ringing in the new year

Let it be known that as we being 2012, I'm starting it with the very best of intentions. For instance, I just downed this fresh and bright smoothie, packed full of garden greens. The kale and baby spinach, lemon juice, and sweetness of the pear juice and banana blend together very well, but the celery is pronounced and quickly reminds you that you're drinking something healthy. It's a super fresh smoothie that will make you feel better just for looking at it.

So let 2012 be the year I recommit to Sustainable Diet, bringing to it a freshness not unlike that of this delectable drink. Here's to renewal, good health, and happiness!

Winter Greens Smoothie

1/2 cup pear juice

1/2 cup ice

1 small banana, cut into 1-inch slices

1 1/2 cups fresh kale or baby spinach (or a mixture of both)

1 stalk celery, chopped

juice from 1/2 of a lemon

Put all ingredients into the blender in the order they're listed. Begin with ice-crush mode, pulse for about 15 seconds, and then puree completely. Makes one 16-ounce smoothie.

Inspired by this Kale Apple Smoothie recipe at Real Simple.

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salsa verde

Here's what happens. I run home to visit my mom and wish her happy birthday, intending just to drop off her gift and talk for a while. She not only feeds me (well) with a wonderful pot of homemade, homegrown vegetarian minestrone, but also sends me home with bags and bags of vegetables. Among them: collards, chard, pattypan squash, eight-ball squash, cherry tomatoes, dill, and (best of all), about four pounds of tomatillos.... already husked, no less!

Last night, those tomatillos got rinsed, roasted, and pureed into some fresh and spicy salsa verde. The pepper lineup was taken from our backyard garden, and let me be the first to report that those serranos are spicy. The jalapenos may be tiny, but they pack a punch.

The verde verdict: it's spicy and tangy, and the fresh tomatillos impart a bit of sweetness to it, too. We scooped it up with chips right away, and today it was the garnish for my grilled vegetable salad. Enjoy!

Roasted Salsa Verde

3-4 pounds fresh tomatillos, husked and rinsed to remove stickiness

5-10 peppers, depending on how spicy you like it

1 large yellow onion, cut into chunks

3 cloves garlic

1 cup fresh cilantro

juice from 2 limes

salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 450. Spread the clean tomatillos and peppers on a baking sheet and roast for about 10-15 minutes, stirring once with a spatula.

In the bowl of a food processor, finely chop the garlic, onion, and cilantro. Add the tomatillos. peppers (stems removed), and lime juice and process until well incorporated. Season with salt. Serve warm immediately, or ladle into jars.

Keeps fresh in the fridge for about a week; if you'd like to give it as holiday gifts or save for later, ladle into sterilized half-pint jars and seal in a hot water bath.

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a second spring

Thanks to the unbelievably wonderful weather we've seen lately (let's just not mention the lack of rain, shall we?), the garden we have so lovingly revamped in the backyard is beginning to grow. In 56-90 days, we'll (hopefully) have produce from our own backyard on our own plates.

Two weekends ago, we buckled down and cleaned up the backyard. After coming up with a general game plan for the gardens, we settled on a few things, wants and needs:

• We want the garden to look good

• We need to keep the cats out

• We need a way to grow plants from seed, as well as places for transplants

• We want to grow foods we enjoy

In Fat Man (the original 4x8 that Ryan built), we planted seeds for leafy greens: kale, collards, swiss chard, and spinach. I kept it simple so that trimming the greens would be easy, should they all come in at once. We also happen to love all these greens. A win-win, I believe that's called.

In the Little Boys, our two low-to-the-ground 4x10s, we have rows of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. There are two fall tomatoes (an heirloom cherry variety and romas; we'll see how they do) as well as our lone survivors of the summer—the pepper plants. They're happily producing now, with many promising blooms.

In the 4x12 Devers Bed, we've got a row of Chinese cabbage transplants (I think they're 'Jai Choi,' but I can't find any confirming evidence... they hailed from the Natural Gardener with the rest of our transplants). I also am giving strawberries one more shot—two transplants' worth. Finally, I've planted 15 cloves of organic garlic, since the sign at Natural Gardner convinced me that garlic is "exceedingly easy" to grow in Texas.

And last but not least, in our two 4x4s, I planted seeds for lettuces, carrots, kohlrabi, beets, and turnips. Ryan built the cat-proofing cages with 1x2 cedar frames covered in wire fencing.

All of the large beds are covered in pine straw, mainly to discourage the cats (they don't like walking on it). Side benefits include being able to hide the soaker hoses and acting as a mulch-like barrier.

We also have a little herb garden with basil, rosemary, curly parsley, sage, thyme, and mint. All the herbs are currently happy, so I'm trying to keep them that way.

