Who knew Yosemite had so many good places to eat? The buffet at Curry Village where we stayed had great food and was very affordable, while the buffet at the historic Ahwahnee hotel was very elegant: an oyster bar and live piano music. I recovered all the calories I lost hiking during their Sunday brunch.

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Instead of collard greens, I had kale this week, so I added it to some spinach I also had to make spanakopita. It was actually very easy and delicious. Enjoy!

Spanakopita – Greek Spinach Pie

Spanakopita

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 large onion – chopped

4 cloves of garlic – minced

1 lb. spinach

1 lb kale – without stems, chopped

1 cup fresh parsley – chopped

2 cups crumbled feta cheese

2 eggs – lightly beaten

16 sheets of phyllo dough

1 stick butter – melted

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic until soft and lightly browned. Stir in spinach, kale and parsley, and continue to sauté until spinach is limp, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, mix together eggs and feta. Stir in cooled spinach mixture.

Brush bottom of 9×13 pan with butter. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough and brush lightly with melted butter. Repeat process with 5 more sheets of phyllo. Spread half of spinach and feta mixture into pan. Layer 6 more sheets of phyllo dough, brushing each with butter. Spread the remaining half of spinach and feta mix. Layer the rest of the phyllo dough, brushing each with butter.

Bake at pre-heated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Cut into six pieces.

Spanakopita – Greek Spinach Pie

When I think of NYC, I think of Italian food, pizza, and cheesecake, so of course I had tons of those. My friend S. met my dad and I at an Italian Restaurant called Biricchino near 7^th Avenue. I swear I’ve only had pasta once in the past six months, so I went all out in New York, while my dad had the stuffed trout. He’s doing so good eating healthy! Me, not so much this weekend… I had cheesecake for dessert every single night I was there.

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I was also impressed with the cupcakes by Baked by Melissa. They are moist and tiny, which is great since I can try a bunch of different flavors this way.

Mini-cupcakes

Cupcake Flavors

Just under the Brooklyn Bridge there is a super famous place called Grimaldi’s that has always a huge line. Having enough time to spare and knowing my dad is game for anything, I decided to try it. It actually only took us 20 minutes to get a table and it was worth the wait: the sun-dried tomatoes and ricotta cheese pizza was spectacular. Once at the hotel, I looked up the pizzeria and found out there is one in Reno, and that I had been there a couple of times! Oh well, still worth the wait.

Line outside Grimaldi’s

Grimaldi’s Pizzeria

Ricotta and Sun-dried Tomatoes Pizza

As you know, I just love the diversity of cities, especially when it comes to food, so guess what I found in NYC? Australian meat pies! I wasn’t really hungry that night, but I had to try at least their mini-pies and they were as good as the ones from my summer in Australia. We need to get a Pie Face store in Reno!

Pie Face Australian Meat Pies

Mini-pies

Another chain we need in town is the Europa Café. They have a great variety of breakfast items and a make-your-own-salad bar. All the calories are on the board and their cheesecake had only 400 of them :p But seriously, their salad is to die for (or was it my salad, since I created it?)

“Europa Café” Salad

It seriously took me over 4 hours of prepping, cooking, and cleaning for lunch the other day. I am such a perfectionist I have to chop everything perfectly and then I’m such a clean freak I have to wipe down everything right away. Half of my day is spent in the kitchen these days and it wouldn’t suck so much if I didn’t have much else to do, but I still have to work 60 hours a week, train for the half-marathon, and have fun… My only consolation is that I’ve been eating super healthy lately and hopefully that will pay off in the long run.

2 hours chopping veggies

In my organic basket this week I got some collard greens, and when I looked up online I found a traditional Brazilian recipe – Couve a Mineira. Didn’t even know collard greens were so popular in Minas, where I’m from, but I decided to try. Well, here’s the reason why I didn’t remember they existed: I don’t like collard greens. After my first taste I remembered my mom making me eat them when I was little and how bad they were. However, I already have plans to improve them next time they arrive in my basket: mix them with spinach to make spanakopita!

Collard Greens

Oh, yeah, I was going to write about a recipe I actually liked: Mashed Yams. I’m always amazed when I look up a recipe and find out I actually have all of the ingredients. This time I had honey in my pantry because a new co-worker gave us some from his own bees. Lucky me!

Mashed Yams

Mashed Yams

2 lbs. of yams – peeled and chopped (about 5 cups)

¼ cup butter

2 tbsps. honey

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼  tsp. salt (or less )

Add the yams to a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer until yams are tender, for about 8-10 minutes. Drain well and return potatoes to the pan. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat at medium-low speed with an electric mixer until smooth.

Makes 5 servings of 265 calories each.

My 4-hour meal

Dad at the Nevada Museum of Art

After a recommendation from the receptionist at the Nevada Museum of Art, my dad and I went to Hill Street for a bite of eat at Sodo, which stands for “South Downtown”. Although from the outside I thought it would be a more casual bar/restaurant, the inside is pretty fancy and the food is pretty gourmet, with a nice wine list and some vegan and vegetarian options.

