maple zucchini nut muffins

I typically don’t condone eating muffins for breakfast since they’re usually just a minuscule step up from a cupcake. Even the wannabe bran muffin is loaded with sugar and unhealthy oils, and will leave you feeling drained and hungry with lunch still hours away. But the illustrious muffin is a convenient food for busy mornings when you just need something to grab, so I set out to create a Foodist-approved muffin recipe.

The winner of my muffin escapades in the kitchen were these Maple Zucchini Nut Muffins. They’re the perfect balance of hearty and healthy. My zucchini muffins are free of refined sugars and flours (the gluten-free crowd will love ‘em!) and are loaded with protein and healthy fat from the nuts, oats, flax, eggs and organic butter.

Best part—counts as eating veggies for breakfast!
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zebra tomato

My name is Ashley Mason, and I’m a postdoctoral research fellow at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, where I study food cravings and eating behavior. My husband and I recently moved from the peninsula to SF, and are enjoying exploring the city’s eateries, farmers markets, and parks.

Lisa Hagen Glynn is a postdoctoral fellow who studies treatments to promote health-behavior change. A former resident of the Bay Area, Lisa recently returned to Seattle to pursue a clinical and research career. She is a part-time fine-art photographer who loves exploring the city and wilderness equally (www.lisaglynn.com).
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Tempeh Stuffed Tomato

I’ve got the post-Labor-Day blues. Summer has once again flown by and I’m not ready for the amazing Portland weather to end. Thankfully I think we can at least squeeze in a couple more good summer recipes before its bounty comes to an end.

This recipe is inspired by my French mother-in-law’s tomatoes farcies, or stuffed tomatoes. Her delicious stuffed tomatoes are made with sausage or ground beef, but I decided to up the ante and make a healthy vegetarian variation stuffed with tempeh, broccoli and mushrooms.

My husband at first was skeptical, but after going back for seconds, he proclaimed the vegetarian version a success. The tempeh turned out so flavorful, you could probably pass it off as a sausage filling.

Serve with a crusty baguette to soak up all the juices!
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So you want to eat healthier but you’re not sure where to begin? A good place to start is revamping your lunch.

Lunch is easy to overlook, inconveniently located smack-dab in the middle of the day. This means you might be tempted by anything you can grab on the go, often a processed-deli-meat sandwich or a deceptively-labeled energy bar.

Since a long lunch and an afternoon siesta are not likely to become a part of our culture anytime soon, the best routine you can get into is to make a big batch of a veggie-loaded whole-grain salad on Sunday evenings. My go-to is a seasonal quinoa salad that I pack with whatever veggies I have left over from our weekly farm share and toss with my favorite lemon miso dressing.

Below is a recipe guide for creating your own quinoa salad. Keep the basics in mind (grain + veggies + dressing) and you really can’t go wrong with mixing and matching. Once you’ve made this recipe a couple of times, you’ll be able to accomplish it in 30 minutes or less.

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Carrot ribbons are better than Christmas!

I hate to break it to you, but you’ve been using your vegetable peeler incorrectly for your entire life. And so have I, until recently.

A few weeks ago I was casually browsing the internet looking for a recipe to include in my weekly For the Love of Food link roundup, when I stumbled upon an intriguing carrot salad recipe. The recipe itself was mildly interesting, but that wasn’t what captured my attention. I mean, how good can a carrot salad really be?

But I do eat a lot of salads, especially this time of year when the farmers market is exploding with delicious produce, and something about this particular preparation caught my eye.

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Spicy Shrimp and Cherry Tomato Linguine

Being that this is Summer Tomato and that we’re lucky enough to be in the midst of summer with local tomatoes at their peak, I thought we were due for a recipe that highlights this colorful and flavorful lycopene-rich vegetable.

To me no country knows its way around a tomato better than Italy, so in July and August I find myself gravitating towards cooking a lot of Italian-inspired cuisine… which naturally means pasta!

And if you’re going to eat pasta, I say go all out and buy fresh linguine from a local artisan producer (none of that quinoa brown rice wanna-be pasta). There is a time and place for quinoa, don’t get me wrong, but for this recipe we need the real deal.

The best part about cooking seasonally is the minimal amount of ingredients needed to create a memorable dish. Local tomatoes are naturally sweet and don’t require a lot of extra help from ingredients we don’t love, like sugar. You can make the meal complete by adding a simple side salad of arugula, walnuts and shaved parmesan.

