Fresh Kitchen in South Tampa

I always love trying out new food and exploring new restaurants in the area. A popular restaurant group in the Bay Area, Ciccio Restaurant Group, recently opened another winning restaurant concept just down the street from their other eateries in South Tampa called Fresh Kitchen. This restaurant features healthy and delicious entrees, desserts and cold-press juices. The concept reminds me much of chipotle, where you go down the line choosing your base, meats, veggies and toppings, except everything is healthy. You have your options of bases like quinoa, sweet potato noodles, kale slaw, brown rice and more.

With my friends from Never Have I Ever Tampa, I was able to sample a number of the cold-press juices, gluten-free and paleo friendly desserts and also an entree. It's no secret that I believe the best tasting foods have unspeakable amounts of sugars and fats, so I was a bit hesitant to think that these healthy green juices and paleo-approved snacks could actually taste good. I was wrong. The juices were phenomenal, the brownies, cookies and rice krispy alternatives were great and I cleaned the entire bowl I had of kale slaw, bbq chicken, steak, roasted brussels and green beans.

The location can be a bit tricky to get to since there are limited parking spots, and those spots only have a 7.5 or 16 minute limit. Just enough time to get your order to go, or like many of the patrons, come after your work out. If you are not dressed in workout gear, you are definitely the minority.

Local eateries like this and many others popping up in the area that are focused on healthier options are really transforming the way we view our food. A foodie's dream.

Cookie Butter Dip

Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter made into a dessert dip.

Guys, this is an award winning dip. At least it was when I made it at an office dip off contest! It's a super easy recipe and it's very forgiving, so you can add as much or as little of the cookie butter you want depending on your preference. And it's cookie butter, you can't go wrong. So next time you're in Trader Joe's pick up a jar, and the other ingredients, and wow your friends.

Cookie Butter Dip Recipe

1 8oz cream cheese
1 cup cookie butter
1/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup crushed toffee candy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Drizzle
1 tablespoon cookie butter
1 teaspoon milk
1/2 teaspoon confection sugar (add more to thicken)

Topping
Crushed pecan praline and toffee candy

1. Mix all of the ingredients (cream cheese, cookie butter, milk, sugar and vanilla) and then fold in the toffee.
2. Add the drizzle, praline and toffee toppings and refrigerate until cold.

Peach Cobbler

Because nothing says hellooo summer like a peach cobbler and some ice cream.

Dinner for One: Seared Scallops and Cabbage

The thing about having your own place is that you are responsible for all your meals. You simply cannot open your fridge and expect there to be food. You have to get food to put it there. It was a simpler time when I was living with my parents. I never had to worry about what I was going to have for dinner. But I digress. 

So one of my dinners this week was this scallops, bacon and cabbage dish. It was quick and easy to make, which is perfect on a week night.

What else is a good dish to make on a weekday evening? 

Sunday Breakfast: Spinach Baked Eggs

It's been such a long time since I've made breakfast and posted about it on here!

Over the weekend, I invited some family over for breakfast. This version is different than these baked eggs. Both very good!

Luckily, I had enough food in my fridge to put together a meal. Even though I've settled in my apartment just over a month now, I never seem to have much in the fridge. This recipe is super easy, packed with flavor and all around... delicious.

Spinach baked eggs recipe

8 eggs (2 eggs per ramekin)
1 tablespoon of butter
1/2 teaspoon of olive oil
1 cup of spinach
1 minced shallot
1 tablespoon of rosemary
1/2 tablespoon of thyme
3 tablespoons of heavy cream
parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

1. Heat the skillet with butter and sauté the spinach, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Heat olive oil and the rest of the butter, sauté the shallots until translucent. Add the rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
3. Preheat the oven to 375. Add a teaspoon of butter to each ramekin and heat in the oven until melted. Once heated, add spinach, 1 tablespoon of cream, two cracked eggs and drizzle the butter herb mixture on top.
4. Bake for about 7 minutes. Add cheese, wait about 1-2 minutes before serving.

** You may add cheese before baking if you like it melted. 

White Chocolate Toffee Popcorn

One of my favorite things about going to a party is, yes, the camaraderie among friends, but also bringing along a dish or snack. Because, really, what is a get together without food? I wanted to make something simple and easy to snack on; and popcorn came to mind.

I was inspired by the market gourmet, dessert kind. So this is not just your normal buttery microwave popcorn.

But, it might as well be though with how easy it was to make. So I present you with a sort-of recipe for homemade white chocolate toffee popcorn since you can’t really go wrong with what you add in it or how much of it.

I also packaged them in cute little cellophane bags with a handwritten label for easy snacking. 

The ingredients:

For the popcorn itself, I used 2 bags of salted popcorn, no butter.

A bag of white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips and Heath toffee bits.

The method:

Short version: Melt the chocolate, mix it in with the toffee and cool in the fridge.

Detailed version:

After popping, I poured all the popcorn into a big bowl and melted about half the bag of white chocolate chips the double boiler way (heat a pot of water and putting a bowl over it).

Drizzle the white chocolate over the popcorn slowly and mix until the popcorn is coated. Add in the toffee bits and place the popcorn onto a cookie sheet.

