If you are a vegetarian or are considering a meatless diet, there are several nutritional tips you should follow. You can meet the nutritional guidelines and still be a vegetarian. The key is to consume a variety of foods and make a plan. It is essential that people get the nutrients a body needs to function properly. Vegetarians run the risk of being deficient in the following sources of nutrition:
Protein: Taking the meat out of a diet means getting rid of a lot of protein. Protein is essential for healthy skin, bones, muscles, and organs. Vegetarians can replace the loss of meat protein with eggs and dairy. Vegetarians and Vegans can eat soy, legumes, lentils, nuts, seeds and whole grains to replace the protein in their diet. It is not a good idea to substitute meat protein with tons of high fat cheeses.
Calcium: This is necessary for strong teeth and bones. You can get calcium from low fat dairy products. Calcium is also found in dark green vegetables like spinach, kale and broccoli. You can find calcium fortified tofu, fortified soy milk and in fruit juices.
Vitamin B12: This vitamin produces red blood cells and helps to prevent anemia. Vitamin B12 is found in milk, eggs and cheese. If you are Vegan, you will need a supplement.
Iron: This mineral is useful in the development of red blood cells. Some terrific sources of iron are found in beans, peas, lentils, cereal, whole grain, dark green leafy vegetables, dried fruit. It is necessary to assist the absorption of non animal sources of iron by combining these foods with food containing vitamin C. Good examples of foods with vitamin C are strawberries, citrus fruit, tomatoes, and cabbage. These must be eaten together with the high sources of iron.
Zinc: This mineral is an essential component of many enzymes and plays a role in cell division and in the formation of proteins. You can get zinc by eating whole grains, soy, nuts, and wheat germ.
In addition to being certain you are not deficient in any of the above mentioned nutrients, you also have to pay attention to the amounts of different foods you intake. For example, you should eat eggs and sweets weekly. You should eat nuts and seeds, egg whites, soy and dairy, and plant oils daily. Finally, you should eat fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and beans with every meal. If you follow these guidelines, you should be a very healthy vegetarian.
All tea comes from the camellia sinensis bush. Therefore, “herbal tea” is a misnomer because it is not a tea at all. Instead, these mixtures of botanicals are called tisanes. Tisanes are usually a combination of dried leaves, pieces of ripe fruit, flowers, grasses, nuts, leaves, bark, and/or seeds.
It’s fall and the weather is cooling down, especially here in Minnesota. This time of year, I enjoy sipping hot drinks throughout the day: coffee, tea/tisane, or cocoa.It’s probably not a good idea to have too much coffee or cocoa (everything in moderation). Sipping a hot cup of tisane is a wonderful way to warm you from the inside and may have some wonderful health benefits as well.
Here are a few common examples of “herbal tea” ingredients and their health benefits:
Chamomile: This flower is known to relieve skin infections, increase appetite, accelerate the healing of wounds, reduce fever, and decrease inflammation of the stomach and liver.
Ginger: This root soothes the stomach and lungs, helps treat colds and cough, and aids in relieving digestive problems.
Ginseng: This root increases concentration and clarity with ginsenoids.
Peppermint: These leaves increase appetite, decrease fever and sore throat, helps fight a cold, and helps relieve skin infections.
This is only a small sampling of ingredients found in tisanes. There are thousands to try. Have a look at this website:
They sell tea and tisanes. This link takes you straight to the herbals. For $10 you can buy an herbal sampler with six tins to try. It’s a great introduction to “herbal tea”.
Right about now, most families are helping their children figure out how to create the most exciting and original costume ever. I think I won this contest last year when my daughter, Daphne, went to school as a dead head on a table.
Daphne's costume
However, Halloween is not just for the children. Adults, parents or not, love a costume party. You may be planning a party yourself or would like to bring a nice treat to a party you will attend. Hey, maybe I am just giving you the idea now to plan a party. There’s still time to throw something together. Either way, here are some dessert ideas:
Slow Baked Apples:
Serves 4
½ C. sugar
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
Pinch of ground coriander
4 medium Fuji apples
¼ C. butter
1 Tbsp. orange zest
1/3 C. heavy whipping cream
1 Tbsp. powdered sugar
¼ tsp. vanilla
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Butter four ¾ cup custard cups. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix sugar, ginger, and coriander in small bowl. Peel apples, halve, remove core. Slice apple halves into 1/8 inch slices. Place thin layer of apple slices in each custard cup, overlapping. Brush lightly with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar mix and orange zest. Keep layering in this manner until everything is used and cups are full. Cover with plastic and then foil. Pierce 4 holes through foil and plastic. Place cups on baking sheet. Bake for 2 hours. Whisk cream, powdered sugar and vanilla together in a medium bowl until soft peaks form. Spoon cream on top of each cup.
