Raspberry Heart
We’re getting into the Halloween Spirit here at the Natural Epicurean!
Raspberry Coulis + Nut Milk Bag = freakishly cool/gross heart.
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead Interview
Hello friends!
TONIGHT! Joe Cross from the inspiring documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead joins me on my radio show- The [All Natural] with Tanner O’Dell
Listen live online from anywhere in the world by visiting kzum.org. If you’re in the Lincoln Nebraska area, KZUM 89.3 is the place to be. 
6:30-7:00 pm CST! Talk to you soon.
Interview with Grayson Schmitz from Top Chef Texas
Join me tonight at 6:30 pm CST for an interview with Grayson Schmitz from Top Chef Texas! She’ll be calling into my radio show to give you the Top Chef scoop, and talk about what’s been going on since the show. If you’re a foodie, then don’t forget to tune in!
photo from graysonschmitz.com
Listen live from anywhere in the world on kzum.org or tune your radio to 89.3 KZUM if you’re in the Lincoln Nebraska area.
The podcast will be available a few days after the show!
If you have questions for Grayson, leave them in the comments!
Asparagus Obsession Leads to….
I’m slightly obsessed!
With this veggie really shoving spring into our faces, I can’t help but eat it almost every day of the week! It’s easy to cook, easy to eat, and easy to love. The only thing about it is you can only take so much of the same thing. Most of us find a way we like to eat certain foods and we cook that same recipe until we kill it…until everyone is screaming for you to stop because they know what’s coming for dinner.
So how do you keep asparagus interesting? Well here’s a couple simple ideas
#1 
Turn your asparagus into a refreshing salad!
Ingredients
- 1 bundle fresh Asparagus spears, snapped or trimmed to remove the tough ends
- 1/3 cup quinoa cooked in 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 tsp salt.
- 1 red bell pepper, Julienned
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
- 1/3 cup feta cheese
- enough Lemon Vinaigrette to dress the salad
How To
- Bring a big pot of water to a boil and start getting your asparagus ready! Snap each spear or trim the woody end off, then using a sharp knife simply slice each spear in half length wise. (You don’t necessarily have to slice them in half, but I like it better that way!) Then when your asparagus is prepped just put it into the boiling water and blanch for about 1 minute. Blanching is just a fancy word for quickly boiling. After the minute is up you want to “shock” the asparagus in an ice bath, which is just a bunch of ice water in a bowl. This will stop the cooking and cool down the asparagus getting it ready for the salad. Pat the spears dry, and then add them to a bowl to assemble the salad!
- Cook your quinoa until tender and all of the water has been absorbed, then allow it to cool. You can rinse it in ice water to quickly cool it off. Then add it into the bowl with the asparagus.
- You have a couple of options with the red pepper after you thinly slice it. You can quickly sauté it with a bit of olive oil for some added flavor, roast it with a bit of olive oil at 425 degrees for about 7 minutes, or leave it raw in the salad. I personally like it roasted, but feel free to do whatever you would like. Once it’s prepared how you want, (let it cool if it’s been cooked) put it into the salad bowl!
- Now you can toast the almonds, which it extremely simple! Using a small sauté pan, just allow the almonds to toast until they turn a golden color and you can easily smell them. I do this on medium high heat, with no oil in the pan. Careful because they can go from perfectly toasted to burnt in no time!
- To toss the salad just add the almonds in along with the feta cheese and then lightly dress with the lemon vinaigrette. This salad is best served the same day it’s made, but if you do make it ahead of time, just keep the feta, almonds, and vinaigrette separate until serving time.
The sky is the limit when turning your asparagus into a salad. You can add any ingredients you would like and create your own unique salad. Make sure to share your pictures with me if you make something!
Make sure to share your pictures with me if you make something!If you have questions about this recipe tweet me or leave a comment below!
#2
Asparagus Frozen Yogurt!!
Yea…I went there. And honestly I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like it, but man was I wrong! The asparagus flavor just excites your taste buds and boggles your mind. I can’t wait for you to try this out! Plus it’s crazy easy to make…and you can always make it dairy free! One of my tricks for jazzing up ice cream is buying a plain fat-free and no sugar added frozen yogurt…then adding great flavors to it. Strawberry rhubarb, sweet potato or beet ice creams are just a few ingredients away when you steal my tip.
Ingredients
- 2 cups fat-free, no sugar added frozen yogurt. (to make this dairy free, just substitute almond or coconut milk ice cream)
- 1 bundle fresh Asparagus spears
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt (You can use almond or coconut yogurt)
How To
- Start by putting the 2 cups of frozen yogurt into a mixing bowl. Allow it to soften while you prep your asparagus!
- In this recipe I only use the top 3-4 inches of the asparagus to make sure they are extremely tender. So slice your asparagus spears and blanch them just like in the recipe above! That means drop them in boiling water for about 1 minute, and then move them to an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Next just pat them dry once you take them out of the ice bath and add them to your blender or food processor.
- Add the yogurt to the asparagus in the blender or food processor and puree until it’s nice and smooth. To make the puree extremely smooth you can press it through a sieve after your done mixing!
- Now just add the asparagus mixture to the frozen softened yogurt and mix well! You can easily just swirl the asparagus mixture into it as well to create a white on green look with your ice cream. Taste the asparagus frozen yogurt mixture before you put it into the freezer. If it’s too strong of a flavor for you, just add a bit more frozen yogurt to mellow it out. Then let it freeze back up for a couple of hours and serve!
If I were you I would feed this ice cream to our friend and have them guess what the flavor is.
Tweet me or comment below with questions!
What are your favorite asparagus recipes?
