There’s much to love about the versatility of winter squashes — big and small. Roasted, steamed, stir-fried, and puréed, they make a welcome addition to meals any time of day. But getting that delicious squash on your plate will take a little work. These five smart tips will help you handle them like a pro.
Although I love eating and cooking grains, I tend to eat the same ones over and over again, ignoring the wealth of variety in the store or bulk bins — truly boring. So the first order of business in this new year is to not only eat more grains, but to try to eat as many different kinds as possible. There are so many to choose from that, if you join me on this quest, you’re bound to find something new to add to the dinner rotation!
I thought “setting an intention” was for yoga — and it was my least favorite part of the class. I live in a neighborhood where it’s easy to live without intention, to be downright scatterbrained. We’re minutes from Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Publix, Earth Fare, my favorite Piggly Wiggly, and a few local specialty markets. If I want to eat a particular thing at a particular moment, I can just go get it, as long as I’m willing to get dressed. But even a quick trip to the store takes 20 minutes, and now that I’m working full-time for the first time in 17 years, in an actual office, I’d rather spend that time with my family.
This year, I want to shop less, and with more intention.
We spread it onto sandwiches, blend it into smoothies, mix it into our morning oats, and bake it into cookies, but almond butter can be more than a supporting player. This nutty spread has what it takes to be the main star, and these satisfying three-ingredient snacks prove it.
Whether you opt for a good ‘ol Russet or an eye-catching sweet potato, baked potatoes are super versatile. Sure, they’re a reliable side dish, but don’t stop there — they have the potential to be so much more.
Crack these crispy-skinned spuds open and top the pillowy soft insides with everything from hearty chili and stews, to beans and greens, to yogurt and granola. Or you could just put an egg on it.
All week long I’ve been sharing tidbits of my month-long adventure into Whole30. I started with the basics, I shared a few recipes and shopping tips, and I even talked a little bit about failure. Now, let’s talk about meal prep. As luck would have it, I’m in the process of completing another Whole30 as we speak, so I thought it might be fun for you to peek into one of my meal prep sessions!
Brown sugar and coconut oil roasted, glazed rutabaga and snap peas are served warm, and drizzled with a brightly acidic dressing for a sweet and sour no-lettuce salad.
Usually when we gush about our kitchen tools, it’s about something grand and powerful. We sing the praises of our Vitamix, stand mixer, and pressure cooker — the tools we probably spent more on than we really wanted to; the ones we invested in; the ones that really lived up to their price tag.
And while those are certainly great, sometimes really special tools also come with a really low price tag.
Winter gets a bad rap when it comes to fresh fruit. Sure, it might not be quite as bountiful as the summer months, but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for with its sunny assortment of citrus.
I am, as ever, a sucker for a recipe with a great name. Bring me your grunts, your bundts, your fools, slumps and sonkers. Take me across the pond and let me feast on jammy dodgers, bubble and squeak, rarebit and rumbledethumps. I hope you know it’s only a matter of time until we take in some scrumptious nun’s farts. And so, for no reasons other than an inherent fascination with great food names plus egg whites to use up after a batch of these evil things, I turned my attention this week to the brutti ma buoni (meaning “ugly but good”), an egg white cookie the hails from Prato, Italy.
In this age of Pin-able envy, lifestyle aspiration, and “elevated” anything (living rooms, personal brands, and soups, apparently) I find it delightfully direct that we get to call these misshapen, homely beige blobs exactly what they are. Everyone knows the prettiest pastries — too glassine and brightly colored, not a dot of royal icing out of place — are the most suspicious, and often the least tasty. Ugly baked goods are, to me, like the one out-of-place item on a restaurant menu, irresistible because it couldn’t be there for anything but the fact it must taste really good.
… Read the rest of ugly but good cookies on smittenkitchen.com
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