Not another detox post!

Yes, sorry about this one! This time of year internet and other media is bursting with body- and food-shaming masquerading as health advice, and quick fixes and sales on activewear are thick on the ground. This is not what this post is.

Look, your liver, kidneys, and intestines are all doing a fine job eliminating toxins. You cannot make your body more alkaline by eating certain foods. However, there are foods that help with digestion as well as peristalsis, and seasonal eating makes perfect sense at least in the temperate zone: temperatures and day length do affect metabolism as well as local food availability, and our bodies do respond to both. 

So with that in mind, I want to offer a few of my favorite kitchen things to do in the colder months. Most of them are vegetable-based, and thus are basically healthy and good for you. They are also seasonally appropriate in terms of either availability or fitting in with winter cravings for hearty fare. They make me happy in winter; I hope they'll make you happy too!

1. Fermented vegetables. Not quite pickles, since most pickling methods involve vinegar. These only need Lactobacillus to kick off lactic fermentation - lactic acid keeps the pH low and thus prevents harmful bacteria (Clostridium botulinum being the deadly one) from growing. On the pic above, there are two jars of cauliflower and one of beets, but pretty much anything can be fermented - carrots, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes etc.

Cut up the veggies in bite-sized pieces, fill the jars 3/4 way to the top. Prepare brine: 1-2 liters of water, 3-4 tablespoons  of sea salt, and spices of choice. I used bay leaf, dill and cumin seeds, coriander, and black tea for tannins. You can heat the brine but let it cool before adding to the veggies. You can let the nature take its course, or you can add Lactobacillus with some brine from a previous batch, or a spoonful of juice from store-bought kimchi or sauerkraut, or whey from Greek yogurt. Close the lids and let ferment at room temp. Open the jar once a day to taste the pickles and let out the gas. 3-5 days is usually plenty. After the pickles are done, move them to the fridge. Enjoy for the taste, probiotics, and seasonality -- they keep for a few months in the fridge!

2. Winter smoothies. I tend to make them without ice or frozen bananas, and add cold-weather spices, such as ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and cloves. The bright-green one pictured above is made with two cups of spinach, one cup of almond milk, one whole pear cut into pieces, a sprig of mint, two dashes of turmeric and ginger each (use fresh ginger if available), one tablespoon of flaxseed meal, sweetener to taste -I used a teaspoon of honey and a tablespoon of sea buckthorn berries pureed with sugar, because I am Russian and we feel strongly about health benefits of sea buckthorn.

3. Homemade kefir. Another Russian thing, but also probiotics and deliciousness. If you consume dairy, this is the stuff: sugar has been eaten by Lactobacillus so it's all low sugar, great protein, and probiotics. You can buy kefir grains (sometimes called Tibetan milk fungus) online. 

4. Root vegetables. They are the seasonal staple of temperate zone and national food of all cold European countries (along with fish!) Beets are a given, and sweet potatoes are always nice. I usually convert my salads to root-veggie based in the winter, as they feel heartier that usual summer greens. Here's the one I made today: daikon radish and carrots grated on the largest holes of a standard box grater, seasoned with sea salt and sea buckthorn oil. You may prefer any other vegetable oil, such as sunflower or olive.

The red color is due to the oil as well as the carrots. 

I like these foods because they are delicious yet healthy, filling but not excessively so. And they make me like winter just a little bit more!

Routines

(Mushroom, onion, and bacon omelette)

I am such a creature of a habit that nothing makes me happier than a well-established routine. A GOOD well-established routine, I should say, as it takes me months and sometimes years to finagle a bit of my life into a fitting pattern, the repetition of which never bores me but rather comforts me. Like a favorite sweater, a routine should be cozy and it should also fit -- into the time available to it, into the season, and most of all into the notion of a person I would like myself to be.

So it is with my weekend mornings in the fall -- they are long and free, and the weather is perfect for that sort of thing. I wake up at 6:30 --  a late morning for me, since on the weekdays I am up at 5 am. I get ready and walk to the gym for my 8 am barre class. I love morning exercise classes, it's such a nice way of starting the day. Especially barre -- not too intense, but with plenty of varied movement and stretching, I feel energized and not exhausted.

