It's lucky I can cook, because it's been a WEEK! (and it's not over yet!)

I needed some comfort food. And I left work while it was still light outside (barely.) Tonight, in honor of being a human being, I am not reading all my emails and checking the voicemail on the special events line. I am not writing to partners and committee members and being supportive to actors...ok, well, fine. I am answering a couple of emails. But only the important ones from partners and committee members.

I made shepherd's pie. That's right, fool. And it's pretty awesome.

My recipe turned out to be pretty quick and dirty, you know, like me.

Ok, arrive home from grocery store, pour a glass of wine, set a big pot of water on the stove to boil.

Scrub-a-dub about a pound of ruby gold potatoes, cut into fourths and throw in the boiling water(peeling is for suckers). Meanwhile, toss a pound of ground turkey into a large skillet over medium-high heat. (Note: You're going to want a teensy bit of grease on your turkey a little later, so i would recommend getting a grind with a little fat in it. I'm cheap, so i just got the 85/15 turkey and poured out the grease just before adding the vegetables. What I'm saying is, I wouldn't go for the 99/1) While you're browning your turkey, cut up your fixin's. I used a precious little organic carrot, sliced, 2 stalks of celery, about a cup of frozen veg blend (carrots, peas, corn, green beans), one huge shallot, sliced, and some cut-up fresh herbs: rosemary, sage, thyme. That smelled orgasmic, btw.

Isn't it pretty?

Anyway, once my turkey was browned, I drained the grease, then added the vegetables and a bunch of cracked pepper and cooked it until the celery got a little transparent and the shallots broke up and started to look sauteed. uuuuuuggggggh.mmmmmmmmmmm. I just had my first bite of this food. My verdict: effing delicious, but if you're not trying to be heart-healthy, add some butter and salt to the potatoes. After my meat and veg (hehehehehhe) started to look not-raw, and a new, smaller batch of turkey grease had shown up, I added about a 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour. Meanwhile, my potatoes were about done, so I drained them, turned around and ...what the...right! I forgot about my glass of wine. It was also about this time that I remembered to preheat the oven. Happily sipping now, I started in on the potatoes. I added about a 1/2 cup of ricotta, 1/4 cup skim milk, a bunch of cracked pepper and a scant 1/8 teaspoon sea salt. mmmmuuuhhh. I almost wish this blog were a voice recording so you could hear me saying this while totally stuffing my face with this food. Now that my turkey/veg and flour mixture had spent a couple of minutes browning, I added 1 1/2 - 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth, which is amazing, and totally salt free, and I made on the night of the holy-shit-i-can-make-great-no-salt-chicken-broth-but-then-oops-i-broke-the-jar-and-now-only-have-one-and-a-half-cups incident. I let the chicken broth cook into the mixture and make a bit of a gravy for a couple of minutes while I preheated the oven. Because, you know, I forgot that before.

I transferred the meat/gravy/veg business to a 9x9 pyrex dish and topped it with the potatoes. Then, I smooshed the potatoes around until they made a delightful and semi-sealed layer on top.

So, swiss cheese has way less sodium than other cheeses. And fresh mozzarella...it's downright low sodium! The point of what I am saying is this: I hadn't had cheddar cheese, totes my fave, in nearly a month. So I cheated, just a little, and shredded just a wee taste of cheddar onto the top of my pie. Everything in moderation, I say. Otherwise, you'll go off the map completely. I try to take even my cheating seriously and be responsible about it, thus the fact that I resisted piling mountains of gooey, delectable extra-sharp cheddar all over my food.

I baked it at 375 (which would be closer to 400 if my oven told the truth) for about 20 minutes, or until the gravy business started bubbling out a little, and then I let it rest (in the microwave, because my cat, Hugo, can SO not be trusted.) for about 10 minutes. Then I ate it. And I still am. And it rulz.

Also, a note. I am having trouble with my image-y business in blogger today. Sorry if things are out of order!

