~ Namaste ~

Archive for the ‘Easy Recipes’ Category

First off – Thank you for your honest and encouraging comments on my post about the ideal size and slenderness last Friday. It’s quite amazing how many people share some of the same thoughts, and I appreciate everyone opening up. I’m certainly going to read through those comments when I need a lift

I spent the weekend soaking up my free time, practicing a different kind of yoga than the physical stuff I spoke of on Friday. This past week was crazy, so I practiced just relaxing and enjoying ever second of the weekend.

I’m still shocked, however, that it’s Sunday. Yet again. Doesn’t it seem like it’s always Sunday!? I feel like I’m constantly ending one week and starting another. And is it seriously the second week of March already!? Time really does fly when you’re having fun.

There was a cold front in Paris this weekend, but it’s a different kind of cold than the frigid, unbearable weather we had in January. The temps were only in the upper 20’s and low 30’s all weekend, but it was a-okay with me. The sky was a gorgeous shade of blue, and the air was crisp, making hints that Spring is just around the corner.

I went all over Paris on foot yesterday starting early at our market, then heading to see some sites in the afternoon. First stop – Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. I actually ran into one of my classmates when I walked into the cemetery – of all the places in the city we both chose Père-Lachaise to visit at the exact same time. Go figure!

I decided to stroll through on my own though, taking myself on a date with my camera as I often like to do.

I wandered around with no direction in mind really – didn’t even get a chance stop by to pay my respects to Oscar Wilde or Jim Morisson. Don’t worry, I’ll pay them a visit soon!

I headed to the metro after a little over an hour there, and what do you know – my friend was leaving at the exact same time. Seriously small world.

I had plans to had to Montmartre…and so did she! Weird! I was headed up to meet up with my roommate, so we took the metro there together. I spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around the area, eventually running into this establishment. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?

(Clearly I have some tiny specks inside my camera – it’s in the camera body, as the specks are there with any lens I put on it…any ideas? I’ve tried cleaning it, but alas, the specks remain)

As much as I’d like to attend a show there, I think I’m gonna have to stick to window shopping on this one. It’s $150 a pop at the Moulin Rouge. Yikes!

Around 4:00pm or so we decided to head to Trocadero, mostly because we saw a bus that said Trocadero on the front and can never resist a gorgeous view of la Tour Eiffel. Why not!?

We never actually made it to Trocadero, however, and found ourselves  distracted by a park that I can’t remember the name of, and eventually at the Arc de Triomphe. 

Paris in a day? Well, we sure did try!

We wandered down the Champs-Elysees until we found a metro stop, then made our way home to rest for a bit before dinner. I had plans to meet up with another friend at a little French restaurant (where I ate the most delicious salad – imitation recipe to come soon!) so after stopping to refresh at home for a minute, I headed right back out run a couple errands before dinner. I picked up a package at school (Thanks for the coffee Mom and Dad!), and stopped to buy some almond butter since mine is nearing it’s end.

Well, dinner turned into a 2 hour event followed by drinks at a piano bar, box full of coffee and almond butter jar in hand.

Normal. Totally normal. Nothin’ like a little almond butter to go with red wine and jazzy renditions of everything from Edith Piaf’s Je Ne Regrette Rien, to Britney Spears’ Toxic.  Good times.

It was such a nice day to spend wandering around, not thinking about school and just soaking up my free time doing whatever came up. Today has been really low key in comparison to yesterday’s adventures – a trip to the Salon de l’Agriculture (stay tuned!), homework, and 21 euros worth of laundry. Gotta love the laundry here.

I took some time to make a delicious dinner tonight given the slow pace of Sunday. Everything I’ve cooked lately is really simple. We don’t have many spices here, even though I keep meaning to go pick some up. Even our cooking utensils are simple – we don’t have a single measuring cup so we make do with what we’ve got.  Like tonight – quinoa measured in a leftover yogurt container.

1 yogurt cup dry quinoa, 2 yogurt cups water. Simple.

Along with my quinoa I made a Bok Choy, Red Bell Pepper and Onion Stir-Fry. So good it deserves capital letters.

Once the onions and peppers cooked down a bit, I added the bok choy and a little bit of soy sauce and sriracha. I purposely made extra so I could have lunch tomorrow since the week is going to get crazy again.

Once the veggies had cooked, I moved half of them to a container for tomorrow, and added some rotisserie chicken (see my post Everyday Pantry Staples for more details) to the pan with the remaining veggies for a little protein action.

Et voila!

I’ve really been loving simple and healthy dinners like this lately. I bought vegetables at the market yesterday with no real ideas in mind and it’s always fun to create something with what I have on hand.

I’ve only ever cooked with bok choy one other time and I’m really liking it. There’s a dish back home with soba noodles, bell peppers, bok choy, mushrooms and other veggies in a miso broth topped with salmon at one of my favorite restaurants… I’m thinking I’m going to have to try to replicate that with a gluten free version soon now that I’m learning to cook with bok choy. Perhaps a trip to the Asian district is in order!

Well, I’m off to enjoy the rest of this Sunday evening – the very little bit that’s left. No worries – I’m certain it will be Sunday again before I know it. I’m especially excited about the next one…Spring Break! I can taste it now…

Question: Have you cooked with any new ingredients lately? Do you ever pick out ingredients you’ve never cooked with…just to see what happens?

I have to start thinking of my next new to me ingredient… So many vegetables and not enough time!

Have a good one!

I mentioned yesterday that we started an intensive module class this week. Two weeks of  Global Communications everyday from 10:00am to 6:00pm with other visits in addition.

