Banana Date Smoothie

This one is a little more caloric than I normally go, but it's rich and delicious and almost tastes like dessert without any added sugar.

Banana Date Smoothie

1/2 cup lowfat yogurt
1 small banana, cut into chunks and frozen
1/3 cup of dates, pitted
1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp. flax seeds
1/4 cup of water
2 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Makes one smoothie, about 375 calories.

Peach, Blueberry, and Strawberry Smoothie

Another delicious breakfast using in-season peaches and strawberries. Don't be afraid of the spinach, you can't taste it.

Peach, Blueberry, and Strawberry Smoothie

1/2 cup of lowfat yogurt
1/4 cup of orange juice
1 peach, cut into chunks
1/4 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries, I use the little Boreal ones (frozen) from Trader Joe's
1/2 cup of strawberries, halved
1/2 cup of spinach, fairly tightly packed
1/8 cup of rolled oats
1/2 tsp of flaxseeds (optional)
1 tsp of chia seeds (optional)
3 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Makes one large smoothie. About 295 calories with seeds, 255 calories without seeds.

Strawberry, Mango, and Orange Smoothie

Another great breakfast smoothie, perfect for the amazing strawberries in season at the farmer's market. I also recently tried chia seeds and enjoy the flavor, and I have some flax seeds I'm trying to use up.

Strawberry, Mango, and Orange Smoothie

1/2 cup of plain lowfat yogurt
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen mango chunks
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen strawberries
1/4 cup of rolled oats
1 teaspoon of chia seeds (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of flax seeds (optional)
ice cubes, depending on how much fruit is frozen

Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Makes 1 large smoothie, about 310 calories (chia and flax seeds included, without seeds it's about 270 calories).

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Easy, easy, easy. Just sweet enough and has a lot of protein.

1/2 cup low fat yogurt
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 small banana, peeled and cut into thirds
1 T peanut butter
1/2 tsp honey
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg
2 pinches of cinnamon
4 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Makes 1 smoothie. About 375 calories.

Winter Smoothie

Using in season ingredients from the farmer's market and frozen fruit, this smoothie is packed with nutrients and tastes delicious. It has just enough sweetness, but I wouldn't call it a sweet smoothie. I think it confidently walks the line between sweet and savory. It also happens to be vegan and gluten free.

1/2 cup frozen berries (I use a mixture of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries)
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup pineapple, diced (fresh or frozen is fine)
1 very small apple, cored and diced
1/2 stalk of celery, diced
1/4 medium roasted beet, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 cup greens, very tightly packed (spinach, kale, beet greens, etc.)
3 ice cubes

If you have a good blender, I think you could throw everything in at the same time and go. I have an immersion blender and blend in the large measuring cup it came with. This is my sequence:

Blend berries, oats, and soy milk until smooth. Add water, pineapple, apple, and celery and blend until smooth. Add beet and spinach and blend until smooth. Add three ice cubes and blend. Optional: add more water and blend until desired consistency.

Makes 2 cups of smoothie. About 300 calories. Loaded with nutrition.

Summer Kale & Quinoa Salad

Yeah, I know, summer is over, but peaches and nectarines are still at the farmer's market for a few more weeks.

Summer Kale & Quinoa Salad

* 1/2 bunch of kale, stems removed and chopped
* 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
* 1/4 can of kidney beans
* 1/2 peach, diced
* 1/2 nectarine, diced
* 1 medium beet, roasted and diced
* 1 scallion, sliced
* 1 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
*  2 T creamy avocado dressing (recipe below)

Toss all ingredients together.

Serves 1. About 475 calories.


Creamy Avocado Dressing

* 1 small avocado
* 1/4 cup lowfat yogurt or lowfat buttermilk
* 1 T white wine vinegar
* 4 T fresh herbs (I used parsley and cilantro)
* 4 T water

Blend all ingredients together. Add more water if a thinner consistency is desired.

Walnut-Banana-Date Smoothie

This is my spin on Aida Mollenkamp's Walnut Date Smoothie. It's mostly the same recipe, but with single-serving proportions.

Smoothies are tricky. Often, recipes that look like the perfect size for a meal are actually 2 servings. And have you ever looked at the calorie count on the Jamba Juice menu? That's nightmare stuff.

I did some math and created a recipe for a single serving. This smoothie comes in at about 400 calories. Sounds like a lot, but this smoothie will keep you full until lunch, no snacking necessary. It's delicious and slightly sweet, but not so sweet that you gulp it down in thirty seconds.

