It’s time to take advantage of Cinco de Mayo with one of my favorite party dishes!

When I worked in public accounting I would bring in my “Top Secret 7-Layer Taco Dip” to my team (the “secret” was I used 3x more cheese than the recipe called for) every year for Cinco de Mayo. We won’t be doing any of that today, but today’s dish is the next best thing.

Click on the video below to watch me make my super-easy chunky guacamole recipe AND my healthy alternative to tortilla chips.

Chunky Guacamole Recipe

Ingredients

3 ripe avocados
1 large tomato (or 2 small)
1 small red onion
2 limes
1/2 tsp sea salt
2-3 tbsp chopped cilantro (optional)

Directions

1.  Dice avocado, tomato, and onion into equal sizes.
2. Add to a large bowl.In a small bowl, juice both limes and mix with sea salt to make kind of a salty lime-ade.
3.  Pour lime juice mixture over chopped veggies.
4. Top with cilantro (optional) and stir to combine.
5. Serve with multigrain tortilla chips OR a crunchy veggie like Belgian endive leaves. Enjoy!

In the video I mentioned “those people” who think cilantro tastes like soap.  Which one are you – do you love cilantro or avoid it at all costs?

Today I have a very special guest cooking with me:  my dad!

I’ve been determined to get him off this slight addiction to muffins (aka cupcakes pretending to be healthy).  The problem is that he’s so used to his “grab-and-go” routine that he wants his breakfast to involve zero effort.  Sound familiar?

So, I visited his kitchen to show him this freaking fantastic technique for having energizing and satisfying steel cut oats cook while you sleep!  No fancy equipment required.  I also showed him how to quickly flavor his oatmeal so they taste just like his favorite muffins.

My dad has zero attention span, so if he can do it, you definitely can.  Click on the video below to learn this sneaky trick:

Morning Glory Oatmeal

To mimic the flavor profile of one of our favorite muffins, Morning Glory’s, we added shredded carrots, raisins, walnuts, chopped apples, and a wee bit of cinnamon.

So delicious and gives you SO much more energy than a lame-ass muffin.

What’s your favorite breakfast baked good? What kind of toppings can you use on your oatmeal to mimic its flavors?

I’m back in Erin’s kitchen! Since SO many of you have told us how much you loved making the last easy meal we whipped up in Erin’s kitchen, Soba Noodles and Greens with Peanut Sauce, we thought we’d give you another quick healthy meal that makes you wonder why you would ever waste time or money on takeout.

Erin has been quite the busy bee taking over 100 people through the 2nd round of her awesome goal-setting and manifesting digital course, Magical Manifesters.  She doesn’t want to cook every day so I showed her a quick dish that can be made in bulk at the beginning of the week.

How nice would it be to come home and have a satisfying meal right at your fingertips?

Click on the video below to check out this fast vegan Mexican meal that we whipped up to feed her for the rest of the week…

Recipe: Black Bean + Spinach Burritos

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed
2 cups fresh baby spinach (or frozen spinach)
sea salt
cilantro, optional
sprouted grain tortillas or corn tortillas
salsa

Tools

measuring spoons
large skillet
dry measuring cup
wooden spoon
chef’s knife
small skillet
cutting board

Directions

1. Sauté onion and garlic for 1-2 minutes in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. Add cumin, oregano, chili powder. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add beans, sea salt, and spinach. Continue cooking until spinach is wilted and beans are heated through. Sprinkle in cilantro if you’re not one of those people who thinks cilantro tastes like soap.
4. Warm the tortilla in a separate skillet over low heat (or heat up in microwave).
5. Lay tortilla flat, add bean and spinach mixture, and roll up. Serve with salsa and enjoy!

Variations

• Add diced bell peppers and/or sliced mushrooms when you add the spices.
• Top with sliced avocado.
• Substitute black beans for lentils, garbanzo beans, or pinto beans.
• Substitute beans for diced chicken breast.

What do you make when you want healthy food right at your fingertips?

Want more dishes like this one? Check out Go Feed Yourself for dozens of healthy dishes that keep you focused.

Want a more personalized plan?  Check out how I can virtually Pimp Your Pantry.

Gearing up for the weekend?

Why not treat yourself with this delicious and relatively healthy gluten-free and vegan dessert: Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Oat Balls.

I got the idea from this addictive snack they serve at The Stand – I would buy a few after yoga and eat them all before I even finished driving home!   So definitely share this with friends because they are too easy to polish off when you’re all alone with them. Sneaky balls, they are.

Check out today’s short video to see how to make them:

Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup almond butter
1 cup rolled oats
1 tbsp raw honey
few sprinkles of sea salt
1/2 cup dark or bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks
1/2 cup dried shredded coconut (optional)

Directions

Mix 1 cup of almond butter, 1 cup rolled oats, 1 tbsp raw honey, and a few sprinkles of sea salt until well combined.
Add about 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips and gently combine.
Scoop out mixture with a tablespoon, roll between your palms until it looks like a little golf ball.  Repeat with rest of mixture.
Keep as is or, to prevent them from sticking to each other, roll them in dried shredded coconut. You can also use cocoa powder or chopped nuts.

