Food Archives - Page 7 of 13

Food

A “Spicy” Sunday Brunch

May 22, 2016

Sometimes life happens. You may plan out the meals you’re going to make for the week and then completely change the menu so that you can feature one spice that you came across while doing some shopping after a Sunday brunch.

In case you were wondering, I’m describing my situation. I went out to brunch with some friends exactly one week ago at a restaurant called Driftwood in Raleigh.

Driftwood Raleigh The brunch was fabulous. They do a brunch buffet which is a win for anyone who has trouble deciding on a dish at restaurants (raises hand – ooo me, me!).

Driftwood Raleigh

The food was delicious and the interior of the restaurant was so charming. If you live in the area or happen to be visiting, you should definitely check it out.

Side note: Between the Olde Pink House and Driftwood I’m on a roll for picking some amazing restaurants.

Driftwood happens to be in this little outdoor plaza/shopping center that also has a spice shop.

Lafayette Village Raleigh

One of my friends knew about it and suggested we pop in. Considering I had heard about the shop before and wanted to drop by, I was definitely game.

The best part about the shop is that you get to smell and taste virtually every spice they have. So naturally, I did. As I made my way through the store, I came across the barbecue and grilling section and laid my eyes on one spice in particular – Georgia Boys All Purpose BBQ rub. I looked at it for a second and something in me said this one will be special. Maybe Savannah was still subconsciously on my mind, or maybe I’m a spice whisperer. Whatever it was, I’m glad for the instinct.

The spice was other worldly. The first words out of my mouth were oh my God. I then preceded to taste it two more times to have a measure of scientific certainty that it was as amazing as the first time. It was. I then preceded to call my friends over to taste it and they carried out the exact same steps as I had confirming my initial findings. This stuff is heavenly. I plan to put it on everything, just everything. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!

Georgia Boys All Purpose BBQ Rub To start with, I kept it simple and used it for baked chicken and roasted sweet potatoes. It was such an incredibly flavorful yet simple meal.

BBQ Sweet Potatoes

I also bought some black onyx chocolate sugar. If the Georgia boys spice was heavenly, this was devilish. It was sinfully good. I’m not even going to cook with it. I just plan to sprinkle it on hot desserts (think Trader’s Joes mini churros), baked goods, and ice cream.

You’ll be seeing a recipe with the BBQ rub pretty soon, so be on the lookout.
Happy Sunday!

0 Comments

Food Travel

Sister Summit in Savannah!

May 16, 2016

Last weekend my sisters and I went down to Savannah to celebrate my oldest sister’s birthday. It was the first trip that just the three of us had taken (I think ever) so I dubbed it our “Sister Summit in Savannah.” It was nice for us to be in a different space, just the three of us, and relax. We’re at a stage now where we hang out because we genuinely like each other – who knew?! I’m so grateful for the relationship we have now. It takes work, and we definitely still fight, but my sisters are my day ones:)

Where we stayed

Our accommodations were top notch. We stayed at the Olde Harbour Inn in the Riverview suite. Every afternoon hotel staff came around and brought an ice cream treat for the guests, in the evening there was a wine and cheese reception in the hotel lobby, and they offered a breakfast buffet each morning. It’s not your big box hotel, so it has a cozy and charming feel to it which I loved. As far as location, it’s right in the heart of things, so we were able to do a good bit of exploring without having to move our car. This turned out to be a good thing as the streets were completely lined with cobblestone – great for taking pictures, not so great for driving or walking in heels. We actually saw one girl in heels who took two steps from her car and then immediately turned right back around.

The View
We were right by the water and it was beautiful. As the sun set you could see headlights from cars illuminate the bridge off in the distance.

The Shops
When we went exploring around the hotel there were a bunch of little touristy and specialty shops selling food and other trinkets. I picked up a couple incredible smelling soaps, some jams, two fans, a brass minute glass with pink sand, and a shirt that changes colors in the sun:) I wore it yesterday and couldn’t stop grinning while I was out running errands. I felt like a secret agent sitting on classified information that no one around me knew. (yes, I’m a dork – I own it).

The Food
I filled my belly with some delicious food during our trip. For my sister’s birthday dinner, we ended up going to a restaurant called the Olde Pink House, which is an actual old pink house. It was walking distance from the hotel which was perfect.

Caramelized vidalia onion sweet potato ravioli with oyster mushrooms and a savory pecan cream sauce.

