Memorial Day!

Memorial Day is always a fun holiday. It means summer is really here. If you're not already out of school, you will be soon, and for those of us who don't get a summer break anymore (one of the sad realities of becoming a grown-up) we can just enjoy the fact that the warm weather is upon us and we get to eat good food.

I made this little guide to what to eat and wear this Memorial Day. All the links are at the bottom. The clothes are totally affordable, and the recipes don't look to difficult. I haven't made them- but they looked mighty tasty and I had to throw them in!




I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

WEAR IT LINKS: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

EAT IT LINKS: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4

Salted Carmel Cheesecake

Joy the Baker is one of my favorite bloggers. I mean, she's hilarious, smart, and shares the most amazing food recipes. What's not to love there?

So yesterday we had a little get together and celebrated my friend Rachel's birthday, and I made this.

OMG. Goodness in a cheesecake.



If you guys like salted carmel and cheesecake- this is your heaven.

Here's a picture of mine, I'm happy to say it was a success. I'm never sure how it's going to turn out when I cook...



Ready to make this thing? The recipe is right here. If I can do it, you can :)

Just wanted to share cause I was pretty excited about it :)

Photo via Joy the Baker.

Getting out of the Cooking Rut...

So.. I've been going in and out of this cooking thing. When Nolan and I first got married, I was super excited about it and couldn't wait to use my cute little kitchen and new gifts we received from our wedding. But then something happened... I hit a rut and just didn't want to do it anymore. That meant more eating out and more money spent.

Well, looking at our budget, my husband and I spend a good chunk of our money on restaurants...
and while we're trying to save- that means we need more eating in, which equals more cooking for me... yup. So now I have to get out of this rut and start loving to cook again. Our budget will thank me.

Being a visual person, one site I love to find good recipes on is Tastespotting. It's full of tasty recepies collected from various cooking blogs. It's like Pinterest but only food is allowed. Click on the pic of your choice and BAM. You're brought to the recipe.





I also love watching my friend Rachel's little cooking show. Not only is she the cutest thing in the world, but to see a recipe be done so simply- she makes it look easy and I honestly take so much away from every episode. Plus everything she cooks with is healthy and totally organic. Check her out here!

I also found this wonderful cookbook online- the recipes are far too fancy for me to make, but it sure does look pretty :)



So yeah, I'm getting back into cooking and trying to get inspired here. Any other sites you guys like that has good/easy recipes?

brunch time.

my foodie friend Rachel came over for lunch today. and let me tell you-
it's super intimidating to cook for a food blogger!
but thanks to trusty joy the baker- there was success!

i'm a huge breakfast person- so when i saw this recipe and how easy it looked,
i couldn't help but make it! its like a huge piece of pizza toast with fried eggs and spices.
such goodness. and Rachel liked it, so i was pleased :)



the recipe is right here! enjoy with a glass of orange juice and maybe some apples.
joy the baker is a genius, so if you're not familiar with her blog yet, you should be! :)

Guest Post: Rachel Oberg from DeMaCuisine

Rachel and I met just a few weeks ago- its hard to believe because I feel like I've gotten to know her so well in such a short amount of time. Rachel runs an amazing food blog called De Me Cuisine, where she blogs organic, healthy recipes and offers a menu planning service, perfect for people with allergies, or nutritional specifics. Rachel planned a menu for my husband and I- him being anemic and needing lots of meat and iron, and me not eating red meat. Rachel worked with our needs and wants and now we have a week full of food that we both love! Its pretty awesome.

So here she is! Sharing with us a recipe she made for me when I went over to her cute little house for lunch last week. Trust me, this is a great recipe for any time of the day- it is SO scrumptious... infact I might just make it for lunch today!

This is Rachel, from De Ma Cuisine. Hi! I'm thrilled to be a guest blogger on Waterfall Creative!

Joanna and I are new friends. But let me tell you, in the short time I've known her, I've seen what a wonderful, caring friend, and incredibly creative artist she is! My goodness, she's talented!

