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![Healthy Dessert Yogurt Parfaits @ The Happiness in Health](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/DSC07975-768x512.jpg)
Top Ten THIH Thanksgiving Recipes
Looking for some last-minute healthy Thanksgiving recipes? Look no further! I’ve gathered the ten best THIH Thanksgiving recipes right here. Happy Thanksgiving! Pomegranate Roasted Cornish HensHoney Lavender Pork Loin with Caramelized BananasMushroom Farro with Roasted Tomatoes and MarjoramRoasted Cauliflower and Carrot Salad with Spiced Chickpeas Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with RicottaSteamed Brussels Sprouts with Orange ReductionRoasted…
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Q&A on THIH, Part 4
As promised in my last post, I’ve written a Q&A about our recent move, with an added bonus of answering some of the “what in blazes have you been up to?” questions I frequently ask myself. Like, Q: Where has the time gone, oh wonderful Jessie? A: Haven’t a clue. One minute I was standing…
![Florida | Jessie @ The Happiness in Health](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IMG_2310-1-768x576.jpg)
New Places, New Foods, Part 3
Hello again, dear reader! As I mentioned in my last post, we’ve moved yet again. This time, we’ve traded fog for humidity, wine for key lime pie, and the rocky Pacific Northwest coast for sandy beaches and calm waves. That’s right! We’re now in Florida, the land of palm trees, incredibly nice people, and countless…
![Adaptable Oat Bars, Lactation Edition](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/DSC04581-1-768x512.jpg)
Adaptable Oat Bars, Lactation Edition
A healthy alternative to the traditional lactation cookie, these delicious whole grain lactation bars can help boost milk supply. Hello, dear reader! It’s simply wonderful to see you again. Please, put up your feet while I tidy a bit. The dust piles have gotten so big this time I think chipmunks have moved in. There….
![Chipotle Steak Salad | Jessie @ The Happiness in Health](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/DSC08447-768x512.jpg)
Healthy Holiday: Chipotle Steak Salad
Add a little “healthy” to your holiday menus with this easy chipotle steak salad! Peter is a genius. Obviously. Last spring, when we were putting away our artificial Christmas tree (yes, our Christmas tree was up until March–baby time-vortex, remember?), he removed the handful of breakable ornaments and shoved the tree into a tree bag….
![Healthy Yogurt Parfait @ The Happiness in Health](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/DSC07963-768x512.jpg)
Healthy Dessert: Cranberry and Yogurt Parfaits
I’m all about healthy dessert these days. Maybe it’s the knowledge that my nursing baby eats everything I eat. Or maybe it’s the fact I recently devoured three chocolate wedding drops on my birthday and immediately felt puffier than a marshmallow in a microwave. In any case, healthy dessert is on my radar. Remember the…
![Black Bean Power Bowl with Roasted Beets and Quinoa](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/featured-image-power-bowl-768x512.jpg)
Black Bean Power Bowl with Roasted Beets and Quinoa
Here’s a problem for you, my dear reader. The definition of Power is the rate at which Work is done–to wit, P = W/t (thank you, physics degree!) Work is measured by the displacement of an object by a Force (no, not THAT Force. People.) For example, you might pull the leash of an excitable…
![Grilled fish tacos with crabapple peach chutney](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/tacos-featured-768x512.jpg)
Grilled Fish Tacos with Crabapple-Peach Chutney {Recipe Redux}
So, yeah. About that promise I made to cook my way through The Little House Cookbook (my most influential cookbook of all time, remember) … It’s been over a year since I made that promise. And I’m now just getting to part two of this culinary journey. What can I say? It’s been an interesting…
![passionfruit cardamom ice cream](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/lilikoi-featured-768x512.jpg)
Liliko’i Cardamom ‘Ice Cream’ (or, tips for traveling with kids)
Tip #1: Do less. Before Baby J was born, Peter and I traveled like each trip was our last. Local sights were to be conquered. Strange foods were to be devoured. Success of a trip was measured by the level of exhaustion at the end (or the number of scuba tanks we emptied). We’ve been…
Curry Stuffed Zucchini Cups {Recipe Redux}
I have a record of making things harder for myself. For example: A delightful Easter repast? So much more, dear reader. Those are deviled quail eggs, a dish featured on THIH over three years ago and whose name is made up of two parts that should never, ever go together. For readers unfamiliar with quail…
Natural Baby Food Book Tour
Baby J is now 7+ months old. I’m not sure where the past half-year has gone (probably the same place to which his miniature socks disappear at an alarming rate), but time marches on heedless of desire for just one more day of fitting into his 9-month-size onesies. Delirium is dissipating; schedules are semi-predictable; discoveries…
Gluten-Free Blueberry Lemon Scones {Recipe Redux}
Back in 2013, I was working as a registered dietitian in Illinois, doing my own thing. I knew we would be moving to Oregon forthwith, leading to new adventures and a decision about the next step in my career. My enthusiasm and energy for building up another practice in a new area was nonexistent. I…
Gourmet Mini Sandwich Stacks {Recipe Redux}
When I was but a small tot — older than baby J, but not by much — I longed for one thing at lunch: a certain yellow box packed with bright yellow cheese squares, perfectly round slices of “ham,” and crackers akin to buttery Ritz crackers. On the side was a bag of flavored sugar…
The 5 Most Surprising Things About New Parenthood
(1) Newborns are TINY. The movies have it totally wrong. Newborns aren’t the size of toddlers. They’re small and fragile and that soft spot on top of their heads will freak you out long past their first birthdays. You’d think buying newborn clothes would have clued me in, but no. All I know is that…
Roasted Garlic Quinoa and Chickpeas {Recipe Redux}
If you’ve read THIH for a while, you’ll remember that I used to give recipes–ahem–unusual names. Like It’s Wild! Rebel Curry Fried Rice, Acorn Squash Cradles Avocado, Feta, Tomato and Egg, I Choose YOU! Shrimp Scampi, Salmon Swims Through Pineapple-Tomato Chutney, “I Meant to Fry Them But I Can’t Handle Hot Oil” Apple Cider Doughnuts,…
Breakfast Noodle Soup {Recipe Redux}
Early one morning in June 2014, Peter and I were driving down a dark, palm-lined road in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We joined the multitude of tourists bumping along the road in taxis, vans, tuk tuks, and on bicycles, all with one goal: to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. While we usually eschew must-dos that…
A Family of Three
A THIH welcome to little boy J, born in early December and already much loved. Happy Holidays, dear reader!
Vegan Mini Muffins with Lime and Toasted Coconut {Recipe Redux}
You all know how much I love my mini muffin pan. Decadent bite-sized desserts with built-in portion control? Yes, please! This pan has made all of the following: *Vegan cinnamon doughnuts *Pumpkin zucchini muffins *Spiced carrot cake fondue *Orange cardamom tea cakes *Dan tat (Egg custard tart) *Vegan pumpkin bread with cinnamon cashew cream *Gluten-free…
Three Tips for Eating Healthy While Pregnant
(1) Eat a regular diet–a healthy regular diet, that is. There’s no need to go on a gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan diet once you get two lines on your pregnancy test (unless, of course, you have celiac disease or a dairy allergy, in which case you’d already be on a special diet). Shoot for a varied…
How to Cook a Perfect Stir Fry {Recipe Repeat}
Hello, dear reader! This recipe is an oldie-but-goodie from the THIH archives. There’s nothing like a quick and healthy stir fry to make getting dinner on the table a snap! I love stir fries. They’re quick and easy, you can add tons of veggies, and they taste great over brown rice seasoned with turmeric and…
The Five Most Surprising Things About Pregnancy
(1) Morning sickness. I was so naïve going into this pregnancy — at least concerning morning sickness. Among the women I know who have had children, morning sickness ranged from indigestion and food aversions, to getting sick once a day and otherwise feeling fine, to no morning sickness at all. I figured I’d fall into…
Halloween: The Pumpkin-Stuffed Puppy
A few days ago, I was performing my daily pre-bedtime pregnancy routine of trying to find the most comfortable reclining position (spoiler: there is no such position) when I heard a shout from downstairs. “Jessie! The eyes are gone!” Peter said, somewhat more alarmed than usual. What in blazes? you may ask. Let me back…
Farro ‘n’ Lentil Stuffed Pepper Slices with Toasted Almonds {Recipe Redux}
Lately, I’ve been bringing a tasting bowl of farro or brown rice, lentils, carrots, hummus, and guacamole for lunch every day. Oh, and cheese. Because there’s always cheese. The combination of whole grains, lean protein, vegetables, and healthy fats keep me and baby going all afternoon. One of the ways I amuse myself (which tells…
Q&A on THIH, Part 3: Baby Edition
Why, hello there! I’m just relaxing here, holding my new favorite book in our future baby’s nursery corner. Come join me! After Monday’s announcement post, I reckon it would be good to pause and reflect on the forthcoming addition to the THIH household. As with prior life changes, I will be doing so in the…
A Tiny Announcement
Arriving in December *****
Italian Soup with White Beans and Kale {Recipe Redux}
It must be MBA program time again (a.k.a. the singularity that absorbs all free time and spits out bargains with my towering pile of school work for “just one more minute” of blissful sleep). Not that I’m dramatic about it. Mountains of reading and writing and presentations need satiating fuel that can be whipped up…
Simply Tart Rhubarb Apple Crisp {Recipe Redux}
You’d never know it based on the mercury bursting out the top of our hypothetical old-timey thermometer, but fall is approaching. Soon we’ll be donning wool clothing and making non-ironic pumpkin recipes. I can’t wait. These 100+ degree temperatures have been wearing away at me faster than a hot dessert over ice cream. Speaking of….
The Little House Cookbook, Part 1: Apple Turnovers
Back in June, I lamented the fact that I was so busy, I couldn’t fulfill my summertime goal of cooking my way through The Little House Cookbook. No longer! Although summer is almost is over, my goal remains. Why not make it a long-term goal? Over the next however long (way to make a SMART…
The Chainsaw Carving Master
Peter has a lot of hobbies. Since I started THIH eons ago, he has taken up or continued practicing the following: (1) Making kitchen knives. (2) Playing obscure German-made board games (among others). (3) Elaborate chocolate-making using a 45-pound single-purpose chocolate tempering machine. (4) Wiring his own sous vide machines and making large quantities of…
Pumpkin Zucchini Mini Muffins {Recipe Redux}
Last week, Peter and I were dragging Maddie past our neighborhood’s community garden (which apparently smells like doggie catnip) when two women emerged from the tangle of tomato vines and sunflower stalks. Each was holding an inappropriately-large zucchini and laughing between words. “Would you … like … one?” That’s how we became the owners of…
Mini Blackberry Pie Smoothies {Recipe Redux}
I had big plans for this summer. Giant plans. Maddie‘s appetite-sized plans. Not only was I going to update THIH regularly, I was also going to kick-start a couple of projects, prepare for a class I’m taking later this summer, and cook my way though the entirety of The Little House Cookbook. I even bought…
![Three Steps to Easy Meal Planning](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AMNW-pic.jpg)
Three Steps to Easy Meal Planning
Lesson #1 when doing a TV segment: Always know where your props are. Then you won’t come thisclose to knocking over your whiteboard on live television. Lesson #2: Take honest stock of your artistic talents before attempting to draw an animal that will appear on previously mentioned live television. Lesson #3: Attempts to “fancy up”…
Strawberry-Basil Infused Water {Recipe Redux}
It was the “lizard hands” comment that got me thinking. A few weeks ago, in the midst of some serious fifth grade-style hand holding, Peter lifted my hand to his eyes. He squinted at my fingers as if I had sprouted an extra digit, or perhaps some fur. “What?” I asked, already thinking about my…
Tomato-Corn Tortilla Soup with Fresh Lime {Recipe Redux)
You know time is racing by when another Recipe Redux comes up and you swear you just posted the last one. Has it really been a month since then? Peter and I have been so swamped with work and other obligations that we’ve barely had time to stop and smell the roses. Somehow, the Recipe…
Sage & Sweet Potato Quesadilla {Recipe Redux}
It’s no secret that times are busy in the THIH household. Peter and I have been tag-teaming dinners (and by “tag-teaming,” I mean Peter is going the extra, extra mile), and each meal has been as simple as possible. If you could managed to decipher the blurry chicken-scratch on the menu board in my last…
Five Things I’m Loving Lately, Part 6
Giveaway winner at end of post! (1) The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are not here yet; they will be published later this year. In the meantime, you — yes, YOU — have the power to give your opinion on the work-in-progress. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recently released a scientific report designed to keep…
The Vegetarian Flavor Bible Book Tour & A Giveaway!
