Hi! I’m super excited! Today is the day my blog is born. This blog baby has been in the works for years. I love to cook, share and photograph my creations. What better place to share my passions than here on ashleyhashman!
Let’s go ahead and talk about that name, ashleyhashman. You see, I have a bad case of CRS, Can’t Remember Shit, which causes me to quickly forget or transpose the names of my favorite sites so I decided to remove all possible confusion and simply name it after myself. HA! You love it, I know.
I’ll be sharing my favorite recipes, my own creations, thoughts on motherhood, and other general musings. I hope you find inspiration along the way!
I believe in using great ingredients to create healthy, and sometimes indulgent, foods. I will be sharing many gluten and grain free recipes because I am nursing my wee one who is sensitive to any gluten, oats, and quinoa.
Let’s get to the good stuff. Salad. I eat a big salad for lunch almost every day. My salad requirements are a base of tender greens topped with protein, fat, crunchy veggies and nuts or seeds, sometimes a little fruit, and a fabulous dressing.
My go to greens are Publix Greenwise organic mixed greens which have great flavor, texture, and color. Super bonus, I can buy them in a big container that’ll usually last us the whole work week. Yay! As for protein, I mostly use leftover meat from dinner the night before. When I’m in a pinch or the mood strikes we have medium boiled eggs atop our greens. Fat, good fat, is so important in a salad, it rounds out the flavor and aids in nutrient absorption. I add avocado to 95% of the salads I make, bacon and toasted coconut are great too and don’t forget about the fat in the dressing. Veggies are the pop, zing of salads. They add color, texture, and flavor. Fresh cukes, tomatoes, and onions are musts but don’t stop there. Any variety of olives, hearts of palm, peppers (fresh or jarred), jicama, peas, green beans, potatoes, I could go on forever! Nuts or seeds also make it into most of my salads. Toasted pecans, walnuts, cashews, sliced almonds, pepitas, or sunflower seeds adds so much flavor and crunch! Fruit is a fab addition to a salad. Dates, strawberries, and peaches have been my faves lately.
Dressing is one of my favorite parts of a salad. I believe a dressing should be a compliment to your salad not the star. My go to is a simple cocktail of lemon juice (always fresh), olive oil, salt and pepper. You can add in herbs, spices, or garlic to liven it up but I think its great all on its own. I’ve also been experimenting with homemade mayo based vinaigrette which sounds like an oxymoron but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the creamy, tart flavor. I’ll be sharing the recipe once I’ve perfected it.
Oh. My. Gobble!! I forgot all about CHEESE!!! Please excuse my Whole30 brain for this horrid transgression, I’m currently on day 20 and there is no cheese in my life for the next 10 days. Cheese is a wonderful part of life. To those with dairy sensitivities, I apologize for my gluttonous love of cheese. Blue cheese, hard cheese, triple cream cheese, oh my! I go through fazes where all I want are blue cheeses on my salads, crumbled blue or Gorgonzola were my jam before Whole30 but any cheese you fancy makes a ripe addition to a salad. (Cute pun, right!? HA!)
Back to dressings. There are many who say you need to add a pinch or more of sugar (honey, maple syrup) to most dressings. It’s not true. I am insulin resistant so I watch my sugar and would rather have some chocolate or fruit instead of adding sweetener where it’s not really needed. There are a few exceptions, of course. I prefer to add fruit if I need something sweet in my salad or dressing.
This is how I make my go to Lemony dressing. I’ve made the recipe perfect for you to customize to your liking.
Holy cauliflower! This “risotto” is amazing. It’s a perfect grain free and low carb option which is perfect for my dietary needs. I found this recipe on foodgawker (my favorite site to drool over.) Valentina over at the lovely “cooking on the weekends” blog posted this and I could almost taste the delicate creamy flavors as I her studied her recipe and photos.