Baba Ganoush

I survived the tornado.
When i moved to Queens 3 years ago, i did not think about the BS that came with it when it rained.
Queens. Notorious for blackouts, brown outs, flooding and trees that can’t keep it together. Trees that like to fall on cars and on houses.
Thankfully, I suffered no damage yesterday. But my neighbors did. Thinking of them today. And all my coworkers who still haven’t been able to go home to Long Island.
Before the tornado, I had made a trip to the Mecca. AKA Whole Foods. I was in search of the most wonderful Almond Butter for my friend Rose, who just discovered the magnificence of a Gala Apple, and Rose needed almond butter to smear on her new favorite apple. (Team Gala)
While i was perusing the aisles (because I never just get ONE thing) I found some Tahini.
Tahini, as in the ingredient in Hummus and Baba Ganoush… The Baba Ganoush I miserably failed at making one year ago… Then i remembered the lonely eggplant sitting in my fridge.
I purchased the tahini and began looking for recipes that would yield the best baba Ganoush ever… I mixed and matched several recipes…
Ingredients
1 large eggplant
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. Tahini
1/2 tsp. salt
I began by slicing and roasting my eggplant at 400* for 30 mins. When it was done I set it to cool on the counter while I went to my bedroom to watch trashy tv. (the trashy tv part is optional)
I left the skins on. You don’t have to… but i freakin HATE peeling veggies. It makes me nervous. And really, who has time for that?
Dear Future Husband (whomever you are),
Please be good at peeling vegetables. Thanks.
Love,
Your Future Wife.
My giant jar of Tahini. And its from my fave peeps from Once Again Nut Butter!.
Once the eggplant cooled, i placed it in my shitty food processor (Dear Santa, Can I get a new Food Processor AND a Kitchen Aid Mixer? You Rock. Love, Mo) …and all the other ingredients and pureed until it was at the desired consistency. I was very pleased with the results. It was a little too thick at some point so I added a little bit of water and it worked out nicely. I’ve been using on salads and as a dip for when i need a munch.

Miss Tiffany has called me out on my lack of Mickey Pics. Ever since I took her tab down I have deprived you all of her cuteness… she had a mini photo shoot the other day so- ENJOY.
Mickey is supposedly 4 years old…but she plays like a puppy and cuddles like an infant. So For shits and giggles lets just say shes ageless.

Playin with her new toy…

AKA the Egg i won from Egglands Best Expo at BlogHer

Not giving a damn about anything other than the egg…
Sometimes Mickey gets sleepy and she yawns really big… and will MEOW when she yawns. Shes having a species-identity crisis.

Naps Rule… only on my bed… the little stinker.

She poses. And sits like a human. This is the one time I can recall her sitting like a dog. i love her spots. and her floppy ears.

She steals my camera while im sleeping and takes pics of herself…

(im totally lying. I took this pic and cut myself out. LMAO)

Hope ya’ll have a great weekend!

Any plans?

WAKE UP! Its Christmas!

Well… at least it was when i took these photos! Damn vacations! always setting me back!

Mickey is doing a happy dance with Tracey. Partially because she loves having access to snowy yards and because her momma got an iPod for Christmas! and Wii Fit Plus! and Socks! and cookbooks! and gifts from the kids! What a great christmas. Mickey also got new chew toys and fluffy new bed (that she hasnt gotten out of since she laid her puppy face on it!- must be a magical bed)

In our family we put the kids to bed on Christmas eve and wake up to open presents… kids were up at 530 this year… we put them back to bed and we opened presents at 8 am. After presents we kind of loafed around while my mom made breakfast…pancakes. Shes not a food snob. All she cares about in her kitchen is if the food tastes good… she couldnt give a crap about presentation… but thats why i love my mom. Her pancakes made me laugh. And I had a bagel instead. Sorry mom, I had to show the world how lovely your pancakes are. tee hee (she did however try to cover up the ugly pancakes when she saw my camera come out)

A Flying Chihuahua! No A flying Elf! No, thats Sarabi modeling the doggy duds. This is ONE of tracey’s three dogs and one of the smallest… and Mickeys best friend. She was just the cutest lil pup. She weighs but 4 lbs and is a cuddler!

Just like old times Tracey did my hair. Imagine this photo 20 years ago. that was us. Tracey doing my hair Like I said yesterday- more than cousins!

