Monthly Archives: March 2012

Coveted Kitchens: Seaside Kitchens

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Please enjoy this guest post on Seaside kitchens –

Hi! I’m Joanna, a guest blogger for Design Shuffle, a top online resource created for interior designers, architects and design enthusiasts. My job allows me to spend my days sharing the most beautiful spaces with blog readers such as you. Thanks to Conscious Kitchen for allowing me to share Seaside Kitchens with you today. Who wouldn’t love a seaside view while preparing meals for family and friends? I would absolutely love the chance to cook up some fresh fish and veggies in a kitchen like one of those below. What would your seaside dream kitchen look like? Take a look at the kitchens below to get some terrific interior design ideas for your space.

Seaside Kitchen

This Hampton’s kitchen has a beachy feel, from the shells sitting atop the range hood to the iridescent blue subway tile. I particularly love the fridge which blends so beautifully with the kitchen’s cabinetry.

Seaside Kitchen

Sea foam green on furniture, tile and accessories makes for a fresh approach to a seaside kitchen. Multiple windows let the natural light in giving the space an almost ethereal quality.

Seaside Kitchen

The lightest touch of green makes this eat-in kitchen crisp and inviting making it the perfect space for grabbing breakfast before spending a day on the beach. The dark counter tops are an interesting choice, but they do add a sophisticated element.

Seaside Kitchen

The most charming of the kitchen designs pictured here, this one really makes you want to grab a pan and make an omelet. How about you, does it give you an interior design ideas of your own?

Seaside Kitchen

A sunny yellow tops a sea foam blue tile backsplash and artwork. The dark floor adds lots of contrast anchoring the predominately white space.

Seaside Kitchen

This beach house kitchen, featured in Coastal Living, boasts sea green cabinetry and black marble countertops. Interestingly, it looks from first glance like a farmhouse décor. On second glance, it has quite a few modern elements.

Seaside Kitchen

This surreal eat-in kitchen right on the beach makes me so envious! I imagine sitting and having a quick bit before heading out for a walk on the beach, especially on a sunny day such as this one. This one will definitely make it to the beach house decorating ideas file.

Seaside Kitchen

An all-white space gets a few touches of color from the skirted toile and a single platter with the image of a ship on it. The eat-in space is surrounded by windows for a nice cheerful ambiance. Images 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Leave a comment and let us know what you think about seaside-inspired kitchens! Be sure to head on over to Design Shuffle to find the best in kitchen inspiration from top Boston interior designers, San Diego interior designers and many others!

Eat Meat & Die???

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There’s been a lot of talk going around the health and nutrition world about red meat. The consensus in the media? It’ll will probably kill you if you eat it. Um, dramatic much?

I don’t believe there is one single food that will contribute to disease or even kill you – everything in moderation and consult your doctor or a registered dietitian to determine your own personal nutritional needs. However, I wanted to shed some light on this topic through two interesting sources I’ve read in the past weeks.

The first is a blog post from The Aspiring RD on why she enjoys steak night Fridays and why we should be weary of all the articles we read. Hint: most journalists aren’t statistics majors. As a journalism school graduate, I can vouch for this being true. Therefore, stories in the media are hindered by how well a particular journalist is with health statistics and also by how much time they have to actually research and write the story. Usually not much in this world of 24 hour news cycles. Moral of the story here: Don’t just beware of what you eat, be aware of what you read.

The second is the following infographic on why read meat will in fact kill you. Based on the previous article I presented, I’ll let you be the judge of this one. Whether you find it informative or not, it is entertaining nonetheless.

Red meat infographic

The Not-So-Sweet Sugary Soda Truth

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The graphic above caught my attention recently and really got me thinking about all the sugary, calorie-laden beverages available to all of us so easily on a regular basis. Ironically enough, the message really hit home while sitting at a restaurant one Friday night after dumping a sugar packet into my previously unsweetened iced tea. If I added the rest of the sugar packets in the small container on the table, I wouldn’t even come close to the 22 packets that could be found in a regular 20 oz. soda. YIKES – that’s a lot of sugar!

