I love to experiment in the kitchen, but sometimes life gets just too hectic to spend a lot of time playing around creating meals. This was certainly the case the past couple of weeks with preparing to move, and now, getting all unpacked. When you're not sure where your plates are or have to go digging through boxes to find a knife to work with, meals tend to be pretty simple. That's why lately my dinners have included some quick, staple meals - including brown rice with veggie quesadillas, salad with pasta, and grilled cheese & homemade sweet potato fries. I can't wait to get all settled in so that I have the tools and energy to be more creative in the kitchen again. Just another day or two and I'll be there! Even when I don't have a big life happening going on like a move, some ... [Read More]
recipes
Irish Soda Bread & Sauteed Rosemary Potatoes
Happy Monday! It's crazy how fast the weekend - our last one living in San Diego - flew by. I had planned on getting a lot of packing done, and while I did make some progress, have tons to do this week for our move up to northern California. I wanted to enjoy my last weekend here, so things like the beach, hiking, and meeting up with my parents' friends who are in town took up a lot of my time. But I had a lot of fun this weekend, and think it was worth the tradeoff for my probable hours of midnight bubble wrapping this week. I'm not too worried though - it'll get done at some point, right? ;-) With all of the busyness going on, I totally forgot to check out St. Paddy's Day parades going on in San Diego. Being partly Irish and from New Jersey, it's a holiday that I grew up celebrating ... [Read More]
Chickpea & Brown Rice Salad
Hi there! I spent a couple of hours this evening volunteering at the Humane Society, and got to play with some pretty adorable dogs. Getting good pictures of puppies is a nearly impossible task: Such sweet little puppies! Moving onto food, today I'm sharing all of my eats for the day: My breakfast today was packed with a ton of vitamins and nutrients: I'm keeping up with my green juice a day! A few hours later when my stomach was growling, I threw together this salad: In the Mix: Radicchio lettuce mix A serving of Gardein mandarin orange crispy chick'n 1/4 cup dried cranberries 1 TSP sesame seeds 1/2 TBSP sesame oil 1/2 TBSP rice vinegar Adam and I went mountain biking late this afternoon. Post-workout, I whipped up this dinner really quick: Lately I've been putting ... [Read More]
Spaghetti with Asparagus in a {Lightened Up} Cream Sauce
Hi there! It's been a beautiful day here in San Diego - 85 and the sun shining bright! The beach was a great people watching scene today. I was bikini clad for the first time in quite awhile, soaking up the sun, relaxing, and reading for a couple of hours this afternoon. No complaints here! Today's recipe centers around one of the few veggies I never ate until recently - asparagus. My hubby is a fan of it, so I started giving it more of a try lately, and have found that as long as it's dressed up with a sauce or pasta, I don't mind it at all. Enter this dish: This dish is a simple meal that can be thrown together with ease in 20 minutes flat. I paired the asparagus and pasta with a lighter version of a heavy white cream sauce to keep it more waistline friendly. Random asparagus tip: To ... [Read More]
Sun-Dried Tomato Risotto Balls
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]
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Granola Bars
Hi friends! This weekend has been a pretty rainy one in San Diego - not that I'm complaining, since it's still been in the 60s. I'll take that any day over 25 degrees and snowy! Besides taking Harley for long walks both yesterday and today and having a tennis workout earlier with my hubby, I've pretty much been indoors the rest of the time. Rainy weekend activities have included checking out the bookstore, where I picked up a new cookbook on sale.... ...cleaning, and seeing Zero Dark Thirty at the movies last night. I've also spent some time in the kitchen. I have soup cooking at the moment that will hopefully turn out yummy, and yesterday I whipped up this delicious recipe: I found out last Thursday via Twitter and a few blogs that it was National Peanut Butter Day. I wanted to ... [Read More]