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Winter Salad with Chicken, Root Veggies & Champagne Vinaigrette
If you thought salad was only a summer dish, I promise this Winter Salad with Chicken, Root Veggies & Champagne Vinaigrette is sure to change your mind. This salad has a ton of warming flavors with a winter vibe from the rosemary to root veggies with lots of options for you to customize to your family’s needs.
This Winter Salad with Chicken, Root Veggies & Champagne Vinaigrette is a wonderful way to celebrate the bounty of the season with a meal-sized salad FULL of nutrients and valor.
First up is the roasted rosemary balsamic garlic chicken that smells like a night with heavy snow and everyone hanging out by the fire all nicely warm and cozy. This chicken is quick to cook, but you can also plan ahead and prep the chicken a day or two ahead, if you are someone who batch preps your proteins at the start of the week. It makes easy weeknight meals even easier. If you want to this Winter Salad to be a side dish to another protein, simply leave the chicken out.
Next up we have some roasted sweet potatoes that add a nice sweetness and texture and can take the place of croutons any day. You may be surprised with the roasted beets in this salad but the nutty earthy flavor they provide pairs very nicely with the rosemary chicken. A sprinkle of goat cheese and chopped pecans are the perfect final add-ins. The topper is the champagne vinaigrette. It sounds fancy, it tastes fancy, but don’t worry it is very simple to make and I’m pretty sure this will become a staple dressing.
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Instant Pot Carnitas w/ Slow Cooker Option {Paleo, Whole30, Keto}
These Instant Pot Carnitas have become a bit of a favorite around here. Especially when we’re hosting guests but also just for meal prep for busy weeks. I love that this recipe is naturally gluten-free, paleo, Whole30, keto and AIP-friendly and yet still simple and tasty-enough to serve to anyone – no matter their preferences! You can serve your Instant Pot Carnitas in lettuce cups or your favorite tortillas, over a big veggie-loaded salad or cauliflower rice and go burrito bowl-style.
I truly love recipes like this that are not only fuss-free while still being super impressive, but that also allow me to eat how I prefer while still serving my guests without any dietary restrictions, so they’ll never feel like I am pushing my “health-food” onto them. I don’t want my closest friends to decline dinner invites for fear of being served liver and sprouts! haha. It’s important to me to enjoy amazing meals with my family and friends, no matter how differently we all eat, I never want anyone to feel like like I am preachy or pushing my agenda on them. I just cook them the food that I know to be healthful and hopefully they see how simple it can be. A focus on real whole foods is truly just a solid baseline / foundation that would do everyone some good.
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Real Food Resources for Meal Planning, Grocery Shopping & More. How-to Make Cooking at Home Easy.
You guys asked for it, so I am sharing my favorite tips, tricks and resources for making healthy cooking at home as easy as possible. We’re chatting meal planning, meal prep, grocery shopping, meal kits and more.
Real Food Resources for Meal Planning, Grocery Shopping & More.
How-to Make Cooking at Home Easy.Whether you are brand new to cooking at home, or an old pro, I think we can all agree that it can definitely help to have some tricks in your back pocket for staying organized, getting ahead and being well-planned. Cooking several real food meals a day, every day, every single week, this is no small feat. So first, #1) I want you to give yourself a big-ass high five for doing it at all (or even just getting started thinking about it). You are killing it! and #2) Your future self will thank you for making it sustainable by keeping it easy and approachable for the long haul. Whether it’s for one, a couple or a whole big happy family, cooking at home takes planning, organization, practice and of course – commitment. I’m here to help.
I can say that no matter what approach you take to eating: paleo, keto, gluten-free, Whole30 or just a healthful, traditional, real food focus – having quality, fresh, nutrient-dense whole foods on hand, a pantry full of quality staples plus a solid plan of action, this is about the only way you can guarantee success when it comes to cooking at home and living your best (and most healthy) life!
Real Food Meal Planning:
I think it’s a given, but being planned out is an absolute necessity. You can certainly make your own meal plans, week in and week out and plan every single meal, creating your own grocery lists, planning it out appropriately to your ever-evolving schedule, but here are a few options to make things even easier on you:
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Don’t Fear the Fat // The Basics
Why Are We Talking About Fat?
