Good old St. Paddy's Day is tomorrow, and while I didn't make any Irish soda bread last weekend or have a blast celebrating at any parades, I wanted to share a green recipe in honor of the holiday. My heritage is part Irish, and I have lots of St. Paddy's Day memories: my family getting together at my grandma's house (who was Italian, but loved any excuse to celebrate!) for corned beef & cabbage (hold the corned beef for me), potatoes and Irish soda bread; and day drinking at many Irish parades in Jersey as a college kid. I kind of would like to be wearing green shamrock stickers on my face and day drinking with my girlfriends right about now actually, but any who... here's a fun little holiday tidbit: The color green being associated with Ireland dates back to at least ... [Read More]
vegetables
Red Swiss Chard, Chickpea & Leek Soup {vegan}
When I was younger, I wasn't quite as into health as I am now. Luckily, I grew up in a health-conscious family with parents who exercised often and ate well. Our dinners almost always include nutritious vegetables. I remember feeling embarrassed as a kid when my friends came over and we didn't have an abundance of Oreos and Doritos in our pantry to nosh on like most of their houses did. I used to roll my eyes at my mom when she would take a bite of something super healthy and say, "Mmmm delicious! And it's so good for you!" I was convinced that she sabotaged herself into loving vegetables because of their nutrition content. Keep in mind, I became a vegetarian at age 10, and while I ate veggies and had a decently healthy diet for a kid, I wasn't exactly in love with broccoli and ... [Read More]
Mediterranean Pasta with Lemon Ricotta [Gluten Free]
Happy March! Doesn't it feel like February just flew by? Since I began trying out a gluten free diet (a discussion on my experience with going gluten free to come soon!), I've tried a bunch of different GF pastas. I know that some people feel ehh about pasta and can take it or leave it, but I am not one of those people. Two of the GF pasta brands that I've liked thus far are Tinkyada and TruRoots. I don't care for that overly corn-y taste to some of the gluten free pastas, and these two brands are on-point with offering a similar tasting pasta alternative to the real, gluten-filled kind. My carb-loving self enjoys whipping up healthy, yummy pasta dishes, and I didn't want to be completely missing my pasta fill just because I'm experimenting with a gluten free diet. For this dinner, ... [Read More]
Sweet Potato, Kale & Pasta Soup {vegan}
This fall and winter more than any others in the past, I've been a soup eating machine. When eating out, I keep going for the soup on the menu. At home, there have been countless lentil, tomato & spinach soup dinners, and then there have been some soup experimentations, like zucchini puree and tonight's recipe: sweet potato, kale and pasta soup. This soup has so much goodness in it - including antioxidants, iron, fiber, Vitamin K, B6, A, C and D, calcium, magnesium, potassium... and the list goes on. Let's just say that it's nutritious! This recipe came about because I had a bag of tuscan kale about to be past its prime in my fridge. I decided that it would pair well with sweet potato and pasta in a soup. Celery, onion and basil came into the picture because they're soup staples to ... [Read More]
Zucchini Puree with Oregano Cream
Happy weekend everyone! My Saturday so far has been lovely. I put my juicer to work for breakfast, finished up this week's IIN lecture, took Harley for a long walk, and visited the Morgan Hill farmers' market and health food store. Today was the first time I'd been to my town's farmers' market in awhile, and I forgot how much I love just walking around markets picking up local food. There's a certain energy at a market filled with locally grown food and the happy farmers and workers who sell it. My market picks: All of the apples I've been getting at food stores have been browning quickly and aren't as crisp. It's amazing how much crisper and fresh the apple is that I'm eating at the moment, along with some strawberries (Strawberries in January? Sure why not!) while sitting on my ... [Read More]
Real Food Talk + Rosti Potatoes with Goat Cheese & Arugula
Over the past few years, I've really made an effort to add more real food into my diet, and less and less processed stuff. I've always loved my fruits and veggies, but I realized that I was also eating foods with long ingredient lists more than I'd like. Don't get me wrong, I eat things like protein bars all the time, but I've made an adjustment to eating things with more natural ingredient lists like this: (Source: Zing Bars) And look less often like this: An awesome perk to blogging is that people like to send you samples of products to try and blog about. It's always fun to get a package in the mail of a new product. As a personal rule, I only say yes to products that align with my beliefs and that I would consider buying in a store. Recently I received an email to try new meal ... [Read More]