Category: Food

Rosemary Bread

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com
Years and years ago, a friend gave me one of my favorite “simple gifts.”  It was a small ceramic pot with rosemary.  On the pot, she had painted a rectangle of chalkboard paint to label it, and she had attached a recipe for rosemary bread.  I’m not sure where she got the recipe, but this one I’ll link to is almost identical.
It’s been awhile since then, and, sadly, the potted rosemary didn’t travel this far.  We buy bulk dried rosemary at the natural food store.  Chopping it by hand is probably more authentic, but I once ground it in the coffee grinder to a fine powder, and I love the way it disperses in the bread.  So, I’ve been doing it that way ever since.
This bread is so delicious!  We love just breaking off warm bits right out of the oven and pairing it with some good cheese and Kalamata olives.  A good tomato soup also goes well with it.  The bread freezes amazingly well, once cooled, so I love just doubling the recipe.  (But, truth be told, we’re usually into the freezer loaves the very next day!)  The recipe I originally received suggests sprinkling the tops with a little bit of garlic salt, which I like.
Here is the very similar recipe.  I hope you enjoy!
Try adding some homemade butter!

Arugula Pesto

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I love pesto!  And years ago when I started making it, I was a purist, making it with basil and pine nuts.  But pine nuts, as delicious as they are, are EXPENSIVE.  And basil was hard for me to find in large quantities.  So, I was very excited when I stumbled across a recipe for pesto that uses arugula and walnuts instead.
I feel like the Parmesan is difficult to replace, other than with maybe a Romano.  I’ve tried using cheddar when I’m out of the others, and it just doesn’t quite work.  I’ve also tried leaving the cheese out altogether.  And while it’s passable, it’s just not the same.  But the arugula and walnuts do truly work!  For me, anyway.  I’ve taken to just putting the ingredients in a bowl and using the immersion blender.  Then, I freeze leftover pesto in cubes and put them in a Pyrex for a later date.  
This is a very similar recipe to the one I use, although I only use 1/2 cup of olive oil.  I love to double it when I’m making it, so I have extra in the freezer.
Delicious on pasta, but also on quinoa or as a dip.  I’m sure many other possibilities as well.
Hope you enjoy!
NEW NOTE:  We were clean out of walnuts last time I went to make this.  I balked at my husband’s initial suggestion to use sunflower seeds instead, but it actually worked very well!  There are many recipes that do use sunflower seeds specifically with arugula, but I just used the recipe above and replaced the walnuts with sunflower seeds.  An even cheaper option, so I’m excited!

Broccoli Fritters

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com
Love, love these broccoli fritters!  There are lots of recipes like this out there, and, in fact, I think the one we used to make got lost in the shuffle, but we do enjoy this recipe VERY much.   (Excuse the “leftovers” look of the photo, as I forgot to take one when they were fresh; I was too busy eating them!)
So, we don’t often have the parmesan cheese on hand, but we almost always have hand-grated cheddar in Pyrex containers in the freezer, and that works perfectly for us.  I also usually just use frozen broccoli we have in the freezer.  I don’t even thaw or cook it ahead, to be honest.  I just mix all the ingredients together and then cook them. (I do find that chopping the broccoli as small as I can helps.)  If you’re lucky enough to have a grill press-type appliance, I highly recommend using it for these.  I always try to make more of these fritters with the intention of freezing leftovers for future use, but they always disappear very quickly.
Anyway, for us, it’s a super simple recipe since we usually have the ingredients.  I love these as snacks, a side dish, or, on some nights, one of the main parts of our meal.  
Hope you enjoy them too!

Healthier Coleslaw

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com
 
This coleslaw dressing is amazing!  Cabbage salad has become my new favorite snack, when our young daughter doesn’t eat it all before I get to it.   This recipe swaps most of the mayo for yogurt instead, which probably helps lower the calories quite a bit.
Just a couple quick notes:
-I’ve never used the celery seed while making this.  Would it taste better with it?  Maybe, but it’s also pretty great without it.
-This probably has typical coleslaw ingredients, but I usually make ours with green cabbage, sunflower seeds, green onions, and shredded carrots.  (As you can see in the pic above, even when I didn’t have carrots on hand one day, it still tasted great.)
Hope you enjoy!