How did your first month of 2012 go?  Mine will be known as “Jam-packed January”.  I don’t remember the last time I had such a busy month!  When the blog gets quiet, you know things are going bonkers around here!  No complaints though – I’m thankful to be busy with work.   Although recently I’ve been finding that the more cooking I do for clients, the less cooking I do for my household.   It’s kind of a “cobbler’s children go unshod” situation – the chef’s hubby is left unfed!    Thank goodness for Chipotle bowls!

I did have one quick snack recently that I wanted to share with you.  As you may know, one of my favorite spices is Smoked Spanish Hot Paprika.  I love to pair it with sweet potatoes.  Well, I had half of a baked sweet potato left over so I mashed it up with a few sprinkles of paprika and a small spoon of fresh red miso and WOW was it delicious!   A little sweet, a little salty (from the miso), a little spicy & smoky…  I shaved a little raw goat cheddar over the top and finished it with a little sesame seed gomasio.  This would be a great side dish for burgers or even some seared tuna.  Don’t worry about measuring the spice and miso.  Just go by taste!

I’ll be working on the next installment of Recipes to Inspire soon.  I have had a brand new Bon Appetit magazine sitting on my coffee table for 2 weeks and last night was the first time I had a chance to crack it open.  Since I have some time scheduled for recipe testing next week, I’m on the lookout for some fun ideas!

Here’s to a FABULOUS February for us all!  And Happy Groundhog Day EVE! 

– Shari B. =)

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Fortunately I did take some time out to relax a bit over the weekend and make a fun Sunday breakfast. Have you ever had MOCHI before?

I knew it existed, I had read recipes for things to make with it (muffins, pizza crusts, waffles), but I’d just never picked any up at the store.  Cory loves waffles and so I decided to see what this mochi was all about.

One thing I love about the original flavor is the ingredient list:  Organic sweet brown rice, filtered water.

That’s it!

I cannot take credit for this fun idea – I learned the technique from Alicia Silverstone in her book The Kind Diet.  She has kindly included the recipe on her website as well for those of you who want to give it a try.   I didn’t make the syrup in the recipe – I just used a little raw honey and sprinkled it with chopped almonds.

This is my kind of cooking.  You cut the mochi into strips, lay it on your waffle iron, and VOILA – it grows into a waffle like those crazy sea monkeys we used to add to water as kids.

They were pretty good!  Definitely chewy and you want to add flavor with some sort of topping because alone they taste like, well… rice.

I even had some strips of tempeh bacon that I’d made the day before.  It was a fun and FAST breakfast for a lazy Sunday morning.

Next time I’ll have to try the Raisin-Cinnamon flavor!

Have you ever made mochi?  How do you like to prepare it? 

– Shari B. =)

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It’s another cold and snowy morning in Denver today.

Oh summer sunshine, how I miss you so.  Please hurry back!

Since greens remind me of warmer days, I thought I’d share another kitchen tip with you today.  Treat your greens like freshly cut flowers and they will last longer.  I do this with kale, parsley and cilantro regularly.

Grab a heavy glass jar (this is where my leftover almond butter jars come in handy) and fill with enough filtered water that the cut end of the stems sit are just dipped in.

Cover very lightly with a plastic bag to create its own little greenhouse.

Place in your refrigerator.

Change the water every few days as you would with a bouquet of flowers.

Fresh herbs elevate the flavor of just about every dish and they can be pretty pricey!  So making sure they last longer is important to me because I really hate to throw money into my garbage disposal.

Organic kale is no bargain either at $3 a bunch.  If your kale does start to get ‘wilty’ before you get a chance to use it all, make some kale chips with it, juice it or toss some into a green smoothie.

Have a super day and if you have sunshine where you live, please send a little to Colorado! 

– Shari B. =)

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I added a fun new book to my cooking library last night – Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom:  Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking.

Just in flipping through it I learned an interesting tip that I wanted to share with you.  (I’m sure those of you out there who are bakers already know this but since I don’t work much with pastries and doughs, it was news to me.)  Baking powder can go bad around the 6 month mark after being opened.  Fortunately you can test whether it is still usable by putting a teaspoon or so into hot water.  If it fizzes up, it’s still good.  I tried it this morning because coincidentally I will be cooking a recipe for a client next week that includes a baking powder biscuit and what do you know – it FIZZED!  Just like an Alka-Seltzer tablet would.

