With rice flour of course! This is a quick, and easy recipe for a little indulgence.
1 cup Arrowhead Mills Brown Rice Flour
2 Tbs soy or vegetable oil
¼ cup honey
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract or almond extract
1 egg (beaten)
1 cup dark chocolate chips.

Blend all ingredients thoroughly. Chill for several hours or overnight. Before baking, pre-heat your oven to 350 and roll the chilled dough into 1-inch balls and arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet. You can press flat with your hand or the bottom of a glass if desired. Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes. Let set in middle by cooling before tasting. Cookies tend to be doughy in the middle until they cool.

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Barley is really versatile, but so many people tend to overlook this grain as boring. In fact it is high in beta-glucan, a fiber that can help reduce diabetes risk. It has a rich, nutty flavor,a fantastic, chewy texture, and is a great substitute for rice. It has three times the fiber of one serving of rice. It is also manufactured as rolled grains, like rolled oats-so that it can double as a breakfast cereal, or in baked goods, or to dredge fish in before sauteing. It contains many vitamins and minerals such as: niacin (Vitamin B3), thiamine ( Vitamin B1), selenium, iron, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus and copper. Barley is also high in anti-oxidants and phyto-chemicals to reduce the risk of developing certain cancers, and heart disease.

Fruit Salad:
3 cups cooled, cooked, pearl barley, (cooking directions below)
3/4 cup sliced strawberries
3/4 cup raspberries
3/4 cup blueberries
1/2 cup diced apple
1/3 cup crumbled bleu cheese (or crumbled goat cheese if you prefer)
1/3 cup toasted, slivered almonds

Raspberry Orange Vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 tablespoon sugar-free orange marmalade (optional)
1 clove garlic, minced or mashed with the flat side of a knife
1/2 teaspoon Coleman’s dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a large salad bowl pour the vinegar, the dry mustard, garlic, salt, pepper. orange zest and marmalade. Gently whisk in the olive oil to mix well.
To cook pearl barley:
In medium saucepan with lid, bring 3 cups water to a boil. Add 1 cup pearl barley and return to boil for 1 minute. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 45 minutes or until barley is tender and liquid is absorbed. Place any extra cooked barley in an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze. Add to soups, stews, casseroles and salads for extra flavor, texture and fiber. For best results, bring frozen or refrigerated cooked barley to room temperature before using.
Mix the cooked, cooled barley with the dressing and fruits and almonds and crumble cheese on top if desired. This makes such a filling lunch or side dish at dinner. You could interchange the fruits with steamed veggies, fresh chopped herbs, and Dijon mustard instead of a sweet approach. Once you have cooked barley on hand, the choice is yours how you will use it.

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Oatmeal is a favorite of mine. I’ll add diced apples and cinnamon with honey or Splenda. What I really love though are heavy, tummy filling, oat bars that are so common in Scotland. When I was there hiking in the Highlands so many summers ago, the group I was with brought them along with us on our daily excursions. Scottish oat cakes are something I craved when I got back on U.S. soil and they’re bang easy to make and with a tweak of a few key ingredients they fit right into your eating plan.
You will need:
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup light brown sugar Splenda
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups soy or oat flour (save a little for dusting work surface)
1/4 cup chilled vegan margarine, cut into pea sized pieces (give or take)
3/4 cup soy milk or nonfat buttermilk

