recipe: whole wheat tortillas.

hey buddies. happy almost friday!

i've spent the majority of the day today getting through some lovely detox/side effects of going animal-free, plus sleep deprivation. once again, i've been a blob.

so naturally, what do i do when i'm nauseous and grumpy?

homemade whole wheat tortillas

adapted from the homesick texan

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, spooned and leveled

1/2 cup white flour (i'm experimenting next with all whole wheat... stay tuned)

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 cup warm non-dairy milk (i used trader joe's whole grain drink)

the how to:

mix together your dry ingredients. get your milk warm to the touch, but not scalding. slowly combine the two, mixing into a loose blob (i'm so technical, yes?).

kneed on a floured surface for a few minutes until you get a nice ball of dough. plop it into a bowl, cover with a damp towel, and let it hang out for 15 or 20 minutes.

cut your blob into 8 equal pieces (i made 16 small) and roll into balls. sit on your floured counter (not touching!) and cover with the damp towel. let it chill there for 10 more minutes.

heat up a stainless skillet (or cast-iron, if you have the patience) to medium-high heat. with a rolling pin, roll your balls from the center on the floured counter until even and very thin. keep covered with towel while you cook. add more flour to the counter and pin when things get sticky.

slap one in the dry skillet for about a minute, then flip and cook for about 30 more seconds until you get those cute little burnt bubble-marks. stack them on a plate and keep covered until you eat!

to freeze, stack them with wax paper/parchment between them and pop them in a ziplock.

optional: you could add in 1/4 cup flax, herbs, cumin + garlic powder, or switch out the 1/2 c white flour with rice or spelt flour.

eat up! and for my GF sweeties, i have a few tortilla recipes already picked out and waiting. i've made them before, but it's been a while - i'm tackling them next week!

reviews, races, and remembering momma.

ok... so when did i fall off the face of the blogosphere?

i have a bit to catch up with you guys!

first, can i just say how much i love robert downey jr?

om nom nom.

if going to prison is wrong, i don't wanna be right.

ahem.

iron man 2 was really good! i liked it better than the first one.

and i'm not gonna lie, as much as i want to hate her, can i trade lives with scarlett johansson?

she's absolutely crazy in this movie.

ironic how they're posing identically.

anyways, if you liked the first iron man, go see the second one.

or if you didn't give a crap abou the first one, go watch my husband robert downey jr!

on a completely related note, i got to go to a new favorite restaurant last week!

palani drive is a cute little place in the older part of richmond. the best way i know how to describe it is... fusion? like a mix of vegetarian, mexican and asian food...

...which, coincidently, is the food that will be served in heaven.

salsa? hummus? tahini? cashews? peanut sauce?

i'll take it.

i'm little sister, she's big sister

and apparently i have a killer vein attacking my neck.

... no wonder i have such an attractive boyfriend.

Spicy Thai Peanut – rice, black beans, spinach, spicy peanut sauce, tomatoes, scallions, crumbled peanuts, chile tortilla – 5.95

la mama and i split this, and also ate this:

Palani Salad – mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, scallions – 5.95

... and yes, that is a box of currants and a bottle of hot sauce in the background.

what, you don't bring your own accessories when you go out?

what do you carry in your purse then!?

also a noteworthy nosh:

from whole paycheck's hotbar, of course.

roasted beets, yeller squash, lemon asparagus, and the best 5 bean salad that must be recreated.

... jessica, get on that!

seriously, i could eat those beans every. flippin. day.

moving right along - today was one of the best days i've ever had.

bright and early, mom and i headed downtown to run the susan b. komen race for the cure,

a 5k fundraiser to fight breast cancer and increase prevention awareness.

there was a great crowd...

a few thousand people, for sure.

god totally blessed us with a perfect spring day to race.

love that breeze!

most of the race took place on the bridges over the river, which was really cool.

new favorite picture!

this fall, mom will have been in remission for 4 years.

needless to say, we were feeling a little celebratory mid-run.

the 804, baby!

home stretch...

the view from the bridge.

sometimes, va ain't all that bad.

post-race, in all our shweaty glory.

shameless health plug:

you guys, if i can encourage you to do anything this mother's day, please lovingly encourage your mom to get a yearly mammogram!

my mom, like a lot of other incredible moms, put her health on the back-burner to raise her kids. if she had just taken the time for her mammograms, though, she might not have had to endure hell fighting breast cancer.

other things also raise your risk:

- drinking alcohol, even one drink a day

- being overweight, even a few pounds!

