sweet and savory brussel sprouts

Brussel sprouts are a funny thing.

I don’t think I had ever tried them until the age of 24.  And then wondered where they had been all my life.  Mom?  Dad??

Why do these beauties get such a bad rap?  I’m pretty sure 89% of the population secretly loves this vegetable and the other 11% are in denial.  I mean, even Jessica loves brussel sprouts!

A few months back, my mom sent me a few articles + recipes in the mail.  This is a pretty common occurrence, which I love, even though it may take me a month to actually read the articles.

Typically, the article topics are about architecture, food, or something cool about Cleveland, hinting for us to move back. 

In my latest package, there were a few recipes pulled out from the Whole Living magazine.  While I was back home, we decided to try one of them out for Christmas dinner. 

The Whole Living dish we made was for roasted brussel sprouts with grapes and thyme.  Yes, roasted grapes!  The other dish we made was a quinoa salad, with apples, pears, walnuts, dried cranberries, cinnamon roasted walnuts and Angela’s amazing cranberry apple orange salad dressing.

There were 26 people at Christmas dinner.  Everyone contributed to the meal.  And everything was outstanding.  But I must say the most talked about dish may have been the brussel sprouts.  People were so excited to see them on the spread.

I was kind of embarrassed to bring them.  I felt like I was showing up with steamed broccoli.  Merrrrry Christmas!!!  Eat your vegetables!!!!  I thought we would have to take 1.5 of the 2lbs home with us.  But, to my surprise the pan was wiped clean.  This is when I realized 89% of people love brussel sprouts.

Don’t deny it!

Roasting grapes was an amazing addition.  Such a fun + unexpected pop of juice!

I have been thinking about them ever since December 25th and finally decided to whip up another batch.  This time with a little different spin.

I wanted to put this recipe a little more in the winter category with the addition of citrus + pomegranate.  My citrus of choice was the clementine.  They are incredibly easy to peel, have no seeds, and have little pith [the bitter white skin].

While I love brussel sprouts, I actually have a love-hate relationship with pomegranates.  Everyone seems to go ga-ga over this fruit, but I just don’t get it.  You spend an hour popping out these little seeds, inevitably staining your favorite sweater, only to be teased with a single drop of sweet juice from each little pod.  And then, you are left with a fibrous seed, to either spit or swallow.

But about once a year I dig in to this beautiful fruit and enjoy.  Today was that day.

Sweet and Savory Brussel Sprouts serves 4

[adapted from Whole Living – Nov 2011 – Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Grapes with Walnuts]

• 1lb brussel sprouts
• 3 clementines, peeled
• 3/4c pomegranate arils
• 1/3c toasted walnuts/pecans, chopped
• 3T shallots, minced
• 2T fresh thyme, chopped
• 1/2T fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1.5T sunflower oil
• 2t balsamic vinegar
• 1/2t salt

1. Preheat your oven to 450*.
2. Chop the stems off and slice the brussel sprouts in half. 
3. Chop the clementines in half.
4. Toss all ingredients, except for the balsamic vinegar, in a single layer on large baking sheet. 
5. Roast for 20-25min, until the sprouts are tender and golden brown.
6. While roasting, gently toast walnuts or pecans in a pan over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until golden brown.
7. Add the balsamic vinegar, scraping the bottom of the pan + gently tossing with the ingredients.
8. Top with nuts and add more salt if needed.
9. Serve immediately.

tips/substitutions:  Instead of pomegranate arils, you could also add 3/4c chopped cranberries or raisins after the dish is done cooking. 

If you’re in a rut with what to do with brussel sprouts, this is definitely worth a shot.  A little sweet, a little savory.

89% of people will approve.

Now, I’m off to finish off the leftovers straight from the fridge, with a side of dark chocolate.

Ashley

crushing on coconut oil

Have you eaten a graham cracker today?

I have.

At least 6 of them.  Basically every time I go in the kitchen, I eat one.  They’re crunchy, not too sweet, and totally addicting.

