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March 18, 2012

Reap the Benefits of a Garden

Have you ever wanted to have a garden? Whether it’s big or small, in pots or raised beds…your own garden to provide fresh, locally grown herbs and veggies for you and your family. Regina Ragone, Food Director for Family Circle magazine has wanted a garden for years.

Now that her dream of home ownership has come true, she’s planting her first one. She joins me on the podcast this week to share her gardening adventures. Go to my FaceBook page and tell me about your garden.

If this is your first garden, Regina says to start simple. She’s starting with peppers, string beans, summer squash and tomatoes. One of her favorite seed sources is Burpee. Check out the plant hardiness zones from the USDA to determine the vegetables that will grow best where you live.

In Florida, I have a space that works best for pots. Sandy, one of the local farmers at our farmers’ market, brings small lettuce and tomato plants perfect for pot planting. I put dry herbs that require less water in one pot and wet herbs in another. Lettuces go in a partial shady area while tomatoes need full sun.

Regina decided to go with a small raised bed garden. The first time expense for the supplies will be more than future plantings but the bed helps keep weeds and bugs from taking over. Many local garden centers now carry everything you need for pot, raised bed, window boxes or other garden ideas.

More sources for garden ideas:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/diy-small-space-pallet-garden-143775

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/categories/gardening

Check out Gardener’s Supply Company for all types of supplies.

 

Don’t miss this month’s recipe for Pulled Buffalo Chicken Sliders. If you love slow cookers, you will have a hit on your hands with this recipe. By the way, my go-to-guy for all things slow cooker, Family Circle’s Michael Tyrrell has a FaceBook chat every Wednesday at 1pm ET.



December 29, 2011

Family Circle’s Test Kitchen Tips for a Healthy New You

Happy New Year to you! Thank you for reading and sharing my blog. I appreciate you, your comments, and look forward to this year together. I like the beginning of a New Year. For me, it’s a time to review and renew. I’m one of those who likes to take an up close and personal look at my life, where I’m going and what needs to be tweaked…and believe me…there’s always a lot of tweaking to be done.

I’m sure your schedule is like mine…pretty jammed every day. Well, I’m trying to take a little better care of my health, particularly the way I eat. I know, I’m a registered dietitian but I’m human too with a long list of things that need to be done everyday and never enough time. Sound familiar? So I’m looking at real world, everyday ways that I can eat better and improve my health and I want to share them with you.

Joining me on the podcast to discuss test kitchen tips for a healthy new you is Regina Ragone, registered dietitian and Food Director at Family Circle magazine. She was part of a food trend survey for Hunter PR and their results found that in 2012, 67% of Americans will make food-related resolutions. Do you agree? Do you plan to make food-related changes/tweaks?

Regina shared ways that the Family Circle test kitchens are working to produce healthier recipes:

Lowering the sodium in their recipes. Family Circle uses ingredients like no-salt or low-salt tomatoes and adds back in a little sea salt for more punch. Regina suggests making sure your dried spices are not old! I’m definitely more aware of sodium and grow fresh herbs in small pots outside my door including rosemary, oregano, chives, and sage. Once you start using herbs and spices it’s easy to cut the salt and not go back. Plus your taste buds adapt.

Check out this month’s recipe for Chicken, Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Vindaloo that includes quinoa.

Incorporating more whole grain products like quinoa and wheat berries to bulk things up without adding fat. There are really good blends/mixes available now. Newly popular whole grain products can be a little pricey so watch for sales and coupons. Use them in place of meat for a meatless Monday dish. I like the products by truRoots…they carry a wide variety of organic whole grains and lentils such as quinoa, green lentils and brown rice.

Add great condiments like good balsamic vinegar (Regina loves Lucini’s fig), mustards and honey… all help perk up the flavor of food.

Want more information? Listen to this week’s podcast below.

Listen to this week’s podcast


July 21, 2011

Pesto and Pizza: A Perfect Duo

July 20, 2011

It’s so hot here in Florida that I want to use my herbs before the summer heat bakes them. I have a bumper crop of basil so decided to make fresh pesto to use on pizza instead of traditional tomato sauce.

Martha Stewart has a simple recipe that I like and have adapted in different ways based on the nuts and cheeses that I have on hand. Typically I also use more basil and less olive oil.

Basically pesto is a finely blended combination of pine nuts, fresh basil leaves, Parmesan and/or Romano cheeses, garlic and good quality olive oil. The word pesto means ‘pounded’ or ‘crushed’.

All of the ingredients except the olive oil go into the food processor, which you process until finely chopped. The oil is then slowly poured thru the food tube with the processor running to blend the oil with the other ingredients. That’s it.

I have used walnuts and pistachios or a mixture of both in place of pine nuts, which produces a robust and flavorful pesto.

Toast your nuts of choice for more intense flavor. This is easy to do. Just place them in a skillet on the stove over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn and be sure to stir or toss a few times. If you want to toast nuts in the micro or the oven, check out these tips from The University of Nebraska.

Basil is one of the easy-to-grow herbs and production overflows in the summer. Give basil morning sun, afternoon shade, and don’t let it dry out.  I grow basil in a pot so it’s easy to move around to shady spots.

If you don’t want to grow your own, look for fresh cut basil at farmers’ markets and in the grocery most of the year. The leaves should be bright green and not wilting. Place the stems in water and top with a plastic bag or wrap basil in paper towel and put in a plastic bag.  Either way, keep basil in the fridge and it will last about a week.

Once you make fresh pesto, it keeps for about 4-5 days so plan to use it in several ways. You can press plastic wrap on the top of the pesto to help retain the beautiful green color and then store it in the fridge.

Use the basil pesto as the base for your pizza…it’s fabulous. But also toss it with pasta and roasted veggies. I roast purple onion, yellow squash and grape tomatoes while I cook whole grain pasta and then toss both with the basil pesto. Delicious and so easy! What’s your favorite way to use pesto?

Want more on pesto? Listen to this week’s podcast below.

Listen to this week’s podcast


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