Kitchen Sink Salads: A How-To Guide

I’m not a fan of the traditional Woman-On-A-Diet salad. I see them being eaten for lunch often enough: iceberg lettuce leaves, a few cucumber slices, a few grape tomatoes, and fat-free vinaigrette dressing, probably with the word “balsamic” in the name. A lunch like that for me would mean a sure trip to the vending machine an hour later looking for pretzels or chips, or more likely lead to a binge episode once I got home from work feeling half starved. A salad like that isn’t satisfying either physically or mentally and doesn’t have much to offer in the way of nutritious fuel either.

Lately, I’ve been making something I call a “Kitchen Sink Salad”. Because it’s got everything in it but… well, you get the idea.

To make a Kitchen Sink Salad you begin with a grain. Recently I made one using wheat berries which led to a lot of speculation on my family’s part as to what exactly a wheat berry is (they’re whole, unprocessed wheat kernels). Other good grains include quinoa, farro, rice, barley and millet. Pick whichever you like best, or one you simply want to try. Cook the grain according to package directions. I like to cook mine in low sodium vegetable, chicken, or beef broth as this imparts more flavor.

When the cooked grain has been relocated to a big mixing bowl but is still hot, add one to two bags of greenery. I like a mix of spring greens, baby spinach, and baby arugula – but again, it’s your salad so add what you like. The hot grain will wilt the greens down and make them take up less space.

Then as things are cooling, chop and add whatever vegetables looked appealing to you when you were most recently wandering a farmer’s market or the produce section of your local grocery store. I like grape tomatoes of all colors, bell peppers, cucumbers, Brussels sprouts, red onion, carrot, scallion, jalapeno, zucchini, and squash. (I don’t really recommend mushrooms because if you store your salad for more than 24 hours they can get weird).

Chop and add a fresh herb; basil, dill and cilantro are my favorites.

Add a sparing amount of fatty, delicious, indulgent extras; like avocado, kalamata olives (or whatever olive you like), Muenster cheese, Havarti, or creamy mozzarella. I like mild cheeses but if you like sharp, add sharp. I’ve never added nuts to a Kitchen Sink Salad, but nuts would be awesome too.

For dressing I use an acid and a base. This usually means squeezing the juice of a fresh lime over the whole thing and then drizzling on good olive oil. Any acid will do though (lemon, orange, vinegar… whatever you like).

Salt and pepper to taste, and that’s it!

The grains provide protein, the vegetables provide nutrients, there’s healthy fats involved (and some fats that are simply satisfying). This salad obviously has more calories than a traditional Woman-On-A-Diet salad, but it’s also a lot more physically and psychologically appealing, at least to me.

This is what was in the Kitchen Sink salad I made for my Dad’s birthday over the weekend:

• 2 cups of wheat berries boiled in low sodium vegetable broth (takes an hour, they’re hard)
• 1 bag of baby spinach and arugula
• 1 bag of mixed spring greens
• 1 gigantic, delicious, monster heirloom tomato that my friend grew in her backyard
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 small red onion
• 1 small block of Havarti cheese with dill
• The juice of one lime
• Several tablespoons of good olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Feeds: many! With leftovers to spare.

Tasty!

Beetnik Frozen Food Review

Beetnik products have a lot of variables going on that I really don’t care about, such as being certified USDA Organic, Gluten Free, and Paleo approved. I chose them simply because their sodium content is phenomenally low for frozen food (below 300 mg. each) and I am trying to get my sodium intake below 1,500 mg. per day without totally giving up the convenience of a frozen lunch. As a result my first comment on a lot of these is probably going to be, “tastes bland”, because my overly salted American palate is not used to foods that aren’t pickled in salt.

The store I purchased them from sells them for around $6.00 / entrée.

Organic Moroccan Seasoned Chicken Stew (Ingredients: chicken, sweet potato, carrot, bell pepper, lemon juice, olive oil & spices-garlic, cumin, turmeric, ginger).

