There is a word for you: “chocoholic,” when you “need” chocolate. Nothing else will do. Just thinking about hot fudge drizzling over ice cream raises your spirits. You crave a truffle, a Kit-Kat, a mug of velvety hot cocoa. Few, if any, other foods evoke such passion. So what is unique about chocolate?

Take-out Indian food is one of my favorite treats since traditional Indian sauces can be extremely time-consuming to make – with a long list of spices, herbs, and many chopped vegetables that go into each and every dish. Last week, I cooked cubed-up chicken and veggies, testing out a new jarred Tikki Marsala sauce … and I was truly amazed!

As part of a recent interview for eHow, writer Marie Horrigan asked me about easy ways to cook healthy – the article, 5 Tips for Healthy, Hassle-Free Food, is now live. Horrigan asked several nutrition experts about their best (and easiest) lessons for getting in the habit of cooking healthy and eating right. On making healthy diet changes: “There are easy ways you can do it even before you start cooking.”

Pork loin is lean, tender, and easy to cook. Because it’s low in fat most people have tendency to over cook it. Baking it for a short time in the oven, slightly covered, will protect the meat from drying out. This dish is delicious cold and I always buy a double portion of meat to use for sandwiches or a quick dinner served with salad

“I don’t know what to have for dinner” I hear all the time, but cooking at home doesn’t mean that you have to make everything completely from scratch. Tossing out food is of course wasteful, but it’s also a missed opportunity to have a fast mess-free meal that you can put together in minutes.