Limes & Lycopene

What do you think about Avofresh?

kathryn — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:48:38 GMT

I read about this product last week, have been thinking about it ever since and am intrigued to know, what do you think about Avofresh?

Avofresh is avocado in a tube. There’s a choice of Smooth, Firm or Chunky and there are three flavours – Original, Seasoned and Spicy. Each tube contains the equivalent of two avocadoes.

The avocadoes are grown in Australia and the unopened product stays fresh for four weeks.

They’re not completely additive free. Along with the avocado, Avofresh contains lemon juice concentrate, to prevent it from browning. The ‘firm’ version contains a thickener (401), while the ‘Soft’ and ‘Chunky’ versions contain vegetable gum (425).

I must admit when I first saw the report on Avofresh I thought “oh please, you’ve got to be kidding”. I thought it was another instance of a perfectly good fresh ingredient being turned into something which masqueraded as fresh while actually being full of unnecessary salt and sugar.

However the report I read stated they are using smaller and second grade avocadoes in Avofresh. Fruit that would otherwise not be sold as it was too small or the “wrong” shape for sale. Which is not only creating a more profitable industry for Australian growers, it’s also using up a fresh ingredient which would otherwise be unnecessarily dumped.

I’m conflicted, so I’m interested to know what you think – would you buy Avofresh?

Quicklinks

kathryn — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:44:56 GMT

There haven’t been any Friday Quicklinks for ages, but I’ve spotted some good stuff on the ’net this week, so here goes:

The Great Muffin Makeover: Harvard School of Public Health have a great piece on making better-for-you muffins, as well as recipes and a comparison of their muffins vs coffee shop ones.
Chilli Kaffir Tamarind Tofu: Via @Ganga108 comes this delicious looking recipe for stir fried tofu marinated in chilli, kaffir limes and tamarind. I think it looks a-mazing.
Breakfast: Via @shauna, @Elle_Ann and @sophiemostly I came across these two pieces on breakfast. One is about make ahead breakfasts and the other covers hot breakfasts for a cold morning. Lots and lots and lots of lovely ideas.
Fixated on Brussels: For Northern hemisphere readers, a couple of Brussels sprout recipes. Firstly this one from 101 Cookbooks for Brussels with an oregano drizzle sauce and secondly Sophie’s ruby red Brussels and gruyere salad.
More recipes: Some of my recipes have gone up on the Readers’ Digest website including these goat cheese and radish bruschetta and a Sri Lankan inspired fish curry.

A reminder that you can still enter Dietgirl’s 11th birthday competition to win a copy of An Honest Kitchen Cooking for One.

Plus for those of you on Facebook, the clinic where I work has a new Facebook page. It’s another way for you to follow Limes and Lycopene, plus we’ll be posting recipes and links to articles on health, good food and exercise.

Win a copy of Cooking for One AND 2012 cooking class schedule

kathryn — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:10:31 GMT

Couple of notices today.

Firstly, The Amazing Adventure of Dietgirl is 11 this week. Eleven whole years old, which is quite remarkable. To celebrate, the lovely Shauna is having a series of giveaway competitions, including some copies of our eMagazine An Honest Kitchen – Cooking for One. To win you just have to leave a comment on this blog post. And then cross your fingers.

Secondly, I’ve just put together my 2012 clinic cooking class schedule. Classes take place on Saturday afternoons, cost $25 and cover topics as varied as vegetarian cooking, one pot meals, how to get your five serves of vegetables and eating to prevent diabeties. To find out more click here.

The first class is on Cooking for One and if you book now you’ll also receive a free copy of An Honest Kitchen – Cooking for One. All the details are on the clinic website.

Vege boxes deliver good eating to your door

kathryn — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:47:15 GMT

Today I have another guest post from Cindy, one half of Where’s the Beef?. This is part of an occasional series on Limes and Lycopene, around the theme of what makes it easier to eat well?. Cindy and Michael blog about vegetarian eating in Melbourne and their soy bomb recipe is wondrous. Anyway, over to Cindy.

While I’ve been writing a food blog for over five years now and loving my veges for many years more, I think one of the best shifts in my diet has occurred only recently. This has come from ordering a set vege box delivery to my home. Here are some reasons why:

Convenience. When all I have to do is move them from the door to the fridge, there’s no excuse for not getting enough fruit and vegetables into my mouth!

Seasonal produce. Choosing the set option means I receive the fruits and vegetables that are at their best right now, without the need to consult guides or squint over labels.

