Lime & Pepper Marinated Portabello Mushrooms

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It probably comes as no surprise that enjoying tasty meals at home beats the pants off dining out when you're keeping a close eye on spending. But having fun by experimenting with new recipes - when you're also trying to pare down the grocery receipt bottom line - can be daunting. Often times those glossy recipes found in award winning cookbooks involve well over 10 ingredients and a smattering of herbs and spices that can do some serious wallet damage. However, I'm not about to advocate consuming inferior fare.

Here's a new recipe I've been enjoying lately that's extremely versatile: Lime and Pepper Marinated Grilled Portabello Mushrooms. You can find the nitty gritty details of the recipe I used here, but the basic idea is to marinate a few portabello caps in olive oil, lime juice, and some seasonings (in this case fresh chopped cilantro and serrano pepper, plus salt and pepper) for an hour or so then toss 'em on the grill outside or a George Foreman.

What works well about this recipe is that it's easy to tailor depending what foods you have on hand. Maybe instead of a lime and pepper marinade you opt for garlic or make it easy and use some pre-made dressing as your marinade instead. I sliced up the grilled mushrooms and tossed them into a taco shell with some beans, romaine lettuce, avocado slices, and homemade pico de gallo - but you could use whatever items you have available or are on sale at the store. You don't have to make it a Mexican-inspired dish either: serve the mushroom caps whole alongside some wilted greens and polenta for a home-cooked feeling, make a yummy sandwich or wrap with long slices of mushroom and grilled bell pepper, or top a salad with mushroom bits alongside artichoke hearts and olives.

Convenient Guacamole

As a general practice I try to stay away from your standard gas station "convenience foods" and grocery-side "100 calorie packs" as much as possible. These seemingly innocuous quick-consumption treats typically bring zero nutritional value to the table, do nothing to curb our appetite for genuine sustenance, and are a waste of wrapper. After all, fruit is nature's own 100-calorie (or less!) pack chock full of fiber and nutrients and it comes in a biodegradable (nay, soil sustaining) wrapper. But there's one convenience product I have been loving lately and thought I should share - Wholly Guacamole 100 Calorie Snack Packs. The ingredients are simple and recognizable (Avocados, Jalapeno Puree (White Vinegar, Jalapeno Peppers), Dehydrated Onion, Salt, Granulated Garlic) and the result is delicious. Since guacamole is pretty messy and tends to go brown and inedible if made in advance, the single serving packs are a great way to get some more avo into a busy lifestyle. Many people don't realize that avocados are high in fiber, Vitamin K, Folate and contain heart-healthy fats. Of course, eating fresh, raw avocado is best, but when your day calls for a more convenient option, the Wholly Guacamole packs are a good choice. Lately, I've been squeezing them on top of salads as a dressing, scooping them over bowls of brown rice and sauteed veggies, and plunging carrots and pepper strips into them. Yum! What's your favorite nutritional convenience food?

PS - For fellow raw-foods enthusiasts, I just discovered the Raw on $10 a Day (or Less!) blog and have been drooling over the menus all evening. You've got to check this one out!

Winter What-to-dos

Photo via Learning How To Cook

I'm not generally one to get excited for Winter, what with it meaning months of cold feet, soggy mittens, bad hair, icy commutes, and sniffles. However, its presence is undeniable, and since the month of December is already more than half-way through it seems appropriate to celebrate the chilliest season while it's here. Need a little inspiration for getting into the snowy spirit? Give some, or all, of these tips a try.

• Bake a tray of gingerbread people cookies and decorate them to look like people you know or famous folks. Then host a festive party and display said cookies for your guests - use them instead instead of place cards or turn it into a game and see who can guess the cookie's likeness... then enjoy!

• Suit up and enjoy the snow like you did when you were a kid. Grab a friend and make a snow man, build an igloo, make snow angels, have a snowball fight... you get the idea. Once your fingers are frozen and you've got snow in your boots (or perhaps down your pants), change into something comfy and make a heaping mug of hot cocoa.

• Pop some corn and settle in for an evening of holiday films. Mix up some old favorites with something you haven't seen yet. On my list: A Charlie Brow Christmas, The Holiday, The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Shop Around the Corner, Love Actually, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Elf, and of course, A Christmas Story!

• When you make it home from a long cold day, pop your pjs and some fluffy socks in the dryer for a few minutes before hoping into them. You'll be warmed-up and relaxed in no time.

• Catch your favorite winter sports on TV, or better yet live! There's the X-Games, competitive ice skating, ski racing, snow mobile racing... Once you're feeling up to the challenge head to your local mountain, rink, track or trail and get in on the action yourself.

