I'll concede that as far as food trends go these days, you're much more likely to see a chia pudding appear on your Instagram feed than a tapioca pudding! You might even say the latter is a little old-school. But to me, this MANGO TAPIOCA PUDDING has a special nostalgia and holds a supreme ranking as far as desserts that delighted me as a child. And as an adult :)

These CHEWY SALTED CHOCOLATE PECAN NO-BAKE BARS are the answer to your cravings for something salty-sweet, chewy, nutty and chocolate-y......buuut still kinda healthy and definitely not tooth-achingly sweet.  They’re perfect for stashing in the freezer for a quick treat. Enjoy a square (or three)!

The selfish part of me doesn't want to publicly share how ah-mazing beef cheeks are for braising!  Beef cheeks are at once lean and tender.  When slow cooked or pressure cooked, it is extremely flavorful and yields lusciously to your fork.  Or should I say, spoon because that's the utensil to use for this dish.  It's how wonderfully tender it is!  

When I discovered a package of frozen udon in the freezer, I was delighted.  My cravings spoke loudly and decisively.  I knew instantly that I wanted to enjoy it in this easy coconut curry noodle bowl. Since we limit grains including wheat these days, we rarely slurp down any noodles (made from wheat) at home anymore.  I cherished this bowl of udon with my entire being.

This BRAISED RICE CAKES WITH NAPA CABBAGE, SHIITAKE AND PORK recipe is an easy one-pot meal that is also total comfort food. The magic happens in the final simmering when the starches released from the rice cakes combine with the liquid cooked out of the cabbage to create a velvety, luscious sauce. Utterly delicious and satisfying!

After my theFeedFeed snapchat takeover last week making this Maple Almond-Cashew Iced Latte, I wanted to immediately follow up with this post.  This is a game changer, friends.

Guess what!  I have another awesome mash-up for you.  OKONOMIYAKI WRAPS 

First of all, what is okonomiyaki?  Other than that it's fun to say (rolls off the tongue doesn't it), it is a Japanese savory pancake originating from Osaka, Japan.  The pancake batter itself is traditionally flour-and-egg based, with finely shredded cabbage mixed right in.  The name itself translates to "grill as you like it", meaning you can adapt it by adding to the pancake batter a variety of different ingredients from veggies (i.e. corn, mushrooms, potatoes) to meats (i.e. pork, beef, chicken) to seafood (i.e. shrimp, squid, fish).  When we lived in downtown Toronto, we were lucky to be a 2-minute walking distance from Okonomi House, a small Japanese-run restaurant that specializes in - you guessed it - okonomiyaki.  It was there that we discovered this ultra tasty food.

If you love a little pucker with your sweet with a little tropical twist, you'll go mad for this tart!

I wrote about my daughter's grain-free / dairy-free (essentially "paleo") diet in a previous post here.  This meant our beloved weekend pancakes became a fond memory.  Until NOW.

I have been looking forward to sharing this recipe for months...I just had to make it a second time to make doubly sure it was a winner.  IT IS.  If you know miso's intense brininess and gochujang's savory pungency, then you might hesitate to believe me that using both of these together in this recipe results in a braised pork roast that is deeply flavorful, yet mellow.  Wonderfully mellow. Believe.

I'm so happy to kick off the new year with a recipe I'm rather excited about as it uses an amazing and wildly flavorful ingredient that is a relatively recent discovery for me - tamarind.   I didn't grow up with tamarind, but I have made up for that lost time by how much I love it now.  Are you thinking what even is tamarind anyway? 

In my previous post, I wrote about my family's (temporary) grain-free and dairy-free diet. Since then, we had our follow up visit with the naturopath and received an 'okay' to consume rice, oats and quinoa in small amounts.  I won't pretend to understand naturopathy at all. I don't. As a fairly science-based household (my husband is an intellectual property lawyer with a specialty in biotechnology and medical devices, while I worked nearly a decade at a global pharmaceutical company in a Finance capacity), this venture into alternative medicine is a giant leap of faith.  A leap we had not choice but to take since traditional medicine failed to help my daughter beyond full-body topical steroid cream applications to treat her eczema and absolutely nada to diagnose or treat her mild but persistent, daily stomach aches.  

Being prescribed a grain-free diet by my daughter's naturopath just before the holidays is like getting sick right before vacation ... or scoring free drink tickets only to get bar rail liquor ... or finding a hole in your sock the moment you take off your shoes at someone's house ... or dripping yellow mustard on your brand new sneakers (that stuff's like dye and never completely comes off!) ... or getting an unexpected visit from Auntie Flo when you're totally unprepared OK THAT IS GOING TOO FAR.  

If you've been the New York City, then you've seen the plethora of street food carts selling pretzels or nuts or bagels that fill the streets with their amazing aromas.  But I don't waste my money there.  

I made this the other day because I had hella pumpkin puree to use up.  It's only mid October and I'm still on my annual pumpkin (and pumpkin spice) bender and I wannit in EVERY. SINGLE. THING.  

It doesn't get any more simple or nourishing than this!  This smoothie is filling, nutritious, free of refined sugar yet delightfully kissed with just a bit of sweet.  It is a perfect breakfast, post-workout snack or even a light meal.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, they say, and yet it seems rather over-represented with not the healthiest options involving bread, fatty cheese and salty meats.  When my first born was around 2 years old, I somehow got away with serving her oatmeal cooked in unsweetened almond milk with a sprinkling of raisins (no sugar) every single day for an entire year!  Then she got wise.  

[ October 2018 ] This recipe was updated with improvements! I switched to using roasted chickpeas for an amazing gluten-free alternative for the breading! (see image above) Note the use of store-bought, snacking kind of roasted chickpeas (like Watusee Foods roasted organic chickpeas; not sponsored) which I blitz into a coarse crumb in a blender or food processor. They also have ready-made chickpea crumbs if you can find it (I don’t have access to that in Canada). Home-roasted chickpeas would likely be too moist to achieve the same results.

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This one's a home run at my house!  And I am willing to bet it would be at your's too, if your peeps like crispy little chicken sandwiches on warm soft brioche buns served with a good schmear of creamy tartar-y sauce goodness.  The best part about it is, it's a lightened up (healthier) version that is EASY to make (less than 30 minutes) with NO COMPROMISE in taste! What is this voodoo magic, you ask? Read on friend…  

This is a gold star muffin recipe! I adore this recipe because it begins with walnuts and rolled oats ground into a coarse flour which gives the muffins substance, keeping you full longer because of the healthy oils in the walnuts and the heartiness of the oats. Buckwheat flour is used which happens to make this gluten-free. Muffins have a bad rap as the evil breakfast food loaded with hidden fat and sugar, but it doesn't have to!  I hope you like this one.