Category Archives: Mains & Sides

Easy Veggie Sides that Kids will like..

Cheesy Cauliflower Brains & Cumin / Brown Sugar Sweet Potato Rounds For me, sometimes the dilemma with dinner is not what to fix for a main dish, but what do have as a side dish, that’s healthy, tasty, and not boring — and that my 5 year old won’t automatically reject out of hand. Last […]

Spotlight: Black Bean Burgers

I was just thinking about making black bean burgers the other day, and then I ran across these vegan Black Bean Burgers today at Can You Stay For Dinner.  This was just the kind of recipe I was looking for.  A black bean burger, or patty, should not try to replicate a hamburger, but revel […]

New Mexico Red Chile Cheese Enchiladas

A big welcome to our newest contributor, Cecily!  Read a little about her here… Red or green? That’s the New Mexico state question; as in, would you like red or green chile on your enchiladas?  Having lived in southern New Mexico for seven years, I love red chile.  Well, I love green too, come to […]

Cook with your kids: Homemade pizza

One of the best ways to get your kids to try new things is to get them involved in the process.  Let them see where their food comes from, or how it’s made, and I guarantee they’ll be excited about eating it.  My four-year-old got to help plant our family garden last summer, and he […]

Vidalia Onion Shrimp Cakes with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

Shrimp is one of my favorite go-to foods for several reasons: they’re quick cooking, generally economical (I can usually find shrimp priced around $5-7 per pound in the seafood section of my local Publix), theyare easily portioned into small amounts, my picky 5 year old is a big fan, and–of course– they’re tasty! Since just […]

Healthy Snack! Oven Dried Potato Chips (Crisps)

Irish blog The Daily Spud brings us this fabulous idea — Oven dried potato crisps (chips to us Yanks).  Salt & Vinegar… mmmm!!  Wouldn’t these be cute served in little paper food baskets? And not fried, so they are actually a healthy snack… I’m wondering how these would come out in a sweet potato version. […]

Spotlight: Cheater’s Lasagna

Shortcuts are great!  I love this one — Cheater’s Lasagna — from Radishes and Rhubarb…  A clever way to pull together a quick and tasty lasagne: I try very hard to make everything from scratch. Mostly because I really enjoy the cooking process, but also because I just want to control what goes into my […]

Yum! Buffalo Chicken Fingers..

Spotted at Can You Stay For Dinner, how to make Buffalo Chicken Fingers… and some great thoughts on not demonizing food, too!   I love recipes that let you make your pub food favorites at home.  And if you don’t want to make them spicy, this recipe would work for plain chicken fingers to feed the […]

Beet_Salad_With_Goat_Cheese - gaia's greens
Beet Salad with Goat Cheese

This is an excellent salad recipe that I posted at my Gaia’s Greens website a couple of weeks ago when we had beets in our organic produce boxes.    It is quickly becoming a favorite in my house!!    The combination of flavors is just perfect and it’s fast and easy to make.   So many people avoid beets […]

Fresh Squash 2 Ways

Our 2010 crop is in full swing with yellow and zucchini squash topping the list of most prolific.    In spite of the fact that we’ve eaten squash with almost every meal for the last week or so, I still love it and am always looking for new ways to prepare it.   I decided to test […]

Spotlight: Spicy Pickled Carrots

Perusing my Google Reader this morning, I ran across this lovely idea from the always creative Wisdom of the Moon.   I’m on a kick about pickling things, and these look just gorgeous! “I had my first taste of these this last winter, when Jenny, Aurora and I stopped off at a little burrito place in […]

Spotlight: Asparagus in Egg Wrap

Love this simple dish from Eating Pleasure! Simple, healthy, and beautiful to look at. Wouldn’t this make a lovely brunch dish? Read on for more about this lovely asparagus rolls! I found some big fat juicy organic asparagus from Jusco the other day. I bought a bunch of them for about RM4.80. Instead of stir […]

