Tag

snacks

Appetizers Quick and Easy Snacks Vegetarian

Avocado Burrata Toasts

written by Ali

Avocado Burrata Toasts were just what I needed today to cheer myself up. We had a historic snowstorm here in the Portland area on Wednesday with equally historic low temperatures, so the snow and ice is still on the ground. I’d already been dreaming, for weeks, about spring. Four daffodils were already poking out of the ground in the front. Now, they are buried by eight inches of snow that refuses to melt. I just desperately need to get my hands in dirt and plant something. I keep wandering around the house, asking Clay if it is asparagus season yet. January and I are not friends.

When we got back from the grocery store this afternoon, I decided it was time to make a cheery snack. I still had a ball of burrata left from last week’s pasta dish, so opted to pair it with a very ripe avocado. If I was a football watcher, avocado burrata toasts are something I would totally go for as an appetizer for the Super Bowl – maybe paired with a ginger cider or an ale. But since I’m not, I’ll just eat these while curled up on the couch with a good book.

I opted to use two kinds of salt on the avocado burrata toasts. My wonderful husband gave me a salt sampler for Christmas (he knows the way to this blogger’s heart). I used a little bit of fleur de sel and some black lava salt for contrast. Just a bit goes a long way. It didn’t hurt anything that I also used a generous amount of unsalted butter to toast the bread.

The avocado burrata toasts did the trick – I felt a little sunnier after I’d snacked on them. I still resent the snow and would like to push a fast forward button on what’s left of the winter. I’ll just bury my winter blues in these toasts and know that somewhere under that snow, the daffodils are on their way.

Yum

Avocado Burrata Toasts

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado
1 ball burrata cheese
8 - 10 slices of French bread
1 tablespoon butter, softened
Fleur de Sel salt
Black lava salt

Instructions

Preheat the broiler. Butter each slice of French bread generously and place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Broil for 5 - 7 minutes or until toasty brown (time will depend on your oven).
Once the toasts are golden and crisp, mash a little bit of the avocado on each toast. Top with burrata cheese (use a combination of the creamy inside as well as the outer part of the cheese). Sprinkle with salt and enjoy!
Serves 2 as a snack and 4 as an appetizer

Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by Yummly Rich Recipes

https://fixmealittlelunch.com/avocado-burrata-toasts/

January 15, 2017 5 comments

Baked Goods Breads Breakfast Farmer's Market

Pumpkin Date Bread

written by Ali

The October/November pick for the Cook the Books Club was Jessica Soffer’s Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots.

I had very mixed feelings about this book. It was well written enough for me to stay engaged and read it to the end, largely because I connected to the main character, Lorca, though throughout the book, I really, really found myself disliking her mother and her absolutely blase disregard for her daughter’s desperate need for her love. Full disclosure here – in another not too long ago life, I worked very closely with populations of both adults and young adults who were highly at-risk and often engaged in very risky behaviors, of which self-mutilation was often the least of it. I think that’s why I struggled with this book so much – I know that it takes a lot of perseverance for someone to save themselves and few get so lucky to find a Victoria, the other main character and a former restaurant owner, to help them.

Ok – now that that’s out there…the book was a feast of good food. After all, the entire focus is on how food can bring those who are desperately lonely together, and that particular theme resonates for me. I left the book with the feeling that food could transform Lorca’s life and make her into a resilient adult and that made me happy. It also made me happy to go flipping back through the book when I was done and think about what inspired me. I finally landed on a variation of date bread, because of this line of Victoria’s: “‘Date bread,’ I said. ‘From my country.’ Oldest trick in the book: bake something to make guests feel at home.” It is November, after all, and I’ve been in a baking mood. My pumpkin date bread relies on the flavors of the season with a good dose of pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin puree. The dates give it an extra punch of sweetness. It’s dense and chewy and goes really well with a cup of coffee in the afternoon.

This is also pretty easy to put together and makes a generous two loafs – perfect for having a loaf to eat now and one to freeze for later. Last, but not least, this is a low-fat pumpkin date bread, which gets much of its moist texture from unsweetened apple sauce and Greek yogurt.

Pumpkin Date Bread
Makes 2 loaves

3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree (or 1 15 ounce can)
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup chopped dates

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the dry ingredients, from the flour through the white sugar in a large bowl and mix. Combine the wet ingredients, from the pumpkin puree through the eggs in a small bowl and mix to incorporate all the ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing just enough to incorporate all the dry ingredients. Add the dates.

Divide the batter between two bread pans that have either been buttered or that are lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to Cook the Books Club – I’ve had so much fun developing recipes based on the last two challenges. I’m looking forward to more reading and cooking in the future!

I’ve also linked up with this month’s tea time treat challenge, which is all about comfort food (and what’s more comforting that fresh bread?). Check out the wonderful hosts of Tea Time Treats: Lavender and Lovage, Travels for Taste and Jo’s Kitchen. Lavender and Lovage is hosting this month, so be sure to check out all the recipes for Tea Time Treats here.

