Chocolate Black Bean Cake

"Happy Birthday insert name here!"

A few years back when my best friend, Sam, first became a vegetarian, she experimented with some guilt-free dessert recipes for fun, and because both her and I have a serious sweet tooth. She stumbled across a black bean brownie recipe online, and ever since then, the recipe has been a favorite of ours, and has been tweaked throughout the years. Whether we are meeting up on a Monday night to watch The Bachelorette, or we simply need an easy dessert to bring to a party last minute--Sam and I always turn to these black bean brownies, or black bean cake if you add some frosting!

One of the main alterations I've made to the original recipe is that I've substituted coconut oil for vegetable oil. Coconut oil is great for baking, and it contains fatty acids that give you energy and increase brain function! Coconut oil even has a natural SPF of 8-10, which comes in handy during these summer months! I also decided to frost the black bean brownies, especially when celebrating a birthday, to give this dessert a traditional flare. I made this dessert for my boyfriend John's 23rd birthday which was two weeks ago, and I made it for my Grandma's birthday which was today! Having a second slice of cake is sinless with this recipe!

Black Bean Brownies/Cake:

-2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

-4 eggs

-6 tbsp coconut oil

-1 cup granulated sugar

-1/2 cup cocoa powder

-1/4 tsp salt

-2 tsp vanilla
-2 tsp baking powder

-handful of chocolate chips (optional)

-vanilla frosting and sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a 13x9" baking pan with coconut oil.

2. Combine all ingredients in a blender for 30 seconds. Pause and mix all ingredients with a wooden spoon to ensure everything is being well-blended. Blend for another 30 seconds or until smooth.

3. Pour batter in pan, top with chocolate chips, and bake for 22 minutes. After the timer goes off, test the cake with a fork and continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes if fork does not come out clean when cake is pierced.

4. Cool completely, ice, and enjoy! 

Something fun to try: if you want to make a heart-shaped cake, rather than using a 13x9" cake pan, pour half of the batter in a 8x8" square cake pan, and the other half in an 8" circular cake pan. Once both cakes are done and have cooled to room temperature, carefully flip both cakes onto a larger dish or cutting board, and cut the circular cake in half. Turn the square cake so that one of the corners is pointed up (almost like a diamond shape), and place the flat sides of the half-circle cakes onto the top left and top right sides of the square cake. Voila! You have a heart shaped cake--and once you ice it, it'll look like the Cake Boss himself made it!

HAPPPPPY eating :)

Parmesan Crusted Salmon

"I'M HAVING FISH TONIGHT!" 

-Bruce from Finding Nemo

My boyfriend, John, and I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest a few months back and made it at school. It was SO easy and SO yummy--we had two salmon filets each and were both wishing we could have one more! Tonight I made this salmon dish for my mom and and she loved it, too. I recommend serving this dish with veggies and pairing it with a dry white wine. 

Tonight my mom and I had brussel sprouts with the salmon, which we drizzled with some olive oil, and sprinkled with a little bit of salt and pepper. We also ate a mixed greens salad which we picked right from our garden!! We topped the greens with walnuts and dried cranberries, and made a homemade dressing to go along with it which I've also included the recipe for below. Just a general pointer--if you like to cook, it really helps to have a small veggie garden and/or herb garden. I have used greens from my veggie garden 3 times in the past 5 days while cooking, and there's something so special and peaceful about tending to a garden that you can only understand if you grow one of your own. 

Parmesan Crusted Salmon:

-2 salmon filets (I prefer to buy wild caught salmon as opposed to farmed; farmed means the fish were raised on land in tanks JUST so that we humans could eat them)

-1 cup Parmesan cheese

-1/2 a lemon

-extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom of a 8x8" baking pan

-sprinkle of salt, pepper, and garlic powder

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 F.

2. Lightly coat the bottom of the 8x8" baking pan with olive oil (don't go overboard...4 tablespoons should be good).

3. Cut your lemon in half and squeeze the juice from half of the lemon into the pan with the oil. Add a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and garlic powder to this lemon and oil mixture.

4. Dip both sides of the salmon in the lemon and oil mixture, and then press one side of the salmon into a bowl containing the cheese. Repeat for the other filet, and then return both filets to the baking pan, cheese side up.

