Kristine Cocchiarella
Classically trained Cordon Bleu chef turned anti-GMO, pro-organic, food hippie blogger with a passion for REAL food.
-
Homemade Organic Chicken Stock
It’s getting harder and harder to find a decent boxed, organic stock that doesn’t contain MSG or other MSG alias, such as yeast, yeast extract, natural flavoring/flavors. Within a couple of weeks of cutting out MSG and GMOs from my diet my almost daily headaches stopped. I’m not about to tempt fate and buy stock that contains MSG. Even the stocks/broths that say “No MSG” contain yeast and natural flavorings, which means MSG!! Homemade stock is easy to make! I normally save all the bones and extras when I’m hacking up a whole chicken to use in cooking, and I’ll also saved bones from cooked chicken and toss them in a zipper top…
-
Chicken Salsa Verde with Cornbread Dumplings
Pretty much everyone loves chicken and dumplings. And almost everyone loves Mexican food. So why not combine the two and come up with a welcomed departure from the norm? I couldn’t come up with a good answer as to why I shouldn’t either, so I went ahead and made this for dinner last week. A seriously easy recipe to prep for and it’s even faster to put together. Comfort food, Southwestern flare, fast/easy prep and it comes together quickly? Um, SCORE!!
-
Out of the Box Hamburger Helper (GMO-Free)
Today I wanted to bring back one of my earlier recipes where I felt if it just got a little more face time that you guys would fall in love with it and want to make it. Unfortunately, I only have not-so-decent pictures of the dish. Although the picture doesn’t do this recipe justice, trust me when I tell you that this dish is SO yummy. I even have a friend from back in high school that has made this for her young children a couple of times and they love it! So if they can eat it and love it and not let the pictures scare them, than so can you!
-
Sea Salted Caramel Corn with Chocolate Drizzle
After being teased with some warmer weather earlier last week, it’s back to being darn right cold again. TSM and I wanted to go see the latest Die Hard movie, but it was too chilly to bundle up and drive to the movie theater, so I decided a movie night at home, snuggling with TSM, in my flannel jammies with some homemade caramel corn was a better idea. Did you know that this popcorn makes 007 Skyfall an even BETTER movie than it already is? Yup. Truth. I’ve had this caramel corn recipe since I was about 14 years old. I got it from a friend I went to school with. We were…
-
Easy Cheesy Twice-baked Potatoes
When I sat down two weeks ago to make my menu for this week I must have been in a hurry because almost every dish I’ve made has had cheese in it. I still have two recipes to go and they both call for cheese. I’m laughing at myself. I have to make sure to spread those meals out over several weeks versus one week because my cheese bill was insane!! Twice-baked potatoes are one of my favorite side dishes. I especially like them with a good rib-eye steak.
-
Cheddar Bacon BBQ Meatloaves
Today I have a fun twist on your everyday meatloaf. The Stud Muffin and I like meatloaf. Don’t believe me? Just look (Here) and (Here) and you’ll see just how much. I once landed a free-lance writing assignment where I would assist 2 other free-lance writers in coming up with 100 meatloaf recipes for the Client’s cookbook. I wasn’t keen on the fact that I would lose rights to any recipe(s) that I submitted. I could never claim these recipes as my own, blog about them, talk about them or share them. That didn’t seem groovy to me at all, so I graciously backed out and decided that free-lance food writing was not…
-
Faux-reo Cheesecake Bars
Happy Valentine’s Day fellow Food Hippies! I have a lovely treat for you guys. It’s two of my most favoritest food things in the whole wide world combined together. Cheese and cake. Ha! Kidding. Make that cheesecake and Oreos. “Whaaa? I thought you were REAL Food Girl??” Don’t worry, I am. And I did not use real Oreos in this recipe. Hence the name of the recipe: Faux-reo Cheesecake Bars. It rhymes with Oreo, but not with GMO soy, HFCS and other nasty ingredients. You guys should be VERY happy that the original recipe that I had planned to share with you today had major flaws that could not be fixed even though…
-
Fresh Garden Salsa -Organic
This Real Food Girl loves her salsa. My secret salsa love affair started when I had some at a local Mexican restaurant called Chi-Chi’s. I have no idea if Chi-Chi’s made authentic Mexican salsa or not, I just know I loved their salsa, and by the time my fajitas came sizzling down through the restaurant, I was full after eating 2 baskets of chips and 4 little containers of salsa all by myself.
