This is the second recipe in a series about Crowding Out Cravings with the Thrive Forward program. See the original post to read more about the Thrive Forward program from Vega, watch the corresponding video lesson about cravings and for another recipe.

This particular lesson form the program is one of my favorites, it is great tool for teaching us how we can put cravings in their place by choosing healthier alternatives.

I know you guys are aware just how much I adore cooking foods inspired by the season and what is most fresh. I don’t have to sell you on that. This salad came from a recent trip to the farmers market where I decided to grab the most delicious, in-season produce I could and just create from there. I had no clue what I was making when I bought everything, I just got it home and started brainstorming.

This salad is full of flavor, beautiful Spring colors and I love the combination of the tender baby red potatoes with the crunch for the sugar snap peas and the radishes. Plus the light dressing, is such a nice alternative to the usual creamy mayo-based dressings on most potato salads. The mint is the perfect compliment to the salad, finishing it with a bright, fresh flavor.

This salad is naturally gluten-free and vegan, so it would be perfect as a side dish at a BBQ or picnic when you have folks with restricted diets. It is sure to please all. Head over to the Free People blog BLDG 25 for the full recipe.

I am super excited to share with your a new program fueled by Vega, called Thrive Forward.

Know. Eat. Feel. BETTER.

“Developed by Brendan Brazier, Thrive Forward is a FREE, personalized online program to help transform your health and sport performance through plant-based nutrition. Starting with Clean Eating 101, Brendan guides your journey to optimal health and performance through customized topics most relevant to you—be it energy, stress, sleep, body composition, strength and endurance training, or even how to eat more sustainably. And every video lesson is enhanced with useful tools to reinforce what you’ve learned, including recipes and articles.”

Each informational video comes with supplemental reading material including reference on better food choices, pantry staples, recipes and lots more. After watching most of the videos in my personal program and reading through all of the complimentary lessons, I selected one that stood out the most to me, to share with you guys. Crowd Out Cravings.

“Cravings are a telltale sign your body lacks nutrition—not necessarily that is needs more food. Constantly being surrounded by appealing, processed foods that are high in calories but low in nutrition can be a major obstacle for people trying to manage weight. But fueling your body with nutrient dense food can help crowd out cravings.”

Thrive Forward is the most comprehensive program I have ever come across, custom designed for you, so easy to follow and it is filled with incredible useful and inspiring knowledge. Plus, it is all available at your fingertips for FREE. I really still cannot believe it. Since starting the Thrive Forward program, I have found myself more inspired than ever to eat as good as I possibly can and to learn what works for my body, what it needs for optimal performance and what I can do, make and have on hand to make this all as easy as possible. Thrive sends inspiring periodic emails with additional information and tips that pop into your inbox and give you the

Over the next two weeks I will be sharing a series of four recipes for Snack Foods for Crowding Out Cravings that go along with this video lesson. First up is a simple but delicious hummus and tahini dip served with fresh veggies.

Head on over to Thrive Forward now to start your journey, get set up for FREE and start THRIVING! I honestly cannot say enough great things about this program and I am so proud to be sharing it with all of you.

 Happy Mother’s Days to all of the moms, grandmas, yia yias, step moms, foster moms, pet moms, etc! Mothers, you guys have one of the toughest jobs on the planet that takes more strength, compassion and patience than most anything else.

Thanks to my amazing mom for all she has taught me! I am who I am because of her. I love you mom!

me and my mommy.

10 Things My Mom Taught Me

1) Be who I am. Nobody can make me who or what I am and nobody can take that away from me.

2) Be thoughtful and considerate of other people’s feelings.

3) Always trust my gut and go with my instincts. It’s usually right on.

4) Always see the good in people and celebrate their differences.

5) Be compassionate and empathetic.

6) Be honest and speak my truth.

7) Cherish family and embrace friends like family.

8) Be strong and confident and stand up for my beliefs.

9) I am beautiful.

10) Love and happiness are always worth fighting for.

What has your mom taught you?

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Friday Guys! I hope you had a fantastic week. It’s been a fun and busy one over here. We are gearing up for a big show this weekend, Unique LA, which is a huge amazing show featuring all things handmade. If you are in the LA area you have to check it out, it’s an amazing show. We are booth # 258 – Hero Design Studio. We designed a whole new booth for this show, constructed completely out of recycled wood pallets. I cannot wait to see it all constructed and completed.

On top of getting ready for the show, we are also counting down the days until my sister Vicky arrives here in California for a visit. She gets here Monday and I couldn’t be any more excited!! She is here 6 days and I cannot wait to show her around, take her to Disney and just hang out!

What do you have planned for your weekend?

Had to get a bottle of this for our Kentucky Derby party last Saturday.

Jalapeño cornbread mini muffins. I kinda made the recipe up on the fly but here are two other cornbread muffin recipes here on the blog. Cheddar and green onion cornbread and vegan cornbread muffins.

