Even though I love getting lots of my food ultra fresh from a farmers market and CSA, I actually rely on my freezer a lot to make meal prepping easy on a weekly basis. The freezer gives me flexibility on when to buy and cook ingredients so it helps me avoid waste. Also in many instances, the quality of frozen food is on par—an occasionally better—than what you can buy fresh…

 “Grazing board” is a term that’s become popular to describe abundant-looking snacking platters that often incorporate veggies, meats, cheeses, and other snackable foods like nuts, olives, and pickles.  While charcuterie boards and veggie platters have long been party staples, this combine-it-all-on-one-board trend really seems to have taken off.  And I…

For me, traveling and food go together. Eating foods from all over the world right here in Chicago is how I first became interested in other cultures. Now eating new foods (and going to grocery stores, markets, and food tours) is my favorite thing to do when I travel to other parts of the world. As much as I like…

It’s easy to get into a rut when it comes to healthy eating. So today I’m sharing 12 ways to add some leafy greens into your daily diet. I’ve sung the praises of leafy greens before, so today I’m going to focus on the how instead of the why…

For those of you on the edges of your seat, waiting to hear how my return trip to Costco went, TODAY IS THE DAY. My first trip to Costco was fun but also epic in terms of length, which led my Dad and I to leave before I even saw categories like dairy, meat, or fresh foods…

Sleep is the one part of self-care and personal health that I’ve always really struggled with. Part of it is overtly my own fault—staying up too late watching TV, changing my schedule, etc. But the rest of the struggle is just part of my constitution, I think. For any age I can remember—college, high school, even as a small child—I’ve always struggled…

This weekend, I made my first pilgrimage to Bulk Buying Paradise: Costco. I’ve never been one to buy in bulk mostly because I’ve lived in small spaces with few other people, and also typically the foods I like to eat aren’t typically sold in big box stores. I like to buy as small and as local as I can (which is why my produce in the summer comes from my CSA). However, probably like many of you, I saw my grocery bill shoot up in January …

Chances are, you’ve at least heard of the phrase “Dry January".” Maybe it’s the excuse your coworker gave for skipping wine at the weekly happy hour, or maybe it’s something you are in the middle of doing right now. The last few years, it seems that this trend has grown bigger and bigger and that more folks are abstaining from alcohol (or reducing their consumption) for these 31 days…

Every December, I like to do a round-up of my favorite cookbooks of the year. They aren’t necessarily books published in that year, but rather books from my collection that I’ve found myself referencing, perusing, or recommending over and over again. I think books make a perfect gift and cookbooks are the perfect host/hostess gift when you want…

Many of you know that after culinary school and stints in restaurants in NYC, Chicago, and India, I started my culinary career primarily as a personal chef for clients in the Chicago area. While that sounds like a fancy gig for even fancier clients, being a personal chef is really just executing one task that now goes by a popular term: meal prepping…

f you want a recommendation for a hand lotion, ask a chef. Between washing our hands constantly before and during cooking and washing dishes, pots, and pans, after, we know a thing or too about dry skin and chapped hands. Hate perfumey scented lotions and a bunch of added chemicals? We do too. Not only are artificial scents distracting in the kitchen, but those perfumey flavors and chemicals could end up…

As you’ve probably noticed while grocery shopping, gluten-free products have exploded. If you were gluten-free only a few years ago, you would have had to to seek out a speciality health food store, and would probably be pretty disappointed by your options.

But now gluten-free products are available in nearly every store. Is the gluten-free alternative always healthier? Not necessarily…

just returned from a vacation to Greece this weekend, so I thought I’d share the highlights of my trip while they are still fresh in my mind. Greece is a fabulous country to visit for history buffs, beach goers, and yes, food lovers! If you love Mediterranean food…

I tend to talk about grocery shopping a lot.  Sometimes it's about making a Kitchen Inventory List or a Meal Plan and sometimes its chatting about alternative methods of getting ingredients like a CSA).  That's because when it comes to healthy eating, cooking is only half of the equation.  It's also important to be able to fit the timing and logistics of buying your food into your week in order to maintain healthy eating habits with ease…

Green tea is one of my go-to drinks.  In fact, I don't drink much else other than water, green tea, black tea and kombucha (and yes, the occasionally wine and cocktail).  I've found that green tea though can be confusing for people: they've heard it's healthy, but aren't quite sure…

Coconut Milk is a staple in my pantry.  Fresh coconut milk is hard to come by in the Midwest (although here is a tutorial on how you can make your own from dried coconut--pretty similar to our Oat Milk recipe) so I usually buy canned.  My current favorite variety is the…

In this post, I want to share some strategies for minimizing food waste at home, from storage tips to organization to better alternatives for nearly spoiled food than the trash.  And since one of the main goals of reducing waste is to prevent more dumping into landfills, I'm also sharing ways to reduce all the plastic and packaging that goes along with…

It seems like a hot trend in the food world this year is reducing food waste.  Things like using "ugly" or "imperfect" produce or meal planning are really having a moment, because it we all recognize how wasteful our food system can be if we just let things continue as they are…

One of my all-time most popular recipes is my Chocolate Hemp Shake, a simple smoothie that packs 18 grams of protein but uses no protein powders!  A combination of hemp seeds and almond butter (along with small amounts of protein from the other ingredients) easily reaches that number without needing to add additional supplements.

But that's not the only way to add more protein to your workout shake.  Here's a list of 8…

Pasta is a go-to weeknight meal for so many people and for good reason!  It's quick, affordable, and easy to customize.  I adore real, fresh Italian-style pasta (umm hello honeymoon in Italy) but for an everyday meal at home, I almost never use white pasta.  I want something that spikes my blood sugar less and digests more slowly…