molly eats | mission beach cafe

This place is amazing. Great service, great food, great atmosphere. We came here to celebrate my friend's mom's birthday weekend. When we first drove up to the cafe, we saw the amount of people waiting outside and dreaded the wait. The worst part about eating out is probably the wait, especially at popular eateries. But most of the people were waiting had to wait for a table for two to clear up, so we got a table quickly.

I don't drink a lot of coffee and I'm not caffeine dependent, so it's pretty embarrassing when I try to order coffee because I don't understand most of the terms. Latte, mocha, macchiato.. wait what? I order a macchiato and apparently it wasn't what I was expecting, but our server was super nice about it and bought me a latte - turns out that a latte was what I wanted and it was really good.

We ordered dungeness crab benedict, mbc hevos, citrus cured salmon, and braised prather ranch short rib for our main dishes. Everything was so delicious and I was full in a short amount of time. Don't you hate it when you have a bunch of delicious food in front of  you, yet you're too full to eat it all? It happens to me quite a lot. But yeah - everything was super good and had a lot of flavor so I definitely recommend trying this place out if you're ever in the bay. They also have some pastries and pies for dessert, but I didn't have that much of a sweet tooth at the same plus I was super stuffed.

        

Hopefully I'll be back here soon!

What are some of your favorite brunch menu items?

berry chocolate goodness

I made chocolate covered strawberries yesterday morning for my friend's 22nd birthday. It was such a nice surprise since they turned out beautifully for my first try (after I made a big chocolate mess in the kitchen.) We passed the Godiva store on Monday and my friend wanted some choco covered strawberries so I'd thought I'd give it a try. What's better than homemade chocolate strawberries? Plus the pictures turned out great!

A few things I learned along the way just in case you're ever in the chocolate creation mood.

• This video helped me get started on the whole process.
• Quality chocolate is important because a. taste and b. it melts easier.
• Chocolate clumps up apparently so don't put them in plastic bags for decorating until you're ready.  It helps if you melt it (in a bowl) every so often so it's easier to work with.
• If you're microwaving the chocolate, do it in small amounts like 10-15 seconds.
  I melted mine in intervals of 25 seconds because I'm lazy.
• There are lots of ways to decorate strawberries! Use both dark and milk chocolate so you get two colors; you can also mix the two together to get a light brown color (which doesn't look as pretty in my opinion.)
• You can also use nuts, coconut flakes, etc. for decoration. I totally forgot about this until after they were chilled.
• Oh yeah, and it creates a mess but it's really fun to work with if you like working with food!

    

So you can see the mess I've created above, which really isn't that bad. My dad woke up just in time to help me get the toothpicks (yay!) I also learned that my friend really likes chocolate covered strawberries so I'll be making things again soon since I have extra chocolate chips left over and making the designs were really fun.

It's a great gift idea, especially if it's around the holiday time and you want to give a small yet personal gift to those around you. Or you can bring it to a party and have people be impressed!

• Have you made chocolate covered strawberries before? How did they turn out?
• Any tips for next time?

breakfast 365 // week one

1.20.2014 #1 / A simple omelette with eggs, cheddar cheese, spinach, a little quinoa, and a little grounded pork. It was yummy and I would definitely eat this again - it was a good combination especially if you like cheese.

1.21.2014 #2 / I call this my "berry monster" because here's what I learned: be careful with how much blackberries you put it because they're bitter in the center, goji berries probably aren't a good idea, 3 cups of spinach is too much, and don't just keep adding things in hoping it'll turn out good (because it never does - not for me anyway).

1.22.2014 #3 / A simple green smoothie to drink while I was preparing lunch. It was surprisingly really good (better than the day before - in color and taste). I used less spinach (only one cup), some mangoes, a banana, flaxseeds, and chia seeds (for fiber).

1.23.2014 #4 / Finally over my fear of overnight oats! The almond milk was sour the last time I made this, so I stopped eating it for a while (and I stopped making almond milk too). Added some chia and hemp seeds (you may notice that I like seeds - they're so little yet packed with so many nutrients!), coconut flakes, and cocoa nibs (still adjusting to the taste).

