March 9th, 2010
Whole grains are all the rage these days. So what exactly are they? And could they really be hiding in that box of Froot Loops? Whats the difference between whole grain, and products made with whole grain? Here’s how to cut through all the confusing marketing jargon so you can make an informed choice about grains.
March 9th, 2010
Nutritionally quinoa is hard to beat. Because it contains all nine essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein), it’s considered a “complete” protein, which makes it extra awesome for vegetarians and vegans who are sick of beans and tofu. Quinoa is also particularly high in the amino acid lysine, which is essential for tissue growth and repair, and is high in manganese, magnesium, iron, copper, and phosphorous - all good things.
One of the reasons quinoa has survived through the millennium has been attributed to the resinous, bitter coating that protects its seeds from birds and insects, called saponin. Read the rest of this entry »
March 9th, 2010
This is really flavorful dish with punchy flavors that cooks up pretty quickly. Using sweet white miso in this recipe is ideal and compliments the sweetness of the butternut and delicata squashes. This recipe is an adaptation of Heidi Swanson’s Miso Harissa Delicata Squash from her website 101.cookbooks.com
Ingredients
3 cups butternut or delicata squash (if butternut, peeled and chopped, if delicata, seeds scraped and sliced in half moons)
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons white miso
1 tablespoon harissa
2 teaspoon lemon juice
4 cups kale, finely chopped
1 cup quinoa
1/4 cup chopped shallots
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons lightly toasted pine nuts (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine the 3 tablespoons olive oil, miso, harissa, and lemon juice. Toss squash with 3/4 of the sauce to coat and roast for 20-25 minutes, stirring to brown evenly.
3. Place the finely chopped kale in a large bowl, and toss with remaning miso harissa sauce. Set aside.
4. Meanwhile, in a medium pot saute shallots and garlic over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until soft. Add the quinoa and stir to coat. Add the broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, until almost all the liquid is absorbed. Add the lemon zest, stir, and continue cooking until no water remains. Remove from heat.
5. When squash is golden brown, remove from the oven, add to the bowl of kale and combine.
6. Toss pine nuts and quinoa and top with roasted squash and kale.
March 8th, 2010
A few weeks ago I posted about Jaime Oliver’s win of the 2010 TEDPrize and his upcoming show Jaime’s Food Revolution, premiering in only a few weeks. As awesome as his TED Prize is, we shouldn’t overlook some of the other incredible TED talks that relate to our changing food landscape. Here are some of my favorites:
Mark Bittman on What’s Wrong With What We Eat: Read the rest of this entry »
March 3rd, 2010
I’m the kind of food nerd that checks out other people’s cookbooks when I go to their house… I just can’t help it. I can usually get a good sense of a person by the kinds of cookbooks they have, if any, and if I’m lucky, I’ll stumble across some new books to fill my shelves. Such was the case this past Christmas when I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law, who’s a great cook, and as such, bound to have great cookbooks. It was there that I found her copy of Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson. Her website, 101cookbooks.com is hugely popular, showcasing her own recipes as well as those from her large, and always growing collection of cookbooks. Read the rest of this entry »
March 1st, 2010
I’m always encouraging clients to cook more at home, and if they can, make enough to freeze so they can have meals at the ready. What’s better than coming home from a long day and having dinner already made, and just in need of a little heat? Nothin I tell ya, nothin! But most people use plastic tupperware at home to store leftovers, and to stash stuff in the freezers, and that my friends, is not awesome.
Plastics are nasty, I do not like them, and actively encourage people to find alternatives. Plastics junk up our planet with stuff like this and devastatingly and heartbreakingly destroy wildlife like this and this. According to Greenhouse Neutral Foundation, we use an estimated 500 BILLION plastic bags annually, (that’s about 1 million per minute!). And in case you didn’t bother to click on those three links above (do it!), here are some other sad facts about plastic, also from the Greenhouse Neutral Foundation: Read the rest of this entry »
February 22nd, 2010
I am simply bowled over by the amount of young people getting involved in this literal “green” movement these days! I just found yet another video about urban farming and young kids discovering the wonder of healthy, natural foods, and really, can you get more awesome than that?
This particular video comes from the South Bronx, one of the poorest congressional districts in the entire country where despite being one of the largest food distribution centers in the area, has but one tiny bodega to provide fresh produce to the community. This is what’s called a food desert, and frankly, they suck. It’s in this wasteland of high rates of violent crimes, asthma, and obesity that Steve Ritz, teacher extrordinaire, has been working tirelessly to bring urban farming to the South Bronx. His vision is to establish Hunts Point High School for Sustainable Community Initiatives, a NYC public school that would train local youth in sustainable,”green” industries like green roofing, urban gardening, and brown field remediation.
Awesome, right??
February 19th, 2010
Okay, I’m not actually promoting The Pump food establishment in New York (it’s not really a restaurant, and it’s not really fast food… nor is it take out, even though, techinically you do take it out. not sure what to call it honestly), because I don’t particularly lke their food (almost none of it is vegan), or 100% back their approach, but that won’t stop me from posting about their hilarious and super awesome commercial I found online the other day.
