A breakfast item from north of the border

After eating a whole pile of sweets - Valentine's day chocolates, cupcakes, homemade banana bread, lemon bars and slices of lemon tart - not to mention eating out twice in one day last weekend - I thought it might be a good idea to find some healthy recipes for the week.

I spent some time on the Food Network under the "heart healthy" link and found quite a few dinners that seemed appealing. But I also found one breakfast option that seemed perfect for a light morning meal and also offered a chance to try out another ingredient. The recipe, from Ellie Krieger, was for healthy breakfast sandwiches and the ingredient is Canadian bacon. Sure it's not really an exotic ingredient, but it is one I haven't used before so it counts toward Resolution No. 12. In fact, I rarely cook bacon at all unless you count tossing some bacon bits on a meal.

I don't really like the smell of bacon frying and the need to get rid of all the grease that is leftover after cooking it. But Canadian bacon offers a lighter option without all the messy clean up.

So Sunday morning I put the recipe to the test after my boyfriend and I went for a three-mile run in Campbell (despite the temptation to stop at a place called Psycho Donuts that is right down the black from the track.) The recipe is basically a healthy take on egg McMuffins. It called for one whole egg and one white egg per serving - I even used brown eggs that my boyfriend's mom gave us when we visited a couple weeks ago from her chickens (those eggs also went into some of the lemon desserts.) To give the eggs lots of flavor, I finely chopped fresh parsley, chives and basil, mixing the herbs into the eggs. I cooked the mixture in an omelet pan and then folded it over into quarters to fit on a toasted double fiber English muffin (Orowheat actually makes great double fiber wheat bread and muffins.)

To cook the Canadian bacon, all I had to do was add a little cooking spray to the pan and brown it up over medium heat. It was way easier than using regular bacon and I actually liked the way it added just enough saltiness to the meal. From there, the egg and Canadian bacon was topped with a slice of tomato.

I thought it tasted great and it was filling even after a long workout. My boyfriend liked it, too, though he admitted that the few ways he thought to improve the dish (like adding cheese) would only make it unhealthy. In the future, I might compromise and add a little Parmesan cheese in with the egg mixture.

Photo by MelissaFlores

Healthy breakfast sandwiches include an herb omelet, Canadian bacon and tomato on a whole wheat muffin.

Midweek dinner trial

I like to try out new recipes, and it is almost a necessity to come up with new things to write about for the food column I write for the Weekend Pinnacle.

I usually try to save new recipes for the weekend because it tends to take a little longer to make a dish the first time - and I have a tendency not to read all the way through a recipe and not get key ingredients. It's much easier to run to the grocery store on a weekend than during the week, especially on weeks when I don't get home until 6:30 p.m. or 7 p.m.

I decided to try a new meal this week when I saw a few minutes of Giada De Laurentiis' "Everyday Italian" while waiting for my cousin to arrive for cake tasting No. 3. De Laurentiis was cooking a chicken dish that incorporated fennel, one of my favorite vegetables, and cherry tomatoes, many of which have been ripening in my yard. It seemed like a good fit and a visit to the Food Network Web site revealed it only took an estimated 28 min. to make. Sounded perfect for a midweek meal.

I wrote down the ingredients without reading through the steps and planned it for tonight since I figured I could get off work early. Now the trouble started when I realized the recipe required me to set up three shallow dishes to dredge the chicken. No meal that requires that is going to be quick. Then I realized I'd bought shredded parmesan cheese instead of grated. I used it anyway for the breading, but it caused a little burning in the pan since the cheese was chunkier than it should have been.

My sous chef (my mom) wasn't home so I had to cook the chicken and put it in the oven to keep it warm, before I could start prep work on the veggies. Fennel just needs a rough chop, but try cutting 5 dozen cherry tomatoes in half quickly. It takes a while. But an hour later, we had crispy chicken that was tender in the middle and a creamy sauce made delicious with mascarpone cheese.

The meal got the seal of approval from everyone in the family so it will be added to the rotation, although maybe on nights when both my mom and I are home to prep. And I still have half a container of mascarpone cheese to use. Maybe another visit to the Food Network Web site will help me find a new recipe for it!