ALL DONE! thanks mama! lets dress up the dogs now!

Where the hell is Mickeys head? Oh, shes digging again! April the pitbull is coming to tell on her.

Sarabi the cutest dog in Delaware (mickey is the cutest in New York… just to clarify)

Dressed up doggies!!! After the dress up mom asked me to put the dogs down and start helping out.

FINE.

I washed up and started some baked brie. We like to nosh while we prepare big dinners. Since Christmas eve was puerto rican fare we were having italian on Christmas. its nice to have both sides in my favor

I tried something different this year. The rind of the brie had a very strong smell and I didnt want that on my cheese so i cut off the rind. I added some fresh Fruit Preserves, wrapped it in puff pastry and baked it for 20 mins.

It was suuuuper melted and I have a serious crush on melted cheese. Mom didnt love it right away but once it cooled off a little more she really enjoyed it. this cheese went faster than I could take a decent pic of it. But it sure was tasty.

Mom made lasagna.. please note her spelling… I like lasagna with cheese only as i feel that is what lasagna is supposed to be. She made it with beef. When i wasnt excited about the beef, she put a piece of cheese only on the side for me. i was soooooo excited. She was making the gravy with sausages and neck bones!

My cousin got to work on our starter: sopa tuscana. If you ever had the sausage soup at Olive garden, thats what she made. I will be making this soup this week so I will not divulge the entire recipe.

mmmm. kale and potatoes.

SAUSAGE!

Finished product. Peep this… i had two bowls. yes it was phenomenal. yes i will share my recipe at a later date and yes you need to make this because its sooooooooo good.

Here is my dinner plate. Cheesy lasagna. Neckbones. Sausage.

Oh, Christmas! I freaking love Christmas!

Gone for the Holidays

Awe, Don’t miss me! I will be back! I promise. i am going to have loads of yummy adventures to share with you when I return. *sad puppy* Above is my Mickey Girl. This photo was taken two weeks ago. Shes mad I put the elf hat on her… but as we speak shes bouncing like a bunny in a huge backyard somewhere South with my family. She doesnt even know Momma is gone. But i will be traveling today to catch up with the rest of the fam (oh lord help me).

Breakfast has to be simple yet delicious. I scored some hearty kashi cookies that were quite yummy and had to use up some Chobani. I got all silly and crumbled a kashi Dark Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookie into my yogurt and HO-LEE-SHYT. Its gooooood. Its got all the goodness of granola but being htat its one cookie- theres no over serving or guessing the caloric content. Quite filling too I must say. Crumble a healthy cookie into your yogurt todaY!!!

Got a free can of soup. and just grabbed whatever looked tolerable. Gotta keep it light because tonight and tomorrow i will be eating like crazy! Gotta get my THANKSGIVING PANTS ! (Life is measured by the number of Friends Episodes you have seen…)

Anyway, the soup was tomatoey looking. i didnt really care about it until i tasted it.

Theres peperoni in it! It freakin tastes like PIZZA. Pizza soup. Please excuse me while i go buy every can ever made of this stuff!

I hope you all have a happy and healthy holiday. If you have any itty bitties at home I hope they squeal and convulse over their pressies! Please practice safe holiday eating… use a napkin to protect those ugly Christmas sweaters (you know you have one) and PLEASE dont eat it if you dont love it!

Stay tuned for the holiday Gluttony to come next week!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!

Oh How I loathe Thee

SNOW.
I friggin hate it.
Its gorgeous when it falls but in NYC that beauty is short lived when it starts to turn black on the corners and gets slushy in the street and then walking to the trainstation you wanna physically beat the people who didnt shovel their sidewalk properly and now have a lovely sheet of ice for you to crawl on on your way to the train station. Four blocks never seemed so long.
But there is one lil cutie that surprised me with her love for the snow.
This lil diva. This is on our 2nd walk in the snow. I was dreading the first one and after seeing her in action, i had to take pics… my first dog as a child HATED the snow… so this was quite a sight.

She kind of hates when i make her sit so i can take a pic of her. Im such an evil mom.

shes literally bouncing like a bunny in the snow… the leash wasnt long enough for her strides…

but she bounces right back. Eating, snorting, sniffling the snow. She makes snorting sounds and she excitedly sniffs for a spot to mark. I was laughing at her. Even today as the snow is getting gross, she still dodges any and all opportunities to put her paws in it and jump around! LOL

She was diggin in the snow with her face. Way to use your head Mickey!

