Tag Archives: Food Photography

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

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The meal I’m sharing today is definitely not the prettiest meal, but it was the tastiest new meal that we’ve made in a while. And, it’s super simple, healthy, satisfying and is definitely going to be added to our weeknight meal rotation. There are three parts to this meal: the sweet potato, the protein and the toppings (guac!). Here are the details:

Sweet potatoes:
I roast sweet potatoes weekly and here’s how I do it: wash the sweet potatoes, prick them all over with a fork, wrap tightly in aluminum foil, place in the oven (450°) and bake until soft – usually 45 minutes to an hour, depending on their size. 

Protein:
For this particular meal, I used ground pork (that I buy locally!). I cooked it in a skillet with the green chile sauce pictured below. The flavor of the pork on its own was actually kind of subtle – it did just a have bit of spice to it – but was excellent in the dish as a whole. You could really use any protein you wanted in this recipe – meat or plant-based. I think almost anything would work!

Guacamole:
I love making gauc and usually do it the same every time. For this batch, I used three avocados, the juice of two limes, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. I blend everything together until very smooth in my Ninja.

Tomatoes:
I mixed cherry tomatoes with a touch of avocado oil, fresh cilantro, salt and pepper. Simple and delicious.

Putting the meal together is so simple: Split open the sweet potato and fill with your protein of choice. Top with lots (and lots) of guacamole, tomatoes and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro, and enjoy!

This meal was not photogenic, so I didn’t include many photos, but it was oh so nourishing and tasty.

*Note about the green chile sauce I use in this recipe – I am all about making things from scratch, but there are a few things that I will buy already made – things like the green chile sauce I used in this recipe. I am super picky about buying packaged goods, and the green chile sauce that I bought from Wegman’s passed my test. It was made with minimal ingredients and they were all whole, real ingredients that I would have used at home.

Summer Cooking Inspiration – Herbed Zucchini Noodles with Grilled Shrimp and Tomatoes

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In an effort to share more of what we love and what we cook, here is the first in hopefully a little series of summer cooking inspiration posts.

These posts will serve as just that – inspiration. I won’t have exact recipes of what we made – I will just share photos of the process and notes of what we did in hopes that it inspires you to cook something that makes you happy.

This one was a perfect summertime meal – zucchini noodles with grilled shrimp and tomatoes. We cooked this meal on our charcoal grill and enjoyed every moment of a perfect not-quite-summer evening.

Here’s what we did:

Zucchini noodles:
We spiralized 3 large zucchinis and tossed them generously with olive oil, salt and pepper. We actually cooked these on the grill, in our vegetable grate, and it worked so well. We cooked them, tossing often, for about ten minutes. Right before we pulled them off the grill, we added minced garlic and freshly chopped herbs. We used herbs from our garden – basil and rosemary. Once off the grill, we mixed in fresh lemon juice.

Shrimp and tomatoes:
We skewered the shrimp and tomatoes separately. To season, we mixed minced garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil and a ton of fresh lemon zest. We brushed this on both the tomatoes and shrimp before going onto the grill, and then again once we flipped them on the grill. We cooked the tomatoes until the were slightly blistered, and they were just perfect in this dish.

The dinner:
For putting the meal together, we just topped the zucchini noodles with the grilled shrimp and tomatoes. We didn’t do this, but thought that it would also be great topped with a bit of fresh Parmesan cheese.

One thing we would change next time is adding a bit more seasoning to the zucchini noodles. We’d probably add more salt, pepper and herbs, lemon juice and maybe a pinch of red pepper flakes. 

Our favorite part of the meal was the marinade/seasoning mix we made for the shrimp and tomatoes. The combo of olive oil, minced garlic, lemon zest, salt and pepper was so, so delicious and the flavor really came through nicely in the dish. We will be making that again to put on many things. I think the key was using a lot of lemon zest – I used the zest from one large and thoroughly zested lemon.

Take a look:

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Celebrating with Cake

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Lately, I’ve had a lot to celebrate, and I did so with this cake.

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This cake helped me celebrate:

Another full year of my life.
A weekend spent with my family.
Greg and I’s first batch of homemade beer (more on that later!).
Another full year spent with Greg.
Six full, happy months at an apartment and job that are both loved.
 Almost one full year of The Dreaming Foodie!
And everyday, I’m celebrating being one day closer to spring!