1.24.2014 / #5 Breakfast bowl cooked oats mixed with homemade almond milk (so creamy and good), chia seeds, hemp seeds, coconut flakes, blackberries, and goji berries. Would recommend this.

1.25.2014 / #6 Leftover half Chipotle bowl, quiche, and quinoa quesdillas that we made the night before. We went to a music event the previous night, so we cooked beforehand. We didn't get home until 3 am, so when I woke up, all I felt like doing was eat leftovers.

 

1.26.2014 / #7 My first time using quinoa in my breakfast cereals which turned out to be pretty good. My friend and I went to Half Moon Bay today so I wanted to get a good start on the day by eating a nutritious and energizing breakfast. We also had hazelnut macchiatos since we woke up early today and had an hour drive. I would say this was a successful breakfast - we stayed awake all day and walked around the cute little town all morning and spent the afternoon on the beach. Pictures and blog post about that coming soon (i.e. tomorrow).

Overall, having a 365 breakfast project definitely helps me stay motivated with eating breakfast every day because there were some days where I just felt like skipping breakfast. At the same time, it also allows me to use my camera more (which I've enjoyed doing so more.)

Let me know if you have any breakfast suggestions for week two! :)

• How was your week/weekend?
• Can you believe it's almost February?! Where all January even go? (Remember when we were still making new year resolutions and goals? Time flies by so fast.)

falafels and quiche

I fell in love with falafels when I had my first bite at a food truck at Off the Grid in San Francisco. After that, I tried making my own but the taste and texture just didn't compare. The idea of attempting to make my own again came to me last week and this was the recipe I used.

 

I decided to bake them instead of frying them. Frying isn't exactly one of my best skills (or even something I'm remotely good at), so I always prefer baking (less effort involved and it also means I can do something else while waiting).

 

 I made more than twenty falafels so it was more than enough to share with everyone and to last for several days. I plan to make these again sometime in the following weeks. 

I was pleasantly surprised because my quiche turned out a lot better than I expected! 

It was also my first time making my own crust and grating my own cheese. The texture was really good, the crust was crunchy enough but not too crunchy or baked, and everything just went well together. Even my dad liked it!

It was so good I made another batch of quiche last night since I had extra ingredients leftover and I didn't want my spinach or mushrooms to go to waste. (Half of it is already gone.)

This happened on Tuesday and I spent 6 hours cooking that day and I didn't even notice until my feet started hurting due to standing the whole time, but everything turned out good so it was worth it.

my first month of cooking // what i learned

 I.

Read through the recipes before starting again, including going to the grocery store. Always read the recipes. Read the reviews after, they're helpful. Trust me. Double check everything on your list and cross it out as you go along, because if you don't, you'll probably forget to buy something you really need (sometimes even the main ingredient.)

II.

Every recipe out there seems to call for salt. The only measurements tools you ever seem to use are the 1 cup, 1 tbs, and 1/4 tsp.  Things that come in handy: having a food processor, parchment paper, butter, all purpose flour, eggs, a whisk, lots of spoons, nonstick cookware, a spatula scraper, a variety of different spices, and lots of time on your hands.

III.

I'm really bad at measuring and I always lose count. I'm also bad at following recipes. I've learned that it's good to not expect your first try to be perfect, but it's good to try again. Practice helps you improve, like with anything else in life. You won't be good at it at first, but if you keep going, you'll get better. Even though I'm nowhere near good at cooking or baking, I love looking at recipes and getting new ideas.

 IV.

I love taking pictures of my food; I put my camera strap across my shoulder so I'll always have it on me while I'm in the kitchen (except for when I'm washing dishes - that's just asking for trouble). By the time I'm done with everything, my food is already cold. But that's okay. I've never been a big fan of eating my food while it's hot anyway.

V.