It is rare that you will spot bacon in my kitchen. It’s almost like spotting a unicorn. I bought some yummy organic applewood smoked bacon that I baked until crispy for the hot browns and it made the kitchen smell amazing.

A black-eyed pea salad inspired by this recipe, an effort to bring something healthy to the Derby menu.

Grain-free apple cobbler. I used my berry cobbler recipe and subbed out the berries for some yummy granny smith apples.

The assembly line for the Hot Brown Sandwiches. I made the sauce gluten-free, just so I could taste it to make sure it was OK, but otherwise I made these ALL for Mark.

Look at this beauty! She was sitting there when I was photographing food, posing like this.

I rolled over the other morning and woke up to this little face staring back at me from the other side of my pillow.

 Playing some arm balances in my home yoga practice the other day. This is Eka Pada Koundinyasana I. It isn’t perfect, but I am working on it.

Toast with avocado, tomato slices and sprouts. The perfect breakfast.

My cucumbers are growing like crazy. I have a huge row of them. I planted these from seeds just a week and a half before I took this photo. It’s incredible.

Since we didn’t have a CSA this week, I took the bike for it’s first trip to the farmers market. Likely the first of many.

Yesterday’s post-run smoothie. Recipe can be found on my instagram.

Hubby surprised me last night with reservations to Carthay Circle Restaurant at Disneyland. Sunday marks 10 years since our first (blind) day and 6 years since we got married.

Disney is just so darn magical. Gets me every time.

As part of my ongoing series with Free People on Restricted Diets, today I am sharing a quick how-to for both host and guest, when dealing with special dietary needs.

Even if you yourself do not have a restricted diet, chances are you probably know someone who does. Whether by choice or due to food allergies or intolerances, more and more people are becoming aware of foods that don’t serve their bodies and are consequently removing them from their diet. This awareness allows people to live a much happier and healthier life. I am living proof of that!

If you choose to host a dinner party at your home, even one as casual as a backyard BBQ, having someone on the guest list with a limited diet can definitely be daunting and intimidating. Sometimes it probably even seems easier to just scratch them off the list and not invite them at all. The simple truth of the matter is, it isn’t easy, especially if you don’t have experience with their special dietary needs or choices. If you are making the choice to host them and accommodate their needs, the best advice I can give is to always ask them any and all questions that you have, so you can be educated on their diet limitations and provide for them, as best possible.

Those of you with the restricted diets, as a guest, owe it to your host to let them know of all of your restrictions – especially if they are offering to make food you can eat. Most of all, be as gracious as possible, especially if they are cooking and trying to accommodate you and your needs.

Head over to the Free People Blog, BLDG 25, nowto see the full how-to lists for both host and guest, to hopefully help make your next dinner party or BBQ as successful and enjoyable as possible, for all. Plus, I include links to some of my favorite gluten-free and vegan dishes to share, that everyone is sure to enjoy.

(dinner party photos courtesy of Free People)

I am going to start off this post by saying that this isn’t the usual über healthy dessert that I am usually touting here on Tasty Yummies. It has a full 2 cups of maple syrup and some additional coconut sugar. So yeh. But the good news is it IS healthier than the usual pecan pie. No butter, no corn syrup, no refined sugar, etc. Could I have made this healthier? Probably, but this was the compromise I came up with since I promised hubby I wouldn’t mess with this classics too much. I actually hadn’t even planned on sharing this recipe, but after I posted a photo on Instagram, people were begging for the recipe.

I made this for the Kentucky Derby party that we hosted here at our house on Saturday. I promised Mark an afternoon of all of his favorite Southern foods that remind him of Louisville. I promised not to “healthy-up” the recipes. I made mini hot browns (the sandwich made famous at the Brown Hotel in Louisville), pimento cheese dip, southern style deviled eggs, jalapeño cornbread mini muffins, a blackeyed pea salad, apple cobbler (I made this recipe with apples instead of the berries), mint-infused raw sugar simple syrup for Mint Juleps and this Maple Bourbon Pecan Tart. The menu was ALL about Mark and though I couldn’t eat a lot of it, I wanted it to be all yummy and I wanted to bring as much of Mark’s home to him on a day he is super homesick

When I promised to make pecan pie, I did specify that I had to make it gluten-free and dairy-free so I could enjoy it and I refused to make it with the usual corn syrup or regular sugar. I wanted a grain-free crust that would compliment but not overpower the tart and I went for as much maple and bourbon flavor as I could get.

I am so excited with how this turned out. It has a really rich flavor from the maple syrup and the bourbon that is really special. It is luscious, sticky and sweet, without being overly sweet and heavy. Though it isn’t something I will be making often, it is perfect for those special occasions, like a Derby party or the holidays.

