Foodie Favorites

Spring is in the air! At least for the next few days. And I'm soaking it up while it's here. Walks in the park, sunflowers in the kitchen, an impromptu BBQ in the backyard, and a fresh manicure swapping my winter dark red for a springy light pink. That about sums up the weekend so far, and it's been lovely.

So over the last few weeks I've been amassing a few new food favorites that have popped up weekly, if not daily around here, so I figured a roundup post that touched on some of the things I'm loving lately would be fun. A few of my favorite bloggers do "favorite things" posts here and there and I always love seeing what products and things they're loving, so hopefully you feel the same. Here we go!

1. Tri Color Quinoa

I picked this up at Trader Joe's last month during my stock-up, and was really surprised at how different it is from traditional quinoa. It has a nuttier, chewier texture, and of course the color is fun for something different. I've used in it quinoa salads, veggie curries and just plain as a side dish, but my favorite way to use it so far is paired with TJ's baked tofu, broccoli, sesame oil and Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Super quick and super delish.

2. Fresh Mango

In my first shipment from Door to Door Organics, I received a super ripe mango that needed to be used that same day. I already had a plan for dinner and couldn't figure out a way to incorporate the mango, so in the end just cut it up and served up dishes of mango for dessert. Why have I not done this more often?! Half the time our mangos go unused because I can never decide what to do with them before they go bad, so why I never eat them plain is beyond me. This was so juicy, sweet and delicious and the perfect way to end a meal. I've been ordering them in my D2D box every week now for a fruity dessert.

3. Green Smoothies

Riker loves 'em too! Every time I make one - which is almost daily - he asks for his own or for sips of mine. I change up the ingredients based on what I have around or what I'm in the mood for - swapping between different fruits, regular milk, almond milk or coconut milk, and occasionally using Greek yogurt instead of protein powder - but my most-used combo includes:

- 1 frozen banana

- 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (I use Sun Warrior "Warrior Blend" or Garden of Life Raw)

- About 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk or organic whole milk

- 1 1/2 cups fresh spinach

- 1 ice cube

- About 1 tsp. raw organic honey

Slurp! I love the energy I get from drinking so many vitamins first thing in the morning.

4. Rigoni di Asiago Fiordifrutta Cherry Jam

That's quite a mouthful, huh? I found Fiordefrutta when browsing the jam section in our local healthfood store, and was so excited since it's been tough to find an organic jam (that I don't have to make myself, since I'm fresh out until summertime) that also doesn't have sugar in it and is sweetened only with fruit juice. This stuff is crazy good. It's tart and sweet at the same time, and has big chunks of cherries. Riker eats it on PB&J, but Matt and I have been eating it on crackers with goat cheese or cheddar for snacks, and omg what a flavor combo. 

I've also been using it to make salad dressings for salads that have fruit in them - I just thin the jam with a little red wine vinegar, then add olive oil, salt and pepper. Could not be easier, and it pairs so well with leafy greens tossed with berries, apples or pears. Next time I'm going to try the fig spread. Yum.

5. Mint Tea

This is a simple one, I know. But I've been on a huge mint tea kick lately - only not using tea bags, just plain mint. Over the last few weeks I've had two work lunches at Le Pain Quotidien in the city, and was a little surprised the first time I ordered mint tea and was given a little tea pot of just hot water and mint leaves. But it was amazing. It was so fragrant and SO minty, but not in a toothpaste kind of way. I fell in love. I've been keeping mint in the house lately and sipping on this in the afternoons or after dinner. It's a great way to relax and is also good for digestion. I can't wait until my herb garden comes in this summer because I always grow chocolate mint, and how good would chocolate mint tea be??

And there you have it, 5 of my faves the last few weeks. Now I'm off to do some recipe testing in the kitchen for a Real California Milk post I'm working on. I see something cheesy in my future.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Baby Weekend

We're almost halfway through the week already, how did that happen? I'll take it though. This past weekend was a busy one and I'm feeling that midweek tiredness kick in.

Saturday afternoon we had a surprise pop up on our agenda. My good friend Lindsay and her husband Ryan welcomed baby Jackson into the world!

He is just adorable and Lindsay and Ryan were absolutely glowing. I'm so happy for them, and so excited to have another little one in the group!

On Sunday I had a few things on my list before heading out for the day, including making some homemade granola bars. I usually buy Larabars for quickie snacks (mostly for my bus rides home from the city); they have so few ingredients (just dates, other fruits & nuts) and are pretty tasty. But they aren't organic, and we're really trying to eat organic as much as we can these days. I didn't have any dates on hand so couldn't make knockoff Larabars, so granola bars were next on the list. I put together a pan of organic oats, seeds, nuts, flax, dried fruits, natural peanut butter and raw honey, then stuck it in the freezer to firm up.

The end result was quite delicious, but they fell apart when I cut them. They were more like granola shards & pieces. That didn't stop Riker from eating it out of the pan by the handful. He loved 'em.

