Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
Posted by terrepruitt on July 24, 2010
On the way home from a little Nia class / meeting in Danville I starting craving a salad. All the way home to San Jose (its about an hour) I kept thinking of what ingredients I would need. I didn’t have the recipe with me, but since it is so easy I remembered the few things I needed to get. Recently I went to a little party where the hostess had made a bean salad. It had two things in it I REALLY don’t like, one thing I don’t like, one thing I love in teeny tiny pieces, and one thing I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (not including the spices). So on my quest to learn how to like bean and get some legumes in my diet I decided to make my friend’s TWO bean salad recipe.
1 can kidney beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 large red pepper – chopped (big or small, you decide)
½ large sweet onion – cut small square sizes
¼ to ½ bun cilantro – cut ½ inch size
½ to 1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon fine ground black pepper
1 ½ teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
3 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
Drain the beans, mix everything together. Like most salads it is better when the flavors have mixed so wait an hour or so, then eat. Yum!
I adjusted the recipe to have MORE bell pepper (can you tell which ingredient I love, love, love?), I used a little more salt because I bought these really low sodium beans. I mean compared to the other two brands I looked at these had about one third of the sodium. I like that idea, but I also know that if it doesn’t have a good enough flavor for me I won’t eat it, so I actually put in 1 teaspoon plus two sprinkles. I didn’t have granulated garlic so I used garlic powder and I probably put in more than 2 teaspoons. I cannot tolerate pepper, but I loved her salad and she said she put in a lot of pepper so I sprinkled pepper in. I also used 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar.
I am sure this is an easy thing for people to make, but I have NEVER, EVER, EVER liked a bean salad before so this recipe just thrilled me. Ya see, I REALLY don’t like cilantro either, but I think the kidney beans and the cilantro work to “cancel” each other out. Ha! I don’t know, but I like this salad. I hope you do too.
Since I am on a quest to learn to eat (and like) beans, do you have a recipe that you would like to share to help me out?
Posted in Food | Tagged: Nia, Nia class, garlic, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, beans, bell peppers, Nia classes in San Jose, San Jose Nia class, kidney beans, Garbanzo beans, Nia meeting, Nia Danville, bean salad, party recipe | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 22, 2010
Beans are so good for you. I don’t like beans. Well, I like green beans. I like hummus. I can sometimes tolerate garbanzo beans in a green salad, but if there are too many, I push them off to the side. I don’t like legumes.
According to all the information I have seen in my fact finding mission for this post: beans help lower “bad cholesterol” by helping it out of the body. Beans have an excellent amount of fiber (really excellent amount fiber). Beans have a lot of protein. The ratio of fat to proteis is awesome. These are some of the reasons I think I need to learn like beans.
Let’s look at two examples the kidney bean and the garbanzo bean (also known as chickpeas)
Kidney beans – 1 cup has
Calories: 225
Protein: 15.3g
Carbohydrate: 40.4g
Total Fat: 0.88g
Fiber: 11.3g
Iron: 5.2 mg
Magnesium: 80 my
Folate: 229 mcg*
Garbanzo beans (canned), 1 cup has
Calories: 286
Protein: 11.8g
Carbohydrate: 54.3g
Total Fat: 2.7g
Fiber: 10.5g
Folate: 160 mcg
Vitamin B6: 1.13 mg
Vitamin C: 9 mg
Zinc: 2.54 mg*
My next post (Saturday) I will share a Bean Salad recipe. Come back and check it out!
*Source: Truthstar Health website
Some additional info at: WHFoods Kidney and WHFoods Garbanzo
Posted in Food | Tagged: beans, fiber, Garbanzo beans, kidney beans, protein, WHFoods | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 20, 2010
So you might think this post is about chocolate and bacon–that is what the title might lead you to believe. That is because I could not bring myself to state the truth; chocolate COVERED bacon. Just the thought of it makes my stomach kind of contract. I will be honest, I LOVE bacon. I really do. One time I was making something for a party that required bacon and I was jumping up and down saying to my husband, “Do you know what this means? It means we have bacon!” Ya see I don’t eat bacon that often because it is just not something I consider needed to be a part of a healthy diet. So I was very excited to have to cook it for a recipe which would mean there would be at least a piece left. After I cooked it and gave him some my husband realized why I was so excited. It is yummy, but we don’t eat it often.
Chocolate, I am ok with. I am not a chocoholic and I can live without it. And some chocolate is DEFINITELY better than others.
