Carefree Gourmet

Fresh Kale Sprinkled with Roasted Pine Nuts and Dried Cranberries

You’ve read the labels, you checked in with granny, you’ve hit the farmers market (what are all those strange veggies?). What is the best real food to eat? I have been researching this quite a bit this last year and everything I read and hear turns me toward plants. Vegetables, Fruits, Leaves, Seeds. In all the diet information out there, the one area of consensus is that a plant-based diet is beneficial. The bottom line recommendation is Eat More Plants! We have all heard the term “antioxidant” until we are blue in the face! Plants are full of antioxidants and the more kinds of them you consume, the more types of toxins your body can disarm!

Pollen found that in countries where people consume a pound or more of fruits and vegetables a DAY, the rate of cancer is HALF what it is in the United States.… Wow! What else do you need to know? What a statistic! Focusing on a plant-based diet will result in consuming fewer calories too! Some of us, me included, need to lose a few inches that have snuck up on us over the past couple of years… One thing to be aware of us that seeds/nuts also part of the plant, are high in energy and that equates to calories. They are still really good for you, you simply have to eat them in moderation!

But, but, but, what about meat? Well, we don’t really need it… but, tomorrow we will discuss better options for consuming meats than picking up a steak at your local supermarket.

Here is a fast and easy recipe featuring kale, a great real food, from Elana’s Pantry a website that features gluten-free recipes. Elana and her son both suffer from celiac disease and can’t eat gluten.

Kale with Cranberries
2 bunches kale
¼ cup pine nuts
¼ cup dried cranberries
3 tablespoons olive oil

1. Steam the kale until it is bright green
2. Meanwhile, in a cast iron skillet, toast the pine nuts
3. Allow kale and pine nuts five minutes to cool, then toss together in a large bowl
4. Add dried cranberries and olive oil
5. Toss and serve

Serves 8

Grandma Making Real Bread

Yesterday, we covered eating only foods your grandmother and/or great-grandmother would recognize. And I subtly suggested that you take a journey through your kitchen and see what you would find…. Likely a great deal your granny wouldn’t recognize. But that’s OK! Eat it up and simply don’t replace it! Or dump it! Whatever sits best with you! (I did a little of both, dumped some odd looking things that had been in the pantry for years and decided other things I would simply eat up and not purchase again).

Here is the second key concept when searching for real food…. if it won’t rot… don’t eat it! Why? Everyone has heard the story of the fast food burger left out for weeks or months or years and it still looked the same. I don’t know if this story is really true, but it certainly is a great illustration of why you want to eat fresh foods and those without all the preservatives! Besides not knowing how old something is, preservatives and additives lie to your body. Since our body was not meant to digest them, we are unprepared to use our senses (like smell or even sight) to know if the foodlike substance is any good (for us, it might still taste ok… ewh! Food science has created foodlike products that appeal to our preferences for sweetness, fat and salt. These attributes are hard to find in natural foods, but way to easy and cheap in the processed food world. And for whatever reason, we aren’t satisfied after eating these foodlike substances… and we eat more.

So the lesson for the day is: if the food you are looking to eat never spoils… Don’t eat it!