After the class, I walk some more: I stop by a local Italian market to get some fresh rolls and almond milk, and then continue to the coffee shop, to get my latte and Chris's chai (yes, we like foofy drinks, what of it?) and walk back home. The loop home-gym-store-coffee-shop-home is just under three miles, and I get back by 10 am. By then, I am ready for breakfast, and usually cook something fun for the both of us -- omelletes, like the one pictured above. It's from today. Chris also enjoys hash browns, which I make from scratch. We get our produce from farmers' markets, when in season, and from Door-to-Door Organics year round. (And that is also a part of my routine: by opting to have most of my food delivered, I free up time to do other things. Yes, I do realize that we are very fortunate to be able to do that.)

We eat breakfast and drink our coffee, and then it is on to shower, internet and/or movies, lunch, reading, errands, afternoon, grading, prep for classes. I cook lunch as well, since it' the weekend, like this cod with piperade, roasted potatoes, and parsley almond sauce (via Blue Apron).

But it is the mornings that are my favorite, and I treasure every weekend day when it is not too cold or rainy to walk to the gym and all over town, errands and leisure pleasantly entwined, a perfect balance between indulgence and purpose.

One More Thing About Eating Disorders

I recently read a couple of articles about anorexia, and they got me thinking about the positioning of eating disorders in the society. First, there is this, from a couple of years ago: tl;dr version is that JK Rowling saved the young actress who plays Luna Lovegood from anorexia by writing to her. Quick disclaimer: I am sure that Ms Rowling meant well, and ultimately she was helpful. What I do have a bit of an issue with is this sentence: "anorexia is destructive, not creative, and the brave thing was not to succumb to it.” And of course sending the girl to a professional would be the right thing, but that's a whole other issue.

Bravery, see, implies a personal choice. We use it so often to refer to diseases that what was never a question of morality but simple luck somehow morphed into an ethical decision: "he fought cancer so bravely", "long battle with MS", etc etc. With the implication that those who died, lost -- because they haven't fought hard enough. And anorexia is a disease, the kind that is not actually recognized as such by the overall societal discourse (despite being a legit DSM diagnosis), and framing it in those terms only contributes to the idea that anorexics choose to starve themselves.

Try it. Try not eating. It is difficult -- almost as difficult as not breathing or drinking, because for most people survival takes over and they will eat once their body feels starved. Not so with anorexia nervosa, and it does no one any favors to treat it as some hysterical affectation teenage girls succumb to because they see too many pictures of models. Trivializing mental illness is nothing new, of course, but it seems that it is especially true of mental illness that is thought to affect mostly women.

And thus my second point: anorexia in men seems to be "on the rise". I question the "on the rise" part because traditionally anorexia has been associated with religious asceticism, primarily in monks. Recently however we so relegated this condition to the lady realm, that some psychologists even feel that the diagnostic criteria for anorexia are gender-biased (that is, loss of a menstrual cycle -- a criterion that is obviously absent in men, but nonetheless might make the clinicians more reluctant to diagnose men). So now we even have this repellent term, "manorexia", to further emphasize that this is a lady thing. Because ladies are the ones who succumb to external pressure to look thin -- and we can certainly be excused for thinking that, because women DO exist in a constant state of bodily scrutiny in a society that tells them that their looks are their only worth.

As a result, there is an intense external pressure on women to conform; this is why so many women diet, self-criticize, and live their lives on the ellipticals. Women are pretty much expected to have pathological relationships with their bodies -- hence the usual bonding over self-loathing, so frequently spoofed in sitcoms and yogurt commercials, and ritual expressions of guilt over cookie trays. College campuses organize "no fat talk" days to curb the traditional self-shaming. So yes, clearly there is trouble.

And yet, not all of these women -- in fact, not even most, not even a great percentage! -- develop anorexia. The reasons are similar to why we can all watch sad movies, cry, and yet not have depression. Mental illness is internally driven -- anorexia, for example, is often thought to originate from the extreme need to control one's environment; it's a response to the internal need (for control), not mere external pressure (to look good). And pretending that these two different problems need to be treated in the same way is destructive -- as if we decided to battle depression by banning sad movies.

So yes, let's put a kibosh on constant body shaming and demand for women to be decorative, occupy little space, and keep their mouth shut. Let's accept a wider range of beauty. Let's tell our children that it is indeed brave to maintain a sense of self-worth regardless of what other people say about your appearance. Let's stop pathologizing female bodies altogether. But also let's recognize that mental illness is indeed illness, and take it seriously enough encourage those affected to seek professional help. Because, like with any other illness, telling someone to put up a good fight might not be enough. And really, being ill is bad enough without people telling you that you only succumb to it because you are weak.

