Oprah Oh No

When Oprah talks people listen. They have listened for a quarter of a century. Oprah can make books bestsellers, can create careers for the experts she features and pretty much has the Midas marketing touch. The New York Times recently described people clamoring for the few unbooked spots on her show this season, her final “Farewell Season". I am an Oprah fan; my DVR is crowded with the shows I record daily. Any viewer can sense the ante has been upped this year. Audience members are going to Australia and driving home Volkswagens. Even celebrities seem to be stopping by for one last chance to talk to O and promote their work. Yet in all of this excitement, something we expect from Oprah has been disregarded. It seems Oprah has already said farewell to health.

Over the years, we’re watched Oprah run a marathon, venture into veganism and get into a whole lot oh hot water when she questioned the safety of our beef. Viewers have related to Oprah because despite the chef and the trainer when it came to weight and food, Oprah was one of us. Oprah can go camping on her show but who really thinks she is doing that when the cameras aren’t rolling? And while I loved my first Jetta (and was sad when I crashed it), I don’t think O is driving one.  Weight and food is different, Oprah’s weight fluctuates and so we really feel she means what she’s saying when she talks about it.

Last week Oprah’s favorite things aired. Unfortunately this is product placement at its best. For companies and audience members this was the final and "ultimate" favorite things and the gifts were major. There were diamonds and I pads, cashmere and cruises and there was food…if you would call it that. Oprah, with millions or billions watching, eagerly praised pails of popcorn, she commended croissants and mentioned to moms that this certain mac and cheese was the perfect family dinner on a busy night.  While I am all for the special splurge, I felt I was watching an opportunity pass. Oprah could have thrown in her favorite fruit delivery, post workout snack, she could have said something to the effect of  “we all know you can’t eat mac and cheese every day” nothing.

Everyone is entitled to a mistake; even Oprah isn’t perfect. I kept my DVR taping and continued to loyally watch O’s shows.  Yesterday, Oprah hosted Nicole Kidman and her country music husband Keith Urban. It wasn’t the best show. It was a little bit of a mish mosh as Oprah was really talking up her upcoming Australia visit.  Oprah chatted with Keith about rehab, to Nicole about motherhood (let’s not forget “Nic” has 2 teenage children, she was a mother before Sunday Rose), she gave away one last ticket on the Australia trip and then it happened.

Oprah was talking about the great food in Sydney and she selected the apex of Aussie cuisine none other than... McDonalds. Yes, in an embarrassing nod to one of her Sydney sponsors she presented Australia’s Mc Donalds as different from the United States versions. They then cued waiters to bring her audience McDonalds wraps and smoothies (I wrote about these smoothies in case you’re curious). Plus, there’s more! Every person on the Australia trip got a gift card. God forbid Americans leave their fast food habits at home; they can now eat McDonalds for free down under. Oprah took a bite of her wrap and it was all I could do not to cry on my comforter.

The season isn’t over. I’m holding out hope that Michael Pollan will come back or maybe Dr Weil.  Oprah always seems to have a soft spot for kids perhaps Jamie Oliver will be on pushing parents to cook more. Hey, I’m not too shabby. I can put on a pretty dress and tell Oprah about my favorite food and fitness finds too.  I just hope Oprah doesn’t forget about the other “O” in this country obesity and that she hasn’t said farewell to health.
Did you watch either of these shows? Do you O has missed the boat or am I overreacting? Who would you like to see Oprah have on to redirect this junk food train?

Pot of the Week

A couple of weeks ago I was doing I daily blog hopping when a post on Erica Sara’s site caught my attention. I tweeted Erica (as embarrassing as it is we met on Twitter) and asked her if she’d post here and tell my hungry readers about her genius Pot of the Week. I’m thrilled Erica chose split peas for her recipe, they are the perfect cold weather food. I contemplated how split peas split on a 1 degree day in Vermont last winter.

When Lauren asked me to write a guest post for the Foodtrainers blog, I was so honored & excited. I've been reading this blog for quite some time and have always found it to be an incredible source of information and inspiration. I hope that my "Pot of the Week" does just the same for all of you.

So, what is a pot of the week? During the cold NYC months, usually on a Sunday afternoon, I prepare a large pot of soup or stew to have on hand for at least one meal a day for the upcoming week. It needs to be quick and easy to make, full of flavor, and loaded with nutrients to get me through my busy days. When I have something hearty & healthy on call at all times, it takes the guess work out of lunch or dinner and saves me tons of money on eating out. Some of my favorites have been Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili  

and a Pumpkin Chickpea stew. Delicious!

This week's pot is a vegetarian play on the traditional Split Pea Soup. I added cannellini beans and roasted corn to kick up the flavors and for protein so that this can be served as a meal. Tonight, I'll eat this soup served with some home baked crusty french bread and a small side salad. Tomorrow, I'll probably pour it over brown rice for a different type of meal. And on Tuesday, I might eat it next to a veggie burger or piece of steamed fish with a side of veggies. The ideas are endless; just what I love about soup!

