Sumo wrestlers eat big dinners

Want to avoid holiday weight gain?  If you are one of those of you who continue to count calories, I have news for you. We don’t burn calories at the same rate throughout the day. This reality check puts a real wrench in calorie counting. Here’s a better strategy and far more simple:

Eat Breakfast like a King,

Lunch like a Prince

Dinner like a Pauper

When the sun is highest in the sky, noon that is, our bodies burn food at the highest rate. Throughout history, the main meal of the day was at midday, not at night.  Makes sense, right? As a matter of fact, Sumo wrestlers build bulk by  skipping breakfast and eating big dinners. Learn more about this and other useful strategies for letting go of excess weight in my Dump Your Diet eBook.

What to have for dinner? How about a bowl of soup?

Added bonus: Eating lighter at night will enable you to sleep deeper and wake up hungry. Just in time for a big, hearty breakfast.

photo credit: little blue hen

Here’s a simple cookie that is “gluten free” and simply delicious.

Coconut Almond Macaroons

4 large egg whites

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 cup sugar

½ cup coconut

1/3 cup finely chopped almonds

1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

• Beat egg whites at high speed until soft peaks
• Add vanilla or almond extract
• Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until stiff peaks form
• Fold in coconut and almonds
• Bake on parchment paper lined cookie sheets at 300 degrees  for 40 minutes

Purslane Potato Salad

Purslane is one of those highly invasive, yet highly nutritious weeds that no one in their right mind would deliberately cultivate, it gets out of control super fast. Many cultures use this succulent plant in salads and stir fries. Within this little weed are omega-3s in the form of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), and other great nutrients, such as vitamin E, vitamin C, beta-carotene and glutathione.

Purslane is in the news lately not just because of it’s high Omega 3 content. Research is showing that this weed is capable of bioremediation. Put simply, purslane is capable of removing BPA from landfills and wastewater. Scientists confirmed that the plant was not simply absorbing the BPA and accumulating it in its own tissue and speculated that the plant was metabolizing BPA into a compound that does not have endocrine-disrupting activity. This is one weed I want to get to know better!

This week, I spotted some plump, fresh bunches of purslane for sale at J&A Bialas’s stand in Pleasantville. Adina smiled when I asked her if they were growing purslane on their land. Let’s just say they foraged it!

I brought home my bunch of purslane and perused recipes on the Internet to find a way to serve this nutrient rich green leafy in a way that my family would eat it without asking questions. Potato salad seemed like a good solution. It came out great!

Here’s the recipe I put together:

PURSLANE POTATO SALAD

Serves 4-6

In a medium pot, boil 5 cups chopped potatoes until tender. Drain and set aside to cool. In a bowl, mix 1 cup purslane leaves and buds (flowers and stalks are edible as well, if you choose), and 1 cup chopped scallions with greens. Add potatoes and mix well.

For the dressing: 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar, 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill, 1/2 cup mayonaise, a pinch of cayenne, some salt and pepper.

I ventured out to one of those big name bookstores this afternoon in search of cheap calendars. They’re only discounting calendars 50% so far, I’ll keep waiting until they go down to a dollar in a week or so.

In addition to deep discounts,  the bookstore had set up all new displays of diet books,  along with yoga CDs and assorted apparatus to help everyone get started on those 2010 New Year’s resolutions.

Every year its the same. Everyone hops on the diet wagon in January, and before the month is over, most people fall off. Diets simply don’t work, especially in the cold of winter. I encourage my clients to dump the diet mentality and to focus on bigger and better things instead. When we focus on taking better care of ourselves, unnecessary weight drops away as a happy side effect, slowly and surely. Making sustainable lifestyle changes are the secret to dumping the overfocus on dieting.

This winter, instead of dieting, why not focus on real food grown close by that you cook from scratch?  Where to find that real food? It’s not as hard as you think. Websites like Local Harvest can help you find farmer’s markets and CSAs that are open year round all across the country. Simply plug in your zip code into their  site and you’ll learn about all the farms, CSAs and farmer’s markets in your area.

Here in Westchester County, the number of winter farmer’s markets have grown considerably. Community Markets are running winter markets in Mount Kisco, Briarcliff, Mamaroneck and Katonah weekly on Saturdays from January until May. Westchester Department of Parks is hosting an indoor farmer’s market at the County Center in White Plains once a month.

I’ll be at the Westchester County Center Indoor Farmer’s Markets on January 3, February 7th and March 14th with Slow Food Westchester. We’ll be helping kids and their parents write letters to their Congressional representatives about school lunch reform, part of Slow Food USA’s campaign, Time for Lunch

We made this for teacher gifts. Super easy, super yummy. Toss it over oatmeal, yogurt or ice cream. Or add milk for a tasty breakfast cereal.

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/3 cup  brown rice syrup

¼ cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup sliced almonds

2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

1 cup raisins or other chopped, dried fruit

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the coconut oil, syrups and vanilla in a 3-quart mixing bowl and, using a wooden spoon, thoroughly blend.

Add the oats, coconut and almonds and mix well with the spoon until the oats are thoroughly coated.

Spread evenly on a large cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.  After 7 minutes, stir and spread the mixture out again in an even layer.  Repeat after 7 minutes. Then stir every 5 minutes or until the oats are crisp and brown but not burned.

Remove from the oven and pour into a large wooden bowl to stop the cooking.

Add the raisins, let cool thoroughly.

Store in an airtight container in a cool spot. Makes 6 cups.