Walnut-Date Smoothie

- 3/4 cup walnut milk (recipe below)
- 1/2 cup plain, lowfat yogurt
- 1/2 cup dates, pitted and roughly chopped
- pinch of cinnamon
- a few grates of whole nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 3-5 ice cubes, depending on how thick you want it

Blend walnut milk, yogurt, dates, banana, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together (I use an immersion blender and it works fine). Then add ice cubes and blend again. Ice cubes do not need to be fully incorporated, just broken up.

Recommended: Set a glass in the freezer, preferably overnight so it's ice cold for your smoothie.

Makes 1 large smoothie. About 400 calories.


Walnut Milk

- 1 cup walnuts.
- 5 cups water
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract, or 1 vanilla bean
- 1 T honey or agave nectar
- pinch of salt

Place walnuts in a bowl. Cover them with water, about 2 cups. Cover the bowl and let soak overnight at room temperature. Drain and rinse the soaked walnuts. Add 3 cups of water, vanilla, honey or agave, and salt. Blend until all the walnuts are incorporated. Run through a fine sieve if you want the milk to be less gritty.

Apple & Kale Salad

My major food revelation this summer has been kale. I've tried cooking kale a number of times and never really liked it, which made me sad. But then I had a kale salad at Red Hill and loved it. I like my kale raw, who knew? Since then, I've been making a lot of kale salads. This is the one I'm eating this week.

Apple & Kale Salad

* 1/3 bunch of green kale leaves, pulled from the stems, washed and dried
* 1/4 of a can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
* 1 small apple, diced
* 1 mandarin orange, segmented, or 5 segments from a can
* 1 very small avocado, diced
* 1 oz. feta, crumbled
* 1 scallion, thinly sliced
* 1 T of honey mustard dressing (recipe below)

Toss all ingredients together. Serves 1. Around 450 calories by my rudimentary calculations.

Honey Mustard Dressing

* 1 T whole grain dijon mustard
* 1 T honey
* juice of 1 lemon
* 1 T white wine vinegar
* 2 tsp soy sauce
* 2 T of extra virgin olive oil
* salt and pepper

Put mustard, honey, lemon, vinegar, and soy sauce in a small tupperware and stir with a fork until honey is mixed in. Pour in oil, season with salt and pepper, cover with lid and shake to combine. Can be refrigerated for a week.

Jeon

The Original Jeon

During our trip to Seoul, we went to a small restaurant that served jeon. I think this is how it's spelled. It was pronounced "chon" by my American host who lived in Seoul for two years.

When we arrived at the restaurant, my stomach was upset and I wasn't in the mood to eat anything. But then the jeon arrived at the center of the table, a warm omelety-crepey concoction, perfectly browned and topped with cream cheese. How could I resist? Exceptional bar food, even on a bad stomach.

My version is more brunch frittata than bar food, but it's not a brunch you would find at a restaurant anywhere in the States.


- 2 tsp canola oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
- 3 tsp sriracha or sambal oelek
- 2 russet potatoes, baked
- 1 sweet potato, baked
- 8 eggs, beaten
- 8 T cream cheese or neufchatel
- salt and pepper

In a large, oven-safe, non-stick skillet, heat oil over med-high heat. Add garlic, cabbage, and scallions. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until crisp tender, about 5 minutes. Mix in sriracha.

In a large bowl, scoop out potatoes from skins and mash. Mix in eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture into the skillet with the cabbage. Lower heat to medium. Stir until eggs are slightly scrambled, then let them set on the bottom, about 7 min.. Place skillet under broiler for 4 min. until browned on top and cooked all the way through.

Cut into slices and serve with a dollop of cream cheese on top.

Serves 4

My Brunch Jeon

New Favorite Breakfast

I'm completely hooked on my new favorite breakfast, savory oatmeal with egg. I don't like a sweet, sugary breakfast and I wanted to enjoy oatmeal, so this is the perfect marriage. The fiber and the protein in this meal keep me feeling full for hours.

Savory Oatmeal with Egg

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 egg
1/3 oz. grated cheddar
1 chopped scallion
pepper

In a small saucepan, combine water and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add rolled oats and stir. Reduce heat to medium-low. Let oats cook for a minute, then crack the egg into the pan. Continue occasionally stirring oatmeal and egg whites, leaving yolk intact. Cook about 4 minutes, until oatmeal is cooked and thickened and egg yolk is set. Pour oatmeal and egg into a bowl. Add cheddar. Add pepper and scallion to taste.

Serves 1. About 270 calories.

Olive Pasta

This recipe was inspired by a tapas plate I had last summer during my fabulous birthday meal at The Bazaar by Jose Andreas.  The restaurant is beautiful inside.  Sophisticated whimsy is how I would describe it.  The menu is filled with innovative and traditional tapas.  Cotton candy foie gras?  It shouldn't work, but it does. 

