Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘water chestnuts’

Shocking Spinach Dip Discovery

Posted by terrepruitt on December 24, 2013

For many it is Christmas Eve.  Some might not celebrate Christmas or it is past the day, but here, where I am, it is Christmas Eve.  It is Tuesday so normally I would have had a Nia class in the morning, but the Park and Recreation Department of San Jose took the day off so there was no Nia this morning.  They also have instituted a very abbreviated Group Ex schedule so my Nia classes with the City of San Jose are done for the year.  We will be back Thursday, January 2, 2014.  (WHOA!  2014!)  I have one more Nia class in Willow Glen this year and one more class this year that I am subbing for the YMCA.  Then onto the next year!  So today I had a very relaxing Christmas Eve Day.  Probably thee most relaxing Christmas Eve Day I have had in a LONG time.  It was nice.  One thing I had to do today was make spinach dip.  In my world this is a common party treat.  I have been making it for as long as I can remember.  Although I had not made it in a long time.  I think I first heard about spinach dip when I worked at my first mortgage job in the mid ’80s.  So that is a long time.  Spinach dip seems pretty common and timeless.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga, YMCAOne thing I notice over Thanksgiving when I made a quadruple batch was that the recipe calls for a 10 ounce package of frozen spinach.  Well our big green friend now makes his frozen spinach in 9 ounces sizes.  I thought that was funny.  Then today as I happened to be READING the recipe I noticed something that had me saying, “WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!”  The directions actually say to COOK the spinach.  I have never heard of such a thing.  I have NEVER cooked the spinach.  And as I mentioned I have been making spinach dip for YEARS.  Cook the spinach?  Really?

I prefer the Knorr Vegetable soup mix.  But one year I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE and I ended up with the SPRING Vegetable mix and that was awesome because it had mushrooms in it.  Now I can’t find that.  I have also used other soup mix and have not been as happy as when I use Knorr.  But this “cooked” really made me laugh out loud.  Here is the recipe I am sure many of you are familiar with:

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Knorr Spinach Dip

Ingredients
1 box (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, cooked, cooled and squeezed dry
1 container (16 oz.) sour cream
1 cup Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1 package Knorr® Vegetable recipe mix
1 can (8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped (optional)
3 green onions, chopped (optional)

Directions
1.  Combine all ingredients and chill about 2 hours. Serve with your favorite dippers to your favorite people.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga, YMCAAlso, for me, the water chestnuts are NOT optional!  They are a requirement.  In fact, to me, the are the best part.  If you watch me getting some spinach dip you will probably see me pushing my cracker/bread/veggie through the dish just trying to get at that chunk of chestnut.

In addition to the change in weight of the spinach they also now package it in a plastic, which helped when squeezing the water out.  After I squeeze the spinach it is all clumped together so I use forks to pull it a part.

So I have two main questions for you:

1)  Do you COOK your spinach?
2)  How do you squeeze all the water out of the frozen spinach?  To me that is the worst part.

Let me know because I am soooooo curious.

And to all I say:

Merry Christmas!

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments »

Hmm, I Guess I DO Like Legumes

Posted by terrepruitt on June 9, 2012

Dance Exercies, Nia, Nia Campbell, Campbell Nia, Nia classes in Campbell, evening Nia, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, NiaBefore I started teaching Nia, I had always had corporate jobs.  I remember learning about jicama when I worked at my first “real” job. So that had to be between . . . . well, let’s just say it was a long time ago.  I remember being amazed at how it tasted like nothing, but had a little hint of sweet and dryness about it.  I love it.  When I see it on vegetable trays and in salad bars I always get some.  Even though I love it, I have only bought one once.  I don’t know how to pick it out and I always forget that is what the people who work in produce can help you do.  They can help with picking out produce. My dad always has jicama.  My dad always has a container of raw, cut and washed vegetables in the fridge and often jicama is in that container or one of its own.  Next time I go to the store I am going to buy one.  Jicama is considered a root vegetable, but is actually a legume.

It actually looks like root and tastes like a root.  Very plain, but with the slightest hint of sweetness.  I have always eaten it raw.  Cut into pieces and just eaten it raw, but in my quest for nutritional information on it I saw that people do cook with it.  I will have to write another post for that because I have never even thought of cooking it!

One suggestion I saw . . . and if you’ve eaten jicama you will agree . . . said that jicama can replace water chestnuts in recipes.  And, of course, they seem exactly the same!

It is pronounced HEcamuh.  I have always thought it was HICKamuh.  I will work on that!

Some nutritional information on jicama:

-low in calories; 38 calories per 100 grams
-high dietary fiber; 4 grams per 100 grams
-contains the anti-oxidant vitamin C; 33% of the RDA’s Daily Value (DV)
-contains vitamin B
-contains 1 gram of protein per 100 grams -contains 150 mg of Potassium (about 6% of the DV)
-no fat per 100 grams

Additional details (per 100 grams):

Cholesterol 0 mg  /  Sodium 4 mg  /  Total Carbohydrates 9 g

According to WiseGeek:

“When choosing jicama at the store, look for medium sized, firm tubers with dry roots. Do not purchase jicama that has wet or soft spots, which may indicate rot, and don’t be drawn to overlarge examples of the tuber, because they may not be as flavorful. Jicama will keep under refrigeration for up to two weeks.”

But information on Wiki says to never refrigerate.  So I guess you will have to decide that for yourself.  I guess if you refrigerate your other root veggies you might as well refrigerate this one too.  I think I might not refrigerate it until I cut it.

The outside skin needs to be peeled or cut off, then you can cut up the vegetable anyway you would like to eat it.  I tend to like it in long pieces of about an 1/2 inch around.  Usually you can only get that out of the middle as it is a round veggie so you end up with some odd shaped pieces.

Are you familiar with jicama?  Do you eat it?  Do you cook with it?

Posted in Food, Vegetables | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »