Anti-Inflammatory Foods | Gotta Eat, Can't Cook

Archive for the ‘Anti-Inflammatory Foods’ Category

January 29th, 2024

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Cycling Food, Empowerment, Fitness Food, Hiking Food, How To & Tips, Salad Dressings, Salads, Salads & Salad Dressings

Comments Off

Pear and Avocado Salad Picture Book Directions

Last pos t showed how to make a fully flavorful, exceptionally easy to make, highly versatile Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing. I made that dressing most recently to start a “Gotta’ Eat Smartly” series of food demos with AARP at Eastway Recreation Center in Charlotte earlier this month. That series is designed to give senior citizens the hands-on kitchen skills and knowledge they need to empower themselves to make life-promoting/quality of life improving meals.

If you’re a regular to this site – or know me personally, you know flavor rules – always! Here’s an example. Sure, we could’ve used that Instant 5-Ingredient Salad dressing on a traditional lettuce and tomato salad, but where’s the flavor fun in that? So instead, I showed the group of a dozen very engaged women how to make a Pear and Avocado Salad – and then how to improvise on that very easy base recipe. First, here’s what you need to make the base recipe – and you’ll see that we replaced a store-bought salad dressing in the top picture with our Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing.

I mentioned “improvising” above, and by improvising I mean adding or substituting ingredients based on either/both your taste and/or ingredients you have on hand – and remember, recipes are just guides. So, for example, I asked the women if they thought it would be ok to substitute or even supplement the pears with apples. Sure! And then I suggested adding adding flavors as they liked based on personal taste.

That last sentence fired up a lively discussion. “Can I add chicken or any other meat?” Yes! “What about fresh herbs?” Sure!

“What about adding potato salad?” Absolutely! And that potato salad question led to a talk about mayonnaise in potato salad and which mayonnaise brand I like. My comment: I don’t like using processed foods, like store-bought mayonnaise, with long paragraphs of ingredients, some of which are NOT found in nature. So, I improvise and substitute mayonnaise with Greek yogurt, mustard and spices.

“If you do that, then what about making homemade mayonnaise?” one of the women asked. “A friend of mine makes it all the time and says it’s easy.” Great idea! I’ve never made it before, but I’ll learn and we’ll make it together next time we’re together.

Next time is coming up fast: Thursday, February 8th – and I’ve already started practicing.

I first picked a top-rated homemade mayonnaise recipe from Inspired Taste. I then improvised a bit, as they suggested, and will need to do more of that. You know the flavor deal. I’m not rolling out my version until that flavor kicks it full-on.

In the meantime, back to the Pear and Avocado Salad featured here. Please click this link and pass it on for the easy to follow picture book recipe shown below. And remember: that recipe is just a guide. Play with it. Improvise. And, most of all, have fun!

More soon!

August 30th, 2023

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Breakfast, Cycling, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Fruit, Hiking Food, Nutrition, Running, Running Food, Sports Nutrition

Comments Off

Rocket Fuel Breakfast, Part 4: Fruit, Yogurt & More

Fruit, yogurt and more? Sure, always more! With full-on flavor – that’s half the fun of it. What you see above is what I put together to rocket-fuel up or an excellent hop on the bike with good buds this morning (below) – and with no need to refuel on the way.

You can get the base recipe I used, Summer Multi-Fruit Salad, by clicking either this link or any picture on this page.

To mix it up a bit, here’s what I used for ingredients and…

…how I put it all together – fruit first; then nut butter, cookie butter spread, jam; Greek yogurt & ground flaxseed with nutritional yeast…

…raisins & dried cranberries; and peach kefir. Killer and went great with the slice of cherry peach pancake and iced chocolate, coconut water coffee shown at the top of this page.

Enjoy!

July 11th, 2023

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Breakfast, Cycling, Cycling Food, Drinks (no alcohol), Fitness Food, Food & Health, Fruit, Fruit Pancakes, Hiking Food, Nutrition, Pancakes, Running Food, Sports Nutrition

Comments Off

Rocket Fuel Breakfast to Power Your Body in Motion

Rockets, power, motion! Please tell me you find that “let’s go!” motivating! When it comes to fuel to power endurance exercise/any physical activity to keep your body in motion, the key is making sure to take in fats, protein, some carbohydrates and fluids – and having them all with full-on flavor.

Here’s what I had recently for the hop on the bike shown above with terrific good friends.

