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April 18, 2016

El Encanto- Enchanted, Indeed

Hello!! It’s been awhile since I’ve done a full-on restaurant review, and since I had the most incredible meal recently at The Dining Room at the Belmond El Encanto, this post is much needed. Honestly, I feel like it would be rude of me not to share my experience, because it was just that good. Santa Barbara has a gem in the hills, people!!

Hands-down this is the best view you can get while dining in SB. If you dine al fresco (which you should), you are blessed with panoramic views of all of SB and the ocean. It’s pretty breathtaking.

If you aren’t enchanted enough by the views, the seasonal menus will do the trick. I love a restaurant that does the local/sustainable/seasonal thing, and The Dining Room has that on lock. Each dish is created with seasonal and local produce. Herbs and greens that end up on your plate are freshly picked from the chef’s garden, and they even make their own cheese from the milk of Ellie, the resort’s cow. A cute little resort cow?! I die. PS- her milk makes such amazing cheese!!

Beets with mache, citrus, and cheese. I’m a sucker for edible flowers, too.

Quick tip- when dining out, try to fit in veggies. I always either order an app with veggies (salad, beets, gazpacho), or make sure to get some with my entree. That way you fill up on the nutrient-dense foods and get all the vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals veggies have to offer.

Santa Barbara Sea Urchin Panna Cotta with Caviar and Fresh Cheese

This appetizer was an all-around winner in my book. Presentation on point, fresh, local, and delicious. It was some of the best uni (sea urchin) I have ever had. Plus, caviar and brioche toast points are two of my favorite food groups. 😉 If you can nab fresh sea urchin at your local fish market, do not hesitate to try it. Uni is light, slightly sweet, and tastes ever-so-slightly of the ocean in the best way possible. And it melts in your mouth like buttahhhh.

Sea Bass with Gnocchi and Burst Tomatoes

My dining partner (aka my lil sis) let me try a bite of her gnocchi, and it was superb. I have never met a gnocchi that I didn’t like. And apparently she hasn’t either, because this was devoured in 3.5 seconds. I kid, I kid. But she said the fish was cooked to perfection, and that she could eat this dish every night and never get tired of it, so we will take her word.

Branzino with Brussels Sprouts and Carrots with Lemon Olive Oil

Just being real here: these were my favorite Brussels sprouts ever. The trick is that they were prepared in a way that allowed them to develop that gorgeous crispy exterior and toasty flavor. No bitterness or rubberiness here! (If you are not a Brussels sprouts fan, try roasting them or grilling them. Don’t steam ’em, because nobody likes a soggy sprout.) Let them crisp up and you will fall in love, promise.

Branzino is a delicious fish that makes a perfect “gateway fish” for those who are not seafood lovers. It is anything-but-fishy in flavor, so whip up this fish at home for those who don’t have a love for fish yet. This entree was so simple, yet so divine. Well done, El Encanto.

Enchanted Floating Island

This dessert was floating island perfection. We all know I am meringue obsessed, so it’s a no-brainer that I just wanted to take up residence on the little floating meringue island. Get this- El Encanto has been serving this dessert since 1929! It’s their signature dessert, and the love runs deep. No trip to The Dining Room is complete without it.

Naturally, this is the perfect place for celebrations. How did they know pink is my favorite color?

After dinner peppermint tea

Always get peppermint tea after dinner. It is so soothing after a heavy meal, and helps to ease any tummy woes you may have. Ginger or fennel tea would do the trick, too.

If you are ever looking to experience a beautiful, mouth-watering meal for a special celebration, give The Dining Room at Belmont El Encanto a try. They just rolled out their amazing new Spring menu (which I have not tried…yet), so please go, and let me know what you try!!

As always, have a fab week!

XO,

Alexandra

April 9, 2016

Vegan Carrot Top Pesto

Think back to a time when you bought carrots that still had their lovely stems attached. (Hopefully it wasn’t thaaaat long ago). Perhaps you steer clear of the carrots with greens still on because you just throw ’em away as soon as you arrive home from the market. Stop tossing that green goodness away! I’m here to deliver a public service announcement: You can eat the carrot tops!! I mean, maybe you don’t want to just bite them right off the carrot reverse Buggs Bunny-style, but you can utilize them to bring a fresh flavor to some culinary staple recipes.

