what we've been eating...

Eeep, it's been a long time since I posted anything. I've admittedly been in a bit of a funk and just haven't felt like writing :/

Okay, so here's a question. This past week, I switched up my grocery shopping a bit. Normally, Mike and I go shopping and we get what's on our list (the staples) and then kind of wander around and buy what sounds good to us. This time, I picked out recipes first - and then went shopping according to what ingredients I needed for the recipes. I spent $185. For two of us. I almost fell over at the check-out.

Do you find that it's cheaper to plan out recipes and then buy? Or the other way around?

A few things we've been eating:

Grilled Tuna, Ginger-lime Carrots, & Green Beans

Tuna steaks with a tasty marinade (see it below), simple green beans with olive oil, salt and pepper, and this awesome recipe for ginger-lime carrots. You know those glazed, really buttery carrots that are not exactly good for you? This is a lighter version, with a kick from some sriracha. A keeper for sure!

Grilled tuna marinade (from about.com)

2 tablespoons dijon honey mustard

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or white vinegar (I used my peach balsamic, actually!)

Pounded Walnut Strozzapreti & Veggies

Last night we had pounded walnut strozzapreti (recipe here) with some sauteed zucchini and grape tomatoes. The pasta was really good, despite the fact that Mike hated on me a bit for how fattening it was ;) My point of view? It's full of good-for-you fats like walnuts and olive oil. Not the type of recipe I'd make every day, but every once in a while it can't hurt!

Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Salad

My lunch a few days ago :) Fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, lots of pepper, and some olive oil with my peach balsamic vinegar. Soooo yummy.

i don't even like broccoli

...but there's one recipe for broccoli I do like, and Mike's mom introduced me to it! Broccoli is the only vegetable I don't like, but for some reason, when you roast it, I'll eat it. I don't know why. It still tastes like broccoli, looks like broccoli...yeah, I dunno.

In any case, I roasted it with the lemon olive oil I bought earlier today. OH. MY. GOODNESS. So tasty.

We also had grilled chicken which was marinated in the peach vinegar (also purchased earlier!), lemon olive oil, Dijon mustard, herbes de provence, garlic powder, salt & pepper.

And then we had dessert. We never have dessert. Today, however, I found a recipe for chocolate truffles. I had to make them, or else I would just fall over and die. Yep. They've got about 50 calories each, and are super good. It's posted after the broccoli (that way you need to look at something that's good for you, first!)...enjoy!

Roasted Broccoli

1 large bunch of broccoli

4-5 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

freshly ground pepper

3-4 garlic gloves, sliced

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spread the broccoli on a cookie sheet and toss with the olive oil. Add the salt, pepper, and garlic. Roast for 20-25 minutes - you want the broccoli to be crisp and slightly browned. When it comes out, sprinkle a little more olive oil and some lemon juice. Mike's mom always adds pine nuts, which are sooooo yummy on this, but I didn't splurge on them today :)

Weight Watcher's Vanilla Fudge Truffles (recipe from here)

2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1/2 cup(s) unsweetened cocoa

1 cup(s) powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 cup(s) low fat cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Reserve 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder on a sheet of wax paper. In a food processor or in a medium bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, blend remaining ½ cup of cocoa powder, powdered sugar, cream cheese and vanilla extract.

Drop cream cheese mixture by rounded teaspoons into reserved cocoa powder, making 24 truffles; roll into balls, and refrigerate until firm, about 1 to 2 hours. Yields 1 truffle per serving.

lunch!

It's the little things in life. I just found white peach balsamic vinegar and lemon olive oil at our grocery store. It may have made my day.

I came home and made a deeeeelicious salad: spinach, beets, walnuts, blue cheese, and a simple oil and vinegar dressing made with my two tasty finds.

comfort food

I don't remember the last time I made a dinner that lacked something green. I feel kind of guilty about it. Every once in a while, though... you gotta have some comfort food.

These honey-ginger chicken fingers were inspired from this recipe at Tasty Kitchen and I've been waiting to try this potato recipe from one of my favorite websites, Noble Pig. They're salt and vinegar potatoes with rosemary - definitely a recipe I was anxious to try! The chicken fingers were hands down some of the best I've had. I made a honey mustard mayo dip to go with it. Definitely something I'll make again!