The fats, from whole milk Greek yogurt, whole milk kefir, almond-peanut butter and freshly made whipped cream, combined with protein from egg and whole grain flour in the fruit pancake, Greek yogurt and kefir gave me slow-burning sustained energy. The carbohydrates: a little sugar in my iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water drink, cookie spread on my pancake slice and fruit, dried fruit and jam in my fruit and yogurt mix, gave me instant energy to start my ride. And front-loading fluids with 30-40 ounces of iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water got me going well hydrated so that I just needed to top off with water while I rode, and the potassium in coconut water helped both prevent cramps and improve energy metabolism.

Of course, everybody’s body and fuel requirements are different, and only YOU know YOU. That means it’s most important to pay attention to what YOU eat and drink and how that affects YOUR physical performance, no matter what kind of physical activity YOU do. Still, though the fine details differ person to person, the base components are the same: carbohydrates for quick burning energy, a good shot of fat and protein for long-burning, sustained energy and plenty of fluids to start off well hydrated.

The next few posts, starting with iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water (killer good!), will show how to make each of the 3 pieces shown above that I have regularly – and always with a little improvised variety for flavor fun, before hopping out on the bike.

More soon!

June 9th, 2023

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Blog, Food & Health

Comments Off

Maltodextrin: What Is It and What Does It Do To Food and You?

I’m just back from a coast-to-coast cross country car/bike trip (advocating safe streets for all – more later) and love being on the road for the terrific sights, “big smile” interesting people I meet and the fun of improvising meals on the fly.

Along the way, I picked up some fresh, homemade jalapeño cheddar sausage at a small meat market in a tiny Kansas town. Before buying the sausages, I checked the ingredients.

At the time, all looked fine, though seeing maltodextrin pricked up my ears. Still, I ended up having a blast putting together a very flavorful sausage, fresh vegetable and cheese dinner bowl. As you can see in the top left picture below, I used fresh salad dressing I’d made earlier on my trip to substitute for oil that wasn’t available in my Airbnb for the night before cooking the sausages in the pan.

Later, I looked up maltodextrin. To cut to the chase, maltodextrin is a highly processed food additive made from vegetable starch and used in lots of processed foods to preserve and improve the texture/mouth feel of those processed foods. I stressed “processed foods” in that last sentence because, as noted in Medical News Today, “if a person eats too many products that contain maltodextrin, their diet is likely to be high in sugar, low in fiber, and full of highly processed foods.” (Medical News Today: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322426#which-foods-contain-maltodextrin). For what that means to you, please see the last paragraph below.

For a deeper dive, here are some bullets and links about what Maltodextrin is, foods that contain it and some potential health risks:

Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that is used as a food ingredient.^[2] It is produced from vegetable starch by partial hydrolysis and is usually found as a white hygroscopic spray-dried powder.^[1] Maltodextrin is easily digestible, being absorbed as rapidly as glucose and may be either moderately sweet or almost flavorless (depending on the degree of polymerisation).^[2] It can be found as an ingredient in a variety of processed foods.^[2] (Wikipedia (and confirmed by other sources): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltodextrin)
Maltodextrin is a highly processed food product made from corn, rice, potato starch, or wheat (again, the key words are “highly processed”, which should always give you pause) and is considered safe for human consumption as noted by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration): “the ingredient is used in food with no limitation other than current good manufacturing practice” : (https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=184.1444)
Here is a partial list of foods, also from Medical News Today and other sources, that can contain maltodextrin, all of which are processed foods:
- pasta, cooked cereals, and rice
- meat substitutes
- baked goods
- salad dressings
- frozen meals
- soups
- sugars and sweets
- energy and sports drinks
There is also unconfirmed speculation that maltodextrin, as a highly processed sugar, might play a part in decreasing good, healthy gut bacteria and encouraging the growth of harmful bacteria that can lead to intestinal inflammation and problems like IBD (Irritable Bowel Disorder). Regular table sugar can have that seem effect. (Personally, I had painful intestinal inflammation years ago, mostly due to mismanaged stress, that has been much improved by managing stress better and being vigilant about what I eat and drink.)

Bottom line, I ate and enjoyed the meals I made with the jalapeño cheddar sausages shown above. At the same time, after knowing what I know now, I’ll sure keep an eye out for maltodextrin and try to avoid it when I can – without making myself crazy (ha!).

But what about you? As I advocate regularly here, the key to eating life-promoting well is eating fresh unprocessed/minimally processed foods and always with full-on flavor – flavor ALWAYS rules – and I’m glad to help you with that right here!

