asian-style spicy tuna salad

I will (almost) always be able to talk myself out of buying a new pair of shoes, or pants, or a shirt. When I buy clothes, it's mostly from Target.

I won't think twice about turning down plans to go out because I'm trying to save money.

I hand-washed my clothes in London for 3 months before breaking down and using the laundromat. Not easy, or smart.

After I've talked myself out of buying new clothes, I'll probably blow all that money at a new restaurant that I've just been dying to try. Or at the grocery store. I'm equal-opportunity like that.

At the store, I will spend $5 on a 4oz piece of fish because the mood strikes and I have a recipe building in my head that I simply must try now. Hesitation is fleeting. Pinterest boards and salivary glands dictate my actions. I can't help it.

Last night, I went to Whole Foods for a whole fish to make for dinner. At the counter, I noticed the beautiful pieces of fresh tuna sitting there, begging to be purchased and turned into something delectable. Something grilled, mixed with fresh flavors, maybe with a kick? Definitely with a kick. I've been itching to find ways to use sriracha more in my cooking, and this was the perfect opportunity.

I apologize profoundly for not having pictures, the lighting last night was, well, dark, it being night and all. Also, the food was just too delicious to spend time taking pictures. I promise though, I will absolutely be making this again, and probably soon. I'll take pictures then and inundate you with them.

If you trust me (and really, you should), here's what I did (measurements, with the exception of the tuna, are approximate):

Spicy Asian-style tuna salad - 4PP

4oz fresh tuna steak

2t mayonnaise (I used regular because it's what we have, but you could certainly lighten it up)

1/4t freshly grated ginger

1T chopped fresh cilantro

1T sriracha

juice from half a lime

2T minced red onion

Cook the tuna until well-done, about 6-7 minutes. If you get sushi grade, it really won't matter if it's undercooked (it's usually meant to be served seared), but for tuna salad purposes I cooked mine well done. Once it's done, chop up into small pieces so it resembles what you'd get out of a can. In a small bowl, combine all the other ingredients and mix well. Throw tuna in and mix. It might behoove you to start with less sriracha and add it in last, so you can taste as you go. I like things spicy! You may not.

I served the tuna salad with a few slices of avocado on whole wheat bread, bringing the total of my sandwich to 10PP. It was kind of like eating a spicy tuna roll sandwich! I loved the red onion for crunch, but I really don't enjoy celery. If you like celery, you could probably use that instead (or in addition, to bulk it up a bit). 

I really, really did not want this sandwich to end.

things my camera sees, and then forgets to tell you about, part 2 (two).

SUNDAY.

I have recently become a fan of Pinterest, which is like a bulletin board / scrap-booking social network. Basically, you "pin" pictures you like to boards you set up on your profile, and share them with lots of people. You can also pin pictures that other people have on their boards. The concept is great because it allows you to find something you really like on the internetz, and revisit it at a later date without having to do a lengthy search or overloading your bookmarks bar. When you pin something, the picture has the source link embedded in it so you can always go back to the original website! Why is this relevant, you ask? Because one day while browsing through other boards, I came across a pin that led to a recipe for homemade Cheez-its. o.m.g. I immediately pinned the recipe to my "om nom nom" board, and told my friend L that we would be making them over the weekend when she was coming over to meet the pupster. She was equally excited. I'm not going to post the recipe, because if you click on the link above it'll take you to the original site. Let Katrina show you! I will, however, show you pictures of our adventure.

The dough. Super complicated - cheese, flour, butter and a teensy bit of water. We used whole wheat flour.

The dough, complete with little pin pricks in the middle

Putting the crackers on a baking sheet. Go me!

    

Aaahhhhh I'm sideways!!

Cheez-its love the outdoors...

I love ovens! And cheese!

These things were super delicious! I wish we had made more to have later. Except we totally would have eaten them right then and there. They only took like 25min from start to finish. Seriously guys, go make them now.

So that was the most exciting part of my Sunday. Monday was spent hanging out with Mr Chester, which was super fun! The weather wasn't great anyway, so I probably would have just complained the entire time had I gone outside somewhere. Win-win.

comfort food of infinite fabulosity

Today, it's raining. I would pout, but I've heard I have a terrible pout. Seriously. I try, and my mom wonders how I could possibly be her child. Y'all should see her pout. It's freaking fantastic. You really feel her pain.

