It seems I often center my recipe posts around my husband's quirky food preferences. For his sake, I am sorry. But the truth is in our house a successful recipe has to meet four tough criteria:

1. It has to satisfy my desire for gourmet taste on a casual budget;
2. It has to be acceptable to the four little people picking over it;
3. It has to be healthy; and
4. My husband has to go, "Mmm, wow. This is good!"

And honestly, given my husband's unique palate, the latter is often the toughest medal to win.  And that brings me to beets.

Growing up one of my favorite meals was salmon patties with a side of steamed broccoli (dripping with butter) and a large serving of creamy mac n' cheese.

No one could make this meal as well as my grandma could! I so looked forward to a sleep-over at my grandparent's house because I knew the arrangement always would include the question: "What do you want to have for dinner?"

Why, salmon patties of course!

Did you all have a wonderful 4th of July? We found ourselves doing the family potluck thing, but with a little spin this year. Instead of just gathering for the grub, we met together early in the morning to redo the landscaping at the family patriarch's home.

Who knew that holiday family time could be more than just casual conversation and random food?

Currently there are two plants in my garden doing me proud: zucchini and basil. The beans are coming on well and I have a myriad of little green tomatoes that promise sweet reward... but surely not for another couple of weeks.

That's not the case with the zucchini and the basil. Both are producing like crazy and when my CSA basket arrived last week with four more zucchinis inside I had an epiphany that soon we would be inundated by a small zucchini army if we weren't careful.

It's been fun to play around with June's herb of the month, basil. Though we recommend the use of Holy basil for it's excellent adaptogenic benefits, it's more common cousins offer multiple health-boosting properties as well.

The basil family has been known to lower cholesterol and boost the immune system. Most interestingly, basil has antibacterial properties, which when consumed makes it a great protector against food-borne illnesses. Last but not least, it's just plain yummy.

Please forgive us for the sporadic posting this week. I've been out of town several days for a wedding and Rachel has been busy planning for and celebrating her son's 1st birthday. We will be posting our Weekly Fitness Challenge report here shortly and perhaps most exciting of all, the conclusion to our essential oil company comparison, which I found to be really insightful and I hope you will, too!

But in the meantime, here's a yummy (and herb-free) recipe to tempt your palate.

The month of June has finally arrived and with it my desire to pluck the first mouth-watering red tomato from my garden. For some parts of the US I'm sure that dream has become a reality. But sadly here in the Midwest I still have several loooong weeks to wait.

One thing that is ready for picking in my garden is basil. Of the many varieties available, I chose to plant a common variety, Italian Basil. It's a wonderful and hardy herb to grow, offers some medicinal benefits and does wonders at keeping the pests away from my still-seedling tomato plants. But it can't hold a candle to the amazing benefits (both medicinal and culinary) of it's cousin, Holy Basil. This herb is amazing... which might just be why it's our Herb of the Month for June!

As we wrap up the month of May and our focus on dandelion, I have one more recipe to tempt your palate.

One of the things I like about dried dandelion is that you can throw it into anything, just like nettle, and the recipe will still come out great. The same rings true for this curried tuna salad recipe.

Our family goes through a fair share of canned tuna fish for lunches and I like to use it primarily for salad, playing with flavors for some added variety, especially for my husband who hates mayonnaise. Or any condiment of any type. Is it strange for a man to dislike condiments?

My husband grew up on the West Coast and consequently is a lover of all things Mexican. Truth is, nothing I make qualifies as true Mexican food in his mind.
But that doesn't keep him from loving this recipe...

Whether you're an authentic Mexican food lover or one satisfied with a Midwestern substitute, this recipe offers terrific flavor while being quick and easy to prepare. It's a great dinner option when the day has got the best of you, the kids are experiencing meltdowns, your blood sugar is dropping and your husband just suggested take-out. Not that I've ever experienced this. Yah, right.

I'm pretty sure that every American household has some form of mac n' cheese that's a family favorite. Both of my grandmothers have their own take on the traditional dish: one bakes hers in the oven until the cheese on top bubbles and turns brown, the other prefers the stove-top method and coats her pasta with a thick creamy sauce.

Prepared either way I can easily eat more than my fair share of the cheesy goodness. Can anyone relate with me or am I alone as a self-labeled mac n' cheese junkie?