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Random Food and Wine Chatter

May 23, 2010 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 9 comments

Have a good Saturday? I hope so! I certainly did. It involved sleeping late, Mad Hectic overnight oats, dog walking at the MSPCA, lunch at Bukhara with an old friend, shopping at Trader Joe’s and Prosecco on the deck. Not too bad for a hot and sunny day, no?

Today I am up on the Cape in Truro attending the Coastal Wine Trail Kickoff event. I love local wine, and I have literally been looking forward to this event since last year.

So today’s post involves a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I hope you don’t mind 😉

First, a favorite, refreshing summer thirst quencher, strawberry-lemon water. Not lemonade, this spa-like drink is literally a pitcher of ice water with slices of strawberries and lemon. The flavors infuse the water, and then you get to eat the strawberries at the end. This is also delicious with cucumbers and lemons. Water infused with some natural flavor is a summer must-have in our house.

Speaking of summer beverages, I have so many summer wine recommendations that I thought the weekend before Memorial Day would be a perfect time to get started. There was of course my Duca del Frassino boxed wine from Wednesday’s post. I stand by my post in that I think that this is a perfect wine for your Memorial Day barbeque.

If you are looking for a good red that goes well with barbequed meats and the like, I love Zinfandel. I am a red wine drinker year round, and Zinfandels offer that ripe, jammy, fruit forward flavor that has some good body but is still light enough to have with summer dinner. My favorite Zinfandel is from Zichichi Vineyards in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma.

Here’s a not so great photo from our last visit to Zichichi. It is a great winery to visit if you are ever in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma. I don’t think Zichichi wines are available outside their winery, but I also like Rodney Strong Knotty Vine Zinfandel and DeLoach Forgotten Vine Zinfandel.

I also just discovered a value Prosecco, Villa Carlotti Prosecco, at Trader Joe’s last weekend. Yay for free samples! This Prosecco is about $5 a bottle, and while it is certainly no Veuve Cliquot, it is a yummy bubbly that pairs perfectly with chopped strawberries. It would be perfect for a girls’ night in or a summer brunch.

I have a bazillion other wine recommendations for summer wines, but I will spare you constant wine chatter. . . for now.

Back to food.

As I mentioned in Friday’s post, part of the Healthworks Blogger Bash swag bag of magic was a bag of Mad Hectic oatmeal, something I have seen around the blog world, and I was SO excited to try it. I am JUST back from an oatmeal hiatus. I really overdid it last year and couldn’t look at oatmeal for awhile! But right now I am loving cool, overnight oats. I mixed about 1/2 cup of my regular oats and grains with this Mad Hectic almond pecan oats mix, soaked it all in some organic milk, and the next morning had overnight oat perfection, which I topped with cacao nibs.

I love the flavor that the Mad Hectic oats brings to the mix! It was nutty and a little like butterscotch! Really yummy, and 840 mg Omega-3 per serving doesn’t hurt either! This kept me filled up through dog walking, all the way to lunch at Bukhara, and I am rarely full. Overnight oats it is!

Finally, I present you with last night’s dinner. We thought about going out, but decided that Prosecco and strawberries went quite well with veggie burgers on “British Muffins” (Trader Joe’s name for them!) and salad topped with tomatoes sauteed in reduced balsamic. Sometimes a relaxing night at home is what a blogger needs.

After the Coastal Wine Trail kickoff, my night will be devoted to the final episode of Lost.

Who’s with me? What do you think will happen, or what do you want to happen?

Tags: easy meals, Food, oats, prosecco, salad, Sonoma, summer, veggie burgers, wine, Zichichi, Zinfandel

Strawberry Salad

May 2, 2010 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 13 comments

This is a weeknight recipe that is too good NOT to write about. Earlier in the week I bought a huge tub of strawberries at Trader Joe’s, and I wanted to make sure we ate every single one before any mold started to grow! I HATE when produce, and especially expensive produce, goes bad before my eyes! In addition to eating the strawberries on their own and in a few smoothies, I threw together this healthy, bright, and delicious salad one night after work. The most difficult part was remembering to marinate the chicken strips in balsamic about an hour before I cooked them.

The ingredients:

1 bag organic baby spinach

2 cups chopped strawberries

1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, reduced until syrupy

organic chicken tenders (I cooked 6, 2 for me and 4 for my husband)

While I plated the spinach, strawberries, and goat cheese, I had a small pan full of the balsamic simmering until it reduced down to a sweet and syrupy dressing for the salad. Just keep an eye on it to make sure that it doesn’t reduce too far, or you will have a sticky, burnt pan!

