Recipe Category: Dinner

Butternut Squash, Pears, and Quinoa Salad with Chicken

This salad is both sweet and savory thanks to the butternut squash, pears, rosemary, and ginger. Delicious, nutritious, and satisfying!

Breaded Chicken, Pears, Pecans, and Goat Cheese Salad

A sweet and savory salad made up of a faux-buttermilk breaded chicken, pears, pecans, and goat cheese topped with a little tangy dijon vinaigrette.

Tomato Bisque

Tomato bisque made with a touch of ginger. Top with goat cheese or cheddar cheese croutons.

Chicken Salad

This chicken salad is both savory and sweet thanks to the pecans and grapes. Enjoy as a sandwich or wrapped in lettuce.

Hawaiian Chicken with Teriyaki Vegetables and Pineapple

As sweet and spicy as it is easy to make.

Fajita Chicken

Chicken with a kick. Best served with queso fresco or the seasonal Siggi’s Mango & Jalapeño yogurt to cut through the spiciness. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Mango Jicama Slaw

Sweet thanks to the mango and spicy thanks to the chili powder. The perfect side dish to fajita chicken.

Pistachio, Beets, Farro, and Chicken Salad

This is my favorite, go-to salad. It’s chock full of protein, flavor, and a little bit of adventure. I mean, c’mon, it’s topped with pistachios!!! Read more for the easiest way to peel roasted beets. Hint: two paper towels and 30 seconds is all you need.

Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble and Marshmallows

Easy to make and sweet enough for dessert.

Cranberry Sauce

Why settle for canned cranberry sauce when fresh sauce it’s so easy to make? I’ve been making this spicy version for nearly 20 years and it’s a hit every time.

I love data! Or, how activity-tracking apps motivate me.

I was dragging my butt up the mountain one day and thought, “I wonder how far I’ve gone today.” I had only been out 25 minutes so I knew it wasn’t that far. Nonetheless I was curious for a number. Then I thought, “I wonder how fast, or more accurately, how slow I’m going.” I was sweating like crazy and huffing and puffing, so I was thinking I was probably going Superman-fast. I realized that I needed to collect some data during my excursions. Later at home, I found an app that promised to track my location on a map, create routes, and save stats while I ran these routes. I learned I could do the same routes repeatedly and compare my pace from run to run. That’s a certifiable progress report! It’s like a mini challenge every time I go out. Fun! Sure, I don’t need something like this to know whether or not I’m improving. Seeing a…

One day I decided to lose a little weight.

I had an event to attend and wanted a new dress. I didn’t need a new dress, but I really like new dresses. So I went online to do a little shopping and there it was…the most beautiful cocktail dress designed by one of my favorite designers. As an added bonus it was an unheard of 75% off! It was meant to be. I went to make the purchase then bam! They only had one size left and it was a size (or two) too small. I closed the browser window and tried to forget about the dress. A couple days passed and I couldn’t forget the dress. I began thinking, what’s one or two dress sizes in terms of pounds? 10? 15? Maybe 20? With six weeks to the event, I figured I could drop those “few” extra pounds. Surely, there’s a lot of water weight that can go quickly, right? I…

All flours aren’t created equally.

As a semi-vegetarian (that’s a thing, right?) I’m always looking for ways to add protein to my meals. Recipe trial and error is common in our kitchen. Unfortunately there’s more error than trial but that’s OK – live and learn. After a few attempts I learned the hard way that substituting one type of flour for another is not an automatic win. For example, coconut flour, which smells heavenly and is great for your health, is super absorbent and has a tendency to feel grainy on the tongue when used in baked good. Pancakes, crepes, and cookies crumble just by looking at them. My husband had to give himself the Heimlich Maneuver over the kitchen sink late one night after a cookie-eating binge (sorry honey). I’ve read a bunch about this online and some folks suggest abandoning the effort of flour substitution altogether. A defeatist attitude if you ask me. I’m not trying to be gluten-free…

This site contains *mostly* healthy recipes made without processed ingredients that fuel my second passion: trail running, which accommodates my first passion: eating cake.

I’m not a trained chef, baker, or nutritionist but I am a flexitarian who recently shed 75+ pounds while learning to love to cook – and eat – again.

Note: I live at 6,200′ elevation so my recipes are adjusted to either bake longer, use less liquid or use more flour than folks living at 3,000′ or below.