Rice Bowls with Peanut Sauce and Chicken Satay Today's rice bowl features my all-time favorite Peanut Sauce recipe. I have tried several others in the past, but they either tasted too acidic or called for ingredients that required a separate trip to the grocery store (Looking for obscure ingredients, with help from a well-meaning but confused clerk, is one of my least favorite activities). This sauce is creamy, peanuty perfection, and uses ingredients I almost always have on hand. I could eat it by the spoonful, which is why I usually double the recipe. The original recipe comes from lettuce wraps in Cooking Light's magazine years ago. That's a Read More
All About Rice: Tips, terms, and how to cook perfect brown rice
All About Rice & How to Cook Perfect Brown Rice Welcome to our All About Rice series! Find more rice cooking tips, buying suggestions, and recipes here. For as long as I can remember, I have always read the last few pages of a book first. I can't help it. I like to know what to expect. It saves so much time and emotional energy. Oh, what's that? The main character, who I am undoubtedly going to get attached to over the next 268 pages, dies? Well, I am now left with two choices: I can either ditch the book before wasting another minute or I can relax and read it, knowing I'm not going to be rocked by any major surprises. My husband thinks Read More
Chicken Lettuce Wraps (PF Chang’s copycat recipe)
Chicken Lettuce Wraps (PF Chang's copycat recipe) My garden is exploding with greens right now. We have been drinking more green juices and eating more salads than I can count. Sometimes when we're out in the backyard, my ever-hungry kids will even climb into the raised bed and start munching on kale leaves like overgrown rabbits! I don't say anything, for fear of startling them off and losing the magical moment. I had two beautiful heads of butter lettuce last week, so I used them to create one of my favorite copycat recipes for PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps. There are several versions of this recipe floating around the Internet, but in this one I Read More
Vegan Caesar Salad recipe (with seasoned polenta croutons!)
Vegan Caesar Salad In an effort to put together some pieces of a heath puzzle, I decided to do an elimination diet. After doing extensive research (Google.) and talking to my doctor, it seemed more effective and recommended than a full food allergy panel. Before taking the plunge, I didn't really know anything about elimination diets. I assumed it was pretty simple: just eliminate all the fun food you formerly put in your mouth. (Turns out, that wasn't too far from the truth.) In the last week alone, I have turned down some of my very favorite junk food: Oreos, Pirate's Booty, S'mores, and the hardest of all... coffee. Oh, delicious, creamy Read More
Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes (recipe)
Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes with Creamy Coleslaw When I was a kid, I was a super picky eater; my forbidden food list was a mile long. It included, but was not limited to: onions, peppers, tuna fish, kidney beans, vegetable soup, lemon bars, and... Sloppy Joes. I don't think there was much rhyme or reason to 99% of my food aversions, but I know exactly why Sloppy Joes were banned from my mouth. Even as a kid, I was pretty sure that meat is not supposed to be sickeningly sweet. Barbecue sauce sweet, no problem. But typical Sloppy Joe recipes add 1/4-1/2 cup of sugar for this amount of meat. No thanks. My friend Debbie introduced us to this Sloppy Joe Read More
100% Whole Wheat Pizza Crust recipe
100% Whole Wheat Pizza Crust recipe When my husband and I were dating we'd go out for pizza at this little hole-in-the-wall place in Chicago. They either did a brisk takeout business or were a front for some mob activity because we always had the place to ourselves. And we always ordered the whole wheat thin crust pizza. It was a nice change of pace in the Land of Deep Dish. If you read much about the relationship between whole wheat flour + pizza crust, recipes will warn you to Be careful! Take it easy! Don't go further than two-thirds whole wheat flour! Or your crust will turn out tough or coarse or crisp or sandy tasting, and you'll regret it Read More
15 Delicious Chickpea Recipes
Chickpea Recipes Chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) are chock full of protein, fiber, folic acid, and manganese, these beans are nutritional overachievers. Here are 15 GREAT recipes to try out! Buffalo Chickpea Ranch Pizza | Vegan Yack Attack Honey Garlic Chicken Chickpea Salad | The Healthy Maven Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpeas | Dora Daily Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bars | Honey & Figs Crispy Roasted Parmesan Chickpeas | with Spiced Ranch Dip Caprese Salad Focaccia with Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas | Yeah..Imma Eat That Vegetarian Paella with Chickpeas | Amuse Your Bouche Moroccan Chicken Soup with Read More