SPICE-ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH CHICKPEAS + CHERMOULA

I started a post about my place in the work/life/momming balance and I realized I just don't have much to share on figuring through that yet. I understand you don't ever get it "just right," but I am trying to get close enough to where I feel happy with what I was able to give at the end of the day. I want to check all my boxes and still feel like me at the end of the day, but I don't think I get to have that yet. I am trying to be patient and gracious with myself that I still have an infant that wakes up multiple times through the night, but I can't help but feel like I should be able to keep all the balls in the air. We've made these huge strides with women in the workplace but I think we still feel the pressure to do all the home and childcare tasks as well. Blame the internet if you wish, but it's tough trying to be the everywoman. My juggling skills don't look natural quite yet, and I cry too easily when a ball falls, but I'll check back if I figure something out. 

I've been stuck on vegetarian main ideas that satisfy all three of us and I loved this spice combination on the vegetables from Emma Galloways book. Never mind that Hugh added a grilled sausage to his, making this ever the flexible omnivorous meal, but I liked it just as it was. Warm with cinnamon and honey, spiced with garlic and interesting with paprika and coriander. I repurposed the chilled leftovers over greens the next day with a little feta cheese to make a salad of the dish. Don't skip over this if you don't stock cumin seeds, half a teaspoon of dried cumin is fine. Or I didn't have quite enough coriander and it still turned out great. Again, pretty flexible. 

SPICE-ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH CHICKPEAS + CHERMOULA

Recipe adapted from My Darling Lemon Thyme by Emma Galloway

1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, freshly cooked or one 14 oz. can, rinsed well
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. finely chopped cilantro stems
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1 lemon
1 bunch baby beets
1 bunch baby carrots or about 4 larger ones
2 small parsnips, cut into quarters
2 baby potatoes
mint leaves, to serve

2 cups cooked whole grains such as quinoa, millet, brown rice etc.

/chermoula/

1 small bunch cilantro
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
juice of one lemon
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
sea salt

Drain the chickpeas well. 
Preheat the oven to 375'. Place olive oil, cilantro stems, garlic, spices, honey, salt, pepper and lemon zest in a large bowl and mix well. Cut the beets and potatoes in half so they are about the same thickness as the carrots and parsnips. Add the chickpeas, carrots, parsnips and potatoes to the bowl and toss to coat. Transfer to a baking sheet in a single layer. Toss the beets in the remaining marinade and tuck them to one side of the baking sheet (beets stain and will turn everything pink so this is for aesthetics, if you don't mind all pink vegetables, by all means toss everything at once). Roast for 35-45 minutes, stirring everything once, until golden and tender.
Meanwhile, cook your grains and keep them warm. 
To make the chermoula, put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until a rough sauce is formed. Season to taste with salt. 
Serve the grains topped with the roasted vegetables and chickpeas, scraping up all the spices left on the tray. Drizzle with chermoula and sprinkle with mint leaves. 

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LEMON BLUEBERRY LOAF CAKE

I am behind in tax prep so the text will be terse today. All I have on my mind is sheer amazement at how much of our income goes towards food. And Amazon. Being a grownup is scary. I remember playing house when I was little and always wanting to be "the mom." I had a fake checkbook to pay for things in this make believe adult-land I thought was so glorious. Now I am IN adult-land and I don't understand why on earth I was so anxious to be here. Take me back to where I could write my little sister a check for $20,000 just for being my pretend daughter!

But there is loaf cake. I make a lot of these and realize there is a similar one in the recipe archives but they are popular here. Hugh likes a sweet in the morning with coffee and I like cake after dinner so we can polish one these off quite quickly. They gift beautifully too if you're taking food to a friend. It's a snack to be shared no matter how you look at it. 

LEMON BLUEBERRY LOAF CAKE // Makes one 9x4 loaf

Adapted from Food and Wine 

The original calls for 2 cups of all purpose flour which, by all means, go ahead with. This was our wheat-free version and is sort of my standard loaf cake ratio anyway. Change the fruit, maybe replace the yogurt with mashed banana and the berries for chocolate chips. It's a great base to work with.
For the oat flour, I simply blend up rolled oats. The glaze here is optional. I am happy with the loaf as is but Hugh likes it a bit sweeter so the glaze keeps everyone happy. You can mix in some melted and slightly cooled butter if you'd like it to resemble more of a frosting.

3/4 cup coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup natural cane sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 cup plain goat yogurt (or regular)
1/4 cup lemon juice

1 cup superfine brown rice flour
1 cup oat flour
2 Tbsp. flaxmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
 

// glaze //

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 cup powdered sugar

lemon zest, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350'. Grease a 9x4 loaf pan and line it with parchment. 

Wish a hand or electric mixer, combine the coconut oil and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time until well mixed. Add the vanilla, lemon zest, yogurt, lemon juice and mix. 

In another bowl, combine both flours, flaxmeal, baking powder and soda and stir to combine. Gently add the dry to the wet ingredients to mix. Fold in the blueberries and pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake on the middle rack for 1 hour and 10-15 minutes until golden or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove to cool completely. 

In the meantime, whisk the lemon juice and powdered sugar together to create a glaze. 

Glaze the cooled cake. The loaf with keep covered for three days. 

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SRIRACHA ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

We roast a lot of vegetables in the cooler months. Everything dumped onto one large sheet pan, almost any number of spice combinations, and then you just leave them alone. I am all for minimal hands on time these days while trying to keep both kids happy before dinner. I've watched a couple episodes of Cooked on Netflix lately and am so intrigued by Michael Pollans' research about how the world eats - how our tendencies with food and cooking have changed so much over time. He had a statistic that said Americans spend an average of twelve minutes a day preparing food to eat. Twelve! I realize I cook for work and you read food blogs so we'd lie on the upper end of the test group because of that, but no wonder there is more obesity and diabetes than ever before. I get that time is limited. It is an era where most households have two working adults, everyone is tired, fresh produce is more expensive than a frozen dinner, so why would someone choose to cook when it's cheaper and faster and more simple not to? But as a proponent of fresh, real foods, I can argue the case for roasted vegetables on even our busiest of days. A recipe like this that calls for 5 minutes of hands on time and 25 minutes in the oven and could pair with a number or proteins or some quick cooking whole grains. I've made the habit of cooking nearly twice what we eat at one meal so I can repurpose the leftovers which helps save time for  another evening. I really want to start meal planning but I am not there yet. Believe me, we pick up burritos and order pizza in between too, but I hope our food culture swings back stronger towards making more food. I really think cooking this simply is a easy enough to prioritize for the sake of health. We're getting persuaded to believe cooking is too hard, but is it? Preach it, Michael! Anyway. I like the show. 

I created this recipe for Sriracha Roasted Brussels in working with Electrolux and their blog Live.Love.Lux. You can find the recipe on their site.

I have a recipe for a homemade sriracha in Bowl + Spoon (ps. that's a really great price) if you have extra time on your hands or I like the Trader Joes or Sky Valley brands which don't have all the junk in them.