As much as I love the flavors of simple ingredients, sometimes I do indulge myself a little and delve into the harder-to-find ones. It's a fun challenge every once in a while, and one can make a dish unable to be replicated based on the variation of ingredient sources. For this smoky pappardelle dish, I used everything from the farmers' market save for the salt and pepper (still artisan, small batch). I hesitated on putting this recipe up because of the difficulty of compiling all of these ingredients together by one person but I felt it was necessary to share the idea of it all in case you wanted to replace components here and there. At the very least, you can take a peek into what goes on in my mind when I put a dish together.

A lot of times, I hesitate to put up recipes that feel too simple and made of too few ingredients. Why would anyone want this up, I wonder. Then I remember that there are some days when I feel uncreative and not like thinking about what to make for food (usually after a long day); a simple and quick recipe like this would be perfect for those moments. So hey, why not stick this one up? I have no fancy names for it. It is a rudimentary mixing of tri-color quinoa, spinach, and mushrooms - full of the good-for-you stuff! You might be surprised with how few ingredients there are and a little concerned about taste. No worries - the quinoa is nutty, the mushroom is savory, the broth is salty, and the spinach has some sweetness. If anything, use this as a base recipe for some other mixtures of your liking.

Our exploration of the Hollywood Farmers' Market's unique mushroom selection a while back exposed us to several mushrooms we had never seen before. One of these was the lion's mane, a bulbous large structure of seemingly-fluffy fungus that was a brilliant white. It was quite beautiful and looked toothy though it was not. After further researching on what it really was, I decided that I had to take other chefs' words on it being a good substitute for lobster/scallops for vegetarians and vegans. At first, I could not truly believe that this soft mushroom could possess the same tastes and traits as seafood but once I worked with it, I was surprised to find it an apt replacement. These are a tad bit expensive to get ahold of but I would highly recommend experiencing them at least once.

It's a bit funny how I had never heard of lettuce wraps being an Asian dish until I first stepped foot into a fast-casual Asian-inspired restaurant many years back. Then I seemed to see it everywhere, this dish of saucy cubed stir-fry that made a mess when wrapped in the hand by a mere vegetable "paper" but was quite tasty. It's a salad without the chopping of the greens in a sense! So I made a tofu and mushroom version one night using some tasty ingredients we had procured at a farmers' market. This vegetarian (and I guess also vegan if you use vegetarian "oyster" sauce!) recipe brought a lot of bright colors to the table from all of the produce. It's a bit simple to make too but packed with a lot of flavor. If you don't feel like eating this wrapped in lettuce, you could also just have this over a healthful bowl of brown rice.

The simplest dishes can sometimes be the best. I was trying to figure out how to use some beautiful brown and white beech mushrooms I had on hand one day when I realized that there was some fresh asparagus in the refrigerator as well from a farmers' market we had visited. Extra chow mein noodles in the pantry made it all easier to decide that a garlicky, quick, and feel-good meal was in order. You can consider this a good vegetarian way to make a lunch/dinner or you can use it as a base dish for other mixes. I'd say that the prominent flavor was garlic and sesame oil so hopefully you like those. Oh and a bit of Sriracha mixed in at the end made it even better (not pictured)!

This post is one of several as part of the Mushroom Council's 30-day weight loss challenge called the #MushroomMakeover. I am being financially compensated for my participation as an ambassador for this program but the opinions and anecdotes posted are my own.

This is it - the final post. How quickly the Mushroom Makeover challenge has gone by! I am so honored to have been part of this great group of bloggers who were participating and to also have been a participant in a live Google Hangout session about mushrooms. If you haven't seen the past posts, I have just finished this Mushroom Makeover challenge held by the Mushroom Council and Mamavation where I replaced mushrooms for meat (or just make mushroom-centric dishes) four times a week in addition to followed some dietary guidelines and a defined workout schedule. Last week I didn't lose any weight but this week, I dropped off 1.2 lbs. While the total amount for the past 30 days might not seem impressive (2.6 absolute loss), I know that the progress has been much more impressive on my health. It is a definite truth that mushrooms are great fillers with less the calories than meat.

