Light mac and cheese with greens: gluten-free or not

Enjoy this lightened yet rich and creamy mac and cheese, loaded with good-for-you collard greens, two ways: gluten-free or not.

Eating lighter and adding veggies to your diet doesn't have to mean giving up the foods you love. Case in point: mac and cheese.

Regular readers know I'm pretty much addicted to pasta. Even though I know the carb-loading is doing nothing for my waistline, I'm powerless against the pull of cheesy, filling comfort food (seriously: I may need a support group). To make my addiction slightly less bad for me, I've been embracing healthier styles of pasta, like whole wheat pasta and brown rice pastas.

The good thing about brown rice pasta is that it's also gluten-free, which I know is an important recipe element to many of you. So, whenever I can, I like to share recipes that can be made gluten-free if needed but don't exclude those who don't eat gluten-free.

You've got a love a pasta recipe where everybody wins. So you're definitely going to love this win-win lightened mac and cheese with collard greens.

Collard greens, I hate to say, are terribly misunderstood. If you're one of those people who has only ever tried them braised (I think praising them for their "liquor" is rubbish), with the life cooked out of them so that they're a nasty, sickly green color, I won't blame you if you say you hate them. I hate them cooked that way, too.

But you've got to give them another try. Hey, I used to claim to hate pork chops, too, because the only way I ever ate them was the way my mother cooked them: dried out to the point of being inedible unless immersed in a side of applesauce because 1970s cooks worried that pinkish, juicy pork would give us worms ... or worse.

Chai spiced slow cooker steel cut oats

While I have been compensated for this chai spiced slow cooker steel cut oats recipe by #CollectiveBias and Quaker, all thoughts and opinions are my own. #MyOatsCreation

Easy overnight chai spiced slow cooker steel cut oats: an individually sized, ready-when-you-are breakfast, hearty enough to keep you satisfied until lunch and away from mid-morning snacks.

I love steel cut oats. While regular rolled oats are a staple in my pantry for recipes like baked oatmeal and peanut butter banana oatmeal muffins, I prefer the heartier and chewier steel cut oats, with their slightly nutty flavor, for my hot cereal breakfasts. But steel cut oats can take extra time to cook than quick oats -- and, if you're like me, you don't have a lot of extra time when you're trying to get up and out the door in the morning.

So when Quaker asked me to develop a recipe using steel cut oats to inspire you to consider oatmeal in a whole new way for 2015, I jumped at the chance and created this chai spiced slow cooker steel cut oat hot cereal. By using your slow cooker while you sleep, you can start enjoying a better-for-you breakfast of steel cut oats easily and without any extra effort -- in fact, with almost no effort at all.

The beauty of this whole grain oat breakfast recipe is that it is so easy. Firstly, there are only four ingredients and all of them are readily available at your local Target (as if you need an excuse to shop at Target, right?). Secondly, the recipe is super easy to prep and to cook, as it cooks itself in the slow cooker while you sleep! And thirdly, having a better-for-you whole-grain breakfast waiting for you when you get up is a real morning time-saver. No more excuses for not eating healthier breakfasts in 2015!

Pear and pecan spice muffins

You'll love the cardamom in these pear and pecan spice muffins, studded with bits of candied ginger. Enjoy the muffins for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

HOLLA: It's Detox January again! 

Regular readers know that Mr. Ninj and I engage in what we call Detox January every year. It's not as bad as it sounds; it's just a way to get back on track with the Way of Better Eating after the excesses of the holidays (yeah, I have no one to blame but myself for those Moonpie cookies). And I encourage you to play along at home.

Detox January is not some overly ambitious resolution that you know you won't be able to keep (new gym membership, anyone?); it's more like a short-term, mini resolution that you know you can achieve.

The rules are simple. For the entire month of January,

• Abstain from all alcohol (but if a recipe calls for a little bit, that's OK) -- we'll be drinking things like virgin marys rather than gimlets for cocktail hour to avoid all the extra calories
• Eat a bit healthier every day (I don't expect you to get all cray cray here -- just try to eat more veggies than cookies and keep your recipes more Cooking Light than Julia Child) 
• Exercise more than you did in December.

 
That's it. Simple, right?

And to show you that Detox January isn't some kind of scary juice cleanse or anything, I annually serve up a yummy baked good as the first recipe of the year. This year, it's lightened pear and pecan spice muffins, scented with cardamom and studded with bits of candied ginger.

Yes, a "detox" that involves muffins ... 'cause that's how The Ninj rolls.

10 best recipes of 2014: The Ninj's favorites

Best recipes of 2014, part 2: Enjoy this list of my personal favorite recipes of 2014. Here's to a happy and healthy 2015!

Yesterday I revealed the list of my 10 Best Recipes of 2014 as chosen by you, my readers. Don't get me wrong, you chose very well -- from smoothies and desserts to pastas and soups -- there are some awesome recipes in that list!

But one other thing I like to do each year is also highlight some recipes that I particularly loved but that didn't turn out to be quite as popular (according to site statistics).

I hope you find some great recipe ideas in this list that you might have missed or overlooked during 2014.

10 best recipes of 2014: readers' choice

Here's a list of the best recipes of 2014 found on yankeekitchenninja.com, as chosen by you, my readers. What a yummy year it was!

As we say goodbye to 2014, I wanted to share with you a roundup of my top 10 most popular recipes, as chosen by you, my readers, as judged by the stats in Google Analytics.

I love that the majority of your favorite recipes are all of the healthier variety (well, you know, except for the bourbon-salted peanut butter truffles but -- come on -- I don't want to meet the person that didn't go cray cray over that one), because it means that we share the same passion for real food that tastes good, is easy to make and helps you maintain a healthier lifestyle. Yay for us!

