Tag Archives: Snack

S’MAC — Sarita’s Macaroni & Cheese

I call them “comfort foods” others might call it a “food trend” — both are correct. It seems to me that comfort foods have been popping up on menus for several years now, but individual restaurants are now putting all of their concentration on one specific comfort food and selling it pretty darn well. When I say “one specific comfort food” I mean they are specializing in a type of food like, grilled cheese, cupcakes, popsicles, and mac & cheese.

S'MAC

This weekend wasn’t the first time I went to S’MAC, although  it was my first time at the Murray Hill location. I headed to this spot with my out-of-town friend, Brittany.

After eying-down the menu for several minutes we couldn’t seem to pick what we wanted — then the guy behind the counter suggested that we do the sampler which would allow us to taste 8 of the mac & cheeses on the menu. We were also told that this was perfect to split between 2 people… SOLD!

We paid, and the guy behind the counter handed us a laminated piece of paper that told us exactly what we would be eating and where it was in the cast iron skillet our mac & cheeses would be served in.

We couldn’t help but study the menu to see what exactly was in each and every one of the 8 samples we would be eating.

S'MAC menu

We were lucky enough to have gone to the restaurant during a slow time of day, because our skillet came out so quickly! After we pierced the surface of each section and let the mac & cheese cool off, we were ready to dive in. We decided to go section by section together so we could sample the same thing at the same time. (Wouldn’t this be such a cute lunch date?)

We started below the handle with the All-American — which I was surprised at how delicious it was. I thought it was going to be the most boring, after all it was made with only cheese… no herbs, no vegetables… I admit it, I poorly judged this basic cheese combo thinking it was going to be the same-ol’ same-ol’ sort of thing. What was even better? The Four-Cheese mac & cheese. Made with cheddar, muenster, gruyere and pecorino — this was probably my favorite out of the 8 samples we tasted.

Another favorite was the cheese burger. I am always impressed when a dish can hold the same flavors a completely different food owns. Like Serendipity’s frozen hot chocolate, or Empanada Mama’s Cheese Steak empanada. Yum!

Over-all, S’MACK has a very casual atmosphere and very tasty mac & cheese. It’s an experience to go to any restaurant that only offers one type of food on the menu in numerous ways. Would I go back? Maybe for lunch with another out of town friend, but most likely not with a local friend who wouldn’t think anything of a restaurant dedicated to mac & cheese.

Homemade Granola

The inspiration behind making my own homemade granola: spotting a $1.99 bag of coconut flakes in Trader Joe’s this weekend. First of all, do you know how delicious coconut flakes are all on their own? The second these were spotted, my friend Stevie told me how they would be perfect in granola. What a brilliant friend I have!
So I bought a bag and was told that Sunny Anderson’s granola was a fantastic recipe to go off of. But, if I’m going to make some homemade granola, I’m going to make it with the ingredients I love most. Inspired by Sunny’s recipe, I took the base of her granola and molded into my own personal Happy Trails granola combo.

homemade granola recipe

Here’s how I made it:

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
  2. On the stove, heat up 1/4 cup vegetable oil + 1/2 cup maple syrup (the good stuff, folks. no Aunt Jemima crap) + 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Whisk these 3 ingredients together just until they start to bubble. Remove from stove and let cool
  3. In a mixing bowl, stir together 3 cups rolled oats + 1/4 dark brown sugar + a pinch or two of salt +1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  4. Once cooled, pour the vegetable oil/maple syrup/cinnamon combo over top of the mixing bowl ingredients. Be sure to mix these well.
  5. In a small bowl whisk together 2 egg whites and pour over top of the other ingredients. Mix all ingredients well.
  6. Spread the granola out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper
  7. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and flip the oats. Repeat this 4 times. This will take a total of 40 minutes.
  8. Remove granola from the oven and let the ingredients cool.
  9. Once cooled, add 1/2 cup of dried cranberries + 1/4 cup coconut flakes to the mixture.

If you want more flavor — here are a few other fabulous ingredient ideas: dried banana chips, dried mango (for a summer-time granola), slivered almonds instead of walnuts, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and honey. And if you have a massive sweet tooth — throw in some chocolate chunks!

This granola on top of just regular plain yogurt is to-die-for! But of course it tastes fabulous on raspberry yogurt too!

Mushroom & Spinach Quesadillas

I love quesadillas — typically once a week or so I will chop up some veggies, cook them in a pan, add some seasonings and make them into a quick homemade quesadilla. Of course I add cheese and sometimes chicken to the mix. Quesadillas are a fast and easy way to make something full of flavor and the best part is you can also use up the rest of your veggies before things go bad.