5. Bake for 12 minutes, then broil for about 3 minutes or until the Parmesan cheese begins to brown in some spots. Eat every last bite! :)

Simple Salad Dressing:

-2 parts balsamic vinegar

-1 part extra virgin olive oil

-4-5 fresh, minced basil leaves (again, I picked these from my herb garden, and herb gardens can be as simple as a large planter filled with 2-3 different types of herbs)

-1-2 tablespoons of grated yellow onion

Directions: 

1. Whisk the above ingredients together for at least a minute, and either use immediately on a salad, or store in a mason jar in the fridge. Shake before each use. 

Nothing like a simple meal on a lazy Monday! Happy eating! :)

BBQ Tempeh Nachos

"Meateaters, these Nachos are NACH-YOS"
(just kidding)

For those of you who do not know, I've been a vegetarian for about 2 1/2 years--pescatarian to be exact. A pescatarian eats fish occasionally, and keeps eggs/dairy in his or her diet, but cuts out all land animal meats (chicken, beef, pork, etc.). Being a vegetarian is fun because it pushes you to try cool new foods that you would have never tried had you not been a vegetarian, like tempeh for example. Tempeh is similar to tofu in that it is derived from soybeans. What is tofu you ask? Straight up soybeans and water basically, and it's usually found in veggie burgers or served in cold cubes at some salad bars. Tempeh contains soybeans PLUS brown rice, barley, and millet (soybeans + whole grains). I buy tempeh at Trader Joe's and it comes in a little block. It is a lot firmer than tofu and it is speckled brown instead of white. 

When I was away at the Wanderlust Yoga Festival in Stratton, VT last weekend, there was a wood-fired pizza stand serving vegetarian/vegan pizzas. One pizza, dubbed "Yogi's Choice," was topped with BBQ tempeh, tomato sauce, tomatoes, and kale...YUM! My best friend Sam and I had to split one, and it was great! Inspired by this recipe, I decided to make it in a nacho variation: BBQ Tempeh Nachos. 

BBQ Tempeh Nachos

-Organic tortilla chips (Late July is a good brand)

-BBQ sauce (look for one that does not contain high fructose corn syrup OR crazy high amounts of sugar)

-1 package tempeh, cut into small cubes

-1/2 yellow onion, diced

-2 yellow squash, cut into small cubes

-1-2 cups low-fat shredded cheddar cheese depending on your nacho style

-1 handful of kale, cut into one-inch pieces

-jalapenos (optional)

-tomatoes (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Line a cookie sheet with tinfoil and lightly grease with olive oil. Place the cubed zucchini on the cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take the zucchini out of the oven, flip the veggies with a spatula, and return to the oven for 10 more minutes or until it's just starting to turn brown/crisped in some spots.
3. Place the cubed tempeh in a bowl, gradually add barbecue sauce, and stir (a spoon or a clean hand works fine) until each cube is covered. Let sit for a few minutes.
4. Line another cookie sheet with tinfoil and lightly grease. Spread tortilla chips around the whole cookie sheet, and sprinkle about half of the shredded cheddar on the chips.
5. Top chips with the onion, kale, and jalapenos. When the squash is done and browned, spread it out evenly on the chips, and do the same with the BBQ tempeh. Return this tasty concoction to your 375 F preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes.
6. Top cooked nachos with tomatoes, hot sauce, and whatever else you want! Get creative, fellow vegetarians and veggie-loving meat eaters!

Share with friends or family because it serves 3-4 people (or 2 hungry people) and enjoy! Oh and if you are wondering why I am so obsessed with kale--I'm growing it in my garden this summer (and it tastes great, obviously)! It is a super low-maintenance veggie to grow; kale just needs some water and sun each day and it shoots up like crazy. If you give this a shot in your own backyard, when you go to harvest kale, pull the pieces that are closest to the ground straight down, careful to not uproot the main stalk. Dark leafy greens should be consumed every day, and now that they are right in my backyard I have no excuse not to! Happy eating :)

Strawberry & Sunflower Seed Kale Salad

"Saying Goodbye to Strawberry Season"

Yesterday my mom stopped by to see me at the farm I just started working at to do some strawberry picking (see picture below). Strawberry picking is best at the beginning of June, so I am glad she came when she did since June is already more than halfway through! The strawberries were organically grown and they were a lot smaller and tastier than the ones you buy at your average food store. When I got home from work, I thought about what to make with the strawberries...and since I am on a kale kick I did not have to think for long. I decided to make a strawberry & sunflower seed kale salad WITH a homemade strawberry vinaigrette (are you drooling yet?).

