Tasty Recipes from Recipe Wizards

Most New Year’s resolution lists include booze bans, butter vetoes and similar draconian dietary restrictions. Small wonder, then, that most resolutions don’t last too long. But take a page from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Ed Cassano and your eat-green resolution could become a delectable, sustainable and deprivation-free way of life.

Cassano oversees the aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, celebrating its 10th year of encouraging diners and shoppers to consult its color-coded fish wisdom before picking up a fork.

What began a decade ago as a series of disappearing tent cards on the tables of the aquarium’s Portola Cafe has grown to include 32 million people in all regions of the country, as well as major seafood purveyors and restaurants – including Berkeley’s Chez Panisse, Palo Alto’s Shokolaat and the Bay Area-based Il Fornaio chain. Now, there’s an iPhone app, too.

We sat down with Cassano to get the lowdown on the popular program.

Q. How did Seafood Watch start anyway? With the aquarium’s 1997 “Fishing for Solutions” exhibit?

A. That exhibit caused a lot of folks to get that there were concerns to be aware of – but we needed to be walking the talk. We looked at our own practices in our own cafe, thinking, “We should be providing fish that meets the criteria of sustainability.” And then, we provided these tent cards on the tables at the Portola Cafe, saying, “Here are the good choices.”

Q. Like the cards most restaurants use to hawk their dessert specials?

A. Yes. The tent cards started to disappear. People took them with them. That’s how the Seafood Watch program was born. Now there are regional pocket guides and versions in Spanish and, of course, a sushi pocket guide as well.

Q. As in “order the shiro maguro, not the bluefin”?

A. A lot depends on how it’s caught, where it’s caught. A lot of tuna may be “red,” (on the avoid list) but here are some other good alternatives. It’s a fundamental system of choice. What are the best choices you can make around the issues of sustainability? Anything on the “red list,” there are serious concerns about the aquaculture product or wild capture fishery.

Q. So those coded green are the best options, and the yellow?

A. Good alternatives. We created science-based criteria – using a team of science advisers and leaders around the nation and the world – to ask, “How does one define sustainable fisheries? Good management? Healthy stocks?” The pocket guide is just one of the tools that we use. If you’re a consumer, we want you to have that dialogue with your restaurant chef, your market. Ask the questions, “Where does it come from?” The more people demand that their choices be sustainable, the more the producers of the products want to provide it. I find it so powerful. Individuals really can be part of a major solution for a global issue.

Q. We’re relieved to see Dungeness crab is on the recommended list. Phew.

A. (Laughs) I’ve been availing myself of that too. I like to say, we’re saving the world, one bite at a time.

Sustainable Seafood

Seafood Watch: The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s seafood watch list can be downloaded to your iPhone or printed out in full-color glory at home. Visit www.montereybayaquarium.org and click the “Seafood Watch” link for regional watch lists, sushi guides and seafood recipes.

Dallas’ celebrity chef Kent Rathbun vowed last December that he was going to lose weight. “I’d already started, right after Christmas,” he says.

But the big wake-up call came in January.

“I fell while trying to Rollerblade,” says Rathbun, who opened his flagship restaurant Abacus in Dallas 10 years ago. “I broke my femur in half.” That’s the thigh bone. “The doctor said more than once that that’s the biggest bone in the body, and I had broken it as badly as you could break it.”

The portly chef’s weight didn’t help. He says he has tried to shed pounds in the past, but this time, a combination of factors – being 48; the desire to keep up with his kids, who are 6 and 2; and the big break – strengthened his resolve.

One other thing: This time, he has been managing his weight loss with Weight Watchers Mobile, which connects him to the program’s eTools. Wherever he goes and whatever he eats, Rathbun can access and update his personal plan with his iPhone.

The Weight Watchers plan is just one of a growing number of cellphone-based applications helping people manage their weight. But it’s the one that made sense to Rathbun, who says he’s not paid to endorse the program.

“I’m a techie guy,” he says in a booth at Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen, one of five Texas restaurants where he’s executive chef and partner. “I’m the first guy in line for all the techie stuff.” Recommendations from friends and physicians – plus the fact that he could track everything online and from his phone – made Weight Watchers his pick.

The program he’s on costs $39.95 a month, which includes meetings, online access and his iPhone app.

