I’ve been wanting to try my hand at pickling for a while now, but for some reason I’ve been a little intimated of the process. This weekend we ended up with a surplus of cucumbers and I knew it was time to get over my fear.

Rather than go all out the first time around, I decided to start small with a recipe from The Joy of Pickling that was recommended from one of Isaac’s co-workers. I had almost everything on the ingredient list (score!), there were only 3 steps in the recipe instructions and the “pickling” time was short – overall a great recipe for a first time pickler.

I’m a huge fan of ethnic food so the Asian flavor profile of the recipe was a major plus as well.

Spicy Sesame Pickled Cucumbers

Adapted from Pickled Cucumbers with Sesame Oil from The Joy of Pickling / Makes about 1 pint

Ingredients

• 1 pound pickling cucumbers, about 3/4 inch in diameter
• 1 t sea salt
• 1/4 cup onion, sliced
• One 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 1jalapeño pepper, seeded and slivered
• 2 T rice vinegar
• 5 T reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 T mirin
• 1 T sesame oil

Preparation

1. Halve the cucumbers lengthwise and then chop them into 1/2-inch-long pieces. In a bowl, sprinkle the chopped cucumbers with the sea salt and mix. Let them stand at room temperature for 1 hour.
2. Drain the cucumbers in a colander and then return them to the bowl. Mix in the onion, ginger, and jalapeño pepper. In a separate bowl, stir together the rice vinegar, soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil. Then pour the mixture over the cucumbers. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the mixture stand at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, or in the refrigerator for 24 hours, turning the cucumbers occasionally.
3. Transfer the pickled cucumbers into a container with a tight fitting lid. They will keep in the refrigerator, well covered, for about 1 week.

Overall, my first pickling experience was a success! Isaac and I have already eaten a ton of the pickled cucumbers. They’re a little spicy from the fresh ginger and jalapeño but not too spicy and I love the nutty flavor of the sesame oil. I’ve been eating the cukes plain, as a side with whatever I’m having for lunch or as a topping for salad. I’m sure it would be delish served with brown rice as well!

Now I want to make another batch and/or try another type of pickling or fermenting. And, just in case you’re curious like me – here’s the difference between pickling cucumbers and regular cucumbers:

Pickling cucumbers are typically shorter and smaller than regular cukes and have a bumpy outer skin. They’re hard to find at grocery stores, but they’re abundant at produce stands and farmers markets. You don’t HAVE to have pickling cucumbers to pickle-you can pickle just about any type of cucumber, but their size is preferable and the skins are a little thicker, which helps in processing.

Have you ever tried pickling vegetables or canning fruits/veggies? I’d love to hear about your experience. The closest I’ve come to canning is making apple butter that is preserved in freezer safe cans so I hope to try shelf stable canning sometime soon.

PS- Have a great day… I seriously can’t believe it’s already AUGUST!!

The weather is warming up here in Richmond and besides the fact that my car is colored yellow from the pollen, I am pumped about it! I can’t wait for cook-outs, fresh berries, sweet juicy tomatoes, warm nights on the porch, long walks and everything else that comes along with summer.

One thing that always reminds me of summer is burgers. Even though it’s not summer yet, we played pretend last night and made black bean burgers and sweet potato frites, which is probably one of my favorite meals.

I used my traditional black bean burger recipe with a few modifications, but totally changed things up with the sweet potatoes.

The biggest change with the black bean burgers is that I left out the egg. Eggs are typically used as a binder in bean burgers but these burgers held together quite nicely without it. <– Perfect for all my vegan readers.

Black Bean Burger Remix

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 medium red onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup carrots, grated
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
• 2 cups cooked black beans
• 1 T dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1 t chili powder
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1 t onion powder
• 1/2 t sea salt
• 1/2 t ground pepper

Preparation

1. Heat a skillet on medium heat and coat with non-stick spray. Once warm add the red onion and carrots and sauté for 2 minutes. Stir in the the chili, garlic and onion powder and cook until onions are translucent.
2. Turn off heat and let the mixture cool then place into a food processor or blender. Add the parsley and pulse several times. Add the beans and pulse five or six times. The beans should be broken up but there should still be some small chunks. Don’t over process, as you want your bean burgers to be a little chunky.
3. Transfer the veggie and bean mixture into large bowl and stir in the bread crumbs, mustard, salt and pepper.
4. Form into four patties.
5. In the same skillet, heat on medium, spray non-stick spray and add the patties, cook each side until browned, about 7-8 minutes total.

And, what’s the difference between fries and frites? The world may never know, but I’m okay with that because I like them both.

The recipe is from a new book I was sent to review, The Eat-Clean Diet Stripped: Peel Off Those Last 10 Pounds by Tosca Reno.

