One of my favorite smoothies I’ve ever had is from an old natural foods cafe on Sunset Blvd. in Silver Lake. In order to make this smoothie, you need a fresh young coconut, which is not something that I typically go out of my way to purchase. Enter Trader Joe’s with their “coconut smoothie” drink…
Tag: Dairy-Free
Strawberry Jalapeño Jam
A while back I made some strawberry jalapeño jam and OH EM GEE. I’ve made it twice using fresh and frozen berries and it turned out great each time. If you’re not in strawberry season, this would be fantastic to try with cranberries, figs, or mango. The awesome thing about adding a somewhat savory component…
Thai Peanut Salad with Lime Dressing
I don’t know about you, but I lose my appetite in severely hot weather. I’m sitting here in central California sweating my eyeballs out. It’s supposed to be 107 degrees today and tomorrow. Let’s just say it’s not exactly spaghetti weather. Since I can’t NOT eat, I have to eventually find something appealing to nourish…
Chocolate Banana Buckwheat Bites
Hey there, how are you? Hanging in? Doing okay? Doing horribly? It’s all welcome here. I feel like the days of COVID are, among other things, one giant emotional experiment. One day I’m up, positive, even motivated. Other’s I feel like like a slug of inactivity and despair. No offense to slugs of course. They’re…
Coffee Chip Snack Bites
I have been wanting to throw together this little snack for a while. And when I say a while I mean that I’ve had a “draft” with the title in the queue for actual years. Sounds ridiculous but here’s the thing about my creative process; I do not like going to the store to get…
Thanksgiving Meatballs
Until I became a cook, Thanksgiving didn’t seem like a very good food day. Dry turkey, weird green bean thing, brown gravy, mushy yams, pie, jello, … Well, the jello was actually pretty good. Stuffing had some flavor, but only if it was cooked in the bird… and now we all know thats unsafe….
Spiced Butternut Squash Soup
In this edition of “Things I find at Trader Joe’s” we will be visiting the land of mega-hot-spicy. For some palates spicy is no fun, but I recently grabbed a jar of harissa paste and have been searching out ways to add the heat (within reason) in my meals. Harissa paste is essentially a jar…
Chocolate Avocado Banana Bread
Hey, hey! So my household has been STRUG. GL. ING. with the fall cold season and I am 100% fighting the good fight to keep myself healthy. There are many reasons for this: If mom gets sick, how will the world keep turning? I’ve been a peak level Nikki excitement (that’s huge you guys, I…
Creamy Butternut Sage Pasta Sauce
One of my favorite things about Autumn is squash. In all forms. So I look for any excuse to use it in my meals, much to the annoyance of my husband (not a squash fan). Roasted? Yes. Pureed? Yes. Sauce? Heck yaaaaas. Around this time of year, it’s really common to see grocers coming out…
Colombian Guacamole
Apparently Colombians are wayyyy better at guacamole than anyone else. I’m so fired up about this version that I’ve been putting it on everything. In salads, on eggs, on meatballs, inside rolled deli meat, spoonfuls straight in my mouth! There’s a blended mix of chilies, onion, and cilantro as well as hard-boiled eggs. The flavor…
The Clean Plate 