Can you have too many mishmashes?  I know I posted this salmon one last month, but I am finding a medley of ingredients both comforting and healthy.  The other night I made this using vegetables that are finally appearing in the market as we transition from winter to spring: fresh peas, arugula, and, here in southern California, even zucchini.  It has so much flavor, so much bang for the buck, so much green beauty in one meal!  Plus, it's easy.  If you've read my blog for any length of time, you know I am a big fan of ease.

The inspiration for this recipe came from this risotto recipe.  BUT risotto requires a lot of hands on attention, all that stirring and whatnot.  So I thought about how I could make something equally as delicious, equally as nutritious, and eliminate all the stirring.  That is how you have come to find yet another mishmash recipe on my blog.  It's worth it, though, so very worth it.  And if you drink wine, I can attest to the fact that a Sauvignon Blanc plays nicely with this mishmash.  


​Spring Vegetable Mishmash
Serves 4

Good quality olive oil
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 small yellow onion or 2 shallots, finely chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 to 1.5 pounds of zucchini, washed, ends trimmed, cut into a large 1-inch pieces
1 cup of fresh (or frozen peas)
3 to 4 cups of arugula or spinach, washed and chopped
2 cups of cooked white rice, brown rice, or cauliflower rice
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Feta or Parmesan cheese, optional
Pine nuts, toasted, optional

In a 12-inch skillet or sauté pan, cook the onions and garlic in two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until the onion is translucent, about five minutes or so.  Add the zucchini and cook until nearly tender.  Stir infrequently so that the zucchini has a chance to become light golden brown on the outside.  Cooking the zucchini will take a good 10-15 minutes.  When the zucchini are crisp tender (in other words, not mushy), add the peas and the arugula or spinach.  Cook until the arugula is wilted and peas and just cooked through, another five minutes or so.

In the meantime, heat your cooked rice or cauliflower rice.  Once the veggies are done cooking, put 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup of rice in the bottom of a shallow bowls, top with a spoonful of veggies, season with salt and pepper to taste, and add a sprinkle of any toppings you desire.  

Make it vegan: Eliminate the cheese.  

​Play with the veggies: Instead of 1.5 pounds of zucchini do 1/2 pound of asparagus cut into one-inch lengths and one-pound of zucchini.  Add the asparagus to the pan at the same time as the zucchini and continue to follow the directions. 

Nutritional awesomeness: Zucchini has a lot of nutritional benefits, which you can read about here.  It's a good source of Vitamin A and potassium (source).   Arugula is an excellent source of Vitamin K, which is essential for proper blood clotting. 

​

I'm really excited to share this recipe for three reasons.  One, it is damn delicious.  Two, it is healthy and nourishing.  Three, it is a method you can apply for using random ingredients in your fridge (leftover rice + that half an onion you forgot about + those three sprigs of parsley you were going to let turn black).  

This recipe was created because I had enough whole ingredients plus leftovers in my fridge that were in danger of going bad.  Food waste is a real problem, and I am trying to contribute less to that problem.  On average, "Americans waste about a pound of food per person each day."   That's insane, and it feels absolutely immoral to me given that people are going hungry in the U.S., especially children.  One in six children in the U.S. is hungry, which means at a time in their lives when they need food, especially nutritious food, for proper development, they are not getting it.  

Here is a formula for creating what I call the "From Meh to Marvelous Bowl of Leftovers."   Scroll down for the Salmon Mishmash recipe.

1. Sauté an onion over medium heat until it starts to brown.  Stir often.
2. Add some minced garlic, as much or as little as you would like.  If you have some ginger lying around, toss in some grated ginger.  Cook for one minute, stirring frequently.
3. Add any uncooked diced vegetables that need extra time in the pan, including potatoes, carrots, or zucchini.  Stir occasionally.  You want the veggies to get a nice toasted color, but you don't want the garlic to burn so you stir often enough to achieve these two objectives.
4. Toss in any already cooked protein, like cubed or shredded chicken or some salmon.  If you are going to add some spinach, toss that in now too.  What about leftover rice or beans?  If you're adding those, now is the time to do it.  Cook until the protein is heated through and the spinach has just started to wilt.  
5. Taste it.  Does it need salt and pepper? A dash of salt and a pinch of pepper can make a huge difference.  If it's tasting flat, one teaspoon of lemon juice will help brighten it.
6. Put it in a lovely bowl.  Pour yourself a beverage.  Enjoy!

