bites out of life

Fresh Corn Salad

Lest you think I spend all of my time eating cookies and cake, a little reminder that I sometimes eat salad too …

Year after year, whenever summer hits, I somehow wind up spending zero time in the kitchen. I find myself traveling more frequently, enjoying more happy hours and dinners al fresco, searching once again for an apartment (UGH.) … In short, doing anything and everything besides cooking.

It’s a shame, because I love me some summer produce. The peaches, the berries, the watermelon — I’m even coming around on eggplant and zucchini and the occasional tomato. But above all, there is corn.

Nothing beats summer corn, candy-like in its sweetness, perfect for grilling or sauteeing or even eating straight, which is what I do in this fresh corn salad. Tossing a mixture of bell peppers, cucumbers, diced red onion and fresh dill creates a crunchy, vibrant base upon which kernels of impossibly sweet fresh corn shine. Crumbles of bacon and blue cheese add a bit of luxury, but they’re not necessary (and any salad that doesn’t need bacon is a keeper). Toss in a bit of apple cider vinegar for a tangy finish, and voila, a salad made for summer — for your many potlucks and picnics, for your afternoons on the boat or your weekends at the shore.

Or even just for your lunches at work, as a welcome reminder that summer really does exist outside the confines of your overly air-conditioned cube. …

Condensed Milk Cookies

One of my (many) annoying habits is my inability to leave a recipe as it is. Of the hundreds of recipes I’ve used while blogging on this site, maybe a handful have been followed to a T. Most get tweaked, if not completely overhauled, in a million ways: a bit more of this, a little less of that, this herb instead of that one, adding cheese because well, duh. Even the easiest of recipes often gets altered into something delicious (usually) but a bit more complex than it really needs to be.

But sometimes, simple is the best solution. While trying to find a way to use up extra sweetened condensed milk last week, I found a number of recipes that kept things basic — but none, aside from the “stating the obvious” how-to’s for dulce de leche, were as easy as this.

Five-ingredient, one-bowl, two-step condensed milk cookies? You’d think I’d be doing a happy dance. But instead I wondered what it would be like to cook the condensed milk into dulce de leche, and then make cookies from that. And then add some toasted pecans, and a hefty pinch of cinnamon, and maybe some salted butter too. Or what about coating the cookies in chocolate, rather than adding chocolate chips? Or using salted butter, or ooooh browned butter … all of a sudden, these easy-as-~~pie~~ soda bread cookies had turned into a multi-process adventure that would take hours to put together.

Thankfully, a dose of much-needed reality (in the form of a busy Thursday night) forced me to stick to the original recipe on these cookies. AndÂ so I produced these buttery, almost shortbread-like condensed milk cookies: crumbly, light and pillowy soft, barely sweet and laden with chocolate chips. They’re the delicate “teatime” version of chocolate chip cookies, a daintier cousin of these loaded whole wheat beauties. And when simple is this delicious, why bother making things complicated?Â …

Banana Icebox Cake

I made this banana icebox cake for my uncle on Father’s Day. It was part of a feast (an annual tradition) that included beer-braised brisket tacos, red cabbage slaw and esquites. The cake was fabulous and was completely demolished within 20 minutes of serving it. But amid all of the eating and the NBA Finals-watching and the Game of Thrones finale drama, I never got a chance to take a picture of any slices.

And so, every day since June 15, I’ve debated posting this recipe. It would be a total food blogger fail, I thought, to tell rather than show how the banana “pudding” layer — made with extremely ripe bananas, sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese and copious amounts of cream (aka everything delicious) — softens the graham crackers into a cake-like consistency. Or to describe how gloriously light the layers of fresh banana and whipped cream were, rather than adding a picture. Or even to omit a photo of all the forks and plates after the carnage, a sign of how quickly and thoroughly this cake was devoured.

My b.

I’m sorry that I don’t have any pictures of this banana icebox cake once it’s served, but I’m going to share the recipe anyway because I’d be even sorrier if the rest of the world never got to try this life-changing dessert.

What is an icebox cake anyway? It’s a layered dessert, traditionally made with wafers or graham crackers and either whipped cream or pudding, which is then refrigerated overnight. The cake originated during World War I, back when a fridge was called an “icebox,” hence the name. They’re perfect for picnics or barbecues (like say, a Fourth of July one?) because you have to make them ahead of time, so that’s one less thing to worry about when having a bunch of people over. And needless to say, they’re so delicious, so refreshing and cool, that they’re the perfect end to any summer day.

(I know these pictures suck, sorry!) …

Roasted Pork and Peach Salad

When writing about this roasted pork and peach salad, I struggled to figure out what to say. My sister, master wordsmith that she is, suggested, “I like pork. I like salad. I like pork salad.” (A. Let’s be glad she doesn’t write for a living. B. Clearly she’s never been paid by the word.)*

But sometimes dinner is as simple as “I like these ingredients. I have these ingredients. I have 30 minutes in which to cook before I settle into a Pretty Little Liars marathon.” (Or is that last one just me?) This salad was borne out of my discovery, mid-fridge cleanout, that I had a few peaches hiding in the back of the crisper. While I could have just thrown them in my afternoon yogurt, I needed something for dinner … and one quick Whole Foods run later, BAM. Dinner done.

As it turns out, I got lucky. This random “need dinner now” moment happened to be a salad that I’ll be making all summer long. The balsamic-garlic-herb marinade/dressing is simple but packed with flavor, punching up the roasted vegetables and pork. I kind of love peaches in savory dishes, and they add a nice sweet-tart tang to the salad.

If you’re grilling, you could also make this salad into skewers, cutting the vegetables accordingly — just toss everything with the dressing, then thread them on skewers and grill for 5-8 minutes, until the pork is cooked through. (You could also cook the remaining dressing on medium-low heat until it reduces, creating a balsamic-garlic dipping sauce. But only if you invite me over.)

However you make this, you should. Because even if dinner is sometimes as simple as “I like pork. I like salad,” that doesn’t mean it can’t be delicious.

*In case you thought I crafted these blog posts at a grand, beautiful, sun-drenched desk (in a library, where I have many leather-bound books), I wrote this post on a bus to Maryland with my sister looking over my shoulder the entire way. We also spent a good portion of the ride dancing in our seats to the ’90s ~~classic~~ song “How Bizarre.” This is why I’m not allowed in public. …

White Bean Roasted Red Pepper Dip + Picnic Tips

One of my favorite summer activities is lazing outdoors in the afternoon sun. And even though most of the time, that means a small patch of grass in an overcrowded Central Park, I’m convinced that there’s no better way to spend a Saturday (Sundays are at their best when there’s football on TV, but that’s a story for another season).