So far, the fall garden is bringing happiness to our everyday lives. I'm looking forward to some home-grown greens, and have made a plan to shop at the farmer's market weekly for extras.

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the rise of the fro-ban

*Please note. I meant to post this, oh, a long, long time ago. But a phone call last week from a neighbor that opened with, "Hey Amber. We have a fro-ban question," reminded me to actually set it live.

**Also. We are huge fans of fro-bans as they were meant to be. This is just another option.

Once upon a time, I was struck by the simplicity of a blog post over at The Kitchn. "Make delicious, creamy ice cream with just one ingredient and no ice cream maker," it claimed.

Ha-HA! Yeah right.

Nay-sayers, step aside. Marvel at the Fro-Ban: the frozen banana, like you've never seen it before. I worried that banana ice cream would taste too, well, banana-y. While the flavor is undoubtedly there, it's nothing like the faux-banana flavor employed by candies and processed foods. And the process of blending the fro-bans incorporates a little air, lending it a light and satisfying creaminess.

And then you get really insistent on making popsicles one night, and before you know it you're adding coconut milk to the frozen bananas, whirring it all together, and layering it in a pan with chocolate syrup.

That's when you invite your neighbors over for Fro-Bans.

Fro-Ban Popsicles

4-6 slightly over-ripe bananas, peeled and cut into 1-inch slices, then frozen for at least 3 hours

1/4 cup coconut milk (dairy, soy, or almond milk can be used here too)

organic chocolate syrup (here's a recipe for homemade)

Toss the frozen banana chunks into the food processor and whir until they resemble ice cream. Feel free to eat it at that point. For popsicles, slowly add the coconut milk while the machine is running, until the mixture reaches a slightly smoother texture.

Line a 9x5 baking tray with waxed paper and pour a layer of banana mixture into the pan. Drizzle with a good layer of chocolate syrup, and top with the remaining banana mixture. Place popsicle sticks in at 3/4-inch intervals. Freeze for at least 4 hours, then gently cut pops apart and serve.

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homemade fig newtons

Figs are such delicate, delectable things. They seem so incredibly indulgent—so when my mom gave me the better part of 10 pounds this year, I longed to use them wisely.

Their delicate nature means they're only good fresh for a week (at best), so I had to use them up quickly and didn't have any time to make preserves.

Enter the hunt for a fig bar recipe. A good friend is a big fan of fig bars, and I thought a homemade version would be easy to find. Turns out, most recipes I turned to called for dried figs (since for most of the cooking public, those are so easy to come by). If you're in the market, this recipe for Grown Up Fig Bars over at 101 Cookbooks was a contender for the two-hour slot I had set aside for figs in the kitchen.

But what ended up winning was this recipe for homemade fig Newtons over at Our Italian Kitchen. I changed the recipe quite a lot, to include whole wheat and less sugar. Here's my take on it, which was so well received that I processed about 6 pounds of figs this same way, threw 'em in the freezer, and started taking orders for more.

Fresh Fig Bars

Adapted from Our Italian Kitchen

Dough
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup raw or turbinado sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 large egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup spelt flour
(alternately, you can use 1 1/2 cups AP flour, or 3/4 cup AP and 3/4 cup whole wheat)

Filling
2 lbs fresh figs
1/4 cup honey
Juice of half a lemon

1. Cream the butter, sugar and zest in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, for 2-3 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl.

2. Beat in the egg white and vanilla.

3. Next, add the flour in three portions and beat on low speed after each addition until the dough comes together.

4. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

5. While the dough is chilling, de-stem the figs. Toss the whole figs into the bowl of a food processor and process until pureed.

6. In a large saucepan, cook the fig puree, honey, and lemon juice over medium-low heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes. The mixture should be fairly thick and begin to gel as you cook it down. Set mixture aside until completely cool. If making these the next day, refrigerate the mixture overnight.

7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

8. Working with about 1/2 of the dough at a time, roll the chilled dough out on a floured surface. Cut into strips, each about 12 x 4 inches. Spoon a line of filling down the center of each strip. With the help of a dough scraper, carefully fold the dough over the filling and pinch the edges together. Using a serrated knife, slice each log into appropriately-sized cookies. Place each cookie on the parchment-lined baking sheets, seam side down.

9. Bake, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through, for 12-15 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack. Share with friends to make them love you.

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summer meals, part 2: fig, gorgonzola & arugula pizza

I couldn't leave you hanging on just part 1, now, could I?

My mom gave us a bucketload of fresh figs from her tree. During the last two summers, I out-jammed myself and we still have jars sitting in the garage that I'm afraid to eat. With the heat this summer, I can't bear to do any canning in the kitchen anyway. So this year, I decided to take a different approach.

This approach: Enjoy fresh figs in all of their fresh figgy glory. So we made pizza. With fresh figs. How fun!

