#how to make quinoa pasta

[lovaileee]

(Some) Alkaline eats. All healthy

[voidsiblings]

rbing to add this pho recipe I've made with beef broth that's freaking AMAZING if you want to try it https://www.recipetineats.com/vietnamese-pho-recipe/

Not to sound like a tradwife or anything but I genuinely believe that everyone should learn how to make bone broth (or, as I affectionatly call it, scrap stew). I'm not gonna call it an easy or simple recipe because you do have to let it simmer for 11 hours and strain it, but if you have a day off to make it its relatively low-effort and cost-efficient and also is a great base for upping the nutritional value of simple foods like cup ramen or plain rice when you're in a pinch for time, as well as cutting down on veggie waste (anything starting to wilt or scraps like carrot peelings can be tossed in there and still make a good broth)

[sagescented]

@autisticslp asked (on the old blog):

So a lot of cooking advice that people tend to give that seems very basic honestly comes from decades of experience; there's a post that floats around Tumblr sometimes, actually, that talks about how a lot of "cooking from intuition" isn't actually intuition at all. It's deeply ingrained memorization about the "laws of cooking" that we've learned over time, that feel like second nature to us to the point where we no longer have to think about it or physically reference recipes or tutorials anymore.

In essence: We're good at "taking what we have on hand and making a meal of it" because we have a lot of practice! We've built up a skill! A skill you're lacking in. And that's not a bad thing! But it also means that you shouldn't be too hard on yourself because you don't know or can't seem to grasp this stuff that seems so "second nature" or "easy" to a lot of the cooks you know. You're still really new at this! And with various disabilities and mental illnesses, cognitive issues, etc? Of course you're going to struggle harder at it than "most" seem to, to you!

As a secondary aside to that, you mentioned growing up on a farm. But farming and gardening, and the various forms of food preservation that frequently comes alongside small family subsistence farms, is a very different skill set! Knowing what's seasonal in your garden doesn't necessarily inherently translate into cooking it, and building a full meal up from scratch unless you also had someone who had that skill as well to teach you that.

I know my Husband's mom sure as hell didn't. He grew up on a farm like that, and she could can all day ... But Lord. She couldn't cook to save her life. She attempted to impart neither of these skills to my Husband, either ... I grew up on one, as well. But where my mom couldn't can or garden to save her life, she was a damned good cook and imparted those skills to me. Now I'm passing them on to my Husband decades later, because his mother failed to.

What you're ultimately missing is a fundamental set of basic skills, and a knowledge set built up over time and practice. And the good news is, those are really simple skills to learn. The bad news is, it does take a while to learn them and to build up that pool of knowledge. Most of it's experimentation, though, and not a lot of it's super difficult.

For basic knowledge of cooking science and spices, I'd recommend The Science of Cooking and The Science of Spice- both by Dr. Stuart Farrimond. I own both and love them dearly. They'll debunk some common myths, and give you a basic understanding of certain food sciences that are honestly really helpful.

When you feel like you're ready to actually sit down and experiment with spices, I love The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs: An Essential Guide to the Flavors of the World by Padma Lakshmi. It has information on various spices, tells you their cultural contexts, mentions what they're usually used on in those contexts (vegetables, which meats, etc), and even gives you some common cultural spice blends (though doesn't provide measurements). It's a thick boy, but it's a really fun one to work through if you have no introduction to spices or idea how to use them.

Past that, something you need to build yourself is a well stocked pantry with staple basics. I can't tell you what those are for you. That's something you have to figure out for yourself based on what you cook, how often, etc. But my minimum has always been at least 2 months worth of food in my pantry at any given time, across a broad enough spectrum that I can pick just about anything out of a recipe and only really need to shop for the fresh or immediate-need ingredients each week.

Staple Grains like Rice, Lentils, Cous Cous, and Quinoa.

Pasta Noodles of various types- like Elbow, Rigatoni, Bowtie, Penne, Fettuccini, and Spaghetti

Potatoes in the form of Mashed Potatoes and Scalloped Potatoes both, as well as a "fresh" bag each of Russet, Yellow, and Red Potatoes

Onions. I keep a mesh bag each of Red and Yellow (or White; whichever's cheapest at the time I'm shopping) on hand at all times.

Boxes of Stock (Chicken, Beef, Vegetable, and Protein Broth when I can find it)

Canned items that I use a lot of, like Diced Tomatoes, Tomato Sauce, Tomato Paste, every kind of Bean (Cannellini, Great Northern, Dark Red, Light red, Black, Pinto, etc), and Chickpeas; plus canned fish (Tuna and Salmon, Sardines, etc)

Condensed Creams Of (Chicken and Mushroom are the two we use most often)

Spices. Of every kind. You literally do not want to see my spice box. It's insane. Yes I'm proud of it. But it would make the average person cry with confusion and fear.

Frozen Veggies in the freezer (Green Beans, Brussel Sprouts, Broccoli, Carrots, Squashes, etc; personally I prefer the frozen to the canned)

I'm sure there's stuff I'm forgetting. But ultimately when you have a full pantry and only have to buy your fresh or immediate-need ingredients? It not only massively saves your grocery bill each week, but it also makes it so much easier to "make things with what you have on hand". Because a large part of the trick is, honestly, having things on hand to make stuff with in the first place. And that's really the big secret that goes unspoken in a lot of circles. But it really shouldn't be an unspoken secret, because it holds so many people back.

Another secret is just knowing basic cooking methods. What is chopping vs dicing? How do you pan fry? What's a dry fry vs a wet fry? What about baking? Broiling? Boiling? What happens if you stew an ingredient instead? How big does it have to be for each of these methods? How does it perform with rice as opposed to cous cous? How is it raw- if it can be eaten raw? Other than that, just knowing recipes is really going to be the big key.

Unfortunately I don't have a recommend for learning any of these ones, since I learned all this the hard way. I do see some cook books that could be useful (like Veg-table: Recipes, Techniques, and Plant Science for Big-Flavored Vegetable-Focused Meals by Nik Sharma; or Vegetables: The Ultimate Cookbook Featuring 300+ Delicious Plant-Based Recipes by Laura Sorkin). I can't personally recommend them, however, because I've never read or used them. But there's a lot of information out there on youtube that can be very helpful, especially for methodology since it's a visual medium- which is, I think, the best way to learn some of these skills in particular.

Personally, I did the recipe thing by looking at cuisines from regions where those foods or ingredients were really popular. So take your Eggplant for example. Eggplants feature a lot in Mediterranean, Levantine, and Middle Eastern cuisines. So when you want to learn how to use Eggplant and build up your knowledge about it? Looking at the people in those regions who use this ingredient a lot already is going to be really helpful to you. They know what they're doing with it!

