Fried Beets

I've been in the midst of an awkward living situation for the past few months and have had the utter joy of living with my partner's older brother while him and his wife are in the process of moving overseas. As someone who has had very few roommates in her life, I am overjoyed that at the end of the month we will have the place to ourselves and life will be back to normal. 

I think the best part of the last three months was when I got a lecture from my partner's brother about "not leaving dirty dishes in the bathroom." This lecture turned out to be a misunderstanding spurred by the fact that I had left a bowl of my homemade citrus and coconut body scrub on the bathroom counter. Apparently when the coconut oil hardens (as coconut oil does when it is cold), this mixture ends up looking like "moldy cereal with almond milk."

I'm totally guilty of being an almond milk drinker, but dude, I didn't leave moldy cereal in the bathroom. It's body scrub, I swear. I think by the end of this experience we are all excited at the possibility of having our own personal space again. 

I do have to say one thing I am grateful to him for and that is this recipe. I thought I had enjoyed beets every possible way that one could enjoy beets: roasted, boiled, steamed, and raw. But fried? Ooh, this is dangerous business. 

The important thing about this recipe is to keep a close eye on the beets as they cook. Since beets contain a lot of natural sugars, they can quickly burn if they cook too long. The cooking time depends on the type of pan you are using and the heat of your stove so my best advice is to turn them frequently and pull them when they are just fried and crisp. If the edges start to turn black, they are definitely done and should be removed immediately. If you don't have a fresh lemon and parsley, these are delicious enough with some simple black pepper and salt on top. 

Fried Beets
Serves 6 as a side

2 pounds beets, tops removed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh parley, chopped
Freshly-ground black pepper and sea salt to taste

Wash and peel beets. Slice into matchsticks.

Add olive oil to a large pan over medium-low heat. Add the beets and saute for 20 - 30 minutes, turning frequently, until beets are fried and crispy. Remove from heat and toss with lemon juice and fresh parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

Recipe shared at Weekend Wellness

Beet Detox Juice

If you live in the United States like me, yesterday was Thanksgiving; a time when most people eat their weight in stuffing and gravy. After all that heavy holiday food, I'm guessing that some of you might need a break. At the very least, maybe your digestive system does? I have just the thing: my favorite beet detox juice.

I'm a big fan of fresh vegetable juices and I always notice a huge difference in my body when I juice regularly.  (If you're new to juicing, check out my vegetable juice tutorial.)  I'm not one of those people who advocate extreme juice fasts, but I think there are a lot of benefits to adding juice to a healthy diet.  

This detox juice is one of my favorites because it's naturally sweet, even without adding fruits to the juice.  If I've had a big dinner the night before, I like to start my day with a glass of water and then drink this juice before my morning smoothie.  Beets are loaded with iron, antioxidants, and a cancer-fighting agent called betacyanin (the pigment that is responsible for its purple-red color), making this juice a powerful blood cleanser.  Drink up!

When making fresh juices, I recommend using fresh, organic produce to ensure that you are getting the most nutrients in your juice and that you are not ingesting chemicals. The ingredients are listed below in the order that I run them through my juicer. Depending on the size of your juicer spout, you might need to chop some of the vegetables in half.  If you are new to juicing, you might want to add more carrots or an apple to help balance out the stronger flavors (e.g. garlic and beets) in the juice.

Beet Detox Juice
Serves 1 -2

1 small clove garlic
1-inch piece fresh ginger
5 kale leaves
1 lemon, peeled
3 medium beets and beet greens
2 medium carrots, tops removed

Spicy Carrots

Every year for the past five years I have promised myself that I would make a raw cashew cheesecake for my birthday.  And every year I have failed.  Apparently this year is no different. 

Somehow I really thought things would be different this time around.  But, apparently if given the choice between dessert and vegetables, I am the one person in a million that will choose vegetables every single time.  So today you get spicy carrots.  The cheesecake will just have to wait.

Earlier this year I went to San Diego and tried hot carrots for the first time at Ranchos Cocina. Holy moly. My taste buds are forever changed. If you have not yet experienced this spicy favorite, there's no time like the present. My version is no where near as spicy as the original so if you like super spicy carrots, add a second jalapeño and be sure to keep all the seeds in.


