A weighty dilemma

It's one of the great dilemmas of the season - how to fill up on comfort food but not pack on weight.
Foodie, gardener and all-round decent Kiwi sheila Annie Beattie has a few hints on how to cruise through winter with a full stomach and still fit into your jeans come spring.
Annie has been a caterer, model, fashion consultant and campaigner against violence towards women. She is currently devoting time to a community gardens site, tending the (literally) growing area devoted to the ancient arts of producing plants for food, medicine and sheer aesthetics.
Annie admits she doesn't gain weight, as she's always charging around burning it off, but she understands how many of us struggle through winter with cravings for huge helpings of gooey food.
She recommends starting the day with perhaps the ultimate breakfast dish - millet. Annie buys organic ground millet produced in New Zealand from imported ingredients.
She makes it like conventional porridge, adding sesame, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, honey, cinnamon, and sultanas. It's also delicious with prunes and golden syrup.
One of the benefits of millet over conventional porridge is that it's alkaline, whereas oats are acidic. It's big on energy and protein, has extremely low fat, negligible sugar, and not much sodium. It's also warm and comforting, giving a lasting sense of being full without being weighed down.
"It's the perfect food for starting the day," Annie says. "I have it most mornings."
In winter, she likes to add blueberries or goji berries, both high in antioxidants and vitamins.
Freshly squeezed juices are good winter foods, Annie says. They have plenty of fibre and nutrients and are also tasty and filling.
Warm salads are an attractive option for vegetables once the weather's cooled off, and risottos are an easy way to make a comforting one-dish evening meal.
One of Annie's favourite dinner dishes is based on a friend's recipe. She sautes julienned leeks and carrots with ginger, pan-fries or grills a piece of salmon, tops it with wasabi and sour cream, and sprinkles it with dry-roasted sage leaves.
After dinner, when you're yearning for pudding, Annie suggests baking a cored apple. A prune can be placed into its cavity for extra oomph.
Quinces are another low-fat option. These old-fashioned uglies are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, and Annie's been converting them into jelly either on their own or with apples and geraniums.
She's also discovered how delicious quinces are baked for dessert. Simply cut them in half, cook them in the oven for about an hour and sprinkle them with sugar.
Annie is a huge fan of local markets and, in particular, organic produce.
Many people complain that organic foods are too expensive, but if you have quality ingredients you tend to use them more carefully, she says.
When cooking rice for a dish, always cook extra, Annie advises. That can be combined with a tin of salmon, some chopped onion and an egg and made into patties. Some can be eaten hot for dinner, one taken for lunch the next day and the others frozen so there's a tasty, nutritious meal ready when needed.
Everyone should have silverbeet growing in their garden, Annie says. There's always a quick meal on hand in the form of silverbeet topped with eggs - on toast if you want the extra bulk.
The prospect of shivering miserably through winter evaporates like a midsummer mirage in the light of such practical, mouth-watering advice.