Pumpkin & Pomegranate

I get a CSA box, and I also find myself wandering aimlessly through the farmers markets pretty frequently. Rarely do I have a recipe when I go, and I don’t ever know what my CSA box will have it it until the day it arrives. So usually I just pull random things out of the fridge at night and see what I can come up with. I like recipes, I do, but I don’t like feeling tied to them and can be a fairly intuitive cook.

Last week I had some golden beets, carrots, onion, and zucchini from my CSA box, and I bought a bunch of kohlrabi from the farmers market and came up with these. There really isn’t a recipe per se. I just cut them up, toss them with some olive oil and then roast on 425° F until “done”. Now that could mean anything to anyone, but I like my beets a little caramelized. Oh and I also added some heavenly Ellie Bluebell rosemary sea salt to the Kohlrabi-onion pan….delicious!

Roasted beets & carrots

Roasted Kohlrabo and onion slices

The zucchini was similar, but I also sprinkled the slices with some shawarma seasoning.

Trifecta

Last night I put the rest of my CSA box goodies to good use (1 baby bok choy, 1 onion, some green beans) and then added 4 blueberry peppers, 2 cloves sliced garlic, and some squash blossoms I got at the farmers market. I had never had squash blossoms before, and I think that people are missing out when they stuff them! They are so delicate and have this lovely mild-asparagus like flavor. I highly recommend that you just sautée them in a little oil, garlic, and onions next time. Just so you can really taste them. I often like simplicity so that I can really taste each ingredient. I did top this dish off with vegan Parmesan, and it was wonderful.

Hello all! I apologize profusely for not posting something in the past 2 months (or around that, for shame!). I have had a lot going on in my life. Some good, some bad, and I am not sure that I will be wanting to share most of it with the internets.  I will be posting intermittently, but the blog will continue! And now for some muffins.

Oh and I seem to have accidentally deleted the photo of these…and I just polished off the last one for breakfast. Crap! Oh well, they were GORGEOUS I promise you.

As always, I made the fig preserves by just cooking down some fresh figs in a pot until they are the consistency of jam. Sometimes I just quarter them and leave the skin on so they are really chunky, and this still works well!

Cherry-Fig Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C. Quinoa Flour
• 1/2 C. Almond Flour
• 1/2 C. Garbanzo bean Flour
• 2 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1 C. Fig preserves
• 1 C. Olive Oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 Pastured or Backyard Eggs
• 1 1/2 C. Halved Cherries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Sift or whisk together the dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the fig preserves, olive oil, vanilla, and eggs. Whisk together to combine.
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry and fully incorporate.
5. Fold in the cherry halves.
6. Spoon into greased muffin pan (not jumbo sized).*
7. Bake for 30 minutes or until a sharp knife inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean.
8. Let cool on a wire rack.

*I use a silicone muffin pan which makes the process a lot cleaner!

Since I haven’t been writing posts I thought I would at least show you some things I have been consuming. Many of these things I have eaten a few times in the past month. I go through food phases and right now I am in a wrap phase. I am completely addicted to these bad boys!

That would be raw collard greens, refritos, avocado, and my favorite hot sauce. I have had it almost every day for the past 3 weeks. It is my burrito option and I LOVE it! Sometimes I add tomato or peppers to the mix too.

I made veggie filled Buckwheat Galettes about 3 weeks ago. I will have the galette recipe for you soon!

This salad was made with butter lettuce from my CSA box, strawberries from my CSA box, sprouted and dehydrated almonds, and vinegrette made with real balsamic vinegar and some extra virgin olive oil. Seriously delicious. The best strawberries I have ever tasted too!

Another salad, this one made with butter lettuce, persimmons, cashews, and a dressing made with some blood orange balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, a little Dijon mustard, and some black pepper.

Chocolate hazelnut cookies that are sweetened just with figs

Creamed buckwheat with granny smith apples and almond butter….and coffee with MimicCreme of course ;-)

Grilled Garlic tops…absolutely delicious. Like a combo of asparagus and garlic.

Vegan soft serve from Healeo that they made with coconut milk! And some fresh organic strawberries. Sometimes I indulge in something with sugar in it, but it isn’t often. Totally worth it on a really hot day in Seattle though.

