The Balanced Kitchen

Time for food. Time for Life.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!

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Six years ago, I was struggling with the path my life had taken. I had two very small children, I had left my career working with trauma survivors, and I was doing erratic consulting work that bored me to death. I knew I needed a change and so I wrote an email to my closest friends and former colleagues and asked them a question: “If you could see me doing anything, what would it be?” I encouraged them to be creative, to be crazy, to think outside of the box. Every single person responded, and everyone said the same thing: something with food! As soon as I saw the word food, I knew I had found my answer.

Within the year, I completed a training program to become a health coach and launched The Balanced Kitchen. I had found my true calling! I was able to share my belief that cooking could be a simple, easy, healthy, and delicious part of life. I got to help people who really wanted to eat a healthier diet and cook for themselves and their families, but didn’t know where to begin. In short, I had the best job ever!

Today, I am sharing the latest development in this wonderful, challenging, exciting journey. I am SO excited to announce that I have become the new CEO (and owner) of The Six O’Clock Scramble!

 

What’s The Scramble?

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, The Six O’Clock Scramble, founded and run by the amazing Aviva Goldfarb, is an online meal planning service committed to helping busy people get quick, easy, and delicious meals on the table every night. Aviva and I share the same philosophy: making dinner should be a low stress and enjoyable experience and that family dinners are one of the most rewarding and important opportunities to connect with and nourish the people we love and ourselves!

The Scramble will give me a platform to encourage even more people to get back into the kitchen, to experiment with new tastes and cooking techniques, and to feed their friends and families healthy, delicious meals that are simple to prepare.

 

But What About The Balanced Kitchen?

Some of you may be asking, what will happen to The Balanced Kitchen, to the recipes found here, and to my weekly musings on food, feeding kids, feeding ourselves, and life balance? The answer is twofold: my recipes will stay archived here on The Balanced Kitchen, but my new recipes and posts will all be on The Scramble.

I invite you to join me at The Scramble to continue getting inspiration and ideas for feeding yourself and your family well. In an effort to make that as simple for you as possible, I will be merging my list with The Scramble’s. What this means is that you will continue to receive emails from me from time to time with recipes, cooking ideas, and lots of other opportunities to experiment with cooking and eating, just from The Scramble rather than from The Balanced Kitchen.

 

Join The Scramble Family!

Finally (and perhaps most importantly), as an enticement and in celebration of this big change, I am offering a Friends & Family discount if you’d like to join The Scramble’s meal planning service. I love and believe in this service because it helps to make cooking that much easier and more accessible. So, if getting a meal plan delivered to your inbox or phone each week sounds appealing, if a generated-for-you shopping list sounds amazing, if access to a database of over 1,000 carefully curated recipes sounds wonderful, then join us! (And if you aren’t sure we have a 2 week free trial, so there’s no risk!)

Thank you for your support of The Balanced Kitchen over these past years. I have loved carving out my space in the food and cooking conversation. I have loved working with you as clients, meeting you at workshops, and sharing ideas with you online. I look forward to our relationship growing over at The Scramble! Sign up for a free trial now (and use the code FANDF17 to get 25% off all memberships now through August 16th).

Happy Cooking, Happy Eating, and Happy Scrambling!

Zucchini & Eggplant Pie

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When I was a kid my godmother had a picture up in her kitchen of a woman being attacked by zucchinis. They are flying at her from all directions and she is covering her head in panic. I was always fascinated by that picture and when I asked her why she had it, she explained that a friend had given it to her as a joke, knowing how much she hated zucchini. When I asked her why she hated zucchini so much, she said it was because it didn’t taste like anything and there were always everywhere.

At this time of year I always think back on that picture as I struggle to come up with more and more ways to use up the zucchinis which seem to breed like rabbits in my refrigerator drawer. I start to throw zucchinis into everything—bread, pancakes, pasta sauces, I even roast them into chips. Luckily, this works for just the other reason that my godmother doesn’t like them: they are bland. Zucchinis will soak up whatever flavors you put next to them, they are a sponge. And so, instead of seeing the blandness as a bad thing, I am trying to see it as an opportunity for experimentation.

This Zucchini & Eggplant Pie is the outcome of just that sort of experimentation. My friend Darci shared her favorite zucchini and corn pie recipe with me. I didn’t have corn, but did have a ton of baby eggplants, so I decided to play. I used the basic technique she shared with me, simplifying it to one pan instead of two, and decided to add spices and flavors that would compliment the eggplant—Middle Eastern spices and feta cheese.

The outcome was awesome! My 9-year-old exclaimed, “I can’t believe how good this is!” and my 7-year-old, who was incredibly skeptical since he is not a fan of zucchini, ended up eating almost his whole serving, even after filling up on bread. This dish is very simple to pull together and makes a nice summer dinner. It would also be great for a brunch or served cold for lunch. So if you are drowning in zucchini like I am, give this one a try.