I'm so, so, so bored. I'm ready to be (gasp!) back to work, and doing my normal things. Unfortunately, I know my body isn't ready. I'm still overdoing it some days - yesterday, for example. And then I wake up feeling like I'm 80. Not good times. I do think that I'm going to head to the gym today (No one freak out, okay?) and walk on the treadmill.

To keep me entertained, here are some recipes I want to try in the near future:

(Healthy) 5 Minute Chunky Monkey Ice Cream

[from Smithfield]

Creamy Mints

[from Kitchen Trial and Error]

Meyer Lemon Mousse

[from All Day I Dream About Food]

Fleur de Sel and Caramel

[from Food and Paper]

Aw, crap. Are you sensing a pattern here?

summer is here :)

A few yummy things I've been eating lately...

Tomato & mozzarella sandwiches

...with lots of freshly ground black pepper :)

Strawberry Spritzer

5-6 ripe strawberries

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 lemon, juiced

splash of white grape juice

sparkling water

Muddle the strawberries and add the rest of the ingredients...mmmm!

I found this link today: 101 Simple Salads for the Season - there are so many great ideas here. I want to try tons of them!

my first (successful!) attempt at ribs

I had to run to the store today to get stamps and a few other essentials, and I can't help but wander around a bit when I'm at our grocery store. It's a wonderful place to waste money and time. They had baby back ribs on sale today, which kind of intimidated me...but I went for it! I also grabbed a bottle of Fisher & Weiser's Original Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce, which Mike and I noticed the last time we went grocery shopping. It was a little pricey so we decided against it...though I notice that when I go to the store myself, I end up with a lot of the other items that have also been placed in this category.

I came home and researched the best method to make ribs for approximately an hour. One of the good things about being off of work due to this surgery is that I can do things like dedicate an hour to finding the best way to cook ribs.

I am by no means a rib expert, but here's what I came up with:

1 whole rack pork baby back ribs

1 cup brown sugar

5 tablespoons Morton & Bassett Cajun Spice blend, though you can use any combination of spices that you'd like

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon onion powder

1. If the ribs have that gross membrane on one side, remove it.

2. Prepare the dry rub by combining the brown sugar, cajun spice blend, salt, and onion powder. Rub the mixture all over the ribs, pressing down a bit to make sure it sticks. I cooked these ribs on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet, so at this point you can stick them on the rack (put down some foil on the cookie sheet to keep it clean) - cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two.

3. After they marinate, let the ribs sit at room temperature for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.

4. Remove the foil from the cookie sheet and fill it with about 1/4 inch water. Cover tightly with foil, and bake for about two hours.

5. We then moved the ribs to the grill and grilled them with some of the raspberry chipotle sauce, which was reeeeeeeally tasty.

I've been wanting to try this ribboned asparagus salad from smitten kitchen for so long, and I thought tonight would be a good time to try it. The cold, crunchy salad was great with the ribs, and the simple dressing is right up my alley.

We were stuffed :) definitely a yummy dinner!

sheep cupcakes?!

OH MAN, I just found a link that shows you how to make marshmallow sheep cupcakes.

I totally want to make these for our sheltie club's Christmas party or something!

a few inspiring things

I haven't driven anywhere since my surgery, and I've been extremely bored the past few days. I've looked at a lot of blogs. These are a few things I found that stood out - enjoy!

Infused Sugar

[from Sugar and Charm]

I really want to try this! It sounds like a wonderful, simple idea.

Rainier Cherry Muddler

[from Sprouted Kitchen]

I can't even put into words how much I want to try this right now.

Dried Strawberries

[from say YES! to hoboken]

Mmmmmmmm.

green olive and almond tapenade

I'd like to start off by apologizing to my mother. Mom, I know you've been proud of me up until this point in my life, and I'm sorry to let you down. But I'm posting a recipe that has olives in it. I hope you can forgive me.

I was in the mood for a salty snack today and decided I'd try to make some tapenade, which is one of my favorite things - but have you ever seen it in the grocery store? It's so expensive! I'm also on an almond kick lately. They've got a ton of health benefits, so I've been adding them wherever possible. I thought the combination would be pretty good, and I was right.

Green Olive & Almond Tapenade

1 cup green olives

1/2 cup almonds

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon capers

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

pepper, to taste

Throw it all into a food processor and combine.

i love my grill (and my grill master)

Tonight we had turkey burgers. Here's the thing. I love ground turkey. I use it all the time, and I think that everyone else should, too. In fact, I have never bought ground beef. Isn't that weird?

