#NNM - It's National Nutrition Month!

Yeah!  It's National Nutrition Month!!  What a great time to focus on healthy eating, right?  When I get this enthusiastic about food and nutrition, my family just looks at me like I'm crazy.  Then, they move on to mock me.  It hurts.  Seriously, I know they appreciate that I love food and nutrition so they can spend their time thinking about other things and still reap the benefit of good-for-them foods. 

This year's theme is "Enjoy the taste of eating right."  Emphasis on ENJOY.  You see, food that's good for you can also be food that is delicious. In fact, it should taste great.  After all, who wants to eat food that tastes like cardboard?  Not me. 

Here are four tips to healthy great tasting meals and snacks:

1. Use fresh, colorful ingredients - with a focus on fruits and vegetables.
2. Add spices and fresh herbs often and in abundance.  Parsley, mint, thyme, ground cumin, curry blends, and cinnamon are fantastic in many different dishes.
3. Vary your protein and try to go meatless at least one day a week.  Non animal proteins to start with include black beans, split peas and lentils, peanuts and peanut butter, tofu, and high protein grains like quinoa.
4. Be adventurous.  Try something new, such as ethnic cuisines, since these are often vegetarian (or meat is used in small amounts) and filled with healthful spices.

It's a great time to try your hand at making the meals in your house delicious AND nutritious.  Be healthy!

Kitchen Technique: Roasting

One of the reasons people often give me for not cooking and eating more vegetables is that they don't know how to prepare them - or that they take a long time.  I'm a busy girl these days and need meals to be simple, but always delicious.  Roasting is my go-to preparation for dinner many nights of the week.  As simple as scrub or scrape, chop, toss and into the oven.  Here's an example from this week...

Roasted Winter Veggies
3 medium carrots, scraped and chopped
3 parsnips, scraped and chopped
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and chopped
1 medium onion, cut into 8 wedges
2-4 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 tsp thyme
3 Tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  While the oven heats, prep the vegetables.  Toss everything together in a bowl and then onto a lined or sprayed sheet pan.  Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes (until nicely caramelized and cooked through), tossing about every 15-20 minutes for even roasting.

A few tips:

1. Chop everything about the same size to ensure even cooking - but no need to get fancy.
2. Add additional spices, herbs and/or vary the veg to make an endless combination of roasted deliciousness.  Some of my favorite combos include sweet potato wedges tossed with olive oil, cinnamon and red pepper; yellow squash, zucchini, and onion tossed with olive oil, thyme and pepper; apples and potatoes tossed with a little olive oil, cinnamon and maple syrup; cauliflower tossed with a bit of olive oil, curry powder, salt and pepper; and colorful bell peppers and onions tossed with olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper.
3. Start this dish first.  Then, while the vegetables roast you can prep and cook everything else for dinner or just spend a little more time playing with your baby, dog, or internet.  

Leftover roasted vegetables are so versatile too.  They are fantastic added to scrambled eggs, folded into a tortilla for a vegetarian lunch, or even cold right out of the fridge.  What? Just me?  In addition to the fact that they are super easy and yummy, roasting instead of boiling helps retain nutrients since there's no water for the vitamins to leach out in.  So...what are you going to roast next?  Be adventurous.  Be healthy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I <3 You!  Seriously, if you're reading this it's probably because you're a friend or a family member and I really do love you.  If you are neither, then I bet I would love you if I got to know you.

Today is a wonderful day to practice loving others.  Jesus said that others would know us by the way we love others (John 13:34-35).  I hope that most of the time I do that.  Today, I'm going to try extra hard to be loving.  I love John Wesley's admonition to us:

It's also a good day to love on someone with a good meal.  Hopefully you have something special planned for yourself today, maybe it even includes someone else.   Make it a healthy one.  Today is also a good day to think about your heart and the heart of the ones you love.  Whatever you're putting into your mouth is impacting your heart too.  Choose wisely.  

