I cut the cabbage into shreds and roasted the pepper over a gas flame, removing the skin.  After cutting the pepper into strips, I started cooking the cabbage in a little bit of peanut oil in a wok.  When it started to soften, I added the pepper, a little bit of kosher salt and some smoked paprika.  Then I tasted it.  I thought it needed something more.  I added maybe about a teaspoon of sugar and some dried cranberries both for the bit of tartness they would add, as well as color.

The flavor was marvelous.  The colors were fantastic.  And the only thing I might do if I made it again would be to sprinkle on the top some almond slivers for crunch.

What made this dish so great was not only did it taste great but what a powerhouse of nutrients it provided.  The cabbage provided phytochemicals that pack an anticancer wallop from isothiocynates to sulforaphane.  And if I make it again, I might try it with red cabbage that is a great source of anthocyanins, a flavonoid that is a powerful antioxidant that fights free radicals and has anti-inflammatory effects – a great weapon against cardiovascular disease.

The orange pepper is a great source of vitamins C and A (beta-carotene) and a good source of potassium that’s protective against hypertension.

Lastly, the cranberries contain a bunch of flavonoid compounds including anthocyanins (think red color), flavonols, and proanthocyanidins that could be protective against many types of cancer.  The heart is helped with these, as well, since flavonoid and phenolic compounds found in cranberries can potentially reduce bad LDL-cholesterol and raise good HDL-cholesterol.

The bottom-line is that you can get so many health compounds through food without having to resort to popping supplements.  Best of all, the dish was delicious!

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GLAZED:  Cut the pluot in half, remove the pit, and place in a baking dish.  Spoon apricot jam or orange marmalade over the top (be generous about it).  Slip under the broiler, second rack down, and broil until bubbly and browned.  Great served with a dollop of creme fraiche or plain lowfat Greek yogurt sweetened with a little of the jam or marmalade.  For crunch, top with almond slivers.

GRILLED:  Cut pluot in half, remove pit, and place in a baking dish.  Brush with equal parts honey and Dijon mustard.  Prepare your barbecue and grill pluots on both sides until slightly tender.  Great served along with barbecue lamb or spareribs.

IN SALSA:  Most people are familiar with mango salsa.  Do the same thing except use pluots.  Add to a combination of chopped tomatoes, purple onions, cilantro, and lime juice.  To spice it up, add chopped chiles.

IN SALAD:  Cut pluot in half and remove pit.  Dice into big chunks.  Top organic salad greens or baby spinach with the pluots, along with a sprinkling of feta cheese.  Great with a raspberry vinaigrette or just a drizzle of almond oil and balsamiic vinegar.

Why do people put themselves through the agony of dieting only to gain it all back?  It’s because they don’t have a very good relationship with food.  Food is to nourish not only your body but also your soul.  When you’re constantly in a mind battle over whether you should eat something, eating no longer is a pleasurable event.

I’d really like to see people throw away the diet mentality and stop looking at food as the enemy.  Your mindset about food is the enemy and the only way you’re going to begin to enjoy the food you eat without guilt is to eat whatever you want.  Yes, you heard it here from a nutritionist.  I want you to enjoy what you eat without guilt (unless you’re doctor has told you to avoid certain foods).

I can hear your cries of “some of what I enjoy eating isn’t healthy”.  So what makes a food unhealthy?  It’s probably high in calories, fat, sugar and sodium.  Those are the “bad boys” of the food world right now.  Give it time.  One of those will become the darling and some other nutrient will take its place.  How is it that the cavemen never questioned whether what they were eating was healthy?  They were just thankful to have a meal.  So, our abundance of food choices is causing some of the problems.

Not to worry.  Choice is good if you know how to handle what choices you make.  That leads me to my Simple Rule of Eating.  Memorize this and you’ll never fret again about eating anything.

Just a little bit.

Be sensible.

Have at it.

