Italian Seasoning

A quick post today on something I recently just made out of necessity: Italian seasoning.
I know all too well that Italian seasoning is the kind of thing that chefs and sophisticated cooks “never” use.
But as far as I’m concerned, I use it all the time — and I’m not afraid to say it.
Whenever I need to season a chicken breast for dinner, Italian seasoning is there to make it more savory.
I’m whipping up some cauliflower crust cheese pizza? Italian seasoning.
Need to add some extra flavor to my soup? Italian seasoning.

20-Minute Creamy Vegan Carrot Soup

Because I am, in all likelihood, about 10 years old on the inside but old enough on the outside to know that it’s better not to fool yourself or others, I’m going to admit from the start that carrot soup may not be one of the most fashionable soup there is.
Take a New England clam chowder or a French onion soup for instance: They’re classy, sophisticated, and elegant. The kind of soups that would own the runway.
But carrot soup? Carrot soup is synonym for mundane, ordinary, maybe even banal. There’s nothing fashionable about it.
Yet, in all its mundanity this particular 20-Minute Creamy Vegan Carrot Soup is hearty, satisfying, heartwarming, and incredibly delicious.

Wolfpack-Style Meatballs

I’d be lying if I were to say that I’m familiar with baby showers.
I mean, I know what a baby shower is: A party usually thrown by a friend or family member for the first child so that the mom-to-be can feel supported by her friends and family and obtain a few of the essentials.
There’s food, there’s tittle-tattle, there’s a lot of “Oh my God this is the cutest thing ever!”, there are usually party games organized by the host, and so on.
But traditionally baby showers are just women (though more and more are starting to have a mix of men and women) and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve never been invited to one.

Spicy Vegan Chinese Eggplant

I feel you guys should know that I sometimes endure physical pain in order create the recipes for this blog.
For instance, the other day I was chopping serrano peppers and accidentally wiped my eyes.
You.Have.No.Idea.
It started burning like hell, so I jumped in the shower and hosed my eyeball off for 10 minutes straight.
Those of you who have tried to soothe a salsa-scorched mouth with water know that this does not work at all. It helps for a second, and then the burn returns with a vengeance.
In fact I'm pretty sure I made it worse because when I got out of the shower my eye was still burning, and was now bright red and swollen.
The heat and pain from spicy foods is caused by capsaicin, which isn't soluble in water — so it just washes over it and spreads it around without removing it.

20-Minute Skillet Chicken Fajitas

Fortunately, for like healthy eating, nutritional balance, and all that boring stuff I do, I did not entirely subsist on this amazing chocolate chip banana bread for the past few weeks. 

I’ve also been making a lot of these Skillet Chicken Fajitas. 

(Paleo) Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

As Gary Jules sang, it’s a mad, mad world.
Everyone seems to be on the move. They are either coming or going. It’s easy to get caught up in the rush and it’s tempting to pile more on your plate than you can handle.
It’s become the norm to juggle an extra volunteering gig or job when you don’t even have the time to catch your breath.
I personally pride myself in being able to be occupied on a regular basis: work, blog, training, social life, helping sis with the kids, etc.

Easy Pumpkin Masala

My favorite Indian cookbook is “Step-By-Step Indian Cooking” by Sharda Gopal.
Why am I telling you that?
I dunno, I guess I just needed to get it out there.
I guess I just needed someone else to know.
Just like I want you to know that I find this song annoying, that I would like to kill the Geico gecko, and that I’m not digging The Big Bang Theory anymore.
There, I said it. Now sue me. Or do whatever you deem is right.

Creamy Crock-Pot Chicken Arrabbiata

You guys, this is awesome. Really awesome.
Awesome like a mug of warm mint chocolate on a chilly autumn day, like a day at the Spa, like a sink without dirty dishes, like running 10k under 35 minutes — that kind of awesome.

Provencal Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

I am sometimes certain that I wait all year for the Giants to get back on the field, you know, the same way a kid waits for Christmas to arrive, niece C prepares for Halloween (are you going to be Elsa for the third year in a row?), and a “normal” person eagerly anticipates whatever sleek trinket Apple has coming this fall.

So you have to excuse my lack of focus — over the last four weeks all I could think about has been football and my fantasy football team.
But even in this ‘football state of mind’ the other night I was able to drag myself to the farmers' market at, like, 6pm and discovered that they had a ton of discounts.
I scored two pounds of organic heirloom cherry tomatoes for about 4 bucks and a bunch of other stuff for like $10 all together. I was super stoked about it.

Chia Seed Berry Coconut Smoothie Bowl

To some extent, in one way or the other, we are all incoherent. I think it’s part of human nature: we say one thing and end up doing another.
A few everyday examples include: complaining about living in a mess but watching TV instead of doing chores, extolling the health benefits of biking to work then smoking a pack a day, parking the car as close as possible to the gym before going to a cardio class, wearing sports clothes but never exercising, being concerned about your health but eating a diet of junk food, etc. I could go on forever and ever and ever

Immune-Boosting Blueberry Smoothie

There are many aha moments in September when you can tell summer is over and fall has begun.
The leaves are turning yellow, red and brown, the air chills and the days get shorter, the Instagram feed is filled with snaps of pumpkin spice lattes, your favorite shows are no longer repeats, and a symphony of sniffles on public transportation begins.
Which can only mean one thing: we need to start worrying about colds and the flu (sigh!)

