Mediterranean-Inspired Quinoa and Chickpea Salad I love a good quinoa salad and always feel so healthy when I’m eating one. This quinoa salad is easy, ready in 20 minutes, and is chock full of Mediterranean-inspired ingredients including chickpeas, artichoke hearts, black Kalamata olives, and goat cheese. I also added fresh spinach to amp up the green level, red onion for a flavor boost, as well as lemon juice and apple cider vinegar to give the quinoa salad some tangy zest!...

Old-Fashioned Butter Mints Recipe One of the highlights of going to my grandma’s house when I was growing up, in addition to playing Gin Rummy for money at age six, was raiding her candy dish. She used to have Jolly Ranchers, butterscotch candies, and after dinner mints in that little white dish with the lid. When you’re six,”after dinner” means the minute you can get your sweaty little mitts on the mints, you do....

But if the season has been a little too bountiful, all at once, and you have more tomatoes than you know what to do with, chutney to the rescue. I’m a dip, spread, and condiment lover. I can make a meal from grazing on various salsas, guacamole, hot pepper jelly, mango chutney, homemade honey mustard, crackers and chips. But normally when I want some dip, I want it sooner rather than later....

My day hasn’t been super peachy so far. I managed to slice my finger open while I was slicing some bread with a humongous serrated knife and did quite a number on it. Just one of those little kitchen calamities that happen but I wish I had one of these to eat to forget about the injury. Baked Peach and Nectarine Donuts with White Chocolate Drizzle and Sprinkles Or one of these to drink Sex on the Beach...

The combination of peanut butter and oats is a favorite and I never tire of it. And I’ll never tire of no-bake granola bars that taste like peanut butter oatmeal cookies, topped with melted butterscotch. Granola bars with an abundance of hearty, oaty texture, shoot straight to the top of my list. It’s better to spend time chewing hearty oats than inhaling handfuls of caramel corn and these granola bars are loaded with texture....

I had to pick up some produce and essentials since I’ve been eating lots of these. With Vegan Slaw Dressing I pour it after I finish taking pictures so my salad doesn’t get soggy. Add some Tofu for extra protein Green Tea & Honey Ginger Tofu And after going to my second home, I also went to: The Bank The Post Office And Rite-Aid for some toiletries. Basically I ran around like a mad woman in the rain with a 4 year old in and out of her carseat a bazillion times....

Er, can we call them pitas? They are part bowl, part salad, part sandwich folded up into any kind of bread you like including but not limited to pitas, and I’m here for it in every form. comment icon 249 more comments Here’s our lineup: marinated, spiced, flash-roasted chicken roasted bell peppers diced fresh cucumber kalamata olives feta cheese olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice tzatziki (that yogurt dill sauce that crowns the plate)...

The Fudge Brownie Coffee from yesterday I told you I found Tastes like I am drinking chocolate, but in a flavored-coffee way, not a hot chocolate way. And it’s not a sickeningly strong flavor either. The Smores Coffee that I’ve mentioned before has a much richer Smores, caramel-ey flavor than the Fudge Brownie has of a chocolate flavor, if that makes sense. The fudge brownie is a little smoother, basically....

Easy Strawberry and Banana Cake I love the combination of strawberries and bananas, but had never put the two together into a cake. Now I can check strawberry banana cake off my culinary to-do list. The cake is so soft, moist, and packed with creamy bananas and sweet strawberries. And it just happens to be vegan, but you’ll never miss the eggs or butter. It’s such a rich, flavorful cake and no one will ever suspect it’s vegan....

