Blueberry Cottage Cheese Bread

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Andrea

Growing up, cottage cheese was a staple at the dinner table. My mom served it as a side dish and she topped it with lots of black pepper. Both her and my dad loved it but I on the other hand found it vile. I do not like cottage cheese. The taste is a little off but the texture does me in. I really cannot handle that sort of chunky type texture.

However cottage cheese can be a great source of vitamins and protein making it a lovely addition to other things. My favorite way to eat cottage cheese is actually mixed in with some oatmeal. It gets warm and takes on the sweetness of the oats. There’s no more chunky texture but instead a nice lovely smooth and creamy texture to the oats.

I also make another warm dish with cottage cheese but you’ll have to wait on that recipe!

Since I’ve cooked with cottage cheese it then occurred to me that I could most likely bake with it as well. I had some cottage cheese that needed used up before it went past its prime and I figured this would be a good time to test out baking with it.

Andrea’s Favorite Smoothie

Posted on April 14, 2010 by Andrea

I make smoothies everyday for Scott and I to have with our lunch. We’ve been doing this for almost a year now and love it! Back when I was doing the oh so boring Food-Log style entries, you could see my smoothies everyday. Now they only get busted out for special occasions. ;)

This particular smoothie combo is my very favorite. It’s clean tasting and very filling. I don’t have it too often because I want to keep it special and I also save it for the times when I feel like my bod could use some very straight up clean eats.

You know those times when you’re feeling just a bit rundown. Or maybe you had too much wine/beer/Boones the night before because it was Aunt Sally’s 80th birthday and how can you turn down an 80 year old on their birthday? Even if that would put the tally up to your 6th glass of Wild Island.

Cranberry Irish Soda Bread

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Andrea

I used to buy Irish Soda Bread at Whole Foods all the time when they had it out. It was fantastic! It was also the first time I had tasted it before. Irish Soda Bread wasn’t something I grew up with nor heard of until I saw it at Whole Foods. I guess I just didn’t run around in circles where it was mentioned.

At some point I think Whole Foods might have changed their recipe because I don’t care for their version anymore. Something about it just tastes off and I can’t quite put my finger on it. I never really thought about soda bread again after that until I came across Happy Herbivore’s recipe for Irish Soda Bread.

It was her recipe where I learned that one could curdle non-dairy milk with a little bit of acid, either lemon juice or apple-cider vinegar. Did you know that? I didn’t so I was excited to learn something new!

Winter citrus salad with creamy dijon dressing

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Andrea

This is the last side dish that rounded out the bison steak night meal. With the heaviness of the potato and steak, I wanted the accompanying side dish to be a bit lighter and fresher. Perhaps also as a palate cleanser. I went with a quick salad that contains one of my very favorite flavor combos, red onion and orange.

I know it sounds really odd; the first time I was presented with it I thought the same thing. I was visiting my mom several years ago and she made a salad with mandarin oranges and red onion. I was nervous to eat it. Fruit and onions? I dunno.

After one bite I was hooked! The citrus really mellows out the bite of the onion and brings out its sweetness instead. It tastes fresh and new, like a summer morning after a thunderstorm. Or like a winter morning after a heavy snow storm.

Which currently, central Ohio knows all too much what that’s like.

Homemade Granola

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Andrea

I love granola and am pretty sure that I have always loved it. I was never much into the chewy granola bars, I loved the crunchy more sturdy ones. I always felt oh so healthy when eating granola. It’s oats and nuts and sometimes fruit! How can that be bad?

I also always purchased granola because for some reason I had it in my head that it was hard to make. Eventually I started realizing how much money I was spending on granola because granola is flipping expensive! I also became aware of how much sugar was in the granola. I’m not a big sugar person anyway and when I realized just how much sugar is in manufactured granola, I sort of silently freaked out. I personally don’t want or need that much sugar in my life.

It was at this point that I started making my own granola. It was a rocky start that resulted in plenty of burnt batches. Lesson learned, granola is a project of love. Slow, easy, and steady will get you the results you want. Aggression and haste will just leave you frustrated and unsatisfied. None of us want that!

