Category Archives: Healthy Whole Food Blog

Quick and easy recipes for the busy home cook.

Basil Chicken

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Basil Chicken

Basil Chicken

So everyone has that one friend whom they idolize, you know the one who is super intelligent, charismatic, gorgeous, and the kind of mother to her children you only wish you could be. Well that person for me is my friend Jennifer. She has the energy of the energizer bunny–actually I think she could out last that bunny 3 times over, She’s a great friend, reliable without fault, and on top of all that, she is a great cook. One of her signature dishes is basil Chicken.  It’s beyond delicious, the sweet notes of basil mixed with the Unami flavors imparted by the soy sauce in this dish make it heaven on a plate.  She makes hers with the whole parts of chicken, usually legs, or drummetts. I decided to try it using ground chicken, because who couldn’t use another way to use ground meat?  I’m so glad I did, it is equally as delicious as using chicken with bones, but much less time consuming, because there aren’t any bones.

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Prep time: 5-7 minutes

Cook time : 15 minutes

Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground chicken

3/4 cups of fresh basil chopped

1 small brown onion or shallot chopped

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 large cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of olive oil/ghee

1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

sea salt to taste

Directions: heat oil in skillet, add garlic, sauté for 30 seconds, then add the onion, and cook until translucent. Add the ground chicken and brown. Add in the soy sauce, basil and red pepper flakes, cook for 2 minutes then turn off the fire. Serve over brown rice, or in lettuce cups.

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Lamb Burgers with Yogurt Cucumber Mint Sauce

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Lamb Burgers With Yogurt Cucumber Sauce

Lamb Burgers With Yogurt Cucumber Sauce

Sometimes you just need a burger! Considering the fact that Americans consume nearly 50 billion burgers a year, I am assuming most people need more than one! Although beef burgers are great, it’s nice every once in awhile to switch meats up a bit.  This lamb burger provides the perfect switch.

 

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Prep time: 7-10 minutes

Cook time: 7-10 minutes

Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1lb of ground lamb

1/2 cup of mint, chopped finely

1/4 cup of flat leaf parsley chopped finely

Sea Salt & Black pepper to taste

Ingredients for Yogurt Cucumber Sauce

1/2 cup of yogurt

1 large clove of garlic grated

1/4 cup of organic Persian cucumber cubed

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 Tablespoon of finely minced shallot

1 tablespoon of mint finely chopped

Sea salt to taste

Directions:  add all the ingredients for the yogurt sauce to a medium sized bowl, mix well and set aside.

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In a large bowl add the ingredients for the burger, mix with your hands to incorporate all of the ingredients,  and then form patties.

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Heat a cast iron skillet, then add the burgers. Cook each burger without turning them, for 4-6 minutes on each side.

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Serve these on buns with the cucumber sauce or go to my YouTube channel and get my recipe for Creamy herb feta cheese spread.

Creamy Herbed Feta Cheese Spread

Creamy Herbed Feta Cheese Spread

Or skip the bun and use lettuce as a low carb option.

Lamb Burger with Yogurt cucumber sauce

Lamb Burger with Yogurt cucumber sauce

Asparagus and Mushrooms

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Asparagus and Mushrooms

Asparagus and Mushrooms

 

I don’t know what it is about the Vernal equinox and the ushering in of spring, but it floods me with inspiration, and the need to get things done. It’s like my body gets a signal on March 20th every single year to create, and I just feel so inspired. Maybe it’s because I’m a spring baby, my birthday falls just 2 days after the first day of spring. Maybe my need to create is attached to that as a reminder that I’m getting old and need to get things done! For the last few weeks I’ve lived in my kitchen, creating recipes for this blog and my book. I have so many in my cue.  Just yesterday I created four new dishes, in under 2 hours, and I’m still going to test out more recipes today. Yesterday I shared an avocado Pepita salad dressing, today I’m sharing another green recipe for asparagus and mushrooms. The season for asparagus is so short, so when it rolls around I always try to eat as much as I can.

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

2.5 cups of crimini mushrooms sliced

2 cups of asparagus sliced on a bias

3 cloves of garlic chopped

1 tablespoon of butter

1 tablespoon of olive oil

sea salt & black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon of soy sauce (optional)

Directions: Heat oil in a skillet with garlic. Add the mushrooms and season them with salt. The mushrooms will begin to release water, cook them until the water evaporates, about 7 minutes, then add the butter. Cook until mushrooms brown, then add in the asparagus and soy sauce if you’re using it. Cook until asparagus is tender, about 4 minutes, serve and enjoy!

