Dr. Amy Doherty

I’m probably going to have a lot of salad posts… because summer.  So here’s another one using showcasing Watermelon in a savory manner.  You can just eat it chopped up without any effort, too, and if you are more likely to get all the water/fiber/nutrients that way then go for it!  But this is interesting and delicious, and… the juice makes a really good mixer for Tequila.  That’s not the healthiest thing I could say but it’s true.

Just like any type of fruit or vegetable consumption, watermelon consumption is associated with lower disease risk.  But above and beyond the normal lower disease risk associated with fruit and vegetable consumption, the compound L-citrulline found in abundance in watermelon been shown to cause vasodilation.  Vasodilation= improved blood flow.  There have been some small studies showing benefit of L-citrulline consumption in improving erection hardness in men with erectile dysfunction and decreasing muscle soreness in athletes.  Although these studies are too small to be powered for significance, it’s a good start investigating an idea that makes sense: improved blood flow from L-citrulline can improve performance in conditions that need more blood flow.

Basically… just eat yer watermelon and here’s a recipe for a new and interesting way to do it ;-).

Ingredients

1/2 fresh watermelon cut into even, >1/2 inch chunks

3 jalapenos, diced

1 red onion, diced

Juice and zest of 3 limes

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions: Combine all ingredients and enjoy.  We have had 2 people eating this 1-2 times daily for the last 3 days, so we’ll say it serves 6, or 2 + lunch the next few days.

Variation for those who don’t like spice: use 1/2 c blue cheese instead of jalapeno.

Sriracha-lime is the easiest, most summery flavor combo ever.  Today, I used this dressing for another summery item: cucumbers.  Cucumbers just chill everything out a few degrees.

In addition to being refreshing and summery, eating citrus has been shown in small trials to improve DNA resistance to damage.  Antioxidants, present in all fruits and vegetables, help prevent DNA damage.  Increased fruit and veggie intake is associated with decreased risk of cancer. One proposed mechanism is this protective effect fruits and veggies have on DNA.  So basically, more fresh produce = deliciousness, also happier bodies with less cancer = yay!

Ingredients

1. 2 cucumbers, spiroolied into noodles or chopped into matchsticks.*
2. 1/2 red onion, finely diced
3. Juice of 1 lime
4. 1 tsp honey
5. Sriracha to taste

*Note on what a spirooli is: it’s a kitchen gadget like in the picture above on the left that cuts veggies into noodle shapes.  If you don’t have one, don’t worry about it, because you can just cut the cucumber into bite-size pieces and that’s totally fine.  If you do have a spirooli, it helps to make vegetables into noodle shapes, so then you can use veggies like you use pasta, which then makes it easier to use veggies in general.  So, nice to have, but not necessary.

Recipe

Combine last three ingredients until well-mixed.  Combine this dressing with the first two ingredients in an appropriately sized bowel.  Sit on the porch and enjoy… because even if it’s hot out it’s totally cool with the cucumbers!

This takes about as much effort as throwing a frozen dinner in the microwave, but is way cheaper and healthier.  Although I enjoy cooking, and I would prefer to spend an hour in the kitchen prepping and cooking a meal, most days this type of meal is what makes eating healthy consistently possible :-).  It can be made quickly when coming home from work as a full meal, or packaged for lunches.  Heating it up is also an option if you feel better with a warm meal!

Ingredients:

1. 1 c cooked beans
2. 1 T tomato paste
3. 1 T cilantro paste (herbs come in a tube in the fresh produce section of grocery stores… I’ve seen in for ginger/basil/garlic as well).  Or, use 2 T chopped, fresh cilantro.
4. Hot sauce and garlic powder to taste (start with a tsp hot sauce and garlic, go from there)
5. Salt to taste
6. Stuff to dip in the bean mixture- veggies, whole wheat crackers, etc.

Directions:

Combine ingredients 1-5 in a medium-sized bowl.  Mix.  You’re done!  Eat with veggies and whole grain crackers to get even more antioxidants, micronutrients, phytates, and good-for-you yummy stuff.

So I ended up driving to a medical conference 12 hours away with my boyfriend last week.  Before we left, I was thinking, “Maaannn… long road trips make me feel like junk.  Not just because being in the car for forever feels terrible, but because I get sucked into buying Cheez-Its at a gas station instead of being in my normal groove of eating food that makes me feel amazing.” It also seems hard to pack healthy food instead of processed food, because processed food almost by definition is meant to survive harsh conditions (like a road trip) while healthy food tends to be more ephemeral.

This road trip was different, though.  There are actually PLENTY  of cheap, healthy options for Spring Break road trips (like we just had) or summer road trips (coming soon!).

These ideas can also be used for snacks at work.

