A Quick Tip

Let's see if it's possible for me to write a short blog post, sharing just one tip I learned recently.  And if anyone else has a quick tip to share in the comments, that would be awesome.

Brevity is a skill I need to learn to employ occasionally, both for my sanity and yours.  Can I write a blog post in less than 250 words, including the usual meandering introduction?

We shall see!

So the exciting trick I recently learned was...

Vegetables: Painless Ways to Eat More of 'Em

Image: drewprops

Do we need to review the fact that vegetables are good for us? I think not. The only people who might argue that we should cut down on vegetables are the Meatatarians and the Breatharians. And do we really care what they think?

The problem is, while there are some people who love vegetables, most of us have more ambivalent feelings. We don't tend to crave them the same way we do cookies. And there may even be some vegetables we loathe so much that if we accidentally eat them, we might spit them out into our napkins when no one is looking. (Hello, celery? I'm talking to you).

On the other hand, there are times, depending on the vegetable and the preparation, when we don't even notice we're eating vegetables. Or, even better--sometimes they actually taste pretty darn good!

But for many of us, the number of servings of vegetables we should be eating a day adds up to way more vegetables than we can pretend to enjoy. Those darn nutritionists keep upping the recommended amount--I've actually seen experts who say nine to eleven servings a day. And holy crap, eleven is a big number when it comes to vegetables!

So for those of us who struggle a bit, here are some reminders about how to get more vegetables in without undue suffering.

Cartoon: NatalieDee.com

1. Seek Out Variety. This is harder than it sounds, because there's something a little bit suspicious about unfamiliar vegetables, isn't there? If it was really tasty and good for us, why didn't we grow up eating it?

Well, the good news is even as a grown up, you can learn to like new ones if you try them a few times. And having a bigger variety cuts down on the "chore" aspect of making sure you get enough.

For example, I didn't grow up with kale, and on first try, I frankly thought it was kind of bitter and yucky. But after a few tries, I actually kind of like it! As it happens, this Blogher post by Kayln has a whole boatload of things you can do with kale.

Don't think you're a broccoli fan? Well over at Kayln's own blog, Kayln's Kitchen, she's got a great sounding recipe for sauteed broccoli with garlic, pine nuts and paremesan. Or, try a new preparation of asparagus--an asparagus medley with cashews, courtesy of Lesbian in the Kitchen. (And thanks, Elisa and Everyday Goddess for the tips!)

2. Take Short Cuts. If you can afford to spend a bit more money, there are a lot more convenient options for fresh produce than there used to be. Remember when you couldn't enjoy fresh spinach without spending forever washing the dang grit out of it? Of course if you've got the time, it still makes sense to buy vegetables in their freshest, most natural state. But if you're trying to encourage more healthy side dishes and snacks, and you're pushed for time, take advantage of all those pre-washed, pre-cut or frozen options that you grab when you just can't face all that scrubbing and chopping.

3. Roast Those Veggies. This trick brings brings out the sweeter flavors, and can turn make otherwise "difficult" vegetables like cauliflower or brussel sprouts into something that actually tastes pretty wonderful. There's a recipe for mixed vegetables over at Make-Ahead Meals for Busy Moms. (And I'm no expert, but I just had roasted cauliflower last night--tossed in a generous slathering of olive oil and garlic, and baked at 400 degrees for about a half hour. Weirdly enough? I loved it!)

4. Don't Fear the Fat. Sure, it's not a great idea to totally drown every vegetable in butter, cream, mayonnaise, or bacon grease. But cooking with a a healthy fat like olive oil can makes a huge difference in flavor. Plus, many of the nutrients in vegetables need some fat to be best absorbed, so you're actually doing yourself a nutritional favor. And heck, if a little bit of butter can turn an otherwise bleak vegetable into something tasty and comforting? Well, I say that's butter well-spent.

Like cheese with your veggies? Check out Melting Mama's cauliflower Mac and Cheese recipe. Haven't tried it yet but it sounds great!