There comes a time in a dietitian’s and food blogger’s life when the culinary stars align, and you find yourself staring at an email in disbelief. For me, that moment came a few weeks ago when I opened an invitation to be on the virtual book tour for The Vegetarian Flavor Bible, a new book…
Self-Care and the Power of the Lentil
We’re experiencing spring in February. All around us, flowers are bursting into bloom, showing off their pink and yellow blossoms with as much enthusiasm as they can muster. I hear regular reports from Peter’s parents and Courtney about the below freezing temperatures and mountainous snowdrifts in the northeast US, and I count us lucky that…
Dark Chocolate-Dipped Meringues {Recipe Redux}
A strange thing happens when I encounter chocolate. Besides being top on my list of favorite foods, chocolate tends to multiply in my presence. I may start out with a drizzle of chocolate here or there. Then, without warning, this elixir of higher powers multiples until all chocolate breaks loose. A force this powerful needs…
The Smokey BEGG {Recipe Redux}
A transformation is going on in the THIH household. Will Maddie will stop eviscerating obnoxiously large dog toys all over the furniture? Please. Will celery made a regular appearance on the dinner table? Dear reader, I weep. Will Jessie see the sun on a winter’s day in Oregon? About as likely as Jessie referring to…
The Places We’ve Been: Vietnamese Pho Noodle Soup
With every year that passes, I dwell more and more on the past. Life can be divided into segments based on any number of criteria: age, particular people, school versus the rest of your life, before/after Madeline, etc. etc. For me, recent life is divided into places. There were the Amherst years, sure. They were…
Five Ways to Re-envision Yourself in the New Year
Resolutions. A vision for the future. Reinventing yourself. The New Year mantras are the same every year. A new year means a new you, right? Not so fast. This year, I challenge you to try something different. Instead of reinventing yourself, try re-envisioning yourself. Why? “Reinventing” implies that you are flawed, that those wobbly bits…
Bison-Stuffed Tomatoes with Garlic & Scallions {Recipe Redux}
“What IS that?” you say. Well. Let me tell you. With the craziness this fall, I’ve cooked as many times as I can count on one hand — if that hand was wearing a mitten. And when I say “cook,” I mean “drag out a cookbook and actually combine ingredients in a new or semi-new…
Homegrown Butternut Squash & Sage Pasta {Recipe Redux}
A few weeks ago, I looked up from a stressful email I was composing to see Peter grinning over a massive plate of fragrant pasta. “Happy Birthday,” he said. “Eat.” Tossed among the hearty spaghetti strands were hunks of sweet roasted butternut squash, toasted pine nuts, sauteed sausage, and fresh-plucked leaves of sage. Ravenous, I…
5 Things I’ve Learned This Autumn
1. MOE turned into a gorilla. An angry gorilla who doesn’t want me to sleep more than 3-4 hours a night. What? You’re saying that I’m holding a yellow rectangle in the picture above because I copied my cartoon from the butter disaster post of 2012 and then just reversed it? Well … maybe. 2….
Get Your Dehydrator On {Recipe Redux}
I’ll admit right off the bat – I don’t have a new recipe for you, dear reader. I had visions of a mountain of garden bounty reduced to the size of a teacup and warm coconut macaroons giving off a delightful rich, sweet scent. But then MOE interfered. What a bummer, especially as I was…
Monday Munchies, Part 35: Dietitian on the Weekend
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day – in this case, a Saturday three weeks ago (no, I’m not kidding). I thought about scrapping this day; however, as you’ll see, this day shows, once again, that there’s no such thing…
![Back to School Cool](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/good-MOE.jpg)
Back to School Cool
is the dorkiest post title possible; yet, I share it with you, dear reader, because you are that special. As I’ve mentioned, I recently began an MBA program. To describe what the first few weeks of school and learning have been like, imagine meeting a particularly energetic monkey. After meeting MOE, you’re strolling along, minding…
Dark Chocolate Cherry Quinoa Bites {Recipe Redux}
Remember these? While these rich cookies packed with dark chocolate and tart cherries are perfect for marathon baking session the day before you get married (as a random example), they are a definite sometimes food. Yet the flavors of chocolate and cherry needn’t be confined to extravagant desserts. Now that I’m going back to school,…
Classic Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp
Rhubarb is one of those foods that people either love or hate.* Pleasantly tart and sour to some, like choking down Class 8 Hazardous Materials to others, gently-cooked rhubarb often finds its way into desserts.** It’s botanically a vegetable but devoured like a fruit***; in fact, it’s so often used in pies and tarts, rhubarb…
Caramelized Strawberry Banana Breakfast Blend
By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by National Dairy Council and the Quaker Oats Center of Excellence and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time. You know those fashion articles* that expound the virtues of mixing expensive clothes with cheapies from…
Q&A on THIH, Part 2
I still haven’t found my camera wire, and the ominous crunching sounds coming from my camera after spending three hours in a whirling sandstorm (more on that later) suggest I may have a problem with my future photography. No matter. Cell phone pictures can be high-quality, can they not? What? You can’t tell that’s Maddie…
Caribbean Goat Stew {Recipe Redux}
M’dear reader, time is flying faster than Peter’s hand when he added the twentieth destroyed item discovered in the aftermath of our recent move to the damage list. 2.9979×10^8 m/s fast. I promised you a Q&A on THIH, Part 2, and I will deliver. Probably after I find that gosh dagged camera wire under layers…
New Places, New Foods, Part 2
Why, hello there! As with the last first-post-after-hiatus, this post will be short and shiny. (Not short and sweet. Registered dietitian here, remember?) Peter and I have been on many adventures over the past few months, adventures of which I will relay in an somewhat cursory fashion in the near future. To give away the…
Our Bonnie Lass
The first time I met Bonnie, I was seventeen and Peter and I had known each other only a few weeks. Although we weren’t yet dating, Peter introduced me to his parents and his special pup during Parents’ Weekend at our school. I still remember the moment Bonnie ran to Peter, her new Amherst College…
Lemon Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Gorgonzola {Recipe Redux}
One consequence of moving every year or two is the inevitable Panicked Purge of Purchases prior to each move. This anxious time period is marked by the reappearance of the erstwhile Bard of J-Town as she sings of her troubles and the ever-growing pile of items to be donated ASAHPBWMD (As Soon As Humanely Possible…
Monday Munchies, Part 34: The Burgeoning Pantry
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day – in this case, yesterday (Sunday). Breakfast, 7 am: An unusual departure from my typical Bircher muesli fare, this smoothie was made from blended yogurt, frozen berries, and a tiny banana, and was…
What is Clean Eating?
Recently, I gave a nutrition talk to a women’s club. I’ve done these sort of talks before, and I have them mapped out with the precision of a sleepy Monday morning commuter attempting to jam her subway pass into a vending machine (which is to say, rather loosely – I prefer to leave room for…
Grilled Veggie Stacks with Balsamic Syrup {Recipe Redux}
I think about veggies like a parched marathoner thinks about a drop of water. (Not that I would know. The farthest distance I’ve run was in 2008 when I shambled through 10 miles with no build-up training. I regretted it for several days afterward.) What I mean to say is, veggies rule. I talk about…
Why I Love National Nutrition Month
1. The awesome catchphrases. The theme of this year’s National Nutrition Month is “Enjoy the Taste of Eating Right.” Catchy, yes no? Most people choose foods based on taste rather than nutrition, and this choice makes sense. Fortunately, you can have it both ways, and that’s what this year’s theme is all about. Start with…
Whole Grain Herbed Flatbread
On principle, Peter gravitates towards dishes packed with as much fat and sugar as can fit in a mouthful. Is there an equivalent for supersaturation of empty calories? Because Peter would be there, pushing the boundaries of space and time to MacGuyver a super SUPER saturation concoction. Need proof? Um, yeah. Not that Peter necessarily…
Five Things with which I am Moderately Pleased, Part 2
1. The FDA’s proposed changes to the Nutrition Facts label. This tidbit has been all over the news this past week. The FDA’s proposed changes to the Nutrition Facts label would be the first major modification since 2006 when the administration added trans fat. The changes reflect the latest research into diet and chronic disease…
Caramelized Carrot Soup
When I was a kid who was far too old to adore these sort of cartoons, I was a huge fan of The Magic School Bus. For those of you not familiar with the show (and you have my deepest sympathies), the Magic School Bus was a TV series about a unique teacher named Ms….
Monday Munchies, Part 33: The Little Miracle Dog
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day (in this case, last Friday = Valentine’s Day. Not sure why I can’t seem to pick a regular day for these). Fuzzy, teetering pictures, here we go. Breakfast, 7:30 am: Bircher muesli with…
Spiced Carrot Cake Fondue {Lighter Choices}
When I agreed to do another cooking segment on WICD, I was determined to find a recipe that both fit their Valentine’s Day theme and I wouldn’t mind preparing over and over. What better than a dessert fondue, the ultimate interactive dish wed with implied intimacy? Miniature muffins it is! Of course, I underestimated the…
Why It’s OK to Hate Exercise (and a Weight Loss Update)
You don’t need to look closely at this website to discover I strongly dislike exercise. I don’t hate it, exactly (I reserve that word for celery, self-absorption, and driving twenty miles per hour under the speed limit in the passing lane); it’s more of a struggle against inertia. Despite paying lavish attention to healthy food,…
Creamy Caramelized Onion Dip
I used to say there were two types of people when it comes to the Super Bowl: (1) Those who are rarin’ fans, eager to discuss every minutiae of football (like goodness what kind of chips will we be eating when they do the replay??), and (2) Super Bowl? I used to think I belonged…
Whole Grain Black Forest Dessert Pizza {Recipe Redux}
Last week, we had our friends Arden and Dan over for a night of pizza and board games (otherwise known as Living Large in Central Illinois, or LLCI. That’s an official abbreviation, by the way.) We made our usual: thin-crust tomato pizzas with plenty of garlic and smoked mozzarella, grilled to perfection on the Big…
Five Things with which I Am Moderately Pleased, Part 1
In other words, Loving Lately‘s slightly less pleasing cousin. (1) Weight loss and relationships. This article in Today’s Dietitian gave me both hope and disappointment. It supports (with a very small sample size) my impressions of the success of weight-loss efforts when relationships are factored in. When someone seeking to lose weight has a supportive…
Spicy Mango Lime Salsa
Now that the holidays are over and the grey of Winter has set its sharp teeth into the landscape, our meals need more color than ever. These kitchen rainbows can be accomplished one of three ways: (1) Layer those fruits and vegetables and layer ’em thick. (2) Red Dye No. 40 and its ilk. (3)…
Monday Munchies, Part 32: The Day of Cheese
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place last Saturday, and the title of this post is accurate. Breakfast, 8 am: Bircher muesli with 1/2 tiny banana, frozen mango & pineapple, and a handful of popped amaranth…
Wild Blueberry Vegan “Ice Cream” with Ginger & Lemon
By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by the Wild Blueberry Association of North America and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time. I question my wisdom. While most parts of the U.S. were experiencing record lows on Monday and Tuesday, I…
Crispy Roast Duck with Wild Blueberry Sauce and Blueberry Hazelnut Quinoa
By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by the Wild Blueberry Association of North America and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time. When I was in my oatmeal phase, I ate frozen blueberries with my breakfast every morning. Each steaming hot…
Throwing Off the Bowlines
Well. Unlike an international art thief fleeing with the largest score of all time, I didn’t anticipate disappearing off the face of the earth. I haven’t gone so long without posting since I restarted THIH in August 2012. This holiday season has been stressful, and not just because of our pup. Anyone who says your…
Holiday Greetings, 2013 Edition!