Apple Pie
Filling:
3 Medium apples, peeled and sliced
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
Topping:
¾ C butter
1 C flour
1 C sugar
½ tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place apple slices into a 9 inch pie pan. In small bowl mix sugar, cinnamon and nutmegtogether and sprinkle over the apples. Melt the butter. In a separate bowl, stir the flour, sugar, salt and egg. Whisk in the butter. Spread this over the apples. Bake for 40 minutes.
For a great Tart Tatin recipe visit my previous blog post: http://yovia.com/blogs/simplyfood/tag/tart-tatin/
Dan Buettner, author of the New York Times best selling book, The Blue Zone, travelled the world in search of Blue Zones. Blue Zones are places where the highest percentage of the population in relation to the rest of the world live the longest. They have more people living beyond 100 years than anywhere else on the planet.
Dan was curious to find out why or at least to find common elements in each place to help determine a key to longevity. The first place he discovered was Sardinia. Sardinia is an Italian island located 120 miles west of mainland Italy. It has a population of 1.6 million people. In all of the blue zones discovered by Buettner, there were common characteristics among the longest living populations. In addition to Sardinia, the other blue zones are: Okinawa, a U.S. city in Southern California (in particular the Seventh Day Adventists within this city) called Loma Linda, and Costa Rica. In all of the blue zones, Dan Buettner tried to determine key factors in the longevity of the lives of the inhabitants. The factors were very similar among each blue zone.
The Sardinian lessons were:
1. They ate a lean plant based diet:
This includes whole grain bread, veggies, beans, fruit, pecorino cheese made from grass fed sheep (high in omega 3 fatty acids). They only ate meat on special occasions. Therefore, their diet was “accented with meat”.
2. The Sardinians put family first:
Everyone in the family was cared for by each other. This included the elderly and the babies. Family helped family. This decreases the rate of depression and levels of stress.
3. They drink goat’s milk:
This may protect against inflammatory disease such as heart diseases.
4. They celebrate their elders:
Grandparents provide child care, financial help, wisdom and motivation for thier younger relatives. They promote traditions which, in turn, produces healthier children (emotionally and physically).
5. Sardinian’s (shepherds) walk at least five miles each day:
This provides great cardiovascular health as well as muscle and bone metabolism. It does not provide the joint pounding you get from running.
6. Sardinian’s drink 1 – 2 glasses of red wine per day.
This provides artery scrubbing flavonoids and may reduce stress.
7. They laugh with their friends regularly.
Sardonic sense of humor (have you heard of this?) comes from these people. They gather each afternoon to talk and joke. This lowers risks of cardiovascular damage and decreases health.
Dan’s book is so well written. It takes you into the heart and soul of each of the blue zones. You feel like you know the families he interviews personally. It really makes you want to visit each one of these places yourself. Furthermore, the book encourages the reader to do more to improve your own life and live a longer and healthier one. All of the advice given throughout the book is easy to follow and makes you feel so much better each day. I highly recommend it. Here is the link to buy the book: http://www.thebluezonesstore.com/
I love soaking in a hot tub. It is beginning to get cooler outside as we are in the full swing of Fall now. I am taking a hot bath every evening to relax and wind down. Lately, I have been trying to be as frugal and to conserve as much as I can. This is to save money as well as to help the planet. I found a website which teaches how easy it is to make your own bath salts. I am definitely going to do this from now on. Have a look:
I am constantly looking for recipes where I can make an entire family meal, but split it up so it is also vegetarian. My husband loves to have meat with dinner and my daughter is a vegetarian. To make matters worse, my son usually only eats the meat. I know, that is something I need to work on with him. It is great when I find recipes which can be assembled into the perfect meal for each member of my family. Today, I found a delicious one: Black Bean (and Beef) Enchiladas. This blog, mangotomato.blogspot.com has great recipes, is well written, and includes pictures which will make your mouth water. Have a look.
When I think back on my childhood, I remember a lot of food related traditions. Our family always ate dinner together at the dining room table.Every night we had a fresh salad…always. My mom made her own salad dressing that to this day is still my favorite. My mom always cooked the Thanksgiving dinner, for as many as fifty people. My mom threw the best Christmas parties every year. She studied her leather bound collection of Gourmet magazines to prepare the menu and cooked for days until the arrival of the guests. Sometimes, our entire backyard was tented for the event. Always, we danced into the next morning. Looking back, I realize she was (is) not only a great mom, but an amazing cook. It was a part of my life: I expected this food. Now, as a mother myself, I realize there was a lot of effort involved. So, I want to make sure my children grow up with fond traditional memories of their own.
