• Kelly Davis

Smoothies are one of my favorite ways to cool off in the summer and enjoy a healthy delicious treat. My homemade smoothies taste like dessert, but with the right ingredients, they can be super nutritious as well.

For the next few weeks, I'm going to share with you how I amp up my smoothies with nutritious powerhouses, starting today with chia seeds.

• Kelly Davis
• Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are an ancient food. It was regularly consumed by the Mayans and Aztecs. Take a look at the back of any package of the tiny seeds and you'll find that those guys were onto something good.

One tiny little tablespoon of chia seeds has 150% of your recommended daily value (DV) of Omega-3s
and 4 grams of dietary fiber (16% DV).

And all of this comes in a tiny , (mostly) tasteless, easy-to-digest seed. Some people describe the flavor as "nutty", but I can't taste them at all. Also, unlike flax seeds, you don't have to ground them to reap the nutritional benefits. While our bodies can't absorb the benefits of whole flax seeds, we have no problem digesting whole chia seeds.

• Kelly Davis
• Chia seeds are slightly larger than poppy seeds.

• Kelly Davis
• Tropical Crêpes

My journey through the wonder that is France ended yesterday, but I still have one more French recipe up my sleeve.

Right now I'm traipsing around my little yellow house with major jet leg in a stinky cheese coma, craving a cold beer after drinking umpteen bottles of wine. I'm also craving a burger or Tex Mex or other American delicacies like peanut butter. But I'm also thinking longingly back to that crêpe I had at that wonderful bistro ... the thin flaky butteriness, the creamy sauce, the fruity filling and wish I was back in grand Paris.

I'll reminisce and wish I had stayed, learned to speak French, be 10 pounds skinnier, and wear red lipstick so I could taste this every day (obviously there's a disconnect between being skinny and lavish French food).

And then, I'll remember that I've can make my own crêpes.

• Kelly Davis
• Crêpes with Banana, Mango, and Coconut

• Kelly Davis
• French Onion Soup

Bonjour!

If everything is going according to plan, I am in Provence right now and hopefully about five vineyards in with more on the agenda.

And most likely, I have also had a slurp or two of this classic French soup — French onion soup.

• Kelly Davis
• Bunny Camera Bomb

• Kelly Davis
• Ratatouille with Herbed Chicken

Greetings from France!

I arrived in France at about 6:30 a.m. Paris time this morning, which was about 10:30 p.m. yesterday for you. My husband Brad and I just embarked on a two-week excursion of France, beginning in The Loire Valley, to which we will travel today via train. We plan to make a wide loop through France, hitting up Dordogne, The French Riviera, Provence, then back to Paris for our two-year wedding anniversary. It's going to be nothing less than amazing, and I plan to bring back tons of new French recipe ideas and factoids of French cuisine to share with you.

French food is one of my very favorite cuisines. Although I've never been to France before, I've eaten and cooked my share of French dishes, which I'm dying to share with you. And what better time to share what I already know about French cuisine than when I'm experiencing it firsthand.

• Kelly Davis
• Ratatouille - an easy and elegant meal

• Kelly Davis
• Smokey Summer Sauté

My most recent new-to-me ingredient is chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. It's slightly sweet, very spicy, and gives everything a nice smokey flavor. It comes in a small can and can be found on the international aisle in most grocery stores. You can add it to all kind of dishes, from cream sauce to dips — and in this case, a colorful sauté of summer vegetables.

This bears repeating: It is very spicy. So use sparingly and taste as you go if you're getting creative with it. Remember, you can always add more, but it's virtually impossible to take it away once added.

• Kelly Davis
• Corn, Tomato, and Okra Sauté

• Kelly Davis
• Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread

I have a deep dark dirty secret to share with y'all. As Southern as I may be, I have something quite sacrilegious to reveal about myself.

I like sweet cornbread.

There. I said it.

While I prefer my chicken fried and my tea sweet, my preference for cornbread aligns with that of someone who has lived elsewhere. Not that of a tried-and-true North Carolinian, who loves mealy and savory cornbread.

Quick lesson in Southern cuisine for you transplants:
- sweet cornbread = Northern
- non-sweet cornbread = Southern

• Kelly Davis
• Bake in a cast iron skillet for best results

• Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad

It's definitely corn season.

I had 12 (yes, 12!!!) ears of corn in my CSA share this week from Cold Water Creek Farm. It's a good thing I split my share with a friend, but that still leaves me with six ears.

You can do some pretty magical things with corn. It's a wonderful way to add a bit of sweetness to all kinds of dishes, and it's even tastier this time of year when it's fresh-picked from the farm.

• The corn gives this salad a hint of sweetness

I love corn in salads, salsa, fritters, grilled, roasted, as a taco or quesadilla topping. The possibilities are endless. But first, let's start with something super simple. Those are the best kind of recipes, you know.

One of my favorite things about the warmer weather is the beginning of my CSA share, which usually starts in mid-May. For those of you who don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.

Basically, you give a farmer some money up front (or make a deposit) and each week for typically 12-15 weeks, depending on the farm, you receive fresh, local, and seasonal produce. Some of the things that I receive each week are very foreign to me. My CSA share has challenged me to be very creative in my recipes and resourceful in the amount of vegetables I attempt to utilize in one meal.

• Kelly Davis
• Colorful food makes a beautiful presentation

My CSA is starting to cure their sweet potatoes (dry them so they last longer before baking), so the sweet potato I used in the meal pictured above was from the grocery store. However, it was a local N.C. sweet potato. Did you know they are available year-round? The tuna was also from said grocery store.

But the Nappa Cabbage in my slaw - that was most definitely a contribution from my CSA share.

The simplest thing you can do with any kind of cabbage is make slaw, but I wanted to add a little pizzazz to my meal by giving it an Asian Twist.

So I sesame-d my tuna and my cabbage, and the result was an incredibly tasty meal with an Asian flair.

Bet you didn't know you can use sesame as a verb, did ya.