If you’d like to make a dessert that captures the feel of July fourth, try these apple muffins from Honest Cooking and Travel. They have a streusel topping reminiscent of some fancy apple pie recipes I’ve seen, but feel free to substitute graham cracker crumbs if you like. Save one for yourself for breakfast tomorrow morning, along with your cup of tea or coffee. Continue reading
Category Archives: Recipes
Chemistry Experiments Disguised as Food
It’s not always easy to figure out what’s food and what’s manufactured calories. Some items have the best names, names that make it seem as if the product is definitely food, and quite nourishing at that. So I didn’t realize that Nutrigrain bars had 52 ingredients until someone pointed it out to me. That’s not food, that’s a chemistry experiment. Continue reading
Your Healthy Grocery Cart
The other day, a thought crossed my mind. Maybe we’re focused on the wrong part of the equation: Maybe the time for constructive decision-making about what we eat is not when it’s time to prepare the food, but when it’s time to purchase the food. Waiting until you’re hungry for dinner is like chasing a horse after it’s left the barn. That’s why I want to start this conversation by examining the standard shopping cart. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Lentil Soup with a Splash
I’ve come across a really good and relatively simple recipe for lentil soup, and thought I’d share it right away before I misplace it! I wish I knew where I got it from, but that information will sadly have to wait until I figure it out and can add it to this post. I made this recipe for the first time on a rainy day in early spring a few weeks back, and was so pleased with the results that I decided to write a post about it. Lentils are a special food, a special type of legume, with all kinds of important benefits for your health. And they taste good. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
This recipe made its way into my house in a booklet provided by Vitamix with the purchase of our high-speed blender many years ago. It is really delicious whether all by itself, sprinkled over a circle of warm brie, or tossed onto a tomato salad. Pumpkin seeds are a great substitute for nuts when you are feeding people with nut allergies, but they are also extremely nourishing in and of themselves, and worth the time you spend making them.
Over the years I have collected plenty of recipes for sweet spiced nuts and seeds, but this is the only recipe I have for a savory version. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Tsimmes
Preparing for the holidays with my mom was a major highlight of my childhood. Although my father was the main cook in our family, my mother took over the kitchen on the holidays, and dad’s primary responsibility was to make the brisket.
Like many other special dishes that we ate on dedicated holidays throughout the calendar, my mother made tsimmes twice a year, in the fall for Rosh Hashanah (it is traditional to eat sweet foods on Rosh Hashanah), and in the spring, for Passover. She never used recipes, preferring instead to combine ingredients as her grandmother and mother-in-law did. Truthfully, though, tsimmes is one of those dishes that probably doesn’t really need much of a recipe anyway. Continue reading
A Simple Salad
I’ve been eating this salad for breakfast, yes breakfast, for many years. I know Americans consider it somewhat unconventional to eat salad for breakfast (though not Europeans and in the Middle East), but I believe it is such a great way to start the day. The success of this salad is built on simplicity. My strategy remains similar, week in and week out. It is never quite the same, but it is always delicious. On occasion, I make it with a sweet potato instead of a white potato. Thank you to Alice Waters for teaching me to eat simply. This salad makes one single serving, but is infinitely flexible if a friend or an army is coming to share a meal. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Mediterranean Roasted Onions
Generally speaking, I read a lot about Mediterranean cooking, but lately I’ve been focusing on its emphasis on simplicity. I keep seeing one particular idea, that you need only a short list of ingredients in a small kitchen to make spectacularly flavorful dishes. No need for 40 herbs and spices. Maybe five or ten. Here’s what I mean. Today I have in mind an exceedingly simple recipe: roasted onions. These onions are really, really gooooood, and they add a special something to every meal you can imagine. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Orange Soup
One of our family’s favorites, Orange Soup (mah-RAHK kah-TOME), is a recipe that I have shared in the past. I have found that no matter how large a pot you make, it is always gone within a couple of days. In other words, this recipe makes a lot of soup, but it still won’t last very long. It’s quintessential comfort food. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Yellow Eye Heirloom Bean Soup
Today was a lovely day, temperatures notwithstanding. School was cancelled, of course, because no one in their right mind could require children to stand outside in these temperatures waiting for school busses. This is why, having received the text from my daughter late yesterday, family camp was in session today.
The children unrolled our many yoga mats end-to-end all over the living room, and then raided the pantry to build a long winding row of mostly dry and canned beans that they subsequently climbed over and among for close to an hour. In the meanwhile, I put up a pot of soup in my beloved 5.5-quart Staub Dutch oven (cocotte). Continue reading