Last week/end I was in Austin for the BlogHer Food Conference. It’s basically like a great weekend with the girls. And no baby.

First time away from the little guy and surprisingly, I did really well.

That is until my husband texted me on Saturday asking where the thermometer was and the number for the pediatrician… reeeeal awesome. After my panic attack, the baby just had gotten his first cold.

To start out the evening, a group of us joined Tasty Kitchen at one amazing Mexican place, Malverde (pictured above). Great food, conversations and super cool environment.

After that, we party hopped our way over to Uchiko, which was OUTSTANDING. The dinner was hosted by KitchenAid, who were the most gracious hosts. They completely spoiled us.

The reason I’m sharing the Brussels sprouts (that had zero lighting) is because they were THE BEST BRUSSELS SPROUTS I’VE EVER HAD. I kid you not, so amazing.

Since I was in Austin, I decided to take advantage and plan a photo shoot with my lovely (& very talented) Camille Styles and Jess who writes, The Perfect Bite Column. Both Jess and I are gluten-free so we decided to create a fun gluten-free picnic.

We made all the food there at Camille’s and had a photographer (Studio Uma) come shoot. We’re hoping to have it up on her site beginning of July. Stay tuned!

I drink a lot of coffee and I drink it all day long.

Especially when it’s with friends.

 left to right: Tracy, me, Catherine, Heather, Gaby, Joy and Aida. 

This was a highlight. An intimate dinner with some of the loveliest ladies I know.

We all went to Oliva for dinner and ate some yummy food and drank some of my favorite rose. It was one of those evenings were we ate our way through every course and didn’t leave until well after 10pm.

Signs of a good night.

Someday, I will buy cowboy boots.

Yes, someday.

Such a beautiful lunch hosted by our gracious host, Nestle at Parkside.  This was another fabulous event. It was such a great group and was so excited to finally meet Shelly and Kristan - who let me snuggle her delicious baby girl! I’m totally that woman who goes crazy over babies.

Also, thank you thank you (x10) Nestle for the beautiful gifts. They gave everyone a piece of jewelry from Noonday – a company that is changing the world.

The chicken with polenta were outstanding. I’m still thinking about those polenta cakes. Then the grilled romaine salad was just as much beautiful as it was delicious. They were also great about providing gluten-free alternatives.

I will absolutely recreate a version of both of these.

Me and my awesome roommate, Maria. We had such a great time. Late night talks, face timing our baby boys and just all around good times.

I’m already planning and amping up for next year’s conference. It really is one of the best when it comes to connecting with friends. As far as the conference itself, I unfortunately didn’t make it to the sessions. There was just so much going on, but have heard wonderful things.

Side note. While I was away, my mom sent me this video. I have watched it at least 2,295,049 times.

Oh this kid kills me.

Getting back into the workforce, and finding meals that are 1. Easy 2. Healthy and 3. Make good leftovers are key. In the first three full days that I’ve worked,  I don’t get home until about 6:30 after picking up the kiddo. Then it’s all about him – feed and bedtime routine. Last night I stood over the kitchen counter (basically scarfing) a chicken salad right out the container. I was starving, clearly. I did have the intention of making a real dinner, but before I knew it, it was 10pm and I was getting ready for bed.

And that’s only ONE kid. Hot damn, how do you mom’s do it?? A stiff drink? Just kidding.

I think I’m kidding.

I’m sure I’ll get into a routine eventually, but grocery shopping and cooking seem nearly impossible at the moment. But whatever, I totally love my new job.

Before I started working (back in the corporate world), I was cooking through Jaden’s “Steamy Kitchen’s Healthy Asian Favorites”. I don’t have much experience with any sort of ethnic Asian /ethnic food (aside from eating it), so this book was a great starter guide for me. Everything I’ve tried in her book is easy and so delicious.

This and the Kung Pao chicken are our favorites and have become a go-to in our family. Back in the day, as in high school, I always ordered chicken cups from PF Changs. When saw this recpie in her book, I immediately threw a sticky on the page. It was perfect! We ate it for dinner, lunch and was a lifesaver for when my in-laws stopped by during lunch hour the following day. I had made a double batch, which is the reason for all the leftovers.

Healthy Chicken Lettuce Cups

Recipe from Steamy Kitchen’s Healthy Asian Favorites

serves 4

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INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 tablespoon cooking oil, such as Canola or Vegetable
• 1/2 pound ground chicken breast
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 1/4 red onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, very finely minced
• Minced fresh chilies or jalapeno – more or less depending on how hot you like it
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1/2 lime juiced
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free soy sauce
• 1 head iceberg lettuce, leaves separated into “cups”
• 1 handful of cilantro & mint, cut into finally chopped

DIRECTIONS

Heat a wok (or large saute pan) over high heat. When hot, swirl  1 tablespoon of oil and add the ground chicken. Use your spatula to break up the meat and spread out of the surface of the pan. Cook until browned, about 3-4 minutes.

Push the ground chicken to one side of the pan and swirl the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of oil. To the oil, add the shallots, red onion, garlic, and fresh chilies and saute until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds. Add fish sauce, lime juice and gluten-free soy sauce.