Split Pea Soup with Cannellini Beans & Corn

serves 4-6

1 tbsp Olive Oil

2 large Onions, chopped

2 Celery Stalks, chopped

1 large Carrot, chopped

1 tbsp fresh Thyme

2 cups Green Split Peas, picked through & rinsed

6 cups of low-sodium Vegetable Stock

1 can Cannellini beans, rinsed

1 cup Frozen Corn (I used the Roasted Corn from Trader Joe's. It's delicious but regular frozen corn is fabulous as well!)

Salt & Pepper to season

Smoked Paprika (optional)

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onions, celery and carrots and cook until they start to soften, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the thyme, split peas and vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until all the vegetables are soft and the split peas are cooked through, approximately 40-50 minutes. During this time, you may need to add additional liquid so check every 15 minutes and add more vegetable stock  or water as needed. Puree the soup (be sure to allow to cool slightly if using a blender) and then add the beans and corn. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Sprinkle with a dash of smoked paprika upon serving if you like.

 See? Easy, delicious & healthy! Enjoy.

What are your favorite soups or stews to make? What are your favorite wintry foods? Have you made any friends on Twitter?

Away Game

Thanksgiving is about more than one decadent meal shared with friends and family. This holiday weekend often involves travel and not the cushy variety to a hotel or resort. Thanksgiving means staying with family on their turf.  Typically we stay with my parents but this year we were with my in laws. I must say, (disclaimer) my in- laws are extremely healthy people who exercise a ton and eat well. They also have very different food rules than my family.  While every meal is an event in my family, discussed as much as 24 hours in advance, my in laws are more casual. "Help yourself to anything" is the directive and let's just say I did.

Slayton siblings are dispersed Thursday at various celebrations. We all convene Friday afternoon in Bridgehampton for 3pm “dinner” aka Thanksgiving #2.  I like this schedule as I enjoy eating early and you can’t get much earlier than 3. While the cousins played soccer outside we had chicken, an Ina Garten recipe for cauliflower with pine nuts, Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes. This is what I selected there was also corn bread, stuffing and a pasta dish.  We sat around talking and at 6pm it felt like bedtime. The 8 children in the house didn’t seem to agree so we talked some more, munching on clementines and grapes. My food game plan was in tact.

The next morning, the guys went to play tennis. I drove to Shelter Island with my sister in law and mother in law for a hike at a nature preserve. We chose the 6-mile hike and had a great time.  In 90 minutes, over a mini mountain (ok hill) and through the woods, we completed our Thanksgiving "post game" report.  We arrived home around 11:00 and I was starving. I looked in the fridge and found a Fage Greek yogurt. We made some tea and sat down in the kitchen to eat. When I went to throw the yogurt out I spotted a mound of bagels the guys had brought back with them.  I don’t eat a lot of wheat and practically never eat bagels. In the food equivalent of an on side kick, I tore a piece of a soft, warm whole-wheat bagel.  It was delicious. I showered and my husband I went into town for a bit while his parents watched the boys (an away game advantage).

Around 2pm we returned home. My boys were perfectly content but hadn’t had lunch. I made the mistake of encouraging them to tell Farmor (grandma in Swedish) if they were hungry. Now, given the choice between playing and food my boys are choosing sports.  I took their lunch orders and went to prepare it. My older son wanted some of the pasta with peas from the day before. My little guy requested a bagel with turkey (even if it was chicken).  I made myself a plate with some chicken and veggies from the previous day’s crudité plate. I also had some pasta as I was portioning it out and a third of a Russian pumpernickel bagel, my MVP of team bagel, from the rapidly shrinking pile.  Marc’s sister came in and declared “I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I’ve been starving all day.” We commiserated, chalked it up to a good workout outside the stimulated our appetites. My husband later pointed out dinner at 3pm the night before didn’t help things.

The rest of the weekend was fairly similar (though no more bagels after Saturday). I went for a great run Sunday morning.  We were off schedule though, eating at irregular times and at the mercy of what was there to eat. I typically travel with “ammunition” but the cooking for Thanksgiving and knowing my in laws were healthy I slacked off a bit.  We arrived home yesterday afternoon. I slipped out for a manicure. When I went to remove my rings, I couldn’t! I joked to the manicurist “is everyone having this problem today?” She reassured me and said, “yes, this was holiday weekend.”
Did you travel this weekend? How is your eating when on other peoples’ turf? What is the biggest challenge? Are you happy to be home?

