vegan

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Pudding with Coconut Caramel Sauce

October 3, 2013 by Erica

Chocolate Coconut Pudding with Coconut Caramel Sauce (Vegan)

This is up there with the longest post titles I have ever published. Let’s just go with it, though, because it’s a special occasion.

One year ago today, I posted my first recipe on this blog. The site wasn’t beautiful, the recipe wasn’t great, and the food photos were taken with my iPhone on my living room floor. But I posted it anyway, because I knew I had to start somewhere.

I actually registered this domain name and published an introductory post almost 2 weeks earlier. But then I was kind of… paralyzed with fear. What should I write about? Should my first recipe involve quinoa? Crap, I don’t even know how to develop my own recipes – I always follow other people’s! So my little blog sat with no content for a while, until I figured it out. And that’s why I’m considering the date of my first recipe post as my blogiversary – the day I decided to put my food out into the world and see what happened.

Chocolate Coconut Pudding with Coconut Caramel Sauce (Vegan)

I knew that a year later, I might not be blogging anymore. And if I was, I would be embarrassed to look back on my first posts. I knew there were thousands of other bloggers out there who would always do it better than me. I decided to be OK with that and just take baby steps.

So here I am, a year later! The proud mama of a little toddler one-year-old blog. Happy to say that I am still blogging and that yes, I am embarrassed of my first posts, especially the pictures. But also that I know I have a loooot further to go… and I fervently hope that a year from now, it’s these pictures I’ll be embarrassed of, because I will have progressed that much further. There are still thousands of bloggers who do it better than me, and I’m still OK with that. Because the truth is that I love creating recipes and sharing them here with you all. It’s the best creative outlet I’ve found, not to mention such a great community. That means YOU! Thank you so much for reading this food-related mumbo-jumbo that I post here. Every comment and email means so much to me – seriously. I feel so lucky to have you all as readers and invisible internet friends.

But enough of the mushy stuff. Let’s eat dessert, shall we?

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Sweet and Savory Farro Salad

October 2, 2013 by Erica

Farro Salad with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Raisins & Celery

Good morning! Not only am I posting another salad today, but it also has “sweet” in the title… just like Monday’s. I didn’t plan it that way, but sometimes you just need a week full of salads, you know? Especially after a weekend in Vegas.

Can I write about the weekend on a Wednesday? I didn’t have time to do it for Monday’s post, so let’s just go with it, even though it’s hump day.

I was in Vegas this past weekend on my company’s annual trip. Vegas is not really my scene, especially given the 7-hour bus ride each way, but I had a really fantastic time! There was a lot of food, a lot of wine, and a lot of fun bonding time with co-workers. And the weather was also gorgeous, which was a perfect break from the cool temps I’m still not ready for here in northern Utah. But I have to say that the highlight of the weekend was this celebrity sighting:

Sister Wives

Just Kody and Janelle out for date night on the strip! If you’ve ever watched Sister Wives, you’ll understand why I was so excited about this. Also, as a side note, I originally posed on Kody’s other side, but he asked me not to stand next to him for the picture. What?! This must be some sort of agreement he has with his wives… bizarre.

Another weekend highlight was actually the batch of Bloody Marys that a co-worker made to enjoy on the bus ride down. I had one (toward the end of the bus ride – not when we left at 6 am!) and I have to say it might be the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever had. I got the recipe from him and, although I’m a very inexpert mixologist, I’m determined to bring it to a blog near you sometime soon!

Anyway, I came back from the weekend with a very full tummy and a very sore throat, and am still digging myself out of the depths of my sleep deprivation. Vegas will do that to a girl! I’m excited to get back to my normal eating, sleeping, and (lack of) drinking routines. This salad, followed by nine hours of sleep, is very much needed!

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Super Sweet Spinach Salad

September 30, 2013 by Erica

Super Sweet Spinach Salad from Coffee & Quinoa

My salad brings all the boys to the yard, and they’re like, it’s better than yours…

What? No?

Here is the thing about salad (and blogging about salad): It doesn’t exactly bring all the boys to the yard. You know what I mean? Now blogging about milkshakes, that’s another story.

Despite this unfortunate truth, I’m bringing you a salad today, because this is my blog, and on my blog I get to share the food I like to eat, boys in the yard or no.

Super Sweet Spinach Salad from Coffee & Quinoa

Well, like to eat is maybe a strong statement about salad.

To me, salads (and hard workouts, for that matter) are like classic works of literature: you want to have read them (or have eaten or have done them), but you do not want to read, eat or do them in the present tense. No, you want to look into your virtuous past and say “ah yes, I had a salad for lunch” with the same smug satisfaction you would say “ah yes, I’ve read Dostoyevsky.” Rarely could I say with any truthfulness, “I want to eat a salad right now.” (And I’m sorry, but the same goes for reading translations from the Russian.) In reality, I claim to want salad quite often, but it’s because I’m thinking of the present as the future past. And in the future, I will want to have eaten a salad.

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Whole Wheat Pumpkin Spice Mug Cake

September 27, 2013 by Erica

Fall weather is upon us, and that can only mean one thing: pumpkin!

Let’s talk about pumpkin. Although I’m not the biggest pumpkin spice latte fan – too sweet! – I do enjoy almost anything else pumpkin-flavored. Pumpkin beer and pumpkin puree stirred into my oatmeal are two fall favorites. I’m not planning on bombarding you with pumpkin recipes this fall, but I do think that a quick and easy pumpkin dessert is in order. Enter this whole wheat pumpkin spice mug cake!

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Quinoa-Stuffed Acorn Squash with Figs and Sage

September 25, 2013 by Erica

Quinoa-Stuffed Acorn Squash with Figs and Sage

Don’t you love the crossover seasons? When you can drive with your seat heater on and the windows down, wear boots with no jacket, and stuff winter squash with figs. It’s the best of both worlds!

Quinoa-Stuffed Acorn Squash with Figs and Sage

I didn’t really discover figs until this year. Previously, despite my childhood love of Fig Newtons, I thought that fresh figs had 1) a scary texture and 2) a scary price. I liked them only when caramelized to a juicy perfection on top of a pizza at the aptly named Figs, my favorite pizza place in Boston. Then, naturally, I discovered that the blogosphere goes crazy over figs just at the same time that Whole Foods had a giant gorgeous display of them… on sale. Whole Foods 1, Erica 0. More like Whole Foods 20,000, Erica 0 when you calculate the amount I’ve probably spent there this year. In any case, I bought them, was introduced to the glory of fresh figs, and have never looked back.

Quinoa-Stuffed Acorn Squash with Figs and Sage