pretty in POMegranate

So, for lunch today, I repeated last night’s salad dinner because it was oh.so.delicious.  I had a few less ingredients today but it was just as yummy.  For my crouton crunch, I toasted 1/2 of a sun dried tomato bagel from Einstein.  It added a nice flavor and good texture.

Lately, I have been buying whole, loose carrots, instead of the bagged baby carrots.  I think they taste better and I like that I can buy a specific amount.  The baby carrots can tend to get quite slimy!  I decided to shred half of the carrot and then chomped on the rest as I was eating my salad. 

SO fresh + SO satisfying

I was super excited to try out my peppermint chai tea drink that I bought a few weeks ago.  The directions say to mix 1/2 of the latte concentrate and 1/2 milk.  I did exactly that with unsweetened rice milk.

It smelled awesome but was waaay too sweet for me.  I think I might be more sensitive to sweetness because I really try to stay away from adding much sugar to things and when I’m baking I almost always decrease the sugar by 1/2.

I’ll try making it again but next time I’ll use 1/4 concentrate and 3/4 milk.  I’ll let ya know if it’s any better…such a good flavor idea though!!  

I looove Rachel’s cottage cheeses!!  I have had a few flavors and they have yet to disappoint.  My favorite by FAR was cucumber dill.  Such a great combo!  This one was nice and fruity but I didn’t taste orange at all…and it was a tad watery…but still good!

Pomegranate time people!!!  I peeled another pom and documented it this time to show you guys exactly what to do.  I’m actually not the biggest fan of just eating the seeds plain, but in things like my oatmeal this morning, they are amazing!  They would probably be really great on a fruity salad or in fruit salsa too.

Angela, at Oh She Glows, had a funny story about the stickers that come on fruits and veggies.  Her husband gets annoyed that she peels them off and leaves them on the kitchen sink, haha.  This is too funny.  I have the same problem as to what to do with the darn sticker.  Sometimes there are 3 of them!  Obviously I could put the fruit down and go throw it away, but it’s just annoying to try to take off and actually get to go in the garbage.  It is much easier to just stick on something.

So, here is my idea!  Stick them on a bottle that you leave out and that is close to your sink! :)

 

peeling a pomegranate:

Step 1: Cut the top off

Step 2:  Score the pomegranate in appx. 1” increments all the way around.  You don’t need to cut more than 1/4” deep.

Step 3:  Submerge in a large bowl of cold water. 

Step 4:  Peel back one of the chunks that you scored.  It should pull right apart.  [try to keep it submerged in water so you have less change of the seeds bursting and making a mess…I am only holding it out of the water for the photo]

Chris took this one!

One of the peeled apart chunks.  Such a vibrant color for photographing!!

Step 5:  The seeds should kind of snap right out of the honeycomb.  It does take awhile.  Probably a good 20min to de-seed a whole pomegranate.  Patience :)

Step 6:  Make sure you get off all of the yellow skin off the seeds.  It has a bitter taste if eaten.  Skim the water to get all of the skin pieces that floated to the top.

Step 7:  Strain water + dry with a paper towel.  Store in an airtight container in your fridge for 2-3 days.  You can also freeze them!

Remember…the juice stains!!!  ;)  Hmm, my recipe….what could I be making???

Daaa da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…

Pomegranate granola bars!!!!!!!!!!

This is an original recipe that I created last night.  It is somewhat similar to ota.bars but I made a point to change a few things since this recipe would be out for everyone to see :)  Although, these may be getting better than ota.bars, haha. 

They are nutrient dense and pack in a lot of fiber!  I used mostly brown rice syrup [for sweetness] which keeps your glycemic index level more stable, so you don’t get an energy spike and crash.  They are chewy and nutty with an amazing BURST of juice.  Chris is absolutely loving them and Natalie was chomping on them throughout the day too.

This was trial 3.  I have a few more changes to make, but they are getting there!!  I am also working on one other pomegranate component to add to the bars.  More on that soon!

I saw a photo of a Hasselback potato [super amazing photography!!], which I had never heard of before.  I couldn’t get over how amazing the photo was and how delicious the potato looked.  My daylight ran out, but here it is!  It had the best texture.  Nice and crispy but creamier towards the middle and the bottom was nice and crispy from the pan too.  Might have to make these for thanksgiving, with a few minor adjustments ;)

Super busy FOOD day!!  I’m pooped but still have a bunch to do. 

Later bloggies! 

~Ashley

pomegranate poP!

So, as I have said before, I am entering the POM blogger recipe contest.  I made trial #1 and #2 last night, and it’s already getting close to what I want!!

I heard a tip on how to get the arils [the pomegranate seeds] out of the fruit!  If you have never tried eating a pomegranate I suggest you do!!  The season is coming to a quick end.  Just know that, these require patience + an old t-shirt ;)  They stain like crazy and you don’t have much control over keeping some of the seeds from bursting.

So the tip was to take the seeds out submerged in a bowl of water!  This might be standard practice, but I had never heard it before.  Maybe I’ll give a step-by-step instruction the next time I cut one open.

I have been craving salad lately.  Not sure why?  I had one the other night at a restaurant but it didn’t do it for me.  You could tell the lettuce had been preserved with something and it was really dry.  The toppings were sub-par.  I have a hard time ordering salad at restaurants anymore because of this reason.  It’s usually the actual lettuce that I’m most disappointed with.  Food snob? No…just hard to eat something that tastes way worse than when you make it at home! 

So…we had a snowstorm [still snowing] last night and I decided I needed to go to Whole Foods to get my salad ingredients because pizza delivery was not gonna’ do it for me :)

Ahhh, it twas’ delicious.  Exactly what I needed!!