Given my proximity to CP, I spend a good amount of time there. And after years of honing my “picnic technique,” I’ve come to realize that following a fewÂ guidelines makes for a much smoother affair, one that features max relaxation and fewer last-secondÂ grocery store runs:

1) Bring finger foods: Chips and dip, cheese and crackers, berries or cut-up fruit, cookies (bar or otherwise) — nothing that’s fussy or needs to be plated. The odds that someone will remember to bring plates is quite low, and you’re really SOL if you’re banking on there being ~~silver~~ plasticware.

2) Avoid items that require refrigeration: Again, simplicity is the name of the game. Chicken salad is great, but if you’re planning to sit in the sun for a few hours, you either have to scarf down the chicken salad quickly or risk it spoiling. Same thing goes for desserts that require refrigeration to stay firm — these key lime pie bars are delicious, but they’d be a puddle of key lime pie goop if they sat in the sun for too long.

3) Have a variety of treats: People will want to munch on different things while chatting. Make sure there’s something salty and something sweet, and try to coordinate with friends ahead of time so that you don’t end up with 6 bags of tortilla chips and no chocolate chip cookies.

My go-to’s are always: one bag of either tortilla chips and guac or pita chips and dip, 2 types of cheese and 1 box of crackers, grapes or berries + 1 box of pre-cut tropical fruit (pineapple, watermelon, etc.) and 1 box of cookies or brownies. Depending on how much time I have, I’ll make the dip or the sweets at home — otherwise, Whole Foods brand it is.

4) Use your friends: Don’t be afraid to ask people to bring things. You can either assign them a category (sweets, cheese, fruit, vegetables), or just let them decide what they’ll contribute and then plan around that. Asking friends to bring utensils, napkins or cups is always fair game too.

5) Drinks: A few bottles of water are always a must. From there you can get creative. Chilled white wine, sangria or punch is always a great idea, though you should check the laws surrounding public drinking in your area first. Soda, juice or iced tea are also good options.

6) Utensils: Somehow, this always seems to be the thing that people overlook. Regardless of whether you’ve assigned the “utensils” category to a friend or are bringing them yourself, you will inevitably need: 1 24-pack of mixed cutlery (yes, you need knives — for cutting cheese), napkins, small paper plates and cups. I bought a set of reusable plastic cups a long time ago and they’re definitely worth it if you picnic frequently — they’re way better for the environment and cheaper than buying Solo cups every 2 weeks. (I also may or may not use them every day, along with a few Yankees “souvenir” cups … we keep it real classy in my apartment.) Ikea also sells cheap reusable plasticware, if you live near one.

7) Something to sit on: Not strictly a must-have, but having a blanket to sit on makes the picnic experience much more enjoyable. You could buy a designated “picnic blanket,” but in the past I’ve used fleece blankets, spareÂ bed linens, tablecloths and even throws instead. Currently, I use a HeatSheet from an old race (foil side up), which has the added bonus of being so shiny that it’s a beacon for whoever is meeting me in the park.

Finally,Â it can never hurt to throw a deck of cards or a small game (I’ve gotten really into this one)Â into your picnic bag … though depending on how crowded your park is, people-watching is always a fail-proof way to pass the time.

If you want to get extra creative and cook something nice for your picnic, I’ve got a list of my favorite transportable recipes over here.Â This roasted red pepper dip inspiredÂ that list way back in 2010, when I blogged about it initially. Since then, I’ve made it a few times for myself, but hadn’t updated the original (picture-less) post. Until now.

Bask in the glow of this orangey-red beauty. Enjoy its velvety white bean base, enriched by the tangy combo of cream cheese and feta. Enjoy the way it pairs with pita chips or carrot sticks or baguette or flatbread. Eat it fast, before your friends do — I promise it won’t last long. …

Summer Lentil Salad

It’s only natural that as the temperature increases, so too does my desire for salad. Leafy green versions are a staple for lunch, but at dinnertime, I want something with a bit more heft — filling enough to keep me full all night and power me through my workout the next morning.

Though grains are a great way to bulk up a salad (whether you use quinoa, farro, barley, or even rice), I’ve gotten really into lentils recently. They’re legumes (like peas, beans and peanuts), and are a great source of protein, fiber, iron and other nutrients. Plus, dried lentils are super cheap and can sit in your pantry forever, or at least until you decide to throw them into a salad.

There are a wide variety of lentils: yellow, green, black, red, orange. They’re a staple of Indian cuisine, and our pantry was full of them — a rainbow of little beads all packed in glass jars on the shelf. I use humble brown ones here, since they’re the easiest to find (Goya sells a 1-pound bag for $1.50). I undercooked them a little, so that they retained a bit of their bite and didn’t become mushy in the salad.

While they did their thing on the stove, I threw a big batch of summer vegetables on a baking sheet. Corn is just starting to make its way into markets, and I love (love love) charred little niblets of corn. A few cherry tomatoes, slices of red onion, a bell pepper — everything softens and caramelizes just a touch in the heat of the oven. Cubes of smoked gouda add a bit of meaty creaminess to round out the meal.

You could double or triple this recipe for a potluck or picnic, and it’s great for work lunches. It’s also great on a blah Monday night with a cold glass of Pinot Greeg and a Jon Snow-heavy episode of Game of Thrones. (I’ll let you guess how many times I’ve watched that video today. May or may not be upwards of 1,938.) …

Avocado-Pineapple Smoothie

I go through cycles as an eater. I’ll have oatmeal for breakfast for months on end, and then abandon it completely for a year. Yogurt was my meal of choice for most mornings in 2013, but in the past few months, it has been relegated to “afternoon snack” status (a definite downgrade, since breakfast is my favorite meal of the day).

In its place? Smoothies. All of a sudden, I can’t get enough of them — as a frosty reprieve from the heat, a refreshing post-workout treat in the mornings, an easy “on the run” pre-meal before Sunday brunch.

They are so easy, so versatile, so virtuous, that it almost seems unfair. Packed with fruits and greens, with ground flax or chia seeds thrown in, they’re almost the ideal “healthy meal,” but so creamy and thick (thank you fro-bo!) that they feel more like a milkshake than a glass of spinach. The lone issue to watch out for — sugar content — is somewhat mitigated by the fact that at least it’s all natural sugars, and since you’re blending everything together, there’s no fiber loss like there would be with green juices. (The fiber slows down the absorption of the sugar in the fruit, so you don’t get the spike-crash situation that you would otherwise.)

