Now that we all all cooking more at home, it’s a great time to learn a few simple culinary (it’s cooking!) methods.
With a plant-based way of eating, we do eat a lot of vegetables. With this in mind, it’s important to know several different simple culinary skills to prepare vegetables, such as roasting, steaming, sautéing, and raw.
One of my favorite ways to cook veggies is roasting. With this method of roasting, we cook the veggies spread out “distancing” in the oven to brown the outside, while keeping the center a little soft. We can roast all kinds of veggies which gives us a nice variety of tastes, textures, and colors. – Melanie Albert
Today’s roasted veggies were created with produce from local farmers: The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, and Blue Sky Organic Farms, Litchfield Park, Arizona. All of the veggies were in CSA’s (Community Support Agriculture) offered by the farms during our Coronavirus stay-at-home.
In Arizona, we are so fortunate that our farmers and farmers’ markets are considered essential grocery stores. Thus, we still have the opportunity to purchase beautiful food from our farmers, and they can continue to harvest and sell to our community. Thank you!
The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona, April 2020
Farm-to-Table Spring Roasted Veggie Bowl
Enjoy this tasty roasted veggie culinary method and create a bowl with brown rice and beans for a perfect lunch. Use this recipe as a guide to roast crispy on the outside and soft on the inside veggies. Choose a few of your favorite vegetables from your local farmers that are right in your kitchen and enjoy roasting beautiful, tasty veggies at home.
Roasted Veggie Bowl: The Veggies, Olive Oil, Sea Salt
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
Blue Sky Organic Farms
1 fennel, root sliced
1 spring green garlic, sliced
1 leek, chopped
3-4 celery stalks, sliced
3-4 cauliflower florets
3-4 broccoli florets
The Farm at South Mountain
2 beets (golden and red), sliced
1 radish (breakfast), sliced
1 turnip ( scarlet) sliced
Grocery Store / My Pantry
1 sweet potato, sliced
2-3 TBSP organic extra virgin olive oil
Pinch sea salt
Extras
Plating: Brown rice, beans
Garnish: Edible flowers
SIMPLE STEPS
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Chop all veggies into equal-sized pieces.
One-by-one, place veggies in a bowl.
Coat veggies with olive oil and sea salt.
Chopped veggies ready to be coated with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.
Place veggies flat side down on unbleached, natural parchment-paper- lined flat sheet pan.
Veggies “social distancing” on the parchment-lined sheet pans.
Cook for 12 minutes.
Flip.
Cook another 12-15 minutes.
Roasted veggies. Ready to be mindfully plated.
Enjoy as a veggie bowl.
TOP 5 TIPS TO ROAST VEGGIES PERFECTLY EVERY TIME
Coat the chopped veggies thoroughly with oil.
When placing on unbleached parchment paper, be sure the veggies do not touch each other.
When placing veggies on parchment paper, place flat side down, so the side of the vegetable can brown.
Flip veggies about half-way through the cooking process.
Pay attention to veggies while they are cooking, as they cook at different speeds. More dense vegetables (like beets and sweet potatoes) take longer to cook than water-rich veggies, like onions.
Use this quick and easy culinary technique to roast any kind of veggies in your refrigerator, if possible, grown by your local farmers. All you’ll need is a few of your favorite vegetables, extra virgin olive oil, and sea salt. That’s it. A few simple ingredients and easy cooking method to create a tasty, healthy veggie side dish. – Melanie Albert
Thanks to our local Arizona farmers who are working so passionately to bring great, local food to our community while we’re all social distancing and cooking more at home. Thanks to my long time farmer friends at The Farm at South Mountain, Blue Sky Organic Farms, The Farm at Agritopia, Crooked Sky Farms, Rhiba Farms, Whipstone Farms, Steadfast Farm, Phoenix Pinnacle Farms, Maya’s Farm, and the Community Exchanges. From my heart, I really appreciate you.
Thank You Farmers Markets
Here in Arizona, I’d also like to thank our local farmers markets to continuing to stay open as grocery stores, so we have a safe place to purchase the quality food from our farmers, and our farmers have a place to sell the produce that is growing so abundantly right now. Special thanks to my friends at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market, where I’ve been leading cooking demos for several years.
Quick Roasted Veggies Recipe
Create this quick roasted veggie dish with a few of your favorite veggies in your kitchen and enjoy it with quinoa or brown rice.
Cooking Tip:Since some veggies cook faster than others, be sure to remove veggies from the pan when they have been cooked.
Simple Ingredients
Four to six of your favorite veggies.
For this intuitively created recipe, I pre-ordered a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) from Blue Sky Organic Farms in Litchfield Park, Arizona. I then quickly picked it up at the Saturday Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market.
½ Caraflex cabbage (sweet and mild)
4-5 orange carrots, sliced
1 large green onion, sliced
½ kohlrabi, sliced
½ yellow (cheddar) cauliflower, sliced
2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Pinch sea salt
Garnish: Sunflower seeds, arugula, edible flowers
Extras: Cooked brown rice or quinoa
Quick Roasted Veggies: Ingredients
Simple Steps
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Slice all veggies into bite-sized pieces.
Place veggies into baking pan.
Drizzle veggies with the olive oil and sea salt.
In to the Pan: Veggies, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt
Roast for 12 minutes.
Toss veggies.
Roast for another 12-15 minutes.
Enjoy veggies with quinoa or brown rice.
Plating
Plate the veggies in a veggie bowl with quinoa or brown rice, along with pumpkin seeds, arugula, and edible flowers.
During our Coronavirsus social distancing, stay-at-home, this 5 minute braising greens cooking method is a simple way to cook the greens your local farmers are growing. Choose any mix of dark, leafy greens such as kale, chard, collards, mustard, bok choy, dandelion, turnip, broccoli, or cauliflower, or Brussels sprouts greens.
This recipe was inspired by farmer Billy Anthony of the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain, less than a mile from my home in Phoenix, Arizona. As part of this week’s Spring 2020 CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), Billy harvested beautiful white and red Swiss chard leaves that are perfect for cooking with quick stove-top braising. Add flavor to the greens with green onions and fresh dill.
A look at The Farm at South Mountain…April 2020
Beautiful White Chard at The Farm at South Mountain
Nutrition Tip: Dark leafy greens are fiber-rich and good sources of vitamins (such as A, C, and K and folate) and minerals (including iron and calcium). Our body needs a little fat to absorb some of the vitamins in leafy greens.
Braised Leafy Greens Recipe
Use this simple method to cook Spring braising greens while we are at home with our families and loved ones. Mix and match whatever greens your local farmers are growing to create a simple veggie side dish.
Now that nearly everyone around the world is staying at home to help flatten the Coronavirus Curve, I will be sharing simple Food & Lifestyle Tips of the Day. The intention of the tips is to give you ideas that you could incorporate easily into your day-by-day activities around living a healthy lifestyle while we are all at home. And, in the long run implement tips that resonate with you to positively affect your life. — Melanie Albert
Some of the tips will be around plant-based food, cooking, and eating with recipes, culinary (cooking) techniques, and even food art. Other tips will focus on positivity, mindfulness, and self-care.
Meet Melanie Albert
As a little background for those of you who do not know me, a few highlights. I am the founder & CEO of Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona, and award-winning cookbook author.
My passion is plant-based farm-to-table culinary, and I’ve led hundreds of cooking experiences, courses and retreats. I’m trained with 610 hours of plant-based culinary training.
2007 graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition / Certified International Health Coach
9 years marketing, branding, and licensing consultant with Weil Lifestyle, LLC/Andrew Weil, MD
5 years nutrition and cooking with former NFL players, catering and events at Super Bowls, and official Health & Wellness Partner of the NFL Alumni Association in 2011.
200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher and nearly 20 years practicing yoga.
For decades, I’ve lived my passion around healthy lifestyle, cooking, and eating, and am happy to share ideas with you.
I’ve been a work-from-home entrepreneur for 25 years; thus I have decades of personal experience with being at home, and enjoying it.
I hope you are inspired by some of the motivational food and lifestyle tips I share with you.
Experience Nutrition: Food & Lifestyle Tip of the Day: Cook Intuitively…with what’s in Your Refrigerator.
What is Intuitive Cooking?
With Intuitive Cooking, we pay attention to food. We notice the shapes, colors, flavors, and aromatherapy. By listening to our heart or gut, we choose a few foods we wish to purchase (at local farmers markets, if possible). When it’s time to cook, we pay attention to our bodies. What are we craving. Which foods are we visually attracted to. Then we cook with those foods and enjoy our meals.
During our stay-at-home, it is also important to cook with our intuition. We listen to our bodies and senses. And, we cook with what’s available in our kitchens during these days when our food options may be limited.
5 Simple Steps to Get Started with Intuitive Cooking
Learn basic culinary (or cooking) skills or techniques and then use those skills to intuitively create dishes and meals with ease and confidence.
Cook with what’s in your kitchen.
Use a recipe as a guide.
Substitute ingredients in the recipe with what you have in your refrigerator.
Have fun experimenting and enjoy your creation.
Intuitive Cooking Avocado Salsa Recipe
Today, with intuitive cooking in mind, I created a very simple Avocado Salsa with what was in my refrigerator and little edible garden. This is a quick and easy lunch or snack. You’ll need an avocado, an aromatic (any onion), garlic (if you have it), a small tomato, citrus (lemon or lime), a fresh herb (parsley, basil, cilantro, marjoram), and sea salt. Plus, include optional ingredients for plating (such as broccoli or cauliflower).