I'm already gearing up to bring you more great recipes in 2015; I can't to see which ones you love as much as I do. Plus, check back later this week as I'll be posting my top 10 favorite recipes of the year that you may have overlooked.

Without further ado, here are your favorite Ninj recipes of 2014, ranked in order of popularity:

8 easy last-minute homemade gifts

Need an awesome last-minute gift they're sure to love? Try one of these eight super-easy homemade gifts you can make with only one day's notice.

Time is running out and you still need a couple of last-minute gifts, don't you? Well, put down the car keys and stay the freak away from the mall, peeps. The Ninj has got you covered with eight different ideas for last-minute homemade gifts that you can make with only 24 hours notice.

Snacks, condiments, even chocolate treats -- heck, some of them take less than 20 minutes.

Yeah, you heard me right, friend: a homemade gift people will actually want in less than 20 minutes.

Let's get gifting!

Moonpie cookies

Moonpie cookies: A homemade cookie version of the classic Moonpie, with crunchy graham flavor, sweet marshmallow frosting and a drizzle of chocolate.

Moonpies. Oh boy oh boy, peeps: Moonpies, together with Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies (like a second cousin once removed), are one of the things I really, really miss about having given up highly processed snacks.

I know, some of you might think the fake-ish waxy chocolate coating is nasty, but I looooooved those little snack cakes. They're like little packaged s'mores you can eat whenever you want.

They're on my list, along with Cool Ranch Doritos, of Processed Foods I Will Eat with Abandon If I'm Told the World Is Ending in 24 Hours.

In case you have lived under a rock (or at least never in the Southeast) for your entire life and don't know what a Moonpie is (so sad!), I'll give you a little background. Moonpies are graham cookies with a marshmallow Fluff filling, dipped entirely in chocolate. According to the company web site, they were created in 1917 when a Kentucky coal miner asked the Chattanooga-based bakery's traveling snack salesman for a "snack as big as the moon" that was also portable (for the lunch pail) and filling. Hence, the Moonpie. 

Lately I've been seeing all sorts of copycat Oatmeal Creme Pie recipes around Pinterest, so I decided it was time to give the Moonpie its similar due. But rather than make decadent sandwich snacks dipped in chocolate, I deconstructed them into cookies.

Slow cooker chicken and sweet potato curry

Slow cooker chicken and sweet potato curry requires little effort but yields lots of delicious dinnertime results -- plus plenty of leftovers. 

Based on my Pinterest feed, you'd think that no one eats anything other than cookies, pecan pie and party appetizers during the entire month of December.

While cookie exchanges, office potlucks and party dessert tables are all awesome, let's not forget that there are still a whole bunch of dinners that need to be made and eaten this month.

Now, that doesn't mean those dinners have to be elaborate or complicated -- let's save elaborate and complicated for the buche de Noel and gingerbread houses. With everything you've got going on, you need at least one thing to be simple.

And what's simpler than a slow cooker dinner? Pretty much nothing, my friend.

Regular readers know that, as much as I love CSA produce, I'm just a wee bit of a meatasaurus. Case in point, this chicken and sweet potato curry. I adapted it from a vegetarian Bon Appetit recipe, touted for its ability to please everyone, no matter what their food issues.

Well, oops -- I just screwed the vegetarians and the vegans by adding chicken. But unless you're a vegetarian or a vegan, you will thank me.

Granola breakfast bread

Banish boring breakfasts by turning granola and cashew milk into a hearty, healthier granola breakfast bread that's super easy to make.

Coming up with different breakfast ideas every morning can get to be drag, am I right? And then qualify that as different breakfast ideas that aren't too rich or too unhealthy (I'm looking at you, cinnamon buns), and it gets harder, especially at holiday time.

I find I often fall back on overnight oatmeal or granola with almond milk,  because both give me a nice shot of protein, are filling and yummy and, best of all, are easy to prepare.

Recently, I got an opportunity to try Silk's new Cashewmilk (Mr. Ninj loves it when food shows up at our front door!), so I immediately used it for breakfast, poured over homemade granola. Good stuff, my peeps, especially since it's creamier than plain skim milk with fewer calories and more calcium to boot (who couldn't use fewer calories and more calcium?). Plus, I loved the mildly nutty flavor and how it complemented the granola.

Which gave me a great idea: why not turn this yummy granola and Cashewmilk combo into a quick bread? Booyah.

Bourbon salted chocolate peanut butter truffles

Dark chocolate peanut butter truffles finished with homemade bourbon salt: a decadent and delicious but also elegant and easy holiday treat.

So, remember last week's bourbon salt? Did you make some over the weekend? I sure hope so, because you are going to want to break it out and use it in today's recipe: bourbon salted dark chocolate peanut butter truffles.

Ermergahd, peeps: These are like peanut butter cups that have gone to eleven.

Talk about an amazing holiday dessert treat. Got a party coming up? Bring these truffles: I guarantee they will be the hit of the dessert table and you'll be asked at which bakery you scored them. (Although some friends these are, if they don't already know you're an amazing ninja-like cook and would never show up at a party with store-bought dessert.)

Now, let's be clear: I am not claiming these bourbon salted peanut butter truffles are one of my normally healthy-ish recipes. They're not. There's a whole lotta sugar, salt and chocolate in here. But it's the holidays, and we all deserve some decadent treats at holiday time (which we make up for during Detox January, remember?).

Yet while these are not the healthiest recipe I've ever made, they certainly meet my other recipe criterion of being easy. Yes, elegant, delicious and decadent yet also easy-peasy. How cool is that?