November 7, 2016 10 comments

Appetizers Farmer's Market Snacks

Smoked Paprika Winter Squash Fries

written by Ali

Smoked Paprika Winter Squash Fries are one of my new fall obsessions. I’m always trying new ways of using up the winter squash that I so diligently buy too much of and have to figure out how to use up before spring shows up again. Coupling that with a desire to eat healthier, I thought using at least one of the winter squash I’ve gotten stashed in the garage as a side dish to my lunches this week would be a good idea. I started out thinking I’d use the red Kuri squash, but honestly, I’m currently hoarding that one for the perfect recipe and squash fries just aren’t it, so I used the last of my honey nut squashes instead. The advantage of using something like a honey nut or butternut squash for this is that they are pretty easy to peel and slice and you won’t be in danger of a major knife accident.

Smoked paprika is my other new fall obsession. I love the dark red color it lends to food and the very smoky and peppery taste. I’ve been using it to flavor everything, from soup to baked chicken to these smoked paprika winter squash fries. I’m eyeing several of the other squashes that are currently on the shelf to make even more of these. They are a great accompaniment to the mini baked “fried” green cherry tomato recipe I posted earlier this week, especially if you make po boys with the tomatoes. These would also be lovely served with a homemade ketchup, especially if you have any green tomato ketchup sitting around.

Smoked Paprika Winter Squash Fries
1 whole winter squash, peeled
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the squash into sticks or wedges. Place in a bowl and add the smoked paprika, salt and olive oil. Combine. Turn out onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet in a single layer.

Bake for 20 minutes, flipping the fries half way through.

Enjoy!

November 2, 2016 0 comment

Travel

Tips for Healthy Travel

written by Ali

This week, there won’t be any little lunches. I’ll be out of my office all week long, traveling. I’ve spent a large part of my adult life traveling: I lived for two years in Majuro in the Marshall Islands and made the trip to and from the US four times during that time period, flying thirteen hours each way. I’ve also traveled internationally in other spots of the world for vacation, traveled quite a bit in the US for work, and now spent much time traveling throughout Oregon both for fun and for work.

At first, when I traveled, I was a fairly strict vegetarian. This often made lunch, particularly grabbed in an airport, complicated. I learned to find specific spots in airports I frequented so that I was guaranteed food. A particular BBQ place in Houston that served a very good baked potato comes to mind. Though I’m not a vegetarian anymore, I’m still pretty picky about what I eat, so I don’t want to succumb to eating fast food as I transfer planes. Last year, I traveled to Baltimore and, for the first time, packed my lunch. It was such a good alternative to trying to find fresh and healthy food, I’ve done it ever since.

So here’s what’s in my carry-on luggage this time.

Top: Umpqua Oats Oatmeal, In a Pickle Popcorn (Trader Joe’s), instant coffee from Starbucks, a salted dark chocolate bar (also Trader Joe’s), and trail mix (combination of peanuts, Brazil nuts, dried apricots, dried cranberries, dried edamames, and chocolate covered raisins).

Bottom: Salami, provolone cheese, hummus, and lettuce wrap in a tortilla. These can all handle going unrefrigerated for a while so I’ll eat this between flights, right around lunch time. Umpqua Oats Oatmeal, wrapped in a plastic bag in my carry on to prevent getting dried oatmeal everywhere on my clothes).

When I get through security at the airport I’ll buy water. I’ll be well hydrated and well snacked throughout my flights and in the several nights at the hotel. On the flights back, I’ll take my chances with airport food.

June 28, 2016 0 comment

Appetizers Farmer's Market Snacks

Roasted Fava Beans

written by Ali

One of my most favorite spring vegetables is fava beans. I distinctly remember first becoming aware of favas through reading my mother’s Martha Stewart magazines. Martha uses lots of fava beans in her magazines and cookbooks and I often wondered what made them so wonderful. I equally wondered where on earth you would find them fresh. The farmer’s market I used to go to in Denver didn’t have favas, and then I spent several years overseas where so many fruits and veggies were a rarity, and then four years in New Mexico, where I ate lots of green chili, but no favas.

When I moved to Oregon, I found favas in a market an hour away from our home and greedily bought about a dozen. I was then faced with the question about what, exactly, to do with them. I have no idea where I found the very easy preparation of roasting fava beans with olive oil and salt, but it is so, so very easy and makes these somewhat complicated veggies very accessible. For a very, very brief period of time, there was a farmer in my little rural town in Oregon who grew favas in the spring – I’d buy heaps of them and we would gorge ourselves on the roasted beans. That farmer, unfortunately, decided it was more profitable to go to just one farmers market in the region in the early spring, so I was left fava-less for several seasons.

Now we are in the Portland area, and in a last resort, we can always go to Whole Foods and similar markets for produce. I gasped with delight when I saw these the other day when we were out looking for greens for our salad. I’m also hoping for favas to show up at the farmers market.

If you have thirty minutes, olive oil, salt and fava beans, you can easily throw these beauties together.

Roasted Fava Beans
Serves 2

12 fava beans
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the fava beans on a baking sheet in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 12 minutes and then flip the favas. Bake for another 12 minutes. The favas should be soft and golden.

You can pull the beans out of the fava shells at this stage or eat the whole bean – shells and all.

March 25, 2016 0 comment