I was defrosting some chicken tenders the other day and was in the mood to be creative. I worked my magic and voila, this easy, delicious, crowd-pleasing recipe was born. Sure it’s no surprise that tomatoes and parsley work well together, but it’s the lemon juice that makes this dish stand out. It highlights the tomatoes’ tang and gives the dish a clean flavor that’s perfect for summer.

Chicken tenders in a tomato lemon sauce

(Yield: 4 servings)

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 lb chicken tenders

1 small onion, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes

3/4 tsp sugar

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 large handful parsley, chopped

Salt + pepper

Procedure: Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Cook chicken 4 min per side, until golden brown. Remove from skillet and set aside. Turn heat down to medium-low. Add onion and garlic and cook for 3 min, until softened. Then add tomatoes, sugar and lemon juice, and bring sauce to a simmer. Add the chicken back into skillet, nestling it into the sauce. Cover tightly with a lid and cook for 10 min.  Then turn heat off, stir in the parsley, taste and re-season if necessary. Serve over a starch of your choice.

A brunch of Croque Madame with a heaping side of perfect French fries at L’Express – a brasserie in the Flatiron neighborhood that so closely resembles Paris with its menu and decor, that it can cure even the bluest of Paris blues.

“World’s Best” Mac & Cheese from Beecher’s that I split on a dinner date with fellow blogger Ishita. (Hi!) Beecher’s is a specialty cheese shop – also located near Flatiron – with a cozy bar/restaurant downstairs where the menu features many of their cheeses. We decided to split a small cheese board and this luscious dish. The broiled penne pasta was enveloped in a mild yet sharp cheese sauce. I don’t know about “World’s Best,” but I have had my fair share of mac & cheeses and this one is definitely at the top of the list.

Radicchio and seared scallop salad with grapefruit and orange segments, cherry tomatoes and blue cheese – a light, springtime dish from one of my Brooklyn favorites, Bar Tabac.

Fried chicken cemita sandwich from Cemita’s at Smorgasburg. “Cemita” refers to a type of sandwich that’s originally from Puebla, Mexico. The amount of layers that they are able to fit between two pieces of bread is unbelievable – black bean paste, crispy fried chicken breast, lettuce, tomatoes, pickled onions, white cheese and avocados. It tasted like, and I mean this is the more flattering way, a high end McChicken sandwich. Hey, maybe I should recreate it as the next Sandwich of the Month?

Brisket and mac & cheese at John Brown Smokehouse. Rene works in Long Island City, Queens and one day, I went to meet him over there after work. LIC is a place I know nothing about and when our stomachs started rumbling, we happened to stumble upon this barbecue place and in we went. The place turned out super cool. You order your food up front and then take it to either an indoor or outdoor table. There’s also a small bar towards the back of the restaurant that serves wine and local beers on tap. And on that particular evening, there was even a live country band!

Although the place was fun and is good in theory, the food didn’t measure up. My brisket was poorly seasoned and on the dry side, and the mac & cheese was way overcooked. Rene got pulled pork and it was served to him practically cold. Surprisingly though, when I came home and Googled the place, I found rave reviews from a variety of credible sources. Hmm…

When this years Googa Mooga was cancelled on the day that we had tickets for, my friends and I decided to make up for the lost calories and headed to our favorite Mexican place, Los Mariachis. Pictured above is the shredded beef burrito, that I generously shmeared with guacamole. What I love about their burritos is that they top them with this amazing tomato broth. The broth makes the burrito a succulent, comforting dish, instead of just stuff wrapped up in a tortilla.

Last week, Rene and I planned to have dinner at Nom Wah. En route, we noticed Joe’s Ginger, an Asian restaurant that had all these Zagat recommendations taped to the inside of the window, which is usually a good sign so we decided to try it. The sesame chicken was your basic take-out style, corn starched chicken. But, it’s the scallion pancake that is the true judge of character of a Chinese restaurant, and this one was a disappointment. What is a chewy, fragrant snack at Nom Wah, was an oily, careless pancake here.

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Ample Hills proudly serves their small batch, handmade, organic treats in a fun setting that excites children of all ages. In the few years that they have been open, they have gained major popularity in New York. I have heard about it, walked by it and even written about it before, but have not gone inside until last week.

As I walked into the store, my mood was instantly elevated. The old-school music and the high energy staff behind the counter gave the place an upbeat vibe, and there was a steady 10-15 people waiting on line the whole time I was there – a few of whom were actually dancing (not metaphorically) out of anticipation.

