Fridge Shot: WCCO blogger digs Brussels sprouts, kombucha

​We recently named WCCO food blogger Crystal Grobe (@cafecyan) one of our Top 5 local foodies on Twitter, but we think she's rad for more reasons than that.

For starters, she been manning her own blog, called Café Cyan, about food and the local scene for three and a half years now, sharing healthy, accessible, vegetarian recipes (though Grobe herself isn't a strict veggie), useful, creative preparation tips and fun, personal tidbits. This past April, she started hosting WCCO's "Bite of Minnesota" blog, where she does much the same thing, but with almost no overlap (can you say prolific?).

We also dig that she's a self-described home cook, "not a chef," who says she loves to teach and inspire, which is clear from her refreshing writing. The lady also knows how to find a good bargain! Grobe, who lives in Apple Valley, was kind enough to share with us the recent contents of her fridge.

Grobe loves Brussels sprouts and isn't short on ideas for using them. She frequently makes a simple side out of them, thinly slicing them and tossing with some lemon, walnuts, and olive oil. She also likes using them as part of an roasted fall vegetable hash made with butternut squash, sage and some tempeh bacon, and some apples and onions added in later.

Grobe also has a lot of enthusiasm for peanut butter, with three varieties floating around: regular old, almond, and honey roasted. She's got a carton each of rice milk, soy milk, and chocolate hemp milk but Grobe's real beverage of choice (especially when she can get a deal on the expensive tea beverage) is kombucha. "It's like fruity pop, but not super sweet," she says. "You can only drink so much water." Grobe says she might drink the lo-cal beverage for breakfast or a snack.

Grobe and her husband went on a trip recently, which included visits to farmers markets in both Des Moines (where she scored the honey roasted peanut butter on the second shelf as well as the lemongrass) and Kansas City (responsible for some of the citrus in the crisper). The prepped veggies up top are for the barley minestrone Grobe made shortly thereafter. The Wallaby yogurt is Grobe's husband's thing. And the brick of cheese in the drawer? That's some camborzola (triple cream brie + bleu cheese) Grobe got at a food show.

​Of note in the fridge side door are the Maiden Rock apple champagne (a wedding anniversary gift) and the small, black containers up top, which contain face masks made out of foods, which she gets from the store Lush. (Also note: lots more kombucha!)

"There's usually a lot more beer and leftovers," Grobe says, "but we've been out of town."