A Lovely Life

Hands down the best money we spent at the beginning of the pandemic as a New York Times Cooking subscription. When restaurants started to close and our financial situation took a bit of a hit due to COVID, eating out was clearly no longer an option. I've had a love for spending time in the kitchen since I can remember, but experimentation wasn't always my thing. C definitely brought out some adventure in me when it comes to cooking.  So, we've spent the majority of the last year reading the emails from NYT Cooking titled "What to Eat Tonight" and "What to Eat This Weekend" and we'd add things that sounded good to our virtual recipe box and plan accordingly. One of our unspoken guidelines is that the majority of what we made has to have as few ingredients and steps as possible. Something with over 22 steps better end with step 23 being "how to file for divorce"... I kid. We've loosened that rule a bit as we've added more staples to t...

Food brings people together.  Think about it. Whether it be holidays, weddings, Sunday meals, funerals or reunions food most often than not is the focus of those events.  First thing I do when someone has had a baby or fallen ill: bring food (or wine depending on the occasion).  It's a common necessity that allows us to connect with another.   My family is big on food and while I wasn't always able to have big meals with my extended family, I still appreciate the traditions they've made.   We each have a favorite recipe that reminds us of "home" and I love sharing those recipes and experiences with others.  I've recently been trying to make at least one weekend meal more interesting than our typical nightly dinners.  I've been using hand-me-down recipes from friends and family and branching out by trying recipes that are completely different.  It's been fun to experiment with new foods and techniques!  There's nothing better than "slaving...

I've mentioned before that I've been loving some green smoothie action lately!  I found this great website that has a ton of recipes and advice for getting a daily dose of green yumminess!  I love that they're super easy and don't take a ton of time.  I thought I'd post a couple of my absolute favorites because, why not?! Almond Butter & "Jelly" 2 cups of spinach or kale 2 cups of almond milk 2 cups of frozen grapes 4 tablespoons of almond butter Blend greens and almond milk until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend again. Kiwi Strawberry Twist 2 cups of spinach 2 cups of fresh squeezed orange juice (if I don't have enough oranges on hand, I do 1 cup of orange juice and 1 cup of water as a substitute) 2 cups of frozen strawberries 2 ripe kiwi, fuzzy skin removed 1 banana Juice of 1 lemon Blend spinach, orange juice and lemon juice until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend again. Both of these smoothies s...

In our quest to be healthier, I've been searching for ways to keep our meals both healthy AND interesting.  I have failed at healthy eating when all I make every meal is chicken and vegetables.  I need some variety, y'all! I'm not an earlier riser, so the most important meal of the day --breakfast-- doesn't get the attention it should.  It usually consists of to go coffee and a piece of fruit or hard boiled egg on a good day.  I wanted something delicious AND filling, but was having a hard time figuring out what that was.  And then I stumbled upon Simple Green Smoothies .  The two gals who created this lovely website have made getting a dose of veggies and fruit super easy.  I mean, STUPID easy.  I signed up for their FREE 30-Day challenge and it's been super fun.  Every week I get an email with a shopping list and recipes.  Each recipe makes about 2 smoothies + a little more because I'm not so great on measuring stuff out.  I b...

"Omit and substitute! That's how recipes should be written. Please don't ever get so hung up on published recipes that you forget that you can omit and substitute." - Jeff Smith I have an affinity for Pesto Chicken.  I'm sure I saw the idea somewhere long ago and have stored said idea in my mind for days when I just don't know what we're going to have for dinner.  So, when I was planning our overwhelmingly long (& first) clean eating/Paleo menu, I knew I wanted to have something that I could throw together quickly after work one night.  "Pesto Chicken!", I thought...until I realized that the jar stuff from the grocery wasn't going to cut it.  And, so, the Google search began: "pesto with basil and walnuts" nope "paleo pesto" a bit too involved "pesto no dairy" BINGO! I found this recipe at Go Dairy Free  and ran with it! 1 cup of fresh basil leaves 1/4 cup of olive oil Salt to taste (we try ...

As I mentioned before , after the 1st day our 10 day clean eating diet I realized the importance of a good and healthy snack.  So, I Googled away.  There were 3 things that were super important to me: 1.  An easy recipe 2.  Something I could make ahead of time  3. Something with few, but healthy ingredients   I found two recipes that I wanted to make asap.  One was for lara bars which will be saved for another post and the other was banana chips.  I don't buy banana chips much if at all, but I love bananas and I loved how easy it seemed to be to make them.  I don't have a dehydrator, but there were plenty of oven baked chip recipes out there!  I used a variation of the one I found at Homemadesimple.com I did one batch earlier this week that didn't turn out so well.  I think it was because I was impatient (imagine that!) so I turned the heat up higher than recommended and cut the bananas pretty thin.  Needless to sa...