La Boqueria, Museo de Xocolat, Sailor (Barcelona Part 2)

La Boqueria

 

 

No post on Barcelona would be complete without mentioning La Boqueria. As Barcelona's most famous outdoor market (although it's not really outdoors in my opinion because there's a roof), we definitely had to stop by. If I didn't already want to move to Barcelona, this market would have made a convert out of me. Fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, chocolate, juice, juice popsicles, etc. It's an entire world of amazing food and insanely fresh ingredients, and if I lived in Barcelona I would go there. Every. Single. Day. I was so excited and overwhelmed by it that I decreed that I wanted to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner there. So we did.

Oh Barcelona...

Picking up right where I left off, we arrived in Barcelona on a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon and I wish I'd been feeling well enough to do more than glance out the taxi windows now and then on the way to the hotel. Once we'd checked in, Jake (being the most wonderful husband in the entire world) went out to get me saltines and gatorade--because when you're dehydrated from throwing up in a moving train, you gotta replace those electrolites. The "Cool Blue" gatorade reminded us of a non-carbonated Fresca. Most unexpected and kinda weird.

When in Madrid (and Avila & Segovia)...

 

Last week was bliss. I don't want to brag, but there's no way to sugar-coat that one. Jake and I went to Spain for a week for our 1st anniversary and it was beyond amazing.

First we flew into Madrid, which I found to be very NYC-like. People always seemed dressed to the nines (except the tourists) and the whole vibe is a little bit...business-like? Reserved? I can't really put it into words. That said, it's a beautiful city with amazing architecture and history...and food. I could write about all the cool things we did and saw (and took over 1000 pictures of), but for the sake of this blog I'll focus on the food, which did not disappoint.

Tex-Mex Strata

As I sat at my computer a couple of Wednesdays back, planning the next week's meals and bemoaning the lack of non-dessert recipes on my to-make list, a new blog post popped up on Google reader to save me from my impending boredom. Ree Drummond of all things Pioneer Woman had just posted a recipe for sausage-kale strata, and it looked fabulously tasty. Now, I don't eat sausage, so I started to play with the recipe a bit, at first just subbing in cubed Gardein filets for the sausage, but then I went crazy with it, and ended up with Tex-Mex breakfast strata.

I'm a born-and-raised Texas girl. I may not eat meat or like football (yes, I may be asked to leave the state after this post), but I do love Tex-Mex food. There are weeks when I could eat it morning, noon and night, and with this recipe I think I just might.

Udon Noodles and Breakfast

Breakfast is unquestionably my favorite meal of the day. For months now I've been stuck (in a good way) on the same breakfast--even on weekends when I have more time--but today I changed it up from my usual sandwich thin with almond butter and strawberries.

my typical breakfast

Yesterday I tried out FitMama's udon noodle recipe (which uses almond butter in the sauce) and I brought leftovers for lunch so I figured one serving of nut butter today is enough. Instead I made a quick meal of thin french toast (french toast made with sandwich thins--think instant portion control) and it was nice to start my morning with an old favorite.

The udon noodle recipe, however, definitely counts as a new experience. I don't cook much Asian food and I've never in my life used fresh ginger or udon noodles, but that's what this blog is all about--trying new things. I had to look at the ginger root for a minute before some long-forgotten memory (or possibly common sense?) kicked in and I pulled out my vegetable peeler to peel off the skin before taking the microplane grater to it. There was a ton of ginger root left over so I Googled how to store it and burst out laughing when I came across this tip from a woman who "used to tightly wrap it in plastic wrap, but then one day while pregnant with [her son] and HIGHLY emotional...felt sorry for the ginger suffocating in the wrap and started crying." Too funny.