Grilled Cheese with Pear

I recently tried a cheese at Central Market called, comte. It is a hard cheese, with robust, buttery and nutty notes. Immediately upon tasting, I thought it would pair perfectly with apples and pears.

It isn't cheap, so I kept it in mind, and waited a while before buying some.

I ended up making a grilled cheese on sweet multigrain bread with the pear and comte. I added a spread of tarragon dijon mustard and a drizzle of honey. Magnifico!

Green Curry & Coconut Soup

My soup of the week!!

I am obsessed with green curry. And coconut milk for that matter.
Everytime I go to a Thai restaurant I order the saaammme thing, Green Curry. Each time, its a little different, but always so spicy, deep, and comforting. Oh, I love it.
However, the ingredients to make a green curry paste are hard to come by. Some pastes are pre-made and can be bought at the grocery store, but I never had any luck until I found Mae Ploy brand curry pastes. The others DO NOT compare. http://www.talinmarket.com/mae-ploy-green-curry-paste-14-oz.html

My simple soup recipe.

I can coconut milk
1T green curry paste (or more to taste)
1t brown sugar (to taste)
half head of broccoli
8 crimini mushrooms quartered
1/4 red onion diced
cilantro to garnish
salt

So simple. Start with a little oil in the pot, and saute the paste lightly, just for a minute. Add the veggies and the coconut milk, cook until tender. You could also add a little water to dilute, and make your soup go a little further.

You could do this with your favorite color/flavor curry paste and veggies too!

Oatmeal Fit For a Queen

Okay, for all you oatmeal-phobics and drab plain-oatmeal-eaters.. this ones for you.
I make this every morning. It is easy to go to your grocer's bulk section to keep the main ingredients on hand for a small price. Also, you can change this up to suit whatever you have on hand in your pantry.


Oatmeal for 1
1/4c dry oats
1/2 c milk (I prefer unsweetend almond milk)
1 banana sliced into 1/2in chunks
drop of almond extract (or vanilla if you prefer)
raisins, cranberries, and dry goji berries
lots of cinnamon
(more moisture if needed)

The day I took this picture I happened to have some coconut yoghurt and blackberries on hand, but those aren't regulars in my lineup.
If you've got a sweet tooth drizzle some maple syrup or brown sugar.
Want some crunch? Add nuts.
Enjoy!

Broccoli Slaw Salad with Five-Spice Tofu

Here is another recipe that I adapted from Vegetarian Times. I love it for being so filling, flavorful and healthy, plus it brought new flavors and ingredients into my kitchen!

Dressing

2T sesame oil

2T Black Vingear* (Chinese vinegar made from grain not grapes!)

1t sriracha (immensely popular chile-garlic sauce)

1t brown sugar (Veg Times suggested white sugar (whatever.))

Salad

1lb broccoli sliced thin

1 red bell pepper sliced thin

1-2 shredded carrots

cilantro

green onion

walnuts

sesame seeds

5-Spice Tofu* but into matchsticks

Veg Times suggested using a 1lb bag of broccoli slaw, but at the store this products looked very dryed out, so I opted for very fresh broccoli!

--Also, the shredded carrot, walnuts and sesame seeds were my addition, they called for roasted peanuts.

*I have never seen Five Spice tofu before. Even at Chinese markets. So I bought firm tofu, sliced it thin, and rolled it in Chinese Five Spice.

Five Spice- encompasses all five flavors of sweet sour bitter pungent and salty. Most commonly includes: star anise, cinnamon, cloves, Sichuan pepper, and fennel seeds.

Black Vinegar- http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-black-vinegar.htm

I found a bottle for about 2$ at a Chinese market, it is sweet, malty and wonderful.

Cabbage Avacado Salad with Carrot-Ginger Dressing

This is my rendition of a recipe I adapted from Vegetarian Times.

I ate it every day for a week and have thought about it every day since. Thats no lie.

It is very filling, healthy, incredibly delicious, and gorgeous!!

Dressing:

1c carrot juice

3T ginger juice

(veg. times used shredded carrots and minced ginger in a blender, I prefer the juicer)

4T rice wine vingear

3 T white miso paste

2T sesame oil

1 T canola/grapeseed oil

2t maple syrup

Salad:

1 med. head radicchio thinly sliced

2 avacado

3/4 c sweet onion thinly sliced

(Veg. Times suggested 4c savoy cabbage as the base)

instead I used:

1 small head red cabbage thinly sliced

also my addition of

sesame seeds, sunflower kernels, and raisins

This is A LOT of salad of just one person. To keep things fresh, I prepped the dressing and chopped the cabbage, radicchio and onion in advance, then packed it into tupperware. When I was packing my lunch for the day I would cut the avacado, and wait to drizzle the dressing until it was time to eat!

If you do fish, this would go very nicely with a flaky, mild white fish (like Flounder) or salmon.