Making the Move to WordPress

I can't even tell you how excited I am to show you my new blog design.

My sweet husband has been hard at work (in between the other 18 projects he generally has going at one time) to create a beautiful masterpiece for Laurel of Leaves.

And it will be live on Monday! Here is a preview to whet your whistle:

If you follow me on Blogger right now, I'd love for you to subscribe again, since I'll be making the move to WordPress.

In the meantime, check out five of my most popular articles since Laurel of Leaves began a year and a half ago:

Ultimate Carrot Cake

Today is my husband's birthday.

{Happy Birthday love!}

It's been a week long celebration with family, friends, and cake.

Good cake.

No, I mean really good cake.

What I like to call the Ultimate (at least Semi-Healthy) Carrot Cake.

Apple Crisp: Quintessential Autumn

What could possibly be better than a warm apple crisp, fragrant and steaming, fresh out of the oven?

I would vote a raw apple crisp pulled straight out of the fridge!

Ok, so maybe we are comparing apples and oranges here (or at least hot apples to cold ones...). You really can't compare much to a warm apple crisp right out of the oven, but there is plenty to love about this twist on a classic.

Local Restaurant Review: Burger Up

This was one of those restaurants I kept hearing people rave about.

And it sounded great! Grass-fed burgers in a trendy neighborhood south of Nashville. A restaurant owned and operated by the owners of the Frothy Monkey coffee house down the street. (Popular with the college crowd. Food from local farms on their menu. Good stuff.)

An upscale burger joint seemed the perfect place to meet up with my cousin and his fiance when they stopped into town.

Sunny Side Up Brunch Salad

As much as I love muffins (and boy do I love muffins), I find that a breakfast without some greens just isn't complete.

Green veggies (whether it's spinach blended into my smoothie or my Sunny Side Up Salad below) give me a boost of energy for the day, alkalize my body, boost my nutrient intake, and help protect my skin.

I brought this dish to a brunch with our 'dinner and a doc' friends, Thomas & Jeanette. This time it was brunch and a doc (not quite the same effect when lacking the alliteration, but you get the idea). I brought Sunny Side Up Salad and Thomas made Venison & Shitake meatballs served with a trio of mashes (carrot ginger, sweet potato garlic, and radish turnip). He is insanely creative in the kitchen. I love it.

We ate while we bemoaned the current state of our national debt by watching I.O.U.S.A.

The Sunny Side Up Salad is a warm spinach and potato salad with a red wine & mustard vinaigrette, topped with a fried egg. Sunny side up of course.

Cooking Dried Beans in 3 Easy Steps

This information has changed my life. 

Not even kidding. 

I had always shied away from buying dried beans in the past. All the soaking and hours of cooking on the stove just wasn't something I had the time or patience for. 

But then I came across a wonderful blog post by the Cheapskate Cook on the Convenience of Canned Beans--Without the Can or Additives.

And there it was. My life would never be the same again. 

I'll share with you the simplified version...

Cooking Dried Beans in 3 Easy Steps:

The Cancer Controversy

I sparked quite the controversy the other day on Facebook.

People came out of the woodwork to get across their point of view.

But I see it all being positive. Because these things need to be talked about. Issues that are otherwise generally accepted as truth need to be brought to the surface. Lies need to be exposed.

The issue? Cancer. 

Here was my original post:

You don't get cancer which MAKES you UNHEALTHY. You get cancer BECAUSE you are UNHEALTHY. (via Matthew McAlees) So true!

Dinner on an Empty Fridge

We've been on a tighter budget these days since we are (drum roll please....) saving up to spend a year traveling New Zealand!

(You can follow our journey on our travel  blog: There & Back Again)

At any rate, I had yet to get to the grocery store the other night and was faced with an empty refrigerator.

Ok, maybe it wasn't completely empty. We had chicken sausages--but we had eaten those the past 2 nights in a row. We had sweet potatoes--but we had eaten those the past 2 nights in a row.

And there were a handful of containers of leftovers. But nothing really substantial.

So I was forced to get creative! But I think the final product turned out rather nicely:

Carrot Raisin Muffins on a Rainy Afternoon

Usually muffins are a weekend breakfast treat. Like cake for breakfast.

But the other afternoon I had a craving for a baked good.

I needed something warm and moist and comforting.

Earlier the day was sunny and the sky was blue (lending itself nicely to a picnic lunch). But the afternoon turned gray and rainy. And cold.

Cakes & breads take too long to cook. I wasn't in the mood for cookies.

But Carrot Raisin Muffins did the trick nicely!

Street Food: Moroccan Harira

Welcome to another installment of ethnic recipes from my Street Food cookbook.

This is a Moroccan Harira. A bean soup. It's also considered Morocco's national soup.

(Does the US have a national soup? Who knew that sort of thing even existed...)

But I do know that hearty soups are perfect for fall weather!

5 Ways to Multi-task with Coconut Oil

Could anything in this world be more wonderful than coconut oil?

(Ok, besides goat cheese, the Silly Goose, & Jesus?)

In all seriousness though, coconut oil definitely tops the list of must-have products on my list.

