Seared Ahi w/ Green Beans and Dumpling Soup

1 Carb
6 Protein
2 Fat

If you observe the sequence of recipes in this journal, you'll notice that certain ingredients repeat themselves a few times in proximity. That's because I cook at home with the ingredients at hand; and after making certain dishes, I have leftovers that might last for a few days. Then each meal turns into a challenge to re-frame the leftovers into something interesting.

I found some excellent quality frozen ahi tuna at Costco, vacuum packed in 4 oz. bags. These little pre-measured portions make excellent quick meals. I thaw a pack per person in a bath of cold water for an hour or so, then season and sear them on smoking hot cast iron for a minute or two, leaving the fish raw on the inside. This meal combines that method with a bit of stir-fried green beans and some dumplings from the freezer (see previous recipe) in a broth that flatters the tuna as well as the dumplings.

According to the diet plan, this recipe falls a bit heavy on the protein, and not enough on the carbs and fat. To solve that imbalance, you can reduce the size of the ahi, and use noodles instead of dumplings in the broth. In my case, the other foods I have in the day tend toward carb and fat (toast for breakfast, celery and carrots with peanut butter as a snack for example.) So, the weight toward protein at dinner can actually put me closer to a daily balance.

When eating this dish, I like to soak the seared ahi directly in the flavored broth to moisten it and add to its rich savory flavor.

Per Person:

4 oz. sushi grade ahi tuna
1/2 tsp Sechuan pepper corns (hua 'do)
1/4 tsp salt

1 cup green beans (a dozen or so fresh, or more if desired)
crushed garlic or shake of garlic powder
splash of soy sauce
splash of sesame oil
1 Tbsp crushed roasted peanuts

3 dumplings (see recipe above)
1 cup broth (turkey, chicken, fish, etc.)
1 Tbsp shredded fresh ginger
1 pinch Five Spice powder
1 Tbsp soy sauce
chopped green onions, chives, cilantro, etc.

This dinner is very simple. Heat a bit of turkey stock (or chicken stock, fish, etc.) with a splash of soy sauce, some shredded ginger, and pinch of five spice powder. Use the hot broth to thaw several frozen dumplings while cooking the rest of dinner. (Of, make dumplings fresh from the above recipe.) The remainder goes quickly.

Grind some Sechuan pepper corns (hua 'do) or black pepper if those are unavailable, along with half as much salt. Spinkle a pinch on both sides of the raw tuna steaks and let stand for a few minutes.

Heat a cast iron skillet or wok. Add a bit of sesame or vegetable oil, and thinly coat the wok with oil using a wooden spatula; then, toss in the green beans. Sautée on high heat for 3-4 minutes, until slight charring occurs and beans are cooked but still crunchy. Toss in garlic and a splash of soy sauce at the very end and turn off heat. These last ingredients will burn and get bitter if cooked on high heat for very long. Scoop beans out of wok or pan, onto dinner plates, and return the pan to high heat. When pan starts smoking very hot, add a new film of oil if necessary, then add the tuna. Sear tuna on all sides for about 2 minutes, until a slight char occurs but steaks are still basically raw inside.

Plate the seared ahi tuna atop the green beans and alongside the broth with dumplings. Sprinkle chopped chives, green onions or cilantro onto the broth, and sprinkle crushed roasted peanuts on the fish and beans. Serve immediately.

(Variation)
Salmon-spinach-artichoke dumplings
in turkey broth with bean sprouts and peas

I consider this recipe as a variation upon the above recipes. My intention here is to suggest that endless variations are possible from these basic healthy soups. I used the same approach above to create a bunch of dumplings to freeze and use for soups later on. For 20 dumplings I used:

1 salmon burger (raw)
1/2 cup raw shrimp
3 preserved artichoke hearts
1 cup fresh baby spinach (compressed)
1 egg
1/4 large sweet onion
3 Tbsp green onion, chopped
1 tsp corn starch
dash of salt

Follow the dumpling recipe above, with the egg wash, to make 20 or so dumplings. These will have a slightly more granular texture inside, due in part to the salmon. Flavors are more "green" and pair well with peas or greens like bok choy.