It’s pretty obvious that this recipe is very apropos for Earth Day, which is coming up on April 22. Using a food in it’s entirety, thereby reducing food waste, is very earth-friendly, and with this recipe for Vegan Carrot Top Pesto, it couldn’t be easier to do. So throw an Earth Day celebration, and whip up this pesto to really impress your friends. You could even do a carrot-on-carrot dish by topping caramelized, roasted carrots with the carrot top pesto. You’re welcome.

This pesto is perfect on pasta (duh), but it also makes a fabulous accompaniment to fish, chicken, or roasted vegetables. Stir a dollop into grains like quinoa or farro for a fresh boost of flavor. The carrot tops have different kind of herby-ness than the traditional pesto herb of choice, basil. But “different” is refreshing, bright, and zesty- especially with the addition of lemon.

Instead of pine nuts, we’ve got some nourishing pumpkin seeds, which are full of zinc, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus, just to name a few oh-so-important minerals. Nutritional yeast adds a subtle cheesy flavor, which allows us to keep this pesto vegan and appealing for all. (What up vegans, and dairy-free friends, I got you!) If you don’t have nutritional yeast on hand, don’t fret- you can always omit it. But I do highly recommend it for it’s versatility and high amount of B vitamins, so nab some to have on hand for all of your cheesy recipes!

Let’s get into the recipe! Just as a note, there isn’t an exact science to this. If your pesto is too tight, loosen it up with a glug of olive oil or a squeeze of lemon. If it’s not “nutty” enough, add more pumpkin seeds. Play with it and make it to your liking!

Vegan Carrot Top Pesto

4 cups thoroughly washed carrot tops, chopped
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, sliced
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 Tbs nutritional yeast
salt and pepper, to taste

Add all ingredients to food processor or high speed blender and blend until ingredients are well incorporated and hold together well. See, told you it was easy. 🙂

Tell me- How do you use pesto? Maybe you just eat it by the spoonful? (No judgement). I would also love to hear some of your favorite ways to use the parts of food we normally throw away! Have a fab week and a happy Earth Day!!

XO,

Alexandra

April 3, 2016

Weekend Adventures: What to do in SB

With spring break in full force, and summer right around the corner, I thought it would be the perfect time to share a few fun things to eat/see/do around Santa Barbara. These places are perfect for a girl’s weekend, a family road trip, or even a day-date with your significant other. My sister and I love these places for our “girl’s days out” when she comes to visit, so I hope you will, too! (Should you ever be in the Santa Barbara neck of the woods.)

First on the list: take a drive up to Solvang! Less than an hour away from Santa Barbara proper, Solvang is the cutest Danish town. It truly feels like you are not in California anymore. I recommend spending a full day here, so you can take in and explore all that the town has to offer. My sister and I went during the Taste of Solvang event a few weekends ago. Let me tell ya, we ate our way around the town!

We got the “tasting passport”, which allowed us to walk to restaurants and bakeries all over town and try little samples of their specialty food. If you’re a foodie, this event would be perfect for you. (Plan a trip for the event next year!) We even got to try the famous aebleskivers (pictured above), which are little spherical Danish pancakes. They are actually hollow, so its like biting into a puffy pancake cloud. What’s not to love? Thank goodness we did a lot of walking to work up an appetite! We didn’t even try the samples at half of the places on the passport because we. were. stuffed.

More Danish pastries- a cinnamon crisp!

To break up the struggle (lol) of trying all the foods on our passport, we had a scavenger hunt around town. (Thank you to my mom for the idea!) We had such a blast running around taking selfies with all the items on the list. I can only imagine how fun this would be with teams of friends and/or family. Some of the items on our list:

try the aebleskivers ( obvious sustenance-of-choice for the rest of the scavenger hunting)
find all 4 windmills (there is one hard-to-find windmill, but I promise there are four large, major windmills in Solvang)
find the big red shoe
find the mermaid fountain
go to the mission
visit the Hans Christen Andersen museum
sit on the gossip bench
find the clock tower
find the round tower
take a picture of the most Danish architecture you can find

So fun, right? Plus, with all the running around, you work up an appetite=more Danish food! It’s basically a win-win. 😉

Moving back down to Santa Barbara proper: Next on the list is Lilac Patisserie, which is on State Street, right downtown. This dedicated gluten free bakery/ cafe is a beautiful stop for brunch or afternoon tea. The desserts are stunning, but for something more savory, they have a lovely cafe menu with everything from quiches, to sandwiches, to salads.I got a veggie-tomato soup and the kalamata grapefruit salad, which were both specials the day I went there. I want to replicate these recipes at home, because they were so flavorful and healthy!

