No Bad Foods, LLC, Corolla, NC (2025)

11/04/2025

Get the kids started early with the veggies! Better than French Fries!
Three kids, one huge tray, lots of dipping and re-dipping and it was gone in half an hour!

10/14/2025

Spaghetti squash is an overlooked and underappreciated vegetable. It does have a slightly nutty taste that's not overly strong but it makes a great background for some fun dishes. A few facts about spaghetti squash- it is very low in calories (about 40 calories per cup, cooked), is loaded with vitamins and minerals that support heart and eye health, is full of fiber that helps balance blood sugar and is thought to boost memory, always a plus. I came up with this recipe yesterday (it was dreary outside and I felt like cooking) that can be a side dish to grilled chicken (we did that) or a light vegetarian lunch or dinner. All told, one half of the recipe, minus the chicken, is about 270 calories, give or take. It is easy to put together. Here you go:

Spaghetti Squash Boats
Serves 2, easily doubled
1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise with seeds and ribs discarded
1 cup zucchini, chopped into ½ inch pieces
1 cup yellow squash, chopped into ½ inch pieces
1 cup red bell pepper, chopped into ½ inch pieces
1 cup rinsed and drained Cannellini beans
2 TBSP olive oil, divided
¼ tsp each salt and black pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1 TBSP fresh oregano leaves
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Line a baking dish with foil (easy cleanup)
Rub the insides of the spaghetti squash with 1 TBSP olive oil. Place them cut side down in the baking dish and prick the tops in 5 or 6 places with a meat fork. Bake for 30 minutes or until the meat fork pierces the squash easily. You don’t want it mushy so don’t overcook it.
While the spaghetti squash is baking, warm the remaining olive oil in a medium sized skillet over medium heat.
Sauté the zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper until translucent. Add the oregano, beans and salt and pepper, mixing thoroughly. Reduce the heat to low and keep warm.
When the spaghetti squash is done, flip them over carefully and fill each with the veggie/bean mix.
Sprinkle the fresh oregano on top and serve immediately.

09/14/2025

When it's a cool Sunday morning, cereal with cold milk isn't appealing to me. Time to bake something that is comforting and EASY since, after all, it is Sunday. Checking the refrigerator, I came up with parmesan cheese, roasted red peppers and a boneless ham steak. Voila! Savory muffins! This recipe makes 12 medium sized muffins or 8 larger ones, depending on your appetite. Medium or large, they are satisfying! You don't need butter with these babies, either! Here you go:

Savory Muffins
Yield 12 medium muffins or 8 larger muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Spray a 12 portion muffin tin with canola oil for as many muffins you care to make
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp EACH black pepper, dried oregano and dried basil
2/3 cup of whole milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg, beaten
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 8oz boneless ham steak, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup roasted red peppers, drained, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Mix the dry ingredients well in a medium sized bowl.
Combine the egg, oil and milk in a small bowl, then add to the dry ingredients and stir until thoroughly blended.
Add the cheese, ham and peppers and incorporate them completely into the batter. The batter will be stiff.
Spoon evenly into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins should come out clean.
Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, remove to a plate and serve warm. Refrigerate any leftovers for 3 days. Enjoy!

08/19/2025

It's still summer and the melons and mangoes are in season! The fresh pineapples are great, too! I couldn't help myself and I bought them all yesterday. I put together a great tropical fruit salad that really should be called The Antioxidant Salad because of all of the wonderful nutrition in this little dessert but that doesn't sound as appealing as "Summer in a Bowl", does it? The tricks to this easy dessert are simple: cut the fruit into uniform pieces no bigger than 1 inch square. Otherwise, your guests might be wearing some of the fruit trying to get it into their mouths! The other trick is the lime zest and juice. Not a lot, just enough to brighten the flavors of the fruit. The zest adds a little more pop, too. For a kid free audience, try splashing some rum on top just before serving, a scant tablespoon is enough, trust me. You won't be disappointed!
BTW, each serving has about 70 calories without the rum. Guilt free!

Summer in a Bowl
Serves 6

Cut the following fruit into 1 inch pieces and place in a medium bowl:
2 cups of watermelon
1 1/2 cups honeydew melon
1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple
1 cup fresh mango
1 TBSP lime zest
1 TBSP plus 1 tsp fresh lime juice
Rum (optional)

Toss the fruit with the lime juice and mix together gently.
Sprinkle with lime zest and combine.
Divide evenly into 6 dessert bowls, splash each with a scant TBSP rum, if using, and serve immediately.

08/05/2025

I had to share this from Reader's Digest!!!

