A Relaxed Weekend Brunch for ... Health Article

Ah, Sunday! A great day for the two of you to slow down and enjoy your hard-won leisure. Whether early light finds you hitting a newsstand, the bike path, a religious service or the snooze button, chances are that you'll have worked up an appetite by late morning. Time, indeed, for brunch.

Just as the word "brunch" is an amalgam of "breakfast" and "lunch," so the food you serve can be a mixture of the sweet and savory, the traditional and the non-. And it doesn't have to be the ho-hum and heavy routine of bagels and a schmeer, eggs Benedict or Belgian waffles. Brunch is the time to loosen up a bit—to think, as it were, outside the lox.

Our brunch for two starts with a cool Lemon-Orange Fizz, a spritzy concoction that can be made as-is for a no-alcohol "mocktail" or turned into a tangy cocktail with the addition of a shot of vodka. Segue to a dish that riffs on the popular salade Nicoise, this one made with smoked salmon instead of tuna. Not a fan of fish? Chicken cutlets cook up quickly and are delicious served in a salad full of big flavors like peppery arugula, briny olives and sweet dates and oranges. Both dishes are high in protein and fiber, with a hefty dose of vitamins C and A. You might want to accompany them with a lightly toasted slice of whole-wheat baguette. Brew a pot of coffee or tea to savor with your dessert. Choose from a rhubarb-tart, maple-sweet crisp or simple baked apples, stuffed with dried fruit, toasted nuts and honey.

Making these brunch dishes is just a bit more work than toasting a bagel (though far less than whisking up a hollandaise sauce), and you can share the culinary tasks as you do the Sunday paper or a morning stroll. The day stretches out ahead of you, rife with possibilities. Ah, Sunday!

Resources

Healthy Cooking for Two Recipes and Menus
Lemon-Orange Fizz
Smoked Salmon Salad Nicoise
Rhubarb Crisp