I am so happy to be sharing with you a feature on an incredible new ebook from the amazing Leanne of Healthful Pursuit. The Dessert Freedom Recipe Guide is a grain-free, vegan dessert cookbook on a mission. Think Tom Selleck, Magnum P.I. style. This instant download PDF will seriously have you craving dessert as soon as you open it.

It’s a lovingly crafted collection of 20 supreme dessert recipes and 20 health-promoting techniques to help you embrace your allergies, conquer your cravings and liberate your dessert dilemma. I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of Dessert Freedom and I have to say, it is incredible. I was drooling looking through each page and whats more, it is packed with amazing techniques and tips, nutritional information and more.

Eat unrestricted, embrace good, be free.

This recipe guide is packed with goodness to help you…

• Enjoy desserts… guilt-free
• Crush your sugar cravings
• Overcome your restrictions
• Fall in love with your food sensitivities, allergies and restrictions
• Nourish yourself

Dessert Freedom is a 76-page, full-colour PDF digital/ebook, full of huge photos for every recipe, clickable resource links and supreme techniques to help you enjoy many a guilt-free dessert. PDFs can be read on computers, iPads, iPhones, Kindles and Android devices.

The Dessert Freedom Recipe Guide includes…

• 20 health-promoting techniques
• 20 egg, wheat, gluten, grain, refined sugar, dairy, corn, soy and peanut free recipes (and half of them are nut-free, too)
• 3 robust, down to earth guides
• Nutrition information for each recipe
• Storage instructions
• Pretty pictures of every recipe
• Short ingredient lists
• Simple instructions

Closer look at the Dessert Freedom Recipe Guide

• Guide to: Technique Insiders. The inner workings of the recipes, actions, methods and steps, along with a couple of life lessons that I live by.
• Guide to: Popular Ingredients. Descriptions and substitutions for the 9 easy to find ingredients that make up the bulk of the recipes in the book.
• Guide to: Buying Ingredients. Where to find ingredients and how to save cash on the goods.
• Nut-based Recipes. Strawberry Chia Squares, No-bake Snickerdoodles, Fruit and Nut Biscotti, Coconut Joy Squares, Cream “Cheese” Crumble Cake… and more!
• Nut-free Recipes. Lemon Meringue Shake, Carob Orange Crunch Cookies, One Bite Cranberry Blondies, Trail Mix Muffins, Raspberry Apple Crumble… and more!
• Health-Promoting Techniques. Methods and actions to living guilt-free, how to bust through your cravings, live a life of abundance and how to celebrate your allergies.
• Nutrient Grotto. A little space where you’ll find all the calories, fat, carbs, fiber, sugars and protein stats for each and every single recipe, all in one place.

The cost of the guide is just $14.95 USD

Read reviews, swoon over recipes and photos, or buy the digital book at healthfulpursuit.com/Dessert-Freedom

Here is a quick sample of what to expect in this amazing digital book. This Vegan Chocolate Pudding is not only gluten-free and vegan, but it is also soy-free and nut-free, too. And the extra bonus is that it is made with just 5 ingredients. Velvety smooth, rich, and only 200 calories per serving. You would never believe that it’s made with beans!

Dessert Freedom is full of simple, easy to make guilt-free recipes just like this one. Minimal ingredients, easy to understand instructions and beautiful photography.

View nutrition information

***** The giveaway is now closed! Thank you so much to everyone that entered and congrats to Katie our randomly selected winner! *****
(winner was randomly selected using Random.org)

Katie I will be emailing you to let you know you have won and to get your mailing addresses.

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As most of you know I gave up dairy early last year after realized I just don’t like the way I feel when I eat it. That I know of, I am not lactose intolerant nor do I have an allergy, I have just come to realize that I just feel better without it. So I stopped eating it.

I have since slowly started trying to add back in small amounts of goat’s milk cheese and yogurt, as I have read many people that cannot tolerate cow’s milk, can tolerate goat’s milk. I don’t eat it often at all, but it is a nice treat and I have found it doesn’t affect my digestion the way all that cheese I was eating used to.

When Kitchen Table Bakers contacted me a while back about trying their 100% aged parmesan crisps, I politely explained that I no longer eat dairy.  I did let them know if they were offering to send along some to try, I would gladly take them for hubby, whom I am sure is cheese deprived because of me. I, of course said I would gladly try a bite or two, share with hubby and pals and share my/our thoughts with my readers since they are certified gluten-free. To my delight, in their response they explained that due to the length of the aging process (over 10 months), their 100% aged parmesan cheese crisps contain little to no lactose, so many folks that have issues with dairy and cheese can eat them. Yay.

Over the course of our correspondence Kitchen Table Bakers sent along four flavors for me to try, the Original Aged Parmesan, Everything, Rosemary and Sesame. I tried each of them in small amounts, never having any stomach pains, digestion issues or other side effects. Now, I don’t necessarily plan on adding in cow’s milk dairy into my diet any time soon, but I loved their products so much and I know many of you do eat dairy, that I thought I would not only share their products with you guys, but I also created a wonderful recipe featuring the cheese crisps for you. And the other bonus is, together with Kitchen Table Bakers I am giving away a package of their 5 best selling flavors to one lucky winner.

