Dinner for one- Green Eggs and Hummus Wrap

Horseback Riding Through Ireland

There has been a lot published recently about the growing trend in our generation to live alone or remain single much later and longer than any generation before us.  The rhetoric has skimped along the sensitive area of you are single- why? to the I am single- what's wrong with that? Many have linked the growing trend to women's lib and how the independent woman no longer needs a man in a financial manner, or a technical manner now with the advent of IVF.  Others have begun to blame men for not being educated or hard working enough, remaining in a teenage state of mind beyond the time when most women are looking for serious committed partners.  I think we might be missing the boat a bit with these accusations.  Perhaps it is more related to our difficulty to connect with other people at the same level we once did.  Communities are beginning to dwindle as individualism is thriving.

We are now raising a culture where dating on the Internet is more normal than meeting at a party. People spend hours upon hours looking at people's profiles instead of going out and surrounding themselves with people doing activities they enjoy doing.  Now I am not one to ridicule online dating, many people I know have met their lifelong partners online.  But I am a proponent of more community building.  It is the communities of people I have surrounded myself with that have challenged me to be a better person.

Once a week I get together with my college girlfriends for a meal and discussion centered around something intentional.  I so look forward to this sacred time and hope to carry the tradition forward no matter where I live in the future.

But for the times when I am flying solo I find comfort in a simple dinner for one.

* After originally writing this the following article came out in the NYTIMES: The Talent Society. Funny how many of the same notions David Brooks wrote about...*

This dish was inspired by my roommate.  It's super easy, nutritious, easy on the wallet and light on the calories.  Perfect for the "I don't know what to eat tonight" kinda night.

Green Eggs and Hummus Wrap

Ingredients

Brown Rice Tortilla
(Trader Joes or Food For Life)
1 egg
a bunch of greens (Collard, Kale or Chard) broken into pieces
1/4 Bell pepper (chose color of your liking)
Hummus (I like Trader Joe's Mediterranean-Hummus )

Directions
1. Heat frying pan on medium heat
2. Spray Olive oil or put a drop to coat
3. Crack an egg (or two if you are hungry)
4. On the other side of the frying pan put the bunch of greens
5. Sprinkle with your favorite spices (garlic powder or all purpose work well)
6. Flip egg once it is cooked well enough to flip
7. Cover with tortilla and flip the whole thing after 1 minute when egg is cooked
8. Turn off heat
9. Put greens on top of egg in tortilla
10. Place bell pepper on top of greens
11. Finish with a dollop of hummus

Green Eggs and Hummus Wrap

12. That's a wrap!

Mindful Eating + Almond Butter Blondies

On a walk through The Big Island, Hawaii

A few years ago I went on a silent meditation retreat for 3 days in Connecticut.  At the time I was in AmeriCorps, and was starting to feel the emotional toll my job was taking on me as I tried to help people in situations I had never been faced with.  So I thought the weekend retreat would be just that- a retreat that would allow me to get away from it all and be good to myself.  Never did I imagine it would be such a challenge! Spending 3 full days without saying a word or reading anything, left me devoid of stimulation and left with stillness.  I've always been a people person who thrived on interaction.  When I was in kindergarten I used to walk into the class and go straight to the time out section.  My teacher, confused by my action asked me why I went straight there in the morning.  I simply responded that I knew I would get put there because I was a talker and I couldn't help it.  One thing I took away from the retreat was taking the time to slow down and enjoy what I was doing that moment.  They had us do an exercise with food that was mentioned in this week's NYTimes.  The premise behind the exercise is to take something mundane that we take for granted and slow it down to allow you to appreciate it.  We did this with a raisin, but it could be done with anything really.  The first step of the exercise is to use your other senses aside from taste to appreciate the food.  Smell it, feel it, look at it.  Now close your eyes and put it in your mouth and let it sit there.  Feel what it feels like, taste what the essence of the food before you chew is like.  Now take a bite.  What do you taste? Try and deconstruct the taste.  See if you can sense the hints of spices or different flavors.

