Small Bites

In the summer we get amazing dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes and green heirloom tomatoes from Tomatero Farm. I'm always looking for ways to highlight these tomatoes in a meal so that it feels celebratory to eat them. This flatbread is what I've been making lately.

What makes summer feel like summer? There are many factors for me, as I'm sure there are for you. But one is experiencing the ease and lightness of assembling no-cook meals that allow summer produce to shine at their very peak.

Now that I've been blogging for six years, I'm realizing there are some hidden gems tucked away in the recipe archives that might be getting lost in the shuffle. I keep returning to these recipes over the years, making some fun tweaks along the way. And I'm eager to share them with you again…because they're that good. These custard cups are one such recipe.

Full of herbs and studded with capers and Dijon mustard, the Italian salsa verde is pesto's sharper, bolder cousin.

Summer will be in full swing soon. For a lot of us, that also means a shift in cooking routine. In summer, I'm all about fresh, no-fuss meals for outdoor dining, casual entertaining, picnicking, grilling, or pool/beach-side eats. With it's fresh, tart flavors and no-cook assembly, this smoked salmon appetizer is 100% summer-worthy.

The dry recycled air, sitting for long periods of time in a confined space, poor quality food, and crossing time zones all challenge our digestion, circulation, hydration, and circadian rhythm. While I'll never get used to the grind of air travel (does anyone?!), I've learned what foods to pack in my bag and how to adjust my mindset to ensure I feel the best I can while in transit and after I land.

There comes a time in the middle of winter when I need a bright, fruity, tropical fix. Anyone else out there? That time has arrived for me, and this Mango Lassi Chia Pudding hits the spot. Between the fruity mango, bright hit of cardamom and lemon, rich creaminess from coconut milk and almond butter, and a salty-sweet, buttery topping of....

It's finally here! A probiotic-rich, fermented salad you can easily make in your very own kitchen! This Beet and Red Cabbage Sauerkraut boasts the good-for-you bacteria that we all want in (but are usually missing from) our diet. And I'm so excited to finally be sharing a friendly, approachable, and delicious fermented recipe with you!

What does your weekday snack situation look like? I've always found this to be a challenging mini-meal to plan. But these One-Bowl Honey Almond Snack Bites tick all the boxes required for weekday snackables -- portable, filling, and delicious.

Technically there's still a few more weeks left of summer. With Madrid's recent cool nights and daytime temps relatively low, baking a summer cake rose to the top of my list. This is what resulted. With a naturally gluten-free base of almond flour, this blackberry-studded cake is flavored with.... 

Sometimes when I publish a blog post, I feel silly doing so. Why should it be okay to talk about subjects of food, nutrition, feeling good in our body, and Whole Nourishment when the world has real problems? But I always come back to this, perhaps overly-simplistic, conclusion: If we don't have....

I'm excited to be teaming up again with Sonja and Alex of A Couple Cooks. Today Sonja's asked me about life in Madrid. I share what I love about living in Madrid, how I merge the somewhat unpredictable expat lifestyle with my Whole Nourishment approach to food and life, my secret to maintaining healthy habits, and a Spain-inspired recipe, Eggplant Involtini with Spanish Mojo.

These millet muffins and roasted strawberries are two tried and true recipes I've enjoyed over the years, often together. They come from Heidi's Swanson's second cookbook, Super Natural Every Day.

If you haven't tried an omelet wrap yet (remember the za'atar wrap with the arugula cherry salad?), I hope today's version will convince you. A reminder that spring is on its way, this open-face omelet is topped with a bright and creamy pea and avocado pesto. 

Sometimes I hear people say winter produce is dull and colorless. And I get it. When we're in the depths of a dreary winter, we miss the sweet, juicy berries, melons, and tomatoes and the memory of warm, sunny days these foods evoke. But this salad is proof that winter edibles are far from lifeless.

These cakes bites are my new favorite snack to keep on hand during the week. With a base of almond and coconut flours, coconut oil, and applesauce, they bake up with an incredibly moist, almond-scented interior with pockets of tartness from the cherries. 

Cold, rainy weekends call for chili cheese nachos. We've had a few cold and rainy weekends lately and after being out and about during the day we've been ready to hibernate for a lazy evening in. These nachos are casual comfort for evenings like this.

This is the second guest blog post in the Midweek Dinner series aimed to inspire and motivate quick and easy weeknight cooking. Whether you're returning to a work or school routine after summer holidays or just finding yourself in a cooking rut, tune in because....

This vegetable pancake falls somewhere between fritters and a frittata. Its egg base gives it more lift than a normal fritter, and the chickpea flour gives it more structure than a frittata. The inspiration for this pancake comes from
 

If you peeked inside my refrigerator any given day you'd likely find some kind of dip, spread, sauce, vinaigrette, or salsa hanging out. Last week I made a Mexican cashew cream (a cilantro and lime version of this sauce). Other favorites are....

This is a fun and deceptively filling pizza made with socca - the quick chickpea flour flatbread I shared with you last year. Have you made it? If not, maybe this recipe will convince you. 

I had another recipe planned to share with you this week. But strawberries are everywhere now, sweet, juicy and delicious. And I couldn’t allow another week to pass by without celebrating them, especially once I made this pudding for breakfast and decided it was too good to not share.

It's not always easy finding authentic Mexican ingredients where we live in Switzerland. But I enjoy the challenge of bringing authentic Mexican flavor to my kitchen using common, everyday ingredients. To be honest, not having certain items accessible has made me a more creative, flexible cook. 

I first became enchanted with the Mediterranean citrus and olive oil pairing when I started cooking for myself in college. That's also when my obsession with cooking shows on the Food Network began. I loved watching.....

If you've followed for a while you know my love for persimmons. Autumn for me is not just Hibernation Preparation Season, but also Persimmon Season. I wait all year for these guys to show up. They're finally here and making their debut in this smoothie.

How many of you are like me and almost never, OK never, have fresh oregano on hand? Well, that should change, like today! Go out and buy yourself some fresh figs, fresh oregano, and a really good loaf of sourdough and make this for dinner. 

This is hands down my favorite granola to make. No fussy preparation, but the end result is big on flavor, crunch, and spice. The cinnamon comes out to play in a big way, the pecans become ultra buttery when they get a good toasting, and I've found brown rice syrup to be the best sweetener for creating a sticky batter that helps the granola pieces clump together once baked.

When green smoothies are made mindfully, erring on the side of less is more, and sugar content is kept down they can provide a naturally energizing boost to your day. But in our smoothie-crazed society it's easy to overcomplicate the recipe, adding more ingredients and more complex combinations than we would otherwise eat on a plate in whole food form. 

Avocados are a staple in our house, and they often find their way into guacamole. I've been making guacamole this way for a long time, so while it is my basic go-to guacamole recipe, we also regard it as the ultimate guacamole recipe because it's just so darn good and we wouldn't dream of having it any other way.

This week's Lunch Power spotlight is on a special high-flavor condiment. I'm bringing the Roasted Walnut-Beet Sauce back from the archives because it's that good, both in flavor and in its versatility for expanding our lunch options.