Lévana Kirschenbaum shares more than 350 recipes, including matbukha and its egg variation shakshuka (shown), in her latest cookbook.

When we think of comfort foods, too often heavy, fatty dishes come to mind. Yet in The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen (Lévana Cooks, 2012), author and chef Lévana Kirschenbaum recalls that her mother would say, “The cure is in the pot,” from oatmeal for stomachaches to a baked sweet potato for nausea. The book takes an updated approach to food cures, providing healthful recipes that utilize unprocessed foods for nutritious and flavorful dishes.

Kirschenbaum, who owned Lévana, a kosher restaurant on New York City’s Upper West Side for more than 30 years, is also the author of Lévana’s Table: Kosher Cooking for Everyone (Merkos Linyonei Chinuch, 2002) and Lévana Cooks Dairy-Free! (Skyhorse Publishing, 2007). After few days of hospitalization and a several months of medication for irritable bowel syndrome, Kirschenbaum remembered her mother’s words and examined her diet. After changes that included incorporating dark greens, lots of fruits and vegetables, seaweed, whole grains and lean proteins into her diet, she notes that she felt better and shed 10 pounds of middle-age weight.

Kirshchenbaum notes, “Cooks-from-scratch spend hardly any more time, money or effort making real delicious, nutritious food.” She uses instructions for cake and pancake mixes versus homemade as an eye-opening example.

While the 350-plus recipes are obviously kosher, anyone can enjoy the dishes included in the hefty tome, with ethnic recipes from Kirschenbaum’s native Morocco, as well as Indian, Italian, French and Chinese dishes. The first chapter is devoted to stocking your pantry with homemade salad dressings, rubs, marinades, sauces and jams, before a soups chapter with options such as curried apple kale soup, corn chowder, Moroccan lentil and cold red and yellow pepper.

You’ll also find salads (from apple Waldorf to the kale, beet and seaweed salad on the book’s cover) and fish dishes such as tuna, wild mushrooms and asparagus ragout and mock crab summer rolls. The poultry and meat chapter starts with variations on a simple chicken recipe, with everything from artichokes to plantains to carrots, as well as roast chicken six ways. Vegetable dishes include beer-braised mushroom tempeh stew, sushi rolls and steamed vegetable dumplings. There’s also a chapter for grains and pasta, breakfast and brunch and desserts.

The recipe that caught our eye was the matbukha, a cooked tomato salad that we’ve had as shakshuka, the version with eggs, at The Art Café in Nyack, NY. We’ve included both variations below.

Cooked Tomato Salad: Matbukha
Serves 8
1 whole head garlic
2 red bell peppers, washed, cored and seeded
2–3 jalapeño peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large beefsteak tomatoes or 8 plum tomatoes, diced small (settle for 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, liquid and all)
½ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons paprika
3 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 425° F.

2. Slice about ¼ inch off the pointed end of the head of garlic, leaving the cloves exposed. Drizzle the olive oil onto the garlic and the peppers, place them on a cookie sheet, and roast for 30 minutes, or until the garlic is soft and the peppers are charred (the peppers might be ready a few minutes before the garlic). Press the cloves out of their skins while still warm and mash with a fork. Peel the peppers and cut them into thin strips.

3. In a heavy, wide-bottom pot, bring the tomatoes, oil and paprika to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, add the roasted garlic and peppers, and cook covered for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently. All of the liquid should evaporate, and the oil will resurface (if you neglect this step, you will not get the desired look and texture, but a glorified tomato sauce). Add the minced garlic and the salt and pepper to taste. Let cool and store in a glass jar in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to 2 weeks. Use a slotted spoon to serve so the oil stays behind. Makes about 3 cups.

NUTRITION SCORE (per serving)
185 calories
Fat 17 g
 (2.4 g saturated)
Carbs 8 g
Protein 2 g
Fiber 2.2 g
Calcium 24 mg
Iron 0.9 mg
Sodium 7 mg

Variations: Shakshuka
Stir 8 eggs into the matbukha on a medium flame, mixing thoroughly with a wooden spoon, and cook just a few more minutes, until the eggs are barely set. If you would rather end up with a more pristine look, leave the eggs whole, break them one by one and set them over the mixture, close but not touching, and cook covered on low flame until they look barely set.

NUTRITION SCORE (per serving)
257 calories
Fat 22 g
 (4 g saturated)
Carbs 8 g
Protein 8 g
Fiber 2.2 g
Calcium 52 mg
Iron 1.8 mg
Sodium 78 mg

Serve hot, alone or with a good whole-grain bread, or on a bed of cooked (canned OK) beans. If you’ve started to make more meals at home and from scratch, what were the biggest obstacles and how did you deal with them?

Photo credit: Meir Pliskin

This time of year, fava beans, squash and greens are in season in many parts of the U.S.