280 calories

160 mg. sodium

9 g. fat

4 g. fiber

25 g. protein

Taste: It smelled really good and the chicken had fantastic texture, also the portion was generously sized for less than three hundred calories. That’s where the good news ends because the flavor was bland (of course), and unpleasantly sour. The ingredients listed are all tasty ones so I have no idea where the weirdly sour flavor was coming from. Maybe too much lemon juice? I won’t be buying this one again. Bleh.

Looked tasty, but no.

Organic Peruvian Seasoned Chicken Stew (Ingredients: chicken, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion & spices – garlic, cumin, basil, pepper, cayenne).

130 calories

240 mg. sodium

1 g. fat

2 g. fiber

23 g. protein

Taste: Rich with tomato flavor and hot! Probably not so spicy to someone who eats hot food a lot, but as I am a casual consumer of spicy food it was enough to make my nose run. The taste was complex and good though, not bland and not sour like the other stew I tried. A very thin consistency, really more like a soup, and it looked absolutely nothing like the picture on the package. This one would be better with a chunk of Italian bread and a dollop of sour cream or some rice mixed in, and I will probably purchase it again.

This one seriously did not look like the picture on the box.

Organic Sesame Ginger Chicken (Ingredients: rice, chicken, onion, bell pepper, carrot, zucchini, broccoli, honey, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, green onion, sesame oil, grapeseed oil, pepper, tamari, salt).

270 calories

280 mg. sodium

3 g. fat

2 g. fiber

18 g. protein

Taste: This was easily the best of the three I tried, and also the most satisfying (probably due to the presence of rice). It wasn’t spicy, but seasoned just enough to be flavorful and not bland at all, yet still very low in salt for a prepackaged food item. Their chicken remained good and fresh tasting throughout, and the vegetables were still bright and perky despite being through the freeze/thaw process. I will absolutely get this one again! Yum!

We have a winner!

The Pasta Conundrum

I’ve made it pretty clear at this point that I’m not a fan of fad/crash diets like Paleo or Atkins, and I absolutely think that HMR is a bad idea. That being said, I acknowledge that every body works in a unique way and if something works for you in a way that makes you feel great and is sustainable long term without causing dangerous weight yo-yo’s, then cool. Listening to your body is key.

I’m not an anti-carb or even low-carb eater. I think carbs are part of my balanced diet, and I like them. They do need to be limited somewhat because they tend to be very calorie dense, but outside of that I think carbs are yummy and great.  However, something weird is going on with me and pasta.

I make pasta about once a week for dinner, and then portion out the leftovers for lunch at work for the next couple of days. At dinnertime I’ll prepare myself a bowl, eat it too quickly and feel as though I’ve eaten nothing at all, then go fetch myself an entire second bowl. It’s like when I eat pasta the mechanism that tells me I’m full just completely shuts down. Afterward, I feel uncomfortably bloated, bubbling, and sick.

At first I thought it was just because I was eating too much, but I came to realize I was bloated, bubbly, and sick even after eating my carefully measured portions of pasta at lunch.

Thankfully this can’t be celiac disease, true celiac is still fairly rare and I do not suffer from it or any other kind of food allergy. I eat bread and plenty of other gluten containing products daily with no problem whatsoever, but pasta apparently does not agree with me so I’m thinking I’ll have to eliminate it from my diet.

This makes me sad as I love pasta, it’s a quick easy dinner that provides plenty of lunch leftovers, but it’s just not worth the cost – it causes binge behavior and makes me feel awful afterwards. In keeping with my own advice to listen to my body, it’s got to go.

Now to come up with some tasty pasta alternatives that the guys I live with will actually eat...

The Irony of David Wolfe & the Avocado

Recently I was discussing my favorite food, the avocado, with a friend – and he pointed out that the avocado does not actually make sense in the human diet.

Curious, I asked why, and he explained that as a fruit it doesn’t work with us the way it biologically should. It has a seed that is far too large for a human animal to swallow and later deposit with a convenient pile of fertilizer to grow elsewhere. In fact, the avocado’s golf ball sized seed is actually poisonous to human beings.

