Life has been crazy busy the last few weeks. That means…you guessed it, more slow cooker recipes for ya’ll!

I tried out this recipe when I saw it b/c it seemed so different from everything else I’d seen before.  The resulting dish had a really unique flavor and was very tasty! I made a bunch of adjustments to the original based on what I had at my house and some gut instinct.

This recipe is very paleo friendly – just leave out the sugar.

I think I’ve reached a new level of laziness with this recipe. Possibly even easier & lazier than my Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala. This meal is workout fuel. It’s good single person food b/c you can make a ton and it freezes well. It’s good crazy busy mama food for the same reasons. It takes pretty much no work. It’s good for lazy people, like I can sometimes be when I’ve over-booked myself with activities for 3 weeks straight. Oh yeah, I’m also planning a wedding. Sometimes that means I revel in my laziness with endless episodes of Law & Order, SVU. DUN DUN.

So, if you fit any of the above. This tasty, healthy, easy, lazy recipe is for you!! You really can have it all in one recipe!

1. Chop up onions & garlic. Use the pre-minced garlic as I did for extra lazy-factor. Throw in a bowl with olive oil and nuke for 2 min. Lazy man method to skip sauteing aromatics!

2. Open some cans of tomato stuff. Shake in some spices. Mix it all around.

3. Add raw ground turkey in chunks and mix around.

4. Close lid and go to bed or work (depending on how extra lazy you are)

5. Come back 8 hours later to a beautifully caramelized tomato-y meat sauce

that is good for throwing on top of..

a. regular or whole wheat pasta (for regular people)

b. veggies (for low-carb, paleo people)

c. your mouth! (be careful, it’s hot!) (for hungry extra lazy people)

I kept mine running overnight and all day while at work and it was an even deeper red & better flavor.

REVEL IN YOUR LAZINESS & ENJOY!

On Feb 23, I saw a posting about Girl Rising on the facebook page of my friend Pam in San Francisco. I clicked through, found the trailer, watched, and was instantly moved to take action. Thanks to the technology available through Gathr, I truly could do something about the swell of inspiration I felt, and so I immediately proceeded with requesting a screening of the film for my community. I knew I could find enough people to make the screening happen if I just tried really hard.

Yesterday, less than 3 months later, my single moment of inspiration came to fruition as I hosted a screening for Girl Rising for about 100 people. That’s a full movie theater! I couldn’t believe it!

I was really nervous before everything started, which surprised me, b/c I love hosting events and talking to people. I didn’t realize til after the film that I was nervous b/c I had brought all these people together to see something that I hadn’t yet seen for myself. What if they didn’t like it? What if it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. But it was too late now, I had followed through on my gut instinct that it would be amazing and now the theatre was filling up. Here we go!!

After a quick intro to tell people about my own story of education that started with my mom and some background on the making of the film, the theater darkened, and we were rolling…

The verdict? My gut instinct was right on, and what followed was a very well executed balance between informing the audience on the plight of girls and the impact of education on reducing poverty and drawing you into the personal stories of these 9 girls with very different cultures, environments, and struggles to get educated.

I was so touched to greet the audience members as they were leaving. Several younger girls wanted to know how they could bring the story to their friends and schoolmates. A church group had heard about the film somewhere else and found their way to this screening.  Another woman brought her parents after hearing about it on twitter. It was truly amazing to see how everyone found a connection to these brave and hopeful souls, and then found their way here tonight.

I left the theater floating on a cloud of happiness. I had originally stated my reason for trying to bring to film locally as this:

To bring people together for a night of inspiration and to raise awareness on the power of education.

I had done it! I was buoyed by the response of the people who came. It comes back to the mission statement of this whole site: To spread love. There was love all around last night – for the girls in the film, for the plight of girls across the world, for our community and knowing that together we truly could enact some change for the good in our world.

I couldn’t help but think that I must remember this feeling – when I am doing things that are so in line with my life’s mission statement, THIS is what it feels like. Amazing things will happen. Staying up all night baking cookies as a personal touch was worth it. Spending the weeks emailing people was worth it. Remember this night.

I don’t know yet what else might come out of last nights’ inspiration, but the chance to share the stories and meet other passionate people was more than enough.

If you came here from the screening last night, THANK YOU, for being a part of this love movement and for each being a seed of change and inspiration in our community.