The reason I write this post, is that even though, for so many us, we have woke to this knowledge and have worked hard to reframe our approach to nutrition and no longer fearing the fat, we still have so much work to do. After many decades of low-fat propaganda, the “fat makes you fat” rhetoric is still so deeply ingrained in the collective psyche. Many people STILL greatly fear fat, even though study after study shows that fat is not only harmless 1http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2010/01/13/ajcn.2009.27725.abstract but that it is in fact, quite necessary to many important functions in the body. I myself see this fear weekly in my nutrition clients, all over the internet and in my social feeds, at the grocery store, at restaurants, at the gym, etc and of course, all of the many side effects of low fat eating – we HAVE to change this dialogue!!
The Basics
It is beyond challenging to decide where to even start on such a huge, huge topic. Chatting about dietary fat is a big undertaking and we are going to merely just scratch the surface with this initial post, decoding the myths and where the fat fearmongering began, along with the crucial reasons we need fat in our diet. So, let’s get to the basics.
First and foremost you need to know that fat is a necessity in our bodies. This vital macronutrient provides building blocks for the brain, hormone and cellular membranes throughout the body, it is essential for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K and it is deeply hydrating!
By adequately increasing my healthy fat intake, more than any other change I have made in my lifestyle and diet, I have personally seen profound affects on my health, from my digestion to my skin including chronic hormonal and cystic acne, from my moods to my ability to concentrate, hormonal imbalances to libido (YUP!). Fat is a powerful anti-aging food, both internally and externally. Consumed as part of a healthful diet, fatty acids (the building blocks of fat) help stabilize blood sugar – allowing your body to release fat, protect it’s lean muscle, and surge with energy. When our focus is on creating meals that are rich not only in healthy fats, but also quality well-sourced proteins and fibrous green leafy veggies, we can thank especially the healthy fats for keeping us satiated. Staying satisfied for longer means so you won’t find yourself searching for the junky, processed snacks in between these healthy, whole food meals.
References
1. ↑ http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2010/01/13/ajcn.2009.27725.abstract -
Real Food Cinco de Mayo Recipes
With Cinco de Mayo this week, the internet is a buzz with Mexican-inspired recipes. Here’s a round-up of 0ver 50 Cinco de Mayo-esque recipes, just for you – all gluten-free and all real food focused. Some are more traditional, some a bit more unique. There are recipes that are paleo, vegan, AIP and everything in between. A bunch of the recipes hail from the TY recipe archives and the rest from some of my fav blogging pals! Tons of delicious ways to celebrate! Enjoy!
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How-to Make French Vanilla Coffee Creamer (Dairy and Non-Dairy)
Since I have begun seeing clients as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, I am so grateful for my longstanding experiences with and my love for food. I am constantly asked the question “If I shouldn’t eat this, then what can I have, instead?”. I love having answers to this question.
I firmly believe that changing diet and lifestyle has to come from a place of both education and confidence. If I meet with a new client and tell them to stop drinking several Cokes daily, but don’t explain why, I can’t really expect them to want to make this change. Why would they? They are both chemically and emotionally attached and possibly even addicted. If I can take the time to explain the effects that the high levels of sugar are doing to their insulin resistance, if I can talk through the reasons why high fructose corn syrup is terrifying and explain the affects this one drink can have on their blood sugar, digestion, mineral absorption and so on, I have a much better chance of getting them on board for the long haul.
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Real Food Halloween Treats
The last remnants of summer have all but disappeared, the sun is setting early, leaves are changing colors and the smell of fall is definitely in the air. Or maybe it’s the cloud of the pumpkin-spiced-everything obsession always wafting just above us. Either way, this is one of my favorite times of year. Jack O’Lantern carving, houses all throughout the neighborhood are decked out in their spooky accoutrements, and the very visceral excitement from all the kids for this year’s costume can be felt no matter where you go. Though it’s been quite sometime since I’ve thrown on a mask and taken to the streets for some good old fashioned trick or treating, I do still find myself wanting to indulge in the treats. I am only human, after all.
I am not so extreme or excessive in my approach to eating and food to that I think that Halloween should be celebrated with raw veggies and dollar store toys, rather I try to encourage the idea of homemade, real food options wherever possible. So, I thought a list of some of my favorite Real Food Halloween Treats would be a great idea and it might inspire you to try a few homemade options this year, rather than the creepy, scary packaged stuff, loaded with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and artificial colors and flavors! Also, I am really showing my cards here and you’ll clearly spot my obsession with chocolate.
