This is a fun take on traditional nachos which normally use tortilla chips as a base. You can certainly use chips here with all the fun breakfast toppings, but other options are whole grain waffles, pancakes, or waffle fries. Personally, I like the indentations in waffles to catch all the toppings! Basically, anything that you would put in a breakfast burrito would be amazing on Breakfast Nachos!! See more of my suggestions at the bottom of the recipe. You do not have to follow my measurements for toppings and you can mix and match with the toppings you like. Remember, breakfast needs protein, so make sure you’re adding your preferred protein, either plant-based or animal-based or both.
Not all pumpkin recipes have to be sweet! This Roasted Pumpkin Fondue is an old recipe from Gourmet Magazine that I made back in the day but shelved it because it was too rich and heavy. My friend Katie Morford lightened it up and it’s even better than the original version! Think soft and gooey cheese on the inside with cubes of whatever bread you like + tender pumpkin. It’s comforting and delicious and could be a full meal with a simple salad on the side. After shooting this with an amazing dark multi-grain, seeded bread, I realized that a lighter color bread looks more appetizing. But this tasted phenomenal!Continue reading
Because I have no association with either football team in this year’s Super Bowl, all I really care about is what we’re going to eat! I’m have no need to read the sports pages or listen to the experts, trying to figure out if my team has a wining chance. No big deal. I’ll just ponder my repertoire of chili recipes and decide what other deliciousness I can whip together for our little group. I asked Daughter #1 for some suggestions, and she started begging me for these little cheesy broccoli potato bites. Great idea!
I’ll be honest, I don’t normally make these for the Super Bowl because I usually have a baked potato bar happening and that would be a little redundant. But I do make these baby potato hors d’oeuvres very often for dinner parties, sometimes with broccoli, sometimes with lemon creme fraiche and smoked salmon or roasted cherry tomatoes. But for the Super Bowl, I keep things really casual. Broccoli it is!
Just like the mini chicken tostadas I posted the other day, I actually think a mini version of a baked potato is better than the real thing. These little bites are super easy to eat and you get the perfect ratio of potato to broccoli to cheese. And the entire bite has a nice bit of saltiness and crispiness. Love it. AND I think we can all agree, this is reasonably healthful stuff to boot! Even if you don’t eat cheese, I’m sure you have found a good non-dairy cheese that you can sub for the mozzarella here. Keep in mind, the melted cheese is what helps the broccoli stick to the potato.
Although these baby potatoes are great any time of the year, I do think they’re better suited for cooler weather, or maybe I should say mind-numbing cold weather, depending on where you live. Ugh, sorry if that’s you. Regardless, these bites could very well be the perfect party food. They’re delicious right out of the oven, but they also stay warm for quite a bit. And I think they taste perfectly delicious at room temp, too. You can make the potatoes and the broccoli the day before and then just assemble them with the cheese and bake before you want to serve them. I promise, these will score you major points!
Fine grain sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1poundbroccoli crownscut into 24 bite-size florets
1/3cupshredded mozzarella or fontina cheese
3Tablespoonsgrated Parmesan or Pecorino-Romanooptional
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
Place potatoes in a bowl and toss with olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Place potatoes on parchment paper – cut side down and bake for 30 minutes (until golden brown and tender). Leave oven on if serving right away.
Place broccoli in a steamer over boiling water and steam until just tender, about 3 minutes (or blanched in salted water for 2 minutes.) If cooking the broccoli ahead of time, remove from the pot and immediately refresh under cold water to stop the cooking process.
Top each potato with a pinch of cheese and then a broccoli floret and bake until cheese is melted or broil it for a few minutes to speed things up.
Sprinkle each with a pinch of grated cheese, if desired.
