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.
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!
DNA vs DIET
So. After one whole year of eating less meat, WAY less cheese, using the right cooking oils, eating loads of fruits and vegetables, getting all kinds of exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight…
my cholesterol is still high.
That, my friend, is called genetics. The diet is a great tool to have to keep ourselves healthy, but unfortunately, DNA is the boss!
