Winter Squash Soup

This recipe came about entirely because of one afternoon spent studying in a Panera Bread in Minneapolis and my subsequent obsession with their Autumn Squash soup. If you didn't get a chance to try it, it's insanely delicious and seriously addictive. Since all good seasonal items eventually are discontinued, I played with my own recipe for Butternut Squash Soup until I was satisfied that I had created a close copycat version of the original. I'm happy to say it received a very enthusiastic approval from my family when I served it over the holidays, and I know your families will love it too.

Veggie Marrakesh

This recipe was actually my husband's discovery and together we have been working on perfecting it ever since. It's hard to explain what marrakesh is, I've seen it likened to curries and tagines, but I think it's more consistent with what I consider a stew. Using spices traditional to Moroccan cuisine including cumin, turmeric and cinnamon, this dish certainly packs a lot of flavor and is perfect for those cool fall and early winter evenings when vegetables are plentiful at the market but you find yourself craving something warm and hearty.

Perfect Brown Rice Every Time

This is going to be one of those practical posts where we get back to the basics of cooking. When I was first learning how to cook, I cooked my rice in the microwave because it was the way my mom always did it, and predictably my rice boiled over into a starchy puddle of goop. Other people swore by their rice cookers as the secret to creating perfect rice, but truthfully no one really needs yet another unitasker appliance taking up precious real estate in their cupboards. In an interesting turn of events, my husband taught me the secret to cooking perfectly tender, fluffy brown rice every single time.  

Black Bean Tacos with Fresh Mango Salsa

Cooking for picky eaters is really tough. I think we all know someone who is very set in their taste preferences and completely unwilling to even taste something new.  My family seems to have more than it's fair share of picky eaters, and conversations at the dinner table include echoes of the same theme:  I don't eat that.  When you are a home cook trying to be health-conscious and increase the amount of vegetables and fruits in your family's diet while sticking to a budget, what can you do?  I say, get creative and get sneaky.

Fresh Mango Salsa

Salsa is a food with a ton of secret advantages. It tastes indulgent when it's actually low fat, low calorie, and high in fiber and other nutrients. It's cheap, especially when you take advantage of seasonal ingredients. It's surprisingly versatile - you can use any combination of vegetables, fruits, and spices you like to create the perfect blend of freshness, acidity, salt and spice. And even though it is shockingly easy to make, it never fails to impress families and guests. One of the most impressive and simple salsas that every home cook should have in their repertoire is fresh mango salsa.

Quinoa Pancakes with Coconut Walnut Syrup

Whether you know me personally or you only know me from this blog, you probably learned that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and the undisputed ruler of my breakfast table is the humble pancake. While they are delicious, unless you eat a pretty sizeable stack, they don't tend to have the "staying power" to get me through to lunch. Enter quinoa, my new secret satiety weapon.

Avocado Pear and Gorgonzola Salad

I know I've said this before, and I'm sure I will say it again about a different recipe, but this salad is absolutely amazing and I don't think I'm overstating my point. My go-to bag lunch is a salad, because it's easy to pull the ingredients together in my lunch bag, quickly chop toppings just before serving, and it helps me get in my veggie servings early in the day. And I could eat this salad every single day.

Red Quinoa Tabouleh

Whether you spell it tabouleh, tabbouleh, tabouli, or tabbouli, to me this simple dish is synonymous with summer. A tangy mix of fresh herbs, tomato, onion, and grains, tabouleh is rumored to have it's origins in an ancient culinary rivalry between Caesar and Cleopatra. (Hey, I really can't make this stuff up!)  My first experience with tabouleh was at a wonderful Lebanese restaurant in northeast Minneapolis and it is a staple on the menu of many Greek restaurants, although most sources consider it a traditional Arab dish. Traditional tabouleh is made with a grain such as bulgur or in American versions couscous, but for a healthier spin I wanted to use one of my new favorite ingredients, quinoa.

Mixed Greens Caesar

Salads are one of those diet foods that tend to get dieters into a lot of trouble rather quickly. Sure, it's vegetables, but once you start adding dressing, cheese, croutons, and other crispy toppings you can easily find yourself with a plate of vegetables that tops 1000 calories. They say true love lasts a lifetime, and I LOVE Caesar salad. So to ensure I can enjoy Caesar salad anytime I want for the rest of my life, I created a better Caesar salad.

Herbed Flatbread

Sometime last spring I received a text message from a friend and fellow medical student asking if I could recreate a flatbread they tried at a restaurant in Minneapolis. Never one to decline a challenge, I tasted samples and spent some time in the kitchen trying to recreate the light, flaky texture and wonderful flavor of fresh herbs in this flatbread. After doing some research and several attempts later, I realized I was making this far too complicated and instead needed to approach this flatbread not as a yeast bread, but as a quick bread.

