Roasted cauliflower, carrots, and spinach go into this warming red curry made completely vegan and completely good-for-your-soul. When I lived in San Francisco, I was able to stop into any of the hundred Asian market to pick the ingredients, but now, I have to make a solid effort to find these ingredients. In my hunt to make this Thai soup, I was able to source the lemongrass and ginger from a small market with the rest of it from the local market.

So, I always have them in stock. My kitchen is very rustic, Asian-inspired, and a little wacky. This curry is spicy, but in a warm sense and will appease kids and adults. Your entire home will smell of lemongrass, ginger, and meaty roasted cauliflower.

Potstickers make a meal that adults and children can both fall in love with. Potstickers can be eaten with a fork, chopsticks, or cute little fingers.  They can be baked, broiled, fried or steamed, and then dipped into a variety of sauces.

Perfect meal.

Perfect way to teach kids how to cook too.

I love potstickers. In my home, we make potstickers every week because I am a ninja. Actually, at the beginning of every month, I make a batch of 200 potstickers and freeze them.

Talk about hard work, but it definitely pays off on those nights that I have nothing left and am on the verge on committing fast food suicide. And then a child reminds me that she "sure wishes that she could just have a potsticker" and BAHM...dinner is done.

Once you have mastered this recipe, you will find yourself doing all sorts of good and not-so-great  variations. Honestly, I like to think of potstickers as teeny tiny vegetable delivery pouches. Kids and picky adults love love love them.

Call me crazy, but I love beets. The red, staining root that is beet is one of my favorite winter treats. Each winter, after the beets have grown big, red, and juicy, I pull them from their cozy homes and make raw red beet salad.


That's right. Raw. Acidic. Surprisingly cleansing.

This red beet salad is loaded with vitamins. I combine grate beets, apples, and chopped celery tossed in olive oil and apple cider vinegar to create a stunning side salad that will detoxify your blood.

A lot of hype is surround seeds lately. Chia seeds. Flaxseeds. Hemp seeds. Pumpkin seeds. Seeds are everywhere as if they have never existed until last week. Which, may I point out seems weird because most of the advertising claims that these superfoods have been around for thousands of years. 

I've never really thought too much about the hype because we have eaten seeds for as long as I can remember. When you are 99% vegan, you learn to eat certain types of foods. I stir hemp seeds into oatmeal, soy yogurt, and muffins. I grind flax seed into soups, salads, and smoothies. And to appease my salt addiction, I munch pumpkin seeds. Shoot, I throw pumpkin seeds onto just about anything.

But, I haven't used chia seeds so frequently. Because of their high fat content, I reserve them for spare occasions. Until recently. Until I realized that their congealing qualities are excellent for non-vegan desserts such as pudding. Yes, pudding. Or the fact that they make excellent jams. Sure you can put them into a morning smoothies, but the little buggers stick to the side of the blender and it really is a waste. My experiments with chia seeds proves that chia seeds need time to sit within the medium for a while, perhaps overnight.
 

My proof?
 

It's in the pudding.

The Recipe

Ingredients
·         3 tbsp chia seeds
·         1 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk
·         2 tbsp cocoa powder
·         ½ cup packed dates
·         A squirt of honey or 1 tsp vanilla extract
·         1/8 tsp salt (I always use iodized)
·         Shredded coconut
·         Dark chocolate chips

Directions

1.      In a blender, mill the chia for 15 seconds. Don't worry if they don't break apart too much.

2.      Add everything, but the coconut and chocolate chips, and pulverize for 1-2 minutes in the blender.

3.      Pour the chocolate pudding into small jars. Top with coconut flakes and chocolate chips.

4.      Store in the fridge for at least 8 hours before serving.

Turkey is everywhere. Turkey sandwiches.  Turkey soup. Turkey eggrolls. Turkey in my oatmeal. There is a lot of turkey goin' on 'round here. Tonight I took some of the turkey and transformed it into fall off the bone shredded brown sugary BBQ sweetness. Oh yes, I did.

BBQ shredded turkey is so delicious. You can stuff into a tortilla of between two slices of crusty bread topped with pickled red onions and apple cider vinegar coleslaw.  My favorite thing about this recipe is that  you can put it together in the pot and let it sit for 3-4 hours without doing anything. 

The key to this recipe is to have homemade BBQ sauce on hand so you can be super lazy and watch the meat shred itself in a pot of sauce. Mmmm. Oh and I did I mention that I add carrots and onions to my shredded meat? Mmmm...Keep reading to get the BBQ sauce recipe.

Once you have made the recipe, add it to 3 cups shredded turkey, 1 diced, sauteed onion and a diced carrot.

So simple, I won't give you a recipe. Vegetables, soy sauce, and add rice.

I've been on a major sweet potato kick lately. Almost every night, there is a plate of sweet pots of the table. Mmm. Some nights I chop them and other nights, I like to wedge them. A batch takes about 20 minutes to cook under the broiler -- yes, the broiler. Never use the "oven" to bake sweet potato fries because you will end up with half-cooked potatoes or having to wait 1 hour to eat them.

Chili is a great way to have a dinner party. Yes, I'm serious. A chili dinner party. Throughout my undergraduate education, I held monthly dinner parties for friends and classmates. Instead of slaving away over a plate that requires 3 components cooked to perfection (in my tiny kitchen, no way), I made of pot of something delicious that puts a smile on everybody's faces.

Given that some of my friends are vegetarians, vegans, or otherwise, I always made the dish eater-friendly. No meat. No dairy, and a gluten-free side.  My three-bean chili with soyrizo always won people over. 

It is rich, hearty, and healthy. The soyrizo lends a textured spicy addition to the beans. The chili can sit on the stove for hours, making it a great set-it and come back to get it dish. I make cornbread with the dish, but it does great on its own too.

Green smoothies are a wonderful way to start out a hot, summer morning. Loaded with vitamins, antioxidants, and the refreshing cool that prepares you for a sweltering 104...smoothies rock. Many folks are worry about the outcome (taste) of a green smoothie and I can vouch that sometimes, smoothies suck. But you drink it anyways. You tighten your big girl undies, plug your nose and go for it.