After a hard swim, this was the perfect snack! 

• 100m warm up
• 500m freestyle
• 250m aqua jogging
• 500m breaststroke
• 250 aqua jogging
• 500m freestyle
• 50m cool down

= 1.36 miles in 1hr 3min

To round out my hat trick from yesterday, here is goal #3.

It may not look like anything spectacular.  It really doesn’t look like much more than a glob of orange muck.

However it is the most delicious muck you will ever eat and it couldn’t be easier to make.

Coconut Curry Mashed Sweet Potatoes [serves 1]

• 1 medium sweet potato [~3/4lb]
• 1t curry powder
• ~1/8t salt
• ground black pepper
• 1/2-1T coconut oil [unrefined]
• 1/4c milk of choice

1. Pre-heat oven to 400*
2. Wash the sweet tater + prick with a fork multiple times.
3. Bake for 45min – 1hr, until soft throughout.
4. In a bowl, toss in potato + all ingredients.  With an immersion blender, hand mixer, in a Vita Mix or food processor, process until creamy + smooth.  Add more milk if needed.

When I took the first spoonful, my eyes opened wide with excitement.  A definite winner.

And then today….there were brussel sprouts.

The best brussel sprouts ever!  I’ve perfected my pan sautéing method for these little green balls of deliciousness.  I even prefer this method to oven roasted!  You might think I’m crazy when I tell you what these were flavored with, but just trust me.  Do I ever lead you astray?

My Favorite Brussel Sprouts [serves 1]

• ~10 sprouts, washed + halved
• 1T coconut oil [unrefined]
• pinch of salt
• splash of balsamic vinegar [optional]

1. Over medium-low heat, add coconut oil to a sauté pan.
2. Once hot, add sprouts, cut side down.
3. Let sit for ~8min, until nice + crispy.
4. Flip once and let brown for another ~8min.
5. Toss a few times and let cook for another minute. 
6. Add splash of balsamic [~1/2T], for a little sweetness, if desired.

I love how my stainless steel pots + pans brown things like this.  They’re really not as hard to clean as you’d think, either! 

But back to the sprouts….coconut oil + sprouts? 

The coconut flavor mellowed out and ended up pairing extremely well with the sprouts.  My favorite part are the little layers that fall off and get super crispy.  Cooking the sprouts over med-low heat, allows them to reach a delicious soft, but slightly crunchy, texture.  I’m not sure I will ever cook these any other way.

Amidst a slew of errands today, I decided to pop in JoAnn Fabrics.  I wanted to see if they had some cheap fabric, as an alternative to buying new kitchen towels to use in photos.

Ashley had the same idea a few weeks ago and it proved to be SO much cheaper!!  I bought 5 different patterns, 1/2yd in size, for $8.50 TOTAL.  Typically you can barely get 1 towel or placemat for that price.

Score!

For some reason I’ve been extremely exhausted all day.  I slept a peaceful 7hrs last night, so I’m not sure what it is.  During my swim I felt okay but also a bit tired.  In the late afternoon/early evening I started to get dizzy out of nowhere too.  I was definitely hydrated, had enough to eat, and made sure to eat another 2 graham crackers to make sure I wasn’t low on sugar.  Nothing helped!  Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be back to normal. 

Night!

<3 Ashley

texture love

It was really hard to crawl out of bed this AM.  I was beet from a full day on my feet at Whole Foods.  I wanted something other than oats this AM…shocker!!  I ate one of my Hemp bagels that I posted about awhile ago. 

Helllooooo 13g of fiber + 18g of protein…ahhhmazing!! 

