Friday Favorites with Meredith Baird

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind of activity recently. So much going on!
All is very exciting, there is never a dull moment for sure. I'm super
pumped about Juli's idea to introduce a treasure hunt format to take a peek
into the what's happening of our lives. And... now that we live closer,
there may be more Juli and Meredith sans kids adventures! 

As Juli already mentioned last week, we attended an Honest Co. event - met Jessica Alba, and got to hang out the Avalon... as you may know, anything designed by this lady I am a fan of- so it was great to hang :-)

On the business side of things my latest project has been selling well - which is
awesome! The feedback I'm getting is just so exciting - very grateful for this!
Me and the M.A.K.E. {Matthew Kenney restaurant} team launched a new project with a really rad name. And the menu is simple but really clean and healthy. And we're not the only ones that are excited about it. 

Keeping it real, and keeping it busy!

Last weekend I went on a work trip and it was gorgeous. Although, I kept
visualizing scenes from the Shining. The spa was HUGE - and I had it
completely to myself. I was immersed in these products; and for all of you moms-to-be out there, you must to have this, it smells divine!

All of the {com}motion makes it important to focus on pleasure in the little
things. I'm adjusting well, and loving my new Hood. I'm very fortunate
to live in such a cool area. Some of my new {and not so new} favorite
things around my block are...

The Yam Cake at this tasty restaurant.
Yam cake is that same funky konjac stuff that I talk about in my vegan
shrimp blog post!

These crazy matche lattes from this restaurant's to-go menu are amazing - the almond milk is homemade fresh and the portions are proper (no 24 oz drinks!)

Our Spring restaurant menu always inspires me - and the new Seaweed Rye Crackers at  are yum! Served
with a caper "butter" and a smoked mac nut cheese. I bring them home all
the time!

Since moving to Venice - this "perfume" has been my
staple scent. The store custom blends everything in front of you so your product
is super fresh. I've never received more compliments on my smell in my
life. That, in combo with my poetic
pits...leaves no more room for sandalwood on my bod. {a little Friday joke}

What would be a Friday Favorite without mentioning a new favorite accessory and my favorite read?

Love this company - their jewelry is funky
and cool for the summer- and very reasonably priced.

My bedside table is always full of random things - and my latest read was an exciting non-fiction. The writing is beautiful, captivating, and I was totally in the mood for it: think art scene NYC 70's, motorcycles, coming of age...that kind of thing.

I also read this book - and I would recommend it to probably anyone reading this blog. And... if
your really feeling adventurous- add this to your coffee table. Ooh la la, did I just recommend that?

I recently revamped my favorite page {where Ms PUREmamas, Juli, and I actually met} and it's making me super happy and inspired again these days!

These are the little bits for now!

Happy Weekend! xx Meredith

Simple Roasted Heirloom Tomato Salad

This salad is SO easy yet SO impressive with its gourmet flavors and variety of textures. It's pretty much a simple raw salad but with some roasted touches.

Only recently have I become obsessed with oven roasted organic tomatoes. Because {when in season} they are so good raw I didn't really think to roast or cook them. That wasn't necessary. 

But holy wow are they good roasted. And even better? Mixed with raw heirloom.

A M A M A Z I N G - who would have thought something this easy and healthy {no dressings or cheese} could be bursting with so much flavor?!

Today I am sharing this tomato side salad that accompanied my favorite Poblano dish. I will share that entre recipe/photos with you next week but for now, enjoy the side salad, experiment with it, and then we can add in the main poblano dish later.

I got everything for this salad at my local farmer's market. A fun day to say the least. I just love cooking with everything fresh and local and organic.

Enjoy! Please leave your notes or comments below. I'd appreciate your feedback. Happy Monday!

Spring Heirloom Tomato Salad

3 cups large cherry tomatoes, cut into cubes or slices

3 pretty heirloom tomatoes

handful of pretty fresh sprigs of greens {I used arugula and sprouts}

1 avocado, sliced

olive oil

sea salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Chop cherry tomatoes into large pieces. Layer face down on a baking sheet. Using olive oil, coat the tomatoes before roasting. Salt and pepper to taste. When oven is ready, insert baking sheet. Cook until bottoms of tomatoes are browned. Do not worry about tossing or flipping tomatoes. About 20 minutes. Check constantly.

Meanwhile, on a large plate combine slices of fresh raw heirloom tomatoes, sliced about 1/4 inch thick. Layer them. Sprinkle on olive oil, by the spoonful. Add sea salt and pepper if desired. Add slices of avocado. Make the salad pretty - evenly dispersing both fruits.  Add sprigs of fresh greens or sprouts. 

When roasted tomatoes are ready, add them to the top of the plate of heirloom. 