Not sure how it is that I never knew that…!  But thank you Julia for teaching me. 

Now here’s a tip of my own to share with you:  keep a Sharpie marker in your kitchen and always label things with the date that you opened them (on a piece of masking tape, if the containers aren’t disposable).  I do this in my own kitchen as well as clients’.  Things have a way of getting opened, then getting ‘lost’ in a pantry or the back of the fridge.  Time flies by and it’s hard to remember how old it is.  I write on everything:  veggie broth, bags of dried goods (beans, rices, pastas, flours, etc.), spices, capers, salad dressing, tamari, you name it.  And when you mark your baking powder upon opening, you’ll know when it might be needing to be tested with Julia’s tip above!

Have a fabulous weekend, friends!

– Shari B. =)

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So this year for Thanksgiving we took the easy route.  Last year I made everything from scratch, including bread.  This year, what with all the recipe testing and cheffing I’ve had going on lately, cooking was actually the last thing I wanted to do.  And you know what?  We had a really great day!

We started our morning with the bread pudding.  Afterward we took the dogs out to get some exercise and for us to get some sunshine.  Cory woke up with a pretty gnarly head cold so we took it easy – otherwise I would have been bugging him to go do our own version of a Turkey Trot (I like to call ours the Gobble Gallop!).  I still can’t get over the awesome weather we had!

As I recap the food, it seems that BREAD sure seemed to be a recurring theme surrounding this holiday!

For ‘lunch’ we made a build-your-own crostini.  On my side of the pan I did some with Gruyere and tomato, some with goat cheese, some with a pepper goat and peppadews.

I mixed garlic powder and oil to brush on the baguette slices, then baked them at 425 for a few minutes until crispy before adding the toppings.  Then I popped them back in the oven just until the cheese melted.

Garnish with a sprinkle of minced parsley and a few olives on the side and eat up!

Dinner was a his-and-hers affair.

Here’s our little “table for two”:

We picked up a few ready-made things at Whole Foods the night before (some turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy for Cory and some soup and rolls for us both).  We just don’t eat large servings of food so it’s overkill for us to make a feast for two of us.  And since only one of us would be enjoying turkey, that too would be a waste.

A few days prior I made a buckwheat ‘stuffing’ from buckwheat groats, cooked with vegetable stock and some Sage & Savory poultry seasoning,  After cooking I added in some cranberries and pepitas.  Then on Thanksgiving Day, all I needed to do was roast my acorn squash and fill it with the stuffing.

I hollowed out single serve rolls to function as personal bread bowls and filled them with spicy vegan pumpkin soup (Whole Foods).

We had spinach salads on the side to include some leafy greens.  And Cory enjoyed his single serve ‘turkey with mash’, in addition.

We’d also planned on having some stuffed crescent rolls, like Keri made for me, but we just knew we wouldn’t have room.  So we made them the next day for lunch.

We played Trivial Pursuit (on the Wii), watched football, relaxed and even went to see “Breaking Dawn” on Friday.  We soaked up the downtime as much as we could since we knew Saturday and Sunday weren’t going to be nearly as relaxing.  (Another home project would getting underway.)

Today it felt great to get up in my usual routine, get a workout in, have a green smoothie, followed by some kombucha tea later in the morning.  Sometimes the best part of indulgent holiday food is getting back to the healthy stuff!

– Shari B. =)

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I hope that you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!  What a beautiful day it was in Colorado for the holiday!  Our high temp was 71 glorious degrees!  That made my internal solar battery happy! 

Wednesday, after the workday was done we had our usual Holiday Happy Hour where we kick off the long weekend with apps and a drink.  Whether it’s a long holiday weekend or an impending vacation, that first ‘evening off’ is always festive to me.  We were pretty beat from the day though so this one was nothing fancy.

Our snack was hummus and pita chips:

Along with a celebratory clink of glasses (red wine for her, beer for him!):

Another one of our holiday traditions, be it Thanksgiving or Christmas, is a fun breakfast.  Last Thanksgiving it was Pumpkin French Toast, sometimes it’s cinnamon rolls, other times a vegetarian ‘sausage’ gravy and biscuits, etc.  This Thanksgiving it was Double Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding.  And just for the record this is not “fitness food” or something I would eat regularly.  This is “once in a while, savor it” food for special occasions!

