Hello to my friends, my sincerest apology for not updating my blog. I have been working my regular job as well as helping my friend Melanie with another job and attending school. Not to mention taking care of my sweet husband with whom I just celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary, YEAH! After this week things will get a little back to normal, I hope you’ll hang in there with me. Only three weeks until Farmer’s Market gets going again then I’ll have lots to talk about.

There’s a new market in town you should check out, Cali’s Natural Market it’s located at 389 W. 1700 So. it’s locally owned and there philosophy is providing the freshest and healthiest cuisine, without compromising. The owners of Cali’s also own Sage’s Cafe, and Vertical Diner (which is a vegan diner). Check them out.
http://calisnaturalfoods.com

So after watching Food Inc. I wanted to blog about it but I try really hard on my blog to have the food be fun, light, healthy, creative and responsible. I make my food choices on what feels good for me and my family. I have mentioned before that I went vegan to combat some serious heath issues that I had been dealing with, in a million years wouldn’t have guessed that my journey would go in that direction. But I have to say that even though that was such an emotional time it was one of the best things I had ever been through, and even though I’m not a strict vegan today it still have alot of vegan recipes that I make and seek out. People ask me all the time what we eat. The answer: We primarily eat a plant based diet, this also includes eggs (which are local), cheese (again, local) and wild fish on occasion. This is what feels responsible to us and the environment around us. And yes on occasion we may eat meat, but we are very particular about where we get that meat. The cool thing is that local ranchers sell there humanly raised meat at our farmers market as well as some of the speciality markets around town, also local restaurants are getting on board with this movement. My food philosophy is simple, I’m a foodie first (this means it must be good) but it must also be the best, healthiest ingredients possible.

Recently my husband read this great article in the news paper about eating meat, it was written by a local girl who went to the U of U, is a Mormon (Latter Day Saint, in case you don’t know what a Mormon is) an environmentalist and a vegetarian. I too thought it was an interesting article, you be the judge.
http://sltrib.com and search Leslie Conder, ‘Law of Health’ says eat meat sparingly or not at all

This is a picture I took on Earth Day of the lettuce that I planted in my garden. We grew some last year and made the best Poached Egg Salads with it… stay tuned for that recipe.

Update, I checked the local listing and Food Inc is on @ 8pm on KUED tonight, (Wednesday). I previously said 9pm, sorry for any confusion.

If you have not heard about this documentary you have probably been living under a rock! It was even nominated for an Oscar this year, it will be showing on KUED (channel 7) April 21 @ 9pm. This is an amazing film about our food and the effects on us and the environment, we all deserve to know where our food comes from and how it is treated. PLEASE if you can WATCH this Wednesday night just in time for Earth Day on Thursday. Much love, (thanx for the email Gwen).

Hello to all my new yoga friends that may be new to my blog. My goal is to provide creative, easy ,responsible recipes. I love food and I want my food choices to not only to be heart warming and comforting but healthy for in internal workings of our beautiful bodies. I’ve always been on this healthy path but a health concern made it not even an option to go any other direction. My hope is that we all find our own healthy path and maybe my recipes can help on that journey. I have a handful of recipes that I haven’t had time to blog about so please check back when you can. Namaste

I’m not even sure where to begin, we had a feeling that this leg of the trip would really affect us in a way that we didn’t fully anticipate and I have to say we haven’t been the same since. Manzanita, Oregon is one of the most incredible places that either one of us have ever been so fortunate enough to visit. It reminded us very much of the relaxed atmosphere of a little town called Hanalei on the island of Kauai. (Kauai is where my husband and I got married and is very special to our hearts) The amazing thing about Manzanita is that it has the easy going connected to nature attitude of Hanalei and the yet also has the rugged beauty of the mountains here in Utah, which really made us feel right at home.

