The New Food 'Pyramid'

I realize that the new food pyramid is old news. But, I wanted to reflect on some things. I think my food blog is a good place to do this.

Eating is something you do roughly 3 times a day 365 days a year. You should know the proper way to eat. So why is it that I only vaguely remember learning about proper nutrition? I think we talked about it once in elementary school and then in high school when I elected to take a health course.

The new My Plate approach seems a lot easier to understand than a pyramid. I mean look at that image. If I have the proper size plate (not the huge 10-12" things most of us use) then I can design my plate exactly as it appears above and know that I'm getting a balanced meal. Simple.

Here are some things I've learned recently that (like My Plate) make eating healthy easier for my family.

• Carbs are NOT bad. I feel like I've believed carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, grains) were the enemy for WAY TOO long. In fact, you need them and you should be eating more grains and breads than meat. The kicker? You need to eat the right kind of carbohydrates. Things like beans, whole grain breads and brown rice. 

• You need a lot more vegetables than you are probably eating. Don't like vegetables? I didn't either until I started forcing myself to try new things and cooking with fresh ingredients. You can also try adding a romaine leaf (iceberg doesn't count) salad to every meal...it's a start. 

• Protein doesn't have to come from meat. It's ok to leave meat out of a meal. Try replacing one meal a week with a vegetarian menu. It will help you get more veggies and force you to try something new occasionally. 

• STAY AWAY from processed foods. If it comes in a box, it's probably not very good for you. The food companies are trying to make money off of you. Health food is popular right now. Of course the food companies are going to market their food as healthy! They can throw a little extra iron in their cereal and say it's iron fortified...they conveniently forgot to mention that they added a whole extra cup of sugar to the cereal in the process. The only way you know exactly what you are eating is if you have control of all the ingredients...I'm not going to get into organic ingredients right now. (Which by the way, I do not buy organic...at least not yet.)

• You don't have to eat perfect all the time. Follow the 80/20 rule. Eat good 80% of the time and you can live a little the other 20%. Just be careful because 20% can evolve into 30% and it can make a big difference.

• Small changes. Drink some more water this week. Next week buy apples instead of chips. You get the idea?

Edamame Salad

I found this recipe at Shape Magazine's website. It was in a feature for summer salads with 5 ingredients each. Can't beat 5 ingredients. It makes things super fast, easy and cheap!

I adapted the recipe a little since I am trying to like tomatoes but still haven't succeeded.

I really don't have a use for corn. I think it's just a low-calorie filler. I have been using it for that reason, though. It's much lower in calories than the edamame in this recipe. Plus, it adds some color and it does taste good.

Edamame Salad

1 bag of shelled edamame
1bag frozen corn
1/2 avocado
1 lime
1Tbs. olive oil
pepper to taste

Mix olive oil and lime juice by whisking. Add pepper to taste.

Boil the edamame and corn according to directions (about 3 minutes). Once done, immediately cool edamame and corn combo in cold water.

Pour lime/olive oil dressing over edamame and corn. Peel, pit and dice the avocado half and mix with the edamame and corn.

I put the salad in the fridge for a few minutes to make sure it was nice and cold. After all, it's 105 degrees here.

Eat. Yummmmm.

Chickpea and Cucumber Salad

This is a quick lunch salad to beat the heat. I found the recipe on the back of a can of Goya Chickpeas and adapted it to use ingredients that I actually had.

1 can of Goya chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 bell pepper
3 cloves of garlic, minced (I use the cheese grater as a cheat)
1/2 of a cucumber
1 teaspoon of olive oil
2 teaspoons of light balsamic vinaigrette
a little oregano

Chop the veggies the way you prefer. Throw everything in a bowl and mix it all up. Put in the fridge to chill and you have a yummy, cold, summer salad.

I had a side whole wheat couscous with mine, too.

The Best Tacos You've EVER Eaten.

That statement's true if you've never had Torchy's Tacos. Those are, in fact, the best tacos in the world. No contest.

