Those of you who’ve been reading for a while might remember that 2017 was the year of bread baking around here.

It all started when my friend Ali published her (wonderful) cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs. I’d wanted to get serious about homemade bread baking for a long time, but everything I’d read until that point made my eyes glaze over: it was all so technical and intimidating. Ali’s peasant bread technique—which involves no kneading and almost no dirtying of hands at all, in addition to the heartwarming fact that the loaves get baked in buttered Pyrex bowls—gave me the courage I needed.

Months later, Emilie gifted me with sourdough starter and a copy of her cookbook. Baking my first loaf of homemade sourdough was a small victory: I couldn’t believe it had actually worked, which I guess is the magic of natural leavening.

Bread baking found me at the right moment. I was having a hard time in March and April of that year: a longterm relationship had just ended, in a way that I wasn’t ready for and didn’t yet understand. For the first time in my life, I felt completely ill-suited to being on my own. I moved through my space and my days in a haze of confusion and grief, feeling scared and alone and more than a little sorry for myself.

If that period of time taught me anything, it was the gift of small things. None of the big stuff—love, graduate school, sense of direction or purpose—seemed to be working out. Even work, which is typically a major source of meaning for me, felt rote and joyless. My post-bacc years and the ones that followed hadn’t been easy, but they’d been animated with an incredible sense of yearning and direction. Suddenly, I had neither.

What I did have were my daily routines, which I fought to maintain even when things like cooking and chores felt insurmountable. I knew from past experiences with depression that keeping up with small habits, even if they felt suddenly like a lot of work, was the least I could do. And I did, day after day, until they started not to feel so tough anymore.

For a while it was all pretty muted, but as the months went by, I started to be reminded of my own capacity to be gratified by simple pleasures: good food, a clean home, a walk to the park, an hour of reading. I didn’t have a plan, but I did have the next meal and the next task, and at that moment, those things were enough.

And there was bread. It’s always been my comfort food, and I’d have eaten plenty of it that spring even if I weren’t baking it from scratch (for a while there, toast and cake were the only two things I wanted to eat). But I was baking from scratch, week after week, and it was wonderful. Unlike some other DIY food projects I’ve tried—kombucha, yogurt, seitan—this felt like the right ratio of effort and reward. The bread was so much better than anything I could buy, and I actually liked the process: mixing, shaping, scoring. The small of a loaf in the oven on Saturday morning became something I looked forward to all week long. I wouldn’t quite say that bread baking got me through the year, but I can’t imagine that spring and summer without it.

I kept up with homemade bread for a while. But sometime last spring, in the race to the grad school finish line, the habit fell away. Once my internship started, it felt silly and imprudent to bake when I needed grains, beans, and fully cooked meals as weekly mainstays. During my acute care rotation, when getting the laundry done was a challenge, feeding my starter was the last thing on my mind.

My GI rotation gives me two weekdays off, which has been a gift in so many ways: it allows me to ease up on my batch cooking, to get work done during the week, and to have a true weekend. Most of all, having a little extra time on my hands gave me a kick in the pants to bake bread again. Now that I’m in the swing of it—one or two loaves weekly for the last four weeks—I’m rolling my eyes at the fact that I didn’t make time for it sooner. It’s a time commitment, sure, like anything/everything else. And it’s time perfectly spent.

I cook because it’s fun, healthful and economical. But cooking and feeding myself will always be a symbolic act as well as a practical one: it’s my way of asserting the desire to be alive, nourished, and whole. Bread making speaks to this desire more than almost any other type of cooking that I do. The fact that the process demands patience and time is only more evidence that, no matter what’s going on, I want to eat well and be well. I’m so glad to have been reminded of this in the past month.

Wishing you a week of good food and good self-care. Here are some recipes and reads.

Recipes

Speaking of Ali, I’m loving her latest, Indian-inspired fried rice recipe.

Yet more motivation to branch out with my air fryer. This time, a vegan sheet pan supper with lemony tempeh from Susan at FFVK.