I've gotten in the habit of making double batches of pizza dough and freezing half. It's once the prep and twice the food—brilliant, if you ask me. Provided, of course, you remember to take the dough out of the freezer. (Call from the grocery store: "Hey, Ryan. Are you home? Yeah? Can you do me a favor? Thanks...") This means whipping up a gourmet pizza on a weeknight becomes, oh, no big deal. Seriously, you should try it.

I was inspired by the umpteen recipes I found for fig, arugula, and prosciutto pizza (like this one from Pioneer Woman), but there were a couple of small problems. Like, we don't eat prosciutto any more. And, to be honest, I'm not a fan of arugula.

This pizza changed half of that. I'll give you a clue: I still don't eat prosciutto.

The only tricky thing about this pizza is that you kind of have to watch it carefully. I didn't want to bake the arugula too long, so I put that on at the end. You can see in the photo that the greens are a little wilted; if you want them to look snappier, just add the arugula after you've totally baked the pizza.

Fig, Gorgonzola, and Arugula Pizza

1 recipe pizza dough of your choice (but I recommend this one, jazzed up with spelt flour)

approximately 15 fresh figs (more if you'd like), de-stemmed and sliced

1/2 cup gorgonzola crumbles

3 cups fresh arugula (you can use an arugula-spinach mix here)

2 tablespoons olive oil

cornmeal for dusting the baking sheet

Preheat the oven to 450. Roll your pizza dough thin; this is one pizza that's best on a thin, crisp crust. Dust a baking sheet or pizza stone with cornmeal and transfer the dough to the sheet.

Slide the crust into the oven for about 4-5 minutes to partially bake it. Remove from oven, and drizzle the half-baked crust with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Top haphazardly with gorgonzola and fig slices, and return the pizza to the oven for about 5 more minutes.

Just before the crust turns golden-brown, bring the pizza back out and top with 3 cups of arugula and the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Slide back into the oven to finish baking, until crust is golden and crispy. Enjoy it while it's still nice and hot.

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summer meals, part 1

Believe it or not, we've been having some amazing stuff from the garden and kitchen lately. I hope to share a few recipes soon, like homemade fig bars and fig-gorgonzola-arugula pizza. Oh, and mayo-free pimento cheese. And the plans for the fall garden (see the squash starts above? Let's hope they make it!).

Sure, our garden is suffering mightily in the heat. . . And there's next to nothing to harvest most of the time. But we have managed to pluck delicious ripe tomatoes from the vines and have peppers, too. And with the frozen herbs I keep in my freezer, a quick summer meal is never too far away.

Lately one of our quick dinner favorites has become the "anything goes quesadilla." No two are alike! I have less of a recipe for you and more of. . . An approach.

• Keep chopped onion in the fridge at all times. This has proved supremely helpful; also, when kept in a glass airtight container, it keeps for at least two weeks. And the glass never holds on to the smell, either. Win-win. Win.

• Gather miscellany vegetables from the garden (chard, peppers, eggplant, squash, and corn have all made an appearance).

• Open a can of pinto or black beans; drain it and get it ready to throw in the pan.

• We like using multi-grain tortillas. They're flavorful and healthy. Cha-ching!

• Use a pan that can saute your veggies and also cook the quesadillas. I use a flat non-stick pan for everything. Sure, a couple of beans leap onto the stovetop, but overall it's nice to use only one dish for this.

• Saute the veggies, add seasonings, and toss in the beans to heat them up. Take your fixin's and pour them onto one of your dinner plates. Keep them in waiting while you throw a tortilla on the pan and add just about a tablespoon of shredded cheese. Let it melt a little, and then add about a half-cup of the filling. Top with another tablespoon of cheese and the next tortilla, and proceed with your quesadilla-making.

• We make three quesadillas to feed two of us (split the third one). It's perfectly filling and always delicious.

That's it! Back with more in less than a month, I promise.

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garden squash & eggplant pizzas

Friday night, we had friends over for dinner. They swing vegetarian too, so cooking up a meatless meal was not an issue. And we had quite the harvest from the garden last week, making for a nice selection of veggies to choose from. They're kind, open-minded friends who would politely eat even my worst culinary creation . . . But they didn't have to feign interest because (spoiler alert) this dinner was awesome.

After the pizza success earlier this month, I decided to go with something foolproof and serve garden-fresh pizzas to our guests. Let me tell you what made this a good game plan:

• I planned ahead (I know, I know—brilliant! Every meal should start this way!)

• I didn't put too much pressure on myself ("No big deal" = mantra)

• I practiced the recipe before serving it to guests (Shocking development!)*

• I gave myself plenty of time, prepping the dough before going to work and chopping veggies a couple of hours before guests arrived (Time? Who knew?)

