Further gluten-free stuff
Posted by kathryn in Health News, Blogging and Gluten-free
And if you do have a problem with gluten, have a look at one of my favourite blogs: Gluten-Free Girl . Shauna’s blog is one of the most beautifully written that I’ve come across. She’s based in the States, so some of the brands aren’t available here, but her blog is packed full of thoughts, recipes and information about living, cooking and eating gluten free. There are also links to a whole lot of other gluten-free sites and resources.
If you're in Melbourne: gluten-free food show
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Gluten-free
Melbourne is having its first ever gluten-free and wheat-free food show – what a great idea! It’s a public Food Expo showcasing only gluten free foods with about 100 exhibitors.
Melbourne Exhibition Centre
9.00-5.00pm
Saturday 12th August.
For more details go to the website: www.coeliac.com.au .
Sustainable fish
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and Sustainablity
As part of the Christmas menu I’ve been planning and testing over the last couple of days, I’ve been researching which are the best fish to use, in terms of sustainability. While Australia has a vast fishing area, as with other countries, our fish stocks are being rapidly depleted. Many of the fish on sale are from over-fished stocks, or have not been caught in a sustainable way.
I found a good article on the ABC’s website. It includes a list of the fish to avoid and which are better choices. The article is based on information from the Australian Marine Conservation Society, which has produced a sustainable seafood shopping guide.
Lentil & barley soup
Posted by kathryn in All In A Day's Work, Recipes: vegan, Recipes: legumes and Recipes: soups
I’ve had a rather strange time the last two days. It’s cold, wet and windy in Sydney, but I’ve been working on Christmas recipes for one of the magazines I write for. So while I’m planning and testing recipes using asparagus, mango, strawberries and other lovely summer foods, I’m also rugged up at home with the heaters on. The summer ingredients are beautiful, but all I want is soup.
I’ve finished the batch of lentil soup I made the other week and rather than repeat that, I decided to make a slightly different recipe and add some barley.
Barley is great in soups, to bulk up the contents and add some extra nutritional value. It’s very much a winter food, easy to use and a little goes a long way. I often add a few handfuls to soups and stews. Adding some barley improves the protein value of the soup. It also contains soluble fibre, which is linked to lowering cholesterol levels, particularly LDL cholesterol. Barley has low levels of a number of minerals including magnesium, phosphorous, potassium and zinc.
Lentil & Barley Soup
Serves 6
This soup is made in a similar way to a dal, in that you cook the lentils and then add a tarka of popped spices at the end. The list of ingredients is quite long, but it’s another recipe you can make while doing other things – for most of the time it just needs an occasional stir. It also freezes well.
- 1 large onion, finely sliced
- 1 carrot, finely diced
- 2 sticks celery, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
- 1cm fresh ginger, finely sliced
- 1 small bird’s eye chilli
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 200g brown lentils (1 heaped cup)
- 120g barley
- 1 tin tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- fresh parsley and lime wedges to serve
Pour a couple of glugs of olive oil into a large saucepan and put over a medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, ginger and chilli, plus a small pinch of salt and stir to combine. Turn the heat down low and put the lid on the pan. Leave to sweat, stirring occasionally for 5 – 7 minutes.
Add the bay leaf, turmeric, lentils and barley, stir and allow to cook for another 2 – 3 minutes. Add in the tomatoes and 2 litres of water. Bring to the boil, turn the heat down low, partially cover and leave to gently simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in a small saucepan. When hot put in the mustard seeds, about 2 seconds later add the cumin seeds and the coriander after another 5 seconds – let it pop and fizz for about 10 seconds, then add to the soup. Stir the soup to mix and leave for about 5 minutes before serving, to let all the flavours combine. Check the seasoning at this stage.
Serve with fresh parsley sprinkled over the top and some wedges of lime to squeeze into the soup.
Quit coughing, sneezing and whingeing
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Seasonal Health
It’s been cold and wet in Sydney the last couple of days and while we need the rain, it’s definitely not the sort of weather most Sydney-siders like.
So it’s a good time for the NSW Transport Minister to launch a winter health initiative – encouraging people to limit coughing and sneezing on public transport. Sounds simplistic, but most of the winter lurgies are spread by droplet infections – ie by tiny particles that are projected far and wide every time we cough and sneeze and catching the bus, ferry or train to work can be an ideal environment for this.
