Some tips: For breakfast, have some of the hotel’s fruit, whole wheat toast or a bit of oatmeal, and coffee – black. Just pick what you like and stick with it – no need to try a little bit of everything on the hotel’s breakfast buffet – it’s probably not all good anyways. Go to a coffee shop, have some good coffee, and don’t feel like you need to put cream and sugar in it. If you must, try skim milk and one sugar packet.

Definitely add in a workout on your trip. Every other day, or everyday, if you can. Don’t leave the gym sooner than 30 minutes! Lots of hotels have gyms now. Utilize this, in addition to all the walking you’ll do on your trip (this counts as exercise, too!). I did 40 minutes on the elliptical and some weights a few times during our stay, and worked out 3 of the 4 days we were in DC. I definitely felt good about myself before starting the day.

Don’t feel you have to say “no” to desserts, for goodness sakes. Plan out your meals and portion control your desserts. We were in Georgetown one day and out of Serendipity 3, Georgetown Cupcakes, dolcezza artisanal gelato, and Pie Sisters, we decided to go with Pie Sisters. Imagine our disappointment when we arrived there late, trekking in at 8pm when they closed at 7pm. But one of the sisters, Alli, let us in! She was so nice, and her pies were amazing.

I tried the Key Lime pie, P had the apple pie, Randy had the banana cream pie, and Kym had the cherry pie. I had a bite of everyone’s pies – they were so, so, so good. The Key Lime pie was creamy, and not bright green from artificial coloring, but pale green from the key limes. The graham cracker crust was thick and crumbled in your mouth. P’s apple pie was comfort in a bite. Perfectly spiced apples, flaky crust, yum. Randy’s banana cream pie was fresh and was the best banana cream pie I’ve ever had – definitely not from those pudding mixes they have at the store. Kym’s cherry pie was tart and sweet – I loved it. It’s a good size for those of you who want portion control, coming in a mini-pie size.

Kym’s cherry pie


Alli, who let us in when they were closed. Thanks Alli!

My key lime pie. Yum!

For lunch one day, we Yelp’ed some reviews and this food cart place always came up. We decided to try it, and gosh, was it good! It was very clean and cheap – $6 for a lot of food. We could have easily shared a plate. It’s located near Macy’s in Arlington, Virginia. We simply bought some food and brought it in the food court in the mall across the street to sit down and have lunch (it was freezing outside!). It’s called the Metro Halal Food Cart (halal meaning the animals are slaughtered in a humane way, according to Islamic law). If you’re taking the metro, it’s off of the orange line, off of Ballston Metro. Here’s the address:

4201 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA

P had the chicken and rice, with some saag (cooked spinach) and salad on the side:

I had the chicken korma, with spicy potatoes and salad:

The owner told me he makes his own food, five days a week (they’re closed on weekends). I asked him what he put in his potatoes and he wouldn’t tell me (dangit!), except at one stage he adds in homemade pickles. Mum on the seasoning. I think there’s fenugreek in there anyways. I loved P’s saag – you must get that. It was creamy, you’ll fulfill a veggie requirement of the day, and you’ll be happy you ordered it.

You’ll do a lot of walking in DC. You can use the Metro system and get to a lot of places without a car, which is good. Just museum-hopping will burn a lot of calories, and take you a few hours! Thanks, Kym, for being my museum buddy while the guys were at work!

At the Freer Museum Gallery of Art

You can use this base (oats, milk, water) and make variations of your own – add in bananas, dried fruits, almond butter, anything. I made this version and was greeted with a “Mmmm…good…” from my sister-in-law. Here are some more oatmeal possibilities for you – change it up!

