Birthday Dinner

Yesterday for my birthday, I spent the afternoon and evening with my favorite person, my mom. We had a lovely and delicious dinner at Olio Pizzeria in Santa Barbara and went to see the new Sofia Coppola film, Somewhere. If you ever get the chance to eat at Olio Pizzeria do it! It's the most authentic Italian food I've ever had. Here is what we dined on.

cavolfiore frilte with lemon aioli

(fried cauliflower)

favorite chopped salad 

romaine hearts, julienne salame, mozzarella, garbanzo beans, red onion, red wine vinegar

 crostini ai fegatine e guanciale

(crostini with tuscan-style chicken liver and a type of prosciutto made from pig cheeks)

margherita pizza d.o.c.

budino di zucchero di carina

(butterscotch pudding)

A Simple Devotion

 Hey Everyone. Just wanted to share the link to my Etsy shop. For Christmas I had the idea to make prayer flags for my friends and family. I loved making them so much I decided to venture out into the world of Etsy. 

http://www.etsy.com/people/SimpleDevotion

Happy Birthday to Me!

Ever since I tried a cookie sandwich from Babycakes in LA over the summer I have been craving them. For my birthday, my boss Amber made me chocolate chunk cookie sandwiches. They are gluten-free too! The bottom two are filled with espresso frosting and the top sandwich is filled with a chocolate oreo frosting we used this week for one of our cupcake flavors. She was a bit worried how they would turn out since she doesn't do much gluten-free baking but they are amazing! The best part is that you can't even tell they are gluten-free. These may not be the healthiest but they make me so happy! Thank you Amber for making my birthday extra special.

http://enjoycupcakes.com

Daily Dose of Dulse

Dulse is a red seaweed for those who are not familiar with it. It's dried at a low temperature to preserve its nutrients.  It is a rich source of B vitamins, iodine, potassium, and iron.  I've had it a couple times when eating out, but never incorporated it into anything I prepared at home until yesterday when I added some to my miso soup.  Today for lunch I steamed a carrot, some yellow onion, and baby bok choy. I ate it over brown rice couscous and topped it with shredded dulse and sesame seeds and drizzled tamari and sesame oil on top.

 On Tuesday while I was in Santa Barbara visiting a friend, we walked around the farmers market downtown.  I told him we had to stop at the ginger ladies stand. She is this sweet little old Asian lady with missing teeth who sells the best ginger!  I have been making a cup of fresh ginger tea daily.  After picking my ginger I admired all of her other Asian veggies and grabbed some baby bok choy. I have been enjoying it steamed with a little tamari or adding to miso soup.

Healthy Burger, No Fries

My mind has been a bit fuzzy lately, so I knew I needed to add some more protein into my diet.  I do love a good steak (hormone and antibiotic free, of course) but  I'm terrible at preparing them at home.  Burgers are easier.  I seasoned ground beef with a little salt, pepper, and cayenne.  I cooked it on my mini George Foreman grill.  It's great to use for grilling vegetables, which is what I did with the bell pepper on my salad.  For the burger "bun" I used Julian Bakery dinner bread.  Its wheat-free and delicious.  They add rosemary, which gives it a really yummy flavor.  I always love this bread toasted.  On one slice I spread horseradish and Dijon mustard.  I just discovered this mustard from True Natural Taste the other day at the the health food store. It's wheat and gluten free, organic, and made with cider vinegar.  On the other toasted slice of bread I spread some hummus.  I've been on a hummus kick lately so I'm eating it with everything. The salad consists of arugula, grilled red bell pepper, feta cheese, ground flax seeds and a dressing of olive oil, flax oil, and lemon juice. This is a healthy alternative to a burger and fries.

No Peanut Pad Thai

For anyone who has peanut allergies and loves Pad Thai this recipe is for you. Even though it doesn't contain all the authentic Pad Thai ingredients, the sauce reminds me so much of it. Every time I make this, which is frequently, I always change it up a bit. I'll use different veggies depending on what I find at the farmers market. I'll make vegetarian versions and some non-vegetarian. Sometimes I'll even omit the rice noodles and use spinach or kale instead. For today's batch I started out by cooking my brown rice pad thai noodles according to the box directions. In a separate pan I sautéed a clove of garlic, (minced) and 1/4 of a yellow onion, (chopped). I threw in some sliced zucchini and broccoli and cooked them until tender. I love my food spicy so I added red chili flakes. I also added some leftover cooked chicken. Now it's time for the sauce. I'm not the type to use exact measurements so my advice would be to play around with the next three ingredients to get the consistency you like. For the sauce you will need creamy almond butter, a little water, and gochujang sauce. I use the Annie Chun's brand. It's a Korean sweet and spicy sauce that you can use on pretty much anything. It's delicious. I put a few squirts of the gochujang sauce in the pan followed by a spoonful of almond butter. I'll add a few splashes of water to get a creamy consistency. I let that cook for a few minutes and then add my brown rice noodles. Mix everything together and topped with sesame seeds.

Breakfast Sweet Potatoes Part Deux

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a lovely evening last night. I am so ready for the new year, it's going to be amazing. I created a list of 12 resolutions I hope I can stick with. 

Yesterday I made breakfast for lunch. I wanted to try another version of my breakfast sweet potatoes. This variation was tastier than the first. Not having any sweet potatoes, I used a yam instead. I steamed the diced yams till semi-tender and then saut éed them in a pan with onions, grated zucchini, and red chili flakes. The flavors went well with a poached egg and steamed chard.