When you've made those dishes a few times, you're going to get an understanding not only of how to prepare Eggplant for various methods of cooking, and how to cook it for those methods. But you're also going to get an understanding of what flavors pair well with it. And after a while of doing that, you're naturally going to start thinking "what if I do x instead?" and start experimenting on your own. Play with them. Get to know the ingredient on the most foundational level. And yeah, throw some herbs on it if you're comfortable! See what meshes with what flavors. What do you like? And yeah, some of those are going to be flops. But by the time you start thinking "what if" your skills are usually further progressed than you'd think to give yourself credit for. Just ask my Husband, ha!

As for the stuff regarding disability, mental illness, and cognitive function, I gotchu, babe! One of the most distressing things for me when I became disabled, started suffering really bad from cognitive decline, and started dealing with memory loss, was looking at the potential of never being able to cook for myself again. And that scared the piss out of me, because cooking is my joy. And so my Husband and I sat down and prioritized cooking and making it disability friendly for me. Here's some of the stuff we did.

First step: Get your butt a stool that's a comfortable height for your counter height. Once acquired, sit as much as you can in the kitchen. It conserves energy and lets you use more of it to focus your head.

Second: Get yourself all those fun little gadgets you think look interesting or helpful. Personally I have a fruit slicer (that works on more than just apples), a slap chopper microplane thingy, and a few others. Mostly I got these because occasionally my body loses my hands and has no idea where they went and it's safer for me. But I can't tell you how nice they are even when my body knows where my hands are, ha; they speed up prep, keep your fingers safe (usually), and leave more room for the brain to do its thing.

Third: Make as many lists as you can! I have a list on the inside of all my pantry doors of the staples that are in that section. When something needs refilling it allows me to put a mark there so I know to put it on the grocery list. But it also provides a quick reference when my brain's tired; it's so much easier for me to read a list than try and decipher box labels with various colors, font sizes, etc. Make lists wherever you need them and always keep them accessible.

Fourth: The recipe box. Yes. A good, old fashioned, classic recipe box. I have mine filled with tried and true recipes that I know for a fact my Husband and I love, that I know we have at least 90% of the ingredients on hand for at any given moment. So if all else fails and I can't think of anything? I can just go pull something out of the box and have him jot down to the store for anything we don't have.

Fifth: Keep easy meals on stock, because some days you really can't cook. Your brain won't let you, and that's ok! That's fine! But you still gotta eat, right? So we keep stuff like bagged Blackened Chicken Alfredo, Dirty Rice, Mongolian Beef, Jambalaya, Broccoli Beef, Red Beans & Rice, etc, on hand in the outdoor fridge. If at any point I just can't do it? We grab some of those instead.

And the good news is, you can spruce up a quick meal! Making Dirty Rice? Throw in some bread and butter, and a side of boiled Green Beans from the garden. Blackened Chicken Alfredo? Throw some Bell Pepper on in there; you can bulk this stuff up easily with your produce, and it takes even less effort most of the time.

As for the Covid sense of taste / smell? Keep trucking. It does get better; I suffered bad from Post-Covid Parosmia for nearly 2 years after I caught Covid the first time- bad enough to the point I couldn't bathe myself because of the smell of our water being nauseating to me; couldn't eat anything with Corn, or Wheat, or Onion, or Garlic in it for a year, either. the second I tried, my body auto rejected it. Bananas tastes like Iris flowers smelt ... I feel your pain so hard.

But it does get better. Your system is just rewiring itself completely from scratch right now. And Lord, it's so unpleasant. But the more you give it to taste, and smell, the better it does and the faster it rewires itself. Don't force yourself to eat things that are nauseating or unpleasant. But do branch out. Experiment. Even if it tastes left of how you remember it, keep going! I can't promise you'll get everything back (Lord knows there's still some things that aren't quite right for me, even 4 years later now). But it gets better!

I hope any of this helps- even if it's not as helpful if you'd like it to be. Hang in there, love.

My ask box is always open and Anon is currently ON.

[choicescommunityevents]

Thank you for joining our first Choices Picnic! It was a lovely event!

Here is how our picnic turned out:

10 fandom members contributed to

28 MCs, OCs, and LIs joining the event who brought

15 different types of food

10 different types of drinks

21 different types of desserts

15 different games/activities

[Event prompts and info] [Full list of community prompts, polls, and quizzes]

Who joined the picnic? [x]

@cadybear420

Aiden x Evie

@dr-colossal-pita

Ethan x Oliver

@gutsfics

Noah x Devi

Thomas x Avalon

@jerzwriter

Ethan x Kaycee

Tobias x Casey

@lovealexhunt / @theartoflovingthomashunt / @storyofmychoices

Bryce x Olivia

Keiki

Mal x Daenarya

Thomas x Alex

@masked-alien-lesbian

Aislinn x Verity

Hana x Raelyn

@peonyblossom

Ajay x Matty

Emmett x Brooklyn

Ethan x Sydney

Thomas x Jackie

@pulpitude

Mia

Lia

Joss

Linc

Abel

@trappedinfanfiction

Ethan x Celia

Trystan x Sophia

@tveitertotwrites

Derek x Charlie

Ethan x Claire

Thomas x Brooklyn

Tobias x Adelaide

What will we be eating + drinking? [x]

Food

Banana Chips with light maple syrup

Buttermilk Fruit Scones

Charcuterie Board (2)

Chips

Fresh Baked Bread

Fresh Vegetable Quinoa Salad

Gamja-Salad

Grilled Meat Skewers

Ketchup Chips

Korean Fried Chicken

Pasta Salad

Pizza

Pineapple

Sandwiches (2)

Strawberries

Trail Mix

Drinks

Alcoholic Drinks

Cabernet Sauvignon

Chocolate Milk

Coconut Custard Pie

Fruit Salad

Nanaimo Bars

Non-Alcoholic Drinks

Orange Infused Cold Brew

Sodas

Strawberry Lemonade

Sweet Cocktails

Sweet Iced Tea

Wine selection

What are we eating (desserts) [x]

Apple Pie

Berry Pinwheel Pasteries

Coconut Cake

Cookies

Fresh Fruit Popsicles

Fruit mixed in pudding, yogurt, whipped cream

Golden Griddle milkshakes

Haupia

Honey Cake

Lemon Cake

Mint Ice Cream Sandwiches

Pie

Pup Cups

Red Velvet Brownies

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Rum Cake

Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait

Weed Brownies

What are we playing/doing? [x]

Badminton

Capture the Flag

Charades

Drink Mixing

Enjoying flowers

Frisbee / Disk Golf

Frisbee with pups (2)

Horeshoes

Karaoke

Kite Flying

Lawn Chess

Nature Crafts / Flower Crowns

Paint and Sip

Toss + Catch

Volleyball

What's our picnic playlists? [X]

What 3 things are a picnic must? [X]

How will a little rain impact the event? [x]

How did MCs, OCs, and LIs document the event? [X]

What else was submitted?

I was going to make a masterlist, but since most entries were just reblogs to the community posts it seemed silly... especially since all the extra entries were mine 🙈. Felt weird making a masterlist for just me! If more individual works are added, I'll make a separate masterlist.

