Trying something new - Jicama

I tried something new last week.  Jicama.  I had no idea what it would even look like when I went to find it in the produce section. It's not pretty, but in the right recipe, it wasn't bad at all.
I tried this recipe for Jicama Salad With Mango and Dried Blueberries from Section89.com.

picture & recipe from section89.com

 I also ordered Green Smoothie Girl's Twelve Steps to Whole Foods Manual.  I needed something to get me motivated again.  I've been wanting it for a while.  It's working.  I'm back to eating almost 100% good real food.  That 3 pound weight gain I mentioned a few months ago turned into 7 pounds.  But after a week of good eating it's back down to 3 pounds.  When I'm eating right my body naturally drops the weight, I have more energy and I feel so much better.

ps.  If you have any more jicama recipes, send them my way.

Seasoned Popcorn

1 cup popcorn (unpopped) I use organic
2-3 TB  pure extra virgin Coconut Oil, melted
3-4 TB nutritional yeast (I buy this from Winco or Good Earth in bulk)
"healthier" popcorn salt*

1 large paper bag

*to make "healthier" popcorn salt, just blend Real Salt or Himalayan salt into powder in your blender. It sticks to the popcorn so much better.

Pop the popcorn in an air popper 1/2 cup at a time.  Pour it into the paper bag.  Pour in the coconut oil (trying not to get it all over the bag) and sprinkle in the nutritional yeast and popcorn salt.  Shake and serve.

Two years ago I quit eating microwave popcorn. I love popcorn and I missed it, but microwave popcorn contains the chemicals perfluorooctanoic acid (linked to liver and prostate cancer) and diacetyl (used as a flavoring agent which  causes the lung disease bronchiolitis obliterans in the popcorn factory workers who breath it.)  I'd rather not eat chemicals on my popcorn.  I started eating it plain which was just, well, plain.  I'm so glad I found this way to make it.  The bag is essential, I've tried it in a bowl and it doesn't work as well.

I've heard that most corn grown in the US is genetically modified, so I buy organic popcorn in bulk at the health food store.  I get the nutritional yeast there too.  Nutritional yeast can be a good source of vitamin B12.

This popcorn doesn't contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils either.  Coconut oil is one of the good fats.  Some people take coconut oil as a supplement


This recipe makes a A LOT of really good popcorn.

Yellow Daal and Naan - My 1st Attempt at Indian Food

     I tried Indian Food today for the first time tonight.  I made Yellow Daal over rice and some Naan (Indian flatbread) to go with it.  Yellow daal (also spelled dhal) is a thick lentil stew made with yellow split peas.  It was hard to find a recipe with ingredients that I'd heard of, but this one was simple and familiar. I also steamed some veggies just because I knew someone would refuse to eat it and I wanted to have something on the table that everyone would eat.

     I found a Naan recipe online, but it was cooked on a grill.  I didn't want to fire up the grill in the backyard, so I went with the griddle.  They look like pancakes in this picture, but they were actually super good.  Everyone liked the bread.  I really liked the daal and so did my husband and 3 of the kids.  The 2 others we had to promise that if they took one bite, they'd never have to taste Yellow Daal again.  One ended up liking it, the other is too stubborn to admit it even if he did.

Next time I want to try making the naan with whole wheat flour and I'd probably not cook the daal as long or maybe add less water.  It ended up the consistency of mashed potatoes, but the flavor was good.  Not bad for a first try!  The leftovers will make a great lunch tomorrow.

Benefits of Eating Raw

    
      Raw foods come to us with the living enzymes necessary to facilitate the digestion and assimilation of the nutrients in foods. Cooking kills all enzymes, as well as most vitamins, and alters the minerals and proteins in such a way that they are less usable to the body. Because the cooked food is not accompanied by the enzymes necessary for digestion, it places more of a strain on our digestive system and many of the nutrients that are left after cooking are lost in this process (besides those lost through any refining or processing).