Use this recipe as a guide for Avocado Salsa with whatever veggies are in your refrigerator. Some ideas: Green or red bell peppers, carrots, celery, cucumbers, olives.
Serves 1
Simple Ingredients
1 avocado
2 tbsp onions
½ tsp garlic cloves, minced
1 small tomato or ½ cup mini tomatoes
½ tsp lemon juice
½ tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp fresh herbs, such as basil, cilantro, or marjoram
Pinch sea salt
Optional: few broccoli stems
Simple Steps
Chop ingredients.
Avocado Salsa: Ingredients Chopped & Ready
Toss all ingredients into a bowl.
Mix with a fork.
Mindfully plate.
Enjoy.
Please share your Avocado Salsa creations with us on Instagram @nutritionauthor #experiencenutrition and let me know if you have any cooking questions.
Since October 2018, I have had the honor to create weekly recipes for the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) at The Farm at South Mountain, an urban farm less than a mile from my home. To date, I’ve intuitively created 47 recipes for the members of the CSA. Each Friday, I pick up the incredible just-harvested CSA produce and herbs at The Farm from lead farmer Billy Anthony, and then come home and create a recipe for the Saturday morning CSA bags.
Cooking at Home. Right now, while more and more people are cooking at home with the Coronavirus “stay-at-home” I’m finding it even more important to share my recipes to more and more people, beyond the CSA members.
For those of you who are cooking at home, I invite you to use this recipe as a guide to sauté a simple, tasty roots and greens dish. Use whatever roots (radishes, turnips, beets, carrots) and greens (kale, collards, dandelion greens) your local farmers are growing. And, for citrus, feel free to use a lemon, orange, or grapefruit.
For the CSA members, I hope you enjoy creating this recipe with the beautiful local Arizona produce in your CSA.
Citrus: Grapefruit, lemons
Roots: Beets, Turnips, Mixed Radishes
Greens: Sugar Snap Peas, Braising Greens, Gem Head Lettuce
Farm Salad Bag with Glacier Lettuce
Mint
Eggs
Please share your culinary creations with us on Instagram @nutritionauthor @thefarmatsouthmountain.
Honestly, it was a little emotional picking up my CSA at The Farm on Friday, March 27, 2020. Here’s a glimpse.
Roots & Greens Sauté Recipe
Thanks to Lead Farmer Billy Anthony of the Soil & Seed Garden for growing such beautiful, tasty produce for our community. We appreciate your dedication, especially while we are Coronavirus social distancing.
Make this simple sauté with roots, greens, and the lemon from your CSA, along with an onion.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
1 medium purple daikon or another radish
1 medium turnip
3-4 stems kale
½ cup sugar snap peas
5-7 stems dandelion greens (from Farm Salad Bag)
½ white or red onion, or 2 green onions, sliced (not in CSA)
1 lemon, ½ juiced and zested
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Pinch sea salt
Garnish: Few mint leaves
SIMPLE STEPS
Mise en Place (Everything into place)
Thinly slice radish and turnip with mandoline or knife.
Pull center stems out of kale and tear leaves into bite-size pieces.
Slice onions into moon-shapes.
Zest the lemon.
Cook
Pre-heat sauté pan on medium heat on stovetop.
Once the pan is warm, place onions in pan, sauté until soft, for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add sliced radish and turnip to the pan.
Drizzle sea salt, lemon juice, and lemon zest onto the radish and turnip.
Sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Move radishes and turnips to the middle of the pan.
Add snap peas, kale, and dandelion greens to the edges of the pan to cook with the olive oil.
Drizzle a pinch of sea salt onto the green veggies.
Cook for about 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Plate
Plate the roots, greens, and sugar snap peas onto the plate.
Garnish with mint.
More Plant-Based Cooking Recipes. I look forward to sharing additional recipes and ideas with you, while we area all “at home” during the Coronavirus. Please check back, as I’m also shooting some simple cooking videos for my Experience Nutrition YouTube Channel.
Sedona Cooking Retreats. A few people have been asking about the 2020 Sedona Plant-Based Cooking Retreats. We have not yet cancelled the June 12-15, 2020 retreat, and at this point I’m pretty sure we will hold the September 18-21, 2020 retreat. Let me know (Mel@MelanieAlbert.com) if you are interested in either retreat, and I will keep in touch with you. Just fyi, link to the retreat information.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, LLC in Phoenix, Arizona. Plant-Based Farm-to-Table Leader, award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building and retreat leader.
By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Farm-to-Table Leader, Award-Winning Cookbook Author and Speaker, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition
It has been such an honor to intuitively create recipes for the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for The Farm at South Mountain, in Phoenix, Arizona, an urban farm located less than a mile from my home since October 2018. The Farm at South Mountain Soil & Seed Garden farmer, Billy Anthony, passionately grows and harvests beautiful, incredible tasting produce, herbs, and edible flowers. Billy and his team harvest on Friday, I stop by the farm Friday evening to pick up my CSA, and then I intuitively create a recipe for the CSA members, which they receive Saturday morning with their CSA.
This is Week 1 of the Spring 2020 CSA. After seeing the Sugar Snap Peas growing at The Farm the last month or so, I was very excited to prepare a simple dish with them. Also, The Farm has a Pecan Orchard on the property, so I was looking forward to include them in the dish.
Prior to sharing the recipe, a look at The Farm this week.
Let’s take a look at all of the products in the CSA.
The Farm at South Mountain. Soil & Seed Garden. CSA March 14, 2020.
Love the Sugar Snap Peas growing at the Soil & Seed Garden.
RECIPE: Simple Sugar Snap Pea Sauté
Simply sautéing Sugar Snap Peas are a great way to enjoy this fresh veggie. Along with this week’s dill, grapefruit, and pecans, create this tasty side dish.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
2 cups sugar snap peas
1 tbsp grapefruit zest
3-4 sprigs of fresh dill
6-7 pecans, cracked
1 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
Pinch sea salt
Mise en Place: Sugar Snap Peas. Dill. Saute.
SIMPLE STEPS
Mise en Place
Zest the grapefruit.
Crack the pecans.
If desire, remove the stems and pod strings from the snap peas pods.
All set to quickly saute the Sugar Snap Peas.
Cook
Pre-heat a sauté pan on medium for about a minute.
Add olive oil to coat bottom of the pan.
When the oil is warm, add the sugar snap peas and sea salt to the pan. Continuously toss the snap peas with tongs.
Cook for about 2 minutes.
Add the grapefruit zest and dill to the pan.
Toss the snap peas with the zest and dill for about 2 minutes.
Plate
Plate the sugar snap peas with the pecans.
Enjoy.
Sugar Snap Pea Plating Mise en PlaceThe Soil & Seed Garden Sugar Snap Pea Saute.
2020 Sedona Plant-Based Cooking & Self Care Retreats
Interested in a weekend of Plant-based Cooking, Self Care, Hiking and Special Sedona Ceremonies?
2020 Retreat Dates: June 12-15, 2020; September 18-21, 2010
Getting started with our mindful chopping for our fresh Tomato Gazpacho and Avocado Tartare.Beautiful Plant-Based Lunch Creation: Avocado TartareYoga at one of my very favorite spots in the world: Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona.
2020 Authentic Farm-to-Table Plant-Based Cooking Experiences at The Farm with Lead Grower Billy Anthony and award-winning cookbook author, Melanie Albert.
Classes held at The Farm at South Mountain, 6101 S. 32nd Street, Phoenix, Arizona
It is my honor and pleasure to write “recipe articles” for the Natural Awakenings Arizona magazine. For each recipe over the last few years, I first meet with our local Arizona farmer, primarily, Billy Anthony, Lead Grocer at The Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, to determine what is growing during the season. Then, I intuitively create a few recipes to be featured in the Natural Awakenings Magazine.
I was so exited to learn that the March 2020 issue of Natural Awakenings focus was Plant-Based and loved offering a few tips to enjoy plant-based eating in Arizona and in creating the veggie-focused recipes.
Enjoy creating these recipes with your local farmers produce and share your creations with us on Instagram: @nutritionauthor @plantbasedexperiences
Natural Awakenings Arizona. Top 5 Tips for Successful Local Plant-Based Cooking, by Melanie Albert
Top 5 Tips for Successful Local Plant-Based Cooking
Spring in Arizona is an exciting season to enjoy cooking plant-based meals since our local farmers grow a wide range of produce this time of year. We see lots of greens, all kinds of vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. If you are new to plant-based cooking and eating, visit a farmers’ market to get inspired by what our local farmers are growing and create simple, tasty, beautiful salads and veggies with different culinary techniques, including raw, steamed, and roasted.
Eat local. Buy produce, herbs, and edible flowers from our local Arizona farmers or grow your own for the freshest, most nutrient-rich food. Plant-based dishes start with beautiful fresh produce to create tasty, eye-catching meals. Shop at our local farms, farmers’ markets, commit to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), grow at a community garden, or grow your own.
Keep it Simple. With the plant-based way of eating, we focus on fresh veggies and fruit, nuts, and seeds, whole grains, and beans. With plant-based cooking, we use a few simple culinary techniques for flavor and color. The essential simple plant-based culinary techniques include raw, steaming, sauteing, and roasting. We cook the same vegetables with different culinary techniques to create different flavors, textures, and looks that add variety to our meals.
Cook Intuitively. Think about it: What grows together goes together. With plant-based cooking, mix and match the produce, herbs, nuts and seeds to create beautiful dishes. All veggies are different depending on the seeds, soil, weather, and geography. As a result, each dish we prepare is unique in a positive way with plant-based intuitive cooking. Be sure to taste while you are cooking and adjust your ingredients to suit your favorite personal taste preferences.