Although every one of their two dozen flavors sounded intriguing, it didn’t take long to decide what I wanted – salted “crack” caramel ice cream in a pretzel (yes, pretzel) cone. My $6 serving of ice cream was dense (it didn’t drip!), slightly bitter, fragrant, and it housed chucks of salted milk chocolate bark. It was like ice cream 2.0 – I’ve  never had a frozen treat I enjoyed this much before. But as much as I loved the ice cream itself, I was anxious to try the pretzel cone – getting to which was quite a journey, though, as the single scoop that I ordered actually seemed like an entire pint. By the time I finally got there, I was experiencing the most intense sugar rush of my life, so much so that I questioned whether I was eating actual crack. The cone was salty, crispy and thicker than I had imagined, which made it the perfect vessel for that large an amount of sugar and it spun my taste buds into absolute madness.Why hadn’t anyone thought of this before? How much more do I have to eat? Anyone wanna dance on this table with me?! Weeee!

Needless to day, visiting this place was a pretty intense experience.

In Brooklyn, the whole “micro-batch,” “local,” “organic” thing can get pretty annoying. I mean, I’m surprised we don’t have “artisanal” water yet… (Or wait, do we? Anyone know a place?) However, at Ample Hills, it is not one bit obnoxious. I appreciate their small batches of ice cream and house-made mix-ins – not for their “sustainability,” but because they taste good.

The Italians are very well known for their pasta recipes, but the Spanish have their reputation too. Obviously when you think of Spain, paella and tortilla are more likely to spring to mind, but that’s not to say their pasta recipes are not any good. In fact, the extra spice of the Spanish influence works almost too well with pasta.

Recently, I visited a friend of mine in the UK, and after a lovely meal in a London restaurant called 100Hoxton on the first night, we decided to save our pennies and eat at home for the rest of the week. On the third night she introduced me to a recipe she improvised one day when food resources were low and her tummy was growling. Chorizo and basil pasta topped with mozzarella cheese. I loved it so much I figured I ought to share it.

Ingredients:
¼ cup rapeseed oil
1 large yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
1 Spanish chorizo sausage
1 red bell pepper
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup dried basil
2 tsp ground pepper
Fresh basil, chopped
½ lb. Dry penne or fussili
Grated Mozarella cheese

Directions: Peel and chop the onion. Then cut the bell pepper in half, remove the seeds and veins and chop into little pieces. Peel and chop the garlic finely. Cut the chorizo into round slices about 1/4-inch thick and then half them again. Drizzle the rapeseed oil (it’s slightly healthier than olive oil) into a large frying pan and heat on medium. Then pop the chorizo slices in and lightly cook them for a few minutes. The chorizo will release juices during the process which can be used to cook the peppers, onions and garlic, giving them extra flavour. Then pour the tin of tomatoes into the frying pan and set to simmer, adding the dried basil and pepper as you go along. After the sauce has simmered for 15 minutes you can fill a saucepan with water and bring it to the boil ready to cook the pasta. Cook the pasta for 8-12 minutes (dependent on the type you use) and drain the water. Then stir the pasta into the chorizo sauce and serve with some fresh basil and perhaps some mozzarella cheese sprinkled on top.

When I was little, my mom used to take my sister and I – often accompanied by other neighborhood kids – to the beach. Every day, of every summer, of the first nine years of my life (while we still lived in Odessa). And everyday, there were ladies walking up and down the beach, screaming, “Hot corn! Hot corn!” (in Russian, of course). When you called for one of these ladies, they would come over and present you with a steaming hot cob of corn, along with a salt shaker for you to season to your liking. So no, we did not eat fruit roll-ups or Lay’s chips as snacks. We ate corn. The bursting sweet corn make us all giddy, and between that, the warm sand, the gentle sea breeze and my angel of a mother, I could not have asked for better summers.

This corn, however, is something I would not have even thought possible back then. It is an exciting, jazzed up version of one of my favorite childhood foods, and it is so good and easy to make. It makes for a great snack, or side dish at a barbecue or weeknight dinner.

From an aesthetic point of view, it would be best to leave the cheese out of the herb butter and just sprinkle it on afterwards, but I decided to mix it in. You can use whichever method you prefer.

(Yield: 8 pieces)

Ingredients:

4 ears of corn, husked

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter, at room temp.

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro

2 tbsp Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Cayenne pepper, to taste

Procedure: Start by making the herb butter – place the butter, garlic, cilantro, cheese, salt and peppers into a dish with a flat bottom and mash together with a fork. (If you can avoid eating all of it at this point, I applaud you).

Heat a grill pan over high heat. Lightly brush the corn with olive oil and place on grill. Cook for 15-20 min, turning occasionally, until the corn is evenly charred throughout. Remove from grill and place on a cutting board. Working with one piece at a time, hold down corn with an oven mitt and cut in two pieces. Then place corn onto a platter and divide the butter evenly among the pieces, using a butter knife to spread it. Serve immediately.