08/03/2025

Learning how to make your own pie crust can be a real challenge and can put people off the idea for life. It takes practice and patience, that's for sure. (A topic for my next YouTube video) So, when I saw the fresh white peaches at the farmer's market, I thought - let's go with a store bought pie crust for a simple dessert for tonight's dinner. 7 ingredients, a sheet pan, some parchment paper and a rolling pin (don't get panicky) and you're all set. It comes together quickly, trust me. You'll be happy you tried! Here you go:

Shaggy Peach Torte
Serves 6 (approximately 217 calories per serving)

5 cups fresh peaches, peeled and sliced to 1/4 inch thickness
1 TBSP brown sugar (light or dark)
1 TBSP all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 TBSP butter
1 TBSP milk or half and half
1 sheet of store bought pie crust

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper
Combine the peaches, cinnamon and flour in a medium bowl until the peaches are well coated
On a lightly floured surface, roll the pie crust dough to 12 inches (the size out of the package is approximately 11 inches and if you don't mind a smaller torte, you can skip this step)
Place the pie crust on the prepared sheet pan and pile the fruit combo in the middle of the dough. Dot with the 1 TBSP of butter.
Pull up the sides of the dough as shown in the picture, leaving about a 6-7 inches open in the center. This is the Shaggy part - anyway you pull up the sides is fine. Its meant to look unconstructed so don't worry! No judgement here!
Brush the pie crust dough with the 1 TBSP of milk and place the torte in the oven.
Bake for 45 minutes. Cool until easily handled and serve warm (ice cream goes well with this) and enjoy! Give yourself a bow and a pat on the back!

07/29/2025

Talk about a pie fail! We were invited to a "Christmas in July" gathering a few weeks ago, complete with turkey, stuffing and all of the sides. I, in my desire not to come empty handed, offered to make the pumpkin pie. Mind you, I haven't made one of these in over 25 years. Mom was always in charge of that detail come the holidays.
I gathered all of the ingredients and looked at the old standby recipe on the Libby's pumpkin can. Deep dish pie plate? No problem. Trotting out my biggest pie plate (11 1/2 inches wide with a 2 1/2 inch depth) should be just fine. Once the crust was made, slid into the pie plate and filled with the pumpkin mix, it looked really shallow, not at all what my mom's used to look like. But what the heck? It will rise, right? NOT!
When it came out of the oven, it was appalling in its ugliness!! I couldn't bring this mess to a group of friends! And, it's 4 hours until we were to start the fun. So, thank goodness I had another can of pumpkin but no condensed milk so I used half and half. But this time, I used my smaller pie plate (9 1/2 inches with a depth of 1 3/4 inches). Throwing together another crust under panic mode isn't recommended but the job got done just in time. Here are pictures of the debacle pie and the better one. So, lesson learned. Keep the really deep pie dish for pot pies, not pumpkin pies! And for the record, I don't really like pumpkin pie anyway!

07/04/2025

Thought I'd make some scones for breakfast today. Traditionally, most scones can be a bit dry but this recipe produced scones that are moist and didn't require additional butter or jam spread on them. While this recipe would not fall into the low fat/low calorie categories, they were a treat and I refuse to feel any guilt!

DRIED FRUIT SCONES
The nice thing about this breakfast or brunch delight is that you can put whatever combination of dried fruit into the scones that you have on hand. There are no hard fast rules. This is NOT difficult to put together and because it makes two rounds of scones, you can freeze some for another time!
Serves 6 per round, 12 total
2 cups plus 1 TBSP all-purpose unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground nutmeg
8 TBSP cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 ½ cup dried fruit such as raisins, dried cherries, dried blueberries, dried apricots or a mix of any and all, tossed with 1 TBSP flour in a medium bowl (see picture below)
1 egg, yolk and whites separated
3 TBSP granulated sugar separated
¾ cup of full fat buttermilk or plain full fat yogurt
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper
Stir the egg white in small bowl
Add the egg yolk to the buttermilk, stirring until thoroughly combined
Whisk together the remaining 2 cups of flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Using a pastry cutter, 2 knives or your fingers, add the butter, cutting it in until the mixture looks like small peas. (See picture below)
Add the dried fruit and 2 TBSP sugar to the flour mix, combining well.
Add the buttermilk/yolk combo to the flour/fruit mix. Using a rubber spatula, blend all together until a soft dough forms.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead it lightly, 8-10 times. (See picture below)
Cut the dough in half, forming 2 rounds of dough each 6 inches wide. (See picture below)
Transfer to the prepared baking sheet.
Using a sharp knife, cut each round into 6 pieces as you would a pie but don’t separate the pieces. (See picture below)
Brush each round with egg white and then sprinkle with sugar. *See note*
Bake for 21 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
* Note: if you want to freeze one of the rounds for another time, follow all steps except baking. Place uncovered round on a plate or a tin, freeze until solid. Once frozen, wrap tightly in plastic. Will last 3 months in the freezer. Bake frozen round 23-24 minutes until golden brown.

