I love Saturdays

I slept in this morning. Had a quick English muffin and some coffee and after a few false starts, we made our way to the Silverlake Farmers Market. I keep forgetting how hoppin it gets later in the morning. When we first moved here we seemed to have earlyish obligations every Saturday, so we always ended up at the Farmers Market between 8 and 10am. I keep meaning to take pictures but I always seem to get distracted by all the goodies around me. Today we kept it simple.


Farm eggs and goat cheese with sun-dried tomatoes

We had some asparagus burning a hole in our crisper drawer since this arrived on Tuesday:



A few weekends ago Nick and I went to the Green Expo at the LA Convention Center. Aside from a confusing bag issue with the ticket guy (after watching everyone ahead of us in line receive a tote bag with their tickets, we were a bit surprised when the ticket guy just stared at us after handing us our change. We walked a few steps away, and even walked back to ask if we got a bag. He looked straight at us and said "Oh, you'll get those inside." Needless to say, the only people inside with bags were ALL the other attendees. So strange!), it was pretty fun, and we ended up signing up for a CSA. Every other week we can expect a box of food to be delivered to our doorstep, giving us new culinary challenges.

It was a pretty good mix:



We have been munching on the contents all week, but today we decided to make some decadent omelets with the asparagus and our Farmer's Market purchases.

I roasted the asparagus with some olive oil, porcini mushroom sea salt and pepper



And we made one giant omelet with red onions, garlic, corn, chopped roasted asparagus, goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, avocado and spices. It was amazing.



Served with some cumin, chili, maple and garlic spiced sweet potato home-fries (they burned a little)



Last night we made short work of the broccoli with a Foodwishes-inspired broccoli salad. Steamed broccoli with a dressing of olive oil, rice vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, chili powder, minced garlic, porcini mushroom salt, ginger powder, pepper and cayenne. It was light, spicy and sweet.



A great compliment to our English Muffin Pizzas




Mine had TJs Marinara, soaked sunflower seeds, red onions, pickled jalapenos, olives, white cheddar and pepper.

I have been loving English muffins lately. My favorite brand so far is Food for Life (of course- I like bread dense), but Trader Joe's whole grain is a close second. Sadly we have neither at the moment, but we made due. My favorite things to top them with is Lemon-Lavender goat cheese (Soledad Goats- you never cease to amaze)...



...with chia seeds and the other side with vegan butter, mango butter and coconut



Alongside my new favorite coffee





Our work weeks have been a little crazy lately, so we have really been trying to make the weekends count. Which of course includes brunch, in my book. Last week it was Green Chile breakfast burritos and tangerine mimosas



Filled with the same potatoes I made today, eggs, onion, pepper and white cheddar



smothered with Green Chile and a side of black beans



Yum.

After this busy week, the Farmer's Market and brunch, it's pretty much been this kind of a day







Hope everyone's weekend is amazing!

Let's all eat some veggies!

I'm Elektra and I love to cook and prepare food. I love getting my hands in it, I love putting it all together and making it look beautiful, and most of all I love eating it. I love to meet and interact with other people who love food. I've been reading food blogs for quite some time now, and I started a food blog with my boyfriend about a year and a half ago. He lost interest, I tried to continue it on my own, but it just didn't feel like the right tone, and it stopped feeling like me. So I'm giving it another shot.

Since my last blogging venture, Nick and I moved into our own apartment. No roommates, and I went from cooking in this kitchen:




To cooking in this kitchen:



Such a huge improvement.

When we first moved, we were eating a whole lot of wrap variations







But I'm starting to get back into the swing of really cooking lately. Here are some things that I/We have been enjoying lately:

Chocolate oatmeal with fruit and nuts



English Muffin with goat cheese, walnuts and dates



Spicy cumin black quinoa salad over massaged kale and spinach with pistachios, apricots and coconut



Soft-Boiled Brunch pitas with goat cheese, hummus, spinach, red onions, kalmata olives, pickled jalapenos, tomatoes and soft boiled eggs



Raw Lasagna with cashew cheese



And finally, a recent raw creation:

BBQ Collard Wraps!

Ok, so it seems like a fairly large percentage of raw entrees are some form of collard wraps, but I was craving BBQ and the raw route just seemed like the way to go.

I made a raw-ish bbq sauce from sun-dried tomatoes, honey, salt, pepper, mustard powder, apple cider vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder and cayenne. I let it sit in the fridge overnight



Pulsed some soaked sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in the food processor


I think it's high time for a new food processor



I soaked the trimmed collard leaves in water with sea salt hoping to soften them a bit, but it didn't really work



but we charged ahead anyway!

All the ingredients



Spread some BBQ sauce on a collard leaf and topped with some shredded cabbage and sliced pepper



Then added the pulsed seeds and avocado slices



And topped it with some onion and sprouts



I had to hold it together to eat it but it was amazing.

A few weeks ago, as Nick and I were inventing soft-boiled delights



I mentioned something about how I set out to make something simple to eat, and before I know it I'm playing. I think to myself, "I'm hungry, I'll just make an egg on toast. No big deal." But before I know it I've spread the toast with goat cheese, smeared a little lemon-herb olive oil on it, and topped the egg with avocado, lizard sauce and pepper.

Default to decadence- that's how I like to do it.