Tag Archives: nourishment

Nourishment Lately 1.10.21

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Happy Sunday, friends! I’m so excited to be writing and sharing a new Nourishment Lately post with you.

Here are 5 things that have been nourishing me lately.

These cranberry ginger oatmeal cookies! Yep, I just posted this recipe, but I’m sharing again because I am obsessed with these cookies right now. I love enjoying them as an afternoon snack with a cup of hot tea – taking my time to eat one and savoring each and every bite! They are comforting, warming, and nourishing.

Everything Is Spiritual by Rob Bell. I finished this book several weeks ago, and after reading the last page, I immediately turned to the first page to read it again. I haven’t been so inspired by a book in a long time, and my take aways from it keep growing and influencing my thoughts and actions daily. I highly recommend this book in general but especially so if you feel like you’re in a rut, or lacking connection or not finding meaning. This book may help you to recognize that it’s all already there for you.

WoodWick candles. These have been adding a serious cozy element to our tiny motor home. I’ve been lighting one of these candles either in the morning while it’s still dark and we’re making coffee, or just before making dinner. Candles make things cozy in general, but I love the sound these make as well. Lighting one of these is like having my own tiny fire.

Big salads. As much as I have been enjoying cookies lately (ha!), I have been craving fresh, raw veggies just as much. I have been making salads filled with all the raw veggies I can get as often as I can. Check out this one, here, on my Instagram page, and follow along there for more simple, quick every day recipe ideas! And check out this post, here, where I talk about tips on making epic salads!

Watching the sunrise and sunset. If there is one thing that I maybe like about winter it is the ease of watching the sunrise and sunset daily! We have been making it a point to sit down and take in the sun rise and set each day, and I have been loving it. We drink coffee with the sunrise and often have a beverage to wind down with while the sun sets. It has been so nice, and the timing is just perfect right now. I’ve been posting lots of sunset content on our motorhome life Instagram, if you’d like to follow along :).

I have a feeling that we could all use a little extra comfort and nourishment right now. I hope that wherever you are, you are able to find and enjoy the things that nourish you in this season. Also, if you are here and reading this, know that I so appreciate you! Thank you so much for being here. Have a beautiful day, and a beautiful week.

In love and nourishment//
The Dreaming Foodie

City of Trees

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It’s been awhile since I’ve published anything here, but I’ve received a lot of requests about life updates, and I thought that this would be a good way to share what’s new.

Greg and I are officially residents of Idaho! While the journey to here and now started long ago, I am going to start with 3 weeks ago – the end of September. My last day of work was September 19, and that was also the day that Greg and I left for a short vacation with my family to Burlington, VT. We drove to Albany, NY on the 19th and then to Burlington on the 20th. We had awesome weather and an amazing time – highlights included biking and walking to everywhere we went, the Burlington Farmers’ Market, August First, Citizen Cider, The Skinny Pancake, biking the Island Line Trail and exploring Red Rocks Park.

*Note: all photos in this post are unedited, straight from my phone 🙂

We drove from Burlington back to Adams County on the 23rd, and then the 24th and 25th were focused solely on packing. We had done a lot of cleaning out prior to the 24th but had nothing actually packed. Those two days consisted of packing all of our belongings from the time we woke up to the time we went to sleep. At the end of the day on the 25th, everything we were taking to Idaho was in one room of our house.

We moved our stuff across the country with UPack. You load all of your stuff into a moving cube, and it is shipped across the country for you. We chose to load and unload our stuff at the trucking terminal rather than at our house because it was the cheaper option. So the 26th was dedicated to loading our UPack. With the help of Greg’s stepdad, we loaded the belongings from the room pictured above into a moving cube. I had some serious doubts about fitting everything in, but we somehow managed to fit nearly everything. Just a few small things had to stay behind. Once we were done, we closed and locked the doors and said goodbye to our stuff for more than a week. The next time we saw it would be in Boise!


