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I've been sick and busy this past week so kitchen experiments have been super lame. Plus, I seem to have developed an obsession with Yelp. Yes, I'm late to that party, but whatever. Most of my restaurant reviews will be placed there, so be sure to check it out! Let's do a little photo dump catch up, shall we?

Last Friday (yeesh) I met up with friends for dinner at Epic Roasthouse to experience the 3B special (burger, brownie, beer). Remember my first visit? Well, this time I actually tried the other 2bs ;) Burger was ok, potato wedges were fab, brownie was insanely sweet, beer was delicious (went with the Speakeasy Prohibition Ale). Overall, good deal for $20, but not my favorite burger. Just saying.

Oh, did I mention I had a 10 miler on deck the next morning? HA! I had everything prepped and ready to go but woke up with a crazy headache and sore throat. WTF? I decided to push my run back to Sunday and ran some errands/cleaned instead. Hey, gotta be productive!

Also found some time to hang out on my rooftop with a friend that was in town from DC before making dinner. Please forgive me for this terrible dinner creation.

So awhile ago (pre-blog), I made Ellie Krieger's Macaroni and Four Cheeses. It was a veg out weekend and I watched her make it...seemed like a good idea. I love squash, I love mac n cheese. She said it could totally pass for mac n cheese. LIES. Jamie can confirm that. I think I made him eat the rest of the leftovers :\

Don't get me wrong, it's not inedible. It just isn't mac n cheese. It was squashy (I love squash), weird textured (not at all creamy), and pretty bland once you got past the squash taste. So naturally, I made it again on Saturday. Why? I like a good challenge. Plus, I had a little too much fun in the frozen veggie section at Safeway.

Spicy Squashy Mac

1/2 lb trottole, cooked to package instructions

1 15-oz package, frozen pureed winter squash, defrosted

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp chili garlic paste

1/2 c 2% Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

1/3 c parmesan cheese, shredded

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp heavy cream

Sriracha sauce

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add squash, chili garlic paste, chili powder and garlic powder. Stir and cook for 2 minutes. Lower heat and stir in cheeses, salt and cream. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring often. Stir in pasta to coat and pour into a baking dish. Drizzle with some sriracha sauce and bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

I did a bunch of modifications/omissions and it was still squashy in my opinion. Texture was improved, but just barely. Okay, it wasn't terrible, but let's just say I wasn't excited for lunches this week. At least I'm being honest and not trying to call it mac n cheese!!

Dinner fueled my Sunday morning 10 mile run/walk but o my, was it a disaster. I started out running, but was just so burnt out. Switched to a run/walk after about 4 miles and felt good about my decision. Almost called it quits around mile 7, but kept chugging along. Not sure that was a good idea since I was obviously getting sick. Did I mention it was cold and misty out? D'oh!

I redeemed myself this week by a) taking a sick day and b) making a tasty sick day sammich. Once I started feeling a little better, I moseyed over to the kitchen and whipped up some Mustard & Tarragon Tuna Salad

Nummy.

Mustard & Tarragon Tuna Salad

2 cans chunk light tuna, drained

1.5 tbsp whole grain mustard

1 tbsp light mayo

1/4 c dried cranberries, soaked in warm water and drained

1/4 tsp tarragon

1 small shallot, minced

pinch salt

pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Simple and delicious! I toasted some bread before topping it with the tuna salad, avocado and some ridiculously sweet grape tomatoes from the farmers market. YUM! Do you ever get cravings for tuna or chicken salad sammiches?? I do and I have no idea why.

The rest of my week was filled with leftovers and lentils...nothing too exciting. To spice things up a bit, I went to Japantown after work yesterday for a really late lunch/wandering. Stopped into the Najiya Market for some futomaki and wandered into the Peace Plaza for some, uh...peace. Found a bench to sit on and enjoyed my sushi and the afternoon weather. Snapped a few pics with the trusty iPhone (Hipstamatic app=fun) and called it a day.

How was your Friday?

Time to chillax

I've been a bit of a stress ball lately and I'm realizing it's about time I took some time to chill out and detach from things. I spent a couple hours getting checked out by a doc and while I walked out with a clean bill of health, I decided I needed to start learning how to leave work at work and stop taking on so much at once. Easier said than done.

First thing I did when I got home? Made myself a large, beautiful, well-balanced meal.

I was so worked up today that I only had a banana and some Cheerios around 3pm, post doc visit. I figured I earned some quality kitchen time and a pretty meal :) Do you cook to de-stress?

