Category Archives: Recipes

It’s spring, y’all! Did you hear that southern come out of me? Well ok, I’m not actually a southern girl, but since I’ve been living in the south since I was 18, I get to use “y’all” like I’m from here.  Down here in the Atlanta area it sometimes feels like summer already, and if you’re up north you may feel like spring hasn’t even shown a hint of its appearance yet, but it actually is spring! Anyway, this week I want to talk about eating green.

So what do I mean by “eating green”? We could talk about organics and growing your own foods (and I have already planted by tomatoes and peppers, yea!), but this time I’m just talking about eating more green foods. There are so many choices and whether you choose to go for the organics or not, you can get more green food into your body with just a little effort. There are some easy go to options I have when I’m needing to get more green in my life.

You have two major categories for green foods: raw and cooked. Seems obvious, but some of the things you think you’ll have to cook could be eaten raw (like young green beans), so keep an open mind. Also, you could prepare some raw foods differently and get out of the salad box (think creamy cucumber soup – a fresh summer favorite of mine!). Today though, I’ll stick to some easy green food ideas…

First, let’s start with the most obvious: green juice. Now, you can go hard core and juice all green drinks, but if you’re doing that already, you may not be reading this for new ideas! Here’s my current favorite green juice (reminiscent of a mojito):

2 handfuls kale, chopped and de-stemmed

one apple (you choose – granny smith makes it even more tart)

juice of one lime

one cup pineapple

10 or so mint leaves

Put the ingredients in your high powered blender and blend with 1- 1/2 cups of water or coconut water. If you want it creamy, use almond milk, but it’ll be more smoothie than juice.

Second, another easy one: add a salad to your day. It’s spring and your body is looking for fresh greens just as they’re popping out of the ground. Are you already eating salads all the time already and feel bored? Try something new! How about a kale caesar? Anne Burrell on Food Network makes an incredibly delicious one and the dressing does not requires raw eggs. I make a double or triple batch of the dressing because it’s so good! The kids are asking for it instead of the fruity dressings now. And that’s another way to jazz up your salads – make some homemade fruit dressing! Strawberries are in season and pears are going out, so those are two easy options for now. Whip out your food processor or high speed blender and mix a mild white vinegar, some fresh fruit, salt and pepper and drizzle in your extra virgin olive oil until it becomes creamy deliciousness. Voila! Fruit vinagrette! (There are lots of recipes online if you want exact measurements…)

So what if it’s still cold or you just want to eat something warm? I love to saute my kale and add it to warm quinoa. It could be a side dish or a meal by itself, especially if you add a side salad with your homemade dressing. Here’s what I do:

Chop one onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic (I like lots of garlic, but when you mix this with the quinoa, it won’t be too much!)

De-stem and chop one bunch of kale

Heat 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil in your skillet and when hot, add the onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the onion is getting translucent, then add your garlic and stir for one minute (don’t let it burn!).

Add the kale to the pan and salt and pepper the veggies. Stir until just wilted (and you can do this in batches if your bunch of kale is too big to do all at once – it’ll cook down).

Add the cooked veggies to three cups of cooked quinoa in a big bowl. (Cookie and Kate has the best way to make fluffy quinoa – I’ve tried it many ways and hers works). Then season the whole thing with whatever flavors you like – I’ve used worcestershire, but you could make it asian with sesame oil and soy sauce or tamari if you’re gluten free (be light with the soy and taste as you go). You could add a chili paste and cumin seeds and fresh cilantro for Southwestern flavor. Maybe a curry paste and coriander or mustard seeds for an Indian flair! The salt in the veggies won’t flavor the quinoa enough, so you’ll need to add a little something to the quinoa.

You can eat this warm or cold. If you can’t eat it all in a couple of days, it freezes well too!

More quick ways to add green to your meals: add sliced avocado to your salad, soup, or sandwich. Pan fry some green beans with garlic and olive oil and throw them on your salad (hot veggies on top of cool greens are wonderful). Grill some asparagus! Ok, this is my springtime treat and one of the quick and delicious ways to enjoy asparagus.

Heat up your grill to medium high.

Line a sheet pan with foil. Break off the woody ends of the asparagus (they’ll break where it needs to instead of where you might cut them).

Lay them in the pan and drizzle generously with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Use your tongs to lay them in the opposite direction of your grill grates so you don’t lose any. Turn once if you have time, but they only need to cook a couple of minutes on the fire to get a little char.

Put them back in the oil/vinegar on the sheet pan and toss. Eat with anything (I always lose a few to my stomach before they get on a plate)!

Are you ready to eat more green? What are your favorite ways to eat green? Please share in the comments below!

It’s been awhile since I posted a recipe. And since last week we were talking about turning up the fun, I figured it’s time to put up a recipe that’s fun to eat!  I make this all the time because it’s delicious, the kids like it, it’s cheaper than in the store, and it’s basically a treat. So what is it? It’s my homemade granola recipe!