A 4 ounce serving of ground turkey has about 160 calories, whereas the same serving size of ground beef (85% lean) has about 240. I think that's a significant difference! And when you can have a burger with yummy toppings for about 230 calories, even better.

I had some pesto in the fridge as well as some red peppers that we needed to eat, so the burgers (that I found the recipe for here) were topped with roasted red peppers and a pesto mayo that I mixed up. One of my earlier posts includes how to roast peppers. As for the pesto mayo, I just used a 1:1 ratio, and added some black pepper. There's also some feta and fresh greens on 'em. :)

We had a salad alongside, with a balsamic vinaigrette. This recipe is kind of just estimates...

Balsamic Vinaigrette

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon sugar

salt & pepper

I added a tag cloud to the blog. It shows up on the column on the left side and categorizes all of the posts. If the text is a larger size, it means that I've blogged more about that category. I'm also working on changing the recipe index page. Since I added the tag cloud, I'm changing the recipe page so that it organizes by type, not ingredient. Just an FYI!

what we've been eating...

So far, we've grilled out both nights this week. By that, I mean Mike has grilled both nights this week, and I've watched. :)

No picture from yesterday (I know you guys love my crappy pictures!), but we had chicken with an awesome marinade. I'm all about making my own marinades and try to stay away from pre-made junk, but I am obsessed with McCormick's Grill Mates Tomato Garlic & Basil marinade. It's soooo good. I also had Mike grill some asparagus that I had seasoned with some salt & pepper - then I drizzled some lemon juice on it. So simple, but so good. I love the flavor that grilling adds to vegetables.

Tonight we just had beef tenderloin on the grill and then some oven roasted potatoes with red peppers. I drizzled the veggies with some canola oil, herbes de provence, salt and pepper and roasted them for about 45 minutes at 425 degrees. It was a yummy dinner.

patience is a virtue

I just wanted to write a bit about my recovery and how I've been feeling. This has truly been a learning experience for me, though like everything else that's hard, I know I'm becoming a stronger person because of it all.

The most difficult thing about post-op has been the fact that I have clear cut limitations that will remain until I'm six weeks out. Regardless of how I feel, I can't bend, twist, or lift. That's rough - do you know how many things in the world weigh more than five pounds? I generally do things really fast and I try to be as efficient as possible. This surgery has made me slow down and take my time, which I suppose isn't a horrible thing. And maybe I'll have a more toned butt after all of this because I'm doing a lot of squatting.

I'm calling my doctor tomorrow because I'm hoping to get an appointment sooner than the current one I have scheduled at the end of June. I know I can't push myself here, but prior to the surgery, he mentioned going back to work part-time four weeks after my surgery date - I'm optimistic that with how I'm feeling, that could happen.

I was terrified before this surgery. It made me want to throw up. It basically was my worst fear come to life. I'm proud of myself...this was a big decision for me and I'm so glad I went through with it.

Today I told Mike, "You know, I don't think my back hurts," which sounds like an odd thing to say because God KNOWS I'm sore as hell. But I actually don't think the pain I've had every single day for so long is there - and that is an amazing thing.

a delicious summer treat.

As a warning before you read on, I'm writing this post in the process of baking this recipe so I have absolutely no guarantees.

I think I mentioned in my last post that my mom brought over a ton of food for the two of us upon my discharge from the hospital. Included were some reeeeally yummy looking fresh apricots...even in my drug induced state I knew I wanted to make a tart, is that sad?

I'm waiting for my dough to chill at the moment. A note about this recipe: if you decide to make it - it says to add 1/8 -1/4 cup of water. I at first added the 1/8 cup, let the dough chill, and then took it out to roll and it crumbled everywhere (sad). So...this is round two of my dough chilling, because I added about another 1/8 cup and stuck it back in the fridge. I have absolutely no prior tart experience and I have no idea if this is going to totally ruin the tastiness that I have such high hopes for.

Okay, fast forwarding...

I think it turned out!

Anyway, here's the recipe!