Longer days and warmer weather brings visions of summer bounty, from juicy berry pies and bright compotes to fresh corn and heirloom tomatoes. But right now, as late spring turns to summer, we’re in a sweet spot where versatile, easy-to-prepare ingredients are readily available from farmers markets and in CSA shares. And we’re not just talking asparagus.

From California to New York, May and June mean greens, greens and more greens. Think spinach salad tossed with early-season strawberries, or go for more intense, dark leafy greens like kale and Swiss chard. If you’ve never had crispy kale, you’re missing out — just rip it up and toss in a pan with a pinch of sea salt and olive oil, and roast at 375° F for 25 minutes or until crisp all the way through. We’ve also shared a crunchy kale with Parmesan recipe and an easy sautéed kale preparation.

Feeling adventurous? Make your way into the bitter, but nutritious dandelion greens (bacon helps cut the bitterness) or pull out the sauté pan and olive oil to get the best out of bok choy, broccoli rabe or pea shoots.

Get fresh fava beans while you can. The season is short and while the double shell means it’s a labor-intensive process, these large, nutty beans are worth the effort. (Double shelling means removing the beans from the pod, and then removing the tough skin that surrounds each individual bean.) The appearance of sugar snap peas at the market is another sign of the season, and these gems are so satisfyingly crunchy, they need little to no preparation at all. Eat them raw, or sauté quickly with olive oil and throw them into a stir-fry or pasta.

Regional favorites vary by geography and climate. Some California farmers markets are just starting to see short-lived Bing cherries from the Central Valley — with a six-week season to enjoy these sweet treats straight from the market.

At the Dane County Farmers Market in Madison, WI, morel mushrooms are a favorite. These earthy treats grow wild in more northerly states like Wisconsin and Michigan, where foragers are rabid about tracking down the latest crops.

Meanwhile, foraged edibles are springing up in the East Coast states as well. Just head to the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City on any Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday, and you’ll see the city’s top chefs rummaging for seasonal favorites like ramps (aka spring onions), watercress and even stinging nettles. Handle raw nettles carefully (gloves and tongs are recommended) — quick steaming or boiling softens the prickles so they’re perfectly safe to eat.

In Central Texas, rainstorms earlier this year meant a bounty of tomatoes, loquats, squashes, berries and even some stone fruits. “It’s an exciting time for us,” says Nadine Thomas, executive chef at the W Austin and TRACE Restaurant. “I particularly enjoy the tomatoes and the peaches — we just pickled a large batch of peaches and are awaiting the season’s first tomatoes,” she says. “Ratatouille with all the spring’s first squashes is another favorite.”

Below is Thomas’ ratatouille recipe. “If I find any other vegetables at the market such as braising greens — Swiss chard or kale — radishes or fresh carrots also make an interesting addition,” she says.

Spring Squash Ratatouille
Serves 8
1 head of garlic
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 small eggplant
½ large yellow onion
2 bell peppers
1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow summer squash
4 medium tomatoes
¼ cup sherry vinegar
1 tsp fresh thyme
8 leaves fresh basil
Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Wash vegetables.

2. Roast garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil covered in foil in 325° F oven for 20–30 minutes until soft and lightly browned.

3. Dice the eggplant, squashes, onion and peppers. (For a more rustic ratatouille, dice larger, and for a more refined, dice the vegetables smaller.

4. Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water and refresh in an ice bath. Peel, seed and dice the tomatoes.

5. Heat a heavy-bottom fry pan and add the remaining olive oil.

6. Add the eggplant and sauté until lightly browned and slightly softened.

7. Add the onion and continue to sauté 4 minutes.

8. Add the peppers and squashes and continue sautéing until all the vegetables are evenly cooked, seasoning as you go with salt and freshly ground pepper.

9. Add the tomatoes last, cook long enough for most of the liquid to evaporate, check seasoning and add sherry vinegar, fresh herbs and 4 cloves roasted garlic or to taste.

NUTRITION SCORE (per serving)
133 calories
Fat 11 g
 (1.5 g saturated)
Carbs 9 g
Protein 2 g
Fiber 3 g
Calcium 29 mg
Iron 0.7 mg
Sodium 9 mg

What are your favorite vegetables in season right now?

Photo credit: Sarika Chawla

James Beard Foundation Award winner Bruce Sherman, chef/owner of North Pond in Chicago, promotes sustainable, seasonal cooking, such as this egg with asparagus and morel ragout.

The annual James Beard Foundation Awards reward the best in cooking with medals and recognition. We’re lucky enough to know more than a few chefs, and we’re eager to know the best places to eat, so we pay attention to the awards, which take place every May at Lincoln Center in New York City. This year was especially exciting, because so many winners were chefs who promote sustainable, healthful, seasonal cooking.