When my package of samples arrived, the first thing I did was read the ingredient list and I was happy to learn that there was indeed nothing but noodles, vegetables and spices in the meals. Taste-wise, the noodles did not disappoint either. The noodles are savory and satisfying and do not lend themselves to any of that guilt that comes along with eating take-out or a frozen dinner.

Although nothing can replace a homemade meal, the Tasty Bite products are perfect for when you need to work through lunch or when you simply don’t feel like cooking dinner.  They’re also easy on the wallet, coming in at less than $4 per meal.

Check out their website for more information and to locate a retailer near you.

Pulled pork has been on my “recipes to try” list for several years now. Seriously. I put it there because it is one of my very favorite foods ever, but it has remained there so long for two reasons. The first being that every recipe I seemed to come across called for a slow cooker, which I don’t have. The second being pure fear. Because I love it so, I was afraid to mess it up and be forever disappointed in myself (I do not take failure lightly). But alas, a ray of hope appeared, by the name of Melissa Clark, no less. A few weeks ago, a recipe and video for pulled pork was featured on the New York Times’ Diner’s Journal blog. Clark made it look for easy and delicious, and I just knew my time had come. And the best part – no slow cooker needed!

Inspired by this Melissa Clark recipe from The New York Times

(Yield: 6 sandwiches)

Ingredients:

2 lb pork butt

Store-bought barbecue sauce

6 hamburger buns or potato rolls

Dry rub:

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3/4 tsp cumin seeds

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Procedure: Rinse pork, pat dry with paper towels and place into a roasting pan. In a small bowl, combine the dry rub ingredients. Massage the meat generously with dry rub and let stand at room temperature for one hour.

Heat oven to 300F and roast pork for 3 hours. Remove from oven. When the meat is cool enough to handle yet still warm, shred it using two forks or your fingertips.

Toss the pulled pork with about 1/2 cup (or more if desired) of your favorite barbecue sauce.

Divide the meat evenly amongst the rolls and serve immediately.

Now tell me, what is your favorite sandwich?

I never reached the point of an eating disorder, but do remember feeling guilty after most meals, even if they weren’t particularly indulgent. I pored over photos of Victoria’s Secret models, hoping that if I could just ingrain their forms into my brain, I too, would be a size 0; I attempted skipping meals and opted for coffee, water or gum instead; I worked out obsessively and even had a phase where I would write down everything I ate each day, thinking it would curb my appetite.  The craziness took some time to get over but eventually I realized that what I was doing wasn’t healthy and that I wasn’t any happier doing it. I realized that there was nothing shameful or wrong about eating and learned to control myself and to love food. 

Here are some rules I’ve been adhering to since that phase ended:

1.) Don’t drink your calories: Soda, processed juices and other sugary drinks are enemy #1. Processed sugar, especially in liquid form, has zero nutritional value and only means one thing – weight gain. Yes, if you’re a daily soda drinker, it may be hard to quit cold turkey but try to slowly wean yourself off of it. Drink water or unsweetened green tea instead. Adding more water into your diet will speed up your metabolism and cleanse your blood as well as your skin. (And don’t try to take the diet soda route, either! The sugar substitute used to sweeten diet soda causes cancer in rats. Think about it.)

2.) Fruits and vegetables: Eat them. A healthy diet consists of 50-60% fruits and vegetables since they provide most essential vitamins and minerals. And if you choose to cook your vegetables, do so minimally. If a vegetable doesn’t retain it’s natural crunch after cooking, you can be sure you’ve gotten rid of all the good stuff in them. Recommended cooking methods include: blanching, steaming, sauteing and roasting. Also, always have a package of cleaned greens on hand. Green foods are super healthy so try to sneak some kale/spinach/arugula into every sandwich, soup, pasta dish and, of course, salad.

3.) Keep healthy options at eye-level: Re-organize your fridge and cabinets so that when you open them, the first foods you see are not guilt-inducing – and by these I mean fruits and vegetables, lean proteins like hummus, Greek yogurt and organic peanut butter, whole wheat crackers and granola bars, etc. If you see them first, you are more likely to eat them.

4.) Don’t buy junk food: This may seem kind of obvious and redundant but it is not. When shopping for groceries, just skip the cookie, chips, cake and soda aisles. If there is no junk food around, you won’t eat it. It’s that simple.

5.) Come to work prepared: And I don’t mean with a PowerPoint presentation. Most people spend most of their waking hours at work, which means that most of their meals are had at work, too. To avoid trips to the vending machine or pizza parlor, keep a few healthy options at work at all times.