Notes
Potatoes can be made the day before and refrigerated; broccoli can be blanched the day before and refrigerated.Other complementary toppings include smoked salmon and crème fraiche, pesto and roasted cherry tomato halves
You guys know I love watching football. However, I’m not such a fan that I’ll watch just any game with teams that I don’t care much about. So unfortunately for me, this has been a very boring season. All the teams I root for didn’t make the playoffs. And even the teams I root against didn’t make the playoffs, so I really had very little excitement this year. But I still love having friends over on Sundays and I always have fun making tasty nibbles for everyone to enjoy during the games. All is not lost.
Since the Super Bowl is coming up, I know many of you will be hosting friends and family at your house or will be invited somewhere. Now is the perfect time to figure out a few fun, easy and delicious game-day recipes.
We always have a few people over for the Super Bowl – nothing big because otherwise my husband can’t “concentrate” (on the game, not in general.) I usually keep a big pot of chili (see these recipes for vegetable chili, Southwestern turkey and black bean chili, and veggie-sweet potato chili) on the stove with a topping bar on the kitchen island and some cornbread. I also will have either a taco bar or a baked potato bar as well. It’s all easy, can be prepped in advance and I think most people like to customize their own meal.
You must try these mini chicken tostadas! My kids go crazy for them. A tostada is a fried, whole tortilla topped with variety of goodies – shredded chicken or beef, refried beans, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, really whatever you would put on a taco. I find tostadas a bit awkward to eat, but these mini ones are much less messy and they are still customizable.
I like to bake my own tortillas to make chips, but only when I have time. I’ll give you directions for how to make your own baked mini tortilla rounds for this recipe, but if you’re having a crowd, I would probably just go get the round, organic tortilla chips from Trader Joe’s or elsewhere. Maybe less healthful than baking your own, but much easier if you have a lot of other things to do. Make some chicken taco meat the day before either in the oven or the slow cooker and you’ve got a very easy crowd-pleaser!
The way I like to make these is to put a pinch of chicken and cheese on each tortilla round and bake them for a few minutes or until the cheese melts a little and the chicken is warmed through. But, if you make your chicken the same day and it’s still warm when you put it on the chip, it’s up to you if you still want to pop them in the oven. Then just top them however you like. I also make these vegetarian with refried beans instead of chicken. Either way, they’ll be a winner!
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (if you have an aluminum or nonstick pan.)
Brush both sides of each tortilla with a little olive oil. With a 2 ½-inch cookie cutter, try to cut 3 rounds from each tortilla. You can bake the scraps to make crispy bits to top a salad or soup.
Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown. They will crisp up as they cool. These can be made the day before and kept in a covered container at room temperature. Or, instead of making baked rounds, buy round tortilla chips.
When ready to serve, preheat oven once again to 375 degrees. Put a pinch of chicken and a pinch of cheese on each. Bake until chicken is warmed through. Top with desired accompaniments.
I always spend Christmas week in New York with my family and it’s a great time catching up, celebrating and eating. Eating a lot. It’s a bit hard for me to follow my normal food routine when I am there. I don’t have my juicer, or access to the juice bars which are all over the place where I live. We visit with a lot of family and go out to eat more often than I do at home. But one of the main obstacles to my eating beet greens and quinoa as often as I like is that my husband’s favorite food group is pizza. Make that New York pizza. His second favorite food group is pasta, the kind with gluten. And then it’s anything “alla Parmigiana.”
So when we go to New York, he’s like a kid in a candy store, except all the candy has dairy, white flour and tomato sauce! Of course, I have a slight weakness for good NY pizza myself and I partake in the food fest, too (although maybe not quite as much.) Ironically, after we indulge in pizza for most of the week on Long Island and Brooklyn, we get together at the home of one of my cousins in Westchester and have, if you can believe it, a “pizza tasting party” with a few of my cousins and their kids. I swear.
We each bring a few pies from our favorite pizzerias and taste them all. There’s clam pie from Pepe’s and Sicilian from Sal’s; a cheeseless pizza from Polpetina and a classic from Johnny’s. There are others that I can’t even remember. The first few years that we did this, we actually voted to determine which was the best pie. Now we don’t even pretend we care. We just eat it all and wash it down with Chianti. And this year, a heating pad came out at bedtime.