Ok, I know it’s not a cookie or cupcake kind of treat, but when you think about it, granola really is a bunch of sugar. Now, you can make a muesli, but if you want chunks of sweet crunchy toasty granola, it’s gonna have some sugar in it.  I’m not saying you should eat this everyday for breakfast, but it’s a nice sweet start to the day. It is whole grain oats. The stuff in a box from the store is nothing but dust compared to this! And for about $4 a small box at the store, you can get a lot more for your money if you make it yourself. Besides, it’s just better!

Now, I make LOTS of granola at once and store it in zipper bags in the pantry. But you can try a small batch to begin with and see how you like it. You also can adapt this however you like. Add different kinds of nuts and seeds, or add a variety of dried fruit to your final product – it’s yours, so make it how you like it! Since my youngest is allergic to almost all nuts (except almonds), our granola is now almond only (I used to use pecans, but that’s out now). You also can flavor it however you like – different extracts or spices. I’ll show you my favorite blend in the recipe below!

First, crack your nuts in a zippered bag with the back of a heavy spoon. Don’t work out too many aggressions here – you don’t want nut powder!

Mix the oil, maple syrup, honey, extracts and salt in a small bowl. If you use a measuring cup like this, start with the oil and as you add the other ingredients the oil will rise and you can measure the others. Fat floats!

To a large mixing bowl, add the oats, nuts, brown sugar, and spices and mix. Add the oil mixture and mix thoroughly.

Spread your raw granola on cookie sheets. I use the silpat sheets to help prevent sticking and a messy cleanup, but parchment paper would work well. If you want the granola to have chunks, press it down firmly onto the sheet and you will be able to break it into pieces after it cools. If you want it loose, spread it but don’t pack it down.  My kiddos like the chunks!

Bake at 250 degrees for 1 1/2 hours and the let it cool completely. Store in zip top bags in a cool dry place. We like to serve it with yogurt (I know, more sugar!), and fresh fruit. It’s also good with milk or crumbled on ice cream. Enjoy!

What’s a favorite treat in your house? Share in the comments below!

It’s been a busy few weeks for me, with the vacation week at Disney and coming back to work in a new hospital. When my life gets really crazy and rushed, cooking whole food meals tends to suffer. You have to have time to plan, and then you have to cook it, right? So I’m often defrosting pre-made meals (good if I have it!) or ordering pizza (not as good…). But it’s possible to make a quick weeknight dinner without too much time and effort – you just need the ingredients.

Let’s do a recipe for a quick weeknight vegetarian dinner! You can substitute different greens and add more eggs to feed more people. Add a loaf of french bread and you can have a complete and filling meal fast. Best of all, you used fresh ingredients and you know exactly what you are eating. Maybe this is an option for meatless Mondays…

I made this small so I could eat it once and take it for lunch the next day…

Ingredients

One bunch of swiss chard (you can use kale or collards, just don’t use the stems)

One half onion, chopped

Two cloves of garlic, minced

2 eggs (my beautiful golden yolks are because my eggs come from a a local farm. They’re delicious!)

olive oil

salt and pepper

Umami seasoning (optional – absolutely not necessary!)

Directions

Wash the chard leaves thoroughly (they tend to be sandy). Strip or cut leaves off the chard stems. Chop the chard stems separately.

Chop onion and garlic.

Onion, garlic and chard stems

If you want to prep one night and cook another, store each cut up item separately and refrigerate.

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and saute the onion and chard stems first until they are tender, 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Salt and pepper to taste. Add umami paste if you want.

Add the chard leaves and stir into the onion mixture for a minute, maybe less. Chard wilts very quickly, like spinach.

Make a well for each egg in the chard mixture and crack each egg into the well. Cover the eggs with a tight fitting lid to steam the eggs until they are as done as you like.

Serve with warm crusty bread and enjoy!

What’s your favorite quick weeknight meal? Share in the comments below!

Sounds fancy, right? No doubt, it is delicious. But it’s super easy! This is one of my favorite chicken dinners to make. My friend Lisa Washington (of Food Network fame) taught me this recipe after she fed it to me and my entire family at her house one night. (Find her at setthetablewithlove.com). My kids raved about it so much that I had to ask her to share the recipe with me. And now, you have the benefit of my good fortune!

It’s funny. Recently I’ve had quite a few people ask me if I’m vegetarian or vegan. I’m not. I know I have a granola-crunchy reputation, and I embrace that, but that doesn’t automatically go along with a vegan diet. I DO support eating a plant-based diet, and I think that vegetarianism or veganism can work wonders for many people, especially depending on their health. I also think that as a society, we eat too much animal protein, both from a health standpoint as well as an earth sustainability point of view. But I’m not rigid. There are some times of the month when my body is asking for meat and a chicken leg, or small piece of fish or steak will fill the need. Many men find that eating meat suits them better than a strictly vegetarian diet. My main concern about meat is where it comes from. If I can get organic grass fed beef, truly free range chicken, or wild fish, I will buy that for us to eat. But just because there’s a label that says it’s “natural” does not mean that it’s not factory farmed, inhumanely treated, antibiotic and chemically fed meat. I know it can be tough to find and it’s not as easy as walking into your local supermarket to pick up your chicken for dinner. But I have done my research, and factory farmed meat is off the list. The way the animals are treated produces meat with lots of dangerous bacteria, and I don’t want to eat animals that suffer for my dinner. I’m fine with eating animals – that’s why humans have domesticated and cared for them for ages. But I believe the way most supermarket meat is produced these days is not the way it should be done…

