Category Archives: Snacks and Sides

I Eat Vegetables

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I promise, I do.

I realized I refer to this as a vegetarian food blog, but instead of posting creative vegetarian recipes I just post desserts! Which is especially silly since I eat an awful lot of creative vegetarian food. So I’m going to focus more on posting recipes for *real* food, not just desserts. Although I won’t ever lose my sweet tooth, I promise :) Exciting recipes forthcoming!

I got to run around Seattle a couple of weeks ago for a job interview, which was pretty fun. There wasn’t a ton of things to do as a tourist besides drink lots and lots of yummy coffee, but I did stop by Pike Place Market where they have the first Starbucks, lots of smelly fish, and tons of produce stands.

So that’s kind of my inspiration for this dish – it’s really all about the vegetable. That and the fact that I happened to stop by the Asian market and picked these up! You can serve it as a side, or I like to eat tons of it as a snack.

Spicy Garlic Bok Choy
Feel free to double or even triple the recipe, depending on how many people you’re serving.

Ingredients
3 baby bok choy, halved
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp teriyaki sauce
1 tsp sriracha
1 large clove garlic, minced
chili flakes to taste

Instructions
1. Steam bok choy in the microwave, about two minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together all sauces and spices. Add the bok choy and coat thoroughly. Serve warm.

Easy right? And delicious.

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Last weekend my dad and brother were here visiting my school, so that was really great. We did a bit of sightseeing around Pittsburgh, went to the Andy Warhol museum, saw Hunger Games (a second time for me), and went out to eat… a lot. In three days with them we went out to eat four times. I never eat at restaurants that much, and I was feeling kind of gross afterward. I really don’t understand how some people can do that all the time!

For brunch on Saturday, we went to Pamela’s, which if you’re from Pittsburgh you know has the best breakfast in the entire world. If you’re not from Pittsburgh, you should be sad you don’t have Pamela’s. I was afraid I talked it up too much and my family would be disappointed, but they were just as impressed as I said they would be.

They’re famous for their hotcakes, which are about halfway between a pancake and a crepe. I need to figure out how they do it! I had some stuffed with apples, my brother had them with strawberries, and my dad had French toast.

I actually had two weekend breakfasts – I cooked with two friends on Sunday. Yes, that’s right, we added a new member to our breakfast club! I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the result, so I’ll skip posting the recipe. If you’re curious though, we made German pancakes.

Instead, I’m going to explain how to prepare an artichoke. I absolutely love artichokes, and would be perfectly content to eat one everyday. They were on sale for a dollar apiece at the market last week, so I got one and had it over the weekend. I was a bit intimidated by it, but preparing it is really easy.

First, start by tearing off some of the petals from the bottom and slicing off most of the stem.

Then, take your kitchen shears and cut off the tops of the petals where they have that annoying little thorn. Just do this for the bottom 2/3 of the artichoke, and then slice off the whole top third. After it will look like this:

Then, rinse the whole thing, making sure to get water in between the petals. Put it in a glass bowl in about 3cm of water, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave 5-7 min until tender.

Then eat!! Pull off the petals and scrape off the meat on the inside with your teeth. You can dip it in melted butter with some lemon pepper, which is amazing. I didn’t have any lemon pepper, though, so I dipped mine in pesto!

Snack Attack

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I’m a big snacker. I’m always snacking between meals, which is actually really good for you – as long as you snack on healthy things. Especially for college students, I think it’s really easy to get into a habit of munching on potato chips and Goldfish all day. Obviously those things are fine to eat occasionally, but I never buy them because I know I’ll end up eating too much of them. I like to think I have a pretty healthy set of snacks, so I wanted to write a quick post about what I eat.

  • Raw nuts, particularly almonds and cashews. Nuts are packed with protein, which is great for vegetarians like me, and essential fatty acids. I really like to grab a small handful of almonds to eat as a post-workout snack.
  • Granny smith apples. Any apples, really, but granny smith is my favorite kind – they’re tart and crisp and just taste fresh. I like to toss apple slices with a little bit of lemon juice and a dash of cinnamon; it tastes like apple pie!
  • Kakimochi, aka Hawaiian rice crackers. Not exactly the healthiest, but I have so much from my recent trip to Hawaii that they just need to be eaten up. In moderation, of course.
  • Baby carrots and hummus, especially the Mediterranean Hummus from Trader Joe’s.
  • Frozen grapes. They’re really great if you’re craving something sweet – it’s like a popsicle only much healthier and bite-sized.
  • Roasted or grilled chickpeas are a great way for me to get extra protein. Toss some chickpeas with a little olive oil and spices, and either roast in the oven for 30 min or throw on the stove for about 15 min. They’re addictive! As for spices, I like to use a Hawaiian curry seasoning my grandma gave me, but you can try curry powder, cumin, or even cinnamon.

If you ever want to know more about what you’re eating, I like to look at this site for nutrition info. It has way more information than you’d ever really need to know about any food you can imagine, which is really great if you’re using raw ingredients which don’t usually come with a nutrition label.

What about you guys? What do you snack on? Let me know in the comments – I’m always looking for more ideas!