Stuffed Mushroom Recipe

Making stuffed mushrooms is a great way to put stale bread to use. I served soup the other night and we had 2 leftover rolls, so I decided to make a plate of these savory treats. To start, I sautéed a few vegetables, including zucchini, bell peppers, celery and carrots. You can use whatever you want, but it's a good idea to choose colorful ingredients. Once the vegetables were cooked, I added the bread, a little vegetable broth and fromage blanc. In case you were wondering, the fromage blanc helps keep the top moist even after the stuffed mushrooms are baked. To complete the dish, I topped the mushrooms with sharp Cheddar cheese. 

I didn't add any additional spices, because the bread was already studded with chiles. Otherwise, a little heat is a nice touch to balance the flavor. One final bit of advice: make a bunch of these. They go fast!

Cream of Broccoli Cheese Soup

I made cream of broccoli soup (velouté de brocolis in French) as a cure for two of my girls’ aversion to broccoli. Much of the flavor of the broccoli is concealed by gooey cheese (I used French Chaumes cheese) and a drizzle of heavy cream for richness.

To make the soup, broccoli is first boiled and then blended with vegetable broth. To thicken the mixture, I made a roux, which is a combination of flour, butter and liquid. The result is a beautiful, bright green soup.

I let the kids dip bread into the soup, and they loved it! Now that broccoli doesn’t seem so awful to them, I can try and introduce it in other dishes. And of course, I’ll share them with you so you can trick your kids (big or small) into enjoying broccoli as well!

Vegetarian Pot Pie with Lentil Pasta

If you’ve wanted to make comfort food healthy, this recipe is for you. As I've told you in the past, I often try to make vegetarian versions of the meat dishes I cook. One of my favorite dishes is chicken pot pie, and today I decided to make a variation of the dish with lentils and pastina pasta. I placed the mixture in mini soup bowls and covered them with puff pastry baked until golden and flaky.

The dish is fairly healthy, yet very flavorful due to the generous amounts of ginger, soy bacon bits, coriander, parsley and cilantro. The flavors and texture are spot on for a cold evening meal.

Baigan Bharta Recipe (Indian Eggplant Dip)

If you're an artichoke and spinach dip lover and don't feel guilty about the calories, baigan bharta is for you. Eggplants are chopped into small pieces, boiled until softened and drained. Then they are sautéed in oil until all the liquid has evaporated. After that, the eggplants are flavored with onions and many Indian spices. Once the mixture cools completely, yogurt is added and folded into the eggplant mixture. Raw onion is also added for a little bite to the Indian-style dip. Though non-traditional, I also add fromage blanc, which helps give a creamy and rich texture to the dip; it's also lower in calories and has less cholesterol than cream cheese.

Today was Game 1 of the World Series, featuring our hometown San Francisco Giants. I made this dish and served it with warm tortillas chips for Lulu and the girls to munch on while they watched the game. I don’t understand baseball, but I can definitely say that the food was a home run. That’s a baseball term, right?

Sauteed String Beans (Chinese Green Bean Recipe)

Chinese-style green beans are a delicious side dish. Green beans are deep fried until the outer skin becomes slightly wilted. Once all the beans are fried, they're sautéed in garlic, chili garlic sauce, black bean sauce and soy sauce.

This may not be the healthiest way to prepare green beans, but I can’t get enough of them. The natural sweetness of the green beans balances perfectly with the saltiness from the fermented black beans. On top of that, this vegetable dish is so easy to make, it will take you less time to make it yourself than ordering take-out!