@lovealexhunt / @theartoflovingthomashunt / @storyofmychoices

Bryce x Olivia picnic (art)

Bryce x Olivia beach picnic (edit)

Mal x Daenarya beach picnic (edit)

A Late Night Picnic (Mal x Daenarya) (writing)

Thomas x Alex Hollywood sign picnic (edit)

@peonierose : Art on the Beach with Bryce x Luna

[supernaturalkickparty]

Happy birthday week, day 5: Retired Winchesters Day!

I was thinking about our pet headcanon about the locals in Lebanon thinking Sam and Dean are just a married couple, and the many other assumptions that come with that when there are Situations.

Imagine the outsider POV of when Sam convinces Dean to move out of the bunker and retire in a cabin nearby. They still get visits from Jack, and sometimes Castiel comes with him---and the lady in the post office and the guy at the bar are like, "oh yer fella's ex is here again this weekend with their son, huh👀" when Dean escapes into town, feeling awkward around Sam's situationship and literal god-child.

Bestie yesssssss omg this would be so hilarious because they see Cas with Sam and Jack and they look at Dean like "idk how you can do it. I could never handle my ex hanging around"

Meanwhile Dean's just yeah...anyway bye👀

But they love their little cabin. It's perfect for them, it was a fixer upper and they both enjoyed working on it.

Sam has his own garden, has a separate garden for witch stuff, Dean is happy in his hammock most days.

Most days it's him and Sam in the hammock even though Sam says he's too tall to fit in it.

People see them in town and they make their own stories in the mysterious couple.

At first they weren’t too sure about Dean, a waitress at the diner heard him call Sam and bitch and then another incident at the bar, someone said that Sam flinched when a song came on and Dean dragged him out of there.

But they're so domestic and sweet with each other.

Everyone can see how deeply they care for each other so maybe it's not what they think of their marriage.

Someone saw Dean was video chatting with Sam in a aisle, asking which brand do they usually buy of something.

"This one or this one? Does it matter Sam??? Ok fine the red box of the pasta. The what? What the hell is quinoa ?? Ok fine I'm looking for it." Dean grumbles as he's looking all up and down the aisle even though Sam is telling him exactly where it's at.

Bestie I love and needed this🖤🖤🖤🖤

[spankedquail]

Protein

I saw these fancy protein bars while we were buying groceries and asked my husband if I could get them. He took a look, read the back, and said no. I explained that I wanted them to have before my morning fitness classes. He said no again, and we moved on.

The next morning, he woke me up a half hour earlier than I usually get up for workouts and told me to get dressed for my class. I usually wear a running-bra and matching running shorts. He ordered me to get on my knees, pull my bra up above my tits, pull my shorts down to my ankles, and open my mouth. (No panties needed with these shorts.)

He told me that his cum was all the protein I needed before my class. He was disappointed with how I felt the need to try and explain after he already said no, and knew that he needed to teach me a lesson about accepting his decisions without question. He put me to work sucking his cock and I swallowed his cum before going to my class.

For the last three classes, I’ve had to get up a half hour early to get my special “protein shake” before I leave, bra up, shorts down. It’s incredibly humbling to do my workouts with the fresh taste of his cum in my mouth.

There’s a twist, though. My fitness class is 8 min away from our house. If I’m more than 5 min late to the class, I have to forfeit it. If I forfeit a class because of bad planning, I get punished. But sometimes, it takes my husband a while to cum when I’m performing oral service. When I’m running tight on time, it’s forced me to pull out every trick in the book. He thinks it’s very amusing that I panic as the minutes tick by. “Better hurry up or you’ll be late and lose your class….”

While his cock moves deep in my throat each morning before a class, he reminds me of his expectations. He explained that he carefully considers all of my requests, and his decisions are measured and most importantly, final. I’m not allowed to attempt to change his decision — instead, I am expected to accept his decision quietly and quickly. At the grocery store, he had read the nutrition label on the back of the protein bars and determined they had far more sugar than he was comfortable with me having regularly.

I don’t know how long he will keep having me swallow his cum before my fitness classes. But I do know I will happily get on my knees as long as he requires it so that I properly learn my lesson.

Daddy is very smart and very thoughtful, and cares a lot about my physical health. The lesson I’ve learned is this: When Daddy decides something for me, I must accept his decision immediately. Daddy always has my best in mind.

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

* He does actually care about me getting enough protein to boost my metabolism and build muscle. When we eat dinner at home, usually Daddy makes me quinoa as a replacement for pasta or rice. For breakfast, I have a boiled egg and yogurt after my fitness class, before work. 💪

[fox-bright]

Watching the H5N1 stuff get worse and worse--I'm hoping we have until late next year before it goes reliably human-human, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was this winter--and not being able to do much makes me anxious, so I've been composing lists of stuff to do. I keep thinking, if this were August, 2019, and I knew covid was coming, what would I prepare? If this one goes off like the scientists think it might, it'll be much worse than covid.

Right now, I'm concentrating on food. My plan is to have enough hunker down supplies by mid-September that if things go bad in the normally-scheduled October-February flu season, we'll be okay simply not leaving the house at all. There are only two of us here now, and if things go bad there may be as many as four (as I have two separate friends I'd push hard to come stay here with us), so I need to make sure we have 4 meals x howevermany days I choose. I'm building up to six months, but I'm beginning the plan at three. While a lot of Serious Prepper lists have pretty generous caloric allowances, the MFH and I eat pretty light, and we're both smaller than the average adult human, which does give us even more squeak room here.

We started out with dry staples--bread flour, AP flour, semolina, rice, beans, pasta, lentils, powdered milk--though I have still to get powdered eggs (I'll dehydrate those myself), more dry beans (I'm going to use up a lot of what we have when I do my canning run for the winter, and so far I haven't been able to get my hands on kidney beans in any decent amounts), quinoa, and one more kind of pasta. Right now we have about 2/3 of what I'd want; we'll be holding things at this level, replacing staples as we use them, and if things look more serious we'll do another big shop and give ourselves additional stock of the AP flour, the bread flour, the rice (which we already buy in 40-50 lb bags anyway, we're Asian), the dry milk.

Then there's the perishable stuff; yesterday, the MFH and I took advantage of some very nice sales and got seventy pounds of meat for two hundred and twelve dollars. Beef brisket for stew, pork butt for sweet molasses chili, ground beef for hotter chili, pork loin for white bean soup. Still have to get chicken (which was pretty much sold out at our bulk place) for chicken soup (to be pressure canned), chicken and mushroom cream soup (to be vacuum-packed and frozen).

Very very soon it'll be time to harvest my leeks and my butternut squashes, for leek and potato soup (either finished with cream, blended to a smooth-ish consistency and frozen, or *not* blended down, and just socked away in pressure-canned Ball jars without the cream added; will it take me longer to thaw it, or to take my immersion blender to the hot individual meals later on?) and canned butternut for baking with or making soup or chili or making pasta sauce.

