Wasabi Lime Vinaigrette

It’s just been way too hot lately, guys. As much as I love hovering over my stove cooking my little heart out, its just been way too sticky in my apartment to fire up the oven or range for more than a few minutes.

So I figured why not get creative with salad?

Buying an immersion blender has totally enhanced my cooking. On top of homemade soups & smoothies, it’s a great tool for blending homemade dressings and sauces. And that’s just what I did the other night when I felt like experimenting in the kitchen, minus the heat. If you like wasabi or anything with a kick, then I think you’ll really enjoy this dressing!

Wasabi Lime Vinaigrette

 

Ingredients:

½ cup canola oil

¼ cup rice vinegar

1 tsp wasabi powder

½ tbs lime juice

½ tsp sugar

1 tbs fresh basil, finely chopped

Blend ingredients together using an immersion blender, or standard blender, until the ingredients emulsify and the dressing looks nice & green & creamy. If you don’t have a blender, you can whisk the ingredients together by hand until emulsified.

I drizzled this tangy dressing over a fresh ahi tuna salad. I sprinkled fresh ground black pepper all over an ahi tuna steak and seared it on medium-high heat for only about 2 minutes on each side. Then I laid the tuna over a bed of greens with cherry tomatoes, orange bell pepper, cucumber, avocado, sunflower seeds, and a sprinkle of goat cheese... and topped it with the wasabi vinaigrette!

And I hardly broke a sweat. 

Love,
Amy

Summer Pasta - 2 Ways!

Sticky, hot days & evenings full of thunder... its summer time & I'm feelin' the heat, people.

One of my favorite foods to eat & cook is pasta. I mean, I thoroughly enjoy many kinds of food, but Italian has its own special place in my heart, as some of my most zen moments have involved a big bowl of pasta, crusty bread, and red wine.

When cooking my own pasta, I tend to stick to heavy red sauces, but since its summer I've really been looking at ways to take the dishes I love and make a lighter version. So recently I've been combining some colorful farfalle pasta with a variety of seasonal veggies, sun-dried tomatoes, oil, and fresh herbs I have growing on my windowsill. And since I've been hooked on goat cheese this year, I sprinkled that in as well. Here are 2 summery pasta dishes that would be great served warm or cold:

Summer Pasta with Spinach, Artichokes & Prosciutto

Ingredients:
3 cups farfalle or "bow tie" noodles (I love the presentation with the multi-color kind!)

Baby spinach

Chopped artichoke hearts

Sun-dried tomatoes
Sweet corn removed from the cob

1 clove garlic, diced

Sweet peas, frozen or fresh
Extra virgin olive oil
Red wine vinegar

Sprinkle of goat cheese

1 or 2 pieces of thin-sliced prosciutto, chopped up into small pieces 

Fresh basil

Summer Pasta with Yellow Zucchini & Sweet Peas

Ingredients:
3 cups farfalle
1 medium yellow (or green!) zucchini, chopped
Sun-dried tomatoes
Sweet corn removed from the cob
1 clove garlic
Sweet peas
Extra virgin olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Fresh basil
Fresh chives
Sprinkle of goat cheese
Sprinkle of parmesan cheese too

For both recipes, I cooked the farfalle noodles according to the package's instructions, then set aside to cool. I then heated the olive oil over medium heat and slowly sauteed the garlic until it was heated through and tender, but not brown. I then added all my veggies to the oil and heated through until tender. Then I set that aside to cool to room temperature as well. I drizzled the farfalle with olive oil and red wine vinegar and tossed until the noodles were coated. Then I gently folded in the sauteed veggies, and topped the pasta with the fresh herbs, prosciutto, and goat cheese. I stored leftovers in the fridge in an air-tight container, and then enjoyed it cold the next day for lunch. Yum!


I left the measurements for these recipes off, because I feel that you should go heavy on the ingredients you particularly like, and easy on those you don't like as much. And get creative by tossing in whatever extra ingredients you're craving. Pasta is fun because of the variety it offers!

Enjoy!

Love,
Amy

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Coconut Jam Cookies

Greetings friends! Hope you all had a happy Independence Day! Mine was filled with food, family, friends, fireworks, and so much gratitude. It was perfect.

Now, the nerd in me just loves holiday-inspired desserts. So I made these red & blue cookies for a 4th of July BBQ, but I do think they would be great for any occasion. I love the summery combination of the coconut mixed with the sweet jam. I can't wait to make them again and experiment with some new fruit flavors!

Since this was a BBQ with my boyfriend's family, I made the recipe gluten-free, dairy-free so that he could enjoy them as well. I hope you do too!

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Coconut Jam Cookies

Ingredients for the homemade jam:     
2 cups fresh raspberries
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup (total) white sugar
fresh lemon juice

Directions: Making the jam ended up being my favorite part! It was so easy and all the leftovers made me very happy. But feel free to cut this recipe in half if you don't want too much jam (or double if you want lots!). All you have to do is mash up 2 cups of fruit and combine with 1/4 cup sugar and a squeeze (about a teaspoon) of fresh lemon juice in a small sauce pan and boil over medium high heat until it thickens. I boiled my jam for about 10 minutes, or until it was thick enough that I could see the bottom of the pan when scraping my spoon through it. Then I popped it into the fridge while I prepared the cookie dough to cool it down. It should thicken even more once cool. Store the extra jam in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Ingredients for the cookies:
inspired by sarcasticcooking.com recipe here
1 cup almond meal, packed
3/4 cup gluten-free flour, packed
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
lemon zest (I only used about 1/2 tsp)
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup (grade B)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup shredded coconut
your homemade jam!

