March Photo-A-Day Food Edition

Anyone up for a March food photo-a-day challenge??

I’ve been addicted to the recent random photos a day that have been going on via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and/or blogs that were created by Fat Mum Slim.

So I had a thought it would be even more fun to create a foodie edition for all of us that love all things food related!

It’s open to anyone who would like to join, and here’s how it works!

• Beginning March 1st, take a food inspired photo corresponding to the date and cue written next to it. Feel free to interpret the cues however you’d like!
• Once photo is taken, post it to whatever outlet you’d like whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Pinterest, a blog, etc and use the hashtag #marchfoodphotos.

That’s it! If you have any more questions, ask away.

I’m excited to share this month of food related photos with you all. Please share with anyone else who might be interested!

Who’s in??

DIY Frame Key Holder

Time for my first official DIY post ever.

Let me start off by saying I do not consider myself to be a crafty person, though I aspire to be one, ha. I have a mom who can do about anything crafty there is to do. Growing up, she managed a fabrics and crafts store, taught craft classes, sewed tons of our outfits, fixes band suits in high school, took in and hemmed prom dresses, etc etc. If you don’t believe me, she has a quilting blog to prove it!

That being said, I hope at least a little bit of that is in my blood, and that someday it will come forth.

But we will start simple.

Very, very simple with a frame key holder, inspired by Pinterest. (I posted this iPhone photo on Facebook and Instagram the other day, so it may look familiar!)

DIY Frame Key Holder

Things you will need:

• A frame.
  • It’s quite easy these days to find neat vintage or upcycled frames at antique stores. You can either find one already upcycled for you, or simply buy a frame from anywhere and paint it to your likings. I happened to have ordered some already painted frames off Etsy that I hadn’t put to use yet, so this is one of them.
• A screw driver with appropriate size screw (the box of screw hooks will tell you which size).
• Screw hooks.

What to do:

• Take your frame and plan out where you’d like your hooks to be placed. I decided to use four hooks for my frame.
• Once decided, drill correct sized holes into the frame.
• After holes are drilled, screw in each hook, and you’re ready to mount on wall and hang keys!

Yes, it’s that easy!

To some, they may not even be considered a DIY project due to it’s level of non difficulty, but it was a definite start for me.

Now I need to get pinning and find my next project!

Baked sweet potato fries

I think if asked to pick one food as my favorite, sweet potatoes would have serious potential for winning.

Since I was little, I’ve absolutely loved them. I used to go to my grandma’s house when I was little, have her cook me the biggest sweet potato she had, and I would douse it in tons of butter and salt.

Don’t worry, I have since reformed my ways and eat them in a bit healthier way. One such way is in form of fries. Who doesn’t love a good sweet potato fry?

Exactly.

I like to chop my sweet potatoes in pretty large chunks. Once chopped, I toss them in a bowl with olive oil and sea salt. They should be lightly rubbed with the mixture, not saturated.

Place them on a baking pan (I lined mine with parchment paper for easier clean up). Make sure they're not overlapped or they will not evenly cook. Here’s the part you have to pay attention to, lest you burn your sweet potato fries to a complete crisp.

Bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Turn fries over, and bake again for 10 minutes. Repeat this step two or three more times depending on how brown you want them. I like to get mine as close to burnt as possible without actually burning them into the above mentioned “complete crisp”.

We had our sweet potato fries with brown rice and lentils topped with sautéed kale and onions, served with a large portion of guacamole. If you put a bite of everything in your mouth all at once, the combination is delicious!

What’s your favorite way to eat a sweet potato?

Also, any tricks to getting baked sweet potato fries perfectly crispy?

Simple Citrus Guacamole

Guac, anyone?

I absolutely love avocados as of about a year ago. Before that, I just didn’t really got into them for some reason or another. But now, they are fabulous! And there’s so much you can do with them.

