Mexican Fiesta

There still is something I haven’t told you: I LOVE mexican food. Yes, the word love deserves capital letters in this case. Whenever I have something big to celebrate I have dinner at my favourite mexican restaurant in Milan ( it’s called Joe Peñas, just in case you’re passing by 😉 ).

My love for mexican food is so big that I was able to convince my boyfriend, Mattia, not a big lover of spicy food, to give it a try. And guess what? He’s now just as obsessed as I am 😀 I’ve brought the poor man to the dark side…but at least there are nachos and guacamole 😉

So the other night Mattia and I had ourself a nice little mexican fiesta! Nothing big and fancy, but some good vegetarian Chili with salad and some nachos. While shopping for the ingredients, I was lucky enough to find a jar of sliced Jalapeños: I never see them in stores, so I’m happy I now know where to look for them!

A few years ago I was at the Hard Rock café in Boston with my family and my cousin with his date: it was my first time eating at the Hard Rock café and the first time I ever had jalapeño peppers; my older cousin dared me to eat as many as i could fit on my work, and I accepted is dare…needless to say my eyes were watering for most of the meal 🙂

Back to the present, I present to you my vegetarian chili

Vegetarian Chili

Adapted from Oh She Glows

1 tsp oil

1 onion

2 small garlic cloves (I used a big one)

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp chili pepper

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

14 oz can tomato paste

5 oz can corn kernels

half a can tomato pulp

2 cups cooked black beans

1 tsp taco seasoning (I used a mix of spices: chili pepper, black pepper, paprika, oregano. A store-bought mix is ok too)

salt

Chop the onion and garlic and sauté in a large skilled with oil on medium-low for a few minutes untill tender; add ground cumin and chili pepper;

Dice both bell peppers and add to the onion and garlic along with corn and tomato paste; cook for a few minutes on low;

Add cooked black beans and tomato pulp and cook for 15 minutes;

Season with the taco mix and add the yogurt for creaminess; adjust seasoning and salt to taste.

With some jalapeños!

Am I the only one with a crazy mexican love or are there others like me?

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First time Oatmeal

And this morning I had my very first oatmeal! Can you believe I’ve gone 21 years without ever trying it?

 source

The truth is oatmeal isn’t a typical Italian breakfast, and most people I know would have it for breakfast. In Italy, people usually have small a small breakfast, based on coffee or milk and cookies (not chocolate-chip cookies); so even though I have an American mother, breakfast as always been more Italian-style than American-style. Up untill I discovered food blogs and, more precisely, KathEats: that’s where I first heard about overnight oats. I was never too intrigued by oatmeal, mostly because I’ve always been used to a cold breakfast; overnight oats, however, seemed to fit more into my breakfast style. I must admit I didn’t love them the first time I tried them: I believe it probably was the lack of enough condiment. I now know better than that ;).

Oatmeal, however, still didn’t sound too appealing: that it was summertime might have something to do with that!

So when last night I forgot to prepare my oats, I thought “This is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for to try oatmeal!”. And so I did: I used Kath‘s recipe, and added strawberries and a lot some chocolate chips.

I must admit, though, I prefer overnight oats: oatmeal as a bit of a watery taste that I’m not too fond of. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make a less watery oatmeal?

Question of the day: have you ever tried oatmeal, overnight oats, or baked oatmeal? What’s your favourite way of eating oats?

I love overnight oats, but baked oatmeal wins! Of course, that’s if I don’t count oatmeal chocolate chip cookies 😉

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Daigo steals the spotlight

And summer is practically over!

My life is slowly getting back to what it usually is during the year: I have to study for exams coming up, I have to take out the dog (I’ll talk about him in a second) and I get back to my job! I baby-sit for a German family with two kids that are absolutely adorable, I cannot believe I’ve been babysitting them for 5 years now! I’ve practically come to think about them as my second family. Last year I also started helping the kids with their homework: they’re German they don’t excel in Italian (I still haven’t told you, but i live in Italy! more on me coming soon in an “About” page 😉 ) so my help is highly appreciated.

As I was saying before, I have a big black dog that used to be one adorable puppy!

Wasn't he one cute puppy?

Soon though, he transitioned into the awkward adolescent fase, the one when you have such a long tail it’s constantly folded to avoid it from touching the ground and people start to question if somehow you are related to monkeys…I’m sure we all had that fase 😉 . That’s when he decided  he wanted to become a skater

And finally turned into his full-grown self.

"I'm a wise dog now"

Like most dogs, he’s pretty active and needs to go out twice a day; of course, I’m sure he would love to go to the dog park more often, but we can’t always make it happen!

During the summer my dog spent a lot of time in the country side with my mother, so I was able to have a full month of dog free days! But summer is over, and, as a consequence, dog park it was this afternoon!

After spending an hour in the park, I came back home to a nice supper of curry scrambled tofu with peas and a salad on the side; I’m not a big fan of tofu, its taste is a bit too blunt for me, but I think I could learn to like it when scrambled with spices and veggies!

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