For the soup pictured, heat two cups per person of turkey or chicken broth, add a dash of soy sauce, chile flakes, salt, fish sauce, 5-spice etc. Defrost 4-5 dumplings per person in the stock (or place them in directly after cooking, at the end). Just before serving, right after the broth is boiling again, add 1/2 cup thawed or fresh peas per person and heat just until boiling again. Add 1/2 to 1 cup of bean sprouts per person and serve with dumplings.

 

Roasted Vegetables with 3-Bean Salad 

2 Carb
1 Protein
3 Fat

Here’s a desperation meal during the busy holiday times. Today is Christmas Eve, and I know I’ll probably cheat on my diet tomorrow. In fact, I nibbled a bit today at friend’s houses, so I need make something that’s almost entirely free of points. Time to fall back on my approach to making Italian antipasti in our oven broiler, using thinly sliced zucchini, eggplant and sweet bell peppers, with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add a pile of three bean salad, flavor with a sprinkle of prosciutto and parmesan and call it dinner. (My wife isn’t on this diet, so she had an extra helping of cheese and crackers, and a bit of dry smoked farmer’s sausage from Dittmer’s Wursthaus to augment the antipasti.)

The best thing about this stack of vegetables, is that it tastes delicious. I know I’ll feel hungry again later, but at least my taste buds are satisfied. The roasting adds caramelized sweetness and intensifies the flavors, and the balsamic vinegar completes the circle. The pre-made three bean salad has some sugar, which augments the other flavors as the juices blend on the plate. You can easily make a good three bean salad from scratch, but that's another article.

For two people:

1 large Chinese eggplant
1 medium zucchini (or two grocery-sized small)
1-2 sweet red peppers
2 Tbsp olive oil
pinch of flavored salt (sundried tomato salt in this case)
some chopped parsley and/or fresh basil
balsamic vinegar – a drizzle
1/2 cup three bean salad per person.
Prosciutto – a few shavings
Shaved Parmesan – a sprinkle

Slice the eggplant and zucchini lengthwise into long 1/8 inch thick slices. Segment the bell peppers and remove the pith from inside, then cut into thin strips. Brush everything lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Cover one or two baking sheets with aluminum foil. Spread a thin film of olive oil on the foil. Turn on oven broiler.

Arrange vegetables on the tray(s) so that zucchini will hit the hottest spot in the broiler. Put the eggplant and peppers near the edge, or where they won’t get the full blast. Place sheets, one at a time, under very high heat about 4 inches under the broiler, until tops start to sear. Remove the first tray and insert the second (if you are using two) and watch closely, as the second will go faster. Remove the peppers from the tray, which have cooked on one side but not the other (they are better less cooked.) Turn all of the other vegetables so the uncooked sides face up, and place once more under the broiler until the other sides are just starting to blacken. Remove swiftly. Total cooking time might be 4-10 minutes maximum, depending on heat.

Place all the vegetable on a platter in a decorative manner. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, chopped basil or parsley and a bit of high quality coarse salt. Serve immediately with some bean salad and other light accoutrements. I like to add a small amount of strongly flavored meat (lean prosciutto for example) and a shaving of good aged parmesan cheese to augment the flavors.

If you are too hungry to treat this as a main course, it makes a very good appetizer.

Lettuce Wrap Chicken

2 Carbs
4 Protein
2 Fat

The bulk of this meal consists of fresh, barely cooked vegetables. To make this a satisfying main course, the stir-fry should maintain a crunchy and varied texture in the mouth. That means barely cooking the vegetables. In fact much of this can remain raw if you don't mind it cold. Timing is important.