My art is a little different than the norm, one might say. I can draw a bit, I can kinda paint, I can even take pretty good photos. But it's really in the sound of a knife slicing through fresh vegetables, the smell of garlic hitting a hot pan, the look of French Bread just out of the oven - crusty, golden, steaming... I love the art of cooking. The presentation on a plate takes thought. The ingredients in a dish need to compliment each other, in flavor and appearance. Even the planning of a menu is like a perfectly arranged symphony of tastes and textures. It's my art, my passion, what I love to do.

Last week Joanna came over for lunch and I made us Stuffed French Toast, in preparation for this post. At that time, I was thinking I'd talk about breakfast. I haven't really talked about it, but now for just a second. I think it's important to eat breakfast. It's your fuel for the day. Same as any other meal. Aside from the fact that I love to eat because I love the taste, I also eat because I know that my body needs nutrients and sustenance to run well. In my experience, when I don't eat breakfast, the morning usually ends up with me feeling weak and shaky and pretty grumpy. I try to avoid this, with something delicious to eat. (I don't always have something as fancy as Stuffed French Toast, sometimes it's just granola, fruit and yogurt, or even cereal.) This recipe is also great for lunch or even dinner.

Serves: 2, Prep: 5 minutes, Cook: 10 minutes

Rachel's Stuffed French Toast

Ingredients

4 slices whole wheat bread

8 slices of peach or apple (or whatever fruit you have that you enjoy), thinly sliced

1/4 C blueberries (thawed, if frozen)

2-3 T peanut butter

2 eggs

2-4 T milk

a good sprinkle of cinnamon

dash nutmeg

drizzle of honey

maple syrup

Greek yogurt

Directions

1. Cook peaches or apples with honey, until softened. 2. Spread peanut butter on 2 slices of bread. Top with fruit and another piece of bread. 3. Whisk eggs, milk, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Dip both sides of the sandwich in the mixture, soaking well. 4. Cook, flipping once, until it's hot, a bit crispy and the egg is fully cooked. 5. Serve topped with maple syrup and yogurt.

I asked Rachel to answer a few questions about her business, and why she does what she does. Heres what she said!

How did DeMaCuisine begin?

De Ma Cuisine (for those of you who aren’t French language inclined, pronounced phonetically: deh maa kwe-zeen, and translates to "From My Kitchen") started, in a sense, when I was talking to my mom one day about what I wanted to do when I "grew up" (oddly enough, 12 years later, I'm just beginning to figure it out). I told her I wanted to help people. At the time, I didn't really know what that meant. In the years following that conversation, I had various jobs where helping people could have been described as part of/all of what I did. But they were never really what I'd meant. I didn't know what I'd meant. It wasn't until about a few months ago, when it clicked that I'm doing what I told Mom all those years ago that I wanted to do.

I think it hit me the most when Summer entered a contest I held in July for a free menu. To enter, all she had to do was tell me why she deserved a menu. She wrote that she was overwhelmed by new food restrictions in her diet (no dairy, no soy, no corn syrup, and no sugar) and was struggling to come up with things to feed her family that she could eat too (as they didn’t share the restrictions). Insert shout of excitement from me! Someone actually needed my help! She won then and there. And, thus began the journey of realization that I’ve been on about this little business of mine.

What makes you so passionate about menu planning and cooking?

I think the passion for cooking is ingrained in my genes. My mom is a great cook, my Oma is too. My whole family really appreciates good food. But it wasn't until I got married, that I discovered how much I loved it. I love to organize and plan and arrange and those abilities seem to have translated to the kitchen. I started writing down my culinary creations and began regularly planning our menus. Part of the reason for menu planning is that we try very hard to stick to a monthly budget. We have a certain amount of money designated for groceries, and if I plan our menu, I can stay within the budget because I can go to the store and buy what I need. I also like to be a creative with leftovers so we don't waste food. It's important to me to use what we have and use it well, trying not to be wasteful.

What has been the greatest challenge for you in starting and running your own business?

One of the greatest challenges with this new business is wondering if it's as worthwhile to others as it is to me. It's a lot of time and effort if it's not. This was tough in the first few months, but I've felt so supported and encouraged as of late, so it's not such a struggle anymore.