And now I’m off to make zucchini bread…

Zucchini & Eggplant Pie
 
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Recipe type: Dinner, Brunch, Lunch
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • ½ yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 large or 3 small zucchini, thinly sliced (1/4 inch or thinner), about 4 cups
  • 1 small eggplant, thinly sliced (1/4 inch or thinner), about 3 cups
  • 5 eggs, beaten
  • 4 oz shredded mozzarella, plus a little more for the top
  • 4 oz crumbled feta
  • ¼ cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 Tablespoon Za’atar seasoning (or ½ Tablespoon dried basil and ½ Tablespoon dried oregano)
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375.
  2. Slice the onions, zucchini, and eggplant. In a large, deep oven-safe skillet (cast iron works well here), melt the butter over a medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and sauté until soft, about 8-10 minutes. When you put the vegetables in the pan will be very full. Don’t worry, they will shrink down as they cook.
  3. While the vegetables cook, mix together the spices, cheeses, egg, and flour.
  4. When the vegetables are ready, take the skillet off the heat and pour the egg mixture on top. Stir gently to make sure everything is covered in the mixture. Sprinkle a little extra mozzarella on top. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and place in the oven.
  5. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the lid or foil and turn the oven to high broil and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the cheese on top is starting to bubble and brown. Serve hot, room temperature, or cold.

 

Arugula and Radish Mini-Frittatas

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A while back I shared about my realization that one of my sons really, really needs protein in the morning in order to make it through until lunchtime and I shared some of my protein-packed breakfast items that were fitting the bill. That list has served us well, plus a good deal of eggs/egg sandwiches, breakfast sausages, and bacon. But I wanted to throw something new into the mix as we launch into the summer when the protein will be important for those active camp days… these arugula and radish mini frittatas are perfect!

I want to be honest with you, a year ago these frittatas would likely not have been a success in my house because both of my boys were very skeptical of radishes, but this year they have discovered the joys of a crunchy, fresh radish, which has made salad-making a lot more fun recently and has made these frittatas an easier sell. So, if you’ve got a kiddo who is giving you a rough time about the seasonal produce that you are so excited about, all I can say is stick with it, keep introducing it in different ways, without pressure, and one day you may turn around to discover a little person crunching on a radish they plucked from the dinner salad as they were setting the table. Miracles do happen!

The main reason I am really loving these mini-frittatas, though, is that they are the perfect make-life-easier cooking project. They are quick and easy to make, freeze well, include another dose of vegetables, and can be used for any meal—serve with toast and you’ve got a quick breakfast, add some breakfast potatoes and you’ve got brunch, serve with a side salad or grain salad and you’ve got lunch or dinner. So, please, while arugula and radishes are at their peak (now!), make a batch or three of these to stash in your freezer for your next crazy morning or what-am-I-going-to-make-for-dinner-tonight?! evening. You will be so glad you did.


Arugula and Radish Mini-Frittatas
 
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Recipe type: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 3 radishes, diced
  • ¼ yellow onion, diced
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cups arugula, roughly chopped
  • 8 large eggs
  • ⅓ cup feta, crumbled
  • ¼ cup milk
  • ½ teaspoon dried basil
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼-½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 and grease or spray a muffin tin.
  2. Dice your onion and radishes.
  3. Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized skillet over a medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, but not smoking, add the onion and radishes and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onions and radishes are starting to brown, around 5 minutes.
  4. While the onions and radishes are sautéing, wash and roughly chop your arugula.
  5. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and whisk until well combined. Stir in the feta, milk, basil, salt, and pepper.
  6. When the onions and radishes are ready, add them to the egg mixture, along with the arugula, and mix well.
  7. Divide the mixture up evenly in the muffin tin, a little less than ¼ cup per cup.
  8. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until they are slightly firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes. Run a small knife around the outside of each frittata and remove gently to cool on a plate or cooling rack or serve right away.

 

My Favorite Summer Picnic Recipes

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This morning, as I was driving home after dropping my kids off at school, I heard an interview with Samin Nosrat who just wrote a book called Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat*, which I am SUPER excited to read (just got it for my birthday, woo hoo!). In the interview she was recounting a memory from her childhood in San Diego of coming out of the ocean after hours of swimming, ravenous and then greeted by her mother’s perfect beach snack—cucumbers and feta wrapped in lavash bread with frozen grapes or watermelon slices on the side. As I listened to her recount this wonderful, summer memory, I was myself taken back to my own favorite beach meal memories from childhood. How amazing those sandwiches my parents made tasted, even with the sand mixed in, how sweet and juicy the fruit seemed to be, and also how those meals shared over a towel on the sand always felt so special.

So in honor of Memorial Day Weekend and the official start of summer, I thought I would share some of my favorite summer picnic foods:

Flexible Granola Bar

Simple Grain Salad

Savory Zucchini-Corn Muffins

Simple Roasted Chicken and Vegetable Medley Sandwiches

Smoke Salmon Frittata

Roasted Summer Vegetable Dip

*This page contains an affiliate link. If you purchase a product through these links, your cost will be the same but I will receive a small commission to help with operating costs of this blog. I only link to products I personally use, trust, and love. Thanks for your support!