Serves 2-3 people:

1 head butter lettuce, whole leaves.
2-3 chicken thighs, boneless skinless, finely minced (4 oz. per person)
1/2 sweet onion, chopped small
6 or so fresh button mushrooms, chopped small (1-2 cups)
2-3 cups bean sprouts
1 cup sugar snap peas, chopped small
1/2 carrot, grated
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1-2 green onions, chopped small
1/4 cups roasted peanuts, crushed
2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp chinese rice cooking wine or mirin
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 small clove garlic, crushed and minced
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Separate the leaves of lettuce and clean them, then set them on a clean towel to air dry while cooking. Chop the remaining ingredients and get them ready near the wok. Pre-heat the wok until smoking hot. Blend a dash of rice wine and soy sauce into a dollop of hoisin sauce, along with a bit of minced garlic, making the hoisin just runny enough to blend quickly into the stir-fry at the end.

Brush the hot wok with bit of sesame oil, then add the minced chicken. Turn swiftly for a few minutes, until mostly cooked. Add the onions and mushrooms, and sear to remove some moisture, for a few more minutes. Toss in the bean sprouts, minced pea pods, celery and shredded carrots, and stir swiftly for just a moment, to heat those ingredients but not actually to cook them. While blending the fresh vegetables, toss in the hoisin sauce mixture, and remove from heat as soon as it is blended in. Total cooking time shouldn't be more than about 5-6 minutes from start to finish.

Divide the stir-fry onto plates, and sprinkle with green onions, peanuts and cilantro before serving. Provide a small bowl of extra hoisin sauce, to smear onto a lettuce leaf before filling the leaf with stir-fry, using the lettuce as a wrapper to eat with hands.

Indian Dinner with Spinach Dal, Eggplant, Raita

This meal can serve several people. To maintain the suggested calories, it’s important to serve oneself small portions. Otherwise it’s easy to overdo the carbohydrates. Although this is a vegetarian meal, some protein comes from the lentils and the yogurt. You could also add some lean lamb meatballs to the lentils for a delicious source of extra protein and flavor.

I’m presenting these three dishes together because they use several overlapping ingredients. Some ingredients – like the onion – can be cooked together for both the lentils and the eggplant, to save time. The quantities of any dish often depend upon the size of the raw ingredients used. So, rather than “one cup yogurt” and “one cup cucumber” I really seed an entire cucumber, then add yogurt to balance the quantity. Same with an eggplant – if it’s a large eggplant, I’ll use more of the other ingredients. So, as any cook would do, you should scale the following ingredients to taste. With some basmati rice, the following dishes can serve four people.

 

Raita:
1-2 cups nonfat yogurt
1 seeded diced cucumber
1/2 cup minced sweet onion (100g,  ~1/3 onion)
1/2 cup seeded diced fresh tomatoes
1 Tbsp whole black mustard seed
salt to taste 

Spinach Dal:
1 cup (200 grams) dry whole lentils
1/2 onion, thin sliced
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
2 hot chili peppers, diced (or to taste)
juice of 2 lemons (1/4 cup)
1 clove garlic
1 tsp whole cumin
2 tsp whole coriander seeds, ground fresh
1 inch cube fresh ginger, chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt 

Eggplant & Mushroom Curry:
1 Chinese eggplant (200-300 grams), cubed
1 cup fresh mushrooms, quartered
1/2 onion, diced fine
1 clove garlic
2 tsp whole coriander seed, ground fresh
1 tsp chole cumin seed, ground fresh
2 dried hot peppers (to taste), ground fresh
- or - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt
salt and pepper to taste

Raita is a savory yogurt dish, which I have packed with more than the usual quantity of cucumber. Start by peeling one large cucumber, then split it lengthwise and scoop the seeds out with a spoon, discarding the seeds and gel. Mince the remaining firm portion of cucumber into small chunks. Mince about 1/2 cup of mild sweet onion. Split several small tomatoes (such as Roma) and discard the gel and seeds from inside, mincing the flesh. (Too much liquid from the cucumber and tomato seeds with water down the raita. 

Heat up a dry cast iron frying pan, with a cover ready alongside. Add about 1 tablespoon of mustard seeds and cover the pan, allowing the seeds to pop and smoke a bit. Remove promptly from the heat as soon as popping slows down, so as not to burn the seeds too much. Add the seeds to a large bowl with the chopped cucumber, onion and tomato, with a dash of salt. Blend in enough nonfat plain yogurt to bind the mixture, about one or two cups. Adjust flavors with salt and black pepper to taste. Serve as a cooling condiment and salad with dinner.