Kate Upton Vs The New Ascetics

(Kate Upton for Vogue, 2012)

Remember the internet dust-up a few weeks ago, when SkinnyGossip published an article titled "Kate Upton is Well-Marbled"? There was much to do about that particular piece -- people arguing that Upton is thin vs people defending their life choices of living in a restricted-calorie state and "preference" for a thin look. While I think it might be important to mention that this argument rather misses the point and that perhaps we shouldn't treat women's bodies as public property, to comment on and to criticize, this is not what I'm on about today.

I want to talk about the role eating disorders are currently fulfilling in our spiritual landscape, and how that role may explain the hatred directed at Kate Upton. SkinnyGossip is of course a thinspo site, their disclaimers warning away individuals with eating disorders notwithstanding. Women on that site have their high weight, current weight, and goal weight in their signatures; goal weight for many of them who are 5'8" or taller is under 100 pounds. The quotes in their signatures are chilling: "I have not eaten yesterday and I will not eat tomorrow" made me do a double take. And they all focus their vitriol on Kate Upton for being fat, while her defenders argue that she is not. This is of course not about fatness but rather about someone who has publicly eaten food and is not sorry about it.

What went unremarked upon during this whole thins is something that is rarely mentioned in such debates: regardless of what fashion magazines may or may not promote, regardless of the societal pressure on women to conform to the (currently very thin) ideal, they do not make eating disorders happen. Stopping eating is difficult, refusing food on a regular basis is so much against every human instinct that most of us are not capable of it -- it's kind of like holding your breath until you suffocate. So anorexia is not a behavioral choice so much as it is a disease. Moreover, anorexia is an old disease, dating to long before fashion magazines. Self-denial of food, has been traditionally linked to religious mysticism, and by extension -- virtue. It is a form of extreme-self control that usually serves a purpose in an individual's psychological landscape far beyond mere vanity. It fulfills a deep need -- usually for control, but whatever it is, it is driven by much more than simple will.

So my sense is that the thinspo community is lashing out at Kate Upton not because of her violation of our notion of beauty, but rather because of the perceived violence she does to morality and virtue. Consider for example this comment from a SkinnyGossip forum user: "She´s "relatable" for girls as well, since her body type isn´t hard to achieve, nothing to look up to. No need for discipline, dedication, workout, restricting." It is a remarkably revealing sentiment -- illuminating the idea that success in modeling should be deserved via sacrifice. You see, a modeling career in this world is elevated to a mystical status akin to a monk's achievement of spiritual enlightenment through a fast in a desert. If another monk achieves the same state via hanging out on a couch eating bags of Twizzlers, I bet all the other ascetics will side-eye him like whoa.

Upton is disliked because she supposedly bypassed the self-flagellation route and attained success (=spiritual enlightenment) and is thus a cheat, rightfully despised by those dutifully sacrificing and restricting. The proof of her moral failures is well-documented in her campaign for Carl's Jr:

See? She is eating fatty foods, and yet she is walking the enviable runways and booking photoshoots in Vogue -- right after everyone under the sun said that she is not high fashion and just commercial, that the only people who like her have no taste. She is a failed model -- because models are the new mystics, whose power can only be achieved through self denial and rigorous flagellation... I mean, exercise. And yet, somehow, mysteriously and annoyingly, she is successful. Thus, the judgment passed on her is not the one of vanity but that of moral failure -- and this is why it is so harsh. Her crime is not being fat but rather being successful despite the lack of corresponding self-denial.

So on balance, I really do feel bad for Upton's critics. Thinspo sites exist for those with eating disorders to come together and feed each other's delusions, to reassure each other that they have chosen the right path - the only path to spiritual salvation, even though (especially since) it can lead to physical destruction. After all, bodily sacrifice is acceptable on a spiritual quest. What however is not acceptable is the living proof that the purpose of the quest is ultimately hollow. This is when we band together and deride the person who so rudely pointed that out: after all, they do not deserve their good fortune, those cheats and gluttons and sloths. It is only for the virtuous -- the ones who wear their commitment on their 30 inch hips.

