Years ago, I attended a special lunchtime celebration honoring a co-worker who was expecting her first baby. This salsa was contributed by an exercise physiologist named Heather, and it was so good that the recipe was distributed by popular demand to the entire department the following day. It was sooo good! Its simplicity is a huge plus, and the combination of sweet ingredients with mild sour notes and aromatics gives it wonderful flavor. Balsamic vinegar is sweet, corn is sweet, red peppers are sweet, onions are sweet, and tomatoes are sweet. Plus, I like honey. Continue reading
Category Archives: Recipes
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Basil-Artichoke Pesto
This year I grew a very respectable herb garden in pots out on the back patio. Years ago I used to grow all kinds of herbs, but life got in the way, and all kinds of other projects grew up in their place, so I didn’t have fresh herbs for a long time even though I thought wistfully of those long-ago days and wished I’d gotten organized enough to grow more than the chives and lemon balm that grow wild all around my house. And then it happened. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Scrumptious Seed Crackers (NF, GF, DF, vegan, grain-free)
A couple of months ago, my friend Michele shared with me a jar of the ingredients to make this recipe. This is just the most recent recipe she’s shared with me — there have been quite a few over the years, and all of them have been fantastic.
Since receiving this most recent gift, I’ve gathered together my own little permanent collection of seeds and I’ve made the recipe probably half a dozen times already. Now that I have everything I need, I can throw together the recipe and get it into the oven in a very short time. As Michele emphasized to me, it is an extremely forgiving recipe. Continue reading
The Heat of Summer, with a Recipe for Hot Peppers
My love of spicy food goes back a long way, to when I was a child. My parents had friends, Ted and Freida Roland, who grew acres and acres of hot peppers on their farm in Muncie, Indiana. We drove out to visit them one summer, and I earned the nickname “Hot Pepper” after completing a careful comparison of all the various types laid out for me on the kitchen counter by Ted. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Apple Pie Muffins for the Fourth!
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
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