A few weeks ago, I bought some brown basmati rice for a night when my husband was working. Though we’ve never really loved any brown rice in the past, this time the kids and I enjoyed the nutty grain. But when it came time to make rice a few days later for the whole family, I pulled out white rice thinking my husband would never want to eat brown rice. So, you’ll imagine my surprise when he made some last week for dinner — without any prompting. Turns out, he was ready to give it another go. And he liked it too.

Well, I guess this makes us brown rice fans. Who would have thought it?

Anyway, when I went to whip up this spicy lunch for myself, I went right for the brown rice … it was perfect for it.

This dish is adapted from a Mark Bittman recipe. Recently, I was asked to join The Food Matters Project — a group of bloggers cooking our way through Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook. If you aren’t familiar with the cookbook (or the book Food Matters), the basic premise is that you should eat like your ancestors would have in the early 20th century. It’s not unlike the lessons I recently learned reading Why Women Need Fat. So, when asked to join in, I said yes right away. I could definitely use the lessons from this book to cook better food for my family.

And me too. Because sometimes recipes aren’t for everyone. This one? Totally not for my kids. And that’s okay.

This week’s recipe for the group was Chipotle-Glazed Squash Skewers. The recipe sounded amazing as is, and I am sure it would make a killer appetizer or side dish. But when I read the combination of flavors, it made me think of lunch. When the kids are in school and I am working, I love having something easy and not-kid-friendly to eat … this was totally that. So I scrapped the skewers, added sweet potatoes and more honey and served this over brown rice and raw kale. Hello. Read the rest of this entry…

I’m mildly obsessed with superfruits, which are basically the health super heroes of the fruit world. They provide so many valuable nutrients like antioxidants and just taste so good too. Really, I can’t get enough of pomegranates, adore blueberries and crave cranberries (which are huge here in New England). Recently, I got to try another superfruit — tart cherries.

Are you familiar with tart cherries? I wasn’t until a big ol’ package of them arrived in my mailbox recently courtesy of the Cherry Marketing Institute and Kitchen PLAY. But after one sweet-and-sour taste I realized two things: I’ve had them before, and the tangy flavor is slightly addictive. They are available all year in frozen, dried  or juice form. The dried are my fave and make a great addition to salads, cookies and trail mixes. But the frozen ones are delicious too and they can be used in sweet or savory dishes.

So, what about these healthy attributes to the tart cherry? According to the Cherry Marketing Institute, more than 50 studies on tart cherries linked it to anti-inflammatory benefits, arthritis pain reduction and heart health benefits. It might even be helpful for post-workout recovery.

Honey-Tart Cherry Glazed Salmon with Rustic Tart Cherry Salsa is a great way to get some tart cherries into your diet (Psst! February is National Cherry Month). For this recipe, I used frozen tart cherries to make a slightly spicy and very zesty salsa that goes so well with the sweet Honey-Tart Cherry Glazed Salmon. The contrast of zesty spiciness and sweetness is irresistible. It’s the kind of thing that could lead to licking the plate clean … if no one is looking, of course. Read the rest of this entry…

When Shawn and I used to eat out (a frequent occurrence in our pre-children days when money was plentiful and bills were not), I would order Buffalo Chicken Salad whenever it was on the menu. I loved the crunch of the fried chicken, the spice of the buffalo wing sauce and the creamy coolness of the blue cheese. When you put a variety of flavors and textures like that together, it’s almost certain to please my senses.

Actually, if we are going to be super honest, just the mere act of putting buffalo wing sauce on salad at all makes me super happy. Something about the spicy tang flavor wrapped around the cool, crisp lettuce just does it for me. When I was fresh out of college, I would sometimes pack buffalo wing sauce as dressing for my lunch salads at work.

What?

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Last year, Will repeatedly came home from school requesting “eggies” for lunch. Aside from being clearly somehow related to eggs, I had no idea what he was talking about. I tried to have him describe the eggs he wanted, but I was just baffled. Finally, I emailed the mother of the girl who was bringing the “eggies” and asked what they were. Hard-boiled eggs. Who knew?

These days there are a lot of eggies in our house. We eat them a lot — on salad, chopped in sandwiches and all sorts of things. In fact, the kids had them for breakfast today with clementines and toast. Based on their clean plates and excited woots, I think they liked them a lot. But these eggies on an open-face sandwich? They are all for me … just don’t tell the kids. Oh, but we don’t call them eggies. That just seems silly. Read the rest of this entry…

Today was the last day of Christmas break for the kids … the last day for them to play with all their new toys unfettered. Their last day to ride bikes and build Lego houses with each other all day. Their last day to watch cartoons over lunch. So, I thought something warm, toasty and buttery was in order — it’s been a great break from school and heading back to our regimented schedule is kind of sad.

Hello, grilled cheese.

When I was a little girl, grilled cheese was one of my very favorite lunches. My grandmother would butter slices of perfectly square white bread and sandwich a slice or two of orange American cheese in the center, frying them to buttery, gooey cheesy goodness. I loved the texture variations of the sandwich — the smooth, warm cheese and the crisp toasted bread. I’d eat as much of the cheese as I could from the center before eating the bread.

I still love a good grilled cheese. But it’s definitely not the most lean of lunches — it can be though if you make a few small changes. Read the rest of this entry…

Sometimes, cooking with kids is all about teaching them measuring, mixing and knife skills. We do this a lot. The kids and I talk about the different measurements we use and measure things out together. They are often the ones to whisk-shift dry ingredients for me or to stir together whatever needs stirring. But cooking with kids isn’t just about learning. It’s about having fun in the kitchen too. So other times cooking with kids is about letting go. I don’t do that nearly enough.