- not exercising consistently

these things seem like "normal" parts of life, but they're not healthy habits.

so please, please, please, nag your mom to make her health the top priority this year.

she can't be a good mom if she doesn't put herself first every once in a while, and prevention through a healthy lifestyle is the only way we can stop this monster.  

phew, you bored yet?
hopefully, tomorrow i will get the chance to post the second part of my thoughts i've been working...

and i've been really thinking about your definitions of beauty.
thanks for your thoughts, and keep 'em coming!
-r

y'all make me blush.

you guys are too sweet!
thank you all so much for your comments on my pictures yesterday...

the crazy thing is, i had long, curly hair halfway down my back in high school...! see?

from summer 2007...

..........................................................

last night, i had the pleasure of meeting up with two lovely blog buddies, brittany and meredith, at one of my current restaurant obsessions, ipanema cafe. is it obvious how much i love this place?

it's also a favorite of miss brittany's, and since meredith had never been, we felt we must introduce her :)

meredith, brittany, and i in front of a 7-11...

gotta love richmond!

i had an amazing arugula salad with roasted beets, gouda cheese, and the most incredible salad dressing of all time! brittany donated a handful of her sweet potato fries, too, which i could have kissed her for.

think if i ask really nicely, the chef would give me the recipe???

the girls were lovely, and we chatted the night away about foreign food, work, and how our men deal with our quirky blogging habits.
i mean, doesn't everyone photograph their food?

if you guys haven't checked out their blogs yet, please do! they both have incredible, motivating stories to share, and their eats ain't too shabby either.

...................................................................

i also did a little sumthin' in the kitchen.
roasted up an eggplant, zucchini, and a sweet potato for lunches this week.

i also marinated some tempeh in sriratcha, honey, and dijon mustard, and popped it in for the last few minutes of the veggie roast...

by the way, i roast my veggies/taters on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for easy clean up. i set the temp to 350* and leave them for 40-60 minutes. try it!


aaaaaaaaaand i made more hummus. 
try this recipe if you're in the market for some incredible, face-rockin' curried honey hummus.

thanks ashley! this girl is amazing, talented, and super sweet, as if her hummus recipe wasn't rockin' enough!
it's her picture, too - i'm clearly not that talented, because mine was too gross-looking to post.

if you guys are still buying hummus, you're cheating yourself!
the cost for this recipe?
- can of chickpeas: $.89 at whole foods
- 2 cloves of garlic: basically free???
- scoop of peanut butter: maybe $.30 or so
- tablespoon of sesame oil: $.15
- spices: only a tablespoon of each, probably $.05 each
total: around $1.50 for a container, versus $4.99 from whole foods... whaaa?


and allow me to introduce you to the best thing you'll ever eat:
whole wheat wrap, banana, strawberries, sprinkle cinnamon, and a spread made from 1 tbsp cocoa and 2 tbsp almond milk.
holy junk.

i really doubt i could ever top this snack. my life is complete.

so, your turn!
do you guys have an incredible snack/meal recipe to share with me?
i'd like to see you beat this one! :)
- rebekah

p.s. - check out katie's awesome giveaway for a giftcard!

cake wrecks

sometimes in the kitchen, you gotta make a few disasters before you appreciate a product that comes out gorgeous.
that is the story of my week this week. in fact, i got so frustrated i didn't hardly take pictures of my recipes. at all. but i will thrill you guys with the written word this week... :)



first recipe - made for my little sister who is allergic to practically EVERYTHING. she just got allergy tested again and discovered a few more things she needs to cut from her diet (namely: sesame seed, cinnamon, ALL grains + oats, and most nuts). she's actually the reason i started cooking (shoutout to my girl rach!), so i owe her thanks. her only request after ten years of eating as a nut-free celiac?  PIZZA!
p.s. - this was the ONE recipe this week that didn't fail.. but i've made it before! (cheating? nahhhh)

the gluten-free goddess's millet-buckwheat wraps 

(used as pizza crusts, i got 16 small crusts)

Whisk together the dry ingredients:
1 cup millet flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour (i used brown rice because i was out... oops)
1/2 cup arrowroot or tapioca starch
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon minced onion
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (i doubled this because we're garlic addicts)
1 teaspoon thyme
(i also added in a few spoonfuls of flax to bump up nutrition... maybe 3 tbsp?)