That’s it.  That’s all there is to it.  I probably don’t even have to tell you what foods would go into what category.  That’s because I think most people know what foods are not so healthy and those that are good for them.  You’d have to be living under a rock these last several years to not know.  It’s in the news every day.  But, just to give you some sense of what a nutritionist would do with those categories, here are some examples:

Just a Little Bit:  Chocolate, wine, beer, butter, ice cream …

Be sensible:  Cheese, steak, pizza, chips …

Have at It:  Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes and beans …

What foods would you add to each category?  Let’s work on putting together a list for each category for others to consider.

Q:  What did the garbanzo say to the chickpea when he woke with a fever?

A:  I falafel!

Have a great day!

Visit www.spinarecipe.com to play the slot machine for recipes.  The answer to your “What’s for dinner?” dilemma.

1. Which appetizer contains the least amount of fat?
   1. Three stuffed mushrooms
   2. 2 tablespoons of cheese ball with nuts
   3. Three pizza rolls
2. Which cookie has the most calories?
   1. One medium gingerbread man
   2. One medium butterscotch chip cookie
   3. 2″ square lemon bar
3. Which cocktail has the least calories?
   1. A rum and Coke®
   2. A whiskey sour
   3. A martini
4. Which candy has the least fat?
   1. 2-cubic-inch square of chocolate fudge
   2. One fudge-dipped Oreo®
   3. One medium-piece peanut brittle
5. Which meat has the most fat?
   1. 3 ounces (oz) boneless ham (lean and fat eaten)
   2. 3 oz boneless duck (skin eaten)
   3. 3 oz boneless cooked chicken leg (skin eaten)
6. Which starch has the most sodium?
   1. ½ cup (C) homemade bread stuffing
   2. ½ C homemade mashed potatoes
   3. One dinner roll
7. Which warm beverage has the least calories?
   1. 1 C hot chocolate made with whole milk
   2. 1 C apple cider
   3. 1 C eggnog made with whole milk
8. Which of the following contains the most sugar?
   1. One piece of fruit cake
   2. One pecan roll
   3. 2″ square frosted brownie

Answers

1. c. The pizza rolls contain 6 grams (g) fat, the stuffed mushrooms contain 11 g, and the cheese ball contains 10 g.
2. c. The lemon bar contains 143 calories, the gingerbread man contains 64 calories, and the butterscotch chip cookie contains 50 calories.
3. b. The whiskey sour contains 123 calories, the martini contains 160 calories, and the rum and Coke contains 154 calories.
4. c. The peanut brittle contains 2 g fat, and the fudge and the fudge-dipped Oreo contain 5 g each.
5. b The duck contains 15 g fat, the ham contains 6 g, and the chicken leg contains 12 g.
6. a. The stuffing contains 542 milligrams (mg) of sodium, the mashed potatoes contain 266 mg, and the dinner roll contains 134 mg.
7. b. The apple cider has 117 calories, the hot chocolate contains 190 calories, and the eggnog contains 343 calories.
8. a. The fruit cake contains 34 g of sugar, the pecan roll contains 13 g, and the frosted brownie contains 15 g.

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Next, I’d suggest a coffee grinder – not for coffee but for spices.  If you really want to enjoy the full flavor that spices offer, grinding them when you need them makes all the difference.  Spices contain volatile oils that lose their potency over time.  In fact, any bottle of dried herb or spice that you’ve had for longer than 6 months should probably be thrown away.  I know it’s hard to imagine doing that but you’re not getting the most from them when they’ve gotten old.  If nothing else, you may find that you need to use more than a recipe recommends just because they’re not as fresh as they should be.

Another recommendation I would make is getting a wok.  Unless you want to brown a chicken breast or piece of meat in a frying pan, which does require a flat surface, almost anything else that must be sauted can be done in a wok.  I love it because when you get a good one, the sides get hot, as well as the bottom of the pan.  When sauteing, you’re supposed to keep the food moving, which is easily accommodated for in a wok.  In fact, because of its depth, you’ll find less food ending up on the stove.  While you could get one with a non-stick surface so you can cut down on the amount of fat you would use to cook food in the wok, I have a stainless-steel clad wok so I can make a good sauce in it if I want.  It’s those beautiful browned bits that stick to the bottom of the pan that you can’t create with a non-stick surface.  Get a wok with a cover so you can also steam food in it.