I don’t make cakes often, but I’ve decided that when I do, they are going to count. Just like the cake I made to celebrate the new year, much thought and time went into this one. I took parts of this recipe, from Sweetapolita, for vanilla cake with homemade blackberry filling. I followed the vanilla cake recipe exactly, followed the blackberry filling recipe exactly, and made the vanilla frosting but used regular sugar and added a vanilla bean. Warning though, if you use regular cane sugar in frosting, the frosting will be crunchy! Although it sounds delicious, I left the vanilla mascarpone filling out for reasons of simplicity.

I simply made two 5-inch vanilla cakes, let them cool, topped one with both vanilla frosting and blackberry filling, placed the other cake on top, and spread vanilla frosting roughly all around.

This cake was so delicious, but was made better by the people who I shared it with. Isn’t that the best? It’s so great to celebrate with cake.

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Thanksgiving Burgers

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Or: lentil-rice-cranberry-thyme-walnut burgers.

That’s what these really are, but that’s far too long a title, and I like Thanksgiving Burgers better anyway. Each one of those ingredients is important though, and with one missing, this burger just wouldn’t be the same.

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Around Thanksgiving, there are always sandwiches talked about that have all the season’s fixings on them. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy. I always think that sounds so good other than the fact that I don’t like turkey, and a stuffing, cranberry + gravy sandwich just doesn’t sound as appealing. Lately, I have been craving a Thanksgiving sandwich, so I decided to make one of my very own.

All of the ingredients and flavors in this burger are what remind me of Thanksgiving. And all of the flavors bring me comfort during these cold months.

Lentils: I was cooking lentils the other day and they smelled so buttery. I thought they would be the perfect base for my Thanksgiving burger.
Brown rice: A hearty grain that I love on its own and in vegetarian burgers.
Cranberries: Can’t have a Thanksgiving burger without the cranberries. A sweet/tart punch among the many savory flavors in this sandwich.
Thyme: I am obsessed with it. It is the perfect-to-me cold weather seasoning.
Walnuts: Can’t get enough of putting walnuts in food. They add a great crunchy texture to these burgers.

I would never pass up the real Thanksgiving dinner for one of these burgers, but they will from now on quickly satisfy a Thanksgiving craving whenever one hits. Although these burgers are great plain + right out of the skillet, they are even better on a bun, with melted cheese and sautéed mushrooms.

Thanksgiving, in a burger. Healthy, comforting deliciousness:

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Thanksgiving Burgers
Yields 5
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Ingredients
  1. 1 cup prepared green or brown lentils
  2. 1 cup prepared brown rice
  3. 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  4. 1/2 cup rolled oats
  5. 2 tablespoons olive oil
  6. 2 celery stalks, diced
  7. 1/2 of a yellow onion, diced
  8. 1/2 cup walnuts
  9. 2 garlic cloves, minced
  10. 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  11. 3/4 teaspoon salt
  12. 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  13. 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  14. 1 tablespoon ground flax
  15. Buns, optional
  16. Cheese of your choice, optional
  17. Sliced mushrooms for topping, optional
Instructions
  1. There are a lot of little parts to this recipe. I found it easy to do all the little parts as my lentils and rice were cooking, then everything was ready to put together at once.
  2. While the lentils and rice are cooking, place the dried cranberries in a small bowl and cover them with hot water. This will rehydrate them. Let sit for about 25 minutes.
  3. Pulse the 1/2 cup rolled oats in a food processer until they resemble a coarse crumb. Remove from the food processor and set aside in a small bowl.
  4. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the diced celery and onion. Cook for several minutes, or until the veggies are softened and slightly browned. Remove from heat and set aside.
  5. In a pan over medium-high heat, toast the walnuts. I place them in the pan and toss around for about 5 minutes, or until they smell fragrant and are slightly golden. Once toasted, remove from heat and set aside.
  6. Once all of the parts are prepared and the lentils and rice are slightly cooled, add 1 cup lentils, 2 minced garlic cloves, thyme, salt, pepper and onion powder to a food processor and process until mixture is paste-like.
  7. Add the cranberries, celery and onion and pulse a few times, just to lightly incorporate. You want to retain chunks of the veggies and cranberries.
  8. Add 1 cup of rice, toasted walnuts and ground flax to the food processor and pulse several times, just to lightly incorporate. You want the burgers to have texture to them, rather than being completely smooth.
  9. Add the mixture to a large bowl and add the pulsed oat flour, a little at a time, until the burgers come together and are just slightly sticky. You want to be sure they will stay together when cooked.
  10. Add olive oil to a pan and once hot, add patted out burgers, cooking on the first side until toasted and golden brown. Flip burgers, and cook until other side is toasted and golden brown.
  11. While the burgers are cooking, add the sliced mushrooms to a pan with olive oil and cook until softened. If you want, add some white wine in with the mushrooms and cook until all liquid is absorbed.
  12. Place burgers on a bun and if desired, top with cheese and sautéed mushrooms.
  13. Enjoy!
Notes
  1. On their own, these burgers are vegan + gluten free.
  2. These burgers cook well right after putting everything together, but cook even better if mixture is refrigerated a few hours. If you have the time, refrigerate several hours after oat flour is mixed in.
The Dreaming Foodie https://www.thedreamingfoodie.com/

