Hey y’all!

It’s wedding week! I truly can’t believe it. I really feel like just yesterday we got engaged…the time has just flown by, as everyone promised it would. And as excited I am for the big day on Saturday, I’m trying to just pause, take a breath and relish the moment….all this sweet anticipation and excitement inside that I’ll never get back. I want to bottle it all up and hold onto it forever. I also can’t believe that this time next week, we’ll be in Paris!

I have a nice and easy recipe for you guys today. It’s one of my favorite lunches and I thought that it was high time I share! I’ve always been a fan of tuna salad, and this is sort of a “mature” tuna salad. No globs of creamy mayo, no funky metallic tasting tuna. I think this is how tuna salad was meant to be eaten —- lots of bright flavor and texture. It takes under five minutes to make and keeps me full all afternoon!

And let’s be honest — the only real reason I called this “Italian” tuna salad was because I used mainly ingredients that were imported from Italy.

I love tuna packed in olive oil. If you have never tried it, do yourself a favor. It has so much more flavor than “chunk light tuna packed in water no salt”.  Here, I combined it with juicy roasted peppers, artichoke hearts, lemon zest and just a dollop of mayonnaise to bring the whole thing together.

Hope y’all love it! I eat this way too often and like it best served over a bead of arugula with a chocolate chip cookie on the side. Amen.

Italian Tuna Salad

serves 1-2

Print this Recipe!

Ingredients:

1 5 1/2 oz can tuna packed in olive oil

5 artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

4 roasted bell peppers, chopped

1 tbsp mayonnaise

zest of 1 lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Drain the tuna. In a bowl, mix together all ingredients. Serve on a sandwich or on a bed of arugula. Enjoy!

Time:

~5 minutes

The other day, in the midst of honeymoon packing and wedding seating assignments {what a headache!}, I baked something sort of ugly.

Well. Okay. Let’s call it rustic. I baked something sort of rustic.

I had just enough ripe apricots left over in the fruit bowl and some lonely whole wheat pastry flour in the pantry so I decided to throw together a simple crostata. You could call it an afternoon snack? I could feel my headache melting away as I blended the flour and butter with my fingertips and arranged the sliced apricots in the center of the tart. When it came out of the oven it smelled delicious…all fruity and brown buttery. I could hardly wait till it cooled to tear into it…so I didn’t.

These are the things I love to bake. All rustic, messy and full of imperfections.

The whole wheat flour gives the crust a crumby, almost nutty, texture and taste. And if you’re not sure you like apricots, try it anyway — they taste almost identical to peaches when used in this manner.

Why not bake this weekend? Oh, and don’t forget to share with friends…I’ve found the sweetest desserts always taste the best shared.

Get the recipe on PBS Food!

Yep, the title of this post pretty much says it all!

This August, I’ll be traveling to Ethiopia with my lovely friends over at FashionABLE to meet the inspiring women behind the gorgeous scarves. I have talked about FashionABLE many times on this space in the past, but if you’re new, they are a nonprofit that provides sustainable business to exploited and vulnerable women in Africa, all who have been former prostitutes or caught up in sex slavery.

Please hear me, I’m not going to Ethiopia with any mindset that I’m going to help them.

Rather, I think they are going to help me. My heart can be sort of icky. I take pride in “stuff” all too often, love being comfortable and am all together just too into myself. Truthfully, I need to shift my vision and to do that, I first need to open up my eyes to a different culture that’s not my own little bubble. The women who work at FashionABLE are broken just like I am broken. In the Lord’s eyes, we are exactly the same. I can’t offer much but a platform to share. These women all have amazing stories that need to be told…stories that encourage and inspire me to be a better person. To give more of myself daily. To love other people way more than myself.

And that’s why I am going to Ethiopia. I’m going there to share stories and love on people.

While I’m there, I’ll be sharing these stories with you guys! We’ll be staying in the capital city of Addis Ababa for the majority of the trip, but also traveling to Nazareth, which is outside of the city.

So that’s all I have for now! I just wanted to share my heart + excitement about the trip! I am so excited to share this adventure with you guys!

Happy Tuesday!