Add in:
3 tablespoons olive oil (i used two)
1 tablespoon honey or raw agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon light tasting vinegar (i used apple cider vinegar)
Ener-G Egg Replacer for 2 eggs whisked with 4 tablespoons hot water (i just used 2 eggs)
1 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 cup hemp milk (or non-dairy milk) (i used regular milk because she can have dairy just fine)


directions: beat the wet ingredients into the dry mix until the batter is smooth. It should look and feel like a thick pancake batter (though it appears strange and goopy at first, keep beating).

rebekah's directions: i heated up our pancake griddle and made these just like pancakes. the batter was reaaaaaally thick, but i wanted them to be to make a heartier crust. to make her pizza, i headed up our pizza stone, topped the "crusts" with her favorites, and baked them for about 10 more minutes. she loved them, and they are flexible enough to use as pitas for sammies!




second recipe - last weekend was my nephew's 4th birthday party! isn't he adorable?

my sister requested a mickey mouse cake for his party, so naturally i stepped in. i picked out a recipe i KNEW could never fail me... one from Smitten Kitchen! she's pretty much a baked-goods god, so how could i go wrong? i had made this SAME EXACT cake probably 938409324 times before, so i thought it would be fine. WELLLLLLL i had a hard time figuring out how many times i needed to double the recipe to have enough batter for mickey's two layers. as well as the two layers for BOTH ears... 6 cakes in all. seems like simple math, but with the different size cake pans... it wasn't so simple (at least, not to this nutrition major!). after multiple hours of getting pissed off at lava-cake, i ended up just making one big layer cake with mickey candles (with mom's LIFESAVING help! thanks mom!). my frustration aside, it tasted great, and logan was thrilled. so this is a half-fail.

deb's best birthday cake

(bastardized by storebought frosting)

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising)

2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately, you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour to speed this process up.)

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.

Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. (I like to drop mine a few times from two inches up, making a great big noisy fuss.) Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.


(the fail-lava cake part was no fault of deb's! love her! and logan handled the chocolate frosting juuuust fine)

happy 4th, lolo!

third recipe - once again, this was for my lovely little sister. she goes to swim practice in the mornings before school, so she needs a quick boost of energy she can cram in her mouth on the way out the door (at 5am!). i adapted this recipe a lot because of all her food allergies, but it would be delicious as-is (elena uses almonds, coconut oil, and tops it with chocolate (!!!)) the texture when i make them is similar to a larabar. the recipe wasn't a fail, but it took me about 65 times as long as it should have because my brain apparently decided to VACATE my head and i kept forgetting where i put things, measuring wrong, etc. so really i was the fail!

Gluten-Free Cashew Power Bars

(original recipe from elena, adapted by yours truly)

2 cups trader joe's salted cashews
2 tbsp hemp seed
2 tbsp chia seed
½ cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
½ cup cashew butter
½ cup almond oil (i wish i had coconut oil!)
1 packet stevia
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract


1. process cashews, seeds, shredded coconut, and cashew butter in a food processor for 10 seconds
2. gently melt almond oil in microwave, then mix with stevia, honey, and vanilla
3. add melted oil mixture to food processor and pulse until ingredients form a coarse paste
4. chill in refrigerator for hour, until mixture hardens up some
5. spoon heaping tablespoons into plastic wrap, portion, and freeze until snackin' time :)

elena suggests it makes 20 bars, but i got 14 good portions out of this. gluten-free, nutritious, tastes like cookie dough, and around 200 calories. perfect in the mornings with a banana out the door.

in the end... this was NOT a fail! :)

after a LONG recipe recap and blogger absence, i present to you: the EATS!

kashi bar - eaten on the run to logan's party. i bought these for my sugar-junkie dad a while ago in an attempt to help him manage his blood sugar. i think he thought they were ok, but not sweet enough.

duh.

i kinda thought the opposite - they just tasted like nuts and oats glued together with sugar to me. but i'm not a big bar fan. other than larabar = love.

mama and i at the party, after cutting the DRAMATIC FAIL cake (see above).

we're both pretty wiped out.

and now,

i have a confession to make. i have an obsession. it's a healthy one! sorta. but when is an obsession ever healthy? isn't that the definition of obsession is that it's not a healthy relationship!?!

ah, i digress.

y'all, i'm obsessed with egg wraps. like, no joke. i cannot get enough. i eat one everyday! i would eat more than one if i could affort to buy all those cartons of egg whites from costco.

love love love.

here's one...

with my new peach and mango salsa! more on that tomorrow.

and with avocado... omg.

with salt, pepper, and laughing cow garlic and herb flavor.

