Welcome to the September issue
of “Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice.” Here you
will find information you can use on a timely topic,
healthy eating, recipes and more! I welcome your
feedback and questions. Please send them to
Janet@nourishyourlife.com Thank you!
September is
the month to slow down.
Summer
vacations are over, kids are back in school, work has
returned to its normal pace. Slow down? How and why???
Seems like September is the month to be busier than
ever!! Perhaps it is…but let’s take a new approach to
September; at least a new approach to our family and the
family dinner table.
Have you heard
of the Slow Food Movement? The Slow Food Movement was
founded in 1986. It is an international organization
whose goal is “to protect the pleasures of the table
from the homogenization of modern fast food and life.
Through a variety of initiatives, it promotes
gastronomical culture, taste education, conserves
agricultural biodiversity, and protects traditional
foods at the risk of extinction.” (www.slowfood.com)
Sound interesting? Check out their website!
Now let’s think
about the family dinner table. How does it differ from
when you were growing up? Did you all come to the table
together, sit down to a home cooked meal and chat about
your day? That is how it was when we were growing
up…Then we became parents and life changed! Football,
dance class, after school activities…we were lucky to
even see our children at dinner time-much less sitting
at the dinner table! Now they are parents; and the
family dinner table is even less likely as our
grandchildren grow older. So often I hear from many
parents, “the family dinner table is in the back seat of
the car, with fast food wrappers rustling and voices
saying “hurry up, I have to be at …(you fill in the
blank…) Sound familiar?
Now that it is
September, and our schedules and habits are changing,
let’s try to slow down and start bringing back the
family dinner table!
My challenge for you this month is to bring the whole
family to the table, with a home cooked meal, at least
once a week in September. How to you venture into this?
Write to us at
janet@nourishyourlife.com and tell us about your
experience. We would be honored to hear about it.
Quote for
the month:
“Always
remember to slow down in life; live, breathe, and learn;
take a look around you whenever you have time and never
forget everything and every person that has the least
place within your heart.”
Unknown author
Healthy
eating in September: Let’s consider a less
familiar vegetable-Swiss Chard!
Swiss chard is
“similar to spinach and beets with a flavor that is
bitter, pungent and slightly salty, Swiss chard is truly
the vegetable valedictorian with its exceptionally
impressive list of health promoting nutrients.
Although Swiss
chard is available throughout the year, their season
runs from June through August (and often September) when
it is at its best and in the greatest abundance at your
local supermarket.
Swiss chard,
along with kale, mustard greens and collard greens, is
one of several leafy green vegetables often referred to
as "greens". It is a tall leafy green vegetable with a
thick, crunchy stalk that comes in white, red or yellow
with wide fan-like green leaves.
Chard belongs
to the same family as beets and spinach and shares a
similar taste profile: it has the bitterness of beet
greens and the slightly salty flavor of spinach leaves.
Both the leaves and stalk of chard are edible and have
been the subject of fascinating health studies.
The combination
of traditional nutrients, phytonutrients - particularly
anthocyans, plus fiber in this food seems particularly
effective in preventing digestive tract cancers. Several
research studies on chard focus specifically on colon
cancer, where the incidence of precancerous lesions in
animals has been found to be significantly reduced
following dietary intake of Swiss chard extracts or
fibers. Preliminary animal research also suggests that
Swiss chard may confer a protective effect on the
kidneys of those with diabetes through reducing serum
urea and creatinine levels.
If vegetables
got grades for traditional nutrients alone, Swiss chard
would be the vegetable valedictorian. The vitamin and
mineral profile of this leafy green vegetable contains
enough "excellents" to ensure Swiss chard's place at the
head of any vegetable Dean's List. Our rating system
awards Swiss chard with excellent marks for its
concentrations of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C,
magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron, vitamin E, and
dietary fiber. Swiss chard also emerges as a very good
source of copper, calcium, vitamin B2, vitamin B6,
protein, phosphorous, vitamin B1, zinc, folate, biotin,
niacin and pantothenic acid.”
(www.WHFoods.org)
P.S. I do not
typically quote in total from a website, but could not
improve on the info provided. Check out all of their
information at
www.WHFoods.org
My challenge
for you this month is to try Swiss chard at the
family dinner table. Ideas for a recipe? Try this one
(adapted from) from
www.epicurious.com:
Sweet potato, Swiss chard and Quinoa gratin
Serves 6
Ingredients
3 cups sweet
potatoes (about 3 sweet potatoes)
1 cup quinoa
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups coarse fresh breadcrumbs (about 4 slices)
6 cups Swiss chard, washed well and stems trimmed,
removed, and reserved
1-3 tablespoons minced garlic
Preheat oven to 450°F. and butter a 2-quart shallow
baking dish.
Directions
1. Prick each
potato with a fork 3 times and bake on a sheet in middle
of oven about 1 hour, or until very tender.
2. While potatoes are baking, in a bowl wash quinoa in
at least 5 changes cold water, rubbing grains and
letting them settle before pouring off most of water,
until water runs clear and drain in a fine sieve.
3. In a saucepan combine quinoa with 2 cups salted water
and bring to a boil. Simmer quinoa, covered, until all
liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes, and remove lid.
4. In a skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil over moderate heat
and cook bread crumbs until golden brown. Season crumbs
with salt and pepper.
5. While quinoa is cooking, finely chop reserved Swiss
chard stems and coarsely chop leaves, keeping both
separate. In a deep heavy 12-inch kettle heat remaining
1 tablespoon oil over moderate heat and cook stems until
tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in leaves, a handful at a
time, and stir in garlic, tossing. Cook leaves until
just wilted, about 4 minutes. Remove kettle from heat
and stir in quinoa until combined well. Season mixture
with salt and pepper.
6. Reduce temperature to 350°.F.
7. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and
mash with a fork. Season potatoes with salt and pepper.
8. With a large spoon drop mounds of potatoes and Swiss
chard mixture in baking dish, alternating them
decoratively to cover bottom, and smooth top. Top gratin
with bread crumbs.
9. Bake gratin in middle of oven about 30 minutes, or
until hot. Cool gratin 5 minutes before serving.
Epicurious.com © CondéNet, Inc. All rights reserved.
Nutrition
facts: 6 servings: 364 calories; 68 carbs; 8 gm pro; 7
gm fat,