After our UPack was loaded, we had 5 days left in Pennsylvania and those were filled with visits and taking care of last minute things. We wanted to get to bed early on the 1st, the day before we left, but that didn’t happen and that was okay. We were up at 4 a.m. on the day we left, the 2nd, and we pulled out of our driveway while it was still dark, at 5:45 a.m. The stars were so bright and clear on the morning that we left, and I sat on our back deck with Forest one last time before we left that morning.

Our first day of driving was our longest, 12 hours of drive time. We drove from Aspers, PA to East Moline, IL. We drove through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois on day one. East Moline is right on the border of Illinois and Iowa – right along the Mississippi River. We arrived at our AirBnb at around 6:30 p.m., settled in with Ivy and Forest and then ate delicious Mexican take-out from a spot we found once we got there – Adolphs. The drive went by pretty quickly on day one, even though it was the least scenic and longest day. We had packed our coffee, breakfast and lunch for each day in a cooler in the car, which worked out so well and enabled our stops to be super quick. 

Anyone who had talked with me before the move knows that I was nervous about how Forest and Ivy would do in the car. Traditionally, Forest doesn’t settle down during car rides and Ivy just doesn’t do them, so to put them in a completely packed up car for 12 hours had me a bit nervous. Well – not only did it go better than expected, it actually went incredibly well! Ivy actually seemed to enjoy it, so much so that we joked that we would take him for rides just for fun from now on. And Forest was such a trooper for being cooped up for so long. We could not have been happier with how they did. 🙂

Day two was another early day – we were all packed up and on the road by 5:45 a.m. We drove from East Moline to Cheyenne, WY. The drive was again not that scenic until we reached western Nebraska. The landscape became beautiful in western Nebraska which was a welcome sight. We arrived in Cheyenne at around 5:30 p.m. Our AirBnb was about 10 minutes outside of the city of Cheyenne and we had the most gorgeous view of the sunset. We got Forest and Ivy settled into the space, and then Greg and I drove into the town to pick up Thai takeout. The town was adorable and I would like to visit again someday for sure. 

Day three was our final day! We were on the road again at 5:45 a.m., but with a quick stop for hot coffee for our drive. We had packed cold brew in our cooler, but with temperatures in the 30’s in Cheyenne when we left, we were craving some hot coffee to start our trip. The sunrise and drive through Wyoming was incredible. We took so many photos and videos out the window and could not stop commenting on how gorgeous the scenery was. Wyoming is a beautiful state, and it just got better and better as we drove through northern Utah.

We were so excited when we crossed into Idaho and the drive from the border to Boise seemed like it took forever just because we were so ready to get there. We drove through some pretty heavy rain in southern Idaho, but we were greeted by a beautifully sunny day when we pulled into our apartment complex at about 5:30 p.m.

Not only did we not see our apartment before moving in, we had never been to Idaho at all. We knew that the moment we first saw our apartment would be exciting, and it was, and it was also a super pleasant surprise. We are so grateful that we loved the space as soon as we saw it. 

We arrived in Boise on Friday, October 4, and wouldn’t be unpacking our UPack until Monday, so we had a pretty empty apartment for the first few days. Once Monday came, Greg and I were up super early to get to our UPack, drive our stuff to our apartment and haul everything up the three flights of stairs. It was a long day and we were spent at the end of it, but we were so happy to have our stuff and be able to start making our apartment our home.

We’ve been in Boise – the City of Trees – for a week now and we are absolutely loving it. We love our apartment and it’s location within the city, and the city itself is amazing. We are able to get on our bikes at our apartment and go anywhere we need to go. We’ve been hiking, mountain biking, gone to farmers’ markets, coffee shops, a brewery and all of the grocery stores. All of that is bike-able or walk-able from out apartment and I love that lifestyle. Boise has a paved commuter trail that runs the entire way around the city and we are ale to hop on that right from our apartment complex – either on our bikes or with Forest for a walk. The scenery is incredible every where you look.

We can’t wait to see what is in store for us in the City of Trees!

