Savory Waffles with Bacon and Chiles

Leave a comment June 28, 2016 SugarSpiceFitLife

I’m back to the most important meal of the day – brunch, obviously. So maybe you’re not a sweet breakfast/brunch person. Why ever not?

For me, I typically need something a little sweet – usually in the form of fruit of some kind, but C needs his three egg omelet on the weekends and will only yield to something sweet for a side. So when I’m trying to compromise, I make some of my “sweet” breakfast favorites into something more savory. The bacon is of course optional if you’re going vegetarian but I wouldn’t cut out the spice.

Savory Waffles with Bacon and Chiles

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 c buttermilk (I’ve also tried it with kefir – still good)
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c corn meal
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 c chopped green onions (divided)
2-3 T green chiles (roasted and diced)
2 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled/diced
1/4-1/3 c shredded Pecorino Romano cheese or other dry hard cheese such as parmesan
Additional eggs for topping

Directions

Cook bacon as desired (pan, oven, microwave) until crisp. Let cool and crumble.
Beat buttermilk and eggs in a large bowl. I
n a medium bowl sift together flour, cornmeal, paprika, baking powder, and salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined.
Stir in bacon, green onions, chiles, and cheese.
Cook waffles until golden brown in your waffle iron. Spray with non-stick spray between each batch to keep from sticking.
While the waffles cook, fry over-easy or sunny-side-up eggs in a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan. Top waffles with the runny eggs for a scrumptious “syrup”.

I actually didn’t like fried eggs, much less runny eggs until just two years ago when I had it with polenta for the first time. Needless to say I was hooked and now it’s my go-to whenever I’m looking to add some more protein to a leftover pizza, polenta, or stir fry.

Dig in!

Black Bean Hummus for the Ultimate Veggie Snacker

4 Comments June 21, 2016 SugarSpiceFitLife

Black beans two weeks in a row? … at least one is sweet and the other savory? Oh well, I’m over that embarrassment, because this is another tasty healthy recipe.

I adore hummus as a healthy snack option. And find it really difficult to get bored of something you can customize so easily when you make it yourself. Traditional hummus is made from garbanzo beans, but whenever I make the original version in my little 2 cup food processor, it never gets quite as smooth. So I typically opt for a softer bean and my first favorite type of bean – the black bean.

This spread/dip is thick enough to be used on sandwiches, but my favorite is just for packing a flavor punch with veggies. 🙂 For some extra color try different color carrots, home grown or pickling cucumbers, and heirloom baby tomatoes. Oh and for a little extra crunch I’ve thrown in some Nut-Thins – seriously so good especially with the hint of salt in the sea salt variety.

Black Bean Hummus

Makes 6 to 8, 1/4 cup servings

Ingredients

1 can black beans (~2 cups), rinsed and drained
2 T tahini
2 T olive oil
2 T lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1/4 c chopped green onion
1/2 tsp chili powder (your favorite kind), adjust for spiciness
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
Additional water to improve consistency if needed.

Directions

Add all ingredients to a food processor (I used a 2 cup version) but you can also use the smaller bowl option on your large processor.
Pulse and blend until smooth.

Yep, two steps – super simple.

Now you can pick your favorite veggies to accompany.

Happy snacking!

My other favorite hummus is the edamame hummus from Trader Joes.

What’s your favorite brand or type of hummus? What are your favorite snacking veggies?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Black Bean Mocha Brownies

1 Comment June 15, 2016 SugarSpiceFitLife

Achilles heel? Kryptonite? Whatever way you like to phrase your weakness, brownies are mine. I can turn away from cake; I can turn away from cookies; I can even turn away from ice cream, but put a brownie in front of me and I crumble… especially the fudgy brownies. And if they’re the crunchy top brownies, I’m finished, vanquished. With that being the case, I’m alway on the look out for a healthier brownie version; and while I’ve found some great options with almond flour gluten free brownies, pumpkin, and a few others, black bean will always be my favorite. Beans in brownies? Yes it may seem crazy, but is so so good. I stumbled upon this recipe probably 6 years ago or so – which means I honestly can’t pinpoint where the original recipe came from.