Anyway. It's a really gross day today, which would be really horrible if I had to go to work, but fortunately I have the day off. So I can pout at the rain and stay inside all day sipping on my homemade mocha. Delicious.

Gross days are perfect for comfort food. You know, those few items that just make you feel...happy. If you're having a sad day or a cold day or a lazy day (or really any kind of day), these foods comfort you. They're different for every person. Maybe not every person. I'm sure some people have the same comfort foods. In my family, homemade popcorn is definitely a comfort food. It reminds me of rainy afternoons at the house when my mom would randomly make popcorn. She doesn't cook a ton of things, but she certainly makes a mean bowl of popcorn. I'm talking, pot on the stove, kernels in oil, melted butter on top, fresh twist of salt, bowl of popcorn. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Today is totally a popcorn day. Popcorn goes really well with hot chocolate. So of course, we have to have both (well, hot chocolate in the form of a mug of half hot chocolate, half coffee). Who doesn't want popcorn and hot chocolate for lunch?

mom's popcorn
(I may or may not be making up these measurements. You have been warned):

a few tbsp popcorn kernels (2T makes roughly 4-5c popped)
a few tsp butter (depending on how buttery you like it)
1-2tsp oil (I like to use canola because it's low in flavor)
salt (real, coarse, grinder salt. Not table salt. Table salt is frowned upon unless you're baking)

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat (preferably one that has 2 handles) (we set the gas stove to just shy of medium, actually)- our popcorn pot (yes we have a pot specifically for popcorn) is about 9-10" (measured very accurately by comparing it to a sheet of paper with labels for holiday cards). ((((((a few extra parentheses for good measure))))))
Throw a couple kernels at the start to measure the heat of the oil. Once small bubbles start to appear around the kernels, the oil is ready! To fill the pot with popped popcorn, dump in enough kernels to cover the bottom. If you're good with self control, measure out a couple tbsp (I believe one WW serving is 3c popped). I'm not, so I prefer the dump-a-bunch-in-and-see-what-happens method.
Cover the pot! If you don't you'll have popcorn everywhere.
Once the popcorn really gets going (after a couple minutes), shake the pot (this is where the 2 handles comes in handy). Make sure to wear oven mitts as the lid will be hot. Shaking just moves everything around and reduces the likelihood of burning your popcorn.
Let it go for a few more minutes until there's about 3 seconds between each pop (just like in the microwave).
Turn off the burner and let the pot sit for a minute to reduce the chance of rogue kernels popping at you while you dump out the popcorn into your bowl.
Pour popcorn into an appropriately-sized bowl.
Put pot back on the stove and turn on. Maybe medium-low to medium heat.
Put butter into pot and melt. I like to leave it in a little extra to brown the butter, but that's personal preference. (when you tip the pot the foam in the butter will be brown. And it smells different).
Pour butter over popcorn.
Pour a little popcorn back into the pot to get up any remaining butter. Oh, the gluttony!
Grind salt over popcorn and give it a good stir. A lot of salt will go straight to the bottom so you may need a little more than you usually use. Tip: less salt will fall to the bottom if you butter the popcorn first!
enjoy.

mr hippo loves popcorn!

it's just a grilled cheese and tomato soup kind of day.

I love soup. I wish I could eat a hot bowl of soup at any point in the year and really enjoy it, but I just can't if the day isn't right. I need a cold day. I need comfy shoes and a hoodie. I wouldn't say no to a blanket, either. Something about a great bowl of soup not only warms me physically, but emotionally as well. All is well with the world when you have soup.

Yesterday was a perfect soup day.

The boyfriend and I went for a nice long walk in a park yesterday afternoon. Towards the end of our walk I started talking about dinner. I can only go so long without talking about food, people. I pitched the idea of grilled cheese, since it's simple and deeeeeelicious. Oh, and it has cheese. We love cheese. Then the boyfriend said these magic words: "how about tomato soup?"

Grilled cheese + tomato soup = perfection.

Since I was on a bit of a cooking streak this past weekend, I decided that we wouldn't have just any old grilled cheese. Nope! It was going to be fancy. The end result? Homemade tomato soup and toasted fresh mozzarella, tomato and pesto (homemade, of course!) sandwiches on baguette. Pretty simple, very tasty. Want to see a picture? Of course you do:

I totally forgot to take pictures as I cooked, but I can tell you how I made the soup anyway. I was going off of memory from the tomato soup recipe I followed back in London (way back when) for my last dinner at Lauren's house.