Quick Dinner Idea: The Bacon Dinner Salad

Brainstorming on what’s for dinner? A tasty and hearty dinner salad is a easy light dinner, perfect for a summer evening when you don’t really want to cook.  Well, I did cook Bacon for this one, but hey.. it’s BACON! Salads are great way to use up leftovers. Have 1 chicken breast left over from […]

How to Cook Fava Beans

I must confess, I don’t know that I’ve ever had fava beans…My first though when I hear the phrase tends to also go to “a nice chianti”!  I’m pretty sure they aren’t common here in the South, but I’m inspired to go look for them after watching Diane’s videoblog: CraftyPod Video Blog #5: Let’s Cook […]

How to make a salmon sandwich
Lunch Ideas: Salmon Cucumber Sandwich

Need a nice, healthy lunch, or a light dinner?  I adore fish sandwiches in the summer, and salmon and cucumber are always a nice mix! I love to cook an extra salmon filet or two (to medium rare) when doing salmon for dinner (maybe Chili Garlic Salmon?), then heating it up the next day for […]

Spinach Gorgonzola Frittata

Frittatas make a great light dinner, or a easy to serve brunch dish– If you’ve never made one, they are easier to get right than an omelet, and have a very pretty presentation!  Here’s a tasty looking one from My Kitchen Addiction  (previously featured in our Quiche Roundup)… I have to admit that I am […]

Tamatiebredie (Tomato Stew)

This totally caught my eye at The Creative Pot.   Tamatiebredie is apparently a South African dish (I’m not sure I’ve ever cooked South African food!) and it looks really unique and tasty. So, maybe this would be an opportunity to expand those cultural horizons? Sometimes you need to be daring. That’s when you throw […]

Mediterranean Sushi

My five year old tagged along on a client call I had today, and to reward him for actually being well behaved, we stopped for sushi for lunch… It’s one of both of our favorite foods!  So when I saw this today, I thought it was a great idea.  Mediterranean Sushi from Tomayto Tomaahto. How […]

Risotto con Funghi

This is an elegantly simple dish to make, but I don’t do it very often because it is by no means good for you. I know there are ways to make it more health-conscious (less butter and cheese, no cream, etc.), but I just can’t bring myself to adulterate it like that. So, I only […]

Sweet Potato Fries

These are great for Summer cookouts! -ed We weren’t always fans of sweet potatoes in this house, but that wasn’t the fault of the sweet potato – it was ignorance on our part. Our only knowledge of this orange potato was the mashed and topped with marshmallows version served as a Thanksgiving casserole. Not that […]

Spotlight: Easy Pad Thai

I adore Pad Thai… it’s one of my favorite comfort foods (ever since the time I had to go to the hospital to have my appendix out, but that’s another story…!)  But I’ve never attempted to make it.  Our friend Patricia at Brownies For Dinner has what looks to be a simple recipe for making […]

Fluffy Corn Cakes with Bacon and Maple Syrup

When I saw this I said ‘mmmmm bacon…’ and was inspired.  No, I haven’t made it yet, but it is SO on the list!  (It would have been great for Bacon Week, right?)  So check out this yummy offering from The Runaway Spoon! Breakfast for Dinner.  Who doesn’t love the thought?  I particularly like a […]

Spotlight! Ramp Pesto

Foodwhirl thinks Manhattan Food Project totally rocks (I think they are as big Alton fans as I am!), and would love to crash at their pad next time we are in NYC… and this recipe is no exception to our drooliness (I’m pretty sure that’s not a word).  Anyway, Ramp Pesto?  How cool!  We love […]

Georgia Shrimp and Grits

I grew up in South Georgia and we frequently had both shrimp and grits at the same meal, but I didn’t have shrimp on top of my grits until I was much older.  I’ve played around with this recipe for a while and make it different ways, but I ran across a recipe that I liked […]

Spotlight: Pork Ragu

Over at Talk of Tomatoes, Janelle (she’s a contributor here too!) has a tasty looking recipe for Pork Ragu!  This looks like a wonderfully simple ‘go-to’ meal… I am in love with ragu. Shall I marry it? I made this ragu recently for lunch, and my eldest son says to me: “mom, this is the […]