This roasted asparagus salad is super easy to make and is basically the perfect combination of health and comfort due to the roasted potatoes and delicious vegetables.

I love this recipe because even though it’s a “salad,” it’s a meal by itself and is super simple to make. You cut some potatoes, prep some asparagus, roast everything together and boil some eggs. Serve it up on a plate, pour some dressing on it and voilà, dinner is served! (more…)

Eggplant Rice Bowls: Unless you often make vegetables your main course, you probably haven’t tried this combination. The bowl has rice on the bottom (seasoned to your liking), a thick layer of eggplant cooked with onions and green beans, and is topped with sweet potato, to even out the flavors.

It’s not exactly what I’d consider a salad, but the recipe is based off one found in Salad Love by David Bez. Maybe what makes this a salad is the fact that it has a dressing — olive oil infused with crushed red pepper. (more…)

Sometimes, it’s hard to find just the right side dish to accompany your main meal. It’s often so easy to just default to garlic bread or flaky biscuits, even when you know you should be cooking up some veggies or tossing a salad. 

The problem tends to be that you don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen, but the reality is that you don’t have to. There are tons of healthy side dish recipes out there that make cooking dinner easy (like this one!). These carrots, for instance, need to be chopped, tossed with flavorings, and baked in the oven. Total prep time is maybe 10 minutes. The picture above shows a meal of pasta with peas, some super-easy asparagus, and these fast carrots. You can have dinner ready in 45 minutes or less (depending on how many helpers you have in the kitchen!). (more…)

Summer is probably every chef’s favorite season: fresh produce is in abundance at every supermarket, farmers markets are running again, and it’s easy to keep a garden during the warm months (or else it’s easy for your neighbor to keep the garden but share the produce with you :). 

This summer I’m hoping to try out tons of new recipes and experiment more with cooking different types of vegetables. 

This recipe isn’t a super adventurous as the main ingredients are tofu and zucchini. It is, however, the first dish I have ever made with tofu (we eat much more meat in my house). And this was a great introduction to tofu. It’s lightly cooked with the zucchini and some bell pepper and it’s slightly sweet and salty and even has a little bit of a zesty lime flavor (due to the addition of lime juice). Also, just as an added plus, this dish is vegan.  (more…)

Before it gets too hot outside, be sure to try out this super amazing Kale Stew! Normally, I feel like soups and stews are things that should only be eaten during the winter and fall, but I also think that there are always exceptions. Soups are ok in the spring so long as they’re light and not very creamy. They have to somehow taste refreshing. 

This soup definitely meets the above requirement. It’s a bit like a lighter minestrone, as it has similar vegetables and beans, but this stew has bits of red potato and instead of pasta. And, of course, the biggest difference is that this recipe contains kale. Lots of it. But don’t let that scare you away! It’s the kale that adds the “refreshing” element to this recipe! Cooked and in the same spoonful with carrots and potatoes, the kale adds a nice, smooth crunch-like texture to the dish. And you can add more or less kale depending on your preferences since it’s the last step for this soup, so tell your picky eaters at home that they’ve no excuse!  (more…)

Now that I’m a fan of fish tacos, it’s hard to believe that there was a day that I used to not like them. Or guacamole. Now, of course, things have changed for the better and I’d be willing to have a fish taco for lunch and dinner any day of the week! These tacos are particularly amazing, with slightly crunchy but not fried tortillas, lightly seasoned fish, perfectly creamy guacamole and a crispy cabbage slaw to top it all off. 

I made this recipe as a part of another cookbook review. A Good Food Day by Marco Canora isn’t just another healthy food cookbook. It’s an everyday cookbook for those wanting to lead balanced lives. (more…)

Today, we had to spring our clocks forward, but here in Michigan, Spring itself has not yet sprung. However, when I stepped outside this morning I thought for a second that it actually did feel pretty nice outside: there was no wind, the sun was shining, and the air only seemed to feel slightly cold. Then I checked our outside thermometer: 29ºF. You know you have problems when only slightly below freezing feels nice!

I don’t know how long winter will last this year, but last year it kept on snowing through mid-April. Maybe, where ever you live, you’ve had better luck with the weather. Maybe you live by the beach and it’s already in the 80s. Us Michiganders aren’t quite so lucky, but we’ve found different ways to make it through the long winters. One of those ways is through food. (more…)

If you live anywhere even slightly cold, the one thing you love about winter is probably the delicious food that it brings. And when it comes to dinners, who doesn’t love hearty casseroles or steaming soups?

Last night, I treated my family to something hearty and healthy: zucchini lasagna. Many of you have probably already tried some type of zucchini-rendition of a pasta, as gluten-free meals have become increasingly more popular. If you still haven’t jumped on the zucchini bandwagon, I’d recommend starting now, with this recipe. With the right types and proportions of cheese, herbs, and tomatoes, you can hardly even tell that there isn’t any real pasta in this dish. This is a filling and healthy way to sneak veggies into your meal!

The idea for this recipe came from The Soup Club Cookbook. I know, my sister couldn’t believe it either, that I didn’t choose a soup recipe from this book. The truth is this book contains so much more than just soups, unlike the title suggests. The soup recipes in the book do seem amazing (I already bookmarked more than a dozen), but there’re also recipes for salads, snacks, vegetables, etc. (the only section it’s missing is one for desserts). (more…)

The dish I am sharing with you today is called Lomo Saltado which is a Peruvian Beef Stir-Fry. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that I don’t often post recipes for actual meals (unless cake is a meal for you), but I decided to try something different. This recipe is from the book Ceviche by Martin Morales and it features all kinds of authentic Peruvian recipes. Continue reading for my full book review plus the recipe! 

In all honesty, I was more than a bit hesitant about ordering this book. I have never made ceviche, never even tried ceviche and, though I would love to taste it, I think I need to live in a different part of the world to be able to properly experience this dish. Living in the middle of Michigan, I have no idea where I can buy freshly caught fish; many ceviche recipes are made with raw fish, requiring something very fresh.  (more…)

Olive oil, carrots, rosemary, potatoes, sage, garlic, a bit of salt and pepper… those are the only ingredients needed to make this delicious potato dish – an adaptation from a recipe in a cookbook I recently received, Extra Virgin, written by Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos. 

I received the book from a site called Blogging for Books. Basically, anyone who has a blog can sign up, receive a free book, review it, then request their next book. I would highly suggest the site for any readers/cooks/crafters because they have all kinds of books on their site – even ebooks.  (more…)