Look who ended up at my place last night…

The lovely Katharina! How cute is she?

We’ve been planning to get together and cook for the longest time and last night our little plan fell into place. Since the warm days of summer are most likely limited we decided to utilize summer veggies, the grill, and the ability to dine outside.

The recipes of the evening were from the June issue of Food & Wine – Barley and Grilled Vegetable Salad which included Vegetables with Walnut Dressing. Thanks to Katharina who researched long and hard for these delicious recipes.

We divided the prep work and were ready to grill the veggies in no time. It was nice having 2 chefs in the kitchen – turns out we work really well together. (Not that I was worried about that.)

With a tiny bit of help from Isaac we were able to get the grill started…apparently he has the magic touch because I was doing exactly what he did but it just wouldn’t start.

The vegetables looked absolutely beautiful…

I got a little camera happy.

They tasted as good as they looked. Yuummmm.

Apparently this amount of vegetables was meant serve 4-6 people, however we had no problem polishing off the whole platter.

Instead of following the recipe and mixing the barley, veggies, and dressing together in one big bowl, we decided to make our own separate salads…

The result – ah.ma.zing! The flavor of the grilled vegetables went well with the chewy barley and nutty dressing. Then there was the pecorino cheese, oh the cheese… it simply tied all the flavors together. I will mention the walnut dressing turned out to be more of a sauce than dressing. We’re not sure why, but it turned out to be too thick to drizzle as the recipe instructed. This wasn’t too bothersome and overall the recipe was scrumptious!! If you were looking for the perfect grilled vegetable dish for Labor Day weekend, here ya go!!

While dining, I went for a Skinny Dip, probably for the last time this summer…

I’ve mentioned this beer before. It’s a seasonal brew by New Belgium that’s light and perfect for warm weather. I only get it every once in a while because it’s not sold in VA – we actually picked up a 6 pack while in GA for a wedding a few weeks ago.

Who’s excited for the long weekend? This girl! Do y’all have any big plans?

We don’t. We’ll just be hanging out but I’ll definitely be hitting up the farmer’s market, grilling out again, and perhaps even getting in a run (my leg seems to be feeling better! Hooray!)

I’ve recently come across some new things I simply love so I thought I’d put a little post together to highlight them…

1. Aerie F.I.T. Seamless Tank:

Over the weekend I found this tank at aerie, the intimates sub-brand of American Eagle. I tried it on and bought it immediately!

New workout gear is a great motivator for me, but sometimes it’s hard to find flattering options that don’t cost an arm and a leg. This top fits the bill! It’s made of quality (lovely colored) fabric, has a supportive built-in bra and a slimming fit. <– Gotta love that!

2. CCNO Bars

This was another weekend find!! I ran into the Corann, the owner of CCNO bars at Whole Foods this weekend where he was giving out samples of all their flavors.

The bars are raw, vegan, wheat free, dairy free and soy free. Rich in Omega’s 3 and 6, each bar contains 1 teaspoon of organic coconut oil. Plus, they’re made right here in VA! One bite of the Ginger, their best selling bar, and I was hooked. I had a hard time choosing, but bought both the Power Greens and Ginger flavor! The Power Greens was consumed yesterday as a mid-afternoon snack. Although unnecessary, I kept the bar in the fridge during the day so the texture was cool and firm – perfect for a hot summer day.

3. Stonyfield Organic After Dark Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

How did I miss the fact that Stonyfield has frozen yogurt? I’m not really sure, but I AM SURE that the After Dark Chocolate flavor is delicious. Isaac brought me home this like pint on Monday evening as a surprise and I hate to admit it, but it’s almost gone. Luckily it’s good for me. It contains the live active cultures found in regular yogurt, the ingredient list is pretty short, and nutrition facts are on point – only 100 calories for 1/2 cup serving, no fat, and 4 grams of protein!

Highly recommend trying out the Stonyfield fro yo – I’m already excited to try some of the other flavors!

4. Sushi Bowls created by following this recipe from 101 Cookbooks

Seriously, this sushi bowl might be better than regular sushi!?! Isaac described it as tasting like a fresh and healthy version of orange chicken (the rice has orange juice and zest).

I described it as “Yum!”

Dangit, now I’ve made myself hungry.

It’s off to work for me, but get excited because I have a special friend coming over tonight to cook. Pictures will most definitely be taken.

