Maybe you love pancakes, but you need an extra protein boost in your breakfast. Or, perhaps savory breakfasts help keep you from craving sweets all day. Or, maybe you like breakfast for dinner. If any of the above rings true for you, you will LOVE these savory ricotta pancakes! I topped them with sauteed cherry tomatoes, basil and hot honey, but you can truly top them with so many savory ingredients. I can’t wait for you to dig into these!
Fast food chicken sandwiches are all the rage but they’re not using good quality chicken and we all know that deep-fried food is terrible for you, especially if made in a restaurant. Restaurants use THE CHEAPEST, WORST oil possible which gets heated over and over again. It’s very inflammatory. We can make a great version at home and you can decide how you want to cook it: bone-in, skin-on in the oven or boneless, skinless in the oven or pan-fried on the stove. You can air fry the chicken, but I have ‘t tested that out. I think what a lot of people like on these chicken sandwiches is the sauce, so I’ve given you a couple suggestions below. You obviously can serve the chicken as is and not on a sandwich! If you are plant-based, I have the most insane vegan chickpea patty recipe coming soon. SO GOOD!
I LOVE a one pot meal! If you haven’t tried any of my one pot barley or farro recipes, you must! I know many people need to avoid gluten grains, so I thought I would make a version with quinoa. Quinoa is a light, fluffy seed that feels like a grain. It’s technically a pseudo-cereal, so many people who can’t tolerate grains, do well with quinoa. You know I’ll add vegetables anywhere I can, and this recipe is so easy and so flexible. Quinoa needs flavor boosters, so I love the olives here, as well as the dried herbs. If you dislike olives, use half the amount of capers. If you dislike capers too, add some feta or another salty cheese before serving. This is a great meal prep recipe and is awesome in school lunch boxes or to bring to the office. If you decide to swap in some stock for some or all of the water, adjust the added salt in case the stock has salt. Remember, be conservative – you can always add more salt later.
Rice is one of the least expensive grains and it is also highly digestible. I just don’t like to overeat it because it doesn’t have a ton of nutrition and it can cause a blood sugar spike on its own. So ideally, I will bulk up rice with lots of non-starchy vegetables. You can top this rice chopped salad with tuna, turkey or chicken, or cooked beans to make this a complete meal. I even grated hard boiled eggs on top once and it was delicious! It lasts a good 5 days in the fridge too.
Who doesn’t love Monster Cookies? Well, sure, they’re delicious, but they are usually LOADED with sugar and tons of candy. We can do better and they’ll still taste amazing. In fact, this recipe has no flour at all and a fraction of the added sweetener you’d usually find. You can go crazy with M&M’s and mini peanut butter cups if that’s your thing or you can go health-nut with hemp seeds, coconut and cacao nibs. Play around and have fun. These last for up to two weeks in the fridge and they freeze great. If you use sprouted oats, do let the batter sit for a bit before baking so the oats can soften up. Sprouted oats are great, but they tend to be a bit thicker and chewy in baking recipes. Regarding the quick-cooking oats, they help to make the cookie batter less chewy. But I never buy quick-cooking oats. Instead, I pulse old-fashioned rolled oats in either a food processor or a spice grinder. I use the spice grinder to grind whole flax seeds as well.
I make my mother-in-law’s recipe for sweet noodle kugel once a year. Everyone loves it and I do not deviate from it to try to make it less rich or more nutrient dense. It’s a traditional holiday dish and it does not need messing with. I have never made it any other way, but I assume you can use gluten-free noodles if you have a gluten intolerance. Not sure how it would turn out dairy-free, but you can check out the suggestions below if you wanted to go that direction!Continue reading
This zucchini plank recipe has been going viral this summer, but I actually taught it in class last year. I can’t remember where I saw it first, but the great chef Thomas Keller has been getting credit for the technique. My mom used to broil zucchini halves when I was a kid and then add some parmesan before serving. Honestly, they were kind of bland and watery. If you take some of the water out by salting them first, you already have a head start creating more flavor. Then, making micro-cuts into the zucchini allows for more flavor to penetrate.
I had a roasted beet Greek salad with olive vinaigrette at a favorite LA restaurant, Jon & Vinny’s, and asked myself, “why didn’t I think of this??” The olive vinaigrette was a great twist (instead of having whole olives in the salad) and I am always trying to find ways to enjoy beets since they’re so good for you. If you hate olives, no big deal. Just omit and add a little more salt to the dressing to taste. You may try some capers instead which are also briny and salty. Since restaurant prices and extra fees are making dining out a very expensive activity, I have been posting more and more restaurant dupes on my social media channels.