As you can see this is basically a biscuit recipe. At this point gathering your ingredients you can decide if you would like to add any dried fruits such as cherries, blueberries or cranberries. Or nuts, such as almonds, or pecan pieces. Or spices like ginger and cinnamon. They are good just as they are with a bit of jam on top.
To bake:
Pre-heat your oven to 325°F. Make sure the racks are set a few inches apart near the center of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, stir together the oats, brown sugar Splenda, baking soda, and salt (also if adding spices or dried fruits, or nuts, now would be a good time to toss them in). Place the oat flour in a separate bowl. Add the small pieces of shortening, and rub it into the oat flour with your fingers until the mixture is crumbly just like making biscuit dough. Then add the two together, mixing by hand until incorporated. Then add the soy milk or non buttermilk, stirring well to combine.
Dust a clean work surface with some extra oat flour, then pat the dough to roughly 10×8-inch rectangle 1/4-inch thick. The dough will be sticky and you can work it a bit to get it to form. Dust additional flour on top of the dough as needed to form a rectangle. Use a knife or a 1″ biscuit cutter to cut the dough into circles or triangles. With a spatula, gently transfer the oat cakes to the lined baking sheet. Pat out the remaining scraps into another 1/4″ thick rectangle, and repeat the process until all of the dough is cut. Bake the oat cakes for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they are a light brown. Let the cakes cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. This makes about 24 oat cakes. If you like you can freeze half of the dough until you want to make more. Just thaw to room temperature before baking. Another thing you could do instead of hand forming the dough like a scone or biscuit, is to spray some olive oil into a baking pan, an 8×10 for example and spread out the dough with a spatula and bake that way. Cutting before or after.
These are great in the morning, or pop into a zip-lock for a snack, or as a dessert with a scoop of granita and fresh berries.

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I realized after my post on poultry I left out a wonderful and very tasty way of preparation, and that is smoking. There is a cold smoke and a hot smoke preparation for meats. The first doesn’t actually mean you do this in a cold or freezing environment, as the name implies, just that the temperature of the smoke never goes above 160 degrees. Many people are sticklers for even lower temperatures such as between 80-100 degrees, and thus it is ideal for meats such as Salmon and other fish, or oysters; while hot smoking can be used for anything really. The smoke essentially “cures” the meat and imparts an incredible flavor alone, or layered under whatever flavors you want to build up. More often than smoked meats have been soaked in a brine up for 4 hours or more commonly overnight to aid in the curing and flavor process. The USDA has great guidelines to follow when smoking meats, click here to go to the link.

For example a whole fryer chicken, approximately 3 to 3 1/2 pounds you would want a brine solution of 1 gallon water, 1 cup kosher salt, 1 cup sugar, and if you like pickling spices, or any spices or chilies you might like to add. If you add pickling spices it is best to boil all ingredients together, add pickling spices at the end and chill completely before immersing your bird in the solution.

Okay, you ask yourself, a gallon of water and a bird in it? What a mess! How will I ever do something like this? Well, good question. I have seen a lot of ingenious ways of storing meats while being prepared to be smoked from 5 gallon buckets used by professional painters which were bought new, specifically for this purpose (washed before use) and stored in an extra refrigerator, or garage in winter if you live up north! You could get your biggest stock pot and move a couple shelves around and keep it on the bottom rack just overnight. Never out at room temperature though. A cooler can also do the trick as long as you take measures to keep the contents chilled below 41 degrees for the whole time. Ice does nice.

For the sake of ease and technicality we will stick with hot smoked food preparation as it is just easier and tastes really good. When you get into cold smoking at home, you run the risk of bacterial growth from improperly held temperatures, poorly made brining solutions, whether you live in a sub-tropical climate or not, etcetera. Also a plus is you don’t need to brine your meats before you hot smoke them, you can just do a simple marinade or just go for it as is.

Hickory is probably one of the most used woods for smoked meats. It is easy to come by and popular for the intense, slightly sweet aroma which penetrates the meat well. Appearing more often are apple and other fruit woods which are also wonderful alone or mixed with your favorite wood chips. Apple, walnut, cherry, ash, and maple are some that I can think of offhand that can most likely be found with ease.

One could buy a smoker for home around $50 or convert an old oven into one if you are feeling adventurous. For tips check out this link.

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Comfort food. There is something about it that is universal yet intrinsically unique to each person who thinks of it. To some it may mean sugary sweet snacks; salty, crunchy, crispies; ooey-gooey, treats or savory reminders of childhood; a special vacation or romantic memory. Most of the time when we crave it we over-indulge in it out of boredom or emotion Like most people I have a couple things that are sure to lift my mood- like a milk-shake, a slice of Ricotta pie from Mike’s Pastry, chocolate, or ice cream.  I see a lot of dairy trending in that list…

What is the backbone of comfort food? Well, for each of us, culturally diverse people, it is almost always a blend of fat, sugar, salt and intense flavor. All of the good things. (Think chocolate dipped, hand-cut, potato chips) When you mix fat and flavor it equals ‘Mmmmm’. It also equals inflammation and weight gain. *frown* I have taken on this mission with the intent to help make it taste fattening, when you really, really want it to.