Molly's Salmon Mishmash
Serves approximately 3-4

1/2 to a whole onion, peeled and diced
2 Tablespoons good quality olive oil
a shallot, finely chopped optional - only use if you have one randomly laying around
3-6 green onions, cleaned, thinly sliced white and green parts, optional - only use if you have it on hand
2-4 cloves of garlic, minced - if you really love garlic, use more.  If not, use less.
1-2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated or minced, optional - only use if you have it on hand.
2 cups or so of fresh zucchini, diced
1-2 cups of fresh peas, optional - only use if you have them on hand.  Frozen is fine, and they will need to cook a bit longer.
10-16 ounces leftover cooked salmon, flaked
2 cups leftover rice or cauliflower rice
a handful or two of spinach, optional

In a 12-inch pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the onion.  Cook the onion until it is starting to brown, stirring often.  This will likely take 7 to 10 minutes.  If you are using shallot, add it at the same time you add the onion.  If you are using green onions, add those when the onion has turned translucent but before it has started to brown.

Once the onion is brown around the edges, add the garlic, and, if you are using it, the ginger.  Cook for one minute, stirring frequently so the garlic does not burn.  Add the zucchini.  Cook, stirring every so often, until the zucchini has started to develop a golden color and is tender.

Add the salmon, the rice, and the peas (if you are using them).  Cook until the salmon is heated through and the peas are tender, about three to four minutes.  Add the spinach and stir until it wilts.  Serve immediately in shallow bowls.

There are some fun condiments you can add.  If the dish tastes flat, a squeeze of lemon juice will boost the flavor.  Another option is gluten free tamari or soy sauce.  Tahini plus a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts is a delicious addition.  One last option is a light sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.  

Nutritional awesomeness:​ Zucchini is an excellent source of Vitamin C.  Fresh peas are nutritional powerhouses.  Not only do they contain protein, they are loaded with Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and Folate.  Folate is needed to make DNA and assists with cell division in the body.  
​

Back to school.  The onset of fall and cooler weather in some parts of the world.  Roast chicken.  For me, there is nothing more comforting than a good roast chicken, especially as the days become shorter.  It can boost a mood, soothe grief, bring people together, and it's deeply nourishing.

Over the years, I have had many favorite roast chicken recipes.  Judy Rodgers, late chef of the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, created an iconic roast chicken recipe.  We loved this Barefoot Contessa roast chicken recipe served over onion and croutons right up until we discovered gluten was trying to kill me.  Now, though, I have new roast chicken recipe to love.  And I love it because it's flavorful, because it's easy, because I can reasonably make it on a weeknight since it requires little prep and it goes from raw to roasted in one hour, including preparation time.  I love it because the skin gets crispy.  I love it because it creates up to eight meals.   The first night, Brian takes a thigh, and I take a leg and a wing.  The next day at lunch, Brian takes the other thigh, and I enjoy the other leg and wing.  We shred the remaining meat, mostly from the breasts, and use it in tacos, pastas and soups.  We take all the bones and Brian makes a couple of quarts of homemade broth.  We use the broth for soups, risotto, rice, lentils, and polenta.  Nothing goes to waste.  

The secret to this easy roast chicken is that it is a spatchcock chicken.  Spatchcock is an English word dating to the early 1800's that means to split open and grill or roast.    In this case, we are splitting the chicken open by cutting out the backbone, or having your butcher cut out the backbone, and laying it flat which means it will cook more quickly.   I bought myself a nice pair of tough kitchen shears so I could cut out the backbone myself.  For a tutorial about how to do it, please watch this video.  Note: Do not skewer the chicken the way the chef in the video recommends.  It's unnecessary.  Remember, you can ask your butcher to do this for you.

My recipe is adapted from one by Arthur Schwartz.  He uses fresh garlic, but every time I made it his way, the garlic burned due to roasting at high heat.  He calls for using peanut or canola oil and I opt for the healthier choice of olive oil.  I also prefer a lower temperature to the 450 F degrees he recommends.   His recipe calls for a three to four pound chicken.  However, my experience is that U.S. grocery stores seem to only sell whole chickens that are somewhere between four and five pounds so I've taken that into account.  

I'm really excited to share this recipe with you since it makes roasting a chicken on a weeknight accessible.  Beyond the useful cooking time, it's lick the plate good!

