(Healthier) restaurant hacks

I try cooking (or at least prepping) most of the meals I eat. But at some point, usually during the weekend, I reward myself for all my hard work by going to a nice restaurant and having a nice, delicious dinner (or brunch if I’m being naughty). At that point I could not give a flying fuzz about calories, or fat, or carbs; I don’t care about any of it. I just eat my heart out and enjoy the food. Of course, it stops being fun when I overdo it and go into what it feels like a food-induced coma, but that’s beside the point. My point is that there’s a time and a place for everything; and food is no exception.

But let’s face it. Many of the foods that we drool over (and even have some seriously disturbing dreams about) are neither difficult to make, nor an imminent nutritional disaster. Oh yeah, some of those “once in a while treats” can easily be turned into everyday healthy items with just a few tweaks. And you can do it without sacrificing the flavor.

A few days ago, I went to one of my favorite diners with my best friend and I felt I died and went straight to heaven as I ate their pecan pancakes. I love them so much, but I never make them at home. NEVER. I’m not sure why, because I always have pecans around, and I make pancakes often… I reasoned that the major problem with these pancakes is the fact that they although they are huge (and therefore have an unknown amount of calories), their lack of fiber results in me feeling like I’m STARVING just a couple of hours after. 

I thought that an easy and simple way to make these pancakes healthier (so I can eat them more often) is to use whole wheat flour instead of regular flour. I just followed my pancake recipe, but I used 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour instead of 1 ½ cups of white flour. Sometimes the mix is a bit too thick so I gradually add more milk until the consistency is just right (It won’t be much – a tablespoon at the most). That’s it. Then while they are cooking I add chopped pecans, I flip them and cook for an additional minute. It’s that simple. Now these pancakes have the fiber that the regular pancakes lack. Also, the natural sweetness of the whole wheat flour plays very well with the pecan flavors. As a bonus, since you are making the pancakes yourselves, you know exactly how much a serving is (and how many servings you are eating, so you don’t over eat.

Breakfast, checked. But what about dinner? The diner that makes those amazing pancakes is just a few blocks away from my other weekend-indulgence: one of the best soul food/southern restaurants in town. I know they have pretty good food, but I ALWAYS end up eating the same dish: chicken and waffles with a side of grits. This is THE place that made me like grits to begin with (in the American sense; I’ve eaten the Puerto Rican equivalents since I was a baby). Turns out, I never make grits at home. Why? Beats me; but once again, the lack of fiber is a real deterrent to having grits often.  My solution? I bought a 10 grain hot cereal (Bob’s Red Mill 10 grain hot cereal - free publicity, ha), that is whole wheat along with other whole grains. I didn’t do anything special; I just followed the package’s instructions, but I substituted milk for water. It turned out to be really good, and it went really well with my Puerto Rican-fried chicken. Yumm!!! I loved it. 

These are just two examples (out of MANY) of easy swaps to transform a not-so-healthy restaurant dish (or side) into a healthier, every day side meal that will taste great, and will be good for you. I’m pretty sure you all have examples. Feel free to share them!

Roasted sweet potato with pecan and maple

The last couple of weeks have been CHAOS!!! Ok, chaos may be somewhat of an overstatement, but it certainly has been stressful (now an understatement). We’ve had people doing work around the house…  You can probably guess where this is going, but I’ll still give you a quick description of where the stress comes from. The workers arrive at 8 am, so you need to either be gone to work by then, or you better plan on staying out of their way. They’re nice people doing hard work, so you have to work very hard at choosing your words when you are voicing your concerns. And of course, you have to go behind them fixing, or at least trying to fix, all of the things they break along the way. That’s actually quite some work, but unlike them, I’m not getting paid to do it. But like they say back home “There’s no evil that lasts 100 years, nor a body that can survive it”, so I’m glad it’s almost over. We all know it wouldn’t take the project 100 years to take me to my grave; an extra couple of weeks would do the trick.

I did have my share of drinks through the whole process, and they got me through it. Two sets of friends got married as this madness was going on, so I had two weddings to celebrate (and to drink away my stress). The two ceremonies were very different, but they were both absolutely beautiful, and the venues were just gorgeous. I had good food with good friends, so I had the best of breaks from all the chaos. I may have eaten more than I should, but hey, you can’t measure your buddies’ happiness in calories (nor your sanity in drinks), so I “partied”.

But the last two weeks have not been just me pigging my problems away. I’ve had my share of exercise - some of it reflected on my “Cleveland’s my gym” posts. I’ve been going to the gym 4 days a week, I’ve been commuting by bike and I’ve been running 5K twice a week. On that note, I won a free registration for a 5K race on a giveaway from one of my favorite local blogs –Poise in Parma. This will be my first race, so I’m excited. Maybe I’m a little too excited. I’ve been driving people INSANE talking about the race, and asking for advice. I’m just pumped! BTW, anyone has good training tips for races?

I’m back to normal now (or at least close to), so I’m back on track cooking and blogging about it. I made this beautiful dish that I absolutely HAVE to share with you: roasted sweet potato with pecan and maple. I adapted it from Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook – Ottolenghi, The cookbook – and he in turn adapted it from the website Epicurious. It’s technically a warm sweet potato salad, dressed with maple and other goodies. It is absolutely delicious, and like all great recipes, there’s room for your interpretation, so it can be adapted to work with the ingredients you have. I substituted lovage (which I’ve featured on another post) for cilantro and parsley and I made a few other changes from the original(s), and the result was a damn good dish. I’ll share my version!

On the road shortcut

2 small sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp. olive oil
35g (1.5 oz.) pecans
1 small red onion, roughly chopped
6 Tbsp. roughly chopped lovage (you can substitute for 4 of parsley and 2 of cilantro)
2 Tbsp. roughly chopped chives
1/4 tsp dried chili flakes
¼ cup raisins
Salt and pepper

For the dressing
4 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 Tbsp. pomegranate champagne vinegar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1.      Preheat the oven to 375 F.

2.      Cut the unpeeled sweet potatoes into 2 3/4 inch wedges. Spread them out on a baking dish and drizzle with the olive oil. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper, mix well with your hands and then roast in the oven for about 30 minutes.

3.      On a separate baking sheet, toast the pecans for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and chop roughly.

4.      While waiting for the sweet potatoes, make the dressing. Whisk together all the ingredients in a small bowl with some salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

5.      When the potatoes are ready, transfer them to a large bowl while still hot. Add the red onions, lovage, chives, chili flakes, pecans and raisins. Pour the dressing over and toss gently to blend, then season to taste. Serve at once or at room temperature.