Category Archives: Food & Drink

Food & Drink
Carnations: Flowers Good Enough To Eat

SweatTheStyle_EdibleFlowers-3Before we eat, we eat with our eyes. What better way to naturally create color and texture to your meal than edible flowers. Even if it seems strange to eat flowers chances are, if you’ve ever had artichokes or cauliflower you’ve already eaten them. These colorful carnations were picked up at the farmers market to ensure that they have not been sprayed with any insecticides or pesticides. Instead of using artificial coloring or sugar-laden sprinkles, separate the petals from the stems of these carnations for a natural way to get your next dish poppin’!

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Food & Drink
Heirloom Tomato and Stone Fruit Salad

SweatTheStyle_Catty_StoneFruitSaladIngredientsWalking through the Hollywood Farmers Market we noticed that the heirloom tomatoes and stone fruit are perfectly ripe and in season. Chef Catty Boom Batty collaborated with us to make a beautiful fresh and light salad inspired by the season. Since stone fruit reached their peak in taste and juiciness she keeps the salad simple and let the ingredients speak for themselves. For creamy texture along with protein and calcium, she added Organic Greek Yogurt mixed with honey sprinkling roughly chopped Marcona Almonds. For flavor and color she introduced Opal basil and picked flowers off broccoli to add to the mix. You can make a version of this salad easily by going to the farmers market and seeing what’s perfectly fresh and in season wherever you live. When you have the best possible ingredients you don’t have to do much to create something easy, beautiful, and delicious to eat!
Serves 4
Ingredients
2ea Heirloom Tomato, ripe cut into wedges
2ea Ripe Nectarines, cut into 1” wedges
2ea Ripe Peaches, cut into 1” wedges
2ea Ripe Plums, thinly sliced
¼ c Opal Basil, chiffonade or using the buds and smaller leaves
¼ c Marcona Almonds, rough chopped
2 T Honey
1 c Greek yogurt, seasoned with salt and pepper
Fleur de Sal, to taste
Freshly ground pepper
SweatTheStyle_Catty_PeachTomatoSaladDirections:
With a tablespoon, smear 1/4c of yogurt on the rim of each plate. Gently place ½ of ea tomato and fruit onto the plate sporadically. Garnish each plate with a pinch of marcona almonds and basil. Drizzle ½ T of honey onto the ingredients and season with a pinch of fleur de sal and pepper. (Pictured plated two different styles.)
SweatTheStyle_Catty_StoneFruitTomatoSalad_Bowl

Recipe by: CattyBoomBatty

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Food & Drink
Cast Iron Chicken Leg with Summer Succotash and Basil Pistou

SweatTheStyle_Catty_ChickenSuckatash_BowlThe perfect summer dish that’s both high in protein and full of nutrients. The fresh crisp consistency of the seasonal succotash, compliments the creamy avocado puree, and the savory tender chicken leg. Tasty and satisfying without weighing you down with empty calories. The best part about cooking with high quality organic free range chicken is that you don’t have to worry about separating the skin while you’re eating, that’s where a ton of flavor from the cast iron and seasoning live. Don’t be afraid to get creative with your plating technique and impress all your friends! Feel free to swap out vegetables for what’s in season at your local farmers market.

Ingredients:
4 Whole Chicken Legs, deboned and seasoned
3T Fennel Thyme spice blend
2 Avocados, seed and stem removed
¼ c Cold water
2 Limes, for juice
1 Lemon, for juice
1 Jalapeno, vein and seeds removed
1tsp Thyme, picked
1tsp Oregano, chopped
3 Corn, kernels removed
¼ lb Shishito Peppers, stems removed
¼ lb Cranberry Beans cooked
¼ lb Baby Summer Squash, cut into ½” pieces
1c Cherry Tomatoes, halved
¼ Red Onion, thinly sliced
½ c Basil leaves, picked
½ c Parsley leaves, picked
2 cloves of garlic
¼ c + 4T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
Avocado Puree
Place the avocado, lime juice, water, jalapeno in a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Basil Pistou
Put the basil, parsley, garlic, 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil in a food processor or blender, puree until smooth, season with salt and pepper and add a squeeze of ½ a lemon.

Succotash
Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Pour 2T of extra virgin olive oil then add shishito peppers and cook until blistered. Add the squash, corn, thyme and oregano. Once the corn and squash are almost tender, add the cranberry beans, cherry tomatoes, red onion and sauté for about 2 minutes or until the tomatoes are lightly cooked. Add a squeeze of ½ a lemon and season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Chicken Leg
Season both sides of the chicken with salt, pepper and the fennel thyme spice mix. Heat a large cast iron over medium-high heat, add the remainder 2T of extra virgin olive oil, then place the chicken skin side down onto the pan. Cook for about 7 minutes or until the skin is golden brown, then flip the chicken and cook for another 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest for about 1-2 minutes.

Recipe By: Catty Boom Batty

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Food & Drink
The Benefits of Plums

SweatTheStyle_PlumsStone Fruit is officially in season and we are super excited about it! From cherries to peaches to plums, some of the sweetest, tastiest tree grown food are stone fruits. Of the three fruits, plums are the most unique. Plums contain a unique antioxidant that is effective at neutralizing a particularly harmful type of free radical. Plums are also a low-calorie fruit with a low glycemic index and contain useful amounts of vitamin C, which fortifies the body’s defenses against infection and increases the amount of energy-giving iron that we absorb from food.