I had one fairly large piece of salmon defrosting from yesterday, plus I had an urge to make a mustard sauce. Salmon + mustard = yum! Did I mention I also stashed a lonely sweet potato in my grocery basket this weekend? I think sweet potatoes go wonderfully with mustard. Wait, who am I kidding...I think everything goes great with mustard haha.

To start things off, I troasted some diced sweet potatoes. Kept them simple and only sprayed them with some olive oil.

Why did I troast? Because there's no reason to use the whole oven for just one sweet potato! These babies troasted for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees.

While those were cooking, I got started on the spinach and TJ's Harvest Grain Blend. All together, I think this meal took about 45 minutes to make? A glorious and relaxing 45 minutes :) The most stressful part was trying to cut the Harvest Grain Blend proportions in half. Who has a 5/8 measuring cup?? Thanks, Google for informing me 5/8 c equals 10 tablespoons!

Sweet Potato Grains

10 tbsp Trader Joe's Harvest Grain Blend

1 tbsp butter

1 c chicken broth

1/2 onion, diced

1/8 tsp allspice

pinch salt

1 sweet potato, diced and roasted

Heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion, allspice and salt until onion is softened. Add grains and stir for a minute or so until coated. Pour in chicken broth and stir in sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Oniony Spinach

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp chicken broth

3 c baby spinach

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Saute onion until it starts to brown. Add spinach and broth. Stir and cover for 1 minute. Uncover and cook until spinach is wilted.

Sweet Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

3 tbsp whole grain mustard

1 1/2 tsp greek yogurt

3/4 tsp milk

1/2 tsp mirin

1 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp maple syrup

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Whisk in mustard, yogurt, mirin and maple syrup. Add milk slowly until desired consistency. Continue whisking over heat for 1-2 minutes.

Take all those elements and combine them with a simply pan seared salmon fillet and you've got quite a meal!

The sweet potatoes went wonderfully with the grains. They added a nice flavor and texture - not too mushy either! I was worried since a few pieces weren't totally troasted, but those 10 minutes in the broth made them perfectly soft. The mustard was EXACTLY what I was looking for with the salmon and potatoes :) What are your favorite ingredient combos?

Fancy pants

Since I started the day off with an oh-so-classic PB&J, I figured why not continue the fun kiddy meals for dinner? On the menu - Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup. :)

For the longest time, I thought grilled cheese was a Kraft Single between two slices of bread and stuck in the toaster oven. That's just how we did it in our house. It wasn't until college that I learned that making a grilled cheese did not involve a toaster oven, but butter and a pan. Hm. When I discovered the George Foreman, I decided a making a grilled cheese did not involve a toaster oven OR butter OR a pan. All I needed was the Foreman, bread and my Kraft Single. :) How do you make your grilled cheese?
Now, I do love a good Kraft Single here and there, but I saw this package of sliced Gouda tonight and had to have it. I also snuck in some leftover baby spinach because I love my leafy greens.
MMM Cheesy, spinach-y goodness! It actually would have been a little better with one slice of gouda and one Kraft Single (no imitations, please).

For the tomato soup, I wasn't going fancy at all - HAD to be a can of Campbell's. Threw in some frozen mixed veggies, some hot sauce and my tastebuds and belly were happy :)
Oh, and I may have used a tablespoon of cocktail sauce just because. :p

Dessert was some more Haribo gummy bears - I'll probably eat them until I get sick of them...that's just how it goes. And a mug of this
I drank the last of our non-caffeinated tea this morning so I thought I'd give this a shot. It was on sale at the Giant and I do love a hint of fruit in my tea. Verdict? It kinda smelled like an apple soap we got in Grenada, but thankfully it didn't taste like it. I think it might be good on ice!

Off to bed! Hopefully I can sweat some of the sick out during my run tomorrow evening!

Nothing says gourmet

like a peanut butter and jelly sammich.
The sickness has settled in despite my Nyquil attempt last night...I'm just hoping it stays a sore throat and doesn't turn into anything more...at least not until Sunday! I decided to not go into work and popped another Nyquil instead - at 7:30am. hehe.

What did I crave when I finally woke up? PB&J and a giant mug of tea. Just what the doctor ordered :)

What are your thoughts on toasted PB&J? I was always a little weirded out when I saw it on the Potbelly menu, but I mean, I've smeared pb&j on an english muffin or toast before. Why wouldn't it be good with another slice of bread on top?? Man, I've been missing out.

I like that extra crunch! Woo! What I don't like?
The Goya Guava Jelly I used. I saw it at the Giant and got really excited since we just ran out of my favorite Guava Jam from Grenada. Unfortunately, the guava jelly tasted just like sweet jelly - no real guava flavor. Sad.

Off to rest/veg in front of the tv with more big tea and some 90210. Exciting.