- Pina colada oatmeal: Unsweetened, shredded coconut + diced pineapple + vanilla extract
- Comfort-in-a-bowl oatmeal: Almond butter + dates + cinnamon
- Banana bread oatmeal: Banana + walnuts + unsweetened, shredded coconut
- Apple pie oatmeal: Cubed apples + walnuts + cinnamon + pinch of nutmeg
- Carrot cake oatmeal: Grated carrot + raisins + walnuts + brown sugar + vanilla extract

Oats are a fabulous whole grain. Not only are they chock-full of soluble fiber, they can help lower your cholesterol. Additionally, they can help maintain blood sugars and prevent diabetes. Oats can help maintain your weight by keeping you fuller longer – longer than those sugary cereals out there. They’re good at also decreasing your blood pressure, and can reduce your risk of heart diseases and strokes. Full of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, oats will also keep you regular, if you know what I mean (I’m sure that will make you happy!).

What do you like to put in your oatmeal?

Spiced Fruit & Nut Oatmeal
serves 1-2

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup fat-free milk
1/2 cup water
3 oz blackberries
1 tablespoon sliced almonds
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of salt

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine all ingredients. Bring to a simmer, then turn down the heat to medium-low. Cook for about 5 minutes, then serve.

Additionally, dal is an Indian word for any sort of beans you use. When I was in college, my dad would pick me up on Fridays and we’d either have sushi or Indian food. One time, P and I were in DC and ate Indian food for Valentine’s Day. It’s always been like a comfort food to me and I associate it with good times.

So, the other day, as I was leafing through Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters cookbook, I saw a recipe for dal. I love this cookbook – it’s chock-full of veggie-heavy recipes. You could use any small beans or lentils you have, but I used mung beans since I already had them. I added a little light coconut milk to it, which gave a slightly sweet, full flavor to the dal. I also used a cauliflower too and ate this with whole-wheat naan bread. My baby loved it – I’m so proud that she likes a variety of foods. I’m going to brag, but she even likes brown rice, tofu, lentils, and kabocha squash along with other things. She’s definitely not one of those kids raised on pre-packaged ravioli or Mac ‘n cheese!

Mung Bean Dal
Serves 4
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook
1 cup split (yellow) mung beans, rinsed and picked over
1 can (13.6 oz) light coconut milk
1 small cauliflower (or 1/2 large), cored and cut into chunks, optional
2 tablespoons mined ginger
1 tablespoon mined garlic
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 fresh Thai bird chili, or 1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt and black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped cilantro, for garnish
1. Soak the beans in water (change out the water a few times before soaking – the water will be yellow from the beans) for about two hours; drain.
2. Combine all ingredients (except salt, pepper, butter, and cilantro), and bring to a boil over high heat in a Dutch oven on the stove. Bring the heat to medium-low, and cook for about 35 minutes, until the mung beans are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the butter. Serve with chopped cilantro on top.

To add some protein, add some sushi-grade tuna or salmon. You could also add in a hard-boiled egg, but I chose to add in some marinated soft tofu.

Wakame is a sea vegetable that is just great, in soups (you’ll find this in miso soup) and salads. Simply soak it in water for a few minutes before using, to rehydrate it. You can find this product in a lot of places nowadays. I bought mine at a local Asian grocery store, but I’ve even seen it at Whole Foods.

There’s no recipe to this – I just did everything quickly, on the spur of the moment. You can just prepare everything to your taste. In the wakame salad, simply rehydrate the amount of seaweed you want to use (not too much since it really expands in water), add rice vinegar, mirin, and granulated sugar to taste. Ta da!

Soft Tofu Sushi Rice Bowl
Soft tofu recipe (also called silken tofu)
Avocado, diced
Wakame salad (rehydrate wakame in water, drain, then add rice vinegar, mirin, and sugar to taste)
Cucumber, sliced
Pickled ginger
Short or medium-grain brown rice

I’m not sad (don’t get me wrong, I’m not happy either) that the accident happened.  I’m also not sad that I spent seven months in the hospital, because that’s where I met some of the kindest people.  Same with the six months of rehab after being discharged from the hospital.  Not sad either.  Is that weird?  I met some of the nicest people in rehab, and funny, too!  Through this accident I learned who is truly on my side and who isn’t.  It’s a hard lesson to learn, but I’m very grateful for those that have stayed close to me.  I’m grateful that my husband stayed my best friend.  He’s had stress upon stress, and I admire him for dealing with it all.

