If you’re wondering how I ever came up with the idea to put pesto on potatoes, it’s like those old ads for you-know-what, where a guy walking the street eating a chocolate bar bumps into a girl with an open jar of peanut butter: a complete accident, but what an outcome! I was staring into the refrigerator as fingerling potatoes were coming out of the oven, and what should my eyes chance upon but a container of the pesto. Normally I’d use the pesto with pasta, but as I  discovered that night, it’s also wonderful with potatoes. 

Leave it to the Japanese to help me come up with a healthy version of my favorite bagel topping, lox with a schmeer (that’s Yiddish for a slathering of cream cheese). Instead of a bread bomb, I start with a wrap made of nori, the dried seaweed sheets often used to wrap sushi rolls. Nori contains nutrients that support thyroid function and provide many other health benefits. The lox—smoked wild salmon—stays the same (thank heavens!), and the schmeer is something I’m quite proud of: a creamy spread made with edamame and wasabi. It’s a lot more healthful than a chunk of cream cheese, and it tastes a lot better too. Thin slices of avocado, red bell pepper, and cucumber up the vegetable factor. Roll it up, slice it up, and eat it up and you won’t need to nap it up fifteen minutes later, which is what usually happened to me in my bagel-eating days.

Leave it to the Japanese to help me come up with a healthy version of my favorite bagel topping, lox with a schmeer (that’s Yiddish for a slathering of cream cheese). Instead of a bread bomb, I start with a wrap made of nori, the dried seaweed sheets often used to wrap sushi rolls. Nori contains nutrients that support thyroid function and provide many other health benefits. The lox—smoked wild salmon—stays the same (thank heavens!), and the schmeer is something I’m quite proud of: a creamy spread made with edamame and wasabi. It’s a lot more healthful than a chunk of cream cheese, and it tastes a lot better too. Thin slices of avocado, red bell pepper, and cucumber up the vegetable factor. Roll it up, slice it up, and eat it up and you won’t need to nap it up fifteen minutes later, which is what usually happened to me in my bagel-eating days.