Watch Your Carbs!
Some fun menu items this week are – Quinoa White Bean Tabouli, a true summer dish, but be aware, it’s very garlicky! Then there is Mesir Wat, an Ethiopian red lentil curry also with plenty of garlic, plus ginger and paprika, definitely very flavorful and also nutritionally powerful. Lentils deliver protein in abundance and onions, ginger and garlic do their part giving us all kinds of micronutrients. Unless you dislike them, eat them daily!
This week’s menu is especially veggie-centered and low carb (the little exception here is the Asian Pasta Salad, but let’s not be overly strict, everyone loves this salad with its completely ordinary main ingredient – noodles!). There seems an overall trend in today’s nutrition advice to really watch your carbs – certainly the quantity that you eat, but also the quality. The latter refers to the so-called empty carbs often found in white foods, such as white flour or bread, white sugar, white rice. They add to the calories you eat without giving you nutrients. We always make sure to limit these ingredients in the dishes we offer even though we do not eliminate them completely.
The role of carbohydrates in our diet has much to do with giving you physical energy. With many of us being less physically less active than our ancestors, it seems like we are still adjusting to a lesser need of eating carbs. It’s also really easy to grab a piece of bread, a bag of chips, or something sweet – that is easily available – when we have not planned our meals properly and get a hunger attack. And many people simply love noodles, bread, white rice, and sweets. There is a connection between what these carbs do to our brain chemistry and our mood that makes our cravings very understandable.
So to help you with a possible challenge of eating too much of these not so healthy foods we focus on veggies, complex carbohydrates – the good ones that deliver energy slowly and don’t stress out your pancreas – and of course protein-rich foods, mainly our humble friends the legumes – Lentils are also in the Falafel Burgers, a bean puree is in Vegilicious and there is always tofu on the menu. This week in our Tofu Leek Stir Fry that we really love.
We are not nutritionists. We simply try to meet needs that we see more pronounced in our modern lifestyle – help you with not having to plan for meals, shop, prep, cook, clean and help you eat foods that keep you healthy and strong.
We love what we do and we love cooking for you!