You know I’ve been to Costco when you start to see recipes with pesto and goat cheese popping up frequently on the blog. I can’t help it. There are a few staples from Costco that I can’t be without and their pesto and goat cheese are two of them.

I have to admit, since trying the pesto from Costco I really haven’t made any at home – it’s that good (for store bought!) and you just can’t beat the convenience or price.

These Roasted Red Peppers with Pesto and Goat Cheese were inspired by my neighbor who made for us once and brought some over for me to try. He actually cooked his on the grill and wow, they were amazing. I could not wait to make them for myself. I wanted to try them on the grill, but honestly this past week here in Florida has been so brutally hot and muggy that the thought of standing over a grill “testing” a recipe just didn’t appeal to me. Roasting them up in my oven worked just as well, and I got to enjoy the a/c while doing it.

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Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July holiday weekend!! My holiday started last Thursday when my friend Kristen flew into town for a visit. We planned a fun couple of days earlier this year with tickets to Justin Bieber (we are closet Beliebers) and a day of eating and drinking around the world at Epcot with our friend Julie. Music, food, drinks and friends – doesn’t get much better than that!

Before we started getting ready for our night out with JB, I wanted to make something to snack on while we sipped some wine and got ready. I literally whipped up this Strawberry Basil Goat Cheese Spread with Walnuts in minutes, with ingredients I almost always have on hand.

It’s fun cooking for friends and I was excited to experiment with an appetizer idea that had been in my head for a while. My daughter and husband approved as well!

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Disclosure: This Smoked Salmon Frittata recipe post was inspired by and created in partnership with Princess Cruises.

Working out with a friend makes exercising so much more enjoyable, at least for me it does. I don’t normally have the opportunity to work out with friends (although, the trainers at my gym are my friends so I guess I do work out with friends every day). Recently when I was cruising with my dear friend Heidi, we made a promise to each other that we would get up every morning and get some exercise in. I was so happy to have someone on the same page as me, as well as someone who would make sure I got out of bed and got moving, even when I didn’t really want to.

The running deck was the perfect place to start our mornings. It wasn’t overly crowded, but there were a few walkers, runners and coffee drinkers enjoying the fresh morning air and peaceful ocean view.

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A couple of random, unrelated to food things today. I feel like lately, my eyes are a bit more open than usual. Do you ever experience that?  It’s like something clicks in your brain and the inner dialogue quiets down a bit and you just become more observant and a better listener. I don’t know.

Something I’ve noticed, it’s kind of a mom thing but it could be a people thing too. A friend of mine and I were talking at the gym the other day (gotta love those treadmill talks) and it’s like we both realized that we didn’t have it all together like we thought the other did. Duh, right? I’ve had similar conversations with other friends at the bus stop, in the grocery store, and at birthday parties. Go figure. But don’t you think – and this is not the first time you’ve heard it I’m sure – that with all the social media saturation that we are swimming in right now, it is becoming rarer and rarer to have true heart to heart conversations with friends and people you meet along the way? You have to make a real effort. There’s so much more surface material out there than connection sometimes. Maybe it’s just me. But I’ll say, it’s nice to have real conversations like that where you realize how “normal” you really are. I am thinking most moms can relate to this, we need conversations like this. I can appreciate even more when I meet or connect with someone in the real world, not just “online”. This is where my friend Sandy always inspires me with her way of bringing people together in her home, as a form of hospitality and connecting…and not just “entertaining”. Like I already said, it does take some effort but is always worth it. Food for thought.

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I’ve been intrigued by wheat berries for some time now and finally have gotten around to getting my hands on some. You all know how I feel about salads, so it was only natural for me to use them to bulk up a salad I was craving recently – a salad that had to include arugula, grapes, nuts and a little goat cheese.

Let me officially introduce you to my new favorite salad – Wheat Berry and Arugula Salad with Grapes and Nuts.

This month’s Recipe ReDux happens to be dedicated to all things nuts, and this salad is perfect for showcasing them and all their goodness. The Recipe ReDux is a recipe challenge group started by registered dietitians and is focused on keeping healthy recipes delicious (as they should be, right?). I have loved being a part of this monthly challenge and have discovered so many new health focused blogs because of it (see recipe roundup at the bottom of this post to check out more recipes and blogs).

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This Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with Walnuts recipe is sponsored by Fisher Nuts.

Is it safe to say spring has sprung everywhere yet? I always have a bit of spring guilt here in Florida. Technically our best “spring” weather is back in January and February and even March when the rest of the country is freezing.

By mid April we are starting to see the 90s…just the other day our heat index was (wait for it…) 101 degrees! What in the world. It’s a bit early for triple digit heat indexes but I won’t complain ever. #ILoveFlorida

With warmer spring weather comes cravings for warm weather food, am I right? Salads, salads and more salads. Some grilling too. This is my favorite food season of the year, though I think spring food and summer food are very closely tied.

This April Produce Guide caught my eye the other day and inspired this Spring Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with Walnuts – beets, arugula and citrus all scream spring, don’t they? Topping your salad with goat cheese, walnuts and a homemade Toasted Walnut Balsamic Vinaigrette is never a bad thing either, whatever month or season we are in.