June 10th, 2022

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Hiking Food, Running Food, Salads & Salad Dressings

Comments Off

Improvising: Top Gun Maverick and Fresh Spinach & Berry Salad S2E

If you’ve seen the new, fantastically fun Top Gun Maverick movie, you know the “Mav” is all about improvising on the fly and living to fight another day.

If you’re a regular here, you also know I consider improvisation the spice of life, and that spice of life is all about fun.

Here’s an example. Last post showed how to make this very simple but fully flavorful fresh spinach and berries salad – great summertime stuff!

Now, here are some ingredients you can use to take that same salad from simple to exciting (S2E) all very easily.

Sure, these ingredients look like a lot. But don’t let that bother you. They just represent a range of choices you can pick from or substitute with anything you like to make your salad all your own regarding flavor and dietary needs.

Click this link or the picture below for picture book directions and,…

…back to Top Gun – and fun. The “Mav” might have the bad guys – and the Navy – but he’s got nothing on us roadies. Ha!

May 30th, 2022

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Fitness/Health, Salads & Salad Dressings

Comments Off

Fresh Spinach and Berry Salad Picture Book Recipe

Last post showed how to make the (almost) instant 5-ingredient salad dressing below, which is just as fully flavorful and richly versatile as it is simple to make.

Here’s just one of the many salads, that is just as equally full-on flavorful and easy to make as the dressing: Fresh Spinach and Berry Salad.

Regarding the spinach, there’s nothing better than the farm-fresh spinach I used to get from my good bud, Michael Berberian, and his family Berberian’s Farm Stand in Northborough, MA.

Fresh spinach from Berberian’s Farm, Northborough, MA

Now that I’m in North Carolina (which I love!), I usually get my fresh spinach in a bag at Aldi – I’m a big Aldi fan for both their quality and prices, especially in these days with grocery prices skyrocketing.

Here’s what you need to make this Fresh Spinach and Berry Salad:

Just click this link or any picture on this page for a complete picture book recipe.

May 19th, 2022

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Blog, Food & Health

Comments Off

What is Kefir and What Are Its Benefits?

First, I call us “a life support system for bacteria” because we have more bacteria in our bodies, mostly in our gut, than we have human cells. But really, both our body cells and healthy bacteria are life support systems for each other as they work closely together in balance and need each other to survive.

But, sometimes that balance goes out of whack.

That’s my second point. It’s been at least 15 years since I learned about kefir and started adding it to my diet regularly – and I sure am a big fan!

The reason: For a good chunk of my life, my gut and gut bacteria had been abused by fairly frequently prescribed antibiotic use – and probable overuse – due mostly to repeated ear and sinus infections. And then there was family and work-related stress I didn’t handle well. That nasty combination caused significant gut pain that just wouldn’t quit.

To turn that around, I learned to deal with stress and continue to stay on top of it through daily, disciplined, moment-to-moment applied mindfulness practice. More about that later.

At the same time, I learned how to take care of my gut by adding a combination of probiotics (foods full of healthy bacteria) and prebiotics (foods rich in fiber, that those bacteria need to eat to survive vibrantly to benefit us best) to my diet. The result: no more gut pain and a greatly improved quality of life.

I can, therefore, sure understand the big smile “Champagne of Dairy” line from the side of a kefir container…

…for both its pleasingly zesty, dry, bubbly taste and how it can help you feel. After all, the word “kefir” word comes from the Turkish word “Keyif”, which means “feeling good after eating”.

All excellent! But what is kefir, and why do people, like me, who drink or mix it with other foods regard it so highly?

Kefir is a fermented (bacteria activated/bacteria rich) yogurt-like drink made from the combination of milk (or milk substitute, like coconut or almond milk) and kefir “grains” (cauliflower-shaped bacterial colonies) that look like this:

The beneficial (“good guy”) bacteria that make up the dozens of kefir bacterial colonies eat and convert the milk sugar in milk (lactose) into lactic acid, which gives the drink its sour yogurt-like taste, and at the same time, allows those bacteria to multiply incredibly rapidly. That rich number and diversity of beneficial bacteria, in much greater numbers than yogurt, gives the drink an equally rich array of health-promoting properties like a boosted immune system, an enhanced ability to fight and prevent infection and disease, improved digestion, stronger bones and much more.

Regarding more, here are two excellent resources for detailed information about kefir health benefits:

9 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Kefir (Healthline)

Microbiological, technological and therapeutic properties of kefir: a natural probiotic beverage (National Center of Biotechnology Information, National Medical Library)

Based on my health history noted above, I strongly recommend giving kefir a shot both for it’s flavor and how it helps support your richly diverse and vitally important microbiome (community of good, life-promoting bacteria).

