Saturday Took a Turn For the Unexpected!

Last night my roommate and I decided to stay in and chill. Well I bought a whole...um..bushel (?) of basil at the farmers market that morning for a whopping three dollars! So we decided to make margherita pizza for dinner. So out the door we went and headed towards the grocery store to buy the rest of the ingredients.

Somehow between my front door and the grocery store, my roommate decided she wanted to get her nose pierced. She had been thinking about it for a long time and finally made up her mind to do it as we were driving to the grocery store. So, we made a pit stop at Psycho Tattoo which is less than a mile from my house.

Once we were inside the store, I started thinking about a tattoo that I've been wanting for probably about the last 13 years. The more I thought about it, as I was watching her fill out her piercing paperwork, the more I decided I wanted to finally get my tattoo. So I did it! It's very small, in fact I can cover the whole thing with the tip of my thumb. It's on the top of my foot just under my big toe. I LOVE it! Don't ask me why the purple man in the moon. It doesn't have any significance. It's just something I've always wanted.

Isn't it cute? And no my foot isn't dirty. It's just ink that stained my foot. It should come off in the next day or so. But I can't believe the tattoo artist was able to get so much detail in to such a small tattoo! He did a great job!

We finally made it to the grocery store after that and bought our ingredients for the pizza. It was delicious by the way. We used lots of my fresh basil, slices of mozzarella cheese (which melt much better on a pizza than shredded cheese, and yeah I know, NOT vegan), some sliced cherry tomatoes, some red pepper flakes and a whole wheat Boboli crust. We took a "before" picture of the pizza but forgot to take an "after" picture. I think we were so excited to eat it that we just forgot! All in all, it was a very fun, unexpected Saturday night!

Quinoa Salad

I decided to try a recipe I've had forever tonight. I can't remember where I found it but it was really good. I had a little taste to make sure it was seasoned well enough but I didn't actually eat it for dinner because it's supposed to be eaten cold. It will be good and chilled tomorrow for lunch. YUM!

3/4 cup uncooked quinoa

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 carrot, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

6 cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 scallion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

Juice from 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Dash cayenne pepper

Dash cumin

1. Boil quinoa in a saucepan with 1.5 cups of water until all water is absorbed. Set aside until cool.

2. Combine all chopped vegetables and drained beans, along with the lemon juice, oil, vinegar and spices. Fluff the quinoa and toss with the vegetable mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste and chill for at least an hour. It's also good with a little hot sauce!

* I used the juice of a whole lemon just because I love lemon and I thought that made it much better.

Holy mother of all sweet potato dishes!!

Last night I decided it was CUBAN THURSDAY! Thursdays are usually champagne Thursdays but I was out so...I had to drink wine. Darn. :) I'm in love with Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet and I've been making all sorts of yummy stuff from it.

I've been dying to make one of the recipes in particular...Cuban-Style Roasted Sweet Potatoes. I picked up some sweet potatoes from my local farmers market last weekend just so I could make it. While thinking about the potato recipe, I thought, hmm...what else can I make to go along with the Cuban theme? I had a can of black beans in the cabinet, a red onion and some AWESOME salsa, made right here in the ATL that I also got from the farmers market. I also had some collard greens, which really doesn't go with the theme but right then and there I knew I had my dinner planned. My roomie had a chicken breast in place of the greens but I did make her squeeze some lime juice on it to go with the Cuban theme.

Don't those sweet potatoes look freaking delicious? They were!! My roommate and I couldn't stop "mmm-ing" every time we took a bite. Here is the recipe:

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered (about 3 lbs)

4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Fine sea salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

1 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Heat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Place the sweet potatoes in a medium bowl, toss with 2 tbsp of the oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread the potatoes on the prepared baking sheet and roast until they can easily be pierced with a knife, about 30 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes or so.

Transfer the potatoes to a large bowl, and toss with the garlic, lime juice, parsley and remaining 2 tbsps of oil. (I used a little more lime juice than the recipe called for because I love lime and it totally made it for me.) Adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Here's the recipe for the yummy beans:

1(15oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained

Purple onion, diced (use as much as you like)
1/3 cup of your favorite salsa

Saute the onions until soft. Put the beans in a saucepan and add the onions. Then add the salsa and stir. Just heat until warm. I sprinkled on some fresh cilantro right before I served it. If you're in Atlanta, go to your local farmers market and see if you can find Zocala Salsa. There are different flavors. My favorite and the one I used in this recipe is Mole Rojo. It's by far my new favorite salsa and it's spicy. (Ready for the cornball comment?) It's like a party on your tongue! Ok, I'll stop.

I had all that with my side of collard greens that I sauteed with some Olive oil and even threw in some red pepper flakes to make it go with the theme. Maybe next time I'll have a shot of tequila instead of wine with this dinner. Ick...ewww...no. I'll stick with the wine. :)

Tracy's Fried Rice

So today I was at work and I was super busy. But as I was working I kept thinking about the container full of raw veggies I had in the fridge. I chopped up a bunch of veggies last weekend and I just haven't eaten much of them. There was broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers, carrots, and celery. I thought to myself, geez I need to do something with those veggies or they're going to go bad! So I started doing some internet research on what to do with leftover veggies. I came across a recipe for fried rice. I altered it a little bit..ok, I altered it A LOT. It's pretty much my own creation. But it was SO good that I had to post. I even gave myself a couple of pats on the back. My dog was looking at me like I was crazy while I was doing that by the way. Anyway...here's the recipe:

Tracy's Fried Rice

1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of finely diced veggies (I used red onion, broccoli, cauliflower, celery and carrots)

1 pkg Near East Long Grain & Wild Rice from Whole Foods

( I wanted to use brown rice but this is what I had on hand.)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup vegetable stock

2-3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

Salt & pepper

1. Cook the rice according to the package's directions. (1 tbsp of olive oil and 1 3/4 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Add the rice and the seasoning. Bring to a boil again. Reduce heat to low and simmer until tender or water has boiled out.)

2. Chop up all the veggies really fine. Put 1-2 tbsp of oil in a skillet then add the veggies. Then add about 1/2 cup of vegetable stock. Cook on medium heat for about 5-6 minutes or until tender.

3. Cook the rice for about 20 minutes.

4. After adding the rice to the veggies, add about 2-3 tbsp of low sodium soy sauce and some fine sea salt and cracked pepper to taste.

5. Cover and let simmer for 3-5 minutes or until the rice is tender to your liking.

6. Serve & enjoy!

It was YUMMY. My roommate was upstairs and came down and said, "What the heck are you cooking? It smells delicious!" So I let her taste and she loved it. I'm not normally a big rice fan but I hadn't had any "grains" today so I figured I needed to get some in. :)

Hope you like it!