In smoothies past, I’d been relying exclusively on frozen bananas for that thick, creamy texture. But then I realized that avocados make for equally “rich” smoothies, minus all of the sugar of bananas (and the added boost of healthy fats to keep you satiated for a longer period of time — important when you’re drinking your calories). Of course, I couldn’t go cold turkey from my fro-bo addiction, so I threw half of one in here. But I’ve had it with and I’ve had it without, and it’s delicious either way.

To counterbalance the bitterness of the kale in this version, I threw in some pineapple. But any combo of greens and fruit would work — spinach, beet greens, chard, berries, mango, peaches (oh how I’ve missed you, summer peaches!). You could add a scoop of yogurt for extra protein (or protein powder, obvi), and some chia or flax seeds for added fiber. Just make sure you drink it cold. And often.

Note: As I mentioned in this month’s newsletter, frozen greens and fruit are a budget smoothie-maker’s best friend — they’re much cheaper than buying fresh, are just as nutritious, and since they’re already cold, you don’t have to worry about crushing ice.

I’ll be sending out the June newsletter next week, so be sure to sign up so you get more cooking tips, book recs, quick recipe ideas and more — just pop your email in the box on the top right! …

Spicy Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Let’s face it: eating healthy can often feel like punishment. Don’t get me wrong, a snappy, well dressed salad or an ice-cold green smoothie can definitely hit the spot. But too often, “healthy” equals limp vegetables, lame salads, or endless bowls of quinoa.

The trick to keeping healthy exciting, especially when it comes to vegetables, is variety. At any given moment, there are dozens of fresh fruit and vegetables at the grocery store, plus more in the canned and frozen sections. Trying new combinations of vegetables and new ways to prepare vegetables leads to thousands of new dishes, a far cry from the old romaine-cucumber-tomato “blahs.”

Or you can redefine “salad” completely. These spicy turkey lettuce wraps are basically an Asian salad on romaine, but by wrapping the filling in lettuce cups instead of tossing it with chopped lettuce, they feel new and different (and also messy — donâ€™t eat these while wearing your new white jeans.)

Lettuce cups are nothing new, and have been huge at least since P.F. Chang’s opened its doors two decades ago. Mix ground meat (I used 94% lean turkey) with carrots, peppers, mushrooms, water chestnuts and a sauce of hoisin, soy sauce and Sriracha for a spicy, crunchy, savory filling that would be delicious with rice or buckwheat noodles if it wasn’t so friggin’ good with lettuce.

I don’t cook a ton of Asian-style meals at home, mostly because I can order 3 days’ worth of General Tso’s plus an egg roll for $7. So these lettuce wraps felt like an extra-special treat, a healthy meal that was so much better than just salad.*

*This is the name of a popular lunchtime salad place near my office. Every time I pass it, I wonder, why would you ever want to be known as “just salad”? Like ‘what’d you get for lunch?’ ‘Just salad.’ …

Champagne Sangria

Guys, summer is finally here. I cannot even explain how much joy this brings me.Â No more puffy jackets and 15 layers and ughs. No more biting cold winds and ~~constantly running noses~~ (darn you allergies!) and boots. No more searching for apartments in Miami or L.A. or wondering if my job would let me work remotely full-time. It is almost Memorial Day weekend, the temperatures are in the 70s and I could not be happier. (My roommate is also pretty stoked that I no longer come home complaining every.friggin.day.)

Let’s celebrate with some champagne.Â Champagne sangria, to be exact. Is there a more warm-weather appropriate drink? Summer berries float in a potent mix of champagne (or in my Spain-obsessedÂ world, cava*) and white wine, with a sweet-sour kick of grapefruit to keep everything light and bright. Pick a white wine that is fruity and light — Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio work well — but avoid anything oaked (too heavy) or sweet. Unless that’s your thing … though I hope you have a hangover cure ready.

The best part of this recipe? It’s perfect for parties. You can scale it up easily (your only limiting factor is the size of your punch bowl) and you’re required to make it ahead of time to give the flavors a chance to meld, meaning you won’t be tied to your bar cart mixing drinks all afternoon. And in case you were curious, the recipe below just barely fits into a 1/2 gallon cooler, if you were planning to take it to the beach or to Central Park for a picnic or something. Not that anyone would do that. (You should definitely do that.)

It’s also infinitely versatile. Use whatever cheap sparkling and white wines you can find, andÂ whatever summerÂ fruit is on sale — peaches, mangoes, pineapple, grapes, pitted cherries, plums, etc. The only really important thing is that you serve this champagne sangria ice cold, as a refreshing respite from the hot summer sun. God it makes me so happy to say that.

*Cava is a Spanish sparkling wine, generally made in Catalonia. It’s a bit less sweet than Champagne or Prosecco, and its citrus notes pair nicely with the fruit in this sangria. Plus, cava is generally cheaper than other sparkling wines — I bought my bottle for $9. …

Dark Chocolate Microwave Mug Cake

Some days just call for dessert. And while in my youth, I had the patience to whip up a batch of blondies or a cake, these days I want something dead easy that I can savor while reading wild theories about “The Incident.” Enter mug cakes, aka God’s gift to mankind.

A mug cake is exactly that: a cake madeÂ in a mug. To maximize ease, they’re usually “baked” in the microwave. Recipes vary widely, but the basic ingredients are flour, baking powder (to help the cake rise) and some sort of binding agent (usually an egg). In the name of research (obvi), I tried a number of different recipesÂ this winter, using eggs, yogurt, milk, honey, maple syrup, flax seeds, Nutella, peanut butter, bananas — you name it, I stuck it in a mug and microwaved it.

First takeaway: most mug cake recipes are far too sweet. I like my desserts on the very lightly sweetened side, so I omitted sugar completely.Â Secondly, a lot of the recipes called for an egg as the binding agent in the cake. But plenty ofÂ cake recipes call for one egg in an entire 9-inch cake, so it didn’t make sense to me to use aÂ wholeÂ egg for one little mug. Since I’m not into the whole egg-splitting situation, I decided to try a recipe that omitted eggs completely. (Plus, if overbaked, egg mug cakes can get rubbery, which is gross and also very likely when your microwave is terrible and old. Or maybe that’s just a “me” problem.)

I stumbled onto a microwave mug cake recipe that used a mashed banana as a binder, which makes so much sense. Bananas are often used as a substitute for eggs in baked goods, and add an almost pudding-like body to the mug cake, which, as some who goes bananas (HA.) over fudgy brownies and molten lava cakes, I was really into. Plus, they’re naturally sweet, so I didn’t need to add any extra sugar. You could even say that this mug cake is borderline healthy, at least until you load them up with chocolate chips. I doubled down on the chocolatey-ness, adding an extra tablespoon of cocoa plus chocolate chips because, well, more chocolate = better.