Bruce Sherman, chef/owner of Chicago’s North Pond Restaurant, has been quietly doing good work (no TV shows or big splashy parties) for years, so it was nice to see him take home the Best Chef: Great Lakes. He works with Chefs Collaborative to promote local farms, and he added a dollar to the price of each bottle of wine in his restaurant to go to charity, a donation that is matched with an additional dollar from the restaurant’s revenue.

If Chicago’s not in your immediate travel plans, then sign up for Sherman’s newsletters. (Click on “news” here.) You’ll learn more about how to prepare seasonal and sustainable items. It’s not quite like having the food cooked for you — and the dishes cleaned up after — but it’s a pretty tasty second.

The first time we met Gramercy Tavern’s Michael Anthony, a big supporter of NYC farmers markets, he spent half an hour telling us about the funky, bright, fresh root vegetables he’d set on a gala table. He puts the same joy and dedication into his menus and won the Best Chef category for New York City. Gramercy Tavern offers gorgeous tasting menus and a la carte menus; if you go a la carte, save room for Nancy Olson’s desserts.

Right across the river, in Hoboken, NJ, Maricel Presilla of Cucharamama took the mid-Atlantic honors. Presilla, a culinary historian, has a Ph.D. in history from NYU, and her interests lie in Latin America and Spain, plus she’s written a book on chocolate. Chucharamama dishes include Choritos (Mejillones) en Salsa “Cuzqueña”: mussels in a spicy sauce of panca peppers, garlic, cilantro and Peruvian dark beer, as well as Arepas de Choclo — fresh corn cake with salmon roe and Venezuelan crème fraîche — from Presilla’s wood-burning oven.

Best Chef: Northwest went to Matt Dillon of Sitka & Spruce in Seattle, where Dillon serves seasonal and regional ingredients and makes it happily communal, with an open kitchen and a long table — but you can grab some private space, if you prefer. The fresh ingredients, with flavors that really pop, are from The Old Chaser Farm, a small farm on Vashon Island, where you’ll find everything from honeybees to sheep. The Monday nights of Mexican fare are popular with locals.

Hugh Acheson got double honors this year. His cookbook, A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen (Clarkson Potter, 2011), won the James Beard Foundation Book Award for American Cooking. Three nights later, he was one of two chefs to take Best Chef: Southeast. At 5 & 10, in Athens, GA, Acheson offers local ingredients for brunch, dinner, snackies (marinated white anchovies with grapefruit, housemade pickles, etc.) and cheese with accompaniments. Acheson shared his recipe for salmon with marinated vegetables and salmoriglio sauce with VIVmag; the salmon pairs beautifully with spring vegetables currently available and the simple Italian lime and herb salmoriglio sauce.

Ties are rare, but there was one this year. Linton Hopkins, of Restaurant Eugene, in Atlanta was the other Southeast winner.

Still hungry? Regional Best Chef awards went to Tory Miller of L’Etoile, in Madison, WI; Tim Cushman of Boston’s O Ya; Chris Hastings of the Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, AL; Paul Qui of Uchiko in Austin, TX; and Matt Molina, of Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles.

Outstanding Restaurant went to Boulevard in San Francisco, and Rising Star Chef of the Year to Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar in New York City. Mindy Segal, of Mindy’s HotChocolate in Chicago, won Outstanding Pastry Chef. Outstanding Chef went to Daniel Humm, of New York City’s Eleven Madison Park.

Have you had the chance to eat any fare prepared by the 2012 James Beard Foundation chef winners?

Photo credit: Courtesy North Pond

Iowa farmer Andrew Dunham, who runs the Grinnell Heritage Farm, talks in "The Weight of the Nation" about the obstacles he and other farmers face in delivering organic vegetables to market.

We caught a preview last week of HBO’s upcoming four-part documentary The Weight of the Nation and we have a spoiler alert for you: A lot of us Americans are fat! OK, so the obesity crisis isn’t breaking news, but this well-intentioned documentary, which airs tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the cable channel and its website, does have some surprises up its sleeve.

One of the most startling things about Weight is simply that it’s a cooperative effort of HBO Documentary Films, the Institute of Medicine (an independent federal agency), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, with underwriting coming from Kaiser Permanente and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. (Anyone who has ever tried to plan a girls’ night out can recognize how exhausting that group effort — which involved three government agencies — must have been.)

Surprisingly, one of the villains in the series is the government itself, in the form of federal farm subsidies that keep American corn and soybeans (and their derivatives, high-fructose corn syrup and soybean oil) unnaturally cheap. If you can draw the connections between that fact and obesity, you’re onto the point of the documentary. As the companion book of the same name notes in its opening chapter, “As much as we wish there were one thing in the fight against fat we could point to and eliminate, there isn’t…the cause is complex.”

