Recipe: Beef and Onion Saute with Rhubarb Gratin

Discover the Savory Side of Rhubarb Accustomed to seeing rhubarb in fruit desserts, it may come as a surprise to learn that it is actually a vegetable.  This is good news, however, as it presents a whole raft of additional uses for this exotically red food that is so abundant in spring when the foodscape … Read more

Why We Love Seasonal Eating

Mealtimes that are easier tastier and more fun Seasonal eating gets a lot of press these days.  Usually it’s in the context of eating locally, since the two go hand in hand.  Sometimes it’s in the context of saving money, since seasonal produce is  less expensive than produce grown in greenhouses or shipped from different … Read more

Building Your “Tasting Muscles”–and Putting Them to Good Use

The ill consequences of our couch potato culture aren’t limited to flabby abs and saggy triceps. All the homogenized foods that comprise the bulk of our diet have gradually eroded our “tasting muscles,” too, making it harder to enjoy and be satisfied with foods we feel good about eating.

Bad Boy Bacon VS. The Cheese Danish

What a way to stir up controversy, angst and anxiety:  At a health fair last week, we demonstrated Spinach Sauteed with Pears and Bacon.  Yes, you read that right.  We made a dish featuring none other than bad boy bacon.  Not turkey bacon, not a vegetarian imitation, not a special lean variety, just good old … Read more

A Boredom-Busting Meal for Mid-Winter

Easy, Fun, a Little Fancy + Vegetarian and Gluten Free So you’re bored–with restaurant food (see previous post) as well as your weekly rotation of 5 standard meals.  If you can saute and deglaze, two simple Cooking Basics we learn about in Whole Kitchen classes, you can break out of that rut in a heartbeat.  … Read more

Superfood Parsley Pesto: Go-To Sauce for Winter Cooking

Yesterday’s post talked about parsley’s superfood status and why that should come as no surprise since all real foods are good for us.  Start getting more of parsley’s goodness into your diet with this quick and versatile pesto that tastes great on everything from spaghetti squash and salmon to white fish, chicken and pasta.  Because … Read more

Holiday Dinners: The Salad Strategy

If you care about weight maintenance, holiday dinners are where your resolve gets tested.   Assuming there are any healthful options at all, it’s most likely a gloppy coleslaw, tray of cold raw vegetables with ranch dressing, or whatever other tasteless nod to nutrition a deli can concoct. Theoretically, you could be virtuous and subsist on … Read more

Processed Foods: The Good, the Bad and When to Break the Rules

If there’s a reliable dietary culprit, “processed food” would be it. In fact, “processed foods” has become practically synonymous with bad-for-you food. However, most of the foods we eat are “processed,” subjected to some kind of “process” from simple cooking, grinding and fermenting to complex hydrogenating, modifying and refining. So in a practical sense, how do we implement the experts’ advice to eliminate processed foods? Instead of an either/or definition, I use the far more helpful “Tree to Test Tube Continuum” to sort out good from bad and when it’s OK to break the rules.