I find that Ina’s recipes rarely call for alteration to boost their health benefits and cut the fat. Although she’s not afraid of using butter, sugar and all the good things in life, she tends to use them far more judiciously than many of her culinary counterparts. However, I was able to trim a little bit of the empty ingredients to help emphasize the surprising number of healthy ingredients this dessert has to offer. And I think I managed to do it without sacrificing a single bit of yum.

2 pounds red plums, pitted and cut in 1-inch wedges
1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour, divided
4 oz fresh or frozen raspberries
1/4 c light brown sugar, packed
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp cold, unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup sliced almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sliced plums, 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar, 1/4 cup of the flour and toss well. (I reduced the total amount of granulated sugar from 2/3 to 1/2 cup. With all that sweet fruit, you won’t miss the extra sugar!) Add the raspberries and toss lightly. (I used a combination of raspberries and blackberries because that’s what I had on hand. Use whatever berries you love.) Pour into a 9 by 12 baking dish.
3. For the topping, place the remaining 1 cup of flour, the remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, the brown sugar (which I reduced from 1/3 to 1/4 cup), and the salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter (the original recipe called for a stick–you won’t miss those extra couple of tablespoons!), and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. (You can do this by hand with a pastry cutter and a little elbow grease if you don’t have a food processor.) Pour the mixture into a bowl, add the oats, and work it with your hands until it’s in large crumbles. Add the almonds and mix well.
4. Spread the topping evenly over the plums and berries, making sure the fruit is covered.
5. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the fruit is tender and bubbly and the topping is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The original inspiration was Nigella Lawson’s Garlic Roast Potatoes from the Food Network site. You can view the original recipe here. But Ms. Lawson is known for her succulence and decadence, not waistline watching. And, although I thought the recipe sounded delicious at a glance, I know it could be easily altered to cut quite a bit of fat without sacrificing flavor.

1 lb baby potatoes
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 tbsp olive oil
4 clove garlic, do not peel
Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

1. Wash and dry the potatoes, but don’t peel. Cut them into about 1/2-inch pieces. (The original recipe called for 3 lbs but since I was cooking a romantic dinner for two, I reduced it by 2/3.)
2. Toss potatoes on a baking with the thyme and oil, smulching around with your hands to mix well (this was Nigella’s description and I just had to keep it. Who doesn’t like a good smulch?) The original recipe called for 1/3 c of oil for 3lbs of potatoes. This struck me as a huge amount of oil for these sweet little, delicate potatoes. So I reduced the oil but I added in a pinch of thyme (not in the original recipe) to compensate for any reduction in flavor.
3. Add the unpeeled heads of garlic to the tray, they will lend a subtle aroma as the potatoes roast.
4. Cook for 25-30 minutes, turning once or twice, until crispy and golden but still soft on the inside. When they’re done, remove to a large plate, discarding the garlic, and sprinkle with salt.

But as family-friendly as the original recipe is, I thought it could be made more figure friendly, so I set to work on slimming down the Man With a Pan Chicken Parm.

The original recipe can be found on page 8-9 of the book.

Super Fast & Skinny Weeknight Chicken Parmigiana
Serves 4-6

1 tbsp & 2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 28-oz can peeled plum tomatoes
salt and black pepper to taste
4 sprigs fresh basil
8 oz brown rice linguine
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 1/2 c baby spinach, roughly chopped
1/3 lb high quality Parmesan, freshly grated

Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Saute the onion until soft. Add the garlic and saute an additional 30 seconds. (The garlic isn’t in the original but because I reduced a little bit of the fat, I wanted to layer extra flavor.)

Add the tomatoes and their juice to the pot and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

With an immersion blender or a large fork, crush any remaining large chunks of tomato and season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Start the pasta water boiling while you prep the chicken.

Slice each chicken breast in half horizontally, so that they are half their original thickness. Season with a pinch of salt. (The original recipe doesn’t call for seasoning the meat but I’m a firm believer in seasoning chicken.)

Heat remaining tbsp oil in a large skillet to medium high. When the oil is good and hot, add the chicken breasts in 1 layer and cook until brown on both sides, turning once.

Heat the broiler and add pasta to the boiling water. (I use a whole grain pasta to add a little extra nutrition to the dish).

Remove skillet from heat and top chicken breasts with spinach. (The spinach is my addition–why dirty another pan cooking a vegetable when you can make a complete meal in one dish?) Top with the tomato sauce, a layer of Parmesan (approx 2 tbsp), the basil, the rest of the tomato sauce and the rest of the Parmesan. (The original recipe also has a layer of mozzarella but I find most mozzarella to go gummy in baked dishes so why waste the calories on a bland pool of gum? If you really love you some mozz, reduce the Parm to 1/4 c and add another 1/4 c mozz.)