Mindfully Plate. We eat with our eyes first. Since plants are naturally beautiful, it makes sense to take time to mindfully plate your meals for visual beauty. Have fun experimenting with various plating styles with your version of “food art” using extras such as fresh herbs or edible flowers. Use your favorite bowls and dishes to add to the beauty of your meal.
Slow down and enjoy.Take a breath. Take time to enjoy the beauty of your local Arizona plant-based meal. Give gratitude to our local farmers for so passionately growing the incredible food and appreciation to yourself for taking the time to shop for and prepare your lovely plant-based meal. Enjoy mindful plant-based eating and the colors, textures, and flavors of your locally grown plant-based meal with your family and friends.
Three Arizona Plant-Based Farm-to-Table Recipes
These simple, beautiful plant-based recipes were intuitively inspired by and created with produce grown by our local Arizona farmers, The Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, and Blue Sky Organic Farms in Litchfield Park.
Roasted Arizona Spring Veggies Bowl. Cashew Cream (Will Blog)
The Farm at South Mountain Spring Produce, Herbs, and Edible Flowers
RECIPE: Farm-to-Table Spring Arizona Greens Salad
Create a simple, beautiful salad with greens from our local farmers or your garden. Pair a few different light leafy greens and a simple-to-prepare light salad dressing with fresh herbs. This fresh salad, inspired by the local greens grown at the Soil & Seed Garden, also features cherry tomatoes grown at Blue Sky Organic Farms. We start with a simple salad 3-ingredient salad dressing to toss with the fresh salad greens. And, add extra plant-based extras to create a beautiful salad.
Farm-to-Table Spring Arizona Greens Salad
Basic Salad Dressing: 3 Ingredients. That’s It
Create your own salad dressing. The key components of a 3-ingredient salad dressing include an acid, fat, and salt. Once these elements are balanced, we can add in extras, such as garlic, fresh herbs, mustard, and honey. Acids are citrus, such as lemons, limes, grapefruit, along with vinegar. Fats are oils, such as olive oil. And, salts could be Celtic sea salt or Himalayan salt. Once you’ve learned how to prepare a dressing with this technique, you can use this method to create your own unique salad dressings for your fresh salads.
Simple Ingredients
1 fresh lemon, orange, or ½ grapefruit, squeezed, approximately ¼ cup
Organic extra virgin olive oil, twice as much as the citrus juice, approximately ½ cup
Taste and notice if your dressing seems too oily or acid-tasting. Add more citrus or olive oil to suit your taste.
Sprinkle in sea salt.
Shake the jar. Taste.
OPTIONAL: Add in minced fresh herbs and garlic.
Shake the jar. Taste.
OPTIONAL: Add honey and/or mustard. Shake and taste.
Taste testing salad dressing is a great way to mindfully use your cooking intuition. Add ingredients until the dressing tastes great.
Farm-to-Table Spring Arizona Greens Salad
For the base of the salad, choose a variety of Spring greens grown by our local Arizona farmers or growing in your garden. In addition to the salad greens and dressing, extra ingredients add texture, beauty, and taste to the salad. Some sweet. Some salty. Some crunchy. Choose a few of your favorite extras such as tomatoes, berries, nuts and seeds, raisins, capers, and olives. When plating, add beauty to your salad with dehydrated Arizona citrus and edible flowers.
Simple Ingredients
4 cups Mixed Greens, such as lettuce, baby kale, arugula, spinach, mizuna, shungiku (chrysanthemum greens)
Farm-to-Table Spring Arizona Greens Salad Mise en Place
Simple Steps
Chop or tear Spring greens into bite-size pieces.
Pour dressing over the greens.
Lightly toss the greens to coat with the dressing.
Add half of the extras (tomatoes, berries, nuts or seeds, raisins, olives, capers) and gently toss.
Mindfully plate with the remainder of the extras, dehydrated citrus, herbs, and edible flowers.
Enjoy!
Create Your Spring Salad with your Favorite Greens and Tasty ExtrasFarm-to-Table Spring Arizona Greens Salad
Enjoy our local Arizona Spring veggies by cooking with a few simple plant-based culinary techniques – raw salad, steaming, and roasting . Mindfully enjoy your plant-based creations with your family and friends.
2020 Sedona Plant-Based Cooking & Self Care Retreats
Interested in a weekend of Plant-based Cooking, Self Care, Hiking and Special Sedona Ceremonies?
2020 Retreat Dates: June 12-15, 2020; September 18-21, 2010
Getting started with our mindful chopping for our fresh Tomato Gazpacho and Avocado Tartare.Beautiful Plant-Based Lunch Creation: Avocado TartareYoga at one of my very favorite spots in the world: Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona.
2020 Authentic Farm-to-Table Plant-Based Cooking Experiences at The Farm with Lead Grower Billy Anthony and award-winning cookbook author, Melanie Albert.
Classes held at The Farm at South Mountain, 6101 S. 32nd Street, Phoenix, Arizona
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Plant-Based Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
Let’s take a look at the beautiful intuitive Farm-to-Table Winter Harvest Cooking Class with Farmer Billy Anthony and myself at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona.
We’ve all heard the terms: farm-to-table, eat local, eat with the season, and plant-based.
This class was truly an authentic farm-to-table plant-based cooking class, right in the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm.
The week before the cooking class experience, Billy and I walked through the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm and begin to strategize on food to harvest for the class, including all kinds of roots, greens, herbs, edible flowers, and other surprises.
Taking into account what would be growing the day of the class, we created the draft menu direction for the class. Since there are quite a few different roots growing we decided the participants would create a few appetizers to enjoy with the roots, along with an intuitive green pesto with the greens of the day! Plus, since one of my very favorite desserts is a raw carrot cake, and carrots are “in season” we decided to add it to the menu.
Our Arizona Winter Menu Direction
Appetizers
Green Pesto
Hummus
Olive Tapenade
Roots for “Dipping” : Carrots, Beets, Turnips, Radishes
Dessert: Raw Carrot Cake
The morning of the class, Billy harvested the beautiful fresh produce, including:
Greens
“Hail storm Arugula”
Shungiku (Chrysanthemum Greens)
Pea Tendrils
Roots
Tropical Black Carrots
Mixed Beets: Detroit, Cylindra, Golden
Purple Top Turnips
Purple Daikon Radishes
French Breakfast Radishes
Black Spanish Radishes
Herbs
Micro-cilantro
Rosemary
Mint
Citrus
Lemons
Grapefruit
It was a little dreary in Phoenix the morning of the class, so we decided to hold the class right in the Soil & Seed Garden, where we could stay dry under the roof, in the event of rain. Take a look at how we created our “farm-to-table kitchen set” right in the garden!
Billy started the class with a Farm Tour to see where the roots and greens for the culinary creations are growing in the Soil & Seed Garden. And, the “lucky” participants harvested beautiful edible flowers.
The Soil & Seed Garden Tour with Lead Grower Billy AnthonyMelanie’s view during the Farm Tour, with the just-harvested Shungiku and Arugula.“Lucky” class participants harvesting edible flowers to garnish their culinary creations.
During the hands-on class, Melanie guided our guests to prepare the dishes and to plate them beautifully.
In awe, the Tropical Black Carrot Cake. Appetizers: Green Pesto, Tapenade, Hummus. Veggies.Still in awe…the beauty of the Tropical Black Carrot Cake.
So much creative joy…
We then enjoyed the beautiful culinary creations in the beauty of The Farm with our foodie community!
Raw Carrot Cake Recipe
Adapted from “A New View of Healthy Eating” by Melanie Albert
Carrot cake has been a favorite of mine for decades. As much as I love the aromatherapy of cooking raisins with cinnamon and nutmeg for a baked carrot cake, I love the simplicity and freshness of a raw version of carrot cake.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
1 cup dates, pitted and soaked for 1 hour in water, then rough chopped
Do not soak if dates are soft and moist
2 cups carrots, shredded (Tropical Black / Purple Yellow, Orange)
1 ½ cups apple, minced
1 ½ cups raw cashews or pecans, ground into a fine meal
½ tsp cinnamon, freshly ground
½ tsp nutmeg, freshly ground
½ tsp cardamom, freshly ground
Pinch sea salt
Garnish: Raspberries, blueberries, mint, edible flowers, and dehydrated grapefruit, oranges, and apples.
SIMPLE STEPS
Gather mise en place.
Soak dates.
Place all ingredients into mixing bowl and combine gently with hands until the mixture forms a ball.
Press dough into springform pan.
Garnish with berries, mint, dehydrated grapefruit, edible flowers.
Refrigerate for an hour.
Arizona Winter Farm-to-Table Pesto
Simple pesto with local Arizona greens and herbs, enjoyed with Winter root veggies.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
1 cup Shungiku (Chrysanthemum Greens)
1 cup “hail storm arugula”
½ cup fresh micro-cilantro
2 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup Arizona pecans, fresh cracked
Pinch sea salt
2-3 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
SIMPLE STEPS
Place all ingredients except organic extra virgin olive oil into food processor.
Pulse to desired level of thickness.
Stream in olive oil little by little until smooth.
Taste and add extra garlic, lemon juice, or herbs to create a taste that’s right for you.
Enjoy with Arizona Roots
Enjoy Arizona Herb Pesto.
