a few of my favorite!

honey-orange chicken
- wash 4 chicken legs and dry them WELL. pour honey on it, not too much, but enough to be able to coat the chicken with your hands. let that sit for a bit to soak in while you squeeze two oranges or so, and pour the orange juice on the chicken. dash of paprika and (secret ingredient:) quite a bit of cinnamon. stick that in at 375 covered, for about half an hour, then uncover till it caramelizes on top. when that's done, turn the chicken over and again put paprika and cinnamon. let that bake for a bit longer uncovered, maybe 15 minutes? or a bit longer even? untill it looks cooked on that side too. when you take it out, cover it REALLY well to keep in the moisture, and keep the chicken in the juice. do not throw away the sauce!! it is delicious for the noodles!! it's really just honey and orange juice and cinnamon tasting. REALLY GOOD!!!

white and red quinoa with chestnuts
- easiest thing! take white quinoa and red quinoa, cook them as directed on the box (about 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water for the white, and 1 cup quinoa to 1.25 cups water for the red). it usually cooks about 15-20 minutes, so add crushed chestnuts- straight out of the bag!- after 10 minutes, so that the flavor gets infused. you'll know it's ready when the kernels have a white ring around them that starts to fall away.

potato kugel
- mix 2 eggs, about 3 tbsps of flour, a heaping tbsp of salt and a dash of pepper together. into that mixture in that bowl, grate 8/9 potatoes and 2 onions. move fast so that the potatoes don't brown. what i do is peel them all and put them in cold water. then grate them as fast as i can. add one more egg if you feel it is not holding together well (i did add it). mix only with your hands. pour into greased pan and back at 375 covered for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. then uncover and take it out when it's nicely browned on top. don't hesitate to leave it in for a long time. potatoes can handle a long oven-time.

red wine - caramelized onion meat
- in nonstick pan, fry 3 onions (with veggie oil, not olive oil!). when they are gently browned, let them simmer in just a bit of water (a couple tbsp only!) and balsamic vinegar (maybe 1 tbsp, maybe 2). reduce for a bit of a sauce, but there should really be barely any liquid there. meanwhile, wash your meat but dry it really well (that's the trick to not having dry meat), and pour the onions on top. add red wine, cover very very very well. put in 325 oven for hours! could be 3 hours or so- just check after a couple hours to make sure it's doing well. eventually uncover it for a bit, but not too long so that it does not dry out... could be just 15 minutes or so! again, cover really well when you take it out, and keep it in the sauce- serve with the sauce, and with something like quinoa it is a dream!)

baked sweet potato-cranberry dish
- such an easy one! cut sweet potatoes relatively thin. place in a greased pan. put cranberries with it. on the side make a little mixture of a bit of oil, brown sugar, and water (to maximize). pour that onto the sweet potatoes. bake about forty minutes covered (till it gets nice and soft) at about 375, and then uncover and let it caramelize- THIS IS SO YUMMY!!

chocolate almond cake
- probably the best, easiest, most crowd-pleasing dessert that exists.
Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup almonds
½ cup oil (Not olive oil)
200 grams of chocolate
preheat oven to 375. melt the chocolate and mix it with the eggs, quickly, so that the eggs don't have time to cook. add the oil, almonds, and sugar, and bake for about 40 minutes, maybe more or less, until the top starts to crack well, and when you stick in a knife it comes out clean completely.

strawberry mango smoothie
- frozen strawberries and frozen mango. fresh orange juice. food processor. it's that delicious, and that quick!

Muffins with the Main

A common misconception: muffins are only eaten for dessert. If I may, I would like to suggest an alternative. Muffins do not have to be sweet, and they do not have to have cups and cups of sugar. Personally, I find it to be an interesting and fun twist to the main course. So this week, I opted for cranberry orange muffins to complement the prune chicken, mushrooms-greenbeans, and white rice.

First and foremost, I implore you to use FRESH orange juice. It's so simple, and so much less artificial. And trust me, you can taste it in the final product. When you can, you should ALWAYS use fresh ingredients, be it vegetables, fruits, or juice.

But back to the recipe...

2 C gluten-free flour (I used brown rice flour), 1/2 C almond flour (delicious with the cranberries, as you can imagine), only half a cup of sugar, 1 tsp unflavored gelatin powder, 2.5 tsp baking powder, 1 C orange juice, 2 eggs, 1/4 C oil, 1 C cranberries (recipe calls for dried cranberries, I used fresh... it's up to you).

When you see a recipe like this, you feel immediately that something rings right. There are no enormous quantities, no bizarre ingredients, no ridiculous amount of sugar... It looks reasonable, and the ingredients feel right. The fun of this recipe is that you need not get too busy with it: simply mix the dry ingredients together, and then toss in the wet ones. At the end, throw in the cranberries, and there you go!

Bake them in the 400 degree oven for 20 minutes or so, until the top is golden-brown. For those who like it to be a bit more sweet (since the cranberries are definitely a sour touch), you can make a glaze. Simply boil some sugar with water or juice, let it thicken a bit, and pour over the muffins.

This recipe made 24 scrumptious cupcakes.

Muffins are fun. They're pretty. And they're delicious!

Happy eatings!