Embrace Summer with Pasta Salads

I have been craving pasta salad for the last couple of weeks.  A summery, crisp, and bright pasta salad of some kind. At the same time I read an NPR blog post that basically read my mine (http://www.npr.org/2013/06/26/195311156/helping-pasta-salad-dress-for-success).

Think differently about your pasta salad - ditch your jar of mayonnaise and think of it as a salad or a complete meal (whole grains [e.g,, pasta], vegetables, protein [e.g. nuts, beans, tofu, shrimp], and fat [e.g., olive oil]) not just a starchy/fatty side dish.  Look around you at all of the fresh summer tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, chards, asparagus, and leafy greens for inspiration.

Flip Your Food

Pancakes.  Burgers. Eggs Over Easy. Pineapple Upside Down Cake. No wait, sorry, that isn’t what I meant by “flipping”. If you aren’t mad at me now, I’ll continue. When you plan any meal, start with thinking first about what good and nutritious thing you can include. I think we’ve all been trained to think (or shamed into thinking) about what we should eliminate or minimize in our meals. Thinking things like if I make a pizza I should really cut down on the cheese or if I make a traditional egg breakfast I should cut down or cut out the butter and bacon. This type of thinking is exhausting and I think it sort of sets us up for failure. If you are always eliminating, you can never win, there will always be something else that you can think to minimize or eliminate.


Stir-fry - Peas, two kinds of peppers, red onion, green onion, garlic, ginger, and tofu.

So instead, try this. Focus your energy and thoughts on adding good things to your meals.

But I don't know what is healthy!

I’ve heard this a million times and probably said it like 1,000 myself, “but I don’t know what is healthy”.  But think about this, really think about this, and it’s pretty ridiculous.  We know, and certainly don’t need some scientific study to confirm, that eating a medium delivery pizza for dinner is not healthy.  We know that eating a big bowl of ice cream at night while watching TV isn’t healthy.  We know that eating ½ pound of bacon for breakfast isn’t healthy.  We know this.  We just wish there was a way to get away with it.

What we actually eat

I definitely have a few cooking blogs and cooking websites that I love to look at for inspiration (or just to see how crazy some chefs really are).  But 6 days a week we aren't making a special recipe that we've planned, shopped, and prepared for.  Or maybe 7 days a week!  Sure, sure, I've made some stunning meals (if I do say so myself) but 99 percent of the time, we make rice dishes, pizzas, soups, or are grilling.  Ninety-nice percent of time, my meal planning begins with "what do we have in the house for dinner?"  We do try to cook, mostly.  And have pulled off some pretty interesting and delicious meals. We've also eaten rice and steamed carrots 'cause that is all we had.  Check out the What We Eat (or Ate) page for some real dinner ideas.  Feel free to post a comment if you want any more info on anything posted or have some of your own ideas!

Trimming Food Waste

I read this amazing book, American Wasteland by Jonathan Bloom, last year.  The book is well-researched and completely easy to read.  It looks at our entire food system - from farms and production, to packaging and shipping, grocery stores, restaurants, and your kitchen - and points highlights inefficiencies and waste in the system.  It’s astounding.  Nearly half of all the food produced in the United States is thrown away.  Half!  And think about when the waste occurs at the end of this system, for example, after the food has been grown, picked, packaged, shipped, stored, purchased, prepared and served in a restaurant or your home.  If you don’t end up eating it then, the amount of materials (fertilizers, boxes, packaging) and energy (transport, cooking, refrigeration) that are literally just being thrown away is mind-boggling.

Squash Everywhere!

This time of year the grocery stores and markets are literally overflowing with all kinds of winter squash and pumpkins.  This is a perfect time to adapt what you buy and what you eat to what is in season.  Those crazy looking pumpkins and squash are actually edible (even delicious!) so don't be afraid to buy something and try it!

Step 2: Start Simple - Whatcha got?

Sometimes I'm inspired to prepare something involved, but we do an awful lot of  "whatchagot"  meals (soups, stews, rice dishes).

With very little time, planning or inspiration you can whip up easy whatchagot dinners if you keep some basics in your kitchen like: rice or couscous, bouillon, garlic, and carrots.

Brown and wild rice, carrots and red pepper

Starting Your Rediscovery of Real Food

An easy place to start to rediscover cooking is to begin by making meals based on what you have in your house and what is in season and available at your local market.

Making meals that are as simple or complex as you'd like.  Meals that can be improvised.

Meals where the preparation is not stressful and doesn't require a lot of planning.

Getting back to simply cooking.  Simply cooking real food.

Come on in and have a seat!

My name is Julie and I invite you into my kitchen (and a corner of my life)  because food is really important to me.  Growing, buying, preparing and eating of food is fundamentally gratifying to me.  It is intrinsically linked to our cultural identity and life itself. And for some reason we seem to have become distanced from all of it.

I hope that others can discover (or rediscover) the pure pleasure and satisfaction that home cooked food can bring.