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Explore easy ways to enjoy eating well and create
simple habits for flexible and flavorful meals
I share balanced and practical ways to eat well and maximize your health and wellbeing.
Artichoke Puttanesca–Forget its Saucy Reputation
Serves 6 as a complete meal with the pasta option A delicious mix of tangy, spicy and savory ingredients makes Puttanesca sauce (sugo alla puttanesca) a meal-time habit that can be made from your pantry. This popular Italian sauce commonly pairs with pasta but...
The Sweet and Meaty Taste Science of Grilled Vegetables
“Let’s grill tonight” translates to “let’s eat meat tonight” in many backyard BBQs. It’s not surprising since grilled meat products create hundreds of complex aroma and flavor compounds. Grilled vegetables create less of these craveable compounds but develop delicious...
Chipotle and Black Bean Tempeh Chili
Making chili should be an easy, homemade treat, but chili competitions and throwdowns can make it feel like it should be Instagram-ble or complex. Typically meat is central to chili, yet this tempeh chili is a contest contender for a comforting, satisfying homecooked...
Corn, Tomato and Spinach Olive-Oil Galette
Olive-oil galette--Is it a tart? A pizza with a folded edge? A pie you eat for dinner? It’s delicious no matter what you call it and, depending on your fillings, this olive-oil galette works for breakfast, lunch or dinner. This quick, easy tart base can be made...
Go-To BBQ Sauce: Smokey, Spicy, Tangy & Sweet
Creating a BBQ sauce recipe is basically asking for a culinary throwdown. With parts of our country owning different styles and declaring theirs as the best, I tread on hallowed ground. However, when I get a craving for BBQ, these are the ingredients that hit the...
Lazy, Lighter Chocolat Chaud—Hot Chocolate with French Airs
It snowed in the desert on National Margarita day. Neither event makes sense—a beach-boozy drink celebrated in winter and snow-covered cactus. Instead of tequila, my beverage is based on chocolate liquor—the meat of the cocoa bean.Any cold day seems a good day for a...
Easy homemade Honeycomb for a Flavorful Sweet Treat
I ate honeycomb for the first time at the Royal Highlands show in Scotland where it was called cinder toffee. I adopted a Scottish accent after the first bite. I’d eaten honeycomb-covered chocolate bars in London, but fresh-made honeycomb had heady aromas of caramel,...
Kids in the Kitchen: A little Cooking Competition is Healthy
Parents rarely get to brag that their children regularly make the family meals using lots of new ingredients. However, TV cooking competitions for kids give the illusion that they often whip up complex meals quicker than their parents can google the recipe....
Marmalade Macaroons or Rochers à la Noix de Coco
Add macaroons to your dessert menu to master a classic French treat with Italian origins that’s surprisingly quick and easy. Macaroons (mac-uh-ruinz) based on coconut, look and sound nothing like the butter-cream filled almond cookies macarons (mac-kaw-rhone...
Pineapple Ginger Salsa Recipe
Tomato-based salsas offer familiar flavors and textures, but bust out of that comfort zone with a sweet, tangy pineapple ginger salsa for a zippy dip and fun side dish or garnish. Flavorful heat from chile peppers, garlic, scallion and ginger are balanced by...
Salsa! Dance it or Eat it—Both Burn Calories
Dance it or eat it, but either way salsa boosts your mood, makes you hot and burns extra calories. Chile peppers in salsa contain chemicals that trigger heat sensations and cause your body to expend more energy--a metabolic effect called diet-induced...
Lentil Mushroom Walnut Pate: Savory Bean-Meat Swaps
Swapping out a meat-based ingredient for a plant-based one is a balancing act of texture, taste qualities (like umami) and flavors from aromatic compounds. Particularly with liver—can you think of any plant that tastes or smells like it? Please let me know...
Quick Pickled Leeks with Lime
Leeks are versatile, but most often, are cooked until soft or used as an aromatic veggie in stocks. This recipe for pickled leeks lets them maintain a fresh texture and flavor. In less than 10 minutes, hands-on, you have a versatile, delicious garnish and...
Meaty Walnut Mushroom Ragout: Flex Your Meatless Options
Walnut Mushroom Ragout (Ragoût, for zee French appetite) This walnut mushroom ragout (pronounced like the Italian Ragù) is a veggie and meat-eater favorite that delivers a ground-meat texture and umami-meaty flavor from toasted walnuts. Walnuts are...
Corn and Cremini Chickpea Cauliflower “Pizza”
Cauliflower Chickpea-Flour "Pizza" This recipe delivers a satisfying and meaty umami-ness from corn, sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms, but is it pizza? Gluten, scorned by carbophobic eaters and necessarily restricted by a minority of others,...
Chickpea Corn Cakes: Crave-worthy Carbs
If you enjoy crunchy, sweet summer corn and savory, nutty chickpea flavors and a fast, easy recipe, continue. However, I feel compelled to defend corn just in case with this comment: Carby chickpea corn cakes cause carb-avoiders cringe-worthy...