Like in last year’s post, all the ornaments (except the lights) were featured in cartoon posts from this past year. Can you find them all?
Holiday Recipes and Lately
It’s arrived. Hexagonal lattices of hydrogen and oxygen polar covalent bond-ing it up. I knew I took chemistry for something. Bonnie and Maddie demonstrate snow pollination: I mentioned starting as the new registered dietitian at the awesome one-stop-shop for healthy living, Mettler Center. I kicked off my tenure by setting up a tasting table packed…
Popped Amaranth Granola “Parfait”
Amaranth is my new favorite grain. I’ve cooked with it a lot recently and I’m not sorry. This nutty grain is a chameleon in the culinary world: I’ve eaten it like rice, cooked into pudding, baked into bread, and popped in granola. How about a holiday batch of granola? (By the way, if you’re wondering…
Monday Munchies, Part 31: In the Bleak Midwinter
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place last Thursday on my first day as the new registered dietitian at the Mettler Center in Champaign (more on that later). Breakfast, 6:45 am: Bircher muesli with sliced tiny banana…
Roasted Delicata Squash with Cinnamon White Beans
Shortly before my birthday, my sister Courtney called to announce that a package was winging its way toward me. I forgot about it until a large and extremely heavy box arrived on our doorstep several days later. Inside were a selection of beautiful homegrown squashes: Delicata, butternut, spaghetti. Truly the best gift a food enthusiast…
Steamed Brussels Sprouts with Orange Reduction
With everything that’s been going on, Peter and I haven’t cooked much lately. Paging through countless cookbooks for a new recipe or digging out a frozen item from the bottom of our cavernous chest freezer (seriously, it’s like excavating a T-rex skull during a sandstorm in there) feels more like a chore than ever. We’ve…
The Thankful Thanksgiving
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the eye to see a sunrise and the heart to appreciate it, the fortune to worry about the changing temperature of our turkey rather the inability to have a Thanksgiving meal, wonderful friends to play board games with, and a day with both our precious pups.
Brief Update
Dear Reader, I apologize for my absence. When the dog who has been your husband’s loyal companion for literally half that husband’s lifetime and who you’ve known since you were a gawky teenager and she was barely out of puppyhood has only a few weeks left, it’s hard to think about food and nutrition. I’ll…
Spiced Chocolate Amaranth Pudding
Lately, I’ve been all about the grains. Farro, quinoa, amaranth, rice, teff – their unique health benefits make tasting a variety of grains a smart choice. Of course, if there’s chocolate involved, all thoughts of “diet variety” disappear faster than the old peppers in our dried-up garden when a hungry Maddies is around (oh, how…
The Adventures of Super RD, Volume 1
P.S. In Monday’s post, I promised you a full reveal of our newest kitchen addition. Now I have to eat my words. I’ve since found out I won’t be able to reveal this tool until sometime in December. Dear reader, I apologize!
Five Things I’m Loving Lately, Part 5
1. FDA stance on artificial trans fats. Many of us have heard about the Food and Drug Administration’s preliminary determination that partially hydrogenated oils are not GRAS (generally recognized as safe). Partially hydrogenated oils are the main dietary source of trans fat in foods like prepackaged baked items, crackers, and baking mixes. This is huge…
The Life List
The 29th Birthday Life List* ** *** Edit: Last updated May 4, 2021, and gosh, I was optimistic as a gal in my 20s. After three kids, some of these items will take a little longer to complete than I originally thought. + [1] Run a half marathon. [2] Knit and donate 25 scarves and…
The BEGG
You guys. I’ve discovered my new favorite everyday meal. It’s a revelation. I have Courtney to thank for it. While we were visiting California, she told me about a meal she and her boyfriend prepare at least once a week. They call it “begg”, but I prefer to think of it as “The BEGG”. Once…
Vegan Homemade Snickers Bites
When I was in high school, my dad was my chauffeur (one of many thankless jobs he did for me and my sisters). Once a week, he would pick me up after cross-country practice to drive me to my violin lesson. In the car he always had a Snickers bar. Not a little one. Oh,…
Monday Munchies, Part 30: The Squash and the Headshot
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place last Saturday, almost a month after my last MM. Let’s hop to it, chaps! Breakfast, 7:30 am: Bircher muesli (what else?) with thawed peaches and chia seeds. Served with…
Wild Rice and Hazelnut Stuffed Acorn Squash
Ever since Peter helpfully reminded me about our wild rice stash in the basement, I’ve wanted to make up for my lack of knowledge about anything below our ground floor. While poking around our basement, I discovered several things: [1] We’ve become experts at buying and forgetting about specialty ramen and snack packs of seaweed…
Slow Cooker Cinnamon Apple Butter {Recipe Redux}
Recently, Peter picked up a bag of honeycrisp apples from a nearby warehouse club. He was so excited about finding his favorite apple variety, we barely made it home before he bit down on the first delectable fruit. And almost spat it out. That horrified face will remain etched in my memory, to emerge at…
Curry Fried Rice with Maple Kale & Crispy Tofu
While shuffling webpages around to make room for THIH’s new Media page, I came across my recipe archive from before I started using Recipage. It had been so long since I looked for these recipes, I’d forgotten some of them existed. Reading the page also reminded me of when I used to give recipes ……
The Painter’s Palette Coleslaw
When I was in high school, I took more art classes than physics classes, which in retrospect is odd considering my college years (turn back now, Jessie!). I think (hope) my high school still has the chair my classmates and I painted in the style of my favorite artist, Georgia O’Keeffe. That was the peak…
Five Things I’m Loving Lately, Part 4
(1) Goodbye giant eyesores. The sunflowers are no more! That’s how I wish the sunflowers met their demise; alas, even my top-notch ninja skills are no match for the indestructibility of gigantic useless plants. In reality, Peter went at them with an electric handsaw. I took my opportunity to awkwardly compare my arm to one…
Sweetpotato Apple Bake with Cinnamon Sweetpotato “Ice Cream”
{Disclosure} I received free samples of California sweetpotatoes mentioned in this post. By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by the California Sweetpotato Council and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time. We’ve been friends for a long time, you and I….
Vegan Pumpkin Bread with Cinnamon Cashew Cream
I’ve been loving vegan recipes lately. I suppose it’s due to the revelation that there’s no one right way to make many wonderful things, including cake. Just as we can be flexible in our approaches to healthy living and/or weight loss, we can also be flexible in the kitchen. That means diets promising instant weight…
Monday Munchies, Part 29: The Projectile Produce
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place last Friday, and I almost didn’t post them because the day was kind of bizarre. The bizarreness began at 2:30 am, when I inadvertently woke for the day. I…
Update Your Plate, Part 9: The Veggie Stagnation Edition
This post is a continuation of the Update Your Plate series, where I demonstrate how to use MyPlate to plan your meals. Read the story behind Update Your Plate here. The hyper-observant may remember a passing reference in this post to a series of morning radio segments I’ve been doing. If so, wow. I’m impressed….
Roasted Cauliflower and Carrot Salad with Spiced Chickpeas
Last Wednesday, I reached into our pantry for our bulk bag of farro. After the delicious success of the last farro salad, I was chomping to use this whole grain again. I opened the paper bag of farro, and out poured … a cloud of pantry moths. I screamed like on this day nearly a…
Raw Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups {The Recipe Redux}
At choir rehearsal a few days ago, I declared to a table of pitch-perfect singers that sausage was my fourth favorite food in the world (a very sometimes food if I ever saw one). You can imagine the follow-up question. “That’s strangely specific,” said our excellent choir director. “What are your top three foods?” Well….
Whole Grain Pasta Salad with Lemon Mustard Dressing
Another pasta recipe? But of course! The weather has finally cooled from 95+ degrees F to breezy 70s. Bring on the warm jackets and wool skirts and jeans! (Or possibly all at once for the most amazing fashion disaster this side of Illinois.) Yet, I cling to the tastes of summer. Just because it feels…
Why I Knit
Because … in the midst of never-ending life projects and indeterminate finish lines, knitting gives me a sense of accomplishment. Because … knitting shows me utility and beauty can co-exist. Because … knitting teaches me how to make fast choices and stick with them for the long haul. Because … knitting shows me I can…
Why I Love My Mini-Muffin Pan {Vegan Cinnamon Doughnuts}
Mini desserts. Bite-sized “sometimes” foods. Travel-sized snacks. All great reasons to love your mini-muffin pan. You’ve seen me use one before to make these gluten-free chocolate muffins, these orange cardamom tea cakes, and my personal favorite, dan tat. One thing’s for sure: You’ll be seeing this mini muffin pan again. Like next week. Perhaps even…
Spicy Whole Grain Pasta with Sweet Raisins and Toasted Pine Nuts
As promised in my last post, today is the day for spicy whole grain pasta. With other tasty additions, like raisins and toasted pine nuts. … Wait. Raisins? That’s right, my culinarily adventurous friend! Raisins are the perfect addition to spicy tomato sauce. They add just the right amount of sweetness. There’s nothing quite like…
Monday Munchies, Part 28: The Definition of Insanity
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place last Friday and reveal a little secret about me *gasp!* First, Maddie wanted to thank you for your wonderful reactions to Dog Week. On to the day’s eats! Breakfast,…
A Day in the Life of Madeline
Welcome to Dog Week on THIH! Check out the Monday’s post (peanut butter frozen yogurt treats) here and Wednesday’s post (15 Lessons I’ve Learned from Our Dogs) here. Hello hello hello! Madeline here! While the Jessie-beast is busy cleaning up the bits of paper towel roll I helpfully scattered across the kitchen, I figured I’d…
15 Lessons I’ve Learned from Our Dogs
(1) Stand tall and reach for the stars (or at least the top of the table). You may find something delicious(ly-fulfilling) there. (2) Getting plenty of rest is non-negotiable. (3) It’s okay to show your vulnerable side. (4) Don’t be afraid to speak up (Maddie isn’t). (5) Make room in your diet for veggies. (6)…
Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt Treats {for dogs}
It’s Dog Week on THIH! In honor of National Dog Day, this week’s posts will celebrate our canine companions. We’ll begin with a homemade frozen dog treat with only three ingredients: yogurt, peanut butter and banana. I was inspired to create these treats after finding frozen treats at a pet store for $1 a pop….