Variation: You could always swap out the chocolate for raisins for a treat that is less sweet.

Do you have a favorite, “relatively healthy” sweet treat? Share it in the comments below!

P.S. My team and I are working on Spring/Summer updates to the Go Feed Yourself recipes (existing members get access to all updates) – is there any type of dish that you would like to see?

Spring is nature’s fat-burning season. Now that it’s getting warmer, it’s time to detox and shed that extra cushion that your body was holding on to during the winter you little squirrel, you.

Great news is there are a lot of foods available this season that naturally detoxify and help you metabolize and shed fat. The bad news is that “detox foods” aren’t that fun to eat by themselves.

So, I thought I’d give you 3 naturally detoxifying foods each in a delicious, gourmet-tasting dish that will make you forget you are “cleansing”.

3 Delicious Dishes That Will Make You Forget You are “Detoxing”

1. Grapefruit, Avocado, and Watercress Salad

A natural fat-metabolizer, grapefruit is great first thing in the morning to help burn fat and stabilize your blood sugar.  Switch things up for breakfast and treat yourself to at at-home “spa day” with this salad.

(recipe adapted from Alice Waters’ “The Art of Simple Food”)
Section 2 ruby grapefruits and slice 2 avocados into 1/4-inch thin slices.  Arrange on a plate.

Squeeze the juice from the leftover grapefruit membranes (above) over the salad. Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt. Garnish with a few tablespoons watercress – a powerful liver detoxifier.

2. Sesame-Ginger Daikon Radish and Carrot Salad

“A daikon what?”, is what the burnt-out young cashier at the health food store said to me yesterday. It looks like a big-ass white carrot and is fabulous fat-detoxifier. If you eat a heavier dish like meats or cheese, it’s a great idea to have a wee bit of grated daikon radish on the side to help cut through the fat.

Not the tastiest vegetable (it tastes and smells like mustard…or well, radishes, I guess) but I added it into my trusty Carrot-Sesame-Ginger Salad recipe from Go Feed Yourself and it was quite refreshing.

Grate 1 cup of daikon radish and 1 cup of carrot.

Place radish and carrot in a bowl and mix with 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil and 1 tsp brown rice vinegar or umeboshi plum vinegar.  Serve topped with toasted sesame seeds.  Or wrap in a nori (sushi) wrap with avocado slices!

3. Tender Sauteed Leeks with Toasted Pine Nuts

Leeks are a natural diuretic and the detox and de-bloating food of choice in the popular book (and one of my favorites on “non-dieting”), “French Women Don’t Get Fat” by Mirielle Guiliano.

The term “effing delicious” does not do this dish justice. The only ingredients are leeks, olive oil, and salt but when you saute it over low heat they become so tender, sweet, and buttery.

My mom, who is not a fan of leeks or anything in the onion family, couldn’t get enough of it either.

Slice leeks (just the white and light green parts) very thinly.

Add to a pan with olive oil over low heat, sprinkle with sea salt and saute on low heat, stirring every minute or so until they are soft and tender and a bit caramelized. About 7 minutes.

Serve alone or top with toasted pine nuts or toasted hazelnuts. I seriously can’t wait to make more of this today.

There you have it!  Three spa-worthy dishes using foods that naturally help your body detox.

Much more pleasurable than a special tea that makes you sh*t your brains out, don’t you think?

I just got back from a few lovely days soaking up some sun in the Bahamas (with organic sunscreen on this pale Scottish face of mine, of course) with my sister.  So this week, I’m keeping it short and sweet.

Since I spent the last week treating myself to sun and a few tropical cocktails, I’ll let you treat yourself to my secret indulgent yet healthy 1-minute, cocoa-dusted dessert that I made up last year.

Click on the video below to learn how to make it and then go treat yourself!  It’s Friday after all:

All you need is (unsweetened) cocoa powder and a good quality yogurt - none of that sugar-laden, artificially flavored and colored bullsh*t.

I recommend an organic greek yogurt (hint: some of the most popular brands are not organic so read labels) or a plain organic yogurt.  If you have trouble with dairy, like many do, try an organic goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, or even coconut milk yogurt for a vegan option.

I also recommend avoiding fat-free.  WHAT?!  Yes.  The fat is what helps you digest all the good stuff in dairy, like vitamin D and calcium.

Plus the fat makes it more flavorful and satisfying, keeping you from over-doing it with more sugar.

I love Redwood Hill Farm‘s vanilla goat’s milk yogurt because it’s:

1. sweetened with pure maple syrup instead of sugar and
2. the vanilla is so vanilla-y that it really tastes like dessert.

