Tag Archives: food

Vegetarian Super Bowl Ideas…

5 Feb

I am not a football fan, but I certainly am a TV commercial and snacking fan…

I usually get invited to a Super Bowl party every year where I just chat and eat and watch all the multi-million TV commercials aired for the first time at Super Bowl. Everybody will be talking about them on Monday and I do not want to miss in the discussion.

This year a friend from grad school is visiting Puerto Rico and I am inviting her and her husband to WATCH COMMERCIALS and eat some Puerto Rican snacking. No football will be discussed… OK, Dan??

Here are some of the snacks I am planning to make:

Sorullitos de Maiz with MayoKetchup

sorullitos-maiz

mayoketchup1.jpg

 

BacalaFREEtos

 

Malanga Chips and Plantain Chips to dunk in Onion Dip and Green Olivata

green-olive-tapenade1

 

And we need to balance out all these fried fiesta food with a nice salad… how about a Arugula Salad. Not very Puerto Rican, but it works.

arugula-salad

 

 

But if you prefer more TexMex flavors with your football fix, try these alternatives too:

Cielito Lindo

Quesadillas with Fresh Tomato Salsa

 

Guacamole

 

Mexican Lasagna

mexican-lasagna

Tortilla Soup  –  I find this is nicer than any ol’ chili…

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Cook with your Kids – An Afternoon of Crepes

2 Feb

My two little nieces, Mariana and Natalia, are taking already French classes in school. I am sooooo excited that in a short time we’ll be able to speak in French in front of their parents without them knowing what we’re saying about them.  I do need to step up my game, because it may happen that they will end up speaking better French than I…

For their birthdays, I try to give them EXPERIENCES… these are girls so fully blessed, that they do not need another toy or dress or bracelet from Titi Madelyn. So for one of their last birthdays I offered them an afternoon of French Crepes. In my mind we would’ve been listening to some French music… instead we listened to Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, but I guess them having a good time works best for me than just having some random French background music.

This is my THEORY…

That if you offer kids new food in an exciting package, they will eat it regardless of how picky they are.

Natalia is a great eater… she eats almost anything. But Mariana is a whole different story… She is super picky and I need to create stories around the food we’re eating to get her to at least try it. That’s how Shrek’s Spaghetti, Veggie Sandwiches, Asparagus Sandwiches, Plain and Easy Fettucini Alfredo have come to be.

Well this time around was CREPES… I offered several alternatives – cheese, veggie ham, spinach, tomatoes, avocados… The winning combinations were:

Organic Mozzarella Cheese + Veggie Ham

 

Organic Mozzarella + Cream Cheese + Goat Cheese + Veggie Ham with Walnuts and a Drizzle of Honey on Top

What I was most surprised about is they LOVED the Veggie Ham. Mariana ate 2 full crepes and several servings of plain veggie ham. She asked what it was made of and still ate it with wild abandon. They asked for seconds, and even Natalia ate 2 plain crepes stuffed with just warmed veggie ham to eat with her hands, just like the French eat them in the streets of Paris.

And we couldn’t leave out some crepes for Dessert

Cajeta + Raspberries

Nutella + Banana

(sorry, pictures to come later on…)

PROOF

Make a thin, thin pancake, and kids will eat whatever you put inside it.

My next attempt, have Mariana to eat a Spinach-filled Crepe… Will I succeed???

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Vegetarian Festival – Centro Yoga Devanand

17 Jan

Last Sunday we organized a Vegetarian Festival at the Yoga Center. It is the first Vegetarian festival of 2011 and the first one celebrated on a Sunday.

My friend Tania had a dream… she dreamt we did this kind of Festival on a Sunday, more people would come and try more of all the foods we offer. We usually celebrate these Festivals on Saturday nights, but people sometimes are not too fond of eating so much food at 9PM at night.

We have been doing these Festivals for a long, long time. It’s a way for the Yoga Center to demonstrate:

  • how varied and delicious Vegetarian food can be
  • the cooking talents of our Yoga Cooking Team

Usually people just bring in any dish they want to share along with the whole crowd. It’s our own vegetarian version of a pot luck dinner. It’s just a HUGE pot luck dinner featuring usually 15+ dishes, plus salads, natural juices and desserts.

Here is a round-up of all the dishes featured in this latest version of our Vegetarian Festival:

Onion Rice made by my Mom

 

Baked Rice with Spinach, Mushrooms, Pecans and Cheese aka Arroz Kristina made by me

 

Rice Pasta Lasagna with Spinach and Dairy-free Cheeses by Rosani

Chipa Guazú made by our friend from Paraguay, Ester

Vegetable Lo-Mein made by Manolo and Jesús

 

Roasted Potatoes with Spices by Mili

 

Sun-dried tomatoes Stuffed Mushrooms made by me

 

 

Breaded Eggplants made by Tania

 

BacalaFREEtos – made with some leftover batter from the fried eggplants inside the Lo-Mein

 

Pizza Pastelillitos made by Yazmín

Soy Albóndigas with a zesty Tomato Sauce made by Angie

 

We featured 2 different soups…

Roasted Plantain Soup made by Tania

Rice and Bean Soup with Smoked Veggie “Ham” made by Carmen G.