Of course one of the simplest and most delicious ways to eat an avocado is via guacamole! Eat it with rice and beans, eat it with salads, eat it with chips, eat it on burritos, it’s just as delicious each and every way!

This is our very simple guac recipe with little ingredients that’s great when you just want a quick edition with dinner or lunch. In the most delicious way, it has a perfect hint of citrus that gives it great, fresh flavor.

Simple Citrus Guacamole

Ingredients:

• 2 large avocados, peeled & pitted
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/3 medium onion, diced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

Instructions:

• Throw all ingredients into a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth. Feel free to leave in some chunks if desired.

Note: Feel free to add some cilantro for an extra kick of flavor!

Next up, Valentine’s Day … who loves it, who hates it??

Either way … have a great day, everyone!

Avocado & banana fruit smoothie

Today, I’d like to introduce you to my newest favorite smoothie.

I’m sorry to admit that I just now tried the addition of avocados in smoothies. I’m now convinced it’s the secret to the perfect creamy consistency!

Avocado & banana fruit smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe banana (good frozen or not)
• 1/2 avocado, peeled and pitted
• 1 cup fresh or frozen fruit (strawberries just may be my favorite!)
• 1 tablespoon sweetener (honey, agave, dates, coconut sugar, etc)
• 3/4 cup water or almond milk

Instructions:

• Throw it all in a blender, blend until smooth, and enjoy!

What are your favorite must-have smoothie mix-ins??

Rice & Lentil Loaf

Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend!

Who didn’t watch the Superbowl?

I didn’t! I’m sorry, it probably makes me lame and uncool but please, don’t hate me because of it.

Moving right along, I thought I’d share a delicious dinner we had last week. I wanted something different, so I went with a rice and lentil loaf. I had never made one before, because let’s be real, they sound a little bit scary and don’t always look all that appealing. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised.

We ate our lentil loaf with sautéed veggies and sweet potato fries (complete with homemade ketchup). I always, always love sweet potato fries, and it was a perfect side to the loaf.

Rice & Lentil Loaf
Inspired by Vegetarian Lentil Loaf Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup lentils (I used green lentils, but any will work!)
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup ketchup (plus a little more if you wish to top your loaf with ketchup before baking)

Instructions:

• In a large pot, cook lentils in the 3 1/2 cups water for about 30 minutes, or until tender. Drain and half mash them (it’s okay to have some chunks left)
• Sautee the diced onions for about 7 minutes in the olive oil.
• Place the sautéed onions with the mashed lentils, add your cooked rice, sea salt, and ketchup. Mix together until combined.
• Transfer mixture into a greased loaf pan, and bake for about 1 hour, and let cool for about 15 minutes before slicing.

Note: Cooling is important to help keep the lentil loaf in tact.

It was a delicious dinner, and I think I’ll definitely be making this rice and lentil loaf again.

Simple Fresh Salsa

Hola!

Hope everyone is doing well! We’ve definitely been feeling global warming or something here in Kansas City, especially the past few days. It seriously feels like spring and it’s just the beginning of February! I love it.

It’s funny, yesterday my friend who lives in California text me saying her weatherman had just said “it’s going to be a cool one today but warming back up tomorrow (cool is a high of 69)”.

HA!

I said, yeah, it’s going to be extremely warm here with a high of 66! Funny how different perspectives can be.

Okay, I’m not actually here to talk weather. I’m actually here to talk salsa. A slightly unconventional version, but oh-so-fresh and delicious! Here we go.

We love eating this salsa on tacos, with salads, atop some cold quinoa, etc. It’s quite versatile!

Simple Fresh Salsa

Ingredients:

• 4 medium sized tomatoes, finely chopped
• quarter to half an onion, finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 1/2 bell pepper, finely diced
• 5 mushrooms, finely diced
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• juice of 1 lemon

Instructions:

• Chop everything very finely, and throw it all together!

Note: This is obviously a very mild salsa, if you like it hot, feel free to throw in a couple jalapenos and it’ll do the trick!

