Veggies for breakfast

Herbed eggs and tomato.

This breakfast took minutes to make, provides high doses of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein to power me through my morning, and includes delicious and beneficial herbs.

Saute two large fistfuls of baby greens, this is kale, spinach, chard and beet tops. Add two scrambled eggs and generously cover with oregano. Flip and immediately turn off heat. Served with fresh tomato sprinkled with smoked basil finishing salt. In addition to ease of production and fantastic taste, here is why we love it!
The Center for Disease Control recently published findings that only one in ten adults eats the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables. Californians at 13% eat the greatest amount and in those states who eat the least vegetables less than 2% of adults are eating 5 cups of produce daily. And it’s likely the children are not getting what they need either. Interestingly enough, in some areas where food education and school meals are a strong focus area, children are eating better than their adult family members. We clearly, as a nation, and as communities, need to provide a wider variety of produce and whole foods to squelch the tide of childhood obesity and disease.

Now, what’s a quick easy breakfast? The food conglomerates would urge you to have highly refined carbohydrates like bagels, waffles, cereal, fruit yogurts, and toaster pastry, saying they are quick and satisfying. There are even lots of products of these types that try to fool us into thinking they are good for us, have “whole grain”, “probiotics” etc. Don’t fall for it! These products are filled with sugar, or are so refined (lacking sufficient protein, fiber and nutrient) that they immediately turn to sugar in your system and set you off on a roller coaster of insulin reaction for the rest of your day.

Nutritious and powerful breakfasts in a jiffy include veggie egg combinations, turkey or chicken sausages, whole grains like oats, quinoa, buckwheat, and millet, which can be cooked ahead or soaked the night before. Don’t forget to add fruit and nuts to your whole grains for all the protein, fiber, and vitamins they provide.

6 Quick Tips: Achieving and Maintaining a Healthy Weight

1. Ban the strange diets. They may work in the short term, but almost any strange, extreme diet is doomed to fail. Your best friends when it comes to losing weight—and keeping it off? Choose healthy foods, don’t skip meals, and eat smaller portions, slowly.
2. Be more active. If there’s one great weight loss mantra it’s “move, move, move.” Choose activities you enjoy and do them every day. Exercising with a friend can help keep you on track. For tips on how to fit more movement into your day email me at trishaskitchen@gmail.com
3. Turn off the television. Watching less TV can give you more time to be active, or sleep *   — and less time to be enticed by junk food ads. Two easy ways to cut back on TV-watching: take the TV out of your bedroom, and make sure it’s off during meals. *Sleeping actually burns more calories than watching television!
4. Skip the sugary drinks. Drinking sweet coffees and sodas, fruit drinks, or juice can give you hundreds calories a day without realizing it. Research suggests children and adults who drink soda or other sugary drinks are more likely to gain weight than those who don’t, and that switching from these to water or unsweetened drinks reduces weight.
5. Think before you eat. Before you mindlessly reach for a snack, pause and ask yourself, Am I really hungry? Am I bored, stressed, need a change of activity? Is there a healthier choice? It’s easy to lose sight of good food choices in today’s ad-crazy world. Simple questions like these can help keep us on track.
6. Get plenty of sleep each night. Without adequate sleep, stress hormone levels rise (inflammation!) and lack of sleep also disrupts the balance of key hormones that control appetite which increases your hunger and reduces your ability to stop emotional eating. When your body doesn’t get the 7 to 8 hours of sleep it needs every night it has to find ways to compensate for low levels of serotonin or dopamine. It typically does that by craving sugary foods that will give you an immediate release of serotonin and dopamine.

What’s for breakfast?

  
Oatmeal with a fresh diced peach, cinnamon, cardamom, and toasted almond slivers makes a delicious breakfast!  If you are not into a warm summer breakfast, dice your peach the night before and spread it out on a plate in the freezer.  Then, when you add it to your hot oats it will cool them as it thaws. Cinnamon helps to keep your blood sugar steady. Read about some of the Ayurvedic uses of cardamom here. And, almonds provide good fat and protein for sustained energy.

If you want all the nutrition of whole oats, but faster (for busy mornings) or easier to digest, then boil your water the night before and add oats. Stir and let them soak over night. This slight fermentation gives you greater access to nutrients, easier digestion, and they do not need to cook as long. In the morning you may need to add a bit more water, or milk of choice to complete the cooking.

What is a good summer breakfast for you?

