Parade Magazine

Parade.com: Hold the White Rice and Get Your Freekeh On

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The Freekeh Cookbook by Bonnie Matthews

Here’s a typical weekday situation: A recipe calls for rice. There’s only 30 minutes for dinner. Healthy brown rice takes 45 minutes, and unhealthy white rice is 15 minutes to cook. When it comes to time, I’m guilty of choosing the latter. I have tricks for using grains in weekday meals, such as doubling the requested amount and storing the difference in the freezer, or cooking slow-cooking grains—such as barley and farro—on weekends.

One of my favorite healthy and quick-cooking grains is whole-wheat couscous. Quinoa is another favorite, but the rinsing process is time-consuming. My recent discovery is freekeh, a familiar grain in Arabic cuisines with a 15 to 20 minute cooking time.

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Parade.com: A Happy Lunch to Go in a Mason Jar

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"Mason Jar Salads" by Julia Mirabella

The minister of my church once asked all the lawyers present to stand up. Nobody stood. “They’re all working. I should know, because I know the lawyers who are members of this church,” the minister reasoned. As an attorney, Julia Mirabella finds time to write a food blog at MyFoodandOtherStuff.com between long hours at the office analyzing data on computer screens and reading mile-high stacks of documents and forms.

While wisely managing time, Mirabella discovered the art of fine dining in a mason jar. To save time and money during the weekdays, she would concurrently pack several lunches in jars during the weekend. Once she mastered the technique of layering ingredients (such as placing vinaigrette at the bottom of the jars to avoid soggy salad leaves), she wrote a cookbook, Mason Jar Salads.

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Parade.com: Let Them Eat (More) Kale!

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“Let Them Eat Kale” by Julia Mueller

There are kids named “Kale,” and it’s not their nickname. Specialty fast food restaurants prominently feature locally grown kale. Some people are panicking about a pending kale shortage. Other people—unaffected by the news of a shortage—casually blitz kale into smoothies, simmer with smoked meat, toss with salads, and more. People can’t get enough of this trendy green.  Read more →

Parade.com: Make it a Greek Family Affair With Debbie Matenopoulos’ Lemonates Patates

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Lemonates Patates

“To Greeks, food is not just food. It represents love. It represents family,” says Debbie Matenopoulos. She would know. Matenopoulos left her Greek family’s generous and healthy meals to attend New York University, intern at MTV, and work at various television shows, including The View. Life in the fast lane meant eating fast food, which predictably expanded her waistline and increased her acne. Over time, she returned to her family’s traditional Greek recipes, and her health improved.  Read more →

Parade.com: Let the Hip Girl’s Guide You to an Organized Kitchen and a Delicious Granola

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Brown Sugar and Honey Granola

Learning about healthy eating can be an adventure. You make a weekly menu that looks more appetizing than pizza being delivered, and a long grocery list to go with it. You explore the aisles of the grocery store. You carry home bags of groceries.

But for beginner cooks, the adventure of learning to eat healthy often ends at the doorway of the kitchen. The reason: Their kitchens are organized for reheating packaged frozen meals, while drawers are stuffed with take-out delivery menus, condiment packages, paper plates and plastic utensils.

Don’t give up so easily. There’s a book explaining all one needs to know about a kitchen.

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