Watermelon Salsa

Posted on July 19, 2009 by Andrea

Watermelon is by far my favorite summer time fruit. I love it! It’s very cool and refreshing and perfectly sweet. On a hot day it can nourish and rehydrate a body, what a perfect little fruit!

All I ever did with watermelon was chop it up and eat it straight. I know some like to sprinkle it with a little bit of salt but that sort of ruined the sweetness for me. All I wanted was a perfect piece of watermelon.

The first time I had watermelon salsa was a recent dinner outing with my husband. I was totally skeptical about the taste. I thought it would be weird, especially since I like my watermelon left alone. But I gave it a try and fell in love immediately. In my head I was already starting to think of ways that I could recreate this at home. The next time we went grocery shopping, I bought a huge watermelon and the first thing I did was make salsa with it.

Andrea on smoothies

Posted on July 12, 2009 by Andrea

Daily Eats readers know that I love my smoothies! And so does Scott! He actually requests them and I think at this point in time he might be the only food blogger husband who does.

I was intrigued when I saw Angela of Oh She Glows start making her green monsters. Kale in a smoothie? Um, what?

Now I love me some kale, but it can be a bit bitter so I was a little concerned. But she loved them and I decided to give it a try, and you know what? You can’t taste the kale at all. Amazing! My smoothies are different than the typical green monsters because I want fruit and veggies in my smoothies.

That means that my smoothies typically aren’t green. And I prefer to use juices and water as a base instead of almond or soymilk. The milks tend to make the smoothies thicker which isn’t something I’m looking for because I don’t use smoothies as a meal or as a meal replacement. They are an accompaniment to my lunches. I also add in lots of frozen fruit because why not? Frozen fruit also helps keep the smoothies cool and give it a sort of frozen drink texture.

Chipotle Glaze

Posted on May 24, 2009 by Andrea

Chipotle Glaze

This was another idea I came up with while working and thinking about what to make for dinner. At least I’m a great multitasker! Scott and I love fish and seafood. Because it’s such a great protein source along with all the other goodies it contains, I try to make sure we get fish at least twice a week. We were having salmon one night and I wanted a different way to serve it up. I usually marinade the salmon in a teriyaki mixture because it takes to that flavor so well. But this time I wanted something a little different.

Since I’ve been working on my heat tolerance level, I decided to try something new with the salmon by creating a sweet and spicy glaze. Glazes aren’t something I really work with too much and I thought it was about time I changed that up. I pulled out some chipotles and put together this really great tasting glaze.

Tuesday Tips: Cool treats for your dog

Posted on May 5, 2009 by Andrea

Gimme something cool!

Summer time will soon be upon us bringing very hot and dry weather with it. One of the lessons we all know is to stay hydrated and one of the things we love are cool treats in the summer. Right? Frozen yogurt or ice cream, cool refreshing drinks. Well humans aren’t the only ones who can dig on cool treats, doggies love them too!

Dogs can only pant to help cool themselves and it’s really not all that effective. Just like people, some dogs handle hot weather better than others. I have a boxer and their squishy faces makes it harder for them to breath during extreme heat. They are also more susceptible to heat stroke. Because of this I make sure Rocky gets his outdoor exercise early in the morning and after the sun has gone down in the evenings. I also make sure to have plenty of cool treats for him in the summer.

Sunrise Fizzie

Posted on February 2, 2009 by Andrea

The starters

Sundays in our house are pretty laid back. I try to make sure we have zero plans on Sunday so that we can do whatever we feel like whenever we feel like it. I usually stick to my same schedule so I’m up early but Scott sleeps in. I’ll usually start breakfast and the smell of what I’m making that day will wake him up and he’ll eventually drift into the kitchen.

I try and keep things traditional on Sundays as well and make us a nice Sunday breakfast. It makes for a nice treat and a great way to end a week. This past Sunday we were eating peanut butter pancakes drizzled with maple syrup and some breakfast sausage on the side. There was also a fruit salad dressed in some greek yogurt with a hint of vanilla added to it. Along with our meal we had these fizzies. We always have juice with our breakfast and sometimes for a change of pace we have mim-faux-sas. OJ + seltzer (or club soda if you prefer). This Sunday I wanted to kick it up a little bit and ended up making a blended fizzie which we both loved.