• 1/2 baby lettuce mix + 1/2 arugula
• 1/2 red pepper
• 8 baby bellas
• 1/2 carrot
• handful broccoli
• 1 hard boiled egg
• handful cherry tomatoes

I also toasted and ripped up 1 piece of GHBC bread, from a mini loaf I had, and used that for croutons…mmm

I dressed it with an organic 365 brand dressing that was awesome!  It was made with PURE extra virgin olive oil.  Check your labels people!!  When you see balsamic-type dressings a lot of time they are made with 1/2 or less olive oil and sometimes even none at all.  Usually you will see soybean oil or canola oil in the list before olive oil. 

This had a good tang to it too, which must be the apple cider vinegar I found in the ingredient list.  It tasted extremely fresh and cost just under $3.50.

My oats this morning were insanely amazing! 

• 1/3c. oats
• 1/3c. rice milk
• 1/3c. vanilla hemp milk
• 1/2 banana
• 1tsp. vermont maple sugar
• 1/4tsp. chia seeds
• 1T walnuts
• 2T pomegranate arils
• 1T hempseed granola [bulk bins at Whole Foods + Earthfare]
• 1T Maranatha almond butter
• dash of cinnamon

I stirred this bowl up so everything was combined and it was SO good.  There was some major CRUNCH action with all the toppings and the additional BURST of juice that was awesome. 

Well, I think we’re kind of stuck inside on this cold snowy day.  We have about 1’ of snow and the roads aren’t that great.  I have a lot to get done before leaving for Ohio this week, so hopefully I will be productive today!  Maybe I’ll even take some photos of the POM recipe I’m working on :)

~Ashley

quickie in the queen city

So I found these in my grandma’s cupboard.  The deeelicious buttery cookies you get when you fly on Delta.  I ate half the sleeve over the course of 3 days :)  4 cookies have 150cals.  I thought they would be SO much worse because of how buttery and delicious they are.

I drove back to Charlotte Wed. night so I could get up and go on Thursday, and not have a 2hr drive first thing in the morning.  I went to visit Rachel, a good friend of mine from grad school.  She lives in our old apt. complex which was weird to be back at!  I miss our little NoDa neighborhood and our friends!

She got a boxer puppy right after we moved away.  Super sweet puppy named Kaya, and looks kinda similar to Dakota!

She + her boy [Brandon] now also have a kitten named Guru.

Rachel + Brandon do a lot of freelance work in their spare time.  Check out their stuff, it’s seriously awesome! 

Kaya slept in my lap for about 30min.  She is such a good little pup!

I went over to Eric’s house [I used his kitchen for my ota.bar business!] after visiting Rachel.   Kelsey was [obviously] there too and in the process of making me an amazing dinner.  Freshly caught [by Eric + Kelsey] shrimp alfredo.  It rocked my world!

oh.was.this.UHmazing.

Alica, Chris + Avery stopped over to say HI too!!  Soooo good to see them. 

Lil’ stinker!

Penny was there for the party too!

Dad + Avery

Alicia [Avery’s momma] + Me

Kelsey, Kath, and I planned to go to Yoga1 to get our yoga-sweat on at 8am.  I miss it SO much!  After, we came back to Eric’s for breakfast.  Pumpkin pancake mix from Trader Joes…YUM

Didn’t get any good pancake photos…but I made us initial pancakes :) 2 K’s and an A

Super fun sweaty, then delicious, morning with the girls!

I think Eric + Kelsey should run a bed + breakfast.  Look at these accommodations!       

Which TV to use??

Spa-like bathroom

Back at the airport.  I bought the Real Simple holiday edition.  It was pretty good, better than the Thanksgiving one.  This one had great gift ideas and a lot of good recipes.  I did some research for my grandma on the Glycemic Index.  Really interesting information, that I knew a good amount about, but have learned so much more since reading this book and other sources.  Chomped on some almonds too! 

My layover was in Kansas City, Missouri.  What a weird airport!!  It was super small and when you got off your plan you had to walk back out into the arrival area of the airport.  So then you walk to your next gate, and have to go through security again.  It was really weird!  And, all of the food places were in the arrival area, so just like always, you can’t bring any drinks through after security.  No coffee while waiting for the plane! They had a snack cart in where you waited for the actual plane. 

I know everyone has had their fair share of bad travel/airport experiences.  I’ll spare you the details on mine and just say “INSERT ANNOYING AIRPORT RANT STORY HERE” :)

Besides the silly airport rant, Starbucks made me want to rant too!  I am NOT their biggest fan.  There weren’t any good food options at this airport so I thought I’d give the Starbucks oatmeal a try.  When I opened the container the oats were gummy and pretty gross looking.

I then decided it would be a good idea to add chocolate Amazing Grass to the oats along with some peanut butter.  I don’t recommend this!!  I choked it down, but it was not good!  Obviously, that was my fault, but the oats themselves, were no bueno.

I got a chai tea latte instead of coffee and it was THEE worst I have ever had.  It was nice and frothy and smelled good, but tasted like I was drinking straight syrup.  It was SO sweet and WAY too many flavors.  I forced myself to drink 1/4 of it just because they are so expensive.  I literally couldn’t drink it.  I would have rather eaten 5 bowls of my grassy oats than 1/2 of this drink! n.a.s.t.y.

Caribou has a realllly good Chai Latte if you have the option of one or the other!

In flight snack.

I made it back safe and sound and will be leaving in less than a week to fly to Ohio to meet up with my family and then drive to Michigan for my grandpa’s funeral.  So much traveling!

Have a great weekend!! Off to work on my POM contest recipe!! :)

~Ashley