So, this year, we decided to do it low-key for the day. I made a mulled wine, something that P heard of a lot when he went to London for business.  I’ve never had it before but it was quite tasty and improv for a drink-I just threw whatever I had in there.  We rang in the New Year eating cheese, crackers, and drinking wine on the kitchen countertop.  It was the perfect way to spend the holiday.

Mulled Wine

Serves 6

1.5 L red wine (I used cabernet sauvignon-reminding you, this is a big bottle of wine, not your typical size)

3 cinnamon sticks

5 cloves

5 star aniseeds

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp star anise extract

In a medium soup pot (I used a French oven), mix together all ingredients.  Set on low heat and allow to brew for an hour.  Serve, with cinnamon sticks if wanted.

A few years ago, my friend Phi made rosemary cookies and I remembered they were so good.  They were slightly addicting!  Who knew rosemary would work so well in a cookie?  I wanted to recreate the shortbread using an old recipe for my Earl Grey tea cookies, this time using rosemary instead of Earl Grey tea.  I had to keep myself from eating the entire batch myself!

I loved these so much I went on a rosemary baking spree – it included rosemary lemon pound cake for my neighbors’ gifts as well.  I still have extra rosemary in the fridge.  Now that Christmas is over, I think I’ll whip up some more cookie dough, shape them, and put them in the freezer.  You can slice and bake whenever you like!  Anyways, I hope y’all had a good Christmas.  I loved every part of this year’s holidays!

Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced

1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

2 tsp finely chopped rosemary

3 tablespoons water

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and salt.  Set aside.  In a food processor, pulse the butter cubes with powdered sugar and rosemary. Pulse a few times until incorporated, until the butter looks pea-sized.  Add the flour and salt and continue to pulse until incorporated.  Add in the water, and pulse until the mixture looks smooth and uniform.  Take a long piece of plastic wrap, and place half the dough mixture onto it.  Form into a log and wrap it up.  Repeat with the other half.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  When ready to bake, slice into 1/4-inch thick slices.  Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for 10 minutes; if you want the cookies lightly browned, bake it for about 12 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

I haven’t gotten into gingerbread until recently.  I don’t know why, but the flavors didn’t resonate with me…I think I wasn’t a big fan of molasses, but recently my cousin gave me a molasses cookie and I loved it!  I bought some almond butter when I was in California recently at a local Trader Joe’s.  I thought it would be really good if I quickly whipped up some gingerbread spices, a little bit of molasses and demarara sugar, and spread it on my whole-wheat toast.

I feel like I dumped a bunch of my spices in here.  Throw in your kitchen cabinet, whatever you like.  Haha!  It’s like a holiday in a spread!  And might I add, almond butter is high in monounsaturated fats and low in saturated fats.  It’ll also give you a good amount of protein and is high in fiber.  Adding gingerbread spices to this makes it a healthy alternative compared to gingerbread men, especially if you’re craving the taste but too lazy to make them, like me. 

Gingerbread Almond Butter

Makes 1/2 cup

1/2 cup unsalted almond butter

1 tablespoon molasses

2 tsp Demerara sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp allspice

Pinch sea salt, optional

1.  Mix all ingredients together until combined.

The holiday baking commences!  This year, I have a lot to bake for.  It’s my last week in rehab, so I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, a therapist’s favorite.  I adapted Alice Currah’s recipe for that, since she promises they’re the best cookies ever.  Yes, a healthy diet means you can indulge and have a cookie once in awhile!  In any case, I substituted white whole-wheat and whole wheat flour for the cookies, and used 1/2 teaspoon of fine sea salt since the butter was already salted.  They turned out really good!  Thanks Alice!  And no, I didn’t cut out some of the butter.  Really good cookies use it, and I couldn’t imagine substituting applesauce or anything like that…it just doesn’t taste like a cookie to me anymore, but rather a spongy cake.