My own “Ice cream” which I topped with my friend Alison’s new vegan and gluten free cookies! Skydottir Epic Cookies to the rescue! Hopefully in the future she will eventually be able to sell them online, but right now they are available in a few Seattle shops. Sweetened with coconut sugar and maple syrup! They are pure heaven.

And a juice made from kale, cucumber, apple, celery, and some E3Live just for kicks! At the fabulous Healeo of course.

I hope you are all doing very well. I hope to be writing posts more frequently, but for right now you will just have to be patient with me! Hope you are having a fabulous Summer!

<3

Marissa

I know it has been forever and a day since I have blogged, for that I apologize! I know some of you are having withdrawals. I am sorry! I have been very busy lately, and while I have had the time to do some cooking, i haven’t had the time to write blogs about said cooking. I do have about 7 recipes in the works, and some exciting news about a new exercise thing i have been doing. Hopefully I can catch you all up soon! Again, very very sorry! There will be something fun in the next few days though! Promise!

XOXOXOXO

Marissa

I have been mulling over pizza crust ideas for some time now. I love pizza. I love it for dinner, but I think I might like even more for breakfast. I have tried various other pizza crusts and none of them really hit the spot. I did the almond flour crust, which was good but a bit on the soggy side…likewise with the coconut flour crust. Recently I have been going to Flying Apron and having my rareish grain exception meal, and their pizzas are usually part of my order. They are gorgeous and very good. I wanted to make a similar pizza at home, but without the rice flour. This idea has been sitting in my brain for a bit and yesterday Farty Girl reminded me about my pizza craving with her post on Socca. Happy Birthday to you FG! From another woman who is full of too much information!

So, around dinner time my mind went to work. I mixed up ingredients and prayed it would taste good. I even Facebooked about how the pizza was in the oven, and how I hoped it would work. It smelled so good while it was baking that I would have been severely disappointed if it tasted like mulch after all of that. Luckily for me it was heaven. My mother even proclaimed it to be the best recipe yet. Then again she loves everything I make, even if she does feel the need to sprinkle stevia on most of my baked goods after they are done baking.

Here it is pre-bake:

I topped the crust with some “pesto” which was really just a puree of fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. I made that “pesto” last summer when I had an abundance of fresh basil. I then froze it in an ice cube tray and made little green pesto cubes. Last night I defrosted a few and spread them on the dough. Then I added chopped beet greens (which are delicious), chopped, seeded Roma tomatoes, sliced baby onions, red pepper slices and a sprinkling of sea salt. I then topped the baked pizza with some vegan Parmesan. You could put anything you want on this crust. I did pesto because I had it and I didn’t have enough tomatoes to make sauce. It really hit the spot though, and the fresh veggies were delicious! Here it is after coming out of the oven:

Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

• 1.5 C. Quinoa Flour
• 3/4 C. Garbanzo bean Flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking Soda
• 3/4 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1/2 C. Pine Nuts, finely chopped in food processor
• 1.5 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 2 T. Chopped Sun Dried Tomatoes
• 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 C. Water
• 3 T. olive Oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, and sea salt.
3. Stir in the pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, and minced garlic.
4. Add the water and the olive oil, mixing until completely combined. It should be a slightly sticky dough. If it isn’t thick enough, add more quinoa flour until you reach a consistence that you can easily form into a ball.
5. Lightly grease a cookie sheer or use a silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet (you might want to sprinkle some quinoa flour down on it as well).
6. Place the ball of cough into the center of the cookie sheet and press out until it is roughly 1/4 inch thick. You might need to add more quinoa flour on top to do this, or get your hands a little damp with some water first.
7. Cover your pizza with toppings and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the outer edges begin to brown.
8. Top with Vegan Parmesan and serve!

By the way, the pizza from Flying Apron looks like this:

I think mine is just as pretty, and I like it even more because it has a little less crust! You could add more flour to the recipe and create little crusts like this as well, but I personally don’t need a deep dish.

