JAZ

I've been reading quite a bit about dietary habits lately, and the question of snacking always seems to come up. In no particular order: one book I read mentioned that overall, the French seem to snack much less than Americans. Some "diet" programs recommend planned snacking and some recommend no snacking at all. Americans tend to think of daily eating as three meals, but I don't think that's anywhere near universal, so maybe that's why Americans tend to snack more. In any case, for myself, I've been following the Weight Watchers program, and while most of the members seem to eat a lot of snacks, I find that three meals with no snacks works best for me. Plus, I've found that if I eat three pretty substantial meals, I don't really want to snack. It was when I used to not eat breakfast or skip lunch that I found myself eating half a bag of Cheetos as a "snack." But I'm curious about snacking habits. Do you snack? Is it a planned thing, like one or more smaller meals? Or do you have a snack when you're hungry and it happens to be in between meals? Is there a particular time of day you snack? Inquiring minds want to know.

A few years ago at Momofuku I had a salad of radishes and sugar snap peas with a sour cream-horseradish dressing. It was a great combination, so I made up my own version. Blanch the peas for a couple of minutes (they should be crunchy but not raw), mix with about equal parts sliced radishes, and dress with 1 part prepared horseradish to 4 parts sour cream, with a little grated lemon zest. Thin if necessary and toss with the vegetables. Garnish with chives.

If you haven't yet checked out the WikiGullet Project, take a look and add to it. It's easy! And remember, it's not just a list of ingredients and cooking terms; it also includes restaurants, books, chefs and authors. If you work at a restaurant, add an entry. You've written a book? Start a page.

I'm thinking of buying a countertop oven (aka "toaster oven") -- not for toasting but as an alternative to heating up my full-size oven when all I'm cooking is one potato or a portion of roasted vegetables, which I do a lot. I'd like something that heats fast and evenly, does a decent job broiling, and can get up to 450-500 degrees. If it makes acceptable toast, that's a plus, but it's not necessary since I already have a great toaster. I have a store credit at a place that sells a couple of Cuisinart models and the Breville "Smart Oven." I've heard that the Cuisinarts are not very good, so I'm considering the Breville. It seems really expensive, but if it's worth the extra money, I'll pay it. Does anyone have experience with it? More information here.

But they aren't scaled down. I would love a pastry recipe for one serving, but what she gives is a big recipe (2 cups of flour and 14 tablespoons of butter) and then tells you to freeze the extra. She doesn't even give a yield -- even something like "divide the dough into x portions" would have been helpful.

A few weeks ago I taught a "point-friendly" cocktail party class. I made jerk pork tenderloin skewers with pineapple salsa, cherry tomatoes stuffed with shrimp in a remoulade sauce, cucumber canapes with herb yogurt cheese, pizza bites, and masa cups filled with red chile chicken. Also a couple of cocktails, not that you can do much to make alcohol point-friendly. It was fun, but challenging. I think the students appreciated the fact that I didn't use any "diet" foods in the recipes. I'm going to see if I can teach some more WW-inspired classes next quarter.

I got this when it came out and was completely disappointed in it. Most of the recipes didn't appeal to me (on the whole, they're pretty old-fashioned), and the ones that did were the sort of thing I already knew how to make. Second, the whole idea of cooking a big piece of protein and then using it as leftovers is a handy technique to keep in mind, but most of her "second" and "third" rounds sounded awful to me. Third, there were some questionable recipes/techniques in the book. I mean -- chicken stock made from a carcass and some vegetables, with an undisclosed amount of water and cooked for an hour. Really? She thinks you'll have stock after an hour?

Least favorite: Jane and Michael Stern. Whenever they're on The Splendid Table I have to turn it off -- they're probably very nice people, but they sound so smug and smarmy and full of themselves I can't stand to listen to them speak.

Because I don't go through bread very fast, I try to slice a whole loaf and freeze it so I can take out pieces as I want them. Because I want bread in different sizes, I try to slice some for bruschetta or crostini (fairly thin), some for toast (thicker), and some chunks that I can split for garlic bread or sandwiches.

Linda, I know that acid keeps red cabbage from turning that blue/purple/gray color; maybe it would help with the lettuce as well.

Maggie, I don't know why this never occurred to me, but that's a great idea.

Interesting -- one of the things that make Pop Chips a good choice for me is that I don't find it difficult to eat just a few. While I find Cheetos, Munchos and Fritos much better, they're way too easy to overdo for me, which is why I buy them rarely.

I don't use Greek yogurt, but I do use regular yogurt (strained) in salad dressings or to replace some (not all) of the mayonnaise in things like tuna salad, chicken salad and potato salad. I would be more likely to buy Greek yogurt if I could find a good brand that has a plain, whole-milk version. All I see around here is low-fat and non-fat stuff.

