• Appetizer,  Dinner,  Gluten Free,  Kids,  Lunch,  Recipes,  Salad

    Marinated Steak And Veggie Wraps

    You’re going to love these braised steak wraps. The beef is marinated in an Asian inspired sauce before its braised that really gives the meat such a delicious zing. This recipe is a very fresh and fun lunch, dinner or appetizer option that is low carb and gluten free. I marinated steak cubes (skirt steak, flank, chuck or round steak work well) in flavored rice wine vinegar and low sodium soy sauce with some ginger, garlic and a few dashes of cayenne pepper. The cayenne is optional but a few dashes won’t over power the recipe.  Marinating the meat first helps break down the protein fibers causing a more tender…

  • Appetizer,  Gluten Free,  Kids,  Recipes,  Vegetarian

    Fried Green Tomatoes

    I was meandering through a Farmers Market last weekend and I was seriously on the hunt for something different. Something I’ve not had in awhile or something truly new to me. I came across a few things but honestly one that caught my eye was just simply a basket of under ripe green tomatoes.  In the south eastern part of the United States, fried green tomatoes are a very popular food.  Now I don’t have a deep fryer at my boyfriends house which is where I was going to be cooking, but I thought I would really like to try a tomato like this. I am a fan of any…

  • Appetizer,  Gluten Free,  Kids,  Vegetarian

    Herbed Watermelon Lemonade

    This drink was created after I once made a watermelon vinaigrette. I liked the ingredients so much that I made a few adjustments and now I have both the vinaigrette and the lemonade. In this drink, with the natural water in the fruit, ice and with the lemon juice, I didn’t feel like I needed to add any water.  I do sometimes however, add a little bit of white wine and it really tastes great. Sparkling wine would be great too. As the news reports keep telling me, its very hot outside around the country right now. Seattle could get into the 80’s this weekend which is pretty normal for…

  • Recipes

    Chef Julie’s Cherry BBQ Sauce

    There are so many options for you at the store for BBQ sauce. In the summer months when we are outside grilling more, I personally LOVE BBQ sauce.  So many of our favorite brands though include sweeteners that are not awesome like high fructose corn syrup. One way I like to get around that is just to cut down on the refined sugar by using natural alternatives like cherries or you could go with peaches too if you’d like. I do think that many people in the U.S., myself included, prefer a semi-sweet BBQ sauce. You can easily make BBQ sauce at home with ingredients you might have on hand…

  • Appetizer,  Kids,  Vegetarian

    Five Spice Chicken Hand Pie

    There are beyond numerous options for pizza crust these days with each their own separate health benefits. Whatever pizza crust you’re into, here is an delicious recipe for you that goes beyond the traditional toppings and can work with gluten free crust, egg free crust and almond flour crusts. I have not tested with cauliflower crusts. This recipe has been tested with 120 little ones and the popularity was overwhelming. I came up with this recipe because I wanted to create a dairy free type pizza. Often a good choice for a dairy swap is coconut milk. In this recipe, I used canned coconut milk. Coconut milk has a good…

  • Appetizer,  Gluten Free,  Kids

    Protein Packed Crab And Lentil Cakes

    As I grow in my knowledge about what my body needs versus just eating what I like, I am teaching myself how to combine the two to create the best me I can be this year.  An incredibly important part of what our bodies need, is protein.  I’m not saying here that we need to eat more meat. Gram for gram, there are certain plant based proteins that can rival or equal the amounts in animal proteins. One such protein is lentils. Talk about action packed. Not only are lentils high in protein, they are high in folate, potassium and a slew of antioxidants. They are inexpensive and relatively easy…