Ok, admission time. I made these berry biscuits a few days ago, but have yet to post the recipe for a couple of reasons:

1. They are good, but are not something I would necessarily feed to others. Ok, I’d feed them to most of you, but that is because I know you all appreciate my healthy food and don’t expect it to taste like the stuff that isn’t good for you. I appreciate that, because really…if the REALLY healthy stuff tasted JUST as good as the other stuff, then we would just eat the healthy stuff right? We don’t generally just go around pouring toxic crud into our bellies for the sheer joy of it, so usually it is because we like how it tastes. Ok, so these are called “biscuits” because the ONLY sweetness is the berries. I like them with my coffee in the morning, and they remind me of a moist scone.

2. The photo I took is an utter monstrosity. Here, let me explain myself.

I tried to fix it…maybe Lomo?

Um…Night Vision?

Ok so my set up at home is less than stellar. I have a decent point and shoot camera. Better than decent since it was my father’s camera before it was mine. He is an “amateur” photographer who has been doing photography as a “hobby” for longer than I have been breathing, and has built not 1 but 2 darkrooms, owns one of those GIANT photo printers, and is FABULOUS at taking photos. Has he taught me anything? Yes, however I like CLOSE UPS, and this camera (as he has told me over and over again) does NOT do extreme close ups. I keep trying though, hoping that maybe there will be some shift in reality and the lighting will hit the food just right, and my photo will be this incredibly masterpiece. Not so. Especially when I am TOO CLOSE and have CRAPPY lighting. Total food photo fail.

That is my sad photo. It is blurry. I had to use the flash because I don’t have a good lighting set up, and I do most of my cooking at night. My cookie sheet was 20 kinds of gross (and still is), I was not Martha Stewart anal retentive when I spooned in the batter, so it got smeared all over the nifty silicone pan. So this is why I have been so quiet the past few days. You really want the recipe now don’t you? Yeah…well I’ll give it to you anyway, because even if these don’t look too appetizing they are really pretty good if you want a non-sweet breakfast bread. Plus, they are seriously loaded with protein.

Who wants to try one? Bueller?

Berry Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 C. Blanched Almond Flour
• 1 C. Quinoa Flour
• 2 tsp. Baking Soda
• 3/4 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1.5 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1 tsp. Ground Ginger
• 4 Large Pastured Eggs (Or Backyard Eggs)
• 1 T. Vanilla
• 1/4 C. Virgin Coconut Oil, melted and then let cool slightly
• 1 C. Frozen or Fresh Blueberries
• 1 C. Chopped Strawberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the Almond and Quinos flours.
3. Sift in the baking soda, salt, and spices, and whisk together all the dry ingredients.
4. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs and vanilla.
5. Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
6. Slowly add the melted coconut oil to the mixture being very careful not to cook the eggs in the batter.
7. Once fully combined, gently fold in the berries.
8. Use an oiled muffin tin, or a silicone mold and full the cups to the top.
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a sharp knife entered into the center comes out clean.

Makes about 8-10 Muffins

I just found out that Hail Merry, the company that makes the yummy treat I tried in Texas over my recent visit has been nominated for the Vegetarian Times Foodie Awards 2010!!

I am really really happy for them! I started following Hail Merry on Twitter because it is such a good company. I am very impressed by the ingredients they use. Especially the decision to use maple syrup over agave even though it isn’t raw. As you all know I am not a fan of agave at all, and much prefer maple for an occasional treat. I was floored when I saw a raw product that didn’t contain agave! I suppose technically it isn’t “raw”, but honestly I have no delusions that just because some brands of agave claim to be “raw” that they are remotely healthy. I’d much prefer a little maple in my high raw treat than agave.

Here is what their take on it is. I definitely agree with them on the maple, but I do wish that they would hold firm on the maple stance rather than offering agave products. This wouldn’t stop me from purchasing their products though, I just cannot stand agave!

We prefer maple syrup for its exceptional flavor profile. It also contains more vitamins and minerals than any other sugar source available: including magnesium, zinc, and potassium. We know it’s not raw. Maple syrup may lack some living enzymes but we feel the flavor and vitamin/mineral pay-load is a great trade off. However, for those of you who are 100% raw foodist our new Blueberry Lemon Grawnola and Meyer Lemon Miracle tarts are both made with raw agave’. Look for these new agave’ sweetened items to hit the stores in mid May!