I then inquired as to what type of animal was supposed to be eating the avocado, and he replied with ground sloths, an extremely large, now extinct type of land mammal also known as megatherium. I did a bit more research and turned up this interesting article.

That's a big sloth...

After the disaster that caused the ground sloths and other megafauna to die off, avocados survived against all odds probably getting spread about by smaller animals like big cats for a while until being discovered by us primates who began deliberately spreading their seeds and farming them for their deliciousness.

Not only did we farm them, we genetically modified the heck out of them. The avocados that megafauna used to eat were much more seed than flesh and we’d likely barely recognize them from our gator pears of today. We’ve manipulated the avocado to make it produce a much smaller seed with much more delicious green stuff for us to feast upon.

This led me to thinking about David Wolfe...

One of my least favorite modern snake oil salesmen is named David “Avocado” Wolfe. I’m not going to link to his site because I don’t want to send him any traffic, but feel free to peruse this article about him. In short, he’s a food scaremongerer who sells an unhealthy dose of orthorexia along with sham products on his website like “David Wolfe Nutrition Certifications” that help you convince people that genetic modification of food is evil and bad for you despite their being no hard scientific evidence of this (and yes, I have looked for it), vaccinations are deadly, and chocolate is “an octave of sun energy that lines up planetarily with the sun”… or something. He’s right up there with the Food Babe when it comes to anti-science hokum. And this stuff can be deadly, particularly the anti-vaccines part.

It always annoyed me that he calls himself David “Avocado” Wolfe, because I love the avocado but I do not like him very much. One of the only things he and I agree on is that the avocado is both delicious and healthy to eat, but he pollutes its goodness by attaching it to his name.

The gorgeously ironic part is this:

David Wolfe has named himself after a food that has a poisonous seed, which should have become extinct along with the creatures that ate it thousands of years ago, and he is apparently ignorant of the fact that it was artificially preserved through exactly the kind of genetic modification and deliberate human food tinkering that he espouses to be “toxic.”

I find this absolutely hilarious.

BANANACOOKIE!

When I say the name of this recipe I always think of minions… 

I’ve seen a number of recipes for baked goods that insert smushed banana in place of the usual fats that make baked goods delicious: fats such as butter, milk, or cream. The bananas also take the place of refined sugar.

Curious (and very skeptical) I finally decided to try one out.

Look, I won’t lie to you. Bananacookies are not as rich and decadent as normal cookies. At the same time, they’re not bad. They have a spongy, more cake-like texture and of course they taste distinctly of banana, so if you don’t like banana you won’t like them. However, if you do – they’re a really nice little treat that has roughly the same nutritional impact of eating a portion of oatmeal and half a banana.

Sitting down with a little plate of cookies and a cup of tea makes me feel very psychologically satisfied, so they actually do trick my brain into thinking, “I’M HAVING COOKIES!” without the calorie and fat consequences of actually having cookies. I’m by no means anti-cookie, I just can’t have them three or four times a week and still expect any weight loss. A batch of bananacookies? I can.

I make my cookies with mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels (which I’ve found I can have in the house without binging on them… regular sized morsels I cannot – weird, huh?) and shaved coconut. You can have yours with whatever add-ins you would like. I’ve put many suggestions below.

The “dough” is a bit slippery, but easy to sculpt and work with. You need to form your cookies into whatever final shape you want them to be when you place them on a baking sheet, as they will not spread out like fatty dough does. You also need to spray your sheet with something before you bake them, they really stick.

Two bananas and a cup of oats generally makes around 12 nice sized cookies (for me, four portions of three cookies each). I find them to be a very satisfying treat without wanting to hork down the entire batch in one go. Since they don’t actually contain my binge-triggers of refined sugar combined with fat, they don’t set off binging behavior for me at all.

Here’s the recipe!