Family meals can be really hard when sentimental dishes pop up on the buffet line. Oh those tastes of home and childhood, family gatherings and warm fuzzy times spent arguing and cajoling over time tested casseroles of cheese-laden, goodness.

Well starting off on this subject I think I just want to set some guidelines of what I think may help when you have certain cravings or encounters with traditional foods that would derail a diet in a heartbeat. And we don’t want that heartbeat to lead up to your last; so here goes.

Apples: they are not boring! If you think so, then stop buying the old, red, standby-Red Delicious. It was delicious back when it was new, a couple hundred years ago. Since then it has become mealy and bland because it has undergone so many “face-lifts” due to genetic farming. You don’t have to look far for any other varieties. A standby on my counter is the Gala and Honeycrips. Crisp, juicy, sweet with a gentle tang of acidity; but not enough to make you pucker up like with a Granny Smith. Next on my list and harder for me to acquire due to my recent geographical excursions are Haralsan , Honeycrisp, Honeygold and Pink Lady. The last four were cultivated since the 1930’s in Minnesota and Wisconsin and are by far the best apples I have had to date. These days my Gala’s  are bursting with juice and perfectly crisp so much so that I’ve been eating at least four to six a day!  Talk about an easy fix for a craving!

Apples are fat-free! One apple provides as much as one fifth of the recommended daily intake of fiber.Apples are loaded with pectin, a soluble fiber that aids digestion and may help reduce cancer and heart disease.The complex carbohydrates in apples gives you a longer, more even energy boost compared to high-sugar snacks, so apples can keep you going throughout the day, and well…you’ll go more regularly if you catch my drift. Apples also provide boron, an essential trace element that helps harden bones. Strong bones help prevent osteoporosis! They also contain phenolic compounds like those found in grapes. More fiber can help you lose weight! Less weight equals less joint pain! Win-Win!

Generally you can stave off any impending disasters by grabbing a firm Gala or Honeycrisp for example, and wash it, and start chomping. If this seems uninteresting you can always take a trip back in “time”, so to speak, to apple slices and peanut-butter. I’d choose soy-butter over peanut and make sure you are portioning! Wanna really fill up? Toss some sliced up apple, a peeled carrot, half an avocado (yes I typed avocado), a cup of baby spinach, into a blender with a couple packets of sweet”n”low brand sweetener, or Splenda brand sweetener, and a cup of apple juice or even soy milk, and whirl into flavor and fullness. One glass of that and you won’t have room for anything else!

If that isn’t you thing, well try something else! We already know apples are crunchy, there’s one aspect of comfort, we know they’re juicy; another one; they’re tart and quick, so they’ve got that snacking quality to them. So you wanted something salty too? So sprinkle some Crazy salt over some slices and go for it. Apples welcome diverse flavors, and salt is no exception! In fact a few slices of sharp cheese on a crusty baguette, toasted until melty, over apple slices is in fact amazing. Heck, dice one up and toss it into a mixed green, or romaine lettuce salad with your favorite fat-free dressing and an ounce of cheese. See if that apple doesn’t shine as the favorite part of your salad. Cook it! Bake it; you want a casserole real bad? Ok I got one for you; sweet potato and apple casserole.

• 3 medium sized, crisp apples-cored and sliced into 1/4 Inch rings
• 3 medium sweet potatoes,  sliced into rounds.
• 1 Tablespoon grated citrus peel, preferably orange peel
• Appx: 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt maybe a pinch more
• 1/4 cup apple or orange juice
• 1/4 cup Splenda
• 1/4 teaspoon or 1/2 depending on how much you like Nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Pre-heat an oven to 400 and toss all the ingredients together in a bowl, except the juice which will be poured over at the end just before cooking, then alternate the layers in a casserole dish. Bake covered with foil for about 20 minutes. At the end uncover and sprinkle some grated Parmesan if you like. 1/2 cup is optional for an extra comfort layer. A quicker method would be to prick the sweet potatoes with a fork and microwave them until done, about 7 minutes. Slice into rings and follow the rest of the directions except you would microwave the entire casserole for about 7 minutes.

