Recipe Sifter

If you're looking for a low-fat snack, try this scrumptious treat that will satisfy your sweet tooth.

Italian salad pizza on a prebaked crust with melted mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, and a cool romaine-watercress-olive topping tossed in Italian dressing. Vegetarian dinner ready in about 20 minutes.

Broccoli with spicy chickpea sauce, steamed broccoli florets cloaked in a creamy hummus-style sauce of chickpeas, yogurt, blanched garlic, cumin, and cayenne. Vegetable side that doubles as a Middle Eastern main.

Delicious Australian lamb and pesto with healthy vegetables on the side

Whole chickens stuffed with sausage dressing and smoked over charcoal for 5 hours with a wine-herb water pan. Louisiana-style backyard smoking at its finest. Serves 8.

If you run out of preserved lemons, or decide on just a few day's notice to cook a chicken, lamb, or fish dish with lemons and olives and need preserved lemons in a hurry, you can use this quick five-day method taught to me by a Moroccan diplomat's wife. Lemons preserved this way will not keep, but are perfectly acceptable in an emergency.

Mexican-style meatloaf stuffed with roasted poblano peppers, hard-boiled eggs, and nuts. A layered ground beef loaf with milk-soaked bread and warm spices.

Stoba is a traditional Caribbean lamb stew simmered with habaneros, tomatoes, lime juice, cumin, allspice, olives, and capers. Fall-apart tender meat with bold island heat and tangy brightness.

One-skillet chicken and spinach saute with milk, broth, and a whisper of nutmeg. High-protein, low-fat, and on the table in 40 minutes. Clean eating that actually satisfies.

Homemade dried orange or lemon peel air-dried at room temperature and ground into powder. A single-ingredient pantry staple that replaces citrus extract in baking, flavors teas, and punches up sauces.

I made homemade french bread and it all came out wonderful. The sundried tomatoes were wonderful in this. Everyone loved it!

Old-fashioned chopped beef liver spread with hard-boiled eggs, onions, and melted butter. Molded in a loaf pan and served chilled on crackers or toast as an appetizer or lunch.

Open-faced oven-baked hamburgers spread on buns with mustard, onion, and ground beef. Ready in 20 minutes and freezer-friendly for quick weeknight dinners.

Creole garlic soup with beef broth and dry sherry, topped with bubbly Parmesan garlic toast. Think French onion soup's Louisiana cousin. Ready in 30 minutes.

Slow cooker turkey breast rolled with fontina cheese, prosciutto, parsley, and thyme, braised in white wine and broth. An Italian-inspired roast that cooks for 9 to 10 hours.

Summer pudding-style fruit cake lined with sponge cake and packed with kirsch-soaked strawberries, blackberries, cherries, and currants. Chilled overnight and unmolded.