While there are a lot of black bean brownie recipes out there, this is by far my favorite and the easiest in my opinion. And because we’re replacing the oil and eggs with the beans, depending on what brownie mix you pick, they’re definitely vegetarian but can also easily be vegan as well.

Over the years I’ve ramped up the coffee in the recipe to really make them more of a mocha. 🙂 I also started experimenting with cold brew coffee, but you can use just strong black coffee or even espresso instead.

Black Bean Mocha Brownies

Serves 16-20

Ingredients

1 box chocolate brownie mix with chocolate chips (the chips in there make a real difference, I use Ghiraradelli), or another rich mix
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c cold brew coffee or other strong coffee
2 tsp Vanilla
1/4 c additional water or coffee

Directions

To puree the black beans, process in a food processor with 1/4 cup of cold brew coffee until very smooth and you don’t see large pieces of bean skin (hull?).
Then mix with the rest of ingredients, remaining coffee, and last additional 1/4 cup water or coffee (depending on how much mocha flavor you want) until batter is your desired consistency. Adding a little less water will help with the texture, but the full 1/4 cup are guaranteed to make the brownies extra fudgy.
Follow the directions on the brownie box, baking at about 325 for 35-40 minutes; you want to undercook them a little bit so they’re not dry.
Bake in an 8×8 pan, and they’re still pretty thick. I typically use a 9×9 pan because my brain works on size of the top of the brownie and doesn’t always register how thick it is when it comes to portion sizes.

Holy yum! And I don’t feel as guilty eating one of these a day (until the pan is finished)… or maybe two? But in order to avoid the dreadful task of having to eat theses all by yourself because your partner in life, food, and fun can’t reconcile that these delicious treats are made with beans – I suggest you share with another group of fine people.

Enjoy!

Stone Fruit and Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad

Leave a comment June 9, 2016 SugarSpiceFitLife

By no means can I take all of the credit for this recipe, since I got all of the inspiration from Tiffani Theissen – I loved her on White Collar and Saved by the Bell I suppose. On a flight this past March (I think I was headed to or coming from Minnesota) Southwest had TV and movies you can watch on your mobile devices. Since I was looking for something to occupy the time, I decided on Travel and Food shows – finding a few I didn’t even know existed (Booze Traveler & Dinner at Tiffani’s). On an episode of Dinner at Tiffani’s, she was making brunch with Bree Turner (who I like from Grim) and Lance Bass and his husband. While the people were lovely, the food got me thinking. She made a peach and tomato caprese salad and I knew I had to try and recreate it… Because searching for the recipe on the internet would have been difficult?

Stone fruits weren’t in season at that time – and neither were good heirlooms, so I bidded my time and waited for growing season to start. This past week, Sprouts had a great sale on produce and ripe white peaches and a few heirloom tomatoes. Naturally I snatched them up and ran home to make the salad I had been dreaming for months.

Stone Fruit and Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad

Serves 2 or 4 if you’re feeling generous

Ingredients

2-3 medium white peaches
2 large or 3 medium heirloom tomatoes
8 oz of burrata cheese
10 basil leaves

Directions

Wash and dry produce, then starting from the bottom, slice tomatoes horizontally about 1/4 in wide. Cut peaches into slices.
Arrange tomatoes and peaches on a plate, then cut or tear burrata and nestle on top.
Lastly drop basil leaves over everything and serve. This is great with an aged balsamic (what I had on hand didn’t drizzle the best, so it’s not pictured).

It’s so simple and looks (and tastes) amazing! I highly encourage you to hit up your farmer’s market this season and get some local produce to try this. For me, I’ll be picking those peaches off my tree when they’re ready – yum!

Central Restaurante – 2016 #4 Restaurant in the World, Lima

Leave a comment June 7, 2016 SugarSpiceFitLife

The second of the our reservations at two of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants was the #4 ranked restaurant Central Restaurant located smack in the middle of Miraflores (about half a mile from the apartment we were staying in). We opted to do a lunch reservation and brought along the newly engaged couple (C’s sister and her fiance) – it’s more fun to share with more people! The menu titled “Mater Ecosystems” provided each course with ingredients found at various altitudes.

