I’m not great at serving dinner without carbs. A side-salad or a pile of green vegetables don’t quite satisfy me, and I end up hunting the back of cupboards for crisps later. Give me double carbs…….. and I’m one happy girl! And if you look closely at the pics, you’ll see I’ve got some flatbreads on the side too. Woo hoo triple carbs for the win! Just call me anti-Atkins (although that is one diet where the weight falls off me....

Need more salad ideas? Browse this roundup of healthy summer salad recipes! Ingredients in this carrot and cucumber salad Cucumbers – Any kind will do, my favorite are fresh pickling cucumbers if you have them. No peeling necessary!Carrots – Again, no peeling necessary. Any type of carrots will work and you can even use rainbow carrots for a pop of color.Celery – With a mild flavor and hearty crunch factor, celery is the perfect addition to this light and crunchy salad....

Margaritas If, like me, it makes you ill thinking how much you’ve spent on cocktails in your lifetime, it’s time to get onto the band wagon of making margaritas at home! Ridiculously easy, it’s a party starter that’s fresh and zingy with just enough sweet, and certainly with a good kick of alcohol that’s going to get you buzzing in no time! What goes in Margaritas Here’s what you need – it’s easy as 1-2-3: (With “parts” being anything from a shot glass, a tablespoon, a mug or a bottle – just use the same measuring vehicle for each ingredient!...

This recipe my mother adapted from Adelle Davis when mom was teaching herself to cook in the 1960s. Like so many of those early recipes, mom has modified them to her taste and style through the years. This one, she rarely does exactly the same way twice. She’ll use a different set of herbs and seasoning, depending on what strikes her fancy looking through the spice cabinet. Whereas my father is a stickler for details and exact ingredient measurements, mom usually can’t be bothered, She keeps things simple and improvises as she goes along....

Garlic: Nothing beats freshly minced garlic, but you can always substitute with 3/4 teaspoon of garlic powder or granulated garlic. Cheese Options: If you cannot find queso fresco, you can substitute with mild feta cheese, queso blanco, or even paneer! Spice Level in Most Amazing Bean Dip: We love when our dip has just enough heat to add to the flavor, without burning anyone out. Canned green chile peppers can have a medium heat, but it should not be overpowering in this dish by itself....

Even if you know nothing about cocktails, chances are you’ve at least heard of an Old Fashioned. Made with just four ingredients – whiskey, sugar, Angostura bitters, and an optional (but recommended) orange peel or Luxardo cherry garnish – the Old Fashioned is up there with other cocktail greats like the Manhattan, Negroni, and Sazerac. It’s super simple to make, too, as is appropriate for a cocktail designed to highlight its main ingredient: whiskey!...

This was an accidental discovery. Sometimes it amazes me that I go to the grocery store almost every day and yet when I start making dinner, I’m missing a crucial ingredient. Like spaghetti for spaghetti bolognaise. Seriously. Who doesn’t have dried spaghetti in the pantry at all times? I know, I’m weird. I think it’s the Japanese blood in my veins. I always have rice. But I don’t always have pasta....

And while I would never be without at least two of those pans (I currently have three), not enough love goes out to the half sheet’s smaller sibling, the quarter sheet pan ($22/2 pack). This is the sheet pan for small batch cooking and for cooking for 1-2 people. This is the pan I pull out when I want to toast some nuts in the oven or roast just a couple sweet potatoes or beets....

While we’ve made this burger several times and love the flavor, we have to be honest, it’s not a quick recipe to put together. There are a lot of ingredients that need to be chopped up and mixed together to make the burger and it’s not something you can just throw together in a few minutes on a weeknight. So for our recipe we adapted and streamlined a few things from the original recipe to make our own version of this paleo breakfast burger....

Ready in just 20 minutes, it’s the perfect dish to make when you’re not in the mood for an elaborate recipe. I like to cook fish and seafood 2-3 times per week. I almost always default to baked salmon and shrimp scampi, both easy and quick. But after discovering frozen rainbow trout fillets at Trader Joe’s, I’ve been making this recipe regularly. It’s a truly tasty fish, kind of like a delicate version of salmon, and the quick preparation is also a bonus....

Can anyone ever say no to a pile of pancakes? Sweet fluffy carb-iness, topped with anything your heart desires (we’re talking food desires here - not your husband tidying the house and presenting you with your kindle and a large box of chocolates just because). Nutella and a huge pile of berries are usually our go-to toppings on a Sunday morning (I don’t let the kids have Nutella during the week, so they really enjoy it on a Sunday)....

Pasta alla norma: Eggplant pasta When it comes to vegetables-as-the-main, eggplant rates very highly in my books because it’s meaty and easy to prepare. It’s a sponge for flavour, silky and delicious in texture, good value most of the year round and extremely versatile. This pasta is Sicilian, and as with many traditional Italian eggplant dishes, the slices are traditionally fried in a hefty amount of oil. I prefer roasting the eggplant – it’s healthier, plus the eggplant cubes hold their shape better rather than turning into unidentifiable mush when tossed in the pasta sauce!...

Pasta Primavera Today’s recipe is a big, wholesome vegetable fix disguised in the form of a creamy pasta. So you can pitch it to your clan as a decadent creamy pasta for dinner but know that there’s also a good hit of nutritious vegetables in it too. Life is all about balance, after all! Primavera means “spring” in Italian, and this meatless dish is all about celebrating the best green bounty the season offers up....

This is a rustic tart, using Bosc or Bartlett pears (great cooking pears) that have been pre-baked with ginger, sugar, and butter, giving them a wonderful caramelized flavor in the tart. Their buttery sweetness offsets the crisp tartness of the whole cranberries. I got the idea from a pear crostata recipe in The Boston Globe. That recipe, which I made and is fabulous, uses pear halves and layers the pears and cranberries on top of frangipane....

Storage Instructions: Why do I have to cool the cheesecake in the oven for so long? In order to create the perfect texture and smooth top, you will want to allow the full baking and cooling times in the oven, without opening the door. By cooling the cheesecake in the oven, without opening the door, the cheesecake continues to bake and then cools in a controlled environment. If you skip this step, you can “shock” the cheesecake and it could crack....

These bright red globes hang from the tree like ornaments, sometimes bursting open to reveal hundreds of juicy crimson seeds. But what to do with them? You can eat them straight (be careful, the juice stains), juice them, or in this case, make pomegranate jelly with them. How Many Pomegranates for 1 Cup of Juice? Good question! It depends on the size and juiciness of your pomegranates. For the big ones we grow, they can produce about 1/2 cup of juice each....