apples, restaurant consulting and poached eggs

Its so easy to buy gifts for me. I just asked all my family members to get me cookware. One my recent acquisitions was an egg poacher. Being a chef, I want to use as few short cuts as possible. One of my major challenges in cooking has always been poaching eggs. I could never got the vortex quite right, the vinegar always got into the flavor of my egg…somehow it just never looked pretty. But now, I have a lovely egg poacher. At first I didn’t like it because the cups were plastic and the thought of heating plastic didn’t thrill me. Also plastic is not non-stick (neither is non-stick cookware, completely non-stick). But I just take a bit of olive oil and paint it on the cups with a paintbrush and viola – beautiful poached eggs that come out of the cup.

I’m very happy now with my new toy. I make all kinds of poached egg treats but in natural healthful way. Now I can also bring poached eggs to you as part of my delivery service. Although I am not certain how long I would eat them and if I’d really want microwaved poached eggs…but I could certainly make them and bring them to you for breakfast or to your office. Certainly let me know and check out the catering services on my website www.sobelwellness.com .

I recently also bought some gala apples.  I made a mistake and bought some that were not organic. They were covered with this nasty waxy film. I have no idea what that is, but I really don’t want to be eating it. Also the apples are tremendous. They are not sweet. They sort of have this staid taste that tastes like apple – but almost as if it were canned and very old. Nothing like the crisp sweetness of a fresh organic apple.

I’m in the process of looking for work as a restaurant consultant. If you or anyone you know is starting up a restaurant concept and would like to benefit from incorporating whole, natural and local foods onto your menu as well as offer perhaps one or two dishes that are healthful, not just healthy in the classical boring flavorless sense, please let me know.

I’m also looking to establish myself as an expert to the media. I’m working on writing a book, but that’s a labor of love and not one I always have time for. Instead I am hoping to garner some media exposure now and gain the ability to be able to write as time allows. If anyone you know has any needs for someone to speak on Alice Waters-esque food preparation or restaurant/menu, home catered meals that are delicious and health balanced, let me know. If anyone has any connection to Alice Waters at all, I want to meet her more than I can breathe and would love to be able to expand her brand to New York.

Bon Appetit and Salud!

radio interview – cast down your bread – the truth about gluten

http://healthmedia.mypodcast

check this out for a great interview. I was on the radio Tuesday takling about gluten intolerance.

I am on the happy diet blog

read a q&a interview with me on the happy diet blog:

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/dgroups/persona.jsp?plckPersonaPage=PersonaBlog&plckUserId=f6d781c5cd29b26c1a89b214839d85d3&userId=f6d781c5cd29b26c1a89b214839d85d3&ordersrc=rdfit0186

great blogs and ideas – from superfoods to super jobs

As we are all struggling to figure out what to do, what to eat and how to downsize these days, I find myself often struggling as to how to communicate. I have come across some wonderful blogs and resources for recipes, jobs, apartments and more.

The first resources I have found for frugal gourmets and what my friend Adrienne has terms “frugalistas” is her wonderful blog just yee. For great recipes try www.andreabeaman.com for recipes. I just picked up this anti-inflammation diet and recipe book by Jessica Black. I’ve been making many of the recipes already, but it kind of puts it all together. Some of my other favorite sites are www.foodrevolution.com and http://dicksonsfarmstand.com/ and www.uswellnessmeats.com.  I am determined to get people aware of the hazards of eating corn fed beef where the animals are sick! Animals who are ruminants should be eating grass. Their stomachs are built to eat and digest grass. Give them grain, they get fat and their meat (just like their bodies) gets diseased and sick.  They do taste good, but do you really want to be taking on the energy of a sick animal? I am not telling you to be a vegetarian (although a few vegetarian meals a week won’t kill you – oh the things you can do with lentils and quinoa, and millet has not yet been struck by the same price problems as quinoa!!!)