We started with cocktails – although wine or juice pairings were also an option (we didn’t notice the juice pairing until well into the meal – whomp, whomp – it would have been fantastic). While I can’t recall the exactly, but I think what I ordered was the Pisco Torontel · Aperol · Elderflower Tonic.

Spiders on a Rock -5M (Sargassum, Limpet, Crab) Our first course consisted of a thin crisp (cheese?) with a crab meat filling set on what could be a rocking coast line.

Valley of the Tree 230M (Avocado, Panca Chili Pepper, Paico) The second course came with avocado in three forms, the first beings fresh chunks of avocado covered in Panca chili pepper. The next being a piece of crunchy brown bread with avocado mousse and edible flowers (beauty through adversity). And lastly an avocado puree covered with petals on a softer sponge.

High Jungle 860M (Yucan, Baston, Bark) This course was not necessarily my favorite. It’s wasn’t bad or not tasteful but maybe seemed that they had been cold too long – almost with a frozen interior (which lent nothing to being able to taste the flavor). It’s always great to try new vegetables, but I was hoping for more with this.

River Scales 180M (River Snails, Gamitana, Sangre di Grado) As the name says, this course was river snails – not something I would have picked out on my own likely, but the snails were sliced very thin and arranged on thin crisp (which did get stuck in my teeth), so the flavor was mild and relatively enjoyable for being my first time eating river snail.

Andean Plateau 3900M (Tunta, Annato, Coca) This was the bread course – a dense corn type bread, a thin bubbly crisp, and bread cooked/smoked in coca leaves (not pictured). Two spreads – a browned butter and a tomato salsa/condensed puree?

Marine Soil -21M (Clams, Sweet Cucumber, Lime) Despite my general dislike of clams and mussels, I really enjoyed this dish. The clams were thinly slices with a great citrusy sauce and covered with seas cucumbers. Yes, sea cucumbers and they were probably the best part about this (sweet and crispy, delicious).

Extreme Stem 2875M (Oca, Mashwa, Elderberry) Another fantastic course – basically the potato or root vegetable dish. Thin starch paper, translucent potatoes, and then potato bites I think look like olives – all with an elderberry sauce that I could drink plain if that was acceptable.

This is what the potatoes look like when whole – Peru has over 300 varieties of potatoes. Being raised on potatoes in Minnesota, I would love this type of variety.

Close Fishing -10M (Octopus, Coral, Barquillo) I know I’ve been saying that almost every course was a really good course, but this was probably my favorite. Grilled octopus, or just octopus in general, is not something I never thought I’d say I like – especially since I’ve tried it more than a few times and could never get over that rubbery texture. Well this octopus was incredible tender and easy to eat (the roasting smell wafted through the restaurant throughout our meal – I probably drooled every time). The coral was made from egg white and also set with a crispy corn chip (?). And once again the sauce was amazing and I can’t find a way to describe it other than that – amazing.

Let’s try and get as close to the sauce as I can, because maybe that will help me smell it again. Seriously though, someone needs to invent a way to trigger smell recall in our brain (or capture it in a camera like device for posterity).

Low Andes Mountain 1800M (Quinoas, Beef, Airampo) Now clearly the photo above is not beef because I opted for the vegetarian option for this. Lime cream (or was it quinoa milk), balls of goodness (black quinoa?), green and blue powders (blue-green algae?)- I actually had no idea what I was eating but it was damn good and incredibly rich. Although after some other research into their vegetarian menu I think it might be the Altiplano and Lake (Black Quinoa and Lime Cream) or Psuedocereal (Andean grains, ciagua, chili pepper, airampo).

I snagged a picture of C’s beef dish – also set in quinoa with shaved beef heart – yep. And apparently it was tasty. All three other dinners thought it was potentially their best course. The airampo gives some of that bright red color.

Green Highlands 1050M (Lucuma, Cacao, Chaco Clay) Now for the first of the desserts – a chocolate ice cream with lucuma cookie (but not quite a cookie – crisp?), and white chocolate with clay curls. Seriously freaking good.

