Stir fry has no bounds. If you keep highly processed sauces with added sugars to a minimum or omit them completely, stir fry can be one of the healthiest and fastest dinners to throw together. This is a really basic chicken based dish with some Asian inspired flavors, though I didn’t use anything too intimidating for cooks new to asian cuisine like fish or oyster sauce. It could be served with some left-over cauliflower rice, cooked whole grains or long noodles like soba or rice noodles to make a more substantial meal. Continue Reading →
Lentil Chicken Salad
Many of the meat eaters I know are not really interested in replacing their animal proteins with plant proteins. If I told my dad and brothers that I was making them a nice stew and then surprised them by replacing beef with beans they would be packing up and heading to a restaurant. Yet this doesn’t mean that omnivores can’t still benefit from widening their horizons. A good gateway plant protein source is lentils, they come in lots of different colors and they are usually easier to digest than larger beans for people are not really used to digesting legumes. Continue Reading →
Jack-O’-Lanterns
Stuffed peppers are an easy way to use up leftovers and add in an extra vegetable. Any kind of rice dish or chili can be nice for the filling. This time I used ground turkey and snuck in even more vegetables to make this a light but filling dish. Since Halloween is nearly upon us I used orange peppers and cut them into mini jack-o’-lanterns. Some of the best tricks for making kids eat more vegetables are to hide them and make them fun or playful. Continue Reading →
Turkey Cranberry Wild Rice
Pumpkin is arguably the number one food we associate with fall cuisine but there are so many other great ingredients at their peak this time of year. Wild rice is actually not rice, it’s a semi-aquatic grass that grows in water. It has a dense, chewy texture and a nutty, almost smoky flavor. I find it interesting to discover what foods were harvested seasonally and prepared back before globalization and modern growing technologies made nearly everything possible. Wild rice grew naturally in North America long before explorers made their way across the oceans and it was a revered food item among many Native tribes, there were occasionally even battles fought over the land where it flourished. Continue Reading →
Chicken Chorizo Bake
It’s dark and wet outside and I’m curled up in blankets by the fireplace. This is my favorite kind of weather, the kind that requires high boots and long coats. It also requires warming and nourishing food that was stewed slowly, to the point where all the flavors blend together and become something even better than each part is individually. Continue Reading →
Grilled Orange Chicken with Orange Vegetables
My brother requested orange chicken and he seemed a little surprised when I thought it was a good idea. I later realized that the orange chicken he is used to is deep fried fast food from an Americanized Chinese food take out place. Luckily he liked this version. I use different citrus fruits a lot in cooking, lemon and lime are usually my first choices but orange, blood orange, tangerine and grapefruit all go really nicely with poultry. The left over end bits can be used to make your water fancy. Continue Reading →
Chicken and Corn Soup
One of the main factors working against good nutrition in our world is that it happens on a cellular level. It happens slowly and it can often take years to see the effects of what we eat has on our health. In a society of instant gratification it is easy to understand why people make choices that do not pay off in the long run. Fast and convenient foods are huge markets and their products suit our lifestyles much better than making things from scratch. Continue Reading →
Slow Cooker Bone Broth
This stuff is liquid gold for our insides. I like to make it in a slow cooker instead of on the stove because I find that less evaporates and you end up with more broth at the end. The bones add high levels of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, protein and collagen- all essential for our own bone, joint, skin and hair strength. The particular protein it contains is in the form of amino acids called proline and glycene. Continue Reading →
Moroccan Style Baked Chicken
The color of a fruit or vegetable can be quite indicative of the nutrients it contains. This recipe uses carrots, yams and fresh apricots. They all have a vibrant orange hue and are rich in beta-carotene, a substance that our body converts into vitamin A. This nutrient was the first named vitamin back in 1913 Continue Reading →
Bacon Turkey Sliders
I think it’s important not to deprive ourselves too much and get too fanatical about nutrition. Nothing beats a good burger on occasion. That being said, making them with high quality natural ingredients and adding in extra vegetables is the best way to go. Continue Reading →