       Raw foods are also the most nutritionally dense, because all of the original vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats and fiber are in their unaltered forms and completely available to our bodies. A raw food offers up to three times the nutrition of the same cooked. Since true nutrition is concerned with feeding our cells, it is important to provide them with the living nutrients of raw foods. Life can be sustained on cooked foods, but cells are not replenished and replaced in an optimal way. On raw foods you will find that you eat less, yet your body will operate more efficiently with what you provide.

       Also because raw foods are easily digested, less energy will be expended on the process of digestion and be available to you. Most people who add more raw foods to their diet are surprised by the increase in energy they experience.  (The above article is from Simplynaturalhealth.com)

A couple ways to add raw foods to your diet:

Smoothies-  Green smoothies are best.  Start small by adding just a handful of spinach to your favorite fruit smoothie.  It won't change the color or taste if you use just a handful.

Try putting baby carrots or some other sliced vegetable on the table while the rest of the meal is still cooking.  I've noticed that we will eat more vegetables if there isn't anything else available right then.

Salads or coleslaw are always easy.  I always have the ingredients on hand for a fruit or green salad so I can have a salad for lunch or with dinner most days.

Anyone else out there trying to get more raw foods in?  How do you do it?

Black Beans & Rice w/ Chicken and Apple Salsa

I made this for dinner last night.  I grilled the chicken on my George Foreman for the rest of the family, but I skipped the chicken and put the apple salsa right on top of the beans and rice.  They wouldn't try the apple salsa, so there was plenty left over for my lunch today.  Yummy!
Here's the link to the recipe over at ourbestbites.com.

Tacos and Chili

I made tacos last night.  That means tonight is chili - with the leftover taco meat.  And we always have leftover taco meat because our grass fed beef is packaged in 2 lb sections.  Who really eats 2 pounds of hamburger in one meal?  Not us.
So, I made tacos.  Since I'm eating hardly any meat these days, I filled my corn tortillas with garbanzo beans heated with a little water and taco seasoning instead of beef.  The rest of the family ate theirs with beef, but they snacked on the rest of my garbanzo beans.  So that's progress.
Tonight though, I will be eating meat.  I'm making chili and corn bread.  Sometimes I hesitate to post recipes because people come here looking for healthy recipes right?  And sugar is not healthy. There is sugar in my corn bread. There's butter in there too.  But remember the 80/20 rule?  I eat healthy food most of the time and that works for me.  So if you're looking for 100%, this is not the blog for you.
Here's the chili I'm making tonight:

Crockpot Chili  -or Slow Cooker Chili if you want to be politically correct
2-3 stalks celery chopped
1 carrot chopped
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 lb ground beef (optional)
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp cumin
1 large clove garlic
2  (8 oz) cans of tomato sauce
1 or 2 cans* diced tomatoes (15 oz)
1 or 2 cans* of beans, rinsed and drained (I used Great Northern and Black Eye Peas)
1 cup water
1 tsp Worchestershire Sauce
A little salt and pepper

*When I make this for my family of 7, I do 2 cans each of beans and tomatoes.  Otherwise, just go with 1 can.

Fry up the beef, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, cumin, and chili powder. (If you're using leftover taco meat, or omitting beef altogether, then stir-fry the vegetables and seasonings.)  Pour into slow cooker and add remaining ingredients.  Cook on high at least 3-4 hours.  Or on low for longer.

And, if you feel like making some really good Corn Bread.  Try this recipe, but substitute whole wheat flour for the white.  It's my favorite.

E-book Winner!

Congratulations Tarynn!  You're the winner of the Good and Easy Eats e-book.  Please send me your E-mail address at GoodrealfoodBlog at gmail dot com.  (If I don't hear from Tarynn by Sunday night, I'll pick another winner.)

If you didn't win and would like to purchase Good and Easy Eats, you can buy it here for only $4.99.  It will also be available on Amazon.com in the next couple weeks as a Kindle book.