Here you’ll find everything I’m preparing in my kitchen - from veggies, to leftovers and pasta. I eat simply, and I cook for one, but love cooking for others. And no matter what, I always pause to plate pretty.
Most of my meals are often times the result of freestyle recipe free ingredient riffing and a trip to the vegetable market. Produce is my passion, and I hope that you won’t simply come here for a recipe - but that you’ll read, cook and create a new story of your own.
I believe there’s power in a stocked pantry and freezer. From traditional Italian dishes to alternative sweets, vegan and vegetarian swaps - there’s something for everyone.
Let this serve as inspiration and let’s eat!
I’m not guaranteeing this veggie loaded turkey chili will change your life, but it will probably change your life!
One pot, no slow cooker needed, this was a flavor, veggie and texture experiment as next week I plan to amp up the veggies and make this chili wholly vegan. I can’t wait for more kitchen experiments. Clearly.
Tired of hummus? Same old, same old dip? Don’t just spice it up, triple spice it up!
Fresh out of chickpeas after last weeks bean filled bonanaza, I had a can of cannellini to spare. Instead of using them in their standard Italian preparation, I took them on a new flavor journey.
Lately I’m dropping beans into bowls like they’re hot …
1) ’Cause they’re easy to cook (hello, can opener!) and prepare well ahead of time.
2) They’re inexpensive, while also being filling. See more on #3
3) Finally, they add a meatless, high fiber protein pop to mealtime.
The majority of my meals are often times spun from half used veggies, opened cans of beans and an overabundance of grape tomatoes because I have a tomato purchasing problem wherein I should likely enroll in some sort of small red fruit rehab program. I always anticipate I’m going to use wayyyyy more tomatoes during the week than I actually do.
Read MoreSo here’s the thing about me and cooking salmon … because, yes, there’s a thing … I love salmon, but I dislike turning on the oven in my apartment during the yearly, quite confusing, September transition from summer to fall in NYC. Now, you might say, “Tina, what about grilling?” To which I would answer, “On my fire escape? Well, that’s illegal! I only sit out there and drink wine until I fall back into my window around 9pm! Then I pick myself up from the floor and drag my a$$ into bed.”
Read MoreIf you know my cooking and weight loss story, you know I love lentils. Lentil soup was the first meal I prepared in the summer of 2001 as I was forced to cook for myself while I was living on a small working farm in Ashford, CT. Recalling meals of my childhood, I remade my grandmas lentils until I got the pot of soup just right. Packed with fiber and protein they’re one of my favorite meal bases
Read MoreAre we really what we eat? Well, not only. We are what we say. What we do. The things we don’t do … and I’ve been exploring ways to shift my mindset outside of food. Do you think of your overall health as more than what you eat, or do you find yourself constantly hung up on the next meal or bite?
Read MoreBack in 2016 I went on a solo trip to Italy and it forever changed the way I not only looked at life, sex, being naked and truly living. It changed the way I saw … PASTA! I grew up in a home of pasta. Pasta Sunday, pasta with peas, pasta with beans, pasta with broccoli, pasta with cauliflower, pasta with zucchini, pasta with insert any and every seasonal vegetable. As a family we ate pasta, not daily but at least twice weekly, and
Read MoreSummer is coming to a close and after a trip to the market, where I spied an abundance of corn, I knew I had to make a flavor packed grain salad before the time was up. For me, NJ and LI corn are a weakness, unlike their men. I kid, I kid - and that's a whole different newsletter! Pairing corn with farro, fresh veggies, cilantro, scallions, zesty lime and smoked paprika makes for a Mediterranean meets southwestern flavor profile.
Read MoreI 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
Read MoreWeeknights 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.
Read MoreHave you ever had one of those mornings where you step on the scale just to see? To ballpark where you are, how you’re feeling and what’s going on in the numbers world? And then it easily becomes … The. Worst. Idea. Ever.
Do you ever judge yourself and your worth by your weight? By a number? Just back from a lovely 8 days with my parents where I walked, biked, beached, bikini’d, even managed to make out, eat a fair amount of pastry and LOVED every moment …
Tired of salad? Same old same old lettuce with tomatoes and cucumbers … Are you ready to stop hating and start recreating what a salad can be?! Add a blast sweet to your snore worthy lunch salad and dare to taste what happens! My job is to share what I know and what I know is that when sweet pairs with acid, salt and herbs … THE. MOUTH. GOES. WILD
Read MoreWhile I have not been procuring produce with passion or cooking with a burning desire to change the 10 minute meal world, I have been treating myself well and giving myself license to step out of the kitchen, head to the beach, dine out and enjoy the company of friends instead of continually cooking for one. I’ve been working hard to build a positive relationship with food outside of my home, to notice my choices and how they make me feel.
Read MorePeeling 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.
Read MoreFor the last few days I’ve found myself feeling disconnected. Not as engaged in my own life, perhaps a touch sad and weighed down by myself and my thoughts. Having just written about the ways I try to maintain my “home” I’m totally struggling this week and I believe this is what we call being human. I don’t bake to eat, usually. I bake to get out emotion.
Read MoreInspired 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.
Read MoreHome is where the heart is? Right? I mean, the phrase was coined with reason yet when I deconstruct the phrase itself (because I pick apart words like I would pick my childhood scraped knee scars), I think about how truly layered it is. What does home mean to you?
For me, home is a place I work to make beautiful everyday.