I was talking with my friend about chocolate covered bacon and I was saying how disgusting I thought the thought of it was. So, being an evil person disguised as a great person (ha, ha!) she bought me a piece. She was walking down the street and was overwhelmed by the smell of bacon and realized it was coming from a candy shop. So she bought me one.
She gave it to me and I just couldn’t eat it. Just the THOUGHT of it grossed me out. I put it away and forgot about it. When I remembered it, my stomach did a cramping like flip-flop. Ewwww. Just the thought of it grosses me out. What a horrendously unhealthy combination.
No, yes, however you say that, I am NOT the epitome of healthy eating, but I try to avoid the things I feel are the really glaringly obvious unhealthy stuff. So my tummy was NOT wanting to try it.
As I was taking it out of the bag to take picture I noticed a piece broken off. I tasted it. It really doesn’t taste like anything but salty chocolate. After I took the pictures I ate the small piece and let hubby have the other one. This chocolate happens to be one of the ones I think it better than others. But I couldn’t really taste the bacon as bacon.
To me, if I am going to eat bacon and have those calories and fat I want to eat the bacon and taste the bacon and enjoy the bacon. Eating it covered in chocolate is a waste to me . . . but that is just me. Everyone eats how they want and this is not how I choose to eat. So chocolate covered bacon will not be one of the foods I have as a treat.
What about you? Have you tried it? Do you like it? What chocolate covered salty food (or?) have you tried as a treat?
Posted in Food | Tagged: Chocolate, healthy diet, Bacon, chocolate covered bacon, unhealthy diet | 14 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 13, 2010
Typically when I think of salad I think of a GREEN salad, a salad with lettuce. Salad, however can be made up of a variety of things. I am in the habit of saying “salad” for green salad and vegetables then saying “pasta salad”, “fruit salad”, “potato salad”, etc. for other salads. We have a salad every night when we eat at home. If we dinner at home 25 nights out of the month 20 of them will be with salad.
But sometimes I don’t have lettuce. So I do on occasion just make a veggie salad. Basically the same things I would put in a green salad but without the green of the lettuce. Here in this picture, there are cucumbers, red and green bell peppers, onions, and it looks like a little feta cheese. Maybe it could be considered a Greek Salad. I didn’t think to put olives in it. But it was good anyway.
Do you eat salad? What kind? What is your favorite? What do you like to put in your Green Salad?
Posted in Food | Tagged: Vegetables, fruit salad, salad, Green Salad, veggetables, potato salad | 10 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 10, 2010
I like to cook. I like to go into the kitchen, have some ingredients, put them together and have something to eat. I like that. I think it is cool. But cooking is not like Nia in the sense that: Nia I like to do every day, cooking I do not. When I cook, I like to cook in a way that leaves us with leftovers. I know a lot of people that won’t eat leftovers and I kinda don’t understand that, but . . . to each their own. I LOVE leftovers. Some, like pasta, are even better the next day.
My husband doesn’t mind leftovers. That makes him really easy to cook for. But at the same time I don’t want him to have to eat the EXACT same thing a few nights in a row. So one thing I do to allow me to cook once but not leave us eating the EXACT same thing for a few days is I cook chicken in foil packets. Yup, just like those aluminum foil ladies on TV showed us.
This also enables me to get one more servings out our a “two serving” bag of chicken. (From Costco the boneless, skinless Foster Farm Chicken Breasts are packaged in twos—-hmmmmm . . . . ? . . . ) I separate the chicken onto foil pieces then I just put whatever seasonings, spices, fruit, sauces, veggies I want in each package. I have to label them because my husband is not a fan of teriyaki and I am. Plus he likes spicy hot and I don’t.
So then I cook them up and we have chicken for a few days. Even though it is chicken it is not that same flavor chicken every night. Then each night I can cook up different veggies, and either rice or pasta. Or we might throw the chicken in or on a tortilla, or maybe even on some bread. Either way it makes making dinner that night much easier and faster. I love it.
Come join me for a Nia class in San Jose and see why I like to do it every day. And here, share with me your thoughts on cooking every day or leftovers? Do you like leftovers? Do you cook every day?
