Kale is really amazing in its value for your body and it’s versatility. It is one of the 5 superfoods, plus it holds up well to heat. Which is why I love to make chips to snack on; chips that you don’t feel guilty about.

3-4 large Kale leaves
2 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper (about 1/2 tbs each)
favorite seasoning (optional)

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Cut the kale leaves off of the stems and chop into 1 inch pieces.

Place in a bowl and add the olive oil.

Add the salt and pepper. I also chose to sprinkle a little of my favorite creole seasoning.

Lay the leaves out on a baking sheet.

Bake at 275 degrees for 10 minutes. Move leaves around. Bake for another 10 minutes.

Place in a bowl, much during your favorite movie and enjoy!

At my first apartment ever in college, I lived with a delightful lady names Erica. There are many things about her that I loved, but one in particular is how she liked food like I did. Her father made this incredible Orzo Pasta salad and she was gracious enough to give me the recipe. I tweaked a few things but ultimately stayed true to her dad’s flavors. If you have ever had the orzo salad at Whole Foods, it is similar and yet a whole lot better.

Salad
1 1/2 cup dried Orzo
2 tbs olive oil
4 tbs balsamic vinegar
3 cups arugula
1 cup fresh basil, chopped
4 ounces toasted pine nuts
4 ounces halved Kalamata olives
1 basket of cherry tomatoes (about 12 ounces)
4 ounces sundried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped
4 ounces crumbled Feta cheese

Dressing
2 tbs flour
2 tbs white vinegar
3 tbs honey

To start, cook the orzo pasta according to instructions on the package until al dente. Set aside to cool. Place olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a bowl.

Slightly toast your pine nuts on the stove till each side begins to release oils and turn a golden brown. Set aside.

Chop up your olives, sundried tomatoes, and basil. Set aside.

Once the orzo has cooled a bit, add to the bowl and mix with the olive oil and vinegar.

Add the arugula. Mix together.

Now it’s time to throw everything together. Add the chopped basil, olives, and sundried tomatoes. Throw in the pine nuts. Toss in the cherry tomatoes whole. Add the Feta cheese. Mix everything together.

Once everything is thoroughly incorporated, add the dressing. Simply mix the flour, white vinegar, and honey in a bowl and toss into the salad.

This pasta salad tends to get better the longer it sits and the flavors marinate. It will last in the fridge for up to a week. But I bet it will be all eaten by then!

Finding your weeknight “OOOooommmmmm” moment can really be in a great dinner. The versatility of chicken is something I love and this stuffed chicken breast is simple and really delicious.

3 large chicken breasts
6 ounces goat cheese
3-4 tbs poultry seasoning
1 cup sauteed or roasted vegetables
1 cup vegetable stock
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

The reason I didn’t specify which vegetable to use is I want you to use your favorite medley to personalize this dish. Plus, if you have leftover veggies from the night before, this chicken dish allows you to throw in what you have laying around. I used a mixture of onions and mushrooms that had been sauteed from the night before.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Also get a sauce pan out and place it on the stove.

Stuffing chicken starts with butterflying the chicken breasts. Simply find the fattest part of the bird and cut it open halfway down till you can open up the breast. Cut almost all the way through, but not quite. Season the breasts on both sides with your favorite poultry seasoning.

Open the breasts and place 2 ounces goat cheese, along with 1/3 of the vegetables inside the chicken. Fold the top portion back over.

Place the butter and olive oil in the saucepan and get it hot. Once the butter has melted, place each folded breast in the pan and sear both sides.

Place the seared chicken breasts in an oven dish. Pour the vegetable stock into the saucepan and scrape the bottom of the pan to get all of the chicken bits and juices.

Pour the vegetable stock mixture into the oven pan. Bake the chicken for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven. Place next to your favorite side dish, eat and enjoy.

Easter holiday always makes me happy because I get to spend it with my family eating amazing food. My mom is one serious chef. This year, like most years, my family expects me to cook up something scrumptious, and my go to for a day picnic is bread pudding. This variation was inspired by a dish I had at Sweet Butter in the valley, which was their croissant bread pudding with strawberry jam.

