Call me crazy, but this summer I was fortunate to have my youngest sister live with me for about six weeks. It was the first time the two of us lived under the same roof for an extended period of time in about ten years. I’m sure many of you reading this really do think I’m crazy, but I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family, that the six weeks flew by too quickly and now I miss not seeing her every day. She loves to cook and would frequently bring home fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden where she worked. One of the last treats that she brought home was a bag full of green beans.

Growing up green beans were one of my least favorite vegetables, which was strange because I never considered myself to be a picky eater. Then I realized that I wasn’t eating green beans when they were in season. Even though green beans still don’t rank at the top of my “favorite vegetables” list, I enjoy them when I eat them in the summer, which is when they are in season. They are so crisp, cooling and delicious – perfect for the summer heat!

Eating seasonally means that the food is going to taste its best because it didn’t have to fly half way around the world and ripen in the back of a truck. Instead, the produce ripened on the tree or bush or in the ground where nature intended it to ripen in order to maximize flavor and nutrients.

So next time you think you don’t like a fruit or vegetable check to see if you are eating it when it is in season in your area. This might make all the difference.

Ingredients:

4 heaping handfuls of green beans, whole

½ large red pepper, chopped

½ large yellow pepper, chopped

½ large onion, chopped

1 cup black beans, cooked or canned

Sauce:

3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons balsamic vingarette

¼ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon water

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon thyme

Juice from 1 lemon

Directions:

In large pan add ¼ inch of water and add medium high heat

Add green beans, onions and peppers

While this is cooking, mix sauce ingredients in small mixing bowl and whisk together

Add black beans

Cook until onions are translucent and peppers and green beans are tender on the outside and crisp on the inside

Strain

Add sauce and coat evenly

The other day my new next door neighbors left a basket of tomatoes on my back porch. They had too many in their garden and they didn’t want any to go to waste. Lucky for me that I live next door. Now I had to decide what to do with them – the pressure was on!

I left the cherry tomatoes for snacking, but I wanted to try something new with the larger ones. I came up with a light sauce, perfect for summer to go with my basic meal formula. Seasonal and delicious, you can use this antioxidant-rich dressing as a substitute for salad dressing or as a light sauce for white fish.

Even though most grocery stores sell tomatoes year-round, they are staple at the Farmer’s Markers in the summer. They are known for their lycopene content, a carotenoid notorious for its antioxidant qualities. To maximize lycopene in your produce, buy organic.

The picture above starts with a bed of steamed Swiss chard. Then I piled on a mix of steamed and sautéed vegetables including zucchini, broccoli, and mushrooms. I topped it off with white beans, a sprinkle of quinoa and my tomato dressing.

Ingredients:

2 cups tomatoes

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

½ teaspoon thyme

1 tablespoon MatoZest

1 clove garlic

¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 tablespoons water

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in blender or food processor and blend completely

I first heard about An Apple A Day a few months after moving to Asheville, but it took about 1.5 years before I actually experienced what all of the buzz around this quaint mom-and-pop restaurant was all about.

Based on the principle that food and nutrition play an active role in the prevention or growth of disease, An Apple A Day serves salads, wraps, soups, juices and desserts made from whole foods. A wrap, for example begins with, well, a wrap and the choice of three different homemade non-dairy spreads bursting with flavor; pesto avocado, lemon red pepper or apple cider tahini. Yum! Then they toss in some greens, quinoa and a pearled barley grain mixture with some red cabbage, broccoli, sweet potato, carrot, kale, seeds and nuts. Top it of with your choice of a dressing and you have a very satisfying, not to mention, nutrient dense lunch.  I don’t know about you, but I have never seen a wrap on a menu filled with even half of these nutritious ingredients!

My favorite part about an Apple A Day, other than the food, is the complimentary water they serve. It’s green because it’s filtered with chlorophyll! How cool is that? In case you’re wondering, it tastes great and very refreshing. Chlorophyll is great for overall health – it’s an antioxidant that is benefits for your immune system, blood cells, cardiovascular system and energy levels.

So if you’re in Black Mountain be sure to stop by An Apple A Day for lunch (they are open Monday through Saturday, 11am – 3:30pm). The staff is very friendly and helpful, and the food is how food should be – made fresh with real ingredients. The restaurant is in the center of downtown Black Mountain so what better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than walking around outdoors, supporting local businesses and eating real food.

My youngest sister, Arielle, is living with me this summer while she works in the garden at Warren Wilson College, about 25 minutes away from my home. Lucky for us, she brings home vegetables and other goodies from the garden a couple of days a week, providing us with delicious, organic, locally grown goodness. Zucchini and squash are very plentiful right now so we have made it our mission to come up with new and exciting ways to use this duo.