So think on it, please, choose an apple. Try other kinds! If you don’t like that kind, don’t give up on them, there are over 100 varieties available in the U.S. for commercial distribution. More than you need to choose from.

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Part of the diet includes chicken at a certain stage and that can be such a great treat for some. For others it is a step you aren’t required to take and you can stick with fish.  If I went into all the ways you can prepare chicken this blog would become a cookbook! I will stick to a couple great ideas and tips, and then you can go from there.

Beginning I will remind my readers about food safety. So far you have been cooking a mostly vegetarian diet with some fresh fish thrown in. While you need safe food handling with all that you prepare, and with fish as well, never is it so important as when handling raw poultry. Even with cleaner farming techniques, meat fabrication, and sterile plastic wrapping, the risk of salmonella is still there.  That being said lets get to it!

How do you want to eat your chicken now that you are far enough along on your Pain Free Diet! Congratulations by the way for those of you who have made it this far, and I hope, have been feeling the benefits of the diet as outlined in the Book. Unfortunately if you are like me you also love Duck. It is too high in fat to include in our diet, but there are many ways of impersonating it with turkey and dark meat chicken, following similar recipes for the preparation of this bird.

I mentioned food safety in an older post, click this link to get to it. Mainly it is about practicing good hygiene and avoiding cross-contamination. That means, boiled down, not dripping chicken blood onto your raw, ready-to-eat salad, etcetera.

So review that post and let’s talk Turkey! Or chicken, or Cornish Hen, or Quail…

My culinary heroine for great Mediterranean cuisine is Claudia Roden.  She knows Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern. If our publishers would allow it, I too could travel the Mediterranean and Middle East in search of great culinary inspiration for this blog *ahem*.  However, my daydream is just that at present, but I always have Claudia to inspire my palate and plenty of hole-in-the wall Shawarma places in Boston.

Chicken is so common, so generic in flavor, that so many have taken to referring to un-nameable proteins as “tasting like chicken”.  This is also it’s saving grace, as it can become so many things in so many dishes. Even alone it does have a “chicken flavor”, albeit a soft one. You can grill, bake, roast, saute, steam,  broil, put it in soups, and have it on a shish kebab.  Some of the best accouterments to chicken, which follow our dietary guidelines, are as follows:

Almonds, apples, asparagus, basil, cabbage, cherries, chervil, chives, citrus, coriander, corn, cranberries, curry, dill, endive, escarole, fennel, five-spice-powder, garlic, ginger, grapes, herbs, horseradish, lemon, lime, mangoes, marjoram, mint, morels, mushrooms, mustard, mussels, olive oil, olives, onions, oranges, oregano, oysters, paprika, parsley, peas, pecans, pepper, pineapples, plums, prunes, rosemary, savory, sour cream, soy sauce, star anise, sweet potatoes,  sumac, tarragon, thyme, tomatoes, truffles, vinegar, walnuts, wine, yogurt and zaatar. To name a few.

Marinating is a great way to infuse flavor into skinless chicken for use in many final dishes. A general rule is you want to marinate for a minimum of 20 minutes. You can leave it for several hours, refrigerated, even overnight. Never leave raw poultry out at room temperature for more than 2 hours at a time. You should get into a habit of working with the ingredients while the poultry stays under refrigeration until you are ready to apply your cooking techniques, this includes marination prior to cooking as well. If you are concerned at all with any re-heating or preparation of items refer to my previous link above which will take you to my food safety post.

The best ingredients for marinades contain an acid and an oil, as well as flavor enhancing spices and herbs. Puncturing the meat prior to marinading may be an old family tradition, but it should stop with you! This doesn’t enhance marination, and will result in a drier piece of meat due to moisture loss in cooking.  The best technique is to use a sturdy zip top plastic food storage bag, which is large enough for the amount of meat you want to marinate. This allows less marinade to be used once the air has been squeezed out of the bag, allowing all surfaces to be coated. The next step is time, allowing the penetration of flavor into the meat.

You may also prefer a dry spice rub, and to allow time to enhance the spices to penetrate the natural poultry juices. This is also great  and packs a lot of flavor. We will talk about this as well.

