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…

When people ask me how I buy so much fresh produce, I love telling them about how I use a CSA!  A CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture, is how I get a big box of locally and sustainably grown produce into my kitchen and into my diet.  I pay a fixed amount at the beginning of the growing season, and then every week...

I love geeking out about digestion, whether it's sharing tips for optimal gut health or creative ways to get ginger into your diet.  One easy way to possibly improve your gut health is to add live probiotic-rich fermented foods into your diet.  If the idea of fermenting crocks of sauerkraut in your root cellar seems archaic or terrifying (or just not practical in the moment), I thought I'd share my go-to living fermented foods at the store and how I use them...

My latest video for my online cooking show Fare with Flair is a how-to on one of the greatest green vegetables out there: Collard Greens.  Rich in calcium, fiber, and Vitamin K, collards are also an incredibly affordable member of the cruciferous family of vegetables.  This family...

Winter citrus is one of the bright spots of a cold, Midwestern winter.  Aside from greens, roots, and greenhouse-grown veggies, there's not much new and exciting produce around this time of year.  That is, with the exception of citrus fruits like lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, and tangerines.  This time of year...

If you've been on social media at all in the past few months, you've probably seen something about a kitchen appliance called the Instant Pot.  It's an electrical pot that's billed as a combination slow cooker and pressure cooker and claims to do a whole host other things like steam veggies, cook eggs, and even bake a cake.  It seems like such a multi-functional tool that can save space while making dinner prep faster, easier, and more fool-proof...

Most chefs try to encourage home cooks to not be afraid of salt.  Salt allows us to taste all the flavors in food and sodium is an essential nutrient--we actually can't live without it!  But many more health conscious cooks and consumers are concerned with the over abundance of salt in our diets and are looking for ways to make delicious food without so much of it...

My latest video of my online cooking show Fare with Flair is up and it's perfectly timed for fall because we are making soup!  With just a few spices like cooling cumin and anti-inflammatory turmeric, you can make a interesting soup that's not too spicy or complicated...

Whether you are making a Norman Rockwell-style feast or just showing up to a chill, catered get-together, I wanted to arm you early with Thanksgiving recipes, a shopping guide, host gift guide, and even a holiday helpline...

Probably like many of you, I don't love taking medication (while of course, still being grateful for its existence!).  If there's a lifestyle change I can make instead of taking a daily pill, you better believe I'm going to give it a shot, whether that's sleeping off a cold instead of taking cold medicine or even trying to adapt my exercise habits and screen time to avoid taking sleeping pills.  Partially it's my sensitivity to drug side effects, part of it is due to the high cost of medication, and just a bit is...

Do you ever have those days where you just don't know what to make for dinner?  While sometimes I have a complex artistic process of how I create an original recipe, more often my dinner cooking process looks a lot like what I imagine yours does: see what's in the fridge and aimlessly google a bunch of recipes or make something up...

I've never identified much with fairy tale princesses.  We can blame (thank) my feminist mother for that since Barbies, tutus, or anything that screamed Damsel in Distress was strictly off limits to me as a child.  One princess that I still relate to however is the Princess and the Pea.  Homegirl could not sleep because there was a pea under 20 mattresses and she could still feel it...

Herbal teas are staples in my pantry for afternoon pick-me ups, a tasty treat when I'm not really hungry, and for adding nutrients or anti-inflammatory properties to my diet (especially when it's been less than perfect).  After talking about my favorite store-bought snacks a few weeks ago, I thought I'd follow up ...

As someone who spends quite a big of time cooking alone (not just for myself, but for clients and class preparation), I totally get that cooking can feel mentally and physically draining.  It's no wonder that after a long day of work, many people want to just throw something together and watch a little TV to distract from stress and get a little entertainment.  Even if you love to cook like me, it's not always the most appetizing way to spend your time...

One of the most common questions I get asked is "what are some healthy snack options?"  While I do believe that it's best to eat sit-down meals without snacking in between, I also know from personal experience that it's not always possible, especially with a long, modern work day.  Traditional packaged snack foods (think: the readily available items sold in most vending machines and check-out counters) are low quality, loaded with sugar, refined carbs and additives and they can leave you feeling blegh while also feeling blegh about yourself...

Last week I returned from a truly magical honeymoon to Italy.  Since so many of my readers and students generously shared their recommendations for my trip, I wanted to pay it forward by condensing all my tips into one post...

This week I was in my own kitchen a lot testing and tweaking my recipes for my upcoming cooking class, Global Healing Kitchens: Japan.  In this series, we are going to explore 3 cultures that have strong food-as-medicine traditions including India, Japan, and the Mediterranean.  In the Japan class, I wanted to dive into not just traditional Japanese home-cooking but also the cuisine of Okinawa, a Japanese island known to have an extraordinary...

A few weeks ago, I teased a new cooking show that I've been developing along with a company called Outcome Health.  I'm creating short and fun how-to cooking videos for them to air in doctor's office waiting rooms across the country.  Why not use that boring wait room time to learn how to make some healthy food?  Today, I want to share the first full episode of the show, where I explain how to...

One common complaint I hear from readers and students is that they are often crunched for time after work and don't have more than half an hour to prepare dinner.  Another thing I've noticed?  A recipe that might take a less experienced home cook 60 minutes to make, only takes me 30-40 minutes.  This isn't a humblebrag!  It's simply that years of professional training mean that I'm able to get organized and cut vegetables more quickly...

Last week, I attended a Food as Medicine Symposium organized by NorthShore University Health System and Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark.  One big theme--and one of my favorite lectures--was all about the importance of the microbiome (all the microbes that live in and on your body) on your overall health, including its relationship to digestion and the immune system.  The event was attended mostly by physicians, healthcare professionals, and even some medical students, so I thought I'd distill some of the great insights from the microbiome...