Molly's Spatchcock Chicken
Serves 4-6

1 whole chicken, 4 to 5 pounds, preferably organic, backbone removed*
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1-2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

*Either remove the backbone yourself using the technique in this video (though, don't skewer it as done in the video) or have your butcher remove the backbone for you.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.  If your oven can do 430 F, that's our preferred roasting temperature for this recipe.

Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Lay the chicken on top of it and press down very firmly with both hands so that the chicken will lay as flat as possible.  

Make the spice paste.  In a small bowl, combine the paprika, garlic powder, salt, and a couple of grinds of fresh black pepper.   Stir.  Add in one tablespoon of olive oil.  Stir.  You want a paste that's not too thick so it will spread easily.  You also don't want too thin or it will slide off the chicken.   If it seems too thick add another 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil.  Stir.  Judge if you need more.  Otherwise, the paste is ready.

Wash your hands and prepare to get a little messy.  Rub the spice paste all over the chicken, even using your fingers to gently separate the skin from the meat in some places and rub the paste directly on the meat.  When you are done rubbing in the spice paste, your chicken will look like this:

Roast for 45 to 50 minutes, until the internal temperature measures 165 degrees and the juices run clear.  To take the temperature of a roasted chicken, insert the thermometer in the thickest part of the leg avoiding the bone.  Another spot you can stick the thermometer is into the thigh, near the breast, and again avoid the bone.   We use this thermometer to measure the temperature of our foods.  

Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes.  Using a sharp knife, break the chicken down into two legs, two thighs, and two wings.  Slice the breast meat.  Place the chicken pieces on a platter and serve.

Didn't I make that presentation sound wonderful?  Here's what really happens in our house: I pace around the chicken as soon as it comes out of the oven.  When Brian isn't looking, I'll tear off a piece of crispy skin and burn my tongue as I devour it before Brian notices.  Sometimes, I think I was a Labrador retriever in a past life given the way I hover and obsess about food.  Roast chicken emerging hot from the oven is one of those times.  

And one of the most versatile.  Vegans, vegetarians, please don't leave until you've read a bit more about this salad and see all the ways it can be tailored to meet the needs of various food preferences.

This is tagliata.  It's essentially Italian steak salad.  If your jaw just dropped because you are thinking, "How can a health coach eat beef?" well, then, let me tell you.  It turns out that my body does well on red meat and gets a bit of energy from it.  I do well with this kind of protein.  I only eat red meat, on average, every four to six weeks, so not often.  However, when I travel, when I go to a restaurant and every dish except the steak has gluten in it, something I absolutely cannot eat for medical reasons, then beef it is.

​And so this past January, when Brian and I were visiting Bracciano, Italy, and we couldn't find lunch because places were closed on a Monday or they didn't have a table for us, we found ourselves violating a rule of travel: do not eat at restaurants off a public parking lot.  But it was 2:30 p.m., and we had exhausted lunch options in two nearby towns.  And I was starving, and I can be very unpleasant if I am allowed to get hungry.  So we parked at the carpark in Bracciano, and went into the restaurant off the carpark.  And immediately we became deflated.  It had TV's on, only one table of customers, and half of the restaurant lights were turned off.  But we were hungry and determined.  I asked the waitress what dishes didn't have gluten (senza glutine) and she pointed out exactly one: tagliata.  She said it's just beef with some arugula.  I don't like to eat beef if I don't have to, but I was hungry, our options had run out, and so with some hesitation I ordered it.  I calculated that for less than 10 euros, if I didn't like it, I wasn't losing much money.  Brian had great options and went with lake trout.  

You can imagine our surprise when a platter, not a plate, of various pieces of steak, all measuring about the size of a deck of cards, was presented to me.  The pieces of steak were buried under a mountain of raw arugula, wilting from the heat of the meat, topped with shaved Pecorino Romano cheese.  On the side were some lemon wedges and a bottle of olive oil to drizzle over what amounted to be a steak salad to feed a whole family.  In our surprise and hunger, we forgot to take a picture of it, and also we forgot the name of the restaurant.  And, you know where this is going, it was so simple, so delicious, so satisfying, that if I recall correctly, we ate the whole platter.  

And since that trip, we've been making it about once a month, often for guests, and sometimes because it's Wednesday and we're tired, and it takes less than 30 minutes to throw together.

