Dark Leafy Greens: A Why to guide

So I am a convert. A dark green leafy vegetable convert. I recently spent a week away from home at a conference in Salt Lake City, not the foodie capital of the planet. I began to realize just how much I miss being able to cook for myself as well as the kind of food I eat on a daily basis.

I am not talking about salads here. I am talking about kale sauteed with garlic, lemon and white wine or collard greens steamed in chicken broth with mushrooms or endless varieties of cooked greens either steamed or sauteed in either olive or coconut oil (the only two oils save sesame for flavoring) that ever enter my kitchen. So why leafy greens?

First: Leafy greens regulate digestion. At first if you aren’t used to them they may cause gas, but you will get used to them. Start slow. Eventually they will make everything right down there. Why? Its because of the fiber. More fiber than bread or whole grains.

Second: Leafy greens contain magnesium. Tons of it. That is what makes plants green. Magnesium is the center of the pigment molecule chlorophyll that makes plants green and helps them convert energy from the sun into food for themselves…and us. Magnesium is needed for bone health, energy creation, stress relief, immunity and so many more vital body processes

Third: Vitamin K, Vitamin C and Calcium. A cup of Kale has 600 mg of calcium. A cup of milk has only 300 mg. That’s twice the amount. And greens don’t have hormones, saturated fat and other substances that we still haven’t quite figured out what does to us out of infancy. So get on board. And make greens a part of your plate. All you need is a few teaspoons of olive oil, some chopped garlic or ginger and the greens. Saute them until they turn a bit lighter green. Watch my video for how to make a “greens stir fry“.

Cooking healthy food is so easy and takes so little time…

I constantly hear from my students and clients that time is an issue for them in preparing healthy meals. I’m primarily working from the home office these days and I live in a walk up building. As much as those stairs are good for my heart – cooking just seems so much easier than running up and down the stairs, walking to my favorite take out place (at least 5 blocks away), standing in line to order food and then walking back to my apartment and up the stairs to consume said food.

This afternoon I cooked enough Quinoa for the week and made a steamed Swiss Chard and bean main dish. So many people shy away from both dark green leafy vegetables and beans, but I don’t know why. I used canned organic beans which I gave a rinse over and I destemmed the Swiss chard by hand (which took maybe 30 seconds) and then chopped it in strips and then turned the cutting board 90 degrees and chopped it in squares.

I put it in a 2 qt saucepan and steamed it with like 2 tbsp of water for exactly 2 minutes until it turned bright green. Then I added the rinsed beans (red beans, not sure what kind – no sodium added and organic in a can that said it was free of bisphenol-A!).  I added a touch of sea salt (a few shakes) and a bit of low sodium soy sauce and two cap fulls (using the jar I had) of curry powder.

I spooned about 1/2 cup quinoa into a bowl and added the greens/beans on top. Delicious and took me less than 5 minutes to make.  More bioavailable vitamins than a multi-vitamin, more calcium than 2 cups of milk (although many argue the absorption in vegetables with oxalic acid) and enough protein for my needs. Plus, I feel light, energetic and ready to tackle my academic needs of the day.

 

Superbowl chili recipe

So here we are again…rain in New York City, a delayed kick off and your need to be lean and mean for the game. Your solution? Luscious Organics spicy but light chili. I make mine with lamb or turkey, but you can go with any meat, it will taste a bit different, so I recommend not deviating too much…but here’s the basic recipe.

Game Day Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

Served 6-8

2 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, smashed with a knife

1 small yellow onion, diced or chopped finely

1 yellow pepper, small dice

1 lb ground turkey or lamb (lean)

1/2 bottle dark beer (drink the rest?)

