But missing breakfast is like driving without gas in your car.  Many of us make breakfast for our husbands and children but only grab a cup of coffee for ourselves on the way out the door.  Imagine trying to run your car with no fuel. Even though most cars have about a gallon of gasoline after the line hits E, you still shouldn’t ride around for too long without re-fueling. Our bodies are similar, and we should not expect that we’ll perform well  if we don’t eat in the morning.  Breakfast literally means breaking the fast. Your body has been digesting and distributing the nutrients from the last meal you ate overnight, so it’s most important to re-energize yourself in the morning. With summer just around the corner, we’re in a good time of the year to transition our diets and take advantage of the fruits in season, such as strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.

And that’s where the blender comes in handy. If you’re on the run like so many of us are, using the blender to make fruit smoothies is the perfect tool  for making sure that you are nourished before you leave the house.

Add berries to orange juice, almond milk or unfiltered apple juice, along with yogurt, a little bit of ice and a banana for thickness and you’re good to go. If you want to get protein, folic acid or fiber into your morning meal, just add a tablespoon of wheat germ or spirulina.

The best thing is that by having a morning meal even while on the run, you will find yourself feeling more energized for longer periods throughout the day.

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Earlier that day,  I had pulled out three 4-ounce sirloin steaks from the freezer to defrost by the time I got in from work, but I didn’t have anything else  readily available to make for our guests on such short notice. I didn’t have any onions, broccoli  or peppers,  which would have been great to make a wok version of stir-fried steak over rice.  I had two choices. I could either order pizza,  which wasn’t in the budget.

I needed to somehow make a miracle and work with what I had.

So, I looked in the refrigerator to find what else was in there.  I had plenty of  baby spinach, a few leftover potatoes,  a spring mix salad, grape tomatoes, a few scallions, two ears of corn on the cob and plenty of salad dressings. I also found some fresh pizza dough, which was also left over from the day before.

Bingo ! We’d have a huge dinner in one salad.

I cubed and sauteed the potatoes in olive oil, put the steaks under the broiler and tossed everything into one huge salad.

I rolled out the pizza dough, glazed it with olive oil, garlic powder and basil, and sliced it into bread sticks. Then, I glazed the sticks with spaghetti sauce, liberally sprinkled fresh grated Parmesan cheese and baked them to couple with the salad.

The entire spur-of- the moment dinner took less than 20 minutes. Best yet, everyone was delighted.

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Now mind you, I hate for my children to eat on the run. I think it’s rude, crude and probably not too good for their digestive tracks. However, I’d much rather hand them food to walk with than to have them not eat at all. I also know that other people are already doing this.

So the next time I make pancakes, I will glaze them with a fresh fruit compote mixed with a little syrup and butter, and roll them tight. That way my children can still get a hot meal into their bellies before they begin their school day.

I’ll feel better as their mother, and they’ll be able to put on their thinking caps fueled by a full belly.

Fresh Fruit Compote Stuffed Pancakes

Use whatever pancake mix you like or make the pancakes from scratch.

For the compote, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over a low flame.

When it’s completely liquid, add your favorite berries – blueberries,  strawberries or blackberries – plus 1 tablespoon of sugar, and simmer together until the fruit opens.

Turn off heat and cover.

Make a large pancake, put the compote in the middle and roll tightly.

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Some mothers are even relieved when they don’t have to pack school lunches every day because their children qualify for free, federally funded meals, which by the way are usually horrible.

The other day I interviewed a young rapper who’s about to graduate from college on my radio show “The Real Deal With Fatimah Ali,” which is heard on 900 AM WURD in Philadelphia. He told me that he often eats jelly beans for breakfast. Although this young man loves to cook, eating junk food on the run has become a habit for him and he says he’d rather eat candy than nothing. Unfortunately,  like so many young people, he grew up with two working parents who fed him but didn’t always have the time to make good, nourishing food. And we are seeing this trend more and more.