Arizona Root Veggies & Edible Flowers
Purple Daikon Radishes
French Breakfast Radishes
Purple Top Turnips
Beets: Detroit, Cylindra, Golden
Tropical Black Carrots
2020 Sedona Plant-Based Cooking & Self Care Retreats
Interested in a weekend of Plant-based Cooking, Self Care, Hiking and Special Sedona Ceremonies?
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Plant-Based Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
During the summer in Arizona, our local farmers work very hard to grow beautiful produce for us in our 100+ degree weather, so I love to create beautiful dishes with it.
Earlier this week while I was chatting with a friend who reminded me that there are often “behind-the-scenes” steps in creating a beautifully plated dish. So with this Summer dish, I’m sharing with you the full steps from the vision of the dish to the final plate.
I hope you enjoy this “food art” lesson.
Step 1: Stop by the farm and farmers markets to see what’s in season.This was especially important to me the last few weeks, as I was traveling in the Boston area, Cocoa Beach, Florida, and Barbados, so I lost track of what would be growing seasonally in Arizona.
My first stop was The Farm at South Mountain, where Farm Operations Manager, Billy Anthony is growing hundreds of pounds of beautiful heirloom tomatoes.
The Farm at South Mountain: Beautiful Heirloom Tomatoes
My next stop was the Downtown Phoenix Public Market, where I often shop and lead cooking demos. I was happy to see that the farmers were growing some of my summer favorites. Thanks Blue Sky Organic Farms for the collard greens and leeks; and thanks to Maya’s Farm for the rainbow carrots.
Step 2: Pause and enjoy the beautiful produce from our farmers. Begin to visualize the creation of a beautiful dish. With intuitive cooking, once we learn cooking techniques and practice with recipes, we can intuitively create beautiful, tasty meals.
Step 3: Pause again and choose a few different types of produce with different colors and textures.
Step 4: Cut the veggies and fruit in different shapes.
Step 5: Pause, yet again, and intuitively notice if any of the produce “fits” together. Today, for me, it was a simple avocado salsa (or guacamole) with the tomatoes, avocado, colorful carrots, lemon, and sea salt. And, the fresh peaches and butterscotch melon with a squeeze of lemon seemed to go together nicely.
Avocado Salsa
Peaches & Melon
Step 6: Arrange all of the ingredients and components (the Avocado Salsa, Peaches & Melon) in a plating “mise en place.” That is, all ingredients mindfully organized to be ready for plating.
Step 7: Looking at the plating “mise en place” begin to visualize how the plate will look. Then, sketch out the plating of the dish, using colored pencils or markers. In the sketch include where the different foods will go onto the plate and the order to plate them.
I’ve been mindfully plating for a few years now, and this process does take practice. Once we get into our own rhythm of sketching our dishes and plating, it becomes fluid and fun. Key is to practice, practice, practice.
Step 8: Mindfully plate the food, following your plating sketch. Know that this phase is also part of the food art process, so if your plate does not look exactly like your sketch, no worries at all. Enjoy it!
All set to plate.
Step 9: Finally, mindfully enjoy eating your plate.
Of course, first pause and enjoy your “food art”.
Enjoy…
We are only two months away from our Plant-Based Cooking & Self-Care Retreat in Sedona, Arizona September 13-16, 2019.Along with plant-based culinary skills we will also focus on mindfully plating and creating our own style of “food art”.
Please feel free to call (602.615.2486) or e-mail if you’d like to chat about the retreat and take a look at the information about the retreat on ExperienceNutrition.com/sedona-retreats
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
Upon returning to Phoenix after traveling the last few weeks to my niece, Mallory’s wedding in Massachusetts, visiting with my parents in Cocoa Beach, and scouting villas for retreats in Barbados, I’m getting back into my local farm-to-table shopping and cooking rhythm.
This week I visited my farmer friend, Billy Anthony Lead Grower at the Soil & Seed Garden at Farm at South Mountain, in Phoenix, to catch up and see what was growing in our 100 degree weather. I was especially happy to see hundreds or thousands of beautiful tomatoes, zucchini, and edible flowers.
Inspired by the tomatoes, I intuitively created a Summer Flatbread with other veggies purchased from local Arizona farmers at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market. I purchased beautiful baby arugula and carrots from Blue Sky Organic Farms in Litchfield Park and Matt’s tomatoes from the Community Exchange.
Let’s take a look at The Farm at South Mountain, at the beginning of our hot Arizona Summer.
The Summer Flatbread highlights our local Arizona tomatoes, zucchini, arugula, and carrots, and also features one of my favorite roasted veggies, Brussels sprouts, plus red peppers for flavor and color. The yeast-free flatbread is a quick recipe to prepare when your time is limited as we do not need to wait hours for the dough to rise. The cashew cream is a very simple raw nut cream that works well as a cheesy taste in the flatbread. Finally, the beautiful, colorful edible flowers bring life to the dish.
View food differently with mindful cooking and eating.
Enjoy urban farm-to-table cooking experience.
Experience self-care with hiking and yoga.
Take home retreat experiences to be healthier & make positive long-term lifestyle changes.
During our Sedona Plant-Based Cooking Fall 2019 Retreat, you’ll experience several days of hands-on, simple plant-based cooking with organic food, mindfulness in the kitchen and eating. We’ll enjoy a farm-to-table cooking experience at a local urban farm. You’ll experience self-care with hiking and yoga in the beauty of Sedona.
In the memorable life-changing retreat, our intention is for you to enjoy the cooking and self-care experiences during the retreat and then most importantly take home the experiences and plant-based cooking learning from the retreat to make positive lifestyle changes in your lives.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
It’s been such a beautiful Spring in Arizona, that this weekend I took time to enjoy self care, soaking in the beauty of our Arizona sky and visiting the Gilbert Farmers’ Market in Gilbert, Arizona, about 15 miles from my home.
In the Phoenix area we have many different farmers markets throughout the Valley of the Sun and it’s fun to explore the different markets. At the Gilbert market I saw a few friends and “walked my talk” by shopping for my produce with intuition. With this way of shopping, we purchase veggies that we get excited about or are attracted to…the colors, the textures, or the beauty.
Enjoy the Community at Farmers Markets.
It was so much fun to chat with some of my friends at the market…
Crooked Sky Farms.Fun to catch up with Farmer Frank, who I first met when I auditioned for Master Chef about 6 years ago. Farmer Frank, long-time farmer with Crooked Sky Farms, has been farming since 1999. Frank has farms in Phoenix and Duncan, Arizona, with different climates and different growing seasons.
Blue Sky Organic Farms. So happy to have the opportunity to meet in person for the first time, one of my plant-based culinary teachers, Don Maloney who is now having fun working with Blue Sky Organic Farms, in Litchfield Park, Arizona. Blue Sky has been farming in Arizona since 1995, and is well-known for their salad mix. Don is now “growing his own.”
Steadfast Organic Farm.I absolutely love the carrots grown by farmer, Erich Schultz of Blue Sky Organic Farms, a two acre bio-intensive farm in Mesa, Arizona. I love Erich’s dedication to always continuing to learn and to share his farming knowledge with other urban farmers.
Genuine Fresche.So happy to see my long-time entrepreneur friend, Marcy Olsen and her Genuine Fresche Food Truck. Fresche offers delicious, healthy Acai Bowls (which I enjoyed for breakfast at the market) and freshly blended smoothies. I love Marcy’s passion for healthy eating!
Farm-to-Table Recipe: Roasted Cauliflower, Romanesco, and Carrots
Simple roasted veggies culinary method to prepare and enjoy fresh local cauliflower and carrots. Roast the veggies with onions, sweet peppers, and garlic for a flavorful side dish.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
Each week I have the incredible opportunity to intuitively create recipes with the beautiful food so passionately grown by urban farmer Billy Anthony in the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona.
This week I decided to experiment with hummus and the Soil & Seed Garden’s Chrysanthemum Greens and Onion Dill, enjoyed with Roasted Diplomat Broccoli and Radishes.
Let’s take a look at the Winter CSA in March 2019
The Farm at South Mountain Soil & Seed Garden CSA, March 2019
Especially inspired by the Chrysanthemum Greens and Onion Chives
Green & Red inspiration for this week’s intuitive dish.
Winter Farm-to-Table Hummus and Roasted Veggies Recipe
GREEN HUMMUS RECIPE
Simple Ingredients
2 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
⅓ cup chickpea water
3 tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste or sesame seeds)
2 tbsp fresh grapefruit juice (or lemon juice)
3-4 stems Shungiki (Chrysanthemum Greens)
8-10 Onion Chives
Pinch sea salt
2 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
Green Hummus Mise en Place
Simple Steps
Place all ingredients (except olive oil, greens, and chives) into high-speed blender (such as Vitamix) or food processor.
Blend until smooth.
Add in the greens and chives, and blend.
Adding the Chrysanthemum Greens and Onion Dill to the base hummus.
With food processor running, stream in olive oil.
After the hummus has been blended, taste and add more of any of the ingredients to suit your taste.
ROASTED DIPLOMAT BROCCOLI & RADISHES RECIPE
Simple Ingredients from the Soil & Seed Garden
10-12 radishes, sliced
3-4 Diplomat Broccoli stalks, sliced
The Farm at South Mountain Soil & Seed Garden: Diplomat Broccoli. Radishes.
Other Simple Ingredients
2 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
Simple Steps
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Slice veggies into bite-sized pieces.
In a bowl, gently coat veggies with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.
Lightly toss veggies in olive oil with a pinch of sea salt.
Place veggies on parchment-lined flat sheet pan, flat side down with veggies not touching.
