The pilot series of the Healthy Cooking on a Tight Budget Program has been completed!  One purpose of the classes was to provide recipes using ingredients that are commonly turned down at the Food Bank because people don’t know how to use them.  The first item on that list was dried beans.  On my first day at the food bank the director handed me a couple bags of dried beans and I stared at them with a similar apprehension.  I know how to use them in soups and comforting winter time recipes, but what about in the summer?  Fortunately my friend Elise had the perfect recipe to try. Read more

Yesterday I promised you my first poached egg recipe, and today I deliver!  I could not get the idea of poached eggs and asparagus out of my head.  I don’t think I’ve ever had the two together before, but after the massive success of the asparagus frittata, I knew eggs and asparagus are definitely a happy pairing.  So it just made sense to try using poached eggs, one of my favorite ways to eat an egg. Read more

I’m always on the lookout for easy asparagus recipes.  Asparagus is one of those vegetables Eric and I can’t get enough of, so I buy it in huge quantities, then find myself frantically working it into every meal to use it before it goes bad.  Often that means a lot of roast asparagus and using it in pasta, risotto or curry.  Then I got an incredibly useful cookbook in the mail called The Vegetarian Option, and found this inspired recipe for an asparagus frittata. Read more

Our CSA started up a couple weeks ago and for right now is limited to greens, radishes and rhubarb.  In Washington there has been more rain in the first few days of June than there typically is in the whole MONTH of June.  This has definitely affected the local farms but the nice thing about CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) is that they help farms be supported in the good or difficult growing years.  I’ve been playing around with our radishes the past few weeks to figure out some new ways to eat them besides with butter on fresh bread (which is amazing by the way!). Read more

I made this delicious and healthy potato salad with our grilled porterhouse steak a couple weeks ago.  We LOVE my lemony dill potato salad, but it may now be a toss up between the two.  This oil and vinegar potato salad has just a touch of cream and NO MAYONNAISE!  It’s even good without the cream if you’re lactose intolerant like my grandma, she loves the dairy free option.

Now onto important things, like the fact that our family is growing!  Check out the video below of our first day with our newest family member. Read more