Happy Wednesday.

PS Check out this article about Food Blogging in RVA. <– I’m quoted in it!!

You’ll never believe what happened did this weekend!?! I, the girl who’s probably never watched over 5.4 minutes of a football game (excluding Super Bowl commercials), joined a fantasy football league AND attended a draft party. It’s an all-ladies league and it’s called “Draft Who’s Cutest” so I couldn’t really resist.

Needless to say, Isaac is beyond pumped that I’m involved in said league. I think he thinks that because of this I am going to be remotely interested in football games. Who knows – maybe this little league will turn me into a football lovin’ fool. Doubtful, but I’ll let Isaac dream.

I have to admit that the draft party was fun. 10 girls, beer, and lots of appetizers – what’s not to like? You’ll be glad to hear that I now know that a tight end is an offensive player, not a bangin’ gluteus maximus.

I couldn’t decide what dish to bring for the draft party- it’s amazing, I have all these (great!) recipes on the blog, but I’m still at a loss every time I need to take a dish somewhere. It’s interestingly similar to the fact that my closet is full of clothes, but I never have anything to wear…. Anyhow, I rummaged through the fridge and found a big bag of beets from a CSA purchase a while back and immediately remembered a recipe for beet hummus the Pure2Raw ladies recently posted about. I also took a peek at a variation from Elise at Simply Recipes and came up with an adaptation of the two. And… it turned out to be really good!

I loved the colorfulness it added to the table of appetizers and the flavor is delicious. Most of the ladies who tasted it said they liked it as well, so I’ll take that as a success. My version definitely had a nice kick from the large clove of garlic I used – one person even asked if it had horseradish in it. With that said, use less garlic if you’re not a garlic lover.

And in case you are at all interested in football, here’s my line up.

Team Hotness

• Philip Rivers QB
• Donovan McNab QB
• Ray Rice RB
• Ryan Grant RB
• Javon Ringer RB
• Thomas Jones RB
• Jahvid Best RB
• Dwayne Bowe WR
• Michael Crabtree WR
• Austin Collie WR
• Santana Moss WR
• Kevin Walter WR
• Kevin Boss TE
• Kellen Winslow TE
• Mason Crosby K
• Cowboys Defense

Don’t you have a strange feeling that Team Hotness is going to win?

Alright, I’m off to clean up the kitchen and then go grab fro yo with sir Isaac. Have a lovely evening!

But before you go, riddle me this – Do you like football? Have you ever been part of a fantasy league?

This morning I woke up to a pan full of Happy Herbivore’s Black Bean Brownies and decided why not have one as part of my breakfast!

Not only are these babies low fat and vegan, they are fudgey and delicious and taste nothing like beans. I tried one warm last night and it tasted okay, but I wasn’t overly impressed because the bottom was really soft. Isaac said the flavor was good but jokingly called them soggy bottom boys.

So, I heeded Lindsay’s advice and put them in the fridge overnight. Worked like a charm! They’re now a bit firmer, but still moist and chocolaty.

I didn’t add the extra sugar and mine are just the right sweetness for me. Although, I will note that I used REALLY ripe bananas!

After having a brownie and bowl of cereal for breakfast, Olive and I headed to the farmer’s market to pick up some CSA goodies. I found out that I have over $170.00 left to spend and there are only 5 more weeks. Sadly, I think the half share that I purchased for Isaac and I was just too much. With the supply of veggies from Isaac’s parents’ garden we ended up not needing a ton from the CSA each week. I loved the quality of produce I received and the weekly visits to the markets, however i could have easily visited the markets as a non-member and bought what I wanted for the same price.

Hopefully I can find a way to use up the rest of my funds or else I’m pretty sure it will be forfeited. Speaking of which, if any Richmonder’s want to pair up and buy some veggies off my account and pay me, please email me (eatingbirdfood at gmail dot com). I really don’t want the money to go to waste.

Today’s packed agenda:

• walk with Isaac’s mom and taste her first batch of homemade kombucha
• meet with my nanny, sister and nieces for lunch to celebrate my nanny’s b-day
• hang out with my daddy-o
• drive home
• go to a girls only football pool draft party
• get ready for the work week

whew… I better get going! But before I go I want to share a few things I am loving right now (besides black bean brownies):

1.) The new Arcade Fire Album – The whole CD is awesome, but here’s one of my faves:

2.) Groupon’s Deal of the Day – Sends you a daily deal with 50 to 90 percent off at restaurants, stores, and salons in your city.

