A (semi-failed) vegan experiment

My husband is very cooperative with my healthful eating experiments. VERY. He will cheerfully try anything I make and 99% of the time he finds something good to say about it. However, he met his match with the Vegan Pizza I tried last week. Poor guy. 

Here's the story. I had a Groupon for Whole Foods about to expire. I decided to use it on all the things I THINK about buying but rarely actually do. Things like:

Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Bread (Flourless!)

Tempeh

Seitan

Vegenaise

Daiya dairy-free vegan cheese

Cocoa-dusted goji berries

You get the idea. Things a little off the beaten path. So one night, I whipped up a vegan pizza. Vegan crust, tomato sauce, Daiya vegan cheese (mozzarella style, so the package claimed), diced fresh vegetables, a few olives. Heated up the pizza stone. Popped in the pizza. Made a salad. Set the table.

We all thought it looked great as I cut slices for everyone. This cheese's big claim to fame is that it stretches like mozzarella. Which it sort of does. So after saying grace, we each took our first bite with anticipation. But for at least one of us, the first bite would also be the last.

Now, in full disclosure, our three-year-old loved it. Seriously. 

My 6-year-old said it was not as good as our usual "pizza cheese," but nonetheless happily chomped through her slice.

I said that if I ever WERE to be a vegan, I could eat this. But I'd certainly prefer mozzarella.

The baby didn't get any. Just gnawed on her plastic spoon in teething bliss.

My husband quietly ate his salad and left his slice with one big bite taken out of it on his plate. All the way through the meal. Never picked it up again! He was excruciatingly tactful so as not to give the kids license to do the same. But when I asked him what he thought, he simply said, "I'm not eating that."

In our entire ten-year marriage, I believe this was a first! For him the deal breaker was the texture of the cheese. It was creamy, sort of like cream cheese, instead of stretchy and chewy like mozzarella. It just didn't work for him. 

So, since we're not vegan, and since I value harmony in my marriage, mozzarella will clearly remain the cheese of choice in our house.

That said, what's the lesson? If you think it's "Don't make vegan pizza", you're missing the point. The point is to keep experimenting. In ten years, this was the first experiment that proved inedible. And that was only for one of us. 

Experimenting in the kitchen is fun. You have your whole life ahead of you and if you live it with only the same eight dishes currently in rotation at your house, you'll miss out on so many wonderful foods. Think about all the things you tried for the first time in the last ten years and actually liked! Keep experimenting.

And while you're at it, I highly recommend the Cocoa-dusted goji berries. Yum.

Chinese Chicken Salad

I love a good Chinese Chicken salad, but some of the ones you find on restaurant menus are simply unjustifiable! Huge, loaded down with sugar, nuts, and fried wonton strips or Chinese noodles, they can hardly be considered healthful.

But fear not! This version, adapted from Cook This, Not That has all the flavor without the unwanted health hazards. There are a few critical ingredients, like toasted sesame oil that give this salad its recognizable Asian flavor. Just opening a bottle and smelling it takes you right to the kitchen of your favorite Asian restaurant. I personally like my chicken warm on salads, so that's how I recommend it in this one. If you put your chicken on to grill or broil when you start the salad, by the time it's cooked, you'll be ready to add it to a nearly complete meal. And a delicious one at that.

Pair this with a good crusty bread and a glass of wine and pretend you're at Spago back in the 80's where this whole Chinese Chicken Salad craze was born...


Chinese Chicken Salad
adapted from Cook This, Not That
 
serves 4

Salad 
1 head Napa cabbage, shredded
1/2 head red cabbage, shredded
1/2 packet stevia sweetener (like Truvia)
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 c. sliced almonds, toasted
1-2 chicken breasts, grilled or broiled, thinly sliced - ideally still warm!
1/4 c. fresh cilantro, chopped 

Dressing
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
3 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
3 Tbsp. canola oil
1/2 packet stevia sweetener (like Truvia)
Freshly ground black pepper

1. In a large bowl, combine both cabbages with the sweetener and toss to coat.  Stir in the oranges, green onions, almonds, chicken, and cilantro (reserve 1 Tbsp. of cilantro for garnish) and toss to combine. 
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients. Pour over salad and toss to coat thoroughly. 
3. Portion salad onto four plates and garnish with reserved cilantro.

