Vegetables - Eat Them

In this post I'm going to share some typical vegetables we have for dinner and how I prepare them. I generally do simple vegetables, so what you are going to read is not going to revolutionize your world of vegetables. I usually prepare them in ways that don't destroy/remove their nutrients such as steaming as opposed to boiling.

Some of the most likely vegetables to find at our table include kale, peas (those two are great combined!), green beans, bell peppers, and carrots. And other loved, but not as common vegetables (due to looking bad or being priced high) include brussel sprouts and fennel. This is not the extent of our veggies, but I don't see a need to list for you every kind of vegetable the grocery store has. I usually prepare kale by doing a quick saute over medium heat in a little bit of butter or oil. Simply heat the butter/oil in the pan for a minute, add the kale, cover, and cook for a few minutes until they are tender (about 8 minutes depending on how hot your pan is). As mentioned previously, mixing peas into this tastes great! Peas by themselves I steam, green beans I steam, and the most common way we eat bell peppers and carrots is raw. Brussel sprouts I either steam or roast, and fennel is almost always roasted (and usually mixed with something like sausage and potatoes : ).

So nothing too exciting as far as vegetables (well, I think kale, peas, and brussel sprouts are pretty exiting!). But the point of this post is to.....well, eat your vegetables! And green smoothies are another great way to do that.

So maybe I've just been out of the loop forever, but does anybody know what this is?! I'll give you a hint:

It's really tasty! : )

Tip for eating more fruit: More clementines bought, more clementines eaten. Buy them!

Menu and Buckwheat Crepe Review

Monday - tuna cakes with a creamy chive sauce
Tuesday - kalamata olive pizza
Wednesday - baked French onion soup
Thursday - probably leftovers from each of the soups
Friday - ordering chinese and watching a movie : ) ....date night!

Let's talk about the buckwheat crepes that Marshall, Olivier, and I made last week. 

I have to admit, I had my doubts about the buckwheat flour. I had no reason to think it would be bad, but I also had no reason to think it would be good. We filled these crepes with smoked salmon, homemade creme fraiche, and chives. I haven't had that much smoked salmon in my life, and I didn't love it the times I had it. And if you don't know this already, creme fraiche is similar to sour cream, and sour cream is not my thing. I open the container in fear, hoping that none of it gets my finger so I'm not in danger of instinctively licking it......okay, I'm sure you get it.

Let me tell you, the buckwheat flour doubter, smoked salmon skeptic, and creme fraiche scaredy cat, these crepes were great! Marshall made the crepes while Olivier and I assembled. Thanks Olivier for directing us in the French ways! : )

So I'll encourage you - go out there and buy some buckwheat flour (which is gluten free by the way). Though at this time I do not have other recipe recommendations for it since I haven't used it for anything else, the crepes alone will make it worth it! I also have only made these savory crepes, but I can't think of any reason they wouldn't be just as good for a sweet crepe.

Oh, and just to make you smile......this is what I ate while writing a few Christmas cards!

What I Ate Last Thursday

Before I share the "real" post, here is a link to the revised Coconut Curry Soup. I only made a couple of small changes, but they were changes nonetheless.

I generally know approximately what I am going to eat in a day. Dinner is basically always planned, breakfast is often planned, and lunch is usually formed in my head some time after breakfast. Having a plan helps me to eat healthy, rather than just eating whatever happens to sound good at the time. I'm kind of a grazer. I eat 3 meals and usually 2-3 snacks in a day. Sine I think it is healthy to eat every 3-4 hours I generally eat smallish meals and small snacks in between meals if I am hungry - "if I am hungry" is the key phrase. I am not a perfect eater, and there are definitely days I just want to snack, snack, snack. But I think the best way to eat is by hunger. Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're hunger is satisfied. Easy to say, not always so easy apply. Anyway, here's a look at my eats!

That gross looking brown stuff in my cute little blue mug was chocolate coffee chia pudding, and just happened to be delicious!...Half an orange and a glass of almond milk.

 I was making cappuccino flats and I just had to taste one : )...though it was not nearly as good as the completed dipped cookie....was still tasty

 Chickpea curry that was given to us by a friend (yummy!) and some bell peppers.

 An apple, Fuji to be exact.

 Passion fruit tea and an apple cinnamon muffin.

I didn't manage to get pictures of my dinner, but it was two soft shell tacos, a few tortilla chips, and some pineapple and orange. This was followed by a piece of cranberry bread.

 I knew what I was going to be eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner today, but I didn't plan my snacks. I didn't know I was going to eat a cookie, and I also didn't know that I was going to make cranberry bread to bring for our Bible study group. Because of those extra baked goods I had a bit more refined sugar than normal, and I also didn't manage to consume as many veggies as normal. But that's life and I have no regrets about eating those yummy baked goods! I'd still consider this a fairly healthy day of eating. And by the way, the next day when those cookies were completed, I had more than 1 and less than 3. Ya know, after consuming a large green smoothie for breakfast : )

Menu and a Recipe

This Sunday I will not be cooking. We're going out to lunch with a couple of friends after church, and then for dinner we will be going out with our neighbors, Bundo and Kyungsun! Can't wait to see Kyungsun after 7 months of missing her while she was in Hong Kong!!!

