#beets are a GREAT snack if it is hot out & you want something cold but with vitamins in it. going to get more beets today...

[pegglefan69]

lately when Eri comes over I'm like 'would you like a cup of tea. would you like some beets. let me make sure the thing I'm knitting you is going to fit.' granny behavior on my part.

[rederiswrites]

Red’s top veggies to start with:

So you wanna grow some veggies for the first time, but you have very little space/very little sunshine/very little patience?  Here are some of my favorite picks for

Quick gratification (relatively):

Radishes-- Goes from seed to eating in as little as a month, which is about as fast as it gets. If you don’t like spicy then a) read variety descriptions and find a mild one, b) keep them well watered and don’t let them get big, or c) cook them. They stir fry nicely, and cooking takes out the heat. 

Rattail radishes-- For something a little more space consumptive but lots of fun, look these up. It’s a radish plant, and it tastes like radish, but the part you’re eating--is the immature seed pod. So like, a radish green bean. They’ve always been ridiculously prolific producers for me, IF you keep the pods picked clean and don’t let them mature. Also, they’re pretty:

Lettuce-- Even the big varieties rarely take more than a foot square fully grown. Loose leaf is less fussy, and can be harvested a bit at a time. 30 to 50 days to maturity (garden speak for time from seed to eating, presuming decent conditions. For example, if you planted quite early in spring, the cold weather would probably slow the plant’s growth).

High yield in a small space:

Beets-- Okay I know, not a super popular veggie, because people are wrong and mislead. If you think you don’t like the flavor of beets, I suggest you a) pick some up fresh at the store and try them with a good recipe. Maybe glazed with carrots. Or, b) Try yellow beets. They’re sweeter, and have significantly less of that distinctive “dirt” flavor. Meanwhile, beets are a high calorie, high nutrient crop that grows quickly in a small space, and if that’s not compelling enough, you can eat the greens too, so there’s basically no waste.

Kohlrabi-- Don’t know it? You should. Oh man. So you know how a ton of the veggies we eat are just the logical extreme of a wild mustard plant? Collards and cabbage are all leaf, broccoli and cauliflower all bud, turnips all root? Well, kohlrabi is all stem. Fucken wild, right? And inside, that stem is sweet crunchy solidly edible flesh-- we eat it like carrot sticks, but also good for soups, salads, stir fries...also you can eat the leaves like collards, so again, no waste. They’re fast, problem free growers.

Green beans-- if you have a south wall you can trellis on, or room enough, you can grow runner beans and those are even heavier yielding, but I generally get pounds of green beans off a few bush plants, and they need less than a square foot per plant. Do read carefully to see if your chosen seeds are runner or bush, though, because it makes a big difference to their growth requirements. They’re more prone to pests than the other things I’ve mentioned, so you might have to do some research into your local problems. But then--green beans. Green beans good.

Tomatoes-- A three gallon pot of snacking tomatoes will be all the snacking tomatoes you want. Great patio/balcony plant. 

Not a lot of sun

Leaf lettuce-- Yes, again. Leafy greens generally can usually grow in part shade, and lettuce even benefits from it in hot weather during summer. Most leafy greens will do alright in partial shade, so also pak choy, mustard, ets.

Carrots-- carrots are in some ways not a great beginner crop, because they need good, loose soil. I usually prepare a special carrot bed every year with extra compost and a good dose of sand, and, since I have clay soil, I dig that in quite deeply. BUT they aren’t bothered by partial shade, really.

Leafy herbs-- not the Mediterranean ones like thyme and rosemary, but parsley, cilantro, chives, chervil, and lovage do well in partial shade, and of course the flavor they provide is a disproportionately effective addition to your diet.

There are a lot more; this is deliberately a small dose of information. For those already interested, I strongly recommend digging into a good book, of which there are many. Each plant has its own needs, and you can no more treat two vegetables the same than you can care the same way for a cat and a dog. But that also means that there’s probably at least one vegetable for every situation.

[plus-ultra-oneshots]

Night In {TamakiXFemale!Reader Headcannons}

-Headcannons for Tamaki X Female!Reader, cuddles, domestic stuff, and general wholesomeness while you two spend a night in together in Tamaki's dorm room-

.:+:.

You two originally intended to have dinner with Mirio and Nejire- only to arrive in the common area and find your quiet meal had been taken over by a few of the more bright and friendly students in your class. It had become... Lively

Actually it was VERY lively- there had been some playful tossing of chips and food, a little wrestling, a lot of noise and movement.

There were too many people, too many voices, too much noise, too much movement- it was honestly too much, and you felt Tamaki tense up the instant the two of you saw what was happening.

Poor Tamaki wasn't really suited for something like that, and you knew it well- so, change of plans!

You tugged on his arm gently, pulling him back from the doorway with a smile and suggested you two just skip the dinner and head to your room instead to relax.

He was hesitant to go- he didn't want you to miss out on the meal or hanging out with everyone for his sake, sweet boy he was. He hastily assured you it was fine and he'd be okay to head in, putting on his bestest brave face and a smile that was trying so hard to be sure- but he was nervous still, but he tried.

"I-I'll be okay, (Y/N)... Don't worry about me... It'll b-be okay... L-let's go in..."

That beautiful boy was willing to head into a room that would be nothing less than torture on his nerves, and he would do it readily for you- and only you.

Your heart swelled at it. What did you do to deserve him?

You assured him it was alright, and told him you didn't really wanna deal with all the commotion. He hesitated a little more,

".... A... Are you sure...?"

"Yep!"

He smiled faintly and nodded in agreement, the two of you heading away, your arm in Tamaki's. He suggested going back to his room instead since he'd have snacks in his room you two could eat in place of the dinner. He brought the idea up quietly, eyes down and blushing at himself as he said it- and you smiled more at it and the flush on his cheeks, readily agreeing to the idea.

(Mirio 100% saw you two head away with your arms linked together, and he grinned as you both retreated, chuckling to himself)

Tamaki was quick to make sure you had snacks, were comfortable, and had something to drink when you got there. He darted about nervously and fumbled a lot, but he meant well and was being kind and attentive in his own nervous way

He asks a dozen times if you're okay or if you want anything, his eyes darting nervously here and there. You assure him a dozen times and more, and tell him everything is perfect- the small, fleeting smile on his face each time you do it is just so damn CUTE

And then it's even cuter when, after and hour or two of content chatter between you two (and he's relaxed a bit), his face flushes slightly and he taps his fingers together nervously as he asks if maybe you wanna watch a movie or something...?

"A movie sounds great."

"o-oh... Okay..! W-what would you... Like to watch, (Y/N)....?"

"Whatever you pick will be perfect."

"Ah... O-okay...."

He totally picks some cliche, predictable, feel-good movie. Something like what you'd find on the Hallmark channel- you know it just can't have anything even sorry of scary in it, he'd have a heart attack

He sets the movie up, and brings out the spare futon he has in the closet. He piles on blankets and pillows, again making sure you're comfortable, not too hot, not too cold, everything.

At first when he settles down on the futon and the pillows he puts some space between you and him and doesn't get too close. He's a nervous bean, he can't help himself, but he totally keeps glancing back and forth at you and not really paying much attention to the movie.

You help him out a little by pushing yourself closer to him, and pulling some pillows up with you to stack them behind you both and the wall.

You're sitting shoulder to shoulder now, touching but only just- but even the little bit is enough to have him blushing again.... But he doesn't move

Ten minutes later he relaxes enough he shifts an inch or two in your direction, his body sinking out of the slightly stiff posture he adopted out of sheer instinct

Eventually he sort of forgot about being nervous at all, he just enjoyed the movie and the warmth of you next to him

When you started to nod off he noticed right away, he saw your head bob a bit too much and you jerked yourself back from the edge of a doze. You righted yourself with a small sigh, unaware of Tamaki's glittering gaze stuck to you for a few seconds, before his lips pulled in nervousness.

"U-uhm.... You can.... L-lean on my shoulder... I-if you want... (Y/N)...." He suggests, his voice barely more than a hushed whisper as he says it, and his face definitely a little more than red. He can't really seem to catch your eyes right then either, he looks away nervously the whole time- but you hardly care.

You waste no time in pulling closer to him, snuggling yourself against his shoulder and threading your arms around his. His red as a beet for it, but he doesn't resist or pull away, he just let's you get comfortable

He doesn't say anything after that, and neither do you- you're asleep pretty fast, and for awhile he tries to focus on the movie... Totally can't though

You are super warm, and your hair smells like sweet, fruity shampoo.

It's a really nice smell, so much so he's turned toward you and buried his nose in your hair without even thinking about it. He drinks in the warmth, the softness of your hair tickling his cheeks and neck

He moves his free arm toward you and reaches across to twine his fingers delicately with a few strands of your hair, before that hand falls and finds a place on top of one of yours.

The movie is nothing but a drone in the back of his mind after that, his eyes drop closed and he just let's himself fade away into the warmth of your body against his

You two snuggle in more as Tamaki begins to dose off too, the boy eventually hugging you into his chest, your head tucked under his chin and completely wrapped up in his hold

Without a doubt best nights sleep either of you has had in a long, long time

Nothing but warmth and sweet dreams... And Tamaki never stops hugging you the whole night through

.:+:.

A Request from someone on the My Hero Academia Amino

PLUS-ULTRA-oneshots Masterlist

[original-idiots]

Batfam Social Media: Waynes’ World YT #3

- because of popular demand they finally did a behind the scenes of dance vids Cas and Adri go around the city scouting and taking photographs of locations for the videos and then cut to them creating the choreo (sometimes with Dick or Reina or Steph) and to Adri and Damian composing, recording and mixing the songs to dance to.

- The great Gotham bake off started off as a joke. Dick tweeted he would do anything for a slice of the best chocolate cake. And suddenly the manor, his apartment and his office were receiving package after package, box after box of chocolate cake. Some were pretty good, some were downright horrible, and some were so suspicious Tim took to analyzing all of them for poison or crazy fan dna.

- the winner of best cake though was an ugly ass cake no one even bothered with for days until Jason decided to try it during a tea time video and he literally spaced out so long, Adri worried he was poisoned. Then he proceeded to scarf it down and fight off everyone who tried to steal a piece. Eventually he let them have a taste and it was declared winner. The tea time room though? Totaled.

- Bruce gave them one rule in allowing them all to go to the Gotham ComicCon. They werent allowed to use their suits. So they used each others. Dick went as Robin, pixie boots, scaly panties and all. Cass went as a Signal, Duke went as Spoiler, Steph was Nightwing. Tim deviated by dressing as Alfred (moustache and white hair included). Adri was the Red Hood and Damien would only accept Adri’s Nightingale armor.

-actually he wanted Batman but Jason stole it first. No legit, he stole Bruce’s REAL Batman suit and proceeded to brood and scowl at everything. He even won a contest for best impression but then needed a dozen throat lozenges the day after.

- during the summer of Gotham, everyone took to stripping around the manor. Yes they had centralized cold air but somehow it was still hot and everyone would take off shirts and just wear shorts and sports bras. It didnt really bother anyone except Alfred who conceded when he found the need to take off his own jacket. But then Tim and Adri went for coffee with Babs uptown. And Tim forgot they were in public and took his shirt off.

- the pics went viral for a solid 30 minutes before he took them all down...until Babs started reuploading them again.

- on Barbara’s Birthday she got tremendously wasted. Dick was right there with her, Jason was well on his way and Steph was already singing Kumbaya on the rooftop of the manor with Tim asleep next to her. Adri was holding Kate’s hair back in the bathroom and Damian went out on patrol because they wouldn’t let him drink. Meanwhile Cas and Duke took all the pictures.

- Gotham Nights 2 followed Tim, Dick, Adri and Bruce as they went on nightshifts at work. Jason was Adri’s camera man, and Cas was Dick’s for his a bust in Bludhaven. At Wayne Tower, Tim and Bruce were providing insight and facts about the company and it was going so well until a new intern spoke the forbidden words of the tower. “Sorry Mr. Drake sir, we’re out of coffee” and it all went downhill from there.

- because of how much Alfred was seen prepping snacks and readying coats in the last video, people requested to see a day in the life of the Wayne’s ever reliable butler Alfred Pennyworth. It was all really wholesome, talking about cleaning, cooking and his favorite things, until he showed pictures from when Bruce was young, and from when Thomas Wayne was young and everyone in the comics went batshit over how Alfred didnt ever age in them.

-thus the hashtag #AlfredIsImmortal came to be.

- it was Steph (off duty) who decided she wanted to go “vigilante hunting”. It was Adri, Cass and Duke that gave no arguments. Only, they didnt tell Jason, Dick, Tim or Damian who were on patrol that night what they were doing. Imagine Jason tensed up on his sniper’s nest paranoid that someone could see him, suddenly hearing. “OHMYGOSH GUYS WE CAUGHT THE RED HOOD!”

- The Solheim vlogs became a quick favorite because not only were viewers getting inside the world of the Royal Morgensonne family, Adri had brought over a hundred of the refugees of her country who were staying in Gotham back home for the Midsummer festival.

- but of course, these are the Waynes. Because Bruce gavr the private jet for use of the refugees, they took a commercial flight which got delayed. It was fine until Steph and Tim got bored and found a costume shop.

- when they go to Castle Morgensonne, Dick saw the tallest tower and decided to accept the challenge. What challenge? Exactly. He climbed it then proceeded to dive off it into the loch below. The others followed and the staff were so scared they thought there were ghosts in the tower. Until Adri climbed up there with them and yelled it’s okay. And if the princess approves, why not?

- while some of them went on a traditional Midsummer hunt with Adri and her brother the King, Tim and Duke decided to have a photoshoot in the nightbloom fields east of the castle where the grass and leaves of the wildflowers are such a dark green they almost appear black. They get incredible pics and also get incredibly lost until someone from the hunting party accidentally fires at them with an arrow, thinking they’re game.

- “Yeah, accidentally.”Jason said at the end.

-because they all watched the movie Midsomar together everyone was a little skeptical of all the flower fileds and maypole dancing and singing and Jason and Tim went full crackhead after drinking something they were offered and kept declaring they were ready to join the cult. It turns out it was just crushed beets and they were just being stupid. But Damian wasnt going to tell them that when he offered it to them.

- the Solheim tradition of black items being burned in a central bonfire commenced, Dick drank some of the “crazy juice” and Cass was crowned Mayqueen for being the best dancer.

-Duke was also given a gift because the band heard him singing along and brought him up on the stage.

-when they got back everyone realized Tim had mislabelled the number of at least five prerecorded videos that were posted while they were in Solheim and gave him soooo much shit about it he said fuck it and started numbering them with ridiculous equations, random symbols and letters or, just not at all.

-also when they got back Commisioner Gordon got jacked.

- Dick notices it one night on the roof of the GCPD, Gordon takes off his coat and the sleeves and buttons of his shirt are HANGING ON FOR DEAR LIFE. Batman and the Comissioner are trying to have a serious discussion and Nightwing is poking Gordon’s biceps. “When did you get these?!”

- the next day Dick invaded the GCPD gym with a camera to film him during a workout and LORD. The onlie thirst was real, Barbara found it so funny she made it go viral herself.

____________

Part 1

Part 2

[ofcloudsandstars]

✧ *.🎃Samhain Solitary Rituals🎃*✧

As the air grows cooler and the winds begin to howl and rip the dead leaves from trees, we know the veil is thin and Samhain is near! After the equinox, which was equal parts night and day, Samhain marks the time of the wheel that we descend into the darker half of the year. It's this time of the year that communication and connection to the spirit world is a lot easier and we've grown accustomed to making wards to protect the home from malevolent energy in the form of jack o lanterns and lights. On a positive note it is a time to leave out treats and foods for passed away loved ones and to remember them. It's the final harvest full of well spiced comfort autumn foods as well as a 'New Year' since it's a sabbat that honors the natural cycle of death and sees it as a form of transformation.

A lot of us witches practice alone and have our own solitary rituals for each sabbat that we observe (or the ones we’ve created just for ourselves that we observe alone!) Like any solitary eclectic witch I do things my own different way but some of these things might line up with others practices. I do refer to some of the equinoxes/solstices/crossquarters by their celtic sabbat names but I celebrate them in a secular animist way and treat the wheel of the year I celebrate as more of an argrarian cycle and celebrating nature. I use sabbat names as a point of reference and also people that do celebrate these witches sabbats more traditionally might find value in my personal practice!  Here is my personal correspondences post and my personal samhain tag!

When I am alone and casting spells a lot of it is visualization/intent so my solitary rituals are more like activities I like to do then specifically casting a spell. If I am doing a spell with an activity based on it a lot would be listening to music to get in the mood and focusing on a candle while visualizing for a period of time! Eves are also important to my celebration as I like to stay up until midnight and cast a spell then!

Hallow's Eve

Tuesday October 31st 2017

Dressing up in your most witchiest Ok every year I'm a witch, whether it's just a lazy witch in my black clothing or an over the top kitschy witch with colorful hair and electric colored make up, but I just like to have these looks casually on Halloween day cause its amazing and a chance for me to be myself!

Pumpkin Carving! If you haven't already tonight is definitely the night for pumpkin carving! Write sigils inside your pumpkin for protective magic. I love this DIY for a pumpkin indoor lantern cause it shows how to rub spices like cinnamon and nutmeg inside to achieve that sent of pumpkin pie in the home. Use electric candles instead of flame if you want it to last the night since the flame's heat will cook the pumpkin.

Mini Pumpkin Tea lights Also an easier alternative to carving if you don't have much time. Even gutting the mini pumpkins takes a lot of time for me but doing so and filling them with a black tea light will make an excellent centerpiece either for your altar or feast table!

Making Candy Apples I associate candy coated sweet red apples with halloween (and caramel/maple sugar on granny smith for mabon) and I love how you can make the candy various colors like a poisonous black or vibrant blood red!

Setting sweets aside for spirits So everyone has spirits that chill with them and it would be great to show appreciation for the positive spirits that surround you. Set some sweets on a dish and make a tiny altar for them in your space.

Enjoying sweets while doing crafts! Enjoy some of that halloween candy for yourself! My favorite treats on this night are chocolate coated donuts, reeses cups, cider sugar donuts, red licorice and apple cider.

Watching a spooky or Halloween themed movie Or halloween themed film. My favorite will always be the 80s halloween special The Worst Witch with Tim curry. I watch it religiously.

Spirit Contact I wouldn't suggest using an Ouija board or doing any communication with spirits if you have never had experience. They can be rude and harass you, YET if you are experienced and know how to guard yourself, then this is a great night to play with an ouija board! (PS I think Ouija Girl has a great informative blog about working with ouija boards. Here is her FAQ page. But still, it's always better to do work with a medium or someone with experience than trying to figure it out alone). A safer experience for someone with no spirit communication experience is attending a seance! In NYC there are a few mediums that hold seances monthly. I love the one at Catland in Brooklyn, the mediums that host the event there are fantastic. It might be hard to attend an authentic one on Halloween night since a lot of people will want to just try to cash in on creating a 'spooky' experience, but if you really want, try to get in contact with mediums and ask if they host any seance events. Important to know: usually the spirits that chill around you are guides and family and they might have more info to give you then you might be ready for. My first seance I really don't know what to do with the info given to me but I really hope I make the best of it and don't mess anything up.

Witches Flight This is like an extension of the previous point where if you have never done this before just completely disregard this suggestion cause flying is dangerous. For many years witches have flown on Halloween night to other realms using flying ointments.

Protective Magic: Finally, protect yourself from the high spirit activity with crystals like black tourmaline, obsidian and spirit quartz. Do protective spells for any cats you see or live with especially black cats since they tend to be targets.   

Midnight Spell:

This sabbat honors the natural cycle of death and transformation. Focus on what you want to transform in your life. Magic on this night is very powerful so think about it before hand and make sure it is what you want for if you ask to transform something, you might find a lot of endings that suddenly occur in your life to lead to the transformations that you want. (There was a conversation on here I can no longer find but it was put  really nicely that death is not just some simple 'transformative' process it can be very drastic, often very uncomfortable and if you are not ready though you ask for something to change, you might not be ready for the new obstacles that will be thrown at you. Just know that you will be ready for what you ask for.)

Some spell activities can be shuffling the deck visualizing what you want to change and then finding the death card and seeing the card that follows will be your answer to seek how you can further bring that transformation closer.

I'm a mixologist and enjoy working with liquor for rituals. I find fire to be a great transformer yet instead of burning something I prefer blessing a shot of whiskey or absinthe with my intent then taking it like liquid fire to transform me within. If you do not like alcohol or can not drink it for whatever reason you can perform this with hot apple cider instead!