Here are two ideas. Both will make your home smell amazing in two very different ways!

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup almond flour

3 cups rolled oats, processed in blender to create flour consistency

1 large zucchini, grated with skin intact

1 cup honey

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon arrowroot powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

hand full of blueberries (optional)

hand full of chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease bread pan

Combine dry ingredients in bowl and mix well

Add honey and mix with spoon until ingredients are completely blended

Pour batter into bread pan

Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until top is golden brown and inside is fully cooked (stick a toothpick to test)

Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving

Rosemary Zucchini & Squash

Ingredients:

1 or 2 stems of rosemary

1 small zucchini

1 small squash

Other favorite spices

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Remove rosemary from stem and set aside

Cut zucchini and squash into ½ inch slices

“Thread” zucchini and squash onto rosemary stem and place in small bread loaf dish

Add about ¼ cup of water

Sprinkle rosemary onto zucchini and squash

Add any other favorite spices and a drop of extra virgin olive oil if desired

Cover with tinfoil

Bake until zucchini and squash are tender – approximately 20 minutes

Remove from stems and serve

Asheville’s downtown area consists of a handful of streets that run a handful of blocks. It’s hard to get lost, even when your sense of direction is as disorienting as mine. What Asheville lacks in size, it more thank makes up for in cuisine and restaurants. While most of the restaurants have remained constant since my move here 20 months ago, there is a space on the corner of Pack Square that has had many faces. Today that space is known as Posana Café, and has quickly become one of my favorite restaurants in Asheville.

Posana Café’s Contemporary American menu is completely gluten free, offering a wide variety of seasonal and local cuisine. Whatever meal you are in the mood for, this restaurant can accommodate you. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, cocktails and desserts – Posana Café has it all.

Since the menu is gluten free, I practically feel obligated to order a sandwich for lunch. Their bread is so delicious and it is rare that I even eat bread, especially in a restaurant! My favorite item on the lunch menu is the open faced roasted vegetable sandwich made with local vegetables and Pinnacle Peak Farm basil. It comes with sweet potato fries and a salad, but today I substitute the sides for sautéed greens.

Abundant outdoor seating in the heart of downtown, both with and without shade, makes Posana Café a prime dining and people watching location during these warmer months. I am so happy that such a delicious and accommodating restaurant is just a ten-minute walk from my home! I think the current face of this space is here to stay!

The other night my sister, Arielle, and her boyfriend, Jeremy, came over for dinner. They love to cook, as do I. They planned the menu; all I had to do was supply the greens, beans and mushrooms. Really? That’s it?  Ok!

When cooking dinner, most people bring their ingredients from a grocery store in a shopping bag – not Arielle and Jeremy. Arielle came in with a woven basket filled with dandelion flowers and nettle. Jeremy carried a few containers filled with different vegetables and one bag filled something covered in dirt, but I wasn’t sure what.

Once they unloaded all of their goodies onto my kitchen counter, I was able to see that I had a really exciting meal ahead of me. They brought dandelions and violets picked from the wild, and horseradish, asparagus, spinach and nettle from their garden. The horseradish was what was covered in dirt.

These pictures are nettle. You can see that they have little stingers on them, and if you aren’t careful, the plant can sting you. Actually, the stinging is a good thing – not like being stung by a bee or jellyfish. Nettle is effective in treating arthritis, joint and muscle pain and inflammation. It also increases circulation and contains vitamin C and iron. You can drink nettle as a delicious herbal tea. We cooked it in a stir-fry with black beans, onions and mushrooms with some spices. Very yummy!

This is what horseradish looks like (below) before it ends up on your plate. Who knew? I didn’t. I honestly had never thought about what horseradish looked like before arriving at the grocery store or my plate, usually during Passover.  Horseradish is a great diuretic and since it is a heat producing food, it is good for muscle stiffness and pain relief. It also contains vitamin C. We made horseradish hummus! That’s right, hummus! Rich and creamy hummus with a little bite – I still have some leftover in my refrigerator and I savor it.

Unfortunately we did not measure anything out for the hummus. We had to taste and tweak as needed, but I can tell you that the ingredients we used were chickpeas, tahini, extra virgin olive oil, horseradish, apple cider vinegar and a bit of water. What can I say? Sometimes you need to put your measuring cups to the side and interact with your food! It felt good to live dangerously!

So you must be wondering, what did we do with the flowers? Well, many flowers are edible, including those weeds most of us try tirelessly to get out of our lawns, also known as dandelions. We used the flower petals to make bread. And it was delicious. Next time you are weeding your lawn, consider baking bread when you’re done! The violet leaves we dipped into the horseradish hummus, which was delicious and refreshing.

Here is the recipe for the dandelion bread.

