I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in my New Year's philosophy. As far as resolutions go, determine what you won't give up rather than rigidly planning what you will abandon.
As we move into the New Year, Sara Dickerman is getting a lot of attention for her angle. In "Bon Appetit: The Food Lover's Cleanse," she has written a non-diet book to get you to your nutritional goals. In the 140-recipe cookbook, she teaches you to "cleanse," not in the usual drink only water or juice way, but by feasting on delicious foods that, as her subtitle promises, "will tempt you back into healthful eating."
The key, Dickerman promotes, is to eat flavorful, comfort foods that are filling and fiber-filled and, therefore, help cut cravings for empty-calorie junk food.
On board for making resolutions of abundance rather than scarcity, as part of a Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb's Today Show special on New Year's Eve, actress Katherine Heigl promised not to give up cheese this year and country music star and "The Voice" host Blake Shelton said, "I am not willing to drink less."
My New Year's non-resolution — that would jibe with Heigl's — stemmed from breakfast one morning recently at Jinky's Cafe: Why not eat macaroni 'n' cheese for breakfast? Jinky's is a gourmet restaurant chain that often gets voted as having the best breakfasts in Los Angeles. Among their dozens of innovative selections, breakfast mac 'n' cheese popped right out. The macaroni 'n' cheese is scrambled with eggs, smoked bacon, crumbled sausage, diced ham and broccoli florets. Another, both of which you could easily emulate at home by tweaking your favorite mac 'n' cheese recipe, gets a fried sunny side-up egg on top, which echoes a suggestion by chefs Allison Arevalo and Erin Wade in "The Mac 'n' Cheese Cookbook."
Reading Arevalo and Wade's mac 'n' cheese 2013 masterpiece again, also encouraged me to expand my non-resolutions even further: Mac 'n' cheese for dessert, as in Arevalo and Wade's gooey Dessert Mac 'n' Cheese:
DESSERT MAC 'N" CHEESE
1 pound dried wide egg noodles
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups sliced strawberries
1/2 cup strawberry or raspberry jam
8 ounces mascarpone cheese
2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
Topping:
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Yields 6 servings.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Cook the egg noodles in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.
In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, vanilla extract, brown sugar, granulated sugar, strawberries, jam, mascarpone, sour cream and melted butter. Add the noodles and stir to fully combine.
In a separate bowl, mix together all of the topping ingredients.
Spoon the noodle mixture into 6 5-inch-by-5-inch ovenproof dishes and completely cover with a thin layer of topping.
Bake until the mixture is bubbly and the topping turns golden brown, about 25 minutes. Serve hot.
AFTER-WORK GOURMET COOKBOOK SHELF
Steven Masley, M.D., and Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., authors of "Smart Fat: Eat More Fat. Lose More Weight. Get Healthy Now," have some advice about restaurant bread baskets. "Unless something special is being celebrated, just about everyone should give up the bread basket. You don't need empty flour calories sending your blood sugar levels sky-rocketing and disrupting your hormones and metabolism. Think of bread like birthday cake — it's something you should save for special occasions."
Photo courtesy of CaliforniaStrawberries.com
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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