Mandy's Meals: Healthy Comfort Food Made Just For You

Just a little souffle magic                                         

As you have probably guessed, I love food. My focus as a personal chef is on healthy comfort food (but I can roll with sugar, butter and bacon, too...I have dessert for dinner at least twice a month).  

I am a graduate of The New School Of Cooking who is fully licensed, insured, ServSafe certified and a proud member of the USPCA.

In addition to cooking, I work with the super talented ladies at Food Fanatics where I assist on food styling projects and classes, collaborate on books and manage their websites and blog.

Next up: Cooking for you!

How it works:

I come to you and provide beautiful dishes. I plan menus, do the shopping, the cooking, the clean up and leave you with complete heating instructions AND your kitchen exactly how I found it. I am your food fairy!

I also love to cater intimate gatherings and teach cooking classes in the comfort of your home.

Did I mention that I'm also a vegan baking goddess? I will bring back your fondest brownie, cupcake and cookie memories...AND they will be good for you!

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cookies                                          

Contact me for a free consultation. I can't wait to start cooking for you!

Christmas morning apron. My favorite gift.                                           

Cooking On A Monday

 

Pappardelle with lemon, spinach and ricotta.

  

  

Cauliflower steamed in chicken broth and pureed with butter.

  

Chunky cinnamon applesauce.

  

Cider braised pork shoulder.

 

Reducing the cider and leeks.

  

Dinner!

Who's Hungry For St. Patrick's Day?

 

  

All the details are here.  How will you celebrate?

Pizza, Lasagna, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, Orange Poundcake & A Brisket Dinner. No Diets Here!

 

This is a "high tech vegetarian" pizza from Earth, Wind & Flour.  It's thinly sliced, roasted eggplant, basil, and enough garlic to turn my husband gay. Yum.

  

Simple tomato and cheese lasagna.   

  

  

Vegan chocolate chip cookie dough.  

  

Ready for the oven.

I cannot keep these in the house.  Crack.

  

I also made an orange pound cake with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.  I was testing a recipe for a client. 

  

It was good!  Subtle orange flavor, and I love anything that involves glaze.

  

I added the glaze while the cake was still warm so it would soak in and develop a thick, sugary crust.

  

My cousin came to stay with us and requested some home cooking.  Done!

  

Mustard crusted brisket, garlic smashed yukon gold potatoes and steamed green beans.  

Babyholic

While I'm on a non-food blogging jag, I will share this video with you.  Our dear friends, Paul and Sam, have dear little Charlie (Sam and Charlie are both girls, btw).  Charlie is approaching 1 year and we had still not gotten a chance to meet her (pathetic I know-that's LA lifestyle for ya).

They surprised me, and it was all I could do not to burst into tears.  My biological clock is "ticking like this".

She's perfect.

Starstruck Twit

 

I love Adam Carolla.  I love his wife, Lynette, and Teresa Strasser, and their new podcast, The Parent Experiment.  

I was up late watching Real Housewives Of Orange County and hanging out on Twitter, cuz I'm a classy multi-tasker, and I noticed Lynette Carolla was tweeting about the show...so I tweeted her back, and then she tweeted ME back!

This most likely is completely unimpressive, and I get that this has nothing to do with food, but I had to share nonetheless.

Love you, mean it, will be documenting a lovely meal for my cousin whom I have never met who is coming to stay with us tomorrow.  And guess what, he is a HUGE Adam Carolla fan!  Of course he is...

What Am I Doing?

 

Let's start with dessert, shall we?  My lovely clients have a bit of a sweet tooth, and although they only request dinners, I notice the cookie dough and chocolate candy and Rocky Road ice cream.  I wanted to make them some homemade treats.

Enter:  Chocolate Puddle Cookies.  Almost like meringues, the cookie batter is chopped walnuts, cocoa, powdered sugar and egg whites.  When baked, they get shiny and crackly, but stay gooey on the inside.

  

  

Mandy being Mandy, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, so I stole this picture from the world wide interweb.  Mine look like this, only a lot lumpier.

  

How cool is their little green teapot?

Oven roasted tomatoes.  Roma tomatoes with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, thyme, salt, pepper and asiago cheese.  Served with stuffed portobello mushrooms.

  

Minestrone soup.  Topped with pesto and Parmesan, served with sourdough baguette.

 

  

Portobello mushrooms stuffed with ricotta and spinach and baked until bubbly.

My apologies for the iphone pics.  Between jury duty, house guests, and my upcoming surgery, I think I am mighty distracted.  I also cooked for clients yesterday and plum forgot to take photos.  My.  Bad.  I love you all!

Workouts have been good.  Jogging, yoga and a new DVD I love, Ballet Body.  I still have no regrets quitting the gym