirt is brighter than my smoothie. But I love it!

Katy and I went for a walk in my neighborhood, and I decided to stop at the last house I pass almost every day, and ask how she made her wreaths. They are absolutely beautiful. Katy was mortified, but the Israeli in me decided to just knock and ask! So glad I did because she showed us her collection and how easy it was to make them. When I make them, I'll post the tutorial.

Later that day, I went with my mom to Winco. I highly recommend people check this out! A few things to note.
1. They do not accept credit cards, only debit cards.
2. It is HUGE. I mean Costco size massive.
3. The butchery and deli will really do anything for you. Find a block of cheese you like? Take it over there for slicing. Find the perfect meat you want but it's not cubed just right? Take it over and they'll do it. No extra charge.
4. They have the most incredible bulk selection. I was in Heaven.


They had rows and rows of this. Flours, nuts, seeds, rices, pastas, candies, etc!

I had two great finds.
1. Short grain brown rice. Why is this so great you ask? Well, risotto is made from short grain rice. I have been searching for short grain brown rice ever since I watched an Alton Brown Good Eat's episode that featured it. I didn't need it so desperately as to search online, so I never used it. Later I will feature my brown rice risotto recipe.
2. Whole wheat bread flour. I did not know this existed!! Bread flour is what makes the "oh my g-d" cookies so amazing! Whole wheat bread flour? Trying this as soon as there is room in our tummies.


I didn't need any spices but know where to go next time I do!

They even had some bulk goodies for your furry best friend:


Over the next two days I cooked the beet gnocchi I had previously prepared with some vodka sauce and shredded turkey (foster farms turkey breast in the slow cooker with one bottle of beer). I alo made

Brown rice risotto:


Chili (with the green chilis the Mountains left for us)


Avocado based pudding:


And a few other random things that I forgot to snap pictures of. I made mom a yummy grilled cheese combining fresh mozzarella from Costco and the sliced one I got at Winco. Also, I found a new cereal and we already finished the box - chocolate chex!

One of Charlie's best friends Mark came to visit because he has a convention here that he comes for each year (wow I cannot believe it's been a year since the last time he was here!). We enjoyed a dinner and I enjoyed a glass of red wine that I really enjoyed. I photographed it so I'd remember when I want to buy it again. Knowing me, this bottle will stay on the counter with one glass gone for about 2 weeks before I realize it's gone bad! I must remember to enjoy a glass of wine soon!


Last picture to share: on a walk on Sunday we ran into this lady. I got so excited since Eden's favorite dogs have always been shnauzers. I hope it was a sign that I'll see her again soon!



I finally worked out again after a short hiatus (2 mile run, in intervals, again not much but better than nothing), and am off to go see a chic flick with my fellow 18th RS spouse friend Alison. I love me some Jason Segel!

Bachelorette tonight! Prediction is still Arie!