I came home and desperately wanted take out. But I couldnt order out without feeling guilty for the guys that have to schlep one measly order… so i faked my take out. Sitr fry is easy enough. I had a few things lying around that would be great in a stir fry. Broccoli, onions, sliced steak, snap peas, and stir fry sauce.
the beef was leftover from some steaks that I didnt think were worthy of being served whole, so i sliced them up ahead of time and froze them. (plan ahead!)
I heated a little sesame seed oil and threw in my onions and frozen veggies and tossed around until it was semi cooked. I threw in some peppers and beef, a bit of stir fry sauce and a few tablespoons of soy sauce. I seasoned with garlic poweder, onion powder and added a lil heat with some red pepper flakes.

I needed some rice to go with it so i set up my steamer (oh how i love u) and steamed some brown rice. Literally, just add rice and water and set to cook!
When my stir fry was done, I let it chill out while my rice finished.
Nice and fluffy! Perfectly cooked!
USE SMALL PLATES! They really are deceiving… You are look at 3/4 cup of rice and 1 cup of stirfry… VERRRRRRY Filling!

Wasnt authentic but was definitely tasty and better than those freezer stir frys!

Gimme my Sink Back!

Morning. I was entertaining the Super the night before while he took apart my bathroom.

It was a horrible mess! I went to work and had nothing prepared and was tired like nobodies business…

So I ordered some brekkie. Of course they didnt have my egg white and cheese on an english muffin so i got a bagel with veggie cream cheese and a skim milk coolatta. Both of these were HORRIBLE! blech!

Around lunch time, feeling disinterested in EVERYTHING, i took a walk and before I could cross the street i smelled street meat. Chicken and rice sounded really good after the horrible breakfast. So I ordered it and went back to my desk with it. 1/3 into it, I was stuffed and tossed the rest- one container of that stuff has more than a days calories in it!!! so toss is if youre tempted to eat the whole thing.

And then these things came out… CRACK brownies! My coworker makes amazing brownies/fudge. And I pestered him last week about bringing a batch in and wouldn’t you know it- he came through with a tray! Love him. After a small piece though- all chocolate cravings are satisfied. These are some rich decadent delights!
When I got home I thought about the block of tofu waiting for consumption in my fridge and the only thing i really wanted was… Korean Tofu!

Too lazy to take out the food processor I just mixed up the ingredients with a rough chop of veggies. Want to make your own?

Ingredients:

3 large cloves of minced garlic

3 scallions chopped

3 tbsp of soy sauce

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp of sesame oil

Slather the ingredients all over the tofu and bake at 350 for 20 mins.

Slice and serve. It was in so many ways- AWESOME! Henry was really loving this too as Korean Tofu is one of our favorite things. There were 4 servings here and we were planning on having two each. That is, until Mickey the greedy dog jumped on the snack table and sent all of our dinner tumbling to the floor while we were getting a beverage. I think Henry was going to cry. 2 pieces were on the floor… RIP Korean Tofu. And poor Mickey got a time out.

Raiding the cupboards for a snack to fill the dinner void, i found some red corn kernels that Sarah gave me a while back.

Light, flavorful, and perfect…
until the dog got excited with the popping sound….

and made me drop the bowl of hot kernels. Thanks Mickey, you’re 2 for 0 today!

Oh, and one more look at the bathroom…i am happy to report that it has been fixed.

A trip to the vet and some rainy comfort

Yesterday we took Mickey to the vet. It was her first time at the vet since we adopted her. I suspected that she had kennel cough so when we told the receptionist that Mickey might have kennel cough, they said we had to leave so as not to contaminate other dogs. I felt like Mickey had the plague! so we retreated to Henry’s truck where we waited.

“Is it time to see the doctor yet?” No, go back to sleep.

Done. Mickey slept for 1 and a half hours before the doctor called us in to see her. $100 later, she has an ear infection, kennel cough, and a shopping list of medicine to start. Henry drove downtown to S’mac for some good ol mac and cheese. i didnt take pics of it because we were starving but I customized my mac with whole wheat pasta, gruyere cheese, parmesean, bacon and mushrooms- soo good. Henry got the Buffalo Chicken mac.

