FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Broccoli Salad

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Broccoli Salad

Prior to heading to LA, a new restaurant in Austin dropped off a bunch of packaged lunches at my office with hopes that we’d become addicted and turn to them for our catering needs.  The name of the restaurant slipped my mind, but the broccoli salad they dropped off did not.  From what I remembered, the salad consisted of broccoli, carrots, dried cranberries, and a nut.  I trucked on over to Trader Joe’s this afternoon to get the ingredients and give this salad a shot.

Raw Broccoli

FoodFash Broccoli Salad

2 cups chopped broccoli

1 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup finely chopped red onion

5 to 6 ounces of vanilla Greek yogurt

In a medium sized bowl, add all of the ingredients except for the yogurt.  Stir the veggies until they are evenly mixed, add the yogurt, and then mix again.

Cranberries and Pecans

Although my version wasn’t nearly as “restaurant tasting” as the restaurant version, I have a feeling that mine is wayyyy less caloric than what I sampled last week.  I loved all of the tastes, textures, and crunch.  And I could totally see myself keeping this salad on hand as a snack in between meals when I need some energy and something to munch on.

Nature’s Bagel Chip

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Ohhh what I wouldn’t do for a lox bagel!  Love.  Well love/hate.  I love the stuff so much that I can’t stand to see a crumb wasted, so I eat it all up to the point of miserable fullness.  But since there’s no room for miserable fullness over the next five weeks, I’ll be spending this time coming up with solutions.  Lox bagel-esque solutions.

Sliced Cucumbers = Nature’s Chip Bagel Chip

If I had thought this whole thing through, I would have purchased some red onions and capers at the market.  But I didn’t.  So I merely sliced up some cukes, slathered with Tofutti “cream cheese”, and topped with slices of smoked salmon.  De-lish!

These lox cukes were a super fast weekday lunch that could also be a super fun weekend breakfast.  A feel good, super fun weekend breakfast at that!

P.S.  I snuck two workouts in today, which could be responsible for the overuse of exclamation points in this post!

Sriracha Kale Chips

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Watching the incredibly cute video below reminded me that kale chips were on my baking to-do list.

Cute, right?  I love when he says “it seems to me that we can either pay the farmer or we can pay the hospital”.  So true!

Knowing that I’d want a spicier chip, I added a hefty amount of Sriracha.

Foodfash Sriracha Kale Chips

8 ounces of kale, de-spined and broken into bite sized pieces

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of Sriracha

salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the olive oil and Sriracha in a small bowl.  Dry the kale completely and then drizzle the olive oil and Sriracha mix over the kale.  Use your hands to massage the kale, making sure that every piece has been coated.  Place the kale on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the kale is crispy.

The kale chips were exactly what I was expecting taste-wise: crispy, spicy goodness.  However, I did not anticipate how addictive they’d be.  I placed the bowl of chips next to me as I was editing photos and by the time I was finished with the photos, the kale chips were finished as well.  Oops!

Do you find kale chips addictive?  Have you tried any surprisingly good flavor combos?

Delayed Motivation

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It’s a pretty accurate statement to say that if I haven’t been blogging, I haven’t been working out either.  After days of being a busy bee, I woke up with plans for both today.  But when I woke up to stormy weather, my motivation was as distant as the sunshine.

I felt stereotypically, stormy weather lazy until around 5 PM when I came to terms with how disappointed I’d be tomorrow if I spent the entire day lounging. I ate an apple with peanut butter while my headphones charged and then headed to Bayshore Blvd.

I was nervous about picking up where I had left off in my running app since it had been almost two weeks since my last run, but it ended up being one of the best runs yet.  Low 70’s, overcast, and breezy might just be my favorite running weather!

I stopped at Whole Foods on the way home to pick up kale and lemons to make Brittany’s version of Whole Foods’ garlicky kale.  Even though I’ll be in DC this week eating an abundance of garlicky kale, I wanted some QT with my kitchen and this recipe was the only thing on my mind.

I’ll be staying in Alexandria, VA until Wednesday if you have any restaurant suggestions!