Samhain Day

Wednesday, November 1st 2017

Upon the day I like to dress in complete black. My makeup is very dark and I wear long black dresses and veils. Depending on how you want to honor the dead, dress how you wish.

Gravesweeping Visit your loved ones on this day and leave flowers and gifts on their grave! If you want you can also visit any cemetery, yet make sure to practice good graveyard etiquette. Leave a penny by the gate, do not sit or lean on any tomb stones, of course don't take anything from a grave. Be respectful of those whom are resting.

Close Your Garden This is a time to close the garden for the winter to come. Harvest the last fruits and herbs and bring in any delicate potted plants within the home.

Shadow Work Especially if you are looking to transform some aspect of your life this is a great time to do shadow work and look within if you are creating any obstacles for yourself. Get to know your shadow self, get to solve problems together. This is also an excellent day for divination and scrying.

Meditation and Energy Work by the base of a tree I love to do energy work on the days of the sabbats yet as the earth grows colder, the roots dig deeper and the world goes into hibernation. Sit at the base of a tree preferably with thick roots and feel it's connection to the cold earth beneath you. Dig into yourself and see what needs to rest and what needs to be healed.

Evening Celebratory Feast

So in many practices people like to host a dumb supper but instead I like to have a lively feast where everyone will share a story about someone they loved that passed away or a story of an ancestor in their family. At the end of each tale we toast our glasses to them! (And pour a little bit of drink to them or set aside a snack if they are not into alcohol.)

Hold a feast of rich comfort foods that are spiced and sweet like sweet potato mash, candied brown beans, pumpkin bread, smokey bourbon pulled pork or maple glazed beef brisket, roasted carrots and beets and (I personally love to make baked mac and cheese but its a fall comfort soul food for me). My Samhain feast is abundant with fall soul foods and sweet roots and spices. (here is a fantasy feast post and my personal feast post from last year)

If you are alone (as this is a solitary post), make a few fall dishes you deeply enjoy or cook the favorites of loved relatives that have passed away, eat some sweets and set out some offerings to passed away loved ones.

[gethealthy18-blog]

My Favorite Healthy Shelf-Stable Foods for Stocking the Pantry

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My Favorite Healthy Shelf-Stable Foods for Stocking the Pantry

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I’ve written about how to stock up a real food kitchen, and that includes a whole list of fresh fruits, veggies, almond milk, and eggs that last in the fridge for a few days.

But what about pantry staples that will last much longer than that? If you don’t typically rely on processed foods or a lot of grains or beans, what can you keep in the pantry for those quick meals on a busy night?

Fortunately, there’s plenty of healthy shelf-stable foods that will last just as long. Here’s my list of nonperishable foods that I like to have on hand for quick snacks and easy meals in a pinch, not to mention an emergency stash.

My Favorite Healthy Shelf-Stable Foods

If you took a peek inside my pantry, you’d find all kinds of on-the-go snacks, supplements, drinks, and more. For years I made many of these from scratch, and still do, but there are so many great natural food brands widely available now at places like Costco and Thrive Market that I’ve built up a stash of favorite convenience items too.

It’s always good to be prepared! Here’s a list of my favorites I always stock up on.

Beef Jerky

Everyone loves beef jerky (especially my kids!), but it can be hard to find a healthy version. Most brands are full of nitrates, chemicals, and artificial preservatives. Instead, I stock up on:

Paleovalley Beef Sticks: I love these because they taste amazing and the Paleovalley brand is so committed to quality. Both the grass-fed beef sticks and pasture-raised turkey sticks are naturally fermented, flavored with organic spices, and come with a good dose of gut-friendly probiotics. Tip: Use the code WELLNESSMAMA10 with this link to get 10% off your order, or get them on Amazon.

Wild Zora Bars: These are my “meal in a bar” option as they contain lots of dried veggies and even fruit as well for that perfect sweet and savory balance. They are on Amazon or you can save by using the code WELLNESSMAMA15 on their website.

Salmon Jerky: I eat as much seafood as I can get my hands on! This Epic salmon jerky is delicious and provides some variety and a break from beef. Subscribe and save from Amazon, and it’s also usually available from Thrive Market.

Of course, if you have ground beef and a few basic spices lying around, I highly recommend trying out making your own beef jerky at home. Here’s my recipe for how to do it.

Sardines

Canned sardines are the perfect healthy shelf-stable food. They’re budget friendly, they last for years, and they’re absolutely packed with nutritional value. Sardines are a great source of healthy omega-3 fats, calcium, phosphorous, and protein. Plus, they’re low in mercury and other heavy metals, especially compared to larger fish like tuna.

I find the best price and quality is the Thrive Market brand, but we also like this brand.

Energy Bars

Nothing is more convient than a packaged bar that you can carry around with you in case hunger strikes. Unfortunately, so many “healthy” energy bars out there are filled with sugars and soy.

I love making my own protein bars, like these chocolate coconut energy bars and chia seed bars with dates and coconut oil. However, the homemade kind doesn’t have the shelf stability that packaged products do.

So how to find a healthy packaged on-the-go snack? Kion energy bars are my first choice, as they don’t use any unnatural preservatives at all — just sea salt, vitamin E, and chia seeds. Plus, they use quality ingredients and sweeten only with organic honey. (You can hear take on why Kion is such a great company in my interview with CEO Angelo Keely here.)

Seeds and Nuts

If you don’t eat a lot of grains and beans, nuts and seeds make a great pantry substitute. They’re filling, nutritious, and contains lots of healthy fats.

My pantry must-haves that I stock in bulk include:

Chia Seeds: For making chia seed pudding, our go-to filling breakfast or snack

Pepitas: A key ingredient in the cilantro pesto I make to top my salads.

Baruka Nuts: I have the standard almonds, etc. on hand but I am always trying to get more variety in our diets. These are our new favorite nuts that the kids also love. I get them here.

Broccoli Seeds: This one might seem a little different, but they are great option for sprouting on the counter for a concentrated fresh source of nutrients. See this post to learn how easy it is.

Note: Make sure your pantry stays cool and dark, or consider storing in the freezer for long-term storage so they don’t go rancid.

Smoothie Cups

Okay, so technically this is a freezer-stable treat (please don’t keep them in the pantry!), but it’s just too good to skip over and fits the emergency meal category.

My kids know that the smoothie cups from Daily Harvest are reserved for mom. I love that they’re pre-portioned and full of healthy ingredients, so I’m still getting my nutrients while I take care of everyone else. Plus, they have great flavors like strawberry + peach or mint + cacao.

I also love gifting these to friends who just had a baby, as it’s an ideal plant-based emergency meal that takes no time at all.

Of course this is a convenience option that can be an investment, so it’s on my must-write list to try making my own freezer smoothie cups soon.

Powdered Greens

When you need a nutrient boost, it’s hard to beat a fresh green juice of kale, celery, and other healthy greens.

But if you can’t get to the store (or simply don’t want to leave the house), it’s not a bad idea to have a powdered alternative on hand.

Whole foods are hard to replace, but certain greens powders are close enough. As with any supplement, there’s a big range of quality out there. Some brands contain hidden sweeteners, gums, artificial colors, and undergo harsh processing to get onto the shelves.

We always stock Organifi brand green juice. It’s filled with superfood ingredients like chlorella, spirulina, beets, green tea, ashwaghanda, and turmeric for a detoxifying, immune-boosting tonic. I also keep their Gold powder on hand to make golden milk in a hurry.

Tip: Use the code WELLNESSMAMA for 15% off your order.

Soups & Bone Broth

Bone broth is a nutritional powerhouse that I like to keep on hand at all times! It’s full of easily digestible amino acids, gelatin, and other gut-healing nutrients that also benefit our hair, skin, and joints.

This is only the case if you’re using true bone broth, and not the watered down “stock” commonly available in grocery stores. Bone broth is special because the bones are roasted for flavor, then slowly simmered in water for hours (sometimes days) to extract all those amazing nutrients from the bones into the broth. It makes for a great protein-rich base to any soup, stew, or sauce you’re making.

While you can easily make your own bone broth at home (recipe here), it takes a few days and isn’t shelf stable. I stock two kinds of pre-made bone broth:

Kettle & Fire: My favorite line of shelf-stable soups and broth. They make bone broth by long simmering quality grass-fed bones and is closest to homemade in terms of taste and nutrients. Find them here or on Amazon.

The Brothery: Another quality source for broth, conveniently packaged in pouches for easy use, but these do have to be refrigerated or frozen. I get them here.

Collagen Powder

If I had to choose a favorite supplement, collagen would be very high on the list! Gelatin (the cooked form of collagen) helped my son tolerate dairy again, and it’s done wonders with my hair, skin, and nails.

Collagen is more than just a beauty booster, though. It’s an essential protein that plays a big role in joint health and digestion. In fact, its the secret ingredient that makes bone broth so potent!

One benefit of hydrolyzed collagen powder over bone broth is that it’s soluble in any liquid — and you can barely taste it (if at all). It stirs easily into hot coffee and blends seamlessly into cold smoothies as a wonderful hidden booster that your kids won’t even know is in there.

There are lots of good brands out there, but I love Vital Proteins. They source their collagen from grass-fed, pasture-raised cows, which is really important for overall quality.

Healthy Dressings and Mayo

Most premade salad dressings and mayonnaise use highly processed vegetable oils. Look instead for an avocado oil-based dressing or mayo from brands like Primal Kitchen.

It’s also easy and cost-effective to make your own dressing or mayo at home just with some olive oil, vinegar, and spices. Here are some of my recipes:

Meal Replacement Drinks

This one might suprise you, since meal replacement drinks on grocery store shelves are typically full of junk. A clever brand called Ample found a way to use healthier, real-food ingredients to a high protein, low sugar beverage that doesn’t need refrigeration. Just add water, shake, and go.

These do come in a plastic bottle, so I use them sparingly, but for emergency meals or an allergy friendly meal on the road, they’re a lifesaver. Even at $7.00 a bottle, they are less expensive and certainly more nutritious than most fast food meals we might resort to.

These are also a key part of my emergency food stash. I like the berry option since it’s dairy-free and contains an extra boost of probiotics. I order them from the Ample website (get 15% off your first purchase with code WELLNESS MAMA) or from Amazon.

Snacks and Meals You Can Make With Pantry Staples

While some of these pantry staples are snacks or meals by themselves, some of them need a little imagination to turn them into something you can serve to the family.

Here are my favorite recipes for those days that you can’t get to the store and need to rely on your pantry basics:

Spread canned sardines over healthy crackers. Add a little cheese if you’re okay with dairy!

Got a can of diced tomatoes lying around? Combine it with your bone broth and you only need a few other basics for this quick and easy tomato soup.

If you’ve got eggs, applesauce, coconut flour and a few basic spices, you already have everything you need to make these apple cinnamon muffins. So easy, the kids can pretty much do it on their own!

Want a quick and healthy breakfast tomorrow? Plan ahead and make chia pudding. I like using coconut milk, but you can use whatever milk you like (and flavor it with whatever you have on hand. Almond butter, chocolate chips, almonds and bananas are all great additions!)

Speaking of breakfast, these almond flour pancakes are ridiculously easy. All you’ll need is almond flour, eggs, and spices.

What are your must-have pantry staples? Did I miss any of your favorites?

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/424533/shelf-stable-foods/

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Greek cuisine - what dishes are worth trying?

The impression of the country would not be complete without trying the national cuisine in local establishments during the trip, especially when it comes to Greece. Greeks love, and most importantly, know how to cook, turning the national Greek dishes into a work of art.

Features of national cuisine

The national dishes of Greek cuisine are characterized by a multifaceted game of flavors and benefits. Many nutritionists for weight normalization recommend following the Mediterranean diet based on the principles of Greek cuisine. The benefits of the national cuisine of Greece are due to simple but important factors: - The use of healthy products - fresh vegetables, herbs, cheeses of their own making, seafood, fruits; - Greeks do not abuse fast food; - the most popular and traditional product is olive oil, which is added to many national dishes and its benefits have been known for thousands of years; - national dishes are seasoned with lemon juice instead of salt, citrus fruits are added to main dishes (meat and fish), in marinades, desserts; - Greeks often consume a lot of dairy products: yogurt, goat's milk, feta and bryndza. The main feature of the national cuisine is natural, organic products, most are grown and produced in the country. It's interesting! The national Greek cuisine is a certain lifestyle. According to statistics, the Greeks are less likely to suffer from heart disease, cancer and obesity. The first book on Greek food culture was written in 330 BC.

First courses

First courses are not popular in the national cuisine, as a rule, soups, purees of vegetables are cooked. Still, in Greece you must try soups as well: - "Fasolada" is a traditional bean soup; - "Fakes, a lentil soup to which is accompanied by salted fish, cheese (mostly bryndza), olives and red onions. These soups are offered in hot weather. In the winter, more filling and hearty soups appear on restaurant menus: - "Avgolemono," a rice grits soup with chicken broth with whipped egg and lemon juice; - "Vrasto" - the national beef soup.

Greek appetizers

Traditionally, every meal begins with appetizers that stimulate the appetite. They are served in plates of small diameter. Snack dishes that Greeks love themselves and recommend tourists to try: - Dolmadakia, the equivalent of stuffed cabbage rolls. - "Dzadziki" is both an appetizer and a sauce made from yogurt, fresh cucumbers, olive oil, and fragrant garlic; - "Dolmadakya" - analog of traditional stuffed cabbage rolls and dolma, an appetizer of rice, minced meat wrapped in grape leaves; - "Kalamarakya" - calamari fried until crispy; - "Taramasalata" - a national dish of smoked cod roe, olives, herbs, lemon and vegetable oil; - "Tirokafteri" - traditional soft cheese appetizer and peppers (spicy varieties).

Salads

There are two types of salads in the national cuisine of Greece: - Melidzanosalata Greek Salad. - hot - with roasted vegetables; - Cold - with fresh vegetables. - Among the hot salads, the following are popular. - "Brocola" - a traditional broccoli dish. - "Pandzari" - beet salad. - "Melidzanosalata" - a mixture of roasted eggplant, vegetable oil, spices, lemon and fragrant garlic. Sometimes yogurt, tomatoes, and seasoned green onions are added to the dish. Nutritionists call this dish flawless in terms of the principles of proper nutrition, and gourmands rightly consider this combination of products to be perfect in taste. Horiatiki or rustic salad Greek salad National cold salads include fresh vegetables, mixtures of spices, a variety of cheeses, olive oil and lemon juice. They are traditionally served with wine or grape vinegar. - "Hortu" is a traditional dandelion dish, the main ingredient being radicchio. - "Horiatiki" or rustic salad - in our parts the dish is better known as "Greek salad." It includes tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, onions, olives, aromatic spices and olive oil, supplemented with feta cheese. You will surely be interested to try the Greek salad in its homeland. - "Lahano" - a salad of white cabbage, carrots, root and leaves of celery, some housewives complement the salad with sweet peppers. - "Dacos." - Much of the country's food culture has been influenced by Italian cuisine. This influence is reflected in the use of products common in the territory of Italy, for example, rucolla. In some regions of Greece, they offer a salad made with rucolla leaves, called "Roca". A popular recipe is sun-dried tomatoes, rucolla, and parmigiano-reggiano cheese. In Crete, they love the traditional salad "Dakos" made of special, large croutons, they are soaked a little, tomatoes are placed on top, finely diced crumbled feta cheese. The mixture is dressed with olive oil mixed with oregano. Sometimes dacos breadcrumbs are substituted with small dacchia breadcrumbs. Main dishes of Greece Traditional Greek main dishes are made from meat, fish and seafood. There's plenty to choose from and try.

Meat dishes

Brisoles - meat on the bone The culture of the national Greek cuisine is based on one fundamental rule: there's no need to overcomplicate things. A good dish, according to the Greeks, is prepared as quickly and easily as possible, that's why they prefer to bake the meat in any convenient way. Meat is eaten in different ways, but if you are traveling in the mountainous regions, it is worth trying roasted game or boar meat. Traditional Greek meat dishes: - "Brisoles" - juicy, flavorful meat on the bone; - "Souvlaki" - compact kebabs; - "Kondosouvli" - the equivalent of our traditional kebab; - "Paidakya" - traditional baked ribs (most often lamb); - "Gyros" - a flatbread dish similar to döner kebab or shawarma, but different in that it necessarily includes fries. - "Kokorezi. Real gourmands will surely want to try this dish, because how appetizing it sounds: the internal organs of lamb, wrapped in guts, and baked in the oven. What to try in Greece for lovers of European cuisine? - Bifteki - chopped cutlets of different diameters - "Bifteki" - the usual chopped cutlets of different diameters, seasoned with aromatic herbs, cheese, various vegetables. The national traditions of Greek cuisine are based on the culture of many peoples, for many decades they were formed under the influence of the Turkish yoke: - "Sudzukakia" - traditional cutlets thickly seasoned with spices; - "Kebabs" - a masterful dish prepared in the northern regions, where the Turkish diaspora has settled. National Greek dishes worth tasting in the mountainous part of the country First of all, this category includes homemade meat or game in clay pots with vegetables. The most common variant of the name is "Kleftico." Arni lemonato - lamb under a lemon marinade Treats of national Greek cuisine that you must try: - "Kuneli" - rabbit stew with vegetables; - "Arni lemonato" - lamb cooked under a lemon marinade; - "Coconisto" - beef under a tomato marinade; - "Moussaka" - a popular traditional dish of the Balkans. It is prepared from eggplants, minced meat, tomatoes, potatoes, cheese, onions, then baked with Béchamel sauce and cheese; - "Pastizio" - layered casserole of pasta, minced meat, traditional white marinade. The meat is garnished with rice and vegetables.

Dishes of fish

Every tourist when asked what to try in Greece from the food, unequivocally answer - fish and, of course, seafood. Native Greeks treat seafood with honor, because the state is located on the coast of the sea. Grilled fish Big fish is grilled on coals or grilled, seasoned with vegetable oil and lemon juice. Smaller fish such as sea tongue, mullet, sultana are fried. Cod, stingray, swordfish, shark (small, Mediterranean) are also fried most often. Certain fish are used exclusively in the process of cooking ukha. The fish is served separately with a marinade of vegetable oil and lemon and the broth is served separately. Lake varieties of fish - trout, sturgeon or salmon - are better tasted in the central regions or in Macedonia. Important: The traditional approach to cooking - impeccable freshness of products. The price is determined by the place of catch - local fish is more expensive than imported. Fish menus in restaurants are more expensive than meat menus. Seafood is presented in a separate section of the menu. Popular dishes: Octopus: baked or boiled; Squids: traditional baked - "Calamaria Tiganita", fried with cheese filling - "Calamaria Yemista me Tiri"; cuttlefish stewed with spinach leaves; shrimp: fried or stewed in a tomato and cheese marinade; Traditional mussels steamed or in a tomato and cheese marinade. Useful information! The crowning national dish in Greek cuisine is lobster with pasta - "Macaronada me Astako". The seafood of the sea is given special attention and is used to prepare culinary masterpieces that will easily captivate the discerning gourmet. If you want to try something special, check out the shrimp dish cooked in tomato sauce and seasoned with feta cheese, or the octopus dish in sweet wine seasoned with spices.

Desserts

The traditional sweet dishes of Greek cuisine are, above all, a Turkish heritage. By the way, the tradition of drinking coffee cooked in a turk also remains from the Ottoman Empire. While vacationing on the Mediterranean coast, be sure to delight yourself with original desserts: - "Lukumades" - balls made of dough, flavored with spices, sprinkled with honey, sprinkled with powdered sugar; - "Baklava" - traditional cake filled with fruit syrup, chopped nuts, the dessert is usually made with 33 layers (a symbol of Christ's age); - "Curabiedes" - cookies made of shortbread dough and almonds; - "Rizogalo" - a pudding of rice, dried fruit, nuts, flavored with cinnamon; - "Halvas" - halva made with semolina.

Greek Sauces

If you're researching Greek dishes to try while traveling, be sure to pay attention to sauces. Greeks are great at them and make them to almost every dish. Features traditional Greek sauces: - only natural ingredients; - no complicated recipes; - maximum benefits. The main principle of a proper sauce is that it should delicately accentuate the flavor and aroma of the main dish. Sauce ingredients should be as versatile as possible and combine with fish, seafood, meat and vegetables. The most common ingredients used in the preparation process are: - natural yogurt; - vegetable (olive) oil; - lemon juice; - special, Greek garlic. Avgolemono" is a classic sauce. It is served with main dishes and salads, used in cooking soups. It takes just a few minutes to prepare - a mixture of eggs and lemon juice is diluted with broth. The proportions are chosen individually, depending on the desired thickness of the sauce. The marinade gives the main dish a slight sourness. Cooking secret! Do not bring marinade to the boil, because protein will curdle. For seafood they make a marinade of mustard, vegetable oil, lemon juice and a mixture of dried herbs. In some regions they add honey to this mixture, which gives the dish a soft, uniform texture. For fish, and as a salad dressing, they prepare a sauce with just two components - lemon juice and olive oil. To the main dishes are served scorchali sauce, made from fragrant garlic, almonds and vegetable oil. Sometimes bread crumbs and finely chopped potatoes are added to the sauce. This makes a hearty appetizer. Cooking secret! To smooth out the pungent taste of the garlic, it is baked beforehand. The original sauce "Fava" - it is prepared from mashed beans or lentils, dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, natural yogurt and greens (usually parsley).