Photo via Fun Ski Vacation

• Of course, you don't need to be an adrenaline junkie to enjoy winter sports. Both snowshoeing and cross-country skiing are great ways to take in the changing scenery, no prior experience required. You can make either sport as leisurely or vigorous as you like, so bring your camera to capture the sights or plenty of water to rehydrate while you burn off that fruit cake.

• If you're of the crafty persuasion, get busy hand-making thank you cards. Draw, paint, stamp, glue, weave, bedazzle, however you like; with all the thank yous there are to send out this time of year, you'll be glad to have a stack of personal cards to help deliver a heart-felt "thanks".
  

• It may seem like your culinary choices are limited during this rather dormant growing season, but there are many options for seasonal produce yet. Citrus fruits, and more specifically Clementines, are my favorite whole-foods winter treat. Food and Wine, Real Simple, and Chow all have some great ideas for delicious meals made with Winter produce too.
  

Apple Cider

Photo via NCAGR

Not only is apple cider mighty delicious, but it may well be named the official drink of my fine home state of New Hampshire. That's right, as the Boston Globe reports, Apple Cider is on track to secure its spot as the preferred brew of the Granite State. Looking to enjoy a little of the sweet nectar for yourself? Try this recipe for mulled cider from Epicurious - I made it this weekend using fresh apple juice made with my Breville juicer and it was so good! If you've never tried fresh cider before, now's the time to do so. It tastes nothing like standard juice-box style apple juice and is at its best this time of year, so enjoy while you can.

Little Bowls

Photo via Sur la Table

To pass a little time before yoga tonight I dropped by a cute little consignment shop for some wandering about. I hadn't been ogling the ancient comic books carefully wrapped in plastic sleeves or fingering through strands of 1960's love beads for more than a couple of minutes when I set my sights on two precarious stacks of little glass bowls; one slightly more squat than the other. Having searched every grocery store, Target and Home Goods for these exact items over the last couple weeks, I thought for sure they must be a mirage.

Fortunately for me, the bowls are very real and await, swathed in the oatmeal colored crinkly paper every store keeps on hand for picture frames and candle holders and the like, patiently for their debut. "What do you want these bowls for anyways?" The cashier had asked when I proudly carried my teetering purchase to the register. I deflated a little when I answered her question, admitting the truth to myself for the first time. "They're like the bowls they have on cooking shows, you know when they toss in a pinch of this glamorous ingredient you've never heard of and their cooking looks so effortless? I think that if I had those little bowls my cooking would warrant it's own show too." And then in a hurried effort to cover my naivete: "That and I went to a party once where these little bowls with snacks were scattered all over the place - they're perfect for that!". She smiled approvingly at the more pragmatic justification for my purchase.

I'm still pretty positive the bowls, which I now come to learn are called ingredient bowls, will have a disproportionately great impact on my cooking ability. You can purchase your own culinary motivation (what others may inaccurately identify as false hope) at Sur la Table. :)

New Features!

I'm excited to announce that new features are coming to Apartment 303 in the near future! What kind of features, you ask? Original video and photo content are on the way, along with lots more tips and inspiration for living brilliantly. Look for new recipes, how-tos, and personal development exercises to come. In the mean time, here's a super quick video I made to get familiar with the editing process. Please excuse the drab coloring - natural lighting is in the cards for next time ;)

Apartment 303 from Paige Doster on Vimeo.

What's Cooking?

Photo via How Stuff Works

What's cooking? If you think you're too busy to cook, you might need to be a little more strategic in the that meals you choose. For example, it can be helpful to make a big batch of something yummy that can be easily re-served as a convenient lunch or fast dinner all week long. Bonus points for making a multi-tasking meal that uses up extra bits of this and that you have lurking in the fridge. Case in point: Homemade Soup.

I made a big stock pot full of soup tonight using this Ellie Krieger recipe which made a delicious dinner served with garlic bread. The soup was fast and easy to make, low in calories, brimming with nutrients, and could easily accommodate a few substitutions depending on what produce you need to use up. Better yet, what didn't get eaten tonight can be reheated alongside a salad or sandwich for lunch tomorrow or even used to fill up a store-bought bakery roll like a bread-bowl for dinner on Friday.

Soups, especially homemade soups that are lower in sodium than their canned counterparts, are a great way to fit more veggies into your diet too - especially as the weather cools and salads start to lose their luster. So go ahead and make a pot-full this weekend, and you'll have a healthy and quick option for even your busiest of days.

Sites Worth Surfing

This week I added a few new websites to my bookmarks and thought you might find some of them helpful too. Happy surfing!

MediterrAsian
Click here to visit the site

Perfect for: Getting some background information about Mediterranean or Asian cuisines and finding good stater recipes to get your feet wet.

