After a simple but filling meal, our Christmas leftovers will go fast

Cooked Wild Red King Crab Salad, dressed with Dijon mustard and fresh lime juice, was the starter for our modest Christmas dinner. The crab legs were $19.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

My entree was seasoned Wild Gulf Shrimp sautéed with olive oil and chopped fresh garlic. The meat eaters in the family enjoyed Cuban-style roast pork moistened with mojito, a lemony garlic sauce. The shrimp were on sale for $14.99 a pound at Whole Foods Market in Paramus.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

There are plenty of leftovers from our simple Christmas dinner on Friday.

I didn't have much of an appetite after shelling 2.5 pounds of Wild Red King Crab legs and preparing a sinful salad, with diced celery, sweet peppers and fresh cilantro; sauteeing 3 pounds of Wild Gulf Shrimp, with olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes; and steaming a pound of kale in chicken stock and sake.

I enjoyed a heaping portion of crab salad on top of red-leaf and organic lettuces; and plenty of sauteed shrimp and kale, but didn't have room for Organic Quinoa, and mashed squash and carrots I also prepared this week.

My wife and son's entree was the Cuban-style roast pork, with a layer of fat under crispy skin, we brought home from La Pola Restaurant in West New York, along with yellow rice made at home, all in a lemony garlic sauce.

We toasted our good fortune with Bellinis, substituting a Spanish sparkling wine for prosecco.

On Friday morning, I made a 10-inch frittata with wild smoked salmon, chopped garlic, organic diced and fresh tomatoes, black olives and grated Pecorino Romano Cheese, and plated it with sauteed baby spinach and baked sweet potatoes.

In the last five minutes the frittata was finishing under the broiler, I added Roasted Salsa Verde from Whole Foods Market left over from poaching fresh cod earlier in the week. I used about 3 cups of 100% egg whites, plus the other ingredients.

This morning, I plated Christmas leftovers for breakfast, clockwise from top, chopped kale, Organic Quinoa with Garlic, a wedge of Wild Salmon Frittata, and a combination of Kabocha Squash and Organic Carrots, mashed with extra-virgin olive oil.

Seeing too much red? Meatless meals come in a variety of nice colors

SOME LIKE IT HOT: Wedges of a frittata with fresh tomatoes and organic salsa, left, share a plate with spicy stewed tofu and cabbage kimchi.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The bad news about beef and other red meat keeps on coming.

If you overdo it, you can get colon cancer.

If you undercook it, especially when it is ground for hamburgers, there's a good chance you won't kill all of the harmful bacteria in it, according to Consumer Reports magazine.

Cook ground meat to at least medium (an internal temperature of 160 degrees Farenheit).

My policy is to avoid the stuff altogether, relying on wild-caught seafood, cage-free eggs, tofu, organic whole-wheat pasta, salads and other heart- and brain-healthy food.

See a related post:

Brace yourself: What most cows eat

STEWED AND SALTED FISH: A breakfast plate of sauteed spinach, stewed tofu, stewed Alaskan pollack, and Ackee and Saltfish, a Jamaican specialty. You can find prepared tofu and wild-caught pollack at H Mart and other Korean supermarkets.

HOW SWEET IT IS: My wife's sweet-banana dumplings are wonderful with savory Ackee and Saltfish. 

GET SMASHED: Organic sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's and peeled California garlic from Costco Wholesale are boiled together until soft, then mashed with extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings.

SIDE DISHES: Oven-roasted Brussels Sprouts with mashed organic sweet potatoes.

FROM THE DEEP SEA: Argentine Red Shrimp grilled on top of the stove. We've also cooked the shrimp, right out of the freezer and without the heads, in a Pulmuone-brand organic soft-tofu stew kit I found on sale at H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry.

KEEN ON QUINOA: Two organic eggs with a dusting of grated Pecorino Romano Cheese, accompanied by Brussels Sprouts, on a bed of organic brown rice and quinoa prepared in an electric cooker.

CRAB AND SLAW: Coleslaw, top, and Wild Red King Crab salad with sweet peppers in a Dijon mustard dressing.

COOKING AHEAD: This frittata started with a mixture of whole eggs and whites, plus grated cheese and some low-fat milk. As the bottom set over medium heat on top of the stove, I added sliced plum tomatoes and organic salsa. Then, it went under the broiler for about 20 minutes to brown and finished cooking.

SUNNY SIDE UP: Two organic eggs with sauteed spinach over organic brown rice and quinoa.

After time change, a few of my favorite dishes are really comforting

A hearty breakfast of leftover whole-wheat pasta shells with sardines and two organic eggs with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese really helps me shake off the blahs.

Editor's note: I've added another favorite comfort food, organic quinoa. And the cooking time for 365 Everyday Value Organic Whole Wheat Shells from Whole Foods Market ($1.49) is only 8-9 minutes, not the 14-15 minutes listed on the box.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Daylight Savings Time is especially challenging because it scrambles such routines as when you get up in the morning and when you feel like having dinner.

After we turned the clocks back one hour on Nov. 1, I often find myself wide awake at 6 a.m., then realize my body thinks it's 7, when I usually get up with the help of an alarm.

Dinner hunger pangs are now hitting in mid-afternoon, earlier than during the rest of the year, when we eat dinner at 4:30 p.m. or 5 p.m.

