wednesday

Where's Wednesday?: At Home (3-Way Pita Chips)

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Ingredients: olive oil ground cinnamon brown sugar tortilla garlic salt [shredded] asiago cheese

1. Lay a sheet of foil on a baking tray. 2. Cut tortilla into strips and place them on the foil. 3. Drizzle olive oil onto the strips (doesn't have to be precise or tidy). 4. For cinnamon flavored pita chips, sprinkle brown sugar on top first. Then, shake some ground cinnamon afterward. For garlic-flavored chips, lightly sprinkle some garlic salt on the tortilla that's been coated with olive oil. For cheesy chips, sprinkle a sufficient amount of shredded asiago cheese on top. 5. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. 6. Place the tray in the oven and let the strips bake for about 20 minutes and check to see if they're ready. If not, wait for another 5-10 minutes (it's your job to check!).

Easy-peasy, huh?  These homemade pita chips are a great snack to munch because you know exactly what goes into making them.

Share any healthy recipes that you have, and I'd love to try them at home!

Can't wait to fancy you with tomorrow's Thursday Throwback.  I always have fun reminiscing about the fashion from the past, too.

Until then...

Love, Pristine Christine

Where's Wednesday?: In the Kitchen at Home--The Ultimate Veggie Wrap

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Image Ingredients: 8" Whole Wheat/Sprouted Grains Tortilla Hass avocado Red leicester cheese with red chili and bell pepper (Trader Joe's) Tomatoes Alfalfa sprouts Iceberg lettuce Vidalia onion creamy dressing

1. Wash and rinse the veggies in water 2. Lightly warm up the tortillas for about 20-30 seconds 3. If the avocado is large, then use 1/4 of it. If it's small, then cut 1/2 of it.  Using a spoon or fork, spoon the avocado out of the skin and onto the area slightly below the center of the tortilla. Press and spread the avocado across (forks works best for this). 4. Dry the alfalfa sprouts with a paper towel and place the amount you desire on the avocado spread. 5. Cut tomatoes into thin slices and repeat Step 4. 6. By now, you should have cut the lettuce head in half and torn the leaves from the stem.  If not, do so. 7. Toss the lettuce leaves lightly in a tbsp or 2 tbsp of dressing (adjust it accordingly). 8. Place an appropriate amount of lettuce on tortilla 9. I like to slice an ounce of Trader Joe's red leicester cheese with red chili and bell pepper into pieces and add them to tortilla as well. 10. Fold opposite sides of tortilla inward and roll the final product for closure. Prep time: 10 -15 minutes

There you have it, folks.  Easy peasy, tasty, healthy wrap prepared right in your kitchen.  If you don't have time, grab a bowl of fruits to go with your meal. If you do have time, season some microwaved potatoes (5 minutes) with herbs and garlic salt and grill them in olive oil on a pan!

Staying fit in order to maintain both figure and health does not mean giving up fat or carbs. Just remember to consume complex carbs (whole wheat, non-refined, fruits, sweet potato, other veggies) and healthy fat (ex. omega-3 fatty acids) not simple carbs and saturated fat.

Until tomorrow...

Love, Pristine Christine

Where's Wednesday?: At Home in the Kitchen

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It's so difficult to come across authentically healthy, natural nutrition bars.  Even the ones sold at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods aren't completely natural.  I wanted to make my own health bars at home as a result--bars that actually made me feel full and healthy--so I decided to bake some using oatmeal!  Yes, opt out of flour and opt in with oatmeal.  For vegans and those with gluten allergy, you will sing, "Hallelujah" on this note.  But what adds to the fun of baking in the kitchen is the cute apron you can wear.  My mom has always been a fan of Williams Sonoma goods, so I naturally gravitate towards Williams Sonoma products as well, and I find the coffee icons apron rather adorable. My mom, on the other hand, owns the classic apron, oven mit, and pot holder in pink.  This is such a Julia Childs moment!

Speaking in the best cheery Julia voice, "The recipe's quite simple, and I want to share it with you."  My recipe, which has no added sugar or butter, may lack that unnatural rich taste, but it's delicious in its own way.

1 1/2 cups rolled oats (Earnest Eats Mayan Blend--has pepitas, cashews, almonds) 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I prefer walnuts) 1/2 - 3/4 cup medjool dates/cranberry raisins 1/4 cup sesame seeds 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp kosher salt 1/2 cup half-and-half + 3/4 cup black sesame soymilk (you can use almond milk if you don't like the soy taste or if you're vegan) 1 egg (substitute unsweetened applesauce for egg if you're vegan) 1 tsp ginger (you can buy already grated ginger in bottles)

Mix the dry ingredients together first, and then mix the liquid ingredients together.  Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture.  Using your hands, mix the two and continue doing so until the combination becomes clumping together.

Pre-heat for 5 minutes in 350 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes in 350 degrees. Take the pan out of the oven and let it cool for a bit, and if you decide you want it harder rather than moist, then place it back into the oven for another couple minutes.

Also, if you don't like the organic taste of the bar, you can lightly coat the bars with a thin layer of honey or almond butter while it's warm so that the coating hardens.

Hope you enjoy! :) Yum.

Love, Pristine Christine

Where's Wednesday?: At Gjelina

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Gjelina Where's Wednesday today?  In the boho land of Venice at Gjelina!

For the foodies out there, you may have heard food critics mention Gjelina (Bon Apetit, Food and Wine) before.  Although California, especially southern California, boasts of "good food" places, it unfortunately cannot offer the same "stellar" dining experiences as Chicago or New York.  However, Gjelina is one of the few restaurants in SoCal that rightfully does so.

Chef Travis Lett strikes all the right cords with the proper balance of sweet and salty, soft and crunchy, light and heavy.  I wasn't able to snap a photo of every dish we ordered, and the photos taken with my Galaxy S3 don't do much justice to the food, so I can only hope you feel the urge to visit Gjelina.

After much research (as always), my family ordered the anchovy burrata toast, wood-grilled cauliflower, squid ink chitarra, squash blossoms pizza, and rhubarb crisp with almond gelato.  Even now, I groan. Ugh! The entire meal was perfect. Had we not planned part 2 of my brother's birthday--lavish birthday dinner at home--then we would have mercilessly tried a few other dishes as well.  At the same time, too much food at once wouldn't have allowed us to savor and remember each bite with the same clarity.

If you're curious to read my detailed scoop on our birthday lunch at Gjelina, visit christineeoh.yelp.com. Oh, trust me.  It truly is an exhaustive review.  I would most definitely consider Gjelina to be one of my favorite restaurants, and if the parking wasn't such a nightmare in Venice, I would frequent it more often as well.

For my readers in the mid-wests and east, I hope your stomachs aren't growling because I would just feel guilty if they did!  Get ready for some throwbacks tomorrow!

Love, Pristine Christine

P.S. Check out the new Facebook page for My Petite Bites: https://www.facebook.com/mypetitebites?ref=hl