Cookie

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Organizations supported by 10×10 & Girl Rising:

• Care USA
• World Vision
• Partners in Health
•  Plan International USA
• United Nations Foundation/Girl Up
• Room to Read
• A New Day Cambodia

Trailer:

Gathr - allows fim viewers to bring cool independent films to their city if they can raise enough interest.

I recently saw this trailer for a documentary about girls in different countries and cultures and their journeys for education:

The message behind the film is that educating girls can make a truly powerful and lasting impact on our societies. 10×10, the organization behind the film is doing this by partnering with a few organizations focused on girls’ education iniatives:

Care USA, World Vision, Partners in Health, Plan International USA, United Nations Foundation/Girl Up, Room to Read, and A New Day Cambodia

I was so moved by the trailer and idea, that I decided to try to host my own screening and ensure I could bring this film to my city through a cool service called Gathr.

Gathr allows fim viewers to bring cool independent films to their city if they can raise enough interest. I am happy to report that I’ve indeed gathr’d enough interest and will be hosting a screening of this film next week!

Would love to have any local Cookie Loves readers come join me. You can click HERE to get your ticket for Wednesday, May 8, at 7:30 pm.

OR…Share this post and/or leave a comment below letting me know and I’ll randomly draw a winner this weekend!

Together we can spread the word on this powerful film and inspire our communities! Le’ts spread the LOVE!

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If you aren’t in Dallas, you can Gathr your own showing by applying on the site. You can do it!

This past week I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful fundraising event, A Community Cooks, at the We Over Me farm at Paul Quinn College just south of Dallas. When I read about the event and subsequently googled what it was all about, I immediately had to sign up.

Paul Quinn college has turned it’s football field into a farm to:

a. Teach its students about farming & entrepreneurship

b. Provide fresh, healthy food for its local community which had previously been a “food desert”

What an amazing cause to support!!

I donned my cowgirl boots and headed out to the college with some friends. We were greeted with the perfect weather and a beautiful setup of tables right in the middle of the field.

Along each side of the field was a row of tables populated by chefs from some of the hottest restaurants in Dallas. Each restaurant offered a little dish to taste and the beer, wine, and specialty Eddie Campbell cocktails were flowing. It was a lovely way to get to mingle with other like-minded folks in our community and also get to chat a bit with the chefs.

Of course the food was fabulous! My favorite dishes were a perfectly seared scallop with shaved asparagus salad from 3015 at Trinity Groves, the duck confit pasta salad from one of my favorite local restaurants, Boulevardier, and the seaweed packed umami burger from Dish.

I’d highly recommend checking out this event next year. If you are interested, We Over Me Farm is also always looking for volunteers & donors to help out!

My college roommate recently started a blog called “Life By Appointment” with her friend to share their ideas on food, fashion, and fun DIYs in between their busy schedules as doctors. They recently posted a gorgeous looking salad that I had to try, and it turned out fantastically! I had trouble finding farro at the grocery near me, so I made a variation with Israeli cous cous instead. Really loved the texture and healthiness of this dish. The ladies suggested some great shortcuts to make this an easy weeknight dish as well — using precut butternut squash and quick-cooking farro. Enjoy!

Ah, my love affair with the trusty crock pot continues..

This is another go to recipe for me when I know I’m going to get home late b/c of work or other commitments, but I still want to make sure we have a healthy, tasty dinner that won’t take forever to prepare.

My two favorite things about pork tenderloins are that:

a. They are a very lean source of protein – only 3 grams of fat for 22 grams of protein in a 3 oz serving! (source)

b. They freeze really well so you can stock up when they have ridiculous sales

This recipe is SO EASY. It’s even easier than my super easy Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala b/c you don’t even have to marinate it overnight or wait for the meat to defrost! Just wrangle the frozen tenderloin outta the wrapper, mix together the ingredients, pour and GO!

8 hours later, I promise you will come home to a delicious smelling house and a satisfying, healthy meal and feel like a rockstar! This meat works well for all sorts of meals like, tacos, spring rolls, tossed with some scrambled eggs, throw inside a sandwich or on a salad. So many porky possibilities!! Below is a simple, but delicious salad with arugula, clementines, avocado and dressed w lime juice, olive oil, salt & pepper. Heat up the meat separately and enjoy an awesome, healthy lunch!

(To make this paleo, make sure you are using raw, unfiltered, local honey and cut out the brown sugar & corn starch)

Get your own slow cooker for only $24.99. Best kitchen investment ever!