In fact, 46 percent of added sugar in our diets comes from soda, energy drinks, sports drinks and sugar-sweetened fruit drinks (source). Not only is all of this sugar bad for our waistlines, it is awful for our overall health. Excessive sugar intake can lead to chronic disease such as diabetes or heart disease as well as contribute to obesity, high blood pressure and nutrient deficiency. The more calories consumed in foods with added sugar, the less room in the diet for other foods with natural sugars (fruits, vegetables, etc.) and the less essential nutrients our bodies get to function properly.

So if a large portion of our added sugars are coming from sweet beverages, why are so many of us avoiding the cookie jar like it is the next coming of the black plague with a sugary, high calorie soda in our hand? According to the Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip cookie recipe, one cookie has 10 grams of sugar which comes out to about 30 grams less than a 12 ounce can of Coke. Think about that. You could eat 4 cookies and it would equal the amount of added sugar in one soda beverage. (Note: I’m not advocating that cookies have better nutrition value overall, just that they have less sugar than a soda. I by no means think you should replace soda in your diet with cookies — this is just an observation used to put something into prospective.)

No one is perfect and we can’t expect to cut sugar out of our lives completely, but it is best, like everything else, in moderation. Luckily, kicking a sugary soda habit may be easier than you think. I’ve found that with strong will and by filling up on plenty of water, your body begins to feel different, better in fact, making it easier to keep up with the healthy choices you’ve previously made. If you are looking to lose weight, small changes are key. A simple change like ditching sodas and other sugary beverages just may jump start the pounds falling off.

Take away: We don’t (usually) eat all the cookies in the cookie jar without remorse, so why are we drinking all the soda in the fridge without a blink of an eye? Cut out or cut back on sugary beverages and get healthier.

Oregano, Dill and Chives — Oh My! Planting an Herb Garden

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My herb seeds

This past weekend I played farmer and decided to plant my very own herb garden. I don’t know if it was the unseasonably warm weather or my new found love for spices/herbs in the kitchen that really inspired the idea, but whatever it was… I’m sure glad I did it.

First, a word on why I love herbs. Quite simply, herbs can add delicious flavors without adding calories, fats or other nutritional negatives. In fact, many of these plants (yes, herbs are plants) offer important vitamins and minerals that our bodies use to function at their best. Herbs and spices are the best alternatives to heavier sauces that usually are made with large quantities of less than desirable ingredients such as creams, cheeses, etc. I’m really looking forward to using my herbs in the kitchen — talk about getting food from a local source!

Anyways, this project started at our local Home Depot store where I sifted through large amounts of different seeds – searching for the perfect herbs (for me). I ended up deciding to grow cilantro, sweet basil, oregano, dill and chives. I made my selections based on what I use most in my cooking.

Step one - fill the planter with soil.

Back at home — I filled my planter with soil. If you choose to do an herb garden in a planter make sure to get proper potting soil as it is full of nutrients for the plants.

Next, I watered and raked out the soil before planting the seeds. Follow instructions on the seed packets to ensure proper planting.

Herb garden - day 1

The final product! Not too exciting yet, but I look forward to watching the herbs grow and using them in some yummy recipes. Stay tuned for updates on my garden’s progress…

My Miles: St. Paddy’s Day 5K

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St. Paddy's Day 5K

First off — a happy belated St. Patrick’s Day to all of y’all! Hope everyone enjoyed the chance to celebrate the luck of the Irish. Little known fact: I’m indeed a quarter Irish and I love St. Patrick’s Day not only as a way to show some Irish pride, but because to me, it starts to signal the return of spring — especially with this wonderful weather (can you say 80 degrees in March?!?) Chicago has been having.

Anyways, back to the purpose of this post. On Saturday morning I ran my first 5K race in quite some time. Now there was a time when I’d never wake up at 6:30 a.m. on a weekend morning to go run… for fun. But that’s exactly what I did!

And I did it well… by my standards at least. My goal was to finish in under 30 minutes. My time came in at 27 min. and 28 sec. Woohoo!