Dal is the Indian word for lentils, and this version has a thick soup-like consistency with whole rather than split lentils, and fresh spinach to augment the earthy flavors. I adapted this recipe from Madhur Jaffrey, one of the best writers of Indian cookbooks. I made a few adjustments to reduce the amount of oil, and made it a bit more spicy.

Earlier in the day, take about 1 cup of whole yellow lentils, rinse a few times, then soak them in water for a few hours. Then, about an hour before active cooking time, pour off the soaking water, and add about 2 1/2 cups of fresh water to the lentils and bring to a simmer, covered. When the lentils are almost cooked, an hour later, rinse and trim about a pound of fresh spinach leaves. In a large deep pot on low heat, add a teaspoon of oil, then sweat the spinach until it wilts, for about 10 minutes. Add the spinach to the lentils and turn heat to low. Grind some whole seeds of black pepper, cumin and coriander, with some dried hot peppers if you wish, and mince one clove of garlic. Add these spices to the pot, and salt to taste. A few minutes before serving, blend in the juice of two lemons, and a handful (1/4 cup) of chopped cilantro.

Thinly slice one large onion, making ribbons from half-rings. With a tablespoon of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet, brown the onions until toasty and dark, almost burnt. Remove from the pan. Blend one half of these browned onions into the lentils, and adjust seasoning before serving. Retain the remaining onions to add to the eggplant curry.

Chop a Chinese eggplant and some large fresh mushrooms into cubes. Add a tablespoon of oil to the pan used for the onions, and bring back up to high heat. Add the eggplant and toss until browning on all sides, then add the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are cooked, add freshly ground cumin and coriander, black pepper, turmeric powder, hot peppers, one clove of minced garlic, and salt to taste. Add the remaining browned onions from the previous step. Lower the heat, and stir to blend in the spices. Now slowly add yogurt to the blend, one tablespoon at a time. Blending each bit in before adding the next. If you add all the yogurt at once, it will break up into curds with the heat.

If you want to stretch the eggplant curry to feed more people, you can add baby potatoes for a very good texture. I took about 8-10 small fingerling Yukon Golds, boiled them for about 10 minutes in salted water, and blended them in to the dish after adding the yogurt.

Together with some saffron basmati rice, the above dishes can serve four people. You can adjust individual servings to suit your needs, so dietary counts aren’t easy to predict here, but the dishes probably resolve mostly as carbohydrates, so I would guess that one cup of curry amounts to about 2-3 carbs, and maybe 1 fat.

Smokey Pumpkin Soup

This recipe started from a pumpkin and black bean soup recipe that I saw during my last meeting with the nutritionist at Stanford. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my copy of the recipe after I got home; so I decided to improvise something that suited my hankering for spicy hot flavors. This soup takes a hint from Southwest cuisine, and steers away from the typical sweet flavors more commonly paired with pumpkin, aiming instead towards tart and savory-spicy. This recipe serves about 4-5 people, about 3 cups of soup each.

2 Carb
2 Protein
1 Fat

5 cups turkey stock
15 oz. pumpkin puree (1 can – don’t use sweetened “pie filling”)
15 oz. black beans (1 can, or about 2 cups)
2 onions, diced
1-2 red sweet peppers (depends on size)
1-2 canned chipotle peppers w/ adobo sauce, minced
1 large clove garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp whole cumin, freshly ground
2 tsp smoked paprika (can substitute plain if unavailable)
1 tsp salt – to taste
1 tsp mace or 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp sage
1 cup nonfat yogurt (or less depending on texture)
some cilantro and fresh tomato for garnish

Dice two onions and sweat them with 2 Tbsp olive oil and a dash of salt in a deep heavy soup pot, on medium low heat, for about 30 minutes. They should be quite mushy by that time. It’s OK if they brown a bit, but stir often to make sure they don’t burn.

