Eat Your Veggies

I think everybody grew up listening this catch: "eat your veggies, dear". Our moms (and dads!) used to try to make us eat this health food, and sometimes they failed miserably. I've been thinking about this specially because I know I was a terrible kid - super picky about my food. I wanted hot dogs and French fries all the time. Worse: I wanted chocolate sandwich cookies, Coke and chips for life. I could live on this for many days, for sure.

I have this memory of my mom doesn't letting me get off the table until I finished my green beans. Of course that nowadays I just hate it. But I must admit that I haven't tried this yet. I am 28yo and still afraid of some vegetables. In the same time I have to congratulate myself because since I started cooking for real my eating habits has changed a lot. In the past years I've added much more vegetables to my diet and I am trying to embrace everything, to try everything more than once to see if I really like something.

That's the secret: try it. More than once. Cook things using different methods and seasonings. Try a new recipe using that ingredient that you don't like so much. Start by doing it with things that you love, like bacon or cheese. 

A few years ago I tried to eat broccoli. I know that for some people this green vegetable isn't appealing at all. I used to see it on cooking shows and fell disgusted by it. Many years ago I did a recipe with vegetable meat (soy) and broccoli, and my boyfriend hated it - he only told me this years later. Poor thing. Today I know that I can do an awesome broccoli.

My favorite way to do it? Roasted! Like most vegetables Roasting is my favorite cooking method for sure. It's so democratic - almost everything turns up good when roasted. I think thats because this method brings the best of the ingredient. When you do this right, it can bring the most moist, succulent, smokey flavor. Also you can play with the seasoning: change as you like it. 

For this broccoli I used:

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 broccoli bouquet
• 1/3 cup olive oil 
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• dried oregano (to taste)
• red chilli flakes (to taste)
• 1/4 lime juice
• 3 garlic cloves

HOW TO DO IT

First I washed the broccoli florets. In a bowl mixed all the ingredients and then placed the florets. Let it marinade for about 5 minutes. Pre-heated the oven at 350 F (180º C). In a sheet pan did put some parchment paper and sprayed olive oil. Then I placed the florets. I poured the rest of the marinade on the broccoli because I didn't want to waste that amazing flavor. I placed the sheet pan on the oven for 15 minutes. And that was pretty much it. Almost zero work for a delicious broccoli.

Here are a few suggestions of marinades for you to try and also some vegetables suggestions:

MARINADES

• lime + garlic + olive oil
• orange + Sriracha + olive oil
• teriyaki sauce + sesame oil + rice vinegar
• balsamic + garlic + dried oregano + olive oil
• ginger + lime + olive oil
• taco seasoning + lime + olive oil
• garlic + hazelnut oil + rosemary

VEGETABLES TO TRY

• zucchini
• tomatoes
• peppers
• potatoes
• radishes
• asparagus
• green beans (I'll try it, I promise)
• artichokes 
• squashes
• onions
• brussels sprouts
• cauliflower 
• okra
• etc...

Think about a vegetable that you don't like, then try it at home! Season it, put in the oven and try! If you don't like this way, try another. And if after a few attempts you didn't like either way, that's ok. At least you tried. To finish, here's my dish for the day: white rice, a simple salad (green leaf lettuce, onion and radishes seasoned with lime, oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil), grilled flounder and the roasted broccoli :)

Spinach Rice

My goal with this blog is not only give recipes - the internet is already a full library of them. You can Google anything you want and there is a recipe for it. My goal is to inspire people to eat more at home, to know what they are putting inside their bodies, and also to avoid waste in a smart way.

So yesterday I went to the supermarket (Trader Joe's, I love you!). I bought a lot of things because I was out of so many things - specially some super necessary staples and vegetables that are a wild card for me. 

I already knew what I was going to do for dinner. Something that tastes like my childhood: sausage and potatoes, cooked on the pressure cooker. I even called my mother to learn how to do it in the way that I liked it. But I need something else, a side. Rice? Yeah, but I already had the potato. I needed more vegetables here as well. So I opted for brown rice. I prefer the white, but sometimes I go for this option, specially when I am having potatoes. But just the brown rice wasn't enough. So I remembered this TV show that I saw once that they did a rice with broccoli. It was a green rice, the host called it "Hulk Rice". I felt in love for this idea. So I decided to do it with spinach. But not stir-frying the spinach, I did a juice, using my homemade stock.

Stock, spinach, salt and garlic

All I need was my stock made out of the leftover bone, a cup of baby spinach, a pinch of salt and one garlic clove. 

Spinach juice

Then I decided to pass it on the strainer, I didn't want the fibers and garlic pieces, just the juice. Again: best decision I've made. I think this process made my rice light on the spinach garlic taste and very colorful. 

All I can see in this image is the mess behind the juice being poured on the strainer. Sorry (not sorry)!

I did about 1 cup of rice. So of course I needed more water to cook it. Since I did not let my rice rest on water (this is the wisest thing to do - let it sit on water for about 8 hours so it will cook in about 15 minutes, with less water. Also it neutralizes phytates - which helps other nutrients to be better absorbed (check the link!).

In the last minute I decided to add some quinoa because why not, right? I actually wanted to do more food because I was thinking of the future me and future me wanted to eat this on lunch.

Quinoa and rice on the spinach juice

I added a little more salt, cumin, garlic powder and the olive oil of the garlic confit and let it cook. In the process I was thinking about doing this with carrots, for an orange rice, and beets, for a pink rice. There are a lot of possibilities, right? Not just for the colors, but flavors as well: basil, chives, olive, pepper...

I was very happy with the result, both color and flavor were amazing. To be honest my husband didn't realize that he had this for dinner - here we eat in the dim light. And he liked it. So it's an extra point for this idea/recipe.

Spinach rice ready to be eaten

I would like to add that yes, I had this for lunch as well. With the leftover fish and a leftover salad!

Spinach rice, Milanese tilapia (made with my homemade breadcrumbs) and cabbage salad with orange vinaigrette

Just to be clear: I don't have a spinach obsession. Yes, I usually have it on the fridge, I like to hide this veggie on my sauces, meats, juices and smoothies. It's healthy, right?