Tag: fruit

Chickpea + Fruit Salad

3 Comments

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Welp, I’ve fallen in love with Colorado.

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As if I needed another place to become obsessed with.

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Who woulda thunk I’d jive so hard with the midwest? Until now, I always pictured tumbleweeds just flowing through the streets and kids in overalls.

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But Colorado is kewl, man! So many beautiful mountains and plenty of nature things and good places to grub and excellent people watching. The homeless population rivals Seattle, making me feel ever so at home. I just loved everything about it. The main purpose of the trip was to see our favie band at Red Rocks. I thought I would be underwhelmed by the venue because it’s like “the” place to see a show, but nopity nope nope. It was amazing. You’re just watching a radical show surrounded by these giant…red…rocks… It sounds lamer than it is, I promise. We did a couple of hikes too and they about killed me. Apparently elevation sickness is a thing and there is less oxygen in CO. That would explain my incessant wheezing. The other purpose of our trip was to scope out neighborhoods your girl and her man are MOVING there next summer WOOOO. We are so stoked. We had a list of neighborhoods to explore. Ask me how many we got to, just ASK! You’d be right, we saw not a one and instead just ate our way through the state.

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There are so many vegan restaurants I am absolutely going to go bankrupt in this state.

 

 

Time: 30 minutes (prep + cooking) | Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed + drained
  • 1/2 a red onion, diced
  • 1 jalapeno, diced
  • 1/2 an english cucumber, sliced thin + quartered
  • 1 orange, segmented
  • 1 cup of strawberries, quartered
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 2 tbsp. of cilantro, diced
  • 1 tbsp. of agave
  • S+P, to taste

How to:

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees
  • Arrange chickpeas on a lined baking sheet + sprinkle with S+P
  • Roast for 25-30 minutes, tossing once
  • Meanwhile, combine onion + jalapeno + cucumber + orange + strawberries + lime juice + agave + cilantro in a bowl
  • Add chickpeas + S+P, toss well
  • Serve chilled
  • Sit on couch with bowl of chickpea + fruit salad between your legs + eat all of the contents of said bowl while bingeing Handmaid’s Tale so you can talk to me about all of your feelings

 

Lemon Tarts

10 Comments

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In a galaxy far, far away lives the version of myself that used to be fun.

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There was a time when I was the life of the party!

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That’s a lie, my social anxiety has always kept me from obtaining that title.

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But I could hang! I mean, in WA, Garr and I used to start a Saturday with a fab brunch & spend the next 8 hours exploring & shopping & eating & listening to live music & doing photoshoots & stumbling upon random festivals & strolling by the water. Fast forward like 1.5 years & Garr and I go to Raleigh for the day, thinking it’ll be like our wild Seattle days. NAHT. We kick things off with brunch, old faithful. Turns out, this place makes all vegan desserts. Mmkay. So we order a peanut butter pie. At 11am. MISTAKE. We immediately need to be tucked in for a nap. But we must persevere! We decide to walk around downtown and find some coffee. This helps but only momentarily. We’re fading. It’s 12:30pm. We try to shop but nothing is catching our eye. We try to stop and grab a drink at this really hip restaurant but there are no seats at the bar. The world is conspiring against us! We’re at a crossroads, we can power through or we can embrace our aging, failing bodies and ditch the downtown scene, go to Trader Joe’s and go home for a siesta. 

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Got to TJ’s in time to snag ALLLLL the cauliflower gnocchis. Holler.

 

 

Time: 3 hours (prep + baking) | Serves: 12 tarts

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups of unsweetened, shredded cocount
  • 1 cup of whole wheat flour
  • 1 tbsp. of coconut sugar
  • 1 tbsp. of brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup of coconut oil
  • 1 cup of raw almonds, soaked overnight or placed in a bowl + covered in boiling water, letting soak for 30 minutes-hour, drained
  • Juice of 2 lemons
  • 2 tbsp. of agave
  • 1 tsp. of vanilla extract
  • Pinch of turmeric
  • 1/4 cup of coconut milk
  • Pinch of S
  • Blueberries + raspberries for serving

How to:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • In a food processor, combine coconut + flour + sugar + 2 tbsp. of the coconut oil + the S, pulse until well combined + sticks together
  • Scoop a tbsp. of the crust mix in lined muffin tins + press flat
  • Bake for 10 minutes
  • Meanwhile, rinse out food processor
  • Add remaining coconut oil + almonds + lemon juice + agave + vanilla extract + turmeric, process + slowly pour in coconut milk, process until smooth + creamy
  • Scoop 1-2 tbsp. of lemon filling onto each crust + smooth it out
  • Freeze for 2 hours
  • Serve chilled with fruit on top
  • Take a giant bite out of a tart + smile as wide as the dent you made in it + snap a selfie with your tart + make it your profile picture

 

Adapted from here!

 

 

 

Avocado + Mango Quesadillas

8 Comments

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I have finally unlocked my spiritual gifts!

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Garr and I are joining a church in town and they gave us this assessment and now I am one step closer to understanding my God-given purpose!

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For so long, I was just like, OK I’m winning an Oscar or two, maybe I’ll have a Vegas residency, I don’t know.

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Now I know God has given me superior skills in the areas of mercy, hospitality and administration. Do not laugh at me! This is serious business. I’m empathetic, enjoy hosting a good party and feeding people and no, I don’t mind a nicely organized spreadsheet, sue me! Honestly, I’m most surprised by mercy. In general, I don’t love people and have been known to hold a grudge for a decade+, i.e. the boy who told me I was fat in the 6th grade got hit with the reject button when his Facebook friend request came through.

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We also listed our passions and mine are 1) food 2) artistic/drama so….

 

 

Time: 1 hour (prep + cooking) | Serves: 4 quesadillas

Ingredients:

  • 8 whole wheat flour tortillas
  • 2 avocados
  • 1 large mango
  • 1 cup of heirloom grape tomatoes, halved
  • 1/2 a red onion, sliced thin
  • 1 jalapeno, sliced thin
  • Shredded or sliced vegan pepper jack cheese
  • 3-4 tbsp. of olive oil
  • 1 tsp. of crushed red pepper
  • S+P, to taste

How to:

  • Mash up your avos in a bowl with some red pepper + S+P
  • Chop up your mango and place in a separate bowl
  • In a skillet over medium heat, add 1 tbsp. of olive oil
  • Add a tortilla to the skillet + spread it with some avo + top with mango + tomatoes + onion + jalapeno + vegan cheese, cover with another tortilla, cook 3-4 minutes
  • Flip, cook another 2-3 minutes
  • Remove from pan, repeat
  • Serve immediately or refrigerate + eat cold, ain’t nobody want microwaved avo
  • Lift ‘dilla triangle above head, lean back + squeeze contents into pie hole