Complex issues don’t always make for good TV, but if you really want to understand the big picture on how America got so fat, it’s worth investing the time to watch. The statistics fly thick and fast in this series, but you also see the human toll: how agribusiness has turned individual farmers from food growers into commodity producers and how children in low-income communities are hit disproportionately with the double whammy of no safe place to exercise and an onslaught of cheap junk food.

Consciousness-raising is clearly the agenda here, since the producers believe that informed people will make smarter choices. In fact, HBO is offering individual kits stocked with discussion guides and DVDs to encourage people to organize their own screenings. Given that peer behavior has been shown in recent research to be a significant driver in weight gain, the reverse approach makes sense. Whether it will work remains to be seen, but with the prospect of the nation’s obesity-related healthcare costs swelling to $344 billion (21 percent of total healthcare costs) by 2018, there’s a lot of dollars — and lives — at stake.

What steps do you think should be taken to fight the obesity crisis in the United States?

Photo credit: Courtesy HBO

Gabrielle Hamilton is a sought-after chef who has an MFA in writing, a winning combination that earned her memoir a 2012 James Beard Foundation Book Award.

With so many cookbooks and food memoirs available, what’s worth adding to our shelves of trusted kitchen tomes? We look to the recently announced list of 2012 James Beard Foundation Book Awards winners.

We were happy — but not surprised — to see that Jeni Britton Bauer won the baking and dessert category for Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home (Artisan, 2011), which we told you about last summer, when we shared a recipe for her backyard mint ice cream. Other recipes include Ugandan vanilla bean (a favorite, apparently, of dessert enthusiast Courtney Love), sweet corn and black raspberry, salty caramel and Buckeye (chocolate and peanut butter). The Columbus, OH-based Bauer uses cream from grass-fed cows and seasonal ingredients in her ice creams, as well as essences you’ll remember from another VIV Says post — Aftelier Chef’s Essences by Mandy Aftel. In fact, Aftelier offers a Jeni’s Ice Cream Set ($90) of essences: clove, coriander, lavender, peppermint, ylang ylang and sweet orange.

We’ve been giving copies of Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef (Random House, 2011) to friends — and even have a few tucked away as upcoming Mother’s Day gifts. The winner of the 2012 James Beard Award for Writing and Literature, it was written by Gabrielle Hamilton, chef-owner of NYC’s Prune. Two-time James Beard Award nominated writer Janet Rausa Fuller tweeted a great review of the book: “Read it from ORD to LAX w/o looking up.” Hamilton’s MFA in fiction writing takes a front burner on this memoir, making it easy to fall into her world. Hamilton also makes a striking impression in person. The first time we met, she gave us a container of fresh octopus, cleaned with her own hands.

Paula Wolfert went home with the International medal for The Food of Morocco (Ecco, 2011), a 528-page tour of a very edible country. More than a cookbook, it’s a journey with pictures, stories and maps. Take it to the kitchen to prepare trout with preserved lemons, raisins and pine nuts in broth; grated cucumber salad with orange flower water; or semolina yeast pancakes with honey and butter. But curl up in bed with a lamp and a mug of mint tea, and let Wolfert take you on a journey that will feed more than your imagination. No passport required.

Modernist Cuisine (The Cooking Lab, 2011) won Cookbook of the Year. Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet put in a ton of work into the six-volume 2,438 page set. At more than $400 — Amazon’s discount price — it’s a splurge, but it really is art. A charred pepper has never looked so beautiful, and the research and writing are spotless.

As a VIV reader, you know we have a thing for bitters, so we bought Brad Thomas Parsons’ Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All (Ten Speed Press, 2011) the instant it hit the shelves — long before it was even nominated for (or won) the Beverages category. Parsons writes for high-end aficionados who want to make their own bitters, cocktail-lovers looking to make a delicious splash at their next dinner party and people who, like us, enjoy a tantalizing nonalcoholic drink. Recipes include bitters-and-balsamic macerated strawberries, bitters-sweet chocolate malted pudding, classic cocktails and beautifully flavored syrups.

Heidi Swanson makes healthy eating tasty with Super Natural Every Day: Well-Loved Recipes From My Natural Foods Kitchen (Ten Speed Press, 2011). The winner of the Focus on Health Award (not to mention winner of shelf space in our kitchen) is divided into sections on breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, drinks, treats and accompaniments. Best of all, Swanson shares her sources, so we don’t need to scramble to find herbs, spices, teas and other hard-to-source ingredients. Swanson’s website, 101 Cookbooks, is jammed with healthful recipes — searchable by ingredient or season — news, tips, tricks and links.

The media awards weren’t just for bookworms. Medals also were awarded to publications, columns, essays and blogs. This year’s blog winner is NPR’s The Salt. We loved recent stories about making drinking water safer in developing countries and how our homemade yogurt might outlive us.

You can see the rest of the media winners here. Congratulations to everybody who took home a medal. Do you have any culinary book favorites or early predictions for next year’s nominees?