Mediterranean Spinach Dip

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“I received free samples of Sabra Hummus mentioned in this post. By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by Sabra and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time.”

Sometimes the best things are simple. Super simple. That was a lesson I was reminded of as I worked to develop a recipe for this Sabra hummus recipe contest organized by The Recipe Redux. You see, I kept trying to come up with some innovative, creative, blow-your-mind-surprising use of hummus. Hummus croquettes and sweet potato toast towers were two of the almost-blogworthy recipes I worked on. Both of them were good, both of them were kind of fun, but as I sat down to write about them I just couldn’t get inspired. And then yesterday it kind of hit me: I was just trying too hard. I was making things more complicated than they really needed to be. So I pushed those two recipes aside, perhaps I’ll come back to them at another time, and decided to keep things simple.

Honestly, when I stop to think about it, making things too complicated has been kind of a theme in my life recently, as well as the hope that I can instead simplify (please tell me I’m not alone in this struggle). This recipe was a wonderful reminder for me that simple is often better. That sometimes we have to let go of our over-inflated expectations for a more balanced reality that will actually make us happier, as is the case with this rockstar, super simple dip.

So in honor of National Hummus Day on May 13th, I give you my Mediterranean Spinach Dip. A super simple, vegetarian, plant-based protein powerhouse of a snack that takes all of 5 minutes to make. Everyone in my family went nuts for this one and an added bonus is that it is another opportunity to get vegetables into everyone’s diet without cajoling or reminding. It works really well with crackers or chips, but also with crudité. My husband also recommends using it as a spread in a sandwich. Haven’t tried this yet myself, but it sounds amazing! Enjoy!


4.0 from 1 reviews
Mediterranean Spinach Dip
 
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Recipe type: Appetizer, Snack
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 3 cups frozen spinach, thawed and drained
  • 1 cup Sabra Classic Hummus
  • ½ cup crumbled feta
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
  1. In a food processor, blender, or with an immersion blender, blend all the ingredients until smooth. Serve with vegetables, tortillas chips, or pita chips.

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Recipe Roundup: April Edition

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This month is kind of a wacky month for my recipe roundup because three of these recipes come from one cookbook: Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem: A Cookbook*. I have a complicated relationship with this cookbook. I love it because everything that I make from it comes out so well, the pictures are beyond beautiful, and the recipes are truly inspiring, but I also find it challenging because many of the recipes include obscure ingredients that, truthfully, I am not willing to drop lots of money on to possibly use just once before they go bad. So I have started adapting when I use the book and so far that has worked out pretty well!…

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3 Easy Ways to Use Up Hard-Boiled Eggs, Plus the Simplest Deviled Eggs

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It is spring holiday season and, as we all know, eggs are a classic sign of spring/fertility and are often used in these holidays for just that reason. As an inter-faith household we are kind of drowning in hard-boiled eggs! Between Passover and Easter, there seem to be hard-boiled eggs everywhere I look. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good hard-boiled egg with just a little salt and pepper, but they can get a bit tedious after a few days. So I wanted to share with you some of the ways that I use up hard-boiled eggs and my favorite super easy deviled eggs recipe in the hopes that it might be helpful to you, too.

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Recipe Roundup: March Edition

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I’m back with another edition of The Recipe Roundup! This month’s recipes were super successful, so I am excited to share several quick, easy, and tasty recipes to add to your rotation!

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Cheesy Broccoli Tots

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“By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by Kikkoman and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time.”

I have a confession to make: I hate tater tots. Maybe it is because I never tasted one until I was in my late 20s and so I don’t have any sentimental attachment, but to me they just taste like clumps of sad, soggy, kind of greasy, overly salted French fries. I just don’t get the appeal. And yet, when I started seeing recipes for vegetable tots floating around I was curiously intrigued. I loved the idea of small nuggets of vegetables that could be made to go along with a meal, could be a new spin on vegetables in the lunch box, or could be a fun new snack option, so I started experimenting to see what would work well, because more than anything I didn’t want to end up with a tater tot equivalent that would leave me feeling bummed out and disappointed.

And I have to say, I think that the idea resonated with some of you as well! As I have started posting my weekly meal plans (new in 2017! If you don’t follow me on Facebook yet, I’d love to have you join in the fun!) people have noticed the veggie tots listed and have asked about them more than any other dish. I guess it is a sign!…

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2016 Round-Up: Best Recipes and Posts to Inspire and Feed You

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2016-wrap-up

The end of year is often a great time to take stock of what we have learned and how we have grown and changed. This year has been a big one for The Balanced Kitchen and I am so grateful to all of you for joining me on this journey to make cooking simple and delicious! In an effort to inspire you to get 2017 off to a delicious and happy start, I wanted to share with you the most popular posts and recipes this year. Enjoy and Happy New Year! Here’s to a joyful, delicious, and healthy 2017!…

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