My Culinary View

Food should be simple, bring comfort, promote life and pleasure.

After college, I moved to California and developed my own food style, veering away from traditional Italian, always searching to create a new way to cook an old dish, with a more modern approach seeking brighter, healthier, super delicious food. I’ve gone even further in redesigning some of the Italian recipes to be keto and diabetic friendly.

Most of my recipes are designed for real people with busy lives and small kitchens who love good food.

There is a very specific “spinach tiger” culinary viewpoint. Fresh. Whole. Local. Simple. Delicious. I evolved to include gluten free and including low carb options so the whole family can eat together.

Who is Spinach Tiger?

My name is Angela Roberts. I left California for Nashville because that’s where Doug Roberts lived, but not before we had a California Sunset wedding!

Food is an important dynamic to our story, and is part of our love language. We hope we are contributing to the culture of good food.

Every recipe you see here is tested in my kitchen, sometimes up to ten times, especially if it’s tricky baking.

I love cooking so much, and as a former faux artist,  I even designed a wall finish named “Wasabi.” I would go back and forth between my paint studio and my kitchen, designing and developing something beautiful to look at, or something delicious to eat.

I learned to cook from “tasting” not from books, and I want to teach you to do that too.  Cookbooks are guidelines, but your own taste buds, if properly developed, are your best eyes in the kitchen.

My food memories of childhood evolved around weekly trips to the farmer’s market and a stop at the Italian store with my fussy grandmother. She was quite modern , and very ahead of her time as a proponent of healthful and “slow food” before the slow food movement was born. Her choices showed in her beauty and energy, as she continued her career into her 70’s. Good food should do that!

Our shopping would lead to sitting at the table to enjoy a long, delicious dinner with three insane guests, named drama, comedy and adventure, and a multitude of other drop-ins who came to see the show.

Now I actually sell my keto baked goods in farmer’s markets going full circle.

Examples of Drama, Comedy and Adventure and Where I get a Sense of Humor:

Drama: I remember my mother turning a table of food over ala “Housewives of New Jersey” Style.
Comedy: My grandmother wanted to prove how great her body was and in her 60’s stood up at the table and showed her girls, while my 17 year old boyfriend turned beet red. No one else stopped eating.
Adventure: You never knew who was coming to dinner. It could be a priest or a madame of a brothel. Really.

Everyone, even the men, cooked delicious, yet very different food, not limited to Italian, but influenced by the surrounding diverse, European heritage in Pennsylvania.

Spinach Tiger Keto Bakery

In 2019, a neighbor I didn’t know ordered some keto muffins and on a whim I made and sold them to him. That night he ordered three dozen. The Spinach Tiger Bakery was born.

This was never a plan, a dream or a desire. It just happened!

I set out to structure a home keto bakery and successful baking classes and discovered I have a real knack for baking with alternative flours.

My Favorite Grain Free/Keto Baking

• One of  My Favorite Keto Bundt Cakes: Lemon Blueberry
• My Favorite Keto Muffin is Cinnamon Coffee Cake.
• My Favorite Keto Breakfast is the Grain Free Dutch Baby

It’s not about taking food to the next level; it’s about bringing real food back.

I don’t want to eat a cupcake that looks like a hamburger or a hamburger disguised as a cupcake. I want to eat grass fed beef with salt and pepper and lots of greens.

I aim for serious nutrition, while avoiding the scary “health nut” persona.

Record keeping tells me you really love Italian food and I aim to do more of that, especially healthy low-carb version

I think of the novice cook and the seasoned cook, when I post these healthy recipes

Food Judge: We are both trained in the EAT Method of Food Judging, certified by the World Food Championships.

Credits

Certified Food Judge, trained at the World Food Championships
Published in Nashville Arts & Entertainment Magazine, for two pieces, one a feature piece, Nashville’s Bucket List.. Current issue: Nashville Restaurant Revolution, Nashville Bucket List.
Three recipes, including this favorite sweet potato lasagna sweet potato lasagna, published in Cookbook: Southern Cooking for Compan

Cookbook (25 recipes) for Refined Fitness, a weight loss site.
Recipe development, food styling, photography for Albertville Foods, 35 recipes.
Recipe development for Tortilla Land, Tabasco.

Contributor to Williamson Source, an on-line magazine.
Published at Taste Trekkers Top Five Places to Eat Shrimp & Grits in Nashville.
Published in Huffington Post for Savory Cheesecake for food made with potato chips.
Published in Huffington Post for Hunger Games Lamb Stew with Dried Plums for favorite food in children’s books.
Published in Huffington Post twice for this biscuit.
Published in Huffington Post for Sweet Potato Grits.
Published in Huffington Post for this kale recipe.
Published in Reader’s Digest for this turkey burger and this guacamole.
Featured in CountryLiving.com  and HouseBeautiful.com with this blackberry jar dessert. 
Judges Choice Winner for Hunger Games Lamb Stew, Contest by Spencer-Stapleton.
Third Place winner for this veal recipe.
Second Place winner in cupcake contest for homebakers at Cupcake Palooza in Nashville.
Published in 55 Knives On-Line Cookbook.
Featured in Saveur.com for this recipe.
Featured as local food blogger in the Tennessean.
Published in Blogger’s Aid Cookbook 09.
First Place winner in Whole Foods recipe contest for this recipe.

The Photography

I take all the pictures, and it’s been an evolving process. I started with a Canon Point & Shoot G11. I now use a Canon T6i and my primary lens is 1.4  fixed 50mm lens. I do very little picture editing,  and I use a tripod infrequently. Sometimes I use my iPhone 12 pro-max (especially for restaurants).

The Cooking Videos

 

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Connect with Spinach Tiger

Feel at home. Browse around, Leave a comment. Send a note to angela@spinachtiger.com and visit often.

I answer every single email. Shoot me any cooking question you have , and I’ll try to help you.

Work with Me

Brands, Advertisers, go to this page for more information.

Affiliates and Advertising

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

I also receive advertising fees in partnership with Media Vine.

I am an influencer for  Amazon and receive commission for product sold. I have my own amazon page. 

I may from time to time receive affiliate fees with other companies, which will be expressed as that happens.

Privacy Policy

Go to this page for my privacy policy.

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Note: This blog is dedicated to two of the most influential and beloved people in my life, who left this world too soon. Classy, courageous and both incredible cooks, James, my brother, and Sam, my cousin, are painfully missed at the dinner table and every day of my life. This is true, will always be true. Since the start of the blog, Retro Rose (my mom) passed away and I can honestly say there would be no cooking without her influence.

My Faith – Jesus Christ saved my life and gave me something to give to the world. Faith, Joy, Love. A Passion for Good Food, a heart to share it.