7 Absurdly Delicious Recipes From Tia Mowry's "Whole New You" Cookbook

Though Tia Mowry is dairy-free, she's not vegetarian. When I asked her about her favorite recipes in the book, she passionately described two chicken dishes. "Some of my favorite recipes would have to be, number one, my fried chicken. I'm a huge fan of fried chicken. I'm telling you, people knock on my door. I call it my buttermilk fried chicken, [but] instead of buttermilk, I'll use unsweetened cashew milk, and then I'll use also wheat flour. You can also use rice flour instead of white bleached flour," Tia explained.

While fried chicken may be a dish you reserve for special occasions, Tia mentioned a recipe you may be apt to pan-sear on a weeknight, "Another one [is] my pan roasted chicken with maple bacon sauce. I'm a fan of bacon. I mean, who isn't, right? But I would have to say, I make this dish every single day. The oil that I cook the thighs [in] is one tablespoon of reserved oil from the bacon, and then I add in some onions in there. But what takes this dish to the next level is the sauce. So, I use sherry vinegar with soy sauce and maple syrup. I toss it in there with the onions and I slowly cook the chicken in this sauce. The chicken becomes infused with all of these amazing flavors. I top it with parsley and little bits of bacon bits, and it's heaven."

Now, if you're looking for truly easy dishes to try from the cookbook, Tia suggests this: "Number one, I would say start smoothies. Smoothies are relatively easy because they're kind of like throwing a bunch of ingredients into a blender, and the blender is kind of doing all of the hard work for you." You can try her banana-strawberry smoothie or raspberry smoothie (spiked with Baileys Almande if it's the weekend or you're on vacation!).

Then there's her trusted hummus. "The second thing that I would say is — I have a section in [the cookbook] that's for entertaining, so the hummus. There's a classic humus that's relatively easy. Again, you're kind of throwing all of your ingredients into a blender. You can use this humus on anything, whether that's on brown or white crackers or whatever. You can also kind of sneak some vegetables in."

Have you ever had roasted chickpeas, cooked in the oven until they are super crispy and crunchy, like chips but healthier? Tia has a basic recipe you've got to try. She summed it up simply, "Crispy roasted chickpeas are really good . . ."

As for a few vegetarian main dishes, Tia recommends her "Orange Sesame Surprise Tofu and Brussels Sprouts." And, you can't go wrong with pairing it with a kale and almond fried rice. She gushes, "I mean, it's so easy, but when you taste it you're like, 'Oh my God, I need that.'" Try it with pre-made brown rice to cut the cook time down significantly.