Or you can always just go with plain yogurt and add your own maple syrup or raw honey so YOU can be in control of how much sweetener you take in.

Have you made up any other sweet healthy treats for yourself?  Share your ideas in the comments below!

I may have gone a little too far today.

In today’s video I share one of my favorite easy greens recipes:  Spanish Collard Green Ribbons.  The dish takes less than 10 minutes to make and the flavors are inspired by my favorite dish at my favorite Spanish restaurant (but unlike the restaurant dish, nothing is deep-fried in this recipe).

BUT, before we get cooking, I have to address something that I found quite disturbing. Click on the video below to learn what made me feel compelled to swig a bottle of Scotch before I got to cooking AND to learn this delicious, easy dish.

How can you copy the flavors in your favorite restaurant food and transform them into a healthy at-home dish?

Like the simplicity of this technique?  It’s included in Go Feed Yourself with dozens of other ideas for whipping up quick and healthy vegetable dishes in less than 10 minutes!

If you’ve been reading my stuff for a while, you know I’m not big on recipes during the work week – I prefer to prepare basic, healthy food as simply as possible and use exciting toppings and condiments to actually make it satisfying.

On Monday I came home starving with no prepared food in my fridge and no game-plan. The first things I look for when planning a meal that will keep me productive and energized are, in this order:

1. Dark, leafy greens
2. Protein

I saw a jar full of quinoa on my countertop (something I always keep on hand because its cooking time is so damn quick AND it’s the highest protein grain there is). So I cooked that up – 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I snagged a bunch of fresh kale that I had just picked up from the store (if I didn’t have that I could have grabbed some frozen broccoli in the freezer). Ripped that up and threw it in a steamer.

Quinoa with steamed kale? Blahhhhhhh.

No way I can finish a dish like that without immediately rummaging around for snacky-snacks or chocolate to satisfy me.  How about you?

So, I took a look around my kitchen and behold:  a half a bag of these wee purple potatoes that I used in a dish over the weekend. In my fridge – a few shallots (also on my Must-Have Pantry List).

While the quinoa was cooking, I preheated the oven to 475, thinly sliced up a handful of those tiny potatoes, sliced one shallot, and tossed them together with a bit of olive oil and sea salt.  Then stuck those puppies in the oven and roasted them until they got a bit crispy – because they are so small, it only took 15 minutes (just like the quinoa)!

So now we have quinoa, steamed kale, topped with crispy roasted potatoes and shallots. Hmmm…

My lunch is sounding pretty damn good, but for good measure, I decide to add more protein – a quick fried egg. No longer than 3 minutes.

(and finally some organic ketchup, I can’t resist having something that tastes so close to fries without it!)

See how simple it is to mix and match super-healthy food with tasty treats without feeling guilty?  With absolutely no plan, I had a delicious healthy lunch in 20 minutes.

All of your senses are involved in digesting and metabolizing your food.  The more satisfying a meal, the more efficiently you will digest it and the more alert you will be all afternoon.

So, to make a dish satisfying, what can you add to appeal to your senses? Make it more colorful – perhaps more veggies? Add some texture – like chopped nuts for crunchiness?

What is one way you can make your next meal more satisfying without trying too hard?

Want more mix and match meal ideas? Go Feed Yourself has got you covered – check it out!

When you have a busy week ahead of you, a great way to make sure you have satisfying food without too much prep work is to either roast a chicken or pick up a rotisserie chicken at the beginning of the week. (Vegan?  Do not fear!  I have a tasty veggie variation for you at the end of this post.)

The more flavorful parts, the legs and thighs, can be enjoyed alone with a side of veggies, a salad, or whole grains.

Then there’s the other part: the white meat chicken breast.  Not sure about you, but this part bores me to death.  Nothing feels more like punishment than a dry piece of skinless chicken breast.

BUT, there’s a healthy way you can sass them up!  Click on the video below to watch me quickly whip together a nice mediterranean chicken salad from a rotisserie chicken:

How would you turn this chicken into different dishes during the week?  Do you have a favorite meal-planning technique for making a chicken last?  Please share!

Recipe: Dijon Chicken (or Chickpea) Salad

Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (vegan option: 1 15-oz can garbanzo beans)
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1-2 tbsp dijon mustard
juice from 1/2 lemon
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs, like parsley

Directions

1. Cut chicken into small cubes and place in a medium sized bowl. (Or drain and rinse chickpeas and place in the bowl.)
2. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, and herbs until creamy.
3. Pour dressing over the chicken and mix gently to combine.
4. Serve over a mixed green salad or on top of a slice of sprouted grain toast.  Or can keep in the fridge covered for a couple of days.

This recipe along with other ideas for morphing basic cooked chicken into exciting weekday meals are included in my brand new program, Go Feed Yourself.  Check it out and join the dozens of members whipping up super-simple meals that keep them productive.  Enjoy!