Valley Between the Andes 2190M (Roots, Sanki, Sacha Inchi) Our last dessert course included a camomile type gelatin square and what we thought were chocolate candies.

Well, the thin chips were chocolate but the others had a gel texture with a liquid center. Still good.

Solar Mucilage 200M (O.I. Water, Theobromas) Our last course and palate cleanser (at least for me) was basically sun water. I thoroughly enjoyed the slightly sweet, acidic, salty, beverage while it wasn’t really anyone else’s favorite (more for me!). I never knew water could taste like that but is was weirdly addicting.

All in all we had a fantastic experience – which is exactly how I view these types of restaurants. You come for the food and are slapped in the face by the experience. The only thing I might change is to ask for a better lighting table next time. (…My eyebrows completely disappeared in the photo above because of the lighting – and it was a constant battle to not get shadows over my food pictures.)

Dream trip, dream food.

Green Chile Quinoa Burgers

Leave a comment June 2, 2016 SugarSpiceFitLife

In celebration of the Memorial Day holiday – although a week late, I have a burger recipe for you! Since I don’t eat beef, naturally it is a veggie burger and this time a quinoa veggie burger. And because I’ve been living in New Mexico for almost 4 years now, I thought it was high time to incorporate some green chiles into more of my recipes.

The quinoa burger is a revamp of a burger I first started making 5 years ago and although I call it a burger, it could be just as easily called a fritter or sorts because I hardly ever eat it on a bun – if it’s not a good bun, it just gets in the way of the deliciousness. Life is too short to waste it on anything less than quality food. (Forget the mass processed foods!)

Green Chile Quinoa Burger

Makes about 8-10 large burgers

Ingredients

2 rounded cups cooked quinoa (cooking instructions below)

3/4 c shredded cheddar cheese

2/3 c low-fat cottage cheese

3/4 c roasted, drained, diced green chiles

3 eggs

3 T all purpose flour

2 green onions, including white parts

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp garlic powder

Non-stick spray or olive oil

Directions

To cook quinoa:

1 cup uncooked quinoa

2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt

In a medium saucepan bring the 2 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil over high heat. Add quinoa and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 18-20 minutes, or until all water is absorbed and the seeds are tender. Allow to cool for a few minutes. I also regularly use a rice cooker for any whole grain such as quinoa, farro, or barley. Mine cost probably less than $20 and works great!

In a large bowl combine the cooked quinoa, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, green chile, eggs, flour, green onions, pepper, cumin, salt, and garlic powder.

Heat a frying pan and a couple teaspoons olive oil over medium-low heat. Mixture will be slightly sticky, so using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, drop mixture into pan and lightly flatten to 1/2 inch thick. Fry until golden-brown, about 4 minutes on each side.

*They really tend to fall apart, so don’t try to “form” them. To help them stay in patty form and not fall apart, cook them on med-low slowly so they have longer to set-up without burning. Makes them easier to flip, too.

For serving, I like to slice up a few tomatoes and avocado and match with your favorite burger spread.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins with Wheat Germ Streusel

Leave a comment May 25, 2016 SugarSpiceFitLife

Yes, another breakfast recipe – probably because being the most important meal it is my favorite meal. And I love muffins for their easy access on weekday mornings when I’m trying to get a quick bite before the gym at 5am… ok 5:15am.

Pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors and has been well before it categorized be as “basic”. Since my parents have raised pumpkins (and still sell them every fall) since I could crawl, I grew up with everything pumpkin and absolutely love winter squash. I would not be lying if I said I eat just a cup or 2 of squash for my lunch some days. Seriously, I probably have a problem and likely nearing Vitamin A toxicity with all the kale, spinach, and winter squash I inhale. And because I have the best mother in the world (does saying this make me your favorite daughter, Mom?), she packs up a duffle bag full of baked and frozen squash for me every Christmas to take back with me. These muffins are actually just remaking some pumpkin muffins she made first.