06/20/2025

You know when you want pasta but not the calories? I put this together last evening for dinner and by cutting back on the pasta, upping the veggies and adding the shrimp, this was pretty darn good. Testimonial - my husband went back for seconds. The secret is roasting the veggies to give it a rich flavor and creating a very light olive oil, butter, garlic and wine sauce that coats the whole thing. This recipe will serve 4 generous portions and you can add more veggies to the pasta as you like. Lots of possibilities here and a nice bowlful is approximately 500 calories depending on the veggies you use. Here you go:

Roasted Veggies with Shrimp and Bowtie Pasta
Serves 4

3 cups broccoli, florets only
3 cups zucchini or yellow squash, sliced 1/2 inch thick
5 TBSP olive oil, divided
3 TBSP butter
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp crushed red pepper
Juice and zest of one large lemon
3/4 cup dry vermouth
8 oz bowtie pasta
1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp
1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 chopped basil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Line a baking sheet with foil (easy clean up)
Place the broccoli and zucchini on the baking sheet, toss with 2 TBSP olive oil and the salt and pepper
Roast for 20 minutes then flip the veggies over, roast for another 20 minutes then remove from the oven
Cook the pasta to package directions, drain and return to the pot
Toss the pasta with the roasted veggies
Melt the butter in the remaining olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and red pepper, cook for 1 minute.
Add the lemon juice, zest and vermouth. Bring to a simmer for 2 minutes.
Place the shrimp in the liquid, making sure there is room between each one. Cook until the shrimp is pink and in a "C" shape, tossing as needed
Combine the shrimp and liquid with the pasta/veggie mix, add the cherry tomatoes, spoon into pasta dishes, sprinkle with the basil and serve immediately.

06/10/2025

Attended a wonderful conference last week in New Orleans. The Culinary Medicine Conference which is part of the American College of Culinary Medicine. Learned lots! How to make some interesting pasta by hand and participated in team cooking while wearing really unattractive hair nets, lol. But, we created a wonderfully healthy dinner in a very crowded, somewhat chaotic kitchen. Additional classes on braising, poaching and all sorts of other kitchen/cooking skills were on the agenda plus updates on food borne pathogens, food safety, women's health and nutrition, metabolic syndrome, pregnancy and nutrition, polycystic o***y syndrome, weight loss and more!! 3 VERY full days! Made some new friends, too! Can't wait until next year!

06/02/2025

I know you have all been waiting for this....today is National Rotisserie Chicken Day! If you Google this, you will see that it's true and is celebrated every June 2nd. A rotisserie chicken has to be one of the best helps for a busy person who wants to keep it healthy as possible but cooking a chicken during the workweek is probably not going to happen. So, these little birds are incredibly economical and versatile - I've used them for pot pies, quick chicken soup, tacos filled with shredded chicken, broccoli slaw and chopped tomatoes, chicken salad and on and on. It's estimated that Costco alone cooks and sells over 150,000 rotisserie chickens PER DAY! In 2023, they sold over 137 million of them! They are usually about 3-4 pounds and feed 3-4 people depending on how it's used. My only recommendation is to eliminate the skin to keep the fat calories down but 3-ounce serving of cooked, boneless, skinless white meat chicken, like breast, provides approximately 128 calories, 26 grams of protein, and 2.7 grams of fat.
Here's a recipe that is perfect for those hot summer days and this involves NO COOKING over a grill or hot stove. Take a look:

ROTISSERIE CHICKEN TROPICAL ISLAND SALAD
A delicious blend of bright greens, fresh tropical fruits, coconut and avocado lightly tossed with a lime and pineapple vinaigrette and then topped with slices of rotisserie chicken. Couldn’t be easier for a luncheon or a light dinner on those hot summer days!
Serves 6
6 cups of mixed salad greens
1 cup of fresh pineapple, diced into 1-inch pieces
1 cup of fresh mango, diced into 1-inch pieces
1 cup of ripe avocado, diced into 1-inch pieces
½ cup of red onion, minced
¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves
¼ cup toasted unsweetened shredded coconut
½ cup roughly chopped macadamia nuts
2 cups sliced white meat from a rotisserie chicken
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2 TBSP pineapple juice
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP honey
¼ tsp each of salt and black pepper
2 TBSP chopped cilantro
Directions:
In a large bowl, mix the first eight ingredients together, tossing gently to blend well. At this point, I like to spoon the salad onto a large platter for serving ease.
Whisk together the juices, olive oil and the honey. Add the salt and pepper and mix well. Pour half of the dressing onto to the salad, toss to thoroughly coat. Fan the chicken pieces on top of the salad greens and drizzle the rest of the vinaigrette over the chicken. Sprinkle the 2 TBSP of cilantro on top of the chicken and serve immediately.

