Guilty Pleasures

Did you know today (Tuesday) was National S'mores Day? I couldn't figure out why so many of the food blogs I follow had s'mores posts until I looked it up!

To celebrate, I made a yummy batch of S'mores FroYo to share with my husband while we watched Bachelor Pad!

Yum, definitely a keeper!

Meg's S'mores FroYo
Ingredients

• 3 cups plain whole milk yogurt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• 1 sleeve graham crackers

Method

1. Mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl until sugar begins to dissolve. Let rest in refrigerator for about an hour.
2. Add yogurt mixture, chocolate chips, and marshmallows to ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.
3. Crumble the graham crackers into the yogurt near the end of the freezing cycle (so they incorporate, but don't get too mushy)

Fess up, what is your guilty TV pleasure?We don't even have a TV, so you know how much I love me some Bachelor drama if I have to wait until the day after it airs to catch it online!

Too Hot for Soup?

My sweet husband is HOOOOOME!

 

Engagement Pictures - Kali Kraum Photography

But before he came home, I did a flat, fast, and hot 3-miler at the track in my parents' neighborhood.

Run stats? Glad you asked!

• Total Mileage: 3.14mi
• Total Time: 26.53
• Average Pace: 8:33min/mi

I wanted to do 4, but my tummy started bothering me around mile 3. I walked a half mile to cool down and called it a day. C'est la vie!

After I picked B up from the airport, we grabbed lunch at Alotta's. Next to my family's grocery store, I think Alotta's has pretty much the best sandwiches on the planet. However, I forgot to ask for no mayo, so my veggie sammy was a little gloopy (blech!) and my stomach continued to feel weird for the rest of the day. Bummer.

Brian promptly fell asleep on the couch while I puttered around in the kitchen. Upon seeing these little cuties, I asked myself, Is it too hot for soup?

If produce could talk, they would have said, Yes, Megan, it is far too hot for soup! but I decided to make it anyway. Could you resist those cute little UFO squash? I sure couldn't.

Summer Squash and Gypsy Pepper Soup
Ingredients

• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups sweet gypsy peppers (bell peppers work too)
• 3/4 pound summer squash, sliced thin crosswise (about 3 cups)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup low-salt chicken or vegetable broth

Method
1. In a large skillet cook onion in olive oil over moderate heat, stirring, until softened. Add gypsy peppers and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until pepper is softened, about 5 minutes.

2. Stir in squash and garlic and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until squash is tender, about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in broth and bring mixture to a simmer. Purée soup (in a blender or with an immersion blender) until smooth and transfer to a saucepan. Cook soup over moderate heat until just heated through, stirring in enough water to thin to desired consistency, and season with salt and pepper.

4. Serve with Tapatio, if you like it spicy (we do)!

I thought a giant bowl of steaming soup was just way too overwhelming, so I served it up in ramekins. Perfect! We also had leftovers of Angela's Time Crunch Enchiladas and a totally juicy and amazing honeydew melon from our CSA box. Yum.

Despite the staggering heat in my kitchen, I kept cooking after dinner (I know, I'm crazy). I have been wanting to try Heather's Oaties for a while now and knew Brian would want something sweet later on (Who am I kidding, I would want something sweet later too!). They were great!

Mmmmm, I almost just ate it all raw.

There is a sort-of funny story behind this silly penguin tin. I got this tin in college as a gift, full of some holiday treats, I can't even remember now. I keep wanting to get rid of it, because it's kind of ridiculous, but it's sort of become our designated "baked goods" tin. Whenever it is sitting on the counter, B knows I have been baking and he gets super excited. I guess I can't get rid of it now!

Our big plans for Friday include renting a carpet cleaner. Thrilling stuff!

What are you up to this weekend, friends?

Kitchen Explosion!

What a day!

We started this morning with an oatmeal pancake for Brian (he cannot stop raving about these) and some yogurt and fruit salad for me. It was a rest day for me, so I rested and read lots of your blogs! So many exciting things going on in the food and fitness world - you all inspire me! The morning went by quickly though, and we raced out of the house to pick up my father-in-law at the airport and headed to Mountain View to watch the Holland/Uruguay match.

I have to say, I didn't really want either team to win. Pair that with a totally packed Irish pub and mediocre food, and I was just feeling kind of meh when I finally made it back home (Don't get me wrong, watching a soccer match in a pub full of cheering, crying, table-banging fans is serious entertainment, I am just more excited about the Spain/Germany match tomorrow).

¡Viva España!
[image source]
 

So, as I usually do when feeling a bit meh, I headed into the kitchen to see what kind of trouble I could get into. Have you ever had one of those days when you are in the kitchen making one thing and then you think, Oh! I can make that other thing! and then that reminds you of another thing and before you know it you have like 15 different recipes going at once? Yeah, that was me this afternoon.

