Lisa on May 6th, 2013

If ambrosia is the nectar of the gods, then chocolate is the main course. Specifically, dark chocolate in all its incarnations, from foil-wrapped bars to warming winter beverages. Or, as I made recently, chocolate crepes stuffed with mascarpone cheese and fresh mango slices. Talk about a delicious way to get your morning started! And it’s [...]

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Lisa on April 29th, 2013

It warms the cockels of my qualitarian heart to see more and more farmers selling real meat at farmers’ markets. Produce is a wonderful thing, but real meat — that would be meat from animals that actually graze, mill around outside enjoying themselves, and generally live the way they’ve evolved to live — is much [...]

Continue reading about Chorizo, Cilantro & Celery

Lisa on April 22nd, 2013

Finally! Spring is here! Once more, ’tis the season of colorful veggies. And fresh-cooked whole grains to complement those lovely vegetables. Millet, amaranth, quinoa, even steel-cut oats are great candidates for savory suppers. Or how about a member of the rice family? Brown, black, red, and purple are all as delicious as they are visually [...]

Continue reading about Spring Thyme At Last!

Crepes are one of those things that sound hard to make. They’re not. In essence, they’re pancakes with extra milk, so if you can make a batch of flapjacks, you can make crepes. Admittedly, crepes are thinner and therefore more prone to breaking, but all you need to deal with that is a spatula to [...]

Continue reading about How About Chocolate, Crepes, and Strawberries for Breakfast?

Lisa on April 15th, 2013

Nuts make great snacks — they’re delicious, they’re convenient to carry, and thanks to the fact that most varieties of nuts are mostly fat and protein, nuts are one of the most satisfying foods on the planet. But there is something better than plain nuts: DIY seasoned nuts! I say DIY because most commercially seasoned [...]

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Lisa on March 29th, 2013

Muffins are the perfect breakfast, especially when made with whole-grain flours, oats, and plenty of eggs. Toss in some crème fraîche and some apples, and you’ll have a delicious reason to get up! But the best part about these muffins — aside from the taste, of course — is that they’re so satisfying that they [...]

Continue reading about Wake Up to Spiced Apple Muffins

Lisa on March 27th, 2013

As much as I adore raw food (no grains means no gluten — yay!) and especially the dehydrated main courses like meatball subs and falafel wraps, I’m not wild about the typical dehydration period of anywhere from 12 to 20 hours. That’s too much planning and waiting even for me. Plus, although dehydrators run at [...]

Continue reading about Sometimes Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

Lisa on March 22nd, 2013

If you’ve ever been to one of my culinary/health talks or have spent much time hanging out in my online kitchen, you know I’m forever singing the praises of plain whole-milk Greek yogurt. Why? For many reasons. It has one-quarter the sugar of low-fat flavored yogurt, for one thing. The ingredient list on Fage plain [...]

Continue reading about DIY Cream Cheese Makes the Freshest Cheesecakes!

Lisa on March 18th, 2013

Whenever I find an oddball ingredient, I get excited. Especially if it’s a hard-to-find oddity (at least in our cuisine). And if it’s a gluten-free whole grain I’ve never tried before, well … that’s the ultimate oddity. Enter Job’s tears, or — as it’s called in its native Asian lands — hato mugi. Sometimes it’s [...]

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Lisa on March 15th, 2013

When I do culinary talks, I often hand out a sheet I call “The Art of Refrigerator Triage.” It’s about letting your refrigerator make your dinner-making decisions for you so that the pressure is off both you and your wallet — if you make use of what you already have while it’s still fresh and [...]

Continue reading about Pumpkin + Peas + Pasta = Yum!