Recently, the co-op I participating in has been sending us home with loads of little purple majesty potatoes. Our house is not big on eating potatoes, so I wanted to try something a little different to take advantage of the gorgeous deep purple color.

(Photo from http://www.urbanacresmarket.com, my co-op)

I decided on purple gnocchi b/c I thought it would be fun and I’ve only ever made gnocchi one other time. As for the sauce, I’d had my tastebuds set on something with tarragon ever since I had some escargot in a tarragon sauce at a local Spanish tapas restaurant, Sangria. I had forgotten how lovely and lightly licorice-y the flavor of this herb was and thought it provided a perfect bright note in the midst of a rich, creamy sauce.

Now, gnocchi-making can be intimidating, but as far as pasta-making goes, it’s probably the easiest way to start b/c you don’t have to worry about rolling the dough out smoothly or any of the stuff that scares me about making pasta. One of these days I’m going to try it for you guys!

The gnocchi process takes a little time, but it’s actually quite fun once you get into it and I was enjoying myself so much I ended up making nearly 4lbs of gnocchi in one sitting. I might have a problem.

Basically, here are the steps:

1. Tear up the cooked potatoes
2. Add ricotta, cheese, spices and mix
3. Add some flour to form the dough
4. Roll it out, cut it up, fork it
5. Boil it
6. Sear it (optional)

My favorite part was cutting up the gnocchis, b/c honestly, they were just so cute looking. Little pillows of deliciousness!

I also learned that, though a potato ricer is very cool and can provide an excellent chest workout, a food processor is WAY faster and easier!

(I used half white/half purple b/c I didn’t have enough purple potatoes. You can see the gnocchi turned out a light lavender color. Next time, all purple!)

Here’s a quick vid on how to shape the gnocchi so you too may become obsessed with how cute they are:

Enjoy making some gnocchi!

It’s strange to think I’ll officially be starting my own family, taking on a new name, starting a new chapter in my life in a few short months.

I spent so much of my youth striking out for independence, adventure, discovery,growth…this all lead me to go far away from my parents’ home, going places where I knew no one and no one knew me so I could start fresh and become myself. Nowadays, I am older, not so insistently proving my independence (to the world and to myself), and I yearn for more time with my parents as they too get older.

But life happens, and we all must accept and adapt to the way the world changes and the way we too will change. I don’t know how getting married will change things, but I am ever curious to see what will transpire. I can’t imagine any drastic changes since we’ve been together for coming up on 9 years now.

How has marriage changed things for you guys?

What lessons might you impart on the as yet uninitiated?

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Meal Plan:

Mon – Steak (pan-seared/oven finished) + sauteed balsamic brussel sprouts
Tue – Purple potato gnocchi w/ light lemon tarragon sauce, Kale Butternut Squash & Farro Salad  by Life By Appointment

Wed – Blackened Tilapia & Spicy Sauteed Swiss Chard/Spinach

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Workout Plan:

Mon – Legs Lift
Tues – Yoga
Wed – Chest/Back Lift
Thurs – Yoga
Fri – Sun- off, but walking around a lot with parents, or try to squeeze in an HIIT workout

Good luck and have a great week!

Cookie

I’ve got a handy money-saving flavor-makin’ tip for ya’ll! Save up all your fish bones, shrimp shells, shellfish shells in ziplock bags after you cook/eat and throw them in the freezer. Once you have about 4-5 cups full of stuff, you are ready to make your own Seafood Stock!

The secret I learned is that you must roast all the goodies first to pull out the sweetness of the shellfish. Then pop all that seafoodiness in a pot with some water and a few other ingredients for a couple hours and you have some pure seafood stock goodness to use in your recipes! My recipe was based on this one from Simply Recipes, and I modified it based on what I had at my house.

Now that you’ve made stock…what should you do with it??

I made a modified cioppino with only shrimp and fish b/c I didnt’ have any shellfish. I also added extra veggies – broccoli & mustard greens sliced ribbon thin. The key is to just make sure you do not overcook the seafood. I actually just dunked the seafood and veggies into the soup for long enough to cook and then placed them into serving bowls before ladling the soup on top.

These are some other recipes I’d like to try with my stock later this week!

• Fragrant Fish Soup
• Low Fat Seafood Gumbo
• Seafood Risotto
• Japanese Miso Fish Soup

Enjoy your delicious, healthy, fragrant seafood stock!