Posts Tagged by food bloggers
Visiting Koreatown & How to Make Kimchi
| October 30, 2014 |
A while ago, I visited Koreatown for the first time in Los Angeles with a bunch of other food bloggers in the area. Christina of Christina’s Cucina was our tour guide for this food crawl. It was my first time ever in a Korean market and boy was I glad Christina was our tour guide. There were so many things that I’d never seen before or never cooked with before. By the time our crawl ended, I had a full bag of groceries and somewhat of an idea on how to use them…
What I learned was…
1. Most food packaging is not in English, but most still have the ingredients and nutrition listed in English.
2. Watch out for MSG. It’s in a lot of products offered at a Korean supermarket.
3. When they have jerky-like fish samples… it’s not jerky. It’s meant to flavor broth.
4. You can buy SO MUCH MORE in terms of produce. It’s a lot cheaper. Even organic food is cheap!
5. I love buckwheat noodles. They have a similar texture to normal noodles but have protein in them! Great way to sneak in extra protein on those cheat days when I eat carbs.
6. Bibimbap is actually a pretty healthy lunch option, as are many Korean food items.
7. It’s official. I can’t resist the milk tea and boba… No wonder why I rarely go to a mall. The boba calls to me.
8. Kimchi (or Kimchee) is really cheap and easy to make. Save yourself the $ and just make it yourself.
Easy Kimchi (Kimchee) with Sriracha
- 1 head of napa cabbage (about 2 pounds)
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 1/3 cup white rice vinegar
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
- 1/3 cup sriracha
- 1 bunch of scallions
Directions
Quarter cabbage lengthwise, then chop into pieces. The size of your chop depends on how little or big you want each bite. I chopped 2 to 3 inches each piece.
In a large bowl, toss with 1/2 cup of kosher salt and let stand for 2 hours at room temperature. Toss occasionally (about every 20-30 min) while it sits. Drain excess water as needed when tossing.
Rinse cabbage with water & drain. Squeeze out all the excess water with your hands and transfer to a large bowl. Tip: I used a colander during this process. It makes it much easier to rinse & drain.
Purée garlic and ginger with vinegar in a blender & pour over cabbage. Add scallions and sriracha. Toss until the cabbage is evenly covered.
Put it in a jar and let it marinate overnight in the fridge & enjoy!
Note: The longer you let the flavors marinate in the jar, the better you’re kimchi will taste. If you have the patience, wait a week before eating it.)
Storage: The best type of containers to store Kimchi is in a glass container. The red juice can stain plastic containers. Keep it in the fridge. It should last you a while because it’s fermented. Mine lasted me about 2 months before I ate it all (and it wasn’t bad yet). I have no idea how long it actually will last because I ate mine before I could find out.
>> If you keep yours longer for 2 months, let me know and I’ll update this to let other readers know how long it lasts.
Blogger Love: The Liebster Award
| July 14, 2014 |
I love meeting new bloggers and reading other blogs. But lately, I find myself browsing Instagram a lot more than I do the web. That’s when I found Lauren Lives Healthy. Her Instagram is very similar to what I post: yummy healthy food & fitness.
Lauren nominated me for the Liebster Award! What’s that you ask?
Liebster – adjective: meaning dearest, sweetest, kindest, nicest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant… (I think you get the idea that it’s pretty flattering to be nominated)
The Liebster award is an award BY bloggers, FOR bloggers. It’s a way to get to know other bloggers and a way to share the love and let them know, “I think your blog is cool.”
Lauren asked me to answer 10 simple questions. Here’s a peek into me and my current favorites:
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose to live and why?
I would love to live in Hawaii. I used to go there every year as a kid on vacation and I have some family out there too. I wanderlust over the photos they post sometimes. A lot of people say I’d get island fever or get bored but everything I enjoy is there in abundance. I love to swim and hike and kayak… I would miss my regular trips to Disneyland but with a backyard that’s the ocean, I wouldn’t complain.
What’s your favorite website right now?
Oh Pinterest. How did I ever live without you?
Could you ever go a month without your phone and internet?
Yes and no. I would love to go on a month long vacation and purge myself of all outside connections. I’ve done it for weeks at a time. But as long as I’m home and everyone around me is using the phone and internet, I think this would be very difficult to do and I probably wouldn’t last more than a few days.
What’s your all-time favorite meal?
All time favorite meal is hands down the old fashioned burger. If you hadn’t noticed, I LOVE burgers. Sure, I could eat sushi for breakfast, lunch, and dinner … and I crave pho on a daily basis. I have some pretty tough competition for my favorite food, but at the end of the day, the nostalgia of a good juicy burger is always welcome to my tastebuds. I know it’s not the healthiest, but it’s sure tasty! (ps. Did I make your mouth water?)
What is your favorite quote and by whom?
“You’re never fully dressed without a smile.” -Annie, the broadway musical
It was the quote I put next to my picture in my high school year book and it’s still relevant. I just love to smile, but more than that… when I’m happy I feel so good about everything in life. I feel like I can do anything. I make better diet decisions. I am more social. I am overall a better person. Smiling and happiness come naturally to me. I hope its true that smiling is contagious 🙂
If money were no object, what would you do all day?