 

We had a green salad served with 2 different dressings and a natural Juice made with passion fruit, kiwi and other citric fruits.

 

And 3 desserts…

Candied Coconut (Dulce de Coco) made by Cony

Carrot Dessert with Raisins made by María Rosa

Walnut Cake with Candied Walnuts on top made by Rosani, our resident Master Baker…

Well… the Sunday plan was a complete hit. Dreams actually DO COME TRUE, right Tania?? We had 50+ people visit our center, some of them for the first time. It’s so gratifying to cook for a crowd and to see how the food would fly away and the trays be completely empty is a real joy.

The Staff - Medelicia, Carmen G, Angie, Katy and Tania, the mastermind of this Festival on Sunday.

I include some links to several recipes I have already shared with you. Click on them so you can enjoy them right away. And over the next few weeks I will be sharing some new the recipes I have learned from the star chefs in this Vegetarian Festival.

If you live in Puerto Rico, or close to our Yoga Centers in NYC/Queens or Miami Beach, I hope this display of photos make you hunger and come over to our next Vegetarian Festival. OK?? Just stay tuned to the Centro Cultural Yoga Devanand FaceBook Page were we usually post all our activities… It’s in Spanish, but you’ll enjoy it all the same. 

Hari Om.

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Caprese Salad

13 Jan

I don’t know what it is about tomatoes in Florida… but every time I visit my sister, we can’t contain the urge to buy lots and lots of tomatoes. They’re just so plump and red and sweet and delicious… And I learned never to put them in the fridge. Just leave them on the counter and eat from there. They’ll not spoil and you’ll always have the best tomato experience.

We would go to The Boys Farmers Market or to another smaller more traditional type of farmers market near my sister’s home and would always return home with a batch of delicious tomatoes.  I would make batches and batches of my Tomato Basil Brushetta mix and this Caprese Salad for my sister… her favorite.

 I always like to add a bed of crispy lettuce underneath to bump the nutritional value and heft of the salad. Even though its tradition to have only tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, I need lettuce to make it feel more of a real salad to me. All the components are readily available fresh from The Boys – mozzarella, basil leaves and mixed greens…

CAPRESE SALAD

6-8 romaine lettuce leaves, thinly shredded or baby spinach leaves would work well also
2 large tomatoes, sliced
½ ball of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
10-12 basil leaves, washed and trimmed
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Coarse Sea Salt
Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
  1. Just place cut lettuce or other greens  as a bed on a serving platter. Arrange tomato and mozzarella slices alternately on top of lettuce bed.
  2. Place a basil leaf in between each slice of tomato and cheese.
  3. Drizzle with Olive Oil and Balsamic. Sprinkle liberally with Salt and Pepper.

Don’t the tomatoes look scrumptious???

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The Boys Farmer’s Market – Delray Beach, FL

10 Jan

Close to where my sister lives in South Florida there’s a farmer’s market called The Boys. I always fund the name funny… particularly because it’s located next to The Girls Strawberry Patch store. We always drove past it, but never paid really much attention to it.

Recently, we’ve spent a lot of time at my sister’s and my brother-in-law always insisted The Boys had the best prices on produce. Even better than Publix or Winn Dixie. Being the market lovers we are, particularly when we travel (check out my market experiences in NYC, Paris and Guadalajara…) we had to go at least once.

We were certainly in for a surprise… The Boys, is indeed closer to a specialty food store than a mere farmers market. The concentrate in fresh produce, but have a great bakery, cheese/dairy shop, freshly squeezed juices, specialty items like gluten-free goodies, nuts and dried fruits section, cooked foods area, butcher and fish monger. I’ve never ventured into those latter areas; we tend to concentrate on the fresh produce, dairy/cheese case and the $1 table at the entrance, where they have bags filled with stuff and everything in the bag is just $1. Awesome…

My favorite things to always look for at The Boys are: $1 bags of apples, potatoes, limes, plum tomatoes, fresh ears of corn, sweet potatoes, etc. The fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, smoked cheddar, strawberries, blueberries, cut/peeled pineapples, mushrooms, poblano peppers, fresh leaf spinach, basil stalks, tri-color bell peppers, watercress, mesclun lettuce mix and red skinned potatoes.

I wish I had a specialized market near my home, so accessible and cost-effective, as The Boys. There used to be a time where we would visit The Boys daily to get the ingredients of what we would make that day for dinner. Just like in the ol’ times. I’ll be sharing some of the recipes I was inspired to make based on the awesome fresh produce from The Boys…

This makes me want to visit farmers markets every weekend now… let’s see if I can do that now in the New Year. Am I adding another resolution to my list??? Hope not…

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