While the onions are sweating, use a pair of tongs to hold two whole fresh red bell peppers over a high gas flame – or place them on a grill with high flame – and allow the flame to actually burn and blacken the skin. You will hear sputtering and crackling. That’s OK. Turn every minute or less, as they scorch on each side, so the peppers get flamed evenly. Remove from flame and set aside to cool. Once you can handle the peppers, slice them open and remove the seeds and pith. Chop coarsely.

Finely dice one large garlic clove, and add the garlic to the softened onions. After a few minutes, add the turkey stock and raise the heat a bit. (Chicken stock will do in a pinch, but watch out for the salty type, and reduce salt elsewhere accordingly. I make my own without salt.) After bringing the stock up to a low boil, add a can of pumpkin puree and a can of black beans (~1 3/4 cups each). Add freshly ground cumin and sage, with some smoked paprika (if available) and a healthy pinch of mace or a bit less of nutmeg. Stir in the fire roasted chopped bell pepper.

Chop up one or two canned chipotle peppers  - the type that comes wet in adobo sauce – and add the peppers with some of their sauce. These can get very spicy, so adjust quantity to your palate.

If you don’t have an immersion blender, the next step requires that you take the pot off of the heat and spoon the contents, in manageable fractions, into a food processor or blender. It’s much easier with an immersion blender, which chefs call a “giraffe”, a handheld shaft with electric propeller at the end which you can stick directly into a pot of soup.

With the pot on very low heat or removed from heat, blend the contents with the electric blender while slowly adding nonfat yogurt, one spoonful at a time, waiting a moment as each addition becomes integrated. Slowly add up to a cup of yogurt, until the soup reaches a desired creamy consistency.

Serve with a sprinkle of cilantro and chopped tomatoes, or along with a salad.

Turkey Onion Soup

In case you didn't already notice a pattern - sure, I frequently recycle ingredients when they're around in the kitchen. That's home cooking. Getting bored with soups? I am, indeed. But they also offer a filling warm wash of nutrition with low carbs and low fat. You can fill a soup with green veggies and flavor without making it an indulgence.

Like most of my cooking, this came about from ingredients around the house. I had just rendered down some turkey from the holidays, and there's always a lot of onions around. I started thinking about merging the approach of french onion soup with turkey stock, Southwest flavors and humble vegetable ingredients. The result is a rich and sweet flavored healthy soup, which you can spice up to fit your palate. With some of the smokey qualities of the chipotle, the flavors trick the palate into thinking bacon must be involved, despite low fat.

This soup is an improvisation, and it might look like it take a long time to make. Yes, an onion soup takes time. But like so much country cooking, the time isn't constant. It involves a few hours planning ahead, and a few hours staying near the stove; but if you have work to do near the kitchen, you can maintain some non-cooking productivity while keeping half an eye on the slow cooked part of the preparation.

To comment a bit on slow cooking, this recipe uses concepts from French cuisine where long cooking durations create sugars from simple ingredients, and earthy sweetness gets introduced simply from time and heat. I don't know if the sugars that come from caramilzed onions convert into carbs away from the "free" fiber that onions count on the documents I have These become complex questions. At that point, I can say I know this tastes good.

2 large onions, finely diced
2 boneless skinless chicken thighs, diced
5 cups turkey stock
1 large celerey stalk
1 large carrot stick
4-5 fresh shiitake mushrooms
1/8 cup chopped parsley
2 Tbspn olive oil
Splash of brandy or dry vermouth
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp savory
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 cup green peas (frozen or fresh)
squeeze of lime (per bowl)
1 Tbsp adobo with chipotle (to taste)

Prep: finely chop 2 boneless skinless thighs of chicken, and two onions. Chop the celery, carrot, shiitake mushrooms and parsley to prepare for the last steps. Thaw a cup of frozen peas (or clean a cup of fresh peas.)