Put the whole thing under the broiler until the cheese bubbles and browns.

Drain the pasta and divide among the plates, topping with 1-2 pieces of chicken per person.

The Menu
tarragon chicken salad with first of the season black, seedless grapes
tiny pasta purses with carrot top pesto, chevre and black forest bacon
whole wheat apple bread pudding
summertime cheese plate with grilled cherries, eggplant compote and grilled baguette slices (recipes below)

For the cheese plate:
I wanted to make something a little more sophisticated than just a couple blocks of cheese and I really wanted to show off a bit of the market’s July produce. So to my raw, goat’s milk cheddar, I added a few accoutrements I hoped would tempt the eyes as well as the tongue.

I’d had a burning desire to play with grilled cherries ever since a friend texted me from a restaurant to tell me she having a hot, grilled cherry orgasm. Grilling diminishes the cherry’s tartness slightly and adds earthy char. So I grilled the bread to mimic that charred note and help the fruit blend a little better with the sharp, tangy notes of the cheese. To make the eggplant work on the same plate as the cherries, I added thyme, an herb that pairs pleasantly with both cherries and eggplants. And I squeezed in a little lemon juice at the last minute to give the compote a similar tang to both the fruit and the cheese.
Serves 6 as a side dish or dessert course

6-8 oz goat’s milk cheddar

For the eggplant compote:
1 lb japanese eggplant
2 tbsp olive oil
1 sm yellow onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Cut eggplant lengthwise. Put cut side up in a small baking dish and drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil. Cook until tender, approx 25 min.

Let eggplant rest until cool enough to touch. Scoop flesh from eggplants and discard skins. Roughly chop. Remove thyme from sprigs, mince, then add to eggplant.

Heat remaining olive oil in a saute pan. Saute onion and garlic for 1 minute. Add in the eggplant and thyme and lemon juice. Season with salt to taste. Saute for about 30 seconds.

Transfer to serving dish and cool to room temperature.

For the grilled cherries and bread:
12 black cherries
1 baguette sliced on the diagonal
Heat grill to medium-high. Add cherries and bread slices to the grill. Grill cherries for about 2 minutes then flip to the other side. Grill bread about 1 minute per side. Add both to cheese board and allow cherries to cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.

With just a couple quick tricks, the Neely’s pork chops were easy to transform into a figure-friendly meal that still tastes indulgent. There is a bit of prep time because you need to brine the chops but the actual cooking time is quick for a dish for the complexity of flavor.

cornbread-stuffed pork chops
you can follow the original recipe here
serves 4

1/2 cup kosher salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 quarts water
4 (2-inch thick) pork chops, bone-in rib loin chops, split to bone
2 tsp canola oil
2 slices vegetarian bacon, chopped
2 stalks celery, minced
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon freshly chopped rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon freshly chopped sage leaves
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
2 vitamuffin corn muffin tops, crumbled
2 tablespoons dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Whisk salt and sugars in 2-quarts of cold water. Add pork chops and cover. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Remove the pork chops from the brine and dry well. (Note, do not over-brine!–trust me!)

In a large, non-stick saute pan, heat the canola. Add the veggie bacon. (You may look askance at replacing America’s favorite pig product with a veggie variation but I’ve been experimenting with this for years. Sneaked into a recipe in which the bacon is there primarily to impart a smokey salty flavor, the substitution really works. It even meets with my pig-loving boyfriend’s approval.) When the veggie bacon begins to crisp, add celery, onion, garlic, rosemary, sage and parsley. Saute until fragrant. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

The next step is my biggest healthy cooking trick. I replaced the 2 1/2 c of cornbread the recipe originally called for with 2 corn vitamuffin tops. Vitamuffin makes 100 calorie muffins and snacks that are vitamin fortified. Instead of white flour-based corn bread, you’re getting low-cal stuffing made from whole grains and fiber. (I also cut the amount of cranberry in half. Even though cranberries are whole fruit and contain fiber, they are also calorie and sugar dense, so I wanted to reduce both a little. By chopping the fruit, you still get cranberry in every bite.)

In a large bowl add the corn muffin tops, dried cranberries and chicken stock. Stir in the cooked vegetable mixture. Mix well.

Preheat grill to medium-high heat.

