According to Southern tradition, eating black-eyed peas and collard greens at the New Year brings good luck in the year ahead. You’ll have plenty of time to gather the ingredients because I’m sharing this vegetarian version today. It comes from Terry Walters’s Clean Start: Inspiring You to Eat Clean and Live Well with 100 New Clean Food Recipes. Happy holidays to all!
Category Archives: Recipes
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Vegetable Paella
Despite the calendar, it’s wintertime in Cleveland. Can’t get the chill out of your bones? This one-pot meal is the perfect remedy. It makes the house smell great and keeps you in leftovers for days. If you happen to be lucky enough to have a cast iron skillet, you can use it for this recipe. But if you (like me) don’t, any ovenproof pot will do.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Black Beans and Butternut Squash
Sometimes you’re just aching for something sweet, spicy and homey to warm you from the inside out. You know what I mean? If it sounds like I’m describing you, then try this recipe. Sundays are a great day for this one.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Chicken Paprikash
This week I’m channeling my inner Mark Bittman. Not sure whether it’s his common sense approach, or his love of old chefs and recipes, or the contented look on his face as a bit of fresh tomato sauce drips off his chin. This recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Express.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Turkey Wild Rice Casserole
Right now I’m guessing that there’s a turkey, or turducken, or tofurkey, or stuffed pumpkin in your house, being readied for your great big Thanksgiving celebration. You don’t need fresh ideas, just a good-sized oven. But come Friday, when you’re looking for things to do with your leftovers, this recipe will be a welcome choice. The original version, from which it is adapted, may be found at kitchenparade.com.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Celebrate the Season’s Root Vegetable Stew
On the wall alongside my desk at work, I put up a bumper sticker that says “I ♥ Crock Pots!” And it’s no exaggeration. There is something about slow cooking that draws the best from ingredients, blending them together in a most extraordinary way, filling our home with scents so sublime that we have been awakened by them as they cooked through the night, and then warming us, body and soul, with complex flavors at once sweet, spicy, sour, and umami.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Ginger-Thanksgiving Relish
So this is a very good time to start thinking about what’s going to be on your Thanksgiving menu this year. Since I am a cranberry fiend, and I absolutely adore ginger, I consider it the perfect recipe!
If you avoid candy and sweets most of the time, the relish should be sufficiently sweet to eat by itself, as is, on your fork. If, on the other hand, you’re still working on taming that sweet tooth, then plan to spread it on a slice of turkey, or drop a spoonful in a bowl of squash soup. If it’s still really not quite sweet enough for you, add a few drops of warmed raw honey. Thank you to eatingwell.com for yet another opportunity to eat well.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Essence of Autumn Root Veggies
Thank you to Allrecipes.com for this wonderful way to jazz up the sweetness of the fall bounty.
If you don’t happen to have all the ingredients on hand, no big deal. It’s gonna be great whether or not you feel like tracking down a rutabaga. If, on the other hand, you can’t get your hands on some chili sauce, then do substitute 1 1/2 tablespoons each of vinegar and honey, and double the red pepper flakes to 1/2 teaspoon. Enjoy!
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Pumpkin Soup
Here is my all-time favorite thing to do with a worthy pumpkin. This is the memorable recipe you’ve been waiting for to make for your Thanksgiving guests, fall weekend guests, beloved kids home on break, book group, or your family just because. Believe me, it makes an impression! Thanks go to Molly Katzen, noted author of Moosewood Cookbook, who first introduced me to the idea of cooking inside a pumpkin many, many years ago. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Pumpkin Bread, Of Course!
Couldn’t resist! Thank you to Treehugger.com for this unusually flavorful, gluten-free, vegan treat. No tricks.