Yum. My mouth is watering just looking at the photo.

This kind of happened by accident. I had some pita pockets in the cupboard that needed to be used and some past prime avocados dying to be eaten. So I decided to throw in some beef strips and see what happened. Again. Yum. And best of all, it’s really easy to make.

So this is my entry for Sweetnicks weekly ARF/5-A-Day roundup. Check her site later tonight for more great recipes.

About avocados: they are a great source of fiber. They are also sources of protein, vitamin c, vitamin e, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin b6, and folate, among other nutrients. According to the California Avocado Commission, “Avocados act as a ‘nutrient booster’ by enabling the body to absorb more fat-soluble nutrients, such as alpha- and beta-carotene as well as lutein, in foods that are eaten with the fruit.” So they help the body absorb the very antioxidant rich foods that Sweetnicks has us posting about.

As for antioxidants themselves, this week we have tomatoes and onions. Tomatoes are rich in antioxidants, and some onions are too but you need be discerning about the variety you choose. I used small white onion, but will use something more pungent next time for sure.

You’ll notice that this draws upon two new recipes that I recently posted. I like having the ability to mix and match things and this does just that. And don’t forget to check back here later for International Tuesdays #2.

1 recipe Avocado Salsa
1 lb Fajita Steak
4 tbsp salsa
4 small pita pockets

Slice the pitas in half, so you can access the centers on each side

Fill with 1/4 of the fajita steak. Spoon in 2-3 tbsp avocado salsa.  Serve with regular salsa on the side.

I made these on a whim Monday, after creating a fabulous Avocado Salsa. I needed something to eat it with, after all!

Fajita Steak
serves 4

1 lb steak, cut into thin strips
1/3 cup lime juice
garlic powder
chili powder
salt
pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

Place steak in a dish and pour lime juice over. Sprinkle evenly (and generously) with spices.

Heat oil in frying pan. Add steak strips, and stir until just browned on both sides.

Cover pan and let cook uninterrupted for 2-3 minutes

Remove from heat and serve.

While grocery shopping Friday, I snagged a great bargain – four small avocados for $0.99. They were on the last chance rack at the supermarket, and even though they were a bit past their prime, I knew I could put them to use in my kitchen.

I looked around for an interesting avocado dish that I had all the ingredients for, but finding none I decided to wing it and make a yummy avocado salsa. Boy, am I glad I did!

Avocado Salsa

14 basil leaves
8 mint leaves
10 baby spinach leaves
1 tomato, seeds removed and chopped
3 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup cashews
3 tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp cold water
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and process until blended.

To Serve: Place a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half in the bottom of a bowl and top with pasta. Stir until well mixed. Drizzle with olive oil.

This can also be used as a spread on bread or crackers.

To Save: Fill ice cube trays with mixture and freeze. Once frozen, transfer to freezer storage bags or containers. Then you can remove them as needed. One cube is enough for one serving of pasta.

Notes: I made this up on a whim because I wanted to use my mint leaves for something. I had read about basil and mint pesto but lacked many of the ingredients to make it – particularly the pine nuts (or walnuts) and enough basil. So I winged it with this, mixing together things that I thought might work well together.

It turned out to be a really tasty sauce. It’s definitely nutty with hints of basil and mint.

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More Pesto Recipes:

Basic Basil Pesto

Kale Pesto

Sundried Tomato Pesto Spread

Last weekend I wrote about basil, a favorite herb of mine. For this weekend, my second time participating in Kalyn’s Kitchen’s Weekend Herb Blogging event, I decided to call a herb from my childhood: mint.

What does mint have to do with my childhood?

At my grandparent’s home in Wappingers Falls, NY, where I lived for the first 11 years of my life, my grandmother grew two edible crops – tomatoes and mint. I don’t remember much of her tomato growing, mostly because the plants never seemed to produce much fruit. But as for the mint, I fondly remember running out around the kitchen island and out the Dutch door to pick some fresh and fragrant mint leaves to toss into pitchers of iced tea. And I can still remember stooping in that clumsy child way and plucking a leaf from the plant just to sniff it a bit when I was very little.

It’s funny how a smell, a sight, a sound can bring you back in time. Just writing this post, I am flooded with images of my childhood – of the home my grandparents made, of the land where I played, and of my grandparents themselves. I can smell the scent that wafted around when my grandmother took her garlic pills (apparently it was some health craze) and I can feel the textured linoleum floor in the kitchen and feel the smooth countertops. And I can hear and feel the sensation when you’d open and close the built in bread box. There is just so much.

It’s hard to believe that’s a place where I can’t go back to and where I will likely never be again. I knew I would always miss them a lot when their time came, but I never knew it would be this much.

Back to the mint. The mint you see pictured, I bought at the grocery store. Still, the first thing I did when I got home was sniff it. Some things never change I guess.

GROWING: I plan on growing mint this spring and summer, and bought the seeds today. I’m going to do both the spearmint and peppermint varieties. Now, in case you didn’t know this, mint is an invasive species so you’ve got to be cautious when growing it. Originally, mine was going to go in the herb garden I am planning, but after considering it, I think I either need to grow it in a container or find a different spot. I’ll probably opt for the first option though.

HARVEST/STORAGE: According to the National Gardening Association, mint leaves can be harvested young or old and can be dried for storage or frozen fresh. Check out their website for tips on saving the leaves.

USES: Mint leaves can add a nice zing to iced tea or be used to make fresh tea. They are also used for a variety of alcoholic drinks (Mint Juleps, anyone?) and desserts. One of the most interesting recipes I have come upon was for English Roast Beef on Allrecipes.com.

What did I do with the mint though? Check out my very original recipe for Basil Mint Not Pesto sauce.
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On a sidenote, after writing this, I noticed that Cream Puffs in Venice has a great post up about a similar topic – except hers involves chicken stock. Check it out.

Weekend Dog Blogging

Also, although I usually don’t blog about my pets, I had to submit this photo for Sweetnick’s Weekend Dog Blogging. This is one of my two beagles, Scrappy. See the biscuit under his paw? Well, remember the zwieback debacle? Well apparently, my failed attempt at baby teething biscuits proved worthwhile after all. I seem to have stumbled on a recipe for great dog treats…I’m going to do some tweaking on it and I will post the recipe sometime in the future. Scrappy and my other beagle, Snoopy, are gaa-gaa over them.

This is my premiere Sugar High Friday entry. It’s being hosted by Spittoon Extra this month and the theme is dairy.

This is a super light and airy vanilla mouse with a luscious blueberry-strawberry sauce. The mousse literally dissolves in your mouth and the sauce really compliments it. It’s a fantastic combination that I am very proud of.

This is it: the entry that almost wasn’t.

After my debacle with the zwieback, I knew I had to pull off a quick miracle to get my entry ready for my premiere Sugar High Friday. So I turned to my bookcase stuffed with cookbooks to come up with a great recipe worth of the dairy theme.

As I flipped through Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking by Jenny Stacey, a book I’ve had since it was released, I came upon a recipe I’ve gazed at many times and considered making. But honestly, I am not sure I was ever ready to create it before now. The recipe is for Vanilla Mousse, and I had all of the ingredients save one – so I think it was fated.

Of course, I had to put my own spin on the creation. My version technically isn’t vegetarian because I was unable to locate vegetarian gelatin in time. Also, I had to substitute regular granulated sugar for vanilla sugar. And finally, the recipe calls for a raspberry sauce that looks and sounds delicious, but I wanted to do something all my own so I created a fantastic blueberry strawberry sauce.

So, here it goes.

• Combine yogurt, cream cheese, vanilla extract, sugar and sherry in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth (about 30 seconds). Pour mixture into a mixing bowl and let sit.
• In a small saucepan, place cold water and stir in gelatin until dissolved. Heat on medium to boiling and let mixture boil two minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 1-2 minutes. Be sure not to let it sit too long though, as it will solidify upon standing and you don’t want that. Trust me.
• Stir gelatin mixture into the yogurt mixture.
• In a small mixing bowl, beat the egg whites with a wire whisk until soft peaks form.
• Stir egg whites into yogurt mixture.
• Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap and pour the mixture into the pan. Chill for at least two hours, or until set. Remove plastic wrap and place on a plate.

