Recipes

Vitamin B12, D, Magnesium, and Zinc are essential, but many Americans are deficient. Find out how to know if you’re getting enough. We also give you six easy ideas to incorporate all four micronutrients into one delicious meal.

Whether you're hosting a Thanksgiving feast or attending one, here are some of my best time-tested recipes for simple sides and delectable desserts. Feast on flavors from a nutritious twist on mashed potatoes to a vibrant green bean salad and decadent delicata moons. Also find two dessert recipes—a nutrient-dense cheesecake and a special pumpkin pie.

With these recipes it will be easy to use up food in your refrigerator and create delicious, nutritious meals that reduce food waste, save money, and have a positive environmental impact. 

Medicinal Uses for 7 Herbs and Spices Already in your Kitchen + Recipes for each: * Basil * Bay Leaf * Cayenne * Cinnamon * Garlic * Ginger * Thyme

What do you think of when you hear the word “detox”? ⁠If it doesn’t include scrumptious and nutritious foods, you probably haven’t tried the Food Foundation 28-Day Detox. 

The holidays don’t have to be stress-filled. Here's a secret solution to a less-stress Thanksgiving. 

Don’t throw your healthy eating habits out the window when you’re traveling this summer! ‍Whether you're taking a plane, train, or automobile, it’s possible to eat well on the go. ‍Here are my top three tips for eating healthy on your trip. 

Just as it’s important to celebrate diversity and inclusion with the people around us, it’s best to diversify our food colors. Consuming all different colors in the spectrum in our food is called Eating the Rainbow. Learn about the health benefits of each color and get an easy recipe for each.

I love clam chowder and crave it come the first autumn wind. I used to live on the same block as the Gulf Coast Grill in San Diego where they served their chowder with bacon and a spicy kick. 

Steamed Vegetables are a great solution for those short on time! This easy cooking method is delicious and nutritious. Learn the ins and outs of how to steam vegetables and why they are so good for you!

Grab a few simple ingredients you may already have on hand and enjoy what my son calls “melted vanilla ice cream. This is a delicious way to meet that sweet soda craving with healthIERingredients.

This will be your absolute favorite when dessert when you have an abundance of ripe fruit. Add a buttery, nutty, oatmeal topping with your favorite spices and bake it until the smell is intoxicating.

I love granola in the morning, but eating the store-bought, sugar-laden carbs puts me into a sugar high that ends in a 4 o'clock coma. we can make granola from scratch, and have a delicious treat the whole week.

Two reasons why I call this dish Christmas Curry, the first is because it's red and green, warm and comforting, and full of holiday cheer. The second is because for years, I had vegetarians attend our Christmas dinner wanted something to serve.

I can't help it, I'm a foodie, I love family, I love expressing gratitude, and I love cooking in the fall. The fall table is such a great excuse to get creative and pull out seasonal dishes that represent your local food or your traditional treasures.

This recipe screams autumn with its gorgeous fall colors. It is so simple I'm almost embarrassed to include it, but simple is what we need if we are going to replace the baby carrots with Ranch dressing.

If you love Marcona Almonds, you are going to love this take on them. My friend Val introduced me to her hand-roasted Rosemary Cashews and I was in heaven. We took the recipe to a whole new level of flavor and health.

When my garden turns up eggplants and garlic, and my lemon tree still holds one last lemon, I dream of creamy baba ganoush, the best way to eat eggplants. This dish will impress your vegan friends, as well as your Paleo friends.

This is my go to dinner when I want a meal on the table in under 20 minutes and I don't have a ton of ingredients on hand. When the noodles are done, I toss it all together with some smoked fish and voila, a smoked fish pasta masterpiece.

With smoked fish, you don't even have to love fish to enjoy it. If done right, the fish will adopt a smoky, caramelized flavor that reminds me of candied bacon. This smoked black cod was done very right and thanks to Sena Sea.

I'm always trying to find ways to add more fish to my meals, and nobody makes it easier than SenaSea. I can relax knowing that their fish is full of healthy omega's and not full of GMO grains fed to farmed fish. Best of all, their fish tastes great!

This is a super, easy, colorful salad to accompany grilled meats and fresh fish. I love to toss it together with fresh herbs and crunchy peanuts right before dinner, but the flavors are best the next day.

A beef bolognese by Ben the Butcher from Gambrel & Co, our neighborhood butcher. His bolognese is authentic and easy enough for the enthusiastic cooks out there like me.

I made this one afternoon after school when it was too hot for cooking and the kids were begging for ice cream. It's a delicious treat, nutrient dense, and doesn't contain corn syrup, sugar, or hydrogenated solids like the store bought kind.

I made a banana bread with hazelnut flour, sweetened it with raw honey, and added unsweetened cocoa powder. Voila, I accidentally made a chocolate cake. We call it a cake because it was so moist and my kids loved it.

Sometimes I just need something crunchy and salty to chew on.  They say when you have salty, crunchy cravings, it often means you want to "chew on something"  whereas those who crave sweet are often searching for comfort.