French toast has been his specialty/favorite breakfast (that works out well no?) for… well… for as long as I’ve known him. But this time he really outdid himself by adding sliced strawberries. And taking a picture with his fancy schmancy iPhone. As if I wasn’t already susceptible to lingering thoughts of french toast after that lovely breakfast, this blog had to come along and plant the seed for a stuffed french toast grilled on the panini press....

comment icon 87 more comments Hello springy brunch goodness! Let me rephrase that – hello springy brunch goodness that comes together with five simple ingredients! Whoa yes. I’m serious. Pretty and fluffy and lightly sweet, topped with crunchy sugar because GLITTERY. This one screams I love you, food and I love you, Mom. And how appropriately timed because Mother’s Day! It’s soon! Mother’s Day is one of those holidays where I look forward to going to a homey place and eating a great meal because my mom is awesome, but then I remember that me and Dad and sibs are supposed to be the ones making the great meal....

What’s better, or worse, is that I love to eat them in stacks of four, glazed with melted butter and swimming in maple syrup. And 1,000 calories later, I’m feeling really good in a bad kind of way. Because of my extreme love for pancakes, especially the extra sweet and high-calorie variety (think chocolate chip and peanut butter), I recently went through a brief pancake withdrawal. I stopped making pancakes because there was a high likelihood/certainty that I would eat myself into a pancake coma....

After the gym, I had to pick up a few TJ’s items and I saw this Aloe Plant for $3.99 and thought it would be perfect for my kitchen. I tried to explain to Skylar that the plant has “medicine” in it. I tried to explain there is healing juice inside it and that if we get a cut, we can put the plant’s juice on it to help us heal....

I got my hair done. Regrowth, goodbye. I love the salon vibe and overall environment at my salon. I just don’t love sitting there for a couple hours. This was my view of the downtown San Diego city skyline while I was sitting in the chair with my feet up and receiving an amazing head massage during my shampoo. Oh how I love a good head massage, and my stylist gives one of the best, ever....

I had gone in for a routine exam when we realized that something might be wrong. It was after hours, so the doctor sent me to the nearest hospital to have a specialist take a look, “just to make sure.” The hospital we were sent to was the hospital that we were also planning to deliver at. Well, hey! we thought. This is convenient! We had already done a tour like the super eager-beaver parents that we are, and we joked more than once on our way into the hospital about how it was actually kind of awesome to have a practice run before coming in for the real thing....

There’s no doubt this Ham Bone Soup tops my favorite comforting, hearty, healthy soup recipe. It’s my go-to for using up our leftover Easter or Christmas ham. Sometimes I’ll even go to Honey-Baked Ham just to buy one of their leftover ham bones so I can make this soup. Did you know they sell those? They are fairly inexpensive and still have quite a bit of meat left on them....

Pie, glorious pie! There are few desserts I love more on this whole planet the pie (other than a good chocolate cake of course!). I’ve shared most of my favorite pie recipes with you, including my Grandma’s Lemon Chiffon Pie, and Chocolate Cream Pie. We can probably all agree that Pumpkin Pie is the most iconic of Thanksgiving desserts. I’ve tried so many different recipes and I just love the simplicity and perfect taste and texture from the traditional Libby’s pumpkin pie recipe....

What Are Tacos al Pastor? If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to make tacos al pastor at home, my recipe will show you just how to do it! The traditional method of cooking pastor on a spit is changed to a more convenient method in the oven. Thin slices of pork meat are marinated in a tangy, sweet pineapple sauce. After oven roasting, you’re left with super flavorful and tender pork that rivals a taqueria....

I’m sitting on a bench in the back of a big white van, smushed up against our house mothers, older kids, wooden crates, woven baskets, and neon plastic buckets. We’re making our way downtown into a mass of people, vegetables, and fish. This is marketing. Like, a verb. Going to the market. The Market Experience When we first came here, I had dreamed of sharing a really romantic, stunning post about the market, with lots of beautiful DSLR pictures of the fresh produce and shiny fish....

Of course, the week that I chose to do this documentation just happens to be the week that I’m “on vacation” at the cabin. I almost decided to throw in the towel and wait to do this until a regular week. But then I realized that maybe vacation blogging hours are even more interesting than my hours in a regular week. Last time we came up to the cabin, I did a much better job of scheduling my posts out in advance so I could disconnect a little bit more, like Bjork talked about in the May income report....