Nothing Beets Soup

January 17th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (13 Comments)

Last weekend I went out to dinner with some girlfriends, it was my first evening out on the town since Kaz was born and it was glorious.

There was wine.

There was dessert.

There were no children.

There was beet soup.

When perusing the menu for our first course, I couldn’t decide between the Beet and Ginger Soup with Scallions and the Beet Salad with arugula, feta, orange & hazelnut vinaigrette.  Beet salad eventually won my favor in the battle of the beets – but fortunately a fellow beet loving friend ordered the soup and let me sample it.  Read more...

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Brussels Sprout Truce

November 18th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (3 Comments)

Whenever I buy this 2 pound bag of Brussels sprouts, some inner turmoil bubbles up inside me.

Bag of Brussels sprouts

You see, I LOVE Brussels sprouts halved and roasted in the oven in some coconut oil.  

My better half, however, prefers them whole and steamed.

The thing is, Zak will pretty much eat whatever I make without complaint.  If I make halved and roasted Brussels sprouts, then it’s halved and roasted Brussels Spouts he’ll eat.

But whenever I’m slicing these little heads in half and throwing them into the roasting pan, I feel a little pang of guilt knowing he’d prefer them steamed and left intact.  Read more...

Kale for President

November 6th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (10 Comments)

Kale Friends with Benefits

If more presidential candidates had a campaign slogan like that one…

So! Kale.

Kale

10 years ago, if you’d have told me that one day I will LOVE eating this pile of greenery, I would have laughed in your face.

“No thanks”, my 23 year old self would have said.

Or better yet, “No way.”

In fact, 10 years ago if you showed me these green leafy stems, I wouldn’t have had the faintest idea what they were.

Glorious Kale

I don’t know, some kind of… lettuce? Yes, lettuce. That’s my final answer.  Read more...

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Coconut Curried Spaghetti Squash

October 2nd, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (5 Comments)

I bought a spaghetti squash last week simply because it was there on the shelf in the produce department. I had no spaghetti squash plans. I had no spaghetti squash dreams.

Spaghetti Squash

I did know that I wanted to do something different with this planless, dreamless spaghetti squash. I’ve made spaghetti squash pie and spaghetti squash with red pepper sauce, this time I was in the mood for something new.

When I realized I was going to make a curried spaghetti squash? I declared myself a genius.  Read more...

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Slow Then Fast Food

August 28th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (9 Comments)

As we were first settling into our new life as a family of five, there was a lot of snack food consumption going on around here. Pretzels, granola bars, tortilla chips, crackers… I loaded our cupboards with quick and easy foods because well, they were quick and easy. I stuck with foods that weren’t awful, but I wouldn’t classify them as The World’s Healthiest Foods either.

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. We were fortunate to have friends and family bring us plenty of meals in those early weeks, but it’s possible there were afternoons where we had air popped popcorn and graham crackers smeared with almond butter for lunch.  Read more...

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Watch This Video Before You Go Grocery Shopping

April 30th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (11 Comments)

We shopped for groceries today. Before we left, I changed out of my super roomy sweat pants and into a pair of less comfortable but more presentable maternity pants. A pair of pants that I knew were starting to feel snug a few weeks ago, but I put them on today anyway, hopeful that either a.) the pants grew or b.) some small elves came and magically added a few inches to the waist band for me.  Read more...

A New Green Machine

April 8th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (15 Comments)

Guess what?!

Brand New Vitamix

OK, to be fair, unless you are a food nerd who reads a lot of foodie blogs, you might not be able to guess and/or be squealing the same way I did when the UPS man dropped this guy off last week.

On the right? Our old blender. The lean mean muscle machine on the left? My Our new VITAMIX!

Thanks to the fact that my birthday was last week (33! WOOT!) AND that Zak was finally bitten by the Vitamix bug AND a 20% Off coupon from Bed, Bath and Beyond that saved us a bundle, we bit the bullet and welcomed this majestic marvel into our appliance family a few short days ago.  Read more...

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Let’s Grow Green

April 5th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (5 Comments)

It’s that time of year again. Here in Zone 6A the early spring like weather is upon us and has been hanging around for a while now. It’s time get some greens and spring vegetables in the ground.

Spring Greens

First up, I did my part in expanding one of our small, city lot beds into an ever-so-slightly bigger bed.

More Space

“my part” = moving the boarder to the edge of the tilled soil that Zak dug up a couple weeks ago.

One Foot Bigger

more garden = less grass to mow. Check it.

Slightly Bigger Garden Bed  Read more...

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It’s the Most Wonderful Recipe Of the Year

December 12th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (9 Comments)

Three little peppers, all in a row.

Three Red Bell Peppers

Mom’s Red Pepper Sauce? Say it ain’t so!

Mom's Red Pepper Sauce Recipe

Red pepper sauce as an alternative to tomato sauce, like the recipe card says. My mom made this recipe a lot when I was a kid, and I remember thinking she was nutso for making sauce with RED PEPPERS of all the nasty and disgusting things on this earth.

(Kids are so dumb.)

At least she didn’t make me eat a “no thank you helping” of this stuff. And now I know why. Because it’s so dang good she didn’t want to share a drop with some kid who wasn’t going to appreciate it!  Read more...

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Chlorella (is not an STD)

December 7th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (14 Comments)

Nope, Chlorella is a super food.  And lately, it’s been on my radar.

Chlorella is a green algae. It’s high in protein, essential fatty acids, amino acids and a slew of vitamins and minerals. It’s an immune enhancer and when dried and processed, it looks like it would make great fake grass in your kid’s next diorama project.

The first time I paid attention to Chlorella was when I read about it in Thrive by Brendan Brazier. I paid close attention to his few pages on this food item when I was brushing up on nutrition for athletes during last minute marathon training at the end of the summer. My eyebrows perked up when I saw that Chlorella can help speed muscle repair and recovery, as well as slow the signs of aging when consumed regularly.  Read more...

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