PS, in case you were wondering, yes, Lilac Patisserie does have a lilac color scheme. So sweet!

Now for my favorite place to stop when I want to feel transported to France: Renaud’s! This patisserie/bistro is authentically French in everything from food to aesthetics. Their quiche is to die for, and they have all sorts of sweet and savory dishes to satisfy any francophile. Think croquet monsieur, pain bagnat, and fresh brioche and baguettes like you wouldn’t believe.

Of course, a stop to Renaud’s wouldn’t be complete without a tea or latte and a macaron! Renaud’s makes the best macarons in all of SB, so there really is no comparison if you are on the hunt for the little French pastry. (And really, if you didn’t photograph your macaron, did you even have one at all?)

Looking for something a little more active and adventurous? The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is like a magical oasis hidden away in the SB hills! This was a recent discovery of mine, and I couldn’t believe that I didn’t know this place existed! (A former local recommended that I go here ASAP. She was right.) The grounds are stunning and offer plenty of places to hike and simply take in the scenery. Definitely bring a camera to capture all of the natural beauty- though I would argue that photos don’t do the garden justice. Just go and see for yourself!

Do you see the little upside-down heart? Love is all around if we just stop to look!

Having a nature-oneness moment in the botanical gardens. 🙂

Tell me- do you have any favorite places to take family and friends in SB? Where are your must-stop places on weekends, road trips, or vacations in the area? I’m always looking for new place to explore! And if you live somewhere else, what are the spots to hit up in that area? The travel bug might just bite me to stop there someday. Have a fabulous week!

XO,

Alexandra

March 14, 2016

Shamrockin’ Smoothie

Who’s ready for St. Patrick’s day??? Funny childhood story: every year growing up,my sister and I would place our slippers at the end of our bed the night before St. Patty’s Day. (Disclaimer: we are not Irish in the least bit). In the night, the leprechaun, aka our mom, would stuff our slippers with little goodies and treats! We thought the leprechaun left presents in the slippers of all the children, but come to find out, none of our friends ever had this experience!! I remember one year, my sister got goo in her slippers, and I still got presents! Just goes to show you, it always pays to stay on the good side of a leprechaun 😉

While we are talking about St Patrick’s Day traditions, let’s get right to a fan favorite and the recipe inspiration of the day: the Shamrock Shake. The OG Micky D’s Shamrock Shake clocks in at 530 calories and 73 grams of sugar. That’s for a small!!! That’s more than 18 teaspoons of sugar, people! Curious about what gives the shake its neon glow and minty flavor? Why that would be the Shamrock Shake syrup, with a not-so-magical list of ingredients:

High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Water, Sugar, Natural Flavor (Plant Source), Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Yellow 5, Blue 1.

Now that’s a list of ingredients unfortunate enough to make a leprechaun cry. Let’s not make any leprechauns cry this year, and stick to something more wholesome and nutritionally dense, shall we? Enter my Shamrockin’ Smoothie, the green juice-loving, yoga-doing cousin of the Shamrock Shake. The recipe for this Shamrockin’ Smoothie is creamy, satisfying, and minty, of course! It basically makes you feel like you’ve found your very own pot of gold, and now you drink all of your smoothies out of it. #tumblergoals

Just being real here: I have never had an actual Shamrock Shake. So while I can’t claim that this smoothie will taste like the real thing, I can claim that it’s darn delicious and wayyyyyyyy more nutritious.

Don’t be scared by this list of ingredients. There is no food coloring involved in this recipe, unless you count the glorious, natural color that come from mint, spinach, and avocado. Wait- spinach, mint, and avocado? Alexandra, are we making a salad or what?! Trust me, you cannot taste the spinach, and the avocado adds creaminess like you wouldn’t even believe. Plus, why not boost the nutrition of our smoothie with some vitamin-rich leafy greens, and some healthy monounsaturated fats? Ya feel?

Shamrockin’ Smoothie

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1 medium frozen banana
1 small avocado
1 cup spinach
1 cup mint
1 1/2 cups milk of choice
a few drops of peppermint extract– adjust depending on how minty you like it
1/2 cup ice to use as needed to adjust frothiness to your liking
optional garnish- a few mint leaves, cacao nibs

Add all ingredients to blender except for ice and peppermint extract. Blend it up on high until smooth. Taste, then add ice if you want a lighter, frothier smoothie, and add a few drops of peppermint extract for that strong, minty flavor!
If you want those smoothies Instagram-ready, top with a few mint leaves and a sprinkle of cacao nibs. Happy sipping!