5. Blend Them Beyond Recognition. Regular Cranky Fitness readers know I'm a big fan of the Green Smoothie. Tossing some fresh veggies in a morning smoothie along with fruit and whatever smoothie base you like (milk, yogurt, kefir, fruit juice, protein concoctions, almond milk, etc) is a great sneaky way to get a vegetable in at breakfast. Spinach works especially well, but I've also snuck in bok choy, cauliflower, and asparagus. The trick is not to get too aggressive with the veggies at first, and keep the flavor very much in the background until you get used to it.

6. Dip Them. Use fresh veggies as a conveyance for your favorite healthy dip, like hummus, guacamole, bean dip, or, if you've got some calories to spare, peanut butter!

7. Hide Them. If you've got a favorite guilty convenience food or takeout option, sometimes you can at least redeem the meal somewhat by slipping a lot more veggies into the sauce. I find that while I love Indian food, the ratio of vegetables to sauce at most places is always way too skimpy--so I nuke whatever I've got around and toss it in there--makes for more leftovers too.

And if you're making soups or stews, you may notice that cooking things for a hell of a long time gives you the ability to cram more veggies in there--because some of them sort of dissolve and become part of the broth. (And you can use a blender to encourage this. Especially if you have picky kids at home, because "invisible" vegetables cause much less whining than visible ones.)

8. Take advantage of Farmer's Markets or Grow your Own: Fresh vegetables are sweeter and tastier than those that have been shipped from halfway 'round the world. So if you live somewhere where it's feasible, go for the freshest stuff you can find.

9. Salads Don't Have to be Boring: It's so easy to get into a fixed routine with salads, and before long you may feel like you never want to eat another one again. But it's amazing how changing up your dressing or adding a couple of new ingredients can make a salad something to look forward to again. Try goat cheese, pine nuts, fruit, avocado slices, or other healthy but tasty toppings. A few extra calories may be worth it to make the salad seem like something to look forward to rather to endure like a 20 year prison sentence.

So do you get enough veggies? And does anyone have other ideas as to how to get more vegetables into our diets?

[Note: This post is also scheduled to appear at the Blogher 10X club, where, if you're brave enough, you can join us for healthy challenges in the 10X forum].

Kitchen Gadgets and Appliances--Good or Evil?

Photo: Plan 59

So if I were a hard-working, knowledgeable, helpful health blogger, this post would be a pre-holiday round-up of great kitchen-related products. That way, you could find cool things to buy your loved ones, which, in turn, would encourage them to do more healthy home-cooking and less scarfing up big-ass buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

But that would require a lot of thought and research! And I'm afraid I'm all tired out from reading 70,000 tweets a day and catching up on past episodes of Glee baking whole grain cookies and hand-crafting unique holiday gifts from recycled natural materials.

So instead, I thought I'd offer some opinions and observations about kitchen items. Because doesn't it seem like for every practical, time-saving, well-engineered tool or appliance in the kitchen, there's another silly, frustrating, or just plain evil one taking up valuable space? Whether you get them as gifts or accidentally purchase them, it can take a while before you can justify tossing them in the garbage or the Goodwill pile. Meanwhile, you've got to maneuver around them or figure out a way to use them anyway despite their impracticality.

Finally figured out a use for that Dial-o-Matic Slicer!

(Photo: The_bosshog)

And some of the most practical items you own may have annoying features that drive you crazy. Anyone else have opinions about kitchen stuff and how it works, or is it just me?

Things I hate:

1. Microwave ovens that keep nagging you when your food is done.

Regular ovens, which will actually burn your food if you don't remember to rescue it when it's done, do not default to a mode that beeps loudly at you to remind you to take things out. You have to set a timer if you want it to yell at you. So why do microwave ovens, which shut off automatically and will not hurt food left sitting inside it, have such a freakin' complex about hanging out for a minute or two with food left in there? What's the problem, microwave? Why do you give a damn if my plate of leftovers sits innocently behind your glass door for a couple of minutes while I get myself a beverage?

Plus, if you're busy with other things, the stupid microwave will keep on beeping periodically to make sure you don't completely forget to eat the food you've just heated. Does this happen to other people a lot? For me: taking out the recycling on a Sunday night--that's something I might forget to do. But remembering to eat a meal I just finished heating? Um, not a big problem!