Oatmeal Banana Cookies

Yield: 12 large cookies (4 servings)

Ingredients:

2 large ripe bananas

1 cup of oats (I've used both instant rolled and instant steel cut)

2 packets of artificial sweetener (omit if you're anti-chemical, I just like my cookies SWEET)

Possible Add-Ins (3-4 tbsp):

-Chocolate Chips

-Crushed Nuts

-Cinnamon

-Raisins

-Black Currants

-Craisins

-Shredded Coconut

Mush the bananas and mix together with the oatmeal, then fold the add-ins in. Since all bananas are different sizes, the needed measurements can vary. If it seems too runny and the cookies would flatten out too much, add in more oatmeal. And make sure to not add in TOO many mix-ins as the cookies won’t hold together very well.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes on a GREASED cookie sheet.

Oatmeal - It's Whats for Breakfast

Oats do a body good. They lower cholesterol, might lower blood pressure, and contribute to an avoidance of heart attacks. All good things. They’re also tasty!

So I’ve noticed something interesting with regards to one of my favorite go-to breakfasts. Instant rolled oats keep me full for… well, they don’t. As soon as I’m done eating them I could pretty much eat breakfast all over again right away. I think this is because the amount of pre-processing they go through causes them to be very easy and quick to digest. Also I’m prone to buying the fruit and cream pre-sweetened variety and, speaking as an avowed sugar addict, they’re really too sweet. I don’t want so much sugar first thing in the morning, I want a lightly sweet savory combo.

So this week I made up a batch of slow cooking steel cut (also called Irish) oats. Quaker makes an instant variety of steel cut oats, but again – it’s jam packed with sugar. I’m talking about the kind that comes plain in a tub and contains pretty much nothing but the oats themselves.

They take about a half hour to cook, and you have to baby sit them, stirring every couple of minutes and watching to make sure they don’t boil over. However, they’re worth the effort. They’re hearty, only as sweet as I want them to be, they take a long time to eat, and they keep me satisfied and full until lunch. They’re also more calories, but I’ve been thinking my sub-200 calorie breakfasts aren’t a very good idea anyway. My bowl of steel cut oats is closer to 300 calories, but that’s still a low total calorie content for a meal. I think both the effort involved and extra hundred calories are well worth not feeling desperate for a snack at around 11AM.

Carolyn’s Steely Morning Oats:

·         1 cup steel cut (Irish) oats

·         2 cups milk (I use 2%)

·         2 cups water

·         A pinch of salt

Bring the oats, water, milk, and salt to a boil (watch it because it will boil over FAST) then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring frequently, for 30 minutes.

Flavor Additives (use in any combo you like – I like one sweetening additive and one nutty/fruity/peanut buttery one in my batches):

·         2 tbsp. brown or white sugar (the white goes better with PB2)

·         2 tbsp. maple syrup

·         2 tbsp. PB2 (regular or chocolate variety)

·         2 tbsp. nut butter or Nutella

·         2-3 tbsp. crushed nuts

·         2-3 tbsp. dried fruits

·         2-3 tbsp. shaved coconut

·         2-3 tbsp. chocolate chips

Makes four servings which can be easily stored in the fridge and re-heated in the microwave throughout the week.

Enjoy!

Ginger Tea

Like most Americans I’ve traditionally reached for a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Lately though, I’ve been replacing that with ginger tea.

If you google the health benefits of ginger you’re going to see a lot of claims – some of them certainly exaggerated. One that isn’t though is that it assists in regulating digestion.

My metabolism operates extremely slowly. Without getting too graphic, that means it takes me a long time to digest food. This long processing time is what makes me well equipped to survive in times of scarcity: because food moves slowly through my digestive system there is plenty of time for my system to seek out and absorb every possible calorie.

In contrast, someone with a poor or fast-functioning metabolism whose system moves food through quickly isn’t going to absorb all (or even most) of the calories they eat. There simply isn’t time to before the food gets dumped right out again. This is what causes the phenomenon of my average body weight husband who eats far more calories than I do.

Although my metabolism equips me well for survival in times of famine, it isn’t so useful a trait for someone already living in an obesogenic environment.

I’ve noticed that drinking ginger tea each morning helps to regulate and speed up the system. Also, since I eat an extremely high vegetable and fiber diet (and healthy foods are notoriously more difficult to digest) it prevents gas bubbles from forming. Also useful.

