Rustic Spinach Pie

Very often I get into these food obsession, where I practically find any or every way to consume a specific  food into my daily diet.. My last food obsession was coconut, I tried about every coconut flavored  food out there from coconut cake, macaroons, ice cream and gelato. I’m pretty sure I could have carry this obsession through the end of the year, but I eventually had to give it a break. So in come my latest food  obsession : Spinach ! I’ve always liked spinach but lately I catch myself  eating it in every meal from my green smoothies, sandwiches to lasagna. Spinach is high in vitamins and mineral so I always feel like I’m doing something good for my body every time i eat it. Except of course when I eat it drenched in  cheese (like this recipe for instance). Either way, raw, boiled, cooked, baked I love spinach! So why not make a pie out of it?

I really wanted  to make this pie easy as possible , because I hate recipes that have a million and one ingredients. Its just not realistic for me or my fridge. So I decided to cut corners and bought a frozen pie crust to make my life easier along with frozen spinach and shredded cheese. The ingredients I used were really simple and basic,the prep was barely 15 minutes and didn’t require any cooking. I’ve seen recipes where onions and such are cooked prior to baking but my logic is why cook something over the stove if its going to be baking for a long period of time. If you’re like me and really hate dicing up onions and peppers but want it in your pie, buy a frozen seasoning mix that come with diced onions  and bell pepper and throw that in with the spinach. I also seen recipes where egg is added to give you that picture perfect slice of pie ,but I hate eggs and I was afraid that the pie would end up tasting like a spinach omelette. So I scrapped the eggs and prayed for the best.  Nonetheless the pie came out great!  Check out the recipe below:

Rustic Spinach Pie

• 2 bags of frozen spinach
• 1 container of ricotta cheese
• 1 bag of shredded six cheese
• 2  9″ inch pie crusts (frozen or homemade)
• red pepper flakes(optional)
• 1/2 cup of water (can be substituted with milk)
• 1/2 stick of melted butter (optional)

In a large bowl mix the ricotta and shredded cheese with half a cup of water. Stir until  the cheese become liquify enough to mix in the spinach,  add more water to your liking. Gradually mix the spinach in along with some pepper flakes until everything is coated with the cheese mixture. Butter your pan and place the pie crust in your pie pan. Fill the pie crust with your spinach filling and spread it evenly through the pan. Sprinkle additional red pepper flakes and shredded cheese on top to your liking.  Take the second pie crust and slice them thin and decorate the pie. Take the melted butter and brush the top of the pie crust, drizzle the rest over the pie(optional). Bake for 60 minutes at 350 degrees until golden brown.

P.S. : Warm marinara or an herb tomato sauce drizzled on top of the pie when plating  or on the side, takes this pie to a whole other level especially for the non-spinach lovers . Happy Baking!

 

Whole Foods Caprese Pizza

You ever had those days where , you are so hungry but you can’t decide what you want to eat. Well that happens to me just about everyday , Ive always been a picky eater but since transitioning I’ve gotten a little bit more pickier.  One place I love to go when I can’t make up my mind on what to eat is Whole Foods. I love their hot bar, salad bar , pizza station , bakery and just about anything in the store that you can eat on the go. One of the best hidden gem in Whole Foods though is their pizza station. I love them for the fact that their pizza is made with whole wheat flour instead of white , and they flavor the pizza with herbs along with a garlic  crust that makes  the cheese pizza such a great treat.  On this particular day I had to pass up on the cheese pizza and try this beauty of a pizza that caught my eye. Not every Whole Foods is the same in how they make their pizza but this particular Whole Foods I frequent warms up your pizza in the pizza oven , so this took this Caprese pizza to a whole another level.  Who can pass up on a pizza that is a essentially a caprese  salad on a pizza slice. Its pricey at $3.50 a slice but it was so worth it! If you’re ever in a Whole Foods , and they have this on display I urge you to try it. You wont regret it.

 

Morning Delight

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and my favorite meal as well. Since becoming a vegetarian my breakfasts hasn’t really been the same. I tend to drink a green smoothie to break the fast and maybe have have some yogurt with hemp seeds and nuts but today I wanted something hearty. I’m use to making my own pancakes and waffles but lately I just haven’t had the time to that. So when buying waffles I buy the most natural I can find. This week I decided to try Kashi 7 grains Blueberry Waffles and topped them off with fresh raspberries. To make it a well rounded breakfast I added a slice of avocado(diced) and maple syrup drizzled on the waffles. I often get strange looks from people when I say I eat avocados with my waffles,but trust me this combination is like no other when it comes to a hearty and filling breakfast.  This breakfast was tasty, nutritious and hearty and took less than 5 minutes to prepare filled with heart healthy fats, 7 grains and fruit. Who says breakfast can’t be quick and nutritious!?!

