It’s been a while…

Much has happened since last time I posted. I’ve changed jobs, I’ve expanded my family, I’ve grown older, I’ve lost loved ones, I’ve been lost, been found and been lost again. What a rollercoaster of life it has been. The universe granted me the opportunity to bring into the world another human being, the little tornado that is my son, Matteo. I’ve definitely been busier than I’ve ever been before. I’ve definitely felt so much more overwhelmed than I’ve ever felt before. I’ve debated coming back to this platform many times and thought what would I write about, what am I about now, what has changed or stayed the same? Where do we connect, you and I? What do I need in my life now, the mom (in her 40’s) of an almost 3-year-old and a 12-year-old? My purpose feels disconnected at times.

When I started this, I wanted it to be about food mostly. I come back to this a different person, with different needs but still hold those things that bring me comfort. So, while food plays a continued role of comfort and connection to those who I love, this will definitely be a source or an outlet for me (and hopefully you) to share all the things that make life what it is, complex, difficult, overwhelming, exhausting, sad, happy, joyous, chaotic, demanding, and delicious. What is your outlet? How do you breathe and what brings you joy? I ask myself these questions a lot lately, what brings me joy? Let’s find out together.

Hummus Afternoon Delight!

So I had tried hummus a while back & thought it was absolutely revolting! I’m not a fan of chickpeas & neither is my husband HOWEVER since we are giving our bodies a reboot & trying to be healthier…..we decided to give it another go….

OMG the hummus obsession! I don’t know if we just had a bad one that time or what but this time we are absolutely crazy about it! Even my 2 year old is loving her some hummus! We bought the Sabra kind that comes in individual containers for snacking. So here’s a little hummus lunch (it can be a snack too) creation I made for myself:

Whole wheat bread- 1 slice
Hummus- 1 or 2 Tbsp
Few slices of tomato
Few slices of cucumber
Fat free feta cheese- .5 oz
Salt/pepper to taste

Toast the bread, smear on the hummus, add tomato slices, add cucumber slices, sprinkle feta, sprinkle salt/pepper & yummy! So satisfying! Loving this hummus stuff!
Please share any ideas for hummus creations!

Healthy easy breakfast

Just had to share this easy breakfast real quick….love looking for easy tasty healthy recipes especially to share with my little one! This is from cooking light magazine (one of my fav sources)…

Quinoa 3/4 cup cooked
1/4 cup reduced fat buttermilk
1/2 cup strawberries
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons toasted almonds

Heat up the quinoa with the buttermilk in microwave 45 secs

Add honey, almonds and strawberries on top & enjoy!

So easy & my two year old enjoyed it too!

A little nugget goes a long way!

Crack, crack goes the eggs, clink clink clink goes the fork that scrambles the eggs, crunch crunch crunch goes the pepper mill…then perhaps you hear a shuffle of a veggie and a chop chop and of course you hear a sizzle when things hit the pans to cook! Love it! Love breakfast time, it is truly deep down one of my favorite meals! We could dedicate blogs and blogs to eggs alone let alone breakfast! 

I remember being woken up by my Aunt Emma in Colombia, ever so gently she’d sit down at the edge of my bed and she’d brush the hair out of my face as she’d say “Mi Reina, mi vida, levantase a comer desayuno” which translates to “My Queen, My Life wake up to eat breakfast”. Such a sweet memory I’ll always have of her. Breakfast here is somewhat different from a breakfast in Colombia of course from taste to selections. The produce there is of course so different in taste and freshness! Here, a good example of american breakfast might be 2 eggs, bacon, toast & home fries (YUM by the way). In Colombia, it might be eggs scrambled with tomato & scallion with an arepa (its usually made of white corn or yellow corn, looks like thick tortilla) & white cheese (very specific cheese) on the side…oh and don’t forget a nice hot chocolate (again very different hot chocolate than you are probably imagining). Its just simply mmmm mmmm Yummy!!!  Now that I’ve probably enticed you for a Colombian breakfast, I’m gonna share a yummy breakfast I made this morning which has nothing to do with Colombia at all…lol, sorry! I just like to experiment so I just whipped up something real quick with whatever I had…lol, hope you enjoy!

 

“Scrambled Nuggets”

 

 

2 Eggs 

Splash of Milk

Sprinkle of Salt

Sprinkle of Pepper

1 scallion chopped

2 tablespoon cilantro chopped

4 Chicken Nuggets (your fav brand, mine is the Dino ones, lol)

1 Whole Wheat tortilla (I use Chi-Chi’s brand)

 

Scramble the eggs, milk, salt, pepper with a fork in a small bowl. Pour mixture into skillet (which has been sprayed with a little pam) and add chopped cilantro & scallion. While egg is cooking, bake chicken nuggets in toaster oven and heat up the tortilla on the stove over the fire (if you have gas) or in a skillet.

Arrange Egg on top of tortilla and lastly chicken nuggets on top! Eat it like a giant breakfast taco and add a condiment  if you like!

What did you make or eat for breakfast this morning?

Enjoy everyone & have a great day!

 

Sources: consideringcolombia.blogspot.com, mycolombianrecipes.com, wikipedia

Whats for Lent?

 

 

One of my favorite things about Lent is “no meat Fridays” (lol). Don’t get me wrong, I am very much a die hard meat eater! I am that person that is more likely to order a nice NY strip than chicken any day! Side-note: must dedicate a post (or a few) to steaks everywhere! Getting back to lent now…so every year during the Lent season I have made it a point to spend every Friday with my parents, it has turned into sort of a tradition I guess. My mother and I definitly enjoy some good seafood and my dad not so much but interestingly enough, he actually is the one to cook for us every friday during the lent season and boy do I look forward to fridays during lent! This is one of my favorite dishes by my very own dad! The dish is filled with seared scallops, mussels, cockles & sometimes even some little neck clams and shrimp for added yum. He adds sea salt, freshly cracked pepper, crushed tomato, garlic, lemon and some delicious white wine. Lets not forget some freshly sliced baguette brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt & toasted for that perfect crunch and for dipping into the delicious broth of course! 

