Nutrition and Nutrients Archives | Page 5 of 7

Spicy Pumpkin Vegetable Chili

October 20, 2008

A few weeks ago I came across a recipe for Fall Vegetable Chili in the October issue of Good Housekeeping. It looked really interesting and I thought I’d give it a try.

Then I started thinking about the different ingredients and some I also had in the fridge so I ended up making some major changes. First, I really wanted to experiment with some pumpkin. I also had some black beans on hand and chopped zucchini leftover from last night.

So this is what I came up with. What makes it a little different than some of the pumpkin chili I’ve come across is that I kept the pumpkin pieces pretty solid. I didn’t want them to be roasted first and turn into mush. I liked the chunky veggies. They gave it a good texture. I also like my chili really spicy.

It made a filling, fall-inspired lunch for my day. It takes a little time with the challenge of chopping up the pumpkin, but it is worth it.

Spicy Pumpkin Vegetable Chili

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 ½ cups fresh pumpkin (no seeds or skin), chopped into small pieces
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced
1 ½ cups zucchini, chopped
½ medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2-3 Tbsp. spicy chili powder
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
½ cup water
1 ½ cups black beans, pre-soaked and cooked (no canned in these parts, but use them if you have them)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in soup pot, add pumpkin. Cook about 5 minutes. Then add carrot, zucchini, onion and garlic. Cook about 5 minutes more, until veggies begin to brown.

Add chili seasoning, cook an additional minute; add tomatoes and water. Simmer covered for 5 to 10 minutes or until veggies reach desired tenderness.

Using a fork, mash ½ cup of black beans. Add the 1 cup of whole beans and ½ cup mashed beans to the chili. Continue to cook 2 to 3 minutes more, heating the beans. Salt and pepper to taste. Makes about 4 servings.

I have a question. Anyone out there eat their chili with a scoop of peanut butter?

I used to eat it with a PB sandwich when I was a kid, dipping the sandwich in the chili. I think the habit started because the standard school cafeteria meal on chili day always included a PB sandwich.

As I got older I skipped the bread and just starting putting a spoonful of PB on the side of the bowl and mixing in a bit with each bite. I love it!

Arugula and Sun-dried Tomatoes

October 17, 2008

The combination of arugula and sun-dried tomatoes has become like peanut butter and chocolate to me. Well, okay, not exactly on the same level, but they go really well together.

There is something about the bitterness of the green with the sweet of the tomato that is like a party in your mouth. The combo is huge here in Brazil. You can find it in almost every form – pizza, crepe, sandwiches.

Many sandwich shops make a spread with sun-dried tomatoes and cream cheese. It is one of my favorites so I set out to try and re-create it to could control the amount of cream cheese and enjoy it more often.

I found just a little of the spread with a lot of greens makes it a healthier option. Using whole grain bread would help too, but this time around I stuck with a fresh baguette. I made just a single serving, but you could easily use a whole block of cream cheese and add the desired amount of each ingredient if you are feeding a group or turning it into an appetizer.

Sun-dried Tomato Spread

2-4 tbsp cream cheese, depending on how you want to control kcals and fat
2 tbsp white or yellow onion, chopped
2 large sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Toss the ingredients in a mini-food processor or use an immersion blender to combine well. If you like a chunkier texture, feel free to leave everything as is and just stir together.

Arugula and Sun-dried Tomato Sandwich

¼ average size baguette, split
1 cup arugula leaves, washed
Sun-dried Tomato Spread

I think you can figure out the instructions from here. Just put the sandwich together and enjoy a great meal that is easy to make with simple, yet powerful flavors. Not to mention that you’ll have a least one serving of dark, leafy greens for the day.

Açaí: The Real Thing

October 10, 2008

I had something incredibly interesting last night that I just have to share with my fellow health advocates so today I’m going to back to my ‘foods of Brazil’ theme.

You’ve probably heard about açaí a million times by now. I saw infomercials for it in the States last June and I think I get a spam email about Oprah and açaí in my junk mail box at least three times a week.

People go crazy over this little berry from the Amazon with its antioxidants, essential fatty acids (similar to that of olive oil) and its essential amino acid complex. It is a major powerhouse when it comes to healthy food.

Despite the fact that I am pretty far south in Brazil, it is quite the craze here as well. I’ve had the opportunity to try it in 100% juice form and mixed with other fruits. My favorite is açaí and grape juice.

