Summer Radish Salad

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Georgina

Summer Radish Salad

Summer is almost over?! Is this a joke? This summer flew by in the blink of an eye for me.

With the wedding planning and then the wedding and then our magical trip to Italy (remind me I should do a post on that) I feel like summer just began. But Autumn/Fall is my favorite season by far so I’m ok with it 🙂

With the end of the summer season comes Labor Day. Labor day is filled with family and fun and barbecues and cookout and food and drink! This year we don’t have many plans, Jake coaches football so the Labor Day weekend won’t really include traveling or big parties for us.

Buuutttttt

If you have Labor Day plans and need an awesome side dish, I’ve solved your problem for you!

This Radish Salad is patriotic(it’s red) delicious(anything with lemon and parsley is ok in my book!) and it’s healthy, oh and one more thing, b.e.a.utiful!

Tada.Super duper easy peasy.

A super helpful trick is that I use THIS handy dandy tool to chop all the radishes up nicely and evenly (not to mention insanely fast) and it works like a charm.

We will definitely be making this again soon. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the blog and I hope you had wonderful weekend!!!

xoxo

Butternut Squash & Arugula Quiche

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Georgina

Butternut Squash & Arugula Quiche

HAPPY FRIDAY! 6 words for you. Thank. God. It. Is. The. Weekend.

I had what I’m going to call the longest week EVER at work. But I have a super fun weekend planned. I’m heading to the twin cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) to visit my best friend everrrr. She just moved into her and her husbands first official house and I cannot WAIT to see it and help her celebrate being a homeowner and settle in! 🙂

It’s also my birthday on Saturday! 26! Nuts. But I’m sure we’ll get into some shenanigans like we always do when we’re together. Excited!

But before I head out on my fun filled weekend I had to share what I call “the best thing I think I’ve ever made” with you. (I actually said that when I tasted this). This GORGEOUS and delicious dish can be made for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack time… you name it!

I used crumbled goat cheese as my cheese and it was seriously perfect. I recommend that but as with all of my recipes, use anything you want! It’s all about experimenting and having fun, & I suggest you try with this, pronto.

Like I said, I used goat cheese and it was to. die. for. Also you can easily make this so quick. Use store bought pie crust (like me) use pre cut up butternut squash(like me) (you can find this in the natural foods frozen section of most stores, otherwise Trader Joes has some!) if you use some of those handy shortcuts you have a wonderful delicious and somewhat healthified dinner in no time at all!

Like it looks so good. I think I drooled.can’t stop
won’t stop

Do yourself a favor and try this. Then come back and tell how you liked it! oh and MOST importantly, have a wonderful weekend!!!!!

xoxo

Mushroom Kale Masala {Vegan, Gluten & Dairy Free}

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Georgina

Mushroom Kale Masala

My beloved readers! It’s been 2+ whole months since I have posted anything! So sad. The reason for my absence, for those of you who don’t know, I got married! June 27th! And then went on a honeymoon and before the wedding was very stressed and busy with wedding details. We I did most of the wedding planning and SO many DIY projects that it left very little time (or brain power 🙂 ) to post here.

But I’m back! 🙂

The wedding was all we hoped for and more. It was perfect. To us. So perfect. We loved it all. Check out a few pictures on our *amazing* photographers site. It’s just a little sneak peak our current struggle is deciding which pictures to print out of the 700+ beautiful options.

And the honeymoon– ahhhhhhhh don’t get me started on how amazing that was. We spent 12 days in Italy (half our time in Tuscany and half our time on the Amalfi Coast) and we literally had to drag ourselves to the airport when it was time to leave. We fell in love and are already planning our next trip back. (More to come on this later 🙂 )

BUT the first thing I have to share with you is this KILLER/BOMB DIGGITY recipe. Prepare to drool. Like go get a napkin.

This vegan, gluten, and dairy free recipe is one of those few clean eating meals I feel spoiled eating. How can something so healthy taste so good!? I actually made this a while ago and now looking at the pictures again and seeing how easy it is, I need to make it again soon!! I hope that you guys enjoy this as much as we did.

So here it is:

*NOTES*

You could add more almond or coconut milk to make this creamier.

Thanks for checking out the blog! I’m so happy to be back and sharing with you!!

If you give this a try come back and tell me if you liked it! Hope you have a great weekend!!

xoxo

Morel Mushroom Risotto

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Georgina

Morel Mushroom Risotto

So maybe I’m just desperate for Spring to get here but I was craving morel mushrooms! Usually early spring is Morel Mushroom season in Wisconsin but they were pretty late popping up around here last year due to winter that lasted into April………………………………….but they eventually did arrive! Hopefully I won’t have to wait quite as long this year!

Usually if we have a season where we have a LOT of them, my family will dry them or dehydrate them put them in a jar and we can enjoy them all year long. It’s simple to use them once they are dried- you basically just cover them with boiling water for about 10 minutes and let them reconstitute. This recipe can use both fresh or dried morels. If you use the dried, you use some of the liquid used to reconstitute the mushrooms as liquid in the risotto and it’s to.die.for. Seriously, love it.

If you’ve never tried morels you should! They look a little funky but trust me, they’re delicious! Now I understand that if you don’t live where they may grow wild they can be pricey (like $30/pound) so I give you permission to use any mushrooms you want for this one 🙂 but if you can, try the morels!

