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.”

“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.

Oh, noble sprout, who did defame you so? Yes, the black stain on otherwise idyllic childhood dining memories, but fortunately not mine. Try my brussels sprout gratin flavored with nutmeg, cream, and parmesan – a true classic of country French cookery…

What’s the key to a fresh tasting, light tomato sauce? It’s not slight of hand – it all has to do with the way you cook your ingredients. Simple tomato sauces are so easy to make and yes – they do taste much better than the jarred, store-bought alternative.

Surprisingly, about 25 % of the population are super tasters – statistically women are three times more likely to be super tasters then men.

Food is becoming fashion, with all its trends, styles, and what’s hot and what’s not. The year of the “whoppie pie” is coming to a close and now it seems that “gourmet” snow cones are the latest in cool.

In my mind, innovative chefs and organic chemists are cut from the same cloth. Both chefs and scientists are driven by the same sort of questions that keep them up at night, problems of texture, shape, size, and scale – all complex variables to bring something spectacular together in the process of synthesis. Their greatest fears rest in contamination, their greatest joy in an ideal product for human consumption.

I’ve always loved the saying “spill the beans”, because it suggests that you’re about to learn a delicious dark secret. When it comes to eating well and good health, beans are certainly a “secret” ingredient that appear regularly on my grocery list…

Everyone wants to eat delicious food and be healthy at the same time, right? And who wouldn't want to ditch the diets forever and start making simple, lifelong changes that keep you healthy, satisfied and in shape? I am proud to announce the launch of my first cookbook, a collection of 100 of America's favorite recipes made healthier and tastier!

Valentine's Day is a time to let loose and shower your loved ones with love and tempting treats. But just because you want to spoil them with delicious eats, it doesn't mean you have to spoil their New Year's resolution to eat better - download my free booklet to find out how...