Broccoli & Pineapple

Broccoli & Pineapple

Fresh Broccoli

Broccoli salad preparation is underway.  Yum! These beautiful rosettes are known to have been popular in Italy since the Roman times.    How contrite for this Italian fashionista. I prefer to eat them raw as cooking will destroy 90% of a beneficial anti-cancer compound called Sulforane.  Off with that oven please!!  Besides I think the rosettes are too pretty to cook.   I would like to eat this vegetable with joy all the while absorbing its nutrients to capacity.  Mixed  with fresh pineapples and drizzled with Vinegrette gives this salad a sweet tangy afternoon breezy taste.  Complemented with the thoughts of the magnificent nutrients both are wrought with such as the vast amounts of Vitamin C and manganese in the pineapples and the anti-oxidant Vitamin A in broccoli make you want to never stop crunching on this dish I am now devouring as I blog.  I just couldn't resist the wait time!!

Asparagus

Fresh Asparagus

Asparagus glistening with taste

It’s a little breezy day.    I’m going to make oven roasted Asparagus for a finger food snack.   I view these lean elegant green stalks peaking out from their watery home in the market.  I get obsessive with the thought of purchasing and feel a sense of loss if I leave any behind so I buy them by the bunches…not just a bunch.  I enjoy them in various ways..roasted, baked or steamed.  But my ultra favorite is baking.  This way secures the majority of the vitamins such as the enormous amount of the B vitamin folate.  After dressing in grape seed oil and baking they glisten with taste.   Look to your right! Aren't they!! At times to tasteful for sharing.  I enjoy them with goat cheese red pepper spread.  The taste is exceptional something I’m considered they owe me for helping them escape that watery fortress in the market

Carrots and Cranberries

Organic Carrots

Baked and dressed with Cranberries

I’m on snack duty this afternoon.  Meeting at the house to collaborate, laugh and eat. I have an interesting combination.  Carrots & Cranberries.  These sleek orange vegetables I'll bathe in Olive Oil and bake to perfection.  Carrots, packed with Vitamin A, quite beneficial to keeping eyes healthy thus affording visuals into this beautiful world of creativity that exists.  Creativity hence cranberries sprinkled over the carrots.   Vitamin A is also helpful to the skin and hair along with giving our bodies the ability to resist heart disease and some types of cancers. Carrots also contain fibre a necessity for maintaining healthy gastrointestinal tracts.  Fibre also help in reducing cholesterol.   One should also be aware how great they taste  raw.  I snatch one as I head out the door smiling and saying.   Ladies be prepared. . Be very prepared for a snack you will not soon forget.

SeaWeed

Seaweed

I have recently become fascinated with this slim green marine plant called "Seaweed" .  This fabulous slab of sea vegetable has an amazing array of nutrients that are beneficial to every cell, tissue and organ in our body.  How good is that to know?!  The health benefits are endless.  Its aids in digestion, promotes liver function, supports kidney health.  These are just to name a few benefits. Our body absorbs more easily the protein from sea vegetables than meat.  Seaweed has 26x more calcium than milk which is imperative for healthy bones.  I think I've fallen in love with this greenery.  Seaweed will always have a place in my home as I will be ingesting it on a regular basis.  Another piece please!

Eggplant & Rosemary

Eggplant and Rosemary

Eggplant & Rosemary baked

Eggplant. . .I so enjoy cooking this vegetable…This deep purple colored vegetable is in a category called "Nightshades"  How fitting for the deep purplish blue color reminds me of a deep dark night.  The feel of eggplant prior to cooking is soft and spongy.  I’m going to bake it with Rosemary.  The smell of these two baking away is euphoric. and fills my home with Rosemary aroma.   I like it baked because it allows the rosemary to infiltrate. Eggplant is a source of a powerful antioxidant known as "Nasunin"  Located in the skin it has  antiangiogenic properties which help it to fight cancer by restricting the growth of new blood vessels. It also helps keep blood vessels clear and relaxed.  Our heart could not thank this vegetable enough for such relaxation.  But I can by reciting endless "You're welcome" after each forkful is digested.  The heart warrants such mannerism.  It is the center of my existence.

Catfish with Watercrest

Catfish and WaterCrest

Fresh Catfish & WaterCrest

It’s a mellow enough day for my favorite "Catfish"…Could hardly wait to get to the market and purchase this whisker ladden freshly caught fish.   Catfish has a slight purplish 'Feng Shui" coloring which such color represents mild and mellow.  Hence the light flakiness and mild taste.  Such a pretty fish too.  I forgo the beauty though as I request it to be filleted all the while excited to get home and base with truffle oil anticipating the enormity of taste after 45 minutes of baking. Catfish is low in fat and sodium and contains the lowest level of mercury.  Catfish also contains the required amount of heart healthy Omega-3 fatty acids which is a plus for lowering blood pressure and decreases our risks for certain types of cancer. WaterCrest contains iron, iodine, vitamins A,C and E and great for skin health and cancer prevention.  With such promising health benefits its a no wonder Catfish is my all time favorite and glad I dressed it with WaterCrest.   I have no doubt my heart would agree

Butternut Squash & Scallions

Butternut Squash and Scallions

Finished Dish of Butternut Squash & Scallions

It’s was a cooking day for me.   Love it!  I’m away engrossed in this culture.  No matter the amount of visits its always as cozy as home.  En-route I thought of all these wonderful healthy meals I would be putting together.  Butternut Squash with scallions being one.  Heading into the evening.  I’m about to enjoy a plate of  my finished dish of butternut squash and scallions.  I love the color of this vegetable along with the nutrients it provides. A serving supplies approximately 300% of our daily value of vitamin A, 50% of Vitamin C, 7% of Calcium and 5 percent of Iron..I baked the squash with scallions for a tasteful twist.  A forkful for the palate is so soothing as it melts in my mouth as it cascades down my throat.  Ahhhhh!!! who would think a name like "Squash" could be so eventful.