I’m going to take a step back into my Florda roots here and offer up my favorite marinade; Mojo Criollo. I  love it.  I love the *POP* of flavor it gives to chicken.  It is a bright, happy, pungent, mouth watering marinade.

Virginia’a Mojo:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (the kind with seeds, not Naval)

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1 cup olive oil

1/4 cup sliced, fresh garlic from firm cloves

3 tablespoons freshly toasted, and ground cumin seeds

2 teaspoons Kosher salt or 1 teaspoon sea salt

Fresh ground pepper to taste

In a small sauce pot heat the olive oil until just about to simmer and add the garlic cloves. When you can smell the garlic, about 2 minutes, and before it begins to turn brown, quickly and carefully, pour in the orange juice and lime juice mixed together with the cumin added. You can do it off the heat and do it quickly so as not to splash hot oil onto yourself. Let this mixture come up to a boil, then turn off the heat and add sea salt or Kosher salt and fresh black pepper. Now, this will be hot so we cannot use it to marinate right now, or it will poach the meat. Let this cool in another container in the refrigerator before use. If you like you could then add fresh chopped cilantro, or oregano to this marinade for another twist. I have also made this marinade substituting the orange and lime with grapefruit juice and the cumin with fresh, chopped rosemary. Keep the garlic, it is intrinsic to the flavor profile. Once the marinade has cooled pour it over your meat that you would like to prepare. You can do this in a plastic food storage bag, or storing the product flat in a shallow baking dish with the marinade coating. Either way use good sanitation and make sure you do not reuse marinade that has been in contact with raw meat unless you plan to make a sauce with it, and will boil it prior to consumption. This amount of marinade will cover 4-6 skinless chicken breasts.

You can alternate your favorite ingredients, bear in mind that a good marinade has an acid and an oil to carry flavors, and coat. So if you like vinegar use it along with olive oil, fresh herbs and spices. When you are ready to cook the meat it is not necessary to keep the marinade as it will have penetrated into the meat during the extended time in contact. Not all marinades require cooking, you can approach them the same way you would make any vinaigrette for salad. I have found that my Mojo recipe works best when heated and cooled, as it helps to really carry the flavors of the garlic and cumin. You may also just coat the meat in some Dijon mustard and herbs and leave that to marinate for a few hours before baking. Something as easy as this carries a lot of flavor into meat, as it already has an acid added to it and loads of wonderful flavor.

If you plan to saute, make sure to pat dry your protein before applying it to a pan, so as to guarantee a good sear. The same goes for baking or roasting, but since leaving the skin on is not recommended, in order to reduce fat, it is not as much of an issue as it would be should you require a crispy skin.

Dry marinating is also great for impacting poultry with lots of flavors. It does not require wet ingredients, or oil and this can reduce calories and fat. You can use a wet ingredient in small quantity such as honey, or yogurt though.  I look to my culinary dream region of the Mediterranean islands for this next one. I have mentioned Zaatar and Sumac in previous posts for their flavor and aroma. To boot they are excellent on poultry.

For 4-6 chicken breasts:

2 Tablespoons plan, Greek style Yogurt

3 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons ground sumac

1/4 cup Zaatar spice

Zest of one Meyer lemon, or regular lemon if Meyer cannot be found

Salt and Pepper

In a clean bowl, mix all ingredients well, and taste for seasoning. Rub all over the chicken and let sit, either in a plastic baggie, or in a baking dish, covered tightly in plastic wrap, for no less than 2 hours. You can omit the yogurt all together if you prefer.

I love this marinade on chicken that will be grilled or used in a shish kebab. If you have metal, or bamboo skewers handy and some yummy vegetables like zucchini, yellow squash, large chunks of red onion, bell peppers, and such you could arrange them on the skewers and marinate all of the ingredients together! You don’t even need to grill this they are so easy to cook in a pre-heated oven set to broil on a parchment lined, sheet tray.  Set them in rows on the sheet tray, or baking sheet, or use a roasting rack that fits neatly onto a sheet tray if you have one, and slide into a pre-heated oven to bake on 400 degrees or to broil, close it and let it rip for about 20 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken cubes.

