I'm back! - Scramble Prep

Apologies for disappearing for so long.  Everything sort of fell off when Minneapolis had a great storm and our power went out (mine was only out for about 24 hours, but a lot of folks didn't have power for days).  Then I got pretty wrapped up in the business of summer and honestly wasn't cooking that much. Last week I went to Australia for a last minute modeling gig which was pretty amazing even though I was only there for three days (but gone for nearly a week because of the travel time).  I finally have a couple days off and I'm ready to get back in the swing of things. My roommate moved out so I'm trying to rebuild the kitchen and make time to nest and decorate.

With having such a busy lifestyle and just loving sleep, getting up an hour early to make a decent breakfast just isn't going to happen.  No matter how much I tell myself I will get up early, chances are I'll snooze until I only have 15 minutes before I have to leave.  If I'm prepared I can grab something and eat it on the way or when I get to work.  If I'm not stocked I usually just writhe in hunger pains until I'm allotted a lunch break,  which I obviously didn't pack because who has time for that?  I'm too cheap to spend more than $5 on lunch at the mall, so I usually succumb to a protein bar and a pepperoni pizza taquito from the convenience store.  This keeps my food craving under control but then I have the protein bar keep me full until I can get home and fix myself something decent to eat.  Which doesn't always happen. SO I've come up with a few things that help me save time and keep me eating throughout the day.

Pre-Mix a scramble:

The only reason I never make this in the morning is because it's a lot of work.  Cutting all the veggies, washing the dishes, I would HAVE to get up early.  I recently figured out that you can do that shit the night before.  GENIUS! Basically I just put in whatever I had in my fridge so substitute or eliminate as you wish.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

milk
salt & pepper

hot sauce (you can always add more)

kale - stemmed and chopped

green onions - chopped

red onion - chopped

cilantro - diced

tomatoes - chopped

cheese - shredded or shaved

peppers - chopped

Directions:

Crack eggs in tupperware, whisk in milk, hot sauce, salt & pepper.

Add veggies and cheese.

Close tupperware. Shake to mix. Refrigerate.

In the morning you can heat up the pan and dump this baby in there while you're getting ready.  The other day when it was done cooking in the pan, I wrapped it in a tortilla and put it in the toaster oven while I finished getting ready.  Then just grabbed it when I was heading out the door. 

I also did this with red potato hash browns!

A 5am Call Time, Dinosaur Kale & A Solo Sunday Brunch

This morning I had a 5am call time for a hair show at the Aveda Institute.  Luckily this is only about a 5 minute drive from my house because I definitely woke up at 4:57am.  I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful woman, wife and mother named Stephanie Junko Molitor.  Stephanie and her husband started growing their own produce in their house about 5 years ago, and since then their growing aspirations have dramatically grown.  They now have their own hydroponic farm called Junko's Garden in Hinckley, MN.  She is the sweetest darling in the world and brought boxes of produce for us to grab!  She encouraged us to take as much as we want, but because of my busy schedule and minimal budget, I didn't want to get over zealous and have the food go to waste.  So I grabbed two bushels of dinosaur kale.

Now, I have no idea what to do with it so this is going to be fun.  Kale is not my favorite green despite it's fantastic nutritional qualities so I have very limited experience cooking with it (although I can recall a couple recipes from Cookie and Kate).  Since I don't have a blender, kale smoothies aren't going to happen either.  The last time I even used kale in a recipe an aphid crawled out on my hand and I almost had a heart attack.

I left Aveda around 1030am this morning and I was so hungry I was about to start eating my own arm. I ran to the Co-op and grabbed some feta, a couple tomatoes, and a couple red potatoes (and an energy drink #notsorry).  Total came to just over $8.00

I got home, cleaned the kitchen, and started makin some brunch.  First I started some quinoa on the stove.  Then I chopped the last of my red onion and scallions and put into a bowl (more med salad, duh).  I realized at this point that I did not grab cilantro at the store and I am in fact out (it went bad :( typical) but I figured I would be fine without it this time.  Then I sliced up both my red potatoes real thin like and threw 'em in a pan with some seasoning and olive oil. I figured I should probably add some onions so I grabbed a handful out of my bowl and threw it in there.  I also decided I should attempt this kale business so I cut off a leave and chopped it up and threw it in there too.  Pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Served with feta cheese. Would have been even better with ketchup...