To the tea I add fresh lemon juice because lemon is packed with all sorts of useful vitamins. I don’t take a vitamin pill, but rather deliberately eat the vitamins and nutrients I need, and lemon is a part of that daily practice.

Lastly, I add a tablespoon of raw, locally sourced honey* to the mix. In theory, because you’re eating a little local pollen when you do this, it can help to immunize you against seasonal allergies. That seems like a reasonable theory to me, but even if it’s not true – the honey just helps the drink to taste good. Lemon and ginger are both assertive flavors that can use taming.

So, if you are interested, here’s how to make my morning beverage of choice:

Health Tonic Ginger Tea

Peel 1 large or 2 small chunks of raw ginger root, rinse and then slice them into small pieces.

Boil the ginger (at a low, rolling boil) for about twenty to thirty minutes in about 60 oz. of water. The finished tea will be a golden color and you should have roughly five servings. Store the extra in the fridge.

To a 12 oz. mug of hot tea, squeeze in half the juice of a fresh lemon and then stir in 1 tablespoon of raw, locally sourced honey*.

Note: Cinnamon has also been recommended to me as a tasty ginger tea additive, but I haven’t personally tried that yet.

Enjoy!

*If you live in my area and happen to pass one of their honey-selling wagons, I recommend buying from these guys. Their product tastes awesome and they are super-nice!

Cookie Dough Dessert Hummus

This recipe was simply too strange not to try. I love hummus and I make many different types from many different beans. All tend to be savory, a bit salty, usually garlicky. Prior to stumbling over this recipe it had never occurred to me that “dessert hummus” was a possibility.

Here’s what you will need:
• 1 can of chickpeas; drained and rinsed (the recipe says you’re supposed to peel them but um… yeah, no. I don’t have time for that. I just turned my food processor on and walked away for a few minutes. Same thing, right?)
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter (The “natural” means no sugar added, blech. I realized you can substitute this with 4 tbsp. of PB2 dissolved in 1/4 cup of milk if you want to bring the peanut butter fat content down some. I just used Jif whips when I made it.)
• 6 tbsp. maple syrup (it’s supposed to be REAL maple syrup but that’s difficult and expensive to find in my area, so… Log Cabin won.)
• 1 & 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (I couldn’t find minis in a 6 oz. bag and getting a 12 oz. bag only to use a small fraction of it, thereby leaving the rest lying around in my house like a food grenade is a bad idea. So I opted for the 6 oz. bag of regular sized morsels and put most of it into the recipe.)
• A pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients except the chocolate morsels in a food processor, turn it on, and let it run for a couple of minutes. Then fold the chocolate morsels into the resulting mixture and you’re done!

The texture is a bit grainy (probably because I didn’t peel my chickpeas), peanut buttery, lightly sweet, and surprisingly good. I dipped pretzel snaps into it but it would also work just fine with celery sticks, apple wedges, graham crackers – basically anything that plays nicely with peanut buttery things. After chilling it could easily be rolled into balls and dipped in melted chocolate to make a decent gluten free cookie. With a few minor alterations this recipe could be made vegan.

Here’s a guesstimation of the nutrition info based on my input of the recipe into the Daily Plate:
Makes: 8 servings
Calories: 144
Fat: 3.5 grams
Carbs: 30 grams
Protein: 5.5 grams
Sugar: 11 grams

Is it a worthy dessert for its calorie cost? I think so. It’s pretty satisfying due to the protein content and yet doesn’t tempt me to hork down the entire thing in one sitting. It’s also pretty healthy as desserts go, so I believe I’ll be making this one again. I may even spring it on unsuspecting guests at a party…

Recipe Share: Fridge Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a favorite breakfast of mine. Sometimes I take the time to cook it properly on the stove and add my own flavoring elements, but I also just go for a package of instant now and again. Since it’s hot, it’s a good warm-up breakfast on cold days, but in the summer it’s not quite so refreshing.