Perfect Buttermilk Pancakes

A lazy weekend morning with a plate of warm pancakes is a rare gift these days, and one of the things I look forward to most. My mom made the best pancakes I've ever tasted, a recipe she received from an old friend many years ago. Unfortunately, one batch makes enough pancakes to feed twenty hungry duck hunters on a cold October morning, and no matter how I've tried there just isn't a good way to cut the recipe and have the same quality product. I will admit, this isn't quite the same as our family recipe, but it's a very close second and you won't need to invite the entire neighborhood to your house to help eat leftovers.

Oven "Fried" Zucchini with Lowfat Buttermilk Ranch

Lately I've taken a liking to a local restaurant's newest side dish: breaded fried zucchini. And yes, it's exactly as good as it sounds! But between greedy bites I'm keenly aware of the amount of grease that has soaked into those perfectly healthy veggies and inevitably guilt sets in. Fortunately, this year my garden has been graced with a very prolific zucchini plant so I've had plenty of materials with which to craft a lighter oven "fried" zucchini.

Pasta di Estate

The last days of summer mean many different things. As I write today I can see the very tips of my neighbor's maple just starting to turn a familiar shade of orange. The days have already begun to feel shorter, the evenings are noticeably cooler, and predictably we try to fit as much into our schedules as we can before fall starts. After a long day on the hospital wards, a comforting bowl of fresh pasta is my favorite way to enjoy the little bit of summertime I have left. Pasta di Estate, literally 'summer pasta' in Italian, takes advantage of the fresh tomatoes and herbs currently available at any corner produce stand in a family-friendly dish you can take from stove top to table in 20 minutes.

Spicy Thai Basil Stir Fry with Tofu and Cashews

Who doesn't love a fast dinner that utilizes the best of what you have growing in your garden (or local farmer's market)? That about sums up this dish that I put together  for dinner with the hubs last week. We love stir fry, but I feel there's only so many ways you can mix together citrus, soy sauce, cilantro and veggies before it gets boring. So to spice things up literally and figuratively, I pulled a few ingredients that are at right at their peak in my Minnesota garden to create a fresh take on classic stir fry.

Roasted Vegetable Pizza with Lemon Ricotta Sauce

Sorry for the long hiatus, but the past two months have been about just getting by one day at a time. The good news is I am finally done with boards and have started clinical rotations which means I actually have a little free time on the weekends to get back in the kitchen!  To start, I have a fresh take on a house staple using seasonal ingredients for a delicious summertime dish.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Faux-Yo

While some people may joke about having a killer sweet tooth, my husband jokes that I have a serial killer sweet tooth - and he's absolutely right. I have always loved to bake, so naturally dessert is my favorite part of any meal. According to the USDA desserts are officially a "sometimes food," but for those of us watching our weight desserts seem absolutely forbidden. With this recipe, that's not entirely true.

Fresh Mushroom Salsa

Oh how I adore fresh salsa, and this is one of my absolute favorites! This is a slightly modified version of my mother in law's mushroom salsa recipe which has become a staple at family parties. Like all fresh salsas this is simple to make, and if you like mushrooms this recipe is definitely worth a try.

Spicy Cilantro Pesto Pizza

It's rare for me to get bored with foods, but for me pizza is one of those things that gets old fast. I also tend to be a minimalist when it comes to pizza, my favorite being a traditional neopolitan-style pie on a thin crust fired in a brick oven. A few months ago I stumbled upon a frozen pizza that used a cilantro pesto in place of traditional red sauce, and it was absolutely delicious! Of course that means my grocery store promptly stopped carrying it. In protest of losing access to a favorite go-to quick dinner option from the freezer section, I decided to rewrite the book on frozen pizza.

Pasta Caprese

Arguably one of the best flavor combinations in the vast culinary universe are the flavors found in insalata caprese. Fresh mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes slices in a light vinaigrette are always a delicious combination which is probably why we see these same ingredients together in everything from salads and sandwiches to pasta and pizza. This recipe is a simple pasta that can be made in just 20 minutes and is delicious served hot or cold making, it a perfect dish for the spring and summer months.

Classic Hummus with Kalamata Tapenade

To be honest, I've never had much of an appreciation for olives. But while on vacation I tried a delicious traditional hummus with olive tapenade and the combination was amazing! The nutty flavor of the chickpeas mellowed the natural bitterness of the olives so I could finally enjoy the subtle fruity flavor of this widely popular ingredient.