6.) Limit your meat intake: Carnivores are used to thinking that each meal needs to revolve around an animal protein, but it is just not so. Eating meat a few times a week or once a day will provide sufficient nutrition. It’s an arduous task for the human body to digest meat (ever wonder why you get sleepy after a meat-heavy meal?) so it’s best to skip it most of the time. As for all those other meals, substitute with non-animal proteins, like beans, chick peas and lentils.

7.) Moderate, not eliminate: I would never tell you to cut doughnuts, burgers, creamy pastas or other soul foods out of your diet. However, these delicious foods ought to reserved for special occasions and enjoyed in moderation. If a colleague brings in doughnuts from your favorite shop, have one – not three. If you plan to go out for pizza with friends on Sunday night, eat light throughout the day in preparation. You get the point…

8.) Don’t eat in front of the TV: Studies show that hunger, appetite and consciousness are closely intertwined. If you’re eating with your mouth and concentrating on the TV with your mind, that fact that you’ve just eaten will not register in your head so you’ll still feel hungry after a meal. Don’t check your smartphone or computer either, and I guarantee you will eat less.

What tips would you include on this list?

Store-bought dumpling skins and a few pantry staples make this recipe a breeze. If you have kids, feel free to recruit them to help fill the potstickers. 

(Yield: 30 dumplings)

Ingredients:

2 scallions, chopped

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sriracha sauce (optional)

1 garlic clove, crushed

A pinch of salt

1 lb ground pork

About 30 store-bought dumpling skins

Vegetable oil

Procedure: In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Stir and add pork. Using your hands, gently mix all the ingredients until homogenous. Do not over-mix. To form a dumpling, place skin on a flat surface and add a heaping teaspoon of filling into the center. Dip an index finger into water and moisten half of the circumference of the dumpling skin (like a half moon). Then fold over and seal edges, making sure to seal out all air from the dumpling.

Repeat with remaining ingredients.

To cook, heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom. Place 6-8 dumplings into skillet at once  – do not overcrowd the pan. Fry 1-2 min, until dumplings are starting to brown. Then add about 1/4 c water into skillet, reduce heat to low and cover tightly with a lid. Let steam for about 5 min. When the water is almost entirely evaporated, remove lid and turn heat back up to medium. Cook 1-2 extra minutes, until the bottoms are brown. Remove dumplings from skillet and repeat with remaining pieces. Serve immediately.

Gourmet Dumpling House in Chinatown: After settling down at the hotel after a nearly four hour bus ride, we were starving. So before setting out to explore, we stopped by this casual Chinese restaurant. Judging by the fact that there wasn’t an open table in sight, this place is pretty popular. We didn’t try the dumplings but we did pig out on noodles. Their serving sizes are superbly generous – easily feeding two people – and so are the prices. One order comes in at less than $8!

Noodle satisfaction.

Sonsie on Newbury Street: We stumbled onto this place around brunch time on our walk back from the Fine Arts Museum and fell in love at first sight. The front of the restaurant was entirely open to face the sunny street and all the little marble tables faced forward, Paris-style. There was a 20-minute wait for a table but we didn’t mind. Their menu is eclectic and has something for everyone, from pork belly tacos to a beet salad to delicate brick oven pizzas. After much debate, we settled on the cheeseburger pizza to share. Although the pizza was distinctly not New York-an (too crispy, not chewy, no burns), I enjoyed it thoroughly, which may or may not have been influenced by the stiff espresso martini photographed above (isn’t day drinking the best?!)

For dessert, we had their divine, award-winning chocolate bread pudding, that was so heavenly and decadent that I’m still thinking about it a month later. I can’t wait to attempt to recreate it at home!

Russell House Tavern in Cambridge: My first impression of this place was that the swank factor was really high – dim lighting, people sipping on specialty cocktails at the bar, a 40-minute wait. But when we were seated, I looked around and realized some people were watching the game on the TV and some were even dressed in sweats. I realized that the place only looks swanky but is actually quite casual. Had it been in New York though, it would be chock full of snotty attitudes.

I ordered the crispy pork belly sandwich that was served on a ciabatta roll with spicy mayo and pickled vegetables and a side salad. The pork was tender and juicy, and well complimented by the crisp carrots. It was also enormous. For dessert, we had an olive oil cake with vanilla ice-cream. The cake tasted as clean as it did rich – we loved it.

North 26 in the Millenium Hotel near Quincy Market: I had been to this place for brunch years prior and absolutely loved it so I could not resist going back this time around. They serve a classic American menu in an elegant setting. What I love most about this place (besides the assortment of mini jams and ketchup that they serve you with your meal, which you can be sure I took home with me ) is that the whole restaurant is lined with floor-to-ceiling windows so you get to bask in natural light while eating. I had the corned beef hash with poached eggs, and yes, it was great.

Genius AND adorable!

P.S: Many thanks to Boston native Nicole for her suggestions!