Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been focusing on stocking your pantry for healthier meals and a healthier budget. If you entered to Win Pantry Staples for a Year, keep an eye on your email — we’ll be notifying winners soon.

When you pick up the items on our $50 Pantry Stock Up list (see below), you’ll be ready to add a few fresh ingredients, herbs and spices to be able to cook 14 of our favorite recipes. We’ve featured all of these recipes individually in these “From Our Pantry” posts on Oats, Soup, Chili and Stew, Brown Rice and Quinoa. This post rounds out the list with a couple of pantry recipes featuring Italian cuisine.

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Here’s a quandary more perplexing than love itself…how do you indulge the one you love while still taking care of his or her health?  Instead of the usual approach of fatty, sugary deliciousness celebrate your sweetie by serving the best unprocessed, whole food available. Choose food that nourishes and excites the taste buds all at once… and helps keep the one you love around for a long, long time.

Here are some of my favorite dishes for a special evening with my special someone. Not only do they look beautiful by candlelight, but they will keep you and yours satisfied and glowing with health and happiness.

Fill your heart with love and your belly with nutrients with these gorgeous main dishes packed with colorful plant foods.

• Pork Stir Fry with Asparagus, Peppers, and Green Onions
• Ancient Grain Stuffed Bell Peppers
• Roasted Fish and Veggies with Quinoa and Pine Nuts
• Baked Salmon with Spinach and Strawberry Salsa
• And what’s cuter than a “rice bowl built for two”?  Cuddle up together and share a Romantic Rice Bowl

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Seafood can be mystifying territory for us land dwelling creatures. Well, let’s get one thing settled right now: cooking fish at home can be very easy! One of the best things about cooking seafood is its versatility — it can be grilled, broiled, poached, baked or cooked in a pan. We’ll help you learn how to broil fish and then you can expand your horizon.

Broiled Fish with Citrus and Herbs

Get the health benefits of fish and the budget benefits of cooking at home by using these simple instructions. Feel free to substitute with other ingredients such as water and lemon juice or white wine for the orange juice, dried dill weed for the herbs, and capers or toasted crushed nuts or seeds for the olives.

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This January, we are focusing on stocking your pantry for healthier meals and a healthier budget. If you haven’t entered to Win Pantry Staples for a Year, head over to that blog post now and then come right back.

When you pick up the items on our $50 Pantry Stock Up list (see below), you’ll be ready to add a few fresh ingredients, herbs and spices to be able to cook 14 of our favorite recipes. We’ll feature all of these recipes individually in these “From Our Pantry” posts throughout this month. This time we’re talking quinoa. (You can see our earlier posts on Oats, Soup, Chili and Stew and Brown Rice.

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From navy, cannellini and lima beans to great Northerns and flageolets, adding white beans to your menu plan adds good nutrition, versatility and ease. Cooking beans at home is renowned as a simple way to save money and provide the base for many a healthy meal. It requires little effort and they’re easy to keep on hand in the fridge or freezer. Then you can quickly put together everything from basic beans and rice (seasoned differently in different cultures) to soups, salads, dips and spreads.

This basic recipe for White Beans makes about 7 cups, approximately 10 servings.

1 pound dried white beans (cannellini, navy or great northern)
1 yellow onion, quartered
2 dried bay leaves
Sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

Spread beans in a single layer on a large sheet tray; pick through to remove and discard any small stones or debris and then rinse well.
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This January, we are focusing on stocking your pantry for healthier meals and a healthier budget. If you haven’t entered to Win Pantry Staples for a Year, head over to that blog post now and then come right back.