I've debated whether to write the recipe for one serving or four servings because it's not an exact science, and you cannot screw it up as far as I am concerned.  I've written it for four servings, planning on four ounces of meat per serving, but you certainly can scale it down or scale it up as needed.  And vegetarians/vegans, read through the recipe to see how it can meet your needs.

Tagliata, Italian Arugula Steak Salad
Serves 4

1 pound of thin steak, such as flank steak or skirt steak*
5 ounces of fresh arugula, rinsed and dried
1/2 cup or more Pecorino Romano cheese, grated**
1 lemon, washed, and cut into wedges
Extra virgin olive oil**
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

*Our supermarket usually has thin cuts of steak that are labeled for stir-fry or for carne asada.  The key is you want a thin piece of meat.  Thin pieces of inexpensive meat tend to be tough so it's key to slice it against the grain.  
**You want quality over quantity when it comes to the cheese and the olive oil.  This is a characteristic Italian recipe in that there are few ingredients so you want them all to be of high quality since they are minimally manipulated.  

​Heat your gas grill to high heat and then turn down to medium.  While the grill is preheating, brush each side of the steak with olive oil.  Next, sprinkle the steak with salt and pepper on both sides.  Grill the steak 4 to 6 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness, for medium rare.  Let the steak rest for 5 minutes.  Additional grilling guidance from my  husband, Brian, "It really does depend on what kind of steak you have.  I grill flank steak about 7 minutes per side to medium, while the thin blade or flat iron steak that we usually use for tagliata gets about 3 minutes per side to medium-well." 

To serve, cut the steak into four pieces.  On each plate, put a piece of steak, top with a handful of arugula, and then sprinkle on the cheese.  Or put the cheese on first and then the arugula.  It's up to you.  Place a lemon wedge off to the side for people to squeeze over it.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil.  Pass salt and pepper at the table.  

Make it vegetarian:  Substitute a portobello mushroom for the steak.
Make it vegan:  In addition to substituting a portobello mushroom, omit the cheese, and instead sprinkle with chopped nuts and/or a pinch of nutritional yeast.

This recipe answers the question of what to do with leftover roasted chicken.  It also answers how to make something fun and delicious and healthy that says summertime.  I know it seems like I am asking a lot of this taco recipe, and I am because it delivers.

Brian and I really love roasted chicken.  We can make four meals just out of the thighs and legs.  We use the carcass to make chicken broth.  Then we are left with the breast meat which we are decidedly less enthusiastic about.  How unenthusiastic are we?  At our wedding, we only served chicken thighs.

We do enjoy tacos.  We always have an onion or two laying around, garlic on hand, and a random bell pepper on life support in the vegetable drawer of the fridge.  So the other night when faced with chicken breast meat that had to be used or frozen, I was excited to make one of my favorite dishes: tacos!  I was even more excited to experiment and use lettuce in place of tortillas.  

If, like me, you have an autoimmune disease and grains are causing you problems from digestive distress to inflammation, I highly recommend lettuce wraps in lieu of corn or flour tortillas.  

Chicken Taco Lettuce Wraps
Serves 4 (and possibly more)

1 large yellow onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1-2 bell peppers, sliced (I prefer orange or yellow)
Extra virgin olive oil
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1/3 to 1/2 cup of your favorite green salsa*
Chicken pan juices (drippings), optional
Chicken skin, finely chopped, optional
Salt and pepper to taste
One head of butter lettuce
Any toppings you would like from sliced avocado to black beans to cheese to hot sauce

*The salsa you choose is very important because it is one of the main sources of flavor in the dish.  For chicken tacos, I prefer something green with a little bit of kick such as Trader Joe's Hatch Chile Salsa.  

In a large skillet over medium heat add 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, the onion, garlic, and bell peppers.  Stir to combine.  Stir occasionally to keep the garlic and vegetables from burning.  Cook for 7 to 10 minutes until the onion is starting to brown on the edges.  Add the chicken and the salsa and stir to combine.  If you have chicken juices from cooking the whole chicken and chicken skin, add them with the salsa.  Cook for another 7 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until almost all of the liquid from the salsa has evaporated.

While the vegetables and chicken are cooking, slice the root off the butter lettuce so all the leaves are separated.  Wash the lettuce leaves gently on both sides to remove any extra dirt.  Dry the lettuce leaves gently.  Notice the gently part?  If the leaves are handled aggressively, they might break and there goes your taco shell, and nobody needs that kind of frustration when taco happiness is involved.  

