Posts tagged cooking
Tina’s Ridiculously Simple Tomato Soup

Canned tomatoes, chicken stock (or concentrated bullion) wine, butter and onions are something I always have in my home. And, usually, a few carrots or bag of baby peeled carrots so I have something lying around when I want to snack “sensibly.” All of the above are my cooking essentials, particularly in the case of the aforementioned wine. Anything that allows me to cook and party, well, I’m into it. 

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The Best $2.49 I'll Likely Spend This Week

As a woman who loves a bargain, I’ve translated the process I have with clothes - often times bragging to my friends that my whole outfit was purchased for $27.76 on a high fashion Old Navy day - into grocery shopping. The thrill of turning the pages of a circular and glancing at signs that read FRESH LONG ISLAND CAULIFLOWER $2.49

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Meat + Veggie Lovers Leftover Pizza Omelette

I love eggs. I love my eggs scrambled, sunny side up and poached. Sure, I also love a fluffy filled to the max mega frittata and the popular omelette but, of late, my only true love is the open faced omelette. The open faced omelette, AKA the pizza omelette - made with a thin layer of egg and then piled high with ingredients such as veggies, meats and/or cheese

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Chicken Sausage With Veggies

Weeknights leave little room for making any sort of gourmet dinner, you and I both know that. But dinner also doesn’t have to be gourmet or recipe based. With work, busy schedules, the compounded effects of technology and the need to be “always on,” it’s getting harder and harder to find a work life balance … let alone get in the kitchen. 

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Fava Bean Fever

Peeling fava beans was a favorite childhood summertime cooking chore. Way better than mom asking me to get a new roll of paper towels or sending me to the corner store for bread. Splitting open a fava pod and peeling off the beans thick skin is a labor of mealtime love - it takes time, patience and must be done gingerly so as not to break apart your beans.

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Fish + Greek Style Chutney

Inspired by an epic Friday night meal of branzino, eggplant, zucchini, salad and wine I planned to relive it at home. A kingdom for grilled branzino every day, deboning and picking pins like a professional - but it gets costly … sometimes a lady has to get her wild flounder on because the price is right at the fish market.

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Two Salsas For Your July 4th Table

Making salsa is simple. It requires little prep, minimal tools and ingredients that are easy to come by in your grocery store. A certified crowd pleaser, great for vegetarians, vegans and even your meaty buddies (scoop this fruit salsa on a burger, shrimp or salmon) and delight everyone around your table.

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5 Reasons To Get Your Salsa On This Summer

While everyone else is eating warm potato and macaroni salad (gulp) this July 4th, perhaps you can choose to make a side that can double as a salad or a salsa. With interchangeable ways to use these two salsa/sides, you’re guaranteed to please guests and yourself with nutrition, hydration and leftovers.

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Dear Fresh Direct, I Love You.

As a champion for grocery shopping, real food, cooking and caring for my home (mind, body, the actual space I live in) - when the weather gets beautiful and the weekend rolls around … The last thing I want to do is roll my food suitcase from store to store. Sure, I love Astoria, long walks, exploring, and saying hi to my local produce people … but …  

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10 Minute Skillet Granola

I closed in on a quick granola for the yogurt, muffin, oatmeal and fruit topping win! And I baked some apples that were looking sad in my fridge! Most days in my kitchen, cooking is about using what I’ve got in order to survive hunger, mealtime and loneliness. Lemme not go down the emotion path and keep this on the quick cooking tip!

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Butternut Squash Sauce

My grandmother used to make a sauce from Birds Eye frozen winter squash. Bright orange, garlicky, cheesy in flavor, silken in texture - I can still picture the way the thick sauce coated broken pieces of pasta in the bottomless bowls she served on a weeknight. The summer I went to live on the farm in Connecticut, I spent half the time recreating her lentils and the other half perfecting this sauce.

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Banana Almond Cacao Cookies

These banana almond cacao cookies came about from a few brown bananas, a quiet morning sipping tea and a need to go slow and recover from the week. They’re totally passable for breakfast, you know, being as they’re made with flax meal, bananas and almonds. A simple breakfast cookie that can be frozen and grabbed on the go

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Three Ways with Tina: Eggplant Option #1 Vegetable Tart

With summer officially gone, so with it goes seasonal eggplants and many of my other farm fresh favorite vegetables. The eggplant will likely be prepared in my kitchen in the coming months,  clearly not locally sourced (don’t produce shame me), so I scooped up three purple beauties at a farmers market last week.

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Frozen Peppers Whipped Into Pesto

My freezer is stocked with frozen vegetables for many reasons, but the two main ones would be convenience and budget.  Frozen vegetables are an economical way to stay stocked on healthy goods and they only take moments to prepare with some garlic, olive oil and - of course - love.  Lately, between school, being tight on time and an income that is in constant flux, I find myself relying on the power of the freezer. 

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A Bodacious Breakfast Crostini

The recommendation from my friend Susana was to go out for breakfast this morning, and I was totally into it. A morning off from family cooking sounded glorious until I thought about all of the avocados sitting on the counter, the giant onions staring back at me and the dozen and a half eggs sitting in the refrigerator.  I couldn’t justify spending money on breakfast

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Change Your Thinkin' + Get In The Kitchen. Here's How.

This week I’m off from substitute teaching, but I’ve still got private and corporate health work to attend to with a No Bake Treats workshop happening at a law firm in NYC on Friday, then one in DC and CT the following 2 Friday’s while I balance sub teacher life. That said, this week promises to be quite busy as do the coming weeks ahead. Filled with teaching, treat making, writing and figuring out how to get new clients and wondering how I'm supposed to date in the middle of so much newness. I digress. 

A meal strategy going into a week is key for me and, I’d imagine for you too. And, I’m in the zone when it comes to my own food and time. I know what food I like, I'm committed to eating well (and all within reason, hello, Nutella) and I’ve already prioritized cooking as an integral part of my life that I don’t plan on sacrificing. Cooking makes me feel good

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