Pork Cutlets with Mustard Sauce

“Maggie, what do you eat on a daily basis,” people often ask me when they first learn about Eat When Your’e Hungry. “Give me some of your real food recipes.” Well, I’m just as busy as the next person in this 24-hour/day nonstop working world, but when I do find the time to cook a meal worth sharing, I guess I really should start posting the recipes here. These are tried and true Maggie favorites: easy and delicious, and always made with real food (rather than food-like-substances).

Here goes. This is a recipe we made last week and one that has become almost a weekly staple. It’s a cinch to make and tastes like a meal you’d eat at a fancy restaurant. As you can see from the picture, we often make it with roasted potatoes and either broccoli or asparagus. Bonus points for you if you see the heart-shaped potato on my hubby’s plate.

Try this recipe when you feel like putting on your chef’s hat. You’ll be so impressed with yourself after making this dish, you may even feel inspired to buy the entire cookbook.

Pork Cutlets with Mustard Sauce
Courtesty of Food Made Fast: Weeknight (Williams-Sonoma)

Boneless center-cut pork loin chops, 4, each about 6 oz
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Mustard seeds, 1 tablespoon
Unsalted butter, 3 tablespoons
Shallots, 2, minced (chopped frozen onions are also A-OK)
Dry white wine, 1/3 cup
Chicken broth, 1/3 cup
Heavy (double) cream, 1/3 cup
Honey Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons

1. Cook the pork

Season the pork chops with salt, pepper, and the mustard seeds, patting them firmly into the meat. In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Working in batches if necessary, add the pork chops and cook, turning once, until golden on the outside and barely pink in the center, about 8 minutes total. Transfer to a plate.

2. Make the sauce

Add the shallots to the drippings in the pan, reduce the heat to medium, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine and broth, stir, and cook, scraping up the browned bits on the pan bottom, for about 1 minute. Add the cream and mustard and cook, stirring, until smooth and bubbly, about 1 minute. Return the pork and any juices from the plate to the pan. Simmer until the pork is heated through, about 1 minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper

Eat When You're Hungry Now At Amazon

After many requests from friends and strangers alike for hard copies of Eat When You're Hungry, I'm happy to report that the book is now available on Amazon! What's most gratifying about seeing my book on the "shelf" at Amazon is that it now has the potential to reach an even broader audience. When I first put fingers to keyboard and set out on this Eat When You're Hungry journey, my goal was simple -- to help as many people as I possibly could to stop dieting and start living. That remains my goal today, and thanks to the wonder of the Internet, I'm reaching more people every day.

Go check out my hard copy book, share the link with friends and family, and if/once you've read the book, consider writing a review.

Happy eating (and reading)!

Food, Inc.

Last night I saw a film that I recommend you see ASAP – before it’s out of theaters. It’s called Food, Inc. If it’s not in a theater near you, put it on your Blockbuster or Netflix list for when it comes out on DVD. And in the meantime, you can learn more about the film and the issues it explores here.

I can’t believe it, but I hadn’t heard of this film before last night, when my husband and I were looking for a movie to see. We were planning to see a fun summer flick, but when I saw the title “Food, Inc.” our plans changed. Rotten tomatoes gave it at 96 percent on its tomatometer, so that should speak for itself.

And don’t worry – this isn’t a holier-than-thou film professing the “perfect” diet or suggesting anything negative about meat-eaters (you know I wouldn’t support anything like that). It’s a holistic look at the food industry, food safety issues and a number of larger policy and socioeconomic issues.

Let me know if you see it, and tell me what you think!

What I Learned from a Bag of Pretzels

As you might have guessed from the picture, this is a post about peanut butter pretzels. Yes, I’m digging deep to keep this blog updated and offer you some sane, non-diet, intuitive eating insight at least on a weekly basis. Which leads me to write today’s post about, yes, peanut butter pretzels.

I used to salivate just looking at these puffed pretzels sprinkled with salt and filled with one of my favorite foods – peanut butter. I don’t buy the pretzels all that often because I’m not a big salty-snack snacker. I tend to gravitate towards sweet things – fruit, biscotti, or a buttery Madeleine cookie. But, my tastes change on occasion and sometimes I want salty.

That was certainly the case during the peanut butter scare a number of months ago, when all I seemed to want was salty peanut butter filled pretzels from Trader Joe’s. Not being able to eat them (because of the PB scare) made them even more enticing to me, so once I felt they were safe I bought a bag. Not long after I dipped my hand into the bag of what some would call a “very dangerous” snack (more on that later), I got very sick of the pretzels and haven’t been able to enjoy them since.