Let’s make 2009 the year to remember. Its ripe with possibilities. Yes, things seem difficult, the economy is in the toilet and there are some stores selling quinoa for $8 a box, but the 4th street food co-op still sells it for $3.23 a pound. So for a while we turn to organic corn meal, brown rice or millet.  I really love millet. Its close to quinoa and for some reason, not as expensive. I don’t know why. It makes great gluten free bread too as does amaranth, which can sometimes be a pain to cook. Let’s eat more cabbage and apples – perhaps together in a salad with a bit of sesame. If you are allergic to sesame – use lemon and cilantro.  Add limes, avocados and tomatoes to everything, in salads, soups or with broiled fish. Can’t eat tomatoes – enjoy fish with lime, lemongrass and chilipowder. Skip the chili if you can’t handle it. Try a little – it goes a long way and its good to get you in the mood for a bit of lovin and also to help relieve that cold you’ve been suffering from. Cilantro is probably the most flavorful way to get your greens. There’s so many flavors and so many great way to be healthy while having a healthy pocketbook. Stay tuned and I’ll let you know a hundred ways to have great tasting, great for you food on $20 or less a day. One great way…stay out of starbucks…or stick to the refresh tea, for a tall its only $1.70 or so last time I checked in New York. However, if you buy your own tea and carry a thermos with you or get one of those hot water kettles you can plug in you are pretty good to go anywhere.

www. justyee.typepad.com

my vision for the world if money were no object

Someone asked me this question in an email a month ago and I just reread the email. I think its brilliant if I do say so myself and being the time of new years resolutions, here are mine for 2009…and it will happen!

If money were no object, I would want to prepare healthy food for people in their homes as a personal chef and also teach healthy cooking classes in people’s homes [for whatever they could pay] and lead classes as well as seminars on the health benefits of certain foods. I would maybe want a very
small cafe that I would hire a staff to cook at and I would design the menu.  I see myself more as a designer and a consultant. I’d love to consult to restaurants so that they use healthier ingredients -such as changing the oils, maybe that is something I should mention at BNI – does anyone here
know a restaurant owner or a caterer who needs a consultant to make their
menu or offerings healthier. Go from top down instead of individuals.

I’d love to transform entire organizations and corporate cafeterias as well as schools to only have healthy foods and make sure every airport had a healthy option for travelers.

I’d want to design some sort of healthy hot dog stand – like the dessert truck (http://www.desserttruck.com/) but with bowls of green vegetables and grains that were delicious, flavorful soups that were also healthy, an explosion of flavor – lots of ginger, garlic, tumeric, cilantro, lime, a bit of butter, coconut oil etc. Food that tasted GOOD but was also good for you…and get people excited about eating it because of how it is going to make them feel versus how they may feel now.

Eventually I’d like to be a partner (or two or six or 100) in a sit down restaurant like Alice Water’s Chez Panisse. A restaurant started by Alice and 100 of her closest friends. Who is with me. Let’s bring some Berkeley to New York City or at least to Long Island. I know just the place!

At the same time I’d want to design neighborhood healthy tours – to show people all the resources in their neighborhood to buy healthy foods and also the restaurants that have it. As well, even in a restaurant that is “not so healthy” there’s always a healthy option, but its a lot of pressure to go to a place and read a menu.  Its much easier to just know what to eat without looking at the menu. Something like – I’ll have whatever fresh fish is available, broiled with lemon and herbs, brown rice or wild rice if you have
it and any serving of steamed or lightly sauteed vegetables. For dessert – have the darkest, richest chocolate dessert and share it with 4 people, just don’t do it every day.

I know personally that for the past three months I have been neglecting my own diet and been so busy that I actually ate pizza a few weeks back. I am lactose and gluten intolerant and I ate pizza. I don’t know what I was thinking…but my body is so attuned to junky food that I actually have gotten sick again with my ADHD out of control. A few days of eating healthy again – eating only gluten free grains, no bread and as little cheese/dairy as possible (except last night) and no alcohol and I feel amazing…or at
least my digestion and my brain feel amazing.

One night in early December I made the following for dinner:
venison with coconut, peanut butter sauce with orange champagne vinegar (I just made it up, I don’t have a recipe, one day I will make it again and come up with a recipe to share with you all)
steamed asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower with a touch of herb butter
and quinoa/brown rice with mustard seed and a bit of curry
I had 3 squares of dark chocolate for dessert.

it was fantastic. not a drop of fat on the venison. the sauce was just the
right amount and mostly spices with a touch of coconut, stock and 1 tsp of
peanut butter for flavor, maybe I put an 1/4 of tsp of sesame oil in as well.

