Exploring grains and legumes
spaghetti, ravioli, baked beans, peanuts. Sound familiar? Cooking is pretty straight-forward, many people in the USA could pull these out of the cupboard and cook them up.
How about coucous, edamame, lentils, navy beans, chick peas, hummus? Getting a little more out of some people’s comfort/familiarity zone.
Faba bean, mung bean, japanese eggplant, buckwheat, tricale, quinoa, teff, spelt… A couple of these I couldn’t even identify if you put them in front of me. Variety is THE KEY to a healthy diet, and I think we could all use more of it. I’ll try to work my way through some of these unfamiliar foods and offer any tips I have about their preparation and nutrition. I’d love other’s input as well!
In the meantime, a friend asked recently how to cook couscous; and the basic answer is:
1:1 water to dry couscous (ex. 1 cup water for 1 cup dried couscous). Boil the water, dump in the couscous, cover and remove from heat, wait 5 minutes before serving. After basic prep, you can add anything. Last week I chopped up some fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil and had a great dinner.
Margarita Friday!
Tequila, triple sec, limeade, ice, and a blender. Happy Margarita Friday!! If you throw in some strawberries, you can count it as a serving of fruit!
Live to be an old fart
I have a poster with this quote and a picture of a kidney bean plastered right up on my fridge. It was made by magicalfruit.org and I love it! Beans are a terrific source of protein and fiber, so if you are cooking for any vegetarians this summer, make some bean salads, bean salsa, and bean burritos and they will not be complaining of hunger! (although maybe of something else… see the title quote…) 
New stuff
Hey friends-
This poor blog was abandoned for a few weeks; it turns out that vacationing, moving, and starting a new job leaves little time for online fun! But I am back, and will try to be more consistent. Did anyone notice that someone has opened another nutrition blog with a super-similar name. (Not that this one is so unique…!) bummer. Oh well, there’s plenty of room for everyone and hopefully they are giving sound advice.
I don’t have any great topic idea for today. If the rain would let up I might fire up the coals and throw some veggies on the grill. (Steak would be great but would also require a trip to the store…) My favorite is veggie shish-kabobs; mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumber, onion… I’m working on a good sauce to use to keep them from being too dry. I’ll let you know. Hope everyone’s utilizing the farmers markets to get in their fresh fruits and veggies!
Did I mention
That salt is salt?!?
Today I heard the argument for sea salt. (again) This scared me, because my friend (let’s call her Tanya) has high blood pressure and was using sea salt without restraint…
Tanya: ‘It’s not sodium chloride. It’s something else.’
me: That’s a myth. Sea salt IS sodium chloride (aka salt, aka sodium). It has the same impact on your kidneys and blood pressure as table salt.
Tanya: ‘At least it contains more minerals than table salt!!’
me: Trust me, it’s not significant.
me: Sea salt does add great flavor to foods! But that’s the only real benefit I’ve found.
Blood Pressure and Salt
Has your doctor or dietitian told you to minimize your intake of salt to help control your high blood pressure (hypertension)? Here are some key points/FAQs that may help you.
Salt is also called Sodium. It’s listed on the Nutrition Facts Label as “Sodium”.
It is recommended to eat less than 2300 mg of sodium every day. (I’ve seen estimates that the average American takes in between 6000-7000 mg of sodium daily!)
Table salt, sea salt, and kosher salt ARE ALL SALT. Many people switch from table salt to sea salt, thinking it’s healthier, but both actually contain the same amount of sodium. Garlic and other seasoned salts also contain huge amounts of sodium.
Not gonna buy it
Today I received a comment on my website from a person who works for/with the Margarine Counsel (obviously emphasizing all the fabulous aspects of margarine). I chose to delete it because my goal with this blog is to sort through all the information out there and give you the best I can find. I am not interested in providing comments that comes from people who benefit from you believing whatever they are saying. Just thought you might like to know!
Gobble Gobble
Happy Thanksgiving! With all the nutrition advice that is available this time of year, I could probably skip the whole thing, but I’ll throw out a couple of ideas…
If you’re cooking, make sure you have plenty of containers to send people off with the left-overs.
If you’re a guest, don’t take the left-overs!
Get some exercise.
Most importantly, enjoy your time with friends or family!
Comfort foods
My comfort foods:
Mac’ n cheese, chocolate, string cheese, pizza, cinnamon rolls, hot dogs, baked beans, soup, ice cream…
I looked into my shopping cart awhile ago, and had to laugh. In addition to a few of my typical ‘comfort foods’, I had pretty much allowed myself free range of the grocery store. So much for the Dietitian following her own advice to stay to the outside walls of the store (where you find the fresh foods) and to avoid pre-packaged foods!
But was I going to beat myself up about it? No way. I knew I was not having the best week, and if that was what was going to help get me through it, than so be it. (Slippery slope? Definitely.)
Our appetites respond differently to stress; some people feel nauseous and lose all interest in food, some people find themselves eating much more than they normally do, and some people eat exactly the same as usual. Emotional eating (eating when you’re not hungry) can cause many problems, including becoming overweight or obese. While eating half a bag of Oreos in one evening is not good for you, if it happens only once a year, that’s probably ok. However, if you find yourself migrating to the cupboard on a daily basis, when you know you’re not hungry, it’s time to take a look at what’s going on.
If you determine that you eat because of stress, or depression, find some other activities that make you feel good. Personally, I know that swimming, walking, weight-lifting, rock-climbing, meeting a friend for coffee, watching something funny on tv, or cuddling my friend’s dog are all things that can cheer me up. But if I try all that, and still want some mac’ n cheese, you’d better believe I’m gonna serve some up.
Clear as Spinach
Ah, if only more of us had followed in Pop-eye's steps and learned to love spinach! When you eat spinach, your body sees all that iron, and wants it! Unfortunately, there is a compound in spinach that also loves iron, and competes with your body to get it. But, there's more iron than the greedy compound can handle, so your body does get some.
The key to getting enough iron is to eat a variety of iron-rich foods, so that even if your body doesn't get enough from one food, it can get it from a different one. And don't forget to drink some orange juice with the non-meat high iron foods, to help your body win more often.