What has been the greatest reward? 

The greatest thing, and what makes any of the struggles worth it, is when the overwhelmed, the stressed, the burdened, the "hungry because you can’t think of anything to make" person who has received a menu says that they're excited to cook for the first time. When someone says that they're no longer overwhelmed. I'm getting a little choked up just writing about it, because it means so much to me to share this love with others... I love when someone realizes that they can. I'm trying to empower people to eat well and it brings me such joy.

How do you stay inspired to cook organically and eat well?

In general, it's just all around something that has become important, so it's more of a way of life. A lot of my inspiration for specific meals comes from my Abundant Harvest Organics box. When I bring it home and see what's inside, I'm get excited and motivated to plan and eat! Another thing that inspires me is the farmers that I know from when we lived in Central California. Because I've sold berries at the markets next to them and have picked the berries to sell at those markets, I understand a tiny, miniscule fraction of what goes into it. I want to support them.

What is one thing we should all know about cooking and eating healthy? 

I have a few things: 1. It's not as difficult as you may think it is. 2. "Health food" doesn't have to taste like cardboard. 3. It's not going to look the same for everyone. 4. Eating in moderation is important. Just because I have a healthy diet, doesn't mean I don't enjoy potato chips (just ask my husband). I also love to eat out occasionally and love things like pizza, french fries and the rare Dr. Pepper. The difference is that they are a treat, not an every day occurrence and often the pizza and fries are homemade, so at least I know what's going into them. 5. If it's not a "diet", but is a way of life, it's much easier. 6. (This is my opinion. Feel free to disagree.) If I'm cooking delicious food, full of things like veggies, grains, legumes and meat it's probably going to be better for me (and likely more cost effective) than a low-fat, low-carb, low-everything pre-packaged low-taste meal.

A HUGE thank you to Rachel for taking the time to make this post- you can check out her website here.  And more about her menu planning service here. Go ahead- check it out and call her up! Getting a custom menu is so easy and awesome- makes cooking and eating well so much easier when you have help :)


Thanks Rachel for inspiring me and others to go for your passion- and do what you love.
You're amazing!

My husband taught me how to roast pumpkin seeds.

And its oh so easy. Nolan really is a better cook than I am, but I'm learning and he likes
to teach me these fun recipes every once and awhile.

After carving pumpkins at my cousins house last night, we had a ton of seeds left over.
Nolan wanted to take them home to our house to roast them. So we did.
They turned out pretty tasty too! Here's how you do it:

Pre-heat the oven to 375.
Rinse your pumpkin seeds.
Spray a baking pan with non stick spray and oil the seeds with olive oil.
Next put your spices on top. Nolan used chili powder, lemon pepper and salt.
Let them roast for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Take them out, let them cool, and eat up!




This was the pumpkin he carved.



Happy Halloween everyone!!

Food Pins Mood Board!

I'm a lover of mood boards, and I'm a lover of food. Lately I've been pinning so many delicious
looking food recipes! If only I had all the time in the world to bake...

Here is a little food-mood board for ya. All the links to the recipes can be found down below.

I figure if I don't have time to bake, maybe someone out there does, and I can live vicariously
through their baking extravaganzas...



You can find awesome food recipes on this amazing pin board and this one too- as well as my own,
where I constantly post yummy treats I will bake one day. I will... Just you wait...

So here are the recipe links! Look at the number on the photo of the treat you want to bake, and
click on the match below to be magically taken to the recipe!

1 // Cinnamon Roll Cookies
2 // Lemon-Scented Pull Apart Coffee Cake
3 // Baked Apple Rings
4 // A Cup of Coffe Cake. (In Five Minutes no less!)
5 // No Bake Vanilla Cake Chocolate Truffles
6 // Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread
7 // Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Scrumptious Apple Streusel Muffins

If you've been reading my blog at all, you know I love food and baking.

