Creamy Almond Butter Salad Dressing, Dipping Sauce & Marinade // Vegan Recipe

This is our family's favorite dressing (dip, marinade, everything!) and I make a big batch of it every week. It's so yummy we usually enjoy it on salads, as a stir fry sauce, spring roll dip, marinade for tempeh or tofu, you name it! It tastes great with just about anything and you can experiment with the ratios to make it thicker or more watery, depending on your preference for texture and zing. 

 To make this simple yet delicious sauce, simply whisk or blend together: 

The juice of one lemon, equal parts tamari (can substitute for bragg's liquid aminos), and water (so, same amounts of lemon, water & tamari), a big tablespoon almond butter, a few pinches of garlic powder, and a dash of maple syrup. Increase amounts of everything for bigger batches.

Hope you enjoy sweet friends! Be sure to let us know if you try it. :)

Recipe: Raw Kalifornia Salad

Happy Summer Solstice! Today marks the longest day (most hours of sunlight) of the year, but that's not the only big celestial event this week. This weekend we're also getting ready for the arrival of the 2013 supermoon, which will deliver the biggest and brightest moon of the year. We're so excited as we love to celebrate earth and her natural cycles, and we also feel this would be the perfect weekend for our Luna to arrive! We really feel this is such a special, important time for everyone to meditate and reflect on their spirit, but especially for those pregnant mamas and their families who are creating and bringing life into the universe. It truly is the perfect time to set your intention for the soul you will be a vessel for bringing, and how you will walk in the role of motherhood. We encourage everyone to soak in the moon & sun this weekend & enjoy the gifts of the earth available to you this time of year!



This is one of our favorite recipes for a perfect kale salad, inspired by California-grown foods (citrus, avocados, tomatoes, oh my!) and the urge to snack on something crisp & healthy while beating the summer heat.

Ingredients:

• 5 cups of chopped kale or other dark greens (I used chard, kale, and spinach) 
• 2 cups of chopped red cabbage
• 1 diced cucumber
• 2 avocados, cut into bite-size chunks
• 1 diced heirloom tomato
• 1 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1/4 of a red onion, diced
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

• Once everything is chopped, hand mix/toss in a large bowl
• Make the dressing by mixing lemon juice, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and s&p
• Drizzle over salad and mix again, not being afraid to mush the avocado! It gives the salad a great consistency
• Serve alone, in a wrap, or with big multigrain chips like we did

Hope you enjoy and make it a very special weekend! Don't forget to play outside and feel the power of the sun & moon!

Recipe: Pineapple Stuffed Peppers

With the rising temperatures and growing days, Summer is really starting to feel just around the corner. Oscar had a craving for something light and refreshing, so I whipped up this little recipe for lunch the other day. Today we celebrate thirty-three weeks of pregnancy (getting so close!) and Luna is supposed to be around the size of a pineapple. Couldn't be more appropriate! 

This recipe is SUPER simple, fast, and easy to make. It's loaded with potassium and vitamin C, healthy unsaturated fats, and a nice pack of protein from our fungi friends.  

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Chop up all ingredients and mix together in large mixing bowl
2. Add tamari, olive oil and mashed avocado 
3. Halve bell peppers, deseed, stuff with the citrusy delicious mix
4. Serve with a slice of lime (or two!)

Enjoy, friends! And just a tip, if you're looking for a completely raw recipe, you can use salt in place of the tamari. Happy Friday and I hope it's a whimsical weekend wherever you may be! 

Recipe: Ultimate Dill Pickles

I love pickled foods! I'm not sure when it was that I discovered "pickles" were cucumbers, and that many types of foods can actually be pickled, but it blew my mind! Today I want to share a super easy recipe for homemade garlic-dill pickles. I must warn you- I like my pickles to pack a tart, mouth-puckering punch, so I use equal parts water and vinegar. For less of a kick, try 3/4 a cup of vinegar with 1 1/4 cup of water. For a sweeter pickle, add an extra teaspoon of sugar. But if you're like me and you're looking for a good strong pickle, use the recipe below and enjoy!

Ingredients: 

 

*Must contain NO additives!

 *About 1 TBSP (doesn't need to be cubed, I just think they're so cute!)

Directions:

1. Slice pickling/baby cucumbers into quarters and pack into clean, quart-sized mason jar, along with fresh dill (about 8 sprigs), fresh garlic cloves (6-10, depending on your love of garlic), chili flakes, whole black pepper, dill seed, and mace
2. In a small pan, bring water, vinegar, salt and sugar to a boil, stir to dissolve
3. Pour boiling liquid (also known as brine) over cucumbers and seal tight with a clean lid, store in refrigerator 
4. Voila! Pickles will be ready to eat within 24 hours and will last up to one month refrigerated

Heads up! If your garlic turns a greenish-blue color, fear not! It turns out that when pickled or cooked, some of the sulfur compounds contained in garlic can encourage the formation of molecules very similar to chlorophyll, the pigment that makes plants green. Perfectly normal and safe to eat!

Happy pickling! 