Directions: Combine almond meal, gluten-free flour, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in a mixing bowl and whisk together. Pour the coconut oil, vanilla extract, and maple syrup into the dry ingredients and mix until just about combined. Then add in the shredded coconut and continue to mix all the way through, until no flour is visible. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or lightly greased tin foil. Keep the dough refrigerated while oven preheats. Once the oven is ready, roll a tablespoon of dough into a ball (flour your hands with gluten-free flour if necessary) and then place it on the baking sheet, spacing all cookies about 2 inches apart. Press your thumb into the center of each ball of cookie dough, creating a small indent. Drop about 1/2 tsp of jam into each crater. I made half of my cookies with blueberry jam & half with raspberry. I also baked my cookies in two batches, and kept any unused dough in the fridge.

Bake the cookies about 11-15 minutes, depending on how hot your oven runs. General rule of thumb is to bake until golden brown but not dark! :) Place on cooling rack until the cookies are room temperature. Then enjoy!

Love,
Amy

Bruschetta & then some

Last week, after a monstrous lunch involving the world's tallest BLT and a mountain of french fries that left me feeling like I swallowed the Rockies, I was in desperate need of something fresh & light for dinner. So I started to make a basic bruschetta, but then ended up throwing in a few other things like avocado, garbanzo beans, and a summer favorite -- sweet corn!  It's bruschetta & then some. And my stomach was grateful.

Bruschetta & then some

Ingredients:

1 cup diced tomatoes

1/2 cup garbanzo beans

1 small avocado, diced

little bit of red onion, thinly sliced 

1 garlic clove, minced

1 ear sweet corn, boiled, buttered & then removed from cob

Drizzle of olive oil

Few splashes of red wine vinegar

Dried or fresh dill

Fresh basil

Salt & pepper

Mix all of these ingredients together and let it rest for about 15 minutes to a half hour before eating, so the flavors have a chance to meld. Serve with some crusty, toasted french baguette & enjoy!

Love,

Amy

Humble Strawberry Pie Beginnings.

Hello hungry friends! And welcome to The Girl Who Cooked for Herself.

I do believe that good things spring from humble beginnings. So it's quite appropriate that my first post is a recipe that took me over 24 hours to complete.

 What started off as a few planned hours of strawberry picking & pie baking with my gluten-sensitive, dairy-free boyfriend turned into a 2-day project. However, despite unfamiliar crust territory and oven malfunctions (eek!), I was finally able to serve up my very first post. And this pie was definitely worth the wait (and sweat).



Mmmm, humble pie.



Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Strawberry Rhubarb [Humble] Pie

Ingredients:
Gluten-Free Pantry Perfect Pie Crust Mix (available at your local WholeFoods or Wegmans)
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tbs white sugar (optional)
10 tbs cold, unsalted butter, in small pieces (to make this dairy-free, I used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks)
10 tbs butter-flavored vegetable shortening
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbs cold water
3 tsp cider vinegar
5 cups of strawberries, sliced
1+1/4 cup rhubarb, sliced (I used 1 medium-sized stalk)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbs agave nectar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 egg yolk (for glaze)


Preparing the crust: Being new to gluten-free baking, I followed the instructions on the package of Gluten-Free Pantry Perfect Pie Crust Mix... Combine mix, baking powder, and white sugar and cut in butter and shortening until pieces are the size of large peas. You can cut in the butter using either a large food processor, a pastry blender, or a fork & knife. Combine 2 eggs, water, and vinegar and then combine with the mix. Form into a ball and chill for 1 hour. Later divide dough in half and flatten into 2 separate discs on wax paper. Chill for an additional hour. When you are ready to begin baking, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and "roll out" one of the discs to line the pie dish. I found this gluten-free crust to be somewhat stubborn, so instead of rolling it out, I laid the dough inside the baking dish and pressed it out to the edges with my fingers. I used the same technique for "rolling out" the top crust layer as well.

For the filling: Combine the strawberries, rhubarb, cornstarch, brown sugar, agave nectar, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir gently and try not to drool. (so simple!)

Pour the filling into the crust-lined pie dish and cover with the top layer. Trim & crimp edges and cut 4 slits in the top layer for ventilation. Brush top of pie with 1 egg yolk and sprinkle with some coarse sea salt if you like your desserts salty-sweet! Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until golden brown (cooking time may differ based on how hot your oven runs). If you don't have a silicone pie crust shield, I would suggest protecting the edges of your pie with some foil to avoid a burnt crust.


I highly recommend you serve this pie with some vanilla ice cream (or coconut/almond milk ice cream if you're dairy-free)! Anything cold & creamy goes perfectly with the sweet berries & tart rhubarb.

Enjoy my friends! And please check back often for some more recipes. I promise to post a little something for everyone.

Love, Amy