At 52, Tosca (who once weighed over 205 lbs) is a huge inspiration. If she can look that good in her 50′s she must be doing something right! I may not have 10 lbs to lose, but I have several of Tosca Reno’s books so I was excited to see what was new in this one. Most of content is similar to what is in her previous books however there are a few new things that looked interesting to me:

• New meal plans and training plans that guarantee results (I’m going to try out the gym weight training routine this morning!)
• Detox solutions (i.e. how to deal with the symptoms that crop up when you cut out the junk)
• Tips for conquering your cravings
• Over 50 brand new Eat Clean Diet recipes

One of the new recipes that caught my eye was Veggie Frites, a roasted veggie recipe that allows you to use the veggies you have on hand to create frites. I only had sweet potatoes last night but you could use asparagus, carrots, broccoli, parsnip or onions. And, if you love crispy sweet potato fries, you’ll love these. They have a rich, flavorful coating, making them a fun change from the plain jane sweet tater fries that I normally make.

Sweet Potato Frites

Serves 2 / Adapted from Eat Your Veggie Frites in The Eat-Clean Diet Stripped

Ingredients

Coating:

• 3/4 cup brown rice cereal
• 1/8 cup oat bran
• 1/8 cup cashews
• 1/8 t sea salt
• 1/2 t onion powder
• 1/8 t garlic powder
• 1/8 t celery seeds
• 1/8 t sweet paprika
• 1/8 t chili powder
• ground black pepper, to taste

Egg Wash:

• 1 egg whites
• 1/4 cup water

Veggies:

• 2 cups sweet potatoes, peeled, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
• cooking spray

Preparation

1. Preheat over to 400°. In a food processor or chopper, combine all coating ingredients and pulse until finely ground. Pour into a bowl and set aside.
2. In another bowl, whisk egg white and water until frothy and set aside.
3. Spray a backing sheet with cooking spray. Dip sweet potatoes into egg white mixture, let excess drip off and place in coating mixture, flipping until each piece is completely covered. Shake off excess coating and place veggies on baking sheet. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown and tender.

So there you have it, a summer classic inspired by Tosca!

Oh yes and I also wanted to show off the new table cloth I found at Target.

We’ve had a deep red one on since the holidays so it felt nice to brighten things up.

Time to go enjoy this lovely Saturday. Apparently we’re supposed to get a terrible storm so it’s probably going to be an indoors kind of day. Hopefully yours will be sunnier than mine.

Sooo… I’ve been keeping a little secret from you.

Since last month I’ve been growing shiitake mushrooms!

Isaac’s mom bought me a kit for my birthday and ever since I’ve been growing, harvesting and eating lots of mushrooms.

What a cool b-day present, no?

The kit started out as a big white hunk of nothing a.k.a a mushroom patch. After spraying it with water and keeping it covered to retain the moisture for a few days, the shrooms started popping up…

And then, they grew into full shrooms.

Once they’re full grown you can harvest and eat the mushrooms, then prepare the mushroom patch for another round of growing. I’m only on round 2 but apparently I’ll be able to harvest mushrooms from the patch 8 times!

So far I’ve used the mushrooms for an udon noodle dish and to make scrambled tofu. Hopefully there will be some rawsome shrooms in my near future as well.

I LOVE watching things grow (especially when they are edible.) It seriously gets me so excited. Remember how giddy I was when we were growing those tiny tomatoes last summer?

I’m already dreaming about this year’s backyard garden – we’re hoping to plant a few more goodies!!

So the secret is out! Now tell me, what’s your favorite thing to grow?

Hi and happy Monday eve. I hope you’ve had a spectacular day thus far.

Per the usual, I’m behind with posting and still have some weekend eats to share. Why aren’t there more hours in the day?

Anyhow, going back to the weekend, Isaac and I braved the cold and visited the Forest Hill Winter farmer’s market on Saturday morning. There were quite a few booths but the majority of them had prepared foods, meat or dairy. Faith Farms was even there sampling their delicious raw milk! Unfortunately there were no farms selling vegetables. I know there aren’t many veggies growing in VA this time of year but I thought there might be at least one vendor with some winter greens.

Since there were no veggies to be had we went for some decadent treats – Isaac bought 2 homemade cinnamon rolls and I bought a mound of neapolitan pizza dough from a “new-to-me” vendor, Pizza Tonight. Jason from over at Caramelized Opinions had tweeted me before I left for the market and directed me to get some dough. I haven’t fully decided if I wanted to buy pizza dough but when we arrived and I saw the Pizza Tonight booth, packaging and logo I knew I it had to be done.

What struck me is that they had little take out containers with everything needed to make a pizza – two homemade doughs, homemade marinara sauce and a special spice blend. Some of the containers even had toppings like sausage. We had sauce at home so I just bought 1 ball of dough. Although next time I think I need to spring for Victoria’s “Magic Sprinkles” – a blend of dried garlic, Italian parsley, salt and hot red pepper flakes or maybe some red onion confit.