One of my favorite things to do is just simply roast the spears. I love the two recipes above, but there is almost nothing better than asparagus lightly coated in olive oil, sprinkled with salt, pepper, and lemon zest, then roasted at 425 for 7-10 minutes. Yep there’s a little bonus recipe for you. Finish them off with a bit of fresh lemon juice and YES! delicious.
Talk to you all soon! Enjoy your asparagus! (we could get into the whole smelly pee thing…but thats another blog. and it’s gross)
Oh The People You Meet!
Hey everyone!
Sorry about the lack of blogs lately…and if you’re wondering how GREAT the UCLA Extension Restaurant Industry Conference was, don’t worry there is a podcast coming your way.
For now here’s a couple of pictures for you from the conference! Yes…it’s okay to be jealous.
First here I am with the morning keynote Chip Conley. He’s a very famous hotelier and told great stories while really teaching you how to connect with your emotions. He talked about how in the business world we seem to forget that we are ALL human. Find his book, emotional equations, everywhere that books are sold! I’m working on booking him as a guest on my radio show, so stay tuned for that!
Next is me with one of my idols, Danny Meyer! He is THE restaurateur and owner of the Union Square Hospitality Group. If you don’t know who he is…well you can visit the link I gave you, but if you call yourself a foodie Danny Meyer is someone you have to keep up with. His keynote talk at the conference was just plain awesome and inspiring. I’ll be trying to book him on my radio show as well!
Finally is a picture of me with the great Charles Aeh! Last year I met him on an airplane! he’s the whole reason I discovered this conference and was able to be a speaker last year. The advice he gave me this year is priceless “Don’t go too fast”
I always feel like I need to be as successful as fast as possible…but the truth is I’m just excited to take it slow, take in everything I can, and generously give without expecting anything in return. Thank you Charlie for all your help and support!
There is a podcast to come surrounding this conference, so look out for that!
Thanks for sticking with me through this busy time! I can’t wait for some new things to launch here in the next couple months. You’ll love it all!
Healthy No Bake Cookies!
My girlfriend @Marahartt inspired me to make these cookies!
because my experience with no bake cookies looks like this:
They just weren’t very pleasant…..Too sweet, Crazy texture, and nothing like a cookie. Plus they were no where close to healthy since they were packed with powdered sugar, sweetened coconut, and milk chocolate.
Well welcome to my world folks, where I make recipes as healthy as possible. Those cookies above (if you can even call them cookies) were a thing of the past. (occasionally i’m in the mood for unhealthy…but that’s another blog.) The no bake cookies I’ve created for you today are Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Vegan, and just plain wonderful. If that doesn’t sell you though, I have some powerful ingredients just waiting to make you happy and healthy.
Introducing! The new and improved: Healthy No Bake Cookie
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup toasted shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 cup ground flax seed
- 1/2 cup dairy free semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup raw unsalted almond butter
- 1/3 cup Agave Nectar
- 2 tbsp. Chia Seeds
- 2 tbsp. minced crystalized ginger
- 1/4 cup dried goji berries
- 2 tbsp. Black currant juice
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Why ground Flax Seed?
Many nutrition experts prefer ground flax seed over whole flax seed because the ground is easier for our bodies to digest. In this recipe I needed something to bind the cookies together, and the health benefits of Flax Seed made it my number one choice. Flax seed is full of fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and phytochemicals called lignans.
Why Chia Seeds?
I’m a lover of chia seeds because they really give you a boost of energy…that lasts! But that’s not the only benefit of putting these in my recipe. Chia seeds also have more omega-3′s than Atlantic Salmon, more antioxidants than fresh blueberries, and more calcium then 2% milk. I try to sneak chia seeds into everything that I can. More recipes will come with these as the star.
Why Goji Berries?
More and more people are using these berries…and honestly…I just wanted to try them in a recipe! I have never used them before, so I thought this was the perfect time! The cool thing though is goji berries are packed with nutritional benefits: tons of Antioxidants, essential minerals, amino acids and 4 unique polysaccharides (complex carbohydrates). I bought my goji berries dehydrated..and then I rehydrated them in black currant juice. Feel free to rehydrate them in whatever liquid you would like! If you can’t find these tasty little berries…dried cranberries are and excellent alternative!
How To
- Start by re-hydrating the goji berries in the black currant juice. You can really use any kind of juice, or even water to re-hydrate the berries…black currant juice is just what I had available. Place the berries into a small bowl and then cover with the liquid for about 30 minutes.
- In a nice sized bowl, mix the oats, toasted coconut, ground flax seed, chocolate chips, chia seeds, and ginger. (to toast the coconut, spread it out on a small baking sheet and toast at 425 degrees for about 5 minutes, or until nicely browned…but not burned!) …also, make sure to chop the crystalized ginger into very small pieces. This is a sticky ingredient, so I like to use scissors and snip small pieces right into the bowl.
- Once the goji berries are nice and plump, drain them from the juice remaining in the bowl and then add them to the mix. give it a quick toss and then get ready to add the next ingredients!
- In goes the almond butter, Agave, and vanilla. Using a silicon spatula, just gently mix all of the ingredients together!
- Once everything is nicely incorporated…use a 1 tbsp. measure and make your cookies. This recipe makes about 30. Roll each tbsp. full of the cookie mix into a ball and then flatten it into a round cookie shape.
- I place my finished cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet, and then refrigerate them for at least 2 hours.
Once these healthy no bake cookies are finished…share them with a friend, eat them with your breakfast, eat them as a snack, eat them as dessert, eat them on a bus, eat them on a plane, eat them on a jog, eat them at a party….
Obviously there are no limits here.
Feel free to experiment with other dried fruits or berries…chopped apricots, mango, or blueberries would be fantastic in these cookies!
Make sure to tweet me with your questions.
If you like this recipe and what I do here on my blog, leave a comment below!