Burnt Eggplant with Tahini, Pomegranate and Sesame Seeds

Autocorrect is awesome at turning your garbled typing into coherent messages.
Except when it's not.
Take for instance my friend Shashi. For the past week or so she asked on more than one occasion how I ‘twerked’ a particular recipe — I know that she meant ‘tweaked’ but clearly her phone was acting on its own volition.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love twerking just as much as the next person (well, not really) but I honestly have no idea how to twerk a recipe.
What are you supposed to do?
Let’s not forget that twerking presupposes dancing in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance.
Does that mean that in order to twerk a recipe you take a cookbook and rub your booty against it?
I dunno, I dunno.
I might need to ask Miley Cyrus for guidance...she knows a thing or two about twerking, right?

Easy Crock-Pot Sweet Potato Turkey Chili

If you are from Texas, I apologize.
I know that chili con carne is the official dish of the state, and I know how seriously Texans take their chili con carne — so seriously that they even have weekend-long festivals devoted to its creation.
I also know that in Texas if you add things like kidney beans, bell peppers, carrots, oregano, and tomato sauce to chili con carne, you’re going to get an earful.

(Paleo) Coconut Lemon Chia Seed Muffins

Cooking is an art, baking is a science.
A sad truth.
While I will comfortably fuss and fiddle with a savory recipe. Playing with muffins or cookies? Not the wisest idea.
Fact is, there is minimal room for improvisation in baking.
Take cocoa for instance.
Do you know that it's safe to substitute natural cocoa when Dutch-processed cocoa is listed in a recipe but it's not possible, however, to switch cocoa types the other direction?
Oh, baking, you cruel, precise science.

Eggplant Pizzas

I love tweaking recipes I find by adding things that I love and that I think will enhance the outcome. Some recipes however are just perfect the way they are and need to be loved as such.
This is one of those recipes.
I've been tempted to tweak it up in different directions but each time I do, I decide against it.
Because truth to be told, there’s not much I can do to make it better.

(Paleo) Cinnamon Roll In A Mug

The process of perfecting a recipe is largely trial and error.
It requires understanding the basic ingredients (coconut flour, what have I done to you?) and the variations for different situations (i.e., coconut flour needs more liquid and eggs than other flours), then tasting them against one’s experience in actual use.
Make, taste, smell, notice, change, repeat.
This is my mantra when it comes to perfecting recipes.

Green Goddess Quinoa Salad with Feta Cheese

It seems that this blog is finally working for me: I have an archive of recipes I love, largely ones that work as they should, and the answer to “What should I eat today?” is now, quite often “Aw man those turkey koftas were legit. Let’s have them again!”

Eggplant Parm "Meatballs"

Okay, I know that despite everyone being back to school, back to work (ugh!), and Labor day being but a small blink in the rearview mirror (was it the day before yesterday or like a month ago?), summer isn’t really over yet.
It’s still hot, humid, smelly, the days are still relatively long and no, I will not put my flip-flops away just yet.
But I can’t help it, as soon as September rolls around, I begin the transition from summer to fall.
I grab the cold weather running gear. I look at the plums and peaches at the Farmers’ market questioningly - I only want to buy apples, figs, and pumpkins.
And I feel the need for bubbly, filling, and indulgent meals — such as eggplant parm.

(Paleo) Kung Pao Chicken

In college I made the stunning discovery that an order of Kung Pao Chicken, braised eggplant, and a beer water was pretty much the best weekday dinner there could ever be.
A friend and I made a weekly ritual of it; until one day we couldn't tolerate another bite — anyone with a bit of common sense would have seen that coming, not us, we were that naive.

Easy Creamy Crock-Pot Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)

I’m not sure if you do this as well, but I tend to go in and out food crazes — currently, the only thing I want to eat after running is garlic butter zoodles, which doesn’t sound so bad until you consider that I run every day.
I’ve gone through similar phases with scrambled eggs with avocado and feta, dinners of teriyaki glazed chicken and creamy mashed cauliflower, pan-fried dumplings with chinese eggplant, and for three tormented weeks Xi’an Famous Foods’ Hand-Ripped Noodles (so not paleo, so guilty delicious!)

Creamy Caprese Cauliflower Casserole

We all love cauliflower at this point, don’t we? It has come a long way. A very, very long way.
We’ve tried it as pizza crust, bread, tortillas, rice, noodles, soufflé, even hot pockets. We blend it into mashed “fauxtatoes” and roast it until it becomes perfectly caramelized, nutty, and sweet.
Mel even makes brownies with it, Lau uses it in cakes, while Synthia blends it to create a delicious rice pudding.
But friends, have you combined it with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil to make an awesomely delicious bake?
This is my not-so-humble addition to the cauliflower craze, and it has seriously become by far one of my favorite casseroles of all time. (It might become yours too.)

(Paleo) Rich ‘n Creamy Hot Chocolate

Is it too early for hot chocolate?

The answer is who cares, hot chocolate is forever.

OK, OK, OK...I know it's still summer. Hot, humid, sweaty, smelly, glorious summer — with temperatures sitting firmly planted near the triple digits.
But I woke up last Saturday morning and needed hot chocolate.
If I crave something, I make it, and eat it (or drink it in this case). It.Just.Has.To.Happen.