Food Challenge: Week 5

The last week of our no-restaurant-eating-out food challenge was quite eventful. In fact, we were only able to sneak in a few home cooked meals. Sorry for the lack of food pictures, but I'll make up for it with pictures of fun events. Many thanks to the friends who fed us during this week!

Sunday
Last week, our good friends hosted an early Halloween party. Husband and I found a lion costume for Lola at a nearby pet supply store, and then we realized that we ourselves were attending a costume party costume-less.

Roar.

We agreed to sort through our closet to come up with the closest cholo/chola outfits that we could put together. It was nothing fancy, but I think we look a little gangsta. No?

Our wonderful hosts.

Monday

Fried okra with brown rice.
Husband has been itching to make something okra-based. After some google searching we found this recipe for fried okra with soy dipping sauce. In line with my attempt to lead a dairy-free lifestyle (have I mentioned that yet? Yeah, digestive issues...), I substituted Tofutti sour cream instead of regular sour cream. While I honestly don't think it comes close to tasting like real sour cream, it wasn't all that bad! It's different. The fried okra was good too!

Tuesday

Bruschetta with shrimp, tarragon, and arugula - a Giada recipe - served with greens. We picked up some honey champagne mustard last week at a local food fair and used it to make dressing. It was excellent! We threw sliced pears on the greens for fun.

Wednesday

Fried tilapia with lemon vinaigrette served over a bed of radicchio and cannellini beans - another Giada recipe. The radicchio was a first for us. It was a lot more bitter than we expected, but the vinaigrette really helped tone it down.

Thursday
See above. We made enough for leftovers on Thursday. Nothing exciting here.

Friday

Party time!
Our friends hosted a masquerade themed party in celebration of their birthdays.

Birthday boys; the birthday boy and I.

Catching up with girlfriends. We don't see each other enough nowadays, so we def take advantage of these opportunities.

Saturday
It was homecoming game day for USC. Husband and I finally got our act together and organized that tailgate we've been telling ourselves we'd throw one day.

Although we ate leftovers the Thursday before, we in fact spent most of the evening preparing food for the tailgate. With our friends' party on Friday evening, Thursday was the only time available to get things ready. We ended up with a good selection for Saturday: beef empanadas, pasta salad, roasted potato salad, and bruschetta (sorry for the lack of pictures).

We gathered a good group of friends and had a great time!

Sunday

October 31 - we did it!

Celebration meal: baked salmon with carrot, fennel, leeks, and snow peas with a side of shredded carrot and beet salad.

I'm happy to report that we successfully completed our October food challenge! While I'm pretty sure that this experience isn't going to keep us from stalking our favorite restaurants every now and then, it was a real eye opener as to how much money we can save (and how much better we can eat!) by not eating out so often. I do have to say that the one thing that helped us stay on track - and something I'll be keeping as a take-home lesson - is the importance of serious meal planning. That was truly imperative to following through with this challenge.

Aside from all that, it really tested our creativity in the kitchen. It's funny looking back at all the posts from this month and realizing that there isn't one meal that we made twice. That was totally not intentional. I feel like the challenge encouraged us to try our hand at new recipes. It kept things exciting!

So what's next? Well, we're still in "challenge" mode and not exactly ready to give up yet. Stay tuned for updates on our November challenge. That's right, we're doing it big and going unprocessed for an entire month. Eeek.

Food Challenge: Week 4

This should have been our last week of the challenge but we started early and wanted to complete the entire month of October. So don't be fooled by the Week 4 title - we've got one more update after this one. Ready for the run-down?

Sunday

Chiles en Nogada

Hands down, one of the most time consuming meals we've prepared and I feel like we still sort of half-assed it. You can find one hundred and one versions of the recipe and there is debate as to which is the authentic method of preparation: does the chile need to be dipped in an egg batter and fried before stuffing?, is the pork actually ground or chopped up?, exactly what kind of fruit do you put in the picadillo? You get the point. As far as I'm concerned the specifics don't matter as long as you end up with an edible and tasty Chile en Nogada made with the three components: a pasilla chile, picadillo, and walnut cream sauce.

This is a recipe that I've been meaning to attempt for about two years. I kept telling my self that come Autumn (pomegranate season!) I'd try it out. I put it off mostly because of how time-consuming it sounded. And time-consuming it was! Peeling the walnuts alone took almost 2 hours. Have you ever tried peeling the skin off of walnuts? Don't try it. Just kidding, it was worth it to get a creamy walnut sauce at the end. One tip: soak the walnuts in milk (or in my case soymilk) overnight to soften the skin.

A couple of behind-the-scenes action. Husband separating pomegranate seeds and our countertop covered by prep elements.

