Meal Plans

This week’s menu gives you a chance to use all those vinegars that have been cluttering your pantry. We go through the whole range: rice, balsamic, red wine, and apple (remember, you’re always welcome to substitute rather than go out and purchase more items). You’ll see how a touch of vinegar – a pantry essential in our kitchen – offers [...]

I had cooked these healthy Mediterranean chicken / turkey meatballs last week for this week’s meal plan. After snapping all the photos I needed, I tucked them away in a large Tupperware container. One of the best parts of food blogging is eating all the leftover goodies, and I was certainly looking forward to munching on these later. Sadly I never [...]

In college I dabbled in vegetarianism. It was more of a recreational thing, but as I got more serious about becoming a professional eater, I decided to give up the non-meat eating life.  However my 1 year status as a vegetarian greatly contributed to my eating and cooking experience. At the time I was training for the San Diego Rock [...]

Back in late June, I was invited to speak at Blossom Birth a non-profit resource center for soon-to-be and current parents located in Palo Alto. I expected to talk mostly about making baby food but found myself fielding questions about school lunches instead. Most parents in attendance had school-age children and were faced with the challenge of coming up with [...]

You’ll be seeing a lot more meal plans on Cook Smarts in the near future including a newsletter launch in the fall. All subscribers to the newsletter will get a meal plan every week in their inbox that’ll be peppered with cooking know-how, tips, and suggestions. There won’t be anything fancy in the menu – just simple, healthy, doable meals [...]

There have been no shortage of highlights since starting Cook Smarts at the beginning of this year. If I had to pick just one though, it’d have to be getting to meet so many wonderful moms and getting a real sneak peek into their lives in the kitchen. While everyone is at their own individual cooking level, they are united by one [...]