Half Day Cleanse -Blueberry Oats and Green Pineapple smoothie

The summer is made to have fun, unfortunately this summer my face has been stuck in the books. I’m realizing more and more each day that the life of a grad student is not so fun.  With the added stress of school along with work i really haven’t been eating the way I’ve like to. Fries, Pizzas, Cake, Lasagna  and anything fried has been on the menu for the past few weeks. So i decided i need to change things up and do a half day cleanse, where the first half of the day its smoothies and a light snack if need be with a  late lunch and dinner as usual. With plans in mind of doing this cleanse, i went to whole foods looking to find a new source of protein , and found hemp seeds. I usually buy hemp protein powder but i hate the chalky texture protein powder in general leaves so i was hoping that this would work.

So in replace of ordinary protein powder,I milled handfuls of  Raw Rolled Oats, Flax-seeds, chia seeds and hemp seeds in my Nutri-Bullet and use it as protein powder.  I used it in my Blueberries Oats smoothies and Green Pineapple smoothie that’s picture below. I also  tried a new addition to my smoothies for a sweeter taste this time: 2 medjool  dates and one dried fig in each batch. They didn’t blend thoroughly but i didn’t mind the the sweet bits that they brought. Down below are the recipe for both smoothies.

Blueberry Oats

• Blueberries (Frozen)
• Protein Mixture
• Coconut water
• Water
• 2 medjool dates
• 1 dried fig
• extra cup of oatmeal (for heartiness)

Green Pineapple

• Spinach(Frozen)
• Pineapple (Frozen)
• Protein mixture
• Coconut water
• water
• 2 medjool dates
• 1 dried fig

I made three for the day, underestimating the power of my protein mixture and only drank one and a half  that morning. If you’re looking to do a full day cleanse, you can do six jars a day with water in between each. I for one prefer smoothies than juicing cleanse for the mere fact that they are more filling  to me. But what’s great about these recipes is that they are so  tasty that they can be made for cleanses or anytime of the day.

Dinner is served

So If you guys didn’t know already, i have the best sister in the world. Yes its a bias statement but it’s true none the less. The other night we planned on cooking this grand meal to end our 40 day fast. When I got home that night running late from work , everything was cooking away and dinner was almost ready. We had blackened salmon, garlic herb potatoes and green beans,three word to describe this meal was: Yum,Yum, Yum! In the past i tried but failed  at making  salmon but this was our first try at blackened salmon which came out great. We finally figured out the secret ingredient to make the best blackened salmon ever. Its all starts from the prep way before the seasoning comes in. Acidity is your best friend when it comes to fish let alone any meats or poultry. But its a vital part when it comes to fish. Why you ask?  Well because  without it you fish ends up having a fishy smell and taste. I like fish and all but the fishy scent that it gives when cooking i could live without. So we poured a little vinegar, wine  and lemon juice and let it marinate a little, you can also do rum or vodka if you like too.  We didn’t get to soak it over night but it did just fine in that short period of time. After that we added some blackened seasoning on both sides and baked.   Based on this picture and how happy my stomach felt after, why wouldn’t my sister be the best sister in the world lol. 🙂

Birthday Extravaganza

The weekend had finally arrive!  My Birthday weekend was here and i had nothing planned.  I was up to my neck with assignments that  i had no time to sit down and planned a birthday extravaganza. So Saturday Morning  after all the assignments were submitted,  i told my sister lets go on an adventure Trying new things that we always wanted to try but never got the chance to. While that sounded great we didn’t know where to start, so we just ended up shopping all day lol. When it came to lunch  time, we decided we were going to be adventurous and decided on the Pub. The Pub is a British inspired Restaurant where their bar takes up half the place with all different types of liquors and brews. Even though it was mid day we just had to try out one of their drinks, so i ordered up a “Lucy in the (sky with diamonds)” and fish tacos with chips. While my sister had what seemed to be a raw tuna wrap, if that isn’t  adventurous i don’t know what is .  None the less It was a great kick off to a memorable weekend and couldn’t had planned it any better myself if i could!

