Tehehehini

I’ll get to that horribly cheesy title in a little—but, in the mean time, I’m sure you can guess what sesame-derived ingredient made its way into my eats yesterday.

First, I wanted to thank you for all of the feedback on my first review! I can’t wait to do more because, if it’s not apparent, I kind of like talking about food. Is it wrong to be more opinionated about food than about politics? Yo no sé, but I’d debate nut butters over national security any day.

Speaking of nut butters, Monday morning welcomed a peanut butter first.

After a few cups of cinnamon swirly java, I tried a beloved blogland breakfast that, I’m sure, all of you have had many times by now.

Oats in a jar!

Proof that I am a behind-the-times blogger: I hadn’t tried overnight oats ‘til last week, and I hadn’t utilized an almost-empty jar as an oatmeal bowl ‘til yesterday! Ay, dios…

When I noticed my current jar of peanut butter nearing its end, I seized la oportunidad. Into the jar went 1/3 cup quick-cooking Irish oatmeal—cooked in almond milk, sweetened with maple syrup and topped with raspberry preserves.

Because there was a good amount of peanut butter coating the sides of the jar, I let the steamy oats melt the PB walls by returning the lid for 5 minutes and then violently passionately shaking the jar.

The result was PB & J oats in their most divine form. I think it was a combination of the glorious chewiness of Irish oatmeal and the mouth-watering meltiness of the peanut butter.

Hated it.

As I wrote up my Nutridel review (which you can read here, if you missed it), I had an almond Nutridel cookie topped with cream cheese and jelly.

Before:

After:

I can’t decide if I think the before or after shot is more mouth-watering. I suppose beauty’s in the eye of the beholder. What do you think? Does food look more appetizing when it’s well put-together or messy?

Lunch brings us to the tehehehini title of this post.

What ingredient made it into almost everything I ate for the rest of the day?

You guessed it.

I’ve always thought it was spelt tahini, but I’ve seen several brands spell it this way. Anyone know the explanation behind this spelling discrepancy? Merriam goes with tahini—but  maybe tehina is the authentic Mediterranean spelling? It’s really not normal that this is bothering me.

Anyway, lunch. I toasted a rye sandwich thin and topped half with tahini/tehina and crumbled feta before broiling for 2 minutes.

I topped the other half with one of my homemade rice & bean veggie burgers (which I’d frozen a couple of weeks ago) and roasted red peppers.

I heated it in the toaster for 10 minutes at 450°—and it tasted just as great. ¡Éxito! (That’s success en español.)

I had some pre-made frozen sweet potato fries with honey mustard on the side.

All together now.

  

Burger and fries? So not a me lunch—but it was delicious.

At some point in the day, I stumbled upon this New York Times article featuring—what do you know?—tahini. (By the way, I am going to spell it this way for the remainder of this post—because if Martha Rose Shulman says tahini, I’ll take her word.)

Shulman says she prefers tahini to nut butter as a toast topping—which I can’t say I agree with—but I took this feature as a sign from the holy food disciples that I should continue on with my tahini eats.

Plus, Shulman highlighted its health benefits: copper, manganese, calcium (mi favorito), iron, B1 and dietary fiber. Me gusta.

Dinner started with a big ensalada featuring a variation of last week’s hummus-baked chicken.

This time, I coated the chicken in tahini and then broiled the pieces for 7 minutes.

Again, SO GOOD.

In the mix: lots o’ mixed greens, string beans, red onion, 1/2 avocado, celery, roasted red peppers and tahini chicken—dressed in celery salt & honey balsamic.

The trifecta: tahini chicken, roasted red pepper and Haas avocado.

This avocado was extraordinarily creamy and flavorful. I know this is sort of blasphemous to admit in blogland, but I don’t love avocados.  I definitely don’t dislike them. And I do eat them frequently—but this is mostly for their nutritional benefits. In general, I find their flavor a little underwhelming. If you hate me for this, you should redirect your attention to another blogger who hates pumpkin…

Dinner’s other components were sort of random—but such is life sans a kitchen.

Flax toast with melted Jarlsberg (BEST CHEESE EVER), roasted red pepper and a tahini stripe.

Tahiiiiniiii. I think you’re the new hummus.

Ok, I take that back. But it’s a close second.

The only tahini-less dinner side was steamed green beans (by steamed, I obviously mean microwaved) topped with garlic powder and sriracha.

And because the sriracha spiciness necessitated a cold cooldown…

Vanilla fro-yo with Newman’s Own Organics mini pretzels and a Hermit.

Oooh my god. Hermits! How have I never discovered these before? They are like little bars of gingerbready, figgy goodness! I don’t care to show you the dent I’ve made in the box I only opened this weekend. I will say I’m addicted.

The fro-yo felt so good on my still sickish throat. And though I’ve still not fully recuperated from whatever stubborn flu-like illness has invaded mi vida, I’ve decided that (a) I am feeling much better and (b) I’m going to stop being a baby and just pretend I’m fully well in hopes that it’ll come true.

Before I go, una pregunta.

I may or may not be in the process of conjuring up a magnificent giveaway for next month. What would you love to win in a giveaway?

-Sarah

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article, avocado, breakfast, chicken, cinnamon, coffee, cookie, cream cheese, dinner, empty jar, ensalada, feta, fro-yo, hermits, irish oats, jarlsberg, jelly, lunch, maple syrup, martha rose shulman, new york times, newman's own, no kitchen, nutridel, oats in a jar, peanut butter, pretzels, raspberry preserves, Review, roasted red pepper, rye, salad, sandwich thin, steel cut oats, tahini, toast, vanilla, veggie burger

October 20, 2009

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