2 chipotle chilies, chopped

2 tsp of chipotle sauce

1 tbsp cumin or curry powder

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp dried oregano

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

A few shakes of sea salt

1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce (organic, unsweetened) or crushed tomatoes

1 handful freshly chopped cilantro

cheese and/or low fat sour cream for garnish

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a 5-6 qt stock pot or dutch oven

2. Add smashed garlic, yellow and onion. Cook on medium high for 5 minutes until soft and fragrant.

3. Add turkey and brown in oil with onion mixture.  When turkey is brown add chipotle pepper, pepper sauce and beer.

4. Turn heat to medium low and add other ingredients, spices and cocoa in order above, stirring to combine

5. Cook on medium low for 12-15 minutes until combined and tasty! Add additional spices if not spicy enough for your taste.

6. When ready to serve, reheat and just before serving add a dollop of low fat sour cream, a handful of cheese and a pinch of chopped cilantro! Enjoy.

Go Steelers! Enjoy the snow!!!

healthy superbowl recipes are coming…

Greetings 2011!

Its been a long time! This blog has been in hibernation as many changes have been occurring within Sobel Wellness. But we’re back and ready to provide you all with some rocking superbowl friendly recipes with a bit of a healthy flair!

In the thick of winter here in the Northeast, all I want to do is curl up on the couch with a bowl of warm soup. I’ve been filling up on dark leafy greens, beans, grains and grass fed beef on occasion.   Although I had some wonderful short ribs last night at Artisanal for restaurant week, I’ve been taking a vacation from meat this winter. I go back and forth, but usually only have meat once a week.  I just feel better when I don’t eat it and I love my vegetables!  Seasonally, I do love summer and Fall vegetables the best, but there are still a few good ones around year round like dark leafy greens, Brussels sprouts and my personal favorite: Leeks!

So many of the soups we know as comfort foods aren’t always the healthiest, but it is really easy to make some easy winter soups in relatively little time. My two favorite soups are butternut squash and black bean.  Every so often I make a butternut squash black bean soup when I’m feeling really crazy. Both are really easy and require a few ingredients. Butternut squash soup can be made with the following 4 ingredients: butter or olive oil, squash, chicken or vegetable stock, Cinnamon and a pear. If you like you can add salt and pepper. I find a good squash and the pear to be sweet enough, but some people like a touch of sugar or agave. I really don’t think its necessary. I usually use about 4 cups of stock to 1 lb of squash. The hardest part of the soup is cutting and peeling the squash – but thanks to Trader Joes you can get cheap squash already peeled and chopped! The black bean soup is a bit more complicated and I’ll post one of my favorite recipes soon.

I just bought the ingredients for my first lamb chili. I’ll be developing that recipe this weekend and post it soon, just in time for the superbowl. Chilies are easy and fun! Plus they give you an excuse to put beer in your food!

Some dark beers have a nice amount of iron and magnesium. I’m still working out the nutrition information for my recipe, but this will be one chili that is actually good for you. I use low-fat lamb and very little of it – the meat is more for flavoring than anything else. It is the beans and a smattering of cheese that give you good protein.  There will also be some great hidden ingredients like cocoa powder, sesame and nutmeg that in addition to cumin and cilantro really give the chili its amazing flavor.

I’ll be back with a whole lot of good recipes soon. As well I’ll be trying out some new recipes here in preparation for some work I am doing for my thesis where I am putting together meal plans and writing a curriculum for diabetes education. Fun stuff!

Zucchini Goat Cheese Quiche and other early September Delights

August is the height of squash season.  Now it is September and there’s still a lot of squash available. I love this time of year. The peaches are still around, fresh and plentiful…and oh so sweet and the apples and pears are just showing up at the markets. I bought two pears yesterday hoping to have them around for the week, but I ate them both yesterday Have to get some more I guess. I ate the peach this morning. Just could not wait.

I picked up all kinds of squash at two different farmers markets this week. Yesterday at the Farmers Market near Columbia University, I picked up some Japanese Eggplants, Thai Eggplants, Lemon Basil and Avocado Squash.  Today I picked up some fresh cilantro, kale (I’ve never seen so much kale that was grown organically in a bunch before – whole foods usually sells three leaves in a bunch of organic kale), baby bok choi and some fresh gala apples.