Friday night I went to a dinner party and brought these Blondies with me.  Before I told anyone what was in them I had them all guess.  I love playing this game- I often ask people to guess what flavor or food something is and see if they can deconstruct the taste.  No one guessed correctly!  These are so moist and chewy, yet they are made of wholesome simple ingredients.  Try it at your next dinner party- you are bound to create a conversation starter and be a hit with the taste buds :)

Elana's Pantry Gluten Free, Dairy Free Almond Butter Blondies

1 (16 ounce) jar creamy roasted almond butter
1 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup dark chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, with a hand blender, mix almond butter until creamy
2. Mix in agave and eggs
3. Add salt and baking soda
4. Mix well with hand blender until all ingredients are thoroughly combined
5. Mix half of the chocolate into the batter
6. Pour batter into a well greased 9x13 inch Pyrex baking dish
7. Scatter the other half of the chocolate on top of the batter
8. Bake at 325° for 35 minutes
9. Serve

Serves 12- 24 (depends on if people want seconds!)

Almond Butter Blondies

Fun-guy Mushroom Quinoa + Turkey Stirfry

On a hike to Sugarloaf Mountain Maryland

I'm a big fan of knock knock jokes or one liners- anything that results in quick laughter really. If you're ever in a bad mood just whip one of these bad boys out and its bound to make you smile even if you don't want to! What's life if you can't laugh every day, be silly and have fun?


A mushroom walks into a bar and sees a beautiful woman.  He goes over and starts hitting on this woman... She won't give him the light of day and turns him down.
Not willing, to give up, he pleads with her... "C'mon lady, I'm a fun-guy..." Get it fun-guy= funghi!

Gets me laughing every time!

One more for the road- because I can't resist a good ole geeky science joke:

A neutron walks into a bar. "I'd like a beer" he says. The bartender promptly serves up a beer. "How much will that be?" asks the neutron.
"For you?" replies the bartender, "no charge."

This recipe was inspired by my friends Cate and Adam, who made stuffed peppers at the mountain house.  It's a spin off the idea of their stuffing, which I changed to be more mushroom heavy and dairy free.  I didn't use it to stuff peppers but it could easily be a stuffing for peppers or to fill tortillas or tacos. To make it vegetarian just switch out the tofu for your favorite veg friendly protein (tofu, Seitan etc).

Ingredients:
I packet Ground turkey chopped into pieces
1 packet of mini portobello mushrooms (6 mushrooms) or 1 pack of shitake mushrooms, diced
1 yellow onion diced
3 cloves of garlic minced
4 stalks of celery diced
1 cup raw pignolis (pine nuts)
3 cloves of Shallots diced
drizzle of Black Truffle Oil

1 cup Quinoa
2 cups of Imagine Portobello Mushroom Soup (Kosher, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free)

Instructions

1) In one pot cook the Quinoa: Bring soup and Quinoa to a boil, cover and let it simmer on low until all of the soup has been absorbed and quinoa is soft and fluffy, mixing occasionally
2) In one frying pan put some olive oil to cover the pan and throw the chopped turkey into it on medium heat, stirring occasionally until meat is browned on both sides but not over cooked so that it doesn't become dry.
3) In another frying pan put enough olive oil to coat the pan and warm on medium heat
4) Add onion, shallots, garlic and celery and cook for a few minutes
5) Add mushrooms and pignolas (pine nuts)
6) Once all ingredients are cooked combine the
                                                                                         two pans into the pot, mix together
                                                                                    7) Drizzle the top with truffle oil and mix it in*

                                                                                    Serves 4-6
*If serving right away you can drizzle a bit of truffle oil on top of each bowl of stirfry before serving instead of adding it to the big pot*

Fun-guy Mushroom Quinoa + Turkey Stirfry