Hello! Do you know how sometimes you get behind on returning a phone call or writing a thank you note, and days turn into weeks. Suddenly it is months later and you start to feel that making the call would be more embarrassing than not? Yes? Well please forgive my extended absence from this space. It wasn’t planned. The longer it went on the more I floundered for words to share and felt embarrassed by the passing of time. I have thought of you daily and am still cooking like crazy but the words have been absent. Life with a toddler is busier and more wonderful than I imagined. We have had some good things happen in the last few months and some not so good things. Luckily the good have outweighed the bad and this summer is a vast improvement over the last. One of the good things is learning how to make my own almond milk.

This March brought about a few big milestones for the Phoo-d family. Our sweet Anna turned 1 year old, marking progress from the sleepless nights and constant feedings of a newborn to the laughing, clapping, crawling (almost walking!) antics of a soon-to-be toddler. March also ushered in the 1 year milestone of changing our lifestyle to follow a vegan and gluten free diet.

Last April, I shared with you the story of my diagnosis with rheumatoid arthritis and my struggle to keep the disease under control during pregnancy and my child bearing years, when medicated options are limited. After much research and soul searching Mr. B and I decided to embrace a vegan and gluten free diet to lower the overall level of inflammation in my body. That decision has changed my life in so many ways.

Do you ever wish for lunches that require little thought but deliver a lot of flavor? Something quick and light that you can pull together in an extra 10 minutes during the morning and then enjoy for a few days? I’ve talked before about my ongoing struggle with lunches. In brief: I want something good to eat but I don’t want to work for it! Countless healthy salad iterations have followed in my attempt to avoid eating the same lunch for a week straight.

Have you heard of teff? This tiny unassuming whole grain has quickly become one of our favorite things to eat for breakfast. It started about a year ago as a casual flirtation with whole grains. My passing interest in the whole grain trend quickly turned into an expedition deep into whole grain territory when I decided to eliminate gluten from my diet. Using the marvelous cookbook, The Splendid Grain, as my guide into the mysterious world of whole grains, I ordered a bag of teff online. When the teff arrived I was amazed at the tiny size of each grain. It was almost like holding a bag of chestnut colored sand. In fact, teff is the smallest grain in the world. That’s right- it doesn’t get any smaller than this!

Do you have chili on the brain? With the Superbowl fast approaching it is hard to avoid visions of steaming bowls of chili, spicy chicken wings, and cold beer. We are fair weather football fans, tuning in only once a year for the big game. But when we do watch we go all the way! Dips are made, chili is simmered, and beer is chilled. Everything is in place for an evening of cheering from the couch and generally celebrating. It is the beginning of February and we are ready for a party again.

Soup is the quintessential food of January. Salads would be the obvious choice given the upswing in dieting and healthy eating which occurs at the beginning of each new year. However when it is snowing and the air is chilled to sub-zero temperatures a cold salad is about as appealing as a cold shower. Luckily soup fits the bill nicely, providing warmth, comfort, and a healthy dose of vegetables- without the well traveled lettuce and sad winter tomatoes.

This soup is one of those happy accidents that occurs when you have a random assortment of ingredients and a wicked craving for warm soup. It started with artichokes of course. Mr. B’s fondness for the large green thistles is well documented. Four large specimens called to us from the fridge and we proceeded to have artichokes two nights in a row. The first night we went the standard route of steaming the chokes. Sadly, the results were just okay, lacking flavor and tenderness. It was the fault of the chokes and not the method, but with two remaining we decided to try a different way of cooking. We brought out the big gun- the pressure cooker.

This is just the kind of stew for when skies turn gray and snowflakes begin to float by. It is also just right when the space between one big holiday meal and the next is filled with endless visions of sugar and butter. A healthy dish with loads of zing and the comfort inducing combination of warm tomatoes and filling chickpeas.

The turkey has landed! One week and counting to the biggest food holiday of the year. Are you ready? Yeah, I’m not quite ready this year either. Luckily I have several beautiful recipes already figured out and just waiting to be made. Here are a few ideas from the archives to inspire and move you into the kitchen:

I have a new cookbook crush. In fact it may even be an infatuation. It started innocently enough, with a link from Heidi to a video interview with Yottam Ottolenghi. Now I had heard the name Ottolenghi mentioned before in vegetarian circles- always with proclamations of incredible food and concepts. Yet watching the video brought the passion and love embodied in Ottolenghi’s food to life. An Israeli born restauranteur who runs several eponymous restaurants in London with a Palestinian head chef, I immediately jumped over to Amazon and bought his new vegetarian cookbook, Plenty.