What are you eating today?

How's it going with your resolutions to eat better in 2015? Have you got the meal-planning part down yet?

Take it from an experienced cook: Meal planning is the most important thing you can do to improve your eating life. And yet, it is the hardest thing many of us struggle to figure out. The trick to it is the time commitment, to sit down with 10 minutes to think about your household schedule in the next week and think through what you're planning to cook. I do it on Saturday mornings, but whenever it works for you is the right time.

With the weekend coming up, here are a few stories we have today that might inspire your meals in the next few days:

Winter Salads. Yep, you heard that right. Who says you can't eat salads in the winter? Hearty greens are in season, but you don't have to cook them. This story has great recipes, but it also has some excellent tips on making salads better.

Pizza. This isn't about making pizza, but it might get you warmed up if you disagree: Daniel Neman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is upset about what Wolfgang Puck did to ruin pizza.

Veal Gorgonzola for 2. It sounds warming and delicious, doesn't it? I get constant requests for recipes that will serve 1 or 2. Linda Gassenheimer's column does that every week.

Pounded Chicken With Herbs. In my One Great column this week, I share a technique from Marco Canora's new book on healthful eating and it just might change your cooking life.

Everybody needs a treat, particularly a healthful spin on something delicious. These granola bars use raspberry jam to go in the sweet directions. 

For one more sweet-but-healthful treat, Ellie Krieger uses dates, dried figs and coconut to roll up a batch of truffles. Who says you have to have chocolate?

Make a plan, and we'll see you in the kitchen.

One Great . . . ramped-up chicken cutlet

Chefs don't cook like the rest of us. That can be good and bad for people who love recipes.

Sometimes, their cooking is complicated and involves lots of pots and obscure ingredients. That's bad for recipe lovers.

Sometimes, their cooking is so simple, anyone can do it. And that is very, very good for us.

New York's Marco Canora can do the first kind of cooking very well at his restaurant Hearth and his former restaurant Insieme. But in his new book, "A Good Food Day," he does the second kind with healthful recipes. That's where I spotted this smart method for the usually bland skinless, boneless chicken breasts.

It sounds harder than it is, but you're really flattening chicken breasts so they cook really fast. And when you flatten them, you beat herbs into them. How smart is that? The herb topping is endlessly adaptable, and the cooked breasts can be sliced and used on anything from pasta to salad.

Flavor-Pounded Chicken 

From "A Good Food Day," by Marco Canora (Clarkson Potter, $30).

4 (6- to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
12 large fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
Leaves from 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped
Grated zest of 2 small lemons
2 small garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 teaspoons olive oil, plus 4 tablespoons for cooking
4 lemon wedges

STARTING at the thicker side, make a lengthwise cut into the chicken breast, stopping before you cut all the through. Fold it open like a book. Place between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound it out thinly with the flat side of a meat tenderizer, working from the inside out, until it's about 1/4 inch thick. Repeat with the remaining breasts.

PILE the herbs, lemon zest and garlic on a cutting board and chop together. Place in a small bowl and add the salt, a few grinds of pepper and 8 teaspoons olive oil. Spread half the paste evenly on one side of the chicken breasts and rub it in.

COVER with plastic wrap again and lightly pound in the seasoning with the toothy side of the meat tenderizer. Flip the breasts and rub the remaining past into the other side, cover and pound again.

HEAT 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over high heat until it's very hot. Add 1 chicken breast, put a weight on it (like a kettle or heavy pan), cook about 45 seconds. Flip it, weight it again and cook 45 seconds. Transfer to a plate and let it rest 3 minutes while you cook the remaining chicken. Squeeze a little lemon over each, then cut in slices.

YIELD: 4 servings. 

8 N.C. companies grab Good Food Awards

Remember the Good Food Awards we reported on a couple of months back? This is a California-based group that recognizes producers of artisan, craft foods using local ingredients in a number of categories, including beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, confections, honey, oils, pickles, preserves and spirits.

There were 11 N.C. companies on the list when finalists were announced in November. The winners were announced this week in San Francisco and while Charlotte's Cloister Honey didn't make the final cut for its bourbon-infused honey, a solid list of Tar Heel foods did. (No N.C. beer makers, though? I'm surprised by that, too.) April McGreger, maker of Farmer's Daughter pickles and preserves in Carrboro did particularly well.

Find the full list on the Good Foods website above, and put these N.C. winners on your shopping list as you roam the state:

Cheese:
Looking Glass Creamery, Connemara.
Chocolate:
Black Mountain Chocolate, Mountain Milk Bar.
Escazu Chocolate, 70% Tumbes.
French Broad Chocolates, 68% Percent Nicaragua.
Confection:
Videri Chocolate Factory, Strawberry Anise Ganache.
Pickles:
Farmer's Daughter, Sweet Corn & Pepper Relish.
Two Chicks Farm, Kimchi.
Preserves:
Farmer's Daughter, Strawberry Honeysuckle Jam.
Spirits:
Crude Bitters, Rizzo Bitters.