To serve, set up a buffet of lettuce leaves next to the chicken taco filling next to toppings so people can go through like an assembly line.   Also, you've worked hard so get someone else to do the dishes.  :)

Nutritional awesomeness:  Chicken is a good source of protein, niacin, and Vitamin B6.  Niacin, also known as Vitamin B3, is beneficial in balancing blood cholesterol levels.  Yellow and orange bell peppers are an excellent source of Vitamin C.  They have a low glycemic load.  Onions are an excellent source of Vitamin K, which helps blood clot and assists in transporting calcium around the body (source).  

To me, Bolognese sauce is the essence of cooking:  The sizzling of vegetables, the layering of flavors, and then the long, slow simmer to reach perfection.  And that perfection is easy to reach.  There's not a lot of measuring or precision involved, just patience and love.  

The challenge for me was how to make the sauce healthy.  Classic, though not necessarily traditional, recipes call for up to three types of meat (beef, pork, and veal) plus pancetta or bacon.  Sometimes, the veggies are cooked in butter since it's a northern Italian recipe where butter is used as well as olive oil.  I've seen recipes list heavy cream in the ingredients.  First, I swapped out all the ground meat for ground turkey.  Next, I made the pancetta optional.  Last, I eliminated butter and heavy cream.  What did I keep?  The vegetables, the layers of flavor, and the slow cooking method to create all that flavor.

This is the kind of recipe that is great to make on a weekend or when you have time to slowly cook the sauce.  That way, if you're busy during the week, you can store it for five days in the fridge or three months in the freezer and use it when needed.  It's perfect for a cold day, over pasta, or zoodles, or polenta.  If you like cheese, it benefits from a liberal sprinkling of the best quality Parmesan you can afford (I get mine at Trader Joe's).  And if you have leftover Parmesan rinds, definitely throw one or a couple into the sauce for the last hour of simmering as it will really develop the umami flavor of the sauce.  

Healthy & Delicious Turkey Bolognese
Makes 4 - 6 servings, and still you may have a little leftover

2 oz. pancetta, cubed, optional
2 medium yellow onions, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
2-3 stalks of celery, diced
2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes or more to taste
2 to 4 Tablespoons of tomato paste
1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
1 cup chicken broth
Parmesan rind, optional
salt and pepper
fresh Italian parsley, chopped, for garnish
pasta, polenta, zoodles, etc. for serving

In a large pot, brown the pancetta over medium heat.  Remove the pancetta, but not the drippings, from the pan.

Add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic and olive oil to the pan.  Stir so the veggies are coated in the pan drippings and olive oil.  Saute over medium heat for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are soft and the onions are just beginning to turn color.  Stir in the tomato paste and pepper flakes and continue to cook over medium heat for one minute.  Add the wine (or 1/2 cup of chicken broth) to the pan and stir to release the brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Add the turkey.  Break it up into small pieces using a fork or two wooden spoons (what my husband calls the "choppy choppy" method).  Once the turkey is broken up, lower the heat to low, add the chicken broth, pancetta, and Parmesan rind (if using), and simmer for 30 minutes to one hour.  

During the last 20 to 30 minutes of cooking, prepare what you plan to serve the Bolognese sauce over, whether that's pasta or polenta or something else.

Once you have simmered the sauce, taste it, and add salt and pepper as needed.  Remove the Parmesan rind.  At this point, it is ready to serve over your favorite pasta or polenta.  If you are using it later, let it cool to room temperature.  Next, package it in a storage container and either place it in the fridge for up to five days or in the freezer for up to two months.    

Nutritional awesomeness:  Ground turkey is an excellent source of protein.  If it is pasture-raised, it also will contain a good ratio of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6 fatty acids.  Ground turkey is a good source of niacin and vitamin B6.  You can read about the health benefits of vitamin B6 here.  Olive oil is a monounsaturated fatty acid that has been shown to help lower bad cholesterol.  It contains polyphenols which are powerful antioxidants.  Studies in Europe have concluded that olive oil consumption helps lower blood pressure. One Greek study with 36,000 participants concluded that there is an inverse relationship between eating olive oil and rates of cancer.  Onions are a good source of Vitamin C.  Carrots are an excellent source of Vitamin A, which promotes vision health, bone growth, and immunity.  Celery is an excellent source of Vitamin K, which is essential for blood clotting and recovering from injuries.  
​

