Enchiladas and Street Corn Salad

I've decided if I'm not doing wheat I'm also not doing boring. Tonight was enchiladas verde (pork and pinto bean for my husband, spinach and pinto bean for me), which were corn tortillas stuffed and topped with cojito cheese, shredded cheddar, verde sauce, tomatoes, and cilantro. So, so good.

On the side was Mexican street corn salad (you could also leave it on the cob), and I had too much sauce and not enough corn, so I added some zucchini to beef it up. Delicious!

Here is the original recipe:  http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/07/mexican-street-corn-elotes-recipe.html

Ingredients:
    1/4 cup mayonnaise
    1/4 cup sour cream or Mexican crema
    1/2 cup finely crumbled cotija or feta cheese, plus more for serving
    1/2 teaspoon ancho or guajillo chili powder, plus more for serving
    1 medium clove garlic, finely minced (about 1 teaspoon)
    1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves and tender stems
    4 ears shucked corn
    1 lime, cut into wedges

Basically cook the corn in a skillet with the garlic until done, and mix the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl, then combine. You can also roast or broil corn on the cob and cover it in the mixture...either way, it's good!

Smoothie Time

So I'm not religious about smoothies but I do enjoy them and try to make one about once a week with spinach, banana, coconut water/milk, chia seeds and frozen pineapple/mango/peaches/berries. I always feel better after and they keep me pretty full. Cheers!

Hola Amigo

My friend Slade's band was in town, and he and his girlfriend Ashley stayed with us. We stayed out too late and pretended we were young and hip while they jammed out at Tin Roof. I hope they're able to come back to Charleston regularly! Check out Amigo at http://www.reverbnation.com/amigotheband.

Gluten Free Pizza

I made this before the trip but didn't have time to post. My biggest fear in not eating wheat is that I will be denying myself things that I love and crave, like pizza. So to comfort myself, I bought a gluten-free/wheat-free pizza crust mix and added some CSA peppers, tomatoes, onions, and basil. The texture is slightly different, but overall it was very good.

I also made one for the hubby with chorizo sausage and cheddar, which he enjoyed.

For a side dish, I put together a take on succotash based on a side dish I had at Rarebit downtown.

It's basically butter beans, cherry tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, fresh corn, feta, and red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. Easy and really tasty!

Back on the Wagon

Back home from vacation and it's time to get rid of the wheat. Since we had no groceries, I had to wing it the first day with some eggs for breakfast and a 1/4 cup of quinoa with canned salmon and green tea. I was full all day!

Miami - Day 3

For our last day in South Beach, we booked a walking food tour which met at Books & Books Cafe (where we ate the day before, but it's probably the best food we had while we were there) for appetizers, then strolled through the farmer's market and took in the scenery.

After stopping for (strong) Cuban coffee and pastries, we walked down to Espanola Way for some fritter type things that were basically cheese and corn that had been breaded and fried (horrible for you but tasty). Then we walked to a Peruvian restaurant near the ocean for more ceviche, a potato dish, and a steak/tomato/french fry dish. Again, not bad, but not that flavorful and not necessarily something I would go out of my way to eat again. I know I sound like a total food snob, but coming from Charleston, where the culinary scene is exploding (and you can get a crazy good meal for under $15), the bar is set pretty high. Food in Miami was really expensive and I think that set my expectations high also.

Fortunately the tour also took us through some areas we hadn't been yet, and we got to see some more art deco architecture and walk under a really neat hotel pool.

We finished up back at the farmer's market, where we took in all of the beautiful exotic fruit up for grabs.

Our trip wound up with a quick visit with my friend BC, who I have not seen in probably 10 years. He moved to Miami Beach a few years ago, saw we were there on Facebook, and the rest is history. He took us to a great Thai restaurant and then gave us a 'local' tour and took us to the airport.

Adios Miami, it's been fun!

Miami - Day 2

Our second day in South Beach started off with breakfast at Manolos, then some serious pool time. The hotel pool was out of this world. Perfect temperature, great chairs to lounge in, not too crowded. Read my book, took a swim, and just relaxed all morning. Ahhhhh....heaven.

Then we headed back by Espanola Way and tried some Cuban food. This is the point where I started to realize that I'm kind of indifferent to Latin American food. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't very flavorful either. Maybe we were eating the 'tourist' version? John got a paella type dish with chicken and plantains and I got a shrimp appetizer with black beans and rice. The shrimp was clearly frozen and the rice had ham in it, so I made up for it by getting some killer gelato later (that's one thing Miami definitely does right!).

Next, we ventured back over to Lincoln Road for some light shopping and to kill some time before we picked up the Duck Tour.

The Duck Tour was awesome. I've always secretly wanted to do one and it was so much fun. It's the big bus that drives into the water and becomes a boat. So we got a driving tour of South Beach, followed by a boat ride where we saw celebrity homes and the view from the harbor.

After a long day, we called it a night pretty early, grabbing some Colombian food near the hotel (which was better than the Cuban, but still really starchy/meaty) and enjoyed our hotel cable and wrote some postcards. John also had champagne and chocolate cake delivered to the room for my birthday! He truly thought of everything. One more day!