Healthy with a Dash of Tasty

Stoners sometimes have a bad reputation for being lazy and eating horrible food to cure their munchies....and like most stereotypes, there is some truth to it. Ordering a pizza while waiting patiently on the couch is a stoner's favorite sport and since I had already worked my finger out on the phone's keypad the night before to order pizzas that took an hour and thirty minutes to be delivered, I decided to make my way to the fridge to see what was hiding in there.

Since my girlfriend and I recently started eating a little healthier, our shopping carts mainly get filled with fruits, vegetables, and natural juices and cigarettes.....which is (mostly) great for our health, but not so great for nibbling on finger food in front of "Workaholics".

Champagne was already flowing by 5pm, and after enjoying the summer weather by the pool, I wanted to celebrate this fabulous day with an unforgettable meal.....or at least with a meal that would make my munchies go away. After combining things I wanted to eat with things I actually had in the fridge, I started cooking our snack.

I once learned from a chef that the first thing to do when you're about to cook is boil some water: You can use it to boil vegetables, make a broth, cook pasta or drink tea during the process...And if you don't end up using it,throw a few eggs in the boiling water and you'll have a few hard broiled eggs for the next big salad you will be making. So....I boiled some water.

Here's what I ended up making: "Fried Zucchinis with bacon on top of a Rice and Carrot patty" baked in the oven with a slice of mozzarella cheese on top.

Recipe:
- Rice & Carrots Patties:
- 1 1/2 cup of Rice
- 8-10 Carrots
- 1/4 cup of butter
- 1/4 cup of milk
- Chives
- Onions
- Garlic
- 2 eggs

- Cook the Rice.  Peel and boil Carrots until tender. Strain the carrots and mash them with the butter and the milk over low heat. Mix the rice and the mashed carrots into a big bowl. Add the chopped onions, garlic, pepper and chives. Add 2 eggs and mix it all together.

Make small patties out of the mix and fry them with olive oil until golden.

- Fried Zucchinis
- 3 Zucchinis
- 1/2 onion
- 1 strip of Bacon cut into small pieces
- 1 Tomato
- Italian Herbs
- Salt & Pepper
- Olive oil
- 1/4 cup of red wine

Cook the onions in olive oil until golden, add the bits of bacon and the Italian herbs and let it cook on low while you cut the zucchinis in thin slices (leaving a little bit of the skin will help). Stir the zucchinis in the pan with the rest, add the chopped tomato and the salt & pepper and add the red wine to the mix. Let it simmer until slices are soft in the center and a little crunchy on the outer edge.

Add the Zucchinis on top of the Rice Patties on an oven safe dish and top it off with a slice of mozzarella cheese. Bake everything in the oven on "Broil" at 425 degrees 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is golden.

Enjoy this with a good bottle of red wine.

Stack of Eggplant, Chayote and Tomato slices

Sometimes I pretend I'm on a cooking show where I try to come up with something good an creative. Yesterday was one of these days.

I had bought a lot of vegetables at the grocery store because I am trying to eat a little healthier these days and I decided to use them for my homemade appetizer. 

I cut an eggplant in thin slices and seared them in a pan with olive oil until they were a little softer but not quite cooked all the way. In the meantime I peeled a Chayote and let it cook in boiling water for about fifteen minutes. Once it was almost cooked, I cut the chayote in thin slices and finished with slicing the tomtato.

in a separate bowl I mixed some olive oil, sour cream, chives, salt and black pepper. I then stacked all the ingredients on top of each other alternating eggplant, chayote and tomatoes while adding a thin layer of the sour cream mix on top of each sliced vegetable. I topped it all with a slice of Mozzarella and threw it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes and finished by broiling it at 425 degrees for 3-4 minutes.

It was delicious and full of good vitamins.

 

French Tapas Plate

Last night we had a few people over for diner and my girlfriend had asked me if I could put a little french diner together I agreed to took this mission seriously.

The morning of the diner I wasn't quite sure what I was going to make. We had talked about starting with a cheese fondue but the "Pizza hut dinner box" we shared during the poker night I went to the night before had left a dent in my stomach and I wanted to start with something a little healthier. I had to go to the doctor before my trip to the grocery. There are a few ways to use your time wisely in the waiting room while you wait for your name to be called: you can catch up on the celebrity gossips by picking up "Entertainment Weekly", you can pretend to care by gazing at the TV screen playing CNN with closed captions, or you can stare at the ceiling while envisioning the best diner ever.

So that's what I did, I started thinking of a fun plate of tasty but somewhat healthy french treats. It ended up becoming a Mediterranean plate but here what the plate was made of:

- Ratatouille topped with Gruyère cheese

- Skewer of Tomatoes and Mozzarella with Basil leaves

- Skewer of Merguez and Mushrooms with green peppers

- Bread with Radishes and salted butter

And that was our appetizer....I then made an olive and lemon chicken but I was too stoned and too inebriated with the delicious wine the guests had brought to take a picture of it. I was also a little tired from peeling and cutting vegetables all day long and just wanted to enjoy the rest of the night without thinking about my stupid blog. It was quite yummy though!

"Bay Cities" Deli - Santa Monica

If I were a rich stoner I would buy most of my groceries at this deli in Santa Monica where you can buy all kinds of products from Europe. There is amazing meat, fresh pasta, a large selection of wine, and all kinds of sweet and savory treats. The deli section has a selection of warm food and the sandwiches are so good I'm drooling just writing about it. There is usually a long line during lunch hours but they do prepare a few of their signature sandwiches in advance that you can just pick up from the counter if you need to be out of there fast. And if you decide to wait for your customized sandwich, you can grab a fresh loaf of bread to munch on while you wait. They have a delicious roasted tomatoes bread that you might accidentally finish before your sandwich is ready. No matter what, order the large one. Chances are you're going to be hungry after you smoke your digestive joint.

The most famous sandwich is the Godmother (Genoa Salami, Mortadella Coppacola, Ham, Proscituuo, Provolone). It's Delicious but after trying many combinations over the years I have found the perfect sandwich: It's the Caprese with Prosciutto. Every ingredient from the bread to the basil tastes fresh and the colors make you salivate as you unwrap the olive oil soaked sandwich. As the ingredients mix in your mouth, the combination of the melting prosciutto, the soft mozzarella and the crunchy bread becomes a pleasantly intense sensory experience. When I was done, I finished my meal with the Kinder that I bought at the cashier and drank my Orangina. It felt like I had just gone on a day trip to Europe.

http://www.baycitiesitaliandeli.com

Warning: Don't try to go on a Monday though, I have made that mistake many times!.... They are closed that day.