This weekend I made some pretty awesome apple streusel muffins- and I used a real recipe this
time! I got the book "1 Mix, 100 Muffins" at one of my bridal showers, and pulled the recipe from
there. They were pretty scrumptious. Not too sweet- perfect for morning breakfast with some coffee.
It has this wonderful cinnamon crumble on the top- that was my favorite part.

Some important things you need:
Apples + Modern Family on Hulu (watch while baking) = Apple Streusel Muffins.



Here's the recipe from the book:

Ingredients:
280g/10 oz plain white flour

1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 salt
115g/4oz soft light brown sugar
250g/9oz cooking apple
2 medium eggs
250ml/9fl oz milk
6 tbsp sunflower oil or 85g/3oz butter, melted and cooled, extra for greasing

For the streusel topping:
50g/1¾oz plain white flour
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
35g/1¼oz butter
25g/1oz soft light brown sugar

Directions:1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line with 12 paper cases.

2. To make the streusel topping, put the flour and cinnamon into a bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces, add to the bowl with the flour and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and set aside.

3. To make the muffins, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar. Peel, core and finely chop the apple. Add to the flour mixture and stir together.

4. Lightly beat the eggs in a large jug or bowl then beat in the milk and oil. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined; do not over-mix.

5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin. Scatter the streusel topping over each muffin. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch.

6. Leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

I hope you like! I made them for our church small group and they were gone pretty fast.

They're super fall-ish, I think thats why I had so much fun making them. And the fact that Modern

Family was playing on my laptop while I baked. Not very romantic, but fun non the less :)

Happy Baking and Happy Thursday!!

PS: You still have a few hours to enter the Creative Connection free ticket contest! In the post below-

I'll announce the winner this afternoon! 

Greek Yogurt Choco Chip Cooks.

Thanks so much for everyone's input yesterday on the logos- I'm making a few little changes,
but I think with everyones help via Facebook, Twitter and this blog, I have got a way better idea
of what to do. Sometimes all it takes is some good advice to help you see outside your little head.

So thanks everyone! I REALLY appreciate all your thoughts!

So now its on to the next subject... cookies.



I was kinda in the mood for baking this weekend. Its October and there's nothing like the smell
of cookies baking in the oven... its warming to the heart and soul.

I also felt a little ADD and wanted to take a little risk. So I thought I would add some
Greek Yogurt to my cookies. My thinking was it would make it more dense, I would put in less
flour and only one egg. I don't know anything about baking science, I just was in the
"lets see what happens when I do this!" mood. So I did.



And I was pleasantly surprised when they turned out really good! I was very pleased with this little invention!

I think one of my favorite things about making cookies is putting them on a plate and having them
warm up your kitchen. It just feels homey. And when people come over you can hold out your plate
of cookies and say, "oh would you like a cookie? They're homemaaade!" and then they feel
at home and all warm and fuzzy inside. And then you do too.



So I'm keeping that plate of cookies out on our counter for guests to eat, for me to eat, and for
Nolan and I to both eat when we're watching Lost at night. (We both had never seen it and
kinda got addicted this week on Netflix) And despite that look on Nolan's face, he really is
enjoying that scrumptious cookie... I swear...

Here is the recipe if you're brave enough to try it! I promise they're good :)
Ingredients

2 sticks melted butter, cooled

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup plain greek yogurt

1 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 11oz package chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix sugars in to melted butter.
Add in egg and vanilla and mix well.
Add in the greek yogurt and mix it up real good.
Then add flour, baking soda, and salt and stir until well combined. 
Stir in choco chips.  
Bake for 10-12 minutes.


recipe adapted from mother thyme

So about to eat this

This is totally baking in the oven right now. Homemade banana bread.

Its making my stomach grooowwl...!

This is my favorite banana bread recipe right here. Perfect for when those bananas start to get a
bit too ripe to eat. And when the weather finally cools a bit and you get the urge to bake and
feel all "fallish." Totally me today :)


photos from Design*Sponge

Hum to the Us!

I made this yummy hummus with lavash bread chips as an appetizer for dinner the other night.
It actually turned out quite good! I'm not the best chef, so when I find something thats super easy,
tastes amazing and looks pretty on the table, I'm all for it.