Sodo

None of the entrees caught my attention, so I had a couple of appetizers instead. The spinach and strawberry balsamic scallops were regular. I think it was missing something heavier for a sauce… Or maybe I just really miss the way the last restaurant I worked at did their scallops. However, the tempura shrimp with the wasabi sauce was divine. Wanted to order a second portion, but decided to save room for dessert.

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Glad I did, because the brownie was crazy good. It had a pretzel crust on the bottom and salted caramel on top. Yum! I think I even dreamt about it later that night.

Brownie

I’m still getting my organic basket every week, but with my dad in town, the veggies go much quicker! This week I had some cucumbers, which is pretty much the only vegetable I don’t like, so I decided to try something different: how about roasting them in the oven? This roasted potatoes and vegetables dish is super easy because you can just add whatever vegetables you have, the cleaning is minimal because of the aluminum foil, and during the 45 minutes it takes to be ready, you can go on a 4 mile run!

Roasted Potatoes and Vegetables

Roasted Potatoes and Vegetables

2 lbs potatoes – peeled and cubed

1 cucumber – peeled and cubed

2 crookneck squashes – cubed

2 tomatoes – diced

½ onion – diced

¼ cup olive oil

1 tbsp. Italian Seasoning

Salt and Pepper

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients until the vegetables are coated with the olive oil and herb mix. Line a large casserole dish with aluminum foil and spread the vegetables in it. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until tender.

Makes 4 servings of 350 calories each.

This week my Brazilian friend V. invited me to her place to learn to make “coxinha de galinha”, an appetizer from Brazil. I don’t miss many things from my home country since my mom sends me the mixture to make “pao de queijo” every month, but after she mentioned “coxinha”, my mouth started to water. It’s a fried dough stuffed with shredded chicken found everywhere in Brazil. We eat it in parties, at home, as an appetizer, as a snack, anytime, anywhere.

Coxinha de Galinha

I thought she had made “coxinha” many times before, but when I arrived she was watching a YouTube video to learn how to make it. Instead of following the recipe step-by-step like I would, she shut off her computer and started to make it by scratch. It was quite funny for her to hear me ask questions like “how to you mince garlic?” or “what does kneading mean?”, but people don’t believe me when I say I don’t know how to cook until they see me ask stupid cooking questions like that. I didn’t really learn how to make “coxinha” that day. I’m yet to master the whole cooking by scratch thing. However, I’m really good at eating. They were huge appetizers, but I ate two at her house, then two while driving back home, and two more when I got home. I’m sorry, but all you guys who are gluten free, healthy eaters, don’t know what you’re missing. Indulging in some fried dough once in a while is what life is all about!

So what does “coxinha” have to do with “palha italiana”? Well, nothing, except that after eating some Brazilian food, I started craving more! While at work today, someone told the new staff that I make pretty good desserts, so that was my cue to make something at home. “Palha italiana” is one of those things that remind me of my childhood, then of middle school, and then of even college, because it is also a snack/dessert I could find anytime, anywhere in Brazil.

Palha Italiana – Brazilian Graham Cracker Cookie Bar

Palha Italiana

1 can condensed milk
3 tbsp. chocolate power
2 tbsp. butter
8 sheets of Graham crackers

In a bowl, crumble the Graham Crackers (in Brazil, “biscoito Maizena”). Reserve.
In a pan, mix the condensed milk, the chocolate powder, and the butter. Stir in low heat for 10-15 minutes or until mixture gets a little thicker.
Add the Graham cracker crumbles and mix it all together.
Pour the mixture into a 9×9 pan and let it cool. Cut it into 9 squares.

Calories: 275 per square

I’ve been trying the meat pies and the fish and chips everywhere I go, but New Zealand had been pretty uneventful in terms of eating until I got to Queenstown. My first stop was the buffet at the Skyline Restaurant. You have to take a gondola up there and the view of the city is incredible. I tried everything in the buffet, from scallops to venison. The New Zealand lamb and the kumara (a type of sweet potato) were pretty good, but of course, my favorite was dessert: sticky date muffin with butterscotch sauce.

Queenstown View from Skyline

Gondola

The next day I had to have sticky date muffin again, this time at a café on Beach Street, accompanied by mulled wine. Hmmm, I love warm spiced wine in the winter! I also have to give props to the chai latte in NZ. Creamy and delicious. I had one at the Cardrona Ski Resort while talking to a lawyer from Christchurch and his son, an architect from Wellington. Kiwis are so friendly!

Mulled Wine and Sticky Date Muffin

Chai Latte

Apparently the best place to eat in Queenstown is at Fergburger. They are open 24/7 and at any time there is a line (especially at 4 am when everybody is getting out of the clubs!) The burgers are huge, but super good.