I Have Sunflower Envy
Illinois, we have a problem. Remember my last sunflower update? Well, . That would be our 11.5 foot-tall sunflower. We’ll have to zoom out to see the full effect. Apparently, having stalks thicker than my arm is not enough to keep the larger sunflowers from drooping over like Peter when it’s past his bedtime. I’m…
How to Cook a Perfect Stir Fry
I love stir fries. They’re quick and easy, you can add tons of veggies, and they taste great over brown rice seasoned with turmeric and cardamom. You can go from ingredients to finished dish in fifteen minutes. They’re perfect for using up extra leftovers. What’s not to love? Still, this tasty dish often isn’t the…
Herbed Summer Squash Saute
This past weekend, I held my open hours at Strawberry Fields during a special event welcoming students back to town. The store was packed. Like, lines across the store and oops-sorry-I-knocked-over-that-stack-of-goji-berries crowded. You know what else was packed? The shelves I typically use to help juggle my various papers, samples, and other sundries. I had…
Ground Cherry Pudding Pie
Life is moving so fast. Summer draws to a close. Although I don’t work at the local university (except for one of my consulting gigs), parts of my schedule are dictated by the school year. That’s what happens when returning students increase your town population several-fold. I’ve been working on several projects related to the…
Monday Munchies, Part 27: Fast Food & Pastries
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place last Saturday (two days ago), a day that will go down as the most “sometimes” food-filled day in recent gustatory history. Warning: What you see here may shock you….
Creamy Asian Coleslaw: The Do-Over
I thought I was so clever. We had a local head of green cabbage in the fridge, friends coming over for dinner and board games, and space in our dinner menu for a delicious vegetable. Why not try something completely new with no reference recipes on hand? What could possibly go wrong? Peter was making…
Five Things I’m Loving Lately, Part 3
(1) Vegan baked recipes I recently vegan-ized my Most Popular Chocolate Date Cake for a dinner party. Dear reader, it was good stuff. Served warm with a little coconut milk ice cream, this cake made the perfect end to a delicious meal. Coconut oil and chia seed “eggs” have become my new staples. I’m stoked…
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies
When I was in high school, my dad made these incredibly soft chocolate chip cookies in which the butter and oil was replaced with applesauce. They were about the size of brie cheese wheels, which meant they were small cakes, really. I could devour one as a quick mini-meal. When I became homesick during my…
This is Why I’m Not a Gardener, Part 2
Dear reader, I must apologize. I’ve mentioned our garden in passing, even hinted at its immense size in several posts. Yet, I’ve never shown you the full picture of this gargantuan suburban jungle. Well, . On the left are large bins with three kinds of heirloom melons. The vines are so long, they dangle off…
Wild Rice Tempeh Salad with Roasted Tomatoes & Fresh Mint
Imagine a world without mint. No more mint chocolate chip ice cream. No more refreshing mojitos. No way to get those onions from lunch off your breath (brushing teeth is so overrated). I refuse to live in such a world. Lately, I’ve been putting mint in just about anything: drinks, soup, sandwiches, salads and more….
Monday Munchies, Part 26: The Giant Sunflower
Remember these tiny plants? The title of this post says it all. Things have gotten a little … out of control. The only way I can reach the top of the tallest sunflower (about nine feet in height) is by standing on the deck. All five surviving sunflowers have grown taller than Peter. I suppose…
The Weekend Brunch
Last weekend, we invited some friends and their kiddies to our home for a mid-morning brunch. I had planned to share a recipe for one of the dishes I made, but it turned out so blah that I can’t possibly subject you to it. Still, I’ll show you what we served at this kid-friendly brunch….
How to Make Your Own Almond Milk
The day has arrived! I declared in the comments of this post that I planned to make my own almond milk. Unusually, I followed up on that bold statement within a few weeks. Partly because I had a little extra time this week, and mostly because I ran out of store-bought almond milk. In any…
Coconut Almond Date Balls
Peter and I have taken a few road trips lately – for example, this trip to Nashville where I’m pretty sure Peter secretly decided to erase all my “Wait, Wait” podcasts and replace them with board game- and economics-related podcasts (and if you’re thinking, “hey, that doesn’t sound too bad!”, then you haven’t heard these…
The Trouble with Grocery Shopping
A side note: I know it’s possible to eat healthy on a budget. Still, I’ve been continuously surprised at how cheap meat can be here. Why buy a pound of bell peppers when you can buy a pound of 80%/20% fat ground beef for half the price? And I haven’t even mentioned packaged goods. Geez.
Cilantro-Lime Fish Tacos
Why, hello there! We had a visitor over the weekend: Peter’s brother, “Death Sauce” Dave, came to sample all Eastern-Central Illinois had to offer. We enjoyed Golden Harbor and Papa Del’s pizza, checked out Allerton Park, played a ridiculous number of board games, and had a great time hanging out. We also paid a visit…
Monday Munchies, Part 25: An Old Favorite
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place last Friday, when my pictures gradually moved from not-too-bad to terrible. Breakfast, 8 am: Bircher muesli topped with 1/2 yellow peach, champagne mango, chia seeds and homemade rhubarb pudding….
Soy Good: The Lowdown on Non-Dairy Milk Alternatives
This post is adapted from my post on Stone Soup, the blog of Food and Nutrition Magazine, which is a publication of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. I remember my first taste of almond milk. Clutching an enormous glass between unsteady fingers, I took a tentative sip of the pale liquid – and loved…
This is Why I’m Not a Gardener
Recently I was talking with my sister Courtney on Skype. While giving her the grand tour of our flourishing garden (seriously, the melon plants are so large, their vines are slowly strangling the tomatoes), I described my despair at how the heirloom flowers I planted back in March refused to bloom. Me: I’ve been watering…
Nut Butter & Jelly Smoothie and A Giveaway!
Attention, THIH readers! Giveaway at end of post. I regularly receive offers to review products and services, and up ’til now, I’ve always turned them down. I’d consciously decided not to give reviews in exchange for products because, well, I didn’t want to bother. I’ve had a couple of giveaways on THIH before (years ago…
The Day After Fireworks
Happy (day after) Independence Day! Along with two old friends and two new friends, Peter and I enjoyed a picnic while we waited for the fireworks show. The last time we saw fireworks, we were driving back to CT from VT the day before we picked up little Maddies. Back in 2008. As you can…
Wasabi-Ginger Salmon Burgers
How about this mugshot? I found this mug at the back of a cabinet yesterday. I received it as a gift when I briefly worked at the Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, CT. It seems like we were there a lifetime ago; although, I’ll never forget those stubby T-rex arms. This museum…
Monday Munchies, Part 24: The Forgotten Day
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. Why did I title this post “the forgotten day”? Because I have no idea which day this is. I found the pictures on my camera and POOF! here we are. So far my…
The Gingerbread of Summer
If you’ve read this blog for a while, you will know I’ll eat just about anything. Goat stew? Bring it on. Thinly-sliced pig ear? Had it last week. Deep-fried milk and stinky tofu? But of course. In fact, there’s only one food I refuse to eat. That wasn’t always the case. It seems impossible to…
The Farro and the Storm
We’ve been having some wacky weather the past few days. Por ejemplo: Besides looking like something out of The Day After Tomorrow, the sky split repeatedly as lightning hit the ground not far away. I tried to capture a picture using a tripod and a long exposure, yet the clouds remained stubbornly blank during every…
Five Things I’m Loving Lately, Part 2
1. Deviled quail eggs. I found these quail eggs at a local Asian grocery. To imagine how the deviled eggs were made, think of me hunched over a plateful of eggs, each the size of your thumbnail, scooping minute yolk halves from so-thin-they’re-translucent whites. Feast your eyes, because I’m never making these again. At least…
Gluten-Free Chocolate Flaxseed Cupcakes
I’m pretty much over the cupcake trend. Sure, they’re cute and can satisfy a cake craving in one bite. You can make different flavors in one batch. You can experiment with different toppings in the same recipe, or try out your new cupcake tin liners, or enjoy a baked dessert in 20 minutes, or ……
Chickpea Curry with Warm Tortillas
I like fast dinners. Not in the “I’ll get a fries with that, and how about some of that special sauce?” sense, but rather in the throw-everything-in-the-same-pot-and-it-still-turns-out-delicious sense. Sometimes this preference drives Peter nuts (“a stir-fry again?”). Of course, he’s the one whistling over his sous vide machine for two hours while simultaneously baking Parmesan…
Monday Munchies, Part 23: Seaweed, Figs and More
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day (last Tuesday when I was constantly running around). Still made time for proper meals, including breakfast, a.k.a. the day’s nutritional foundation! Breakfast, 7 am: Bircher muesli made with honey Noosa yogurt and almond…
Fruit and Mint Quinoa Salad with Honey Lime Dressing
By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by National Honey Board and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time. Surprise! I usually don’t post on Sundays, but today I decided to break the THIH mold. Why? (1) It’s Sunday, SUNDAY, Sunday ……
The Sunflower Destroyer
About a month ago, Peter mentioned a strange thing to me. He’d been weeding in the garden and noticed melons randomly sprouted among his tomatoes and peppers. Assuming they had grown from thinned melon seedlings thrown into the garden to biodegrade, he unceremoniously yanked them from the ground. I didn’t think anything of this incident…
Honey Lavender Pork Loin with Caramelized Bananas
By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by National Honey Board and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I received a gift card to offset the expense of my ingredients. Honey. Just the name invokes images of sweet desserts and savory dishes with a hint of something extra….