Still, I was shocked as well as outraged to read a recent news story about a Chicago school forbidding  children from bringing their own lunches from home. According to the principal, the school’s lunches were much healthier than the foods kids were bringing in. Although I seriously understand the reasons for taking these drastic measures, I also felt strongly that this was a missed opportunity to educate children and their parents about making positive lifestyle decisions.

Most of us remember the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

When I was growing up in the ’60 and ’70s that apple was a symbol of good health, along with the cartoon character Popeye’s can of spinach, which appeared on billboards all over town. Along with having good manners, eating good food with lots of fruit and vegetables was the standard for every meal. In my parents’ house, as in most of my friends’ homes, we weren’t allowed to have dessert until our plates were clean. And there was no discussion about it. We ate whatever our mother put in front of us and her food was always delicious as well as healthy.

I’ve said this kazillion times: Children actually welcome the opportunity to eat healthy food, particularly when you educate them from a very young age about the need for good nutrition to build strong bodies. So if you have children or grandchildren who are toddlers, start educating them today about the correlation between good food, healthy minds and strong bodies.

You’ll be amazed at how interested they are in eating well and participating in their own growth and development.

Quick and easy lunch rules

Kids love to dip, so invest in tiny plastic containers and/or ziplock bags.

Put their favorite salad dressing and some leftover plain pasta in a plastic container

Chop up broccoli, carrots, celery, apples and any other snack-like foods that they like and pack it in ziplocks

Find a good vegetable chip or make popcorn seasoned with garlic powder and olive oil for snacks

Allow children to help pack their own lunches and choose what they pack

Remember, the more they help, the better they’ll love the food. And next thing you know, their friends will want them to bring healthy lunches for them as well.

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I love the idea of food martinis. They’re an elegant and creative way to present food and large enough to house several entrees at one time. There’s nothing prettier than a baby lamb chop nestled in a bed of garlic mashed potatoes surrounded by a bed of fresh peas and carrots, and housed in a martini glass that’s been glazed with a mango/chutney sauce. Or Cajun Shrimp on a bed of buttery lettuce and sundried tomatoes. 

Steve V. has captured the sexiness of a shrimp martini.

Martinis aren’t the only glasses that are good for serving food. Juice glasses, low-ball glasses, cocktail glasses and champagne saucers are also very nice settings for food and drink. 

Because I’m extremely germ-aphobic, I don’t like the idea of having a common bowl for snacks like chips and dips. I like to have the chips set up in individual bowls, with servings of dips and salsas plated in juice glasses or dessert cups. That way, there’s no double-dipping because everyone has his or her own. In the photo below, Traci Hunter uses shooter glasses to serve her fare. 

Super Bowl Sunday traditionally also means loads of wings, dips and chips, or chili and crackers. Snack foods that guests can munch on mindlessly from their laps while sitting in their TV viewing seat. Their focus will be on the game, so the food should be casual enough to eat without paying close attention. In other words, this probably isn’t the time to serve prime rib au jus, which requires the careful attention of a knife and fork. But you can hook up some mean sliders using that same roast beef and dress it with a healthyAsian Cole Slaw, sandwiched on mini rolls to make it more viewer friendly. There are many different kinds of sliders. 

So save your guests some time at the buffet table by having their portions ready ahead. That way both you and your guests can  get your food quickly and get right back to the game.

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That’s because Oodles of Noodles is also loaded with preservatives and salt, among quite a few other ingredients that are detrimental to our health.  But not to worry. You can make your own version of a quick soup by using prepared frozen dumplings and broth. You can use either your own soup stock that you’ve frozen or get a prepared one, which also has salt unless you find the boxed broth marked reduced sodium.

There’s also an assortment of frozen dumplings. I love the ones found in the freezer section of Trader Joe’s.It carries both shrimp and vegetarian dumplings, which are great either steamed or pan fried. (The collection of dumpling photos is from flickr.com.)

Fatimah’s Quick and Easy Soup for One

1 cup vegetable broth, boiling

1/4 cup fresh baby spinach

2 sliced mushrooms

3-5 steamed or pan-fried dumplings

Combine all ingredients, garnish with a few scallions and drink up.

