a new approach to eating (and a recipe)
Recently I read the book “Food Matters”. In it, Mark Bittman argues that for a healthier world and healthier self, we should all eat less meat. His premise is that the meat packing industry is one of the largest contributors to global warming and that with all the hormones, antibiotics and poor living conditions in large scale operations, our bodies are getting a big dose of things it doesn’t need. He does not encourage or ask that we all become vegetarians but instead, he suggests we all become ‘flexitarians’.
His basic plan is that we consume more fruits, veggies, and whole grains and less meat, animal based products and processed foods with refined sugars (ie – junk food). His basic rule is to try to avoid eating foods with more than 5 ingredients or anything that contains ingredients with more than 3 syllables – those are most likely a preservitive. I found this idea intriguing and a much easier approach to watching what I eat than measuring, weighing and counting calories.
I’ve been using this approach the past few days and am encouraged by how easy it is to eat more fruits and veggies. I’ve also been surprised at how few I was eating before. I’ve also been surprised at how full I feel after making myslef a large salad topped with lots of veggies and how much better I feel too.
I’ve made a few yummy veggie dishes and sides that I hope to get around to putting up here soon. For now, I’ll leave you with this simple little gem ( I could have eaten all of this on my own and the best part is that according to the “Food Matters” eating plan, I can and probably even should!):
Wilted Spinach
Ingredients
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 12 oz bag baby spinach
- juice from 1/2 lemon
Directions
- heat oil over medium heat
- add garlic and cook very briefly (about 30 seconds)
- add spinach. water, and salt
- cover and cook for about 1 minute
- toss spinach with tongs to help it wilt evenly
- once the spinach is wilted (about 1 more minute), remove from heat, add lemon juice and serve immediately
I gotta say that people who HATE SPINACH will LOVE this! I indeed hate spinach in ALL FORMS… except one. Notice the CAPS. Sorry about that… Wilted spinach, if done evenly and just as it says above, can be incredible!
But… it can be a bit delicate. If you are waiting on other things for 5 minutes and all… it can be disappointing. Do the wilted spinach when you are ready to EAT it, most definitely. Anything after a certain amount of time is just spinach, which we non-Popeye types just can’t deal with.
Fabulous! Thanks for posting this recipe!