April | 2016 | To-Eat List

Chimichurri Tilapia Rice Bowl

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Rachel Leigh

Guess what…

I really really really love rice. It’s gluten free. Versatile. Sticky and delicious.

So, of course, I have yet another scrumptious rice bowl for you to make for dinner tonight and every night of your life because it is so damn tasty! It’s almost to the point where I should rename my blog to “The Rice Enthusiast” or something. Check out my other rice bowl recipes here and here.

When it comes to putting dinner together I’m usually tired and crabby from sitting at a desk at work all day, so the last thing I want to do is put a lot of thought into what I’m gonna make/eat. I’ve also usually already had a post-work snack so when 7:00 rolls around I’m not super hungry so something healthy and not heavy is ideal. Enter this bowl of tangy, crunchy magic!

I always have some sort of protein leftover, so these bowls are a perfect way to use up anything in the fridge. The veggies in the bowl can be ANYTHING, though brussel sprouts are my absolute favorite, but anything colorful will work.

Chimichurri Tilapia Rice Bowl (gluten & dairy free, low-FODMAP)

1 cup shredded brussel sprouts (any veggie works too)
4 oz. cooked tilapia
2 tbsp chimichurri sauce
1 cup sticky rice
1 tsp coconut oil

// Sauté brussel sprouts with coconut oil and salt & pepper until just tender.
Add cooked tilapia and chimichurri and warm through.
Add the cooked sprouts and fish to a bowl of rice and dive into tangy heaven.

So simple yet SO delicious!

Asian Salmon Rice Bowl

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Rachel Leigh

I’m back! AND I come with another version of my beloved rice bowl!

Who doesn’t love a good rice bowl, I mean isn’t that basically what Chipotle is? Who doesn’t love Chipotle?

The best part about my rice bowls is that I make my rice super sticky, so it’s more sushi than rice & beans. I much prefer my rice that way, and making it couldn’t be easier. I wrote about that last week, check it out.

I haven’t mentioned much about my diet post Whole30 and what I’ve been doing to get my eating back on track after dealing with too many gut issues to count. I honestly didn’t realize so much was wrong until I got my test results back from my doctor and realized I have a lot of work to do after destroying my gut for the past 22 years.

In an effort to reverse the damage I have cut out meat and replaced it with lots of tuna and salmon. It’s only been a solid week and a half since I started the pescatarian route but my stomach already feels eons better!!

Like my Mediterranean Rice Bowl, the ingredients for this bowl can be prepped days ahead, and just heated in a pan and assembled. So quick and easy!

Asian Salmon Rice Bowl (gluten-free)

1/2 cup carrots (I had cooked carrots that I broke in half)
1 cup shredded brussel sprouts
1/2 cup cooked salmon
1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp coconut aminos/tamari (soy sauce works if not gluten-free)
salt & pepper
1 cup cooked sticky rice

// Heat sauté pan over medium-high heat and add coconut oil.
Sauté carrots and brussel sprouts until charred, and add salmon to heat through, season with salt and pepper.
Remove from heat and add sesame oil and “soy sauce.”
Pour over the sticky rice and enjoy!

Baked Yuca Fries w/ Tangy Chimichurri

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Rachel Leigh

Have you ever had a yuca fry? Do you even know what “yuca” is?

You’re missing out if you said “no” to both those statements.

Ever since discovering the starchy root veggie– yuca– in fried form at my favorite Minneapolis food truck turned restaurant, Hola Arepa, I haven’t been able to get enough of it. I even had them for brunch at one of the best kept secret brunch spots in the cities, Café Racer.

I was baffled at how such an ugly root could turn into something so amazingly creamy in the middle and super crunchy on the outside. Well I think I’ve discovered the secret, and even managed to make this South American beloved side dish a bit healthier.

Hola Arepa serves their yuca fries with a creamy chimichurri sauce so naturally I had to recreate it, but with my own touches. I skipped on the garlic and onion because my stomach isn’t reacting well to those lately, but with the addition of lots of lemon juice and zest and a bit of seasoning, no one will miss the breath destroying aromatics.

Baked Yuca Fries w/ Chimichurri

Yuca Fries:
1 large yuca, peeled and sliced into large fry shapes
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper

// Preheat oven to 450.
Add yuca chunks to a pot of water and bring to a boil for 15 min or until just tender to the touch and drain.
Pat the boiled yuca until dry and place on a baking sheet with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Bake for 30-45 minutes until super crispy on the outside.

Chimichurri:
1 bunch of cilantro
1 bunch of parsley
1/2 cup olive oil
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp dried oregano
salt & pepper

// Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until creamy.

Mediterranean Rice Bowl (gluten-free)

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Rachel Leigh

Woah. My life just hit overdrive this past week, and I’ve never been this nervous yet excited in my entire life. With my first farmer’s market date just 4 weeks from today, I have WAY too much to figure out still. This whole starting a business thing isn’t easy, but I never did like easy.

My brain is a constant battle between thinking of everything that could go wrong with my waffle dream, and then thinking of all the positives that come with following my gut and passion. I lose lots of sleep at night for just this reason. Maybe I should also stop drinking so much coffee though?

It’s recipes like the one I’m gonna give you today that allows me to eat delicious, nourishing food that requires minimal thought because there isn’t anymore room for recipes with waffles in my head.

By the way, if you haven’t already checked out what I’ve been up to in the entrepreneurial world since graduating college, go to tbspwaffles.com or email me tbspwaffles@gmail.com with any questions or to try one of my insanely scrumptious liege-style waffles.

