Warming winter harvest salad

When I got back from Kenya (my fourth of four 40-hour trips in four weeks), I felt approximately like this: blueeeeuruuuughhh.

Sitting for so long on an airplane, eating mostly hotel food, and residual tummy troubles from India and Nepal (that you probably don't reallyyyy want to hear about) left my back in a crunch, my digestive tract in disarray (but on the bright side, probably the home to lots of new friends!), and me craving nothing more than movement, stretching, fresh vegetables and home-cooked meals. Oh, and sleep. :)

As I recovered, I mostly ate very basic foods as I tried to figure out what would and wouldn't cause my stomach to rebel against me. I ended up removing most grains and refined sugars, finding comfort in fresh and cooked vegetables, giiiiiiiinger, and citrus.

I also resolved to slow down and cook more deliberately, drawing from the recipes on other blogs that inspire me.

Catching back up

Hey all! Though I haven't had much time to post up here, I've still been having fun and experimenting in the kitchen.

Here's a quick peek of what I've been up to - hopefully I'll have time for more posts with recipes, and to explain how my face ended up in a giraffe's mouth, soon! :)

Until then...

A cabbage salad with roasted herbed carrots and sauteed leeks and green beans with a ginger lime dressing (inspired by The First Mess)

Whole roasted cauliflower with lemon-garlic herb dressing (inspired by The Meaning of Pie)

Dilly beans!! (lacto-fermented, of course)

Home-mmmmmmmmade (and completely scrumptious) bibimbap (inspired by Green Kitchen Stories)

Flour-free nut and seed bread (wonderful recipe from My New Roots)

Quick red cabbage, cucumber and mango salad with spicy sesame dressing

Tie-dying our window curtains with turmeric?!

Salad with daikon radish and sesame peanut sauce (hanging out with some homemade kimchi, bubbling away)

... all together with some roasted winter veggies...

... and miso soup, makes the meal.

Spicy roasted chickpea snacks (inspired by Relish)

More bibimbap. I've actually made this three times in the past month, and once two nights in a row, it's really that easy and good.

Sunflower seed, swiss chard, and spinach pesto

Raw brownies (inspired by My New Roots)

... oh, and this.

More coming soon!

Croissants, croissants, croissants! (and some things that aren't croissants, but are related to croissants)

Yay, back to recipes! But first, a confession. I've never really been a huge fan of pastries. There, I said it!

Croissants? I recognize that they're good, but I don't really love them. I'd much prefer something heartier or less buttery (sorry!). However, whenever I see them, I'm still really drawn to baking them (and other pretty treats), so I'm oh so fortunate to know quite a few people who like to eat them. :)

I've made vegan croissants once before (a few years ago with my sister - and we filled them with homemade pumpkin butter!), and had been meaning to make them for a while - but it wasn't until I was inspired by a series of wonderfully written posts featuring beautiful pictures and GIF tutorials on a blog called Top With Cinnamon (and had a spontaneous day off from work!) that I finally got around to making them.

A very long post about Nepal! :D

Hey there! I'm in Kenya for a week now after returning to Mexico and have lots to share about my (super duper short/whirlwind) trip to Nepal (Kathmandu)! I was there with my job to help instruct a workshop, and got the chance to spend a couple extra days to explore some more and visit a friend (hi Greg!).

Hopefully I'll have as much to share about Nairobi soon, but so far I've just been between offices and the hotel (I want to see some large animals!).

Because of the time constraints, I wasn't able to get out of the Kathmandu, but I did get to see some beautiful temples, wander, get lost, get un-lost, experience a bit of the culture and meet some amazing people.

For the first several days of my trip, I was mostly near Thamel, one of the more concentrated and touristy areas of Kathmandu. There were lots of restaurants and shops, but also a great and entirely sense-overwhelming outdoor market place, Asan tol.

Photos from Nepal (more soon!)

Post about Nepal coming soon! I'm in Nairobi, Kenya now for the last of the three workshops. I had a week at home spent catching up on sleep, working, chasing after lost (still lost :( ) luggage, baking croissants (this coming soon too!) and battling stomach bugs before hopping back on a plane and spending another two days in-and-between airports. Eek!

So until I have time to put together something nice, here is a whole bunch of pictures*!  Enjoy! :) 

*without any contextual information in no meaningful order