Spice of the week: Curry

Curry powder isn't really a spice, but a blend of different spices including turmeric and cumin. It has powerful anti-inflammatory properties and is thought to help fight cancer*.

Add curry to your favorite salad dressing, chickpea salads, or soups. It goes well with cauliflower and coconut dishes.

*http://www.naturalnews.com/020189_cancer_Prostate_prostate_cancer.html

Goodbye cold soup

Traveling the past few days and running around in the chilly November air has caused me to catch a cold. Not just any cold, but the kind where your head is too stuffy and congested. My nose is dry from kleenex.

I typically try to get rid of colds by running them out or ignoring them. But that doesn't tend to work. They always catch up with me and force me to slow down.

Sunday, I decided to make a soup to enjoy over the next few days. Not just any soup, but one full of ingredients that will help my body fight this cold. The soup was full of garlic, ginger, turmeric, shallots, jalepeno, leeks, sweet potatoes, kale, and spinach. I picked these whole, nutrient dense foods to help boost my immune system.

Garlic and shallots are superstars for fighting sickness.  They contain allicin, a sulfur compound, that helps fight off sickness.

Including Vitamin C in the diet, also helps the body fight these foreign invaders. I've eaten fresh fruits (bananas, juice, clementines), vegetables (kale, sweet potatoes, leeks, spinach) and booster foods (garlic, turmeric) to help boost my immune system. Rest is another key ingredient in feeling better too.

How do you boost your immune system when you're getting sick?

A Thanksgiving Down South

I traveled to Athens, GA this year for Thanksgiving. I love Athens. A small college town with a liberal vibe, great restaurants like here and here.

This was a special year. There were more mouths to feed than normal, 22 to be exact. I contributed my first two dishes ever, a butternut chickpea salad and garlicky collards with cider gastrique (Thanks Cri!). And it also happened to be my mom's birthday.

This is my plate filled with fresh corn and green beans from Mrs. Goldman's garden, my mom's infamous dressing, sweet potato souffle, cranberry relish, mashed turnips, and my two side dishes. I didn't include a photo of the dessert table: cold pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, italian creme cake or chocolate torte.

I was thankful to be with my family and to share not only a thanksgiving feast, but moments of laughter and conversation across three days. I really enjoyed each morning as everyone gathered in the kitchen still in pajamas, drinking coffee and eating breakfast–homemade fig preserves slathered over peanut butter bagels.

Only 362 days till next year!

A colorful lunch

Yesterday's lunch:
sauteed spinach, broccoli, mushroom, tomatoes with ginger, onion, garlic, & lime and raw radish, carrot, pistachios.

Portion Control: Leafy Greens

Tuesday's tip: A proper serving of leafy vegetables like kale, lettuce, swiss chard, green cabbage or spinach is 1 cup. If you cook or steam these vegetables, the serving size is 1/2 cup. A serving of crunchy vegetables—carrots, broccoli, bell pepper, celery, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cucumber, zucchini—is 1/2 cup.

Your daily intake of both leafy and crunchy vegetables is 2 to 6 servings. This might seem like a lot of food, but when you measure your portions you will see that you might already be consuming this many servings. A diet rich in vegetables is nutrient dense, good for your digestion and immune system.

Portion Control: Nuts

I love munching on nuts when I need a quick energy boost. I keep a small bag of mixed nuts in my purse in case hunger strikes when I'm on the go.

A single serving of nuts or seeds, and other healthy fats, is 2 tablespoons. Keep that in mind as your spoon keeps disappearing into that jar of peanut butter.

Being prepared and bringing your own healthy snacks, eliminates the temptation to reach for a bag of Doritos later. It also lets you control how much you consume. Portion control is difficult in a country that loves to supersize meals, but knowing the accurate serving size can help you from eating too much.

Do you carry snacks with you? If so, do you accurately measure out a single serving?

The humble flaxseed

Flax is an extraordinary seed. Besides being an excellent source of magnesium, fiber, potassium and manganese, it also houses plant lignans. Lignans have been found to help fight against breast cancer.

Flaxseed oil contains more omega-3 essential fatty acid (ALA) than fish oil. Alpha-linolenic acid is thought to reduce heart disease.1


Adding two teaspoons of flax a day is easy and very beneficial. Add flaxseeds to your yogurt with fruit, mix it into smoothies or sprinkle into your homemade muffins or granola.

1(Murray 2005, p 425-427)

Leftovers

Last night I headed to the kitchen, turned up Bonnie Prince Billy, and rolled up my sleeves. I minced a little onion and a lot of garlic. I sauteed them until the aroma was strong and complex, then I mixed in some kale. I soaked black beans all afternoon, cooked them, drained them and dumped them into the pan with the kale. Two large sweet potatoes were baking in the oven with a few small red beets. I removed the greens and beans from the stove, squeezed half a lime over the top and sprinkled cilantro on top. I filled a bowl with greens, beans, and half of a diced up sweet potato.

A delicious protein-packed, nutrient dense meal for one. The sweetness of the potato couples well with the garlicky flavor of the greens. This colorful meal is rich in carotenes, calcium, potassium, vitamin A, fiber and protein.

I can't wait for leftovers today.

Top ten foods of 2009

I stumbled upon this post on Bitten's blog last night. Check out the top ten foods America consumed this past year.

Wow, if this doesn't show you that we (Americans) have a lot to change about our eating habits, I don't know what will.

And, yes that's billions of dollars.

A weekend of soups

Fall is really here. I love how fall slowly transitions to cold weather after the hot & humid NC summer.

Since it was grey and chilly outside, I spent the weekend making soup. I made a Christmas lima bean soup with celery & kale on Saturday and a cumin-spiked carrot soup today. The bean soup is complex, partnering well with a sprinkling of goat cheese. But I like the simplicity of the carrot soup. It would be great with a hunk of rustic bread or ladled over quinoa.

Soups and mineral broths are a great way to get more vitamins, phytonutrients and booster foods into the diet. They are also easy to digest. Since it's flu and cold season, these vegetable rich soups are a great way to keep your immune system strong. They also warm you up on a chilly fall day.