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Soups are also great because you can get so many healthy nutrients into one bowl. Nourishing food that our grandmothers taught us sticks to our ribs and always make us feel better - no matter what the ailment.

My best soups are the ones that I make up as I go along, which is basically how I usually cook anyway, except for baking. That’s not my best thing because it’s more scientific and has less room for error.

I like to cook from the heart, and even if I do make a mistake with the soup, it’s usually correctable. I’m such a huge soup fan for a myriad of reasons. For one, soups work on any budget. They can be blended for babies and old folks, and they’re portable in the right containers. Soups are also good after a few days and some can even be frozen.

A snowy day is perfect for a hearty been soup
like this one,  captured by  Sierravalleygirl.

I do just a little planning and map out a basic sketch of  flavors for my soup, and then I just add things as I go along. Often, I just look to see what’s left over in the refrigerator and blend a soup from there. More often than not, I cook  meals with a soup in mind. But tonight, I didn’t  have leftovers, not even  pot-liquor, which I usually keep stored in the freezer to add flavor and extra  nutrients. 

Everyone in my house has been sniffling and seems to have the winter blues so I wanted to make a happy soup – one that’s sunshine-rich in vitamins, particularly A and C. This soup is best cooked in a crock pot on low heat all day because split  peas have a tendency to scorch unless you stir them constantly. But my crock pot seems to have gone missing, so today’s soup is being made on top of the stove, which means constant stirring with a wooden spoon.

I started with yellow lentils and vine-ripe tomatoes as a base, and added vegetables tossed with garlic, olive  oil and cilantro, and let it simmer for a few hours (stirring constantly).

Yellow Split Pea/Tomatoes with vegetables

Ingredients

3 cups yellow lentils, soaked for 3 hours and thoroughly rinsed

1/2  gallon spring or filtered water

12 vine-ripe tomatoes, skinned, seeded  and quartered

1/4 cup fresh cilantro finely, chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley

1 head of garlic, coarsely chopped (however, more is better if you can tolerate it)

3 large red onions,  finely diced

2 red peppers, diced

3 yellow peppers, roasted and cut into wedges

3 zucchini, diced in one-inch pieces

2 yellow squash, diced in one-inch pieces

5 sweet potatoes, skinned and cut into wedges

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

Tamari  sauce to taste

a dash of cayenne pepper if you’re brave enough

1/2 cup virgin olive oil

1 very large jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce

1 cup of vegetable broth

Directions

Rinse tomatoes and submerge in boiling water until skin lifts. Set aside to cool.

Add split peas to boiling spring water, and after 15 minutes, turn heat to low and cover.

In a wok, saute garlic and onions on high heat, then turn to low and cook three minutes until golden brown.

Add all of the remaining ingredients to the wok, starting with the fresh herbs and stir constantly until blended.

Add vegetable broth and  cover on low for 1/2 hour.

Skin tomatoes and remove seeds, then quarter and add to pea soup along with spaghetti sauce.

Add vegetables and fresh herbs from wok to pea soup.

Add the rest of the vegetables and cook on very low heat for  3  hours.

Take 1/4 of the soup, blend it and return it to the pot.

Turn off heat and allow soup to rest for 15 minutes before serving with your choice of bread.

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We’ re at the bottom of the turkey, which, of course, means it’s time for me to make soup. But before we got there, I served several days of different fare from the original dinner.

The day-after, most of us are way too tired to cook, and with plenty of turkey left on the bone, sandwiches are in order. The turkey is still fresh and if  it was cooked correctly, it’s also very tender. One of our favorite turkey sandwiches uses almost the entire meal, and it’s simple. Just set the food out, and let everyone make their own.

Cranberry sauce, salad and stuffing are included in our whopper turkey sandwich that’s so thick you can barely get your mouth around it.

Whopper Turkey Sandwich

Directions

Slice a very good bakery bread the way you like it.

