roasted – The Califoodie Lifestyle

Lemonade is the bomb, and no I’m not talking about the tart, thirst quenching glass of lemonade, I’m talking about Lemonade the restaurant.

Lemonade is a small southern California restaurant chain styled like a grown up cafeteria. There’s an endless bar of fresh deli salads, hot stews, sandwiches, desserts and most importantly a variety of lemonade.

I love grabbing lunch at Lemonade because I can pick 1-4 portions of their salads and a sugar-free lemonade without feeling full. My favorites are the Broccoli, Ricotta, Avocado Tomato and when I feel like treatin’ myself, Truffle Mac n’ Cheese.

I recently bought the Lemonade cookbook online and was overjoyed when I found my three favorites inside! I changed up the Broccoli Ricotta salad by using parmesan cheese instead of the ricotta and it tasted like the real deal. I made this for my family the other night but ended up eating the whole salad by myself because it was so good!

Broccoli Parmesan Salad

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Broccoli:

2 heads broccoli, in florets
1/4 cup EVOO
1/4 cup parmesan flakes
1/4-1/2 cup dressing
Salt and pepper

Dressing:

1 egg yolk
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp agave nectar
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
3/4 cup EVOO
1/2 shallot, minced
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Prepare dressing by blending all of the dressing ingredients in a food processor for 1-2 minutes until the olive oil is emulsified. Store in the fridge until broccoli is ready.

3. Drizzle broccoli with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Transfer to a bowl and let cool for 10-15 minutes.

4. Toss with parmesan and white wine dressing.

5. Store in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Hooray for fall! Just kidding, I don’t like cold weather, so hooray for fall themed food, but not fall weather. Ya, that sounds much better!

On another note.. TGIF. This week has felt soooooo slow and because it is finally Friday, I felt like I needed to do some damage in the kitchen to relax. (Just kidding, I keep the kitchen neat I promise!)

I am a huge after-school-snack fan and I never know what to have when I get home. Usually I have an apple with a little peanut butter, but sometimes I want something more and these little guys do the trick. I’ve made roasted chickpeas before but I used tandoori spices to create a savory snack. This time I thought I should try a sweet version. The only sweet flavor in this recipe is honey, there is actually no refined sugar in the recipe! WOO! Roasted chickpeas taste delicious without any seasoning too, so if you wanted a neutral flavored healthy snack then make these. But, I feel like the flavor adds a mouth watering kick to the original taste.

Let’s get to the recipe, shall we? To start off all you need is 1 can of chick peas (garbanzo beans). Later on you add the flavor (:

Bake the chick peas on a lined baking sheet for 45 minutes at 375˚F.

Once the chickpeas are done with the first round of baking, pour them into a bowl and add 1 tablespoon honey, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. You can also add salt and 1/4 tsp nutmeg but I forgot to put salt on mine and I also did not have any nutmeg in my spice cabinet. I think the chick peas tasted fine without the salt too.

Now, you have the option to eat them now or stick them back in the oven for another 12 minutes so the honey can caramelize. I chose to caramelize mine and they turned out fabulous! I recommend baking them for the second time or else they will be super sticky.