Dinner on the Porch? Tomato Basil Rotini

Music: B.o.B

Drink: None - I’m too busy chopping!

Never have I wanted an herb garden more than I do right now. The smell of basil is just one of those beautiful scents… Like vanilla or garlic... it’s just something I love smelling when I cook. This recipe is just clean, light, delicious and has basil, tomatoes and cheese! An Italian girl’s favorite (yes, I am pulling the 1/6^th part Italian ancestry card right now…) combination!  

Now embarrassingly enough this is the first time I have purchased fresh parmesan cheese to add instead of that processed garbage… holy crap.. what was I THINKING?! (I know what you are thinking, “How can she even consider herself Italian? I bet she likes Ragu too…” Well I do and I USED to! I’ve since seen the light!)

I have cooked recipes like this (but found this one here) about a billion times in the past, but the fresh ingredients made it light, very un-pasta-coma-like, and crisp, not salty or sticky. Totally worth the extra trip to the supermarket..

Note: You should totally add chicken for protein if you have some precooked, or if you have time to bake it… unfortunately I didn’t budget enough time and ended up making a delicious vegetarian dish :D When eating clean, you should always strive to combine lean proteins with complex carbohydrates…

So major take-aways:

1.       Use fresh basil

2.       Use fresh parmesan cheese

3.       Find a 25^th hour in the day, or con your job into letting you work 6 hours for the price of 8…

4.       That cliché about fresh ingredients being the key to a successful dish… totally true

Everything tastes like rosemary: Rosemary and Thyme Pita Bread

Music: Mumford & Sons (still...)

Drink: H2ooooooooooHHH!

So after my super easy dinner, emptying the dishwasher, loading the dishwasher, cleaning up around the apartment… I found myself slightly motivated (although Mumford & Sons was still blaring :P).. So I decided to take a swing at the Gracious Pantry’s Rosemary Pita Bread… Looks simple enough I said to myself…

Until I had committed to the thought with less than 3 cups of whole wheat pastry flour on hand…

I thought to myself “Self! You were engineering major! You can handle math!” and decided to take on conversions…

I learned today: As good as you are at math, you can’t make more flour appear in your pantry L

Lazy Thursday... Rosemary Grilled Pork and Asparagus

Music: Mumford & Sons

Drink: boring ol’ water

Feeling less than motivated today (hence the mellllow music), I could not have been happier that this meal was on our schedule tonight. Steve was busy studying for finals and Chili doesn’t have opposable thumbs… so I was on my own. This is one of those evenings I wish it had rained so I had an excuse to curl up on the couch and eat popcorn for dinner… Alas, this city being what it is, it was (unfortunately) sunny and 75 out… So out we went, and on came dinner…

Where was I? Back to the food!

I don’t even know that this deserves a recipe, it’s just that simple. Literally, marinate, cook, eat. Do things in the kitchen get any easier than that? I’ll tell you… not typically…not typically…

However, given this “simplicity” constraint, it is not WOW-OMG-when-can-we-eat-this-again-amazing, but it’s also not holy-crap-throw-that-out-NOW bad… It’s just fine… which sometimes… is just what you are looking for…

Grill-less Grill! Clean Eating Balsamic Marinated Pork with Grilled Peaches

I did not cook this today (clearly, thanks to the timestamp, that is blaringly obvious) But I just have to get this out… A confession if you will

This is, literally, the easiest recipe in the world!

AND ITS GOOD FOR YOU!

AND IT’S DIVINE!!

The recipe is from Clean Eating Magazine.. and is BRILLIANT! We marinate ours over night for convenience, but you can marinate the day of if life allows. But literally I cannot rave enough about this - I give this recipe out as often as I can!! YUM!!!!

Homage to Gusteau and Nancy: Clean Eating Ratatouille and Clean Popovers

Music: Boston. Basically any song by Boston.
Beverage: Water. You gotta hydrate people!

Steve actually made this one – before I got home from work he prepped the veggies, mixed the seasonings and had all the instrumentation ready for a rumble! It was excellent! We downed our smoothies, blasted out a quick run, then came back and he threw it (neatly and artistically) into a casserole dish and POOF! Dinner was in the oven in a matter of minutes! Its clean, its simple, its GOOD for you, and its TASTY tomatoey-deliciosity! I'm telling you, if you like Italian flavors.. you will LOVE this dish!

Complimenting this fabulous main dish was popovers – a Nancy classic J A delicious, eggy, airy side “bread” that compliments just about everything under the sun. We’ve “cleaned” it up by using whole wheat pastry flour, soy margarine and skim milk… but they sure do smell JUST the same as moms! YUM!

The magic here is that we cooked both dishes simultaneously. And since you can’t (DON’T YOU DARE) open the oven during popover baking (DON’T EVEN THNK ABOUT IT), it’s a dang good thing… don’t you think? (you sure do!) Our ratatouillie had to bake for an extra 10 minutes after we took the popovers out to get that just right texture! YUM!!