Its super soggy in NYC. I hate rainy days. It makes Walking Mickey seem so mundane. She doesnt seem to mind the rain ( i beleive because shes a hunting dog) and when we get back she thinks getting dried off means its time to play and bark really loudly (at 7am). When I got to work, I did not want the oatmeal that I packed (although it might have made me feel better). So I ran to Dunkin Donuts and grabbed an egg white and cheese on an english muffin and a coffee.

For lunch today I thought I would kick it old school and have some good ol peanut butter and jelly. But to make it a lil more exciting, I used some chunky peanut butter!

I measured out my peanut butter and jelly becuase its so easy to pile it on when you have no concept of how much you are using. So behold! 2 tbsp peanut butter and a 1 tbsp jelly.

To accompany this sammie, I will be munching on some dark chocolate covered pretzel flats that i found at Trader Joes! What a yummy find.

I toasted some sandwich thins and ate the sammie open faced. Not pictured: a glass of Vanilla Almond Milk.

For dinner tonight, I might make some Fake out LoMein. yum. Because I forgot to defrost the chicken.

Happy Administrative Assistants Day

On Wednesday morning, on my way to work, I sneezed. I sneezed so hard that I threw my back out. Yes, this is possible. I felt immense discomfort in my lower back where I previously injured myself in January when I slipped down some stairs. I figured the pain would go away and I took deep breaths and walked to work.
I came in to have my steel cut oats, banana and a Venti Misto. Aside from the pain, I was pretty relaxed today because Mickey was being Spayed.
Some of my colleagues presented me with a lovely card and a delicious bar of truffle cake chocolate (i snuck a piece and it was really yummy)
My momma sent me something yummy from the popcorn factory. i LOVED the design on this tin! Usually when its empty I use it to store plastic bags, oatmeal packets, or snack bars.
She sent me the popcorn variety! I love the cheddar and the caramel!
Unfortunately, my back pain was unbearable by the afternoon. I couldn’t sit for long nor could I stand. I was getting sharp pains in my back and it was traveling down my left leg and up my left shoulder. So i went home to carefully crawl into bed. (its now saturday as I type this and Im still in some pain…hopefully will be back to normal soon)
Well… Mickey came back home on Wednesday night. She was so out of it. poor thing didn’t know what to do with herself with that stupid cone on her head. She desperately wanted to lay down but didnt know how. She loves her dog house but didnt fit inside.
Until I gave her a little bit of help. Its her little safe haven. And after some yelping in the middle of the night (from both of us in pain)…
Henry put her in the bed with us and I caught her loving on my pooh Bear. But she gets a freebie since shes sickie.

Cheese, Good! Popped Cheese? Not so Good.

Yes. Popped Cheese.
In the recent past I have had the pleasure of trying Pop Chips and fell madly in love with the healthy snack that tastes like its bad for me (but isn’t!) and started a search for other snacks that I love to find a healthier variety.
Which brought me to Popped Cheese. I am a huge cheese lover. I dont discriminate, I love it all and when I browsed this company I thought the product looked really promising. I even got excited when I saw it was made with Wisconsin Cheddar… MMMM!
I got three bags to try. Butter, Low Salt, and original. I love how the pacakaging looks like popcorn container from the movies. The label even says “Don’t eat popcorn, eat popped cheese”. Notice how Mickey, who has NO intentions of eating this, sits closely as if she were reviewing the product too.

I didnt realize it was a carb friendly – I usually dislike carb friendly snacks because I find them to be high in fat and low in FLAVOR. The stats for this snack are pretty crappy. 5 pieces of popped cheese for almost 7 grams of fat?! jeeeez! thats not cool man.

And this is how much was in ONE bag! ONE BAG! One bag has 3 servings in it. So folks, feast your eyes on 15 pieces of popped cheese! Now, i know that regular cheese is up there in fat and calories but you can savor pieces of cheese. One can take a big bite or a little bite and really enjoy the cheese. But these are crunchy and kind of taste like greasy stale cheese puffs. And the pieces resemble “noses”. That was gross. After the first bite, I am sorry to say I tossed this bag. It left a chalky and gritty texture in my mouth and I thought it kind of tasted like cheese. It was disappointing.

Overall:

I wouldn’t buy this product. I wouldn’t crush it and coat it on chicken.