Heat 5 cups of turkey stock and leave on low simmer. Heat a large deep frying pan and add 2 Tbsp olive oil. Add two thinly sliced large onions, with a pinch of salt, and sweat for 10 minutes on medium heat. Stir occasionally. Keep stirring every two minutes, and observe the texture of the onions, making sure nothing is burning. Keep heating until onions become dryer and softer, then add a scoop of hot turkey stock to re-moisten. (This is the basic technique of French onion soup.) Reduce the liquid and continue to soften the onions, with additions of stock as needed until the onions get caramalized, light brown and very soft, probably about 30 minutes. Place the softened onions into the remaining stock, then place the frying pan back on low flame.

Add chopped celery, carrots, mushrooms and parsley into the turkey stock, to simmer down and soften while doing the rest of the preparation. Combined with the onions, these make the foundation of a classical French "mirepoix." Also add some thyme, savory and black pepper to taste, roughly a teaspoon each. (Add more herbs and spices later if needed.)

When the frying pan gets hot again, put in a bit more olive oil, then add the chopped chicken, a pinch of salt, and sautée while stirring until browned on all sides. Aim for dark brown and don't worry if it gets a bit overcooked (but avoid burning) as the chicken will end up moistened in soup and you are using it mostly for the caramilized flavor. Put the chicken into the simmering pot of stock, and return the frying pan to heat once again.

Deglaze: pour a splash of brandy or dry vermouth into the hot frying pan to deglaze the sticky dark sweet crust from the bottom of the pan. Scrape the pan's crust into the simmering brew as it boils down briefly, and pour that darkened mix into the soup. This will add a deep sweet flavor.

Let stand on low heat for a while to allow flavors to integrate. Just before serving, bring up to a near boil and add the peas (these are best fresh.) For a spicy touch blend in a chopped chipotle pepper and adobo, with a squeeze of about 1/4 lime in each bowl, and some parsley/cilantro garnish. Add an additional dash of salt to taste.

The overall flavors tend toward sweet and "umame" - meaty and rich, while the spices and lime spritz bring lighter savory touches. Three cups per person feel very filling.

Tilapia, mushroom duxelles & winter greens

1 carb
4 protein
1 Fat

Here's a hearty tasting winter dish that weighs heavy on the vegetables and light on calories, yet satisfies cravings with earthy rich flavors.

Tilapia is a lean white fish that you can find frozen in convenient fillets around 4 oz. It doesn't have a strong flavor, but it blends well with the rich flavors of mushrooms. I made a duxelles of wild mushrooms and omitted the butter that typically accompanies a classic duxelles. (I'll explain this in a moment.) I added a small scoop of whole hominy corn for savory texture. The vegetables came fresh from the farmer's market (bok choy, asparagus and romanesco) steamed in a microwave with a bit of dry vermouth and sprinkled with balsamiic vinegar. The result was very flavorful, filling and very light.

Making a duxelles from scratch takes about an hour, so if you can't spend that sort of time, you can by "mushroom tapenade" from places like Trader Joe's, or simply sauté some mushrooms in a bit of olive oil until soft. Duxelles is a method of preserving wild mushrooms by slowly cooking out their moisture, combined with onions and a bit of salt, and blending in melted butter to help preserve and distribute the flavors. This method intensifies the mushroom flavors and creates a blend that you can freeze for long storage. To avoid the butter, this is a fresh duxelles using only a bit of olive oil. I replaced some of the sweet buttery goodness with a bit of very reduced chicken stock, boiled down into the blend.

Duxelles:
1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp oilive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chicken stock
black pepper to taste

(If the chicken stock is salted, omit the salt above.) Heat a large skillet on medium, spread oil onto it, then add onions and mushrooms. Stir occasionally while reducing liquid out of the blend, on medium-low heat, for 30-60 minutes. You don't need to attend it constantly, just make sure it doesn't brown too much or burn. As the blend becomes dry, add stock and salt to taste (if stock is unsalted.) Grind in some fresh pepper. Continue to reduce until flavors are very concentrated, and texture becomes somewhat homogenized. Set aside.

