Looking back on this summer (ack, it’s almost over!)  I realized one of my favorite new types of food is Mediterranean food. I.e. typical variations of all things pita, hummus, cucumber-y, and in my opinion, the most exciting – falafel!

Mediterranean food has definitely been one of my summer staples. I’ve eaten at Lebanese Taverna approximately a million ten times this summer, so I decided to commit to the next step in my relationship with Mediterranean food: make it myself.

Well, kind of. Make it from a mix and store bought pre-cooked chicken and sauce. But that’s how I roll, alright?

Plus, it didn’t hurt that falafel mix is $3.49 per box. That means about 12 falafel balls total, resulting in anywhere from 4-6 meals for 1 person or 2-3 meals for 2 people.

It might not be the healthiest of healthy food, being fried in vegetable oil and all, but I think the ingredients of the mix (chickpeas, fava beans, garlic, spice, baking powder, salt) still qualify as semi-clean.

Either my falafel patties were too big or my whole wheat pitas were too small!

Tuna totes gets the credit for Monday night’s meal – it was seriously like eating Lebanese Taverna but at home! Falafel with brown rice and pre-cooked frozen grilled chicken strips, all drizzled with Trader Joe’s Tzatziki sauce aka creamy garlic cucumber dip to non-foodies or to me before Saturday.

Time to infuse one summer staple with another: pasta salad with some Mediterranean flavor. Actually….regular pasta salad with more Tzatziki sauce because I can’t get enough of it.

This is a version of my mom’s pasta salad slash what I had in the freezer or lack thereof.

End of Summer Pasta Salad

5-6 Servings

Ingredients

• 1 package whole wheat pasta
• 1/2 bag frozen peas
• 1/2 bag frozen shelled edamame (good source of protein!)
• 1/2 cup sliced carrots
• 1/4 cup chopped red pepper
• 1/4 cup red onion
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• tbsp dijon mustard
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup tzatziki sauce mixed in
• tbsp of extra tzatizki sauce on top of each serving

In other news, I am 3 lbs away from my goal weight, and a week and a half away from the Tough Mudder!

Wouldn’t it be cool if I could reach my goal weight and successfully complete the Tough Mudder in the same week? That would be pretty cool.

Does anyone have any recipes of healthier falafel (not fried in a ton of vegetable oil?) My apartment still reeks of fried food.

Do you usually try new types of food at restaurants or at home?

Welp, I sure didn’t budget my money that well this month!

No, it didn’t have to do with splurging on my fancy new shoes or the heavy duty overpriced headphones I bought online.

Ok, maybe it did a little bit.

Basically, this past week I needed to make lots of meals on a minimal budget. It was kind of a pain, but it was also nice to use my brain a little bit and be resourceful. Since you know I am slightly OCD like planning ahead, of course.

Without further ado, I present to you: Cheap-Ass What I Ate Wednesday.

I still wanted to make sure my meals this week were healthy and involved getting plenty of protein. Luckily, I called upon my trusty secret form of cheap protein – eggs!

Egg Salad Sammie

Makes 3 servings

Ingredients

• 7 hard boiled eggs
• 1/2 tsp mayo
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup chopped cucumbers
• salt
• pepper
• whole wheat bread

Directions

Hard boil 7 eggs. I started out with 9 eggs, but two cracked while coming to a boil. Oh well.

Peel your eggs before you cool them for too long. It’s easier to peel them when they’re still a little warm.

Separate the whites from the yolks.

Cut up the whites and smash up the yolks.

I am weirdly grossed out by mayonnaise, but I had a little bit in my fridge from making deviled eggs awhile ago, so I used a teensy bit for good measure. It probably could have used a bit more, though.

Same thing with mustard. Not a huge mustard fan, mostly likely because I got sent to the principal’s office in second grade for throwing mustard at a boy in the cafeteria for putting a spider on my lunch tray. Brat. (Him, not me…)

Enter weird vegetable substitute secret ingredient. Though many egg salads usually feature celery, I opted for some sliced cucumber because I bought one to have with hummus and salads this week.

Mix everything together in a big bowl.

Add salt and pepper.

Toast some whole wheat bread and you’re good to go!

*****

I also scrounged around the kitchen a bit and decided to make some hazelnut cookie pies since I had a lot of leftover ingredients from baking them a few weeks ago. But this time they got made-over into almond chocolate oatmeal cookies.

I actually used spelt flour this time and it made all the difference! I think it’s finer than oat flour, which worked better with the texture of the cookies.

I added oatmeal in whole, rather than using oat flour. I think I’ll take Michele’s advice and grind it up next time. Will doing that in a blender that work? I don’t have a food processor. Maybe I’ll steal borrow Tuna’s unused brand-new food processor that’s been sitting in the corner of his kitchen since Christmas. Hmm.