Have you heard of pipian sauce?  It is one of the many sauces that Brian and I use to have a flavorful dinner without spending a lot of time and money in the process.  Traditionally, pipian sauce is made of tomatillos, onions, cilantro, sugar (ugh, why?), sesame or pumpkin seeds, and toasted bread.  You can find it in Mexico and Central American countries.  I do love a lot of flavor in my foods, and I do not love a lot of time spent for that flavor.   I imagine that done correctly, this sauce is a lot of work.  Luckily, I found a recipe for it in Rick Bayless' wonderful cookbook, Mexican Everyday, which was pretty straightforward.  Then, we did what we do often, we made it even easier and removed unnecessary ingredients, like sugar.  Rick Bayless recommends serving with with salmon and so do we.  It's great with grilled salmon.  The fat and the sweetness of the fish are cut with the spice and acidity of the sauce.  I also enjoy pipian sauce on eggs, grilled chicken, and I imagine it would be good with grilled pork.  Hey, vegetarian and vegan friends, it makes a nice dipping sauce for roasted cauliflower or green beans.  When thinking about pairing it, the sauce is spicy so it's ideal with something sweet.

How did we make this recipe our own?  Rick calls for blending the primary ingredient, a tomatillo salsa, in a food processor.  We are not doing that.  Why?  Because I am the dishwasher and heck no I will not be washing any unnecessary dishes thank you kindly.  This is just to make the sauce smooth.  I'm fine with it chunky.  We eliminated the sugar because geez louise why do you need sugar in it?  You don't.  He adds ingredients one at a time to the saucepan, such as first reducing the salsa before adding the broth and tahini.  How much time do you have?  That's what I thought:  you don't have time to be adding ingredients one at a time.  Your time is valuable!  Thus, we just pour all three ingredients in the saucepan at once, and let it reduce, thereby freeing us up to make salads, roast veggies, and grill fish or chicken.  

Quick & Easy Green Pipian Sauce
Makes enough sauce for 4-6 meals

2 cups jarred tomatillo salsa (use your favorite since it's the dominant flavor of the sauce)
1 cup low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
3 tablespoons tahini that has been well stirred
​Swirl of olive oil

In a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, lightly swirl olive oil around the pan one time.  Lift the pan and tilt it to ensure even distribution of the olive oil.  Add the salsa, broth, and tahini.  Whisk together.  It may look like the tahini has separated a bit.  This is normal and it will come together as it reduces.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low.  Stir or whisk occasionally to prevent the sauce from scorching on the bottom of the pan.  Cook the sauce until it has reduced by half to two-thirds, depending on your preferred thickness.  Serve warm with grilled or roasted chicken, fish, and/or vegetables.  

Nutritional awesomeness:  Tomatillo salsa is an excellent source of vitamin C.  Tahini contains iron and calcium.  

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of teaching a cooking class about meal planning.   The day of the class I had an epiphany that meal planning is really about self esteem.  Meal planning is about your relationship to time and how you view time is often a reflection of how you value yourself and others.  I know you didn't expect an emotional deep dive around meal planning, and yet there it is.  Meal planning will save you time.  Your time is valuable because you are valuable.  If you devote yourself to it, not only will it save you time, it will also help you improve your health.  

It was a great group of ten women, who asked amazing questions, and who are committed to improving their overall health.  They inspired me!  It became obvious to me that they weren't meal planning because it wasn't clear to them that meal planning could be done with simple, delicious, and healthy recipes.  Often, there are fears that healthy equals tastes bad, requires special ingredients, and must be made on equipment you would only find in a restaurant kitchen.    Also, that recipes will take a lot of time, especially on weekdays when time can be most taxed.

I have good news!  None of this has to be true.  If you know me, then you know that I don't do precious in the kitchen, I will walk away from recipes with more than about six ingredients, and shake my fist at recipes that require me to use every pan in my house.  That's ridiculous.  I'm here to tell you that delicious, healthy, simple food can be yours on a regular basis.

To start, I am presenting you with my husband's enjoyable marinara sauce recipe that costs less than the jarred stuff, has no sugar (the jarred stuff usually does), and is simple to make.  The recipe is written by Brian.

