Fat Tuesday With Avocado Roses

Just like a million, trillion, other people out there, I love avocado toast. I eat it many ways, but mainly with olive oil, sweet onion, red tomato, garlic salt, egg white and ground red pepper.

For Fat Tuesday I decided to theme it up a bit' different and make it a festive meal all green, purple, and gold. Rather than mash the avocados (like I normally do) I decided to teach myself how to create the oh, so, beautiful avocado rose. Follow tutorial below. Do NOT be intimidated, it is actually easier than you would imagine. The key is to move slowly, and do not be afraid to use olive oil on your cutting board and knife, to make it work. To finish off the Fat Tuesday look, add red cabbage, red onions, mini golden tomatoes, sunny side up eggs, dried parsley, garlic salt, and pepper.

Donuts would have been nice for breakfast and lunch, but I decided to go with another kind of fat for the day. Laissez les bons temps rouler! xo RCN

Kale Soup

My Inlaws gave me a recipe book for my birthday called Eat Beautiful. It is written by Wendy Rowe, a world renowned beauty expert, well known as the Artistic Director for Burberry makeup. I love everything about this book. Not only is it informative and have beautifully styled images that make your mouth water, but the chapters are very organized, by season. Each season lays out a glossary of the foods and ingredients used within the season's recipes and specifies the health benefits for your skin, inside and out. It is a clever and simple way of understanding what is good for you and how it is good for, whilst providing great tasty recipes using the foods that are best.

I picked five recipes from this book and bought all the ingredients to make five new recipes this week. I thought I would share with you the Kale soup which we tried out last night. I found it to be absolutely delicious. I have to admit, Zach was not a fan, but he is also not really a veggie fan in general. I did forget the leeks in this recipe, (whoops!) because I forgot them on my grocery list. The soup tasted just fine without them and the apartment still smelled deliciously green. I also added in some additional kale leaves (handful more than recipe notes below), as I tend to like a soup that is a little thicker. Recipe below and link to purchase book HERE, from Anthropologie. Enjoy! xo RCN

Ingredients, serves 2-3 people:

1 Large Fennel bulb, roughly chopped

1 Leek, roughly chopped

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp raw coconut oil

1 Onion, chopped

2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tbsp vegetable bouillon powder or 1 vegetable stock cube

10 Kale leaves, large stems removed, roughly chopped

Handful of spinach

Sea salt and black pepper

1 tsp ground nutmeg to serve

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Chop fennel and leeks and place onto foil lined baking sheet. Evenly drizzle olive oil onto fennel and leeks, mix all together and spread flat on tray. Bake for 15-20 minutes. While baking, chop onion and garlic. Then melt coconut oil in large saucepan on low heat. Add onions and garlic and cover pan with lid. Let sweat for five minutes or until onions are translucent and softened. Pour 5 cups of water into pan, add vegetable bullion, roasted fennel, leeks, and half of the chopped up kale leaves. Season with salt and pepper and stir. Bring to a boil and let bubble for 20 minutes. Add the remaining kale and spinach. Simmer on low/medium heat for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for a little while. Purée until smooth in a blender or using an immersion blender. Reheat before serving and sprinkle nutmeg on top. 

Slow Cooked Pulled Pork Sliders

Football season continues, and I continue to be enthralled in watching as many games as possible, every Sunday. I watch Thursday and Monday night as well, but Sunday has me hooked for hours. Thanks to my dear friend, Alwin, who invited me to join his family's fantasy league, I have not stopped obsessing over the entire season since week 1. It's a bit' addictive for anyone that loves sports and has a competitive side to them (me!). Anyhow, football requires tasty snacks and meals on those long, hard days of cheering and praying. You may not have time to squeeze this recipe in for tonight's Thursday game, Eagles vs Giants, but you should surely try it out on Sunday, or keep it in your back pocket for your Super Bowl bash. The best part about this is that you serve the sliders with a light beer (in a frozen mug) with a few drops of olive juice and 3-4 olives. This is called a Foggy Moose and it's delish for anyone that enjoys a Miller, Coors, or Bud on any given Sunday. Now, you are all set for the game. Go Birds! xo RCN

The pork recipe originated from Food Network, but I made a few changes. Link HERE to original recipe. See my version below pics.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

2 teaspoons hot paprika

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

1 3-4 pound boneless pork shoulder or butt, trimmed of fat

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 

3/4 cup water

Barbecue sauce

2 small onions

Dill pickle chips

Directions:

Combine brown sugar, paprika, cumin, 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper in small bowl. Rub mixture all over entire pork butt. Chop 2 small onions in large chunks, about 4-5 slices each.

Heat vegetable oil in large pan, cook and brown pork on all sides (only for about 5 minutes total). Remove pork and place on plate. Whisk in 3/4 cup water into the drippings in pan, then transfer liquid to slow cooker. Add the vinegar and 2 cups of water to the so cooker and whisk to combine. Add 1 of the chopped onions and a few squirts of barbecue sauce into slow cooker. Place pork on top of onions and into slow cooker. Add a few more squirts of barbecue sauce and the last chopped onion. Cook on low for 7.5-8 hours.

Remove pork from the slow cooker after the 7.5-8 hours. Shred pork in large bowl and add salt and vinegar to taste. Serve with slider buns, pickle chips, and barbecue sauce. Coleslaw would taste grand, in lieu of pickles. However, I did not include slaw in my recipe and went for the pickles instead. Top with a team spirit toothpick and serve for the next football game.