What’s a Super Bowl without wings? In this chicken wing recipe we are seasoning the wings with Old Bay, a favorite spice blend for crab which works just as well with chicken.
The wings are tossed with in a sauce make with Old Bay, butter, and lemon juice, then baked, broiled, and served with cocktail sauce.
Continue reading "Old Bay Chicken Wings" »
Need a quick side dish of vegetables to go with your meal? Try steam-frying them!
Using this method, you quickly stir-fry vegetables to develop some color, and then steam them until tender. Steam-frying uses less oil than a regular stir-fry, but the vegetables still quickly cook through.
The veggies also pick up a little browning from the stir-fry step and some flavor from the liquid used for the steaming step, making them more exciting than plain steamed vegetables.
You can use this technique to cook just about any vegetable in the fridge, from cauliflower to green beans.
Continue reading "How To Steam-Fry Vegetables" »
Hot and cheesy spinach dip, grab some chips, toasts or crudites and dig in! Perfect for parties or gatherings, you can double or triple the recipe as needed.
I first posted this recipe back in 2010, my oldest daughter Karina loves this dip! It was the only way I could get her to east spinach and made it often for her as an after school snack. With the Superbowl coming I thought I would revive it! You can prepare this a day ahead and bake as needed. It can also be frozen before heating up if you want to prepare this a few days ahead.
We didn’t have a name picked out yet. Since the beginning, our baby name wishlist had been sort of high-maintenance: I wanted a nature-inspired name, bonus if it ended with an “n.” Bjork wanted a short name with a Scandinavian feel. 
We’re “those” people.
The day before Afton was born, Bjork’s parents came to visit us in the hospital. I was coming in and out of sleep, and they sat talking quietly in the chairs next to my hospital bed. Their conversation shifted to poetry and music, and in my hazy state of mind I heard Bjork say something about Nickel Creek and the song “Sweet Afton.” I’m not saying this to be dramatic – I honestly felt like a little bolt of lightning zapped me. I snapped wide awake. Afton. With Bjork and his parents still talking about poetry, I grabbed my phone and started googling.
Afton: a river in Scotland, for my nature theme.
Afton: a Swedish word that means afternoon or evening, for Bjork’s Scandinavian feel.
Afton: a name ending with an “n,” for my weird enjoyment of names ending with “n”.
And “Sweet Afton”, one of our favorite songs.
I started crying.
Bjork looked at me, mid-conversation, and asked me if I was okay. Yes, I said. Yes, I’m okay.
That night, we talked about the name. It felt so right. “Let’s sleep on it,” we said. And then things took a fast turn – we went from bedrest to emergency c-section at just 23 weeks and 3 days. We still hadn’t picked our baby’s name.
The room emptied to give us a minute alone before the surgery, and Bjork and I could hardly see each other through our tears. We were about to meet our son, but it was way too early. Lung development, long term health complications, survival… the weight of it all was suffocating. We stayed quiet, holding hands. And then, in the silence: “Afton?” Bjork said gently. “Afton.” I said back.
Sweet Afton is called a hymn for peace, and it’s so fitting. We played this song during Afton’s birth, through his last moments on earth as we held him close, and once more as we laid him to rest in peace forever.
Flow gently, my sweet Afton. 
You are so loved.
The post The Song: Afton’s Story, Part Four appeared first on Pinch of Yum.
Where I live in Boston, seeing “fish and chips” on a restaurant menu is as common as salt. Every fish shack serves them by default, and you’ll find fancy versions at high-end restaurants, too!
When making fish and chips at home, I say leave the deep-frying to the pros and opt for the oven instead.
Continue reading "Sheet Pan Fish and Chips" »
This beautiful salad, made with massaged kale, roasted sweet potatoes, dried cherries, crumbled Feta cheese and pepitas is both nourishing and delicious!
I had gone in for a routine exam when we realized that something might be wrong. It was after hours, so the doctor sent me to the nearest hospital to have a specialist take a look, “just to make sure.” The hospital we were sent to was the hospital that we were also planning to deliver at. Well, hey! we thought. This is convenient! We had already done a tour like the super eager-beaver parents that we are, and we joked more than once on our way into the hospital about how it was actually kind of awesome to have a practice run before coming in for the real thing.
We waited for the doctor in the triage room, eating graham crackers and drinking apple juice and watching the Hallmark Christmas movie that the nurse had put on the TV. The doctor came in, started the exam, and said: nope, there’s no dilation… oh my goodness, yes there is. She’s dilated and her water is about to break through. Lay the bed flat, lay the bed flat.
The nurse rushed to lay the bed flat – inverse, actually, with my head reclined lower than my feet. And there could be no more painfully perfect metaphor for our lives in that moment – the tipping of the bed signaling the tipping of our world. Completely and utterly flipped, crashing, inverse, upside down, all wrong.
The doctor took my hand. “Lindsay, if you deliver tonight…” Tonight? I stopped breathing. I stopped listening. I’m only 23 weeks. “Bedrest… risks… survival…” No, no, no. This isn’t my life.