This recipe for refrigerator oatmeal is a creamy, lightly sweet, fruity porridge served cold for summer eating. It’s a delicious, hearty and healthy way to start the day. Additionally, I love anything I can prep ahead of time that is ready to grab and go!

Ingredients:

¼ cup rolled oats (not instant)

1/3 cup milk (I used 2%)

¼ cup low-fat Greek yogurt (I used Fage 0%)

1 & ½ tsp. chia seeds

2 tsp. honey (I like locally sourced, raw honey)

½ cup fresh fruit (in this case, fresh cherries & blueberries)

Nutrition (using ingredients listed above and before adding fruit):

Calories: 188

Fat: 5.21 g.

Cholesterol: 0 mg.

Sodium: 54.25 mg.

Carbs: 27.15 g.

Fiber: 3.9 g.

Protein: 12.89 g.

Sugar: 14.25 g.

Instructions:

You mix everything together in a cup sized storage container then leave it in the fridge a minimum of 24 hours. Another great thing about this recipe is it takes only around ten minutes to make. While it’s chilling, the mixture will thicken up, blend together and soften the oatmeal and chia seeds. It looked like this before I tucked it away overnight:

I used the rolled oats as the recipe specified, but I’m curious to try this one with steel cut oats (my favorite kind) and see how it turns out. I’m guessing the oats will be slightly chewy since steel cut requires a lot of cook time to soften up, but I like mine a little chewy (I tend to undercook them for just that reason) so I’m willing to give it a try.

Variations:

Substitute agave nectar, stevia, or artificial sweeteners for honey.

Spice it up with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, flavor extracts, or whatever suits your fancy.
Strawberry basil oatmeal? I’d try it! Spicy cinnamon with vanilla extract? Sounds good to me!

Marketing Dishonesty in Food

Last weekend a friend of mine was visiting from out of town, and when we spotted a frozen yogurt bar next to the restaurant where we had eaten we decided to go there for dessert.  I got nutella and peanut butter twist frozen yogurt, topped with more nutella (MOAR NUTELLA!) and some chocolate chips.

It was a sweet, decadent, delicious treat the likes of which I will have around once every two to three months.  It was fantastic.  I enjoyed every bite.  I regret nothing.

Here’s what I have a problem with:

What I ate last weekend should not under any circumstances be classified as health food.  Trying to bill it as such is dishonest, annoying, and frankly dangerous.  The intentional attempt to mislead consumers into thinking that this gigantic wallop of sugar is a great way to boost your immune system and build strong bones makes me want to beat somebody senseless with a waffle cone.

The truth is that the product I ate contains 22 grams of sugar and 150 calories per half cup.  Since my total serving was probably closer to 1 & ½ cups, that’s 66 grams of sugar and 450 calories and that’s before I dumped more nutella and chocolate chips on top.

It’s okay for a treat to be a treat.  It’s a treat exactly because we don’t and shouldn’t eat that way every day.  I don’t even eat treats like that every week or every month, it’s about a quarterly indulgence and even that is more frequently than is smart to hork down three days’ worth of sugar in a single serving.  It is never smart to eat that much sugar in one go, but I love it and I do sometimes indulge because I’m trying to put food in its proper place in my life rather than continuing to pathologically abstain, obsess, and then binge.

I study food and nutrition so it’s easy for me to recognize that billing a sugar-frosted yogurt bar as health food is a complete crock of horse poo.  However, not everyone has the time or interest level for the kind of research that fascinates me.  They very well might read the signs plastered all over the building about all the healthy calcium and protein and figure that this is not only tasty, but a really wholesome snack.  Let’s stop by every week!  Marketing occasional indulgences with misleading buzzword lines like, “our frozen yogurt contains live and active cultures that promote a healthy lifestyle” is intellectually dishonest and potentially harmful an insane degree.

Processed foods like cereal and granola are hugely guilty of this kind of marketing bait and switch as well, focusing all the words on their packaging on the few vitamins and minerals that were squeezed into a product and relegating the volumes of salt, sugar and fat to a teeny tiny font size on the back.

