Two Kitchens, One Passion

What are some of your favorite things to do when it's snowing outside and you're stuck at home?  A few of my favorites include cuddling with my husband (or our dog), reading a book in a cozy chair, watching a movie, and drinking some creamy hot chocolate.  With the snowstorm we got in Maryland this past weekend, hot chocolate was a definite necessity to keep warm!  Rather than making a traditional hot chocolate, I decided to make a Superfood (& Super Delicious) version of this favorite hot drink.  The result was a super creamy, super healthy, and super chocolately drink! One cup of this will allow you to reap the benefits of the superfoods explained below (for additional information, click on the links for each food): Coconut Oil: Nutritious source of saturated fats with antioxidant properties Maca powder : Rich in vitamins B, C, and E.  May also improve sexual function in men AND women, relieve menstrual issues, and increase energy! Cinnamon : Antioxidant-rich an

For the most part, if I am craving some takeout for dinner, the Indian restaurant around the corner is my go-to spot.  I love the intense flavors and fresh spices involved in Indian cooking.  One of my favorite dishes to order is Rogan Josh, an aromatic lamb delicacy cooked with spices in a tomato (or chile) based sauce. Since I had eggplant on hand last night, I chose to take a stab at creating my own version of Aloo Baingan.  This dish is traditionally made with eggplant and potatoes, which are cooked with spices, onion and tomato to create a side dish with a nice thick consistency.  For my version, I cooked eggplant with fire roasted tomatoes and sweet potato puree, to give it a thicker consistency.  I also chose to serve it over a bed of rice to enjoy it as more of an entree.  The spice level for this recipe is mild, but could easily be made spicier by increasing the amount of red pepper flakes used. The Aloo Baingan was so delicious that I almost forgot to talk about th

After our amazing Valentine's Day dinner, I had a lot of leftover ricotta cheese.  Naturally, I began searching for new recipes to test out utilizing this ingredient - And some of the first recipes I found were for cannoli.  To be honest, I have only had a true cannoli a few times in my whole life.  Regardless, I know how delicious these Italian desserts are so I decided to use my snow day from work to bake an easier version of the traditional cannoli.  Instead of trying to fry my own cannoli shells, I turned this dessert into bite size cups filled with delectable ricotta cream. When I made these this morning, I ended up making 2 batches of the crusts because I had SO much extra ricotta cream filling.  To make things easier for you I doubled the original recipe so you should have a much more even proportion of filling to crusts, with an extra couple spoonfuls to enjoy yourself. Gluten Free Cannoli Cups Adapted from  The Low Carb Diet Yield: 36 bite-size cups Ingredie

Rather than making reservations at a nice restaurant on Valentine's Day, I decided to use this holiday as an excuse to cook an extra special meal at home with Dan.  This ended up being the perfect decision with the Valentine's Day mini snowstorm that arrived Saturday night.  We may have spent at least a couple hours in the kitchen preparing our dinner, but it was all completely worth it.  In honor of this day devoted to celebrating love, I created a delicious three course menu! Appetizer Main course Dessert So what was my favorite  component to this three course meal?  It's a tough call, but I must say the flourless chocolate torte was the best I've ever had (even better than the one I got at a really nice restaurant on my birthday)! Chocolate Dipped Lemon Ricotta Olives Adapted from  Cupcake Project Yield: 20 olives + extra filling Gluten free, soy free, egg free Ingredients 1.8 ounces dark chocolate (I bought a bar of Madecasse Madaga

I think it's safe to say that we have all woken up on a Saturday or Sunday morning with a craving for some delicious, fluffy pancakes.  That most recent time for me was this past weekend - I just needed me some pancakes! Instead of making strict Paleo pancakes, like I had the past few times I made pancakes, I decided to try using buckwheat flour.  Despite its name, buckwheat is not  a cereal grain.  In fact, it is a fruit seed that is related to the rhubarb plant.  Similar to quinoa, buckwheat is considered a pseudograin because of the higher starch content in comparison to other seeds.  This is one of the foods I still occasionally incorporate in my diet that does not technically fall under the category "Paleo." If you didn't know it, you would swear that these pancakes were super glutinous.  There are amazingly light and fluffy with a great taste on their own.  I, however, wanted to get creative and make some tasty toppings to complete our Sunday breakfast.