I love going to restaurants in the South because “bread basket” means biscuits and corn muffins. They were honey biscuits guys. The kind that you would pay for on their own and they were giving them away for free. The corn muffins were literally knock your socks off good. The food would have been amazing if it ended there but it got even better. We all sampled each other’s dishes and between the three of us we ordered the crispy fried lobster tails, a sweet potato ravioli, and some pork chops. The MVP of the night in my opinion was the fried lobster tails. I could tell it was masterfully seasoned before I even started chewing the lobster. A runner up was definitely the mac and cheese. They had to have gotten the recipe from someone’s big mama. This is the type of restaurant that I’ll have to hit up anytime I’m in the area. There were a bunch of other items on their menu that I must try like the “Southern sushi” and goat cheese fritters.

We also hit up a couple of Asian and Asian fusion spots that did not disappoint:)

I found a couple of new snacks too that I’ll be featuring in the next segment of my snack easy series so be on the lookout for that next month.

Check back later in the week to see a recap of my Savannah style:)

0 Comments

Food

NEW Snack Easy Series!

May 9, 2016

As promised, I’m bringing you the first installment of my snack easy series. I’m really excited about this one! I love my snacks, so starting this series was a no-brainer. This time around I have five snacks for you. On the list are a spicy jalapeño white cheddar popcorn, two kinds of KIND bars (couldn’t resist!), a miso ginger salmon jerky, and berry rhubarb frozen bars. Check out my thoughts on each snack below:

Spicy Jalapeño White Cheddar Popcorn
Bought at: Whole Foods
Price: $3.69
Repeat Purchase?: NO

Whole Foods 365 Spicy Jalapeno White Cheddar Popcorn

As far as taste goes, this one was good but it wasn’t great. I found it to be lacking the spiciness factor that you’d expect with the name “spicy jalapeño.” Jalapeño is already spicy so you don’t need to say “spicy” jalapeño unless there’s an extra spiciness factor above what the jalapeño provides. This one didn’t deliver on that. It is a bit denser than regular popcorn, which makes one cup of this more filling than one cup of air popped popcorn. You can actually eat one kernel of popcorn at a time rather than a few and be satisfied because of its denseness. The serving is 2.5 cups with 160 calories. It does have a fair amount of fat but it’s the unsaturated kind which is supposed to be better for you. While it’s heavy on the fat, it’s pretty light on fiber considering that one of the benefits of many types of popcorn is that it’s a good source of fiber. The bag costs under $4 and has 8 servings if you adhere to the recommended serving size, which makes it a great value for the money (less than $0.50 per serving). While the bag says its limited edition, I’m not crying about it. I’ve had other jalapeño white cheddar popcorn that I’ve found to be much better (one from NatureBox and one from Target). Since I wasn’t too impressed with the taste and it doesn’t deliver big on any key nutrients like protein or fiber, I won’t be buying this one again.

Berry Rhubarb Frozen Bars
Bought at: Whole Foods
Price: $2.99
Repeat Purchase?: YES

Whole Foods 365 Berry Rhubarb Fruit & Veggie Bar

Out of all the snacks I bought, this one was by far my favorite. It’ll be a great snack to have on hand for the summer months. It’s a pretty big sized bar and rather filling for being less than 100 calories. One bar actually counts as a 1/2 serving of your fruit & veggie requirements which is nice. Gotta get em in how you can! The sugar content may seem a bit high, but I checked the ingredients list and saw that sugar wasn’t listed until halfway through. This means that it’s not a prominent ingredient since ingredients are listed based on the amount used in the item. You get 4 bars for $3 which means that each bar is under a dollar. Based on its great taste, good value, and solid nutritional profile, I’ll definitely buy this again.

Miso Ginger Salmon Jerky
Bought at: Whole Foods
Price: $7.99
Repeat Purchase?: NO

Whole Foods Salmon Jerky

Based on price alone, I knew before I bought this that it would only be an occasional treat if I ended up liking it. It’s $8 and only has three servings if you adhere to the recommended serving size. That makes each serving about $2.66. Fortunately for my wallet, this one was a miss. I didn’t get any hint of the miso ginger flavor which is what drew me to this item in the first place. It actually smells and tastes like something Nigerians cook with. I let my mom smell and taste it and she confirmed my thoughts. So if you’re a Nigerian with a hankering for some dried fish like you’d find in soup, this will be right up your alley. But if you’re expecting a miso ginger jerky similar to beef or turkey jerky, you’ll want to keep shopping. Nutritionally, this is a good snack with 12 grams of protein per serving. You’d just have to watch out for the sodium. This isn’t a huge bag so you could finish it all at once and it has 480 milligrams of sodium per serving which when multiplied by three gets you close to the 1500 range. Since it missed the miso ginger mark and comes with a hefty price tag, I will not be buying this one again.

