Healthy Eats

Over the weekend, I was in the mood for healthy and delicious (as if that's news). Naturally- I turned to Greek/Mediterranean food! I had a flourless cake recipe I wanted to try, from my cooking school. It would use a lot of lemon zest, so I knew I would have lots of lemon juice to put to use afterward. I used some in the marinade for chicken kabobs, some in tabbouleh, and I will use some more as a splash of acid in salad dressing tonight.

I love that lemon was the driving force in my cooking choices this weekend. Everything I made turned out so well and it all went well together! This light and lemony menu made me really crave summer - warm weather, barbeques, picnics, and general lingering about out of doors.

Chicken kabobs, marinated in yogurt, lemon and oil

Lemon, Ricotta and Almond Flourless Cake

The cake was delicious and extremely moist. I had never made a flourless cake before, but because I love almond, lemon and ricotta I figured it was good excuse. This definitely satisfied the sweet tooth, and although there was a decent amount of sugar, it was a healthier alternative. 

Spinach Salad with beets, quinoa and goat cheese

I have been trying to figure out ways to incorporate quinoa into my diet in delicious ways. Lucky for me, a coworker shared this salad recipe with me. It's a goody and a great meal by itself! I added some Trader Joe's ready-to-use lentils for a little added protein.

Salad Crazy

Aside from the usual goals like 30 minutes of exercise daily, 10 minutes of reading, try and make a dent in my tivo list, etc. I have some new ones!
1. Grow another food item in my awesome new Sunset pot. I think I've decided on mint because it should be easy, it will look good, and it's just so fresh and tasty!
2. Go salad crazy! That is, dig up a variety of interesting new salads and dressings in my many cookbooks and go for it! I was just telling some friends about one of my favorite cooking classes -- the salad class -- and how it was such a great day for me. Why not have that kind of excitement in my own kitchen? Plus it's Spring, eating a plethora of veggies just sounds refreshing right now. So, look for some salad posts shortly. My recent newsletter from Rancho Gordo has added to my motivation with their inspirational summer salad recipes.


Also- just got back from a fabulous trip to Chicago. I will have photos and restaurant reports to post later in the week. PS - the Chicago trip is another motivator in wanting to eat more veggies right now. I mean, if I lived there, I'd be big as a house! Chicago dogs, deep dish, Rick Bayless restaurants, cheeseborgers, no coke, pepsi.....

Springtime

Organ cactus flower from my yard
This cactus only blooms once a year. Good thing we chopped down
some plants in front of it to reveal this gorgeous creature

Spring has sprung! Last weekend, we cleaned up all the winter weeds and grasses in the yard, trimmed back some aloes and agaves, cleared off the patio, made it ready for our first impromptu BBQ of the year! It was a glorious weekend, weather-wise, and getting outside in the sunlight did wonders for my mood and too-low vitamin D level.


AND we found a kitten!! It sounded like a bird chirping at 3 second intervals, so we followed the sound, and found the little guy between our yard and the neighbor's, tucked in between some plywood. Poor little guy. Only one eye open, fuzzy, grey and small. My husband was the brave one that poked around and found him. I contributed by having the bright idea of just walking down the street until we found his mama. And, strangely, that plan worked. I had already started thinking of names for him, completely ignoring the fact that I'm allergic to cats, and shouldn't even think about naming him. her? who knows with cats.


Also- I made a couple new and super easy dishes to go with grilled hamburgers that night: roasted lemony rosemary potatoes and steakhouse wedge salad. Flying by the seat of my pants on both dishes, they turned out really well. Hooray for somewhat effortless, successful pursuits!

Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Brazil Nut Pesto

from (my new favorite cookbook) Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking

and Roasted Beet Salad

Lagger

I lag. I have had and made some good food in the last 3.5 weeks, but gotten too busy to report on it. I bought a car in that time, camped with 100 or so friends, been ridiculously busy at work, and started another dog training class. So, I guess I'm no slacker. Anyway- here are some fun things I've made.....

Soufflé all on my own at home, and even threw in some pancetta to see how it would turn out. It was delicious. Also, corn chowder, borani dip, heirloom tomato salad with olive tapenade and goat cheese toasts (pictured) and fake Joe Jost Specials.

The last cooking class was Part 1 of vegetables and fruits, and for dinner that night I ate 11 salads!! It was like a dream come true. Seriously. I could eat like that every day. We had last week off due to the 4th of July Holiday, so I'm really looking forward to tonight's class: Part 2.

Next up in my culinary adventure: Mozza for upcoming birthday dinner, and I would really like to hunt down the ice cream sandwich truck painted silver and pink, with architect's pictures on the side (not sure the correlation, but why not). Is there anything better than an ice cream sandwich? I think not. Also, I support the AbdiKraut Experiment, and will try my first one this weekend, Juniper Kraut.