Season the pork chops with pepper. Stuff the chop with about 1/2 cup of stuffing. Use toothpicks to help seal the chops. Grill the chops for 5 to 7 minutes per side. Internal temperature should be 145 degrees F. Allow chop to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

That’s why this week, my farmers’ market recipe is a simple, peak of season summer salad.

makes 2 servings
2 small carrots
1 persian cucumber
5 breakfast radishes
1/4 c sliced sweet onion like maui or texas sweet
1 tsp dijon
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp flax seed oil (you can use a neutral oil like grape seed instead)
salt to taste
4 basil leaves

Slice vegetables paper thin using a food processor or (as I prefer) a mandolin.

In a small bowl, mix together dijon and vinegar. Whisk in the oil, (I just do this with a fork). Toss the dressing with the vegetables. Season with salt to taste.

Chiffonade the basil and top salad with the basil ribbons.

Serve immediately.

The trick that I use to cut the fat is swapping the cream for soy milk. I know it sounds crazy to anyone who’s tried turning their morning coffee dairy free, watching the sad, almost oily dollop of soy settle into the strong, hot brew. It can’t come close to a splash of cream and its ability to swirl through the coffee in a perfect dance number. But used in a recipe in which cream is not one of only two ingredients, the weight and sweetness of soy milk plays the cream role in a surprisingly satisfying impersonation. And in this recipe, combine with a hint of garlic, aromatic tarragon-an altogether aphrodisiac herb-and layered with creamy potatoes, it makes for a decadent side without adding to the size of your thighs.

Potato Gratin with Tarragon
you can follow the original Hubert Keller recipe here
serves 8 as a side dish

1 1/2 quarts soy milk
2 cloves garlic, peeled
salt and white pepper to taste
14 medium potatoes, unpeeled (I prefer French fingerlings but the original calls for yukon gold)
4 sprigs fresh tarragon, leaves picked and finely chopped
1 c panko

Preheat oven to 325.

In a sauce pan, bring soy milk, whole garlic cloves, salt and pepper to a simmer. Once it is simmering, remove from heat and set aside. (When it cools, remove the garlic and taste again to make sure it doesn’t need additional season. Because soy milk tends to be slightly more sweet than cream, you may want to add a little extra salt to counteract the sweetness.)

Slice the potatoes on a Japanese mandolin to approx 1/8″ thickness. (The original recipe calls for peeling the potatoes but since this removes a lot of the nutrition, I keep the peels on. We’re using potatoes with relatively thin skin so it really doesn’t alter the texture or flavor greatly and it cuts the prep time as well.)

Spray a medium casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray and begin to layer the potato slices, covering the entire bottom of dish. Pour a small amount of the cream mixture over the potatoes. Sprinkle with tarragon and season lightly with salt and pepper (if desired). Repeat until the casserole is full.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours or until a knife slides easily through the center of the gratin.

Remove from oven and preheat broiler. Sprinkle with panko and place under broiler until panko is crisp. Serve warm.

For my first challenge, I chose the queen of all things butter, Ms. Paula Deen. And if I was going to do it, I’d go all out. I selected Paula’s Wiener Schnitzel as the mega-challenge to kick off this cooking series. For the sake of saving money, not calories (as well as to skirt any animal right issues), I made my Schnitzel with turkey–you can also use chicken.

You can follow the original recipe here.

4 turkey breast cutlets (4 oz each)
salt
pepper
2/3 c flour
1 egg and 1 egg white, beaten
2 tbsp water
1 1/2 c panko
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp canola oil

Pound turkey breasts to 1/4 inch thickness using a meat hammer or, if you’re like me, the back of a heavy skillet. Pat dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper.

Line up 3 shallow dishes, the first with the flour. In the second, combine the egg, egg white and water and put the panko in the third. (I found that the amount of flour and panko in the original recipe made too thick of a crust. So I reduced these amounts to not only save on a few calories but also to create a light, crispy coating.)

Dredge each turkey cutlet in the flour, then dip in the egg, lastly rolling in the panko.

Heat the butter and oil in a non-stick skillet–one that is just big enough to hold all four cutlets. (I like to use a scanpan, which is a non teflon non-stick.) Although the original recipe called only for vegetable oil, butter combine with oil is the traditional cooking fat for schnitzel and I think a great schnitzel benefits from a bit of that buttery taste. I also switched from the original vegetable oil to canola for my recipe since its one of the most heart-healthy cooking oils. Oh, and you might have noticed that I reduce the oil from half-filling the skillet to just enough to create that crispy exterior.

Transfer the cutlets to the pan and cook about 2 minutes per side over medium-high heat, flipping once.