Recipe: Roasted Vegetable Medley

I love roasted vegetables! It's such an easy and diverse dish, and when it comes to food, I'm all about recipes that can be modified to suit the season, what's on hand, and what else is being served. Roasted veggies provide just that! This was our really delicious, hardy dinner from last night.

Salad from our patio-garden greens, homemade dressing, cherry tomatoes. Grilled cheese with earth balance, organic raw sharp cheddar. A smattering of roasted vegetables with my favorite seasoning combo, organic shoyu. 

Ingredients:

• You can use just about any vegetable for roasting. Garlic cloves and onions are always a must for me, but be as creative with the rest as you'd like! For this particular recipe, I'm sticking with the classic:

• Potato
• Red & Green bell pepper
• Crimini mushroom
• Elephant garlic
• Purple onion

• The herbs and seasonings also provide a lot of room for experimentation, so again, get creative! Smell, taste, explore. My trusted favorites from last night include:

• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Thyme
• Rubbed sage
• Rosemary

Portions for this dish will vary depending on how many people you want to feed. Since this was used as a main dish of sorts, Oscar and I easily consumed a full tray's worth of the veggie-deliciousness. This was: 2 small purple potatoes, half of each bell pepper, a large handful of mushrooms, 3 elephant garlic cloves, and half a purple onion. After chopping up the veggies (not too small! they will shrink a good deal while roasting) I coated them with enough olive oil to saturate their pores thoroughly, with no oil drip when held above the bowl. 

As veggie portions vary, so will the amount of spices used. This is a visual of the amount of herby coating I like to see, pre-stir. For this recipe, I used just about equal amounts of each seasoning, going a little lighter on the rubbed sage. A good rule of thumb when it comes to seasonings: if it smells strong, it probably is! Also, you can always add more, but over-spicing can ruin the best of meals! 

Veggie roasting times and temperatures vary on the size and variety of vegetables being roasted. Roasting is done at high temperatures (between 400-475 Fahrenheit) and is the fastest way to remove water, which results in the shrinking and rich-flavor-trapping that takes places in roasted goods. The browning that occurs also adds a whole other distinct layer of taste. When roasting mixed vegetables, the more tender-fleshed items will roast quicker. I love the way this tastes (think crispy, browned onions and garlic) but some people prefer to roast their vegetables with only like-items. For this batch, I roasted everything together at 420 degrees for about 30 minutes, flipping the veggies every ten minutes to prevent burning and uneven cooking. 

Optional step: with ten minutes left, drizzle a layer of organic shoyu or other soy sauce, for a little extra moisture and flavor! This photo (below) is still with ten minutes left. I know my veggies are done when my potatoes have full browned, and as you can see, they're only just starting to here.

Can be served as a main dish, a side dish, or a cold salad with the addition of a dressing. Hope you enjoy this super simple, healthy recipe. Happy Wednesday, friends! 

Recipe: Cucumber Mango Salsa with Avocado

Here in Southern California, chips and salsa could almost be made into their own category of food. That, and avocados, are just a few of the many perks to living in a Mexico-border-town, with access to great produce year-round. This is a recipe I created for a delicious, chunky, super fresh salsa. Inspired by my longings for summer heat and backyard fiestas.

Ingredients: 

• 1 large ripe avocado
• 1 large ripe mango
• 1-2 small baby/seedless cucumbers
• 3 small tomatoes (or the equivalent in large)
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/8-1/4 red onion
• 1/2-2 peppers of choice (depending on spice preference, I used 1 jalapeno in mine)
• 2 fresh garlic cloves
• Juice of half a lemon
• Salt & pepper 

I prefer to use the baby/seedless cucumbers, as they tend to be crisper and "fresher" tasting than regular-sized cucumbers. For the mangos, this is a little trick I learned as a kid. I've been cutting my mangos like this ever since! It's super easy and clean to do. Simply cut the mango in half (because of the pit, you can't cut it exactly in half, but you get the idea) then make a cross-stitch pattern with a paring knife, cutting to but not through the skin. Once you have your little squares cut out, simply "pop" the mango pieces out by folding the skin back with both hands.

Once all of your ingredients are diced, mix them in a bowl with the lemon juice, salt and pepper (to taste). I mixed the avocado in last, which works as a nice "glue" to keep all of the chunky delightfulness together and sticking on your chip! This is such a delicious snack, it could be eaten with a fork and spoon. I used mine (pictured above) to top off a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, mixed greens, pepper jack cheese, and sour cream. 

Bon appetite! 

Recipe: Easy-Peasy Black Bean Stew

Happy Wednesday, friends! I hope the week has been bright and merry for you and yours. As for me and the baby, we've been trapped in bed with body aches and a mini-migraine since Monday night. Just starting to feel the pressure of it release this morning. (Hallelujah!)