How did I tire of such a delightful snack so quickly? Here’s how it happened. It was Sunday afternoon, and a few hours after a delicious breakfast with Jeremy, I left home to meet my mom and sister for a bit of shopping. Given that I’d had a late breakfast, I wasn’t hungry for lunch, but I knew if I didn’t eat anything until dinner I’d be famished and cranky, possibly with a headache. So I packed a large Ziploc bag full of the pretzels, and put it in my purse along with a string cheese in case I got hungry on the road. Which I did.

As you can imagine, all I had to eat was my string cheese and PB pretzels. I enjoyed probably about the first 20 or so pretzels, but mid-way through the bag, I noticed that I was forcing myself to eat them, simply to alleviate growing hunger pangs.

I discovered on that afternoon that, delicious as they are, pretzels of any kind do not a meal make.

Fast forward about a month or so. I was at work late one night last week, fully immersed in a research project. I was growing very hungry for dinner, but I didn’t want to leave the office because I was not sure if I’d be able to re-enter the zone of productivity I was in at that moment, hunger pangs and all. The only snack I had with me was, you guessed it – that same bag of peanut butter pretzels I’d longed for during the PB scare…..yes, that one bag of pretzels had been sitting on my desk at work for weeks, untouched after opening it to get my through my afternoon shopping excursion with Mom and Big Sis.

Once again, I forced myself to eat the pretzels simply to ward off a headache and growing hunger pangs. I guess they sort of did the trick, but I didn’t enjoy one of them, and they kind of ruined my late dinner once I finally got home. As I sat at my computer, plowing through research, I begrudgingly ate one pretzel at a time, not enjoying the experience one bit.

When I got home from work that night – the remaining PB pretzels in hand – Jeremy looked at them and his eyes grew large, filled with that warm-fuzzy look you get when thinking about your mom’s jelly toast that no one made quite as well as she did (or whatever food it is that “does” it for you).

Just days later, when my parents were at our place to help us move furniture, we were literally walking out the door to dinner, and my mom spotted the pretzels. “Can I have just a few?” she asked with the look of a child caught awake way past her bedtime. “Of course!” I said, “Help yourself.” She and Jeremy then commiserated about how you can’t ever eat just one of those pretzels. “They’re addictive, and very dangerous,” Jeremy said. “I can’t buy them or I’ll eat them all in one sitting,” said my mom. “I know! I asked Maggie to keep them out of the house or I’d eat the entire bag.”

Well, I’ve got news for my hubbie, my mom….and you. The pretzels lose their allure (or “danger”) when you give yourself unconditional permission to eat them. Without judgement. Or shame. Or a slap on the wrist. But be careful – if you’re like me and make your previously mouth watering snack into a makeshift meal on a shopping spree, you may never want to eat it again.

Intuitive Eating -- For Real

Two Sunday mornings ago, all I wanted for breakfast was berries – strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, ideally with yogurt and granola, and a buttery croissant on the side.

We were all out of fruit at home, and our favorite dive diner has delicious eggs, but yogurt parfait isn’t on the menu. As we laid in bed thinking of where to go, we decided on Coral Tree Café. There’s one not too far from our place, and actually we’d never been there together for breakfast.

On our way there, windows open, the air so perfect it hugged every finger floating out the window, we noticed that Cheesecake Factory was serving breakfast! This caught our attention because CF has a big patio and the day was just so yummy that we wanted to take it all in by eating outside. So right then and there our journey to Coral Tree derailed.

Big mistake. Good weather aside, we should have stuck to our original plan. Sorry, Cheesecake Factory, we've enjoyed many delicious dinners at your restaurants, but your breakfast was awful. I’m not sure how you can make eggs so tasteless, and when I asked if I could get strawberries instead of bacon with my eggs, the waitress said, “We don’t have any fruit.” Seriously? Seriously. No fruit for Sunday brunch. I could write a very long post about how disgusting our breakfast was, but I’ll spare you. All I’ll say is that sitting on the patio in beautiful southern California weather didn’t make up for the pathetic breakfast we begrudgingly made our way through.

I share this story with you because I want you to know that every meal isn’t going to be perfect. Some meals may be so dissatisfying that you stop eating them with hunger pangs still in your belly. Other meals will be so disappointing that you’ll want to stop mid-way through, but you won’t because you’re hungry and there’s food in front of you, and you have to get to Costco, get the kids fed and bathed, finish a PPT and put the next meal on the table. So you eat it.