Serve with lettuce cups and herbs.

Enjoy!

*gluten-free  *dairy-free

I think I’m making up for those 9 months of not wanting or eating a single green.

I’ve made this salad for about a month straight. Made this for my parents, my in-laws, and an entire batch all for myself. It’s crazy good, but also different enough to get you out of any sort of salad rut.

Speaking of those 9 months, I ate my body pregnancy weight in cheese. During those developmental stages, when you’re suppose to eat lots of protein, vitamin rich vegetables and healthy fats, I was trying to justify ice cream and grilled cheese as good calcium.

Then I gave birth and my appetite slowly came back. This salad was actually one of the first ones I made. We had family in town visiting us and our sweet little baby. My sister suggested this recipe and it was a hit. Because it’s warm, it’s comforting, especially for someone who just pushed ou…. okay, too far, sorry.

The past few months I’ve been throwing everything into the Vitamix and hoping he likes it. What’s crazy, is that he LOVES a combo of sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, LENTILS, and zucchini.

Then I gave him peaches…
 

I’ve watched this a million times and die laughing every. single. time. God, this kid kills me.

I don’t know, does my breast milk taste like vegetables? I mean, you’d think he’d make those faces when he eats spinach and broccoli. Blows my mind.

Anyways, I’d like to give credit to this salad.

Kale Coconut and Cranberry Salad

Serves 4

Adapted from Super Natural Everyday & family friend Andrew G. 

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Ingredients

• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil (toasted or regular)
• 2 tablespoons gluten-free tamari or gluten-free soy sauce
• 4 cups packed kale, ribs removed and chopped
• 1 cup unsweetened large flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 2 cup cooked quinoa or grain of choice – optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put the kale and coconut flakes in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, sesame oil and soy sauce.  Pour 3/4 over the kale mixture and toss together.

Spread kale mixture evenly among two baking sheets.

note: you may need to switch the two sheets if the top starts to brown more than the bottom.

Bake for 12 minutes

Remove from the oven and place in a bowl and add dried cranberries.

Top the salad over quinoa or grain of choice. Or just eat as is!

Serve warm and enjoy!

*gluten-free *dairy-free 

My husband is turning 30 today. THIRTY. 3 – 0.

What’s even crazier is that we first started dating 15 years ago. I felt so cool that I was dating an older guy. Older by a good 9 months.

Since he would have tried to work through his birthday weekend I decided to call up his best guy friends. They were all willing to make a trip back to Seattle (one coming all the way from NYC, the other SF). I wasn’t intending for it to be a surprise since that would stress him out. Instead, I stressed him out in advance and told him ahead of time. I’m such a thoughtful wife.

Honestly, we don’t celebrate him enough and I wasn’t about to let this one pass us by.

We’re heading to Orcas Island for a quick 24 hours (mace too!). My parents are doing a dinner for him at their beach home. Ribs and corn. That’s all he wanted. No one’s complaining. On Friday we’ll be back in Seattle, where his parents and guy friends will be. I think the plan is to barbecue and keep it simple. My husband = SIMPLE. Yeah yeah, I have a few surprises, but nothing that’ll throw him into a tizzy. I could actually tell you now, but JUST IN CASE he reads this (ha), I’ll wait and share it with you next week.

Anyways, for Friday, we’re grilling up these ridiculously amazing bacon burgers from our local meat shop and if I can convince my mother-in-law to make her son’s favorite potato salad, that will also be on the menu too. My job, guacamole. BEST. JOB. EVER. Especially since it’ll be this guacamole.

Pause on the birthday for a second, we need to talk about guacamole.

I’ve become a bit of a guacamole snob. It’s bad.

We’ve tried out 3 different mexican restaurants in the past few months and was so disappointed in the guacamole. Thankfully they won in the margarita department.

My urge find a good guacamole lead me to this. Always a positive. Always. I was inspired by our guacamole contest (hosted by the one and only, Gaby from What’s Gaby Cooking) at The Big Traveling Potluck last month. The winning team killed it. Not completely sure what all they put into it, so I went off of taste. I knew there was some good spice, creaminess (guessing from the goat cheese) and crunch from the pepitas.

This is hands down my favorite party food. Can’t go wrong with chips and guacamole. Or anything and guacamole.

That would be pretty awkward if I brought my own guacamole into a restaurant, huh? It’s like the time I brought my own coffee cream with me to Starbucks. Okay, so maybe I’m proving to be more of a snob. I’ll stop there.

Happy 30th Birthday, Ben!!

Guacamole with Goat Cheese, Jalapeno and Pepitas

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makes about 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup red onion (about quarter of a small onion), finely chopped
• juice of 2 limes
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tablespoon jalapeno, finely diced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons goat cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons pepitas, toasted

Directions

Take each avocado, remove the pit and peel back the skin. Place the meat of the avocado onto the cutting board and cut into large chunks. Add the avocado chunks into a large mixing bowl. Add, cilantro, red onion, lime juice, garlic, jalapeno, and goat cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Carefully mix all the ingredients together. Taste and season accordingly.

note: for less spicy, remove and discard the seeds from the jalapeno. To make it spicy, keep the seeds.

