Tuesday, April 27, 2010

How to eat local for cheap

Eating locally grown and produced foods (the "locavore" diet) is becoming more and more popular, but let's be realistic: a lot of local foods are kind of expensive. Doesn't mean that they're not worth the price, or that the other foods aren't artificially underpriced, but a dollar's a dollar, you know?

So I love this article from awesome food website Culinate on 8 ways to buy local on a budget. Save yourself some cash and eat better, too!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

5 fast and healthy dinner ideas

A classic problem is coming home after work, tired and hungry, and not feeling like cooking. Easier to get takeout or eat something out of a box than to cook something healthy, right?

Not so fast! Takeout takes longer than these quick meal ideas you can throw together in no time. Just think of how much better you'll feel after having a fast and healthy dinner.

Self magazine has some of my favourite healthy recipes, and this fast chicken salad is no exception. Chicken strips are coated in a cornmeal mixture and baked for 14 minutes, and added to a mixture of salad greens, avocado, roasted peppers and goat cheese - all topped with a grapefruit juice dressing. Yum.

Egg salad is one of my standbys for a quick meal - sometimes I just throw some together quickly, put it on toast and serve with a side salad of greens and vinaigrette. This version is a bit fancier, but still light on the veggies, so serve some on the side.

This is a super fast and easy way to cook salmon. While it's in the oven, throw together a side salad or heat up some soup.

Another hit from Smitten Kitchen, this one tastes best with the highest quality (homemade?) tomato sauce.

This one requires marinating the chicken for at least two hours - but you can do it in the morning or the night before.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Trying new restaurants across the country

Sorry for the delay in posting... it's been a very busy winter! But now it's spring and I'm ready to start blogging again.

One of my favorite things to read about in food magazines like Bon Appetit is the travel sections. I love to try new restaurants when I travel and to dream about new restaurants even when I don't have time to travel. I recently found this guide to the best farm-to-table restaurants in the country on epicurious.com and it's really inspiring. Unfortunately I'm not planning a trip to any of those cities in the near future... but if you are, enjoy your meal!