Category — food

This is such a delicious (and easy) meal to prepare using a slow cooker.  I absolutely love Cuban food and this is the first Cuban recipe I’ve used / tweaked / updated that I feel I’ve mastered by now.

Ingredients :

• About 4-5 pounds of pork tenderloin or pork shoulder / leg
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 cups extra virgin olive oil
• 6-8 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup Red Wine
• 1 T oregano
• Optional : 1 Bottle of La Cubana brand Mojo de Ajo sauce (you can get this at Whole Foods)

Directions :

The night before – take pork and cut a few slits all over.  Take garlic pieces and put into slits.  Cover pork with olive oil.  Sprinkle oregano on both sides as well.  Add all juices and wine. Puree any leftover garlic and add to the mixture.  If you’d like, add in the bottle of Mojo de Ajo now.  Marinate overnight.

The next morning, dump mixture into a crock pot and cook on high, 8 hours or so.  When finished cooking, shred meat & mixture together, to look like this :

Usually, I serve this dish with a side of rice and black beans.  Sometimes I add a salad.  The last time I made this, though, I fried up some corn tortillas, threw in some of the pork and topped with avocadoes.  Seriously scrumptious.

Last year, I was asking an Indian girlfriend if she could teach me how to cook authentic Indian curries.  She replied, “Yes, of course – but Mama will be in town next week, why don’t you learn from the master?”  Oh happy day!  So – in a few hours, she taught me the basics of Indian seafood curries AND an insanely delicious recipe for baked samosas which I thought I’d share.

Ingredients

• ½ Cup Cooking Oil
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 package Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry Sheets
• 1 Medium Onion (diced)
• ¾ Cup Frozen Peas
• 1/3 cup of Cilantro (finely chopped)
• 3 T of equal parts fresh Garlic + Ginger Puree
• Asafoetida Powder
• Turmeric Powder
• Chili Powder
• Cinnamon
• Allspice
• Salt
• Garam Masala

Directions

Thaw package of Puff Pastry (usually 40 minutes)

Preheat oven to 400F

In a skillet on medium-high heat, add cooking oil plus 2 pinches of asafoetida powder.  Add ginger / garlic puree.  Saute for a minute or two.  Add ground turkey and cook through.  Add peas to the ground turkey mixture.  If the skillet seems to be getting really “dry” – feel free to add bits of oil throughout.

Next, we’ll start adding the Indian spices.  Start with two pinches of turmeric.  Mix thoroughly with a spatula.  Follow this with two pinches of chili powder (note – if you want it spicier, add more).  Next add two pinches of garam masala.  Add a pinch each of cinnamon and allspice.  Mix well.  Add a tsp of salt.  Lastly, add in the chopped cilantro.  The samosa filling is complete and will look like this in the skillet :

Remove the two sheets of Puff Pastry and cut into 9 equal square pieces.  Place a spoonful of the samosa filling in the middle of a square and fold over the top end to meet the bottom, so you have a triangle shape.  Continue to stuff as much filling as will fit into each square :

Bake for 10 minutes and then flip each samosa over.  Bake for 10 minutes more.  Enjoy!

I certainly don’t want to say this too loudly, but watching snippets of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and seeing him on Oprah made me almost RELIEVED that peanut has so many food allergies.  Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t eat ONE item they were showcasing in the school cafeterias on the show.

As one of 5 siblings in my family growing up, my parents were always frugal.  We rarely went out to eat and my mother always packed a lunch for us.  I was often embarrassed by my whole wheat sandwich and fruit because I wanted to be like everyone else.  We longed for the processed cafeteria lunches : salisbury steak, chicken nuggets or soggy pizza.  And oh how we craved WHITE bread sandwiches with bologna and Velveeta that our friends were eating.

Of course I appreciate my homemade lunch upbringing now and hope to instill the same consciousness around food and health in my own family.

Nowadays, this is what I crave :

Birthday parties are hard when you have a child with a lot of food allergies.  Most kid parties include “kid friendly food” such as pizza, macaroni & cheese, chicken nuggets and THEN the cake and ice cream.  Peanut is allergic to every single one of those items (in their most popular and original forms, that is).  I usually pack a lunch (rice pasta with chicken! veggie stir fry! quinoa and fish!) and bring along a “special” cupcake that I’ve made ahead of time at home or one that I’ve purchased from The Sensitive Baker.

BUT, as excited as Peanut is about her cupcake, she’s also starting to realize that she’s not eating what the other kids are eating.  She’s not doing what the other kids are doing.  I know it’s going to be her journey for awhile (fingers crossed she outgrows these allergies), but as a Mom, I always want my little one to feel as included as possible.

This weekend, we made it possible!  It was my niece’s 3^rd birthday and we hosted a little party here, so I volunteered to make the cake.  It’s a gluten free vegan cake that Peanut can eat as well.  I’m so excited that I found some easy cake + frosting mixes from Cherrybrook Kitchen.   (I used rice milk and smart balance to avoid any dairy additions).

