I know its a sick thing to admit but I actually enjoy eating vegetables. When I walk through the aisles at the supermarket I get sucked into the products that contain "whole grains" or are "made with skim milk." I buy things just because they say "less fat than the leading brand." I often need to be yanked from the organic section because I would spend my entire life savings on Cascadian Farms cereal and Food Should Taste Good sweet potato chips. If there is a God up there, he will soon have pity on my soul and put a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods within a 15 mile radius of my house.
Now don't get me wrong, I am a girl that loves her well done french fries and juicy cheeseburgers with the works, but I am on a constant search for healthy alternatives to my favorite fatty foods but still taste like the real deal. I don't want to torture my taste buds with chips that taste like cardboard. Stripping food of its flavor takes the fun out of eating and I don't believe that you should sacrifice pleasing your palate just to appease your waistline.
If you ask anyone that truly knows me, they know that I love food. My boyfriend asks me everyday what I ate for lunch. I know he actually doesn't care but he knows I get some strange joy out of explaining the components of my salad or my new concoction of jicama and guacamole 100 calorie packs. I may not remember to feed the dog or take the garbage out but I do remember the amazing Gemelli pasta dish with capers, grilled calamari, and kalamata olives in a red sauce that I had in the city with my mom three weeks ago.
Since I seem to have every weekend spilling into July booked out of the Hamptons and off Long Island I didn't want my blog to feel neglected. So I am taking my deep affection for healthy food, mixing it with my mediocre cooking skills, and adding another layer to my blog.
Once a week I will try to update my readers on any new recipes I find or ideas that pop into my head and my hilarious attempt to create it. I am no Rachel Ray or Giada De Laurentiis. I may have the same love for the Food Network that a Spanish grandmother has for her telenovelas but the extent of my culinary prowess doesn't go much further than pushing the start button on the microwave. I will give myself credit in the sense that I am pretty good at putting things together. I am rather world renowned for my creative salads and I can make a delectable sandwich, but once you actually have to turn the stove on and get ingredients to blend, I surrender my oven mitts.
Therefore, this should be interesting.
The first appearance to this new foodie side to myself is my attempt to recreate a dessert my family and I had at Edgewater Restaurant in Hampton Bays. My former place of summer employment, as well as my father's, this authentic Italian hot spot overlooking the Shinnecock canal is where we tend to end up for every birthday, celebration, and plain old Saturday night meal. With a line out the door every night of the week, you always leave with a smile on your face as well as lunch for the next day. Last weekend we celebrated my dad's birthday and the owner so graciously sent over just about every dessert on the menu. As I kissed my diet goodbye over tiramisu, tartufo and peanut butter pie our waitress dropped a new delicious concoction in the middle of our table. Focaccia wedges with nutella and berries. So simple, yet so mouth watering.
It was so scrumptious that my mother and I tried to re-produce it for a Mother's Day dessert (p.s. Happy belated Mother's Day to all the mommies out there). We found a simple recipe online for focaccia bread, but added cinnamon to the mix. When the dough had risen we cut it into three pieces, flattened it out and threw them on the grill. (This is where I learned that while igniting a grill the dials must be on low and the lid must be open otherwise there is a strong possibility it will explode. You learn something new everyday). We let them grill until crispy (or relatively burnt)- about 10 minutes on each side.
Post-grilling we let them cool and stuck two of them in the freezer to revisit at another time. Once they were room temperature, we smothered them in nutella, low fat cool whip, and blackberries and raspberries. Another concoction we thought of for future desserts would be marscapone cheese, strawberries and agave nectar or even greek yogurt and caramelized bananas.
The end result wasn't too bad! It definitely wasn't restaurant quality, the focaccia wasn't nearly as crispy as it should be but anything covered in nutella isn't worth complaining over. If you have once small piece I would consider this a pretty healthy alternative to a slice of Oreo cheesecake or an ice cream sundae, I mean come on it has fruit on it, but of course we devoured the entire thing. Maybe that's why today when I shook my salad container to distribute my dressing my gut jiggled just as much as the contents of my tupperware.
No comments:
Post a Comment