When I was a little girl, a birthday party in our family meant one thing: Wacky Cake. Chocolate cake, cooked in a 13″ x 9″ pan with cornstarch-cocoa-sugar-water stovetop frosting, accompanied by two bags of chips and two bottles of orange soda. BOOM! Party time, and the cake always flew out of the pan, it…
Fermented Friday! Addictive Burmese Tea Leaf Salad
One of my go-to spots for to-go food in San Francisco, the land of 10,000 dishes, is B Star Bar on Clement Street, the chilled out little brother of the famed Burma Superstar. Both places have a variety of amazing options, but I personally only go there for one: the fermented tea leaf salad. It’s…
Fauxlenta! Grain-Free Creamy Polenta with Mushrooms, Kale, & Dates
I love polenta. It’s smooth, creamy, just a little bit sweet, and goes with pretty much everything despite being an oft-neglected member of the gluten-free carb family. But I have an ever increasing base of grain-free clients, and just had a client ask me to whip up a vegan & Paleo dinner party menu –…
Wrap It Up! I’ll Take It – Cleansing, Cancer-Fighting Collard Wraps
These last couple of weeks have been awesomely busy, but left me feeling a little run down. The only thing to do when feeling overextended, in my book, is to bring the energy back in with self-care and extra-clean eating. So with massages booked, feet up, and probiotics popped (this is my blend of choice) – I’m…
Like White on (Cilantro & Cauliflower) Rice
I thought I screwed up. I winced to myself as I opened up the rice cooker and realized that I had just made over 6 cups of cooked rice for a family of two adults and three kids who were also being served a huge salad, fresh bread, shrimp and chicken in a tangerine-honey sauce, sugar…
These Greens Are On Fiah!
Every day of the entire month that I spent wandering the streets of Bangkok eating street food, I ate this dish. Every. Single. Day. It’s called “Pak Boong Fai Deng”, translated to “Morning Glory on Fire”, and is made with a green that we know as either water spinach or ong choy. That being said,…
So Fresh and So Green Green Curry Paste
Oh. My. God. I think I just died. Did I die? Because if I’m alive, this super-easy green vegetable curry is heaven on Earth and will leave your tummy singing like an angel! It took me less than 10 minutes to prep AND cook with the ingredients I have on hand, which you will if…
Chef Nicole’s Pad Thai – Basic Street Noodles, Spa-Style
By now, you may have guessed that I’m teaching you how to make the healthiest version of Thai cuisine possible – fresh, clean, made with whole foods, and scrumpdiddlyumptious. It would be an absolute shame to not tackle that most ubiquitous of all Thai dishes, Pad Thai, loved by children and adults alike! We’ll be…
Thai Five Blend, Tamarind Dipping Sauce, and Spring Roll Bites
Now that we know about all of the health bennies of the Thai 5, it’s time to incorporate them into some delicious recipes, and I don’t know anybody who doesn’t love a good spring roll! Rice paper wrappers are available at most supermarkets these days, and once you learn how to make these little guys,…
Thai Five! The Healthiest High Five Ever
As I watched and listened to my Thai chef mentor, Gee, I noticed that a number of ingredients kept coming up – almost in all of our dishes. After pointing this out, we decided to shorten the list to “The Thai 5”, as it was much easier shorthand to transcribe as I was furiously taking…