Very simple, very fresh, very delicious!

Raw Strawberry Cheesecake

Good news.

Instead of more iPhone photos, I finally have a real recipe with real photos! It’s been far too long since I’ve made anything exciting in the kitchen, and I was really craving some dessert yesterday so I knew it was about time. What came to mind? Raw cheesecake. With strawberries. Oh, yes.

One of my already favorite desserts is this raw raspberry cheesecake so I leaned heavily off of this recipe and was also inspired by The Rawtarian’s Raw Cheesecake Recipe as well.

Without further ado …

Raw Strawberry Cheesecake

Ingredients
Crust:

• 1 cup raw almonds (I only had roasted when I made this, and they were delicious too)
• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Filling:

• 3 cups cashews (it may help to soak these for about 5 hours, especially if your blender isn’t very powerful)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• Juice of 3 lemons (about 3/4 cup)
• 3/4 cup coconut oil
• 3/4 cup honey, agave or coconut nectar

Topping:

• 2 cups strawberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1/2 cup dates

Instructions:

• Using a food processor or powerful blender, blend crust ingredients together until fine and will stick together. Place crust mixture into a 9-inch spring form pan and press down until an even crust is formed
• Place all filling ingredients into food processor or blender and pulse until completely smooth (you may have to add a tiny bit of water if it’s not wanting to blend, but add as little as possible so the mixture stays thick)
• Pour mixture on top of pie crust and smooth out.
• Next, blend together the topping of strawberries and dates (keep it slightly chunk if you’d prefer, or pulse until smooth) and pour on top of filling.
• Place in freezer for about an hour, or until hardened and enjoy.

February 14th is coming up rather soon … this would be a delicious Valentine’s Day treat!

A definite winner!

What have you been cooking up, baking, or blending lately??

On the road again

Hello, Kansas City.

We are back.

This past weekend, we went to Nebraska to visit my family. Here’s a mini iPhone photography recap to get us all settled into the beginning of this week!

On the Road Again

Favorite part of the drive? The huge windmill farm in Kansas, especially at sunset!

We tried on some hats. I got mine.

It can probably go left unsaid, but Erik did not purchase his, ha!

I helped my mom set up her very own blog this weekend! She is an avid quilter (and is very good at what she does). Her blog is called Quilting with Kris. She’s already having a lot of fun with it. Way to go, Mom!

She’s in the process of making me this Retro Flower Quilt that I saw on Pinterest. I’m really liking it so far!

A definite highlight of the trip? Hanging out with my just over 1 year old nephew, Walker. He’s getting so big! I wish we didn’t live so far apart.

Last but not least, I ran across this comic on Facebook, and I just love it! You may have already seen it on Facebook or Instagram but I just had to share it here too!

What are you up to this week??

What we've been eating

Hey everyone!

Hope your week has been great. Mine has bit a bit busy, hence the lack of blogging. And we’re actually going to Nebraska this weekend to see my family so I thought I’d stop in before we leave to share a little bit of what we’ve been eating during my absence, via iPhone photography.

• Soup! The weather has still been pretty nice but we’ve had a few days of really bitter wind. This delicious, comforting veggie soup came in handy. Word on the street on my Facebook page is yesterday was even national soup day.

• Kale chips! If you’ve never had kale chips, yes, they sound a bit unappealing and tend to look like leaves. But they are oh-so-delicious!!

• Other recent meals of deliciousness
  • Quinoa & walnut tacos (these are going to be made again soon, and I’ll share more!)
  • Veggie and cashew cheese stuffed sweet potatoes
  • Our own version of potato skins stuffed with veggies, served with peas and a cauliflower/carrot puree

• Fresh juice, pre stir & a random self portrait

• Last but not least, carrot cake smoothie!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! I’ll probably be back with a similar update of our weekend. I’m excited to visit my little nephew who is just over 1 years old now.
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