Shameless plug over. I’ve concocted a dish that was inspired by a dish my roommate ate when we went out last week (I opted for a mulled wine in April…). It was so easy to recreate. Actually it’s more of just an assembly of things you can prep way ahead of time and have in your fridge.

Mediterranean Rice Bowl (gluten-free)

1 cup cooked sticky rice (recipe here)
1/2 cup cooked meat/protein (I used ground turkey with salt and pepper)
1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped
handful fresh spinach
1 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette
crumbled feta

// Heat a sauté pan over medium-high heat and add tomatoes with vinaigrette.
Once tomatoes are warmed through, add spinach and cook until just wilted.
Add cooked veggies to a bowl of warm rice, and add chicken and top with crumbled feta.

Bon Appetit!

The Best Sticky Rice (2 recipes!!)

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Rachel Leigh

I wrote about my love for potatoes the other day, but now I’m bringing you my other favorite starchy food.

Sticky Rice.

Not just plain old white rice, sticky rice. Huge difference. Sticky rice is what you get at good Chinese restaurants, or in your favorite sushi roll. I don’t want rice that’s crumbly and hard. I want soft, pillowy rice that sticks to the spoon and absorbs all the goodness added to it.

This is something that you can’t get from brown rice, so please only use white rice. I’m not a huge fan of brown rice anyway because I don’t like the texture and earthy taste, and it’s harder for my body to digest. Plus the health benefits aren’t all the much better than white rice.

With a few easy steps you can make amazing sticky rice, but in order to make the rice “sticky” you need to soak the rice for at least an hour and rinse it thoroughly to remove as much starch as possible. The starch is what keeps it from becoming sticky.

I decided to use my sticky rice in super simple spring rolls that literally took 5 minutes to make since all the ingredients were conveniently prepped (thank you Trader Joe’s).

Sticky Rice

1 cup jasmine rice or short-grain rice

// Place rice in a bowl with room temperature water.
Let soak for 1 hour to a day at room temperature.
Pour soaking water and rinse rice thoroughly.
Place the rice in a pot and add water until 1/2 inch above the rice.
Bring the rice to a boil on medium heat, and once boiling, cover.
Cover until water is gone, and then shut off the stove and let the rice steam in the pot for 20 minutes.

Chicken Spring Rolls (gluten-free)

4 rounds of rice paper
1 cup sticky rice
1 chicken breast, sliced thin (I used Trader Joe’s lemon pepper cooked chicken)
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup spinach leaves
coconut aminos, for dipping
other fillings: mint leaves, cucumber slices, shrimp, pork, etc.

// Dip the rice paper in water and place flat on a wood cutting board. Scoop in some rice and place towards the bottom half.
Place chicken slices above the rice, and then the veggies on top of the rice.
Roll the rice paper up and over and tuck in the sides before sealing the end.

Slice in half and enjoy the fruits of your minimal labor by dipping in any gluten-free dips you find in your pantry 😉

Must Eat: San Francisco

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Rachel Leigh

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I was incredibly fortunate to accompany my twin on a trip to San Francisco this last weekend where she was interviewing for a job post-graduation. My work is so flexible that it was super easy for me to take a couple days off to go along, since her other “plus 1” is no longer. Naturally we turned the trip into a food/walking tour, and enjoyed every millisecond!

Start with…

Philz Coffee– get the mint mojito iced coffee with almond milk, and you’ll never miss the rum 😉 It’s coffee muddled with mint and sugar to make a sweet, caffeinated, refreshing drink.

Blue Bottle Coffee– Though I didn’t try their undoubtedly amazing coffee, I did try the “Liège Wafel” to compare it to mine (tbspwaffles.com) and it was definitely good but nowhere near “authentic”. The twin and I compared the Blue Bottle “wafel” to a croissant, because it was just super buttery and melt in your mouth.

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Mymy Coffee Shop– Ended up here instead of Plow, but super scrumptious breakfast spot with massive portions of pancakes and eggs and superb hash browns!! Pretty cheap too, but expect a wait (just like in all good places).

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Off the Grid, Fort Mason– Yummiest food truck rally around. It happens every weekend at various spots in the city, but the food options are top-notch. They have everything from creme brûlée to Mexican tamales (obviously we tried those!). I’d been dying to try tuna poke and Ono Poke came to the rescue!! It was one of the greatest things I had ever eaten, no joke. With the creamy tuna and sashimi salmon mixed with pickled ginger and my fave sticky rice. BEST THING EVER.

Humphrey Slocombe– If you want ice cream that tastes exactly like the ingredients it’s made out of, go here. I could legit taste the cream, and the peanut butter tasted beyond fresh and nowhere near artificial like Skippy. Yum yum.

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Pica Pica Arepa Kitchen– My love for arepas and yuca fries is no secret around here, so naturally we had to stop at this SF spot selling just that. They were super light and filled with tasty meats, and those yuca fries… So creamy yet crispy! Must eat spot in the Mission district!

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Tartine Bakery– when you need something sweet in the Mission, check out Tartine. It’s nothing short of decadent, and plenty of options to please any sweet tooth. I opted for the coconut Macaroons because I’m a sucker for coconut, but the twin enjoyed the super light Tres Leches Cake.

%ABV– Besides have a totally great name for a bar, their cocktails are top notch. Try the gin drink with apple liqueur and prepare to head into a happy daze for the night, it’s STRONG. The food on the menu looked amazing coming out of the kitchen, so give those a try too, or just drink your calories like us!