Photo credit: Christopher Hirsheimer

Cat Cora co-hosts the new Bravo show "Around the World in 80 Plates."

If you love the world-traveling adventure of The Amazing Race and the culinary competition of Top Chef as much as we do, then tune into Bravo tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT for the premiere of Around the World in 80 Plates. This delectable mash-up from Project Runway and Top Chef creators Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth sends a dozen contestants on a 40-day trip to 10 countries, cooking local specialties along the way as they vie for cash and prizes. Cat Cora (Iron Chef America) and Curtis Stone (Top Chef Masters) host the globetrotting contest, with the likes of Nigella Lawson and Wolfgang Puck dropping in as guest advisers.

Cora explains the challenges the chefs will face: “They have to take over restaurants and learn the local cuisine in 24 hours, find their ingredients and prepare meals for local diners the next day.” Of her role, she says, “It’s definitely different than anything that I have done before. It’s the best job. I get to travel and eat around the world.”

The culinary highlight for Cora was the white truffle salad she had in Bologna, Italy. The English steak-and-kidney pie and blood sausage? Not so much. She also loved the Moroccan food. “I love Mediterranean cuisine,” says the Greek-American chef, hoping that if there’s a second edition of Plates, it will include a trip to Greece, and that her family can join her.

Being away from her partner, Jennifer, and their four boys for the six weeks she was on the road was “a little tough,” admits Cora, 44, who is now home and keeping busy with her merchandise lines, including cookware and a line of oils, vinegars and sauces, and restaurants including Kouzzina at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL; CCQ in Costa Mesa, CA; and Cat Cora’s Kitchen at the San Francisco and Houston airports, with openings in Atlanta and Salt Lake City to come. “We’re doing healthy dining,” says Cora, who’s also working on a book; she won’t yet divulge details, but says it’s not a cookbook.

So how does a woman who’s constantly in the kitchen stay in shape? “Chasing four boys around and working out,” says Cora. “I’m not going to be one of those people who will tell you it comes naturally. It does not. I have to work out every day.”

For VIVmag‘s guide to eating like an in-the-know local in Hong Kong, Glasgow, Kansas City, Cape Town and Graz, check out “An Appetite for Travel” in the latest issue. What culinary destination would top your travel list?

Photo credit: Justin Stephens/Bravo

Melina Jampolis, M.D., provides simple tenets to healthy eating and weight loss in "The Calendar Diet," with recipes from Karen Ansel, R.D., and exercise circuits from Ami Jampolis, C.S.C.S.

We’ve been eager to read The Calendar Diet: A Month by Month Guide to Losing Weight While Living Your Life (Wagging Tail Press, 2012). Not only is it an extremely practical, concise and comprehensive guide to losing weight (and keeping it off), but the new book is written by two of our favorite nutrition experts — VIVmag Advisory Board member Melina Jampolis, M.D., and VIVmag contributor Karen Ansel, M.S., R.D.

As the name implies, The Calendar Diet goes beyond advice for losing weight, serving as a doctor-designed guide to weight management year-round, with research-based tips from Jampolis, easy and delicious recipes from Ansel and exercise routines from personal trainer (and Jampolis’ sister) Ami Jampolis, M.S., C.S.C.S.

Melina Jampolis says that she wanted to put the guidance she gives her patients on paper. “I see patients year-round for weight loss and spend a lot of time coaching them through challenging eating situations, waxing and waning motivation levels, exercise boredom and weight-loss plateaus,” she says. The seasonal eating approach, with relevant recipes, is “a great way to boost nutrition, save money and save the environment by buying locally whenever possible,” Jampolis says.

What can you expect to eat on the diet? Lean protein, healthy fats, whole grains and plenty of vegetables. In the “Getting Started” chapter, you’ll also discover advice on helpful tools, from a food journal to small bowls for portion control. (For a guide to portion-control bowls, check out Ansel’s VIVmag story “Safe at Home Plate.”) The six principles of the diet, which include eating three meals and one to two snacks per day and including protein in most of those, are based on something Jampolis observed in 10 years of working with patients: “The simpler I make the principles of losing weight, the better.”

Each season has its own chapter (plus a special section devoted to the holiday season) with an overview, tips for building an exercise routine, behavioral strategies for the season and a list of seasonal produce. Plus you’ll find tips for navigating every eating holiday, from big food days like Thanksgiving and Super Bowl Sunday to Mother’s Day and Columbus Day.

Special occasions hold pitfalls for dieters who use them as an excuse to cut loose, Ansel notes. “That can really burn some people,” she says. “Not only do they have trouble resisting temptation during those roadblock occasions, then after they do, they feel like they’ve blown their diet entirely. Then they get stuck in a rut where they can’t find the motivation to get back on track.” The recipe sections provide healthy, tasty alternatives, so dieters don’t feel deprived and can stave off temptation without feeling like they’ve blown it.