I baked several dozen cookies to bring in to my last day of therapy.  Bittersweet.  I’ll miss my therapists who have helped me get better the past six months, but this means progress to me.  This past weekend, my sister-in-law did a 3-mile (not kilometer!) walk with me, and boy, was I tired!  We came in dead last but I felt good knowing it was the farthest I’ve been able to walk in over a year.  It was funny, because a police car was following us to open up the roads again. Whoops!

This weekend, I’ll be baking my Earl Grey tea cookies for a neighborhood cookie swap.  Remember those?  I love Earl Grey and have lots of tea so this will be good to bring to the party.

What will you bake this holiday season?

Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Alice Currah’s http://savorysweetlife.com

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 oz white whole-wheat flour

10 oz whole-wheat flour

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.  In a stand-up mixer, beat the butter, then add the sugars, until smooth and fluffy (about 3 minutes).  Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat for another two minutes.  Whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda and baking powder.  Pour into the stand-up mixer and beat until incorporated.  Mix in the chocolate chips.  Drop the cookie dough, into tablespoonfuls, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for about 10 minutes until golden brown.  Place cookies on a wire rack until cool.

My mother-in-law made this gluten-free dish for Camille’s birthday party last week.  It’s really simple to make, and easy to eat.  Simply dip the cut roll in crushed peanuts, a mixture of sugar and salt.  I don’t have the exact recipe here for you, but if you can make rice, you can easily make this dish.

Gluten-free rice and mung bean rolls

Mung beans

Sushi rice

Rice wine vinegar

Sugar

Gluten-free nori (seaweed wrappers)

Dip in:

Crushed peanuts with sugar and a little salt (for example, if using 1/4 cup crushed peanuts, mix in a tablespoon or two or sugar and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Then add more of a certain ingredient if needed)

To make the rolls, soak the mung beans (for example, use 1/4 cup if making 1 3/4 cups sushi rice) overnight.  Steam the mung beans with the sushi rice in a rice cooker with enough water.  Pour in a couple tablespoons of rice wine vinegar, and a teaspoon of sugar at a time to taste.  Roll the rice/mung bean mixture in nori sheets, and there you have it!  Gluten-free rolls!

I love soups, they’re perfect for these cold Texas days (it’s 41°F today – brrrr!).  We went to a specialty grocery store the other day, and I fell in love with the Carrot-Ginger soup they had there.  I wanted to recreate it at home and guess how they made it.  My version is pretty darn close! This recipe is so good, and easy to make too.  My baby even liked it!  The doctor says she can start eating adult foods, but obviously chopped up for the mouths of babes.  But since this was already pureed, we had no need to chop it up.  Woohoo!  If you have an immersion blender, use that.  I used Ngoc’s immersion blender when I was back in California and loved it!  But if you’re like me and don’t have one, a regular blender works fine.

Fun facts: You can use a pound of baby carrots here.  That’s what I did, since I didn’t want to peel the carrots, and baby carrots are full-sized carrots anyways, but mechanically separated to look the baby size.  To make this vegetarian, simply use vegetable broth.  Also, a pearl onion is related to the leek, and doesn’t have a strong onion flavor like your typical onion has.  For the ginger, peel a stalk and rub it against a Microplane grater until tiny flecks come out the other side.  It’ll make your life easier!

Carrot-Ginger Soup

Serves 4

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

4 pearl onions, skinned and quartered

1 lb baby carrots

2 14.5-oz cans chicken broth

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons grated ginger

1.  In a soup pot, saute the onions in olive oil over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.  Add the baby carrots, chicken broth, water, and grated ginger.  Bring to a boil and cook for about 30 minutes, until a fork pierces the carrots easily.  Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until pureed.  If using a blender, wait until the soup has cooled until blending.  Heat pureed mixture over medium heat until lightly simmering before serving.