Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food staffer Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."
Bread pudding may be the darling of fall and winter dessert menus, but the casserole also has a reputation as being quite customizable. Sweet or savory? For brunch or for dinner? With meat or without? Bread pudding can be prepared in a myriad of ways and economically designed to help singletons use up stale bread and odds and ends in the fridge.
As a meatless main dish, it spotlights one of the most beloved vegetarian-friendly proteins of all time: the egg. Make it a meal with a side green salad.
This variation is an individual meal that's perfect for those pajama-and-fuzzy-slipper nights.
Don't you think we've had enough sweets treats for one week? After all, it is January, the time of the year when we're all supposed to be resetting our diets by eating lighter healthier foods (and giving our livers a break from all the holiday booze). Thankfully, Sassy Radish has taken the lighter eating mantra to heart and has created this bright, gingery Tofu, Spinach and Okra Stirfry. Served over brown rice, it looks like it made a tasty and buoyantly light meal.
Most of the United States will be springing an hour early this Sunday morning, and so in honor of this early arrival of spring, I thought I'd post a yummy-looking picture of a salad that seems appropriate for the season. Prepared, photographed and I'm assuming eaten by Flickr user ccharmon, this is a salad I see myself recreating at some point down the line.
If your cooking is taking a turn for the spring-like, why don't you take some pictures and share them with us over on the Slashfood Flickr page. Go on, tempt us with your delicious creations.
Not Eating Out in New York wrote a post a few days ago that cracked me up: She invented an Obama sushi roll. I don't want to incite political anythings, so I'll just say that I like Obama just fine, and I'd be happy to see him become President -- but I really, really liked the Obama rolls.
The rolls feature crispy fried eggplant and fresh spinach, with some cayenne pepper to capture the Obama spirit. I wonder what a Hillary roll would look like? Maybe some kampyo squash because its stubborn and gummy but also unique? It would definitely need some spicy sauce as well. What about a McCain roll?
Coolio is back (check out our interview with Coolio here) with another episode of his new cooking show (on My Damn Channel), Cooking with Coolio. This time he is a little bit more family-friendly and safe for viewing at work, as he makes "Spinach Even Your Kids Will Eat." It was nice to see him interact with Ethan in this video and the spinach he cooked up looked pretty darn tasty as well. So far, I'm liking what he's doing.
If you're enjoying watching Cooking with Coolio, consider leaving a video response. The best comment will win an autographed bell pepper. Imagine how much you could get for that thing on eBay!
I have a horrible confession, Slashfood friends. One of the reasons I love the Super Bowl and other tailgate-type parties is that it gives me an excuse to make and eat all those foods that I'd never serve at any other type of party because they're not very, well, "foodie." I'm talking about things like Flamin' Hot Cheetos, national chain delivery pizza, and...
Spinach Dip.
I'm not talking about your little glazed earthenware crockpot filled with a homemade blend of cheese, artichokes, and spinach. Neither am I even going with a store-bought version of the same thing that I would at least pretend to cook by heating up and serving to guests hot. I am talking about that Spinach Dip made from frozen chopped spinach, sour cream, mayonnaise, and a package of dried vegetable soup mix that you have to make the night before so the freeze-dried vegetables have time to revive. The stuff is not only horrible for you (unless you make it healthy with lowfat sour cream and mayo!), but good grief, it's made from dried vegetable soup.
And yes, I always serve it in a hollowed out round of bread that I buy at the store, too.
Since I started writing for Slashfood, I've discovered that people seem to just love bacon. Whenver I have a bacon-related post people seem to chime in with words about their love of all things bacon. So I saw this recipe and knew I had to post about it.
This is the classic example of two different foods that I love so I assume that if I put them together into one dish I'm going to love it even more. Of course, this doesn't quite work with other foods that I love, like ice cream and baked beans, but you know what I mean. This comes from the great Cooking For 2 blog.
Also in the December issue: Christmas in Tpoztlan, a guide to making great cupcakes, the story of Kobe beef, winning over a fussy French watier, and Marge, the cutting edge cow.
Every single month of the year has a "National _______ Month" designation. Heck, I think every day has celebrates something. June has a few celebrations, and National Fruit and Vegetable Month is one of them.
Of course, you should eat a lot of fruit and vegetables all year round, but if one month can get you going, then it's a good thing. June is usually the month when I start to eat more salads and apples and oranges anyway, as I'm sure it is with a lot of people, so it's good timing.
Here's more info and tips about the month, along with links to other sites about healthy eating. And if you insist on eating a whole pizza tonight, at least put some mushrooms and onions on it.
The quesadilla is perhaps the sturdiest of staples in my roster of go-to meals. Lately, my favorite combination is the one you see here: flour tortillas with Monterrey Jack cheese, spinach, black beans, chicken and sweet potatoes. Really, all you need for a satisfying quesadilla is tortillas and cheese, but taking the time to get a few quality components together yields something far more satisfying. As a bonus, the following recipes for black beans, sauteed spinach and mashed sweet potatoes are all great side dishes on their own. I usually wind up using leftover roasted chicken, but grilled or sauteed shrimp are also a great substitution. The assembly is pretty simple, regardless of the fillings you choose, but we'll get back to that later. The following proportions should be enough for two large quesadillas. All of the ingredients can easily be multiplied.
The New York Timesreports (as did The CBS Evening News last night) that a House subcommittee is going to meet today to investigate not only all of the food recalls and contaminations of the past couple of years but to examine just how the FDA operates in general.
Evidence has come to light that the FDA may have been aware of the spinach and peanut butter contamination several months before the sicknesses occurred but didn't do as much as they could have. One problem is the resources. As CBS said, even though the FDA is responsible for 80% of the food in this country and the USDA for the other twenty, for some reason, the USDA has three times as many inspectors. The FDA has also been busier with the "D" part of their name in recent years.
Even though the ban on fresh bagged and loose leaf spinach from this past September's E. coli scare is long over, the shake that it put on consumer confidence in leafy greens is still there. Even now, consumers are avoiding greens, or buying them less frequently than they otherwise would. A study done at Rutgers found that part of the problem lies in the fact that spinach and other greens are considered to be healthy and that consumers almost feel betrayed by the fact that something wholesome could actually be harmful. This new suspicion is what is keeping sales down. In fact, only 2 out of 3 consumers contacted during the survey knew that the recall was over.
Farms and government agencies alike are looking for ways to mitigate the worries of consumers with oversight at both farm and national levels being discussed. Whether a new standard will be enough to boost consumer confidence to the point where the average diner doesn't look askance at a salad with baby spinach in it remains uncertain. Would it be enough for you?
Since I started writing for Slashfood, I've discovered that people seem to just love bacon. Whenver I have a bacon-related post people seem to chime in with words about their love of all things bacon. So I saw this recipe and knew I had to post about it.
A treasure trove of cookie ideas for Christmas, including 
Every single month of the year has a "National _______ Month" designation. Heck, I think every day has celebrates something. June has a few celebrations, and National Fruit and Vegetable Month is one of them.
The New York Times 
Even though the ban on fresh bagged and loose leaf 
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