Green and Orange Ribbons with Fettucini

I really love mustard greens. The young greens are sharp and snappy in salads. Cooked lightly, they retain their bright green color and snappy, mustardy, zing. They are sometimes very sandy, and may need to be rinsed twice in a couple inches of water in the sink. They can be roughly stacked up and sliced into ribbons with a chef's knife

Here's a favorite dish I haven't made in a while -- Green and Orange Ribbons with Fettucini. It's based on a recipe I found in a beautiful cookbook ("Healthy Vegetarian Cooking", published by Barnes and Noble). Strangely, the main ingredient was omitted. And the fat and sodium levels were too high for me. So I made a few changes.

This recipe, with garlic and mustard greens, has a lot of zing. It also has one cup of vegetables and two one-ounce servings of grain per serving. Decrease the sesame oil if you wish to reduce fat even further. A vegetable peeler, mandoline, or the "slicer" side of a vegetable grater can create carrot ribbons quickly. Once everything is sliced, it all cooks quickly, so this dish can hurry up and wait until the "main course" is ready.

-= Exported from BigOven =-

Green and Orange Ribbons with Fettucini

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist
Serving Size: 4
Cuisine: Asian
Main Ingredient:
Categories: Vegetarian, Saute, LOW SODIUM, DASH, Vegetables

-= Ingredients =-
8 ounce Fettucini
1/2 tablespoon Olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoon Sesame oil
3 cloves Garlic ; crushed
2 Carrots ; peeled and cut into ribbons
4 cup Mustard greens ; cut into ribbons
1 tablespoons Low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons Sesame seeds

-= Instructions =-
Prepare fettucini according to package directions.
Toast sesame seeds in dry skillet as you heat it. Remove sesame seeds, add olive oil and garlic -- heat until you smell the garlic. Add carrot ribbons and sesame oil; saute until carrots are tender. Five minutes before serving, add mustard green ribbons and soy sauce. Cover tightly and steam over very low heat.
Toss vegetables to mix, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve over fettucini.

Nutritional Summary
Servings: 4: Serving Size: (203g): Calories: 363: Fat(g): 11: Sodium (g): 175

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 2.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 2.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 0.1: Fats: 1.5: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 1.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 2.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.1: Fats: 1.5: Sweets: 0.0
------------------------------------------

Read all of "Green and Orange Ribbons with Fettucini" ...

Beets are going up

Here's a beet update: Recently, beets were 99 cents a pound at my local Wegman's. Now, they are up to $1.99 a pound! It's astounding! It makes me wonder how far those beets travelled. I'll be looking for a new source of beets!

Read all of "Beets are going up" ...

Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

The Produce for Better Health Foundation has begun a new campaign, "fruits and veggies -- more matters" to promote produce consumption. Apparantly the "5 A Day THE COLOR WAY" message (also developed by the Produce for Better Health Foundation) was too complicated or too intimidating (what with all those capital letters and whatnot). Maybe the PBH feels the emphasis on more, rather than on 5 servings of produce daily causes less guilt or oppositional feelings, and will result in increased produce purchases.

Of course, "5" is the magic number only for those getting about 2,200 Calories per day. Most of us need less. It is pretty simple to find out what you need. The next step is just figuring out when to eat all that produce. Don't wait for dinner -- it will just be too much food. And the TOO MUCH FOOD diet gets old as quickly as any other fad diet.

Here's how my favorite 8-year-old typically gets 3 1/2 cups of fruit and vegetables in a day:

• A banana at mid-morning snack
• Half a cup of applesauce and 10 mini-carrots with lunch
• Half a cup of broccoli, half a cup of spaghetti sauce, and one cup of salad at dinner.

I should get 4.5 cups a day, so I can add to this:

• 1/4 cup of raisins or 1/2 cup orange juice at breakfast, or half an orange after dinner
• Increase broccoli to 1 cup, spaghetti sauce to 3/4 cup, salad to 1 1/2 cups.

This is all pretty easy to remember (even with little details like dried fruit counting twice as much and fluffy salad greens counting half as much), and even the 4-year-old is getting pretty good at food choices. Do we need more?

Read all of "Eat More Fruits and Vegetables" ...