 

Ideas for Lent? 😉

Oats & Fruits & Nuts, Oh My!

One of my favorite things to eat is oatmeal and its so good for you too! Now that my daughter is one, the fun begins and I can experiment with all the different foods! Love seeing her reaction to different tastes & textures! Here’s a quick and simple oatmeal dish I made for us just the other morning! (She loved it by the way!)

Fruity Nutty Oatmeal

Raw Oats

Sliced Bananas (or you can put blueberries, raspberries or any fruit you’d like)

Little Brown Sugar (or honey)

Golden Yellow Raisins

Crushed Almonds

Dash of Cinnamon 

Milk (I like mine creamy)

Let it simmer for like 5-7 mins on low heat so it doesn’t stick and let the yummy goodness begin!

How do you enjoy your oatmeal ? 😉

Comfort Food Weekend!

Comfort Food Weekend!

Talking about “comfort food” in my last post….Comfort Food Weekend is coming up on Food Network, check it out! Lots of great recipes and/or ideas! Perhaps I should make a comfort food this weekend….hmmmmm, what to make? 😉 Enjoy!

Love me some Sudado!

Who doesn’t love some “comfort” food right? What is comfort food? To most people they think comfort food and link it to southern food or a hearty meal. I think comfort food and it could mean a hot dog with bacon, mustard & relish! lol, why not?!

Comfort food is just that…comforting to one, like food therapy, lol. So my favorite Uncle Eddie comes to visit for a few days and loves to cook right (in case you didn’t know my family background is Colombian) and last night he says “what do we have to eat?” I said “not really much left but some chicken, potatoes, yucca root, carrots and leftover rice from last night”…

So at first he suggests some $5.00 hot-n-ready pizza from Lil Cesar’s and some dessert from our local bakery (mmmm) and I was ok with that at the moment….then he says “Or I could make a sudado” ….Of course I jumped up at the offer of one my favorite Colombian meals!! $5.00 pizza was no competition to that at all!!!

So “sudado” basically translates to the method in which the food is cooked, the food is cooked basically by “sweating”. You can pretty much use the meat you’d like or mix it up…chicken, beef, pork (wouldn’t really recommend fish or anything that could fall apart easily). You could also opt out of meat if you’re not into meat, the veggies taste good all alone too! One of the key ingredients to making this taste as it should is called “Trigisar”, you can get it at Compare Foods, C-Town or any ethnic supermarket. To me a sudado wouldn’t be the same without Yucca root, it could go without potatoes but its an option. Needs olive oil, lemon to soften the meat, pepper,cilantro, tomato (a good amount) and some water (for the sweating). Now you can serve it up with the traditional “arepa” (which shall be another post in the future) or some white rice (I know what you’re all thinking rice, potatoes, yucca root! Oh my!) or both! Its a hearty meal so def leave room in your tummy for the occasion!! =) Thanks Uncle Eddie, you are always welcome to come cook for us!! 😉

This is just one for me but its so delicious, reminds me of my Mamita (grandma). In Colombia, this would be the main meal of the day which would actually be lunch not dinner. This is def a meal thats good for the soul!!

There are so many foods that equal “comfort” to each of us so whats one of yours?

Coffee Anyone?

Has anyone thought about the amount of work that goes into our delightful coffee beans?! Its really quite beautiful to me. I remember seeing them basking in the sun when I was visiting Colombia as a child. I asked what that was all about and I was given a short lesson about how the beans are hand picked, hand cleaned and laid out to dry in the sun for periods of time…I just thought it was incredible and as a child I was fascinated.

So I myself am a daily coffee drinker, I don’t discriminate I’ll try them all! 😉 I’ve had coffee from a gas station thats tasted better than Starbucks! Right now I’m drinking “Chock Full O Nuts”-Original. I tend to prefer a nuttier, medium roast or a roast with a winey note but like I said I will give them all a shot! I used to have a Keurig, but it broke and to be quite honest don’t really think I’ll miss it! So in its place I have an old fashioned percolator that I bought for $5.00 from one of my grandmothers friends at a tag sale. Best deal ever! Thinking about getting a Nespresso machine because I love the coffee flavors!!! (My mom has one)

I love me some Colombian coffee (and not because thats my nationality lol), however a nice cup from Brazil or India sounds pretty good too….what kind of coffee do you like? how do you take your coffee? I myself take it with half & half and brown sugar! I’ll take suggestions for coffee? Coffee machines?? Or just general thoughts on coffee are welcome!

Have a great day!

What I’m trying to do here…

Perhaps I’m like the millions of people trying to make themselves known but so be it…this blog will be about my daily food encounters such as I went to this restaurant and the chicken parm was amazing or I had the best gelato at this place in Italy…not only will it be food critiquing but I will talk about what I made for dinner or maybe a great recipe I found somewhere!! Maybe I’ll talk about what my daughter Sofia ate, who knows…I’m no expert chef or anything but there are many food things to discuss and many people out there would agree with me! So lets join food forces and discuss!

I’m also into photography…again not an expert by any means but would like to be and am slowly learning! So perhaps you’ll see I’ll discuss a pic or take a pic and share it with the world! Like for instance I like taking pics of doors and windows…weird right but there are so many different styles and some can be actually quite beautiful especially in Europe (but there’s a lot of beautiful everything in Europe)

Really, just looking to learn, share, discuss, be creative! 😉