I love the looks of this sun-dried tomato pesto (and the yummy pappardelle that accompanies it).

A pretty phenomenal looking vegan kidney bean burger.

I’ve never made cookie dough in a blender, but consider me inspired by these chocolate cookies.

Reads

1. I believed that too much water at mealtimes could “dilute” stomach acid for years! Evidence says otherwise, and this article—in which my current preceptor, Tamara Duker Freuman, is interviewed—explains. (For the record, when I was working in a GI practice in DC, I did learn that chugging water at mealtimes can encourage the swallowing of air, which can be bloating, so steady sips are still a wise idea if you’ve got a sensitive digestive tract.)

2. More support for the value of eating breakfast.

3. Popular Science busts some sleep myths (sobering stuff for those of us who often do without enough of it, and tell ourselves it’s NBD).

4. Yikes! Bad news for allergy sufferers like me (yes, it’s getting worse, and climate change is in part to blame).

5. Finally, I wanted to link to this post from my friend Maria. It’s a lovely meditation on meeting oneself and one’s feelings—including the despondent ones—with acceptance and faith in the promise of release and transformation.

On that note, enjoy the remainder of this Sunday. And happy Orthodox Easter to those of you who celebrate today—maybe a bowl of vegan avgolemono is in order.

xo

 

The post Weekend Reading, 4.28.19 appeared first on The Full Helping.

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of tropical fruit flavors. They’re both sweet and refreshing, so they’re always welcome at my dessert table – particularly in the spring and summer, when the provide something of a “dessert vacation” on a hot day! This Passion Fruit Coconut Bundt Cake has two of my favorite flavors in it, and it is just bursting with tropical tastiness.

The cake is a dense, moist cake that is rich with sweetened shredded coconut and it uses lots of passion fruit juice as the primary liquid in the cake, infusing each bite with its bright, sweet-tart flavor. While passion fruit is technically a berry, it has a lot in common with citrus because of its high acitidy. In this recipe, it both flavors the cake and helps to tenderize it. The batter comes together easily and is made with both butter and oil to ensure that the cake is nice and moist.

Passion fruits can be found in the tropical food section of most well-stocked grocery stores, and it isn’t that difficult to juice them yourself at home (although there are quite a few seeds that you will need to remove). If you don’t have the fresh fruit, you can also buy frozen purees that are 100% juice (or very, very close to 100%) and use those. You won’t get as good results with a juice that has a bunch of sweetener added to it, so make sure to check the label! Passion fruits are a little bit more expensive than some other fruits, but their unique floral flavor is amazing and well-worth it!

I actually skipped the frosting for this cake and served it with a side of coconut whipped cream, just to make it even more tropical. If you prefer, you can make a simple glaze of passion fruit juice (or coconut milk) and confectioners’ sugar, then drizzle it over the top. The cake will keep well for several days after baking when stored in an airtight container.

Passion Fruit Coconut Bundt Cake
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
2/3 cup butter, room temperature
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup passion fruit juice
1 1/2 cups shredded, sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract and vegetable oil. Mix in one third of the dry ingredients, followed by half of the passion fruit juice. Mix in an additional third of the dry ingredients, followed by remaining passion fruit juice. Mix in remaining flour and shredded coconut, mixing until the batter is uniform an no streaks of dry ingredients remain visible. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until cake is set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with only a few moist crumbs attached. Cool cake in pan for about 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired, when cooled.

Serves 12-16.

The post Passion Fruit Coconut Bundt Cake appeared first on Baking Bites.

Citrus Margaritas are truly really good margaritas!

This recipe for Citrus Margaritas is unique because it combines a few fresh juices together to create a refreshing margarita.  Freshly squeezed orange, lime and grapefruit juices are the stars of the show here.  The juices are combined with Cointreau and tequila, and all is shaken with ice and poured into a salt-rimmed margarita glass.  Orange, lime or grapefruit slices can be slid onto the rims to create a beautiful citrus garnish.

