Category Archives: Recipes

I am sure you know Giada De Laurentiis, amazing Italian chef on the Food Network.  She has delicious recipes, a friendly personality, and a love of food and family.  When you visit her website, you can see why I am calling her Wonder Woman.  She has recipes, books, a TV show, her own cookware line, and also her own blog.  She does it all.  Here are my top 3 reasons to love Giada, including one reason that is not based on what she can make with her hands, but what she can do with her heart.

Reason #3:  Her cookware is smart.  Not only can you use her cookware everyday, but she sells it at Target.  So it is easy to find and affordable.  My mom and I both have a pan of hers that we fondly call “the Giada pan.”  We use it everyday.  Seriously, everyday.

Reason #2:  Her recipes are light.  Traditionally, when I think of Italian food, I think of oil and heavy flavors.  Garlic, cheese, pasta.  Yummy, but heavy.  Giada’s recipes use those great Italian flavors, but in a light way.  They don’t put you into an instant food coma.  When I recently visited my parents, my mom found a great new recipe from Giada.  Instead of using traditional tomato sauce for pasta, she made a sauce out of roasted eggplant and cherry tomatoes.  It was such a delicious and inventive way to make sauce. 

Reason #1: Her heart is big.  My father sent me this article on Giada and her upcoming visit to local South Carolina schools.  These schools have implemented this wonderful program called “Back the Pack.”  For the schools’ needy children who often go hungry at home, students are sent home Friday afternoons with their backpacks filled with food.  Better yet, high school children work at the food warehouse to help organize the distribution of food and give back to their community.  Giada is visiting these communities to raise awareness of the program and help feed hungry children.  I am thrilled that Giada is doing this and raising awareness of the lives of our students outside of schools.  This program deserves the press and shows that Giada has a heart as big as her taste buds.

I love my mother’s kitchen.  The smells, the creativity, the knowing that something delicious will ALWAYS come out.  My father and I know how lucky we are to have such an amazing chef, and we always joke that “everything tastes better when Mommy makes it.”  Peanut butter sandwich?  Totally not the same when I make it.  Mommy has to make it.

This week, I went to visit my parents in North Carolina.  I knew I would get a break from the dreary Boston winter weather, but I also knew I would get some inspiration from my mother’s kitchen.  When I found out that I had food allergies, she took on the challenge readily.  She never once thought that she wouldn’t be able to make her usual gourmet meals, but instead took the challenge as inspiration.  Now as my father and I put down our forks and savor the deliciousness of what we just ate, she says “Gluten and Dairy Free!”

So this week, she made a couple of my favorite meals as well as some new ones.  She made grilled-to-perfection steak and dairy free creamed spinach, one of my all time favorite dinners.  (My father didn’t even know that the creamed spinach didn’t actually have cream in it!)  She also made a new pasta dish (recipe to come soon), as well as what we now call Mama’s Ssssmokin’ Chowder. She based it off a recipe she found in her local supermarket, but of course… she made it better.  It’s always better when Mommy makes it.

I love cooking and thinking of new recipes, but really love sharing a meal with good friends.  Last night, a couple of my best friends from college came over for a home cooked meal.  I wanted them to try a wheat and dairy free meal and promised that they wouldn’t even notice.  I knew they would be perfect guinea pigs for my raspberry almond turkey cutlets and honey lemon carrots.

While I was cooking, they sampled Boy that’s good Bean Dip and rice crackers.  They loved the appetizer so much that they so graciously left me only one rice cracker, followed by an “oops, sorry… but this dip is really good.”  Talk about happy customers!

While they were munching on their new favorite crackers, I made raspberry almond turkey cutlets and honey lemon carrots.  It is such an easy recipe, that I was able to enjoy time with my friends instead of being stuck in the kitchen for too long.  Since one of my friend is obsessed with vegetables, I also made a raspberry walnut salad.  Here are the final products:

As a side note, I couldn’t find turkey cutlets that looked thick enough, so I bought a whole turkey breast and cut it into four slices that I thought looked hearty.  I considered chicken for this recipe when I was having a hard time finding turkey, but glad I stuck with the other white meat.  We all agreed that the raspberry almond was a perfect combination with the turkey.

Overall, they gave a thumbs up and didn’t miss wheat or dairy!  I hope I can cook for them again and make them converts 🙂

I love Whole Foods.  I do not love some of the Whole Foods price tags.  Don’t get me wrong, they have quality ingredients and I do believe that you get what you pay for.  At Whole Foods, you pay more, but you also get greater quality.

Last week, I bought a container of bean dip (about 12 oz, the size of a small hummus container).  Ingredient list looked good, and no wheat or dairy.  Price tag: $3.99.  Ok, I was willing to pay $3.99 for a few great afternoons of snacking.  At the end of the container (which was gone very quickly, by the way), I said “Wait a minute.  I could MAKE this.”  So I did.

I went back to Whole Foods and bought a can of black beans (about $1), a can of chickpeas (about $1), a lime ($.50), and a small jar of roasted red peppers ($2.99).  I knew that I had the necessary spices at home.  My total was $5.50.  So, more than the container of black bean dip, but it made more than 3 times as much!  I couldn’t believe how much it made.  It was so delicious that I taste-tested it with a teaspoon and then switched to a table spoon.  It was THAT good.  Here is the recipe.

Not only was the price tag on my bean dip wallet friendly, but its ingredients are full of protein, fiber, and taste.  Black beans and chickpeas are loaded with protein and fiber, which are instrumental in weight loss.  They have that magic ability to make us feel full.  And the spices add the taste kick that the sometimes-bland beans need.  Now, when I eat my new favorite afternoon snack with wheat free crackers, I am not afraid that I won’t be full in a few hours, I am afraid that I won’t be able to put down the spoon!

We are still in the middle of winter.  Ugh.  Nothing like a hot and spicy meal to warm us up!  I decided to make Chili last night… but not the mushy brown cafeteria chili.  Spicy, flavorful, colorful chili.  I love making chili, especially around this time of year, but have never written down my recipe until now.  That is what is so great about chili.  You can just throw everything in the pot, let it simmer, and it tastes delicious!  I think a key of chili is making your own spice packet… not buying the chili spice packet from the grocery store.  My favorite chili spices are cumin, paprika, and red pepper flakes… as well as a mystery ingredient you will have to read the recipe for to find out!

I usually put sour cream and cheddar cheese on my chili to give it that creamy goodness.  But I found some dairy free alternatives at the grocery store yesterday that I wanted to try out:

Verdict: Pretty good.  The sour cream had a great texture, but definitely had a soy taste.  I added just a little to my chili to give it some creaminess and couldn’t taste the soy at all.  The Daiya cheese is pretty good.  I have had the mozzarella before and like it.  It has a good texture and does melt (some soy cheeses retain their shape and make you wonder what is in them).  You have to know that it isn’t going to taste exactly like cheese, but I think the taste is pretty good.  Thumbs up additions to my chili!