Healthy Recipes

The restaurant of the future: You browse through the menu on an iPad, then place your order electronically and eat your meal (or attempt to, anyway) while swinging through the air. At Lucky Robot Japanese Kitchen, a laid-back café near downtown Austin, the future is the present. We went for Sunday brunch (really lunch for me), and I ordered their Yuzu Miso bowl with brown rice and a mimosa. As we waited for our food, we watched the server bring an interesting-looking appetizer to a nearby table.The dish was an oxymoron in food form: Deep-Fried Brussels Sprouts. I got an order out of curiosity, and it ended up being my favorite thing on the table! (Sorry for the blurry photo. It’s hard to take a picture while you’re swinging!)More highlights from the trip: Coconut Caramels – one of the many treasures I found at the Wheatsville Co-op.New India Cuisine – An unassuming restaurant, but the food is fantastic. At Indian restaurants I always like to try a variety, so I ordered Malvani Coconut Curry, Saag, and Millionaire’s Curry. Matt got samosas and Chicken Tikka Masala, un-pictured for obvious reasons! (And yes, I accidentally used his real name in a post a few weeks ago. So I guess calling him S now would be really dumb. In retrospect, it was probably just dumb to use a nickname in the first place. I try to respect the privacy of my non-blogging friends, and I’d seen other bloggers give fake names to their boyfriends, husbands, children… but yeah, maybe it was not my best idea.) Counter Culture – I ordered a lentil loaf and a side order of cashew cream macaroni and cheese. Although it wasn’t my favorite meal of the trip (the loaf was dry and macaroni a bit bland), it got better once I added a little salt and asked for extra ketchup. Their homemade ketchup was really good. It was hot out, so we ate a lot of ice cream on the trip! Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl from Licks (which has both vegan and non-vegan ice cream), and Coconut soft-serve from Sweet Ritual (The owner is super nice… she even set out a tray of free samples for us). And the ice cream from Thrice Café, reviewed in my previous Austin post… this was our hands-down favorite. Ten Thousand Villages – A non-profit organization dedicated to fair trade. They sell intricate jewelry, accessories, home décor, and gifts skillfully crafted by artisans in third-world countries, and all of the profits go back to the village that made each product. Plus, when a store offers free chocolate samples, it instantly becomes my new favorite place to shop. Obviously I purchased one of the chocolate bars… You know, to help the cause. Any excuse to buy chocolate = win.Link of the Day: ……..Peanut Butter Oreos

Harvindar Singh I might have the best job ever. I’m the Local Forager for Whole Foods Market®’s stores in Northern California & Reno. That means I travel all over one of the most diverse culinary regions of the country in search of new flavors. When I find the good stuff, I help get it on our shelves. Most people want to know, “How did you land that gig?” Well, I got started in food in 2000 when I moved my family to a small Victorian seaport in Port Townsend, Washington. I took a job with a local farmers’ market and worked as a Food & Farm Coordinator for Washington State University Extension.  I realized I had a knack for helping small businesses grow. Over the next few years, the Port Townsend Farmers Market became one of the fastest-growing community markets in the country. I loved it there, but I knew I wanted to come to the Bay Area. When I saw an opportunity at Whole Foods Market, I went for it. The second thing people want to know is, “What are you looking for when you’re out foraging?” Most of the time I’m drawn to the people behind the product. Of course, whatever they’re making has to be killer, too. Once I’ve found something delicious and interesting, I meet with our buyers to figure out how to bring it in. Some producers are ready to go from day one, but others need a little help with things like packaging or ingredient sourcing. Helping people at this stage is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job. We also have a unique service called the Local Producer Loan Program (LPLP). Through this program, we’re able to offer low-interest loans to small-scale producers. We direct resources to folks who have the vision to make truly great products, so they can scale up without sacrificing quality. St. Benoît Creamery is a prime example of the LPLP in action. Owner Benoît de Korsak churns French-style organic yogurt and rich organic milk. Their Jersey cows graze on lush, open pastures every day, and all the fruit used in their small-batch yogurt is sourced within 100 miles of the dairy. Their first loan paid for the remodel of an old milking parlor into a full production creamery, and their second was used to launch their Jersey milk operation. The milk is topped with a layer of cream, and it’s outrageously good. The Local Producer Loan Program has allowed Benoît to nearly triple his production, hire more people and expand his offerings to more Whole Foods Market many of our stores all over the nation. Another success story is Three Twins Ice Cream. Founder Neal Gottlieb started selling ice cream at the Berkeley farmers’ market out of an old freezer in 2005. From day one his ice cream was pretty awesome. It’s made with real cream, real eggs and is sweetened with evaporated cane juice. Seven years later, with help from our Local Producer Loan Program and other financiers, he built a 4,200 square feet ice cream facility in Petaluma, CA and went national with Whole Foods Market. Prior to that, every pint of their ice cream was mixed, packed and labeled by hand. The new facility allowed him to ramp up his production without losing any quality, and you can now find Three Twins Ice Cream in nearly all of our stores. To me, local is about fostering community and bringing people together to celebrate local food and farms. The Local Forager program helps build those connections and strengthen our local food system. All in all, I’d say it’s a pretty cool gig.  Visit Harvindar's forager Facebook page for more foraging adventures! Do you have a favorite local product? Tell us all about it in the comments below, and we’ll get foraging!

Whew! Snack Girl doesn’t know what temperature it is in your neck of the woods, but here it is hot.... continue reading

4.55 / 5 Stars | 22 Reviews by wisweetp "Old-fashioned rolled oats are cooked with vanilla almond milk and dried cherries for a family pleasing breakfast treat." View Complete Recipe Details and Reviews

4.77 / 5 Stars | 12 Reviews by AUNTYLENE "This sweet but zippy salsa is a great way to use summer fruits and vegetables. Try it on pork or chicken at your next cookout." View Complete Recipe Details and Reviews

4.66 / 5 Stars | 190 Reviews by IYENGAR21 "This spicy, fruity blend of fresh ingredients will turn any dish into an exciting new favorite!" View Complete Recipe Details and Reviews

4.65 / 5 Stars | 265 Reviews by dakota kelly "An Italian-style vegetable and feta cheese topping is the perfect enhancement to delicious baked halibut." View Complete Recipe Details and Reviews

4.01 / 5 Stars | 49 Reviews by DRAGONSBANE "A flavorful side dish of Indian cuisine. This dish blends the mild flavor of cumin with the unrelenting spice of curry. A truly engaging dish." View Complete Recipe Details and Reviews

4.24 / 5 Stars | 75 Reviews by MERDE60 "This is a simple but elegant dish of beets tossed with a tangy garlic vinaigrette dressing. Feel free to use more than the two cloves of garlic--I do!" View Complete Recipe Details and Reviews

4.04 / 5 Stars | 38 Reviews by LEIANE "Tender rotini pasta is tossed with imitation crabmeat, red pepper strips, chunks of mango, minced jalapeno and fresh cilantro and drizzled with a tangy lime vinaigrette." View Complete Recipe Details and Reviews