Or, in the immortal words of Emily Blunt from "The Devil Wears Prada", "You don't deserve [these clothes], you eat carbs!"

FFB: Food and Feminism and What I Learned

(Desserts at Nova Albion.)

This is yet another post I'm doing with Fashionable Feminist Bloggers community; roundup post is here.

I want to talk about things I learned about dieting. Body positivity and fat activism have been perceived as feminist issues, and they are. Yet, I often feel dissatisfied with such discussions, partly because of the persistent "everyone is beautiful" nonsense, but partly because they rarely go past the effects of advertising on body image. Sure, yes, advertising does things. But the root of the problem is much more pernicious: since 1950s, we knew what food deprivation does to people (thank you, Minnesota Starvation Study): it, also known as dieting, causes the following symptoms: "[the patients] became nervous, anxious, apathetic, withdrawn, impatient, self-critical with distorted body images and even feeling overweight, moody, emotional and depressed. A few even mutilated themselves, one chopping off three fingers in stress. They lost their ambition and feelings of adequacy, and their cultural and academic interests narrowed. They neglected their appearance, became loners and their social and family relationships suffered. They lost their senses of humor, love and compassion. Instead, they became obsessed with food, thinking, talking and reading about it constantly; developed weird eating rituals; began hoarding things; consumed vast amounts of coffee and tea; and chewed gum incessantly (as many as 40 packages a day)."

Considering that it is primarily women who are encouraged to diet, it seems pretty clear that the agenda behind it is not about health. It's just one more way of exercising control.

And speaking of exercising: time and time again celebrity trainers keep telling us how to get a "dancer's body". Because dancers are tiny. You want to be tiny, don't you? No, don't lift those weights -- you might bulk up! And, god forbid, with increasing strength you might actually stop caring about being thin and start caring about being strong. You won't spend your days calculating how many calories were in that salad dressing in your lunch salad but might instead eat a healthy diet that will allow your body to be strong instead of frail. And if you don't care about being thin, well! What will you do instead?

Emphasis on dieting, of course, does another terrible thing to women's bodies: calorie restrictions cause loss of muscle mass, so every time you lose weight, you lose muscle, and when you stop dieting and gain back the weight, you will gain more because there's less muscle. Loss of muscle mass is one of the very few ways of altering set point of a person's weight, and dieting next time around will be harder and less effective, but still you'll lose more muscle mass. So dieting is not only a way of control, it's a way of perpetual control, designed to keep you in that wheel forever, away from things that matter. To keep you physically weaker. To keep you hating yourself because your body cannot live on 800 calories a day.

I was lucky in that I never dieted: recently I made some changes to the way I eat (more vegetables, more protein, less starch), but I was mindful to not make any changes I couldn't sustain forever. Moreover, weight lifting being is my preferred activity. And for me, being strong is an acceptable alternative to being thin.

It is remarkable how talking about this to other women elucidates the overall patterns: the confluence of marketing pushes, of the diet industry, of the patriarchal media machine that wants us weak and insecure and obsessed with carbs. And how getting stronger changes our perspective: time and time again, I hear about women picking up exercise. Sometimes they lose weight, sometimes they don't, but making yourself stronger, giving yourself higher endurance always changes the way you perceive your body -- from esthetic to functional. And food too changes from enemy to sustenance. And most importantly, ditching the culturally-mandated obsession really does free up a lot of time.

Deconstructed Tuna Casserole with Avocado Salad

Or if you prefer, tuna steaks with mac and cheese. The point is, it was delicious. I made it for late lunch today, and both Chris and I enjoyed it a lot.

I started by boiling water to cook 1/2 lb egg noodles. At the same time, boiled 1 1/2 cups milk with dried herbs (thyme, rosemary, parsley, red pepper flakes and oregano), 1 teaspoon ground mustard, salt, and a dash of ground cayenne pepper. Beaten two eggs, tempered them by adding hot milk mixture 1 tablespoon at a time and beating with a fork. Mixed tempered eggs into milk mixture, and over low heat added a tablespoon of butter and about a cup of grated cheese -- I used Romano and Parmesan.

Mixed cooked egg noodles with cheese sauce in a glass oven-proof dish, topped with a mixture of Panko bread crumbs and Parmesan, and baked at 350F until the casserole was set and the topping had turned golden brown.