Apricot Tart (from here)

Short Crust Pastry:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon granulated white sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch pieces

1/8 to 1/4 cup ice water

Apricot Filling:

1 1/2 pounds fresh ripe apricots (8 large or 14 small apricots)

1/3 - 1/2 cup granulated white sugar (or to taste)

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Garnish:

1/4 cup chopped pistachios or almonds

Short Crust Pastry: In a food processor, place the flour, salt, and sugar and process until combined. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal (about 15 seconds). Pour 1/8 cup water in a slow, steady stream through the feed tube until the pastry just holds together when pinched. Add remaining water, if necessary. Do not process more than about 30 seconds.

Turn the pastry out onto your work surface, gather it into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about one hour to chill the butter and allow the gluten in the flour to relax.

Once the pastry has chilled, remove from refrigerator and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry into a 13 inch square. To prevent the pastry from sticking to the counter and to ensure uniform thickness, keep lifting up and turning the pastry a quarter turn as you roll (always roll from the center of the pastry outwards to get uniform thickness). Transfer the pastry to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cover and place in the refrigerator while you prepare the apricots.

Apricot Filling: Wash the apricots. Cut the apricots following the suture from stem to blossom end and then up the opposite side. Gently twist the two halves of the apricot and it should easily separate. Remove the seed and cut each half into two or three wedges (depending on size). Place the wedges of apricots in a large bowl and season with a pinch of salt. Then add the granulated white sugar and toss gently to combine. Arrange the apricot wedges evenly on the pastry (cut side up), leaving about a two inch wide border. Scrape any remaining sugar from the bowl and sprinkle over the apricots. Gently fold the edges of the pastry up and over the apricots, pleating as necessary. Make sure to seal any cracks in the pastry.

Bake the tart in a preheated 405 degree F oven for about 35 - 45 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Garnish with chopped pistachios or almonds. Best served warm, with vanilla ice cream.

Makes one - 11 inch tart

i'm alive!

So my surgery was a week ago today! As I mentioned before, I had surgery on my spine to hopefully decrease the amount of pain I'm having due to scoliosis and a generally pretty messed up back. I was able to find two amazing doctors who were confident that they could help me by doing a spinal fusion.

I was presented with two options: an XLIF procedure, and a normal spinal fusion.

There was a pretty significant chance that for a few reasons, my doctors would be unable to perform the XLIF. They wouldn't know if they could do it until they started surgery...luckily, they were able to!

A more minimally invasive procedure is obviously preferred, so I was really happy that they could do the surgery this way. I'm in a lot of pain, though, and can't even imagine what my recovery would be like if I had a regular surgery - so I'm counting my blessings!

I'm not able to lift anything heavier than five pounds, or bend, or twist. Which means I'm pretty useless. I'm also super bored. Hopefully as I feel better, I'll find more stuff to keep me busy that doesn't involve a lot of moving around...I'm going to go crazy!

Mike has been working from home to take care of me, and so since I was feeling a little better today, I made us breakfast this morning. Last week, my mom brought us approximately 300 pounds of food from an amazing Italian deli - we had some yummy leftover ham and a lot of arugula, so I made a frittata. It was tasty! Easy, too...I wasn't exactly up for anything super intense :)

Arugula & Ham Frittata (you could put pretty much anything in this, though)

6 eggs (I used 5 egg whites and 1 whole egg)

2 tablespoons milk

1 garlic clove

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cups arugula (or spinach, or anything else you have on hand)

1/2 cup chopped ham (I think prosciutto would be amazing in this, or smoked salmon!)

1/2 teaspoon herbes de provence

salt & pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a pie plate with non-stick spray.

2. Chop the garlic and saute in olive oil over medium heat for about a minute, then add arugula and saute until wilted. Set aside.

3. Combine the eggs, milk, ham, salt, pepper, herbes de provence, and the arugula. Pour into pie plate.

4. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

roasted red pepper & avocado sandwich

I enjoy the challenge of figuring out what to do with the ingredients I have on hand... this sandwich was really good! I also love that you can make it huge, because it's pretty much just yummy veggies :)

Roasted Red Pepper and Avocado Sandwich with Herb Mayo

2 red bell pepper

1 avocado

spinach

whatever bread you'd like

1 tablespoon herb mayo (recipe after)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place the whole peppers on a sheet of foil over a baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes, flipping once - the peppers will start to get dark and bubbly, that's okay!

2. Remove from the oven and place immediately into a gallon ziplock bag (I heard this helps sweat out some moisture, I dunno) and let it sit for 15 minutes or so.