Typically when I list pumpkin in a recipe – especially for baking, I’ve likely actually used a kabocha winter squash. This means if you’re using squash as well you’ll probably have to add a little water to the batter so things aren’t as thick. I also wanted to “healthify” the streusel a bit so I subbed in some wheat germ for nuttiness and swapped out brown sugar for turbinado sugar for a little extra texture and crunch.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins with Wheat Germ Streusel

Makes 12-15 muffins

Ingredients

Streusel

2 T Turbinado or regular brown sugar
2 T whole wheat flower
2 T wheat germ
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 T melted butter

Cream Cheese Filling

8 oz Greek Style Cream Cheese
1/4 c powdered sugar
2 T honey

Muffin Batter

1/2 c sugar
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 c pumpkin puree, I used home roasted winter squash puree
2 eggs
1 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
Extra water if batter is too thick

Directions

Whip together cream cheese, honey and sugar very well. Use a mixer or food processor. When it is all combined, pop it back in the fridge to stay cold while you prep the rest of the muffins. Having this mixture as cool as possible will prevent the cream from melting away too much during baking. I like using a Greek style cream cheese because it doesn’t create pockets of air in your muffins where the filling once was.
For the muffin batter, mix the sugar, oil, pumpkin, and eggs together very well in a large mixing bowl. Then plop the flour, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves) on top of this blended wet mixture. Stir well to incorporate and fully mix everything together. If using less oil be careful not to over mix.
For the streusel, mix all the dry ingredients first, then stir in butter until combined and forms a nice crumbly texture.
Line muffin tins with paper cups, or lightly oil them. Spoon about 1-2 T of batter into the bottom of each muffin. Make sure this batter is spread thinly and evenly across the bottom of each muffin tin.
Next, distribute a spoonful (approx 1 T) of the cream cheese filling in each.
Finally, evenly distribute the remainder of the batter over the top of the cream cheese and sprinkle with streusel.
Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes. Let cool before you eating, unless you are ready to deal with a molten center.

These also freeze really well. If they last that long!

Happy baking!

Peru: Lima

Leave a comment May 20, 2016 SugarSpiceFitLife

Welcome to Lima, this very sunny, foggy/smoggy, 9 million bodied capital city of Peru on the Pacific Coast. We arrived here in the middle of the night our first night and were at once smacked in the face by the humidity and traffic. We spent one full day in Lime before our excursion to Cusco and then returned for another almost week. Our first day is not really worth mentioning as we spent most of the day trying to figure out our SIM card situation for our phones – very different than Europe or the US, and realizing just how lost we were with the language barrier.

While we made our way into a couple of the other more up scale neighborhoods of Lima (San Isidro and La Molina) we stayed in a fantastic AirBnB apartment in Miraflores. Not being as adventurous we did stick to primarily tourist or expat areas. One things I will note is that it was much hotter (mainly because of the 90% humidity) than I thought and there is definitely not AC everywhere – I was also battling on and off travelers illness. I definitely missed my dry desert climate.

The second week back we stayed nearer to the beach and lots of fantastic restaurants – two coming up, the current #4 and #14 restaurants in the world. We spent much of the week as we do most vacations walking around, exploring, all while waiting for the next meal.

Here are just some snaps of our time in Lima.

Parque Kennedy in Miraflores – also home to (likely) hundreds of feral cats that appear to be well fed and just lounge in the sun all day.

The typical breakfast – three classes of beverages (water, tea, and juice), some sort of egg, and bread or toast.

The central government square – Plaza de Armas. After which we also stopped at the catacombs (but no pictures were allowed).

The cutest coffee shop – Arabica, which we finally stopped in for a beverage our last day.

The best breakfast arepa (sandwich) at Arepa Cafe Miraflores. Owned by a very friendly Venezuelan guy who lived in Miami for a while previously.

Of course you can’t talk about Peru without mentioning the ceviche. I’m totally sold.

We had a fantastic seafood dinner at Alfresco.

After a walk along the beach we stopped in for milkshakes. Maybe not the best idea for someone with moderate lactose intolerance, but it was tasty.

A tremendous plate of meat from Rustica. And yes, those are chicken kidneys and hearts.

Our last lunch of the trip all together was spent at Amaz. Lots of good food that I probably can’t remember everything at this point. I do however remember being all fished out. I didn’t even know that could happen, but after so many meals from the sea I was ready for some land mammals.