Real Food Recipes

If you need a side dish to add a pop of color to your Thanksgiving table, look no further. These green beans, accented with caramelized onio

If you happen to be drowning in end of the summer vegetables from your garden or the local market, I have a recipe for you!

Cool, creamy, and zinging with fresh tomato flavor, this gazpacho is one of the things I look forward to making every year when summer rolls around. Locally grown, in season tomatoes are a thousand times better than what passes for tomatoes in our stores in the wintertime. Those may look like tomatoes, but my taste buds aren't fooled. I used to make a chunky gazpacho that took me hours to make, peeling the tomatoes and dicing all of the vegetables by hand. It improved my knif

An easy home version of your favorite Chinese take-out, this fried rice has a mystery ingredient that gives it a bit of a tangy, spicy, crunch. Diced kimchi, mixed in at the end, adds that pop of flavor. It's one of my favorite ways to sneak some probiotic goodness into my diet. Fermented Magic Kimchi is a fermented condiment made of cabbage. It's seasoned with garlic, ginger, and Korean red pepper flakes called gochugaru, which give it an orange tint and a fiery kick. Daiko

Crispy, crunchy, lightly sweetened with maple syrup, and warmed with cinnamon and cardamom, this granola is a family favorite. Around the holidays, I sometimes double the recipe to make enough for teachers, bus drivers, and other special people in my life. A gift for me is the amazing smell in my house while it's baking! This is more of a toasted muesli than a granola, formed into clusters. That type is usually made with lots of added sugar (although I've seen recipes that ac

These biscuits have been on my family's Thanksgiving and Christmas table for the past ten years. A combination of fats and a very specific rolling technique makes them puff up and separate into flaky layers when they bake. They are equally welcome for dinner or brunch and delicious served with butter alone or with honey or jam. I will be the first to say that these biscuits aren't typical of recipes that I post on this blog. They are made with refined white flour, which is f

A tender mix of ground pork, onions, garlic, swiss chard, and liver - yes, liver - makes these French 'meatballs' a tasty and nutritious main dish that will get by the liver filter of even your pickiest family members. Read on for why liver is one of the most nutrient dense foods. If you think it's too liver-y tasting, try these and see if they change your mind! Caillettes are a type of meatball or sausage traditionally made from ground pork, offal (organ meat), and greens a

Steamed clams with chorizo sounds like a fancy restaurant dish, especially in the coastal New Jersey restaurants near me, but they are actually really easy to make at home. The smoked Spanish sausage in this recipe elevates it to a gourmet level - but they will still taste amazing without it. The garlic, on the other hand, is not optional. Besides how easy they are, and how they can put me in a summer mood even when I make them at home in the dark days of winter, one of the s

The combination of sweet corn, tomatoes, and basil tastes exactly like summer to me, and who doesn’t want to eat a bowl full of summer for as long is lasts? Quinoa, bell peppers, and zucchini make this a hearty salad, perfect for pairing with grilled chicken or ribs and calling it a (summer) day. I’ve made no secret of my love for seasonal vegetables, and I especially love recipes that combine a bunch of them together so that you know you're getting the full spectrum of all

If you’re looking for a high-protein, make-ahead breakfast that’s easy to put together – here you go! This simple frittata can be made with any combination of vegetables, meat, and cheese. I used sauteed onions, spinach, tomatoes, and feta for a Greek flair, but you can just as easily make a Western frittata with ham, peppers, and onions, or choose smoked salmon, goat cheese, and asparagus for a Sunday brunch vibe. I teased this recipe back in May when I posted a picture of

Peaches might not be the first thing you think to grill when planning a summer meal, but trust me on this. The direct heat of the grill transforms the sugars from pleasantly sweet and tangy to decadently rich and caramelly. The size and shape of peach halves make them the perfect edible container for a scoop of yogurt, a sprinkle of nuts, and maybe a drizzle of honey. Even better, the whole thing comes together in about 10 minutes. Before I get to the recipe, I want to talk a

I can’t claim that this is authentic Cataplana de Peixe e Camarao , a Portuguese Fish Stew cooked in a special steamer pan called a cataplana . However, it captures the spirit of the combination of fresh fish and veggies, which come together quickly in a one-pot meal, that I learned how to cook on a recent trip to Lisbon. My friend and I learned the proper way to make Cataplana de Peixe e Camarao from an ex-business manager turned chef named Marco in a cooking class at Cook

Loads of garlic, aromatic herbs, salt, pepper, and a little bit of mustard blend in a flavor-packed marinade that creates a delicious crust for pork tenderloin cooked on the grill. When I’m trying to serve a large number of people, this is my go-to. I clipped the recipe out of the newspaper many years ago, back when I got an actual newspaper that I could cut into pieces. Since then, I’ve made this pork many times, making small adaptations so that it is just the way I like it

Bright parsley, mint, scallions and tomatoes are tossed with a little bit of a grains and a simple lemon dressing to make one of my favorite colorful summer side dishes. The ingredients are available all winter long, but I don't bother with tasteless tomatoes trucked in from California in January. Local tomatoes are just starting to show up in the markets near me, and their sweet juice blends with the herbs to create an explosion of flavor. The Power of Parsley Parsley, like

Asparagus is the epitome of the elegant vegetable – perfect with hollandaise sauce alongside filet mignon or gracing a salad at a ladies’ luncheon. Originally, asparagus's reputation was earned because it was only available for a short time every year. Its appearance was fleeting, and that made it special. Now we can eat asparagus imported from Mexico or Peru any day of the year, but I challenge you to experience it as it is meant to be eaten - locally grown, and in season.

A better name for these is probably No-Bake 4-Ingredient Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars . Because only 4 ingredients! And no baking! What could be easier? (A simpler name?) I was looking over the recipes that I've posted on my blog so far and realized that it's kind of an eclectic mix. I choose the recipes I'm going to post based on a nutritional topic I want to write about, and whatever I feel like eating at the moment - which might make for a good educational experience but n

Looking for an easy way to incorporate more SMASH fish into your diet? Look no more! Want to know what the heck are SMASH fish? Read on! Sardines are one 'S' in a group of fish that also includes mackerel, anchovies, salmon and herring. Because they are low on the food chain, SMASH fish are low in mercury and other toxins. They are also a great source of protein, vitamin D, phosphorus, selenium, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids, also known as fish oil. Fish Oil Primer The top

I developed the recipe for these crackers because crackers were something I really missed when I adopted low carb eating many years ago. It’s easy enough to eat cheese without the crackers, or to use fresh veggies to dip into guacamole, but there’s something about a cracker that completes the snack. Typical store-bought crackers, the Saltines and Triscuits that we grew up on, are made with wheat flour and have about 20-25g carbohydrates per ounce. For someone on a low-carb or

I’m committing nutrition heresy this week by posting about deviled eggs – high fat, high cholesterol snacks that even contain processed meat. You may be wondering, what is she thinking? One of the things that I learned in my nutrition consultant training is how much conventional wisdom about nutrition is outdated or just wrong. The more I studied and dug into the research, the more curious I got about how and why recommendations are made and what the science really says. More