NaNa camp part 5 eating a little more than sugar Mediterranean diet for kids

Nana camp

As much as I love to bake - and eat we need to switch gears from sugar to a little better nutrition so 

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

This recipe is from Ina Garten.

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:

Warm mushroom salad

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.

Two favorite salads

Happy New Year!!! Time to think about nutritious and low calorie salads:  Here are two of my favorites:
Purple cabbage slaw:

purple cabbage slaw

This is perfect for adding to a yummy taco or a stand alone salad.  One of these great salads that doesn't wilt the next day.  Choose purple cabbage over green, red bell peppers over green.....yellow or orange would be good too. Choose red onion over white.  The more colorful the vegetable the more antioxidants they provide.  Purple=anthocyanin and resveratrol.  The red bell pepper=beta carotene!!! Even the cilantro has quercetin.

Here's the recipe:

purple cabbage - 1/2 head- sliced thin - by hand is better than by a food processor

red bell pepper, seeded and sliced thin

red onion, about 1/4 or two slices, then chopped

cilantro, 5-6 sprigs chopped fine

your favorite vinaigrette*  here's mine:

                                           1/3 cup lemon juice

                                           2/3 cup good olive oil

                                           2 cloves garlic minced

                                           1 tsp Dijon mustard

Toss the vegetables with the dressing lightly. You can always add more later

mise en place

Salad #2  Carrot salad - sometimes I just call this my orange salad because of the color.

The only dressing is the citrus juice flavored by fresh ginger.  Absolutely no fat or salt in this recipe.  January is a great month for California citrus: oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, blood and cara cara oranges, kumquats.  Use any of these that you have or like.  The grocery stores have a great selection.  Or if you're lucky enough to live in California you can go outside and pick your own.   SOOOOO jealous right now. (It's 17 degrees outside in Denver)

If everything is perfect I choose rainbow carrots, tangerine juice, fresh blood and cara cara orange segments, fresh ginger,  dried blueberries and crystallized ginger.

Antioxidants: anthocyanin, beta carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, gingerol, lycopene!!!

carrot salad

mise en place

try adding dried apricots ( another orange ingredient) or Trader Joe's dried mandarins

orange segments, crystallized ginger pieces and dried berries

Segments of one blood orange and one cara cara orange, about 4 pieces of crystallized ginger cut bite size and a small handful of dried berries

Here's the recipe:

The only essentials are carrots, citrus juice and ginger

rainbow carrots - pound grated...use your food processor

oranges- 2 segmented ( tangerine, blood orange or cara cara) 

orange juice - 1/2 cup
fresh ginger, about 1 inch grated on a fine rasp or grater

crystallized ginger- 4-5 pieces, cut bite size

dried berries - 1/2 cup 

Toss all together...add more juice if too dry.  The juice helps to reconstitute the dried fruit.

This salad will keep about a week

carrot salad serving

I made both of these salads today.  They will last me all week both lunch and dinner.

Tonight I'll add the slaw to my short rib tacos

I'm sure I'll be healthier by the end of the day!!!