These cheese crisps are great as a snack on their own, make a wonderful cracker, are delicious broken up over pasta and of course are amazing on salads. One of my hubby’s favorite ways to enjoy them is over top a big bowl of my zucchini pasta with marinara sauce.

This salad is simple but full of wonderful flavors and the cheese crisps on top are the perfect compliment. The slighty-salty crisp is so satisfying with the sweetness from the maple pecans and the apples.

Obviously, if you are one of my vegan or dairy-free readers, leave the cheese crisps off and you still have a great salad, but I encourage you if you do eat dairy (or if your hubby does) to try Kitchen Table Bakers 100% Aged Parmesan Crisps. You will fall in love.

THE GIVEAWAY:

 One lucky Tasty Yummies’ reader will win 5 packages of Kitchen Table Bakers 100% Aged Parmesan Crisps in their best-selling flavors:

Aged Parmesan Crisps

Rosemary Parmesan Crisps

Sesame Parmesan Crisps

Everything Parmesan Crisps

Flax Seed Parmesan Crisps

*Retail Value: $29.95

TO ENTER:

Please leave a *separate comment* below for each entry!
You can enter up to 4 times, but your entries will only count if a comment is left below for each.

There are 4 convenient ways to enter.

1) Post a comment below and tell us how you would use the parmesan cheese crisps in a recipe or why you want to try them.

2) “Like” both the Kitchen Table Bakers and Tasty Yummies Facebook Pages.  Share a post on your page about the giveaway, tagging both TY and KTB. Comment here to let us know that you have both liked and posted about the giveaway.

3) “Follow” both Kitchen Table Bakers and Tasty Yummies on Twitter. Tweet about the contest. You could say something like: “I entered to win Kitchen Table Bakers Parmesan Crisps @parmcrisp giveaway from @herobeth on Tasty Yummies #glutenfree http://wp.me/p23r4t-XC”

4) “Follow” Kitchen Table Bakers and Tasty Yummies on Pinterest. Again, make sure to comment here to let me know that you subscribed.

*In order to qualify, #1 must be done, then it’s up to you how many entries after that you want to submit, up to a total of 4.
Please make sure you leave a separate comment below for each entry, if you don’t comment you will not be entered!*

General Giveaway Rules: No Purchase Necessary. This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States who are 18 years of age or older. Ends on Monday, May 13, 2013, at midnight EST. The email addresses that are collected for this giveaway will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner and will never be given out to anyone nor sold. The winner will be randomly chosen and contacted via email. The winner will have 72 hours to respond. Please make sure you check your junk mail folder. Kitchen Table Bakers will send the prize directly to the winner.

This post was sponsored by Kitchen Table Bakers.

Happy Friday!! This week flew by for me, how about you? Got anything fun planned for the weekend? Hubby is originally from Louisville, so we are celebrating the Kentucky Derby tomorrow, as we do every year, but this year we can actually host a little party at our new home. We are so excited.

I plan to make a bunch of food that reminds Mark of home, most of which I cannot eat myself, but I definitely don’t mind one bit. I think Mark actually gets more homesick this time of year than at the holidays. It is such a big deal there. So I plan to make some Hot Brown Sandwiches, a black-eyed pea salad, pimento cheese dip, jalapeño cornbread, deviled eggs, apple cobbler and a bourbon pecan tart and of course mint juleps. Then we are picking up some homemade fried chicken from the market at the corner. Depending on how all the cooking and baking goes I will try to share some of the recipes on here, afterward. But I make no promises!

An update on our banana tree. Look at all those bananas. I cannot wait to eat some.

Some of the beautiful roses from our yard.

Having a home yoga practice means sometimes you get a little kitty in your down dog.

And sometimes your mat gets taken over by a real dog.

Mark was in San Francisco for a few days for work and Seri really missed him. She wouldn’t leave his side when he got home.

Tried running on the beach this week since I have been having a little knee pain. It felt really great on my knees and my back.

Discovered the most teeny tiny adorable hummingbird nest, cozied up in our grapevines. It is barely 2″ wide. If that. Incredible.

Had a growler of local organic grapefruit kombucha delivered by bike from local husband and wife company, Fine Feathers Kombucha. I just adore where I live.

I *think* I found what I was looking for on yesterday’s run. I KNOW that Seri did. Look how happy she is

Went to the doctors yesterday for the first time in over a year. It really is the one place in the whole wide world that can give me anxiety as soon as I walk in. I really don’t like doctors.