Products of national production

Greek cheese deserves a special mention. The country produces more than 60 varieties of cheese, each of which is served as an appetizer or main course and used to prepare other dishes. During your stay in Greece, we recommend trying the following cheeses: - "Feta" - white cheese, quite dense in consistency, made from sheep's milk (less often from goat's milk). - "Graviera" - a cheese with a sweet taste, firm consistency, made from sheep's milk. - "Manuri" - sheep cheese, has a soft, delicate consistency, has a high caloric value. - "Kasseri" - cheese made from a mixture of sheep and goat milk, white in color with a slight yellowish hue. - "Kefalotiri" - a savory cheese with a salty flavor and a firm, porous structure. Another traditional product is olive oil. Here it is sold in every grocery store. Sometimes you can taste the product before you buy it. Presented oil in pure form or with the addition of spices, aromatic herbs.

National drinks

Ouzo The most famous alcoholic Greek drink is ouzo. It is the first thing you should try. Ouzo is made by distilling alcohol with the addition of anise, bouquet of spices (most often cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves). There are many producers in Greece, that is why the composition and the percentage of alcohol content vary from 20% to 40%. Ouzo is consumed with fish and seafood dishes and served in tall, narrow glasses. In grocery stores the drink is sold in bottles of different sizes, the minimum cost - 3 euros. Tsipuro and Raki Tsipuro and raki are alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content between 37% and 47%, similar to moonshine. The main difference between them is the presence of anise - tsipuro has it, raki has no spice. Tsipuro is served chilled, in a carafe with a high, narrow neck. You drink it in small glasses, in one gulp. As a rule, Tsipouro is ordered by Greeks of the older generation, while the younger generation prefers other drinks. The cost of one bottle varies from 3 to 4 euros. Rakomelo drink. This is an alcoholic beverage, which consists of two components - honey and crayfish (not the ones found in the river, but the one described above). Sometimes cinnamon and cloves are added. The drink is most often prepared in the cold season, because you need to drink it hot. Some Greeks use rakomelo as a medicine for colds. You can buy rakomelo in any supermarket, but it is better to make the drink yourself - buy crayfish and honey. The process takes a few minutes, and the taste is much better than the store product. Pour the crayfish in a turkey, heat it, add honey to taste, and take it off the fire before it boils. The drink is ready, now you can taste it! Mastic This liqueur is made in Greece. Its distinctive feature is the presence of mastic, a resin extracted from an evergreen shrub. Mastic in Greece is used for the preparation of many dishes, in cosmetology. The liquor is served as an aperitif and after meals for better digestion. The taste of the mastic is original and memorable - sweet with a slight fruity-pine flavor. The cost of one bottle is about 10 euros. Coffee The most popular drink in Greece is coffee. It seems that people drink it all the time - hot, cold, with and without crema, with milk or cream, with the addition of various spices. If a person orders tea instead of coffee, the Greeks are bound to think that he has a health problem. If you want to fully understand what national Greek dishes are like, try them not in the hotel, and in local tavernas and restaurants. This is the only way to get a taste of the real Greece. Read the full article

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Café Home: 19 Best Cookbooks That Will Help Make Your Home Your Favorite Place To Eat

Looking to become an impressive home cook?

We’re not talking impressive in the get your very own episode on Chef’s Table kind of way. We mean when you look at the finished plate of food you have prepared, or the loaf of bread, or the bowl of hummus and you take your first bite of it…an expletive escapes your lips and pats you on the back. It just.Tastes. Good. Like something you would definitely make again and again.

That’s an impressive home cook.

We put an extensive list together of what we feel are some of the best cookbooks worth owning if you’re interested in making self-impressing, expletive inducing food – from breakfast to desert and everything in between.

The Starter Cookbook

  Super Easy Cookbook For Beginners by Lisa Grant

The best way to learn how to cook is to actually start cooking. When you’re ready to set foot in the kitchen, the Super Easy Cookbook for Beginners offers the easiest, 5-ingredient recipes to teach you how to cook―while cooking!

Beyond basic cooking skills, this beginner’s cookbook gets you started by serving up simple, home-style recipes that require only 5 main ingredients or less. Alongside step-by-step guidance for kitchen techniques―plus useful tips like how to hold a knife―the Super Easy Cookbook for Beginners is the easiest recipe to make anyone a good cook.

Source: Publisher

The Have All End All Cookbook

  Tasty Ultimate: How To Cook Basically Everything by Tasty

150 recipes to help you master the cooking basics, hack the pantry, and make everything from vegetarian go-tos to crowd-pleasing snacks to irresistible desserts.

Tasty Ultimate is THE must-have companion for home cooks of all skill levels–whether you’re a sometimes cook or a master meal prepper. With 150 recipes, clever hacks, and must-know techniques, this cookbook will teach you how to kill it in the kitchen.

Source: Publisher

  The Classic Cookbook

  Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook by Better Homes & Gardens

Since 1930, the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book has been a trusted staple in kitchens across America. The 17th edition is fully updated and revised to reflect both the best of today’s food trends and time-tested classics. With more than 1,000 recipes and a photo for each one, the book covers both traditional dishes such as Brownies and new favorites like Cold Brew Coffee. This newest edition has a fresh organization to reflect how we cook today–recipes have flavor variations, options to swap out ingredients, and ways to make them healthier. Clear directions and how-to photos teach techniques; identification photos clarify the broad range of today’s ingredients; charts for meat and poultry give at-a-glance cooking times; and “cheat sheets” throughout present information in easy-to-access bites.

Source: Publisher

  The Breakfast and Brunch Cookbook

  Posh Eggs by Quadrille Publishing 

Over 70 Recipes for Wonderful Eggy Things

Eggs are a kitchen basic. Most people buy them, and use them as a stand-by: a quick omelet or scrambled eggs. Posh Eggs makes the humble egg the star of the show, with over 70 recipes that make a meal out of this easy ingredient. From hearty dishes like Mediterranean red pepper eggs with tahini yogurt, to healthy salads like Quail’s eggs, beet, and tarragon, you’ll never again be stuck for a quick and original idea at mealtimes. With a guide to the basics of cooking eggs, plus a photo for every single recipe, this is the ultimate gifty cookbook or self-purchase for egg addicts, expert chefs, and novices alike.

Source: Publisher

Brunch Life by Matt Basile, Kyla Zanardi

For lazy days off or mid-week cravings, Brunch Life brings that bigger-than-brunch restaurant experience home with mouth-watering recipes that will ensure every day gets off to a great start.

Leisurely weekend brunches have become the most anticipated meal of the week, and no two people know that better than Matt Basile and Kyla Zanardi. With their token humour, Matt and Kyla share their passion for this midday spread and showcase indulgent and creative takes on their favourite dishes. Sometimes, brunch is a comforting routine, where simple ingredients are whipped into fuss-free OG Buttermilk Pancakes, a Mascarpone Soft Scramble, or Good ol’ Hash Browns. Then there are irresistible dishes taken to a whole new level, like Coconut Fried Chicken and Pineapple Waffles, S’mores Panc…

Source: Publisher

The Healthy Home Café Cookbook

  Posh Toast by Quadrille Publishing 

This is the new hot (and buttered) food trend—simple toast recipes that everyone can make. Hungry food fans everywhere are toasting sourdough, spelt, and rye and loading them with luscious ingredients to make a simple, satisfying meal. Posh Toast features every toast recipe you could ever need, covering breakfast, lunch, snacks, and supper, plus a guide to the basics of toasting. Every recipe has a photo and easy-to-follow instructions, making it the ultimate gift or self-purchase for toast addicts, novices, and expert cooks alike. It’s everything good. On toast. It’s Posh Toast.

Source: Publisher

The Best and Lightest

150 Healthy Recipes for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner: A Cookbook by the Editors of Food Network Magazine

Healthy Recipes That Taste Anything But!

Using clever cooking techniques and ingredient swaps, Food Network Magazine’s test kitchen chefs have lightened up all the foods you crave. Each crowd-pleasing dish comes in under 500 calories with satisfying—not tiny—portions. With a visual table of contents—complete with icons that indicate vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dishes—you can quickly find meal ideas for any diet. Plus, each recipe appears with nutritional information and a beautiful photograph, making eating right surprisingly simple and totally fun.

Take a look at what’s inside: Polenta with Fontina and Eggs Spiced Burgers with Cucumber Yogurt Potato-Leek Soup with Bacon Shrimp and Kale Pitas Spicy Chicken Enchiladas Chile-Rubbed Steak with Creamed Corn Three-Cheese Macaroni Banana-Almond Pudding Strawberry Corn Cakes

Source: Publisher

The Vegetarian Café Cookbook

  Plant Based Diet For Beginners by Gabriel Miller

Free from animal products, full of flavor–plant based recipes for beginners

Choosing a plant based diet is good for your health, your wallet, and the environment. The Plant-Based Diet for Beginners has dozens of tasty whole-food recipes for people who want to switch from eating meat, dairy, and eggs, to eating vegetables, whole grains, and other plant based foods.

Whether your doctor encouraged you to eat a plant based diet or you’re exploring a new way of eating, this cookbook has everything you need to get started. You’ll find nutritional information for each recipe, a guide to eating a plant based diet even when you don’t want to cook, tips for stocking your kitchen, and more. When it comes to your health and your taste buds, now you’re cooking!

Source: Publisher

  Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give A F*ck by Thug Kitchen

#1 New York Times Bestseller, first in the bestselling series

Thug Kitchen started their wildly popular website to inspire people to eat some goddamn vegetables and adopt a healthier lifestyle. Beloved by Gwyneth Paltrow (‘This might be my favorite thing ever’) and with half a million Facebook fans and counting, Thug Kitchen wants to show everyone how to take charge of their plates and cook up some real f*cking food.

Yeah, plenty of blogs and cookbooks preach about how to eat more kale, why ginger fights inflammation, and how to cook with microgreens and nettles. But they are dull or pretentious as hell—and most people can’t afford the hype.

Thug Kitchen lives in the real world. In their first cookbook, they’re throwing down more than 100 recipes for their best-loved meals, snacks and sides for beginning cooks to home chefs.

Source: Publisher

The Bakery Cookbook

  Bread Baking For Beginners by Bonnie Ohara

Free from animal products, full of flavor–plant based recipes for beginners

Choosing a plant based diet is good for your health, your wallet, and the environment. The Plant-Based Diet for Beginners has dozens of tasty whole-food recipes for people who want to switch from eating meat, dairy, and eggs, to eating vegetables, whole grains, and other plant based foods.

Whether your doctor encouraged you to eat a plant based diet or you’re exploring a new way of eating, this cookbook has everything you need to get started. You’ll find nutritional information for each recipe, a guide to eating a plant based diet even when you don’t want to cook, tips for stocking your kitchen, and more. When it comes to your health and your taste buds, now you’re cooking!

Source: Publisher

French Pastry 101 By Betty Hung

French Pastry is as Easy as Un, Deux, Trois

French baking is now more approachable than ever with Beaucoup Bakery co-owner and Yummy Workshop founder Betty Hung’s beginner-friendly, easy-to-follow recipes.

Start with basics like pastry cream and pâté sucrée, then work your way up to indulgent all-time favorites such as Lemon Madeleines, Crème Brûlée, Éclairs, Lady Fingers and Chocolate Torte. You’ll learn how to simplify recipes without sacrificing taste—like using ready-made puff pastry—or, if you prefer, how to whip up these sweet treats from scratch.

Source: Publisher

Baking With Mary Berry – By Mary Berry

A sweet and savory collection of more than 100 foolproof recipes from the reigning “Queen of Baking” Mary Berry, who has made her way into American homes through ABC’s primetime series, The Great Holiday Baking Show, and the PBS series, The Great British Baking Show.

Baking with Mary Berry draws on Mary’s more than 60 years in the kitchen, with tips and step-by-step instructions for bakers just starting out and full-color photographs of finished dishes throughout. The recipes follow Mary’s prescription for dishes that are no fuss, practical, and foolproof–from breakfast goods to cookies, cakes, pastries, and pies, to special occasion desserts such as cheesecake and soufflés, to British favorites that will inspire.

Whether you’re tempted by Mary’s Heavenly Chocolate Cake and Best-Ever Brownies, intrigued by her Mincemeat and Almond Tart or Magic Lemon Pudding, or inspired by her Rich Fruit Christmas Cake and Ultimate Chocolate Roulade, the straightforward yet special recipes in Baking with Mary Berry will prove, as one reviewer has said of her recipes, “if you can read, you can cook.”

Source: Publisher

The Easy Baked Donut Cookbook By Sara Mellas

The deliciously easy donut cookbook for heavenly homemade baked donuts

Who doesn’t love a good donut? From sugared or sprinkled to frosted or filled, donuts are sure to satisfy your sweet tooth and sweeten your day. The best part is you don’t need to fuss with frying to whip up these fun, flavorful treats at home. The Easy Baked Donut Cookbook shows you how mouthwatering–and mess-free–donuts can be right from your oven or donut maker, providing plenty of tried-and-true tricks and tasty recipes for beautifully baked donuts, donut holes, mini donuts, and more.

From sweet staples, such as Old-Fashioned Cake Donuts to creative savory bakes like Jalapeno-Cheddar Cornbread Donuts, this donut cookbook serves you dozens of delightfully simple recipes to match every craving, along with perfectly paired frostings, glazes, and toppings.

Source: Publisher

Vegetarian Desert Cookbook

Rawesome Baking by Emily Von Euw

Make Undeniably Delicious and Eye-Catching Raw, Vegan and Gluten-Free Treats

Emily Von Euw, creator of the popular blog This Rawsome Vegan Life, makes treats that are so phenomenal and so stunning they should be considered masterpieces. Oh yeah, and they’re raw, vegan AND gluten-free. So whether you’re a vegetarian, a raw vegan or even a meat-lover just looking for something healthy, new and delicious, this book has something for you.

Emily’s popular blog won the Vegan Woman’s 2013 Vegan Food Blog Award, was named one of the Top 50 Raw Food Blogs of 2012 and is nominated for “Favorite Blog” for the 2013 VegNews Veggie Awards. Every recipe is accompanied by a photograph so you can see each brilliant sweet before you eat. Emily’s beautiful and easy-to-make recipes, like her Peppermint Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes, S’mores Cupcakes and Go-Nuts Donuts with Frosting & Fruit Sprinkles, are so tasty that you won’t even realize they’re vegan. Quite simply, Rawsome Vegan Baking will wow your taste buds and impress your friends and family with new great tastes in dessert.

Source: Publisher

Healthy Desert Cookbook

Clean Sweets – By Arman Liew

High-protein desserts that taste great, are easy to make, and serve one or two.

Giving up dessert is no fun, so health-savvy folks have long tried to find ways to satisfy a sweet tooth. But so many Paleo-style desserts are complicated, with long lists of hard-to-find ingredients. They also often make too much of a good thing, which is almost as bad as not having it at all. Arman Liew discovered a way to have his cake and eat it too–in decadent creations that indulge the appetite and pack in the nutrients. From breakfast reinvented to no-bake treats, recipes include: Protein Peanut Butter Cups Dark Chocolate and Salted Caramel Waffles Molten Lava Cake White Chocolate Raspberry Bars

There’s no tapioca flour, coconut nectar, or xanthan gum to be found here. Make something sweet the moment the craving hits, from foods that are already in the cabinet. Add in terrific photography and this is a book every health-conscious person should have on hand.

Source: Publisher

College Student Cookbook (Easy Cooking)

5-Ingredient College Cookbook By Pamela Ellgen

Fast, easy and healthy eating at college and ever after.

College food has developed quite the culinary “reputation.” Most students don’t have the time, money, or space to make meals like mom used to, so words like fast, cheap, and microwavable have become synonymous with college eating. But there IS a better way!

Healthy cooking expert and cookbook author Pamela Ellgen brings you the latest in college cooking with The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook–the simplest college cookbook yet. By sticking to 5 easy-to-find main ingredients per recipe, The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook makes it easier than ever for students to cook tasty, high quality, healthy food for themselves.

Source: Publisher

Easy Frugal Cookbook By Sarah Walker Caron

It’s easier than you think to make hearty meals that are tasty, budget-friendly, and nutritious. Discover an easy cookbook that shows you how, with 100 inexpensive family recipes that use basic ingredients, and can be made in just a few steps.

This easy cookbook will help you whip up satisfying dishes like Crispy Coconut Drumsticks or Open-Face Turkey Sandwiches for everyone in the house for just $5. All it takes is the right recipe, a few tricks, and a little planning to make the most of your food budget.

Discover how versatile and flavorful cheap eating can be with an easy cookbook that offers:

Budget tricks–Recipes are sorted by estimated cost of ingredients, from $5 to $15 dollars per batch, and include tips to lower the cost of ingredients even further.Shop smart–This easy cookbook includes tips about shopping efficiently and optimizing ingredients and leftovers.Menu plan–A sample meal plan and shopping list will help simplify meal prep and save you money and time.

Source: Publisher

The Gifting Cookbook

  Antoni in The Kitchen By Mindy Fox

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! *One of Food & Wine’s Essential New Cookbooks for Fall* *One of Eater’s Best Fall Cookbooks 2019* *One of Amazon’s Best Cookbooks for Fall 2020*

Antoni Porowski, the food and wine guru on Netflix’s sensation Queer Eye, meets people where they live–literally. With appealing vulnerability, he shows cooks of all levels how to become more confident and casual in the kitchen. The verve and naturalness of his approach earned raves from Food & Wine and Bon Appétit to GQ and the New York Times, which noted his dishes prove that “sometimes simple is anything but simplistic.”

Some of the recipes in this book are weeknight healthyish meals, while others are perfect for off-the-cuff entertaining. Visual stunners, they’re often composed of fewer than five ingredients. Whether Bastardized Easy Ramen; Malaysian Chili Shrimp; Roasted Carrots with Carrot-Top Pesto; or Salty Lemon Squares, all are visual stunners and can be carried off with panache, even by beginners.

Source: Publisher

Friends The Official Cookbook By Amanda Yee

“The ultimate Friends fan needs this ‘Friends: The Official Cookbook‘ ” – POPSUGAR

Gather your friends and prepare to say “How you doin’?” to more than 100 recipes inspired by the beloved hit sitcom. Whether you’re a seasoned chef like Monica Geller, just starting a catering business like Phoebe Buffay, or a regular old food enthusiast like Joey Tribbiani, Friends: The Official Cookbook offers a variety of recipes for chefs of all levels. From appetizers to main courses and from drinks to desserts, each chapter includes iconic treats such as Monica’s Friendsgiving Feast, Rachel’s Trifle, Just for Joey Fries, Chandler’s “Milk You Can Chew,” Phoebe’s Grandmother’s Cookies, and of course, The Moist Maker. Complete with more than seventy recipes and beautiful full-color photography, this charming cookbook is both a helpful companion for home cooks and a fun homage to the show that’s always been there for you.

Source: Amazon

Friends Cookbook Releases Sept 22, 2020

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[peacekaleandyoga1]

Since there are a lot of great pieces of advice everywhere you look when it comes to losing weight, it can be hard to figure out how to lose weight. Using the advice can make losing weight easier way to get things started.

A fad diet may seem like a good way to begin your weight loss program and quickly shed excess pounds. Even more troubling is the fact that you on proper nutrition. It is better to select a method of eating that teaches you how to make healthy food choices.

It is an often published fact that drinking a lot of water if losing weight loss. Were you aware that drinking cold water makes your metabolism? When drinking really cold water, your body works to stabilize its internal temperature, which will also increase metabolism.

TIP! When you are planning out your meals and snacks, opt for fruit and veggie snacks rather than a diet shake or a weight loss bar. These actually have more calories than you think, and they don’t often suppress cravings for food.

Keep track of everything you eat. Purchase a spiral notebook or diary. Use the notebook as a food journal of your very own. This is a great way to track what you eat and monitor your overall progress.