KIND Cashew Ginger Bar
Bought at: My local co-op
Price: $1.79
Repeat Purchase?: NO
KIND Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan From the name, I was really excited to try this one. Overall it was just okay as far as taste goes. Technically all of the ingredients were there – I definitely tasted the cashew and ginger but it just fell flat. I’m thinking some more vanilla and cinnamon could have taken this over the edge. The texture was also off for me. It was pretty hard to chew like a taffy almost. As far as nutrition goes, this one is 200 calories per bar with 14 grams of fat. Only 2 of those grams are saturated fat though and it does contain nuts which are known to be high in unsaturated fats. It has an solid 5 grams of fiber, only 4 grams of sugar, and 6 grams of protein. I love a high fiber snack. With one bar being the serving size, it’s not a bad value for the money either. Ultimately, I wouldn’t buy this again since the taste and texture were off for me. I will be trying other KIND bar varieties though.

KIND Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan Bar
Bought at: My local co-op
Price: $1.79
Repeat Purchase?: NO

This was another bar I was really excited to try with its decadent dark chocolate coating and promises of cinnamony goodness. With this one like the other KIND bar the taste was off for me. Again all of the ingredients were technically there they just didn’t come together as I had imagined. The texture was off on this one too. I checked the expiration dates on these to make sure I hadn’t picked up expired bars and they weren’t supposed to expire until November of this year. Nutritionally, this was similar to the cashew ginger bar. It has the same amount of calories with a slightly higher amount of fat (16 grams in total with 3.5 of those coming from saturated fat). It has an impressive 7 grams of fiber, just 5 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein. While the cost is reasonable and the fiber content is great, ultimately the disappointing taste and extra chewy texture were its demise. I will not be buying this specific flavor again.

So there you have it. The first of what will be many more healthy snack reviews. Snackin’ ain’t easy but someone’s gotta do it:)

P.S. If you have a healthier snack that you really enjoy, by all means tell me about it below. I’d love to hear from you!

Until next time, snack easy my friends.

0 Comments

Food

New In: Snack Easy Series!

May 8, 2016

I am a hardcore snacker. At around 11:30am and 5pm on any given day you can find me eating a piece of fruit, some whole wheat toast with jam, pepperjack string cheese, a bowl of air popped popcorn, greek yogurt, and the list goes on and on (not all in the same day, of course!). I thoroughly enjoy my snack time. I’m like a kid that way.

Live Love Pop Lime Fresco

Whole Foods 365 Berry Rhubarb Fruit & Veggie Bar I’m a firm believer that snacking can be a part of a healthy lifestyle. The key is to snack with purpose. My snacks are planned with the same amount of care and consideration that my meals are. That means that I’m mindful about what snacks I choose, how much I snack on, and when I snack.

While snacks are awesome, the hardest part may be figuring out what to snack on. There are so many choices out there. How do you know if something is good for you, whether it tastes good, or if it’s a good value for the money?

That’s where I want to help. Consider me your snacking fairy. Now, I won’t be leaving healthy snacks under your pillow, but I will do the “painstaking and grueling” work of testing out different snacks, and letting you know whether they’re worth a trip to the grocery store.

I’ll be judging the snacks on three criteria: nutrition, taste, and value. Based on those things I’ll give my verdict as to whether I would purchase it again, and if so how often.

Check back tomorrow for the first installment! It’ll feature a “spicy” popcorn, some fruit and veggie bars, and a jerky, among other things.

And happy Mother’s Day to all of the amazing mothers out there:)

Until then, snack easy my friends.

