I was just in my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA for a visit. One of our city's greatest culinary contributions are Pittsburgh Salads which are LOADED with toppings and french fries!

These salads are a full meal and include veggies, meat, cheese, garlic bread, fries, and anything else you'd like to add. The finishing touch comes from buffalo chicken, grilled steak or shrimp, or even sriracha tofu!

What more can we say or read about Covid-19, staying at home, and how our lives have changed? I've never eaten or cooked at home so much in my entire life.

While it's not easy to find chickpeas in grocery stores these days I eventually did. This recipe patiently waited until that lucky day and it was worth the wait!

​The next time you can get your hands on 30 ounces of chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans) you've got to make these sweet potato & chickpea bowls.

For more recipes like this one check out the recipes page. 

This recipe is perfect! It's got warm and cool ingredients, smooth, soft, and crunchy textures, and it's super nourishing. It requires only ONE cooking step, roasting the seasoned sweet potatoes and chickpeas in the oven, and you're done.

These sweet potato & chickpea bowls make a great lunch or an outdoor dinner for a warm day. You could even set up an assembly line of the toppings and let your hungry friends and family build their own bowls. 

I found the recipe in Bon Appetit Magazine's March 2020 edition and made a few modifications of my own. 

Maybe you've never had a fig. If you haven't and I handed you one you'd say: "I don't even know how to eat this!" 

Well here we are: I've made a whole list, complete with pictures, for how to eat figs. Your first fig should be fresh, right from the tree. You can eat it all, the skin and the inside, just not top of the stem. There's no seed inside. Just take a BIG OLE BITE. Then, once you're in love, use this list to get creative with your new favorite fruit. 
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I love figs, clearly, as I've named my blog in honor of them. It all started in the backyard of  my Pap Pap (that's Pittsburgh-speak for Grandfather) when I was a kid. He'd pull fresh figs right off of the tree and he'd let me eat as many as I wanted! The hard part, back then, was waiting for the figs to be in season. The hard part, still, is waiting for the figs to be in season! 

Pap sold that house when I was in second grade and went to the eternal fig tree in the sky when I was in college. Good news, though, I grew up and bought a house that came complete with a yard and a fig tree! I never feel my Pap's spirit more than when I'm back there picking figs and eating them without a care in the world (see photo of me IN the tree).

​Those of you who've been reading my blogs since the old days might remember my older blog and "The House with the Fig Tree" stories from when we'd just moved in to our house.

This trail mix is so good, it doesn’t make sense. The coconut pieces make it feel fancy and the chocolate chunks provide more chocolate than the average chip. I’ve taken this mix camping, on weekend trips, and even on flights. It’s great for sharing with friends, especially when you make this huge batch.

You don’t need a Trader Joe’s store, or these exact ingredients to make trail mix. Certainly you can make some form of this mixture with any type of nut, variation of coconut, variety of chocolate or candy, and/or dried fruit. I like the contrast of some almonds with salt and some without.

Breakfast is a struggle for me. I want coffee followed by more coffee. Food is good but I want a huge glass of water, maybe a smoothie and yes, more coffee. I’ll often take a banana to go and I can always eat peanut butter (or almond butter, cashew butter, etc).

This recipe idea came to me when a (hot) cappuccino I'd been drinking was left alone and turned cold. I threw it into the blender with these other breakfast items and now I give you the Daybreak Smoothie. Coffee is included and encouraged, although not necessary!