Tips for choosing the juiciest, ripe oranges, limes and grapefruit:

When a recipe calls for squeezing fresh juice out of a lime or an orange, you want to get the juiciest fruit possible.  But how can you tell if a these fruits are going to yield a good amount of juice? Pick up the fruit and squeeze it slightly.  You’re looking for limes and oranges that have a little bit of give to it.  They should feel heavy too.  Limes and oranges with a thinner skin will be juicier, so be aware of that as well.

With grapefruit, it’s a little more difficult to spot juicy fruit.  Grapefruit generally tends to have thicker skin, so it’s tough to tell if it’s juicy just by squeezing.  Pick it up and try to find one that feels heavier than the others.  A heavier grapefruit will be a juicier grapefruit.

 Margaritas are great to serve at parties since everyone seems to like them.  These Citrus Margaritas will be a welcome change from the more classic margarita recipe.  Be sure to pick up a bunch of margarita glasses for your party (they’re pretty inexpensive).  You’ll also need margarita salt.  Be sure to ask your guests if they prefer salt or no-salt before serving.

This recipe makes about 6 margaritas.  Double or triple the recipe if you’re entertaining.  Usually everyone wants at least two!

Here are a few more margarita recipes you might enjoy:

• Strawberry Margaritas
• Avocado Margaritas
• Pineapple Margaritas
• Spicy Grapefruit Margaritas
• Watermelon- Mango Margaritas
• Old Town Margaritas

The post Citrus Margaritas appeared first on Recipe Girl®.

A free 7-day flexible weight loss meal plan including breakfast, lunch and dinner and a shopping list. All recipes include calories and WW SmartPoints®.

If you’re new to my meal plans, I’ve been sharing these free, 7-day flexible healthy meal plans (you can see my previous meal plans here) that are meant as a guide, with plenty of wiggle room for you to add more food, coffee, beverages, fruits, snacks, dessert, wine, etc or swap recipes out for meals you prefer, you can search for recipes by course in the index. You should aim for around 1500 calories* per day.

There’s also a precise, organized grocery list that will make grocery shopping so much easier and much less stressful. Save you money and time. You’ll dine out less often, waste less food and you’ll have everything you need on hand to help keep you on track.

Lastly, if you’re on Facebook join my Skinnytaste Facebook Community where everyone’s sharing photos of recipes they are making, you can join here. I’m loving all the ideas everyone’s sharing! If you wish to get on the email list, you can subscribe here so you never miss a meal plan!

Also, if you don’t have the Skinnytaste Meal Planner, now would be a great time to get one to get organized for 2019! There was a print error last year, but it’s perfect now! You can order it here!

THE DETAILS:

Breakfast and lunch Monday-Friday, are designed to serve 1 while dinners and all meals on Saturday and Sunday are designed to serve a family of 4. Some recipes make enough leftovers for two nights or lunch the next day. While we truly believe there is no one size fits all meal plan, we did our best to come up with something that appeals to a wide range of individuals. Everything is Weight Watchers friendly, I included the updated Weight Watcher Freestyle Points for your convenience, feel free to swap out any recipes you wish or just use this for inspiration!

The grocery list is comprehensive and includes everything you need to make all meals on the plan. I’ve even included brand recommendations of products I love and use often. Cross check your cabinets because many condiments you’ll notice I use often, so you may already have a lot of them.

And last, but certainly not least, this meal plan is flexible and realistic. There’s plenty of wiggle room for cocktails, healthy snacks, dessert and dinner out. And if necessary, you can move some things around to make it work with your schedule. Please let me know if you’re using these plans, this will help me decide if I should continue sharing them!

