Superfood: Beets

They are rich in folic acid, calcium and iron. They have lots of fiber and nutrient compounds that protect against heart disease, birth defects and certain cancers, especially colon cancer.

Let's go.

Wash fresh beets and remove stems and tail

Place in baking dish with a half cm - half inch of water

Roast in oven for for 30-45 mins at 425 degrees (should easily slice with a knife)

Run under water and slip off skins

Slice or chop with purple onion

drizzle with olive oil, red wine vinegar and fresh black pepper

Honestly though, I've realized my favorite way to eat beets is just raw, on a salad. 

This photo was taken with my phone during my lunch break at work. I admit I was a little self conscious about standing at the counter in the office lunch room, shredding beets with my giant cheese grater, but it was So worth it.

Cheese-less Pizza... it's actually good!

Greatly influenced by the eye-opening film Food Inc., I've been spending a lot of time recently analyzing what it is I'm eating exactly. Where did this come from? What is it doing for my body? I've been experimenting with foods that I wouldn't typically go for (see archived post: You Know I Like My Chicken Fried) and have been happily surprised.

Lately I've been inspired by the Oh She Glows blogger Angela Liddon and her enthusiasm for vegan cooking and baking. She is one creative woman! Tonight I'm making her Butternut Squash Mac n Cheeze and am SO excited to see how it turns out; I'll make sure to write about it later. I'm not on a vegan diet, but am dabbling in it a bit since I've learned more about it and realized it is both a healthy and humane way to eat. And many vegan dishes are delicious! I was particularly intrigued by notorious-vegan Alicia Silverstone's quote, "Since I've gone vegetarian, my body has never felt better and my taste buds have been opened up to a whole new world." Like, I want my taste buds to experience a whole new world too! I'm obsessed with food and eating, so doesn't it make sense to give it a chance??

Well... I love cheese. A Lot. Grilled cheese and tomato soup, stinky hunks of French cheese with a glass of red wine, thick swipes of chive cream cheese on my bagel, cheese-stuffed fried jalapeno poppers, overflowing quesadillas and greasy cheesy pizza! But I read an interesting post at Oh She Glows having to do with Angela's preference for cheese-less pizza. She's even asked a pizza chef to leave the cheese off of her pizza when ordering at a restaurant (it didn't go over well, if I remember correctly, he refused). Anyway, her insistence on cheese-less pizza convinced me to try it.

So I made my own.

The most important thing about a cheese-less pizza is that the other components of the pizza have to be perfection because they are left completely exposed without flavorful, melty cheese. And thus my new passion for roasting my vegetable toppings with olive oil and sea salt before putting them on the pie. It makes a world of difference because they develop this wonderful caramelization that goes ohhhhhh goddddd in your mouth. This is an excellent "how to roast vegetables" article that I stumbled across online, and I followed his guidelines when I roasted the vegetables for my first cheese-less pizza. One thing to be careful of: if you first roast your veggies in a casserole dish and then put them on the pizza to be roasted some more - be careful you don't overdo it when they go in the oven the first time. At the first sight of a darkened edge, take them out and let them finish up on the pizza.

So far I've roasted purple onion, red bell pepper and garlic for my pizza, but I really want to try tomatoes, mushrooms, jalapeno peppers, red potatoes and pineapple!

I'm not going to explain step by step how I made the entire pizza because most people know how to make some kind of pizza, whether it be pita pizzas or a passed-down-from-your-grandmother recipe. However, I will say that in this instance, I believe less is more when it comes to the pizza sauce.

So, try a cheese-less pizza with roasted vegetables. It's healthier, cheaper and will allow you to really savor some amazing flavors. And don't even think about dipping it in ranch dressing!

My new place. Thanks Mom!

The first apartment I rented when I moved to Portland 4 years ago, a studio, was a total joke. At 180 sq. feet TOTAL, I could basically reach the kitchen sink from my bed. Great when I needed to refill my glass of bedside table water, but not great any other time. Coming from out-of-state, the pickings were slim and for some reason I chose hardwoods and crown molding over the ability to have more than one person over at a time. I lived there for 6 months and not until after I moved out did my friend's architect dad tell me that it was most likely illegal for someone to rent a living space that tiny.

Since then I have happily lived with roommates (and been really appreciative of every square foot of space)... until now. I just moved into a studio in NE Portland and I loooove it.

There are many reasons I adore living solo and it’s pretty much all about control:

• I get to put out all my wacky decor and not worry about it giving my roommates nightmares
• I can stink up the kitchen when cooking (oh broccoli) without feeling guilty
• It’s clean when I want it to be clean and messy when I’m feeling lazy and just want to nap... which happens a lot.
• I control who comes over, even though I must admit I'm the one with the obnoxious friends who are always coming over
• I GET TO HAVE IT LOOK EXACTLY HOW I WANT

There are of course downsides. My roommates have always been friends and I’m really going to miss waking up and going to Saturday brunch with them, or staying up way too late on a work night watching the Bachelorette finale while stuffing our faces with mochi ice cream, or, of course, blasting Miley Cyrus and getting ready to go out to the bars (that Party in the USA song will never got old - I don't care what anyone says).

But now here I am, living by myself in a studio again and loving it so far. About a week ago, however, I didn’t love it because I had spent so many hours moving my stuff from the house (I’m talking like... probably close to 48 hours bc I did it by myself) that it gives me a headache just thinking about it. I HATE MOVING. After hearing about how stressful the whole thing was for me, my mom was like... “Just hire movers next time.” And why was that not even on my radar? Oh maybe because I'm a young, able-bodied single mover who doesn't even own a couch. But that's not saying I won't pay for some help next time.

Anyway, I wanted to show a Before and After because it’s pretty remarkable. “Before” including a bare studio and then also what it looked like after I’d brought all of my stuff to the new place, but hadn’t organized at all. One word: Hoarders. The photos don’t do it justice.

And an “After” of my apartment after my wonderful mother flew out to Portland from Texas just to help me set up my new place. Just kidding, she came out to visit me and do fun things in Portland, but we spent most of the time, really, putting my apartment together. But she loved it ;) I'm lucky to have a mom who says that Home Depot is her favorite store. Thanks mom, you da best. Okay, duh duh duh daaaaa.....

BEFORE

bad photo quality due to my camera phone....

and AFTER

Bathroom in the back there...

Can you spy what project still needs to be completed? Look closely ;)

Kitchen in the back right there...

(this is the one shot I took of the closet - which my mom expertly organized into a very glamorous space)

And a close-up of creepy man.. passed down from my grandmother... who gives everyone nightmares except me. I think he's hilarious and display him prominently on my dresser :)