Radicchio Endive Salad

This Radicchio Endive Salad is perfect. It is easy, delicious, healthy, and so pretty to look at!

I am always in search of the perfect salad. But my idea of this perfect salad changes based on who I ‘m feeding, what I’m feeling, and what ingredients are fresh at the time. I guess that’s why I’m always chasing this perfection…

A few things remain constant in my salad game. I need to have several different textures in my salad. I need crunch and I need creamy and I need things with bite and I need things that are soft. Yes, I can be a ball-buster when it comes to my salads…

I also need several different types of flavors. I need something slightly bitter. And something sweet. Well… you get the picture. I need a variety of tastes and textures (I guess I could have just said that up front…).…

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, …

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 …

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. …

Dairy Free Cheesy Sweet Potato Fries

 

These dairy free cheesy sweet potato fries will make you smile from ear to ear. They are perfect as football food, for a casual dinner party, or just as a treat because you deserve it!

If I had to pick one food that makes me happy every single time, I think it might be fries. Any type of fries — traditional fries, sweet potato fries, crispy fries, not-so-crispy fries, curly fries, spicy fries, cheese fries… well, you get the picture. I’m a little obsessed with fries.

Years ago when my friends and I would go to the diner after a night of partying, my order would almost always include a big plate of French fries with gravy. To me, there was nothing better. And just because I am a lot more health conscious now, it doesn’t mean that I don’t indulge in fries. These Dairy Free Cheesy Sweet Potato Fries …

Borscht With Beef

This Borscht With Beef is a deliciously healing classic soup filled with beets, cabbage, and beef. It’s kind of a cross between a hearty beef stew and a cabbage soup. It is amazing and even non-beet-lovers will ask for a second helping.

I was working with a client a few weeks ago who had really high blood pressure. Now, I’ve always known that beets are great to lower blood pressure but it wasn’t until we actually tested it out that I was truly awe inspired. This wonderful woman came to me willing to do anything she had to in order to feel better. She is my favorite type of client.

I always ask on my initial questionnaire if there is anything you won’t eat. She responded with only two things that she couldn’t                 get down, and one of them was beets.

So, we worked around the beets. And she did …