Plums come in various colors ranging from black to purple, red, yellow, and everything in between. Plums are generally in season in the United States from the end of May all the way into October. California is the number one producer of plums in the United States and therefore ship plums all over the country. California plums start to ripen in late May and the season goes until around the start of September, so you have a few more months to enjoy as many plums as you can!

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Food & Drink
Watermelon Strawberry Agua Fresca

SweatTheStyle_CattyBoomBatty_AquaFresqua-3When it comes to quenching your thirst this Summer it’s always nice to incorporate fresh fruit! An amazing go-to is agua fresca. Spanish for “cool waters” this drink is an amazingly simple refreshing thirst quencher to enjoy all season long. As we enter July, with fresh watermelon and berry crops entering stores and markets, now is the perfect time to use the fresh fruits of summer! On a recent trip to the farmers market we picked up our ingredients and made this super easy Watermelon Strawberry Aqua Fresca!SweatTheStyle_CattyBoomBatty_AquaFresqua Check out the recipe below:
Serves 2

1 ½ c Watermelon, diced, remove seeds and rind
6 Strawberries, leaves removed
1 Lemon, juiced
1 Mandarinquat, juiced
6 Drops of stevia
½ c Filtered water
3 Basil leaves

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender, puree until completely smooth. Pour over ice and garnish with additional basil leaves.

Recipe by: Catty Boom Batty

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Food & Drink
The Benefits Of Lemon Verbena

SweatTheStyle_LemonVerbenaFor anyone who loves the taste and aroma of lemons, we have the perfect treat for you! Lemon Verbena, fresh or dried is an herb that can truly ramp up the taste in many of our favorite refreshing drinks and even recipes.

Well known as the strongest lemon scent, Lemon Verbena not only tastes great but also has many health benefits. Some of the most fascinating health benefits of lemon verbena include its ability to help with weight loss, protecting your muscles, reducing inflammation, boosting the immune system, calming your stomach, soothing nerves, and clearing up congestion.

Some of the easiest ways to enjoy Lemon Verbena is to mix it with cucumber and water to make a super refreshing summertime drink or you can also add thin slices to your veggies and fish before you throw them on the grill this summer. You can find lemon verbena at many farmers markets and even grow it in your own backyard!

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Food & Drink
More Pink Lemons Please!

SweatTheStyle_PinkLemonsWe know what you’re thinking and nope this is not a grapefruit, they are pink lemons! Pink lemons were first discovered in a home garden on an ordinary Eureka lemon tree in Burbank, California around 1930. It is now grown as a farmers market fruit in limited quantities throughout Southern California.

Pink lemons are visual stunners, especially compared to lemons that you are used to seeing! They have a yellow-and-green-striped skin (when the green fades you know the fruit is ripe) and blush-pink flesh (lycopene which is also the antioxidant that gives grapefruits their ruby hue) that gets pinker as they ripen. You would think with all of this pink greatness the juice would be pink, nope still clear so this is not what makes the pink lemonade pink 🙂 Now to the taste… Pink lemons taste less tart than regular lemons, with a more fruity, floral flavor, making them ideal for desserts, water flavoring, or a summertime cocktail!

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Food & Drink
J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch Avocados

SweatTheStyle_JJSlonesDaughterAvocadosFor many of us avocados hold a sacred place in our hearts. We have all heard the amazing benefits of avocados. Avocados are high in potassium, fiber, antioxidants, and healthy fats. They’re also packed with cancer-fighting carotenoids and let’s not forget how tasty they are!

Laura Ramirez knows about the greatness of avocados. Her Redlands-based farm J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch, brings amazing avocados to the Santa Monica and Hollywood farmers markets every week, not only assisting customers in picking out the perfect citrus fruit of their liking but also surprising most of her customers with the vast amount of different types of avocados!

Her avocados in season right now (pictured above clockwise) are the classic haas, reed and pinkerton. All of this and more make it imperative to taste test these avocados at least once in your life!

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Food & Drink
J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch Fresh Citrus Juice

SweatTheStyle_JJSloanDaughtersRanchJuice-2If you visited any of the major farmers markets in Los Angeles chances are you’ve passed by Farmer Laura Ramirez of J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch. She grows a wide variety of avocados (yes there’s more than just hass), citrus, and other specialty fruit and has recently started bottling her own juices.

What’s special about these juices is they’re made from only the fruit mentioned on the bottle, no artificial additives and no mixes, that way you know you’re getting 100% organic local goodness grown from her farm. After finishing a bottle of blood orange or tangerine we promise you will never look at a glass of OJ the same again!

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Food & Drink
Guerrilla Tacos

SweatTheStyle_GuerrillaTacosGuerrilla Tacos, which parks in front of Los Angeles’ best coffee (and sometimes wine) shops has some of the best tacos around. Wes Avila started Guerrilla Tacos as a street cart in August of 2012. His mission was to make tacos with high-quality, seasonal ingredients in an accessible way. The second you take a bite into one of these tacos you are instantly hooked!

Guerrilla Tacos’ menu changes weekly with local ingredients. Their tacos range from sweet potato topped with almond chile, feta cheese, fried corn, scallions to baja style fried cod with purple cabbage slaw, chipotle crema, burnt tomato chile, cilantro, and chile Japonese (both pictured above.) Over the last four years, Avila has served nearly 200 different tacos, quesadillas, and tostadas.

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