Tag: vegan

banana pudding breakfast bowl

banana pudding breakfast bowl

Your first meal of the day is the most important: it gives you strength, energy, and focus. It helps decision-making, planning, and regulates your mood. And the best way to do that is with a light, healthy, and nutritious breakfast. You stop and read the title again. Yes, you read it correctly, and we know what you’re thinking: there must be a typo, right? How can the word breakfast follow the words banana pudding? It would be a dream come true if this were so, but it must be a mistake! Well, let us reassure you–there are no typos here, and this is not a dream. Pinch yourself, banana pudding for breakfast is your sweet new reality.

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tabbouleh

tabbouleh

It mIght be obvious to you that we have a slight obsession with sweets. Okay, perhaps it’s a little more than slight—it’s pretty severe. But there is just something so satisfying about them! I mean, who wouldn’t want to start their day by pouring hot chocolatey nutella syrup over crispy banana waffles first thing in the morning? After a breakfast like that, it’s basically guaranteed that the rest of your day will be spectacular. Life is full of bountiful pleasures like these, and it’s important to treat yourself to sumptuous breakfasts from time to time! We are not saying that you should then go have cake for lunch and ice cream for dinner, but keeping a diverse mix of sweet and healthy is important. When we were planning this month’s blog schedule, we realized that four out of the last five recipes we posted were desserts and the fifth one was a cocktail. So today we are balancing things out and sharing one of our favorite Mediterranean side dishes, a delicious and healthy cold salad, perfect for all your spring and summer entertaining needs. Say hello to tabbouleh.

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ugly apple roses

dusted with powdered sugar

There’s nothing like a tall glass of ugly apple juice on a hot day. It is just as tasty and refreshing as “beautiful” apple juice made from “pretty” apples. In fact, if you did a blind taste test, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two. From childhood, it is instilled in us that outward appearances aren’t important; that true beauty comes from within. This also applies to fresh produce, but over time we have forgotten these universal rules. We have become discriminatory toward the fruits and vegetables we buy, ignoring the imperfect ones with spots and wrinkles, which end up being thrown in the garbage even though they taste exactly the same. Every year, nearly 3 trillion pounds of food is wasted—more than enough to feed all 800 million people worldwide who suffer from hunger. That means 40% of all the food in the US is going directly into the trash. So what can we do? Sarah Phillips created an informative website called UglyProduceIsBeautiful where you can learn more about these issues, and helpful solutions to fix them. When she contacted us last month asking if we would like to contribute a recipe to her site, we felt it was important to help spread this message and thought it would be fun to create something beautiful and delicious with ugly produce. So we rescued some ugly apples from our local market and with just a few simple ingredients and a couple easy steps, turned them into delicious apple roses. Flaky and buttery, rich with caramelized brown sugar, and swirled with delicate slices of sweet apples, these elegant pastries prove that even the most homely fruit can be the start of something beautiful.

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coconut curried chickpeas with wilted greens

coconut curried chickpeas with wilted greens

Last weekend, Los Angeles experienced a rare treat: small droplets fell from grey skies, seeping deep into the ground, plumping up our jade plants, and turning them a deep healthy green. There is something so comforting about staying indoors and making a hot meal on a rainy night, and on Friday that is exactly what we did. It was not even seven o’clock, and we were already lighting candles and slipping into our comfy robes and pajamas. Making a curry dish sounded most appropriate on this cold, wet night, and we had bookmarked a recipe from the new Clever Cookbook that our friend Emilie just released at the end of February that we were eager to try. With a candlelit house, and the soothing sounds of rain hitting the roof, we listened to Django Reinhardt, and started to cook this dish that would soon turn out to be a new favorite.

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tostones with spicy mango salsa

tostones with spicy mango salsa

Having our ten-year old niece stay with us this week was a bonding experience that we will always remember. Beneath clear sunny skies we ventured around the city, admiring the vibrant spring blooms that brighten this grand metropolis. We escaped high into the hills, surrounded by fragrant Eucalyptus trees, stopping by the Griffith Observatory for an evening at the museum as well as a fascinating show on Northern Lights at the Planetarium. We visited the Long Beach aquarium, went swimming at the house where Adam grew up, and spent quality time in our garden preparing the soil and planting tomatoes, basil, kale, and zucchini. We cooked together and swapped kitchen tips: we taught her how to separate eggs for matzo ball soup, and she showed us her recipe for strawberry-ginger lemonade using freshly-picked fruit from our lemon tree. The entire week was filled with memories that we will cherish forever, and since we dropped her off at the airport yesterday afternoon, the house feels quiet without her. But we are jumping right back into the kitchen and are excited to announce our first double post with a fellow blogger! Together with Apartment Bartender, we are sharing two tropical-inspired recipes for all your Spring entertaining needs! Check out the refreshing Mango Cooler cocktail he created at apartmentbartender.com, while we introduce you to a sweet and savory appetizer that is a delicious and colorful companion for his bubbly tonic: Tostones with spicy mango salsa!

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