If you can, let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour the better. This allows all the flavors to combine nicely.

Serve and enjoy!

*gluten-free

I’m excited to share that I’ve accepted a full time position with Evolution Fresh! I’ll be their community manager, basically in charge of social media. If you’ve been in a Starbucks (or grocery store), you may have seen the Evolution Fresh juices in the cases. They’re still a new company and quickly expanding from west coast to east coast so if you haven’t, you’ll see them soon. [read more here]

A little over a month ago I was contacted by an old co-worker of mine who had gone over to Starbucks (Evolution Fresh is owned by Starbucks), asking if I’d be interested in this role. Before that moment, the thought of going back to work had never crossed my mind. I loved what I did. When she asked me though, I didn’t even think twice. I said yes, let’s chat.

Since I left the workforce about 3 years ago and going out on my own, I became really good about listening to my gut. I went into the interview process with an open mind and was interviewing them just as much as they were interviewing me. I met with 12 different people, all the way up the ladder. One interview, I was over caffeinated and starving. Not sure how I passed that one. By the 11th person, there was no doubt. I wanted to job.

I love juice. I love social media. And I’m passionate about overall health and well being. It’s all pretty perfect.

ps. I was a big fan before they approached me. Mace too.

I start 2 weeks from today, so if I’m a little MIA over here, it’s because I’m just trying getting my life in order.

As for the blog, I still plan to keep it up. I’ll probably post 1-2x a week, one recipe and one lifestyle-ish post. Not to worry, I’m not letting go of my first baby.

If anything this is a reminder to do what you love because you never know what will come out of it.

Follow Evolution Fresh on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. That’ll be me in just a few short weeks!

The beauty of food and entertaining is that they both bring people together.

And good wine (or cocktails). A must.

Being back in Seattle, I’ve been able to connect with old high school, college, and even work friends. I’ve loved every minute being back, even when it down pours and my hair goes all crazy on me. Sure, ask me next Fall/Winter, we’ll see what I say then.

When we first moved home, I reconnected with a good friend from college, who just had a baby a few months back. What’s really sweet is they had their little boy on my birthday. Our boys are just 3 months apart.

We had them over for dinner a few weeks back. Long overdue. I don’t know what it is about seeing little babies, but I have a hard time remembering mace being that small. I worry we might have more kids than we can afford just because I go crazy seeing those teeny tiny babies.

But then reality smacks me right across the face. Not going to happen. Two yes. Three if we’re not careful.

Anyways. I made this dish out of my new favorite cookbook, Weeknight Gluten-Free. (a must if you’re gluten-free, or not). I had doubled the batch since my husband counts for 2, plus it’s always good to plan for leftovers.

I realized I couldn’t fit it all in one pan, so we divided and conquered. My girlfriend took one pan and I took the other. I’d pour half the ingredients in mine and the other hand into hers and did this until everything was completed and cooked. We managed to do everything while drinking our wine. Multitasking mamas.

Meanwhile, her husband is standing there bouncing our kid to keep me AWAKE and my husband is “shhhushing” and bouncing their baby to go to SLEEP. It was quite the scene.

We all sat around the coffee table, just like we do for family dinner and enjoyed this amazing meal together. It was all so perfect. The company, the conversations, the food and even the fussy babies.

The next day, we threw some of the leftovers in a pan, added a few eggs and it was the best breakfast, ever. I’m not kidding you, this is so good, you’ll want this at every meal. We did.

Sesame-Ginger Noodles with Chicken & Vegetables

Recipe slightly adapted from Weeknight Gluten Free

serves 4

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INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound Skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into slices, 1/4-1/3 inch thick
• 3 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
• 1 tablespoon gluten-free Tamari
• 3 teaspoons asian sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, plus 1 teaspoon
• sea salt and ground pepper
• 8-10 ounces of Pad Thai (or rice) noodles
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3-4 cup napa cabbage, thinly sliced
• 4 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 5 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS

Tip: Prepare (chop, mince, etc.) all the ingredients ahead of time – that will make it easier to stir fry.

In a bowl, mix the chicken, 1 tablespoon of ginger, 2 teaspoons of tamari, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon of rice vinegar. Sprinkle lightly with salt + pepper. Let stand/marinate while preparing the noodles.

Boil the noodles in a large pot of salted water, stirring frequently, until tender, about 4 minutes. Drain the noodles, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Place in a bowl and add the remaining 2 teaspoons sesame oil and toss.

In a large wok or nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat, warm the vegetable oil. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon ginger, the shallot, and red pepper flakes and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken and stir until it’s cooked on the outside, about 2 minutes.  Add the cabbage and mushrooms and stir until the chicken is cooked through and the cabbage is wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the noodles, chicken broth, green onions, remaining 1 tablespoon tamari, and 1 tablespoon vinegar. Using the tongs, toss until the noodles are heated through and ingredients are well blended, about 1 minute. Season to taste with salt + pepper.

Before you plate, sprinkle with cilantro and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

*gluten-free *dairy-free