I just don't seem to tire of grass-fed beef. This sentiment probably has much to do with how good I feel after eating it. Listening to my body was an important step in conquering colitis and, like I suggest in my post about slow-cooking, so is sustainability. Enter what might just be the simplest way I know to prepare a delicious and satisfying meal.

There are plenty of cuts of beef you could use to prepare this recipe including stew meat, shanks, brisket, and short ribs, to list a few of my favorites. Since the end product will be cooked through and fully tenderized from the moist and slow cooking process, you may as well save a few bucks and dine on a less pricey grass-fed cut. Plus, what some of those cheaper pieces lack in tenderness, they more than make up for with flavor (my ode to skirt steak forthcoming).

Here's a great recipe for a busy day! Throw a few easy-to-find ingredients into the pot and enjoy the sweet smell of curried pork all afternoon. Prepare it on a weekday and come home to a house that smells like heaven, assuming Fido spares you some leftovers.

As with any meat, I recommend acquiring the best pork you can afford. Bone-in cuts like chops, ribs, or shoulders work great for slow-cooking, as do odds and ends like country-style spareribs (boneless but highly marbled bits).

Scale quantities up or down depending on the size of your army and whether you like leftovers!

In addition to slow-cooking, consider the merits of the one-pan meal. I have better things to do than wash a stack of dishes, but refuse to compromise on food quality. I often use both of the aforementioned cooking methods--not at the same time--to achieve the best of both worlds. A one-pan meal, unlike slow-cooking, can be relatively quick and gives the chef more options than savory mush (but don't tell my Crock Pot I said that.)

Both cranberry and fennel have been on my mind (and in my fridge) lately, and I kept having the inkling they would make a winning team. During a wave of inspiration a couple of weeks ago, I gave this problem some focused thought, scanned the fridge, and got cooking. I produced the recipe shown here, which my family deemed an instant keeper. The recipe was, in fact, so tasty and seasonally appropriate, that it made its official debut at our Thanksgiving table. If you have a leftover bag of cranberries floating around in your fridge, you may have discovered their purpose.

Slow-cooking is a great way to cook a healthy and savory meal with minimal effort. I do this a lot during the colder months; the heat from the long, slow cooking process warms the house and fills the air with mouth-watering aromas. Those cold-weather outdoor chores are easier to bear when I know there's a hot pot of meat and veggies slowly simmering in the kitchen.

Slow-cooking is gourmet cooking for people with busy lives. None of us is perfect but there's a whole lot we can do to make ourselves healthier while also supporting a sane and local food system. The most important thing? Keep it simple. How do we break the cycle of being too busy to eat healthy food but being too tired to find the time or motivation to prepare it? Break out the braising pan, of course!

Think of tired apple branches sagging under the weight of ripened fruit, swollen root vegetables that have diligently stored every last bit of solar energy before their supposed long and restful winter...

Whether you are a farmer or a grocery store forager, fall is harvest time and, while the ingredients in this simple soup recipe are easy to find year round, they are at their best right now.

The fresher the ingredients, the better the result--but worry not, you don't need carrots that look like they were plucked from the cover of an organic gardening magazine, the plain old orange kind work just fine. I found this bunch too good to pass up. If you suddenly find one yourself within reach of a similar one I recommend snatching it up at once. If you then find yourself with twenty spare minutes and a desire for a delicious meal, here's a suggestion...

This title is not a euphemism for fasting; it describes a creamy and delicious seafood chowder free of all common allergens (except shellfish, of course).  If you're allergic to them too, you can still enjoy this recipe with a little extra work up front.

Most seafood chowders are wheat-thickened and full of dairy. This one isn't, because delicious doesn't need to feel like dying. While I'm not a big fan of coerced substitutions--yes, I'm looking at you, grain-free/dairy-free pizza--sometimes they just work. With clarified butter in the mix, there's hope for even the most gastrointestinally-sensitive lover of creamy seafood bliss.

Clarified butter just might be the single most important food I added to my healing diet, and it's also in the running for most delicious. I can't seem to handle dairy too well, but clarified butter is all of the fat with none of the milk solids--no milk protein, no problem.

As Dad loves to say, "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to clarify butter and he eats fried fish for a lifetime." Alright, I might have taken a liberty there, but I think you get his point. Grab yourself a slow-cooker, and let's get started.

To me, there's no food more satisfying than a hearty soup. When I was a kid, Mom made 'em all the time and I had several favorites.  From the old-fashioned potato soup to the classic chicken broth, I have many fond memories of returning to the house on a cold winter day to hunker down over a hot satisfying bowl.

Our bodies and our diets change, but we never escape those memories of comfort food--and why should we?  The idea is sound: hearty ingredients, balanced flavors, soothing textures. This was my soup revelation and I'm here to share it with you.

This household favorite is just about as easy as it gets.  It comes together quickly, uses relatively common ingredients, and has a lively satisfying flavor. There's something to be said for a recipe with so few ingredients and, in this case, that something is "yum".

Since this soup is rather basic, it is also a great place to experiment. Fresh veggies are best, but you might start more practically by checking what currently lives in your crisper. You could substitute broccolini for broccoli or an onion for the leek. The version presented here is just our favorite incarnation.