Unsuccessful 101: Clean Eating Peanut Tahini Pasta

After a trying 1.5 mile run, I was really looking forward to this one. Peanut, chicken, tomatoes, PASTA.. what’s not to like right? I’ll tell you, the proportions… Apparently Tiffany from the Gracious Pantry really likes peanut butter!

This isn’t all together a travesty though..I think with some monkeying this can work out to be a tasty dish for those who don’t want to all together bathe in peanut butter.. But it might be a while before I return to this sticky mess… *sigh* they can’t all be miracles in a pan!

To be amended…. This is the original recipe from the Gracious Pantry

Heaven comes on toast: Clean Neufchatel Red Pepper Tea Sandwiches

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this in the past, but I LOVE goat cheese. (yes, I know, I’m obsessed) Well, when I started thumbing through Tosca Reno’s Clean Eating Books, I discovered a close cousin: Neufchatel. UGH! Is it heavenly!

Although not for the budget eater, this little treasure is a mix between brie and goat cheese (in my mind anyway) – salty but savory! Just the right amount of cheesy resistance (the Baby Bear of cheese consistency you could call it)

Perfect for a snack at work (with a little assembly – it’s been done!) or dressy enough for a schmaltzy brunch – this is a sure fire hit! This recipe is adapted from Miss Tosca herself… Eat it with squeaky love my friends J

The Cure to all Mornings: Clean Oatmeal Pancakes

I don’t like eggs... Well, I do like eggs in cake, pie, cookies...

Ahem...let me rephrase…

I don’t like breakfast eggs.

Now, as a person who is egg-averse, breakfast tends to be more of a desert than an actual meal: waffles with whipped cream, crepes with nutella… I mean YUM, but who has room in their pants for such indulgences every day? Well, what about pop-tarts or bars? Cereals? Freezer solutions are abounding! …all I have to say is read the ingredients people…

This is one of those back-pocket, every-day, microwave-friendly, just add fresh berries PERFECT recipes! A staple in our houss-i mean-apartment :) if you want a more traditional pancake texture, I would recommend grinding the oats first, but if you don’t, it’s just as tasty! This tasty treat will give you a GREAT boost to start your day, keep you full for hours, and all with as little as 150 calories per pancake!

Feel free to substitute/add other ingredients to the batter for a change of flavor! Bananas, Strawberries, even walnuts!  I always eat mine with fresh strawberries as a topping ..mmm!

Clean Eating Savory Mushroom Oatmeal

We are about to dive into a new obsession of mine: http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/

She is a real help with clean eating! We have bought several cookbooks, and continue to scour the internet for clean recipes to keep our taste buds dancing.. but this little lady is one stop shopping!!

Well, we are on a two week, sugar free challenge. Voluntarily.

I almost broke a few times so far (its day 7)… wanting a glass of wine, a cookie, (I’m a desert FIEND), shortbread!  But Steve has really been pushing me to finish this one with my head held high and victory in my hand! And I will!!

We have discovered many recipes on this challenge, some good, some not so suited for our refined pallets (well, mine really, Steve will eat anything…)

Here is a GOODIE!

This is wonderful for a lazy weekend brunch-y moment (it’s SO easy!), or maybe when you're feeling a little famished and want something to really fill you up in the morning without lying like a brick in your stomach. yum yum YUM!! I added more mushrooms because they are wonderful… Play around!

(original recipe found here)

Clean Eating... The Saga Begins (Sorry Milky Way...)

So it has been a while since I have posted. And rightfully so! Wedding planning, working…. Alright I don’t have much of an excuse! But it’s been a fun little five months of neglect! Needless to say in this five months Steve and I have decided to get our act together! We’re eating CLEAN (dun dun dunnn)

This delicious phenomenon is centered about eating things closer to their natural state (sorry Butterfingers). No additives (sorry Schmuckers), no Red #41 (sorry Gushers) and no Rybovlavinosilishkn-iem… (sorry Smartfood)

Foolish?

Why give up all these wonderful culinary delights? Well, since they aren’t really “food” I suppose we should take the word “culinary” out of it… Why give up these wonderful delights? Well, since after eating them I get cottage cheese ass and feel like I’m walking in molasses we should take the word “delight” out of there… Why  give up these wonderful? What’s more wonderful: vanilla “flavoring” or vanilla?

Thought so.

I rest my case.

Now, I understand as a Fenton, soon to be Kaub, it is impossible to truly eat 100% clean at first blush. I mean I love cooking and eating fresh and understanding where my food is coming from and respecting my body… but sometimes I’m just lazy. I will falter. I will kick myself. But, I will get back up and I will be healthier.

So,

Here’s to reducing the size of that tire or that thigh (that has its own gravitational pull), going for that run (wanting to go for that run), enjoying the simple things (remember apples?), and not getting so stressed that I want to order dominos…

Take One people. Take one.