• I chose recipes that, even if something went a little awry, they'd be good (Um, hello, PIZZA)**

• I kept it fairly simple and asked the guests to bring dessert—one less thing to worry over. (And boy did they deliver.)

I highly recommend such a game plan if you're at all like me: Nervous. Scatterbrained. Forgetful. Buckling under the pressure to perform. Wishing you could be drinking wine with your guests instead of stressing away in the kitchen.

That's right! With a little forethought, I actually put on a successful dinner party. It was, dare I say, so much fun that I'm doing it again in two weeks. We'll be having garden pizza and salad (I'm a quick learner).

* This isn't entirely true. I tried the recipe once, exactly as the recipe was written. But who am I to make the same recipe twice? Due to the garden yield, I decided to change it up. Riffing on that same theme, I scrapped the zukes for yellow squash and the orange bell for two baby purple bells from our garden. Those made for two great substitutions and I highly recommend being brave.

** Yeah, so I did actually bust out a new recipe, found day-of-dinner-party, and it was amazing. I had two small, perfectly-hued eggplant from the garden and wanted to use them. Smitten Kitchen came through as usual with a grilled eggplant and provolone pizza recipe (thank you, Google). This one was a white pie (without marinara sauce) and was my hubby's favorite of the evening—the first time he's ever referred to an eggplant dish as his favorite. So, that was, like, totally awesome.

The full menu, so you can plan ahead for your next dinner soiree:

• Salad (store-bought greens) with garden tomatoes, snap peas, green beans, and Mother's Cashew-Tamari Dressing

• Garden Squash, Bell Pepper, and Goat Cheese Pizza on homemade spelt crust

• Garden Eggplant, Olive, Parsley, and Provolone Pizza on homemade spelt crust

• Vanilla ice cream with local blueberries

Stay tuned to find out just what's happening in the garden this week . . . Bad news: we've got borers. Good news: It's not too late to re-plant.

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yum factor: goat cheese and zucchini pizza

I'll be the first to admit, it's been tough times in the kitchen lately. Not a lot going on, and when it does go on, there's a mess deal with and not a lot of "yum" to make the mess easier to handle. What you haven't seen here: a completely failed attempt at banana bread, some decidedly not delicious dinners, and preoccupation with other stuff. Bigger fish to fry, if you'll excuse the analogy.

So part of me was getting pretty put out about it all. We started eating out more and more, until I felt like we were eating out at every meal, and the only thing I found myself cooking were iterations of rice and beans. Healthy, yes. Sustainable, certainly. Cheap, you betchya. But food blog worthy? Challenging? Fun to brag about?

Come on now.

In the midst of it all, I watched our garden begin to falter. The bean plants and cucumbers were looking ill, with mazes appearing in the leaves (note: leafminers are vicious little buggers but can be combatted organically with BT). Pillbugs had stumped the growth of our first yellow squash in the garden. We were under heavy attack by predatory bugs.

Things were not boding well for my hopes and dreams of being an urban farmer/food writer/culinary artist/yoga instructor/expert seamstress (see how the snowball effect takes hold?!?). Things had to change.

We took action on the garden, seeking the advice of some pros (the tips? Water deeply, use BT and DT, and check the babies every day for signs of sickness). We set an intention for our garden and our food, and agreed that there was an opportunity here to reset and enjoy. And coinciding with this revelation, heralding it in, in fact, was the latest issue of Vegetarian Times. Cue choir of angels, bright shining light from Heaven, etc.

We're trying their 28-day Eat Green Veg challenge—and by that I mean cooking from their wealth of healthy veg recipes. And they're all in one place, which caters to my lazier busier side.

Here's an incredible recipe for Goat Cheese, Zucchini, and Bell Pepper Pizza, which I followed to the T! The only adaptation was to make a spelt crust from scratch, following Mark Bittman's dough recipe for the most part (I used 1 1/2 cups bread flour and 1 1/2 cups whole spelt flour, and since I was all out of instant yeast I just used the regular stuff. I let it rise in the fridge all day while I was at work, then brought it to room temp before moving forward.).

Oh, what? Pizza's not healthy? Actually, this one is—I'm no nutritionist (yet; let's put that on the to-do list), but the spelt crust is chock-full heart-healthy minerals and vitamins. The sauce is made from organic tomato paste and a little evoo; the toppings are fresh veggies and a little bit of local goat cheese. No grease to speak of, and very little salt. In fact, in lieu of parmesan I sprinkled a little nutritional yeast on top for just a hint of parm flavor. So, yes. Healthy pizza.

In other news, here are a few shots of the gardens. They're coming along and we are looking forward to a summer full of squash, corn, tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumbers, melons, beans, peas, eggplant, and peppers.