Edited to add: If you want to sign up for Groupon and make me $10 please click this link <–I didn’t even know that the referral code was possible when I wrote this post. I just wanted to tell you guys about Groupon, but thanks to Kat’s comment I realized I could add the referral code so I figured why not.

3.) Living Social – Same principle as groupon with a different deal each day.

4.) Sundance – Beautiful jewelry that I like to look at and dream of buying everything. I’ve told Isaac before that he could buy me anything from their jewelry catalog and I would like it.

5.) The fact that I was able to go to the gym for the first time in over a week!?! My leg was feeling better so I did 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill, 10 minutes on the bike and overhead presses. It felt wonderful!!

And, one thing I am not liking so much – the little creature that Isaac bought at ikea last weekend:

It actually scared me the first time I walked into the house and saw it on the couch because I thought it was another animal. As you can see, Olive has taken it as her own and Isaac thinks it’s just so funny. It’s two against one right now so it looks like the creature (Black Cat?) might be staying. I mean no big deal, It fits right in with all our other decor….

Enjoy your Sunday!!

Hello and happy weekend to you! I am in a great mood because I’m feeling much better. My cold is going away and my leg felt better than it has in a while yesterday so things are looking up.

Even when you’re sick, you just can’t help but smile when someone surprises you by bringing home purple sweet potatoes for you to try.

My girl, Steph would be proud. So pretty.

I roasted em’ up just as I would regular ol’ sweet potatoes – with a little canola oil and sea salt.

After I started feeling better, I got to thinking that the purple sweet potatoes may have had some super antioxidant healing powers (which they very well might). But, then I remembered that garlic is cold curer and perhaps eating almost a whole head of garlic on Thursday evening had something to do with it.

Lucky for me Isaac has been loving roasted garlic and brought home 4 heads to roast for dinner on Thursday night. Let me explain that he had whole heads of it roasted in Israel and has been hooked ever since. We don’t follow a recipe when we roast it- just cut the top portion off and roast for 30-40 minutes at 400°. Although if you are interested, I found what looks like a great recipe for roasted garlic over at Simply Recipes.

In other news, I finally tried out The Fitnessista’s breakfast cookie dough cereal yesterday morning.

After tweeting her to find out the details I followed her recipe and made the cereal with oats, almond butter, vanilla, cinnamon, vanilla protein power and 1/2 of a sliced frozen banana. I topped it with homemade almond milk and toasted oat bran cereal.

At first I didn’t know how I would feel about eating uncooked (and unabsorbed) oats as a cereal base because I’m not a huge fan of soggy cereal. But, it was really tasty! I’m now sure that the combination of oats, nut butter, protein powder, and almond milk is always delicious no matter what the preparation. Thanks for the recipe Gina!

Lunch was a colorful salad topped with seaweed gomasio

I loved all the fresh herbs in this spring mix. The dill really stood out.

Along with the salad I had a little mug of vegetarian lentil soup from The Fresh Market.

Tastes great, but has a boatload of sodium…

I packed a slice of low-sodium (perfect!) Ezekiel bread to toast and top with some of Justin’s all-natural crack, aka Chocolate Hazelnut Butter for a mid afternoon snack.

Yum!

And for dinner I whipped up some ww pasta with a homemade veggie sauce.

The sauce was quite simple. I sautéed onion, garlic and mushrooms, then added a can of fired roasted crushed tomatoes, 1/2 can of tomato paste, basil, meatless meatballs and broccoli. Isaac and I both chowed down on this and enjoyed every bite.

Speaking of which, I LOVE easy dinners. When I’m hungry, I’m huuunnnggggry so I like to be able to make dinner in 30 minutes or less. And, this meal fit the bill!

Love quick meals too? Well here’s a little link love for some fast and easy meals from some of my fave sources:

Easy 20 minute meals from Fitness Magazine

Easy weeknight meals from CookingLight

Simple Vegetarian Meals from Shape

Alright, I’m off to the Farmer’s Market and then going to pick up my brides maid dress. Hopefully this time it fits so the lady doesn’t accuse me of gaining weight again.   

Enjoy your Saturday.

-Brittany

PS – Happy Birthday to my lovely Nanny who turned 78 yesterday!