The Scuba Diaries
Last week, Peter and I went scuba diving with his parents in Bonaire, an island in the Caribbean which is a municipality of the Netherlands. I’ve described previous trips to Bonaire here: Welcome to Bonaire and A Day in the Life of a Scuba Diver. Check out these posts to read what it’s like to…
Cranberry and Toasted Almond Biscotti
Everyone needs a good biscotti recipe. These lightly-sweetened biscuits are the lace trimmings of the dessert world: classy at a casual brunch, yet gorgeous enough to serve with the fanciest tea. And they come in any flavor you could ever want. These biscuits are perfect for munching with hot tea or coffee, or with a…
Cool Cucumber Salad (and a Warm Sweater)
I had a few requests to post pictures of the hand-knit sweater I referenced in this post. Behold: I particularly like the cabled waist and sleeves: This sweater is definitely the most complicated project I’ve ever knit. For someone who had only knit scarves and hats prior to this project (plus one vest which will…
Monday Munchies, Part 22: The Anniversary Edition
Why did I randomly post a picture of roses at the end of my last post? Red-hued decorations for Casa THIH? Kinship with the family Rosaceae? How about none of the above? Last Friday, Peter gave me roses to celebrate our wedding anniversary. What could I do but show them off? I think the past…
The Easiest Dessert You’ll Ever Make
A client recently asked for suggestions on how to include more fruits and vegetables in his diet. Let me tell you: that request will make a dietitian weep with joy. I’ve already discussed a few ways to turn your meals into veggie- and fruit-fests; for more ideas, see here, here and here. And know you’re…
A Poem about Apricots
A Poem for My Beloved Apricots by The Bard of J-Town I never thought I’d find a fruit, That more than berries would me suit, Until your sweetness hit the spot, Of you I speak, my apricot! Fresh or dried, jelly or jam, Your versatility’s not a sham, Dried with cheese is def my thing,…
This is Why I’m Not a City Person
Over the weekend, I posted this picture to THIH’s Facebook page and asked for guesses as to where I might be: Most guesses were for Rome, which is not too far off … in a way. Although I have to say, despite my 26 hour trip to Paris, I think a weekend trip to Rome…
Whole Grain Raspberry Oat Bars
When we were in high school, my best bud Amy and I had a thing for raspberries (and cherry pie filling that comes in a can, but that’s another story). Looking for fruit? An entire pint of raspberries would suffice. One of us even had an AIM username with the word “raspberry” in it. I…
Monday Munchies, Part 21: The Passionfruit Flower
Yesterday, while I was rearranging the spices in alphabetical order, Peter called out from the next room. “Jessie! It’s opening! Over here! Over HERE!” Since last year’s single passion fruit flower bloomed, I’ve anticipated the opening of our passion fruit plant’s DOZEN buds. That’s right: we’ve duodecupled our passion fruit crop. I expect a gross…
Update Your Plate, Part 8: The Tortillas & Wraps Edition
This post is a continuation of the Update Your Plate series, where I demonstrate how to use MyPlate to plan your meals. Read the story behind Update Your Plate here. (Before I begin, I just want to say thank you for your kind words on my last post! It wasn’t easy to write, and I…
A Weighty Matter
Today, I’d like to talk about a subject I’ve never discussed on THIH: weight. I hesitated writing this post because there’s a lot of sensitivity surrounding the subject. As I wrote in my FAQ, I feel our society has too much of a fixation on weight. For both women AND men, there exist strong external…
Tempeh Spinach Hummus: The Four Parter
Part 1: The Guest Post Check out my post on Stone Soup, the blog of Food and Nutrition Magazine, a publication of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. In this article, I highlight my Update Your Plate series, where I demonstrate how to use MyPlate to plan your meals. While all the UYP posts feature…
Orange Cardamom Tea Cakes
There’s a bakery in Ludlow, Vermont that I miss with all my taste buds. If you’re a long-time reader of THIH, you may remember a fleeting mention of Sweet Surrender in this post. … What am I saying? If you actually remember that post from 2010, then your name is Peter. And even that’s a…
Red Quinoa with Sauteed Asparagus Tips and Pesto
I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. Ruth Stout After last week’s asparagus extravaganza, I knew I had to cook with this tasty veggie again. Peter and I have enjoyed both roasted and steamed asparagus – how about raw? “Never!” I said. “Too crunchy and…
Monday Munchies, Part 20: The Acrobatic Dog
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place yesterday (Sunday). I prefer to show a mix of eats from weekends AND weekdays; however, lately I haven’t remembered to take pictures until the weekend before a Monday Munchy….
The Chocolate Master, Part 2
Can you guess what’s in the picture above? Answer at end of post! Just a quick blurb today to show off some of the crazy-good chocolate Peter and I (mostly Peter) have been churning out. We haven’t stopped at flavored truffles – oh, no. There’s some awesomeness going on in the THIH kitchen. For instance,…
Garlic Pasta with Roasted Asparagus and Tomatoes
The time has come, dear reader – it’s asparagus season. I’ve been incorporating this vegetable into everything I can think of. Plain roasted with a little salt? Check. Tossed with roasted beets and a little balsamic vinegar? Double check. Baked into cookies? Well, there is a limit to my creativity. Asparagus is rich in vitamins…
Spiced Carrot Cake Fondue {Recipe Redux}
I make a lot of mistakes in the kitchen. For example, see this post, this post, this post and this album on THIH’s Facebook page, which has not been updated in a while and should contain many more disasters. These mistakes have never yielded the deliciousness of accidental and fortuitous invention. They are disasters, after…
BBQ Tempeh Wrap with Creamy Coleslaw
I have a confession to make. Up until the end of last week, I strongly disliked tempeh. Not as much as when I shudder at the thought of fibrous green stalks of doom, but enough to avoid it in the grocery store. You may say, “Well, by golly, Jessie, there’s nothing wrong with disliking a…
Monday Munchies, Part 19
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place last Saturday (two days ago), when I remembered I had planned to do an MM without actually taking pictures for it. Breakfast, 8:30 am: Bircher Muesli topped with a…
Maple Coconut Amaranth Pudding with Matcha Tea
One thing I love about The Recipe Redux‘s contests and monthly challenges is that they push me to be more adventurous with food. I’m the first to admit I’m still a shrinking flower-of-sorts when it comes to culinary adventures (despite what this post says). Still, I’m working on it, bit by chewy bit. What better…
Whole Grain Banana Spice Surprise Muffins
A few days ago, I reached in the back of our refrigerator and immediately forgot what I was searching for. Why? Because my fingers touched the most disgusting object possible among the world of the once-edibles (and no, I’m not talking about celery): black bananas. Keep in mind that my fingers didn’t just graze this…
Five Things I’m Loving Lately
(1) Bircher Muesli No surprise there. I’ve enjoyed this breakfast for several weeks now with various combinations of fruits, nuts and seeds. I even made a huge batch for customers at Strawberry Fields to sample while they asked me nutrition questions. I topped the samples with an in-store trail mix. I didn’t expect people to…
My New Favorite Breakfast: Bircher Muesli
While Peter and I were in Switzerland, I discovered Bircher Muesli. This breakfast dish consists of raw oats soaked in milk/yogurt and is served everywhere in Switzerland, from bakeries to grocery stores and beyond. I kept waiting to find a Bircher Muesli pop-up stand on the streets of Zurich. Nutrition pioneer Maximilian Bircher-Benner developed Bircher…
Spaghetti Squash with Tomato and Basil Feta
Thank you for all your good wishes in my last post concerning my ever-lasting cold! I’m at the tail-end of it and feeling kilometers better than I was a few days ago. Of course, now that I’m ready to resume my normal routine, Peter is coming down with the sniffles again. It’s like we’re running…
Monday Munchies, Part 18
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place last Monday, when my appetite was less than 100% due to a cold (looks like I need to give my immune system a tune-up, what?). Breakfast, 8:00 am: In…
Easter Eggless Egg Salad
Egg salad has never been one of my favorite foods. Poorly made, it can be alternately mushy from too much mayo or mashing or crumbly from hard-boiled egg yolks (which you couldn’t get me to touch as a kid. Seriously, what other food had that texture?) Egg “salad” was made worse when sandwiched between two…
How to See Paris in 26 Hours
Impossible, you say? You can judge for yourself shortly. As I hinted in my last post, Peter and I made a mysterious side trip in the middle of our Switzerland adventures. When I discovered Paris was only four hours from Zurich by train, I pushed for us to go, particularly as we’d seen all we…
THIH, Swiss Edition: Why My Husband Shouldn’t Host Visitors
Back in 2010, our friends Andy and Michelle visited us all the way from Switzerland. They were traveling to several places in the US and their Connecticut stopover coincided with the end of my travels in China. I saw them for a day or two at the end of their visit, when I was so…
How a Dehydrator Began a Marriage: Coconut Almond Macaroons
Note: I am currently traveling and may not be able to immediately respond to emails, etc. Thanks for your patience! This post is adapted from my post on Stone Soup, the blog of Food and Nutrition Magazine, which is a publication of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Shortly before my husband and I were…
Recipe Repeat: I Live for Dan Tat
Note: I am currently traveling and may not be able to immediately respond to emails, etc. Thanks for your patience! This post is excerpted from a post I wrote back in May 2010. The recipe for homemade dan tat in that post is one of the most popular recipes on THIH and the one about…
Monday Munchies, Part 17
Note: I am currently traveling and may not be able to immediately respond to emails, etc. Thanks for your patience! This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place on a Friday about a week ago when I…
Lactose Intolerant? Two Nutrients to Watch
Note: I am currently traveling and may not be able to immediately respond to emails, etc. Thanks for your patience! Those who are lactose intolerant may have difficulty consuming enough dairy products to meet their calcium and vitamin D needs. Lactose intolerance occurs when there is a deficiency in the digestive enzyme lactase resulting in…
Sweet ‘n’ Sour Shrimp over Minted Brown Rice {Recipe Redux}
Since shortly after setting up our Aerogarden a few months ago, we’ve had an abundance of basil, parsley and mint. At the time, I had visions of snipping fresh herbs for our nightly dinners (cooked fresh to perfection by me, of course). Every dish would be adorned with the fragrance of green herbs and would…
Apple and Cheddar Panini with Cherry Glaze
One day last week, I looked up from my computer after having worked all morning and discovered I was famished. I’m not usually one to forget meals, but I was in the midst of an interesting project. You know how it is. Your head is filled with plans and details and THE BIG PICTURE and…
Herbed Tofu and Red Rice-Stuffed Peppers with Scamorza
Back when Peter and I lived in Hamden, CT, we entered the stage of our lives I call “The Era of New Foods“. We finally had a kitchen that could fit more than 1.71 persons and enjoyed easy access to all the food shops southern Connecticut had to offer. One of our many weekly stops…
Monday Munchies, Part 16: The Wednesday Edition
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series, where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. And as if the title of this post wasn’t confusing enough, the photographed day was ACTUALLY a Monday. This past Monday, in fact. As I mentioned in this post, my sister Courtney and…
It’s National Nutrition Month!