Slather bread with honey mustard, salad dressing or mayonnaise.

Neatly layer stuffing, cranberry sauce and sliced turkey.

Wrap it foil and warm it in the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove it from oven, add salad, and slice and eat.

Or omit the salad, and add arugula or a heartier green, and grill the sandwich as a panini.

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When Cis died last summer, my cousins Debbie and Cell, her niece and son, remembered my catering and made sure that I inherited these precious belongings.

Cis’ collection is exquisite, and includes a beautiful mahogany dining-room set; hand-stitched trivets, aprons and tablecloths; a sewing machine and cookbooks. She inherited them from her parents Mom and Pop Connors, who primarily catered Main Line weddings and bar mitzvahs. I remember Mom Connor’s triple chocolate cake like it was yesterday.

My cousins saw this as an investment in Healthy Southern Comforts, as well as a productive way to preserve part of their heritage. All of the linens were beautifully laundered. Even the cut-glass was exquisite.

So I’m really excited about my holiday table setting, in particular this one piece that will be perfect for salsa. So often during these types of dinners, the children are excited and they’re usually starving, so I like to let them snack a little bit beforehand. It’s filler, in case you’re running  late with the main course, as I usually am. 

I prefer to get a dinner party started around 4:30  or 5,  allow people to snack, then serve dinner around 6:30 or 7. That way, there’s plenty of time to socialize with small talk. There are always those guests who want to help out in the kitchen where you can have those “special” conversations.

Salsa and chips, with cheese and fruit plates and crudites, are always  a great start. But  don’t offer endless servings. Remind  the children that the chips are a starter and not the meal. This will take the edge off them, as well as keep them from running around because they have to be still to balance salsa and chips. They’ll probably be more pleasant at the dinner table after snacking lightly beforehand.

My friend Angie Brown, a Creole chef, taught me how to use prepared salsa as a base and enhance it with fresh ingredients. This is especially important in the winter when fresh tomatoes aren’t as ripe.

I  use scooper chips to lessen the spills.

Quick and Easy Salsa

1 huge jar of your favorite brand of chunky salsa (medium spiced)

2 lbs of vine ripe tomatoes  (very ripe and chopped)

1 small onion (finely diced)

2  limes (juiced)

1 lemon (juiced)

dash of salt, pepper, onion powder

5 cloves fresh garlic (pressed)

1/4 cup fresh cilantro (washed and diced into flakes)

1/4 cup Italian parsley (washed and diced into flakes)

dash of cayenne pepper

3  tsps  honey

Directions:

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Serve at room temperature with chips.

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Today, one of my four daughters, Rashidah, turns 17 -  almost a grown woman and way taller than me. I can hardly believe how fast time flies. Seems like it was just a moment go that she was tugging at my knees and now here she is ordering up her birthday menu.

One of our family traditions is to celebrate each child’s birthday with a feast at a small gathering of their closest friends. Rashidah, who plans to be a chef, especially loves food.  But this year, typical of so many teens, she prefers celebrating the day out with her buddies rather than at home with us. As usual, she also wants her cake and eat it, too, and also requested her special family dinner tomorrow.  This really works out better for me because as usual, I’m jammed up for time preparing for the holidays. Every year, because I’m always so overextended and Rashidah always thinks she gets  jipped, I’ll make sure I do it up tomorrow.

She planned the menu and here are her teen-typical choices:

Rashidah’s  Way

Chips and salsa

Cheese, crackers and fruit platter

Bar-B-Que turkey meatballs – mini heroes

Wingettes

Pan-fried mac ‘n cheese, regular and vegan

Curried couscous with yellow raisins

Grilled teriyaki salmon with chutney and mushrooms

Pot of greens with carmelized onions and Yukon garlic potatoes

Salad with arugula, pomegranate seeds, goat cheese, beets and minced red onions

Assorted cupcakes (chocolate-iced, vegan chocolate flourless, carrot, red velvet, cheesecake)

Cider and ginger ale

Spring water

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