Breakfast: I Say Yes!

Your body can adapt to anything, even breakfast. And it should---we've tested it out, and even my boyfriend says it's better to eat a bigger, denser breakfast, and then slowly decrease the size and complexity of meals throughout the day. You'll find it's easier to wake up in the morning. (Less hard on your digestive system!) And devoting yourself to breakfast will get you started on a good fuel regimen, which, like any good habit, is key for order!

Try oatmeal or whole grain toast with almond butter, egg whites and plain yogurt with honey as a friend to your coffee. That kind of breakfast will stick with you like student loan debt (except in a fibery, energizing way!) and leave you more likely to choose vegetables, fruit and lighter proteins later in the day.

(We also leave two or three hours between the time we eat our last food and the time we hit the hay.)

"Clean" Mac N'Cheese

2 1/4 cup whole wheat elbow macaroni
1 cup skim milk
3 oz. shredded low-fat Swiss cheese
5 oz. shredded low-fat Cheddar cheese (the milder the better, though it's personal pref.)
olive oil cooking spray
1 tbsp. Panko whole wheat breadcrumbs
2 tbsp. low-fat Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or brown rice flour)


Preheat oven to 350 F.
Cook macaroni as directed. Drain and set aside.
Lightly spray an 8 inch baking pan with cooking spray.

In a small saucepan (not on the stove yet), whisk the flour and milk together until there are no lumps. Put the saucepan on the stove on medium heat, and when the milk-flour mixture is warm, add the Swiss cheese until melted. Then add the cheddar cheese until you have a thickened cheese sauce. Add the mixture to the cooked macaroni and transfer it all to the baking pan.

In a small bowl, mix the Parmesan cheese with the Panko breadcrumbs, and lightly sprinkle the mixture over the macaroni. Bake in the oven 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy with fresh tomatoes or as a side dish. I love it with sea salt and fresh pepper!

Also: this recipe is very low fat.

Black Bean & Avocado Wrap

You will need:

1 avocado (sliced or mashed with fork)
1 cup salsa (or as much as you like, I use a lot, and the hot kind)
1 cup low-sodium black beans, drained and lightly mashed with a fork
6 small whole-wheat tortillas

*can also add basic roasted or baked chicken, chopped, for meat eaters

1. Scoop avocado out of skin and either mash or slice into equal pieces (I sliced)
2. Drain beans well in their can, then scoop 1/4 cup onto each tortilla (you may note in the photo I didn't drain the beans well, which made for a messy eating experience)
3. Add layer of chicken or avocado or both, depending
4. Top with layer of salsa.

Tightly roll up and Enjoy! These are soo good!

Mushroom Tofu Scramble

I'm not a fan of tofu, except for this.

1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced (any kind)
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil (today I used half a teaspoon)
1/2 5 oz package of firm tofu
1/4 tsp: rosemary, parsley, thyme, oregano
2 1 oz. slices low-fat cheese (I used shredded cheddar)

Heat oil on med-high heat and throw in mushrooms for about 3 minutes. Add crumbled tofu on top, then each of the herbs. Cook for 2 minutes on skillet. Add cheese until melted, serve immediately with whole-grain toast or by itself.

Serves 2.

Blueberry Strudel

The best thing about this strudel is that it isn't super-sweet the way blueberry filling is when it comes from a can. And whatever you don't use in the strudel, you can use as compote. Just put the rest in a mason jar and spread it on whole grain toast. Blueberry jam!

To make strudel:

2 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh, I used fresh here)
5 sheets phyllo dough
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp. whole wheat or arrowroot flour
2 tbsp water

Cook blueberries, lemon juice and spices in a saucepan over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes, or until blueberries are bubbly. While they're cooking, mix 2 tsp whole wheat or arrowroot flour with 2 tbsp water, then pour mixture into blueberries. Stir constantly until the blueberry mixture thickens (about 3 more minutes). Remove the saucepan from heat.

Unroll phyllo dough. Place one sheet on counter and spray lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Unroll another 12x1 inch sheet and place it on top of the last one, doing the same. Repeat until you get to the fifth sheet and don't spray it.

Spoon about 3/4 cup of the blueberry mixture (even if still warm) over phyllo dough, leaving about a 1-inch space between the mix and the edge of the dough. Start with the very ends by tucking them in, then slowly bring the two sides together until they stick at the top. Don't roll it over. Place in oven and bake 13-14 minutes until phyllo dough is golden.

