A unique, gluten-free pizza with a curried cauliflower crust. This pizza has incredible flavor synergy!
It’s two days post-Christmas and most of us are stuffed to the gills, but the holidays aren’t over yet, so if you’re not quite ready to revert to your normal eating patterns, then try making this gluten-free Curried Cauliflower Skillet Pizza with Apple, Cheddar, and Chicken. It’s healthier than most of the food you’ve likely been indulging in over the past few weeks, but because it’s “pizza”, you’ll still feel like you’re splurging. (more…)
A fun and festive recipe that even very young children can help with. The perfect cookies to leave for Santa!
The holiday season is in full swing, replete with indulgences of all kinds, but let’s face it, when it comes to treats at Christmastime, it’s all about the cookies! Even the phrase itself – Christmas cookies – has a sort of sing-songy quality to it that conjures up feelings of happiness and nostalgia. Almost everyone has a favorite Christmas cookie, or one that they remember someone in their family making. A friend of mine once told me that his grandmother used to start baking right after Thanksgiving, and every year would make hundreds of cookies that she’d store in her freezer and then give away to just about everyone she knew on Christmas eve. What a wonderful memory! Old fashioned gingerbread cookies have always been a favorite in our house, but I’ve been seeing these cute reindeer cookies all over the place lately, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon and create a vegan Christmas cookie following this theme. I’ve heard that Santa is trying to eat a little healthier these days. If that’s true, then these Vegan Rudolph Reindeer Cookies will be perfect for him! (more…)
A quick and easy egg-free Caesar salad dressing and a simple recipe for crispy chickpea croutons.
Everyone should have a good Caesar salad recipe in their cooking repertoire, but many people are leery of consuming raw eggs, one of the main ingredients in traditional Caesar salad dressing. Even though the risk of salmonella poisoning from consuming raw eggs is really quite small, I too, am one of those people who just doesn’t like the idea of raw eggs in my salad dressings. I’ve always gotten around this by using a Caesar dressing recipe that calls for mayonnaise instead of raw eggs. The mayonnaise lends creaminess to the dressing and is a great substitute for eggs. I avoid using store brought mayonnaise because it’s usually made with highly refined oil like soybean oil or canola oil, so when I make this dressing I almost always use homemade mayonnaise. This can get a little time-consuming though, because you’re actually making two recipes – the mayo and then the dressing. That’s why I was psyched when I discovered this quick and easy way to make a egg-free, mayonnaise-free, Caesar salad dressing – it can literally be whipped up in under 5 minutes. Avocado Kefir Caesar Salad Dressing is light, and tangy with classic Caesar salad flavor and, it’s better for gut health than your average Caesar dressing thanks to probiotic rich kefir.
These delicious gluten-free, dairy-free muffins are one of the best uses ever for leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce.
If you hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year, chances are you have some leftover cranberry sauce. In my house we always finish all the leftover food before the cranberry sauce is gone, but this year I had even more of a surplus because I made two types of cranberry sauce: 1 Easy Cranberry Sauce – a traditional cranberry sauce made in a crock pot, and Low Sugar Gingerbread Cranberry Sauce – a smooth textured cranberry sauce made in a blender. Both of these sauces were a fantastic complement to our Thanksgiving turkey and with the leftover sauce I created these yummy Almond Flour Cranberry Sauce Muffins. (more…)
A rich, velvety soup you can whip up in a matter of minutes. Quite possibly the easiest soup you’ll ever make!
Cream of tomato soup has always been one of my favorite soups and since we’re now into soup season, I decided to create a quick and easy version of this classic comfort food. You can make Creamy Tomato Corn and Avocado Blender Soup in about the same amount of time it takes to put together a sandwich. In fact, the day I photographed this soup, I also made the grilled cheddar cheese sandwiches you see pictured. While the grilled cheese sandwiches were cooking on the stove top, I made the soup, and by the time the sandwiches were done, the soup was heated through and everything was ready at the same time. The whole thing, start to finish, took only about 15 minutes. (more…)
A light, delicious, healthy salad made with the ancient grain known as forbidden rice.