There's a lot of evidence that the Body Mass Index formula is the wrong tool to use when determining weight ranges for individuals, but it seems to be the measure that everyone uses. From a piece on NPR: And the LA Times: I know Weight Watchers uses the BMI to determine members' weight goals -- one of the reasons I chose the online option instead of going to meetings was to avoid that whole mentality (I'm also not a meeting kind of person).

If you like Funyuns, you should try Tim's Cascade Maui Onion Rings. Unfortunately, I think they're only available in the Northwest. But they put Funyuns to shame. I'm also a fan of Munchos, but since joining Weight Watchers I've come to appreciate Pop Chips as a decent lower-calorie option.

I'm not sure what types of lettuce you have, but this recipe from the NY Times is a very good, if somewhat fussy, way to use up romaine. (I'm not a fan of Alex Wichtel's writing, so I suggest you skip the essay and scroll down to the recipe.) It's a sort of deconstructed warm Caesar salad. I make a simplified version with either quail or half a Cornish game hen, because I can't find poussins where I live.

My everyday dressing is a vinaigrette with Dijon style mustard and fresh herbs if I have them, but for a change, or particular salads, I've come up with a few good, fairly low-point alternatives. For creamy style dressings I use a combination of (real) mayonnaise and whole milk yogurt for the base, which works pretty well. Creamy herb dressing: I tend to use whatever herbs I have on hand -- usually parsley and dill, but basil and chives end up in it sometimes. 1 Tbsp mayonnaise 3 Tbsp whole milk plain yogurt 1 tsp vinegar 1 tsp olive oil 1 very small garlic clove 1 Tbsp dill 1 Tbsp parsley salt and pepper to taste This makes enough for about three big salads for me, and I figure it at 2 pts. per serving that way. Faux remoulade I use this for shrimp or crab salads. (I throw all the ingredients in a small food processor, but if the celery and scallion are finely minced, you can whisk by hand.) It's 5 points for the entire recipe, which for me is enough for 2-3 big salads. I also use it on sandwiches instead of plain mayonnaise. 1 Tbsp mayonnaise 1 Tbsp chopped celery 1 Tbsp chopped scallion 1 Tbsp ketchup 1/3 cup whole milk plain yogurt (drained in cheesecloth for 20-30 minutes to thicken it slightly) 1 Tbsp Creole or other whole grain mustard 1 Tbsp parsley 1/2 tsp prepared horseradish 1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce I'm also in the process of developing a spicy avocado and cilantro dressing, but I don't have my notes on that with me. I'll post it when I'm at my other computer.

The reason I asked is that when I enter 300 grams of "beans, dry" into the current WW database, I don't get anything close to 35 points.

May I ask what you mean by "pseudo-WW"? It sounds as if you might be trying to combine old points values for foods with the new points allowances, which doesn't work.

I also have two GelPro mats. One looks as good as it did when I bought it and the other has curled. It's great that they replaced it for you. The kitchen where we teach has some GelPros but also a brand called Wellness Mats that are much more comfortable than GelPro, so if I were going to buy another, that's what I'd buy.

Ideally, I like to have an empty dishwasher when I start dinner. Doesn't always happen, but when it does, I load as I go -- sort of. At least I use the breaks in cooking to get used dishes, pots and pans into the dishwasher. But when I load as I go, I don't care much about placement -- my goal is just to get stuff out of my way. So often, after dinner, I rearrange everything that's already in there so it fits better. I'm not terribly concerned with making sure it's full, because most of the time I just cook for myself, so there's plenty of room. But I run the dishwasher at least once a day.

The author of Salted is Mark Bitterman, not Mark Bittman.

With another look at the question, Alexandra Petri from the Washington Post weighs in: and

I think with the Weight Watchers recipes (the official ones, that is), they do a good enough job with recipes that are naturally low in calories and fat, but really fail when they try to make low fat versions of "classics." For instance, they recently featured a recipe for a chickpea salad with feta cheese and olives that sounded good, if not terribly creative. But a while back I saw a recipe for "lightened up" eggs Benedict that substituted low-fat mayonnaise, hot water and lemon juice for the hollandaise. That's just wrong.

I've seen one called E-mealz which has different plans for different grocery store chains (I assume to take advantage of sales), various diets (the "portion control" plan is pretty popular with Weight Watchers members, apparently) and families or couples. I think the sample menus sound pretty wretched, but as Lisa mentioned, for someone unfamiliar with menu planning and cooking, it might prove useful.