Mandy's Meals. Healthy Shouldn't Taste This Good.

 MandysMeals.com
mandy@mandysmeals.com
310.237.3366 

Welcome!  My focus as a personal chef is on healthy comfort food (but I can also roll with sugar, butter and bacon...I have dessert for dinner at least twice a month).  

I am a graduate of The New School Of Cooking who is fully licensed, insured, ServSafe certified and a proud member of the USPCA.

How It Works
 

I come to your home and whip up beautiful dishes for your family. You choose from my extensive menu (or let me know what you’re craving), and I do the shopping, cooking, storing, clean-up and leave you with heating instructions and your kitchen exactly how I found it (if not cleaner). I am your food fairy! 

The "Stock Your Fridge and Freezer" Service
 

4 entrées, 2 sides, 6 generous servings each, plus one dessert and one breakfast entrée  
(30 total meals, plus sides and dessert)

Plan, Shop & Prep Service

Feel overwhelmed by the grocery store? Have trouble coming up with fresh menu ideas? Like to cook but hate to prep? This is the perfect service for you. I will plan your weekly menu, shop for all ingredients, and prep the meals.

Cooking Only Service

This is the opposite of the last service. If you know what you like, and know where to get it, but don't have time to prepare it, I'm your girl! Once your menu is set and your groceries are in the kitchen, I will appear to whip them into delicious meals.
 

Not the right plan for you?  No worries.  Let’s come up with the perfect solution! 

Please contact me for pricing. Pricing depends on menu preferences and distance.

Hiring someone to shop and cook for you is an investment in your health.  Whether you have a new family, no interest in cooking, are too busy to cook, have health concerns, or are simply suffering from restaurant burnout, I am here to help! You will know that your food is fresh, of the highest quality, and not loaded with sugar, salt or fat.  The vast majority of disease is lifestyle related; by putting the best food possible into your body is the best way to insure a long and wonderful quality of life. 

                                          

Please contact me for a free consultation. I can't wait to start cooking for you!

                                        

Christmas Cookie Attempt Number One

 

This is what I was up to yesterday

Click here to get the low down. xo

Pot Roast for Breakfast, Apple Bread Pudding for Dinner

This is what happens at 34 weeks pregnant.  People want to take your picture for no reason.  You want pot roast at 9am, and french toast at 7pm.  Why ask why?

Yum.  Leftover potroast, steamed green beans, and spiced yam mash.  Kept me full all day long.

Apple Bread Pudding

1 baguette French bread, cut into small pieces

7 egg whites

3 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 dropperful liquid vanilla stevia

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup chunky unsweetened apple sauce

Combine eggs, milk, spice, vanilla, stevia and salt.  Pour over bread, and mix in applesauce.  Let sit, covered, in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Pour mixture into buttered 9x12 inch pan.  Bake for 40 minutes or until top is golden brown and eggs are set.  Top with as much butter and syrup as you desire!

Breakfast:  It's what's for dinner.

Homebaking

I have eaten enough sugar in the last week to...I don't know what.  Make a horse sing, or fly, or something.  Everyone wants to feed the pregnant lady, including the pregnant lady.  Hopefully I won't give birth to a twelve pound Sugarbaby.  Anything's possible.

I love hanging in my parent's kitchen, making whatever.  Yesterday, I made "detox" soup (onion, garlic, carrots, celery, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach-sweated with a bit of Earth Balance, salt and pepper, then added 6 cups of homemade turkey stock and simmered for 25 minutes, pureed and served with Zingerman's Farm Bread), which was sorely needed.  A few days prior, when I was feeling virtuous and full of Thanksgiving spirit, dad and I whipped up two pies and a batch of his famous divinity.

First, you have to check out mom's gingerbread babies:

Frosting diapers. Genius, mom.

Dad and I got busy making pies before we hit the road.

Pecan pie's a bakin'

Ta dah!

Pumpkin. Filling made from scratch. Graham cracker crust made by Keebler.

Fries for Breakfast, and a Fabulous Dinner Party

I wouldn't say this pregnancy has induced cravings so much as it's induced severe impulse buy susceptibility.  Yesterday, I was innocently walking by the freezer cases at Whole Foods when I spied organic crinkle cut fries.  My inner Homer crooned "crinkle cut fries" and 30 minutes later I was having fries for breakfast.  They tasted really healthy, but I felt good not having gone to Jack In The Box instead, especially since I knew I had a feast coming in a matter of hours.

I decided it would be a grand idea to get a few of my lady chefs together to meet, bond, network, whathaveyou and so I planned a Fall harvest themed potluck.  Of COURSE it was 93 degrees in Santa Monica, sans any kind of breeze, so we all lost a lot of water weight preparing our pumpkins and squashes and broccoli.   Above are the wet ingredients for my Bohemian Wedding Cake.

The cake part is your basic pumpkin spice.  It was good and moist and...good.  Not rock your socks amazing.  I feel like it needed more zing.  Maybe some minced candied ginger or some lemon zest.  Something.  But totally tasty.

The frosting, on the other hand, was a revelation.  This recipe is from The Pioneer Woman and holy God, I think it may have ruined all other frostings for me.  It tastes like Twinkie filling, without the crap.  It contains flour, which I had never come across before.  You must make this, and just put it on anything.  I mean it.  That's an order.

