couscous breakfast

i decided to try something wacky for breakfast the other day.
first, i roasted chickpeas in some sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder for about 40 minutes at 350. they didn't turn out as crunchy as i'd hoped...maybe i should have added some oil or cooked them for longer? they also didn't really taste like cinnamon or cocoa, but they did taste sweet.

in the morning, i cooked 1/4 cup couscous in 1/4 cup cranberry apple juice. i then mixed this with yogurt, and topped with the chickpeas, frozen strawberries, a small scoop of peanut butter, and a small handful of bran flakes.

it turned out really good! i loved the couscous with the juice and the yogurt. next time, i'd probably make more couscous and eliminate the chickpeas.

-Lola

cinnamon sugar pita chips

yo! how was everyone's weekend?

mine involved lots of homework and studying for midterms, seeing the giants win (we're going to the world series!!!), my first legal drink at a bar (happy 21st to my sister rita too!), and delicious chocolate pudding pie and cookie dough cupcakes baked by my friend (i took pictures but they're on my phone and i didn't properly download the necessary software to get them onto my computer. but the cupcakes were lovely, believe me).

anyhoo, onto the chips...

i love when simple things like this turn out amazing. all you need is some leftover pita, cinnamon, sugar, and oil and you're on your way to a crazy addictive snack.

note the one perfect looking chip off to the side.

cinnamon sugar pita chips
*1 whole wheat pita
*2 teaspoons cinnamon
*about 3/4 of a packet of sugar
*canola oil

preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
separate pita into two flat, round halves. rip or cut into triangular pieces.
spread pita pieces onto a cookie sheet. drizzle with a small amount of oil and toss, so that each chip has some oil on it but is not completely coated. sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar--again, each chip should have some but not be coated.
bake for about 20 minutes, or until crispy, flipping chips over halfway through.

eat plain or with peanut butter. i bet they'd be good with yogurt too.

-Lola

apple cinnamon oatmeal

this is my favorite oatmeal breakfast. i use 1/2 cup oats cooked in 3/4 cup or 1 cup water (less water if you're microwaving, more if stovetop. also, i use either mccann's quick irish oats or quaker. i like mccann's better. It also absorbs the water a lot better, so i use less water with quaker) and topped with a large sprinkle of cinnamon. stir in a chopped apple before cooking, or midway through if you want it a little crunchy. top with a spoonful of peanut butter. for an extra treat (my go-to finals week breakfast) add 1 packet or 1-2 tablespoons of hot chocolate powder (stir in before cooking)

-Lola

peanut butter granola

a few weeks ago, rita and i may have made our internet video ad debut. we were walking down the street when we were randomly asked if we'd like to participate in the filming of a "viral marketing campaign" for galaxy granola's new fruit not fat granola. anticipating free granola samples, we agreed. unfortunately for galaxy, neither me nor rita (especially not rita) are natural performers (we are shy twins). i did my best, offering "that's a lot of fat!" to describe galaxy's rival granola and "that sounds good!" in reference to replacing oil with applesauce. rita was not so helpful, mumbling, "i don't know...how much fat does granola usually have?" in response to the rival granola's fat content. luckily, the galaxy granola spokesman was a pro and we ended our film debut with an enthusiastic "fruit, not fat!!!" for the camera.
unbeknown to galaxy, however, rita and i have been making our own "fruit not fat" granola for years. and, having tasted my well earned galaxy sample, i have to say that ours is better.
this particular recipe obviously adds (good, healthy) fat back in with the peanut butter. if you want plain granola, replace the peanut butter with 1/4 cup liquid sweetener (honey, brown rice syrup, or agave) and add a few generous sprinkles of cinnamon and ground cloves to the wet ingredients mixture.
peanut butter granola
*1 cup applesauce
*1/4 cup liquid sweetener (honey, brown rice syrup, or agave)
*1/2 cup peanut butter
*5 cups oats (old fashioned or quick cooking)
*1 cup chopped peanuts (optional)

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. put peanut butter in microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds.
3. stir peanut butter and mix with applesauce and sweetener in a small bowl.
4. mix together oats and peanuts, if using, in a large bowl.
5. add applesauce mixture to oats. stir until oats are evenly coated.
6. spread granola on baking sheet. bake for 30-45 minutes (check every 15 minutes) until granola is golden brown. you can also stir every 10 or 15 minutes if you'd like even baking, but i prefer to have a mix of crunchy and soft granola.
-lola