But what I love most is that I'm always making mistakes, because that's how I improve. That's how I get better. I learn from my mistakes and I'm more aware the next time around. I love spending hours at a time making food. I love taking photos of my food. I even love washing dishes. I also waste less food this way because I'm eating in more rather than eating out. I pay more attention to the produce at the store.

Learning to cook and bake has been such a rewarding experience so far despite burning myself sometimes and having killed our small oven.

a day of homemade goodies

And by goodies, I mean food. Because a good chunk of my life goes toward food and eating.

This morning, I actually woke up at 9 am today (throws confetti). It's one of my new year resolutions/goals to wake up earlier, and I've been having trouble with it recently because one of my other resolutions to go to sleep earlier and whenever I tell myself to do that, I actually end up going to sleep later. Anyway, after I woke up, I made myself a delicious green smoothie.

 

After, I went to the grocery store to buy some vegetables and sweet potatoes to cook for lunch.  And while I was browsing through the fresh produce section, I came upon amaranth leaves so I had to try them because I recently learned about amaranth (the grain) which I haven't tried yet. My dad helped me make lunch today and it was nice because we managed to get lunch on the table within an hour; I was rushing a bit because I had an appointment but I cancelled it due to lack of time. I wish I had taken a picture of the food with my camera because the colors looked really nice, but I did manage to take a picture with my phone. The food was surprisingly good! I wanted to make yam salad, but I accidently baked it instead of boiling it in water. Maybe next time!

After that, my friend came over and we "baked" cheesecake and oreo truffles dipped in the chocolate ("baked" since we didn't use an oven). The cheesecake turned out surprisingly decent despite not using vanilla extract and substituting sweetened condensed  milk.

 Oh yeah, and we also made oreo truffles! We should grind them instead next time; we crushed them, the photos would turn out way nicer if the oreos would grounded. (Confession: I'm always thinking it terms of how the pictures would look instead of how the food tastes.) But they turned out really good! I don't have a sweet tooth, so about one or two just about hits the spot for me.

 

I have work this weekend, but I'm planning to spend more time in the kitchen after I come home from work (and also hopefully spend more time on my studies!) Also, classes start again next week so I have to get as much cooking done as I can so I know what to meal plan (what I like, what I don't like, what works, what doesn't, etc.)

• How has your week been?
• Have you been cooking or baking anything new lately?
• How is January treating you so far?

quinoa and smoothies

I've been eating more homemade foods lately, and I'm loving it. This blog and being able to take pictures again really helps and motivates me. I can't remember the last time I use my camera before this blog, probably not since a little after high school. It's still a bit tricky trying to make lunch/dinner recipes; I feel like it's always a hit or miss.

Breakfast 

 

I love putting my breakfast foods and smoothies in mason jars. The colors go nicely with each other and it's so bright, and it looks wonderful.

Currently out of Greek yogurt, so I only had coconut milk avaliable for this fruit bowl. Hopefully I'll get a chance to restock this week; there's not really any American grocery stores near where I live, and I don't like driving there just to get one or two things. But I'll be going to school again soon, which means there's a Safeway on the way back home yay!

Smoothies

  I recently started using my Vitamix blender again, and wow the smoothies taste so much better now. The consistency and texture of it is just amazing. And I got a really nice shade of green in yesterday's smoothie (the third one).

 

Also went to the library this week to print my school stuff out and did a book haul. I don't know why I still check out recipe books, even though there are a million recipes online, but the photos just look so good. And people put lots of work into their books, so I thought I should take the time to look through them.

Dinners

 

I made quinoa mac and cheese with spinach last night; the first bite was really good. But when I tried it again later that night, my stomach started hurting (might be because I might be lactose intolerant). Maybe there was just too much dairy for me. :(

EDIT // The quinoa mac n cheese is super yummy; my friend and her mom loved it. I had the leftovers (I gave most of it to my friend) for lunch today and I loved it. Turns out the leftovers are better if you bake them than microwaving them - just a side note! And I think my dad likes it as well! (He normally doesn't like these types of foods.) Definitely making this again sometime soon - hopefully tomorrow after work. I don't want the leftover milk in my fridge to go to waste and I still have butter leftover.