I might can a bunch of just potatoes, too, to keep 'em shelf stable (plus that front-loads a lot of the work of producing a meal later).

So I need to buy onions and carrots and potatoes and celery and garlic and mushrooms and corn, cream, red wine, tomato paste (because my vines got blight this year, sigh--I've managed to can one single run of tomato sauce and that's IT), ten dozen fresh eggs to dehydrate and powder and store in the fridge in case of egg shortages, several pounds of beans to be thrown into the chilis and...hm...fifteen pounds more, twenty pounds more, to have on hand? And then for non-canning purposes we'll need butter, oil, white vinegar (I've used a lot of it for pickles this year), various Asian food staples like black and rice vinegars, oyster sauce, black mushrooms and so on. As for pre-made, mass-produced foods, I'll probably make another post about them later.

While this is more than I'd generally stock in a single season, I do generally put about 100 quarts of home-canned food by a year, and I never keep less than 75-100lb of flour on hand anyway because of how frequently I make bread. So though it sounds like a lot up front, it's not hoarder level; everything I stock will be eaten, some of it pretty much immediately (the beef stew is so good). And putting it all by now means that we'll be less of a burden on our community safety net, if push comes to shove. When the covid pandemic hit I had dozens of jars of food on the shelf already, which gave me a little peace when things were looking scary. We were able to share some of our stores with people who hadn't had the great privilege of long afternoons spent seeing to the personal stores. That's a better option, to my mind, than needing to panic-shop right as things start getting a little wild.

Basically, if things go bad, we'll have food for a while. And if things don't go bad, we'll have food for a while. It's win-win. And it keeps the floor under my feet when I'm feeling unsteady, to be able to sneak down into the cool, still basement and look at row on row of gently gleaming jars of food security.

[clover-sky]

Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpeas with Herby Tahini So good. I was so full.

Note from me: it took about 45 mins from prep to plate to make for the first time. Also I doubled the oil/spice mix for more flavour. No scallion no garlic because reasons, and it was soooooooo delicious nonetheless. Ingredients 

For cauliflower and chickpeas

▢ 1 head cauliflower, leaves removed, bottom stem trimmed

▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil

▢ 1 teaspoon cumin

▢ 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

▢ 1/4 teaspoon onion powder

▢ 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

▢ 1 teaspoon kosher salt

▢ 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

▢ 1-15 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

For herby tahini

▢ 1 garlic clove

▢ 1/3 cup tahini

▢ 1 cup fresh parsley and cilantro leaves plus more chopped for serving

▢ 1 scallion, thinly sliced

▢ Juice of 1 lemon

▢ 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

▢ 3-4 tablespoons water

Instructions 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Cut the cauliflower lengthwise into 3/4-inch slices.

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, cumin, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Toss the cauliflower and chickpeas into the mixture. (You can use your hands to do this.)

Arrange the cauliflower in a single layer on a sheet pan. Put the chickpeas in the spaces in between the cauliflower. Roast for 25-30 minutes, flipping just over halfway through cooking, until the cauliflower is browned at the edges and the chickpeas are crispy.

For the herby tahini,  puree the garlic, tahini, parsley and cilantro, scallions, lemon juice, salt and water in a food processor until combined and smooth. You want it to have a thick, but slowly pourable/spoonable consistency. Add a little more water as needed.

Drizzle the roasted cauliflower and chickpeas with herby tahini. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and cilantro.

Notes

If you don’t like cilantro, you can use all parsley.

How much water you need to add to the sauce to thin it will depend on the thickness of your tahini. If you’re sauce is too runny, stir in 1 tablespoon tahini at a time to thicken it.

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days. Keep the sauce in a separate container. You can warm the cauliflower and chickpeas in a 350-degree F oven. The chickpeas will not be as crisp as when you first roasted them. Let the sauce sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes before using it, so it’s not as cold.

Leftovers can be stirred into cooked pasta, quinoa, farro or barley.

You can also enjoy leftovers cold with kale, spinach or chopped romaine. If you want, you can thin out the sauce a little more and use it as salad dressing.

[fat-acceptance-is-bs]

You got any tips for an autistic person struggling to eat healthy? Food textures and smells have always been an issue for me.

Hello!

I think where to start is to look at food textures and smells you do like or can tolerate and go from there. For example if you like dry foods try switching bread,rice and pasta to whole grain alternatives if possible. And if you like the taste of different vegetables but struggle with texture you can try blending them into sauces or try prepare them differently. I myself enjoy grilled vegetables more because they taste better and have a bit of a more solid texture.

Same with fruits as well, making smoothies or ice cream makes it easier to consume more and can help with texture issues. When it comes to meat if it’s an absolute no go there are some good alternatives for protein like beans, lentils, eggs, tofu, Greek yoghurt, quinoa and a range of soy and protein supplement products.

I also think slowly introducing new textures and smells into your diet can help. But take it slow so you don’t become overwhelmed and stressed. So start with switching out one thing with an healthier option or something you would like to try and see how that works out over time. And then do more changes when you are comfortable with doing so.

Best of luck to you! Hope I could be to some help

[nourishandthrive]

How to Plan a Week of Healthy Meals

Planning a week of healthy meals can save you time, reduce stress, and ensure you’re nourishing your body with balanced, nutritious foods. Follow these steps to create a meal plan that works for you and your lifestyle.

Step 1: Set Your Goals

Identify Your Nutritional Needs: Consider your dietary preferences, any food allergies, and your health goals (e.g., weight loss, muscle gain, maintaining energy levels).

Balance Your Plate: Aim for a mix of lean proteins, whole grains, healthy fats, and plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Step 2: Create a Meal Plan Template

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks: Plan for all meals and snacks to avoid impulsive eating.

Use a Planner or App: Use a weekly planner or a meal planning app to organize your meals. This helps visualize your plan and make adjustments as needed.

Step 3: Choose Your Recipes

Select Simple Recipes: Choose recipes that are easy to prepare and fit into your schedule.

Incorporate Variety: Ensure you have a mix of flavors and cuisines to keep your meals interesting.

Batch Cooking and Leftovers: Plan for batch cooking or leftovers to save time on busy days.

Step 4: Make a Shopping List

List All Ingredients: Write down all the ingredients you’ll need for the week’s meals.

Check Your Pantry: Cross-check with what you already have to avoid buying duplicates.

Organize by Section: Group your list by sections (produce, dairy, grains, etc.) to make grocery shopping more efficient.

Step 5: Prep Ahead

Batch Cook Staples: Prepare grains, proteins, and vegetables in bulk to mix and match throughout the week.

Chop and Store: Pre-chop veggies and store them in airtight containers to save time during meal preparation.

Use Freezer-Friendly Meals: Prepare and freeze meals for days when you need something quick.