April 22nd, 2022

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Running Food

Comments Off

Easy Improvisation on Pineapple, Yogurt, Jam & Dried Fruit

Before getting to the very easy, fully flavorful improvisation, I want to finish the story from the last post about how to speed up pineapple ripening that I’ll lay out in this equation.

My unripe pineapple in a paper bag for 2 days = ripe pineapple

All right! With that freshly ripened pineapple good to go, I could then put together and shoot Pineapple, Berries, Nut Butter, Yogurt, Jam & Dried Fruit, which looks as shown below and is a quick and easy twist on the base Pineapple, Yogurt, Jam & Dried Fruit recipe.

Here’s all you need to make Pineapple, Berries, Nut Butter, Yogurt, Jam & Dried Fruit. And just as I mention in the picture book recipe, all the ingredients you see below work great together, but they’re only suggestions. Imagination is always your only limit to alternative or added ingredients you can use to make this richly flavorful dish all your own.

Click this link or any picture on this page for complete picture book directions.

January 14th, 2022

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Blog, Breakfast, Food & Health, Nutrition

Comments Off

High Fiber Flaxseed, Chia Seed & Nutritional Yeast Boost

This mix of flaxseeds,chia seeds and nutritional yeast is an excellent fiber and vitamin B boost to any meal

Last post talked about fiber and why we need it in our diet. This post shows how to make a practical mix of high fiber flaxseeds and chia seeds with the added optional benefit of nutritional yeast.

As I mention in the “Tips” section of the picture book directions you can get here, the mix of ground flax and chia seeds with nutritional yeast you see here is no “magic bullet”, but it sure helped improve both my gut health and vitamin B12 levels. My gut was in bad shape years ago due to poor stress management and a long history of prescribed antibiotic use, mostly for frequent middle ear infections. My vitamin B12 level was low due to not eating much animal protein.

I’ve since learned – and continue to learn – a lot about what goes on in our gut, how to manage stress much better and have changed my eating habits. More about both gut health and stress management soon. Regarding food, once I got “clued in” to the very new science of gut health 10-15 years ago, I’ve been eating a varied, well-balanced high-fiber whole food diet that is mostly plant based but is also strong in fish, poultry and meat. And I still use the mix of seeds and nutritional yeast you see here everyday as a fiber and vitamin B complex boost. Here’s how I had it this morning for breakfast with fresh fruit and yogurt.

Here’s how I’ve used it recently with both sweeter or more savory meals – all fully flavorful.

Sweet and savory meals topped with a mix of flaxseeds, chia seeds and nutritional yeast

Click this link or any picture on this page for picture book directions that show how to make this flaxseed, chia seed and nutritional yeast boost.

May 12th, 2019

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Cycling Food, Dessert, Fitness Food, How To & Tips, Nuts

Comments Off

Easy Chopped Nuts Picture Directions

Last post mentioned that I’d next show how to make a mix of chopped nuts and ground flaxseed that I use with much more than the Bell Pepper with Cilantro Pesto-Hummus and Cheese I showed how to make. As a first step, though, I thought I’d show here how to chop nuts as quickly and easily as possible.

Nuts are a fantastic source of plant-based protein and healthy fats. I put them in cereal, with fruit and yogurt, in salads, with pasta or grains, and much more. The only thing to watch for with nuts is that they are packed with calories. Moderation is key.

And, that’s why I find it best to use chopped nuts exactly as needed instead of having a bag of those same nuts at my side to feed from, which I certainly have done – and paid for dearly.

There are two ways I chop nuts: with a food processor (preferred) or with a coffee grinder (fine for small amount but takes a bit of care).

Here’s how to chop nuts with a food processor. Use the S-shaped processor blade as shown in the top picture below and add as many nuts as needed to the food processor.

Close the processor top and turn on the processor for about 10 seconds until the nuts look about as shown in the bottom left picture.

To chop nuts in a coffee grinder, which works fine for small amounts, add nuts to the coffee grinder,…

…close the top, keep the top held firmly in place, and shake the grinder while keeping the grinder on for 5 or so seconds.

Make sure to unplug the grinder from the outlet, and then scoop out the chopped nuts as well as possible – without making yourself, well, nuts. Grinding your next batch of coffee with do a great job cleaning the grinder.

Store the chopped nuts in the refrigerator, where they will keep fresh for at least a few weeks – as long as the nuts you used were fresh when you chopped them.