You can break down your weight loss easily by numbers. A pound consisting of human fat has around thirty five hundred calories in it. To lose that pound, you have to burn 3500 extra calories. This allocation sets you will lose weight at the rate of one pound every seven days.

Make sure to keep your stress is under control when losing weight. When your body feels stress it tends to hoard onto calories and fat to provide a defense mechanism. Your body responds to stress by storing calories so you are stressed out.Keep stress to a minimum so you can lose weight.

TIP! An easy way to start losing some weight is to have a salad before you eat dinner. Salads tend to offer a large amount of fiber of that can provide satiety without unnecessary calories.

One great tip to help you lose weight loss is to avoid eating fried foods. There are many healthy ways to cook tasty and is much healthier for you. Some examples are baking, broiling, broiling, and poaching. Using these methods when cooking can help reduce your weight in short order.

Try eating a large meal prior to going to parties and events when on a diet. This will help you from splurging on fattening snacks and calorie filled drinks when you’re at the party. Wine is a good option as opposed to beet or beer.

Try not to miss any meals.You should aim to eat three good meals a day. This ensures your body stay in a cycle.

TIP! Stop having three large meals daily, and instead eat six smaller ones. This will reduce the cravings that you have during the day.

Group exercise adds a good way to have fun to do regularly. Try walking around with a friend. Go out and play some basketball or softball with people you know. There are many fun activities available that will help you lose weight.

When your clothing is getting too tight and you having no alternative choices, you will have to reduce your weight.

Try to eat your meals around the same general time every day. This will help you establish a routine to reduce cravings at odd hours.Try and schedule your snacks.

TIP! When you achieve any of your weight-loss goals, you should celebrate the accomplishment. You can buy a small gift or do something special that you have fun doing but don’t regularly get to do.

Learn how to read nutrition labels. A food that is fat-free is not necessarily healthy. Read through the entire food label thoroughly so that you know exactly what is going into your body.

Make losing weight easier by planning workouts with a friend. This helps motivate you to become more motivated at the gym and helps you work toward your goals. The added competition and fun you get from exercising with a buddy can improve your workouts.

Weight Loss

TIP! Cravings should not be avoided. Foods like ice cream and chips are delicious.

Take a “before” photograph so you start your weight loss plan. This can motivate you to follow through with weight loss goals. Before and after photos can serve as an inspiration for others to live a healthier lifestyle.

When you are feeling hungry, wait ten or fifteen minutes before you eat. Take a short walk or have some cold water.

Do not eat foods. These condiments have a lot of sugar and add to the calorie content in your meal. Only use a tiny bit if you need to give your food.

TIP! Liquid calories are still calories, so watch what you drink. All drinks, except for water, have calories.

You can use some simple strategies to eat healthy even when dinning out. For example, when ordering salad, making their salads quite high in calories and fat; ordering your dressing separately and using half the amount can make your salad a much healthier option.

Buy some exercise clothes which make you feel good to motivate yourself to work out. Don’t get hot pants with a sports bra that you don’t want to be seen wearing. You can wear pants and a t-shirt.

Losing weight doesn’t have to be an impossible feat. Start your weight loss journey by eliminating particular bad foods from your diet. You should always first replace any drinks you have in your house with only water. Sometimes, low sugar juice is appropriate, but sodas and soft drinks should not be consumed at all.

TIP! Stay away from fried foods. There are so many ways to cook that are better for you.

You must convince yourself that you will do anything to beat the odds. When you have the confidence in what you’re doing, you have completed the first step towards success.

You can still use the same salad dressing or replace it with low-fat mayo or mustard. This makes for a great lunchtime treat!

Keep a log of everything that is eaten and exercise diet journal.

TIP! If you want to save money while dieting, cook from home. A good homemade meal can be healthy and a great way to lose weight.

Creating a plan will greatly increase your ability to lose weight loss success. There will be times when situations will entice you will need to overcome. When you come up with your diet plan, include wholesome snacks you can eat instead of the nasty stuff.

This advice can help you succeed with weight loss. While you surely suffer no lack of available information in the topic of weight loss, this article has offered an organized presentation you can easily use.

If you enjoyed this post, you should read this: Clijsters on second comeback, Australian Open air quality & doing the splits

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[thecoroutfitters]

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

Sprouts can be a great solution for preppers at all levels, as well as our animals. They can be had and done in a million and one ways, eliminate some of the climate issues we face in both hot and cold environments, require little space and little time, and are packed with nutrients. They also have some nice morale benefits, providing fresh green foods and sometimes even a crunch during times not much else will grow.

Wide Variety

If you don’t like sprouts, give them a second try. Just trying one or a few and giving up on them is missing out.

Personally, I’m not big on alfalfa or the “moo mixes”. They taste like grass to me, and I don’t dig the texture.

Flip around to radish. I love it, but it’s typically some hot and spicy stuff. If you packed a sandwich or wrap with radish, a lot of people would be unhappy, but it’s great for finger-picking snacks playing cards and flavoring anything from sandwiches and salads to soups and stir fry.

There’s a whole world to choose from, with a huge range of textures and flavors, from amaranth, brassicas and popcorn to pea shoots and sunflower.

Psst…Buy regular ol’ garden seed as often as possible – it’s the same stuff and will cost a lot less, especially while we’re in the sampling phase.

Once we’ve got them growing, we can use them in everything we would a lettuce or fresh vegetable – soups, stir fry, salads, sandwiches, stackers, omelets, and wraps.

Health Concerns

It’s never a good idea to eat one thing to excess, which is where a lot of problems come in with sprouts (and wild edibles). There are sprouts that pregnant women shouldn’t eat. Likewise, there are a few that will interact with preexisting medical conditions or herbal treatments. It’s not common or huge, but do a little research.

Types & Terms

As sprouts gain in popularity, culinary and botanical definitions are shifting, and it can be painful to keep track of the stage being discussed.

Most people neither need to know nor care if there should be a scientifically or government determined dividing line between the plant category and what we call it when we’re eating its leaves. Given what consensus conventions have repeatedly done to Pluto, I’d rather we all just live in peace with our immature edible greenery.

It’s not worth getting wrapped around the axle over. Many people and most specialists have foibles. I have my own knee-jerk at bullet-ammo and clip-mag mix-ups, and seeing an OP or heirloom seller proudly declare “Non-GMO!” like its particular OP or heirloom is special in that way, so I try to remember that some people care deeply about precise terms.

I’m using “sprouts” as an umbrella for the whole shebang anyway, cotyledons through baby leaves. Don’t be put out over it.

    Seed Sucks

A major consideration for preppers, is that sprouts and microgreens are an absolute seed suck. We’re going to eat them long before they have a chance to make more seed for collection.

There’s a really incredible ratio between many sprouting seeds and their green yields, with anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon capable of filling a jar or 8×8” to 12×12” square, but it’s something to be aware of.

That seed use is one of the reasons we – as preppers especially – want to get the most bang for the buck out of our sprouts.

Growing Methods

When we grow wheat for a couple of days and then cook it as soon as it has “tails” from the roots, that’s sprouted grain (which hugely increases feed value for us, birds, and small ruminants, and can be cooked as-is for cereals, soups and “rice” side dishes, or ground for flour).

When we do sprouts in jars, that’s about the furthest stage we want to take them to. Leaves will start getting damaged (which leads to rot), and they’ll have more drainage problems if we let them go much longer.

Working in stackable trays we can grow a greater density for longer, due to the airflow.

Some types will grow to full-on baby leaves using just water and sunlight. Some may require a substrate of some kind to get there – paper towel, cloth towel, small pea gravel or aquarium stone that we keep lightly damp for them. Others will happily send roots through a mesh or grate into a drip-catch pan for the support and greater absorption they need.

Those can be a big boost for anyone with limited resources, whether it’s income or space now, or a prepper making the most out of their seed stash. It lets us get a lot more yield per seed and without added nutrients.

For others, we do need nutrients, and in some cases a soil or soil-substitute substrate. Sometimes, though, those nutrients can be as simple as sticking a used teabag or cheesecloth holding used coffee grounds in a gallon jug and using that for root-zone watering.

For the larger microgreens that need a little more help yet, I personally like good ol’ dirt, anywhere from a half-inch to an inch deep.

I’m not big into “needy” things, so I don’t always do sprouts the way others recommend.

I rinse jars 1-2x a day and angle them to drain. I sometimes use a gentle spray from a can or hose for bulk microgreens and sprouts, but for small amounts and delicate green sprouts at the cotyledon-leaf stage, I routinely just mist, and I routinely only water leafy sprouts once a day.

I also keep a damp cloth over my tray-grown sprouts if they’re in the house or arid conditions, with the lids over those, or I use clear “greenhouse” lids to help hold moisture.

In really humid conditions, I go with only the draped cloth so excess moisture can evaporate at will.

Play with it.

Especially small-scale, it’s a little like finding a sweet spot for sourdough starter. Where they are exactly on a counter changes their airflow and temperature. How densely we plant and how big we want our sprouts and microgreens will also affect how much attention they need and which methods work best.

Materials

We don’t need specialty jars or lids. We can poke tons of holes in a peanut butter tub or cover any ol’ jar with a sock, torn shirt, or garden mesh.

I do still use my original Sproutmaster trays at home. I gave up on the divider early on and went to a paper towel liner, but they’re way sturdier than I expected when I first unwrapped mine and they’re handy enough, stack well enough with thin dish towels between the tray and lids.

(DO NOT believe that the mini’s —or the jar versions – will work for packing. It requires rubber bands, bungees, and it either ends up not draining or you end with drips.)

When I expanded, I didn’t buy more. It’s too easy to wrap a dish towel or storm mesh around a baker’s drying rack if I want improved drainage and airflow, or line anything from a lasagna pan to a 1020 tray with the same, a paper towel, or soil, or just arrange a tilted bracer and put in drainage holes above seed height on one end.

It works, whether giving them gentle sprays or mists, dunking the whole tray real quick, or approximating a flood-drain hydroponics or aquaponics system where we pour on one side and let it trickle across and drain.

Sprouted Fodder

Just like sprouts offer us condensed nutrients and nice, fresh, and even crunchy foods to augment our diets, sprouted fodder has a ton of benefits for livestock – https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/sprouted-fodder.

Basically, it’s growing seed grains (and rarely beans) to the stage right before they develop true leaves, usually 7-9-12 days. It needs nothing more than water and some light in the last 3-5 days, and typically boosts proteins, minerals, and vitamins by 2-4 times as well as increasing the digestibility of the seed. Even non-grazing game birds like ducks can be fed sprouted fodder.

It, too, is a seed suck – but it has the same seed-to-mass conversion as human sprouts, too, 4-8 x the mass. And, remember, that mass is pound-for-pound 2-4x “better” in the common focus areas in livestock feed, as well as being more filling and covering more of the daily fiber/dry matter needs

The way some people grow, it’s also water needy. That can be reduced by reusing water from sprouted fodder in gardens, for larger livestock, and through the fodder system again after some base physical filtration (due to residues, it’s still going to need replacement after a few passes).

I have the best luck going with thin layers, not the “less than a half-inch thick” that others are able to make work. I tend to aim for 3-4 layers of seed in depth.

I also sprout more than barley, wheat and oats in my mats, everything from native pasture grasses and common hay seed mixes to millet, pigeon and partridge peas, vetch, and cow beans. As with fresh feeds, the latter get fed in much lower density due to richness, but I find it to be a nice boost.

I’ll also do mats of stockpiled bulk seed like forage turnips and beets when germination on those start to get lower than I prefer.

For some additional sprouted fodder information and setup ideas, check out:

https://104homestead.com/sprouted-barley-fodder/

https://www.attainable-sustainable.net/sprouting-grains-fodder/

http://blogs.cornell.edu/organicdairyinitiative/resources/sprouted-fodder/

I wouldn’t try to grow enough to truly feed livestock, especially large livestock, but even small amounts can see big boosts in production and health. (So can 2-4 day sprouting grains and beans, instead of feeding that grain dry or just-soaked.)

Sprouts for Preppers

Sprouts can check a lot of boxes for us and our livestock. We have to plan for the high seed use and additional drain on water supply, but it gives us an option for fresh foods and healthier foods even in very small spaces and commonly even without light.

Even if we’ve had some bad sprout experiences before, it’s worth giving them another go, from sprouted grains to microgreens and fodder mats.

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from The Prepper Journal Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

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The Ultimate Guide to Hosting or Attending A Healthy, Plant-Powered 4th of July Celebration (Or Other Summer Party)

Want to have a summer party that is both festive and healthy? These tips, foods, and healthy July 4th recipes will help you enjoy get-togethers that nourish your body and support your health deliciously.

Sitting in the sunshine all day, burgers and hot dogs sizzling on the grill, plates piled high with mayo-drenched potato salad, fireworks shooting across the sky, and red, white, and blue everywhere you look.

For many Americans, this is an annual tradition. And like most holidays, the 4th of July — U.S. Independence Day — is known for some unhealthy practices. You probably don’t expect to find healthful foods at most parties. But what if you want to host a summer get-together, or attend one, without sacrificing your health?

The following tips and recipes will help you create (or participate in) a 4th of July celebration or another summer party that won’t disrupt your healthy lifestyle.

How to Experience Healthy BBQ and Grilling

Getting outside and grilling and barbecuing is common for summer parties, including the 4th of July. But there are downsides to grilling many people don’t know.

When meat — with its high fat and protein content — is cooked using high temperatures for long periods of time, it develops chemicals (also found in cigarette smoke) that may lead to cancer.

Consuming (and even just smelling) barbecued meat has been found to be hazardous to fetal development, leading to smaller birth weights and heads for newborns.

Another concern with meat and high-heat cooking is AGEs (advanced glycation end products).

Excess dietary AGEs:

Are linked to increased inflammation and accelerated aging

Are linked to many chronic diseases, such as kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease

May predict cognitive decline over time and may cause brains to shrink

Animal foods are abundant in AGEs, as are sugary and processed foods. And new AGEs form when these foods are cooked using high-heat methods including grilling.

Most vegetables and fruits contain relatively few AGEs, even after cooking.

But here’s the good news: Most vegetables and fruits contain relatively few AGEs, even after cooking.

However, plant foods that are high in protein and fat do produce AGEs when cooked using high-heat methods. So grilling tofu, tempeh, and other soy products may not be the healthiest idea.

And what about using oil when grilling? Refined oils are also high in AGEs.

Getting rid of all your exposures to carcinogens and harmful toxins isn’t possible. But you can eliminate or minimize a risk when you know about it. And now you know!

Grilling fresh vegetables and fruits without oil is the healthiest way to enjoy a healthy BBQ. It’s also an easy way to add natural, mouthwatering flavor to foods without risking your health.

Tips for Successful Grilling That Won’t Harm Your Health

Vegetables don’t need oil to prevent them from sticking to the grill. You can use lemon or lime juice or other marinades instead.

You can also use a grill basket or kabob skewers to prevent veggies from falling through grill grates. Grill pans or plates are another way of grilling foods on the grill or in your kitchen.

If it rains or you don’t have an outdoor grill, you can use an oven broiler. Like a grill, the broiler uses intense heat that comes from one side. The main difference is a grill’s flame is below, and a broiler’s heat comes from above.

Preheating the grill is important because it’s the only way to get perfect grilling marks. Tip: Don’t move the food until you can see it’s getting grill marks.

Marinating creates delicious flavors, but be wary of store-bought dressings and sauces. They can be loaded with sugar, bad oils, and other unhealthy ingredients. Instead, make your own simple blends with ingredients such as vinegar, citrus, and herbs. You may enjoy this 2-Minute Oil-Free Balsamic Dressing.

(Thanks to Tami of Vegan Appetite and Katie Simmons of Plants-Rule for help with these tips.)

Plant-Powered Versions of Your Summer Favorites (You’ll Love These Healthy July 4th Recipes)

With the following recipes, you can enjoy traditional 4th of July food without the guilt.

4th of July Appetizers to Get the Party Started

Giving people something to snack on before the main food is served is always a good idea.

Here are some foods worth munching on:

Veggies and dip. Cut up fresh, seasonal vegetables from your garden, farmers market, or grocery store and serve them with hummus or other dips. You can even get creative and arrange your veggies in the shape of a flag. For dipping, here’s a flavorful 1-Minute White Bean and Artichoke Dip from Jessica Meyers of Garden Fresh Foodie. Or as an alternative to guacamole, try this easy, plant-powered Creamy Avocado Dip from Cookie and Kate.

Spice up your salsa. While standard salsas with tomatoes are delicious, why not serve something a little more unexpected? This festive and fresh Blueberry, Strawberry, and Jicama Salsa from Two Peas & Their Pod lets the beauty of bright, colorful food shine. Or your eyes and your mouth will enjoy this Fresh Mango Salsa from Cookie and Kate.

Healthier chips. Potato chips are a typical party food, but most store-bought ones aren’t healthy choices. If you do want to serve chips, you can look for organic kinds with simple ingredients or try making your own (here’s an easy oil-free chip recipe with a BBQ option from Diane at Plant-Based Cooking). Or make your own kale chips (like these crunchy, “cheesy” Sunrise Kale Chips from Blender Babes,) beet chips, zucchini chips (like these Raw Nacho “Cheese” Zucchini Chips from Janie Gianotsos of One Green Planet) or other veggie varieties.

Popcorn with dried blueberries and cranberries. Make your own air-popped popcorn and then add dried or fresh fruit for a festive creation. Skip the butter and loads of oil and salt. Instead, you can add lime juice and a dash of chile powder, with a sprinkle of salt if you like. Or keep it simple and add only the fruit.

Grilled avocados. A fun and easy idea. Try these “walking-guacamole” Grilled Avocados from Alyssa at Good + Simple. They are made in their skins and without oil. And each person can add their own toppings to their scoopable avocado bowls.

Colorful trail mixes with fresh fruits. Combine nuts (like cashews), seeds (like mood-boosting pumpkin seeds,) blueberries (for something blue) and cranberries or raspberries (for something red) with dried coconut.

Healthy Summer Salads and Sides for Parties and Potlucks

Grilled Corn and Radish image from Plants-Rule.

Give your guests options — with a variety of fresh fruits and veggies.

Coleslaw. Cold cabbage salad is great for potlucks and parties. This Creamy Coleslaw from Kathy Fisher at Straight Up Food is packed with nutrients, rather than traditional mayo.

Classic corn. Corn on the cob is a 4th of July food favorite. It’s a rich source of many vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and is good for your eyes. Keep your corn fresh,  whole and (to avoid pesticides and genetic engineering) organic. To grill your corn, peel back the husks and remove the silk. Cover them back up in the husks and soak in water for 10 minutes (to prevent burning). Shake off excess water and grill for 15 minutes on medium-high heat. Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice and pepper. You can also try this fresh and tasty Grilled Corn and Radish Salad from Plants-Rule.

Tomato salad. Fresh tomatoes make a great addition to any summer menu. This Mediterranean Cucumber Tomato Salad from Ceara’s Kitchen is light and easy to create.

Potato salad. This fancy Purple Potato Salad from Katie Simmons at Plants-Rule uses purple potatoes — which have four times as many antioxidants as Russet potatoes. Or this classic-looking Potato Salad from Chef Del Sroufe at Forks Over Knives uses silken tofu (make sure it’s organic to avoid GMO soy) for a creamy protein boost.

Cold bean salad. Quick and healthy, cold bean salads are a summer party favorite because they taste good at any temperature. Try this colorful Italian Three Bean Salad from Plants-Rule (you can leave out the honey without sacrificing flavor).

Baked beans. This classic summer BBQ dish can be made without meat and loads of sugar. Try these Chipotle Baked Beans from Plants-Rule (the molasses can be omitted. Or if you want a little sweetness, you can instead add two to four dates into the sauce while it simmers. And then, puree it all together before combining with the beans).

Vegetable skewers. Grilling veggies on skewers is fun and tasty. Try these Vegetables Skewers or these Marinated Mushroom Skewers from The Almost Vegan Aussie — both are made without oil and are easy to create.

Grilled asparagus. You can throw raw asparagus on the grill for about 5 minutes (if using a grill, spike spears with a skewer) and then toss with lemon juice, salt, and pepper — an easy and nutritious side made in 10 minutes!

Grilled pineapple. Simply slice pineapples into thick rings, grill them, and serve as is or slather them with BBQ sauce. Make your own barbecue sauce, which you can sweeten with applesauce, dates (or date paste), or a small amount of molasses or maple syrup. Try this low-sugar Barbecue Sauce from Lindsay Nixon at Happy Herbivore.

Plant-Powered Burgers and Hot Dogs for Easy Summer Eating

Portobello Mushroom Burger Image from Plants-Rule.