Here is the recipe if you'd like to try it!

I didn't really follow everything perfectly, it was more like a "taste it and see what would
be good" kind of a thing, so if the measurements aren't followed perfectly, don't sweat it!


Hummus:

What you need:
~ 1 crushed garlic clove
~ 3 tablespoons olive oil
~ 1 tablespoon cumin
~ 1 1/2 cup garbanzo beans
~ Garlic Salt to taste ( I used quite a bit )


Top it off with...
~ Feta Cheese (Mediterranean is awesome)
~ Chopped cherry tomatoes


Take your garbanzo beans, olive oil, garlic, garlic salt and cumin, and mix it up in a food processor.
(love those things) After your ingredients are fully mixed together, place in your cute serving bowl.
Add the feta cheese (I used Mediterranean feta and it was amazing) and cut cherry tomatoes to the
top of your hummus.

Lavash Crisps:

What you need:
~ 1/4 cup olive oil
~ 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cumin
~ 1/4-1/2 teaspoon chili powder
~ Garlic salt to taste
~ Pepper to taste
~ 1 large piece of Lavash Bread (this is dependent on what kind of Lavash bread you get.
I got the big square kind from Trader Joes so I only needed one piece. If you get smaller
bread you might need more than one.)

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix up your olive oil, cumin and chili powder.
Brush it over your bread. Sprinkle on garlic salt and pepper to taste. Take the large piece of lavash
bread and tear or cut it into smaller, "crisp size" pieces, place the pieces on a baking tray and put
in the oven. I recommend cooking them for 7-10 minutes- but every oven is different, so keep
checking on your crisps to make sure they come out to have the perfect amount of crunchy-ness.

Serve hummus on a plate with your Lavash Crisps and you have the perfect appetizer!

How easy was that?? I mean really!

I love and appreciate the art of baking, using quality ingredients and making everything

from scratch. I REALLY do have a strong appreciation for that... but lets face it, baking everything

from scratch takes a lot of time, effort, and money that we just don't always have!

So what do you do when you have to make some cupcakes for the party you're going to tonight

but have no time or money? Make these! 

These are so easy, taste great and look great too! I love frosting cupcakes with the ziplock bag trick.
It makes your cupcakes look good, even though you don't have the necessary tools used for frosting.
And the berry on top gives the cupcakes that extra wow factor. Especially when you put one of these
Dark Chocolate Acai Berries on top. My new addiction- they're amazing.

Here are the ones I made for my small group the other night, they got a little messy
when I loaded them in the car, but you get the idea!



Not too shabby for a few bucks and not much effort! They tasted great too. I like to put them
in the oven for just a minute or two less than what the recipe calls for- it makes them extra
gooey! So yummy and oh so simple.

So today I was looking for a recipe for a decades party I'm going to tonight- and came across
this wonderful little gem.

Whole wheat brown sugar banana bread pancakes. ooooh my. If anyone wants to make me breakfast
in bed one day for no particular reason, you should make me these. And they're whole wheat!
So they're totally healthy.... or at least thats what I will tell myself when I'm downing a few!

The recipe is right here!  Have fun!

Pickles Pickles Pickles in the Summer.

So my fiance is OBSESSED with pickles. (The cucumber kind) He will literally eat a full jar in one sitting if he let himself. When he was little he was caught chowin down on 30 year old pickles from his grandma's basement... to this day he says they were the best pickles he's ever had. I'm just glad he's alive...

Anyways, I've been really wanting to be all wife-y and make some homemade pickles for him to eat!

So today I came across Sunday Suppers recipe for picked grapes and Im dying to taste and make some of these little guys. Its a new spin on a timeless classic! They sound like they would be perfect for a decently healthy snack on a hot day. They might even be cute as a gift, placed in a little jar with a little ribbon wrapped around the lid. Ok super cute.

I'm stoked to make some for my man... even though I don't think anything could ever take the place of regular pickles in Nolan's life... maybe if they marinate for 30 years.

Let me know if any of you have tried these or made them before! I'd love to know what they're like!

photos by Karen Mordechai