Salad is now ready to serve. It's perfect when it's room temperature with warm roasted tomatoes on top.

This is a wonderful salad to serve as a starter or to add to a meat dish, if you do not eat meat, serve with hearty pasta or other vegetarian dish. {as shown below}

Friday Favorites

Ok, I obviously don't know what to call this new idea I have for my Friday posts. My goal is to share lots of cool/fun things every Friday. Whether it be MY fav instagram pics or somebody's else's; my new food obsession or Meredith's latest adventure. I want it to be fun and exciting. I see this similar format quite often on blogs and these types of posts are addicting to read. I like the idea of getting a chance to share what we like on the WWW, cool products or what others are doing. So, instead of the boring old health food recipes I'm going to spice it up today. Next week Meredith will share her favorites. Here goes...

Over the past month I have been to LA and Napa solo - sans kids. It's been a fun change of scenery and pace. I haven't left my kids with their dad EVER before so this is exciting. In LA {my old stomping ground} I got hang with this rad chic at this fab hotel. Then we met with this celebrity {have you seen my column on her company's blog?} to celebrate her new awesome book. I was actually quite surprised as to how great the book really is. She covers a lot of ground, is totally right on in the eco and health department. When we spoke to her she told us these things:

As far as mommy stuff goes, one of the my favorite things she said was that she hates that moms judge each other, LIKE WHO CARES WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING she explained. Everybody has their own story and method. I feel the same way.

As far as style goes, when asked what her style tips would be for any mom she recommended investing in a great tailor. It was actually a super good advice. She said that it's how an item fits that matters, not really where you bought it from. So, you can take something from H&M or Target and make it look like it cost $200 just by fitting it to your body. LOVE THAT. 

As far as food goes, she likes to feed her adorable kids {I got to meet her sweet youngest} and herself organic food. She doesn't use one of these - EVER! She's loves to cook and is adamant about her kids 7pm bed time. She uses her evenings to unwind, hang with friends and/or her hubs after 7 and that's super important to her. 

Anyways, that was a great trip. I also learned about this super fun APP for the iphone. It's so much fun and your kids will love it. 

Napa was a total relaxing blast - I drank too much amazing wine and ate too much good food. I love it there. It's just beautiful. And everybody is so hip yet so into home grown organic food and fine dining. 

I got to hike and picnic for 2 hours at this beautiful ranch with these fun people and drink their super good wine. I also fell in love with this chardonnay.

My latest beauty obsession. WOW. So healthy. I mean, you can't get anything cleaner and more pure than this. It takes a bit of getting used to but SO worth the benefits and not worrying about chemicals or fragrances. 

I also own every one of these face masks. They are to die for. I like to sit with them on my face while also using good deep conditioner in my hair and doing a serious salt scrub all over my body. I feel so good after that. 

Speaking of clean, there is also this GREAT 8 step self dentistry {scroll down} regime I'm loving as well. The best gum remedy on the market? Awesome.

Via facebook I found these two AWESOME blogs. The first is full of beautiful recipes and photos. Everything she makes is right up my alley. I SWEAR she reads my mind. The second one is RAD. You gotta follow this girl - she is so brave and says everything I want to say but don't. She is a cutting edge health nut. And I love it. 

Lastly, my kids new favorite health food snack and my favorite new addition to a plant based diet. 


{Miso + Kale} Pesto Egg Salad on Toast

This is I had an abundance of basil in my fridge...fresh, beautiful basil...and so I decided to use it while it was still nice. I made pesto along with some great toasted walnuts coasted in chopped basil. Here is my story and my recipes, check it out...

Making pesto is so fun. You can use it on anything. You have probably seen me use it on gluten-free noodles or even spiralized zucchini noodles? A M A Z I N G plus so beautiful and healthy. 

I make pesto quite often because I like it better than tomato sauce. It's not cooked so it's a wonderful way to get a serving of nutritious greens. I typically throw tons of stuff in the pesto I make. Never do I follow a recipe. I have fun just throwing whatever is in my fridge or garden in there as long as there is somewhat of a ratio - nuts to greens to oil, etc.

Today I did a kale, miso and basil pesto. I then decided to use this lovely healthy pesto, instead of mayo, to make a traditional egg salad sandwich. I used to LOVE egg salad as a kid and it was just full of mayonaise. I miss those sandwiches and hence this recipe today! Using hard boiled organic free-range eggs and some ripe avocado, we ended up with the perfect healthy protein-packed lunch. Wow, did it turn out great. I am in love with this new sandwich idea.

This pesto might look like a lot of ingredients. You can use whatever pesto you like but this one is fun because it's full of such healthy ingredients like miso which is packed with amino acids, b12 {crucial for us mainly-vegetarians} enzymes and probiotics to name a few. The sauce isn't heated so you get all the wonderful benefits of raw fresh basil and kale plus onion and garlic. 