Mindfully place radishes and broccoli on parchment-lined flat sheet pan.
Roast for 12 minutes.
Flip veggies.
Roast for another 12 minutes.
Plate veggies with the hummus.
Mise en place for the Hummus. Broccoli. Radishes.
Mise en place (all ingredients in place) for the Green Hummus. Broccoli. Radishes.
The plating of the hummus…
Enjoy Green Hummus with Roasted Broccoli and Radishes for Snacktime.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
I was so excited to intuitively create this farm-to-table recipe with the POM BOX with the Pomegranate Café in Ahwatukee and Rhibafarms in San Tan Valley, Arizona.
This recipe is inspired by the range of roots and the fennel in the POM Rhibafarms Box. Veggie Bowls are popular and we can prepare a really quick veggie bowl with a simple roasting technique where we cook all veggies in a pan or two. Cook a whole grain and make your own tasty Veggie Bowl.
Let’s take a look at the POM Rhibafarms Box…
The beauty of the POM Rhibafarms Box
Closer look at the POM Rhibafarms Box
POM Rhibafarms Quick Roasted Veggie Bowl
INGREDIENTS from the POM RHIBAFARMS BOX
Rhibafarms: Carrots, rainbow radishes, broccoli, fennel, green onions, red beets
Pomegranate Café: Flaxseed Crackers
QUICK ROASTED VEGGIES
Simple Ingredients
2 red beets
1 fennel bulb
5-7 yellow carrots
3-5 green onions
5-7 broccoli florets
5-7 mini-peppers
1 purple sweet potato
1 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp dried spices: Your choice: Mediterranean Blend, Southwest Blend
Simple Steps
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Slice all veggies into bite-sized pieces.
Place veggies into baking pan.
Place purple veggies (sweet potato, beet) into baking pan.
Place all other veggies into separate pan.
Drizzle both pans of veggies with olive oil, spices, and sea salt.
Roast for 15 minutes.
Mix veggies.
Roast for another 12 minutes.
Use veggies in veggie bowl.
Fennel Almond Brown Rice
Simple Ingredients
1 cup brown rice
2-3 fennel bulb slices
1/3 cup almonds, sliced
2 cups water
Fennel Almond Brown Rice
Simple Steps
Pour all ingredients into medium pot.
Bring to a boil.
Lower to simmer.
Cook covered for 15-20 minutes, until all liquid has been absorbed.
Fennel Almond Brown Rice ready for the Veggie Bowl.
Plating: Create your Veggie Bowl
One-by-one place brown rice and veggies into bowl.
Garnish with the Pomegranate Café Flaxseed Crackers.
POM Rhibafarms Veggie Bowl
A fun video of the creation of the POM Rhibafarms Box Veggie Bowl.
A few more recipes created with the POM Rhibafarms BOX:
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right
PUBLIC COOKING CLASSES AT THE MARICOPA COUNTY LIBRARIES
I’m honored have been leading hands-on cooking and yoga classes with the Maricopa County Library District since 2016. For the Winter Reading Program, the class focuses on Mediterranean Plant-Based Culinary. We’ll be preparing Hempseed Tabouli, Olive Tapenade, and Herbal Hummus. Classes are Free to the Public. Call the libraries directly to make your reservation.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 5:00-6:30pm: Litchfield Park Branch Library
More to come in the Summer Reading Program: June & July 2019.
SPRING COOKING CLASSES & EVENTS IN THE PHOENIX ARIZONA AREA
HUMANA:March 27, 2019, April 24, 2019, May 29, 2019, 12:30-1:30pm: Humana Monthly Healthy Cooking Demo, Humana Mesa. March topic: Plant-Protein.
PHOENIX MARKET:April 13, May 11, 2019, 10:00-11:00am: Kids Cook at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market. Melanie shops the market and then shares beautiful ways to enjoy food with the kids.
GRANDFAMILIES PLACE: March 18, April 29, May 30, 2019, 4:30-5:30pm, Grandfamilies Place, Gregory’s Fresh Market. Kids learn how to prepare simple healthy dishes, then plate and serve to their grandparents.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
Each week I have the incredible opportunity to intuitively create recipes with the beautiful food so passionately grown by urban farmer Billy Anthony in the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona.
Spring Farm-to-Table Flatbread
The beauty of the Soil & Seed Garden greens and “purple greens” were the inspiration for my weekly flatbread.
Let’s take a look at the Spring CSA
The Farm at South Mountain: CSA March 2019
SPRING FLATBREAD RECIPE STEPS
To prepare your Spring Farm-to-Table Flatbread, follow the following recipes to create a flatbread with your local seasonal ingredients. Please share your flatbread creations with us on www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating or tag @nutritionauthor on Instagram.
Roasted Veggies: Choose a few seasonal veggies, such as cauliflower, radishes, and tomatoes.
Sauteed Greens & Purples: Choose a few of your favorites, such as arugula, spinach, or shungiku (chrysanthemum).
Cashew Cream: Quick Plant-based sauce created with raw cashews.
Quick Yeast-Free Flatbread: Quick flatbread that takes less time that yeast flatbread.
Creation Video: Layering of veggies onto the flatbread.
Final Flatbread: A look at the cooked flatbread with sauteed greens.
ROASTED VEGGIES RECIPE
Simple Ingredients from the Soil & Seed Garden
10-12 radishes, sliced
1 small head, cauliflower, sliced
Other Simple Ingredients
2-3 small tomatoes, sliced
3-4 mini sweet peppers
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
Ingredients Set for the Spring Flatbread and Sauteed Greens & Purples
Simple Steps
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Slice veggies into bite-sized pieces.
Mise en Place: Roasted Veggies
In a bowl, gently coat veggies with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.
Add olive oil and a pinch of salt to veggies prior to roasting.
Place veggies on parchment-lined flat sheet pan, flat side down with veggies not touching.
Place veggies on parchment-lined flat sheet, with veggies not touching.
Roast for 12 minutes.
Flip veggies.
Roast for another 12 minutes.
Use veggies as flatbread toppings.
Roasted veggies are ready for the Spring flatbread.
SAUTEED GREENS AND PURPLES
Simple Ingredients from Soil & Seed Garden
2 cups of 3-4 greens from Soil & Seed Garden, such as Shungiku, Minutina, Purple Orach, Red Spinach
3-4 leaves, lemon verbena
1 tsp organic extra virgin olive oil
2-3 tbsp fresh grapefruit juice
Pinch sea salt
Mise en place for sauteed greens: Red Spinach, Purple Orach, Shungiku (Chrysanthemum), Minutina.
Simple Steps
Pre-heat medium sauté pan on medium.
Add olive oil to pan.
Add to pan, green colored greens, lemon verbena, pinch sea salt, and 1 tbsp grapefruit juice.
Lightly toss the greens to cook for 2 minutes.
Remove greens from pan.
Follow same cooking steps for the purple greens.
Saute greens lightly and quickly with squeeze of fresh grapefruit juice and a pinch of sea salt.
Greens & Purples Sauteed for the Flatbread
The beauty of the greens and purples.
CASHEW CREAM
Simple Ingredients
1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water 2-4 hours
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Pinch sea salt
¼ cup water, adjust for desired creaminess.
Simple Steps
Pour all ingredients into a blender.
Blend to desired smoothness.
EXPERIENCE NUTRITIONTM Yeast-Free Quick Flatbread
Simple Ingredients
1 ¼ cups sprouted spelt flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp sea salt
1 ½ tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil (dough)
½ cup water
1 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil (spread on dough prior to baking)
Mise en place set for the Yeast-free Quick Flatbread.
Simple Steps
Place pizza stone into oven. Pre-heat oven to 390 degrees F. Pre-bake the stone for about 5 minutes.
In large glass bowl, with a fork mix dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt.
Mix the sprouted spelt flour, baking power, and salt. Then add olive oil and water.
Add 3/8 cup water and oil until dough forms a ball. Add additional water, as needed.
Knead on a lightly floured surface for 3-4 minutes.
Kneed the dough for 3-4 minutes.
Flatten out the dough on floured parchment-paper.
With parchment paper on top of the dough, roll thinly with a rolling pin.
Roll out the flatbread with a rolling pin.
Carefully move flatbread to pre-heated pizza stone.
Spread 1 tbsp of olive oil onto the flatbread.
Bake flatbread for 5 minutes.
Remove stone from oven.
Spread cashew cream on the top of the flatbread.
Add veggies to the top of the flatbread.
Cook for about 8 minutes.
Garnish with edible flowers.
Enjoy!
Mise en Place Spring Farm-to-Table Flatbread
Mise en place to prepare the Spring Flatbread.
Enjoy the Step-by-Step Video of Layering the ingredients on the flatbread.
Let’s take a look a the beautiful, tasty, local Arizona flatbread.
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
As an entrepreneur, I am totally living my passion. Connecting with our local Arizona farmers and chef friends, and having so much fun every day enjoying real whole foods.
I am so humbled to be invited to appear on tv segments with The List TV Show, produced by Scripps, right here in Phoenix, Arizona, and aired in 41 markets across the USA.
In the recent February 2019 segment our focus was the HMR Diet, rated as the #1 weight loss diet by US News & World Report. Our angle was to create 3 different meals taking into account the 3 2 5 philosophy of HMR. That is, eat 3 Shakes a Day, 2 Entrees a Day, and 5 Servings of Veggies and Fruit a Day.