AND … please do not laugh at the finished product.  A baker, I am NOT.  But – voila!  Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free!  Peanut was so happy, and that’s what warms my Mama heart.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new movement called Meatless Monday. The name says it all; the idea being that you refrain from eating meat one day a week (Monday) in an effort to boost not only your personal health, but the health of our planet as well.

I recently went on a strict vegan diet for 3 weeks. I felt healthy and good, but I realized that it’s not a lifestyle I am ready to embrace full time. One day a week, though? Completely and totally do-able. I’m happy to take the Meatless Monday pledge! Join the movement with me.

Tonight’s dinner? A big pot o’ LENTIL soup!

In a pot, heat up some olive oil and crushed garlic. Add in chopped onion, celery & carrot. Pour 32-64 fl oz of organic veggie stock into the mix. Add in about a pound of dry lentils. Simmer on medium low for about 2 hours. Add salt & pepper to taste. Delicious!

If I’m not making my own burgers at home (turkey, veggie or otherwise), then I’m going to STOUT (in Hollywood) for their amazing and delectable selection of burgers (beef, chicken & veggie options). I’m a little biased – my homeboy from college, Alex Kagianaris, co-owns the joint. But when it comes to food, my taste buds do not LIE! And the food? Is ridiculously YUM.

Last night I opted for the Cali Fresh (veggie + arugula + avocado) and left off the cheese. It’s a quinoa and black bean veggie burger that left me VERY satisfied. Hubby happily noshed on the famous Stout burger (blue cheese + rosemary bacon + emi gruyere + caramelized onions + horseradish cream). Seriously – is your mouth watering yet?

Just look at our meal :

Full menu and more info can be found here :

http://stoutburgersandbeers.com/

Some perks? Open until 4am. Brewery in-house. Including gluten-free beer! Happy, helpful staff. And really, just delicious and simple food.

If you know me, you understand my unabashed LOVE for all things food. I *live* for food. I think about it all the time. I plan my weekly menus ahead of time and make trips to Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Marina Farms a few times a week to get the freshest ingredients. When I plan a rare dinner out with hubby and / or friends, I scour the menu ahead of time online and read Yelp reviews religiously. I don’t want to waste my “meal” on something mediocre.

If you know me, you also know that I eat pretty much everything. Aside from a random food allergy to chicken (which I just discovered about 5 years ago) and not-so-fun side effects from eating dairy, I eat it and love it all. This includes a lot of meat. It’s rare that I let a day go by without eating some type of animal product, whether it’s an egg scramble, Korean short ribs, Carnitas Tacos or Turkey Burgers.

Lately though, I’ve been feeling a bit STUFFED, for lack of a better word. Maybe it’s the holidays or maybe it was the indulgence of last Sunday’s Super Bowl calorie fest. Either way, I made an appointment to see Dr. C, who has been my acupuncturist for years and years. She suggested that I give up animal products for a few weeks and see how it goes.

I am now on Day #4. So far, so good. I’ve been eating a lot of fresh veggies and tofu so far. I actually LOVE eating vegan meals but I also LOVE eating meals with meat. So anyway, we’ll see how long I can last. Any fun recipes to share?

We recently moved to Playa Vista, which is a fun family community in Los Angeles nestled in the foothills of Loyola Marymount University. It has amazing playgrounds, a library, parks, a Saturday farmer’s market, and fun retail shops (yummy.com and pinkberry, to name a few).

The most exciting part about moving to Playa Vista, though, is that we are now only 6 minutes away from a Trader Joe’s!! In fact, it was the first store that Peanut called by name. It is my go to market and responsible for many MANY meals in the Lovell household.

Tonight’s Trader Joe’s menu? Broccoli Soup, Garlic Bread & Mixed Greens. Some of the ingredients I used included : fresh garlic, goat cheese w/ herbs, frozen broccoli, organic vegetable broth, Trader Joe’s infamous mirepoix (chopped onion, celery & carrots), kalamata olive bread, spring mix and more.

I’ll save the garlic bread recipe for another day, but here’s the broccoli soup recipe. BLove gave it a thumbs up. Success!

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Goat Cheese Log w/ Herbs

16 oz. frozen broccoli florets

1 container of Mirepoix

Fresh Garlic, pureed w/ a mini processor or garlic press

1 Carton Organic Veggie Broth

Directions:

In a pot, set temp to med-high (I use this one : link to Demeyere pot). Throw in about 2-3T of olive oil. Add in about 3T of pureed garlic. Let sizzle for a minute (but don’t let burn).

Throw in entire container of Trader Joe’s Mirepoix mix. Saute a bit.

Turn up heat, pour in one container of organic vegetable broth.

Throw in 16 oz bag of frozen broccoli florets.

Put lid on and keep at medium heat for about 30 minutes. You can simmer at a lower temperature for longer as well.

Check soup and make sure broccoli is softened. Add in about half of the goat cheese / herb packet. Add in crumbles.

Simmer a bit more.  The soup will now look like this :

Pour soup into blender (will probably have to repeat this process a few times since the whole pot won’t fit into the blender at once), puree.

Pour back into pot to warm.

Add salt & pepper to taste.

Serve with garlic bread & mixed greens salad for a whole meal OR use as a starter to a bigger meal.

Enjoy!