BASIL KALE + MISO PESTO

1 1/2 cup packed basil

1/2 cup chopped kale

2 Tbls olive oil or avocado oil

5 small cloves raw garlic {or 2 large}

1 small shallot {about 2 Tbls}

2-3 Tbls nutritional yeast

1 Tbls sweet miso

1 Tbls vinegar {I used apple cider but you can use sherry or wine vinegar}

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/4 cups walnuts

1/4 cup pine nuts

salt & pepper to taste

Put everything into a food processor and blend until everything is fully chopped and thoroughly mixed into a sauce. Taste it and be sure it's a tad saltier than you would normally eat plan because the eggs are not salty and either is pasta. But don't add too much salt, the nutritional yeast and miso add a salty flavor already.

You will have about a cup or cup and a half left over after you make the sandwiches. Store it in the fridge and use it for pasta or as a spread. 

EGG SALAD SANDWICH

makes 2-3 open faced sandwhiches

4 organic cage-free eggs, hardboiled

2 Tbls pesto {above}

1/2 avocado

2-3 pieces of gluten-free toast or bread

Layer the bread with avocado and egg salad on top. You can drizzle oil or vegan mayonaise on the bread if you desire. I didn't add anything to the bread and it tasted fabulous.

You can also add some fresh arugula or greens to the sandwich but don't need to seeing as though the pesto is full of greens. 

Giveaway Time with Melissa Bowman

I'd like to introduce everybody to meet Melissa Bowman -- Chicago's renowned Nutrition and Fitness Expert. 

WE ARE GIVING AWAY HER 28 DAY CLEANSE & ONE-ON-ONE SERVICES = $700 WORTH OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. 

A perfect way to great ready for bathing suit weather & spring cleaning {of the body}!

Melissa earned her Master's Degree in Clinical Nutrition, is a registered Dietician (RD) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics with a holistic background {yay!}. 

But it's not just about losing weight. She also focuses on teaching and empowering clients {who range from celebrities to infants to elite athletes} to incorporate healthy behaviors, including proper nutrition, strength training and recovery in daily life. With over 15 years of experience Melissa's talents lie in helping clients gain a deeper understanding of their bodies while achieving a great balance in energy levels, eating practices and overall well-being. She has helped clients overcome everything from hearth disease and obesity to diabetes and depression. Her web sites are www.physiocleanse.com and www.physiolifestudios.com

Today on the blog we are giving away 1 of Melissa's FAMOUS 28 day cleanse/detox KIT's in addition to 3 consultations and unlimited email with Melissa throughout the 28 day process AND a personalized meal plan for going forward. YES, this is for real…the giveaway amounts to almost $700 worth of goodies and services. 

I also got to interview Melissa and want to share her responses with everybody. To tell a better feel for her personality and her expertise....

PUREmamas: So I hear you not only are a health coach but you're a pretty competitive athlete. You did a few ironmans in your past? Any plans to do more?  

Melissa: Yes, I am currently training for Ironman Canada in Whistler, Aug 2013.  

P: How is your cleanse PURE or Holistic? What makes it that way? i.e. Do you talk about eating more plant-based and less animal products? Do you recommend less packaged foods and more clean, fresh produce? etc.  

M: All the products in my cleanse program are free of all chemical, additives, artificial anything, gluten, dairy, soy and corn free.  The foods that are recommended during the program are real, wholesome foods.  All foods have to be organic and free of gluten, dairy, soy, sugars, corn, chemicals, etc. 

P: What is your favorite breakfast?  

M: I am really basic, since i started replacing my breakfast food with my smoothies, I can't start my day any different, even on Ironman Day.  My smoothie is basically the same everyday- 1 scoop of PhysioMeal, 1 scoop of PhysioCleanse, 1 scoop of PhysioFiber, 1/2 blueberries, 8 oz Zico Coconut Water and cinnamon.  YUM!!

P: Do you workout you everyday?  

M: Yes, to get the hours of training that is required for me to be competitive in Ironman, working out everyday is necessary for me.  I do have lighter swim days or bike days, so not ever day is intense or long.  I feel "off" when i dont workout.  

P: Lastly, what is this about Al Roker? He's a fan? And what about the rest of the Today Show cast?  

M: Al Roker is a client who did very well on my Detox and Cleanse Program, it changed his life.  I continue to work with him to keep him healthy, he is doing great, I even ran a marathon with him!  I do have several others from the Today Show cast as well.  There is a joke around the show, "The Cleanse Lady" is in the house!  

IF YOU DID NOT WIN, you can still use mention PUREmamas and get 10% off the awesome 28 day cleanse.

WINNER OF THIS CONTEST IS .... JESSICA SCHULTZ