This week as part of my ongoing Restricted Diet series with Free People, I created a simple Strawberry Coconut Smoothie recipe featuring the beautiful fresh strawberries that are in season here in California right now. I still cannot believe how much earlier in the year they are in season here, they are everywhere and so delicious.

When I made the smoothie to photograph it, I wasn’t in the least bit hungry so I didn’t want to drink it, but I obviously also didn’t want to just pour it out, so I was thinking of what I could do with the mixture. Then I recalled the popsicle molds I got for Christmas from my mom and dad. Perfect!

I just poured the mixture in and let it freeze up. Later that night I was ready for a treat! Here’s the original post on Free People highlighting the smoothie, but I couldn’t let these frozen fruit pops go ignored!

Since there is no sugar or sweetener in these, when they freeze up they aren’t overly sweet. Just the perfect amount sweetness from the bananas and strawberries and just a little tartness, too. If you like things to be a bit sweeter, you can add a little honey or maple syrup, or even try blending 1 or 2 dates into the mixture. Also, depending on how much coconut you add to the mixture, if you decide to, you will see pretty white flecks of coconut in the pops. I didn’t think to add any until it was too late, but next time I certainly will.

Strawberry Coconut Frozen Fruit Pops/Smoothie - Gluten-free, Vegan + Sugar-free
makes 6 frozen pops or 1 large smoothie

1 cup fresh organic strawberries, hulled
1 frozen organic banana
3/4 cup Unsweetened Organic Coconut Milk (light or full fat)*
1/2 cup ice cold cold water
1 tablespoon Chia Seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, optional

Add all of the ingredients to your blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Pour into a glass and serve for the smoothie. If you are making the frozen fruit pops – pour the mixture into your popsicle molds and chill for a minimum of 4 hours or until completely solid.

*Note – Look for a non-BPA containing canned coconut milk, if you can.

{Photo © Louie Schwartzberg 2013}

Instead of a recipe today, I decided to share with you something that really changed me. I am not sure why I haven’t shared this sooner.

I first heard this nearly a year ago during savasana at a power vinyasa yoga class taught by my amazing friend Lyndsey in Rochester, NY. Days before she was to move to Africa and embark on the journey to teach yoga and share her amazingness for 6 months as part of the Africa Yoga Project.  It moved me to tears while laying on my mat, surrounded almost entirely by strangers. It is powerful. In some ways more so even than the super intense, sweaty yoga practice I had just completed minutes before.

I bookmarked this video on the home screen of my iPhone the very day I heard it. I watch/listen to it a couple times a month. I watched it again today and the message is JUST as clear. It is as powerful and meaningful to me as the very first time I heard it.

An amazing reminder to be grateful for the precious gift of life and all that each day brings.

To stay connected.

Be present.

I won’t bore you with my words and thoughts, none of them could ever do this justice. But I really wanted to share this. Please take 10 minutes to watch/listen this video. Bookmark it. Cherish it. Share it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

TEDxSF – Louie Schwartzberg – Gratitude

Since we’ve moved here to Southern California, just about two months ago, we haven’t had any guests come stay with us just yet. My sister comes two weeks from today and I have literally been counting down the days minutes, then my parents come just one month later! I cannot wait! Last week however, our very good friend Jane, who lives in Colorado, came to see us for the day. She had been in Corona, CA for the week and she was able to borrow a car to drive out to our neck of the woods.

Although we have quite a few good friends here in Southern California, whom we have known for many years, it was really nice to have our first “family” guest since we’ve moved here. Even if just for a few hours. Jane has been a part of my life since I can remember, she and Mom went to high school together and have remained in contact since. My sisters and I have always jokingly called Jane, “our other Mother”. There hasn’t been a Christmas morning that we didn’t share with Jane, she would always make the trip back to Buffalo from Colorado to spend the holidays with her family and we were always lucky enough to steal her away for a few hours on Christmas morning. Before she had nieces Jane would actually spend Christmas Eve night at our house and we would wake up in the morning and she would make us clean our room before we could go downstairs and attack the tree. Likely buying my parents time to get more sleep, since I am sure they were all up late.

Besides my own actual immediate family, I don’t think that we could have another guest here in the first two months that could have made me any happier. Since she was here a short time, I offered to make her lunch. She absolutely adores my family’s Greek Avgolemeno soup, which she loves to tell me Mom that I make better than her. So I of course, made a big pot of that for her visit. I am sure you have heard me mention many times before that this soup always reminds me of home and my family, so it really couldn’t have been more perfect for this visit.

When Jane arrived she brought me a huge bag FULL of fresh produce from the organic farm on the land where she was staying. So many different varieties of oranges, lemons, a few grapefruits and a few types of citrus that I have never even seen before, plus the most delicious avocados. Besides looking beautiful and tasting amazing, all of the citrus have been making the house smell incredible.