What can you eat in winter?

Eating locally grown food is easy in summer. In winter, it gets a little harder . . . right?

Not necessarily. In this part of the world, where the ground may not even freeze in winter, there is still a lot of fresh food. Farmers are growing it, farmers markets are selling it, and we, the cooks, well, are we buying it?

Here's a little video I made about my trip to the Charlotte Regional Farmer's Market the week before Christmas. A couple of things to note: Yes, for a few vendors, December is the end of their year until things pick up again in March. But a lot of times, that's because the customers aren't coming out, not because they don't have anything to sell.

If you go in January, pickings will be a little more sparse. But they won't be nonexistent.

I'll be out this weekend. Will you? Say hello if you spot me. And don't worry: I'll only point a camera at you if you tell me it's OK.

What's on our plate for Wednesday?

Brisk temperatures in the 30s, body temperatures in the 102-degree range for those of us who missed those flu shots? Sounds like a good time to break out the comfort food.

Sounds like you could use a steaming bowl of grits, dressed up with an easy topping. Those of us who were raised on grits know that they make a great basic, comforting base for all kinds of toppings, and they can get you from breakfast to dinner. What you need is a simple guide that will make you a grits expert.

If you keep your eating local in winter, you're all too familiar with the inevitable kale (as we call it at my house). Gardening blogger Cindy Barlowe (mother of Heirloom chef Clark Barlowe) has a sweet story about cooking for people in need and an equally sweet recipe for an easy (and warm) variation on the inevitable kale salad.


Get your tickets here: Load your calendar with food events, including the annual Soup on Sunday fundraiser for Hospice and Palliative Care and the Troop 355 Boy Scout barbecue. (Don't worry, fans of Troop 33, they're coming up in a few weeks.)  

If the one thing that will warm you is the hottest drinks trend, look toward the cinnamon whiskeys.

Need more recipes? Try:

Easy burritos that serve 2 (or 1 with leftovers for lunch).
Vegetable stock, the secret recipe for your healthful freezer.
Leek, potato and fennel soup.
Onion and mushroom tart.

 Find all that and more, including our searchable database of recipes, at www.charlotteobserver.com/food.

One Great . . . easy slow cooker dessert

Last week, I shared a easy dessert for one that you make in a microwave. This week? An easy dessert for a crowd that you make in a slow cooker.

Notice the theme here? Dessert, made easily. It’s the season when easy is the way to go.


This recipe is floating all around the internet, but I had it when a friend hosted a dinner group recently. It’s perfect for a winter night. And because it needs to sit for a while after it cooks, it's handy for a dinner party. Turn off the slow cooker just before you serve dinner and dessert will be ready when dinner is finished.

Slow Cooker Gingerbread Pudding Cake
Nonstick cooking spray

1 (14.5-ounce) package gingerbread mix

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup raisins

2 1/4 cups water

3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter

Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

SPRAY the inside of a slow cooker lightly with cooking spray.

COMBINE the gingerbread mix and milk together in a mixing bowl until moistened. Stir in the raisins. (The batter will be thick.) Spread the batter evenly in the slow cooker.

COMBINE the water, brown sugar and butter in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over the batter in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on the high power (don’t use the low power setting) for 2 hours. The center will appear moist, but it will firm up as it stands. Turn off the cooker and let stand for 45 minutes to an hour.

SPOON into dessert dishes and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

YIELD: 8 to 10 servings.

One Great . . . small chocolate dessert

In the season of excess, it's hard to believe we might crave dessert. Sometimes, though, just a little bit of chocolate is what you need. Some of us don't like to have the temptation of a whole cake or a big batch of something.

That's when the mug cake comes in handy. It's a single serving of cake, made in a coffee mug. You can make it in a couple of minutes in a microwave. And it lends itself to endless experimentation.

Messing around with several recipes, I hit on the perfect combination: Nutella and raspberry jam. You can swap the Nutella for peanut butter, skip the raspberry jam. It's up to you. It's your very own personal cake, after all.

Chocolate Raspberry Mug Cake

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoons Nutella (or peanut butter)
2 tablespoons raspberry jam (optional, or use another flavor)

WHISK the flour, sugar, cocoa and salt in a small bowl. Whisk in the egg, oil and Nutella (or peanut butter). Stir in the chocolate chips.

SPREAD about half the batter in the bottom of a large coffee mug. Top with the raspberry jam, then top with the remaining batter.

MICROWAVE on high (100% power) for about 2 minutes, until it's puffed up. Serve immediately, topped with a little whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if you absolutely insist.

YIELD: 1 serving.