Tuscan Tuna & White Bean Salad

This is a delightful discovery from delish.com that I tried for the first time a few weeks ago. It's a cold salad with a great balance of flavors and textures, packed with 31 g of protein and only 3 g of saturated fat per serving. Better still, you can make it in about 10 minutes and be eating before you know it which makes it perfect for a weeknight dinner or a fast lunch. Sometimes cooking is really nothing more than assembling a few quality ingredients, and this is clearly one of those times!
I served this with a good crusty whole wheat bread but you could try it with flatbread or pita or even crackers. I thought a bowl of melon chunks (watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew) made the perfect sweet addition to the meal.


Tuscan Tuna and White Bean Salad
photo credit: Frances Janisch @ Delish.com
serves 4

1 can (15 oz.) white cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c. thinly sliced red onion, halved
1 can (6 oz.) tuna in olive oil (drain; reserve oil)
1 c. diced fresh tomatoes
1/2 c pitted kalamata olives
2 Tbsp. chopped Italian parsley
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp. each salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 c. torn arugula leaves

DIRECTIONS:

In a bowl, combine beans, onion, tuna, tomatoes, olives, parsley, 2 Tbsp. of the reserved oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper, tossing gently to combine. Stir in arugula.

Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa

A few summers ago my husband and I had a running joke that was based on our observation that we couldn't look at any decent restaurant menu that year without finding "Mango Salsa" on it! It was like mangoes had been discovered by the chefs in our area and they... were... everywhere! I boycotted mango salsa. I couldn't bring myself to give in to the wave - the craze - the trend. We concluded that there must have been a big sale on the stuff at the Sysco food distributor or that there had been a bumper crop of mangoes in the tropics that year and they were dirt cheap. Regardless, we were not going to partake of this mango madness.

Oh, what a mistake!

Several summers later (and now very pregnant) nothing sounds more delicious to me than fruit...especially tropical fruits...especially...you guessed it...mangoes. And so I found myself making this Grilled Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa - an item I could have ordered straight off the sidewalk chalkboard menu at any restaurant in the city 3 years ago and never did. But THIS year? I had to have it. And I'm so glad I did. I adapted this from a Cooking Light recipe, changing up the salsa a bit by adding kiwi and pineapple in lieu of peppers - you know, because of that tropical fruit thing I have going on.

This recipe comes in at under 200 calories and under 2 grams of fat per serving so it is really light, which leaves plenty of room to pair it up with up a fragrant jasmine rice, a green salad, and maybe a tropics-inspired dessert. Key Lime Pie anyone?

Grilled Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa
adapted from Cooking Light
Photo Credit: CookingLight.com

serves 4

1/4 c. canned light coconut milk, divided
6 Tbsp. fresh lime juice (about 4 limes), divided
4 (6 oz) mahi mahi fillets
1 diced peeled ripe mango (about 1/2 lb)
2 diced peeled kiwis
1/4 c. finely diced fresh pineapple
3/4 c. diced, seeded peeled cucumber
2 Tbsp. minced sweet onion
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp. minced peeled fresh ginger
3/4 tsp. kosher salt, divided
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 lime wedges

1 - Preheat grill to medium high. Combine 3 Tbsp. coconut milk and 3 Tbsp. lime juice in quart sized Ziplock. Add fish; marinate at room temperature 15 minutes.

2 - Combine remaining 1 Tbsp. coconut milk, remaining 3 Tbsp. lime juice, mango, and next 7 ingredients in a bowl. Add 1/4 tsp. salt; toss well.

3 - Remove fish from dish, place on aluminum foil, and discard marinade. Sprinkle fish with remaining 1/2 tsp. salt and pepper.

4 - Place foil with fish onto medium-high grill and cook 5-7 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve with mango salsa and a wedge of lime, if you're so inclined.

Stevia - an zero calorie natural sweetener

Stee-what?? Until about 6 months ago, I'd never even heard of stevia. Now it's so key to my cooking repertoire I'd be lost without it! My daughter calls it "that special sugar" - special indeed!

Stevia is a plant, native to South America, grown for its sweet leaves. The extract from the leaves is used to make a natural sweetener that has up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar, but with ZERO calories and negligible impact on blood sugar. And of course, it's all natural, not a synthetic chemical sugar substitute. Does it get any better? YES! It tastes like sugar and has no aftertaste (unlike most artificial sweeteners).