• Steam blueberries over water for 5 minutes. Place into blender (with 1/4 cup water) and blend until smooth. Set aside and let cool.
• Hull the strawberries. Add to the blender with cooled blueberry mixture. Sift in powdered sugar and add lime juice.
• Blend on medium until smooth.

. . . and here’s why: if there was an award for WORST cookie ever, this one would win hands (and rock hard clumps) down.

Yes, it’s true. Cucina Bella has bad recipe days too. I know, that is difficult to digest, but everyone has their moments. Even me.

Let me tell you how this all started. The SHF #17 theme is dairy so I put my thinking cap on and decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to make my son some homemade zwieback cookies.

But since he’s on a wheat-free, dairy-free, egg-free diet, I had to be sure to use alternative ingredients. Instead of milk, I used rice milk. Instead of butter, margarine. And instead of all-purpose flour, sweet rice flour.

I searched the web a bit and looked at several recipes for zwieback and mirrored my own after them. My ingredients were similar, but with a twist – I added vanilla and cinnamon for a bit extra flavor.

I mixed diligently. Then I kneaded with care. But the dough just wouldn’t form a ball, so I tossed in a bit extra water to help it along. Finally it bonded together . . . a little. Then I covered the ball and waited for it to rise. It didn’t. But I forged ahead and separated the dough into pieces and placed it on the cookie sheet. Then I waited for it to rise again. It didn’t. But I thought maybe it had and I just was too distracted to notice (I have a crawling 7 month old who has a penchant for getting to the front door to look out, after all).

Then I baked. Yes, I was still holding out hope that they would pull through and be the miracle cookie.

They didn’t. They weren’t.

So here is what I created: a fragrant, cracked rock exterior with a gelatinous interior. Can you say EWWWW?!?

I did put them through half of the second bake, but ultimately found that they just weren’t going to work for me. At all.

So now it’s back to the old drawing board for a killer recipe for Sugar High Friday, provided the recipe doesn’t create something that could crack a windshield or be used as a makeshift hockey puck.

At least I got some good pictures though.

This recipe is adapted from one of the same name in the Weight Watchers Versatile Vegetarian cookbook. It’s got a lot of Indian flavor to it, so I decided to highlight it this week for the premiere International Tuesday post.

Curried Rice and Lentil Pilaf
serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp peeled and grated ginger root
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup dried lentils, rinsed
1/2 cup basmati rice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 cups water

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan.

Stir in onion and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.

Stir in the garlic, ginger, curry and cumin and cook for one minute.

Add the lentils and water and bring to a boil. Cover pan, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Stir in the rice and salt until just moistened and then cook until the liquid is absorbed (about 15-20 minutes) but don’t stir.

Let stand 5 minutes.

Just before serving, toss with lemon juice.

NOTES
This recipe is a very toned-down version of the dish. If you prefer more spice to your food, like I do, increase the quantities of curry, cumin and salt. I will probably double the quantities next time and see how it comes out. As it stands, I added more salt when I ate the dish.

Still, that’s not to say this is a bad recipe – I do like it. It’s just more American-ized than I would like.

I first made this dish one night when I was short on veggies but had some pineapple that really needed to be eaten. As it turns out, I love the sweet taste of fruit melded with the more salty flavors of the fried rice. Even my six-year-old stepson, who hates food in general, gobbled it up.

This recipe would also be good with addition fruits and veggies mixed in like sweet peas and orange bits. For a healthier take, use brown rice.

Since this is an entry for Sweetnicks‘ ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays, let me tell you a bit about the nutritional value of this recipe. Carrots are a great source of beta carotene, a powerful antioxidant that can help protect you against things like cancer and heart disease. Pineapple is a great source of an enzeyme that aids in digestion, not to mention vitamin C – an antioxidant.

Tropical Fried Rice

Brown beef in large skillet or wok, until most pink is gone. Gently move beef to one side of the skillet.

Add sesame oil and allow to warm over medium heat for 1 minute.

Add rice, carrots, and pineapple into separate sections of the pan. Do not mix.

Pour beaten egg into the pan and stir until fully cooked (do not allow it to mix with other ingredients yet.)

Toss rice with other ingredients. Stir in soy sauce, pepper and salt.

Stir continuously for 1-2 minutes until ingredients are well combined.

Enjoy!