Sample Weekly Meal Plan

Monday

Breakfast: Greek yogurt with berries and granola

Lunch: Quinoa salad with chickpeas, cucumber, and feta

Dinner: Baked salmon with roasted sweet potatoes and asparagus

Snack: Apple slices with almond butter

Tuesday

Breakfast: Smoothie with spinach, banana, and protein powder

Lunch: Turkey and avocado wrap with a side of carrots

Dinner: Chicken stir-fry with brown rice and mixed vegetables

Snack: Hummus with whole-grain crackers

Wednesday

Breakfast: Overnight oats with chia seeds and blueberries

Lunch: Lentil soup with a side salad

Dinner: Veggie-loaded spaghetti with whole-wheat pasta

Snack: Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts

Thursday

Breakfast: Whole-grain toast with avocado and a poached egg

Lunch: Grilled chicken Caesar salad

Dinner: Shrimp tacos with a mango salsa and a side of black beans

Snack: Mixed nuts and dried fruit

Friday

Breakfast: Smoothie bowl with mixed fruits and coconut flakes

Lunch: Buddha bowl with quinoa, roasted veggies, and tahini dressing

Dinner: Homemade pizza with a cauliflower crust and assorted toppings

Snack: Celery sticks with peanut butter

Saturday

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with spinach and tomatoes

Lunch: Caprese sandwich on whole-grain bread

Dinner: Beef and broccoli stir-fry with jasmine rice

Snack: Fresh fruit salad

Sunday

Breakfast: Protein pancakes with a side of berries

Lunch: Tuna salad with mixed greens and a lemon vinaigrette

Dinner: Stuffed bell peppers with ground turkey and quinoa

Snack: Dark chocolate and strawberries

Tips for Successful Meal Planning

Be Flexible: Life happens, and plans can change. Be prepared to adjust your meal plan as needed.

Stay Hydrated: Remember to plan your water intake throughout the day.

Listen to Your Body: Adjust portion sizes and ingredients based on your hunger and nutritional needs.

By planning your meals in advance, you can ensure a balanced diet, save time, and reduce the stress of daily meal decisions. Happy planning!

Share your meal planning tips and favorite recipes in the comments below! Let's support each other in creating healthy and delicious meals every week.

[artemisarticles]

Getting Started

Clear the decks. Take everything out of your pantry, give it a hard look and decide what you can get rid of. Be ruthless. If you haven’t used it in a year, get rid of it.

Keep what looks and smells good. “Expiration,” “sell by,” and “best by” dates are not good guidelines. Some are determined by regulators, others by manufacturers, and almost all are arbitrary. Properly stored, some (unopened) ingredients, like canned fish, can last for years; others, like dried herbs, start declining in quality the moment they are sealed in a container.

Assess what remains. Then organize it according to the logic that makes sense to you: There’s no single best system. Your nut butters might be with the condiments, or the breakfast items, or the baking supplies.

Fill in the blanks with food that will make you a better cook. Each of the pantry lists below is a proposal, not a prescription. There’s no reason to stock black beans if you only like red. There’s no need to have everything here available at all times. You’ll know your pantry is well stocked for your purposes when most of the time, you need only add one or two fresh ingredients to cook one of our recipes from scratch. Or even better, none.

The Essential Pantry

The foundation layer for all three pantries, this is where everyone should start. There’s so much to be done with these basics. The rule here is stock your pantry mostly with what you’re confident using, and what you love to eat. You’ll turn to it again and again.

Oils and vinegars: Extra-virgin olive oil, neutral cooking oil (such as canola or grapeseed), red-wine vinegar, white vinegar or white-wine vinegar.

Cans and jars: Tuna in olive oil, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken stock or vegetable stock (box-packed tastes better than canned). A good-tasting, simple tomato sauce can become a soup or a stew, or make a quick dinner with pasta or polenta.

Spices and dried herbs: Kosher salt, red-pepper flakes, ground cayenne, curry powder, bay leaves, black peppercorns, sweet paprika, ground cinnamon, ground cumin, garlic powder or granulated garlic, dried thyme and dried oregano. This selection will take you through everything from a basic beef stew to Saturday morning pancakes to Thanksgiving dinner.

Grains and starches: Long-grain white rice, one or two other grains (such as quinoa or farro), dry pasta (one long, one short and chunky), plain bread crumbs, crackers, canned beans (white beans, black beans and-or chickpeas), dry lentils.

Nuts and nut butters: Walnuts, almonds, roasted peanuts, peanut butter (smooth and crunchy).

Sweeteners: Honey, maple syrup, granulated sugar.

Preserves and pickles: Fruit jams and preserves, anchovies.

Condiments and sauces: Basic vinaigrette, mustard (yellow or Dijon), mayonnaise, ketchup, hot sauce, salsa, soy sauce.

Produce: Garlic, onions, all-purpose potatoes (such as Yukon Gold), lemons, shelf-stable tofu (Essential for vegetarians, Expanded for others).

Dairy: Eggs, unsalted butter, cheeses (Cheddar, Jack or Colby, Parmesan), milk or cream for cooking (not skim).

Freezer: Chicken parts, sausages, thick fish fillets, shrimp, thick-sliced bread (for toast), spinach (and other vegetables such as corn and peas), berries (and other fruit such as peaches and mango). Some fruits and vegetables take particularly well to freezing — and in most growing seasons, the quality is better than fresh. Frozen fruit is useful for baking and smoothies.

Baking: All-purpose flour, cornmeal, rolled oats, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, pure vanilla extract, light brown sugar, dark brown sugar, confectioners’ sugar, bittersweet baking chocolate, semisweet chocolate chips, raisins or another dried fruit, cocoa powder. With these ingredients on hand, thousands of cookies, brownies, cakes, muffins, quick breads and other sweets can be produced without a trip to the store.

The Expanded Pantry

For the cook who has a grasp of the basics, but wants to be able to stretch toward new options and flavors. Here, long-lasting, punchy ingredients like tahini, hoisin sauce, coconut milk, sherry vinegar and capers are stocked alongside classics: limes with lemons, jasmine rice as well as long-grain, almond butter in addition to peanut butter.

Oils and vinegars: Peanut oil, coconut oil, sesame oil, sherry or balsamic vinegar, apple-cider vinegar.

Cans and jars: Sardines, unsweetened coconut milk, whole Italian plum tomatoes, beef stock (box-packed tastes better than canned). Whole plum tomatoes are rarely called for in recipes, but they tend to be the ripest and best-quality fruit. They can be diced or crushed to use in a recipe — or drained and slow-roasted for an intense topping on omelets, salads, grain bowls or pizza.

Spices: Flaky salt, single-chile powders (such as ancho and pasilla), ground coriander, turmeric, smoked paprika, cardamom, za’atar, allspice, fennel seeds, dry mustard, garam masala (a basic Indian mix of warm spices), five-spice powder (a basic Chinese mix of spices), whole nutmegs.

Grains and starches: Rice noodles, basmati or jasmine rice, brown rice, panko bread crumbs, dry beans.

