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

Well, I did manage to use up the last 5 apples that were still chilling out in my crisper drawer. Nothing as fancy as the cinnamon apple cake squares I made the other day, but still a yummy use for apples.

I cut the rest of them up and baked them with ground cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg, and a little sprinkle of sugar. I’ve been using them over the weekend to top my breakfasts with.

Shown here: Apple crumble flavored Voskos yogurt topped with baked apples and toasted buckwheat crunchees.

I’ve eaten something appley like this every day for a week now and I’m still not tiring of it!

Here’s how easy it is to make baked apples:

Easy baked apples

A simple method for baking apples to use on top of oatmeal, yogurt, ice cream, anything!

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

• Any number of apples you need to use up
• as much cinnamon as desired
• pinch of clove, ground ginger, and nutmeg
• sprinkle of sugar
• squeeze of lemon juice

Cooking Directions

1. Peel, core, and dice apples.
2. Add to a baking dish where they will be piled upon each other (to encourage steaming)
3. Add spices to taste and squeeze over lemon juice. Sprinkle on sugar.
4. Mix with a spoon and bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, stirring once or twice throughout.

Washed down with Jeff and I’s twin teas…

And another example of using up what’s in the crisper…pizza! I had 2 lonely button mushrooms and a tomato that was getting squishy and needed to be used up. So, mushroom and fresh tomato pizza!

I always by whole wheat pizza dough from our local farmer’s market and roll it out myself. The first time I bought it I was a little bit intimidated, but now I make pizza like an old pro!

My favorite trick to getting it tasting like a brick oven pizza is to use a pizza stone and put it under the broiler. The edges get that slight charred flavor and the cheese goes all brown and bubbly.

Also this past weekend…a double rainbow!

Decatur experienced a light sunshower on Saturday that produced a vibrant rainbow arching completely across the sky. And if you looked closely you could see another fainter rainbow gleaming above it. Everyone in town just stopped in their tracks to gape at it and snap photos.

We saw it on the way to Leon’s for dinner with some friends. Leon’s has recently changed their menu a bit and several of the things that Jeff and I order regularly are gone.  It was ok though, we got to try some new and interesting things because of it.

Here, the lamb rillettes we all shared as an appetizer…

It was so good slathered on fresh bread studded with the tiny grains of mustard and a glazing of orange marmalade on top. Lamby!

I got a really cool new cocktail called The Wasp. It’s rye whiskey and peach honey and some other stuff I don’t remember, but man it was delicious!

I ordered the new side wedge salad with crispy bacon, hard boiled egg, radish slices, and creamy caper dressing. Pretty good, a nice take on the classic.

And the zucchini casserole with onion jam and salted lemony arugula. I get one of these almost every time we go because it’s just so good.

It wasn’t quite enough food so I ate about half of Jeff’s fries with garlic aioli.

Do you have a dish at a local restaurant you order every single time?

June 28, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 5 comments

Oh yeah, there is nothing better than cake for breakfast.

I’ve had about 8 out-of-season honeycrisp apples in my fridge for a month now because they were sour and not good for eating out of hand. This week I’m vowing to use them up in various baked preparations that will bring out their sweetness.

First use: Emily‘s recipe for cinnamon apple glazed cake squares that was featured on Eat Live Run recently.

I made a ton of substitutions to work with what I had. Apple butter rather than apple sauce, chickpea flour rather than whole wheat pastry flour, a little oil to fill in for not having enough butter, added an extra apple, and used real eggs rather than flax eggs. I also tried baking it in a 9×9 pan instead to make them fluffier, and with 20 extra minutes of baking it worked!

These cake squares are so, so insanely good. I fully intended on making the glaze that goes with them but after trying them naked I decided to leave it alone.

With a hot cup of tea, inspected for quality by Liam, it was a fantastic breakfast.

3 apples down, 5 more to go.

What’s your favorite baked apple recipe?

June 24, 2011 Alayna Discussion 4 comments