Cotton Candy Foie Gras

My favorite tapas that we had was the "Olives" which are both traditional and modern.  The traditional olives arrive in a tin, just an unassuming, pimiento stuffed olive with an anchovy fillet, lemon zest, and basil on top.  The modern olive is olive juice that has undergone molecular gastronomical magic and looks like an unassuming olive sitting on the spoon.  When you eat it the juice explodes in your mouth.  It's pretty cool.

Olives & Scallops in Romesco

But I still liked the traditional olive better.  The saltiness of the olive and anchovy,  the brightness of the pimiento, the slight acid of the lemon, the sweetness of the basil.  All simple ingredients combined to create the perfect bite of food.  Such simplicity is inspiring.  So I decided to borrow their delicious combination to turn it into a pasta dish that has become one of Hubs' favorites.

Olive Pasta

3 red peppers
1 head of garlic
1 lb. penne or fusilli (I use whole wheat because that's how I roll)
2 T EVOO + 1 tsp. for garlic
1 2 oz. tin of anchovies in olive oil
1 tsp. crushed red pepper (I like it spicy, use less if you don't)
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/2 c. white wine (I use sauvignon blanc)
2 cups of olives, roughly chopped (I go to Whole Foods and get a mix of everything that's pitted from the olive bar)
1 lemon, zested
A handful of parsley, chopped
Salt & pepper
20 leaves of basil, cut into chiffonade (optional)

You can buy a jar of roasted peppers in the store to save time, but I like roasting my own.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees for roasting red peppers and garlic.  Cut off top of garlic head.  Rub with a little EVOO and salt and pepper.  Wrap garlic in double layer of aluminum foil.  Set on a cookie sheet with the three red peppers.  Roast peppers for 8-10 minutes on all four sides until soft and parts of skin are blackened.  When peppers are cooked, place them in a large bowl.  Cover and let cool.  Peel off skin and remove stems and seeds.  Either puree peppers or cut into slices.  Squeeze cooled garlic cloves from skin.

Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente.  Reserve 1 cup of pasta water before draining the pasta.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat EVOO over med-high heat.  Add roasted garlic cloves and anchovies (don't include the oil from the tin), breaking them up as they cook, for at least 5 min, until anchovies are a paste.  All the fishiness will be cooked out.

Add crushed red pepper and Italian seasoning.  Cook for 5 min.

Add wine.  Cook for 2 min. until wine cooks down by half.  Add red peppers, olives, and lemon zest.  Salt & pepper to taste.  Cook for five minutes for flavors to meld.  Remove from heat and add parsley and the juice from half a lemon.

Toss pasta with sauce to combine.  Add reserved pasta water to thin sauce to desired consistency.  Top with basil or more parsley.

Enjoy.

Christmas Traditions

Christmas is ever-evolving tradition-wise.  This year, Hubs and I are staying in L.A.  We didn't travel to our hometowns (mine in the Midwest, his in the Northeast) for Thanksgiving either, so it's our first family-less holiday season.  Which has been a little depressing.  But less stressful.  And cheaper.  And warmer.

So now we get to officially start our own/carry on traditions.  My contribution is Christmas breakfast.  My mom has made an egg casserole (how very Midwestern) every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember, and it's delicious.  No calorie counting on Christmas.

I made it for Thanksgiving this year, and it was just as good as Mom makes it, and Hubs loves it, so we're set.  Maybe next year we'll figure out a Christmas dinner tradition.  Baby steps.

Here's the recipe:

Breakfast Casserole

12 oz. bacon
6 oz. sharp cheddar, grated
10 oz. mushrooms, sliced
3 scallions, sliced
12 eggs
1/2 cup milk

In a large non-stick frying pan, cook bacon.  Drain on paper towels and set aside to cool, then crumble.

In same pan, with small amount of bacon grease, sauté mushroom and scallions, set aside.

Beat together eggs and milk.  Scramble in frying pan to desired consistency.

In medium saucepan, make milk sauce using the following ingredients:

2 Tb. butter
2 Tb. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 cups whole milk

First, make a roux.  Melt butter over med-low heat.  Add flour and cook in butter for 1 min., stirring often, to cook out flour taste.  Add salt and pepper. 

Slowly add milk while whisking.  Cook on low until sauce thickens (5-10 minutes).

Add bacon, cheese, mushrooms and scallions to scrambled eggs and mix.  Pour mixture into a greased 9x13 pan or baking dish. Pour milk sauce over egg mixture and gently mix.

Refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes or until slightly brown around edges.