Eat Like a Rabbit

Paul and I are sorry the photograph leaves a lot to be desired, and I promise it does not do the recipe justice.

During my last trimester, I think I did some pretty good shopping. One thing I crazily purchased (but Paul agreed to buy it!) was Organic Quinoa at Costco. Naturally, I can't find the receipt to tell you how much the giant bag cost, but aside from it taking up a good deal of space in the pantry, I've decided it's well worth it.

The quinoa itself is a bit time-consuming to cook. Boil water, watch for 15 minutes, fluff and cook for 5. it has a very earthy flavor and may be an acquired taste, but as I told my mother last night: When you find out something is good for you, you just have to make a commitment to make it work.

The first time Paul bought couscous and served it to me, I was so underwhelmed. I even threw most of the remainder of the container away. (Yes! And I believe in no waste!) But I learned it was just because I didn't know how to cook it. Now, granted, I only know three ways to use it now--this one, tabouleh, and Mexican-style. But I know that I'm broadening my horizons, and each time we eat it we are doing our bodies good.

I've made this recipe before, but with "white" couscous. The recipe in Mollie Katzen's Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less called for whole wheat. Because this is an effort to lose baby-weight, I'm all for sticking to the more healthy option. surprisingly, I couldn't tell a difference in the taste--unlike when we tried whole wheat pasta. I'm all for switching to whole wheat couscous permanently, even in my tabouleh.

Our first night eating local started off pleasantly in at a great little restaurant on Orange Ave. in downtown Orlando. Virgin Olive Market used to be on Clay, and I think the change in location surely must have increased its exposure. There was a nice, steady stream of customers during our entire dining experience. Virgin Olive makes the grade in a couple of areas. First, it is a fast, very friendly, and significantly cheaper restaurant than the two restaurants it's sandwiched in between. Next, it holds down the spot as a source for good coffee and breakfast in the immediate vicinity. Also, it offers healthy (generally), light, budget friendly meals on top of some unusual foodie items for sale to take home.

The weather has definitely been a topic in the news. So, why should it be any different on a cooking blog? After all, you gotta stay warm! Soup is certainly key to warming up the inside--not to mention, it's often a great assistant in losing or maintaining weight if that was part of your New Year's Resolution.

But if you're reading this post in the summer, the recipe card says you can eat this soup cold, which Paul did with the leftovers at work the following day. He said it was fine. I thought it was almost better cold. I assure you it's good to have such a versatile soup in your collections.

I have passed this photo a few times on flickr.com and finally remembered the stories that went with this photograph.

The recipe for the main course came from The Occasional Vegetarian, a cookbook that is out of print. My mother-in-law acquired it for me used because she new how valuable it would be in my kitchen. The recipe originally called for rice, but I had couscous; so I used couscous. My mother and I both have been having indigestion (only one of us has a more positive excuse and will eventually have something to show for it) and actually appreciated the basic, but bland, flavors: sweet pine nuts, slightly bitter spinach, salty Parmesan. Next time, I would try it with rice and add some additional flavor to the rice itself--maybe some onion and garlic powder. Will have to think on it. Luckily, I have plenty of spinach and rice on hand for the coming week. Maybe I'll find the time to try it again.

Here is the spinach pesto I made to serve on pizza with fresh tomatoes instead of a marinara sauce. The rosemary bread at $5 for two loaves from Costco makes the pizza easy and tasty because it adds lots of flavor leaving only a need for a little salt and pepper on the tomatoes.

You can find the recipe for my spinach pesto from my post last year. Plus, you can search for other recipes I use the spinach pesto with, like spaghetti squash or butternut squash lasagna, which will be made again this year. I will tell you I passed on the Parmesan and sprinkled a little olive oil in the food processor as I was stirring up and dishing out the pesto. Also, be careful with the garlic. All I had were large cloves left, and it was very potent for the amount I made! Unfortunately, my basil needs more care than I have been giving it; so, I didn't have as many leaves as I am used to or wish for. That's the beauty of the spinach in the pesto. It eliminates the need for so much basil, but still allows for fantastic and healthy flavor.