Refined sugar is delicious and I love desserts that feature it.  I don’t buy into the food hysteria that classifies it as an addictive like crack, cancer-causing, instant obesity inducing substance.  It takes time and repeated, regular indulgence to become overweight – which means that having a froyo when a friend visits or when you’re on vacation (or just because it’s been months and you really want one) is totally fine.  I want delicious treats to be an occasional part of my diet without obsessing over them or lying to myself and classifying them as health food so that I can overindulge on a regular basis.  You can lie to your brain all you want, but your body isn’t going to buy it.

A decadent frozen yogurt bar is good for the soul.  And that's all it has to be.

Delicious? Absolutely! Health food? Absolutely not.

Favorite Food (Fat is Awesome)

This is my favorite food:

I sometimes refer to the avocado as proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.  Lately I've been happily buying up six packs of beautiful gator-pears at Costco for about a buck each.

Recently, my Mom-in-law asked me what foods are good for the brain.  I responded: fat.  I give this response because fat is what your brain cells are made out of, so it’s a logical assumption on my part that eating fat will provide fuel for your brain.

Avocado is my topmost, favorite, super-happy way to eat fat.

Over the years I've had a love/hate relationship with edible fat.  At one point I was firmly on the, “if you don’t want to BE fat, do not EAT fat" bandwagon.  I have since, after better research, gotten off that one.

It was silly of me to get on there in the first place since technically I've known better since I was in my early twenties.  Twice in my life my attempts to force my body to be thin have made me seriously ill.  Most recently I tried giving up food in favor of subsisting only on “health-shakes” with a predictable result that is well documented earlier in this blog.  The short version is that my liver’s response to the diet was: “Nope.”

A decade prior to that, I tried a slightly less drastic seeming (but in retrospect similar) plan where you leave all the food choices up to your consultant and eat only the pre-packaged insta-food that they sell to you (cough*JennyCraig*cough).  I lost weight at first, but since their quickie meals had almost no fat in them my gall bladder was left with nothing to do.  Bored (and undoubtedly angry) it formed stones and had to be removed.

You’d think I would have learned back then that forgoing real, fresh food was a bad idea for me – but sadly I did not.

These days I’m working on dealing with the root mental cause behind my obesity (an eating disorder) and feeding myself with the freshest, most nutritious things I can find, research, and afford.  Avocado is an important part of my dietary choices.

Here is why I love the pebbly green monsters:

1)      They taste awesome.  The avocado often reminds me of a hard-boiled egg yolk for richness and flavor, but it’s even better.  It’s creamy, delicious, and satisfying.  When I take a bite of avocado my brain responds by saying, “mmmm… yes, fatty goodness.”  There is a valid reason why we crave fat and receive a pleasure response for eating it – that’s because we need fat in our diets and it is good for us.

2)      They play nicely with others.  When eaten with other vegetables the oils in avocado actually help your body absorb the nutrients in the other vegetables more effectively too.  Almost every day I eat a big bowl of cut, fresh, raw vegetables.  Adding half an avocado in with the mix and stirring it all up together with a little salt and pepper looks a bit weird, but is 100% better for me (and better tasting) than any salad dressing.

3)      They are so, so good for us.  The fat in an avocado is the kind that a body truly needs.  Cholesterol lowering, triglyceride lowering, blood sugar regulating, heart protecting, yummy yummy fat.  The same type as is found in nuts and olive oils.  Studies show that people who regularly consume avocado tend to weigh less.  The reason why is unknown – my guess is that it’s just because they’re a popular food among health nut types.  However personally, I've noticed that the satisfaction they give me helps me to resist the siren song of fats that are less good for me.  After my avocado salad at lunch I’m feeling pretty sated, so when they roll out the afternoon cake at the office it’s a lot easier for me to avoid it.

The entire fruit contains on average about 235 calories, so I try to eat only a half per day.  However if I slip up and eat the whole thing that’s not a slip I’m going to cry about like I would chowing down on too many potato chips.

In conclusion, if you haven’t had the opportunity to get to know these little beauties I encourage you to give them a try.  Since most people encounter them for the first time as guacamole – here’s my recipe.  Enjoy!