If you want to simply salt and pepper your chicken and roast it for use in salad, this is great. Chicken salad is a wonderful lunch, as long as you use soy mayonnaise, sour cream, or yogurt to bind the ingredients. As listed above items that are great with chicken include: cranberries, grapes, cherries, plums, tarragon, walnuts, mustard, almonds, garlic, citrus, apples, and chives. These specific ingredients make for great chicken salads, especially tarragon and chives. You can serve it over a bed of shredded Napa cabbage, or on a leaf of Bibb lettuce, or on a slice of toasted, multi-grain wheat bread.

If you love making soup have some chicken or vegetable stock on hand as often as you can. If you make it at home, you can store it in the freezer for later use. I find that once my chicken stock cools completely, I can take several sturdy, zip-top, plastic freezer bags and place them over a container that is tall, and fill them with stock, close them tightly, then store the stock lying flat in my freezer! I have it on hand, and it takes up little space this way.  Both light and dark meat, skin off, are excellent in soups. A trick I learned in culinary school is to have your meat seasoned and roasted prior to using in the soup you are making, as this helps retain moisture and texture. If your stock is good you don’t need to cook the poultry in it with the other ingredients, and having it cooked off ahead of time is a better way to go, as well as a great way to use leftovers from a different meal with chicken. Generally you don’t need to season a soup until the end, and do so to taste with salt and pepper. Fresh herbs can also be added at the end.

Chicken is best cooked in standard methods, so allow a little time for these, or purchase pre-cooked meat. Be aware of labels though, and check for sodium and calories. I say this because microwaves are great for many things, but not meats. There tend to be “cold spots”  in microwaves which can cook unevenly, and the last thing you want with poultry is uneven cooking temperatures!

I also want to talk quickly about Quail before I wrap up here. Quail are a small, wild game bird,  related to pheasant. They are about the size of a pigeon, and are very delicious.  They are found fresh, or frozen in gourmet markets and are easy to prepare. If thawing make sure to thaw refrigerated before use. Here is a quick recipe to cap off my post:

Quail with White Grapes:

4 quails

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon Kosher salt

appx. 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup of white wine such as a Riesling

1/3 cup of chicken broth

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1 tablespoon, fresh, minced tarragon

2 cloves garlic, minced or smashed

1/2 cup of seedless white grapes (or 1/4 cup golden raisins if you prefer)

2 tablespoons of toasted almonds, sliced

Rinse the birds and pat dry inside and out, then drizzle with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and sprinkle with salt and white pepper. In a non-stick skillet, saute the quail in olive oil until golden. About 5 minutes on each side, at medium heat. Add the wine, chicken broth, garlic, tarragon, and remaining lemon juice. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, checking to make sure the broth does not reduce too quickly. Add the grapes and almonds and cook for 5 more minutes or until the birds are tender.

This can be served over a bed of wilted Swiss chard, cabbage and kale for a power packed meal.

I hope I have helped inspire you on your way to adding poultry to your diet. Remember that chicken is like a blank canvass for your culinary creativity. It plays very well with others, and when handled smartly, makes a great addition to your diet.