Coconut oil (and all coconut products, really) have gotten a terrible, though incredibly undeserved, reputation over the last 50 years or so. People freak out over the caloric intake of coconut products, bemoaning and lamenting the saturated fat found in coconut milk and coconut oil.

Truthfully, eating a low-fat diet is one of the worst things you could possibly do for your body (50% of your cell membranes are made up of saturated fatty acids. No healthy fats=a terrible hormone imbalance=all kinds of problems with weight gain, hair loss, or painful or irregular menstrual cycles). Eating healthy saturated fats can actually help you lose weight!

Easy Stromboli

I grew up eating strombolis (strombolii?) and calzones from this New York style pizza place in Memphis--Milano's.

And I do still love a good, greasy pizza these days too. I can pack it away with the best of them.

So when I found Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough for a dollar (scratch that--99 CENTS!), I went to town making homemade pizzas piled high with veggies and goat cheese.

The pizza dough isn't the healthiest thing on the face of the planet. It still has gluten and canola oil (which is a rancid oil after it's been processed). And even 'whole wheat' is super processed and turns to sugar quickly in your body. But keeping a big picture perspective, it's not the worst thing you could possibly eat either.

And so inspiration hit me recently and produced this lovely dish:

Pomegranate Pear & Gouda Quesadillas

I feel like I've referenced this recipe about 14 times without actually sharing it.

(Ok, so 14 is an overstatement. But it was at least twice.)

This recipe is so enigmatic. It's simple (6 ingredients), but complicated at the same time (as you'll see below). It's fried food, yet it's healthy.

When Allergies Go Awry

Most people take it for granted that a change in seasons means their allergies will flare up.

Noses run. Eyes itch. Throats become sore.

But our bodies wouldn't require an immune response to a change in the weather (or to certain plants, etc.), if we didn't have so much immuno-compromising toxicity and/or deficiency in the first place.

(This is true of all diseases by the way.)

But, alas, through the course of my quarter century on the earth so far I have been exposed to a host of toxins (pollutants, chemicals, vaccines....) and have not always eaten so well (Yes, it's true, I ate cake for breakfast in college. On a regular basis. Warmed in the microwave no less.)

So when the fall made its debut this past week, my nose knew it.

I attacked the head congestion and drainage not with medications (which only cover over the symptoms and deposit more toxicity into my body), but by skipping straight to the root of the problem and boosting my immune system! My body fought it off naturally and became stronger for it.

Here's a rundown of what I did when my allergies went awry:

Book Review: Doctor of the Future

This isn't necessarily a book I would have picked from the bookstore shelf myself. Admittedly the cover is incredibly cheesy.

This came as required reading for staff meetings at work.

And I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much new information I learned from it!

The first page describes the book as a 'guidebook for how you and your family can transform American health care. It shows you what you need to know today to take better care of your health, and your family's tomorrow. It also illustrates how to use the body's own power of self-healing to produce greater health and vitality.'

It is obvious that the author was using the book as a promotional tool for his clinic (based on the number of times he references it by name and offers the phone number, website and mailing address ad nauseum). But if you can look past that, the book really does skip over the fluff and offers information you can really sink your teeth into.

Grilled Cheese for Grown-ups

You know those days when you open the refrigerator and just stand there staring into it?

You're hungry. But you don't feel like taking the time to cook anything fancy.

You're not in the mood to throw together a salad. Or to snack on veggies & hummus. But that's all you see in the fridge.

This has (obviously) happened to me more than once. And I can almost guarantee you know what I'm talking about.

But inspiration hit me recently. I saw Ezekiel bread. I saw goat cheese.

And what more could a girl want, really? It's no secret that I love goat cheese. It tops the list of my all-time favorite foods (right up there alongside pineapple and lima beans).

And so I ended up with a Grilled Goat Cheese Sandwich!

Sunny with a High of 75

Yep, not only is it the title of a Relient K song that defined my sophomore year of college, sunny with a high of 75 was the actual forecast for the day here in Nash-vegas.

And what a glorious day it is!

I love being able to curl up in the blankets at night, then wear my fuzzy robe while I drink hot tea in the morning. But best of all, I like picnic lunches and being able to lay in the sun on a blanket in shorts to soak up some vitamin D!

Street Food: Ethiopian Lentil Wat

Let it be known this was the first time I've ever cooked with lentils.

I know, I know.....what kind of health nut are you?

Just goes to show that I'm not as crazy as people might think. (Or, maybe I am. It's definitely debatable.)

At any rate, when my sweet husband bought me this Street Food cookbook for my birthday, this was one of the first recipes I tried.

How to Open a Pomegranate

Pomegranates are lovely. Packed full of antioxidants and exploding with flavor.

But if you've never cooked with a pomegranate before (or, let's face it, seen one in person), they can be awfully intimidating. What do you do it? How to extract those little rubies enclosed inside?

Flavor of the Week: Orange Pomegranate Chocolate Chip Muffins

I have a weakness for muffins.

You might have noticed, what with my posts on Banana Chocolate Chip muffins & Carrot Blueberry Muffins.

These Orange Pomegranate Chocolate Chip muffins were definitely a blog-worthy success!