consider the source…
I’m sorry about the silly title, but I just had to go there…
This month, I have an article up about juicing on Food & Nutrition’s website. If you’re interested or even just a little curious, check it out!
Tag Archives: fruits and vegetables
What I Ate Wednesday #52
So wow—it seems I’ve been doing this What I Ate Wednesday thing for a whole year! That happened fast. So much has changed…This time last year, I didn’t know where (or if) I’d be doing a dietetic internship, and now I’m in the second week of my second rotation. Crazy!
This week got off to a great, running start. The hours just flew by. I have to admit, it was nice to come home and catch up on Sunday night’s Mad Men while I did work. I want to give a Happy Birthday shout-out to my friend Alex, who made this whole TV thing possible : )
Here’s the “what I ate” part of Monday…
Breakfast: steel-cut oats with pear, dried apricot, flax & chia seeds and cottage cheese, topped w/ PB2 sauce
Lunch: Salad bar creation—I got there in time for the hard-boiled eggs for a change. Big whoop, I know…
Snacks: (Unpictured) grapes, crackers throughout the day; small glass of skim milk when I got home
Dinner: Leftover lentil soup w/ veggies; sweet potato w/ goat cheese
Snack: Plain yogurt with a chopped up frozen Fig Newton and berries (got the idea for the frozen Fig Newtons from Allie) 
As always, thanks to Jenn for hosting the link party! Visit Peas & Crayons to see more WIAW from other bloggers.
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten recently ?
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cooking, dietetic internship, fruits and vegetables, school, What I Ate Wednesday, WIAW, work
Your New Favorite Beauty Tools: Fruits & Veggies
Another reason to eat the rainbow: Bonobos' famous nori rolls
I’m sure you’ve heard before that fruits and veggies will make you feel healthier, but a recent study shows that getting your daily dose(s) of produce can make you look healthier too.
Ross Whitehead, lead researcher from the School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, noted, ”We found that within a six-week period, fluctuation in fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with skin-color changes.” The skin of participants who upped their intake (as opposed to those who lessened it) was judged to be more attractive at the end of the study, which was published March 7 in the online journal PLoS ONE.
Researchers credit the carotenoids—the yellow and red pigments in the fruits and vegetables—for adding a glow. Specific carotenoids studied included beta-carotene (found in carrots, yams, spinach, peaches, pumpkin and apricots, among other things) and lycopene, which is found in foods such as apricots, watermelons, tomatoes and pink grapefruits.
However, it should be noted that the study was small, with only 35 participants (who were mostly white, which doesn’t show how produce intake might affect other complexions) and that it really only shows an association between the appearance of skin and fruit and vegetable intake, not a cause-and-effect relationship.
Still, it’s promising. Like you needed another excuse to add a side salad at dinner or top your breakfast with fruit…
What fruits and veggies are you loving lately?
What I Ate Wednesday #44
Another week, another What I Ate Wednesday. As always, thanks to Jenn for hosting the link party. In honor of this month’s “Love your veggies” theme, I’ve got lots of colorful stuff to share. Not that that’s so different from usual, but hey…
As my internship gets closer and closer, I’m realizing that if I don’t take a few days to enjoy my time off, I’ll regret it, so I spent Tuesday catching up on stuff around the house and then going shopping with my sister. It was so gorgeous out (50 degrees and sunny—crazy), it was hard to stay inside! Here’s what I ate between outings…
Breakfast: Steel cut oats w/ chia seeds, plum & peanut butter
blurry breakfast
Lunch: Greens w/ roasted veggies, tempeh, sprouts, balsamic; toast w/ cottage cheese & nutritional yeast
Snacks: Fruit; lazy person’s hot chocolate (skim milk heated in the microwave + cocoa powder & stevia) topped w/ frothed milk
Dinner: Kabocha red lentil soup (inspired by Mama Pea) w/kale underneath and goat cheese on top; Ezekiel English muffin w/ Trader Joe’s lentil masala dip & smoked garlic spread my aunt made
Snack: unpictured drink (gin + club soda+ lemon & lime juice) at writers’ group; banana
What’s veggies are you loving lately?
For more WIAW from other bloggers, visit Peas & Crayons.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged family, fruits and vegetables, internship, milk, New York, protein, vegetables, vegetarian, What I Ate Wednesday, work
In my arsenal
As some of you who’ve been reading a while know, I’ve got a whole list of cold-fighting weapons I turn to when I feel something coming on. One of my favorites is green juice, but forking over eight bucks a pop can be rough on the wallet, so I tend to only buy it when I’m desperate for a last-ditch pick-me-up. Eventually I’ll get a juicer, but I have other priorities right now.
So you can imagine my curiosity when I saw this Super Green Drink Powder at Trader Joe’s not too long ago. While it’s not particularly new, it’s new to me. After a few weeks of talking myself out of trying it, I finally picked up a container last time I was there. When I woke up on Sunday morning feeling a little under the weather (a lot of fun but late nights recently, too much work, not enough rest, etc), I was so glad I had it. Though I don’t believe in miracles, I do believe that a mega-dose of nutrients can help in times of depletion…
The nutrition stats are not too shabby either…
Though I just mixed this with water and drank it down before rushing out the door, I imagine it will be fantastic in smoothies. We’ll see if it helps me feel better, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. A little optimism goes a long way!
Do you have any secret weapons? Are you a fan of drink powders?
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged drinking, fruits and vegetables, green, grocery store, juice, New York, smoothies, Trader Joes, vegetables
Eating the Rainbow
This has been a busy Sunday. Even though I was feeling a little faded (though not enough to regret that second drink)‚ I hit the ground running for a head-clearing workout and more apartment hunting. I’m not looking to actually move to another place for a couple months, but since I have the time now, I’ve been taking advantage of it.