Last night I got to try it in a way I never had before. It is becoming increasingly popular to eat açaí in a tigela. This is simply açaí in a bowl. They just opened a restaurant here that specializes in these treats along with juices and many fruits from the north of Brazil.

I’ve tried to figure out a way to describe eating açaí like this. The consistency is like a thick milk shake. In my selection a huge bowl of fruit – grapes, strawberries, bananas, kiwi, mango, apple, star fruit and chunks of coconut – were covered in the açaí and topped with granola.

It has to be one of the most interesting things I have ever tried. I wish I could find another word for ‘interesting,’ but I’m not sure how else to describe it. It was complex, yet simply amazing. I loved it!

There is so much açaí in it that the pigment turns your mouth practically black. Is it possible to overdose on natural antioxidants? If so, I think I probably came pretty close to the limit.

My Portuguese is awful, but the friend I was with inquired about how the açaí mixture was made. It turns out the pulp of the berries is mixed with organic sugar and guarana syrup.

In case you aren’t familiar guarana is another berry from the Amazon that contains about five times as much caffeine as coffee! There is actually a soft drink named for it that is popular here.

Considering I had my tigela at 5:00pm I didn’t sleep so well last night. I’m thinking it should really be a breakfast food.

Oh, the juice next to my bowl in the picture is cashew juice. I honestly had no idea that the cashew nut actually came from a fruit until I visited Brazil. Maybe I’ll cover that in my next ‘foods from Brazil’ post.

My Evolving Love for Avocado

October 8, 2008

I think my first encounter with an avocado was in guacamole from Taco Bell. Ugh! Its green color and slimy texture, the thought of it even makes me cringe today.

It was at that point that I decided I didn’t like guacamole or avocados.

Fortunately I became a little more open minded as I grew up and I started to get interested in the stuff when I learned that people actually make their own guacamole. Hooray! I wasn’t locked into eating that which came out of a pump at fast food restaurants.

Lately I’ve found that I use avocado a lot. I like it on sandwiches, chopped on my salads and I too make my own guacamole. Extra chunky though, I like it to have lots of texture.

I am glad that most of us are past our fear of the fat in avocado. It was one of those good-for-you things that the fat-free craze scared a lot of us away from.

An avocado is loaded with healthy fatty acids that have actually been shown to lower bad cholesterol (LDL) and raise good cholesterol (HDL). They are also full of potassium, folate and vitamin E.

Okay, enough of the healthy, yet boring stuff. Let me tell you why they came to mind this week.

I have felt the need to branch out of my traditional ways of using avocado and look for some new recipes. I had marked a recipe from an Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine from over a year ago. I finally decided to give the Avocado Salad with Cumin-Lime Dressing a try.

I was pleasantly surprised. It is super simple and it tasted so great! I’m always trying to figure out what kind of a side to have with tacos and this salad would be perfect. The cumin gives it a tex-mex flavor.

Instead of iceberg lettuce I used cabbage which made it a little crunchier and more like a slaw. I’d also plan to eat it within a few hours of making it. The moisture doesn’t hold up well in the fridge.

Any favorite avocado combos you want to share?

Goiaba

September 30, 2008

I thought I’d revisit my promise to introduce more of the Brazilian produce I’ve come to enjoy. Today I thought I’d talk about goiaba (pronounce goy-aba), known in English as guava.

Guava is a popular ingredient in Brazil. Almost every menu will have a dessert option that involves guava. In this case it is usually the goiabada which is like a thick jam. Of course, it is full of sugar, but very tasty.

I have had the opportunity to buy fresh guava and I do so every few weeks. Guava is a fruit that is pink on the inside and is covered by a thin green skin which is edible. The texture is probably closest to a kiwi, or somewhere between a peach and an apple. The little seeds inside, also edible, are like Grapenuts cereal.

While the fruit has a distinct musty smell it is hard to describe the flavor except for unique. It isn’t overly sweet or sour. Many people slice guava into quarters and eat each section as a fresh fruit.

To be honest, I don’t really like guava fresh like this. There is something about the flavor of the skin and those crunchy nuts that I can’t get used to eating.

I have found one way I like it though – juiced so I can drink it. Putting the guava through the juicer produces a really thick pulp. I add a little water to it and maybe a ¼ teaspoon of sugar.