The Coast Cabins is the name of the place where we stayed in Manzanita. Two weeks before we were getting ready to leave we still had no idea where we’d stay when we got to the coast. Our friends Nate and Alisa showed us a magazine clipping of this place, I checked it out online and is was perfect. Luckily they had those days available, woo hoo!
We ran into a one hour road delay on the way to the coast, which although was somewhat annoying was actually somewhat peaceful being in the middle of an amazing forested mountainside, but the suspense was getting to us and we couldn’t wait to see this coastal hideaway. We finally arrived and when we walked into our little studio cabin, I just started crying. This totally took my husband by surprise, and myself too actually. I think I’m a bit of a tender heart I cry at silly things, but walking into this room with the sunlight and the foilage piercing through the windows of this incredibly adorable cabin it was just breath taking and I couldn’t hold it in. It was just so warm and inviting, and after all the hours of driving to get here I just couldn’t believe the reward of what I had just layed my eyes on. Not only the cabin itself but the stunning grounds of the development just felt like we had stepped into this amazing space that we never could have imagined. We stayed in the smallest cabin the first night and then we moved to the biggest cabin for the next couple nights this was the only way they could accommodate us at such a late date. We didn’t mind having to pay more for the larger unit, after all it was my 30th birthday. The people who ran this place were like family, you got the sense from them and the cabins that this was your place, enjoy, relax and feel the love. Billy is convinced that nothing will be able to compare to this place and the way we felt there, although we did say the same thing about Kauai. The gentleman Gary (and I do mean gentleman, he had such a feeling about him) who is one of the owners, showed Billy and I one of the other cabins and told us a bit about the property, Billy loves finding out the history of the places we stay at and Gary gave us the full run down. Also Gary knew it was my birthday and when Billy and I went for a walk on the beach we came back and there was two bottles of wine and some chocolate and a little note that said Happy Birthday. One of the unique things about the Coast Cabins is they had a fire pit that they would get going every night. One night they had all the makings for smores out by the fire, shut up! Who are these sweet thoughtful host?! The funny thing is that the whole time we were there no one but us sat by that roaring fire. Can you believe that? Even when it was raining I kept that fire going, one night I sat out there with a towel and an umbrella.

For the most part while in Manzanita we ate in our cabin, however we did eat at this little bakery called The Bread and Ocean that’s only open a few nights a week for dinner and we were lucky enough to catch them for dinner the first night we got into town. Gourmet, healthy, and made with locally produced food, it was a wonderful treat for my romantic birthday dinner. I think we ordered one of everything on the menu. (It was a small menu, I promise.) Also during the week we had breakfast there and took advantage of the fresh baked daily bread specials. Another little place we visited while in town was this tiny, yet charming little wine bar called Vino, where we enjoyed an tasty cheese and cracker app and some beautiful local wines (not to mention the $12 glass of port that my husband spilled all over me….he took a picture of it first though, so at least we had that). Like I said we mostly ate in our Cabin a handful of yummy meals that I made with the produce that I picked up at the Portland farmers market and other items from this awesome Natural Foods market called Mother’s in Manzanita. I was able to get a few things there. It’s fun when you have to be creative about dinner if your only able to use a few ingredients. In the second cabin (which amazingly enough blew away the first cabin that made me cry) had this wonderful cook book sitting on the coffee table called Sweet Basil, Garlic, Tomatoes, and Chives (Shaw, 1992) it inspired me to cook two yummy healthy dinners. I loved the cook book so much that I immediately ordered myself a copy when I got home.

Manzanita is the kind of small coastal town where all the little shops close down for business at around six o’clock every night, which made for a charming yet somewhat spooky feeling as you walked through town at night. We loved to walk down to the beach at night(especially if it was raining) and it was really peaceful and yet eerily quite at the same time walking down their quite little main street to go and see the sunset on the beech. It was though we had the town to ourselves and we loved it. Manzanita will have a little piece of our hearts and we can’t wait to go back.

Thanx Manzanita, until we meet again.