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Quinoa Crunch Granola (Vegan)

August 19, 2013 by Erica

Quinoa Crunch Granola (Vegan)

So Nate and I did something a little crazy last week.

And no, we didn’t eat half a batch of granola in the course of 24 hours. (That was the weekend before.) But we did sign a lease on a new apartment!

Eek.

Quinoa Crunch Granola (Vegan)

We were planning on staying in our current apartment for another year, partly because it’s pretty nice and partly because we’re lazy, when our lease is up at the end of this week. I’ve been meaning to email our landlords to tell them so for months, but somehow I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. And then out of nowhere we found ourselves at an open house one night last week, falling in love with a gorgeous remodeled apartment in a big old Victorian house in our neighborhood. You guys… it is so pretty. High ceilings, beautiful crown molding, subway tile, two bathrooms… and the kitchen? I would think I was in heaven if I hadn’t just written a check for the security deposit.

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Homemade Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt

August 16, 2013 by Erica

Homemade Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt

I’ve been eating fresh fruit like it’s going out of style lately.

Berries alllll the time. I wasn’t joking on Monday when I told you we’d eaten more than 2 pounds of blueberries over the course of a week. And by “we” I mean… mostly me. Blueberries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And snack. And another snack. And dessert.

You get the picture.

So naturally, I had to make sure I could work fresh fruit into this week’s ice cream. The perfect solution? Pinkberry frozen yogurt!

Homemade Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt

Are you familiar with Pinkberry? It’s a popular frozen yogurt chain featuring tart-tasting yogurt and lots of yummy toppings, like fresh fruit. There are many similar yogurt shops and chains that have sprouted up around the country; I’ve heard that Red Mango is similar. And while I will generally pass on frozen yogurt, I make a serious exception for Pinkberry.

Pinkberry is different because of that tart taste. It’s not trying to be ice cream – it really tastes like you took some yogurt and stuck it in your freezer. So… guess what I decided to do?

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Orzo with Zucchini and Sweet Corn

August 14, 2013 by Erica

Orzo with Zucchini and Sweet Corn

I’m just going to say it: I am nowhere near ready for fall.

You might think it’s jumping the gun to start thinking about cooler temperatures when it’s still August (and I couldn’t agree with you more). But if you live in Utah, you know that anticipation for ski season – forget fall altogether – is already mounting by August. (This I will never understand.) And even the non-ski bums around me are starting to mention looking forward to fall boots, colorful leaves, etc.

Stop it! It’s just wrong.

Orzo with Zucchini and Sweet Corn

Though I’ve never been a fan of the very hot weather, I do love all the things that come with summer – most notably sundresses, summer produce, walking out of the house without bundling up, and the lack of impending winter doom. I intend to cling to all of those things for as long as possible and hope I don’t get hypothermia.

So let’s embrace that summer produce while we still can with this orzo recipe: a warm pasta salad-y dish with lots of yummy texture from zucchini matchsticks and corn kernels, not to mention the orzo. It’s all just barely heated up together, so it’s full of bright, fresh flavor in addition to all those great textures.

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Yogurt Panna Cotta with Balsamic Blueberry Sauce

August 12, 2013 by Erica

Yogurt Panna Cotta with Balsamic Blueberries

I don’t think it’s any secret that I like food. I mean obviously… I write this blog. But it’s not that often that just the name of a recipe can elicit the response in me that this one did.

Every Wednesday I get an email from the farmer whose CSA box I buy with a few notes about the next day’s pickup. She often includes a couple recipes, especially for ingredients you might not be as familiar with (like turnips!). And this past week, one of the recipes was this: Panna Cotta With Balsamic Blueberries.

Yogurt Panna Cotta with Balsamic Blueberries

I gasped out loud… alone in my apartment.

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Chili-Infused Pomegranate Sorbet

August 9, 2013 by Erica

Chili-Infused Pomegranate Sorbet

So I guess I never got around to posting my vacation pictures for you this week, did I?

Oops. Maybe this weekend.

I was catapulted head-first into the week when my flights home on Sunday got messed up due to weather delays. We boarded the plane, we sat, then we got off the plane, we sat, my connection from New York took off while I was still on the ground in Boston, and then I went back home to my parents’ house for the night.

Chili-Infused Pomegranate Sorbet

It was a very weird feeling to start the day in my childhood home outside of Boston and end up at my office in Salt Lake, having been up since 2:30 AM Mountain Time. Ugh. Direct flights only from now on!

And that is my long-winded excuse for why I haven’t posted vacation photos.

But I doubt that what you wanted out of this post was a bunch of bitching about vacation travel. How rude of me! You wanted sorbet.

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