Carolyn’s Guac:

·         4 ripe avocados - diced (Haas avocados are ripe when the skin is very dark green and they give ever so slightly when squeezed)*

·         1 large, ripe tomato – diced

·         ½ red onion – minced

·         2 or 3 garlic cloves – minced

·         1 big handful of chopped fresh cilantro

·         The juice of 1 lime

·         Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Eat with veggie sticks, pita, tortilla chips, or use as a spread on sandwiches.  This is also a great topping for baked chicken or fish.

*Note: Alton Brown refers to the avocado as an “edible food grenade” because once they've been popped open they will oxidize and turn brown very quickly.  The acids in lime juice and tomato will help to slow this process, but if you need to store any extra guacamole make sure you cover it very carefully with a tight layer of saran wrap pressed firmly against the surface. Air is the enemy!

Guest Recipe Share: Eggplant Masala

***Below is a guest post from Sandi, our culinary & cultural explorer-abroad in India***

So, I like eggplant when I’m in the States.  But when I wanted to get an eggplant here in India, I was shocked.  They’re everywhere… little Italian ones, striped, huge bulbous rich purple ones...  I am in eggplant heaven… and I was inspired to figure out how eggplants work in the Indian diet.

I’m lucky enough to have a job where a young woman, Renuka, comes in and helps me out at home (cause I don’t speak but a few words of Hindi, and those in my neighborhood don’t speak but a few words of English).  So I bought a lovely, fresh, farm direct eggplant and I held it up for Renuka.  She inspected it and smiled.  “Ban-ghel masala?  Yes.  Ban-ghel masala,” she said.

Then she did this:

1.Roast the eggplant: Cut the large eggplant in half and slice the insides crossways deeply, without cutting the skin.  Sprinkle with salt (being sure to get salt down into the cuts) and let it sit for 30 minutes.  Squeeze the excess water out gently.  Brush with olive oil.  Put some fresh cilantro on a pan and put the eggplant face down on top of it.  Put the pan in the oven for about an hour at 400 degrees.  Allow to cool just slightly and spoon meat out of the eggplant skin.  Set aside.

2.Chop up green peppers, tomatoes, tiny hot peppers, cilantro and garlic to your taste.  Heat oil in a pan and saute the hot peppers in the oil.  You can leave them in if you like it hot…but take them out (just flavoring the oil) if you just like a little heat.  Then add some garam masala or curry to the oil and stir until it smells awesome.  Saute the chopped veg in the oil until soft, then add the eggplant and saute until blended and heated through.

It’s a squishy mess, but wow… the eggplant is cooling and light and the hot of the pepper is refreshing.  I usually eat it with roti, but I’m going to try it with basmati rice next time.

-Sandi

Recipe Share: White Bean & Escarole Soup

Savory, creamy, a feast for the eyes and filled with garlic flavor - this recipe (courtesy of my Mom, thanks Mom!) is perfect for the last cold gasp of winter.  It packs a lot of healthy, hearty goodness into a low calorie bowl of yum!

Ingredients:

·         2 cups dry cannellini beans (1 bag)

·         4 big cloves of garlic (chopped fine)

·         Escarole (1 nice sized head, chopped and washed)

·         2 tablespoons olive oil

·         1 sweet onion (chopped fine)

·         15 cherry tomatoes (halved)

·         2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

·         Salt to taste

·         Grated parmesan cheese for topping and nice crusty bread to dip

Instructions:
Cover the beans with water and soak overnight.

Rinse soaked beans and put in a pot with garlic.  Add enough water to cover the beans by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low and cook until the beans are tender (about 2 hours).
Boil washed and chopped escarole in 1 quart of water just until wilted.  DO NOT DRAIN.

Heat the oil in a fry pan and add the onion.  Sauté onion until tender and add the tomatoes.  Cook for 2 minutes.  Add the pepper flakes.

Combine all into the bean pot.  Bring soup back to boil and cook for 5 minutes.  Season with salt and more red pepper if you want spicier soup.
Serve with grated cheese and bread.