What We Eat In a Day: First day in the new apartment (Recipes included!)
Originally published June 7, 2017
For those of you who don't know, now you know. Steven and I have officially moved in together! And we couldn't be more excited.
Everything from furnishing and decorating the home to filling the cupboards and fridge with our favorite ingredients has been a complete joy. Hell, yesterday while vacuuming I was having a ridiculously good time. This is both of our first times starting fresh with a brand new apartment that no one else has lived in. And it has been a ridiculously good time making our own decisions of what aesthetic we'd like to the items in our home and where we'd like to put it all. And soon I'll be sharing more of what decor and supplies I've purchased, where I've purchased them, and how I organize them. So stay tuned for some of that in the future. This blog is about to become one about lifestyle. And I couldn't be happier.
Today I'm going to share with you the first meals I created for Steven and myself on our first day in our new place. Instead of meatless Monday, this week we went with a refreshing meatless Sunday. I made three recipes that day; two from some of my favorite YouTube food bloggers and one from Gordon Ramsay. Check out the recipes below! They were so easy and fool-proof and will all become staple recipes for our repertoire.
And if you were wondering, no that isn't our dog featured above. That's Pepper, and she's my family dog. She was just visiting with my parents. My dad was the one who took these pictures while my mother danced behind him to get Pepper to look towards the camera. And yes, Pepper says she approves of the new apartment. Photos coming soon of the finished product. Let's get cooking!
Scrambled Eggs Done Right
By Gordon Ramsay
Steven and I are huge fans of Gordon Ramsay. Not only do we adore his TV shows, but we also can't get enough of his recipes on YouTube. I stumbled across the video below for scrambled eggs and was immediately intrigued. Both Steven and I are not typically fans of scrambled eggs, as we've found that they're mostly served tough and overcooked, not allowing any depth or complexity to the yolk or the whites. But I wanted to see how a professional chef thinks they should be made. And I was not at all disappointed.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
6 eggs
Bread (Gordon went with a sourdough. My local store only had ciabatta, so that's what I used)
Two small handfuls of cherry tomatoes
Six large mushrooms
Two cloves of garlic
Chives or parsley (Depending on what garnish you'd like)
Butter
Creme fraiche (My local store didn't have any, so I went with sour cream instead. It gives a more sour flavor to the eggs, but if you don't mind that, it's a great substitute)
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Egg Directions
Crack your eggs directly into a pot and add a couple tablespoons of butter.
Set your stove to medium-low and mix the eggs and butter together with a spatula or wooden spoon. Do not use a whisk for this!!!
Gently stir the egg mixture constantly as the butter melts. After a while, you'll start to feel the mixture thicken as the eggs start to clump and stick to the bottom. Scratch the bottom of the pot constantly with your spoon or spatula to make sure nothing burns or overcooks.
As you start to see it look like scrambled eggs, add your creme fraiche or sour cream to keep the eggs and butter from burning. This also gives the eggs a light and fluffy texture and fantastic taste.
Fluff the mixture with your spoon. When it's almost ready, quickly add some salt, pepper and your chopped herbs. I used parsley. You want to wait until the very last minute to add salt to your eggs. Adding salt in the beginning can rid the eggs of their beautiful yellow color.
Stir in the seasonings and herbs until your eggs are fluffy and fully cooked - but not overcooked. I like them still looking a tiny bit raw. This recipe is very wet looking in the end. That moisture is going to create a really fantastic scrambled egg experience.
Remove them from the heat as soon as possible! Plate immediately if you can!
Tomato and Mushroom Directions:
Drizzle a frying pan with olive oil and set it to medium heat
Remove the stem from your mushrooms and place them (caps down) and the tomatoes onto the frying pan. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top and drizzle with just a tad more oil
Let them sizzle away. Don't forget to shake the pan every once in a while to allow the tomatoes to cook on all sides. Leave on the heat until your mushrooms are nice and tender and your tomatoes are beautifully wrinkled and juicy looking.
Garlic Bread Directions:
This wasn't a part of Gordon Ramsay's recipe, but we don't yet have a toaster oven, so I decided to make some garlic bread over the stove.
Slice a few thick pieces of bread per person, depending on how large your loaf is
Melt butter on the stove on medium-low and add minced garlic, being sure not to burn it
Lay the pieces of bread down in the butter and garlic mixture and raise the heat to medium, letting it crisp up
Flip the pieces of bread over when golden brown and crispy on the side facing down. Make sure the sides are even and both gorgeously toasted
Plate the eggs, bread and vegetables together and serve!
