Ceviche is one of those things I’ve only more recently started to like. For a long time, I avoided almost all seafood. This really only ended when my parents took me to Turks and Caicos for Christmas and I realized that if I was going to eat anything on the trip, I really needed to start enjoying fish. So while I was home this summer, I got my dad to make his famous ceviche. And I have to say, I deserve no credit for this recipe. I just simply sat back, photographed the steps, and then ate the amazing food.
Category Archives: Healthy
My Favorite Meal of the Week – Grilled Veggie Sandwich
When I come home to California in the summer, I feel like all I eat is fresh veggies and fruits. In my parents’ garden alone, I can find tomatoes, zucchini, squash, eggplants, nectarines, plums, peaches, blackberries, and tons of flowers and herbs. And living on the east coast, I definitely feel deprived of all of this fresh produce, so we often try to eat as many vegetables and fruits as possible in one meal. One of my favorite meals at home is grilled veggies on bread with pesto and fresh tomatoes. So before summer ends, I just wanted to share this dish with you. This is one of those that doesn’t really have a recipe. It’s really about doing whatever fresh vegetables you can find at your local market. But here’s a list to give you some ideas.
Ingredients
2 slices of your favorite bread per person (I bought rosemary bread at Whole Foods)
1 cup fresh made pesto
Sliced zucchini, squash, eggplant, onion, pepper, brushed with oil
Sliced tomato to garnish
Sliced cheese, optional
1. Warm bread in oven (if using cheese, go ahead and melt it on the bread). Grill veggies on grill. Make pesto (see here).
2. Top bread with pesto and cheese, cover with as many vegetables as you can, and then top with fresh tomato.
My Favorite Meal of the Week – Healthy Curry Chicken Salad
I love a good curry chicken salad. And for the last couple years, I’ve been relying on the pre-made one from Trader Joe’s. But for some reason, the last two times we’ve bought it, I haven’t liked it as much. I think they started putting too much mayo in it. So I decided it was time for me to just start making my own. But because I don’t really like mayo, I decided to use my mom’s healthy version – with hummus instead. I love throwing it on a bed of lettuce or some toasted bread for lunch.
My Favorite Meal of the Week – Spicy Cucumber Gazpacho
At a dinner party this summer, our friends made an amazing spicy cucumber gazpacho that I wanted to recreate. I decided it would be the perfect thing to take to jazz in the sculpture garden on a humid Friday night. But as luck would have it, jazz got rained out. But we still really enjoyed this soup. We ate it for dinner with some garlic bread, but you could also serve it as a light summer appetizer.
My Favorite Meal of the Week – Watermelon, Feta, and Mint Salad on a Stick
In the summers, I live for watermelon. When I can, I eat half a mini-watermelon every day. I literally cut it in half, and then sit with the half I’m going to eat, using a melon baller to scoop out bites (which immediately go into my mouth, no need to get a bowl dirty). It’s so refreshing and is the perfect palate cleanser after dinner. But sometimes, I need to class it up, and you know, serve it to people. Recently, I’ve started serving a watermelon, feta, and mint salad. The first time I did it as a traditional salad for a dinner party. The second time, I did mini ones on toothpicks for a birthday party. Both were delicious.
My Favorite Meal of the Week – Paradise Bowls Copycat
When I was in Santa Barbara last summer, we discovered this fantastic breakfast place called Backyard Bowls. Since I avoid dairy and eggs, I often struggle to find healthy breakfast options when traveling (and quite often end up eating granola bars I snuck in my purse or baked goods). But this place was perfect for me. It had these bowls with blended fruit, oatmeal, açai berries, and fresh fruit on top.
I had yet to come across another similar place until I was in Manhattan Beach for a wedding two weeks ago. On a morning walk, I spotted a man walking on the street with a bowl that said Paradise Bowls and after some googling (and a little bit of stalking) I found the place. Their bowls were slightly different than those I’d had in Santa Barbara – they had granola instead of oatmeal – but they were still delicious. This time I decided to come home and try to recreate what I had at Paradise Bowls.
Their version:
My version:
My Favorite Meal of the Week – Popsicle Edition
So I’ve been eyeing those Zoku quick pop makers for over a year, but had so far convinced myself that it was just an extra kitchen gadget that I didn’t need. Well that is until last week, when I found one at a small kitchen boutique store in DC and decided that I had to have one. And while I have to say it is totally unnecessary because there’s nothing wrong with the old school popsicle makers, it is kinda fun. Last night I decided to make some last minute popsicles for dessert and they were ready in 10 minutes. Pretty fantastic. I plan to try out lots of fun recipes over the course of the summer, so you’ll likely see some more posts like this. But here’s the first.
My Favorite Meal of the Week – Kale Salad and Cauliflower Salad
First of all, I want to say how happy I am to be back blogging (if you don’t know where I was, read this). Spending a week at the beach doing very little besides reading, napping, and eating gave me lots of time to do some thinking and planning for the blog. So get excited for a summer full of yummy recipes.
Ok, now onto today’s post. After nine days of heavy meals, I returned to DC very excited to eat light, healthy summer fruits and vegetables. It also just so happened that for my first night back, I was having a friend over for dinner who was about to leave for a work trip to Afghanistan (and thus would be missing out on all the same fruits and veggies I was craving). So in honor of this, I put together the following spread:
Featured:
– Homemade Pesto (with basil from our garden) and Smashed Tomatoes served on Toasted French Bread
– A Lemon Kale Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
– A Cauliflower and Garbanzo Bean Salad
My Favorite Meal of the Week – Zucchini Fritters
Growing up in California, I ate a lot of home grown squash, zucchini, and eggplant. In the summers, people with big gardens were basically giving these vegetables away because they had so many. So I thought I’d seen most of the ways to use these guys.
But last summer, I discovered a new great recipe to use any extra zucchinis – zucchini fritters. And I’ve started making them again almost every week.
My Favorite Meal of the Week – Mixed Green Salad with Grapefruit Wedges, Goat Cheese, and Candied Pecans
This week’s favorite meal of the week post is all about the grapefruit. I have always liked grapefruits, but I’ve recently remembered why they are so great. They seem to be the only sweet (and relatively inexpensive fruit) right now. In college, they were sometimes the best fruit in the dining hall at this time of year. And right now, they seem to be the best fruit at TJ’s (the berries are too expensive, the apples and oranges are bad, and it’s too early for a lot of other good things).
Today’s meal is a mixed green salad with grapefruit wedges, goat cheese, and candied pecans with a honey dressing. Pretty simple, and nice and light for the summer.
the petite croissant 