There were some Meyer lemons in the bag. Those are my absolute favorite. They are just so tasty and subtly sweet, so much so that I hate to waste them just in my morning lemon water or in a juice. I wanted to make something extra special with them. I just wish I could have made these bars and then shared them with Jane.

What makes this recipe extra special, besides who/where I got the Meyer lemons from, is that you actually use an entire whole lemon in the filling. Yes the whole fruit. Peel, pith and all. So, it is quite important that you use an organic lemon, or at least one that is unsprayed and free of pesticides or other chemicals.

You can certainly use a regular lemon in place of the Meyer lemon, but you’ll want to increase the sweetener a bit since it won’t be as sweet as the Meyer lemon is. The filling of this recipe was adapted from David Lebovitz. His recipe utilizes corn starch, a regular lemon, regular sugar and butter, so I tweaked it to make it work for me and to highlight the flavor of the Meyer lemon.

*If you are vegan, I would be hesitant to recommend any egg replacers in place of the eggs, since there is a fluffiness from the eggs that gives the filling it’s texture. There are many vegan lemon bar recipes that use silken tofu or soaked cashews to created a creamy topping, but since I had a dozen beautiful brown eggs fresh from a local farmer, I decided they would be perfect for this. If anyone does experiment in making this vegan, please do report back, I would love to hear how it turns out.

In switching to a new hosting company last week, I had to skip out on Photo Fun Day Friday, so there are lots of pics this week! However, I have to tell you about how very excited I am about my new hosting company. I am now working with Pair Networks out of Pittsburgh, PA after a not so desirable run with another company. What really drew me to this company is their commitment to sustainable business practices and their environmental policies. All of pair Networks’ operations, including data centers, support operations, development labs, administrative facilities, and employee commutes & business travel are 100% Carbon Neutral. Additionally, pair Networks is powered by 100% renewable energy.

I urge you to check out Pair Networks and consider switching your hosting, if you are in the market. Their customer service has been amazing and they respond to all of my questions in a very timely matter, even with the 3 hours time difference. (I actually received a personal response to an email from them on a Friday night at 10pm, their time). They aren’t sponsoring me to say all of this, I am just very happy with their service so far and after being quite unhappy with my last company I know there are a lot of not so great companies in that industry, so I thought I would share.

OK, on to the photos. I first wanted to share with you, my two brand-new promo photos – aka “head shots” (that sounds so fancy) that you might have noticed here on the site. These were taken by the very talented Luke Copping, in Buffalo NY, shortly before we moved out here to So Cal. It was high time I got some pro photos for the site, for press mentions, etc and it was a really fun excuse to get my makeup done (thanks Shianne at Fawn and Fox) and feel good about myself. We also got some photos taken of Mark and I for Hero Design Studio. So happy to have some great professional photos of us, not from our wedding day! Thanks again, Luke!

OK now here’s quality you are used to – all the non-pro pics I took over the last two weeks

I am in love with all the roses growing in our yard. The fragrance from this particular variety is amazing. Just cut some yesterday to bring into the house and they smell heavenly.

Jpeg enjoying his time with his daddy.

We are in full festival mode over here. We set up at the Rose Bowl Flea two weekends ago and it was great! Cannot wait to go back.

The Hero Booth at the Rose Bowl Flea.

With a 3:30 am wake up call, I of course brought some Vigilant Eats Superfood Cereal with me to the event and it was perfect. I LOVE that stuff.

Me workin’ the booth!

After working all weekend, you know we had to take a day off and head to Disneyland. Yay annual passes!!

Lettuce (and other greens) wraps have been my jam lately. I have been putting everything in them.

This is our banana tree!! I cannot even believe I have a banana tree!

When we moved to California we sold our second car with plans of buying bikes to replace it. Finally got around to doing that and it has been awesome!! I have been biking everywhere. My favorite has been cycling to the ocean for my morning run, then back home. Such an enjoyable workout.

All I have to do is sit for a minute and Seri can find a home on or near me.

Went to a Shabu Shabu restaurant here and I am officially obsessed!! Love that it is vegan/gluten-free friendly, too.

I am pretty obsessed with this delicious organic kombucha made by husband and wife companyFine Feathers Co., here in Long Beach.  They make all of their deliveries around town on bike!

Some mornings this baby makes getting up nearly impossible.

I made some loquat simple syrup with some of the many loquats growing on my tree. So delicious in sparkling water.

Veggie fried rice inspired by Jeanette’s Healthy Living.

Hubs skateboarding.

Even standing on a skateboard terrifies me. Yoga or die!

The view on our morning bike ride the other day, Naples Island.

Soo very happy to have a family face visit us yesterday! Jane came for a quick visit yesterday, so I made a bit pot of Avgolemeno Soup for her. It’s her favorite.

This is what happens when Seri and I go on a walk. She just wants to lay in my lap on the grass and take it all in. She sat here forever just watching everything going on. I love it.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Got anything fun planned?