Tomato Soup

~1 large + 1 small can canned tomatoes (I used fire-roasted)

2 stems of celery, chopped

1 medium onion

~1c carrot, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic

~1/2c chicken stock (beef or veggie might make more sense but chicken's what I had)

~1TBSP olive oil

Heat olive oil in a stock pot

Add garlic, saute for a couple minutes on medium heat

Add onion, carrot, celery, cook until soft (about 10 minutes)

Add chicken stock and tomatoes, cook for another 10-15min

Add salt and pepper, to taste

Remove from heat and use a blender to puree the ingredients into soup

Enjoy!

I could make an attempt to give you the recipe for the pesto, but it would be even more estimations than I gave you for the soup. But it's basically just garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese, pine nuts and basil thrown in the food processor. Maybe, if I love you enough, I'll remember to write things down (slash measure) next time I cook. That would be nice of me, wouldn't it?

it's the most wonderful time of the year...

No, it's not Christmas. Hello, it's only September! Sorry if I got your hopes up. But for realz, you should know it's not Christmas yet.

Fall is my favorite season. I love chilly weather and all that comes with it. Fall clothing, Fall foods, colorful leaves, all that stuff. One of the things that I'm most excited for is the annual soup making weekend at my parents' house. Every year, my dad gets out the stock pot and makes chili, chicken soup, and mushroom barley soup, and freezes a bunch for the fall/winter season. The house smells incredible for those few days, and I look forward to the first taste of each. But of the three, the one I look forward to the most is chili. I'd say it's proportional to the amount of effort that goes into the cooking. Chili is quite a production in our house. There are multiple cookbooks laid out on the kitchen counter, each contributing a bit to the chili. You see, cookbooks aren't so much a necessity in our house for turning out delicious recipes, as they are inspiration for creating our own dishes. The chili is no exception. (sidenote: if the recipe calls for 1/4tsp of cayenne, for the love of all that is good do not quadruple that amount! You'll burn your face off. For serious.)

Since I moved out of my parents' house, I've started experimenting with my own chili recipes (even though I always have a couple servings of dad's chili in my freezer. Except for right now. Because mailing chili to the UK may not go over so well, for so many reasons). Since I'm going home (!!!) in a few weeks, I've started trying to figure out ways to use up all of my pantry ingredients. One of the ingredients I have copious amounts of is lentils. I just keep forgetting I have them. So last night, I decided a great way to use them up would be to make chili, and use lentils instead of beans. Since it turned out pretty well, I figured I'd share the recipe with y'all. Because I'm just awesome like that. Oh and as an added bonus, I went through all the trouble of measuring out portions both in weight and in cups so that I could give you WW points. Don't you just love me?

Beef and Lentil Chili (Makes six 1 1/4C servings, 7pts each)

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped (I used 3 small onions, since that's what I've got)
3-4 cloves garlic, minced


A small palm of cumin



A small palm of oregano





A large palm of chili powder. Just go crazy with the stuff.

A dash of cayenne. More, if you're feeling adventurous. I like to live on the edge.


1C lentils. I used brown. Make sure to rinse these bad boys before cooking.



2 cans (I believe these were 15oz) of chopped tomatoes.

1lb ground beef.

1T olive oil (no, I don't have a picture of that one. So sue me.)

Directions: First, get the lentils in a pot. They're going to take about 45min to cook fully, so you want to start them before anything else. Bring the water to a boil and skim off any of that foam on the top. It won't kill you if you eat it, but it's a lot nicer without the stuff! Bring water down to a simmer, cook until tender.

About 20 min into the lentil-cooking, pour olive oil into a large pot. Heat on medium, add garlic and saute for a minute or two. Add onion and sprinkle with salt to help the sweating process. Once the onions are translucent (about 5min), add beef and mix it all together. Dump in the spices. Once the meat is browned a bit (it took maybe 7-8min), add canned tomatoes. Don't let the meat fully cook before adding the tomatoes, because it'll get dry. No one likes dry meat. Unless you do. Then you're weird. Anyway. Let everything simmer for another 10-15min, and add the lentils in when they're cooked. Taste to make sure the spices are to your liking, season with salt and pepper, yadda yadda yadda.

