Posted by Sylvia on June 14th, 2007 — Posted in Tips
Sometimes getting more veg into your diet is just a case of thinking about your food from a different perspective.
This Japanese-inspired meal started with a bowl of chicken broth, quick and easy to heat up and serve. If you live in the city, you could probably easily pick up noodles to make it a bit heartier.
The main course is that old standby: cold roast beef (I like mine really rare, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t serve it well-done if that’s your preference). Instead of mustard though, serve it sliced thin with a bowl of soy sauce for dipping in. Add in a touch of wasabi (Japanese horseradish) for authenticity, or simply a bit of crushed garlic. I tossed in a few chile seeds for heat.
Then, clockwise and up from the soy sauce, we have avocado with pickled ginger, tinned palm hearts, sliced raw fennel and a spicy italian pickled chile pepper. A variety of flavours and textures and bite, combining into one very healthy meal. And the best thing? As we had the roast beef already from the night before, the entire two-course meal took me 10 minutes to prepare.
My other half only had one gripe: it’s a lot harder to eat avocado with chopsticks than you might think. Next time, I’ll add a few more minutes to the prep time and stab ‘em with toothpicks.
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Posted by Sylvia on June 4th, 2007 — Posted in Tips
June! The sun is shining and the season for sweet-but-tart delicious tastes has begun.
This is the time to indulge your sweet tooth. Fresh fruit starts to appear in June and July: a veritable feast of flavour! Strawberries with real summer flavour have finally arrived and you should start to see grapes, apricots, melons and nectarines.
Personally, I am looking forward to my very favourite dessert, fresh raspberries with cream: perfection. But if you aren’t familiar with gooseberries,you should definitely try this 15th century recipe for gooseberry fool. There’s no point in trying to improve upon perfection.
This is your last chance for seasonal asparagus but you’ll find summer vegetables at their prime. Perk up your salads with young and crunchy raw veg: baby carrots and thin-sliced fennel and spring onion and sliced radish with salt. Try updating your salads with different types of lettuce and young spinach and watercress. It is also a good time to explore the versatility of courgettes / zucchini, a type of small marrow that soaks up flavour, making it perfect for eating with herbs and butter. The smaller they are, the more flavour they tend to have. Broad beans are at their best now too, still young and soft enough that you can serve them steamed.
Need more inspiration? Things to Try Eating (Seasonal Food) is a great diagram by Andrew Fox showing seasonal food throughout the year - go large!
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Posted by Sylvia on April 30th, 2007 — Posted in Tips
May means Spring is truly sprung and the tastiest healthy food is all in season. Asparagus may be available year-round these days but the taste in May is infinitely better, somehow greener. Buy it by the bundle and try these recipes from the California Asparagus Commission.
Salad leaves of all types are available now: get inventive and try something different instead of sticking to safe and steady iceberg; even my fussy kid loves spinach salads with croutons and bacon. Add seasonal zing to your spring salads: avocados, onions, and fresh garlic! For more ideas, take a look at How to Make Fabulous Green Salads on the Fabulous Foods site.
Cauliflower remains available and I have to bring up the lovely appetiser I had at lunch the other day: grilled cauliflower florets! Large florets sliced thick and brushed with olive oil, cooked fast over high heat so that they retained a bit of crunch. I immediately searched for a recipe when I got home and was pleased to find a recent article on hogwash, which I immediately added to my bookmarks.
Jersey Royals are ready to be lightly boiled and served with butter and just a touch of parsley but if that’s not exciting enough for you, you’ll find everyday and Chefs’ recipes on The Jersey Royal Potato website. Did you know their name comes from the neighbours calling it a “right royal fluke” when Hugh discovered them?
Dessert is a doddle with cherries just coming into season: just serve them fresh as they come! Choose Cherries claims that they are a superfruit with the “highest level of disease-fighting antioxidants compared to other fruits” All we know is that they taste good.
A few additional articles if we’ve not convinced you yet how simple it is to eat seasonally:
World Community Cookbook offer an Online Fruit and Vegetable guide as a part of their Simply in Season online site.
There’s a good article on seasonal food pros and cons over at The Tracing Paper.
Eat the Seasons offers recipes and recommendations every week so you are never short of inspiration.
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Posted by Sylvia on March 22nd, 2007 — Posted in Tips
Photo By avlxyz
What’s in season now?
As we head directly into Spring, it’s time to get the last of our winter roots and veg and start serving fresh green salads with radishes on the side. Right now is the time for fresh young spinach and watercress both of which make for a wonderfully delicate salad with just a touch vinegar and oil as dressing. Young spring onions and fresh green herbs are a wonderful addition, especially parsley and mint, all of which come into their own in late March. And you know when mint comes into season, spring lamb can’t be far off — perfect for cooking fast and serving pink.
Fruit and Vegetables in season now
- Beetroot
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Carrots
- Celeriac
- Endives
- Leeks
- Mint
- Parsley
- Rhubarb
- Radishes
- Spinach
- Spring Onions
- Watercress
Meat, Fish and Seafood
- Cockles
- Lemon Sole
- Lobster
- Rabbit
- Salmon
- Sardines
- Spring Lamb
- Venison
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Posted by Dom on February 28th, 2007 — Posted in Tips
By Yuliana Hendarto.
I was just watching Tyra Banks Show this evening and she had the (ex – I think) wife and daughter of Mike Tyson as her guests! The topic was about how the mother was ashamed of her daugther’s weight and as a result, she stopped her daughter from eating various things, as well as making bad remarks about the daughter’s weight.
Well ok the daughter is rather heavy, but guess what, her mum’s comments are not helping!
In fact, if anything, those years of frustrations and embarassment caused by the mum’s remarks probably contributed to her weight gain.
Isn’t it just amazing how a parent can be so unsopportive and destructive to his/her own child? Maybe the intention wasn’t bad. She saw the child has a tendency to gain weight easily and so wanted to keep her healthy. But rather than making fun of her, why not inspire her to change her eating habits instead?
It’s the push vs pull factor.
And a play between positive and negative emotions.
The same thing goes with people who put themselves on strict diets and absolutely deny themselves certain foods. I think that’s just absurd.
With all due respect, I totally admire people with such strong willpower. However, they should also keep in mind that we want a healthy lifestyle so that we can enjoy life! Not to torture ourselves with a constant diet of celery sticks and what-nots.
And the result of that? Cravings.
It’s psychological. The more we think of NOT eating certain things, the more we think of eating them! This continues until it comes to a point where your mind just can’t take it anymore and you have a ‘relapse’.
And then all hell break loose.
In healthy eating, I’d rather not restrict myself to certain foods. In fact, I eat whatever I feel like, whenever I have the desire to eat it. However, bear in mind the quantities! Eat just enough to make yourself feel quite happy and satisfied, but not overly full. Also, don’t ever feel any regret afterwards – it doesn’t help!
So the number 1 rule to healthy eating is:
Have a positive attitude, and have the right reasons for dieting! Your diet isn’t there to stop you from living your life, it’s there to allow you to enjoy your life to the fullest!
So live it!
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