0 Comments

Food

Healthy Sweet Treat: Apple Cinnamon Bread

April 20, 2016

After baking some chocolate cranberry muffins for class a couple months back, I got an idea for an apple cinnamon bread recipe. I was thrilled with the end result. These are the perfect healthier sweet treat using white whole wheat flour, no butter, no oil, and only 3/4 cup of sugar. Even more exciting than what’s not in them is what is. There are apples coming at you from all directions – unsweetened applesauce, apple cinnamon Greek yogurt, apple pie spice, and of course chopped apples. The end result is a delicious, incredibly moist and fluffy apple cinnamon bread that will have your home smelling amazing! I hope you enjoy this bread as much as I do:)

Apple Cinnamon Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups white whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp apple pie spice (can be found at any grocery store)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup cinnamon maple syrup (regular maple syrup will work just fine!)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp maple extract (found some at Target)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 cup of unsweetened applesauce

2 5.3 oz containers of apple Cinnamon Chobani greek yogurt (can be found at Walmart, Publix, or Harris Teeter)

2 cups of chopped red apples

Optional: Raw Turbinado cane sugar for sprinkling on top of bread batter.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (see note below)*
Line your muffin tin with liners and set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, add two large eggs, maple syrup, sugar, applesauce, greek yogurt, vanilla extract, and maple extract.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, cinnamon, and apple pie spice.

Add the wet ingredients to they dry ingredients, slowly mixing until no dry pockets remain (be careful not to over mix).

Next add your chopped apples.

Use a 1/4 cup to scoop your batter into your muffin tin.

This yields about 15-18 muffins. I opted to make 12 muffins and then poured the rest into a 9X5 pan which yielded 8 medium-sized slices.

*I learned a trick to bake muffins at a high initial temp of 425 degrees for 5 minutes to get them to shoot up, and then reduce the temp to 350 degrees for the remainder of the bake time (18-20 minutes).

Let cool for a few minutes.

Enjoy!

0 Comments

Food

Mini Appliance Haul (under $100!)

April 14, 2016

I finally went ahead and bought some kitchen appliances that have been on my need to purchase list for years. Don’t ask me why it took so long. There’s no excuse.
These are all basic appliances that are commonly called for in recipes. I think after seeing the 50,000th recipe calling for a food processor, I thought to myself maybe I should just buy this thing. It’s clearly not going anywhere. So I did. And it’s funny because getting the food processor inspired me to pick up some of the other appliances I’ve been procrastinating on purchasing.

I got the slow cooker, digital scale, and lemon zester from Amazon. The lemon zester was $15, the scale was $12, and the slow cooker was $29.The best part is that I got all four of these items for under $100 (tax included).
I got the food processor on sale at Target a few weeks ago for $40.

I’m excited to put these babies to use. I think I’m going to make some type of chicken dish in my slow cooker first. The idea of throwing ingredients in it in the morning, and returning home at the end of the day to an incredible smelling house with a fully cooked meal is magical. Bonus points for the slow cooker being pretty to look at:)For my food processor, the first thing I’m planning to make is going to be a pesto (which I’ve been dying to do). I’m also considering a nut butter, or a recipe for these vegan sweet potato bars with a gingerbread crust using dates that I found online.

For my lemon zester, it’ll likely be some variation of a lemon poppyseed or lemon blueberry muffin.

I’ve already used the digital scale to make an apple cinnamon bread recipe (delicious) that I’ll be sharing with you shortly. So far it’s worked well.

Happy Friday’s Eve!

0 Comments

Food

Culinary Pursuits: Banana & Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Overnight Oats

April 1, 2016

There are probably a million overnight oats recipes floating around the Internet. Change that to a million and one. I’ve been hearing about this overnight oats business for ages, but never got around to making them. Well, I finally decided to make my own and I’m quite happy with how they turned out. Check out my recipe below:

Banana & Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Overnight Oats

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of old-fashioned rolled oats (no steel cut or instant oatmeal packs will do!)
1/2 cup of almond milk
1/4 cup of vanilla greek yogurt
1 banana (half for the oatmeal base and half for the topping)
1 tbsp of Kalot Dark Chocolate w/ Coconut Almond Butter Spread (I found this at Fresh Market. If you don’t have this a tablespoon of Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter or Chocolate Hazelnut Butter would also be great)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
2-3 tablespoons of granola (optional)
Directions:

Combine all of your ingredients (minus the half of the banana and granola) and mix thoroughly until evenly combined.

Banana & Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Overnight Oats

If you’re not making this using a mason jar or some other lidded container, then cover what you put the overnight oats base in with some saran wrap so that the liquid doesn’t start to evaporate. Wrap up your other banana half in saran wrap and put it in the fridge as well.