If your pantry is reasonably well-stocked, you should already have all of these ingredients on hand. And given that the instructions are literally mix and microwave, there’s no excuse to not make this microwave mug cake right.friggin.now. Everything in life should be this easy.Â

Psst! I’m launching a monthly newsletter this week. If you’ve ever thought to yourself “I need more bites in my life,” you should definitely sign up for it. Pop your email in the box on the top right and let your inbox be dazzled by my rapier wit and excellent gif-finding skillz! …

Roasted Beet and Kale Salad

One of the best and worst perks of working in my office is the free food. Aside from the free Kind bars and weird-temperature bananas, not a day goes by without an email advertising “free snacks in the kitchen” or “extra sandwiches in conference room X.” And then there are the events: the occasional wellness smoothie eclipsed by make-your-own ice cream sandwiches, gourmet Rice Krispie treats and giant vats of the richest, most amazing hot chocolate on Earth. I can pass on the deli sandwiches often enough, but I draw the line at City Bakery.

A few weeks ago, there was a full-on spread from a Greek place nearby. Though I had already started eating my own lunch, I ~~sprinted~~Â casually moseyed over to the gyros and pita sandwiches and spinach pies and … got distracted by salad. WEIRD, I know. But there satÂ a kale salad where the leaves were chopped so finely that they were almost feathery, tossed withÂ crumbles of salty, tangy feta and sweet-tart cranberries. And then, right next to it, was a beet salad so bright and pink that I couldn’t resist.

While the two salads started as separate on my plate, upon eating them I realized that the earthy, sweet beetsÂ mellowed out the bitterness of the kale so nicely that really, the two should have been combined from the start. But Mama GyroÂ doesn’t sell them that way, so I decided to take on the challenge myself.

Turns out, it’s not a challenge at all.Â The hardest part ofÂ the salad is peeling the roasted beets, and by that I mean scrubbing the pinkness off of your hands afterwards. Other than that, there’s little work involved, and the reward is a gloriously colorful salad thatÂ is packed with flavor. Who knew free food could be so inspiring? …

Half-Marathon(s) Recap + A Mango-Spinach Smoothie

Time to partyÂ people, I am officially done with half-marathon training! The second half was great — the weather was perfect (sunny but cool), the scenery was amazing (much of the race was along the Potomac River) and they gave out chocolate on mile 12. What more could a girl need?

Running two half marathons two weeks apart was … ambitious, to say the least. I’m happy I was able to push through all of the doubts and niggling injuries, but after three days of walking like this, I’ve decided to take it easy for a little while.* (After all, I have to rest up for THIS.)

Today is a nice transition point for me: it’s the start of a new month and what feels like a new season (is that you spring?), plus I’m phasing out of “all running, all the time” mode. So in addition to finally cleaning my room, I’ve decided to do a little spring cleaning for my body as well.

I’m still going back and forth on the benefits of doing an all-out detox, but in the meantime, I want to focus on eating clean: lots of fruit and vegetables, lean protein, healthy fats and complex carbs — and not a lot of booze, j-chips or especially sugar. After all, it’s (theoretically) warmer now, and we could all use some lighter fare, no?

This mango-spinach smoothie is one step in that direction. I abandoned breakfast smoothies for the much-more-winter-friendly oatmeal, but now that summer is around the corner, they’re back. While the power smoothie was a bit more bulked up, this recipe keeps it simple: mangoes, spinach, a fro-bo and almond milk. But it can be adapted in a million ways: throw in chia seeds or ground flaxseed, yogurt, oats and/or a scoop of protein powder. I prefer my smoothies on the less-sweet side, but you could also definitely add a touch of honey or agave.

So cheers to me for finishing my goal, and cheers to you because zomg, I think spring might finally be here!

*In reality, those injuries turned out to be not niggling and a doctor mandated that I stop running for three weeks because of minor stress fractures in my shins. I was bummed about it at first, but c’est la vie.

Mango-Spinach Smoothie
Adapted from Katie At The Kitchen Door

– 1 cup frozen mango chunks (or 1 mango, cubed)

– 1 cup frozen spinach

– 1 frozen banana, peeled and cut into chunks

– 1-1/2 cups almond milk

1) Blend together all of the ingredients until smooth and fully mixed, adding extra almond milk if necessary. Drink immediately.

Tortellini Soup with Spinach and Tomatoes

Two weeks after finishing a half marathon, I am … running another half. It was a weird impulse to sign up for back-to-back halfs, and the experience has been challenging in a million ways: my legs are tired of doing loops around Central Park, my brain is fried from having to push myself through all of this training, my friends are sick of hearing me talking about running, and my stomach is tired of eating carbs.

at the finish line of half #1!

Don’t get me wrong: I had a great time running the More/Fitness Womenâ€™s Half a few weeks ago, and I’m excited to do Half #2 this weekend in Washington, D.C. The Nike Womenâ€™s Half takes you around the National Mall and all of the monuments, and I’m sure the scenery will keep me going during the more grueling stretches of the race.

But while I’m looking forward to the race itself, I’m over the whole “training” part. Even the joy of carb-loading fades pretty quickly when you do it for weeks. I’ve had all of the rice, pasta, bread and bagels that a girl can eat. I don’t eat a ton of carbs when I’m not preparing for races, so it’s been a weird challenge for me to keep things creative, and not fall back on spaghetti with tomato sauce.

Enter this tortellini soup. After a completely unproductive (but totally fun!) weekend, I needed an easy recipe to throw together on Monday night. Somehow, tortellini soup popped into my head, and after a very quick Google perusal while walking to Whole Foods, I knew what I wanted. I usually have a process for planning meals, and this was one of the few times that an on-the-fly decision has really worked.

And man, did it work. This soup coaxes a ton of flavor out of a few basic staples: onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, an Italian seasoning spice blend and a hit of crushed red pepper. The secret game-changing ingredient is a Parmigiano-Reggiano rind, which you can find either on the end of your block of Parm or sold in small containers in the cheese section of Whole Foods. The rind adds a salty, nutty, earthy kick to the soup, creating a complex broth for the tortellini to float in.

The end result is a soup that takes 20 minutes to make but tastes like it’s been simmering for hours. It’s got my necessary carbs, but it’s also full of spinach and tomatoes (and obviously some extra cheese). After Sunday, I’m going to need a little break from carbs, but this tortellini soup is a great send-off. …

Ultimate Morning Glory Muffins

On most Sunday mornings, whether I’m completely competent or exceedingly incapable, I go to the coffee shop under my apartment. I usually pop in for a drink to go, but sometimes I’ll stay — write a blog post, read a book, or even just people-watch. And almost 100 percent of the timeÂ I enter the coffee shop, I get one of their Morning Glory muffins.

