When Stephanie and I were talking about what to do this week, I tried to suggest the health benefits of bacon, but I was told there are non. After I got over the initial shock of that statement, we settled on the Mediterranean diet. This has both excited me and scared me since she first mentioned it. I was curious about this anyway, and wanted to know more about it. What it does, and why, and if I could do it. I want my family to eat more of a plane based diet, but when I tried to serve a vegetarian -vegan even- meal to my toddler last night he looked at me and said “meat?” so I told him, no, this was dinner tonight to which he replied “MEEEEEEAAATTTTTT!!!!!!” and pushed his plate away, so I have an uphill battle. In his defense, I don’t care for pasta or Italian food so I could relate. This is however, something I could adapt into our lives fairly easily. Stephanie will give you all the guidelines.
First let me back up though. There are two words that make me crazy, ok more than two, but the words ‘diet’, and ‘craze’ drive me nuts. This is not a diet, as it is a lifestyle. It’s a diet in the sense that it’s what you eat, as in “my diet consists of….” and not something you are on to lose weight. And the craze thing I’ll get into when we cover gluten free living..
This week I made some things that were surprisingly really good.
We will start with the only meat product I made this week, a salad with a poached egg.
Now I’m allergic to eggs, egg whites actually, so I don’t eat them often, but when I do, I like a runny yolk.
This salad was easy, fast, and tasty.
Wash your lettuce and drizzle a vinegar on it. I used just a regular balsamic vinegar here, then I sprinkled some leftover quinoa on it, but you could use anything. Put tomatoes, sunflower seeds, whatever, and then lay a poached egg on top. When you cut into it, the yolk will run out and mix with the vinegar and make a dressing for the salad.
I bought some watermelon seeds at the Mediterranean market to put on here, but they have the texture of sunflower seeds in their shells, so I didn’t put them on here. They are more of a snacking seed.
Next I made a sofrito over gluten free pasta.
Start by peeling, seeding and dicing about six tomatoes. (to peel them, place in boiling water for a minute, and then ice water)
Then dice an onion, and about four garlic cloves and sauté in olive oil, then add the tomatoes and let simmer until a sauce forms. Throw in a sprig’s worth of chopped rosemary and a handful of chopped parsley.
I put this over a quinoa pasta. It’s gluten free, and in my honest opinion, it tastes better and has a texture closer to regular pasta.
This is also vegan.
Next was my favorite, a quinoa (are you sensing a theme here) and feta stuffed tomato.
Again, this is easy. If you’ve never had quinoa, you should try it. It cooks like rice, but it keeps in the fridge pretty well, so you can make a bunch of it and use it throughout the week. I also like it because I’m one of four people in this world who is actually allergic to rice, so I really try to limit my intake of it.
Take a tomato and hollow it out
And then mix up some feta, olives, and quinoa
Then stuff your tomato and bake it in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.
The last thing I made was a hummus with jalapeño and cilantro.
Take a can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans and drain half the juice, then add a large spoonful of tahini, and a couple garlic cloves.
Blend this up in your food processor or blender with some salt and olive oil.
Now, if you want regular hummus, this is where you stop, but if you want something a little different, throw in a jalapeño, a large handful of cilantro, and the juice and zest of one lime.
Blend it all up and salt to taste.
Serve this with a crudités, but get creative with this, I like to use a purple cauliflower to throw my family off and trick them into eating it.
Carrots, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes are all pretty straight forward, but I might make a suggestion when you are cutting up your celery.
Most people cut it like this:
Which is fine with exception that when you bite into it, you are stuck with the big strings and have to chew them up…
Try slicing on an extreme diagonal like this…
Then when you bite into them, you get a break like this
Much more appetizing.
The sofrito and hummus make several servings so it is easy to get your weekly servings in, the salad is so easy to make, you cab do it in under five minutes, and the tomato is my latest obsession. I have the quinoa in my fridge because 1) I made two cups when I made it and 2) the tomato takes about two tablespoons of it, so you can just scoop some out every day to make a new one. You can also refrigerate them, if you make a bunch, for a couple days. This is literally something you can spend an hour cooking for a day, and then eat for a week.
The main thing with this diet is to make sure to snack on fresh fruits and veggies. There is no recipe for that, just pick your favorite, and chow down. Just remember, it’s cheaper to eat what is in season, and the food will taste much better. There is a huge difference.
Now head on over to 3squarenutrition to find out why this stuff is good for you and to get the nutrition information on these recipes.
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