Healthy, Meet Delicious

I really enjoyed this new monthly column by Mark Bittman in the New York Times Dining section: Healthy, Meet Delicious. Bittman’s philosophy of eating vegan before 6pm and having what he likes for dinner seems like an easy way to eat more healthfully and make sure you get your vegetables in. I have been trying something similar, although I allow myself yogurt and occasionally eggs. But I like this method because I don’t feel deprived and because it is an easy lifestyle change to adopt.

I tried Bittman’s recipe for chopped salad last week and I liked it a lot. If you shred a lot of cabbage and carrots at one time, they will keep for a while undressed and can then easily be incorporated into chopped salad, coleslaw, other salads, stir-fries and so on. I have found that the easiest way to prompt myself to eat more vegetables is to have them prepped and ready for when I get hungry, so I don’t default to an easier and less healthy option at lunchtime.

The smoothie recipe also looks good, and is very similar to one I make often, especially during the summer months.

In Praise of Comfort Foods

Macaroni and cheese is an American comfort food (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The New York Times dining section this week had an article on comfort foods: Comfort Without Color – In Praise of Pale Food – NYTimes.com. We all have our beloved comfort foods, those foods that typically remind us of childhood, and are usually white, fattening and delicious. Macaroni and cheese is one of my favorites; the article also gives recipes for rice pudding and potpie.

I’m thinking I might have to make a batch of mac and cheese tonight, just to kick winter’s butt out the door. We’ve had an unusually cold week for the last week of March, and I am so ready for spring.

What are your favorite comfort foods?

Planning the Thanksgiving Menu: One Week Out

It may not have sunk in yet, but it is only one week until Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday. I like that it revolves around family and food, rather than the orgy of gift-giving that Christmas has become. And because it is a harvest celebration, Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to search out local, sustainable, seasonal foods for the meal. It also gives me an opportunity to stretch myself and try out new dishes.

For me, Thanksgiving is all about the sides. I can’t even remember the last time I had turkey on Thanksgiving. I didn’t eat it for many years, and then when I went back to eating meat, it was always too much trouble to cook a turkey, so we made chicken or salmon instead. Usually, cooking the meat is not my department. I guess that is a man’s job (ha ha).

But Thanksgiving provides the opportunity to make the sides the star of the meal. For everyday cooking, I tend to neglect sides by opting for easier one-pot dinners or just adding a simple salad or some roasted veggies to the plate. On Thanksgiving, each side can shine with those extra-special touches I wouldn’t normally take the time to do.

This year, I am cooking mainly out of Sara Foster’s Fresh Every Day, supplemented by a couple of recipes found in recent New York Times dining sections. With its emphasis on seasonal ingredients and tons of interesting recipes for side dishes, Fresh Every Day is tailor-made for Thanksgiving cooking. This is the second Thanksgiving I’ve turned to it for inspiration for almost the entire meal.

I participate in two Thanksgiving dinners, one on Thursday and one on Saturday. Since I have to travel to both and cook in a strange kitchen, I try to plan well and get as much as I can done ahead of time. I’ll start on Sunday with grocery shopping, planning what I’ll do all week, drawing up packing lists and making what I can, such as dishes that can be frozen or ingredient prep. Then I’ll try to do something each day until T-day, so my holiday can be as relaxing and stress-free as possible.

Here is the way my menu is shaping up:

Appetizers

• Caramelized Onion Dip
• Spinach-Walnut Pesto (from the November issue of Bon Appetit)

Soup:

• Wild Mushroom Soup

Sides:

• Rosemary Caramelized Parsnips
• Green vegetable — undecided, probably green beans
• Orange-Maple Roast Sweet Potatoes and Stir-Fried Sweet Potatoes with Sage Butter (I’m doing 2 sweet potato dishes this year, one for each dinner; the second is a ridiculously easy recipe from Mark Bittman)
• Cranberry-Walnut Relish (from the New York Times dining section)
• Skillet Cornbread

Desserts:

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars (I got this recipe off the Internet; it looks good and satisfies the cheesecake requirement, a family tradition — even though I personally don’t like cheesecake much)
• Lemon Icebox Pie

I would love to hear about everyone’s Thanksgiving plans and menus!