Fergburger

Fergburger

Fergburger

My best find though was a little restaurant called “The Cow” on Cow Lane. I kind of stumbled upon it since it’s in a hidden lane and had to wait 30 minutes for a table. While the food was average, the ambiance was excellent. We sat next to a couple from Christchurch who shared their garlic bread with us. Again, Kiwis are extremely friendly! When I asked them if they had been to the US, they replied: “We love the US! Well, except Reno.” Lol. I kept quiet and just said I was from the Tahoe area 🙂

The Cow Restaurant

The Cow Restaurant

For such a resort touristy town prices were not too bad. The nightlife was pretty good and you can get $3 shots anywhere.

My tour mates at Winnie’s Pizza

Finding places to eat is not difficult in Sydney. There is a bar, a café, or a restaurant in every corner, making it difficult to choose. On the first night I led my tour mates towards Victoria St on Potts Point (yeah, that’s right, me giving directions to a group of people!) We decided on an English pub but after everybody got settled I realized you can smoke inside restaurants in Australia, so I had to get out of there and find a place elsewhere. Best decision ever because off on my own I stumbled upon an organic place with Wi-Fi: “Grill’d”. They serve burgers and salads but with many gluten-free options. It is a chain, but to help bring their community together “Grill’d” has a program called “Local Matters” where every month they highlight three different local businesses and donate part of their money to them.

Salad and wine at Grill’d

The next night we went to posh Darling Harbour for dinner. Australians are crazy about their barbie. By the way, Aussies shorten every word so barbecue becomes barbie, breakfast becomes breakie, etc. At “Stacks” we cooked our own steak and had some more Australian wine, which I’m very fond of 😉

Grilling my own steak at “Stacks”

By far, my favorite find in Australia has been their savory pies. Flaky crust, warm creamy meat or chicken inside… Yum! I’ve been having one for lunch every day, and I can’t get enough of them. Most restaurants here are “takeaway”, and pies are easy to grab on the go. One place in Sydney called “Harry’s Café de Wheels” is so famous around the world for their pies, tons of celebrities eat there even though it’s just a food truck style place. I also found a meat pie window inside a leather purse store the other day. They are everywhere. Lucky me!

Meat pie from Leura’s leather shop

Sydney is also dessert heaven. All my hard work for the past year has been thrown out of the window after I got to Australia. They have cheesecakes, cupcakes, brownies, pies, cakes, and gourmet chocolates readily available in every corner as well. One of their most famous chocolate and coffee shops is “Guylian’s”, where I had a delicious lemon merengue pie that rivals my favorite ones from Brazil.

Lemon pie from Guylian

Chocolate and more chocolate

On my last night in Sydney I couldn’t wait to try kangaroo, so I went to a pizza place called “Australian Hotel”. I mean, everything is good on pizza, so there was no way I wouldn’t like it. I actually got a pizza with half-kangaroo meat and half-emu meat to kill two birds with one stone (no pun intended for the emu…). The emu was very salty and I didn’t care for it. The kangaroo was lovely, and it looked and tasted just like roast beef. Needless to say, I ate the whole thing plus a couple of slices of the pumpkin pizza someone else had ordered. Good thing I had gone on another jog in Sydney’s Hyde Park that afternoon.

Kangaroo and Emu pizza

One of my favorite songs of all times is “Banana Pancakes” by Jack Johnson, but I always thought he was singing about pancakes with bananas on top until one of my high school students told me about this gluten free banana pancake recipe during graduation this year. If you like bananas, you won’t be disappointed with this easy healthy breakfast.

First try: a little burnt but it still tasted good!

“Maybe we can sleep in… I’ll make you banana pancakes… Pretend like it’s the weekend now…”

I’m going away for a while and I don’t have much food at home, so this was the perfect recipe for this past weekend since all you pretty much need are eggs and bananas. When I told K.T. what I was making for breakfast though, he wasn’t very excited, but guess what, he ended up eating all of it! On my first one I used too much oil and it came out a little burned, but by my last one I had the hang of it and it looked just like a regular pancake. It is a little difficult to flip them, so the best way to make this work is to make small ones. Go ahead and add syrup and powdered sugar on top if you’d like. Don’t forget to listen to Jack Johnson while cooking them!

Gluten-Free Banana Pancakes

• 1 ½ bananas (put the other half on a smoothie or something…)
• 2 eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Oil or cooking spray

Mash the bananas with a fork in a bowl, then add the rest of the ingredients and stir it all together. I like to add a lot of cinnamon to mine and also a bit of vanilla extract, but as you know, I have a sweet tooth. Put a little bit of oil or cooking spray in a frying pan and heat it on low-medium heat. Add a small amount of batter and let it cook for a few minutes (maybe 3 minutes?) Carefully flip the pancake to finish cooking it for a few more minutes. This should make about 4 medium pancakes.

Calories: about 90 calories each.