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Creamy Avocado Pepita Dressing

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Creamy Avocado Pumpkin Seed Salad Dressing

Creamy Avocado Pumpkin Seed Salad Dressing

 

One of my daughters first foods was avocado.  Aside from it being an easy go to for me, because it didn’t involve cooking or complicated prep, it was the perfect food for her nutritionally. For a year of her life she ate smashed avocado gleefully without complaint. I was sort of heart broken when she suddenly decided that she’d had enough of it and started to refuse to eat it.  As you all know from reading this blog, nothing makes me happier than when my daughter eats her veggies. This week when I was at the farmers market, I picked up a few avocados from my avocado guy, just so I could make this salad dressing for her. Recently she has taken to eating salad, but only if the salad is well dressed, preferably with a salad dressing that she loves.  This particular dressing is awesome! There isn’t one bad thing in it, not one! If you love the mayo based Pepita salad dressing served at El Torito, then you’ll love this even more!  I prefer it thick and undiluted, but you can make it thinner by adding either water, or oil, until your desired thinness has been achieved. You can use raw pumpkin seeds, but I prefer the nutty flavor of pumpkin seeds when roasted for this dressing.

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Prep Time: 5-7 minutes

cook Time: none

Total time: 5-7 minutes

 

Ingredients:

1 Avocado
4 teaspoons of lemon juice
4 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds roasted
Sea salt black pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1 tblsp of olive oil
Water (optional)

Directions: place all ingredients in a small blender and process until smooth. It you’re using water add it 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency, drizzle over salad greens, toss well, then serve! My daughter loved this, and we did too! It is so good!!!!

Creamy Avocado Pumpkin Seed Salad Dressing

 

White Bean and Kale Soup

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Kale and White Bean Soup

Kale and White Bean Soup

 

I feel like I haven’t shared enough vegetarian recipes with you guys, at least not as a full meal. My daughter is just beginning to appreciate veggies the way my husband and I do…thank God, I was beginning to worry she would be one of those kids who would refuse everything green. But somehow, and by the grace of god she has taken to eating veggies. While I was making this she kept reaching up to steal pieces of carrots! It made my heart leap with every bite she took! She loves this soup, and I love that she loves it, because it’s nothing but veggies!

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Prep time: 10-15 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Total time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients:

1 bushel of organic kale, sliced thinly

1 cup of shallots, chopped

1 cup of carrots, cubed

1 cup of celery, cubed

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

3/4 cup of white wine Sauvignon Blanc

4 cups of vegetable stock

1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon of thyme

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons of olive oil

15 oz can of Organic white beans, drained and rinsed

Directions: Heat the oil on medium heat, add garlic, shallots, celery, and carrots, cook until tender,

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add in thyme and kale, sauté for 5 minutes.

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Add in the wine, vegetable stock and beans, bring to a boil and cook until greens are tender about 15 minutes. Add in lemon juice,  adjust the seasoning with sea salt and black pepper, serve and enjoy!

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Ramen Momofuku Style and Gluten Free

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D.I.Y. Ramen

D.I.Y. Ramen

 

Is it weird that I’m not a big fan of pasta, but that I love ramen? I’m not talking about cup o noodles here, but growing up I had my fair share of those, I’m talking about a rich and flavorful  bowl of ramen. The kind of ramen one might get at David Changs Momofuku Noodle bar in New York.  The kind of ramen people wait in line for, only I don’t want to wait in line. The beginning and end of any ramen–a good one anyway–is the broth! Without the foundation of a good broth, ramen is… well just ramen in water! The best way to get a good broth without spending hours in the kitchen is to use a pressure cooker. Pressure cookers aren’t as popular as crock pots, but in my opinion they should be! Other than cooking something slowly on the stove for hours, there is just no other way to get the amount of flavor you do from something cooked in a pressure cooker. You get out what you put into a pressure cooker, all the nutrients stay in the pot, they don’t cook out, unlike when you cook on the stove top, or in a slow cooker—the nutrients escape out during cooking through steam.  What’s better is that it takes less time to do it than both stove top cooking and crock pot cooking! I like to think that my pressure cooker provides the best of both worlds, the flavor of something cooked for hours on a stove, and the ease of non-active cooking–ie ability to throw a bunch of ingredients in a pot, leave it for an hour and come back to the finished product, lazy cooking at its best!

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Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1lb of Organic chicken thighs, I used boneless, but a bone never hurt a good broth

1 large brown onion

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar

1 bushel of organic Dino Kale, chopped roughly

3 large cloves of garlic chopped

1 10oz package of Organic Rice ramen, I used Lotus Food brand it’s gluten free.

1 tablespoon of olive oil or ghee

1/2 cup of fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes

7.5 cups of water

Directions: Heat the oil then add the chicken. IMPORTANT: Let it brown, do not move it, let it cook for 3-4 on one side before turning it. This browning makes a tremendous amount of difference between a broth that’s good, and a broth that’s great! Once brown turn over and add the onion, garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar.  Cook for another 4 minutes, then add the water. Bring to a boil, then cover and seal your pressure cooker, and let cook on medium heat for 45-50 minutes undisturbed. If you’re doing this on the stove top, without a pressure cooker, bring to a boil, cover and cook for 1.5 hours checking broth levels after an hour. At the 50 minute mark, turn off the fire, and depressurize your pressure cooker according to manufacturers instructions, remove the lid, add in the kale, turn the fire back on to medium, cover and seal the pressure cooker again. Let cook for 7 minutes, depressurize the cooker again.remove the lid, turn the fire back on, add the noodles, and cook for additional 4 minutes, add red pepper flakes and fresh cilantro, turn the fire off serve and enjoy!

 

 

 

Charbroiled Sardines with parsley and thyme

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Charbroiled Sardines with Parsley and Thyme

Charbroiled Sardines with Parsley and Thyme

 

It’s not often here that I can walk up to my local Whole Foods Market fish counter and get fresh sardines. So when the opportunity to do so  occurred, I jumped at it.  I am a huge fan of small sustainable fish, like sardines, and smelt.  I’ll even go out on a limb and say that I like smelt fish more than sardines, but smelt fish are even harder to come by than fresh sardines.  If you’ve never made fresh sardines before, then you have been missing out! They’re so easy to make, and so delicious!

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Prep Time: 7 minutes

Cook Time: 7-10 minutes

1 pound of fresh Sardines split down the middle

1/2 cup of parsley

1/4 cup thyme

1 clove of garlic

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Sea salt and Black pepper to taste

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 400F.  Line a bake sheet with parchment or foil. Pulse all the ingredients with the exception of the sardines in a small blender or processor. You can skip the processor and opt to chop all the herbs finely and then mix with the oil and lemon. Place the sardines on the lined bake sheet, add the herb mixture to the inside of each sardine. Season with sea salt and black pepper then place in the oven and cook for 7-10 minutes, or until sardines are cooked through and have charred on top a bit. Remove from the oven, serve and enjoy!

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Keilbasa and Hash with Roasted Brussel Sprouts

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Kielbasa and Hash with Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Kielbasa and Hash with Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I have a confession: I’ve never eaten corn beef and cabbage, or corn beef hash. I haven’t a clue what either taste like. I see hash a lot on breakfast menu’s when we go out to eat, but I have shied away from ordering it since I didn’t know what corned beef was.  I’ve seen co-workers bring canned hash to work and eat it for lunch, let’s just say that it never looked or smelled appetizing! Quite the opposite of appetizing actually. As a result canned hash has become the equivalent to canned spam in my head–an anomaly. I haven’t a clue what spam is, and have yet to meet anyone who can enlighten me on what it is. Being that I am the queen of food transparency, and need to know exactly what I’m eating at all times, I  just avoid it altogether. I was discussing wanting to try to make a hash with a friend, and she suggested I try it with an alternative to corned beef. She makes her hash with ground meat or sausage and suggested I do the same. So I decided to try to make hash with kielbasa. I’m so glad I did, it’s delicious! I can’t believe that I waited so long to try hash.