Quinoa Boulettes vs Ikea Swedish Meatballs
Mom would make Swedish meatballs for parties yet we weren't Swedish, didn't know anyone who was and Ikea was a two-day plane trip. Several decades later, braving my first trip to the hip-mega-everything store in search of kitchen doodads, I got...
Happy Cooking: Jacques Pepin American Masters
Jacques Pepin American Masters Culinary Icon Julia Child, Albert Einstein, George Lucas, Bob Dylan and now, Jacques Pepin, headline a PBS American Masters series. Pepin’s edition portrays his evolution from 13-year old apprentice to respected,...
From Bubbly, Burpy Beast to Sourdough Bread
In our household, National Sourdough Bread Day is a reminder to be generous. My mom’s habit of giving a loaf of sourdough bread to new neighbors or someone needing comfort became our family tradition. Bread makes a practical edible gift, but offering...
No Cell Phone Zones and Digital Dining Etiquette for Healthier Habits
Gaps in my childhood memories are like holes in Swiss cheese, yet recollections of meals evoke a solid sense of belonging and comfort. Feeling gushy about meals is easy when you nourish yourself, nurture friends and family and take a break from...
Pizza as a Path to Veggie-Eating Kids
Pizza Veggie Opportunities Ask a group of American kids to all agree on meal they like. Pizza, a unifying force in the kid kingdom, wins. However, ask kids to agree on specific vegetables toppings and you’ll hear some “yuck” comments. Unfortunately,...
Fast Flatbread 3 Ways–Watch out Pizza
Fast Flatbread 3 Ways (makes 6 one-person servings) Flatbread, is quicker to make than its cousin--pizza. It doesn't require careful measuring, sifted flour or yeast and doesn't make you wait. It’s five minutes from your pantry to a lump of dough...
Citrus and Almond Olive Oil Cake with Tangerine Glaze
This isn’t a typical olive oil cake. Often they are dense and extra unctuous, which can be desirable, or lighter and cake-like.
Golden Horseradish Hummus
Golden Horseradish Hummus Hummus needs chickpeas. I've met modern interpretations at restaurants and was disappointed when I could find no trace or taste of it. Chickpeas have a distinct flavor and, culturally, if chickpeas are subbed out for other beans, you...
Easy French Brown-Butter Tart
For bakers and home cooks who bake often, making tarts is easy enough. However, not everyone, including me, appreciates the specific measuring and techniques required for good tart dough. Now, after discovering this easy brown-butter tart, I’m dreaming of future tarts.
Swiss Chard Hazelnut Dessert Tart |Tarte Sucrée Aux Blettes et Noisettes
Swiss Chard Hazelnut Dessert Tart Really. It’s not so bizarre to use vegetables in dessert. Consider zucchini bread and carrot cake. Other popular recipes include red velvet beet cake, sweet potato pudding and avocado chocolate mousse....
Roasted Cauliflower Steaks with Sumac
Roasted Cauliflower Steaks with Sumac Pan-seared cauliflower steaks work great, yet often require finishing in the oven. This cauliflower steak with sumac option shortcuts the pan-searing for a longer, but less fussy, roast in the oven. While these...
Boursin and Yogurt Artichoke Gratin
Boursin and Yogurt Artichoke Gratin French and American gratins, pronounced “Grawh-tAHn”, range from dense, cheesy and cream-laden to light dishes made simply with a béchamel sauce.This artichoke gratin, satisfyingly filling yet not overly cheesy works well as a dip...
Parsnip Puree Soup and Crisps
Parsnip Puree Soup with Crisps You’re so sweet, you’re so fine, but a sugar bomb in wintertime. Okay, the song doesn’t go this way but, in winter, cold converts parsnip starches to sugar at high levels and if the parsnips freeze before harvest, they become...
Purse Crêpes (Aumônières de Crêpes)
Purse Crêpes Purse Crêpes (sometimes called a Beggar's purse) are an ironic description for a crêpe-based dish given that these elegant, plump flavor packages allow for an extra cha-ching to that restaurant bill. For the home cooks, this food bling bling...
Crepes and Crêpes Célestines | Herbed Crepes
Crêpes are full of contradictions. They are fancy foods, yet street foods. They are rich and decadent but can be simple and nutrient dense. They are quick or they can be turned into fancy purses as in aumônières de crêpes or other culinary art tricks....
Almond and Hazelnut Dukkah
Almond and Hazelnut Dukkah Dukkah, a savory spice and nut mix, has Arabic roots and worldly applications. Traditional key ingredients are nuts, coriander, cumin seed, salt and sesame seeds, but it can also include other seeds such as fennel and...
Garlic and Walnut Herb Sauce with Nutritional Yeast
Garlic and Walnut Herb Sauce with Nutritional Yeast This sauce is a creamy pesto-like sauce with parsley, walnuts and extra garlic but instead of cheese or added salt, it uses nutritional yeast. Some people call this “nooch”, to give it a more...
Turkey Picadillo Lettuce Wraps
Picadillo is fun to say but better to eat. You can do both in Mexico, Cuba, the Philippines and other countries who’ve adopted this Spanish dish. It’s a wild mix of sweet, savory and pungent flavors influenced by its Moorish spice heritage....
