Marin Mama Faves

Fall Roasted Vegetables

It finally feels like fall around here and I have to tell you that I’m happy about that. Fall is my favorite time of the year. It’s a cozy time filled with soups, stews, savory chicken dishes, big bowls of steel cut oats, and of course fall roasted veggies! Yes, I’m someone who gets excited by butternut squash, acorn squash, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and sweet potatoes! I simply adore roasted vegetables. They get all caramelized and crispy on the outside, and stay soft and tender on the inside. Roasting vegetables brings out the natural sweetness in vegetables. The sweet potatoes and squash get a bit sweeter, and the red onion sweetens considerably (especially when you use coconut oil to roast it up) and it’s bitter and pungent flavor dissipates. If you have picky eaters who are not fans of vegetables, try roasting some up and I bet they’ll be fans!

November 17, 2015 No Comments

Easy Oven Baked Brown Rice

First off I want you to know that my kids are totally obsessed with this rice, like licking their plates clean obsessed. It’s 6:00 am on Friday and I’m baking them a fresh batch for their lunches and pairing it with some leftover chicken thighs and mushrooms.

November 13, 2015 24 Comments

Homemade Vanilla Almond Milk

Almond milk is one of the easiest raw food products to make at home. I know most of you are scratching your head thinking, who wants to go though the process and hassle of making homemade almond milk when I can just buy a carton inexpensively it at the store. I totally get it, but I’ve listed a few benefits of making your own almond milk below, just incase you’re interested.

October 18, 2015 4 Comments

One-Pan Mexican Quinoa Wraps

I’m SO crazy for these wraps, like totally insanely crazy for these, and I’ve been making them non-stop for the past 3 weeks. Marin mama might need to be committed! They’re honestly my new favorite lunch and/or dinner, and the bonus is that Zoe loves them as much as I do. Yay Zoe! I’m working on Eli, as he likes these wraps, and will totally eat them, but he doesn’t crave them the way Zoe and I do. I do have to remember that he’s only 10, and his palate hasn’t totally evolved the way Zoe’s and mine has. So Eli, I’ll give you a few more years to be lukewarm to my healthy recipes! Just kidding cutie!

September 2, 2015 28 Comments

Gluten-Free Healthy Cookie Bites

School is just around the corner and I’m all about having healthy snacks in the house for the kids and their friends to chow down on after school. I don’t know about you, but my kids come home from school ravenous and immediately ask me, “Mom, what can I have for snack?” I often just tell them to open the fridge or pantry and have a go at it. If I’m home I may make them up a smoothie, or some popcorn (well, now thankfully they’re old enough make up their own smoothies and popcorn). Most afternoons though we’re running from one activity to another, so I like to have an easy and healthy grab-and-go snack, like these gluten-free cookie bites, instead of stuffing their hands with something like goldfish.

August 13, 2015 15 Comments

How to Make Homemade Croutons

For me it’s the little things that stand out and make a recipe pop, like these homemade croutons. Every time I toss these bad boys into a salad or soup, I always get compliments on how amazing the croutons are. Yes, something so simple as homemade croutons can make a recipe go from great to outstanding! They truly beat out any store-bought variety, and are a great way to use up any leftover bread you have lying around.

August 4, 2015 4 Comments

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho

It’s summer, and what soup says summer better than gazpacho, right? Gazpacho is seriously the perfect summer soup for many reasons. First off, it’s a cold soup, so it’s the perfect soup to sip on a hot summer day or night. Secondly, it doesn’t require you to heat up a stove or oven, which is bonus when it’s 90 plus degrees out. I call it the lazy mans soup because when your tired and famished all you have to do is pull out a batch from the fridge, pour it in a bowl and eat away. It’s also a great weekday soup because it takes under 30 minutes to make, just chop up the fresh ingredients and toss them in a blender! Make a batch in the morning while the kids are eating breakfast, or before you rush off to work, and when you come home all tired from a long day, you dinner will be ready! How nice does that sound?

July 30, 2015 2 Comments

Quinoa with tomatoes and cucumber and parsley and mint

Quinoa with Tomatoes, Cucumber, Parsley and Mint

This is the perfect healthy summer salad! It’s chock-full of fresh herbs, cucumbers and tomatoes, which are at their ripest in the summer months. I used heirloom tomatoes for this recipe, and let me tell you, this salad was BURSTING FULL OF FLAVOR! I might even say that it was a bit better the next day when all of the flavors had a chance to meld together!

July 10, 2015 2 Comments

Easy Overnight Hot Quinoa and Steel Cut Oats

Yes, I’m a bit obsessed with breakfast! It’s my absolute favorite meal of the day! I love starting out the day with an easy, tasty, hot and healthy power-filled breakfast, and this cereal fits the bill. It’s a blend of quinoa and steel-cut oats, (which in my eyes and tummy is pure perfection) that can be made the night before, (in under 6 minutes) which is even better. All you have to do come morning is turn on the stove and re-heat the cereal, easy peasy.

June 16, 2015 9 Comments