And of course the most infuriating thing is that many cheaper microwaves (including the one we own) will not allow you to mute the stupid beeping or even turn down the volume. Great for early risers like me who want to heat things up while others are sleeping! Beep beep beep beeeeep!

2. Blenders that Won't Blend. Or Pour.

I never used to have an opinion about blenders until I became addicted to morning smoothies. But now I've discovered that not all blenders are created equal. (Equally? Damn, now both ways sounds wrong).

So anyway, which one of these two blenders would you guess works better: the shiny industrial-looking Cuisinart we bought my mother-in-law for Christmas a year ago?



Or the vintage Sears "solid state Insta-Blend" model that we are using while we're housesitting at a friends house?



Given the design elements, like the fonts, colors, and the fake woodgrain stick-on label (click on the picture to enlarge, if you care) we're thinking this thing is probably not a recent model. But heck, it's Sears--never known for its cutting-edge aesthetics.

And yes, as you've probably guessed: the homely and probably ancient Sears Insta-Blend kicked the hoity-toity Cuisinart's gleaming silver ass.

The Cuisinart can barely blend an overripe banana. Throw anything frozen in there? It freaks out and shrieks like a two year old having a tantrum. It makes these horrible "I can't take this much longer" sounds, like I've thrown a few screwdrivers and wrenches in there for kicks along with the spinach and mango chunks. Plus, when it does manage to finally chop up something up down at the bottom of the container? It figures its job is done. It's not interested in anything that happens more than an inch above the blades. So it doesn't create that efficient swirly blender-vortex that normally pulls stuff from the top of the container down into the grindy part. This thing just sits there grinding up the same couple inches of liquid until you either stop and stir, or throw the whole damn thing out the window.

Oh, and check out the Cuisinarts' non-functional spout! The pouring end is flat except for a miniscule decorative doohickey that serves to split the flow of smoothie into two streams, neither of which directs the liquid where you're trying to pour it.



In contrast, the vintage Sears Insta-Blend comes in a practical shape for pouring:


Even better? When you throw a bunch of food into it, fresh or frozen? The Insta-Blend actually blends all the items together! Amazing.

Sticky Non-Stick Pans

Even if you manage to buy a brand that's non-toxic, it sure seems like the "non-stick" feature has been oversold. Sure, stuff doesn't stick for a while, but after a few years? Seems like the non-stick cookware is just as clingy as the other stuff.

Fancy Food Processors

This is my own particular neurosis, because I know other people use these and love them and I'm just too lazy to learn to use one properly. The Lobster drags ours out every now and then, and she swears it saves all kinds of time. But (1) the sharp blades scare me; (2) it seems to take forever to gather everything up, pre-slice things so they fit in there and clean up later without accidentally amputating a digit; and (3) whatever blade I've used makes the onions so wet and mushy they taste boiled even if you saute them. (Choose another blade? That would require thought, experimentation and more cleaning!)

I'm sure most of you love your food processors but tend to opt for knife or blender.

Evil Plastics Everywhere!

So a while back I wrote about the possible dangers of endocrine-disrupting BPA's and other toxic substances found food containers and kitchenware. And as a result, I've started using more glass and ceramics, and avoiding certain canned goods and plastic containers. But holy cow, once you start looking around the kitchen... plastic is everywhere! What about the coffee maker that's had hot liquid running through it for years now? The old tupperware? The plastic mixing bowls? And so much of the food straight from the grocery store comes in some sort of container that now seems suspect. I try to remember which of the little recycling numbers are good and which mean trouble, but lots of our old kitchenware doesn't have numbers on it. Yikes!


So enough complaining for now.

Some Kitchen Things I Love:


My Big Ass Coffee Cup:


Yeah, I know, portion control theory advocates small containers, but we're talking COFFEE here. And I happen to take mine with a ton of heated nonfat milk. A friend of mine used to work at a certain ubiquitous coffee franchise, and brought me several of these giganto 20 ounce mugs which I treasure, even as I feel slightly embarrassed for advertising a big corporate chain I don't tend to patronize myself. But now they don't even make these mugs anymore! Just a smaller version. I even take one with me when I travel, because I'm freakishly attached to my morning coffee ritual. Breaking it up into several tiny mugs just won't do.

