Avoiding diabetes for boards

Everyone has their own plan to survive boards. My friend Lauren seems to be the queen of this: she has pre-made healthy homemade meals (vegetable soups, butternut squash mac-and-cheese) in single servings in the freezer, a fashion theme for each day ("On Fridays we wear PINK!") to keep it interesting, and even a customized daily yoga plan from her yoga teacher. All tricks, of course, to get herself to study every day for five weeks. My role model.

My plan for boards is to not get diabetes. I love to snack, especially while studying, and I recently realized that the bowls of free bite-size candy around school could become a problem given the long days sitting in front of a computer. I also realized that I prefer savory snacks to sweet, but that sweet is what's usually easy and available.

So, for week one, I premade a couple of these kale salads from Smitten Kitchen, which are really good (or I wouldn't repost them). I substituted tomato for dried cranberries, skipped the cheese, and used olive oil and balsamic instead of making a salad dressing, but the real "secret ingredients" that make this salad are the lemon zest (not sour or bitter like lemon juice, but complements the kale) and chopped scallion (pretty subtle). Crunchy, refreshing, and yet hearty with the almonds and quinoa!

I also made these whole wheat English muffins from the NY Times Recipes for Health: not particularly healthy, as they had about half a stick of butter for six (large) muffins, but incredibly delicious. Easy to make, I would make them again in a heartbeat (next weekend?).

Finally, tonight I'm planning on filling veggie tacos with this savory/salty/crunchy-looking avocado-cabbage slaw.

Ever feel like you can't muster the energy to be creative? Board studying is leaving little room in my brain for anything else, including even the most minimal decisions... And this is when it's good to have some trusted recipes to turn to. (Or it would be grilled cheese every night...)

Summer non-cooking

In the summer, even I don't feel like cooking. I'd rather be outside. I'd rather eat raw, fresh food. My appetite is diminished. Etc.

However, too much of this attitude and I wind up eating yogurt, berries, granola bars, and grilled cheese for meal after meal. Enough is enough!

Fortunately, summer dishes can be mostly raw and therefore take less time to cook. Simply toss a few things together, or pour one thing over another thing.

For instance:

• 10-minute pickles that will last a week (I halved the recipe for 1 large cucumber and 1 small head of celery from this week's farm share)
• cold soba noodles and stir-fried Chinese greens with garlic
• tossed summer grain-and-corn salad

Cold soba noodles: boil the noodles as directed, then drain and immediately run under cold water until cool. Toss with a little bit of soy sauce, ponzu, and scallions. Enjoy with tofu or greens or as is.

Stir-fried Chinese greens with garlic: wash and chop greens into large pieces. Peel a few garlic cloves and leave whole. In a large frying pan or wok, heat about a tablespoon of canola oil until very hot (test with a drop of water or a piece of garlic), then add garlic. Cook for a minute, then turn off the heat and add the greens (if you don't turn off the heat, sometimes the whole thing will catch fire). Turn the heat back on and cook for a minute on high. Season with salt if you're feeling indulgent (or just went running!).

Summer salad: toss together the following ingredients.

• any grain, cooked al dente (I used some cool-looking black forbidden rice)
• 1 ear of corn, steamed and de-kerneled
• handful of chopped cilantro and scallion
• half an avocado, cut into small pieces
• handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• lemon juice
• red pepper flakes

Vegetarian feast

In the summer, vegetables are plentiful, but I find that it's not always obvious how to get the most out of them. Two summers ago, when I had a CSA share and more vegetables than I knew what to do with, I found myself making some pretty inedible vegetable soups and longing for more substance. In previous years, I've been enamored with the same corn, tomatoes, and salad every night. Here in my small town in Guatemala, vegetables are fresh and abundant, meat is scarce, and staples such as rice, beans, and flour are cheap and easily available.

I think I've figured out what to do to: buy whatever looks good; cook most vegetables separately with onion or garlic plus one other spice; supplement with a simple starch or protein. Cooking separately keeps flavors fresher and makes for a more varied and interesting meal.

On Saturday night, I shared a vegetarian feast with some friends. Many people to chop and to share in the variety of dishes, all freshly made from scratch with a bit of local flavor:

• smoky eggplant dip
• guacamole (recipe below)
• sweet potato chips (recipe below)
• white bread
• cheese and butter for my German friends
• salad consisting of chopped tomatoes, carrots, and zucchini (the latter sauteed first with onion in a bit of butter and oil before tossing with the other raw veggies)

A feast!

Sweet potato chips and eggplant dip 

Freshly baked bread

Simple guacamole:

Mash together avocados, lime juice, one clove or less of chopped garlic, salt & pepper. Fewer ingredients brings out the flavor of the each.

Sweet potato chips:

Peel sweet (or regular) potatoes and slice 1/2 cm thin. Toss in olive oil, salt & pepper, and an herb (such as rosemary or thyme) then spread out on a baking dish so that pieces are not overlapping. Bake at high heat until pieces are crispy, turning each piece over to cook on both sides. Recipe courtesy of Nick Haas.

Healthy tacos

Today we worked a long day, for here anyway -- we didn't get home until 6pm. Seeing patients nonstop for the first time in our careers is a novel and tiring experience. My housemates were on the verge of going out to dinner when we decided on an impromptu taco party. In this case, many hands make light work, and being limited to what we had in the house made for healthier and more delicious tacos than the norm, I think.

Our tacos were meatless, and I did not miss the meat one bit (more room for other stuff)! Here are some suggestions for getting more punch out of less salt and fat:

• sauté black or pink beans with garlic, half a chopped onion, cumin, paprika, and a dash of white vinegar
• pan roast corn by sautéing in a frying pan until browned, with or without chopped onion
• pan roast a mix of chopped vegetables, such as garlic, onion, zucchini, and green beans, until slightly caramelized but still crunchy (I did not add any water to the pan this time, and cooked for just a few minutes)
• serve with lime slices, cilantro, scallion, and hot sauce

I find that the spices, acid, and roasted flavors add so much more than beef, refried beans, and salt ever do. We also had avocados and a small amount of shredded cheese on hand, for that fat and salt!

Tacos are great for group dining because they have many components to cook, are fun to assemble, and timing doesn't matter (it doesn't matter if the food is served lukewarm). I cooked each component in the same frying pan, one after the next, making for fewer dishes.

California

I've been daydreaming of California lately, can't guess why. I like going to California (the couple of times that I've been), among other reasons, because it inspires me to make new and delicious salads. This is a version of a fancier salad that I had at Gjelena on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach last February. The colors are enough to brighten up this long, dragged out New England winter...

1 beet, peeled and sliced roughly into wedges
1 carrot, peeled and sliced into thick rounds
1/2 avocado
olive oil
pinch of salt

Steam (over boiling water or in a microwave) beet and carrot until a knife just slices through easily. I prefer the carrot to retain some crunch, so I add them to the steamer just before the beet is done.

Slice avocado into large chunks.

Toss all together and season with olive oil and salt. This makes a hearty salad that can stand alone as a lunch, or have it with a yogurt. I ate mine in the library hunched over a textbook, thinking back to those skateboarders with a view of the Pacific...