I am super passionate about Fair Trade and am excited to give away this absolutely amazing package of Fair Trade treats to one lucky reader today!

Here’s a little description, courtesy of Fair Trade USA, of each yummy item in the package as well as the twitter handle of each brand in case you’d like to support them that way! I know your support means a lot to them!

Rishi Tea (@RishiTea): Rishi’s Masala Chai tea is an organic full-flavored black tea blended with their traditional Indian Masala spices. It’s also Fair Trade Certified to boot!

Allegro Coffee (@AllegroCoffee): This medium bodied coffee is balanced, sweet & chocolaty. Café La Duena is a blend from small-holder women farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico and San Ignacio, Peru. Organic, Fair Trade Certified Café La Duena gives focus and celebrates women coffee farmers.

Alter Eco Thai Sticky Purple Rice (@AlterEcoSF): This unique purple grain is glutinous when cooked and has a delicate, sweet palate. Due to its rich taste and beautiful color, this traditional rice is used by local communities for feasts and celebrations. It is grown exclusively in the fertile soil of the Esan Plateau, in the East of Thailand, situated close to the Cambodian border. If you like this, we also recommend giving Alter Eco’s other rice products a try!

Numi Tea (@NumiTea): Numi inspires well-being of mind, body and spirit through the simple art of tea, hand-picking premium organic teas and herbs and blending them with only real fruits, flowers and spices. Join Numi in celebrating people, planet and pure tea with this delightful Fair Trade Certified sampler box.

sweetriot (@sweetriot): sweetriot puts a spin on your traditional sweet treat, giving you your dark chocolate fix while helping support cacao farmers and their communities in Latin America, empowering them to grow and harvest their cacao in socially responsible ways.

Choice Tea (@ChoiceOrganicT): In 2000, Choice Organic Teas became the first tea crafter in the United States to offer Fair Trade Certified tea – making them true pioneers in Fair Trade tea!

Guittard (@GuittardChoco): “Akoma” means heart in the traditional Adinkra symbols of West Africa—where the Fair Trade Certified cocoa beans for this chocolate are grown. At 55% cacao, Guittard’s Akoma Extra Semisweet Chocolate Chips deliver a rich, deep chocolate flavor that’s perfect for your favorite family recipe (or just eating straight out of the bag).

WOW…there’s some good stuff in this package! You can enter to win below via Rafflecopter. Have fun & good luck, friends!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Well, you guys. It’s finally time. I can finally say that I’m getting married next week. That’s NUTS.

That being said, you can probably imagine what this week is like for me. I’m scrambling. I’m packing for our wedding + honeymoon {we won’t be back until mid-June}, finishing up all the wedding details and all my work so I can take a real vacation for a few weeks. I’m also doing all that bridal prep stuff like getting my hair highlighted and getting my nails done because once our plane touches down in Austin, it’s go time. First with my bachelorette party, then rehearsal dinner, then wedding! Like I said…nuts. I’m so excited! If you’re wondering what will happen to this blog while I’m on my honeymoon, the answer is nothing. I’m going to be quiet for a few weeks and just soak it all in. I vowed not to be attached to my laptop while I’m on my honeymoon and I think it’s going to be really good for me! There will probably be a travel update here and there {keep up with us on Instagram!}, but no real posts until I return in June.

However, today calls for cookies!! And not just any cookies — double chocolate fudge cookies made with Fair Trade ingredients!

I told you guys a few weeks ago that I was doing some work with my friends over at Fair Trade and this is one of the recipes I came up with using the fun ingredients they sent me! I’m in love with this alter eco organic mascobado cane sugar! It has a pretty strong vanilla and caramel taste to it, which I can’t get enough of. If you’re lucky enough to get your paws on some of this sugar, it’s a real treat.

This cookies are for the serious chocolate lover…aka yours truly! Especially during stressful wedding planning moments. I like to say my pre-wedding diet has consisted of chocolate and avocados. I should really market that idea, huh?

They are chocolatey, ooey and gooey. Let’s just say you’ll need a glass of milk to wash these bad boys down.

If you’re passionate about Fair Trade like me, you maaaaaaaaay want to check back here tomorrow. There might be a little surprise. Just sayin’!

Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Print this Recipe!

yields 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/3 cup Fair Trade organic cane sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

1 12-oz bag Fair Trade semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, beating after each addition.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter mixture and mix until combined. Add the chocolate chips and mix until just combined.

Drop dough by the spoonful onto prepared sheet tray. Press down gently to slightly flatten each cookie dough mound then bake for 12-13 minutes.

Let cookies cool on a wire rack then enjoy!

Time:

30 minutes

Good morning.

This is for those in need of a last minute Mother’s Day brunch recipe! This breakfast bread that tastes exactly like a giant blueberry muffin. And who doesn’t like a giant muffin?! No one. It’s so good slathered with salted butter that I can’t even stand it.

Happy early Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there! This has been the longest I’ve ever gone in my life without seeing my mom and I’m so excited to see her soon at the wedding!!

You can get this recipe over at PBS Food. Enjoy!

I’m just so excited. I feel like SO many of my lovely friends have cookbooks out this spring and I’m so proud of them!

I had been waiting a long time for this book to come out by my sweet friend, Heather Christo, and it did not disappoint. You guys — this is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful cookbooks that I have ever seen. The photography is stunning. The recipes are fabulous {so far, I’ve made four things from the book and going strong!}. The day it came out, I immediately hopped on Amazon and bought copies for my mom and one of my best friends. I’m so excited to share Heather’s book with you today. It’s really something special.

I feel like when I’m not developing recipes for this site, I’m cooking Heather’s recipes. I’m not kidding. Whenever I don’t know what to make for dinner, I always turn to her because I know she doesn’t disappoint. When something I make is really, really delicious, Adam always asks, “is this one of Heather or Jessica’s recipes?” Yup. It’s true. I have super talented friends, what can I say?

I made the beautiful beet pesto pasta recipe out of Heather’s new cookbook to share with you guys today! It’s the ultimate spring pasta dish. I share Heather’s obsession with pesto. Ever since getting my first food processor last year, I’ve made pounds of the stuff. It fuels my garlic + lemon love.

This vibrant pesto is made from beets, pistachios, garlic, lemon and Parmesan cheese. Oh man, is it ever tasty! I loved the addition of pistachios, which are my favorite nuts {and ice cream flavor!}.

There’s also an equally lovely asparagus pesto recipe in Heather’s cookbook. I made it about a month ago for friends and everyone loved it! I’ll say, though,that this beet pesto trumps it, due to the sole fact that the pasta is hot pink. Obviously. This would be a fun dish to serve on Valentine’s Day or for a date night at home. Next time I make it, I’m going to serve it alongside some grilled chicken.

I have two SIGNED copies of Heather’s book to give away to you guys today! I just know you’ll love it as much as I do. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post and I’ll pick two random winners on Monday, May 13th at 10pm PST.

Good luck and have a lovely day!

**This giveaway is now closed and the winners have been notified! Thanks everyone!**

Beet Pesto Pasta

serves 4-6

from Heather Christo’s Generous Table

Print this Recipe!

Ingredients:

3 large purple beets, top trimmed

3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

1/2 cup shelled pistachios

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

salt

1 lb dry spaghetti

Directions:

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the beets. Boil until fork tender. {this took me about 30 minutes}

Drain the beets and skin them. Chop into quarters and place in the bowl of a food processor. Add the garlic, pistachios, lemon juice and olive oil and pulse into smooth. Add the Parmesan and continue pulsing until you have a relatively smooth thick spread.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook to al dente. Drain when done and toss with pesto. Serve immediately.

Time:

45 minutes

with style and grace baby. first pinkberry experience. breakfast cookies {recipe coming soon}. wedding gift. breakfast of champions. noonday show. blog friends. besties. supporting uganda. avocado deliciousness. truth + wisdom. snack. sf city impact. sevenly. friday. date night.

The weekend before last, I packed up and headed down to sunny Southern California to attend my first ever Big Summer Potluck!

