There are two things I remember vividly from my college nutrition class. One: exercise is the biggest component of the "wellness" wheel, beating out genetics and even, yes, healthy eating. Two: eating lots of fiber is essential, and breakfast is the perfect time to consume a bunch of it. Oh yeah, and I just remembered one more thing I learned: even professors of nutrition feed their kids Krispy Kremes occasionally, so don't beat yourself up about indulging occasionally (I don't).

But back to the fiber thing. I'm pretty sure this professor mentioned AT LEAST once a day that the most important meal of the day is the best time to get in as much fiber as possible. She apparently practiced what she preached, as she also liked to recommend various high-fiber cereals that helped her start her day off right.

I'd like to think that she'd be proud of me. I was searching the internet for some sort of "breakfast cookie" to take to our class at church tomorrow morning, and I came across this recipe for "Hearty Breakfast Cookies." With 1/2 a cup of wheat germ, whole wheat flour AND oats, I think we have a real breakfast winner. ALMOST as good as Krispy Kremes!

I wish we'd taken a picture. It was beautiful. Last night we made the best homemade pizza we've ever made! Its success was due to this fantastic crust recipe, (quickly kneaded to perfection by the dough hook on our Kitchen Aid mixer, with which we are still totally in love) and to the right combination of ingredients-- a melange of leftovers from the fridge including caramelized onions,  fresh spinach and mozzarella. We didn't even have tomato sauce, but it didn't matter. It was delicious!

The Best Brownies Ever. I made these for Mark's birthday a few months ago. They induced a sugar rush of almost illegal proportions, so we learned to eat them in small portions. You've been warned!
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Fudge_Brownies

I love oatmeal in most every form except for plain. No matter how much butter, maple syrup, brown sugar, milk, honey, or chocolate syrup (just kidding, but I'm not above thinking that's a good idea) I pile on, a bowl of mushy oatmeal doesn't sit well with me. But oatmeal is so filling and very nutritious, so I've been on the hunt for a way to eat it without having to...eat it. In its purest form, at least.
This week, I succeeded in finding two delicious ways to consume oatmeal for breakfast (of course, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are my most favorite way of all, but I can't justify having those for breakfast...regularly). The first is an oatmeal quick bread that is dense and chewy and really easy to make. The second is baked oatmeal, which I didn't even know existed until I ran across this recipe. The only change I'd make to this one is to substitute apple sauce for oil (not my brilliant idea, I saw it done in another recipe), but that will have to wait until we get back to the States. If apple sauce exists in Japan, I have no idea where it is.
Well, there you have it. Two good oatmeal recipes to help you use up that huge box sitting on top of your refrigerator. Or is that just me?

Each new year ushers in new resolutions. We recently had dinner with two friends who are undertaking the ever-popular diet resolution. We offered to supply dessert; they declined our offer in an effort to maintain their new dietary lifestyle. So I searched for a "healthy" dessert option that we could all enjoy, guilt-free.
Not to my surprise, the Mennonites came through on this one. This my version of "Healthy Bananas," adapted from this cookbook (which I HIGHLY recommend).

1 banana per person
butter/margarine
orange juice
honey
cinammon
raisins

Lightly butter a pie plate and place the peeled bananas in it. Drizzle the bananas with honey and orange juice, then dust them with cinnamon. Sprinkle raisins on the bananas and in the pie plate (pour a little OJ over the raisins--they'll soak it up). Bake at 325 or 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Compared to our main blog, this one's been a bit neglected. That's about to change! Fall and the beginning of winter have presented us with opportunities to try out some new recipes, and we've found some real winners. I, for one, like getting recipe recommendations from other people. So I'll try my best to put good recipe karma out there.
Our first contestant hails from the site of News Channel 34 in Binghamton, NY. Nothing special about Binghamton, necessarily--it just came up when I Googled "risotto soup." Risotto is one of my favorite foods. The faculty sponsors from our year in Heidelberg first introduced us to real risotto (Dr. Love's risotto became quite famous in our house). This was my first experiement, however, with risotto soup. Mark had caught a cold, it was cold outside, and I didn't want to go to the grocery story to pick up any ingredients. So this was as close as I could get to the chicken soup that the doctor ordered--minus the chicken and plus the spinach and rice. Mark's sniffles are a little better, so it must have done the trick.

Fresh Spinach and Risotto Soup

Ingredients
1 1/2 lb.fresh spinach, rinsed and chopped
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
1 c. risotto rice
5 c. vegetable stock, low sodium*
1/4 c. grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
freshly ground pepper to taste
red pepper flakes

Directions
Heat oil in large saucepan and gently cook the onion and garlic until softened. Stir in rice until well coated, then pour in stock. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for ten minutes. Add the spinach and season to taste with ground black pepper and red pepper flakes. Cook for 5-7 minutes more, until the rice is tender. Adjust seasoning as needed. Serve with grated cheese.

*I used chicken stock

We set up this blog awhile ago, but we haven't posted anything yet. Well, that's about to change! Originally Mark's brainchild, this blog is supposed to document our adventures in cooking food from around the world. While living in Japan, we've been exposed to all kinds of new and interesting food, both Japanese and non. We've acquired several cookbooks full of global recipes, so we hope to share those and how they've worked out.
Also, I've started looking into the idea of seasonal eating, an issue that was first brought to my attention by (my favorite) Christian author, Lauren Winner. Lauren sets up a theological foundation for eating seasonally in her book Mudhouse Sabbath, but I've been hearing more about the political and economic dimensions of this issue and the issue of eating locally lately; that's mostly because of all of the energy that goes into producing, packaging and shipping the food we consume, especially produce that's out-of season.
Now, this doesn't mean we're ready to give up eating tomatoes in the winter, and I still want to enjoy imported Italian gnocchi and Brasilian soda and American pretzels (all of which are readily available at my favorite liquor/imports store Yamaya). But I do think we have a duty to be informed about our everyday choices, and it's becoming harder to believe that my small actions don't affect the rest of the global community.
If anyone else is interested in this topic, here are some good sites I've come across. If you know about my admiration of the Mennonites, you won't be surprised to find a few Mennonite resources here (they were saying this stuff in the 60's and 70's, way before it became trendy). If anyone who happens upon this post has some insight to share, I'd love to hear it!
http://www.100milediet.org/
http://simplyinseason.blogspot.com/
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0324-21.htm