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The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating

Captain's Log, Stardate 01.12.2009

Just read this great article on the New York Times online:

The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating

Go ahead and read it, it’s not long. I’ll wait here until you come back.

I have to say, I’m very heartened by some of the foods on the list. I already eat some of them, although some I don’t like.

For instance, I really don’t care for beets. I mean, really. They’re up there with turnips for me. Just not tasty.

Cabbage and Swiss chard, on the other hand, I eat a lot thanks to the organic co-op we belong to. Our weekly veggie baskets usually have one or the other or both almost the entire year.

Cabbage I love to chop thinly and stir into soups. It adds body to the soup and the cooking gets rid of the more harsh odor of the raw deal.

As a kid, we had them mixed with mayo and a little soy sauce in an Asian-style slaw, but I didn’t care for it too much. (I know it sounds weird, but I grew up with stuff like that.)

Swiss chard is great for those sauté pasta sauces. I chop and stir fry the entire bundle of stalks with garlic and some type of meat like chicken or shrimp and then add maybe marsala wine and a little tomato paste, or red wine, or balsamic vinegar, or just parmesan cheese. Then I toss the pasta with the sauce and I have a low-fat, veggie-rich pasta.

This year, I also discovered I like fresh pumpkin when I started cooking with it versus just eating it in desserts. I made pumpkin soup with Gruyere cheese (Williams-Sonoma cookbook) and that was fantastic, besides being rich in fiber. The key to a good pumpkin soup was in using homemade chicken stock, which was super easy/fast with chicken bones and a pressure cooker I bought on Amazon.com.

Plus pumpkin is so cheap and roasting is way easy, and I just froze the roasted flesh until I wanted to make soup again or maybe use it in a dessert.

Blueberries I like, but they’re a bit expensive, so I don’t eat them much.

How about you? What did you think of the article?
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Comments

  1. AnonymousMon Jan 12, 07:24:00 AM 2009

    Oh goodness. I don't eat barely any of those on the list. Am I gonna go to food hell? **smile** I'm terrible at eating a well rounded diet. Grrrr. I need to get better at that.

    So, where do the two HUGE pieces of chocolate birthday cake fit in?? YIKES

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMon Jan 12, 08:01:00 AM 2009

    Oh wow, my family and I eat pumpkin all the time, seeds and the flesh. But it's not canned, we do it fresh, and I freeze what we don't get to right away.

    Problem for me is some of the foods suggested I can't eat due to my thyroid. Cabbage and swiss chard, supposedly reduce thyroid production and now that I'm only down to half of one, can't make it work harder than it already is. Tho I'm very fond of American cole slaw!

    I'll pass on the beets and sardines, blech!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Crystal LaineMon Jan 12, 06:18:00 PM 2009

    Ok, Camy, I'm with you on beets. They taste like red dirt to me. And if you eat them, well, you might think you are bleeding to death. Sheesh. My mother-in-law, 91 years old, loves them. 'Nuff said?

    And sardines--eee. No thank you.

    But all the rest, I like and probably eat when I can. It's hard to find pumpkin seeds here at certain times of the year. I love cabbage in many forms. Love summer slaw, in soups, as a wrap for meatballs, etc. Oh, yeah!

    I buy blueberries frozen and throw them into cereal, salads or yogurt.

    Anyway, more food. Wow.

    Is there a club we can join on Facebook called Women Against Beets?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Camy TangMon Jan 12, 06:46:00 PM 2009

    Lynn, chocolate cake is its own food group, don't you know that? ;)

    Winnie, I totally didn't know that about cabbage and chard!

    Crystal, my beet-hating fellow goddess, that's why we're friends, babe!

    Camy

    ReplyDelete
  5. ReihaishaMon Jan 12, 08:03:00 PM 2009

    I love beets (beets and red onion salad)- especially when I need the iron boost.

    My diverticulitis keeps me away from pumpkin seeds.


    I love cabbage but it makes me toot if I eat too much. Napa is great in when wilted at the last minutes in stir fries.


    Pomegranites - they are a fave and I try to get the juice once a month - it's pricey and never seems to be on sale. I found a pomegranite cereal that is filled with fiber and it is not bad.

    Sardines - the canned ones are okay but when i really crave them I get them fresh at the asian market and grill them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Camy TangMon Jan 12, 08:05:00 PM 2009

    Reihaisha, do you know I've never had fresh sardines? I'll have to try that sometime!
    Camy

    ReplyDelete
  7. MindyWed Jan 14, 02:32:00 PM 2009

    I am not sure about all those different veggies, I tend to only eat what I like. I am not much for trying new things, but Chocolate cake I can do. Any tips on some good ways to use butternut squash?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Camy TangWed Jan 14, 02:36:00 PM 2009

    Mindy, this past year, trying new veggies actually lowered my cholesterol about 10 points (no weight loss, just changing diet), so I'm all for trying new things and having more veggie variety.

    For butternut squash, I like to roast it with a little butter and brown sugar.

    Camy

    ReplyDelete

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