Recipe

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Cauliflower

*Serves about 4

Stuffed Acorn Squash

*Serves 2

Feeling a bit festive? Try these gram flour fritters with Indian chutney for a spicy evening indeed…

We all like to eat healthy for sure, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spice up your menu once in a while! This “cheat” meal is still balanced out by enough veggies to keep you on track! Sure, the oil will add in calories but count the benefits of vegetables, the raw chutney and the gram flour as well as the sheer comfort of biting into something hot, crispy and juicy – and the fritters win hands down.

Goodbye, summer; hello, autumn. It really did sneak up on us, huh? I’m ready to be able to close my windows at night, and bundle up instead. I know it’s still September, but we’ll be carving pumpkins and drinking hot cocoa in no time. In the meantime, it’s time to think about all the warm and delicious foods that we tend to eat when the air becomes chilly. That’s right. I’m talkin’ about comfort food.

Time for some hearty vegetable soup! Its thick and creamy consistency provides a comforting antidote to those first chilly days as we move into fall. Simple and easy, you only need one pot to cook enough soup for the whole family and you can even make the most of extra veggies or herbs that you have laying around the house! The  wonderful mix of both richly developed and subtle flavors is what sets this dish apart.

*Serves 4

Ingredients

2 Large Carrots

1 Celery Stalk

1 Small Onion

1 Medium Zucchini

As a snacker, I graze all day. While veggies and hummus are usually my go to, every now and then I get a craving for something salty. It's tempting to grab a bag of potato chips overloaded in salt and full of carbohydrates. When I get that urge, I opt for kale chips instead. Gluten-free and vegan, kale chips are slightly salty and crisp in texture. They are a healthy treat that takes the guilt out of snacking and allows you to indulge. It's hard not to eat the whole bunch.

American beautyberry is also known as French mulberry, sour-bush, bunch-berry, and purple beautyberry. The berries grow all throughout the Southeastern USA. Funny enough, it’s actually the leaves and stems that have the most power in warding of bugs in this DIY spray.

I love to make this breakfast over a nice outdoor fire in the Autumn. It is especially satisfying when I go collect and process the acorns and apples myself.

There’s a lot of controversy about the healthiness of acorns because some varieties have a high tannin content, but if you have the time, patience, and desire, the leeching process (which removes the tannins) is well worth it! The good news is acorn flour, or acorn meal, is getting easier to find in different stores. However, it is a little expensive due to the amount of work it takes to properly process the nuts.

There are a lot of Puerto Rican recipes you will find that call for these two common spice mixes: Sazon and Adobo.

Depending on your geographical location it may or may not be hard for you to find certain ethnic foods in the grocery store. Moving away from the bigger cities made it hard to find a lot of the traditional foods and spices used in cooking traditional Puerto Rican meals, so I learned how to create them myself.

Sazon

Tomato season is officially in full bloom, and apart from making salsas, pasta sauces and BLTs, bruschetta is another great way to serve up this year’s bounty. This recipe is essentially like a Caprese salad on a crostini, which makes for a delicious afternoon snack or appetizer before any summer meal.