Monday

We didn't spend all day Sunday cooking Chiles en Nogada for nothing! Leftovers were had.

Tuesday

Grilled portobello mushroom and red bell pepper sandwich served with a side of grilled bok choy and some greens.

Wednesday

Chicken in Pipián, a sauce made with roasted pumpkin seeds, and tomatillos. This was another first for us and a definite keeper. Although next time I need to remember to food process the sauce a bit longer.

Thursday

Butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and shitake mushrooms slow cooked in a mixture of coconut milk, soy sauce, and chili paste. Served with brown rice. I love my slow cooker.

Friday
Roasted fingerling potato salad, a recipe I picked up from Bon Appetite magazine (my fav!) We had some frozen appetizers from Trader Joes in the freezer so we had them on the side. They were not as good as they look. The salad, however, was delish.

Saturday

With the Shakira concert later that night, dinner was the last thing on my mind. We grilled some mushrooms, bell peppers, and onions and threw together a quick veggie & salame sandwich. We included some pre-made noodles we had picked up at Whole Foods earlier that morning during our weekly grocery trip. We added some greens and were good to go.

So. Enough about food. Shakira! We saw her on Saturday! The concert was incredible. She is so talented. I tried not to embarrass the husband and scream/cry/go crazy too much. Lucky for me, he tries to understand.

The first half of her concert included mainly her older material. I was thrilled. Especially when she came out singing Pienso En Ti at the beginning. I could have died. And then when she broke into La Despedida later on in her performance...forgeeeet it!

The following pics are from her first few songs.

Yes, the guitar made an appearance! Finally, a closer image of the Shakira that I remember admiring at age 14 when my mom took me to my first concert. She sang Inevitable.


The second half of the concert consisted mostly of songs from her last album and new one.

René from Calle 13 made a surprise appearance to sing his part in Gordita. Loved it!


Shakira ended with Ojos Asi, but of course came back for an encore. She came back out wearing the prettiest blue puffy dress.


It was good times for sure!

Do I Smell Another Food Challenge?

Umm how did I miss this?! I came across this site (via SlowFoods Los Angeles) documenting the journey of going an entire months without eating processed foods. Am I weird, or does the prospect of eating only 100% natural, preservative/crap-free, CLEAN food make you really excited too? I'm probably just weird, huh? Luckily for me, I forwarded the link to my husband and he was equally enthusiastic to give it a shot.

I consider ourselves pretty health conscious people, and I don't think(hope) following an unprocessed diet will be too big of a change. I mean we make it a priority to eat clean, cook as home as much as possible, and make healthy choices when eating out (although we've been known to have the occasional King Taco slip - d'oh!). Since getting married and moving in together, and especially since having our own kitchen, we have made a conscious effort to establish healthy eating habits for our family. We have gradually gotten better and have learned a ton over the past year. As with anything in life, though, there's always room for improvement. It's time to say no to the frozen food dinners and pre-packaged foods. We are ready to step it up a notch!

The question that remains is when. When should we start this challenge? I wish I could say now! Or at least next month! I'm trying not to get ahead of myself as we still need to finish our October challenge. But next month is November. Thanksgiving is in November, as well as two of my siblings' birthdays, and I'm sure the start of many other family gatherings that precede the holiday season. Which leads us to December. December = tamales. Do you know how bad I would feel neglecting holiday and family gathering meals from both my and the husband's moms? Not just that, but they would look at us funny for making up such "silly" food rules. I'd rather avoid the awkwardness. But damn, that means we have to wait till January?

Hmm... pretty sure I don't want to wait that long. We will have to think about this and go over our current kitchen inventory to see what needs to change. I'm sure there will be some planning and researching involved, so that might take some time. Maybe we can even share our knowledge with the families and invite them to participate. Except I'm not sure how well that would be received by our traditional, been-cooking-this-way-for-25-years mothers, but it's worth a shot right?

I'll have to get back to you all on this one. In the meantime, has anyone tried this out? Got any opinions...thoughts...anything? More importantly, who wants to join us? Unprocessed dinner parties anyone? ;-)

Food Challenge: Week 3

We had a couple of boring food days this week, but still managed to keep up with the challenge. Ready for the results?

Sunday

This is continuation of our road trip last weekend. We spent a good part of Sunday driving home from Northern CA, so we just picked up something on our way home and called it a night.

Monday

Husband had class, I had some errands to run and a gym class to attend. We resorted to the same old boring Monday meal: frozen appetizers that we picked up from Trader Joes. Bleh.

Tuesday

Israeli Couscous with Panko-crusted Tofu. The couscous is a favorite here at home. We had some tofu and half a bag of panko to get rid of so we made good use of it.

