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7 Ways to Immediately Improve the Quality of Your Food

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On a regular basis, usually while scrolling through social media sites, I come across posted articles offering up tips and information about eating healthy, and more often than not when I get part way through the article, I am cringing at the “facts” and information being shared with readers, as the information is often misguided, misunderstood, and sometimes even flat out wrong.

This happens beyond internet articles though. One of the most obnoxious tv commercials I’ve seen lately is for either vegetable or canola oil (can’t remember), where a woman is pushing her grocery cart down a store aisle and pauses to grab the olive oil, but then looks over at the vegetable (or canola) oil, puts the olive oil back, and grabs the other oil instead. The commercial ends with some “facts” about why this hydrogenated oil is a better choice than olive oil. All I can say is…you have to be kidding me. It makes me laugh every time.

So I’m here to clear up some information for you and hopefully provide you with what I truly believe to be good  & accurate information. And I admit, a lot of the information out there is contradicting and it’s sometimes hard to decide what’s right. Honestly though, some of it is just common sense, and I like to take a logical approach to eating and living a healthy lifestyle.

With that said, here is the bottom line rule to immediately improve the quality of the food you eat, resulting in a healthier and more enjoyable food and eating experience: cut out processed foods and added sugar. 

You may have heard this before, but it’s a big project to take on, and you may be thinking it’s easier said than done. Well being someone who has actually done this, and gotten to a point where these things are very limited in my daily diet, I have some specific tips to share with you on how to get started and get to a point where you aren’t regularly eating processed foods and added sugar. It’s hard to break old habits, but after some continuous effort and conscious decision making, it’ll quickly become part of your routine and be much easier than you think. So here we go…

1. Start reading the ingredients on the back of items you purchase. The reason I didn’t mention counting calories or cutting out fat as rules to eating healthy, is because they aren’t nearly as important as the ingredients that are actually in your food. I barely use the nutritional table on the back of items, but rather I read the list of ingredients. Now, there are so many ingredients that you can read but have no idea what they are. My suggestion is to do some research and inform yourself of what they are, or use my simple rule which is, if I was making this myself, would I use these ingredients to make this food? If the answer is no, I don’t buy the item. For example, I came across jarred roasted peppers, where the ingredients listed included sugar. Why would you add sugar to roasted peppers? It’s quite unnecessary. After some looking, I found another option, where the ingredients listed were simply peppers, olive oil, garlic, sea salt. That’s the one I bought. Once you start reading labels, you will quickly realize how much unnecessary sugar is added to so many things that wouldn’t normally call for sugar.

2. Learn to cook and make food from scratch. I think a lot of people buy packaged food that they could make at home because they are intimidated by cooking or they feel like they don’t have time to cook. Cooking your own food, and making food from scratch, will always be healthier than any pre-made option in a store. Hands down. Cooking is actually quite easy (and fun!), and just takes some practice. Once you learn the basics, you can easily throw something together on any given day using the ingredients you have in your fridge. I also share a lot of fun recipes on this blog- check them out! As for making time- we are all busy, but in my opinion, my health is worth my time. Find the time and use it.

3. Limit your intake of white flour based carbs and simple carbs. White flour and simple carbs turn into sugar once eaten, and are overly processed- not a good combo. There are so many delicious alternatives for carbs out there! Try complex carbs such as quinoa, farro, barley, or harvest grains (Trader Joe’s) as alternatives for pasta and white rice. Replace sliced white bread and potato bread with sprouted whole grain bread. Now, being Italian, I don’t expect anyone to cut out pasta all together ;), but limit it, and when you can, at least buy whole wheat, whole grain, or organic pasta.

4. Completely cut out sugary drinks. Soda, energy drinks, most juices, sweetened teas, etc.- just say no! These have ridiculous amounts of added sugar, and a lack of nutrition. Stick to water, sparkling water, coffee, tea, and vegetable juices. If you want fruit juice, buy or blend up a fruit drink that only includes fruit, vegetables, and either water, soy milk, or almond milk. Of course these will still have sugar, because there’s natural sugar in fruit, but at least there’s no added sugar. Want to make your water more interesting? Throw slices of lemon, lime, or cucumber into your water…delicious and fresh!

5. Limit your intake of hydrogenated and omega-6 oils. Oils like vegetable, canola, and corn are common hydrogenated oils and are high in omega-6’s.  Our bodies actually need a lot more omega-3’s than omega-6’s, which are healthy fats, and the following oils will give you just that: olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil. There are tons of other oils, but these are my favorite. I use olive oil for almost everything. There’s a reason the mediterranean diet is found to be one of the healthiest in the world (olive oil!). Not only do you want to avoid buying bottles of hydrogenated or oils high in omega-6’s for cooking, but also limit the amount of packaged foods you buy that list hydrogenated oils in their ingredients. Note: you’ll notice some packaged foods are trying to be “healthier” and list “non-hydrogentated” oils in their ingredients, which is good because they are less processed, but they still aren’t oils high in omega-3’s and good fats, which is why I would still avoid those oils (canola, vegetable, corn) as much as possible. Plus, olive oil just has so such complex flavor and is delicious with so many things!

