Food Blog Dot Com

FoodBlogDotCom

Food Blog Dot Com is written
by Lin Ennis, a writer passionate
about good food, healthful
food and food as medicine.

( Food Lovers Only )

Fruit

HOW TO PEEL A BANANA

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When serving my 12-year old nephew and his playmate bananas with their lunch sandwiches, I asked the boys, “Who’s smarter – you or a monkey?” Monkeys peel bananas from the blossom end, not the stem end. Pinch the little brown tip between your thumb and forefinger, and peel back the skin toward the stem end. The boys tried it, and this is what they found: 1) Bananas are easier to open from the bottom. 2) They don’t require a slit to start peeling without crushing the fruit, and best of all… 3) The strings come off with the peel rather than being stuck to the banana, requiring an extra step to avoid eating that bitter part. I wanted to show a picture of a cute chimp grinning (like a banana) while eating a banana, but this photograph by Spatz of how bananas grow on the tree is so beautiful, I chose to share this with you rather than a stereotypical picture. WASH FRUIT BEFORE PEELING Wash bananas before peeling them! Why? Because your bare hands are going to transfer pesticides and bacteria from the skin to the fruit when you take the fruit in the same hands that just picked up the banana and peeled it. Even if you buy organic bananas that are pesticide free, banana slugs, banana spiders, the human hands that cut and packed the bananas, and the human hands that unpacked and shelved the bananas have been all over them. Need I remind you bananas do not grow in countries with the highest level of public health and hygiene awareness? There are no “Wash your hands after using the bathroom and before returning to work” signs in banana plantations. I forgot to mention banana rats. Dr. Katz, who writes for O magazine, says all fruits should be washed under running cold water. Special food washing detergents are unnecessary. On thick and rough-skinned fruit, like oranges, he says “Use a Brush,” and make sure you run that brush through the dishwasher regularly. OK, that’s a new one on me. I rinse off grapefruit, oranges and avocados before cutting or peeling them, but I didn’t think about getting into the dimples with a brush. Yikes! That’s more work. But you’ll remember it this way: whatever has touched the skin part that you’re about to remove and throw away will be transferred by your own hands to the naked fruit you’re about to touch with those same hands as you prepare and eat it. Picture the sanitary and health conditions of all the people who may have touched that fruit–wash that off! Of course, monkeys don’t wash their bananas, but they eat lice picked out of each other’s fur, too! Photo used by permission of the photographer Spatz through WikiCommons

LOW-CARB STUFFED PEPPERS

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Vegetarian stuffed peppers are often stuffed with rice, and I’ve made them that way many times. However, I’ve switched to using MorningStar Farms (MSF) Burger Crumbles – a low-fat, pre-cooked substitute for ground beef. To bind the meatloaf-style mixture together, you can use egg or cheese. Egg makes it taste more like meat, but only slightly so because the seasonings are the real kicker in this comforting dish. I use grated mozzarella cheese as a binder, and it works well with a low-fat version (white cheeses are generally lower fat than are yellow cheeses). We buy grated Mozzarella in a large bag and keep all or most of it in the freezer. (You can keep a small amount in a baggie in the fridge, but air in the bag and warmer temps can make it spoil if you leave it in the fridge too long.) We used to use a blend of yellow and white cheese, but including cheddar within the mixture increases calories per serving. Our favorite recipe is very flexible both in quantity and ingredients. While many people lean toward Italian seasonings, we prefer Mexican. STUFFED PEPPER RECIPE about 30 min. prep, from start to cleanup Also you’ll need: Mix ingredients (just the top set of bullets, please) together in a large bowl. You don’t have to put tomatoes in the mixture, since they will be poured over top, but putting a can in the mixture lowers the calorie count per serving (cut large pieces). The crumbles and cheese can be mixed in frozen; just break apart lumps with a fork or a hammer. Spray the baking dish lightly with non-stick spray. Cut the stemmed tops off the peppers to stuff them whole, putting their caps back on (or not)…OR…halve the peppers. We usually halve them lengthwise, so one pepper makes two servings–and they bake faster. Also, if you halve them lengthwise, you don’t have to buy peppers with flat bottoms to stand on! Stuff the peppers by pressing the mixture into each pepper tightly and fit them like puzzle pieces into the dish. I usually start the stuffing with a spoon, but as the crevices fill, I finish off my pressing by hand. The reason measurements don’t have to be precise depending upon how many peppers you’re stuffing is that you fill the peppers based upon how much mixture you have – either mounding it up high or just filling! (Extra mixture can be frozen for next time.) Pour a can of S&W Mexican Style Stewed Tomatoes over top, making sure the liquid covers the bottom of the dish. Tear off a l-o-n-g sheet of aluminum foil (half again the length of your dish). Form it into a tent so that it does not touch the food. Crimp it to the handles on the dish. (Tomatoes will ‘eat’ aluminum foil; then you’ll ‘eat’ the aluminum in your food. Tremendously dangerous.) Bake at 350 for 90-120 minutes. At our altitude, 4300 ft. above sea level, we bake for at least two hours. This dish is best baked a longer time at a lower temperature, than rushed by turning the oven up. (Even 300 degrees is nice.) If you need to shorten the baking time, parboil the peppers. You can do that in the microwave by placing them in a covered dish (don’t use plastic) with just the water remaining on them after you’ve rinsed them inside and out. Nuke on high for 90 second to 2 minutes. The peppers should show slight softening. Test doneness of the completed casserole by piercing a pepper wall with a fork. We like ours completely soft, but you may prefer more crunch. For a great finish, just before serving, remove the foil and sprinkle a bit of grated cheddar cheese on top. Return to the oven to melt (or brown, if you prefer) the cheese. This is one of our favorite dishes to serve non-vegetarians. They never ask what it’s made of; though, most know I’m a vegetarian. My mother-in-law always asked prior to visiting us if they could expect to have some of my famous stuffed peppers. We sometimes fix a side salad to go with it, but when it’s just us, we may not. I love peas along side. What’s great about this dish: 1. It’s delicious 2.It’s nourishing comfort food 3. It’s high-protein, low carbohydrate 4. It keeps well in the fridge, tastes good as leftovers and can be frozen 5. It’s all about “assembling,” not “cooking” 6. You can put this together at 4:00, and have a steaming, savory dinner almost by magic at 6:00 or 6:30 (depending upon altitude) 7. Can be baked and reheated! Yay!