Many times I need a beater but don’t want to drag out the big stand-mixer.  Having a heavy-duty hand mixer is the answer.  When I bought my Kitchen Aid hand mixer, I looked for one that had a good sized motor and a number of speed choices.  Since this really was going to take the place of my stand-mixer, I wanted it to be able to stand up to the challenge.  It works great and now I don’t have to have the stand-mixer taking up precious counter space.

I’ll be adding more ideas in the next few days.  This should get you started.  And I’m sure you’ll be able to find some good sales going on.

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On an average day, Americans age 15 and older spent 23.5 minutes eating and 63 minutes drinking beverages (except water) while doing something such as watching television, driving, or working.  A meager 11 percent of the population spent at least 4.5 hours for the same activities.

Let’s think about that 23.5 minutes a day eating.  Assuming that three meals a day are eaten, that means most Americans are woofing down their food in each meal in 7 minutes.  No wonder we have an obesity problem in the United States.  It takes at least 20 minutes for the first bite of food to pass through the stomach and onto the intestines where chemicals are released to tell the brain that food is on its way. 

If you’re getting your whole meal eaten in 7 minutes, it’s inevitable that you’re going to eat more.  You haven’t given your body time to tell you how much it really needs.  Whatever you’ve got on the plate will be eaten and probably then some because without those chemical signals, you won’t know you’ve had enough.  You’ll keep eating until your stomach becomes so stretched with the volume of food that that signal is finally sent to the brain.

Tricks to Eating Slower

• Use some timing device that helps you slow down the pace.  Whatever you put in your mouth, chew thoroughly.  So thoroughly, that it’s almost in a liquid state before you swallow - a process called Flectcherization after Horace Fletcher (1849–1919).  He was an American healthfood faddist who was dubbed “The Great Masticator” because he believed that food should be chewed for as long as it took to pulverize it all.   

• Put your fork down after each bit.  It keeps you from shoveling food into your mouth until that which you’ve just eaten is swallowed.

• Try using chopsticks to eat with.  If you’re not proficient at the use of chopsticks, it should slow you down.  You can also consider using a demi-tasse spoon and a cocktail fork.  Can’t load those up with a lot of food.

• Learn to enjoy the pleasure of eating.  When you go on vacation and are having a great time, don’t you hate it when you know you’ll have to be going home the next day?  Think of food the same way.  If you’re enjoying it, why would you want to hurry the process?

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Greek yogurt
Greek yogurt is strained, so it is thicker and higher in protein than other forms of yogurt. In fact, it contains about twice as much protein. Many brands of fruit-flavored yogurt contain around 3 grams (g) of protein for a 6-ounces (oz) serving, while 6 oz of Greek yogurt contains about 15 g and an 8-oz glass of milk contains 8 g. Unfortunately, Greek yogurt does not match other forms in one area—calcium. Greek yogurt actually contains less calcium than ordinary yogurt.  That doesn’t mean you have to skip the Greek yogurt.  Just don’t look to it as your sole source of calcium.  However, it has so many other culinary uses, that it’s worth exploring it.

Dessert or dairy
Many of the yogurts crowding the shelves today are too high in sugar and/or saturated fat, leading many dietitians to refer to them as “dessert packaged as a health food.” The average cup of yogurt (6 oz) contains 4 teaspoons of sugar. This equates to 60 calories from sugar. The new dietary guidelines state that men should eat no more than 150 calories and women no more than 100 calories from added sugar each day. Popular yogurts now are featuring crunchy toppings (stir-ins), which sometimes leave little room in the container for any actual yogurt. 