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a riff on beans & rice

Let's pretend you live in Austin. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. But have you ever gone to Mother's? It's a fabulous little cafe with one very important distinction: its menu is entirely vegetarian.

So we've been there a lot in the last year and a half. A lot.

A couple of visits ago, I decided it would probably behoove me to branch out, though I have some serious favorites, and work my way through everything on the menu. The garden salad with cashew-tamari dressing is a must on each visit, but since everything is me-friendly, I love the idea that I can try it all. No substitutions needed.

About halfway through the menu, I came across something simple: steamed vegetables served with sage mashed potatoes, brown rice, and black beans. And it is superb. As one friend put it, "Sometimes you just need someone else to steam your veggies." It's true. But that dish can just as easily be made at home (without the inimitable* cashew-tamari dressing, which is totally worth the out-to-eat pricetag).

Last night we had our first imitation: so easy, so healthy, so cheap, and pretty darn delicious. I'll leave the sage mashed potatoes to Mother's, but here's our latest riff on rice and beans.

This makes 4 full servings of the dish, plus enough beans for another dinner (which is still TBD). While this didn't wind up being a one-dish meal, it's easy and accessible, especially if you have a pressure cooker. This isn't so much a recipe as it is a recommendation; and if you don't want to cook dried beans, just open up a can or two, rinse, and heat 'em up. And really, you can steam any veggies you like. These were the two we had on hand.

There may have also been one or two green beans from yesterday's garden harvest. That being the entire harvest. Patience, patience, patience.

Rice and Beans and Veg

1 pound dried pinto or black beans (or 2 cans cooked pintos)

5 cloves peeled garlic

1 cup brown rice (dry, to make 2-3 cups cooked)

2-3 cups broccoli florets

4 large carrots

Soak the beans for about 9 hours, and then cooked them with the garlic cloves at full pressure for 5 minutes. (Read more about the pressure cooker here.) Cook the rice according to the package directions (I add a tablespoon of butter to brown rice while cooking, which makes me supremely happy). Peel and slice the carrots and steam them with the broccoli for about 10 minutes (sprinkle with a little salt, and drizzle with olive oil if you so please). Serve it all up in a bowl: rice, beans, and veggies. Then garnish and season with red pepper flakes, garlic salt, celery seed, shredded cheese, and pickled jalapenos.

* I say inimitable because I think that's truly the case. I tried to recreate it on a number of occasions with only limited success. My homemade versions are tasty, but they lack that certain... something. If you have a spot-on impersonation, please do share!

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a sneak peak at the backyard farm

Oh boy. A couple of weekends ago, we welcomed a new member to our garden family, along with the help of some awesome folks (more about that soon, promise!). We've added more gardening space to our backyard than I think anyone was really prepared for, and have had to come up with creative names for our raised beds just to keep them all straight. Above you can see our original bed, Fat Man, which Ryan built single-handedly. Don't tell the other beds, but this one's my favorite. It's 4 feet wide, 8 long, and almost 18 inches tall. It fed us salad and greens for four solid months, and we're still able to harvest the swiss chard. The spinach, cilantro, and lettuce have all begun to bolt but I'm not ready to say goodbye.

This photo of our summer beds in full shade is a little misleading; they actually get about 5-6 hours of sun each day. But we're still going to chop down some hackberries to invite a little more sun in. We've got a 4x12 bed here (The Devers), two 4x10 beds (Little Boy East, Little Boy West), and then our two little 4x4 beds, which have yet to be named. Currently accepting suggestions, if you're interested.

Forgive the crummy pics, but rest assured I will take you on a tour of our backyard farm in the next few weeks, as I'm hopeful most of the summer crops will have put out blooms by then. (Ryan and I have taken to referring to the plants growing in our beds as our "crops," not just our "veggies.")

It takes a number of hours each week to keep up with our urban farm, but we are beside ourselves with excitement for the summer crop to take off. Ryan's mentioned, only halfway joking, the phrase "booth at the farmers' market" more than once, and we're batting around names in case that ever becomes a reality.

But for now, we're happy—oh so happy—watching our eggplants, tomatoes, bush beans, sweet peas, malabar spinach, squashes, corn, and more grow little by little. So that's what we've been up to. Sowing crops in the backyard.

Oh, and the neighbor might get chickens, for the win!

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newsworthy: Bittman, Oatmeal, and McDonald's

Soapbox alert: Fast food is NOT HEALTHY and it shouldn't be a part of anyone's daily diet. Can we agree?

Before you tell me that your life is too busy to live without fast food, I want you to ponder the effects that most fast foods have on our health and our environment. Cheap calories, as Mark Bittman points out in this opinion article, are often the unhealthiest of the bunch. From corn-fed beef to chemical-laced breakfast options, there's nothing healthy that comes off a fast food menu. (To be fair, I do enjoy Chipotle and think they offer good options, including organic vegetarian black beans and locally-sourced vegetables. But that's the only fast food place you'll catch me at!)