The Big Summer Potluck is a blogger conference that’s all about community, food and inspiration. Despite having some initial travel issues {my flight out of SFO got cancelled, my next flight was super delayed and I ended up having to rent a car in LA and driving down to Temecula during rush hour on a Friday. #notrecommended}, it ended up being a completely fabulous weekend spent with some of my best friends. I learned so much and came back on Sunday feeling super refreshed and inspired by the blog community.

The food at the conference was nothing short of incredible. It was the best food I’ve ever had at a conference BY FAR. I mean, what else would you expect at a food blogger potluck? One of my favorite parts was the DIY spritzer bar on Saturday. It featured fresh herbs, fruit and sparkling water to create your own unique and refreshing soda. I think I went through the line about four times so I could try lots of different combinations. I especially loved blueberry mint! It’s fresh, fruit and incredibly refreshing. Perfect for summer!

The recipe I have for you today is really just a suggestion. I loved the flavor combination of blueberry and mint, but you could use different berries {blackberry mint would be yummy!} to make your soda unique.

I pretty much drink sparkling water all day at home. I just love the bubbles! I can’t wait to have my favorite refreshing drink in Paris when I go in a few weeks for my honeymoon— I forget what it’s called, but they put grenadine in Perrier. So summery and delicious!

This would be the perfect light drink for a Mother’s Day brunch this weekend! You can triple or quadruple this recipe to fill a pitcher. If I was lucky enough to hang out with my mom this weekend, I’d probably serve this quiche and some blackberry orange muffins on the side. Perfect!

Blueberry Mint Spritzers

makes 1 soda

Print this Recipe!

Ingredients:

8 fresh mint leaves

1/4 cup blueberries

12 oz sparkling water

1 1/2 tbsp simple syrup {either storebought or homemade. To make your own, just combine 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water and bring to a boil until the sugar melts. Cool and keep in the fridge in a glass jar}

ice

Directions:

Muddle together the mint and the blueberries in a large glass. Add the sparkling water, simple syrup and ice. Stir well and enjoy!

Time:

5 minutes

Lately I’ve become increasingly interested {or perhaps the better word is aware} of the oppression of women around the world.

I think it all started really when I became a Noonday ambassador a couple months ago and, in that, joined a dynamic group of world-changing women who daily encourage and inspire me to be a better human being. In our ambassador Facebook group, we keep up a daily ongoing conversation about different books, documentaries, current events … all relating to social injustices and many, if not most, involving the oppression of women. To say I’ve learned a lot is a complete understatement.

So, all that said, I watched the Half the Sky documentary a few weeks ago and was blown away. If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it as soon as possible. Somaly Mam was one of the women featured in the documentary and the one that made the most impact on me. She was sold into sex slavery as a very young girl, managed to escape and now has a nonprofit geared at rescuing Cambodian girls from brothels. After hearing her story on Half the Sky, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. What an absolutely amazing human being to overcome such horrendous life circumstances and then use her experience to help others. People like that inspire me so much. As I continued to research her and her nonprofit, I found out that she wrote a memoir and I instantly downloaded it on my Kindle. I read it in less than 24 hours!

This book is Somaly’s story of life. It’s incredibly hard to read at times but the words are so important. Sex trafficking horrifies me. The fact that young girls, some just four years old, are sold into prostitution and forced to take up to 30 clients a day makes me want to vomit. I can’t fathom that amount of evil and cruelty to another human being….a CHILD at that. The girls are severely beaten, their lives completely disposable, and their innocence lost forever. It disgusts me to no end. Many of the clients are American men on business trips. And also? Speaking of America, sex trafficking isn’t just an issue in Cambodia…as many as 17,500 people are trafficked in the United States every single year. Half of these people are just children.

Y’all, I’m just one person and this is obviously a huge problem. But call me an optimist because I do believe one person can make a difference. Just look at Somaly Mam! Read the book, educate yourself on sex trafficking and see how you can get involved. Maybe, like me, that just involves using your voice to raise awareness. Maybe it involves taking further action. I don’t know. But I do know that sex slavery should not exist. Four year old girls should be home helping their mothers bake cookies, not raped continuously by strange evil men.

/…end rant

**if you’re interested in learning more about what you can do to make a difference, check out Somaly Mam’s nonprofit as well as The Polaris Project.