While the casserole was baking, made avocado and bean salad (recipe is here):

Finally, tuna steaks: I got a couple of nice thick steaks, marinated them in 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil, and dry herbs (thyme, rosemary, parsley, red pepper flakes and oregano), 15 min per side, then seasoned with salt. The steaks were then seared in olive oil, in a skillet over high heat, 2-3 min per side. Then I transferred them to an oven-safe dish, and finished at 350F for 10 minutes (less, if you prefer your tuna medium-rare to medium).

The tuna worked really well with the cheesy noodles, and fresh avocado salad made the whole meal fresh and summery.

Delicious Duck

So a while ago we went to an Amish market, and there I got a duck. A lovely fat bird, which I decided to cook following Alex Guarnaschelli's recipe. There was one significant modification: no green peppercorns, since I'm not a fan. So here's a photo essay documenting my duck exploits.

First, I heated some water with honey, soy sauce, and rosemary twigs. I also added a splash of raspberry vinegar and some ground red pepper flakes, dry thyme, and some tarragon, because I believe it goes with everything.

Once the water was nice and hot, I dunked in the bird:

Let it heat up and absorb the flavors, while basting, for about a minute.

Then I took the duck out, let it sit for about half and hour, and patted it dry. Arranged it on the rack in a roasting pan (mine is pretty shallow, and the deeper one would probably be less precarious when the fat starts seriously rendering), breast down. Cooked at 400F for 25 minutes:

I then took some of the rendered fat and transferred it to a cup for later, and turned the duck over. Cooked for an additional hour, until the duck crisped and the fat rendered.

While the duck was cooking, I made some lentils, and set them aside:

Using the reserved duck fat, I then sauteed some pearl onions:

And after the onions were done, I mixed them and the delicious duck fat with the lentils:

Next, I turned my attention to the glaze: I used Marsala wine, raspberry vinegar, soy sauce, honey, and more rosemary to make the glaze. Cooked the mix until it was thick and delicious, and spread it over the basted duck as soon as it came out of the oven. Served with lentil and onion side dish:

It was delicious!

Popovers -- BLT recipe

Today I tried making popovers, commonly serves at BLT Steak restaurants. The recipe is very simple -- eggs, milk, flour, grated Gruyere. The results are amazing -- it's like a lovechild of cheesy bread, quiche, and a profiterole. With butter -- irresistible.

The recipe I used was adapted from Epicurious.com; I used half of everything, since there're only two of us. Still, it made six giant popovers, and I was generous with Gruyere. Below are the pictures documenting the golden deliciousness.

Various updatery

1) Running with the Pack got a starred review from Publishers Weekly:

Running with the Pack
Edited by Ekaterina Sedia, Prime (www .prime-books.com), $14.95 paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-60701-219-1
Sedia (Paper Cities) collects 22 tales that look at werewolves from a multitude of different angles. Steve Duffy's chilling dental thriller "Side-Effects May Include" examines how far a man will go to end his pain. A damaged alpha gains the trust of a homeless woman in Maria V. Snyder's "Mongrel." Murderous soccer moms eat cheaters in Samantha Henderson's "Skin in the Game." A woman accidentally turned wolf struggles against her dual nature before learning to accept it in Erzebet YellowBoy's powerful "Inside Out." The origin of T.J. from Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series is told in "Wild Ride," and Mike Resnick's preacher/con-artist Lucifer Jones makes an appearance in the hilarious "Royal Bloodlines." The stories veer from comedy to horror and from tragic love story to coming-of-age tale, showing the richness inherent in the idea of shifting shapes and animal strength.

2) The Alchemy of Stone got another piece of fanart, posted here. I like the happy air surrounding blood and eyeballs!

3) This weekend, we went to the Amish Market. I bought a duck, which I intend to roast with some delicious glaze, possibly next weekend. Expect more food pics!

4) On exercise front, I added deadlifts to the regular rotation. My knees are generally a concern, so I avoid any exercise that puts significant stress on them. However, I recently tried deadlifting using a sumo stance (wide stance with toes pointing at 45 degree angle, and with your arms going on the inside of your knees rather than the outside), and it is wonderful. Starting with low weights for now -- 80-90 lbs, but hoping to build up soon, if the joints allow. Oh, the joy of new exercises!