Variety. The best way to access the full range of nutrients we need is to eat a wide variety of foods. My vege box ensures that every week I eat more than just the safe, favourite foods I tend to fall back on when I’m shopping. For example, I’m not usually much of a fruit buyer or eater. Yet now that there’s consistently a bowl full of it on the table, I work fruit into my breakfast and often pack a piece for an afternoon snack.

Vegetables become the centrepiece. Vegetables (and fruits!) should take up the most space on our plates at meal times. This is much more achievable when meals are planned around the produce I want to use, instead of the other foods I have on hand.

Trying something new. Every now and then my vege box turns up something I’ve never cooked before (and farmers’ markets are even better for this!). It’s a great opportunity to discover a new favourite. While fruits can often be tasted as is, I like to gently roast vegetables with just a little oil, salt and pepper to get a sense of their flavour and texture.

Using a vege box also has its challenges. The big one is the potential for waste. Over time, I’ve developed some strategies for avoiding it.

Eat the early spoilers first. These are usually the leafy greens, while root vegetables last the longest. I take a peek at the crisper each day to check what’s starting to wilt, and prioritise it for my next meal.
Work on some favourite recipes for the vegetables that appear often. I’ve sighed over the fourth or fifth consecutive delivery of cabbage or silverbeet but after some googling, trialling and substituting I’ve found recipes that I’m happy to make again and again. (They’re no-mayo coleslaw, baked spring rolls and palak paneer/tofu, for the record.) I still sigh over repetitions on celery – let me know if you have any favourite recipes for it!
Work on some more flexible recipes or techniques for the produce that’s past its peak. I tend to roast vegetables or grate them up into fritters; soup is also very forgiving. Fruit can benefit from baking or stewing. Then there’s always stock or juicing and at worst, composting.

(Check out Kathryn’s excellent tips for using up a vege box too!)

Now that I have these strategies in place, my vege box helps me to eat well every week. If there’s a company or co-op offering pre-selected vege boxes in your neighbourhood, you might enjoy the convenience, quality and variety they offer too.

Cindy is one half of the blogging duo at where’s the beef?. There’s no beef at all, since she and Michael are cheerfully vegetarian.

Making new year resolutions - thoughts, ideas and my process

kathryn — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:16:19 GMT

I’ve been thinking a lot about new year resolutions recently – after all it’s that time of year. While I’ve noticed more and more articles and people poo-pooing the idea of new year resolutions, I actually like them.

While I realise many people break their resolutions quickly and most don’t last beyond January, I think that’s a problem with how we make new year resolutions, rather than with the concept itself.

Most resolutions have a big picture focus and are underminingly vague. If people make resolutions like “lose weight”, “get fit”, “quit smoking”, “get healthy” I’m not surprised they don’t last. Without boundaries, a defined plan and realistic sense of what’s possible a new year resolution is bound to fail.

It’s one of the things I’ve learnt with clients. Most clients come to me wanting to “eat well and be healthy”, which seems fair enough. However, for this to happen and for our relationship and meetings to be a success, we have to work out exactly what eating well and health means for them.

I’ve been making new year resolutions for years now. Some don’t work, but many do. Some I discard early, realising they’re not right for me, but many become part of the year ahead. Ideas to live by and a focus for the person I want to be.

This is my way of making resolutions. It’s not a hard and fast process and it may not be right for you, however it works for me:

I spend the whole of January thinking about my new year resolutions. Rather than making them in a rush of impulsiveness on 1 January, I take some time to consider what I really want for the year ahead.
I don’t just concentrate on one aspect of my life, instead I think about work, health, food, finances, career, professional development, my personal relationships. I try to work out what I want to happen in each of those areas.
I try to be specific about what I want. For example, rather than saying “get fitter” I think about exactly what that means for me. What would being fitter feel like for me, how would I know when I was fitter? Is there a way I can test my fitness during the year?
I make a plan which concentrates on behaviour changes. If I want to realise each of those resolutions, how do I make it happen.
I write all this down and then leave it for a week. I allow myself a week to mull over the ideas and think about whether they’re right and going to work. I then tweak and change my plans accordingly.
Most importantly, I then write everything in the back of my diary. I carry my diary with me everywhere, so I also have my new year resolutions with me all the time. Which means I regularly review my plans and remain focussed over the year.

The 2012 process has already started. I have notes scrawled in my diary and on scraps of paper dotted around my desk. Thoughts and possibilities I’ve jotted down which might eventually make my new year resolution list.