Sometimes I get overly enthusiastic about an event. This usually happens during simple pleasures where the whole family seems to be getting along harmoniously.Like when we all go hiking on a beautiful day and the kids don’t complain. Another time, I felt it when we all played a board game together one evening and had so much fun. Again it happened during a cheerful Sunday morning while making delicious crepes for the family. This was several years ago. Sometimes these incidents are going along so blissfully, I half expect a blue animated bird to come and land on my shoulder. During such episodes, I usually announce, “Let’s make this our evening after dinner walk,” or “we should have a weekly game night” or “Sunday is now officially Crepe Day!”
Well, Crepe Day is one that stuck and we have been making homemade crepes every Sunday morning and filling them with creamy hazelnut chocolate spread, just like they do in Paris. We use Nutella.The kids love it! Their friends love it! Some friends even plan to sleep over only on Saturdays so that they can wake up to Crepe Day. The problem is that Crepe Day sometimes feels like a hassle. That’s the effort part, I referred to earlier.
Daphne and Megan with Nutella
Every Sunday morning at about 7 a.m. one of our children tip toe into our room, usually over to my side of the bed and whisper, “It’s Crepe Day”. I crack an eye open and say, “okay, wait until we wake up.” Another child will repeat this process of coming into our room every fifteen minutes or so until we do it, “are you ready to make crepes yet?” Claud and I will intermittently roll over to each other and say, “It’s your turn.” The other will respond, “No. I did it last week.” Eventually, we get up together, throw on our robes and slippers and make our way to the kitchen. After the coffee is brewed, we begin to make the crepes. I whip up the batter which is surprisingly easy for something so delicious. As soon as those crepes are forming in the skillet something amazing happens.
Daphne making a crepe
Eventually, the whole family is gathered in the kitchen together. Everyone is waiting his or her turn to eat a crepe. Crepes aren’t rushed. They have to be made one at a time. The anticipation helps to keep the magic. The whole family and sometimes friends are now sitting together, or standing over the stove watching crepes cook, and everyone is talking about what to do that day. Conversations begin to flow, people are laughing (chocolate in the morning always brings on laughter and glee), and tummy’s are filling.
Daphne, Megan, me, and Jack (with a mouth full of crepe)
So, yes, although it may seem like a bit of a hassle at 7 a.m., Crepe Day is well worth it. It has gone on for a few years and I don’t see any sign of it ending. Now, our kids can make them on their own too. But, we always end up in the kitchen together…the whole family. I hope that our family and all of their friends who have shared in this tradition will remember this as adults. It is my wish that they will even have nostalgia when thinking about waking up on a Sunday morning at the Monro’s. Here’s to remembering the traditions from your childhood and maybe revitalizing some of them or inventing new traditions for your children today. The rewards are well worth the effort.
Please watch a film of Daphne, Jack, and Megan making crepes:
Crepes
Time: 20 minutes
Serves a family of four
2 eggs
¾ C Milk
½ C Water
1 C Flour
3 Tbsp. Melted Butter
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
Whisk together the eggs, milk, water and butter. Add the flour and mix together. Heat a skillet over medium heat for about five minutes. Add the vegetable oil and spread it around the skillet with a paper towel. I wipe the skillet and spread the oil in between each crepe. Pour a ladle full of batter into the warm skillet. Cook until golden brown. Flip the crepe and cook until golden brown on the other side. Place it on a plate and spoon on the Nutella. Roll it up and enjoy.
I spent the summer learning how to preserve all of the bounty from my garden. Doing this opened up the flood gates. I began thinking about food differently. Everyone is trying to find ways to spend less and conserve more. One great way is with food. Also, I am reading a novel called The Guernesy Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The story takes place on and island in the English Channel during World War II. People living on this island had an extremely scarce food supply and practically no meat due to the German occupation. So, this added to my consciousness of wasting less food. The more I researched, I was surprised to discover how wasteful I have been with food. I never thought about keeping the end pieces of the vegetables and onions. It never occurred to me to buy chicken on the bone and to use the bones for a different dish. I never saved the celery leaves. But, now I am beginning to wonder if I am not throwing out perfectly good food. I discovered a great website with useful tips on how to get the most out of our food and to waste very little, if anything at all. Here it is: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/ways-avoid-waste-food.html