I'm blessed by a man that loves to cook and clean, so I was relieved of all domestic duties while feeling ill, but I whipped up this little meal on Monday while the headache was starting to hit and wanted to share it here, as it is a super easy/super nutritious recipe to use when pressed for time or ideas. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup dried black beans, cooked (or 1 can)
• 1/4 head purple cabbage
• 1/4 large bell pepper (any color, I used yellow)
• 1/2 zucchini
• 2 carrots 
• S&P, cumin, paprika, turmeric, garlic, cayenne  

Steps:

1. Heat up 2 tsp. olive oil over medium heat
2. Chop up all the veggies, add to oiled pan, sauté until soft
3. Stir in beans, turn heat down low
4. Add salt & pepper to taste, a few solid shakes of cumin and garlic, a few light dashes of paprika and turmeric, cayenne to taste
5. Stir, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes
6. Serve alone, over rice, or try it in a tortilla topped with sour cream, avocado and a side of greens

This recipe is super versatile so get creative with your veggies and spices! For a delicious, cold black bean salad, add diced tomato and cilantro once cooled. Bon appétit!

Quick side-note! For those of you who can't tell (thank you, too kind) I'm not the most computer-savvy gal. That being said, working out the kinks of the website (like the abrasive blue-colored links that don't show half the time anyway) will be a work-in-progress until I find a computer-literate pal to help out. In the meantime, thanks for your visual patience! 

Creative in the Kitchen

My mom always asks me where I come up with my recipes. It's been about five years since I started having a love for cooking and organic/healthy eating, and often she wants to know what I'm making or how I'm using certain seasonings, etc. Working at the People's Organic Food Co-Op in Ocean Beach from ages twenty-one to twenty-four really impacted the way I see food, especially vegetables, whole grains, and all that other good-for-ya stuff. Even with a few years of time in the kitchen, however, to this day (and slightly to my shame? Ha!) I have never written down a single recipe nor have I followed one. That being said, my response to my mom's recipe question is always the same shoulder-shrugging, "I don't know, I just sorta throw it all in there and see what works." 

Now, that definitely means there has been a lot of trial and error, and I have gained some knowledge of flavor pairings and other how-to's, but the whole point is this: whenever people are starting out cooking and exploring with food, I always encourage to be brave! Don't be afraid to throw out the measuring cups and recipe books and toss everything in your refrigerator on the stove. Well, maybe not everything, but you know what I mean! On the other hand, for many people I know having recipes can be handy (and let's face it, some things you just need a recipe for), as well as a good starting point for your own cooking adventures. 

I'll be attempting to keep track of my madness in the kitchen and present some recipes here for your viewing (and hopefully eating!) pleasure. Most of these recipes will work well for two people but you can always add more to the batch. For starters, here's a little meal I made, with my starting point being all of the leftover veggies in the fridge. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 - 1/2 red & green bell pepper
• 1/2 zucchini
• 1/2 crookneck or other summer squash
• 1/4 head of purple cabbage
• 1/4 yellow (or any!) onion
• A dozen stalks of asparagus
• 3 garlic cloves
• Small handful of green onions
• Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, s&p, cayenne, lime

To the right are the ingredients I started with. My process was to first separate what I thought would cook well together. I had some asparagus & green onions in the fridge that I added, as well as a few cloves of garlic, which made the first dish. 

Pineapple, lime, salt and honey
thrown into the mix.

Next came the squash, bell pepper, and cabbage. There was some leftover pineapple chunks on the verge of going bad in the fridge, so I decided to experiment here a little. (The "madness" I was referring to earlier! Hehe)

I crushed up the pineapple chunks with the juice of half a lime and a few turns of salt before mixing it in with the cabbage/squash/pepper mix. I sauteed this with a few teaspoons olive oil on medium-high heat until it started to brown, then I decided to add some honey and cayenne pepper to the mix, really enhancing the sweet, savory flavors of the dish.

Speaking of honey! Did you know it's an amazing source of antioxidants? Important for healthy living, antioxidants help destroy biologically destructive agents in our bodies which are linked to diseases such as cancer. Pomegranates and blueberries are other great sources of these free-radical fighting agents!

Simple salad.

Feeling a need for something fresh in the meal, I made a simple salad out of chopped romaine, leftover quinoa, half an avocado and a handful of halved cherry tomatoes.

On medium heat I sauteed the onion, garlic, asparagus and green onion with a few teaspoons of olive oil until they started to brown, then I added a few splashes of balsamic vinegar, turned the heat on low, covered and let steam until they taste-tested how I like 'em! You'll have to do the same, since the time varies depending on how crispy you like your greens. I over did it a little here, but usually I like my cooked veggies as crisp as possible, as they maintain more of their nutrients the rawer they are.

If you hang out in the HIVE for long enough, one thing you will come to find is that I love eggs. Like, kind-of-obsessed-make-them-with-every-meal love eggs. So, needless to say, I of course added a fried egg to the plate! The asparagus was delicious and I definitely recommend the pineapple/honey combo over any sauteed veggies. If you're not a fan of a little kick in your meal, nix the addition of cayenne. My taste for spicy foods has sort of vanished during this pregnancy, so I just added a few pinches here and it was perfect.

Yum, yum! The final plate.

Hope you enjoyed the first HOME IN THE HIVE recipe.
Thanks for reading and make it a great day!