Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

We had guests this weekend up in the country. Had a great deal of fun catching up, eating and drinking with long time friends. Of course I tried to make a special dinner but I also tried to balance it, making something not too complicated as I wanted to able to spend time with the party and my kitchen upstate is a separate room, not open to the living and dining room as it is in the city. Not sure I really succeeded at that as I still did spend quite a bit of time cooking.

They loved what I made! (I’ll tell you all about that menu later this week with wine pairings.) Said it was better or equal to any restaurant meal and oh, by the way, when was I going to open my own restaurant? Well, that’s not something that interests me. We have talked about perhaps opening an exclusive “supper club” type of place, that might be open once or twice a month, in our home – as a way to have fun and meet new, interesting people upstate – but not a restaurant. Then the conversation went to, do you cook every night? And yes, I cook almost every single night. In fact, when we have leftovers, while I enjoy the speed of getting that meal on the table, I have to tell you, I miss the cooking process those nights. Once you get into the habit of doing it, it’s easy, and I enjoy it, no matter what time I get home.

Just take a look at these quick, easy meals for weeknights – super simple and super easy. And don’t they look much better and are certainly cheaper than anything you could ever get from ordering up?

Really, all of these meals took 45 minutes to maybe an hour to make. Plus, if you’re cooking, you KNOW what you’re eating, particularly in terms of fat, salt and calories. Feed your body with healthy food, prepared with love and you will feel better. I promise.