There also seems to be a shortage of sunlight in the mornings and an early exit for the sun in the afternoons, leading to a pronounced case of the blahs.

Taken all together, my thoughts have been turning to favorite comfort foods, including pasta, mashed sweet potatoes, eggs and omelets.

A 10-inch omelet made with three organic whole eggs -- stuffed with reduced-fat Swiss cheese, smoked wild salmon and Mexican-style salsa -- is another hearty breakfast, especially when served with mashed sweet potatoes and Kabocha squash, and a couple of pieces of stewed tofu.

One box (Organic Whole Wheat Shells from Whole Foods Market), one bottle (the 40-ounce Victoria Marinara from Costco Wholesale) and three cans (Season-brand skinless-and-boneless Sardines, also from Costco) combine to make one of my favorite dinners. Optional are red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, a can of rinsed and drained anchovies, and dried Italian seasoning added to the sauce before you heat it up.

I've heard Italians add bread crumbs, not grated cheese, to seafood pastas, such as shells with sardines. It's good I'm not Italian, because I sometimes enjoy a sheep's milk cheese, Pecorino Romano, on the dish. To complete this dinner, pour a glass or two of red wine and finish with a big salad dressed in extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

For breakfast, I prepared three great items from Costco Wholesale in an electric rice cooker -- Nature's Intent Organic Quinoa, Kirkland Signature Organic Diced Tomatoes and peeled Christopher Ranch California Garlic Cloves, with a little extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt. A great bread substitute, quinoa also has fewer carbs than pasta or rice.

Costco Wholesale v. Trader Joe's: Who has the besto pesto?

The color difference between Trader Joe's prepared pesto (dark green) and Costco Wholesale's pesto is dramatic when used on a smoked wild-salmon frittata just out of the oven, above. Costco's refrigerated product also has more flavor and costs less per ounce.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After Costco Wholesale unveiled its own prepared basil pesto under the Kirkland Signature house brand, I ended the three-decade practice of making my own at home.

I used a blender recipe from Italian chef Marcella Hazan that calls for 2 full cups of fresh basil leaves -- the key to achieving the flavor and aroma that reminds me so much of spring.

I first tasted pesto with pasta in Nice, on the French Riviera, in the early 1970s, and continued to order it in restaurants in Manhattan and New Jersey, but only that first plate rivaled the flavor of Hazan's version.

I even tweaked her recipe by eliminating the butter, making sure I packed the 2 cups of basil leaves and using less salt, given the sodium in the grated cheese used to make the pesto.

Checkout at Trader Joe's in Paramus is really customer friendly. The employee removes items from your cart, scans them, bags them and puts the bag or bags in your cart -- usually. But Trader Joe's doesn't give customers credit for bringing reusable bags. For that, you'll have to go to ShopRite and Whole Foods Market.

False start

Prepared pesto showed up at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack a few years ago. I tried it once and was disappointed. For one thing, it was too salty.

Then, it was replaced by Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto, which uses 100% Genovese basil from Italy, extra-virgin olive oil; Pecorino Romano, a sheep's milk cheese, also from Italy; and the pine nuts that are used in every Italian recipe.

Trader Joe's or Trader Giotto's Genova Pesto doesn't indicate where its basil comes from, and it uses "olive oil" and walnuts, instead of pine nuts.

Genova is Genoa, the Italian port city where pesto originated.

Trader Giotto's pesto has less total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium and carbohydrates than Costco's pesto.

But it also has less flavor, and when I prepared organic whole-wheat shells with Trader Joe's pesto, I felt the dish needed salt. I added freshly cracked black pepper instead.

Organic whole-wheat shells from Whole Foods Market with Trader Giotto's Genova Pesto.

More fiber, protein

Besides more flavor, Costco's pesto has more fiber and more protein than Trader Joe's pesto, and costs less per ounce. 

Both are refrigerated products, and Costco's version has a "use or freeze by" date clearly visible on the side of the plastic jar. I can't read the date in smaller type on the bottom of the Trader Joe's plastic container, especially against the dark-green pesto.

Trader Giotto's Genova Pesto comes in a 7-ounce container for $2.99 -- probably not enough to dress a pound of its own organic whole-wheat pasta.

You can also use pesto as a sandwich spread, and to garnish frittatas, omelets and other egg dishes; broiled fish, baked sweet potatoes and more.

If you buy three containers of Trader Joe's pesto (21 ounces) for about $9, you'd be an ounce shy of Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto's 22-ounce jar, which costs $7.99.

A need to restrict your salt intake is the only reason I can see for buying Trader Giotto's pesto instead of Costco's version. 

A wedge of frittata with Trader Joe's pesto on top of leftover organic whole-wheat spaghetti with garlic and spinach makes for a filling breakfast.

Fresh, wild-caught Atlantic cod fillets from Costco Wholesale ($7.99 a pound) coated in a Super Spice Mixture, and roasted at 375 degrees for 10 minutes to 15 minutes, depending on their thickness. You also could dispense with the spices, cook the fish with a spritz of fresh lime juice and spoon on pesto when you take the fillets out of the oven. More pesto could go on the organic brown rice with canned kidney beans I prepared in an electric cooker.