Pre-Production with the Producer
The producer, Olivia Schneider and I wanted all of the meals to be simple to prepare and in keeping with my plant-based focus. For the shake, we decided to make home-made cashew milk as the base for a raspberry smoothie. For the Entree we chose a Farm-to-Table Veggie Bowl with Brown Rice, and for the Veggies, it’s a colorful Farm-to-Table Roots and Greens Salad with a vibrant rainbow of veggies.
Farm-to-Table Just Harvested Produce for the Shoot
A few days prior the tv shoot — as soon as the recipes were approved –I reached out to my passionate urban farmer friend, Billy Anthony at The Farm at South Mountain. Billy supplied us with literally “just-harvested” produce for the shoot including all kinds of beautiful roots, greens, veggies, edible flowers, and even a floral arrangement.
A Quick Look at The Farm at South Mountain Soil & Seed Garden
Billy was kind enough to organize and label the produce, so the different types of unique veggies and greens would be perfectly clear. Even the edible flowers were labeled.
Thanks to Billy for the beautiful farm-to-table floral arrangement for our kitchen set.
Day Before the Shoot: Finalize the Recipes
A little more than 24 hours before the shoot, I started to intuitively decide which veggies would make sense with the two different veggie dishes: Roasted Farm-to-Table Veggie Bowl and Rainbow Salad. And, we finalized the recipes that we’d be filming.
Food for the Shoot
Incredibly beautiful just-harvested produce from the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain.
Day of Shoot Food Pre-Production
The morning of the shoot started quite early, around 6am as I began to cook and prep food for the shoot, so we’d be ready with the final components of each of the dishes for on-camera. Just for fun, my pre-shoot cooking check-list.
Behind the scene out-takes from Pre-Prep
A video look at the pre-production prep for The List TV Shoot…all set for the Crew.
The Kitchen Set
Right at 1pm, when I had just finished cooking and organizing the pre-prep food, the crew arrived and set up my kitchen for the shoot.
We all loved the edible flowers. Thanks so much to urban farmer, Billy Anthony at The Farm at South Mountain.
On Set: The Make your Own Shake: Raspberry Goji Berry Cashew Milk Smoothie
On Set: The Farm-to-Table Roasted Veggie Bowl
On Set: The Beautiful Farm-to-Table Roots & Greens Salad
The beautiful dishes we created, with plating by The List TV Show Co-Host Segun Oduolowu.
Now, lets’ take a look at the beautiful dishes we creating during the shoot. During the segment, I guided The List co-host Segun Oduolowu to plate the dishes. Thanks again to urban farmer, Billy Anthony for the beautiful food grown at the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain. Thanks so much to The List for the opportunity to work together to bring these “create your own dishes” to your viewers.
Please join the Experience Nutrition Blog and come back for the step-by-step photos of the creating of the recipes created in for this tv segment with The List.
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
Each week I have the incredible opportunity to intuitively create recipes with the beautiful food so passionately grown by urban farmer Billy Anthony in the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona.
During the last few weeks, Billy has been growing and we’ve been enjoying so many different greens. What I love about the greens is that they are so beautiful with so many various shapes, sizes, textures, and colors. And, they offer different flavors. Some more mild. Some very spicy. Plus, we can enjoy greens raw in salads and beverages, lightly sautéed in a side dish, and even as dehydrated chips. Think kale chips.
Oh my…the wide variety of greens grown at The Farm’s Soil & Seed Garden this 2019 Fall / Winter Season.
Borage greens
Broccoli greens
Cauliflower greens
Collard greens
Hon tsai tai
Kale
Minutina
Mizuna
Mustard Greens
Rainbow Chard
Red Pac Choy
Roquette Arugula
Shungiku (chrysanthemum)
Spigarello
Tatsoi
Let’s take a look at Soil & Seed Garden. Always beautiful. And, one of my favorite places to pause and enjoy nature…right in my neighborhood.
And, the beauty of edible flowers…
Broccoli Kale Orange Green Drink Recipe
This week I decided to try something different with the greens. A Green Drink, featuring the kale, sprouting broccoli, and fresh mint grown at the Soil & Seed Garden by urban gardener Billy Anthony.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
From the Soil & Seed Garden
1 cup kale leaves
1 cup sprouting broccoli
2 small oranges, peeled
3 sprigs fresh mint
Other Ingredients
2 cups coconut water
1 banana, cut and frozen
SIMPLE STEPS
Place kale, broccoli, and coconut water into high speed blender and blend for about a minute.
Add oranges and mint. Blend for a minute.
Add bananas and blend another minute.
Enjoy as a refreshing breakfast or snack.
Garnish with a few sprigs of broccoli, mint, and edible flowers…Enjoy!
Purchase Melanie Albert’s award-winning cookbook,“A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods”
COOKING CLASSES AT THE FARM AT SOUTH MOUNTAIN IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
POM Rhibafarms Make Your Own Veggie Tacos
I was so excited to intuitively create this week’s recipe with the POM BOX with the Pomegranate Café in Ahwatukee and Rhibafarms in San Tan Valley, Arizona.
Let’s take a look at the POM Rhibafarms Box…
This week’s recipe is inspired by the Pomegrante Café’s Guacamole, Enchilada Sauce, and Corn Tortilla. Of course, tacos, with the beautiful Rhibafarms grown broccoli, red cabbage, carrots, and radishes. Mix and match tacos with flavorful roasted and crunchy raw veggies.
INGREDIENTS from the POM RHIBAFARMS BOX
Pomegranate Café: Guacamole, Enchilada Red Sauce, Corn Tortillas
Rhibafarms: Broccoli, Red Cabbage, Mookum Carrots, Icicle Radishes.
ROASTED VEGGIES with Chili Spices
Simple Ingredients
3-4 broccoli stems, sliced
5 carrots, sliced
5 radishes, sliced
¼ red cabbage, 1” slices
7 mini-sweet peppers, sliced
2-3 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp chili spices: Your choice: Ancho chili, Smoked paprika, ground cumin, oregano, ground Rhibafarms’chilis, oregano
Simple Steps
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Slice broccoli, carrots, and radishes into bite-sized pieces.
Grind and mix your choice of chili spices in a small bowl.
In a bowl, gently coat each veggie with olive oil, mixed spices, & a pinch of sea salt.
Place veggies on parchment-lined flat sheet pan, flat side down with veggies not touching.
Roast for 8 minutes.
Flip veggies.
Roast for another 8 minutes.
Use veggies as taco toppings.
PUMPKIN SEED CREAM
Simple Ingredients
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds soaked in water overnight
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Pinch sea salt
¼ cup water, adjust for desired creaminess.
Simple Steps
Pour all ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth.
One by one, heat corn tortilla in pan, turning to cook and crisp on both sides.
Plating: Create your Tacos
Plate with corn tortilla on flat surface.
Spoon sauce and pumpkin seed cream onto the top of the taco.
Add roasted veggies, guacamole, and pumpkin seed cream.
Garnish with the raw veggies.
Building the Tacos…
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The Amazing Tacos!
Seriously, I think these are my favorite tacos ever. Made with so much love and passion. Passionate Farmer Mark Rhine, Healthy Restaurant Pioneer Cassie Tolman, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author Melanie Albert. What a fun collaboration!
A few more recipes created with the POM Rhibafarms BOX:
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right
PUBLIC COOKING CLASSES AT THE MARICOPA COUNTY LIBRARIES
I’m honored have been leading hands-on cooking and yoga classes with the Maricopa County Library District since 2016. For the Winter Reading Program, the class focuses on Mediterranean Plant-Based Culinary. We’ll be preparing Hempseed Tabouli, Olive Tapenade, and Herbal Hummus. Classes are Free to the Public. Call the libraries directly to make your reservation.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 5:00-6:30pm: Litchfield Park Branch Library
More to come in the Summer Reading Program: June & July 2019.
WINTER COOKING CLASSES & EVENTS IN THE PHOENIX ARIZONA AREA
February 18, 2019, 4:30-5:30pm: Grandfamilies Place, Gregory’s Fresh Market. Kids learn to mandoline & marinate veggies and build their own salads.
February 27, 2019, 12:30-1:30: Monthly Healthy Cooking Demo, Humana Mesa. Melanie’s favorite “Healthy Plate”
March 2, 2019, 10-11am: National Nutrition Month at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market
March 19, 2019, 5:00-6:30pm: Litchfield Public Library, Mediterranean Plant-Based Appetizers
March 27, 2019, 12:30-1:30pm: Humana Monthly Healthy Cooking Demo
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
So honored and excited to create quick, simple, delicious, farm-to-table dishes from the weekly Winter POM Rhibafarms Box with the healthy-eating, vegetarian, vegan Pomegranate Café in Ahwatukee, Arizona and the incredible Rhibafarms and Mark Rhine in San Tan Valley, Arizona.
Let’s take a look at my favorite beauties in the POM Box…
POM Rhibafarms Box. Arizona Winter 2019
Mark Rhine, owner of Rhibafarms dried last Fall’s beautiful chili peppers for us over the last year. What a variety. Big Jim’s, Jalapeno, Habanero, Cayenne, Sweet Bell.
This week’s recipe is based on intuitively cooking almost all of my favorites in the POM Rhibafarms BOX. It started with being excited with my first fresh thyme of the year, plus the beauty of the dried peppers. You’ll see that I first created a pilaf and extended the meal to a fresh simple salad.