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Happy New Year Friends! Did you have a nice holiday season?? It’s hard to believe we are starting a new calendar year already. I love love love the fresh start a new year brings, so much to look forward to.

My friend Kristen introduced me to idea of choosing a Focus Word for a new year a while back and honestly I have thought about it over the years, choosing a word but not really “focusing” on it throughout the year like I’m assuming the intention is with choosing a focus word. Last month I scribbled down a word while I was working on something and realized it was exactly the word that should be declared as my focus word this year.

My Focus Word for 2015:

LEARN

I want to learn learn learn. I have always loved being a student of all things (not necessarily in the traditional sense but I didn’t always mind being in some classrooms ready to take notes). Lately I have been obsessed with learning new things, from crafty/DIY home stuff to improving my photography to learning how to run my blog as a business to crocheting to cooking something out of my comfort zone. I am craving information these days and my brain feels like it may explode from that craving sometimes.

In the last couple of years I’ve been preoccupied with life events (pregnancy, family illnesses, moving to a new house, new baby). These life events have kept me busy and have used up a lot of my energy and brain space honestly. And that’s all good. That’s life! Life Is Good! Things have settled down a bit the last few months and I think that is when my craving for learning really kicked into high gear. My mommy brain has felt a bit mushy this past year so it’s time to fill it back up again. I’m retraining myself to be open to learning how to do something when I get stumped versus my sometimes initial reaction of “ugh” and trying to find someone to do it for me, or just not doing it at all. Granted, some things are going to still be passed on to someone more qualified and able but I would like to at least change my attitude about it all.

What do I want to learn? Well, it’s a mix between personal and blog/business related things. Here are my learning goals for 2015:

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I have never been one to only eat salads in the warm weather months. Maybe that’s because I live in Florida and we have warm weather almost all year long?

I’d like to believe that I would enjoy a salad here and there in the cold winters that some of you experience in the North (and/or West I guess I should say). For me, building a salad comes from whatever is in season, looks good in the produce section or whatever you are craving really. I can never say no to a crisp bowl of crunchy salad veggies with a good homemade dressing or vinaigrette.

Now, though I can eat salad any day of the year, I don’t necessarily always want to make a salad for myself. That’s another story. Lately I have been in a salad rut, but was inspired to create this one with the newly arrived fruits of the season that I’ve been seeing lots of – apples and pears. What goes perfectly with a salad chock full of apples and pears? Why, pecans of course.

I have a hard time choosing a favorite when it comes to nuts, but I will say that pecans are definitely up there on the list. Especially when it comes to fall inspired dishes, like this salad. I created a simple pecan vinaigrette using Fisher Nut Pecan Halves and it is absolutely delicious, as you can imagine a nutty vinaigrette to be. Toasting up the pecans and adding them to the vinaigrette base while still warm infuses a little extra flavor into the mixture – so good! It was a perfect dressing for this simple seasonal salad, but honestly I can’t wait to drizzle it over other fall roasted veggies like butternut squash and Brussels sprouts.

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What a mouthful of a title right? I just didn’t know what else to call it honestly, and I didn’t want to miss a thing when I told you what it was.

I hold fresh figs near and dear to my heart. If you are Italian, and have an Italian grandpa, then maybe you can relate. I grew up with major fig trees in my back yard. Like major. I remember them in our yard when we lived up in New York and I remember even more in our yards (my parents’ and my grandparents’ yards) here in Florida. Picking a warm fresh fig off the tree, peeling it gently and eating it right there barefoot in the grass was an everyday thing for me. I don’t remember my family making anything fancy with figs, basically just eating them pure and simple as they were. They were so sweet – like nature’s candy!

Since I don’t live as close to my family as I used to, I really miss out on the figs. It makes me sad! The last couple of years I have actually started purchasing them from my grocery store (skeptically) when they are in season and on buy one get one sale. I’ve learned that I love the Brown Turkey ones the best. They aren’t my grandpa’s figs, but they will do.

This little sandwich is something my grandpa would never think to make with his figs – I am not really sure he’s ever tried goat cheese honestly. I have a feeling he would love it, because really – what’s not to love about a crispy almond panini filled with tangy goat cheese, a drizzle of honey, crunchy almonds and sweet sliced fresh figs. Oh my…this is truly one of my most favorite things to eat right now (well this and this avocado-feta toast too)!! And I can’t help but imagine that this little sandwich would go perfectly with a crisp glass of Pinot Grigio…in fact, I highly recommend you cook up a few paninis, slice them up and serve them as appetizers at your next wine happy hour with some friends. At least that’s what I would do. 🙂

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It may be back to school here, but to me it’s feeling like the dog days of summer that’s for sure. It’s hot, it’s muggy and I am finding myself wanting to be outside in the fresh air, but quickly going back in once I’m out there because I feel like I’m melting.

It is what it is. It’s August. (and Florida will be feeling this way until at least mid-October so I promise I won’t complain anymore.)

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