Tag: nutrition

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A Menu for Your Spring

Garden Slaw

Chef Leah Burback
Mix and match seasonal produce with your favorite dressings and additional toppings
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Marinating Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Course garnish, Lunch, Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine American, Comfort Food, Southern Soul

Ingredients
  

Slaw Mixture

  • 2 cups Cabbage thinly sliced red or green
  • 1 cup Carrots, shredded or julienned
  • ½ cup sweet onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 cup combined seasonal toppings

See Seasonal Notes for dressing options

  • 1 cup dressing of choice
  • as needed salt and pepper

Instructions
 

  • Combine Slaw ingredients and dressing in a large mixing bowl. Reserve crunchy topping like nuts or toasted seeds until ready to serve.
  • Toss evenly and season well with salt and pepper. Let marinate for at least one hour before service, no more than 2 days.
  • Top with crunchy toppings in a favoirte serving bowl and enjoy the flavors of the season.

Notes

Seasonal Topping Options
Spring: Chopped Snap Peas, Diced Roasted Beets, Blanched Cut Asparagus, Sliced Toasted Sunflower Seeds (Pair with a Creamy Walnut Dressing)
Summer: Roasted Corn Kernels, Diced Bell Peppers, Halved Cherry Tomatoes (Pair with a Green Goddess Dressing)
Fall: Dried Cranberries, Diced Tart Apples, Broccoli and Cauliflower, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds (Pair with a Herb Dressing)
Winter: Orange segments, Pomegranates, Sliced almonds, Radish slices, Pickled Red Onions (Pair with a Mustard Vinaigrette)
Keyword 30 minute recipe, apple, cabbage, carrots, chopped salad, eat the rainbow, from the garden, fruit, garnish, salad
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Beet Lemon Hummus

Chef Leah Burback
Try this fun colored bright and sweet version of a traditional dip.
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Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Course Appetizer, condiment, garnish, sauce
Cuisine American, Indian, Mediterranean
Servings 3 cups

Equipment

  • food processor
  • blender
  • zester

Ingredients
  

  • ½ lb fresh beetroot scrub, destem, remove taproot
  • 2 cups garbanzo beans aka chickpeas cooked and drained or see instructions for dried
  • 2 each lemons zested and juiced
  • ½ cup olive oil avocado, sunflower, or infused oil option
  • 1 Tbsp garlic crushed
  • to taste salt and black pepper to taste
  • ¼ cup Tahini sesame paste also try sunflower seed butter or paste of pumpkin seeds

Instructions
 

Dried Beans Option

  • Soak ¾ cup of dried beans in fresh cool water overnight. Drain then Rinse and pressure cook with correct ratio of water or low sodium stock until tender. DO NOT SALT BEANS WHILE COOKING. This hardens the outer membrane and takes them much longer to cook.

Cooked Beans Option

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Scrub Beetroot clean. Place on a square of foil, drizzle with a small amount of oil and sprinkle with salt. Enclose beet entirely in foil and bake for 40 min. or until cooked through, easily pricked with a paring knife.
  • Let beet cool slightly then the beet skin should slide off the cooked root with little to no effort, some roots may still need a peeler to assist. Cut into 1" pieces and reserve.
  • Place 1 cup of cooked beets and all other ingredients but the oil in a food processor or appropriate immersion blender cup. Pulse until ingredients start to soften and drizzle in olive oil until a smooth even texture has formed.
  • Adjust seasoning to taste, chill, and let meld for at least 30 minutes before serving. Garnish with lemon peel, olive oil, and remaining cooked beets.
  • Serve with your favorite crudite vegetables, chips, or as a sandwich spread.

Notes

Try using local beans like Romano, European Soldier, Indian Woman, or so many other varieties to EatWy Hummus!
Keyword appetizer, beet lemon, beetroot, beets, hummus
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Beet Deviled Eggs

Chef Leah Burback
Use leftover soft beets and eggs that have been on the shelf longer than others to create a red-pink bright addition to your spring festivities.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Soaking Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Course Appetizer, Breakfast, garnish, Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine American, Peasant, sous vide

Equipment

  • stovetop burner or sous vide(immersion circulator
  • whisk and bowl
  • piping bag or spoon for assembly

Ingredients
  

  • 12 each eggs

Beet Brine

  • 2 cups beet juice
  • 1 cups apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup white vinegar
  • 2 cups purified water
  • ½ cup honey
  • 4 tsp. kosher salt
  • 3 whole cloves
  • ½ cinnamon stick

Deviled Filling:

  • Cooked yolks from eggs.
  • 3 Tbsp mayonnaise
  • 2 Tbsp yellow mustard
  • Smoked Paprika or other garnish

Instructions
 

  • Stovetop method: 1. Place eggs in a saucepot with room temperature water just to cover. Bring up to a boil for 2 minutes, remove from the heat, cover, and let sit in the water for 10 minutes.
  • Sous Vide Method: 1. Set waterbath temperature to 194F. Place room temperature eggs carefully into water only once the temperature is reached. Cook for 20 minutes and remove to an ice bath to cool completely.
  • Beet Brine: Combine beet juice, vinegars, water, honey, salt, cloves, and cinnamon in a small saucepan bring up to a boil to dissolve everything together. Remove from heat and pour into a container to cool completely.
  • Carefully drain and peel eggs under cold water. Place in cooled beet mixture and let set, can store for up to a month, color and pickling seeps through in 1 full week.
  • Cut eggs in half lengthwise, seperate the whites and yolks, place the whites back into the beet liquid until ready to serve, place the yolks in a small bowl to mix.
  • With a whisk mix yolks with mayo and mustard until smooth. If texture is too thick add a splash of beet mixture.
  • Spoon or pipe mixture into the egg whites when ready to serve and sprinkle with paprika, and add a bit of spice with a slice of fresh jalapeno or simple with chives.
Keyword appetizer, beetroot, beets, eat the rainbow, egg yolk, make ahead, penny saving, thrifty
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Carrot Cake

Chef Leah Burback
Use some of your carrot kraut for something sweet! Try this spicy cake recipe while using preserved produce.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Cooling time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine American, Eastern European

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups flour substitute oat or almond flour and add 1 Tbsp ground flax as well
  • 2 tsp each baking powder and soda
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp ground allspice
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 4 each large eggs
  • 1 ¼ cup ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil
  • 3 cups Carrot Kraut see seperate recipe
  • ½ cup walnuts or pecans try sunflower or pumpkin seeds
  • ½ cup dried cranberries or raisins or golden raisins or currants

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350F.
  • Butter and lightly flour two 10 ” rounds or one 9×13 rectangle.
  • Sift the dry ingredients together into a medium bowl.
  • In a seperate large bowl whisk together sugar, eggs, melted/cooled ghee or oil, and zest. Stir in carrot kraut.
  • Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, until combined.
  • Finally, add the nuts and dried fruit. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
  • Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center or the cake comes out clean, usually 30-40 minutes.
  • The center of the cake should look similar to the edges and just begin to crack, remove from the oven to preserve moistness.

Notes

Decorate with your favorite cream cheese icing recipe or with a simple glaze and candied orange peel.
Keyword carrot kraut, carrots, eat the rainbow, fermentables, secret veggies, thrifty
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Nutritional Value of Eating Local

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Our overall health is largely determined by our diet and the food we eat, and whether those foods are nutrient-dense or nutritionally depleted. In 2004, a landmark study compared the nutritional content of 43 different fruits and vegetables from 1950 and 1999. Using data from the United State Department of Agriculture, the research found that produce harvested in 1999 contained significantly less protein, calcium, potassium, iron, vitamin B12 and vitamin C, suggesting that “any real declines are generally most easily explained by changes in cultivated varieties.” In other words, nutritional content has deteriorated in exchange for higher volume. 

It’s not hard to see why or how this happened. Today, industrial agriculture and big box retailers have managed to develop a supply chain that provides Wyoming with strawberries in January. As unnatural as this may be agriculturally, today’s consumer demands it. This, in conjunction with an exploding population, has forced farmers to change virtually every step of harvesting produce, from soil cultivation to transportation to distribution. And as beneficial as widely available fruits and vegetables may be, it comes with a trade-off; they’re not nearly as good for you as they should be.

Soil for higher yields is stripped of minerals and nutrients

Industrial agriculture is monocultural, meaning that the same soil produces massive quantities of a single crop year after year. It requires year-round harvesting, and the use of numerous harsh herbicides and pesticides. This forces the soil to work much harder under tougher conditions, ultimately stripping it of minerals and nutrients it would otherwise pass into plants. The point of monocultural farming isn’t to make nutritious, tasty food; it’s to harvest larger, pest-resistant crops with higher growth rates.

