BellyHealthy

A friend of a friend is reputed to regularly eat a mango with her hands on the streets of London, much to the amusement of the male pedestrian community. She is tall, slender, beautifully tanned and tends to wear gorgeous exotic colours (that I tried to mimic once, but just ended up looking like a frumpy beach lizard). With that image of a model (really, Charlotte, if you aren’t, you should be), standing on a bustling street corner, literally making cars swerve as she eats an exotic juicy fruit with her bare hands, let me bring you down to earth. Eating a mango is messy business. And for... 

A dairy free pancake recipe to keep up with the tradition of Shrove Tuesday (without suffering for the duration of Lent) Shrove Tuesday, or “Fat Tuesday” seems particularly relevant to me today after finding out that I did in fact gain almost ten pounds through my unusually heinous gastro issues. For the last six months, not only have I had to cut out all acid and acid-inducing foods (onions, garlic, tomatoes, citrus), but I seem also to have developed a nice addiction to carbs. I told my gastroenterologist this morning, “I’ve been eating so many crackers I feel like I’ve... 

My favorite birthday cake of all time has got to be yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I’m not much of a cake person in general, but I’ll make an exception every year for my brithday with this one: the good, old fashioned, my-mother-started-making-it-for-my-birthday-when-I-was-four-and-never-stopped-because-I-wouldn’t-let her, Betty Crocker mix. But how to survive with all the dairy in the mix? It’s a box of absolute doom for my body, and without fail, I suffer for my weak willpower after. So this year, I chose this Valentine’s Day/Lunar New Year weekend to test... 

I’m sorry, I just have no idea what the origins of a name like Toad In The Hole could be. I googled a few possibilites, but the most interested or reputable information I found was a reference to it in Mrs. Beeton’s as a “homely but savoury dish”. But I was a bit worried about some of the meat she called for. So, historically, Toad In The Hole was a basic dish for leftovers: throw in surplus meat (ground up and made into sausages), root veggies, pour in the Yorkshire pudding and Bob’s your uncle. (Actually, Bob really is my uncle.) Today, a pub menu featuring Toad... 

Sara is my sister-in-law and my kind of cook — she’ll throw in ingredients she thinks might pair well and not get caught up in exact measurements. This one is super healthy, as the zucchini is practically raw: by finely chopping it and throwing it in with the still-very-hot rice, the veggies cooks themselves, thereby keeping all the nutrients in the dish and not evaporated away in a pan or oven. She’s also the wise creator of Spaghetti Squash Recipe, which is equally awesome and a version of pasta that is low carb. Ingredients: 2 cups of chicken broth 1 cup of brown rice 1/2 onion,... 

The key to this dish, I found, was using smaller chicken breasts, as the final dish is quite rich and no one at the dinner table will need vast amounts of chicken protein to fill up their bellies. Also, this might seem obvious, but since you’re wrapping the chicken up with the Parma ham (and the ham will stick together very nicely as the oils dry it and make it slightly crispy, too), you can feel free to make a very wide slit horizontally through the chicken breast, instead of a conservative slit like I’d done before. In fact, this makes it a lot tastier since the pesto can be spread... 

This is my mother’s evergreen recipe (although she only ever uses red, yellow or orange peppers – ba dum PSSHHH!). Keep them handy in the fridge for up to a week and serve them as an antipasto, a veggie side, use the juices as a chicken marinade, or in a toasted panini with some ‘Better Than Cream Cheese’ Tofutti spread. These peppers can be served hot or cold, but I prefer them cold as I find that really brings out the original flavour of the peppers. Ingredients: 8 peppers bunch of flat-leafed parsley 2 cloves garlic 1 – 1 1/2 cups very good olive oil or extra virgin... 

Ingredients: 3 pounds/1 1/2 kilos of mussels, rinsed and bearded 1/2 cup white wine, (Gewurztraminer is a good accompaniment and since you’re opening the bottle, you can use this, or another dry white wine) 2 cloves garlic, minced Freshly ground black pepper 1 handful flat-leaf parsley It doesn’t get any easier than this, I promise: Throw the mussels, the white wine, and the garlic in a large stockpot, cover, and bring it all to a boil over medium heat. Shake the pan occasionally until the mussels open, then cook for an extra minute to be sure. Turn off the heat and add a healthy...