What I Eat in a Week
I am having a passionate love affair with Stanley Tucci’s new book, “What I Ate in a Year.” He is a smart, articulate, passionate-about-food, clever writer who charms with every word on every page.
His diet, as I read his diary makes my cholesterol and triglycerides rise. But I love his style and his passion for all things cooking…and Italian. I just wish he ate a bit less meat, but that’s me.
So with his indirect inspiration…and in response to so many questions by so many of you, here is what I eat in a week. I could not begin to document my diet by the year, or even by the month. I am in awe that Stanly Tucci can.
Before I begin this little exercise, I will tell you that Robert and I rarely, if ever eat out. We might head up to our fave Italian coffee shop once or twice a week, but 99% of our meals are cooked right here at home. We both passionately love cooking…and we both passionately love knowing what’s in what we are eating. And there is nothing we love more than having friends and loved ones around our table instead of in a restaurant. Kudos to the restaurant business, of which I am a proud veteran, and with respect to every hardworking chef, but for me, the relaxed vibe of people at my table, enjoying my food is simply the best of experiences.
I work in Europe a lot, filming my tv show and with our lovely little boutique travel business (which you can get info for on my website under ‘travel’). In those cases, we eat out often with our groups and crew for lunches as the lunch hour is in the middle of a work or travel day. It becomes exhausting for me, so when we are here in the states, it’s all about home cooking, baby.
Now I will say upfront that as a chef, I do have a leg up in the kitchen as I am quite fast and efficient at prepping meals, from slicing and dicing to timing to clean up. When we sit down, the only dishes that remain to be cleaned are the dishes we are using for eating. No pots and pans piled high in the sink. Cleaning as you cook is essential to falling in love with cooking. And the more you cook, the more efficient you become.
I will also say that we work from a home office for convenience, so cooking during the day creates a great headspace for me to leave the computer and work in my beloved kitchen. And while not everyone has this great privilege, both of us cooked three meals per day when we worked outside the home, so we have no excuses now, for sure.
What I eat in a week will show you my varied but simple way of eating on a day to day basis…and I will throw in some recipes where I think you might want to see them.
Every breakfast is similar, but different, if that makes sense. And since I am giving you so many of my daily options, I won’t bore you with a day to day diary. The most important thing to take from this is variety, seasonality, simplicity and freshness.
Leftovers are grand and I do use them, but I use them as a base to create another fresh dish, like a soup or a pate or to add to a salad or grain dish.
Meal prep is also a great tool to use as you work toward efficiency in the kitchen. having some things prepped or frozen can be a great help in getting meals on the table.
Monday is a big, big gym day with my toughest workout of the week at noon, so our breakfast is hearty and protein-packed. The rest of the workout week is tough, but Monday is in a class by itself so we really prepare for it.
Breakfast in our house always includes protein: tofu, tempeh or red lentils, but on Mondays, we double up on the protein for strength.
Millet with cauliflower and tofu cubes is a Monday staple.
Here are some porridge options as we don’t use recipes. Cook all your morning grains at a ratio of 5 parts water to 1 part grain. Our thing is to bring the grain to a boil before bed; turn it off and in the morning, it finishes cooking in no time.
We will cook brown rice with some chickpeas; quinoa with peas and corn; millet with tofu and winter squash; a medley of grains like quinoa, amaranth, teff and millet. Be creative here so your breakfast is not boring.
On hectic mornings, we will eat a simple bowl of rolled oats with fresh fruit and call it done, but that’s maybe once every 2 weeks. We prefer a savory breakfast.
Stewed red lentils with diced vegetables (onion, carrot, celery) and a drizzle of olive oil adds easy-to-digest protein to any breakfast.
We might also add scrambled tofu now and again. Here is my recipe:
Stewed sweet vegetables like onions, carrots, winter squash (in season), corn (in season), Brussels sprouts, zucchini, sweet potatoes, mushrooms lay a foundation for healthy blood sugar levels and stop that roller coaster of highs and lows through the day. Any combination of vegetables you like, from 3 varieties to as many seasonal veggies as you like. Cut them in chunks and stew them with very little water and a pinch of salt or soy sauce until tender, about 25 minutes.
Here is a link to a recipe using only a couple of veggies to give you the idea of how to make this yummy dish (for breakfast or any other meal)
And we never forget steamed or boiled greens. You can see that in our house, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. As you gain experience, do the best you can. Just porridge and greens will do if you have no time for beans or a veg stew. Or simply pick and choose the dishes that work best for you to begin your day on the right foot.
Lunch
Lunch is either pre or post workout and is often pasta. I adore pasta and feel a little sad on the days when I don’t eat it at lunch. (I’m kidding…sort of…). It could be anything from pasta with potatoes, to pasta with my lentil Bolognese to pasta with pesto. Served with a crisp fresh salad, it fuels us through the afternoon before hitting the gym in the evening (or restores us after a noon workout).
Lunch in our house is always hearty; (not just on Mondays) as we hit the gym 4-5 days a week. A protein-packed meal is always on the menu to fuel our workouts and our work days.
I should add that we never eat pasta at night; too much and too heavy. We eat later in our house so dinner is simple, as you will see.
Here are links to my fave pasta lunch dishes.
I might also make a chili for something hearty. Here is my fave recipe:
Sometimes lunch is a jam-packed sandwich or homemade pizza as I love both of these as well as pasta. Is there anything better than a great sandwich?
Dinner
Dinner is our house is always simple and light…and late, like 8-8:30 pm. We work out until 7:30 at the gym and are night owls, up until midnight watching Italian and French films to keep my language skills sharp.
Our dinners always, always consist of soup, a bean soup usually for protein post-workout.
Those soups are accompanied by a slice of whole grain sourdough bread, sautéed greens or a salad…not all three, just one. We vary it from night to night.
Here are some links to the soups on our table often:
Dessert
There is always dessert in our house. I am a former pastry chef and I can’t imagine a life without a bit of sweetness in it.
I bake so we know all of our desserts are without white flour or sugar; are largely organic and most important…they are small. We enjoy 3 bites of a small treat with an afternoon espresso and again after dinner, after a long day.
Here are some of the treats you’ll always find under the dome of my dessert dish; usually cookies as they are sooooo easy to make and I specialize in them so I can whip them up fast. And I love, love, love to bake cookies:
Special occasions call for special treats like:
There you have it; the kinds of dishes we eat in a week. As I wrote this I realized that I really indulge my passion. Jeez, I cook a lot. My love of cooking and serving delicious food is always satisfied; day to day; week to week with friends, family and colleagues. When my table is full, my heart is full.
There is nothing I love more than cooking with and for people close to me and gathering around the table together; no phones, just great food, talk and love.
You know, you can lose yourself in the mindless suffering we humans endure in this complex world. Hope can be hard to find sometimes. But we humans need each other and are so much better together than alone. Often we forget this. Look at how we treat each other.
We also need our fragile planet and all she gives us, but look at how we treat her.
People and the planet are inextricably linked and gathering around the table enjoying the bounty of nature is crucial to life. The table teaches us to communicate, share, unite, create long lasting bonds of love and even stave off conflicts. When hope is hard to find, we can often find it at the table.
Is it the answer to all our problems? No, but tables are easy to build…and to make longer. Just ask Chef Jose Andres.
Fall in love with cooking. You’ll be so glad you did.