As Bittman points out with the oatmeal scenario, it is actually faster, cheaper and umpteen times healthier to make your own oatmeal at home. (I think the same can be said for salads, sandwiches and even french fries; and we should all just quit eating corn-fed beef burgers and mechanically-separated chicken nuggets cold turkey. Ahem.)

In the spirit of offering you an inexpensive, easy, and fast oatmeal recipe (even though I highly recommend this pumpkin oatmeal), here's something to fit the bill. It's ready, from scratch, in about six minutes. It's sweet without white sugar, and packed with protein, potassium, fiber, omega-3's, heart-healthy whole grains, and deliciousness. To add to the healthy factor, we always use local honey, local and organic pecans, and organic rolled oats, bananas, and almond milk. Mmmmm.

Banana Oatmeal

1 cup milk (we use unsweetened almond milk to add more protein)

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 very ripe banana

1-2 tablespoons honey, to taste

2 tablespoons ground flax seed

2 tablespoons pecan pieces

In a small saucepan, stir together the milk, cinnamon, and vanilla. Using the back of the spoon, mash up the banana in the saucepan. Heat this mixture on medium just until it begins to boil. Add the rolled oats and stir. Add the honey, flax seed, and pecans, and continue stirring and heating until the oats are cooked through, about 3 minutes.

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honey, there's a food source in our backyard.

The mornings are usually a little hectic around our house. For me, at least: I tend to run around like a busy-body while Ryan knows how to keep it nice and relaxed. I start with the best of intentions—going for a jog, perhaps, or waking up a little early to make breakfast or even earlier to make it to sunrise yoga. The alarm goes off, I let myself fall back asleep for a little while, and then by the time my eyes open, it's 7:15 and I think of all the things I want to accomplish before going to work at 9.

Today we were rolling along quite nicely, though; I took Fin for a walk around the 'hood while Ryan did a workout, and then got home in time to get ready at a leisurely pace. We talked, we laughed, and then I remembered I had yet to pack my lunch.

Now, I pride myself on packing my lunch almost every day. Commendable, I know! It's just so I can justify buying hot pink lunch boxes and these awesome reusable organic cotton snack bags from Etsy.

I digress! When I went to pack my lunch this morning, suddenly in a rush, I realized I was out of lettuce. But I wanted to pack a sandwich, and being a vegetarian, I really needed lettuce to make it worth my while. Otherwise I was looking at a cheese-and-apple sandwich and I don't care how gourmet the bread/apple/cheese is... that's not a full lunch. (This is the sammy I had in mind, but with sprouted whole grain bread, lightly toasted—yum!)

Then I had a revelation. We have a food source in the backyard. Well, let me just walk ten yards away, then, and cut some fresh lettuce from our garden.

All this to say how unbelievably awesome it is to have a food source literally in our backyard. I am so proud of our baby lettuces (we've been eating our lettuce and spinach all week, see that gorgeous salad?!) and can't quite express how excited I am about more veggies springing forth from our raised bed.

Major props to my husband for building the most beautiful garden bed. I can't believe I haven't showed you photos yet! Here it is covered in snow; you'll notice my super-duper cat barricade, consisting of wire on top of the soil and then bird netting draped over PVC pipe arches, tightly secured around the perimeter with garden stakes. Yep. No cats allowed. More (better) photos to come as I remember to take and post them. Duh.

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comfort food from another place

After a long and surprisingly hectic day at work, I had one thing on my mind: comfort food. I wanted something warm, spicy, and rejuvenating. Dinner had to be easy, cheap, and use up some things I already had on hand: a tall order.

Suddenly, a craving for Indian food hit. My previous experiences trying to cook Indian food didn't go over too well, but then I happened upon this recipe for chickpea and spinach curry. Easy! Healthy! Almost identical to what our friend's mom had made for us months ago! Exactly what I wanted! And I could cheat a little with a magical ingredient called Red Curry Paste. Ha-le-lu-jah.

It also called for spinach, which was the one veggie in the garden ready to harvest. Before covering up the raised bed (again) for our latest, greatest cold snap, I carefully trimmed back our baby spinach, brought it inside, and rinsed it. Ryan took one look at it, then looked at me to exclaim, "Wow! It looks like real spinach!"

Indeed. Real spinach. Real, delicious spinach. From our backyard. A gal could get used to this.

This was one of the easiest recipes I've thrown together in a while—not to mention one of the most satisfying. Even if you've never cooked Indian food before, you'll be able to master this in one try. We scooped it up with multi-grain tortillas from Central Market, which we lightly toasted in a dry cast iron skillet (they're great toasted, too). And maybe we added a little butter on the top. Just maybe a little. . . a little bit of butter. Yeah.

