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Smoky Shoestring Sweet Potato Fries
You may have noticed that it’s been a bit quiet over here. I have been working on a few bigger projects that are taking up most of my time, but given the current state of the world, I have also needed to just take a big step back, where I can.
It’s strange to feel that I simultaneously have so very much to say, so so much, yet I am constantly finding myself at a loss for words. Dumbfounded. Instead of being glued to my computer and my phone, rather than refreshing my social media feeds minute after minute, I have instead chosen self care and comfort. I’ve chosen to march and to focus on action. I have surrounded myself with others feeling equally as devastated and at a loss, but also very fueled to do something about it. I have been volunteering my time and donating my dollars. I have been cooking for comfort and love rather than just for work. Serving others and nourishing myself. These are the things I can control and while the world is feeling increasingly more out of control, I find myself wanting to focus inward first, to take care of myself, then find ways I can use my voice, my power and my passion in my local community to help how there I can, as well.
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Paleo Sweet Potato Gnocchi with 15-Minute Tomato Sauce
The Paleo Sweet Potato Gnocchi is an absolute dream come true! Just like you always remembered, soft, little pillows of luscious goodness. Perfect little cloud vehicles for whatever your favorite sauce and they are a breeze to make.
I am super excited about today’s post and I have been eagerly awaiting sharing it with you all. If you follow me on Instagram or Snapchat you likely saw me testing this recipe, you also could probably sense my insane excitement over it’s success. Paleo Sweet Potato Gnocchi has been on repeat and now I get to share it with all of you.
October is National Pasta Month and when Calphalon asked if I would partner with them to create my twist on a classic pasta recipe, I jumped at the chance.
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Smoky Sweet Potato and Apple Soup
With the start of fall just mere days away, I am reveling at the thought of my favorite season of eating! Fall food is pure comfort, to me. Squash, potatoes, apples, pears, pumpkins, cranberries and all the other goodness. I just can’t get enough.
Thinking about this season soup comes to mind quite often. Soup is one of my favorite things and while I know gazpachos and chilled soups are a thing, they aren’t the same. I love a good, steamy, cozy bowl or mug of comforting soup and by the time summer is wrapping up, it’s about all I can think about.
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Sweet Potato Salad with Bacon
With summer nearly upon us, we are already planning a summer of BBQs, cookouts and picnics. While I am not a mayo hater by any means, I have always felt indifferent about traditional mayo-based potato salads. It’s just not my thing, something about it doesn’t sit well with me. I think it’s years of seeing it sitting in the sun at picnics, uncovered looking all gnarly. Yuck.
I have over the years developed several variations instead on vinegar and herby based potato and sweet potato salads that have become staples at all of my summer shindigs. That is until this Sweet Potato Salad with Bacon from Heather Christo’s book Pure Delicious. For the foreseeable future, this may just give all other potato salads the boot! It’s that good.
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Fennel Spinach Soup
While I am very aware that the holidays, for most of us, usually means a bit more sweets than usual, maybe a tad more alcohol and probably a few other less-than-healthy choices, I also kinda resent the idea that we should all relegate ourselves to spending the entire month of January detoxing, cleansing or Whole-whatevering.
Obviously you guys know me and my mission well enough to know that people making healthier choices and mindful lifestyle changes is always something I can get behind no matter the circumstances and in fact, I constantly encourage this. But, I don’t love this idea of post-holiday shame or guilt, that many feel we should suffer, especially after one of the best and most special times of the year. It just isn’t healthy. I also don’t love the idea often promoted every January, that 30 days of “cleansing” is going to change our lives or fix our wrongdoings and come February we can just jump back into the “old ways of eating”. Done and done.
Once again, it’s that balance I so often talk about. It’s the sustainable lifestyle choices and habit-forming, everyday changes that will endure long term and elicit real shifts in our health and overall well-being and vitality, for the long haul. Sure, more veggies and less junk is what we are all doing right now and I am certainly not condemning that, but I will feel no regret for my holiday choices. I make no apologies for the amazing, “nutritionally imperfect” homemade food I enjoyed with my family or those extra few pieces of the dark chocolate candy that my father and I made together (using my great-grandmother’s recipe) – which may have snuck into my suitcase. So what, I had a few cocktails? I also don’t feel even the slightest bit bad about the extra (of course, gluten-free) refined-carbs that seemed to follow me everywhere these past two weeks. None of these choices were really all that bad. I know, simply put, that it cannot and will not undo all the hard work I have done the rest of the year and consuming those things (or more) under the premise that I will “undo” it in the New Year, feels just plain silly to me.
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Lettuce Wrapped Grain-free Sweet Potato and Broccoli Veggie Burgers with Cilantro Sauce
I think we can all agree that with summer nipping at our heels, there are certain foods that conjure up feelings of quick, light bites perfect for our busy summer schedule that we all tend to pack solid. Quick meals that can be eaten outside on the deck or around the pool are usually on the menu in our house. I know for me, I think of burgers. Besides tacos, it’s the quintessential food that you can eat with your hands without much fuss. Unfortunately, if you can’t have grains this means rolls are either out of the question or you have to find a grain-free alternative that doesn’t require tons of prep.
I, for one, prefer to simply go without the rolls, after all it’s all about the burger, not matter what kind. I adore a good lettuce wrapped burger. I find that crunch is a great fresh texture. I also love a good homemade veggie burger. With the right ingredients and toppings, it can be a meal on it’s own. So many store-bought veggie burgers are loaded with legumes or grains/gluten, soy, gluten and other things we some of us may not be able to have. The list of ingredients can be quite long and by the time you’ve found a comfortable seat at the store to sit down and read through them all, you get to the end, only to find it just won’t work for you.