Burgers are a staple 4th of July food or summer party food. While grass-fed beef has its advantages over traditional beef, the healthiest and most sustainable burger choice just might be a plant-based burger.

Some people worry that veggie burgers will be flavorless and boring. But they can also be delightful!

Products, such as The Beyond Burger, are becoming available in more places. They smell, taste, and cook similar to meat. These products are a quick and easy option for avoiding animals and pleasing your guests. However, while they are cruelty-free, these burger products are processed and contain high amounts of sodium and saturated fat — so they aren’t the healthiest choice.

Taking the time to make your own veggie burgers is a healthy and delicious decision. Try these recipes:

These Healthy World Burgers from Caryn Hartglass at Responsible Eating and Living are fabulous and hearty and might even impress carnivores.

Or try this Real-Deal Veggie Burger from the Garden Fresh Foodie, which is less traditional in flavor and look, but packed with a variety of vegetables and no added oil or fillers.

Most veggie burgers won’t hold up on a grill, so they’re best baked and then heated on the grill just before serving if you want.

Time-saving tip: You can easily make veggie burgers ahead of time and cook or reheat them on the day of the party.

Or make impressive veggie burgers with grilled portobello mushrooms — because mushrooms are one of the most health-promoting foods on the planet, and you may want to eat them regularly, if not daily.

Try these Ultimate Vegan Portobello Mushroom Burgers from Plants-Rule for a healthy and satisfying non-traditional burger.

Carrot dog image from Healthy Slow Cooking.

And when it comes to homemade veggie dogs, carrot dogs are fun and unexpected.

You cut and marinate carrots and then cook them in the oven or on the grill, which creates a unique flavor and texture. Try these All Natural Carrot Dogs from Kathy Hester at Healthy Slow Cooking.

Healthy topping ideas for veggie burgers and dogs:

Ketchup (try this Apple-Sweet Chipotle Ketchup from Plants-Rule)

Plant-based mayo (try this No-Oil Nutritarian Mayo from Kristen Hong at Hello Nutritarian)

Guacamole, hummus, and pesto (try this Oil-Free Lemon Basil Pesto from Garden Fresh Foodie or this Basil Avocado Pesto from Katie Mae at Plantz St.)

Avocado and tomato slices, romaine lettuce, and sprouts

Slaw and pickled red onions or other veggies

And remember: You can serve burgers on top of leafy greens or in a veggie “bun” — wrapped in lettuce or blanched collard greens.

Another Exciting Main Dish Option: Grilled Cauliflower “Steaks”

Though it might not be at every summer party, cauliflower is one food worth considering adding to your healthy BBQ menu.

Cauliflower is a cruciferous vegetable — and cruciferous vegetables have extraordinary anti-cancer and antidepressant benefits, as well as being cardioprotective and packed with antioxidants.

Grilled cauliflower “steaks” are an impressive and appetizing main or side dish.

To make cauliflower “steaks”:

Cut the cauliflower by slicing the entire head, from top to bottom (one head of cauliflower will yield three thin or two thicker pieces).

Marinate with ingredients, such as za’atar spices, garlic, and lemon juice, for at least one to two hours.

And then, cook over medium heat on each side for five to seven minutes and sprinkle with fresh herbs to serve.

The result is tender and slightly sweet, with a hint of smokiness.

You can also try these Grilled Cauliflower “Steaks” with Spicy Lentil Sauce from Rebecca Mastoris from Live Earth Farm.

One important note: Cauliflower is nutritious and can be yummy, but it doesn’t have a lot of protein and won’t be filling on its own. So if you do serve this as a main dish, make sure to serve protein-packed sides with ingredients, such as lentils, beans, nuts and seeds, and quinoa.

Fresh, Festive Beverages That Are Beautiful and Enjoyable

Keeping you and your guests hydrated is important, especially if you have an outdoor gathering. Iced cold water is great — but even better, you can infuse water with fresh fruits for an easy, beautiful, and flavorful party drink.

All you need to do is add the fruit or herbs to a water pitcher and let it infuse for at least an hour (3-4 hours is best) or overnight. You can slice the fruit and chop (or muddle) the herbs to release their flavors. And then add ice to serve or store in the fridge.

Here are some tasty, summery flavored water ideas:

Cherry and lime (made with fresh cherries)

Watermelon, basil, and lemon

Strawberry and raspberry

Pineapple and mint

Cucumber and mint

Lemon and lime

Watermelon is almost a must for a healthy 4th of July or other summer parties. And watermelon juice is easy to make, nutritious, and perfect for keeping you cool and quenching your thirst on a hot day. (Bonus: Watermelons are a skin-healthy food, which can help protect your skin from sun damage.)

To make watermelon juice cut up watermelon into chunks and then blend with filtered water or coconut water. If you want, add mint leaves for extra freshness and a squeeze of lime juice for a little zing. You can strain or drink the juice as is. Serve with a lime wedge and mint leaf.

You can also make other fresh, beautiful juices. Try these colorful Gold Juice and Green Juice recipes from Reboot with Joe. Or this zesty Spicy Sweetie Juice from Kris Carr.

And here’s another light and refreshing summer drink: an easy yet impressive Rosewater Galia Melon Healthy Mint Fresca from Plants-Rule.

Desserts That Delight Without Weighing You Down

Light, refreshing desserts are perfect for outdoor summer parties. Make fresh, seasonal fruits the highlight because they are naturally sweet without needing to add sugar.

You can simply slice a watermelon and serve. Or grill slices brushed with lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and salt for two minutes on each side.

For a healthy fruit salad, mix cut up fruit with lemon or lime juice. Or make a red-white-and-blue 4th of July Fruit Salad like this one from Sina at Vegan Heaven.

Another idea is to create a Berry Patriotic Chia Seed Pudding (from Kelly Page at Tasting Page) with layers of red berries, white chia seed pudding, and blueberries.

Or for a seemingly indulgent yet healthy treat, try these Broiled Peaches and Plums with Cinnamon Cashew Cream from Plants-Rule.

Tips for Hosting (or Attending) A Successful Summer Party

If you know you’re going to a traditional, unhealthy get-together, go for the company and camaraderie, not the food. Bring snacks and eat before or after.

When taking a dish, the simplest way is to store, transport, and serve in the same container.

If you’re attending a party that may not have the healthiest options, make and bring at least two dishes including filling options, like a quinoa salad (try this International Quinoa Salad from Susan Voisin at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen).

Swap hummus for creamy dressings and egg-based mayo. In your potato and pasta salad recipes, you can easily swap hummus instead of heavy dressings. Or use hummus on veggie burgers. Or as a salad dressing by adding 1-2 tablespoons of water for a thinner consistency. Try this oil-free Hummus from Engine 2 Plant-Strong. (thanks to Katie from Plants-Rule for this tip)

If you’re sharing a grill with meat-eaters and you don’t want to eat any meat-fat drippings, you may want to agree on a no-meat area.

If you’re at a party with unhealthy options and you didn’t bring anything to eat, try filling up on salads and healthier sides so you’re less likely to be tempted by unhealthy food options.

As Ocean Robbins says, “If you do choose to eat something that doesn’t align with your values, there’s no health benefit in carrying guilt.” So enjoy it, forgive yourself, and make your next choice a healthy one.

The Key to Healthy Summer Parties

Summer parties are a wonderful time to enjoy time in the sun with friends and family. Food is often the focus — but instead of fueling your festivities with dishes that lead to chronic disease, why not make fresh, whole, seasonal vegetables and fruits the stars (and stripes) of your gathering?

After eating, you and your guests will feel lighter and more energized. And you might want to go on a hike or dance, instead of sitting around feeling tired.

Whatever you eat, make sure to remember that sharing fun and loving connection with people you cherish is the real goal of any holiday gathering. Bon Appétit!

Tell us in the comments:

Do you have any other tips or healthy July 4th recipes to share?

What are your experiences with food at summer parties?

And if you’re inspired, please LIKE and SHARE this article. Together, we can work for healthy, ethical, sustainable food for all!

[Read More ...] https://foodrevolution.org/blog/healthy-july-4th-recipes/

[vivianrhopper85]

Convenience

If you've ever wandered the streets late at night between The Gladstone and The Drake, you may have glanced at this neon blue place and wondered, "Why is there a convenience store open at this time? And why?" The reason is really very simple: it's not just a convenience store but a restaurant and bar as well! If you want Skittles, sure, grab a bag. But if you want a well-made cocktail or a late night nibble on a burger, walk on through the storefront and you've landed in the right spot.

A relative newcomer to the recent throwback theme in Toronto, Convenience Resto Bar seems perfectly primed to do well in the West Queen West/Parkdale area that is growing up as its primary millennial residents move into their 30s. There's nothing we like more than throwbacks to our childhoods in the 80s and early 90s and just like that Becker's or family-owned corner store you used to frequent to buy sour keys or Bubble Jug (Oh, Bubble Jug!), this place is bound to give any millennial a nostalgic flashback.

But this place isn't just about kitschy retro reminiscing for the good old days (Has it really been 25 years already?); it also wants you to eat and drink well all night long.

Atmosphere & Decor

Like many Toronto restaurants of its ilk, Convenience has its sights set squarely on the 25 to 35-year-olds that remember the 80s cartoons best. You walk into the "store" part of the venue first, and much like Figures in Yorkville, it is a working shop that is open when the restaurant is. It comes off as a somewhat bare 7-11 but it makes its point loud and clear, especially at night when the floor to ceiling windows glow light blue brightly onto the street.

The restaurant itself is large, spacious, and covered with carefully considered design in the style of Space Invaders. Lines are crisp and colours bright and despite the thematic choices for decor, it still feels fresh and modern. You're not stuck in your weird cousin's basement. It's a space you want to visit and hang out in, with a full bar and solid bartenders to boot.

While the ample sunny patio lacks the same video game feel as the interior, even the downstairs follows the retro motif with He-Man and She-Ra washrooms complete with blacklight, after walking down past videos of robberies gone wrong and stacks of old VHS tapes. The most popular aspect of the bar is clearly the very, very pink common space outside the washrooms where 4 telephones connect you to a "party line". It is absolutely perfect for every hipster's selfie photoshoot and if you've ever looked up Convenience on Instagram, you'll notice the neon wave of patrons posing with these phones.

There is something very friendly and relaxed about the atmosphere here. Unlike some of its competition in Toronto, it doesn't feel forced or exclusionary. And it's bright enough too in late afternoon with the large windows. The music is not likely to evoke any troubling memories of awkward middle school dances as it's current enough not to drown you with preteen nostalgia.

Menu Range

There's very little point in using the menu on their website as a reference point for what they actually have on offer as the real menu has been pared down to essentials and favourites now. It's still snack-focused: mostly familiar plates with a new twist. Gone are many of the more curious options on the website menu such as Jolly Rancher-infused salad dressings, Pop Rocks on olives, or Goldfish crackers with cheese. Instead, there's a slight Korean-fushion edge to many of the items.

Starters, or sharing plates, are full of variety. 8 items run from $6 to $14, with hand-cut fries being the cheapest option and Convenience Fried Chicken at the most expensive end of the scale. If you like either chicken or carbs (or both!), you'll like this portion of the menu. Mac and Cheese (with Doritos), and Pogo Sticks are likely to stick out as affordable and memorable at $8 each. A plate of olives, or Blistered Shishitos, will set you back only $9.50. Yuca Tots, Korean Fried Cauliflower, and Karaage Wings are all between $12-13 and are quite large servings considering their place on the menu. The aforementioned Convenience Fried Chicken comes with the option of either Nashville Hot or Colonel's Original flavour and comes with the ubiquitous macaroni salad and sweet pickles.

Next up is the healthy section of green salads all for a reasonable $14 each. All of them sound like refreshing choices for a summer patio session, especially the Watermelon Salad with mint, lime, and radish. There is the common Caesar Salad, slightly elevated, as well as a Beet and Quinoa salad with beet puree, candy cane beets, and watermelon radishes. Grilled chicken can be added for $5 and tofu for $4.

If you're in the mood for something a little more substantial, the "Get Comfortable" section has 4 choices of dinners. Burger Queen is the tribute to not the (in)famous Big Mac but rather the Burger King Whopper and at $14 for the burger, the fixings, and fries, it's just as good a deal, and probably a lot healthier (and better for the local community!). Second option is Fried Chicken with Mac and Cheese, again with the choice between Nashville Hot or Colonel's Original. Following up with another Korean offering is the Boom Boom Bap at $20 and although it only comes with tofu, it's easy to add chicken for an extra $5. Rounding off the mains is Steak Frites with a tri-tip 8 oz and fries for $22.

There are only two desserts on the menu but both seem really good to soothe a sweet tooth, both for $6. They're a steal. The Ice Cream Sandwhich consists of 2 sandwiches of homemade chocolate chip cookie with ice-cream filling. That's 4 cookies like Mom used to make. The Strawberry Shortcake, probably named after the 80s cartoon character even more than the real dessert, sounds delicious with amaretto whipped cream and fresh strawberries on vanilla cake. These desserts are a steal for that price.

Appetizers

Even with the wide range of choices for starters, I easily narrowed it down to a toss up between Yuca Tots and Korean Cauliflower. Eventually the Yuca Tots won out for two reasons: my love of yucca and the idea of Tater Tots, a snack I haven't had for over a decade. Now, they were tots. Perfectly sized cubes of yucca, or as you may also know it, cassava. It's a tuber native to countries much further south so if you've travelled around South or Central America and eaten locally, you likely have enjoyed yuca the right way. Unfortunately, I have yet to run into yuca on a menu in Canada that treats it properly. Or perhaps, I'm just spoiled by being treated to the tastiest homemade cassava on a farm in Belize. It's always hard to stand up to the real thing.

Convenience's Yuca Tots are fun, and look great, but there's something bland about them, even with the delicious toppings provided. There's an art to cooking yuca and perhaps it just doesn't work this way. However, the Yuca Tots are a lot of people's favourite so if you're a fan of the tuber, it's worth a shot to give the dish a try yourself.

Main Course

The temperature in Toronto was balmy so what could be better than a sizzling skillet of Korean bibimbap? I opted for the Boom Boom Bap and it was a tasty choice, and a massive portion. For those unfamiliar with Korean food, this is a rice dish topped with an assortment of vegetables, mushrooms, and tofu, as well as the delicious kimchi—although in my opinion there wasn't enough of it.

It's not a dish you would expect to be particularly good at some 80s-themed West Queen West bar but it was cooked and served authentically in a stone bowl, with pickled vegetables, egg, grilled tofu, sauteed mushrooms, and the best part of a a good bibimbap: noo roong ji. If your bibimbap doesn't have this delicious, crunchy, beautiful crust of well-cooked rice at the bottom of the dish, also known as socarrat in Spanish paella, you're not doing it right. It was a pleasant surprise to see this in my dish. The soy enoki caught me a little by surprise as well, thinking they were just regular raw enoki mushrooms, each bite was full of that salty soy flavour. When mixed all together, as it should be, the dish was actually quite good. In future, I probably would have ordered the extra chicken with it, especially since beef was not offered. It needed a bit more protein but overall, a well done dish.

Dessert

I had come to Convenience with the idea I would order the Twinkie dessert. Much to my disappointment, it's no longer on the menu. However, considering the heat of a late afternoon sun beating down on me as well as a tummy full of sizzling rice and veggies, the ice cream didn't seem like a bad idea at all. And, as it turns out, it wasn't. Nothing feels better to end a hot meal than a smooth, sweet, cold treat like I haven't had since I lived at home and still used phrases like, "I can't. I have detention." 4 homemade cookies and two dollops of Oreo cookies'n'cream ice-cream went down easily and happily.

Drink Options

The biggest draw of Convenience is the sign outside that advertises "$5 Cocktails!". For a city with a growing craft cocktail scene, where most hover around the $12-$14 mark, a $5 cocktail on Queen West seems like highway robbery. Not only that, but these are all on tap, pre-mixed and touted as being just like a freshly shaken libation. The options are the Negroni, Pina Colada, Cosmopolitan, and Paper Plane with 2oz of booze in every drink. I can't speak to the authenticity of them, but I did notice many other patrons putting them back, especially Paper Planes.

For double that price, you have a choice of old school classics such as an Old Fashioned, The Last Word, Sazerac, or Dark & Stormy. They have a full bar and can accommodate basically any classic you throw at them. For me, I was looking for something light, fizzy, refreshing and my server brought out very well-balanced Moscow Mule, complete with copper mug. Even better than that was the price of $8. There's something to be said about finishing off a tasty meal on a warm west end patio with spicy ginger beer and lime. Oh, and of course the vodka too. Honestly, if I'm going to have a cocktail out of a metal cup, the mule will win over the julep every time. Kudos to my server for innately knowing that about me.

Like every decent bar, they have their own signature cocktail menu as well, or in this case, the New School Cocktails. Again, for only $10 we have 2 oz creations inspired by Toronto neighbourhoods. First up is the Greektown hailing to the east end of the old city, featuring brandy and citrus. Cabbagetown is an homage to another east-of-Yonge neighbourhood with a spirit-forward mix of Irish whiskey, Chartreuse Green, and sweet vermouth. Then comes Parkdale, a slighty spicy and fruity tequila creation. Finally is the Way West which is a light and fizzy gin and elderflower cocktail.

For only $1 more are the drinks you wish you had back when you were sitting in your friend's basement watching her Jurassic Park VHS. Aptly named "From the Candyshop" these are all cocktails inspired by sugary treats we all enjoyed. Peaches and Cream is basically as the name implies, and Creamsicle is a melting of rum, Malibu and orange juice. Coffee Crisp is a chocolatey treat reminiscent of the candy bar, with sprinkling of its namesake on top. My Little Lassy is for the whiskey drinkers. I personally couldn't help myself when I saw Bubblegum Sour on the menu. While sours are amongst my favourite type of cocktails, this one sounded less sour and more like something I could picture myself drinking a pitcher of on a beach. The idea of pisco was also intriguing as I've never made a cocktail at home using pisco that's turned out well but it's a liquor that others seem to really understand and make shine. And I have to say, the Bubblegum Sour is absolutely delicious. And, yes, it tastes like bubblegum. Although lacking in the pale pink colour I expected it to have, it did come with a strip of Bubble Tape as garnish! I found the nicest thing about it was even as it warmed out there in the sun as I slowly enjoyed it, the flavour never changed with the rise in temperature. A perfect patio cocktail.

Convenience also is known for its bombs. I'm sure everyone has heard of a Jager bomb, or a sake bomb. This bar gives you even more options right there on the menu, all of which taste like a specific candy or soft drink. Chances are that if you've been to university, you're familiar with at least one, if not all of these. The Skittle Bomb, Fuzzy Peach, Tic Tac, Dr. Pepper, and Creamsicle are go for an easy $8. Bar rail is $6.

If beer is more your style, they've got a selection of 5 beers on draught which change with the season, all for $8 whether it's a Guinness, Blue Moon, or Coors. There are 8 tall boys available from brewers such as Tecate, Amsterdam and Glutenburg, again for $8 as well as Thornbury Cider. On the off chance you can't find a single cocktail to whet your appetite, they have wine on tap for 94 cents per ounce. There isn't a big selection: one red, one white, and one rose, but they get the job done if wine is how you want to roll.

Service

Throughout my meal I had the pleasure of speaking with 3 lovely servers/managers. Everybody there was friendly, outgoing, and very knowledgeable about the entire menu and drinks. They really help put the patrons at ease with their casual attire and easy-going banter. While I find it rare to ever run into rude or incompetent staff in Toronto, some are more friendly than others and Convenience gives off the vibe of hanging out at your friend's house rather than some trendy bar. Furthermore, the servers seemed to know a few of the patrons and the fact that locals come around says a lot for the return potential of the venue. I could definitely see myself stopping in for a casual drink or two if I lived in the area.

Feeling Afterwards

 It felt like a comfortable place to spend an hour or two, and the drinks were tasty and the decor fun but subtle enough not to be overpowering the experience. The yuca tots weren't the best they could be but the nice surprise of the Boom Boom Bap and especially the drinks and dessert made up for it. I left with a bag of leftovers, a full stomach, and what turned out to be a rather small bill for the amount I ordered. This is a place that definitely caters not only to us ageing millennials but also anyone who is looking for solid drinks, entertaining atmosphere, and decent bites at a really reasonable price point.

So come for the blast of childhood nostalgia and stay for the tasty cocktails. You won't be disappointed. Plus, you never know who will call you up on the Party Line.