I’d never had a Morning Glory muffin before Rex, so I had no idea they were a “thing.” According to legend, Pam McKinstry created the original recipe in 1978, and then published it in Gourmet in 1981. It was voted one of Gourmet’s favorite recipes 10 years later, so yet another instance of me being very very late to the trendy party.

In addition to its whole-grain wholesomeness, the muffins include some combination of apples, crushed pineapple, carrots, raisins, walnuts, pecans (all from the original recipe), dates (from the Rex recipe), bananas and yogurt (from the Cooking Light version I used).Â I ultimately picked and chose what sounded good to me: carrots, crushed pineapple, bananas, yogurt, walnuts, dates, and yes, raisins, which I usually abhor but somehow make so much sense here.

Since these are breakfast muffins, I tried to keep them low on fat and sugar.Â The original Morning Glory recipe relies on over a cup of sugar and a cup of oil, but Cooking Light’s version cut down to 1/2 cup of sugar and replaced the oil entirely — the mashed banana and yogurt act in place of it. I cut down the sugar even further, adding dates to boost the muffins’Â sweetness in a more natural way.

Still, these aren’t overly sweet. In fact, with theÂ fiber boost of whole oats and flax seeds, the protein from the Greek yogurt and all of the fruit involved, these are a prettyÂ balanced breakfast, something I feel good about eating on weekdays as well as weekends. Though of course I’ll still be at Rex on Sunday morningsÂ — they’ve got a new bacon-egg-and-cheese-with-avocado-on-brioche-straight-from-heaven breakfast sandwich that I need to try out … for “blog research” purposes obvi.Â …

Spinach and Black Bean Quesadillas

Somehow, sandwiches have become the beloved lunchtime option for everyone everywhere (some might even risk bodily harm to protect them). In theory, it’s understandable: sandwiches are supposed to be easy to assemble and easy to eat. But too often, at least in my experience, they’re either exceedingly dull (dry deli turkey and boring blah cheese? No thank you.) or so overloaded with fillings that they become a soggy, messy pile of fixin’s that ends up in my lap.*

But when you move beyond the traditional “two slices of bread with stuff in the middle,” the world of sandwiches becomes way more exciting. Think pork buns, gyros, kati rolls, and perhaps the best example, the quesadilla. The Mexican version of the grilled cheese is springtime eating at its best — heavy enough to keep you going through the cold, rainy days but light enough to avoid weighing you down on those perfect 75-degrees-and-sunny afternoons.

Plus, when made correctly, they’re one-hand food at its finest. The trick is in how you fill the ‘dilla. The cheese glues the two sides of the tortilla together, so you should have a layer both under and over your fillings. (As if you needed an excuse to add more cheese.)

Don’t be heavy-handed with the fillings — the more you add, the easier it is for a) the quesadilla to become wet and soggy and b) for everything to ooze out and put you right back in messy sandwich hell. Stick to less than a half-cup for an 8-inch tortilla, and make sure that there’s enough cheese on the edges to really seal the tortillas in place.

Another big quesadilla game-changer: warm the tortilla in a skillet before adding the cheese and fillings. That way the tortilla is more pliant and won’t rip in half when you fold it. Use a spatula to flip and if you’ve cheese-glued correctly, you won’t have to worry about any filling spilling out.

For this version, I went with an early spring staple: fresh baby spinach (and of course black beans, since I love them in quesadillas). The filling only requires a touch of pre-cooking, just enough to imbue the vegetables with a little spice. I made it on Sunday night, and then cooked each quesadilla the night before work as my “lunchtime sandwich.” If all sandwiches were this good, I’d be as obsessive over my lunch as this guy.

*One caveat: the glorious creations at ‘wichcraft, which I’ve already lauded in the past. …

Mango-Coconut Chia Seed Pudding

Both in the real world and in the food world, I’m horribly late on trends. I can never keep up with what the “cool kids” are doing these days — I still don’t own a crop top, my nails are stubbornly one hue, I was three years late to the kale chip party and now, I’m finally hopping on the chia seed bandwagon.

Chia seeds have been an important source of nutrition since the Aztecs (though of course we used them to grow creepy plant “pets” and make annoying ads in the ’90s). They’re rich in Omega-3 fats, full of fiber, antioxidants, minerals and a bunch of other good-for-you things. I first encountered them on a whim last year, and couldn’t quite deal with the texture. See, when you add liquid to chia seeds, they absorb some of it and take on a gelatinous texture, kind of like tapioca pudding. I don’t like tapioca or the word “gelatinous,” so I kind of avoided the seeds after my first taste, and forgot all about them.

But a few weeks ago, I spotted the seeds at the Whole Foods bulk bin section and was intrigued. I’ve been on a real rice pudding kick lately, and thought “oh maybe I’ll like the texture better now, since I’ve been craving pudding-y things all the time.” So I bought $2 worth of seeds (I LOVE the bulk bins for this very reason) and decided to give the whole “chia seed pudding” another shot.

The seeds themselves have no taste, so it’s pretty important to pair them with flavorful things. I chose mangoes, because I love them and they’ve been on sale for the past two weeks, and coconut, because I found exactly a half of a cup of coconut milk in the back of my freezer and decided it was time. I’m not a huge coconut person (it’s also pretty important to pair chia seeds with things you actually like …), so I didn’t love that version but round 2 with a half-cup of almond milk was much better.

The texture was still a bit odd for me, but by the time I was on pudding round 3, I liked it. I might do 1/4 cup almond milk + 1/4 cup of yogurt next time, so that there’s a bit less of the gelatinous texture, and more of a real “pudding” texture. It’s a great snack, and powered me through an impromptu after-work 9-mile run (note to self: next time, don’t get lost in Central Park so much). But it’s virtuous enough to eat for breakfast, and just indulgent enough to enjoy as dessert.

And you can mix it up in countless ways: use berries or bananas instead of mangoes, stir in nuts, add cinnamon or vanilla extract, add chocolate chips or honey if you’re leaning towards dessert, etc. The seeds themselves are very versatile too: you can toss them in smoothies, in your morning oatmeal, in baked goods (like granola bars or muffins) — anywhere you want to add a boost of nutrients. If I had known I was missing out on all this, I would have jumped on this trend a bit faster!

…

Creamy Lemony Gnocchi with Peas

I’m back on the half-marathon training grind. After conquering 13.1 miles for the first time last fall, I got a wee bit ambitious in January and signed up for two half-marathons two weeks apart. (I’m a nutbag, I know.) At the time, I thought “oh NBD, I’ve already done it once so doing two in a row will be no sweat.”

