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Making food fun, eye-catching and appealing isn’t always about the recipe but about the presentation and the platter on which the food is served. Recently Heather bought a chicken-shaped platter with indentations around the edges and a depression in the middle. With a tiny chip on it, the price was reduced by 80%. A good find. The indentations were intended for deviled eggs (or at least we hoped so), but we weren’t quite sure what food would go in the middle. Crackers, a dip, veggies? Ah, yes! Vegetables. Heather had just gone shopping at Willy Street Co-op and picked up some organic Brussel sprouts. They look like little cabbages and have somewhat of a similar taste. So that’d what she prepared. Deviled eggs and Brussel sprouts. Very simple, healthy and delicious!

So the next time you’re entertaining guests or are invited to a party or just want to make a family dinner more fun, serve up some whimsy with a clever platter or tray.

Ingredients for Deviled Eggs
6 hardboiled eggs
1/4 cup total of Greek yogurt and mayonnaise mixed
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp yellow mustard
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle with paprika to garnish

Directions
Cut hardboiled eggs lengthwise. With a spoon, gently scoop out yolks and place in bowl. Mix well with yogurt, mayonnaise, vinegar and mustard. Then refill egg whites with mixture.

Helpful tip: Do not set your filled eggs on serving platter until after you sprinkle them with paprika. Less messy.

For the Brussel Sprouts, we simply boiled them in salted water until tender. We let the flavor speak for itself.

Willy Street Co-op’s monthly publication features many healthy and easy-to-prepare meals in their recipe section. This Spicy Tofu and Bok Choy Rice Bowl makes for a wonderful side dish or as a meal in itself. As always, me made changes according to our palates and what ingredients were available. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp Sriracha sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter, plus 1 tbsp
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sesame oil
16 oz firm tofu, pressed and cut into 8 slices
1 large bunch bok choy, trimmed, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
4 cups cooked brown rice (we used white)
1/4 cup crushed peanuts
1/4 cup chopped scallions

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, Sriracha, brown sugar, peanut butter and salt until combined. (We left the Sriracha sauce out at this step since we were preparing this for the whole family and my boys can take only so much “heat”. So I added a little bit to my own bowl at the end. Also we halved the amount of brown sugar and omitted the salt since I felt that the soy sauce was salty enough for the dish.) Brush both sides of the slices of tofu with sauce. Some will be left over. Set the tofu on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes, flipping halfway through the cooking time.

In a large wok or saute pan, heat the sesame oil over medium heat. Stir in bok choy and garlic. (We halved the amount of sesame oil since a little goes a long way. But we did add a couple more cloves of minced garlic. Yum!) Add the remaining peanut sauce and toss to coat. Saute about 5 minutes, or until greens are wilted and stalks are still crisp.

Scoop about one cup of rice into a bowl. Top with bok choy, two slices of baked tofu, crushed peanuts and scallions. Ready to eat!

Healthy recipe ideas often come from friends, family members, cooking magazines or just doing searches online. Yesterday my wife read Little Red Riding Hood by Lisa Campbell Ernst to our 4 year-old, Roy, for the umpteenth time. It’s a fun adaptation of the story I remember as a child. In this version, muffins play a significant role. And as luck would have it, there is Grandma’s Wheat Berry Muffins recipe conveniently placed at the end of the book. Heather and Roy took to the task of following the recipe while making some changes along the way. Primarily reducing the amount of sugar and fat. As Official Taste Tester of the Foxman household, I had to try one as soon as they came out of the oven. Fantastic! Unlike so many muffins you get at the grocery store or even some bakeries, these were not super sugary. The fresh blueberries offered the perfect amount of sweetness. The wheat flour added a nice hearty flavor and what I like to call “chew factor”. The sunflower seeds were the biggest surprise. They gave the muffins a nice texture and buttery flavor as I thoroughly chewed each bite. Very satisfying. Lastly, what made this muffin recipe a success for me was that my GI system did not react negatively. No bloat and no gas. Fortunately or unfortunately, my system is quite sensitive to oily and fatty foods. I guess that’s helpful for weight management. Another lastly, is that these muffins were the perfect size. When it comes to treats, don’t you just want a taste anyhow? Not an entire bowl or plate full. This recipe gets two thumbs up and I hope you give it a try!

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup organic applesauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups organic blueberries
1/4 cup raw unsalted sunflowers

Directions
Turn oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, butter, applesauce, sugar and almond extract. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry mixture to wet/egg mixture and stir just until combined. Gently stir in the blueberries and sunflower seeds. Fill oiled muffin tins 3/4 full and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. These muffins taste best when shared. Makes twelve.

The July 2017 magazine The Costco Connection featured a healthy and delicious quinoa recipe that reminded me of Thanksgiving stuffing. Since we had just picked up a 4.5 lb bag of organic quinoa, I thought we should give it a try. Why quinoa? It has nice flavor, it’s easy-to-prepare and is high in protein. To suit our palettes and to feed a ravenous family of five, I modified the recipe. So here you go!