And if you’re like me two weekends ago, it may very well ruin your entire morning. In fact, my mood didn’t turn around until about 3 in the afternoon…….when I got home from the store with a palette of strawberries, a container of blackberries, my favorite yogurt and a new box of granola. Guess what I ate for breakfast every day last week?

So, just remember that even a “seasoned” intuitive eater like myself sometimes has gross food. And sometimes it even ruins my day. But, it’s all a part of this journey. Every meal is a learning experience. You’ll notice that my disappointing meal at CF did not lead me into a binge-fest (though it did lead to a week’s worth of yogurt parfaits for breakfast, and I enjoyed every bite!).

One other little nugget for all those nay-sayers out there who say, “Intuitive eating? Doesn’t that mean you can eat anything you want? All I’d ever eat is donuts and cheeseburgers!” Guess what, sometimes all you’ll want is fresh fruit.

Intuitive Eating Audio: Must Listen!

If you're looking for yet another tool to help you break free from the diet mentality, I strongly urge you to buy the recently-released Intuitive Eating audio CDs. If you've already read Intuitive Eating in print, don't think this is the same thing. It's not. I think it's best used as a companion to the book.

As I said in my review of the CDs on amazon, having worked with people struggling to break free from the diet mentality (and having done so myself many years ago), I can honestly say this CD-set is a must-have! I recommend Intuitive Eating (print edition) to people regularly and now I recommend this as well. Elyse and Evelyn are on the top of their game in these CDs. They both share so much wisdom, passion and clarity about food and body image -- you can't help but to feel at peace -- and energized -- just listening to the CDs. Their philosophy just makes so much sense, and it works.

If you're looking to break free from the diet mentality, and make peace with food and with yourself, listen to this CD set and practice the exercises. You won't be disappointed.

Open Letter to Oprah

Dear Oprah,

I Tivo your show every day and reference it almost as often in my daily life. I think you are truly an inspiration, though I know that sounds cliché. In fact, it is because of my great respect for you, that I’ve hesitated writing this open letter to you for some time. However, after today’s show, “Why Kirstie Alley Fell Off the Wagon,” I must put my fingers to the keyboard and get out my thoughts.

You said today, as you have said many times this year, that you can’t believe you’re still talking about weight. With all due respect, then stop talking about weight!

If you can truly stop talking about weight, you will find that your issues with weight will melt away (often along with the weight itself). But you can’t focus on that last part – the weight. You just can’t. And unfortunately, though I know you know “it’s not about the weight,” you’re still focusing on it during your shows [insert flashy teaser of “World’s Best Dieter” who has gained and lost 3,000 pounds over his lifetime].

Despite so many weight-loss/gain shows, I know you get – profoundly – that "it" is not about food, weight or diets. I know you do. And your wisdom on that subject snuck out, even during today’s show that was purely about weight loss and gain.

You wisely asked Kirstie if the bikini has to be the goal. You reminded Kirstie that it’s not about comparing yourself to someone else’s body (thank you).

Oprah, you get that this is a journey about health, and you get that health means emotional, spiritual and physical health. You understand better than many other people that “it” is not about weight or food.

But sadly, your show continues to be about weight and food. We’ve seen close-ups of your meal plan(s), we’ve listened to Dr. Oz review caloric information with vulnerable kids who want to lose weight, we’ve looked through the pages of “Eat This, Not That” and been reminded too many times that “It’s not about the food, so choose the good foods.” That just doesn’t work.

Stick with your guns. This is NOT about food. There are much more important issues that should pave the road of this journey for every single person on it. Issues of worth and love, emotional hunger, joy, sadness, fear. Feelings. True, real-life, don’t-always-feel-good feelings. That’s what this journey is about. It’s not about the cheesecake (eat it if you love it). And it’s not about organic strawberries (eat them if you love them – but do so from a place of pleasure rather than from a place of deprivation or self-righteousness).

Oprah, if you truly are committed to changing the conversation about weight, I urge you to stop focusing your show on weight. Stop producing flashy teasers of weight loss and weight gain stories. You have offered so, so much to this world, and I’d love to see you help our nation change the conversation around diets (which are proven to result in weight gain in the long term) and weight.

If you’re looking for an alternative to attention-grabbing weight-loss (gain) stories, please, please, please consider devoting an entire hour-long show to Intuitive Eating. And start with the co-authors of the book. There is so much wisdom between the pages of that book and in the minds of the nutritionists who created this non-diet approach that is helping – even saving lives of – people all over the world.

With an overflowing sense of respect,

Maggie