For me, new year resolutions are part of growing and developing as a person. They’re a way of making changes to my life – discarding the stuff that doesn’t help and taking on new projects, activities, ways of working and being. It’s a process I find both exciting and invaluable.

How about you, do you make new year resolutions?

Merry Christmas

kathryn — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:03:26 GMT

My last day at work today and then I’m taking a three week break.

And I’ll also be taking a break from blogging.

I have a huge pile of books I’ve collected from friends and the library, which I’m thoroughly looking forward to wading through. I’ll be spending time with my family, catching up with friends and hopefully enjoying some sunshine here in Sydney.

I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing festive season and best wishes for lots of good things in 2012.

Thank you for being such great readers. Your loyalty, good humour, comments, feedback, emails and suggestions have all been immensely appreciated over the last 12 month.

Merry, merry Christmas to you all.

Photograph by Kounellis.

Christmas food & gift ideas

kathryn — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:33:03 GMT

If you’re stuck for Christmas presents or what to cook this festive season, here are some ideas:

The Everyday Kitchen

I’ve been blogging a whole lot of Christmas stuff on my Everyday Kitchen blog at Readers Digest. There are posts on:

Gluten Free cooking, planning, Christmas menus and gifts
a vegetarian Christmas menu
easy meals to cook on nights off from the festive season
ways to approach all the excess eating and drinking
Plus this week I’ll be putting up some healthier food Christmas gifts you can make, together with party food ideas.

You can read more on all of these at The Everyday Kitchen.

An Honest Kitchen

Lucy and I are also offering An Honest Kitchen Gift Vouchers which can be purchased up until Christmas Eve. You can either purchase a voucher specifically for the Cooking for One edition, or you can buy a general An Honest Kitchen to be used for any issue.

Cooking for One – A$3.00:

Purchase a copy of Cooking for One via PayPal and you’ll be sent a Gift Voucher by email. Print this out and give it to your friend or family member at Christmas. A copy of Cooking for One will then be emailed directly to your gift recipient on 28 December.

To purchase a Cooking for One gift voucher, click on the “Buy Now” button above.
Put in your payment details and your email address (so a receipt can be sent to you).
Click Review Order and Continue.
Important: On the review screen you’ll see a section where you can add a “Note to Seller”. Click on this and enter the name and email address of the person receiving a copy of Cooking for One.
You will then be sent a link to download the Gift Voucher. You can then either send this on, with your own message to the gift recipient, or print out and give to them on the day.
On December 28 we will forward An Honest Kitchen – Cooking for One directly to your gift recipient.

An Honest Kitchen Gift Vouchers:

You can also get a general An Honest Kitchen gift voucher which can be used to purchase any of the editions of our e-Magazine.

Simply click on the link above and purchase your Gift Voucher through Paypal. Through Paypal you can customise your Gift Voucher with a personal message, organise for it to be emailed to your friend on a certain day or print out and give to them in person.

Gift photograph by “Kasia”;http://www.flickr.com/photos/mysza/2080895858/in/set-72157600088402012.

Cold comfort - 10 reasons I love my freezer

kathryn — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:50:12 GMT

Today I have a guest post, from the lovely Charlotte Wood of How to Shuck an Oyster. This is part of an occasional series on Limes and Lycopene, around the theme of what makes it easier to eat well?. On her blog Charlotte writes about cooking, eating and writing, and she has some beautiful recipes, like Vine Leaf Wrapped Haloumi with Peaches, Beetroot Palak Paneer. Anyway, over to Charlotte.

So many factors go into eating well at home – using unprocessed food as much as possible, eating less meat, having enough time to make varied, interesting food, reading widely about different ways of cooking and learning new skills from other home cooks – it’s hard to choose just one.

But when I really think about it, one thing has definitely changed my food-loving life: my freezer. Some time ago, to add to the (smallish) freezer space in our fridge we bought a little upright freezer. It’s the size of a bar fridge, has four drawers, and lives in the back shed.

Here’s my list of why I love it so.