It started innocently enough, with Hawaiian popsicles. Once my molds were full though, I had a little bit of the puree leftover and thought, This would go really well with that mango sorbet recipe, so I started peeling and pureeing mangos. Once the ice cream maker was whirring away, I thought, I guess I should start making dinner!

Whew! Here's a more organized approach to my kitchen madness, with some pictures and recipes thrown in for good measure!

Hawaiian Popscicles
adapted from Catherine McCord

Ingredients
1 can (13.5oz) lite Coconut Milk
2 cups fresh pineapple (or 1 14oz can drained)
1 banana
Shredded coconut
Agave nectar, to taste

Method
1. Pour ingredients into a blender/food processor and puree.
2. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for at least 4 hours.
3. Imagine you are on a tropical island.

You can get super cute silicone popsicle molds all over the place (like these or these or these or these) but I got my popsicle molds in the $1 bin at Michael's last summer and they work just fine for me.

Run them under warm water for about 30 seconds before you try to extract them. Yum!

Like I said, I had about 3/4 cup of coconut milk/pineapple puree left and I thought, Mango sorbet! So, here ya go:

Mango Sorbet
adapted from Our Best Bites

Ingredients
3-4 mangoes
2T lime juice
1/3 cup agave nectar
More shredded cocount (maybe 1/3 cup? I didn't measure)
leftover Hawaiian Popsicle puree (or not! This is totally delicious with just mango and lime juice or with pineapple chunks)

Method
1. Pour ingredients into a blender/food processor and puree.
2. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze per manufacturer's instructions.
3. Imagine you are still on that tropical island. Can't you feel the warm breeze?

This is seriously my absolute favorite thing to make with my ice cream maker. I have to hide it from my husband. Then, when he finds it, he hides it from me. Keeps the marriage fresh, folks.

As I was concocting these frozen delicacies, it occurred to me that maybe I should get some actual dinner going. When I made Emily's vegan black bean burgers last week, I froze half of the recipe. The patties had been defrosting all day, so I popped them in the oven for about 30 minutes to heat through while I chopped up some sweet potatoes.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries
adapted from Our Best Bites

Ingredients
1lb sweet potatoes, cut into 1/4" matchsticks
2T extra virgin olive oil
1/2t cumin
1/2t oregano
1t salt
1t parsley
1/8t black pepper

Method
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Toss potatoes, olive oil, and seasoning in a small bowl until potatoes are completely coated.
3. Arrange sweet potatoes in a single layer so that pieces are not touching each other. Place pan in oven and cook for 10 minutes. Use a spatula to gently flip fries and return to oven. Cook for an additional 10-15 minutes or until fries are starting to lightly brown and crisp.
4. Remove pan from oven and cool 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

 

I thought these were just OK, but Brian thought they were great. Our oven cooks a bit hot, so I think they were a little overcooked, but the flavors were really nice so I will definitely be doing these again (that pic is from before they went in the oven).

I dirtied pretty much every dish in the kitchen, but Brian was a trooper and cleaned everything up for me! I sometimes feel bad when he does the dishes, but he always reminds me, You cook every night! I might as well help with the dishes! He is very meticulous.

Hahaha! 

Yep, he's a keeper!

Do you and your partner have a cooking/cleaning agreement?

In our house, whoever cooks get out of cleaning duty (this is me about 95% of the time). If we cook together, we both clean together. And about maybe about 50% of the time, I either do a lot of cleaning as I go, or I help clean up anyway (especially if I made a super-huge mess)!

Banana Soft Serve!

The idea of Banana Soft Serve has been kicking around the blog world for a while. I first read about it on The Kitchn, but wasn't entirely convinced until Angela started raving about it on Oh She Glows (I love her blog!). I don't normally keep bananas around the house, but this might change my shopping habits! This stuff is seriously good.

The variations are endless, but I've been sticking to a peanut butter/chocolate vein. I can totally see using strawberries, blueberries, cherries, etc for a more fruity soft serve. Yum!

Tonight I made Peanut Butter Banana Soft Serve for my mom:

• 2 frozen bananas
• A glug of milk (dairy, soy, almond, etc)
• 2T peanut butter 

Put it all in the food processor and let it do it's thang - the frozen banana gets creamy and a little gooey.

I like to stick it back in the freezer for a little while to let it firm up a bit. Yum!

At home, I have been adding 1-2t cocoa powder (sometimes with the peanut butter, sometimes without). I am totally addicted!

We are both so stuffed from dinner though, we might have to save this for tomorrow morning as a breakfast treat before our pedicures!