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September 1, 2011
September is the month to slow down
Thank you for asking for reprints of some newsletters from “years gone by.” I am pleased to post one for you on the first of each month
“Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice”
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
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.
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,
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