Ingredients:

1 cup dandelion petals

2 cups flour (we used almond flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

¼ cup coconut oil

1/2 – 3/4 cup honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 475 degrees

Grease bread loaf pan

Put petals in food processor and blend

In medium mixing bowl, mix ingredients together with spoon

Pour batter evenly into pan

Bake until edges are golden brown

Allow to cool completely before serving

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about eating locally grown food. It is important for so many reasons. To read more click here. However, this is the first time I’ve written about eating foods that grow naturally in the wild. Arielle and Jeremy opened my eyes to foods I never considered eating before, and for that I am grateful. I look forward to our next dining experience.

Menu planning can be tough. You find a few dishes that you’re comfortable with, and before you know it an entire month has gone by and all you’ve eaten are the same handful of meals. No wonder you’re bored! You’re stuck in a food rut!

That’s why I like to let my grocery store make my purchasing decisions for me. Well some of them anyway. When I grocery shop I like to cruise the store for the sales. If there is a whole food on sale, I like to bring it home and see what I can make with it. This is a good way to try new foods, new recipes and keep things fresh (no pun intended).

Last week, while dropping my usual items into my cart, I noticed that there was a big sale on shrimp. Shrimp is usually pretty pricey by my standards, so I took advantage and added this delicacy to my pile of goods. I also had a coupon for a free pineapple so I went home with my creative juices flowing for a dish that would include pineapple and shrimp. The weather in Asheville felt like summer and this dish includes the cooling and lighter foods that we crave in warmer temperatures.

The pineapple salsa is a great side to pair with the lime-marinated shrimp. Place everything on a bed of steamed Swiss chard and you’re ready to go!

Pineapple Salsa

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cup pineapple, finely chopped

½ cup, red pepper chopped

¼ cup orange pepper, chopped

½ cup onion, finely chopped

¼ cup cilantro, chopped

¼ cup Orange Juice

½ teaspoon chili powder

1 can black beans

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix well with spoon

Place bowl in refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving

Marinated Shrimp – for 20-25 shrimp

Ingredients:

¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive oil

Juice of 2 limes

¼ cup cilantro, chopped

¼ teaspoon minced ginger

¼ teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon tumeric

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix well with spoon

Place shrimp into plastic bag or container with a tight lid

Pour marinade into bag / container and evenly coat shrimp

Allow to shrimp to marinade for 15-20 minutes

Place greased pan on medium heat

Add shrimp to pan until cooked

With Caribbean inspired cuisine, this casual and comfortable restaurant is one of my favorites in Asheville. If you live in the area and have never been or are considering a trip to the mountains of Western North Carolina, make sure you hit up this fantastic restaurant. I bring all of my out-of-town visitors here and no one has yet to leave disappointed. Nine Mile is nestled in the heart of the historic Montford, one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Asheville.

I hardly ever eat out, but when I do Nine Mile is at the top of my list for a whole bunch of reasons.

Lets start with the food.

Not only are they are vegetarian and meat-eater friendly, but they are also gluten free friendly. Can you say “bonus”?!?! The menu offers a lot of pasta and rice dishes (some with very clever names like More Fyah!), but if you’re feeling a little less hardy you can substitute your heavier pasta for their raw zucchini pasta substitute. The zucchini pasta is so thin that it cooks quickly with whatever else is in your requested dish, making it just like pasta – only zucchini. Pretty cool huh? And if you do want something hardy but gluten free there’s always the elbow quinoa pasta substitute. Yum yum.

My threshold for anything spicy is as low as it gets. Usually even the least spicy item on the menu is too spicy for me. Nine Mile does a great job of accommodating my super sensitive spicy taste buds. Thanks Nine Mile.

Another perk – if you are there for dinner, a very generous house salad comes with your meal. I recommend their house dressing “His Majesty’s”, which is tahini based. Delicious!

As for all of the other reasons I love Nine Mile, they are the same reasons I love other restaurants (other than the food) – friendly staff, easy parking, clean, convenient location, everything is made fresh to order, fairly priced and practical portion sizes.

The picture above is my favorite dish called Jamaican Me Thirsty. Jerk tofu, fire roasted tomatoes, fresh veggies in their own homemade sauce on a bed of zucchini pasta really hits the spot. I’ve tried to make it at home before, but unfortunately it just wasn’t as good.

So what are you waiting for? Today is Dine to be Kind in Asheville – a fundraiser to support local animal shelters and Nine Mile is a participating restaurant! Good food for a good cause!

If you live in the Asheville area and have never experienced Laughing Seed, then you are missing out on an incredible dining experience. I don’t eat out at restaurants very often, but when my friend suggested getting together for lunch at Laughing Seed, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse!