Why it made the cut: Lately I've been craving the foods I had while studying in Greece - fresh horiatiki (Greek salad), crusty pastry breads, pure olive oil from the laiki, and those savory fava bean dishes. So as I searched the web for fava bean recipes to experiment with I came across the MediterrAsian website. Chock full of healthful Mediterranean and Asian recipes as well as nutritional and lifestyle information, this site had just what I was looking for. I especially like this page where you can learn about what distinguishes many of the featured cuisines (Thai versus Indonesian?).

BeliefNet
Click here to visit the site

Perfect for: Researching that newfangled church your neighbor just joined - or more generally, learning about the endless spectrum of belief systems, faiths, and inspiration sources that people embody all over the world (we're not just talking a few standard religions here folks).

Why it made the cut: This page has actually been bookmarked for a while, ever since my friend Michael introduced me to it. What got me hooked on the site initially is the Belief-O-Matic, a 20 question quiz that tells you what faiths your beliefs most accurately align with. It may sound kind of silly at first, but the quiz is very comprehensive and customizable and is a great way to learn about some new belief systems you may have never learned about otherwise. Click here to go straight to the quiz - I promise it is a great way to reflect on your own beliefs and grow in the process.

Mint
Click here to visit the site

Perfect for: Tracking your entire financial portfolio on one, easy to use web interface. Setting budgets and sticking to them.

Why it made the cut: As I prepare for life P.C. (post college) I have been trying to track my spending, savings, credit, and loans more closely. This is especially important for me since I do not have a job yet and need to move my money wisely to be sure I can cover my expenses. It can get tricky to do, however, when you consider that my savings, checking, Roth IRA, loan, and credit card information are all contained on separate websites with different companies. So how's a girl supposed to track each and every transaction and financial goal at once? Mint.com! Essentially, Mint will pull all of your updated financial account information (everything from mortgages to basic checking accounts) into one place. For example, on Mint I have monthly budgets for groceries, gas, and other major expenses which are automatically updated for me each time I spend money at Safeway or Conoco. The site lets me know by email if I'm getting close to my predetermined budget for a particular item. It also provides me with graphs, charts, and other visuals of my debt to cash ratios, where I spend my money, monthly expense comparisons, and more. Ready to get started? Click here to visit a great article by finance buff Eric of personal finance blog Narrow Bridge Adventures about getting started on Mint.

Etsy
Click Here to visit the site

Perfect for: Finding the perfect homemade gift for a deserving recipient (yes, you can be a deserving recipient yourself!). Discovering some crafting inspiration.

Why it made the cut: Especially in today's economy, I like to know that I'm voting for a better future with each dollar that I spend. To me, this means supporting creative artisans who produce quality products that are built to last (not obsolete themselves or break just after the warranty runs out). Etsy is the perfect place to find such people. Think of this website as a digital crafts fair where you can quickly search through thousands of artisans and products to find just the right miniature narwhal crochet pattern or squid themed greeting cards. You can even search artisans by location to support those in your own neighborhood. Take a look at some of the best Etsy finds on the Editors' Picks page.

Raw Cookie Dough Dessert Recipe

If you ever make cookies only to munch through half the dough before the oven has preheated, this recipe is for you! It's a delicious cookie-dough-like treat made from 100% natural and raw food ingredients that you don't have to feel guilty (or worried about) consuming. The best part? You can make this dough in about ten seconds flat. This flexible recipe can be used as a base for endless cookie dough or energy bar combinations. Feel free to make a big batch for some friends or just a little bit for when you need an afternoon spoonful of sweetness.

Ingredients

• Raw Almonds, diced
• Fresh Medjool Dates, pitted
• Raw Cacao Nibs

Simply toss a hefty handful of the almonds into a small blender (I use my Magic Bullet) or food processor and blend into a fine "flour". It will look something like the photo below. If you blend it too long, an almond butter will start to form, but don't worry - you can still make a great cookie dough with it. 

Next, blend in your dates slowly to develop a good doughy consistency. I added 2 and a half to my mix and it formed into a dough ball on it's own after just a few seconds of blending:

Finally, to make a yummy version of chocolate chip cookie dough, I mixed in a small scoop of raw cacao nibs by hand. This preserves the crunchiness of the nibs for a more authentic texture. Never heard of cacao? It's basically chocolate straight from the tree. For a more complete explanation, check out this raw cacao website. 

And that is it! You can enjoy your dough with a spoon straight from the mixing bowl, you can form it into little cookies as I did above, you can make little dessert balls by rolling the dough in the diced almonds or dried coconut and tossing them in the freezer to chill, you could throw them in a dehydrator to warm em up, whatever feels right. Do note that this is not a dough meant to be cooked - just enjoyed in all of its gooey glory. Chocolate chip not your thing? Mix in raisins, chopped macadamia nuts, dried cranberries, some tahini, honey, or leave it plain. 

If you are wondering why none of my recipes use milk or eggs, stay tuned to find out!