Healthy Bites Newsletter

Fall is the time to get back to hearty harvest meals and for taking time out to enjoy the fall colours.

From Your Dietitian

In Season Now

Fruit Apples, crabapples, cranberries, pears, plums Fall Fitness Vegetables Beans, beets, bok choy, Finally it seems that our scorching summer is moving on, bringing us cooler broccoli, Brussels sprouts, temperatures that are perfect for getting outside, raking leaves, preparing the cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, garden for winter, walking and hiking. celery, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, leeks, parsnips, Living in the Niagara Region we are lucky to have easy access to The Bruce peppers, potatoes, radishes, Trail, the Waterfront Trail and many quiet neighbourhoods with sidewalks. If rapini, rutabaga, spinach, you haven’t already taken advantage of these opportunities, now is the time! squash, zucchini The Niagara Bruce Trail Club has a variety of hikes planned for the fall. You can choose a slower pace hike or if you’re gung-ho there are medium and fast paced hikes as well. Hikes start from locations in St. Catharines, Port Dalhousie, Jordan and Grimsby. The hike schedule is attached to the newsletter. Or you can check out the Let’s Hike Meetup group from Stoney Creek at www.letshike.ca.

Nutrition Bite

Aim for 7-10 servings of fruit and vegetables combined daily. Include one serving of a green leafy vegetable and an orange veggie or fruit.

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Healthy Bites Newsletter Fall 2012

All About Greens

Are you afraid of the foods are mysterious: How Leafy Greens dark and leafy corner Here is some information of the produce aisle? do you tell them all apart? How do you keep them about some of the leafy What do you think of when fresh? And how can you greens that you can find in you hear someone say, make them taste good? many Ontario grocery “You should eat your dark Read on to reveal the stores. leafy green mystery. Learn how you vegetables?” Canada’s can include these tasty, Arugula (rocket) Food Guide recommends nutritious and inexpensive These are tender leaves that you eat one dark foods into your healthy with a sharp mustard or green vegetable food choices. peppery flavor and usually everyday. But for many tossed with other lettuces A Closer Look at Dark people, these green plant in salads. Try it also in

Use different spices to flavour your greens!

soups, pastas or even that calls for baby spinach pizza! Look for bright or watercress, like this: green and fresh looking Roasted Beet and Orange leaves. Store for 2-3 days Salad or Summer Chicken A member of the cabbage in a tightly sealed bag in and Shrimp Pasta for Two. family, bok choy is good in the refrigerator and wash stir-frys, salads, and soup very well before using. Try or as a quick side dish. Bok choy (Chinese chard) using arugula in any salad Look for smooth stems 2 Healthy Bites Newsletter Fall 2012

Cookbooks for Cooking Greens

• The Book of Kale: The Easy-to-Grow Superfood, 80+ Recipes by Sharon Hanna, 2012 • Wild About Greens: 125 Delectable Vegan Recipes for Kale, Collards, Arugula, Bok Choy, and other Leafy Veggies Everyone Loves by Nava Atlas, 2012. • Leafy Greens: An A to Z Guide to 30 Types of Greens Plus More Than 120 Delicious Recipes by Mark Bittman, 2012. • The Green Smoothie Bible: 300 Delicious Recipes by Kristine Mills, 2012.

and cabbage or spinach. plastic. You can substitute Local collard is sometimes them for any recipe that leaves that are not wilted. available in the winter or calls for kale, collards, Wrap in plastic and keep in early spring. Look for crisp, Swiss chard, spinach and the bottom of the green leaves without any rapini. Try them in this refrigerator for about a yellow. Store in the recipe: week. Ontario bok choy refrigerator wrapped Mulligatawny and other Asian greens are in plastic for 4-5 Soup. available in the summer days. Try this recipe: and fall. Try this recipe: Tilapia with Curried Kale Chinese Vegetables Roll- Collards and A member of Ups. Tomatoes. the cabbage

family with Collard greens (collards) Dandelion greens long, curly A variety of cabbage that This grows wild and For recipes listed in this does not form a head, but commercially. They have article visit instead has long and flat bright-green jagged leaves www.eatrightontario.ca. leaves. They taste similar that are slightly bitter. to cabbage or kale. Older dandelion greens Collards taste milder when should be cooked; younger leaves. Remove the tough they are cooked (they can ones can be cooked or center stalks before be bitter when raw). Try in served raw as a salad cooking. Prepare the same stir-frys, soups or any way green. Keep 1-2 days in way you would spinach. that you would prepare the refrigerator wrapped in It’s good in salads,