When you pick up the items on our $50 Pantry Stock Up list (see below), you’ll be ready to add a few fresh ingredients, herbs and spices to be able to cook 14 of our favorite recipes. We’ll feature all of these recipes individually in these “From Our Pantry” posts throughout this month. This time we’re talking brown rice. (You can see our earlier posts on Oats and on Soup, Stew and Chili.) Read the rest of this entry »

Hard winter squash can be intimidating, but they are actually very simple to prepare as well as satisfying, nutritious and affordable! Butternut squash, for example, delivers healthy carbohydrates, vitamins A and C plus potassium. We’ll share two recipes here to get you started with winter squash.

Roasted Butternut Squash

This basic recipe brings out the best in winter squash: little bites delightfully caramelized outside and creamy inside. Serve straight from the oven as a side dish or use in soup, tacos, enchiladas, pasta and salad.

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 pounds)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F. Halve the squash lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out and discard seeds.

If desired, peel with a vegetable peeler or cut into big chunks and keep steady on the cutting board while cutting off the peel with a knife. You can also place a damp kitchen towel under your cutting board to help stabilize when cutting the squash.

Cut into 1-inch cubes. Transfer to a large, rimmed baking sheet. Toss with oil, salt and pepper and spread out in a single layer. Roast, tossing occasionally, until just tender and golden brown, about 30 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »

This January, we are focusing on stocking your pantry for healthier meals and a healthier budget. If you haven’t entered to Win Pantry Staples for a Year, head over to that blog post now and then come right back.

When you pick up the items on our $50 Pantry Stock Up list (see below), you’ll be ready to add a few fresh ingredients, herbs and spices to be able to cook 14 of our favorite recipes. We’ll feature all of these recipes individually in these “From Our Pantry” posts throughout this month. This time we’re talking Oats. (You can see our earlier post on Soup, Chili and Stew here.)

With oats in your pantry, breakfast is just a pot away. These days, it would be hard to find someone who hasn’t heard about the benefits of whole grains, especially oats! They are an especially comforting, nourishing way to start the day, providing stick-to-your-ribs good taste along with good nutrition.

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Are you familiar with the Martha Stewart Living Daily Giveaway? Each day visitors to their site can enter to win some great stuff. This month, the daily prize is a $50 Whole Foods Market Pantry Staples Stock Up. Yeah!

Awarded as a $50 Whole Foods Market gift card, winners can stock their pantries with our list of staples to keep on hand for healthier meals and a healthier budget. Running the gamut from beans, grains and oats to broths, diced tomatoes and pasta sauce, you’ll be fully stocked and prepared to drive past that drive thru in favor of healthy meals at home. Just add some fresh ingredients and spices and you’ll have everything you need to cook 14 of our favorite recipes.

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What’s not to love about this dairy (and non-dairy!) favorite? In our stores, you can choose from the largest variety of yogurt in a wide selection of flavors, from Greek yogurt to Icelandic skyr. And here’s an added bonus: All of our 365 Everyday Value® yogurts, organic or not, are made from the milk of cows never given artificial growth hormones (rBGH/rBST). This is true for many of the other brands we offer, too. None contain high fructose corn syrup or artificial colors, flavors or preservatives either. We’ve got a slew of alternatives made from coconut, almond, rice or soybeans that can be used in much the same way as the dairy versions.

There’s wisdom in ancient traditions. Our ancestors have been preserving food by natural fermentation and culture for millennia. By some accounts, there’s evidence that cultured milk dates back as far as 2000 BCE. Roman author, philosopher and naturalist Piney the Elder once made mention of certain tribes of people who knew the way “to thicken the milk into a substance with an agreeable acidity.”

With the creation of modern refrigeration, many of our traditional ways of fermenting and preserving food has largely been forgotten, but thankfully, the practice of eating yogurt, a popular fermented dairy food, still remains. Yogurt contains beneficial bacteria that support healthy digestion and promote beneficial intestinal flora. It’s been said that Francis I, King of France in the early 14^th century, suffered from a severe bout with diarrhea which no French doctor could cure until his ally Suleiman the Magnificent (what a name!) of the Ottoman Empire sent a doctor who cured King Francis with yogurt.

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