Stephanie @ Life Tastes Like Food

Spicy Buffalo Chicken and Quinoa Wrap

Cooking, Dinner, Food, Life, Lunch, Recipe, Self-Exploration 3 Responses »

May 212013

So yeah…I’ve officially decided that I am most definitely going through my quarter life crisis right now. What’s my passion? What do I want to do in the next 10 years? Do I want to stay on this career path or should I choose something totally different?

I don’t have answers to any of those questions. Which is kind of scary but it sort of feels like a blank canvas. And I like that… (…I think???)

It feels like I’ve had too many I’m-almost-25-what-have-I-done-with-my-life-I’m-not-where-I’d-thought-I’d-be-but-that’s-ok-right?-RIGHT? moments lately. But I’ve always found that getting in the kitchen, putting on some music, and cooking/baking helps. There’s something about cooking that soothes me. I don’t know if it’s following a recipe so that I don’t have to decide what to do or if tasting whatever I make is enough at the time.

I have a feeling I’ll be in the kitchen A LOT MORE though so I can enjoy these peaceful moments where all I have to think about is the dish that’s in front of me. And then I can share my creations, such as this tasty wrap, with you!

Buffalo wings are like…one of my all time favorite things to eat. Especially when they’re super spicy! (Unless you’re eating “Death Wings” that that require you to sign a waiver AND give you the worst indigestion of your life!! Lose-lose, guys…but I’ll save that story for another day.)

Anyway, like I mentioned when I made Buffalo Fries a while back, I find wings too much trouble to make. Oil, frying, drying out the wings…too much work! This simple wrap is on the healthy side (see that green stuff in there?!) and SO easy to make. The hardest part is cooking the chicken…which is ridiculously easy. So let’s give it a go!

Combined, these simple ingredients create such a tasty meal. I decided to add the quinoa and spinach so I wouldn’t feel as guilty eating all the cheese and I thought it was so good! Think of it as a spinach salad…wrapped up in a whole wheat tortilla, and then slathered in buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing. Yesssssss, that’s my kind of salad.

This is perfect for a quick meal and if you roll it up and wrap it in some plastic wrap, it travels reallyyy well so it’s great to bring to work for lunch! Or on a picnic. Or when roadtripping. Or to a friend’s house! What, you don’t bring your own snacks when visiting friends? No? Just me? Lies.

Happy Tuesday!

Spicy Buffalo Chicken and Quinoa Wrap

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 2

Sorry for the lack of measurement here. This wrap is forgiving though so add more or less of whatever you feel!

Ingredients

2 Whole wheat tortillas
1 Chicken breast, grilled and sliced into strips
½-3/4 Cups cooked quinoa (depending on how much you want in your wrap!)
¼ Red onion, thinly sliced
2 Handfuls of spinach
2 Tablespoons of your favorite buffalo hot sauce, plus a little extra for garnish
Blue cheese dressing
Crumbled blue cheese for garnish

Instructions

Toss quinoa and chicken strips in 2 tablespoon of hot sauce until fully coated. Use as much/less hot sauce as you’d like here. Some like it lighter and others like it spicier so it’s up to you!
Warm the whole wheat tortillas up in a pan or in the microwave. Then place a handful of spinach down the middle of each tortilla.
Divide the chicken/quinoa mixture in two and spread on top of each spinach layer. Then add the red onions.
When ready to eat, drizzle some blue cheese dressing and extra hot sauce over the chicken/quinoa/onion mixture.
Top off with crumbled blue cheese, and then roll it up!
Roll out, roll out, you’re done! Chow down.

Easy Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Baking, Food, Recipe, Side Dishes 5 Responses »

May 152013

Lately.

I went camping at Big Basin over the weekend. We hiked to some sweet waterfalls.

Plane tickets have been bought for South America in June with my best friend! Recommendations for Peru and Educador are encouraged.

You can blame my lack of blog presence to New Girl, The Mindy Project, and the SJ Sharks being in the Stanley Cup. (How funny was the lastest episode of New Girl?!)

I’ve been craving Safeway sushi for lunch. Like every day of the freaking week.

