P O W E R F O O D S
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Here are a couple of my favorite “mini meals”, packed with power foods, I like to eat when I’m trying to cut back and trim down. This first one serves two: Prick a large organic sweet potato, the oranger the better, with a knife, rub the skin with soft butter, salt it, put it on a cookie sheet or aluminum foil (because it will drip on to your oven floor and we can’t have that), roast at 425° until done, about an hour and 15 min. Cut it in half, mash up the potato, pepper it and enjoy. Eat the skin too which will have caramelized in spots, making it even more delicious, filling, and it’s stuffed with healthy beta carotene antioxidants.
Another sort of one-item dinner that’s really filling and low calorie is an artichoke which you eat with your hands, giving extra satisfaction. I get two, one for Joe, one for me. They are good hot or cold, so cook extra if you like them. To make them: put a large pot of water on to boil. Wash the artichokes and trim off the tops (pointy part) of the leaves with scissors (you don’t have to do this, I just like to). Drizzle a bit of olive oil into the tops, drop them into the water, and pour another couple of tablespoons of oil into the water. Grind lots of fresh pepper 
into the water and add about a tsp. of salt. Cover and simmer gently (about a half hour or so) until a fork pierces the stem very easily. You can test for doneness: pull off a leaf, the little lump of meat (at the bottom of each leaf in case you’ve never made an artichoke) should come off easily when you pull on it with your teeth. When they’re done, drain them well. Put them on a plate. If you are a purist, squeeze over lemon juice pull off one leaf at a time, and enjoy. If you are like me and inherently impure (I inherited it from my dad), give yourself a TBSP of mayonnaise in a little side-cup to dip the leaves in. If this is your whole dinner, you can afford some mayo calories since there are only about 60 in the artichoke. Some people like to dip the leaves in melted butter; I like mayo better, but try it and see what you think. After you have eaten all the leaves and are down to the skinny feathery ones, don’t eat those. 
Scrape them out of the base of the artichoke with a dinner knife. What’s left is the heart, the most delicious of all, the reward at the end, and wonderful with a little mayo. It takes a little while to eat an artichoke giving your tummy plenty of time to realize it’s been fed, thereby ending the begging for more thing. Always remember how important consciousness is while trying to eat healthy. If your mind is crying out for a hot fudge sundae, just remember to say to yourself, “In ten minutes, this voice will be gone. This too shall pass.” And it will, just give it a minute.
That year is going to pass anyway.
I bet lots of you have one-food meal tips, foods that “get you through.” Share please! Have you ever made my easy recipe for wholesome, soul-satisfying Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti? It’s really good. If you haven’t and you’d like the recipe, it is linked HERE. Or, for you who have the Girlfriend’s Book, it’s on the page titled “Healthy Quick Cook”, page 110.
Love you. xoxo, Susan