I have a couple of new recipes for this week that hopefully you will find interesting. I am especially looking forward to the coconut curry soup.

Monday - black bean and black olive cheddar quesadillas
Tuesday - coconut curry soup with tilapia and veggies
Wednesday - buckwheat crepes filled with smoked salmon, homemade creme fraiche, and chives (requested by Olivier, who also found the buckwheat crepe recipe for me!)
Thursday - matzo ball soup (using my homemade turkey broth)
Friday - brats on homemade pretzel buns 

I'll be working on Saturday and don't have a plan yet for Sunday. 

Since I am so excited about this Coconut Curry Soup I thought I'd share the recipe. Though I haven't made this before I am certain that it will be good. And if changes need to be made I will most definitely inform you! This is a recipe that I changed up based on one I found on the Trader Joe's website.

Coconut Curry Soup

2 Tbsp. butter (or coconut oil)
1 small sweet onion, thinly sliced

2 1/2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. Crushed red pepper

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 lb. vegetables of choice (I used broccoli, cauliflower, and snow peas)

2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
2 - 3 cups chicken broth (just depending on how chunky you want it)
1 medium apple, peeled and chopped (or mango)

2 Tbsp. cream or heavy cream (I used coconut cream since I had an open can in the fridge)

2 - 3 raw tilapia fillets, chunked (or 2 cups cooked chicken - if using chicken put it in with the apple so it can heat through)

Salt to taste (if necessary)

Directions

Melt butter in a medium pot. Saute the onion for about 5 minutes on medium heat with the lid on. Add the curry powder, cumin, crushed red pepper, and cinnamon to the pot. Stir to combine, and cook 1 - 2 minutes  or until fragrant. Add the vegetables, coconut milk, and chicken broth, stir, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add the apples and simmer for another 15 minutes. Stir in the cream and place your chunks of tilapia in the soup. Simmer a few minutes until tilapia starts to flake. serve immediately.

P.S. If you like sour cream you should check out the homemade creme fraiche video I linked above! I don't even like sour cream and I am making it : )

Coconut Oil - Are You on the Bandwagon?

To be honest, I have been quite scared of coconut oil for the past few years. Mostly due to the incredibly high amount of saturated that I didn't feel I could justify consuming. After much research, I discovered a few things about a specific fat that is in coconut oil, lauric acid, which encouraged me to give it a try. I am not going into too much detail here about the nutritional benefits or possible drawbacks of coconut oil, but I will mention some things that have been heavily researched and proven to be true. Here are a few of my thoughts and some facts I have found concerning coconut oil....and why it may not be so bad after all.

In 1 tablespoon of coconut oil there are 14 grams of fat and 12 of those are saturated. However, the medium chain fatty acids (some of the saturated fats) are said to reduce LDLs (bad cholesterol) and raise HDLs (good cholesterol). It is specifically the lauric acid which helps to raise HDLs, which is found almost nowhere other than breast milk and coconut oil.

There is also research showing that the process of breaking down these medium chain fatty acids leads to efficient burning of energy, and because of that it can help with weight management.

Due to it's high level of saturated fat it is a much more stable oil than other less saturated oils, and therefore is a good choice to use while doing high heat sauteing. It would be ideal to use this instead of olive oil which will have destroyed nutrients and become carcinogenic if heated too hot. However, I don't want everything to taste like coconut, and I do still use olive oil for some high temp cooking. 

It is also fabulous for your skin and hair. 

These facts started settling in with me, and I also started to realize that I was being stubborn about not using it. You may be wondering what I mean by this. Maybe the following paragraph will help answer that question for you...

My nutrition philosophy in a hazelnut shell is everything in moderation. Basic, yet so useful. Meat? Good! Veggies? Good! Would either be a good source to get all of your calories from? No way! Peanut butter? Fantastic! Dark chocolate? Divine! Could I survive if that's all I ate? Maybe longer than some people, but no! And if I didn't eat a piece of pecan pie on Thanksgiving and start making Christmas cookies today I'd be depriving Marshall and me. So in other words - if I'll eat pecan pie and cookies than why not some coconut oil? Christmas cookies don't have much to brag about nutritionally (unless I'm WAY out of the loop) and coconut oil has a whole bunch of pros falling on his side (yes, coconut oil is a boy), so why not give it a try?

I purchased my first jar recently, so I'm not very experienced, but here are some of the ways I use it.

Makeup remover, moisturizer, I will be using it in my next batch of homemade body soap, POPPING POPCORN!!!!, and greasing muffin cups. I look forward to trying it in a couple of my muffin recipes as well.

Have you jumped on the coconut oil bandwagon yet? I would say that I'm not really on the bandwagon.....I'm hanging on the side, reaching in with my finger tips, deciding if I should jump on, jump off, or hang right there in between. For now I am happy in between....consuming in moderation.