When I think back to my time studying abroad in Italy, a lot of mouthwatering food comes to mind - including rice balls. Though a lot of the time they contained ham or some other kind of meat, here and there I was able to find vegetarian ones. They were gooey, rich, and delicious, and I'm not sure that I've eaten them since my time in Sicily. That's why when I came across risotto cakes in my newest cookbook, Essential Vegetarian, I knew I had to try the recipe. Rice balls are typically deep fried. While they taste scrumptious, anything submerged in a bath of oil isn't exactly waistline friendly. That's why I tweaked the recipe and used less oil. When I decided to make them last night for dinner, I failed to realize that this recipe takes a good amount of prep time. After cooking the ... [Read More]
Archives for February 2013
Healthy Fats to Eat Often
Happy Presidents' Day! I'm enjoying a much needed Monday off. Traveling always takes it out of me a bit and I love that I had today and yesterday to recoup. Last night I was exhausted and passing out by 8 PM -- helllooo jet lag! This afternoon is shaping up to be an active one: first we took Harley girl for an hour walk, then Adam and I played tennis together. Next up: food shopping and whipping up a fancy dinner! (via) February is American Heart Month, which aims to raise awareness of heart disease, its unfortunate prevalence in our country, and the things people can do to prevent it. A few stats via the CDC about how heart disease affects people in the U.S.: Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. 1 out of every 4 deaths is caused by heart ... [Read More]
The Never Ending Injury
Greetings from San Diego! I flew back to the West coast last night after 2 weeks of being in Jersey with my family. I am so happy that I made the trip back East to see my grandma in the hospital. I hung out with her yesterday before heading to the airport, and she is most definitely progressing and seeming more like herself. The pneumonia is clearing out, and the surgery to remove her tumor went great as far as we can tell. They removed her breathing tube and a bunch of other IVs and contraptions a few days ago, which was a great note to leave on. The past few weeks I've been constantly thinking about the people I love and how important they are to me. Nothing compares to family! I was super excited to see my hubby and pup last night. Reunions are always great after time ... [Read More]
The Day of Love
Unless you're living under a rock, you've recently been bombarded with Valentine's Day chatter and advertising, and know that tomorrow is the so called day of love. While I do think it's a Hallmark holiday, I'm a lover of love and enjoy any excuse to celebrate it. Unfortunately, tomorrow will be like last year's Valentine's Day in that I won't be with my hubby. This marks the 3rd V-Day in a row that we're apart, but I'm celebrating a different kind of love right now.... loving my precious grandma, whose cancer surgery yesterday was successful!! She's in the ICU recovering and getting her lungs stronger from having pneumonia. My family and I are all obviously relieved and just helping her to take it one day at a time in getting better. I Googled Valentine's Day dog images before (guess ... [Read More]
Buttery Lemon Pasta with Collared Greens & Mushrooms
Since I arrived in Jersey over a week ago, my diet has included way more of these... And NONE of these: I miss my usual daily smoothie, but I'm too chilly to eat them here! Good thing the soups I've been eating have been yummy. Though I haven't been able to experiment too much in the kitchen lately, one night last week my mom and I had the chance to come up with a new recipe together. She had mistakenly bought collared greens instead of kale, so we sought to figure out what we could do with it.... I had never played around with collared greens before, so I searched the Web for some meal inspiration. I got a basic understanding of collared greens and the flavors that seemed to be paired with it often. This is the yummy dish we wound up with: Buttery Lemon Pasta with ... [Read More]
A Snow Storm, BluePrint Juices & Self-Love Talk
Happy weekend! Do you like the randomness of this post's title?! It's a Winter Wonderland I was supposed to fly back to San Diego later on today, but I just heard that Newark airport is closed this morning. Craziness! I actually switched my flight yesterday already. I was thinking about rescheduling it anyways because I want to stick around longer for my grandma to get better, and the snow storm gave me an easy out. My grandmother is fighting through having pneumonia and scheduled for her surgery to remove the cancer next week, so I'm sticking around longer to be with her more. At my parents house, we got around 6 inches or so of snow last night, but I'm hearing that up north got a ton of more snow. I hope that everyone in the northeast stays safe and warm during this winter ... [Read More]