This vegetarian restaurant offers such a unique and eclectic international approach to dining that it is a huge hit for vegetarians and meat-eaters alike! They don’t take reservations and I have found myself waiting for over an hour to be seated at this comfortable local restaurant. Laughing Seed features local products, organic ingredients and original dishes that guarantee a very satisfying dining experience (the super friendly staff and fun drink menu – and I don’t mean only alcoholic – helps too).

My favorite dish is called the Harmony Bowl. Everything edible that I love is in that bowl. It starts with a bed of brown rice, then some beans (usually black or pinto), grilled tofu and lightly steamed seasonal veggies topped with their incredible sesame ginger sauce. Does that sound like perfect harmony or what?

Several months ago, before I started blogging, my friend Wendy and I came up with our own sesame ginger sauce. It’s not the same as Laughing Seed, but it’s pretty darn close. Enjoy it on salads, as a dip at your next party, or your own Harmony Bowl!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Tahini

1 tablespoon Sesame oil

1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

½ teaspoon Minced Garlic

½ teaspoon Ginger

1 teaspoon Agave Nectar

1 teaspoon Lemon Juice

Directions:

Mix ingredients together in bowl.

Yesterday was one of the nicest days we have seen in Asheville in awhile – not a cloud in the sky, breezy but not too chilly and the different colored leaves were really starting to pop. It was absolutely gorgeous! I spent the morning studying, but was itching for an excuse to be outdoors when I remembered that the local Downtown Tailgate Market was open until 6:30pm. Perfect! I grabbed my reusable grocery bag and took a stroll to the market. 

Asheville is great for health counselors and the health conscious. There is strong support for local food and local farmers with Farmer’s Markets scattered throughout Asheville year-round and several restaurants offering local and seasonal selections on their menus. When family and friends visit they are always amazed by the diverse and delicious cuisines available in Asheville. Anyway, enough bragging about Asheville.

The Downtown Tailgate Market is one of the smaller markets in Asheville, but it is right up the road from my apartment so I was able to walk and maximize my time outdoors. Local food, sunshine and exercise – it was a triple bonus!

The nights have been getting cold up here in the mountains so I knew I wanted to make soup. I tend to be cold constantly so once fall settles in, I immediately start to crave hot (temperature, not spice) foods. I already had beans and carrots, but I needed more vegetables to add to the soup. Here is a picture of all of the delicious vegetables that I got – and for a whopping $13.25. Pretty sweet huh?

Buying local foods directly from the farmers is less expensive than buying the same food item in your grocery store – there aren’t any transportation costs or middlemen involved to jack up the price. Plus you’re getting more flavor in your food because it was picked at its peak level of ripeness and taste – it did not ripen in the back of a truck. 

I got to be outdoors the entire time I was shopping, mingle with other members of the community, chat with the farmers and see and smell varieties of vegetables that you don’t typically see in the grocery store. See the skinny green stalks with purple and white stems to the left of the squash in the picture? That’s celery. Yea – celery. Smells like celery, tastes like celery, but it definitely does not look like the thick, light green stalks of celery you typically see in grocery stores. Pretty cool, huh? I didn’t have to sit in traffic or wait in line either. It doesn’t get any better…

Here is my recipe for the black bean soup that I made with the celery.

Ingredients

2 cups black beans

3 – 5 carrots, chopped

celery, chopped – I used my entire bunch, but if you are using thicker stalks than I think 3 should do it

Kale (or dark leafy green of your choice) – 1/2 to 1 bunch, chopped (more about that below) – I love dark leafy greens so I used an entire bunch. Add however much you prefer – after all this is your soup, right?

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 onion, chopped

Dr. Fuhrman’s Vegizest (You can still make soup without this ingredient. I highly recommend it for flavor and added nutrients.)

3 cloves garlic, chopped

Onion powder to taste

Pepper to taste

Mrs. Dash to taste

Directions

Rinse beans and pour into large soup pot

Add 6 cups of water (for more nutrients replace 1 cup with carrot juice)

Add chopped onions, carrots, garlic, celery, tomatoes and spices

Cover with lid and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook until beans are tender – about 45 minutes to 1 hour

Once beans are tender, add chopped kale and stir into the soup – the kale will cook immediately

Remove from heat and allow to cool

Use immersion blender to blend soup to preferred thickness (this isn’t necessary to enjoy the soup. I like soup that is really thick so I prefer to blend)

About the kale (or any leafy green you choose)… when you cut it up, you want to remove the stem first – like this. Cut down both sides of the stem. Toss the step and chop the remaining halves.

Then you can stack a few leaves on top of each other before you slice them width-wise. This will save you time.

My entire apartment smelled like soup. Mmmmm. Ryan came home and wanted to know what was cookin’ – it smelled so good. I hope you enjoy this healthy and filling soup throughout the cold months ahead!