 

Lunch at the Grocery Store

Lunch can sometimes be cumbersome, but I’ve made a strict plan to stay away from drive thrus as much as possible. For the number one reason being that there’s not much options for vegetarian, And as far as fish options they pretty much taste like cardboard. So that basically leaves me with the grocery stores for lunch, like Whole foods, Target and Publix. Though it would be great to always eat at  Whole foods for lunch daily , it does a number on my pockets so i usually alternate from the three. This day was Target’s day, i love going to Target because they have the Starbucks in there. No i don’t go to Starbucks for coffee or lattes , i go there for their hot  green tea. As  crazy as it sounds, Starbucks is the only place that offers hot green  in any food chain restaurant . Any-who,  this particular day i nix the green tea and scooped up a “Lunchable” type snack box at Target and added a Greek yogurt for extra protein and had it with my personal afternoon green smoothie. All of this ended up costing me less than 5 bucks, which i thought  was pretty sweet. If you haven’t tried shopping at a grocery store for lunch, i pretty much suggest that you do. Every week there’s practically a sale going on so you can pretty much get great deals compared to going to a fast food chain. Breaking out 6 bucks for a fast food combo when you can get so much more nutritious food at a  grocery store just make no sense!

Road Trippin’

So Labor day weekend, my family and i decided to head on down to Key West to do some sightseeing and some good old family bonding. I can truly say that God has blessed me with a great family, I’m truly grateful and thankful for all of them.  They know how to put a smile on my face like no one else can, i love them!! 🙂

Since I love them so much, that morning instead of the usual portion i make everyday, i decided to make green smoothies for the whole family.  This particular smoothie was with Kale, Romaine Lettuce, Ginger, Pineapple and Starfruit. It was a great picker up for the 4hr drive ahead of us with no need for coffee. We packed up our hurricane snacks from Tropical Storm Isaac from earlier that week and headed out the door.

We arrived at  Duval Street around mid day and did some sightseeing and took pictures. We worked up an appetite and decided to grab lunch , at  a restaurant called Red Fish Blue Fish.I was really in the mood for fish tacos but they didn’t have it so i went with a Shrimp Po’ Boy. I’ve only had a Po’Boy once in my life so i couldn’t base it on anything i ever had before, but you can never go wrong when it comes to fried shrimp. It was a nice little place and their food was good. But the flying pigeon in the restaurant really through me off, wasn’t sure if it was part of the act or the poor pigeon didn’t realized it was indoors before hitting the ceiling fan. Either way, i felt bad for the couple that was sitting under the ceiling fan, lol…. All in all , Key west was interesting  but Road Tripping with the family is always fun no matter where we going. :).

 

Road Trip Essentials

Whole Foods pizza run

The other day, i was in the mood for some pizza. So for my lunch break i decided to head over to Whole Foods to see if they offered any. Let me be the first to tell you that I love Whole foods, its literally like a new adventure every time i go there. I could spend hours looking at products and sampling new things, to me its like a library, grocery store and cafeteria all in one. I freaking love that place lol!…  I usually try keep a budget of five dollars for lunch a day, whether its fruit salad, salads, veggies , parfaits i try my best to keep it at 5 or under. Sometimes i master it sometime i don’t, usually when dealing with whole foods i don’t. On this particular day i was able to keep it under 5 with 2 slices of  cheese pizza at $1.99 a slice. But me wanting something more than cheese, i decided to try one of their specialty pizza which was a Blue Walnut Pizza.  This particular pizza had blue cheese, walnuts, caramelized onions , spinach and the usual mozzarella cheese . All in all To me  it tasted like a salad but at $3.50 a slice, its kinda of pricey. But if you fancy “fancy” pizza than this might spark your interest, but for me I’ll stick to the basics.

FYI: Not sure if it applies to all, Whole foods cheese pizza are made with Whole wheat dough. So technically their good for you , right? lol

My first try

If you been following  my blog, you might notice that I’m not much of a cook. I love to make no cook dishes but a girl cant live off of sandwiches and wraps her whole life.  So with the help from my dad and sis, i made seasoned yellow rice.  It seemed confusing at first, but i eventually got the hang of it.  In my family we don’t go by the directions on the box. We saute onions, garlic ,shallots  and other ingredients in the pot before actually making the rice. When it was done i served it with my mom’s stewed okra that she made that night. My whole family raved about it which they usually don’t when it comes to my cooking. So i knew they weren’t blowing steam up my caboose lol …I can’t wait to wow them with my next dish :).