To avoid spreading winter viruses the Minister advises:
“If you’re feeling crook, take steps to look after yourself as well as those around you”
In other words, as well as “washing your hands more often”/blog/2006/06/29/winter-wellness-tips-to-avoid-colds-flus, if you’re sick stay at home and if you’re coughing and sneezing use a hanky or tissue to limit the spread of viruses.
How much will Australians pay for a banana?
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and Fruit
Given the horrendous price of bananas in Australia following tropical cyclone Larry, Chris&Craig at Triple J have decided to sell a banana on ebay – bids are currently up to $275! (All money is going to SIDs).
For those not quite up to that budget, banana prices are set to climb even more over the next few weeks as the weather cools in Coffs Harbour. Yep they’re going higher than the current $13 – $15 per kilo. However prices should start coming down in September / October when the Queensland fruit supply begins again.
Healthy eating club website
Posted by kathryn in Health News and A Balanced Diet
I’ve been looking through the Healthy Eating Club website over the past few days. I do find all the blinking and flashing graphics somewhat annoying, but if you can get past them there’s some good information.
The club/website was started by Professor Mark Wahlqvist, who is Director of the Asia Pacific Health & Nutrition Centre at Monash University and has written a number of the leading nutrition texts.
There’s lots of information and resources including a long list of nutrition fact sheets, recipes and I particularly like the downloadable food pyramid which you can use to assess your own diet.
Housekeeping
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
I’ve been doing a bit of housekeeping with my recipe categories. Before they were all lumped together in one group, but it’s obvious that’s not going to work. Instead I’ve seperated them out into different groupings like main dishes, 15 minute recipes, soups, salads and so on.
Hopefully this more is more useful for everyone.
5 food myths
Posted by kathryn in Food Labelling, A Balanced Diet, Weight loss, Fruit, Kid's nutrition and Food & Health Myths
Potato chips are a better snack than biscuits
I saw the report of this misconception in the weekend herald – because they’re made from a vegetable, potato chips are a better snack. While biscuits are in now way an ideal snack, potato chips are worse. They’re chock-a-block full of fat, with a 50g packet containing about 15g of fat and just over 1,000 kJ. Most plain biscuits are lower than this, a fat free yoghurt is about 400kJ, while an apple is 300kJ – much better options.
Don’t eat watermelon if you’re trying to lose weight
This is one I’ve been hearing a bit lately and I think stems from its high GI (72). However watermelon is 92% water and only about 5% carbohydrate, so despite its high GI, you’d have to eat a lot to negatively impact your blood sugar levels. Instead it’s low in kJ and a fine food to eat anytime, even when you’re trying to lose weight.
Chicken is lower in fat than red meat
Sorry, not always true – most trim cuts of lamb and beef have about the same amount of fat as chicken, while trim pork is much lower and kangaroo is lower again. Lamb, pork and beef also have higher mineral contents, particularly iron and zinc.
Coco Pops are a healthy breakfast for kids
Please, no . . . despite their extensive advertising budget and despite the fact it’s fortified with a whole range of vitamins and minerals (including calcium, zinc, B1, B2), Coco Pops are still 36% sugar. A 30g serve will contain about 11g of sugar. It also has a high GI, so it won’t keep your kids going for long. A couple of slices of wholegrain toast with honey or jam is a much better option.
Light olive oil is lower in fat
Nope, light olive oil contains exactly the same amount of fat and total kilojoules as extra virgin olive oil. The word light refers to the colour and flavour – ie it has a blander / softer taste and is a lighter colour than other olive oils.
End of rant :-)
Harissa & Lablabi
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Blogging, Recipes: 15 minute, Recipes: main dishes, Recipes: legumes, Recipes: soups and Recipes: eggs
One thing I love about blogs is the way they connect people. Different countries and cultures share interests and experiences via blogs. For example in the food blogging community there are a whole series of events, where participants cook and photograph food, all based around a theme.
One of these food blogging events is called the Spice is Right and it’s hosted by Barbara at Tigers&Strawberries. The latest theme ingredient is chillies and this is my entry.
Chillies are an incredibly widely used spice and there are hundreds of varieties of chilli, which all vary in strength, heat, size and appearance. According to Ian Hemphill there is evidence that Mexican Indians were eating chillies as far back as 7,000 BC, making them among the oldest plants cultivated in the Americas.