Serve immediately with a side of fresh lemon wedges.

This week I didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel but for my Sunday brunch I picked up morels(!), komatsuna (a Japanese green similar to spinach but more herbal, less tannic), a candy onion (sweeter than vidallia but with the bite of a typical yellow onion), duck eggs and some black cherries. Oh, and a baguette from my favorite bakery.

While I was cooking, I decided to experiment with the rich, green fluff preventing my carrots from fitting in the refrigerator’s vegetable drawer. I made a quick carrot top pesto as a dip, helping to make use of the overabundance of mini spring veggies in my market basket. (And to help with space conservation in my fridge!)

Scrambled Duck Eggs Over Morels & Komatsuna with Grilled Cherries and Toast
serves 2

1 1/4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp chopped candy onion
5 fat morels, trimmed and quartered lengthwise
1 tsp fresh tarragon, finely chopped
1 1/2 c fresh komatsuna leaves (or fresh, baby spinach)
2 duck eggs
1/4 tsp fresh chives, finely chopped
salt to taste

Crack eggs into a small bowl and thoroughly whisk. Set aside.

Melt 1/2 tsp butter in a small saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until soft. Add morels, season with salt and cook until mushrooms begin to brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in tarragon.

While mushrooms are cooking, add komatsuna with a splash of water to another pan. Cover and cook over medium heat until greens are limp, about 2 minutes.

Divide the komatsuna between two plates and top with mushrooms. Return mushroom pan to heat and add remaining 3/4 tbsp butter. Turn heat to medium low and add eggs. Stir constantly until eggs are cooked, approximately 4-5 minutes. Season with salt if desired. (You will need no seasoning if using salted butter!) When eggs are about set, stir in chives, remove from heat and divide between two plates, topping the mushrooms and greens. Serve with toast and a side of grilled cherries.

To grill cherries, wash a handful of black cherries. Heat grill to medium high and grill cherries for 4-5 minutes, turning once, until grill marks show on both sides. Let cherries cool for a few minutes before serving as their sugar will become burning hot.

These cherries are super sexy and can be served any time of day, as a snack, with an aperitif, accompanying grilled pork, etc. Use your imagination!

Vegan Carrot Top Pesto

I never know what to do with the tops of my carrots. I hate to waste them but I don’t really love their taste on its own. So I tried making a carrot top pesto, which is totally vegan, easy and surprisingly good!

1/4 c unsalted walnuts
1 tbsp + 1/4 c olive oil
1 tbsp onion, roughly chopped
1 bulb garlic, roughly chopped
1 bunch carrot tops, thoroughly washed and roughly chopped
smoked salt

Toast walnuts in pan or oven until golden. Set aside.

heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft. Add garlic and saute an additional minute before adding in carrot tops and a pinch of smoked salt. Cook until carrot tops wilt, about 1 minute.

Transfer to blender, adding toasted walnuts and 1 tbsp water. Blend, adding olive oil in a slow stream until mixture becomes a coarse paste (the texture of pesto!) You may not need all the olive oil or you may need additional.

Season with additional smoked salt to taste.

Serve as a dip, salad dressing or over pasta.

Chile-Rubbed, Grilled Chicken Salad with White Corn, Radish, New Potatoes and Avocado with Fresh Garlic Vinaigrette
Strawberry Bread Pudding
Apriums with Fresh Strawberry Sauce

For the salad, just rub boneless, skinless chicken breasts with your favorite rub (or marinate in your favorite seasoning). Grill and chill. Boil 2 new potatoes per person until a knife slides easily through. Allow potatoes to cool before quartering. From the market, select the best lettuce of the season–I chose red leaf and baby butter lettuce–then garnish with the season’s finest vegetables. (This could be anything from pea shoots, scallions and fava beans to grilled asparagus and heirloom tomatoes.) Top with your favorite vinaigrette, or just top with a splash of flax seed oil (loaded with mood-lifting omega-3’s), a squeeze of lemon and pinch of salt.

For the bread pudding, I followed cookbook author Chrysta Wilson’s recipe, only I reduced the soy milk to 1 cup and replaced the apple with 1 c sliced strawberries.

Fresh Strawberry Sauce Recipe

3/4 c very ripe strawberries, chopped
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp warm water

Put all ingredients in blender and blend on high until smooth. Chill until serving. (Adjust sugar depending on your preference and ripeness of your berries.)

Drizzle over fresh or grilled fruit, top ice cream, oatmeal, lemon tarts, pound cake or plain yogurt.