Cornish hens and polenta, a photo essay

So today I cooked Cornish hens with polenta and veggies, and took pictures all along as an experiment. It was a celebratory dinner, and as such it's not terribly healthy. However, all saturated fat and starch is in the polenta, so if one sticks to veggies and poultry, it is quite good for you and delicious!

The night before, I took about half a cup of olive oil and chopped in some fresh rosemary, added dry herbs and red chili pepper flakes, and left it to infuse overnight. Then I slathered the oil, rosemary and all, over two Cornish hens:



Roast at 400 F, 20-25 minutes per side. I start them breast down and in 25 minutes flip them over. Baste as needed.

The leftover oil is below. Notice the lovely green color. I saved it for vegetable grilling.



Cornish hens came with giblets, which I boiled with salt in 3 1/2 cups of water, to make quick chicken stock. Filtered the stock, brought to a boil, added one cup of cornmeal in a thin stream while whisking:



After the polenta thickened, I lowered the heat and turned my attention to the veggies. Asparagus is in season in New Jersey, and there's nothing better than local and fresh asparagus. With some grape tomatoes and sliced mushrooms. Brushed the leftover oil over it, and let it stand to absorb the flavor.



I then decided to make a glaze for the hens -- 1/3 cup honey, 1/4 cup sherry vinegar, 1/4 cup cooking Marsala, 1/4 soy sauce, and dried herbs+red chili flakes. Brought to a boil and let reduce and thicken over low heat:




Then it was time to fry some bacon! Chopped 2-3 slices into small pieces, cooked over medium heat to render. Add the grease to polenta. Also, while basting the Cornish hens, stole some of the drippings to add to polenta.

After cooking polenta for 35 minutes, added cooked bacon and cubed cheese.



While heating, stirred with a wooden spoon until cheese was well incorporated. I like my polenta thick, but feel free to add extra fluid to make it thinner.



By then, the hens were ready to come out of the oven:



And veggies were ready to go in. It takes 5-7 min at 400 F to roast them perfectly:



Quartered the hen and drizzled with glaze (it's dark but very tasty), served with polenta and veggies. The recipe took about an hour with prep.

Salads

Part 3 -- What's for dinner?

My typical dinner consists of protein + salad (with protein being fish most of the time, with chicken a close second). Occasionally, grilled vegetables (or vegetable saute) may be substituted for the salad. Or I might skip the protein if it's already incorporated into the salad. I also normally cook rice or pasta or potatoes for the better half, who doesn't hate starch -- it agrees with him quite well. (Just to show that the food pyramid is by no means universal.)

My main requirement for salads is taste. Also, I'm not terribly concerned about fat content, although most of the recipes below are high in unsaturated and monounsaturated fats and low in saturated ones (exceptions: chicken salad and bacon grease version of Brussels sprout salad). I try to limit sodium primarily by making my own vinaigrette (the one in Brussels sprout recipe). It goes well over almost any salad -- potato, regular green salad, etc. Also, it's flavorful enough to allow me to skip salt. YMMV.

Here're some of my favorite salad recipes. Most are adopted from various Food Network places, Recipezaar, and random blogs. Most also contain some variations from the original recipe, due to my preferences or laziness. So, in no particular order, my top five salads. (Note: the first two are vegetarian-friendly and the third can be modified to accommodate vegetarians. The last two are meant to be an entire meal, so they incorporate animal protein).

Avocado and Bean Salad

2 ripe avocados, mushed with fork
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 small can black beans, rinsed
1-2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1/4 cup crumbled Queso Fresco
1/4 cup mild or medium green salsa
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
salt

Mix all the ingredients and enjoy. If keeping some for later, place saran wrap on the surface of the salad and press firmly -- it keeps avocados from turning brown with oxidation.

Mango and Tomato Salad

1 ripe mango
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 finely chopped red onion
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon cumin
juice from 1 lime

Cut off mango sections around the pit, score with the knife into small cubes, invert and cut the cubed flesh into the bowl. Add other ingredients; no dressing is necessary besides lime juice.

Warm Brussels Sprouts and Pear

2 cups small Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved (either fresh or frozen will do)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 slices of thick cut bacon
1 pear (any kind works, although some people prefer Asian pear)
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cups chopped greens -- I prefer spring mix, but any greenery works. (Except iceberg lettuce -- that stuff isn't good for anything.)