Oh and don’t forget the wine!
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Huck’s homemade dog treats

Our dog Huck turned the big one-year-old today. Seems like just yesterday that we brought him home. Remember meeting nine-week-old Huckaboo? Well, we can definitely no longer hold him in one hand!

Huck’s been an extra patient pup now that he has a baby sister, so he deserved to be spoiled on his birthday. After a romp in the dog park, I set out to make homemade dog treats. I decided to combine two of Huck’s favorites—peanut butter and pumpkin.

The cookies actually turned out tasty (yes I tried one!) and are much healthier (and way less expensive) than store-bought treats.

Pumpkin and oats are great for doggie digestion and peanut butter and coconut oil will help your pooch maintain his good looks. Let me know if your furry friend likes these cookies as much as Huck did.
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Pesto Potato Salad with Fava Beans

Our amazing recipe developer Elyse Kopecky is back from maternity leave with her delicious Foodist Approved recipes. Please join me in welcoming her back and congratulating her on her new baby girl!   -Darya

I’m back in the kitchen and now with a baby on board! On June 19th I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. It’s been a life-changing experience that’s even altered my approach to cooking.

With a whole new appreciation of busy, I can finally understand why many parents revert to frozen foods and takeout. To avoid falling into an unhealthy rut, I now double or triple recipes so that I will have leftovers when I’m in a time crunch. It’s especially helpful to make big batches of things like salad dressing, pesto and sauces, which can be used to quickly turn the mundane into deliciousness.

This week’s recipe was inspired by my latest weekly delivery from my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), which included freshly dug baby new potatoes, giant fava beans and a hearty bunch of floral basil.

This is the first year I’ve been a member of a farm share and it’s been the best thing ever for insuring I don’t get in a rut of buying always the same produce. Even though I went to culinary school, I still have vegetables show up in my share that I’ve never cooked before.

If you haven’t tried my pesto recipe from a couple months ago now’s your chance to make a big batch of it. It’s great slathered on just about anything.
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Cabbage and Eggs

I must confess that I’ve been reluctant to share this recipe for a long time because, well, let’s just say it isn’t the most photogenic thing that I cook.

However, I realized that this simple cabbage and eggs dish has become such a staple of my home court recipes that it isn’t fair to keep it from you any longer.

This recipe is special for a few reasons. First, even though it may look funny it tastes (and smells) absolutely amazing. The secret is adding just a splash of soy sauce to the cooked cabbage before adding the eggs, which gives it a rich umami flavor that our mouths crave.

Second, it’s surprisingly filling given that it’s just two eggs and a handful of leaves. Something about the combination makes it feel almost luscious and decadent to eat, and it keeps me full for hours.

Last, but certainly not least, how often do you get to eat (and actually enjoy) vegetables for breakfast? Although I’ve been known to make this for any meal of the day, the egg component makes it easy to add to your morning healthstyle and double down on your veggie consumption for the day.

One final bonus is that when I use certain varietals of purple cabbage in this dish my eggs turn an almost neon blue. What’s not to love?
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Strawberry Rhubarb Sesame Crumble

Say you’re suffering from a serious sweet-treat craving, but are nowhere close to getting your 8+ servings of fruits and vegetables for the day. Fear not. Here’s a recipe for a radiant dessert that sneaks in a serving of each. Yes to desserts that hide veggies!

Seeing fresh strawberries and rhubarb together at the market couldn’t have made me happier. The two combine effortlessly, and together they promise summer is around the corner. But the problem with most desserts made with rhubarb is that they’re overloaded with sugar to compensate for rhubarb’s tartness. Why we like to mask rhubarb’s splendor I will never understand. When you’re using farm-fresh strawberries, there’s no need for added sugar.

I can’t think of a dessert more nutritious than this strawberry rhubarb crumble. It’s low on the glycemic index and free of refined sugars, and the fruit, veggies, oats and sesame seeds in it make it high in fiber, the coconut oil makes it high in healthy fatty acids, and the fruit and seeds make it rich in vitamins and minerals. Only thing better would maybe be a kale pie, but I think I’ll pass on that.

This recipe can easily be made gluten-free by substituting out the whole-wheat pastry flour for almond meal.
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