Tilapia:
1 Tilapia fillet per person
splash of dry vermouth
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp olive oil
pinch of salt, pepper, nutmeg

Heat a large heavy skillet, with a lid nearby. Finely mince a clove of garlic. Sprinkle salt and pepper over thawed tilapia fillets. Spread olive oil on skillet, and place tilapia on medium-high heat for a minute or two on one side. Flip the fish fillets carefully onto the other side, so as not to break them apart. Toss in the garlic and wait a moment to let it sear. While searing the garlic, sprinkle a tiny pinch of nutmeg or mace onto the upper side of each fillet. Now add a splash of dry vermouth (or an un-oaked white wine) to deglaze the pan and prevent the garlic from burning. Once the alcohol has evaporated out of the liquid (a minute or two) put the lid on the pan and reduce heat, to steam a moment while plating the rest of the meal.

I plated the tilapia atop a half-cup of hominy corn, a couple tablespoons of duxelles, alongside a large pile of vegetables, and with a sprinkling of parsley and green onions.

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CODA

Alas, toward the end of this project, I got a bit buried in my music business: preparation for some concerts, a new album release, a new website for my music (http://robertrich.com). I had to stop writing full recipes from the study to salvage some time.

However, that doesn't mean I stopped cooking, and I continued to participate in the study. In fact I lost a total of about 20 pounds in 3 months. It takes about 30-60 minutes of actual effort to cook most of these meals, but it takes about 2-3 hours to ducument a recipe and add it to this journal. In a few cases, I did manage to take a quick photo if dinner turned out good, and I'll add them here at the end just to give some indication of the mix-and-match approach I take to cooking. You won't need recipes for these. They use variations upon ideas described above.

Chicken Breast, cauliflower purée, veggies

The chicken breast came raw, skinned and boned from Costco. I first dusted 4 breast fillets with flour, salt and pepper, then browned them on the outside in a heavy sauté pan with a bit of olive oil. Then I put them in a covered pan with some tomato ragu and a cup or two of red wine, chopped onions and garlic. I covered the pot and braised the contents for about one hour at 350 degrees F. The "Soycuttash" came from Trader Joe's, steamed in the microwave in a covered glass dish for 4 minutes with a splash of dry vermouth, salt and pepper. The "Smokey Cauliflour Purée" appears in a recipe above, using a head of cauliflour, an onion or two slow cooked, and a bit of chipotle in adobo. A very satisfying and filling meal with a large amount of fiber.

Halibut fillet on greens, beets and yam

I coated two fillets of halibut with a crust of coriander, black pepper, dry parsley and a pinch of salt. After all the vegetables were done, these got seared on very high heat with a bit of olive oil until light brown outside, moist inside. For the veggies, I cut a few red and yellow beets and one small dark yam. I steamed these in a covered glass caserol in the microwave with a splash of vermouth for about 5 minutes. The bright orange beet juices colored the reduced vermouth and become the sauce underneath. I chopped up the beet greens and sautéed them on medium heat (in the pan later used for the fish) with a drop of olive oil and a clove of chopped garlic. I added a chopped head of baby bok choi halfway through. As soon as those vegetables left the pan onto the plates, I brought the heat up to sear the fish quickly. On top I sprinkled chopped green onions as a garnish.

Turkey Meatballs with beets and potatoes

Can you tell it's winter and we're getting our root vegetables at the farmer's market? Yup, it's beets again. I have fallen in love with this colorful sweet root, especially when it's fresh. This time I used about a pound of freshly ground turkey, mixed it with an onion, a garlic clove, some salt, thyme, oregano and parsley, one egg, and formed little meatballs by working them between two soup spoons. Each meatball is about an once, or a bit less. I dropped the meatalls into salted boiling boiling water to firm them up until they floated, then placed them on foiled cookie sheets (a bit of olive oil on the aluminum foil) and placed them in a 400 degree F oven for about 30 minutes, turning them once or twice in between. The fingerling potatoes got the same treatment in the oven (at the same time) with a bit of olive oil and salt, except they went under the broiler to get nice and brown. There's some chopped Napa cabbage underneath the potatoes, and a splash of organic Red Pepper/Tomato soup from a carton purchased from Trader Joe's used as a sauce. I augmented the red pepper soup with a bit of chipotle pepper. Since the scale of a picture is hard to determine, each item on the plate in this picture is about the size of a short thick thumb.