For me, there are some days I don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and others when I’ll more than happily spend half a day in there working on a single meal or dish that results in a mountain of dishes. What I love about Risotto is that it’s truly a labor or love. While it requires a bit of babying, the payoff in flavor is worth it, and this Wild Mushroom Risotto with Parmesan and Scallops is no different.

I recently downloaded a new iPhone app called Lose It, to track my daily calorie intake. And what I’ve noticed, is that while the meals I make are reasonably nutritionally balanced, I’m killing myself with snacking later because I don’t always feel full when we’re done. So, to combat that, Vita and I are making some really hearty meals, including these awesome stuffed peppers.

They’re easy to make, albeit a tad time consuming. Since you’re getting a whole bell pepper, you’re getting a lot of veggies, and the ground chicken with …

Last night, I didn’t make anything particularly exciting for dinner, but wanted to do something different for a side dish. More often than not, I often just wing it with my side dishes, using whatever I happen to have in the pantry or the fridge. One of the skills I’m trying hard to develop is pairing sides with meals properly and coming up with things that are different than sauteed veggies or the common side salad. So, when I found a recipe for “Blue Cheese Crusted Tomatoes” on Epicurious, I decided to modify it to something that sounded more interesting to me and came up with these Broiled and Stuffed Beefsteak Tomatoes (the stuffing is Danish Blue Cheese, Seasoned Bread Crumbs and Minced Garlic).

The past few nights I’ve been working a bit later than I’d like to be. This fact usually means we do very quick things for dinner, like pre-made soups, leftovers worked into something new and different or meals that I can pick up on my way in from the office. Even though I knew I was in for a longer day, I’d have none of that tonight. Since I had leftover fresh spinach from Souper Sunday’s Creamy Chicken Florentine, I opted for a twist on a traditional Basil and Pine Nut Pesto.

For the past two weeks Vita has been pining over a soup they serve in the Detroit Medical Center’s Sinai Grace cafeteria. So, when I launched Souper Sunday last week, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I’d be forced to come up with a version of Chicken Florentine Soup. The most important thing for Vita was that it be creamy, but the most important thing in my eyes was that it wasn’t overpoweringly flavored by just chicken stock. I think we came up with something pretty tasty, even if …

One of the things I was most worried about losing in the move to being gluten free was pasta. I love Italian food, especially the various textures and forms that pasta can take. Thankfully, Vita was able to find a gluten free option to pasta. So, tonight we tried it for the first time, mainly because we had some lovely portobello mushroom caps that we didn’t want to let go to waste and we needed a meal that I could make quickly. So, we whipped up the gluten free pasta …

When I was a boy, I was never a big fan of soup. But as we age, so do our tastes. Now I can say that soup is one of my favorite things. I find myself pining for it in the summer months, and cherishing it throughout the fall and winter. In Michigan, it has been one of the coldest winters I can remember. We’ve had lots of snow and only a few days above freezing, which makes it absolutely perfect to start a weekly series on soup. So I …

After our morning workout, I decided to give a recipe I originally saw on Giada De Laurentis’ Food Network show, Everyday Italian a go, while making a few modifications of my own. So before leaving for work, I made the marinade for grilled chicken with lemon basil dressing. I’m happy to report that it turned out fabulously.

Looks pretty appetizing huh? Allow me to attest, the dressing is AMAZING. I’ll be using it for everything from salads, to marinades Here’s how to make the whole shebang.
Ingredients:

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 …

Do you ever wonder what to do with your old French (or Italian) bread after a day or two? Have a ton of breadcrumbs already? Want an alternative to ordering crappy delivery pizza on game day? Rejoice friends, for my Day Old French Bread Pizzas are your salvation from the ordinary and from tossing perfectly awesome bread.

I did this for my Gorumet From the Tailgate series this week, because I had leftover French bread from pasta night. It’s really hearty, filling and the best possible alternative to delivery.

Ingredients:

Day old French …

I’m resolving to start cooking fresh daily. I’ve found that since I commute so far, it’s getting difficult to come home, pull everything out and then get cooking. Now, I shop on my lunch hour, prep the meal in my head and I’m straight to cooking with almost all the ingredients I need, right in my shopping bag. So, yesterday when I was on my shopping excursion I couldn’t pass up some fresh made pasta or the spinach and garlic Italian Sausages (chicken) that they had just placed at the …