While we were snowed in this week, I made a version of these delicious Snickerdoodle Pancakes.  I couldn't actually bring myself to making them just as the recipe is...too indulgent, too much sugar, not really breakfast material.  Instead, I tweaked the recipe like this - replace the AP flour with 1/2 cup buckwheat flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour; omit sugar (you'll add syrup and they'll be sweet enough); trim the butter to 3 Tbs; replace sour cream with plain yogurt and use buttermilk instead of milk.  They were delicious, cinnamony, light, and slightly sour from the buttermilk, slightly sweet from a drizzle or real maple syrup (not the fake stuff!).  And...no guilt for me.  Enjoy! Be healthy!

What's Cooking in the Snow

We're totally snowed in - ice everywhere.  We can't get out if we want to...ok,we might be able to if we had to.  But why bother?  It's toasty inside and there's plenty to eat.  So far...this is some of what being snowed in has produced from the kitchen:

This recipe but with butterscotch chips.

Chicken, Broccoli Soba Noodle Bowl recipe from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics

Hershey's "Perfect" Hot Chocolate

And One Simple Roasted Chicken recipe from How to Cook Everything

What's next? Roasting some beets, baking some bread, oh...and a special Valentine's dinner.  Are you cooking for <3 Day?  What are you making?  Be healthy!

More Snow?!

So here we are in Atlanta anticipating more snow.  Seriously?  I'm a native and I can't remember ever having back to back snowstorms.  And yes, 2" of snow is a snowstorm in Atlanta. 

Like most people around here, I hit the grocery store today.  There were a ridiculous number of people there in the middle of the day on a Monday.  There was still plenty of bread, milk and staples when I was there at 11, but I heard (via Facebook, which is the most reliable place for news, of course) that the markets were cleared out before the evening.  I didn't buy bread because I always have plenty of ingredients to make fresh homemade bread if I need it...as long as we have power. 

Here's what I bought:

• 1/2 gallon of organic whole milk
• extra firm tofu
• bunch of organic beets
• bananas
• organic parsley
• beet juice
• organic broccoli
• whole wheat hamburger buns

I keep a very well stocked pantry and fridge.  I just wanted a few delicious items to round out what I have on hand. What am I going to make?  Burger buns are for black bean burgers (I <3 Morningstar Farms spicy black bean).  Tofu and broccoli will become stir fry.  Beets are for roasting to top salads and for pureeing for the baby.  Bananas for PB & banana sandwiches, banana bread, and mashed for baby.  Milk and beet juice for drinking.  Not together.  I'll share some recipes this week.

Did you hit the market?  What was in your cart?  Stay warm.  Be healthy!

What the Wheat?!

Recently, I went to see a chiropractor - I have carpal tunnel syndrome, seriously, doesn't that suck? - and she asked me about wheat.  Specifically, she asked me about a book that talks about wheat and the midsection and pretty much blames wheat for all of the illnesses that people have, especially overweight.  I tried not to look at her cross-eyed, but I'm sure she saw the displeasure on my face.  Here's the deal on wheat:

1. If you do not have an allergy or sensitivity and don't have celiac disease, you need not avoid wheat altogether.
2. Wheat, in and of itself, is not evil or poisonous, despite the bill of goods someone might have sold you.
3. Too much wheat (and too much sugar) isn't good for you.  And when you eat it, it should be whole wheat, wheat berries, or cracked wheat - not highly refined flour.

Source: wholegrainscouncil.org

Expanding beyond just wheat, whole grains are a great source of nutrients, including protein, fiber, and a variety of micronutrients.  Check out the Whole Grains Council nutrition page for detailed information on specific grains.  Again, enjoying grains in their whole form ensures that the nutrients are retained. 

Here are a few delicious whole grain recipes to try:
Ellie Krieger's Wheat Berry Salad via The Food Network
Miso-Ginger Wild Rice with Carrots and Cabbage via Whole Paycheck Foods
One-pan Farro with Tomatoes via Smitten Kitchen
100% Whole Grain Wheat Bread via Food.com (I bet you could make this in a bread machine)

Grains should be part of your daily diet, but not the bulk of your diet.  So, don't give up wheat or your favorite grain, unless you have to.  Do enjoy it in moderation.  Be healthy!

I didn't receive any compensation and don't have a relationship with the Whole Grains Council, by the way.