As a herbalist, chillies have an interest and importance beyond their culinary use. Chilli has distinctive and strong medicinal qualities and is used in Western herbal medicine, in the treatment of a wide variety of conditions. Chillies have a powerful effect on the circulation – just think about how hot you can feel when eating a dish with chillis in: your nose runs, you can become a bit flushed and you might need to take off a layer of clothing.
In clinic I frequently use chilli in people with colds and chronic sinus or hayfever problems. Chilli reduces inflammation, and thins down viscous mucous helping to clear out congestion and drain the sinuses. It also improves blood supply to the upper respiratory tract, bringing vital nutrients and immune system factors to that area, so that finally people can breath again.
Most herbs I use in clinic have to be prescribed at quite a large dose to get a therapeutic effect – more than you would normally use in cooking. However chilli is only needed in tiny doses to get a medicinal effect, so it really does fall into the category of food as medicine.
For this month’s Spice is Right I’ve made up a batch of harissa – I love this hot and spicy sauce and find it a useful ingredient to have in the cupboard. Made with a mixure of fresh chillis, fresh coriander, garlic and spices, it packs a real punch. One batch goes a long, long way and can be added to pasta sauces, salad dressings, stirfries, soups and stews – anywhere that you want to add instant oomph.
After making my harissa I then used a couple of spoonfuls to make Lablabi a North African chickpea soup. I’ve recenly discovered Lablabi and am in serious danger of becoming addicted to it. If you have harissa and some cooked / tinned chickpeas to hand, this soup only takes about 15 minutes. So it’s an easy dinner that is flavour-packed and full of nutrition.
Harissa
You could use ground coriander, cumin and caraway in this recipe, although if you’re going to the trouble of making harissa it only takes a few more minutes to dry roast and grind the whole seeds.
This makes a lot of harissa and it can be stored for a few months in a glass jar, covered with a film of oil.
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
- 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
- 250g fresh red chillies, roughly chopped
- 1 head of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon dried mint
- 1/2 bunch fresh coriander
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 – 3 tablespoons olive oil
Dry fry the seeds (coriander, caraway and cumin) in a pan until you can smell the wonderful aromas coming from the seeds and being careful not to burn them (about 2 minutes). Bash them into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle.
Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor. Add enough olive oil to make a stiff paste.
Lablabi
Serves 2
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- 2 cups cooked chick peas
- 2 teaspoons harissa
- 2 slices sourdough bread, broken into small pieces
- 2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons coriander leaves, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon capers
- 2 soft boiled eggs
Simmer stock, chickpeas and harissa together for 10 minutes. Remove about 1/4 the soup and blend the rest together. Re-mix the removed quarter of soup back into the pan.
Divide bread, herbs, capers and eggs between 2 bowls.
Ladle the soup over and drizzle with olive oil. Serve immediately.
How to cook lovely, lovely legumes
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Recipes: vegan, A Balanced Diet and Recipes: legumes
So having talked about why legumes are so good for you, it’s time to post about how to cook them. While tinned beans and lentils are really convenient and I always have some in the cupboard, soaking and cooking them from scratch is definitely cheaper. It also means you can cook the legumes to exactly the texture and taste that you want – whether that be soupy or more crunchy. Cooked legumes freeze really well, so I always make more than I need.
Categories:
- lentils – green, brown and Puy lentils
- beans – chickpeas, red kidney beans, lima beans, black-eyed beans, haricots, adzukis, and so on
- split peas and beans, also known as dals, eg mung dal, split red lentils, chana dal
Basic principles:
- Most legumes available in Australia are pretty clean, although I would still advise you to wash and pick over them before using.
- Beans need to be soaked before cooking, while lentils and dals don’t. The soaking reduces their cooking time, ensures more even cooking and it destroys some of the flatulence-causing oligosaccharides.
- Do not add salt to the cooking beans until near the end.
- Once the legumes are cooking, partially cover them with a lid. Don’t fully cover them, as they tend to boil over really easily.
- Legumes roughly triple in bulk when they are cooked, so you’ll need a big pan and don’t go too crazy with your quantities.
- The cooking times below are rough guides only, the quality and freshness of dried beans varies enormously, which affects their cooking time.
How to cook lentils:
For every 200g of lentils you’ll need about 600ml of water. Put this in a large saucepan over a high heat and bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and partially cover. Cook for about 20 minutes for salads, 30 – 35 mins for main dishes and at least 40 mins for soups. Add salt towards the end of the cooking time.
