Tasty Bites: Baked Honey Sesame Tofu

By Candy, RN (Steele the Day)

You had to know it was coming. Look through my Twitpics, and you won’t find much meat. I have nothing against meat, other than I feel like I was mostly made to be an herbivore. I like to get a good portion of my proteins from plant sources such as beans, nuts and whole grains. And tofu. Yes, I’m one of those people.

Tofu is the curd made from soy milk and is made through the processing of fresh or dried soybeans. It’s also called bean curd. It comes in various textures, and the soft silken tofu makes great smoothies and even desserts. The firmer-textured tofu is more often used in savory dishes.

Tofu is very low in cholesterol. It is also a good source of iron, magnesium, phosphorus and copper, and a very good source of protein. Some brands have added extra calcium.

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Tasty Bites: Holy Guacamole!

By Candy, RN (Steele the Day)

Avocados are one of those foods you can eat every day and never get tired of them. There’s a reason they’re nicknamed the “butter pear!” You won’t find many whole plant foods that are mostly fat, but good old avocados are loaded with it. The good news is that they are a healthy fat, which means they contain a high amount of monounsaturated fat. This been shown to lower both total cholesterol and LDL or “bad” cholesterol.

If there’s a down side to avocados, it’s that one medium avocado is almost 300 calories. Once you get hooked on them, it’s hard to stop eating them. They are an ideal fruit for someone who is limiting their carbohydrate intake, unless of course, you like to eat it with lots of pita chips in a yummy guacamole.

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Tasty Bites: Panic Pizza

By Candy, RN (Steele the Day)

Why panic? Because yesterday Ginny sent me a message “Are you going to have a post for me tomorrow?” YIKES! Somehow between trying to get my computer humming again and Thursday, time slipped away. And when time slips away, I fall back on pizza.

I went to the photo archives and sure enough, I found one of my favorites. Add to that the fact that I keep pizza dough in the refrigerator most of the time, thanks to Pioneer Woman. Up until I “met her” (I wish), I could never make pizza dough right. So with a couple of modifications, here’s my honey-wheat pizza dough stand-by. It’s supposed to keep in the refrigerator for three or four days, and I may or may not have used it after 10 days and it turned out just fine.

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Tasty Bites: The Tomatillo Test

By Candy, RN (Steele the Day)

Tasty Bites is a guinea pig this week.

Up until this week, I’ve never had a tomatillo. I was a casual observer at the grocery store the other day when I curiously watched two women arguing over the tomatillo bin. They were probably discussing something other than a little Mexican tomato, but I grabbed a few out of curiosity and purchased them. Then I went home to figure out what to do with these little “Barbie” tomatoes. They are strange little fruits, with a papery skin and once that is removed, they have sort of a sticky coating. They smell a bit like a green tomato, though they are only a distant cousin and more closely related to the ground cherry.

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Tasty Bites: Snackin' Chickpeas

By Candy, RN (Steele the Day)

Chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) are low in calories and a good source of dietary fiber, protein, vitamin B6, folate, and manganese. You often see them in soups and salads, but they can make a great healthy snack when roasted in the oven. You can use about any spices to flavor them, depending if you like them a little sweet or more savory. One of my favorites is using a Moroccan spice blend with a kick of cayenne pepper. These are great as a snack, or put on salads.

This sweet and spicy version is a sweet snack, and they disappear very fast at my house.

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