While living in Buenos Aires I was always amazed by the beautiful tarts or "tartas" that you could buy in most restaurants and as quick to go meals on the cheap.  I realized that it was just as quick and as inexpensive to make my own tarte and with a variety of vegetables.  The most popular tartes are made with spinach or collard greens and they are traditionally made with eggs, dairy and breading.  I replaced the last three  ingred...

I make a lot of dishes that call for cream and I substitute with the usual suspects such as soy, almond and rice milk mixed with thickeners to get to a good cream consistency.  They have all worked fine and I am happy to use them.  But to be honest, my favorite non-dairy cream that I can just use directly from the carton is Mimic Creme, which is both dairy-free and soy-free.  For everyday dishes I use the unsweetened version made of ...

Winter makes me crave warm and creamy soups.  Years ago I had a tomato soup recipe that required my time enslavement and then a wait period of simmer that by the time the first spoon went in my mouth I was so hungry that I scarfed the soup down without actually enjoying the taste. After experimenting with fresh tomatoes, and pomi tomatoes and all types of tomatoes, I found a recipe that calls for fire-roasted tomatoes that are full of ...

I love soirees  that are heavy on hors d'oeuvres but I never like feeling the big bloat after eating too many bites made with heavy ingredients or with bread.  I can't eat bread anymore due to gluten intolerance (nor do I miss bread really), but I still like to entertain with  hors d'oeuvres, whether the whole evening is made of these or whether I serve them before the main meal begins.  Cucumber is a favorite go to hors d'oeuvre ba...

I have a close friend from the Philippines living in the U.S. and whenever he would get home sick I would make him these decadent treats.  Philippines has much of my spanish culture so I will call these sweet bites dulces (Spanish for sweet treats).    These dulces are not the exact treats my friend was used to eating in his country, but the almond flavor and consistency were close enough to make him feel cozy and happy (and less cr...

Chasing after my toddler all morning gets my appetite going and some days I not only need something comforting to soothe my hunger but also a yummy food that is super easy to make.  On some of these days when running out of steam and it's only noon,  I crave something cheesy and gooey, filled with flavor but that it's still healthy.  Can't feel guilty about that!  This recipe calls for a vegan cheese and you can use any that you lik...

The first time I saw baby bok choy at a local Asian market my first thought was "how cute!"  I immediately picked up a few of these sweet little babies and from that day on I started to use them in recipes where I would have previously used the more adult bok choy, the kind that you may regularly see in your market.  As with my local Asian market, Whole Foods market now carries baby bok choy often and I suspect that other markets ...

My lovely friends who are now spending the winter in Cape Town, almost always serve us yummy vegan or vegetarian and gluten-free dishes when we have dinner at their home.  It is through one of these amazing dinners that I learned about Soba noodles and that there is a gluten-free buckwheat noodle that I can buy and have a scrumptious quick asian/latin fusion meal.  The lima beans (habichuelas), red onions and cilantro give this dish t...

I have a friend who loves chopped salads and has recently turned me on to the concept of them.  When we meet for lunch she usually has a cobb salad of sorts, which usually includes chicken, eggs and cheese.  I like the idea of a chopped salad without these ingredients so  I usually end up asking for whatever vegetarian ingredients I can get in the restaurant and make my own salad on the spot.   This particular salad I make at home a...