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Five Friday Favorites – Expo West 2017

Sorry it has taken me so long to post my highlights of Natural Products Expo West. There’s so much to report, I still haven’t gotten it all in there. Although I only went for one day, I saw so much and it was honestly overwhelming! Expo West is a huge, and I mean HUGE, natural products trade show in Anaheim with something along the lines of 3100 distributors, about 1/6 of them are first-timers. It’s mostly food, but there are tons of beauty care companies, supplements, pet food, food scientists and packaging companies. It runs for 3 1/2 days and I don’t know that I could really handle more than one day. Although it’s very crowded, it’s a great opportunity to meet with companies and see what’s new for them and really have the chance to ask them questions about their products.

It’s always hard to pinpoint the trends that stand out, especially since I only saw a fraction of the show. But that’s not going to stop me from trying. Here’s what I observed:

Dinner Planner- Week of March 20th, 2017

My daughters juts left tonight and I am pretty mopey about it. We had a great week with them and I am beyond grateful that they chose to come home for spring break. Counting the days until they come home in May!

I am continuing with the March menu in my classes this week, although I have a group who requested the February menu and I can’t blame them because it’s so good. I was able to turn in the last round of edits for my cookbook this week and I am so excited! FYI, you can pre-order my cookbook Kitchen Matters on amazon or a signed copy from my local bookstore, Pages!

Here’s your dinner planner for this week:

Roasted Fish with Chermoula Recipe

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I am hoping you made something naturally green this morning, like these Green Muffins or Green Pancakes, and rejected green-dyed bagels. A green juice would be rather appropriate today, as well. Now let’s move on. 😉 Not only is it St. Patrick’s Day, but it is also a mere few days before the first day of spring, a day of rebirth and nature’s way of starting fresh.

Dinner Planner — Week of March 13, 2017

My daughters just arrived home for spring break, so the five of us will be together again for a whole week! I am over the moon, since there’s pretty much nothing that could make me happier than spending time as a family. I do have a busy work week though – testing recipes for Clean Eating Magazine, prepping for my classes, and finishing the last round of edits on my cookbook (!) My older daughter has become quite the cook in college, so I plan on leaning on her a bit for an extra set of hands in the kitchen this week.

Here’s your dinner planner for this week:

Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Baking bread, real bread, can be a challenge. There’s yeast and proofing and rising and time – lots of time. It’s not super practical if you work out of the home with regular 9 to 5 hours. Which is why I don’t make bread anymore. I used to make challah and round peasant loaves and the occasional cinnamon-raisin bread. In fact, I used to bake bread in high school and then in college. (Another possible reason my college boyfriend married me.)

Split Pea and Barley Soup Recipe

St. Patrick’s Day is approaching and I am here to tell you that you do not need to make corned beef and cabbage to be in the spirit. Make anything green — spinach risotto, kale salad, a mint chip smoothie — and you’re good in my book. I actually discovered recently that split pea soup can have Irish roots. Who knew? So this might be a nice way to have a healthy and delicious St. Patrick’s Day dinner without a lot of fuss.

Dinner Planner – Week of March 6th, 2017

Lent is upon us, so I will make sure all the Friday dinners in the next few dinner planners are fish or vegetarian. When I was growing up, my mom used to make fish every Friday even outside of Lent. I still think of Fridays as “Fish Fridays.” My mother had a very methodical way of doing her dinner planners for the week, and I didn’t understand the beauty of it until I started doing my own. But she would do Meatless Monday (usually a hearty soup), Baked Ziti on Thursdays because she taught a class on Thursday nights and she would make the casserole in the morning and all we had to do was stick it in the oven, Fish Fridays, pancakes on Saturday mornings and hot dogs for lunch (no one’s saying she was perfect), and big pasta dinner in the middle of the day on Sundays, usually with my extended family. She really only had to fill in Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Most of the time she did a version of roasted chicken and potatoes one night and pork chops or veal cutlets with pasta the other night. She worked full-time and she was still able to put a homemade meal on the table every night. It’s all about having a system and planning ahead.

I have cooking classes Monday – Thursday this week. Check my Insta stories to see what I’m teaching. And then Friday I’ll be at Expo West for the whole day checking out all the new natural foods products. That’s always a fun (calorie-filled) day. My daughters are coming home for spring break on Friday night and I am BEYOND excited!

Here’s your dinner planner for the week!

Five Friday Favorites 03.03.17

It’s still Friday, right?? Better late, than never! Nothing causes more panic than when you get an email from your host saying your website has been shut down because it almost crashed the server and other websites! Sorry that the site was down for most of the day yesterday. I wish the cause of the almost-crash was that millions of people rushed to my blog for my latest recipes, but alas it was a technical glitch. Thank you for being patient.

This was a super busy week for me with 5 classes and a transition to the new March menu. Spring has sprung! Here are some of the fabulous things I have been talking about in class lately. Have a great weekend!