Oh. My. Chocolate. Heaven.  It was creamy, ooey and gooey. I used the recipe from Veganomicon as my inspiration, but changed a number of items.  (As such this is no longer a vegan recipe because it uses chocolate croissants from Panera that I am pretty sure contain plenty of butter.)

Double Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• Coconut oil, for greasing loaf pan
• 3 chocolate-filled croissants, purchased 2 days in advance to dry out
• 1-1/2 to 2 cups Silk almond milk in Dark Chocolate flavor, divided
• 3 tablespoons arrowroot powder
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• pinch of sea salt
• 2 or 3 small ripe bananas, peeled

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 10 x 5 loaf pan with coconut oil.

Cut the croissants into small cubes.  Place into a medium large mixing bowl.

In a second medium mixing bowl, whisk together ½ cup dark chocolate almond milk and arrowroot powder until smooth with no clumps of powder left.  To the bowl, add another 1 cup of the almond milk along with the agave, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and just a pinch of sea salt and whisk to combine. Pour over cubed croissants, stirring lightly if needed to make sure each piece is coated.  Set aside for at least 15 minutes for liquid to soak into croissants.  After soaking, if your croissants are looking dry, add remaining 1/2 cup of almond milk.  Mash the bananas with a fork on a cutting board or in a bowl and gently fold them into the bread pudding. Pour mixture into loaf pan.

Bake uncovered for 32-35 minutes till top is puffed, slightly browned and feels firm. Allow to cool slightly (15 minutes or more so that it continues to set) before scooping and serving.

Are you a bread pudding fan?  Do you like yours more ‘silky/creamy’ or more on the drier side? 

I’ll be back shortly to recap the remainder of the holiday food!

– Shari B. =)

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Last week, my fabulous friend Keri had me over for dinner.  It was SUCH a treat.  As a personal chef who spends most of my time in either a client’s kitchen working or in my own kitchen testing, I can’t tell you how nice it is to have someone else do the cooking!

Keri was so thoughtful in preparing a delicious vegetarian meal for me and she did such a beautiful job with the presentation, I just knew I had to take pictures to share on the blog!  It was all a surprise so I didn’t know what was coming from one course to the next!

Inviting dinner decor:

The appetizer was a Spinach Feta Crescent, using rolls from the Immaculate Baking Co.  I knew of their cookies, but I had no idea they had ROLLS!  You can bet I’ll be picking some of them up for use on Thanksgiving!

These were little clouds of heaven.  I LOVED them, and ate THREE.  Which I shouldn’t have done, because then I filled up too quickly before the rest of the dinner!

Next she prepared a chilled soup with tahini, lemon and chickpeas.  Plus warm pita bread for dipping.  (She must know I’m a HUMMUS-holic!)  I can’t get enough hummus or things made with chickpeas.  This was so good.  Look at the gorgeous garnish and arrangement!

And the entree was a grilled spaghetti squash with vegetable marinara and basil.  Who would have thought to cook squash on the GRILL?  It was such a great way to give the spaghetti squash some depth of flavor – it had just the right amount of smoky flavor.  This is a technique I’ll be trying myself!  (If only my phone took better pictures in this lighting – the photos don’t do the food justice at all.)

She also had a dessert at the ready, but I was so stuffed from all the healthy, delicious food we’d had already that I couldn’t even imagine another bite.

What I loved about this meal was that it shows how vegetables can be elevated to such an elegant status for dinner parties, without needing to be fussy or difficult.  This was such a satisfying meal and it was so nice to have someone prepare pretty food for me to admire!

OK, who’s cooking for me next?    I could get used to this!

Speaking of cooking for people or enjoying the culinary stylings of others, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?  At your house or elsewhere?  What’s on the menu?

– Shari B. =)

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Hope your week has been fantastic!  Things here are HOPPING on this end for sure!  I have some travel coming up (again, I know!) so if you notice a lag in posts for few days, that’s why.  The super-exciting part is that I’ll be seeing TWO of my favorite blog participants on this trip!

