Quick Cooking With Mushrooms and Pasta

#11. This kitty needs to keep cooking. QUICK!

Okay, okay, I haven't starved myself since I last cleaned the floor. I just haven't documented my cooking in this blog. Plus the fact that it was our summer show and I have been quite busy with things. Finally, I told myself, I need to keep this blog moving and document some cooking.

And speaking of busy schedules, I thought of doing another quick recipe. I'm trying to avoid fast food as much as possible. Since our work's crew meals often are fast food (chicken and rice or burger meals, non-vego obviously), I have resulted to just bringing my own food so the coordinator or crew wouldn't worry where to hunt my meal. For busy seasons, cooking my own prepacked lunch or meal can be a chore especially when I get home late and tired. So, the solution is trying to look for quick and light meals that are 1. easy to do 2. do not require so much ingredients 3. easy cleanup so I don't end up running late.

I always have a stock of pasta because it's easy to cook and I can just like make an easy shala meal worthy of Instagram posts in a flash, no culinary degree required. It's also quick to make and easy to share. Here's a heartier take to pasta aglio olio (quite simple, but still one of my favorite pasta variations). I added fresh mushrooms to this dish for one.  It's easy, quick, and warning, can be a bit spicy. The best part is that this is no production number to do.

 That's all the chopping and slicing you need. Yay!

Garlic Mushroom Pasta

• half a cup of dried twisty pasta (or ribbon, just enough for one)
• 5 cloves pounded garlic because I like things garlicky
• 2 fresh button mushrooms sliced
• Extra virgin olive oil
• to taste: salt, chili flakes (the ones from the pizza containers), Italian seasoning.

Note on fresh mushrooms: Never wash them like veggies. They tend to soak up water. Just wipe them with a damp paper towel.

1. Cook and drain pasta according to manufacturer's instructions. 
2. Heat a small pan in low heat. Add and heat olive oil.
3. When oil is hot (but not super hot it will burn the garlic), add in the garlic and cook until soft. Add some salt and a teensy bit of chili to bring all the flavors out. 
4. Add mushrooms and continue stirring and cooking until mushrooms are cooked.
5. Season as desired.
6. Toss in pasta. Adjust flavors if you want. 
7. For cheesiness, toss in some nutritional yeast (Nutritional yeast may be purchased at Healthy Options. Its packaging and contents are similar to grated Parmesan cheese) 
8. Serve. For more color and flavor, you may tear up some fresh basil leaves and toss them in as well. 

This is also great for dorm-style cooking since it doesn't need like a lot of equipment to use. When you got more time and ingredients, you can toss in sun dried tomatoes, olives, capers, and bell peppers. But this one's for those who need more time in their hands. 

Just came home from the Pinkbox event earlier at Aria in BHS Central where I had such an awesome, awesome time. The food was great (lots of vego choices, I tell you. Thank you Aria, for being vego-friendly. I went for seconds for that arugula salad!). When I stepped out of the restaurant, it was quite pouring and there were no cabs in sight, so I decided to walk it. Unfortunately, it was closing time as well so every block in BHS had no cab in sight. Then I remembered! Why not pass by Echostore since I'm there already?

Echostore sells organic and locally-grown toiletries that are environmentally-friendly and animal friendly too. Instead of using plastic bags, they reuse magazine pages and newspapers for their packaging. Not only is it a source for organic bath, body, and baby products, they also have a cafe and a mini-grocery that sells organic fruits and vegetables plus meats.

In my case though, I purchased a no-meat.

I finally found them tofu burgers after eating them from a photoshoot. Thankfully, they told me where to purchase the patties and I found them. I almost resulted to making my own veggie patties despite my lack of patience since ready made ones were expensive, around Php800+ when I canvased. Thankfully, I found a pack of 18 that sells for just Php 325. These burgers are nutty, spicy, and super flavorful, it's hard to believe there's not an ounce of meat in it.

The texture even looks like meat! The patties are a bit small though, so depending on the size of the burger bun, you might need to use two.

In my case, I made an open-faced sandwich using these patties. I ate quite a lot of food at the event earlier but I can't skip meals so I thought I'd keep my dinner light, just to have something in my tummy.

I also didn't want to go full production too, as it was dinnertime, so I thought I'd go light and make this one. Just one piece and I'm good. I first pan-grilled the pattie then chopped it up and spread it on a slice of bread spread with my fake butter. I topped it with mozarella cheese (the real thing, since I still eat cheese). I can either put this back in the griller until the cheese melts and gets all goey or pop it for a couple of minutes in the toaster oven. I chose the latter. It's cheesy and filling but not to the point of bursting!

When I have some time, I'll probably throw in mushrooms, a salsa, and probably a salad on the side. For now, the sweet treat here would be the peach juice on that glass.

Hazelnut Banana Smoothie

#6: Quick Recipe for A Banana Smoothie

As promised, I'm sharing my recipe for the hazelnut banana smoothie I made earlier for lunch. It's pretty good, it's yummy, and creamy! It can be vegan too, if you skip the honey or use coconut sugar instead.

HAZELNUT BANANA SMOOTHIE

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas, sliced (slice them, and your blender will not be put to stress)
• 1/2 cup cold hazelnut milk, chocolate flavor  (I used Pacific brand, purchased at Healthy Options. You can use plain if you wish, or almond. I've taken a photo of my nut milks below, so you know how they look like the next time you go shopping

• honey or coco sugar, if you're strict vegan
• dash of cinnamon
• dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

Procedure:
Blend everything in a blender and serve. Serves 1-2.

The measurements really vary, I didn't use measuring cups here and just dunked the blended and pressed puree then whip. The cinnamon is an added flavor, I just want a bit of warmth and spice to it. The cayenne pepper I got from an idea from another smoothie recipe I got. It gives a nice kick to the smoothie so there's a bit of spice. I've heard it's also got health benefits aside from that zing to things and life. Anyway, the spice in cayenne pepper kinda sneaks up to you, so use this sparingly, especially if you're making the smoothie. It's optional anyway, so those who are traditional and want the sweet, mellow taste of the smoothie without the kick, then go ahead and stop at cinnamon. Ice can be added if you want it really cold, but it kinda dilutes the milk and the flavor so I prefer having my smoothies pure or with just water/fruit juice/vego-milks just served cold.

Tomorrow, I'll be dealing with mangoes. :)

Quick Lunching

#5: Sun dried tomato pesto and banana smoothie

I had early work today, early like 5 am and I had an errand afterwards. After going home, I fell asleep and woke up and found out that it was lunch time already. So what I did? I mixed pre-bottled pasta sauce, some penne, and whipped up a smoothie with a kick.

Bottled pasta sauces (making sure there's no meat of course) and pasta are my instant food when It's mealtime. Instead of ice cream, I chose to make a smoothie instead. This isn't chocolate chip but banana hazelnut smoothie, which for me is a better way to eat bananas. Just drink it up! I'm lactose intolerant and so I need nut-based milks for my calcium intake.

Lunches need not be complicated, especially when you want something quick.