Healthy eating is not about strict dietary limitations, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, and stabilizing your mood. If you feel overwhelmed by all the conflicting nutrition and diet advice out there, you’re not alone. It seems that for every expert who tells you a certain food is good for you, you’ll find another saying exactly the opposite. But by using these simple tips, you can cut through the confusion and learn how to create a tasty, varied, and healthy diet.

Some of our highlight menu

Sweet potatoes also form the base of an intriguing side dish at Arrogant Swine — an all-pork BBQ joint in Bushwick, Brooklyn.  They’re mashed and pressed into waffles, flavored with walnuts, bourbon and maple — the ultimate sweet counterpoint to salty, fatty hunks of long-sweet-potato-friessmoked pig.

The ultimate sweet counterpoint

And a specialty of Southern cuisine is not pumpkin, but sweet potato pie, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better version than the one at Harlem’s soul food staple, Amy Ruth’s.  Even if you’ve already stuffed yourself silly on smothered pork chops, chicken n’ dumplings and yes — candied yams — it’s worth making room for a slice.

So lets get this out of the way first — Sweet Potatoes are not the same thing as Yams.  In fact, they’re from two entirely different plant families.  And as opposed to sweet potatoes, yams are dry, highly starchy and have white-colored flesh. They’re also usually larger than sweet potatoes, weighing in at three to eight pounds each.  But if you insist on continuing to refer to that classic Thanksgiving dish as “candied yams,” well, who are we to argue?

Ultimate Passover Dining Guide

If you’ve grown up Jewish like we have, you know that most major events and holidays — both joyous and non — are thankfully commemorated with food.   And Passover – which celebrates the Jews escape from slavery in Egypt – is no different.

A highlight of the eight day festival, which takes place from April 14th-22nd this year, is the Seder; a feast of leavened grain-free dishes accompanied by plenty of wine.  Not sure how to cull a craveable meal from a box of matzoh at home?   Then eat out!  Check out the terrific restaurants featured in our Passover dining guide.

Sweet potatoes also form the base of an intriguing side dish at Arrogant Swine — an all-pork BBQ joint in Bushwick, Brooklyn.  They’re mashed and pressed into waffles, flavored with walnuts, bourbon and maple — the ultimate sweet counterpoint to salty, fatty hunks of long-sweet-potato-friessmoked pig.

Sweet potatoes also form the base of an intriguing side dish at Arrogant Swine

And a specialty of Southern cuisine is not pumpkin, but sweet potato pie, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better version than the one at Harlem’s soul food staple, Amy Ruth’s.  Even if you’ve already stuffed yourself silly on smothered pork chops, chicken n’ dumplings and yes — candied yams — it’s worth making room for a slice.