I added a healthy grind of fresh black pepper to this salad as well. There is just something amazing about the combination of black pepper and strawberries. Mmm. . . a black pepper and strawberry sorbet would be a lovely summer treat!

We used our battered and beaten George Foreman grill, which I have had for 8 years, to grill the chicken indoors. It was a delicious topping for the salad with its slightly sweet, balsamic glaze. Once the salad was constructed, I drizzled a little of the reduced balsamic over everything. Reduced balsamic + goat cheese= heaven.

This salad paired well with, you guessed it, Travessia Rosé. You will be seeing a lot of this wine over the summer 🙂

The Eating from Home Challenge was pretty easy when it came to dinner, especially because of meals like this one. I did learn a few things from the challenge that I think will help me moving forward:

1) Having a desk filled with ample work snacks is key. I work in a building with several takeout restaurants and cafes, and when hunger strikes it is too easy to go buy something. During the challenge I did not allow myself to buy anything, and I ended up pretty hungry most afternoons!

2) Buying treats throughout the week, like an iced latte or a scone, is okay as long as it is within reason. On most normal weeks (not the post-marathon week!) I buy one latte a week and usually also buy lunch once a week. These little splurges help to break up the monotony of the work week and give me a little something to look forward to!

3) This challenge, and especially not being able to go out and buy what I wanted because I was restricting myself, reminded me how lucky I am and that many people really have to spend the afternoon or evening or all day hungry.

I am not huge on doing all sorts of challenges, but I think once in awhile it definitely is nice to check in with yourself to see where you can be doing better!

This week, I will be working on a few recipes to pair with some wines that I was sent last week. I am really excited about this and can’t wait to get shopping! Also up this week, a wine dinner at Ten Tables and a Bordeaux wine tasting.

AND my gym, Healthworks Fitness, is having an event called Shape Day on Saturday, May 8:

SHAPE Day is Saturday, May 8! For a $20 donation you can take a special BURN or Master Class – all money raised will be donated to the Healthworks Foundation, helping women and children in our communities! http://www.healthworksfitness.com/company/shapeday.php

I love the idea of the Healthworks Foundation. Many of us know how empowering fitness and health can be to women, and I support anything that helps women and girls to learn about empowering themselves! I actually thought a lot about that as I ran the Boston Marathon, high fiving little girls along the way. If you are in the area, definitely check out Shape Day!

What are your meal plans for the week? Anything new on the menu?

Tags: easy recipe, Food, healthy recipe, recipe, salad, summer recipe

I Cheated

April 28, 2010 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 11 comments

That’s right. On the first day of my Eat from Home Challenge, I cheated. The day started out well. Since I was working from home, I had a big old spinach and strawberry smoothie for breakfast along with lashings of Lyon’s tea as my sore throat from last week has turned into a full on chest cold.

Lunch was the best salad ever, a mixing bowl filled with an entire heart of romaine, an entire avocado, a sprinkle of crumbled blue cheese, 15 grape tomatoes, 4 pieces of Morningstar veggie bacon, and an English cucumber. Topped with Frank’s hot sauce, this was enough to full me up until the Morton’s event which was close to 5 hours later.

All was well. The Morton’s event was something I was invited to as a blogger, so it did not count in the challenge. But what I had for dinner did. Yes my friends, I ate takeout, BUT it’s not my fault! My friend was visiting from Western MA, and she offered to bring me Bueno y Sano, which from this post you know is the food that got me through college. I had 2 bean soft tacos, wicked hot, with yogurt, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and cilantro. And I dipped them in burn your face off homemade hot sauce which actually burned my skin! But it tasted soooo good! I am a Bueno y Sano addict, and since I only have it a few times a year, I cheated and jumped at the chance!

I am back on track and on Tuesday enjoyed a Fage Greek yogurt with honey, another giant best salad ever, and some almonds at the office. Since I was forbidden from buying snacks, I also had 2 free office hot chocolates because I was pretty hungry! Tuesday’s dinner was a delicious Mediterranean dish that I will be posting as part of Oldways’ Mediterranean Month. And I have lots more planned for the week including a yogurt marinated chicken.

And since it is Wine Wednesday, a wine review of a bottle I just picked up, a Sicilian red made from the Nerello Mascarese grape. This bold and slightly spicy wine had a hint of very ripe fruit and a nose that reminded me a little of that sweet, dry leaf smell of autumn. This is the 3rd Sicilian wine that I have purchased lately, and I love the spice and warmth in these reds. Add another grape to my count!