Transportation requires produce to be picked before its ripened 

When a Wyoming grocery store buys tomatoes from either Florida or California, the nation’s leading producers of tomatoes, it can obviously take a long time to get there. And depending on by whom and how they’re transported, those tomatoes are exposed to varying levels of air, artificial lights and temperature fluctuations. Fruits and vegetables are most nutritious and taste best when they’re picked at the peak of freshness, and they start losing nutrients around 24 hours after being picked. It can take a week for these tomatoes just to arrive in Wyoming, then several days more before they’re purchased from the store. So those tomatoes have to be picked when they’re green and hard – well before they’re ready and well before they’re able to mature into their most nutritious state. 

Grocery stores’ practices are designed to preserve produce as long as possible 

Retailers have varying standards for maintaining and selling produce. Big box retailers are working with thousands of items of inventory and dozens of employees. The longer they’re able to keep fruits and vegetables from rotting, the longer they’re able to sell them. Preserving a plant in a form that would be attractive to customers is a much higher priority than maintaining nutritional integrity. It’s common practice for grocers to use wax that will make apples gleam and make cucumbers last days longer than their natural shelf life. 

The care and storage of produce is a complicated process, so education is an important component, especially when you’re managing dozens of different fruits and vegetables in one store. Zucchini, for example, has a high respiration rate, so if it’s not given adequate ventilation in the right temperature, it will respirate and mold faster. But large numbers of employees and high turnover rates make it impossible for large retailers to adequately educate their staff on all the intricacies of giving that zucchini all the love and care it deserves.

There are more nutritious options available

Plants are a lot like people. To be at their best, they need adequate nutrition, rest and attention. Industrial agriculture provides massive amounts of food to massive amounts of people, which is critical for society. As essential as this is, it does come at the expense of nutritional value. Fortunately, there are alternatives.

Healthy soil results in healthy fruits and vegetables

At Lloyd Craft Farms in Worland, nutrition is the priority. It’s Terri and Lloyd Craft’s mission to provide the kind of food they want to serve their family. “People are amazed at how much better fresh produce tastes. It’s a combination of mineral-rich soil, the weather and how quickly we’re able to get it to people. We’ve been doing this for 11 years, so we’ve spent that time building the soil back up,” Terri said. 

They spent their few first years in business harvesting their land. Robust, diverse crops, an off-season to replenish, and constant care have resulted in soil crawling with worms, which is the kind of soil healthy enough to naturally fight pests and disease without chemicals. It’s the kind of soil that isn’t possible to cultivate on a large scale. 

The less distance produce travels, the better

Wyoming weather may not seem conducive to growing flavorful, nutrient-dense produce, but according to Terri, the dry conditions are actually ideal. Although the growing season is shorter here, the desert climate of the Big Horn Basin mean she doesn’t have to worry about mold or fungus. Mild summer temperatures afford her cool mornings to harvest her crops and immediately refrigerate them. They’re boxed that afternoon, returned to the cooler for overnight storage, then delivered across the state in a refrigeration truck, which Terri says is key for maintaining nutrients. 

“Plants are living things. When vegetables and fruits are removed from the mother plant, they stop growing and they stop producing nutrients,” Terri said. Local farmers keep fruits and vegetables on the mother plant until they’re ready to be picked, because it doesn’t take a week to get it to the store. Additionally, Wyoming producers know the best ways to distribute across Wyoming, so they better control variants like air, light and temperature. So those tomatoes that were imported from California and Florida picked when they’re green and hard could come from a Wyoming grower, and picked when they were deliciously red and soft, and at their most nutritious.

Local farmers partner with smaller retailers 

While delivery is technically the end of Terri’s portion of the supply chain, she won’t drop her produce off just anywhere. “Having people on the other end who are as passionate and knowledgeable as you are is so important. They need to baby the plants like you do,” she said. She works with retailers who are educated on nuances like the high respiration rates of zucchini, because she believes that her plants, and the people who eat them, deserve better.

How can I eat more nutritionally?

So if accessing the freshest, most nutritious produce is a priority in your family, there are a few things you can do:

  • Eat produce in season
  • Buy food that was grown close to you
  • Purchase from smaller farmers

In other words, eat locally. #EatWyoming

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Food Medicine: 5 Autumn Healers

Food Medicine: Apple, Beet, Carrot, Garlic, Pumpkin

Mother Earth gifts us every autumn with produce to heal seasonal illnesses and balance us with our natural environments.

Mother Earth News | November 5, 2020 | By Amanda Nicklaus

Now that we are post-autumnal equinox, mid-October, between a Harvest and Blue Moon, it is easy to notice the way the Earth is changing. The temperature has dropped, the leaves are dressing the trees in oranges and reds, the sky is becoming more overcast. A change of seasons makes it easier for us to have more heightened awareness than usual, and after the busyness of summer  —even a slower than usual pandemic summer — autumn offers us the chance to reflect on the year and prepare for the long cold months ahead.