The exercise component of the book includes photos of the moves demonstrated by Ami Jampolis. Readers can design their own circuit from a variety of exercise combinations; each circuit includes nine exercises of six-strength based exercises and three cardiovascular exercises. These include tried-and-true squats, lunges, planks and crunches to the creatively named spine strengthener Superman (lying facedown with hips touching the floor and arms and legs raised for 3-second intervals) and the Fire Hydrants (a knee lift on all fours).

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, a diet roadblock featuring American versions of Mexican food, such as nachos and other cheese-drenched dishes. Here’s an easy-to-prepare, nutritious dish from The Calendar Diet that’s rich in fresh Latin flavors. And go easy on the margaritas, of course — and not just for your head’s well-being on May 6. The Calendar Diet recommends a limit of three alcoholic drinks per week, and skipping sugary cocktails when possible. Margaritas typically have an average of 300 calories, but if you want to celebrate, try making your own margarita without the mix, using tequila, fresh lime juice, club soda and a pinch or two of sugar.

Chili Lime Chicken
Serves 2
2 5-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 pinches salt, divided
2 pinches, pepper, divided
1 pinch garlic powder
½ teaspoon plus 1 pinch chili powder, divided
4 teaspoons canola oil
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
4 cups shredded romaine lettuce
½ cucumber, thinly sliced
2 radishes, thinly sliced

1. Season chicken with 1 pinch each salt, pepper, garlic powder and chili powder.

2. Heat 1 teaspoon canola oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and cook 10–12 minutes, or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165° F, turning halfway. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. While chicken is cooking, whisk together lime juice, honey, cilantro and remaining canola oil, salt, pepper and chili powder.

4. Toss romaine, cucumber and radishes in a large salad bowl. Drizzle with half dressing and toss well.

5. Divide salad between 2 plates. Top each with 1 piece of chicken and drizzle with remaining dressing.

NUTRITION SCORE (per serving)
279 calories
Fat 13 g
 (1.7 g saturated)
Carbs 10 g
Protein 30 g
Fiber 3 g
Calcium 61 mg
Iron 2.2 mg
Sodium 239 mg

What are some of your own biggest healthy eating pitfalls?

"The Edible Balcony" provides tips and ideas for turning any outdoor space into a green oasis that provides fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs.

From city community gardeners to Midwestern homeowners with spacious yards, it seems everyone is eager to embark on gardening projects. In fact, with the mild winter and spring, bulbs — and weeds, of course — in our own garden seem to have started without us! Here’s a look at three books for home gardeners, whether you need help maintaining a yard or have very limited growing space.

In the introduction to The Anxious Gardener’s Book of Answers (Timber Press, 2012), author Teri Dunn Chace notes that the wealth of information available can often be confusing or overwhelming. (We agree, since our own recent online search for red poppy seeds turned up so many opium and bagel results.)

The book aims to tackle all common gardening questions, from which end of the flower bulb is up to the right time to prune. Subjects include compost, containers, design, fertilizing, lawns, herbs, pruning, maintenance, shrubs, soil and even your own health and safety as a gardener (for example, using sun protection and considering whether a project is really a DIY one). We love “I Goofed, Can I Fix It?” which provides tips on mistakes such as overzealous pruning and choosing the wrong plant for a space.

Whenever we walk by a brownstone adorned with containers overflowing with lush blooms, we’re amazed, since when we pot a plant, it tends to be a death sentence. The art of container gardening is revealed in Fern Richardson’s Small-Space Container Gardens (Timber Press, 2012), which promises to help readers transform balconies, porches and patios with fruits, herbs, flowers and foliage. In this book, Richardson, who writes the popular blog Life on the Balcony, proves that it’s possible to have a garden without a yard.

Richardson approaches her containers as part of a garden, not simply potted plants, which we now see has been the root of our problem. The book includes advice about color schemes, considering the climate and conditions of your outdoor space, attracting wildlife and how to choose succulents, vines, hanging baskets and more. There are also tips for creating your own potager so that you can harvest fruit, edible vines and herbs; we love the idea for a mini BBQ herb garden to keep by the outdoor grill.

In each chapter, you’ll find diagrams, inspiring photos and fun DIY projects, such as “Cheap Pot Upgrade 101” and “Mod Minimalist Bird Feeder.” You’ll find the keys to creating an uncluttered, lush outdoor space that’s not only beautiful, but budget-friendly — and, unlike bigger gardens, there’s no weed-pulling and lawn care!

We’re determined to avoid having to buy a giant bunch of herbs that wilt in the fridge just to get a few sprigs, so The Edible Balcony (Rodale, 2012) by Alex Mitchell is just the ticket to make our vision come to life — literally. According to Mitchell, it’s possible to grow fruits, vegetables and herbs within the space you have, “from a few pots on your balcony or fire escape to an entire orchard on your roof terrace.” Not only does a garden help a balcony look better, it provides tasty produce, reduces your carbon footprint, keeps cities cool (as in temperature) and reduces air and noise pollution.

