When I first read about Phoo-D’s Edamame Soup with Wasabi Cream, I knew I had to make it.  For one thing, I’ve had a bag of shelled edamame hanging out in my freezer for quite a while, but what really caught my attention was the combination of flavors she incorporated into her soup. You just can’t go wrong with garlic, ginger, and toasted sesame oil – not to mention the horseradish cream on top.  Perfect.

I had planned on following the recipe.  Really, that was my intention.  It wasn’t until I noticed that my bag of frozen edamame was of insufficient size that I knew I would have to improvise.  My first change was to use frozen peas to shore up my meager soybean supply.  Once I started thinking about peas, I remembered the fresh dill and mint in my refrigerator that, though still clinging to life, really needed to be used up sooner than later.  When I started thinking about dill and mint, of course I wanted to incorporate some lemon.  All of a sudden, the soup had changed quite a bit! Continue reading →

Who says comforting food has to be unhealthy?  This hearty stew is both nutritious and satisfying, and the bright, warm Moroccan flavors will be a welcome surprise to taste buds exhausted by holiday overindulgence.

It’s time for another virtual lunch date with my pals on twitter, and today we’re eating hearty stews.  As I mulled over some stew ideas, my first thought was to create something with beef and butternut squash.  I knew I had a squash on the counter and some tri-tip in fridge and the combination sounded like a great one for stew.  But when my coffee-addled brain realized that I had already cut the tri-tip into steaks and thrown them in some marinade, I decided I’d better rethink my plan.  It was then I realized that I didn’t have a butternut squash sitting on the counter either.

Yes, I think I am going crazy.

Since I liked the idea of a stew featuring butternut squash, I picked one up at the store yesterday.  I decided against buying more beef, figuring it would be more fun (and inexpensive) to create a stew using ingredients I had on hand.  After surveying the contents of my pantry, I grabbed a can of chickpeas, some canned tomatoes and a half-empty bag of Israeli couscous I found stuffed way in the back.  My hearty stew was coming together nicely. Continue reading →

Like many of you out there I have made a serious commitment to eat better and get in shape in 2010.  However, there’s always room for a little indulgence, so I have decided to share this amazing bacon and caramelized onion quiche we ate on New Year’s morning.  Healthy?  Perhaps not.  But there will be times this year when a little splurging is both necessary and deserved.  So hop on your treadmills, bikes, and elliptical machines, drink lots of water, eat lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains—but please, I’m begging you, don’t forget to eat a slice of quiche every once in a while. Continue reading →

Remember I told you I had butterflied a chicken and was planning on grilling it under a brick?  Well now I’ll show you how I did it.

As I mentioned the other day, Pollo al Mattone, or Chicken Under a Brick is a Tuscan style of grilling chicken.  The chicken cooks quickly since it is flattened under the weight of the brick and you end up with crispy delicious skin and juicy, perfectly cooked meat.  What more could one want from a chicken? Continue reading →

Oatmeal.  It’s not the most glamorous subject, is it?

I grew up eating oatmeal for breakfast on a fairly regular basis.  My Dad would often make it for us on cold, winter mornings before school.  Sometimes it would be plain and I would eat it with butter and a bit of brown sugar.  That wasn’t so bad.  Some mornings, he would add chopped dried apricots, my favorite way to eat oatmeal.  But more often than not, he would cook it with raisins.  Plump, rehydrated raisins.  Yuck!  While I now look back on those mornings with a certain fondness, I certainly wasn’t in love with oatmeal at the time! Continue reading →

Before living in Sicily, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what a fennel bulb looks like, much less known what to do with it.  I knew of fennel seed, but had been turned off by it’s strong licorice flavor after encountering too many links of over-fennelized Italian sausage over the years.  Luckily, four years of eating delicious, well-seasoned salsicce cured me of my fear of fennel seed.  But not only that, I was finally introduced to what has now become one of my favorite vegetables: fresh fennel. Continue reading →

I admit that I’m not much of a football fan, but all this talk about the Superbowl has been making me crave chili! Since I almost always have ingredients on hand to throw together a quick pot of chili beans, it was very easy to satisfy my craving last night.

Although I prefer to to use as many fresh ingredients in my cooking as possible, I always have a variety of canned beans and canned tomatoes on hand. Pair those two ingredients with some ground beef (or just skip the meat altogether), chopped fresh veggies, and some good quality chili powder and you’ve got an easy, healthy, hearty and inexpensive meal that just about everyone loves! Continue reading →

This is what we ate for dinner tonight and it’s so good, I just had to share a photo and point you over to Elise’s wonderful Beef Stroganoff recipe at Simply Recipes. I’ve also been meaning to tell you how much my husband and I have been enjoying whole wheat egg noodles, and this is the perfect excuse to do so! Continue reading →