Thanksgiving: What I'm Eating

Yesterday, my son told me about a child in his third grade class who “loves vegetables.” When the teachers rewarded the children with Starbursts after completing a writing assignment (hmn), this little girl turned the candy down. My son reported all of this completely flabbergasted. I wouldn’t necessarily have turned down starbursts at 8 years old but I would now. When I think about our family Thanksgiving tomorrow, I will do the adult version of snubbing the starburst. On Monday, I provided you with my top turkey day tips that I wholeheartedly endorse However, when I got to thinking about my personal plan and plate for Thanksgiving it didn’t require special rules.

You might say, “you’re a nutritionist of course you eat well.” The truth is I do not. Always. Often times when I travel, I like to sample the local fare, tastes I feel I haven’t come across and may never again. The same thing happens on restaurant menus when something peaks my interest. For me, and no offense meant to what I’m sure will be a delicious spread at my sister’s home, Thanksgiving foods are mostly things I have had before. Cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pie are available almost every day.

I fully comprehend the holiday mindset. It’s a holiday, happens once a year and our healthy rules should bend a little. What I am suggesting is that the flexibility works for some but no need to flex if you don’t want to.  My Thanksgiving meal will go something like this. My sister has vegetables, dip and cheeses out when we arrive. I will have some crudité and a glass of wine. My mother will make soup as a first course; I’ll have some. For dinner I’ll have turkey (maybe dark meat, love it), the Brussels sprouts and chestnuts and edamame succotash I am cooking, some sweet potatoes and this cosmopolitan cranberry sauce (with triple sec) my sister is serving. To me, this meal sounds unbelievably delicious. I would choose these items over pumpkin pie and also starbursts any day.

Are you someone who will flex on tomorrow? Do you eat differently on holidays? Do you feel it's being a party pooper not to?

Thanksgiving Bright Side: carb of choice

Market Melissa (Foodtrainers' Melissa O'Shea) told you about leeks and Brussels sprouts and last, but certainly not least, in our “bright sides” series is spaghetti squash.

While I have never met a squash I didn’t like, preparing them is another story. I’ll admit, after a few battles with a butternut squash, I often resort to the prepped and cut up variety offered at most stores. Spaghetti squash is not offered this way, but I assure you it is worth the effort to cook one of these up.

Like most varieties of winter squash, you will find loads of potassium, Vitamin C and beta-carotene in spaghetti squash.  When selecting your squash you may spot white and green spaghetti squash, but look for the orange ones which taste a bit sweeter. Spaghetti squash has lower calories and grams of carbohydrates per cup compared to butternut squash, pasta or a sweet potato plus, it looks and can be used like spaghetti. It's a favorite of our clients at Foodtrainers.

1 cup spaghetti squash: 40 calories, 10g carbohydrates

1 cup butternut squash: 80 calories, 21g carbohydrates

1 cup pasta: 212 calories, 42g carbohydrates

1 cup sweet potatoes: 180 calories, 42g carbohydrates

You can bake, broil, roast, steam or even throw it into a crock-pot or slow-cooker.  If you have a crock pot, place the whole squash into the cooker, pierce it with a fork, add water and cook on low for 8-10 hours. The seeds you will find inside can also be roasted, similar to pumpkin seeds.

To bake a spaghetti squash:  Cut the squash in half (place in the microwave for a few minutes to soften the squash to make it easier to cut open), scoop out the seeds and place the halves face down into a baking dish.  Add a little water, just enough to cover the sides of the squash.  Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes on 375 degrees Fahrenheit, until the flesh is tender.  Pull a fork lengthwise through the flesh to separate into long strands that resemble spaghetti, hence the name spaghetti squash. 

You can top the squash with your favorite tomato sauce or try one of the recipes below. Now is the perfect time to look for spaghetti squash at your Farmer’s markets or local stores so what are you waiting for?

Mediterranean spaghetti squash

Cheese and pepper spaghetti squash

Herbed spaghetti squash

Happy Thanksgiving and we hope you all have some bright sides on your table this year.

What sides are you planning for your Thanksgiving meal? Would you consider the sides we’ve featured Leeks, Brussels Sprouts or Spaghetti Squash?

Thanksgiving: food coma avoidable

Thanksgiving pushes many of our food buttons. This week my email will be filled with messages like the following: “What do I do about Thanksgiving?  My happiest day is a giant bowl of mashed potatoes.  I could eat my body weight in mashed potatoes given the opportunity.  I don't really eat many other sides  just potatoes with a side of turkey  Do I splurge for the one day?  I'm very stressed out about it.”

Here is a post I wrote for my favorite site Blisstree 

If I tell you that it’s not actually a requirement to overindulge on Thanksgiving, will you hate me? Wait…I do have some good news: You also don’t need to be the weirdo with two Brussels sprouts and a sad, thin slice of turkey on your dinner plate on Thursday. As a nutritionist, I’ve spent years trying to strike a balance for my clients between strategy and satiety, special and silly.

