Spicy Chickpeas

Better than cruotons! This little buggers are so good for you. I am sure that everyone has heard about how good they are but how do you cook them? There is more to go than making hummus let me tell you that. I have used them in curries and soup...but some times you just don't have the time. These can be made and carried with you as I do in a small tuperware container. You can pick at them or you can toss them onto a salad for some extra fiber and crunch!

Another good thing? They are super easy to make and you can do it in an hour in your weekend in a giant batch.

Ingredients:
1 (15 ounce)can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 table spoon on olive oil
1 table spoon ground cumin

Preheat your oven at 350 degrees. Toss the chick peas in the cumin and olive oil than place into broiler pan or baking tray. Cook them in the oven for about 45 minutes or until crunchy. Half way through cooking move them around in the pan. IN the second half of cooking make sure that you keep an eye on them so they dont burn.

Makes about 1 cup.

Red Potatoes and Roma Tomatoes

This is the recipe to the main part of the dish but in the picture (sorry I was out of batteries so I took it on my cell phone.) you will see that I added whole grain gnochhi's as my main complex carbohydrate and a loaf of home made French country bread


1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound red potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 Roma tomatoes, cut into bite size pieces


Heat oil in a skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté potatoes, stirring and shaking skillet frequently, until golden brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes and cook, stirring, until tomatoes begin to blister, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Heres To Yum!

I know not all of you are in San Antonio but I still wanted to share this for the people that are.

Yesterday Rachel, Alyssa and I went to a small new restaurant owned by Charles and Renee called creativity "Here's to Yum." It is a small space and they are both still starting out so they cook, buy the produce from the markets, wait on tables and everything else. They cook all of their yummy food and deserts from scratch. I would just like to encourage everyone who is in the area to check it out and support this new place! The food is amazing and fresh. Their "tea house tea" is to die for. The have a basil leaf and orange mixture on the bottom then they pour an iced tea over the top.



Alyssa had the gnocchi with chicken, tomato and goat cheese and Rachel had a beautiful chicken salad on the crissoent with an heirloom tomato salad. Obviously for those of you that are just eating healthier, this is not an all vegan place. But it is very good, very fresh and very veggie focused!



I tried to stay with the tradition veggie of coarse. It was a beautiful day, beautiful space and beautiful company so I didn't want to feel all bloaty and...lets face it with my lactose intolerance, stick the place up. I had the Pea soup one of my new fav things with a slight mint topping. It was amazing!


Now I know that it is being a bad girl but the deserts were not vegan. All the same I tried a tiny bite of each and they were out of this world! Renee makes them himself. One is a lemon tart, one of a fruit tart and one is chocolate moose so deep and dark it is almost sour! Just the way chocolate is meant to be! Each is plated beautifully and will seriously make a vegan girl debate wolfing down a whole one of them despite the tummy ache, the heart attack and the weight gain after! Yum! (Unfortuntly I couldn't get a picture of the lemon tart (My personal fav) because we just devoured it too quickly.




SO really, everyone needs to go and check this place out. Help support a local bistro who are supporting local farmers, who both have amazing food!

Miso Rice Porridge with Sea Veggies

This is something that I made as a spur of the moment dinner with some friends. It is great and hearty. You can use it as a breakfast or dinner. Again miso is so good for you and and the sea veggies will deliver a higher amount of calcium then you could get from anything else....INCLUDING milk.

Ingredients:
1- 1 1/2 table spoons of miso paste
1 cup of water
1 1/2 - 2 cups of already cooked left over brown rice
sea veggies of your choice
1/2 red onion (coarsely chopped)

Mix Miso and water over high heat just as if you were making the miso soup. When it boils add the rice and cover. Reduce heat to medium or medium high, just so that it is simmering.

Wait until all or most of the miso mixture is absorbed into the rice. Remove from heat and than stir in you see veggies.

I like this recipy for dinner served with some eddemme

My Bike!

First off I would like to thank all of my friends for reading and promoting this blog! I am glad you like it so much and are liking the food on it. More so (no offense guys!) I would like to say how excited I am that my OPA and OMA are reading it! I really hope you guys like everything! Anytime you have any questions please give me a call! I love you all!