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30-Minute Sweet Potato and Kale Coconut Curry {Gluten-free and Vegan}
I have been all about the simple healthy one-pot meals, as of late. Life has been hectic for us. Lots of work, deadlines, house guests every two to three weeks, commitments, shows and so on. I am certainly not complaining, such is the life of the self employed. But, some days by the time I am done cooking and creating recipes for the blog, editing photos and writing back all the emails – by dinner I am actually just too exhausted to make any sort of feast. The sad truth is that as a food blogger sometimes my own meals get forgotten, I am so focused on making the recipes that I have planned for the blog to share with all of you. Plus,the idea of tons of prep, lots of steps, loads of dishes – it all seems overwhelming and unwelcomed at the end of a busy day, especially a day that included much of just that.
A good 30-minute, one-pot meal means that, besides a few minutes for cutting up a few ingredients and dirtying a cutting board or knife, dinner is done before you can blink an eye. Just like that, you can sit down and enjoy a nutritious home-cooked meal with your love and the clean up after is next to nothing. Enter this super easy 30-minute Sweet Potato and Kale Coconut Curry.
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Spinach, Lentil and Sweet Potato Slow Cooker Soup {Gluten-free, Vegan}
This post is part of my ongoing restricted diets series with the Free People Blog BLDG 25.
Since it seems this winter is hanging on until the bitter end for a lot of folks this year, I decided it was the perfect opportunity for one last comforting winter meal, like this simple to make spinach, lentil and sweet potato slow cooker soup
OK, sure, I am in California and our idea of winter weather is the low 60s and some rain, but even with our (not so) cooler than usual winter weather — I want hot, comforting foods, that literally feel like a warm hug with every spoonful.
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Baby Kale and Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Pomegranate and Toasted Pine Nuts (Gluten-free + Vegan)
Happy New Year Everyone!! Is everyone as excited to welcome 2013 as I am? We have a lot on schedule for this year and at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve it all felt very real! We are still in the middle of packing up our house for the big move to California. The moving truck comes on Friday and our house closes in just over a week and we have been working like crazy to wrap up all of the end of year loose ends with the business and to go through the house room by room to decide what is making the move, what can get donated and what can be sold. It has been an arduous few weeks with the holidays squished into the middle of it all, but it was a welcomed distraction during such a stressful time.
A few days after Christmas we had an emergency scare with our dog Seri, when she got into some gum with Xylitol in it. As you can imagine, this definitely aded to the stress. You can read a little about it here. I do plan to do a post here on Tasty Yummies about our experience, as well. I would like to share my story and get the word out about how dangerous and highly xylitol is for dogs, since the I feel that not enough dog owners know. I am so grateful for the other food bloggers that have mentioned it, otherwise I wouldn’t have known to act quickly. I consciously do not keep it in the house, but I didn’t know it was hidden in so many common things. I was unaware we even had it in the house. She is thankfully (and very luckily) OK now, but it was a very rough few days, my body actually broke out into a full on cold in the middle of it. I could feel I had been fighting it for a few days and I guess the stress of worrying about my baby just brought it on full force.
With our pooch being back home with us now and yesterday officially ending the holidays and making this move our only focus, the stress of it definitely hit me like a ton of bricks last night. I am not at all a person stricken with anxiety in the least, I consider myself to be mostly calm, but wow, is this move testing me on that. You always hear people say that a big move is one of the most stressful things you can ever go through. They aren’t kidding.
I have been trying to find as much time to cook as I can in this time, since like my yoga it is one of the most calming and soothing things to me. I made a huge pot of chicken pho when my cold was in it’s full force and it was so perfect! I also made a big feast on New Year’s Eve for hubby and I. Yesterday we had dinner with my family at my parents house and since I am now in full-on clean out the fridge and pantry mode, I decided to come up with a salad inspired by what is in season and in my fridge!
Everyone absolutely LOVED this salad, which made me so happy! It is full of beautiful vibrant colors and bright fresh flavors. If you can’t find baby kale, you could also use arugula, baby spinach, field greens, frisée, endive, etc.
I am starting to pack up my kitchen stuff today, so this may be the last recipe post you see for a while. We will be temporarily staying with my parents for a few weeks while we fly out to California to find a house and get everything in order. Hopefully I will have some time to cook for and with my parents in that time.
What are you most looking forward to in 2013?
[print_this]Baby Kale and Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Pomegranate and Toasted Pine Nuts (Gluten-free + Vegan)
serves 4-6Salad:
- 2-3 small/medium organic sweet potatoes, cleaned well and cut into 1-inch cubes, I leave the skin on
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- sea salt and pepper, to taste
- 5 cups organic baby kale (or arugula, baby spinach, field greens, frisée, endive, etc.)
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
- 1 small organic pomegranate, seeded – you are looking for about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of seeds
Dressing:
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, plus some fresh orange zest
- 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
- 2 small cloves garlic, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- sea salt and pepper, to taste
(I didn’t need all of this dressing, so use as much as you’d like and then store the rest in a sealed container in the fridge for other salads)
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Toss the sweet potatoes with olive oil, thyme, onion powder, salt and pepper. Spread into a single layer on a baking pan and roast for 20-30 minutes until they start to brown and are tender. Set aside to cool.
While the potatoes are roasting make the dressing. Whisk all of the ingredients together. Taste and adjust seasonings, as needed.
After the sweet potatoes have cooled a bit, layer those on top of the baby kale in a large serving bowl, add the green onions, toasted pine nuts, and top with toasted pine nuts and pomegranate seeds. Toss with the dressing just before serving (you may not need all of it, so add slowly). Grate a little fresh orange zest on top as you are serving.
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