Brian's Marinara Sauce
Serves 4-6
​

• One 28-ounce can crushed San Marzano tomatoes 
• Quite a lot of extra virgin olive oil.  I just drizzle it around until it looks like enough, generally coating the entire top of the tomato sauce in our copper-bottom saucepan.  1/4 to 1/3 cup.
• Minced fresh garlic.  Five or six big cloves, more if the cloves are smaller.  
• Chopped fresh basil.  I used about half the package from Trader Joes.  It probably would have been at least a cup full after being chopped.  Looking at it on the cutting board, it will look like too much, but the basil will wilt like spinach when added to the sauce.  
• Dried red pepper flakes.  I put in a few shakes, maybe 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon.  
• No salt, no pepper.  

 

1. Pour the can of crushed tomatoes into a saucepan and start heating it on low flame.  Really, you need to use a low flame or the bottom will burn and stick to the pan. 
2. Pour in the olive oil and stir to emulsify.  You might be tempted to use a whisk, but you need to resist that temptation and go for something like a wood spoon.  With a whisk, the crushed tomato bits will get stuck in the whisk wires and then it'll be like stirring with the handle of a baseball bat, not very effective, and you'll have to get those tomato bits out of the whisk somehow, which will most likely result in them not being in the sauce where they belong.  So just use a spoon.  You need to stir slowly, or the oil will slosh out of the saucepan.  It's going to take some time to get it all emulsified.  Be patient.  
3. As the sauce continues to heat, mince your garlic and chop your basil and add it to the sauce as you go.  Order and timing are not too important here.  Also add red pepper flakes to taste.  
4. Once the sauce is at a consistent simmer, put a splatter guard over it and keep stirring occasionally until it has thickened to the consistency you like. You can make it ahead.  Like many sauces and stews, it's better the second day.  

Nutritional awesomeness:  Crushed tomatoes have a low glycemic load and are a good source of Vitamins A and C.  Fresh basil contains Vitamin K, which helps blood clot and builds strong bones.  You can read more about Vitamin K here.  Vitamin K is fat soluble so it's good there's olive oil in the sauce.   Olive oil is a monounsaturated fatty acid that has been shown to help lower bad cholesterol.  It contains polyphenols which are powerful antioxidants.  Studies in Europe have concluded that olive oil consumption helps lower blood pressure. One Greek study with 36,000 participants concluded that there is an inverse relationship between eating olive oil and rates of cancer. 

Are you looking for a quick weeknight meal that's full of flavor?  Here it is.  It utilizes the often neglected spice rack to create an easy chicken dinner that comes together in about 20 minutes, 30 minutes if you add a salad and a side dish. When I say flavor, I mean a lot of heat and flavor from cayenne and five spice powder.  If you have little ones, you may wish to dial down the cayenne pepper.

We've been making this recipe for years now.  It was inspired by one I found on the Food Network for chicken wings.  I've adapted it for chicken thighs and scaled down the number of ingredients in the sauce.  We are making it in particular this week as we both have colds, which means we don't have the energy to spend all evening in the kitchen.  We need something that is quick to prepare and easy to clean up.  We also need a lot of flavor as our taste buds are shot from being sick.  The spices are great for a cold as they help boost immunity and drive down inflammation.  This dish just hits the spot.  It's also a great recipe for summer since it's grilled, and the chicken is delicious hot or cold.

Fiery Five Spice Chicken Thighs with Creamy Cilantro Sauce

1.25 to 1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 Tablespoon five spice powder
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (adjust according to how spicy you like it)
3/4 teaspoon salt
5-10 grinds freshly ground black pepper

6 ounces plain yogurt (2% or whole) - Greek is fine.
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 lemon, juiced
salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, mix together the five spice powder, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper.  Add the chicken and toss (either with your hands or a spoon) until all the chicken pieces are covered in the spice mixture.   Preheat the grill to medium.  Set aside.

While the grill is heating, make the sauce.   In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, cilantro, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Stir until thoroughly mixed.

Add chicken to grill.  Grill 4-5 minutes per side.  Internal temperature should be 160-165 F.  

Serve the chicken with the sauce.  

Side dishes:  This is great served with rice, quinoa, couscous, roasted cauliflower, etc.  Serve with something mild on the side since the chicken itself is so flavorful and spicy.