Of pyramids and potatoes

For the past few years, I have been following the recommendations of the DASH diet developers, which are similar to the USDA recommendations. But I am always interested in other food pyramids. A British dietician, Melanie Thomassian, in her Dietriffic blog, presented the British food pyramid, which turns out to be more of a pie. Considering the popularity of savory pies in the UK, this seems appropriate. The UKFSA food pie groups fruits and vegetables together. The USDA and DASH food pyramids separate them, because they have different nutrient profiles. The UKFSA pie groups the potato with grains, presumably because they are similarly starchy. The USDA groups the potato with vegetables because, well, it is a vegetable, and (starchiness aside) is nutritionally most similar to other vegetables.

By putting the potato with grains, the UK food pie recognizes the potato's role as a staple food. The last time I visited (several years ago now), the potato was a part of "meat and three veg", a standard choice for the evening meal, highly desirable in a breakfast "fry-up", and often eaten at noon. In vast territories of the US, however, the potato fell out of favor during the low-carb craze. Grains are coming back into fashion, but the potato, excellent source of calcium though it is, is presented by the USDA as one of a "vary your veggies" menu. And, because it is not featured in the "eat more dark greens, orange, and dry beans and peas" advice, it is now pretty low in the vegetable rotation. Somewhere down there with kohlrabi and tomatoes, I suppose. But I suspect the potato is more popular than the USDA is letting on. Many restaurants still offer a choice of "potato, pasta, or rice" with the main course. McDonald's still sells a lot of fries. And Waffle House still offers hundreds of variations on the hash brown.

When I was growing up, there were only four food groups in the US. A potato was equivalent to a grain. These days, though, I am much more likely to have a grain (pasta, rice, biscuits, or bread) than a potato with the evening meal. Occasionally, I'll serve a grain AND a potato. It feels a little strange to me, but I do it any way. The DASH diet advises choosing tomatoes and dark green leafy vegetables for half of the weekly vegetable servings, and choosing a variety for the other half. I could still work a potato in there fairly often. Especially if it is a cold potato, which has "better carbs".

Read all of "Of pyramids and potatoes" ...

Fresh Beets, Simply

Apparently, Beyoncé hates beets.[1] And so do a lot of other people. I suspect this is because they have been eating canned beets. Canned beets are pale and watery next to the real thing. Real beets are so much redder, sweeter, and more flavorful. And they are a hot new vegetable, being made popular in the US by four-star chefs at tony restaurants in DC and Manhattan. Who knew? At the supermarket, I never see them in anybody's basket but my own.

Why don't I see more people buying fresh beets? Do they not know what to do with them? Are they afraid they are too hard to prepare? Do they think they hate beets? I learned my mother-in-law thought she was not fond of beets when I served her a simple beet dish I learned from Julia Child ("Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home"). She had grown up on watery canned beets, and could only tolerate them prepared Harvard style -- plenty of sugar, vinegar, and cloves to make up for the missing flavors. She was amazed to find out how great beets can taste.

Most recipes begin by roasting the beets in a 350°F oven for an hour. And that is certainly delicious. The dry heat concentrates the flavor and the sweetness, and adds a little caramelization. But I don't always have the time, and, with the weather getting warmer, I don't always want to heat up my kitchen. So I follow Julia Child's advice -- I use the pressure cooker. A pressure cooker is a wonderful saucepot that speeds up cooking bean soups or whole hominy, but I use it much more these days for beets. Now that my grocery carries them all the time, I buy them practically every week. At 99 cents a pound, they are unbelievably cheap for something so delicious, so nutritious, and so beautiful. Pink fingertips seem a small price to pay.[2]

You will need a serving bowl, a dishwasher-safe cutting board, your favorite knife, and a pressure cooker. Bring home some fresh beets -- I like the 3 to 5 inch beets best because their skins slip off so easily after they cook. You'll need half an hour to cook the beets, 10 minutes to cool them, and another 5-10 minutes to prepare them for the table. You could start a day ahead of time, and refrigerate the beets as soon as you can get the cooker open.

Give the beets a quick rub-down in the sink. Cut off the greens just above the root. Save them to cook like chard. Snap off the tails. Don't cut into the beets -- they bleed. Add about an inch of water and a vegetable steamer to the bottom of the pressure cooker. Put the beets in, close up the pressure cooker, put the regulator on, and heat it up until the regulator starts regulating. Adjust the heat to keep the regulator happily spitting and hissing, cook for 30 minutes, then take the pot off the heat to cool down until the safety lock withdraws.