Cool and slice into 2 inch slices. (Mine sliced easier after it was in the fridge for a few hours wrapped in plastic wrap) Serve with sliced bananas on cold plates.

Sunomono Salad

On a hot day, this salad is perfect for a light lunch or dinner.

1 cup quinoa
1 cucumber (skin on)
6 oz. crab meat
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice

Serves 4.

1. Cook quinoa according to package instructions. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Slice cucumber as thin as you can and put slices into a medium mixing bowl.
3. In another small bowl mix sesame oil, soy sauce and vinegar together. Drizzle dressing over cucumbers and toss until cucumbers are covered.
4. In another small bowl add lemon juice to the crab meat and mix lightly. (I figured out the lemon juice is supposed to help remove some of the fishy taste from the crab, use more if you want less of the fish taste,but not more than a tbsp.)
5. Scoop quinoa out evenly among four salad bowls. Place cucumbers around quinoa---the number of cucumbers you use on each plate is up to you. Scoop crab mixture evenly out on top of the quinoa on each plate.
6. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours for premium taste.

This salad, sadly, will go bad after about two days. I saved a couple of them for Dad and I to eat as appetizers the day after I made them, and while the crab was still alright, the cucumbers were starting to shrivel and the quinoa was sort of pebbly.

Clean Mango Smoothie

The trouble with eating well is that there isn't always time to gather and prepare the nutritious ingredients, and there isn't always money. But cooking "clean" foods doesn't need to be complicated or expensive. This smoothie has three ingredients, plus ice.



Mango Smoothie ingredients:


half cup ice

1 cup organic skim milk

1/2 mango, cut into chunks

1 tbsp. vanilla protein powder


Frappe all ingredients in blender, serve immediately.

Makes 1 dee-lish cold serving

the story of a girl and the parts she finds good

As awkward as I felt watching them over the tip of my newspaper as they stopped on the corner of Dean Street in front of my coffee shop one morning and made out, I was glad to see they had gotten over the "tabloid stuff" and joined together on the personal, subterranean level. As people.

And I was glad that Emily Gould had a blog and had a connection to my life that made me recognize her in the first place. Here is her best idea yet.

Nicoise Salad just the good parts

Ingredients:

handful (5 or 6) fingerling potatoes

1 can oil-packed Italian tuna

1/2 cup parsley, roughly chopped

3 eggs

capers, Niçoise or kalamata olives, anything of that nature you have in the condiments part of your fridge

Dressing:

1/2 shallot, finely chopped

decent-sized spoonful of dijon mustard

red wine vinegar

olive oil

salt and pepper

Directions:

Come home from last-minute Christmas shopping hungry and strangely frantic. Consult the to-do list you made today. The fact that you did something as uncharachteristic as making a to-do list is a bad, bad sign. Sit down for a minute at the computer to make sure everything is sort of baseline okay. An hour later, starving, get up from the computer and go put a pot of water to boil on the stove.

Also make a bowl of icewater by putting ice into water in a bowl!

When the water is boiling, gently slip three eggs in and boil them for like 12-14 minutes with the aid of the timer function on your new Timex indiglo digital watch that is exactly like the first watch you ever owned, and which will help you be on time to things like an adult and is an awesome gift for anyone you know who would appreciate a Japanese-imported plastic watch. It comes in a little neon coffin at Opening Ceremony. When you’ve removed the eggs to their ice-bath, stick the potatoes in that same boiling water. Why not? Boil them for 10 minutes or until tender but not falling apart.

While this is happening make the dressing and buy your train ticket back from Maryland. Why did you leave this til the last minute? Now everything is retardedly expensive. Well, whatever, it’s not like you would otherwise have spent that money wisely — for example, that same plastic watch sans fancy Japanese packaging and cool plastic-color is $24.99 at Target, you’ll find. Anyway, the dressing: whisk the chopped shallot, the salt and pepper, the mustard and the vinegar together, then slowly drizzle in the oil until it’s emulsified.

When the potatoes are done, remove the eggs from icebath, add more ice to it, and add the potatoes. Then drain and chop both eggs and potatoes and add them back into the bowl with the parsley, the capers, the olives, the dressing, and the can of tuna! Your cat will go to any lengths to try to eat this, so don’t set it on the floor in front of the tv while you pour yourself a glass of wine from that bottle in the fridge that you’re obligated to finish because by the time you get back into town, it will definitely have gone bad.

Serves one. Watching a Paula Deen Christmas special while eating it is optional.