Ingredients:

1 quart stock, chicken stock or vegetable stock
2-3 cups water
2 tablespoon butter
1 cup minced shallot, leek or onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups risotto rice (Arborio Rice)
1/2 pound fresh morels, or 1 ounce dried
Salt
2 tablespoons chopped chives or parsley
1/2 cup grated pecorino or parmesan cheese

Instructions:

FOR FRESH MORELS

Pour the stock and 2 cups water into a pot and bring it to a gentle simmer.
In another medium pot, heat the duck fat or butter over medium-high heat and saute the minced shallot or onion until it softens and turns translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic cloves, the morels and the rice and mix well. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring often.
When the liquid from the morels has evaporated, add 1/2 cup of hot stock to the rice and stir well. Sprinkle a little salt over everything. The key to making a great risotto is to constantly stir, or at least stir every minute or so. As each 1/2 cup of stock is absorbed, add another, then another until the rice is cooked through, but still firm.
When you reach that point, add the grated cheese and a little more stock. Stir to incorporate the cheese into the risotto. Add the chopped chives and serve at once.

FOR DRIED MORELS

Start by setting the morels in a bowl. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over the morels and cover the bowl. Let the mushrooms steep for 30 minutes to 2 hours. Remove the mushrooms, squeeze them dry with your hands over the bowl, catching the juices. Chop the morels and set aside. Strain the soaking water through a paper towel set in a colander; you will be cooking with this soaking water, and you want it free of debris.
Now follow the directions as above, but instead of 2 cups of water, use the 2 cups of the mushroom soaking water.

TA DA! First of all, I loveeeeee risotto. So creamy and delicious and rich and did I say delicious already? Ahhhhhh. Now I’ve seen “cheaters” risotto out there where you don’t stir so much and you don’t add the liquid bit by bit, but personally I think the labor of love is soooooooo worth it, so I’ve never tried those. If this is your 1st time making a risotto, you’re probably going to think at some point…”um what? no way is all this liquid going in here” but it does! And the result is amazing.

So there you have it and fantastic weekend meal to try! Let me know how yours turned out! I love hearing from my readers! HAPPY WEEKEND!

xoxo

Breakfast Pizza

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Georgina

Breakfast Pizza

Woot Woooooot it’s friday! Let me tell you- the first full week back at work after all the holiday shenanigans is H.A.R.D.

fo realz- I barely made it through. Especially since my teacher hubby-to-be had a snow/cold day off of school on Wednesday and it was sooo hard to wake up and go out in the -30 degree temperatures and drag my butt to work that day.

Jake and I have been KICKING BUTT on the wedding checklist this week! For those of you who may not know, I’m getting married this up coming June and I’m reaching the point I can no longer push things off until later and need to get them done now! Tuesday we shopped around for the guys suits and think we found what we are going to do, just need to try on a size (which they had to send to a location near us) on Monday and then most likely order those. Wednesday we shopped around for wedding bands and 90% sure we found what we like and will buy. We also created and added (some not all) items to our gift registry and I almost, almost booked a hair/makeup person for myself and my ladies for the big day of the wedding but even though I’d reached out to the person over a month ago (and she only got back to me a week ago) and we’d been talking all week, she wrote to me (5 hours after I told her I wanted to book her) that she’d just booked someone else for that day. Talk about frustrating!!! Seriously?!? how about a courtesy call or text saying “hey someone else is interested in your day and I just want to know your answer before I talk to this person. You know, since we’ve been talking for over a week”…….

I’m frustrated about it, mainly because a) that’s rude b) I’m super picky about make-up and hair and I’d FINALLLLLLY found someone willing to travel to my wedding place and who I thought was talented. So the search begins again. Buttttt- enough complaining! We got so much done this week and things are really coming together and I’m getting VERY excited for June to be here! Not mention my Italian adventure afterwards 🙂 I plan on sharing more wedding related ideas and details in the coming months buttt….before I do, I have to share this amazingly delicious and fast breakfast (or anytime of the day:) ) pizza with you!

Breakfast Pizza
Ingredients:
– Pizza Crust (Homemade or store bought)
– 1 cup jarred Alfredo Pasta Sauce (I like this one)
– 1 package breakfast sausage
– 6-10 eggs
– 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese
– desired pizza toppings (I like mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes….really anything!)

Instructions:
– Preheat oven to 400 degrees (or whatever your pizza crust directions say)
– Cook breakfast sausage according to package directions until browned and broken into small-ish pieces. Drain fat and set aside.
– Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour into a nonstick (or greased) frying pan and scramble. Don’t break into tooo small of pieces. Set pan aside.
– Spread the Alfredo sauce over the pizza crust and top with your eggs, sausage and whatever toppings your heart desires and finally sprinkle some cheese on top.
– Bake for about 10-15 minutes (depending on your pizza crust) until golden brown and crispy. Remove and let cool for about 5 minutes before digging in!

Isn’t that so easy? It’s the perfect quick thing to make for guests on the weekend too! Serve with some fruit and you’re like a rock star. My mom usually makes this a couple of times throughout the year on a Sunday morning when all the kids are home and there’s no way waffles or pancakes is happenin’

Also loving how these pictures turned out! Nothing beats bright natural light! Hope you have a fabulous weekend! Stay warm if you’re in the Midwest (brrrrrr so cold right now). Thanks for checking out the blog!