6. Make your own snacks and limit pre-packaged snacks. Realistically, you won’t cut out pre-packaged snacks all together, but by following rule #1 (reading ingredients on packages) and making your own snacks whenever possible, you can make snacking a lot healthier. Here are some examples of super quick snacks you can make. 1. Chop up cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, then cover in a drizzle of olive oil, sea salt, and pepper. 2. Cut an avocado in half, drizzle with olive oil, chopped garlic, sea salt, and pepper. These are just a couple ideas and take only five minutes to make. It’s worth that five minutes! They taste 100x better than a bag of chips from a vending machine. Look out for my next post which will be a list of amazing yet healthy snacks and how to make them!

7. Pack your lunch for work instead of eating out. Eating out is convenient, but you don’t have 100% control of what’s in your food, either because options are limited or because ingredients in restaurants or fast food places aren’t listed or easily available. And plus, who’s going to stand there and ask someone for a list of ingredients in their food? Very unlikely. The better choice is to pack a lunch. It sounds time consuming at first, but it’s just about creating a routine, and once that routine is begun, it’s pretty easy. I pack a lunch every single day for work, and once you get good at it, you can do so in 30 minutes. And I’m not talking PB&J sandwiches…I’m talking healthy, delicious, nutritious food!

I hope these tips are ones that you can incorporate into your eating habits, and find helpful. Healthy eating isn’t a chore, it’s simply about eating high quality, fresh, and delicious food that isn’t overly processed or that has various unnecessary and questionable ingredients added to it. Eating in the Italian culture (and many cultures) is an important and treasured part of life, and is supposed to be an experience…so make it an amazing one!

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Italian word of the day:

Olio d’oliva (n) = Olive oil

 

Farmers Market Inspiring Ingredients…Part II

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As I mentioned in my last post, squash has always been a fall favorite in my family. Various types of squash were prepared in chunks, brushed with olive oil, and topped with fall spices like nutmeg and cinnamon, which would roast in the oven until tender. I still enjoy eating squash this way, but recently I’ve been addicted to a fantastic, mouth watering spaghetti squash recipe my boyfriend and I came up with, while deciding what veg to buy at the farmers market one weekend.

When cooked spaghetti squash is shredded with a fork, the strings of squash that are created resemble spaghetti, just as it’s name suggests. Taking a pile of shredded squash, placing it in a bowl, and topping it with homemade tomato sauce makes for a delicious and healthy alternative to pasta.  Unlike traditional flour pasta, this is such a nice, light meal, filling you up just right. Once you make this once, it will be your new fall go to recipe!

And remember, all these ingredients can be found at your local farmers market.

Spaghetti Squash with Homemade Tomato Sauce (serves 2)

The sauce:

1 medium cippolini onion (cippolini is a sweet, Italian onion variety which adds a bit of necessary sweetness to the sauce)

1 medium shallot

3 cloves garlic

1 1/2 pounds San Marzano tomatoes (or another variety if these are not at your farmers market. I actually used Early Girl tomatoes the last time I made this and they worked very well too)

1/4 cup red wine

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp raw sugar

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 cup water

The squash:

1 medium spaghetti squash

Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Pinch of salt, pepper, and nutmeg

3-5 strands of fresh Italian flat leaf parsley

Ready to cook! The sauce takes 1.5 – 2 hours to cook, so plan accordingly and give yourself plenty of time. Cooking homemade tomato sauce in a short period of time doesn’t allow for the tomatoes and acidity to break down or the flavors to blend.

1. Chop the cippolini, shallot, and garlic. Chop the tomatoes into medium pieces. Drizzle the bottom of a pot with olive oil, and heat over medium low.

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2. Add the cippolini, shallot, and garlic to the pot and sautee for 6-8 minutes until tender.

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3. Add the tomatoes, red wine, balsamic vinegar, all the spices, sugar, tomato paste, and water. Give a stir to combine. Bring the sauce to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer (medium low), and cover. For the next 1 1/2 – 2 hours, give a quick stir every 10-15 minutes.

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4. Prep the squash. Cut the spaghetti squash in half length wise. Place both halves on a baking sheet with the inside of the squash face up.

5. Drizzle each squash half with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and nutmeg to your liking.

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6. Heat the oven to 350°. The squash takes 45-55 minutes to cook, so place the squash in the oven 45 minutes before the sauce is done. This way the sauce and squash can be done approximately at the same time.

7. Remove the squash from the oven. Poke with a fork; the fork should easily enter the squash which is a sign the squash is finished and tender enough. Let cool for a few minutes.

8. Take a fork, turn upside down, and with some pressure pull the prongs along the inside of one of the halves. Repeat this “shredding” motion until all the inside of the squash is removed from the skin and has created a pile of strings of squash, resembling spaghetti. Repeat this step for the second half of the squash.

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9. Place a pile of squash into the bottom of two bowls. Top each pile of squash with a couple spoonfuls (ladle size) of the sauce.