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Lentils are a member of the legume family which are plants bearing pods with rows of seeds inside. They are ideal as a quick source of protein, fiber, amino acids and are low on the glycemic index. They are very low in saturated fat and cholesterol and are also a good source of iron, folate, and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. For one cup of cooked lentils you get a whopping 18 grams of protein and 16 grams of fiber! That means they fill you up. They cook very quickly, and depending on which type you are using some faster than others. You don’t need to soak lentils like other beans, and it there is much controversy as to salting before or after the cooking process. It has been my experience that after soaking, adding salt to the cooking water can slow things down a bit, but because beans contain calcium and other minerals, these make the cell walls sturdy anyway. Adding salt can sort of fill in spaces  in the cell walls, and make it take a bit longer, but with lentils it doesn’t really matter. It can produce a more flavorful result and since they don’t need to be soaked prior to cooking go ahead and add salt. Now, regularly I would say to cook your beans in a pressure cooker, as I am a huge fan of these. Lentils, however, will not fare well in a pressure cooker, and will become mushy and paste-like as an end result.
The most common varieties of lentil you have eaten are probably the delicate and peppery French green, or “Puy”, and the earthy Brown lentil. Split peas are considered to be a lentil as well. In Indian cooking “Daal” is a common dish and is another name for lentil, as well as “Gram”. The delicate yellow or red variety is used most commonly for this cuisine and while they don’t retain their shape very well after cooking, they are delicate and flavorful with a velvety texture that is very enjoyable.
Dried lentils are best because of their quick cooking and that they don’t need to be soaked beforehand. You can find most types I have mentioned in any grocery store, and also in the store’s “international” or “ethnic” aisle. My go to for varieties of any kind of food is “Cooks Thesaurus” on the web.
If you are dining out, and you are searching for the lentil, your best bet would be Middle Eastern, Greek, or of course, any Mediterranean type restaurant. You can easily find lentils added to many dishes, or alone in a salad, and are most likely prepared with unsaturated oils, like Olive oil.
To cook simply pour the amount of lentils you are going to use into a clean bowl, and rinse them with cold water picking out any debris, or stones, or discolored ones. There usually aren’t many of these these days anyway. Then drain them into a colander, and using a ration of : 1 part lentils to 3 parts water or stock, simmer until they are tender. Usually for brown or green lentils this takes about 15-20 minutes. For the more delicate red, or yellow “daal” I mentioned, it takes a whopping 5-10 minutes! Woo Hoo! Split peas can take another cup of water as they swell a bit more than their cousins.
Lentils love assertive flavors like citrus, garlic, onion, spices and fresh herbs. They stand alone or compliment vegetables, poultry, or fish, especially Salmon.

A simple dish you can make quickly would be a red lentil salad, with spinach, lemon juice, fresh parsley and minced garlic with some extra virgin olive oil.

• 1 pound fresh or frozen spinach, defrosted and drained
• 4 cups cooked red lentils
• juice of 1 fresh lemon
• 1 cup rough chopped flat leaf parsley
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed or minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

You can also take some cooked, puy lentils and make the same. Or make a hardy stew with crushed, low-sodium tomatoes, garlic, pepper and oregano.

• 4 cups cooked lentils (or 2 cups raw)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups vegetable stock (or 6 if cooking the raw lentils as is)
• 1 can low-sodium crushed tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 white onion finely chopped
• 2 or 3 cloves garlic, smashed or finely minced
• 3 tablespoons fresh, chopped oregano, or 1 tablespoon dry
• salt and pepper to taste

In a sturdy pot on medium heat, sweat the onions with a little sprinkle of salt until they become translucent, add the garlic and tomato paste and stir for about 1 minute and quickly add the stock and lentils. Cook for about 10 minutes or until it comes to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer a bit and add your oregano or fresh herb of choice. A dash of red wine vinegar, or lemon juice will brighten up this stew.

These are just two simple examples of quick and healthy ways to prepare lentils. I hope you will consider them a lot more in your diet as they are one of the easiest ways to get both high protein and high fiber in an easy way.

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Oh yes, I said it. Anchovies! And any other yummy, cold-water, oily fish too! Like sardines or herrings! Oh now, forget that thought of crusty little pieces of brown, bony, stink on a pizza! I am talking about plump, juicy, fleshy, white sardines that you can get on any good Spanish tapas plate called “boquerones” or “anchoas”. They are super high in Omega-3’s, and are lightly cured in salt and vinegar, and packed in olive oil, so they last about a month refrigerated once you open them. I dare say they won’t need to make it that long though.

They are filleted and make the perfect snack, or ingredient for salad dressing. Just stay with me here.Yes I know some of you out there love your brown anchovies in a can, more power to you. With those I prefer to use them as an ingredient, ground to a paste, and not as a snack food. If you like them, eat them! Today, however,  I want to focus on the small, oily, fatty, little fishies that frequent the Mediterranean diet. We are, after all, modeling our diets to the Mediterranean one, and what better than little, flavorful fish? These are becoming trendy and it’s likely you have had them in any restaurant that serves Tapas, or if you have traveled to Spain or the Mediterranean. They aren’t difficult to make at home, and require a minimum prep time of 45 minutes to 1 hour. You can get frozen fillets but I recommend fresh. If you ask your fishmonger to gut them perhaps they will, otherwise it is a bit of a job to do but so worth it! Since they are so tiny you just wash them well, clean and gut them by slicing their bellies open head to tail, pinch the heads off with your thumb and fore-finger and pull the back bone out. Watch out for a tiny bone underneath near the head too. Soaking them in either white wine, or Sherry vinegar, lemon juice, and fresh water helps soften any bones you might have missed. For an example for about one kilogram or, 2.2 pounds of Boquerones, you would use:

