Yummy Pasta Bake

This might be one of the best dinners I have ever made.  I have been enjoying casserole type items because I like to clean up the kitchen before dinner is ready.  That is why I knew I had to make this dish when i found it in my cookbook that contains recipes to feed 2.

I chopped all the veggies and then took a step back and thought this looks a little like the Italian flag.  I must have Italy on the brain because we are GOING TO ITALY in May.

 

I prefer to grate my own cheese, unless of course it is cheeper already shredded.  Honestly, that has only happened like twice.

I cooked up the mushrooms and red peppers to start.  I did this while my pasta was cooking.

After I drained the pasta, I put it back in the pot to mix with broccoli and cottage cheese, plus the small amount of shredded jack cheese.

 

Tossed it all together and placed in my dish to bake for about 30 minutes.

 

Look at that!

Another night that week Ryan can home and looked at me and said "Pancakes".  I thought "hmmm, pancakes...OK!".  We had bought Bruce's sweet potato pancake mix a while back and decided this was the perfect way to go.  Ok, maybe not right away, but after weighing all options for pancakes and realizing we did not have pancake mix, we discovered we did, it was just sweet potato flavor.

 

It smelled wonderful.  Ryan worked the griddle.  I love having an electric griddle.

It also gives extra space to avoid a flipping error.

QUESTIONS: What is your favorite casserole style dish?  What is your favorite kind of pancakes?

EXCITING NEWS: I will be on the radio tomorrow morning to talk about National Nutrition Month and promote the cooking class I am doing the following week.

GIVEAWAY: It is almost time for my giveaway to end, so don't forget to cast your votes: Enter Here

Tamarillo Adventures

Ever heard of a tamarillo?

Me either.  That is until a few weeks ago when I spotted it in the store.  I was think tomatillo, but that wasn't it, and it was in with the fruits.  Not to mention it was pricey, so I passed.  After passing by and passing by, I caved, and bought one.

Meet the tamarillo...

 

It looks like a nectarine skin, but a softer flesh, and a different shape.  It even resembles a nectarine in color inside, but that is where the similarities end.

Here is some information from www.tamarillo.com:

Tantalise your tastebuds with the exotic tamarillo.

Just dig a spoon in, eat it raw, or tempt yourself with one of our tasty smoothie, pizza, muffin, dinner or dessert recipes. Juicy and packed with goodness the tamarillo fruit is a very good source of vitamin C, and is low in fat and calories. 

Add sliced red, amber, and gold tamarillos to your cheese-boards, salads and decorate your dishes for a distinctive look and flavour. Tamarillos can be poached, fried, grilled, baked or casseroled to add taste and nutrition to every meal.

The website also gives some nutrition information:

• Low in fat and hence calories
• Low in carbohydrates and the carbohydrate present is mainly in the form of fibre
• High in potassium but extremely low in sodium, which is a desirable balance for a healthy diet
• Contains other trace elements important for health, in particular copper and manganese
• Source of fibre
• Source of Vitamin A, B6 and C. Also contains Vitamin E and Thiamine

Not that I needed to list those facts for you here, it is a fruit and you can imagine it packs in some good nutrition.

The flavor is very tart, but in a good way.  The inside is juicy and contains edible seeds.  It is hard to explain what these are like, but it reminds me of a nectarine and passion fruit, but tangier.  I give this 2 thumbs up.  I wish that they had the other 2 colors here to try, but they only offer the red ones at the commissary.  I'll be buying this again.

Ryan's mom and aunt (they are twins!) are coming to visit later this week.  I know I will wind up with many pictures of all the fun, so I need to clean out the folder of pictures on my desktop that are just piling up.  Please excuse the randomness...it's for a good cause.

Ryan made me this fun egg and cheese on a bagel sandwich.  A little like Mickey Mouse.

 

We tried some more ice cream.  Too bad it was not freezing and the motor overheated.  We got creative and used the immersion blender to aerate the mixture and then froze it anyway.  We seem to be striking out in the kitchen recently.  Oh well, we are making the most of it.