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Chocolate Trail Mix Energy Bars
If you follow me on social media, on apps like Instagram or Snapchat, you may have noticed that after nearly 3 years of living in California, I am back to traveling again. The travel-bug has bit this girl and this is an itch that must be scratched. I absolutely love adventure and I live for that joy you get when discovering new places.
The hardest thing about traveling, however, is doing so with dietary challenges. With limitations on my diet and wanting to maintain a healthy, mindful lifestyle, this can be hard while I am away from the comforts of my own kitchen. While challenging, it is also totally possible and I want to share with those of you living a life similar to mine, that with a little research and planning, your wanderlust can certainly be quenched, too! In the past, after first changing my diet, discovering my gluten intolerance and making other changes to my lifestyle, I had found myself scared to travel, worried that I wouldn’t be able to eat. But I always more than make it, I eat well on my travels and I am able to honor my body the way I choose to, while still being able to explore new cuisine, experience new restaurants and travel a city the way everyone else gets to. I want to encourage you guys, to get out there, to have fun, explore and travel.
For me, a big part of my travel routine, relies heavily on planning ahead and of course, packing food. Though with every passing year it gets easier and easier to find restaurants that truly support gluten-free, I also like to know that I am covered. Plus, when flying, let’s be honest, most airlines haven’t quite received the memo that gluten-free is a thing! Homemade energy bars, trail mix, dark chocolate and other healthy snacks, these are always a must for me. Plus, I don’t ever leave home without some green stuff. This girl’s gut needs the green stuff to keep things moving, if you know what I mean.
These Chocolate Trail Mix Energy Bars (gluten-free, vegan and paleo) are basically all of the good superfood stuff you love, in one magical, travel-friendly bar! Trail mix, greens and of course, chocolate. (To know me is to know, this is something I won’t leave home without). Enter ALOHA, my very best travel companion. In my world, ALOHA is as important as my passport, when I head off on adventure.
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Cantaloupe Mint Sorbet (Gluten-free and Vegan)
There is something about summertime and it’s fresh vibrant fruit that just makes me school-girl giddy!! Sitting in the sun, enjoying your favorite fruit, juice running down your face and your arms, that’s when you know it’s really summer!
We’ve been fortunate that for a few weeks now we’ve been getting some of the freshest, sweetest fruit in our weekly CSA box. Peaches, nectarines, watermelons, cantaloupes and so much more. I decided this year that rather than just cutting up the fruit and stuffing it into our faces, that I would get creative with some of it. Treat it like I do all of the many veggies we get.
I was dreaming up frozen summery desserts when I realized that I hadn’t pulled my ice cream maker out once since we moved to California last year. That feels like a MAJOR sin, considering I basically live in perpetual summer, here in Southern California. In discovering my terrible neglect of my ice cream maker, I also realized that I had never made a sorbet! Sacrilege isn’t it?
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Forbidden Rice Spring Veggie Bowls with Tahini Lemon Dressing
To know me, is to know that I get weirdly obsessed with things. Currently I am obsessed with two things, first is my new spiralizer (yes you will see lots of recipes made with it very soon) and secondly, any and all meals that can be served in bowls! As you can imagine the cross-over on these two obsessions is quite high so one is perpetuating the other right now.
Today we are just talking about my love of any and all meals served in a bowl. I am not talking about your traditional soup or salads, though I still love both of those, I am talking more about creative, complete and hearty meals with everything you might possibly need or want, all served in one big bowl.
To me, there is something just so comforting and so appealing about a meal in a bowl. Whether it be a Sprouted Quinoa with a Kale Almond Pesto Bowl, a 30-Minute Sweet Potato and Kale Coconut Curry over rice, a Buddha Bowl with Garlic Turmeric Cashew Cream or just a big ‘ol salad with loads of gorgeous bits and bops from your pantry and fridge. Mostly I find these bowl meals to be an opportunity to cram as much seasonal goodness as I can into one dish and to arrange it in a beautiful color coordinated way that turns it into a work of art.
The other bonus of a bowl meal, is the organized and seemingly planned out way to eat up what you have on hand and to make it appear that it was done with great purpose. I have been known to do that a time or two around here.
