The recipes below appear in French Women Don't Get Fat and are referenced in French Women for All Seasons.

These and other recipes can be found within my online program at www.frenchwomendontgetfat.com. Each day, subscribing members can get a meal plan to follow, or they can customize meals to suit their needs and preferences. Plus, I offer members an array of tips and ideas for implementing a lifestyle change designed to get you feeling bien dans sa peau (good in your skin).

Blueberry Baby Smoothie
Serves 4

This very versatile, very healthy drink, especially rich in antioxidants, can be the better part of your lunch, snack, or even breakfast (though I prefer a more robust and balanced start to the day), as well as a dessert partner accompanying a cookie or warm dessert muffin. I discovered it as a child, again visiting my grandmother in Alsace, where we picked many more wild blueberries in the forests than we could possibly eat in season. Blueberries freeze extremely well. Today, I buy quarts and quarts of blueberries at the height of their season from the farmers market for immediate freezing. Voilà, blueberries year-round. The following drink, an old-fashioned version of the modern smoothie (rien de nouveau sous le soleil -- nothing new under the sun!), includes a little kicker.

12 oz. frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
2¼ cups 2 percent milk
Pinch of ground cardamom

1. Take blueberries out of freezer 30 minutes before using.

2. Mix the blueberries in a blender with the lemon juice, honey and milk. Add a sprinkle cardamom before serving.

Grandma Louise’s Oatmeal with Grated Apple
Serves 4

When we visited my grandmother in snowy Alsace, she used to serve us this delicious and filling breakfast rich in fiber and fruity nutrients. It is still one of my favorite winter breakfasts: true baby food for adults. My grandmother usually served her oatmeal variation with freshly baked brioche or kugelhopf (a wonderful cake with raisins and almonds that is one of the great specialties of Alsace). Today, I sometimes find it a filling meal unto itself and I skip the bread. If I want a little more protein, I have a bite of cheese or some yogurt.

1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
2⅓ cups water
Pinch of salt
1 medium apple, coarsely grated
½ teaspoon lemon juice
⅓ cup milk
½ teaspoon butter

1. Combine the oatmeal, water and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil.

2. Add the grated apple and lemon juice and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the milk and butter. Stir well and cook for 1 minute. Serve immediately, perhaps with a sprinkle of brown sugar or a drizzle of maple syrup.

Cold Beet and Yogurt Summer Soup
Serves 4

This cold, thick soup was always a crowd-pleaser at my cousin’s home in Provence. Easy to prepare, easy to serve, it’s refreshing but also filling, with the yogurt furnishing protein and eliminating the need for a meat stock and even fish or meat later in the meal. Not only are the beets (with a season running from spring to fall) rich in fiber, but their brilliant color arrests the eyes. This recipe can be used as a summer dinner appetizer or as a main course at lunch.

4 medium beets, boiled till tender, then peeled and quartered
2 cups yogurt
2 shallots, peeled and minced
Dash of cumin
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill

1. Mix the beets (they should be chunks that are a bit chewy and take a little more time to eat than when puréed) with yogurt, shallots, cumin, salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for 3 to 4 hours.

2. Serve the beets chilled in individual bowls and sprinkle with the dill. Served with a slice of bread and fruit (strawberries or melon) for dessert, this soup makes an excellent summer lunch.

Basic Vegetable Soup
Serves 8

My mother cooked all the vegetables in water. Although potatoes were always included, the choice of other vegetables was often a matter of availability. The trick was the finish. Here it is:

2 potatoes (about 4 ounces each)
1 small cabbage
2 leeks
2 carrots
2 celery ribs with their leaves
2 medium-size yellow onions
Freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
Small bunch of fresh parsley
10 cups of water

1. Peel the vegetables. Cut the potatoes and cabbage into small cubes; wash the leeks carefully and slice them crosswise. Slice the carrots and celery as well, and quarter the onions. You should have about 10 cups of prepared vegetables. Use the same amount of water.

2. Place all the vegetables in a stockpot. Season with a grind of fresh pepper, add the salt, thyme, bay leaves, and parsley, and toss with the vegetables. Add the water. Cover and bring to boil slowly. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1½ hours.

3. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Drain the vegetables, reserving the cooking liquid. Purée the vegetables in a food mill using the cooking liquid over the purée to thin them out. Reheat the soup until the first boil. Taste and correct the seasonings and serve.

At the end of the fall, Mother would add the last tomatoes of the garden and in the dead of winter half of a celery root, but you can add whatever you like. Same for herbs -- suit your fancy. 