I myself am not allergic to eggs, but I don’t always have them on hand and I don’t necessarily always want to use them in a baking recipe. What I love about flax eggs, besides being a great replacement if you cannot eat eggs, is that they are full of wonderful nutritional benefits for anyone who chooses to add them into a recipe, no matter why.

Flax eggs are simple to make, require only two ingredients: flax seeds and water and are perfect for binding in so many different recipes. To make flax seed eggs you you just need a grinder like a Magic Bullet or coffee/spice grinder for grinding the raw, whole flax seeds to a meal. You can buy already ground flax seed meal, but it is much more expensive than just doing it yourself and ground flax is very perishable and therefore prone to going rancid far quicker if you don’t keep it in the refrigerator or freezer.

For the full how-to/recipe on making a flax eggs, plus some of the great benefits from flax seeds, check out my post on the Free People blog BLDG 25 as part of my ongoing weekly series on eating with Restricted Diets.

I wrote this recipe up back when we were still in Buffalo staying at my parents house but I never had the time to make them while we were there. Both of my parents and Mark are coffee-aholics. Man do they love their coffee. Me, I could take it or leave it these days. I probably drink 2-3 cups a month, at most. Most times it is part of a super early wake up call for an event or on a long road trip. I love the way coffee tastes, but I don’t always like how it makes me feel. I don’t like the caffeine jitters or the burny, acid bitterness of some cups of joe.

Mostly I like the smell of coffee and the culture surrounding it. Yeh, I know that’s weird. I love coffee cups and mugs, local coffee shops, french presses, pour over coffee, fancy organic fair trade beans, and yes, I even love cookies meant for dunking in coffee. That is exactly what I think of when I think of biscotti. That crispy, crunchiness is just begging to be dunked into coffee.

All the nights at my parents house when the three of them would fill up their mugs, add their splash of cream, grab a sweet of some kind and then come out to the living room to watch the evening news. I felt kinda left out. Sometimes I would have a cup (then have a terrible time getting to sleep that night), sometimes I would have some tea and other times I opted for another glass of wine! I should have made these cookies when I was staying there, they could have added dunking these yummy cookies to their evening ritual and I would have dunked mine into Mark’s hot cup of java.

I was inspired to combine orange and dark chocolate in these biscotti because my mom LOVES that flavor combo. So do I. Just the smell alone is so delicious. Looks like I’ll just have to make these for my parents when then come visit in June! (Which by the way, I cannot wait for) I originally wanted to make these with cocoa nibs, but was unable to find any at the stores locally, so I just went with dark chocolate chunks, I cannot wait to get my hands on some cocoa nibs and make these again!

Do you drink coffee? What is your favorite thing about coffee?

I have no problem admitting my obsession with coconut. I absolutely adore it. If I see a macaroon at a high-end bakery and they can assure me it is gluten-free, I am on it! Sadly, most times I take a bite and it is sooo overly sweet that it actually ruins it for me, I can rarely finish one of those from a bakery due to the extreme sweetness. I don’t think coconut has to be so overly sweetened. It is so amazing on it’s own. Add some chocolate and forget about it, I lose all control. But you already knew that, didn’t you? I mean really, is my obsession really that obvious?

I decided the best thing to do instead of always being let down and not being able to finish the ones I buy at bakeries, is to create my own macaroon recipe at home that utilized an unrefined sweetener instead of loads of sugar or that gross canned sweetened condensed milk that many recipes call for. Some recipes actually call for sugar, the canned condensed milk which is usually sweetened AND sweetened coconut. UGH. Hurts my teeth just thinking about it.

As much as I love macaroons dipped in melted chocolate, I can sometimes be lazy with melting chocolate. It can be annoying, I hate the mess and really the same flavor combo could be achieved by adding mini chocolate chips instead. Problem solved. If you want these cookies truly refined sugar-free, leave the chocolate chips out or make your own refined sugar free chips.

Most classic macaroon recipes are made with egg whites, I decided to keep that as part of the recipe, but I have seen many vegan recipes that utilize Ener-G egg replacer in place of the egg whites. I haven’t yet tried this myself, so please report back if you do.

Head on over to the Free People Blog BLDG 25, where I am sharing this recipe as part of my Restricted Diets series. Please leave a comment there if you enjoy the post and feel free to comment here let me know if there are any other classic recipes that you would like recreated to be gluten-free, refined sugar-free, cleaner, etc.

I have always LOVED tacos, but from traveling a ton to Texas and California and even Mexico once or twice, I am well aware of what makes a good taco. Living in Western New York for the past 30+ years meant getting the very best tacos I could on the road and when I was really craving them at home, just making them myself. I have made soo many different tacos, some vegan, like these, some with slow cooked meat from our farmer, some loaded just with grilled veggies, and so on. I am not saying my homemade tacos are THE very best and most authentic, but for the most part they were better than any I could get in Buffalo. (Though Lloyds Taco Truck were damn delicious and the best in WNY outside of my kitchen, for sure!)