Earlier this year when I was looking around the USDA web-site I found some interesting information. Yes, the nutrition dork that I am and considering the fact that I worked for a USDA grant funded program for a while, I do search around there for the latest research.

What I found out was that when it comes to antioxidants – Blueberries #1 and Guava #2.

US and Thai researches determined that guava packs an amazing amount of antioxidants. What is even more exciting is that farmers in south Florida are experimenting with the crop. We’ll still have the pesky transport issue to deal with, but this might mean more availability of guava in the U.S. You can read more about the research here.

One thing I found to be funny in the article is this line, “…to meet rising consumer demand for unusual fruits.”

I think “unusual fruit” is a bit of a relative term. Not sure why it caught my attention. Probably the whole living abroad thing has made me more sensitive to these little things.

If you asked someone who has it readily available to them, I doubt they would call it unusual. Maybe exotic, delicious or healthy would be a better term. Looks to me like they were being a little non-PC with their produce talk!

P.S. Being south of the Equator it took me a little longer, but I got my foodbuzz packet last night. This stuff is great!!

Both Ends of the Spectrum

September 26, 2008

It seems that at any given time what one part of the population is fighting for, another part is fighting against.

Take food labels and nutritional information for example. For a long time those of us who are concerned about the health of our nation and our families have supported the fact that this information be made public so we can all make informed decisions. This is especially true for those not-so-healthy places that like to hide their nutrition info a bit.

Well this article originally posted in the Harvard Crimson tells the other side of the story.

By the way, how cool would it to be to write for a college newspaper and have CNN pick it up. Well, then again, she goes to Harvard so maybe it isn’t such a big deal. She’s probably already used to a lot of success and exposure!

The article talks about how parents have requested that nutrition information for dining hall foods be taken down from the hallways and dining rooms.

The reason? It contributes to the struggle of those with eating disorders.

I like to know what is in my food, but I have thought about this issue a lot. First, I think it is great that the school made the effort to supply the info. However, now I can definitely see how this is a concern for people who struggle with eating disorders especially in an atmosphere where the rates of such conditions are so high.

Those disorders aside, sometimes I think they can even have an influence on those of us who try to be healthy in general. It is so easy to become obsessed with food whether it is in a manner where you eat a lot of unhealthy stuff or if you are to the point where you are overly concerned with the nutritional benefit.

I consider thinking about food all the time to be a bit unhealthy. Enjoy food, yes, but constantly thinking about its benefit, burning the calories off, what will hurt and won’t hurt me can be considered a somewhat unhealthy relationship.

Well, and let’s be honest. Sometimes you just want to indulge a bit. In those cases, when it comes to nutrition information, I don’t wanna know!

So how do you feel about posting nutrition information and its influence on our relationships with food?

Baby Cranberries

September 22, 2008

Well, okay, they aren’t actually baby cranberries, but are part of the cranberry family.

I love cranberries and when I was introduced to the lingonberry I fell in love with it too. It is grown in areas such as Denmark, Sweden and Finland which does explain why I first discovered the fruit at IKEA.

In my research I did find that they are grown in some parts of Alaska and in the US are often referred to as the cowberry. They really do look like mini cranberries.

Lingonberries are often made into preserves or sweet sauces. To be honest, this is the only way I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy them. Lingonberry preserves have that tart flavor that you associate with a cranberry yet there is a unique taste that is difficult to explain. I often use it as a sandwich spread or on top of breakfast foods like French toast.

I don’t see it around much so when I make it to an IKEA I always get a jar of their preserves. Aside from the sugar there aren’t an excessive amount of additives in each jar.

What sparked my interest in writing about lingonberries today is that while doing some research for a paper on omega-3 fatty acids I saw them listed as a source.

It turns out that the seeds of these little gems contain the omega-3s. It is often listed right up there with flaxseed.

I find this very exciting! I’m always looking for additional sources besides my salmon. Now wait! There’s a good idea. Grilled salmon with lingonberry sauce. Yum!

Top photo courtesy of WikimediaCommons

Links to a Healthy Weekend

September 20, 2008

Most weeks tend to go fast for me, but this one went incredibly fast for some reason. I’m still trying focus on Friday and it is already Saturday. Here is a little of what I enjoyed reading this week.

There is all kinds of talk about fall food around web – apples, pumpkins, sweet taters. Given my recent interest in the latter, these Turkish Sweet Potato & Apricot Rolls from Eating Out Loud look incredible. A new way to enjoy what is often just a holiday favorite.

