Author Archives: Cherylanne Skolnicki

Rosemary Fingerling Potato Treats

Are you ready to par-tay? The season is in full swing so here’s the next Nourish idea for a healthy holiday app that is a sure crowd pleaser. These adorable potato bites are prepped in a snap and save you from fussing with individual canapés (I’ll save that for next week!). Warning: these won’t last long on your buffet because they’re oh-so-good. I promise even the kids will love them.

Note: If you can’t find fingerling potatoes (they’re the small skinny ones) you can use small red potatoes, but the shape of the fingerlings makes for a beautiful presentation.

 

Rosemary Fingerling Potato Treats

 

serves 6

 

Ingredients:

16 fingerling potatoes, washed and cut in half lengthwise

olive oil

2 tablespoons finely minced rosemary

coarse salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1/2 cup light sour cream

skim milk

1/4 cup diced  jarred roasted red peppers

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Place potatoes in a large bowl. Add enough olive oil to lightly coat. Gently mix in rosemary and salt and pepper.

3. Place potatoes, cut side down, on a baking sheet at bake for 35-45 until cooked through.

4. Remove from oven and arrange potatoes on a plate or platter. Sprinkle with salt & pepper and scatter diced red pepper over potatoes. Serve with sour cream thinned with a little skim milk (mix the sour cream and milk in a bowl with a whisk and then transfer to your serving bowl) for dipping. (These can be served hot or at room temperature.)

 

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The Trouble with Safe Foods

When I was in college, if I would have ranked (by frequency) the foods that made their way into my mouth, bagels, Diet Snapple, yogurt covered pretzels, dry cereal, pasta, fat free frozen yogurt, and rice would have topped the list. These were my Safe Foods – the ones I was sure were the ticket to weight loss. I wasn’t actually losing any weight, but that didn’t seem to matter. I just kept eating the same things day after day thinking, I suppose, that one day the pounds would just start to drop off!

Looking back from my current vantage point, I can see how misguided that was, but at the time no one could have told me I was wrong. I’d constructed this security blanket of Safe Foods and was terrified to veer from it. Being asked to eat, say, a steak and a baked potato, was scary. Pizza? Terrifying.

This behavior of maintaining a mental list of Safe Foods is quite common, but it is fraught with issues.

1) The lists are often illogical – they include some junk foods (like frozen yogurt or Twizzlers) while omitting nutritional powerhouses (like avocado or nuts or oils) without good reason.

2) They’re trend-based instead of science-based. The diet trend of the year rules. In my day it was low fat (but anything with the word “yogurt” in it was deemed healthy as well!) Then it shifted to low carb, then NO carb, now gluten free. People seem to get stuck in any one of these phases and can’t get out.

3) They’re limiting! Safe Foods rob us of the chance to experiment, to sample, to dabble. In my view, eating should be a pleasure, not an exercise in vigilant self-deprivation.

Are you feeling constrained by a list of  foods that you turn to again and again? What would it take for you to open your mind to new possibilities and make selecting from a menu fun again? Does the idea exhilarate you or might it actually scare you?

To get started, perhaps you could try one of the recipes in this archives of this blog. Or contact one of our Nourish Health coaches – we’d love to help you rediscover the vast world of healthy foods out there for you to explore!

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Cranberry-Avocado Salsa

December means holiday parties galore, so this month I’m setting you up with a series of healthy hors d’oeuvres that you can proudly take to any soiree to be assured of rave reviews. No one will suspect they’re healthy – they’ll just know they’re delicious!

To kick things off, here’s an amazing interpretation of guacamole straight from the Grand Dame of Entertaining, Martha Stewart herself. While your initial reaction to avocado mixed with fresh cranberries may be skeptical, trust me on this one. Something terrific happens when that creamy avocado is paired with the tart, slightly crunchy cranberries and as a result, this dip is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Better make a double batch.

 

Cranberry-Avocado Salsa

adapted from: Everyday Food

 

serves 6

 

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons honey

1 minced jalapeno

1/4 cup red onion, minced

2 ripe avocados, diced into 1/4″ pieces

3/4 cup halved fresh cranberries

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

tortilla chips or pita crisps (or make your own substituting whole wheat pita)

 

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together lime juice, honey, jalapeno (remove seeds for less heat), and red onion.

2. Add diced avocados, cranberries, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss gently to combine.

3. Serve with tortilla chips or pita crisps.

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