HA.

Much like last time, training has been muy difÃcil. The endless cold has led to both freeze-your-butt-off outdoor runs and countless miles on the dreaded treadmill.Â I’ve struggled with self-doubt and total lack of motivation, even asking my sister and friends to text me positive thoughts during my runs to keep me going. (Fact: I have the best support system, to indulge in my crazy every Saturday morning.) My “winter padding” also doesn’t make anything easier, especially since I had kind of stopped running since last October.

But now that I’m less than two weeks away from Half #1, we’ve entered my favorite part of training: the taper + carbo-loading.Â Tapering means I’m running fewer miles than at the peak of my training, so I no longer have to spend hours of my Saturday morning running up and down Central Park’s hills. And carbo-loading means bagels for breakfast, lots of beer and this creamy lemony gnocchi with peas.

The secret to this gnocchi is the sauce. It looks and tastes like a tangy alfredo but with none of the cream or butter. Instead, Greek yogurt and a bit of Parm provide a guilt-free richness that is brightened by lemon zest and juice. No cooking necessary — just toss it with the hot pasta and let its residual heat meld all of the flavors together.

While the recipe is already pretty simple, you could easily make it a one-bowl affair by mixing the sauce in the pasta pot once the gnocchi is drained. A relatively healthy, two-step / one-bowl recipe that makes a delicious plate of pasta? No wonder this part of training is my favorite.Â …

Chimichurri Roast Chicken + Tips For Planning Meals

While chatting with Mili earlier this week, amid all of the Friends gifs and Beyonce lyrics and vacation ideas, she asked me a few questions about how I cook during the week. She was struggling with fitting in grocery shopping, meal prep and cooking during a busy week, which is something we can all relate to — there’s a reason Seamless exists. But I truly believe that anyone can find time to cook, so I want to share a few tips:

Cooking for One

While cooking for a big family is certainly no picnic, cooking for one poses its own unique challenges. Apples and oranges aside, many ingredients come in large packs or bags, so you end up with six tomatoes when you only need one. How to minimize waste?

For one: cook often. Ingredients have no option but to rot if you never use them. It might seem like cooking dinner every night is a time-consuming affair, but here’s a secret â€” you don’t have to. Using all six tomatoes in a big batch of tomato soup means tonight’s leftovers can easily morph into tomorrow’s dinner and Friday’s lunch, etc. If you get bored of eating the same thing over and over, switch it up! Turn a stir-fry with brown rice into fried rice with a scrambled egg. Turn a quinoa salad into filling for stuffed peppers with spicy jack cheese.

But if you’d rather scale recipes down (which involves math and fractions BOO) or the original recipe only calls for a small amount of an ingredient, you’re stuck with a lot of extra. Here’s where planning comes in handy.

Planning My Meals for the Week

It is vital to prep before you hit the grocery store. Deciding what to make and finding a recipe can be overwhelming: the possibilities are literally endless. Having a plan speeds up both the shopping process and the cooking process, meaning you’re not wasting any time in the kitchen.

I do most of my meal planning and prep on the weekends, since that gives me time to find recipes, get to the store and start cooking. Saturdays are my shopping day, and then I cook on Sundays (though obviously, that doesn’t always happen). First I’ll figure out how many meals I need for the week: 5 days of breakfast, do I have any lunch meetings with free food?, what are my dinner plans this week, etc. Keep it flexible — last-minute plan changes happen all the time, so I try to make at least one “freezable” recipe per week — a recipe that, if I don’t get around to eating, I can stick in the freezer for another day.

The second step is deciding what I want to eat — soups or stews when it’s cold, chunky grain salads for lunches at work, something with asparagus since it’s finally (maybe?) spring. Half the time, I already know what I’m cooking, since I’ll see a recipe somewhere that I must.make.now. (I spend a ton of time looking at food blogs and websites, if you couldn’t already tell.)*

But other times, I’ll scan my store’s sale paper to see if there’s a discount that I want to take advantage of (Whole Foods posts their sales online, which is helpful) or I’ll check what produce is available when I want to eat seasonally. Then I’ll search for recipes that feature those few key ingredients. If I’m really stuck, I’ll look through food blogs that I like — usually I can find something that looks good pretty quickly.

If I decide I want to make one recipe and know that I’ll have a lot of extra ingredients, I’ll pick a recipe that features those ingredients. For example: last week, I bought parsley for a lentil salad. Stuck with a ton of extra parsley, I knew I’d need to make something parsley-heavy this week, which, after Googling like mad, became chimichurri roast chicken.

Finding and Storing Recipes

Once I know what I want to eat for the week, I turn to the Interwebs. Google has an endless archive of recipes, and sometimes I’ll click through a dozen before I find something I like. But that can be time-consuming, so it also helps to bookmark a few sites (like maybe this one here?) and search on those to see if they have something you’re looking for.

Keep things simple. Some weeks, I know I have the time and will to get ambitious with my cooking. But most weeks, I’m busy and know I’ll have zero patience for “projects,” which is why you see a ton of basic grain salads and roasted vegetables here. Look for recipes that require a few ingredients and rely on basic skills (sauteeing, roasting, simmering) to make things easier in the kitchen.

After picking recipes, check your pantry for what you have and what you need. Save yourself the agony of “oh-em-effing-gee, I thought I had that absolutely crucial ingredient that I need to add RIGHT now” and actually check to see if you have more than one egg in the carton. Make a list, whether it’s on a fancy app, in an email draft or on a piece of paper, and stick to it.

In the Store

While all this prepping takes time, the time you spend planning your groceries makes it 100 times easier to get in and out of the store quickly. There’s no need to spend hours perusing the aisles wondering “what should I make?” You can grab what you need and get out fast, an absolute must if you’re shopping after a long day at work.

If you regularly shop at the same store, you likely have a good sense of where everything is. Be strategic — map out your route beforehand, so you know exactly where you need to go and aren’t crossing back and forth to find each ingredient. (If you’re extra OCD, which I am, as this post has made very clear, list your ingredients by section: all of the vegetables/produce at the top, since that tends to be the front section of most stores, all of the dairy products together, etc. Makes it much easier to grab everything at once.)

Then, all that’s left is to cook.

And if you’re looking for an easy recipe, try this one: a simple sauce of parsley, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil becomes a marinade/rub for chicken thighs (or whatever part of the chicken you prefer). Then the oven does the work: roast the chicken for 35-45 minutes (about the same amount of time that it takes to bake a sweet potato and make some brown rice, hint hint) and serve it with the remaining chimichurri sauce. Voila! Dinner can be as simple as that.