 

Nourishment Lately – Beginning of Whole 30

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Hello dreaming foodie friends!

I wanted to pop on here today to share a bit about my first ever Whole 30 experience. I never thought that I would do anything like this, mainly because I am not big on following rules, especially when it comes to setting rules around food, but after hearing and learning more and more about the Whole 30 program, here I am, eleven days into my first Whole 30!

Day one for me was Thursday, Feb. 14, and day thirty will come on Saturday, March 16. I don’t have a lot of concrete reasons as to why I decided to give this a try, other than maybe just as a way to change things up, to try something new and different. I’m feeling like winter is getting a bit old and boring, and this seemed like as good a way as any to bring something different to the table. I was also drawn to it because of its lack of extreme rules or time period. It’s honestly not that different than how we normally eat, so I knew that the changes wouldn’t be overly extreme and it’s only a 30 day experiment and experience (although I do plan to do a reintroduction portion following that).

Here’s a summary of the things that I cannot have during my Whole 30 experience: alcohol, grains, legumes (beans, peanuts, etc.), natural or artificial added sugar, dairy. 

And here is what I have been eating:

Protein: eggs, beef, poultry, pork, fish

Veggies: spinach, kale, sweet potatoes, beets, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, garlic, onions cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, celery, mushrooms, spaghetti squash

Fruit: blueberries, bananas, cherries, apples, oranges, dates

Fats: olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, ghee (clarified butter)

Extras: walnuts, almond butter, coconut milk, collagen protein powder

What you see above has basically been the extent of my ingredient list over the last eleven days. Breakfast has been either eggs and some combination of veggies, or a smoothie. Lunch and dinner have been a protein and a ton of veggies. For snacks, I have been having apples and almond butter, a date with almond butter, or an orange. One thing for sure that I am loving – how many veggies we are eating! We have always been big veggie eaters, but with lack of grains and legumes, we have been going super heavy on the veggies and I love it. 

As far as how I feel, I honestly don’t have much to say at this point other than that I just feel good. I just feel good. And I am enjoying what I am eating every day. I do want to say that I feel like I have slightly more energy overall, but I still think it’s too early to tell if that is true. So far, I am loving my Whole 30 and I plan to keep the blog updated with the rest! Let me know what questions you have in the comments below!

Clam Chowder

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This clam chowder was inspired by two things: my desire to make something that I normally don’t, and my parent’s recent trip exploring New England. While I would love to be tasting my way through New England and Canada like they are, I am not retired like they are, so clam chowder at home it was. We made this soup on a dreary, end-of-summer day at home, and everything about it was just so right. Let’s talk about it.

Clams
I was able to buy wild, USA caught cherrystone clams at my grocery store for this. You could use a variety of types of clams for this soup, but as I feel about all seafood – try to use wild, USA caught.

Veggies
If you are a fan of clam chowder, you know that this can really vary between versions. Some have very few or no veggies; some have potatoes and some don’t. This one is full of veggies – onions, carrots, garlic and celery – and lots of potatoes. This is my preference, but feel free to customize types and amounts of veggies in this to your liking.

Broth
The broth for this soup is made from boiling the clams. To prepare the broth, you add the clams to a pot, top them with water, bring to a boil and then boil until the clams open. You then remove the clams and strain the liquid – that’s your broth. I recommend straining several times because the broth can tend to be a bit sandy from the clams. I love that the broth for this soup is made from just water + clams. Also, this is a brothy clam chowder. There is no thickener in it, so it’s a thin and extremely flavorful broth – just how I like my clam chowder.

Flavors
This soup uses: clams, bacon, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, potatoes, fresh thyme, white wine, a touch of milk, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. That’s it. If those flavors sound amazing to you, make this soup ASAP! 

This recipe is the epitome of end of summer, beginning of fall cooking and eating for me. Clam chowder always reminds me of summer vacation days, but is warm and comforting like fall. Since I can’t be wandering around New England right now, this was my best attempt at bringing end of summer, beginning of fall New England vibes to my home, and it worked just perfectly :).






