Real Food Kitchen Tour: Elevated Eats

Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week, we travel to San Francisco, California to tour the kitchen of Lisa Tonucci, author of the blog, Elevated Eats.

What’s a Real Foodie?

A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.

We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.

We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Elevated Eats

Hi! I’m Lisa Tonucci, from Elevated Eats. I live in San Francisco, CA with my boyfriend Matt and my dog Nellie. My blog focuses on Paleo recipes and holistic nutrition information.

Eating a Paleo diet has been instrumental in helping me effectively deal with the multiple food allergies and digestive issues I’ve suffered with for years. It’s so fun and rewarding for me to share the creative, delicious, whole food recipes I make for my family and the clients I service in my personal chef business.

Blog Name: Elevated Eats
Blog Author: Lisa Tonucci
Location: San Francisco, California
How Long Blogging: 7 months
House or Apartment: House
Size of Kitchen: 12 ft. x 10 ft.
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: We moved into our house a couple years ago and made it our first priority to completely redo the kitchen. We ripped everything out down to the studs, knocked out a wall and put in a bay window. I love how bright, open and inviting it is. Part of the “L” shaped counter doubles as a bar with a couple of stools on the other side, so my boyfriend or I can sit and relax while the other does the cooking. It’s a great spot for guests to hang out and watch the action in the kitchen while we prepare dinner. The space is really warm and welcoming.
Things You Would Change: Even with all the cabinet space we have, I could always use more. Fermenting kombucha and veggies takes up space that I can never seem to find.
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: Vitamix, food processor, slow cooker, Microplane zester, hand-held lemon squeezer and Ball jars of all sizes. I would be lost without my jars. My spiral slicer, box grater and the coffee grinder I grind spices and seeds with are also in my regular rotation.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: Making time to prep and prepare the meat and veggies we buy. Sunday is my designated prep day, where I wash and chop veggies from the farmer’s market, brew tea for kombucha, plan meals for the week, make coconut yogurt, etc. Setting aside a few hours on my day off is a huge time saver, but life gets in the way and I can’t always get everything done I want. Takeout isn’t an option with my food allergies. The last time I was starving without anything prepped in the fridge I ended up with a rotisserie chicken from the corner store. It tasted terrible and I felt the same way after eating it. Now, if I have 5 minutes in the morning before work, I’ll do a little prep to make cooking dinner easier and faster.
Current Family Favorite Meal: I make “noodles” out of squash, zucchini, carrots or other veggies and toss them with protein, fresh herbs and a tomato or tahini sauce, or pesto. We also love meatballs and burgers made with grass-fed beef or lamb – I serve them with a roasted red pepper sauce or homemade mayo and pickled red onions and a side of mashed cauliflower or sweet potatoes. When I am out of inspiration I top my meal with a sunny side up pastured egg and my favorite extra virgin olive oil. Always delicious!
Favorite Cookbooks: [easyazon-link asin=”0967089735″ locale=”us”]Nourishing Traditions[/easyazon-link] by Sally Fallon, [easyazon-link asin=”0316118400″ locale=”us”]The Flavor Bible[/easyazon-link] by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, [easyazon-link asin=”0393052303″ locale=”us”]All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking[/easyazon-link] by Molly Stevens, [easyazon-link asin=”0060171472″ locale=”us”]Chez Panisse Vegetables[/easyazon-link] by Alice Waters, [easyazon-link asin=”0393020436″ locale=”us”]The Zuni Cafe Cookbook[/easyazon-link] by Judi Rodgers.

Let Us Tour Your Kitchen

Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?

Please email me at annmarie AT cheeseslave dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.

Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).

As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.

Some ideas for photos:

• Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
• Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
• Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
• How about a lovely herb garden?
• Kids or pets are always cute!
• Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen

And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.