If money were no object, I’d move to Hawaii and buy a house with plenty of yard space to raise chickens and grow my own vegetable and fruit garden. I’d wake up and hike in the mornings, tend to my garden and house during the day and go for a swim in the afternoon. Then cook dinner with my freshly harvested veggies and read a good book next to the fire. Sounds like a dream. Hopefully when I retire, I can make it happen.
What’s been the biggest challenge since you started blogging?
Balancing time. Between working full-time, blogging, going to the gym, regular house chores, friends, family… my schedule is fully booked. I’m often blogging at midnight after my long list of to-dos is done.
If you could learn to do anything, what would it be and why?
I would love to play the piano. I have always loved singing and there’s something magical about singing with a piano. I’d love to play and sing along all day. I actually took lessons when I was younger but was never serious enough to practice. I recently started picking it back up in hopes that I might be able to teach myself.
What’s your favorite way to unwind?
A bottle of Stella Rosa and a good book. Bonus points for a view of the ocean added to the mix, but there’s no drinking at public beaches in SoCal so that only works when I’m on vacation.
Describe your personal style in 3 words.
Casual. Comfy. Athletic.
Now it’s my turn! I am nominating: Alanna (Eats Real Food), Lindsay (Lindsay Living Vegan), Erin (The Almond Eater), and Parita (My Inner Shakti) for the Liebster award. I can’t wait to get to know you more! Here are my questions for you to answer:
- What are your top 5 workout playlist songs?
- What’s one food you wish you could learn to like?
- Your biggest pet peeve.
- Your go-to snack.
- Your favorite quote.
- What is one thing you try to do every day?
- Name one TV show you feel guilty or embarrassed to admit you actually like.
- How and why did you pick your blog name?
- What is your favorite workout? (Running? Yoga? Crossfit? Kettlebells?)
- Who inspires you?
{Gluten-Free} Soft Lemon Snowballs
| December 11, 2013 |
It’s that time of year again – The Food Blogger Cookie Swap, hosted by my friend Julie from The Little Kitchen and Lindsay from Love & Olive Oil! It’s only my second year participating but definitely a holiday treat to look forward to.
All food bloggers are invited. Basically, after registering with your donation to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, you get the names of 3 food bloggers that you will be sending cookies to, and 3 food bloggers have your name. So just after Thanksgiving, before Christmas, you start getting cookies in the mail. Who doesn’t love getting packages?
Last year OXO was the sole sponsor and I got a cute “Be a good cookie” spatula in the mail. This year, OXO returned as a sponsor along side Gold Medal Flour, Dixie Crystals, and Grandma’s Molasses. Julie and Lindsay were able to raise $13,778.40 for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer this year thanks to these sponsors and all of the bloggers that registered to bake! Congrats guys!
I always try my best to make a healthy or skinny cookies that everyone would love. No one wants a “diet” cookie. This recipe definitely took some testing. I failed a few attempts at first but I finally got the recipe just right AND it’s super easy to make. You don’t even need a fancy stand mixer or anything! (Although I do like to take advantage of any chance I get to pull out my KitchenAid.)
These are not your traditional snowballs. Firstly, they are soft. The almond flour gives the cookies a moist and soft texture. I started with coconut flour but the cookies were horrible, so don’t try subbing the flours unless you plan to modify other aspects of the recipe too. Secondly, these are lemon.
… what kind of Disney fan would I be if I didn’t throw in a Disney gif right here?
Diet tip!
Between this cookie swap, my family’s annual cookie party, and other holiday parties I am around A LOT of cookies during December. One of the best ways I found to curb my cookie nomming is planning. Before a party, I tell myself how many cookies I will allow myself to eat and I usually pick a number between 0 – 4 depending on my fitness level that day and how well I had been following my diet that whole week. When you bring cookies home with you, pre-package your cookies into snack baggies with 2 in each bag. That way it’s easier to take them for lunch and limit how many you eat versus keeping them all in one cookie tin and allowing yourself to munch on them late at night.
{Gluten-Free} Soft Lemon Snowballs
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1 large egg white (beaten)
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- powdered sugar to coat the cookies in
Mix all the ingredients together, excluding the powdered sugar, using a spoon or spatula. The “dough” should be the texture of grits or thick oatmeal.
Refrigerate the mixture for minimum 2 hours. Overnight is best.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll the dough into little balls, just under one inch in size. Place them on a non-stick baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes until the bottom of the cookies are golden.
Let them cool for a few minutes. Then roll them into the powdered sugar while the are still warm. Store in an airtight container.
Recipe makes 12-15 cookies.
**Paleo Hack: Swap out the sugar for raw honey. Add an additional 1/3 cup of almond flour and 1 1/2 cups of unsweetened coconut. When they come out of the oven, drizzle them with more honey instead of rolling them in sugar. Thanks to Nom Nom Crunch reader Tony for the recipe hack!
Check out some of the cookies I got in the mail! Click the photo to go directly to the recipe!
Thanks so much Monica (Dainty Morsels), Sunshine (Crave Local Orlando), and Amy & Laura (The Table Blog) for the amazing cookies!
