Category: Recipes

Asparagus, Tomato, and Egg Breakfast Sandwich

This is a quick post for today. I'm currently working on building out more of my own recipes to share, and I am working on getting more recipes posted more frequently. As far as my pregnancy cravings are concerned, I have basically reverted back to eating like I did when I was a kid. That being said, I've started making a lot of breakfast sandwiches, and this recipe is one of my favorites. I used to make it in the mornings before school or work. It travels well, so I would end up eating it in the car on the way wherever I was going. I'd all but forgotten about it until I made too much roasted asparagus one night recently and had a lot of leftovers. My husband isn't crazy about asparagus in the mornings, but I love it. Einstein Bagels used to sell something very similar to this, so I am fairly certain that there are more "asparagus in the morning" people out there. Let me know if you are one!

Hearty Vegetable-Bean Soup

I have always loved vegetables. My very favorite after-school snack was cut cucumber, tomatoes, and carrots with a little bit of ranch dressing. While my friends would hide their broccoli under piles of cheese, I went back for second helpings of Brussels sprouts and asparagus. The same does not apply to my husband! Since we've been on a vegetarian diet, I've been making a lot of vegetable soup. This particular recipe is really easy, and it turns out well no matter how many times I've thought I messed it up. As long as you get all the ingredients in the pot and simmer long enough for everything to cook through, you're going to have a pretty good soup. This recipe tends to pop up on our home menu at least every other week, and it makes a great lunch for the week! It keeps us full because of the extra protein in the beans and lentils, but is still really healthy and gets all those veggies in. I actually like to put a little bit of apple cider vinegar in my soup before I eat it, to make it more like a borstch. (My family did this all the time when I was growing up, and now I can't eat vegetable soup without it!) Let me know what modifications you made that worked best for you and your family!

Fe*Brew*ary – A Comprehensive Overview of Cold Brew Coffee

For a long time, I sat on the sidelines just outside of "coffee drinker" territory. I watched, both amazed and horrified, as my friends poured cup after cup of the acidic, bitter liquid. To me, they looked a bit crazed when they talked about the stuff, and I just didn't "get it." That is, until cold brew came into my life, bringing me one step closer to coffee-enlightenment. I like to think of cold brew as "beginner's coffee," and the gateway to coffee addiction. One of the first few things that drew me to cold brew coffee was the lack of acidity. (Yes, coffee aficionados, the lack of acidity! One of the great wonders of a perfectly balanced cup of coffee, I know. Bear with me!) If you are like me, you may have experienced the joyous wonder that is post-coffee stomach pain. Cold brew finally allowed me to enjoy a full cup of coffee without immediately reaching for the Nexium. These days, coffee and I get on great. I don't go anywhere without first having a cup of the good stuff, sometimes even two or three if I'm feeling particularly crazy (read: exhausted, crazed). Cold brew steeps in cold water for anywhere from 12-24 hrs (depending on a few factors, which we'll get to in a second.) This process limits the acidity that normally comes from the hot brewing method.  This is one of the biggest differences between regular iced coffee and cold brew - iced coffee is just that regular cup of coffee poured over ice, cold brew is actually steeped in the cold water for a longer period of time. If you are the kind of person (like me) who enjoys their coffee particularly sweet and creamy, cold brew gets you there with a fraction of the sugar…

Internal Balance – Starting at the Dinner Table

In my last post, I wrote about my word of the year - balance - and why creating balance has become an important part of my life. In this post, I'd like to talk a little bit about my food philosophy, and how that has changed and evolved somewhat recently. Speaking honestly, I have been a little reluctant to post this. I don't feel like I'm an authority figure on any kind of diet plan, and I didn't want to be the girl singing praises for the new thing she only just started yesterday... So here I am, several months in, writing this post to remind myself why this is important to me on days when it might be hard. Through self-examination and a lot of long conversations with friends and family, I transitioned to a vegetarian diet during the fall, and am now in the first stages of transitioning to a vegan/plant-based lifestyle. For years, I've struggled with finding a diet that works well for me. I'm from a meat-and-potatoes kind of family, but I've always had a lot of moral quandaries when it comes to eating animals. For one, I consider myself an animal advocate in all aspects in my life. I have two dogs and two cats that we've gotten through rescue groups in our area, (Did I mention that we added two kittens to our family in December?) and animal welfare is something that has always been important to me. At an old corporate job, I was notorious for running late in the mornings because I was always picking up stray dogs or helping turtles cross the road. Additionally, I can't claim ignorance when it comes to the ways that food is produced. Sure, there are a lot of local farmers doing a great job of…

Easy Weeknight Lettuce Wraps

A few months ago, I was trying to use up all of the vegetables in our refrigerator before we went on vacation, and threw together some quick lettuce wraps. These have since become a staple meal for my husband and I, and seem to make an appearance at our dinner table every week. The filling cooks up pretty quickly and leaves us both feeling satisfied, even in one of those "hungry for nothing in particular" moods. The best part? It is really simple to make, and tastes like you put in a lot more effort than it actually takes to prepare these! Another bonus - it is easy to modify this recipe to fit into different diets and taste preferences. In my family, there are people on many different diets - Whole30, vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free, etc. You name it, and at any given moment, there's someone at the table who is on that diet. It's nearly impossible to plan a fun, easy meal that can cater to every single diet for every single person, but this recipe makes it easy to modify the meal for those diets. Not eating meat? No problem! Chop up some additional mushrooms and use that instead of the turkey meat. Hate onions? Don't use them! (Disclaimer - I would say that if you dislike vegetables in general, this is probably not the recipe for you!) I've made a few different versions of these, substituting different ingredients or adding different things in, but it always tastes great. The version that I'm posting is my favorite version, so if you change things up, let me know what worked and what didn't work for you! The coconut aminos give the entire recipe a sweet, yet savory flavor. It's typically marketed as a great substitute for soy sauce, but…