Passover Roundup!

Passover is coming up and if you want to save time searching high and low for recipes that are seder-worthy, here’s a great roundup of my tried and true Passover-friendly recipes.  Most any recipe can truly be tweaked to be Passover-compliant.  Feel free to leave a question below if you need help swapping out an ingredient.  Please note, you can generally NOT sub a nut flour (like almond) one-for-one with a grain flour (like wheat, oat or a GF flour blend.) 

Appetizers

  1. Passover Popovers (everyone goes wild for these!)
  2. Deconstructed Deviled Eggs (from Quicker Than Quick) on Matzo
  3. Crudites with Lemon-Cashew Dressing from Quicker Than Quick
  4. Vegan Queso with Grain-free Tortilla Chips

Mains

  1. Onion-braised brisket
  2. Baked chicken with artichokes
  3. Easy No-fail Whole Roasted Chicken
  4. Orange-rosemary Glazed Chicken (use coconut aminos in place of shoyu/tamari)
  5. Pistachio-Crusted Salmon (sub finely chopped pistachios for the breadcrumbs)
  6. Poached Salmon with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce
  7. Spatchcocked Honey-Lemon Glazed 
  8. Matzo Polenta with Mushroom Ragout 
  9. Matzo Lasagne

Vegetables & Sides

  1. Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
  2. Asparagus Mimosa or simple roasted asparagus
  3. Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Leeks with Roasted Garlic Dressing
  4. Sweet Potato Casserole (I subbed flaked coconut for the cornflakes)
  5. Puree of broccoli
  6. Roasted rutabagas with balsamic
  7. Maple-Mustard Roasted Vegetables
  8. Zesty Lemon Quinoa

Soups

  1. Dairy-free Creamy Asparagus Soup (sub potatoes for the oats)
  2. Spring Green Minestrone
  3. Cauliflower and Roasted Garlic Soup 

Salads

  1. Salad with oranges, radishes, avocado
  2. Asparagus Salad with Mint Vinaigrette
  3. Perfect Spring Salad
  4. Quinoa and Spinach Salad with Feta and Dill

Desserts

    1. Lemon Ice Torte 
    2. Grain-free Carrot Cake with cashew cream frosting or traditional cream cheese frosting is my usual )
    3. Coconut macaroons 
    4. Cashew cheesecake
    5. Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies
    6. Flourless Chocolate Cake
    7. Nut-free Flourless Fallen Chocolate Cake 
    8. Chocolate Zucchini Cake
    9. Healthy Chocolate Fudge 
    10. Strawberry Mounds Bars
    11. Grain-Free Strawberries and Cream Cookies 

Dinner Planner – Week of April 15, 2024

I know some of you will be celebrating Passover on Monday, April 22nd.  I will be posting a Passover recipe round-up on Wednesday to give you some more ideas since this week’s dinner planner doesn’t cover the holiday.  I had a really fun IG live this past Monday with my friend and interior designer extraordinaire, Nathan Turner, and I *might* have another special guest join Hubs and me this coming Monday.  Stay tuned!  Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

Continue reading

Spatchcocked Honey-Lemon Glazed Chicken Recipe

I love coming up with a new twist on roasted chicken because it’s the perfect cozy dinner and I love serving it for holidays too.  This would be fabulous for Passover.  Honey and lemon are a natural pairing and I like adding thyme for an herby element. I have really come to favor cooking a spatchcocked (backbone removed) chicken (and turkey for that matter.)  It’s such an easy way to cook a whole chicken and it’s easier to carve. You can definitely use these bones for stock too.  The honey is not noticeable.  You can also use this flavor combo on bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces.

Continue reading

Dinner Planner – Week of April 8, 2024

Happy Weekend! Big Hubs update: he is out of his boot and walking pretty well, fortunately!  Not quite ready for pickleball, but maybe in a few weeks. Just a reminder that the April class is up and ready for viewing if you are part of the online cooking class community.  Everyone here eats differently and I am not going to tell you that there is one “best” diet because there are many ways to eat healthfully.  Always feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of a recipe if you need a swap.  Most of the time, I have a good suggestion!  Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

Continue reading

Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies

 

These cookies are light in texture, but decadent in flavor.  They are perfect for anyone who needs to avoid grains either for the Passover holiday or dietary reasons.  A word of advice – it is a slightly temperamental recipe so measure everything exactly. I have tweaked the original recipe from French baker, Francois Payard, who created it to be a riff on a French macaron. His recipe, among other adaptations, uses a lot more walnuts.  So feel free to go a little crazier with the add-ins.  Also, if you are looking for a perfect ice cream sandwich cookie, this is it! Once you have made the recipe once, you can experiment with other flavors like almond extract, cinnamon and cayenne, cardamom, etc.

Continue reading

Dinner Planner – Week of April 1, 2024

Happy Easter Weekend!  I hope you are having a lovely holiday weekend.  I will be trying my best to eat only one piece of Easter chocolate a day.  Wish me luck!  The April cooking class will be uploaded on Monday, so be on the lookout for that.  If you are not a subscriber to my classes, this month’s menu with plant-based, GF and DF swaps is:

Sopa de Fideo; Salad with Beets, Avocado, and Smoky Feta Dressing; Calabacitas;

Tex-Mex Meatballs; Healthier Nutter Butter Cookies

Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

Continue reading

Dinner Planner – Week of March 25, 2024

Easter has always been my mom’s holiday.  She hosts a beautiful luncheon with a light pasta primavera (we are Italian, so there’s pasta at every holiday!), Ina’s roasted rack of lamb, mixed roasted seasonal vegetables and potatoes, and a spring green salad. For dessert, she makes coconut macaroons, lemon-ice torte, fresh berries, and my aunt brings boxes of chocolates from Al Richard’s shop in New Jersey.  I still dream about the chocolate coconut egg! I provided some inspiration in this week’s dinner planner, but there are so many recipes on the website now, it’s hard to choose! Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

Continue reading