12 stale croissants
4 cups strawberry jam
11 eggs
1/4 cup vanilla extract
5 cups half and half
1 cup sugar

Finding stale bread items is fairly simple, and cheap. A lot of bakeries will sell day-old breads for a low price if you ask. Even local grocery stores will do this. Or, you can make something stale on your own. If you place the croissants on the counter in open air over night, it should start to dry them out.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Begin by making the bread pudding custard. Crack three whole eggs into a bowl. Then, add just the egg yolks from the remaining eight eggs. Whisk together. Add the vanilla extract and half and half. Whisk contents together while slowly adding the sugar. Stir until the sugar has all dissolved.

Break the croissants into pieces and toss 1/3 of the pieces into a large cake pan. Dollop half the strawberry jam around the bread and mix together. Pour in 1/3 of the custard. Add 1/3 of the remaining croissant pieces. Add the remaining half of the jam and spread around. Add 1/3 of the remaining custard. Press down to get everything worked in together. To finish, add the last of the croissant pieces and the custard.

Place in a water bath and cover with foil. Bake for 45 minutes covered. Uncover the bread pudding and bake for another 45 minutes.

I have a more in depth step-by-step direction guide here if you need some more pictures to help guide you.

Spring and summer fruits are my favorite. When my local grocery store has a strawberry sale, I can’t pass up overhauling on the delicious red berry.

2 cups sugar
1 large lemon (or two small ones) juiced and zested
5 cups strawberries, cut into quarters and hulled
1 small plate (placed in freezer)

Start by slicing up your strawberries. Depending on how small you cut them up, the jam will either be heavy with fruit bits or more diluted. I like a chunky jam, and quartered my strawberries. For something more smooth, dice them up! Set the strawberries aside.

Place a sauce pan on the stove and turn it on low. In the meantime, add the juice of one large  lemon to a bowl. Also add the entire zest of the lemon.

Pour in the two cups of sugar and mix everything together.

When the sugar mixture is semi incorporated, add to the pan. Keep on low heat and cook for 10-15 minutes until the sugar is all dissolved.

Once the sugar is dissolved, add the strawberries. Cook down on low heat for 20-30 minutes. The mixture should get to a low boil.

To see if the jam is done, we apply the cold plate trick. That plate that was in the freezer? Grab it. Simply dip the plate into the mixture and if a jam like texture forms on the plate, you have completed your compote!

Place the jam in a airtight container or use right away. Make sure to let it cool to room temperature before placing it in the fridge.

I used the jam the next day to make Strawberry Jam Croissant Bread Pudding for Easter. It was amazing.

BLTs are my favorite sandwich.

One of my favorite questions to ask on a first date is “if you were on death row, what would be your last meal?” For the foodie that I am, that answer is extremely important and tells me a lot about who I am spending my time with. For me, I would have the most perfect BLT with a superb glass of iced tea, a ripe peach, some rich chocolate ice cream, and a block of extremely good French cheese. When it comes down to it, I am really simple to understand.

I love to reinvent the BLT. I have done it before on this website: Turkey Bacon BLT with Mission Figs and Heirloom Tomato

My sister understands the importance of food as much as I do, and on our trip home from Yogurtland this week, we both had an insatiable craving for bacon. Uncanny right? Deciding upon what to make for dinner that night we both went for it: a BLT. But not just any BLT, something truly amazing.

8 pieces of bacon
4 baby heirloom tomatoes (or one large one), sliced
1/8 white onion, diced
2 tbs mayonnaise
1 tbs favorite sweet compote (I used my Spicy Sweet Onion Compote)
2 slices sharp white cheddar cheese
6 slices Challah bread
1/4 a head iceberg lettuce
(makes two sandwiches)

The idea here is to add a kick of something unexpected, which is conveyed in the Spicy Sweet compote and the Challah bread (if you don’t have Challah, you can use Hawaiian or a sweeter Brioche).

When you have your hands full, making the perfect bacon is easy. Just place a cooling rack or two on a cookie sheet, and turn the oven to 400 degrees. Place the bacon on the cooling racks. For the size of the bread I had, I cut each bacon slice into halves. It fit better that way.

In about ten minutes, you have perfectly cooked bacon. The fat has dripped to the cookie pan and is easy to clean.

Once the bacon is cooked, place the Challah into a toaster oven to get slightly crispy. Take the cheese and cut each square slice into two rectangles. Per sandwich, you have three pieces of bread. Place one rectangle of cheese on four slices of bread and get it melting. 2 slices should be without the cheese.