(Note: this is my first of three recipes featuring produce from Oxbow farm.  If you didn't catch my CSA post, be sure to check it out.)

Spicy Carrots
Adapted from About.com
Serves 4 - 6

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bunch carrots, diagonally sliced (about 3 cups)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/3 cup vinegar
2 bay leaves
5 whole peppercorns
1 jalapeño, sliced (seeds removed if less heat desired)
1/2 cup water
Sea salt to taste


Add olive oil to a pan over medium heat.  Saute the carrots and garlic for 2-3 minutes, until garlic is fragrant. Add the vinegar, bay leaves, peppercorns, and jalapeño and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the water and continue to simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and remove the bayleaves.  Carrots can be served warm or transferred to a container and stored overnight in the fridge with any leftover liquid.

Crispy Baked Beet Chips

You know the phrase "needle in a haystack"?  Do people still say this when they can't find something?  I think it's time we changed this up.  I mean, who has a haystack anymore?  Heck, people barely have needles nowadays, right? 

I bought a needle this week to use in a beading project.  This is how I learned that the phrase "needle in a haystack" is out-of-date.  Really, the phrase should be "needle in a bed."  Because, let me tell you, it is an urgent matter when you lose one in there.  Who cares if you lose your needle in a haystack?  Are you sleeping in the haystack?  No, you're sleeping in the bed.  With the needle.

It's been 24 hours and I still haven't found it. I suppose this is why one should never work on a beading project in dim light just before going to sleep.  Live and learn.

Speaking of learning, I also learned an important lesson this week involving beets: they make dang good chips.

Have I caught your eye with kale chips before?  This is a similar tasty snack involving thin slices of beets baked in the oven.  They are so simple and incredibly delicious. 

Start by slicing your beets very thin.  The thinner your beet is, the quicker it will cook and the crispier it will be.  Since I don't have a mandoline, I tried using a vegetable peeler and also slicing by hand.  A vegetable peeler would have worked perfectly, except that my beets were very small and it was hard to use the peeler on such a small surface.  Slicing them by hand didn't get them quite as thin so some batches had to be cooked longer than others.

Once your beets are sliced, toss them with a little oil and then lay them flat on a baking sheet.  After 10 - 20 minutes (depending on how thin your slices are), you'll have crispy little bites of root vegetable goodness.

Crispy Baked Beet Chips

Serves 6

3 medium beets (or 6 small beets), sliced thinly
1 tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil
Sea salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Toss beets with oil and lay flat in a single-layer on a sheet pan (baking multiple batches if necessary).  Bake for 10 - 20 minutes, until chips are crispy.  Remove from oven and top with sea salt.  Serve.

Ginger-Roasted Parsnips

Remember when you were a kid and you mom reminded you to grab a coat before going to school?  Or when she scolded you for going outside with wet hair because you would catch a cold?  And you dismissed it?

But, then you caught that dang cold... Sure, you could have listened, but you had to learn it on your own, right?  Because then the lesson sticks.

Well, the lesson is sticking this week.  It's sticking hard. 

For months my techie partner has been bugging me to change my passwords.  Telling me to change them often.  To make them more complicated.  To not use one password for all my accounts.  Did I listen?  No, of course not. 

Then this week my Twitter account got hacked.  My followers got repeatedly spammed.  Some people realized right away that I had been hacked and alerted me while others got really frustrated because they thought I was intentionally spamming them.

Luckily I was able to change my passwords rigtht away. (And luckily I had always kept a different password for my bank!)  As of now I think the problem has been fixed.  At least, I really hope so.

After the royal pain-in-the-behind that this has been, I will never again be lax about online security.  And neither should you.  But, you don't have to take my word for it... do you? :)

I hope none of your accounts are ever hacked.  But, if they are... stay calm... and act fast.  Get those passwords updated.  Make them complicated.  Use different passwords for different online accounts.  Do some deep breathing.

Then stay the heck away from your computer and retreat to the safety of your own kitchen where life is good, pure, and happy.  A place where no spam exists (except, maybe, in a creepy can at the back of the pantry).  A place where roasted vegetables reign and you can be comforted by the smell of ginger-roasted parsnips from the oven.