Not pictured, but I also made sweet potato jasmine rice patty cakes. I substitued quinoa with jasmine rice because I had just made a fresh batch. (It's going to take me a while to learn how to follow recipes and cook.) But it was really good nonetheless and reminded me of how much I love sweet potatoes!

lettuce wraps and leftovers

Lettuce wraps and leftovers. It's my new favorite thing.

The idea first came to me last Friday after I came back from my run; by the time I finished showering, my stomach was making noises at me. So I looked in the kitchen to see what I could quickly whip up. Normally I would do some cereal breakfasty like, but I was out of granola, so that was a no go. Then I saw the egg carton and saw that I still had some leftover ground beef, so I did a quick stir fry and use romaine lettuce to make three lettuce wraps. And let me tell you, it was amazing.

So when I woke up this morning, I knew what I wanted. More lettuce wraps, but with guacamole this time. (It was a good choice.) I wish I had some cayenne pepper to go with it, but that's okay.

 

 This is also a really great idea for me because I've always been bad with a. using/eating all my vegetables that I buy and b. eating my leftovers. I'm pretty sure 99% of my leftovers go bad; I'm working on changing my habits on that.

• What have you been eating lately?
• Do you have any favorite foods to put on lettuce wraps?

molly eats

One of my new year goals was to try out more recipes and I'm happy to report that it's been working out so far! I've been spending more time in the kitchen lately and it's been a blast.

  My second batch of cranberry sauce turned out way better than the first one I made it! Probably because I actually followed the instructions this time and added a cup of sugar like it told me to.

It was almost as good as my acai berry bowls, maybe even better. I love how almond butter looks on top of greek yogurt. Don't you think the colors compliment each other?

 

I actually cooked beef, for the first time in my life! Amazing, isn't it? And I didn't poison myself or anything, thank goodness. Ever since I was little, I had this fear of eating meat that wasn't fully cooked so I always stayed away from cooking my own meat which meant I had to go out to eat because I'm really bad at trying to be a vegeterian. And I love lamb too much. But now that I know how to cook beef, who knows what else this year has in store for me. Anyway, you can see the acorn squash beef bowls I made on the right. Everyone loved it, and it's really filling.

 Oh yes, and then I made some sushi rolls with my dad's help. I need to work on making sushi rolls this year, because it's harder than it looks apparently. I also made homemade mayo, which doesn't really taste like mayo and I don't know what to do with that mayo so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

The pumpkin bread I made turned out to be really yummy! (although the coconut oil wouldn't mix so I ended up having lumps of coconut oil in my batter) When I got home after going to the grocery store, I realized I didn't buy a can of pumpkin and felt really stupid, because well... that's the main ingredient. Does that ever happen to anyone or is that just me? But luckily, I bought a can of pumpkin a while back and it was in one of the cabinets. Yay! I put greek yogurt, my cranberry sauce, and a dash of hemp seeds on top - try it, it's really good! I didn't know whether I wanted hot chocolate or tea that morning, so I made both.

Last but not least, I made Thai red curry soup today! I'm not sure if this is how it's suppose to taste, but it's good enough for my first try. Hopefully I'll get better with better, but I'm excited about trying this Thai beef recipe tomorrow after work! It sounds delicious. And Jasmine rice with coconut flavour? Yum. One of my other goals this year is to learn to make Thai food, since it's one of my favorite cuisines. And on the right, you can see my nonbaked sweet potato fries.

Thank goodness for the Internet and the amount of recipes avaliable! (So many exclamation marks because I love food.) My goal is to do one of these food posts every now and then to make sure I'm actually cooking my food and not eating out as much this year, and to share my love for food. Until next time, bon appétit!

• How is 2014 going for you so far?
• Do you have any favorite recipes? Have you tried any new recipes so far that you would like to share? (I would love to try them.)