Creamy Green Citrus Smoothie

I think I've said it a million times before, but I am obsessed with smoothies. I love that I can pack them with nutrition, and whip them up in just minutes. Plus they taste great!

This is the one I've been having lately. I like to put so much fresh ginger in it that my ears pop. That's right, my ears pop—no joke. Side note: I wouldn't put it in your smoothie, but you can get oil of oregano in capsules, and I highly recommend that if you've been wishing your ears would pop lately. I've heard that oil of oregano can deplete your good gut flora though, so after a round of it I always go crazy with the probiotics and homemade yogurt. But back to the smoothie...

I make these extra peppy by adding lemon and orange zest. Like the ginger, it's really up to you how much to use. Start with a teaspoon of each and go up from there. I add the hemp seeds for protein so I'm not hungry again five minutes later. You can't really taste the hemp with all the citrus.

Creamy Green Citrus Smoothie

Paleo, vegan

Ingredients:
1 grapefruit, peeled, seeds removed
3 small oranges, peeled, seeds removed
1 lemon, peeled, seeds removed
3 leaves of rainbow chard, washed, stems removed (substitute a handful of spinach if you can't get the chard)
1 to 2 inches fresh peeled ginger root (the more you put the spicier it will be)
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1/4 cup water
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp orange zest

Directions: Puree everything in the blender. Taste and add more zest or ginger as desired.


♥, Kelly

Roasted Rainbow Carrots

I'm a huge fan of Jamie Oliver. I'm a fan of him as a person, and as a cook. Last week I made a grain-free variation of his chocolate clafoutis for my upcoming book. Yum. 

Tonight I made another dish inspired by Jamie, and it is so simple, you're going to love it. He used fresh  garlic and thyme, which I didn't have, but the method is basically the same. You can see Jamie's recipe here. And if you don't already follow him on Instagram, you should. I love seeing his house and kids. Oh yes, and his food :-)

Roasted Rainbow Carrots

Ingredients:
2 bunches rainbow carrots (the dark ones above are purple, not burned)
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
fresh ground black pepper
garlic powder

Directions:
1) Set the oven to 400 degrees.
2) Cut the tops to about 1 inch and scrub the carrots well. Set them on a kitchen towel to dry.
3) When they are dry add them to a sheet. (You know I only use stainless because aluminum anywhere in the oven will transfer to your food as it cooks.)
4) Drizzle with a little oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic (I like to go lighter on the garlic). Toss to coat.
5) Cover the top with another sheet turned upside down so that the carrots steam inside.
Note: This would also work in a dutch oven that has a lid, if you have one to fit the whole carrots.
6) Bake covered for 30 minutes.
Note: Some of my carrots were much thinner than the rest, so I held them back for the first 20 minutes of baking, then added them. Otherwise they would have been mush.
7) Remove the top and roast uncovered for about 20 minutes more.


♥, Kelly

Carrot, Kielbasa, & Fried Egg Cauli-Hash

I am super busy working on the next cookbook every minute that I'm not busy being a mom. And that isn't very many minutes ;-) So meals have become a question of what can I make that's fast, satisfying, and most of all that everyone will actually eat. Hash is one of those things. Or is it Paleo fried rice? I don't know, but whatever you call it, it meets the criteria. I hope you and yours enjoy it too.

Carrot, Kielbasa, & Fried Egg Cauli-Hash

grain-free, Paleo, dairy-free

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

3 large whole carrots

6 eggs

1/2 of a Kielbasa

1/2 an onion

1 tbsp lard

1 tbsp coconut oil

1/8 to 1/4 tsp sea salt

1/8 to 1/4 tsp garlic powder

Directions:

1) Put a third of the cauliflower in the food processor and puree until fine.

2) Transfer the pureed cauliflower to a bowl and repeat step 1 until all of the cauliflower is fine (and looks like rice).

3) Chop the carrots into one inch pieces and puree them in the food processor in three batches as well.

4) Finally chop the Kielbasa and onion into pieces and puree them in the food processor until fine.

5) Put a large cast iron or stainless steel skillet over almost medium heat.

6) Add the lard and coconut oil.

7) Pour the veggies and meat into the skillet.

8) Add the salt and garlic powder.

9) Use a spatula to give it a stir.

10) Cook for about ten minutes, stirring a few times.

11) Push the meat and veggies out to the sides, making a well in middle of the skillet.

12) Add a little extra oil if needed then crack the eggs into the well.

13) Scramble the eggs until they are almost done, then mix them with the meat and veggies to combine everything. 

14) Serve.

♥, Kelly

P.S. Thanks so much to everyone who volunteered to test recipes for me! Sorry I haven't emailed any of you yet—I've been busting a move to meet my first deadline. I will email many of you ASAP!

How The Spunky Coconut Came to Be

Five and a half years ago we moved from Annapolis, Maryland to just outside Boulder, Colorado. We had no jobs waiting for us, and no family nearby. It was a total leap of faith. To pay for the move we sold one of our two cars, plus most of our furniture and belongings.

We moved into a teeny-tiny apartment. You can see the whole kitchen in this photo of Zoe. She is using the mixer on top of the stove because there was almost no counter space. I put up a bakers rack to hold my appliances, pots and pans.

 

Look at that smile on Zoe's face. We were tickled to be here.

Ashley was so little! She had just turned three.

At the playground a new friend of mine pressured me to, "start a blog." "A blog?" I said. "I don't know how to do that." "You can figure it out," she said confidently. "You can put your recipes there."