For vinaigrette:

3 tablespoons olive oil (or 2 olive oil + 2 bacon grease)
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1/2 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
1 teaspoon mustard (I prefer coarse Dijon)

Cut bacon in small pieces, render over medium heat until the pieces are crispy and golden brown, and the fat has rendered. Remove the bacon onto a plate covered with a paper towel. Reserve two tablespoons of grease if you're planning on using it for vinaigrette.

In the same pan, saute garlic until fragrant, add Brussels sprouts (cut side down). Saute over medium heat until golden-brown; add 1/2 cup water, cover, and lower the heat. Saute for 5 min or until sprouts are tender -- do not overcook! Uncover, increase the heat until remaining water evaporates.

While the sprouts are cooking, cut tomatoes and greens, put in a bowl. Skin and quarter your pear, remove the seeds, cut each quarter into small slices; add to the bowl.

To make vinaigrette, whisk olive oil, bacon grease, vinegars and mustard until smooth.

Add warm sprouts and bacon bits to the bowl, toss with vinaigrette, serve while still warm.

Radicchio and Chicken Salad

1 chicken breast, cooked and chopped (about 2 cups). (Substitute any cooked chicken -- great use for leftovers.)
1/2 large head of radicchio, chopped
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons mayo

Mix all ingredients together. Increase honey and/or curry if necessary -- honey mellows the bitterness of radicchio, and curry makes everything more delicious. Can be eaten plain or as a sandwich.

Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese Salad

4 oz of smoked salmon, cut into strips
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
1/4 cut candied or plain walnuts
1-2 cups of young greens, chopped
raspberry vinaigrette to taste

Toss greens with goat cheese and walnuts, add vinaigrette to coat. Top with salmon strips. If desired, add raisins and/or dried cherries.

Bonus Blue Crab Salad from Paula Dean is here. It doesn't contain any butter. I occasionally make it without any modifications.

Feel free to share your favorite salad recipes in comments. I'm always looking for more.

Alton Brown is my god.

Part 1. Alton Brown is my god.

This is the first in a what is likely to become a sporadic series of posts focusing on issues of exercise, health, and, yes, weight. It seems like the latter two are weirdly intertwined in the American cultural conscience, in a way that thinness is equated to health even when achieved by sacrificing healthful habits, and fatness is thought to be automatically unhealthy – which, yeah. So my purpose is to talk about health more than anything, although for me returning to regular exercise (after being away from it due to injuries, grad school and pre-tenure ennui) and attempts to eat healthfully did result in weight loss. I won't lie, I am pleased about it. However, weight loss is not the focus here, and dieting is right out. However, I did change the way I eat – starting with breakfast. And I have Alton Brown to thank for my main breakfast recipe.

So, on to food – breakfast and lunch.

You all know Good Eats, right? A Food Network show by Alton Brown, where he simultaneously geeks out and cooks delicious food. A while ago there was an episode on healthy eating – and at least my breakfasts were never the same. Homemade smoothies with soy milk and fruit juice and frozen fruit is my breakfast for almost every day. Bonus: they are so energizing, I no longer NEED to drink coffee in the mornings (I do occasionally opt to). Anyway. Alton Brown's version is here.

My version: a handful of frozen berries (thawed overnight in the fridge), a banana, and maybe more berries. Half a cup of light soy milk (Silk), half a cup of juice (love V8's acai and mixed berry). Blend. Vary proportion of fruit to liquid to obtain the desired consistency.

Another recipe from that show is my preferred lunch for the days I'm home for lunch. Not suitable for vegetarians and deranged individuals who don't like sardines. Here's Alton's version.

Mine avoids the whole marinating thing:

1 can of brisling two-layer sardines packed in olive oil
½ avocado
1 teaspoon cilantro
splash of lemon juice
good crusty bread

Drain oil from sardines, brush over two generous bread slices. Stick in the over on broil. Mash avocado with a fork, add cilantro and lemon juice, salt to taste, mix, spread on toast. Top with drained sardines.

Two slices of bread, by the way, are the limit of my daily starch. For whatever reason, bread, rice, potatoes and other starchy things leave me feeling tired and unhappy. So limiting my daily starch to 1-2 bread slices or rice in a sushi roll or one potato works well for me, but I realize it's not for everyone.

Other lunch options: a cup of soup, string cheese and apples, string cheese and granola. Occasional sushi roll, if eating out, but most days string cheese+fruit or carb is my main option, since it's easy to pack for.