I think I could spend a whole month in Bed Bath & Beyond and STILL be entertained by walking through those isles. They have everything!

I think I might be starting to go through my quarter life crisis. Someone give me life advice please.

I’ve been baking sweet potatoes like it’s my job.

Simple, sweet, and healthy. These basic sweet potato fries will be a great accommodation to any main dish (or alone as a snack!). Once the ends of the fries start to get crispy, they are ready to eat.

These aren’t as crispy as deep fried sweet potato fries but I think that makes them taste fresher and more flavorful. Dip them in some spicy brown mustard and you’re good to go!

P.S.! I am donating 1 dozen of my Salted Dark Chocolate Chip & Hazelnut cookies to the Baking for Kate Online Bake Sale! The Online Bake Sale is happening THIS WEEKEND so be sure to stop by and bid on some great items. Carrie over at Frugal Foodie Mama is hosting this event, and all proceeds will be donated to Kate and her family (learn more about Kate’s story here).

5.0 from 1 reviews

Easy Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 40 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

1 Medium sweet potato
1 Tsp olive oil
Dried parsley
Salt (preferably kosher or coarse sea salt) and pepper to taste
Spicy brown mustard or your favorite dipping sauce

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Wash and then cut the sweet potato into thin slices (about ½ in thick, just slightly bigger than shoestring fries). I left the skin on but you can peel it off if you’d like.
In a large bowl, drizzle the olive oil evenly over the fries, and then lightly sprinkle some pepper and parsley on them. Toss everything together.
Place a wire rack (a metal cookie cooling rack works!) on a baking sheet and then lay the fries on the rack in a single layer. Be careful not to put them too close together or else this will steam the fries.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the fries start to get crispy/darker on the outside. (I recommend checking the fries around the 30 minute mark because oven temps vary.)
When the fries are ready, let cool for a few minutes and then sprinkle some kosher salt (or corse sea salt) and extra parsley over them.
Serve immediately.

Silk Soymilk and Startup Life

Coffee, Drinks, Life, San Francisco, Sponsored Post 1 Response »

May 032013

Huzza! The glory of working at a startup in San Francisco means…free snacks and drinks! ALL DAY, EVERYDAY. Which is a good and bad thing depending on how you look at it. Can you guess how many bags of chips I can eat in one day?! It’s too embarrassing, I’m never telling!

One quality I pride myself on is how quickly I can notice when our office kitchen gets restocked. The downside to this is that I find myself eating a lot of unhealthy snacks throughout the day. I’m lucky that our company provides some healthy alternatives though! Or else I probably would have gained 15 pounds by now. Hummus, raw almonds, and Silk Soy Milk are some of the great healthy options in the office kitchen.

We are always fully stocked with Silk Soy Milk! Whether my colleagues and I are adding it to our morning cup(s) of coffee, pouring it into a bowl of cereal, or dipping cookies in it, we’re using it daily.

And then there’s Silk Iced Latte. WOAH. I didn’t even know they had an Iced Latte product so when Silk asked me take a taste, I couldn’t pass it up! 100 calories a serving (1 cup), espresso, and soy. It’s the perfect mid-day office drink and just awesome to have on any warm day in general! My colleagues and I like to go on a lot of coffee runs throughout the work day so this is a great alternative to have around.

Basically, Silk Iced Latte is a win in my book. It’s sweet, creamy, and has the perfect amount of espresso added to it. And so simple to drink! Just pour over ice and enjoy.

I would say that Silk Iced Latte can be summed up as smooth indulgence and espresso decadence all channeled into Endless Love. (Yep, Lionel says it the best.)

Oh! And if you were to blend it with some ice (or ice cream!), that milkshake would definitely bring all the boys the the yard…if you know what I mean. Ok…I’m done hehe

Seriously though, not only is this Iced Vanilla Latte an awesome addition to the Silk family, but when I walked into the grocery store and saw so many different Silk flavors and options, I wanted to try them all! Although Silk did sponsor this post, these thoughts are entirely my own…so for realz, go Silk Soymilk!