Food Network Star finale a surprise

I thought I knew who had won the Next Food Network Star just a week after the first episode of the competition aired. It wasn't because one of the competitors stood out, but I stumbled across some insider information.

I just happened to be at the Great American Food and Music Fest at Shoreline (read more about it here.) I was standing in line at the Pink's Hot Dog stand (I think it was going on hour two of the wait in line) and Jeffrey Saad walked past me. I told my mom that the guy with the hair from the Next Food Network Star had just walked by. She knew immediately who I meant. Jeffrey was walking with some other Food Network stars and executives. He later introduced Bobby Flay for a demonstration and Bobby said he couldn't say too much, but that Jeffrey was a hard worker.

Now even though the Food Network Star episodes started airing in June, I am sure they were filmed long before. It seemed a foregone conclusion after seeing Jeffrey at the festival that he would win the top prize, or at least be in the finale. I watched most of this season assuming he would come out on top with his cooking without borders idea. Every time he won a challenge, his eventual win seemed inevitable. He seemed more together, and mostly a better cook than all the other contestants. And his personality didn't get on my nerves.

So tonight when Jeffrey and Melissa, a stay-at-home mom, competed with a pilot demo, I thought Jeffrey had it in the bag. He cooked a steak sandwich with some ingredient from North Africa called harissa. Melissa shared a four-step chicken recipe that can be used with a variety of different ingredients.

When it comes down to it, I have to admit I'd be more likely to cook Melissa's dish than Jeffrey's. In fact, I am not sure where I would even find harissa at a local store. And maybe in the end that is what cemented the decision for the judges. Melissa won and will start filming her show immediately. Hopefully, it doesn't take her away from the four children she has under the age of four too much.

And maybe the powers that be can find a place for Jeffrey on the network as they did with last year's runner-up Adam Gertler, who has his own show called "Will Work For Food." I could totally see Jeffrey traveling the world and introducing people to knew ingredients in their native land.

My dirty little secret - I watch reality TV

I used to think I didn't like reality TV shows. I never got into "Survivor," "The Amazing Race," or "American Idol." Even now when people talk about who got voted off, I just kinda shrug and go, huh? I might be the only person in the country who hasn't seen at least one episode of the singing sensation.

The idea of "reality" TV is nothing new. Back in 1973, PBS aired a show called "An American Family." I watched parts of it in a media class in college. Even with the cameras on, the family members eventually became unaware of them, and what transpired was a surprise. The husband and wife ended up separating, and one son came out of the closet. It was the precursor to shows such as "Big Brother" and "MTV's The Real World," where viewers hope for the worst to come out.

So for a very long time in the evolution of reality TV, I stayed out of it. But in the last few years, the number of competition shows I watched has slowly creeped up. And I just realized today that most of them involve one of two things - dancing or cooking.

The first show to hook me was "So You Think You Can Dance." I watched an audition show while visiting a friend in Indiana. Later that summer, I started recording it on Tivo in my room. I'd watch it alone before bed. I started season two in the middle, the year Benji won the top honors. Watching the show was a little bit like my dirty little secret. No one knew about it because I knew my sister would poke fun at me. I watched the third season only in my room, as well, rooting for winner Sabra the whole time. I skipped the audition part of the season, fast-forwarded through the slow dance numbers and the musical guests, and watched just the dancers I liked.

I think I got into the show because I am such a klutz, I was astonished by the way the dancers were able to move.

For season four, I'd moved to a new place and no longer had a Tivo set up in my bedroom. I had to confess to my secret addiction so that I could tape the show in the living room. To my surprise, my sister and my mother were hooked with me within weeks. It probably helped that the show last season had dancers full of personality -Twitch, Kherington, Chelsie, Katee, Joshua and Mark.

Season five will end next week, and the final four were announced last night. It is a little anti-climatic this season as the two people I was rooting for have already been voted off - Jason and Janette. The dancers this season may be more talented than in past years - according to the judges - but their personalities have not come out as much.

With season six auditions under way now for a fall season, I hold out hope that the judges will pick the right bit of talent and personality for the next top 20.

As for cooking shows, "The Next Food Network Star" finale ends August 2; "Top Chef Masters" will air its second top six elimination on Bravo; and there are always plenty of episodes of "Chopped" and "Food Network Challenge" to fill in the space in between.