Sprout & Pea

Last week­end was really lovely — my mom was in town! I dragged her all over Brook­lyn by foot and by ferry and as per usual we spent most of our time eat­ing. Sat­ur­day night, my cousin joined us for din­ner at a deli­cious restau­rant in Brook­lyn Heights called Colonie. I love restau­rants that are con­ducive to shar­ing and Colonie’s menu is tai­lored for just that. We ordered far too many dishes, but we devoured them all. One of the stand­out plates on our table was a roasted car­rot salad with sun­flower sprouts. This was my first intro­duc­tion to these slightly sweet, watery lit­tle greens and I loved them. I adore a dish with sim­ple ingre­di­ents that bal­ance together per­fectly and that’s what hap­pened when I put a lit­tle bit of each ingre­di­ent on my fork. When I came across sun­flower sprouts at the mar­ket this week, I decided to try to recre­ate this dish. Read more:

Sweet pota­toes seem to be tak­ing over my apart­ment lately thanks to the abun­dance of them that appear in my CSA each week. So, when I finally had a night in and a chance to get cre­ative with my din­ner, I turned to the ol’ orange potato. I stared at the bowl of them on my kitchen table and pon­dered what I could do with them aside from roast­ing, bak­ing, or mash­ing. Then, a stroke of lazi­ness came over me and I thought seri­ously about just mak­ing some pasta. But through this lazi­ness came a stroke of inspi­ra­tion. Read more:

Grow­ing up in Miami, I was exposed the the deli­cious world of chimichurri at a young age. It was often on the menu when my par­ents and I would go out to eat and my mom would occa­sion­ally top off her deli­cious grilled skirt steak with it. The sweet­ness of the skirt steak always bal­anced out so nicely with this tangy, refresh­ing herb sauce. Read more:

A few weeks ago, I returned from one of the best vaca­tions of my life. I trav­eled to Italy for my friend’s wed­ding. Not just any friend, but my very first friend. Nicole and I have known each other since we were babies and she is also the per­son who kick­started my love for healthy eat­ing and cook­ing. In fact, she is the rea­son this blog is called Sprout & Pea. When I began this blog, I thought it would be fun to col­lab­o­rate with Nicole and so the two of us came up with the name Sprout & Pea in honor of know­ing each other since we were sprouts and peas. Nicole’s fash­ion career since took off and her time did not per­mit for blog­ging, so I con­tin­ued with Sprout & Pea on my own, but Nicole’s influ­ence has been with me every step of the way. It was mag­i­cal to see my very first friend get mar­ried to such a won­der­ful man on the most beau­ti­ful island in Italy. Read more:

There’s a first time for every­thing and this week was both my first bike acci­dent and my first time mak­ing lentils. My week­end started off great with friends and fam­ily in town– birth­day cel­e­bra­tions, brunches, din­ners, a whole lot of cake and a whole lot of love. On Sun­day, we decided to make the most of my guests’ last day in town and also take advan­tage of the fleet­ing 80 degree weather. So, my friends rented some bikes and we set out for the tour de Brook­lyn (not to be con­fused with the Tour de Taco- an actual annual and awe­some event). Things started out great and it was shap­ing up to be a beau­ti­ful after­noon. Then it hap­pened– my tire and the side­walk got into a lit­tle quar­rel that resulted in my face meet­ing the ground. Read more:

I’m kick­ing off my first $5 chal­lenge meal with a dish that’s per­fect for both break­fast and din­ner. It also shares a name with my favorite sea­son that is just upon us– red flan­nel sea­son, or as most peo­ple like to call it, autumn. I was first intro­duced to the red flan­nel hash at a favorite local brunch spot and since first order­ing it, I have had a dif­fi­cult time ever order­ing any­thing else. It just hits that sweet and savory spot so well. I’ve been want­ing to recre­ate this myself  for quite some time so when I was crav­ing beets at the end of my work day, this imme­di­ately popped into my mind. I knew it would be a cheap din­ner, but I did not real­ize that I could make this for well under $5. Here’s the cost break­down: Read more: