As I’ve mentioned, I try to eat virtuously every now and then, so I have a pantry full of stuff like flax seeds, wheat germ and quinoa. And green tea. LOTS of unused green tea. The virtues of green tea are well known even if not fully understood (and in some cases not fully substantiated): Its antioxidants may help fight disease, possibly assist with weight loss and cholesterol management, etc. Good stuff. Read more here and here. *

But the taste … well if you love it good for you. I don’t, so I must hide it in something else.

Heh heh. OK, this isn’t about ice cream (but isn’t it always about ice cream??) Anyway, I was tooling away on the Stairmaster the other day, reading my Body + Soul magazine, and came across this little gem.

Green tea, concealed with spices and fruit. Brilliant! I was, of course, nervous about the quantity of green tea because 1. Ick! And 2. I had tea bags and could not see myself cutting open enough tea bags to yield a third of a cup. Eventually I ditched the loose-tea approach out of pure laziness. It turns out, it’s just fine and saves a step to just use the tea in the bags. And it saves you the inevitable floating chunks that loose tea leaves behind. I would proceed with caution if you want to use more than four bags (which using my tea bags yielded less than 1/8 cup of leaves) because the apple flavor is delicate and easily masked by the tea. To compensate somewhat for the vastly reduced tea quantity, I lengthened the steeping time a bit.

You could go a little wild with other stuff in small quantities … I considered adding a slice of fresh ginger, maybe a handful of fresh cranberries for color and a little flavor. If you love green tea and have some loose, maybe try the original recipe linked above. Otherwise, for a warm, spicy beverage that tastes a little like green tea but much better, try the one below. Seriously, I’m making it again tonight, and this time it’s purely voluntary.

Spiced apple green tea

Adapted from Body + Soul magazine

1 Granny Smith apple, finely chopped

4 cups water

1 cinnamon stick

Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

4 strips orange zest (use a vegetable peeler for this)

2 tablespoons honey

Four bags green tea

Stir together apple, water, spices, zest and honey in a saucepan. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer for two minutes. Turn off heat and allow to steep 15 minutes. Pour through a fine-mesh strainer over tea bags, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible and let steep two minutes. Resist the urge to swirl tea bags and squeeze all the liquid out of them, as this can make the tea quite strong and mask the other flavors. Remove tea bags and reheat if necessary. Drop in a couple apple slices to garnish, if you like, and enjoy.

*Full disclosure: We’re both science gals, but not experts on health and nutrition. When we talk about nutrition on BIK, it’ll be from a relatively conservative point of view using trusted non-peer-reviewed sources. We’d love to go to the nutrition journals and read all about this stuff and give you our most informed, most unbiased opinion, but we got no time! We try to be skeptical of whatever we read, eat as many whole foods as possible and enjoy most things in moderation.

Good morning, sunshine! It’s Monday, a new week, another chance for a fresh, healthy start.

But, first … more confessions. 1: I have been known to eat ice cream/potato chips/cheese/some combo of the three for dinner. 2. I am a health nut. I know, I am a deeply confused woman. But I really try to pull my crap together sometimes, and this is one of those times (I recycle a New Year’s resolution to eat more fruits and veggies most years). Thus, smoothie time.

If you’re not big smoothie drinker, I highly recommend at least trying smoothies on for size for several reasons. They’re easy, they are super good for you (fiber, antioxidants, calcium, protein) and they are tasty, even for a sweets-scarfing gal like me.

Did I mention easy? You don’t even need a recipe. There are a million out there, and we will surely try some in the future, but I like the kitchen-sink approach following a basic, flexible formula. This makes enough for two nice portions, although I usually drink it all myself in a desperate attempt to offset all those ice cream dinners. Here’s the thinking behind the formula. If you just want the recipe, skip to below.

My base is always a banana. On the riper side is best so the fruit purees very smoothly and contributes sweetness. But any banana that isn’t green will work fine.

