Pasta Salad Supreme

These days, to love pasta salad is to be seriously un-cool. You never see it on the menu at trendy eateries, however casual, kitschy or retro. Food snobs turn up their noses at the very idea. Sure, quinoa and couscous salads abound, but pasta salad? Heavens no. It's just not done among the foodie set. I mean, you might as well break out the cheez whiz and cool whip for all the gustatory cred discussion of pasta salads will get you.

That's why today's post is a pasta salad! Oho! I thought I'd be a trendbucker and share one proudly. A good pasta salad is light and refreshing, yet still filling on a hot, hot day (like today). This salad is a variation on one my Maymo used to make when I was a kid. It brings back memories of summer days, cookouts, and bites of cold, crunchy salad, stolen right out of her bright orange serving bowl.

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Happy Mother's Day

Three Generations: My Grandmother, My Mother, and Me

I come from a family of extraordinary women: fighters, trailblazers, independent thinkers. Women in my family defy convention by doing what they want, stating what they believe, and refusing to conform to roles they were not meant to play. And they taught their daughters to do the same.

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Steamed Artichokes with Mustard-Cream Dipping Sauce

I'm back from my blog-cation. Instead of working on a blog post last weekend, I volunteered for an organization near and dear to my heart: Rebuilding Together Metro Chicago. On Saturday, April 28, 3,000 volunteers helped rehab 68 homes, 4 community facilities and a large park in the Chicago neighborhood of Englewood and the Village of Harvey. It was an amazing day with a remarkable organization!

It felt good to take a break from blogging, but it also feels good to be back at it again. I'm excited to share this week's recipe with you. I know the tagline of this blog is "...life is more than broiled chicken & steamed vegetables," but this gives short shrift to one of the best methods for preparing artichokes: steaming them.

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Celebration Time! Chocolate Coconut Fondue

It's cause for celebration here at The Foodie Method: this post marks one full year of food blogging!

One year ago, I embarked on this project. I didn't know what I was getting into, but I promised myself that I'd post once a week for the first year. Here were are, one year later, and I kept my promise. I never missed a single week. I posted when I was afire with motivation, and when I was not. I posted when I was sick, and when I was well. I posted when I was swamped with other responsibilities. I posted on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve and Easter weekend. I posted from hotel rooms, airplanes, and my couch. I posted when it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. No matter what, I posted. And I'm not shy about admitting that I'm truly proud of what I've accomplished.

In the coming weeks, I'll share some of what I learned this past year, and reveal some of what's in store for the future of The Foodie Method. But for today, it's time to celebrate. And in this house, a celebration means it's time to break out the chocolate.

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Supergreens: My Mowed-Lawn Milkshake

I know this will come as a huge shock to many of you, so prepare yourselves. I am not perfect. Far from it. I can be snippy and judgmental. I run low on patience. I snot-cry at horribly inappropriate moments. I rarely clean my oven. I've been known to over-rely on Febreeze. And, I don't eat healthily all the time.

In moments of high stress, extreme fatigue, or just plain boredom, sometimes I slip. I succumb to the stupid bowl of toffee nuggets at work. I order the fried chicken instead of broiled salmon. I drag my husband for cheeseburger Runza's at 10:30 in the morning. Nope, I don't always make the best choices.

One thing I do every day, no matter what, is drink a glass of powdered greens. I call it my mowed-lawn milkshake. One scoop contains nutrient-rich, dark, leafy greens—often called superfood greens, or simply, supergreens. These can include alfalfa sprouts, broccoli sprouts, carrots, spinach, parsley, zucchini, green beans, spirulina, chlorella and others. Greens supplements help support healthy digestion, bolster immunity and circulation, fortify your body against stress, and boost energy and endurance. They're phenomenal.

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