I also made mushrooms glazed in balsamic/garlicky syrup and stuffed with cheesy polenta.  I was reviewing a book for Food Fanatics Unwashed, and thought I would test these babies on my girly chef crew.  They likey (I thought the polenta seemed a little undercooked, and they probably did, too, but the flavors were on point).

This was Krista's Farro Salad with Middle Eastern Sour Cream.  YUM!  Farro is something I've heard of a million times but never tried and I LOVED it.  The chew factor is amazing.  Krista said the farro must be soaked overnight and then cooked, and it was dressed with lots of garlic, lemon, tomatoes and parsley.  It was the perfect way to start a harvest meal.

Tiffany's butternut squash shepherd's pie.  Again, YUM!  Sweet and savory with squash, corn, beef, cheese and even a tiny bit of Sake (instead of white wine), it was gorgeous.

Krista's slow-cooked broccoli.  Redolent with garlic and chilies, it was bursting with umami and just spicy enough.  She said she often takes a piece of toast rubbed with garlic, tops it with soft scrambled eggs, feta and the broccoli.  If that's not an orgasmic way to eat your eggs, I don't know what is.  I think I have to make that in the next few days...

Lisa's BEAUTIFUL chicken pot pie!  It was christened with her first homemade pie crust, made with cream cheese and butter.  It was flaky and tender and simply scrumptious.  My, what a happy day.

The shepard's pie goodness.

The pot pie goodness (mmmmm, baby loves chicken).

We all have to exchange recipes.  Today!

I cannot thank you ladies enough.  It was so cool to be on the receiving end of such lovingly prepared, amazing food.  It made me proud to think THIS is what we serve up for our clients and loved ones.  Savvy business women with such talent.  I am humbled to know and love and eat amongst you.

Zesty Sirloin Steak, Sausage and Kale Split Pea Soup, Buttery Parsnip Puree, and more!

What I cooked for clients today:

Steamed fresh green beans and buttery parsnip puree.

Zesty dry rubbed sirloin steak (to go with the green beans and parsnip puree).  Juicy!

Sausage and kale split pea soup.  The kale adds a satisfying chew and really pumps up the nutrients.

Cavatelli pasta with chicken and basil in a light lemon garlic sauce.

I also made World Peace cookies, which I forgot to photograph.  Mama is tired today.  I ate deep fried French toast and a butterscotch sundae for lunch yesterday (baby celebration luncheon-SO great) and I swear I still feel full and slightly sick...but it was delicious!

Pregnant Woman Cooking

Pregnant women can cook. Pregnant women cannot remember to take photos of said food they've cooked. Below is a smattering of what I made, minus the dishes that I made and forgot to photograph, although my camera was sitting there, patiently.

Salmon steaks stuffed with feta, cream cheese and chives.  Topped with crushed pistachios.  Recipe courtesy of Cincinnati Personal Chef Extraordinaire Debbie Spangler.

When you start with good ingredients, you don't need to do much.  Beautiful, organic broccoli and cauliflower, steamed in a bit of chicken stock, topped with sea salt and fresh, cracked pepper.  Perfect.

Pan-fried butternut squash with caramelized onions.  I forgot to photograph the Parmesan risotto that went with this.  Oye.

Chunky spiced apples.  Peeled Golden Delicious, splash of cranberry juice, pumpkin pie spice, and 1 teaspoon of butter to finish.

Chicken and biscuits.

Lasagna, Ribs, Italian Baked Beans & Oreo Truffles

My clients like to eat "real food".  I'm all over it.  Who wants lasagna?  I made this with Sicilian chicken sausage.

It's not gonna be fun to clean this dish, but I love nothing more than a clump of burned cheese.

Chicken tetrazzini.  Shredded chicken thighs, sauteed mushrooms, peas and penne in a bechamel sauce with parmesan and a panko crust.  Oh yeah.

Pork baby back ribs.  Because they're served with saucy beans, I simply did a dry-ish rub on these babies:  mustard, worcestershire sauce, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Italian baked beans.  I love these because they're not too sweet, but are still rich and wonderful.

Oreo truffles.  Just to finish off a nice, light meal (what, it's Autumn!  We have to have a little extra padding for the cold months ahead...).

Caramel Pecan Shortbread Cookies (And a Vat of Pastitsio)

I made a basic shortbread recipe, and topped it with caramel dripping with pecans.  I didn't try one, and I'm still sad.

This is the vat of pastitsio I made for my client's Labor Day party.  I also made a vat of mac and cheese, green beans, green salad with homemade ranch dressing, baked chicken, roasted potatoes and better-than-crack-brownies.  I'm pretty sure they're still eating.  Thank God there were six or seven boys in their young twenties.  They liked watching this old pregnant lady cook. 

The day before the Labor Day party gig, husband and I were invited to our friends new home for a barbecue (we live in their last home!).  I made peach ice cream.

It turned out pretty well.  Next time, I will cook the peaches a bit, maybe with some cinnamon, and then puree and add at the end of the ice cream churning process, making a sort of spiced peach swirl.  Oh yeah.

This week, client's enjoyed rib-eye with blue cheese, garlic and parsley butter.

Steak served with butternut squash puree.

Garlic and lemon shrimp over soft, creamy polenta.

Husband took a picture of this house. We both loved it, both for the house and the location. It's probably worth 3-4 mil. We can dream.