Stevia has been widely used in other countries for hundreds of years (e.g. South America, Japan) but it has gone mainstream in the US more recently followng FDA approval for use. It is marketed under brands like Truvia, Sun Crystals, PureVia, SweetLeaf, and Stevia Extract In The Raw. You can find it in most grocery stores and in any health food store near the sugar (and other sweeteners). It is also slowly being incorporated as a sweetener in beverages and other processed foods.

I've experimented with a number of recipes using stevia as a replacement for sugar. I haven't done any baking with it since sugar plays such a key role in the texture of most baked goods, but I have had great luck with it in salad dressings, marinades, and sauces that call for sugar. My daughter's favorite use is on top of strawberries (when she doesn't think they are already sweet enough - ack!). It of course is a great sweetener option for coffee or tea or other beverages as well. I recently made homemade lemonade by squeezing fresh lemons and adding cold water and stevia - and it was amazing!

Here's a chart from PureVia listing conversion rates from sugar to stevia to get the equivalent sweetness if you're ready to do some experimentation of your own!

And here's a link to some recipes from Truvia if you need a little inspiration to get you started.

I'd love to hear what you try and what your results were!

Greek Salad - as eaten in Santorini

Five years ago today, my husband and I were in Santorini, Greece with our six-month-old firstborn in tow to celebrate the wedding of two of our best friends (That's the happy couple in the picture!). Only for these two would we travel halfway around the world as first-time parents with a still-nursing, not-yet-crawling baby in arms! And so we did. And it was one incredible trip.

We flew into London and spent a few days there before flying to Santorini (one of the Greek Islands). We loved Santorini and took part in just about everything the small group gathered for the wedding celebration had planned. This included, as I recall, a LOOOOONG hike down a STEEEEEEEEP hill accompanied by donkeys to the coast so that we could take a boat out to a smaller island formed by a volcanic crater. We hiked up the hills of that island (baby asleep in the Baby Bjorn!) and took in the incredible view from the top before hiking back down.

On the evening of the wedding, we walked in procession through the cobblestone streets to a tiny hilltop church where the ceremony was (unexpectedly!) conducted entirely in Greek. Then we processed back to the reception site, tourists smiling upon us, as we arrived with our small contingent at the most intimate and beautiful restaurant terrace, where each chair was positioned to have a view of the perfect sunset that evening. It was a night that I'm sure no one present has forgotten.

So as we wish our dear friends a Happy 5 Year Anniversary, I share with you this recipe for an authentic Greek Salad. I developed this recipe to replicate the salad I DEVOURED our first night on the island. I have never tasted anything so fresh, so simple, and so perfectly balanced. I make this all the time when tomatoes and cucumbers are in season (and sometimes even when they're not!). It's perfection on a plate...and it always brings back fond memories of that very special trip.

Greek Salad

serves 4

4 medium heirloom tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 small cucumbers, cut into same size pieces as tomato
1 green pepper, cut into same size pieces as tomato and cucumber
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced, each slice cut in half
16 kalamata olives
Freshly ground pepper to taste
4 slices of good feta from the thin end of a block (1/4" thick)
2-4 Tbsp. good fruity olive oil
Sprinkle of dried oregano

Chop the vegetables and toss with olives in a bowl. Season with pepper. Divide among four salad bowls. Top each bowl with a slice of feta, sprinkle of oregano, and drizzle (1/2 Tbsp. - 1 Tbsp.) of olive oil. And that's IT!

My beef with Children's Menus

Have you ever noticed what is ON a Children's Menu? If you don't have small children, you may not be able to rattle off a list, but suffice it to say that the menus are incredibly similar from restaurant to restaurant. They generally include some combination of the following items, regardless of the ethnicity or fanciness of the restaurant in question:

Macaroni and Cheese
Grilled Cheese
Cheese Pizza
Chicken Fingers or Chicken Nuggets
Hot Dog
Buttered Noodles
Spaghetti

Not exactly the healthiest or most varied fare for our littlest eaters. I will concede that nearly every child will eat (and moreover will really like!) these dishes given the opportunity, but I'm often left wondering why these are the only choices on kids menus! To me, it reinforces a widely-held belief that there are two types of food in this world - "Grown Up Food" and "Kid Food" - and I just don't buy that.