*I’m pretty ghetto and keep a running list of “Recipes to Make” in an email draft. But there are plenty of apps that organize recipes in a more useful way: Evernote has a Food app that I tried to use a few times (I’m not tech-savvy enough for it) and in sure there are others. Try a bunch and see what you like! …

Walnut Romesco Sauce

Real talk: this walnut romesco sauce is amazing. Blow-your-mind amazing. Eat-it-on-everything-amazing. Where-have-you-been-all-my-life amazing (and yes, in my head, I said that like this).

I had never thought twice about romesco sauce before seeing this last week, and I’m kicking myself for this oversight. The thick orangey-red condiment caught my eye immediately, and I knew I’d be making romesco in the near future. But while the Catalonian sauce is traditionally made with almonds, hazelnuts or pine nuts, I had none of those things and therefore, searched for and found a walnut romesco recipe instead.

This Food Network recipe is extremely basic, foregoing the onion, tomatoes and parsley of The Kitchn’s recipe and the stale bread that’s also common in romesco recipes (it adds more body to the sauce). But a) simple plays right into my lazy hands; and b) the combination of roasted red peppers, walnuts, garlic-infused olive oil, smoked paprika and balsamic adds enough zing that you don’t miss any of the other ingredients.

And in case I forgot to mention, this walnut romesco sauce is makes-me-want-to-dance-in-joy delicious. So far I’ve had it with roasted (green!) cauliflower, sauteed cod, a slice of crusty bread, my spoon, and ~~even my fingers~~Â (JKÂ I would never do that, because I hate getting my hands dirty. But I thought about it.) I can’t wait to try it on eggs this weekend, or with a baked sweet potato or as pasta sauce … endless possibilities.

A bright, punchy sauce that takes two seconds to make and tastes good on literally everything? Like I said, AH-mazing.Â …

Cider-Braised Corned Beef and Cabbage

After spending the past few days in sun–soaked beachside paradise, I have returned to the brutal realities of 15-degree weather. Yes — hopefully for the last time in a long, long time (but probably not, since I see yet another little snowflake in next week’s forecast) — i am yet again complaining about the weather. I’m boring, I know. I’ve accepted it.

During this week’s search for comfort food, I turned to the Irish. No stranger to long, bitterly cold winters, the Irish have a plethora of hearty fare to warm you right up: lamb stews, shepherd’s pie, colcannon and corned beef. While I had originally planned to make a lentil-based vegan shepherd’s pie (inspired by one I had at Nice Matin during Restaurant Week a few weeks ago), Fresh Direct had a sale on corned beef and I was extremely intrigued.

So, 3.5 pounds of meat later, I’ve learned a few things. A) Generally not a good idea to order 12-14 servings of meat when you’re cooking for one. (In other news, does anyone have any recipes for corned beef beyond hash and sandwiches? Anyone? Bueller?)

B) As it turns out, corned beef and cabbage isn’t traditionally Irish. The traditional dish is bacon and cabbage, using thick slices of back bacon (aka Irish or Canadian bacon). Corned beef is a New England thing, and became popular among Irish-Americans in the mid-19th century.

C) Corned beef is produced by brining a cut of beef, usually brisket, for 7-10 days. Common brine ingredients include mustard seeds, peppercorns, allspice berries, cloves, bay leaves and, of course, salt (“corns” are large grains of salt, hence the name). After the meat is cured, it is again braised, with cabbage, potatoes and other root vegetables.

Since boiled meat sounds blecch, I decided to braise the corned beef in cider. Last month, the lovely Alex of Chez Sasha invited me to a dinner hosted by Plated and Stella Artois, to launch their new hard cider, Cidre (so Belgian). Alex wrote about the event in more detail on her blog, but the moral of the story is that we got to bring home bottles of Cidre. Since most of my home drinking is exclusively reserved for red wine, I thought the cider would be nice with the corned beef — a slightly tart sweetness to balance the salty meatiness of the beef.

When Googling around for recipes, I also stumbled across Suzanne Goin’s genius idea of roasting the corned beef once it’s braised. A few minutes in the oven caramelizes the fat and crisps up the meat, creating a delicious crust that adds some texture to the otherwise soft-as-a-pile-of-feathers beef. (In case you don’t remember, braising is my absolute favorite way to transform tough cuts of meat into impossibly flavorful bites of heaven.)

What really makes this corned beef and cabbage sing is the addition of mustard. Goin’s recipe calls for a mustard-parsley sauce, but even my lazy squirts of spicy brown were perfect: a sharp edge to cut through the rich, salty meat.

Which brings me to my last lesson: D) If you’re not a cabbage person (these two dishes aside) and you don’t like salty things and you hate lunchmeat, maybe not a good idea to make a huge batch of corned beef and cabbage on a whim … St. Patrick’s Day party at my house, everyone? …

Sweet Potato Fritters

Round 2 of sweet potato week, woot! But I won’t entertain you with another science lecture. Today’s story is about the glories of leftovers, and the joys of unexpectedly finding something in your freezer that makes your life so much easier.

Since most of my cooking is for one, I have a ton of leftovers. Usually, I bring them to work as lunch or eat them for dinner. But sometimes, I get bored of eating chili for weeks on end, or I’ve cooked up a storm and have my entire week’s meals already ready, or I have a million plans and won’t be eating dinner at home, or you know, I just want to order delivery.

On those days, the freezer is a godsend. Portion out the leftovers into individual servings and freeze them, then inhale more pad thai than is humanly possible. Wash, rinse, repeat. My freezer is the size of a shoebox, but I toss so much random stuff in there that I often “lose” things — forget about them so completely that I can’t even recognize them through the clear Tupperware lid.

That’s what happened with these sweet potato fritters. In mid-January, I made Southwest-stuffed sweet potato skins for a Daily Meal piece on healthy Super Bowl snacks (the recipes are awesome and March Madness is coming up, so you should check it out). I had a ton of leftover filling, so I packed it up, put it in the freezer and promptly lost all track of it.

And when Googling for a reasonably healthy but still delicious snack to bring to my aunt’s on Oscar night, one recipe in particular caught my eye: sweet potato fritters, filled with corn and cheese and then fried to golden perfection. The recipe looked terribly familiar, and then I realized that I basically had 75% of the work already done and sitting in my apartment.

Incredibly long story short: these sweet potato fritters are loosely based on another recipe. Any time you can take leftovers and transform them into something new and delicious, I’m 100% on board. (It’s how I got through 6 days of eating broccoli slaw stir fry — by day 4, that had turned into fried rice, with a scrambled egg tossed in for good measure.) And adding a bit of cheese and some cornmeal definitely wakes up an otherwise batch of glorified mashed potatoes.