A Good Garlic Press

Garlic presses, like potato peelers, cheese graters, and pizza-cutters, are the sort of item that can be incredibly useful or not depending on how well-made they are. Many brands of these things do not work all that well, so when you find a good one, you can become very passionate about it. I had a couple of crappy garlic presses before my current one that wouldn't smush the garlic reliably unless I peeled the clove first, but this one mashes on through the peel like it's nothing. I heart you, garlic press!

Salad Spinner

I will try not to notice for the moment that the thing is plastic, and just hope it is a good kind of plastic. Because between toxic pesticide residue (non-organic) or gritty dirt and the occasional small slug (organic) you gotta wash your lettuce. I never think ahead, and I hate soggy salad! Plus, I love the whole pumping whirring ritual.

Toaster Oven

I love the way these take almost no time to preheat, and on summer days, don't turn the whole kitchen hot like a regular oven can. Also, the "bake" element and the "broil" element are both right there on either side of the food, so if I'm lazy I can sometimes skip flipping something over by first baking, then broiling.

The only thing toaster ovens don't do very well? Make toast. Go figure.

So I'm hoping some of you also have opinions about kitchen items? Any favorites? Any gadgets or features that try your patience?

Why Not Cook More Often?

Photo credit: Plan 59

So if you want to eat healthy at every meal, you have a number of handy options.

You can:

1. Invent something amazing like a car that flies, or maybe an iPod that can read minds and play people's secret thoughts like they were music videos (with an optional porn filter, I'm thinking, though I wouldn't use the filter myself because that would be the most amusing part), then with all that money from your invention you could pay a personal chef!

2. Find someone who cares about health and nutrition as much as you do and who is also a really good cook, and then force that person to marry you; or,

3. Learn to cook!

Yes, relying solely on convenience foods and restaurant meals certainly seems like a tempting option, given the difficulty of the three choices mentioned above. But that option doesn't always work out so well.

Why not?

Because sadly, most frozen, canned, or boxed meals are really crappy for you, and taste like flavored newsprint, with the "flavor" being some combination of salt, sugar, aluminum, chalky preservatives, and melted plastic. And most restaurants don't even try all that hard to offer healthy choices. When you finally find one that does? It's usually just lying.

And what about that nice "health food" aisle we're seeing more often in stores now?

Well, sometimes there are a few good options there, but there are still lots of compromises when it comes to taste and nutrition. Like say you find a natural frozen pizza made with 100% whole wheat flour and organic tomatoes and it contains no HFCS or carcinogenic cured meat. Hooray!

But then you look at the label and discover a "serving" is the size of a graham cracker and it contains 14,732 grams of sodium.

(And yeah, I'd probably buy the pizza anyway, plop a big salad next to it, and hope the two just canceled each other out.)

Yes, as much as I know I should avoid it, I still end up eating more convenience food than is good for me. Of course I do have a few standard healthy dishes I like to make. But whenever I resolve to start searching for new recipes, there's always a really good excuse frustrating reason that prevents me from actually making any of them!

Take this example: I just saw a healthy, tasty-sounding recipe from Women's Health Magazine for Apple and Sweet Potato Hash Browns.

It looked so promising--only 5 ingredients, none of which are hard to find in a store, and I like all of them. Best of all, it sounds like an awesome way to sneak in a vegetable before 6pm--they're hash browns, which is breakfast! And while the cooking time is 18 minutes, the prep time is only 10 minutes.

So what's the problem?

Well, it's actually problem I run across frequently: the people who figure out "prep time" for magazine recipes are smoking crack!

(Although please don't be mad, Women's Health Magazine people, I'm just teasing. I totally don't think you actually smoke crack over there. Or if you do, it's probably organic, super-high antioxidant crack that slices minutes off your 10K times and makes your circuit training workouts triple efficient. We actually really, really like you here at Cranky Fitness and wouldn't care even if you did sometimes smoke crack because once you mentioned our blog in your magazine and then it got picked up on the Early Show and even mentioned by Jillian Michaels on her radio show! And while Jillian is kinda scary she's scary in a really good way. So even though I'm such a slacker that I'd start crying and probably even wet my pants if I ever had to go on the Biggest Loser and get trained by her, I totally think she's awesome).

