Best Entree Ever

Fairway is now selling a "chard mix" in the bagged salad section: the reds and greens make it irresistible, so I made this lentil recipe from Epicurious for a second time.

The first time I had French lentils but no carrots; this time I had carrots but red lentils. As we previously learned, the type of lentil makes a difference: while last month's batch was picture pretty, this batch looked like a yellowish mush. I like this batch better though: the carrots add a hint of sweetness that makes it extra interesting, particularly with the sausage flavors and the extra garlic.

This might be my new favorite dish to cook - in slightly more time than it would take for Indian food delivery to arrive, I have a tasty and healthy entree. Seriously: I peeled and chopped a carrot and an onion. I browned the sausage, added the carrot, onion, and 2 minced garlic cloves. 5 minutes later, I added 1.5c of lentils, a bay leaf, a teaspoon each of fennel seeds and rosemary, and 3c of water. I brought it to a boil, then let it simmer for 20 mins. Then I steamed the chard on top for 7 mins and mixed it with a large spoon. Yum! In 360 calories, with 7g of fat, I have a meal that contains >50% of the RDA for iron, with both the heme and non-heme varieties, combined with a third of a day's supply of vitamin C for extra-absorption goodness. Hurrah! Read More......

Esca restores my faith in great food

I'd started to think that maybe going to restaurants was a waste of time, money, and calories. Restaurant food is always less healthy and more expensive, and I've been getting pretty decent at cooking basic things for myself. 'course, it helps if you have great ingredients. Last weekend, I was running errands in Little Italy, when I found myself in front of DiPaolo's. I'd heard about it on Chowhound, but never been. I didn't actually need anything and the wait was long, but I bought parmiggiano reggiano, speck (smoked prosciutto), focaccia, and broccoli rabe ravioli. The speck was so good, dinner that night was just a few slices on the focaccia with some olive oil. Mmm...

Then I went to Esca for lunch on Friday and was reminded why we go out. The amuse boche was a white bean and tuna focaccia. They had four choices for the Restaurant Week appetizer: the crudo was tempting, but I had the crispy smelt. The entree choices were pasta with a mix of seafood or amberjack; my companion and I both had the latter. I wish I could do justice to the delicacy of the flavors and how well they integrated, but I can't. I was ready to declare we should come to Esca for every Restaurant Week, when they brought the sublime dessert: orange blossom panna cotta with winter citrus and candied pine nuts. I usually find panna cotta a little boring, but it was the perfect palate cleanser at the end of the meal. This is what a great restaurant meal should be. Read More......

My New Favorite Snack

I've discovered the greatest snack ever. Padma Lakshmi, in her Easy Exotic, calls it "Chickpeas and Spinach Tapas." I call it healthy yum.

Nuke a 10oz package of chopped frozen spinach. While it's cooking, dice a red bell pepper and rinse a 19oz can of chickpeas. In a large bowl, mix all of the above with 1tbsp fresh chives, the juice of 1-2 lemons, 1/4c to 1/3c olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Food!

What I love best is that it's so healthy! Lots of vitamin A, a disproportionate amount of calcium and iron, fiber and protein. I could eat this all day long and not think twice about it and keeping the ingredients on hand is so easy.

I love that, with the exception of the fresh chives, it's a pantry dish. When I made it last week, I didn't have chives, so I substituted dill. The lemon juice and olive oil are essentially a salad dressing, but without any of that whisking nonsense. I used 1/4c of olive oil, but that turned out to be slightly too much of a good thing; I'll try freehanding it next time, now that I know it's a dressing. Read More......

Low Weight Food

My mother was horrified to find two boxes of dried fruit on my counter. "That stuff is full of calories!" When you're backpacking, that's the point: maximum calories per oz. Over the weekend, I went on my final training backpack for a six day mountaineering trip to Mt. Rainier. The guiding service provides breakfast and dinner, but we are responsible for our own lunches, so among other things, I wanted to try foods I might eat on the mountain. I usually eat a deli sandwich the first day and a Starkist tuna salad package the second; for this trip, I wanted to see how I felt about eating the same thing multiple days in a row, especially when it's not my usual fare, and I wanted to see how my body felt about the completely different macronutrient profile.

Salami is a treat I don't usually allow myself to indulge in, so having salami and pita bread (whole wheat of course) was like a party. I would happily have eaten it a third day, although perhaps for the actual trip, I'll bring a good pepperoni, which I enjoy even more. The cheese was a parmesan chock full of preservatives - it too was delicious, although I quickly realized that if I ate those two for lunch, I wouldn't have to worry about replacing salt, no matter how fast we moved.

My biggest food-related problem over the weekend was that we were moving too fast to rely on fat burning. My heart rate profile was more similar to a run than a typical hike, and when I run for hours, I regularly eat gels - I came closer to hitting the wall over the weekend than I did during last year's marathon. Hopefully my comrades in three weeks will pause more often for snacks.

I felt a brief pang of guilt over how many grams of fat I ate - but then again, I burned almost twice as many calories compared to a usual sedentary day. And I noticed that I didn't need nearly as much food as I expected. Of course when I got home, I made a simple salad of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and sherry vinegar and thought it was the most delicious thing in the world. I bet I'll be eating a lot of salad when I get off the mountain. Read More......

Would you like that on Wonderbread?

Lunch yesterday at the cafeteria was chicken pot pie, braised beef tenders, macaroni & cheese, buttered noodles, twice baked potatoes, parslied (sic) turnips, and asparagus stir fry. Particularly galling as earlier in the day, I came across this article which lists obesity as a potentially job-threatening habit. whiskey-tango-foxtrot?

Me, I had a spinach-celery-ginger juice with protein powder. I've had it before, but with parsley, which was delicious. Without the brightness of the parsley, the mustiness of the spinach and the tang of the ginger conflicted too much and the whole drink was out of whack :(

Read More......