All posts by Lauren Bolanos

Health & Wellness

Vital Farms Eggspands to SoCal

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pastured-eggs

My husband and I go through eggs quickly in our kitchen. We love to snack on hard boiled eggs, have breakfast for dinner, and make paleo baked goods – which require a lot of eggs. Whenever we run out of farmer’s market eggs, or are unable to get to the farmer’s market, we go to Wholefoods for Vital Farm Eggs. The first time we went to Whole Foods for eggs (instead of the farmer’s market) I must have stared at the different eggs, reading labels for fifteen minutes. Luckily, a helpful customer recommended these to us. She mentioned how much she loved the eggs, put two dozen in her cart, and said the yolks were orange. (Which means more nutrition!) Not only that but they are organic, pastured, and non-gmo. I’ve even eaten them raw in homemade coconut oil mayonnaise. These can be pretty pricey, which is why Vital Farms is introducing their Alfresco Eggs brand to over 200 Ralphs and over 60 Vons stores in the Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego areas. The reason these eggs are more affordable is due to cheaper feed. They are still pastured on pesticide and herbicide free land, but  are given conventional feed instead of organic. Check out this link for a coupon. It went live yesterday and will be up for two weeks.

The Vital Farms expansion comes on the eve of the implementation of California Proposition 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act. This Act goes into effect January 1, 2015 and will only increases the cage size for confined birds raised in California. Vital Farms works with multi-generational family farms across the United States, including several in Southern California that operate with a well-defined set of organic agriculture practices that includes the humane treatment of farm animals as a central tenet. Their eggs are the first pasture-raised eggs to earn the 3rd party Certified Humane® label, which means each hen has access to at least 108 square feet of pasture on which to roam and forage. For the most commonly purchased egg, free range, by comparison, hens only get about 2 square feet per bird, and limited outdoor access.

The pastures at Vital farms contain no pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals and are rotated frequently to ensure fresh nutrition for the hens, which also gives the land time to rest and recover naturally. These efforts are reflected in the company’s three pillars: humane treatment of farm animals, superior taste, and exceptional nutrition. In comparison to a conventional egg, pasture-raised eggs contain two thirds more Vitamin A, three times more Vitamin E and seven times more beta carotene. They are also naturally high in Omegs-3s.

Disclaimer: I’m not being compensated to promote this product. This is an unbiased review.

Soups

Italian Cabbage and Carrot Soup

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Italian Cabbage and Carrot Soup

This soup was inspired by a cabbage soup my Mom used to make whenever she went back on weight watchers. Even though it’s diet friendly, it’s really delicious. My husband who loves his meat dinners really liked this vegan soup. It’s flavored with fresh parsley and ground thyme. The grocery store was out of fresh thyme, so I used ground, which surprisingly, turned out great. I added a ton of carrots, because I love them in soups, plus they are a really cheap and filling ingredient.

Although this soup is vegan, for leftovers, I made a paleo version with baked parsley, garlic, and thyme meatballs. Normally, I make my meatballs with rosemary and garlic, check out the recipe here. But these were surprisingly good, and I definitely plan on making them for the blog in the near future.

Italian Cabbage and Carrot Soup
 
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Ingredients
  • ¾ head of napa cabbage (I prefer the leafier ends)
  • 10 chopped carrots
  • 1 tsp of ground thyme
  • 1 stalk of celery
  • ½ chopped white onion
  • 2 tbsp of tomato paste
  • 2 fresh bay leaves
  • 1 tomato halved
  • ½ cup of chopped parsley
  • water (enough to cover vegetables)
Instructions
  1. Chop cabbage, carrots, parsley, and onions and add to dutch oven.
  2. Then add in one whole celery stalk, bay leaves, and one tomato halved.
  3. Add in tomato paste and spices.
  4. Then cover vegetables with water, put on lid and let simmer for a few hours.
  5. When ready to serve, remove halved tomatoes, celery stalk, and bay leaves. These are to flavor the broth.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4-6

Dinner

Acorn Squash Stuffed Turkey Bowls

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acorn squash stuffed turkey bowls

This paleo friendly acorn squash bowl is inspired by Thanksgiving! It has all my favorite fall ingredients including ground turkey, poultry seasoning, acorn squash, and dried cranberries. I used salt-free poultry seasoning to flavor the ground turkey from Frontier. I love the smell of this spice blend. It reminds me of thanksgiving since I use it in my stuffing. This seasoning includes sage, thyme, onion, marjoram, black pepper, celery seed and cayenne. You could easily make an AIP friendly version if you mix your own spice blend and eliminate the cayenne.

I used organic sweetened dried cranberries from whole foods. Last year I tried to make my own in the dehydrator, but they ended up too hard and bitter. You could always remove the cranberries from this recipe if the ingredients in dried cranberries don’t fit in with your elimination diet. There is only a half a cup in the whole recipe and I thought it would be fun to have another thanksgiving flavor.