In reading up on how to get children to eat healthy, I learned that some foods should be given more creative or less scary names. I took this step when adding spinach to my smoothies. The spinach (green tops) reminded me of eating fresh mint or even the tops of organic berries in my drink when you aren't worried about eating the leaves. The bitterness of the spinach is non-existent; so, I have no fear of suddenly realizing that the "tops" aren't tops at all. I have fought "green smoothies" for quite some time, but the fruit hides the look, which makes me more likely to drink it. Also, the additional vitamin C from orange juice increases absorption of iron, which is just as important for my body as eating the iron to begin with.

Sadly, my fetal-brain-drain kicked in and sometime last weekend I failed to put my frozen bananas back in the freezer, and they weren't very acceptable for smoothies after spending the night in the fridge. I used frozen peaches (Yes, we have a variety of fruit in our freezer. Just wait until all the applesauce and squash come into season.) as an alternative. The downside was that the color came out funky. One person at work thought my drink was pasta sauce to go with my EMT's pasta, and another person thought I was drinking salsa. Well, no matter the look, it tasted just fine.

Recipe for Berry Banana Smoothies

Serves 2

• One frozen banana
• 1/4 cup frozen raspberries
• 6 large frozen strawberries
• 1/2 cup fresh spinach
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt

I defrost my strawberries for a minute in the microwave because the banana often adds enough thickness on its own. Blend the raspberries first because they're smaller. Add the strawberries for some liquid, then spinach, banana, yogurt, and juice. Lighten up on the liquids if the smoothie is getting too thin or add an extra banana. The raspberries are the strongest flavor so those are what you need least extra of. If spinach is necessary in your diet, too, you can get away with adding more "green tops" without tasting the bitterness.

As with all smoothies, it's easy to be creative and explore. No two are alike. For my mid-morning drinks, I used just strawberries (defrost again) and peaches with the juice and spinach. I eliminated the yogurt because at work it takes me a while to sip my drink.

Well, my goal for putting that pound of spinach away in a week was not a success. Paul says my problem was that I never put enough spinach in the dishes. I also contribute part of the problem to not being home for two nights and running out of time in the mornings to make my smoothies the last four or five days. So, I'll be making myself a smoothie for breakfast in the morning and trying to come up with other ways to use the spinach up as quickly as possible because I know it's good for me, and I don't want it to go to waste. Stay tuned for photographs and recipes to go with my spinach creations for the week.

The sauteed spinach photographed was served with my butternut squash soup, which I was very proud of. You can tell that even though the pan was filled with raw spinach, it cooks down a lot. If you're serving a large number of guests, get a big skillet.

Back in the middle of August, I stopped off at Target to pick up a chocolate cheesecake for a going away party at the office. I figured I was the pregnant one and therefore they had to eat what the pregnant woman wanted. Luckily, everyone was pleased with my choice (or at least pretended to be.) As I was pulling out of the shopping center, I noticed a Jason's Deli and remembered I had a gift card in my "card wallet" for dining there. I decided I'd been eating out so much, which was not in our budget originally, I would use the card to get a free lunch. Luckily, my little wrap only cost about $6; so, I have leftovers on the card to be visiting again over the next couple months--taking advantage of the vegetarian soup selection and salad bar.

Paul's folks had a major issue with their kitchen earlier this year. Their upstairs water heater flooded their kitchen and ruined--among other things--years of collected recipes. You can see all the marked pages in the cookbooks that the insurance company replaced. I also benefited because we learned one of the cookbooks The Occasional Vegetarian was out of print. Kathleen graciously sent me a used copy when she found a source. I'm happy my stomach is more settled because I've already read it cover-to-cover. (Yes, I do find enjoyment just reading cookbooks.) I've already used two recipes and will be going back to it later in the week.

I purchased a 1 pound package of spinach at Costco on Thursday and am determined to finish it off before the end of this week. One pound doesn't sound like much, but it looks like a lot, probably because I'm not running to the kitchen when I get home from work like I once did. I hope that excitement will return. Anyway, below are some ideas I have for getting that extra iron into my tummy because the vitamins still aren't staying down all the time.

In an effort to get more iron in my diet, I drug Paul to Olive Garden twice in one week. (I tried to get him to go back on Friday, but I got a staunch refusal.) The Never-Ending Pasta Bowl was most helpful in giving me the fat I craved plus the iron my body needs. The Alfredo was much better than the marinara, but at the same time I wanted to keep the calories down. I've been told I'm supposed to maximize my calories. That being said, I also didn't eat one breadstick during the second trip to make sure I got my calories with extra nutrients. The first time we went, our waitress gave us the Capellini Pomodoro sauce in the never-ending pasta bowl. However, the second trip the waitress wouldn't do that. Too bad. She would have gotten a better tip. Now that I can look at a cookbook without getting sick, I'll be making the effort to get my spinach at home for a while, but Olive Garden came in handy for a week.