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Clam Chowder

Ingredients

  • 24 medium to large clams (I used cherrystone)
  • 1/2 pound bacon
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 6 carrots, chopped
  • 6 celery stalks, chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 12 baby potatoes, quartered
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1 bunch fresh thyme
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Instructions

  1. Scrub clams well and place in a large pot. Cover the clams with water. Place pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Boil 5-10 minutes, or until all clams have opened.

  2. Strain clam stock into a bowl and set aside (if the stock is sandy, you may want to re-strain). Remove clams from shells, roughly chop and set aside.

  3. Wipe out pot and add bacon, cooking over medium heat until done. Remove bacon from pot, crumble and set aside.

  4. Keeping pot over medium heat, add onions, carrots, celery, garlic, potatoes, wine and a few sprigs of fresh thyme to the bacon fat. Cook 5-10 minutes, until wine is almost evaporated.

  5. Add strained clam stock and a few more sprigs of fresh thyme to pot and simmer until vegetables are tender, 20-25 minutes.

  6. Turn off heat but keep pot on burner and add milk, bacon and clams to the pot and stir well. Remove thyme stems. Season with salt and pepper to taste. We used 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. 

  7. Serve in bowls garnished with fresh thyme if desired and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Grain Free Peach Crisp Bars

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These peach crisp bars were created out of my desire to have a dessert/snack using end-of-summer peaches, and that were free of white sugar and flour. This recipe is for all of you like me, who want dessert, but also want to be healthy. These peach crisp bars:
-are grain free
-have no added sugar (they’re naturally sweetened with dates)
-utilize delicious end of summer peaches
-are tasty and filling
Let’s talk about what makes them so excellent.

The crisp
The crisp part of this dessert is made simply out of five main ingredients: whole pecans, almond flour, (unsweetened) coconut, coconut oil (you can use butter, too) and dates. There’s also a bit of salt and vanilla in there. It’s extremely easy to prepare – all of the ingredients are added to a food processor and mixed until crumbly.
A note on the dates – here are the dates that I use and highly recommend. These dates are perfectly textured and the pits are easy to remove. They blend up into a perfect date paste which is what I use in this dessert. To make the date paste, you simply place the dates in your food processor and process until they come together to form a ball of paste. That is the only sweetener used in this recipe.

The peaches
I kept the peaches super simple for this – they are diced and then mixed with just a bit of arrowroot starch, in order for the peach layer to thicken while baking. I use arrowroot starch but you could just as easily use another starch, like corn starch. You don’t have to do this, but I like smashing the peaches up a bit with the back of my spoon while mixing together the peaches and arrowroot. 

I love this dessert because it’s wholesome, it’s healthy and I can eat it without consuming lots of sugar. It’s a great dessert but would also make a wonderful snack, or even breakfast!










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Grain Free Peach Crisp Bars

Ingredients

Peaches

  • 4 cups peaches, diced
  • 2 tablespoons arrowroot starch

Crust/Crisp

  • 6-8 dates, depending on your preferred sweetness
  • 1 cup pecans
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 6 tablespoons coconut oil, or butter

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8x8 baking dish by lining with parchment paper or greasing well. Set aside.

  2. Add the diced peaches to a bowl and sprinkle the arrowroot starch on top. Mix well, even smashing some of the peaches with the back of your spoon. Set aside.

  3. Add dates to a food processor and process until they form a ball of paste. Remove and set aside.

  4. Add pecans, almond flour and coconut to the food processor. Pulse a few times. Add the salt, vanilla extract, coconut oil and date paste and process until mixture is well combined and crumbly.

  5. Add about 2/3 of the crisp mixture to the bottom of prepared baking dish. With a spoon, smooth out the crust evenly. Top the crust with the peaches. Crumble remaining crisp mixture over peaches.

  6. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until peach layer is bubbling and the top is slightly browned. I recommend letting it cool completely before serving.