While the beets are cooking and cooling, prepare the rest of your meal. When practically everything else is ready for the table and the pressure cooker has cooled, open it and set up next to the sink. Get 3 or 4 beets out of the pot a time. They should be a little bit squishy. Slice off the tops, where the stems were attached. Trim out any hard spots and the edges of fissures. Using your fingertips, slip the skin right off into the bottom of the sink. It won't come off in one piece, but it should come off quickly. Underneath, the beet will look smoother and shinier than the dull skin. Slice the beets and tip them into the serving bowl.

I like a simple dressing, one that brings out the beet's natural sweetness and flavor. I have tried:

1. garlic and kosher salt crushed in olive oil (Julia Child's recipe)


2. olive oil and orange juice


3. olive oil, balsamic vinegar, allspice, and vanilla, and a tiny pinch of salt

The third is my current favorite. Vanilla and allspice, balanced by the vinegar acidity bring out the sweetness without hiding the beet flavor. A very light coating of olive oil pulls it all together and enhances the mouth feel. This is as kid-friendly as Harvard Beets, but without the sugary syrup.

Once you master the beet basics, try something more sophisticated. Try roast beet, jicama, and carrot salad, or drizzle sliced beets with a blue cheese sauce.[3] On a typical weeknight, though, I stick with my standby. The kids eat it up, courtesy of Julia Child. Make plenty of extra, so your spouse can make Harvard Beets -- a fond childhood memory.

---

[1] Scholastic Star Spotlight -- Beyoncé
[2] Well, pink fingertips and beeturia, a phenomenon you may never have observed if you have not eaten fresh beets. Do not be alarmed. It is merely the red beet color tinting your bodily fluids. I never see this when I eat canned beets, but I always see it when I eat fresh beets.
[3] NPR: The Beet Goes On

Read all of "Fresh Beets, Simply" ...

Chinese Ingredients -- Dangerously Unregulated

It isn't just dangerous chemical scrap in pet foods¹. Chinese companies intentionally sold a poison in place of a common cold-medicine ingredient. At least 100 Panamanians died before the 260,000 bottles of medicine could be destroyed.² And China has become "the source of most of the world’s fake drugs."⁵

In the US, we have come to depend on the FDA to ensure that our foods and medicines actually contain the ingredients claimed on the labels, that they are free of dangerous levels of chemical or biological contamination. But now we are importing large quantities of commodity ingredients from countries that don't share our history or expectations -- China never prosecuted or even closely examined any of the glycerine companies for their role in the Panamanian deaths.² So we have to take action. The FDA has recommended drug makers to test every shipment of glycerine.⁶ A good idea.

In March, the FDA refused admissions for all vegetable protein products from China.³ One week later, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine promised to begin inspection of vegetable proteins for export.⁴. This could help pet food makers (and perhaps human food and dietary supplement makers) feel more confident that they are getting what they paid for. They still might need to pay for more expensive protein assays that won't be fooled by high-nitrogen, non-protein additives like melamine scrap in their low-cost imported ingredients.

According to counterfeiting experts, "no amount of enforcement is going to stop" the distribution of counterfeit prescription drugs.⁵

If we suddenly had to stop importing all Chinese food and medicine ingredients, we would be unhappy with the effect on the economy. But it does make you stop and think. Why are these commodity ingredients such a big part of the global economy? Glycerine, vegetable protein concentrates, amino acid supplement powders. These are not whole foods. How about a bowl of New Orleans red beans and rice instead of some highly processed snack made with TVP and rice gluten?

---

1. Filler in Animal Feed Is Open Secret in China, New York Times, April 30, 2007

2. From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine, New York Times, May 6, 2007

3. IMPORT ALERT #99-29, "DETENTION WITHOUT PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF ALL VEGETABLE PROTEIN PRODUCTS FROM CHINA FOR ANIMAL OR HUMAN FOOD USE DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF MELAMINE AND/OR MELAMINE ANALOGS", US FDA, 4/27/07

4. "2 companies blamed for tainted pet food", China Daily, 2007-05-08.

5. "In the World of Life-Saving Drugs, a Growing Epidemic of Deadly Fakes", New York Times, February 27, 2007.

6. "FDA Advises Manufacturers to Test Glycerin for Possible Contamination", US FDA, May 4, 2007.

Read all of "Chinese Ingredients -- Dangerously Unregulated" ...