A few weeks ago, I had a client who entered my office in considerable distress. She’d had a number of stressful life changes in the last month and hadn’t remembered to eat what she considered a “proper meal” in days. As she described how her regular salads had fallen by the wayside and how she…
Gluten- and Dairy-Free Pumpkin Custard
Welcome to March! Can you believe it’s March 1st already? With each passing year, month, day, hour, minute, I feel as though time is passing with the speed of Peter moving toward a sale on kitchen appliances. Before long it will be time to plant our garden, the first we’ve ever had. Bring on the…
Gluten- and Dairy-Free Crisp Cornbread
As I mentioned in this post, I’ve lately made an effort to prepare meals for special diets. I feel I should be more familiar with preparing and tasting gluten-free, dairy-free, low carb, etc. dishes, being a dietitian and all. The last thing I want is for an exchange like this happen: Client: You say eating…
Monday Munchies, Part 15: The Gluten- and Dairy-Free Dinner Party
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series, where I show everything I eat over the course of single day – in this case, last Saturday. My eating schedule on this day was quite unusual. Peter returned from a conference last Friday around midnight, and I attempted to stay up until then (I…
Amaranth Granola with a Twist
Shortly after I mentioned in my last post that I would get the recipe for amaranth granola from my sister Courtney, I heard my email program announce the arrival of a new message. “Email!” it cried in Homestar Runner‘s voice (a relic of Peter’s and my college years when Homestar Runner was at its peak…
Stay Healthy While Flying
G’day, readers! As predicted in my last post, I had a lovely weekend with my dad and sister in beautiful, bright, bonny Colorado. Yes, Colorado is a series of adjectives starting with the letter “B”. I won’t go into detail about the trip (check out this post for five reasons why I love Colorado), but…
Balsamic Shrimp and Pepper Pasta
As you read this, I am flying back to the wilds of Illinois after a lovely long weekend in Colorado. As least, I assume it was lovely. I’m writing this post a week ahead of time, since Colorado is the land of no-Internet. I made this dish a few days before I left for Colorado…
All About Chocolate: The Valentine’s Day Special
This post is adapted from my guest post on Stone Soup, the blog of Food and Nutrition Magazine, which is a publication of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Chocolate. Just the word conjures up the taste of rich hot cocoa and the snap of a pure chocolate bar. For some, it is tied to…
Meatless Monday: Pumpkin Veggie Lasagna
This past weekend, thanks to a tip from my best bud Amy (hi!), Peter and I drove to Peoria, IL to watch Jeff Dunham perform at the Peoria Civic Center. We’re fans of his ventriloquist comedy routines on YouTube, so we couldn’t pass it up. I’m not sure what I expected when I bought the…
Chinese New Year at Golden Harbor
Happy Chinese New Year! The Year of the Snake begins Sunday, February 10th. I’m not ashamed to admit that, for me, Chinese New Year often revolves around food. This year was no different. Up until now, Peter and I always went to our favorite restaurant for Chinese New Year, where our friend Eric would cook…
Vegan Spiced Pumpkin Ice Cream
Imagine you’re hosting a dinner party. The lights are soft, the conversation bright, the food scrumptious. You’ve just finished a rich veggie lasagna and are eagerly looking forward to dessert: vegan spiced pumpkin ice cream, fresh from the ice cream maker a few short hours ago. Having tasted it upon completion, you already know it’ll…
Monday Munchies, Part 14: The Vegan Dinner Party
This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series, where I show everything I eat over the course of single day – in this case, yesterday (Sunday), i.e. the first day I remembered to do this in weeks. As I mentioned before, since I decreased my posts from six days a week to three…
Peter’s Five Most Influential Cookbooks
Last week, I described my five most influential cookbooks. I had such a great response to the list – thanks to everyone who commented and wrote with their favorite cookbooks! I’ll be putting some of those on my next Christmas list. At the time, I asked Peter to name his five most influential cookbooks. Our…
Slammin’ Superbowl Salsa with Black Beans and Corn
Whenever I have open hours at Strawberry Fields, I try to bring in something healthy for customers to nibble while they ask me nutrition questions. Last time, I brought a homemade salsa with black beans, corn and cilantro to eat with tortilla chips. I’m happy to say it was a hit! However, I’m also embarrassed…
Nutty Nutrition and Kitchen Challenges
This post is adapted from my guest post on Stone Soup, the blog of Food and Nutrition Magazine, which is a publication of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. I often challenge myself to use an ingredient in a new and unexpected way. The results are usually delicious, such as pumpkin mac ‘n’ cheese or…
My Five Most Influential Cookbooks
It’s been a madhouse in the THIH household over the past few days. Talking with clients, meals plans, catching up on article writing, going to an awesome EIDA meeting – it’s all been happening. At once. I look forward to a little relaxation (and answering customer questions!) at Strawberry Fields this weekend. The idea to…
It’s the Little Things {Eggplant Tomato Caponata}
I’ve been thinking lately about some of the little things that make life sweeter. Like a perfect husband-made chocolate that tastes like a Reese’s peanut butter cup, only 10 banillion times better. Or a puppa who will let you ambush her, then come running to greet you if you’re out of her sight for five…
Creamy Pea Soup with Ham {Recipe Redux}
Happy MLK Jr. day, everyone! Before I share this month’s Recipe Redux, I have an important picture to show you: Remember when Peter and I made our own inexpensive standing desks from Ikea furniture? I made sure our home office versions were all white (i.e. pleasing to the eye). For Peter’s uni office, he decided…
How We Made the Perfect Bed
I promised you in my last post that I would feature the bed we put together on another day. Well, that day is today! Sleep is so important for staying healthy and feeling your best that it’s worthwhile to invest in a comfortable bed. OR, you could be married to Peter, who decides he wants…
Winter Meyer Lemonade and an Update
Okay, so I told you this wasn’t going to be Meyer Lemon Week on THIH … and yet, here I am, sharing another recipe. What can I say? Can’t trust a Happy Jessie. I’ll begin with an update on a duo of posts I wrote last fall concerning my recent tendency to spend more time…
Vegan Meyer Lemon Blueberry Scones
A few days ago, Peter and I were at Sam’s Club. As we strolled the aisles of this big box store, loading our oversize cart with far too many bulk cheeses and 24-pack paper towel roll bundles, my eye fell on a carton of Meyer lemons. They were bright. They were shiny. They were calling…
Update Your Plate, Part 7: The Combo Plate Edition
This post is a continuation of the Update Your Plate series, where I demonstrate how to use MyPlate to plan your meals. Read the story behind Update Your Plate here. Ever since I decreased my posts from six times per week to three times per week, I’ve skipped THIH’s weekly Monday Munchies (the series where…
The Best Thing I’ve Done For My Health Lately
As you guys know, I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. Instead, I look for ways to increase my health all year long. The latest addition to my healthy living repertoire was actually suggested by Peter (!) Yes, I know – I’d like to think my desire for healthy living has gradually transferred to him through…
Handmade Coconut Noodles
I’ve never decorated for the holidays. I suppose living in a constant state of transition has something to do with it – after moving our stuff from our second-to-last apartment to our last apartment bit-by-bit in Peter’s station wagon, I vowed I would pare down our stuff as much as possible. Then I saw how…
Tribute to a Husband
Happy Birthday, Peter! (See Peter’s previous birthday tribute here.) On the menu for tonight: Fried chicken (as featured in the above linked post) Some kind of vegetable (Peter: “You can handle it, oh gracious wife, RD.”) I’m leaning against fried eggplant (i.e. oil sponges) Fantasy Fudge Cake (as featured in this post) Have a great…
New Year’s Hobbit Seed Cake
Happy New Year! I hope you all had fun and safe New Year’s Eve celebrations, whether you were at home tucked up comfortably in bed or out in the middle of a crowd waiting for the clock to strike midnight. As you might guess, Peter and I are typically the former, although we were actually…
A New Year’s Eve Froth-Up
Happy New Year’s Eve, dear reader! Peter and I are back in Illinois after driving 14.5 hrs straight from CT yesterday. By not stopping as often, we managed to shave over an hour off our driving time – nice! Not that the 15.75 hrs it took to drive the distance the first time wasn’t awesome…
A Christmas Collage
Hello, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful holiday full of the four F‘s (family, friends, food, and fun)! Before I bombard you with a collection of pictures likely of interest to approximately 0.0000001% of the Internet-using population, I want to thank you for your kind and encouraging feedback on last Friday‘s post. I appreciate…
How a Pumpkin Roll Helped Me Love My New Home
For the past week, I’ve been thinking a lot about the last four months. Peter and I moved to Illinois this past August after living in Connecticut for over five years. After I posted a Q&A update about what the past, present, and future held, several people told me that I seemed … unhappy. Always…
Butternut Apple Soup with Cauliflower “Cream” {recipe redux}
Greetings, dear reader! I meant to post this recipe at my usual time – around midday – but, then THIS happened: What’s that, you say? Why, it’s a real reindeer, living right here in Illinois! Peter and I took the afternoon off and visited Hardy’s Reindeer Ranch in Rantoul, IL. Some friends mentioned how cute the reindeer…
Festive Quinoa
Hello, everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was super busy with work, a fantastic concert, singing at service, and seeing an awesome movie. Peter worked on grading his students’ final exams, so we didn’t see each other much all weekend. Another reason why I’m looking forward to the holidays! One of…
What Not to Do With Butter
Fact #1: This scene took place at Peter’s parents’ house shortly after I met them. Fact #2: I’m sorry to say it’s entirely true. And Peter’s parents still don’t know where that crusty mess on the bottom of their oven came from.
Baked Chicken Meatballs with Roasted Broccoli
Hello, dear reader! After yesterday’s marathon picture post, I thought I’d keep it short and sweet today. Below is a recipe for lean chicken meatballs with a little prosciutto and parsley for added flavor. Served with nutrient-rich roasted broccoli and tomato sauce over whole grain pasta, these meatballs make a complete meal that’s tasty to…
36 Hours in Saint Louis
Hello, everyone! As I mentioned earlier, Peter and I spent a day and a half in Saint Louis, Missouri a few weeks ago. We had just 36 hours to spend there (had to get back and pick up the dogs), so we packed as much as possible into those hours. A picture and occasional word…
Mini Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies
After yesterday’s monologue about the intricacies of breakfast, Marie made a great point in the comments: I have a hard time with breakfast. Without it the day’s a disaster, but I am NOT a morning person, in spite of which I am out the door by 7 am (in the darkness… so sad…). It’s a…
Monday Munchies, Part 13
Hello, everyone! Welcome to Monday Munchies, where I showcase everything this dietitian eats over the course of one day. The day in question? Last Thursday, i.e. the first day last week I remembered to take pictures. Commencing … now. Breakfast, 7:30 am: Greek yogurt, frozen strawberries and blueberries, 1/2 banana, raw oats, a handful of…
Weekend Roundup: Frothy Milk and Menu Planning
Check out my new gadget! Have you seen one of these before? It’s a milk frother, used for making that perfect frothed layer that adorns $4 coffee shop coffees. After my friend Jill made me an incredible decaf latte with an inexpensive frother, I decided to get my own. I’m starting with the cheapest one…
Update Your Plate, Part 6: The Pizza Edition
Remember this? Well, this is what our homegrown passionfruit looks like now: Empty as a fridge on grocery shopping day. I admit, my disappointment grew faster than Maddie eating a bag of stolen almonds when I saw this shriveled up passionfruit. I was looking forward to the sweet/tart flavor of a fresh-picked passionfruit sometime this…
Spicy Corn Chowder and The Almond Fiasco
Last night, at around the wee hour of 2 am, I heard a funny noise. It sounded like something was being dragged across the carpet. As it was 2 am, my mind jumped to burglars, mice, and, of course, dragging dead bodies. Then, I heard a puppy-sized yawn that could only mean one thing: Maddie…
Monday Munchies, Part 12
Okay, I lied last week: I’m still calling my weekly feature of what this RD eat over the course of a single day Monday Munchies. The alliteration is too good to pass up. Thus, I present to you: everything I ate yesterday. Breakfast, 8:30 am: In the mix: A combination of Trader Joe’s nonfat Greek…
Weekend Roundup: Lavender and Menu Planning
When Peter and I were in Saint Louis last week, we stopped by Restaurant Depot to pick up a few things. As I’ve mentioned before, Restaurant Depot is like a Costco or Sam’s Club, only bigger, if you can imagine that. Who doesn’t shop at a restaurant supply store when they’re in a gorgeous city…
5 Reasons Why I Love Colorado
1. Seeing my dad … and my sisters, I suppose. It’s not often my sisters and I overlap on our visits to Colorado, but a few weeks ago, the stars aligned and were all in the same place! Part of growing up and moving away is that we don’t get to be together as a…
All About Chocolate: Spiced Chocolate Tea
Check out Peter’s newest chocolate creations! Haystacks (shredded coconut enrobed in chocolate) – my favorite: Peter rolling ganache centers on a slab of chilled granite to keep them cold: He also kept running his fingers under cold water to chill them, too. Every time his fingers hit that freezing cold stream of water, his teeth…
Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
G’day! No Monday Munchies today – after my sister told me she thought Monday Munchies meant I showed everything I ate each Monday (rather than a random day), I decided I should rethink the concept of the big MM. Instead, I have a recipe … and a warning. Let’s start with the warning, shall we?…
A Lunchtime Treat and Menu Planning
Check out this awesome bourbon cream our friends Arden and Dan gave us on Thursday: How cute is this label? I decided to taste it at lunch today because nighttime alcohol tends to wreak havoc on my sleep. Plenty of cream in this deliciousness: And plenty…
A Thanksgiving Feast
Happy day after Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with good eats and family ‘n’ friends. Peter and I have been running around like mad since last Wednesday. After returning from Colorado on Monday, we hopped over to Saint Louis for an overnight trip Tuesday/Wednesday (will share details later) and spent…
Creamy Broccoli Cheese Soup
Hello, dear reader! Can you believe Thanksgiving is in three days? The last few months flew by so fast, I got whiplash watching them pass. Bring on the snow! Or the cold wind that slices right to the bone. I hear Illinois has lots of the latter 😉 I can’t wait to share our mini-vacation…
Monday Munchies, Part 11
Welcome to Monday Munchies! Even through it’s not Monday, I still wanted to share a day of eats with you – in this case, my birthday. (Yes, I know that was over a week ago. Think of this as vintage THIH). I also have to dash out the door and this post was already prepared….
