Category Archives: All blog posts

Finding Food Matches

I’ll venture a guess that you are pretty good at putting together clothes that match, having learned to do so when you were about 6. Perhaps you’re even a master at choosing the perfect accessory that pulls an entire outfit together (if you are, could you call me?).

Creating a menu that works together is simply a variation on this theme.  Just as you wouldn’t wear a wintry boucle jacket with a summery chiffon skirt, there are certain dishes that just don’t belong on the table at the same time.
I’m often asked about how to put together a meal where the foods seem to go together, the way restaurants do it. It’s easier than you may think! Here are a few simple guidelines to consider when planning meals that match.

1 ) Combine dishes from the same type of cuisine. For example, pair a soy glazed salmon with snow peas tossed in sesame oil and rice vinegar and sprinkled with sesame seeds. The Asian influence in both of these dishes will make them work together beautifully.

2) Eat seasonally. Mother Nature knows a thing or two about food pairing. If you eat foods that come into season at the same time, they tend to work well together. Consider matches like acorn squash with granny smith apples or fresh summer tomatoes and with cucumbers and radishes.

3) Try to balance the flavors and textures on the table. For example if you have a hearty beef stew, consider serving a salad with a tangy vinaigrette to lighten up the meal. Think about classic pairings like pulled pork barbecue with coleslaw – it works because of the balance. Flavors to consider include savory, salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and astringent. Textures include crisp, soft, creamy, chewy and crunchy.

4) Avoid having too many dishes with the same ingredient. Cheese is a common culprit here. You don’t need a ricotta stuffed chicken, cheddar scalloped potatoes, and parmesan topped green beans all in the same meal no matter how much you may like cheese.

5) Balance richer, high fat foods with simpler, lower fat ones.  A simple lean protein is a lot more enticing when paired with a rich savory risotto. A hearty grilled cheese is delicious with a cold, crisp Granny Smith apple.
Happy matching!

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KISS-able Meals to Cook at Home

Everywhere I’ve been this week, people have been abuzz with talk of resolutions. I wrote earlier about how important it is to take it one step (or one bite!) at a time when it comes to tackling those long lists of commitments designed to build the “new you”. Taking on too much at once is a recipe for failure. So, we’ll tackle just one change at a time.
Even then, if we over-complicate the plan to change that one behavior, we’re doomed to fall short.  And when we fall short, we often just abandon the whole idea and go back to our old ways. So, to help you stay on track, I offer you one very important piece of advice.  
KISS – keep it simple, sweetheart.

Let’s look at an example. Imagine you’ve resolved to cook at home more often. Many MANY of my clients begin coaching programs with this goal in mind, and it’s one I wholeheartedly support. But here’s the thing. Cooking at home does not have to mean Gourmet Tuesday! In fact, I often tell people who are just beginning to cook at home that if it requires a recipe it’s probably too complicated for a weeknight! Seriously! K-I-S-S.

Here’s what I mean. Let’s say you’re on Day 2 of your New Year’s Resolution and to find inspiration, you’re flipping through the January issue of your favorite cooking magazine.  You see a meal that looks terrific. You decide to make it tonight, to begin your first week of “more cooking at home.” With side dishes, it involves three recipes, 24 ingredients (18 of which you don’t already have on hand), and several hours of prep time. Are you going to do this every night? Are you going to do this even ONCE?


So, how do we KISS this dinner? Like this:


Grilled salmon           (topped with chopped fresh herbs)
Baked sweet potato  (topped with a dollop of  Greek Yogurt)
Steamed broccoli      (drizzled with lemon juice and olive oil)


Now that’s a healthy meal you can prepare in about 15 minutes – and by doing the little things in parenthesis, which don’t even require a recipe, you can take the whole meal from good to great. You can cook this way routinely and save those delicious but complicated recipes for those days when you have more time to devote to playing in the kitchen.


Try it. Test me. See if you can cook at home more often without even getting out a cookbook. Discover for yourself that simple is better. And when you do? You might just want to kiss me.

 

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Bite-sized resolutions

Happy new year! I hope you enjoyed some well-deserved rest amid family and friends during the holidays. (I certainly did, thus the brief hiatus from blogging!) If you’re anything like me, now that you’re getting back in your usual routine, your mind is full of ideas to make this year the best you’ve ever had. I’ve been jotting notes to myself left and right just to keep track of all the goals I have for the year ahead!

If you’re like most people, your resolutions for 2011 will include something related to getting healthier. Have you been in any stores this week and seen the floor to ceiling displays of vitamins and “diet aids”?! It’s overwhelming!

If you’ve resolved to improve your health this year, I applaud you! Just one thought. Please don’t try to tackle every idea in your head all at once. To preserve your sanity and GREATLY improve your odds of success,  will you commit to first changing just ONE behavior?  Choose ONE thing you know you need to do to be healthier and do it. (Drink water. Eat vegetables, Walk. Get more sleep. Whatever it may be.) Then, put all your focus on only that ONE change for a while. Please don’t give up if it’s harder than you expected (hint: it WILL be harder than you expected – change is ALWAYS hard.) Keep at it until you’ve hard-wired that first new behavior into your life, and then take on the second one. Not a moment sooner.


No matter how big your goal, change happens one small bite at a time. So pace yourself – you don’t need to change everything in the first week of January! 2011 will be here all year.

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