I love it when a random
“grab two things and see what happens” move in the kitchen turns
out to be so yummy. This avocado & pear salad is an extremely easy
recipe that mixes pears with avocados, and finishes it off with some fresh
lime and basil. Add this to your list of simple raw fruit and vegetable
go-to’s. It’s perfectly refreshing for hot summer days. Enjoy!
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I love tacos de papa in many variations! If you’re from Southern California, tacos become the “catch-all” meal that you grow accustomed to turning to. At my place we do many different variations of tacos de papa, mostly out of necessity- roasted potatoes, smashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, potatoes with zucchini, caramelized beets and potatoes, roasted potatoes and cauliflower, and sometimes even the traditional fried version. The possibilities are pretty much endless.
Here’s a nutrient-dense powerhouse utilizing zucchini noodles, that’s also bursting with flavor. Shiitake mushrooms have little-known nutritional talent, providing a great source of B vitamins and other nutrients not as commonly found in other plants. I also love how quick and simple this is to make. It can be enjoyed right away as a warm dinner, or stored in mason jars for lunch on the go. Enjoy!
I love making hearty, colorful,
nutrient dense salads for dinner, like this vegan caesar style
salad.
Some salads consist of a variety of fresh, raw vegetables. For
this filling-yet light salad, I used leftover oven roasted yams. But
leftovers or not, you can roast up some yams, beets, rutabagas, and put
together a delicious, plant-based entre salad in less than 30
minutes. Read More
Now that the heavy-hitting holidays are officially over, it’s nice to lighten things up a bit. This recipe gives consideration to the New Year’s tradition that originated in the south, of eating black-eyed peas for prosperity in the New Year. But this offers more versatility. Enjoy this hummus on a sandwich, a top a cracker as an hors d’oeuvre, or even as a dip with raw vegetables, in the event you have already decided to take on a post-New Year’s detox or weight-loss program. I enjoyed it on some leftover sourdough bread crostini along side a baby green salad.
I know I have been posting a lot
of soups lately! I love soups because they are a simple way to get complex,
nutrient density from whole foods into your life. October is a good time to
start giving your immune system a little TLC. And this immune support soup
recipe contains some of the best sources for key immune supporting nutrients.
And, it is free of any inflammatory foods that might bog your body down or
tamper with your digestion. Read More
The feeling of fall has moved in
right on schedule here in Los Angeles. So red kuri squash soup is where my
mind went when I saw some beautiful red kuris at the Farmers market. This
soup is super simple and can be made in a matter of minutes while you are
multi-tasking and doing other stuff. I love doing recipes that don’t require
a lot of measuring. Many people don’t realize how easy cooking is, and how it
often doesn’t have to be perfectly exact. Getting fresh, nutrient dense foods
into your body while also enjoying the flavors, shouldn’t be a daunting
project! In retrospect, I think it would have been nice to garnish this with
some pomegranate seeds. Perhaps there is an update in this recipe’s
future! Read More
I think at least a few of my
friends are scratching their heads at my new obsession with vegan cooking.
Here is the truth; it isn’t exactly the vegan I am obsessed about, but more
just having an in-depth go at figuring out how much essential nutrition I can
get from a vegan meal; the kind of nutrition that one would normally think
can only be obtained from an animal. And then there is another fascination
that comes with vegan cooking- to see where you can find the essential
“comfort” ingredients. That brings me to my current dating spree
with nuts, especially the rich, oily ones. I am about a recipe away
from being convinced that nuts take the healthy lead in providing the comfort
essentials we all love and our tastebuds count on. Move over butter, cheese,
and cream, because I just made an entrée that takes the “comfort”
of creamy mushroom ravioli filling, and turns it on its gluten free, dairy
free, vegan ear. Read More
Shiitake
bacon is a thing. But honestly, Portobello bacon is way better– because
portobellos are larger, meatier, and therefore able to stand up to the
bacon-making and fig-wrapping process. This recipe is super simple, quick,
and a great way to enjoy all those figs that are starting to ripen in your
yard, or starting to pop up at the market. Read More
This Mexican braised tofu, and
braising tofu in general, is a great, fairly easy way to add some variety to
otherwise bland and funkily textured traditional tofu. There are some key
components to remember though, if you want your tofu to really absorb
whatever flavors you are working with. This recipe explains how to
effectively drain your tofu so it can better receive the flavors in the
braising process. It’s a Mexican twist on combining tomato, sweet, and smoky
all together. Read More