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right
PUBLIC COOKING CLASSES AT THE MARICOPA COUNTY LIBRARIES
I’m honored have been leading hands-on cooking and yoga classes with the Maricopa County Library District since 2016. For the Winter Reading Program, the class focuses on Mediterranean Plant-Based Culinary. We’ll be preparing Hempseed Tabouli, Olive Tapenade, and Herbal Hummus. Classes are Free to the Public. Call the libraries directly to make your reservation.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 5:00-6:30pm: Litchfield Park Branch Library
More to come in the Summer Reading Program: June & July 2019.
WINTER COOKING CLASSES & EVENTS IN THE PHOENIX ARIZONA AREA
February 18, 2019, 4:30-5:30pm: Grandfamilies Place, Gregory’s Fresh Market. Kids learn to mandoline & marinate veggies and build their own salads.
February 27, 2019, 12:30-1:30: Monthly Healthy Cooking Demo, Humana Mesa. Melanie’s favorite “Healthy Plate”
March 2, 2019, 10-11am: National Nutrition Month at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market
March 19, 2019, 5:00-6:30pm: Litchfield Public Library, Mediterranean Plant-Based Appetizers
March 27, 2019, 12:30-1:30pm: Humana Monthly Healthy Cooking Demo
HOLD THE DATE: September 13-16, 2019: Plant-based Cooking Retreat in Sedona!
During the retreat in beautiful Sedona, Arizona, you’ll be learning and practicing simple plant-based culinary skills for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. We’ll also enjoy Sedona hiking, yoga, massage, and special Sedona experiences. Please send me a note, Mel@MelanieAlbert.com, and I’ll keep you posted on the details.
View food differently with mindful cooking and eating.
Enjoy urban farm-to-table cooking experience.
Experience self-care with hiking and yoga.
Take home retreat experiences to be healthier & make positive long-term lifestyle changes.
During our Sedona Plant-Based Cooking Fall 2019 Retreat, you’ll experience several days of hands-on, simple plant-based cooking with organic food, mindfulness in the kitchen and eating. We’ll enjoy a farm-to-table cooking experience at a local urban farm. You’ll experience self-care with hiking and yoga in the beauty of Sedona.
In the memorable life-changing retreat, our intention is for you to enjoy the cooking and self-care experiences during the retreat and then most importantly take home the experiences and plant-based cooking learning from the retreat to make positive lifestyle changes in your lives.
Learn Simple Ways to Cook Healthy Plant-Based Organic Food
During the Sedona retreat, our key focus is simple, beautiful, healthy plant-based cooking. We’ll enjoy cooking and eating beautiful, fresh, delicious farm-to-table plant-based meals. Alongside award-winning cookbook author, Melanie Albert from Phoenix, Arizona, you’ll learn simple culinary skills for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
With interactive, hands-on cooking with local Arizona farmers organic produce, you’ll learn simple plant-based culinary techniques. We’ll focus on learning the cooking methods and guiding you to be intuitive with your cooking so you will be able to cook intuitively at home with seasonal produce grown by your local farmers.
All of the cooking is based on the anti-inflammatory way of eating, Mediterranean way of eating, and inspired by the Blue Zones, where people live the longest and healthiest lives. Learn during the retreat and feel confident to prepare the foods when you return home.
Award-Winning Cookbook Author, Melanie Albert at the Sedona Retreat House
Key Plant-Based Foods
During the retreat, you’ll learn simple plant-based culinary methods to cook key healthy plant-based foods. Our organic retreat meals feature as much local Arizona farmers food, as possible.
Roots & Greens
Whole Grains
Beans
Nuts & Seeds
Superfoods
Plant-Based Culinary Techniques
During all of the meals, you’ll learn a variety of cooking techniques to use when you return home. The culinary techniques during the retreat:
Proper steps to sauté veggies with flavor layering.
Steps to roast veggies for crispiness on the outside and a soft inside.
The process to cook flavorful veggie soups.
Simple steps to prepare whole grains perfectly every time.
Steps to create a 3-ingredient salad dressing.
Ways to create beautiful raw salads with what your local farmers are growing in season.
Steps to make raw dehydrated crackers.
Techniques to create simple raw sauces.
Plant-based dessert techniques with nuts, fruit, raw cacao, and superfoods.
Organic, Local Arizona Farmers Produce
RETREAT HIGHLIGHTS: Sedona Plant-Based Cooking Retreat with Award-Winning Cookbook Author, Melanie Albert
Sedona Eco-Retreat House: 3-Days and 3-nights at eco-retreat house in the beauty of Sedona, Arizona.
Noon-3:00pm Drive from Sedona to Phoenix for flights
ADD-ON TO RETREAT: ANTELOPE CANYON EXCURSION
Monday, September 16, 2019
6:00-7:00am Early Breakfast at Retreat House
7:00-8:00am Drive to Flagstaff
8:30-5:00pm Drive and Tour Antelope Canyon
5:30-7:30pm Dinner in Flagstaff
7:30pm+ Hotel in Flagstaff
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
8:00am-1:00pm Drive to Phoenix
To learn more about the retreat and to chat with retreat host, Melanie Albert, please fill out the form, or give me a call at 602.615.2486 or e-mail: Mel@MelanieAlbert.com
I look forward to connecting for both of us to get to know each other and to answer any questions about the retreat. — Melanie
ABOUT OUR LIGHT HOUSE Retreat House
Eco-Home. We are thrilled to hold our retreat at the Light House in Sedona, a truly eco-home with a collection of indoor and outdoor spaces created with a complimentary merging of Indonesian, Japanese, Moroccan and East Indian cultures. The Light House offers a full natural sensory environment with comforting courtyards, peaceful meditation gardens, hanging lounges, tranquil pools, and restful waterfalls.
Sedona Eco-Home Retreat House
Feng Shui.The Light House incorporates the principles of Feng Shui to create an environment that is energetically aligned promoting harmony, serenity, creativity, and vitality. An impressive cleansing crystal is strategically placed in the center of the house to ensure a healthy environment and numerous Feng Shui essentials are found throughout this landmark home. The Light House is the perfect environment to relax, reduce stress, and rejuvenate.
Welcome to our Retreat House
Salt-water Pool. Light House features a beautiful salt-water pool and Jacuzzi to unwind.
Retreat House Beautiful Salt Water Pool
Sedona Beauty. The natural outdoor beauty of Sedona is just out the back door with the beautiful Oak Creek and a glimpse of Cathedral Rock.
Our Retreat Home View of Cathedral Rock
Our Retreat Bedrooms
The Light House Retreat features 6 unique bedrooms, with a variety of beds and accommodates couples or singles. We welcome a group of friends or couples to attend the retreat
ONE: Downstairs Master with King and sitting room. Unique custom ‘pebble’ master bathtub and large glass steam shower.
TWO: Downstairs Off-Master with Queen. Private bedroom off Master. Shares master bathroom with ‘pebble’ bathtub and large glass steam shower.
Downstairs Master. King.
Master Bathroom
Downstairs Queen, off Master.
THREE: Downstairs Asia Room with King.Outdoor hallway to room with lounging sofa, desk and glass window views.
FOUR: Downstairs Bali Room with 2 Queens.Screen door access to outside lounging and garden areas.
FIVE: Upstairs Private King. Private outdoor patio with view of pool and Cathedral Rock. Shares bathroom with Sunrise Room.
SIX: Sunrise Room Upstairs Loft with Queen and Double. Fun loft. Shares bathroom with Private King.
ABOUT SEDONA
Beautiful, magical Sedona is a true oasis, a paradise in the middle of the northern Arizona desert. In Sedona, enjoy canyons, green forest, azure skies, and the dramatic red rock formations that glow in brilliant orange and red when illuminated by the rising or setting sun. Sedona offers adventures including red rock jeep tours, hiking, Slide Rock, and Oak Creek Canyon, as well spiritual healing, psychic readings, and energy vortexes. Sedona will have your senses buzzing for days! Sedona offers a unique, one-of-a- kind culture and is an experience of a lifetime.
To learn more about the retreat and to chat with retreat host, Melanie Albert, please fill out the form, or give me a call at 602.615.2486 or e-mail: Mel@MelanieAlbert.com
I look forward to connecting for both of us to get to know each other and to answer any questions about the retreat. — Melanie
Top 11 Reasons to Go on a Plant-Based Cooking Retreat
During our Sedona Plant-Based Cooking Fall 2019 Retreat, you’ll experience several days of hands-on, simple plant-based cooking, mindfulness in the kitchen and eating. We’ll enjoy a farm-to-table cooking experience at a local urban farm. You’ll experience self-care with hiking and yoga in the beauty of Sedona.
In the memorable life-changing retreat, our intention is for you to enjoy the cooking and self-care experiences during the retreat and then most importantly take home the experiences and plant-based cooking learning from the retreat to make positive lifestyle changes in your lives.
LEARN TO COOK SIMPLE, BEAUTIFUL PLANT-BASED MEALS
Have fun with hands-on interactive cooking with Plant-Based Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. With hands-on interactive cooking you’ll learn culinary techniques to prepare a variety of plant-based breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.
ONE: Learn How to Prepare Simple Delicious Healthy Breakfasts
Learn the basic culinary techniques to prepare plant-based breakfast options and when you return home intuitively create your own breakfasts with your favorite whole grains, nuts, seeds, and fruit.
Whole Grains (gluten-free)
Quick, easy, and tasty nut and seed milk
Superfood Smoothies
Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding
TWO: Learn to Cook a Variety of Plant-Based Lunches
For lunch, our focus is preparing beautiful, tasty raw salads, raw taco, and cold soup.
Raw Massaged Kale Salad with fruit, berries, nuts, and seeds. 3-ingredient salad dressing.