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steaming and stir- omelets, pastas, stir-frys steamed, sautéed or frying. Keep 1-2 and soups. You can also braised. Keep for 3- days in the use it raw in salads. Look 5 days wrapped in refrigerator for small bunches with no plastic in the wrapped in plastic. limp or yellowing leaves. refrigerator. Try this You can substitute Store in the refrigerator recipe: Ontario them for any wrapped in plastic for 5-7 Sautéed Rapini. recipe that calls for days. Try this recipe: kale, collards, Shrimp Salad with Swiss chard Swiss chard, Gazpacho Dressing. Has a mildly sweet yet slightly spinach and rapini. Try

bitter flavor with large green them in this recipe: Swiss Mustard greens (and sometimes red, orange Chard and Navy Bean These leaves are a rich, and yellow) ribbed leaves and Soup. dark green and have a thick stalks. Leaves can be strong mustard flavour. used in salads and both leaves Did you know? You can Try the leaves steamed eat wild dandelion greens and stalks can be steamed or or sautéed and flavoured – just be sure that they sautéed. It is used like are free of pesticides. with garlic or onion. You spinach, but requires slightly can eat them raw but Greens are Nutritional longer cooking because of its they taste milder when Superheroes thicker texture. Store in the cooked. Use in any dish Great news about greens - refrigerator wrapped in plastic where you would add kale they are nutrient for 2-3 days. Try these recipes: or spinach. Look for dense! That means they Swiss Chard Frittata in a Pita crisp, young leaves and are low in calories and or Swiss Chard and Crunchy avoid those with thick, high in nutrients. Apple Salad. fibrous stems. Store for Leafy greens have about 1-2 days wrapped in Turnip greens 10-35 calories per 125 mL plastic in the refrigerator. These are the fuzzy green (1/2 cup) cooked leaves that are the top of the serving. They are rich in Rapini (broccoli raab) root crop. They are sweet folate, vitamin A, calcium Looks like thin broccoli when young (the best time to and vitamin C. They also stalks with small clusters eat them raw) but get tough high in fibre, and naturally of buds and smooth and strong tasting as they age. low in fat and sodium. leaves. It tastes bitter Look for crisp greens with an A Food Guide serving of but cooking helps to even colour and no yellow. leafy greens is 250 mL (1 mellow the taste. It’s Avoid those that are wilted. cup) raw or 125 mL (1/2 very popular in Italian Remove the thick ribs before cooked). cooking where it is cooking. Try boiling, sautéing,

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Healthy Bites Newsletter Fall 2012 Add some Orange to your Fall Table

Don’t forget the butternut and other squashes, carrots, plus orange and red peppers. They are brimming with fibre and disease-fighting antioxidants. They go great with turkey and tofurkey too!

Delicious and easy ways to prepare dark leafy greens

For something simple, try steaming the greens and serving with a teaspoon of olive oil drizzled over the top, balsamic vinegar and pepper. You can also stir-fry, boil or braise them. You can tell leafy greens are cooked once the greens are wilted and are bright in colour. Good flavourings for greens are garlic, capers, ginger, chili flakes, red or white wine vinegar, sesame seeds, lemon or maple syrup.

Here are other ways to add greens to your favourite recipes:

• Chop kale, spinach, or Swiss chard finely and add to tomato or meat sauce. • Use spinach or arugula to make a pesto and use on pasta, chicken or pizza. • Add chopped greens to a stir-fry near the end of the cooking time. Cook until they are wilted but still bright green. • Add fresh or frozen chopped greens to vegetable soups, stews or chili. • Fold cooked greens into an omelet or frittata. • Skip the iceberg lettuce in your salads and sandwiches and try arugula, baby spinach, mesclun mix, watercress or baby mustard greens.

Did you know? Dark leafy greens contain chemicals that discourage animals from eating them. It’s those chemicals that make greens bitter.

From: www.eatrightontario.ca