Next is yogurt. If plain, I’ll also drizzle in a tablespoon of honey. Silken tofu plus honey is a great replacement to make a vegan drink. If you want an all-fruit smoothie or one that’s a little thinner, skip the yogurt. One note: I often have plain Greek yogurt around. If I’m using that in my smoothie, I drop the quantity to ¼ cup because it is super thick and tangy. If I have conventional yogurt, especially if it’s flavored, I use ½ cup – which is 6 oz., the amount in a single-serving carton.

Frozen fruit: I view ice cubes as wasted space in a smoothie, but I do like a frosty drink, so I use frozen berries. If you disagree, more power to you, although the addition of water in any form will dilute the flavor, so go easy. Whatever you have in the freezer is fine: blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, sliced peaches, cherries, I have used them all. My current fave is 1 cup of raspberries plus 1/3 cup blueberries.

Kitchen-sink stuff: You can stop with bananas, berries, yogurt and juice, or go wild. Recently, I had some leftover cranberry sauce so I added that to a blueberry smoothie. YUM. Sometimes I add half a peach and some fresh ginger to a raspberry smoothie. Plums, pears, anything works. If it gets too thick with the extra stuff, add more juice.

Juice, 1-2 cups: OK, if you’re type-A like the BIK gals, you may wish for a strict recipe, but the amount of juice depends on personal preference. I use 1½ cups. If you like a thick smoothie, use less – just enough juice to make everything come together (it will thin out as the fruit melts). If you want it lighter, add more. I use orange juice because I always have it, but I have also used cranberry cocktail with good results. Mango nectar comes to mind as something I need to get my hands on for smoothie-ing ASAP.

Basic smoothie: serves one to two.

1 ripe banana

¼ to ½ cup yogurt, see above (if using plain, add 1 Tbsp. honey)

1 1/3 cups frozen berries or other fruit chunks such as mango, pineapple or peaches

1 to 2 cups juice (I use 1½ cups orange juice)

Toss everything into a blender and blend until smooth, adding more juice if needed to make drink come together smoothly. Enjoy!

Confession: We at BIK are former vegetarians. Actually one of us still is kind of vegetarian (don’t ask – existential crisis in progress). So, although we’re working on a chicken post, smoked pork, etc., many of the recipes we try will probably lean toward the veggie-centric. We love lentils, white beans, tofu and other vegetarian staples.

But don’t leave us yet, bacon-lovers. The best thing about cooking vegetarian is it forces you to rethink the composition of the plate (meat-potatoes-veggies), which opens up a whole new world of cooking. Deborah Madison is a master at this. She was also one of the early advocates of seasonal and local cooking, yet another way of thinking that pushes cooks of all stripes to be more creative.

Hence, this tasty dish from Madison: It’s basically cheese toast topped with a sauté of onions and Brussels sprouts. Wait!! Don’t close the window yet, this is really special! Here’s why: smoked paprika. If you’ve never cooked with it, wow, you should start, like, now. It adds a lush warmth to pretty much anything: scrambled eggs, quesadillas, a sauté of peppers and onions, simple beans and rice In fact, I find it can stand in for bacon in some dishes, adding a similar smoky richness without the fat.

I made the recipe exactly as it was printed in Food & Wine and wouldn’t change a thing. It’s a great lunch or would make a nice dinner with a salad alongside. The topping reheats well for a second go-round. Good thing, because I am in love with this recipe. I used a pretty burly whole-grain bread and it was a good fit, but you could go for something else if you like. Smoked paprika used to be hard to find, but now is available in many well-stocked grocery stores or online, such as here.

I would avoid substituting with a regular sweet or hot paprika, as the smokiness is really what makes this special. The other key is ensuring you salt the sauté – just keep tasting it until you get it right. It really brings out the sweetness of the veggies. Enjoy!