Nutritional awesomeness:  Five spice powder is a blend of star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds, and Szechuan peppercorns. Cinnamon is an anti-inflammatory.  To read about the benefits of all five, check out this article from Dr. Andrew Weil.  Cayenne pepper has numerous health benefits, including pain relief.  Cilantro is known for its amazing detox properties and helps remove heavy metals from the body.  Yogurt contains probiotics, the friendly bacteria that contribute to a healthy digestive system.

Months and months ago I posted that picture to the right on Instagram.  I promised to post the recipe soon after some more recipe testing and fine tuning.  Not sure what happened, but we didn't eat meatballs again until recently.  To my mind, they are a winter food anyhow, rich and comforting and satisfying and completely out of place any other time of year.  

Early on in the reincarnation of my relationship with Brian ... wait ... what do you mean you are confused by what I mean by reincarnation?  A brief history of my relationship with Brian looks like this:  dated over twenty years ago in college, lost touch for nine years until Brian stalked me on the internet, hooked up right before I moved to Italy for the better part of 2005, moved in together in 2006, married in 2008.  And there you have it.

Back to my story about creating a ritual around meatballs early on in the reincarnation of our relationship.  When Brian and I reunited after many years, it was a long distance relationship.  I would make him meatballs to freeze and have when we were apart.  Once we moved in together, I would make and freeze meatballs for Brian to enjoy when I was away, say because I went home to Colorado or went to visit friends.  

So you see, these are really love balls or balls of love, which I will not be calling them because the internet would have a field day with that title.  

The thing about meatballs is that they need a binder, and the most common one is bread.  That was all well and good in the meatball history of Brian and Molly until April 2013 when it became clear that bread was killing me.  I couldn't just stop making meatballs because one of the important rituals in our relationship depends on them.  What was I to do?

Gaining inspiration from America's Test Kitchen, which advocates using potato flakes as a binder to make recipes gluten free, and drawing upon some recipes I truly enjoy like this one, I have created our favorite gluten free meatball.

Yes, there is bacon in it and cheese, which is why they do not suck, a name Brian created. I never claimed these would please orthorexics.  I did not call them healthy meatballs.  They represent another facet of the way I eat, which is without deprivation or restriction and in moderation. What they do represent is a freedom for people like me who cannot eat gluten for medical reasons.  That freedom is the ability to make a damn delicious meatball without buying a pre-made, factory processed meatball.  Enjoy!

Turkey Bacon Meatballs (Balls of Love!)
Serves 4

1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup potato flakes  (I prefer Bob's Red Mill)
1/3 cup fresh Italian parsley, minced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
5-10 grinds of fresh black pepper
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound ground turkey
​2 slices bacon, diced 

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Stir together all ingredients except for the turkey and the bacon until thoroughly combined.  Add turkey and bacon.  Using your hands, get in there and gently knead until uniformly combined.

Using your hands, roll into roughly 1.5 inch meatballs.  You will have 16-20 meatballs.  Place them on the sheet pan leaving space between them as you would for cookie dough.  An optional step is to brush the meatballs with a little olive oil to aid browning.

Place them in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until they are lightly browned and cooked through.  If you have a meat thermometer, the desired temperature is 160-165 F.   

Serving ideas:  With spaghetti and tomato sauce.  My favorite gluten free brand of spaghetti is Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice Spaghetti which has two ingredients, brown rice and water.  You can serve them as cocktail snacks by sticking a toothpick in each one and placing them on a platter.  They are delightful in a meatball sandwich.  

To freeze:  Roll each meatball and place on a plate.  Do not cook.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour .  Place in a freezer safe container and freeze for up to two months.  The benefit of freezing them is that you can defrost only as many as you need.  

​Nutritional awesomeness:  Despite the bacon and the cheese, this recipe does have some nutritional merit.  Let's talk parsley!  Parsley packs a ton of Vitamin A, Vitamin C and iron into its little leaves.  Parsley also is loaded with anti-oxidants and disease fighting materials.  Olive oil is a monounsaturated fatty acid that has been shown to help lower bad cholesterol.  It contains polyphenols which are powerful antioxidants.  Studies in Europe have concluded that olive oil consumption helps lower blood pressure. One Greek study with 36,000 participants concluded that there is an inverse relationship between eating olive oil and rates of cancer.  Ground turkey is an excellent source of protein.  If it is pasture-raised, it also will contain a good ratio of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6 fatty acids.  Ground turkey is a good source of niacin and vitamin B6.  You can read about the health benefits of vitamin B6 here.