1. Going nuts

Nuts make everything more interesting, I reckon, and I learned from the divine Maggie Beer that nuts will stay much fresher if you keep them in the freezer as opposed to the pantry. They contain lots of oil and can go rancid very quickly – and the ghastly pantry moth loves them. But the freezer allows you to buy nuts in bulk (so they’re cheaper) and always have them on hand to throw into salads, or caramelise a few walnuts to eat with beetroot, or have a big bag of almond meal for cakes and crumble toppings, hazelnuts for tossing through green beans, and so on and so on. You can toss them straight from the freezer into the oven or pan for toasting, or they are thawed within a few minutes for any other use. Another advantage of them being in the freezer is that you’re less likely to gorge on handfuls of cashews while you’re staring into the pantry for dinner ideas.

2. Flavour bombs

One of the reasons I don’t think I could ever be a fully compliant vegetarian is that I’d miss the variety and diversity of flavour that even a tiny bit of meat gives to food. A tablespoon of chopped (proper) free range bacon in a soup, say, or a few rounds of chorizo tossed in with some roasting fennel – these little smoky flavour bombs give my cooking oomph and complexity. But eating too much of them is obviously a bad thing. Freezer to the rescue again – I just cut off as much as I need from the frozen portion and away I go, chucking the bits into whatever I’m making. They thaw in no time.

3. Scrooge satisfaction

I hate wasting food, especially if I’ve made it myself – throwing away as little as a third of a cupful of salsa verde or a piece of lovingly roasted capsicum makes me wince. So I don’t, but throw them into the freezer instead. Then next time I’m making soup or a curry or pasta sauce – anything that can take a bit of a kick – I toss those remnants in.

4. Stocking up

For a long time I used supermarket cartons of liquid stock without compunction. But when I realised how much salt and preservative was in them, and how cheap it was to buy free range chook carcases from my butcher, I started making my own and freezing it. Apart from the better quality (and salved conscience from not using battery chickens), I can freeze them in many different quantities, from whole litres for braises and tagines, for example, to a tiny half-cupful for a sauce.

5. Anything with a pulse

I love dried beans and chickpeas, and have only really embraced them in the past couple of years. I do occasionally use canned ones for convenience, but much prefer the texture of dried/soaked/cooked pulses I do myself. The trouble is that you have to know you are going to want them, and I’m not a great meal planner ahead of time. But if I soak and cook a couple of big batches of pulses every few weeks, then chuck them in containers or bags into the freezer – voila. Instant pulse action.

6. Rice on ice

Somebody once told me cooked rice grows bacteria very quickly, so I’ve always been paranoid about even keeping it in the fridge. Any leftover rice goes straight into the freezer – and then into the microwave for superfast cooking on stir-fry nights. Freezing other cooked grains – quinoa, wild rice, brown rice, farro and so on – also makes assembling boofy salads very easy, very quick.

7. The Florence factor

One of the best reasons to have lots of freezer space is so that you can keep it full of comforting morsels to take to your friends when they’re ailing in body or soul. My book, Love & Hunger: Thoughts and Notes on the Gift of Food (coming May 2012), includes a whole section called ‘Consolations’, about food to make for those you love when they’re sick, or heartbroken, or grieving or stressed. Home-delivering a tub of soup, a tray of shepherd’s pie, a chicken pie, lamb tagine or coq au vin to your friend, instead of flowers, can lift the spirits and nourish the body like nothing else. And if these dishes are in the freezer, you don’t even have to make them to order. An old favourite, a soothing chicken broth with rice and pasta, has become known round here as Florence Nightingale Soup for its healing properties. There are always one or two tubs ready to go in the freezer.

8. Pesto power

Not until @KathrynElliott tweeted about doing this did I ever consider it, but now we almost always have a few pots of pesto in the freezer. At the end of each summer we end up with an enormous forest of basil in the garden and can’t use it quickly enough. But last summer my husband made about twelve goodly tubs of pesto in one hit, and while we gave some away, into the freezer went the rest. It’s fab, not only for using with pasta, but for scooping out dollops to go into soups, casseroles, gravies and sauces, or just tossing over fresh tomatoes while the rest of lunch is prepared. The pesto joins its herby pasty siblings, chermoula and salsa verde, for an instant hit of greenery to chuck in salad dressings, marinades and any other whatnot you can think of.

9. Take-away at home

Many nights we’re just too knackered to cook. In the old days we would have phoned the local Thai takeaway for home delivery of some not-so-delicious stir-fry laden with sugary sauce and gone a bit stewed and limp, not to mention being left with a heap of crappy plastic containers. But now our evening meal leftovers go into the freezer (usually labelled in some form or other – most often just scrawled on the container in waterproof texta), we have our own home delivery in minutes. This week it was a deliciously soupy octopus braised in red wine and tomato from a fortnight ago – there was lots of sauce leftover but not heaps of occy, so we tossed in some white beans from the freezer as well. It was good.