Ingredient list:

Ingredients:
Filtered water, organic wheat flour, organic vital wheat gluten, organic whole wheat flour, hempseed flour, organic flax meal, organic poppy seeds, dates, organic oat fiber, organic pumpkin seeds, organic millet, contains less than 2% of the following: hemp seeds, organic cracked wheat, organic sprouted Kamut® Khorasan wheat berries, organic sprouted spelt berries (wheat), organic sunflower seeds, sea salt, organic sprouted barley, organic sesame seeds, organic sprouted amaranth berries, organic sprouted quinoa. [source]

Toasted + delicious.  I love all of the seeds.  I think the texture of these is great and it has a very nutty flavor to it.  Definitely love these, but they are probably not for everyone ;)

Topped with:  pnut butter + heather’s jam and pnut butter + Artisana cacao bliss  - Melted pnut butter on a bagel is one of the best things ever!

I took this Boomi Bar with me today for a work snack.  I ate it around 12:30 and completely LOVED it.  Texture heaven.  It was gooey from the dates but had amazing crunchy from puffed rice and amaranth.  Wowza.  The flavor was deelicious as well.

Awesome ingredient list:

Dates, Walnuts, Raisins, Honey, Crisp Rice, Amaranth, Salt [source]

They have a lot of flavors…I may have had one of these before but can’t remember.  I definitely want to find the Maple Pecan.  That sounds sinful!

For a late lunch [~3pm] I perused the lovely buffets at Whole Foods.  The store I work at is GInormous.  There is a whole Indian buffet as well as a huuge salad bar, and about 3 other buffets filled with a million different things. 

On today’s plate: 

• 1 small scoop of rice pudding – insanely delicious
• Asian cabbage salad with black sesame seeds and a light dressing – MUST make this at home

• small scoop of veggie fried rice
• equally small scoop of Israeli couscous with squash + asparagus

Both are fabulous.  I can’t get over the awesome texture of Israeli couscous.

• side salad with: romaine + kale + peppers + tamari roasted pepitas + few raisins + chickpeas + egg +cucumber

Dressing:  balsamic vinegar + apple cider vinegar + lemon juice + olive oil

A huge plus of working at WF is the amazing fresh + healthy food selections.  I’m definitely loving it but should probably start packing my lunch to save money…we’ll see ;)

Another plus?  Shopping after your shift..I mean you’re already at the store, so why not?

I steamed abunch of brussel sprouts for dinner along with 1 beet and a little side of whole wheat pasta with nutritional yeast cheesy sauce.  The b. sprouts were a little bitter.  Probably out of season…oops.  All in all, quite yummy.  I didn’t eat dinner until late [9pm]..my 3pm lunch held me over!  Or maybe it was the cake they had in the break room…hehe..Can I just say that WF’s carrot cake is insanely delicious.  I tried a tiny piece [~3 bites worth] along with a piece of white berry cake.  Both also had amazing frostings…and I’m usually not the biggest fan of frosting.

Champagne mangos were on sale!  Yessssssss

Like little ducks…

I’m in luuuuurve with these!  If you missed my first review, they taste like your typical mango but I like the texture of these much better.  They are a bit sweeter, and have a buttery texture without the stringiness found in regular mangos.  They can be a pain to cut though!

Check out this tutorial on how to cut one of these cute fruits!  Su-weet!  Ripening guide?  Here you go!

Spices were on sale!  They were at least a dollar off a piece.  I couldn’t pass these up!  The three on the left I have been buying when I need them in the bulk spice area.  I thought it was finally thyme [ha ha ha] to invest in full sized jars!  And well..the garlic pepper [garlic, pepper, parsley, salt, 1-2 other things] just sounded awesome.  I love our garlic salt mix and I thought this might be a fun alternative.

I am realllly excited for tomorrow’s breakfast.  I am trying out Vegan Overnight Oats that I saw Angela talking about the other day.  I made mine with coconut milk and cannot wait to top them in the AM!  They are looking thick + delicious as of right now :)         

I work again tomorrow but not until 3:30.  I’m hoping to go for a swim and who knows what else.  I need to also find some time to update my recipe page + FAQ’s.  I also seriously want to write my post on protein powders…gaaah!!  After tomorrow, I don’t work again until Saturday, so I definitely want to get that written this week. 

After all that champagne mango talk…I think I’m headed to the kitchen!

Hope you all have a great Monday!

Ashley