Losing Weight Eating Gourmet Food!

Can you really lose weight eating gourmet food? Swimmers love to eat well. Sometimes we eat too well! By now, most people have heard my story, so I won't bore you with that. One of the greatest discoveries along the way was "quality, not quantity." Some call it "haute cuisine" -- but I think of it as delicious food that is pleasing to the eye and good for the soul. The following recipe falls into this category. So, without further adieu, here’s the latest creation from Swimmer Bill’s kitchen. MATZO FRENCH TOAST NAPOLEON WITH ROASTED RED PEPPER, KALAMATA OLIVES, AND GOAT CHEESE My friend Roberta from the "Cooking Thin" show inspired this recipe. As a child, Roberta’s mother prepared this breakfast dish called "Matzo Brie" (pronounced like "BRY"). It involved soaking matzo crackers in water, squeezing out the water by pressing the crackers in a colander, soaking the moistened crackers in egg, and then frying them up in a pan with butter and oil. The matzo crackers end up being small pieces, somewhat like scrambled eggs. You can serve the dish with syrup, applesauce, or whatever strikes your fancy. When Roberta first made it for me, I saw other possibilities with this dish. I thought about making matzo French toast, and I thought about making it a savory dish rather than a sweet one. So, one morning when I was hunting around the kitchen for breakfast and coming up empty, I started scrounging around. I didn't have enough eggs for a decent omelette. I didn't have bread to make French toast. But AHA! I had matzo crackers, a couple eggs, and various other pantry items like a jar of roasted red peppers and a jar of kalamata olives. I also had some goat cheese. I started to think (sometimes a dangerous thing!!) -- and invented this dish. Instead of soaking the matzo in water (which caused the cracker to break into little pieces and lose flavor), I broke one cracker into four equal-size square pieces and just soaked it in egg. It took longer to absorb the egg without the water -- apparently that's the reason for the water in the first place. So anyway, here's how it went: Ingredients: 2 eggs, beaten (I used two just to make sure I had enough to cover the cracker in the dish I was using to soak -- but I'm sure I used less than one egg total for my one serving -- you could probably also “skinny it up” and use just egg white, although I liked the flavor and color from the yolk) 1 matzo cracker, broken into four equal sized squares 1t extra virgin olive oil 1t unsalted butter 1 roasted red pepper, cut in pieces 6 kalamata olives, sliced in half 2 oz. goat cheese, coarsely crumbled green onion to garnish Soak the matzo cracker in egg for at least five minutes, flipping occasionally to coat thoroughly. The trick is to pull the crackers out when they are starting to become flexible, but before they fall apart. If you are making a larger batch, you can remove crackers from the egg and let them sit on a clean plate. They will soak up more of the egg this way, but not too much. . When you're ready to cook, heat butter and oil in a pan over medium-high heat. When butter is melted, coat pan bottom and lay soaked crackers in the pan to cook. Make sure each matzo has a little space between so they don't get stuck together when cooking. Flip when slightly golden, and cook the other side. Remove from heat and let cool slightly on a clean plate. Place the peppers and olives in the pan over medium heat, just to warm them through. Remove from heat. Layer the matzo crackers, the crumbled goat cheese and the olives into a napoleon starting with cracker on the bottom. Top with a little more crumbled goat cheese, one beautiful piece of pepper and one olive half. Garnish with finely chopped green onion. Enjoy!! Swimmer Bill