Participating in the race was important to me because I’ll be running a half marathon in early June. Today marks the first day of my formal training, so going into it knowing I’ve successfully completed a race is some seriously strong motivation.

So any training tips? I’d love to chat with anyone whose gone through training and/or runs regularly!

At the finish line

Bonus - proving it was a beautiful St. Patty's Day in IL - shorts & t-shirt weather!

Coveted Kitchens: Everything and the Kitchen Sink

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The Farmhouse Sink

Photo credit: Kitchens.com

There are few things more frustrating than trying to wash a large pan to find it’s just barely too big to fit all the way into the sink. We’ve all been there — the struggle to clean one half without re-dirtying the other. Welp, this week’s kitchen eye candy features the solution to those problems. A deep farmhouse (or apron) sink.

While completely functional, sometimes the look of these sinks doesn’t really appeal to everyone. However, the one in the photo blends so effortlessly with the rest of the kitchen design, I can’t help but fall in love with this look.

Lean, Mean, Green Fighting Machines

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Let me start by saying I’ve never met a Jamba Juice flavor I didn’t like — and I mean it. I even liked the (admittedly) somewhat weird peanut butter flavor. So naturally all this talk about “green smoothies” in the health and nutrition world got me thinking… why the heck would anyone want to eat pureed lettuce?

Green Smoothie. Photo credit: Two Peas & Their Pod

Turns out a lot of people seemed to be hooked… and it’s not just lettuce they are blending up. I came across this post on a raw foods and healthy eating blog and finally learned what it means to make a green smoothie and why they are so good for your body.

When we cook vegetables many of the vitamins and nutrients are lost in the cooking process taking away from their healthy benefits. To get the most vitamins and nutrients out of your fruits and vegetables it is important to increase the amount eaten in their raw form. Green smoothies are a beneficial way to absorb these important nutrients because the cell walls have been ruptured by the blending process and the nutrients are extracted in a more digestible form.

I feel enlightened now, but I’m still a wee bit hesitant about how it might taste. I  understand and am even intrigued by this seemingly simple way to add more important veggies (read nutrients) into my diet, but I’m just not sure…

Curiosity has almost gotten the best of me so I dug up a recipe that has bananas, strawberries and yogurt in it along with spinach. If I get brave enough to try it for breakfast one of these days, I’ll let you all know. Until then, long live the Strawberry Surf Rider. 

Pizza comes from Italy, Flammkuchen comes from Germany

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Flamm what? Flammkuchen. During a recent trip to Germany, I had the opportunity to taste a dish that has quickly become a staple in my kitchen repertoire.

Click through for photo credit

A (can be) healthy and smart alternative to pizza, Flammkuchen is as delicious as it is nutrient rich when made with an abundance of vegetables.  It is one of my favorite things to make because it is an easy way to use up remains of vegetables from other meals (read: perfect for Friday night or Saturday lunch) and it is a light yet satisfying meal.

The crispy, crunchy crust perfectly complements a plethora of juicy veggies. Cooked on high heat, Flammkuchen is a perfect compromise of delicious pizza taste without the calorie guilt of wanting to head to the gym  immediately after consuming.

While you’ll probably need a recipe to create the dough (disclaimer: I’ve only used this recipe for the dough. Can’t speak for the rest of it) for the crust, take a creative license with the rest of the ingredients. My favorite toppings are bell peppers, red onions, zucchini or squash and goat cheese. I also opt to omit the creme fraiche and just spray a light dusting of olive oil to save calories and fat content.

So what are you waiting for? Grab some veggies, make a crust and bon appetit!

Coveted Kitchens: Outdoor Oasis

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Image

Photo Credit: Kitchens.com

A kitchen is meant to do two things: Prepare delicious food and bring people together. Think about it – people tend to gravitate toward the kitchen counter and chat. They chat about food, life, wine and probably food again.

So it comes as no surprise that this outdoor kitchen revolves around  entertaining. This tiki-hut inspired beauty takes me back to Mexico and warmer days. (I wish it quite literally took me back, but that’s a different story.) Some details to note about this are the warm, inviting hues and the bar stools along the left side. Perfect for chatting.