Recently, I have heard so many good things about kelp and its nutritional benefits. First and foremost, is kelp a noddle or a plant or a string? What is kelp??? Kelp noodles are a sea vegetable in the form of an easy to eat raw noodle. Made of only kelp (a sea vegetable), sodium alginate (sodium salt extracted from a brown seaweed), and water, Kelp Noodles are fat-free, gluten-free, and very low in carbohydrates and calories.
Kelp! (rhymes with help)
Currently on a granola bar kick (as witnessed a couple weeks ago here), here is my latest granola bar obsession: Lola Bars. Yes, I am on a roll with granola bars!
5 flavors. Taste the rainbow.
Quince paste, known as membrillo in Spain, is phenomenal when paired with cheese (especially Manchego cheese). I first discovered this paste (more like a firm jelly) from my mom, who always has it in stock. It is sweet without being overly so, and truly is a great addition to a cheese plate.
Who knew? (My mom did).
Sugar, dairy and fat heaven! Ice Cream Sandwich Cake! Oh my, worth every single bite. Based off of the following recipes from: Mommy’s Kitchen, All Recipes, and A Free Recipe. This is truly the easiest homemade dessert, perfect for parties and summer BBQs. (Also, be sure to read through the whole post for info on a special promotion!)
Ice cream cakes!
I am a pizza lover. I might even go out on a limb and say that I am a both a pizza fanatic and snob. I love pizza and could eat it every night for dinner, but it has to be good pizza. Not the type of pizza that they serve at kids’ birthday parties (barf) or the kind that is soggy / too thick / bad sauce / overly cheesey / greasy, etc…. But once I find a pizza I like, I am a devoted fan. My favorite pizza places in NYC are hands down: Marta and Rubirosa. But when I can’t get to those restaurants (my husband isn’t a fan of eating pizza for dinner — he prefers it for lunch or a snack — one of our few conflicts), I love a frozen pizza. NOT JUST ANY FROZEN pizza, but Lou Malnati’s Pizza.
Lou. We love you Lou.
I have always loved kale (Ken even considered naming our son, “Kale” instead of “Cruz” — true story), but this kale caesar salad has taken my love of the dark leafy green to a whole new level. Like, I could eat four heads of kale in one day and be happy and content. This is an easy salad, with a super tasty homemade dressing that lasts in the fridge for several weeks. Once I discovered the recipe from Epicurious, I have literally made this salad 2-3 times a week. I can’t stop, won’t stop, why stop. So here is the recipe. Enjoy!
Ingredients for Salad:
One of my favorite pastimes is scouring the grocery store and finding new items to eat. I love food, and I love trying new things! So here is what I am currently loving in the kitchen (and in my belly!)
Looks sweet and delicious, right?
Hello friends! I am so happy to write about Mah Ze Dahr once again! This past winter, the amazing online bakery founded by former Goldman Sachs executive Umber Ahmad was written up in the NY Times as having the best doughnuts in the city. As a loyal fan, I couldn’t wait to taste the doughnuts, so I went online to buy. And yet, instead of following my plan, I indulged in half a dozen of the Nutella Hand Pies. AND OH MY, they are amazing. True perfection. The New York Times needs to review THEM!
Bundle of deliciousness
If you want a rich, decadent, chocolatey, vegan dessert*, then THIS IS IT. Vegan Peanut Butter Cups.
Even in sub-freezing temperatures, nothing is better than Ample Hills Ice Cream. Sold at three different Brooklyn locations and as of YESTERDAY, at the Gotham West Market in Manhattan, this ice cream is like no other. More like a pot of 24K gold in comparison to bronze. Not only does it taste delicious, but it is the only ice cream parlor in New York City that makes ice cream completely from scratch on the premises. It gets its eggs and dairy from local farms, and each aspect of the ice cream is handmade with premium ingredients. Holy cow.
The Gowanus Ice Cream Parlor on a recent cold, snowy, freezing weekend afternoon. Check out the roof deck up top. I want to have a party up there — for lazy people who don’t want to come to my party in Brooklyn, they will not know what they are missing. It is simply amazing.
Guilty pleasure: reading cookbooks! I love collecting, sorting through, and learning from cookbooks. Although the internet is a terrific place to peruse for recipes and ideas, there is something about the old fashioned, hard cover that I can’t get away from. There are so many cookbooks that I love and use, but currently, here are my three favorite:
Every time I am at Whole Foods, I end up picking up a “Morning Glory” Muffin to snack on. Both my daughter and I love them: sweet, moist, and healthy. So I decided to bake a batch of them myself! After scouring the internet to find the recipe that suited my taste, here is the one I found on eatingwell.com. I modified them slightly and love the result! They are refined-sugar free, gluten-free (because I used gluten-free flour), and nutrient packed!
For the past couple of months, I have been more into *real* desserts than *healthy* desserts. But now that it is the start of a new, clean, fresh year, I am back to loving / craving / wanting / needing healthy desserts. And this dessert is the perfect one — incredibly healthy, no refined sugar, no wheat, real ingredients, easy to make, and super delicious. WIN WIN WIN — almost like digging into an overflowing ice cream hot fudge sundae. This recipe is from 101 Cookbooks, one of my all-time favorite food blogs. Check it out! And make these cookies! They are part banana bread — part oatmeal — part macaroon. All in one deliciousness!