RED PEPPERS VS. TOMATOES

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Bell peppers have been on sale lately. When any color but green is 99¢ or less, I buy them. Red peppers are more expensive than green ones because they’re, well, not green! Green peppers are red peppers that aren’t ripe yet. (I can think of very few foods we intentionally eat in a not-yet-ripe state!) Suddenly the refrigerator has bags of peppers–red, yellow, and orange–tucked everywhere. As I understand it, yellow and orange peppers are cultivars. (Bell peppers can also be white or purple!) I’ve grown bell peppers, and seen them turn from green to red. The redder (riper) they are, the sweeter they are, especially when ripened on the plant. I roasted half a dozen reds, peeled and jarred them. (I just discovered a bag of yellow and orange awaiting roasting!) This has inspired me to find new uses for roasted peppers. Of course, they’re delicious on sandwiches, but what about salads? Tomatoes are so prosaic! Here’s a loose comparison of the nutrition of red peppers compared to tomatoes. I say ‘loose,’ because I’m using Internet results for raw peppers and raw tomatoes, without verifying the variety. I found roasted pepper information, but I didn’t know whether the canned/jarred varieties contained additives, such as oils. My home-roasted peppers don’t. Raw Food Cal Fiber Vit A Vit C Pot Lyc 1 c chopped tomatoes 32 2 1499 IU 23 mg 427 mg 4631 1 c chopped red peppers 46 3 4666 IU 190 mg 314 mg 459 Though I added a column for the recently popular Lycopene (appearing in ketchup ads everywhere!), I think the numbers above cannot be correct. Lycopene is red (in all red or pink foods, even grapefruit). The redder the food, the more lycopene it has. Thus, roasted red peppers have more lycopene than raw peppers, and more than raw tomatoes. In addition, lycopene is more bioavailable when cooked, so tomato sauce trumps raw tomatoes for this nutrient (though not for vitamin C–again, we’re back to variety, variety, variety). If you have nutritional information on roasted red peppers, please post it below, especially if you know about its lycopene. Meanwhile, sprinkle some diced roasted red peppers on your salad tonight and enjoy. (Add pine nuts and you’ll think you’re in heaven!)

CARA CARA MI AMOR

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I’ve fallen in love with a new food. Just this winter did I run a taste test on apple varieties to decide which I like best. I’d never thought to run such a test on navel oranges. I mean, they’re navel oranges, aren’t they? Then I cut one open that was more red than a pink grapefruit (Texas pink grapefruit are the best…I like Florida for oranges). I thought about blood oranges, which have become fashionable in high-end restaurants for glazes, etc. This orange was the sweetest, tastiest I recalled ever eating. The white pulp was tender and filling (citrus white linings are supposed to help reduce cravings when you’re quitting smoking). The checkout code said “Cara Cara.” The next morning I cut open my second Cara Cara. It was as salmon-colored and sweet as the first. I went from a person who knew navel oranges came in different sizes, but not different varieties, to being totally enamored with this variety. I don’t know where I got them, but I’m sure they were on sale, because that’s how I buy oranges. I asked the produce manager at Basha’s if they had Cara Caras. He said they come in in April. Every website I’ve seen talking about them say the middle of winter–December and January. I recommend you look for them everytime you go to the store. When you find them, make note of the season. I’ve read they are not good if purchased at the end of the season (last summer’s peaches all rotted from the inside out after the first picking–I quit buying them after doing some Internet research on the cause of the blight). When you find Cara Caras, please let us know when and where. And tell us, are they a new love for you?