I found this post about coconut oil on the Nourishing Gourmet and I was amazed, to say the least. I’ve always been leery of the amount of saturated fat in coconut products, even though I love them. There is some really thought provoking information provided regarding its health benefits and I’m planning to follow up with some research of my own this weekend.

Back in Skinny Jeans provided some info on what worked for her when it came to breaking free of the diet soda death grip.

Photo of Parque Barigui, Curitiba-PR, Brasil

Butter for Baked Goods

September 19, 2008

In the past I used margarine for all my baking. It was supposed to be better for you and it was cheaper. What could be better?

Of course, there was the healthy peer-pressure (or guilt). Butter? You are using butter? Oh no!

Then down the pipe came the trans fat awareness efforts. Saving a few extra bucks wasn’t worth all this newly recognized deadly fat.

There’s a lot of debate about the butter vs. margarine thing especially since a Harvard School of Public Health study linked hydrogenated-fatty acid (margarine) use to heart attacks in women a few years ago. Most likely due to the trans fats which have been found to raise LDL cholesterol and lower HDL. A very bad senerio.

I found this from a Harvard HEALTHBEAT pub in 05:

The truth is, there never was any good evidence that using margarine instead of
butter cut the chances of having a heart attack or developing heart disease.
Making the switch was a well-intentioned guess, given that margarine had
less saturated fat than butter, but it overlooked the dangers of trans fats.

Wow, I wonder how many other things that are marketed as good for us are guesses. Sugar replacers, HFCS maybe.

In recent years, I’ve gotten back to butter when it comes to baking. One reason is because many original recipes I have from the past call for butter. I think it yields a better product, more like it is supposed to be. It tastes better to me and if you are going to splurge you should truly enjoy your food.

Margarine is really a fake food because of all the processing it has gone through. Sometimes it is tempting to pick it up to save a buck. Yes, I am very budget conscious, but I always change my mind.

Now when it comes to fat, there is no question that olive oil and other veggie oils are superior for health. When it comes to baking though, over the past few years I’ve gone back to butter.

Like anything else with saturated fat, overdoing it is not a good thing. But if you are making your own baked goods and know exactly what goes into them, to me, it is fine in moderation if you are a healthy person and eat animal products.

Photo by ronnieb, www.morguefile.com

A Passion for Fruit

September 17, 2008

When I was starting out with my food blog I had a mission to try and keep it separate from my Brazil blog.

As most of you know, I am living abroad and while I spend some time in the US, more of my time at the current moment is spent here in Brazil.

I started thinking about it though and I have exposure to some pretty cool ingredients here, especially fruits. I thought maybe others might like to see a little bit of what I have around.

Plus, I don’t know where all my readers are from so maybe you have access to some of these things too.

So, every now and then I might mention an ingredient or two that I have come to love here in Brazil. I’ll let you know what I do with it too.

What better place to start than with my favorite fruit, Passion Fruit, or Maracujà.
I love anything and everything made with this tart exotic treat that is known for its calming properties. You can find it fresh, juiced and as a dessert such as cake or mousse.

Around here it is guarana for energy and maracujà for sleep.

I haven’t personally noticed it making me sleepy, but I’m a pretty caffeinated person on a regular basis so maybe I am overriding its affects.

I’ve mostly found the yellow variety here. There is a purple variety, but it is more common in Australia. I’ve seen the purple on occasion, but have never tried it.

Its little black seeds are edible, pack some fiber and they add a great crunch to yogurt. I like to mix the fruit pulp and seeds in with vanilla yogurt.

A few months ago I went to a yoga with a friend. The instructor gave us tea made with passion fruit after class.

She explained the recipe to my friend, however, being true to her yoga, she was a bit of free spirit and we couldn’t get exact instructions. One thing we did discover is that there is no actual tea in it. You just drink it warm like a tea.

I’ve managed to recreate it and I have it almost every week. If you have access to passion fruit give it a try with this tea or mixed in your yogurt. It might become your favorite fruit too.

About 5 cups of water
¼ c sugar
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, cut into small pieces
1 passion fruit

Use some of the water and the sugar to make a simple syrup. To a large pot add the remaining water, simple syrup, ginger and pulp from the passion fruit. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Your house will smell awesome by the way!

Pour the liquid through a strainer or colander to separate the pulp and seeds from the liquid. Enjoy it warm in your favorite mug.