A New Failure

For a while there, Ryan and I were eating ravioli about once a week.

Monterey Pasta Company made our ravioli of choice. (Just FYI, the spinach ricotta and lobster ravioli are the best flavors.)

Unfortunately the pasta itself wasn’t whole wheat and I had a feeling there had to be a tasty whole wheat ravioli option out there.

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a bag of frozen 365 organic whole wheat spinach and cheese ravioli from Whole Foods, stuck it in our freezer and forgot about it.

When Ryan went to throw some ravioli in our cart at the grocery store this week, I stopped him and remembered the ravioli chillin’ in the freezer.

Tonight we put the whole wheat ravioli to the test…

We served it with cauliflower, mushrooms, zucchini, marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Whole Wheat Ravioli

Mushrooms + Zucchini

I love lots o’ veggies with my pasta.

My Bowl

Dinn-ahhh

The verdict?

Mehhhh. We were both pretty disappointed in the ravioli. 😦

The whole wheat pasta had a funky flavor to it and overpowered the flavor of the spinach and cheese filling.

But have no fear, we still managed to clean our plates. 😉

T-Shirt Trivia

Now for some Tuesday night fun…

What does my t-shirt represent?

Where-Oh-Where Is My T-Shirt From?

 Answer to come in the morning!

(Oh and you will get 10 points if you answer this correctly. Points are good for bragging rights. 😀 )

Acorn Squash Sweet Salad

I am on a Pumpkorn kick. I cannot get enough of these delicious pumpkin seeds!

Today I incorporated a big handful of the honey ‘n’ flax flavor into my lunch .

Acorn, Pumpkorn, Cranberry Relish

Last night I prepped an acorn squash by piercing it before microwaving it for 5 minutes on one side and three minutes on the other. I used all the yummy flesh in my acorn squash salad today. I added several scoops of homemade cranberry relish for extra sweetness.

My afternoon snack is more Pumpkorn. I think I’ll be digging into my sea salt Pumpkorn sooner rather than later… not because I’m hungry, but because I’m obsessed.

Have you ever tried pumpkin butter? What’s your favorite kind of nut butter?

On random foodie Web sites I’ve seen pumpkin butter for sale and have always wanted to try it. Sounds delicious to me. My favorite nut butter is… duh… peanut butter!

I want to eat you!

I really love the honey nut peanut butter grinding machine at Whole Foods where you can grind your own honey nut peanuts into the most amazingly creamy and sweet nut butter. Whoa, is that a puddle of drool I see on my desk?

Peanut Butter Fingers Confession

I have an embarrassing peanut butter confession. About two weeks ago I was eating one too many peanut butter fingers. Ryan was about to leave for a soccer game and I thrust the peanut butter jar at him and told him to hide it from me so I wouldn’t eat the whole dang jar.

Let me just say I am one of the most curious people in the world. I’ve always tried to find my Christmas presents before Christmas (sometimes I’ve succeeded!). Ryan actually hid my engagement ring in his car for fear I’d find it. (Disclaimer: I don’t snoop unless I know someone’s planning to give something to me. I just wanna know what it is NOW!)

Anyway, about an hour after Ryan left for his soccer game, I felt my curiosity kick in. I promise you it wasn’t just another peanut butter craving (believe me I know how to identify this feeling). I knew he hid the peanut butter jar in the spare room of our apartment. After some digging, I found it in his closet and rewarded myself with another peanut butter finger! 😀

Naturally I placed the jar back in the closet and shut the door to hide my embarrassing lack of control over my own curiosity. When Ryan went to change after his shower he immediately said “Hm… someone found the peanut butter!”

Caught! Ah! Apparently I didn’t place the jar back in the closet exactly as I’d found it. Note to fellow snoopers: return your finding exactly as you found it. Don’t get so excited about enjoying another peanut butter finger that you place the jar in the closet vertically when you found it horizontally. I’m so embarrassing.

A Cooking Demo for Free? Fine by Me.

This evening Ryan and I headed to Whole Foods for a free cooking demonstration conducted by two chefs from Disney World’s annual Epcot Food and Wine Festival, an event showcasing cuisine and wines from around the world.

Cooking Demonstration

We’ve been to one other demonstration at Whole Foods hosted by Season’s 52, my faaaavorite restaurant in the whole-wide-world, so my hopes for this evening were quite high.

As we entered the Lifestyle Center where the demonstration was held, the fresh produce, herbs and spices adorning the countertops immediately sparked my interest and made my tummy grumble.

Ryan and I took our seats and were handed two different recipes to be covered in the demonstration.

We Love Food!

First up was spicy chicken sausage with sweet corn polenta.

Recipe One

The chefs took us through the recipe, and any steps that were hard to see from our seats were showcased on two flat screen televisions. Whole Foods is high tech!

Ballin'!

Once the recipe was complete we were more than ready to give it a little taste test!

Chicken Sausage and Sweet Polenta

While the chicken sausage was a little too spicy for my sensitive tongue, the addition of pure maple syrup to the polenta made the corn mixture deliciously sweet. Ryan and I agreed it was the highlight of the evening.  

The next recipe featured was a mushroom soup.

Recipe Two

The soup was made using lots of fresh vegetables and sour cream, which I never would have known was in the soup had I not seen the chefs add it myself.

Mushroom Soup

One More Time

The soup was topped with truffle oil, which I had never tried before. WOW, was that delicious!!! We gobbled our bowls right up!

The cooking events at our local Whole Foods are wonderful and are typically under $10 a person, if not completely free, like tonight’s event. Ryan and I love learning new tricks of the cookin’ trade and sampling delicious eats prepared by expert chefs is just the icing on the cake (or the truffle oil on the mushroom soup 😉 )!

Question: Have you ever attended a cooking demonstration or a cooking class? 

My Love for Pumpkin is Thriving

I really hope you wonderful readers out there love pumpkin, because my breakfast today is yet another ode to this seasonal favorite.

Fall's Favorite

On the day of our engagement, Ryan and I stopped by Whole Foods for a yummy lunch from the salad and hot bars. The intention was to only stop for lunch… ha! Naturally I wanted to browse, mainly because Whole Foods offers tons of free samples and I’m a sucker for tasty nibbles.

(As my retirement job one day, I secretly want to be the sample lady at the grocery store.I want to prepare delicious bites for shoppers and I won’t give people weird looks if they want more than one sample. I get it. Samples are awesome.)

While wondering up and down the aisles, I stumbled upon a new bar made by Kashi.

Kashi Pumpkin Pie Bar

Couple Kashi with pumpkin and I knew this was a recipe for success.

My breakfast this morning was topped with a crumbled Kashi pumpkin pie bar.

Pumpkiny Good

I blended a half a cup of cottage cheese with a half a cup of pumpkin, several shakes of pumpkin pie spice and a little bit of sweetener.

Pumpkin Pie "Cheesecake"

I topped the mix (which tastes a lot like pumpkin pie cheesecake) with the Kashi bar for crunch and extra flavor.

Bowl of Pumpkin Fun

Breakfast was mmm, mmm pumpkin-good. I served the pumpkin cheesecake mix with a hot cuppa Yogi tea and a Viactiv calcium chew.

Yogi Green Tea

Breakfast is Served

Gettin' My Calcium

I LOVE these calcium chews and could eat them like candy. Mo’ calcium and vitamin D fo’ me!

Question: What’s your favorite thing to do with pumpkin (& yes, carve it is a great answer)?

*Merri, can’t wait for pumpkin carving on Thursday!!! 🙂