When you have leftover Kale...

Sizzlers! Since I've been trying extra hard to be good and cook at home every night, I bring you a new recipe. I know I've been gung ho about squash, but tis the season!

After the last squash recipe, I had some leftover kale and decided to use it or lose it. 

Butternut Squash with Lacinto Kale and Almond/Walnut Parmesan

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 bunch Lacinto Kale

1/4 cup slivered or roughly chopped raw almonds

1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts

1 TB Olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, minced finely

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

1 Butternut squash

THIS IS HOW WE DOOOO IT:

-Preheat your oven and roast your squash at 375 for about 30-45 minutes until tender, then set it aside to cool. Some prefer to roast the squash and then peel and cube, others peel and cube raw, then roast already cubed. I'll let you make the call. 

-In a pan, saute your garlic until fragrant, add your parsley, give it a nice little toss around with the garlic 

-Mix your almonds and walnuts with olive oil and salt, toss to coat

-Add your nut blend to the garlic/parsley to give the nuts a toast

-When you're satisfied with the toastiness of the nuts, add the kale, allow it to turn bright green, then add the squash. Toss the mixture together lightly, lower the heat and you're ready to rock!

-Serve the dish with a sprinkle of Grana Padano or Parmesan. You won't be disappointed. 

And there you have it. Delightful, easy, healthy and perfect for a chilly fall night. 

Lots of restaurant reviews coming up for you! For now, take it easy and Happy Thursday!

You are what you eat. Is that chilled cucumber soup?

Good Morning my friends! I'm feeling chipper today, which is surprising considering I was up till midnight last night organizing my closet and adding to my giveaway pile. 

After work yesterday, I knew I needed a mood boost, so naturally I went to Central Market. My heaven. I could spend hours in there, and I've known the wine guy for quite some time, so that always ends in me buying way more than I need. (Is that possible with wine?)

Anywho...As I perused the aisles and practiced as much restraint as I could, I toted my spoils to the car and eagerly sped home to get to cookin'. 

I now present to you, 2 new recipes that are perfect for fall and this lovely cold snap we're having. I wore boots to work today! (It's the little things)

Recipe #1

Spaghetti Squash with Italian Sausage & Lacinto Kale.

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 Spaghetti squash

1 bunch Lacinto Kale

1 large shallot

2 cloves garlic

2 links delicious house made Italian sausage from Central Market (if you can't swing this, then try to find something that errs on the side of fresh and not from a nasty box.)

Salt & Peppa to taste

WHAT YOU DO WITH THE THINGS YOU NEED:

-Preheat your oven to 375. Cut your squash in half, scoop out the seeds, make a huge mess (or not) and then lightly coat the open side of the squash with some form of oil. I used coconut oil. Lightly salt. Poke a couple holes in the rind of the squash with your knife (or in my case pretend your stabbing it to take out some aggression you've been harboring from the work day.)  Put the squash face down on your baking sheet and roast for about 45 minutes or until soft.

- When your squash is roasted, scoop out the insides with a spoon/fork/your bare hands and set aside. 

-In a pan, saute your finely chopped shallots and garlic until fragrant and softened. Add your Italian sausage. In order to do this, you need to take the sausage out of the casing. This is not for the faint of heart. But do it anyway because the end result is so #worthit

-Once your meat is cooked through, add your Lacinto Kale, stir a bit till the Kale is a  vibrant green, then add the squash and mix to incorporate. Don't furiously beat it together, just gently mix. 

-WHAM.BAM. You're done. Throw it on a plate and sprinkle with a dash of Grana Padano Stravecchio or whatever Italian hard cheese your little heart so desires. 

#nomcity

Recipe #2

Breakfast Chia Seed Pudding

If you are weird about texture and you don't like tapioca or things that are potentially "slimy" then you will likely hate this. Which is crazy talk because it's delicious & nutritious. 

INGREDIENTS/IMPORTANT THINGS:

I use small 8 oz. mason jars and pour ingredients into each one instead of making a big batch and making a mess when I try to put it into each jar. EACH TO THEIR OWN. 

IN EACH JAR:

1/4 cup milk of your choosing. I use unsweetened almond milk, but you can use regular milk, soy, coconut, eat your heart out. 

2 chopped fresh dates

1 tsp. agave nectar

1 small handful slivered raw almonds

3 heaping tablespoons black chia seeds

WHAT YOU DO:

SHAKE IT. Literally. That's it. Shake the jar so that the ingredients are mixed, and put it in your fridge for at least 4 hours. Take it to work the next morning and annoy your coworkers by telling them how good your healthy homemade breakfast is and glance condescendingly at their Pop Tarts and other various processed foods. 

The seeds will expand and congeal to form a "pudding" over night. Feel free to check your fridge every 30 minutes like I did. It probably makes it taste better too. 

