The recipe I decided to share with you from my Vegetarian and Amazing menu is this….. My Bulgar Wheat Salad with an Asian Inspired dressing. This is seriously so good anytime of the day and so good for you! Besides the flavor, the best part of this salad is that you can serve it warm, at room temperature or cold. Perfect to pack up and take to a picnic, pot luck, the beach or anywhere! I hope you love it as much as I do! Click HERE for the recipe.
Buying a cast iron french oven pot is no small investment. The top brands on the market are Le Creuset and Staub. As you can see here, I have both. The red pot is Le Creuset (13 1/4 quart) and the dark (4 quart) and light grey (13 1/4 quart) pots are Staub. If you are in the market for one of these beauties (Yes they are truly beautiful additions to your kitchen!), I hope I can help you with your decision.
They are both made in France, are of the highest quality (price reflects that) and are pieces that will last a lifetime.
So what are the differences… if there are any?
This is the first piece I bought. A beautiful red 13 1/4 quart Le Creuset french oven. Perfect for braising meats for a large crowd or making a huge batch of soup or stew. I looked for the biggest size they sold. I have been able to keep the interior of mine clean (with the help of Bar Keepers Friend), but others have complained that the interior of their pieces have become stained over time. It is finished with a durable non stick interior but since it is light in color, it can stain.
This is the inside of the lid. Same finish. And yes… I have used mine countless times and it has gotten very soiled.
Moving on to my 4 quart Staub. My 13 1/4 quart Staub looks the same inside as this one. The interior of Staub as you can see is a dark non stick durable finish. Much less likely to show stains. But stains to me are not the big issue here. Let’s talk about the performance.
This is the interior of all Staub lids. And here is where the big difference starts and ends. Staub puts those small spikes all over the under side of the lids. Why? First of all, the design of the Staub lid keeps the moisture in the pot much, much better than any competitor including Le Creuset (See the deep well they made around the lid so it sits down on the pot? Great design that works!), and those spikes act as a self baster. The moisture inside the pot collects on each spike, then drips down throughout the braising process. Genius! Does it really work?
In my experience, for example braising short ribs, the Staub far surpassed my Le Creuset in the outcome of my ribs. The first time I braised short ribs in my Le Creuset, I found it didn’t keep the moisture in. It almost burned on the bottom. I was surprised, given how heavy the lid was.
Enter Staub. I tried the exact recipe and it came out perfect with the juices staying in the pot with the meat. The design of their lid makes a huge difference!
When we have a huge dinner party and need both the Le Creuset and Staub (Like we did at Christmas for my husband’s company Christmas party), I learned that if I placed a large piece of heavy duty foil over the top of the Le Creuset pot, then place the lid over the foil, I was able to retain the moisture like the Staub does without the foil.
The bottom line? Go for the Staub… no doubt…. no questions… hands down!
And if you are anything like me and like the little details, Staub offers these lid handles in a variety of animals. They come as an option on some of their products and they offer them separately if they don’t. As you can see, my big pot is in need of an animal lid handle! I need to go place my order. You can purchase these beautiful pots HERE and HERE. As I mentioned, these are no small investment and you should get the best performance for your buck. Staub wins!
It was a fun and delicious night that surprised most people that came. I don’t think they realized just how tasty vegetarian can be! A lot of people signed up because “I knew everything you teach is so delicious!” Thank you for your vote of confidence in me and I am glad I did not disappoint!
I am preparing a spaghetti squash for our first dish. SO tasty and SO healthy. Yes those two things can exist together and this dish proves it!
This is what it looks like after we roasted it. Looks just like spaghetti!
And this my friends is the finished product. Let’s dig in!
Here I am preparing the zucchini for the amazing cheesy zucchini rolls.
Squeezing the San Marzano tomatoes for the marinara. Sometimes your hands are the best tools!
One of our tasters for an upcoming class. Chinese Almond Cookies. Heavenly and highly addicting!
Cheesy Zucchini Rolls. Yes.. there are no words for these. Just close your mouth and eat. Mmmmmm!
Sauteeing some veggies for the Bulgar Wheat Salad. Good stuff in this pan!
Dump those sauteed veggies in with some other good stuff and you’ve got this. Pretty much perfect for any time of the day or night. Warm, room temperature or cold. Gotta love a versatile dish like this one!
