Since the last What I Eat dates back to June, I thought we needed another one to round up summer. I keep finding it harder and harder to gather pictures for these. When it comes to the different meals I prepare, I still make a good variety, but there seems to be less of a discovery element to my cooking anymore which it why I usually forget to take pictures. Back when I started this series, I had just started a wheat free diet, something I am still roughly following. But with my intolerance slowly becoming less and less, I find I can eat more ‘normal’ foods too. In other words, I seem to eat along a less interesting line than I did a few years ago. But a girl’s still gotta eat, so here are some of the things I had over summer.
Grilled chicken & rosemary sweet potato fries
A staple meal for me is this super delicious combo. I make variations on this pairing it with fish or adding cinnamon rather than rosemary to the fries. This is also the first time I didn’t have an orange but a yellow sweet potato. I think I prefer the orange ones best. There’s a tad sweeter, but I did feel these yellow ones work better for making fries.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day they say. And I have been finding that out these past few weeks. I now have porridge for breakfast (no pictures because it doesn’t look to appetizing) and during weekends I’ve been enjoying 2 ingredient pancakes. All it takes is a ripe banana and 2 eggs to make a yummy stack of pancakes. I usually add a splash of maple syrup these days, but cinnamon, coconut sugar and fresh fruit make great additions too.
Another favorite food is sushi. This time I didn’t prepare it myself (I should do that again some time soon), but got some take out from a place across the street. Not sure anymore what this exactly is, but it was delicious. I’ve tried sushi from several different places in town and I think I like this one best.
Smoothies are of course a regular factor of my diet. I’ve been foregoing the protein powder lately and just make them as is. I still use coconut milk for liquids and since peaches were in season over summer I had plenty of peach smoothies. Another recent favorite is beetroot with strawberries and blueberries. So yummy and filling!
I love trying out different pastas and I made this very successful version of a pasta with a blue cheese sauce. It features some green beans, leaks and mushrooms for veggies and is completely vegetarian. I shared the yumminess in this recipe.
When it comes to staple foods, this cauliflower pizza is also high on that list. I think I make this every other month or so. This rendition was especially successful. The crust came out nice and golden and the smothering of cheese paired with the tomatoes and mushrooms on top was a great icing on the cake.
Talking about cake, I figured I had to include some pictures of ‘bad food’. Because it was summer and with that comes summer vacation, so it was time for bad food. I couldn’t pass up on a pretzel in Central Park when I was in NY and when I found out Cheesecake Factory still carries my favorite Caramel Pecan Turtle Cheesecake I had to have a slice. I finished the trip with hot dogs in Millennium Park in Chicago and just after my return and before going back to work, I hit up one of my favorite bars in Leiden for some beers. It had been a long time I had had that much beer in one sitting *hips*.
I didn’t do much baking this time round, but when I noticed my almond meal was about to expire, I decided to make a batch of almond meal brownies to use it up. And again, this batch came out lovely. I shared a recipe for these a while ago, but I make them a little bit differently every time. The original recipe calls for honey, but I made these with however much maple syrup I still had left and that is what made these perfect. They have the perfect amount of sweetness without them being too sweet, nor do they have that yucky taste of burnt honey.
Lastly, there are two things that I of course didn’t make myself. I was given a free ice cream cone on the train to work one day. The Dutch railways did something similar last year around the same time of year, so it was nice that they did it again. Especially seeing how many delays I’ve been having ever since I got back to work after vacation, it’s good of them to be handing out something for free. If you ever encounter me and would like to know what to get me from Starbucks then a Caramel Machiatto or Caramel Frappucino are your best bet.
Are there any recipes you’d like to see me try out?