Just like last week, I have copied yet another soup recipe from GOOP. Too good not to, so I did it again. Imitation is flattery. #CopyCat #SorryImNotSorry
Ingredients:
Theoretically, you could just go to the GOOP website and find this soup. But hey, it is more fun when I post, right? So full acknowledgement, this soup is copied EXACTLY from GP. AND IT IS SO GOOD! And healthy! And the perfect way to start the New Year! So go on and make it. And pretend that I was genius enough (or had the staff) to create it myself.
Ingredients:
This past weekend, we had our dear friend Katie Kaiser from Stanford visit. In addition to being a great friend, she is one of the most phenomenal cooks I have ever encountered — as I still remember all her dinner parties during Business School and the meals she put together. So I asked her if we could cook together so I could learn some of her tips, skills, and recipes. POT OF GOLD! We cooked up a storm and she taught me so much — stay tuned for her various recipes that will be featured on the blog, Thank you, Kaiser! We love you! And so here is one of her recipes, delicious Vegan Spinach Dip!
Ingredients:
Ingredients
Best Granola Ever. I am addicted and obsessed with granola and this is HANDS DOWN MY FAVORITE brand. No other type of granola comes close to this heavenly bowl of goodness! For the past several years (at least 5 years, or even more!), my dear mother in Eugene, Oregon, has been sending me boxes of this granola from the bin in our local grocery store (which is ten times better than any Whole Foods) to New York City. I never knew that it was sold elsewhere! Until I found it in a random Korean Deli Store in Upper Manhattan. It was startling, exhilarating, and life changing! Grizzlie’s Granola — Aunt Maple’s Crunchy Granola — the best of the best.
Heaven in a bag
Happy Sunday! Sorry for the delayed Friday food post, but lots going on, including the great Josie Fragrance/Fashion event at Bloomingdale’s yesterday!
Mom with Josie Girls and the Josie Fragrance at Bloomingdale’s
Even though I am done with marathon training (well, for NYC 2014…not forever….I am hooked), I still am hungry all the time. Especially for chocolates. Specifically, French chocolates. Recommended by a friend on our recent trip to Paris, we stopped by Jacques Genin, a well known French chocolate and caramel maker in the Marais. And let me tell you, it is worth the hype. At first, I thought that all high-end chocolate tastes the same — good, delicious, and decadent. But once I polished off the box of Jacques Genin’s, I realized that it was HIS chocolate that was oh-s0-flipping-good. He opened up his own chocolate store / tea house in the Marais neighborhood in 2008. It is beautiful and chic — an Hermes version of chocolate.
Damn straight
As the self proclaimed Granola Queen (both in terms of the noun “granola” and the verb “granola”), I have played around with making granola bars. This granola bar is a winner. It takes under 30 minutes, requires no baking, has no sugar (unless you count honey and/or dates as sugar), and is delicious (obviously). MAKE ‘EM!
Ingredients:
Guest blogger alert! Here’s Ken… When he starts watching too much football on Sundays, I can usually guilt him into cooking/doing a guest blog post during commercials. And his Jets are terrible so it’s not like he’s missing much. Enjoy:
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If there’s anything in the vicinity of unhealthy on this blog, it’s a safe bet that it’s coming from me. While I try to make an effort to combine healthy and, um, not-totally-girly, (see: Grilled Artichokes, Grilled Fruit, Grilled Romaine Salad, Lemon-Mint Pasta with Bacon, and a Guy’s Guide to Pregnancy), things like Beer Can Chicken are more up my alley. Without further ado…. heart stopping mac and cheese.
So, apparently when you follow supermodels on instagram, you start to think that you yourself are IN FACT a supermodel. Yep, that is right. I strut like one, dress similarly, resemble one, and I am a model now. OK. Not really, but I *do* eat Karlie’s Kookies which most supermodels boast about chomping down on instagram. So that makes us similar, right? What is a Karlie’s Kookie? Well, all the celebrities and fashionistas eat them (and post them on instagram), so they must be healthy AND delicious at the same time. And what do you know? They really are. Cross my heart, swear to god, these little cookies are made out of healthy ingredients and are so tasty good, too.
My goodie bag.
I have a close friend who is hands down the best cook in the world (actually, tied with my mother). Everything she makes in the kitchen is scrumptious, delicious, and out of this world good (she is also beautiful, loving, caring, stylish — damn I have AMAZING FRIENDS!!!!!). So when I was at her house last week and devoured a whole gallon of salad, I had to know HOW DO I MAKE THAT DRESSING? The salad was simple — cabbage and tomatoes — but I couldn’t stop eating it. It was the most delicious two ingredient salad I had ever tasted — all because of the dressing. My friend, embarrassed, said that the dressing was store bought (not her typical style) and said it cost her $17 for the bottle (NYC — your prices are totally bonkers a$$ crazy!).
Salad! But what makes the salad is the dressing….
Nothing better than a QUICK and easy dessert to make and devour! 3 ingredients.
Ingredients:
