Last weekend I made Dana White’s Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken and even my husband—who does not care for any slow cooker recipes—LOVED it. Which is remarkable given the rather large cooking error I made (it cooks for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high setting—if you accidentally set it 4 hours on low and don’t notice until 3 hours in, you can save it by pouring into a large saute pan and setting it on a medium flame for about 45 minutes!)
One way to prepare for a week’s worth of heart-healthy meals is to batch cook vegetables, but after a winter’s worth of roasted root vegetables, I’m ready for some spicier fare.
Another way to make it easy to whip up a healthy meal on a busy week night is to make a batch of a healthy ‘sauce’ that you can use all week on salads, vegetables and/or to flavor just about any protein.
With daffodils poking up and then getting snowed on this week, I decided go optimistic and make two sunny sauces: The Green Sauce (which his my current obsession and I’ve doused everything with it) and my friend Sylvia’s ‘Fresh Sauce.’
If a healthy, easy-to-make sauce that is delicious on just about everything sounds appealing, you must try the ‘Green Sauce’ created by nutrition expert Dana White. (Dana is a registered dietitian, certified athletic trainer and author with a specialty in culinary nutrition, recipe development and sports nutrition. She is the nutrition expert for Food Network.com and founding contributor for Food Network’s Healthy Eats blog.)
Dana miraculously reverse-engineered my absolutely favorite food item at a local Venezuelan restaurant, and I have now made this three times since she posted THE Green Sauce recipe on her blog, Dana White Nutrition.
A heart-healthy, delicious hot appetizer, Blistered Shishito Peppers are often on restaurant menus—but did you know they are a cinch to make at home? (And if you’re like me and don’t care for bell peppers, know that shishitos are delightfully different: a mild, ‘sweet’ pepper, their flavor is not at all like bell peppers.)
At your next dinner party (or just for fun on a weeknight—they are that easy) serve blistered Shishitos as an amazingly easy, delicious, and far heart-healthier alternative to high-fat cheese and crackers.
Available at local farmers markets, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s,
Melissa Clark is one of my favorite cookbook authors—I find her recipes well researched, easy-to-follow and consistently delicious. But the depth and complexity of flavor in her Coconut Pork Stew with Garam Masala make this recipe, hands down, the most delicious dish I’ve ever made.
And it wasn’t even difficult. (To be fair, two elements require day-before preparation, so planning is required. But making a list is about as complicated as this recipe gets.)
I decided to make this recipe because I found the enveloping NYT article, Pork Stew Gets A Chile Kick intriguing, and I like Indian flavors and coconut curries.