Weekend Roundup: Local Eats, Part 2
Welcome back to the weekend roundup! Yesterday I gave you a quick look at what we did last Friday after Peter’s parents arrived for a visit. On Saturday the weather was warm and sunny, so of course we spent the day driving around and eating in restaurants 🙂 Peter’s dad wanted to visit the John…
Weekend Roundup: Local Eats
Hello, everyone! I can’t wait to share this past weekend with you. As I wrote last Friday, Peter’s parents came for a visit from Friday through Sunday, so I skipped my usual weekend roundup yesterday. I’ve been looking forward to Peter’s parents visiting for weeks! Back when we lived in CT, we saw them at…
Chocolate Chip Week: Wedding Chocolate Drops
The day before Peter and I married (May 24, 2008, in case you were wondering), I stood in our little apartment kitchen, struggling with warped cookie sheets and chocolate that just. wouldn’t. melt. I was determined to share my favorite cookies with our wedding guests, some of whom were traveling hundreds or thousands of miles…
Chocolate Chip Week: Chocolate BBQ Sauce
There was a phase when I put BBQ sauce on everything. And I mean everything. Baked beans? Well, obviously. Crispy tofu? You bet. Sandwiches? Lay it on. Salad? Oh yeah. Carrot sticks? Give me something harder, why dontcha? I think I was going through my ambiguous post-physics pre-dietetics phase, where kitchen experiments abounded and common…
Chocolate Chip Week: Vegetarian Chocolate Chili
Welcome to Chocolate Chip Week! (Before I begin, thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes yesterday! I had a fantastic birthday with plenty of chocolate 🙂 .) If you recall, during an Ingredient Week I feature a single ingredient used in wildly different ways. This week’s suggestion comes from Samantha (thanks!). Since I’m starting halfway…
28 Things I’ve Learned in 28 Years
1. Despite what I thought at age 11, the world does not revolve around me. 2. The beginning of anything is always the hardest. 3. There’s a fine balance between having a thick skin and a thin skin. It’s difficult to allow negativity and rejection to roll off while still having the self-awareness to know…
Monday Munchies, Part 10
Yesterday afternoon, Peter and I visited Allerton Park, a retreat packed with gardens and hiking trails. It’s a bit past fall foliage season, but the views were gorgeous nonetheless. I meant the scenery. We have a garden dump cart that Bonnie rides in when she gets tired. Let me tell you, nothing gets you more…
Weekend Roundup: Menu Planning in Space
Last night, after Peter and I returned from dinner at the house of one of his colleagues, I asked him to take a picture of me. I wanted to show off my snazzy tweed skirt with every color of blue and purple woven throughout. However, I did not communicate this wish to Peter, so I…
Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Spice Latte
I don’t usually post more than three recipes in a single week, but I found myself in a most unusual position this morning: I had leftover pumpkin. Specifically, about 1/4 cup. Immediately, my mind kicked into high gear (which sounded like an lawnmower with a cold) thinking of possible uses for less than 1/4 cup…
Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Peanut Butter Soup
If you will, imagine this: Happy Jessie, running about the house at 5:55 pm yesterday, lighting the carved pumpkin, hanging fake spider webs on the front door (to mingle with the real ones, of course), and setting out an enormous bowl of candy. You see, the town we live in has mandatory trick-or-treating hours. 6pm…
Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Cloud Cookies
Happy Halloween, everyone! The last time I wore a costume for Halloween, my friends Amy and Robyn and I dressed up as Charlie’s Angels, which involved me wearing the chicest black clothes I had (i.e. black pants, clunky black boots, and a shapeless black sweater. Can you tell how cool I was in high school?)….
Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
It’s Pumpkin Week on THIH! After the accidental Ricotta Week due to my excessive retail grocery habit, I asked for suggestions for planned Ingredient Weeks. You delivered! The first Ingredient Week was suggested by my sister Courtney, who recommended pumpkin. In the spirit of choosing challenging ingredients (a.k.a. trying to make Ingredient Week as difficult…
Monday Munchies, Part 9 … Sort Of
Around 7:30 last night, Peter brought up a good point. The Woes of the Dietitian Act 1, Scene 1 THIH Kitchen Jessie: [Pauses, aghast, in the middle of doing something too awesome to mention] Hark! I forgot to take pictures of a day of eats for Monday Munchies, Part 9! Peter: [Leans casually against the…
Weekend Roundup: S’mores and Menu Planning
I’ve discovered a new favorite dessert. Chocolate date cake, you will always be in my heart, but you’ve been temporarily displaced by another. It begins with a stack of fluffy white marshmallows … Turn up the heat in your Big Green Egg. Show off your mad toasting skillz. Layer…
The Plight of the Foodie
I should wear my hair like that more often.
The After Party: Baked Beans
Whenever Peter makes pulled pork, baked beans inevitably follow later in the week. We make huge batches of these baked beans so that we can freeze leftovers. On days we don’t feel like cooking, there’s nothing better on a cold winter night than slowly heating leftover baked beans and serving with crusty bread. Except perhaps…
The Computerized Dinner Party
Last Sunday, Peter and I had a dinner party at at Casa THIH. I hinted at our main course in this post. … Well, okay, I pretty much told you straight out: pulled pork with Peter-made BBQ sauce 😉 On Sunday, Peter fired up the Big Green Egg at around 7:30 am. He prepared a…
The Home Run Appetizer
Despite the fact that there are only two of us, Peter and I buy food in bulk. One of his favorite places to shop is a little store called Restaurant Depot. Oh, I’m sorry, did I say little? I meant absolutely enormous. Fortunately, we have a chest freezer to supplement the fridge/freezer combo in the…
Monday Munchies, Part 8
A continuation of the series where I document everything I ate over the course of one day (last Saturday – two days ago): Breakfast, 9 am: In the mix: Noosa yoghurt with 1/2 banana, frozen blueberries, Barbara’s squares, and chia seeds. A mug of Yorkshire Gold with milk. Breakfast was later than usual. Peter and…
Menu Planning: A Week in Review
A week ago, I vowed to keep better track of my menu plans for the week. I also vowed to share them with YOU, dear reader, as a way to keep me accountable. And to show off our snazzy menu planning whiteboard. Can’t forget that. If you recall, the original menu plan for the week…
Update Your Plate, Part 5: The Simple Combo Plate
This post is a continuation of the Update Your Plate series, where I demonstrate how to use MyPlate to plan your meals. Read the story behind Update Your Plate here. This week, I introduce combination dishes. My plan is to eventually illustrate some really complicated dishes, like casseroles or stews with a million-and-a-half ingredients. ……
My Favorite Dessert of All Time: Chocolate Date Cake
Every time we go to a library book sale, Peter makes a beeline for the cookbook section. A few years ago, he discovered this James Beard Award-winning cookbook by master-chef Marcel Desaulniers. He bought it specifically for ONE recipe: the chocolate date cake. Variations of this recipe — some very old — have circulated around…
The Chocolate Master
Peter loves his chocolate tempering machine. We now have so many kind types of truffles, dipped candies, and nut barks in the house, there’s no possible way even I could eat them all. Not that I’m complaining. Initially, Peter had difficulty dipping truffle centers because the tempered chocolate was too stiff. We even snuck into…
How My Husband Created the Red Lentil Disaster
WARNING: If you don’t want to read something potentially … unsavory … skip to the recipe at the end of the post. Back in 2009, Peter and I moved from southern CT to smack-dab in the middle of the state (a stone’s throw from Hartford/spitting distance/the distance I can drive before craving a cheese sandwich/choose…
Monday Munchies, Part 7
A continuation of the series where I document everything I ate over the course of one day (last Friday). The deets: Breakfast, 8:30 am: Smoothie with yogurt, frozen berries, 1/2 banana, raw oats, chia seeds, spinach, and water. Green tea in in a NEVER BEFORE SEEN mug. Creepy hulking puppa in the background. Unpictured: Brazil…
Weekend Roundup: Menu Planning
Remember when I gave you a tour of our new place? You may recall the view above Peter’s desk: Those sparkly butterflies are leftover permanent stickers from the previous tenant of the room, who was a six-year-old girl. I decided to manly-it-up a little bit by hanging a shower curtain in front of it. Although…
All Good Things …
… must come to an end. Ricotta Week is no exception. In retrospect, I’m grateful I accidentally bought too much ricotta for a single recipe last week. If I hadn’t, I might not have tried some new recipes that I’d typically not look twice at. I’m kind of tempted to try this experiment again with…
Five Ways To Boost Your Immune System
I’m pushing off my last Ricotta Week recipe until tomorrow because I want to talk about my immune system. A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was coming down with a cold. That was my second cold in just over a month. Although it didn’t last as long as the first cold (which gave…
Pillows of Deliciousness
I thought about calling today’s recipe “Pillows of Deliciousness“, but then decided no one would have any idea what that meant. So here it is instead, as the world’s most confusing post title. Welcome to Day 2 of Ricotta Week on THIH! I plan to make something fairly traditional with ricotta later on in the…
Jessie, NW
That stands for “Jessie, Non-Wasteroo“. Welcome to Ricotta Week on THIH! After my inadvertent bulk purchase of ricotta last week, I vowed to not waste this versatile ingredient. This week, I’ll be featuring recipes that have ricotta as a starring ingredient — despite the fact that I have very little experience cooking with ricotta. All…
Monday Munchies, Part 6
The frost has arrived! The temperature was somewhere around freezing last night, yielding a carpet of diamonds this morning. I don’t anticipate snow quite yet, but this frost reminds me that winter isn’t too far away. There’s also the fact that Peter and I went to a Home Depot yesterday and was bombarded by Christmas…
Weekend Roundup: A Visit to Amish Country
Hello, dear reader! I hope you had a great weekend 🙂 As usual, our weekend was packed. Instead of giving you a blow-by-blow of all our fascinating activities, I’ll share with you a trip we took to the largest Amish community in Illinois. In the past few days, the weather has turned cool and brisk,…
Update Your Plate, Part 4: The Smoothie Edition
This post is a continuation of the Update Your Plate series, where I demonstrate how to use MyPlate to plan your meals. Read the story behind Update Your Plate here. This week’s UYP comes on the heels of the last one, which featured an egg ‘n’ fruit breakfast. Today: smoothies. How could you possibly lay…
The Wasteroo
When I was a kid, I watched Sesame Street obsessively. I learned so much about the essentials of life from its episodes. Like how to count from 1 to 10 in Spanish (in fact, that’s still all the Spanish I know). Now that I’m an adult, I see that their cute cartoons with catchy theme…
How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies in Four Steps
For the back story behind this post, read yesterday’s nail-biting account of my adventures in the kitchen. After making Balsamic Port Chicken last week, I was stuck with an infestation of fruit flies that was enough to make me wish there were such things as all-room vacuums. Anyone who’s wanted to get rid of fruit…
The Pied Piper of Illinois
This post comes with a warning. The following is a true story. What you are about to read may make you nervous, twitchy, and inclined to run off and close all your windows. You have been warned. … Last Thursday, I was in a creative mood. I had chicken in the fridge, waiting to be…
monday munchies, part 5
After last week’s beautiful wedding, we didn’t get a chance to go grocery shopping right away. Therefore, last Monday’s eats were less-planned and more “hmm, will these foods go together?”. Breakfast, 8 am: Breakfast is a no-brainer because we usually have the ingredients for smoothies, oatmeal, and/or a yogurt-bowl-of-goodness lying around. Today was no exception….