Lastly, I added in about 1/4 cup of Truvia as an extra added sweetener.

They were still good (and super filling!) but I think I will keep tweaking them on the next batch. Maybe I’ll add chocolate chips!

*****

Another staple this week (actually, for the past month) has been a huge mexican baked potato for dinner. I love this because it surprisingly fills you up and is super easy to put together.

Ingredients

• 1 russet potato
• cheddar cheese
• salsa (obsessed with the hot Whole Foods brand kind)
• optional – anything! guacamole is especially delish

Directions

Rinse off your potato and poke a bunch of holes in it with a fork so it won’t explode.

Cook in the microwave for 7-10 minutes.

Cut open the potato vertically and add in cheddar cheese, salsa, guacamole, and any other toppings of your choice.

I would be a little nervous about not having straight up protein if I’m just having a baked potato for a meal, but Scott Jurek assured me not to worry in Eat & Run.

“Our bodies pool the amino acids from the foods we eat over the course of the day. I didn’t have to sit down and do the math every time I ate. As long as I ate a varied whole-foods diet with adequate caloric intake, I would get enough complete protein” (p 59).

Sweet. Thanks, Scott!

TGIW. Thank Goodness it’s Wednesday payday.

What’s your go-to food/meal when you’re strapped for cash?

Pasta salad is one of my favorite summer foods. It can be just as healthy as downing an actual salad but fills you up a bit more if you’re tired of eating leaves every day for lunch.

Thanks as always to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday.

I’m giving myself an A for effort on the get-out-of-my-food-rut challenge.

It’s funny because I actually get the Real Simple magazine, but I must have missed this recipe – and instead found it while browsing Pinterest.

Another win for Pinterest!

Typ me, I switched around the ingredients a bit in true CNG style.

When I saw Michelle’s delicious looking giant hazelnut cookies a few weeks ago, I knew I had to try them out.

Hazelnut is a new thing for me – I tried hazelnut coffee at work two months ago and now I have a cup of it every morning!

This is the first time that I made this recipe (I promised I would make something new for What I Ate Wednesday, Min!) and I definitely could make a few adjustments the next time I make them, especially because I switched up some things that I probably shouldn’t have, i.e. flour choices.

And I WILL be making them again, not only because they tasted great but because the ingredients were so damn expensive and I have a lot left over. I’m really encouraging you to make these, huh? 😉

No, but really. They are good.

Ingredients

1 cup oats (I used oat flour)
1 cup wholegrain spelt flour (I used oat flour)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 tbsp almond milk
1/4 cup hazelnuts coarsely chopped
1 tbsp ground flax+ 3 tbsp water
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp powdered sugar (nixing this in the future)

(Also – note: next time I’m going to add 1/4 cup of Truvia Natural Sweetener. I have a sweet tooth!)

Directions

Dump the ground flax seed into the water in a little bowl and mix it together. Let it sit for 15 minutes while you’re making the rest of your batter.

Preheat oven to 350F.

I skipped Michelle’s step: “Process oats in a food processor until you’re left with a coarse flour” and used regular oat flour instead since I don’t own a food processor. Maybe next time I’ll just dump in the oats as is for more of an oatmeally cookie.

Chop up your hazelnuts.

That was the first time I’ve ever tried an actual hazelnut! It was softer than I thought it would be – I was thinking it would be harder, like an almond.

Put the flour, hazelnuts, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a large bowl and mix together.

In a smaller, separate bowl mix together the brown sugar, apple sauce, and almond milk and stir generously.

Add in the flax/water combo to the wet bowl and stir some more.

Dump the wet bowl into the dry bowl and keep on stirrin’.

Once the batter starts to get thick and gooey, begin to separate the dough into six equal sized balls and place on a non-stick cookie tray. It helps to wet your hands before rolling the dough – it kept sticking to my hands!

Flatten down the balls on the cookie sheet so they look like cookie pies.

Put your tray in the already preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes while keeping your eyes glued to the TV watching Olympic gymnastics and biting your nails.

My pies didn’t turn out to look as pretty as I’d hoped…

So I decided to add a little sprinkle (or a big blob) of powdered sugar on top.

Much prettier!

Like my cheap-ass cooling rack? I don’t own a cooling rack, and my middle refrigerator rack has been resting next to my fridge since girls’ night. Perf.

Every time I bake something I end up burning some part of my body.

(source)

This time it was my finger.

The cookie pies are SO dense and chewy that they needed a little something extra to soften them up.

I’m not a huge milk person, but you sure can’t beat cookies and milk.

I think these are going to become a comfort food ’round my apartment. They could be especially good on cold winter nights – maybe served warm!

Did you bake anything this week?

What is your favorite comfort food?

Oh heyyyyy, it’s that time again.

Last week I promised myself I would make something new and exciting this week in hopes that it would jolt me out of my current food rut.