This is a delicious and easy recipe for those nights when you need a healthy dish quick, but you still want to impress. I like to serve it with a big green salad and an easy vinaigrette or some steamed vegetables.

Traditionally soaked muesli is a great way to prepare a quick breakfast, eat whole grain oats that are more digestible, and get your dose of healthy probiotics. My daughter makes this the night before by adding 1 cup oats to 1 cup yogurt.

These are so much more healthy than those gluten-free junk food cookies at the market. Remember, just because it says gluten free does not make it health food. I offer you these almond cookies as a naturally gluten free food.

My daughter loves lemon poppyseed anything. Grocery stores are full of options, but they're also full of refined sugars, refined oils, and refined wheat which is wrecking the nation's health.

Here's a one minute video that will break down the very easy peasy process of making salad dressing. My aunt taught me the basics in salad dressing 101 and I have made this basic vinaigrette ever since.

What? Is there really such a thing as healthy caramel corn? "Can it be healthy?" is the first thing I ask myself every time I have a hankering for a childhood treat. Let's see how we can enjoy caramel corn without the guilt and shame.

This isn't the original Scottish stew, but I couldn't help but call this Chicken and Leek stew by the cute name from one of my favorite children's book, Henny Penny. Even better, this recipe is easy to convert to a Steaky-Leeky stew too.

What a treat to find Straciatella, which I thought was a gelato flavor. No, this was a soup with a chicken broth base, spinach, and eggs stirred in to form noodles like the Chinese egg drop soup.

Butternut squash make beautiful nourishing soups. Buy them in winter when they're plentiful and affordable. Roast the squash first to caramelize the natural sugars and add a bit of curry to deepen the flavor.

This smoothie is perfect for the end of the week when you really need a treat. I love how yummy this combination is and my kids come running when they hear the smoothie start! 

One of the things I enjoyed while living in Shanghai was eating soup for every meal. I love to sip soup in the fall, and even more so, I love eating healthy foods. This miso salmon soup is so easy and ready to go in 20 minutes.

Turmeric tea or Golden Milk is the best remedy for inflammation. It tastes great and cooks up in a matter of minutes. Try this as a warm drink to start your day or end your meal with a sweet healthy treat.

Sounds fancy right? I promise, I don't make fancy food. With bone broth in your fridge or freezer, a whole new world of quick and easy healthy possibilities will liven up your dinner table.

Then there are days when I wish I could crawl back in bed with a good book, grab a handful of chocolate cookies, and avoid everybody for hours! These gooey chocolate cookies are the key to my down days.

I decided to cook my own birthday dinner this year. At 40, I guess it's time to grow up and make a decision. My coconut creamed kale and scallops was delicious, simple, and done in 20 minutes.

These fries are free of GMO ingredients and full of nutrition so they break all the rules. These particular fries are made out of butternut squash, but you are free to decide what to make your fries out of.

A wonderful breakfast for a lazy weekend when the family needs something a little sweet. The baked oatmeal cake recipe is flexible so you can choose the ingredients you like.

One of my favorite summer salads to use up those deliciously crunchy summer veggies is this Asian Chicken Slaw. It's a great example of how to eat a 30% protein, 40% carbohydrate, and 30% fat meal with the vegetables as your main.

The trick to ceviche is to use really fresh fish. We like to find line caught specimens at the Farmers Market, start the soaking period by lunch, and eat them for dinner unless someone has gone fishing with grandpa.

5 Minute French Toast is a quick way to get protein into the family when they are bored of eating eggs. Our main goal is always to add as much healthy fat and protein to our breakfast as possible for proper brain fuel.

I think adding bacon to a dish is an easy sell, like dropping the mic at the end of your routine, you know you have the crowd in your hands. If that's not enough, it's a one pot meal, super easy to clean up, and super fast to prepare!

I love a cold vegetable salad in the middle of the hot summer. This green bean salad is crisp, über flavorful, and has enough healthy fats to meet the Food Foundation criteria of being a nutrient dense recipe.

Some countries enjoy the plantain raw like a banana, but for the American palate, I recommend cooking this starchy fruit to bring out the subtle sweetness. Topped with mango' salsa, this dish takes me to the tropics.

From a chef's perspective, throwing eggs into a beautiful quiche is an easy way to impress. The beauty with the perfect quiche recipe is that anything goes. You can follow my basic guidelines and make this with leftovers you find in the fridge.

We may have given up sugar in our household, but we still love sweet things. When I really have a sweet craving, I roast up some sweet potato coins and make extra for breakfast, a lunch snack, or even for dessert.

My mom always has two things in her house, homemade salsa and avocados to make guacamole. Not only do tomatoes and avocados taste delicious together, but the healthy fats in avocados, slows down the sugar rush from fresh tomatoes.

The one plant that grows like a weed in my yard, making it seem like I have a green thumb is my prized artichoke. My kids could not get enough of this simple dish I prepared the other night. I encourage you to try my artichokes and aioli.

For Easter this year we'll be making deviled eggs, egg salad, and my favorite, potato salad. My mom's potato salad recipe became my own recipe, improving each year with subtle differences and it has built quite a reputation.