Dorky as it sounds, I do try to practice what I preach when I tell people to “eat the rainbow”—fruits and vegetables, though, not Skittles. For breakfast I made steel-cut oats with chia seeds, pumpkin, apple and pumpkin pie spices (topped with peanut butter for protein and healthy fats). Why don’t I made steel cut more often? Yes, they take longer, but they’re so worth it. It’s also easy to just make a big batch and separate it into single servings to reheat later in the week.
For a late lunch, I enjoyed a 21-vegetable soup and a gorgeous nicoise salad with tuna. Winter produce can be a little sad, but there was so much going on here that it all added up to a very satisfying—and colorful—meal.
Do you try to “eat the rainbow?” What are some of your favorite ways to add color to your plate?
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged breakfast, cooking, fruits and vegetables, New York, oat meal, oatmeal, peanut butter, pumpkin, vegetables
Slow Cooker Eggplant Chickpea Stew
When I had no cooking gas last week, I decided to get reacquainted with my slow-cooker by making this eggplant chickpea stew. All I did, honestly, was throw in a bunch of ingredients I had that needed to get used up that I thought would taste good together. Turns out I was onto something—this was great! I served it with steamed kale, brown rice and a little goat cheese on top. You can also add other veggies like roasted cauliflower, like I did when I had leftovers for lunch.
Ingredients:
- 1-2 eggplants, cubed
- 1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained
- 1 15-oz can crushed or diced tomatoes, drained
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2-3 drops liquid smoke
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- red pepper flakes (optional)
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cups water
Directions:
- Combine ingredients in slow cooker. Cook on high ~4.5 hours.
- Serve hot
Do you have a favorite slow cooker recipe?
tk
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cooking, fruits and vegetables, lunch, recipes, vegetables, vegetarianism
Easy Being Green
Still no cooking gas. I had a bunch of vegetables that needed to get cooked while they were still good, so I steamed up what I could in the microwave. Monochromatic lunches are what happen when you’re too cheap to do takeout.
Brown rice w/ brussel sprouts, kale, broccoli, bok choy and edamame
This was actually pretty good—I ended up adding Garlic Gold nuggets, a little soy sauce and slices from the rest of an avocado I cracked open yesterday. Weird, yes, but satisfying.
What I Ate Wednesday #29
Another Wednesday, another WIAW post. To see more from other bloggers, visit Peas & Crayons.
Today was another hot yoga day. I woke up feeling like this: 
…and felt like myself again by the time the hour had passed. 
Um, anyway…
Today was all about work and school projects. There have been some big changes in my life recently, and I’ve just been doing my best to just hold on for the ride and keep looking forward. For better or worse, this happens to entail a lot of typing. That said, it’s especially important to make time for things like yoga (and exercise in general—good for the body and brain) and good food.
After getting home from class and blearily making a salad comprised of little bits of everything in my fridge, I realized I still needed some kind of grain, and popcorn seemed like the perfect solution. It also gave me a good excuse to try the brown paper bag trick I’d been curious about. The verdict? Success! How did it take me so long to give this a shot? It was the perfect thing to enjoy while working on some super-fun Biochem flashcards…
Breakfast: Pre-yoga oats with banana, flax and cocoa powder, topped with PB
ugly but good
Lunch: Smoked salmon with goat cheese, tomato, and roasted pepper on an Ezekiel English muffin; a side of veggies (kale, roasted tomato, eggplant, and broccoli) 
Snack: Plain yogurt with a chopped plum and cereal
Dinner: Hastily thrown-together massaged kale salad with seitan and the same veggies from lunch
Snack: Popcorn
How was your Wednesday? What was the best thing you ate?
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cooking, fruits and vegetables, school, What I Ate Wednesday, work
Ingredient of the Week: Pumpkin
Welcome to another Ingredient of the Week. Today is all about pumpkin, one of the most-loved food blog ubiquities.
This time of year, it’s hard to avoid all the pumpkin-themed food porn floating around the internet, but for a good reason: This fruit (yes, pumpkin in a fruit) is both delicious and nutritious.
In one half-cup serving of pumpkin puree, you get:
- 40 Calories
- 0.5 g Fat
- 10 g Carbohydrate
- 3 g Fiber
- 4 g sugar
- 1 g protein
- 380% your daily Vitamin A
- 8% Vitamin C
- 8% your daily iron needs
My friend Lauren recently asked if I wanted to partake in a “30 squash recipes in 30 days” challenge, and while I haven’t been officially taking part, pumpkin does count as squash, and the past few days have definitely included that.
Some of my favorite pumpkin uses include oatmeal…
…black bean and pumpkin soup…
…smoothies…
cheesy kitchen pic
and in brownies…
Take one box of brownie mix (I used Trader Joe’s Chocolate Truffle Brownie Mix) and one 15-oz can of pumpkin puree, and you mix them together. Bake as indicated on the box minus 5 minutes. You end up with perfectly moist, chocolatey brownies that oddly don’t even taste like pumpkin.
I’ve also been wanting to experiment with a pumpkin-based macaroni-and-cheese dish, mostly to see what happens.
While I can’t say I like to condone “hiding” fruits and vegetables, these kinds of recipes are a great way to up the nutrient profile in a treat without feeling like you’re “healthifying” it too much.
What’s your favorite way to eat pumpkin?
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Tagged autumn, cooking, fruits and vegetables, ingredient of the week, pumpkin
