veggie of the week: Spinach

In the Raw

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Spinach is my favorite leafy green thing. This is probably because it was the only leafy green thing I could manage to down in large quantities (besides romaine) when my friends suddenly started ordering salads instead of burgers in high school. Suddenly, veggies weren't annoying things your parents pushed at you, they were sophisticated. Who knew?

Depsite my rough start, I taught myself to love spinach, and soon many salad staples in general.

My favorite easy-to-make salad is as follows:

• Spinach
• Dried cranberries
• Walnuts
• Raspberry vinaigrette (like Annie's)
• (Apple chunks sometimes)

There are all kinds of variations you can do on this basic recipe, like the above picture with strawberries and slivered almonds. And of course, spinach doesn't have to be confined to salads - making other stuff with it is pretty awesome too.

Spinach Lasagna

Spinach Pesto

Baked Eggs with Spinach

Spinach Banana Smoothie

Reasons to love spinach:

• It is high in dietary fiber, protein, vitamins A, B6, C, E, and K, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and a whole lot more. AKA a definite super food.
• It is 7 calories for one cup raw (natural, whole, QUALITY calories)!
• It is anti-inflammatory (kind to your stomach).
• It is linked to cancer prevention (surprise)!
• It is really yummy!

And remember to pick it up organic, as spinach is one of the infamous dirty dozen otherwise.

Happy eating!

veggie of the week: Broccoli

Broccoli is one of the few vegetables I would eat as a kid. Ridiculously healthy, and easy to prepare. Most people will tell you to avoid boiling it at all costs, for two reasons: 1) Broccoli falls apart/gets overcooked easily and 2) it is especially prone to leaching out all its vitamins into the water, if left for too long. 

So for the most part, steaming or sauteing is best, but last night I threw some broccoli and mushrooms in with a boiling pot of water and quinoa and it cooked up just fine. I think the trick is to only leave them in for a few minutes and make something that uses all the water in the pan (like soup, or quinoa, which soaks up the water it is cooked with). That way, if vitamins are leaching out, you're still eating them anyway!

Topped it off with pesto, and I had a unique little healthy dinner!

Broccoli is high in fiber, vitamins A, C, K, B6, folate, potassium, manganese, protein and a slew of other nutrients. As if that's not enough, research is also linking it with cancer prevention, along with having detoxing and anti-inflammatory benefits. All in all, a pretty awesome veggie.

[Indie moment: I liked nutritiondata.com before it was bought out by SELF and had all the pretty pictures. It's still a pretty awesome resource though. I guess.]

More pretty pictures of broccoli!

Lovely recipes associated with above pictures here, here, here, and here. 

Photo Credits: kalynskitchen.com, (me), onceuponacuttingboard.com, angryasiancreations.com, lapetitegigi.blogspot.com