As the mother of preschool age children, I'm often asked questions about how I get my own kids to eat healthfully. So many of my clients, friends, and family struggle with children who are either picky eaters or habitual snackers or reluctant eaters overall. The truth is, on certain days I could call my own children the same things...but I have a few principles that generally keep them eating healthy diets full of foods that nourish them.

Here's what I do:

1) There's no "Kids Menu" at our dinner table
I cook one meal for the family and the kids can either eat it or not...but I don't make separate food for them. Since we've done this since their very first meals, they don't know any other way so they agree to this pretty readily. I may "deconstruct" our meal so that they have slices of grilled chicken and mandarin oranges if we are having an Asian Chicken Salad, but I simply won't prepare different food for them.

2) I put at least one KNOWN hit on their plate at each meal.
To help with the first principle, I make sure that there is at least one thing on their plates that I know they love at each meal. While they then at least try everything, when they don't love ALL of their dinner, there is something healthy there to fill their bellies.

3) I don't have a "Clean Your Plate" rule.
Since I'm constantly introducing new flavors and textures at the dinner table, and since it's unlikely they'll love everything I ask them to try, I don't force them to completely finish their lunch or dinner plate. When they are full, they stop, and that's cool with me! The beauty of this is that they stop eating when they are full...even on nights when one of their favorites is on the table! I'm far more interested in training them to listen to their bodies for fullness cues than I am in policing them while they reluctantly choke down those last bites of potatoes. Kids will not starve themselves. Trust me. They may not be hungry when we want them to eat a meal, but when they get later, they will eat healthful, nutritious food if it is what is offered to them.

4) I use condiments like catnip and kids dishes like art canvases.
All kids LOVE LOVE LOVE to dip! I will let them dip anything in anything if it works for them! Ketchup is a favorite...homemade salad dressings....sour cream....mustard....barbecue sauce...kids can handle a few extra calories if it gets them to eat REAL FOOD for dinner! Try it. I swear to you my kids eat their vegetables FIRST because of this. I also have those sectioned-off kids dishes and often artfully arrange their food in fun presentations. They love the visual fanfare as much as you love it when a great restaurant stacks or fans your food on a gorgeous plate. We eat with our eyes first - kids do too.

5) I keep healthful snacks on hand all the time.
Kids have small stomachs and need to eat smaller quantities more frequently. Rather than fighting the "not now it's almost time for dinner (or lunch)" battle, I keep healthy snacks on hand and let them eat when they are hungry. If that means they eat a smaller dinner, so be it. As long as what they are eating for snacks is nourishing, it doesn't really matter WHEN they eat. This means snacks are things like turkey and cheese, fruit, raw vegetables, soups, plain nonfat yogurt with fresh add-ins, leftovers from previous meals, healthy cereals, dried fruit, etc. Get the good stuff in. Don't be picky about when it happens.

6) I teach that treats and snacks serve two different purposes.
We have "healthy snacks" (see #5 above) and we also have "treats". My kids love cookies and ice cream and french fries as much as any other child does, but I'm trying to teach them that those are things we eat because they taste good and are a fun treat...NOT because we're hungry. When we are actually hungry, it's time to fuel our body with healthy food..not to go digging for a cookie. Incidentally, this reduces the craving for "treats" overall because their bellies are full of GOOD stuff...and when they do have a treat, that's exactly what they call it and how they see it. One is not a substitute for the other. When you want that chocolate chip cookie, let's face it, nothing else is going to scratch that itch. I think there's a place for both and the important lesson is learning to tell the difference.

7) I let them eat treats!
I absolutely admit that I give my kids "treats" on a daily basis. My objective is not to withhold indulgences from them; in fact I often indulge right along with them! My goal is to help them learn how to integrate these things into an otherwise healthful, nourishing diet. We keep portions kid-sized. If my 5 year old asks for chocolate, she means 1 or 2 Hershey's kisses or 10 chocolate chips in a little pile....NOT a king sized Snickers or 4 cookies. Make sense?

