With the Summer fruit and vegetable supply in full swing and abundance, Mark Bittman’s 101 Simple Salads for the Season is perfect timing. After getting a good haul of tomatoes, watermelon and peaches from the farmers’ market, we decided to start at the top of the list with two salad recipes that combine all of [...]

Lentils are a great bean to work with. They cook up in about 30 minutes, you don’t need to pre-soak them and they are packed with flavor. You have to keep an eye on them while they are cooking though. If you over cook them, they turn into mush. Green French lentils hold up a [...]

It’s almost Memorial Day weekend, and that means it’s almost the start of the Summer BBQ season. If you’re looking for a great side dish to bring to a party, give this spicy chickpea salad a try! The Indian flavors are great, and I think even people who don’t like Indian food might like this [...]

If I told you that this meal is a combination of a recipe from Real Simple and Rachael Ray, you’d probably laugh. Well, it is…and it was delicious. There, I said it. Luke was away on a business trip and this combo was at “my” level of cooking. (In case you didn’t already know, Luke [...]

We’ve been on a cabbage binge since making Okonomayaki, a cabbage Japanese pancake (it was a lot better than it sounds). Cabbage is pretty cheap and is packed with nutrients. Once cabbage is cut, however, it begins to lose its vitamin C content. Lukily, there are a number of quick dishes that are so tasty [...]

Salads need not be limited to just lunch or an appetizer, they can be a meal! I threw this salad together one day after work when I was feeling too lazy to make anything. It was simply some of that lettuce that comes in those plastic boxes, an avocado and a can smoked tuna in [...]

I am a big fan of simple recipe that relies on the quality of the ingredients to do all the work. This is because I am a lazy bastard. We picked up some ripe, juicy tomatoes from the farmers’ market and simply diced them and dressed them with salt, vinegar and olive oil. We added [...]

This is a random recipe I came up with because: It was raining outside. We had some random veggies to use up. I really want more bacon in my diet. For a random, self-invented recipe this dish came out really good. It is clearly a dish meant for innovation and switcheroos. Say for instance that you don’t have 4 [...]

Carolyn is a big fan of Devon and Blakely, a lunch spot in Washington, DC that serves lots of different soups and salads. One of her favorite side salads is Channa – chickpeas baked with olive oil, curry, cilantro and caramelized onions. So, me being the good person I am, set out to try and recreate [...]

It is full-on summer time. That means barbeques and, of course, Spicy Green Bean Salad. We make this dish every year to bring to our neighbor’s Memorial Day party. It is always hit. I have learned a few tricks though. Well, actually one trick, and that is to use frozen, cut green beans. I know [...]

After trying the recipe for Soft-Boiled Eggs with a Miso Lemon dressing, I realized two things: Soft boiling eggs is a pain. They are tough to peel! The dressing is amazing. Reacting to these two realities, I came up with this dish. Instead of soft-boiling the eggs, I poached them. We got these great egg poachers from [...]

There is not too much to report on this dish. I just wanted to share because it was really simple yet delicious. I picked up the head of bib lettuce at our farmers’ market. That salad was top with chicken breast which I pan-fried ahead of time. We also added some cherry tomatoes and gorgonzola [...]

I am not quite sure when beets are in season, but I just picked up two massive ones from the farmer’s market. We roasted both of them in oven, and they came out great. Roasting actually make the beets a lot easier to handle. They are really easy to peel after roasting and they give [...]

For a healthy, light lunch during the week, try making a big salad. It only takes 5-10 minutes to prepare the night before…and it’ll save you $5-10 a day because you won’t have to buy your lunch. Also, when we’ve been eating particularly unhealthy for few days, we will make big salads for dinner. Mixed greens, [...]

Nothing taste more like summer that fresh tomatoes. We picked up a couple huge, not so pretty, but pretty tasty, heirloom tomatoes at the farmer’s market. These tomatoes are so good that it only takes a little salt and oil to make them shine. I add some balsamic and chives just for a little extra [...]

Cold grain salads are a perfect side dish in the summer. They are light and refreshing. Quinoa is a grain grown in the Andes and is a staple there. It is packed with good stuff! You can add it plain, but it taste great dressed up in this salad. It would be perfect side for [...]

So what do you do with the leftovers from making an entire leg of lamb… Lamb salad! Lamb has a pretty strong flavor so you need a salad that can stand up to it. We went with Arugula for the greens. Spinach or perhaps something like mustard greens. We also added gorgonzola and red onions. We [...]

You know summer is just around the corner when the quality of tomatoes picks up. We have been getting and eating lots of tomatoes from the farmers market that is right around the corner from us. We have done some complicated things with them… but if you have good tomatoes, you just can’t beat a [...]