YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Pumpkin Pie Oats

and another pumpkin recipe…

A friend of ours who works for a major food processor once told us that 90 percent of the canned pumpkin sold in the U.S. is purchased between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think I am probably responsible for the other 10 percent. Which is one of the reasons that I love this recipe. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

I adore the flavor of pumpkin. Where I grew up, about half an hour’s drive from my house there was an ice cream shoppe that always had pumpkin ice cream on the menu. I ordered it every time we went. And that’s just the beginning. Pumpkin soup, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin pudding, pumpkin pie. You name it, I can never get enough. Incredibly satisfying. So over the years I’ve published a LOT of pumpkin recipes in the fall, and here is one more for your list. Continue reading


Being Kind to Yourself: A Basic Approach

A while ago, I was having a conversation with my friend Henry. He’s a doc, too, and we enjoy spending time together and talking about practicing medicine, taking care of patients, what it’s like, what we learn from it, and how we can do better. I am very grateful for Henry, and for the fact that we have been having this conversation for almost 25 years. It just so happens that Henry is in quarantine right now, so he’s on my mind. He’s fine in case you’re wondering, just being cautious. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Grain Bowl

For obvious reasons, most of my friends, family, and coworkers are leaning pretty heavily toward comfort food these days. So I figured maybe we’d take a break from kale salad and spicy chickpeas and share a couple of strategies for grain bowls. The nice thing about grain bowls is that you can be reassured that they are super nourishing even if it might feel like you’re eating a bowl of coffee cake. Continue reading


The Meaning of “Granola”

Have you ever thought about the word “granola,” what it means, and where it came from? Some time back I decided it was time for me to find out exactly what “granola” really meant, and here’s what I learned. The word “granola” was appropriated in approximately 1870 by Dr. John Kellogg, of Battle Creek, Michigan. Dr. Kellogg ran a famous sanitarium to which patrons came to learn and practice healthy living. Among his recommendations was that people eat food that was prepared the old-fashioned way, with whole grains. Whole-grain bread was baked in large ovens located right on the grounds of the sanitarium. Dr. Kellogg recognized that large amounts of waste were being generated in the form of the crumbs that fell to the bottom of the ovens. He realized that he could collect these crumbs and place them in bowls to be served for breakfast. At first, he called his invention “gra-NU-la.” Continue reading


Hide ‘n’ Seek: The Sugar in Your Breakfast

Breakfast cereals have a more or less praiseworthy origin. Invented by a couple of resourceful health spa owners to offer an alternative to the usual breakfast of the time — eggs and coffee, plus beef, bacon or sausage — breakfast “cereal” not coincidentally also provided an economical use for the crumbs that fell to the bottom of the bread ovens at the spas. The word “cereal” is simply a synonym for grain, and it is derived from Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. We’ve come a long way from those origins, but unfortunately it’s been in the wrong direction. Continue reading


Is Morning Time the Best Time?

My sister told me the most interesting thing this week. She said that she prefers to prepare vegetables (like broccoli, for example) in the morning, when she has more energy, instead of leaving it to late afternoon, when she, along with the rest of her family, is hungry and running on fumes, as an old friend used to put it. She already buys her broccoli in bags of florets, so that part is done. Then she tosses a few handfuls into a steamer set in a pan containing a few inches of water, sprays them with olive oil, shakes on some salt and pepper plus Trader Joe umami seasoning (mushroom powder, onion powder, spices), and keeps layering until the bag is empty or the pot is full. Then she turns on the water to boil, and pretty soon the broccoli is bright green and ready to refrigerate, to be eaten later that day or the next. Single mom, super efficient. Say no more.

This story got me thinking about something else. Continue reading



Breakfasts That Stick to Your Ribs

This week I’m going to spend a minute talking about the typical American breakfast, namely toast, bagels, muffins, waffles, pancakes, breakfast cereal, biscuits, and bread, and then I’m going to talk about what else we can eat for breakfast. The typical American basically consists of just white flour and sugar. It’s all stripped carb. I put “cereal” in quotes because the word cereal really means grain (like oatmeal, millet, kasha, bulgur wheat), and not boxes of sweetened, dyed, highly processed products of limited nutritional value. Continue reading