I stored the granola pieces in a container in the fridge, and they've been quite the snacking sensation for all 3 of us this week. I just need to work on the recipe a bit to get the bars to stick together so they're more portable.

After granola testing, I met up with Matt's mom, sister and MomMom to take a drive south for a baby shower for Matt's cousin Monica. My own sister came too since she's friends with Monica, so I was happy to get to spend some time with her and the rest of the Baratta women.

The shower was ladybug-themed, which I thought was really cute.

I'm a sucker for themed parties.

I didn't snap any pictures of the food, but I definitely indulged a little much on pesto & goat cheese bruschetta, Caesar salad, lasagna and some asparagus. They also served beignets during the gift opening, and I couldn't resist a piping hot crispy powder sugared beignet with my tea. So I had one, along with a little slice of cake.

I woke up the next morning ready for my green smoothie. And not quite so ready for this:

More snow! The amount of snow we are getting this winter is insane. I feel like I live in New England again. Matt and Riker had a snow day while I worked in my office, since all the schools were closed again. I think we're supposed to get one more storm next week, and although I love the snow, I'm actually itching to see some spring weather soon. Here's to hoping.

Have a good hump day!

Food of the Week

Good Sunday morning! I feel like the last few weeks have flown by in a blur, and it's only going to get busier around here for the next month. I have 5 baby/bridal showers, one 50th birthday party and family coming into town twice...all in March. Yikes! It's all great stuff of course, but it'll be busy for sure. I actually have to get ready soon to head to a bridal shower a couple hours away, but it's been a little bit since I've had a chance to do a weekly food catch-up, so I was determined to do so this morning.

Let's catch up, shall we?

Over the last two weeks or so our meals have swung a wide spectrum. I recently signed us up for Door-to-Door Organics, which delivers a box of organic produce and other items right to our house every week (a huge time saver, especially since we usually need to run out for extra fruit every weekend), and am loving it so far.

I've been making tons of chopped salads with the fresh produce we've been receiving (mainly for lunches), as well as stir fries and even a pasta dish with roasted shrimp, brie, my stocking stuffer saffron and lots of fresh asparagus and tomatoes. 

Seafood has also been making plenty of appearances. Last weekend when we were in the Poconos, Matt and the guys made a smoked brisket with homemade barbecue sauce and coleslaw, but I had a grilled tuna steak instead of the meat. It.was.amazing.

I could not get enough of the homemade sweet & spicy barbecue sauce combined with the crunchy, tangy slaw. It was the perfect meal after coming home from a chilly day on the slopes. 

Pause from food pics here to enter kid pictures...

This was before we put the skis on Riker. He was much happier then. Once the skis went on, it was total meltdown mode. Ah well, we'll try again next year. He had much more fun playing in the secret hideout at the cabin we were staying in. 

I can't take the cuteness.

Okay, back to the foodie pics.

When we got back home on Sunday we stopped to eat lunch outside at Fins, my favorite Cali-style burrito place. It was so gorgeous out (60 degrees!) I just could not fathom sitting inside at home, especially after being in the snow all weekend in PA.

I got a coconut fish wrap with Asian slaw and pickled onions. It didn't disappoint. We even got to spend a few minutes at the beach afterward. Perfection!

We also had Matt's mom's birthday that night, which included grilled shrimp, veggies and quinoa for dinner and the traditional Baratta family ice cream cake for dessert.

We've been eating a fair amount of fish at home, too. Last week Matt made homemade fish cakes with the striped bass he caught a while ago and which has been in our freezer. We eat them bun-less with homemade tartar sauce and a side of garlicky kale or spinach. They don't look that great, but they are really tasty.

Friday night we had a seafood feast of fresh clams & mussels, and seared salmon with homemade yogurt dill sauce. Matt picked up the seafood from our local fish market and it was super fresh and so good. We also made some coconut flour-dusted sweet potato fries on the side. Gotta have something to dip in all that delicious clam broth!

Veggie filled meals of salads, stir fries and seafood aside, we've also had a few "fun" meals...

1. Taco Night (with lettuce taco shells, salsa verde and queso fresco)

2. Nacho Night (uuuh, definitely not as healthy as lettuce tacos, but it was a snowy day, and, well whatever)

3. Indian Night (using a spice packet, paneer and naan we got at the local Indian food store, on top of quinoa with broccoli, peas and tomatoes)

Sometimes you just need to break things up with some spice in your life.

I did all my meal prepping yesterday for the next two weeks, and we have some good stuff coming up in all the same categories. I'm looking forward to trying a few new recipes I found on Pinterest as well, including curry cauliflower & sweet potato soup. I need to get all my soup fixes in now since spring is on the way!

Alrighty, off to get ready to shower my cousin's baby this afternoon. :) Enjoy the rest of your weekend!