I don’t normally like to mess with a good thing, but sometimes curiosity gets the best of me. A few years ago, I noticed a lot of recipes flying around the internet for pizza crust made out of cauliflower. Life has taught me, among other things, that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And cauliflower crust pizza recipes proved that point. I tried a bunch and didn’t see what all the fuss was about. The cauliflower crust was usually mushy and fell apart, and the pizza would have to be eaten with a fork and knife. That didn’t fly in my house.
But I have always been intrigued with the idea of making a treat like pizza something I could eat a little more frequently and then I saw the recipe that I knew would work. And I saw the step that was missing from all my previous attempts and I kicked myself. How could I not have thought of squeezing the cauliflower dry?! After another attempt, I was actually able to make a pizza that tasted enough like pizza that I could pick up and eat it out of my hand.
I didn’t think my husband would actually like this at all, so I was pretty close to not even letting him sample it. But he came home one day and the house smelled like pizza and there was no stopping him. He LOVED this! And so did my girls! Mr. Picky still has issues with cheese and isn’t a pizza fan anyway, so he was predictably lukewarm about it.
My only caveat here is that it’s not an “instant” recipe. You have to cook and squeeze the cauliflower dry, then make and prebake the crust. All steps I think are worth it for a pretty nutritious pizza. As you can see in the above pictures, I made a large pizza and then many mini pizzettes, which I think would be amazing for a party. So much of this recipe at be done ahead of time, including make the crust batter or even pre-baking the crusts!
Hoping you all may enjoy good health and much happiness in 2014!!
Cauliflower Crust Pizza
Pamela, adapted from several sources, including The Lucky Penny Blog
Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place a baking sheet or pizza stone in the oven as it is heating up.
Brush a large piece of parchment paper with olive oil (big enough to fit your pizza stone or baking sheet.)
Place the cauliflower in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse for about 30 seconds until you get very small pieces (resembling snow or rice.) You should end up with about 3 cups of cauliflower.
Place the cauliflower and 2 cups of water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and allow to steam for about 5 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender. Drain in a fine mesh sieve and allow to cool. (If you use a colander to drain, you will lose a lot of cauliflower.)
When the cauliflower is cool enough to handle, wrap it all up in a clean, thin dish towel and squeeze out as much excess water as possible. The less moist the cauliflower, the crispier the crust will be.
Transfer the squeezed cauliflower to a bowl and stir in the parmesan or pecorino, mozzarella, salt, dried oregano, garlic powder, red pepper flakes and almond meal/flour. Add egg whites and mix with your hands until combined.
Using your hands, form the mixture into tightly packed 3” rounds or a 10-12” round and place them on the oiled parchment paper.
Slide the parchment paper onto the HOT baking sheet or pizza stone. An inverted baking sheet or a pizza peel can help with this.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes until the crust starts to turn golden brown.
Remove crusts from oven and top with desired toppings, then place back in the oven and cook for another 7 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly. You just don’t want to overdo it with any toppings that are very wet.
Allow to cool slightly and serve.
Notes
You can bake the crusts earlier in the day and refrigerate them until ready to top and bake. Or you can make the batter the night before.
I know time flies when you’re having fun, but these days I think it flies because everything moves at warp speed, whether you’re having fun or not. And sometimes I think it’s not very fun when life happens so quickly, especially when you’re eating good food! Eating is one of my greatest pleasures in life. Thankfully I get to do it several times a day, every day. But very few things annoy me more than having to rush through a very delicious meal.
That’s what I was thinking the other day when I made these stuffed sweet potato skins. I enjoyed them so much that I didn’t want them to end. Need help with your math homework? No problem! Come back in 20 minutes. Ooops. Forgot to call my mom back. She can wait. I have a sweet potato party on my plate and I’m not ready to leave.
Cinco de Mayo, one of my favorite food holidays, is just around the corner. I know. It’s MAY in like 5 days! I had no plans to include this recipe on the blog but I made it on a whim last week and I knew I had to share it with you. Although I can say with 99% confidence that you will never find this recipe on the menu of any Mexican restaurant, so maybe it’s not Cinco de Mayo fiesta fare if you are having people over. BUT, the flavors here are totally South of the border and it’s such a healthful and satisfying meatless meal, you should make it no matter what day it is.
If you are not a sweet potato fan (stop it! really?), then maybe substitute a baked potato. But sweet potatoes are sooooooo nutritious and I never feel like I need dessert afterwards. They’re the perfect natural antidote to my sweet tooth. The best part of this recipe is the contrast between the creamy sweet potato and the smoky corn and a hint of spice. I made these about as spicy as my family would like them, but you can go as hot as you want. Serve with a green salad or some grilled asparagus and you’re all set. My girls and I loved them, and Mr. Picky ate half of one and said they were “okay.” I think if I had let him eat it with corn tortilla chips, he would have finished the whole thing.
For those of you like me, who very much like to either prep some or all of your meals in advance, it’s your lucky day. You can make this entire thing ahead and bake it just before dinner until it’s nice and hot. Or assemble different parts of this ahead, like baking the sweet potatoes or sauteing the onions. The cheese on top is very optional. I had mine without, as did Mr. Picky, and still loved it. My daughters added extra on top of theirs and asked me to tell you that they don’t think the cheese is optional and that if they were writing the recipe, they would double the cheese. Okay, girls. Have it however way you want. Just don’t rush me.
1 ½cupscooked black beans or 1 15-ounce candrained and rinsed
1Tablespoonunrefined olive oilcoconut oil or unsalted butter
½of an onionchopped
1jalapenoseeds removed and diced
½teaspoonchili powder
¼teaspoonchipotle powdermore if you like it spicy
1 ½teaspoonssea salt
½cupcilantro leaves and tender stemschopped
½ripe avocadoflesh scooped out
6Tablespoonsshredded cheesesuch as Cheddar or Monterey Jack or dairy-free Daiya (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, bake sweet potatoes until tender, about 45-60 minutes.
While sweet potatoes are baking, place corn in a medium heavy cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Do not add anything else to the pan and do not stir so that the corn gets a little charred. Then toss a little and cook corn until browned and toasted on the outside. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add the black beans to the corn.
You can use the same skillet to sauté the onion and jalapeno. Warm the oil in the skillet and sauté the onion and jalapeno until tender and translucent. Stir in the spices and salt and cook for 1 minute more. Add the cilantro to the pan and turn off the heat. Toss to combine the mixture and transfer to the bowl with the corn and beans.
Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven. Allow to cool slightly so you can cut them easily or use rubber gloves if you’re in a rush and you don’t want to burn your fingers. Slice the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise. Scoop most of the flesh out and leave the skins intact. I like to leave a thin layer of sweet potato to help these stay together better. Transfer the scooped out sweet potato to a large bowl and leave the skins on the parchment-lined baking sheet.
Add avocado to the sweet potato in the bowl and coarsely mash together, but don’t make a puree. Add the corn, bean and onion mixture to the mashed sweet potatoes and stir gently to combine.
Preheat the broiler in your oven and arrange the oven rack to the second level from the top. Scoop the filling into the skins. It might seem like you have too much, but you should use it all and make them nice and full. Sprinkle each with cheese if desired and broil for a couple minutes or until cheese is melted.
Notes
*If making this in advance, remove prepared sweet potato skins from the refrigerator and bake in a 350 degree oven until heated through, about 15-20 minutes.
People have asked me (actually one person in particular, i.e. my Italian-born father) why I don’t have more pasta recipes on my site or on my class menus. I know everyone loves pasta and it’s super easy to make, but I think the internet and cookbooks have more than enough pasta recipes to keep everyone busy. But more importantly, I think most people eat waaaaay too much pasta. And not just too many times in a week as my family was guilty of when I was a kid, but also too much in one sitting.
I’m not a big fan of processed wheat flour which is nutritionally empty, loaded with hard-to-digest and inflammatory gluten, and causes a spike in blood sugar especially when eaten in large quantities. When blood sugar surges, the pancreas releases insulin, a fat-storage hormone which is also pro-inflammatory. If people could eat 1/2-1 cup of pasta in one sitting without any other concentrated carbohydrates at the same meal (that’s right, pasta plus garlic bread plus French fries is NOT a balanced dinner), and perhaps no other gluten-containing foods the rest of the day, I think we’d be in better shape, so to speak, than we are now. But it is really, really easy to overeat pasta. If you go to your neighborhood Italian restaurant, pasta is very often served as a main course, as opposed to in Italy where it is served in a much smaller portion as a first course. American restaurant portions can be upwards of 8-12 ounces per serving which is about 4-6 times the recommended serving size. Insanity.
Believe me, I love pasta as much as the next person, but I don’t love its effect on my body. When I do eat pasta, I like to load it with vegetables and limit myself to a 1 cup serving. I also try to rotate different pastas in our meals, including ones made from brown rice, quinoa and spelt. But over the last few years, I have really enjoyed finding tasty and nutritious substitutes for pasta, such as spaghetti squash, millet-cauliflower mash, zucchini “noodles” and very often polenta.
Polenta is kind of like grits, but from ground yellow corn. You can find fine, medium or coarse ground. It does have a little bit of a corn flavor if you make it with just water and salt. But add some grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese and a bit of olive oil or butter and you’ve got yourself a bowl of spoon-lickin’ goodness. I really don’t know why more people don’t eat polenta. It’s super easy to make, incredibly affordable, gluten-free and pretty nutritious (try to get organic or non-GMO.) Most of all, it’s really creamy and luxurious-tasting. I prefer it thick and pourable, rather than firm and sliceable, but that’s fine too. I like to eat it with anything that I would serve on top of pasta such as meatballs, saucy vegetables, juicy greens, sautéed shrimp and so on. I usually make the coarse-ground kind because I like a little texture, but if I’m strapped for time I’ll throw some fine ground cornmeal into the pot and I’ll have it ready in 5 minutes and it’s very silky smooth. I think my girls like the “instant” polenta better because it’s creamier. They’ll eat it with anything I mentioned above. Mr. Picky has really only had a bite or two of polenta at a sitting and he thinks it’s “okay.” He always mentions he would prefer pasta. Thanks for the feedback, dude. What I will do for the little guy is make sure I cook something else that night that I know he will eat like meatballs or lemon-thyme chicken. Because if it were up to him, we’d be eating pasta every night. Insanity!
1-3Tablespoonsunsalted butterunrefined olive oil or organic Earth Balance (I prefer butter)
¼cupgrated Parmesan or Pecorino cheeseoptional
Instructions
In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the salt. Then add the polenta to the pot slowly, whisking constantly. Reduce the heat to low and cook COVERED, stirring often, until the mixture thickens and the cornmeal is tender, about 20 minutes. The polenta can be eaten now, but the flavors develop more and you’ll lose some of the grittiness if you can allow it to simmer another 20-30 minutes. Not essential, though.
Stir in the butter and cheese and serve immediately or keep warm in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Polenta should be pourable and creamy. If it’s too thick, stir in more liquid.
Notes
*You can also do a more “instant” version of this using instant polenta or fine ground cornmeal (like the kind you use for corn muffins.) That will take you 5 minutes.Other options: For extra richness, you can stir in an additional ½ cup of whole milk or plain, unsweetened hemp milk at the end, or some mascarpone or cream cheese; Mozzarella or fontina cheese.You can also add corn kernels, roasted garlic, or herbs, such as rosemary, basil or parsley.