3. Assemble your sandwich with the veggies & mayo, which I have the recipe for below. Mmmmm.

Herb Mayo

1/2 cup light mayo

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon herbes de provence (probably my favorite dried herb blend ever!)

Combine ingredients - let sit for a few minutes before serving to let the flavors develop.

our weekend

...with no pictures, because apparently we ate everything so fast there was no time for photos!

What we've been eating this weekend:

• pizza with pesto, tomatoes, ricotta and feta
• actually not terrible for you lemon bars (66 calories a square!)
• pasta with fresh veggies & grilled chicken, tossed with pesto

Lemon Bars (from here)

1/4 cup confectioners’ (powdered) sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3 eggs

scant 3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

additional confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray the bottom of an 8 inch square baking pan with nonstick spray.

2. Beat the 1/4 cup of confectioners’ sugar and butter on medium speed until creamy. Gradually add the 1/2 cup of pastry flour and mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake until just golden brown (about 10 to 12 minutes). Cool on a wire rack and lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

3. While the oven temperature reduces, whisk the eggs on medium speed until foamy. Add the granulated sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until combined. Pour the mixture over the baked crust and return to the oven until “set” (about 20 to 25 minutes – do not touch the filling with your fingers or it will stick to them and you will have a big dent in your bars!) Cool completely on a wire rack, then cut into 12 squares and dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Anyway, we had a good weekend, and it went way too fast. Friends visited yesterday/overnight and we went to First Watch for brunch (pretty much the best place ever). Today we looked at a house for sale - though we decided it was just too far from our offices & our hometown/family. It was on four acres, though, which would be great! It was just exciting to officially start our search for a home. We're both so anxious...and so are our puppies :)

xo, Lindsay

puppies

Just because they're cute:

edamame pasta

I've been trying to find a good recipe for pasta with edamame, without any asian flavors. I came across one the other evening that inspired me to make last night's dinner (original recipe here, my changes are below) and I think it's one I'll definitely make again.

Spaghetti with Edamame, Spinach, and Olive Oil

1 large garlic clove, finely minced
1 cup packed spinach
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/3 cups frozen shelled edamame
3/4 pound whole grain spaghetti
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1. Boil water for the pasta. Meanwhile, chop garlic and spinach in a food processor. Drizzle in olive oil. Transfer to a large serving bowl.

2. When boiling, salt the water and add edamame - cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the water and place in serving bowl. Add Parmesan cheese.

3. Add the spaghetti to the same water and when the pasta is cooked, remove 1/2 cup of the cooking water and add to the serving bowl. Drain pasta, and toss with the mixture in the bowl.

Serves 4. Kind of. Maybe 2 1/2 :)

fancy tuna salad

I just wanted to share my recipe for a heathier, very yummy (fancy!) tuna salad. I'd put olive oil in anything...why not a tuna salad sandwich? I can't even call this a recipe, because who honestly measures ingredients that go into something like this?!

Tuna Salad

1 can tuna
about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
about 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1-2 tablespoons capers
1 teaspoon lemon juice
freshly ground pepper

mmmmmm....yep, that was my lunch today!

xo, Lindsay

ahhh, a gift!

When I got home from work today, I was greeted by a box! Way exciting, who doesn't love to find that waiting for them?! After some research and accusatory text messages, I discovered it was from my good friend Andrea (so thoughtful) - she sent me probably one of the neatest things I've ever seen. It's called the Emulstir and I'm super excited to try it out. Thank you Andrea :)

My laptop broke two days ago. Okay, let me rephrase. My laptop died a tragic, slow, and painful death two days ago. I had this really bad habit of letting it rest on the arm of our couch, and it always decided to go bungee jumping. Now it's sitting in 3000 pieces on our kitchen table because Mike is fixing it. Unfortunately, this has been interfering with my blogging. I'm currently not-so-patiently waiting for a part to come in the mail. I will be posting more updates once this occurs.

Anyway, dinner was a slightly altered recipe from smitten kitchen and a marinade for salmon I kind of made up (some canola oil, brown sugar, soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar).

