Category — HOW TO

I think this blog could easily be rechristened “The Healthy Hedonist,” because at heart, I am equally interested in eating the best things I can possibly get in my mouth AND maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Enjoy but be smart. Be smart but don’t suffer.

Over the years, I have figured out quite a few diet hacks to achieve both of these goals. Because that whole “no pain, no gain” thing doesn’t really fly with me. You can eat healthy and still be a hedonist. Here are some of my favorite tricks!

Top Ten Diet Hacks I Use Almost Every Day to Eat Healthier 

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Have you heard about the cronut craze that’s sweeping the nation? Here’s the story in a nutshell: some guy in New York took the fried, glazed goodness of a donut and introduced it to the flaky layers of a croissant. They had a baby and behold, the cronut was born. And people are out of their minds over it. Like, spending $40 to buy one black market cronut out of their minds.

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Harissa is a spicy North African sauce or paste made from dried chilis, toasted spices, garlic, and oil. In Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya, people use harissa like mustard or ketchup–it goes on many, many things. It’s hard to find a really excellent version to buy in the U.S., but luckily it’s pretty easy to make at home. I like to make a large batch and preserve it in cute jars so I can give them as hostess gifts.

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We’re experiencing record high temperatures here in the Bay Area, which makes me want to eat light, bright dinners like this broiled halibut with chermoula. Chermoula is a versatile North African condiment made with toasted spices, cilantro, and parsley, and it goes beautifully with fish.

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My little guy is one year old today! So I made this birthday cake to celebrate.

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I have talked about why I like kale chips before, but now that I’ve started making them with an Asian twist, I like them even more.

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I don’t post that many craft projects on this blog, although I do a fair amount of crafting. This one was easy and turned out pretty well so I thought I would share it. I had a vision of white picture frame ledges on a white wall with frames in varying shades of gold and cream. After a relatively cheap and easy project, I was really happy with the end result:

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Wouldn’t it be great, amazing, stupendous even, if you could make delicious cookies using only bananas and oats? It would, right? You could eat like 10 cookies but in reality all you ate was a banana and half a cup of oats. Because you are so smart and so healthy and good at life.

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This is an easy and impressive breakfast soufflé that combines just 2 ingredients–an egg and a bit of grated cheese–in a delicious and unexpected way. You can really use whatever cheese you like here. I prefer a few gratings of a harder cheese like parmesan, Monterey jack, or gruyere, but a small knob of brie, a crumble of blue cheese, or a chunk of goat or cream cheese would also work well.

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Last week I did a roundup of my previous adventures in non-traditional gingerbreading, and I’m excited to show you what we made this year: The Snowy Japanese Gingerbread Pagoda.

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