Mitchell’s book provides design basics for making the most of a small space, a container guide (from pots to grow bags to window boxes) and tips on potting mix and plant food. There’s a chapter devoted to creating an easy edible balcony with low-maintenance plants, complete with a list of the 10 best crops, and helpers such as self-watering pots.

You’ll find pointers about adding unusual plants, such as striped tomatoes and rainbow carrots, as well as “salvaged balcony” projects, such as creating a planter from an old drawer or planting a salad cascade. The extra-ambitious can even learn how to become a vertical farmer or create an exotic garden with goji berries, grapes and citrus fruits.

What garden projects are you planning to tackle this spring and summer?

The variety of healthy, simple recipes in Camilla V. Saulsbury's new book include quick quinoa stir-fry with vegetables and tofu.

When it comes to rules for healthy eating, we believe in simplicity — especially when bombarded by confusing information and the latest diet trends. Camilla V. Saulsbury’s 5 Easy Steps to Healthy Cooking: 500 Recipes for Lifelong Wellness (Robert Rose, 2012) provides five simple, flexible tenets for healthy eating, with most of the 500-plus pages devoted to easy-to-prepare recipes that incorporate them.

In the introduction of the book, Saulsbury notes, “Remember, no one food can make you healthy on its own — aim instead for a varied and balanced diet.” (In fact, the latest issue of VIVmag ranks of the sanity level of six trendy restrictive diets in “Forbidden Foods.”) Choosing fresh, whole foods, and opting for local, seasonal and organic produce when possible is the first step outlined in the book.

The second step is to make plants, such as vegetables, legumes and whole grains, the largest part of your diet each day. Saulsbury also mentions the Meatless Monday movement, which began in the U.S. during World War I as a rationing effort and was relaunched in 2003 to encourage Americans to cut down on saturated fat intake by going vegetarian one day a week. VIVmag is giving away a cookbook linked to the British counterpart of the movement; enter to win The Meat Free Monday Cookbook (Kyle Books, 2012) with a recipe for every Monday of the year by April 30, 2012.

Rule No. 3 tackles the confusion surrounding types of fat and fat consumption: Opt for healthy fats and proteins, with information about differentiating between “bad fats” and “good fats” and selecting the right proteins.

Step four is to choose superfoods, and though that term calls to mind the latest touted exotic fruit, Saulsbury defines (and simplifies) superfoods simply as “nutrient-dense.” She says, “In fact, just about every brightly colored fruit and vegetable fits the category, as do nuts, beans, seeds, aromatic and brightly colored herbs and spices, and oily fish (such as salmon).” The “Superfood Spotlight” boxes throughout the book highlight the health benefits of these items.

The last rule is to eat more whole grains as opposed to refined grains, and easy ways to incorporate those into your diet are provided.

The book also includes a handy guide to ingredients and terms before launching into the recipes for breakfasts, snacks, salads, soups, sandwiches, burgers, pizzas, wraps, pastas, sides and breads. Main dishes are divided by meatless, poultry and lean meat, and fish and seafood, and within each category, you’ll find a variety of meals. Recipes include quinoa-stuffed poblano chilies, chicken sausage and black-eyed peas, chicken with sautéed apples and Swiss chard, halibut with coconut lime sauce, Korean sesame soy pork with quick kimchi slaw and butternut squash, white bean and kale stew.

Though the chapter title “Natural Sugar Sweets” doesn’t seem very exciting, the dessert recipes themselves promise to be tasty, including chocolate cake, honey apple cake, cherry clafouti, no-bake raspberry thumbprints and soft apple cookies. Every recipe has nutrition info and most have helpful asides, from storage tips to preparation notes. Chapters also include “Healthy Know-How” boxes, such as “Top 10 Suggestions for Healthy Eating on a Budget” or “Non-Perishable Healthy Snacks.”

Below is a simple quinoa stir-fry recipe.

Excerpted from 5 Easy Steps to Healthy Cooking by Camilla V. Saulsbury © 2012 Robert Rose Inc. www.robertrose.ca. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Quick Quinoa Stir-Fry With Vegetables and Tofu
Serves 4
4 cups cooked quinoa, chilled
2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
8 ounces extra-firm tofu, drained, cut into 1-inch cubes and patted dry
12 ounces frozen stir-fry vegetables, thawed and patted dry
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger root
⅓ cup thinly sliced green onions
¼ cup teriyaki sauce
1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds

1. To prepare 4 cups cooked quinoa, combine 1⅓ cups quinoa and 2 2/3 cups water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 15–18 minutes or until water is absorbed. Let cool completely, then transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate until chilled.