In addition to my weight in pounds, I was also asked to measure myself progress at specific areas. I had some interesting changes between Day One and the end date. As aforementioned, 2.6 pounds were lost but I would suspect more has been. It is very possible that doing all of my workouts has built out muscles and therefore made little progress on what is lost, numerically. I lost 2" off of my waist but gained .5" on both my hips and thighs (leg workouts and muscle growing?). I also managed somehow to lose about 2.5" from my chest! Throughout the journey though, the weight loss was secondary to getting my health back on track. With help from Corinne Dobbas, our dietitian during this program, and Mark Segedie, our physical trainer, I think I have done a good job kickstarting myself back to a healthier me. This week's meals involved some help from others in the family as they wanted to get in on the mushroom action - check the photos after the jump:

This post is one of several as part of the Mushroom Council's 30-day weight loss challenge called the #MushroomMakeover. I am being financially compensated for my participation as an ambassador for this program but the opinions and anecdotes posted are my own.

I am absolutely shocked that I am still sick! Well, I say sick in the sense that I still have sniffles and cough every once in a while. Other than that, I feel fine so it's a bit of bummer since I appear to others sicker than I really feel/am. Dang. What it has certainly also done is made it a little bit difficult to get through my workouts through the Mushroom Makeover schedule but I PERSEVERE! I'm still getting through them one by one. This past week, I spent most of my days in San Diego at the Social Media Marketing World conference so I admit that I did not have much of a choice in adhering to the guidelines 100% when it comes to the lovely nutritional plan given to us by Corinne Dobbas. Nevertheless, I still managed to get my mushrooms in! I would attribute my straying from the plan to why I did not lose any weight this week but I would credit the workouts to why I also did not gain. That's right - I stayed precisely the same to a tenth of a pound. Yay, no gain!

If you haven't seen the past posts, I am heading into the final week of this Mushroom Makeover challenge held by the Mushroom Council and Mamavation where I replace mushrooms for meat (or just make mushroom-centric dishes) four times a week in addition to following some dietary guidelines and a defined workout schedule. So far so good, and I have been losing some weight along the way. Given that they are low in sodium and quite filling though lesser in calories than other protein sources, mushrooms are a great way to go when it comes to making meals. I was already a fan of the fungi but after these past few weeks, am a bigger fan! For Week Three, I had gone a little bit in the direction of comfort food. Check out the recipes after the jump:

This post is one of several as part of the Mushroom Council's 30-day weight loss challenge called the #MushroomMakeover. I am being financially compensated for my participation as an ambassador for this program but the opinions and anecdotes posted are my own.

How long is it that people say you need to do something daily before it becomes a habit? After Week 2, this Mushroom Makeover feels more like a habit which is fantastic. In fact, I think both Duc and I are starting to get the hang of it, eating mushrooms often and filling our days with healthy foods. If you are just tuning in on this post about the #MushroomMakeover, I'll give you a brief rundown - for 30 days starting March 10th, I have been participating (along with other bloggers) in a weight loss "challenge" by the Mushroom Council and Mamavation where I have to replace four meals per week with mushrooms, follow a dietitian's food plan, and participate in a workout plan. It was a tough start at first just because I had to find ways to add in workouts to my already jam-packed days but it has been great since I need that kind of structure to get back into shape!

For Week 2, we found some beautiful mushrooms in a local Asian supermarket that we know as a good source of great produce. This resulted in our abundant shopping cart that held several varieties of mushrooms typically used in Asian cuisine so I decided to do an Asian Week for the Mushroom Makeover! Luckily for us, there is already so much umami in mushrooms and a lower salt content that I didn't have to worry too much about seasoning my dishes. I was also surprised at how quickly these dishes came together, and I absolutely recommend working some mushrooms into your meals. As for the physical progress, I've lost a total of 1.4 lbs since the last weigh-in last week so whoohoo for that! Our dietitian, Corinne Dobbas, has been a fantastic and supportive resource these past two weeks. Anyhow, recipes below!

