YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Lentil Soup & Sweet Potatoes

You know how much I love slow cooking and crock pots, greens and sweet potatoes. Put this delicious recipe up to cook on Sunday, and you’ll be all set for days. Consider it your “standby dinner” in case you get stuck in traffic, or at the office, or in a turnstile or a revolving door, or between a rock and a hard place. Or stuck for an idea. Or just plain don’t feel like cooking when you get home. Continue reading




YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Roasted Garlic, Parsnip and White Bean Soup

Here’s a soup to, yes, satisfy your sweet tooth! One thing I really love about certain foods, like garlic, parsnips, and onions (tomatoes, too), is that their sweetness develops rather dramatically when you roast them or leave them to cook slowly. And, frankly, there just aren’t enough parsnip recipes around for my taste. Remember though, that if you want to be able to enjoy the subtle sweetness of foods like these, you will want to moderate your intake of sugar and especially corn syrup, both of which tend to overwhelm your tastebuds and raise your threshold for tasting the lesser (though more complex and satisfying) kinds and amounts of sweetness in fruits and vegetables. Continue reading



YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Sweet Potato & Chickpea Soup

This post will be the third and final of YHIOYP’s one-pot Back to Life recipe series (see the prior two blog posts here and here). This time, I’m back to my old standby, my trusty crockpot, from which so many wonderful meals have come, and I’ve decided to make my own version of Gypsy Soup, originally from Mollie Katzen, the author of the famous Moosewood Cookbook. Through the years I have made so many recipes from that cookbook that it is now ancient and falling apart, even despite having been taped together with leopard-spot-pattern tape somewhere along the way). Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Yellow Lentil Stew

In this, the second of three one-pot Back to Life recipes (see the introduction in my blog post from this past Sunday, January 3rd), my new #Staub cast-iron Dutch oven made its debut on our kitchen table and was everything I’d dreamed of! My family chose the dark green color, which looks beautiful wherever it sits. Magnificently designed, it is simply a gorgeous pot that squeezes every last molecule of flavor out of its ingredients, and then holds its heat like a brick wrapped in bunting. And, no, I received no compensation of any kind to say that. And, yes, it’s true. Continue reading



YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: A Salad for the Holidays

Here’s something lovely for your upcoming holiday celebration, and a great addition to a table filled with so many other wonderful, favorite, traditional and distinctly un-salad-like recipes!

Greens are magic, and they fill you up with all kinds of magnificent phytonutrients and vitamins and minerals. That’s because leaves contain a rainbow of yellows, oranges and reds hidden inside the greens. Plus they make you feel so good when you eat them. Continue reading