My go to dinner for quick comfort food the whole family loves. Here is how I turn an onion, mushrooms and meat into a Stroganoff, gourmet "Hamburger Helper" style. What really works with this recipe is that you can completely improvise.

So you want your detox and your comfort food too? Well, we definitely have that in common. Here is a no guilt, fish and chips recipe that you can eat while on the Food Foundation detox.

Is there anything better than the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven, and the gooey, chewy, chocolatey goodness of that still warm bite dipped in a glass of cold milk?

This week is Dr. Seuss' Birthday. My kids are weary of unnaturally green foods and I avoid food coloring at all cost, we take a slightly different approach to the classic, green eggs and ham, with my favorite breakfast, sautéed greens, eggs, and ham.

The Muffuletta sandwich was brought to New Orleans by Italian immigrants, named after the round Sicilian sesame bread it is made on. The sandwich is layered with salami, mortadella, mozzarella, ham, provolone and a tasty olive salad.

The addition of mayo was enough for me to throw out my entire sandwich as a child. It wasn't until I tried a fancy garlic aioli, just another word for mayonnaise, that I fell in love with this basic condiment.

I am pretty easy to please when it comes to food. As long as it is real, not processed, and cooked with love I get very happy. My kids, however have much higher expectations.

There are many simple chai tea blends found in your local store made with sweet rooibos, green tea or strong black tea. The dilemma with some teas and processed foods is that added sugar is often disguised as "natural flavor".

When life gives you lemons, make salad dressing. I would say lemonade as I have learned, but my lemon tree gives me lemons in the middle of winter when ice cold drinks do not sound refreshing.

I like to call these naturally gluten free muffins my Guilt Free Muffins because everything that goes into them is real food and really good for you. My kids devour these and my husband and I love to be able to grab and go.

The great thing about cheesecake is that there's enough healthy fat to slow down the absorption of all of that sweetness. I took my grandmother's recipe, which I've always thought was the best cheesecake ever, and I modified it a bit to be more nutritious.

One dish everyone in my family will eat is plain white rice with some sort of stew ladled over it. My recent affair with turmeric has inspired many curries and I find this homemade yellow curry to be easy and useful.

A trail mix parfait is the perfect healthy treat for a holiday gift. You can cater it to your recipient. Whatever your pleasure, this easy to layer treat can be made by the kids and looks really festive in a mason jar with a pretty ribbon.

This recipe is a new take on rice and beans. Perfectly hearty for winter and one of those meals that everyone in our family loves. I have been mostly improvising and it never quite turns out the same, but I will try to give measurements.

One dish I have never seen outside of November is cranberry sauce. Making cranberry sauce is not labor intensive and I think it is important for the family to know that cranberries are actual berries and not just jello.

As you plan your holiday meals, don't forget America's favorite comfort food. You can even bump it up a notch and make nutrient dense mashed potatoes. Here is a simple tip to increase the nutritional value and gently broaden your family's palate.

Tis the season for coughs and colds. In my household, that means it’s time to start the perpetual bone broth. The powerful healing of bone broth can’t be found in a bouillon made of MSG and sugar, aka "natural flavors".

One of my favorite desserts in the fall is homemade pumpkin pie. My daughter shares this passion and we have spent the past few years perfecting what we think is the ultimate comfort food.

I love to cook, but sometimes I just need dinner ready as soon as possible with very little effort. This is when I grab a cookie sheet, some inexpensive organic chicken drumsticks and any vegetable I have in the refrigerator.

My family loves sushi and they ask for it all the time. Since I adhere to seafood sustainability, quality sushi can be quite a luxury item. I attempted to make my own sushi rolls and found it was remarkably easy.

When I started detoxing off sugar I needed a few ideas on how to use up the old stash. I have a really hard time throwing things away so I began experimenting with body scrubs. This combination is delicious and completely food grade.

Here is my formula for a non-toxic toothpaste.  It is a super simple recipe, costs less than a commercial brand and my kids enjoy the flavor. For the past few years that I have used the paste, the hygienist has nary a complaint.

When my CSA vegetable box arrives full of cabbage, I immediately start thinking of fermented food, but I can never decide on sour kraut or kimchi. Thus is born the kimchi styled sour kraut, I call spicy kraut.

Pickles are an amazing probiotic food, both delicious and full of beneficial bacteria. Best of all, they are so easy and inexpensive to make. Historically, fermentation was the farmers' answer to preserving bountiful produce.

I love to see parents and children alike sitting at the play dough table kneading their hands in meditation. Who doesn't like to play with dough? The real stuff simply puts the fake dough to shame.

Water is the most common nutritional deficiency in the U.S.  We are simply not getting enough. Hunger is also very often confused with thirst and people overeat when they are really just thirsty.

My aunt Karen was a powerful inspiration for eating real food. One of the best recipes my aunt shared with me was how to make a simple salad dressing.  It is about balancing the four flavors:  sweet, bitter, sour, and spicy.

The best thing to feed a cold is bone broth which is why we have traditionally offered chicken soup to the sick. Bone broth is an amazing medicine and the cheapest way to a glowing body, a strong immune system, and a delicious soup.