How to cook beans:
Whole beans need to be soaked before cooking, there are two options for this:
- Overnight soaking – put the washed beans into a bowl and cover with water. The water should cover the beans by at least 10cm. Leave for at least 8 hours or overnight.
- Quick-soak method – the quick-soak method is my favourite, as I slightly prefer the texture of the final cooked bean, although the term “quick” is only really in comparison to the overnight method! Put the washed beans in a large-ish saucepan and cover with water so the beans are covered by at least 10cm. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 2 – 3 minutes. Turn the heat off, cover the pan and then leave the beans in the water for 1 hour.
To cook, drain the soaked beans put in a large pan and cover with plenty of water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and then partially cover. If white froth forms on the top of the water then spoon it out. Simmer for between 45 mins and 1.5 hours – yes, seriously the cooking time can vary this much depending on the type of bean, the freshness and what consistency you want. Season with salt about 10 minutes before the cooking is finished. Drain the beans and then they’re ready to use.
How to cook split peas (dals):
Like lentils, split peas don’t need to be soaked before cooking. They can be used in soups and to make dal.
For every 200g of dried split peas you need about 1 litre of liquid. Put the washed peas and water into a large-ish saucepan and bring to the boil. Spoon out any froth that forms on the top, turn the heat down and leave to simmer, partially covered. As the split peas cook they will disintegrate until you’re left with a soupy-stew.
Lovely, lovely legumes
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet and Recipes: legumes
I’ve been cooking and eating a lot of legumes recently. That’s pretty normal for me and something I often encourage my clients to do. Most people would benefit from eating more legumes.
What’s a legume?
Legumes or pulses are a group of foods that include lentils, chick peas, soya beans, red kidney beans and broad beans. They come from the pods of plants in the leguminosae family – hence the name legumes and are the seeds of these plants.
Why are they good for you?
As seeds they are packed full of goodness. All the stuff the new plant needs to grow big and strong – so they’re a really good source of nutrients. Legumes contain:
They’re also strongly linked with improved life expectancy and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
What about the gas?
Lots of people don’t eat legumes because they’re worried about bloating and gas. This is particularly true if you’ve seen Blazing Saddles.
To reduce this, try eating them with fresh herbs and spices – mint, rosemary, coriander, fennel which all have a calming effect on the digestive system.
How to prepare them
Dried beans take a while to prepare and need soaking overnight – I’ll write a post tomorrow on how to cook legumes.
In contrast lentils don’t require soaking and cook much more quickly (about 30 – 40 mins).
Tinned beans and lentils are available and easy to use.
How much to eat
Try to have 2 – 3 servings of legumes per week.
To get more legumes into your diet, why not:
Folate and neural tube defects
Posted by kathryn in All In A Day's Work, The Micronutrients and Folate
I have been talking today about folate – what it’s used for, why we need it, where we get it from and so on. My next article in Wellbeing magazine is also on folate.
Folate is one of the B vitamins (B9), which we all need, it’s integral to DNA replication, cell growth and repair, as well as the formation of red blood cells.
Folate is found in a wide variety of foods including lentils and legumes, green leafy vegetables, liver, rice, beetroot, parsnips, asparagus, cauliflower, sunflower seeds, sprouted mung beans, corn, oranges.
Folate is particularly important for pregnant women, for preventing a group of birth defects called neural tube defects. Most of the women I see in clinic for pre-pregnancy care know they need to take folate, but not many know why they’re taking it. More significantly, very few of them know when folate is needed. For the purpose of preventing neural tube defects, folate is needed between days 25 – 29 of pregnancy. This is before most women know they’re pregnant, in fact it’s about the time most have realised their period is late and are doing the home pregnancy test.
So you need to start taking folate before you’re pregnant and you really do need to take a supplement. For avoiding pregnancy the recommended daily intake is 400mcg of folate per day. However, we only absorb 50% of the folate from the foods we eat, which means you need to eat about 800mcg of folate per day and this is a big ask.
The Choice website have some more information about folate which includes a personal folate counter . This is quite a useful tool, although it doesn’t seem to allow for the fact that you only absorb half of the folate in the foods you eat so remember that when you’re looking at your results. There’s also a really long list of all the foods that contain folate, per common measure on the US department of agriculture’s website.
Lentil & cabbage dal
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Recipes: main dishes, Recipes: vegan, Recipes: legumes and Recipes: vegies
Since reading Jocelyn’s post about cabbage dal over at She Spills the Beans, I’ve been slightly obsessing about making this dal.