Ginger-Roasted Parsnips
Slightly adapted from Food and Wine
Serves 4

2 Tablespoons coconut oil
1.5 pounds of parsnips, chopped
1.5 Tablespoons fresh minced ginger
Zest from 1 lemon, optional
Freshly-ground sea salt and pepper to taste, if desired

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Toss parsnips with coconut oil and ginger.  Lay flat on a sheet pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until tender.

Top with lemon zest, salt, and pepper before serving.

Sesame Roasted Beets and Greens

Here are the things they don't tell you about hot yoga:

Before your first hot yoga class, you should really paint your toenails. Trust me.  You'll want to have something pretty to distract you from the thought that this is how you are going to die.

It's hot. I know you must have gathered that much from the name of the class, but it's really hot. And when the room is that hot and the studio gets really crowded... it smells. Sorry to say it, but some classes make it hard to come back.

You can totally do it.  If I can do it, you can do it. Promise. 

I started hot yoga two weeks ago and have completed six classes to date.  I am not a "yoga person" by any means.  I do a couple of yoga classes at my gym here and there, but hot yoga was never something that appealed to me.  Standing in one spot and dripping sweat all over myself?  No thanks. 

I started my hot yoga experiment to see if it would help alleviate my knee pain.  So far I have had very positive results, which is one of the reasons why I have forced myself to stick with it.  Hot yoga and I kinda have a love-hate relationship at the moment.  I think we're frenemies. 

One of the things that I do enjoy about hot yoga is how it strengthens the mind and body connection.  I usually make a point each day to try to listen to my thoughts and make the positive ones outweigh the negative ones.  During my first class, it became apparent very quickly how strongly my body responds to my thoughts.  For instance, I would think to myself "I am going to fall out of this pose."  And so I did.  But, if I tried the pose again and thought, "I can hold it this time."  I did.  Incredible.

In the studio that I go to, the room is long and narrow so everyone can see themselves in the front mirror.  I find it very powerful to look into my own eyes for an hour and a half.  Some days that takes a lot of courage and work to give myself love that entire time.  I think for women especially this is really powerful because we learn so quickly to avoid mirrors or use them as means to critique ourselves.  Before hot yoga, I don't think there ever was a time when I looked myself right in the eyes and said, "You can do this."  Or, "look how strong your body is in this pose." Or, "Wow, your arms look awesome today." 

Here's one more thing they don't tell you about hot yoga:

Even if you really don't like it... even if you kinda hate it... even if you dread every class... you'll kinda love it.

Here are the things they don't tell you about beets:

Don't ever eat them from a can.  I'm serious.  If you have a can of beets in your pantry, please compost them right now.

Buy beets when they are fresh, preferably with the greens still attached. 

Don't overcook them and if you are not a beet lover, don't boil them.  Roast them.  Always.

Even if you really don't like beets... even if you kinda hate 'em... even if you dread the thought of eating them... you'll kinda love this recipe.

Roasted beets are perfect in winter because they are in-season and full of Vitamin C.  Roasting them brings out their natural sweetness which is why I recommend this method of cooking for people who say they don't like beets.  This recipe utilizes the beet greens as well as the root so you use the entire vegetable.  I like to use different kinds of beets in this recipe for a more colorful presentation, but any type of beets will work. Serve this with some brown rice and lentils for a hearty and healthy meal.


Sesame Roasted Beets
Serves 4

2 bunches of beets
3 Tablespoons sesame oil, divided
1 leek, ends removed and chopped
1 Tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tablespoons Bragg's liquid aminos
salt and pepper, if desired
sesame seeds for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Remove the greens from the beets and set aside.  Chop the beets. Toss beets with one tablespoon of sesame oil and lay flat on sheet pan.  Roast for 25 - 30 minutes, turning twice, until beets are tender (but not mushy).

Chop the beet greens.  Add one tablespoon of sesame oil to a pan over medium heat.  Add the leeks and sauté for two minutes.  Add the ginger and garlic and sauté for an additional minute.  Add the the greens and liquid aminos and cook for 15 - 20 minutes, until tender.  Add salt and pepper if desired.

Drizzle beets with remaining tablespoon of sesame oil.  Garnish beets and greens with sesame seeds and serve warm.