eat your greens

Can you even believe the color of this rainbow chard?!? I have been super into eating greens this winter and spring, as I've been reading and learning more about the healing power of food and macrobiotic cooking. This tops of the list of very good-for-you foods. Here is my favorite way to cook them, and the kids love them too!

{Ingredients}

swiss chard (any kind)
olive oil (the yummier the better)
tamari (or soy sauce)
lemon (meyer if in season)
garlic (fresh if possible, and also optional)

{What to do}

Heat oil in the pan over medium heat. (We use our cast iron pan and it gives the dish a wonderfully roasted flavor) Add fresh garlic if using. Remove thick stems from chard and chop stems & leaves separately. Saute the stems first and add a splash of tamari & lemon juice. Brown just a bit and add leaves. Add a bit more tamari & lemon juice to taste. Stir occasionally and voila ~ super simple, really yummy, and total healthy green goodness! Give it a whirl!

P.S. Our csa starts tomorrow. I can't wait to see what's in our first lot!

bread!

Did I mention how much I love to bake? I received this lovely, useful book as a holiday gift and it has become my bread bible. I had no interest in baking really until I had kids, and now I can't stop! Yeast has always been intimidating to me and I still get so excited when any dough I make actually rises! One of my goals for 2010 was to bake our own bread and so I've been making a batch of dough at the start of the week, and bake several loaves (or buns or naan) throughout the week. Brilliant I say! I love knowing exactly what goes into it and the way it makes our house smell on baking day. And honestly, what is better than warm bread right out of the oven? My pre-schoolers can eat half a loaf in one sitting, provided there's a little honey to go along with it. If you have ever thought about baking bread, take a peak at this blog and give it a try! The book is filled with great recipes, healthy ingredients and honestly requires very little work. Right up my alley! YUM!

yummy treats

Baking is therapeutic! We do it at least several times a week and I love trying healthy recipes or substituting healthy ingredients for not-so-healthy ones. We recently made these yummy peanut butter krispy treats from one of my very favorite food blogs 101 cookbooks. I combined almond butter with the peanut butter and used only a little maple syrup combined with lots of yummy raw honey. I'm determined to get my kids to eat anything in the peanut butter family because it's such and easy source of protein for their little growing bodies and truly, life would be so easy if we could just make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for lunches & picnics. Like the recipe called for, I put in a few pistachio nuts (also hoping the kids wouldn't really notice the nuts smothered in honey-flavored goodness) but to no avail. They both picked out every nut. So it goes... Owen did like them and has brought them to school the whole week, and a few extra to share with friends. I want to make every recipe Heidi features on her blog. I mean the photos alone make you want to grab a fork and take a bite right out of the screen! Her recipes are divine and full of healthy, natural, whole food vegetarian goodness, and she is working on her third book Super Natural Every Day. I can't wait!

edible centerpiece

My husband treated to me to such a sweet Valentine ~ a beautiful herb pot filled with basil and oregano! We had been talking about how it would be fun (& economical!) to grow our own herbs so now we are! When we buy them at the store, at least half of them go bad before we have the chance to use them, the packaging seems so unnecessary, and I have a thing for wasting food. Inspired by the recent post winter greens on one of my very favorite blogs maya*made, we placed our herbs in the center of our table and walla! ~ we have our own edible centerpiece. It really is such a fun idea and makes for such a lovely focus on the table, and the kids are LOVING eating the fresh basil leaves (probably my favorite herb of all) right out of the pot. Owen likes to carefully place each basil leaf atop his pizza, then dip it in a little bowl of pure balsamic vinegar. Makes my lips pucker just thinking about it, but this five year old is turning out to be quite the adventurous little eater!

I am for sure a snow lover and seriously adore winter time ~ crackling wood burning fires, hot tea with honey, soups and warm bread, bundling up, the amazement that every single snowflake is unique, and just being cozied up in the house during the darkness of winter are some of my very favorite things. But for some reason this year, winter seems long and I'm really ready for the warmth of the sun to return. Our new centerpiece surely makes me feel that spring is just around the corner. Pretty Please!

the white house garden

I absolutely LOVE our first lady Michelle Obama. She is so wholesome, inspiring, healthy and real, among hundreds of other things. It is so easy to relate to her and I love the family values she exemplifies and inspires in others. This is such a fabulous story about the garden she created at the White House. I can't wait to own a home again so we can plant a garden too!

cake topper

I had to share this totally precious cake topper I found on little lovely. Note to self for future girly birthday parties!

smitten

I love to bake. I love how it makes our home smell. And of course, love to eat a treat that is still warm, right out of the oven. We made this banana bread from one of my favorite cooking blogs, smitten kitchen. I changed the recipe just a bit, by roasting the bananas, which made for a lovely caramelly flavor. My kids loved mashing the bananas by hand, and I loved that I didn't have a mixer to clean! Yum!