Ingredients
2 cups quinoa
4 cups water
1 lb grilled chicken, chopped (I used boneless thigh meat which was grilled with poultry seasoning and dried thyme.)
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup celery, diced
1 small red onion, minced
1 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped
garnish with fresh thyme (optional)

Dressing
1/3 cup olive oil (extra virgin if you have some)
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

The recipe also called for 1 tsp of sugar and minced garlic which I omitted. I felt that the white wine vinegar and cherries would add enough sweetness (which they did) and raw garlic has a tendency to make me burp.

Directions
Rinse and drain quinoa in a strainer. Bring water and quinoa to boil in medium/large saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 12 minutes. Then add chicken pieces, cherries, walnuts, celery and minced onion. [This is a change from the original recipe that calls for adding the chicken, cherries, celery and onion after the quinoa has cooled. I wanted to slightly rehydrate the cherries and warm the celery and onions so their flavor was milder.] Mix well and let stand for 10 minutes. Fluff with fork and let cool.

Place the cooled quinoa mixture in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together olive oil, white white vinegar and black pepper. Pour over salad. Toss well to coat.

Ready to serve, eat and enjoy!

Hopefully my attempt at alliteration grabbed your attention. Did it work? Then let’s get down to business. How do you roll when it comes to Japanese sushi? Nigiri, maki, temaki or sashimi? For me it’s sashimi every time. Why? What’s the difference? Let’s start with nigiri sushi. From the word “nigiru”, which means “to grasp/grip”, nigiri sushi has a block of vinegard rice on which the raw fish sits. The formed rice makes it easy to pick up with your hand or chopsticks. Maki sushi, from “maku”, which means “to wrap/roll”, is wrapped in seaweed (called “nori”). These rolls don’t always contain raw fish. Vegetables (raw or cooked), tofu, avocado, cucumber, grilled egg and cooked chicken are common ingredients. Temaki, meaning “hand-rolled”, is generally cone-shaped with the same ingredients as other sushi. My personal favorite is sashimi. Meaning “sliced body”, sashimi is the fish from nigiri sans rice. It’s pure, clean, unadulterated and simplistic. And just to let you in on a not-so-secret secret, sashimi is considered the finest dish in Japanese formal dining by many Japanese chefs.

Sashimi is not masked with competing or overwhelming sauces and marinades. And this might sound like something you’ve heard from a food blogger or TV travel host, but you can really taste the ocean where the fish once swam. Plus I always leave satisfied. Never bloated. Compare that to a Friday fish fry? Sorry folks, but it’s not even on the same spectrum. Without getting too personal, my body was clearly not meant to ingest fish, or any food for that matter, that’s been battered and deep fried. Why? Gas, gas, gas. If I am going to eat fish from the Great Lakes (like perch, whitefish, salmon or walleye), then lightly sautéed or a quick grill is the way to go.

For you foodies who like to be filled, I’ve noticed that some sushi chefs slice larger pieces of fish for sashimi than for nigiri. Or maybe it’s just because I often sit at the bar watching intently and intensely, drooling and generally looking really hungry. Over the years I have developed a greater appreciation for fish. Some fish are firm, flaky or soft. If you have had sushi that smells or tastes fishy, then the fish is not fresh. Get your money back. Same thing if the fish is overly chewy, stringy or tough. It’s old. Clearly not all fish have the same chewiness. Take squid, for example. You definitely need to use more of your molars.

Omakase or “chef’s choice” is by far the best way to go to experience sashimi. Why? You are asking the chef to show off his talent and do his best to give you the freshest fish of the day. A good bet is the sushi chef was at the fish market that morning and personally hand-picked the seafood.

Eric, what about the health benefits? You haven’t talked about protein or Omega 3s. Click here for Sashimi Nutrition Facts. If you’re too lazy to click on the link, I can sum it up by saying that the majority of fish served contain 6-7 grams of protein per 1 ounce serving. So yes, Ken, we have ingested over 150 grams of protein from fish in a sitting before. And it was all delicious.

What are your favorites? Blue fin tuna? Yellow fin tuna? Albacore? Mackerel? Spanish mackerel? Salmon? Shrimp? Clam? Yellow tail? Sea eel? And for dessert? Freshwater sea eel. You know what I’m talking about.

So where should you go for excellent sushi in Madison? The answer is easy. Muramoto at Hilldale Mall. The fish quality is top notch. Always fresh. Try to avoid busy times if you can. They do a huge business when it comes to take-out, so your order will be competing with a lot of pick-ups. Their service is good too. The servers are knowledgable and friendly. Although again when it is busy, they can become a little frenetic. But what do you expect at 6pm on a Saturday right? The last time I was there, I sat at the bar ordered a Sapporo and some edamame. It might feel a little intimidating at first to sit at the bar, but part of the whole gastronomical experience that most people miss, in my opinion, is watching the chef prepare the food followed by the presentation. Watch how the chef slices and prepares the fish, lays them gently and precisely on sliced Asian white radish and/or single leaves of the Shiso herb. If you want to show your appreciation to the chef, buy him a beer or some sake. Wasabi and pickled ginger (both are antibacterial) are a must. In between the different fish, eat some ginger. It cleanses the pallet and soothes your stomach. If you feel a little carbohydrate-deprived, don’t worry. A bowl of white rice very often accompanies the meal.

Are you getting hungry? I sure am. So the next time you’re thinking fish on Friday, think seafood and think sashimi.