Halloween night. Sports team parties. Potlucks. This weeknight chili recipe sees a lot of action in our kitchen. It’s super versatile, easy, fast and savory. The best part is you can make this chili with either ground beef or ground turkey, canned kidney or pinto beans or no beans at all (just double the meat)….
Grain-free
Homemade Taco Seasoning
Why make your own taco seasoning you say? Well, I’ll tell you. So many of the store bought mixes have msg or dextrose or flour or too much sodium. And it’s so easy to make your very own homemade taco seasoning. Most likely, all you need to do is walk to your pantry and get…
Kale and White Bean Minestrone
Clean out your fridge soup. Pantry soup. Everything soup. I wasn’t quite sure what to call this one. It’s always chock full of vegetables, with canned tomatoes and white beans and leafy greens thrown in for color and texture. White bean minestrone seemed like the most accurate title, or maybe I just gave up and…
Simple Roasted Salmon
Simple roasted salmon to the rescue! Roasted salmon keeps the mess off your stove and in the oven. No more splatters of fishly smelling oil hitting your stove and counter top after sautéing filets in a pan. White wine keeps the fish moist, and a fresh sprinkling of herbs and lemon wakes up the flavor…
Jalapeño Buttermilk Ranch
Ranch dressing! It’s the natural partner for cold and crunchy iceberg lettuce, carrot sticks and slices of takeout pizza. I have two different versions of ranch dressing, one full of herbs and lemon, and the other full of jalapeño and cilantro. I’ve also been known to tone down the “green things” and jalapeños for picky…
Indian-Spiced Marinated Tomatoes
The first time I made these Indian-spiced tomatoes I was a student in the professional program at Tante Marie’s Cooking School in San Francisco. When this recipe for Indian-spiced tomatoes landed in my hands, it sounded like an abomination. Why cover delicious, in-season tomatoes with strong spices, chilies, ginger and onions? Not to mention brown…
Arugula, Watermelon and Feta Salad
I use toasted pine nuts in this recipe. Slivered almonds or toasted pecan pieces would also be delicious, or if you have nut allergies leave them out entirely.
Arugula, Basil and Avocado Pesto
Pesto, Reinvented We’ve evolved a bit this year. Now that our dinners are centered around a gluten-free and dairy-free main dish, we’ve started changing up some of our favorite recipes so they’ll work for our family. This arugula, basil and avocado pesto is one of the happy outcomes of months of recipe testing and tweaking. Arugula was added to…
Kale Guacamole
Just in time for your Cinco de Mayo fiesta, kale guacamole that will satisfy a crowd. We’ve been eating this non-stop over here: As an after school snack, on toast and of course tacos. It’s fresh, tasty and quick to put together. When we recently found ourselves with a bowl of ripe avocados and leftover…
Pork Chile Verde
Earlier this year, we had an interesting run in with food allergies around here. After a blood test showed that our oldest had 20 class III food allergies, I had to cook pretty creatively until we could get her into Texas Children’s Allergy and Immunology Center. During that time, I scoured cookbooks and the internet to…