When I was a child, my family ate pesto all the time in the summer and early fall. In fact, to me the smell of basil, garlic and cheese in the food processor is synonymous with warm, lazy days at the beach or on my parents’ hammock under a big, breezy tree. It was one of the few things my mom made without a recipe because she made it so often and could likely do it in her sleep. Also, my father always planted way too much basil so Mom was forced to use it up more quickly than it grew. Traditional basil pesto is the only pesto that I ever knew until I started over-planting my favorite herb, parsley, and mixing it with basil for an ever better (in my opinion) pesto.
But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I heard about the huge spectrum of pestos out there not made from basil but from all sorts of herbs like cilantro and mint to leafy greens such as spinach and arugula and even peas or sun dried tomatoes. The result is a brave new world of pesto-adorned dishes beyond pasta in the summertime. The good news is that all pestos are super simple to make and help me make my boring meals more exciting. “Another turkey sandwich?” No, a turkey sandwich with pesto! Oooh, ahhh. “Grilled fish” doesn’t have the same appeal as “grilled salmon with cilantro pesto!” Although when I introduced kale pesto to my family, they were skeptical.
Kale, which is my absolute favorite superfood, is more nutrient-dense than most any food on the planet, so I try to incorporate it into our meals however I can. I love how hearty and flavorful kale is, but it can be a little bitter for the kids if I don’t try to work around that. My standard pesto is made with pine nuts or pine nuts and walnuts. Both are soft nuts that get ground very easily, but can be also be a tad bitter. So I subbed blanched almonds to keep the pesto from getting too harsh and loved it, even though almonds don’t grind up quite as finely. The only other change I made was to add a touch of lemon juice which brightens the whole thing up and again, cuts any bitterness.
I made kale pesto in two different ways. The first with all kale and the second with mostly kale plus basil. All kale pesto tastes reminiscent of broccoli which makes sense since they’re both in the cruciferous family. It’s so totally yummy with a hearty whole wheat or spelt pasta, stirred into soups like lentil, mushroom-barley or minestrone or slathered on a quesadilla with leftover roasted veggies and cheese. I imagine it would be great on a baked potato with veggies or in an omelet with goat cheese and mushrooms. Then I made another version with mostly kale and some basil and it tastes much more like the version you’re used to, but more substantial and maybe with a little more bite. So many people in my classes this month thought it was even better than an all-basil pesto. In class we ate it poured on a grilled chicken paillard. Sunday, I took some pasta with kale-basil pesto and chickpeas in Chinese takeout containers for a beach picnic and then used the leftovers yesterday on a grilled whole wheat pizza with ricotta, sauteed garlic spinach and fresh mozzarella. Insane.
Feel free to use whatever kale you can find, but the curly green variety tends to get processed more finely in the food processor if that matters. Although in these photos I did use the Dinosaur (Tuscan) variety because I typically have that on hand for salad and juicing. However you try it, and I hope you do, pesto is a busy cook’s good friend anytime of year. Tell me your favorite ways to enjoy it!
½cupblanched almondswalnuts, pine nuts or a combination (use sunflower seeds for a nut-free pesto)
1large garlic clovesmashed
3cupskaledinosaur or curly green, stemmed and torn into large pieces (so it’s easier to measure)
2cupsbasil leavesor use all kale
½teaspoonfine grain sea salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1Tablespoonfreshly squeezed lemon juice
¾cupunrefinedcold pressed, extra-virgin olive oil
1/3cupgrated Pecorino or Parmigiano cheese
Instructions
Toast nuts, stirring frequently, in a dry skillet over medium heat until lightly golden. If you are a “nut-burner,” just skip this step and put them in the food processor raw. Remove from heat and allow to cool. If you're using sunflower seeds, just use those raw.
Place nuts and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and process until very finely chopped.
Add kale, basil, salt, pepper and lemon juice and pulse until chopped.
With the food processor running, add olive oil in a steady stream until you achieve a smooth texture. Add cheese and process until well combined.
Taste for seasoning and add additional olive oil to make a looser pesto.
