Immune-Boosting Blueberry Smoothie

There are many aha moments in September when you can tell summer is over and fall has begun.
The leaves are turning yellow, red and brown, the air chills and the days get shorter, the Instagram feed is filled with snaps of pumpkin spice lattes, your favorite shows are no longer repeats, and a symphony of sniffles on public transportation begins.
Which can only mean one thing: we need to start worrying about colds and the flu (sigh!)

Burnt Eggplant with Tahini, Pomegranate and Sesame Seeds

Autocorrect is awesome at turning your garbled typing into coherent messages.
Except when it's not.
Take for instance my friend Shashi. For the past week or so she asked on more than one occasion how I ‘twerked’ a particular recipe — I know that she meant ‘tweaked’ but clearly her phone was acting on its own volition.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love twerking just as much as the next person (well, not really) but I honestly have no idea how to twerk a recipe.
What are you supposed to do?
Let’s not forget that twerking presupposes dancing in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance.
Does that mean that in order to twerk a recipe you take a cookbook and rub your booty against it?
I dunno, I dunno.
I might need to ask Miley Cyrus for guidance...she knows a thing or two about twerking, right?

Easy Crock-Pot Sweet Potato Turkey Chili

If you are from Texas, I apologize.
I know that chili con carne is the official dish of the state, and I know how seriously Texans take their chili con carne — so seriously that they even have weekend-long festivals devoted to its creation.
I also know that in Texas if you add things like kidney beans, bell peppers, carrots, oregano, and tomato sauce to chili con carne, you’re going to get an earful.

(Paleo) Coconut Lemon Chia Seed Muffins

Cooking is an art, baking is a science.
A sad truth.
While I will comfortably fuss and fiddle with a savory recipe. Playing with muffins or cookies? Not the wisest idea.
Fact is, there is minimal room for improvisation in baking.
Take cocoa for instance.
Do you know that it's safe to substitute natural cocoa when Dutch-processed cocoa is listed in a recipe but it's not possible, however, to switch cocoa types the other direction?
Oh, baking, you cruel, precise science.

Eggplant Pizzas

I love tweaking recipes I find by adding things that I love and that I think will enhance the outcome. Some recipes however are just perfect the way they are and need to be loved as such.
This is one of those recipes.
I've been tempted to tweak it up in different directions but each time I do, I decide against it.
Because truth to be told, there’s not much I can do to make it better.

(Paleo) Cinnamon Roll In A Mug

The process of perfecting a recipe is largely trial and error.
It requires understanding the basic ingredients (coconut flour, what have I done to you?) and the variations for different situations (i.e., coconut flour needs more liquid and eggs than other flours), then tasting them against one’s experience in actual use.
Make, taste, smell, notice, change, repeat.
This is my mantra when it comes to perfecting recipes.

Green Goddess Quinoa Salad with Feta Cheese

It seems that this blog is finally working for me: I have an archive of recipes I love, largely ones that work as they should, and the answer to “What should I eat today?” is now, quite often “Aw man those turkey koftas were legit. Let’s have them again!”

Eggplant Parm "Meatballs"

Okay, I know that despite everyone being back to school, back to work (ugh!), and Labor day being but a small blink in the rearview mirror (was it the day before yesterday or like a month ago?), summer isn’t really over yet.
It’s still hot, humid, smelly, the days are still relatively long and no, I will not put my flip-flops away just yet.
But I can’t help it, as soon as September rolls around, I begin the transition from summer to fall.
I grab the cold weather running gear. I look at the plums and peaches at the Farmers’ market questioningly - I only want to buy apples, figs, and pumpkins.
And I feel the need for bubbly, filling, and indulgent meals — such as eggplant parm.

(Paleo) Kung Pao Chicken

In college I made the stunning discovery that an order of Kung Pao Chicken, braised eggplant, and a beer water was pretty much the best weekday dinner there could ever be.
A friend and I made a weekly ritual of it; until one day we couldn't tolerate another bite — anyone with a bit of common sense would have seen that coming, not us, we were that naive.

Easy Creamy Crock-Pot Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)

I’m not sure if you do this as well, but I tend to go in and out food crazes — currently, the only thing I want to eat after running is garlic butter zoodles, which doesn’t sound so bad until you consider that I run every day.
I’ve gone through similar phases with scrambled eggs with avocado and feta, dinners of teriyaki glazed chicken and creamy mashed cauliflower, pan-fried dumplings with chinese eggplant, and for three tormented weeks Xi’an Famous Foods’ Hand-Ripped Noodles (so not paleo, so guilty delicious!)