healthy – Page 3 – covered in flour

I don’t know how many times I have flipped over this recipe in Nigella Lawson’s Feast and not thought anything of it. The reason, probably, is that it’s in the chapter on kids’ food – as something for Mom to eat while her children gobble slime soup and blood ‘n guts potatoes. (You have to applaud Nigella, she’s creative; she’d be one handy lady to have around on Hallowe’en.) At any rate, I don’t have kids and that chapter scares me a bit, for multiple reasons, so I’m usually flipping the pages pretty speedily and I never give this salad a second thought. That all changed yesterday. I was watching my usual weekend Food Network programming and Nigella happened to be making her Capery Salad. Capers, pickles, crisp lettuce and a “vinagerette” made with pickle brine. Oh, my goodness. Suddenly I was starving, and I couldn’t stop thinking about this salad. I didn’t have any gherkins on hand, but I did have my favorite garlic dill pickles. Good enough for Sunday lunch!

Capery Salad

Romaine hearts (or butter lettuce), torn roughly
1 garlic dill pickle, chopped
1 tablespoon capers, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon pickle brine
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Fill a dinner-sized bowl with torn Romaine hearts. Add the chopped pickles and capers.
Mix together pickle brine and mustard in a small bowl. Whisking constantly, add the olive oil in a slow stream to create an emulsion. Season the dressing with salt and pepper.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.

That’s it! This is the perfect lunch for one, maybe with a small wedge of cheddar alongside. If you’re married to someone who doesn’t make gagging noises at the sight of your garlic dill pickles, just double the recipe. Sharing is good.

Source: Adapted from Feast, by Nigella Lawson

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. How many times have we heard that one? It might just be that the truest truisms are also the most often repeated, because breakfast really is important. It jump-starts your metabolism for the day, fills you up so that you are less likely to overindulge at lunch or on snacks, and provides a foundation for healthy eating throughout the day. For me, breakfast is especially important because I am a morning person, and I need that jolt of nutrition to power my running around until 1:00 or so. But I don’t really care for cereal – so where does that leave me? Usually, I grab a yogurt out of the fridge in the morning, stir some granola into it at my desk at work, and get going. But there are some mornings when I need something special, something homemade, something that reminds me of the weekend. And it doesn’t hurt if it’s healthy, too. That’s where muffins come in. I load them up with fruit and whole grains and bask in the fiber I’m getting – and these are perfect, only very lightly sweet, with bits of juicy peach floating throughout. If I close my eyes, I can even convince myself that it’s Saturday morning. Then my desk phone rings and shatters the fantasy… but at least I’ve still got a muffin.

Peach Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup white whole wheat (or all-purpose) flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup honey (or pure maple syrup)
2 large eggs
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 peaches, peeled and diced

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fit paper liners into a 12-well muffin tin. Place the muffin tin on a baking sheet.
Whisk together flours, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, honey, eggs and melted butter. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir to blend. Stir in diced peaches. Scatter additional oats over top of muffins, if desired.
Divide batter evenly amongst muffin wells and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the muffin tin, then lift muffins out and cool on a rack.

Source: Loosely Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s “Great Grains Muffins”