05/23/2025

Peaches from some local farmers are starting to show up in our grocery stores here in North Carolina and they are delicious! I've got 2 recipes today that I came up with but wanted to share a couple things about this fuzzy stone fruit first....
Peaches originated from China and have been historically cultivated since the 10th century BC! They were brought to the Americas by Spanish explorers centuries ago. About 300 varieties are grown in the United States but over 2000 varieties are grown worldwide. That's a LOT of peaches. Last but not least, these pretty things are loaded with nutrition but not calories. While aiding in eye, heart and skin health to name a few benefits as per WebMD, a medium peach is about 50 calories! So, if you get tired of an apple a day, grab a peach!
We grilled boneless pork chops the other day and popped the taste with my Peach and Pineapple Salsa....easy as can be and really made a difference....recipe and picture below.
Then I made a Peach and Blackberry Upside Down Cake for dessert. No, it's not hard so don't be afraid to bake this....recipe and picture below. Let me know what you think!

Peach and Blackberry Upside Down Cake
This buttery cake looks difficult but it’s not – just don’t tell your guests that!
Peaches and blackberries meld together with a dusting of brown sugar and cinnamon that provides an elegant end to a meal! Hint – tastes even better with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream!
Serves 8
4 cups peeled peaches, sliced ¼ inch thick (easy peeled peaches tip – see note below)
1 ½ cups fresh blackberries
1 tsp cinnamon
1 packed TBSP light or dark brown sugar
12 TBSP unsalted butter, melted then cooled to room temperature
1 TBSP unsalted butter for coating cake pan
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
1 cup roughly chopped walnuts or pecans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Position the oven rack in the middle of the oven
Thoroughly coat a 9-inch cake pan with the 1 TBSP unsalted butter
Combine the fruit, cinnamon and brown sugar in a medium bowl and spoon evenly onto the bottom of the buttered cake pan
Stir together the flour and sugar then add the melted butter, egg and vanilla. Mix thoroughly (batter will be stiff) then add the nuts, incorporating them equally into the mixture.
Spoon batter carefully over fruit, smoothing it evenly overall.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top is lightly golden and a toothpick or sharp knife comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake
Let rest for 15 minutes on a wire rack then run a knife around the edges of the cake pan.
Place a large plate over the top of the pan and flip over. The cake should come out cleanly. If some fruit sticks to the bottom of the pan, don’t panic - just pat it back in place. It will still look beautiful and no one will know!
Serve warm or at room temperature. Store remainder in the refrigerator.
Easy peeled peaches: bring water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. With a sharp knife, make an X on the bottom of the peaches, cutting into the flesh no more than ¼ inch deep. Carefully place the peaches in the boiling water and leave for 2 minutes. Remove from water and when cool enough to handle, use the knife to carefully peel the skin off the fruit, beginning at the bottom of the fruit.

Peach and Pineapple Salsa
This salsa comes together quickly, is flavorful and can be used on chicken, pork or baked fish. Brings a simple meal to a higher level!

Serves 2, can be easily doubled
1 cup peaches, peeled and diced into ¼ inch pieces (for easy peeling, see note below)
1 cup fresh pineapple, diced into ¼ inch pieces
Juice of 1 lime
2 TBSP diced red onion
2 TBSP finely chopped fresh cilantro
Optional: 1 tsp finely diced jalapeno pepper
Mix all ingredients in a small bowl an hour before using. Cover and leave at room temperature.
Spread on top of cooked meat of your choice
Easy peeled peaches: bring water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. With a sharp knife, make an X on the bottom of the peach, cutting into the flesh no more than ¼ inch deep. Carefully place the peach in the boiling water and leave for 2 minutes. Remove from water and when cool enough to handle, use the knife to carefully peel the skin off the fruit, beginning at the bottom of the peach.

No Bad Foods, LLC

11/04/2025

10/14/2025

09/14/2025

08/19/2025

08/05/2025

08/03/2025

07/29/2025

07/04/2025

06/20/2025

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05/23/2025

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