Breakfast

Homemade Maple Applesauce

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2016 has been an interesting year for this food blogger. I just looked back on my previous post from January that said my New Years goal was to get back into the Forks & Rec game...oops. Well, we are over halfway through 2016, but there's still time. There is a reason why you haven't heard much from me the past few months. At the beginning of March, I travelled to a lake in central Zambia with a group of friends. We had a blast at the lake, but also got lost, got a truck stuck in the mud, and got soaked by thunderstorms during the course of the day. Legend has it that this lake is cursed, and if the preceding list of difficulties didn't prove it, I did. While we were packing up, I tripped on a rock and fell [Read more]

Cauliflower Cheddar Quiche

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Let me start off by apologizing for the long time since the last post on Forks & Recreation. I've been getting settled into my new life in Lusaka, Zambia. It has been a lot of adjustments these past few weeks learning a new job, learning a new city (not to mention a new continent), and learning the new grocery stores. That, combined with the fact that the sun sets at 6pm here, means that it has been hard to time to photograph meals (got to get that natural lighting!).  Luckily, I had some time this weekend to photograph a meal that is very illustrative of my time here so far: the load-shedding approved cauliflower cheddar quiche. "What's load shedding and why is this quiche load shedding approved?" is [Read more]

Two berry compotes: blackberry-mint and strawberry-rhubarb

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Blackberry_mint_compote

I have a berry, berry good post for you today. Last week I was trying to decide what recipe to share with you all before I left for Zambia. I wanted to share a recipe that used ingredients from the Pacific Northwest where I spent the summer back at home. I also wanted it to be a food that I was going to miss, mostly because I wanted a last hurrah with a favorite food. I knew I’d miss fresh summer berries, and what better berry to showcase the blackberries bursting in the PNW?  And we have a gorgeous rhubarb plant growing in our backyard and a big box of strawberries in the fridge that were on the verge of funkiness. This led to an aha moment: I would do a post on compotes! Blackberry mint compote and strawberry rhubarb compotes to [Read more]

Homemade Pesto

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homemade_pesto

I was introduced to homemade pesto when I worked at a gardening day camp in Louisville, Kentucky. After the kids left for the day, the executive director of the camp walked to the back of the garden where the big, beautiful basil plants were. We pinched the tops off all the basil plants to prevent early flowering and filled two grocery bags with leaves. We walked back to his house to debrief the day and headed into the kitchen. I asked what he was going to do with all that basil. "Pesto!," he replied. I watched as he started throwing basil, garlic, salt, parmesan, and walnuts into a food processor and drizzle a little lemon on top without measuring anything. He turned on the food processor and seconds later, viola, pesto! My mind was [Read more]

Healthy Homemade Granola

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I can think of few things more lovely than the smell of homemade granola in the oven. Well, except maybe that comforting feeling of eating granola first thing in the morning, either with yogurt, cereal, or on its own. Both are absolute delights.  If you are new to the kitchen, I highly recommend you start out your kitchen exploration with this healthy homemade granola. It's easy, delicious, and sure to impress your friends. Each time you reach for the granola jar, you feel satisfied that you made something so wonderful on your own. Plus, granola is stupid expensive when you buy it from the grocery store, but totally affordable to make on your own. That's reason enough.  However, you have to be careful about granola. It [Read more]

Banana Bread with Peanut Butter and Nutella Swirl

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I usually have a couple sad, old bananas lying around. Their fate is almost always the freezer for smoothies. But last night, I was overcome with the urge to bake and my eyes landed on the spotty brown bananas on my shelf. Next thing I knew, I was throwing every yummy morsel I could find into the mixing bowl for this banana bread with peanut butter and nutella swirl.  Chocolate chips. Chopped pecans. A streak of peanut butter. A handful of cacao nibs for crunch. A swirl of Nutella. All inside this perfect banana bread. I had never made banana bread before, but I figured The Kitchn would be a great place to find a recipe. When I searched the site, the first article to appear was "5 Easy Ways to Make Banana Bread More Awesome". Of [Read more]

Chia Seed Pudding 3 Ways: Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla

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Pudding really isn't my thing. Or so I thought until I started playing around with chia seed puddings. These three chia seed puddings - chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla - will provide an excellent starting point to experimenting with the whole range of possibilities in the chia seed pudding world! You can layer them with fruits, yogurt, nuts, peanut butter, granola, or whatever else your heart desires (and your pantry provides).   In order to understand why I was so doubtful about chia seed pudding, you must understand a key thing about me. I love almost all foods except for a couple very specific things, one of which is oatmeal. I just cannot bring myself to eat more than two bites of oatmeal before my body and mind says "STOP [Read more]