Brunch at Honey

This is one of my favorite Cincinnati restaurants, and one of the best brunch spots on my side of town. We took my mom and brother (visiting from Florida) and had a good time. I always love the Mexican hot chocolate -- spicy with chili, not too sweet and not loaded with cream. But it was a challenge to find a healthy option. My husband's omelet with Asian ingredients--including shrimp--and a side of fruit salad was the healthiest choice. My vegetarian bagel might have been OK except for the fried cheese (oops) that was its centerpiece.
Still, I love Honey and recommend it!

Specials at Mitchell's Fish Market

If you want a healthy meal before or after the movies at Newport on the Levee -- or at any of the seafood chain's 16 other locations -- Mitchell's Fish Market is your best choice. (My last name is Mitchell, but I have no connection.) In addition to an extensive regular menu, daily and weekly specials provide plenty of options. The $19.95, three-course special is hard to beat. Although we didn't see it on the weekend menu, our server was happy to offer this special when we asked. You get a choice of a house or caesar salad, one of three seafood entrees, and a dessert.
I took the deal, and picked the house salad, grilled steelhead (somewhere between salmon and trout) with potatoes and asparagus, and creme brulee.
My husband had a salmon special (also pictured) that was accompanied with sticky rice and steamed Asian veggies.
We like their cocktail, beer and wine choices, too.

New "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan

From a prominent guru of healthy eating, this is Michael Pollan's new handbook of easy-to-remember tips for what he calls "simple ways to navigate the treacherous landscape of modern food and the often-confusing science of nutrition."
He wants us to eat more food rather than food products, processed, chemical and additive enhanced abominations that populate our grocery shelves and fast-food menus.
His really, really short version of how to have a healthy diet goes like this:
Eat real food, not too much of it, and more plants than meat.
In his new guidebook, he presents 64 straightforward guidelines, each with a short explanation.

This link takes you to an online essay he wrote this week, highlighting a few of the rules:
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/145012/michael_pollan%27s_new_%27food_rules%27:_64_easy_steps_to_better_health/

Sauteed halibut with roasted winter veggies

Here's an easy-to-fix, tasty and healthy meal -- my favorite kind!
For the roasted veggies, cut a sweet potato into one-inch cubes (I leave it unpeeled), add 2 cups of cubed butternut squash, one leek sliced into quarters lengthwise and a handful of whole Brussels sprouts. Toss with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and spices of your choice (such as ginger, cumin, and/or garlic). Spread on an oiled cookie sheet and roast in a 375-degree preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until veggies are fork-tender. Meanwhile....
For the sauteed halibut, heat a skillet to medium high; add a coating of vegetable oil if you are not using a nonstick skillet. Saute until golden on each side two halibut fillets that have been sprinkled with salt and pepper--about 2-3 minutes per side. Reduce heat to medium or medium low, cover and let cook another 3-4 minutes. Remove cover and squeeze 1/2 lemon over top of the fish. Spoon on top of each fillet about 2 tablespoons of Trader Joe's Artichoke-Red Pepper topping (found with the mustards and capers). Cover and heat through for just another minute or two.

That's it! A lovely meal; serve with crusty, warm bread and a glass of sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio.

Gumbo goodness

Canned soup not your thing? Here's one of my favorite soup recipes, though it's really more of a stew. The flavors meld together seamlessly into one mouthful after another of gumbo bliss. I like to add more hot sauce to my portions, while my husband prefers a milder version. Feel free to ramp up the garlic in this recipe, if you like.

Seafood and Chicken Gumbo

Fresh okra is seasonal (late spring until first freeze), but you can also use frozen okra in this recipe. If so, eliminate step 1 below and add frozen okra in step 3.
(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
1 lb. okra, trimmed and sliced (about 4 cups)
4 T canola oil or butter, or a mix, divided
1 medium green pepper, diced (1 cup)
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 small onion, chopped (1 cup)
2 T flour
4 cups chicken stock, heated
2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 T each chopped fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried) and parsley
1 large bay leaf
½ teaspoon salt, or more to taste
1 lb. uncooked shrimp (peeled and deveined), crabmeat, or chicken (boneless, skinless, cut into bite-size pieces), or a combination
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T Tabasco or other hot sauce, ore more to taste

Instructions:
1. Heat 2T oil/butter over medium-high heat in a skillet. Add okra and sauté, stirring often, for about 8-10 minutes until “roping” (thin strands of white substance) subsides. Set aside.
2. Heat remaining oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add pepper, garlic and onion and sauté until veggies turn translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock, tomatoes, herbs, salt, and reserved okra.
4. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.
5. Stir in shrimp, chicken and/or crabmeat, cover and cook another 5-10 minutes until meat is tender. Be careful not to overcook shrimp.
6. Remove from heat. Discard bay leaf, stir in lemon juice, Worcestershire and hot sauces. Add more salt if necessary.
7. Ladle into bowls over white or brown rice. Pass more hot sauce at the table.

Winter Weight Control Tip - Fill up on soup

It's easy to pack on (or keep on) the pounds this time of year, but spring and summer will arrive before we know it -- thank goodness -- and we should plan now for swim-suit season. Even if you never bare all in a skimpy suit or other revealing clothes, your wellness depends on maintaining a healthy weight.
Keep soup on your menus and the task will be easier. The liquid content makes soup more filling than less-liquid foods. Be sure to avoid cream soups, which add empty calories and "bad" fats, and compare labels on canned soups so you can choose lower-sodium varieties.
Above is a photo of my favorite canned soup, Trader Joe's lentil vegetable. Of course, nothing beats a good quality chicken noodle, such as the Campbell's variety in the other photo.
I like to add healthful ingredients to canned soup, too. One no-brainer is diced, no-salt-added tomatoes--perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 cup per serving. Another interesting addition is (believe it or not) baby food veggies, such as carrots or green beans--spoon a jar into your soup before you microwave to heat.
And finally, I doctor up the soup with a dash of cayenne pepper and (sometimes) a sprinkling of dried oregano or thyme.
Have some whole wheat bread or a few whole grain crackers and voila! it's a meal.

So-so at Hugo's

We hadn't been to Hugo's in a couple of years, so when new friends suggested it for a get-acquainted dinner, we happily concurred. We knew Chef Sean Daly when he used to cook at Tink's in Clifton and wish him all the best in his own place.
But the dinner on a very cold January night--when Sean was not in the kitchen--was a bit of a disappointment overall.
The restaurant was less than fully booked on a Saturday night, which probably is the case all over town in the dead of a Cincinnati winter. The dining room was much too cold, and repeated requests for more heat had no discernible effect.
Our server was pleasant and efficient and the pace of our meal was fine. Food wise, most of the dishes were good to very good. Our salads--from a rich caesar to butternut squash ("not enough squash") to my frisee with apples and a bit of blue cheese--were adequate. For entrees, my husband said his salmon with Brussels sprouts was ordinary; the shrimp and grits were good (I didn't taste them), the special short ribs were outstanding, and my pork loin with spaghetti squash and pesto was the best thing I tried.
Dessert choices were extremely limited--just three items--and the blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream that made it to our table had nothing going for it.
I had noticed a nice selection of dessert wines by the glass on the wine list, and since none of the desserts rang my bells, thought I'd try a dessert wine. But it turned out that almost all were "out" and all that was available was port or sherry, neither of which fit my mood.
I think we probably just hit them on a down night, and maybe if Sean had been in the house it would have been a better experience. Hope so!