Whirlwind of a Week

With papers, quizzes, schedule planning, and approaching finals, perhaps this wasn't the best timing to start a blog...

Nonetheless! I still managed to whip up a delicious & nutritious organic meal this Wednesday. The meal was inspired by a staple dish that I had growing up:

Spaghetti squash.

The full menu included an arugula salad with apples, garlic butter bread, spaghetti squash, tomato sauce, and a brownie pie. But of course, the healthy highlight of the meal was surely the squash!

the layout

I started by preheating the oven to 375 degrees.

I cut the squash in half and proceeded to scrape out the seeds with a spoon.

I brushed the inside of the squash with olive oil, then sprinkling it with salt and pepper.

I placed the squash face down a baking sheet and baked it for approximately 45 minutes, until tender.

After I pulled the squash out of the oven, I let it cool for a bit. Then I scraped the inside with a fork and it easily gave way into spaghetti form.

And that's it! What a healthy alternative to pasta!

Final outcome?

A seriously scrumptious, healthy, cheap, & quick meal that I will be making often on weeknights!

Easter Appetite

Happy Belated Easter!

So yesterday--

As all my roommates escaped New York City and journeyed home to enjoy home cooked meals laden with motherly love... I was alone. In the dorm. Contemplating whether I should attempt to make puff pastry from scratch for the first time. Or not..

Well, let me back up--

It's not as if I did not try to take the short cut. I scoured the freezer sections of both Whole Foods and Trader Joe's for frozen puff pastry. Nada.

I must admit, I did briefly think: Oh, the good old days when I was completely ignorant to everything organic and could fold out a sheet of perfect puff pastry from Pepperidge Farms.

But then I remembered that those sheets aren't even made with butter. Instead, they use Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening (Soybean and Cottonseed Oils Colored with Beta Carotene).... uh, no thanks.

Ultimately, I took one glance at my kitchen and vetoed the whole puff pastry experiment.

Note the counter space:

But I still wanted Easter treats followed with an Easter food baby and coma.

So, here we are! Easter Crostini & Salad.

YUM.

Ingredients:

1 Baguette

6 (2 for Bread, 2 for Onions, 2 for Salad) Tablespoons of Olive Oil

Salt

Ground Pepper

Fig Jam

1/4 cup of grated Gruyere Cheese

2 Yellow Onions, chopped

1 tablespoon of thyme leaves

4 oz of Goat Cheese

Prosciutto

Arugula

I started by preheating the oven to 375. While the oven was warming, I sliced the Baguette diagonally into 3/4-1 inch thick slices. Then, I brushed olive oil on the tops of each one and sprinkled salt. I placed them in the oven for about 10 minutes or until crusty, but not burnt!

I heated 2 more tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and added my chopped yellow onion. I allowed the onions to caramelize (yumyumyum) for about 15 minutes. I then added salt, ground pepper, and thyme and cooked them (stirring occasionally) for about 5 more minutes.

--Side note: I could honestly eat caramelized onions by themselves all day. So delicious.

After the sliced baguette was out of the oven & cooled and the onions were caramelized, I was ready to start assembling (yeehaw)! I spread fig jam liberally on every slice, sprinkled gruyere on the jam, and onions atop of both the jam and cheese.

Finally, I crumbed goat cheese atop the hot onions, letting them settle in and make themselves at home. Then, added half of a slice of prosciutto to each slice.

I made a quick salad with arugula, olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon for a bit of freshness on the side.

The outcome? Delicious. The creaminess of the goat cheese, bit of the gruyere, saltiness of the prosciutto, the caramelized onions (which don't need a descriptive adjective because they are simply amazing), and the crunchiness and carbi-ness of the baguette...they were all gone in 10 minutes. :)

I am Morganic

Hi. Hello. & Howdy.

My name is Morgan and here is a boring spiel about myself:

I am business school student at Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. I am also committed to the organic food counter-revolution against GMOs and the overall industrialization of food.

I am the synthesis of both number crunching and spoon lickin' goodness.

Therefore, (voila!) I am Morganic.

This blog is dedicated to the adventure into the world of cooking and living organically, seasonally, and locally.

YUM!

Organic food!? What? How? Where? Why?

This, we will discover together.