You could basically cut up the vegetables and eat with no seasonings and you don’t even need to cook, but if you are looking for a bit of dressing for your naked veggies, a bit of honey, apple cider vinegar and a bit of olive oil go a long way.

Yesterday I brought home my squash bounty and looked in my cabinets to see what I could add them to.  I had bulgur wheat, coconut milk, some red curry paste I had made the other day and a block of sprouted tofu.  I was hungry and as usual not in the mood to cook something really complicated but very yummy.  So, I started boiling the bulgur (one cup of bulgur in 2.5 cups water). The bulgur cooks about 12 minutes. At about 10 minutes in, I added the chopped avocado squash, curry paste dissolved in coconut milk to which I had added to tofu and let it marinate for a few minutes prior). I put a top on the pot and cooked the grain, veg and tofu mixture for about 2 more minutes.  Delicious! Easy and in one pot!

With the remainder of the squash I made a quiche today with 4 eggs, goat cheese, a mixture of other cheeses, goat milk and thyme, tarragon, pepper and salt. I topped it with just a bit of pastured butter only available until September (now!).

I made my favorite agave lemonade to go with it. Just a splash of organic lemon juice, 1 tsp of agave and the rest of the glass water with three ice cubes. Mmmm. Hope you get out to the markets and enjoy the September offerings!

Next post I’ll tell you about the yellow tomato, cucumber gazpacho I made with lime and Meyer lemon juice.

Please pass the beans!!! and cut the steak…into three :)

I did some menu planning the other day for different diets by calorie and realized just how many calories we sometimes mindlessly eat, especially when dining out in restaurants.

Some commentary…I visited a steakhouse with a friend. Needless to say that the restaurant emphasized its corn fed beef from South Dakota which had the best tasting corn in the country. The animals were fed for 452 days (roughly 1 year and 3 months) and then…what? They were slaughtered. Perhaps the meat tasted good…but it was much higher in fat than say a grass fed steak and not in the kind of fat that we want to take in.  It occurred to me that nutrition science shuns red meat when instead small portions of grass fed beef should be emphasized on occasion. Also the smallest steak on the menu was 8 ounces and entitled a “petite” fillet…as if 8 ounces was a tiny portion only fit for a tiny woman or a small child. The regular fillet was 12 ounces. It was enormous and could feed three people. My dinner companion ate it all as I ate my fish, beans and greens leaving a few medallions of fish on the plate because I was full.

But, plant protein is wonderful too. Its such a shame that the humble bean and grain get the shaft. A wonderfully balanced meal is 1/2 cup cooked beans, 1 cup whole grains such as quinoa or millet and 2 fists worth of a whole bunch of seasonal vegetables. My favorites out now are pattypan squash and sunflower sprouts.  I also had cranberry beans a week or so ago. Wonderful! I wish to see more beans (and their are heirloom varieties) well soaked (to help ease digestion!!!) and offered on menus.  But, more than that, I’d like to see more people eat at home and cook their own food…or hire me to do it for them

A note on restaurants, the typical portion of beef in a restaurant is between 12-16 ounces. The typical recommendation is 4 ounces…6 ounces of all protein of any kind for the day!!! Its pretty hard to do this when the restaurants offer so much more. But you can make a good choice! When dining out, order an appetizer and a salad or split an appetizer and a main course with a friend. I had two co-workers who used to do this every day. Its a great way to save money (eating home saves more!).

Its strawberry season again…

Its June! The world’s best looking athletes by far have congregated in South Africa and are sweating in the sun while chasing after a small checkered ball. All this gawking at the television has me wanting one thing…strawberries…and watermelon!

There’s nothing like the start of summer. The pools are open (at least on the weekends), although the water is ridiculously cold and you can buy a cut up watermelon on the street. As well the New York City farmers markets are all a twitter with my favorite start of summer fruit…the strawberry.

