My Week in Food

With Valentine’s Day approaching, I guess I have chocolate on the brain. While strawberries and chocolate may be the perfect marriage, with so much gorgeous citrus in season, I figured a sectioned tangerine would make a fine substitute. And it was. Try!

I worked on my egg poaching technique for my new cookbook this week. I haven’t quite perfected things yet, but perched on some vegetables for lunch? Delicious.

Supper one night involved pulling out an old favorite recipe — Miso Glazed Salmon — and updating it with a noodley side salad. I tossed udon leftover from this soup  together with baby lettuces, shredded carrots, rice vinegar, and a splash of soy sauce. So easy and a perfect accompaniment to the salmon.

More salad this week, this time for lunch following a carb-fueled weekend in New York visiting my sister. Packed it with healthy fats — avocado, hemp, almonds, dressed with an olive oil dressing — it was recovery in a bowl.

My sis was a little under the weather during our visit. With outside temperatures below freezing, I wasn’t game to pop out for gingerale, so made her a homemade brew instead. Here’s how: make a simple syrup by melting equal parts sugar and water together over medium heat on the stove. Grate fresh ginger into it until it tastes plenty gingery. Let it steep for a few minutes. Then drizzle the syrup into a glass of sparkling water until it tastes just right. Add ice.

Apparently the gingerale worked, since by the next day she was game to share a clam pie with me from the famous Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria. Have you been there?

Her littlest one is too tiny to partake in pizza, but we discovered a handy new tool for feeding babies on the go. Plum Organics has a spoon that screws right onto their baby food pouches. Brilliant for eating on the go.

Back home, I discovered this little crop of swiss chard … proof that you can grow edibly greenery practically anywhere. In this case,it was thriving along the road in a run down part of town with empty lots and warehouses. So hopeful, no?

Here’s another way to go green, a color-themed lunch one day last week featuring a mini fittata I’m working on for my cookbook.

This was my “gotta feed these people” 15 Minute Fix of the week: turkey burgers with kale salad. I made a  pit stop at the market on the way home,to buy four ingredients: ground turkey, Dubliner cheese, English muffins, and baby kale. The cheese and kale topped the burgers and remaining kale went into a salad. Nobody complained. Everybody ate. Dinner in 15 minutes.

I’ve been talking to some folks at my kids’ school about making improvements on the food front and so was delighted to find this guide on getting  junk out of classrooms  from my friend over at The Lunch Tray. Worth a peek and perhaps passing along to the folks running the show at your schools. You can get it for free by going here. 

Speaking of junk, I’ve shared in the past about going cold turkey on soda a few years ago, so it resonated when I read this account of another Diet Coke lover giving up her beloved beverage. If you’re toying with the idea of stopping soda, it’s worth a read.

How was your Week in Food?