Omega 3′s for the Win!

Smoked salmon is one of my favorite foods, but sometimes there is only so much you can do with it. Bagels, lox, cream cheese and capers.

You can’t go wrong there, but when you don’t have all the necessary ingredients at home sometimes you have to mix things up a bit. The other day I was sitting in my apartment with limited lunch options when I came across salmon, whole wheat wraps and cream cheese. A salmon wrap I thought? I had never used smoked salmon in a wrap before, but I was hungry and becoming desperate. So this is what I did…..

It was delightful. Simple but delightful. I also threw some capers on there, which you may not be able to see. And nothing better than a side of banana chips to cure that crunch craving. In my opinion not a bad lunch for a broke college student who was all out of fresh fruits and veggies. Omega 3′s for the win!

Fun fact about omega 3 fatty acids, which I just recently learned in my bio chem class–they help with many mental and brain dysfunctions–a big one being ADD/ADHD. In general omega 3′s aid in brain development and function, but I found it interesting when my professor said that increasing omega 3′s in one’s diet may actually help reduce symptoms of some brain disorders. Cool huh? Omega 3′s also play a large role in decreasing inflammation as well as some chronic illnesses such as heart disease.

I found it very comforting to know that my spur of the moment lazy-day lunch turned out to be  a wonderful snack for my hopefully well-functioning brain!

check out more omega 3 info! http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-3-000316.htm

Food Feelings

I hate when I find myself in that place where I am not eating what I know i should be. You know when you just don’t feel like you are at your best–like you have the potential to be so much healthier and happier, and you know it is because of what you are eating? 

The reason I preach “find joy in food” is because you really can find JOY in FOOD. The nutrients, the calories, the taste, the texture, the smell–these are all the splendid joys we gather from the food we embrace. Take a minute to think about the last thing you ate and really think about everything it has to offer–how it affected your mood, your taste buds, your overall being. What changed after or while you were eating this specific food? And was it a joyful experience or one you would choose to never experience again? Or maybe it was a neutral experience. Whatever it was–what was it?

 

 

My future–lost in translation

It has been much too long, and my food photos are stacking up! I cannot believe I have neglected to write a blog post in almost a year. I was sitting in my Nutrition Education and Counseling class just the other day, and naturally I was not paying attention to my professor. Even though I sit in the front row, my mind always wanders off and I end up pulling my planner out of my purse and writing things down on my to-do list. Most of these lists end up sitting in stacks in my planner, with no possibility of getting done in the near future, but I can’t help that I am always thinking about the future’s possibilities. As I was in deep conversation with myself–in my head of course, I asked myself “What are my passions?” “What do I love to do?”. And this is what I came up with….

I love food. That is just a given. Food is the epitome of life. At least that is what I believe. I mean lets be honest, without food there is no life. But it is deeper than just food. Food has become something so much more these days. And I guess what I mean by “so much more“…is really so much less. Food today, is not what food used to be. If you ask a kid in middle school right now what their favorite food is…I doubt they are going to say heirloom tomatoes or fresh homemade chicken pot pie, made with all local ingredients. They are probably going to say something like pizza (probably Dominoes or Pizza Hut or one of those “chain” restaurants that keep popping up on every corner in America). What happened to real food and when did it get so lost in translation? That is a question that I hope to spend a lot of my future trying to figure out. I love real food. I love making new meals out of real food. And I want to help people, Americans mainly, get back to the reassurance and obligation of real food in their everyday diet. So when I put food on the top of my list, I put it there because it is not only the most important piece of life, it is the one piece of life that is becoming lost and mistreated by so many people.

There are so many people in America who do not even realize their mistreatment of real food, which brings me to traveling. I have traveled to Europe and I have traveled to a fairly large portion of the US, but there is much more traveling that needs to be done on my part. Traveling around the US is ideal in my future endeavors, because although I may be fortunate enough to have a fairly decent amount of “real food” at my finger tips, there are too many people in our country who do not. I must travel to learn. I must learn why these people cannot obtain certain luxuries. It may be money or time or location, but no matter what it is it is not fair. It should be possible to expand this necessity to everybody. Traveling to European countries, I saw this being done. I saw places where food is safer, more available and most importantly sacred and celebrated. I hope to expand my traveling horizon so that I can engage and learn more about the sustainability of culture and tradition.