When I grew up on Long Island, I remember the third week of June hosted a strawberry festival in my town. Strawberry shortcake, strawberry pie, rides, attractions, music, merriment, people really celebrated the arrival of the strawberry. Today, I just wake up early on a Thursday or Sunday morning and head over to the market 10 blocks from my apartment and plop down my $4 ($3 later in the day if there are any left!) for a pint of the most amazing strawberries I have ever tasted…and sometimes, when I am really lucky, they sell some at Fairway.

These strawberries are amazing. Sweet, succulent and no methyl iodide here.  I’m still kvelling from the asparagus, whose season is almost over. This past weekend I got my first taste of summer zucchini and eggplant…on the grill, with lamb. Oh my god, to die for. Summer is upon us…all the best to Algeria…oh yeah and the United States/Britain who both have to play Algeria. Hope they are eating some strawberries too!

Food advertising

I wonder what it would be like to live in a world without food advertising. It is difficult to think how we are supposed to have will power when all we see on television and bill board is advertisements for food. The advertisements always include someone fit, trim and eating ice cream or a brownie or nowadays some treat with 150 calories or less. The trouble is, those low fat, high sugar treats are not filling and you want to eat the entire box. If only they would show what people really look like who consume 70% of their calories from snack foods (news flash, an overwhelming number of American children and adults have been estimated to get 70% of their calories from packaged snack foods!)

I’ve also spent the afternoon (while revising slides for a class I teach) watching America’s next top model. These girls who look like little skeletons with eating disorders could use some food. I find it so odd, that during this marathon on TV, all that they show is advertisements for different desserts. Every so often there is an advertisement for a probiotic pill or a holistic cat food with whole grains and salmon. The advertisement implies that the model in the ad, shown doing yoga, with her cat rubbing against her lower very toned legs is “eating well”. The next commercial however was for some sweet treat.

One wonders why you never see commercials for grass fed beef, salmon, kale, whole fresh vegetables or fresh fruit. We are just about to enter into strawberry season. I can’t imagine a better snack than a bowlful of fresh strawberries with just two tablespoons of farm fresh unsweetened yogurt. I found a few brands of icecream that have onely 12-14 grams of sugar – that still nearly three teaspoons – but its acceptable, once or twice a week as a treat. I only buy a pint at a time and eat my 1/2 cup serving. I don’t believe in eliminating treats altogether, but I do believe that they need to be treats, not rewards, but treats, that once in a while indulgence.

For everyday, I love fresh pears, apples, berries and my smoothies. I don’t think I could live without a stick blender. There’s no better workout recovery than a smoothie. I’ve been trying to get back to fighting shape with my running. Its been a slow progression, but I am committed to getting back into it and pushing toward 9 miles in the next week or so and then getting above it. I met an 80 year old speedwalker out on the path today. He speedwalks marathons. He walks at 10 minute miles. I could scarcely run a 10 minute mile after about 5 miles in and a whole lot of warm up. I was floored. He actually passed me a few times (it was sad, but I just let him go because I really just like to get into a zone with my running and try not to pay attention to others out there) and then I passed him and finally at my home stretch up Harlem hill (I start and finish on 106th street). He came up along side me (he was walking, I was running and I as not running slowly!) and asked me how many miles I was doing. We chatted a bit, perhaps I slowed down because I was running uphill, but I was still running. Its all that mattered. It feels wonderful.

After a good long run and a really cold shower (works wonders for the legs), I always recover with a smoothie. I’ve found these frozen goji berries at a local health food store, so I usually take a few tablespoons of those with hemp powder, greens powder, milk (I used dairy today, I switch off), pomegranate juice and ground flax seeds. I swear these smoothies are more like meals and not only help me recover with the right balance of carbs and protein, but also I know exactly what are in them and they are like a meal. They make a fabulous lunch, especially on these hot days when I don’t want to turn on the oven.