I made believers out of tofu haters (Like me) with these tofu lettuce wraps. Once again… no words. You won’t believe it’s not ground meat either. The texture and taste is just like ground meat. And the sauces made it over the top good!
Last but certainly not least is my veggie taco with the “ridiculously good green sauce”! Yes that sauce will probably become a household staple to put on everything. Can’t get enough of this stuff!
Photo op with an amazing group of ladies. In fact, Francie (far left) takes the prize for the person that travelled the furthest for my class! Francie came from Tokyo, Japan and is here for a week to celebrate her friend Cora’s birthday (Far right). Now that is a good friend! She came to my class before and it is so nice to have her in my class again!
Two new friends I met in class… Emily and Mandy. My favorite thing about teaching these classes is making new friends from all over! Goodness… I am lucky!
I finally remembered to take a class picture (minus two that already had left) on my third and final night. Seriously… such beautiful, amazing and talented people I am surrounded by. Thanks to all that came… it was fun, huh?! XO
I decided to teach my “Basic” , “Go To” recipes for those of you that have missed any of these classes. Here’s your chance to learn how to make my “Basics” your “Basics”!
In this class I will teach you how to make my bread, strawberry jam, the best roasted chicken… ever, my signature salad and my cinnamon rolls.
The class is this Wednesday, March 12th & Thursday, March 13th at 5:30 pm. The class is quickly filling up so let me know ASAP if you want in!
What to have for lunch? How about eating what you love. This here pretty much sums up some of my loves. Heirloom tomatoes, avocados and cottage cheese. Yes… I LOVE cottage cheese! I know most of you would put some fresh mozzarella on here instead of the cottage cheese and that works too. After all… this is about eating what YOU love.
Sometimes simple is best don’t you think? Simple, good, fresh ingredients. Three more things that I love. There are enough complicated things in our lives. Lunch definitely should not be one of them!
So here is what I threw together for lunch today. I sliced up one ripe heirloom tomato. Half of an avocado, cut into quarters and a nice scoop of cottage cheese. Tomatoes and avocados love salt and pepper so I gave in to their infatuation with each other. I sprinkled a little chili powder on the avocados and cottage cheese (a little kick keeps life and lunch from being boring) and topped it with a a small amount of julienned fresh basil leaves. No recipe needed here. And it was perfect.
It was a cool and rainy week here last week and in our household… that calls for some good soup (with good rolls or bread on the side)! I don’t know about yours… but my family loves soup! This one here is probably one of my kids all time favorites. In fact one of my son’s filled a cup up RIGHT AFTER he just finished his bowl so he could “down” some more. He just can’t get enough of this one! And that’s ok by me because this one is healthy and so good for you. I know you and your tomato soup loving people will love this one too! Click HERE for the recipe.
It is time to show you part 2… the fabulous people and entertainment that made this night such a success! (On a side note, each table had a number on it and as people arrived, they were given a piece of paper with the table numbers listed and they tried to guess what movie each table was. The winners (those that got all of them right) were awarded movie tickets! It was a great way to get this party started!)
Mary Poppins looking “practically perfect in every way”!
A couple of cute minions (from the Despicable Me 2 table) with their minion desserts. So much to love right here!
Effie Trinket from the Hunger Games. Perfectly flashy!
Caesar Flickerman (also from the Hunger Games) graced us with his presence.
Napoleon Dynamite’s La Fawn Duh. Love her sass!
The star himself… Napoleon Dynamite!
Here is the rest of the crew. “Are you guys having a killer time?” – Napoleon Dynamite
Forrest Gump in two different stages. “Life is like a box of chocolates…..”
Princess Elsa and Anna from Frozen amidst the snow being blown in the room. Oh Anna… you don’t have any self control!
The Frozen party wouldn’t be a party without Olaf!
The Three Amigos have no fear. Ole!
Angels In the Outfield having a “ball”!
Do you see the bride and groom at the end of this (Father of the Bride) table? The fanciest group in the room!
My “Swiss Family Robinson” group!
On to the entertainment! We had a funny midget dance performance from our bishopric. Hilarious!
We have an amazing lip sync performer in our church that gave two great performances! Here, from Fiddler on the Roof singing “If I was a Rich Man.” I love that song! Ya-da-ya-da-ya-da-ya-da-ya…..