Because labels don’t tell you how much of the Sugar is added or naturally occurring, dairy products can be a challenge.  Lactose is a naturally occurring sugar.  So how can you determine how much sugar is being added to your sweetened yogurt?  Look at the label of plain, unsweetend yogurt.  The sugar listed is the naturally occurring lactose.  Now compare that to a sweetened yogurt.  Make sure you’re comparing the same quantities.  The extra grams of sugar you’ll see for the sweetened yogurt over and above  the sugar for the plain yogurt tells you how much added sugar you’ll be getting.

Special digestive-health products
The US Federal Trade Commission has banned Activia® from using advertising that states that it is able to relieve temporary irregularity or help with slow transit time unless the advertisement also notifies consumers that they would need to eat three servings each day to garner these benefits. However, no other yogurt can even make that statement, because no studies have proven that any amount of the other yogurts is beneficial.

The fiber added to some yogurts to make them seem healthy for the GI system actually is isolated fiber, such as inulin, which is not proven to help with regularity like the fiber does in whole grains, fruits, or vegetables. For the record, it also is not proven that these fibers are helpful for blood cholesterol reduction or blood glucose control, as natural fibers are. The claims of “improving digestive health” or “good for digestive health” are unregulated, with no standard or definition of what this means.

Probiotics
Probiotics are linked to many good health outcomes, including:

• Regulating immune function
• Shortening the duration of diarrhea during times of infection
• Improving tolerance of antibiotics
• Reducing incidence and improving therapeutic outcomes for some allergic diseases
• Improving outcome for bacterial vaginosis
• Improving symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome
• Decreasing dental cavities
• Reducing the symptoms and incidence of respiratory infections
• Reducing the Clostridium difficile toxin in people taking antibiotics

However, different strains of probiotics definitely have different health effects. Each one seems to confer its own unique set of benefits.

As Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD, pointed out in an article entitled Probiotics and Prebiotics in Dietetics Practice, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, “Live active cultures are not the same as probiotics. Live active cultures may or may not have any probiotic effect…Some probiotic products don’t show data on what they are selling consumers on. Some probiotic products don’t have data supporting their label claims. Some products don’t specify the strains found in the product…”

The most common probiotics in American products are strains of lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. No health claim for probiotics is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, and a legal definition of the term does not exist. This means that some products labeled as probiotic do not have clinically validated strains or levels. Probiotics are sensitive to heat, moisture, oxygen, and acid. They usually are destroyed in cooking, microwaving, or slow freezing. Frozen yogurt, for instance, is unlikely to contain probiotics.

The label of a probiotic should include the:

• Strain
• Colony-forming units (CFUs)
• Expiration date
• Suggested serving size
• Proper storage
• Company contact information
• Health benefits

References and recommended readings

Center for Science in the Public Interest. Culture class: what’s up in the yogurt aisle. Nutrition Action Healthletter. 2011:38:13-15.

Douglas LC, Sanders ME. Probiotics and prebiotics in dietetics practice. J Am Diet Assoc. 2008;108:510-521.

Harley J, Liebman B, Schardt D. Yogurt: super food or super swindle? Nutrition Action Newsletter [serial online]. July/August 2008;13-16.
Available at: http://www.cspinet.org/nah/08_08/yogurt.pdf. Accessed June 16, 2011.

Palmer S. Happy entrails—a close look at digestive health claims.
Available at: http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/tdmay2008pg28.shtml. Today’s Dietitian [serial online]. 2008;10:28.
Accessed June 16, 2011.

Palmer S. Probiotics’ potential—research suggests beneficial bacteria may support immune health. Today’s Dietitian [serial online].
Available at: http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/011211p20.shtml.
Accessed June 16, 2011.

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I took about a teaspoon of butter and melted it in a frying pan.  I added the rice and browned it slightly.  Then I stirred in a little milk to soften the rice.  Next I added some Greek yogurt, some cottage cheese, raisins, and chopped pecans.  I let that all warm up and meld together over medium heat.  Since I had made just one serving, I even ate it out of the pan.  Fewer dishes to clean, but also the advantage of keeping the pudding warm until I had eaten it all.