So I looked up how to make a strawberry vinaigrette on Pinterest, my favorite food recipe resource, and I tweaked the one I found to the one I've listed below. 

Strawberry Vinaigrette:

-1 cup of local, organically farmed strawberries washed and with their stems removed (PLEASE support local farms so that they can stay in business and the prices of healthier-grown fruits can go down!)

-2 tsp balsamic vinegar

-2 tsp raw, organic honey (if you haven't had raw organic honey you've got to try it! The texture is thick and awesome)

-1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions: Use a bullet or blender to combine all of the above ingredients. Taste the dressing and add more balsamic vinegar and/or honey if necessary and pulse again. 

Strawberry & Sunflower Seed Kale Salad:

-homemade strawberry vinaigrette 

-1 handful of sunflower seeds

-1/2 a handful (about 1/4 cup) of chia seeds (these expand in your tummy to make you fuller quicker and aid in digestion!)

-1 bag of kale (I like packaged kale from Trader Joe's, but again, buy a local bunch of kale if you can! I know of a farm stand that sells 2 heads for $3 some days!)

-optional: goat cheese or feta cheese to taste (I recommend adding the cheese once you are about to eat the salad and only to the bowl of salad you will be eating in that sitting...softer cheeses don't do too well sitting in the kale & dressing for long)

Directions: Mix all of the above ingredients in a large bowl or container, cover, and let sit in the fridge for a few hours before indulging. Like I said in my Italian Kale Salad post--kale gets yummier the longer it sits in dressing in your fridge--so enjoy this for 3-4 days. Add the cheese if you'd like, right before eating some of the salad. Happy eating!

This recipe is REALLY easy, healthy, yummy, and takes under 30 minutes to prep! It's refreshing to eat in the hot summer months...so if a local farm no longer carries strawberries in say, August, do the best you can and buy organic ones from the supermarket! I'd imagine this recipe would also be awesome if you substituted raspberries (which are in season in July).

Thanks for reading and please leave a comment :)

Italian Kale Salad

"Italian and Proud"

As you may be able to tell from some of my other posts (aka the calamari antipasta), I'm Italian and I'm a sucker for Italian cuisine. So when I made a huge kale salad to have for the week for the first time, I had to add some Italian flare. The cool thing about kale for those that do not know it that it's a tough green--crunchier and fuller than spinach, arugula, and all other salad greens. The plus side is that you can put dressing on a kale salad and it will still taste great (better, even) the next day! The down side is that the kale is super crunchy on day one so you may have to wait a day to eat your salad depending on your personal taste buds.

I added the following to my kale salad and found myself only getting one serving of it because my mom loved I so much and took some with her to work with her every day:

Kayla's Italian Kale Salad:

-balsamic vinegar

-olive oil

-chia seeds (these expand in your tummy which makes you feel fuller quicker, and they are great for digestion!)

-sunflower seeds

-roasted red peppers

-artichokes

-chick peas

-pitted kalamata olives

-Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Mix it all together, store it in a closed container in your fridge, and shake the container before digging in each time! Happy eating! 

Calamari Antipasta

"Slowly Saying Goodbye to SUNY Purchase"

A few weeks before graduating, my mom, boyfriend, and I went out to eat at the restaurant, Cobblestone, in Purchase, NY. We ordered an appetizer from the daily specials menu--calamari antipasta--and it was arguably the best appetizer I've ever had. Crispy calamari topped with banana peppers, kalamata olives, shaved Parmesan, diced tomatoes, and a balsamic vinegar drizzle...what could be better? I plan to try this recipe at home...it would be great with lightly fried shrimp, too, I bet! See the photo I took below! Caution: your mouth will water and your tummy will growl.

Grad Life

Now that my senior project is over, I'm going to be posting about food that I eat in a more general sense. I won't be judging each picture solely on how it looks; but rather, I will include where I bought the dish if I'm out to eat, or how I made it if I'm making dinner in. Stay tuned and wish me luck as I try to land a food/farm-related job! 

Below: a mojito I made before Culture Shock--a music festival that takes place late April at SUNY Purchase each year. Ask your local liquor store if they sell an all natural, low-in-sugar mojito mix, mine did! Mix that with white rum, mint leaves (rub them in your hands a little bit to bring out the smell and taste), a splash of seltzer water, and some ice! To die for.

P.S. I'm vegetable gardening and raising chickens in my backyard, so I'll keep y'all updated on how that's going, too!