Instead of using quesadilla cooking as a way to get rid of veggies, I cooked up more of a gourmet version of the dish for me and my friend Kelly this weekend. Inspired by Ree Drummond, also known as The Pioneer Woman, I used her recipe as a base and altered the amount of ingredients to cater to me. For one thing, I like to use very little butter in my cooking — don’t get me wrong, butter is incredible and it tastes great, but I prefer to make some healthier choices when it comes to cooking. Although when I made Ree’s Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas I used less butter than what her recipe called for when cooking the mushrooms and instead of using butter when cooking the spinach, I swapped the ingredient with olive oil.

So here’s how I made this delectable plate:

Ingredients: butter, white mushrooms sliced, wine (for cooking), salt, pepper, baby spinach, flour tortillas, fontina cheese, and goat cheese.

ree drummond quesadilla recipe

I started by cooking my sliced white mushrooms — I put in a skillet 1.5-2 tablespoons of butter and once the butter melted I added my mushrooms (I sliced about 7 large white mushrooms — they weren’t exceptionally large, but I grabbed the bigger option at the grocery store). I cooked these mushrooms for about 3 minutes and then added 1.5 tablespoons of red wine. Note: Ree’s recipe calls for sherry but I didn’t have this ingredient in my kitchen. So instead of going to the store and spending more money, I substituted the sherry for wine and it turned out fabulous! After I added the wine I seasoned the mushrooms with a bit of salt and fresh ground pepper, I let the mushrooms cook for another 6-7 minutes and then I removed the mushrooms from the skillet once the wine completely evaporated. I placed the mushrooms on a plate and then used the same skillet to cook my spinach in. This time, instead of adding butter I used a couple tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of red wine to cook the spinach in — I only let the spinach cook for a couple of minutes and then removed the spinach from the skillet and placed it on another plate. At this point I have two ingredients (mushrooms and spinach) and they are both cooling on a plate. Then, I used my stove top griddle to finish off the quesadillas. I used a small amount of butter to butter the surface of the grill side of the griddle (this helped give those gorgeous looking grill marks on the flour tortillas). Then I placed a flour tortilla on the grill, followed by a very light layer of freshly grated fontina cheese, then I put a small amount of spinach over top of the cheese, then the mushrooms. I let this cook for a few minutes on medium heat (until the tortillas had those perfect grill marks on them and the cheese melted). At the same time I put another tortilla on the griddle and put some goat cheese crumbled on top. Goat cheese is so potent, I prefer to use small amounts of this type of cheese so those eating the dish aren’t too overwhelmed by the flavor. Once both tortillas had the grill marks on them, I placed the goat cheese tortilla on top of the other half, removed them from the griddle, sliced and then served.

spinach and mushroom quesadilla by ree drummond

The tortillas came out perfectly crispy and I was so proud of the end result. Using wine rather than sherry was the perfect call, and the mushrooms and spinach combined together was perfection. I am also excited to say that I know a very tasty dish to cook up for vegetarian friends! (Sorry to all the vegans out there, I just don’t know how to cook anything without a little bit of cheese!)

There were a few pieces left over, so I wrapped them up in Saran Wrap and ate them the next day. The left overs held up beautifully and the tortillas were still crispy even after I reheated them!

Grilled Cheese with Lemon Pesto

There are so many things that I miss about the warm summer months… one thing is the food. I can never get enough of the cheap in season fruits and veggies that are sold at various grocery stores and farmer’s markets. One of my favorite herbs that is really only in season in the summer time is basil. I can do so many fabulous things with basil! I actually make a killer pesto! My pesto ingredients include: pine nuts, basil, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and parmigiano reggiano cheese. This week I was able to snag a nice sized container of pesto for $3 (I felt like I won the lotto, kind of). But my excitement still hasn’t died down from the thrill of finding this fresh basil. The other night I decided to make some pesto and for kicks I threw into my recipe a bit of lemon zest. The lemon zest actually added a sweet/sour kick to the sauce.

Now that I have a basic pesto made and put into an air tight container to keep it from spoiling, I have so many things I am looking forward to cooking up over the next week or so. There are so many things you can use pesto in/on: bruschetta, caprese salad, grilled cheese, pasta, salads, gnocchi, ravioli, and it even makes a fabulous marinade for chicken! The best part about pesto is, just a little bit of the sauce goes a long way. Seriously, never use too much pesto on something because 1. you don’t want to waste your cherished pesto, and 2. the flavors will be very overwhelming.

My boyfriend claims he doesn’t like pesto. But, recently I decided to sneak some into an appetizer I made for us. Instead of using basil leaves on a simple yet delicious caprese salad — I used pesto. I swear, the pinenuts do so much for pesto and it does so much for the flavors in a caprese salad made of bufala mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, and pesto sauce. So, I snuck it in on him and he loved it! I actually never told him that I used pesto and when pesto came up in a conversation over dinner with some friends he had to say to everyone “I hate pesto” and I looked at him and said, but you’ve eaten it before and you never complained. He turned right to me and said “WHEN!?” and “WHERE!?” … I am such a sneaky girlfriend.