1 cup Sherry or Wine vinegar

1 large lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon sea salt or Kosher

1/4 cup fresh water

You can layer them in a dish and sprinkle the salt over them before the vinegar and lemon. You can also omit the lemon and just do the vinegar.Once marinated for about 1 hour, or just until they are no longer translucent, but opaque and white, you can drain and rinse them, and pack them in good olive oil to cover completely, overnight, before using. This helps preserve them. Feel free to add garlic cloves, or slices, and chilies or freshly chopped parsley. Then when you want, just pull however many you want out of the oil and serve on a slice of baguette, or on a lavash cracker and have a little wine, maybe some Cerignola, or Lucques olives, a couple almonds. . . you get the picture.

I must admit though, as easy as it is to make them yourself, they are just as good bought from the store, or online from a specialty foods store. Another one of my favorites is pickled Herring. You can find these easily, and they make a great snack food as they are sweet, vinegary, and satisfy any meat cravings you might have. Try either one of these, and if you make the Boquerones at home let me know how they turn out!

Spanish white anchovies or "Boquerones" with Parsley and Olive Oil

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Brussels sprouts have been given a bad rap, kids try and feed them to the dog under tables, they kind of smell like well…farts sometimes when overcooked (this is because of the release of a sulfurous compound glucosinolate sinigrin released through over cooking), they get frozen and thawed and are mushy and oozey green. You have probably seen them fresh on the stalk and hopefully taken them home to try out. I have some tips on how to prepare them that are very quick and easy and will yield tasty results as well. If you get them fresh on the stalk or in a bag, this is what I recommend, but frozen could work too in other applications such as casseroles or baked. The fresh ones are easy, just pop the brussels sprouts off the stalk and give them a quick wash in the sink. Get some water in a medium to large pot, one you might cook pasta in, and add plenty of fresh sea or kosher salt so the water tastes salty. While that is boiling, get a paring knife out, and slice off the stem piece that sticks out a little further in than you usually would and remove the first couple leaves that loosen, or fall off the sprout. Then you can cut the sprout in half lengthwise, to get two pieces that are the same. When you have finished with all the sprouts you are going to use, the water should be boiling. Get a bowl or container of ice and water ready and a slotted spoor or sieve with a handle, for scooping. Dump in the brussels sprouts and let the water come back to a boil, about a minute or so, and remove them to the ice-water with the slotted spoon or handled strainer. They should be slightly tender and bright green. At this point they will have taken on some of the salt and cooked a little bit and will taste delicious in a salad cold, or you can let them dry out for use later on. I like to get a medium saute pan hot over medium heat with some olive oil and gently cook the sprouts until they begin to brown a little, or caramelize, then toss in some crumbled up soy bacon and fresh herbs for a really tasty side dish. You can also bake them until golden with some baby potatoes or pearl onions for another wonderful side dish, or vegetable dinner. If you are using frozen sprouts they won’t come out like the fresh do, but are just as nutritious. They are best used in salads, or finely shredded with a sharp knife to add in with cole slaw. The freezing process tends to render them softer than they are when fresh, so steaming them or boiling them shortly, 3-4 minutes reduces over cooking. Brussels sprouts belong to the same family that includes cabbage, collard greens, broccoli, kale, and kohlrabi. They also contain vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fiber. You can definitely cook them quickly, shred with a sharp knife raw for use in salads or slaw, or blanch and saute, use in side dishes or alone. 

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Pomegranate’s are pretty, they make up bits in potporri baskets and appear in fall designs and wreaths, on our dinner tables and around the home as decor. You have probably walked past them in the grocery store, smiling whimsically at the thought of purchasing one, though not knowing what you will do with it when you get it back home.

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