Tell, tell: Do you have any fun (or weird) St. Patrick’s Day traditions? Even though my mom is not living in my apartment, I am still putting my slippers out at the end of the bed. You never know, maybe an actual leprechaun will step in this year 🙂 ! Have a fab, very green week!

XO,

Alexandra

March 7, 2016

Thriving 23: A Birthday Recap

With balloons this cute, how can you not do a photoshoot?!

Hiiiiiii!! I feel like it has been forever since I have blogged or posted anything. It felt like something was missing, and I am so happy to have some time to catch up in my little corner of the blogiverse.I just wanted to say hello, and assure you that I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth in the past weeks. I have been crazy busy with my internship, so projects and assignments have taken up my spare minutes and weekends for a while. I am now in my foodservice rotation, which is proving to be a whole adventure within itself. But enough about work. I don’t want to bog you (or myself) with the tedious details. It’s time to party!

More than a week later, and I haven’t taken the banner down yet.

Last weekend (February 27th, to be exact) was my 23rd birthday, so I thought it would be fun to share some moments from that day with you! Get ready for food, festivities, and plenty of pink!

My mom goes all out with wrapping presents. They match my apartment!

Foreshadowing: I love flamingos, and they will reappear as an over-arching theme for this birthday. How festive are these straws?!

As a little backstory, every year for as long as I can remember, I always think of a word that forms an alliteration with the age that I am turning. (Nerd-alert). I carry that word in my mind all year as a reminder of what I was striving for in that year. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw me talk about this tradition. This year, my word is “thriving”. I just really want that word to be woven throughout all of my endeavors, relationships, and my outlook on life. So there you have it. Thriving 23.

OH, I almost forgot to mention- after my internship, I will be going to grad school!! Yes, starting in September, I will be attending Baster University in San Diego for the Master of Science in Nutrition for Wellness program. I am so happy, and I’m actually excited to get back into the classroom/school work mode. (Am I crazy?!) Now back to the b-day vibes.

We had dinner at the Stonehouse Restaurant at San Ysidro Ranch. I had never been there before, but I have always heard amazing things, so naturally it was on my foodie bucket list to eat there. Funny detail: I always look at the menu before I go to a restaurant (Does anyone else do this?), and this occasion was no different. I had my order all picked out way in advance. If you ever catch me reading a menu in a restaurant, you can be sure it is pretend reading, because I have already decided what to get before I even set foot in the building. 🙂

The first course: pan-seared foie gras on spiced sourdough french toast with persimmon jam, candied pistachios, and port jus. I mean, talk about decadence!

Round two, the main event: Miso glazed black cod with maitake mushrooms, jasmine rice, and lemongrass dash broth. The fish was like butter. I could eat this forever.

Baked Alaska filled with chocolate cake and house-made espresso ice cream

This was my first time having Baked Alaska. I have wanted to try it for a long time, because my favorite dessert is anything involving soft meringue. An oh boy, was this covered in soft meringue. I was in heaven. Honestly, I will probably marry you if you bring me Baked Alaska. Yes, it’s that good. Haven’t you heard the old saying, “The way to a girl’s heart is with Baked Alaska”? NO? Well, that should be the saying.

The flamingos are baaaaaack. Only five because 23 flamingos would turn my cake into a zoo.

In true birthday fashion, my mommy surprised me with a gorgeous cake by Christine Dahl of Christine Dahl Pastries. You guys, this cake was not only stunning, but it was mouth-watering. Highly recommend Christine for all of your celebratory cake needs.

Just look at those beautiful layers!

The cake was the color of rose quartz, aka the Color of the Year, aka my spirit color. What was the flavor, you ask? Just the best combination ever: Vanilla chiffon cake with coconut mousse filling and luscious layers of lemon curd. (I die!!!!) Too bad birthdays only come once a year, because I am still dreaming about this cake… Maybe it’s a good thing they only come once a year, or else I would be eating this every chance I could get!

#squadgoals… or is it #squawkgoals?

It was a wonderful pink-filled birthday to say the least. And if you are ever looking for a special occasion place to dine in Santa Barbara, go to San Ysidro ranch. It’s dreamy.

I am looking forward to getting more health/wellness/nutrition posts up on the blog very soon! Tell me- do you have a birthday word like I do with “thriving”? If not, what would you want your word to be? I hope you like this type of little life snip-it post! I enjoy sharing the fun with you! Can’t wait to talk soon!

Eat cake. Pretty much sums it up!

XO,

Alexandra

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