Couscous and Feta Stuffed Peppers (original recipe here)

Vegetable-oil cooking spray

1 1/4 cups fat-free chicken or vegetable broth

2/3 cup couscous

2 bell peppers

2 tsp olive oil

an unknown amount of zucchini and yellow squash, thinly sliced

1 tsp herbs de provence

1/2 tsp salt

1 small tomato, diced

1/2 cup feta

3 tablespoons tomato paste

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a small baking dish with cooking spray. Bring the broth to a boil in a saucepan, add the couscous, cover the pan and remove it from the heat. Cut the stems and top half inch off the bell peppers and scoop out the seeds and membranes. Place peppers upright in a baking dish and roast them for 15 minutes or so, until they soften, then remove them from the oven until the filling is ready. Heat oil in a nonstick skillet. Add zucchini, yellow squash,herbs de provence, and salt. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened. Remove from heat and stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste. Using a fork, scrape the couscous into the skillet and toss with the vegetables. Stir in the crumbled feta. Fill peppers with the couscous mixture. Bake 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

It was pretty tasty - the original recipe includes chickpeas, which I did have, but I wasn't really feeling it tonight. Mike liked this too :)

xo, Lindsay

our favorite pizza crust

We love pizza. I'm talking, we would eat it every day. I searched high and low for a semi healthy pizza crust recipe, and finally found this recipe from allrecipes.com. The only addition I've made is to include some ground flax seed.

Whole Wheat and Honey Pizza Crust

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

3. In a large bowl combine flour, wheat germ, salt and flax seed if using. Make a well in the middle and add honey and yeast mixture. Stir well to combine. Cover and set in a warm place to rise for a few minutes.

4. Roll dough on a floured pizza pan and poke a few holes in it with a fork.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until desired crispiness is achieved.

6. Add toppings, and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Tonight I added fresh tomatoes, some green and black olives, feta cheese, and mozzarella.

why do wine glasses make everything taste better?

It's Friday! I headed into work for a bit this morning, which wasn't all bad because it at least got me up and moving early. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to get some fresh veggies and spent the afternoon in the kitchen.

Kitchen accomplishments:

• homemade tomato vinaigrette
• dinner was chicken I marinated in some Garlic Expressions, served with some sauteed yellow squash and zucchini, and some spinach with my tomato vinaigrette!

• some fresh cut up veggies and a quick light dip
• perhaps the tastiest! - San Pellegrino and Simply Grapefruit juice, which I'm now definitely addicted to. Served in a wine glass, of course, because everything tastes better out of a wine glass. :)

xo, Lindsay

grapefruit vinaigrette

Yet another tasty vinaigrette! This was great over some spinach - I really didn't need anything else with it.

Grapefruit Vinaigrette

1/3 cup ruby red grapefruit juice

2 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon honey

Whisk to combine.

tomato vinaigrette

I'm kind of obsessed with making my own vinaigrettes. I think they're so versatile, and I always have ingredients on hand to make exactly what I'm in the mood for. This was a new one for me, but I like it!

Tomato Vinaigrette

1/2 teaspoon salt (you may want to start with less)

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 small chopped tomato

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1 small crushed garlic clove

Throw everything into a blender and enjoy!

my story

Hi! Over the next few weeks, I'm hoping to turn this into something pretty awesome.

Unfortunately, I'm kind of on a time frame here to get my act together, because I'll soon be having a spinal fusion and will be down for the count for a bit.

Why the hell would I start a blog before major surgery, you ask?

Here's the scoop: I had my first surgery for scoliosis when I was seven. My doctor fused (or joined together) three of my vertebrae to stop the curvature in my spine from progressing. I spent quite a few months in a body cast, but all in all, the surgery was a success, at least for many years.

I never felt that I was pain free, but it was tolerable, and I lived normally. Around age 23, I noticed a huge shift in my pain level. I've spent the last year coping with this chronic back pain, and for anyone who has experienced any type of chronic pain, you know it isn't fun.

I grew frustrated that I was so young and so limited by how I was feeling, but I always seemed to rely on my doctors to find answers for me. In the past few months, I realized that while I can't fix my back pain right now, there are a ton of ways that I can control my life. Feeding my body in nutritious, yummy ways is what initially motivated me to begin this blog, and spending time in the kitchen has become some kind of therapy for me. I hope to share that with any readers I gain along the way.

I want this blog to be a happy place, complete with ways to grow, live life to the fullest, and provide ideas that will keep you inspired, fulfilled, and content.

xo, Lindsay