As promised here is the next installment in the Recipes to Inspire Series.  A lot of the recipes I have been perusing lately had much to do with what seemed to be overflowing in my refrigerator.  But then I got so busy cooking client recipe tests that I haven’t had any time to make any of these!  They are on my list for sure though.

Pumpkin Seed Cilantro Pesto

This recipe is actually is for a main dish of Pan-Seared Salmon – but it’s the pesto that interests me.  I always have pepitas (raw pumpkin seed kernels) on hand and cilantro is a heck of a lot cheaper than basil at the store.  (I miss having herbs at-hand from my garden – I really need to start a new herb garden indoors in my AeroGrow to get me through the winter.)

Shari Tweaks:  usually basil pesto has Parmesan cheese in it and I noticed this recipe doesn’t include any cheese.  So I think I might consider tossing in a little bit of nutritional yeast to provide a hint of cheese flavor as well as boost the protein a smidge.  The other change I think might be fun would be to use avocado oil in lieu of olive oil.

Roasted Mushroom and Sunchoke Bisque

I adore mushrooms.  I bought a HUGE package of baby bellas which had me looking for creative ways to use them up.  This unique bisque really caught my eye.  I love that it uses sunchokes and I never really do much with them, so this would be a great excuse to pick some up.  Also known as a Jerusalem artichoke, sunchokes are actually the root of a certain type of sunflower. We used these on occasion in school, and I liked them.

Shari Tweaks:  You know, I don’t think I’d change this much.  Mainly I’d switch out the olive oil for a different cooking oil since I don’t like to heat my olive oil, so I’d use coconut oil.  And in lieu of the soymilk I’d probably use almond milk, but the recipe author stated that the ‘milk’ part was optional anyway.  I’m excited to try this one!

Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Wellington

I’m still stuck on mushrooms, it seems.     This recipe totally intrigues me because every single season of Hell’s Kitchen with Gordon Ramsay shows the chef contestants having to deal with regular Wellingtons (beef), which actually look quite challenging.  And every season, I think to myself that I need to make a Wellington of some sort, maybe a beef one for Cory and a veggie version for me.  Then I saw this recipe last week and it looks even better than a regular Wellington (and maybe less work too, which you know is always a plus in my book!).  This one is basically a deconstructed version, in that it’s mostly just a stuffed mushroom with a piece of the pastry on top.  Doesn’t it look pretty, though?  This is what I was thinking about for Thanksgiving (if I even end up cooking anything that day).  This looks like something fun to serve guests for sure!

Shari Tweaks:  Like the previous one, I actually think this recipe looks great just how it is so there’s not much I’d change.  I don’t have any champagne vinegar and the last thing I need is another varietal of vinegar in my pantry so I’ll most likely use apple cider vinegar instead.  And I’ll sub out the olive oil for grapeseed as well as ghee for the butter.  That’s all I’d do!

***

What do you think?  Anything look good?  Have you ever eaten a SUNCHOKE?  Do you love MUSHROOMS like I do?

Have a wonderful weekend friends!

– Shari B. =)

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How was your weekend? Mine went by entirely too fast.  I would like one more day to get the rest of my household stuff done!  But today it’s back to work, which includes more recipe tests today.

One of my favorite parts of recipe testing is making a trip to my favorite spice shop, Savory Spice.  If you have your TV on the Food Network channel most of the time like I do, you may have seen a show on it called “Spice & Easy“.  The host of the show is an owner of Savory Spice.  This time when I was there, she was there too!  That’s the closest I’ve ever come to seeing a Food Network personality and in my geekdom, that was exciting for me.

But I digress…

I love going to the spice shop mainly because they have shelves and shelves of any spice you can imagine along with wonderful blends. I could wander around in there for hours.

I especially love that you can purchase spices in very small batches there, as little as 1/2 ounce.  One advantage is that it allows you to try it out first to make sure you like it.  Additionally once spices are ground, they quickly lose their potency of flavor (and some of the therapeutic value they might have) so when you buy in small batches you can use them while they are still very flavorful.

I picked up some Mexican Oregano to refill my stock, Harissa Spice Mix (which I plan to use on the excess of carrots I seem to have in my fridge!) and some Ras El Hanout blend (which I use in a seitan tagine recipe that I make for clients).