So after making this lemon pesto at 10:30 at night, I had to eat some of it! But how? I didn’t want to cook up an entire dish of pasta, I just wanted a near-midnight snack. So, I lightly buttered some bread on one side of each slice (lightly buttered people, we don’t want to get type 2 diabetes like poor ol’ Paula Deen), put them on a skillet, but a very light layer of pesto on one side of one of the slices, laid down some very basic american cheese, and toasted up a grilled cheese. The resulted flavors were spectacular! It was such a fabulous savory snack I have had in so long!

fun grilled cheese recipes

A Lemon Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich, made in 15 minutes or less!

It’s really true, just a bit of pesto goes a long way!

Note: when making grilled cheese, as I said above only use a little bit of butter to butter one side of each slice of bread (the side that goes on the pan). I have found that butter really is better to use than olive oil because you want that crispy breaded texture and you want your cheese to melt inside. I have found that if I spray my bread with a bit of olive oil, my bread turns that perfect golden brown way too fast and the bread burns before the cheese melts.

how to make a grilled cheese

Perfect golden brown grilled cheese bread.

Paninis in Venice

I told you, paninis are every where!

I actually grabbed this panini right after we watched a demonstration on how glass is blown out. I was starving because I ate a very light breakfast and I figured grabbing a panini would be quick, tasty, and filling. The signs in the cafe were in Italian and I had no clue what type of panini I was picking out. I went with the one that had color, cheese, and looked the best. (Can you tell I didn’t exactly have a strategy.)

It ended up being a cheese and olive panini … delish! The cheese was nice and hot and stringy and the olives were clearly freshly chopped. The crispy bread added the perfect texture to each and every bite!

I really wish I could order one of these in NYC… specifically at lunch time when I’m in a hurry!

Hot, Spicy Peppers … For A Snack!

And I never thought I’d see the day, at least not while I was in Italy…

At first glance I had no clue what was being sold at a food stand, and as I got closer I realized it was hot peppers in the form of a pretty bouquet.

No I did not eat these peppers, I don’t think my tongue could handle it… But I had to share with you how Italians sell peppers in Venice! They sell them in these cute little “bouquets” and the man at the stand told me to just pick them off and eat them… as a snack!

If you were hungry, would you buy these spicy peppers and nibble on them for a snack?

Sugar Waffles & Nutella, In Florence


We all know how much I love Manhattan’s waffle truck. Even though it’s around the city every day, I opt to wait to only eat it once a year (always at the Union Square holiday market).

But for some reason, all around Florence, there were these little waffle stands and shops and when I saw the big tub of hot Nutella, I couldn’t say no.

The waffles were made with much more sugar than what I am used to, so eating the waffle without the Nutella would definitely work. But of course, I had the Nutella spread on top!

In the photos above you can see the waffle with Nutella on it, as well as the waffle iron and the large, warm tub of Nutella!

The Best Potato Chips In The World!

I know what you’re thinking. But I couldn’t help myself! I had to share with you the tastiest potato chips I have ever had in my entire life!

While making the long journey from Capri to Florence (7.5 hour drive, ick), we made a few stops along the way and someone in my tour group grabbed the only bag of potato chips the rest stop had to offer. He let me try the chips and I immediately purchased a bag myself.

First of all, the chips come in this brown paper bag and are sealed inside with a plastic bag. I poured out half the bag so my dad could snack on some. I put his half in the paper bag and my half in the plastic bag. Surprisingly, there wasn’t even a drop of oil/grease on the bottom of the paper bag when he was done with the chips! I couldn’t believe how guilt-free these potato chips ended up being! They were perfectly salted and crispy. I haven’t been able to eat any chips since I got home because I know I would hate going back to the unhealthy, terrible quality potato chips.

The chips clearly didn’t have any preservatives in them because they got spoiled pretty quickly (I bought another bag and opened it, didn’t finish it, and when I went to eat them the next day they weren’t good any more). Also, Italian grown potatoes (you can’t get them any where but Italy) are so delicious! Even when they are cooked for dinner you don’t need to do anything to them to make them so tasty. Forget adding butter, just a little bit of olive oil and you’re good to go!

Gelato in Florence

I have so many gelato photos, so I won’t bore you with the same ol’ same ol’ gelato speech.

This post’s gelato photos were taken while we were in Florence. There was actually a fantastic gelateria right around the corner from the hotel we stayed at (I’ll post those photos another time, and I’ll give you details on the gelateria).

But this was my mom’s choice for gelato after we walked around all day. Gelato is truly such a fabulous snack. First of all, the Italians know what a proper serving size is. Us greedy Americans have our ice cream shops pile on the tall scoops and we end up over eating. The perfectly sized portions in Italy made gelato a snack that would: satisfy your taste buds, fill you up a bit, and not make you sick to your stomach.