Salted Caramel Smoothie Bowl

This Salted Caramel Smoothie Bowl will keep you happy and healthy… it is so good!

I go through phases. For awhile I had to have a smoothie every single morning. Then I decided I wanted something hot for breakfast so I changed up my smoothies, made them a little lighter and fruitier, and had them as mid afternoon snacks. Then I stopped them completely. Then… this next phase happened: Smoothie Bowls any time I had the urge. This phase is my favorite phase. I love coming home for lunch and making one of these. I also love making one for a snack. And breakfast… well that goes without saying. I love this unstructured smoothie bowl phase.

I’ve decided that I like my smoothies even more when they are thick enough to eat with a spoon. When I can top them with glorious fresh fruit, crunchy toppings, and superfoods. This phase …

Immune Boosting Onion Chicken Soup

This Immune Boosting Onion Chicken Soup will heal what ails you. It will warm you deliciously from the inside out.

So, what the heck is Immune Boosting Onion Chicken Soup? In this case, it’s a French onion soup type broth filled with all of the traditional chicken soup ingredients. It’s filled with garlic, and onions, and other foods that will help keep you healthy. It’s the most delicious germ killer you’ll ever have.

We are in the throws of Covid19 now and that means social distancing, quarantine… whatever you want to call it. To me, what that really means is that we need to be boosting our immune systems every way and every time we possible can. I really believe that every time you put something into your mouth it’s another chance to fuel your body and give it what it needs.

So, to this end, I created this Immune …

Immune Boosting Pina Colada Smoothies

These immune boosting pina colada smoothies will take your mind off your worries and send you straight to your memories of the perfect tropical vacation.

I am writing this as I sit here in my apartment practicing social distancing. This is week 2. Or is it week 3? Do you remember the movie Groundhog Day…?

Anyway, one of good things to come out of this forced time at home for me has been that I am really getting into recipe creation — even more than usual. Sometimes I feel like I’m on the show Chopped. What’s in my pantry? What’s in my fridge and freezer? What can I make? It’s actually kind of fun…

Immune boosting recipes have become my regular fix. I’m now seriously addicted to everything immune-boosting. And this is a good thing.

For lots of great information on how to boost your immune system with foods, …

Healthy Chicken Piccata

This Chicken Piccata is going to quickly become your new go-to recipe. It’s simple, healthy, and delicious… and it makes for some awesome leftovers.

Chicken Piccata. Even just the name reminds me of my past. I remember going to old-school Italian restaurants with my family and my favorite thing to order was chicken piccata. But Healthy Chicken Piccata was never a thing. Who knows what ingredients and preparations they used to get it to taste so amazingly delicious… but it definitely wasn’t anything akin to healthy.

I kind of miss those old red-sauce places. You know the ones — they had plastic red and white checkered tablecloths with centerpieces that were made from old wine bottles with candles and all the wax dripped down the sides and hardened. Here in Manhattan there are some of these places left, but you really have to search hard for them.

Calling all of …

Fried Wild Rice

If you love traditional fried rice, you will love this Fried Wild Rice even more. It’s got all the feels of take-out, but it’s grain-free.

I love traditional take-out Chinese food but it doesn’t love me. I still order it a few times a year… just to make sure… but even though I love it while I’m eating it, I am always sorry afterward. And yes, I guess I could order some selections that would be kinder to my digestive system, but I always rationalize that if I’m going to have it, I might as well order what I love.

I really do feel better when I eat a grain-free diet. For me, it’s not so much about the gluten as it is about the grain itself. And, there are a lot of people like me out there… everyone thinks it’s the gluten… but if you are digestively challenged, try …

Simple Vegan Peanut Butter Curry

If you are going to pick one curry to make, allow me to recommend this simple vegan peanut butter curry… OMG!

Everywhere I look I see tons of curry recipes. One looks better than the next. And as I’m perusing my cookbooks and my favorite food blogs, and my beautifully photographed stacks of foodie magazines, I get really confused. You can almost see the wheels turning in my head… should I make a chicken curry? A meat curry? A nut stew? Hmmm, maybe just chickpeas?

There are sooooo many ways to make curry. I guess this is what makes it the best clean-out-the-fridge meal around.

So, there I was, standing in front of the open refrigerator, just waiting for the contents to speak to me. Okay, truthfully, I was pulling out all of the veggies that were about to go bad unless I did something with them quickly…

Any-hoo, I …

Fresh Vegetable Minestrone Soup

This fresh vegetable minestrone soup is packed with fresh veggies and herbs — it is truly amazingly delicious and healing. It’s like a hug in a bowl… Food really is the best medicine!

We are not vegetarians here in my house. I lean that way, but the rest of my family does not. So, oftentimes when I make a vegan or a vegetarian dish, some people — who shall remain nameless — don’t feel like they’ve had a “real” meal. They feel gypped. I, of course, think this is ridiculous, but sometimes it’s just not worth the fight or even an explanation.

And then sometimes I can make a vegetarian dish that’s so hearty, nobody thinks twice about it. That’s this Fresh Vegetable Minestrone Soup. It’s so jam-packed with so many things, nobody will miss the meat.

Vegetable-forward soups are my favorite kind of soups. Don’t get me wrong, I …

Healthy Creamy Butternut Squash Spaghetti

This healthy creamy butternut squash spaghetti is amazing. The sauce is do delicious and the texture is like velvet. And… it’s good for your digestive system and your brain!

Sometimes when I have a dinner party I figure out what to cook based on color. If I already have planned several dishes, I’ll look at them and decide what other dish would look best alongside them. I am embarrassed to say that this way of dinner planning may have been brought on by the Instagram-like-grid in my head.

I was never a big social media fan, and I started using Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter out of necessity. I wanted my business to grow so I had to grow with it.

Fast forward several years… and I am on my phone waayyyyyyy too much. Instagram is my current favorite. BUT, OMG, get the grid out of my head… please!

I …

Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies

These Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies are so delicious… nobody will guess that they are grain-free and dairy-free!

I was never one of those people who had real true chocolate cravings. Honestly, I never understood it when people said they needed chocolate and they needed it fast. And then, last week, I had a chocolate craving… hmm. It wasn’t all-encompassing, but it was a definite strong desire for something chocolate. And nothing else would do. So, I looked through my recipes. What could I make that I had all of the ingredients on hand for? What could I make that was simple. I didn’t want to mess around with cake pans and pie tins.

I have a few cookies recipes on this site that I know will come out great every time I make them. My Flourless Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies are my usual go-tos when I’m in a cookie mood. …

Gluten-Free Apple Cake

This gluten-free apple cake is amazing! There are NO grains in the cake itself and I used gluten free oats for the topping. This one is a keeper — it’s so delicious and everyone can eat it!

I scare people when I bake. I mean, I literally scare them. I often burn things, the end result sometimes tastes… ummm… less than delicious, and I have even started fires in the oven. And yes, I did go to cooking school…

I’m a great cook because I can taste as I go and I don’t have to measure. But when it comes to baking, all bets are off  because I tend to treat baking like cooking and it just doesn’t work that way. You know… science.

But, every now and then I really get in the mood to bake something. I attribute this to my obsession with the Great British Baking Show. …