VL00KV

from News And Tip About Real Estate https://jamiesarner.com/toronto-restaurant-reviews/convenience/

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The Best Patios And Backyards In Austin (2) added to Google Docs

The Best Patios And Backyards In Austin (2)

Austin is a city that’s at its best outdoors. We have a world-famous swimming pool, we make up reasons to have music festivals (Eeyore’s Birthday Party should be on your radar), and we congregate anywhere there’s shade to sip cold drinks. And there’s no better way to combat the triple-digit heat and catastrophic traffic than by hanging out on a patio. But not all of them are created equal.

This guide highlights a few of our favorite bars and restaurants around town where you can eat on a patio, backyard, or any other open-air environment. Many of these spots have indoor dining as well, so you may want to make a reservation or call ahead if eating outside is a priority. And if you’d rather check out a brewery, we’ve got a guide to that, too.

Also see our guide to the best outdoor Happy Hours.

the spots  Perla's Seafood and Oyster Bar $ $ $ $ Seafood ,  Raw Bar  in  South Congress $$$$ 1400 S Congress Ave Ste B100

Perla’s has one of the most recognizable patios in Austin - in large part from being in the middle of South Congress, where it practically bleeds onto the sidewalk. Make a reservation or put your name on the waitlist, do some people-watching, and get ready to enjoy some of the best seafood in town. But also be ready to drop $36 on a lobster roll.

 Nicolai McCrary Kalimotxo $ $ $ $ Spanish  in  Downtown Austin $$$$ 607 W 3rd St Suite 105

Tucked away in a relatively quiet section of downtown, the patio at the Spanish-inspired restaurant Kalimotxo is a welcome escape from the everyday bustle of the city, with some great food to match. They’re currently offering a limited menu, including their excellent ham sandwich, the Kali Burger, tortilla espanola, and other small plates. They’re accepting walk-ins for seating on their patio, but we recommend making a reservation to secure a nice spot outside.

 Nicolai McCrary Arbor Food Park $$$$ 1108 East 12th St

While not strictly a patio, Arbor Food Park’s abundance of great food options accompanied by a large, outdoor space filled with picnic tables, makes it a perfect spot for an outdoor meal over on the East Side. Home to Cuantos Tacos, Rosarito Cevicheria, Casper Fermentables, and El Tigre Coffee, there’s something for most palates. And the food park is BYOB, so swing by Quickie Pickie down the street for a six-pack or some wine.

 Nicolai McCrary Lou’s $ $ $ $ American ,  Burgers ,  Mexican ,  Sandwiches  in  East Austin $$$$ 1900 E Cesar Chavez St

Lou’s on East Cesar Chavez almost feels like it was built for takeout, operating out of a small space with orders placed at an outdoor window. Of course, if you’d rather sit down and enjoy your rotisserie and frozen custard, all of their seating is outdoors on a well-spaced patio with plenty of picnic tables. And if you show up on a Tuesday, all bottles of wine are half-price.

 Olive & June $ $ $ $ Italian  in  Rosedale $$$$ 3411 Glenview Ave

Dining on Olive & June’s patio is probably the closest thing we’ve experienced to eating in an upscale treehouse, with three stories of spacious patio wrapping around a giant 200-year-old oak tree near 35th and MoPac. We enjoy just about all of their Italian specialties, but their house-made pasta and wine list are where they really shine.

 Nicolai McCrary The Little Darlin' $ $ $ $ Bar Food ,  Burgers ,  Bar  in  South Congress $$$$ 6507 Circle S Rd

The Little Darlin’ is right off William Cannon and South Congress, and it’s a great place to unwind or spend a chill Sunday afternoon on the picnic tables in the huge patio out back. There are craft beer and cocktails, outdoor games like horseshoes, a covered patio with darts, pool tables inside, and a stage for live music, though some of that is on pause for the time being. The food can be hit or miss, so just stick with the basics, like the burger or the carnitas sliders.

 Roger Ho Loro $ $ $ $ Chinese ,  Sandwiches ,  BBQ  in  South Lamar $$$$ 2115 S Lamar Blvd

Loro is the brainchild of two Austin favorite institutiones - Franklin Barbecue and Uchi - resulting in an Asian/Texas smokehouse that provides some unique fusion flavors in a beautiful space. The patio is large and there’s a great happy hour on weekdays, with $4 frozen gin & tonics and mango sake slushees. They’re not doing reservations, but you can request a spot on their patio when you arrive.

 Gabby Phi Lenoir $ $ $ $ American  in  South Austin $$$$ 1807 S 1st St

While Lenoir is perhaps best-known for their very affordable tasting menu, under current circumstances they’re offering a pared-down “hot weather food menu” of dishes like cold summer canneloni and garam masala pork chops with watermelon curry. The inside is currently closed, but they’ve converted their large, outdoor wine garden into a charming dining area, complete with hanging lanterns and colorful tablecloths. You can reserve a table on their website.

Yard Bar $ $ $ $ Bar Food  in  Allandale $$$$ 6700 Burnet Rd

Hanging out with dogs is a whole lot cheaper and more fun than therapy, so here’s your chance to do so even if your landlord doesn’t allow pets. The entire “patio” at Yard Bar off Burnet is an enormous fenced-in dog park/playground, with a full bar inside. Sometimes you just need a cocktail after a long day at work - but most other times adding hounds into the mix cures all ails.

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INFATUATION NEWSLETTER Get our newest guides & reviews first,

plus more restaurant intel you won't find anywhere else. ATL ATX BOS CHI LDN LA MIA NYC PHL SF SEA DC Subscribe Smart move. Excellent information will arrive in your inbox soon. Do you have friends and family who also eat food? Enter their emails below and we’ll make sure they’re eating well. (Don’t worry, we won’t subscribe them to our newsletter - they can do that themselves.) Help Your Friends No Thanks Well done. You’re a good person. All good. We still like you. Want to quickly find restaurants on the go? Download The Infatuation app.    Mackenzie Smith Kelley Kinda Tropical $ $ $ $ American ,  Bar Food ,  Burgers ,  Vegetarian ,  Cafe/Bakery ,  Brunch  in  East Austin ,  Govalle $$$$ 3501 E 7th St

Kinda Tropical feels, as you might have guessed, kind of tropical, with pulled jackfruit sandwiches, yuca fries, and tamari-glazed chicken wings, alongside things like avocado toast. Typically, the inside operates as a minimarket, selling beer, wine, and snacks, while the back patio houses a number of spread out tables. Currently, dine-in service is only available on the patio, but you can still snag most of the marketplace items for takeout on your way home.

 Cherrywood Coffeehouse $ $ $ $ Cafe/Bakery  in  Cherrywood $$$$ 1400 E 38th 1/2 St

Not only do they serve some of the best breakfast tacos in town, but Cherrywood also has a spacious, dog-friendly, tree-covered patio/music venue where you’ll sometimes see the gardener carefully nurturing his potted plants. If this wasn’t clear from our previous sentence, Cherrywood is a highly Austin-y place to have some laid-back time outside.

 Nicolai McCrary Hold Out Brewing $ $ $ $ American ,  Bar Food  in  Clarksville $$$$ 1208 W 4th St

The latest project from the folks who brought you Better Half, Little Brother, and Brew & Brew, Holdout Brewing has a short menu of smash burgers, wings, and curly fries that made us reconsider our previous devotion to Arby’s. And of course, great beer. This Clarksville spot shares a patio with Better Half, and right now all seating is outside, by reservation only.

 Mackenzie Smith Kelley Better Half Coffee & Cocktails $ $ $ $ American  in  Clarksville $$$$ 406 Walsh St

As we mentioned above, Better Half Bar shares a patio with sister brewery, Holdout Brewing. And while they don’t serve the same smash burger as their spot across the lawn, they have an equally tasty cheeseburger as well as a full menu of sandwiches, pastas, and salads. If you’re there early, grab a chicken biscuit sandwich and the cauliflower tots with beet ketchup are great any time of day. They also have a great Happy Hour daily from 1-4pm with $5 burgers and $1 Pearl beers.

 Maggie Svodoba Josephine House $ $ $ $ American  in  Clarksville $$$$ 1601 Waterston Ave

If your priorities are twinkly lights and striped straws and the general feeling that you’re in the middle of an Instagram photo, you’ll want to be at Josephine House. This is the place to sip a fancy gin cocktail in a cozy outdoor both while eating the kind of food that tastes as good as it looks in pictures.

 Nicolai McCrary Radio Coffee & Beer $ $ $ $ Tacos  in  South Austin $$$$ 4208 Manchaca Rd

Radio Coffee & Beer sells, as the name suggests, coffee and beer. The outside seating area is large and well spread out, but the best part might be the two food trucks parked alongside the patio. With Veracruz serving some of the best breakfast tacos in town, and Dee Dee dishing out excellent Thai food, you may find yourself in the tricky (and possibly sticky) situation of deciding between one more migas tacos or an order of mango sticky rice.

 Cosmic Coffee + Beer Garden $ $ $ $ Tacos ,  BBQ  in  South Congress $$$$ 121 Pickle Rd

It might be called Cosmic Coffee + Beer Garden, but there’s a lot more going on here than just what’s on the sign. Cosmic also has wine and cocktails (and even cocktail flights). And then there’s the extensive outdoor space, shaded by oak trees. It’s also home to some of the city’s best food trucks, including Pueblo Viejo for tacos, Leroy & Lewis, a super non-traditional barbecue truck that we really like, and an outpost of Tommy Want Wingy, serving lollipop-style chicken wings that can get very spicy (if you want).

 Draught House Pub & Brewery $ $ $ $ Bar Food  in  Rosedale $$$$ 4112 Medical Pkwy

This Rosedale brewpub is home to one of the best craft beer collections in Austin, a few of which they brew on-site. Their patio stretches around the building and takes up most of the parking lot, and there’s also a semi-permanent food truck, making it a great place to grab dinner as well. Get some fish and chips along with your favorite brew and ask your friends how many days they went without wearing pants during the lockdown.

 Scholz Garten $ $ $ $ German  in  Campus $$$$ 1607 San Jacinto Blvd

Scholz Garten isn’t just the oldest bar in Austin, it’s the oldest operating business in Texas. Which also makes it the oldest operating patio in Texas (probably, don’t fact check us on that). And that just means that they’ve had more time to perfect things. With some of the best German food in town, a great beer list, and a central location right near UT, it’s a welcome escape from most of the campus-area bars.

 Licha's Cantina $ $ $ $ Mexican  in  East Austin $$$$ 1306 E 6th St

This converted old house not only serves some of our favorite Mexican food in Austin - they also have one of the best outdoor areas in which to eat it. The front yard is covered by a giant string-light-covered tree, and lined with charming little tables for sharing bowls of queso fundido and fajitas. If it’s crowded, the mural-covered backyard patio is no slouch either.

 Jester King Brewery $ $ $ $ Hill Country $$$$ 13005 Fitzhugh Rd

Jester King is one of our favorite spots to grab excellent beer and food outdoors, with a sprawling property that feels more like a state park than a brewery. And they’ve come back from a brief dine-in hiatus stronger than ever, with brand new picnic grounds, hiking trails, and multiple stations to fill up on their ever-changing selection of wild-fermented farmhouse ales. Don’t be surprised if your walk is interrupted by a parade of goats. Right now, spots are available by reservation only.

 Nicolai McCrary The ABGB $ $ $ $ Bar Food ,  Sandwiches  in  South Austin $$$$ 1305 W Oltorf St

The ABGB has a large outdoor space, live music, great pizza, and even better beer. You’ll need a reservation right now to snag one of their spaced-out picnic tables, but since it’s one of the best patios in South Austin, we’re OK with putting in a little extra effort. And make sure to grab a glass of the Hell Yes helles or the Rocket 100 pilsner while you’re there.

Matt's el Rancho $ $ $ $ Mexican ,  Tex-Mex  in  South Lamar $$$$ 2613 S Lamar Blvd

If you’re going to Matt’s El Rancho, chances are you’re there for one of two things: margaritas or queso. Or, more likely, you’re there for both (and they do both exceptionally well). With a sprawling patio and nearly 70 years of practice, we’re comfortable crowning it a South Austin institution. And because this is Texas, you can even get a chicken fried steak, though we usually stick with the enchiladas or fajitas.

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plus more restaurant intel you won't find anywhere else. ATL ATX BOS CHI LDN LA MIA NYC PHL SF SEA DC Subscribe Smart move. Excellent information will arrive in your inbox soon. Do you have friends and family who also eat food? Enter their emails below and we’ll make sure they’re eating well. (Don’t worry, we won’t subscribe them to our newsletter - they can do that themselves.) Help Your Friends No Thanks Well done. You’re a good person. All good. We still like you. Want to quickly find restaurants on the go? Download The Infatuation app.    Justine's Brasserie $ $ $ $ French  in  Govalle $$$$ 4710 E 5th St

The French invented neighborhood bistros with prime sidewalk seating (we think), and Justine’s is the Austin version. Inside, this place feels like Paris in Austin; an intimate date night dinner spot. Step onto their patio and the vibe shifts into a see-and-be-seen backyard covered with string lights and picnic tables perfect for having some frites with your Bordeaux. Justine’s is located away from the hubbub of downtown, which makes the entire experience feel more exclusive and better suited for conversation with a group.

 Guero's Taco Bar $ $ $ $ Tex-Mex  in  South Congress $$$$ 1412 S Congress Ave

Over the years, Guero’s has become an Austin postcard-establishment - their solid Tex-Mex and strong margaritas have made it a favorite entry point for out-of-towners who have no idea what Austin is (and just as fun for people who live here). The spot does get crowded, which is when you’ll want to consider stepping outside onto their patio - the only spot in town where you can sip margaritas, eat queso, listen to live music, and people watch, all while sitting in an oak tree-shaded garden facing South Congress.

 Fresa's South First $ $ $ $ Mexican  in  Bouldin $$$$ 1703 South First

The South First location of Fresas has a great patio with beautiful trees providing shade, and a spread of brightly-colored picnic tables that will help you forget the boring beige walls of your living room. All of their wood-grilled meats are great, but we’re partial to the achiote and citrus chicken, served with charro beans, rice, grilled onions and jalapenos, and corn tortillas. And we’ve found that the aguas frescas really hit the spot, especially on the warm afternoons when we need to change shirts every five minutes.

Gourdough's Public House $ $ $ $ American ,  Bar Food  in  South Lamar $$$$ 2700 S Lamar Blvd

This gourmet doughnut Airstream trailer turned brick-and-mortar is more than just a late-night donut shop. The well-designed ‘public house’ branch of the Gordough’s empire has a full bar and a fantastic backyard patio covered with picnic tables and yard games. This is the spot to hit if you’re with a giant crew that appreciates the finer things in life, like gigantic beer towers paired with donut burgers.

 Contigo Austin $ $ $ $ American ,  Southern  in  East Austin $$$$ 2027 Anchor Ln

From day one, Contigo fully embraced the outdoor life, with an almost entirely open-air dining area. There is a small bit of cover, but you’re probably not coming here during one of Austin’s spontaneous rainstorms anyway. We’re big fans of the burger, and the crispy green beans with sambal aioli are a great way to start.

 Nicolai McCrary Lazarus Brewing Company $ $ $ $ Bar Food ,  Tacos  in  East Austin $$$$ 1902 E 6th St

Lazarus has a great patio on the East Side, with lots of picnic tables in and around the bar. The tacos and tortas are surprisingly good, and the fried chickpeas are a nice snack while you’re waiting around. And of course, it’s a brewery, so the beers are all pretty solid. They’re keeping the inside closed for the time being, but the patio is currently open seven days a week.

Oasis Texas Brewing Company $$$$ 6550 Comanche Trl

The Oasis has one of the best views in the whole city, with some of the worst food. Thankfully, Oasis Brewing opened up right next door a few years ago, so now you can get the same great views of Lake Travis without having to stop somewhere else for lunch or dinner afterward. The sandwiches are solid, and the beers are great. But unless you live by the lake, you’re probably just here for the view.

 Salty Sow $ $ $ $ American ,  Bar Food  in  Cherrywood $$$$ 1917 Manor Rd

The patio at Salty Sow makes up more of the restaurant than the indoor dining room, and they’ve got a fantastic menu of upscale Southern staples that only gets better when the prices drop during Happy Hour. Try the chicken liver mousse and the honey-rosemary-dipped fried chicken, and pair it with the Blanche, their blood orange frozen margarita.

via The Infatuation Feed https://www.theinfatuation.com/austin/guides/best-austin-restaurants-patio Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://trello.com/userhuongsen

Created August 29, 2020 at 01:42AM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

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Where To Get The Best Picnic Food In Seattle added to Google Docs

Where To Get The Best Picnic Food In Seattle

While traveling isn’t really a thing right now, the closest way to feel like you did something cool this summer is to go somewhere in the city for a picnic. Here are the best markets, sandwich shops, and takeout situations to grab lunch or dinner while you make your roommate stake out a small plot of grass or sand far away from other humans. And if you have no plans to leave your apartment, all of these spots work equally well for a picnic in the living room. Assuming you have a comfortable carpet.

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plus more restaurant intel you won't find anywhere else. ATL ATX BOS CHI LDN LA MIA NYC PHL SF SEA DC Subscribe Smart move. Excellent information will arrive in your inbox soon. Do you have friends and family who also eat food? Enter their emails below and we’ll make sure they’re eating well. (Don’t worry, we won’t subscribe them to our newsletter - they can do that themselves.) Help Your Friends No Thanks Well done. You’re a good person. All good. We still like you. Want to quickly find restaurants on the go? Download The Infatuation app.   THE SPOTS  Little Chinook's $ $ $ $ American ,  Seafood  in  Queen Anne $$$$ 1900 W Nickerson St

Picnics scream summer. Well, so does fried seafood. For both in one sitting, Little Chinook’s is the perfect spot to grab fish and chips before hanging out at Discovery Park for a picnic. You can choose from many different varieties, from tempura-battered wild salmon to panko-crusted cod - it pairs perfectly with a bubbly fountain drink and watching people finish their trail hike while you sit and eat fries.

CLOSEST PARK: Discovery Park

 Pane Pane Sandwiches $ $ $ $ American ,  Sandwiches  in  Downtown $$$$ 304 Union St

If you’re planning a socially-distant hang with friends and you know that everyone wants a sandwich but that’s as far as you’ve gotten, Pane Pane is the only answer. This place serves a salami and pepperoni sub with pesto mayo and greens that’s just as stupendous as their teriyaki meatball bánh mì. If someone can’t find a combination of meats, cheeses, sauces, and vegetables on Pane Pane’s homemade baguettes that they like, it’s time to start questioning your friendship with this person.

CLOSEST PARK: Olympic Sculpture Park

 Deru Market $ $ $ $ American ,  Pizza ,  Sandwiches  in  Kirkland $$$$ 723 9th Ave Ste D

If you’re planning to set up a picnic on the east side of Lake Washington, you should be stopping at Deru Market beforehand. Not only does this place have delicious sandwiches on homemade focaccia bread, but it also has a case full of bulk salads with everything from beets with pistachio pesto to roasted carrots with salsa verde - not to mention great wood-fired pizzas if that’s more your speed. At the very least, just get a loaf of focaccia to go with meat and cheese and olives from the grocery store. But if you don’t get a slice of coconut or dark chocolate salted peanut butter layer cake to go, too, you’re making a huge mistake.

CLOSEST PARK: Heritage Park

 The Independent Pizzeria $ $ $ $ Pizza  in  Madison Park $$$$ 4235 E Madison St

Not a lot of Neapolitan pizza is picnic-able - we’ve ruined many a white tee to fallen globs of mozzarella slipping off floppy slices. But the pies from The Independent are the exception. Their crust is light but still holds up well to toppings like speck and runny egg yolk or clams and lemon, and you can also order things to supplement your pies, like wine, cider, and appetizers like olives or grilled bread with chevre and honey.

CLOSEST PARK: Washington Arboretum

 East Anchor Seafood $ $ $ $ American ,  Seafood  in  Madrona $$$$ 1126 34th Ave #101

At this seafood market, you can grab some ahi tuna poke bowls with sriracha aioli for a refreshing under-the-sun lunch. You could also see what’s happening in the prepared food case (usually Dungeness crab snap pea salad makes an appearance), then pick up some crackers, fruit, maybe some bell peppers, and a bottle of wine to bring with you.

CLOSEST PARK: Madrona Park

 Mammoth $ $ $ $ American ,  Sandwiches ,  Bar  in  Eastlake $$$$ 2501 Eastlake Ave E

If all of the ideal picnic foods played a celebrity basketball game together, the turkey club would be the MVP - and our favorite in town is at Mammoth. It’s full of house-smoked meat, cheddar, bacon, and a homemade dill-y ranch that’s so good you should get a couple of extras for potato chip-dipping. If turkey’s not your thing, there are a lot of great sandwich options here, from fried eggplant and goat cheese to a loaded Cubano.