MONDAY (4/29)
B: Berry Quinoa Breakfast Bowls (5) (Recipe x 2)
L: Spiralized Greek Cucumber Salad with Lemon and Feta (7)
D: Three Cheese Zucchini Stuffed Lasagna Rolls (6) with a green salad (2)*
Totals: Freestyle™ SP 20, Calories 856**

TUESDAY (4/30)
B: Berry Quinoa Breakfast Bowls (5)
L: LEFTOVER Three Cheese Zucchini Stuffed Lasagna Rolls (6) with 8 baby carrots (0)
D: Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps (0) with 2 tablespoons reduced fat cheese (1), 1 tablespoon light sour cream (1) and
Instant Pot Refried Beans (0)

Totals: Freestyle™ SP 13, Calories 869**

WEDNESDAY (5/1)
B: Berry Quinoa Breakfast Bowls (5)
L: LEFTOVER Three Cheese Zucchini Stuffed Lasagna Rolls (6) with 8 baby carrots (0)
D: Slow Cooker Pernil (6) with ½ cup brown rice (3) and Quick Cabbage Slaw (2)
Totals: Freestyle™ SP 22, Calories 970**

THURSDAY (5/2)
B: Berry Quinoa Breakfast Bowls (5)
L: Asparagus Egg and Bacon Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette***(3) (Recipe x 2)
D: Cuban Sandwich Quesadilla (5) (Recipe x 4) with 1 ounce avocado (1) and Quick and Delicioso Cuban Style Black
Beans (1)

Totals: Freestyle™ SP 15, Calories 829**

FRIDAY (5/3)
B: PB + J Smoothie (4)
L: Asparagus Egg and Bacon Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette (3)
D: Naked Salmon Burgers with Sriracha Mayo (3) with grilled corn (0)
Totals: Freestyle™ SP 10, Calories 829**

SATURDAY (5/4)
B: Spinach, Feta and Artichoke Breakfast Bake (1) with an orange (0)
L: Naked Salmon Burgers with Sriracha Mayo (3) with grilled corn (0)
D: DINNER OUT!

Totals: Freestyle™ SP 6, Calories 521**

SUNDAY (5/5)
B: LEFTOVER Spinach, Feta and Artichoke Breakfast Bake (1) with an orange (0)
L: Mexican Shrimp Cobb Salad (3)
D: Skillet Chicken in Tomato-Chipotle Sauce with Avocado Crema (2) with ½ cup brown rice (3) and Skillet Mexican
Zucchini (4)

Totals: Freestyle™ SP 13, Calories 868**

*Freeze any leftover rolls you/your family won’t eat.
Green salad includes 4 cups mixed greens, 2 scallions, ½ cup each: tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, chickpeas and ½
cup light vinaigrette.

**This is just a guide, women should aim for around 1500 calories per day. Here’s a helpful calculator to estimate
your calorie needs. I’ve left plenty of wiggle room for you to add more food such as coffee, beverages, fruits,
snacks, dessert, wine, etc.

***Prep Wednesday night, if desired

(more…)

Earlier this month I had the incredible opportunity to visit the island of West Java, Indonesia with Nespresso and learn hands-on about the coffee-growing process there as a part of their AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program. It started off with a drive into the rural countryside, where we paused to switch rides to a jeep and tasted our first bit of locally grown coffee. Much like wine and grape varietals, different varieties of the coffee bean plant create very different tasting brews. There are two main types of coffee beans, robusta and arabica, and then many different varieties under each of those types of the coffee plant (kind of like red grapes vs white grapes). Arabica is more subtle and complex, and more difficult to grow which makes it more expensive. Robusta is more prominent and intense in flavor, and easier to grow so it’s more affordable. Indonesia grows a majority of arabica, and we started off tasting coffee from Garut, which is an arabica bean with a really pleasant nutty, smooth, and chocolate-y flavor.