“I am not impressed”
A sampling of events and eats from over the weekend: On Saturday, Peter and I went to Curtis Orchard, which is something like the number 1 or 2 thing to do around here. Sadly, due to early frost and drought, the orchard is low on produce this year, so there was no pick-your-own option. That…
A Beautiful Wedding
Unexpected post is unexpected! I usually post an Update Your Plate on Fridays, but this week I wanted to share the beautiful wedding that took place last weekend of my best friend Amy. Hi Amy! 😀 The wedding was at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York, and boy, I wish I had taken…
The Intentionally Eggy Pancake
Thanks for your well-wishes yesterday! I feel much better today. Ready to tackle the world! … or at least my “To Do” list. I decided to celebrate this morning with a breakfast I haven’t made in a long time. 2.5 years, to be exact. Longtime readers may remember a certain protein-packed, unintentionally eggy pancake from…
Down for the Count
This morning, I woke with a nasty cold. I won’t show you what I look like now, but I promise I clean up nice! Needless to say, I’m staying home today. This is one of those days where I’m glad I work from home. For now. So while I’ve been napping and nursing a cold,…
The Kid Who Loved Anchovies
When I was a kid of 8 or 10 or 12 (or something in that undefinable range), pizza was a Friday night treat. My dad and I (and often a sister or two), would pull in behind a nondescript grey building with a vaguely pizza-shaped sign hanging off the front. I never actually saw the…
Monday Munchies, Part 4
Welcome to Monday! Over the weekend, Peter and I were in New York celebrating the wedding of my dear friend Amy (pictures forthcoming!). We got back last night, picked up the doggles, and crashed into bed. We haven’t had a chance to go grocery shopping yet, so needless to say, today’s eats should be interesting….
The Day My Husband Became A Kitchen Gadget Fanatic
Three days before we moved to Illinois, Peter found a Craigslist ad for something he’s wanted for years. The ensuing conversation went as follows: Peter: It’s perfect! It’s right here in CT and it’s a ridiculously cheap price! Long-suffering wife (a.k.a. me): My wonderful husband, we shall commence our 16-hour drive in two days. The…
Update Your Plate, Part 3: The Scrambled Eggs Edition
A continuation of the Update Your Plate series demonstrating how I balance my meals using a technique similar to MyPlate. Today, I thought I’d show you something a little different: breakfast! Lately I’ve been on a smoothie kick for breakfast, but last week, I was cravin’ eggs something bad. One reason I love eating eggs…
A Poem About Bean Burgers
A Poem for My Beloved Bean Burgers Tasty, filling, spice, yet meek, I planned you for a night last week, when tummy rumbling left you cold, to wait until the week grew old. Please don’t think I’d leave you dry, You’re healthy and my best ally. When hunger strikes, you’re always there, You’re perfect, yes,…
The Easiest Spiced Nuts You’ll Ever Make
Have you ever woken in the wee morning hours (say, twoish) and for no reason known to man, beast, dietitian, whatever, your mind is preoccupied with something completely silly? Something that in the familiar light of day you would recognize as no big deal? Last night, I began fretting about two things: (1) Our new…
Messy Jessie and the Sweet ‘n’ Sour Noodle
When I was a wee tot, I loved to chow down on spaghetti with tomato sauce. The more sauce and Kraft sprinkle cheese, the better. There’s a picture of me from when I was about three or four, sitting in front of an empty plate, with tomato sauce up to my elbows and smeared all…
Monday Munchies, Part 3
There’s one thing I’ve learned that makes mornings easier. Especially Monday mornings. The THIH breakfast principle: Choose something light and energizing for breakfast, and stick with it. Taking all the guesswork out of breakfast means you’ll get out the door faster and still be properly fueled. For those who like variety (like me) set up…
Weekend Roundup: The Places I Go
It’s time to see how the THIH household did with meal planning this week — but first! A weekend roundup: On Friday night, Peter and I went with some new friends to a fall festival in town. It was dark. Peter ordered a brisket sandwich and a pulled pork sandwich from a smokehouse stand. Soon…
Update Your Plate, Part 2: The Salad Edition
It’s time for another edition of … Update Your Plate! *cue The Final Countdown* Last week, I introduced MyPlate, USDA’s newest healthy eating guide. I’ve been using a system similar to MyPlate for several years to help me balance my meals and to ensure I’m getting enough vegetables, protein, etc. to keep me nourished. The…
Passionfruit and Alfredo
You guys! Check this out: Impressive, isn’t it? No? How about what it looked like a couple of weeks ago? What is that, you ask? Well, I kind of give it away in the post title: yes, this is a passionfruit. If you’ve been reading THIH for a long time, say 2.5 years, you may…
It’s All Peachy
First off, thanks for your suggestions in my last post on how to keep pizza crusts from sticking to the Big Green Egg. We’ll give them a try and report back! Second off, an update on my weekly planning attempt: If you recall, I had assigned particular meals to particular days of the week. I…
What Grilling Can Tell Us About Relationships
Peter has a problem. He loves his Big Green Egg. He really does. But every time he tries to make pizza on it, the pizza sticks to both the pizza peel and the grill like none other. (As a side note: Peter and his dad made the custom wooden cart holding the Big Green Egg….
Monday Munchies, Part 2
Before I get to today’s post, a note about yesterday’s post concerning weekly menu planning: in her comment, Andrea brings up a great point. I plan five meals for the week, but I don’t plan them for a specific day. Otherwise I feel too “restricted” and start to rebel. I may have bitten off more…
The Disorganized RD
I have a confession to make. Unlike many of my Type-A, super organized colleagues in the nutrition field, I am much more the laid-back, throw-stuff-together, where-did-all-these-piles-of-papers-around-my-desk-come-from? type of dietitian. That’s not to say I wait until the last minute. I have a system to get important tasks done on time, or done early. It’s the…
A Park So Nice, I Went There Twice
When I woke this morning, I was a woman with a plan. Farmer’s market, nearby park, lunch, grocery shopping. Check, check, check, and check. We’ve been loving this enormous farmer’s market that takes place in Urbana each Saturday. We picked up fresh corn, eggplant, fingerling potatoes, a cantaloupe, an enormous box of peaches, and kettle…
![Update Your Plate, Part 1: The Salmon Salad Edition](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/IMG_1556.jpg)
Update Your Plate, Part 1: The Salmon Salad Edition
By now, many of you have heard of MyPlate, the USDA‘s newest healthy eating guide. For the first time in nearly 20 years, this food guide is not in the shape of a pyramid (for a fascinating look at the evolution of the USDA’s food guides, check out this link). I completed my dietetic internship…
Chia Later!
I planned to bring you along as I went for a run in our new home, but pop-up showers mean no running for this gal! That may sound rather wimpy — and it is — but I used to run in the rain all the time in high school, and the feeling of stagnant water…
Monday Munchies
I must admit something right off the bat — this post is a lie. Below is a photographic record of what I ate over the course of one day. While I don’t plan to do this often, I understand many people are curious about how dietitians eat. I know this because invariably when I meet…
Do You Know the Muffin (Wo)man?
Back when Peter and I lived in our first apartment together, we used to make banana bread or muffins every week. This was a serious process. During the weekdays, I would carefully hoard bananas to ensure they reached the peak of perfection for baking (i.e. black and stinky). It was not unknown for me to…
Q&A on THIH
I’m not one to launch into rambling and visually unpleasing excuses for monologues concerning prolonged absences, so I thought I’d begin with a little Q & A session. My hope is that by breaking the updates into organized pieces, you, dear reader, will believe me sane. Of course, I’ve taken the identities of both “Q”…
New Places, New Foods
Oh, hello. It’s nice to see you again. Let me dust off a little in here. Please, take a seat. I won’t be long. There! Got the motor running on this blog. I think we’re back in business. First off, let me apologize for my owner/writer Happy Jessie‘s absence. She and Peter just moved halfway…
Scotland the Great
Before we get to the greatness that is Scotland, I’d like to thank all of you for your insightful comments in my last post about eating “real” food. I enjoyed reading about your food philosophies – a selection of comments (bold by me): While I am a huge fan of many processed foods (ahem, peanut…
Eating Real Food: Shrimp Scampi
Note: A slightly-modified version of this post is also a guest post on guest post on Lazaro Cooks! … what can I say? I’m busy, swamped, ready to sell my favorite blender for a slow-paced afternoon – whatever you dear readers call having no free time nowadays. Gotta milk whatever I write, right? Thanks for…
Peter Picked a Plate of Peppers: Yellow Mole
Being married to Peter is an adventure. No, really. I’ve had readers ask me how Peter can possibly find time for his many food-related hobbies, such as taste tests, making vanilla-extract (from specially-acquired vanilla beans, no less), constructing sous vide machines (and I do mean machineS in the plural), convincing his favorite restaurants that it…
A Day in the Life of a Scuba Diver
Where in the world has Jessie been? Three weeks and nary a peep! As I wrote earlier, I knew I would be busy this summer with the registered dietitian exam, working on my Master’s research … and, swimming with the fishes! You may remember last year’s post about our trip to one of my favorite…
You Are My Inspiration, Part II
Thanks to everyone for their congratulations on my last post! I’m thrilled to be a registered dietitian and I can’t wait to get started in the field. BUT, first things first – finish that Master’s degree, Jessie! Now, a subject dear to my heart: you! I’ve had many occasions to be inspired by the culinary…
![Jessie, RD](https://thehappinessinhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/IMG_7573.jpg)
Jessie, RD
That’s right, folks! Just call me: Jessie, RD. When I mentioned in this post that I would be taking the registered dietitian exam later this summer, I didn’t realize how SOON I would be taking it. The graduates of my dietetics program and I were told that we wouldn’t be eligible to take the RD…
Why I Love My Farm Share
Why do I love my farm share? Let me count the ways: 1. A variety of fresh, organic vegetables: (From left to right: parsley, beets, scallions, garlic, Swiss chard, garlic scapes) What is a farm share? You may know it by a different name: Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA. When you buy a farm share…
The Life of a Corporate Dietitian at Subway
We’ve come to it at last, folks. After three years of school, dietetic internship, stress, fun times, and a LOT of food, here we are. Last Thursday, I walked out of Subway‘s world headquarters having finished my dietetics internship and thus all the requirements to become a registered dietitian … save one: I still need…
Two Meals at Forbidden City
That’s right: we enjoyed not one, but TWO delicious meals at Forbidden City, an Asian fusion restaurant in Middletown, CT. I may be giving away the ending by saying how delicious these meals were, but those of you who are long-time readers know how much I love this restaurant. Forbidden City‘s owner, Eric Leong, and…