carmelized pear oats

i get my best ideas in 3 places: while walking through the city, while in the shower, and while lying in bed, unable to go to sleep. a few nights ago, the latter came into play as i attempted to distract myself from thoughts of my 3 impending midterms. so i started thinking about what i wanted in my oatmeal the next morning, and all of the sudden, it came to me--carmelized pears! it was a very good idea indeed. i added many sprinkles of pumpkin pie spice (you can substitute cinnamon if you like. also, you should try it with vanilla if you have some) and a generous scoop of (plain, nonfat) yogurt to my usual steel-cut oats (i think it would be just as good, or even better, without the yogurt), and stirred this all together. then i topped my concoction with 1 pear, sliced and sauteed in a pat of earth balance (ie, butter or your preferred butter substitute) for about 10 minutes, or until nicely browned. i also added a mini-spoonful of peanut butter on top. if i get to eat this every time i study for my psych midterm (this morning's breakfast reading: 50 pages on "Accessibility of Social Constructs: Information-Processing Consequences of Individual and Contextual Variablity"), i might just be ok.
-Lola
p.s. another giveaway! check it out and you could win some maranatha nut butter!
and another one, for krema peanut butter! can you tell i really want some free pb?
eater not a runner also has an awesome giveaway
i'm on a giveaway finding roll, apparently...this one's for goji and me custom cereal

avocado strawberry smoothie

one of my favorite things about growing up in san francisco was getting to try an amazing array of ethnic foods. i have an obsession with asian desserts (actually, i've barely scratched the surface in terms of trying those. but i still love them madly and frequently try to convince my friends from the mid-west and the south that shaved ice with red beans, grass jelly, and condensed milk is a perfectly acceptable, and delicious, thing to eat. if you've never experienced the magic of asian desserts, here are a few more for you to look into: sago pudding, eggettes, and anything with red bean paste). one dessert that i have always been intrigued by but never tried is the avocado milkshake. unfortunately, we had no ice cream on hand, so i decided to try an avocado smoothie instead. with strawberries, which may sound weird but is delicious, trust me.
avocado strawberry smoothie makes 1 large smoothie
*1 1/2 cups soy milk (i used plain, but i think vanilla or even chocolate would be good)

*1/2 a ripe avocado

*frozen strawberries (start with a medium handful and add more to taste)
blend all ingredients until smooth and combined.
1/2 of the smoothie, partially frozen (i was impatient) and topped with cereal, dark chocolate chips, and a dollop of peanut butter. yum!!!
-Lola

homemade peanut butter cups

happy 2010 everyone!
my dad loves reese's peanut butter cups. i send him emails whenever i spot a new variety, and he sends me back a review (there are more types of reese's than you might think. i believe his favorites are original and peanut butter lovers'). so when rita and i spotted averie's homemade pb cups, we knew we had to make some for our dad's christmas present.
they were delicious! my dad kept asking how we made them and said they were "even better than reese's". high praise indeed.
they're also super easy. just melt some chocolate chips (use a microwave or a double boiler). spread some of the chocolate on the bottom and sides of paper muffin liners. let harden for about 10 minutes, then add a small spoonful of peanut butter to each cup. top with more chocolate (we added sprinkles too, because sprinkles make everything better. it's a fact), then freeze until hardened. (averie has better instructions than we do...with pictures too! click the link above. also, we used semi sweet chocolate chips and natural crunchy peanut butter).
-Lola

peanut butter and sweet potato toast + cinnamon blackberry oats in a jar

two simple and scrumptious dishes...
toast a piece of bread, top with peanut butter and roast sweet potato slices (slice a sweet potato and roast it in the oven for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees F, or until soft on the inside--poke it with a fork to test). YUM! that is all i have to say about that.
Oh. Em. Gee. and that is not a phrase i use often, so you know this was some seriousness goodness.
cook 1/4 cup steel cut oats in 1/2 cup milk (or soy, for any vegan readers) + 1/4 cup brewed darjeeling tea for 10-20 minutes (mine was about 15 min). stir in some blackberries, raisins, and a generous spoonful of cinnamon. serve in an almost empty peanut butter jar and top with a small scoop of peanut butter (I used about 1/2 a tablespoon)and 1/2 a crumbled cinnamon graham cracker.
if i made this again, i would replace the raisins with more blackberries (i only had 3 left and i wanted to get more fruit in, hence the raisins) and either replace the tea with more milk or water or replace some of the milk with more tea (was that confusing? the tea flavor didn't really come through, so either omit it entirely or use more tea, is what i mean).
-Lola
ps. check out chocolate covered katie's coconut butter giveaway
and emily has a giveaway too!

oat-stravaganza!

