Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Chocolate Ganache

Sometimes a guy just needs a cupcake.
I don’t care if cupcakes are considered the height of femininity. If they are manly as a bag full of rainbows. With all their beautiful decorations, dainty, sparkly, tiny, fierce, and fabulous — hours spent to get each exactly right even knowing that they will be eaten in a couple of bites. I don’t care if cupcakes are “ars gratia artis” [see David? I know my latin!] which can be translated — in the syntax MGM employed — as “art for the sake of art”.
Sometimes a guy needs a cupcake, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Tuna Quinoa Salad

“How much canned tuna can I safely consume a week?”
I get asked this question a lot — particularly at this time of year.
When it’s hot outside and we don’t feel like cooking, nothing is easier than opening a tuna can and chopping some veggies to make a great salad.
Not to mention that tuna is pretty cheap and a good source of protein and omega-3s too.

Super Simple Smoked Paprika Chicken

Yoga is a very humbling activity. At least to me it is.
After 5 years of practice, it still feels like learning a foreign language as an adult: suddenly I’m unable to communicate in even the most basic terms.
And you know what? It sucks. It royally sucks.
I've always excelled in sports. I was convinced that somehow I was naturally born that way — but yoga has taught me a different lesson.
Suddenly I’m the slow kid in the class, and that’s a first for me.

3-Ingredient Strawberry "Ice-Cream"

In grade school, my teacher taught me to use quotation marks to mark a dialogue.
A quotation is something somebody once said somewhere.
But with the introduction of sarcasm in our lives, quotation marks have found a whole new purpose. They’ve become the body language and facial expressions of the written word and they can make any word sarcastic or ironic.

Scalloped Sweet Potatoes

I know this recipe seems a little out of place in May.
The weather is getting warmer, the summer is getting closer, we put away the boots, and got the flip flops out.
Yet, here I am, presenting you with a classic winter comfort food when I should be making ice-cream, granita, or sorbet instead.
But you see, sometimes after a long run (a very, very long run) a guy needs carbs, good carbs.
And sweet potatoes are among my fave carb.
They fill me up without giving me the food hangover feeling, all the while being so freaking healthy, it's almost silly.

(Paleo) Almond-Chocolate Skillet Brownie

What do you hate with a burning passion?
I know hate is a strong word, but what infuriates you the most?
I have a couple of favorites.
For instance, lately I’ve been having huge problems with my phone’s autocorrect. It’s been acting up on me and I have the distinct feeling that it’s trying to sabotage me.
The other day I tried to type “welcome back” to my friend and it corrected to “suicide neck” (what is a suicide neck btw?)
Also it changes “well” to “we’ll” and “their” to “they’re” all the time. So small but so infuriating.
I know the savvy thing to do would be to turn the autocorrect off.
But I have this love-hate relationship with it. Half the time it works, half the time it butchers everything. That good half is the only thing that keeps me from turning it off.

Chopped Nicoise Salad

You can never go wrong with a classic.
We all have a favorite classic movie, song, and book. They may depend on the generation we’re from, but we can all agree on some. Like Someone Like It Hot, Born To Run, and On The Road.
They are classics with good reason. They have endured the test of time, proving their greatness over and over again. They bridge age and generational gaps and they’re awesome, just like that.

Pineapple Teriyaki Glazed Chicken Skillet

When did you realize you were becoming old and uncool?
All it took me was spending an afternoon with 12-year-old niece.
Until yesterday, I was the young/hip uncle, and all of a sudden I’m an old fart.
When and how did that happen?
I know it’s silly to say but it bothers me. It really bothers me.
I loved my status of “cool uncle” as opposed to the “uncool parents”.
I was not ready to let it go. But times have changed and apparently there’s nothing I can do about it.

Zoodles alla Norma (with Tomato Sauce and Eggplant)

I made Pasta alla Norma.
Let me rephrase that.
I made Zoodles alla Norma.
One word: epic.
Another word: simple.
Another word: healthy.
Three words I like to use, especially when it comes to cooking. And I know you do too. Right?

Roasted Sweet Potato, Sesame and Arugula Salad with Honey-Balsamic Dressing

Everyone has a different idea of what constitutes eating “healthy”.
Some people abstain from meat, for others it’s just red meat, some give up cheese or gluten (ehm...me?) or fat — I mean, you name it, there’s a eating plan out there that promises that you can live forever just by giving up ice-cream. You know, just to throw a totally random example.

12 Grilled Chicken Recipes

Barbecue season is finally upon us, or is it?
To be honest, the weather is still a touch chilly, but I think it’s time to get ready to fire up those grills.
In my case it means I should clean the barbecue.
Because last autumn I didn’t clean it before putting it away. So I’ll need to remove the dust, cobwebs, not to mention the remnants of the last barbecue...
I know what you’re thinking, what kind of person does not clean the grill before putting it away?
Honestly I don’t know what to say. That's just the type of backwards, ignorant life I've led up until now, and no amount of common sense will persuade me otherwise.
Anyways, personally I think nothing says BBQ season like some delicious, grilled-to-perfection chicken.
Definitely a party favorite. At least, my party favorite.
So without further ado here are 12 clean and flavor-packed ways to make grilled chicken that would implant smiles on everyone faces.

