YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Winter Dinner with Apples & Sauerkraut

The holidays are over. The days are short. The sun is almost nonexistent. The cloud cover is thick. No one feels much like cooking, and just about everyone feels like they have had enough treats, at least for now. So what’s for dinner? Here’s something perfect for January. It’s a tiny bit sweet, and involves almost no prep, unless you count cutting up one onion, two apples, and a cake of tofu. Most of the actual cooking is accomplished while you go do something else. It’s the ultimate comfort food, but without any grains, which is pretty unusual as comfort foods go. These kinds of recipes fall under the category of post-holiday, recovery, post-celebration, reset meals. It’s not just about going back to work. It’s also about getting back to life.  Continue reading



Love Thy Neighbors

It hardly feels adequate to say that my friends and neighbors took over for a few days a couple of weeks ago when the truth is that they swooped in with food, soups, bread, hand sanitizer, and essential oils, not to mention apple-ginger muffins wrapped in handmade dish towels (recipe below). There were many hugs and nods of understanding, for these were the people who knew and appreciated my dad in his last days, stopping by with quarts of homemade chicken noodle soup, doing reiki treatments for the sheer generosity of it, and bringing pans of chicken and rice, my dad’s favorite chopped salad, fish and stewed tomatoes, and more. Nothing escaped their caring eyes. Continue reading



YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Roasted Butternut Squash Extraordinaire

If I were to pick a single food that best embodied the fall season, it would definitely be squash. And if I were to consider how best to prepare that squash to make it taste as delicious as possible, showing off its very best qualities, then this is the recipe I would choose. I would definitely recommend that you give this recipe a shot! Now (speaking of shots), you should feel free to try it with or without the whiskey. In case you were wondering, the alcohol burns off with the cooking, leaving behind that little extra dimension of flavor. But if it doesn’t appeal, just skip it. Continue reading



YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Apple-Walnut Oatmeal

Late last week, somehow, while no one was looking, autumn flew by and winter blew in. It’s an achingly beautiful look — trees still completely covered with gold or red leaves, shivering in the foreground of a white crystalline landscape, the lake dark grey in the distance. And it’s really cold, unexpectedly so, so here’s what I’m having this morning. It’s a lot of flavor for breakfast, and they’re all the right kinds. You might smile while you’re eating it. Continue reading