To make the mayo spread, add the 2 tbs mayo, the 1 tbs compote, and the diced white onion to a bowl. Mix together. Set to the side.

Slice your tomatoes if you haven’t yet. I opted for baby tomatoes as I like the variety of color. The rest of the sandwich is really all about assembly.

Place the two pieces of bread without cheese down on plates. Add about 1 tbs mayo spread to each. Arrange a layer of tomatoes.

Each BLT should have four slices of bacon total. Add two slices of bacon to each bottom layer and top with a handful of iceberg lettuce.

Take a piece of bread with melted cheese and place face down on top of lettuce. Repeat steps; mayo spread, tomatoes, bacon, lettuce, and piece of bread cheese side face down.

Stick with a skewer and enjoy. This BLT is one of the best I have had. The bread is soft, the sharp cheese adds a bight of something else, and the onion infused sweet mayo compote is just a blast of flavor. WINNER all around!

Compotes and relishes that play with the spicy sweet, salty sweet, contrasts of epic proportions that is food creativity (!!!) are high on my list of favorite condiments.

This compote was a meld of ideas between my sister and I when thinking of the perfect topper to burger night on Monday. I made a slew of it to save and add it to additional items throughout the week. It is day 3… and the compote is gone. Whoops.

1 whole yellow onion
1 jalapeno, with seeds
3 dates or 6 mission figs
1 tbs honey
1 tbs thyme
1 tbs unsalted butter
1 cup water
salt and pepper to taste

The onions are the first thing that needs to cook down. Slice them into thin halves and place in a pan with 1 tbs butter.

Next, dice up the jalapeno into small cubes and add to the pan. Add the seeds; trust me you want the little bit of heat. There will be enough sweet to balance it out.

Dice up your dates or figs and set aside. When the onions have become soft and yellow and reduced half their size, add in the fruit. Mix thoroughly, then add the thyme. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Once you have stirred around all the components, add the tbs honey. Mix well.

You should cook the honey into everything for about a minute.

Pour 1 cup water into the pan and reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally.

Once the mixture has reduced down and can stand on its own, it is done. Place the completed compote in a dish and put on everything! I used it for burgers that night, but it would also be amazing with a grilled cheese sandwich, or on this BLT recipe.

Just look at that picture… LOOK AT IT. Are those not the most delectable brownies you have ever seen?!

Guess what… I want to tell you a little secret…. closer… closer… *whispers*… they are GLUTEN FREE! Yes, yes yes yes I am obsessed with this recipe despite the fact it goes against the flour based treats my Southern US/ European family have always taught me. The above brownies do not contain an ounce of flour. Instead, they are made with pureed black beans.

Skeptics, I dare you to try them. I was haunted with the idea I was going to be eating something that tasted unlike a brownie, grainy, and just plain health food gone wrong. Incorrect. Ever wondered what a fluffy chocolate souffle and a dense brownie’s baby would taste like? (I do all the time). Well, it tastes like a black bean brownie. And it tastes DELICIOUS.

Before I start with getting into the recipe, I just want to share something as to why these brownies are getting me COMPLETELY excited.

Are these a health food that you should eat all the time? No. There is still sugar and whatnot in these brownies. But the difference between the nutritional value of white flour and beans alone should get you stoked to want to make these. Because instead of having a bad for your brownie, you can eat something just as great tasting that has more nutritional value. Plus if you have a Gluten allergy, this is perfect since beans are gluten friendly. Simple steps to a healthy you, people.

Recipe adapted from Mmm is for Mommy.

20 counces canned black beans, well rinsed and drained
3 large eggs
3 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1/4 cup + 1tbs cocoa powder
2/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

The other amazing part of this brownie is everything is made in a blender or food processor. Since beans are being used, you want to make sure the puree is as silky as possible. The steps are simple; except for the chocolate chips, dump everything in the blender starting with the beans. No really, I am serious. Put it all in there.

The next thing you need to do is get that mixture blended. The texture you are looking for is something resembling a smoothie. Grease a 8×8 inch pan with cooking spray and pour the batter into the pan.

Cover the brownie batter in the chocolate chips. Get every inch coated with a chip.

Place in the oven for 30 minutes. You should see a solid center and a top crust on the brownies.

Let cool for a few moments then slice like regular brownies. The black bean brownies look, taste, smell, package, keep in the fridge, etc everything like regular brownies. They won’t crumble. And yes they taste amazing with ice cream; I taste tested for you.