CLOSEST PARK: Rogers Playfield

 DeLaurenti Food & Wine $ $ $ $ Pizza ,  Cafe/Bakery ,  Italian  in  Downtown ,  Pike Place Market $$$$ 1435 1st Ave

If you need some inspiration before choosing exactly what you want to be eating on your picnic blanket, stop inside DeLaurenti (or order same-day delivery from Monday-Friday). This Italian specialty market carries a ton of local and imported products like crackers, jams, honey, nuts, chocolate, spices, and Torres potato chips, which we’re convinced are the best on the planet. DeLaurenti carries so much wine that their online bottle list is a 27-page PDF, and they also have the best selection of charcuterie and cheese in the city. Make your own spread of these things, or just grab a truffle oil-drizzled prosciutto sandwich and a couple of Linzer tarts.

CLOSEST PARK: Olympic Sculpture Park

 Meaty Johnson’s BBQ $$$$ 1201 Pine St

You always remember your first warm-weather brisket sandwich from Meaty Johnson’s. The homemade sauce has that ideal mix of tang and spice, the meat is smoky and tender, and the bread (a soft-but-sturdy burger bun) is perfect. Add sides like mac and cheese, kimchi potato salad, and jalapeño cornbread, take it to Cal Anderson, and try to finish it before your dog can figure out where that smell is coming from.

CLOSEST PARK: Cal Anderson

 Little Lago $ $ $ $ American ,  Pizza ,  Sandwiches $$$$ 2919 Fuhrman Ave E

This little market in Portage Bay has a bunch of specialty products as well as a deli case where you can get some serious cured meats and fancy cheeses. They also serve cold sandwiches, hot sandwiches, and tasty wood-fired pizza. Grab a couple of pies (like the homemade meatball) or just load up your basket with a DIY charcuterie situation alongside some housemade lemonade.

CLOSEST PARK: Roanoke Park

 Mean Sandwich $ $ $ $ Sandwiches ,  Deli  in  Ballard $$$$ 1510 NW Leary Way

The chicken cutlet sandwich is not really a thing in this city - other than Mean Sandwich’s “Buon Appetito.”It comes on a fresh Macrina roll with provolone, buffalo mayo, pickled pepper relish, and a breaded chicken cutlet so big it juts out of the bun like an iceberg in glacial waters. It’d be perfect for a picnic even if it cools off a little bit, and so would the Italian cold cut sub or the namesake “Mean Sandwich,” with homemade corned beef, mustard, pickled cabbage, maple syrup, and lots of fresh mint.

CLOSEST PARK: Woodland Park

 Bottlehouse $ $ $ $ American ,  French ,  Wine Bar  in  Madrona $$$$ 1416 34th Ave

This fantastic wine bar in Madrona is selling a “Living Room Picnic” that includes some cheese, salami, and bread, and we won’t tell anyone if you choose to use it outside instead of on your carpet at home. That combo of staples is a great place to start, and you can add on things like olives, pickles, roasted nuts, and most importantly - bottles of wine or 32-ounce containers of frozen rose.

CLOSEST PARK: Madrona Park

 Joyce's Market And Cafe $$$$ 2717 E Union St

On the intersection of Union and MLK, there’s a little corner shop called Joyce’s that sells cheeses, meats, pestos, mustards, homemade pastries, and wine. Pick out some things to snack on, but you definitely can’t leave without Joyce’s incredible s’mores cookies. It’s a brown sugar cookie with a graham cracker baked into the bottom, and topped with shards of really good dark chocolate and an entire sticky torched marshmallow. We’d even just grab a few of these with a bottle of Champagne and call it a day.

CLOSEST PARK: Powell Barnett Park

 Michou $$$$ 1904 Pike Pl

Michou Deli is a fantastic lunch spot with an impressive display case of premade deli sandwiches waiting to be pressed on a hot grill. They also have a refrigerator case full of dishes sold by weight in little Tupperware containers, like pasta salad and roasted golden beets. Once you’ve got your panini (get anything that has roasted chicken) and some cold orecchiette with pesto, make sure you tack on a slice of banana cake or a cornflake bar.

CLOSEST PARK: Victor Steinbrueck Park

 Homer $ $ $ $ Mediterranean  in  Beacon Hill $$$$ 3013 Beacon Ave S

You might see all of these picnic spreads of baguettes and charcuterie, and wonder if that’s just as exciting as a picnic’s going to get. Homer’s here if you’d rather be swiping hummus with crusty sourdough than stacking Cabot cheddar on a Ritz cracker. They’re doing freshly-made pita, lamb ragu on tahini, and roasted chicken with fruit paste, and you can also add on things like canned vermouth spritzes, bottles of wine, and of course, soft serve cones to eat on the way to the park.

CLOSEST PARK: Jefferson Park

 Agua Verde Cafe $ $ $ $ Mexican  in  University District $$$$ 1303 NE Boat St

Cheese, crackers, a cold sandwich, and sparkling wine for a picnic? How predictable. Maybe you’d rather have fish tacos, chips dunked in guacamole, and tequila instead. In that case, get a spread from Agua Verde’s takeout window alongside a few of their canned prickly pear margaritas. Just don’t forget to add on some avocado sauce to pour on everything (except your margarita).

CLOSEST PARK: Gas Works Park

 Marination Ma Kai $ $ $ $ Mexican ,  Korean ,  Fusion  in  West Seattle $$$$ 1660 Harbor Ave SW

Salads don’t usually get a lot of picnic love, but we want to make sure they do for a change. Specifically, we’re talking about Marination Ma Kai’s taco salad, which is full of crunchy cabbage, marinated meats like miso ginger chicken or kalbi beef (our favorite’s the “sexy tofu”), green onion, cilantro, wedges of lime, and a generous drizzle of creamy spicy “nunya sauce” as a dressing. If you’d rather ditch the fork, you can get these things on tortillas as well. And while we’re on the topic of salads, their macaroni with spam is terrific too.

CLOSEST PARK: Alki Beach

 Miri's Snack Shack $ $ $ $ Mediterranean ,  Middle Eastern  in  Ballard $$$$ 8498 Seaview Pl NW

Say you get to Golden Gardens for a picnic, and realize that you forgot the key component, which is food. Thankfully, you have one option right in the middle of the sand: Miri’s. Good thing the food at this snack shack is excellent, whether you go for a chicken kebab sandwich on homemade flatbread, or mini Dutch pancakes topped with fresh jam. Even better, they have a picnic plate that comes with the aforementioned flatbread, cheeses, fruit, and nuts. Add some hummus and virgin piña colada slushies.

CLOSEST PARK: Golden Gardens Park

Cone & Steiner $$$$ 532 19th Ave E

This lunchtime sandwich shop on 19th also happens to be a general store with a ton of groceries and snacks for sale, most of them local (like Fuel coffee, Ellenos Greek Yogurt, Puget Sound Kombucha, Beecher’s crackers, and more). They’re open for pickup and delivery orders, too.

CLOSEST PARK: Volunteer Park

 Ezell's Famous Chicken $ $ $ $ American ,  Southern  in  Central District $$$$ 501 23rd Ave

It’s a known fact that fried chicken kinda tastes better when it’s at room temperature, and it’s also a known fact that Ezell’s makes some of the best in town. So head here and get a huge spread for you and your significant other, because nothing says true romance like an endless supply of spicy tenders in the park. Don’t forget some sides (especially the rolls).

CLOSEST PARK: Powell Barnett Park

 Volunteer Park Cafe $ $ $ $ American  in  Capitol Hill $$$$ 1501 17th Ave E

If you want to sprawl out in Volunteer Park, it makes perfect sense to shop for picnic supplies at VPC. They sell a bunch of pastries, sandwiches, and sheet pan pizzas, but a simple caprese baguette and a tall boy of Modern Times sounds like all you need to have a great lunch in the grass.

CLOSEST PARK: Volunteer Park

 Sam Choy's Poke to the Max $ $ $ $ American ,  Seafood  in  Hillman City $$$$ 5300 Rainier Ave S

Eating cold poke on a hot day is the picnic equivalent of having a shower beer, and we’re big fans of the bowls at Sam Choy’s. The best part about grabbing takeout here is that you get a lot of stuff in one order - some soy-seasoned fish (get the salmon over the ahi), rice, crunchy seaweed salad, and tangy pickled ginger. You could stop there, but it would be wrong not to add a spam musubi or two.

CLOSEST PARK: Genesee Park

 Magnuson Cafe & Brewery $ $ $ $ American ,  Bar Food $$$$ 7801 62nd Ave NE

If you thought of everything except a beverage for a Magnuson Park picnic, use this cafe and brewery for their takeout mason jars full of homemade beer. They have a nice variety, from creamsicle pale ales to three different hazy IPAs. Not only that, but these jars are available as 16-ounce pours, 32-ounce pours, or 64-ounce pours if this picnic is about to be the party of the year.

CLOSEST PARK: Magnuson Park

via The Infatuation Feed https://www.theinfatuation.com/seattle/guides/picnic-food-seattle Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://trello.com/userhuongsen

Created August 15, 2020 at 07:42AM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

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The Best Patios And Backyards In Austin (1) added to Google Docs

The Best Patios And Backyards In Austin (1)

Austin is a city that’s at its best outdoors. We have a world-famous swimming pool, we make up reasons to have music festivals (Eeyore’s Birthday Party should be on your radar), and we congregate anywhere there’s shade to sip cold drinks. And there’s no better way to combat the triple-digit heat and catastrophic traffic than by hanging out on a patio. But not all of them are created equal.

This guide highlights a few of our favorite bars and restaurants around town where you can eat on a patio, backyard, or any other open-air environment. Many of these spots have indoor dining as well, so you may want to make a reservation or call ahead if eating outside is a priority. And if you’d rather check out a brewery, we’ve got a guide to that, too.

the spots  Perla's Seafood and Oyster Bar $ $ $ $ Seafood ,  Raw Bar  in  South Congress $$$$ 1400 S Congress Ave Ste B100

Perla’s has one of the most recognizable patios in Austin - in large part from being in the middle of South Congress, where it practically bleeds onto the sidewalk. Make a reservation or put your name on the waitlist, do some people-watching, and get ready to enjoy some of the best seafood in town. But also be ready to drop $36 on a lobster roll.

 Nicolai McCrary Kalimotxo $ $ $ $ Spanish  in  Downtown Austin $$$$ 607 W 3rd St Suite 105

Tucked away in a relatively quiet section of downtown, the patio at the Spanish-inspired restaurant Kalimotxo is a welcome escape from the everyday bustle of the city, with some great food to match. They’re currently offering a limited menu, including their excellent ham sandwich, the Kali Burger, tortilla espanola, and other small plates. They’re accepting walk-ins for seating on their patio, but we recommend making a reservation to secure a nice spot outside.

 Nicolai McCrary Arbor Food Park $$$$ 1108 East 12th St

While not strictly a patio, Arbor Food Park’s abundance of great food options accompanied by a large, outdoor space filled with picnic tables, makes it a perfect spot for an outdoor meal over on the East Side. Home to Cuantos Tacos, Rosarito Cevicheria, Casper Fermentables, and El Tigre Coffee, there’s something for most palates. And the food park is BYOB, so swing by Quickie Pickie down the street for a six-pack or some wine.

 Nicolai McCrary Lou’s $ $ $ $ American ,  Burgers ,  Mexican ,  Sandwiches  in  East Austin $$$$ 1900 E Cesar Chavez St

Lou’s on East Cesar Chavez almost feels like it was built for takeout, operating out of a small space with orders placed at an outdoor window. Of course, if you’d rather sit down and enjoy your rotisserie and frozen custard, all of their seating is outdoors on a well-spaced patio with plenty of picnic tables. And if you show up on a Tuesday, all bottles of wine are half-price.

 Olive & June $ $ $ $ Italian  in  Rosedale $$$$ 3411 Glenview Ave

Dining on Olive & June’s patio is probably the closest thing we’ve experienced to eating in an upscale treehouse, with three stories of spacious patio wrapping around a giant 200-year-old oak tree near 35th and MoPac. We enjoy just about all of their Italian specialties, but their house-made pasta and wine list are where they really shine.

 Nicolai McCrary The Little Darlin' $ $ $ $ Bar Food ,  Burgers ,  Bar  in  South Congress $$$$ 6507 Circle S Rd

The Little Darlin’ is right off William Cannon and South Congress, and it’s a great place to unwind or spend a chill Sunday afternoon on the picnic tables in the huge patio out back. There are craft beer and cocktails, outdoor games like horseshoes, a covered patio with darts, pool tables inside, and a stage for live music, though some of that is on pause for the time being. The food can be hit or miss, so just stick with the basics, like the burger or the carnitas sliders.

 Roger Ho Loro $ $ $ $ Chinese ,  Sandwiches ,  BBQ  in  South Lamar $$$$ 2115 S Lamar Blvd

Loro is the brainchild of two Austin favorite institutiones - Franklin Barbecue and Uchi - resulting in an Asian/Texas smokehouse that provides some unique fusion flavors in a beautiful space. The patio is large and there’s a great happy hour on weekdays, with $4 frozen gin & tonics and mango sake slushees. They’re not doing reservations, but you can request a spot on their patio when you arrive.

 Gabby Phi Lenoir $ $ $ $ American  in  South Austin $$$$ 1807 S 1st St

While Lenoir is perhaps best-known for their very affordable tasting menu, under current circumstances they’re offering a pared-down “hot weather food menu” of dishes like cold summer canneloni and garam masala pork chops with watermelon curry. The inside is currently closed, but they’ve converted their large, outdoor wine garden into a charming dining area, complete with hanging lanterns and colorful tablecloths. You can reserve a table on their website.

Yard Bar $ $ $ $ Bar Food  in  Allandale $$$$ 6700 Burnet Rd

Hanging out with dogs is a whole lot cheaper and more fun than therapy, so here’s your chance to do so even if your landlord doesn’t allow pets. The entire “patio” at Yard Bar off Burnet is an enormous fenced-in dog park/playground, with a full bar inside. Sometimes you just need a cocktail after a long day at work - but most other times adding hounds into the mix cures all ails.

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INFATUATION NEWSLETTER Get our newest guides & reviews first,

plus more restaurant intel you won't find anywhere else. ATL ATX BOS CHI LDN LA MIA NYC PHL SF SEA DC Subscribe Smart move. Excellent information will arrive in your inbox soon. Do you have friends and family who also eat food? Enter their emails below and we’ll make sure they’re eating well. (Don’t worry, we won’t subscribe them to our newsletter - they can do that themselves.) Help Your Friends No Thanks Well done. You’re a good person. All good. We still like you. Want to quickly find restaurants on the go? Download The Infatuation app.    Mackenzie Smith Kelley Kinda Tropical $ $ $ $ American ,  Bar Food ,  Burgers ,  Vegetarian ,  Cafe/Bakery ,  Brunch  in  East Austin ,  Govalle $$$$ 3501 E 7th St

Kinda Tropical feels, as you might have guessed, kind of tropical, with pulled jackfruit sandwiches, yuca fries, and tamari-glazed chicken wings, alongside things like avocado toast. Typically, the inside operates as a minimarket, selling beer, wine, and snacks, while the back patio houses a number of spread out tables. Currently, dine-in service is only available on the patio, but you can still snag most of the marketplace items for takeout on your way home.

 Cherrywood Coffeehouse $ $ $ $ Cafe/Bakery  in  Cherrywood $$$$ 1400 E 38th 1/2 St

Not only do they serve some of the best breakfast tacos in town, but Cherrywood also has a spacious, dog-friendly, tree-covered patio/music venue where you’ll sometimes see the gardener carefully nurturing his potted plants. If this wasn’t clear from our previous sentence, Cherrywood is a highly Austin-y place to have some laid-back time outside.

 Nicolai McCrary Hold Out Brewing $ $ $ $ American ,  Bar Food  in  Clarksville $$$$ 1208 W 4th St

The latest project from the folks who brought you Better Half, Little Brother, and Brew & Brew, Holdout Brewing has a short menu of smash burgers, wings, and curly fries that made us reconsider our previous devotion to Arby’s. And of course, great beer. This Clarksville spot shares a patio with Better Half, and right now all seating is outside, by reservation only.

 Mackenzie Smith Kelley Better Half Coffee & Cocktails $ $ $ $ American  in  Clarksville $$$$ 406 Walsh St

As we mentioned above, Better Half Bar shares a patio with sister brewery, Holdout Brewing. And while they don’t serve the same smash burger as their spot across the lawn, they have an equally tasty cheeseburger as well as a full menu of sandwiches, pastas, and salads. If you’re there early, grab a chicken biscuit sandwich and the cauliflower tots with beet ketchup are great any time of day. They also have a great Happy Hour daily from 1-4pm with $5 burgers and $1 Pearl beers.

 Maggie Svodoba Josephine House $ $ $ $ American  in  Clarksville $$$$ 1601 Waterston Ave

If your priorities are twinkly lights and striped straws and the general feeling that you’re in the middle of an Instagram photo, you’ll want to be at Josephine House. This is the place to sip a fancy gin cocktail in a cozy outdoor both while eating the kind of food that tastes as good as it looks in pictures.

 Nicolai McCrary Radio Coffee & Beer $ $ $ $ Tacos  in  South Austin $$$$ 4208 Manchaca Rd

Radio Coffee & Beer sells, as the name suggests, coffee and beer. The outside seating area is large and well spread out, but the best part might be the two food trucks parked alongside the patio. With Veracruz serving some of the best breakfast tacos in town, and Dee Dee dishing out excellent Thai food, you may find yourself in the tricky (and possibly sticky) situation of deciding between one more migas tacos or an order of mango sticky rice.

 Cosmic Coffee + Beer Garden $ $ $ $ Tacos ,  BBQ  in  South Congress $$$$ 121 Pickle Rd

It might be called Cosmic Coffee + Beer Garden, but there’s a lot more going on here than just what’s on the sign. Cosmic also has wine and cocktails (and even cocktail flights). And then there’s the extensive outdoor space, shaded by oak trees. It’s also home to some of the city’s best food trucks, including Pueblo Viejo for tacos, Leroy & Lewis, a super non-traditional barbecue truck that we really like, and an outpost of Tommy Want Wingy, serving lollipop-style chicken wings that can get very spicy (if you want).

 Draught House Pub & Brewery $ $ $ $ Bar Food  in  Rosedale $$$$ 4112 Medical Pkwy

This Rosedale brewpub is home to one of the best craft beer collections in Austin, a few of which they brew on-site. Their patio stretches around the building and takes up most of the parking lot, and there’s also a semi-permanent food truck, making it a great place to grab dinner as well. Get some fish and chips along with your favorite brew and ask your friends how many days they went without wearing pants during the lockdown.

 Scholz Garten $ $ $ $ German  in  Campus $$$$ 1607 San Jacinto Blvd

Scholz Garten isn’t just the oldest bar in Austin, it’s the oldest operating business in Texas. Which also makes it the oldest operating patio in Texas (probably, don’t fact check us on that). And that just means that they’ve had more time to perfect things. With some of the best German food in town, a great beer list, and a central location right near UT, it’s a welcome escape from most of the campus-area bars.

 Licha's Cantina $ $ $ $ Mexican  in  Downtown Austin $$$$ 1306 E 6th St

This converted old house not only serves some of our favorite Mexican food in Austin - they also have one of the best outdoor areas in which to eat it. The front yard is covered by a giant string-light-covered tree, and lined with charming little tables for sharing bowls of queso fundido and fajitas. If it’s crowded, the mural-covered backyard patio is no slouch either.

 Jester King Brewery $ $ $ $ Hill Country $$$$ 13005 Fitzhugh Rd

Jester King is one of our favorite spots to grab excellent beer and food outdoors, with a sprawling property that feels more like a state park than a brewery. And they’ve come back from a brief dine-in hiatus stronger than ever, with brand new picnic grounds, hiking trails, and multiple stations to fill up on their ever-changing selection of wild-fermented farmhouse ales. Don’t be surprised if your walk is interrupted by a parade of goats. Right now, spots are available by reservation only.

 Nicolai McCrary The ABGB $ $ $ $ Bar Food ,  Sandwiches  in  South Austin $$$$ 1305 W Oltorf St

The ABGB has a large outdoor space, live music, great pizza, and even better beer. You’ll need a reservation right now to snag one of their spaced-out picnic tables, but since it’s one of the best patios in South Austin, we’re OK with putting in a little extra effort. And make sure to grab a glass of the Hell Yes helles or the Rocket 100 pilsner while you’re there.