This post is one of several as part of the Mushroom Council's 30-day weight loss challenge called the #MushroomMakeover. I am being financially compensated for my participation as an ambassador for this program but the opinions and anecdotes posted are my own.

Wow. The first week is over already? I can hardly believe it. I started the Mushroom Makeover Challenge just last Monday but I have definitely learned a lot more about myself than I thought I would. I posted last week about what the program was about but in short, it's a 30-day challenge sponsored by the Mushroom Council and hosted by Mamavation for 15 bloggers to replace at least 4 of their meals' meat with mushrooms. I love mushrooms so I was more than happy to be a part but then I started learning more about their nutritional value, their overall health benefits, and creative ways to use them. We also have the lovely guidance of an oh-so-helpful dietitian, Corinne Dobbas, and a personal trainer, Mark Segedie, who both have meal and workout plans ready for us!

So what's been happening so far? It's called a weight loss challenge, right? I weighed myself at the start of the program and want to track that progress weekly. Bodily measurements, I'll be checking at the end of the 30 days to see where they've gone. For Week 1, I'm actually quite happy to say that my weight stayed exactly the same to the tenth of a pound. Why am I not disappointed in that? Well, with the workout plan in place, I know for sure that I have been building muscle back in my body and muscle "weighs more," as in it is denser than fat. If I'm regaining muscle mass but my weight hasn't changed, I must have lost weight somewhere (is my logic right? haha). I'd say that's pretty good considering that a sore throat came on Friday afternoon and I had to miss that day's workout! Aside from the exercising, a good food regimen helps manage the weight, and having mushrooms fill me up just the same as meat does while taking in less calories is a major bonus. I've got my mushroom meals posted after the jump!

If you've noticed in the past week, I've been participating in something called the Mushroom Makeover challenge which requires me to make at least four meals every week for 30 days with mushrooms. Of course, I love the dang things anyway so this has been quite an enjoyable journey so far. In my excitement, I dragged Duc with me to the Hollywood Farmers' Market last weekend in search of a mushroom vendor that was supposed to be amazing. Was it? Absolutely. I spotted some varieties I had never seen before so of course, I had to swipe them up. I only managed to get a few types before my wallet cried at me to please stop the torture. Sigh.

Well, one of them happened to be these gorgeous Blue-foot Mushrooms that had a blue shimmer around the stem which lasted even through cooking. After reading more, I realized it can have a psychedelic effect if eaten raw and improperly so I suppose the blue has a reason for being there...but I did cook them and didn't suffer any side effects. I would very strongly recommend that if you were to try using these, you get them from a trusted and reputable source because you wouldn't want to eat the wrong shrooms! I paired them with kale for its inherent earthiness and cooked it with farro for a very rustic dish. If you can't find Blue-foots, I suggest using Shiitake mushrooms instead which still have an earthy feel to them and are definitely more easily accessible.

This post is one of several as part of the Mushroom Council's 30-day weight loss challenge called the #MushroomMakeover. I am being financially compensated for my participation as an ambassador for this program but the opinions and anecdotes posted are my own.

All of us need a kick in the butt every once in a while. At the start of 2014, I told myself that I would be more focused on my health this year because the food blogger habits were catching up on my waistline and sleep schedule. I am the biggest now that I have ever been, and that is troubling to me. When I went to my first blogger/media event in late 2012, I took a look at the copious amounts of food we would be tasting and promised to Duc and myself (he promised too) that we'd continue to stay fit throughout all of the events. Less than two years later, we look down at ourselves and know that we broke that promise long ago.

The problem is...it's so much easier to gain that weight than lose it, isn't it? Working full-time (with an hour-long commute each way!) and running Much Ado About Fooding while trying to balance other responsibilities doesn't leave many hours in the night for sleeping nor time for exercise. Even though I said 2014 would be a huge change, I've only done little things here and there that are different. Then came the #MushroomMakeover challenge.