Acorn Squash Stuffed Turkey Bowls
 
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Serves: 4 bowls
Ingredients
  • 1½ tsp of poultry seasoning from Frontier
  • 1 lb of ground turkey
  • 7 cups of fresh baby spinach
  • ½ cup of dried cranberries
  • 2 acorn squshes
  • 1 tbsp of coconut oil
  • ¼ tsp of sea salt (or to taste)
  • ½ cup of water
Instructions
  1. Steam acorn squash in slow cooker with ½ cup of water for 3 hours
  2. Wait for squash to cool or use oven mitts to slice squash in half and slice of ends to sit flat.
  3. Scoop out squash seeds, until inside resembles a bowl.
  4. Add coconut oil to a pan and cook ground turkey with sea salt, and poultry seasoning.
  5. Wilt in baby spinach, and add dried cranberries at the end.
  6. Scoop mixture from pan into acorn squash bowls and serve.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4

Dinner

Chorizo and Spinach Stuffed Sweet Potato

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Chorizo and Spinach Stuffed Sweet Potato

This recipe for chorizo and spinach stuffed sweet potato is really great for an easy weeknight meal. You can even bake the sweet potatoes ahead of time, and then quickly saute the chorizo and spinach together when you are ready to eat. Instead of baking the sweet potatoes in foil, like I normally do, I baked them in salt instead. I’m still working on the best way to get an amazing potato crust, so I need to do a bit more trial and error to get it right. However, I do think baking them in salt was an improvement. I didn’t have to poke holes in the sweet potatos, and as a result, the final result looked a lot less messier. Although I did have to increase the amount of time I kept it in the oven.

The chorizo has a ton of great flavor, so it makes the spinach taste delicious. The spinach get’s to cook in all the tasty fat and flavor from the chorizo. Honestly, I think the chorizo and spinach would make a delicious side dish all on it’s own. It would also make a great filling for an omelette or quiche as well. I definitely plan to cook with these ingredients again.

Chorizo and Spinach Stuffed Sweet Potato
 
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Ingredients
  • 2 chorizo links
  • 5 cups of fresh spinach
  • 1 tbsp of coconut oil
  • 2 sweet potatoes
  • 2 cups of kosher salt (for baking sweet potatoes)
Instructions
  1. Line bottom of a baking dish with kosher salt. Then place washed sweet potatoes on top of salt. Then lightly cover baking dish with foil.
  2. Place baking dish in oven at 450 degrees fahrenheit for 2 hours or until potatoes are soft to touch.
  3. Grease a saucepan in coconut oil. I prefer the high sides of a saucepan when cooking down greens. Saute chorizo until cooked. Then add in spinach and saute until it's wilted.
  4. Spoon chorizo and spinach over a sweet potatos and serve.
Notes
Cook sweet potatoes ahead of time to make this a quick 10 minute meal.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 2

Desserts

A Healthier Applesauce

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healthier-applesauce

I decided to make a healthier applesauce recipe, since I can’t get enough apple recipes this fall. Now that I know how ridiculously easy it is to make it yourself, this will be one item I no longer need to buy. If you’re too old for just plain old applesauce, you can always get fancy and mix it into muffins, cakes, waffles, an well anything you can think of. I’m seriously considering adding this to popsicles. It may be October, but it’s still hot in LA.

I kept the applesauce pretty chunky and didn’t cook it down a crazy amount. I wanted to apple taste and texture to really shine through. I used Granny Smith apples, which are pretty tart, so I added some maple syrup to balance out the sour with a bit of sweetness. A lot of recipes called for brown sugar, and since maple syrup is a similar color, I thought I try it out. However, you could always use honey or eliminate the natural sweetener altogether.

A Healthier Applesauce
 
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Ingredients
  • 5 granny smith apples
  • ¼ cup of grade b maple syrup
  • ½ cup of water
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • a pinch of cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Peel and chop apples. Add them to to dutch oven with water, cinnamon stick, and maple syrup.
  2. Cook down mixture until apples are desired firmness.
  3. I prefer the apples to still be still chunky and firm. About 30 minutes. Stir often so apples don't burn.
  4. Transfer to a food processor, and blend/pulse for a few seconds. Add a pinch of cinnamon, or more to taste. A little goes a long way.
  5. (optional) sprinkle a little cinnamon over the top and serve.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4

 

Desserts

Peanut-free Peanut Butter Cups

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copycat-reese-cups

These peanut-free copycat Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups taste just like the real thing. Maybe a bit better, because I like my chocolate darker and this uses Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate. I love this brand because their products, including the chocolate chips, are made in a dedicated nut and gluten free facility, and are certified non-gmo and vegan. Beware, these chocolate chips are dangerously addictive and often go straight to my stomach, instead of a recipe.

I also used Barney Butter Smooth Almond Butter. Do not substitute a different brand. This almond butter is also made in a peanut free facility and is also certified non-gmo, gluten-free, and vegan. Plus, it tastes exactly like peanut butter! I don’t know how they managed it, but it I’m so excited to try more peanut recipes. The ingredients in this almond butter are blanched roasted almonds, evaporated cane juice, palm fruit oil, and sea salt. I found this at my local Whole Foods, but you can also purchase it on amazon. Seriously, if you don’t tell anyone it’s not peanut butter, they won’t know.

Peanut-free Peanut Butter Cups
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2 10oz bags of Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1 jar of Barney Butter Smooth Almond Butter
Instructions
  1. Line a muffin tin with baking cups
  2. Melt chocolate over a double boiler.
  3. Add 1 tbsp of melted chocolate to baking cups. Then freeze until solid.
  4. Then add 1 tbsp of almond butter over frozen chocolate.
  5. Then add 1 tbsp of melted chocolate over almond butter. Then freeze until solid.
  6. Let it defrost for 10-15 minutes before eating it, so chocolate isn't too hard.