I bought this when I was in the States.  I am still wondering how this actually made it to store shelves.  Really? Crunchy Nut?  Nuts in Every Bite?

Plus, it was not all that good.

Wanna talk about random?  Grandpa, I know you are reading, so this is for you.

My grandfather decided some time ago that he wanted to buy a bike in a bag.  This way it is portable.  Good idea, right?  Wrong?  He was so worried he would never get it back in the bag that he never took it out.

My grandfather just sent it to us and Ryan assembled it.  I will take a picture of the thing out of the bag as soon as I can.  Here is what it looks like before becoming a ridable bike.

How funny is that?

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever seen or tried a tamarillo?  Any new produce finds?

Tuna, but not the fish

Last weekend was filled with good food, but it was not tuna.  Last weekend was filled with tuna, but it was not the food.

Confused yet?

Let me start with dinner...not tuna.

We started with a meal at a more upscale location on the island in Angra, the largest city on the island.  We started with some cheese and butter for our bread and crackers.

 

For dinner Ryan had a fish stuffed with bacon.

 

I had a wonderful dish of squid and shrimp served with a salad.

 

We skipped on dessert, but we did finish our evening with tuna.

What is all this tuna I am talking about.

 

A Tuna is a University (undergrad and grad I believe) musical group with a specific type of music.  It includes many members in the group.  They sing, play various string instruments and percussion.  They also have dancers and flag twirlers.  It is a rather festive activity, and this night was extra special because this was a competition with various Tunas from the islands and mainland Portugal.  There were 9 groups total.  We stayed for only the first half the first night, but returned for the second night and stayed until after midnight when they awarded winners in various categories.

The theater this was held in was really cool because it is a bit older and I think I just liked the pink.

 

It is a four story theater with the Tuna members lining the upper balconies.  They chanted and cheered.  You could tell they were having a good time even if you had no idea what they were saying.

Then it was time for the show to start.

 

Here are some pictures of the groups on stage.

 
I also have some videos. 

I actually have a few more videos, but I am having a hard time uploading them.  Maybe in he future I can get more videos posted.  The first video is a short clip, the but the second video is a bit longer.  It is a great video to show the try meaning of Tuna.  This is the group that won the biggest prize (or at leats the last prize given out).  One group did a cover of the Circle of Life from the Lion King (in portuguese) and it was great.  Too bad my computer freezes everytime I trying uploading.  I hope you enjoyed these videos.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever heard of this kind of Tuna before?  Do any musical competitions take place in your town?

Thursday Thoughts: A Moment of Silence

It's Thursday, so you know what that means...

Thursday Thoughts

If you are new to my blog, or haven't been reading on Thursdays, this is a segment where I post my thoughts about various nutrition and health related topics, or maybe even something else if it is really an intriguing topic.  Most of my current views and opinions come from experience working as a dietitian and as college instructor in nutrition courses.  Most of that learning is science based or observational from the clinical setting.  In general, I hate over-generalizations, so for many of the things I post, I expect there is one or two exceptions because broad sweeping generalizations are always bound to miss out on something.

But today is different.  It is the first Thursday since the major earthquake in Japan.  Today I would like to save my thoughts on other topics and instead shift them towards the millions effected by this.  We have seen tragedy from mother nature all too often recently.  I wonder if it is because of all the media outlets that it takes front and center now where as in the past the news could not be disseminated in the same way.  What ever it is, we know that people are faced with a lot at this time.  Therefore, my thoughts are with the people of Japan and the many others effected by this.

My thoughts are with those that suffered with the earthquake, the subsequent tsunami, and the new concerns with the radiation from the nuclear power plants.  Please take a moment with me today and shift your daily thoughts to those in Japan, those with friends and family in Japan (I am in this group) and those of us just shocked and amazed by the photos and video we have seen of those in Japan.

I am hopeful for their recovery.  As a culture I know they have the will to make themselves stronger in the wake of tragedy and I expect that they will take what comes at them with stride and will work together to get through this.

Join me today as we send our thoughts and prayers to Japan.