I also picked up some seasonal blends as well.  With the Sage & Savory Stuffing Seasoning, I want to make some sort of stuffing using maybe millet or buckwheat as the base in lieu of bread cubes.  The shop’s website also has a recipe for a Sage & Savory Sweet Potato Bisque that looks delicious as well, using this blend.  And of course a little pumpkin pie spice – no plans to make a pie but I do have some organic canned pumpkin so maybe I’ll mix it with some silken tofu and this spice and make a ‘pumpkin pie mousse’ or a spiced smoothie.  Or maybe in my coffee.

And I had to get a refill of my absolute favorite spice that I use on everything – smoked Spanish hot paprika.  I don’t think I’ve found anything yet that this doesn’t complement.  I love it on sweet potato fries, pureed carrots, roasted mushrooms.  I love it in soups.  If you haven’t tried this spice before, I highly recommend it!

***

Do you have a favorite “go to” spice that you use regularly in your own kitchen?  I love to hear what other people enjoy using – in addition to the hot paprika, I find that I use a lot of CUMIN.  

Have a MARVELOUS Monday friends!

– Shari B. =)

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I hope you all had a very nice Halloween!  I enjoyed reading the comments about what your plans were, thank you!  They all sounded like fun!  Our “Haunted Forest” was actually a really good time.  I found a link to some video of it on our rec association website if you want to take a look (click HERE). I’m not sure how long they’ll keep it out there, so if the link doesn’t work when you read this, my apologies.

It was the right amount of scary for me, to be honest.  I don’t like to be totally petrified.  People in scary costumes would jump out of the bushes and scream or growl at you.  The creepiest part was that you were following a hiking trail in the dark and bumping into twigs and bushes (or were they …? ha ha).  I was so focused on watching my step to keep from rolling an ankle that I wasn’t as worried about things scaring me.  So in that way it was PERFECT!    I enjoyed it and feel we got our $8 worth.  We appreciate that our HOA/Rec Association does so many fun things in our community that we’d like to continue to support things like this so they keep doing them!

After we returned home, we watched the 1968 version of “Night of the Living Dead” which on the scary movie scale is just about the right speed for me.  It was in black and white with such outdated effects that it wasn’t at all scary, and more fun to watch.  That is about the level of scary I can handle anymore.  Ever since seeing “The Strangers” on Halloween ’08, I have banned myself from scary movies.  I think that one left me scarred for life. 

Something else that I found to be scary?  Brussels sprouts in their raw form.  As I mentioned yesterday, it was a big recipe testing day and on the list was Brussels sprouts slaw.  I love Brussels sprouts, but apparently I love them roasted or stir-fried.  Raw – not so much. Fortunately I started with a very tiny batch.  I’ll still eat it, but I’ll probably *hide* it in a wrap or something.  (BTW, sorry for the weirdly colored photos – I miss the summer daylight already for the sake of pics!)

I roasted up a small batch of remaining sprouts and used the dressing on them too – I like it better this way:

And then I used the dressing again on a “two kale” salad with raw walnuts and dried cranberries:

I’ve been in a cruciferous salad mode, it seems.  This was last week’s which had some spinach, kale, Brussels sprouts (shredded and lightly sauteed), honeyed walnuts:

I am up to my eyeballs in crucifers right now – I certainly have no shortage of greens to eat right!

Here are some of pics of other recipe tests going on.

Orange Scented Beet Soup

Kelp Noodle Salad with Tamari Almonds

Hummus Soup with Garlicky Croutons

Tempeh Walnut Unmeatballs with Shiitake Sauce

Today I really need to force myself to get some yoga in or maybe even just a good long power walk.  I’ve been so busy with business stuff and recipe testing that my fitness routine has been set aside more than I’d like to admit.  I’m putting it out here to keep myself accountable!  What’s the first thing to go out the window for you when things get insanely busy?  Sleep?  Healthy eating?  Exercise?  All of the above?

Have a great day FitFeat friends!  I’ll see you next time!  I’m gathering ideas for Volume 2 of the Recipes to Inspire series so that will be coming in the near future.

– Shari B. =)

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