Anyway. Where were we?

Sweet potato hashbrowns and "ten minute" prep time, that's right!

So during this 10 minutes, aside from gathering the all ingredients and utensils, and (presumably, though they didn't mention this) washing the apples and sweet potatoes, then chopping the onions... one is supposed to cut three raw sweet potatoes and an apple into "thin matchsticks."

That's right. Like regular matchsticks aren't even thin enough for these hashbrowns?

So part of my problem is that our kitchen knives are rarely in state of professionally-honed sharpness. (They don't often need to be, since my culinary specialty is peanut butter and banana sandwiches). But even with the sharpest knife in the world I don't think I have the dexterity to carve a piece of apple or sweet potato so that it resembles a thin matchstick. So how could I possibly sculpt hundreds of tiny little fruit and vegetable matchsticks in less than 10 minutes?

Ain't gonna happen!

Now I'm sure some other potato and apple configurations besides matchstick replicas would probably work for the recipe. But it's the principle of the thing! The recipe has already either lied to me about how long it takes, or accused me of being a hopeless loser with its demanding sweet potato carving expectations.

(Note: I have no idea if the matchstick problem is easily solved with a food processor. We actually own one and the Lobster loves it but I have some weird aversion to it. Probably due to a combined fear of reading instructions, cleaning a bunch of little parts, and potentially losing a digit on the sharp blades. So you food processor people are probably all laughing at my dilemma, thinking what a dope! All she needs to do is use the Matchstick Attachment! But go ahead and snicker. I still have all my fingers and that makes me very happy.)

So besides overly optimistic food preparation estimates, there are a number of other things that discourage me from trying new recipes as well. Does anything like this hold you guys back, or do you take it in stride?

1. Too many ingredients to buy that you only use a small part of for the recipe.

I hate waste, I'm a pessimist, and I'm cheap. So if it's some obscure ingredient and I've never used it before, I am not going to just assume that this recipe is going to taste so fantastic that of course I'll eventually use up the $47 worth of exotic oils, herbs, vinegars, and spices required. I especially hate when a recipe calls for 5 different perishable fresh herbs, each of which you only need a teaspoon of. Great if you have an herb garden and it's the right time of year! Not so great if each is only available by the bunch for $5 at the store.


2. Cheaty "ingredients" that are recipes themselves.

Often these are complicated home made sauces or stocks with a simple name--that have their own page if you follow the link or refer to a different page in your cookbook. If you quickly scan the main recipe, it can look like a quick easy meal! Then you discover there's a whole other stealth recipe hiding behind there which requires 18 different ingredients and hours of simmering.


3. Cookware requirements beyond "Pot," and "Pan."

We don't have much fancy stuff to cook in, because we're realists. If it's not a pot or a pan, we'd probably use it exactly once and then forget we had it.


4. "Faux" healthy recipes.

Have you ever noticed that a lot of "light" cooking resources act like you can take any old recipe your grandmother used to make, no matter how rich and delicious and decadent, and then just substitute a couple of "low fat" products, and magically end up with a "healthy" meal?

Not that there's anything wrong with modifying recipes to make them healthier! But I can't quite fool myself into thinking that a meal that contains almost nothing in the way of vegetables, whole grains, legumes, healthy fats, or lean protein, and that still mainly resorts to white flour, salt, and butter, and fatty meat for flavor, is a good candidate for heavy rotation in our meal planning. Plus the light versions rarely taste as good as the originals.


5. Ingredients that more "selective" family members won't eat.


Alas, the Lobster tries hard to be flexible, but she was not raised to like most vegetables, seafood, or grains other than wheat or corn. Many McSlacker cooking adventures thus happen when she's out of town.

6. Laziness!

(This is probably the "real" reason the other 5 seem like such huge obstacles).


What about you guys, what keeps you from making recipes that otherwise sound like a good idea? Have you found any hints or shortcuts that make healthy cooking easier?