Coconut Crusted Baked Avocado Fries with Sriracha Mayo

You should have seen my sister’s face when I told her that I would have brought avocado fries for lunch at her place.
Let’s say that her initial reaction was she wasn't really excited about it, at all.
Actually she frowned and said “Really? Avocado fries? What a way to waste some delicious avocado. Why don’t you make some yummy guacamole instead?”
I replied “Trust me, avocado fries are awesome. Plus I coat mine with shredded coconut and I bake them in the oven instead of frying them. They’re light, gluten-free, and delish. You’ll see!”
She wasn’t convinced, but my mind was set. I was going to make avocado fries. I would coerce her into tasting them, and she would love them.
That was my plan, and I knew it was going to be successful. It had to be successful.

Sweet Potato, Spinach and Chorizo Hash with Fried Eggs

Do you know the difference between white eggs and brown eggs?
I didn’t, until a couple of hours ago.
I usually buy cage-free, free-range, organic eggs from the Farmers’ Market but never cared about the color.
Sometimes they’re brown, other times they’re white. Every time they taste like, uhm...eggs. So I never give it too much of a thought.
Well, to be completely honest, I usually pick brown eggs because they feel more exotic to me not to mention that I like to support genetic diversity in chickens (HA!)
Anyways, I faced this quandary this morning as I looked in my fridge. There they were: 2 brown eggs and 2 white eggs. As I grabbed them, I wondered: is there a difference?

Creamy Avocado-Spinach Pesto Zoodles

I hate when people start launching into “I could never be a vegan” or “I could never live without gluten” speeches.
I’m always like “You know that from experience or are you just guessing?”
Most of the time, people are just guessing.

Spicy Potato Cakes (Aloo Tikki) with Sriracha Ketchup

There are many different variations of potato cakes in the world.
There are potato latkes, potato pancakes, tater cakes, mashed potato cakes and then there are Aloo Tikkis.
Yeah, Aloo Tikkis.
I don’t know why, but the name makes me giggle.
Just like as a kid, hearing the teacher talk about Lake Titicaca made me giggle. Now that I’m thinking about it I still giggle at "Titicaca" like I did when I learned of that lake.
Titicaca...HA! Why is it so funny?

Easy Zoodle Bake

Sometimes a guy needs a pasta bake, just like mom used to make (no rhyme intended!)
A creamy, cheesy, hearty pasta bake full of flavor and deliciousness.

Chocolate Covered Lime Coconut Bites

I know I don’t make a lot of desserts, it’s just that I’m not a huge dessert person.
Don’t get me wrong, I can put away a big bowl of fudgy cocoa ice-cream and enjoy a rich and dense chocolate brownie, but I don’t make a lot of desserts simply because I prefer salty over sweet.
I’d rather have an extra-large helping of coconut eggplant curry or another hasselback potato, than have a dessert on most nights.

Key West Chicken Bowls with Lemon Quinoa

For a long time in my life, I was on the fence about one bowl meals (I know, it’s a strange thing to be on the fence about.)
I think I struggled with the semantics of it.
In my world a bowl is what you eat out of, it’s not the meal itself.
A strawberry breakfast bowl, is a strawberry smoothie served in a bowl.
Same goes for a veggie bowl. Why do you call it like that when it’s clearly a salad served in a bowl?
I love eating out of bowls, but that didn’t make the food I eat a “bowl”.

Honey Garlic Glazed Pork Chops

Oh my, it’s already Friday.
My life has been taken over with...with what? I don’t know really, I’ve been just so busy. The week flew past in a flurry of activity.
Work, training, appointments, and late night baseball games.
No, I will not tell you which team I am cheering for.
Mostly because when it comes to supporting teams people tend to say the meanest things ever. Like “I thought you were a great person until I found out you were a Yankees fan.” or “How can you root for the Red Sox? You had a stroke or something?”
Which are some of the lamest things you can say.
Same reason I don’t talk about politics or religion on this blog.
For starters, it’s not the right place to tackle these topics.
Plus, I’ve been told to never talk about religion or politics on a first date. And this blog feels like a first date. I’m already nervous that you’ll make fun of me to your friends about the piece of spinach stuck in my teeth — what if I say something stupid about politics or the God you pray to?
No way, not touching it. I have others things to talk about. Like food, health, food again, fitness, and food once again. Ha!

Almond-Walnut Thumbprint Macaroons

In spite of its faults, the New York Times is arguably one of the best all-purpose newspaper in America and probably in the English-speaking world (I know some Londoners might argue this, but still.)
It takes itself seriously, it’s taken seriously (sometimes too much so), and it’s undeniably my favorite newspaper.
Amidst all the media that I consume, The New York Times holds a disproportionately influential place in my life.
Even if trying to read it all feels like climbing Mt. Everest sometimes. Honestly, it’s (almost) impossible to read it from the first page to the last — especially the Sunday edition.