Nuts and nut butters: Almond butter, tahini, pecans.

Preserves and pickles: Olives (oil-cured and-or in brine), capers in brine. These ingredients, served with good bread and butter, make an elegant appetizer with wine, or everyday snack.

Condiments and sauces: Worcestershire sauce, hoisin, Thai red curry paste, fish sauce, anchovy paste, harissa.

Produce: Russet potatoes, carrots, celery, limes, ginger, avocados, parsley, cilantro, scallions, jalapeños. Keeping chiles, aromatics and herbs on hand gives you instant access to intensely fresh flavors, even for — maybe especially for — the simplest dishes you cook.

Dairy: Plain full-fat yogurt, more intense cheeses (pecorino, feta), salted butter.

Freezer: Pancetta, artichoke hearts, homemade stock, homemade bread crumbs, fresh pasta, vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, cut and peeled winter squash, chopped onions), cooked grains. Prepared ingredients like chopped onions and cooked grains speed your route to dinner.

Baking: Cake flour, whole-wheat flour, dark baking chocolate, vanilla beans, almond extract, powdered gelatin, molasses, light corn syrup, buttermilk powder, active dry yeast.

The Expert Pantry

For the cook who likes taking global flavors, new methods and viral recipes for a spin. Here, the chiles get hotter, the chocolates darker and the cheeses funkier. These ingredients are just a fraction of what’s out there, but by stocking them, you will be able to cook almost any recipe you come across and experiment with creating your own.

Spices: Hot smoked paprika (pimentón), sumac, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, flaky dried chiles (such as Aleppo, Urfa or Maras), dried whole chiles (like ancho and arból), marjoram, dukkah, baharat, shichimi. Whether you stock spice mixes like baharat (a mix of warm spices used in the Middle East) or shichimi (a Japanese blend of ground chiles and sesame seeds) will depend on the global flavors that most appeal to you.

Grains and starches: Short-grain rice, dried pastas (bucatini, mezzi rigatoni or farfalle), spelt, pearl barley.

Nuts and nut butters: Pine nuts, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds (pepitas), pistachios. Toasted nuts like these (not as everyday as almond and peanuts) are good in salads and granola, on roasted fish, or just with olives for a classic pre-dinner snack.

Preserves and pickles: Pickled hot peppers, cornichons, kimchi, preserved lemons, roasted chiles, horseradish, caperberries, dried sausages such as saucisson sec and chorizo. The intense flavors of pickled and salted ingredients can be a great pick-me-up for mild dishes. In cooking, you can often substitute a bit of preserved lemon for regular lemon, or use the brine from cornichons as part of the liquid in a recipe.

Condiments and sauces: Gochujang, mango chutney, miso, wasabi, dark soy sauce, Chinese oyster sauce, Asian chili bean pastes.

Produce: Shallots, fresh mint, fresh rosemary, lemongrass, fresh Serrano and Thai bird chiles, fresh bay leaves.

Dairy: Ghee, crème fraîche, aged cheeses (Gruyère, blue cheese). Ghee (Indian-style clarified butter) and crème fraîche can reach much higher temperatures than butter, yogurt and sour cream without burning or breaking, so they are useful in cooking.

Freezer: Edamame, curry leaves, makrut lime leaves, merguez (spicy lamb sausages from North Africa). Fragrant leaves like makrut lime and curry (not the spice mix, but an Indian tree with scented leaves) are much more powerful in frozen form than dried.

Baking: Bread flour, pectin, almond flour, tapioca pearls, rose and orange flower waters, gelatin sheets, black cocoa, currants, fresh yeast, sparkling sugar, pearl sugar, candied citrus rinds

Best Practices

Once you have your ingredients, remember that cooking will always create change and disorder. Cans of tomatoes may never match, spices may never live in matching containers, and your hot sauce collection may always try to take over the condiment shelf. But here are a few final thoughts on how to keep your pantry well stocked and well organized enough to be truly useful.

ORGANIZING TIPS

Cooks with different styles need different systems. Some people store the jam with the dried fruits and maple syrup; others associate it with peanut butter, mustard and mayonnaise. The best logic is your own, and it may take some time to figure that out.

If you can’t see it, you’re probably not going to use it. A storage space with more shelving is the most efficient configuration for ingredients. Drawers or slide-out shelves also help tremendously with visibility.

Store everything you can in clear containers. Airtight plastic ones are best, and available in many shapes, sizes, and systems. Rectangular shapes make the best use of space.

Keep a roll of painter’s tape and some permanent markers in a kitchen drawer. It’ll help you make quick labels.

MAXIMIZING INGREDIENTS

Be realistic about your habits. It’s great to clean and trim a week’s worth of vegetables at once — but if you’re not going to do that, buy smaller quantities.

Buy ground spices in the smallest quantities you can find (except for spices you use regularly). Specialty companies will ship as little as an ounce, about 3 tablespoons. You’ll save space and produce better, brighter flavors in your food.

Buy fresh herbs. Dried herbs used to be a pantry essential, but most start out with very little flavor and lose it quickly in storage. (A couple of exceptions are dried oregano and dried thyme.) Pick up fresh herbs when you need them for a particular recipe; it’s a better investment of money and storage space.

Buy heavy, shelf-stable ingredients like boxed broth and canned tomatoes in bulk; better yet, order them online to save time and irritation. Almost any delivery service or website will offer a better price on these items than a brick-and-mortar store.

Cooked ingredients are much easier to use up than raw ones. Whether you steam, boil, pan-fry or roast, cook anything in your refrigerator that looks tired. You can always use it in a salad, a grain bowl or a pasta.

[telltalesonline]

What Does Beyoncé Eat? A Breakdown of Her Diet

Beyoncé has curves in all the right places – but logically, her to-die-for figure comes at a price. Queen Bey is known for her strict diets and crazy workout routines to get in shape, but we’ve also seen that she likes to dine out, too.

As firm BeyHives, we wanted to know if the mega star really does carry hot sauce in her bag, if that’s the secret ingredient to her killer bod, and how we can follow her nutritional habits to get in shape (minus those unhealthy crash diets, though).

So, what does Beyoncé eat? If you’re curious, continue reading below to find out all there is to know about Bey’s eating habits.

General Meals

In between and after Beyoncé’s crash diets and vegan stints, she has admitted to eating regularly:

“Now, you know, I still eat meat. It’s all about balance, but absolutely I make better choices…”

Beyoncé’s typical day starts off with breakfast which consists of a veggie smoothie, scrambled egg whites or whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk.

Her lunch and dinner usually include plenty of fish and vegetables, and she avoids red meat and replaces rice and pasta with quinoa. The best-selling female artist has also shared her love for pitta bread and avocado toast on Instagram.

Her favorite salad from Café Gratitude includes ingredients like kale, cucumber, carrots, nori sheets, cilantro basil scallions and toasted almonds – health galore! This is usually topped with tahini, lemon, olive oil, garlic, and sesame oil dressing.