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10.  Roughly chop the 3-5 strands of fresh parsley and top each dish with it.

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Serve and mangia! Don’t forget to pair it with a glass of red wine- a good red goes perfectly with the tomato sauce full of dried herbs.

 

Italian word of the day:

Pomodoro (n) = tomato (or pomodori = tomatoes)

*(pronunciation: poh-moh-door-oh)

 

The Farmers Market: Inspiring Fall Ingredients

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Every Sunday morning, my boyfriend and I take a morning walk to the farmers market, and lucky for us it is only a few steps from our front door. We buy produce at the farmers market year round, but there’s something extra exciting about the the ingredients found at the farmers market in the fall, like the various types of squash, rapini (broccoli rabe), squash flowers, and root vegetables just to name a handful.

I feel I have a special connection to some of these ingredients as they were foods from my childhood, that my Dad would specifically cook during the fall months. My family is a Halloween family, celebrating to the max every October, meaning lots and lots of pumpkins. Many of these pumpkins and squash made it onto our dinner plates after being used as decor. Some of these ingredients are also popular in Italian cuisine, such as squash flowers……oh, how delicious they are….

This blog will be broken up in two parts- in each post we will cover a recipe or two, inspired by these fall ingredients. And as always, I encourage you to buy these locally, from your farmer’s market, and buy organic. They look like they are straight from your own garden, which makes the cooking experience even more memorable 🙂

Stuffed & Fried Squash Flowers  Fiori di zucca fritti

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My absolutely favorite fall appetizer are stuffed and fried squash flowers. They are such a treat, as squash flowers can only be found this time of year. These act as a perfect appetizer before dinner, or as part of an afternoon lunch.

Ingredients:

12 squash flowers (the larger, the better)

8 ounces fresh ricotta

3-4 twigs of thyme

1 medium shallot

Pinch of salt & pepper

1/4 tsp Italian Seasoning

Squeeze of lemon (approx. 1 tsp)

2 eggs

1- 1/12 cups flour

Olive Oil (for frying)

And we begin….

1. Make ricotta mixture: Finely chop the thyme and shallot. In a bowl, mix the ricotta, thyme, and shallot together. Mix in the Italian Seasoning and lemon. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

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2. Prep your work space: Prep the eggs and flour for the dipping and frying process. Get two bowls- fill one bowl with the two eggs, and beat eggs with a fork. Fill the second bowl with the flour- add a pinch of salt and pepper to the flour. In a line on your counter, lay the following in a row to keep the process clean and easy: squash flowers, bowl of ricotta mixture, an empty plate, the bowl of beaten eggs, and the bowl of flour. Line these up so the bowl of flour is close to your stovetop so you can go right from the flour to the frying pan.

3. Begin stuffing process: Very gently, open up the top of the squash flower, and with a small spoon fill with a spoonful of the ricotta mixture. This part can be difficult, but be patient! Squash flowers are extremely delicate, and a couple may be broken in the process. Practice will make perfect. Only add enough ricotta to fill the bottom area of the flower; too much will overflow and be messy during the frying process.

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*TIP: if a spoon is not working well for you, use a pastry bag! Or grab someone to help hold them open!

4. Once flower is stuffed, place it on the empty plate in preparation for the egging and flouring. Since the stuffing part can be time consuming, stuff all the flowers first, collecting them on the empty plate, and then do the frying process. Otherwise, you may feel rushed to keep them from getting soggy.

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5. At this time, heat up your frying pan! Place a medium to large frying pan on the stovetop and heat over medium. We are pan frying, not deep frying, so fill the pan with just enough olive oil to completely cover the bottom of the pan. You will probably need to add more olive oil after each batch of flowers.

6. The frying process: Now that all the flowers are stuffed, take a flower and gently dip it into the bowl of beaten eggs, turning it so the whole flower is covered. When pulling it out, let the excess egg drip off for a moment before dipping in the flour.

_MG_94307. Next, dip the flower into the bowl of flour, once again turning it to completely cover the whole  flower. When pulling it out, gently shake off any excess flour.

_MG_94328. Make sure your pan and olive oil are heated. If so, place the flower into the pan. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for a few more flowers, enough to fill the pan, but not squish them. Fry on each side for about two minutes. They are ready to turn when they are a light golden brown.

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9. Remove the flowers from the pan, and place on a plate covered with a couple layers of paper towel. This will help remove the excess oil. Once all the flowers are fried, they’re ready to be served!

How to Serve: fried squash flowers are served best one of three ways. Squeeze lemon on top, dip in marinara sauce, or dip in ketchup. 

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*Tip: If this recipe sounds delicious, but you simply don’t have the time or patience for the stuffing part, try frying these without the ricotta stuffing inside. They are also very delicious that way, and most times growing up we actually ate them like that, without being stuffed.

Either way, enjoy and MANGIA! 🙂

Italian word of the day:

Fiore (n) = flower (or fiori = flowers)

*(pronunciation: fee-or-eh)