I actually followed this recipe at Jen Loves Kev (which she got from off of broadway) pretty square-on, resisting the temptation to add yogurt at the end or put more ginger in at the beginning. But, feel free to riff on the general theme. Who knows what you might discover.

This can be easily made out of pantry staples, which makes it even better: a can of garbanzos, a can of chopped tomatoes, and a few common spices. Looks like we'll be stocking red curry paste from now on, too.

And can I just point out how healthy this is? A high-protein, low-fat, antioxidant-rich, ginger-spiked dinner with a multi-grain side. Makes for great leftovers to boot. . .

What are you waiting for?!?

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inspired: self-full.

Not a photo of food. GOAL, though.

So I had this a-ha! moment today while reading one of my favorite blogs, A Practical Wedding. Yes, its' technically a wedding blog (but in reality, SO much more!), and yes, our wedding happened, oh . . . about four months ago, but it is so very inspiring to me. I flirted with other wedding sites for a few weeks after our wedding, but have pretty well nixed my penchant for scrolling at 60MPH through inspiring (or aspirational) wedding photos. But I've stuck with my smart, sassy blog friends over at APW.

And while reading Tuesday's post, wherein author Meg encourages women to be self-full, I felt inspired. Inspired to keep doing what I'm doing, yes—but more so. I'm inspired to start doing it better.

Which brings me to this blog. January was so good to me, but most of that was because, wouldn't you know. . . I was really good to myself. I spent a lot of time laughing, running, working out with my husband, focusing on our health and well-being, and exploring yoga. I stretched limits both mentally and physically and found out that I have so much more space within myself in which I can expand.

I started reading a daily meditation and keeping a gratitude journal, where I write down five things I'm grateful for everyday. I set new goals and found little ways to improve across the board. And I shared all this with my husband.

In the kitchen, I renewed a commitment to local, organic produce. I harvested our first baby greens from our garden (which is currently covered with a tarp, because it's 20 degrees outside!), and have been putting together meals in the spirit of whole-ness.

It occurred to me that while this blog is mainly about creating fresh, healthy, and fun foods, it can also be a sounding board for inspiration. From now on, I'm setting a goal to post a newsworthy blog each week, sharing with you an interesting food-related article. I'll also bring you a post like this, albeit hopefully a little shorter, about something inspiring to me. Maybe food-related, maybe not; but always keeping the health of body, mind, and soul in the focus.

My hope? That my journey toward self-awareness and, dare I say, enlightenment might inspire others. So much of what has taken me through the last 31 days has come from what I've read, what I've experienced, and most of all, from really connecting with people around me.

So, in the spirit of my first yoga session of the week, I leave you with my favorite yoga teacher's most inspiring (paraphrased) instructions: Open to the winds of change, the winds of grace; let your heart shine. Be f*$%@g awesome.

Photo: Lululemon Athletica.

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on thinking, then acting

After plenty of prodding from plenty of people, I ordered the Desert Island Sampler from Rancho Gordo. My heirloom beans arrived in all their glory this week, and even I was shocked at my level of excitement for cooking dry beans when I got home Tuesday night.

First up? The Rio Zape beans, which (according to their package) had hints of coffee and chocolate. While mulling over what to cook them with, I perused Rancho Gordo's bean-cooking instructions. "Cover with water, broth, or beer..." Wait—notes of coffee in the beans? Wouldn't you know, I had two Real Ale Coffee Porters in the fridge! (Best. Beer. Ever.) Dare I use our most precious beer to stew beans? Since I've seen it bottled and on tap at many of our favorite spots lately, I opted to use half a beer for the beans. The other half? For the cook, of course.

So the other revelation (beer + beans being the first) I had that night was to roast my two favorite vegetables together. After my cousins cooked dinner for us (Amy made awesome butternut squash risotto and Callie brought this incredible salad, complete with roasted broccoli and lemon-poppyseed dressing), it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, I could combine the two.

Without so much as an effort to Google whether it had been done before, I immediately chopped up the squash and threw it in a baking dish. The broccoli followed, and 40 minutes later I was mmm-ing my way through dinner. The beans turned out great; they weren't as different from pinto beans as I was expecting, but they were indeed quite tasty. I thought the real easy weeknight show-stopper was the vegetable side. I'm biased, since these are my favorite veggies, but.... It's still darn delicious. And it's gorgeous. The greens and the golds and the flakes of bright red—just lovely.

Spicy Roasted Butternut and Broccoli

1 pound broccoli florets, fresh or frozen

1 pound butternut squash, peeled and cubed

2 tablespoons EVOO

salt and pepper to taste

crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

Preheat the oven to 425. Chop up the veggies and toss in a baking dish. Mix evenly with EVOO and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add about 1/2 teaspoon (or more, or less) crushed red pepper flakes. Give it all one more good stir and plop that baby in the oven.