Like this morning, for example… We were going to a conference at Cephalon Pharmaceuticals European headquarters and had to leave the house at 8:30am to arrive on time. This is after being at Le Cordon Bleu last night until past 9:00pm, doing our reading and other homework for today, and trying to get a good night’s sleep before waking up bright and early this morning.

Needless to say it’s been a busy week so far. The visits are all great and class is really interesting, but I was so thankful to have my afternoon free today. I finally got home around 3:00pm this afternoon, and wanted nothing more than to just do something for fun.

I thought I might want to hop on my yoga mat for a little, but I was just too tired. I’m trying this new thing where I actually listen to my body when it’s too tired. You know, like not pushing it when it’s begging me to just chill. Interesting concept, yes? Sarcasm.

Anyway. Taking a cue from my tired bod, I headed to my favorite room in any house – the kitchen.

Lately I’ve been craving granola. I make it all the time back home, but without an oven I haven’t even tried.

Until today.

Stove Top Granola

Since I don’t have a single measuring cup in Paris, this is really more of a method rather than a recipe. It was really easy to make and took all of 15 minutes, so I think it will come in handy even if you do have an oven back home – it’s super quick, and you only dirty up one pan making clean up very easy. Most importantly, it’s delicious.

First, I toasted the oats (maybe about 1.5 to 2 cups) in a dry pan on the stove. And of course by stove, I mean hot plate.

I turned the heat up to medium-high and stirred the oats constantly until they browned.

Next up – Honey. And Butter.  Trust me. Butter makes everything better.

I let the butter and honey (maybe about 1tbspn each) melt together in the pan, then added cinnamon, salt, almonds and walnuts. I added the nuts whole, mostly because I don’t have a knife to chop them (gotta love my tiny Parisian kitchen). They would be great chopped too and you could use any nuts you have on hand, or whichever ones you like.

Stop lookin’ at me like I’m nuts. Get it? Granola humor! Enough jokes. Back to the granola…and I’m not referring to myself!

Ok this time, I’m really done.

Once that had all toasted for a bit (maybe 5 minutes), I added the toasted oats back in the pan and let them all mix together.

The oats soaked up the remaining butter and honey and the granola dried out really well making it very crunchy.

I decided to stir in some coconut flakes once it had cooled for a few minutes…

Mmm. I’ve missed my homemade granola, and felt so cozy and happy this afternoon, munching on fresh granola with fromage frais, soaking up my free afternoon, and basking in the glorious smell of cinnamon, honey and butter that lingered in the house after I made it.

You could really make this granola with anything you like in it – dried pineapple would have been great with the coconut in this recipe. Any dried fruit and any nut you like would work great.

Well, this nut is back to the books. Have a good Wednesday!

I woke up yesterday morning with that dreaded “tickle” in the back of my throat. You know the one – It’s subtle, but it’s never a good sign of good things to come. After cursing the sick people roaming around Paris spreading their germs I headed straight to the kitchen to chug some Vitamin C, make some tea, and say my prayers in hopes of keeping the tickle at just that.

I went to bed super early last night, fingers crossed that I’d wake up without the headache and earache that had slowly been developing over the course of yesterday but alas, I awoke this morning to a pounding headache, itchy eyes, pressure in my ears, and a throat that feels like it’s been massaged with sandpaper. Awesome.

Of course we all want the comforts of home when we aren’t feeling well, and since the comforts of home are several thousand miles away right now for me, I went with the next best thing.

Soup. But not just any soup. This is special soup and deserves a special name. I think I’ll call this “I’m Really Far From Home, Not Feeling Too Well, Want Soup But Am Too Sick To Make Soup” Soup. Kind of has a ring to it, dontchya think?

So. Here’s how you make soup, when you’re too sick to make soup.

First, you find whatever veggies you have in the fridge – I happened to have a little bit of broccoli that needed to be eaten, but any kind of leftover veggies or uncooked veggies you have on hand would work wonderfully. Then, put it in a pot with some pre-prepared soup of your choice. I happened to have a box of pumpkin soup from the supermarket here, but I know at home (and by home I mean in the US) they have tons of boxed soups like butternut squash, roasted bell pepper, yada yada yada. As much as I don’t like pre-packaged stuff like this, I’m willing to suppress my inner food snob and do what’s easiest when I’m under the weather. Know what I mean?

Anyway. I digress.  Next step – turn up the heat, and let everything warm up, or in my case let the broccoli cook through. Add in whatever protein you like – I happened to have some rotisserie chicken leftover from last night, but if  you have something else leftover or are a veggie, then chickpeas, black beans, etc. would work great too. Let it all come to a simmer and let it do it’s work until it’s heated through. Et voila! Soup!

I’d like you to know that this was my breakfast. Soup. For breakfast. I never said I was normal.

Lean in close and I’ll tell you the secret behind making this soup. The reason making this soup is so simple, is that you aren’t really making it! Et voila!

It was so delicious that I had it again for lunch, but this time with some spinach I got at the market the other day. Same process, just a different veggie. Like so…

Et voila! Soup!

These little bowls of comforting goodness were definitely bright spots in the day. And the best part is that it literally took less than 5 minutes to have a hot bowl of soup in front of me.

It’s no novel idea, but maybe my “soup recipe” will help you when you’re under the weather too and give you the creativity you need to make something healthy and quick when you’re sick. Hey look, I’m a poet and didn’t know it!

Clearly whatever illness I have is making me looney. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgot about all of the questions you asked last week. I had planned to answer all things France today, but am just too darn tired. Please forgive me Stay tuned for all my answers tomorrow.

Do you have a go-to recipe when you’re sick? Any pre-packaged foods that you like to jazz up?

I’m off to cuddle up in bed and attempt some homework. And maybe make another bowl of soup.