Our family just returned from a fabulous beach trip; the last family trip with just the three of us. Next time, our number will be four! As wonderful as the vacation was, I'm feeling exhausted this week from all the excitement. I've been too tired to make it to the grocery store, which means our kitchen is depressingly empty. Fortunately, I sometimes view an empty fridge as a fun challenge, and become motivated to try to create a new recipe using only what I have on hand.
As followers of my blog know, I love desserts. I simply cannot have dinner without dessert; it would be like going to bed without a pillow, or taking a bath without bubbles. You could do it, but why would you ever want to? My need for dessert is a tricky one, because I also strive to eat as healthy as possible. Desserts are generally not known for being the most nutritious of meals (and sorry, fruit just doesn't cut it as dessert for me). So I'm always on the lookout for healthier versions of traditional desserts. The health food scene has been abuzz lately with talk about Black Bean Brownies, but some of the feedback on them hasn't been great, so I had put off making them. After all, I don't want my desserts to actually taste healthy. However, after going five months with an aversion to chocolate (thanks, pregnancy!), I decided to celebrate my return to the wonderful world of chocolate by trying my hand at making a "doesn't-taste-healthy-black-bean-brownie".
Despite being 21 weeks pregnant, I'm still running 4 to 5 times a week. It's certainly not easy, but I generally feel pretty good after a run, and therefore am pretty motivated to keep it up. However, the other day when I was getting ready to lace up my sneakers, I was stuck by a different sort of motivation: I needed to bake and eat sugar cookies.
I've been craving egg salad like mad during this pregnancy. Years ago, when I studied abroad in England, I literally ate an egg salad sandwich on a baguette every single day for lunch. Across the pond they call it an "Egg Mayo Sandwich", which is a more truthful name for this delicious sandwich. Unfortunately, it's also a reminder that perhaps it isn't the most healthy of concoctions. Since I'm trying to stay as healthy as possible during this pregnancy, I decided to make a more nutritious version of egg salad; using predominately avocado instead of mayonnaise. Of course, seeing as how avocados are the fruits of the gods, it was absolutely delicious. Now I can guiltlessly give in to my cravings. Now if only I could find a healthy version of Almond Snickers...
It's time again for this month's Earth Fare recipe! Like my other Earth Fare recipes, I chose a recipe that represents the spirit of my blog: family friendly, quick to prepare, inexpensive to make, and healthy and delicious to eat.
Like many other parents, the battle to get my child to eat anything green is an epic one. And to be perfectly honest, I probably don't eat enough of the green stuff either. I attempted to get my daughter to try a bite of a salad the other day, and she took one look at the spinach, and stated "I don't eat leaves, Mommy". (Whatever kid, you spent your first two years of life eating leaves and sticks every time we went outside.) After a particularly unflattering moment of jealousy after seeing yet another Facebook post of a mom announcing about how much her kid loves kale, I decided to get creative. What if I made pesto, but it had a spinach base instead of basil? A quick google search showed me that I wasn't the first to come up with this notion, which further encouraged me that this might be a great idea after all.
In case you didn't the announcement in my Lemon Raspberry Muffins post, I've caught a slight case of pregnancy. I was able to find out recently if I was having a boy or a girl, and since I discovered the result literally the day before Easter, I decided to share the surprise with my family by making Gender Reveal Cupcakes. When I was pregnant with my daughter a few years ago, I had almost the exact same timing, and that's how I let them know I was having a girl. I had made white cupcakes with buttercream frosting for Easter, and stuffed the inside with bright pink frosting (buttercream dyed with red food coloring). This time I found myself drawn to lemon cupcakes. After a bit of recipe searching, I decided on the always amazing Sally's Baking Addiction, and I'm so glad I did, because these cupcakes turned out delightful! For the frosting, I knew that it just had to be a cream cheese frosting, and I used the Our Best Bites recipe because it's the perfect amount of sweetness (as in, not too sweet!). As for the stuffing, I decided I would try to be keep it healthier and instead of using food dye, I would mix the frosting with blueberry or strawberry jam. Unfortunately, while the flavor was amazing this way, the color did not show up as an absolute blue or pink, so I ended up having to resort to food coloring after all. Oh well!
I'm sure you are all curious now to what I stuffed these delicious cupcakes with--blue or pink frosting?
I have just returned from a fabulous trip to Asheville, North Carolina. My husband and I went for our 5th wedding anniversary, and couldn't have picked a better spot for food lovers like us to celebrate it! Asheville was packed with amazing restaurants; it was nearly impossible to pick which restaurants to dine at during our short stay. Restaurants that I skipped that I will for sure check out for next time include: Early Girl Eatery, Tupelo Honey, Biscuit Head, Zambras, Salsas, and Sunny Point Cafe. We stayed at a great B&B during our vacation (Carolina B&B), so that eliminated the need to go out for breakfast. This wasn't a problem though, because the owners of the B&B created some of the best meals we had on the trip. Overall, we ate very, very well on our trip!
