Last week we introduced you to one of our fantastic blog partners – the folks who work together with us to fill Menu Builder with deliciousness. This week, we’d like you to meet Kathy who blogs at Healthy Slow Cooking and focuses on helping cooks provide nutritious vegetarian meals using our favorite kitchen appliance. She’s written several cookbooks, and she even teaches cooking classes! We’re so pleased to partner with her and ecstatic to feature her recipes in Menu Builder, so check her out! Kathy’s readers most enjoy these recipes:
Slow Cooker Hot & Sour Soup (Dairy Free, Vegan)
Freezable instructions here (login required)
Slow Cooker Lemon Ginger Oatmeal (Dairy Free, Vegan)
Freezable instructions here (login required)
Slow Cooker Quinoa Jambalaya with Tempeh (Dairy Free, Vegan)
Freezable instructions here (login required)
Other great recipes you can find from Healthy Slow Cooking as part of OAMM membership:
- Super Simple Slow Cooker Tempeh Mushroom Stroganoff
- Slow Cooker Sweet Potato and Chard Dal
- Slow Cooker Lentil Quinoa Taco Filling
- Slow Cooker Acorn Squash Stuffed with Cranberry Pecan Rice
- Fireplace Chili Mac
Discover more of Kathy’s recipes via her Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram accounts.
How long have you been blogging about food? I have been blogging since 2008 and started Healthy Slow Cooking in January of 2010.
Have you always loved cooking, or was it a skill that you learned to love? Who taught you to cook? I was a classical musician and a web developer before I started blogging. I like to start out with an idea and come out the end with something that I can share with others. Now, that’s a recipe that I can help people duplicate and that hopefully makes their day a little easier. Unlike many southern food writers and bloggers I did not have a rich family history of food. I grew up in the 70s in the land of boxed food and TV dinners. I taught myself to cook from Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook.
What is your favorite meal to serve to family and friends? What is your favorite treat to make for yourself? My favorite things to serve to friends and at parties is whatever is on the top of my head and in my pantry. I like to daredevil it when people come over. I think that’s why I’m so good at troubleshooting recipes. But people do request a fall root veggie stew that I make with a porter beer broth. My favorite treat is homemade pizza or a chili mac made with leftover chili. I have a super-easy dough recipe from Julie Hasson’s book Vegan Pizza. You mix the dough in the morning and in the evening it’s ready to shape and bake. I’m also in love with maple walnut blondie recipe that’s for my new cookbook that comes out next year.
What is your favorite kitchen tool or gadget? Tell us a little about how you fell in love with it and how you use it in your kitchen. Well, I guess it would have to be a slow cooker. I love my food processor and VitaMix too, but I have over 15 slow cookers and use them often. In grad school I had my Mom’s slow cooker. We didn’t have much money, but we cooked beans in the slow cooker and had wonderful dinner gathering because of it. I love that you can cook dinner while you are at work or running errands – you can even cook breakfast while you sleep!
When you are meal planning or looking for new recipes, what kind of guidelines do you follow for choosing them or what inspires you in the kitchen? I love being a mad scientist in the kitchen. Things that inspire me are seasonal produce, a new to me spice, or making an old favorite recipe into a healthier one. I do like to look at other blogs and food sharing sites to get ideas. I may see 2 ingredients paired together that I never thought of and if that recipe was a soup, I may take those 2 ingredients and make a casserole that has nothing else to do with the original idea.
What items are ALWAYS on your grocery list? What items will you NEVER put on your grocery list? It seems like I always need some soy or almond milk – we go through it like crazy. I do make some homemade, but I like to keep a few in the pantry. Other pantry staples that I can’t be without are oats, brown rice, quinoa, coconut milk and some frozen veggies for emergencies. I would never buy anything that isn’t meat, dairy and egg free. That includes products with whey or gelatin, so I have to read ingredients very carefully.
Tell us the best kitchen tip or trick that you’ve ever discovered. You can use steamed, pureed cauliflower in place of cream in a veggie soup or even as a base for a pasta sauce. You can save a ton of money by buying dried beans instead of canned ones and cooking them in your slow cooker. They freeze great, and I portion them to 1 ½ cups which would equal one can in a recipe.
What do you like to do when you aren’t cooking or blogging? Between the blog, writing cookbooks and doing online PR for other authors I don’t have a ton of off time. Chances are you would find me dining out with friends, walking the dogs, or sitting on the porch reading.
**Has a recipe of yours been featured in an OAMM menu and/or do you have at least a dozen recipes that you would like us to consider so that you can be an OAMM blog partner? Fill out our application today!**