Finally some Fusion Cuisine

On this island the most ethic we get is Portuguese...and that is only ethnic cuisine to us Americans!  In all seriousness, we get good food here, but it is mostly the same presentation.  We have a Chinese restaurant, and there was an Indian restaurant that closed down.  But again, the food is good and I can't complain...just would like some variety from time to time.

We heard this place called Six, on the other side of the island, serves sushi and other Asian fusion type cuisine.  I knew I had to get there before we move because I really wanted to write about it on my other blog which is for Americans on the island.  Finally we decided to take the trek and search around for Six. 

It was not an easy task as we managed to veer to the right when it was more like a left and the directions said straight.  Thankfully the owner speaks English and helped us find our way.  You can imagine how easy it would be to pass the street when this is the only sign indicating to turn.

 

The blue lighting was helpful.

 

As I said, this place serves sushi, but upon questioning we discovered you need to call in advance by 1 day so they can get the ingredients and special prepare it for you.  As a result she indicated that we should call in advance and remind her who we are and she will happily have it ready for us the next night.  I totally understand her reasons for this.  It seems in the past some people from the base have requested it and then not shown up for dinner.  I wonder if they did this not on purpose, but rather because they never found the place.  I made sure to bring my cell phone and their number, but I could see how easy it would be to not have their number on you and just give up.  The place is about 30-35 minutes away and only open for dinner, so searching in the dark can get frustrating.

Surprisingly this was not the first time Ryan and I were here.  Once on a drive to explore the island we passed by.  They weren't open at that time, so we left, but in the time since then we never passed it again.

So here it is...

 

Loved the decor inside.  Very bright and welcoming, which is helpful because in the parking lot I felt like I was in a horror movie.  Not kidding, there were cars broken down in the lot with grass growing up, in and around them.  We thought to ourselves those must be from previous guests that never left...yes, I watch too many horror movies.

 

We started with bread and olives.

We also ordered the Thai spring rolls.  These were excellent and even more so because there is nothing else like it served on the island.  Not to mention it was good we ordered them because then it tool about an hour or so to get our meal.

 

The place quickly filled up and I think there is one chef who prepares meals one at a time to order.  Does not seem efficient, but that was my impression, and I know others who have raved about the food.  It could just be that it was a Friday night and a few tables all sat down at the same time.

Ryan had the tandoori chicken.  He said it was good, but not the best he has had.

 

I had the curry fish.  It was good, but I was thinking it would be baked fish and not breaded and fried.  Plus, we waited so long I was not really hungry when the food came.

 

We passed on dessert but did order some coffee.

 

Since then I have spoken with another friend who said the meal was the best she had, but agreed the tandoori chicken was not the best (someone in their party ordered it).  She said everything else is great.  I wonder if Ryan and I will try it out again.  My sister is coming to visit once more before we move so I think I will take her there one night.  I will call ahead for sushi this time.

Since I said that meal at Six was very different for the island I thought I would show you a typical Portuguese meal we had just a few days after the meal at Six.  This time we dined closer to home at Garca in Praia da Vitoria.

Bread to start, which was the same as the other place.  I am not sure people would like it if they weren't served bread.  It is very popular to have bread with the meal, probably because they start with cheese and then often have soup, and the food sometimes has thick sauces that are nice to dip bread in.

 

Ryan and I decided to have some wine, but went with a small bottle.  I love that with many wines we have the option for a small bottle.  They do not do wine by the glass here so this is the next best thing.  I thought it was funny that the water bottle was bigger than the wine bottle.

 

Ryan had the house dish which is a steak.  Typical meals here are the meat/fish, potatoes and a vegetable, but steak here in the traditional way comes with potatoes, rice and a fried egg.

 

Here you can see the more traditional meal pairing of the fish, potatoes and vegetables, plus a salad.

 

I had grilled codfish.  It was good, so I was happy.  Many times it is just too chewy for me.  It helps to cut it the right way.  Flaking it with a fish knife really makes a difference.  Look how big this piece of fish was...I couldn't even finish it.