Wednesday

Penne pasta with pumpkin sauce and baby brocolli. I love autumn produce! It's time to start incorporating more pumpkin, squash, pomegranates, etc. in our meals. This was our first attempt at a homemade pumpkin pasta sauce. I was really pleased with the results.

Thursday

Caribbean Rice & Peas: a mix of smoked chicken sausage, brown rice, black-eyed peas, and collard greens. We are huge fans of all-in-one meals. This was a great recipe, except that next time I would probably substitute the black-eyed peas with regular ol' pinto or black beans. We were over the bitterness of the black-eyed peas plus collard greens by the end of the meal. Maybe we're just not used to the bitter tastes. Besides that, this dish was a winner.

Friday

Both the husband and I got home from work late and with little motivation to prepare a meal from scratch. We were starving and husband wanted to go to the Beverly Center to make use of a gift card. We were thisclose to caving in and grabbing a bite to eat while out, but luckily the mall was closing in less than an hour. Whew! Instead of rushing we decided to stay home, heat up left over penne pasta from two nights ago, and take Lola for a nightime walk through Little Tokyo.

Saturday

Seafood risotto. This was the second time we make this dish. We found the recipe on the Food Network website. It is so easy and absolutely delicious (if you're a seafood lover.) We made it with shrimp, scallops, and black mussels. To make the meal even more pleasant my sister and her boyfriend joined us for dinner - hooray for company!

Is it really already the middle of October? That means we've only got two more weeks to go! Stay tuned for next week's results featuring one of the most labor intensive meals we have made yet.

Food Challenge: Week 2

Week 2 of our food challenge was a success (with a few exceptions)! We had a trip up north planned for a while already, so we didn't really have the option of cooking at home this past weekend. We did treat ourselves a couple times, but how can you resist the SF dining scene?! Plus, we started our challenge early to anticipate for our trip. Anywho, here last weeks results and a run-down of the weekend.

SundayTortilla al Horno. Another recipe from our Spanish cookbook. Bell peppers, potatoes, chives, and green onion in an egg batter. It's almost like having breakfast for dinner!

Monday
Leftovers. The husband has late night class and I hit up the gym. Dinner consisted of protein shakes and left over Tortilla al Horno. Exciting.

Tuesday
Chicken lettuce wraps. Don't you just love appetizers for dinner?

Wednesday
Halibut with Zucchini Al Mojo de Ajo: a recipe from our Rick Bayless cookbook. We had some sweet potatoes that we had to get rid of, so we made a quick side of mashed sweet potatoes.

Thursday
Thai Curry. A new recipe we tried out with our slow cooker. A combination of chicken, eggplant, bell peppers, sweet potato, and onion.

Friday
Weekend time! We drove up north for a quick weekend trip. Friday afternoon was spent hanging out with the husband's little brother in Berkeley.

We arrived with a bit of an appetite. Lunch consisted of an Indian feast. Indian food is one of our favorites!

After lunch we walked down College Ave. The little brother introduced us to a local ice cream shop, Ici. They make delicious handmade ice cream and treats using only organic and local ingredients. It's one of those favorite local spots with a perpetual line outside.

The boys enjoyed a mix of mint, chocolate chip, and brandied currant ice creams. I had the passion fruit sorbet. All were served on cones made and rolled every day by the shop. So good!

Later in the evening the husband and I took advantage of being in the San Francisco area for dinner at Aziza, a Moroccan inspired restaurant.

We started our meal with cocktails. The husband had a beer, I had a lavender & honey gin cocktail. It was exquisite!

We munched on scallops and a basteeya as appetizers.

The main course: lamb loin with couscous.

For desert: lemon curd, lavender ice cream, and berries.

Aziza was delicious! It had been on our to-go list for a while, so I'm glad we finally made it happen.

Saturday
The main reason for our trip up north was to attend an engagement party for our good friends. Their families hosted a brunch at California Cafe in Palo Alto. With the USC vs Stanford game going on that day, they didn't miss an opportunity to represent USC colors.

The beautiful couple. I can't wait for their wedding next year in Colorado!

After brunch, we changed into our SC gear and made our way to the Stanford campus for some tailgating.

We spotted a famiy down the lot lining up the kids to beat up the Stanford mascot pinata. Hilarious!

The weather was gorgeous. It was really a perfect day for a tailgate. If only it hadn't been ruined by the outcome of the game! We didn't let the defeat ruin our weekend, though.

It had been a while since our last visit to the bay area. I'm happy we were able to make the trip. And from now on, no more restaurants for the rest of the month. For real this time!