When I was growing up, in a traditional Italian Philadelphia family, nothing outside of pasta held a special place on the Sunday table — except a roast pork. Serving a slow-cooked, oven-roasted pork dinner is a rite of passage for the Italian chef in all of us, and one of the most respected meats you can add to the table.
It gets even better, though — the cuts used for this meal are less expensive than most and require nothing other than patience to offer a delicious dinner.…
Cooking fish has never been my specialty, but when I was a paleo chef in Los Angeles the most requested meal plans always included a fish dish. So, at one point, I spent several weeks perfecting a halibut recipe that proved to be delicious and always well received by anyone I share it with. In fact, it became the crowd favorite during my chef years.…
My daughter has always loved soup. Even when it’s July here in California, her dinner request is always for me to make soup. I personally am not a huge soup-lover (more a meat and green salad kind of girl). But the ease of making and eating soup is beginning to convert me, along with the amazing nutrients you can add to your diet.…
Only a few years ago, I was one of the most sought after corporate team-building paleo chefs in Los Angeles. Funny that somehow every tech company was hiring me to host intense cooking classes that were like Top Chef meets Sesame Street.
Teams had to cook full meals under the pressure of a timer. Another challenge involved each team being given the ingredients for a course — but with no directions on what to do.…
It makes me sad that cranberry sauce gets a bad rap because of the common understanding that it comes gelled out of a can. Don’t get me wrong—before I was more conscious about the food I consumed, I lived for the red-jellied blob that came complete with all the can markings. Today? Not so much.
That said, my family holiday meals still include a side of cranberry sauce, no matter what—but now it’s this homemade recipe for low-sugar or sugar-free cranberry sauce.…
Today is the day to confess I am a sugar addict. Sure, I gave up refined sugar years ago (with great hardship, I might add). But since then I have thanked the heavens daily for honey and maple syrup. And, truth be told, I do consume them almost daily, which is not ideal.
Yes, it’s true — outside of the Whole Life Challenge, I am a sugar fiend.…
I have been a huge coffee drinker for decades, but in the last three years I have found myself rushing to bed in anticipation of my morning coffee. You might wonder what has changed?
Adding healthy fats and spices to my coffee changed the game for me big time.
There are a few reasons I love my new way of drinking coffee:
When I was growing up, my grandmother would always make me a gift from the kitchen for my birthday each year. I always requested homemade potato salad.
So, you can imagine my sadness when limiting my white potato intake became a part of my conscious eating habits. And perhaps you can imagine my delight when I discovered this recipe, inspired 100% by The Paleo Kitchen.…
When I think of summer, aside from picturing my feet in the sand, I think of strawberry shortcake. I live for sweets and summer turns up the volume on my desire to eat treats like fruits and summer cakes.
But like you, I have been working hard to focus my attention on how much natural sugar I consume — and baking an entire cake has never been a good look for me.…
Recently while I was staying with friends, they made a dinner that used pomegranate seeds and pork ribs. I liked the idea for the dish and the combination of flavors, but the ingredient list for their recipe was not the best for those of us working on making healthier food choices.
I decided to recreate the dish with healthier ingredients — and it was a huge hit.…
So often during life, we use travel as a reason for our diet and lifestyle to suffer from bad choices and improper self-care. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
I live my life on the road, basically moving every few days. This has been my reality for the last year and will continue to be for several more. This is because I believe so much in the power of diet and lifestyle to transform people’s daily experience that I have been taking my personal knowledge to the streets to share this journey with others.…
I am 100% Italian and love a good meatball. Actually, I love all meatballs.
The older I get, the more this love has translated into pure excitement about creating new meatball recipes. I find meatballs to be fun to make in all sizes and often lean toward making smaller ones so they are bite-size.
This gal even loves the many ways meatballs can be cooked.…