Roast for 30-40 minutes, or until broccoli is slightly crisped and browned on the tips and butternut is fork-tender (or even softer).

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a new lease on life

January started with so much promise. We began the year with a joyful evening spent with close friends; we made promises to ourselves and to each other to start fresh, eat right, exercise, and do the Earth a favor or two.

And I'm pleased to say that January is delivering.

My husband came home with great news yesterday, news that means his unbelievably strong willpower and unwavering efforts in all aspects of health are paying off. I couldn't be prouder of him! I have found a new passion—one that makes me feel alive and vibrant and want to share it with the world—in yoga. Together, we're making choices that make us look and feel and act better. Healthy minds, healthy bodies, healthy spirits.

We have joined a new CSA and got a box of lovely winter veggies from Johnson Backyard Garden. I haven't turned to butter once for these perfect vegetables, and not a thing has gone to waste! We ate kohlrabi for the first time. We've been cooking beans in the pressure cooker (more on that when I get my first shipment of Rancho Gordo heirloom beans) and have been cooking more whole grains than ever before.

Did I mention that, at the moment, there are no dirty dishes in the sink? I'm on a roll, folks!

So! There you have it. A January success story. And with it, the success of our hyper-local dinner from last night. We've got sprouts growing in our raised bed, but they had to be thinned out. I harvested some of the rejects and dubbed them "micro-greens;" we pretended to be in a five-star restaurant and downed a beautiful salad with red and green baby romaine (from JBG), micro-greens from our own garden (turnip, radish, parsley, lettuce, and cilantro thinnings to be exact), a greenhouse tomato grown in Marfa, and homemade balsalmic vinaigrette.

Yes, it was amazing, but the tomato? Definitely a summer crop, not a winter one.

For the main course, we had a surprisingly satisfying soup, adapted from this white bean soup from Whole Living. In that same CSA box we got the most beautiful head of green cauliflower. I was quite resourceful and even used the leaves for this recipe! It's delectable, creamy, high in protein and nutrients, and low in fat. The leftovers are just as good if not better, and the tiny bit of parmesan? It's divine. You must not skip the parmesan.

Cauliflower, Broccoli, and White Bean Soup

1 small head green cauliflower (including leaves), chopped into bite-size pieces

1 cup broccoli florets (I used frozen)

2 1/2 cups water

1 15-ounce can canneli beans, drained

1 cup onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons EVOO

salt and pepper to taste

shaved parmesan (for garnish)

In a 3.5-quart pot or saucepan, bring the water to boil. With a steamer basket, steam the cauliflower and broccoli just until bright and lively. Drain—reserve the water—and set aside.

In the same pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat for about 30 seconds. Add the onion and garlic and stir. Saute until translucent, about 5-7 minutes.

Add the beans and the reserved 2 1/2 cups steaming water, and bring to a simmer. Taste and season accordingly. Carefully add the cauliflower and broccoli. Remove from heat.

Using a blender, carefully puree the soup in batches. Return to pot, bring to a low simmer, and season to taste.

Just before serving, shave a few bits of parmesan on top of each bowl. Enjoy!

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and in this new decade....

Like most of the rest of the world, we sat with our friends just before the clock struck midnight to ring in the new year, and talked about what a year it had been.

What a year, indeed.

We started it engaged. We bought a house. We painted a wall for the first time in our lives. We planned a wedding. Then we had a wedding. We went to Mexico and swam in the ocean. I stuck with the vegetarian thing (it's been a whole year, can anyone believe it?!). We built a vegetable garden and planted our first seeds. We tried some new things, we had successes and failures. We shared our first holidays together as husband and wife. And in between all those huge things we did, we shared many adventures. There were bicycle rides and jogs and laughter and tears, and so much more.

It was a pretty wonderful year.

So, here comes 2011, and I have to be honest. I just put up the Christmas decorations today and I'm feeling a little empty, as is the living room. We don't have any huge things to check off our to-do list this year; last year was so full of huge life changes, it's hard to imagine what this year may hold. This year I think we want to travel; we want to be more healthy than ever (it's working this time, I promise); we want to learn new skills.

As for food, I want to continue what we've been doing, with a few small changes. We're starting to branch out a little and it's exciting. I hope that since I won't be so distracted, I'll have more to share here.

I'm learning how to cook with a pressure cooker, and soon I'm betting every one of you readers out there will order one. Pretty amazing stuff.

And, in about 60 days, we'll (hopefully) be harvesting the first veggies from our little garden. Swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, and turnips await!

So, here's to wishing you the happiest year in 2011.

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