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In a pinch the other day, Michele put her favorite chocolate sauce on a Gingered Apple Breakfast Cookie and served it for dessert. It was a big hit -- so we started thinking of all the ways that one can use the Breakfast Cookies -- at times other than breakfast. Here, the Cocoa Breakfast Cookie is crumbled and toasted and served over lemon ice cream with raspberries. One Breakfast Cookie will serve 4-6 in this way. Other suggestions will follow (including the recipe for the chocolate sauce), and we'd love to hear about any ideas that you come up with. Salut.

Pasture-raised pork has higher levels of Omega-3s (and lower Omega-6s) than conventional pork and translates into a happier lifestyle for the pig. But it's not always economical -- or easy to find. I found myself with a conventional pork loin recently and boosted its Omega-3s by stuffing it with a combination of chopped sage leaves and garlic; breadcrumbs; flaxseed meal; and canola oil -- with salt and pepper to taste -- and rolling it in canola oil, salt and pepper before roasting. Delicious and with a healthy balance of Omega-3s and Omega-6s in every bite!

 

 

                     

 

 

  Ten Tips for Holding on to your Omega-3s while Eating out at Restaurants

                           (without having to interrogate the waiter!)

 

 

1.  Choose a restaurant in which Omega-3s have traditionally played a strong role: Japanese, Scandinavian, Greek and other Mediterranean restaurants, as well as any fish restaurant and restaurants that specialize in pasture-fed meats. This is more than half the battle in eating out. With so many healthy, high Omega-3 options on the menu, all you have to do is restrain from ordering the fried foods.         

2.   

   Avoid the fried foods in any restaurant (unless you know they fry in canola oil or this is a very rare, or special, occasion) and order broiled, grilled or baked meats and fishes.

 

3. 

    Start, or end, your meal with a simple salad as most Mediterranean people do.

 

4.  

   Dress that salad with olive oil and vinegar you mix at the table (unless you are in a very fine restaurant where the dressings are light). This is a great way to avoid the heavy dressings that many restaurants serve. It’s also a great way to make sure the olive oil is fresh. Taste a little bit of the oil before you make your dressing and ask the waiter to replace it if it has gone rancid. (Be suspect of any bottle of olive oil that is sitting out in the sun or in the window.)

 

5.  Eat bread without butter as most Europeans do. This is more of a weight tip than an Omega-3 tip; in Europe, butter is only eaten with bread at breakfast. One has the whole day to burn off those calories.

 

6.  Look for Indian restaurants that cook with canola oil since many Indian restaurants put this on their menus. Canola oil (also known as rapeseed oil) is as traditional in Indian cooking as ghee or clarified butter. What isn’t traditional and what causes Indian food to be extremely heavy (and promote weight gain) is sunflower and safflower oils, two inexpensive oils that are full of omega-6s.

 

7.  Pay attention to how you feel after a restaurant meal. If you feel sluggish and heavy, avoid that restaurant in the future. If you feel light (though satiated) and alert, frequent it more often.

 

8.  If you eat out often for breakfast, bring a bottle of ground flax seed so you can add flax seed meal to your oatmeal or yogurt.

 

9.  Encourage those restaurants you frequent often, to switch to canola oil for most of their cooking and to provide ground flax seed to their customers.

10.  Choose fresh fruit or cheese to end your meal and take a pass on prepared desserts. Berries are full of Omega-3s and many fine cheeses are made from the milk of animals that have been raised on grass (think Omega-3s) rather than grains (think Omega-6s).

1. A go-to fish recipe and a good source of sustainable fish. We have 6-oz pieces of wild silver salmon in our freezer (from Vital Choice Seafood) which are so flavorful that my husband and I will split one of these for dinner. They defrost in minutes and are our favorite quick and healthy meal.

2. A go-to breakfast or breakfast cereal with a healthy balance of fats. Our favorite packaged cereal is Nature's Path Flax Plus, but we also eat a lot of oatmeal, balanced out with ground flax seed. Omega-3 eggs are another great alternative, as are Susie's Smart Breakfast Cookies.

3. Ground flax seed or flax flour, which you can add to sauces, batters, oatmeal, soups, mustards, ketchup, etc. Two teaspoons of ground flax seed will balance out the Omega-6s in one cup of cooked oatmeal, for example. In most recipes, replacing one-fifth to one-quarter of the flour with ground flax seed works very well. Don't go overboard with this since we need Omega 6s (just not as many as most of us are getting).  Keep your ground flax seed meal in a cool dry place and discard it if it begins to go rancid. 

4. Flaxseed oil, which you can add to salad dressings to balance out the Omega-6s in vegetable oils.. One and a half tablespoons of flax seed oil will balance out the Omega-6s in a cup of olive oil, for example. Use your common sense, here, keeping in mind the whole meal that you're creating. If you're serving fish, you won't need to add flaxseed oil to your dressing, but if it's chicken or beef or pork, it's a good idea. The trick is to have a source of Omega-3s -- and not too many Omega-6s -- at every meal. Be sure to keep your flax seed oil in your refrigerator and discard it if it begins to go rancid. 

5. Omega-3 eggs, as every egg consumed in this country should be! These eggs are not injected with omega-3s, as some might think. Rather, they are laid by chickens that have been fed a balanced diet of Omega-3s and Omega-6s (as we all should be!). Ideally, an egg will have 300 mg Omega-3s so buy eggs with as close to that as your pocketbook will allow. All eggs have some Omega-3s so don't be fooled by those that say they are Omega-3 but don't have more than 200 mg/egg.

6. Smart Balance Peanut Butter or some other homemade or bottled spread for quick and easy sandwiches and snacks. Smart Balance uses flax oil to balance out the Omega-6s in peanuts to make this great peanut butter.

7. Canola oil for sauteing and frying and salad dressings -- if you like the taste of canola. (Some don't.). If you're concerned about industrially processed oils, you can always find expeller-pressed, non-GMO canola oil.  A half-and-half mixture of canola and olive oil produces a well-balanced salad dressing. Speaking of canola, we're also big fans of Hellman's Canola Mayonnaise (for those many times when we don't make our own).

And please don't believe everything you read about canola oil on the internet. Canola, or rapeseed, is a traditional oil that has been used in Northern Europe; India and China for thousands of years. In Sweden, they mix it with butter to create a healthy, low-cost spread that can be used for spreads and most cooking. Rapeseed or canola is one of the foundations of the healthy Nordic diet. 

 

8. Butter from grass-fed cows if you can find and afford it -- because it has a much healthier balance than butter from grain fed animals. Anchor butter from New Zealand and Kerry Butter from Ireland are two widely-available options. Cows were meant to eat grass -- not grains. They are much healthier on a grass diet and so are the people who eat their milk, cheese, butter and meat.

9. And, of course,  plenty of legumes (such as lentils; peas, and beans); quinoa; potatoes; wild rice; green leafy vegetables; and walnuts: all foods that are naturally rich in Omega-3s and have a healthy balance of Omega-3s and Omega-6s.

 

 

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