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| Nana camp |
we have switched to salads.
We all learned about the food pyramid in elementary school and once in a while revisit it for some reason. There have been some changes in the last 60 years and I think the best lifestyle diet is the mediterranean diet - for kids....well a few more servings of grains and no wine.
And we settled in on tracking the food we eat each day and placing the foods in their proper food category. Next we decided to focus on salads since summer is now here and salads are yummy and don't generally require to start the oven and heat up the house.
First salad:
one of my favorites: Carrot salad with orange juice, fruit and ginger.
carrot salad, mis en place
Ingredients:
carrots, about 1 pound
fresh ginger, about an inch
2 oranges and 1/2 cup orange juice, maybe just 3 oranges
dried fruit
dried crystallized ginger
cranberries
blueberries
apricots
mango
Method:
Wash and grate carrots in a food processor, place in large bowl
Grate ginger with a fine grater or rasp and add to carrots
Peel and segment or supreme 2 oranges squeezing what juice may remain
Zest and squeeze 3rd orange to juice - this will be your dressing, add the orange zest to the bowl
Choose whatever dried fruit you have. about 1/2 cup and add to salad.
Stir well tossing the juice with the carrots and fruits.
carrot salad ready to eat
I have posted this salad before on my blog. It's a goody
OK Let's review our food pyramid: One serving vegetables. One serving fruit. Nutritional boosts: antioxidants: beta carotene, anthocyanins ( if you are using purple carrots and/or dried blueberries), and vitamin C.
The girls did great on this salad. They served it with dinner and the leftovers were eaten the next day for lunch.
Mediteranean diet pyramid
Next salad:
Caprese salad with orzo
Caprese salad mis en place
Ingredients:
delicious Tomatoes
Fresh basil
Cucumber
Mozzarella cheese
Orzo pasta - 1 cup before cooking
Pine nuts- toasted - optional
Olives - optional
Olive oil. a good one
Balsamic vinegar, regular or white
Method:
Cook orzo stovetop - 11 minutes. Drain and toss with a little of the olive oil to keep pasta from sticking
Cut up tomatoes. Cut cherry tomatoes in half. Cut slicing tomatoes into 1/2-1" pieces.
Chiffonade about 6-8 large basil leaves
Cut cucumber to similar size of tomatoes
Cut Mozzarella cheese the same size....bite size
Toast pine nuts....about a half cup. This is optional but very tasty. Set aside.
Cut seeded olives of your choice in half.
Toss the ingredients (all but orzo and pine nuts) together in a large bowl with olive oil.
When the pasta is cool add to the salad and toss with a little more olive oil
Chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.
Do not add the pine nuts until it's time to eat the salad or they will get soggy.
You can add the balsamic vinegar if you are using white but if you are using traditional dark balsamic wait until you are ready to serve and add only to what you are going to eat that sitting otherwise the salad will just get too dark and not be yummy
This salad will last up to a week in the fridge and not get soggy. Just keep the vinegar and pine nuts handy to add when you're ready to eat it.
Let's review: Tomatoes- fruit, vitamins A, cucumber- vegetable, Mozzarella cheese - dairy protein, orzo - grain, basil-leafy green- vitamin A, pine nuts- nut protein.
This salad was delicious.
What's next?
Reina wanted to make a beet salad. She loves beets but wanted a different recipe from the one her family usually has:
Balsamic roasted beet salad with goat cheese, almonds
Ingredients:
8 medium size red beets ( anthocyanin antioxidant for red beets, beta carotene for orange beets)
baby arugula 4 oz - my picture has baby greens which is what I had on hand
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
salt, pepper
1/3 cup roasted and salted Marcona almonds
4 oz soft goat cheese, crumbled
Method:
Wrap beets in aluminum foil and roast at 400 degrees for 1 hour- remove from oven, open foil to vent and let cool for at least 10 minutes. Peel over parchment paper to contain mess
While beets are roasting make dressing:
Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, mustard, 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Set aside
While beets are warm but not too hot to handle cut into wedges or slices.
Toss warm beets in half of the salad dressing. Ina tells us warm beets will absorb the dressing giving them more flavor. Save the rest of the dressing for when serving
Toss the rest of the dressing with the arugula.
Arrange arugula on serving dish or plate
Add diced or sliced beets on top of arugula
Sprinkle almonds and goat cheese on top.
notes: Trader Joe's has a blueberry crusted goat cheese that is perfect for this salad. They also carry a type of almond called Guara. I used these.....so close to Marcona and really delicious:
OK Let's review:
beets- vegetable- lots of vitamins and antioxidants, arugula- vegetable-leafy green- vitamin A, almonds-nut protein, goat cheese- dairy protein - with blueberries- a little fruit with lots of anthocyanin. This salad was delicious. It, too will last a week in the fridge. I'd hold off on adding the nuts and cheese until ready to eat.
Salad #4 Warm mushroom salad
Gabriela's choice.......She loves mushrooms so I found another Ina Garden recipe that I thought the girls and their parents would love:
This is delicious. Here's my version of the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 pound Cremini mushrooms
2 Tbs butter
4 Tbs good olive oil...2 and 2
Arugula-
Prosciutto 8 slices
Cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 Tbs Sherry wine vinegar- yes it needs to be Sherry
Parmasean cheese
Method:
Clean the mushrooms by brushing the tops with a clean sponge. Don't wash them! Remove and discard the stems and slice the caps 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. In a large saute pan, heat the butter and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil until bubbly. Add the mushrooms, salt, and pepper to the pan, and saute for 3 minutes over medium heat, tossing frequently. Reduce the heat to low and saute for another 2 to 3 minutes, until cooked through.
Meanwhile, arrange the arugula on plates and cover each portion with 2 slices of prosciutto. I cut mine in half lengthwise. When the mushrooms are cooked, add the sherry vinegar and the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the hot pan. Spoon the mushrooms and sauce on top of the prosciutto. With a vegetable peeler, make large shavings of Parmesan cheese and place on top of the hot mushrooms. Place cherry tomatoes around the plate at the bottom of the salad. serve warm.
We made this salad during our usual hours of 2-4. The girls were going to serve this for dinner so they waited to add the mushrooms right before serving. I'm the teacher. I had to show them how to finish this salad. I couldn't stop eating this salad. So I had my dinner at 4pm. Otherwise there would have been no mushrooms or prosciutto left.
OK Let's review:
Mushrooms- vegetable with folic acid, tomatoes- fruit with vitamin A, arugula- vegetable- leafy green -vitamin A, prosciutto- meat protein, Parmesan cheese-dairy protein
For the whole month of salads and Mediterranean diet lessons we did not use sugar once.....much to Gabriela's sadness. There is only a tiny little portion of the pyramid for sweets and red meat.
The objective of all of these salads was taste, nutrition, able to be made alone by these girls and in the time we have for Nana camp. (1 1/2 - 2 hours) I am so proud of Reina and Gabriela for being such good students and helping their family with dinner preparation.
