Tag Archives: thrive foods

A Few Of My Favorite Things

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One day, when browsing through my e-mail, I noticed a personable e-mail amongst all of the Ad-mail. A reader had contacted me asking what my favorite cookbooks are. Great question! It got me thinking about a few things: a) I was happy to get a personal e-mail, b) what are my favorite cookbooks, and c) I haven’t checked out any new ones recently! As I’m writing this, I just realized that I haven’t really made any recipes from cookbooks in awhile either. However, I still have my favorite picks.

Sometimes I go to the library and browse through cookbooks.

Or sometimes I go to the bookstore. When I find myself exclaiming at almost every recipe (or sneakily jotting them down), that’s when I know it’s a keeper. Here are some of mine:

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When It Actually Works Out

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Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday I poached an egg. As far as I can recall, I don’t think I had ever eaten a poached egg before yesterday. I just heard that it was a great way to enjoy them. Yes, I am joining Melissa’s club for the egg obsessed.

At first I thought to myself,

“Oh, I will use a small saucepan so I can use it to heat up the cheese sauce I made the other night. That way I won’t have to do as many dishes.”

Then as I was creating a whirlpool for the egg, water kept spilling out and hissing on the burner. That’s when I thought I had messed up, but I already started and you know… I don’t want more dishes to do! So I continued. Then I was pouring the egg from the dish into the hot water. According to the “how-to’s” on how to poach an egg, it is directed to not dump the whole egg in at once. Well, I tried to follow directions, but the egg just canon balled into the pan. Plop! First, this magnificence happened.

via Instagr'am

If I didn’t mess up before, then I definitely failed my first egg poaching attempt at that moment. Or so I thought. I thought a lot of things during the whole process, didn’t I? Anyway, I carried on. I tried to keep the egg intact, and safely above the bottom of the pan. To my surprise and excitement it was turning out! First egg poaching attempt was a success.

It was quite the little polite egg

As my dear friend and design extraordinaire, Marleigh, pointed out!

Minding its p's and q's

Pints and quarts of what?!

Then it was time for the revealing...

Who knew what I would find inside? A prize. Yes, to me it was a prize. My stomach was growling while I was snapping photos, but I had to document these moments first. I’m not sure how long it took me to eat lunch yesterday, but I know I took my sweet time.

Also, the other night we had some guests over for dinner.

Meet the Tomatoes!

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Reinvented

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Hello everyone! In my last post I asked what you guys would like to see in my blog/would you be interested in seeing things from me beyond the realms of food. I used to cover more things on the blog, but somehow as life got busier I stopped frequently capturing life in front of me. I remember pausing at a detail in my outfit that I thought was beautiful and feeling the inclination to share. Or being down on the ground and looking up just to see what it looked like to see things from that perspective–and snapping a picture of it. I’m still curious in that sense, but don’t think to capture it as often. Sometimes I go back and forth between thinking: it’s silly to think those things are important enough to capture, it’s meaningful/meaningless, or why not just enjoy? C’est la vie. It’s true. For right now though, it’s important to me again.

What would I like to be in focus?

The plants, the deteriorated posts, or the other side of the Hudson River?

Whenever I go to the market I like to walk around and find things I’ve never heard/seen of before.

One day I stumbled across Siberian Kale.

Kale is a great winter vegetable, and the more it’s been kissed by a frost the sweeter it is.

Here are some more seasonal foods that I’ve prepared in the kitchen recently using recipes from a book I reviewed on here awhile ago, “Thrive Foods“ by Brendan Brazier.

Mashed Kabocha Squash with Toasted Coconut

Toasting the coconut shreds is so key for this recipe. It’s an extremely delicious that you may have to approach with willpower as to not to eat the entire batch!

Dandelion Salad with Sundried Tomatoes and Lentil Dressing

Dandelion greens are not something I usually pick up, but that was what drew me to this recipe. It was a new way to try various flavors together, and well… it had me had sun-dried tomatoes as well. I also found myself pouring the lentil dressing on to other things.

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Health and Food Coming Together

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I’m sure many of you know that I’m a big fan of Brendan Brazier, and I had the pleasure of meeting him a few months ago during a lecture. He recently wrote another book called “Thrive Foods”. I was asked to be a part of the campaign to launch his newly released book, and I couldn’t wait to jump into the book!

This one discusses different points compared to his other book I’ve read, “Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performnace in Sports and Life”. This book seems to focus more on how our diet has an affect on the environment. How the conditions of the foods grow in greatly changes their nutritional density, and other interesting points. For instance, when plants grow in depleted soil, the minerals aren’t as abundant. It made me think of a pregnant woman and how what she eats greatly affects the health of her child. That was my best understanding of the phrase “Mother Nature.” What I really enjoyed about this book was that there were lots of footnotes, and I could look in the back to see the sources listed. I’m the kind of person who is curious to know where the basis of certain ideas come from. Especially when mentioning statics and studies. Maybe I should make my mom disclose footnotes when she tells me her crazy elaborate stories!

On top of all the abundant information Brendan shares in this book, he’s compiled over 200 recipes in the book as well! He also features some well-known contributors to share their recipes, such as Chef Tal Ronnen and award-winning restaurants. There are a few beautiful pictures included as well (granted there could be more, but I just love pictures), to give you an idea of how vibrant these dishes can be. I perused through them and bookmarked so many! I’ve made three so far, and all were delicious indeed.

Chef’s Summertime Salad

The recipe calls for avocado, which I added each time I served it. No one likes brown opened avocados that have been sitting out for awhile. This salad was great though! Summertime in every crunchy, fresh bite. This was like a yummy farewell to the warm weather for me, and all those ingredients that taste so wonderful when they’re at their peak.

Banana Pear Smoothie

This was thick and not overly sweet. There is an option to add a medjool date for sweetness, but I liked it just fine without it. This is great for mornings when I’m not feeling too hungry, or I need to run out the door and get my day started. The ginger added a little zing to it as well. It just tasted so refreshing. Next on my list is the smoothie that calls for lemon grass and coconut water.

Cheers to a great day!
Next up was a recipe that I thought was perfect to welcome the chillier weather.

“Wild Rice with Kabocha and Sage Butter”, but I opted to use quinoa instead of rice. It Since the other ingredients are already coming into season I went over to the farmer’s market and picked them out.

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