I still had some leftover spinach from my grocery trip last week, and it was starting to get a little limp so I figured I'd make a lil scramble (it's not like I'm running low on eggs either).  Grabbed another handful of onions from my bowl and threw that in there too.  Served with sriracha!

I realized as I was eating this lovely DIY brunch that everything on my plate, even the butter on my toast, was organic! Huzza!  The weather today is absolutely perfect so I enjoyed my little bunch in my backyard with the chirping birds.

As the days get warmer and warmer, hot coffee is becoming less and less desirable.  In light of this, I prepped some cold press in my french press for tomorrow morning.  I have the day off and it's supposed to be another beautiful day.  I cannot wait to start my day with that baby poured over ice to enjoy outside.

Now, this was a couple of hours ago, and I'm getting hungry again.  Time for some quinoa med salad!  

Since I was a little low on veggies this time I'm only going to make a half batch.  No idea what I'm going to do with the rest of the quinoa, probably something involving dinosaur kale...

And to finish this entry, a photo of my hair and make up from the Aveda show this morning and I'm probably going to rock this all day.

A Default Meal

I spent about $40 at the coop the other day, wasn't able to make my med salad until yesterday, but it was well worth the wait.  I know what you're thinking, "FOURTY DOLLARS??!" I also had to stock up on some basic groceries as all I had at home was 3 dozen eggs, one tortilla and some granola.  I also was too lazy to run up to the regular grocery store to get my "Clean Fifteen" items, so I just bought them there and sacrificed a few bucks for convenience and splurged on a couple beverages that at the time I couldn't imagine living without.  I also intend on these groceries lasting me for the next 2 weeks. I also forgot to grab my receipt so I'll recite what I can remember I purchased.

1 loaf of bread
1/2 lb of coffee
1 quart of milk
4 boxes of annie's mac and cheese (they were one sale 4 for $5)
high ball grapefruit energy water
alô water
1 package of boneless chicken tenders (about $4.50)
handful of spinach
green onions
cilantro
red onion
2 roma tomatos
cucumber
1 small container of feta cheese (about 8oz)
lemon
1 cup quinoa from the bulk section


I have a couple staple meals that I know I will love that are inexpensive.  One of these is a quinoa Mediterranean Salad with lemon vinaigrette. (see bolded items above)  You can pretty much guarantee that I will eat this every day all summer without complaints or exhausting this recipe.  I originally happened upon this recipe through a friend a couple years ago and we made it with cous cous.  I started using quinoa because the protein in quinoa is complete protein, which means it abundantly contains the essential amino acids our bodies cannot make on their own.  This helps me not have a hypoglycemic breakdown at work and keeps me full longer.  Although feel free to experiment with other grains or make as an antipasti as it's pretty tasty either way.

Start making your quinoa.
Rinse it unless you want it to taste horrible. Put some olive oil in a pan and lightly toast the quinoa to remove some of the moisture, then add three cups of water, bring to a boil, turn heat to low, cover it and let it hang out for like 15 minutes.

While you're waiting for your quinoa start cutting up your veggies; cilantro, green onion, red onion, tomato, cucumber.  (I usually only use half a cucumber and we'll talk about the other half later).  Use as much cilantro as you want, don't worry about using the whole bunch, I've decided that's basically impossible.  If you have a cilantro plant, congratulations.

In a separate bowl, you can make some lemon vinaigrette via my hodge podge modified recipe I use.  Cut the lemon in half and juice into bowl using a spoon or whatever method works best for you to get all the juice out.  I usually have to filter out some seeds, too.  Add some olive oil, like one, two, three or four dollops idk.  It'll still be pretty lemony so don't worry about that.  You can also zest some lemon peal in there and add some pepper. Add it to the veggies or add the veggies to it and wash your bowl, knife and cutting board because you're all done with those.  Grab a big bowl for your quinoa and combine veggies and feta cheese and voila.

**No need to add salt due to the feta being so salty on it's own.  Add pepper to taste

I grabbed some chicken tenders too to prepare and add in or serve on the side although it's not necessary because it's so fucking delicious anyway.