May 2012
4 posts
6 tags
The Food Matters Project: fish tacos with mango...
We have a permanent love affair with Mexican food in my household. Rarely a meal goes by without some salsa hitting the plate. Tacos are the perfect foil for any kind of filling you can dream up, black beans, grilled chicken, tofu, carnitas, mushrooms and chard, I am always looking for a new combination to grace our plates. The one thing that I don’t usually experiment with are fish...
wildcraftergal asked: With the blackberry sage cooler, is it possible to substitute another sweetener for the sugar? I'm actually allergic to cane sugar and I'm having a really hard time finding a substitute.
5 tags
Blissful Eats: home made almond milk
Delicious home made almond milk can be yours anytime you desire. All you need to do is soak the nuts overnight and then process them in the blender with water. Super simple, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients just almonds, vanilla, sea salt and agave.
And you don’t have to stop at almonds, try cashews, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds or hemp the variety is endless. Sometimes I...
6 tags
The Food Matters Project: asian corn and avocado...
I could probably fill a bathtub with all the salsa that I’ve made in my life. Growing up in Southern California has made my family as familiar with tortillas and guacamole as bread and butter. Since the recipe for The Food Matters Project this week called for creating your own salsa I wanted to create something that would complement the asian style tacos that we’ve been making...
5 tags
The Food Matters Project: shaved asparagus and...
Spring salads are a delight. After a long winter with limited produce available locally it’s a pleasure when asparagus, peas and radishes make their first appearance. I was supposed to make a soup this week but decided to keep it simple and fresh utilizing the same ingredients and turing it into a salad. If you can find thicker stalks of asparagus grab them, thin spears are harder to...
April 2012
5 posts
6 tags
Blissful Eats: pina colada sorbet
The weather has been teasing us here in Portland. We actually had a day this week where the temperatures hit 80 degrees. Strolling through the park with the dog in tow made me long to pull out the ice cream maker but I wanted to make something that would be kind to my waistline.
This is a light and healthy dessert that’s sure to impress. This pina colada sorbet couldn’t be...
3 tags
Food Matters Project: Blackberry Fennel Pizza
This week pizza is on the menu for the Food Matters Project. This recipe left a lot open for interpretation and I wanted to push the envelope a little. We love to make pizza a few times a month and I must admit that we get in a little bit of a rut always topping them with the same ingredients. Since the project focuses on eating less meat and animal products I wanted to stick to something...
4 tags
Blissful Eats: chocolate chip zucchini brownies
Thought I’d share one of my new favorite brownie recipes, full of chocolate chips, shredded zucchini, cinnamon and cardamom they are a wonderful spin on a childhood favorite. They are still decadent and delicious but I feel a little less sinful since they are loaded with vegetables, contain no butter and use whole wheat pastry flour. The next time you have a chocolate craving give these...
3 tags
The Food Matters Project: Halibut in spicy rhubarb...
This post is my first for the Food Matters Project, each week participating bloggers will cook a recipe from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook, which places an emphasis on mindful and sustainable eating.
Mark Bittman is one of my favorite bloggers and cookbook authors so I was really excited to jump into this project. It’s also given me the opportunity to find some fellow...
March 2012
4 posts
4 tags
Quinoa granola bars
I don’t usually eat granola bars, I find them too sweet for my taste and I don’t like to eat food with an ingredient list that I can’t pronounce. I do however like to make them at home where I can control what goes into them. These are full of toasted oats, quinoa, flax meal and chia seeds so they have a nice amount of protein in them. I like to toast the oats in butter...
6 tags
Blissful Eats: Smoky sweet potato hummus
I love hummus. When I first met my husband I ate hummus for dinner 3-4 nights a week. It’s just so easy to grab and have dinner on the plate in minutes. This was the first time that I ever tried making hummus with sweet potatoes and I’m sorry it’s taken me this long to try it.
The sweet potato adds a lovely sweetness and the chipotle peppers give it a nice kick and...
6 tags
amaranth porridge with mangos and coconut
I love experimenting with alternative grains and flours in my cooking. It is a great way to add an extra dimension to traditional recipes and get added fiber, nutrients and protein in dishes that are usually made with white flour. I saw this recipe on Naturally Ella a beautiful blog with amazing photography and recipes that you must check out and I decided it was time for me to give amaranth a...