I love, love, LOVE dal and we’ve always got a few tubs of it in the freezer. While I often include silverbeet in my dal and despite being a huge cabbage fan, I’ve never made dal with cabbage. After receiving reasurrances from Jocelyn about how good it was, I decided to make some over the weekend.
This was all helped along by me finding the cutest cabbage at the Orange Grove School organic market on Saturday.
Saturday afternoon Richard and I were faffing about at home, doing chores, which is a perfect time to make dal. Dal does take a while to cook, but it’s very low maintenance cooking and perfect for when you’re at home and doing other stuff – a bit of cooking at the beginning and end, but then for the most part you just need to stir the pot occasionally as you pass through the kitchen.
The word dal basically means a split dried pea, bean or lentil, although it’s also come to mean the slow-cooked stew that you make from those split peas / beans. The dal stew is made by cooking split peas together with a little turmeric. When it’s fully cooked a tarka is made – this is a combination of herbs and spices that are popped in a small amount of oil or ghee, which is then stirred into the dal and provides most of the flavouring.
I usually make dal using split mung beans (mung / moong dal), which you can get from most health food shops. However this time I used split red lentils (also called just red lentils in Australia, or masoor dal), which means the dal cooked much quicker.
And Jocelyn is right, the cabbage is really good in it – soft and almost buttery, with a gentle flavour and none of the sulphur-ness you sometimes get with cabbage.
Cabbage Dal
Serves 4
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 head of cabbage, finely shredded
- 200g (split) red lentils, washed and drained
- 2 teaspoons whole black mustard seeds
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 3 small red chillis, finely sliced (if you’re not a chilli fan you can reduce this or cut them out completely)
Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based pan, add the onion, cumin, coriander and turmeric and stir fry for about 5 mins on a medium heat until the onion is slightly browned (your kitchen will smell wonderful at this point). Add the cabbage and continue cooking and stirring until the cabbage is covered in spices, slightly wilted but not yet cooked through.
Add the red lentils and cook for another 2 – 3 minutes while stirring to coat the lentils with all the spices. Add about 1 litre of water, bring to the boil and then turn the heat down as low as possible.
Put the lid on the pan and leave to cook – if you have a simmer mat, I’d put this underneath the dal at this point. Red lentils will take about 30 – 40 minutes to cook and you do need to stir occasionally, to prevent them sticking to the bottom of the pan. You may need to add a bit more water if it’s looking too thick.
Once the dal is cooked then you need to pop the spices for the tarka. Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in a small saucepan. When hot put in the mustard seeds first, and then about 2 seconds later add the bay leaf, ginger and chillis. This mixture will pop and fizz away and it only needs to cook for about 10 seconds. Add the tarka to the dal, cover immediately and leave for about 5 minutes before serving, to let all the flavours combine.
This makes enough for 4 people, it does freeze really well however, so it can be worthwhile making up larger quantities.
Lentil soup
Posted by kathryn in Recipes: vegan, Recipes: legumes and Recipes: soups
Since starting my blog I’ve only posted two recipes. It’s not like I haven’t been cooking, I just don’t feel I’ve been cooking anything particularly interesting.
Then I was thinking, maybe that’s missing the point. There are plenty of places where you can get recipes for fancy and unusual food, stuff that takes time, lots of ingredients and skill to cook – the food we might make if someone was coming round for dinner.
However it’s the normal, every day food prep and cooking that most people struggle with, ie how to make a simple, cheap, easy meal, that also tastes fab and doesn’t take an evening to prepare.
So I’m going to post more frequently on what I’m cooking. The normal meals that Richard and I eat, the stuff we make when we’re tired or late home from work and have “nothing in the house”.
This lentil soup is one of my favourite recipes to make at this time of year. It’s a meal in a bowl, it’s warming and hearty and damn good for you. While I was training to be a naturopath I used to work in an organic food shop, where the chef Stratos and I used to make soups, salads and other take-away meals. Stratos was (of course) from a Greek family and this is based on his recipe.
This does take about 45 minutes to make, but for much of that time it can be left to happily cook away by itself, so it’s not intensive cooking. Also, usually when I make lentil soup I double the quantities below and put the leftovers in the freezer.
