Greens on the Go.

Yoga, massage, CrossFit, yoga....running around, in my car, outta my car, back in my car. Oye. It's great, but it leaves little time for eating properly, and healthy. I usually have a hard boiled egg in my glove compartment at all times so I can fuel up in between jobs and workouts, but lately that hasn't been enough. This morning I whipped myself up some antioxidant packed sautéed greens, and protein filled white beans.

• Small head of kale (rinsed, de-ribbed and chopped)
• Small head of Swiss chard (rinsed and chopped)
• One can of cannellini beans, rinsed
• One clove of garlic, grated
• One small chunk of fresh ginger, grated
• Cumin
• Salt
• Coconut oil

This whole recipe, prep and cook and all, only takes about 5 minutes. So while my coffee was percolating I whipped it together. It can be enjoyed warm or cold and is super delicious.

Put coconut oil in a skillet. Add ginger and garlic and cook for a minute before adding in the greens. Sprinkle with cumin and salt and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the beans to the mixture, toss and then cook for another minute. Boom. Brunch/lunch/snack of champions!!

Great Friends Great Meals.

Homemade Pepper Jelly and Pickeled String Beans from Adenas garden and kitchen. I told her the other day that if I played for the other team, and if she didn't have an amazzzzing boyfriend, that I'd marry the shit outta her. Such a generous person, amazing gardener and chef and just and all around amazing human being.

We had a little girls get-together the other night at Pam Traceys house for {CrossFit} Sams birthday. I made the food: curried cauliflower soup, spicy sesame string beans, brussel sprout salad with dates and pepitas, and sauteed greens. Oh yeah, I also juiced pomegranates and made a cardamom simply syrup for some kick ass antioxidant-packed-Pom-Martinis.

Tuesday night has become Family Dinner Night with Brad + Ro and Me + Mom. We alternate, one Tuesday I cook at our house, Ro cooks the following at their house. Last night we started dinner with a bottle of Veuve Cliquot(!!!!) and an amazing plum tomato tart with basil.

Everything we ate was home-grown or killed by a friend. The yukon gold potatoes, shittake mushrooms and plum tomatoes were from Rochelles fathers garden. The venison roast was killed by Ro's cousin. And the swiss chard that I made was from our garden. The wine...from Spain! haha.

Brad and Ro, our epic hosts.

Holy Shitballs. I have been eating some AMAZING meals this past week: cooked by me, cooked by friends, grown from our very own gardens. Last night at our Tuesday Night Supper Club it was Rochelles turn to cook and she really outdid herself. The venison roast was cooked to perfection....and for any of you cringing right now, saying that you "dont like venison" or "venison tastes too gamey", then you just haven't had it cooked properly. Often people OVERCOOK it because it's "Wild Game!", don't do that.

Rochelle's Venison Roast: (P)

• venison roast
• fresh rosemary
• salt and pepper
• a few cloves of garlic
• evoo

Generously dress the roast with chopped rosemary, salt and pepper. First you drizzle some EVOO into a skillet and sear the venison steak at a fairly high heat. Throw in a few unpeeled cloves of garlic. You want to kind of caramelize the outside so that you are sealing in the juices. With meat - the rule is HOT and FAST or LOW and SLOW. Obviously this was Hot and Fast. So you sear the meat and then just transfer the skillet into the oven (400degrees f) for about 10minutes and let the meat finish off cooking. When you pull the roast out of the oven you MUST let it "rest". For about 5-10minutes. Cover it with some tin foil and walk.away.  The roast was served alongside sauteed shiitake mushrooms which were just done in evoo, salt and pepper and were unnnnnbelieveable.


Cailins Greens with Garlic, Ginger and Cumin: (P, V, VG)

• one bunch of Kale
• one bunch of Swiss Chard
• one clove of garlic
• a tablespoon or two of fresh minced ginger
• one jalapeno
• cumin
• salt
• evoo or coconut oil

Begin by washing your greens, obviously. With the swiss chard you want all of it, stems included. Kale - discard the stems, keeping only the leafy greens. In a skillet drizzle some oil in (I recommend coconut oil) and sautee your diced jalapeno, garlic, and ginger for a minute or two. Then throw in your greens and sprinkle with some salt and cumin. It'll take about 5 minutes for the greens to cook down. Enjoy.

Food for Fall.

I have been inspired to eat, cook, listen to, and be surrounded by everything Moroccan. Paula Wolferts cookbook, "The Food of Morocco" has been my bible - and is the ONLY cookbook that I have used, and probably ever will. It's outstanding. Everything is a "hit". Last night I wanted to make something delicious for my Mom, but she said that she didn't care to eat any meat. I have a bunch of lentils, some leftover swiss chard from my afternoon soup, and butternut squash is in season, so I decided to create an adaptation of Wolferts "Lentils with Swiss Chard, Butternut Squash and Meat Confit". After I made my changes the recipe was quite different, but just as delicious. Here is my interpretation of dish:

Cailins Fall Lentils with Squash and Swiss Chard: (V, VG)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup French Lentils
• 1 large onion 
• 1 can stewed tomatoes (or diced tomatoes)
• 3 large Swiss chard leaves, tender ribs and leaves rolled and finely shredded crosswise
• 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed
• 1 garlic clove
• paprika (be generous)
• cumin (be generous)
• ground black pepper
• cayenne pepper (be generous if you like heat, scant if you don't)
• lemon juice
• flat leaf parsley (fresh)
• cilantro (fresh)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, prep your squash, then put squash into a roasting pan. Fill up the pan about 1inch with chicken broth, then sprinkle some paprika, cumin, cayenne, and black pepper on the squash. Cover with tin foil and cook til tender (about 20minutes??).

2. Rinse the lentils. Put one cup of lentils in a saucepan with 2 cups of water and bring to a full boil for 5 min. Drain the lentils.

3. In a deep skillet, sautee your onion in olive oil with the tomatoes and garlic. (side note: I cut the onion in half and did small half moon slivers. With garlic I NEVER chop it, but instead use a zester or grater so that the garlic becomes a paste almost and can melt into the sauce...otherwise you get a big bite of garlic, and thats nasty). Then sprinkle some paprika, cumin, cayenne, and black pepper into the pan. Cook and stir for about 5-10minutes.

4. Spread the lentils over the onions; place the Swiss chard (which has been sliced up) on top. Add about 2 cups of chicken broth (or beef or vegetable, chefs choice), and simmer on low heat for 20minutes. (side note: when you are simmering something, it means that there has to be a low boil to it. So make sure that its bubbling a little bit).

*I am using broth to cook it in, and I even drizzled extra virgin olive oil on top, because it needs some fat - which if you used the original recipe with meat confit it would have. So just be sure to pour a bit of EVOO on it and use broth instead of water.

5. Add the roasted squash to the lentils (taste test to make sure that the lentils are tender!!!).

6. Once in your bowl, add a generous amount of fresh cilantro and fresh flat leaf parsley to the dish -- these add a freshness and citrus to the dish that it needs. Also, it needs a bit of acidity, so squeeze 1/4 to a 1/2 of a lemon over the dish. It sounds odd, but it completes the dish.


The salad that I did was a simple french salad. Mixed greens, herbed goat cheese, pickled onions, salted pepitas and a simple vinagrette. To pickle the onions (which takes the gnarly ONION taste and bite away), you place the onions in a dish with a bit of fresh lemon juice. Let sit for about 10 minutes. Reserve the juice for your dressing but rinse the onions and squeeze them. The dressing was the reserved lemon juice, a splash of balsamic vinagarette, EVOO, and a touch of salt, agave nectar and tarragon. DELICIOUS.