Winter often brings illness and negatively-associated emotions. Thankfully, Mother Earth gifts us every autumn with produce to heal seasonal illnesses and balance us with our natural environments. We’re all aware that apples and pumpkins are in season now, as well as a variety of root vegetables. The Earth gives us exactly what we need; each of these foods holds medicinal and spiritual properties that align with the cooler seasons and bring us into balance.

Here are a few offerings from the earth that can heal and balance us this autumn:

Apples

Going apple picking at an orchard is a popular autumn activity, and while baking pies is a great way to enjoy this fall fruit, there are many reasons to make them a regular part of your diet. Apples are loaded with fiber and antioxidants and are a great source of vitamin C, which boosts immunity and keeps skin healthy. Apples also contribute to bone health and are anti-inflammatory. But this popular autumn fruit does more than just help your body fight off colds; as a symbol of love, health, wisdom, and abundance, you can use apples in your autumn and moon rituals to remind you of these qualities. And since apples have a red skin, you can use them to help balance your root chakra, helping you stay grounded through the long winter.

Beets

People either love beets or have never had them cooked right, and there are plenty of reasons to cook them until you love them. Beets have a variety of nutrients, such as fiber, iron, manganese, and vitamins B2, A, K, and C. They regulate blood flow, which is important when it starts to get cold and we lean toward a more sedentary lifestyle. Beets keep the heart and liver healthy, and they also aid digestion. The strong earthy taste of beets is a reminder that this root vegetable offers grounding qualities, and understandably, are another great food for balancing your root chakra. These deep red veggies also have a long history of being associated with passion, love, and beauty, so when the autumn and winter months begin to feel dreary, cook up a batch of beets to heighten your awareness of these necessary characteristics.

Carrots

Everybody has heard that carrots are good for your eyes, but this autumn root vegetable has much more to offer than good vision. Carrots are chock-full of vitamins A, K, B6, and C, which contribute to skin and brain health; they also contain potassium, fiber, and biotin. Carrots historically have been used to promote healthy pregnancies and ease cramps, which is hardly surprising. Orange foods balance the sacral chakra, which regulates creative and sexual flow, so if winter leaves you feeling empty and uninspired, add this vegetable into your diet!

Garlic

When you sense a cold and flu coming on, you might not think to reach for garlic, but there are plenty of reasons why you should! Garlic is used in both eastern and western medicine to prevent infection and influenza. Another vegetable containing Vitamin C and manganese, it is useful for detoxification and anti-inflammatory purposes. Maybe this is why garlic has developed a reputation for being used for protection, purification, and even exorcism. Keep lots of garlic around your home this autumn and winter (and not just for its healing properties; it also makes everything taste better!).

Pumpkins

We know we can carve pumpkins and bake them into pies, but what is lesser known is that this popular autumn food, like its orange carrot friends, is great for skin and eye health. Pumpkins contain vitamins A, B, C, and E, copper, potassium, fiber, and antioxidants. There are plenty of healthy savory ways to cook pumpkins—soups, curries, even pizzas—so don’t feel limited to pumpkin sweets, whose sugar content can weaken your immune system.

And this orange food is good for (you guessed it!) balancing your sacral chakra. Pumpkins symbolize abundance, generosity, home, and creativity, so decorating with them and increasing the intake of them in your diet does more than make it feel like fall; these autumn fruits can increase your sense of gratitude, which is key for maintaining mental and spiritual health, especially in autumn, when nature begins to minimalize its liveliness.

Winter has many beautiful aspects, but often these get lost in the negative qualities and the slow quality of time. To survive winter, we must be grounded, connected with our surroundings, aware of the very elements we endure. It makes sense, then, that we must eat more vegetables that grow directly in the ground, or ripen on the ground, foods that are red and orange, aligning with the chakras that keep our sense of groundedness and adaptability balanced. And it should come as no surprise that these vegetables and fruits contain the very nutrients we need to fight off winter illnesses and keep cold weather ailments, like dry skin, at bay.

There is no one way to maintain physical and spiritual health; each of us must tend to our own personal bodies, minds, and souls. Using foods that heal in universally similar ways, we can guide ourselves through the difficult, beautiful seasons. Mother Earth has given us all we need; it is up to us to receive and use what we have to heal ourselves and each other.

Amanda Nicklaus is a writer and aspiring urban homesteader based in Minneapolis. She spends her free time trying new recipes, going to farmers markets, and writing about everything she learns. Read all of Amanda’s MOTHER EARTH NEWS posts here.

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