If you’re like most people, on the weekends you indulge in foods you might otherwise steer clear of during the week. Going out to dinner, sipping a specialty cocktail, or attending a tail-gate, are all enjoyable weekend activities that none of us should miss out on, but they usually involve the consumption of extra calories. Hey – that’s what weekends are for – enjoy it!! Monday is right around the corner and that’s when most of us are happy to get back to our normal eating patterns. If I’ve had a particularly indulgent, food-filled weekend, I like to eat really healthy on Monday – something like this Black Rice Salmon Salad with Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette is perfect. It’s light, yet satisfying, and the main ingredient is black rice which has some amazing nutritional benefits. (more…)
The Recipe Redux is a group of like-minded food bloggers whose mission is to inspire the food lover in every healthy eater and inspire the healthy eater in every food lover. Each month members post recipes to their blogs following a theme set by the group moderators. This month’s theme is healthy, delicious recipes to bolster gut health. Click the Recipe Redux link at the bottom of this page to see links to all the posts for this month’s challenge.
Probiotics are a hot topic nowadays as more and more people learn about the growing body of research that points to a link between gut bacteria and overall health. Probiotics are the live bacteria and yeasts found in certain foods. They’re sometime referred to as “good bacteria”. Probiotics contribute to a healthy digestive tract and seem to reduce inflammation, a risk factor in a number of illness and diseases. Some researchers also believe that they help burn fat and stabilize blood sugar. Fortunately, it’s easy and tasty to incorporate probiotics into your diet and one of the ways you can do it is by making this Kefir Avocado Basil Dressing. (more…)
Pork loin chops are brined, grilled, and topped with a delicious sauce infused with classic fall flavors.
Even though fall has officially arrived, we’ve had temps in the 90’s this week here in New England. Mother nature somehow isn’t seeing all the advertisements for pumpkin spiced lattes and apple cider donuts, and has ignored the fact that the leaves are starting to change. So, until she catches up I plan to keep my outdoor grill going. What do you make for dinner when the calendar says autumn but the thermometer says summer? How about these delicious Grilled Pork Chops with Rosemary Pumpkin Butter! (more…)
The Recipe Redux is a group of like-minded food bloggers whose mission is to inspire the food lover in every healthy eater and inspire the healthy eater in every food lover. Each month members post recipes to their blogs following a theme set by the group moderators. This month’s theme is healthy sheet pan meals. Click the Recipe Redux link at the bottom of this page to see links to all the posts for this month’s challenge
Sheet pan meals are all the rage these days, and for good reasons. A well-balanced family meal consisting of a protein, vegetable, and starch, usually involves using not only multiple pots and pans for cooking, but more than one appliance. The idea that you can cook your entire dinner on one pan, using only the oven, is so appealing. Not only is clean-up easier, but there are no issues with timing because all the food is prepped and cooked simultaneously. This makes sheet pan meals ideal for busy families. However, the obvious challenge with sheet pan meals is that you must choose foods that have similar cooking times. This makes your choice of protein, veggie, and starch tricky and it can take a little bit of experimenting to get the right combination of foods for a successful sheet pan meal. My Basil Cheddar Quinoa Meatballs Sheet Pan Meal with Peppers and Potatoes contains foods that work really well together for a sheet pan meal. The meatballs take about 20 minutes to fully cook and the baby potatoes about the same. If the potatoes are on the larger side, they might take a few minutes longer, but that’s ok because the meatballs and peppers are a bit forgiving with their cooking times – meaning that if they cook a few minutes longer than needed, they will still taste great. (more…)
There’s a new tot on the block! Nuggets of cheddar cheese encased in a gluten-free chickpea crust and baked to golden perfection.
Tater tots – those small, cylindrical pieces of grated, fried potatoes – they’re almost as American as apple pie. In fact, tater tots are so well-known that many people don’t realize the term is actually trademarked by the Ore-Ida potato company, which is owned by Kraft. As with any foods that have a cult-like following, there are copiers, and in the healthy food blogging space these knock-offs include broccoli tots, cauliflower tots, zucchini tots, and sweet potato tots. But there’s a new tot on the block now. Allow me to introduce you to Chickpea Cheddar Tots! Nuggets of cheddar cheese are encased in chickpea flour dough, shaped into tots, and baked to golden perfection. Chickpea Cheddar Tots make a great, healthy, after-school snack for kids, and adults love them too, especially when served with cold beer! (more…)
