Erica

Engagement Photos

January 31, 2014 by Erica

Snowy Engagement Photos

Happy Friday! Guess what I got back this week?!

Our engagement photos!

And now comes the part where I’m going to bombard you with them.

Snowy Engagement Photos

We took our photos with the lovely and talented Amy Lashelle. I just love Amy’s photography, and she was amazing to work with. Neither of us is very comfortable in front of a camera, and she did a great job putting us at ease. Love her!

Snowy Engagement Photos

I wanted winter engagement pictures featuring the beautiful mountains around our adopted home town. It’s a tough time of year to take pictures, though – January is usually a pretty dry month, and the pollution has been especially bad this year. Luckily, there was still some pretty snow in this canyon, and the particles in the air actually make for beautiful filtered light. I was super happy with the gorgeous light we had!

Snowy Engagement Photos

The scenery pictures were my absolute favorites. I don’t love most of the close-ups, but that’s no surprise. I’m my own harshest critic! At least we look like we like each other.

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Kale Salad with Roasted Chickpeas and Apple-Miso Vinaigrette

January 29, 2014 by Erica

Kale Salad with Roasted Chickpeas and Apple-Miso Vinaigrette

I haven’t been doing a great job of eating my leafy greens lately. Well, actually, it’s my dark leafy greens I haven’t been eating. For some reason I’ve been on a lettuce kick… maybe using up the the leftover lettuce from all those burgers? Normally, I’d choose kale or spinach over regular ol’ Romaine any day. It recently occurred to me that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d bought kale. Obviously I had to remedy the situation immediately!

And I remedied it the best way I know how – by giving my kale a massage.

Kale Salad with Roasted Chickpeas and Apple-Miso Vinaigrette

A while ago I confessed that I didn’t really get the “massaged kale salad” thing. Aaaand I also confessed that I was immediately sold on the whole deal, because it really makes such a difference in texture. It softens the kale up and makes it way less jaw-achingly fibrous. If you typically skip kale salads, I beg you to give your kale a little massage! You just might turn over a new leaf… har har har.

We’re improving the kale’s texture even more by slicing it into thin ribbons. That way we can make this into a chopped salad, which is my favorite way to eat salad lately because of all the texture you can get in one bite. Start with some kale you can really sink your teeth into, and add crispy apples, crunchy walnuts, chewy roasted chickpeas, and creamy blue cheese to each bite. WHAT could be better, I ask you?! Ah yes… tossing the whole thing with a dreamy dressing of apple cider vinegar and miso.

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Buffalo Chickpea Sliders

January 27, 2014 by Erica

Buffalo Chickpea Sliders

Who’s ready for some vegan football food?!

Well, vegan + optional gratuitous amounts of cheese. The best of both worlds, in my opinion.

Buffalo Chickpea Sliders

Last week I posted quinoa burgers, and this week, we’re doing yet another veggie burger. It’s so easy to get on a food kick and want to try out endless variations, and that’s exactly what’s happening here! This time I really wanted vegan burgers… mostly because I end up eating a bunch of the dough straight from the food processor (and I bet you do the same!), so might as well leave out the raw egg, right? Right. And luckily, it’s not at all necessary here – these babies have no trouble holding together with just some flax egg magic.

Buffalo Chickpea Sliders

But like I mentioned, I topped those vegan burgers with some serious cheese. Blue cheese dressing, to be exact. It’s the same lightened-up blue cheese dressing I used on last year’s buffalo brussels potato skins. This stuff is just too good to be allowed! I couldn’t get enough on this burger, clearly.

Buffalo Chickpea Sliders

To me, there’s nothing that says football food quite like that buffalo wing flavah. Minus the wing part, of course. I think I’ve had wings maybe twice in my life and, well, I’m not into the actual wings. Too messy, and too much work for too little actual food! Meat on the bone is just not my thing, I guess. I could never have been a cavewoman! Beans and veggies, on the other hand – now that I can get behind.

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Maple Vanilla Macadamia Nut Butter

January 24, 2014 by Erica

Maple Vanilla Cashew-Macadamia Nut Butter

Welcome to this week’s edition of Erica’s Food Addictions. And the food I can’t stop eating this week is… drum roll please…

Maple Vanilla Macadamia Nut Butter.

Succinct? No. Unbelievably cram-it-in-your-face, spoon-it-from-the-food-processor, lick-the-spoon, decadently deliciously amazing? Yes.

Maple Vanilla Cashew-Macadamia Nut Butter

(Oh and P.S. it also has cashews. Hence the picture of cashews. But Maple Vanilla Cashew-Macadamia Nut Butter was a little too long of a title, even for me. And “Cashew” was the only part of it I could bear to part with? I don’t know.)

This nut butter is the inevitable result of last week’s carrot butter. While I had my carrots simmering on the stove, I was blending up the macadamia nuts, maple syrup, and vanilla, and sneaking a taste (of course) from the food processor, I thought, Holy crap, this is good. Maybe I should stop right here? But I really wanted to make carrot butter for you, so I forged on, and I wasn’t disappointed with the result. I knew, though, that the macadamia nut butter was something I’d have to revisit. And by revisit, I mean have another excuse to spoon it out of my food processor straight into my mouth.

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Cauliflower Coconut Masala

January 22, 2014 by Erica

Cauliflower Coconut Masala

One of my favorite parts of blogging is that I get to connect with so many lovely people every day. Lovely, like-mind, food-loving people like you! The food blogging community really is the best. It was a quite unexpected bonus for me when I started blogging – I had no idea how much I’d love that part of it.

One of my great food-blogging friends is Julia at The Roasted Root. Have you checked out her beautiful blog? Julia always has something clever to say, and something delicious to feed you. Something delicious and sneakily healthy, I might add. She’s pretty much the best.

So I was thrilled when Julia asked me to be one of a series of guest posts on her blog. And today is the day! I’m posting over on The Roasted Root, hijacking Julia’s space to talk about Indian food.

It’s been a while since I made you any curry or the like, so I’m pretty excited about this one. Chicken tikka masala has always been my favorite Indian dish, and I have fond memories of ordering it for takeout along with a big side of fluffy naan. And when I recently decided to make masala with cauliflower and coconut milk instead of the ol’ chicken and cream… whoa. Worlds collided. This Cauliflower Coconut Masala was born.

Head over to The Roasted Root to check out the recipe!

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