Next time I make it I’ll try adding some ground cinnamon or even some ground cardamom.

The best part about this breakfast is I had all the nutrition in one pot:

1. Protein and dairy: yogurt and cottage cheese
2. Fruit: raisins
3. The nuts provided some antioxidants

It was such a filling breakfast, I wasn’t really hungry by lunchtime.

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Blender

First, I think any well-equipped or even semi-equipped kitchen should have a blender.  I’m so sorry that years ago I didn’t invest in a Vitamix Blender.  They’re so terribly expensive that I figured an Oster or Kitchen Aid would do.  And while they do the job, they lack the power that Vitamix provides.  If you haven’t got a blender, consider putting out the dollars now.  When the thing is still blending away 20 years from now, you won’t even miss the several hundred dollars difference.

Food Processor

I can still remember my days before the food processor.  With a wooden bowl and hand chopper, I would slave away to get fine pieces of nuts or whatever.  And if I wanted something grated, out came the box grater.  While I still use the box grater for small jobs, the food processor was one of the better inventions.  Here again, as with the blender, motor size matters.  Start familiarizing yourself with the engineering behind the products you buy.  Often times the salespeople don’t know and you need to research it online.  Consider calling the manufacturer for the information so you can compare one product against another.  Of course, another factor to consider is the assortment of blades available because once you’ve got the power of a good motor, why not let it do most of the work for you?

Pressure Cooker

I know it sounds old fashioned, but a pressure cooker is a marvel at how quickly it can cook foods.  I love brown rice but when making it the old-fashioned way (in a pot or rice cooker), it can take from 45 minutes to one hour.  Do it in a pressure cooker and it’s a mere 20 minutes.  I’ve cooked artichokes, ribs, mixed dishes, you name it in my pressure cooker and then wonder why it took me so long to rediscover the pot.  I used to have one and it must have gone out during a garage sale because I hadn’t really explored its possibilities.  There are many on the market, some with the traditional whistling rocker top and then others, such as Fagor, the vents from the handle.  My research convinced me that a 10-quart Fagor works for most of my meals.  I just occasionally have to cut a cob of corn in half if it’s too long to fit in whole.

Hand Mixer

I used to depend upon my stand mixer to do all my mixing jobs.  But because I store it in the pantry rather than on the kitchen counter, I really have to decide whether it’s worth pulling it out for the job.  In many cases, it’s not and then a good hand mixer is great to have.  Of course, if a recipe says beat for 10 minutes, I’m probably pulling out the stand mixer.  To judge a good hand mixer, check out how the blades are inserted into the body of the appliance and how easily they come out.  While you don’t want to be playing tug-of-war with your blades when it’s time to clean up, you also don’t want blades that after a number of uses won’t stay in.  Look for one that feels good in your hand and isn’t too heavy. 

Stand Mixer

As I was saying earlier, there are times that you don’t want to be holding an hand mixer for a long period of time.  That’s where a good stand mixer comes in.  And, as with the other appliances, motor size is crucial.  You want to buy as big a motor as you can afford.  While you don’t want to be sweating to get the job done, you also don’t want your appliance to be maxing out on the capability.  Push them too hard and you can kill them.  So, best to start with the best you can buy for years of successful cooking.  Stand mixers are so varied that it really comes to your personal choice.  If you get one with a hefty motor, it’s nice to get an appliance that you can attach other accessories to besides the beaters (e.g. meat grinder, juicer, etc.)   (I just couldn’t resist showing the red stand mixer.  I don’t own one but might go wild the next purchase!)

There used to be a product years ago (maybe someone out there can help with the name) where the motor for the appliances was built into the counter.  You then attached a particular gadget depending upon what you needed.  But you weren’t paying for a separate motor for each of the gadgets.  I’m sorry we haven’t gone back to that design since it is so much more efficient and smart.  The motor is one of the more expensive parts of a small appliance.  Why keep buying motor after motor instead of having just one big one that all the appliances can attach to?

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