 

You can see why we were eager to try a place known for their fusion cuisine...I think the fusion is the flavors of Asia paired with the traditional plate set up, as you can see some similarities in the meat, rice, veggie pairing. 

Speaking of sushi...

 

They started carrying it in the freezer section of the commissary.  It's a spicy tuna roll, but the strange thing is that it is tuna fish like the kind from the can and not so much raw tuna.  We picked up a few and Ryan can have them for lunch.

Oh, and another new commissary item was the Lean Cuisine steamer bag meals.  I tried two of them and they were better than I expected.  I don't eat many frozen dinners anymore, and when I do they are Amy's, so it was nice to have one that I did not think was just really awful.  It is amazing how your tastes can change when you start making more home cooked meals and eat less frozen dinners.  This here was the shrimp and pasta, and I forget the flavoring now, but it was tasty.  It seems like the sodium was higher than some of the other Lean Cuisine meals.

 

Last up is a random picture I have, but I wanted to share that these habanero lime tortillas from Trader Joes are so good.  We used them to make quesadillas.  Delish!

Don't forget about my Giveaway!

QUESTIONS: What is the most unique restaurant you have ever been to?  Is there any restaurant you have been dying to try?  What do you like to stuff into quesadillas?

Hot, hot peppers and Green, green soup

Every day for the past few weeks I have walked by the bakery section, looked at this flat bread and thought it would make an awesome pizza.  Each time I also walked away from that counter empty handed.

 

That was until 2 weeks ago when I mentioned it to Ryan and he saw me staring this down like I just had to have it.  He agreed it would make a nice pizza and thought we should get some ingredients to make it that day for lunch.

While in the produce section Ryan found these cute peppers.  We assumed they were hot peppers but we did not have any idea of the level of hotness.  Really they were just too cute to pass up.

I was thrilled when Ryan suggested mushrooms to go on the pizza.  I could eat mushrooms day in and day out, but Ryan is not much of a fan...until now!  He is started to enjoy them more.  I never force them in the house, but I think my frequent use of them has grown on his taste buds.

   

We each took a piece.  I added the sauce and the cheese.

Ryan worked hard on these peppers, totally forgot the gloves, and in the midst of his hard chopping work he discovered these were DARN HOT!

 

Well, the super hotness off the peppers did not stop of from adding it to the pizza and then covering with mushrooms.

 

The pizza was great...a little too spicy, but great.  I loved it with the herbed flat bread.

 

Last week I also made 2 dinners as I aim to do each week.  I kept it simple and went with fish tacos, which are a quick and easy go to in our house.  It is so easy because I use the tilapia fish sticks.

 

I had these tortillas from Trader Joe's but they are big so I decided to make this more of a burrito than a taco.

I just piled in some fish sticks, topped it with lettuce, cheese and tomatoes, and dinner was served.

My second dinner for the week was this broccoli and mushroom soup from the lovely Rebecca over at Chow and Chatter.

 

These are the stars of this dish.  Again, I snuck some mushrooms in there, but Ryan didn't mind.

I have been enjoying chopping veggies.  I just like to look at my counter top with all the prepped ingredients, ready to go and often so colorful.

This started with some red onions, garlic and the mushrooms.

 

Then went the broccoli and some veggie broth.

 

Here is where things get really fun.  Gotta love the immersion blender.

 

Please do not let the color scare you.  Ryan was not a big fan of the color, but he gave it a try anyway.  He was glad he did because he really liked the soup.  

  

I can't say I blame him for the panicked look on his face when I ladled this into his bright white bowl.

It was a delicious soup!

I hope everyone is having better weather than we are.  We are in a cold spell and it has been hailing on and off for 2 days now.  That's ok with me because it means I can were my new rain boots.  They certainly brighten the day.

Don't forget that my giveaway is still going on.  Click Here to Enter.

Also, I am still looking for guest bloggers for the month of May.  Just let me know.  thanks!

QUESTIONS:  Do you like hot peppers?  Have you ever served a food that tasted good but looked unappealing?