That's it! So simple. Usually I make chili with black beans, but like I said before, I have a crapload of lentils that need to be used up. The process would be the same (except if you buy canned black beans, which you probably will, you don't need to cook them beforehand. Duh. Just make sure to drain them well).

**Note: I put a dollop of light Greek yogurt on top, which isn't accounted for in the points.

Stay tuned for more recipes! I really crave baking in the fall, so you'll probably get a few pie "recipes" (aka I'll do my best to give you a recipe but really I just throw a bunch of stuff in the pot and taste as I go so it comes out delicious anyway). Maybe some cupcakes, too. Since some people don't like pie. (I see that shocked look on your face. Believe me, I don't understand it, either).

Do you have any fall traditions? Do you love chili as much as I do? Do you have an awesome recipe you want to share? Huh? Huh? Do ya? Do ya? DO YA? <----if you can name that movie, I'll give you a prize. Or a hug. Probably the latter. Definitely the latter. Not that a hug isn't a prize. It totally is.

black bean pocket

So what happens when you leave me to my own devices in the kitchen? I mix together a whole bunch of things and hope it tastes good! I mean, generally it does taste good. Because this is me, we're talking about. Duh. So y'all better appreciate what I'm about to do: I'm going to share with you! Because I measured everything, I can actually post a recipe. This is such a rarity, we're going to take a minute and cherish it.


...ok that's enough.

This morning I noticed I had some black beans that were just begging to be eaten. I also bought some lovely crusty bread at Borough this weekend (pugliese, for anyone interested), and I'll make up any excuse to eat good bread. At first I was thinking toast with beans and a fried egg, so I pulled out a pan to toast the bread and thought to myself "hmmm heating the beans will just use up another pan. That means more cleaning for me. That's not cool" so I decided to get creative. I now have tin foil in my arsenal since I needed it for my brisket last week, so I decided to use it for heating the beans in the oven. No cleaning! I also scratched the egg, and went for a completely no-clean approach. So here goes!

Black Bean Pocket (WW points = 6)

1/2c cooked black beans (mine were from dry, but you could use canned)
1 1/2oz avocado, diced
1 small tomato (like, a roma/plum tomato), diced
1tsp olive oil
1 slice crusty bread, cut in half (my slice was 1 1/8oz if you're pointing this)
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 hot pepper (optional)
2TBSP fresh cilantro, chopped
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. While oven is preheating, prepare the food: Drizzle the 1tsp olive oil over the bread. Grab a sheet of tin foil and mold it into a small bowl. Put beans on the foil. Top with the tomato and cilantro, and sprinkle with a little salt to bring out the flavor. Place garlic cloves in the mix, and top with the pepper (it will cook down and mildly flavor the mix so it's not too hot. If you want more kick, you can cut up the pepper and mince the garlic. But then I would reduce the garlic cloves by 1). Close up the mix in the tin foil and place on a baking sheet in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Add the bread to the baking sheet and bake another few minutes, until the bread is toasted to your liking. When opening the foil pouch, be careful! There will be a lot of steam in there and it could burn you. So open slightly and let it air out a minute. There will also be a bit of liquid at the bottom so just drain that into the sink. Put the bean mix into your bowl, top with the avocado, and place the bread on the side. Enjoy!

This was super filling and delicious! I could definitely eat this more often. I'm excited! Oh also, sorry I don't have pictures. I was just so excited I ate it and then realized I hadn't taken pictures. I'll get those to you soon. I promise.

Update: if you read this when it was fresh you'll notice I changed the points. That's because I brainfarted and added in the points for an egg which I didn't actually eat or add into the recipe. So now it's accurate. Promise.

V&A and leftover bread deliciousness

Yes, that sounds random. But I have two things I want to talk about and I don't really feel like making two separate posts. Deal.

Firstly, I accomplished one thing on my list! This afternoon I took a trip (well not much of a trip considering it's 3 tube stops or a 30 minute walk from my flat) to the V&A museum.

<----proof #1: really cool glass sculpture mobile thing in the main hall












<------proof #2: me standing in front of the really cool glass sculpture mobile thing on the balcony of an upper level. I'm just really awesome at self portraits...now if only I was a bit more photogenic...I kind of look like I'm in pain...


So the V&A was good! I went around to the different architecture exhibits, as well as a really cool glass exhibit on the top floor. It's pretty awesome reading the how-to on glassblowing and thinking to myself "hey, I actually know how to do that!" (Sidenote: I went to a totally awesome summer camp called Buck's Rock where I learned different arts, one of which was glass blowing! Pretty cool, huh?)