BUT

if some of you are on a low carb diet and appreciate a low carb snack… you MIGHT like this. But this is one of those things that doesnt get my seal of approval.

Sorry Just The Cheese, this snack is JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

My Microwave is Broken…

Yeah, the damn thing broke last week. I didnt think much of it but after a while it starts to hinder my daily schedule. I cant heat up my coffee in a minute anymore! Boo! I have had to toss leftovers because they waited for the microwave. Good news is that management supplied the microwave when we moved in so there should be a new one coming shortly… for free! Cha Ching!
But people ate leftovers before microwaves…it just took longer to reheat. So while Henry and Mickey played in the park (oh, those two!) I reheated dinner the old fashioned way. And it only took 45 minutes LOL. But the food was wonderfully fresh tasting… and Now there are no more leftovers. After the park, my Human dog who has really come out of her shell was being really quiet and I found her sleeping on Henry’s pajama bottoms in a chair… like a HUMAN.

I dont lie! And I did not prop her up or roll her over. she likes sleeping on her back from time to time. What a silly girl! And thanks for the advice of leaving her an article of clothing while I go to work. I left her my pajamas today in her bed and she didnt notice that I left for work. I even stayed in the hallway for a few minutes and it was silent. I just hope she doesnt go berzerk!

here’s a peek at Mickey’s Dinner today. Grilled Chicken and boiled pasta. Its a bland diet. She loves it. But Im going to start putting dry dog food in the mix and slowly wean her off the wet stuff. My girl is underweight so I gotta fatten her up!

For Breakfast today I had a ham, egg and cheese sammie from Starbucks. It was small but it was really tasty!

And Spring is here so its time for some ICED COFFEE! Im finally sleeping well again and I will be drinking NORMAL sized coffees soon!

Dad and I are going out for lunch today. I have a feeling we are going off the beaten path to try something different! Cant wait to take pics of that. I have missed blogging!

A New Addition to the Family

Hey gang! Its been a busy weekend. I took a lot of photos but I cannot find my camera cords to upload them. I will search for them tonight. I wanted to show you all my new love, Mickey. On Good Friday, Henry and I planned a day of visitng shelters and people who were looking to get rid of their pets.
Animal Center of Queens was our first stop where we met Mickey. My heart melted for her and Henry said we had to keep looking (Mickey will tell her side later) so we did. We ended up all the way in New Jersey meeting two other dogs but at the end of the day only one dog stood out; Mickey Girl.
The shelter closed at 6 that day but they stood open for us to run back there and take her home. One mishap after the other on the way there and all we could think was “All this is happening because we are meant to take that baby home!”We brought her home and gave her a good bath. And she was in such high spirits after her bath. She started to play and bark and run all over the place. She even let me hug and kiss her all over!

Already a spoiled girl, she slept with us and apparently loves to cuddle. She has “sad” eyes but her tail wags like no tomorrow when we say her name.

Its amazing how I have only had her since Friday night and I am madly in love with her. She has been through so much yet she still a happy dog and gives endless cuddles!

Here’s Mickey’s story:

“Hi, My name is Mickey. I’m about to be three years old. I’m not really sure what happened to me in the past 2.5 years but at some point the person that owned me abandoned me. I was left to fend for myself and in the process lost a lot of weight, became emaciated, and got into fights with other dogs. I still have bite marks on my ears and tail. About 2 months ago I was hit by a car and fractured my right hind leg in three places. I still get scared when I cross the street and hear loud noises. The person that hit me drove off and left me to die. I was taken to a shelter where I was to be put down because I couldn’t walk on my leg. But on my Euth day, I was rescued and taken to Animal Center of Queens where I was fed and given medication for my leg. A lot of people came to meet me but didn’t want to bring home a “sick dog” on their hands… until Monique and Henry met me.

I’m very shy. I have to sniff around really good before I turst them. I will let them pet me but I’m still scared of them. I was very scared of Henry until Sunday when he took me to the park and played with me! Fetch is really quite amazing!

I love cuddling with Monique in her bed and love when she feeds me! She said once I am off my medicine she is gonna start cooking for me. Can’t wait for that!

So as I em-bark on this new journey with my new family, I will be speaking through Mama, or Monique, so hope you enjoy watching me get healthy and happy!!”