Carrot and Beet Salad

Carrots and beets are ready for harvest! Here is a salad I have been enjoying.

2 cups of shredded carrot
2 cups of shredded beets
1 Tb grated ginger (this is something I always have on hand in the freezer. It grates very fine when frozen, and keeps indefinitely)
2Tb rice wine vinegar
2t soy sauce, (I use gluten free)
1/4 t toasted sesame oil
Scant 1/4 cup olive oil
Tabasco and/or minced shallots or garlic if you want to spice it up.

Place sauce ingredients in bowl and whisk to emulsify.  Add vegetables and toss thoroughly to coat. Great for an afternoon snack, or as a side.

Free Trade or Buy Local

 

My little veggie patch.

Here is an interesting bit of information I had never really thought about before.  I grow some of my own food, buy local, and also eat a lot of avocados. Many of them are from Mexico.  Free trade agreements have given us more diversity of produce in the grocery store, different kinds of tomatoes and lettuces, and access to lots of produce even in the winter months.  But, did you know that much of our food travels 1,500 miles from farm to table?  And that the more food we get from abroad, the less safe it is.  If you want to read more on the subject click here for some more about NAFTA, free trade, and our food.  Free Trade proponents are directly opposed to the buy local movement.  I am not highly educated on this topic, but I think buying local is better for Americans in terms of health and livelihood.  What do you think?

Protein on the run

There are benefits and also hazards of being a member of a big box store.  We have access to some different products, but buyer beware.  Some of the deals are great and some things are more expensive when you do the math. 

 I found a delicious protein treat on a recent visit.  It has a lot of sodium and some sugar too, a little spicy and very yummy. 

Good Fats

People always ask me how I can stay so slim and eat so much fat.  I didn’t know why.  For a few years I have been reading about the detrimental effects of low fat diets.  I am glad to see it coming into the mainstream.  If you are unfamiliar with this news read this NPR piece lifting the ban on fat, or Google low fat and brain health, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, or hormone balance.  Turns out we need plenty of quality fats for our bodies to function as they should.  Quality fats include avocado, almonds, walnuts, olive oil, and eggs, to name just a few.  High quality proteins and fats are essential for our bodies to maintain themselves.  Processed food substitutes are really what gets our bodies in a mess.  If you can remove white bread, flour and sugar carbohydrates, and chemical non-foods like artificial sweeteners, replacing them with whole foods including brightly colored vegetables and fruits and a smaller amount of whole grains like rolled oats, millet, quinoa, or brown rice, you are reducing your risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and arthritis. These diseases are not a natural result of aging, they are the result of diets which do not provide what the human body needs to thrive.

“The world is round and the place that might seem like the end may also be the beginning.”- Ivy Baker Priest

   

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein

I think sometimes we stop, because we get stuck in a rut of negative self talk, or continue with habits which are no longer serving our goals.  How can we develop a routine of checking in to see if our thoughts and actions are helping or hindering us?  How regularly do I need to schedule this self check?

New ideas

Well, it’s been a long time since I posted.  It has been a difficult year.  Additionally, I have Celiac, dairy, wheat and other food intolerance, and stress makes it worse.  Some days I would like to just have a powder to mix up and give me the nutrition and energy I need without upsetting my digestive system. I don’t even care if it tastes good just so long as I can get it down.  That’s a long way from my naturally excited about cooking self.  This blog was begun as an inspiration for health and wellness, but soon turned into mostly gluten and dairy free food because that was what many of my clients were needing help with at that time. Did you know that I teach cooking, and am a life and wellness coach?  You can learn more about my coaching at Be Well Be More on facebook, get lots of healthy inspiration there. Like my page and you will be notified of each post.

A blog that I follow called Espirational posted a fantastic 101 Positive Resources today, and I would like to share it with you and let you know that my intention is to get back to my first idea about this blog and share a variety of topics regarding health and wellness, not just cooking.

Exercising is a great way to boost your mood, improve your health, reduce stress, and make you feel more supple as you go through your days.  There is no best exercise.  What you like and will do consistently is the best exercise for you. Walking, dancing, riding bicycle, most any repeated moving is great.  Aiming for 30 minutes of vigorous moving each day is recommended.  It relieves arthritis, headaches, PMS…and the list goes on.  I took up rowing this year and am enjoying it quite a bit.  There is a meditative quality as well as a great full body exercise.  What kind of movement do you enjoy most?  Do you engage in it often?  If not, why not?

Looking forward to beginning again.