When I was in Houston my friend Erika (who I have known since elementary school) turned me on to the Hail Merry Miracle Tart in Chocolate Mint. And what do you know? That is the product that has been nominated for the award! SO GOOD. It tasted like a thin mint, but even more rich and decadent. Absolutely hit the spot for me. I only wish I could get them up here in Seattle! Hopefully someday they will be able to get them to me, but for now I guess I have to wait until I visit family.

Luckily you can order their snacks! I just perused the website and they can ship grawnola and macaroons. Personally I think I want some of those chocolate macaroons, but I love what they say about their grawnola:

Hail Merry’s gluten free Grawnola’s are nutrient dense nut blends that are very low in sugar and carbs, contains no added oils and are also suitable for diabetics! We prefer to add spices instead of sugars for added flavor.

Spices instead of sugar? They definitely know my style!

If you can, please do go cast your vote on the Vegetarian Times Foodie Awards. I definitely recommend voting for Hail Merry (because that tart truly is something to be honored), but also there are other amazing products to vote for as well. In addition, when you vote you also get entered to win one of 3 cookware prices (the lowest is valued at $140).

Voting closes on June 9th, so please vote now!

If you have tried any of the Hail Merry products I would love to hear your thoughts on them. I am also very interested in what you think about maple vs. agave…would you prefer the higher nutrition over the truly raw like me?

Doesn’t it just make your mouth water?

First off, a yoga question. Do any of you sweat like mad during your yoga sessions? I do! Mostly on my hands and feet. I wear special yoga toe socks so my feet are stable, but I am now thinking about getting some gloves as well. It is incredibly difficult to feel stable when your hands are slipping out from under you on your sticky mat. I have tried towels, but they don’t work! Any other suggestions?

Oh and this is a photo of

On to last weekend…I was supposed to go to my dear dear friend Nikki’s birthday party on Friday night, but unfortunately I didn’t get enough sleep the night before. I took a new fusion class at my yoga studio that didn’t agree with me, and I ended up feeling really shaky and not so pleasant right after. I grabbed some curried quinoa from Flying Apron, and got home and into a hot bath. So I had to make it up to Nikki. I went to Pike Place Market on Saturday to pick up spices for a couple love lovely ladies, and then I took a stroll through the market itself and decided that I deserved some fresh flowers.

Little personal tidbit. Matt and I have broken up. It happened a couple of weeks ago, and I am definitely having trouble. He is my best friend in all the world and it is just rough. Break up always are I guess, but when it is your best friend and you still want to see them all the time it is even more so. He is still my best friend, and we are still hanging out. But for right now a romantic relationship isn’t what is working for the both of us. So, yes, trouble sleeping and feeling like I need to pamper myself a bit. So I wanted flowers, and flowers I bought!

Gorgeous Black Irises & Pink Peonies, in my Dad's handmade vase

They are stunning, and the photos do not do them justice but I still want to share!

They are definitely helping to lift my spirits :-) As did my amazing find on Sunday! I went to deliver a bouquet of the very same Peonies to Nikki, along with a batch of Chocolate Almond cookies (made without ANY fruit or sugar as Nikki follows a strict no-sugar diet to combat candida). We met up at the Fremont Sunday Market and I spotted a table FILLED with Pyrex cookware and dishes.

I <3 Pyrex! I have been looking for a mini-loaf pan that is either glass, stoneware, or cast iron and lo and behold there it was!

I also was in need of mixing bowls, and I picked up a gorgeous white one, plus the beginning of my pink gooseberry bowl set. I have wanted the whole pink gooseberry line for years, but ordering it from ebay costs an arm and a leg. I was so pleased to find one at this little booth!

I want some Pyrex refrigerator dishes and other cookware so I know I will be stopping by again. I got these 2 bowls and the mini loaf pan all for $20! Whoopie!

On Memorial Day Matt and I took a trip to West Seattle. I just love West Seattle, it is like a little bit of California. Here is the view of Downtown Seattle from the East side of West Seattle:

The day turned out to be gorgeous and we spent a lot of time searching out creatures under rocks, like this darling hermit crab!

I was also amazed by the beauty of the jelly fish. i think I could relax just by watching them.