8) I try to cut myself some slack.
That means when someone asks my daughter what her favorite meal is, and she says "chicken nuggets and french fries" I try not to cringe! The truth is that she really DOES love it when we let her have lunch at McDonalds...it's just not a frequent occurrence in our house. My answer to the favorite meal question may be Maine lobster with drawn butter eaten on the coast....but that doesn't mean I eat it often, right? Every meal isn't going to be perfect...in your house or in mine...but I take heart in knowing that on most days my children are getting healthful, nutritious foods into their bodies and learning how to really enjoy food!

So, what do I do about Children's Menus? I rarely have my kids order from them. I'd rather get them a plate to share my meal or order an adult meal or side dishes for the two of them to share than give in to the conformity of the ubiquitous Children's Menu.

Do you have other ideas to share? Comment here and tell us what YOU do to keep the kids in your life healthy and thriving!

What do good knives have to do with good health?

It may seem that knives have absolutely nothing to do with health, yet good kitchen knives are the first kitchen tool in which I encourage clients to invest if they haven't done so already. For less than $300, a home cook can get the essential knives needed for daily meal preparation and over time, can probably save more than that in headache remedies for the pain and suffering caused by dull knives! (If you're wondering what the second purchase I recommend is, it's a good cutting board, of course!)

My premise is that most healthful meals involve SOME sort of trimming, chopping, dicing, and slicing and if you are attempting this with dull or cheap knives, there are numerous challenges. Upgrading to a decent set of knives has a host of benefits, but here are my Top 3.

1) Speed
Good, sharp knives are faster. Plain and simple. Slicing a tomato with a dull, low quality knife is an exercise in Zen-like patience as you saw back and forth hoping to eventually break through the tomato skin (Seriously? HOPE to break through? We're talking about a TOMATO SKIN here and I've had this experience more than once when cutting a tomato with a sub-par knife! Sheesh.) If you've never used quality knives, you will be AMAZED by how much more quickly you are able to complete the preparation for any recipe.


2) Results
Quality knives just do a better job at cutting! They cause less (aesthetic) damage to the food when it's being prepared, leaving you with more beautiful slices or dices on the plate. And when you're dealing with healthy food, presentation matters even more. Since they don't mangle the tomato or bread or whatever it is you are trying to cut, there is also less waste.

3) Safety
Paradoxically, you are actually LESS likely to cut yourself with a SHARP knife than with a DULL one! And since good knives are often sold in knife blocks, you'll keep your fingers (and any little fingers that roam your kitchen drawers) from being accidentally cut when digging for a knife.

So you're ready to buy? There are really three basic knives that should be in your collection.

Once you get comfortable with what these three can do, you can go crazy adding many more specialized tools to your knife block, but these three could easily last most home cooks a lifetime. Here's a bit about when to pull out each one.

A 7-10" Chef's Knife - this is your basic kitchen workhorse. It makes me crazy when I see someone using a teensy paring knife to chop a potato or carrot or celery into her hand! A cutting board and a chef's knife make quick work of most chopping and dicing. This knife will also slice meat (ham, turkey, beef, etc) beautifully.

A 3-4" Paring Knife - This is your "precision" knife - great for peeling vegetables or fruits but also for deboning meats.

A Serrated bread knife - You need to use a sawing motion when using a serrated knife vs just pushing the knife straight through the food to be cut. The serrated edge thereby slices bread without mangling it, but it's also super for tomatoes which can tend to crush under the weight of a less-than-perfectly-sharp chef's knife.

Which brings me to one important disclaimer:
A good knife only stays good if it stays sharp! Once you've invested in knives, you must commit the time to keeping them sharp. Even the very best quality knife will dull over time with use. Did you know professional chefs sharpen their knives every DAY? You can do this at home by using a honing steel to prevent or delay dulling by honing before each use, but a steel will not make a dull knife sharp again! As a result, you should also buy a good quality knife sharpener OR have your knives professionally sharpened periodically (once or twice a year). Trust me, you will notice and appreciate the difference when you do!

There are countless brands of quality knives out there. I swear by Wusthof because I grew up with them and have owned them personally for the last 15 years. J.A. Henckels is an other excellent brand and I often hear good things about Japanese brands like Shun and Global as well. The most important thing is to go to a store and actually HOLD the knife before buying. You'll want one that feels right in your hand. Not too big or too small, too heavy or too light. You'll know it when you find it. And then you're off and chopping!