'gasm.

as the lovely miss katie would say... the money shot.

prob with laughing cow and garlic powder.

why not!?

and another obsession/habit/love of mine:

cottage cheese, stevia, and annie's graham bunnies.

my version of cookies and cream ice cream (my absolute fave when i ate sugar)

love them.

and a really REALLY dumb question:

what the heck is this???

i bought it at whole foods SOLELY because i had no idea what it was. it rang up "mango" on the receipt, but i've never seen a yellow mango? the only one i've ever seen here in va is the green/reddish mangoes, but i may just be an ignorant fool.

that's highly likely, actually....

the only thing i know is that it tasted incredible. like i-wanna-snack-my-face-off incredible. fruit from heaven!

phew! and lastly:

QUESTION FOR YOU BEAUTIES!

when you make a recipe and it fails, what do you do? quit? try again? revamp/modify the recipe? pick a different recipe!?

- r

a few eats, and product review

hello lovelies!

my computer crashed (AGAIN FIFTY THOUSANTH TIME!), so i lost a terrific post on dietary fat i had saved in a document for you guys. i will post that this week :)

how was everyone's weekend??? eat anything good?

mine was ok. i ate sushi, so how bad could it be!?

foodie review: coconut oil

first up, i HAD to share my favorite body product ever with you guys. i just recently got turned on to coconut, in body care and in food. i've been missing out!!! my lovely mother bought me some cocnut oil from wf a long time ago for my hair (when it was down to my belly button!), and i used it - once. i HATED putting thick, oily stuff in my hair and then SITTING around forever... anyone else against hair masks??? anyways, a couple of months ago i was looking for something to soothe my rough, wintery hands (thanks virginia weather) and out of desperation, i grabbed the jar and smoothed it on.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

thank you whole foods for saving my skin! i use it everyday now on my hands and feet during the winter to help rough skin. the oil absorbs into your skin, but protects you for days. try it please!

now, fooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

friday night snack - homemade refried beans with jalapeno hot sauce and salsa! ole :). as my dipper, half of a leftover panera whole grain baguette (love 'em!)

om nom nom.

apparently, i was on a bean kick this weekend -

i think this was first lunch on saturday, but i lose track! bell peppers, beans, onions, tomatoes, raw almond butter... still working on that jar of nut butter!!!

made a salad for my sister... i'm the mastahh.

spinach, arugala, apple, sun dried tomatoes, crackers, carrots, mushrooms, and raisins.

snack on saturday night - strawberry-lime chai pudding!!!

frozen strawberries, chia seeds, juice from 1 lime, water, ice, stevia

and..........

because my brain is NOT FUNCTIONAL today, i can't really remember what else i ate. i had a big salad on saturday, and some sushi that wasn't earth-shattering, and a random pear.... i don't remember. sue me:)

and todayyyyyyyyyy,

i'm a really intelligent person and thought it would be cool if i went to the bathroom while i was microwaving my oats.

clearly, it was in fact, not cool.

however - the salvaged oats turned into this!

OIAJ!!!

i got them twice this week! i finally finished the trader joe's raw almond butter!

you guys don't even know. it's been in the fridge for probably 2 months... steadily getting less and less. i don't move too quick through the nut butters but i really enjoyed this one! i love the wholesome taste the raw nuts gives it (how lame am i?)

to make this beauty, i used this -

raw almond butter, waldon farms caramel, 1/2 cup oats, pinch salt, stevia, vanilla, and cardamom

twas sooooo tasty... even if i did christen the microwave.

hey, my momma taught me to share.

before church, i had an egg white wrap with avocado, scallions, and spinach.

you guys, i am SOOOO on a wrap kick right now. i seriously eat two a day.

also, an apple. yes, i ate the apple, but i forgot to take a picture until this point.

oops. i'm a greedy monkey.

HEAVENLY salad for first lunch. o.m.g............

feta, strawberries (YAY SPRING!), roasted chickpeas, red onions, salt, spinach, slivered almonds, and mandarin oranges.

(see the computer in the background? my dad's in IT and was desperately trying to remedy it's stupidity. no such luck.)

second wrap for second lunch.

hello, my name is rebekah, and i'm an addict.

the green innards - spinach, onions, garlic

innards already hiding in pan - sunflower seed butter, salt and pepper, quinoa, and kidney beans

viola - she is finished.

i love the ONE defiant bean that hopped out.

you go, girl.

so, there's some of my eats. i PROMISE i will start mixing it up some... i know you guys are tired of oats, wraps, and smoothies!

weekly workouts -

this week, i got in some really good workouts. two interval runs, three days of good full body lifting, and a chill day on the stationary bike.

the plan is to up my miles GENTLY as i get back into running shape so i can do some longer runs once the weather cooperates! keep me accountable, guys!

i hope you guys had a great weekend! since this month is eating disorder awareness month, i just want to let you guys know how BEAUTIFUL it is to be different.

you know that part of your body you hate? try looking at it in new eyes. it's yours, it works, and it's unique... what could be better? NO ONE ELSE has it!

- rebekah