When they left us alone for a minute, Bjork and I cried and tried to find words, something to make this okay or to reassure us that our baby would come out of this just fine. And there was really nothing, except:
This is our story now.
We said these words to each other over and over throughout the next 6 days, telling ourselves at every turn: this is our story.
Brené Brown says: If we own the story, then we can write the ending.
Even now, in these fresh and tender days after Afton is gone, I’m reminding myself – this is your story now. It really hurts. It’s not the story you wanted. But it’s not done, and you can still write the ending.
The post The Bed: Afton’s Story, Part Three appeared first on Pinch of Yum.
This tastes just like take-out except a million times better! And it’s so much easier to make than you think in less than 20 min!
It’s been a cold winter here in Los Angeles.
The post Easy Hot and Sour Soup appeared first on Damn Delicious.
Treat yourself or your loved ones to this special dish – crab cakes topped with avocado relish and a poached egg. Perfect for breakfast, lunch or brunch!
Traditional Eggs Benedict are made with Hollandaise sauce, but I prefer to skip the Hollandaise which shaves off about 200 calories, the egg yolks are perfectly silky on their own!
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Skinnytaste Dinner Plan (Week 61). This past week I returned to one of my favorite places… Charleston! While there I cooked a few Skinnytaste recipes for a group. One of those recipes was the roasted cauliflower rice that we had with fresh fish we picked up at the local fish market. It was so good, I added it back on the menu this week, hope you enjoy!
Skinnytaste Dinner Plan (Week 61)
Monday: Crock Pot Minestrone Soup (Making in my Instant Pot)
Tuesday: Turkey Taco Spaghetti Squash Boats (on taco shells for Madison)
Wednesday: Stuffed Pepper Soup
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Flounder Piccata with Roasted Cauliflower “Rice” with Garlic and Lemon
Saturday: Dinner Out
Sunday: Pressure Cooker Stewed Chicken With Corn (Pollo Guisado Con Maiz) over brown rice
This month we’re sharing a few recipes from our friend Tess Masters, The Blender Girl! Tess is our go-to gal for fantastic vegan and gluten-free blender recipes. Check out her newest book The Perfect Blend, available now on Amazon.
Have you ever tried making a savory smoothie?
This non-alcoholic, breakfast-worthy spin on a traditional Bloody Mary cocktail is a splendid (s’blended!) introduction to veggie-based smoothies.
Continue reading "Bloody Mary Smoothie" »
In the weeks leading up to Afton’s birth, I started reading some books on life with a newborn.
One of the things that I loved was this idea of giving your baby a comfort item – something that would help them fall asleep on their own. Sleep! Newborns! 
, right? Because two weeks ago, I was still a normal person who worried about things like how we would get our baby to sleep. The idea is that you (mom/dad) sleep with the item, for example, a blanket, and after a day or two, it absorbs you – your scent, your breath, your skin – and that’s what makes it comforting to your baby. “Isn’t that the sweetest idea, Bjork?” I said. “Let’s do that for our baby.”
In the chaotic hours after Afton was born, I found myself laying in a hospital bed holding a small fabric heart from the NICU. It was cut a little crooked, with a chintzy printed fabric, likely made with lots of love by a hospital volunteer. There was a note pinned to it instructing me to wear the heart against my skin for a day or two before placing it in Afton’s isolette, so that even in the days ahead when we could not hold him yet, he would be able to sense our presence. I immediately tucked it into my shirt. “It’s just like the book, Bjork!” I said. “Just like our plan.”
Except then things didn’t go as planned.
Yesterday morning, I tucked that fabric heart – the one I’ve been dutifully wearing every second of every day since the moment Afton was born – underneath my baby’s still hand. I wrapped the edges of the heart around his tiny body, and then I swaddled him nice and cozy for the last time on this earth before laying him to peacefully rest in his tiny casket.
We buried Afton with a few things: pictures of us, pictures of Sage, a blanket from his grandma, a book that his daddy read to him. But the thing that makes me feel most like a good mom to Afton was burying him with that crooked little fabric heart tucked up right against his chest.
My mind knows that Afton is gone, that he can’t feel or smell anymore. But my heart says so surely: good job, mama. He has his comfort item. Your baby knows that you’re with him forever.
The post The Heart: Afton’s Story, Part 2 appeared first on Pinch of Yum.
Soak your oats overnight for the quickest breakfast all week long! You can double or triple the recipe. Seriously. It’s just so easy!
Oats are up there with the healthiest grains in the world, and they have so many health benefits.
The post Easy Overnight Oats appeared first on Damn Delicious.
Wow. It’s been a whole lifetime since we last met here.
Words are hard to come by, but also not. Maybe they’re hard to come by because there are so many – does that even make sense? I don’t trust my grief brain these days.
Right now, my writing life has one Big Question: how do I tell Afton’s story? how do I document every critical moment, every raw emotion? how do I do his short, precious life justice? It’s so long and wide and deep – the thought of writing it all out feels both motivating and completely overwhelming.
