With an abundance of fruits and veggies in season (and the garden in full swing), Summer is my most creative time of year in the kitchen. There is so much to play with. I love getting my hands on ingredients I’ve never worked with before whenever possible, and the curiosity to explore is heightened. Overall I’m just more inspired to try new recipes (and make some up, too). Today’s post is a round up of summer recipes I tried for the first time, favorites I make every year, and some of my own made up creations.
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Strawberry Picking, Peony Peeping, Park Frolicking
It’s been a month and a half since I last wrote in this space (sorry!) May and the first half of June have been busy - with every ounce of my spare time and energy allocated to rebuilding the garden. I talked a little bit about how I had to dig up my established garden beds of 6 years in my last post, and won’t bore you with the details in this post - but I feel like I’m coming up and out on the other side of it for some air finally. Maybe my next post will be a full garden update?
For today’s post, I wanted to share some photos from a day out in Long Valley, NJ earlier this month. It was such a beautiful, sunny, “top 10” day - which has felt like a rarity this year. If you live here on the east coast, you know it’s felt a whole lot more like the PNW and has been unseasonably wet for us. I’m not mad about it though - everything is so green and lush. But when I saw a day like this in the forecast? I knew it couldn’t go to waste.
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Vegan One Pot Warm Quinoa Bowl Recipe
I cannot believe that it’s October already… how did that happen?! The summer heat has officially died down, and the cooler weather has been rolling in. And with cooler weather, comes the craving of comfort food (which more often than not is something heavy, unhealthy, and indulgent). There is absolutely nothing wrong with indulging every now and then (during any season) - but I definitely find that it’s more challenging to make daily healthy eating choices once it’s sweater weather. My desire to make / eat salads definitely declines when it’s cold out, haha.
You may or may not have noticed that the word “vegan” has shown up in my last few recipe posts (here and here). I’ve mentioned before that I’m not fully vegan (or even vegetarian), and that still remains true.. but I have definitely made conscious efforts to cut back on the animal products I do consume - and have been trying to incorporate a lot more plant based meals whenever I can.
I’m dropping in today to share my go-to quinoa recipe! It varies, depending on what I have in my fridge (it’s a great “clean out the produce drawers” meal solution). I love that it can be eaten warm or cold (although on cold days, my preference is definitely hot/warm). Growing up, quinoa was never part of my diet (I grew up on white rice, being 100% Chinese). It wasn’t until a year or so ago that I got curious about the healthier high protein / high fiber rice-like alternative that is quinoa and started experimenting with ways to cook it.
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Vegan Zucchini Noodle Ramen Recipe
First, I'd like to start off by saying that I am not 100% vegan. The food section of this blog is not exclusively vegan, and I don't think it will ever be fully converted to be exclusively vegan, either. This is the first vegan recipe that has actually graced my blog, haha. But I'm sure there are more on the horizon! As I mentioned in my "2017 In Review" post, I have been on an ongoing journey towards a better relationship with food. I feel better when I eat better - I have more energy, and am more productive. It's better for the planet to eat more veggies - and in a way, is a form of activism. The reason I can't commit right now to being fully vegan? It sounds super selfish, but I think my love for ice cream and pizza run too deep. I also LOVE seafood.. shrimp and lobster particularly. I'm sure this makes some of you vegetarians / vegans cringe. I am not opposed to incorporating more nut milks or nut cheeses, but am allergic to many nuts.. which makes it more difficult / a pain in the ass to find those alternatives. I really admire those of you who not only manage a fully vegan eating regime, but also do it with food allergies! So anyways, right now... I am okay with being "vegan-ish" or "vegetarian-ish" and making active better plant-based choices when I can -- but also not beating myself up for eating ice cream or pizza or whatever it may be every now and then. Everything in moderation!
Now... onto what you came here for: Zucchini Noodle Ramen!
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Naan Flatbread Pizza Recipe
Naan flatbread is one of my absolute favorite types of bread! It is so versatile and you can eat it in so many different ways. Today, I'm going to show you how I use it to make homemade pizza. :)
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Apple Bread
Last Friday I baked apple bread for the first time ever. I’ve made many variations of banana bread before, but I’ve never even heard of apple bread until I started researching quick/easy apple recipes last week. I went apple-picking recently, and I have been wanting to bake something with the apples since bringing them home from the farm. They basically have been sitting in a box in the kitchen begging for me to bake something yummy with them. My first thoughts involved attempting a salted caramel apple pie because I’ve also never baked an apple pie before… but my lazy ass didn’t feel like it. I feel like you really have to be in the mood to commit time into making the perfect pie, and I guess I wasn’t feelin’ it last Friday. I made my first pie ever this summer (a blueberry pie), and it was fun and delicious and everything, but it took me the span of 3 days to make it between getting all the ingredients, making the dough from scratch, letting the dough set in the fridge, prepping the filling, cutting / weaving the lattices, and then FINALLY putting it in the oven. It was a lot of work – work that my lazy ass didn’t feel like doing at the end of last week. I do want to attempt an apple pie some day, but last Friday was not that day. Let’s be real – we all have our lazy days. Maybe I’ll feel more motivated for a special occasion … (Thanksgiving, mayhaps?)
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