But, these are a close second to Torchy's. Now, all you tofu snobs, don't panic. This is a tofu recipe and it was my first attempt at cooking with tofu (I've eaten it before). I can tell you with 99% certainty that you will like this taco. But, if you insist on not trying tofu then you can substitute chicken or (even better) fish. 

Here is the recipe. I followed this recipe exactly.

In my opinion, this is the best veggie recipe I've made. In Mark's opinion, it is a close second to a black bean burrito recipe that I'll post later.

This is tofu. The consistancy is similar to scrambled eggs.

Slaw for the tacos.

Yogurt dressing. Don't freak out...it makes the tacos. Promise!

Finished Product. I'm going to eat the leftovers from last night. Right Now.

Chickpea Patties

Told you I'm loving Chickpeas right now. I think I told you that. Who knows. This is another recipe from The Kind Life. You can find the recipe here. I left out the celery. The reason? I'm not a big fan of celery and I didn't want to buy a whole bunch when I only needed one stick. I don't think the recipe missed it. I certainly didn't.

These were really good. I'm not sure if I prefer these or the black bean patties. I guess it doesn't matter since they will both be making it into my cookbook as go-to meals.

Twofer

As in, two for one. I'm back on my health kick. I'm not going into details but the past few weeks have taken a toll on me. My body has really gotten used to non-processed, earthy meals.

This hot pickle salad that I've been making has been my go-to lunch most days. I stole/borrowed it from Elena. Pardon the picture. It's an iPhone pic. This salad is Romain lettuce, chickpeas (which are delicious), diced hot pickles and I added some croutons...a girls gotta live a little. I've been using a Garlic Asiago dressing because low calorie garlic dressing is hard to find. Most of them are creamy garlic. Beware anything that says creamy. My only complaint with this meal is that I end up picking up the chickpeas with my hands. They are quite difficult to get onto the fork. haha. But it's sooo good it doesn't matter!

This next recipe is delicious! I promise you'll love it. I got it from The Kind Life website.






It's Black Bean Burgers and Guacamole. 

You need:

• 1 Avocado
• 1tbsp. of lime juice
• a little pepper
• 1/4 cup of bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup of chopped garlic
• 1tsp. of cumin
• 2 tsp. of Olice Oil (reduced from original recipe which recommends 3 tsp.)
• 1/4 cup chopped tomato (I omitted this)
• 15 ounce can of Black Beans

What to do:

1. Make Guac. (maybe you have a better recipe but this worked fine) Mash up avocado in a small bowl, add lime and season to taste with pepper. Put in fridge until you are ready to eat.
2. Open, drain and rinse can of beans. Put into bowl with bread crumbs, garlic, cumin and olive oil.
3. Use food processor or potato masher to mix ingredients until they are well blended.
4. Add small amount of olive oil to pan. Form bean mixture into 4 patties.
5. On medium to high heat, heat oil. Add patties and cook 5 minutes per side until heated through and browned.
6. Slab on some guacamole and enjoy!

This was a recipe Mark enjoyed A LOT! His only complaint was that he needed a little more food. I didn't make anything to go with it.

Healthy Lunches

So I've mentioned that lunches are difficult, right? I never know what to do. I'm guilty of falling into fast food traps at lunch because: "how do make a lunch for one?" I'm not a big fan of at home sandwiches or salads. My favorite deli meat is bologna and it doesn't really fit into my diet plan. So lunches stump me.

Elena had some good suggestions on her blog. Have I mentioned her blog before? I have (on Granthamania)? Yeah, I'm a big fan of her blog right now. haha. I've tried two of the recipes she posted and they were fantastic!

Tuscan Panzanella Salad

Hop over to her blog for the Tuscan Panzanella Salad recipe and a few others.

This tuscan salad was pefect because:

1. The leftovers will refridgerate and save well for tomorrow.
2. Everything in the salad (minus croutons) are bite size for Miss Chloe and she enjoyed it!

When on her blog, please note the recipe for the Chickpeas Salad. It was so yummy. I didn't have chichpeas so I substituted white beans. It was a good substitute but I'm springing for the chickpeas next week at the store.