It’s cold here.  (Like, really cold.)

It’s so cold that it’s possible some mornings I turn the oven on before I even turn the coffee maker on.

Just kidding.  (Let’s not get ridiculous.)

But it’s true that it’s cold, and it’s also true that cooking in the morning is a great way to warm up my chilly kitchen.

Chilly kitchen.  Chilly morning.  (Can see where I’m going with this?)

Cauliflower is not one of those vegetables I get really giddy about.

I mean, I like cauliflower and all – but you won’t see me running to the produce section while shouting and hip-hip-hooray-ing with my arms flailing above my head like a wild woman when I see that cauliflower is on sale.

I’m probably more likely to say “oh, cauliflower is on sale this week? that’s cool.”

This recipe makes me slightly more giddy about cauliflower than usual though. Cauliflower Mac and Cheese? I didn’t invent this idea, but I did think “I’d eat that” when the idea was presented to me. My next thought was “I need to make that.”

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.

No Bake Grain Free Granola

December 30th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (4 Comments)

I make Lisa’s peanut butter coconut oil cups all the time, they have become a fast favorite around here. (Have you tried these yet?  You need to get on it!) Once they’re made, they are a quick, easy, satisfying snack – I love to pop one before a run (sort of like a direct fuel bite a la Brendan Brazier from Thrive) and we often find ourselves sneaking in to the freezer for one (or two!) after dinner.

How to Make the Best Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

December 23rd, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (Comments Off on How to Make the Best Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies)

It’s sort of a bummer that I read Deep Nutrition just as the holiday season was descending upon us. A bummer in terms of writing blog posts, anyway. I can’t come here and write about eating fewer refined carbs smack dab in the middle of the sugariest, sweetest time of the year.  Nobody wants to think about that right now!  Everyone wants to eat fudge! And pies with whipped cream and cookies with frosting! Let us rejoice and be glad!

Simply Banana Bread

November 4th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (12 Comments)

Last week I spent some time staring at overripe bananas.

Ripe Bananas for Banana Bread

Not these exact bananas. These bananas are actors. This is a re-enactment of the overripe bananas that kept giving me the stink eye early last week, waiting to see what I was going to with them.

(This also means that I’m still staring at overripe bananas.)

I didn’t feel like adding these to the existing frozen banana stash I’ve got going in the freezer, so I opted to turn overripe bananas into banana bread instead of a pureed, cold treat like banana whip or a chocolate banana smoothie.

Project Weight Loss: Week 4

October 19th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Weight Loss - (12 Comments)

Today’s the end of Week 4 of my little Project Weight Loss here, and not much has changed from last week to this week.

Last week I weighed in at 143.8, today I weighed in at 143.6

Even if it’s not a lot of progress, it’s still progress.  I’ll take what I can get!  Today I’m celebrating the small victories.

1. the scale did not go up
2. I’ve put away the maternity jeans, I can once again fit into a couple of pairs of old jeans with a button and zipper!
2a. I didn’t have to lay down on the bed and hold my breath in order to zip them up

Let Them Eat Cake

March 20th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Parenting - (11 Comments)

I’d love to be able to tell you that my kids are vegetable chow hounds. I have blog with “vegetables” and “kids” in the tag line after all, shouldn’t it follow that I get to tell tales of my little posse begging for broccoli, beans and beets? Shouldn’t I be writing posts about how easy it is to get your kids to eat fruits and vegetables? I could even use lots of exclamation points!!! I could say “all you have to do is try!!!!”

That’s what some people might like to call “Irony”.

CSA = Community Supported Agriculture.  (Not “Can’t Stand Alison”, thankyouverymuch.)

If this acronym is new to you, in short – a CSA is an opportunity for you, the consumer, to get your produce direct from a local farmer.  Find a farm that offers CSA memberships and you can buy a share of their crops for what will hopefully be a bounty of locally grown fruit and/or vegetables from late spring until mid fall – or whatever the growing season is where you live.

I’ve written casually about my favorite way to make Brussels sprouts before, but now I feel that this vegetable dish deserves an official post of its own because:

1.  I make them all the time and have therefore seriously improved my method

2.  I want to flesh out each step that goes into preparing Brussels sprouts in this manner

3.  Cooking vegetables can be highly meditative – as I will now demonstrate

OK.  Before we get started, let’s take a couple of deep, cleansing breaths.  In through your nose… out through your mouth. Yes, that’s it.  Very good.