A Healthier (yummy) Thanksgiving dinner alternative (vegetarian)…

As a good French, I DEFINITELY loooooooooove food. For what is in my plate but also for the time I have sharing this meal with my family, friends, loved ones. For the memories this meal creates. And this is the reason why I have come to love Thanksgiving dinner: people have the day off, we meet with loved ones, share stories, laugh, hugs, dance, sing…. and gather around the table. I find that the table is very frequently at the center of celebrations – and I like that. However I can often feel guilty when leaving, thinking of how much I ate, and that it is not really a time of joy for my body…
So below is an idea for an alternative main course.
Salmon, cranberry sauce, crispy sweet potatoes and asparagus

The easy part is that besides the cranberry sauce, everything is cooked in the oven – so no need to stay over the stove.
1. The crispy sweet potatoes bites

This is maybe the most difficult part. Count about 1 sweet potato per person. Wash them, peel them and cut them into little “cubes” (or whatever shape you can as long as it is not to thick). Place all on a thin layer tray that goes in the oven (like a pizza tray). In order for them not to attach on the tray you can wipe it with coconut oil.
Sprinkle the sweet potatoes cubes with: coconut oil, a hunch of salt and cinnamon.
Those will cook in the oven at 390-400 F (or 200 C), for about 45 min / 1 hour or until desired crisp/cook is achieved.

2. The salmon

It is always best to pick a big fresh (wild if you can) piece of salmon. Cut it into as many portions as persons you have at the table. Marinate these in lemon juice, salt, a bit of black pepper and dill during the time your prepare the sweet potatoes.
Place each portion in an aluminum wrap, which will go in the oven. These will cook for about 15/20 minutes at the temperature given above.

3. The asparagus

Similar to the salmon, I wrap them into aluminum foil, and squeeze a lemon on top, add some salt and black pepper. If you have plenty of asparagus, divide them into several wraps (like 1 wrap / 2 persons) so that they cook better.
Place each wrap in the oven, same temperature than the potatoes, for about 15 minutes.

TIP: To make things easy, and have everything cooked at once, place first the sweet potatoes in the oven at the top tray. 20 minutes before due time, add the salmon (second tray is fine), and 5 minutes later the asparagus (can be at the lowest tray).
4. The cranberry sauce

I will leave this one up to your taste. On my side, I like the sour taste so I only put a couple spoons of brown sugar and some cinnamon.

You can eat this meal without feeling guilty so that you can indulge a bit more on the dessert, the wine, the cheese, or whatever is your “soft spot” :)


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Wheatgrass: The Liquid Sunshine

You may have heard of this plant as it is gaining more and more notoriety as researches show more and more its healthy benefits.
Wheatgrass (herbe de ble) is the young grass from the wheat plant and is harvested very young when its nutrients and vitamins are at its apogee (1).

Nutritional benefits:

This Superfood is called "Liquid Sunshine" due to its high amount of chlorophyll (about 70%), which makes it a high alkaline food. Alkalines food are found to help balance the PH (acidity) in the body (blood, urine) and can therefore be used to prevent or even treat diseases. Researches have found chlorophyll to be of exceptional virtue to the body (cells and blood).
Wheatgrass is a complete food and an excellent source of vitamins A, B-complex, C, E and K. It also contains plenty of minerals and is extremely rich in Iron, Zinc, Copper, and Manganese.
This miracle grass also holds a long list of amino-acids and enzymes the body needs.

Where to find it and How to use it

So what do you do with this grass, you'll ask me, cook it? Well it would be a shame to cook it as you would lose a lot of those benefits, so it needs to be taken RAW. The best and easier way is to juice it. You can get it fresh of course, but nowadays you can easily find it in powder in major health stores. Check that it is raw and organic (not "natural" please, check for real organic certification label), preferably air-dried (frozen or heated will diminish its properties). It does not taste super good, so myself I usually mix it into my morning smoothie (see 'In The Kitchen' page for this recipe). Or just mix it with water and a bit of lemon.

Wheatgrass is thus a good superfood and an effective mean to clean, regenerate and energize the body. (2)
--> Try it for a month, every day, and you will see for yourself :)


(1) For this reason it is naturally Gluten Free (harvest before the gluten forms).
(2) Some (unproven?) well-known facts associated with wheat grass include: leaver purification, blood pressure decrease, elimination of medical drugs residues in the body as well as toxins, helps fight high-glucose in the blood, helps with constipation, acts like a disinfectant for the body, helps in slowing down the aging process.

The power of walking...

I will start this blog with a first post that might seems like "common sense" but I keep on being amazed by seeing how little people walk on a regular basis, and how much we love those cars...
French people are used to walk outside, go for a walk, it is part of a daily routine. Cities are made so that you walk to the center to do your grocery shopping, go to a restaurant, a museum, catch your bus, etc... and this is a big secret of why french women are skinnier in general.

Walking - and by walking I mean outside, not on a treadmill -  helps you maintain your cardio-vascular system and to gently tone your entire body. If practiced on a regular basis it helps you evacuate the stress and tension, purify the organism by improving your intestinal transit. This will also get you outside and breathe some fresh air: that office, the mall, that store is filled with that A/C that everybody is sharing and exhaling CO2 in such a limited area. Noting better than the fresh air, even if you live in a big city.

Now what kind of walking? I would say: any is better than none!!! Of course walking 30 minutes at a fast paced will get you a better exercise: idealistically  you should walk dynamically without being out of breath. What we are told all the time in France is that you should walk at least 20 min /day (dynamic walk).

I love to walk with my baby in the stroller and my dog - and they both enjoy it as well - whether it is with a target destination or just for the fact of getting some fresh air, I always come back home regenerated.

Bottom line: anywhere you can go for less than 30 minutes walk = put on your walking shoes and leave your car behind! (unless of course you have some medical contre-indication or you have to cross/walk along a highway ;) It can start by little things: go to your neighbor, go to that grocery store 2-3 blocks away to get your dinner, park you car further away when you go to the store, avoid going back to your car once your done with one store to drive 1500 feet to the other store. Just use those feet!!!
If if you tell me "I am not young, I am tired, I do not have time, I am not in shape enough" ; I will tell you "My great great parents were walking daily 2-3 miles until they died - around 90 years old, walking will re-energize you, make time for your health (and your kids': bring them along!), man was made to walk, turn it into a habit again". Plus, it might get useful when that Zombies invasion happens... lol.. just kidding ;)