We were having a hard time finding a place to dine in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for dinner. We passed a sign for Carlos and Pepe's near our hotel. It boasted being "World Famous," and the reviews Paul read said the guacamole was tops. I was getting quite hungry, so we decided to stop.

The restaurant was very popular. It seems to be a very large restaurant with many tables, even outside and in a bar, and few tables were empty. The staff was quite polite.

Ordering from the menu proved to be trickier than expected. There were very few vegetarian items on the menu--mainly limited to the salad, quesadilla, and vegetable fajitas. Paul asked if he could have a burrito with just beans, and waitress said that wasn't on the menu. So, he ordered the Caesar cause the waitress said the dressing was without anchovies and I ordered the spinach quesadilla. Paul also ordered the guac with a side of flour tortillas.

A couple weeks ago, the office ordered lunch for us courtesy of a patient because our nurse practitioner, Shani, is moving away. That's a story in and of itself cause we've bonded so much, and I'll miss her terribly. Anyway, not realizing feta is considered a "soft" cheese and is off my diet, the girls were quite proud that they had ordered this delicious looking Pacific Veggie pizza for myself and Shani (who is a pescatarian). Also, not realizing that the pizza had feta on it, I dove in because it looked so fabulous. It was only after I had a slice that I found an advertisement attached to the top of a box with the ingredient list. I was so disappointed because I was really surprised how yummy it tasted. I'm a girl rather stuck on making pizza at home, but have found lately in my pregnant-always-sick-cooking-makes-me. . .you know. . .state, I've been eating out more and experiencing even pizza from outside of my kitchen. This is one of those pizzas I would love to eat again after the baby or even sooner if they'll hold the feta cheese, which would be sad because it was crunchy and had a nice little bite to it. I'm also not sure that the provolone used vegetarian enzymes as my research says provolone is one of the cheeses that uses calf rennet most often.

Exactly a week ago, we attended a wedding at the Omni Resort in Champions Gate, Florida. We loved the wedding and are so happy for Sarah and John, but more importantly, we enjoyed this (see photo) particular menu item so much that the efforts of a duplication will likely be part of our menu this week.

I have fallen off the wagon of my menu plan to eliminate unnecessary stress in my life the last couple of weeks due to friends and family visiting, which throws off my schedule a bit. (I'm a creature of habit.) But, I'm back on this week!

Menu for Week of June 1

• Cold Wild Rice with fruit and nuts salad, veggie-meat
• Open-faced grilled cheese with aged white cheddar on dark wheat bread and mixed green salad
• Pizza on Flatbread with veggie-chicken spinach, and zucchini
• Cereal or Smoothies and Sandwiches
• Corn(?) and. . .

I have purchased fresh corn on sale at differing grocery stores for the last two weeks. It's a great summer treat and so inspiring because the fresh flavors make you want to do something just as fresh to go with it. We've already eaten this week's supply of corn, and I hope to acquire more on Thursday or Friday when I do my big bi-weekly grocery shopping.

The following are my favorite vegetarian coupons of the week.

Rice Select printed out a total of FIVE $2 coupons for me. I think there would have been more, but I quit printing. They don't expire until the end of the year, so I'm sure I'll use them. Rice Select has whole wheat couscous, original couscous, risotto, and brown rice. There are many other products. These are just my favorite. With the coupon, the large containers will cost me around $5.30 at Publix, which is the best price I can find because Walmart doesn't carry large quantities of couscous and Target is too far away.

Gourmet's April 2009 Magazine had this fabulous recipe, and they've even made it available online. When I first read it, I was intrigued by the recipe and curious to know how it would work. I'm always looking for ways to get extra heart-healthy nuts in our diet. Making this recipe for dinner actually turned out to be a very economical move on my part. Paul's aunts gave us raw almonds from Trader Joe's at Christmas. We also got Trader Joe's pasta as an Easter present. Garrett Nudd left the garlic a few weeks back when he was making concoctions in our kitchen. So, much of the ingredients for this recipe were free to us.