Many of you already know the “good” items on the Thanksgiving table: White-meat turkey, cranberry sauce (ideally not gelatinous kind), sweet potatoes (later, marshmallows), and non-bastardized vegetables (and not drowned in melted cheese). The killers – and yes, in large volumes they are killers – include stuffing (so good, yet soooo bad), dark meat, turkey skin, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and any creamed vegetables or those given the casserole treatment. What you may not know is that the difference between a good plate and a bad plate can be enormous. A good meal will hover around 400 to 600 calories – including wine and extras. The killer? Multiply that number by three or four.

So what can you do if you cannot fathom a holiday without a serving or two of killer stuffing? First, commit to the One Plate Rule. Observe the offerings and formulate your strategy.

– Reserve ¼ of your plate for carbs including sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn, bread, and regular potatoes.

– Then you’ve got ¼ of your plate for turkey or another protein.

– Half of your plate should include vegetables (ideally the green kind), or salad – even if you have to steal the garnish from something. Eat your vegetables first; this aids digestion and fills you up on fiber.
Savor this plate of Thanksgiving goodness because there are no second helpings at dinner on this plan. Seconds and thirds lead to unbuttoning your pants in inappropriate places – not to mention serious regrets. The One Plate Rule leaves you feeling lighter and self-righteous.

Prior to Thanksgiving dinner, you must exercise. If you’re going to eat a sweet and fatty feast, get moving. Walk, dance, run, swim, spin, or practice yoga. But whatever you do, exercise is a prerequisite that will help your mindset later in the day. When dietary devil attempts to take over, appetite angel can reply: “No, don’t do it, you worked out and feel great – and there will be no unbuttoning at the dinner table!”

So you’ve worked out, eaten your virtuous one plate, and are feeling good. And then the pies, crumbles, tarts, and tortes arrive. I can hear you negotiating. (My clients try to negotiate, but I really believe that you’ve already had your pie before dessert.) You’ve had sweet potatoes topped with candy or  Jell-o disguised as sauce, and if we’re being adults about this – you really don’t need the pie. Now, much like my stuffing example, if you’ll cry or die without pie, then you need to pick your poison/pleasure. Choose mostly “goods” at mealtime, and then you can have your (tiny sliver of) pie and eat it, too.

Aren’t you thankful for Foodtraining?

What are your favorite Thanksgiving day treats? Does the plan above sound reasonable? Anything need negotiating? Let’s hear it.

Diamonds and Drinks

I was grumpy yesterday. I even emailed a friend and asked “ever plan an event and just want it over?” She put me at ease and said she often felt that way.  There were the usual moving pieces, people backing out at the last minute and other neglected work I needed to get to.  I think I had a sneaking feeling things weren’t going to turn out as I wanted them to. Why is it these are always the nights that end up perfect?

A few months ago, I was introduced to a jewelry designer named Marissa Alperin. Marissa came to my office, with her jewels, and though I’m not a serious jewelry person I was blown away by collections inspired by the beach, her love of color and texture and a piece she had made for her mother who had survived breast cancer. I fell in love with 2 creations of Marissa’s that I now wear almost every day and wanted to show others her work.

I'll digress to one of the last conversations I had with my dad. We had talked about the soldiers coming home from Iraq. I was in his hospital room, reading the paper and he spotted a photo and said “we can’t forget about these kids coming home without arms and legs, it’s not a life.” In my glass half full mindset and talking to someone who knew first hand what life was life without a limb I said “but they are alive and get to come home.” Up went his eyebrows and slowly he said “it’s a limited life.” Those words stuck with me and continue to give me chills as I type this.

I had the idea to invite friends to see Marissa’s creations and asked Marissa if she’d consider donating a percentage of her profits to Wounded Warrior Project. I also asked what she thought of the idea of having a charm made in honor of my dad. The charm would be a martini. You see, despite his “limited life", martinis persisted. Marissa loved the idea and we got to work planning “Diamonds and Drinks”.

Last night we gathered in my apartment. Marissa turned my dining room into a jewelry shop. My friend John Marsh was busy at work in the kitchen. John will be opening his first NYC restaurant in a few weeks, his wife told me “he is only here for you and for this cause.”  I had kept the guest list small as I didn’t know how things would go.  Steadily, friends arrived from all different parts of my life. While some shopped others sipped and John’s organic bites were passed around the room. We ate beets and feta atop Mary's Gone Crackers, crab avocado wasabi crisps and small demitasse cups of gazpacho.

Did I mention the elderflower martinis? Yes, these martinis are made with Absolut Boston which is elderflower and black tea flavored. The vodka is combined with lemon juice and simple syrup. After about 2 hours I was told we were out of the lemon juice (from 2 dozen lemons!) and the reserve bottled lemon juice.  The martinis and the evening was a hit.  The night was perfect.

What do you think is the key to a successful party? The guests? The food? The drinks?