So there you have it, breakfast and lunch and dinner for you! Stay tuned because I have some Butternut and Acorn squash raring to go! Enjoy the weather!

A #Nomcity for the books.

Greetings amigos! I'm in foodie rehab right now. I honestly don't even know how I ate so much this weekend, but it was like a delicious blackout that I never want to forget. However I spent my entire Sunday groaning and sipping Peppermint tea. I felt so gluttonous that I couldn't even crack open my new issue of Bon Apetit. The mere sight of food made me die a little. 

For some reason, the vast majority of my friends have fall birthdays, so a lot of my weekend was spent celebrating. 

It all started Friday. I had a very skinny soup for lunch, and then met a friend at Uchi for Happy Hour. I know Uchi does a lot of things right, but their Happy Hour just knocks it out of the park. So that happened. I went home totally content and very stuffed. 

Saturday morning I woke up to go on a nice run, but of course it started to monsoon. I really did have the best of intentions! I had a Birthday lunch at Caracol. I LOVE Caracol. I love the space, I love the staff, I love the menu and I can't even start on the food. Eight ladies who lunch gathered around a table and we ordered the hell out of that menu. 

Tuna tacos and raw tuna with ginger/coconut magic. 

Ceviche caracol. Conch ceviche. 

Blue crab miracle soup. 

All the girls pretty much ordered 2 dishes a person, and house "Caracol Ritas" abounded. It was one of the best lunch outings I've had in a WHILE. And it only got better when we gathered afterwards to drink some ice cold bevs and watch college football. 

Later that evening, for Birthday celebration Numero Dos, Foodie Photo Blog and I headed to Tony's for a MEAL. We had originally planned on practicing restraint and splitting several things, but yeah right. Of course my phone died, so all I have are the photos she texted me later that night as I was lying in bed hoping the button on my jeans wouldn't pop off and shatter a window. 

Tony's is truly a wonderful dining experience. I picked out a delightful Italian Dolcetto D'Alba to sip, and we split the Burrata Pugliese; fresh Oregon figs, Balsamic and some 'beer nuts.'  Our pasta entree were breathtaking; Capelletti al Midolo (Bone Marrow, House Made Ricotta, Cognac) and Pansoti (Squash Filled Pasta, Parmesan Puff, Sage Essence.) 

We also had the ribbons & squares ( ribbons and Squares of Ahi Tuna, Avocado, Soy Lime Vinaigrette) and then the grand finale was Birthday Souffle. Chocolate souffle with a fresh raspberry sauce and very fresh whipped cream. Un.REAL. If you've never been to Tony's, make it a priority. Another fun fact is that they can pretty much make ANY souffle you want. Our server informed us that "the sky's the limit" when it came to flavoring. Both of us stared at each other and after a couple minutes of feeling overwhelmed, we decided chocolate/raspberry couldn't be a bad call. 

So now you can see why my Sunday was spent in a food hangover. But guess what? WORTH IT. 

I know I still haven't finished telling y'all about Hawaii, and I promise I will! I also have some fun recipes coming up and lots of Holiday cheer! Stay dry, eat well and see you soon!

Chimi...changa? No. Chimichurri.

Hola amigos. I leave tomorrow. tomorrow. I can't even.

This week is recipe heavy, but I need to leave y'all with some stuff to do! I'll be posting from my trip, but recipes are always fun to try out. I love tweaking them to my personal taste and making them special just for moi. Try it out, lemme know, just don't burn the house down. 

So we all know I ain't scared of red meat. I've been making steak on Sundays lately since I love waking up early, having a delightful breakfast, and taking my sweet sweet time at the grocery store. 

For this particular meal, I wanted a juicy steak and some veggies. I decided on lemon parmesan roasted zucchini and opted to make a super zesty chimichurri sauce that I was literally licking from a spoon. 

To make your steak, please reference my Meathead Friday post. 

View fullsize

Now that you're a steak samurai, we can get on with it. 

CHIMICHURRI SAUCE:

I love this stuff so much. It's garlicky, zesty, a little spicy and I love how GREEN it is. You can put it on roasted veggies, chicken, salmon, spoon it into your mouth; I won't judge. I did it.

WHAT YOU NEED:

-3 fresh garlic cloves

-1 bunch flat leaf parsley, stems removed

-1 bunch cilantro, stems removed

-1/2 cup red wine vinegar

-1 shallot, roughly chopped

-1 jalapeño, dice and remove vein and seeds

-1 pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

-3/4 cup of good olive oil

-1 tsp salt. I'm a snob and use celtic sea salt, I also prefer Maldon salt to regular 'ole NACL (table salt for those of you who slept through Chemistry class).

