Chocolate peanut butter. Strawberry vanilla. Chocolate covered cherry. Basically friends, I'm totally smoothie crazed. And those are a few of my favorite smoothie creation combos. But sometimes, instead of just making a smoothie to drink in a glass, I like to put my blender to work to make something a bit thicker. I then pour my creation into a bowl and eat it with a spoon, because I'm fancy like that. ... [Read More]
vegetarian recipes
White Bean Bruschetta
It's no secret that I adore farmers markets. The colorful fruits, veggies and flowers. The fresh food being cooked for the many hungry bellies. The local bakers, producers, growers, and artists all hanging by their stands offering samples and eager to talk to patrons. Everyone there seems happy to taste, happy to pay a bit more for the high quality foods being offered, happy to just be there. I love the vibe of farmers markets. Nothing screams weekend morning more than walking around at a nearby market, getting excited at the heirloom tomatoes and juicy nectarines as only a real food lover like me does. The last time I lived in SoCal, I used to go to the Little Italy farmers market all the time, and it's amazing there, but it's a bit of a hike from where I live now. So a few ... [Read More]
Arugula Salad with Shaved Parmesan & Cherry Tomatoes
Hi there! Whew, Monday came so quick. The weekend just whizzed by for me! A lot of time over my weekend was spent doing house stuff, including buying a pool vacuum - it took us a few weeks to get the pool in order but now we're all good! - and looking for patio furniture that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I also spent Sunday evening on the beach with this little maniac cutie.... ...and had my first tennis workout in quite awhile! My hubby is making fun of me because I'm so sore today since I hadn't played in awhile. I always get sore when I do an unusual workout, and my forearm, hand, obliques, and back are certainly achy today! I'd like to play tennis more often now that we live down the street from some pretty decent courts. I'm in no way a great tennis player, but I find it to be a ... [Read More]
Cherry Almond Smoothie
In the minds of many Americans, Memorial Day weekend marks the start of summer, even though summer doesn't technically start for around another month. It feels like summer to me because last weekend marked the first sunburn of the year for my light skin (with very odd tan lines might I add - I think I have streaks of lines on my arm where my headphone cord was hanging down!) despite putting on suntan lotion multiple times. Meanwhile my hubby got nicely bronzed, because sometimes life just isn't fair my friends. When I think of summer, I think of things like the beach, sangria, backyard BBQs, and sundresses - my favorite attire ever. Of course there's the summery food that comes to mind, which includes lots of seasonal fruit, corn on the cob, bright salads, and of course, refreshing ... [Read More]
Fontina, Artichoke & Roma Tomato Calzone
Sometimes I hear about a recipe or see a picture of a meal, and I just know that I need to make it myself in the near future. I feel as though there's a section in my brain solely dedicated to keeping a constant list of recipes to create and grub to try. This is how I felt when I was recently reading Brittany's blog and she was talking about different meal delivery services that she had given a try. With one of the services, she had eaten an artichoke and fontina calzone for dinner one night. As soon as I heard mention of fontina cheese paired with artichokes, rolled in pizza dough to make the classic Italian fare, I knew that I would be creating a recipe for it myself very soon. And so here I was last weekend, with all of the ingredients to whip up a calzone recipe....and excited to ... [Read More]
Vanilla Peanut Butter Cinnamon Smoothie
Now that it's spring and half the world is starting to get out of freezing temperatures and polar vortex slumps, smoothie season is getting underway. I know what you're thinking: I live in California and can pretty much drink smoothies year-round. But the truth is, here in the south bay area, the temperature swings are pretty nutty. It'll get up to 75-80 degrees during the day, then drop down to 35-40 degrees at night. Literally, the temperature doubles most days! When I first moved here I couldn't believe it. While I drank smoothies somewhat often during winter, my smoothie habit wasn't nearly as frequent as it has been the last few weeks and will be probably until late fall. You see, the house I'm living in stays really cool - as in, it's 80 degrees out but I'll work from my office ... [Read More]