Since January and despite the broken leg, Rathbun has used the eTools to shed 70 pounds. “I’d like to lose another 60 or 70,” he says, adding that his starting weight was “too darn much” when pressed for a specific number. (His brother, Atlanta chef Kevin Rathbun, has also been on the program using the eTools since January; he has lost 125 pounds, but he didn’t have a broken leg.)

Rathbun demonstrates on his laptop how he can access the eTools, which are subscription add-ons, to monitor his weight-loss plan on the computer or through his phone. Weight Watchers uses a point system, based on size, weight-loss goal and activity level, to limit how much you can eat. Recently, the company introduced an iPhone application through Apple that’s similar to Weight Watchers Mobile.

Rathbun, using his iPhone and Weight Watchers Mobile link, shows how he can deconstruct the grilled chicken breast with avocado he just ordered, inputting each ingredient to come up with a point total for the dish. Once he does this, it becomes part of his personal database online. He can also search the Weight Watchers site for the point values of thousands of foods and dishes.

He shows his daily allotment of points, then taps in what he ate for breakfast and that he worked out moderately for 30 minutes earlier in the day. One click, and the point total changes to account for the added activity and what’s he has already eaten.

As a result of the program, Rathbun says, he has become more disciplined in the kitchen while he works. “I taste less now,” he says. “Weight Watchers taught me that BLT – bites, licks and tastes – they count. Before, if I liked something, I’d take a big bite. Now, if I do, I tally the point.” He has also become savvier about portion control.

Already, he says, he’s reaping the health benefits: His blood pressure has dropped, and his endurance has increased.

“I’m in control of my health,” he says, “and I feel good about myself.”

For more about Weight Watchers eTools and Weight Watchers Online, go to www.weightwatchers.com.

DOWNSIZING DOWNLOADS

What are the best BlackBerry and iPhone tools to help manage your weight? We asked Nadine Fisher, registered dietitian and social media and Internet entrepreneur for advice.

The best applications combine the ability to track food intake (eating) and energy expenditure (exercise). They may also provide information on eating out, food preparation and food selection.

BlackBerry Calorie Tracker by Livestrong: This app helps you with information such as how many calories are in your lunch and how many walking burns, and keeps a digital diary of your daily calories. ($2.99)

Calorie Counter by FatSecret: This is the essential app to simply find nutritional info for the food you eat and to keep track of your meals, exercise and weight. (Free)

For more BlackBerry apps, go to appworld.blackberry.com/webstore.

iPhone Livestrong Calorie Tracker: Lets you calculate daily calorie intake and expenditure. ($2.99)

Edibles Diet Journal: A cool app that lets you keep track of your calorie intake. ($4.99)

Health Cubby: Lets you keep track of your weight-loss progress as well as your workouts and the amount of calories you burn each day. (”Lite” version free; full version $6.99)

Another tool in the parental kit: those small adult gadgets with touch-screen technology, so easy a child, even a toddler, can use them.

Parents are discovering that iPhone and iPod Touch applications, or apps, are a handy distraction and an engaging, even educational, way to keep young children busy. (Other handheld devices are getting in the game now, too.)

“It’s been a lifesaver a lot of times,” said Anna Friend of Westwood, Kan.

Life serves up some downtime for her younger son, 6-year-old Brady – waiting at big brother’s activities, at restaurants – and at such times he has enjoyed apps ranging from racing games to math practice. “It’s helped me keep my sanity and kept him busy,” she said.

And many apps are cheap (not counting the cost of the device). Here are five worth checking out for toddlers and preschoolers.

-”Wheels on the Bus,” 99 cents. Everyone raves about this one. When the wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish in the song, your toddler can make the wipers swish, swish, swish on the screen.

-”Preschool Arcade,” 99 cents. Pinball for counting practice, a claw-crane for shape matching and a rocket ship for letter recognition.

-”Peekaboo Barn,” $1.99. Touch the barn door and learn animal sounds and names, in English and Spanish.

-”Toddler Teasers Quizzing,” $1.99. Correctly touch the letter B, say, or touch the yellow rainbow stripe and the crowd roars.

-”First Words: Animals,” $1.99. Spell the animal pictured on the screen with letter tiles. Skill level is adjustable.