You may have heard the buzz about sugar not being that great for you. This is especially true for those already monitoring their blood sugar in response to having type 2 diabetes. Let’s be clear: sugar is not bad, but we have to moderate out intake of it. Excessive sugar in the diet has been linked with diet-related metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity/overweight, and metabolic syndrome. However, watching your sugar intake can be a little tricky these days when consuming foods that are pre-packaged. It may seem obvious that there’s a good amount of sugar in soda, candy, and ice cream right? Less obvious sources of added sugar include yogurts, frozen yogurt, iced tea, iced coffee, and breakfast cereals which are often marketed and sold under the guise of health.

This is why two things are important:

1. Reading labels
   • Check out the serving size. This is the one that gets folks all the time. Did you know a standard bottle (about 20 oz) of Pepsi is 2.5 servings? And who drinks only that amount, really? Be mindful when purchasing drinks, especially iced teas and fruit juices which can be loaded with added sugars and are often more than one serving per bottle. Similarly, if you eat breakfast cereal or snack food bought in bulk, you may want to measure what one serving really looks like.
   • Read the ingredients. If one of the first ingredients is sugar, then reconsider the purchase. Sugar can be sneaky-honey, agave nectar, dextrose, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup are all sugars.
   • Look for carbohydrates on the nutrition label.
2. Make it at home
   • You can easily make ices tea and flavored yogurt at home and packaging it as needed. This post is mostly about yogurt, as it’s such a common snack and meals for most Americans. Yet this can apply to many packaged foods and snacks (such as popcorn, salad dressing, oatmeal to name a few) that can be made at home with bulk ingredients to curb added sugars, and cut down on cost in the long run.

One primary offender of added sugars is non-fat yogurt with fruit added. One serving can have as much as 36 grams of sugar added. By buying plain, low-fat yogurt and adding a touch of sweetener (such as honey), local seasonal fruit, and some unsweetened cereal for crunch, you can re-create the yogurt cup with a fraction of the sugar and more protein and fiber.

We used in season blueberries and peaches for this recipe, but it’s completely up to your preferences and tastes. Adding chia seeds and no-sugar-added jam would be a fantastic alternative if you didn’t have fruit on hand, or for the winter. Adding a serving of walnuts or pumpkin seeds would be lovely as well!

Really, the idea is to be more mindful of what we’re eating and feeding our children. Reading labels, making what we can at home, and eating seasonally is conscious eating, and provides better food for better health.

How do you decide what to buy and how to make it? We’d love to know!

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Often, we immediately tear of the tops of vegetables like beets and carrots when we could be eating them! In fact, most vegetable tops are really good eats and are packed with vitamins and nutrients. You’re essentially doubling your purchase when you munch the tops, and who doesn’t love more money and free food?

The first step in using the tops of vegetables is making sure they’re looking happy and still full of life. Stay away from limp leaves and ones that have started to yellow. Opt for leaves and stems that look like they were just picked. If you have them still attached to the vegetable and they look limp, cut them off and pop them into a glass of cold water. This helps re-hydrate the leaves. Keeping the leaves attached to the vegetable is an excellent means of storage. Alternately, wash the tops well, dry them, wrap them in dry paper towels, and store them in a plastic bag in your crisper drawer to keep them for longer periods of time.

We’re going to primarily talk about beet and carrot greens, but vegetable such as radishes, fennel, celery root, and turnip have delectable tops that should be considered.

Beet greens are the leaves and colorful extension of the beet root itself. They have a very earthy flavor and taste very similar to spinach. Eating them raw, torn into salads or placed onto sandwiches for an extra nutritional punch is a great and easy way of getting beet greens into your diet.  Cooking the leaves is another way to go as they take on a very lovely texture and taste great. I use both eaves and the stems when cooking them, which tastes a lot like Swiss chard. I enjoy them sauteed in butter with a little salt, pepper, onion, and garlic. Simple. That’s a side dish I use for eggs in the morning, or along side some protein and lentils for dinner. The leaves are also great in soups. Adding beet greens to kale and white bean soup with sausage is an excellent way to buff up the soup as well as adding in some more great nutrition.

Good ways to use beet greens:

• Raw on sandwiches or salads
• Sautes and stir fry’s
• Cooked and added to quiches or frittatas
• Raw or cooked, ground into a pesto with oil, sunflower seeds or walnuts, and a little Parmesan cheese
• Added to smoothies
• Added to pastas, casseroles, and meatloaf

Carrot tops are another overlooked food at the market. They taste like an herby mix of carrot and parsley, with a hint of bitterness. They’re bright flavor lends them well to fresh preparation. Lots of folks make pesto with carrot tops, which is a great way to use them. Carrot top pesto goes well in soups, on pastas, an over grilled meat or cooked vegetables. The tops can be used as a salad green as well, cut with scissors or chopped into leafy green salads, or as a main ingredient mixed with beans or vegetables (see recipe below).