Spicy Crunchy Chickpeas
This chickpea appetizer or snack will create more bean eaters. The balanced spicy, citrusy and salty sensations plus a crunchy exterior are irresistible. Quick and easy to make, these can be made ahead of time or served hot and crunchy from the pan.
Caramelized Carrot and Ginger Miso Soup with almonds and pomegranate
Typically carrots are oven-roasted to develop caramelized sugars but pan roasting can create some of these flavor compounds in a one-pot dish—less washing and no hot oven! The garnishes add a crunchy almond texture and contrasting sweet-tart...
Black-eyed pea and Hominy Texas Caviar
Black-eyed Pea and Hominy Texas Caviar This recipe highlights how canned beans can make you popular and happier. For happy, you can quickly toss together this dish as an appetizer, side dish or picnic nibble. It's a popular party pleaser that also...
Galettes de Bretagne or Buckwheat Crêpes
When I ask other Americans about a French food they are most familiar with, crêpes are at the top of the list. In cooking classes, we often make crêpes because they are the easiest fancy food ever.
Catsup Chutney
Because this chutney has the texture of traditional catsup, it’s an homage to the old word for ketchup. This chutney can serve many purposes and so it’s a make once, use several times item for your week!
Marmalade Apple Chutney
Tartine with marmalade chutney, Italian Spring red onions, crispy slab-smoked bacon and melty, gooey cassarrigoni tallegio cheese.
Crispy Chickpea Flour Shrimp Fritters
Shrimp fritters make fun appetizers that pair well with many sauces. Usually fritters are made with a wheat-based flour, but in this fritter, chickpea flour is the starch substitute providing a crispy crust.
I love Paris in the cheese time | French Cheese
In a country that brags about 1,600 types of raw milk cheeses plus pasteurized options, shopping in a French cheese store (Fromagerie) stimulates or anesthetizes your senses depending on your tolerance for an overwhelming variety of options and the unique...
Cauliflower Broccoli Tabouli
I prepared this at the Season for all Cooks 2015 Edible Education Series. A fellow from Lebanon commented that it made him think of his grandmother’s tabouli…
Healthy doesn’t mean health
None of these mean you will eat better or have great health:
- Choosing healthy foods
- Cooking healthy foods
- Eating healthy foods
Culinary Nutrition & Fats: Le Cordon Bleu, Paris
We launched this culinary nutrition fats class in Paris by discussing dietary fat myths and questions such as:
Food RULES!
No food rules! Instead, food RULES! We have so many food rules about what, when, how much and why to eat that food is seen as the problem not the solution. At the Taste Workshop we explore how we prioritize the most important thing...
Bonjour to No Food Rules
Food rules! Not food rules. This blog will explore how we prioritize the most important thing we do each day that affects our health and well-being. We have so many food rules about what, when, how much and why to eat that food is...
Workshop was a Huge Success
“The taste workshop facilitated by Michele was a huge success among our members. Her presentation was informative and included information that was valuable to RD’s who work in a variety of different areas of nutrition. The presentation was followed by an interactive...
Le Cordon Bleu Spice Taste Workshop
I’m in Paris teaching some cooking classes and taste workshops. One workshop was at Le Cordon Bleu and was a special Spice Taste Workshop for members of WICE but also includes students from the school…
Innovative
“Michele created innovate ways to outreach and share information with physicians and other health care providers as well as patients and employees. The high expertise she demonstrated, along with her outstanding presentation skills, assisted in helping patients as...
Dynamic Speaker
Michele is a committed professional. Her presentation at the Hawaii Dietetic Association Meeting was the most well rated of the entire program. It connected the local with the world concern for using what we can produce in our local community and be sustainable. She...
Excellent Teacher
“Michele is an excellent teacher, provides hands-on experiences for her students and makes each session unique and enjoyable. She emphasizes that food should not only be healthy but taste good and is able to adapt her recipes to particular needs and/or constraints of...
Using Flavor to Inspire Change
“Michele was very knowledgeable about ways nutrition professionals can use flavor to motivate clients and inspire behavior change. The material was delivered in an organized, easy to understand manner. Her topic was well received by our audience, who greatly...
A Refreshing Perspective
The philosophy that Michele brings to the Taste Workshop is so unique these days, but it makes so much sense. Why live in a world of deprivation and food rules when there are opportunities for good food that is good for you. I love her philosophy! Carol Stambaugh
Culinary Gastronomy Salt Workshop in Paris
Culinary Gastronomy Salt Workshop in Paris Le Cordon Bleu, Paris and Hautes Etudes du Goût* Culinary Gastronomy Series Chef Michele participated in a culinary gastronomy series at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris in conjunction...
Thank You
“Thank you for sharing your time and talent. It was a fun and informative evening! Your expertise in both the science and art of food preparation is phenomenal. Appreciate your efforts in working with us. Caroline Goodman, RD September Tuesday Tasting Class
Michele Redmond
French-trained Chef, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist & Food Enjoyment Activist