Salmon à l’unilatéral (cooked on one-side only)
Serves 4

4 pieces of of wild salmon, about 4 ounces each
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ tsp coarse salt


1. Heat a nonstick frying pan. Place the salmon in the pan, skin-side down; pour the lemon juice over the salmon, add the salt, and cook for about 6 minutes over medium heat until the skin is crispy. (Cut a slice to determine the degree of cooking you desire, such as medium rare -- pink at the center -- which preserves most of the natural taste.)

2. Serve immediately. Season, if you like, with a dash of extra-virgin olive oil and a sprig of fresh thyme.

When there isn’t salmon, there is something else. Each weekend I visit the fish stall at the Union Square market and buy skate or tuna that is only hours out of the water. Top New York chefs come here or go directly to the wholesale fish market. Admittedly, the fish market -- and every port city has one -- is not a stroll in the botanical gardens. Few nonprofessionals will have the time or inclination, but try it once to see the difference. For one thing, fresh fish does not smell fishy. Its flesh does not look shellacked. If you can tell quality, it’s possible to find it at a good grocery store. It saves time: good fish is the simplest thing in the world to cook.

Snapper with Almonds
Serves 4

I didn’t much care for fish when I was growing up, but I loved nuts. My mother knew both were essential for good nutrition, so she invented this way of slipping in the fish.

½ cup toasted sliced almonds
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
4 snapper fillets (monkfish, halibut or cod works too), with skin, about 4 ounces each
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup chopped parsley

1. In a nonstick frying pan toast the almonds over medium heat. Set aside.

2. Warm the olive oil and butter in the frying pan. Add the snapper skin-side up. Season with salt and pepper. Cook 4 minutes on each side. Transfer the fish to a warm serving plate and cover loosely with foil.

3. Add the lemon juice to the pan and whisk to blend with the pan juices. Pour over fillets, add the chopped parsley, and sprinkle with the toasted almonds. Serve immediately.

Pork Chops with Apples
Serves 4

We had lots of apple trees of many varieties in our orchards, and the supply would last for the whole winter. Mostly I had them for a snack or in a dessert (as in Dr. Miracle’s Apple Tart without dough), but here’s one use in a main course that’s a winner. It’s incredibly easy yet nutritionally complete. I rather love mixing the sweet carb with the fat and protein in delicious defiance of current diet ideology.

4 medium pork chops (you can substitute veal chops if you prefer)
4 whole cloves
½ cup dry white wine or Vermouth
4 celery leaves
2 bay leaves
4 celery stalks, washed and finely diced
1 tablespoon butter
2 apples, cored and coarsely sliced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
4 oz. Swiss or Jarlsberg cheese, coarsely grated


1. Preheat the oven to to 375 degrees. Butter a baking pan and place the pork chops in it.

2. Press a clove into each chop. Add the white wine, celery leaves, and bay leaves and put the pan in the preheated oven. Bake the chops for 30 minutes.

3. While the pork chops are baking, in a frying pan sauté the diced celery in the butter for 5 minutes, and then add the sliced apples and sprinkle with the brown sugar. Continue cooking under very low heat for 10 minutes or until the apples are tender but not mushy.

4. Finish the pork chops by removing the bay and celery leaves and sprinkling the cheese over the top of each chop, baste and then broil for a few minutes to brown the top.

5. Serve the celery-apple mixture on the same plate as an accompaniment to the pork chops. Use a few spoons of pan juices to further flavor celery-apple mixture.

To round out this meal you can start with a consommé and end with a custard.


Flourless Chocolate Cake
Serves 8

I always prefer this cake the next day. It’s a perfect, rich dessert for cool weather. There is no need to refrigerate it -- just cover loosely with waxed paper and keep it in a cool place. If refrigerated, make sure to take it out at least 2 hours before serving.

8 ounces dark chocolate
8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for buttering pan
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
¼ cup Grand Marnier or orange-flavored liqueur
6 tablespoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Brush a 4-cup ring mold or a 9-inch springform pan with butter.

3. Chop the chocolate and melt it in a bowl set above a simmering pan of water. Remove and let cool. While the chocolate is cooling, cream the butter in a mixing bowl.

4. Pour the cooled, melted chocolate into the mixing bowl with the butter and beat for 2 minutes. The mixture should be thick. Set aside.

5. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Start adding the sugar, beating at high speed, until the eggs are thick and very pale yellow (6 to 8 minutes). Both the egg-sugar and chocolate butter mixtures should have a similar consistency.

6. Beat the chocolate-butter mixture into the egg-sugar mixture and add the Grand Marnier. Beat another minute to mix. Sift the cornstarch into the batter and gently fold in.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared mold. Tap the mold on the counter to level and cover with buttered waxed paper. Put the mold in a baking dish and fill the dish with near-boiling water, almost up to the top of the mold. Put the baking dish with the mold in the preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool. Turn upside down on a serving platter, but wait 30 minutes to remove the mold.

8. Serve with unsugared whipped cream.