happy halloween everyone! eat lots of candy... ...and even more oats!
(oatmeal is unphotogenic, so you get a photo of the magical land that is economy candy instead.)
so we now have mass quantities of oatmeal, and we've been experimenting with different recipes. our new favorites:
-nutella and strawberry: oats cooked in milk + handful frozen strawberries + spoonful nutella
-pumpkin and peanut butter: oats cooked in milk + big scoop of pumpkin + big spoonful of cinnamon, topped with spoonful of pb and 1/2 a square of dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
-banana pumpkin: oats cooked in milk + 1 banana, sliced and added to milk at the same time as the oats + spoonful cinnamon + small handful cashew pieces
p.s. i just saw a guy dressed as a bottle of sriracha on my way home. he's my hero/future husband.

the "el vez"

we were first introduced to el vez, the mexican elvis while browsing the discount racks at a local used bookstore, unaware that we were about to stumble upon the greatest book ever! what was this glorious discovery?, you ask. I am Elvis! as the amazon page points out, a guide to 60+ Elvis impersonators, with contact information!

and at a price of only 50 cents! how could we resist? anyway, this lead to us discovering the fantastic el vez. rita and the parents have now seen him perform 3 times, and i have seen him once. it is quite a show, let me tell you. he does elvis songs as well as his own originals, all with mexican touches. as a side note, rita now has an internship with a publishing company and will get to sit in on their interview with El Vez this very weekend. we are excited.

so for some reason rita and i were talking about spicy peanut butter or fried plantains or something, and all of the sudden, it just came to me. "i just had a great idea!" i exclaimed, "the El Vez sandwich!"
after some discussion, we decided on the proper formula for the translation of Elvis' famous peanut butter and banana sandwich into an El Vez sandwich. white bread=tortillas, peanut butter=spicy peanut butter, and banana=fried plantains.
without further ado, the recipe, followed by some notes.
the El Vez
makes 1
spicy pb (idea from peanut butter boy)
*1/4 cup peanut butter (i used homemade, if you use store bought get a smooth kind with no added sugar)
*1/2 teaspoon chili powder
*1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
fried plantains
*about 1/2 a plantain, thinly sliced
*2 Tablespoons peanut oil
other stuff
*2 small flour tortillas
1. mix all the spicy pb ingredients in a small bowl. stir to combine.
2. heat up oil in frying pan. oil should coat bottom of pan in a thin layer. add plantains. fry until dark brown, about 3-5 minutes each side.
3. remove plantains from heat, place on paper towel and pat off excess oil.
4. spread pb on one tortilla. top with plaintains. add second tortilla.
4. place sandwich on pan used for frying plantains. fry each side about 2 minutes.
5. use paper towel to pat off excess oil. slice into fourths and enjoy!
notes: this turned out good, but the recipe will still be developed further. the spice of the pb was mostly in the aftertaste. perhaps if i let the pb sit for longer after i mixed it, as peanut butter boy suggests, the flavors would have combined more.
the plantain flavor could come through more. next time, i would slice the plantains thicker.
also, this was pretty rich. i ate 3 of the 4 slices for lunch, but i think i would prefer just one slice as a snack or appetizer.
edit!
we've entered this recipe in peanut butter boy's great peanut butter exhibition #7.

goat cheese ravioli with bell peppers and brown butter + spicy fried pb wontons

the first recipe in this post is very classy and gourmet, not something we would likely make in a tiny dorm room kitchen or on a college student's budget. the second recipe is somewhat ridiculous and would probably make good drunk food, except that it would be a very very bad idea to shallow fry anything while drunk. don't do it.

from bon appetite,the ravioli

because we did not have the time to make our own ravioli, we used wonton wrappers this time. definitely worked, but next time i would go all out and use homemade pasta.

seriously, make this. it was delicious and family members proclaimed it "one of the best dinners you've ever made."
we served it with a salad of lettuce, blackberries, and our sweet lemony dressing.

while we were cooking, we contemplated what to do with the extra wonton wrappers. for some reason, we decided that we had to put peanut butter (homemade--just throw a bunch of peanuts in the blender or food processor and blend until you get the right texture) and sriracha (asian chili hot sauce/best condiment ever) in the wonton wrappers and deep fry them. except we both have a fear of large amounts of hot oil, so it was really shallow frying.

we are culinary geniuses

the photo caption does not lie. epically delicious.

spicy fried pb wontons
makes 1 wonton

* 1 (square, not round) wonton wrapper
* 2 teaspoons peanut butter
* 1/4 teaspoon sriracha
* oil for frying
* warm water

1. put peanut butter in center of wonton wrapper.
2. top peanut butter with sriracha
3. pour oil in frying pan to a height of about 2 inches
4. gather wonton wrapper around peanut butter. dip fingers in water and use wet hands to seal top of wrapper.
5. when oil is hot, put wonton in pan.
6. fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes. using slotted spoon, carefully remove wonton from pan and place on a paper towel.
7. let cool about 15-30 seconds and enjoy!