Happy Hump Day friends! I'm excited because tomorrow I head up to Manhattan Beach for ShiftCon - a social media conference focusing on wellness, health, and the environment. There are so many sessions that seem so interesting and fun that I'm looking forward to, and it's always great to connect with other bloggers and people in the healthy food industry! I'm sure I'll be recapping all of the fun for you next week, but today, let's talk about this deliciousness: The idea for roasted tomato & ricotta pesto stuffed shells first came to mind when I bought a bag of locally grown beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes. There's just something about those vibrant colors that makes me want to get all creative with the meal I use the tomatoes for. I roasted them with just a bit of olive oil, salt ... [Read More]
vegetarian recipes
Chocolate Greek Yogurt Fruit Dip + Labor Day Weekend Recap
Oh, how I love 3-day weekends! It seems like there's so much more time to have fun, relax, and also get a couple of productive things done than during a regular weekend. That extra day really makes a difference, don't you agree? I spent a ton of time outside over the weekend -- just how Labor Day weekend should be. Inspired from watching all of the U.S. Open action, I kicked my long weekend off with a tennis session with my hubby... ...and then we headed over to the beach for a sunset picnic: We also had a chance to stroll around the farmers' market and pick up some local goodness.... ...grill a margherita pizza for dinner one night... ...and go on a hike with our dingo at our nearby favorite park: Something we spent a lot of time doing over Labor Day weekend was ... [Read More]
Mediterranean Freekeh Salad + Giveaway
You know how people sometimes say that the little things are the big things? Well I'm a big believer that little things can make a huge difference when it comes to recipes. Take garlic for instance: Use too much of it and it totally kills the dish for me (and the entire 24 hours afterwards when I'm burping up garlic!), don't use any and it might taste like it's missing something. Another good example is herbs: Using fresh ones can make all the difference in the world, and you don't even need to use a lot to make it pop in a dish, because herbs are fragrant and awesome in tiny quantities. Two of my favorite herbs are basil and mint. I use basil all the time because it's fabulous in so many dishes, and mint is great for an extra flavor oomph when paired with the right ingredients. The ... [Read More]
Chocolate Thin Mint Protein Smoothie
Happy Hump Day! I'm still on the east coast, and it has been nice and toasty in Jersey with temperatures in the low to mid 90s. So naturally today I want to talk about smoothies - more specifically, what has been probably my favorite smoothie for all of 2015 thus far. I first came up with this Chocolate "Thin Mint" Smoothie when it was Girl Scout cookie season and I kept craving chocolate + mint. Since then I've made it countless times - minimum once a week all year long. It's the perfect post-nighttime workout meal because it doubles as a healthy dose of protein and goodness plus dessert in one.... and we all know that I'm all about things that taste like dessert but are secretly healthy. ... [Read More]
Baked Sun-Dried Tomato & Artichoke Goat Cheese Dip
Meet my new favorite kitchen gadget: my brand new Kitchen Aid food processor. You know when something happens and you're initially bummed about it, but then everything turns out well in the end? This was the case with my food processor a couple of weeks ago. I was happily making these date truffles in it, and when I went to scoop out the dough, my blade was stuck on the processor base. Superglued on there. Unfortunately, this was a dejavu scenario because it happened once before to me with the same gadget a couple of years ago. I took it this old fix-it man who took forever to get it back to me, but I was happy because he fixed it. However, when I went to call the same man this time, I found that he had retired. And there are no other Kitchen Aid support people in my area. Noooo. ... [Read More]
Maple Blueberry Fontina Grilled Cheese
Hi there and Happy Friday! Let me start this Friday post off with something sweet... So, I totally ate this for dinner last night! I've been doing a thing where I eat dessert for dinner about one night a week, and it's working out great for me and my sweet tooth. 80/20 balanced eating baby! The above deliciousness is scoops of Halo Top Creamery vanilla bean, strawberry, & chocolate flavors (despite me talking abut them twice this week, I'm not affiliated with them at all.... yet! I'd certainly like to be since I love them :) ) with banana, caramel, a TJ's brownie & oats bar and some chopped up Bark Thins dark chocolate pretzel with sea salt chunks. I went on a kick butt hike with my pup yesterday and just was not feeling any kind of typical dinner, so a dessert bowl for dinner it ... [Read More]