Writing is a form of communication which leads to knowledge and education. Writing has always been something that has come naturally to me. With a blank piece of paper of a blank document in front of me I have the power to create something new. Writing also gives me the potential to express knowledge and teach people by creating awareness. So many people lack knowledge. Most importantly writing is a way to express opinion and honesty. I love writing because I can be myself when I write.

Images are a universal language. There is no complication when it comes to trying to decipher a photograph. Images are images. You see what you see. A rotten tomato in a picture is a rotten tomato no matter what language you speak or read. A fresh, delicious bowl of salad with colorful vegetables will look the same no matter what language the caption is in.

 

I’m not sure if it is the approaching holiday season, the cold weather, or the quickly ending fall semester of my senior year of college but I am remembering my passions and realizing that I can make a future out of what I love. I may have to climb a ladder to get to that dream job, or maybe I will immediately find something that I love to do, but for now I can eat good food, travel when I can, write whenever the hell I want, and take pictures with a click of my iphone or Nikon. So, readers, please stay tuned because there will be more about all of my passions. I may still be lost in translation, but I am enjoying the journey to nowhere.

Its a lovely day for some salmon!

I must introduce to you all, my favorite food. Bagel with Lox!

1 sesame seed bagel (today’s was a Finale Bagel, all natural artisan bagel)

Some cream cheese spread

Smoked Salmon

Onions

Tomatoes

Capers

I would definitely recommend this delicious meal, for breakfast, lunch or dinner! Yummmm! Also, Salmon is filled with Omega=3 Fat (which are fats that are very good for you), Vitamin D, protein, as well as magnesium and other vitamins! You can’t go wrong with a bit of salmon any day

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Good morning, Oatmeal!

I woke up this morning to my puppy whining and people doing construction on our kitchen, and all I could think of was quaker oats. Oatmeal sounded good, as I was waiting patiently, holding onto Otis’s leash as he tried his hardest to attack the men in the kitchen. It was almost noon, I was starving, and obviously our kitchen was inapt for breakfast preparation, at the moment. As I was waiting, I got out my computer and looked up oatmeal recipes, and then…something caught my eye. Not quite an oatmeal recipe, but a baked oatmeal recipe. The instant the “kitchen-eers” were gone, I booked it to the ktichen, let Otis chew his leash all he wanted, and got to business.

It was a delicious treat and when the warm, chewy oatmeal came out of the oven, I topped it off with some fresh strawberries, blueberries and a bit of clover honey!

Goood morning to me  : )

My “Cibo Bambino”

Good evening world! Firstly I would like to introduce to you an Italian phrase, which I completely made up. “Cibo Bambino”. It translates (kind of) in English to “Food Baby”. I am sure you are all familiar with the term “Food Baby”, and may I tell you that I have quite the food baby at this moment.

Might I say that it is going to be another long night, because the chocolate craving has yet to subside. It is quite astonishing to think about the amount of food i just ate. I made a fantastic lemon chicken with brown rice and zucchini for dinner, and even though i was numbingly full I persisted to move onto dessert. The chocolate-craving mind, which I call my own, couldn’t help but make a masterpiece out of the mouth watering, irresistible, Floridian strawberries that were taking up too much room in the refrigerator. So, I rinsed the perfect bundle of berries and got to work.

 

I melted about 3/4 a bag of NESTLE semisweet chocolate chips with about a tablespoon of shortening, and dipped the strawberries. They were pretty perfect, if I do say so myself. Take a look for yourself…

 

Any normal person would probably be content with a tray of irresistible looking chocolate covered strawberries, but obviously I did not think it was enough to leave it at just that. So, I melted some white chocolate chips as well. I took a select few of the little beauties and drizzled some white chocolate on top and tossed on some pomegranate seeds I had sitting in the fridge!

I put the beautiful tray into the fridge and impatiently waited at the kitchen counter, twiddling my thumbs or something of that nature. It is all still a blur because my anxious behavior finally got the best of me and I tasted one.

 

I wish I could say, I ate one, and that was it. But, that would be the biggest lie of the century. Since we are being honest, I scooped myself a bit of vanilla ice cream and topped it off with a few of my mouth watering little treats. Using the word “little” and “treat” in the same sentence sometimes makes me feel better about the fact that I ate about six of those “little treats”.

Looking back on the experience, i’d say it was totally worth the food baby I am currently nursing, or how I sometimes say, my “cibo bambino”.

