Colorful Meals (with a few recipes)

In the past few days we’ve had vegetable-bean soup made with Moro beans from Rancho Gordo, fresh tomatoes on toast made from Simple Kneads’s sourdough bread, tossed green salads with peppers and radishes, pickled red onions, fresh guacamole, orange-grapefruit salad sprinkled with pistachios, green grapes, cherry tomatoes, and fresh blueberries. And there is almost always homemade bread made from my husband’s hands with King Arthur’s whole wheat flour. 

Our meals do not exactly have a theme, but they always have a lot going for them. It’s all about vegetables, and fruits, and color. On a regular basis we make our way through red, green (light, medium, and dark), white, yellow, brown, orange, purple and blue produce. That’s a lot of colors. And, as my mom taught me, the more colors at a meal, the better. Continue reading


Life Hack: Tortillas and Beans

A colleague of mine, a mother and pediatrician, shared a great idea with me the other day. I thought you might enjoy learning about this idea that falls under the category of “life hack.”

Everyone has experienced the feeling of having no idea what to do for dinner, with barely enough time, and no energy (or desire) to make anything. For some, this is fast food night. Or frozen pizza. Or scrambled eggs. Or hard boiled eggs. But my colleague has hit upon a new solution, one that has been working very well for her family. Continue reading


Gifts from my Family

We receive many different kinds of gifts from our grandparents, whether the ability to identify all the trees in the backyard, or a beribboned stack of letters dating from the early 1900s, or a love of card games, baseball, or building castles on the beach. My family loved to cook and eat. This is certainly my inheritance, and a large part of the reason my family ate little or no ultraprocessed food. To use a product like “Shake ‘n’ Bake” bordered on heresy. I come by my love and celebration of good, real food in the most honest way possible.  Continue reading



YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Pickled Cabbage Salad (Curtido)

When I was a little girl, I used to “help” my Grandma Rosie pickle cucumbers, green tomatoes, and even garlic, which sometimes developed an interesting blue color as it fermented in the pickling juice. We loved her homemade pickles, and we still do. This post is also a shoutout to longstanding and devoted YHIOYP reader Joe G, who absolutely loves Grandma Rosie’s pickles and has made them on many occasions since I first wrote about them.

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Sulphur Springs: Memories of my Father

When my father was alive we liked to pick up breakfast at his favorite local bakery, Luna, and then drive to Sulphur Springs, a secluded area in the South Chagrin reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks that was accessible by car. I would lift his walker from the back of the car, and he would make his way to the closest picnic table, where we would sit, eat, read the paper. After a while I would walk down to the creek to take a photograph. Sulphur Springs is a moment in time. We could sit for an hour or more, and hear nothing but bird calls, the sound of water burbling over the stones, and the occasional car. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: A Summer Creamsicle Smoothie

It’s summertime, and even though the weather this week has been a bit on the cool side, it was boiling hot last week and the week before. So you never know. Anyway, summer calls for something a little different. I recommend that you try blending up this smoothie in your high-speed blender. Then sit back and relax while you drink it nice and slow…

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YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Lemon-Chickpea Soup

I found this recipe recently, and decided to make it for dear friends who were coming to dinner to celebrate the completion of our new kitchen. And was I happy I did! I had no idea how fabulous this soup would turn out to be. So much more than the sum of its humble parts. Yes it looked good on paper, but you never know, do you? Lucky us.

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YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Garlic Scape Pesto

So before I share this recipe, which I found literally years ago, I need to tell you where I’m sitting. Well it’s not actually the where that matters, and it’s not the view either, oddly enough. It’s the smell. OMG!

Like many of my stories having to do with food, this one starts with my dad, Chef Ira. Pretty much anyone who knew him could tell you that Chef Ira was in the habit of buying enormous quantities of supplies for the farm. The grandchildren took particular delight in this habit of his; my mother not so much. But be they foodstuffs, baked goods (I’m looking at you Marie, Amy, Jimmy, and everybody my dad loved at the Italian Bakery in Flemington, NJ!), meats, paper goods, party supplies, kitchen appliances (think: apple spiralizer), or feed for the animals, he liked it big and he liked plenty of it. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Baked Oatmeal

Baked oatmeal is a great way to start the day. It’s sort of like bread pudding, but with lots more texture, flavor and, yes, nutrition. Not only can this recipe can be prepared in a single bowl, but it’s guaranteed to keep you cozy and satisfied all morning. One great thing about it is that you can make it on the weekend, and then heat up a slice (or scoop) every day to get you through your mornings all week long. It’s also a very flexible recipe, so you could vary the ingredients slightly every time, and never make it exactly the same way twice! Continue reading