I kept these on the healthy side by baking the fritters instead of frying them, mostly because I’m lazy and didn’t want to hover over the stove for a half hour. (I instead used that time to watch more of my new show. And yes, I realize I’m horrifyingly late to the party, but what else is new?) The end result is addictively good — Â by keeping the fritters small, they’re that much easier to pop into your mouth, one by one by one by one until your leftovers are all gone.Â …

Sausage-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

It’s sweet potato week on this blog, people! I inadvertently made two recipes featuring them this weekend, since I’ve basically floated between the same three or four vegetables during this never-ending winter. You’ve seen them all here: Brussels sprouts, winter squash, kale, and of course, the glorious sweet potato. I should probably expand my palate to include some other winter staples (though, hello beets and carrots!), but a girl can only stay away from her brassicas for so long.

Some sweet potato trivia to blow your friends’ minds at your next party: though we often use “sweet potato” and “yam” interchangeably, these vegetables are completely different. What I’ve used in this recipe is a sweet potato, which originated in either Central or South America. There are many varieties (not all of them have orange flesh), but they are generally sweet, have a thin skin and are commonly found in the U.S. True yams originated in Africa and Asia, are more starchy than true sweet potatoes, and have a much rougher, scalier skin. You likely won’t find them at your local supermarket. Here’s more if you’re interested. (Am I the only person who finds this fascinating? Is this why people avoid me at parties?)

But I’ll assume you’re not here for a botany lesson. You’re here for the deliciousness that is salty, spicy sausage and garlicky, crunchy, faintly bitter kale tucked inside the buttery soft, sugary sweet flesh of a baked garnet sweet potato. Topped with a sprinkle of Pecorino, these sausage-stuffed sweet potatoes are full of contrasts in flavor and texture, the kind of meal that looks and tastes fancy but is deceptively easy.

While the oven does all of the work for the potatoes, you simply crumble up some hot Italian sausage (I used chicken, but pork works too), then saute an onion, some garlic and a whole lot of kale until it’s crisp-tender. The hardest part is waiting for the sweet potatoes to cool before ripping them open and stuffing them.

*Seriously. I had to fly the coop so that my toes could finally defrost. Also, the promise of 80-degree temps is the only way Milan could get me to visit LA. In related news, I will be practicing my #surfbort moves from now until Sunday morning, when I try my very first surfing lesson (!!) …

Broccoli Slaw Stir Fry

Like many of you, I’m always trying to figure out new and exciting ways to add vegetables to my meals. Salads are the easiest, but they get boring after a while (and they’re not really “winter” food anyway). I could always throw a pile of spinach into soup, or scramble an egg with frozen peas and carrots, or roast <insert vegetable name here> for a half-hour and call it a night.

All delicious options, but SNOOZE.

I never ever consider stir-fry when contemplating what to cook for dinner, despite ordering Chinese food at least once a fortnight (prob because I get General Tso’s every time, and with the exception of two sad, limp broccoli florets, there is nary a vegetable on my plate).

It’s a big oversight on my part, since stir-fries are by definition quick and easy (cut, drop, stir) and are entirely composed of vegetables — though of course, you can always add meat, chicken, shrimp or tofu. They’re also infinitely adaptable to what you have in your kitchen, since you can toss in whatever vegetables you have on hand.

Plus, and maybe this is just me, but they’re super exciting: will you add the vegetables in the right order so that everything cooks evenly? Can you stir fast enough? How many burns will you sustain? What about the sauce?!? For someone who is willing to spend an extra half-hour on the treadmill to catch the end of Chopped, a little “Kitchen Stadium” atmosphere at home is always fun.

The most important part of a stir-fry is the prep stage: you should cut all your vegetables before you start cooking, and they should all be the same size so that they cook evenly. I also combined all of my sauce ingredients beforehand, so that I wouldn’t have to bother with measuring spoons and cups while trying to stir a wok full of vegetables. Since I used a bagged broccoli slaw mix and pre-sliced mushrooms, there wasn’t a ton of prep work here — perfect for busy weeknights.

Once you’ve prepped, most of the work for this broccoli slaw stir-fry is done. Just make sure your oil is hot, and then add and stir, add and stir, add and stir until your arm hurts and the vegetables are crisp-tender. Then, pile the stir-fry on rice, maybe add a small piece of chicken or fish (or don’t — you won’t miss it), and relish in the fact that tonight, your vegetables are anything but boring.Â

Exciting news! Thanks to a tip from an awesome friend, Reader’s Digest asked me to create a recipe based on their new 21-Day Tummy book, which focuses on digestive health as a way to lose weight. My curried quinoa porridge with spinach (featuring gut-healthy quinoa, spinach, flax seeds, turmeric and ginger) is on their site now! …

Shrimp Fra Diavolo with Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash always seems to trip people up. It’s often considered “health food,” an excuse to eat pasta without all of the guilt-inducing carbs. But there’s a major problem with that designation: beyond the look of the shredded strands, spaghetti squash is nothing like pasta. Expecting the taste and texture of regular pasta when eating spaghetti squash will leave you sorely disappointed.

That doesn’t mean it’s not delicious. It’s slightly sweet and vegetal, and shines with both simple oil-and-garlic sauces and heavy bologneses. If you have a microwave, you can cook the squash in the time it takes to boil a pot of water for pasta (the hardest part for me, with my limited upper body strength and dull knives, is cutting the whole squash in half). If you mentally drop the pasta comparison and consider spaghetti squash on its merits alone, it’s an excellent side to many dishes.

Pairing the squash with shrimp fra diavolo is genius, since the spicy, garlicky tomato sauce balances the sweetness of the spaghetti squash nicely. This is the kind of dish that requires very little effort and not a lot of planning to throw together, the kind of last-minute dinner that is a godsend during a busy week. I came up with it on a whim, after taking advantage of a sale on shrimp at Whole Foods and staring at a slowly wilting spaghetti squash on my kitchen counter. Usually my “need to use this up now!” meals are not cool enough to mention in these public environs (most of them involve roasting and a fried egg) but this shrimp was too good to not share.

Of course, I still managed to screw it up: intending to halve the recipe since I only had half of a spaghetti squash remaining, I bought the right amount of shrimp but the wrong-size can of tomatoes, which is why my sauce-to-shrimp-and-squash-ratio is so woefully off. I mean, I love my tomato sauce, but even I’ll admit that this was a bit overboard.

Even then, this was delicious. Fiery, sweet, saucy — no thoughts of pasta here.Â …

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