With a little extra spring in our step, we hopped in the jeep and started going up the muddy, winding road, past the mono-culture tea plantations, and up into the lush, emerald jungle of Java right on their peripheral. We arrived at the farm and walked up the soft damp path to the shaded farm, dense with the canopy of trees. Why so many trees, you might be wondering? Well, the coffee plant thrives under the shade of trees, and doesn’t like too much direct sunlight. Because of this love affair, Nespresso has helped the local farmer’s they work with plant over 100,000 trees in Indonesia alone over the past 4 years, hugely slowing the affects of climate change in the area, increasing the air quality, and reducing mud slides during the rainy season.

  The farmers we visited used organic growing practices, they had animals that lived on the property and would compost their manure with other plant waste to create a rich compost that they spread around the bottoms of the coffee plants. The traditional farming culture there prefers to use the older, more natural way of growing, which results in a tastier, more well-balanced bean and healthier ecosystem overall. The farmers own their own land, and Nespresso helps them get started with education on growing and connecting them with the local processing house (which we visited and I’ll talk more about in a sec!) They have no obligation, legally or otherwise, to sell their beans to Nespresso, and are welcome to sell to whoever will pay them the most for their beans. It was a really refreshing + supportive relationship that genuinely was there to support the growers and their community.

We learned how to pick coffee cherries (the fruit the bean is inside), which involves very gently picking the cherry from the bush, being careful not to take the stem with it. Inside each cherry are only two coffee beans, so you need to pick quite a lot of cherries to make one cup of coffee! With our baskets dotted with the red cherries we managed to pick in 10 minutes’ time, we sat down for lunch. After that the farmer’s wife + family made us an *incredible* authentic Indonesian spread, complete with all the peanut sauce-laden dishes of the area, and it was my favorite meal of the trip. The farmers there are encouraged to grow vegetables alongside the coffee plants, so that they can have a steady and fresh food supply for themselves and their families, and you could taste the brightness of the local ingredients in every bite.

The next day we ventured to the processing house, where the beans are separated from the cherries by crushing the fruit slightly to get the beans out. The beans are coated in a thin membrane, which is allowed to ferment on the berry slightly until it softened enough to be washed from the bean. After the beans are rinsed, they’re laid out on bamboo racks in bamboo greenhouses to dry out in the sun. Using sunlight as a natural heat source *hugely* reduces the energy used during the drying process, and eliminates the emissions that come with it.

Once the beans are dried to about 13% moisture, they’re then sorted by hand to separate beans that are overripe, under ripe, or have damage like holes from insects or being accidentally broken. The interesting part was that the coffee industry is so booming that every type of bean, even the ones with defects, are able to be sold. The highest quality beans are purchased by Nespresso , but the broken ones or under/overripe ones are purchased by lower quality companies. We did a taste test of coffee made from the exact same variety of bean, but separated out into damaged beans, over ripe beans, under ripe beans, and perfect beans, and WOW what a huge taste difference it made! That’s a big part of why cheap coffee legitimately tastes terrible, it’s because they’re using beans that are damaged or over/under ripe to make it.

 The drying house is also where they start the coffee plants from seed, and I got to plant a few seeds myself! The baby coffee plants were so cute and leafy, it was really wonderful to be able to sow some while we were there. It happened to be raining torrentially at the time, but who cares about getting a little wet when gardening is involved! 🙂

The last day of the trip we stayed in the larger city of Bandung and visited several local coffee shops to try out some of the other coffee varieties and see how the locals were enjoying it. Because Indonesia is a Muslim country and most people don’t drink alcohol, coffee has taken on the cultural equivalent of ‘going out for a drink’ in the western world. So when we went at 9 am, they were totally empty because no one in Indonesia drinks coffee in the morning since it’s more of an afternoon and evening social activity. Such a big difference from the coffee shops back home in Portland, many of which are closed by 5 pm.

It was a beautiful trip and so fascinating to learn about the journey from coffee bean to cup. Knowing the amount of care, effort, and hard work that goes into creating each and every cup of coffee makes me enjoy and appreciate it all the more, especially when I think back to all the farmers + growers we met. Can’t wait until the day I can return to this beautiful country…

This post was made in partnership with Nespresso , but all opinions are my own, per usual!