Steak with Bourbon Bacon BBQ Sauce


Most commercial BBQ sauces are filled with artificial sweeteners and cheap fillers.  This is a very decadent homemade alternative.  It still has lots of sweetness but none of the ingredients come from a laboratory.  It does take a lot longer than opening a prepared bottle but it is so worth it!  You can make it the day before serving and store it in the fridge. Continue Reading →

Californian Lettuce Wraps


This is a simple and delicious one dish meal with lots of fresh vegetables.  It is easy to substitute the ingredients for any leftover grains, seafood and meat you have around.  Keeping with a California theme I used shrimp and lots of avocado.  Tamari provides the main flavoring, it is very similar to soy sauce except that it is thicker and richer in taste, especially the gluten free option which has no wheat and a greater concentration of fermented soy beans.   Continue Reading →

Oatmeal Bar


This is by no means a complicated breakfast, and that is the beauty of it.  If you want to have a warm, relaxing breakfast on your own or if you have several picky eaters to feed, this is a great way to start the day.  A couple months ago, I went to a retreat on Denman Island and we had this every day at 7:30 am.  Normally I am not a morning person.  Not at all.  I never liked eating breakfast, especially so early, but by the third day I started to wake up excited for my daily oatmeal creation.   Continue Reading →

No Peanut Pad Thai Salad

This is a more western version of Pad Thai, without the usual fish sauce and tamarind paste but it makes a satisfying summer salad.  Don’t get me wrong, I love peanuts even though they are nut imposters- they are actually legumes.  Now I don’t have any qualms with legumes either, but I try to avoid peanuts because they are highly prone to developing aflatoxin.  As scary as it sounds, aflatoxins are naturally occurring but carcinogenic mycotoxins produced by a fungus that likes to contaminate peanuts.

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Green Eggs with Fresh Tomato Salsa

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This is the closest I have come to finding green eggs that are not just not off putting, but delicious.  Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” is all about trying new things, and discovering in the end that weird items can be pretty tasty.  Eggs, avocado and tomatoes is one of my favorite quick meal combinations.  Usually I slice it all up and throw it in a bowl but this is a nice, and surprisingly easy way to mix it up.    Continue Reading →

Cornmeal Crusted Potatoes and Sausage with Caesar Kale


Potatoes are one of my absolute favorite foods and I find this to be one of the best ways to cook them.  They stay soft and fluffy on the inside while getting crispy on the outside.  The sausage also imparts lots of flavor and it is important to get a good quality one without a ton of cheap additives like soy, dairy products, wheat and MSG.  I like to use dinosaur kale for the salad because it is a very rich dark green but you can use any kind of kale or the traditional romaine.   Continue Reading →

Iced Coffee Cubes with Fresh Vanilla Almond Milk

This is my idea of heaven in a glass.  Sweet, refreshing and delicious, a nice treat on a lazy summer weekend morning.  Of course you could use store bought almond milk but I suggest trying homemade because most off-the-shelf varieties contain preservatives and stabilizers such as carrageenan, a red seaweed derived thickener.  Even the organic brands use this, a vegan alternative to gelatin, but many recent studies have shown that it is inflammatory and linked to a range of gastrointestinal cancers.  On a larger scale, the increased farming of this specific red seaweed is invading and ravaging entire colonies of coral reef, which are already severely endangered.   Continue Reading →

Spiced Berry Grain Muffins


I generally am not that into baking, it’s much more precise than cooking so I feel a bit stifled creatively.  Plus it usually revolves around processsed sugar and white flour, items that I like to avoid.  Although I do love making ugly rustic loaves and muffins from chopped nuts and left over whole grains, especially quinoa and millet.   Continue Reading →

Tabbouleh en Beige

Tabbouleh is a traditional Middle Eastern salad, usually very green with much more parsley.  This version is predominantly beige from the millet with little specs of green, but I promise it is not lacking in taste.  I like to use millet instead of the more traditional bulgur since it is gluten free and very rich in several important nutrients including iron, magnesium and phosphorus. Continue Reading →