1.) Red Cabbage– this stuff survives anything.  I know, because I had a head of red cabbage in my fridge for 2 weeks before taking it on the road trip.  Despite being days without refrigeration and sometimes just hanging out in a hot car, it lasted the entire drive down in addition to the weeks it sat in the refrigerator before being used.  It’s crunchy, pretty, stops cancer from growing, is rich in anti0xidants, and costs about $1.50 for an entire head of cabbage.  We dipped it in hummus or used it as a carrier for roasted garbanzo beans, like in the picture.

2.)  Carrots: these things also survive anything, are incredibly cheap, fill that desire for crunchiness, and have all the benefits of antioxidants/fiber/etc. your typical gas station doesn’t have (or has at $5/cup of fruit).

3.)  Nuts and seeds

4.)  Beans: If you don’t want to have to refrigerate a bean dip, you can cook beans with spices before the trip to make them more transportable.  They are a complete meal with fiber, carbs and protein and will make you feel full so you don’t gorge on things you will regret later.Here is a recipe for Spicy Roasted Chickpeas from one of my fave vegan blogs, Connoisseurus Veg.  It is the topping to a soup recipe but hey, the topping worked great for our road trip.

5.)  Lacinato kale also survives anything and can be used the same as Red Cabbage.  For even greater portability/tastiness, consider baking kale chips by dousing the kale in a modest lemon juice/olive oil/dash of salt bath and baking at 250 degrees F until crispy.

6.)  Fruits and veggies that already have wrapping in place– I don’t know if you have seen this meme, but it is this picture of bananas in plastic with the caption, “If only bananas had a natural, biodegradable wrap that could be used to store them instead of this plastic.” 😉

So obviously, bananas have their own wrapping which makes them easy to store and transport.  So do avocados, oranges, apples, grapes… the list keeps going.  So don’t forget about these, too!

I am sure you can come up with more possible options; as usual just takes some creativity and planning to make easy, cheap, healthy choices.  I actually planned ahead and did it this time, and didn’t feel gross by the end of the trip!

So there’s this secret to cruciferous vegetables. If you roast them with any type of dressing, it’s amazing.  I have done this with brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and today it’s with a Napa cabbage.  For this specific recipe, I put a different dressing on every fourth of the Napa cabbage head because I had leftover dressings from the week and I felt like it, but you don’t have to.  Got ginger dressing hanging around, or balsamic or Italian?  Cool, use those.  I will also provide some dressing ideas.

Ingredients and directions:

Take a Napa cabbage, cut it into fourths as demonstrated above, pour a dressing over it making sure it gets into all the leafy crevices.  The more the dressing infiltrates the cabbage, the more flavorful the product.  Bake at 450 degrees Farenheit for about 10 min, or until it is warm and crispy.  Consume.

Possible homemade dressings:

1.  Italian- pour 1/3 c extra virgin olive oil (I chose a Tuscan flavored one), 2 tsps freshly ground black pepper , and 1.5 tablespoons Mediterranean spices with a pinch of salt onto the cabbage.  There are various Mediterranean/Italian spice mixes you could use, or make your own with choices such as garlic and onion powder, oregano, parsley, marjoram, basil of course, and rosemary.
2. Asian: 1/4 c toasted sesame oil, 1/4 c Mirin, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 T soy sauce, 2 T sesame seeds.
3. Asian peanut sauce: same thing as above but add 2 T peanut butter and 2 T Sriracha or 2 tsp cayenne.
4. Olive oil + balsamic + fresh ground black pepper

So I am taking a break from the whole Garbanzo bonanza on the blog, but not in real life so stay tuned.  In the mean time… Oh miso how I love thee.  So delicious, healthy and simple.  The first time I was introduced to Miso soup was my senior year in high school when my family was housing a Japanese foreign exchange student.  She explained, “Japanese people eat it, and everything Japanese people eat is healthy, so this is, too.”  I think she wasn’t far off, after researching the idea!

Miso is a fermented (read: full of probiotics), Asian soup traditionally served with tofu and nori. I keep a package around to make into quick, warm, filling soups with whatever veggies I have on hand.  Warm brothy soups in chilly months is the best, and in 340 A.D. Chinese medical practitioners touted its benefits to cure the common cold.  I am not aware of any randomized controlled trials on this, but it has worked for me in the past :-). Here is an example.

Ingredients

• 3/4 c dried, sliced shiitake mushrooms or 1 c fresh
• 2 c water
• 4 cloves diced garlic
• 2 chopped kale leaves
• 2 T miso paste
• 1 T sesame seeds (I like them roasted, put them in the oven at 375 until they are golden/your kitchen smells amazing for this option)
• 1 grated carrot

 Directions

1. Put the mushrooms and garlic in the water and boil
2. Add kale leaves, turn off heat.
3. Add miso, sesame seeds, and carrot.  Yum you are done.
4.  I like adding sesame seeds for protein and to make it filling, but tofu or any kind of seed or bean could fulfill the same purpose.  Also, if you don’t have kale, any kind of green will work!  Like celery better?  Cool, put it in instead.