Sun Tacos

 Tuesday night, I spent the evening with one of my best friends. She lives down in Santa Barbara so we have to plan our hangout time around our work schedules. We used to be roommates and cook dinner together all the time. It was so much fun to be able to do that again. Having both worked in the deli at New Frontiers, we loved eating the Sun Tacos. I've totally been obsessed with them lately and have been making different variations. We decided to make our own version for dinner. 

 To accompany our tacos, we made a salad with red bell peppers, carrots, and sprouted pumpkin seeds.

Our version of Sun Tacos

Spread a thin layer of yellow miso on a corn tortilla... we each made two.

Top with sunflower seeds and Daiya Mozzerella Cheese. This is by far the best vegan cheese I have ever had. When melted, it actually tastes like real cheese. 

Place in the oven at 350° until cheese is melted.

Top with broccoli sprouts, avocado, onion, carrots and red bell pepper.

Breakfast the next morning after an early spin class.

Greek yogurt with sprouted pumpkin seeds and homemade granola made by Kayla's roommate. It was so yummy!

I told you I was obsessed with these tacos. For dinner last night I made them with zucchini, pumpkin seeds, sage cheddar cheese, green bell pepper, onion, and carrots.

Buckwheat Carob Pancakes

 A few weeks ago Amber told me about foodgawker. I was familiar with craftgawker, but one dedicated to food? I was in love the first time I set my eyes on this site. All the photos are so beautiful and everything looks delicious. I have the app on my phone now so before bed I find myself browsing though all the yummy goodness, getting inspired... and hungry. I've been drawn to posts from The Healthy Foodie. Black Forest pancakes and chocolate cherry buckwheat bake. I love how she likes to indulge (but in a healthy way) for breakfast. Her photos are lovely to look at as well. I really like her styling. I woke up this morning craving pancakes after reading her latest post last night. I'm always trying to create new recipes for pancakes so I tried making a blend with almond and coconut flour. It was an epic fail. After rinsing all my dishes I used the recipe I usually work with.

3 tablespoons buckwheat flour

1 tablespoon ground flax

Enough almond milk to give the batter a semi-runny consistency.

(These pancakes are not fluffy. They come out more like thick crepes.)

To make these pancakes decadent, I added 1 tablespoon carob powder and a few drops of liquid stevia to the batter.

I topped them with peanut butter and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt. For the syrup, I mixed cinnamon flax oil and agave syrup together. They were so yummy.

Sunday Fun With Amber and Opal

I must say I have the best boss in the whole wide world. Work never really feels like work. I get to make cupcakes and hang out with an amazing woman who has been a very influential part of my life for the past year and a half.  This morning we decided to take a little day trip up to San Luis Obispo. Amber could tell I was down about some things and wanted to help take my mind off it.

 We stopped for lunch at Sally Loo's. I loved the laid back atmosphere of this place and also how Brandon and Jen named their cafe after their beloved pit bull. It was nice finally getting to meet Jen in person. I follow her on Instagram and always see postings of the yummy food being served at the cafe. We did some coloring with Opal, Amber's daughter and my favorite little buddy, while waiting for our food.

 

Rosemary, bacon, egg, and cheese stuffed croissant sandwich. Knowing these sell out fast, Amber called in this morning to have them save us two... That was sweet of them to do. We had the best ginger iced tea. I later found this tea at the Secret Garden Herb Shop. It's Sally Loo's special blend.

Ever since I discovered chipotle chili powder at the Secret Garden Organic Herb Shop I have been addicted to it. I use it often in cooking homemade kale chips, salad dressings, dips, scrambled eggs, and veggies. My favorite use is for seasoning onions. In a bowl I add sliced yellow onion, a little bit of olive oil and chipotle chili powder. Mix well to distribute evenly. Lay out on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at 350° until onions are soft and tender. These are great on tacos and burgers. 

I love the selection of herbs and spices this shop carries. They have the best selection of teas.

I came home with lots of goodies and a much happier state of mind. Spending the day with Amber and Opal was so much fun. We had long talks in the car about Disneyland and Sea World and Opal came up with the most hilarious song I now have stuck in my head.

Happy Birthday to my Mama!

Happy birthday to my mom! The most amazing woman I know. She worked so hard to provide for my brother and me growing up and still always puts us before herself. She's not only my mom but my best friend. 

This is one of my favorite pictures of her. Circa 1975. She's on the right and my aunt is to the left. My friend commented and said this photo looks like my cousin and me.

 Some birthday cuppies and wine. Thanks Amber : )

 My brother and I took my mom to a lovely dinner at Olio Pizzeria. This is our favorite place to eat in Santa Barbara.

Instagram

Ever since I discovered the Instagram app for iPhone, taking pictures of my food became so much more fun. Although I don't blog about everything I eat, I am usually snapping shots before my first bite. For anyone who has an iPhone and would like to see more of the yummy foods I eat, you can follow or check me out on Instagram @ karalinaluna.

Farmers Market Find

 

I love stumbling upon new produce as I make my way through the farmers market each week. It encourages me to research or ask how such things should be prepared and also give my palate something new to experience. This past Wednesday I found myself standing over a bin full of lemon cucumbers. How is it possible I've never heard of these before? Feeling like I should know, I purchased one to try. Not knowing if it was going to be more like a lemon or cucumber on the inside, I searched for a recipe online. Have Knifes Will Cook shares a yummy lemon cucumber and tomato salad recipe. Only having one cucumber, I cut this recipe in half and used an heirloom tomato also purchased from the farmers market. The basil was some I picked up at the health food store this morning. For the dressing, I used apple cider vinegar and Udo's DHA oil blend. Udo's offers an awesome vegan sourced DHA from algae. It is this algae that fish consume to obtain their levels of omega 3's.

  

The end result... delicious.

Breakfast Bars... kind of

Another reason why I love Mondays... I have the whole morning and early afternoon free. This gives me time to play around in my kitchen and create what ideas and recipes I think up in my head. As you know, I love all things sweet. For breakfast I usually try and stick with veggies. Just ask my boss. She always makes fun of me (in a joking way of course) for bringing my steamed kale to the kitchen in the mornings. I always feel better starting out my day eating that way but sometimes I just want something sweet for breakfast. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that, as long as it's prepared using wholesome ingredients and no sugar. Thank you stevia and yacon once again for making this possible. This morning I attempted to make no bake breakfast bars I had been thinking about. 

Cinnamon Carob Almond Breakfast Bars

They didn't come out exactly how I imagined... Revisions will be made for these.  Being a bit on the crumbly side they made a great topping for my yogurt. Here is the recipe if anyone would like to try them out. Modifications or suggestions are always welcome : )

1/2 cup blanched almond flour

2 Tablespoons ground flax

1 Tablespoon chia seeds

2 Tablespoons almond butter

2 Tablespoons cinnamon flaxseed oil*

15 drops stevia

1 teaspoon yacon syrup

1/8 cup unsweetened carob chips

In a bowl combine almond flour, flax, and chia seeds. Mix in almond butter.  The mixture will start to get crumbly. Add in remaining ingredients except for carob chips. Once the mixture turns into a ball of dough you can add in carob chips. 

*I use Barleans cinnamon flax oil. This stuff is amazing in smoothies. If you just have regular flax oil, add in 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon... I think that would work just fine.

Place on cutting board and form into a rectangle "bar" shape.

I placed in the fridge to let sit. This was only for about 5 minutes because I was so hungry. This recipe does contains a lot of fat from the nut flour, butter, seeds, and flax oil so you don't need much. This recipe yields 4 servings.

Happy Monday everyone! Enjoy your week.