Avocado Tartare with fresh veggies
Raw Almond Walnut Taco with Quick Pickled Veggies
Cold Veggie Soup
Raw Dehydrated Crackers
THREE: Learn how to prepare tasty, healthy plant-based Appetizers, Meals, and Dessert for Plant-Based Dinners
For dinner, we’ll cook complete plant-based meals with delicious Mediterranean appetizers, Veggie Main Dishes, and beautiful, tasty desserts.
Mediterranean Appetizers
Hummus, Hempseed Tabouli, Olive Tapenade
Meals
Veggie Sautés (Roots & Greens)
Roasted Veggie Flatbread
Turmeric Lentil Soup
Veggie Brown Rice Pilaf
Raw Deconstructed Lasagna
Deconstructed Lasagna
Desserts
Raw Superfood Pie
Raw Cacao Berry Pie
Aromatic Apple Crisp
Raw Cacao Berry Pie
FOUR: Farm-to-Table Plant-Based Cooking Class at an Arizona Organic Farm
Enjoy a true farm-to-table experience. Tour a local organic farm with an Arizona urban farmer. Have fun cooking your dinner right at the farm with just-harvested produce from the farm and local farmers markets. Enjoy your culinary creations in the beauty of the farm.
Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition. Getting set for a farm-to-table cooking experience.
FIVE: Enjoy an afternoon Snack at a Local Sedona Plant-Based Restaurant
After hiking in Sedona, we’ll stop by a popular organic vegetarian Sedona restaurant to enjoy their delicious plant-based creations and chocolate treats.
MINDFUL COOKING & EATING
SIX: Practice Mindfulness while Cooking, Plating, and Eating
During the retreat, we’ll focus on mindfulness and being present throughout the cooking process. We’ll practice mindfulness while cooking our meals, beautifully plating our food, and enjoying our meals together.
Mindful Cooking. During the retreat, we will focus on mindfulness and being present while cooking, as part of the cooking process and a form of self-care. We will:
Mindfully choose the ingredients (beautiful veggies) and herbs and spices for our dishes.
Mindfully chop our food. (Learn basic knife skills).
Enjoy the beauty, the colors, the textures, the shapes, and the aromatherapy of our food.
Mindfully set up our mise en place. That is, get all of our ingredients in place before we start cooking for mindfulness and organization.
Learn to plate your foods beautifully. Since we eat with our eyes first, you will learn skills to plate foods beautifully. You’ll learn fundamental principles in the art of plating. You’ll have the opportunity to practice plating skills every time we cook and begin to develop your own plating style. We’ll use edible garnishes, herbs, and flowers in our plating to elevate the eye-appeal of our meals.
Mindful Eating. We’ll mindfully enjoy our meals in the beautiful Sedona environment with our retreat community. We’ll enjoy meals in the beauty of the retreat house and in the beauty of the Sedona Red Rocks. We’ll pause, slow down, and really enjoy the beauty and flavors of the food we prepare.
SELF CARE IN THE MAGIC OF SEDONA
SEVEN: Take time for your own self-care, relaxing in the beauty of the retreat house. Get away from day-to-day life. Retreats are the perfect place to really take time for you. Away from work, responsibilities, and technology. During your Sedona retreat, unplug and allow yourself to settle into quiet, to relax, recharge and reflect.
Relax at our Retreat House
EIGHT: Enjoy hiking and nature in beautiful, magical Sedona, Arizona. In Sedona, we can immerse ourselves in nature by hiking with the grounding red rock and expansive big sky environment which provides the perfect place to exercise and unwind. In Sedona, we’ll hike in the Vortex energy, breath in the fresh air, and enjoy the magnificent sunsets.
Cathedral Rock: Melanie Albert’s very favorite spot in Sedona.Hike at the Sedona Airport Vortex
NINE: Practice yoga on the Sedona Rocks and our private yoga studio at the retreat house. Participate in a yoga class or practice on your own for self-care, quiet, and meditation during the retreat.
Retreat House Private Yoga Studio
Enjoy One-of-A Kind Sedona Experiences
TEN: Enjoy Memorable One-of-A-Kind Sedona Experiences. Only in Sedona experiences. During the retreat, you’ll experience the Sedona magic with Spiritual Reading, and a private Kiva Ceremony.
ELEVEN: Visit Magnificent Antelope Canyon.As a special add-on to the retreat, visit one of the most magnificent spots in Arizona on our adventure day to the Antelope Canyon, one of the most beautiful, mesmerizing, photographic locations in the world. A photographer’s dream, the canyon is known for its wave-like structure and the light beams that shine directly down into the openings of the canyon, creating a supernatural appearance.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
In awe of another week of beautiful, vibrant veggies in the Winter POM Rhibafarms Box with Pomegranate Café in Ahwatukee, Arizona and grown by Rhibafarms in San Tan Valley, Arizona. I am so honored to create beautiful, tasty dishes with the food from the CSA each week. It’s fun to receive seasonal food grown by our local farmers, and to intuitively create dishes with food we have not previously cooked, while also experimenting with various culinary techniques.
For those of you who are supporting your local farms CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), I invite you to have fun experimenting with the different foods your farmers are growing. Try the new veggies and new culinary methods.
In this week’s Broccoli Cauliflower Fig Salad we focus on the simple culinary technique of steaming veggies in a bamboo steamer and making a simple 3-ingredient salad dressing.
Love and heart…at the Pomegrante Cafe, this Valentine’s Week…so much love and heart at this amazing vegetarian/vegan healthy restaurant.
Rhibafarms Broccoli Cauliflower Fig Salad Recipe
The beauty of Rhibafarms broccoli and cauliflower inspired this very simple refreshing, beautiful salad. Steamed broccoli and cauliflower, dressed with a simple lemon dressing with parsley, almonds, and dried figs.
INGREDIENTS from the POM BOX
Broccoli
Purple Cauliflower
Purple Cabbage Leaf
STEAM BROCCOLI & CAULIFLOWER
Simple Ingredients
2 cups broccoli florets, sliced
2 cups cauliflower florets, sliced
Simple Steps
Slice broccoli and cauliflower.
Place broccoli and cauliflower in bamboo steamer.
Bring several inches of water to boil in large soup pot.
Once the water is boiling, place bamboo steamer on top of the pot.
Steam for about 8-10 minutes.
Check broccoli and cauliflower with fork to desired tenderness.
Lemon Finishing Dressing
Simple Ingredients
1 lemon, juiced (approximately 1/4 cup)
Twice as much olive oil as lemon, approximately ½ cup
Pinch sea salt
Simple Steps
Squeeze lemon juice into small Mason jar.
Pour in twice as much olive oil.
Shake.
Taste to test for desired oil / lemon ratio.
Add additional oil or lemon, as needed.
Add pinch of salt to jar.
Shake.
Broccoli Cauliflower Fig Salad
Simple Ingredients
Mise en Place: Broccoli Cauliflower Fig Salad
2 cups steamed broccoli florets
2 cups steamed cauliflower florets
½ cup Lemon Finishing Dressing
1 cup fresh parsley, rough chopped
¼ cup raw almonds, rough chopped
5 dried Mission figs, sliced
1 purple cabbage leaf
3-5 edible flowers
Simple Steps
Place broccoli into a small bowl, drizzle dressing onto broccoli, and lightly toss.
Place cauliflower into a small bowl, drizzle dressing onto cauliflower, and lightly toss.
Lightly coat broccoli with Lemon Finishing Dressing
Place parsley, figs, and almonds into a bowl. Drizzle dressing onto the ingredients. Lightly toss.
Place all ingredients into a bowl and lightly toss.
Plate all ingredients on purple cabbage leaf.
Garnish with edible flowers.
Enjoy.
Broccoli Cauliflower Fig Salad
Love to cook? Check out other POM Farm Box recipes created with the beautiful Rhibafarms produce and Pomegranate Cafe goodies.
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right
PUBLIC COOKING CLASSES AT THE MARICOPA COUNTY LIBRARIES
I’m honored have been leading hands-on cooking and yoga classes with the Maricopa County Library District since 2016. For the Winter Reading Program, the class focuses on Mediterranean Plant-Based Culinary. We’ll be preparing Hempseed Tabouli, Olive Tapenade, and Herbal Hummus. Classes are Free to the Public. Call the libraries directly to make your reservation.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 5:00-6:30pm: Litchfield Park Branch Library
More to come in the Summer Reading Program: June & July 2019.
WINTER COOKING CLASSES & EVENTS IN THE PHOENIX ARIZONA AREA
February 18, 2019, 4:30-5:30pm: Grandfamilies Place, Gregory’s Fresh Market. Kids learn to mandoline & marinate veggies and build their own salads.
February 27, 2019, 12:30-1:30: Monthly Healthy Cooking Demo, Humana Mesa. Melanie’s favorite “Healthy Plate”
March 2, 2019, 10-11am: National Nutrition Month at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market
March 19, 2019, 5:00-6:30pm: Litchfield Public Library, Mediterranean Plant-Based Appetizers
March 27, 2019, 12:30-1:30pm: Humana Monthly Healthy Cooking Demo
HOLD THE DATE: September 13-16, 2019: Plant-based Cooking Retreat in Sedona!
During the retreat in beautiful Sedona, Arizona, you’ll be learning and practicing simple plant-based culinary skills for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. We’ll also enjoy Sedona hiking, yoga, massage, and special Sedona experiences. Please send me a note, Mel@MelanieAlbert.com, and I’ll keep you posted on the details.
