Cottage Cheese Pizza Bagels + Arugula Salad

one of my go-to lunches these days!

Hi all! I am on my way home from a very fun week of book touring for WHAT GOES WITH WHAT. My mom came with me to Seattle and Chicago which was so sweet. She used to take me with her on a lot of her business trips when I was growing up and it was really fun to take her on one of mine. We got to have dinner with

Angela Garbes

! I got to go on local TV in Seattle and bragged about being a power lifter (lol).

On Saturday I had a day off in Chicago and went on a architecture boat tour - amazing! Highly recommend! Before my event in DC last night with Joe Yonan, I finally got to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Incredible.

I took lots of flights and ate lots of room service pancakes and saw so many people I recognized from my cooking classes (hi!!!!) and spoke to so many of you about how you feel about cooking and your bodies and life. What a week. Thank you all for your ongoing support.

If you’re on the fence about getting WGWW (who needs another cookbook, I know!), please check out this wonderful post from

Caroline Chambers

:

cheesy chicken + kimchi rice

I still have a few book tour stops coming up!

• If you’re in the Hudson Valley, Western Massachusetts or Connecticut, come join me and

  Virginia Sole-Smith
  tomorrow (Wed. Oct. 30th) at 6:30pm at The White Hart Inn with Oblong Books!

• If you’re in or near Brooklyn, come see me in Conversation with Helen Rosner at Books Are Magic on Friday Nov. 1st at 7pm.

• In or near Cleveland, Ohio? I’ll be there next month!

  • Sun. Nov 17th at Noon / CLEVELAND: In Conversation with Aubrey Johansen at Van Aken Event Center with SLFMKR

  • Mon. Nov. 18th at 6:30p / HUDSON, OHIO: In Conversation and Book Signing at Hudson Library & Historical Society with Learned Owl Book Shop

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is where I get inspiration for recipes. And my answer is always kind-of boring but true. “Everywhere,” I say. You never know where inspiration will strike, whether it’s in a sandwich shop, on a trip, or just in a conversation.

For example, one of my go-to lunches these days are cottage cheese pizza bagels, a tip I learned during this podcast interview I did with Gabi Dixson who is a professional Strongwoman (how cool is that?!). To fuel her unbelievable strength, Gabi is particular about her nutrition. And one of her favorite things to eat is a bagel with cottage cheese that goes in an air fryer for a few minutes to get browned. The moment she told me this, I knew I had to make it. I eat a lot of toast of various kinds, including toasted bagels, with cottage cheese on top. But I had never TOASTED THE COTTAGE CHEESE!! until Gabi told me that was an option. Now I can’t get enough! The cottage cheese gets browned and caramelized, just like ricotta on a white pizza.

In addition to be super fast to make, this lunch happens to be totally vegetarian, very satisfying, and VERY AFFORDABLE. And if you line your air fryer with parchment and make the salad directly on the plate you’re going to eat off of, the only thing to clean up is your bagel knife, plate, fork, and spoon you used to spread tomato sauce and cheese on the bagel.

I like to cut my bagel into three rounds rather than two so I have lots of surface area. And I add a little tomato sauce and pizza spices (garlic powder and oregano) to make the whole thing more pizza-y, but you can skip the tomato sauce and just have it white pizza style. Or add whatever toppings you want! Along with a peppery arugula salad dressed simply with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, it’s a 10 minutes meal that just HITS THE SPOT.

For paid subscribers, here’s the formal recipe with amounts, temperature and time, plus notes for:

• What to do if you don’t have an air fryer

• Substitutions galore, whether you’re gluten-free, vegan, not a bagel person (is that anyone? not sure…), or not into cottage cheese

• Ideas for additional toppings

PIZZA BAGELS + ARUGULA SALAD

Lunch for about 1, easily multiplied!

FOR THE BAGEL:

• 1 bagel (any savory flavor), cut into three thin rounds (more surface area!)