So the next time you feel in the mood for  a brownie, have one! Just make it black bean.

Lately I have been on a much cleaner eating kick. Don’t get me wrong; I still indulge and make sure nights I eat out are times where I enjoy the food I am eating. But I have begun to appreciate the importance of amping up vegetables, and this dish does just that.

With no carbohydrates, and a spicy kick, you won’t miss anything from this Italian pepper. It cuts that pasta craving with the same flavors as any spicy sausage dish.

1 hot Italian sausage (not pre-cooked, go for a raw pork sausage)
2 bell peppers (any color works)
1/3 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 red onion
1 cup spinach
1/3 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup vegetable stock
4 ounces goat cheese
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp garlic powder
2 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
tomato sauce, optional

Start by setting the oven to preheat at 375. The onions and mushrooms need a little help getting cooked down, so the first step is to get them in a pan with some olive oil. Dice up both vegetables into even small pieces.

As for the sausage, you want the meat integrated in the pepper, but without the casing. Once the mushrooms and onions have cooked down a bit, cut the sausage, remove the casing, and add the meat to the pan. Once the meat has begun to cook, add the dried oregano, basil, rosemary, chili flakes and garlic. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

In a bowl, add the frozen peas and spinach. Set to the side.

When the sausage has cooked down, and the vegetables are caramelizing, add 1/3 cup vegetable stock to the pan to deglaze it. Scrape off all the delicious flavored goodies from the bottom of the pan and let the mixture reduce down a bit.

Once everything has reduced, pour the hot mixture over the peas and spinach. Stir everything together. You should begin to see the spinach wilt.

While the mixture is cooling, cut off the tops of the bell peppers. Gut them and remove as much of the inner membrane as you can. Set to the side.

The mixture should cool off quite a bit as the peas counteract the hot sausage and onions. Once the mixture is warm, but not hot, dollop in the goat cheese. Stir just to incorporate everything but NOT to melt the cheese.

Stuff those mushrooms! No seriously, get that delicious meat goodness in those peppers. As you start filling them, you may think that the mixture is too much to fit. Not so. You really want to get them as compact as possible. If you followed the above measurements, the meat mixture is exactly enough to stuff two peppers to the brim.

Bell peppers take a bit of time to cook, but you run the risk of burning the tops of the inner ingredients. Which is why its is important to start slow and steam them at first. Place the peppers in a dish with about 1 inch of water.  Cover with a foil tent and cook for 45 minutes in the oven.

After the 45 minutes, take the peppers out of the oven. Crank the heat up to 400. Place one ounce of Parmesan cheese on top of each pepper. Put back in the dish and bake for another 25 minutes.

The pepper will come out soft, the top golden brown, the insides warm and delicious.

Optional, but totally worth is and delicious. Lay down a bed of your favorite tomato sauce and place the pepper in the middle. Sprinkle with some basil. Then… dig in!

Buttercream frosting is the most delicious of all the frostings and the easiest to make. Jackpot!

I really cannot understand why people buy fake frosting, especially when making a batch at home is better for you, tastes better, and about the same price. All you need are three ingredients.

1 box powdered sugar
2 sticks butter
Up to 1/4 cup milk
vanilla extract (optional)

The butter must be room temperature to be able to make frosting. IT CANNOT BE MELTED. Make sure you set your butter out on the counter when you begin baking your cake, or whatever you are making, to soften up.

Beat the butter with a whisk and slowly add the powdered sugar. I also like to add a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Add a little of the milk at a time, alternating with the powdered sugar to smoothen out the mixture. In the end, the entire box of sugar should be used and about no more than 1/4 cup milk should have been added. The milk is just there to help thin the frosting out a tiny bit.

You can do anything to the frosting, like color it to help decorate cakes. Pipe it, smear it on, add sprinkles whatever you like. Homemade buttercream is just as versatile as what comes in the can.

If you want to make variations of the frosting, you can! Try some of these ideas:

• Add cocoa powder to turn the frosting into chocolate.
• Try mixing in different extracts. Almond gives frosting an amaretto flavor, but you can also go for something like an orange or lavendar.
• Lemon zest adds a fresh kick to your frosting. Lime tastes delicious too!
• Mix in a tablespoon or two of smooth peanut butter to make a peanut butter frosting.