Last but certainly not least… we had awards…. Of course! Best this…. and best that…..but I want to talk about one special award… The Lifetime Achievement award. This special award went to the most wonderful 90 something lady that deserves all the praise we can shower her with! What a great life and example she is and has been to us all. After all, isn’t that what really matters? Here’s to a fun night and wonderful tribute….. Thats all folks!
Last Saturday, we had the most fun dinner activity at our church that we call “A Night With the Stars”. It is seriously so much fun that I have to share the details of the evening with you!
As you walked in the foyer, you were greeted with a red carpet lined with stanchions (I forgot to take pictures at the beginning when everything was set up.) This was at the end as everything was in the process of being taken down. There was also a photographer (papparazzi) taking pictures of all the movie stars as we entered. Look below at the great signs that were also in the foyer and were the first things you saw.
More papparazzi of course!
Everyone was a V.I. P. tonight!
There were 14 tables…. each that had hosts that picked a movie that they based their table, decorations, costumes and food (if applicable) on. My hubby and I hosted a table (Each host invited people to their table. There were 14 dinner parties within one huge dinner party. Does that make sense?) and we picked the movie Swiss Family Robinson. I envisioned tree house decor and this is the end result! Not too shabby!
A side view of our decor.
Me and my pirate. Yes… there were pirates in the movie!
Here is a shot of our table. I used burlap for our tablecloth, pewter plates and pitchers, coconut shell cups as well as coconuts on our table, a make shift roasting spit for out roast chicken (we served the pieces cut up under the spit), banana leaves lined rustic wooden bowls for our salad, veggie side dish, cut up fruit and we served rustic bread we broke with our hands. Everyone from our table helped bring something for our meal as well as the decor. We had mismatched wooden chairs we sat on to give the shipwrecked look. I love how it turned out!
Here the “Frozen” table. They even had a snowmaker that blew fake snow!
“Father of the Bride” table. This table was as pretty if not prettier than most tables at a real wedding reception. Complete with a real wedding cake of course!
You guessed it! Mary Poppins. They hung a parasol from each of their chairs.. how cute is that?! Their costumes were amazing too!
“Napoleon Dynamite” with a lunch table equipped with the school trays and milk cartons. The people at this table were so in character they had a ball all night!
The banquet of food from “The Hunger Games”.
“Life of Pi” table. I noticed they had a plethora of delicious pies for dessert. Yum!
“Field of Dreams.” Complete with a concession stand and real turf!
“Finding Nemo”. They also had a side table complete with a fish tank and dental equipment!
“Field of Dreams”. Love the wheat bundles!
There were three more tables that I didn’t get a good shot of. Despicable Me 2, Three Amigos and The Avengers. In my next post I will show you some of the awesome people that attended, their costumes and the fun entertainment we had! It was seriously the most fun night!
I decided I would post the ingredients and measurements for the smoothie I drink every morning that I posted on instagram yesterday. I know that if you don’t get the right balance of everything, especially the kale, it my not turn out so tasty. This is tasty, smooth and so good for you! I love starting out my day right with this smoothie…. even if I eat bad the rest of the day!
Here’s all the ingredients you will need.
First, I dump in my hemp protein powder, flaxseed and chia seeds. There are so many benefits in these for your body and your health.
Next, in goes the almond milk and banana.
Next.. a huge amount of kale! You are pretty much drinking down a kale salad! Another huge healthy power food. No worries though people…. it will not taste bitter or fibrous…. I promise! At least if you follow my steps.
Last of all… pour in those yummy frozen berries! I always use frozen so my smoothie is extra cold and I love the texture of a smoothie that has frozen fruit in it.
I have a Vitamix blender, so I am going to tell you how we get it done with this blender. First, start at the low setting on number 1.
Very slowly start dialing up all the way to the highest number. The key word here is SLOWLY!
Once it is pretty much mixed in, continue to blend at the low setting at the highest number for at least 1 minute.
Then turn it to high and let it blend for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute. It will be very smooth.
Pour it into a very large tumbler and have at it! It also keeps you satiated for a long while! There you go… a huge breakfast and you can feel good about it! Not too shabby!
To see the recipe, click HERE. Here’s to a good start everyday!
This is seriously my all time favorite soup. I make a lot of good soups, but there is something about the flavors in this soup that is like none other. It quickly captures the heart of anyone that tastes it. Try it for yourself…. and get ready to fall in love. Click HERE for the recipe.