But I try. Last Friday, I’d been thinking of ordering a pizza all afternoon, but with the holiday season here and our budget already strained I just couldn’t justify spending the money. So, I did the next best thing: making homemade English muffin pizzas with the kids. Actually, Will and Paige did most of the doing and I just handled the oven, the hot tray and laying out the toppings.

See how happy they are? And they hadn’t even started doing anything yet. They love being in the kitchen and having a hand in whatever we’re eating. But they love it even more when they are super-hands-on for a meal, as with these English muffin pizzas.

With a simple, flexible ingredients list and a super-fast cooking time, these pizzas are perfect for an any-night treat. Of course, being easy doesn’t hurt either. Read the rest of this entry…

Caesar salad is basic. Predictable. Boring, even. I mean, maybe you’ll find some well-seasoned chicken or delicious shrimp on a special Caesar, but generally it’s the same thing: romaine, Caesar dressing and Parmesan, mix well. Oh, and croutons. Repeat. But who says it has to be that way? Who says that Caesar salads can’t be a little more exciting?

Guess what? They can be. This one is.

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The other night, when I was at Cate‘s house for our Blogger Thanksgiving fest, we were reheating a batch of these Homemade Seasoned Baked Chicken Nuggets that I made for the kids. Cate asked me if they were done right after I’d checked on them, and I said “No, they aren’t humming yet.”

It never occurred to me that would be a weird thing to say. It never occurred to me that the idea of food humming is something that not everyone thinks. Or hears. Or says. Yea. But Patsy, Joanne and Cate set me straight. It’s definitely a Sarah-ism. (In my defense, that’s really what I look for whenever I reheat food — the hum of sizzling warmed food.)

So, about the chicken nuggets … honestly, I had never thought of making my own until a recent Skinny Chicken Nuggets post on Tablespoon set off a wild obsession with baked chicken nuggets for me. My kids love chicken nuggets (I think it’s written somewhere in the kid handbook that they have to), and I like feeding them good, wholesome, homemade food that doesn’t take long to make.

Ding. Ding. Ding! We have a winner. Read the rest of this entry…

When my GPS system successfully directs me to a destination, it says, “You have arrived.” I love it. Beyond the words,  the way it says it is so special — as if I am a debutant being presented to society. It never fails to make me smile.

When I went away to college, I thought having arrived meant hosting awesome dinner parties and entertaining with charm and pizazz. I was so excited to have friends over and cook for them — although my cooking range was really limited. Among my go-to dishes? Sundried Tomato Pasta … from the Cooking with Friends Cookbook. Actually, it was my one and only specialty. Too bad not everyone loves sundried tomatoes like I do.

I don’t know that having great dinner parties mean you’ve truly arrived, but I have learned a thing or two since then — like how to plan a menu people love and that pasta cooking water is a genius addition to sauces.

Making this pasta is super simple. You start with a six quick and easy ingredients — most of which you probably already have. First thing, you start the water for the pasta. Once it’s boiling, toss in the pasta and let it cook while you prepare the sauce.

Sundried tomatoes — the dried kind, not the ones packed in oil — are sliced thinly. You’ll need a good, sharp knife and a bit of patience (don’t worry, it’s really not that bad). Once that’s done, you mince a clove of garlic and mix it all up with crushed red pepper and a little oil in a bowl. Once the pasta is done, you stir in a 1/2 cup of pasta water too before tossing with the drained pasta.

Finally, you chop up some prosciutto and stir it into the pasta. That’s it. You are totally ready to eat.

Now I want to invite over all the friends from my college days of making an old version of this pasta (which had no prosciutto, more oil, no pasta water and more garlic) so they can see how far I’ve come. In the meantime, I am just going to have a little more pasta for myself.

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So. I’ve had a couple of butternut squashes in my fridge. They’ve been taunting me. Staring me down. Begging me to do something, anything with them. But I was nervous. It’s been years since I handled and cooked squashes in their whole form. Typically, I take the easy way out and buy squash that’s already been peeled and cubed. But I couldn’t let the squash go to waste. I had to overcome my nerves and just use it.

Turns out, working with butternut squash is way easier than I remember. Since I ultimately wanted cubed squash, I cut the ends of the squash off to make them flat — easier to work with the squash that way. Then I used a regular ol’ vegetable peeler to peel the skin (which wasn’t as tough or thick as I expected), taking care to peel away until I saw orange flesh. Finally, I sliced the squash in half length-wise, removed the seeds and stringy things and sliced the squash into 1/4-inch slices. I used what I needed immediately, dicing it,  and stored the rest in an airtight container in the fridge.

Honestly, working with a whole squash wasn’t any harder or more time consuming than cutting down the big chunks of butternut squash into a quarter-inch dice. And it’s way more cost effective. Guess what I will be buying in the future? Yep … no shortcuts needed on this one.

I’ve been roasting most of the squash and using it in different dishes. When you roast butternut squash, it becomes soft and sweet — a natural, light caramelization that’s just awesome. For this, I tossed the squash with a bit of olive oil spray, cinnamon, paprika and salt (a killer combination on orange veggies), which gives it a rich savory sweetness once it’s been roasted for about 25 minutes.

One of my favorite things to do with this roasted squash is to sprinkle it onto salad. It’s amazing, and a little unexpected. This salad combines the sweet, soft bits of squash with sweet-tart dried cranberries and warm, meaty toasted walnuts. It’s served on a bed of romaine. And one of my favorite things about it? It didn’t take more than 30 minutes to make. Okay. maybe 40 minutes, if you haven’t already peeled and sliced your squash.

It’s a great fall salad for lunch or a light dinner. Who doesn’t love a great salad?

What shortcuts do you take in cooking? Dish in the comments.

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