6 tags
February 2012
6 posts
6 tags
Blissful Eats: Creamy avocado pasta
Love creamy pasta sauces but not all the saturated fat and calories that come with most recipes? If you love avocados and pasta then this is the dish for you.
And while this dish is not exactly low in calories, it’s full of monounsaturated fat which in studies have found to lower cholesterol and it is thought to prevent inflammation. Avocados are also loaded with 20 vitamins and...
5 tags
Butternut squash slaw
If you’ve always reserved butternut squash for roasting and soups here is a new recipe for you. I’ve never been a huge fan of coleslaw, usually its too sweet and so laden with dressing that it’s a soggy mess. This is a version of coleslaw that I can really get into, sweet, crunchy and utterly refreshing. Butternut squash julienned into whisper thin slices, dressed lightly...
7 tags
kale, grapefruit and coconut salad
I love using kale in my salads. You need to work the dressing into the leaves a little bit more but it doesn’t wilt like most salad greens and does a great job of standing up to assertive ingredients. I’ve made this salad many time since and the one addition I would highly recommend is some dices avocado, it makes for a more filling lunch and the creaminess of the avocado pairs...
6 tags
edamame dip
This edamame dip is rich in protein, filling, fresh and absolutely delicious. Bright green and sprinkled with some toasted sesame seeds it’s great as the centerpiece of a vegetable platter but also delicious on sandwiches, in a wrap or anywhere that you would use hummus. Feel free to substitute the parsley with cilantro or basil or use tahini instead of the avocado.
Edamame Dip
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Crunchy pumpkin quinoa cereal
Skip the boxed cereal and make your own! This is a recipe that I created for Bliss but it’s just too good not to share it with you all. This is granola with a twist, it substitutes quinoa for the traditional oats for a super crunchy high protein breakfast to start your day the right way.
If you’ve never cooked with quinoa it is actually a seed and related to the beet and chard family...
January 2012
11 posts
5 tags
shitake soba noodles
Pasta doesn’t have to be a thing of the past when you combine soba noodles and rich meaty shitake mushrooms with a sweet salty soy dressing. Pasta is not really the problem, it’s usually all the meat and cheese that we pile on top of it that gets us in trouble when we hit the scale. As much as I love a plate of pasta with a rich creamy sauce I know that I can’t indulge very...
5 tags
Blissful Eats: roasted broccolini sandwich with...
Happy Monday! For those of you that don’t know, I have another little home on the internet at Bliss and once a week I post a recipe for my friend Mrs. French. I thought I’d start sharing my posts from Bliss here as well. If you’ve never visited the site you should take a look around, it’s a lovely blog full of amazing photos and finds.
This sandwich features...
5 tags
red lentil coconut soup
We finally got some snow here in Portland although it only lasted a few hours it was truly beautiful for a short while. Growing up in California I’ve spent very little time in the snow and I’m always struck by how still and silent the world seems when it is blanketed in white. While I was sloshing through all the slush left over from our little storm I started dreaming about a nice...
5 tags
Pumpkin Pie smoothie
I’ve saved the best for last. Here is the ultimate in indulgence, who doesn’t want to have pumpkin pie for breakfast? While it tastes decadent it’s actually super healthy and low calorie to boot. Pumpkins are full of beta carotene, an antioxidant that is thought to prevent certain types of cancer. It’s also a great source of fiber and tastes great to boot!
I like...
6 tags
avocado smoothie
Here we are, day 6 in our 7 days of smoothies. This is a slightly decadent but still low calorie and delicious smoothie. This is a great combination for boosting your immunity levels. Both pineapple and coconut milk are anti-bacterial, and are rich in vitamins, minerals, electrolytes and antioxidants. Stay tuned tomorrow, I’m saving my personal favorite for last!