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Ingredients:

12oz of kielbasa cubed

2.5 cups of golden potatoes cubed

3/4 cup of bellpepper diced

3/4 cup of brown onion diced

1 large clove of garlic

1 teaspoon of fresh or dried thyme

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

14oz of brussle sprouts bottom stem removed, and sprout slit down the middle

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with foil and give it a spray of coconut oil or olive oil. Add brussel sprouts, season with sea salt and pepper and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil, cook for 7-10 minutes or until the brussle sprouts brown a bit, remove from oven and set aside. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 5-7 minutes, just until you are able to pierce them with a fork, they should still be very firm, drain and set aside.  Add the kielbasa to a cast iron pan and cook until brown, remove from the skillet with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the onion, garlic, and bell pepper to the skillet with the remaining oil from the Keilbasa, sauté until onion becomes translucent. Add in the potatoes and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and cook until potatoes take on some color (7-10 minutes) add in the browned kielbasa, thyme , sea salt and pepper and toss well. Serve the hash with the Brussel sprouts and enjoy! So yummy!

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Do you know what spam is?

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Persian Cucumber and Tomato Salad

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Persian Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Persian Cucumber and Tomato Salad

My daughter has reached a turning point in eating! I have a feeling it has a lot to do with the fact that she her 2 year molars are coming in, which makes things easier to chew. But in the last few weeks we’ve seen a change in her mindset too. She’s taken to saying “to eat is good for you?” Or insert name of food item “is good for you?” If we say yes, then she eats it! I feel like I’ve struck the mommy lotto because now things she wouldn’t consider eating, she’s now eating, all because we say it’s good for her. One of the things I have been trying to get her to eat, but she never would, is cucumbers. It has been a complete over night shift! She wouldn’t touch them before, but now she loves them because they’re good for her. She also loves tomatoes, this Persian salad is one of my favorite salads to order when we go out for Persian food. So I thought I’d try it out on her and of course she loved it! I’m not a big fan of onions in my salads, because they tend to over power the rest of the ingredients in a salad. I don’t know where I learned this tip, but soaking the onions in water before adding them to things, mellows the onions a bit. I let them sit for 5-10 minutes and drain them before adding them to my salad, the onions still have flavor, but less of a “oh my god I just ate a raw onion” bite! I prefer to use red onion, or shallots in this recipe, but brown onion works just as well.

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Prep time: 5-10minutes
Cook time : none

Ingredients:
1 cup Organic Persian Cucumber cubed
1 cup of organic cherry Tomatoes quartered or halved
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Sea salt to taste
2 tablespoons of red onion finely chopped, soaked in water for ten minutes then drained just before adding them to salad.

Directions:
Add all the ingredients to a bowl toss well and enjoy!

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Lamb Lettuce Wraps with Mint Chimichurri Sauce

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Lamb Lettuce Wraps With Mint Chimichurri Sauce

Lamb Lettuce Wraps With Mint Chimichurri Sauce

One of my favorite “cook” books is The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. It is my go to book when I need inspiration for a new recipe. If you own it, then you know it’s not a cookbook in the traditional sense, because it doesn’t contain any recipes. It’s more of a reference for exactly what it title states, flavors that work well together. Yesterday I was browsing it for an idea for what I could do with some ground lamb that I needed to make for dinner. It was a hot day here in California–go figure–so I wanted something light and cooling. I opened The Flavor Bible up and landed on Chimichurri and it hit me! Inspiration at it’s best!! I decided to make lamb lettuce wraps with a mint Chimichurri! These are DELICIOUS!! My husband raved at every bite! If ground lamb isn’t your thing, or you can’t get it in your grocery store, try this with ground beef or chicken, the mint Chimichurri sauce will work with either.

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Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

 

 

Ingredients:
1 lb Lamb
9 leaves of organic Butter lettuce
1 cup of organic Green onion sliced white parts included
3 cloves of garlic minced
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 cup of fresh organic mint chopped

Ingredients for Mint Chimichurri
1/2 cup of flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup of mint
3 tablespoons oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
2 cloves of garlic
Sea salt to taste

Directions:
Place all the ingredients for the Chimmichurri in a blender or processor and blend until smooth, set aside. Heat the tablespoon of oil in a skillet, add garlic, and green onion, toss for 20-30 seconds, then add in ground meat. Season with sea salt and black pepper, and cook until meat is browned and cooked through, add in the mint and toss, remove from the fire.
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Scoop meat into lettuce leaves, top with Chimmichurri and enjoy!

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