Food for Thought
Ξ October 29th, 2007 | → | ∇ Uncategorized |
What’s the point of healthy food if nobody wants to eat it?–Kashi
One of my passions is health and nutrition. I love to cook and really love to cook using fresh, healthy (organic when the budget allows) ingredients, creating mouth-watering meals that strengthen our bodies and fuel our minds. Don’t get me wrong, I still love my Tillamook Mudslide ice cream and could do some real damage on a Gotta Have It sized Coldstone cake batter waffle cone. But, I do love to find creative ways to make the meals that we love healthier. Eating well and taking care of our bodies is just one of the ways that we honor God through being good stewards of what He’s given us. So, here I will post my latest favorite recipe. I’d love suggestions, healthy hints, or feedback on any of these. Bon Appetit!
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Persimmon Oatmeal Cookies
I realize that perhaps some of you might think that I only enjoy vegetables, soup and salad–wrong! The truth is, I am a cookie monster at heart. In fact, I don’t keep chocolate chips around because if I did I’d bake chocolate chip cookies every afternoon and you’d have to roll me out the door! But for me, baking cookies is therapuetic. Especially on a cold and rainy day, like today. And since I don’t usually have traditional cookie-baking things on hand, I do like to experiment with unusual new cookie recipes, especially ones that actually have some nutritionally redeeming value!
My uncle and aunt have this amazing community garden. I distinctly lack a green thumb, but I dream of being able to garden half as well as they do. This summer we enjoyed the fruit of their labor in tomatoes, zucchini, huge sweet onions, and dark dark purple potatoes that make a fantastic side for barbeques. There is nothing more satisfying than eating fresh, organic, locally grown produce that is not only delicious but so beneficial for our bodies.
So this fall, they gave us a little brown bag of persimmons. I’d never eaten a persimmon and really didn’t have any idea what they even were. Last year, I have to admit, I think I took the ones they gave us and put them out as fall decor because they look so neat and I had no idea what else to do with them. But this year I wanted to do more. So I found this recipe, for Persimmon Oatmeal Cookies. I was skeptical: A fruit pulp mixed into your cookies? Sounded doubtful. But the rain was pelting the roof of the house, DUtch was asleep, my parents were gone, and Jeff was studiously working away on a paper upstairs, so I turned on the fireplace and pulled out the mixing bowl.
The persimmons are actually a lot like pumpkin, but very mild, and mixed with the butter, sugar, and loads of oatmeal, the end result was shockingly delicious. Yum! I couldn’t even place what exactly I loved–the nutmeg or the cinnamon or the persimmon (or the butter–that always helps!), but they were wonderful. So, I’m sharing my recipe with you. A wonderful fall treat and since the recipe makes 48 cookies and you use 2 persimmons in the whole batch, you can count each cookie as 1/24th of a fruit serving for the day. 
Persimmon Oatmeal Cookies
Heat oven to 350
Peel persimmon, core, and cut into chunks. Use blender or food processor to make into pulp (about 1 cup)
Mix 1 stick butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, and 1 cup persimmon pulp.
Add 1 1/2 flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. nutmeg
Then add 1 1/2 cups oatmeal.
Optional: 1/4 cup chopped walnuts.
Drop on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes! Makes 4 dozen. Yum!
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Fall Feast
I have my Mother-in-Law to thank for many things. Most of all, raising the most wonderful man in the world. Secondly, introducing me to beets. I had never had a beet, and never knew what I was missing.
Fall gets a bad rap in the nutrition department. We think of Summer as the time for eating healthy, harvesting fresh fruits and veggies and noshing on watermelon and fresh mangos. But I have to say that nothing rivals roasted Fall vegetables.
One of the pitfalls of living with one’s parents is a tendency to pack on the pounds. I’ve only gained 5 since living here, which is a minor victory, but it’s still 5 and I need to stay alert and not become “fatty pants” (that’s what I call myself to my husband when I’m feeling not so trim). One of the hard things about living so far away from town is that it’s difficult to keep fresh fruits and veggies on hand. But Monday night I was cooking for one (Jeff was at class), and I’d stocked up on yams, carrots, and beets. Beets, yams and carrots, roasted to perfection in the oven is my favorite fall meal. I take several beets, scrub them clean, and cut off the greens but leave a little stem to keep the juices from bleeding out. Then I drizzle them with olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper and wrap them in tin foil. I peel a yam, cut it in half, then drizzle that with the oil, salt and pepper and wrap in in foil. Lastly, I dump a huge pile of baby carrots onto tin foil, drizzle and season, then wrap that up. Bake all the little foil packages at 400 degrees for an hour. Yum!!!! PUll them out, let them cool a little, then rub off the skin of the beets and cut off the stem–it’s messy but worth it! Add a little more salt and pepper if you wish, and dump it all on a huge plate and dig in! DE-licious. I would eat this every day if I could.
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Kari’s Clear-the-Sinuses Chicken Noodle Soup
I’ve been sick all week. I hate being sick. But I whipped up this super-healthy soup and ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Toss in a few saltines and make sure to breathe in the steam! Keep kleenex handy while you eat this!
1 large onion, chopped up. Saute in a TB of olive oil, until onions are soft. Then add
2 Chicken breast halves, chopped into small pieces. Cook chicken with the onion until no longer pink. Then add
1 TB minced garlic, cook several minutes, then add
2 cups chopped fresh carrots
4 cups good quality chicken broth.
Add salt, pepper (lots), cayenne pepper, plus any other seasonings you wish (I use Penzey’s 4-S). Make it spicy!
Then add whole-wheat egg noodles.
Simmer until noodles and carrots are cooked but firm.
Kari’s Favorite Lunch (at the moment)
Large plateful of Costco’s Organic Gourmet Baby Salad Greens (very good price–and fresher than any grocery store)
Sprinkle of Crumbled Feta Cheese
Sprinkle of Freshly Grated Parmesan
Grilled chicken breast cut into tiny pieces or lightly pan fried in Panko (Japanese breading) in olive oil
Sprinkle of Dried Cranberries
Sprinkle of sliced Raw Almonds (unsalted)
Sprinkle of Sunflower seeds
Sprinkle of Flax Seed Meal
Drizzled Brianna’s All-Natural Poppyseed Dressing (this stuff is incredible)
Yum! This is a pretty hearty meal so go easy on the sprinkled stuff–but it’s loaded with protein, fiber, Omega-3s, and, best of all TASTE! Enjoy!