Avocado smoothie
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6 tags
Blackberry pomegranate smoothie
The pomegranate juice in this smoothie combined with the berries delivers an antioxidant powerhouse. The chia seeds are a great source of omega-3fatty acids and are a great source of fiber and calcium. an
Blackberry pomegranate smoothie
Ingredients:
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cherries
1/2 cup frozen blackberries
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 teaspoon chia seeds soaked in 1/4 cup of water...
5 tags
Grapefruit smoothie
It’s been a week since I gave up caffeine and it’s getting a little easier everyday. There is no way that I could have done it without my daily smoothies. The added benefit seems to be that I am feeling a lot less pain in my joints. I have been dealing with some major back pain for awhile and I don’t know if it is a coincidence but since I’ve starting juicing my back...
7 tags
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7 days of smoothies
I made it through my first day of no caffeine but if I had known how difficult it was going to be I might have thought twice about it. I felt like my head weighed 1000 pounds and at one point I thought I was going to toss my cookies. It is really alarming to realize how dependent my body is on caffeine so I’m going to try my best to stay away from it for the next 30 days. The one thing...
8 tags
A fresh start
With the New Year I felt my site needed a little brightening up. I’ve added some features; you can visit me at Pinterest and see some of my favorite items on the web and visit my new Facebook page!
With the new year comes the realization that I need to make some changes in my life. I haven’t been feeling all that well physically and I think it’s due to an erratic sleep...
December 2011
2 posts
5 tags
Holiday cookies
Christmas is just a few days away but theres still plenty of time to whip up a batch of scrumptious homemade cookies! I thought I’d share our favorite christmas cookie recipe the peanut butter blossom. And if you are feeling ambitious or just aren’t in the mood for peanut butter I’ve included links to some of my favorite cookie recipes that I’ve posted this year.
I...
4 tags
kimchi fried rice
Here is the recipe that I promised you to follow up my kimchi post. If you’ve taken the leap and made your own you might be wondering what to do with all that spicy pickled greatness, why fried rice of course! This is a perfect way to throw a quick meal together with some leftover rice and whatever you have laying about in your fridge that needs to be used. This recipe is easily...
November 2011
4 posts
4 tags
A taste of home: Kimchi
When we are young we take things for granted. I was always a little embarrassed and sometimes horrified by the smells and sites coming out of our kitchen. My mother is from Okinawa and she went out of her way to cook things that she thought I would like to eat. Hamburgers, french fries and macaroni and cheese were common dinner items. I always thought that the food she cooked for herself...
5 tags
italian wedding soup
I’ve been in the mood for soup, the kind that warms your hands and your heart. Soup is a dish that always makes me think of home, which is odd since my mom wasn’t known for making soup. But it does make me think of comfort and care, the perfect dish to snuggle up to the fire with, what we turn to when we are recuperating from a dreadful cold. When I was a child I refused to eat...
5 tags
Blissful Eats: malted chocolate cake
Hello there! I thought that I would start sharing some of the other posts that I do for my friend Mrs. French’s site Bliss. If you haven’t been to her site you really should visit, it’s full of beautiful photos and links to some amazing products.
Last week I made a malted chocolate cake for her birthday, it is the perfect cake for a special celebration. The cake is a chocolate...
8 tags
Persimmon, prosciutto, and pomegranate salad
Growing up in southern California my parents loved to spend their weekends up to their elbows in dirt, cultivating what I realize now was a beautiful labor of love. When I was a kid, I just didn’t get it, why would I want to spend time outside toiling away when I could sit on my ass and watch cartoons instead? Now that I’m all grown up with a garden of my own I regret that I...
October 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Black Bean and Butternut Chili
Do you ever have to deal with picky eaters? In my house it’s a struggle to get anyone to try anything new or venture beyond mac and cheese and pizza. I find the easiest way to introduce something new is to sneak it into a soup or stew, like in this black bean and butternut chili.
When my son saw me cutting up the squash he wanted to know what I was going to do with that crazy...
3 tags
Practice makes perfect
Sorry for my absence, life has been getting the better of me but in the best possible way. I spent a few days in beautiful Bend, Oregon and this weekend I was fortunate enough to attend a food photography workshop in California with my favorite bloggers White on Rice Couple. It was a day full of learning, laughing and eating, what could be better than that?
The workshop was a fundraiser...
