Author Archives: Dr. Sukol

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Good Brownies

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We are going to a neighborhood holiday cookie party this afternoon, and so I decided to share an idea for something sweet and delicious.

A lot of people think that the only sweet food I eat is fruit. While it is true that I almost never eat items containing ingredients that I would categorize as “food-like,” such as high-fructose corn syrup, white flour, or maltodextrin, I definitely enjoy my share of desserts. For example, I have made peanut butter cups from quality dark chocolate and organic peanut butter (one ingredient — peanuts) that are sublime. And this past week I stopped in at Fantasy Candies to buy some holiday gifts, and I picked up some pecan chocolate bark for myself. That was also pretty yummy.

So yes, I, too, love recipes like these. The ingredients are all real food, all nutritious, and the results turn out way more delicious than any product wrapped in cellophane. Besides that, you can feel really good about feeding this to people you love. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Colorful Vegetables

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At our house, we make an extra effort to eat plenty of produce. It might come in the form of broccoli/cauliflower soup, tossed green salad, minestrone, tomato-cucumber salad, sweet potatoes, pickled beets, sun-dried tomatoes, guacamole, homemade applesauce. At the moment we have tangerines, blackberries, strawberries, apples and persimmon in the refrigerator, along with bananas, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and a pomegranate on the counter. Tomorrow night we’re going to have baked apples stuffed with dried figs and shredded coconut.

Our meals usually have a lot going for them in the form of produce and color. Color means phytonutrients, and phytonutrients mean antioxidant power. Colors might include red, green (light, medium, and dark), white, yellow, brown, blue, orange. As much color as we can pack into each meal. And, as my mom taught me, the more colors at a meal, the better. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Potato Kugel, Lebanese style

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My dear friend Judith, an exceptionally talented cook, has once again outdone herself. This recipe is her version of potato kugel, loosely translated as “pudding,” though more Yorkshire than chocolate. Potato kugel was a mainstay of my childhood.  Continue reading →

Standing Together As A Family

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Years ago, while caring for adults in a suburban internal medicine practice, I began to observe an interesting phenomenon. At the time, it was not unusual for my patients to bring along their children or grandchildren, fresh from a prior pediatric appointment just across the hall. Beautiful, bright-faced, chubby, usually well-behaved children. Their pediatricians’ well-intended recommendations on reducing rates of weight gain consisted of the standard, usually unsuccessful, content. My patients’ expressions told me that the advice was tiresome and frustrating. If they knew how to fix this problem, they told me, they already would have.  Continue reading →

Gratitude and Wisdom

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When I was eleven years old, my parents, always “early adopters” of the latest technology long before this kind of thing had a name, bought a brand new stove with a smooth white ceramic top. It was called a Corning Cooktop, and its most memorable feature, at least to me, was that its elements remained white even when they were hot enough to boil water. Was it really that hot? You had to take it on faith — or not. No matter how long I stared at it, I could not convince myself that the white ceramic stovetop was hot. And that is why I still remember, all these many years later, the perfectly oval burn on the tip of my right index finger. I only touched that hot stove once, but that was all it took. I did not cry, even though it hurt a lot. I just stared and stared. I could not take anyone else’s word for it; I needed to see for myself. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even tell anyone in my family. I just needed to know. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Autumn Recipes for Pumpkin and Onions

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If you are starting to think about Thanksgiving, I’d like to offer up these two recipes. I have posted these recipes once before, and made them many times in the past, though not recently to be honest. But they remain lifelong favorites. If you have been looking for a vegan main course, you may be interested to know that not only does the first recipe taste fabulous, but it also makes a very impressive presentation. The onions are just an unusual, beautiful and flavorful side dish. If you have time, I would recommend that you try to make the onions the day before you’re planning to eat them, because as good as they are, they taste even better the next day. And while these are great recipes for holidays and celebrations, you could also prepare them on the weekend, and then have them for dinner on a chilly Sunday evening. Something about this stuffed pumpkin recipe says love, love, love… Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Liquid Sunshine Soup in November

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Please enjoy this recipe, an earlier version of which I posted in November 2011:

This past week I found myself the proud possessor of a lovely hubbard squash. Add to that the butternut squash that came in a CSA box last month, and the bags of carrots that continue to come every week, and which are piling up in the refrigerator, and, as my dad used to say: “It’s time to get choppin’!” Continue reading →

First Trimester Ideas for My New Friend at Verizon

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This week at the Verizon store I got a new phone and made a new friend. She was endlessly patient and kind through four interminable visits over the course of two weeks, and I appreciated her even more once I learned that she was also in the process of struggling through her first trimester.  When she told me that she’d been having a hard time figuring out what to eat that she could keep down, I promised to write a post about nourishing foods that would — hopefully — include something easy to digest. So here we go. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Wedding Delicata Squash

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I was introduced to delicata squash some years ago while celebrating the wedding of friends in Santa Cruz. Delicata is a small, lovely squash that looks gorgeous and tastes the same. It’s a little bit sweet, and a little bit not. Plus, unlike most other squashes, you can eat the skin of the delicata! 

This was a wedding to remember. In keeping with an old family custom, and so that we could easily identify the affiliation of each of the guests, those invited by one partner were instructed to wear gold while those invited by the other were instructed to wear white. We were members of team white, and I was thrilled to have an opportunity to wear a knitted cream dress that had been hanging in my closet for a long time. Once we arrived at the outdoor venue, we all joined together in a sea of yellow, gold, beige, cream, and white to form a new, beautiful, extended family. It was very moving, and most memorable. The simple beauty of this recipe will always remind me of the love and joy we helped to create on that beautiful October day.  Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Pomegranate-Pistachio Salsa

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It probably won’t surprise you to discover that I never tire of reading cookbooks and food magazines. I’m always looking for something new and different. I was thumbing through a copy of Food & Wine recently, and came across a really interesting fresh pomegranate salsa that involved charring a red onion and serrano pepper, while simultaneously reducing sherry vinegar in a small saucepan. 

In theory it sounded amazing, but in truth it sounded like a lot, even for me. But I love pomegranates, and I love pistachios, and I loved the creative mixture of ingredients. So I decided to try it a different way. It looks like it’s time to up my salsa game. Continue reading →