Last night I made grass fed lamb stew with sweet potatoes and carrots from the 4th street co-op.  The lamb was from whole foods…but I am starting to think that I want to get my meat from Dickson’s Farms which sells meat at Morningside Farmers Market. http://dicksonsfarmstand.com/ I am going to see if I can get some sort of account for the restaurant once I open it. There was some complicated recipe I didn’t have time for – so I modified it slightly slow cooking lamb with onions in water for 1 hour (boiling and slow cooking until the water evaporating and repeating this process) and then adding beef stock (2 1/2 cups) the rind of one blood orange, allspice and anise seeds (about 1 tsp each). I cooked the lamb for 1 hour and then added the carrots and sweet potatoes and some little blue potatoes at the end for 20 min – they got all soft and just incorporated into the stew. Best thing I ever tasted…delish!

These are the recipes I want to share with people and what I want to bring into their lives that healthy food is not boring and one doesn’t need to think of a diet as deprivation. Food should be good, strengthening, delicious but at the same time filling so that a smaller portion leaves you
just as satisfied. I had about 4 ounces of venison. Half the fat of a dry grilled chicken breast with a lot less of the cancer causing substances from the grilling time.

I am still struggling with how to work this into a 20 second elevator pitch.  If anyone has any suggestions I am open to them.  I just want anyone struggling with a food issue, intolerance or just simply wants to be healthier in 2009 to be excited about food and food that’s not only tasty but health supportive with all the great qualities that will keep me strong, lean, with high immunity and energy. This is the message I want to transmit.

I hope you are all having a great 2009 so far!

natural food

So, I just saw a commercial for Pizza hut’s new “natural” pizza made with a whole grain crust, sauce that didn’t contain high fructose corn syrup and “natural” pepperoni. It seems like a step in the right direction. I’m not sure the cheese is any less processed and I’m a bit concerned about the naturalness of the pepperoni – but it definitely seems like a slightly better option. I’m glad to see that food companies are moving in this direction.

In the meantime I am writing two business plans for juice bar type ventures and continuing to brand my company as specializing in allergy free options for getting excited about food. Growing up with food allergies and sensitivities myself I know how challenging it is to know what to eat. I found myself eating mostly sugar and gumdrops/licorice because it seemed to be the one thing I could eat. So many other gluten/wheat/egg/milk allergy sufferers are also addicted to and consume a lot of sugar.

Many food companies still haven’t figured out how to properly make these foods taste great without adding tons of sugar…and while in moderation its ok – the amount in most processed foods is pretty high. Sugar leads to inflammation which can sometimes exacerbate an already inflamed system due to allergies or food sensitivities.

I’m doing a lot of research into anti-inflammation diets…but from my experience its fairly simple: fresh fruits such as berries, apples, pears, dark green leafy vegetables, whole grains (that don’t contain gluten), minimally processed gently pasteurized milk (or raw if you dare) in moderation, some sweets such as dark chocolate in moderation and lots of vegetarian protein and some meat (more as a condiment, flavoring than a main dish).  There’s more too it – but not much…then there’s the key of using fresh local and organic when possible vegetables, herbs, spices, sea salt (in moderation), butter (in moderation), wine (in moderation), broths/stocks, vinegars, fruit juices and purees (in moderation) to make it all taste good!

That’s the key…making it taste good – well that’s what I am here for. I’m in the coming weeks and months opening two restaurants and a zone chef like delivery service. Starting in January my juice bar cafe will be open on Wednesday nights for a pre-reserved dinner and I will be taking orders for a weekly delivery service of a bag of meals for 4 days or so.

Soon to come check www.sobelwellness.com/greenbag.html for more information. Cafe information www.sobelwellness.com/luscious-organics-cafe.html. Email meredith@sobelwellness.com or call 646-209-4519 for reservations this Wednesday night 1/7 or this weekend 1/10 and 1/11 for lunch. 324 Lafayette Street, 7th Floor. Meals served by reservation only.