WHAT YOU DO:

- You have two options here. If you're in a hurry, go for option 1. If you have time, go for 2. 

OPTION 1: Combine all ingredients, give it a quick swizzle, and let sit for 20 minutes. 

OPTION 2: Combine all ingredients in a food processor (I use my Nutribullet) and give it a swirl. It should be smooth. 

-If you went with option 1, do option 2 after the 20 minute infusion period. 

AND YOU'RE DONE. Taste it, add whatever you think may be missing. Some like to add more heat, you might need a bit more acid by way of more vinegar, or more salt. Whatever tickles your pickle. 

For the zucchini:

- 3 whole zucchini, scrubbed and chopped into matchsticks. You can slice in rounds if you feel like it. 

-Preheat oven to 350

-Juice of 1 lemon

-1 tsp salt

-1 tb olive oil

Mix liquids together and add in zucchini to coat with the mixture. Once they are well coated, spread them on your baking sheet and pop in the oven. After about 12 minutes, once you can tell they're cooked through, sprinkle with parmesan/pecorino/hard cheese of your heart's desire and broil for about 2 minutes to melt and brown the cheese. 

VOILA. #NOMCITY. 

I hope y'all love these and try them out for yourselves! Let me know! It's always so lovely to hear from y'all in the comments. 

Aloha for now, I'm off to the island but will be back next week! 

No, You Can't Read My Poker Face.

Bonjour! I hope San Diego part 1 was satisfying to your soul, but if it left you wanting more, then more you shall receive. We really had such a blast in SD, and I was reminded that there are actually parts of the world where cool, arid temperatures reign, and hair does not fall victim to humidity and constant rainstorms (ahem, Houston). Nevertheless, aside from the incredible weather, we packed in a lot of adventuring during our short stay. 

Our group rented a quaint little beach house in Mission Beach. The morning after our steak smorgasbord, MainSqueeze and I ventured out for some breakfast and bicycling. I can honestly say this was one of my favorite days ever. 

We started out walking to breakfast at The Swell Cafe. I was craving something sweet, and MainSqueeze is a fan of Mexican style eggs, so he went the savory route. We sipped on delicious vanilla lattes as we waited on our food. I'm no stranger to a latte, and these were superb, I liked them a ....latte. (I had to. I just had to). 

#nomcity

Strawberry Banana waffle. Yes please. 

Cali Scramble

Now that we had sufficiently re-fueled, we were ready to cycle. We rented some rad cruisers at a local shop and started our day. I haven't ridden on a fixed gear bike since fannypacks were in style, so I had a minor incident on the road which involved me not braking in time, jumping off the bike and darn near zooming into traffic. Phew. Crisis averted. 

Once I got the hang of it, we biked up the coast, all the way up to La Jolla. We stopped to look at the amazing views and walked down to some tide pools where I was delighted to see tiny little crabs scuttling around. 

amazing.

La Jolla should maybe sometimes be called La Hilla, because those hills had our legs screaming on the bikes. We parked it in a little cove and ran into a local "brah" and asked if he had any recommendations on where to whet our whistles. We ended up ducking into a surf shack type spot and ordered some refreshing cocktails. 30 minutes later, we were playing poker. You just never know what to expect around us!

The luck of the draw...

By this time, we had worked up an appetite, so we zoomed across the street to this amazingly awesome spot that also doubles as a catering company, The Promiscuous Fork. We split an appetizer of lamb lollipops and went on our merry way in search of our next adventure. 

We ended up at a beach side bar, dancing and then once again attempting the lift move from Dirty Dancing. It went really well, and ended in hilarity as I fell on the concrete and dissolved into peals of laughter. Needless to say, we had not a care in the world, and we were loving life. 

Our final days in SD were spent cycling, sunning, watching MainSqueeze and #Guau get housed by the waves and we threw in a couple more delectable nomz. 

Breakfast at The  Mission. 

I'll spare more "you had to be there" stories. But the following images will speak for themselves. We had a lovely girl's lunch at La Valencia Hotel while the boys golfed at Torrey Pines, sunset cocktails at George's at the Cove, and a splendid afternoon at Neptune Beach. 

Lobster Bisque at La Valencia

Lunch at La Valencia...with a view!

Cocktails at George's on the Cove

Hamachi Sashimi at George's on the Cove

Neptune Beach, La Jolla

And there you have it amigos. Our San Diego trip in a nutshell. We had a blast, everyone finished the race, we ate ourselves silly and had adventures I'll never forget. 

I actually almost went to college in San Diego but my instincts told me I'd flunk out, become a surfer queen and maybe not have a job. SO I went to Nashville. A decision I'll never ever ever regret! 

Next on TheSizzle, recipes, TV interviews, doggie bags and more! Happy Hump Day!