Seven Salads

One - Quinoa Fennel 

Key ingredients are quinoa and thinly sliced fennel bulb. Incorporating a grain into your salad can be an easy yet amazing transformation for a salad. I use warm grains, on fresh salads to lightly steam and soften the fresh veggies or chilled grains to add additional crunch, especially during the warmer months. I highly recommend adding fennel bulb into your salad regiment, it also can be grilled or sauteed in olive oil for a warm salad topping, a refreshing substitute to onions! Other ingredients featured are avocado, thinly sliced baby red cabbage, red bell pepper, butter head lettuce, Bragg's Liquid Aminos, olive oil, lemon.

 Two - Yellow Beet Parmesan 

Key ingredient is the grated beet, the sweet beet juices are combined with a balsamic vinegar and Parmesan cheese. Several types of greens were mixed for the base of this salad including fennel leaves, arugula, mustard greens, butter head lettuce, chopped leeks, lemon, and olive oil. 

Three - Pea Shoot with Mustard & Dandelion Green

Key ingredient is the sauteed mustard greens and Dandelion greens which add bitterness and spice combined with the sweet sauteed pea shoots. Lightly sauteed in olive oil and garlic and arranged upon a bed of fresh mixed greens (baby lettuce, fennel, arugula) and blossoms. Dressed with Meyer Lemon and coarse sea salt.

 Four - Rainbow Chard-Sunflower Sprout-Tahini 

Key ingredients are steamed rainbow chard chopped and cooled. Fresh sunflower sprouts, avocado, steamed and cooled sweet potato, red cabbage, parsley, cilantro, mint, fennel. Dressed in a homemade Tahini dressing-sesame butter, olive oil, garlic, lemon, salt, turmeric, cumin, black pepper blended until smooth and creamy. 

Five - 100% Backyard Gardener

Key ingredients are steamed rainbow chard chopped and cooled. Fresh sunflower sprouts, avocado, steamed and cooled sweet potato, red cabbage, parsley, cilantro, mint, fennel. Dressed in a homemade Tahini dressing-sesame butter, olive oil, garlic, lemon, salt, turmeric, cumin, black pepper blended until smooth and creamy. 

Six - Carrot Avocado

 Key ingredients are fresh baby carrots, roasted in olive oil and plenty of garlic and topped with salt and pepper. Let roasted carrots cool and mix in with fresh cut avocado, dress with additional lemon if desired. This is such a simple but delicious salad.

 Seven - Rosemary Garlic Potato 

Key ingredient is the rosemary garlic olive oil roasted potatoes. I found a large selection of miniature potatoes at the local market this past weekend. Roasting them was amazing because they we so small and tender and only took 25 minutes to roast at 400 degrees! The warm potatoes steamed my fresh greens. I used the left over garlic rosemary olive oil from roasting to dress my salad. Other ingredients in this salad include, arugula, parsley, cilantro, sliced white, orange and purple carrots, grated beet. 

Kitchy Boards

This is a teaser for what is to come. Introducing Kitchy Boards, handmade with love my two fine young urban farmers and woodworkers in Santa Cruz, California. It all started when I began to brainstorm Do It Yourself  wedding gifts. Then came the Pinterest post of a beautiful cutting board. It clicked as I had flashbacks to woodworking classes in 7th grade, where we had made cutting boards as one of the assigned projects. Not long after these thoughts all messed together, I found myself sander in hand creating, cutting, sanding, and oiling a few of the most beautiful cutting boards I had personally ever seen.

We used Brazilian Cherry, the darker boards, because it is a very hard wood, resistant to cut marks and potential for contamination and mold growth. They sanded so smoothly a reflection could nearly me made out when looking in them. The lighter board is made of Maple, which is a wood naturally antimicrobial due to a compound found in the sap of the wood. Although the lighter look is nice and I was able to find a cool knot, it did not sand as smoothly nor will it hold up to knife marks like the harder woods will. The recycled leather strap was definitely key, maybe the addition of glass beads to personalize and spice them up?

We were able to personalize the boards using a dremmel to etch initials, and shapes. I did a simple heart on the handle of the Maple Board. The recycled leather strap was definitely key, maybe the addition of glass beads to personalize and spice them up? Stay tuned because we have plans to increase production of Kitchy Boards. I may venture out to see what Etsy has to offer, but at the very least these bad boards will be out for sale soon!

Rainbow Chard Wraps in the Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen

For my birthday I was given my first Ayurvedic Cookbook, which actually was the first Vegan and Ayruvedic Cookbook published. I was able to go and see the author Talya Lutzker speek about her book at the Capitola Book Cafe. It was very inspiring to hear her testimony and sample a few of the recipes featured in her book.