Do you drink Silk Soymilk? If so, what’s your favorite type? I need more recommendations :)

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This post is brought to you by Silk. Take the Tastemaker Challenge on facebook.com/silkUS

Easy Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict with Blender Hollandaise Sauce

Breakfast, Cooking, Food, Life, Recipe 10 Responses »

Apr 182013

Yep, it’s true. Hollandaise sauce. In a blender. 6 simple ingredients. How easy is that?

And 15-20 minutes to make eggs benedict. YEP!

This is seriously one of my favorite brunch dishes and something that I use to order almost every time I saw it on the menu. I’d get it because it was a dish I couldn’t make on my own…well, now I can! And you can too. *fist bump*

Remember when I told you that I’m still a broke post-college student trying to make it in San Francisco? Yeah, that lifestyle is major inspiration for making these random, quick and easy creations :) Breakfast on the cheap and tasty. Then you can spend the rest of your morning reading a good book or drinking mimosas with friends (if that’s your thing!). Oh, you could also make this green monster smoothie to go with your breakfast/brunch!

So grab these ingredients and do yourself a favor: put on this new Avicii song and make yourself some eggs bennie (benny?). You’re set. Dancing in the kitchen is encouraged–seriously. No shame here.

The hollandaise recipe was only slightly modified from Elise over at Simply Recipes. There is also this awesome video of Chef Eric Ripert explaining the technique as well.

Click here for a step-by-step guide on how to poach an egg!

5.0 from 2 reviews

Easy Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict with Blender Hollandaise Sauce

Ingredients

For the Hollandaise Sauce

10 tbs butter melted
3 egg yolks
⅛ tsp cayenne
½ tsp salt
1 tb lemon juice (possibly a little more for taste)
1 tb room temperature/warm water (plus more if you want a thinner sauce)

For the Eggs Benedict

2 English Muffins
4 Eggs
1 Avocado, sliced
Smoked Salmon
Hollandaise Sauce

Instructions

Melt the butter slowly in a small pot or bowl in the microwave (in increments of 15-20 seconds). Don’t let it boil. You want the butter warm but not steaming hot.
In the blender, add the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and cayenne.
Blend the ingredients for about 30-60 seconds on medium/medium-high speed. This will heat the yolks slightly and lighten up the color.
Then turn the blender down to medium-low and slowly drizzle in the melted butter.
After the butter, slowly add the water. You can add a little more if you want a thinner consistency. Blend for another 30-60 seconds just to get everything incorporated.
Taste the sauce (it should be buttery, lemony, and slightly salty. If you need more lemon or water, add this now and blend for another few seconds).
Serve within an hour and keep in a warm spot so the sauce doesn’t thicken too much. This recipe makes about 1 cup and serves 4-6.
While you’re making the hollandaise sauce, start toasting your english muffins.
Then lay the toasted english muffins face up on a plate. Add a layer of avocado and then a layer of smoked salmon.
Poach your eggs (there is a step-by-step guide link above, right before this recipe).
Gently lay the poached eggs on top of the smoked salmon and spoon the hollandaise sauce over them.
Top the dish off with a sprinkle of dill for garnish and serve immedately.

love to boston.

Life 1 Response »

Apr 162013

I believe that life is precious and that it should never be taken for granted. We’re brought into this world to explore, to learn how to love, and to understand the true compassion of others. Tragedies like this should never be something that someone has to go through. I’ve learned that tragedies are a part of life, and that raw fact breaks my heart. Knowing that two of my cousins who are going to school in Boston could have been anywhere in that area and that my co-worker was running the race really shook me. Luckily, they’re safe but I keep thinking about everyone who was harmed by the explosions, and my heart is heavy.

There is hope though. The reaction from others on the scene and reading about the individuals who fled towards the danger zone, was inspiring. That instinct and desire to help strangers in need restored so much of my faith in humanity. The Google Doc made up of local residents proved that no matter how scary or devastating a situation can be, there will always be those who rise to help. It reminds me that there is more good in this world than any inherent evil, and that ultimately love triumphs over hate. And for that I’m grateful.

What a terrible thing to happen at an event that is suppose to bring so much joy.

Sending love to Boston.