10. Craving curb

You can eat chocolate straight from the freezer – but when my friend snapped off his front tooth by doing so, I took it as a warning. This is the same premise as that used by people who keep their credit cards in a block of ice in the freezer* – by the time it’s thawed, the impulse has hopefully passed. The best chocolate for keeping in the freezer is the good, thick bars of cooking stuff: bite into that in the midst of a chocoholic frenzy and you can pretty much kiss your smile goodbye.

Supplementary reason:

11. Ice

Ice is good; it goes in drinks. The freezer makes it – try it some time!

* Warning: high likelihood of urban mythology.

Charlotte Wood is a writer who loves to cook. Her latest novel Animal People was released in October, and her collection of essays about the emotional terrain of cooking, Love & Hunger: Thoughts and Notes on the Gift of Food, will be published in May 2012.

She blogs about cooking at How to Shuck an Oyster and more about her fiction and other writings can be found at her website.

She can invariably be found procrastinating on Twitter as @charlotteshucks.

Cooking for one

kathryn — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:51:47 GMT

Today Lucy and I are very excited to be releasing the latest issue of An Honest Kitchen – Cooking for One.

We’ve spent the last few months talking food, testing, re-testing, photographing, writing, trying out some new things and giving the magazine a fresh new look.

Cooking for One is compact edition, with a summer focus. Rather than over-loading you with stacks of new food, we’re focusing on three healthy, tasty and, of course, delicious recipes. Three recipes, which give you four different meals.

As usual we’re using only seasonal ingredients, but in this issue we’ve also cut down on the washing up and found ways to minimise food waste. Because, as we say in the magazine:

“good food doesn’t have to be difficult, fussy, time consuming, or use ridiculous amounts of kitchen equipment.”

The edition costs A$3.00 and is available through Paypal – just click on the Buy Now button below.

If you’re in the northern hemisphere and are after something more seasonal for your neck of the woods, then don’t forget either our mini Soup edition or the Winter magazine, both of which are available here.

What I've been cooking recently

kathryn — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:45:09 GMT

I’ve been cooking a lot recently. For us, for clients, for cooking classes and also testing out new recipes for the next edition of An Honest Kitchen.

It’s been thoroughly enjoyable work – interesting, rewarding, creative and very, very tasty.

I’m excited about the new issue of An Honest Kitchen. We’re giving the magazine a fresh look, trying out some new things and focussing on making the cooking easy.

As part of our process, I take photos during my recipe creation and testing. Photos of ingredients, different stages of the cooking, what the final dish looks like. It gives us ideas to talk about and clarifies what I’m doing.

I always find it interesting to look back at these early photos – some recipes change dramatically, while others stay almost the same.

If you want to see more from the new issue take a look at Lucy’s post, which includes one of her glorious photos we’re not using. We also put some teaser photos up on our Flickr group.

More about An Honest Kitchen in the next few weeks.

Over time I’ve become a demon omelette maker, and while I always try and cram far too many greens in there, it’s my favourite breakfast. Especially on a warm, sunny day.

When I’ve been working from home, weekday lunches have often been variations of a tahini salad.

This one included roasted pumpkin and cauliflower, broad beans, chickpeas and lots of greens, but I regularly vary the vegies, change around the proteins and tweak this dressing.

On the busiest weeks I’ve pre-prepared vegetables, pre-cooked eggs and tofu and made a batch of dressing on the weekend, so lunch becomes a five minute salad bar pick and mix.

A few weeks back I made a broccoli gratin. A highly adapted variation on this Martha Shulman recipe. Instead of steaming the broccoli, I cooked it Heston Blumenthal’s way – which adds a whole extra layer of flavour.

Then, not having any breadcrumbs and not wanting to get my food processor out to make some, I tore some bread into chunks and tossed these with olive oil and garlic. Layered them on top of the gratin and then baked in the oven. It was delicious.

I’ve also been playing with fruit and salads for a client – three recipes that I’ll tell you about another day. And, of course, I’ve been cooking with beetroot. A few weeks back two bunches came in my vegie box. In the middle of a busy week I ended up cooking them in the oven with olive oil, balsamic, garlic and dried oregano. This is an old Jamie Oliver recipe I’ve made over and over and over.

The cooked beetroot then became part of my lunch-time salad bar and the leftovers went into another very pink frittata.