I figured I would share some strategies for grain bowls.
Start by choosing a grain. It could be something as simple as rolled oats, but it might also be something slightly more adventurous—like steel-cut oats or millet or even the brown rice left over from last night’s dinner. I happen to be a fan of kasha, a nutty tasting grain also known as buckwheat groats, and which my family ate often when I was growing up. Continue reading
Preparing for the holidays with my mom was a major highlight of my childhood. Although my father was the main cook in our family, my mother took over the kitchen on the holidays, and dad’s primary responsibility was to make the brisket.
Like many other special dishes that we ate on dedicated holidays throughout the calendar, my mother made tsimmes twice a year, in the fall for Rosh Hashanah (it is traditional to eat sweet foods on Rosh Hashanah), and in the spring, for Passover. She never used recipes, preferring instead to combine ingredients as her grandmother and mother-in-law did. Truthfully, though, tsimmes is one of those dishes that probably doesn’t really need much of a recipe anyway. Continue reading
It’s a new year, and I’d like to talk about why I write this blog. I want to make sure you understand how very big is the difference between real food and manufactured calories. Real food nourishes. At best, manufactured calories entertain. Manufactured calories also cause a great many serious medical problems. Like breast and colon cancer; diabetes, obesity, and arthritis; strokes and heart attacks. For starters. Continue reading
It’s a new year, and I’d like to talk about why I write this blog. I want to make sure you understand how very big is the difference between real food and manufactured calories. Real food nourishes. At best, manufactured calories entertain. Manufactured calories also cause a great many serious medical problems. Like breast and colon cancer; diabetes, obesity, and arthritis; strokes and heart attacks. For starters. Continue reading
This is the time of year when the pomegranates ripen and come to market. While I was growing up, my mom always put pomegranates on the grocery list at this time of year, and we children eagerly volunteered to unpack them when she arrived home. That night, after the dinner dishes were cleared, we would each take a seat at the circular kitchen table. My mom made a ceremony of opening a single perfect pomegranate to reveal its layers of shiny, shimmering red rubies. She separated the pomegranate into sections, saved one for herself, and then distributed the rest among the children. Together, we shared the pomegranate, appreciating the fruits of our table, eating up all the seeds, and counting our blessings. Continue reading
I’m writing today about something I’ve been thinking about for a while but have not known how to put to words. A few weeks ago, I attended a wedding. After dinner, the woman seated beside me at the table remarked that now that she had eaten her “protein and vegetables,” it was time to go join the dancing. I hear friends describe how they ate their “protein,”or how they make sure to get the little ones at their tables to eat their protein. It’s like saying you ate your “produce” instead of your tangerine. Or your “fat” instead of your peanuts. People don’t say that. But I hear people say that they ate their protein all the time. Continue reading
A quintessential springtime salad. Tiny sweet strawberries bursting in your mouth? Soft, gently flavorful leaves of spinach, fresh from the ground. A bit of bite from the onion and satisfying give from the pecans. And, finally, an inspired sweet and sour dressing filled with fresh fruit flavors. Continue reading
A while back I wrote a post about the high profit-margin-to-cost of the breakfast cereal business. Today I have more to say on breakfast cereal, not about the manufacturing process or profit margins, but about the pervasive use of fruit-related words in the naming of these products.
If I had just ten seconds to share advice on improving your nutrition, I suspect you already know exactly what I would say: Eat more fruits and vegetables. And I don’t think that would surprise anyone. We all know that fruits and vegetables are nutritional powerhouses, and we also know that everyone should be eating more of them, especially since most of us don’t eat enough produce to begin with. Continue reading
Years ago, the article Can We Say What Diet is Best for Health?, by David Katz and Stephanie Meller from Yale University School of Public Health, was published in the Annual Review of Public Health. A related essay by James Hamblin, Science Compared Every Diet, and the Winner is Real Food, was subsequently published in the Atlantic.
Katz and Meller compared low-carb, low-fat, low-glycemic, Mediterranean, DASH, Paleolithic, and vegan diets, concluding that “A diet of minimally processed foods close to nature, predominantly plants, is decisively associated with health promotion and disease prevention.” Michael Pollan said, “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” More recent research continues to confirm these findings. Continue reading
This week we had bookclub at my house. I’ve written about bookclub before, and about the incredibly delicious dishes that people bring to share with one other. There’s never a plan, never been a plan, so once in a great while we have ended up with a couple bottles of Prosecco, salad, and two desserts. On the other hand, you are often likely to find grilled salmon, white bean salad, guacamole, green salad, grapefruit, and roasted olives with lemon rind. Everybody shares something. You just never know. Continue reading