Lentil soup
Serves 4
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 carrots
- 2 sticks of celery
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
- 3 bay leaves
- 1/2 cup brown lentils, washed and drained
- 1/2 cup split red lentils, washed and drained
- 1 tin crushed tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons shoyu (or soy sauce)
- 1 – 2 tablespoon lemon juice or red wine vinegar
- Handful chopped dill
- Natural yoghurt to serve (optional)
Chop the carrots and celery into small pieces (about 1cm in diameter, but don’t get too obsessive). Pour a couple of glugs of olive oil into a large pan and put over a medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, celery and garlic, plus a small pinch of salt and stir to combine. Turn the heat down low and put the lid on the pan. Leave to sweat, stirring occasionally for 5 – 7 minutes.
Lift the lid (and inhale the wonderful steam), add the bay leaves and lentils, stir again and then replace the lid. Just leave this for a couple of minutes to continue sweating.
Add the crushed tomatoes and about 1.2 litres of water, bring to the boil and then turn down to a gentle simmer. Leave this to cook away for about 25 minutes, or until the lentils are cooked.
At this stage I usually split the soup in two, blend half of it and then re-mix together because I like the consistency that gives: a bit blended, but also a bit chunky. Of course you can also blend the whole lot together, or leave it unblended – your choice.
Add the shoyu, lemon juice (or vinegar) and dill, stir to combine. Have a little taste to check the seasoning and also whether you want to add more lemon juice. Then srve hot with crusty bread and a dollop of natural yoghurt.
Why it's important to be active in winter
Posted by kathryn in Seasonal Health
One of the things that always drops off during winter is physical activity. It’s too cold in the morning to get out of bed, while it’s cold and dark in the evening, so it’s that bit harder to get out for a walk / run / bike ride.
Most people do less in winter
On the weekend we do more sedentary activites, rather than being outside and active. We meet friends for a movie or coffee and cake. Whereas in summer we’re more likely to have a picnic, go for a walk, or visit the beach.
In winter we move less because there’s a reduction in exercise and we’re less active in general.
Little wonder you feel sluggish and more tired than usual.
How to be active in winter
It’s important to keep moving in winter. You’ll feel so much better for it.
If you can’t drag yourself out of the bed in the morning, you might need a different strategy.
- Meet friends on the weekend for a walk (before the coffee and cake) – in Sydney you can do the Bondi to Bronte a couple of laps round Centennial Park or what about the Spit Bridge to Manly walk?
- Enrol in an evening indoor activity. Is this the winter you finally learn to salsa, bellydance, or do capoeira?
- What about walking / cycling to work, or part of the way? Now the weather is cooler you won’t arrive in a sweaty heap, plus you’ll save money.
- Buy a pedometer and persuade others at work to buy one too. Have a competition to see who can do the most steps every day.
- Instead of eating at your desk, head out for a 20 minute walk at lunch-time.
One of the key things is to plan your activity. Make a date in your diary, book the time out and be strict with yourself. Put your sneakers by the front door, pack your gym bag, whatever you need to make it as easy as possible.
Get moving – you will feel much better for it.
What do you do to keep active in winter?
Meet Barbara
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Antioxidants, Recipes: main dishes, Recipes: vegies, Recipes: eggs and Vegetables
What a cutie, this is a Barbara pumpkin and she appeared in my last Lettuce Deliver box. I was intrigued, as I’ve never heard of or seen Barbara pumpkins before. To me she looks like a cross between the shape of a butternut and the colour and markings of a jap pumpkin.
On the inside she was a rich orange colour, much stronger than a butternut. Richard’s been calling her Barbarapapa since she arrived.
I’m not sure I’d ever had pumpkin until I came to Australia and in fact when I first arrived here I just didn’t get it – what was the fixation with pumpkin soup in this country? Then I had roast pumpkin and now it’s one of my favourite vegetables, especially roasted as per the beginning of this Jamie Oliver recipe.
Pumpkin, as with other orange vegetables, contains a lot of the antioxidant beta-carotene. It’s also a good source of potassium and only contains about 150 Kj per 100g. While it does have a high Glycemic Index (GI), it’s only about 5% carbohydrate and you’d have to eat a lot for it to negatively affect your blood sugar levels, it has a low Glycemic Load (GL).