Another crunchy salad fave includes arugula, red quinoa, cantaloupe and slivered almonds, topped with olive oil, apple cider vinegar and maple syrup.

Continue reading at Tell Tales Online.

[erinthesails]

My former coworker told me a tale that has haunted me for years and it's that one day he decided he wanted to eat healthier and he'd always heard that quinoa was healthy, so he started buying it. But he didn't actually really know what quinoa was or how to eat it. So he would make regular pasta and just. Sprinkle the raw quinoa on top as a garnish. And he was like man this stuff sucks, but I guess a lot of healthy stuff sucks, oh well, and kept eating it for several months until he went to the doctor with debilitating stomach cramps, who then finally broke the news to him. I think about this every day. My man was just crunching up raw quinoa with his pasta. like it was Parmesan.

[vegietribe]

A HEALTHY VEGAN GROCERY LIST

There are so many astounding vegan foods out there, you may be surprised by just how many choices there are! Here are a couple of examples of some of the foods, vegans eat.

FRUITS & VEGETABLES

Purchase fruits and vegetables from all the categories beneath. Pick up affordable basics like carrots, apples, bananas, and celery, and supplement with produce that’s in season.

FRUITS

Frozen fruit is useful for smoothies and baking. Previously frozen fruit was used for topping oatmeal or non-dairy yogurts. Dried fruit can be taken on the go with nuts or can be used as a topping for breakfast cereal, and in baking.

Apples Pears Kiwis Oranges Grapefruit Lemons Limes Peaches Plums Nectarines Bananas Raspberries Blackberries Watermelon Honeydew Cantaloupe Apricots Grapes Mangoes Cherries Strawberries Last but not least, Blueberries

FROZEN

Strawberries Raspberries Blueberries Mixed berry blends Sweet cherries Mango Mixed fruit blends

DRIED

Raisins Currants Cranberries Apricots Dates Figs Apple slices Lastly, Banana chips

VEGETABLES

Purchase a couple of vegetables to eat crude in salads, sandwiches, or with dips. Pick up at least 1-2 mixed greens for salad bases and sandwiches. Choose an assortment of fresh or frozen vegetables that are really great for steaming, sautéing,  stir-frying, and roasting. Frozen vegetables are an extraordinary staple and are exceptionally flexible.

FRESH (RAW & COOKING)

Broccoli Carrots Celery Cauliflower Cucumbers Snap peas Tomatoes Bell peppers Avocado

FRESH (COOKING)

Zucchini Mushrooms Squashes Asparagus Kale Garlic

FRESH (LEAFY GREENS)

Baby Kale Baby Spinach Romaine Butter Lettuce Leaf Lettuce Salad Mixes

FROZEN

Broccoli Asparagus Spinach Corn Peas Edamame Stir-fry mixes

GRAINS, BEANS & LEGUMES

Keep at least 2, 100% whole grain bakery products on hand for making sandwiches, wraps, or pitas. These products freeze well so keep a selection in your freezer and simply defrost single servings as needed. Keep 2-3 whole grains or starches & a couple of beans, legumes, and soy items. Blend and match them and add a vegetable side dish for a complete meal. The cereal is incredible to keep on hand for easy & healthy breakfasts.

100% WHOLE WHEAT

Bread Tortillas English muffins Bagels Pitas Pasta

WHOLE GRAINS & STARCHES

Oatmeal (quick, rolled, or steel-cut) Brown rice Quinoa Seitan (wheat gluten) Sweet Potatoes Russet Potatoes

BEANS & LEGUMES

Chickpeas (canned/dry) Black Beans (canned/dry) Kidney Beans Lentils (dry) Hummus Veggie Burgers (lentil, bean, or vegetable-based) Edamame (frozen)

SOY PRODUCTS

Firm Tofu Soft/ Silken Tofu Smoked/ Marinated Tofu Tempeh Soy milk

You can read out the amazing blogs & recipes at Vegie Tribe. Vegie Tribe an assortment of vegan foods.

[spooniechef]

Gluten-Free Pasta Tips (coeliac & gluten intolerance)

First of all, hi to the new followers. I hope you’ve all found this blog useful so far, and I will try to keep content coming at a reasonable pace (spoons permitting). Today I’m going to recycle a post from my personal Tumblr regarding gluten-free pasta - what to look for in a good one, and how to treat it. After all, my last post was a pasta recipe and I have a few more to share over the next little while, so it seems fair to make those taste better for those of us with gluten issues.

(Side note: I’m actually getting tested for coeliac properly. I mean, I have issues with gluten either way, and I know that, but it’s probably important to know whether it’s coeliac or not. Wish me luck!)

There are some issues with eating gluten-free, especially when it involves things that are generally made with wheat flour, like pasta. Since pasta is one of those easy dishes for those of us with any kind of spoon deficiency, having a good gluten-free pasta is really useful for those of us whose issues involve gluten intolerance of any kind. I’d been picking gluten-free pasta the hit and miss way for years until my brain actually started working and I realised that, if I wanted to know what gluten-free pastas were good and which were bad, I should check the ingredients list, since the types of non-wheat flours used probably made a difference. I currently have three brands of gluten-free pasta in my house, from three different supermarkets. One is good enough. The other two are … much, much less good. (I keep them in case of emergencies.) After having compared the ingredients lists of all three pastas, I think I see where the issues are, so I’m passing along that information.

The worst of the lot is basically plain rice flour and about three different kinds of corn flour. There’s no ‘done’ index on this stuff - you maybe have a half-second of hot water between “al dente and a really weird texture” and “overcooked and falling apart”, and it tastes like cardboard. So if you’re only looking at rice and corn flour in the ingredients list? You’re probably not going to enjoy the pasta that results.

The almost palatable pasta is actually mostly corn flour, with some rice flour. Again, the index of ‘done’ is narrow as hell, but it might be palatable in a pasta bake, so long as you take a really generous view of what you consider ‘al dente’ when you’re putting half-cooked pasta into your pasta bake. It’s just kind of crap on its own, texture going from ‘soggy cardboard’ to just plain slimy in a very short time.

The one I more or less like is rice flour, whole wheat rice flour, a little bit of corn flour, and a little bit of quinoa flour. This stuff stands up well in a pasta bake (or lasagne, since that supermarket - Sainsbury’s, for you Brits - uses the same basic mix throughout its gluten-free range) but also stands on its own topped with pesto or in the tuna broccoli lemon pasta from the last post. It’s got a really narrow index of ‘done’, but most gluten-free pasta’s like that, and this blend’s not as bad as the other two for that.