I have always loved cheese.  Cheddar, fresh mozzarella, gouda, parmesan, manchego, brie……but above all I love soft, creamy, somewhat stinky cheese.  After my first European “backpacking” adventure, which really was me schlepping a gianourmous suitcase around France and Italy with my friend, trying not to get skeeved out in a few of the neighborhoods we stayed in and taking in some glorious sites.  Really, my suitcase weighed 72 lbs, I weighed in Paris on the way home…I think most of the locals pointed and laughed when they saw me roll into town.   Either way, once I returned to the States, I fancied myself quite French and I think I lost ten pounds on a diet almost exclusively of brie, chutney and wine.  Cheese and I have always had a passionate, loyal relationship.  Cheese has never let me down, always brightens up a moderately delicious dish, comforts me in my times of need and cheese has never bit me in ass, nor has it made my ass too grand…. thus far anyway.

A few years ago I acquired some Camembert that was particularly stinky and, as these cheeses do, it stank up the whole fridge.  Each time my poor hungry husband rooted around for a snack he was repelled or nauseated by the wall of stench. His complaints (which were justified—I barely wanted to open the damn refrigerator!) led me to take a few years off from bringing stinky rich cheese into the house, until Friday.

Last Friday, my dear husband, knowing where my affections really lie, brought home some taleggio cheese, which is Italy’s answer to French stinky cheese.  Teleggio is a semi-soft, just-a-wee-bit-stinky cheese that is heaven.  HEAVEN!  It’s salty and buttery, and mild.  You will want to smear this over anything and everything, I promise!

I served it with some whole wheat foccacia, which was silly in and of itself, because foccacia should never be whole wheat as it ruins the olive oily, light flavor of the bread—and really, when you are eating rich, cholesterol laden cheese, who is counting carbs anyway?  My point is- go ahead and get yourself some taleggio. You can put it on anything or, really, it’s totally perfection all by itself!  Enjoy…

With all this croissant and poached pear talk, it’s time for a little dose of reality. Most nights, the BIK gals are not ensconced in culinary bliss and sporting cute aprons. Rather, we are stumbling home in sweaty workout clothes after a long day, dumping bags and mail onto the counter, feeding dogs and immediately getting sucked into the [insert cozy furniture object here] for a little bleary-eyed staring at Facebook or People.com. Perhaps that sounds like someone you know?

So, on days like that (basically every day) my go-to food is grilled cheese. Actually sort of a healthy grilled cheese that I eat sans guilt while tallying up all the good things I am doing for my body. Now, it’s not remotely low-fat, and I use a lot of cheddar because I require that all virtuous things in my life be balanced with a portion of cheese (or ice cream). But with spinach, avocado and tomato on whole-grain bread, this hearty sandwich is packed with stuff you can feel good about. And, bonus: It’s damn tasty. It’s also good with Colby-Jack cheese.

Go-to grilled cheese

2 slices whole-grain seeded bread

Cheddar cheese, enough to cover a slice of bread generously

Half an avocado, very thinly sliced (this amount is for avocado lovers. Go light if you are not a huge fan)

4 slices large Roma tomato (or 2-3 from medium slicing tomato such as Beefsteak)*

3 large spinach leaves or handful of baby spinach

2 small pats butter or cooking spray

*Any tomato is fine, but Romas are less juicy and help avert soggy bread.

Place skillet over medium heat. Butter or spray one side each of both slices of bread. Place one slice butter side down in pan, and top with cheese. Place last bread slice butter side up on cheese and let cook until golden and sizzling. Melting should be under way before you flip the sandwich.

Turn sandwich using spatula and cook the second side. When the second side is golden, move sandwich off heat and open bread to layer on veggies. Spread the avocado slices across melted cheese, top with tomato and finally spinach (putting the tomato in the middle helps stave off sogginess, although I only remember this about half the time – see photo evidence above). Top with the other slice and smoosh it a bit so the avocado doesn’t come shooting out when you take your first bite.