I’ve been mulling over what to do with Barbara since she arrived, as I thought she deserved something special. Then last night I finally decided on a Pumpkin, Fetta & Tomato Tian. This is veeeeeery loosely based on a series of recipes from Elizabeth David’s Is There a Nutmeg in the House, where she describes a tian as:
“a certain proportion of freshly cooked green vegetables . . . bulking them out, if you like, with potatoes or rice and mixing them all up with eggs beaten as for an omelette”
Given the complete lack of green vegetables in my recipe, I do have to reiterate, this is a VERY loosely based recipe and apologies to Ms David, but it’s delicious. Oh yes and if you can’t find Barbara, either butternut or jap pumpkin would be fine.
Pumpkin, Fetta & Tomato Tian
Serves 4
- 1kg(ish) Barbara pumpkin
- 1 onion, finely sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
- 1 tin crushed tomatoes
- 1 tspn dried oregano
- 1/3 cup jasmine rice
- 1 cup water
- 4 eggs
- 200g fetta, crumbled
Turn the oven on to 190C.
Cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds. I like pumpkin skin, so I normally just cut off any bits that are blemished. Cut into roughly 2 cm sized pieces.
Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil into a heavy based pan and put over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and pumpkin plus a small pinch of salt.
Stir to combine, turn the heat down to low and then put the lid on. Leave the vegetables to sweat for about 10 mins, stirring occasionally.
Add the crushed tomatoes, oregano, rice and water. Stir to combine and then simmer gently for about 20 minutes until the pumpkin is soft.
Beat the eggs and the cheese together and season.
Pour this mixture over the pumpkin and immediately put it in the oven. The eggs and pumpkin / tomato mixture will run together a bit, but this is fine.
Leave the tian to cook for 10 – 15 minutes until the eggs are set, slightly risen and beginning to turn golden brown.
We had this by itself, but you could also have it with a green salad and some crusty bread.
Why you need your vegies
Posted by kathryn in The Micronutrients, Antioxidants, A Balanced Diet and Vegetables
I was recently asked the question – if I eat plenty of fruit, do I also need to eat vegetables? This is a common question and gets asked from both directions (ie also, I eat vegetables, do I need fruit?). The short answer is YES, you need both fruit and vegetables, sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear.
Why do fruit and vegies matter?
Fruit and vegetables are important because they supply a vast array of nutrients we just don’t get from other foodstuffs. Fruit and vegies provide us with:
Some grain-based foods (bread, pasta, rice, couscous, etc) also provide fibre and a number of vitamins / minerals. While meat, fish, dairy and eggs have important vitamins and minerals. However fruit and vegies are the primary source of some significant vitamins and also of antioxidants.
The tricky thing is that fruit and vegetables provide different vitamins and minerals from each other. Fruit is generally higher in vitamin C, whereas vegetables tend to be higher in potassium, magnesium, calcium. Fruit has more kilojoules, whereas most vegetables (apart from potatoes, pumpkin, corn, legumes, peas and sweet potato) have neglible kilojoule contents.
Antioxidants
However it’s with antioxidants that the differences are most striking, because fruit and vegetables contain different antioxidants.
- while lovely lycopene is in most red-coloured fruits, as I’ve blogged before tomatoes are the most important source
- lutein is in green leafy vegetables and corn
- berries and cherries are rich sources of anthocyanin flavonoids
- beta-carotenes are mostly found in orange, yellow and green leafy vegetables
Antioxidants are wonderful little substances that protect us from all sorts of nasty diseases, like cancer, cardiovascular disease, the complications of diabetes, macular degeneration, etc. So we want lots of these in our diets, we need them every day and we also need to be getting a variety of antioxidants.
So not only is eating fruit not enough, we also need vegies and to be eating a variety of fruit and vegies.
How much should you eat?
In Australia there is a public health campaign to encourage the eating of more fruit and vegies – Go For 2 & 5. The general guideline is that we need at least two servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables (a serving is 1 cup of salad or 1/2 cup of cooked vegies / legumes). The majority of people do not eat this much, and hence are missing out on all those vital, vital antioxidants.
For tips on how to increase your vegie (or fruit) intake then look here.
Oooh, an archive
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
And now we’ve clicked over into July, I have an archive !
Progress in snacks?
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Snacking
From the Sydney Morning Herald website, an interesting food definition, ultimate snack food. This is apparently a new snack which has been developed by Melbourne scientists. It’s a palm-sized parmesan cheese cracker, topped with organic mashed potato which contains two “natural” additives – an appetite suppressant and a natural compound that increases your liking of the product.
Am I the only one that thinks this sounds horrendous?
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26 July, 2006