I have a vision that someday I will get his birth and his life all written out in one chronological piece. Someday. But for today, for the next ten days, actually, I’d love to invite you into some of the small stories. They tell about beautiful, important, smaller moments, and I think, even though incomplete in their scope, they are where a lot of the magic lives. They are the stories within The Story.
Recipes will come back – I can feel it in my bones. But I am forever changed, and this telling of Afton’s story is one of the ways that the blog is reflecting my newness.
So with that, I’d love to introduce you to a ten-part series that I will be publishing over the next 2-ish weeks – I’m calling it Afton’s Story.
Thank you for being here. Honestly, THANK YOU. You are lighting our way.
Our 6 days in the hospital held a lifetime of trauma. The shift from “things are getting better” to “we need to move to an emergency c-section.” The decision to resuscitate. The hopeful sound of two meowing cries as he was born – the only sounds I’ll ever hear him make. The joy for having a healthy baby, and the desperation for him being born at 23 weeks.
The 2am call that our baby was struggling. The dark walk to the NICU, me in a wheelchair, wrapped in hospital bedsheets and shaking uncontrollably, and a terrified Bjork pushing me through deserted hospital hallways. The panic as we rounded the corner and saw room 44 overflowing with doctors and nurses and medical equipment. The sharp, stabbing realization that things were not going to be okay. That this was both the beginning and the end.
In all the darkness, there is one moment of clarity that feels bright and divine, and I am clinging to the memory of it like a lifeline: the moment they laid my beautiful, perfectly formed, 1lb 3oz sweet Afton on my chest.
His skin on my skin. My baby, warm and tiny. I felt his heart beating right over my own heart, I touched his delicate new skin, but even beyond the physical realm, I felt something lock – solidly LOCK – into place inside me, in my heart. It was beyond description. The physical and emotional feelings were SO BIG and so real. In that split second, with the two of us touching heartbeats for the very first time, my world clicked into place. It was my heart fully realizing, 12 hours after the c-section: yes, THIS. There you are. My baby.
I stopped shaking. I was calm. I felt a literal rush of love. I whispered to him without crying. All this, even in knowing that we would be saying goodbye to our baby in our very next breath. It was the most profoundly beautiful and hard moment of my life.
It has been 25 days since that moment, and things have quieted down, which is both welcome and scary. I cuddle Sage, I laugh at a text message, and then in the next minute I feel so sure that a part of me has died, and I wonder if it might never come back. It gets literally hard to breathe.
There are no easy answers, no cliche comforting phrases, no silver linings that could make this all okay.
But our family is forever, and I am holding so fast to the hope that someday I will have him in my arms again, feeling his heart beating against my chest, in perfect peace and wholeness.
It’s one of the most powerful things Afton could have ever given me: freedom from fear of death.
The post Afton’s Story (1): There You Are appeared first on Pinch of Yum.
Winter in California is the season for peppery arugula. Several years ago my parents planted some arugula in their garden and for years the arugula would re-seed itself, taking over the entire garden with a flourish, starting in December.
While mature arugula can be almost too intense to eat raw (best for left for cooking), young baby arugula is perfect for salads, and can easily be found in markets these days.
Continue reading "Arugula Salad with Beets and Goat Cheese" »
The absolute perfect weeknight meal that comes together in minutes! Use leftover rotisserie chicken, fresh tomatoes, pesto and cheese!
I’ve been eating a little too healthy lately.
The post Chicken Pesto Pizza appeared first on Damn Delicious.
Everyone needs a go-to recipe for chocolate cake. Maybe you volunteered to bring dessert for a dinner with friends, or you’ve got weekend guests, or there’s a birthday to celebrate.
This isn’t one of those dense death-by-chocolate cakes, but more like a richer version of devil’s food cake. Cover it with a thick layer of chocolate frosting and serve it right out of the pan.
Continue reading "Chocolate Sour Cream Cake with Chocolate Frosting" »
I love cauliflower “rice”, and I love the nutty flavor of roasted cauliflower so I combined the two to make this easy low-carb side dish that goes great with just about anything from chicken, to steak or fish.
Cauliflower “Rice” uses finely chopped cauliflower, which makes a fantastic low-carb, grain-free stand in for rice. Many supermarkets carry it already chopped which is super time saving, but it’s just as easy to make at home with a food processor. The upside to chopping it yourself is you’ll save money and the shelf life of cauliflower is longer before it’s cut. (more…)
Make your favorite grilled cheese right at home without skimping on the lobster meat. It’s so stinking easy, and cheaper too!
The most epic, unforgettable lobster grilled cheese of. your. life.
The post Lobster Grilled Cheese appeared first on Damn Delicious.
While comfort cooking and speed don’t usually coexist, this mildly spicy soup is an exception to the rule.
If you made a New Year’s resolution to eat a little better this year, this soup will keep you on track. It’s not health food — just good, healthy food!
Continue reading "Soba Noodle Soup with Chicken and Bok Choy" »
Eggs are not just for breakfast, I love them for lunch or dinner too! This flavorful protein-pack breakfast bowl has a Mexican flair, topped with salsa verde, black beans, avocados and queso fresco.