I’m looking forward to some fish and greens later. I can’t wait for the strawberries. The hunt has begun. I might try to find some tomorrow after a long run! As summer approaches I am eagerly awaiting New York City’s public pools opening. They have lap swimming 7am-8am and 7pm-8pm usually, no kids, only swimmers. Its a swimmers dream. I miss the John Jay pool on the east side where I used to go…but am not super far from Lasker Pool in central park – so will be giving that a try soon!

In the meantime, consider turning off the TV. Eat the full fat icecream with less than 15 grams of sugar (turkey hill and breyers are my favorite brand) once a week and enjoy those strawberries. Get out there!

Ramps, garlic and spring onions

Its April and that means fresh asparagus, peas, ramps, garlic and spring onions. There is nothing like a chopped ramp, onion saute with meat or bean of your choice. Throw in some green vegetable, a bit of olive oil, some fresh herbs and you’ve got yourself a bit of deliciousness.

The ramp is in the onion family, but much sweeter. You can eat the greens. Many chefs I know use the base (washed and ends cut off) as you would a scallion. The leaves can be chopped coarsely and added to a stir fry. I love to use ramps with onions or ginger and garlic as a base for a stir fry or to add proteins for a pasta or grain dish.

They would be best used in place of leeks in soups or with proteins. The potato leek soup could be a great potato ramp soup. I love those little fingerling potatoes, blue potatoes and yams. Could make for a very colorful soup, perhaps too colorful But check out this site for additional recipes.

I’m making lamb and chicken dishes this week for private clients and I might just add some ramps into the saute mix in place of the leeks. I also saw leeks available with local farms. Spring, gotta love it!

In the meantime, I am experimenting with chia seed. I saw a recipe for pudding made with chia seed. I’ve got some fresh vanilla and coconut milk, curious to see what I can whip up. Stay tuned

Spring recipes and cooking outside your comfort zone!

The rain might be over, the birds are chirping, I see a lot of asparagus around. Does that mean, spring is finally upon us? I am working on transitioning from the meat and root based dishes of winter to the greens based dishes of spring. I finally get to bring back my fresh greens based cassoulets, asparagus and pea soup (using fresh peas from the garden, not frozen!) and planning for summer recipes.

This week, I’m planning some fresh asparagus recipes as well as a red lentil dal with cauliflower and carrots. I saw some wonderful purple, green and white cauliflower at the farmers market last week and I wasn’t sure what to do with all of it, so I put it in soup. The soup started with a few shallots and carrots (because I didn’t have any celery). I added the red lentils next and swirled them around in the olive oil. I had about 2 cups of vegetable stock, so I added that with about 2 more cups of water and about 2 tablespoons of Moroccan Marrakesh curry mix (all kinds of spices – if you are Moroccan and from Marrakesh, you probably know – otherwise the usual tumeric, cumin or standard curry mix all work, the Moroccans and Marakeshites are probably cringing right now). I also added a bit of Hawaiian black lava sea salt – just a shake, not even 1/4 teaspoon.

I simmered the soup 20 minutes, until my kitchen smelled so heavenly I had to try some. Then I did, two bowls worth. Yum!

I found this great website: http://noteatingoutinny.com/category/recipes/.  I thought what a great idea, not eating out in New York. I always find it hard to follow other people’s recipes exactly. My ADD runs away with me, I get a basic idea and then alter it to the things I like and it usually works out, better sometimes I think

I started making this chocolate cake one year based on a recipe from culinary school and I forgot the water once, forgot the sugar another time. The cake came out differently, but still good. I altered it so that I made two or three new variations on the recipe that were well, my recipes. I encourage you to do the same. Cooking is an art form, like singing or writing. It is meant to be creative, expository and at the same time you can’t be afraid to take risks. If you have 6 people waiting for you and only 2 hours to cook, you might want to follow a recipe more carefully or at least do the experiment once on your own on a smaller scale, but if its just you, your partner or children waiting, give your creativity a whirl. You’ll grow as a cook and its always great to be pushed to cook outside your comfort zone. Give it a try or drop me an email and I’ll help.