Good ways to use carrot tops

• Carrot top pesto with oil, sunflower seeds or walnuts, and a little Parmesan cheese
• Fresh, cut into salads
• Cut into soups
• Used as a substitute (or along with parsley) in tabbouleh

How do you use the whole vegetable? We’d love to know!

Feel free to share with us in the comments, our Facebook page, tag us in your Instagram posts, or talk to us on twitter!

 

 

Helping Solve the Bee Crisis in Your Own Backyard

Author: Christy Erickson (SavingOurBees.org)

For 100 million years, the bee has been a driving force in the spreading of nature’s beauty and bounty. It plays a vital role in pollination and the health and geographical population of many of the world’s vegetables, plants, and flowers. However, due to the use of pesticides and loss of natural habitat, the bee population went on the decline and in 1998, when it reached its lowest point in the last thirty years.

Fortunately, due to increased public awareness and activity, a devastating economic and ecological disaster is being averted and the bee population is again on the rise. Still, there is much room for improvement. As an individual hoping to make a positive impact on this issue, you must both understand the problem and know the right ways to take action.

The Importance of Bees

Pollination is the reproductive process for much of plant life. Wind-blown pollination and manmade pollination make up much of it, but animal pollination takes up a good chunk.

Bees and other pollinators are responsible for nearly 75 percent of the crops we depend on regularly; without them, coffee, apples, peaches, berries, and all kinds of other valuable crops could be lost or diminished. Protecting bees and helping them thrive is important not only to their species, but to our own survival, as well.

How the Problem Started

Nobody really knows when humankind’s expansion across the globe started seriously hurting the bee population. It is impossible to count wild bees, but scientists have noted that the global domesticated bee population has been flat.

Borne from a desire to do less harm to birds and mammals, neonicotinoids were introduced in the 90s as the worldwide standard for pesticides. While the degree of their negative effect on the immune systems of bees is debated, the fact that these pesticides do have some negative effect is widely accepted.

Raising Awareness

Many different organizations across the business world and the ecological community started talking about the problem early on, but it wasn’t until after the colony collapse of 2008 that the public awoke and learned how important bees are. They started putting pressure on farmers and government agencies to prohibit the use of these pesticides, and they have succeeded in some cases by temporarily halting their use.

The public also learned that replacing bee habitats and being more bee-friendly was easy to do, had personal benefits, and did make a huge difference in the bee population.

Bee Houses and Watering Holes

Like any other animal, bees need food, water and shelter. When we domesticate more and more land, we take away food and shelter from the bees. Because bees are small and we like the flowers, plants, and vegetables they pollinate, it is easy to work with them and provide manmade places to live and food to eat.

A pile of wood left alone, or a small section of unmown grass is perfect house or cover for bees. There are many sturdy, innexpensive bee houses that can be bought. Planting flowers in the ground or a flower pot and leaving flat bowls of water around would be excellent food source sources, as well.

A Winnable Fight

The efforts to save bees are successful largely in part due to increased urban beekeeping efforts. For those who want to make a positive impact in the city, but have limited space, rooftops, balconies, and fire escapes can all be converted into mini pollinator gardens for the bees.

Beginning rural gardeners can plant simple things like giant hyssop and sunflowers in the summer, and asters and goldenrods in the fall to attract bees with their favorite nectar. You can also plant things like tomatoes and squash, which help pollinate and provide you with fresh, organic produce. To deter pests, opt for bee-friendly pesticides — many of which you can create from household items you already have.

Good results are pouring in. Scientists are starting to see domestic bee populations go up. A world problem is being solved by average people in their fire escapes and backyards — and you can join the cause!

Helping Solve the Bee Crisis in Your Own Backyard-2

 

Succotash is a great summer side dish. Corn, beans, and tomatoes, and other summer vegetables are in full swing, making it a great go to for putting meals together for the family. Succotash has been around for a long time, having originated as a Native American dish. The two key ingredients of a standard succotash are corn and beans. Traditionally, Lima beans are used, but any bean will do! Think of pinto beans, black beans, kidney beans, cow peas, northern white beans, Roman beans, mixes of all beans!

It’s tasty, it’s simple, and it’s also a nutritious powerhouse! It’s high in fiber while being low in both calories and sodium. Corn brings

 vitamin B6 to the table, which aids in brain chemistry as well as helps stabilize our natural sleep/wake state. All beans are generally high in folate, which is excellent and important for women trying to conceive, and those who are pregnant. Furthermore, folate is great for the maintenance of healthy cell production. Beans also have manganese and thiamine which both play a role in maintaining a healthy metabolism. Lastly, beans are full of fiber with a little protein, which help us stay fuller for longer and aid in our digestion. When paired with a grain like rice or bread, succotash provides a meal with a complete protein for those who don’t consume meat.

Topped with herbs, this succotash is an excellent side to  grilled chicken, poached or fried eggs, steak, or fish. Try dicing up a summer squash, or zucchini and tossing it in. Like peppers? They add color, flavor, and nutrition. Be creative with what’s in season to jazz up your succotash!

Simple Summer Succotash  

Serves 4

1 tablespoon oil or butter

2 ears fresh corn, shucked

1 medium onion, diced

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1 ½  cup cooked beans (lima, pinto, butter, black), prepared at home or canned

Optional

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

¼ cup chopped fresh basil

½ cup thinly sliced green beans

1. Heat your oil or butter in a large skillet over medium heat and add the cut red onion. Saute 1-2 minutes and add the cherry tomatoes. Cook down for 5-7 minutes.
2. Once the tomatoes have begun releasing their juices and the onions are becoming soft, add the shucked corn kernels and beans.
3. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes or until the corn is fully cooked through. Season with salt, pepper, and/or fresh herbs.

 

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Beets are abound this time of year. They’re beautiful, robust, and earthy. I’ve talked to many folks who carry them home in their market baskets simply because they’re gorgeous, yet don’t know how to prepare them. I can assure you, cooking beets is relatively easy, albeit a little messy. Red beets especially can stain clothes (it’s used as a natural food dye!), so be sure to wear an apron. I also recommend using food handler gloves if you’re worried about staining your hands.

There are a bunch of ways to cook beets, obviously. If you’re looking for easy-peasy, then I’d say roast them. I find by roasting beets you maintain both flavor and texture. Peeling and cutting the beets into mostly uniform sized pieces is the brunt of the work. Generally, I leave small beets (1” diameter) whole, cut medium beets (2”-3 ½”) in half, and quarter beets that are greater than 4” in size. From there, the sky’s the limit!

I like to toss them in a little extra virgin olive oil, just to coat, with a little salt and pepper. I scatter them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and pop them into a preheated 400F oven and begin checking them after 20 minutes, depending on the size. I check them every 5-7 minutes thereafter forking one into my mouth and checking for doneness “the old fashioned way”. Once they’ve reached a blissful texture, remove them from the oven and let them cool. From that point on you can add them to any number of dishes, or eat them perfectly as they are.

Now, you may be thinking: “It’s 90 degrees out. I’m not going to preheat my oven to 400F!” – and no one would blame you! Another really simple way of cooking beets is to boil them stove top. I love doing it this way for when I quick-pickle beets. If the beets are fairly large (4” or more in diameter), I like to cut them into quarters. Leave the skin on! You can easily peel it off after they come out of the cooking liquid. If the beets are little, I just leave them whole. I also think this makes for really pretty presentation later.

This method is good for 3-4 medium to large beets, about what you would get in a market bunch

For red beets (makes 1 quart liquid)

3 cups water

1 cups red wine vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tbs. salt

1 bay leaf

10 peppercorns

For golden beets (makes 1 quart liquid)

3 cups water

1 cups red wine vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tbs. salt

1 bay leaf

3 cardamom pods

Bring the liquid to a simmer and place the beets in, either cut or whole making sure they’re all of similar size. Check for tenderness after about 15 minutes and every 5 minutes thereafter. Once easily pierced with a knife to the center, remove the beets from the liquid, cool, and store. I like to cool the poaching liquid and store the beets in it.

As is, or tossed with a little fat and seasoning, beets make a beautiful and nutritious addition to any meal. After cooking the roots themselves, consider sauteing the greens and mixing the beets back in!

On of my favorite ways to eat beets is in a salad with crumbly cheese, fresh greens, olive oil, and toasted nuts or seeds. It’s so simple, but the flavors knock it out of the park every time. I should mention that this lends itself to adaptation well: feeling fancy-pants? Use golden and red beets. This dish also plays well into the fall. I like to roast the red onions and toss them in there for more rustic earthiness.

Roasted Beet Salad

Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a mini

2 cups roasted or poached beets

3 generous hand-fulls of fresh salad greens

¼ of a medium red onion, sliced thinly

1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1 tablespoon red wine or balsamic vinegar

Salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Optional

½ cup walnuts, sunflower seeds, or pepitas gently toasted and cooled

3-4 ounces block feta, cotija, or queso fresco in chunky crumbles

Once you have everything at your fingertips, begin by making a bed of greens, followed by the beets and red onion. Drizzle on the EVOO and vinegar. Season with Salt and pepper. Top with crumbles cheese and toasted nuts or seeds, if using.

Enjoy!