I can now officially say that I adore scrambled eggs and have them almost every morning for breakfast now with this new, easy and satisfying recipe.
Roasted Corn and Potato Soup and Creamy Avocado Pasta
By Jenny Mustard and Fablunch
For dinner that night, I made two vegetarian dishes (they're usually vegan, but I'll explain myself later) from my favorite vegan bloggers, Jenny Mustard and Fablunch. The corn and potato soup, which Jenny has made before, is a new dish I had not yet tried before. And the avocado pasta by Olga of Fablunch is a staple of mine I have been making for almost a year now. It's extremely easy and takes no cooking whatsoever (unless you count boiling the pasta noodles.)
NOTE: Steven and I are not vegans (or vegetarians for that matter,) so I have added real cream and parmesan cheese to these recipes to suit our palettes. But the recipes typically call for peanut milk and nutritional yeast. If you are a vegan, please check out the recipes for the soup and the pasta at their corresponding links, or in the videos I have included
Roasted Corn and Potato Soup
By Jenny Mustard
I tried a creamy vegetable soup at a local French restaurant here in SF, and since then, I haven't been able to go a week without ordering one. Here is a lovely soup that I found on a Jenny Mustard What I Eat in a Day video. It's her version of a recipe founded by another Swedish blogger, made of roasted corn and sweet potatoes. It looked so warm and comforting in the video and I am so excited to attempt adding it to my soup repertoire.
If you like this recipe and the video, be sure to check out Jenny's website.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
2 cups frozen corn
1 potato (Feel free to use a sweet potato like the original recipe. Steven and I are just not fans of sweet potatoes personally)
1 yellow onion
1 entire large head of garlic
1 small bunch of sage
1.25 cups of cream
2 cups of water
1.5 tsp turmeric
Salt and pepper
Garnishes // sesame seeds, chili flakes and sliced green onion
Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 440°F.
2. Peel and dice the sweet potato, peel the onion and cut into wedges. part the garlic head in half.
3. Place corn, sweet potato, onion, garlic and sage on parchment paper – season with salt and pepper
4. Roast for about 15-20 minutes, until the veggies start to brown and the sweet potato has softened
5. Transfer the roasted veggies to a pan, removing the peel from the garlic cloves. Add cream, water and turmeric.
6. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat. Mix the soup with an immersion blender and feel free to add a bit more water, until you reach your desired consistency. Taste test to see if you need more salt and pepper.
7. Top in bowls with the garnishes of your choice. We chose to use chili flakes and green onion.
This soup was originally an appetizer, but we've decided to promote it to main course. With the cream and potatoes in it, it's incredibly filling and comforting. And the combination of the corn and turmeric really make this a colorful and beautiful dish.
Creamy Avocado Pasta
By Fablunch
On a night when I'm not in the mood to stand over a hot stove for an hour, this is the absolutely perfect way to get my pasta fix anyway. This I would say is my trusted go-to for a tasty and filling dish I can put together in literally 10 minutes!
Olga's creamy avocado pasta recipe begins in the video below at the 4:30 mark
Servings: 2
Ingredients
250 gr spaghetti noodles
1 ripe avocado
½ cup spinach leaves
1-2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water
¼ cup pistachios (Optional. I rarely use them for this recipe. It's flavorful enough without them in my opinion, if you'd like to cut out some of the fat!)
1 tbsp shredded parmesan
Basil
Two handfuls of cherry tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Directions
1. Cook pasta according to the directions on the package.
2. Meanwhile prepare the sauce. Combine all ingredients except for basil and cherry tomatoes in a food processor or blender, and blend until smooth.
3. Once the pasta is ready, drain the water and return to the pot.
4. Add avocado sauce to the pasta and mix well. The texture of the sauce works best when pre-mixed with the noodles.
5. Plate the pasta, adding fresh basil and halved cherry tomatoes. I personally like to eat a tomato half with each bite of pasta. I get a nice combination of flavors and textures that way!
I really hope you've enjoyed this What We Ate video. I will be posting more as the recipes come along. I am so excited to share with you all of the new and exciting transitions Steven and I are going through in our lives, and appreciate your visiting my blog. Please give me a like on Facebook and subscribe to my YouTube channelto see more posts like this.
Until we meet again...