After several of these park days and my friend's relentless pressuring, I set my mind to doing it. I got Andy to help me figure out a name for my blog. We were listening to the band Hot Chip while throwing out ideas for the name of the blog. "Hot Chip is a cool name. You should do something like that: an adjective plus a food noun," Andy said. "I use a lot of coconut," I told him. "It could be something 'coconut'... What about 'funky coconut'?" "No," Andy said. "That sounds like it's rotten." "How about 'spunky coconut'?" I said. "Yeah, I like that!" Andy agreed. And that's how we got the name.

The first year I think I blogged a recipe every day …and no one knew. I didn't know how to reach people, how to get readers. But gradually I started networking, and people began finding my blog.

Then one day Andy said, "Don't you have enough recipes for a cookbook?" "A cookbook? I don't know," I said. We were still in our 800 square foot apartment, barely scraping by. "I guess so," I told him.

We bought a little duplex, moved in, and published our first cookbook. Andy made new clients, and about a year later we published another cookbook. Then we had another baby, and then another cookbook, and still more clients. With every year our businesses grew a little more.

Ashley has had her ups and downs, but she's doing awesome, and I never could have imagined that this would be our life (smiling as I say this). I get stressed once in a while, of course, but then I let it go. I know that everything is going to be okay. Why? I don't know. It just will be :-)

This song pretty much sums up how I feel most of the time.



"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." —Martin Luther King, Jr.

♥, Kelly

P.S. Thanks so much to everyone who volunteered to test recipes for me! Sorry I haven't emailed any of you yet—I've been busting a move to meet my first deadline. I will email many of you ASAP!

DIY Restaurant Menu Printing in 1914

Paper place mat from the Tirolerland Inn, Jay, NY, 1953.

Hiya, foodie friends. It's me, Andrew, here with another one of my food archaeology posts. Last fall we visited the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, NY. We were very interested to see their temporary exhibit, "Let's Eat! Adirondack Food Traditions". There were lots of cool objects in the collection, especially for a graphic designer like myself. The 1950s paper place mat from the Tirolerland Inn was pretty neat (check out that bear chasing the guy up the tree!). But my absolute favorite thing was a tabletop menu printer from 1915. In the days before Microsoft Word and a bazillion font choices, the staff of a turn-of-the-century kitchen could print custom menus on their restaurant's letterhead.

Excel tabletop menu printer, 1914.

Here's the text from the display:

Menu Printer
From the Delmarsh Inn, Inlet, NY
ca. 1914
70.31.1
Gift of James Meneilly, Jr.

It was important for historic Adirondack eating establishments to provide new offerings as often as possible to remain competitive. This menu printer allowed chefs to "keep the breakfast, dinner and supper cards set up and make only the necessary changes from day to day." If chefs could not find the exact words necessary for a menu, they could order more at 7.5 cents per word from the maker of the menu printer, the Excel Manufacturing Company.

In this word drawer you can see interesting menu items like "Tongue, Tripe, Truffle, Vanilla sauce, Vermicelli, Weakfish, Weiner, with Barley," etc. (This was behind glass, so I apologize for the blurry photo)

Steamboat ticket, 1896.

In the late 19th and early 20th century the Adirondack Mountains were a very popular vacation spot. Well-to-do residents of New York City would ride trains and steamboats north to beat the summer heat. Many owned their own mansion-size cabins—the Great Camps—while others stayed in the region's many hotels. If you have little girls in your family, you may be familiar with the American Girl novel, Samantha Saves the Day in which Samantha's family goes on such a vacation to an Adirondack lake (albeit a fictitious one).

A turn-of-the-century postcard of Eight Lake (just outside town at Inlet, NY)

According to the Town of Inlet's official website the Delmarsh Inn (owned by the Delmarsh family) was built in 1921. So, I'm guessing the year of 1914 given on the museum display card is the printing press' production date. I wonder if the inn purchased it second-hand. Turn-of-the-century visitors from the city would have been used to full-color lithograph restaurant menus, but I'm sure they could forgive the Delmarsh's simply printed menu. They were on a rustic Adirondack getaway, after all.

Cheers, Andrew

P.S. If you are interested in the design history of American menus, then check out Menu Design In America, by Heimann, Heller, and Mariani. It's a massive coffee table style book full of gorgeous photos of menus from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century.

Zoe and Grandpa Jeff sitting in one of the museum's oversized Adirondack chairs, October, 2012.

Chorizo & Eggs with Avocado

Everybody has a go-to meal, don't you think? Something that (pretty much) everyone in the family will eat, that you can whip up in a matter of minutes. Something that tastes great. My go-to meal changes with time, and as we get tired of it. Right now it's chorizo and eggs with avocado. 

Sometimes I add some spinach or finely chopped sweet potatoes (to cook with the pepper and chorizo), and sometimes we have it over a slice of bread, but usually we just have it all by itself. I think of it as an inside-out omelette—Same ingredients, but way less work. And although it may look like breakfast, I don't think we've ever had it in the morning :-)

Chorizo & Eggs with Avocado

gluten-free, Paleo, dairy-free

Ingredients:

1 finely chopped green pepper

1 pound of chorizo sausage (I use Mulay's Natural from Natural Grocers)

7 eggs (or more as needed to serve your family)

1 to 2 ripe avocados

Instructions:

1) Set your oven to 375 degrees. 

2) Saute the green pepper in a large cast iron or stainless steel skillet over low to medium heat for about five minutes.

3) Crumble your chorizo in next (remove the casing if it came in casing)

4) Saute until the chorizo is cooked through, about five minutes

5) Crack your eggs over the top (don't worry if some yolks break—maybe one of your kids prefers them that way? —one of mine does)

6) Bake for about ten minutes, or until the eggs are done the way you like.

Note: Make sure everyone knows that the skillet was in the oven and NOT to touch it (yea, I've done that—ouch!)

7) Top with sliced avocado.

♥, Kelly