So basically for gluten-free pasta that’s reasonably close to your standard wheat pasta, you’re looking for a mix that’s a fair bit of rice flour but with brown as well as white rice flour, some corn flour but not too much, and some quinoa flour. Or at least that’s what my experiments have unearthed. Also, those of you who do cook with gluten-free pasta might have noticed that it gets incredibly starchy. The trick to dealing with that is use more water - and more salt - than you generally need, and try not to let it get to a full boil. That way your overly starchy water won’t boil over and make a burnt-starch mess of your stovetop, plus it pulls more of the ‘too starchy’ out of the pasta itself, helping the texture a bit. Also, take the pot off the stove a bit before it’s done and let it sit for a minute or two, then rinse in hot water. The water in the pot will cook the pasta that last little bit while off the boil, making it easier to differentiate between that weird texture al dente gluten-free pasta gets without overcooking, and the hot water you rinse it with will not only finish the job, but also wash off some of the excess starch.

It’s still not quite the same as a good pasta with plain old wheat flour, but if gluten gives you problems, that’s the trick - anything that’s not just plain rice flour and corn flour, in a bigger pot with more water than you might consider you need, don’t let it get to a full-on roiling boil, and rinse with hot water before serving. It helps.

Next up: another recipe, either for chicken broccoli pasta bake, stovetop sausage hotpot, or low-spoon chocolate fudge - I haven’t decided which yet. Suggestions gratefully received (though all three will show up eventually).

[rabbitcruiser]

National Spinach Day

It’s not just Popeye who will be strong to the finish on National  Spinach Day. In fact, anyone who chooses to celebrate the day by  consuming some of this leafy green plant will get to join in on the  health benefits as well!

Packed with nutrients such as Iron, Vitamin A and Calcium, spinach is  known for being a healthy part of a balanced diet – but do we eat  enough of it?

Well, that’s what National Spinach Day is all about!

History of National Spinach Day

Originally from Persia (the area that is now Iran), spinach made its  way to China in the 7th century, where the people referred to it as the  “Herb of Persia” or the “Persian Green”. The vegetable eventually ended  up in Europe a few hundred years later, when it landed in Spain. In  fact, for some time the English referred to spinach as “The Spanish  Vegetable”. It didn’t make its way to being cultivated in North American  until sometime in the early 1800s.

Possibly the most famous person in history to be associated with  spinach is 16th-century noblewoman, Catherine de’ Medici, who ruled  France from behind her three sons for many years. Originally from  Florence, Italy, she moved to France when she married King Henry II. It  is said that Catherine loved spinach and made sure her cooks served it  at every meal. Because of this, even today, meals that are made with  spinach are often known as “Florentine” in honor of the birthplace of  Catherine de’ Medici.

This dark, leafy green vegetable that grows in groups that form a  rosette-type shape is part of the “goosefoot” family, with its close  relatives being Swiss chard and quinoa, as well as beets. Spinach has a  few different varieties that offer different shapes and sizes of leaves.  

Taking some time to celebrate National Spinach Day acts as a little nod to this tasty, healthy vegetable.

How to Celebrate National Spinach Day

While it might seem a little far-fetched to spend the day celebrating  the wonders of spinach, it’s possible–and can even be a load of fun!  People who want to celebrate National Spinach Day can employ a variety  of ideas for ways to the day, it just takes a bit of creativity.

Consider giving these ideas a try or come up with other ideas of your own:

Try Creative Ways to Serve Spinach  

Why not try a new recipe on National Spinach Day? Sauté it in olive  oil and a little bit of garlic – or what about a baby spinach salad with  mozzarella cheese, avocado slices, and crispy bacon crumbled on top?  Delicious!

Other tasty ideas for meals that include spinach are:

Bacon, spinach, and gorgonzola pasta

Spinach, artichoke, zucchini dip (with pita bread or baguette)

Spinach spanakopita (a traditional Greek pastry dish)

Creamy spinach soup

Spinach lasagna (a vegetarian take on the traditional Italian dish)

Spinach pesto on flatbread pizza

Spinach quiche (also called Quiche Florentine)

Mushroom and spinach risotto

Some people like to purée spinach up and hide it in soups and pizza  sauces for the finicky eaters in the family who may not prefer to eat it  straight up.

So, no excuses – get your leafy greens down on National Spinach Day!

Learn About the Health Benefits of Spinach  

Just like many vegetables, the healthiest way to serve and eat  spinach is fresh and raw. However, even when it is cooked, it still  remains one of the healthier vegetables. These are just some of the many  nutritional benefits:

Fiber aids the digestive system

Vitamin A (carotene), for healthy organs and eyes

Iron helps with red blood cells and tissue health

Vitamin C, antioxidants, and a booster for the immune system

Folic Acid, useful in cell function and tissue growth

Calcium, essential for bone health

Antioxidants, help remove free radicals that cause oxidative damage

While spinach also has a small amount of natural sugars and  carbohydrates, these are small in comparison to the myriad of other  health benefits provided by this tasty veggie.

Try Growing Spinach in the Garden  

Getting enough leafy greens in the diet is much easier for people who  can grow their own! And, actually, spinach is not a particularly  difficult one to grow. It’s an annual plant, meaning that it needs to be  re-planted from seed each year, but it’s hardy and enjoys weather that  is somewhat cool (but not cold).

National Spinach Day might be a bit too soon in the year to start a  garden outdoors in many parts of the world. If this is the case, it’s  simple to begin an indoor planting of spinach from seed and then move it  outside when the weather permits. Spinach likes cool weather. So, as  long as there is no risk of frost, the spinach plants should do fine  outside in the spring.

As soon as the leaves are large enough to eat, the spinach is ready  for harvest. It is healthiest when eaten as quickly as possible after  harvesting. However, it can be stored, loosely packed, in a sealed  plastic bag for several days. Don’t wash it ahead of time as it could  get mushy. Simply wash it just prior to eating or cooking with it. It  can also be frozen while it is still fresh.

Since it only takes about 6 weeks from the sowing of seeds to harvest  time, it has a quick turnaround time. This means that it’s a great  vegetable to grow in the spring as well as in the cooler autumn months  so that there’s enough for the family to eat all throughout the growing  season.

Take in Some ‘Popeye, the Sailor Man’

Some younger folks might not be familiar with the connection between  Popeye and spinach. But those of a certain generation will possibly  remember not only the Saturday morning cartoon but also the little  jingle song that went along with it!

Going further back, even before it was an animated cartoon, more  mature folks might remember that Popeye started out as a comic strip in  the newspapers in the late 1920s. Eventually, decades later, a  live-action film tribute was created in 1980, starring Robin Williams.

The theme of the character, Popeye, was that he was a rather average  little sailor guy, with eerily large, tattooed forearms who smoked a  pipe. And when he ate his spinach? Well, he would immediately gain  superhuman strength and be able to punch the lights out of his  arch-nemesis, Bluto, in order to help one of his friends who were in  need. (Popeye and Bluto were constantly fighting over the affections of  the tall, extremely skinny Olive Oyl.)

As it turns out, pop culture actually can have a positive influence  on the world, proven by Popeye. After the character started eating  spinach, children began asking for it and sales in the United States  skyrocketed by one-third. That was quite a boost for the spinach  industry–and the health of those children!

Source