Pancake Pandemonium

I was going to go to bed, I really was, until I realized it was Saturday, I am all hyped up on chocolate and wine, watching my 9 week old puppy sleep is so much more entertaining, and I thought now would be a perfect time to blog about my pancake pandaemonium I had this week. Pandemonium may not be the proper word, but it creates a basis for a juicier and more ambitious pancaking experience. Let me break it all down for you…

Day 1: Chocolate Chip, strawberry, blueberry pancakes

Day 2: Raspberry Pancakes, Blueberry Pancakes, Blackberry pancakes, plain pancakes, burnt pancakes…

Day 1 was a success, or so I thought, until I overheard my dad chatting with my mom downstairs later that day. It went something like this “Those pancakes were really good this morning, but they definitely would have been better without the chocolate chips”. “How ruuuude”, I thought. Honestly, who doesn’t like chocolate chips in their pancakes? A chocolate chip pancake is heavenly. It is like dessert breakfast. And then you add strawberries and blueberries into the mix and its like –I am trying really hard to be healthy but I am still totally a dessert pancake and somebody is eating me for breakfast.

Day 2, my friend Adelle was visiting, and let me start by saying she does everything right. Its like she places her foot into my house and “VA BAM” miracles happen. She sells all of my books back that have been sitting in my garage for 2 years and makes a hundred bucks off of them in two days, she finds my mom’s bag of coupons that has been missing for a week, and she even perfects my pancakes.

It turns out I had been cooking my pancakes on “high”, with an overly intense batter to butter ratio, and I flipped my pancakes about eleven too many times, creating a smooshed and slightly undercooked pancake (if you could even call it that). Apparently, if you cook your pancakes on high the entire time, not only do they BURN, the inside does not cook. If you have too much batter and not enought butter on the pan, the pancakes BURN, and the insides don’t cook. And, if you flip them too many times–well I never did understand why you can’t flip them as many times as you want, but I think it has something to do with the insides not cooking.

With much practice and much creativity, I think Adelle and I may have perfected not only the raspberry pancake, but the raspberry-blueberry pancake as well, and I hope never to return to my shameful, burnt, and undercooked pancaking days. I hope to, possibly tomorrow, re-attempt the birth of the perfect chocolate chip pancake, as soon as I purchase a bag of whole wheat flour

Cocoa Crisis

It is just one of those nights where I can’t get enough chocolate. Chocolate cake and chocolate chips and leftover italian chocolates…nothing quenches the chocolate crave tonight. Even though I know that chocolate gives me crazy dreams and it is 11 Pm right now, I still can’t keep my paws off the chocolate. For all you chocolate divas out there, live it up and embrace being a chocolate addict. The way I see it, chocolates natural…at least i’m not chugging grape soda?

I wish that statement made me feel better about the pound of chocolate I just ate, but the truth is everyones going to have a chunky chocolate challenge sooner or later, and unfortunately mine struck hard tonight. Hopefully I am set for a few weeks, and I will focus on the good things in life tomorrow……like carrots and celery. Woof, we shall see. Good night world!

Cold Cup of Coffee.

Good morning world!

Don’t you just hate when you have a perfect cup of coffee, and then you get sidetracked by, I don’t know…starting a blog…chasing around your eight week old puppy…staring into the fridge trying to decide what to make for breakfast. Yup, all of those things just happened to me, and now my perfect cup of Italian style coffee with a splash of eggnog is face scrunching, tongue regretting, bitter and cold.

I must bring to your attention, that coffee and eggnog was a gift from heaven. This accidental discovery of mine came about a few days before Christmas, when naturally most people keep eggnog in their refrigerators. I took the eggnog carton out of the fridge instead of the half an half by accident, but instead of walking the four steps back to the fridge to make the exchange, I plopped a bit of eggnog in my coffee. It was pure brilliance if you ask me. First of all, it is like skipping a step. Are you a cream and sugar kind of person? I am. But eggnog has the cream and sugar, so its like a two-in-one, shampoo-conditioner kind of thing. Genius if you ask me. So, skip the cream, the half and half, and the sugar. Purchase a carton of eggnog and BAM, de-lish. Also, it may sound crazy…but half and half compared to eggnog….less calories in the eggnog. AW yeah.

Do yourself a favor, spice up your regular boring cup of coffee with a little something different, and while your at it, stay posted for some precoius pancake recipes.

Ciao, my fellow coffee drinkers!