5 tags
Quinoa and millet patties
These little quinoa cakes are adapted from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Everyday and they never disappoint. If you haven’t read or purchased Heidi’s book I highly recommend it. It’s full of recipes that utilize whole foods in a new and fresh light. Heidi’s blog 101 Cookbooks is one of my favorite blogs, she take the most beautiful photographs and everything she...
September 2011
6 posts
3 tags
A room with a view
This is my sanctuary, a place that I can escape all the pressures and irritants of my everyday life and revel in the simple pleasures of tending the soil. I take immense pleasure in sinking my hands into the earth, planting a seed and watching it grow into something beautiful and with purpose.
Right now the garden is in full swing and it seems like just when I get into the habit of...
6 tags
zucchini muffins
I have always had a hard time eating breakfast. I wait until the last moment to get myself out of bed and start my day. Mornings are for making lunches, walking the dog, taking a shower and the last thing on my mind is food. So I tend to skip breakfast and then when lunch finally rolls around I eat everything in sight. I am trying to get my act together and eat a little something to start...
3 tags
Photo Fridays
I thought that I might start sharing some of my favorite places and spaces with you all. First up, I am a sucker for a market, any kind will do, but my ultimate weakness is a farmers market. Whenever me and the Mr. travel I’m always on the lookout for a new one to visit.
We have the most amazing markets here in Portland. It’s something I really look forward to on...
4 tags
Summer gratin
Now that school has started and we are settling into our schedules, summer has finally decided to arrive. We’ve had 90 degree temperatures almost everyday this week and all of a sudden I’ve reached that point where I can’t keep up with all the produce coming out of the garden. I hate to let anything go to waste, so I have been pickling, canning, freezing and gorging myself on as much as I...
6 tags
Corn soup
Eating with the seasons makes you appreciate certain ingredients all the more since they are at their peak for such a short time. Corn is one of those things that really speaks summer to me. I love the taste of summer corn, when it’s fresh and in season it doesn’t need much to highlight it’s sweet clean taste.
In my experience most corn soups have too many ingredients, the corn gets lost...
4 tags
Blackberry yogurt parfait
I am still eating my way through the flat of blackberries that I bought at the farmers market and am amazed at how much I am still enjoying them. I was sure that I would be sick of the sight of them by now, but I just keep trying to find new ways to enjoy them. Which brings me to my new favorite breakfast, a blackberry yogurt parfait. The sauce is super simple, freezes beautifully and is...
August 2011
5 posts
6 tags
Freekeh salad with blackberry vinaigrette
Here is the savory dish that I promised to share with you, Freekeh salad with a blackberry vinaigrette. What is freekeh, you ask? It’s a smoked green wheat that is harvested young so it has more protein, vitamins and minerals than it’s mature counterparts. It is low on the glycemic index, low in carbohydrates and high in protein, making it a great alternative to white or even...
blackberry sage cooler
I posted a photo of the flat of blackberries that I came home with and here is the first thing that I made with them. I don’t drink alcohol but I do drink a lot of diet soda, a habit that I’d like to break. This is a refreshing, easy way to make a soda that’s lower in sugar and tastes great. A sage simple syrup is mixed with some pureed blackberries and topped off with some...
an abundance of summer
I went a little crazy at the farmer’s market this weekend after tasting these delicious blackberries from Ayers Creek Farms. What am I going to do with this bounty? Check back later this week to see what I manage to do with these jewels of summer!
8 tags
watermelon sorbet
When I think of summer, I think of barbecues and picnics surrounded by family, friends and the freshest foods the season can deliver. Nothing is more delicious on a hot summer day than a nice juicy slice of watermelon. As much as I love ice cream and would like to eat it everyday it’s just not a good idea. This sorbet is a great alternative for when you want something that feels decadent but...
4 tags
Food and Light Workshop
I just got back from a few days in Boulder, Colorado after attending a food styling and photography workshop and my head is still spinning. It was a great opportunity to watch some amazingly talented bloggers, Diane Cu and Todd Porter of White on Rice Couple, Matt Wright of WrightFood and the event organizer, Jennifer Yu of Use real butter. They are all amazing instructors and were so generous...