Posted in Food | Tagged: Nia, Nia class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Costco, Nia in San Jose, cooking, leftovers, Nia San Jose class, chicken packets, leftover chicken, leftover pasta, chicken breasts, Foster Farm Chicken | 12 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 3, 2010
Is San Jose a good place to grow nectarines? I love nectarines. I just decided I want a nectarine tree. My hubby knows I love nectarines so he came home with a container of them. YES! For three days I would walk into the kitchen and touch every one to see if they were ripe yet. Let me rephrase that: for three days EVERY TIME I walked into the kitchen I would touch every one to see if one was ripe. I stood there at one point wanting to eat one, but knowing that if it wasn’t ready it would ruin the joy of it. So I waited.
Now, they are ripe. Yesterday I ate two because if you don’t eat them fast they will go bad. These ones are the eat-it-over-the-sink-because-it-is-really-juicy type of fruit. Confession: I stopped at this point in my writing because thinking about them made me want one. LOVE THEM. So good.
I was going to post about the nutrition value of nectarines, but I learned something new as I researched how to grow nectarines. I thought I would share.
I had always thought of peaches and nectarines as being similar but not the same fruit, but the information I am seeing is that a nectarine IS a peach, but with smooth, non-fuzzy skin. But I don’t think they taste the same. Do you? But alas, according to what I am reading, there aren’t really nectarine trees, they are only peach trees that produce a mutated variety of peach. Dang, I learn a lot writing a blog. Did YOU know that, Dear Reader? Did you know that a nectarine is a peach? That explains why people always have peach trees and not nectarine trees. But that actually makes me laugh because if it is a peach tree with a mutation, it is a nectarine tree. Odd. It must be the way “they” classify things. Everything I look up for nectarine comes up peach.
A nectarine is in the group of peaches, but it is two peach trees with the recessive “fuzzy” gene that produce a nectarine tree.
I am sure there are plenty of you who knew that a nectarine was a peach. Quite honestly, I don’t need to know, but I am kind of surprised by it. I thought a peach was a peach and a nectarine was a nectarine, and it is, but it isn’t. And no, I am not going to compare this to anything and get all philosophical on you because, well, I am just stuck on the nectarine being a peach. I just find it fascinating. I love when I am looking for something and I discover something entirely new to me.
Did you know that nectarines were peaches? Do you like nectarines? Do you like peaches?
Posted in Food, Fruit | Tagged: San Jose, peaches, nectarines, peach tree, nectarine tree, fuzzy peaches, fuzzy skin | 14 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 1, 2010
I had a lunch date after teaching my Nia class on Wednesday. I had mentioned, in a previous post that I wanted to cook more with fruit since we had a large amount of plums. So, I was happy to try the mango and chicken kabob. Obviously, I can’t take credit for cooking and/or preparing this. I did not cook this kabob. Worse, I took the picture with my iPhone so it is — well, the quality of an iPhone picture (it was actually so blurry I had to “sharpen” it with Photoshop). As the waiter was setting the plate down, I thought, “Oh, I need to take a picture.” But I forgot when the waiter brought another plate of kabobs that we did not order. I think he just didn’t want her to feel left out. I remember after I ate one!
Anyway . . . .GREAT way to cook with fruit. I don’t think I would have thought to put mango on a skewer with chicken, but it actually works perfect because it cooks great. I have determined a long time ago that it is too difficult to cook meat and veggies on the same skewer because in order to get the meat cooked properly the veggies get too done. Or vice-versa, depending on the meat and the veggies. So it is best–for us–to do them separate. Plus separate allows for different seasonings and it keeps the meat separate from the vegetables in case there are persons who are not eating meat.
The mangos were cooked with the skin on and for the most part that made the skin very edible. I didn’t even notice the skin until I got to a particularly tough one that was green.
So, yay! A way to cook with fruit AND another way to use mangos. I normally only use them in the cucumber mango salad. I would have thought to make a salsa, but not to put them on a skewer especially WITH the chicken. You might have noticed that this kabob has onions, red peppers, and tomatoes too. I even ate the tomatoes (big deal for loath-tomatoes-girl), even though they were cooked.
Do you cook with mangos? Do you make kabobs? Kabobs are a nice way to serve food for a cook out, huh? Have you managed to perfect cooking vegetables AND meat on the same skewer?
Posted in Food, Fruit | Tagged: Nia, Nia class, iphone, Mango and Chicken Kabob, Kabob, mango, grilled vegetables, grilled chicken, cucumber mango salad, mango salsa, cook out | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 22, 2010
Someone pointed me in the direction of this great map that indicates what fruits and vegetables are at the peak of the season in a particular state in a particular month. I need assistance with that because I have never learned that.
