Diet Food?

BAH. just straight up BAH. Kitchen Ninja has been getting her ass kicked in the gym for the past month and a half. This is the reason for the recent delicious recipe drought.

Now, 18 lbs lighter, Kitchen Ninja has to figure out how to cook healthy and delicious food, because Special K for three meals a day is NOT going to cut it. It's like learning to cook from scratch. Instead of potato gratin with cheesy amazingness, I'm roasting Yukon gold potatoes with lots of caramelized onions and thyme. Instead of brussel sprouts with walnuts and smoky bacon, it's grilled pepper asparagus.

Here's my recipe for potatoes in an onion sauce.

10 Baby Yukon Potatoes, halved

1/2 red onion

2 Tbsp olive oil

thyme

garlic

salt

pepper

chives

1/2 cup water

1. Pan on medium heat, add olive oil, garlic, onions, thyme, salt & pepper. Allow onions to start browning.

2. Add Potatoes, toss in onion mixture. Put lid on pan.

3. Once potatoes start crisping and sticking to pan, lift lid, toss water in, and close lid. Allow to simmer for 5 mins.

4.Serve with chives sprinkled on top.

The late addition of the water causes the onions to form a sauce that is pretty close to french onion soup flavor - minus the butter. Just don't leave the lid off - this will cause all the steamy goodness to escape and we wouldn't want that.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Kitchen Ninja is ALSO a Garden Ninja. Surprise!

No surprise to most people who know me, I am the girl that trucked a tomato plant all the way from KS to GA *sorry Sarah* and a Ranunculus plant all the way from LA to Kansas *sorry The Call friends*.

so, this spring I started Roquette Arugula, Spinach, Butter Crunch Lettuce, and a mixture of red leaf lettuce seeds. Today, I planted them out in containers on my porch. yay for Sunshine! I've also got snow peas going (you can see those little suckers poking their heads out of the dirt in one of the pictures above). There's also zucchini, heirloom tomatoes, morning glorys, thyme, lavender, chives, brussel sprouts, and spring onions.

I'm a fan of using cardboard egg containers to start seeds, then just planting the seedlings in the "cup". It'll break down in the soil and it spares those tiny roots from any extra handling.

There's nothing more rewarding than growing these from seeds, and then eventually making my spaghetti sauce from them in August. It makes me want to sing "the circle of life". Yes, dear readers, Kitchen Ninja is a nerd.