Not how most of our meat is raised…

Ok, I’m off my soapbox now.  Let’s make some chicken! Now before you get put off by the name and think I’m suggesting some expensive stuff you won’t ever use again, herbs de provence is blend of herbs often used in french cooking. It can also be used on veggies too! You can make your own if you have the ingredients (2 tbsp each dried savory, rosemary, thyme, oregano. basil, marjoram, and fennel seed). I just buy it, and it’s easy to find. You could do just the rosemary on your chicken, because rosemary goes great with chicken, but the herbs de provence is something you can serve at a dinner party if you wanted to have someone over. It’s just a little extra!

You probably have the basic ingredients for this recipe in your frig and pantry. I make this recipe with chicken legs, because my family only likes dark meat and this part of the chicken is inexpensive, so why not? You can do it with thighs or breasts, but you’ll need to adjust your cooking time for the larger pieces.

INGREDIENTS

12 chicken legs

sea salt and pepper

garlic powder,

onion powder

herbs de provence

olive oil

First, arrange your chicken on the baking sheet. DO NOT wash your chicken first – it just spreads any bacteria on the chicken all over your sink, then onto anything else you put in the sink.  Use a paper towel to pat the meat dry so your spices will stick.

Then drizzle the meat with the olive oil, generously.

(This makes a delicious seasoned dipping oil after the chicken is done, if you’re eating bread…)

Grind your sea salt and pepper over both sides of the meat.

Use your fingers to sprinkle pinches of the onion and garlic powder over the legs.

Last, sprinkle the herbs de provence over the top. You can flip them and do the other side too.

Roast the chicken at 375 F for about 30 minutes. Mine may cook a little faster because I use a convection oven. You’ll know they’re done when the meat starts to pull away from the lower part of the bone.

While the chicken is cooking, cut up and prepare your cauliflower (see my post – Why I Cook for the recipe), then roast the cauliflower while the chicken is resting for 10 minutes. If you want a starch, put sweet or regular potatoes in the oven as soon as you turn it on the preheat for the chicken. They may need about an hour total to be ready, depending on size. Serve it all with a big green salad and enjoy!

A sample dinner – this is what the kids ate tonight. Chicken, oven roasted squash and zucchini, and baked potato…

What’s your favorite chicken dinner? Put your comments in the section below!

This week I wanted to do something a little different. I don’t usually just post a recipe, but I’ve had people ask me to start including recipes in this blog. I love a good soup, especially in the fall. At this time of year, I feel myself moving away from salads and automatically wanting to eat warm yummy soup. This recipe was a find – I got it on Pinterest courtesy of Ali Ebright from Gimme Some Oven. It’s a delicious recipe, and one that went over well with both my honey and the kids. Actually, he came home asking specifically to have it for dinner. And this man is nowhere near a vegan!

So, I do like to cook, but even though I believe strongly in cooking and eating whole foods, sometimes I feel a little lazy. A slow cooker meal seems like a perfect way to have dinner waiting at the end of a long day, right? The problem is, many of the recipes I’ve tried in the slow cooker turn out to be just so-so. A pot of mush. All my flavors mashed up in a soupy mix. This technique does have an upside though: the slow cooker can make some great soups! And this is one of them. It’s a warm, nourishing hug in a bowl. It also falls in the category of clean eating, for those who want to incorporate more vegetables and spices and avoid meat, dairy, gluten and additives. This recipe has a little kick too, so if you don’t like spice at all, dial down or eliminate the cayenne. You can add more to taste though. I did – we like spicy in this house!

So here it is. I doubled the recipe because I thought we needed a lot. This probably wasn’t the best idea, because it almost didn’t fit in my slow cooker. So next time, I will stick with my rule of trying a recipe as written the first time. The proportions listed below are a single recipe, which is plenty for a family dinner. We’ve got some in the freezer!

INGREDIENTS:

I cut up all the veggies the night before to assemble in the morning.

I put the spices in the slow cooker the night before as well.

This is after I put everything in the slow cooker in the morning (except the coconut milk) and cooked on low for 8 hours.

Then I realized the bag had to be removed before I could use the hand blender, so too bad for the easy clean up! I took out the sage and threw it away.

I blended it up in the pot and added the coconut milk.

This is after the coconut milk and extra salt and pepper were added. Smooth and creamy!

This is the soup with the cream garnish and some plantain chips (because I like a little crunch on top!). Delicious!

What’s your favorite soup recipe? Do you have a tried-and-true slow cooker meal? Let me know in the comments section!