Berry Sexy

When I was diagnosed with high cholesterol a few years back, my doctor put me on an insane diet. I already ate better than most people I knew and this took it to a whole new level. It was basically the Atkins diet, except without any of the fun fattening stuff. Low salt, low carb, low fat. So, basically, I was allowed to eat salad. All the time. Salad salad salad. More fucking salad. I wasn't even allowed to eat most FRUIT, for crying out loud. I lost a good little bit of weight on the diet and my cholesterol did, in fact, drop. Too bad it wasn't even vaguely sustainable. I was cranky all the time and basically obsessed with food. I felt incredibly deprived of all the sensual reasons that I love to eat.

So, every week or so, I would binge- I would eat a milkshake AND a brownie AND french fries AND chicken tenders. The binges began to happen more and more frequently until I was eating exponentially worse on the diet than I was before I started the damn thing. I ended up gaining all the weight back plus some and my cholesterol creeped back up.

This experience taught me an important lesson. If I'm going to be on a diet, it needs to be a diet of decadence. If I'm going to restrict myself, I better damn well enjoy it. I learned to add little ingredients to salads that made them feel luxurious, rather than like rabbit food. You would be amazed at how 1/2 an ounce of brie and a well herbed vinaigrette can really bring a salad to life. I learned that whole grains can be delicious if prepared right. And most importantly, I learned that berries are really really good for you and are basically the sexiest food on the planet. You know those commercials where chocolate is being poured into something and you just watch it drizzle and ripple like silky, liquid sex? I don't know why certain foods are so sexy but berries and chocolate are up there on the list of worlds sexiest foods. I can't really eat much chocolate on this diet- so berries it is..

1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup raspberries
1 tbs Fage 0% fat greek yogurt (or creme fraiche if you can afford the fat and want to make it really decadent)
1 tbs light coconut milk
teensy weensy drizzle of agave

-Place all berries in a small, beautiful bowl or a glass intended to serve alcholic beverages. Arrange them so they look like they're so tightly squeezed together that they might just burst.
-Top with dollop of yogurt or creme fraiche.
-Slowly pour coconut milk over berries, making sure you get some inside the raspberries.
- Finally, add an innocent little drizzle of agave. Just a tiny bit. Just enough so a few of the berries on the top row have little bitty glistening beads of agave.


Here's the great thing about this little bit of sex in a cup. It's really really fucking good for you. Blueberries are the shit. They really are a superfood. Joe and Terry Graedon (of The People's Pharmacy) have this to say about it in their book "Favorite Foods":

"Ounce for ounce, blueberries pack a bigger antioxidant punch than almost any other fruit or vegetable. Just 3.5 ounces of blueberries have 2400 ORAC units, a measure of Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. That's about twice as much as spinach or broccoli... Blueberries seem to help brain cells withstand stress (Joseph et al, 2009) blueberries can also help lower blood pressure (Shaughnessy et al, 2009) and protect against stroke in rats (Yasuhara et al, 2008). Promising work at Ohio State University suggests that blueberry extract can block the development of blood vessels that feed tumors, and can inhibit inflammation that encourages their growth (Gordillo et al, 2009)."

The Graedons also suggest that the coconut milk and yogurt are excellent for GI problems.

So, the next time you need a little healthy decadence, seriously, think about some berries with coconut milk and yogurt. I'm guessing it will make you roll your eyes in the back of your head and let out a long satisfied sigh... mmmmm, foodgasm.


UPDATE: Apparently blueberries are ALSO good for GI issues, especially when combined with... you guessed it, probiotics. Yup, yogurt. I'm telling you, these little guys are amazing. hattip: Catie Braly

Say Hello to My Leeetle Friend!

All-Bran: I'd like you to meet some friends of mine.

1/2 c. All-Bran, please meet 3 Tbsp coconut milk, 1/2 c. skim milk and 1/2 c. blueberries. you are all going to be very happy together. in my belly. every freaking day. oh my goodness, this rules.

this meal contains about 6% daily recommended sodium intake, low sugar content (mostly from fruit, except for what's in the all-bran), whole grains and 100%-fucking-deliciousness.

i'm totally going to get the hang of this!