Roasted Strawberry and Spinach Salad

I’ve eaten this salad 3 times this week…so far. That’s right- 3 times I’ve devoured a great big bowl of spinach smothered in balsamic dressing and topped with flavor-bursting roasted strawberries and crunchy bits of toasted almonds. I just can’t get enough. This was the first (but definitely not the last) time I roasted strawberries. I’ve roasted other fruits in the past. Things like  pineapple, peaches, apples, and even lemons, but never strawberries. Let me just say right not that you HAVE to try this. As soon as the first bite hit my mouth I knew I was hooked and my mind began frantically plotting more ways to enjoy these soft and juicy amazing little fruits.
Roasting strawberries is simple. Well, roasting anything is pretty simple but strawberries are especially easy because they only need 10 minutes in the oven to achieve perfection. A drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of sugar, a dash of salt and pepper and in the oven they go.
Ten minutes later and voilà! Roasted strawberries. Soft but not mushy, sweet but not sugary and perfect in combination with a big ol’ pile of tender baby spinach leaves. The best part about this salad? It only takes ten minutes to make! While the strawberries are roasting you whip up a simple vinaigrette, toast some almonds and wash a bunch of spinach. Spinach goes in bowl, strawberries and almonds go on top, vinaigrette is generously drizzled over everything…and then you eat. Could it be any easier?

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Strawberry Lemon Yogurt Parfait

I’m back. Did you miss me? Did you even know I was gone? Okay, so technically I didn’t go anywhere…but it has been quite a while since my last post. I’m making up for it in a big way though. With two recipes in one! A tasty almond coconut granola that you will want to eat by the handful, and a fresh and springy strawberry lemon yogurt parfait.
But before we get lost in a big ole’ serving of granola, yogurt and berries I need to tell you what I’ve been up to that’s caused me to neglect my poor little blog for over two weeks. Since the beginning I have tried to keep this space about food. Sure, sometimes I inject little bits about my life here and there, but in general I figure you don’t want to read about my trip to the eye doctor, or my day at work, or how excited I was when my husband replaced a part of the vacuum cleaner causing it to work like 100 times better. Or maybe you do, I don’t know…but I do know I don’t want to write about those things. I’m here to share with you my love of food, my passion for ingredients and my adventures as I try new recipes and taste new flavors. The funny thing about food and everyday life though is that you can’t have one without the other. Who I am, what I do everyday and where I live are all connected to the foods I cook and eat. Which is why this announcement is about my life, but also about my food journey and where it will take me next.
So here it is -we’re selling our house…and will be living and traveling in our Airstream for the next two to three years. The above photo is where I live now- where I’ve lived, and gardened, and cooked for the past 9 years. Below is our 25’ Airstream where I’m sooo excited to spend the next several years.
I told you this was big! Well, small actually. From a 2,300 sq. ft. home to a roughly 200 sq. ft. metal silver bullet. From a kitchen with big windows, ample counter space and enough cupboards to fit all my cooking utensils and gadgets, to a kitchen where the stove doubles as a cutting board and the only place to store my pots and pans is inside the oven. None of that matters though because what we loose in indoor living space we gain in outside living space. A whole wide world of it- wherever we want to go!

And yes, I will be continuing the blog. In fact, I have a whole new vision for the blog that incorporates my travels, new foods, new inspirations, and new adventures. I will continue updating you here on our travel plans as they progress. We’re also in the middle of renovating the airstream kitchen (as much as you can renovate such a tiny space) and I will share pictures very soon. So as you can see I’ve been busy. Painting, cleaning, mulching- all the things that will make someone want to buy our house. I have managed to find some time for cooking though. And my latest creation is a parfait healthy enough to eat for breakfast and tasty enough to eat for dessert.
This recipe was inspired by a strawberry lemon trifle I made for Easter. No I didn’t take any pictures, in fact I didn’t even write down the recipe. What can I say, I’ve been busy. It was amazing though- fluffy lemon mousse, tender angel food cake and fresh strawberries. Shoot…now I feel bad and I’m gonna have to recreate this recipe just so I can share it with you. How about we wait until it’s actually strawberry season somewhere besides Florida though?  Which doesn’t happen until June up here in the chilly northeast, but I can never wait that long and as soon as these bright red berries appear in the store I have to buy some. I’m always kind of dissapointed though. Have you ever noticed that the bigger the berry the less the flavor? Which is why these early, and well-traveled, berries need to be combined with lots of other flavors… like lemon, and honey, and almonds, and coconut.

I used to make granola once a week. I would make a big batch, store it in a tupperware container and eat it everyday for breakfast. Since January though I’ve been on a smoothie kick and the granola has been forgotten. Until now that is. Feel free to play around with this recipe. Change the nuts, substitute dried fruit for the coconut, add chocolate, whatever you like as long as you stick with the same basic proportions.

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Strawberry Orange Yogurt Smoothie

I think I have spring fever. Except that it’s not spring. Not even close. Last week it was…I swear. The signs of spring were impossible to miss. Little green daffodil shoots coming up on the side of my driveway, patches of grass poking their way through the melted snow and glorious sunlight streaming through my bedroom window at the happy hour of 7 am. Surely this meant spring was just around the corner. Wrong. So very wrong. Nearly three feet of snow dumped on us last weekend and more is expected to arrive tomorrow. So much for my early spring wish. I was determined not to let it get me down though. The first thing I did was go out and enjoy the fresh snow. Finally some white fluffy stuff to play in!
The second thing I did was make a smoothie with the most spring-like ingredient I could find…strawberries. So what if they had to be shipped all the way from Florida for me to enjoy them. Sometimes a girl has got to let herself indulge. In addition to strawberries and oranges from far away places I also added some ground flax meal to my spring fantasy smoothie. I pretty much always keep some of this stuff around because it’s an easy way to add fiber and healthy Omega-3 fats to your diet. I recently discovered that my favorite flour brand, King Arthur, makes a ground golden flax meal that is perfect for baking with and adding to smoothies.  I always use my immersion blender to make smoothies. For one because l I don’t own a regular blender, and two because it requires less clean up and who can argue with that! I like to make the smoothies one at a time in the plastic cup that came with my blender. It’s kind of a necessity because the immersion blender won’t quite fit all way down in the bottom of a tapered pint glass, and as a bonus the plastic cup has handy measuring marks on it. Strawberry Orange Goodness

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