Reminds me a bit of a poached egg

And we found one young jelly fish on the beach. beautiful even in death.

and some pretty roe of some kind.

And there is this cool house in West Seattle that is up agains the side of a hill, with goats :-)

Can you see them?

Oh and this is SO cool. Matt found a perfectly intact crab casing. This is what is left over when a crab molts. SO COOL!!!

I hope you all had a great week. I have a very busy weekend planned. Hopefully I will have time to get some cookies baked, and perhaps another breakfast bread!

<3

I was in dire need of more breakfast breads. Well dire is a bit extreme, but yes I wanted some. I just got some strawberries from a groupon for SPUD so they seemed like the perfect thing to stick in a muffin. By the way, have I mentioned how much I love groupon? That site is GENIUS. I love a good bargain, so I really do try to only get the things I need. When I see groupons for CSA boxes, restaurants I frequently go to, fitness classes, etc. I nab them. If you are looking for other ways to save some money I also recommend Tippr and Living Social. I assume that eventually more cities will be added to all of them. I found my yoga studio and my salon through groupon.

Anyway, so I had these berries and they were not going to get any more fresh, so I decided to pop them into some little muffins. Verdict? WONDERFUL. Not as sweet as your average breakfast bread of course, but you know me already. These are little protein filled (and very filling), get your day started on the right foot kind of muffins. The kind that fuel you and don’t send you back to bed. Very easy to make, and perfect for me to pack in my bag to eat at work with my morning coffee. It almost makes me feel like I am a normal person. Almost.

Strawberry Pecan Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C. Quinoa Flour
• 1 C. Buckwheat Flour
• 2 tsp. baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1 tsp. Ground Ginger
• 3 T. Ground Flax Seed
• 9 T. Water
• 1 C. Fig Preserves
• 1/2 C. Olive Oil
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 C. Sliced Strawberries
• 1/2 C. Chopped pecans

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Sift together all of the the dry ingredients except for the flax meal into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flax meal and the water and let sit for 3 minutes.
4. Add the fig preserves, oil, and vanilla to the flax mixture and stir to combine.
5. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry mixing until the mixture is fully combined.
6. Gently stir in the chopped pecans and strawberry slices.
7. Fill silicone muffin “tins” with batter, or use greased muffin liners in a regular muffin tin.
8. Bake for 25 minutes or until a sharp knife inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
9. Set on a wire rack to cool. let cool completely before attempting to loosen from the silicone “tin”.

Happy Memorial Day! I would like to take the time to personally thank all of the women and men who have sacrificed their lives serving the USA. I know that it is something that I personally could not do, and I am grateful to those who choose to wear the uniform.

I hope that you are all enjoying the holiday and doing something to celebrate those many many lives. I am going to be spending the day cooking and also doing a little sightseeing (assuming I can get myself out of my cozy house to do it). I made these last night after pondering the recipe for a few days. They might not be sweet enough for some, but for me I find them to be incredibly satisfying. I have said it before, and I will say it again, if you start cutting the amount of sweet things you eat your taste buds will grow accustomed to it and you will crave them less.

These are so healthy I had two :-)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C. Coconut Flour
• 2 T. Cocoa Powder
• 1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp. Sea Salt
• 3 Large Pastured or Backyard Eggs
• 3/4 C. Pureed Cooked Beets
• 1/4 C. Olive Oil
• 1/4 C. Fig Preserves*
• 1 T. Vanilla

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Sift dry ingredients together and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl mix together the wet ingredients.
4. Mix together the wet and dry ingredients until fully combined. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl while mixing to make sure there are no lumps.
5. Spoon batter into muffin pan lined with cupcake liners. Fill each cup 3/4 of the way full.
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until a sharp knife inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.
7. Let cook on wire rack and then frost with Coco-late frosting.

*Fig preserves were made by peeling fresh figs and simmering them on the stove until they reach preserve consistency.

Coco-late Frosting

Ingredients

• 1.5 oz. Dark Chocolate
• 3 T. Coconut Butter

Method:

1. In a double boiler, melt together the chocolate and the coconut butter. Once fully melted let cool for about 5-10 minutes or until spreadable.
2. Gently frost the cupcakes. Let frosting set before serving.

My only wish is that they were a bit more red!