2. In a large skillet, heat half the oil over medium-high heat. Add tofu and cook, stirring, for 3–4 minutes or until golden. Using a slotted spoon, transfer tofu to a plate.

3. In the same skillet, heat the remaining oil over medium-high heat. Add stir-fry vegetables and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add garlic and ginger; cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Return tofu to the pan and add quinoa, green onions and teriyaki sauce; cook, stirring, for 2–3 minutes or until well coated and warmed through. Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds.

NUTRITION SCORE (per serving)
355 calories
Fat 10 g
 (0.6 g saturated)
Carbs 51 g
Protein 18 g
Fiber 8 g
Calcium 187 mg
Iron 5 mg
Sodium 725 mg

The simplicity of healthy eating is something we believe Michael Pollan illustrated beautifully in Food Rules (Penguin Press HC, 2011). We love how Saulsbury shows how easily these can be put into practice with her recipes. Do you have your own healthy eating rules?

Photo credit: Colin Erricson/www.robertrose.ca

Asparagus is a versatile vegetable, adding unique, delicious flavor, whether roasted, stir-fried, steamed or raw.

We are smitten with California. Not only do we adore the weather, luscious wine and delicious food, but we love the agricultural festivals that celebrate so many types of produce grown in the Golden State, such as asparagus. Since 1986, the Northern California town of Stockton has been honoring the jolly green spear the last weekend of April with all proceeds from the fest going to dozens of charities (more than $5.5 million since the festival began). This year the Stockton Asparagus Festival runs from Friday, April 27 through Sunday, April 29 with the gates open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. all three days.

Aside from being with 100,000-plus other asparagus lovers, you’ll be able to taste all kinds of asparagus dishes (like the recipe below), in a venue called Asparagus Alley. Last year’s visitors gobbled down more than 36,000 pounds of locally grown asparagus in sandwiches, pasta dishes, burritos and stir-fries. With 40,000 orders, deep-fried asparagus spears were among the most popular. There’s also a deep-fried asparagus eating competition on Sunday.

The festival also includes cooking demonstrations and competitions, a recipe cook-off, and a Spear-Its of the Valley area serving wines, microbrews and other refreshing beverages. In addition, there are a charity run, musical events, entertainment for kids, and shopping at more than 600 booths, along with various art events, including sculptures made out of canned goods, which will be donated to the Stockton Food Bank.

Of course, the festival’s main focus is asparagus, a healthful member of the lily family that contains only 25 calories per serving of five spears, 2 grams of fiber, 2 grams of protein, minimal sodium and no fat. Asparagus is a good source of folate, vitamins A and C, and, according to the National Cancer Institute, has the highest amount of the powerful antioxidant glutathione.

With the warm weather here, now is the time to load up on asparagus (and well into May, which is National Asparagus Month). Green varieties are the most common; white asparagus, which you’ll see all over Europe, is the same variety, but grown underground, hence the lack of color. When buying asparagus, look for firm stalks. The thicker the stalks are, the older the plant. You can eat the thick stalks, but they may be more fibrous than the pencil-thin ones, so use a carrot peeler to strip the skin from the bottom half before cooking. For any spears, simply snap off the woody bottom portion, which naturally breaks where the asparagus starts to get tender.

Should you miss the festival, there’s always the Empire Asparagus Festival in Empire, MI, from May 18–20; the West Brookfield Asparagus & Flower Heritage Festival in Massachusetts on May 19, and the National Asparagus Festival from June 8–10 in Oceana County, MI.

The asparagus recipe below is from the 2010 edition of the 25th Annual Stockton Asparagus Festival Best of the West Food Fest Cookbook. To order a copy ($12, plus $5 shipping and handling), email info@asparagusfest.com or call the Stockton Asparagus Festival Office at (209) 644-3740. Serve this sautéed beef and asparagus dish over hot cooked rice or noodles.

Steak and ’Gras
Serves 4
2 tablespoons olive oil
3–4 cloves garlic, slivered
1 large flank or sirloin steak, sliced in ¼-inch slices
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
¾ pound asparagus, each spear cut into ½-inch diagonal slices
½ cup water
1–2 tablespoons brandy or whiskey

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic, beef slices and soy. Cook until meat is barely browned, about 2 minutes. Remove mixture from pan and set aside.

2. To same skillet, add onion, celery and sliced asparagus. Sauté 2 minutes. Add water and brandy or whiskey, cover skillet and cook 5 minutes or until asparagus is tender. Return beef mixture to pan. Stir-fry 1 minute more.

NUTRITION SCORE (per serving)
373 calories
Fat 19 g
 (6 g saturated)
Carbs 8 g
Protein 39 g
Fiber 2.4 g
Calcium 81 mg
Iron 3.6 mg
Sodium 346 mg

For more asparagus recipes, visit the California Asparagus Commission website. What food festival are you looking forward to this summer?

Photo credit: Shimon & Tammar