Thank You Ray Ray

Do you ever just stop for a second and look back on what you've been feeding your body for the past few weeks and just think "ugh what was i thinking!?"

I swear, I've eaten a farm of chicken in the last week.

Not a lot of veggies. Just a few lettuce-y side salads. No good-for-your-belly plain greek yogurt. And waytoomuch chocolate. I've hit up the froyo shop like twice a week for a month now. Seriously, so much sugar. And so much Diet Coke that I've willingly gone to bed with raging heartburn more than once.

Dear self, you feel like crap when you eat like crap. So knock it off.

At least I can draw the correlation, right?

Sometimes you just gotta get back on track. Today's recipe comes from RayRay. Love her. 

Ricotta Smothered Mushroom Burgers with Onion-Olive Jam
for four


4 giant portabellas
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp EVOO
1 large red onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 rounded tbsp tomato paste
1 c. nonfat ricotta cheese
1 tbsp prepared pesto (tj's has a great one!)
1/2 c. chicken stock
1/3 c. roughly chopped greek/kalamata olives
4 crusty substantial rolls of choice
2 large handfuls arugula
S&P

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Drizzle mushroom caps with 1 tbsp EVOO, all of balsamic, and S & P. Toss to coat.

Lay mushrooms gill side up on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice red onions. Cry.

Heat remaining EVOO in a saute pan. Add onions, garlic, and tomato paste and saute over med-high heat for 10 minutes, stirring often.

In a bowl, mix together ricotta and pesto. Yum.

Chop olives.

Toss olives into onion mixture with chicken stock and a pinch of salt.

Return heat to high and let the juices reduce and all ingredients get cozy with each other.
When it's ready, it will look like this:

Layer mushroom, a healthy dollop of ricotta, and a handful of arugula on bottom of roll. Spread jam over top roll. Squish together and die of taste bud happiness.

I may or may not have eaten this meal with potato chips, removing any credibility from that whole preface. And possibly this entire blog.