The one exhibit I'd like to go back for is the Grace Kelly one, but it was super crowded today since I went later in the afternoon. I really didn't feel like dealing with the crowds, so I think I'll wait until the tourists are gone and head back over in a few weeks. Every time I think of this exhibit Mika's song "Grace Kelly" starts playing in my head.

So what were you saying about croutons and what does that have to do with a museum?

Absolutely nothing.

So I love bread. It's just so wonderful and bready. One of the things I never understood when people started diets was the whole "I'm cutting out bread!" thing. I don't plan on ever cutting out bread. I believe in moderation, but not cold turkey (unless it's actual turkey. Cold turkey isn't so bad...like on a sandwich. With some really good bread). So I bought a tasty ciabatta loaf on Saturday at Borough market and by today the last of it was quite stale. I used part of it for my breakfast (when you toast bread it doesn't really matter if it was stale...imagine that!), and the very last bit I cut into small cubes, tossed in some olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and threw on the pan with my breakfast bread (I use my oven most times because my toaster is lame). I baked the pieces for probably 5-7 minutes (until golden and crispy) at about 200C (so somewhere around 400F) and voila! Homemade croutons!

<-----crouton goodness

I could probably make them smaller next time since each one seemed to be a mouthful, but the bread was pretty friggin' stale and it looked like my knife was going to snap and not only is that a sign your bread's pretty stale but it's also a sign that your cutlery is complete crap. Sometimes I dream about my good kitchen knives waiting for me in boxes at home. For serious.

an ode to goat cheese...

...and probably just the first of many.

I super duper love goat cheese. You're probably thinking of that crumbly stuff you get on salads sometimes. I love that kind too, but my recent (does "for the past 6 months" count as recent?) obsession is a hard goat cheese called Murcia al Vino. If the label is in English it probably says "drunken goat cheese". It's got a purple rind because it's been soaked in red wine, and that gives it a nice bite that goes wonderfully with the slightly more mild flavor of this cheese. Since I tried it for the first time at Borough Market when my parents visited in December, I've had to have a wedge of it in my fridge at.all.times. For serious.

Normally, because of WW I like to keep my cheese consumption low. I could eat a lot more of it if I switched to fat-free or low-fat but I'm not willing to give up real cheese. The great thing about goat cheese? It's lower in points naturally! So naturally, this makes me happy.

Tonight, seeing as how I had about a brazillian points left for my day, I thought I would treat myself to a yummy "dinner". I use the term "dinner" loosely because what I made is more like an hors d'oeuvre super-sized. But it made me happy, and I didn't have to use extra points on it. So I consider that a win-win!

What did you make, do you ask?

I'm getting there!

I thought of this recipe yesterday, but ended up not being home for dinner (surprise surprise, I was at L's house). So tonight was the night! Have you ever had baked brie and cranberries? Usually with some kind of nut in there too? Super delicious. This was inspired by that, but I used my dear Murcia instead. I needed some more dairy for my day and healthy oil, but that's it. So I didn't feel bad about indulging a bit.



Reason number 19257 why I love Whole Foods: the bulk section! I have a stash of dried cranberries and walnuts for salads and things, which I got to measure out myself. It's also pretty dang cheap which is wonderful when you're on a budget and have a spending problem at grocery stores...




I also happened to have a couple frozen baguettes that were just begging to be baked. Tesco is a really wonderful place. They sell a pack of 4 partially baked demi-baguettes for £1. Yes, £1! So I broke one of those suckers out and baked for a couple minutes so it was mostly baked. I took it out of the oven, sliced it lengthwise, and topped first with some sliced Murcia, then with some chopped dried cranberries (1tsp) and coarsely broken walnuts (3). I drizzled with a little olive oil, and baked for a bit (I wasn't paying attention. Remember how I told you the term "recipe" really has no place in my vocab? Case in point.) until the cheese was melted and the bread had pretty golden edges. Wanna see a picture? I'm going to show you anyway.

The before...











...and the after! Doesn't that look deeeeelicious?










Oh and a big thanks to boardie friends for asking me if I ran today! I did indeed! 4.4km in 38 minutes. It was my first day out since my race a week ago, and it was pretty warm outside, so I didn't push it too much.

Basically, today was a good day.