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Potato and Spinach Soup with Jalapeño from the Nourished Kitchen Cookbook + Giveaway
What a wonderful time it is for fantastic passion-filled cookbooks! So many incredible, drool-worthy books on the shelves right now, it is such a great time for us food lovers! I can tell you, this self-proclaimed cookbook junkie is in heaven, currently. You should see the many packages and envelopes that have been showing up here over the last month or two, each one filled with another stunning book that is exuding the incredible passion of the dedicated creator.Today, I am excited to bring you another book that I have been highly anticipating. The Nourished Kitchen: Farm-to-Table recipes for the Traditional Food Lifestyle, from the ever so talented, Jenny McGruther, is a book that I have been waiting to have in my very own kitchen, since the minute I heard that it was in production. I have followed Jenny’s blog, The Nourished Kitchen for many years now and she has always been an inspiration to me, how I cook and how I eat. Jenny’s blog was one of the first I found when I initially changed my diet.
For me, there is nothing more inspiring than flipping through the pages of a cookbook that I know was created with much love and passion. Regardless of the content of a cookbook, there is something so special about the ones where you can feel the author’s devotion to their craft and the immense amount of love and care that they put into every single dish that they created to share with us, the readers. The Nourished Kitchen is a fine example of this. Jenny’s words illustrate the profound love and joy she has for cooking and with each paragraph I read, I get more excited to get into my kitchen to start creating something beautiful. Although Jenny and this cookbook are not exclusively gluten-free, she and I share so many very similar views on food and eating. As the Jenny puts it:
“a fad-free approach to cooking and eating that emphasizes nutrient-dense, real food, and values quality environment, and community over the convenience of processed, additive-laden products that are the norm on grocery store shelves”
I couldn’t have said it better myself, really. For those of you that have followed Tasty Yummies over the 4 years I have been writing it, you know that I have chosen to not put any labels on my diet. Besides eating gluten-free, I choose to focus my efforts on a real food diet rich in nourishing whole foods that feed both my body and my soul. I eat intuitively, always listening to my body and feeding it with fresh, unprocessed, seasonal and whenever possible, local foods that are not just delicious and good for me, but that also fills me with happiness and joy.
You also probably know that despite my mostly plant-based diet, I do consume some meat. I consider myself a conscientious omnivore who prefers to only eat meat and other animal products, when I am given the opportunity to purchase it locally, from a farmer whom I can trust. This is something that has become increasingly more difficult for me, since we’ve moved to California last year. The cost of raising livestock on pasture and sustainably seems to considerably more expensive here, than it obviously is in New York. So, I have to say, I am very envious of Jenny’s amazing resources, living in the central mountains of Colorado.
With each recipe and every section in this beautiful book, you can see the incredible advantages of Jenny’s location, which provides her access to amazing traditional foods throughout the year. The Nourished Kitchen contains more than 160 recipes, inspired by the seasons, land and waters around her. Whether you are gluten-free or dairy-free, or you have other restrictions on your diet, there are still plenty of recipes in this cookbook for you and the best part is, because of the simple and traditional preparations and the approachable ingredients (many of which you can grow in your very own garden) – many of the recipes are easily adaptable to fit your own way of eating. Read the rest of this entry »
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How-to Make Preserved Lemons
How-to Make Preserved Lemons
Along with the gluten-free cooking demo I hosted on Saturday night at Surfas, I had the pleasure of hosting a hands-on preserved lemons workshop this weekend at the Patchwork Show Edible Edition in Costa Mesa and it was so much fun! It was a packed house. My only regret is that I didn’t stop to take some photos of everyone working on their jars of preserved lemons. It was so fun for me to look out and see everyone getting their hands dirty and learning to do make something new. Not a single person there had ever made preserved lemons!
For those that were are the workshop, these are the instructions for what I taught you on Sunday, thanks again so much for coming. For those that couldn’t make it to the workshop, here is how you easy it is to make preserved lemons. It is really this simple.
I prefer to work with a 16-ounce or quart-sized wide-mouthed jar when I can, but they just aren’t always available at our house, I literally use jars for everything. So, these measurements are for one 12-ounce jar. Adjust your quantities as needed for different sized jars or multiples. Additionally it should be noted, the amount of salt and the number of lemons is just an approximation. It doesn’t have to be exact and it will depend on the size of your lemons.
By the way, you can also add spices to your preserved lemons such as, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves, coriander, dried peppers, cardamom, etc. Read the rest of this entry »