Last night we were in the mood for pizza so out came the dough.

Isaac and I both worked at Domino’s Pizza in college so we are pretty much pros at making (and delivering) pizza. Yeesss I was a pizza delivery girl…

Isaac got a little creative with the flour.

EBF!

While Isaac might be better at rolling out the dough, I consider myself a toppings expert. Last night’s pizza included mushrooms, onions, garlic, spinach and smoked mozzarella.

After being heated in a 500° oven for 15 minutes, the pizza came out bubbling and smelling amazing…

We let it cool for a few minutes and then dug in. I had two slices and a spinach salad with hard boiled egg and roasted broccoli on the side.

T’was delicious – the crust was perfectly crisp and thin, just the way I like it and the smoked mozzarella tasted just as a good as last time. Pizza at home tastes better and is typically much healthier than anything you can get from a restaurant – especially when you have homemade dough on hand. Speaking of which, I really need to try making my own dough sometime. Until then, I’ll be scoping out Pizza Tonight.

Have you ever made your own pizza dough? I’ve heard it’s pretty easy, yet I’ve still never tried it…

Hi friends. How’s your week going thus far? Mine has been busy – traveling for a whole week makes things a bit crazy when you get back to the office!

Despite the busyness, I have some exciting eats to share with you all!

Lynn recently posted about a recipe for Curried Cauliflower Salad from M Cafe, an L.A. restaurant that serves amazing macrobiotic fare! Having loved everything I ate there back in April I knew I had to try this recipe. I hit up the grocery store for a few ingredients and made it only a few hours after seeing Lynn’s post.

For lunch (both today and yesterday) I served the cauliflower on a bed of spring mix and had 2 kashi TLC crackers and laughing cow cheese on the side.

As expected, the curried cauliflower salad was incredibly delicious. I love roasted cauliflower on it’s own but the curry spice, peas and sweet dressing made this salad a favorite after only a few bites. To prove this fact, the whole bowl is already gone. Not going to say any names, but someone’s eaten a lot of cauliflower over the past 3 days!;)

Quick side note: the roasted cashews are a tasty snack on their own- I was pleasantly surprised when I realized the recipe made more than what the salad called for.

Last night I skipped the cauliflower and went to a cooking demo at Whole Foods that was all about GREENS.

You can’t talk about greens without juicing them right?

This blend included kale, parsley, beet greens, beets, carrots and apples.

It was pungent from the parsley and kale, but the sweetness of the apples shined through. I ended up liking it more with each sip.

Jesse was the juice master!

Everything I have juice made for me it makes me want to make it more at home, but I’m usually too lazy in the morning and to be honest, I like to have all the fiber I can get in my diet.

Second on the menu was a spicy Italian style broccoli raab over polenta.

The broccoli raab was bitter, but I really liked this dish.

I think the third dish, Teriyaki bok choy and shiitake mushroom stir fry, was one of my favorites! It was super simple to prepare and included only garlic, sesame oil, green onion, and teriyaki sauce but it tasted sooo good! I’m pretty sure I need to buy myself a jar of the Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki and recreate this one at home.

Roasted beets with sautéed been greens were up next and they were fab as well. I’m a sucker for all things roasted so of course the roasted beets tasted like candy to me and it turns out the beet greens weren’t so bad either. Now I’m sad I’ve thrown them away before.

Last but not least we tired southern style collard greens that were made using smoked paprika, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper rather than meat.

Not yo’ mama’s collards.

Jesse tired his hardest to keep things healthy for this demo as Whole Foods has a new program going on called Health Starts Here. <– I’m excited about their new incentive and already have plans to write a post about it.

Because we were good participants and ate all of our greens, Jesse decided we deserved a special treat – Mochi ice cream, a Japanese treat made from mochi (pounded sticky rice) with an ice cream filling.

I’ve had plain mochi before on frozen yogurt but hadn’t tried this variety. I picked the mango to taste last night and it was definitely tasty and fun to eat. Just watch out for the powdery coating – it sticks to your lips and makes them white. Apparently there are cool flavors like red bean and green tea mochi ice cream out there. I think I need to find these!

I throughly enjoyed the cooking demo! Growing up I never really ate greens besides frozen spinach or broccoli so cooking with greens was definitely something I learned more about on my healthy eating journey. Now I’ve tried everything from spinach oats and swamp smoothies. Those types of things are fun every once in a while, but I’m definitely pumped to try out Jesse’s recipes this fall and winter while all the lovely greens are in season.

Do you like greens? What’s your favorite green and how do you like to prepare it?

Currently I think my favorite green is kale – I like making kale chips, kale with peanut sauce or even massaged kale salads! Although, I’m starting to really love swiss chard as well.