The first recipe I decided to try from the book, titled as Green Collard Wraps quickly turned into Rainbow Chard Wraps when I brought home Rainbow Chard my mistake. These nutrient packed wraps turned out delicious, featuring sweet potatoes and spicy homegrown mustard greens and several spices. I made a Tahini dressing, also featured in the book, to dip the wraps in. A few weeks later I made then again, except this time using Collard green, which do wrap up much nicer due to their thicker leaves and rounder and larger shape. 

Light Wheat Bread & A Garden

I found an amazing and EASY Light Wheat Bread recipe on Smitten Kitchen-(http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/01/light-wheat-bread/), my favorite online source for recipes and cooking inspiration. This bread used a combination of white bread flour and of whole wheat flour. With the addition of a little honey it had a wholesome and sweet flavor and didn't last long. I love homemade bread, typically I enjoy it with an egg on top or toasted and dipped in my coffee! 

 First Garden Salad of the season featured argula blossoms, mustard greens, fennel and sunflower sprouts. I decided to keep it simple and let the spicy greens dominate the salad, dressed in lemon, pepper, salt with thinly sliced fennel bulb and argula blossoms lightly sauteed in olive oil. Delicious!

 My hop plant has sprouted and is nearly an inch tall. I burried the rhizome about a month ago and with persistsent watering and patience it has finially broke the surface!

Snap peas are hand down my favorite plant to grow in my garden. This is the first year I have ventured to grow nearly everything (minus the tomatoes  which i kindly was given from a friend with connections to Love Apple Farms heirloom tomato starts). These little guys are getting me pretty excited and are measuring in at about 2 inches!

Butternut Squash Vegan Lasagna vs. Mushroom Spinach Vegetarian Lasagna

 A delicious meal I created for family and friends featuring two very different lasagnas. In the name of meatless mondays. Butternut Squash Lasagna was seasoned with fresh sage and roasted turnips. A more traditional mushroom spinach cheese lasagna with flavored with basil.

Of course we needed two very different salads to go with the meal. A sprout salad with grated beets, sesame seeds and bell pepper. A herb salad with fresh fennel root, grated golden beet, dandelion leaves and homegrown arugula. Both salads were simply dressed with fresh pressed olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Feeling very blessed and thankful to enjoy such fresh, delicious, wholesome foods during the Winter months!

Yosemite Falls Dinner

 This past week I went snow camping in Yosemite. It was my first time camping at this time of year and it was awesome. The above picture is Half Dome and was taken about half way up the Upper Yosemite Falls hiking trail.

At the campsite we had limited resources for cooking but we were still able to make a couple delicious meals. The above picture is a Mexican inspired stir fry which was delicious and super easy !

Ingredients:
Bell peppers
Jalapenos
Ginger
Red and white onions
potatoes
sweet potatoes
tomatoes
eggs

Guacamole- mash up 2 avocados, slice one white onion and add. Add lemon, pepper or a little salsa to taste and enjoy with chips, on top of stir frys  or on a slice of bread !

Chop all vegetables and mince ginger. Cook onions, ginger and potatoes first and add in the rest of the vegetables as the potatoes cook. When all vegetables are cooked stir in 2-4 eggs, depending on how many you are serving. The eggs cook very quickly so do this right before you are ready to serve. Serve in bowls or on corn tortillas with guacamole and salsa !

The above picture is me at the top of Upper Yosemite Falls after a 3.7 mile climb to the top. The first half of the hike was rock stairs and the second half was in the snow ! The views along the way were spectacular!

Polenta & Mushrooms, Gorgonzola Salad, Chocolate Cake with Raspberries

For Valentine's Day Dinner I was in Eugene, Oregon visiting my sister. We decided to cook dinner and wanted something relatively easy and quick. The main course was polenta and mushrooms with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.  The salad was a standard gorgonzola salad to compliment the savory flavors of the main mushroom based dish.

For dessert we bought a chocolate cake and icing mix from Trader Joe's (we decided a cake from scratch was to complicated at the time) and added fresh raspberries for decoration and to compliment the dark, rich chocolate.

Polenta & mushrooms
Ingredients:
1 cup button mushrooms thinly sliced
1 cup shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic minced
2 cups polenta
parmesan cheese for toppings

Simmer mushrooms and garlic until cooked. Cook polenta until it is the consistence of oatmeal. Serve in bowl with mushrooms over polenta.

Gorgonzola Salad
Ingredients:
2 cups mixed greens
1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup gorgonzola cheese
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup cucumbers
olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dressing, to taste

Combine in a bowl and mix. Adjust quantities of ingredients to taste! Serve on separate plate or bowl.


Arrange your entire meal on the dining table and note how beautiful and delicious everything looks, enjoy !