A Cake + A New Year

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Happy 2014, everyone!

I hope that your holidays were delightful!

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Now, let’s talk about this cake + this brand new year.

I made this cake on Monday. I don’t know why, I just wanted to. And so I did. This cake was to me, so beautiful and also so delicious. This cake is a combination of two wonderful ideas. I used this recipe, for lemon cake, from Always With Butter and this rosemary buttercream, idea from My Name is Yeh. While this is an unconventional cake flavor combination, trust me when I say it’s delicious. For what I like in a dessert, it is close to perfection. Not overly sweet, not overly common and the flavors are meant to be together.

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Let’s do more of that in this new year. Let’s do things just because we want to. We do so many things because we (feel like) we have to. Let’s do more of the stuff that makes our hearts happy.

What are you looking for in the new year?

I’m looking at the new year as a way to refocus my ideas, visions and the things that I want to do. I don’t quite know yet exactly where I want to be one year from now, or what I want to have accomplished, but I am slowly working through having a more concrete idea in my mind.

I am now a college graduate, and have been for 8 months. I made it through the end of 2013 often struggling to know exactly what the future will look like for me. I resolve to embrace the blank canvas ahead of me this year, rather than concern myself with the unknown. I resolve to keep doing what makes my heart happy, and trust that I’m doing the right thing. 

As far as my blog goes, I know I want it to improve, but in what exact ways I am not sure yet. The word improve is very vague, but that’s all I’ve got so far. I read this interview yesterday on The Huffington Post, with Sarah from The Vanilla Bean Blog. I absolutely love the advice she gave to bloggers. She said:

“Discover your voice and be true to it. It’s okay to learn from others and emulate them while you’re learning and practicing, but figure out what unique things you want to bring to your photos, your words, your recipes, and always be moving towards them. Also, quality over quantity is important.”

That’s about as concrete a goal as any for me right now. I want to do what she said. I want to find out what exactly it is I want from this blog and for this blog. I want my intentions to be clear in my head. I potentially want this blog to lead me to something someday. What that something is, I have no idea at this point. But as I see it, to be completely in love with what I put on here and for it to be a complete representation of me is the first step to getting to that something. 

For the first few months of The Dreaming Foodie, I was obsessed with posting something 5 days a week. I put so much work into creating those posts. While I don’t regret that at all (it’s all part of the process that Sarah talks about in her advice), that is not the direction I intend to go any longer. There was a period during the summer that I stressed about not posting enough. I stressed about not even being able to post twice a week. That’s going to be all behind me now. I intend to not even pick a number for how often I will post. Instead, I will work hard to develop ideas and to execute those ideas in the best way until I bring them to this blog. When they come, they come. Because of that and because I will still be working to make money, I probably won’t be posting as often. 

But know that I won’t be stressing about it. No more. I resolve for this blog to bring no stress, only happiness + growth. Know that when I do post, it will be a complete representation of me and what I want to bring to the world.

I do know that I love this blog and I love sharing ideas with all of you. Thank you, to all of you!, for reading, for your comments and for your support of The Dreaming Foodie.

Thanks for listening to my new year ramblings. Let’s make it a good + completely delicious year!