Okay well I have decided its high time to start doing more than yoga as a form of exercise. Eating well is not the only thing that makes one healthy after all. But i'm not much for the gym...they little money I have goes to my yoga classes anyway. Maybe when I get a big girl job. Instead of that I have decided to start being more active in my everyday life.

With that in mind, I will not longer use my car for anything 10 miles or under (Eventually I will make it more than that). I will use the bike that my sweet loving boyfriend got me for Valentines day! This means that I will no longer be driving to the market, to the school or anything else with a path that I could ride through. Keep in mind that San Antonio Drivers will hit me on site. Today I rode my bike to and from school. The route I take is roughly ten miles with a tonne of hills.

Not to mention that I hope to greatly reduce my carbon footprint. Right now it is 26.31 metric tons of CO2, which is pretty gross to me. But I'm hoping that by driving less and getting most if not all of my produce from local farmers will make a different in that. If you'd like to measure your own carbon foot print (And you really should just for perspective) HERE is the web site I used.

Again, though, this is meant to be a non activist blog...but consider this something that you can do thats healthy for you and healthy for the planet! The two are not exclusive at all! I know it sounds odd and rather sadistic but when you pedal your bike past a bunch of people in a drive though you get this great feeling that you are doing something out of the ordinary, well and healthy! Consider how many people that you see sitting in a car by themselves. Then consider that most of the time you drive you are not driving more than 15 miles from home. You could be burning off calories and making yourself healthier every step of that. And you could could be making the planet healthier too. Double win!

Local Treasures

I noticed that in all of my posts I have not stressed the importance of your environment. I, however, don't just means the idea that our earth is special and sacred . While that is important, being in touch with your environment doesn't just mean that. How can we really appreciate our towns and cities if we don't go out into them and find those local shops and restaurants that are hidden in the landscape of the vast array of chains that dominate the terrain?

So for a moment I would like to pay homage to one or two that I absolutely adore.

The first is Fruteria Tres Hermanos. This is a place to get giant fruit cups and other sweet and natural goodies that can be dosed with chili and lime juice. The also have mango's that are cut>into roses on a stick....like a giant lolly pop! The fruit is always fresh and juicy and cheap! $2.50 a cup! The down side is that its not on the nicest part of town...but I wouldn't pay attention to that. Many of the great foods that you will find are on the dodgie side of towns.




Last week we went to a farmers market and got a full reusable bag of fresh, locally grown produce for under ten dollars! It will do wonders on you tongue, stomach and wallet! This particular market is right at the 281 and 1604 cross roads. Not only is it full of local food grown by people in the area, it is also a craft fair. Most Sundays they will even have live performers there! It is full of fruit, veggies, jams, bread, flowers herbs and even a cup cake truck! These are all for a fraction of the store price.

I have to encourage everyone to look into the parts of their towns that they dont normally go to! Look for stores, road side stands and farmers markets. Supporting your local farmers is soooooo important I can not even express it! Local growers use less gas to transport their foods, they have less pesticide in the soil and their foods are typically more fresh. If your into micro-biotics they also only have whats in season!

Spring Break Food: Italian Stuck in Texas Succotash

Okay here is another summer time recipe that people might really like. I am actually eating it right now and its amazing! One of those foods that both fills you up and cools at the same time.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegan butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup of diced red onion
2 cloves of garlic minced
10-ounces of frozen baby Lima Beans
1 cup of fresh or frozen corn
1 cup of cherry tomatoes (halved)
2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
pinch of fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon red balsamic vinegar

Heat the butter and the olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. When all is melted add in the onion and sautee for 5 minutes or until it begins to turn brown. Add in the garlic next and sautee for an additional 1 minute.

Stir in the lima beans and sautee for 5 minutes. Add in the corn and tomato and cook until they are heated through. Be careful not to have it too long. You don't want to lose all of the juice in the tomato's. Take the pan off of the heat and add the herbs and vinegar. (The fresh rosemary was given to me by Rachel and I just have to say that it is the best part of this entire recipe! Thank you so much Rachel!)

This can be served either hot or cold with salt and pepper to taste. If you do serve it chilled I personally prefer squeezing a bit og lemon juice over the top.