Melt the milk chocolate the same way as the white chips (this time, I used ¼ of the bag) and drizzle it over the popcorn using a spoon or like me, put it in a ziplock bag, cut a small corner and squeeze the chocolate. (much cleaner and even result).

Refrigerate for 20 minutes to cool.

Ippudo Ramen

This restaurant deserves a post of its own. It is not your average, college ramen. Served with big soup spoons, house made noodles and toppings of your choice, it was the best bowl of ramen noodles I ever did have.

The pork buns were awesome too. Order them!

Before getting to New York City, Joshua made it our mission to find a ramen shop. We had to. I'm so glad we chose Ippudo. We would definitely make a trip back to the city just for their ramen.

Sunday Breakfast: Overnight Baked French Toast

I'm really liking the idea of pre-made breakfast. Like how this oatmeal was made overnight, this french toast was too. sort of. The night before, I threw all of the ingredients together and let the egg mixture soak into the bread overnight, and then baked it in the morning.

Sunday Breakfast: Peaches and Granola

My Sunday morning was like how all sunday mornings should be. Quiet, peaceful, sunny, relaxing... all the adjectives you can think of to make a Sunday sound perfect. Although, it was not. Yes it was sunny, and yes, it was quiet, but it was also rather lonely coupled with a bad (burnt) batch of granola and over-ripe peaches. I looked at my granola and thought "maybe I can eat it still..." but by how black it was, I think it was best to part with it. And the peaches? Cooking overly ripe fruit results in a mushy mess. Luckily I had a few left that were not too ripe to make a part two of these caramelized peaches and granola for my greek yogurt.

All this to say, not all of what we see is the whole truth of the matter.

And also, to keep a watchful eye over your granola in the oven. 



I used my favorite honey granola recipe but without the dried fruit.

Caramelized Peaches

1 tablespoon of butter
Peach slices (I used just one peach)
Honey

Heat butter over a skillet and add in the peaches. Cook until soft and drizzle on the honey.

Sunday Breakfast: breakfast quiche

Sunday breakfast is more than just breakfast in my home. It's become a story, a celebration and a time to be creative. Although my Sunday mornings seem a bit routine - boring even: wake up, make breakfast, take pictures, eat and enjoy. It's really the little things that goes into the process that makes each one special and unique.



Take this past weekend for instance when Joshua was in town.

Sunlight flooded through my bedroom blinds, beckoning us to wake. Too beautiful a morning to let it go to waste. So we two, for the first time together, rode our bikes to the market for breakfast essentials. Such a sight we were on our mismatched bikes and matching mismatched outfits. It didn't matter. It was such a luxury biking beside him for a morning errand. Fresh air and quiet roads, just us two. It didn't bother me how crazy my hair must've looked in the resistance of the breeze or that I wasn't wearing makeup, because to him, it's not important. That's love isn't it?

If only all mornings could start off like this. Routine or not. But it's rare moments like these that makes a mundane errand something much more. I find that it's just the little things that make the heart flutter and a boring morning better.

We even invited some friends over to share and to chit chat about nothing. I love weekends.

Ham and Red Pepper Quiche

3 eggs

1 store bought pie crust at room temperature

½ cup of Italian cheese

½ cup chopped red pepper

¼ cup of chopped cooked ham

½ cup of sautéed spinach (olive oil and garlic)

1 ½ teaspoon of all-purpose flour

½ cup of milk

1/8 teaspoon of Italian seasoning

Salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Press the pie crust into a pie pan, trim the excess dough and roll the top of the crust. Line the piecrust with foil and beans or rice. Bake for 7 minutes then remove the foil and beans or rice, bake for 2-3 more minutes until piecrust is dry. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 325.

Combine cheese, red pepper, ham, flour and seasonings. Beat in the eggs and milk. Pour mixture into the pie shell and bake for 20 minutes or until the filling is set. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving. 

013 // Sunday Breakfast

Joshua and I had a really active weekend celebrating my birthday (thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes!) and Valentine's Day. It was one activity after another and there was hardly any time for us to just be. It was a great weekend nonetheless, and especially since Joshua and I haven't seen each other for a while, it was good that we had the chance to do a lot of things in just a couple days.

So, unlike past Sundays when I had the morning all to myself, yesterday we woke up early to get ready to go to Busch Gardens with our friends. So I whipped us up a quick egg and toast breakfast to carry us through to midday, and we were out the door. It was roller coasters, water rides and sun tanning all day.



How was your weekend?

012 // Sunday Breakfast

I usually try to avoid making breakfast that takes a long time to make. But, like last week, sometimes I can't help it. Yesterday morning, I woke up with an urge to bake. I had all of the ingredients to make banana bread, so I rounded them up and made another mess in the kitchen.

Oh let me tell you! As that bread baked, how wonderful my house smelled. The aroma of vanilla and banana seeped out of the cervices of that little oven of mine and pushed its way out filling up all the spaces in the hallway and living room. 

I had a pretty generous amount of batter, so I made some mini muffins. :) This recipe was passed down to me from my aunt. It originally called for mayonnaise, but I opted out, substituting it instead with yogurt. Best banana bread recipe I've ever used.

Banana Bread

4 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups of flour
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix sugar, yogurt, eggs and vanilla.
Add in dry ingredients slowly.
Add in mashed bananas.
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour