Cheese Stuffed Strawberries

An easy healthy snack I'd like to share with you today

is a cheese stuffed strawberry. These are great for a snack,

an appetizer or dessert or even a simple palate cleanser 

in between dishes during a multi-course dinner.

Take a handful of strawberries (medium to large) and cut them in half. 

Next, take a little teaspoon and scoop the center out a little. 

The center of a strawberry isn't completely solid so it's pretty effortless.

For the picture above, I trimmed the stems.  

You can stuff feta cheese crumbs in the center and add a sprinkle of coarse

sea-salt or you can add blue cheese crumbles and some peanut (or any nut)

with a drizzle of honey.  The sweetness of the honey goes well with the already

salty blue cheese while the feta feta cheese isn't as salty so the sea-salt gives

a nice contrast in flavor.  You can just leave the stems on (picture below)

instead of trimming them off as well.

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 27 of 31 days

Mozzarella Egg Roll Sticks

String cheese egg rolls!  I recently took string cheese and
wrapped them in egg roll wrappers just like an egg roll.

I'd like to say...  Ah-mazing!  This was so much fun to take
an every item and cultivate it in a way that made it more
fun and  enjoyable simply because it was different but the same.

You know what I mean?  I think you do. Well, I'll just assume so.

Take you unwrapped string cheese and lay it on the egg roll wrapper 

as the wrapper is on a diagonal just like the picture above.  

Brush a little egg on the  2 sides that meet the top corner. 

(The egg is the gluing agent- water WILL come apart)

Roll the bottom corner up so that the cheese is wrapped and then 

fold the 2 sides in while rolling the rest until it is completely wrapped- 

just. like. an egg roll!

Once your veggie or canola oil is approximately 330-350 degrees 

you can deep fry your mozzarella egg roll sticks until they are a 

golden brown color.

A good dipping sauce is marinara sauce just like regular 

breaded mozzarella sticks.

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 26 of 31 days

DAY 25 POST 25

It certainly hasn't been easy but I've written
a blog post every single day this month thus far.

It's August 25th and I have 25 posts so far for this month.
I will continue to write one each day for the rest of
August.    Happy Monday August 25th!

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 25 of 31 days

Lays is going Asian...

Looks like Lay's  Stax is adding some
Asian flair into their potato chips.

Recently, these 2 flavors were discovered and the
they were pretty good. The flavors weren't too strong
and overpowering. It was subtle and pretty
spot on for the respective flavors.

I tried the Korean BBQ which had a lasting taste of
a teriyaki onion flavor. Very similar to a common
bulgogi marinade. It was good.

The other flavor was the Thai Sweet Chili which was not too bad but 

not that great either. It was on the duller side with a lot less flavor 

than the Korean BBQ one. Either way, they were both interesting 

and good to snack on.

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 23 of 31 days

Raw Tuna appetizer

A delicious appetizer you can make to wow your friends is a raw tuna
and cucumber appetizer.  It is extremely effortless to prepare
and assemble. All you need is one pack of raw tuna (make sure it
is sushi grade though) Do NOT buy tuna that is meant to be cooked
as a tuna filet.  The difference is that sushi grade tuna or any fish
for that matter is that the sushi grade is cut that day and is meant
to be eaten that day or  no later than 1 day after whereas the fish
that is cut into filets or steak style can be kept uncooked in the frig
for many days rather than 1 or 2 days.

You will also need 1 English cucumber (they are super long,
are individually wrapped and is often used because it has less seeds)
or you can use an American cucumber or about 2 kirby cucumbers.
(Kirbys are often associated with Korean cucumber kimchi and they
are shorter and the most crisp)

You can use sesame seeds to garnish and the only other thing besides
the little wooden skewers is mayo and wasabi.
You can skewer these with toothpicks also. Start with cutting
your cucumber in half and then in half again so that you have 4
long slices and then cut them into about 1 inch large cubes.
Mix about 3-4 tablespoons of mayo and wasbi to your liking to make
wasabi mayo.  Simply use a small spoon to add your homemade
wasabi mayo in between your cucumber and tuna as a gluing agent
and for a great sauce. You can add a drizzle of soy sauce or have
the soy sauce in a separate little bowl for extra sauce for your liking.
You can be creative and line them up in a circle or a grid almost like a
checkerboard or in 1 long line if you have a plate or tray that is long.
You can be creative and create a design if you want also.

This appetizer would not be cheap at a restaurant but can be
super affordable if you just simply made it at home.
A regular size pack of raw tuna is about $6-10 depending of the size (lbs)
obviously but you can also  get around 20 or so pieces with one pack.
Not too shabby?!





Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 22 of 31 days

The basics of soy sauce...

Do you know that most soy sauces made in the USA are NOT
soy sauce?  Well then, what is it?  Is it safe? Are there just chemicals
inside these so called soy sauce bottles?
Is there dye in there?  Is it something completely weird?
Is it safe to consume?  OH MY GOODNESS! What is it!?!

More often than not soy sauce made in the USA is wheat and not soy.

A few will have both wheat and 'soy protein' but most often it just 

contains wheat.  So wheat sauce is more of an ideal name.  

Real authentic soy sauce is made from fermenting soy beans in salt. 

It gets pressed and the first batches are often the darkest and the 

strongest and best in taste. It gets pressed many more times after the 

1st pressing and therefore the lighter hue and it's cheaper.  

Premium soy sauce bottles are sometime over $10 for a small

bottle.  It's sort of similar to extra virgin olive oil and plain olive oil. 

The extra virgin olive oil that gets pressed first is the purest and 

most expensive. If you see olive oil that is ridiculously cheap... 

it's probably because it's the pressing of the excess of other pressings 

and the leaves and branches. 

What's super ironic is that many stores sell what they call
'gluten-free' soy sauce which is REAL soy sauce because it is made
from soy beans  rather than wheat. So.......... in the US,
we have to pay more for ACTUAL  soy sauce (the gluten-free) one
which is often almost considered a gourmet or  specialized soy sauce.
Go figure!  Lastly, you know the soy sauce packets you get
when you order Chinese take-out?  9 times out of then- those
'soy sauce' packets don't even have the wheat in them.
Not all soy sauce packets BUT many of them are just caramel coloring
and corn syrup. Many don't even have salt in them either.
Always look at the labels prior to eating things so you know
what you are consuming!



Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 20 of 31 days

Bell peppers with hummus

Have you ever had hummus?
You know, the paste made from chick peas.


You can buy hummus that is already made but
you can simply make it yourself as well.

Just take a can of chick peas and blend it until the texture
is smooth.  Add a heavy drizzle of olive oil after you have
blended it. Make sure you rinse the chick peas or anything inside
a can for that matter except soup of course.
Could you imagine if someone tried to rinse soup!?!

What's great about making your own hummus is that
it's fresher, you can add whatever herbs or seasonings
you desire and it doesn't have preservatives or other chemicals
in it so it's much healthier!

You can add all sorts of things to hummus.  Here are a few examples-

garlic, dried onion pieces, nutmeg and thyme,  sun dried tomatoes, 

a little bit of pepper flakes to spice it up or even a few drops of sriracha sauce...

you really can add whatever you would like to season it up, especially

since plain hummus is as dull and boring as it can get!?!

You can dip all kinds of veggies and crackers and chips into hummus

or you can pipe it through a small zip lock bag onto veggies just like 

these green and orange bell peppers above.  It can be a SUPER easy dish

at a bridal shower or a healthy backyard bbq item!  

The combinations of color and patterns just in bell peppers are endless

but imagine what you could create with other veggies and crackers as well!

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 19 of 31 days