This month it is June. I’m in California. Not only am I in California, I am in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Bay Area. In the South Bay. I have said before that we are very fortunate here in the San Jose Area because we have great weather. The map does not give specific locations as to what grows where, but I was able to get some plums and apricots off of a friend’s tree(s) (They didn’t come off of the same tree).
I ate only one apricot. I will save the rest for my hubby because he likes them more than I do. It was very good. Very sweet and rich. The plums are in varying stages of ripeness. But so far all of the ones I have had are sweet and delicious. I had a couple for breakfast before my Nia class this morning.
I am thinking of different ways we can eat the plums. Besides just popping the entire thing in our mouths. Since even the ones that aren’t that ripe are sweet I was thinking I could cut some up and throw them in a green salad. No matter the ripeness I could put them in an aluminum foil package of chicken or pork and cook that. Mmmm. I think that I am going to do a lot more cooking with fruit this summer, just to try new things.
Do you cook with fruit? What fruits and vegetables are in peak season right now in your state?
Posted in Food, Fruit | Tagged: Nia, Nia class, South Bay, Bay Area, Bay Area Nia, california, San Jose Nia class, San Francisco Nia, peak season, Nia in San Jose, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Jose Area, plums, apricots, cooking with fruit, foil cooking | 17 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 19, 2010
Fruit not fat promotes swapping fruit for fat, like applesauce in place of butter or oil. Well, they have organized a swap. They will swap your food that is unhealthy for healthier options. Cool. That is definitely one way to eat better, yes? For 90 days Saturday, June 19, 2010 Fruit Not Fat will trade you better-for-you-food for your greasy chips, sodas, oil. Whatever weight you bring in, they will give you that amount back —- in other products! Send it to them or bring it to them.**
Here are some examples:
Bring: Cooking Oil leave with: applesauce
Bring: greasy potato chips or other greasy snack items leave with: Popchips
Bring: any granola with oil in the ingredient list (like Bear Naked granola) leave with: Galaxy Granola (which is cooked with applesauce)
Bring: soft drinks leave with: 100% juice
Bring: sugar snacks leave with: fruit mashups
Bring: candy bars, snack mix and cheese puff bags leave with: fresh, tasty fruit
They are also giving away three gift certificates for $250 (each) to Whole Foods. One on Saturday 06/19/10) to the person who BRINGS the biggest net weight of fat products to swap, one to the person who mails in the biggest net weight of fat products within the 90 days, and one to the person who swaps the most fat from their diet. (see their website for details)
Yes, it is somewhat of a marketing project. I think that the people that started Fruit Not Fat are out to help people swap fruit for fat and they had this great idea and they got sponsored. That is a great thing. So the sponsors want you to try their products. But so what . . . . it seems pretty win-win to me. You get to eat healthy and try new things. Sounds like a good project to me.
**San Francisco Bay Area: They will be swapping Saturday, June 19, 2010, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Whole Foods in Palo Alto.
Posted in Food, Fruit | Tagged: 90 days, applesauce instead of oil, Bay Area, Bear Naked, fruit not fat, Galaxy Gronola, Palo Alto, San Francisco Bay Area, Whole Foods | 7 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 17, 2010
Eating better is easy. “Better” can mean so many things. Everything can be improved upon . . . generally, and when it comes to our diets it is usually, not “generally”. So eating “better” is easy.
Eating better could be a matter of fitting some water into your diet. Maybe have a glass of water to replace a soda–even better than just adding a glass of water. Maybe eating one less fast food meal a day. If you generally eat two fast food meals a day, cutting out two would even be better. Have a side salad or the steam veggie option instead of fries—better. Having the smaller cut of meat or the leaner cut of meat—better.
Bringing a healthy lunch from home instead of eating at the roach coach—better. Putting less sugar in your coffee—better. Having a green salad with a meal, if you normally don’t—better. Have a piece of fruit instead of a candy bar—better. Eating popcorn instead of potato chips—better.
For me eating better is eating less. I don’t drink soda or eat fast food, but I could use to eat less of even the good things I do eat. I could also swap some simple carbohydrates for some more complex ones.
What about you? Can you find some ways to make your diet better as in more nutritious? Might you need to cut a few calories to make it better? What ideas do you have? Might you try any of the ideas mentioned here? What are you willing to do to make your diet better?
Posted in Food | Tagged: carbohydrates, cut calories, eating better, nutritious diet | 4 Comments »
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