Matt's el Rancho $ $ $ $ Mexican ,  Tex-Mex  in  South Lamar $$$$ 2613 S Lamar Blvd

If you’re going to Matt’s El Rancho, chances are you’re there for one of two things: margaritas or queso. Or, more likely, you’re there for both (and they do both exceptionally well). With a sprawling patio and nearly 70 years of practice, we’re comfortable crowning it a South Austin institution. And because this is Texas, you can even get a chicken fried steak, though we usually stick with the enchiladas or fajitas.

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INFATUATION NEWSLETTER Get our newest guides & reviews first,

plus more restaurant intel you won't find anywhere else. ATL ATX BOS CHI LDN LA MIA NYC PHL SF SEA DC Subscribe Smart move. Excellent information will arrive in your inbox soon. Do you have friends and family who also eat food? Enter their emails below and we’ll make sure they’re eating well. (Don’t worry, we won’t subscribe them to our newsletter - they can do that themselves.) Help Your Friends No Thanks Well done. You’re a good person. All good. We still like you. Want to quickly find restaurants on the go? Download The Infatuation app.    Justine's Brasserie $ $ $ $ French  in  Govalle $$$$ 4710 E 5th St

The French invented neighborhood bistros with prime sidewalk seating (we think), and Justine’s is the Austin version. Inside, this place feels like Paris in Austin; an intimate date night dinner spot. Step onto their patio and the vibe shifts into a see-and-be-seen backyard covered with string lights and picnic tables perfect for having some frites with your Bordeaux. Justine’s is located away from the hubbub of downtown, which makes the entire experience feel more exclusive and better suited for conversation with a group.

 Guero's Taco Bar $ $ $ $ Tex-Mex  in  South Congress $$$$ 1412 S Congress Ave

Over the years, Guero’s has become an Austin postcard-establishment - their solid Tex-Mex and strong margaritas have made it a favorite entry point for out-of-towners who have no idea what Austin is (and just as fun for people who live here). The spot does get crowded, which is when you’ll want to consider stepping outside onto their patio - the only spot in town where you can sip margaritas, eat queso, listen to live music, and people watch, all while sitting in an oak tree-shaded garden facing South Congress.

 Fresa's South First $ $ $ $ Mexican  in  Bouldin $$$$ 1703 South First

The South First location of Fresas has a great patio with beautiful trees providing shade, and a spread of brightly-colored picnic tables that will help you forget the boring beige walls of your living room. All of their wood-grilled meats are great, but we’re partial to the achiote and citrus chicken, served with charro beans, rice, grilled onions and jalapenos, and corn tortillas. And we’ve found that the aguas frescas really hit the spot, especially on the warm afternoons when we need to change shirts every five minutes.

Gourdough's Public House $ $ $ $ American ,  Bar Food  in  South Lamar $$$$ 2700 S Lamar Blvd

This gourmet doughnut Airstream trailer turned brick-and-mortar is more than just a late-night donut shop. The well-designed ‘public house’ branch of the Gordough’s empire has a full bar and a fantastic backyard patio covered with picnic tables and yard games. This is the spot to hit if you’re with a giant crew that appreciates the finer things in life, like gigantic beer towers paired with donut burgers.

 Contigo Austin $ $ $ $ American ,  Southern  in  East Austin $$$$ 2027 Anchor Ln

From day one, Contigo fully embraced the outdoor life, with an almost entirely open-air dining area. There is a small bit of cover, but you’re probably not coming here during one of Austin’s spontaneous rainstorms anyway. We’re big fans of the burger, and the crispy green beans with sambal aioli are a great way to start.

 Nicolai McCrary Lazarus Brewing Company $ $ $ $ Bar Food ,  Tacos  in  East Austin $$$$ 1902 E 6th St

Lazarus has a great patio on the East Side, with lots of picnic tables in and around the bar. The tacos and tortas are surprisingly good, and the fried chickpeas are a nice snack while you’re waiting around. And of course, it’s a brewery, so the beers are all pretty solid. They’re keeping the inside closed for the time being, but the patio is currently open seven days a week.

Oasis Texas Brewing Company $$$$ 6550 Comanche Trl

The Oasis has one of the best views in the whole city, with some of the worst food. Thankfully, Oasis Brewing opened up right next door a few years ago, so now you can get the same great views of Lake Travis without having to stop somewhere else for lunch or dinner afterward. The sandwiches are solid, and the beers are great. But unless you live by the lake, you’re probably just here for the view.

 Salty Sow $ $ $ $ American ,  Bar Food  in  Cherrywood $$$$ 1917 Manor Rd

The patio at Salty Sow makes up more of the restaurant than the indoor dining room, and they’ve got a fantastic menu of upscale Southern staples that only gets better when the prices drop during Happy Hour. Try the chicken liver mousse and the honey-rosemary-dipped fried chicken, and pair it with the Blanche, their blood orange frozen margarita.

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Café Home: The Best Cookbooks For All Of Your Cooking & Baking Needs

Looking to become an impressive home cook?

We’re not talking impressive in the get your very own episode on Chef’s Table kind of way. We mean when you look at the finished plate of food you have prepared, or the loaf of bread, or the bowl of hummus and you take your first bite of it…an expletive escapes your lips and pats you on the back. It just.Tastes. Good. Like something you would definitely make again and again.

That’s an impressive home cook.

We put an extensive list together of what we feel are some of the best cookbooks worth owning if you’re interested in making self-impressing, expletive inducing food – from breakfast to desert and everything in between.

  The Starter Cookbook

  Super Easy Cookbook For Beginners by Lisa Grant

The best way to learn how to cook is to actually start cooking. When you’re ready to set foot in the kitchen, the Super Easy Cookbook for Beginners offers the easiest, 5-ingredient recipes to teach you how to cook―while cooking!

Beyond basic cooking skills, this beginner’s cookbook gets you started by serving up simple, home-style recipes that require only 5 main ingredients or less. Alongside step-by-step guidance for kitchen techniques―plus useful tips like how to hold a knife―the Super Easy Cookbook for Beginners is the easiest recipe to make anyone a good cook.

Source: Publisher

The Have All End All Cookbook

  Tasty Ultimate: How To Cook Basically Everything by Tasty

150 recipes to help you master the cooking basics, hack the pantry, and make everything from vegetarian go-tos to crowd-pleasing snacks to irresistible desserts.

Tasty Ultimate is THE must-have companion for home cooks of all skill levels–whether you’re a sometimes cook or a master meal prepper. With 150 recipes, clever hacks, and must-know techniques, this cookbook will teach you how to kill it in the kitchen.

Source: Publisher

  The Classic Cookbook

  Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook by Better Homes & Gardens

Since 1930, the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book has been a trusted staple in kitchens across America. The 17th edition is fully updated and revised to reflect both the best of today’s food trends and time-tested classics. With more than 1,000 recipes and a photo for each one, the book covers both traditional dishes such as Brownies and new favorites like Cold Brew Coffee. This newest edition has a fresh organization to reflect how we cook today–recipes have flavor variations, options to swap out ingredients, and ways to make them healthier. Clear directions and how-to photos teach techniques; identification photos clarify the broad range of today’s ingredients; charts for meat and poultry give at-a-glance cooking times; and “cheat sheets” throughout present information in easy-to-access bites.

Source: Publisher

    The Breakfast and Brunch Cookbook

  Posh Eggs by Quadrille Publishing 

Over 70 Recipes for Wonderful Eggy Things

Eggs are a kitchen basic. Most people buy them, and use them as a stand-by: a quick omelet or scrambled eggs. Posh Eggs makes the humble egg the star of the show, with over 70 recipes that make a meal out of this easy ingredient. From hearty dishes like Mediterranean red pepper eggs with tahini yogurt, to healthy salads like Quail’s eggs, beet, and tarragon, you’ll never again be stuck for a quick and original idea at mealtimes. With a guide to the basics of cooking eggs, plus a photo for every single recipe, this is the ultimate gifty cookbook or self-purchase for egg addicts, expert chefs, and novices alike.

Source: Publisher

  Brunch Life by Matt Basile, Kyla Zanardi

For lazy days off or mid-week cravings, Brunch Life brings that bigger-than-brunch restaurant experience home with mouth-watering recipes that will ensure every day gets off to a great start.

Leisurely weekend brunches have become the most anticipated meal of the week, and no two people know that better than Matt Basile and Kyla Zanardi. With their token humour, Matt and Kyla share their passion for this midday spread and showcase indulgent and creative takes on their favourite dishes. Sometimes, brunch is a comforting routine, where simple ingredients are whipped into fuss-free OG Buttermilk Pancakes, a Mascarpone Soft Scramble, or Good ol’ Hash Browns. Then there are irresistible dishes taken to a whole new level, like Coconut Fried Chicken and Pineapple Waffles, S’mores Panc…

Source: Publisher

  The Healthy Home Café Cookbook

  Posh Toast by Quadrille Publishing 

This is the new hot (and buttered) food trend—simple toast recipes that everyone can make. Hungry food fans everywhere are toasting sourdough, spelt, and rye and loading them with luscious ingredients to make a simple, satisfying meal. Posh Toast features every toast recipe you could ever need, covering breakfast, lunch, snacks, and supper, plus a guide to the basics of toasting. Every recipe has a photo and easy-to-follow instructions, making it the ultimate gift or self-purchase for toast addicts, novices, and expert cooks alike. It’s everything good. On toast. It’s Posh Toast.

Source: Publisher

  The Best and Lightest

150 Healthy Recipes for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner: A Cookbook by the Editors of Food Network Magazine

Healthy Recipes That Taste Anything But!

Using clever cooking techniques and ingredient swaps, Food Network Magazine’s test kitchen chefs have lightened up all the foods you crave. Each crowd-pleasing dish comes in under 500 calories with satisfying—not tiny—portions. With a visual table of contents—complete with icons that indicate vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dishes—you can quickly find meal ideas for any diet. Plus, each recipe appears with nutritional information and a beautiful photograph, making eating right surprisingly simple and totally fun.

Take a look at what’s inside: Polenta with Fontina and Eggs Spiced Burgers with Cucumber Yogurt Potato-Leek Soup with Bacon Shrimp and Kale Pitas Spicy Chicken Enchiladas Chile-Rubbed Steak with Creamed Corn Three-Cheese Macaroni Banana-Almond Pudding Strawberry Corn Cakes

Source: Publisher

  The Vegetarian Café Cookbook

  Plant Based Diet For Beginners by Gabriel Miller

Free from animal products, full of flavor–plant based recipes for beginners

Choosing a plant based diet is good for your health, your wallet, and the environment. The Plant-Based Diet for Beginners has dozens of tasty whole-food recipes for people who want to switch from eating meat, dairy, and eggs, to eating vegetables, whole grains, and other plant based foods.

Whether your doctor encouraged you to eat a plant based diet or you’re exploring a new way of eating, this cookbook has everything you need to get started. You’ll find nutritional information for each recipe, a guide to eating a plant based diet even when you don’t want to cook, tips for stocking your kitchen, and more. When it comes to your health and your taste buds, now you’re cooking!

Source: Publisher

  Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give A F*ck by Thug Kitchen

#1 New York Times Bestseller, first in the bestselling series

Thug Kitchen started their wildly popular website to inspire people to eat some goddamn vegetables and adopt a healthier lifestyle. Beloved by Gwyneth Paltrow (‘This might be my favorite thing ever’) and with half a million Facebook fans and counting, Thug Kitchen wants to show everyone how to take charge of their plates and cook up some real f*cking food.

Yeah, plenty of blogs and cookbooks preach about how to eat more kale, why ginger fights inflammation, and how to cook with microgreens and nettles. But they are dull or pretentious as hell—and most people can’t afford the hype.

  Thug Kitchen lives in the real world. In their first cookbook, they’re throwing down more than 100 recipes for their best-loved meals, snacks and sides for beginning cooks to home chefs.

Source: Publisher

  The Bakery Cookbook

  Bread Baking For Beginners by Bonnie Ohara

Free from animal products, full of flavor–plant based recipes for beginners

Choosing a plant based diet is good for your health, your wallet, and the environment. The Plant-Based Diet for Beginners has dozens of tasty whole-food recipes for people who want to switch from eating meat, dairy, and eggs, to eating vegetables, whole grains, and other plant based foods.

Whether your doctor encouraged you to eat a plant based diet or you’re exploring a new way of eating, this cookbook has everything you need to get started. You’ll find nutritional information for each recipe, a guide to eating a plant based diet even when you don’t want to cook, tips for stocking your kitchen, and more. When it comes to your health and your taste buds, now you’re cooking!

Source: Publisher

  French Pastry 101 By Betty Hung

French Pastry is as Easy as Un, Deux, Trois

French baking is now more approachable than ever with Beaucoup Bakery co-owner and Yummy Workshop founder Betty Hung’s beginner-friendly, easy-to-follow recipes.

Start with basics like pastry cream and pâté sucrée, then work your way up to indulgent all-time favorites such as Lemon Madeleines, Crème Brûlée, Éclairs, Lady Fingers and Chocolate Torte. You’ll learn how to simplify recipes without sacrificing taste—like using ready-made puff pastry—or, if you prefer, how to whip up these sweet treats from scratch.

Source: Publisher

  Baking With Mary Berry – By Mary Berry

A sweet and savory collection of more than 100 foolproof recipes from the reigning “Queen of Baking” Mary Berry, who has made her way into American homes through ABC’s primetime series, The Great Holiday Baking Show, and the PBS series, The Great British Baking Show.

Baking with Mary Berry draws on Mary’s more than 60 years in the kitchen, with tips and step-by-step instructions for bakers just starting out and full-color photographs of finished dishes throughout. The recipes follow Mary’s prescription for dishes that are no fuss, practical, and foolproof–from breakfast goods to cookies, cakes, pastries, and pies, to special occasion desserts such as cheesecake and soufflés, to British favorites that will inspire.

Whether you’re tempted by Mary’s Heavenly Chocolate Cake and Best-Ever Brownies, intrigued by her Mincemeat and Almond Tart or Magic Lemon Pudding, or inspired by her Rich Fruit Christmas Cake and Ultimate Chocolate Roulade, the straightforward yet special recipes in Baking with Mary Berry will prove, as one reviewer has said of her recipes, “if you can read, you can cook.”

Source: Publisher

The Easy Baked Donut Cookbook By Sara Mellas

The deliciously easy donut cookbook for heavenly homemade baked donuts

Who doesn’t love a good donut? From sugared or sprinkled to frosted or filled, donuts are sure to satisfy your sweet tooth and sweeten your day. The best part is you don’t need to fuss with frying to whip up these fun, flavorful treats at home. The Easy Baked Donut Cookbook shows you how mouthwatering–and mess-free–donuts can be right from your oven or donut maker, providing plenty of tried-and-true tricks and tasty recipes for beautifully baked donuts, donut holes, mini donuts, and more.

From sweet staples, such as Old-Fashioned Cake Donuts to creative savory bakes like Jalapeno-Cheddar Cornbread Donuts, this donut cookbook serves you dozens of delightfully simple recipes to match every craving, along with perfectly paired frostings, glazes, and toppings.

Source: Publisher

  Vegetarian Desert Cookbook

  Rawesome Baking by Emily Von Euw

Make Undeniably Delicious and Eye-Catching Raw, Vegan and Gluten-Free Treats

Emily Von Euw, creator of the popular blog This Rawsome Vegan Life, makes treats that are so phenomenal and so stunning they should be considered masterpieces. Oh yeah, and they’re raw, vegan AND gluten-free. So whether you’re a vegetarian, a raw vegan or even a meat-lover just looking for something healthy, new and delicious, this book has something for you.

Emily’s popular blog won the Vegan Woman’s 2013 Vegan Food Blog Award, was named one of the Top 50 Raw Food Blogs of 2012 and is nominated for “Favorite Blog” for the 2013 VegNews Veggie Awards. Every recipe is accompanied by a photograph so you can see each brilliant sweet before you eat. Emily’s beautiful and easy-to-make recipes, like her Peppermint Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes, S’mores Cupcakes and Go-Nuts Donuts with Frosting & Fruit Sprinkles, are so tasty that you won’t even realize they’re vegan. Quite simply, Rawsome Vegan Baking will wow your taste buds and impress your friends and family with new great tastes in dessert.

Source: Publisher

  Healthy Desert Cookbook

  Clean Sweets – By Arman Liew

High-protein desserts that taste great, are easy to make, and serve one or two.

Giving up dessert is no fun, so health-savvy folks have long tried to find ways to satisfy a sweet tooth. But so many Paleo-style desserts are complicated, with long lists of hard-to-find ingredients. They also often make too much of a good thing, which is almost as bad as not having it at all. Arman Liew discovered a way to have his cake and eat it too–in decadent creations that indulge the appetite and pack in the nutrients. From breakfast reinvented to no-bake treats, recipes include: Protein Peanut Butter Cups Dark Chocolate and Salted Caramel Waffles Molten Lava Cake White Chocolate Raspberry Bars

There’s no tapioca flour, coconut nectar, or xanthan gum to be found here. Make something sweet the moment the craving hits, from foods that are already in the cabinet. Add in terrific photography and this is a book every health-conscious person should have on hand.

Source: Publisher

  College Student Cookbook (Easy Cooking)

  5-Ingredient College Cookbook By Pamela Ellgen

Fast, easy and healthy eating at college and ever after.

College food has developed quite the culinary “reputation.” Most students don’t have the time, money, or space to make meals like mom used to, so words like fast, cheap, and microwavable have become synonymous with college eating. But there IS a better way!

Healthy cooking expert and cookbook author Pamela Ellgen brings you the latest in college cooking with The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook–the simplest college cookbook yet. By sticking to 5 easy-to-find main ingredients per recipe, The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook makes it easier than ever for students to cook tasty, high quality, healthy food for themselves.

Source: Publisher

  Easy Frugal Cookbook By Sarah Walker Caron

It’s easier than you think to make hearty meals that are tasty, budget-friendly, and nutritious. Discover an easy cookbook that shows you how, with 100 inexpensive family recipes that use basic ingredients, and can be made in just a few steps.

This easy cookbook will help you whip up satisfying dishes like Crispy Coconut Drumsticks or Open-Face Turkey Sandwiches for everyone in the house for just $5. All it takes is the right recipe, a few tricks, and a little planning to make the most of your food budget.

Discover how versatile and flavorful cheap eating can be with an easy cookbook that offers:

Budget tricks–Recipes are sorted by estimated cost of ingredients, from $5 to $15 dollars per batch, and include tips to lower the cost of ingredients even further.Shop smart–This easy cookbook includes tips about shopping efficiently and optimizing ingredients and leftovers.Menu plan–A sample meal plan and shopping list will help simplify meal prep and save you money and time.

Source: Publisher

The Gifting Cookbook

  Antoni in The Kitchen By Mindy Fox

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! *One of Food & Wine’s Essential New Cookbooks for Fall* *One of Eater’s Best Fall Cookbooks 2019* *One of Amazon’s Best Cookbooks for Fall 2020*

Antoni Porowski, the food and wine guru on Netflix’s sensation Queer Eye, meets people where they live–literally. With appealing vulnerability, he shows cooks of all levels how to become more confident and casual in the kitchen. The verve and naturalness of his approach earned raves from Food & Wine and Bon Appétit to GQ and the New York Times, which noted his dishes prove that “sometimes simple is anything but simplistic.”

  Some of the recipes in this book are weeknight healthyish meals, while others are perfect for off-the-cuff entertaining. Visual stunners, they’re often composed of fewer than five ingredients. Whether Bastardized Easy Ramen; Malaysian Chili Shrimp; Roasted Carrots with Carrot-Top Pesto; or Salty Lemon Squares, all are visual stunners and can be carried off with panache, even by beginners.

Source: Publisher

  Friends The Official Cookbook By Amanda Yee

“The ultimate Friends fan needs this ‘Friends: The Official Cookbook‘ ” – POPSUGAR

Gather your friends and prepare to say “How you doin’?” to more than 100 recipes inspired by the beloved hit sitcom. Whether you’re a seasoned chef like Monica Geller, just starting a catering business like Phoebe Buffay, or a regular old food enthusiast like Joey Tribbiani, Friends: The Official Cookbook offers a variety of recipes for chefs of all levels. From appetizers to main courses and from drinks to desserts, each chapter includes iconic treats such as Monica’s Friendsgiving Feast, Rachel’s Trifle, Just for Joey Fries, Chandler’s “Milk You Can Chew,” Phoebe’s Grandmother’s Cookies, and of course, The Moist Maker. Complete with more than seventy recipes and beautiful full-color photography, this charming cookbook is both a helpful companion for home cooks and a fun homage to the show that’s always been there for you.

Source: Amazon

Friends Cookbook Releases Sept 22, 2020

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