You really have to watch this a few times to pick up on all the pure awesome hilarity they’ve managed to incorporate in. Some of my favorites are: “Healthy Sugars” on the breakfast cereal segement, the fine print on the “Crap” spray and stick that reads: “Garlic and Herbs. Garden Vegetable. Bubblegum. Spray Your Tastebuds in the Face”, the fine print on the broccoli & cheese bit that says “Sadly, when God made vegetables, he forgot the flavor! The trick to getting your family to eat their fruits and veg? Krap brand processed cheese-food!” and lastly, the scrolling fine print on the bacon egg and cheese sandwich segment which includes fine ingredients like “Hormonally Embiggened Eggs, Speakerphone, Maybe Pubes, and Beetleguise”.
Brilliant.
February 17th, 2010
I have a little soft spot for Jamie Oliver… in my opinion, he was the first really cute TV chef worth watching for more than just his food. His lovely English accent with endearing lisp got me every time, and of course with a show called the Naked Chef, how could you not watch! Seriously. No, really, he’s like super cute and good chef or not, I can’t say the same for Mario Batali. Anyway Jamie Oliver.
He’s 34 years old, and since 1999 he’s has a whopping SEVENTEEN TV shows. This guy is an empire and just eats, breathes, and poops pure, simple, no-fuss cooking. (What? It’s true!) He’s super passionate about food, good quality ingredients and passing on that passion to children. “Disgusted at what rubbish our kids were getting fed at school“, in 2005 Jamie donned a hair-net and got behind the line in UK’s school cafeterias in his show ‘Jamie’s School Dinners‘. His most recent venture, called ‘Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution‘, was a little controversial and hit a tender spot with us overweight Americans.
He traveled to Huntington, West Virginia, a town called the unhealthiest in America. Ouch. Knowing that we’ve lost our ability to feed ourselves outside the packaged, processed foods that are killing us, Jamie literally went into people’s home to talk to them about eating real food, learning to cook, and passing those skills on to their children so they can bounce out of that “unhealthiest town” label.
Apparently he was met with luke warm enthusiasm, which seems a little ungrateful to me, and the contant needling and pooh-poohing by locals even brought him to tears! Sheesh… and all he wanted to do was help! That show is set to debut in March on ABC… you can bet that I’ll be watching. Hell, I’ll watch that guy slaughter a pig.
Anyway, when I found out that Jamie (we’re on a first named basis, you see) won this years TED prize, I was so so happy. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design is a non-profit devoted to “ideas worth spreading”, and hosts these talks where awesome people in those loosely defined categories come and talk about whatever it is they’re passionate about. Jamie starts his talk thusly: “Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive, will be dead, through the food that they eat.”
Love it. Grabs your attention, right?
Check out the rest of his TED speech here, and the awesome standing ovation he gets at the end. Inspiring! Those citizens of Huntington, West Virginia should be ashamed to ever have doubted Jamie!
February 15th, 2010
I love, love, LOVE this book! Not because it’s chock full of recipes for every meal, or that it’s a tome of 500+ healthy recipes, but because it’s a great first step book for those trying to integrate more green vegetables in their diet. This book is something I give to each new client, as a welcome, and a guide to help them find delicious and easy ways to cook their greens. Johanna Abli and Catherine Walthers have created an infinitely usable book, that makes a great addition to any bookshelf.
In the introduction to the book, the first few sentences touch on something that I often discuss with my clients - unidentifiable greens. How many times have you walked through the produce section of a store, particularly a health food store, and wondered what half the things there were? Yeah, we all know iceberg lettuce, romaine, red and green leaf, but sadly most of us don’t know much more. And yet the shelves in the produce section is overflowing with all kinds of fruits and vegetables that most of us will never bother to pick up! I often challenge clients who are maybe a little ill at ease with all the funky vegetables in the store to pick a new one each week, and try it out.
And this is where Greens, Glorious Greens comes in. The book is arranged alphabetically by vegetable, and features a lengthy, but certainly not boring discussion of the history, nutritional values, and unique flavor of each green, putting it in context of what it’s best served with. And because some greens last longer than others, or require shorter, or longer cooking times, each green has a dedicated “shopping tips”, “storage”, and “preparation” section.
My favorite recipes in this book, which I’ve made an over and over again are Chinese Bok Choy, Shiitake, and Tofu, Lemon-Basil Kale, Collards with Dill and Parsley, and Colcannon, an Irish recipe typically made with potatoes, milk, and kale, this version goes dairy free, and knocks the yummy factor up a notch by adding savoy cabbage, and makes a really exciting variation of regular old mashed potatoes. Other stand outs include Polenta Topped with Dandelion Greens, and Curried Chick-Peas with Mustard Greens and Sweet Potato.
Seriously, YUM.
© 2009 - Lara Adler, New York, NY. All contents licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
