I’ve had a streak of really delicious meals lately. Here’s what’s been making my tummy happy over the last few days…

I used some of the baked apples I made recently over a big dollop of Greek Gods fig yogurt. That has got to be the most delicious yogurt I’ve ever tasted. It has real fig puree in it not just a flavoring, so it’s very earthy and thick. With some toasted buckwheat on top, this was a killer combination.

And I had that same yogurt again today over some strawberries, grapes, and pineapple. I topped it with some puffed amaranth and it was awesome! The grapes tasted especially amazing with the fig yogurt.

I washed it down with the last of our keemun tea. This tea has a deep roasted aroma like coffee beans or smoldering wood. Love the reflection in it!

And for lunch I had a salad with a side of jackfruit and a sliced orange…

I rarely enjoy the salads that I make for myself, but this one was fantastic! It was mixed baby lettuces, Trader Joe’s broccoli slaw, sprouts, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, avocado, and Annie’s red pepper dressing. Tasted amazing and had great texture.

I am still so surprised by the flavor of jackfruit with every bite! It is so unusual but totally delicious. I’ve also been eating oranges like they’re going out of style. I’m eating 2 a day sometimes!

And check out this amazing and easy dinner we had last night…tostadas con huevos!

It was a flour tortilla toasted up in the oven and then topped with vegetarian refried beans, salsa, 2 fried eggs, monterrey jack cheese, and sour cream. Served it up with a sliced avocado.

And it could not be simpler to make…

Tostadas con huevos

A quick and delicious Mexican dish with fresh eggs as the star.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

• 2 flour tortillas
• 4 eggs
• half a can of vegetarian refried beans
• salsa of your choice
• 1/2 cup shredded monterrey jack cheese
• salt, pepper, and olive oil
• serve with sour cream and sliced avocado

Cooking Directions

1. Rub olive oil over both sides of tortillas and season with salt and pepper.
2. Toast tortillas on both sides under the broiler until barely golden and crisp.
3. Fry eggs 2 at a time in a non-stick pan and set aside.
4. Spread refried beans over crisp tortillas, top with eggs, salsa and cheese.
5. Broil tostadas until cheese is melted and bubbly, careful not to burn the tortillas.
6. Top with sour cream and serve with sliced avocado if desired.

So much good food lately! I’m on a roll!

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten today?

July 9, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 6 comments

I have been meaning to give this stuff a try for a long time. I’ve had a few pieces of freeze-dried jackfruit before that were quite tasty, so the fresh stuff had to be good too, right?

RIGHT! In fact it may be my new favorite fruit.

But before I go into what makes jackfruit so awesome, let me tell you a bit about what is not awesome…getting the fruit out of the husk. Jackfruit grows in prickly green pods that can grow to be enormous, like as big as a 5 year-old child enormous. Luckily, my farmer’s market sells jackfruit pre-cut into manageable sizes, so I was able to pick up this half piece that was about the size of a football.

You can see that the actual fruit is the darker yellow lobes encasing the seeds, the rest is a kind of fiberous pith that is edible but less delicious, and there’s a giant inedible core much like that of a pineapple.

I figured it’d be no big deal to pluck the lobes of fruit out of the husk since they’re somewhat dry and firm. Nope. I spent almost an entire hour hacking this thing to pieces to get at all that goodness. It was a massacre, and half way through it I was sure that no matter how good this fruit was it couldn’t be worth the pain of wrestling it out of a sticky, prickly football for an hour.

And my hands were covered in some sticky sap-like stuff that would not come off.

All for about this much fruit…

But oh did it turn out to be worth it!

This is a bizarre fruit to describe. The flesh is somewhat starchy and fiberous, but flexible. It feels dry to the touch and has only a faint sweet smell and practically no flavor as you place it in your mouth. Biting down feels like chomping into a slice of orange peel, and a similar fine spray of zesty oil hits your palate but without a trace of the bitterness of citrus zest.

The flavor explodes as you bite through and it tastes juicy although no juice comes out. It reminded me a bit of pineapple, but without that prickly enzymey tartness that pineapple has. Some say it’s similar to an under ripe banana and I can kind of see that, but really it’s a flavor unlike any other.

Every time a took a bite I was so surprised that such a candied sweetness could come from such a hard and juiceless piece of fruit. It really is new and exciting with every bite.

Have you ever tried jackfruit?

July 8, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Taste Test 9 comments

Sorry I’ve been away for a while. I discovered on Tuesday that all the pictures I’d taken over the 4th of July weekend were gone due to a faulty memory card. In truth, we didn’t do anything exciting for the 4th anyway since the Decatur fireworks were washed out with rain, so I didn’t have much to show you anyhow.

I did manage to do one constructive thing this week though…build a photography lightbox!

Jeff did some research for me on how to build one and we set out to procure the materials. Apparently, all you need is some white foam board, 2 utility lamps, and some bright lightbulbs. Oh, and tape, lots of tape.

We put in a couple of daylight CFLs and got to work testing it out.

Wow, it is bright all lit up! I almost need to wear sunglasses to take pictures in it.

I practiced taking pictures of many different objects and playing with my camera settings to see what worked.

I still need to purchase some cloth backdrops to hang inside so that I can completely eliminate the background in the photos, but overall I like the effect.

The lightbox was needed for a super secret project I’m working on that I’ll tell you all about when the time comes. 😉

Ever used a lightbox?

July 7, 2011 Alayna Discussion 4 comments