For a detailed list of the planned menu for April 12, please see this previous post. Everything went smoothly until I realized I had mozzarella that was about to expire and tomatoes that didn't look good either. Thursday night, Paul had a foot race, and I worked late and spent a couple hours with my family. So, we didn't eat dinner at home at all on Thursday night and had homemade pizza with a focus on fresh tomato sauce for Friday night.

Eat Like a Rabbit is home from a fabulous field trip to study food across the Atlantic. The experience was incredible, and I invite you to stay tuned to the entire story of the trip with specific reviews of restaurants. Unfortunately, we are suffering from jet lag and are trying to get back into the swing of things both at home and at work. ELAR prides itself on sharing pictures of food and other experiences and therefore will delay in posting stories about the trip until the photos and/or videos have been edited. Please forgive the delay.

I was eating the leftovers of this at work and a girl walked in saying "That smells good." Always eager to share my creations, I offered her a bite from the side I had not reached yet. She seemed surprised to be able to say "That's actually good." Thank you very much. I almost think it's my favorite of my own recipes thus far.

This is such a great recipe because it takes something that should taste a bit sweet and makes it more salty with the pesto and creamy white sauce. The entire lasagna lasted Paul and me four meals. So, the price seems quite right and all the time invested seems quite efficient.

Paul declared this creation great. He especially liked the crust. I really enjoy the flatbread as well. I just happened upon some Naan hand-stretched flatbread at Costco. I love making sandwiches out of it or serving it instead of French bread alongside pasta. I think it looks and tastes fabulous.

The tofu recipe is from a friend, Fely Rugless, who is a firm believer in simple cooking. This is the first shared recipe from a reader for me to prepare and post. Paul really liked the tofu. I am new to making tofu at home . Still, it was a good consistency and well flavored.

I specifically made this pizza to highlight the simpleness of using a soybean-based meat substitute in a meal. The prices for this meal are estimates because the price of the vegetarian food varies so greatly among stores. Certainly, a local speacialty health food store has the potential of being cheaper than a major supermarket.

One of my EMTs said this was his favorite squash. So, I purhased some on Friday. By Saturday, we were eating lunch at some friend's house and were served Spaghetti Squash. He answered all of my questions about preparation. And I excitedly created this fabulous dish on Sunday. With a salad, French bread, and pan-fried scallops, I was in heaven.

Paul bought me a new cook book that recommended some strudel recipes as show-stoppers. I didn't have the ingredients, but I used what I had on hand and was so excited with the results. I had a few extra pastry sheets and choose to make the Vegeburger Bites, which I have written about before. The purpose for using all the pastry sheets was to clean out the freezer. They are expensive; so I try to buy them from the Pepperidge Farm Thrift Store. I love using them because they taste like I've slaved all day!

The following post is in reference to that little bowl filled with green at the top left hand corner.

A few situations happening in just a week's time started me thinking about this post. It started when I read one of the many magazines in our office (unfortunately I do not remember which one) that said basil was hard to acquire for a pesto sauce and recommended some alternatives.

We visited this recently opened restaurant attached to the Altamonte Springs Mall on recommendation of our good friends, The Wooleys. We enjoy having friends who think of us every time they eat out. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant. The tables built in the immediate bar area where in a circle and had very good acoustics. The staff was polite and food was delivered speedily.

I was so proud of this recipe. I thought I had found one in a cook book, but once I bought the spinach couldn't find it. So, I just took what we liked and put it all together to create the pictured item. Notice, I cubed the mozzarella like we had at Cafe Epicure in Sarasota. I also purchased mozzarella because that experience taught me that a soft cheese on top of pasta adds a whole new world to a meal.

This is one of those restaurants that appears to be a hole-in-the-wall, but is really a popular and enjoyable place to dine. Paul went there with some coworkers for lunch one day and brought me back a week later for dinner.

One Sunday afternoon we met visiting family at this pizzeria by Disney. For a restaurant in a touristy hot-spot, I would rate it as acceptable. The service was very good for our large crowd and the kids all seemed to eat well.

My cousins Wayna and Rusty always share meals when they eat out. Paul and I have adopted that trick, too. We either get a salad and an entree and split both or we'll get two entrees and each eat through half; then switch plates. Sharing gives you more variety, keeps you from bringing food home that is likely not good the next day anyway, and is often cheaper.