I find the key to authentic tacos (or at least for my taste) is skipping on the loads of cheese and chopped iceberg lettuce like most Americans love. You want good quality ingredients like slow cooked beans or a meat, spiced to perfection. Add some fresh cilantro, a quick homemade pico de gallo or other salsa and add a few other simple but yummy things like quick pickled red onions, (diced onions or green onions are always great to) or maybe a simple chipotle cream. Less is more in a lot of ways.

OK so now I am living in Southern California, the land of amazing tacos. Why did I make tacos at home, you ask? Almost every week for Taco Tuesday we have tried a different place out, since you can get amazing prices/deals at most places. Last week, we didn’t wanna go out and we still wanted tacos, so this was the next best thing.

These tacos feature super flavorful slow-cooked black beans, that do their thing ALL day in the crock pot. Load it up in the morning before work and by dinner time it’s all ready for you. You can make the pickled onions and chipotle cream the day before, the morning of when you are loading up the crock pot or just a couple of hours before you serve dinner. I highly suggest making your own corn tortillas whenever possible, they are so simple to make and once you do, you will realize what you have been missing. I  was forced to skip on it this time as I wasn’t able to find non-GMO masa harina around here, so I just bought some pre-made organic non-GMO corn tortillas that were very good and very fresh.

**BONUS ADDITIONAL MEALS: The great thing about this recipe is that it  makes a decent amount of black beans and other goodies. So make tacos for 4 – 6, or more – or make tacos for 2 one night, then make delicious black bean and brown rice bowls another night. Instead of tortillas start with brown rice in a large bowl, top with the slow cooked black beans, add any other veggies or toppings, top with the pickled red onions and chipotle cream sauce and you have another deliciously incredible meal.

Slow-Cooked Black Bean Tacos with Vegan Chipotle Cream {Gluten-free + Vegan}

After some serious down time on the website yesterday (so sorry if you were unable to get the site to load if you came here) and not being able to log in to the back side of my and post anything for the first half of today, I am so happy to be here and happy to be sharing some photos from the last week.

We have a busy work filled weekend ahead, but then we are taking a couple days off at the start of next week that we are planning to fill with some fun adventures. What do you have planned for this weekend?

This house of ours gets incredible light. It shines in every morning so perfectly right as we are waking up.

Got up early over the weekend so I started a fire and then made some grain-free banana chocolate chip muffins over the weekend using this recipe. Instead of strawberries and basil I added in two mashed ripe bananas (added a bit more almond flour), some cinnamon and some mini dark chocolate chips.

How beautiful is this juice? My post run juice Monday morning – orange, beet, carrot, ginger and strawberry. The photo hardly even does it justice.

I adore this cat.

Got our first CSA since moving out here. Until my veggie garden is in full effect, this is the way to go. All this for just $15 and certified organic.

I am still totally amazed that this is where I live now. Feels like perpetual vacation.

A new donation-based yoga studio opened here in Long Beach, Yogalution Movement and Ayurveda. I’ve been to several of their classes, it’s been great!

While obsessively trying to perfect a cookie recipe, I inadvertently didn’t eat or make dinner. So spicy chipotle stove-top popcorn was the answer.

I love getting texts from my 3-year old niece, Teagan.

In cleaning off some of the photos on my phone, I realized I never shared the two new tattoos I got just before I left Buffalo. First this “Seester” tattoo that both my sister Vicky and I got matching.

And of course I needed a little something to represent my hometown! B U F F A L O

We went to the opening party last night, for a new business in Santa Ana called Best Wines Online, where our very good friend Patrick is working. Drank wine and spent time with our good friends. Actually got a nice photo of the two of us out of the deal, this was before I splashed red wine on my ivory lace dress. Weee!

As part of my ongoing series with Free People, focusing on restricted diets, today I am sharing a Quick Guide to Gluten-Free Eating. In addition to recipes, throughout this series I will also be sharing tips, techniques, resources and more. If you have suggestions for any topics that you’d like to see covered, please leave a comment below.

I am sure many of my regular readers here are old pros at eating gluten-free, but maybe some of you are new to a strictly gluten-free diet (due to Celiac disease, a gluten intolerance or another medical/health reason), or perhaps you are looking to simply cut back or eliminate some gluten from your diet. Maybe you are being a really good pal, looking to learn more and find options for a friend or family member that is gluten-free. No matter what the reason, my simple overview of a gluten-free diet is meant to be used as a safe and quick tool while you are doing your own research on specific products and what you can and cannot tolerate (even within these “allowed” foods).

I hope you enjoy this list and find it to be a good resource if you are just started out, or to share with family and friends that want to learn more about your restrictions. Head on over to the Free People Blog BLDG 25 to see the entire Quick Guide to Gluten-Free Eating.