After stalking pinterest to find some fun clean eating recipes, I settled on making this one from the Domestic Mama and the Village Cook’s blog.

Spinach Burgers!

I’ve actually never made a hamburger, so I was pretty pumped to make these spinach-y ones.

To make 4 spinach burgers, you’ll need:

1 bag of spinach
1/4 cup chopped onion (I used red)
1/2 cup crushed pita chips
1/2 cup shredded cheese
2 egg whites
1 whole egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder

I hoofed it over to Whole Foods to grab the shredded cheese and eggs, and of course I forgot about the bread crumbs. Luckily, Tuna had his thinking cap on and remembered he had some pita chips in the pantry (he calls it the cupboard? WTF?) that we could crush up and use as bread crumbs. The substitution worked just fine.

Tuna was nice enough stir up everything in the bowl and make the patties for us so I didn’t even have to get my hands dirty. Bwahaha (evil laugh.)

Aw, look at ’em! Perf little spinach patties.

Put your burner on medium high and make sure to spray some PAM before you plop your patties down.

Let the burgers cook for 4 minutes on each side.

Tuna played photographer and got some cool action shots of the flippage.

Look! I flipped it!

Flatten ’em out….

and put in a toasted pita with hummus. Definitely adding some kind of Mediterranean yogurt sauce next time.Mmmmm.

We were both pleasantly surprised how our spinach burgers turned out! Tuna said that the only drawback is that it gets a little smoky in the kitchen, so make sure to open a window if you are one of those people who always sets the smoke alarm off who has a sensitive smoke alarm.

The other surprising thing – I was actually full after one spinach burger. Whaaaat.

******

Dessert this week is a keeper. At first I was disappointed that I couldn’t find my Powerberries at Trader Joe’s but these aren’t so bad either. 😉

Did you make something new and exciting this week too?

Happy What I Ate Wednesday!

This week, my overnight oats got a makeover. They got blueberrified.

Basically, I was tired of taking thirty seconds to slice strawberries, so I switched up my O.O. fruit this week. And boy am I loving it. I didn’t realize how much of a blueberry lover I am. I even used to avoid blueberry muffins. Oh how times have changed.

*****

I’ve decided I’m completely sick of my hard boiled egg salad every day. Please don’t make me eat any more hard boiled egg salads.

This week, I opted for a different form of protein on my luncheon lettuce.

Quinoaaaaaa.

I added some shredded cheese and olive oil dressing, and it wasn’t too bad.

*****

Since we are snacking sensibly this month, I gobbled down some hummus and veggies in the mid-afternoon. This was my first time trying scallion and parsley hummus. It’s kind of a funny color, but I like it!

Let’s be honest, the veggies and hummus only kept me satiated for approximately one hour.

Emergency raisins to the rescue!

*****

I bought the ingredients for a yummy looking crab, tomato, and avocado salad for a sweet recipe my mom sent me. (Thanks, Mom!)

In my haste to make my fancy salad, there was a terrible casualty:

Nooooooooooooo.

But. But. My O.O. fruit!!!

Now I understand why Whole Foods always puts the rubber bands on produce and eggs. Maybe I should start doing that at home too and not just for transit.

Will you still be friends with me if I violently and aggressively re-wash the blueberries and eat them? Yeah. I think that’s fine…

Back to my version of the Crabby Summer Salad.

The best part – it involves almost no cooking. (I say almost because I put the salad a-top leftover wheat noodles.)

CNG’s Crabby Summer Salad

Ingredients

1/2 Avocado
1 Tomato
3/4 cup corn
1/4 cup chopped red onion
Olive Oil
1 Lime
Crab Flavored Seafood Sticks a.k.a. “Fake”Crab
Cilantro
Salt
Pepper

Note that this is an individual portion of the Crabby Summer Salad. I’m thinking I’ll at least double this recipe and make it for Tuna and I this weekend.

Directions

Chop up the onion and put it in a medium sized bowl with 1 tsp olive oil  and the juice of 1/3 of a lime.

(I actually used white onion in my dish because the store was out of red onions when I went. It was waaay too oniony with white onion. I’ll definitely have to use red next time.)

Heat up the 3/4 cup of corn (I used frozen) in the microwave and dump in the bowl.

Add some cilantro, salt, and pepper.

I used some jalapeno too – that’s what the green things are. I wasn’t really a fan though, so I’m not using it in the official recipe. However, feel free to add your own ingredients! Cooking is all about making a recipe your own.

Step 1

The rest is simple – cut up one small tomato and one half of an avocado.

Deliciousness

Cut up one stick of “fake” crab, pull apart, and mix in.

You can eat the salad by itself, on greens, pasta, or meat.

Enjoy!

I certainly did.

What did you make to eat this week?

What is your favorite summer dish? I love picking crabs at the beach!