Canelones (Cannelloni a la Dominicana)

I like my pasta dishes simple. A few ingredients, some olive oil, toss, serve. This cannelloni filled with ricotta and spinach are so easy to make, so filling, so rich that I wonder why I just don’t make it more often.

Mother’s Day is coming (in the Dominican Republic it’s the last Sunday of May), so if you are looking for a dish to serve your mami without straining your cooking muscles, this is it. You’ll make your mama proud.

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Sugar and flour-free oatmeal and nuts breakfast muffins

I must tell you that my daughter and I have a bit of an obsession with these oatmeal and nut breakfast muffins.

It’s never too early to teach kids to love good, healthy food, and to instill in them the love for cooking. With some assistance (with the oven part) my 7-year old was capable of doing these all by herself. Since I wrote this recipe I think we’ve done this about half a dozen times, and we love them every time.

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Vegan sancocho (root stew)

Do you know what a sancocho is? If so, I know what you’re thinking: “if it’s vegan, then it isn’t sancocho”. After all the recipe in our blog is called a “seven meat-stew“. You can hardly get any more carnivorous than that, short of chasing and killing your own prey.

I love sancocho, but I’m not a really big fan of meat, so I deconstructed the dish and adapted it to my own liking. Let the fun begin!

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Urban agriculture - Start your own garden

I could call it “urban gardening”, but gardening means also growing flowers and other ornamental plants. No, this post is entirely about urban agriculture: growing food, and how it has obsessed me for the better part of 13 years.

Of course, in the last 13 years I have been an apartment dweller, so it’s not like I’ve had tons of space to grow things. But if you think lack of space means that you can’t grow at least some food, you are wrong. If I can do it, so can you.

Are you curious now? OK, let me tell you more about it.

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Chickpea and zucchini blossom salad

I loved this chickpea and zucchini blossom salad. Few of these are ingredients traditionally used in traditional Dominican cuisine, but you know what I love the most about it? I grew almost everything that went into it.

Yep, I did. Nothing tastes as good as freshly-picked vegetables that you grow yourself.

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